The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Thy Will Be Done

Episode Date: October 9, 2022

Not my will, but Your will be done. What is the NEXT THING for you?

Church one more time at all of our locations where we thank my friend Jeff Moore and Mark. Man, it's really cool for me. As you know, way back in the 1900s, I was a youth pastor. And I can't tell you the number of times I loaded up an old church van that would break down on the way

with a bunch of high school kids and we would go, anybody, by the way, any like 90s youth group kids in the house, we still survive and praise God. Can you believe we're actually believers? That's why I believe in the sovereignty of God. We would show up to Jeff Moore in the distance and all those kinds of concerts, and now he's right here with us.

And if you're new, if this is your first time here, we're glad you're here. You were here on the third week of a three-week series, so it's like coming in at the end of the movie, but let me catch you up real quick. This series is called The Next Thing, based on that song that you just heard. And the next thing might be easy. The next thing might be hard. But there's wisdom and trusting God and doing the next thing. And today, in our time together, we're going to be hard.

to talk about the hardest next thing ever, ever, ever. If you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do, go to Matthew chapter 26. This is one of the heaviest passages in the scriptures. And just for all you regulars here, I'm going to put this anointing oil right there. So you know how this one's going to end. It's going to be a doozy. So buckle up buttercup, okay? If you thought you were just going to get a little encouraging jingle before you

go watch the Jags win, and this is going to be a little something different, all right? week one, Pastor Adam led us with this, in trying to figure out what the next thing to do, he said that the number one thing in all of creation is the glory of God, so God should be focused on God's glory. And then we're trying to figure out what the next thing for us is, then what we should do is whatever brings God most glory. It could be an incredible thing. It could be like selling everything you have and going on the mission field. It could be running for office. it could be a little thing like

I'm just going to your wife this morning and saying I'm sorry for what I said last night. But the next thing for you is whatever that thing in your life is that brings God the most glory. And then last week we looked at Moses, the life of Moses. And God looks at Moses.

Moses thought he was washed up, thought he was done. Based on his past, Moses has been a shepherd for 40 years working for his father-in-law. So you know he thinks my life is over. And then God shows up. up in the wilderness speaks through a burning bush and says, what's in your hand? And what was in his hand was not simply a shepherd's staff. That shepherd staff, the reason that he was a shepherd is because

he was on the run. He was ashamed and afraid of his past because he murdered a guy. He thought he was disqualified by the things that he had done. And God said, boy, I ain't done with you. Some of you need to hear that. The only thing you need to hear this whole morning is God is not finished with you. That you are not defined by the things that you used to do. You were not defined by your past sin, by your past mistakes, by your sin and your shame. In fact, God can take the very things that you're most ashamed of and he can redeem them and use them for his glory. Look at Moses's life. Which leads us to the Garden of Gisemite. And the reason that any of us can trust God and do the next thing is because in the Garden of Githemite, Jesus is going to

trust God and do the next thing. And the next thing for him was to go to the cross. You see in Matthew chapter 26 beginning in verse 36, it says, then Jesus, well, what happened before that is that Jesus took his disciples to the upper room. If you've ever celebrated communion at the church, the Lord's Supper, this is where he is instituting this Lord's Supper. He takes the disciples to this upper room. They are celebrating the meal called the Passover meal. that the Jewish people had been doing this since the days of Exodus, the days of Moses. And it was supposed to point back to that day where Moses goes before Pharaoh and says, let my people go.

And Pharaoh's like, no way. And so God sends ten plagues, and the tenth plague is an angel of death will pass over and take the firstborn of everyone, the firstborn son of everyone. And God tells Moses, you go and shed the blood of a lamb and put the blood of that lamb on the doorposts of your house. and whoever has the blood of the lamb or the doorposts of the house, the angel of death will pass over. That's why it's called Passover.

They've been celebrating this for thousands of years. And then Jesus, on that night that he was going to be arrested, knowing that God had put all authority in heaven and earth under him, he got up from the table and he showed his disciples the full extent of his love. And he didn't preach a sermon, and he didn't do a miracle.

He dressed himself, as a servant. He took the lowliest position, and he washed his disciples' feet. And then he sat down. He said, you'd be blessed if you do what I just did for you. And then he took the bread. And all the disciples thought he was going to talk about Exodus, but he didn't. He broke the bread. And he said, this is my body broken for you. He took the cup. He said, this is the cup of grace that has poured out for you. And as often as you do these things, you do so in remembrance of me. In other words, boys, that whole thing that Moses did with the lamb, it wasn't about a lamb, it was about me. And then after that, he takes his disciples to the Garden of Gassimony, Matthew 26.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gassimini. Gisemini literally means the place of crushing. Gassimini is at the base of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is a mountain with olive groves there. And at the base of it was an olive press. and there are three crushings or three pressings when you make olives into olive oil. The first one is that you would gather them together in these bags, stack them up on top of each other, and the weight of the olives on one another would press out the first run, which is extra virgin olive oil.

