Matthew 26:36-46 "PRAY"

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the August 31st sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Matthew 26, verses 36 through 46. And the sermon is entitled Pray, delivered today by Associate Pastor Nathan Williams. [00:00:17] Speaker B: I'm always honored and overjoyed when I have an opportunity to open up God's Word with y'. All. So if you will open up your copy of God's Word to Matthew, chapter 26, we'll be in verses 36 through 46 today. And as you're doing this, I'm curious. What makes you feel most fully alive? What in your life are the high moments of your life where you're just like, this is what it means to really live? Maybe it's that vacation with your family. Maybe it's when you're in the middle of the woods alone. Maybe you're a thrill seeker, and it's when you're doing something crazy and reckless, and you're just. You have adrenaline pumping through your veins. I don't know what it is, but I think all of us know what it's like to have moments where, like, this is what it means to live. And then there's those other things in life that make us feel a shell of who we are. We feel like a part of us has to die when we get up and have to go do something we don't want to do. We feel like we just have to keep on pushing through. And we're like, this isn't really what it means to live. And this morning, I want us to look together at what does it look like to be fully alive in prayer to God, in the highest of highs of our life, in the lowest of lows in our life. I believe the Bible shows us to be fully alive is to be in relationship with God, no matter what we're doing. Jesus says in John 17:3, this is eternal life. That they know you. That's a pretty interesting definition. What is life? Knowing God is life. In the Garden of Eden, when God had created this beautiful creation, he's described as walking in the garden with Adam, and he came into the garden to be with them. And then when they turned from God and in their sin, something terrible happened. They were separated from God. There was a void, something thrown off. And in our lives, we might find fullness of life because the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and creation show his hidden attributes everywhere we go. And we might see glimpses of him. But everything it is to live is just to experience God in one way or another. To know him, whether through his creation in our lives. But to fully know him is to be in right relationship with him in our lives, in prayer. And as we read earlier, Jesus says we are to abide in him, to remain in him, because apart from him, we can do nothing. Living in relationship with God is the fullest joy, the most vibrant life. And everything else we live for are just echoes or distortions of what true life is. So it's no surprise that one of the popular teachings of Jesus is to pray. He modeled prayer. He taught us to pray. Paul, in many of his letters, teaches us to pray. Peter teaches us to pray. James teaches us to pray. So we deprive our own lives when we do not pray. The command and the invitation, the call to fellowship with God is not a burden, but it's an invitation to life. And sometimes in our lives, we just. We're not feeling that. We're just feeling empty or we're feeling like, well, God is nice, but I don't feel fully alive right now. We feel like a fish out of water flopping. Or we might have some movement. We might be moving around, but a fish doesn't last long out of water. You might love those flowers in your house, but once the flowers are taken out of the soil, you might put those. Whatever, those little packets of minerals are in it, but it doesn't matter. After a while, they'll wilt and die. In the same way, when we don't pray and we're not in relationship with God in our lives and what we're doing, we're just wilting away. And God in Christ gives us a way to be with God and to have life. And it's not this weight or this burden. It is an invitation to know him and to be with Him. And today I want us to see how Jesus is our example, the most perfect man to ever live. He hadn't arrived to another level. He was dependent on his Father in prayer. I do not have time to go through all the places in the Gospels that says Jesus would get away and pray, or after a long busy day, he would avoid people just to be with God and pray time and time again. Jesus spent time with his Father. And because that is where he found life and where he found dependence to do what God had called him to do. And he says, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord. Jesus depended and had life in prayer with His Father. I believe for US In Matthew 26, we see one of the greatest moments of Temptation in worry, in human anguish, in Jesus life. But we see even there, he depends and finds life in his Father in prayer. So Matthew, chapter 26, where we are, this is the turning point of human history. Humanity's redemption is on the line because this is the night of Jesus arrest. And the next day is to be crucified and. And take the sins of the world so that we can have life in him. This is a big moment, and there's a lot going on. If you're just reading through Matthew, you can sense the tension. It's like watching that movie. You just know something is going to happen. I think it's interesting how different people start responding. We see at the beginning of this chapter how the Jewish leaders responded. They're scheming. They want to find life in control of the situation. So they're making plans, trying to make what they want to happen. Judas is scheming. He's trying to take control of the situation and get some advantage from what's going on. And he's trying to find life by taking hold of things and putting things in his own power. And then you see the disciples, they start speculating and talking. They want to have the image of being all right. They're stressed. They know something's up. But around the dinner table, they're like, well, is it me? Is it me? Oh, no, I'm not going to betray