Who has Jesus Back

The story that I want to use today is a time in Jesus' life that was the most difficult time in his whole life, a painful time. He was facing his own death, facing the disaster that was going to come to him. He knew it was coming. He didn't want it to happen, but indeed it would. This time Jesus was looking for help. I don't know in your life if you've been through times of disaster. Think for a moment about maybe the worst time that you've ever gone through in your life. Usually they're something like a death of someone in your family or loss of a job or times that you've been through difficult financial times. Didn't it mean something to you for people to gather around you, other people to sort of be there to cry on their shoulder and tell you they were concerned or they were praying for you? Sometimes we need other people around us, especially in times of disaster. There's a story that I've heard a lot of different ways, a story about a little girl who was going to bed and her mother went in and prayed with her and read the Bible to her and got her a glass of water and all those things she needed to do before she went to bed, tucked her in. Before she left, the little girl said, Mom, I'm afraid of the dark. I don't want you to leave me. Her mother said, Oh, it's okay because God is with you. And so she left the room and they was outside a little while and the little girl came out the door and she was crying and said, Mom, I'm afraid of the dark and I'm scared. And her mother said, Honey, I already told you, God is with you in your room. She said, I know, but I want a God with skin. All of us feel like sometimes we need a person around us. In the story that I'm going to read today, Jesus was facing a great disaster and he needed human beings around him. It's hard for us to think of Jesus as needing someone, but Jesus needed people around him. This is a story found in Matthew chapter 26, I want to begin reading at verse 36. This story tells about the pain that Jesus went through, the trial that he was facing, and it tells about how he reached out to people in his hour of need. And the idea behind this is that God indeed himself, Jesus was both human and God. God indeed himself needs people like you, like me. Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane and he said to them, sit here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and two sons of Zebedee along with him and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little further, he fell with his face on the ground and prayed, my father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Could you men not watch, could not keep watch with me for one hour, he asked Peter. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. He went away a second time and prayed, my father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. When he came back, he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to his disciples and said to them, are you sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer. Jesus, in this hour of great pain, found friends. The eleven disciples that he had, he took them to be with him to provide support and encouragement in the difficult task that he faced. He asked the eight to come and he brought them a little ways into the Garden of Gethsemane, this place they had gone for quietness and to be able to pray. And he asked them to pray for him. Remember, he had already told them that he was going to be crucified. He had already told them that this was the time in which they were going to come to get him and to be betrayed. And he had already told them that they were going to fail him on that night. And he had already told them that one of them was going to betray him. They knew what his trouble was. Now he says, I want you to pray for me. It's hard to imagine God asking us to pray for him, isn't it? Jesus were alive and came up and said, would you pray for me? We'd just like, you know, you should pray for me, not me for you. But in his hour of need, Jesus turned to people because there was something even he could not do for himself. He took his three a little bit further and he poured his heart out to them. He said, I'm so troubled about the things that are happening. I'm don't know what to do. I'm, Ros said, had a meltdown. He didn't know what to do. Didn't all these choices that faced him. He was depressed. Some people translate this as being a time of depression for Jesus. He was overwhelmed with the human circumstances that he faced. It's not a sin to get that way. Life happens that way. Life happens that way sometimes. But Jesus' reaction was to turn to God about it. He said to his three best friends, I want you to pray with me. He told them the depths of his heart. I want you to pray for me. And then went off himself, laid flat on the ground, and he began to pour his heart out to God. We don't know how long he prayed. He said, couldn't you be with me this hour? Sometimes we say the word hour to mean this moment or this time period. We don't know exactly how long Jesus was praying there. But pouring his heart out to God. He said to the father exactly what he wanted to say, what his feelings were. Father, I don't know how all this is going to come about. But I want to ask you to please take this cup away from me. I don't want to go through the pain. I don't want to go through the agony. I don't want to go through all that's going