And then after that process was over, they would take these big stones and lean them down onto the olives and press it out a second time. And then, after they've been pressed twice, you take the olives and you put it in this olive, press and you roll a big old millstone and it crushes it down to pulp. There are three pressings. And that night, Jesus would be crushed in three different areas. He would be arrested. He would go to Caiaphas' house. Caius was the great high priest.

He would put a sack over his head and the soldiers would say, you're a prophet. They punch him in the face and say, who hit you? They plucked out his beard. They put a crown of thorns on his head. It was the first crushing. Then they didn't have the authority to kill him, so they take him to Pontius Pilate, who ruled over this area in the name of Rome, and Pontius Pilate's post in Pilots' Pretorium or his courtyard and flogs him, whips him beyond recognition, the second crushing. And then finally, they take him to Galgotha, to the cross, where nails are driven through his hands and his feet, and a spear is run up through his side, and he is crushed to the point where his heart.

melts. And on that same night, Jesus is going to pray three times. He walks into the place of crushing, the Garden of Githemone. And he says through his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray, and taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowed and troubled. Now notice, notice, in times of need, what does Jesus do? Jesus prays. Let me ask you, for you, is prayer, a last resort, or a first response? Because the first thing he knows he needs to do when he is walking through the valley of the shadow of death is that he needs to pray. And he's sorrowful and he's troubled and then he says that then my soul is very sorrowful even to death.

Remain here and watch. That means like watch out. That means like pay attention. Why? He says, watch with me, and then going a little further, he falls on his face. Let me ask you some questions here. Are you in a disciple group yet? If not, why not?

If not, you think you can do this life on your own? Let me lovingly ask you us, who in the heck do you think you are? If Jesus, the almighty son of God, maker of heaven and earth, when he knew that he needed community in his life to be able to get through the hard things, was calling him to get through. If he felt like he needed some brothers around him to pray for, then who do you think you are to be like, well, whatever, I got this. Or let me ask it another way.

Who's praying for you? And don't say my mama. Because I know she is praying for you, but you lie to her. You don't tell her the truth. There is no doubt about it. Jesus is the head of the church, but the backbone has been praying mama since the empty tomb. That's a fact. But she ain't got all the information.

You see, good Christian community is like a retirement account, man. if you wait to, you need it to start building it. It's way too late. And Jesus, the Son of God, says, I need some brothers around me praying. Who is that for you? And so he brings Peter, James, and John a little closer, and he's like, will you pray?

And the reason is because he is sorrowful and troubled. That's what's going on in here. My soul is very sorrowful even to death. And then he goes on to say, and going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed. That the weight of the world is on his shoulders, that he is so emotionally distraught

that he can't even stand up anymore. Let me ask you this. You ever been sorrowful? You ever been troubled at the soul level? He says it's even to the point of death. You ever struggle with anxiety, depression? Jesus knows exactly how you feel. This is why the book of Hebrews will say,

that we have a great high priest who can empathize anything you have ever struggled with and felt, he feels it with you. And so let me tell you this. Let me tell you, if you feel this way, then you need to bring this to the king. You need to bring this to God. He knows exactly how you feel, and he will help you walk through this one step of time. And look around here. There are thousands of people that would willingly pray with you and walk with you because we love you.

Whatever you do, don't hurt you. God has a purpose for you. God has a plan for you. And Jesus knows, man, he sees you. He feels you. Give it to him. And so he falls on his face and he's praying. He feels at the soul level like he's going to die.

In fact, Luke's account of this, Luke is a doctor, so oftentimes Luke will record some physical details that the other gospel writers don't. Luke says it this way. In being in agony, Jesus, prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. Now that's praying. He's praying to the point where his capillaries are bursting.

That's a heaviness. That's praying. That's different than saying your prayers. You know what I mean? Dear God, thank you for the food. We asked that it would nourish your body. I've told you, what a dumb prayer, man. What else does this food do?

It's just what it does, whether you ask it to nourish. It's like, dear God, I just pray as I get in the shower, the water would make me wet. You don't even have to pray it. Now, maybe some of the drive-thrus you roll through, maybe there you should pray it, but that's a different sermon. I remember as a little kid, the only prayer we knew. My mama taught us this prayer. Now I lay me down the sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. What an awful prayer to pray with your little kids, man. Have you ever thought about it? What are we teaching our children? I can remember, look, I ain't that sharp. I'm from Dillon, South Carolina, so it took me a minute to catch on. And I remember, at one point I got, Mama, is there something happening at our house tonight that I need to know about?