you. Is it me? And they're just. They want to put on a good show. And Peter goes as far to make promises he can't keep and. And say, jesus, I will not betray you. He's up front about it, but it's just talk. Sometimes when we're in moments of tension or moments of struggle, we just try to talk and talk and talk and try to make it look like we're all right, but really, everything's falling apart. And also we see the disciples and Peter, they just want to act when things start going wrong. Some of y' all in here are doers. You don't sit around wondering what to do. You just start doing something to take care of business. When Peter sees the arrest happening, he's like, oh, no, my Lord. He pulls out a sword and attacks the people who are coming to arrest Jesus. And some people might be doers in their fight, but we see all the disciples, they fled after their rest. You got to get out of dodge. We got to get going. Sometimes when things get rough, we just fight or flight. But I find it interesting. Jesus doesn't grab for control. Jesus doesn't try to Talk and preserve his image. He doesn't try to just do something in order to make something happen. No, he prays in the moment of his greatest need and his greatest anguish. Just look at what he does together. In chapter six, verse 36, God's Word says. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. In taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful in trouble. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed. My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand. And the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise. Let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you will help us wherever we are this morning. Help me, Lord. To be clear in your word, God, of what Jesus models for us. May we not see a man behind a pulpit? May we not see words in a page? Lord, may we see Jesus Christ today and the example and the hope he brings us. Help us. This morning we pray in Jesus name. Amen. We see that the most alive man to ever live prayed in his darkest moments. So if we're to have life, if we're going to be fully alive as he is, we should pray in our darkest moments. And in our joyous moments, we should pray as he prayed. No matter what we're going through to have life. And this passage shows us how we can pray like Jesus. To pray like Jesus, we must pause to reveal our hearts, admit our needs and yield our lives. We see in the first verse here in 36. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. In the busyness of this tension, Jesus goes and Takes time to pause. So if we want to pray like Jesus, we must pause. 10 seconds of pause is uncomfortable. We're used to just going, going, going. You come to church, well, the preacher is in the pulpit. He better talk the whole time. If I were to pause, the silence would be deafening. We wouldn't know what to do. Pausing is uncomfortable for us. But we see Jesus knows to be alive and to pray. We must pause to be in solitude with our God. He goes to Gethsemane, a little garden late at night to get away from the buzz of the crowds, away from the distractions, because he desires and has a need for time with his Father. And this was his habit. We can learn from that, to take time, to pause, to be still. We see he doesn't pause just for solitude. He pauses for stillness. When he looks at the disciples and says, sit here. And later on he says, remain here and watch with me. Doesn't he just sit there and just kind of make the time, try to go by, sit and be still intentionally. Because it's often not until the house is quiet that we hear the dripping of the sink. It's not until we actually turn the car radio down or off that we hear that uncomfortable concerning noise under the hood of our car. Sometimes we just go so much, we're never still enough to actually find life in relationship with our Father. We just go, go, go, go, go. But he says, remain here and watch with me. We must sit, be still to see and to seek what's really going on in our lives and around us. That's what the Bible talks about, prayer. It talks about being steadfast in prayer. We're told to be watchful in it. When we're told to pray at all times in the spirit, it says to that end, keep alert. Peter, who is here later on, wrote in First Peter, Chapter 5, Verse 8, that we're to be watchful. I don't think he means you. Get out the binoculars and start looking around. No, be watchful in your prayer because he says, for your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. We have to pause to see what's really going on in our life. We have no concern with this principle. In walking through a sketchy part of town with our family, you don't have to tell a dad or a mom to not be distracted. When you're worried about your kid's safety, you pay attention. Any movement, any corner, you're aware that you're in a sketchy part of town. You need to be watchful and still and not distracted. But in our lives, we're oblivious to the war that sin is ravishing in our families and in our own lives. The war that demonic forces have in just destroying things around us. And we just kind of keep on keeping on hoping all works out. And we never take time to pause and see what's really going on around us. So to pray like Jesus, we need to pause and see what is happening. The war that we cannot do apart from God at work in us. So for us, silence and solitude is this thing called a spiritual discipline is much more valuable than killing the time on our phones or with food, with fiddling, with fun, with friends, with family. Whatever we do, those are good things to do. But it means we never take time to pause and be with God. We're running into chaos and running into destruction without even knowing it. But Jesus took time to pause. And in that pause, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He begins to see what's really going on in his humanity. He knows what is coming and he's concerned. In taking with him Peter and two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even to to death. Jesus took time to see where he was really at. And we don't know what would happen if he didn't take time to see where he was really at. But he knew he needed time with his Father. And we see he takes time to pray alone, but he also prays in community by inviting a close group of people to pray with him. I think there's a lesson in this for us. Do we pause to pray in our day? Do we pause to pray with those closest to us or our spouse, our family, our children? Do we actually pause to pray? And if not, we're missing out on the full life that Jesus models for us. So we see in this pausing in his prayer, the nature of Jesus prayer. In verse 39, we see that he reveals his heart to His Father. So if we're to pray like Jesus, we need to reveal our hearts in prayer. In verse 39, we see that he is transparent in his desperation. