The Crushing Place - Eternity Eyes & Legacy Lives

Well, let me um let me tell you a story.

John Ashcroft, your Missouri people will know his name.

When he was elected United States Senator from this state, This was his day to be inaugurated into the Senate.

It would be his first day in the Senate.

He asked 25 of his family members and friends to come together in one of the private meeting rooms at the Capitol and pray with him before he took office as the United States Senator.

His dad was there His dad had a lot of heart problems.

John asked everybody to stand and gather around him and pray for him that day.

His dad was seated in a soft chair and they expected he would stay there.

What nobody knew was that this was his last day, full day on earth.

John 's father would die on his way home the next day.

But there as they started to begin to were beginning to pray, they saw Pastor Ashcroft, his dad, struggling to try to get up.

And John said, oh Dan, I'm sorry.

You're um I see you're struggling to to uh to get up.

He said, oh no, son.

No.

He said, I'm struggling to kneel.

Don't we all struggle to kneel?

But there's a man who understands that the battles are won or lost, whether figuratively or literally, on our knees.

We are going to move tonight to the third mountain peak.

And for those of you who came in today, let me just tell you that we are spending our time where I've spent the last six months in God's Word, which is in the final week of Jesus' life.

Six months in one week.

But it's worth it's actually one-third cumulative there's a word there somewhere all put together of the gospels It is.

It is one-third of the entire gospel, one week out of a 33-year life.

And as I asked you that first night, last night, that was only last night.

Last night, if you only had one week to live, what would you work on?

What would you think about?

What would you talk about?

What would you do if you had one week to live?

Jesus, in essence, is in his final week, week zero of his life.

Now he'll have he'll be alive after the resurrection, but he'll just kind of show up.

This is his last time to really intensively hang out with his his people.

What does he do in that final week?

And it's his agenda.

Obviously, he's going to do the stuff that's really important to him.

So we have a tremendous look into Jesus' heart And I hope it does.

So what we looked at last night was Palm Sunday.

We went up on the first mountaintop and we saw that the first accelerant. for a life that will leave a legacy, a life that will leave a larger impact than you've left up until now, is to be to live authentically This morning, we found out that Jesus talked more about his return just before he died than he did the whole rest of his ministry.

So we were on Mount Return this morning.

Where he talked about is how we should live.

Live urgently.

We talked about this morning.

Tonight we're going to the third mountain peak and we are going to go to a battlefield tonight.

We are going to go to the great battlefield And we're going to watch Jesus fight in two prayers.

For both the battles will be fought in prayer.

And we will learn a great deal.

We will go, we will have the ultimate EKG of our Savior's heart.

We will go take a deep dive into what he is passionate about as we literally hear him.

Indeep conversation with his father.

There's a lot to be learned from this.

If you're oh by the way, my OCD friends have already come up to me and told me, what I missed one of the blanks.

That's because I miss them.

I talk too fast.

So see me later, or I know I I don't want to keep you awake tonight, so okay.

Here's the two prayers.

Two battles he fought in prayer.

First is the battle for us.

Second was the battle for himself.

The battle for us and the battle for himself.

Let's take a look at these battles It's the battle in the garden.

The battle in the garden.

Now, we don't know exactly where the first prayer was prayed.

John records it in John 17.

He's the only one of the gospel writers who does.

We know this, that they had had what we call the Last Supper.

They had had the Passover meal, the Seder feast, in that room that Jesus told them where they'd find it.

And now they are on their way.

And look if we want to picture the geography of this, they're leaving Jerusalem The city is crowded for Passover.

The hillsides are covered with white tents as masses come for the Passover from all over the then known world.

They make their way out of the city.

It's late.

They go down Jerusalem's on a hill.

So you go down in the Kidron Valley.

And then they start to go up the long road that leads up to the top of the Mount of Olives.

Near the bottom of that road, just as you start to walk up, is a garden called Gethsemane.

We'll talk about the meaning of that shortly.

As they start to climb up that road, somewhere in this trip, this journey, somewhere along the way here, or in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus first prays. . . for his disciples and in so doing prays for us.

John 17, let's take a look at the first five verses.

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed.

Remember we talked about this?

Jesus knows the exact time of everything.