She's like, what do you mean? I feel like we're asking God that we might not make it through the night. And then, by the way, speaking of that, what does Fashidae mean? She said, what are you talking about? It's like, who's Fashida? You know, five should I, four out wait. Who's five should I? I didn't even know what we were saying, man.

We're talking about different kind of prayers right now. Not just memorize I said my prayers. But he is feeling what is before him. The next thing might be easy. This ain't that. Some of you are walking through some next things right now. And it's the hardest decisions you're ever going to make in your entire life. you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.

And he is coming before his heavenly father. And he is saying, God, I feel like I'm going to die. And the reason is because he knows, we know if you just read to the end of the paragraph, he's going to the cross. Now the question then is, why is there so much anxiety here?

Why is there this depression? Why is he sorrowful to the soul? Is it just because he's afraid of what he's going to face with the crown of thorns and the flogging and the nails through the hands and feet? Now, I'm not saying that's not going to be horrific. It's going to be the most excruciating pain

anybody's ever felt. The only problem with it is there are Christian martyrs all throughout church history. They get martyred, killed to death in the name of Jesus, and they don't even act scared. So are they tougher than Jesus?

I mean, in fact, Stephen, who is the first Christian martyr in Acts chapter 7, He is about to get rocks thrown at him until he's dead. And Acts 7 records the way he responds to it this way. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, the son of man standing at the right hand of God.

And then they killed him. So is Stephen Tufferin Jesus? Or how about this? Guy named Polycarp in AD 61. He was 86 years old. and they put him on trial for being a Jesus follower. And because he was old, they said, listen, if you'll just recant your faith in Jesus,

then we will let you go. And he is quoted as saying, 86 years I have served him, and he never once wronged me, how can I blaspheme my king who saved me? So they tied him to the stake, him and another guy, they tied him to the stake. They lit him on fire.

He wouldn't catch on fire good. His friend is screaming, and he said, hey man, play the man. And so they had to stab him to death because he wouldn't die. Is polycarp tougher in Jesus? You see, Jesus is dealing with something that none of the rest of us will ever have to deal with. That Jesus is not only going to pay for our sin, the Bible makes it very clear that on the cross, according to 2nd Corinthians 521, that Jesus actually becomes our sin.

That God made Him who is without sin to be sin for us that we might become. the righteousness of God. That Jesus, for the very first time in his entire existence, which is in all of eternity, is going to experience at the cross something he has never experienced before. So he falls on his face, sweating drops of blood, and he prays, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

This is why he's freaking out. Because when the Bible here says this cup, it is referencing the wrath of God. The wrath of God. Here's what this means. That a part of what that wrath of God is going to be is separation from the Heavenly Father. And him being separated from the Heavenly Father, even if it's only momentary, is exponentially greater than any physical pain that he would ever endure. For all of eternity, the only experience that God,

son has ever had in relationship to God the Father is his love was lavished upon the Son and lavished upon the Son and lavished upon the Son. All he knew was the lavish love of a Heavenly Father. And now when Jesus becomes sin, the wrath of God is going to be poured out on Christ because Jesus is the propitiation for our sin. The payment that satisfies. You see, for the first time, he is not going to experience the love of God, but the wrath of God. Because Jesus is not just going to die for us. He's going to die instead of us. So he says, my father, if it be possible, let this cup, the cup of your wrath pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Here's what he's saying. Father, you have a will. And by the way, according to

1st Timothy chapter 2, verse 4, the will of God is that all people would come to a saving relationship with God. This is why, by the way, the Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. So if you're in the all people category, I got good news. This church is for you. Now, one of the biggest hangups that people today have with Christianity, I don't know if you've noticed this, most people are cool with Jesus. They like him pretty good. They don't like the church. They don't like Christians.

