[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: So welcome.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: Glad everybody's here. I missed the pink memo.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Like it. Like it.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Okay, so tonight we have two wonderful people that I love speaking for us. We've got Christy Walton and Heather Norris. So I'm going to read their bios in just a second.
Dear Lord, thank you so much for this day. We are thankful for the wonderful weather.
We've noticed it and we acknowledge it and we know it comes from you, and we're just so thankful for it, Lord. We're thankful for the provision of changing seasons so that we are able to enjoy new types of weather and sunshine, and we do not take that for granted. Lord, thank you for all these wonderful ladies in this room and what they mean to me personally, but what we mean to each other and how you're weaving our hearts together day by day, and how wonderful it is that we get to observe just a little taste of heaven multiple times a week, knowing that we get to come together and see each other and hug each other and be in each other's lives.
And it's just so wonderful because we know it's just a piece of what is to come.
And so we praise you for that.
I pray that you be with our speakers tonight and if you will calm their hearts and help your Holy Spirit to speak through them tonight and to come into our hearts so that we can be changed by your words through them. And I pray that their words will bring glory to you and that we will learn as much as we possibly can from their stories, knowing that you're the one that orchestrated all the details of their stories.
And so we pray that we will see your hand in everything they say.
Lord, we praise you and we love you so much and we're thankful to be your daughters in Jesus name. Amen.
Okay, so we have Christy Walton tonight. She's Married to Jay and has been married for 24 years.
She's mother to Quinn who is a freshman at Freed Harmon University and Bethany who's a third grader at Columbia Elementary.
She's daughter to Hilda Moody. Is Miss Hilda in here? Hey.
And John and Suzanne Walton, are they in here? And Ms. Suzanne's in here too. I enjoy watching three year old Bible class on Wednesday nights. Or teaching.
[00:03:11] Speaker D: Not watching.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: She teaches.
She's probably like, yeah, need to correct that fam group leader with Laura Wade for the 10th grade girls. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and traveling. So we appreciate her for. For tonight. And then Heather Norris. Heather is a wife of 12 years to Brian and mama to Gracie who is in third grade at Madison Elementary. Brian and Gracie are the absolute loves of her life. She is originally from Jefferson, Georgia and and moved to Madison for work after graduating from Free har University in 2007.
Heather and her family have been members at Madison for almost two years and attended another local congregation prior.
We're so glad y' all are here. Heather is the lending support manager at Redstone Federal Credit Union where she leads a large team of people.
She believes in using her role in leadership to build relationships and show others the love of Christ.
Heather is passionate about music, her planner system.
I love the planner, by the way. Diet Coke. And planning her next trip to Disney.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: So tonight I'm talking about finding beauty in the valley.
A valley is a low area of land between two hills or mountain, typically with a river or stream running through it.
I'll put a picture up here.
I think this is a beautiful valley.
Looks very peaceful and calm. But sadly, the valleys of life aren't always pretty. In fact, they can hurt cause sadness, fear, anger, stress and hardship.
So how do we handle the valleys of life?
So you can just think about that for a second. But I'm going to come back to it. First, I want to tell you a little bit about my valley.
Try to get through this. Sorry.
In March of last year, I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, which is an aggressive form of breast cancer that's harder to treat.
I do want to say that though I did beat it. So that is good.
So that's a good point.
Okay. After a whirlwind of appointments, tests, scans and biopsies, my doctors laid out a treatment plan which consisted of 12 weekly chemo treatments followed by four harder treatments followed by bilateral mastectomy.
So at this point, my thoughts and emotions were all over the place.
The devil was working his way in creating doubt, sadness, Fear and stress.
Negative thoughts were running wild.
Things like, I don't have time for this. This is Quinn's senior year. I need to be healthy so I can be there for him and watch him graduate. I want to throw him a graduation party. I need to get him ready to move to college. I don't have time for all of this. I need to be there for Bethany and go to Bible camp with her this summer.
At this point, my valley was not beautiful.
It was full of weeds and murky water. But thankfully, my valley did not stay weedy and murky very long.
Now, I'm not saying this was an easy journey, but I am saying that with our Almighty God and wonderful family and friends, my hard days were made much easier.
Ready to stand in my valley with me were my friends, family and Christian brothers and sisters.
The first person to stand in the valley with me was my wonderful husband, Jay. He immediately stepped in to offer words of encouragement and support. You see, while I was trying to swallow the whole elephant, he helped me see that this journey that he helped me see this journey day by day.
Instead of looking at the whole picture, he told me, we're just going to take this day by day.
He gently reminded me that God is with me, Hebrews 13:5, and that we will take this journey one day at a time.
