Navigating Your Gethsemane

Navigating Our Gethsemane

Easter Sunday

CCCAG April 4th, 2021

Scripture: Luke 22:39-44

Today I was going to finish the Created for Significance series but actually as I was bringing the message last Sunday, I felt that God told me to go in a little bit of a different direction and bring a more Easter related message to you.

The leading I got from God reminded me of one of my favorite quotes you may have heard me say before- The great evangelist Dwight Moody once said that the most effective preacher preachers with a Bible in one hand and the newspaper in another.

In other words, if you are going to preach the word, make it relevant for the times you are living in today.

So on this Easter Sunday we're going to look at what Jesus went through in the Garden of Gethsemane and see how they can bring us encouragement for the times we live in today.

To set the stage-

Jesus has just had the Last Supper with the disciples

Judas has left to go and start his betrayal of Jesus

Jesus and the disciples are taking a late night walk an end up at the Garden of Gethsemane just to the East of Jerusalem.

Jesus knows what's coming. He knows in a matter of hours that he is going to be beaten to the point of almost being unrecognizable. The flesh is going to be largely stripped from his back and then a wooden cross beam is going to be laid across his shoulders that to be carried up the side of a small mountain where he will be crucified and hang in agony for six hours.

This is the culmination of the plan of salvation.

It’s almost done- Jesus is on the home stretch.

But the home stretch is going to be the worst 16 hours of His life.

This is where Jesus is right now- getting ready to take the plunge.

He knows the next day or so is going to be very difficult. He will face an incredible physical test, and a multiplied worst spiritual test.

And in His humanity, he is terrified.

As we read Luke’s Account, I want you to put yourself in HIS place. Knowing you are about to literally plunge into the worst pain, worst torment, and literally go through the worse hell anyone has ever experienced.

Scripture-

Luke 22:39-44

39 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.

Prayer

We live in very trying times.

Many of us are deeply concerned about

-the government coming in and stripping away freedoms.

- direction the COVID virus is going next.

-the moral and spiritual climate of our nation.

Many of us have that sense of dark anticipation- What’s coming next?

We are waiting for the shoe to drop that will change everything.

When I was a teenager I worked at Six Flags great America and I worked on the roller coasters. One of them took you up a large Hill and then you went into a tunnel were you then dropped several stories Into Darkness.

That's kind of what living today feels like

It feels like we are at the top of the roller coaster, waiting for it to crest the hill, and drive us downward into an uncertain future.

Living in 2021 feels like the Valley of the shadow of death.

Jesus is experiencing these same kind of feelings X 10 in the garden.

How did Jesus deal with these feelings?

How did Jesus drum up the courage to continue?

How did Jesus finally bend to God’s will when everything inside of his humanity screamed at HIM to run?

By studying Jesus’ actions here, we will learn how to deal with our times in the Garden of Gethsemane, and learn to navigate it as Jesus did.

What is the first thing we can we learn from Jesus in the Garden?

I. Acknowledge your fear, and give it to God

Sometimes as Christians, we are afraid of letting people see how we really feel.

Particularly when it comes to fear, depression, feeling overwhelmed- those emotions that we think if we show them, others will judge us as being weak in the faith.

Has anyone ever felt like that?

You're too afraid of other people's opinions of you that you can't drop the church face for fear of being made to feel less of a Christian than someone else?