Father, the hour has come.

He'd been saying the hour's not come.

The hours it's here, Father.

It's here.

Glorify your son.

That your son may glorify you.

By the way, we're talking about eternity eyes and how different everything looks when you look past the moment to eternity and look at it against the backdrop of eternity.

He is literally looking past the grotesqueness of the cross to the glory beyond it.

In fact, the book of Hebrews tells us. . . that he was able to endure the cross because of the glory set before him, the joy set before him So he's looking not beyond that awful moment to the glory on the other side.

For you granted him, Jesus, authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

Land on those words for a minute, all those who have been given him.

Because in a minute I'm going to talk about the people who have been given to you.

For you grand , whoa, we did that.

This is eternal life.

By the way, if you ever want a verse that tells people that this is a relationship, not a religion, here's John 17, 3.

This is eternal life.

That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have set.

I have brought your glory on earth, Father, by finishing the work you gave me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence.

I remember the glory I had before I came to this place.

In fact, I remember the glory I had with you before the world began.

Help me get back there.

We're going to go on and look more of the prayer in a minute, but notice what Jesus is doing, literally.

I expect the soldiers are arming up, starting to move to arrest him.

It's imminent.

If you listen carefully, you might hear the clanking of swords.

And here Jesus stands.

You know what he's doing with some of his last moments?

He's interceding.

Of all the things he would be doing in his final moments, he's interceding.

Do you know what he's doing now in heaven?

Same thing.

Hebrews 7.

25.

Look.

Therefore, he's able to save completely those who come to God through him.

I want you to read the last part of the verse out loud with me.

Because, what?

Because wait a minute.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Are you okay?

You doing alright?

Okay.

Let's get a little uh juice on this, a little hair, okay?

Here we go I'm going to read the beginning again and you're going to do better.

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to do what?

Intercede for them.

That's what he did just before he's arrested.

It's what he's doing now.

He's praying for us Now, if Jesus considers interceding prayer this important, you notice the notes end there.

You figure it out.

And he's praying with what I call his eternity eyes on.

First of all, it said he's looking up.

He's looking up toward home.

I'm coming home.

He's looking around.

He's looking at those who have been entrusted to him.

When he looks around, he sees lives.

He's looking back in this prayer at the seed he's sown in their life.

And he's looking ahead to us.

We get into this prayer.

And he's looking, it's interesting with the disciples.

He looks past their desertion, they're about to desert him.

He looks past their conflict in the upper room over who's going to be the assistant Messiah.

And he sees all the people that are going to come to Christ with them in his prayer.

Because he's looking past the moment.

Now, let's look at verse 6 and verse 9 and verse 24.

Look at that.

Let me just highlight these.

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They were yours.

You gave them to me.

And they have obeyed your word.

I pray for them.

I am not praying for the world, but for, see this consistent theme?

Those you have given me, for they are yours.

One more.

Father, I want those who have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory.

The glory you've given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Question.

Who are the people who have been given to you?

Every one of us in this room has people that have been entrusted to you to do for them what Jesus did for his folks.

To show them his glory.

To give them his word.

So who would yours be?

Would you write down the names of four people right now who've been given to you that are in your circle of influence?

They may be children, they may be a spouse.

They may be a a close friend.

They may be somebody that you work in ministry with, a Bible school, a Bible study, whatever.

Just write down the names of four people.

Because I want you to put their name in here The ones you've given me.

Every one of us here has that same trust.

One of the great stewardships of your life is more than money.

It's lives.

So who are yours?

As we go on, I just want you to have some names in mind.

Who are some people that have been given to you and trusted to you to transfer your Jesus to?

Shouldn't take you too long to think who they are.

And then we're going to go over, as you do that, I'm going to go over to Exodus.

No, Exodus is not in the Gospels.

I know that.

But Exodus 28.

And show you this thing that really hit me hard.

It has everything to do with what I just asked you to do.

Whenever Aaron enters the holy place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breast place breast piece of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord.

Also put the Urim and the Thumum in the breast piece so they we don't get into that, but so they may be over Aaron's heart when he enters the presence of the Lord.

Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord.

How did he make decisions?

The high priest, God's main man at that time.