to happen to me. And I'd like to ask you to remove it. I believe that you can remove this. I believe that you can do something different if you choose to do so. But father, if it's not what you want, I want more than anything for your will to be done. I trust you more than anything in the world. This was Jesus' prayer to the father, pouring out his agony and his concern. I think at the end of that, he felt better. I don't know if you've ever had this experience of feeling terrible things happen in your life. And you sit down to talk to God and you tell him all the questions you have and all the problems you have and all the things you don't have and all the needs that you have. And when you finish, you sort of feel better just because everything is out on the table and you've said it. And now it's clear to everyone around you. I think Jesus, after he got all this out in front of him, he realized that the father was with him. He went back, I think, to his friends to say, I've had some progress here, but I want you to keep praying. And here's the way I want you to pray. But when he went back, he found them sound asleep, his three. He addresses this to Peter, but he says, you men, that's the way you know, it's plural, the three of them, all three of them were asleep. They sat there and they'd gotten tired and the time was long. And I believe that they did pray for Jesus, you know, a little bit, four or five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. And they got sleepy. They'd had a big day. It'd been a time for the Passover meal. They'd had to suffer with Jesus. He told them about the betrayal. One of them was going to betray him. He told them that all of them was going to fall away from him. He told them that he was going to be crucified and killed in two days, within two days. All this had to be emotional to them. They were worn out. There were good reason for them to be asleep. Jesus addressed them. He was disappointed that his friends who were so close to him couldn't simply put on aside their own issues, their own needs for this one brief period of time when he really needed them. They failed him. Could you not keep watch with me one hour? He wasn't looking for somebody to come and get him. He was wanting them to be alert to the spiritual issues that he was faced with. He wanted them to be praying about the issues that were burdening his own soul, his own life. He wanted them to be there with him. Jesus didn't necessarily ask the disciples to come up with answers. He asked them to stand with him so he would not be alone in those most difficult times. He said to them after that, watch and pray. Two things he wanted. Be with me so I won't be alone and pray for me. The only two things he asked them. He asked them to pray for him, but he also asked them to pray that they wouldn't be tempted. Their temptation was to fall asleep. Their temptation was to listen to their body. Their temptation was to listen to their own need ahead of what the work of God was for them that night. They were there for one single reason. To assist Jesus in his hour of greatest need. And instead of thinking of Jesus and his greatest need, they thought how tired they were. They thought of how much they needed to go to sleep. They thought of themselves and drifted away. Watch and pray for yourself for the temptation will come for you to put everything in your mind and heart ahead of what I need for you. I know inside of you, you want the best thing, but I also know that your human flesh is weak, easily tempted, easily deceived, easily led away so that you forget the importance and the critical issue that's facing you now. Jesus left them. Jesus left them. He went back a second time, and now he prayed, thinking he had his followers with him. My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it, may your will be done. Jesus' prayer shows a little bit of movement in his mind, in his spirit. He's not saying, I don't want to do this anymore. He's not saying, remove it. He's saying, Father, if it's not possible, after you've thought all this through and you've looked at your plans and you've seen what's going on and you've heard my prayer, if it's not possible for this experience of pain to be lifted from me, unless I drink it, I want to say to you, I will do everything you ask of me. Now, here Jesus has moved away from, I don't want to do this, to, okay, if that's what you really want, I will do whatever it is you ask of me. This yielding of submission from Jesus to them. Now he's reached a new level in his prayer and his relationship with the Father. Now he goes back to his disciples again to tell them, the Lord has helped me. I've now been able to see this and I can face it and I know I can handle this situation because the Lord has given me insight and strength to be able to say, now I know I can do it. I will do it. When he went back again, he found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. There they were. They weren't embarrassed enough about the first one, but they were asleep again. This time, Jesus didn't even bother to interrupt their sleep. So he left them and went away once more and he went back to the Father and prayed again a third time, saying the very same things he'd been saying, yielding to the Father, yielding to the Father, yielding to the Father, yielding to the Father, yielding to the Father. Then after this prayer session, he