They don't like the claims of Christianity. But they seem to be okay with Jesus. But one of the biggest hang-ups that people have is the exclusive claims that Jesus is the only way to God. To which, let me just, if people, if you talk to somebody and they're hung up on that, it's not our idea. I didn't make that up. That Jesus' followers did not come up with that idea. That Jesus' followers are just repeating what Jesus said about that. That Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one gets to the Father except through me.

and I want you to see here right here in the Garden of Gassimony. Jesus is just double-checking to make sure he's the only way. Father, if it be possible, what, that your will be done, which is what, that people could come into a saving relationship with you apart from me? If it be possible for any other way, let's go with that way. Do you see what Jesus is saying? Jesus is saying, if there's actually, if it's like all roads lead to heaven or if Oprah's right and we'll all just end up in heaven, heaven somehow, or if you can obey the Ten Commandments, or if you can align your chakra, or if you can obey the five pillars, or if you could be good enough, or if you could reincarnate

enough times that eventually you get it right, or if you could plug your ponytail into a fern, or if you could, if everybody's just going to end up in heaven and hell is just an idea that's not a reality, if any of those things are going to accomplish your will that people could know you, then it seems like an awful waste of my blood to go to the cross tomorrow. That's what he's saying, but nevertheless, not my will, your will be done. Which leads to a legitimate question. People ask me this sometime. But why did Jesus have to die?

I mean, why can't God just forgive? You know? I mean, I forgive people all the time. Me, personally. I forgive people all, mostly you, but I forgive people often in my life. Don't worry about it, okay? Well, a couple things. One, God is holy, and you.

ain't. There's an area for an amen, all right? So it's just true, man. And a part of the reason that you and I can forgive is because we are sinners so it's easy for us to overlook sin. But God is holy and God is perfect and God is just. And for God to just overlook sin by definition would make him unjust. He would be an unjust judge because all sin must be paid for. Can you imagine if somebody did something to your little girl? awful and you called him, you called him, and he was standing before the judge, and the judge was like, you know what, don't worry about it. You would say, you're an unjust judge. You were unfit for that title. And part of what our legal system teaches us, it's not just what you do,

but who you do it against, it determines the penalty. Right? We've covered this a thousand times, but just for a review, if you kick your chair, please don't kick our chairs. That's not good. You've got a heart issue. But it's okay. We're not going to call the cops. If you kick your roommate, you might get in trouble. Okay? If you kick the president, you go into prison, man. You kick the pope? It's like purgatory.

I don't know where you go. Right? You kick a cat? It's not even a sin. It's not even a problem, right? We all, so it's not just what you do. And please, save your emails, okay? I'm not going to kick your cat.

I don't even want to see it in the email. All right, save it. So, all true. But God is holy and God is just, and all sin must be paid for. And God created us. a way, not with a bunch of rules, but he created us to be in a right relationship with him. If you go all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis, when God created the very first man and woman, he breathes life into the man, he opens his eyes, he's in a face-to-face

relationship with God, and then he creates Eve, and Adam and Eve are just in relationship together, and there's a whole bunch of thou shouts, and there's only one thou shalt not. He loves them enough to say, hey, man, listen, you can eat from everywhere you want to eat from, you can be fruitful and multiply, I praise God for that one. You were with me as co-creators, but if you eat from that one tree, it'll kill you, and I'm loving you enough to tell you, don't eat from that one tree.

And Adam and Eve both say, forget you, God, we know better than you. And they rejected God. And when sin enter the world, sin held the door open for every painful thing you've ever experienced in your life. And all sin must be paid for. So God goes to Adam and Eve.

And Adam and Eve, by rebellion, said, forget you, we do what we want. They reject God, but then they also reject God and say, and we can cover up our own sin and shame, and so they sew fig leaves for themselves. And so God condemns the sin and kicks them out of the garden, but the Bible says that he makes a covering for them. For the first time, the blood of an animal is shed for the covering of sin. And God says to Eve, I will put enmity between your offspring and this serpent. and there will come a day

where someone from your line, a single Jewish male, will show up. And this enemy is going to strike at his heel, but he's going to get his head crushed there. And see, according to the scriptures, you know what it takes to get to heaven? You've got to be perfect. You've got to be perfect.

And you're like, where do you get that? The Bible. Jesus said, be perfect as I am perfect. And the reality is, you ain't perfect. Me either. and I know the younger you are, you've been taught that you're a precious little snowflake and a skittal and, you know, you're just great how you are, okay? I know your kindergarten teacher told you that, but she was lying to you. All right.

She had good intentions, but you're a little wretched, wretched, crooked and depraved, sinful, egomaniac that just screams and cries like the seagulls from Nemo. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, that's who we are. Anybody that's ever raised one of these knows this to be true. It just is, man. And what's crazy is, and if you're a little offended by that, who do you think you are? Look, I didn't make this up. And the fact that you're, I know if you're like in your 20s, you're so offended. But you're offended by everything, so I don't care.

