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Seven Bible Valleys
Jack Hyles

Jack Frasure Hyles (1926–2001). Born on September 25, 1926, in Italy, Texas, Jack Hyles grew up in a low-income family with a distant father, shaping his gritty determination. After serving as a paratrooper in World War II, he graduated from East Texas Baptist University and began preaching at 19. He pastored Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas, growing it from 44 to over 4,000 members before leaving the Southern Baptist Convention to become an independent Baptist. In 1959, he took over First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, transforming it from 700 members to over 100,000 by 2001 through an innovative bus ministry that shuttled thousands weekly. Hyles authored 49 books, including The Hyles Sunday School Manual and How to Rear Children, and founded Hyles-Anderson College in 1972 to train ministers. His fiery, story-driven preaching earned praise from figures like Jerry Falwell, who called him a leader in evangelism, but also drew criticism for alleged authoritarianism and unverified misconduct claims, which he denied. Married to Beverly for 54 years, he had four children and died on February 6, 2001, after heart surgery. Hyles said, “The greatest power in the world is the power of soulwinning.”
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of finding joy and delight in life and in church. They acknowledge that suffering and loneliness are also part of life, but they believe that God is always present in those difficult times. The speaker mentions four valleys in the Bible: the valley of sin, the valley of decision, the valley of suffering, and the valley of Eli. They highlight that no matter which valley we find ourselves in, God is there with us. The sermon concludes with a reminder that life is not always easy, but God's presence brings comfort and strength.
Sermon Transcription
I was flying, as I do every week. I was coming from the city of Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago. I sat down in a seat next to the aisle. There was a seat to my left that was empty, and then a seat on the other side of that where a little lady was sitting. I guess she was about my age. She looked like she was very young anyway. And so I spoke to her, as I always do, just said, howdy. And sat down and read the paper, I think, maybe studied a bit, I'm not sure. But anyway, finally I got my Bible out, began to read the Bible, and study a bit. When she saw the Bible, she began to weep. She said nothing for a while, but she began to weep. And then she looked over at me and she said, Mr., and she could hardly control her emotions. She said, when you get through with that, when you get through with that, can I read it? And I said, lady, I've got two others in my briefcase. You can have one of them. So I took out a Bible and I gave it to her, and she began to thumb through it, and I could tell she didn't know what she was looking for. I said, can I help you? She said, I want to read the 23rd Psalm. And I said, let me read it to you. And so I opened my Bible to the 23rd Psalm, and began to read it. As tears streamed down her face, her lips continued to quiver. And I said, you have a broken heart, don't you? She said, yes. My father is dying in Houston, Texas. I don't know if I'll get there or not before he dies, and I love the 23rd Psalm. In just a few moments, I told her about the shepherd of that psalm, and she received him as her Savior. I guess of all the passages in all the Bible that have comforted the hearts of troubled souls, strengthened the backs of weary travelers, encouraged the spirits of broken hearts, I guess the 23rd Psalm has done the most. The Lord is my shepherd, as the little girl said, and that's all I want. That's all I want, or I shall not want. Then he goes on to say, and here's the text, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. I was thinking a while ago, I hate it. I always hate to turn a decade. I'm dreading getting 30, for example. In fact, I've been dreading it so long, I've been putting it off for years. But I still recall the day I became 30, and then I dreaded my 40s. I stayed up till midnight, the night before my birthday, so I could enjoy every precious moment of my 30s awake, and I wanted to go to sleep and stay there for a few years. But I can honestly say this, that the older I get, the more I enjoy living. I'm 46. To me, that's the perfect age to be. Oh, shut up. But to me, that's the perfect age to be. 46. I have enjoyed my, I enjoyed my 30s more than I enjoyed my 20s. I enjoy, I've enjoyed my 40s more than any other decade of my life. I've felt better, I've worked harder, won more people at Christ, laughed more than in any other decade of my life. I was thinking this morning during the service, why is that true? I think I know. I preached on the 23rd Psalm when I was a 20-year-old boy. I preached on the 23rd Psalm and other passages when I was in my 20s. I preached all through my 20s and 30s, and I