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed. I can just see Jesus had a long day. He's a long three years of ministry. He's going, going, going. And he knows what's coming. And I don't think this is just a little ritualistic. Let me bow down and pray. No, he is falling down to pray because he is desperate. And what comes out of us when we're most desperate, when we're at our wit's end and everything's falling apart, what we grab at shows us what's really our God, what we really worship. We see Jesus at his wits end, falls down in prayer saying my Father. He knows the personal relationship he has with his Father, so he is honest with him about where he is at in his desperation. Our Heavenly Father is not an absentee father. He's a near and caring and loving Father that we can go to wherever and whenever and whatever we're going through. When shepherd runs up to me, my one year old son with a broken toy and goes, please, I mean you don't have. I don't have to think much before I fix it or help him if he's hungry or tired. And he expresses that in a very unadult way. I don't sit there and go, okay, grow up. He's one, I care for him. Jesus goes and is real with his Father and reveals his heart where he's really at. There's no fake facade here. So I think we can be messy with family. The more polished you have to be for someone, probably the less you know them. Who do you clean up the house the most for? It's the person that you're not as close with. Who do you hide the broken parts of your life from? It's the person that you're not as close with. But our Heavenly Father is the one our souls were made for. And in Christ we have relationship and peace with him. We can be ourselves with our Heavenly Father in personal prayer to him. That's what Jesus does. We have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father, the spirit of God in us. We are now sons and daughters of God, so we can get messy with him. And we see in Jesus revealing his heart in his desperation because of his personal relationship with his Father. He is transparent in his heart's desires, in his heart's dependence by what he says next. He says, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Jesus was human like we were. And if I told you that tonight you weren't going to sleep, all your friends were going to abandon you, you were going to be wrongly accused, mocked, beaten, tortured, and then all day tomorrow forced on a death march to be hung on a tree and then the wrath of God was going to be poured out on you, would you just be all perky and ready to go? No. In your humanity you would be worried about that. And we see Jesus reveals his heart and says if you can let this cup pass from me, if it is possible, let it pass. That does not mean Jesus is being forced against his will to the cross. Just means he's human and he's real about his human worries and concerns. But he is perfectly willing in trust God's goodness by what he says next. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And while we're nowhere close to the Son of Man incarnate in the flesh, we can model this in our own lives, in our own prayers, by revealing our hearts, by telling God what we desire and what we want to see him do. If you ask God for things, that means you trust his power, that he can actually answer prayer and he is actually God and He can actually do things. That's what it means when you ask something of God. So if we trust his power, we can pray for things. And if you trust God's goodness, you can rest knowing and have peace that whatever he does with that prayer is best. So true worship and prayer is entrusting our heart and our lives completely to God personally saying, lord, I know you're powerful enough to do this, do this for me. But God, you are good and your ways are higher than mine. I trust you. That is worship. I think often there's these helpful little tools in prayer. One that I've heard is acts, A C T S, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. It's like the steps of prayer. And those are great helpful tools, but I think sometimes they can make us stuck because we have an issue, we have a problem, and we feel like, well, I need to give adoration to God first, then I need to confess my sins to God first and then I need to thank God and then only then can I be honest with Him. And we develop these religious ritualistic Personas in our relationship and our prayers to God where we think we got to check these little boxes, do these little steps in order for God to actually hear us. But I think revealing our hearts is the greatest way to worship God and to glorify God in our prayers. When we ask him for things, even if they're silly or if they're mind bendingly complex, it shows we believe he is able to. That glorifies God. And then when we leave prayer and peace, knowing that it's in God's hands, that means we trust his goodness and that glorifies God. So if you want to worship God in prayer, have messy prayers. Messy prayers glorify God. When you reveal your heart and you're actually in personal relationship with Him. When you act like we got to say just these steps, and I need to use this poetic language and I need to