The names of people over his heart.

Who is that for you?

Do you have names over your heart?

Who are the names that you carry into your decisions Names over your heart, names in your heart.

That's what Jesus is talking about.

People who have been given to you.

Lisa uh was, I think Blake was not a year old yet.

He was pretty young.

And uh Lisa just picked him up and all of a sudden something went in her back.

It was crazy.

She could she could barely move.

It's just something boing.

So she made it to her bed, fell into the bed, and just could not move.

Daddy was at the office.

She said to Jordan, who was only three years old at the time, Jordan, call daddy.

That's about all she could get out.

So Jordan called the office, got the person at the front desk, and very boldly said, Mommy ha boo-boo on her back.

The old daddy to come now.

Wow.

The person at the front desk was smart enough to connect with Rick.

And Jordan, almost like a command, he said, he said, mommy ha booboo on her back.

You come home now.

And he did.

And came to the rescue.

And they lived happily ever after.

In spite of Lisa's backsliding.

No, I mean not backslid.

No, that's not right Do you know what was going on there?

Lisa couldn't really cry out for herself.

So somebody tried out for her.

You know what?

Jordan was interceding.

When you pray, do you understand you're playing that role in somebody's life?

That you are literally calling on daddy on their behalf.

They need you, Daddy.

They need you I hate it when people say, I guess all we can do is pray.

Really?

They have discovered with the Hubble telescope two trillion galaxies.

All we can do is go to the person who rules two trillion galaxies and ask him to help.

Really?

You are entering the throne room from which the galaxies are governed and crawling into his lap because he's your daddy.

Would you pray like that?

So we see in Jesus how decisive intercession is.

So what does Jesus pray for for the people who have been given to him?

And what should you pray for?

Well, let's consider what I call his legacy prayer.

Now others have said this is the true Lord's prayer.

He was teaching the disciples to pray with our Father, who art in heaven.

This is the Lord's Prayer.

Final prayer before he's arrested to his father, at least that we know him.

And what does he pray for?

And what about the people you care about and who've entrusted to your life and your influence?

Well, here's the first one.

Let's go to uh just let's go over to John 17 and verse 11 and verse 15.

I will remain in the world no longer.

I'm leaving.

I'm leaving this battlefield, but they're going to still be on the battle.

So, I'm gone.

They're here.

They're still in the world, and I'm coming to you.

Holy Father, protect them.

By the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

First prayer is that they would be safe from attack.

You know what this prayer assumes?

This prayer acknowledges that the enemy is going to attack the people you love.

Jesus said, I know the enemy is going to go after my guys.

The people you wrote down, the people you should have written down, if I give you more time.

Your prayer for them needs to be that they will be protected from the evil one.

And so since you know, and how many have you experienced That when you've stepped up for the Lord, your family's been attacked.

Can I see hands?

Yeah, that's a lot of us.

My hand is up.

Yeah, well that's what Jesus said to expect.

What's the most powerful thing you can do?

Nag them.

Nag them.

That would be good.

Nope.

You fight for them in the throne room of Almighty God.

Jesus took the fight to the throne room.

You take the fight to the throne room.

That's what you do.

And you fight for them there.

Some of us, because we're so concerned about somebody in our life that we love, we talk to them a lot about God.

And we've, if I push on you, do you come toward me?

No, you go away from me, don't you?

If you push somebody, they don't come toward you.

No, no, it might be better for you to talk more to God about them than for you to talk more to them about God.

You know what I'm saying?

The most powerful thing you can do is talk to God about them.

So that first prayer is to pray that they will be safe from enemy attack.

Now I just have to say this, and I I mentioned this last night, but let me get a personal note in here.

Our family knows a great deal about attacks on the enemy.

Goes with going to strongholds.

And we are standing.

And we are okay?

Because you have prayed for us.

And you've gone to Daddy and you've said, I think they need you.

Some of you were prompted to pray and you don't even know why.

We live the answers to your prayers.

You're probably living the answers to somebody else's prayers.

I hope you are an active intercessor.

Your Savior is.

Now he said, pray not that look your notes.

OCD, you with me?

Pray not that God will isolate them from the world, but rather insulate them from the world.