And the fact that you're offended is evidence of your pride. It's crazy. It's sin right now. And then everybody laughing at you, we're all prideful too, looking down at you. Like a bunch of wimpy kids, you know? We grew up eating lead paint and look at us. All our hair fell out, but whatever. And so if perfection is the requirement, here's what's crazy,

regardless of what you think about the Word of God, let's just put God's perfect commandments aside for just the second. We can't even keep our own commandments. Remember how much weight you said you were going to lose at your New Year's resolution? How's that working out? What if you only got judged on the things you said you would do? You ever pray this prayer?

Lord, if you'll just get me out of this one, I'll never do this again. Usually your girlfriend's like holding your hair back while you're praying right there. You know what I'm talking about? You're like, how does he know? I know stuff. You understand? Yeah, man. So if perfection is required to be in the presence of an Almighty Holy God, then what chance do we have? The answer is we don't have a chance. But we do have an offer. And God puts on flesh and he sins Jesus, his son, the second person of the Trinity, he shows up and he pulls it off. He lives the perfect life. He obeys every commandment. He fulfills

every prophecy. He is the yes and amen of every promise of God. And so he has earned the right to stand rightly before His Heavenly Father and then God, by His grace, gives us this offer. Because God is holy and just, all sin must be paid for. Because God is merciful, he delays the payment. And because of God's grace, he makes the payment on our behalf. And so Jesus, before he goes to the cross, he's in the Garden of Gassimony. And he's in the Garden of Gassimony. And he's He's like, all right, just one more time. I know I'm the way, the truth in the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me,

but I'm just double-checking. If it be possible, if there be any other way, can we go with one of those ways? Not my will, but your will be done. If me dying as an atoning sacrifice for whoever would believe, if that's what it takes, Father, then by faith, I'm going to trust you and do the next thing.

And that's exactly what he does. He goes to the cross. He pushes up on his nail-pierce feet. and he says, to tell us die, it is finished, paid in full. And for whoever would believe in Jesus that when he died on the cross somehow, it counted for me, then his death counts in your place to pay your debt, and his perfect righteous life counts for you that we would be adopted into the family of God as sons and daughters of God. That's what's happening.

That's what he's praying about in the garden. He says, Father, not my will, but your will be done. verse 40, and he came to his disciples and he found him sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation because every single one of the disciples

is going to be tempted to doubt and tempted to deny and tempted to despair. And he's like, hanging there, pray with me. And then he says this, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Anybody ever experienced? that. The Spirit indeed is willing. Let me tell you what the Spirit's real willing, right now. I mean, bro, you sit up in church and you get all like, you know what I'm about to do?

I feel you, God. I know you're calling me to do this. I'm going to go, I'm going to forgive, I'm going to share my faith, I'm going to quit that career that I know I'm not supposed to be into. I'm going to step into your will. I mean, the Spirit is willing, right? And then you walk out of here and by Monday, the flesh is weak. You know what the crazy thing about the flesh is? You know what the crazy thing about the flesh is? is it goes with you everywhere, does it not? Yeah, the old hymn writer says it this way. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Anybody with me on that one? You ever had these intentions in your hearts, in your mind? You want to do the right thing for the Lord, and you just can't seem to pull it off, and you look at yourself, you're like, what the heck is wrong with me, man? I said, I'd never do this again. There's all these good things that I want to do,

and when I get up to do them, somehow I can't pull it off, and then there's a whole bunch of things I swore I would never ever do again and I keep doing those things again. Who's with me here? Right? Me, y'all and Paul. That's Romans chapter 7.

This is what Jesus is saying here. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Verse 42, again for the second time he went away and prayed. My father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. By the way, how does God the Father respond to Jesus' prayer? Silence. You ever pray something and not get the answer you won't? You ever pray like crazy and you just hear crickets?

Well, apparently it's not on how good you can pray or how righteous you are because Jesus is perfect. And if he's perfect, he's praying perfectly. And yet God's response to him here is silence. So he goes back a second time. He prays the same thing. My father, if this, the this here is the cup. if this cup which represents your wrath cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

You see this cup, if you know your Old Testament, this cup is referred to as the cup of the wrath of God. It talks about it in Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, I'm sure most of you read Obadiah this week, so you're fully aware. That it says there is a frothy wine built up. I don't know what frothy wine is. I don't know what that means. but it is the cup of the wrath of God poured out on the heads of sinful people who deserve it. It's like this. It's like every single time we sin, and against an almighty and eternal God, it requires an everlasting punishment.