hope through my 40s. But I, I didn't really know what it meant. I knew it was true. I knew, Yea, though I walk through the valley, thou art with me. I knew it was true because God said it. Brother Fiske, I know it's true now because I've been there. I've been there. And to me, the song, I used to sing as a kid, every day with Jesus, not that well, but sang it. And it's sweeter than the day before. And I don't think that ought to be a kid's song. I think it ought to be a song for older people because we found it's true. We found that it's like a lamp. You turn a lamp on, it has three, three, uh, brightnesses or degrees of light. And you turn it on and you turn it again, it gets brighter. Turn it again, it gets brighter. Hey, you, you young folks, you look at the, you look at us old folks and you say, boy, they're about to die. We, we get worried about that. We're worried about you. You go out in the car. We think you're going to get killed. You're worried about us dying. We're worried about you dying. And, uh, but boy, oh boy, must be awful drab to be that old. No, it's not. It isn't really. To me that the, the reality of what we used to say was true, having been lived and proved in the laboratory of human experience makes the year sweeter as the days go by. And one of the, and of course the great, the great reason for the sweetness is the fact that when we walk through the valley, he's there. The seven great valleys in the Bible, I want you to listen carefully this morning, seven great valleys in the Bible, the Valley of Sidon, Eskil, Kidron, Elah, Achor, Gehenna, and Jezreel. And I want you to look at each of these valleys. And I want you to notice this morning that in every one of these valleys, God is with us. Yea, who I walk through the valley thou art with me. I'll fear no evil for thou art with me. The first value I would call your attention is the Valley of Sidon, S-I-D-D-I-M. Here's the valley. That is the Valley of the Slime Pits. Why the Valley of the Slime Pits? Because the Valley of Sidon is on the very spot of the cities or where the cities were of Sodom and Gomorrah. You recall the awful story in the Bible of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God looked down and saw the wickedness and the sensuality and the sodomy and homosexuality and adultery and no doubt the drunkenness of that wicked, vile city. And God said, I'm going to rain fire and brimstone on the city of Sodom. And so God did on the city of sin, the Slime Pits. This valley is a valley where sin abounded. And this valley represents the valley in our lives, the Valley of Sin. Did you know when you go out in the nightclubs and live it up and go to the depths of sin, did you know God still loves you and God's there? Did you know when you go down to the very bottom of sin and taste the last drop of the dregs in the cup of sin, did you know that God is there? Did you know when you've gone to the bottom and nobody else cares and you've spent all and began to be in want and you've come to yourself and you have no money to spend and you say, I'll rise and go to my Father, He's always there. God's there this morning. If you're not saved, He's there. He knocks on the door of your heart. He wants to save you. He wants to forgive every sin. He wants to come into your life. He wants to write your name in heaven. He wants to make you His child. He wants to take you to heaven when you die. God wants to make you a new creature. God wants to send His Holy Spirit to indwell you. God wants you to say your sins are forgiven. God wants to come into your life. This morning I'm talking to somebody, always is the case. I've preached to the day. I finished preaching. A little lady came to me and met me at the office. She was a lovely girl. I guess she was lovely. What I could see of her was lovely. She had on her false eyebrows and false eyelashes and I don't know if she had false teeth on. She reminded me of that story about the fellow who got married and went on his honeymoon and the first night he was going to kiss his wife goodnight and she took off her wig and put it in the drawer and she took off her, took out her and put it in the drawer and took off her false eyelashes and put them in the drawer and took off her eyebrows and put them in the drawer and pulled out her false teeth and put it in the drawer and unscrewed a wooden leg and put it in the drawer and the fellow sat there and he didn't know what to do and she said, what's wrong sweetheart? He said, I'm trying to decide whether to sleep in the bed or in the drawer and so on. That's about the way she looked. I'm not sure exactly that's the case but that's about the way she looked and she was a hideous looking mess but I'm sure she was a young lady and as the world counts attractiveness I think she'd been called beautiful. She said, could I see you mister? And I went, I said, yes come in. She came to my office and sat in my study and she said, I'm what you call a call girl. I wear the nicest of furs and she had on, I'm not sure, a leopard or what