Good morning! Today is kind of an anniversary for me and I’m really excited to be here with you today to mark this day. You see, it was eleven years ago today that I was sitting out there in a pew in my dress blues after my thirteen-week vacation at Perris Island, South Carolina. I can still remember the gathering of the church body the week before I left that was held specifically for me, the prayers that were offered that night and throughout my time at boot camp, and the tears that were cried by myself and many of you when I left. I don’t know if some of you were crying tears of joy to see me go………..but I still remember them. The love and support I have always found at this church has meant a lot to me since then. If you had told me eleven years ago that I would be standing here today I probably would have laughed at you, but, I stand here as proof that a lot of times, our plans are not necessarily what God has in mind for us and he is capable of using ANYBODY. I guess I am saying all of this to say thank you to our loving Father for giving me the chance, the privilege, to speak to you today, and to thank all of you for the opportunity as well.
I have been accused of being a bit of a television junkie throughout my life. At any given moment at our house, chances are, the television is on, and more often then not, if I am in control of the remote, (and I’m a guy so I usually am) it is tuned to ESPN or some other form of sports. I tell everyone that I don’t follow to many things in sports very closely, and Anne is quick to correct me and name all of the teams that I follow and all of the events I do not miss. I have also gotten in trouble for filling up our TIVO with every episode of SportsCenter for a week. But, I do have other interests as well. I am an avid viewer of the History Channel and the Discovery Channel and I must admit I do not pay a lot of attention to news channels such as CNN or Fox. However, every once and a while, an event comes along that I can’t seem to pull myself away from. Obviously, 9/11 was such a day. I know that every channel on the networks and on satellite were airing the coverage so you couldn’t really ignore it if you wanted to, but, even if I had been given the choice of other programming I would have stayed with the coverage.
August 29th of last year and the days immediately leading up to it were another such event. I watched with a prayerful interest and a fear for those in the New Orleans and Mississippi areas as Hurricane Katrina bore down toward them. I watched as those who had no where else to go sought shelter in the Superdome and as those who had decided to ride out the storm boarded up their doors and windows and hoped and prayed for the best. I found it really ironic, disheartening, and in some ways ludicrous that we were able to see the storm coming but yet so many people were still going to face the full brunt of it either by choice or through a lack of a way to get out of the area.
In a way, what happened in August of last year to those living in the Gulf Coast area is a lot like our lives today. Storms are inevitable and the need to be prepared to avoid them when possible and to prepare for them when they cannot be avoided is imperative. I’m not talking about physical storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes. Instead, I am talking about the emotional storms, the spiritual storms, and the physical storms such as illnesses that it seems like we constantly face in our lives. Is there a way that we can prepare for these storms before they hit, and when they do hit, are there steps that we can take to make it through them. Is there some example from the Bible that we can turn to in these situations?
You see, I’m a big example guy. Maybe it is what I do for a living but I am constantly watching people. Observing them and how they respond to certain situations in their lives. I pay close attention to whether or not these responses actually work for them. If they do, I’m not afraid to copy them. If they don’t……….well I generally try to do something else. So, I often look to the Bible for examples of how to handle different situations. These can be specific in nature, such as “Sibling Relationships.” I probably wouldn’t follow the example of Jacob when it came to relating to my sister unless she made me mad. These examples can be general as well. So, is there an example in the Bible for preparing for these storms and trials that come up time to time in our lives? I think there are a lot of examples.
A really easy one to talk about would be Job. After all, in the span of one afternoon, he lost everything he had. Yet, he was able to say “blessed be the name of the Lord.” But, and Anne can attest to this, I don’t usually do things the easy way. We could have electrical problems at our house and, instead of calling someone who actually knows what they are doing, I’d try to fix it myself. One of these days we’re going to be picking through the ashes of our house.. Dad can vouch for this as well. He usually has to fix the things I mess up when I’M trying to fix them. So, I’m not going to talk about Job this morning.
However, I think there is a much better example then even the one Job gives us and it comes from Jesus. If you have your Bible with you, turn with me to Matthew 26. Starting in verse 36 we read:
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
I think this is a perfect example of how we can face the storms of our lives. If we look carefully at these few verses, we see a man who is getting ready to face the one of the most excruciating forms of execution that man has ever devised. Crucifixion was not just meant to hurt but it was also meant to humiliate. It was so painful and so embarrassing that it was reserved for those who were not Roman citizens. It was used to “make an example” of the criminal so to instill fear within the masses and to ensure the iron fist rule of Rome. We can tell through the allusions that Jesus made to his fate throughout his ministry that he knew full well what was coming. In both Matthew 10:38 and Luke 9:23 Jesus tells his disciples that those who want to follow him must be willing to take up their own cross. In Mark 10:38 Jesus asks James and John if they can drink the cup that he is going to have to drink from or be baptized with the baptism that he will undergo. So, much like we watched Katrina track toward the Gulf Coast, Jesus “watched” the biggest challenge of his life track toward him until it was close to the time for this storm to begin. The verses we just read show his “final preparations” for this event.