One of my favorite Bible verses, which also happens to be a song and that will be important later, is Lamentations 3, 22, 24. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul.
Therefore I will hope in him.
When I had days that were hard, this verse comforted me. I kept this song in my heart and I was reminded that God was with me.
Also joining me in the valley were my friends. And some of them are wearing shirts. They surprised me tonight. They're all wearing Walton's Warrior shirts.
Also joining me in the valley were my friends. Remember that graduation party that I wanted to plan?
Well, guess who stepped in and helped me plan the party, prepare the food, decorate and serve at the party, right down to the maroon and gold M&Ms. With a Q on them.
Yep, you guessed it. My friends, they saw a need and stepped right in to fill it. I was a couple of weeks into my chemo treatments and not feeling 100%, and boy, did this take a load off of me.
Proverbs 17:7 says, A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for Adversity meaning a true friend, does not only love when it's easy or convenient, but at all times. And brothers or sisters are meant to provide help during difficult times.
When I entered this valley, I knew I had friends standing by me. However, I soon realized that those friends were family sisters in Christ who didn't ask how they could help, but instead told me, I'm going to pick you up next week and take you to your chemo treatment, or I'm going to bring you dinner tonight. I came to understand that God had blessed me with a family who didn't need notice and never felt imposed upon.
In the beginning, I thought I would wait until things got worse before asking for help.
However, a friend who had already been through this cancer journey told me, it's already bad enough for you. Let others help.
She encouraged me to give others the opportunity to serve.
While it's easy for us to serve others, accepting service requires a shift in mindset.
My church family, you precious sisters in Christ, walked with me and helped me navigate the valley. You all lovingly stepped in and gently took my load.
So what did this look like? Well, I was covered in prayer.
So many of you know I'm the church secretary, and it was difficult for me to put my own name on the prayer list. But this was a blessing to me and my family.
I can't describe the heartwarming feeling of knowing that so many people genuinely cared about how I was feeling and were praying for me and with me. Bethany was invited over to play dates while I had appointments. Delicious dinners were brought to our house and gift cards were given so we didn't have to eat Jay's cooking.
Thoughtful gifts and gift baskets were provided to encourage me and help me feel better. Someone even came to clean my house before I had surgery so I could come home to a clean house.
In the middle of my cancer journey, Satan struck again, pulling my family into the valley of Jay's unexpected layoff from work.
Thoughts of fear and worry crept in. What are we going to do?
How will this affect our insurance? How will we pay the expensive insurance premiums and medical bills once again without being asked? Our church family saw a need and acted, helping us through a difficult time.
John 16:33 says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.
In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.
I'm telling you about all of these incredible acts of kindness shown to my family because you all brought beauty to me in a very difficult valley.
If you are experiencing hardships. Please let your Christian brothers and sisters serve you and help you see the beauty in your valley. In life, you are either in a valley coming out of a valley or about to go through a valley.
Once you find yourself in the valley, it's already time to let others help you walk through it.
So to end, we come back to the question, how do we handle the valleys of life? And I came up with three points that helped me Number one, Keep God in your heart and pray, pray, pray. Philippians 4, 6, 7 says, do not be anxious about anything but but in everything. By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Remind yourself that the valleys are temporary and God provides strength and hope through the valley. Although low points aren't fun, they build strength, character and deeper faith, much like the lush meadows and streams that thrive between the mountains.
Point number two Let the Holy Spirit lead you into a season of rest.
Psalm 23:1 3 says, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
Petition God for rest and rely on family and friends and brothers and sisters in their Christlike servant hearts.
It is okay to rest and recover and give others the opportunity to serve.
And my last point is give God the glory until the valley becomes a victory. Praise God in prayer and song.
Psalm 100 says, Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord he is God it is he who made us and we are his we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, Bless his name for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.
I love songs and almost always have some kind of hymn going through my mind throughout the day. So I thought it appropriate for us to sing in singing one of my current favorite songs, which is Sing Wherever I Go
[00:14:08] Speaker E: all my life All I know God's been good, good to my soul Mountain high, valley low I'm gonna sing wherever I go all my life All I know God's been good, good to my soul Mountain high, valley low I'm gonna sing wherever I go
[00:14:37] Speaker B: God
[00:14:38] Speaker E: is for me he's not against me I will hold to the plans he has for me When I'm broken He Will fix me I will call on the name of the Lord
[00:15:04] Speaker D: all my
[00:15:05] Speaker E: life all I know God been good, good to my soul Mountain high, valley low I must sing wherever I go he's my heart song in my sorrow he's my hope and my strength for tomorrow when the storms rise all around me I will call on the name of the Lord all my life all I know God's been good, good to my soul Mountain high, valley low I'm gonna sing wherever I go all my life all I know God's been good, good to my soul Mountain high, valley low I'm gonna sing wherever I go I got joy, joy, joy Feeling my
[00:16:27] Speaker D: soul
[00:16:30] Speaker E: I will sing see, see
[00:16:37] Speaker D: Wherever I go
[00:16:42] Speaker E: all my life all I know God's been good, good to my soul Mountain high, valley low I'm going to sing wherever I go all my life All I know is God's been good, good to my soul Mountain high, valley love I'm gonna sing wherever I go.