it was but she's on a beautiful, beautiful coat and she said, men go together, about eight or ten men have gone together and have rented me an apartment and they buy me nice clothes and I drive a Lincoln Continental or a Cadillac car, whatever I want and I just stay there and those wicked men want me. They come to my apartment one after the other and she said, she said, I'm on dope and she said, I don't have anybody that loves me and she said, I heard you preach and I heard you tell me that God loves everybody and she said to the house, you think God would forgive me? And I said, well of course He'll forgive you. He loves you. He gave His Son for you. Jesus died for sinners. God gave His Son for sinners. Jesus went to the cross for sinners. Jesus came to the earth for sinners. Jesus dipped His own soul into hell for sinners. Jesus gave the Holy Spirit for sinners. Doesn't matter where you are this morning or how deep you've gone He's there. Are you in the valley of Sodom? Are you in the city of Sodom this morning? The city of Gomorrah in deep awful sin? Have you gone to the bottom? Is life empty? Are you friendless and without anybody who seems to care? He says, I'm there. I'm there. This morning He knocks on your door and He says, if you'll just trust Me as your Savior, I'll forgive every sin. I'll make you My child. I'll write your name in heaven. Oh, dear unconverted friend living in the valley of Sodom, come to Christ this morning. He's there. But there's a second valley in the Bible and that's the valley of Eschel. The valley of Eschel. Eschel is located just inside the promised land. Don't you recall the grapes of Eschel? When the Israelites came to the door of the promised land of Kadesh Barnea, they appointed twelve spies. Those twelve spies went over inside the promised land and they said it's a land that flows with milk and honey and it's a land with great giants and they said we brought back some grapes and those grapes were so big that it took two men to carry one bunch of grapes with the grapes on a pole and one man carried one into the pole and one man carried the other into the pole. It took two men to carry the bunches of grapes and they came back. That was, those were the grapes of Eschel. The grapes of Eschel. And they were gotten in what is called the valley of Eschel, one of the seven great valleys in the Bible. Now what's the valley of Eschel? It was in Eschel where the Jews faced the decision of their lives. It was in Eschel where they had to decide, shall we go forward or shall we go backward? It was in the valley of Eschel where they decided, shall we obey God or shall we go back in the wilderness? It was in Eschel they decided, shall we be our fullest or shall we be less than what we ought to be? The valley of Eschel is the valley of decision. And yea, though you walk through the valley of Eschel, he's there, that valley of decision. I have, I had this week, a hundred and three people have come to my office this week to talk to me. One hundred three. I'd say of that one hundred and three people, I'd say at least fifty percent of those have been young people with decisions to face. Oh my young friends, right now, right now, right now, right now! You're in the valley of decision. Oh God wants to help you make your choices. You don't know how many times, you don't know how many times when you leave my office, a young girl came in today and I knew what she ought to do. And I wanted to give her entire life to God and I was afraid she wouldn't. And time and time again when you've left, I've gotten on my knees with a door and I've said, oh God don't let her make a mistake, don't let her make a mistake. The valley of decision, the valley of Eschel, always do when you come to the valley of decision, what God wants you to do, ask God to help you, ask God to lead you. Do His will in the valley of Eschel. But there's a third valley in the Bible. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. There's a third valley, it's called the valley of Kidron. The valley of Kidron is called now the valley of Jehoshaphat. The valley of, young people, the valley of Jehoshaphat. It is the valley just outside the east wall of the city Jerusalem. It is the valley between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, or Gethsemane. There's a big deep valley, young people, listen to me, there's the valley of Kidron. Now, how many of you have been to the Holy Land, several of you went with me, how many have been there? Do you recall what's mainly in the valley of Kidron between the Mount of Olives and the city Jerusalem? Do you recall what's mainly there? Huh? How many know, raise your hand. There's a cemetery there. Ever since the time of Josiah, it's been a cemetery. It's been the valley, Samson is buried there, Samuel, I think is buried there, James is buried there, Absalom is buried there, and many others in this cemetery in the valley of Kidron. This is the valley of suffering. This is the valley of suffering. Our Lord says, David