We're not uh verse uh chapters uh John 17, 15.

My prayer is not you take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one.

Later on in his prayer, he talks about people who are going to come to believe in him through them.

How are they going to come to believe in him if he hides them in a cocoon somewhere?

So obviously this doesn't mean cocooning them But it means insulating them.

Many of you have been to our headquarters, some of you went today on the tour.

You were in our radio studio What you didn't know is there's a floating floor in there.

Sounds like a haunted house.

Woo!

The floating floor.

No, the floating floor.

Means this.

I didn't know anything about this.

But when you grab a radio studio, you have to seal off all of the vibrations coming in.

And so all it means, it doesn't float.

You guys were in there today.

We seemed pretty stable.

No.

What it means is it is not connected to the rest of the floor of our headquarters.

It's a separate floor.

So vibrations, we're picking up bad vibrations.

So it doesn't come in that way.

So we don't pick up any of that sound.

It seals the sound in that we want and seals the sound out we don't want.

We say, oh, well, that sounds like it's totally isolated.

No, it's not in another building.

It's still in the same building.

It's totally a part of the whole ministry.

But we just set it up so that the bad stuff coming from outside will not be able to come in there.

That's kind of the humble illustration I can think of right out of our experience.

Where we we what we 're praying for is this.

Lord, please help those I pray for infect this world without it infecting them.

Because they are a world's hope.

But not, it's great to have the ship in the water.

It's not to have great to have water in the ship We're praying the ship will be in the water, but not water getting in the ship.

A lot of you know we used to tell our kids when they left for school, well not mom.

Mom would tell them intelligent things like take your books, don't you know, don't argue with the teacher.

I would say go mad Go mad next door neighbor thought I had those of you who think I was telling him to be insane if you know them you know that there's reason to believe.

Never mind.

It was our mother.

That's it.

It was you know Karen.

That's it.

That's a you know crazy lady married a crazy man.

Go mad means go make a difference.

That's what it means.

Well we were in New Jersey, you didn't you weren't in the Bible Belt, you were in the bagel belt.

Right, Lois?

And they ain't they ain't many you the you the Lone Christian.

And they would say it's really hard, Dad.

And I'd say, well don't go to home, don't go to school to survive.

Go in there to be different.

Show them there's another way to be.

They don't even think there's any other way to be until they see one.

Go make a difference, baby.

And they did.

I said, you don't you go to school, you don't you're not going just to go make grades or go make a team or go make an impression or go make out.

Go make a difference, baby.

So yeah, they need to go mad.

But we pray that they will be insulated from All the bad vibrations that could come in and ruin everything.

And Jesus said to unleash the weapon of his name.

He said, the name you give it, you gave me.

Well the name Jesus means God rescues.

Don't you ever we suddenly we just slop over it.

I pray Jesus name.

It's like one word, Jesus name.

Do you know what you're doing?

This is the name at which hell trembles.

This is the name that commands heaven.

This is the man who said, All authority is given to me in heaven and earth.

When you pray in Jesus' name, you ought to say in Jesus' name.

Not in Jesus' name, amen.

He said, when I'm praying for them to be safe, I am praying in the name that makes hell tremble.

Jesus' name.

Know the power in that name.

I love the passage in Mark 3 which says wherever Jesus went, the demons fell down.

I love it.

Doesn't say they fought back.

They go boom, go boom.

Jesus is here.

Go boom.

They don't even try to fight.

So you can unleash the power of Jesus' name.

By the way, intercession determines outcomes.

I know it's true for on Eagle's wings.

Do you remember um, you know, when when um Well let's go there.

Let's go over to when um Jesus talks about Peter denying him.

And uh that's over in Luke 22.

Let's go over there.

Simon, Simon, Satan is asked to sift you all as we all of you as wheat But I have what?

I've prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.

And when you've turned back, strengthen your brothers I translated the Greek version of this.

I'm going to give you my little rough translation because it's pretty colorful.

I do I know a little Greek.

He owns a diner actually in New Jersey.

And this this is this is how it comes out.

Let me see.

I have it I put it in my Bible here somewhere, I'm sure, in my stack of random notes here.

Because I uh I found it very revealing as I put it in the Greek.