[00:17:18] Speaker D: Okay. Good evening, ladies.
First of all, I am so honored to share this night with Christy. Christy and I have become friends over the last couple of years since we've been at Madison. And just watching her day in, day out, keep showing up the way that she did and the way that she does just really made me ask the questions about myself and how I need to be. So thank you, Christy, for your message.
So I'm going to start tonight by doing two things.
I want to give you a quotation that's written in my Bible, and then I want to ask you a question. So I'll do those two things. Then we'll put a pin in those two things and come back to those later.
So the quotation is this.
When you think you're in a fix, read Philippians 4, 6.
Okay?
And here's the question.
So in the Bible, when did God use an ideal set of circumstances to bring about his plan or bless his people?
So let's put a pin there and we will circle back to that. So I'm going to change gears a little bit and tell you about two different people tonight.
The first person grew up in the church. She never knew a Sunday or a Wednesday where gathering with the saints was not the top priority.
She could sing Jesus Loves Me before she could walk. Her parents taught her scripture and really used scripture to make decisions and to live day in and day out.
Her home was full of fellow Christians who just did life together.
She was baptized as a preteen, attended church camp, youth rallies, a Christian university, went on to from there, keep lifelong friends from that experience who really helped to shape her life and continuously bring her closer to God. She went on to marry a Christian and have a Christian family herself.
And she did experience some profoundly difficult things in life, as most of us do at some point. But she never knew a time when she was without the influence of scripture and faith.
Person two was born into poverty, his family unable to get ahead due to due to decisions made by his father, who was an alcoholic. He went to school without shoes and it was not uncommon for him to share meals of just cornbread with his family, just hoping that everyone would have enough to just be okay.
His mother worked six days a week in the cotton mill to try to make ends meet.
And really and truly his daily life involved God in no way, shape or form. In fact, there was not a single Christian in his family.
This person, Person two grew up as children do, and found himself in trouble, a lot of trouble and more trouble that he could get out of. And this person ended up in prison, serving a robust prison sentence. So Person one, Person two, let me ask you this.
Assuming that these two people knew one another and shared space in life, which person would you think influenced the other for the better?
Which person?
Our intuition would tell us that Person one who grew up surrounded by faith was the person who would have the profound impact.
But that's human intuition.
The reality is that Person one growing up among Christians is me.
Person too imprisoned and without God is my daddy, who has since gone on to glory. But his influence is what allows me to enjoy the blessings of Christianity and has allowed me to do that my entire life.
So let me tell you the rest of the story.
My dad was brought to Christ in a prison ministry in the early 1980s, and I will just tell you that his account about the powerful ways that God worked in his life to bring about his salvation and his redemption are really just the most faith affirming accounts that I've ever heard.
By 1985, when I was born, he had been released from prison, had married the daughter of a minister, and had truly become a new man.
He left, left every part of the old man behind and became the new creature mentioned in Second Corinthians 5:17, which says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away, and all things have become new.
So as I mentioned, I never knew a time without the profound influence of Christianity in my life.
And this amazing reality was spearheaded by the man whose words are written in my Bible, which is when you think you're in a fix read Philippians 4. 6.
Based on the disrepair that his life was in, he was certainly qualified to reference that verse and to give that advice.
So what does Philippians 4. 6 say? I'm going to include verse 7 as well, because that's a continuation of the thought in verse six.
But it says, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
I will happily admit to you guys that I can sometimes get pretty caught up in the anxiety, and this verse has given me a lot of comfort over the years.
But in addition to the words on the page, which are profound in and of themselves, they are inspired by the Spirit.
But I also have the additional context of hearing this quoted by a man who experienced situations or fixes, so to speak, as he called them in his quotation, that he really could see no way through.
But here we are on the other side, and he has gone on to be with the Lord.
But his coming to Christ in 1983 really created opportunity for myself and my child, my brother and his children, to have blessings that we don't deserve, but were given by the Father. And by that I mean our heavenly Father and our earthly Father.
So the narrative aside, I want to just pose a few things that I was really convicted of as I was thinking through my dad's experiences and his constant pointing me to that verse in Scripture.
And I've got three kind of takeaways that I want to leave you guys with.