Now, I know some of you think that you've got like a little teacup worth of punishment coming your way. So let's just use me as an example, because we would all agree that I got a big old beyond a keg of judgment coming my way. way. And every single time you sin, every single time you reject God and say, no, no, no, my will be done, not your will be done, which is a lot. Every single time, it's like we add more and more and more to the judgment of God against sinful people. And because of God's mercy, it's like a big damn, it's holding back this tidal wave of the just judgment of God. Our world talks a lot about justice right now, but they want it for, they want it for everybody else. Somebody wants justice for themselves.

Nobody wants to be judged rightly against a holy and just God. And one day, one day, that damn breaks, and it's like a tidal wave of the holy, furious wrath of God coming down on anyone who has ever rejected them. And at the cross of Jesus Christ, Jesus stands in between you and that wrath, and he takes the wrath, the cup of God's wrath, and he drinks it. and drinks it and drinks it and drinks it to the very last drop, and then he slams it on the ground, and he says, it is finished for anyone

who would believe in Jesus. And earlier in the chapter, there was another cup, and it was not a cup of the wrath of God. At the end of the Lord's Supper, he held up a cup, and he said, this cup, this cup is my blood, this cup is a cup of grace, this cup is a new covenant, covenant and testament mean the same thing. The old covenant or the old testament was a covenant of the law. You got to keep the rules. The new covenant, the New Testament is a cup of grace. You can't keep the

rules. So I'm going to do it on your behalf. And if you would believe when I died on the cross, it counted for you, then I will take the cup of wrath, that you may take the cup of grace. And as often as you do that, you remember me. That's what he's saying. That it is finished. That he takes the cup of wrath that we may be able to drink of his grace. And then again, look at this in verse 43. And again, he came and he found the disciples sleeping for their eyes were heavy. And so leaving them again, he went away and he prayed for the third time saying the same words. He prays it again and again and again.

You ever pray the same thing over and over and over? You know when Jesus teaches in the Gospels about prayer, one of his primary messages about prayer is you just want to keep praying and keep praying and keep praying and keep on asking, keep on knocking, keep on seeking. That's one of his primary message. God, God is so patient with his children. God is so loving with his children. God is saying, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, just ask me again. Just ask me again. How many of you you know this?

in my house, if the words ask me again come out of my mouth, it is not an invitation for repetition. It's more like, ask me again. That's usually how that goes. And yet God, the father is so patient with his children, he's like, keep bringing it and keep bringing it and keep trusting me. I know you can't see the whole picture. And even when you can't see the movements of my hand, I need you to trust my heart towards you. And yet his disciples are asleep. Maybe, by the way, because Jesus,

Jesus knows what it's like to be abandoned and alone. Maybe this is why he gives this promise in Matthew chapter 28 when he says, and lo, I will be with you to the very end of the age. Because Jesus know what it's like to be abandoned, he would never abandon you. Because Jesus is forsaken, you and I don't have to be. And then he came to his disciples

and he said to them sleep and take your rest. See the hours at hand. And when he says, see, if you ever come to Jerusalem with us, and I hope you will. I'm going to take you to the Garden of Gassimini. And what you'll see is that it's at the base of the Mount of Olives. And between the Mount of Olives and where the temple is, where the walled city of Jerusalem is, is the Kidron Valley.

And because you're up the hill just a little bit, looking across a valley, you can see the eastern gate of Jerusalem. And so from where he was praying, he could just look over. It's not that far, man. It's like a driver of three wood and a pitching wedge. And you can see torches and soldiers coming. And so he wakes up the boys because he can see them coming. See, the hour is at hand, and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. And then the next thing that happens, a bunch of people show up. Judas, one of his disciples, along with the Roman soldiers, are going to interrupt the prayer time. And Judas is going to betray Jesus with a kiss. You see, basically what happens is every single person in this event is saying the opposite of what Jesus was saying. Jesus on his knees is crying out to his heavenly father, not my will, but your will be done. And then Judas shows up and says, forget your will, it's my will be done.

And listen, man, as the lead pastor of this church, Judas scares me like crazy. And here's why. There's a bunch of Judas is here. And if you call me Judas, you ever betrayed Jesus? Me too. You understand? But here's what scares me about Judas. Judas was one of the disciples.