Let's see.

Hold on.

Satan is begging to have you handed over to him, so he can shake and sift you.

But I am begging the Father, making urgent appeal, that your faith will not be eclipsed.

That when you have turned around, you will support and anchor many others.

That prayer was answered.

It acknowledges that there's going to be a slip.

But it says you're going to turn back.

And you know what's going to decide it?

I have prayed for you.

Intercession determines the outcome.

Get that.

Intercession determines the outcome Don't you ever say, all we can do is pray.

You're unleashing all the greatest power in the universe on what you're praying for.

Second prayer God prayed was this, or Jesus prayed was this, that they would be set apart for his purposes.

He says in John 17, 17.

Sanctify them by the truth.

Your word is truth.

Sanctify means reserved.

There's a reserve sign on that, on the ones you're praying for.

They're set apart for holy purposes.

Basically what we're praying is that you will have a son or daughter, a grandson or granddaughter, a loved one who will say the world can't have me because they didn't die for me The world doesn't love me, Jesus does.

That's what it means when you're sanctified.

You say, this world cannot have me.

I have a reserve sign on me.

I am reserved for Jesus.

Pray for that.

That they will be reserved for Jesus.

How does that happen?

The word of God that you sow in them will tell them what their true identity is and the world can't give it to them When each of our grandchildren was born, some of you know this, I I I Jordan was the first one, and I wasn't, I was, you know, grandfather's holding his first grandbaby and and and all I could think to say to him was, Jordan, you are God's workmanship.

Created in Christ Jesus for good works.

God prepared an advance for you to do.

Now we're seeing some of those works As it happened, that was each of the grandchildren.

That was their first blessing blessing from the grandfather.

That's Ephesians 2.

10.

I want them to know who they are.

So they say, uh-uh, this world can't have me.

I'm God's girl I'm God's guy.

That's how you pray.

So he prayed that they would be set apart for his purpose.

Thirdly, he prayed that they would be sent to a lost world.

John 17, 18.

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them.

What did God send Jesus for?

To seek and to save the lost, he said.

Jesus said, I'm sending them like I got sent.

I want you to pray for the people you pray for that they will be sent to a lost world.

Not to be Christians who settle or stay, but to join Jesus in his rescue mission.

I've gotten some of the biggest hassles from Christian parents when their son or daughter has felt called into God's work.

And Christian parents say things like this.

Well, you know we've paid for your education.

You know, you can give to missions, supportive, but you need to do something important and secure Really?

Did you know God's son was a missionary?

You might want to talk this over with him?

Charles Spurgeon said, Chuck to us, his close friends, he said, if your son or daughter is called to be a missionary, no, he said if you're called to be a missionary, Don't stoop to be a king.

It's good enough for God's son.

It's good enough for yours.

So, pray that they will be sent, whether they're in professional Christian work or not, pray that they will have a sense of being sent to a lost world.

Finally, he prayed that they would be saving others.

Look at this.

Here's where we get into the prayer.

Hello.

If you'd like to look for yourself, my prayer is not for them alone, the people here.

I am praying for those who will believe in me. through their message.

And as these apostles spread the j the good news of Jesus and it got spread to another generation, another generation, it got to us.

And so he's praying that they will be the people who will be help uh help other people come to know him.

Ronald Reagan, you know, had the long death of Alzheimer's.

And slowly he forgot everything he had done.

Nancy set up an office for him in Century City in LA, just so he'd have the dignity of putting on a suit and going there.

People come in and talk to him and say, do you remember when you were governor and you no?

Do you remember that movie?

No.

Do you remember when you were president and and and and and uh in Russia and slowly but surely it all went away Commemorative edition of Newsweek said this.

There was one thing he did remember.

There was a picture in his office of a river.

And people walk in and say, what's that, Mr.

Reagan?

He said, oh, that's the Rock River in Illinois.

That's where I was a lifeguard.

And almost to the very end, he would say, that's where I saved 77 lives.

When every other achievement of his life was gone.

The one thing that stayed with him was the lives he had saved.

That will be true in eternity.

Everything else won't matter much.

But the lives you have saved will.

Jesus said, I want you to pray that the people you will pray for will be in the life-saving business.

