Watch & Pray

SERMON: 2003-10-19--gf14--watch-pray SOURCE DURATION: 00:25:26.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with an introduction and continues through scripture reading and theological exposition until the sustained acoustic music interval begins. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:22:22.060-00:25:23.220 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- I want to share with you some verses from the passion story. This is from Matthew chapter 26. Jesus and his disciples have just had the last supper. They're on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is predicting that his disciples will all abandon him. Peter proudly declares that even if everybody forsakes him, he will not, and that's where we pick up the story in verse 36 of Matthew 26. 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 the two sons of Zebedee, that's James and John, the same three people that had been with him on the mountain. He took Peter and the 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 farther, he fell with his face to the ground and he 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 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. For those of you that worship with us regularly, you know that in the last couple of weeks, we've been looking pretty thoroughly at the subject of idolatry, and we have seen that idolatry is not just merely bowing down to images made of wood or stone, as did the ancients, but it is placing something or somebody in place of God, looking to those sources for life that only God can give us. Idolatry, from God's perspective, is highly offensive. It's a violation of the first command, which is to have no other gods before our God, but it's also highly destructive to the human race because scripture says that those who trust in idols will be turned back in utter shame, that's Isaiah. Jeremiah talks about people having forsaken the fountain of living water and hewn out for themselves cisterns that can hold no water. And similarly, Jesus in the New Testament in a different context says, whoever drinks of this water, that is the water of this world, will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again. But therein lies the rub, does it not? What if in the course of living our Christian life, it is not so much the idols that we cling to that disappoint us, but God that we cling to, and he disappoints us? I ask that question tremblingly because is it even possible for us to be disappointed in God, and I think the answer is yes. Because think of the many times that you and I pray and we get no answers. Or the many times that we step out in faith and we believe that God is with us and yet it turns out disastrously. Or the many times when we try to obey him and pour out our hearts and our lives and we get slapped in the face and stabbed to the back. And with the disciples we cry out, God where are you? I think that's what happens here in the garden when the disciples keep falling asleep on Jesus. Luke's gospel says they were exhausted with sorrow. And it's not hard to figure out that they had just undergone an incredible roller coaster of emotions. As recently as four days earlier on Palm Sunday, they were beside themselves with joy because everything they had ever lived for, dreamed about, worked for, seemed to be on the edge of being realized. Here is King Jesus coming to take his rightful place in the city of peace, Jerusalem, and surely now the Old Testament prophecies would all be fulfilled. Imagine their dismay when it didn't turn out that way at all that in fact Jesus himself seemed to sabotage their hopes and dreams. I mean, he refused to be crowned as king, that was bad enough. But then he went out of his way instead of courting the religious leaders of his day and getting their support, he went out of his way to make life miserable for them. He didn't really know how to make friends and influence people when he turned the money changers tables upside down and cracked the whip at all the merchants or when he sat in the temple day after day telling stories that had the Pharisees and the religious leaders names written all over them. It's no wonder they turned against him. And so here they are now in the dark of night in the Garden of Gethsemane and their hopes and their dreams are about to be crushed. And temptation in scripture is not just the temptation to do wrong things, it is the temptation to turn away from God back to idols in times of difficulty. And I dare say we've all been there one way or the other in moments of disappointment, in moments when we have gone out on a limb, in moments when we have sought to be most devoted to the Lord, having been disappointed, we say to ourselves, God, are you really the one that I want to follow? And the world is filled and the trails of life are littered with the carcasses of those who said, yes, Jesus, I love you, but then when things got tough, they turned their backs on him and they fell away. And in many cases became adamant opponents of all that Jesus was and all that Jesus stood for. And Jesus in the passage before us gives us, I think, two very practical steps that we need to take in those moments when our faith is being challenged and our dreams appear to be dashed. The first is we must learn to watch, for Jesus says watch so that you will not fall into temptation. To watch is to keep an eye out to see where the temptation is coming from. And I don't know about you, but I have found in my own life and in my experience that while temptation is always nibbling at my heels, there are certain times and moments that I am more susceptible to temptation than other times. Let me just name you a couple of them. And you can see if you can identify with that in terms of your own life. The first place where I know that I have to really watch it is when I am tired in body, mind, or spirit. Remember the temptations of Jesus at the start of his ministry when the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness and Satan came along and tempted him. What was the key to