He's been around for three years. He knows where to park. He knows how to check the kids in. Judas was there for all the miracles. Judas heard all the sermons. Judas saw Jesus walk on water. Judas saw people raised from the dead. Judas was in the boat when God would say,

peace be still and the wind and the wave stop. Judas participated firsthand in the miracles. The feeding of the 5,000, Jesus takes bread and low, I mean bread and fish and blesses them and hands them to the disciples of which Judas was one. And Judas in his very hands was participating in a miracle of God. Do you understand? Judas was hanging around, man. And yet he didn't know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

That's what scares me. In fact. In fact, if you and I did an investigative reporting two and a half years into the ministry of Jesus and we said one of these people ain't going to make it, we probably wouldn't pick Judas. We would probably look at Judas and be like, no, man, he's solid. He's the treasurer. He's got a job. In fact, one time this lady, this kind of shady lady, walks in the room and busts open some perfume

and pours it all over Jesus. And Judas is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what a waste of money. you know what the church would do they'd be like that's good stewardship they'd make him a trustee most of us would say you know we ain't going to make it peter i literally one month ago heard jesus call him the devil i'm sure he ain't going to make it so here's what freaks me out man that judas is right around the person and work of jesus and he just doesn't know him as lord and savior in matthew chapter 26 at the lord's table jesus is going to say one of you will betray me And the Bible says each one of the disciples one by one began to ask,

is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? 11 times. And then when it gets to Judas, he says, is it I rabbi? You see the difference? He knew him as a teacher. It would break my heart if you would show up here week after week after week

and get all the teachings of Jesus so you can be a better dude and you can not be so cruddy and not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. This is what Judas does and he betrays him with a kiss. Forget you, my will be done. The Roman soldiers do the same thing. They say, our will be done. The Roman soldiers are a lot like the society we live in right now. Who in the world do you think you are Jesus to tell me who I am,

to tell me how to live, to tell me who I can sleep with, to tell me what I can do with my money, to tell me who I have to forgive, to even tell me who I am. I tell me who I am. That's what the Roman soldiers were saying. Who do you think you are? Caesar is Lord, not you. My will be done, not yours.

so they step up to arrest him, which is crazy, because when they ask, according to the gospel of John, they say, Jesus says, who you're looking for? And they said, Jesus, and he goes, I am, and they go, and they all fall down. He just wanted them to know, with one second, I could call down legions of armies from heaven and let the body sit the floor. We could do it that way, but he ain't going to do it that way, because he's already said, your will, not mine. And then Peter, Peter's going to say, my will,

not yours also. Because if you remember this, because you remember at the Lord's table, when Jesus said somebody's going to betray me, Peter begins to make these promises, man. Peter's just like all of us the last night is saturated. God, I'm going to give my life for you. You know, we make these audacious claims. And Peter says to Jesus, I would never leave you, I would never forsake you. If the whole world go after you, I would lay down my life for you. And Jesus is like, bro. You ain't going to make the alarm clock before you. me three times. And so I think in the garden, Peter's like, oh, I'm about to. And he pulls a sword out, swing, and swings it at this dude and chops off his ear, which means this, not only does

Peter run off at the mouth a lot, but he ain't good with sword fighting. Chop off the ear is not one MMA move that's ever tapped a dude. Do you understand? He was going for the head, and he got the dude's ear. And Jesus looks at Peter, and he's like, are you serious? Sword ministry. That's what do you we're doing. For three years, when did we start chopping ears off? Then he takes the guy, that's how gracious he is. The guy is coming to arrest him. The Bible says he takes the dude's ear and puts it back on his head. And what's crazy is, like, I still arrest Jesus. If you chop my ear off and you put it back on, I'm going to go with you. Whatever you're with, I'll be like, yeah, I'm sorry, Rome. I'm with the ear healer over here. All right. And so, and here's why

I say that, man, there's a bunch of believers. And you love Jesus. But the problem is, is the Bible is the sword, but it's the sword of the spirit. And our battle is not against flesh and blood. And a whole bunch of times Christians use this word like a sword, and you're all bold and brave, but you walk around your office and there's just earlobes everywhere. Because you're saying, my will be done. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no, no. Not my will, but your will be done. And then there's Jesus. And he willfully is arrested. And he makes it very clear, you don't take my life, I am laying this down. And ultimately, what Jesus is doing is Jesus is trusting God and doing the next thing. And the next thing for him was that he was arrested, he was tried. He was crucified. And on the

cross, he says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And on the cross, he pushes up on his nail pierce feet. And on the cross, he says, it is finished. And what was finished is that the wrath of God, the cup of the wrath of God had been fully and finally paid for because Jesus is the propitiation for our sin. That word propitiation means a payment that satisfies. And so Jesus fully satisfies the law, the justice, the holiness of God. And for anyone who would believe that your sins would be paid for, your slate would be wiped clean, but it's even better than that.