By the way, I've given you a little test here, and I we don't have time for you to take it.

I want to just skip by it, but I call it your legacy praying self-test.

Things Jesus said he had done for the people given to him.

A little later take that and check the ones that you think you're doing.

But I want to move on to John 18 verse 1.

When he had finished praying, now we go to battle number two real quickly.

When he had finished praying, by the way.

Don't go to the battlefield until you've been to the throne room.

Before Jesus knows, he goes into that garden and it's the beginning of the end.

But you make sure he's in the throne room before the battlefield.

Don't you ever go into any battle to even the throne room first.

Now, here's where we get to the intensity. of Jesus battle for himself.

Isn't it interesting that in a way the Bible's a story of three gardens?

You gardeners might be interested in this.

It all started with man's rebellion in a garden, didn't it?

And then it moves to a garden where Jesus battles over the price he will pay to redeem us from that?

And then comes that glorious moment in a garden tomb on Easter morning.

It's a tale of three gardens.

This one is Gethsemane, Matthew 26, verse 36.

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane.

It means Olive Press.

Olive oil was a big deal.

It was a hot commodity in those days.

And when You know those out cider mills where they crush everything out of the apples and we get apple cider?

That's what they did with olives.

It is the crushing place.

It's the place where everything is squeezed out.

Olives and out of the Son of God.

To a place called the Crushing Place.

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.

Just a little side note here.

Jesus is about to be in meltdown.

I'm the leader.

Jesus literally invites guys to go with him, to see him in his most vulnerable and darkest moments. to walk through that with him for support.

But I think when we do that, we give other people permission to be real and permission to struggle as well.

Why do we withdraw when we should be reaching out?

Don't go in, go out.

Well, he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Please stay here and keep watch with me.

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground.

The Greek word is ectanus.

It means stretched out on the ground.

He is so spent, he is so tortured.

He's not standing, he's not kneeling, he's not sitting, he is flat out on the ground.

And he prayed, Father, if it is possible, I know what's in this cup.

All the sin of all the world.

Could we take it from me?

Yet Not as I will, but as you will.

Then he returned to his disciples, and found them watching and waiting.

Wait, excuse me, sleeping.

Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?

He asked Peter.

Watch him pray, so you will not fall into temptation.

I know the spirit's willing.

I know your flesh is weak.

He went away a second time and prayed.

My father, if it is not possible, this changes the prayer a little bit If it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it , and it will be done.

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because her eyes were heavy.

Don't any of you use this as an excuse for sleeping in church?

Don't this is not a proof text for you.

So he left them and went away once more, prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to his disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting?

Look, the hours come.

It's over it, guys.

We're here now.

The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of the sinners, and there they were.

Rise, let us go.

Here comes my betrayer.

The best way I know to do this is I want to do five quick snapshots from Mount Gethsemane John 18 is the first one.

I call it swinging.

Swinging.

Simon Peter had a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear.

This is a smooth move.

I don't know if Jesus turned to him and said, Simon, I'm not sure if you heard me.

I did not say watch and slay.

I said watch and pray.

Not watch and slay.

Watch and pray.

So here the fisherman becomes a near surgeon.

What's going on here?

Peter's like, I gotta do something.

This is a crisis.

I gotta do that's Ron Hutchcraft.

Oh, I gotta do crunch time.

Crisis Problem.

I gotta do something.

So I do my flesh thing.

I gotta fix it.

Peter, well-intentioned, all he's doing is interfering with God's plan.

Like Peter, when there's trouble, we want to do something, and often it just does damage.

Control the control freak in me comes out.

Oh, I gotta do something to get control here.

So I ask myself my question, what is my weapon of flesh that I instinctively go to in a crisis?

You know what Jesus says?

Just what he said to Peter.

Put it away, Ron.

You're not helping.

You're interfering.

Put it away.

We go from swinging to sleeping.

We already read Luke 22 about them being asleep.

And here in 2246, you got that, Justin?

Why are you sleeping?

Excuse me.

I think Jesus is asking the whole American church that question.

Why are you s I need you?

This is this is the most critical time in the history of this planet.

My return is closer than it's ever been.

Why are you sleeping?

