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August 30, 2026
Empty Valleys
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
Proverbs 4:23 NIV
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
How do I guard my heart?
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Above everything, I must accept that God actually knows what is best for my heart and life.
Hebrews 3:12-13 NIV
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:15 NIV
As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
Hebrews 3:16-17 NIV
Who were they who heard and rebelled? … Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?
The wilderness is a dangerous place to remain.
HALT:
H – Hungry
A – Angry
L – Lonely
T - Tired
This is a place that is incapable of sustaining life. Not "struggling to”; literally, incapable.
Proverbs 14:30 NIV
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 NIV
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.
Proverbs 12:25-26 NIV
The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Jeremiah 2:13 NIV
“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
With God, a little bit of living water can change everything.
Do you need some living water right now?
“During years when conditions aren’t ideal and blooms are few and far between, the seeds lie dormant on the valley floor, waiting for the ideal time to sprout — even if it takes 10 years or more. “ – Jennifer Gray, 02/21/26 - Death Valley Superblooms After Record Rainfall Transforms America’s Direst Place Into Sea of Color, (Weather.com)
Hebrews 4:15 NIV
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Hebrews 4:16 NIV
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.