So
far, we have looked at the excuses Moses gave God as to why he couldn’t go to
the King of Egypt and demand that he let God’s chosen people be set free.
Moses
gave God 5 excuses:
Ø Who
was he to go and talk to Pharaoh?
Ø The
people of Israel wouldn’t listen to him.
Ø The
people of Israel might say that God didn’t really speak to Moses, so they
wouldn’t go with him.
Ø Moses
wasn’t much of a public speaker
Ø Then
Moses finally confessed that he didn’t want to go, and he asked God to send
someone else.
For
each excuse that Moses gave God, God have Moses an appropriate answer: “Moses, you
can’t; but I can!”
God was calling Moses to go, and
God would equip Moses as he went.
This is the very
same promise that God makes to us when we are asked to obey Him.
The
words that God spoke to Joshua apply just as much to us, as they did to Joshua:
“As I was with
Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5, NIV84)
I can’t, but God can.
Week
two of our series had us looking at King Saul’s disobedience.
In 1 Samuel 15, Saul was instructed
to: “…completely
destroy the entire Amalekite nation—men, women, children, babies,
cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.” (1
Samuel 15:3, NLT2)
For
reasons we may never understand, except that God can’t stand sin, He told Saul
to completely destroy the Amalekite nation and all they had.
Instead
of doing what he had been asked to do, Saul: “captured Agag, the Amalekite king, but
completely destroyed everyone else.
9 Saul and his men spared Agag’s life and kept the best of the
sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves, and the lambs—everything, in fact,
that appealed to them.
They destroyed only
what was worthless or of poor quality.” (1
Sam.15:8-9, NLT2)
Saul didn’t do
what God had asked Him to do, because partial obedience is disobedience.
God said one
thing, Saul did another thing, and because of his disobedience, Saul was
rejected as king.
This is the
destructive power of sin. It not only infects us, but it affects those around
us, and we are destroyed by sin.
But thankfully
there is a way out of the destructive cycle of sin and that’s by receiving the
Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the Cross.
God is looking
for people who will obey Him with an undivided heart…
Which brings us
to last’s week’s lesson which focused on 2 people who said they would follow
Jesus, but actually wanted not to follow Jesus.
One dude wanted
to bury his not-yet-dead-dad before following Jesus, and the other dude wanted
to say so long to his family before following Jesus.
In
the end, neither man followed Jesus, because they didn’t want to give up their
life, which would have actually meant they’d find life.
Jesus
told us that: “Whoever
finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it.” (Mt 10:39, NIV84)
There
is a cost to following Jesus that neither man wanted to pay.
This
morning I want to very quickly, examine a time in Jesus’ life when He used this
word “But”, the difference between Jesus and the other men that I just
described for you was that Jesus
used the word “but” in the right way.
Luke
9:51 tells us that: Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (NLT2). Everything that took place after this verse
has Jesus on His way to the cross, where He would suffer and die for the sins
of the world.
But
before the cross, came the Garden. So, if you want to turn to the text of the
day, it can be found in Luke 22:39-46. I’m reading from the NIV:
“Jesus went out as
usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.
40 On reaching the
place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into
temptation."
41 He withdrew
about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 "Father, if
you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be
done."
43 An angel from
heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
44 And being in
anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood
falling to the ground.
45 When he rose
from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted
from sorrow.
46 "Why are
you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not
fall into temptation." (NIV84)
Jesus and His
disciples left the Upper Room—where they shared in the Last Supper—the same
meal that we will be observing in a few moments—and as was His custom; Jesus
went to the Mount of Olives, and entered the Garden of Gethsemane, to receive
strength for what was about to take place.
There are three
observations that I’d like to draw out from this passage today.
# 1. During His darkest hour,
Jesus turned to God in prayer.
Look again at
verse 41: “He
withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed…” (NIV84)
Jesus was in the
final hours of His earthly life and was well aware of what would soon be
coming, and instead of turning to Facebook or twitter; He turned first to God
in prayer.
He could have
turned to His disciples—they were just a stone’s throw from Him.
He could have
invited them to join Him in prayer for what was about to happen to Him, and He
would ultimately ask them to pray, but first Jesus got alone with God and
prayed.
This wasn’t the
first time Jesus got alone and prayed. He often withdrew to spend time with the
Father.
My mind
immediately jumps to Matthew 14. Jesus had just fed 20,000 people and as He
dismissed the crowds: “he (Jesus) went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.”
(Matt. 14:23b, NIV84)
Jesus made it a
practice to spend time alone with His Heavenly Father.
In fact, as He
taught His disciples how to pray, He instructed them to: “go into your room, close the door and pray to
your Father, who is unseen.” (Matthew 6:6, NIV84)
Jesus not only taught us how to
pray, He showed us how to pray.
In His darkest
moment—with His impending trial, punishment, crucifixion, and death—just hours
away, Jesus got alone and prayed.