returned to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near. The time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let's go. Here comes the betrayer. The time is here. Prayer time has passed. When I needed you is over. Now the time has come for us to face what I dreaded so badly. I don't know what the disciples thought about this the rest of their lives. I know what it's like to disappoint someone who needs you. I know what it's like to disappoint someone who's depending on you. I know what it's like to fail people and to fail God. And sometimes those things come back over and over again in your mind because you wish you'd not done that. Sometimes they come back over and over again and you think how stupid I was not to do what I should have done when I was supposed to do it. I'm sure they had all of that. But you know, you weren't there. I wasn't there. That's not our problem. What our problem is, is the reality that God needs people. From the very beginning of the book of Genesis, God made it clear that he was not going to do his work in the world apart from people who should be helping him. And over and over again, he came on this earth and he said to people, come and follow me. To Abraham, leave your home and everything you've done and come to a new place. I'm going to start you over. To Isaac, to Jacob, all these great patriarchs of the Old Testament. He came to the prophets and said, I want you to leave your job and come. I have an announcement I want you to make to my people. They won't like it. They'll be mad at you. Some of them will try to kill you. But I have a job for you. Now, God could have given his message in the world in any way he wanted to. One time he spoke to a donkey. He could have done that every time if he wanted to. But he has chosen in some mysterious way in the world to say, I want people to assist me in what I'm trying to accomplish. In this story, Jesus is the one who calls on us to say, here is what I have for you. Now, the fact is that God has something he needs from every single follower of his. We're gathered here in worship today. It's important to God. I know there are people that say, well, I can feel close to God at the lake. I can feel close to God on the mountains. I can feel close to God in a lot of places. That's not really the point of worship, you see. Worship is coming together with people who feel the same way about God that you do. He is the eternal ruler of the world. Everything in the world is under his authority. And I come to acknowledge that he rules the world. And I come to say openly and publicly, God, you rule my life. God wants this to happen. Every one of us need to be reminded periodically that God is the ruler of everything. The government's not in charge of this world. The world courts are not in charge of this world. The Supreme Court's not in charge of this world. God is. He is the one we've given our lives to and devoted ourselves to, and we come to renew in our mind, you are the Lord. We give praise to you for all you've done. We acknowledge your authority in all things, and we devote ourselves again to you. We confess our sins. We ask for forgiveness. We pledge ourselves anew to what God has asked of us. It's a little bit like an athletic team, a football team, for example. Tim Frees used to be a football coach. Now, my boys played for him, and they had practices. Now, my boys could have said, you know, I know Mr. Frees, and I can go out and sit in the yard and think of Mr. Frees and feel real close to him. I don't need to go to practice. Well, when a coach sees someone like that, they say, you're no longer on the team. I want you to come to the gathering where I tell you what I want you to do. I want you to acknowledge that I am in charge of what happens on the field. I want you to be involved with everything together because we are in this together. That's why the Bible says we are not to quit worshiping. Do not stop worshiping as some people have done, the Bible says. God wants us to worship. He wants us to come together in groups, and he makes a promise. No matter how small your group is, where two or three are gathered together under my authority, looking to me as the authority for whatever happens among them, I promise you I will be there. And what I say to you is I need you there too. One of the most important things we do is to worship God, gathering together with the body of Christ to begin to say, you are the Lord, come upon us, direct us, and guide us. Tell us what you want us to do, and we will do it. Jesus made a command of his disciples before he left in chapter 17 of the book of John. He said, love one another as I have loved you. By this all people will know that you're my followers when you love each other. God loves everyone in the world, but they don't know his love until there's a human being who is also giving to them the love that God has for them. God cannot share his love or to show his love in the world without a human being who causes it to take place. What God wants from his people is for us to show to each other the concern, compassion, and love that we have because God has caused us to care about other people. This is a command of God. People will only know of my love because you have loved others. It's a powerful thing for people to care about you. It's so powerful that it attracts them. In the past of this church's history, we've had the