the temptation? He had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. He was at the end of his physical and emotional strength. It's when we let our guard down that we are particularly susceptible to the enemy's promise of comfort, the whispers of his lie. Second place where I know that I have to watch out and perhaps you do too is when I'm bored. And perhaps you recall the story of David and Bathsheba back in the Old Testament. One of David's most grievous sins when he not only committed adultery with her, got her pregnant, but then of course killed her husband Uriah in an attempt at covering it up. What led him to that? Well, you say it was lust. Well, what stirred his lust? Well, he was bored. The Bible says it was a time in spring when the kings went to war. So this was one instance where King David was not leading his soldiers in the battle. He had remained behind at home. And in his boredom, walking on the roof of his palace, his eye glanced down the hill to the rooftop of his neighbor's house where Bathsheba, a beautiful woman, was taking a bath. And the rest, as they say, is history. When we're bored, we look for excitement. And I can tell you, when we look for excitement, we're a hair's breadth away from walking headlong into temptation because the devil loves to stir that up. Still, a third place where I have to watch it, and perhaps you do too, is when I am careless or perhaps become overconfident. Scripture says, "If any man thinks that he stands, "let him take heed lest he fall." And part of this story that is really interesting, and I don't know if you noticed it, when we read the passage together, Jesus specifically addresses Peter in verse 40 when he asks the question, "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" So Scripture, he asked Peter. And you wonder, why does he single out Peter? Well, it's not hard to figure out because in the previous verses, it was Peter who said, "Even if everybody forsakes you, "I will never deny you, I will die for you." Words that he had to swallow later on when a slave girl identified him and he denied the Lord not once or twice, but three times when the rooster crowed. Overconfidence can make us careless, and careless can make us sitting ducks, ducks for the enemy's lies. The fourth one, for me and perhaps for you too, is on the heels of spiritual victory. That's counterintuitive, isn't that? But think back to the story of Elijah. Elijah in the Old Testament, under the broom tree, crying out to God, "Take my life, it's not worth living. "I don't wanna do this anymore." We've all been there, but what's ironic about that particular story is that it happens on the heels of his greatest victory. You will recall that he challenged the priests of Baal on Mount Carball. God came through, sent fire on Elijah's altar. The priests of Asherah and the priests of Baal, many hundreds of them were slaughtered. You would think he was on the top of the mountain because after earnest intercessory prayer, the drought was broken, God sent rain, Elijah was vindicated. So what brought about his depression? One woman who sent a message to him, Queen Jezebel, "As surely as I live, I will not rest," I'm paraphrasing, "Until you are dead." And Elijah, the man of God, buckled in the hour of his greatest victory. And I know in my life, and maybe you and yours too, it's sometimes after the moments of greatest exhilaration, just like the disciples here in Palm Sunday, after your highest moment of spirituality comes the counterattack, not only because you're dealing with an adrenaline rush and coming down from that, but you're dealing with the enemy who hates victory and who will do everything that he can to tear us down and to destroy our lives. And Jesus says, "If we are to remain faithful in the hour of testing or in the hour of temptation, our first response is to learn to be watchful." Peter puts it this way, he says, "Be sober, be watchful." This is many years later, because he now knows that he's speaking from experience. "Be sober, be watchful." Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The picture here is of a lion who is hungry, and he roars with his hunger, and he is determined to catch a prey to fill his need. But then Jesus goes on to say, and he not only tells us to watch, but he adds then the admonition to pray, watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. And so you ask yourself the question, pray for what? Well, obviously pray to not be led into temptation, because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And that's why Jesus, in the Lord's Prayer, teaches you and me to pray, lead us not into temptation. And that makes it sound as if God is the author of our misfortune. But James later on, of course, really makes it clear that that is not the case. He puts it this way, he says, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires, he is dragged away and enticed, and then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death." And the image here is that of trying to catch a fish. How do you get a fish to put a hook in its mouth so you can drag it out of the water? No self-respecting fish is stupid enough to walk into that trap. But you bait it, and the bait resonates with the hunger in the fish's stomach, and the fish looks at the bait, decides this is something that it desires, and before it knows it, it goes for it, and is caught in a trap. And James says that's how temptation works. Temptation doesn't work just by something out there coming at me. No, temptation comes at me when it finds something in me that resonates with it, that can draw me into a trap. And part of prayer then is to pray for God to protect us from ourselves, and to keep us out of circumstances where our needs will drive us into the wrong places. And so, if you're given to overeating, don't go stepping into smorgasbord places where you will be overloaded with temptation. If drugs is an issue in your life, then don't go hanging around with druggies so that your lusts will be stirred. If any number of issues are part of your life, then pray