Who's the first
person you turn to when you find yourself in a difficult situation? Do you turn
to God first or your friends?
There is nothing
wrong with turning to your friends and asking them to pray for you, but we
should turn to God first, and then ask other people to pray.
During His darkest hour, Jesus turned to God in
prayer.
What did He pray
for?
#2.Jesus prayed for strength.
Verse 42 reads: "Father, if
you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be
done." (NIV84)
Jesus was asking
if there might be another way to accomplish what God wanted done, but He also
acknowledged that God’s ways are the best ways, so He was obedient to God: “yet not my will,
but yours be done." (NIV84)
Instead of offering God an
excuse as to why He couldn’t do what needed to be done, Jesus asked for
strength to do what needed to be done.
Jesus prayed for
God’s will to be done in His life.
Luke
22:41&42 reads like this in the New Century Version: “Jesus went about a stone’s throw away from
them. He kneeled down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take away
this cup of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want.”
Jesus prayed to
His Father for strength to do what needed to be done. He didn’t make an excuse,
He just did it.
Look at what
happened next. Verse 43 reads: “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.”
(NIV84)
Jesus asked for strength to
endure what needed to be done, and He received strength to endure what needed
to be done.
ILLUSTRATION- I can’t begin to tell you how
many times I’ve prayed for strength to stand tall when I’m being tempted.
Many times I get down on my
knees and cry out to Jesus and ask for His help.
When I need
extra support, I text my accountability partner and ask him to pray for me as
well.
When
I pray for strength, and when I ask others to pray for me, I am able to stand
tall in the face of temptation.
But
when I don’t pray for strength; when I think I am able to endure the temptation
on my own, I end up falling flat on my face.
I’ve
seen this pattern play out in my life time and time again. I pray then I’m
strong, I don’t pray then I fall.
Because Jesus prayed, He was
able to do what God had asked Him to do.
#3.As Jesus prayed for strength,
so should we.
As
you will read, after this moment, Jesus was sold out for 30 pieces of sliver,
was disowned, mocked, falsely accused, rejected, and crucified.
He was able to
endure all of these things because He prayed to God for, and received, strength
from on High.
Now,
we might never be crucified, sold out for money, or even be rejected, but
something will happen that will leave us scratching our heads.
Something will happen to us that we
just can’t make sense of.
It’s
in those times that we need to get on our knees and cry out to our Father in
Heaven and ask for His will to be done in our lives, and ask Him for strength
to endure what we have to endure.
ILLUSTRATION- I have no idea why I’m the fortunate
one who will need a liver transplant.
I
have no idea why the last year has been an interesting one in the life of the
Graham family.
There
have been days when I haven’t been able to get out of bed. There have been
nights, that stomach pain has prevented me from getting a good night’s rest.
I’ve
had tubes in places that tubes have no business being in, and I’ve been poked
and prodded more than anyone should.
If
I’m being completely honest with you, there have been days when I prayed to God
to take all of this away from me. I didn’t want to go through this time.
I
didn’t want to put my family though this terrible season of life.
I didn’t want my little girls
seeing me as sick as I was, and having them wondering if their father was going
to be ok.
I actually prayed “Lord; I don’t want to do this!”
But another
prayer has come out of my mouth, way more often than that prayer, and it’s the
prayer of Jesus: “yet not my will, but yours be
done."
(These words are etched in a photo on the wall in my
office)
I believe that if
one person comes to faith in Jesus Christ because of this whole ordeal, it will
have been worth it all.
So,
I want to bring this home today. Are you turning to God in prayer, asking Him
for strength to do whatever He might be asking you to do?
Or,
are you giving God an excuse as to why you can’t—or don’t—want to do what you
are being asked to do.
1
John 2:6 reads: “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (NIV84)
Those
who claim to be Christ followers are to walk in obedience, just as Jesus did.
Sure,
there will be days when we don’t get it right, and we will miss an opportunity,
and there is grace for those days.
Grace
is not a licence to sin, grace picks us up after we sin, and grace enables us
to do what it is God might be asking us to do…
So
here’s what I want you to do today:
I
want you to follow the
example of Jesus and turn to God in prayer.
Some
of us are turning to Facebook or to our friends before we turn to God in
prayer. We should be turning to God first.
Let's follow the example of Jesus and
turn to God in prayer first.
The second thing I want you to do is ask God to strengthen you. Be
bold and ask for God' s strenght.
#3. Ask God to help you do what He might be asking to you do.
Ø If
that means giving your life over to Him, He’ll help you do that!
Ø If
that means stopping that destructive life choice, He’ll help you do that!
Ø If
that means getting married if you’re living common law, forgiving the one who
hurt you, or bringing restoration to a broken relationship, God will help you
do all of those things if you ask for His help.
So
this week, let’s follow the example of Jesus and use our big but for the glory
of God.
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