(Slide 1) We are at the halfway point in our fall series, ‘Overload: How To Say ‘No’ So That We Can Say ‘Yes.’
And this morning, as we prepare for Communion I want to read Mark 14:32-42. You may wish to follow along in your Bible or on the screen.
(Slide 2)
And they came to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, “Sit here while I go and pray.” 33He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress. 34He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.”
(Slide 3)
35 He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.”
37Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. “Simon!” he said to Peter. “Are you asleep? Couldn’t you stay awake and watch with me even one hour?
(Slide 4)
38 Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.” 39Then Jesus left them again and prayed, repeating his pleadings. 40Again he returned to them and found them sleeping, for they just couldn’t keep their eyes open. And they didn’t know what to say.
(Slide 5)
41When he returned to them the third time, he said, “Still sleeping? Still resting? Enough! The time has come. I, the Son of Man, am betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42Up, let’s be going. See, my betrayer is here!”
In one of my favorite meditation books that I regularly read, it said one day last week, ‘When we are burdened and down, when we feel alone and weak, we can anchor our hopes on the following three truths:
(Slide 6)
• God believes in me; therefore, my situation is never hopeless.
• God walks with me; therefore, I am never alone.
• God is on my side; therefore, I cannot lose.
As we continue to explore the issue of overload in our lives, it is good for us to focus on these three truths and that Jesus illustrates them in our main text for this morning. And I would suggest that Jesus faced overload in these moments on a scale and magnitude that we can scarcely imagine. But because He did, we too can have the strength and willingness to face our overload – financial, emotional, occupational, relational, and spiritual – as well.
In John’s account of this segment of Jesus’ life and ministry, we have a very detailed and clear picture of what was said in the moments prior to this overloading situation. It is recorded in John chapters 13 through 17.
Now chapter 13 contains the account of what we call the Last Supper, Judas final act of betrayal, Peter’s confident assertion that he will die with Jesus, and Jesus’ equally confident (and true) assertion that he (Peter) would deny Him. Chapter 14 begins this wonderfully personal and powerful talk (for lack of a better word) with a very important statement, (Slide 7) “Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me.”
This profound statement is evidence that in the overload that we deal on a daily and even hourly basis, to quote Rev. Dr. Parham again, ‘God believes in me; therefore, my situation is never hopeless.’
In this opening verse, Jesus is setting the stage for what is about to happen. Jesus, as stated in John 13:21, says to the twelve that ‘one of you will betray me.’ This sends them into shock and fear. ‘Is it I?’ ‘Is it me, Lord?’
Now the disciples are on overload. Jesus has been telling them over the years they have been together that He would be betrayed and now He says that one of them will do it!
And now, sensing their fear and uncertainty and perhaps just plain exhaustion, Jesus says, ‘You trust God NOW trust in me!’ ‘Trust you with what?’ we can almost hear the disciples say.
To be very brief, I think that Jesus says to them in chapter 14, ‘trust in me with your love as a sign of obedience to me.’ In chapter 15 he says, ‘Trust in me with your very lives when you are hated and despised for being my followers.’ In chapter 16 he notes, ‘trust in me with your faith as you go through the grief and sorrow of the next few hours because I have overcome the world!’
In our overload; our stress we learn from Jesus at this point and to effectively deal with our overload we need to make decisions the disciples would have to make. The decisions to trust Him with our love, with our very life, and with our faith so that He will help us deal with our overload and find the margin in Him and in the life He has for us.
Jesus believed in the disciples and if He did not, why would He have asked them to trust in Him? Why would He have said, ‘Follow Me?’
Jesus believes in us! Do you believe that this morning? Why wouldn’t He believe in you and me? Granted we are not perfect and we do not perfectly follow Jesus either. But He believes in us because God the Father created us and loves us and Jesus died and rose again from death for us! Therefore, as tough as our circumstances are some times; as hopeless as our situations seem; as overloaded as we get, God has not given up on us! (Amen? Amen!)
Now as the story unfolds in our main text, Jesus has the disciples follow Him out into what is an olive garden as indicated in Mark 14:32. Now they have been following Him for 3 years since He said, simply, to them, ‘Follow me.’
But now they are following Him to a time and a place that will tax (even tempt) Jesus’ will to follow through on His mission for our salvation. As we note in our text it became more and more stressful for Jesus and Jesus did something that we must do as well when the overload hits us, pray. But like the disciples, we struggle with prayer at times because we are tired and worn out. But, let us remember that even in our own dark garden moments, ‘we are never alone, God walks with us!’
Here we also see, I believe, Jesus at His most humanness (if we can use such a word). He is really struggling; He is on overload. He is now seeking for the disciples to watch and pray with Him, not the other way around.
And in the prayer, the agonizing and urgent prayer, we read in our text, Jesus expresses both concern, even alarm and fear, when He asks for the cup of suffering and death to be taken away, if it was the Father’s will. But Jesus also, expresses the second of Rev. Dr. Parham’s points (Slide 8) in His willingness to obey the Father when He prays, ‘Yet I want Your will, not mine.’
In this overloading situation, Jesus was confident that God the Father was still walking with Him and therefore, He (Jesus) was not alone. (Later on, Jesus would agonizingly cry, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’)
Some of us are perhaps in an overloaded situation right now. We are stressed out, overwhelmed, and perhaps simply at a stand still.
We are not sure which direction to turn. We are not sure how and if we can get out of the situation. Jesus helps us here – ‘Your will, not mine.’
Sometimes we have to walk through the situation we are in as the only way to deal with the overload and then learn not to get in that same situation ever again. Other times, as we seek God’s direction and help and we truly, truly pray, ‘Your will, not mine,’ an opening takes place for us to get out and reduce our overload. But in either case, just as Jesus prayed, so we must also pray, ‘I want Your will, Your plans, Your purposes, to occur, not mine.”
Finally, as we look at the third and final truth from Parham, (Slide 9) we see it illustrated in the rest of the story. Though Jesus dies, three days later, He was resurrected!
He did not lose (although many people that He had lost because He did die!) God was on His side!
The same holds true for us, God is on our side. When we are at our wits end, when there is too much month at the end of the money; when we are double booked on our calendars; when all the stuff we have goes on the fritz at the worst possible moment; when our faith in God is sorely tested; God is still on our side.
St. Paul says it best in Romans 8: ‘If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?
33Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? 36 (Even the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. 39Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
(Slide 10) Got overload? We all do. But we have a God who is for us, a God who is with us, and a God who believes in us! Let us turn to Him again and again and again and again for His help and power to live confidently in His power and strength.
(Slide 11) As we prepare for communion let’s begin with some moments of silent prayer to God. Amen.
Source: A. Philip Parham, Letting God: Christian Meditations for Recovery, October 27th reading. Harper and Row. © 1987