One of the things I think we need to notice about Jesus’ reaction to this impending event is that Jesus surrounded himself with a few good buddies. In the first portion of this particular passage we read that Jesus went into the garden “with his disciples.” We know that Jesus had “twelve main” disciples throughout his ministry and here he goes into the garden with eleven of them since Judas has already left. However, reading a little farther we also learn that he went a little farther into the garden with Peter, James, and John. This isn’t the first time that Jesus takes these three off to be alone with him. During his transfiguration in Matthew 17 he only includes these three guys as well. The point is this, Jesus had many friends, but Peter, James, and John were more than friends. They were Jesus’ buddies. The guys out there know what I am talking about. We all have many friends but not all of our friends graduate to the status of being a buddy to us. A buddy is someone who will be there for you no matter what time of the day you need them. Mom and Sis have a sign in the back of the Dairy Dee that sums it up pretty well. A friend will come bail you out of jail but a “buddy” will be sitting next to you saying “Man, that was fun!” A buddy will be at your side no matter what.
Who in your life can you count on to be that type of person? For me, it’s a guy that lives outside of Denver, Colorado named Gavin Prejean. Gavin is the type of guy that I can call on at anytime of the day or night when there is something going on in my life that I need help to make it through. We met in a small group of our church when we both lived in Hemet, California. Our relationship is greatly helped because we both have a passion for sports, especially the NFL. He has even gotten me to root for the Denver Broncos. We have golfed together, played softball together, had long conversations about life, raising kids, being a husband, and being a man of God. There is no doubt in my mind that if I needed him here in Kentucky he would be on the next flight out of Denver. Our relationship is so special to me that if Anne and I are ever blessed with a son his name will be “Gavin.”
My point isn’t to brag about the friend I have or to make it look like I have it all together because I don’t. What I am trying to say is that we all need people in our lives who will be willing to go through the trials of our lives before they happen. When the storm hits it is often to late to look for shelter. This is something that is absolutely necessary for us to have in place prior to these events of our lives. And it isn’t easy. Relationships with other people are tough to develop and tough to maintain. They also have to be a two way street. In order for us to have the benefits of having a few friends like Jesus had in Peter, James and John we have to be willing to be the same type of friend to them. It will often seem that we are the ones who are always giving and are always being inconvenienced by this relationship. However, there will come a day when the roles will be reversed and we will need the other person. The amount of time and energy we put into these few vital relationships with others is an investment in them and ourselves. So, again, I ask you, who are your Peter, James, and John’s? Who could you absolutely depend on to be there for you when the chips are down? If you can think of one, two, or three names, then you are truly blessed. If you can’t, then let me encourage you to begin to develop these type of relationships with other people. Here at church is a great place to start and a small group is the ideal place to begin. Looking back to the verses, we notice that Jesus cut the number from eleven to three. It is good to come together as a congregation and worship together, but it is extremely tough to become close enough to everybody within the church and to have the type of relationship in which you can be brutally honest with everyone. As humans, we naturally guard against to much self-exposure for fear of rejection and humiliation. It is easier to be honest with one person or a few people. The risks of rejection are naturally reduced.
Now, I realize this next point is a little bit out of order from our text, but, since we just finished talking about our “buddies” I wanted to bring this up as well. Sometimes even buddies will fail us. After all, we are all human. Contrary to my own belief, and my family will say “amen” to this, I am not perfect. I mess up. Going back to my relationship with Gavin, there have been times I have let him down. There are times that he expected one thing from me and I have done the exact opposite. Even Jesus wasn’t immune from the disappointment of having his buddies fail him. When we go back to our text we find that Peter, James, and John had a simple assignment. According to verse 38 they only had to sit and watch with him. They weren’t asked to breakdown and psychoanalyze the stress that Jesus was feeling at that time. They weren’t even asked to sit and listen to Jesus as he poured his heart out to him. They only had to sit and keep watch with him. Given the hour that this incident was occurring, we can only surmise that the hardest thing they faced in completing their assignment was staying awake. Now, have you ever had to absolutely stay awake and you find it nearly impossible? I think we all know that feeling. The eyelids droop, your head kind of nods, and…..if you work at a desk you just hope you don’t bust your head open when it falls forward. Stitches in the forehead probably wouldn’t be to attractive. It sure didn’t get Herman Munster to far. So, we all know what these three guys are going through in this moment in their lives. But…this is JESUS! How could anybody fail him? And these three men are a part of a group that will found the Christian church. I mean, Peter is the rock, man. He’s going to preach boldly in about six weeks from now on the Day of Pentecost. James and John are the “Sons of Thunder.” Sounds kind of like a wrestling tag team, doesn’t it? They are supposed to have such a temper and be so strong willed….how could they fail? At the very least these three guys could have started line like you would see on the Three Stooges or something. One guys slaps the other, who slaps the other, and well, you get the point.