put on this religious Persona. I think we end up putting God in this poetic category in our life or this religious category of our life. But God is real, so we can be real with him and reveal where we are in our prayers. He is our Father. It's like, obviously there's abuses to just, well, give me this. He's not a genie that just does whatever we want. But if he is our Father, we'll ask him for big things, trusting him and glorifying him. So if you want to pray like Jesus and have fullness of life and prayer and living, reveal your heart to God daily, wherever you are. If it's joy and excitement, let him know. If it's anger, frustration, worry, whatever it is, let him know that is prayer. And Jesus reveals his heart, asking His Father for something and entrusting himself to him completely. Because I think we run a risk of what Jesus warns in Matthew 15:8 when he says, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. We don't pay lip service to God in prayer. We give them our hearts. If you want to have a life of peace and power abiding in Christ, apart from whom we can do nothing, reveal your hearts to him in prayer. He is our Father. We see Jesus goes on, and yes, he is personal in his prayer by revealing his hearts, but he's also practical. We see he goes on in the next few verses to admit the needs at hand. So in our prayers, if we want to pray like Christ, we need to admit our needs, admit them, let them be known. Because when he goes back, he says, and he came to the disciples and found them what, sleeping? Well, those were supposed to be the people keeping guard and keeping watch, right? I think Jesus knew full well. And in his prayer, he wasn't entrusting in the power of his disciples to help him. He was entrusting and admitting his need for God to help him. His newsflash, Your friends and any person will let you down at some point, no matter how nice and polished they look. So admit your needs for God's help in whatever situation you're in. And he tells them a little bit more detailed. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. There's a real need here. And I believe, like a mirror, Jesus is no hypocrite. I don't think he's asking Peter to do something that he is not doing himself. He says, pray that you will not be led into temptation. And I think often in our prayer, we don't admit our need for God to protect us from temptation in our life. And then we get concerned. We're like, well, I just messed up again. Well, I fell into this again, or I was angry again. I was unloving. I wasn't. It was really hard to forget. Well, did you pray for God to protect you from temptation? Or you just wait till you get hit with something and then you try to react? Jesus teaches us to proactively pray, not just reactively pray. We have a need daily for. For protection from the enemy, protection from our own hearts and our own sins. Jesus shows us we need to pray for that. Admit that's the hard part. We love to think that, well, I've had a good track record here. Oh, you should see all the things I do in the church or all the verses I know, or how good I am here, the family I'm a part of, what church I go to and. But then we lose sight in our prayer. It's not just us on a mountaintop praying for those people. It's us admitting we are those people who need God to protect us and to help us and to lead us in whatever we're going through. If we're gonna pray like Christ, we need to admit our needs in prayer. I think often we're just like the disciples, sleeping. Maybe because we're physically tired and we sleep, but I think it's deeper. I think we sometimes doubt if prayer even makes a difference at all. We think that prayer is just. Look at the preacher man talking about prayer. I read it in my Bible. Jesus talks about prayer. Yeah, but, like, does it really do anything? So we don't even pray, and then nothing happens, and it just is a reinforcing cycle. But I guarantee you, if you pray in faith, as a child of God, God will uncomfortably surprise you with answered prayers. I'm ashamed to say in the past few years, I've actually tried praying more. And in my prayers, I have been uncomfortable with how God actually answers prayers from the most trivial. I'm late. Please help there be a green light. And there's all green lights. The whole way I'm going, I'm like, hey, that's. God's not supposed to answer prayers like that. To. One time, I was required to share a gospel for a class with someone of another culture, of another faith in another place. And being the good person I am, I waited Till the weekend of. To try to do this. And that's like, well, you didn't do your work is your honor. So I was like, lord, I'm driving back from the study here. Lord, I really should have done this earlier. Help me to have. I had to fill up gas and. And an Orthodox Jew from the Bronx was standing right there beside me and started talking to me about his faith. I was like, okay, Lord, I'm not saying this how he always works, but God answers prayers. The silly little things of my son crying. I was like, lord, help him to be at peace and rest. And then he just stops crying. And I'm like, okay, that is a little weird just seeing people healed or changed by the power of God in their life. God answers prayers, but we don't believe it. So we don't ask any prayers to see it ourselves. So we sleep instead. Whereas Jesus shows us he persisted in his prayer. He knew the depth of his need. So he didn't just throw up a quick little prayer and then move on. He kept on going back to it. The Bible shows us at least three times where he prays this night, But I guarantee he kept on praying throughout this evening and throughout the next day. And we see while he is on the cross, he is reciting Psalm 22. So, you know, he's meditating on Scripture. He's praying, this is, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. He is praying throughout this whole ordeal because he understands his hourly, moment by moment, need for God. But in our prayer, do we admit our needs and get