And you and I would be credited with the perfect life of God and adopted into His family. That we're not just debtors who have been forgiven. We are sons and daughters in the family of God. And Jesus knew that's exactly what he was going to the cross for. The prophet Isaiah will say it this way, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with Him, with His wounds, we are healed. That for whoever would believe in Jesus Christ,

then the cup of wrath of God would not be for you, but the cup of grace that he offers through his blood would be your experience. And you and I would be invited into the family of God. Because Jesus trusted God and did the next thing, then you can trust Jesus. And the next thing for you is to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and I want to give you that opportunity but stick around because we ain't quite done. If that's you and for the very first time even if you've got all kind of theological questions and all kind of historical questions but you somehow for the very first time understand I admit it I'm a sinner

in need of a Savior and I believe that somehow when Christ died on the cross that counted for me and if you were ready to exchange the cup of the wrath of God for the cup of the grace of God then right now would you cry out to Jesus? Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Just say, Lord, save me, and the Bible promises that he will. And if that's you, right now, for the very first time, would you lift your hand and say, Father, Father, I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen. Our good and gracious

Heavenly Father God, we love you more than anything because you love us first and you sent your son to die in our place. And God, I thank you that right now there is salvation in your house. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Now here's how we're going to close. as Jesus was about to walk through the next thing. And the song we've been studying for three weeks says, the next thing might be easy, the next thing might be hard. Some of you, the next thing for you is the hardest thing you've ever walked through in your life.

And there's wisdom in trusting God and doing the next thing. And Jesus, when he was going to walk through what it meant for him to be obedient to God, you know what he needed? He needed and asked for some people to pray for him. So that's what we're going to do. and just a second I'm going to invite some folks to come up and the Bible says that we should anoint one another

with oil and pray for one another. So that's exactly what we're going to do. I'm going to invite some folks to come up and maybe you need to be prayed for. And maybe what you need prayer for is healing. The Bible says, anyone among you sick, let him call for the elders of the church to come forward and pray that you may be healed

because the next thing for you is to not give up hope. It's to not give up hope that God is the great physician Sometimes he heals through doctors and medicine and technology, and sometimes it's a supernatural touch of God. And some of you find yourself in this unbelievable financial situation that you didn't see coming. And what you're going to pray is that you don't give up trust in God,

that he's still got the whole world in his hands. He knows you, he loves you, and if he can take care of the birds, surely he can take care of you. And what some of you need is the next thing is to be able to walk in the forgiveness that you've been given. Some of you get theologically that you can be forgiven by God, but you can't forgive you. And you need to come forward and say, I need to be able to forgive myself. Some of you, just like Jesus, you feel sorrowful unto death.

And it's different, man. There's something going on in here. And you need to come before the Lord, Jesus, who knows exactly how you feel. And you need to cast all your cares upon him and beg God that, the peace of God that transcends all understanding would guard your heart and mind. And if you've ever had a suicidal thought in your life, you run down here and you say that out loud

so we can help you and we can pray over you. Because maybe, man, maybe. Look, if the tomb is empty, anything as possible. So what if the day's the day that the demons flee? And what if today's the day that everything changes and that the change of depression fall off of you? Go come and pray. And some of you know what it feels like

when Jesus felt abandoned because you were betrayed with a kiss. There somebody said they would promise to love you forever. They ain't really fulfilling their vows, and you need the peace of Christ to come around your heart. Some of you know what it's like to be betrayed by somebody that you love. You have a prodigal son or daughter, and you've been praying and praying and pray.

You betrayed everything in your whole life in if that boy or girl that you love so much would just come home. You need to come and pray for them. And some of you need to watch and pray, because there's this temptation and it's just eating your lunch right now. And it could be because you're handling it wrong, man. I mean, you're doing all the things that you're supposed to do, right?

You're going to the meetings and I'm super pro meetings, but you have not invited the spirit of God to come in and take these chains off of your heart in this area of temptation. And for some of you, the next thing, the next thing, is for you, for the first time in your life, to humble yourself because you're sitting here with some people and you care more about what they think about you than about your walk with the Lord.

And some of you need to step out for the very first time and humble yourself and join the thousands of people that are going to walk down here and humble yourself before the Lord because he loves you. And you're going to say, not my will, but your will be done. And you're going to get prayed for it. Would you please stand right where you are?

Would our anointers come on. And we're going to sing, and everybody in here, better sing like save people. Because singing is a war chant. Singing is joining our voices together, and you can go ahead and start coming. If you already know when I got through the first sentence, you were like, I need to come.

Then you just come on right now, and you keep coming, and you keep coming, and you don't stop until we're all done here. Let me pray for us, then we'll respond. Our good and gracious, Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you that you're not in love with some future version of us, but you love us right where we are.

And, Lord, I pray against the spirit of fear, but I pray for power, I pray for love, I pray for a sound mind that we would come and pour our hearts out for you because you poured your love for us out at the cross. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's respond.