But, you know what? They failed. Jesus comes back not once, not twice, but three times and finds them asleep. And let’s not forget what happened later that night and the next day. Every disciple fled at the arrest of Christ. Peter followed at a distance, but he later denied even knowing this carpenter from Nazareth. Later, when Christ hung on the cross only John was there.
They failed. They were human. We all fail from time to time. For some of us, and this seems to apply to me, we fail more often then we get it right. So, while I think it is important that we have people around us who are willing to face the storms of life with us we also have to realize that these same people will not always be there or, if they are, they may not be the help to us that we desperately need. We need help from another source. You see, if we could stop here, then there would be no need for Jesus in our day to day lives. If the obstacles of our lives were always surmountable on our own or through the help of a few friends, well, we could depend on God for our salvation and handle things now on our own.
Jesus seems to have known this as well. It is evident in the prayer that he prays that night in the garden. Jesus wasn’t afraid to ask God to take the storm away. He realized that God had the ability and the power to instantly remove the storm from his life. Looking back at verse 39 we see Jesus asking God to remove “this cup” from him. The Greek word used here for cup is “Poterion”. You all didn’t know you were going to learn some Greek today, did you? It is can literally mean a drinking vessel, but here, it is used metaphorically to mean an experience, favorable or unfavorable, in our lives. Again, we see evidence that Jesus knew exactly what he was going to be asked to do, and we see that he doesn’t really want to do it.
Let me be really clear here. I don’t think that Jesus’ love for us and for the rest of the world has diminished. I don’t think he is beginning to have second thoughts about the worth of you and me. What I think is going on here is he is showing the very human side of himself in which he is not really looking forward to the upcoming painful experience he is going to have. I think that so many times we tend to forget that not only was Jesus fully God in every shape and form, but, he was fully human as well. He felt the same emotions, pain, and dread that you and I feel. I think that he knew that this was absolutely necessary but that doesn’t mean that he was looking forward to the experience he was getting ready to have.
Have you ever experienced that? Let me tell you about one such experience in my life. All of you know that I have a little girl named Suzy. Well, I think all of you know. After all, she’s in the paper every week. She’s starting to get a little celebrity complex over the whole thing, actually. I wanted to read her a story the other day but I had to go through her agent first. Well, I don’t think it is any secret that she is the apple of my eye. I love that little girl more than anything in this world except for my wife. But, being a parent is hard and sometimes I have to do things that are in her best interest that I would rather not do. At the start of this year she was over a year old and she was still not sleeping through the night. Anne and I racked our brains and we could not figure out why in the world this was happening. We had to turn to a book by Dr. James Dobson for help and we learned what the problem was. Now, before you all get to critical of us, keep in mind that this is the first time we had done this whole parenting thing. Well, the problem was that Anne would get up immediately and go in the room so she could nurse. Now, the book told us this wasn’t a nutrition issue but a comforting issue. After all, if I could cry a little at night and get a warm snack delivered to me and I didn’t have to wake up to much for this to happen I think I would cry every night. So, our solution? Let her cry. Some of you are chuckling right now at least on the inside. Again, remember, we were fairly new to this. So, we let her cry. I have to tell you, I didn’t like those first couple of nights. I hated hearing my daughter cry and cry and cry. It broke my heart. But, it was absolutely necessary for her to get to where she would sleep through the night. After a couple of nights of this she MAGICALLY got to where she would sleep through the night. It was rough on Dad and Mom, but, it was necessary.
Now, I know that this is not exactly on the level of what Jesus had to go through for us. It’s not even in the same zip code. But, it was a pretty good Suzy story and it illustrates my point……….there are times that we have to do something or go through something we would rather not do or go through. It’s ok to not want these things in our lives.
In fact, it is ok to ask God to take these things away from us. Jesus did. He comes right out and asks God to remove this cup from him. In effect, he is saying “Father, isn’t there any other way that we can accomplish this? It is going to hurt. It is going to be the worst possible experience I could have in my life. Please, Father, don’t make me do this.” You see it is ok to not want to go through something. I think that so many times we are absolutely convinced that we aren’t a “holy” person if we don’t bear our cross and our tribulations in life without saying a word. I think that we sometimes feel that if we cry out for deliverance we may be branded a “whiner.” If we show any amount of discomfort in what is going on in our lives we are “weak.” So, we suffer in silence so as to give the impression that we have it all together.