Jesus, very troubling question.

Maybe you ask yourself this question, when have I been sleeping?

At a time when Jesus needed me Third little snapshot is sorrowing.

Mark 14.

Mark's version.

He took Peter, James, and John along with him, began to be deeply distressed and troubled.

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Let me tell you how that translates into Greek.

That word overwhelmed means he's drowning.

That's what it means.

I'm drowning.

I'm drowning in sorrow.

It means engulfed in sorrow.

I've grieved.

My have I grieved.

I have no idea what this is like.

Extremely anguished, immersed in grief.

That's what the Greek word means.

Look at Luke 22, 44 Oh, by the way, you can tell Luke is a doctor.

He's the only one who reports on the healing of the ear.

All the rest of them just leave the ear off.

He's the only one who reports on this.

He reports on the medical condition.

Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

We know the name of this today.

It's called hemidrosis.

Hemodrosis happens when you are stressed to the point where the capillary walls around your sweat glands literally start to break down.

And you start secreting blood and sweat together.

Literally, Jesus' body is breaking down.

From him drowning in the greatest sorrow any human soul has ever endured.

For me Albert Alfred Edersheim wrote the book.

He was a completed Jew.

A century ago wrote The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.

He described it this way, the waves of hell were sweeping over his soul.

You see your notes?

The Savior we count on has felt the deepest Darkest, most heart-wrenching anguish a human heart could ever experience.

He has been torn apart inside.

That's why Hebrews 4. 15 can say we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses.

But we have one who has been tested, that can mean tested or tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.

Oh, you'll hear politicians and people say, I feel your pain.

Sure you do.

When Jesus says, I feel your pain, He feels your pain.

Some of you will remember some years ago, those who have been coming for a few years.

A little grandson Taylor. was only a few months old, miraculously, alive and after his heart condition and all, you know.

And suddenly he was experiencing some very scary symptoms here, and he had to be rushed to a local hospital.

Some of you were here and prayed for him.

You may remember that night.

It was very scary.

Well, I reached over there to the emergency room with Doug and Anna, and they were trying to find a vein to put a needle in To draw blood.

They couldn't find a vein in this little guy.

He's only like eight months old.

He is screaming as I keep putting a needle in again and again.

They can't find a vein.

I tear my heart out.

He's inconsolable.

So I just had this impulse to kind of kneel down next to him, put my cheek against his cheek.

And I started to hum a little tune to him, sing a little bit, a little ditty, that I carried him around our yard and sung to him a number of times.

They still kept looking for a vein.

But he stopped crying.

I think I was there 30 or 40 minutes.

The nurses love the song They're going, they're like, oh , forget that song one more time.

But Taylor, was it peace?

Because I moved in close and sang to him on May 16, 2016.

I had my Gethsemane if I can even begin to call it that after what Jesus went through.

Close as I'll get.

One lady described very beautifully Karen 's and my relationship.

When she said, Ron, Karen was the wind beneath your wings.

And now she rests beneath his wings.

I cannot tell you the depths of our partnership.

And in an instant that was over.

She was in heaven.

I wasn't.

And I went places my didn't know my heart could go.

Into the valley of shadow of death.

But my Jesus moved in close And sang his song over me.

And there was unexplainable peace.

That's the kind of savior we have whose heart touched our deepest pain. and far beyond ours in Gethsemane, when we're at our crushing place.

But then, isn't that what it says in Zephaniah?

We actually are told.

The Lord your God is with you.

He's mighty to save, and he will take great delight in you.

He will quiet you with his love.

And he will rejoice over you with singing, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.

By the way, do you know what can come out of your Gethsemane when you have yours?

Or your next one?

Again, if we can even dare call it that.

I can tell you what came out of mind.

I feel my feelings now as never before.

I feel your feelings as I've never felt them before.

I feel Jesus as I've never felt them before And I think I'm probably more transparent than I've ever been.

Because of Gethsemane.

Good things can happen out of Gethsemane Well, last of all, uh let me just wrap this up.

They're struggling.

You see the struggle he's in.

Struggling.

And literally, I believe in the Garden of Gethsemane, two hearts were in agony The Son of God is pleading for a way out.

And the Father is telling his son no.