said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for thou art with me. Now, he's there in the valley of Sidon, or the valley of sin. He's there in the valley of Eschol, or the valley of decision, but he's also there in the valley of suffering. This morning in this service, hundreds of people here, did you know this morning in this service this morning, there are people who think the sun will never rise. I mean, there's a young man in this service this morning who has cancer in his body, and he's taking radium or some kind of the treatments right now, and he doesn't know. He's a fine young man. One of our boys grew up in our church, has a wife and a little baby, and some of you fellas help this young lady over here. I think she's having a little trouble. Two or three of you fellas. Could I have two or three fellas please come help this little lady. I think she's, I think she's maybe passed out, and just help her out if you would please. Our heavenly father bless this young lady. We don't know what the problem is, but I pray you'd bless her and reach her body. Amen. That's right. Does she have seizures sometimes? Does she have epileptic seizures? I see, that's what it is, I'm sure then. They always look like they're dead when they have those things. Brother John had one a while ago when he stood up here. Shall we plan to stand? God bless her. That's fine. Thank you fellas. Everybody doesn't have to go. Shall we all go? All right. As I was saying in this service this morning, many are in the valley. Many are. But did you know our Lord is there in the valley of suffering? If you've come to the place in your life where you've gone to the bottom of sin, He's there. If you face a decision and you're in the valley of decision, He's there. If you face suffering and heartache, our Lord is there. You know, a young fella came to me the other night, and go out the door back there please. Don't send her across the entire building. She can go out the door back there. That's good. And so a boy came to me, Friday night, maybe Saturday, I'm not sure. And he's a preacher boy. And he said, Brother Hiles, I'm too critical. My problem is I'm critical. And I said, no Christian ought to be critical. I mean that. I mean it. There's nothing in this world that's unbecoming a child of God is criticizing. Nothing. There's nothing that's as wicked as complaining. You know what it is? Being critical of somebody else. Gossiping about somebody else is pride at its height. It is you putting down another. And God knows folks don't need to put down. Folks need to be encouraged and helped and strengthened and pat on the back. And I often say on the broadcast, this is the broadcast not with a kick in the pants, but with a pat on the back. And that's what folks need. But a fella came. He said, well, how do you keep from being critical? And I said, what do you mean? He said, well, you look at you. He said, you preach hard. You preach against sin. And he said, how can you help but be critical of people? He said, how do you look at your people when they go into sin? And I said, the same way that a mother does with a child who has fever at night. If a child gets high fever at night, all of a sudden, and the mother rushes to the child's bedside, the mother hates the germ and hates the sickness and hates the thing that would wreck the child. But the mother loves the child and tenderly watches the child. And I told him, I said, for example, of the night I was asleep and I began to dream. I won't call the couple's names, but I dreamed about two couples in our church and they were suffering and they do have burdens and problems. I dreamed about them and I woke up and I woke up crying and I said, Oh God, help them, help them. Oh God, help them, help them. And I woke up weeping and fell down on my knees and prayed for those two couples in case they needed help then. Oh, let me say this, that young people, maybe you don't know this yet. Life is all a youth activity. Life is one big ball game. Life is one big laugh, but it won't always be that way. The day is going to come when you're going to sit beside the grave of someone whom you love like you love your own life. The day is going to come when the problems and burdens and heartaches and valleys, the valley of Kidron, the valley of suffering, the valley of tears, the valley of sorrow, the valley of heartache, they're going to come. But when the vow is come, our Lord is there. The other day, a lady came to my office. I'd had about 13 conferences that day. And I said, Everybody seemed to be in such bad trouble. I mean, it just seemed like everything. You'd laugh if you knew all the stuff that happened. I mean, one of our young ladies, and I won't tell you who it is, and nobody knows, but one of the persons, one of my young ladies in the church, she was getting up in years, she must have been at least in her early 20s, and she wasn't married yet. And so what did she do? She answered one of these dumb, forlorn lover's letters. And they started writing each other. And in the mail, he proposed to