And the first is that there is no situation that God cannot work in.
So I want to go back to the question I asked at the beginning.
When in Scripture did God use an ideal set of circumstances to bring about his plan or bless his people?
And the answer is he didn't.
I often think of Timothy, who, from what we can tell in Scripture, was raised without the influence of a godly father.
Christians and figures of faith who were born into periods of captivity Joseph, Elijah, David, Saul.
And there is not a single ideal set of circumstances to be found.
So I was thinking about this, and God really doesn't operate in lives that are contained to perfect picket fences, right? God operates in reality.
And there are so many scriptures that support this.
Matthew and Luke, for example, say that God came for the Christ came for the broken. He said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
So what I want you to take away tonight is that if you are waiting for the perfect set of circumstances.
Stop waiting.
God can work mightily in you where you are, as long as you are diligently seeking him.
Hebrews 11:6 says, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
This may require us to give up some things or make some changes. Right, because seeking God also means obeying his commands.
But that does not mean that God will not meet us where we are.
Number two takeaway is to esteem the least of these.
In the Gospels, Jesus refers to the least of these, saying that when we serve them, we serve Him.
Scripture is full of references about seeing people as God sees them and not as man sees them. For the sake of time, I won't share those specifically.
But going back to person one and two from earlier, my dad and myself, the world and regrettably, sometimes the church would consider person two to be beyond help and maybe not cut out to be a Christian.
But if we know the full story and how God filled in the gaps, we know that's not the case.
I'm going to pause here and say that I really appreciate how this congregation does just that with various ministries and with the approach to that, because it's important for us to remember that it's up to me or you to decide who is worthy of the Gospel or to presuppose how much the Gospel will or will not change a person.
The Gospel is mighty. God is mighty. And I'm able to stand here today because of someone reaching out and taking interest in someone who would be consider the least of these and share the gift of the Gospel.
So I want us to think about who else could in years or generations be standing among Christians and living in the Christian life because we were not afraid to get in the trenches and get our hands dirty to reach the least of these.
And then lastly, number three, and maybe most pointedly, I want to just revisit our scripture for tonight.
I know that I have presented this focused scripture in a very roundabout way, and maybe you're thinking like, land the plane. I'm not. I'm not getting where we're going.
But coming back to that scripture, similar to what Christy shared, we as Christians really can rest in Christ. So be anxious for nothing really means nothing.
Talking to myself and I was thinking about this narrative that I shared with you guys and realized that there was a significant period of time where my dad was still incarcerated and had already become a Christian. So he lived a period of his Christian life Not knowing if and when he would be released and really just at the mercy of the people who ruled over him. You know, sometimes becoming a Christian doesn't mean the consequences go away, right? There are still consequences.
You know, I could tell you stories that he told me about relationships and how God worked with wardens and judges and how it all just came together.
That's for another time. But what I want to relay to you tonight is nothing really means nothing. And there is not a circumstance that doesn't include.
That is a constant work in progress for me. I am a worrier by nature.
And you know that that's a hard concept to wrap our minds around.
But really and truly, the verse that my dad spoke to me over and over all those years really is just that there is nothing that we cannot place in the hands of God, and there is no situation in which we cannot experience his peace. And Christine again mentioned that some in her lesson.
So I just wanted to share this narrative with you guys tonight to really just underscore the transformative power of the gospel.
Sometimes that is lost on me because while I was transformed by Christ, not in quite the same way my father was, right? I mean, talk about transformation.
So that is lost on me sometimes. And so I just wanted tonight to remind us of that and to really just think through the implications of that for generations and generations to come. And some of you may have similar stories.
But aren't we glad that somebody somewhere down the line saw fit to take time with someone that was in our family tree or in our friend group to bring about that change?
Okay, so that is all I had.
That was a little quicker. I knew I was going to talk faster than I meant to. But thank you guys for letting me share about this influence.
You know, my dad was not perfect by any stretch, but certainly a testimony to the transformative power of the gospel. And I don't want that to be lost on me. I want to keep in the forefront of my mind how transformative the gospel really is and really can be.
So with that, thank you for your attention and your encouragement. And Cindy and Lorianne, I appreciate the opportunity.
Absolutely wonderful.
[00:31:05] Speaker C: Thank you all so much, seriously.
And I love how this happens, but a lot of verses coincide from night to night. And so I think y' all Both chose Philippians 4. Didn't you have that on the slide? Yeah, I think that's so neat how that happens. I'll just echo what you said. Like, Andrew and I wouldn't be Christians if someone hadn't reached out to our grandparents. Literally.
So it's. It's very humbling to think about and. Awesome.
So we'll sing this song, and then we'll be dismissed to hug these ladies.