And Jesus knows it has to be that way.

First time he goes and prays, he says, if it is possible, please take this cup from me.

Second time he goes back, he says, if it's not possible.

But you know what Jesus is doing?

A struggle very familiar to all of us.

It is a battle between my will And his will.

A battle everyone in this room knows very well, and a battle in which many of us are probably engaged right now over something expensive, hard. that God is asking us to do.

It is the clash of two wills.

It's a very disturbing airplane flight.

We were all ready to take off.

We couldn't take off.

Because there was a kid in the aisle whose parent mother refused to do anything.

The kid is literally standing there in the aisle going, I wanna drive!

We don't want you to drive.

He just stood in over and said, I want to drive.

I want to drive.

Mom, is there a mother in the house?

Somebody smacked him and he was No, I I don't know what happened.

We did take off eventually.

I stand there and I say to God when He says, uh there's something that I don't want to face is His will.

It is going to be costly.

I don't want it to be His will.

I wanna drive.

He says, and you'll crash this thing if you do.

Our Gethsemane battles tend to revolve around three things.

Look in your notes.

Releasing something precious.

A child.

An idol.

A good thing that's become an idol.

A ministry that we've suddenly started to own.

It's now ours instead of his.

Reconciling.

Yeah, we don't like it when God tells us to go heal a broken or wounding relationship Or repenting.

A deeply entrenched sin that I'm not sure I want to break free from.

Finally a surrendering.

When God's will could cost you everything.

And so we hear Jesus say the nine, the eight words that everything rides on Yet not my will.

But yours be done.

I want you to say those words.

I want you to say them to God in your heart right now.

I think you probably should close your eyes, don't go to sleep.

It's yet not my will be done, yet not my will, but yours be done.

And I wonder what that's about, because I think you know.

That precious you had not you will not let go of.

That voice that's been telling you to do or stop doing something And you haven't done it.

Would you, with your Savior , use these words of surrender as your prayer?

It is yet not my will, but yours be done.

Let's say it slowly, and let's say it from our soul.

Yet not my will, but yours be done.

I don't know if that's about your marriage.

I don't know if that's about your kid.

I don't know if that's about your business or your money.

I don't know if that's about a habit or an addiction.

I don't know if that's about your plans for the future.

I don't know if it's about your retirement.

I don't know if it's about a call God has on you to go serve Him.

Yet not my will.

But yours be done.

Adrian Rogers, the great Southern Baptist preacher, one of my favorites, was talking to Joseph San, one of the legendary, the iconic Romanian leader who'd suffered so much under the most brutal communist regime there was in Romania.

And one time he said, Joseph, how do you think what do you think about American Christians?

Joseph said, Oh, that's I I'd prefer not to answer.

He said, no, tell me what you think.

Joseph said, well, he said, you know how sometimes we get a new word to replace an old word?

He said, I hear American Christians talk a lot about being committed to Jesus.

Adrian said, mm-hmm.

So?

He said, well it it's replaced another word.

What's that?

Surrender?

What's the difference?

Oh, it's a commitment.

Means you're still in charge.

I surrender all.

I'll close with this from Oswald Chambers, because I described someone in this room.

Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point, a great crossroads in our life.

From that point on, we either go toward a more slow, lazy, and useless Christianity.

Or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for his highest and our best for his glory.

And may I say to someone in this room, not knowing who it is, welcome to that crossroads.

This is a very decisive moment.

Choose well.

Lord, thank you for letting us into your deepest corners of your heart.

As you agonized for the us and agonized for yourself, which was really for us.

Forgive us for letting our relationship with you be mostly a head trip and to check the boxes and do all the right stuff.

This is heart , soul.

This is pouring out what you got in your guts.

Lord, for my brother or sister who's at this crossroads of either going into a more lazy, less productive, less meaningful Christian life. without knowing that's where they're going.

Or a new surrender.

That will take us to our greatest experience with you we've ever had I pray, Lord, that they would leave here with whatever is clutched in that closed hand released to you.

And may they find the great freedom and liberation of those mighty words.

Yep, my will 's over.

Yet not my will.

I choose yours.

Thank you for leading the way.

And I pray, as you taught us to, with expectation.

In Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.