her, never had seen her. And she accepted. And they got married, sight unseen. She went down to the airport. She met him and said, it's like that colored lady you know that said, Yes, I'll marry you. Who is it? And that's about the way it was. And married him. And I heard about it. And I couldn't understand. I had spent literally dozens of hours with her. I had counseled with her, and counseled, and counseled, and counseled, and counseled. Now she's going to have a life of heartache. Everybody knows that. A life of sorrow. And so when a person comes to Christ, and God, and he's in sin, an awful sin, the Lord is there, and the Lord forgives and helps us. And then we have decisions to make, and the Lord is there. But then the time of suffering comes. But thank God he's there. I laugh a lot. I cut up a lot. In fact, I get criticized a great deal because I cut up too much. Probably you know. Probably you've done it this morning. But I enjoy life. And I laugh a lot. And I cut up. And I say, when somebody says Arkansas is mentioned in the Bible, I want you to know about it. I told my class this morning. A little kid walked down my office the other day, another night. He looked up at me, a little old bus kid. He said, Brother Howes. I said, What? He said, You know why the wise men went to Bethlehem? Well, I tried to figure out why, I thought. And I said, No, why? He said, Because they weren't hiring at Inman or Youngstown. Well, if they're not hiring anybody at Inman or Youngstown, you've got to go to Bethlehem to get a job, you know. And I. Now, until then, people say, Oh, I went to church, and he told something funny in the pulpit. I know it. I was trying to cheer up your sour puss. That's what I was trying to do. It may take a lot more than this. But I just said, Amen. He's henpecked. The only time he has any fun is when he comes to church. What am I saying? I'm saying, I enjoy life. I believe in laughter. And I believe in joy. And I believe in a good, old, nice, clean joke. And I believe in having delight and joy in church. But I'll be honest with you. I bet you I cry morning about it in the service. It's all torn cries. I know something about suffering. I know something about loneliness. I know something about the faith. This week, this week, one night when the clock struck three and three-thirty, I was still saying, God, there's got to be some way. There's got to be some way. But he's there. He's there. He's there. Are you this morning in the valley of sin? He's there. Are you in the valley of decision? You don't know which way to go. He's there. Are you in the valley of suffering and heartache and tears and brokenness? He's there. There's a fourth valley in the Bible, important valley, the valley of Elah. I like this one. You know what happened in Elah? Elah? Huh? That's where David looked out and saw that big, old, loud-mouthed giant burning out his challenges across the valley. And David met Goliath in the valley of Elah and got the slingshot and threw the slingshot toward the temple of Goliath. Goliath lifted up from his armor, lifted up to see if that little kid was really, was really as little as he looked like and began to talk. And he lifted it up and said, Ah! And he should never have lifted it up because right into that hole went it. Went up that little old stone and he was felled. The valley of Elah. That's the valley of battle. The valley of battle. The valley of sin. God's there. The valley of decision. God's there. The valley of suffering. He's there. But the valley of battle. He's also there. What do you mean, preacher? I mean, this morning, are you facing some battle? Is some sin about to conquer you? Is there some temptation you feel like you cannot resist? He's there. There's no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above the year able and also with the temptation make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. There's a young lady here this morning and she's been into sin. She's just a teenager and I think very much of her. And she's, her life was about ruin. And I've been meeting with her and trying to help her and I'm counting on her. And she's facing the tempter. Every day she has two or three temptations that she's, she's, she's been yielding to and I'm trying to help her and I pray with her every day and encourage her every day and try to give her strength every day. Are you facing? Have you gone back to the jobs that you got saved? And, and they're, they're laughing at you and making fun of you. And it's a battle every day. Lean heavy upon God. He's there in the valley of battle. He's there. But there's a fifth valley in the Bible. Oh, I love this one. The valley of punishment. The valley of punishment. Acre is the name of this valley. Acre, the valley of Acre. What value is that? That's the valley where Achan was stoned to death. Don't you recall Achan who came to Jericho and the Lord had said, don't take anything in Jericho. It's accursed. Don't take anything. And Achan saw a coat. He said, my wife, would you like to have