Maybe, just maybe, we have it all wrong. You see, I think that when we turn to God and ask for deliverance, when we acknowledge that he and only he can take this “storm” away from our lives then we open the door for deliverance. It is a matter of acknowledging who is really in control here. Yes, we might have our friends around us and yes they may be able to help and I have already said that I think they are absolutely necessary, but, when the issue is cancer, or the issue is a broken marriage or some other major life-changing issue, our friends, our “buddies” do not have the power to take these things totally away from us. But, you know what, our God can. We serve a God that is bigger than any problem and that can defeat any obstacle in our lives and I believe that there are many times in our lives he is only waiting for our permission to come in and take care of it for us. God will not force himself or his help on us. But, many times, if we ask for deliverance like Jesus did here, he will come in and take care of it for us. So, in many ways, it is a question of dependence. Are we depending on ourselves and our friends or are we depending on God?
However, the storms of life are often unavoidable. Often times we take all of these measures, we get our buddies around us, we enter into these times with the full understanding that people may let us down, and we cry out to God for deliverance and….nothing happens. We aren’t spared from these times and we are often tempted to blame God and to become really bitter. This option was available to Jesus. He could have been really put out by the whole thing and gone to the cross full of questions and even anger. However, the Bible tells us he went willingly and meekly to his fate. You see, Jesus submitted his wishes to God’s. In verse 42 he acknowledges his willingness to “drink the cup” if it is the only way for God to accomplish his plan.
Here is where I think we need to be careful in how we interpret life and the trials and storms of life. I do not think the truly tragic events of life can be laid at the feet of God as his doing. I don’t think that God picks and chooses who gets cancer, which marriages will be broken up, which children will be orphaned, or who falls victim to any other of the truly awful events that can happen in our lives.
But, I do believe that God uses these events in our lives for some specific purpose and to help us grow in our faith and our love for him. In the first chapter of his epistle, James tells his readers that they should be joyful when different trials and problems come their way. I really like the Message paraphrase of James 1: 2-3. “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.”
You see, it is real easy to talk the talk when the walk is easy. But, when the walk gets harder, that is when we find out how strong our faith is and, in fact, that is when our faith is strengthened.
So, while I do not think that we can “blame” God for our misfortunes, I definitely think that these times can be used by God to strengthen our faith and to mold us and shape us into the likeness of his Son.
I really like the example Jesus gives us here. He is not afraid to ask for deliverance but he is also brave enough to tell God that, basically, “I’ll do anything you want me to do.” Toward the end of the passage we notice Christ going back to his disciples and telling them “Rise, let us go, here comes my betrayer!”
Jesus did not run away, he didn’t even make his adversaries come to him. Instead, he met them along the way. Again, some may think, “big deal” because he was fully God. True. But, he was fully human as well. He was afraid, no rational and sane human being wouldn’t have been. Yet, he went to meet his betrayer and the soldiers with him and he did so with the realization that God was in control and was going to use this storm in his life for the betterment of mankind and for his own glory.
You see, storms of this life are no match for our God. We’ve all heard the poem about the guy walking on the beach and there are two sets of footprints except in the hard times of life when there is only one. The man asks God about this and God tells him that it was during these times he carried the man. Storms of life allow God to carry us and to show us fully his power and his grace. We’ve already talked about how he has the power to take away the hard times but, if he choose not to, it is during these times we realize just how awesome of a God we serve as we lean on him.
So, as we get ready to go out the sign marked “Exit” today I just have to ask: How ready are you for the storms of this life? Are you like the people last year watching it come in but it hasn’t struck yet? You can hear the thunder on the horizon and you know its coming, but it hasn’t landed yet. How ready are you? Do you have people in your life who will face it with you?
Or maybe you are in the middle of a major storm right now. Do you have the type of relationship with God where you are able to go to him and ask for him to remove it from your life? And if he doesn’t, are you secure enough with him that you know he will help you get through things?
You all know me. I’m not here to preach at you or try to make you feel guilty about anything. I’m not much of a salesman so I’m not trying to sell you anything.
However, I do know about the problems of life and do know that making it through them without God is impossible. So, as we sing this song, I just ask you to consider whether or not you know that God is on your side. If you do, perfect! Then please pray that anyone here today that doesn’t have that knowledge would not leave without it. If you don’t know……well, God wants you to leave here today fully trusting that he is on your side. So, the invitation is out there for you. You only need to come. God will take care of the rest.
