 You know, just you don't come here just to hear a speaker you come here because you want to hear the Holy Spirit And you want the Holy Spirit to change you to transform you Because we're living at a time like David said we're living in a time where the church has become carnal And the world comes into the church and is destroying the church You know, we need people that are spiritual that will make a stand Make a stand for Christianity to be those men and women actually men that are going to be ruling their homes and being in charge of that home in in love as As God is going to do that. Let me begin by reading. I want to speak to you about Jesus praise in Gethsemane. I mean, that's really important for me. Let me begin by reading. I'm reading from the NIV here It says and they came to an olive grove called Gethsemane and Jesus said sit here while I go and pray He took Peter James and John with him and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress He told them my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death Stay here and watch with me. He went a little further and fell face down on the ground He prayed that if it were possible the awful hour awaiting him my past him by Abba father, he said Everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yeah, I want you I want your will not my will and then he returned and found the disciples sleeping Simon he said to Peter. Are you sleeping? Could you not wait or can you not say awake and watch with me even one hour? Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you for though the spirit is willing and have the body is weak And then Jesus left them again and prayed repeating his pleadings and again He returned to them and found them sleeping for they just couldn't keep their eyes open And didn't he says and they didn't know what to say and when he returned to them the third time He said still sleeping still resting enough the time has come that I the son of man I am betrayed into the hands of sinners up. Let us be going see my betrayer. It's at hand You know when I think of a Jesus I don't know if you ever had someone not only that you love, but it's been taken away from you. I Think that's one of the hardest things that a person can experience When you love someone so dearly so powerful they've been in your life Did you come to that place that you know you not only miss them, but it hurts you It actually kills you It hurts your heart. It breaks your heart and then again imagine the love that he had for the world Jesus he loved his disciples. He loves you today here. He loves me and he took the cross he took the cross as Not only a place of sacrifice. I Don't know if you ever have sacrifice your life for someone else But I had in Vietnam 41 guys sacrificed their life for America And it was the probably the one is hard the hardest thing in my life Because I love these guys and they became part of my life And then Lord minister me the other day, you know when you're in the world It seems that the guy said I was with they care for you We carried our debt and I wanted never leaving anybody behind the church doesn't do that today The church needs to get close to the heart of God The church needs to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You see Jesus submitted to the father Submitted to the father that he would go to the cross and the reason is because he loved them and he loved us Continually loving us in John 3 16. He said for God's a love the world that he gave his only begotten son That whoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life Everlasting life forever and ever and ever that's something that I'm looking for in my life You know to go to heaven to be with pastor Chuck to be with my mother They just passed away the last two years my father And my little brother that died when I was probably about the five years old And I guess within each one of our lives here today, you know, I don't know how much you love your family You love your friends, and I hope you don't love yourself Because a lot of times we have more love for ourselves than we have for our family and for Jesus Christ It's our Lord and Savior So when I read the first time John 3 16 for God's a love the world it really it really touched my heart Because I was full of hate in my life. I Hated my family. I hated people. I Became very bitter. I was locked up for six months up in Oakland able hospital Because I did not know how to get back into society But you know the Lord had a plan for my life a Plan for my life the girl that was writing to me in Vietnam now my wife That we had met in high school. I never thought she was gonna be my wife They got a plan even though I was a heathen God had a plan for my life Becoming a Christian becoming a pastor and Sitting here and ministering to you guys and maybe you're sitting here this morning And you really don't know what God has for you But God has a plan for your life like he had a plan for the disciples Imagine Jesus being sinned by the father into this world And through this world so that you and I could have eternal life And when he came into the world He submits to the father's will He comes down to the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane With there with all these guys and not only he loves and he's been walking with them for three years And he tells Peter James and John to come with him So they go with him and then Jesus begins on the site to begin to pray because he's going to the cross He prays in the garden pleading with the father He is submitting to the father's will In a deep deep suffering that is going to be bearing he says not my will but your will I Want to say that to you today Not my will but his will I want to follow the road to the cross It's very painful to follow the cross Because you have to die to yourself A lot of times when we think of Christianity We don't see people really dying to themselves