greatest success whenever we had people who would call the people in their Sunday school class, go by to see them, or write them a note. In the days that we've done the very best, we would be able to report people reported every week that we had contacted as many people as actually came to the service on Sunday morning. They knew that we cared about them because there was someone who came to see them, or someone who called them, or someone who wrote them a note, or emailed them, whatever kind of communication it was, and they knew they were not forgotten. It means that sort of everyone who came also left that week and told someone else, I prayed for you. I care about you. I looked the other day, and less than 10% of the people who come on Sundays here are doing that anymore. It's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. It's because Jesus said to us, love one another. By this will all men know you are my disciples. Now, we can say, well, I love everybody, I just don't have time for them. You can say that if you'd like, but if you don't have time for people, you don't love them. Well, you can make every kind of excuse in the world that you want to for your own human demands, just like the disciples here. But the fact is, if you do not call people, talk to your Christian friends, the people that are part of the church, or people who attend, they will never be able to know what God's love is like, because we have failed him. It's a command. Love one another. Don't feel emotional about one another. Do something that causes people to know that they're cared about. When Jesus left the earth, he gave one other command to his disciples. In chapter 28 of the book of Matthew, he says, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them to do all of the things I've taught you to do. This is a command Jesus made. He cannot do this job apart from some human being who says, I will be a disciple maker. There's all kinds of levels of this, and I challenge you many times to be able to get a list of three people that you know outside of your family, three people that you know that are not in church, or you may think do not know the Lord, and begin to pray for them. You should have three names like that. You should take time out of your life to go to those people's homes and visit with them, call them on the phone, build a relationship with them until that relationship is close enough that they're able to tell you the very issues and problems they have in their life. When they do that, then you can say, I know what you're talking about. When I had those problems, Jesus Christ helped me, and here's how he did. That's what your job is. Jesus is working in this world. Let me tell you something. Every neighbor in front of you and back of you and either side of you, God is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to bring them closer to himself. Every person in the place where you work, Jesus is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all the time trying to bring those people into a relationship of faith with him. This is so desperate an issue with God that he gave his only son that that might take place. We cannot fall asleep at the wheel. This is an issue of ultimate significance to God. You are commanded as a follower of Christ to be a disciple maker. The least thing you can do is to begin to pray for people you know are not a part of the kingdom of God. The next thing you can do that's not really that difficult is begin to make a friendship with them and then listen and say to God, if they tell me something in their life that they need, I will tell them how you have met that in my own life. That's what God wants from us, and I'll tell you this. He cannot reach the world without you and me. He has left this job to his disciples. What he asked of his disciples who failed him was pray and be on guard. Why do we not do these things that God wants us to do? Well, here's the things I hear. I'm busy, so I have too many things in my life to be able to pray for you, God. I've got my own stuff going on. I don't think I know how to do it. Well, it's so simple anyone can do. Come to church. Well, I'll ruin my weekend. I want to sleep in. It's the only time I have with my family. All those excuses. Why our human demands are more important to us than the demands of God. We needn't be too hard on these disciples who were there that night, for we all have our own sense of failure. The failure that comes because we think that the things that are important to us are more important than the things that are important to God. Worshipping him regularly. Making sure that we love each other and making sure we're making disciples. There should be not one single thing in your life that stands in the way of you doing those for God. And I tell you, you want to be careful. You want to be careful if you're not doing those things in the way that you want to be doing them. And explaining why you don't. Because if you say to God, I've given you my life, but I don't do these things because I have these other issues that are more important. What they do is they become gods for you. And God will immediately target those to destroy them. I mean, destroy them. And I tell you, you want to be careful because there is nothing that will ever stand in the way of God's people obeying him. And the story that we have in the scriptures, Jesus was in his great hour of need. He turned to the people that loved him most and he said, can I count on you? And he couldn't. God looks in his own people every day and he says, can I count on you? And we're writing a new chapter in the Bible. How will your story end? Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? This is not one of the best stories in the Bible. The story of human beings who knew what they ought to do for God, but were too caught up in their own lives to give it. I can't ask anything of you because it's not my business. I can only tell you what I think God is wanting to do for you. And the things that God has wanted me to say to you are important to him. Regular worship, showing love to the other brothers and sisters in Christ, and making disciples. I can only say to you that I think God wants this from every one of us. And he wants no excuses. To evaluate your own life. From the three things that I've said God wants from you, do you have excuses why you're not doing them? Or are you pledged to do it? I'm going to ask you this morning, make a promise to God to be faithful in church worship. I'm going to ask you this morning, as a member of this congregation, if this week you would get in touch with someone who's also a part of this church, and express your concern for them, just to be a friend. I want to ask you to promise God that you'll write three names down, if he gives you those names, to begin to pray for three people that he died for, until he releases you from that. I want to ask you this morning, if you want to join the great army of God, that is out to change the entire world, you can become a part of it by saying to God, today, I want to join these people. I want to commit myself to worship you as the Lord of all. I want to give myself to be a part of loving other people, as you've loved me. I want to become one of these people, making disciples. That's God's call to you. So, Father, your Holy Spirit is here, we know. We know he's in our minds, talking to us about what we've heard. The only thing I really ask today, is if there's anything that you can do for me today, you've said to any of us, that we know you want from us, that you would give us submissive hearts, a spirit of willingness to watch and pray, to work and to serve, to love and to give, as you have given to us. I ask, Father, if there's someone here that has heard you say to them, there's something I want from you, that they will give that. If anyone here needs to make the commitment of their life to you for the first time, I ask today that they would know what you're asking of them, and they'd be ready to say, my life is yours, God. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Would you stand, please, as we sing an invitation hymn? If you feel some commitment or promise that you're ready to make to God, this is the time He wants you to do it. I'll be at the front to share with you how to be able to follow that promise and commitment that He's made. You see what God has told you to do. What God has told you to do. O Jesus, blest Redeemer, Led from the heart of God, Brought us to wait before Thee, Near to the heart of God. There is a place of full release, Near to the heart of God, A place where all is joy and peace, Near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blest Redeemer, Sent from the heart of God, Brought us to wait before Thee, Near to the heart of God. How's anything you need to share? Brad had come this morning and said he's concerned about his mom and dad and their relationship with Christ. And he just asked that we would pray with him about it as he continues to try to convince them their need of Christ in their life. And Sean came this morning saying that God had told him some things in his life needed to be different and changed. And he made a promise this morning to change those. So we ask you to pray for him too. This evening in the service, Romans chapter 10, Paul's talked about how some people think making a promise to God is enough. And so once you've done that, then you can just stop. Some people think you have to work real hard so you'll get saved. Neither one of those are God's way. He defines in the book of Romans chapter 10 how it is to find a right standing with God. Six o'clock this evening. Would you pray with me? And so we ask Father for Brad that he would be a witness to his parents he's told us he has some trouble with things in his own life. And I know that maybe at times you want us to change some so that we're a reflection of who you are to the people around us. And I pray that you'd help him to do that. Also open his eyes and mind of his parents that they might trust you. I'll be with Sean as he's made a promise today. We want to walk with you in a way of faithfulness. Give him strength to face the temptations he faces. Focus attention on the things that are important to you and give him great joy in the spiritual side of life that he might find it satisfying. And for every person that's made a promise to you today I pray the power of your Holy Spirit will help each of us to fulfill that promise. That when you need someone of human flesh and you call on me that I will be there. That is our prayer. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Is there something beautiful in your life today? Let's sing. Something beautiful. All I had to offer him was broke and a sense of pride. He made something beautiful in my life. Amen.