that coat? But the Lord said, don't take anything. Achan knew he shouldn't. Achan saw $185 and he said, I sure could use that. I promised to put some money in the loan fund. I don't know where I'm going to get it. And I could sure use that. Achan took the money and took the coat. And sin came in the camp and the battle of Ai was, was, was lost. And, and Joshua called all the people and lined them up and cast lots. And the lot fell on Achan. And God said, take him out to the valley and, and stone him to death. Take his wife and take his kids. You folks that don't believe in capital punishment, you read that story sometime. And they took the stones and stoned Achan, stoned his wife and stoned his kids. I was preaching one day. Oh, and then I said, Achan was stoned. One old drunk met me after service in the Zawas last night. That's not the kind of stoning he's talking about. Achan was stoned. His wife was stoned. His children were killed. And they named the valley of Achor. That's the valley of chastening. You know, one of the sweetest things about being a Christian is getting a spanking. Huh? When I was a kid, my mama, mama was sick this morning, but she'd be here. She weren't. But mother, when I was a kid, oh, she used to spank. That little woman packed, listen, she's got a right cross that makes Mohammed Ali look like he's a fight in the way of a paper sack. And my mama could spank. Oh, she could spank. And, and she could talk. I'd rather have a spanking than a talking. She could, oh, son, you're never going to amount to anything. My boy, my boy, all of my work is in vain, and you've gone to the devil, and I've worked so hard. But tonight, I'd rather go to the penitentiary for 99 years. And here one, and she'd spank me. And we lived alone. Earlene, eight years older than I. As I say so often, she looks like she's much older than that. But, but I, I, eight years older than I am. And she, she got married, and she was seven, moved away. And, and she, she moved away. And, and my dad had left home, and mother and I were together. And if mother turned her back on me, there wasn't anybody else. And I could recall, I, we had a little apartment. The folks next door were poor too. And we wanted to have a telephone. We couldn't afford a telephone. So we sawed a hole in the wall between us and the next apartment. It's against the law, but we were under grace, not under the law. And, and so we, we sawed a hole. We didn't, we didn't know it was against the law. And we sawed a hole and built a shelf between the two apartments. And when the phone would ring, either one of us could answer it. If we answered it for them, we'd slide it over there, you know. And so forth. We were very poor. We're, and we lived alone. And I can recall, mother spanked me. And I didn't, the spanking was not good, and it hurt. The thing that hurt the most was, the only one I had was upset with me. And my mother had, she's mean. She had ways of scaring me. She'd say, there's a big old man gonna come get you. Booger man. Because she's a big booger man gonna come get you. And then she'd say, okay, I'm gonna leave home. She'd spank me and put me in the back bedroom on my bed, on that bed. And I'd be there and I'd be crying. And she'd go to the door and act like she left. She'd open the door and then open the screen and shut the door and then shut the screen. And I thought mama was gone. And I can recall getting up and tiptoeing. She told me not to get up, but if she's gone, she wouldn't know if I was up. So I'd tiptoe and I'd tiptoe and I'd look and I'd see mother. And she'd be weeping or praying for me. And I'd say to myself, she's still here. She's still here. Spanking didn't amount to much. Mama was still there. Oh, the Lord has to spank us, doesn't He? He has to take the rod of chastening and put it across our back. Why? We're not always good. But even in that valley of chastening, when God said to spank you, put you on your back in the hospital, or cause you to lose your job, or put you flat on your back in the middle of a road with a car accident, and God said to knock you down and spank you, it's always blessed. Because even in the valley of chastening, He's there. In the valley of sodom, of sin, He's there. In the valley of eschol, or of decision, He's there. In the valley of chedron, or of suffering, He's there. In the valley of elo, of battle, He's there. In the valley of achor, of chastening, He's there. But there's a sixth valley, the valley of Gehenna. I don't have time to go into this a great deal. Gehenna is the garbage dump of Jerusalem. It is to this day. Back yonder, especially in those days, it was a garbage dump, a great valley. They take the city garbage and throw it out in the garbage dump. It is a fire going all the time. And from that word Gehenna, and that garbage dump outside the city of Jerusalem, done up not far around the city, from the valley of Chedron. It could be all one valley, you might say even. But there's the valley of Gehenna. When our Lord spoke about hell, He said there'll be eternal Gehenna. In other words, that fire there in the garbage, that's the way it's going to be forever. For those of you that die without God, I call it the valley of death. The valley of death. You've got to die someday. You've got to die, but He'll be there. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for thou art there. One night I was called from my study in Garland, Texas to Dallas over in the Lakewood section of Dallas. One of our dear men, I'll never forget it. He was dying. I've forgotten his name. No, no I haven't. His name was Seals. Mr. Seals. Very wealthy man. Very important man in his neighborhood. But he was a member of our church and he was dying. They called me over to his house and I walked back in the back room and his heart had been, had heart trouble for many years. And he was dying. I buried him out on Northwest Highway in a beautiful cemetery. And so I walked in and I said, how do you feel Mr. Seals? And he said, I thought I died last night. And I said, what do you mean? He said, there's a nurse they're taking, real pretty nurse they're taking care of. He said the prettiest nurse came in my room. I looked up and I said, oh, I must be in heaven. Oh, she sure is pretty. And he laughed and laughed and soon he died. And as he was dying, he said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. You know, you know, death is highly exaggerated, highly overrated. Death is overrated as an enemy, no enemy at all. You know why? Because he's there. Look, look, it doesn't matter where you go. If he's there, you'll suffer. He's there. You're tempted. He's there. A battle. He's there. Decision. He's there. Death. He's there. If you're saved. But there's a seventh and last valley and that's the valley of Jezreel. The valley of Jezreel. The valley of Jezreel is important in the Bible because in that valley, the great end time battle is going to be fought. Russia will come on the valley of Jezreel and fight against Palestine. Egypt will come from the south to the valley of Jezreel and fight against Palestine. And China shall come from the east to the valley of Jezreel and fight against Palestine. And there the armies of the world will be gathered in a great end time battle. Russia and her horses, great cavalry coming and the nations of the east, the south and the north shall be assembled against Russia in the valley of Jezreel against Palestine, the valley of Jezreel. But all of a sudden the western powers come. United States and England and the revived Roman empire come and fight against Russia there in the valley of Jezreel. It is in the valley of Jezreel where is found Mount Megiddo from which comes the word Armageddon. It is in the valley of Jezreel where the battle shall be fought. It is in the valley of Jezreel where the Antichrist shall rise up as the victor and conqueror of the entire world. And the great man of sin shall be king of all the world. In the valley of Jezreel is the valley where our Lord shall descend from heaven and shall come back with his own people riding on white horses and shall become King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And forever we shall be with him. Why? For even in the valley of Jezreel he's there. Thirty, thirty-five years ago last fall as a little poor boy, barefoot, kind of poor bus kid I guess you'd call me, that's what I'd be. If I were in First Baptist Church Hammond I'd be a bus kid, just a bus kid. I walked down the aisle of a little outdoor meeting at the Fernwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas one Sunday night and I said, Dear God, if you'll have a poor little boy like me I'll take you. And I trusted Christ from that day as long as I live. He'll be there. He'll be there.
Seven Bible Valleys
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Jack Frasure Hyles (1926–2001). Born on September 25, 1926, in Italy, Texas, Jack Hyles grew up in a low-income family with a distant father, shaping his gritty determination. After serving as a paratrooper in World War II, he graduated from East Texas Baptist University and began preaching at 19. He pastored Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas, growing it from 44 to over 4,000 members before leaving the Southern Baptist Convention to become an independent Baptist. In 1959, he took over First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, transforming it from 700 members to over 100,000 by 2001 through an innovative bus ministry that shuttled thousands weekly. Hyles authored 49 books, including The Hyles Sunday School Manual and How to Rear Children, and founded Hyles-Anderson College in 1972 to train ministers. His fiery, story-driven preaching earned praise from figures like Jerry Falwell, who called him a leader in evangelism, but also drew criticism for alleged authoritarianism and unverified misconduct claims, which he denied. Married to Beverly for 54 years, he had four children and died on February 6, 2001, after heart surgery. Hyles said, “The greatest power in the world is the power of soulwinning.”