for God to keep us out of those places where we will be overwhelmed, because the reality is you see, if it wasn't for God's protecting hand around each of our lives, if God allowed the devil to really find the weak places in our lives, there isn't a single one who would remain standing. Remember what Jesus said to Peter and to his disciples, the devil wanted to have you so that he could sift you like wheat. And we can pray, lead us not into temptation. We need to watch for temptation. We can pray for God not to let us be led into temptation. And then if we find ourselves in a place of temptation, of course we need to pray for God to give us strength and grace to stand and to endure. I love 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13, one of the first verses I ever memorized when I got to know the Lord in a real way. No temptation has seized you, except what is common to man. And God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way of escape so that you can stand up under it. And that's where this story before us this morning becomes so incredibly practical. Because in the garden here, it is not only Peter, James and John that are exposed to the temptation of going to sleep and giving up on Jesus because nothing makes sense anymore. It is also the hour of Jesus's greatest temptation. Because what is his temptation? To shrink away from the cup. Three times he prays, Father, if at all possible, take this cup from me. And I ask you the question this morning, what is the cup? Well, obviously it's the cup of suffering. It is the cup of fully identifying with all the sin and misery of all the human race throughout all the course of history. It was for Jesus to embrace every area of sin and brokenness and judgment and pain that had ever taken place in the history of the world from the beginning to its end. It is impossible to comprehend the full way to that. But for Jesus, what it meant was the cross. For Jesus, what it meant was being abandoned and forsaken by his own disciples not only, but it was being ridiculed by the very people that he had helped. It was to suffer the humiliation of a false trial. It was to suffer the humiliation of being nailed to a cross and being exposed to all the world as it apparent faken most of all. It meant for Jesus that he was abandoned by God the Father. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And here in the garden, every ounce of Jesus's humanity shrinks away from the horror of that cross. And where Adam and Eve fell into sin and placed their own interests ahead of God and where the disciples would soon totally abandon him, including Peter, Jesus ended his prayer each time with the words, what? Not my will, but yours be done. And because he did, because he was faithful, he is able to provide for you and for me the ability and the strength to not only resist the temptation, but to remain faithful to the Lord our God. The book of Hebrews puts it this way because he himself suffered when he was tempted. He is able to help those who are being tempted. And history is filled with men and women just as fragile as you and I, just as fragile as these disciples, just as overwhelmed by the sometimes misunderstandings and the disappointments of who God is and how God works and they have remained faithful even unto death because through Jesus they were able to put on the armor of God and having done all to stand, they remain standing. And I don't profess to know what it is that you're struggling with today, whether you're in a good place with God or in a place where you're kind of annoyed with him because life hasn't turned out the way that you thought it ought to. All I know is this, apart from God, there is no one who can help us for time and for eternity. And the only one who can help us to remain faithful, to walk it out, to push through Good Friday to the glories of Easter Sunday morning resurrection is the Lord Jesus himself who faced death overcame and now is at the right hand of God the Father where he ever lives to make intercession for us and from where he gives us his Holy Spirit so that we can walk out our lives for his glory. And so this morning as we, on this Good Friday, turn to the celebration of communion, I would invite each one of us to turn to him in prayer, in humility, thanking him for the price that he paid because it was incredibly huge and then asking him to strengthen us in the places where we feel fragile, in the places where we're tempted so that having withstood the temptation, we may take up our own cross, follow Jesus, and one day sit with him in glory knowing that the cross is followed by a crown. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:22:22.060; remove through 00:25:26.000] (soft piano music) ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ That's why we praise him ♪ ♪ That's why we sing ♪ ♪ That's why we offer him our everything ♪ ♪ That's why we bow down and worship this King ♪ ♪ As he gave his everything ♪ ♪ As he gave his everything ♪ ♪ He came to live ♪ ♪ Live a perfect life ♪ ♪ He came to be ♪ ♪ The living word of life ♪ ♪ He came to die ♪ ♪ So we'd be reconciled ♪ ♪ He came to rise ♪ ♪ To show his power and might ♪ ♪ That's why we praise him ♪ ♪ That's why we sing ♪ ♪ That's why we offer him our everything ♪ ♪ That's why we bow down and worship this King ♪ ♪ As he gave his everything ♪ ♪ As he gave his everything ♪ ♪ He came to live ♪ ♪ Live again in us ♪ ♪ He came to be ♪ ♪ Our conquering King and friend ♪ ♪ He came to heal ♪ ♪ And show the lost ones his help ♪ ♪ He came to go ♪ ♪ Prepare a place for us then ♪ ♪ That's why we praise him ♪ ♪ That's why we sing ♪ ♪ That's why we offer him our everything ♪ ♪ That's why we bow down and worship this King ♪ ♪ As he gave his everything ♪ ♪ That's why we praise him ♪ ♪ That's why we sing ♪ ♪ That's why we offer him our everything ♪ ♪ That's why we bow down and worship this King ♪ ♪ As he gave his everything ♪ ♪ As he gave his everything ♪ [CUT] [BLANK_AUDIO] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:25:26.000; resume after this marked segment]