when you die to yourself you begin to submit and follow God's will His will was to come here and to die for your sins He met Peter James and John when he called on to minister. They followed him and the others and They were learning about Christianity. They were learning on how Jesus would use their lives But they never thought that Jesus Would suffer as he did They were looking for a kingdom a Kingdom where they would not only maybe rule in the kingdom But Jesus not only had to sing in his heart and his mind Because when he looked at the world he saw people he saw you he saw me for the future for us to accept Jesus Christ It's our Lord and Savior And maybe you're here today. You don't know Christ Man, you don't know what you're missing. I've become a sis. He said I give to Christ But Jesus Begets to pray in his first prayer He struggles to pray He feels his soul is crushed with sorrow He prays if It's possible It's terrible cup of suffering might be removed In my life And then they came to that place again, which was called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples you guys, please pray please pray as He reaches his destination On the west on the western part of the Mount of Olives This is one of the favorite places where they would go and spend time in prayer Say spend time talking to one another And when you think of the Nanga Semani, it means the oil press for crushing oil of olives and referred To the garden filled with olive trees a slope on the Mount of Olives, which I've been there so many times when I go to Israel But you know one of the things When I go to Israel and I sit on the Mount of Olives Looking over the city And I began to walk down to the garden of Gethsemane When I go there and I spend time It reminds me of the suffering That he went through and the reason is because of the love That he had for you that he had for me Loving his disciples as he says to them stand here and then I'll be coming in a moment He goes and he prays and they came you know when you talk about prayer it can be translated prayer ask or inquire He wanted to inquire from the father father. Are you sure you want to do this in my life? I came To die for this world Father show me Show me father if I'm going to go into trouble suffering He says in verse 33 and it took Peter James and John with him and he began to be troubled and deeply distressed He reads the word trouble there it means to refer to feeling of terrified amazement terrified amazement As he takes the tree The inner circle with him Peter James and John imagine how Peter James and John must have failed He takes his disciples to get them to pray In a situation that he's facing the cross the cross the instrument of death To go to the cross and to die for the sins of the world To say father forgive them Because they really don't know what they're doing And Paul the Apostle in 1st Corinthians 117 says for Christ did not send me to be baptized baptized made to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words Lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing To us who are bearing who are being saved. It is the power of God power of God The power that has transformed your life my life And I think that in these last days a lot of people don't really understand Suffering pain Yeah, because there's a lot of people out there hurting you might be here today a Lot of times we're afraid or maybe embarrassed to tell people There were being distress and the word distress means here to be alarmed or to be amazed the stress to be alarmed or amazed But the word trouble a strong term indicating severe distress and anguish Anguish Philippians 2 26 says Since he was longing for you all and was the stress Because you had heard that he was sick speaking of someone being sick He told the three disciples that his soul was not only self-conscious life was overwhelmed with such a sorrow deeply deeply grieve And he said to them my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death stay here and watch You know I tell people you know when you're going to spend time with the Lord get rid of your computer Get rid of your iPad get rid of your phone Choose a place Where you can be alone? Were you given opportunity for Jesus to speak to you? He has a lot to say to you One of the things that he'll tell you is that he loves you He cares for you He wants you to be a servant He wants you to be a messenger of the truth He wants you to look up and to understand that one day you will spend eternity with him And the reason is because he came to die for the sins of the world a Deep hurt that he had and the reality is was not only nearly too much for him But for the to in order to survive father, please please do you want me to go to the cross? Soul Exceedingly sorrowful even to death to stay there three times and pray While the disciples should have been praying but they were sleeping You know at times we really don't believe What God has said in his word? But imagine being there in the Garden of Gethsemane Knowing recognizing that in a few minutes the Romans are gonna come and one of your own is Coming and he has these he actually has turned Jesus in his betrayed him. I Don't know if you've ever been betrayed, but it's painful Someone that you trusted Someone that you loved and yet Judas is carrot did not care he carried The money for the disciples Jesus trusted him Yet he became a traitor We trade him And he traded him When you betray someone I Don't really know how people can sleep when you're actually betraying someone especially family Friends because it says that he went a little further And he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour of my past from him See Jesus was teaching us to get on our faces To get on our faces and pray and wait for him to do whatever he wants in my life Whatever I've told the Lord Lord in the time that I have left My wife she has cancer and they just