practical or to go, well, this situation's so silly that I'm never going to pray for that. Well, if you want to glorify God, reveal your heart to him. Trust his power, trust his goodness. And whether he answers the prayer or not, put him to the test and admit your needs. And God does great things. We see again, for the second time, he went and prayed. My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. When Jesus says, the Spirit is willing and the flesh is weak, we see. He goes and prays about it because the disciples were excited. Like we could deep dive and try to figure out what does it mean? The Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, but I think at least means that we somehow feel real good about doing something, but then when push comes to shove, we just don't follow through. Like, maybe Right now the spirit of God is at work and you're like, I really want to pray. But we all know once we walk out these doors, the things we get excited about during the church service are really hard to live out. The spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. We tell our spouse or we tell people we care about, I'm going to work on this. I'm going to try to change here. But then the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. But we see the Lord persists in prayer. And I had a painful realization the other week, it was like two weeks ago, that the things that I'm trying to change and get better at, I can't change. That was a hard realization. I knew in order to get saved, I couldn't save myself. I'd have depend on Christ to save me. But then I thought, now in this little moment, I'm going to get better. I'm going to be a little bit more loving in these situations. I'm going to be a little less critical over here. And then I get hit with the same thing. I'm like, oh, let me turn and pray and ask God to change me because I can't change myself. I think we have to admit our own needs of what is it that we're stuck in? What addictions have we just accepted are a part of who we are? What sins have we just taken as face values? That's just part of life. If we go to God and ask him, persisting in prayer, not just one and done, but daily, maybe hourly, weekly, whatever it is, depend on God in prayer to meet and change and do what you cannot do. Remain in him, abide in him. Because apart from him, you can do nothing. So I think our perseverance in our Christian faith is more a perseverance to depend on God than a perseverance to accomplish all God's asked us to do. A perseverance to depend on God and asking him to help us in what we need to do. God will work in our lives a lot more than us going, I'm going to persevere and get this all done now. Because look at who I am and what I've done. No, pray and admit and persevere and persist in your prayers for God to help you be what you can't be on yourself, yourself. And we see Jesus revealing his heart and admitting his needs. But he does one more thing that is essential to all prayer. Jesus yielded his life. I think for you and I, there comes a time we can't just be monks hiding in a prayer closet 24 7. There's real families, real conflict, real real challenges, real things out there that we have to face. But in prayer we can go with a yielded life ready for God to work through. What does Jesus do here at the end he says then he came to the disciples and said to them, sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand. The Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. Jesus is ready to go. Now this isn't a flip it like I need to preserve my life by acting. No, he has yielded his life, entrusted it to his father and now going to face what his Father's called him to willingly and at peace. Does it mean every time we pray we just have a good fuzzy feeling and everything's great? Sometimes we just have to go holding on to Christ and what we're doing. But do we go with yielded lives? I'm gonna no longer grasp at it myself. God, I need you to do it through me. I'm your humble instrument now. That's what Jesus does in his prayer. So what does it look like to pause to reveal our hearts, to admit our needs and to yield our lives? P R A Y what would it look like to pray in our lives? It would be quite a surprise to see what it would look like for this church to be fully alive in prayer. To be known not for our building or our budgets or our positions or our outreach, but to be known for our dependence on God in prayer in everything. In our families, in our marriages, at our workplaces, in our struggles. What would it look like for us to reveal our hearts in every situation to our Father, to admit our needs and ask him to help us yielding all we have to Him? I think a church fully alive would be quite something to see, but I want to find out. So let's following Christ's example together and find the fullness of life and right relationship with God and pray to him. So as we move into the time of invitation, I'm going to invite you to not feel like you have to fit into our rhythm of coming to the front to pray. If you need to pray with the person sitting beside you. If you need to stay in your seat kneeling and pray. I'm not going to look at you weird and no one or don't care what the people around you are thinking, go to your Father and pause. Reveal your heart, admit your needs and yield your life. And let's leave as a church, yield it to our Lord together. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you will show us the goodness of who you are and the beauty of a relationship with you. It's not just talk. It is reality. To walk through life in our highs and our lows with you, Lord. So God help us to yield ourselves to you in prayer. And I pray for those in here, Lord, that have never yielded their lives to you, have no hope of relationship with you. That they'll see that they need what Christ has done to have fullness of life. Call them to yourself today. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. [00:41:24] Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.