found Five spots in her liver one is growing and we understand we understand the cross The cross of Jesus Christ That if Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane, why should we not go to the garden of Gethsemane? We're not special We're not special Jesus Jesus was there hurting Loving people caring for people And when he prayed The father The father Hurried his prayer, but the father wanted him to die on the cross For you for me For my wife For my kids for my kid my grandchildren For this church for my church for every church When you come to that place that you understand that is I did it's not I but Christ crucified You know Did this his will? the great pain Did he went through? In verse 35 it says he went a little further. He fell on his ground and Prayed that if we're as possible the hour will pass from him Jesus talking to the father and then his submission Marking the record only a brief summary of it. He emphasized that he desires his father's will Above his own. I love that The father's will above his own here is Jesus God And he says in verse 36 and he said Abba father all things are possible for you Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will but your will the word Abba here It's an Aramaic term in of endearment and intimacy Equivalent to Papa. That's what my grandkids call me Papa Daddy and when you say Papa Please forgive me for my sins In Romans 8 15 he says for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear But you receive the spirit of adoption by who we cry out Abba Abba father Galatians 4 6 says and Because you are sons Goddess and forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out Abba Abba father the scripture Speaks to us The cup is called the cup of the Lord's fury. I say a 51 17 says I wake awake send up of Jerusalem He says you have drunk of the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury You have drunk the day the drags of the cup of trembling and drain it out The cup is associated with suffering and God's wrath You see God's wrath He really doesn't want to Come and he doesn't want to bring his wrath upon anybody But he wants to bring his love The love that he has for you the love that he has for me and when he took that cup Associating with the suffering of God's wrath some 11 success Upon the wicked he will rain colds fire in brimstone And the burning wind shall be the portion of the cup The cup is also associated with salvation Some 116 13 says I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord And because Jesus drank the cup of suffering The rat for us we can what is the rat for us? We can take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of Jesus Christ Lord touch my life Lord Save me Lord. I give you my heart Lord. You are my king my Lord and my savior He comes back and they're sleeping and the Lord Says to them Then he came and he found them sleeping and said to Peter Simon Peter Are you sleeping? Could you not watch for one hour? How many times when I supposed to be praying I'm sleeping Sleeping spiritually the enemy likes for sure when we're going to pray to come against us He doesn't want us to have fellowship with God But that fellowship with God is very important to become one with him In the exhortation that he brings to them Could you not be watching for one hour? There was no excuse for them to be sleeping Because as they slept Peter after that would betray the Lord Because he didn't pray You know when we pray we have strength we have power To the things we're going to be facing You know I've been facing in my life for the last 11 years Something that I never expected to have because I've always been healthy seizures Seizures that I get I don't pass out But the seizures that I have in my life they come from my navel I feel from my navel to my brain and my navel when it hits my brain all of a sudden I can't speak I can't read so I have to wait and when I come back I mumble so I step up to pulpit and I'll have somebody else take the pulpit and to me that's embarrassing It's a cross of Jesus Christ that keeps me going The cross of Jesus Christ you guys It says in the scripture God is for us who can be against us No excuses no matter what you're going through to pray to pray and to pray And when you pray you're in fellowship with God Because as he comes to verse 38 he says watch be in the alert and pray less you enter into temptation The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak Our flesh is weak Where he uses the word here keep watching men to stay alert not only physically but also spiritually Let's they enter into temptation This Antibodies the testing as they would face at his arrest and his trial Peter the great warrior denied the Lord three times Three times guess what? Jesus forgave him He forgave him And the reason he forgave him is because of the love that Jesus had for him for Peter And I would pray this this morning That in verse 41 to 42 he says then he came the third time and he said to them He says are you still sleeping and resting? It's enough the hour has come Behold the Son of men is being betrayed into the hands of sinners get up and be going see my betrayer Is that he imagined I must have felt When he saw Judas leading 500 tortures and sorts and To come to the man of Allah's and when he saw Jesus to come up to him and kiss him a traitor But let us not look at Judas. Let's look at you and me Are you a traitor? Do you want Jesus Christ to be your king and your Lord and Savior? Will you be here today? And when you leave here, you'll kiss Jesus, but you leave without Jesus Just like Judas And I would pray that the Holy Spirit would speak to you that when you do that and you come to Jesus Christ That you remember the cross John Watson said this the cross is not only the symbol for the life of men It is equally symbol for the life of God and then maybe indeed be said That the cross is the heart of God You