October 6, 2025 • 43 mins
What if prayer isn’t about persuading God, but about being transformed by Him? We step into the Garden of Gethsemane and sit with Jesus in His most vulnerable hour—sorrowful, weighed down, and yet willing to yield, “Not my will, but yours be done.” As we read Matthew 26:36–46, we unpack the tension between desire and obedience, the beauty of honest lament, and the courage that rises when we trust the Father’s heart.
We talk about the cup of wrath, why Jesus asks three times, and how repetition in prayer is not weakness but faithful persistence. Then we trace a powerful thread from Eden to Gethsemane—Adam grasping for control, Jesus surrendering in trust—and explore how the second Adam reverses the curse. Along the way, we name the character of God that makes surrender possible: He is compassionate, wise, present, and strong. We also wrestle with our own limits: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” That’s not a rebuke to shame us; it’s an invitation to rely on the Spirit’s provision when our strength is gone.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Well, good morning.
It's good to be with you today.
I'm excited for us to continuein our series on prayer.
And I don't know if you've everhad the opportunity to travel to
Israel and walk in the footstepsof Jesus.
It really is a life-changingexperience.
And if you have, you may knowwhat you're looking at on the
(00:22):
screen right there where uh thispicture was taken.
It was taken just a couple ofyears ago when I had the
privilege to be there with someof our church family.
And we're going again, by theway, in February.
Just a shameless plug that ifyou would like to go, come see
me.
We're going in February, and youcould have the chance to do
that.
But anybody know where thispicture is taken?
(00:44):
This is in the Garden ofGethsemane.
That's right, at the foot of theMount of Olives in the Kidron
Valley, right across from wherethe Temple Mount would have been
in Jerusalem.
And so that is the scene of thetext where we will be today.
So if you have your Bible, openit to Matthew chapter 26.
And as you're finding your placethere, one other thing I need to
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let you know, at the conclusionof our service today, we're
going to have the privilege ofpartaking the Lord's Supper
together.
And so as you came in, youshould have received uh the
elements as you came in.
But if you did not, right now,if you would slip up your hand,
we have uh deacons who are gonnacome down the aisle.
They have these, so if youforgot to grab one, just put
(01:26):
your hand up, keep it up tillthey come to you.
They will make sure that you getone uh so that you've got that
for uh just a little bit laterin the service today.
But in Matthew 26, Jesus is inthe Garden of Gethsemane.
And today in our series onprayer, we are coming to the
prayer that we've all beendreading uh to consider today,
(01:50):
and that is the prayer ofsurrender.
Um, even just the word, right?
I can feel it.
It like kind of sucks the airout of the room because
surrender is all about lettinggo of something none of us want
to let go of, and that iscontrol.
Amen.
And so today we are going to seethe prayer of surrender that
(02:14):
Jesus prayed in one of the mostprofound, uh, powerful moments
in Scripture during Jesus'earthly ministry.
We hopefully today, my prayer isthat we would understand what is
necessary for you and I to beable to come before the Lord in
prayer and surrender our will tothe will of the Father.
(02:38):
And so follow along as I readour text this morning out of
Matthew 26.
I'm gonna begin in verse 36.
And it says, Then Jesus went tothe place with his disciples
called Gethsemane.
And he said to them, Sit herewhile I go over there and pray.
And taking with him Peter andthe two sons of Zebedee, he
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began to be sorrowful andtroubled.
And then he said to them, Mysoul is very sorrowful, even to
death.
Remain here and watch with me.
And going a little further, hefell on his face and prayed,
saying, My Father, if it bepossible, let this cup pass from
me.
(03:19):
Nevertheless, not as I will, butas you will.
And he came to the disciples andhe found them sleeping, and he
said to Peter, So could you notwatch with me one hour?
Watch and pray that you may notenter into temptation.
The spirit indeed is willing,but the flesh is weak.
And again, for the second timehe went away and prayed, My
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Father, if this cannot passunless I drink it, your will be
done.
And again he came and found themsleeping, for their eyes were
heavy.
And so leaving them again, hewent away and he prayed for the
third time, saying the samewords again.
And then he came to thedisciples and he said to them,
Sleep and take your rest lateron.
(04:04):
See, the hour is at hand, andthe Son of Man is betrayed into
the hands of sinners.
Rise, let us be going.
See, my betrayer is at hand.
Would you pray with me?
Father, this morning, as we cometo this passage of Scripture,
God, I confess it will bechallenging.
(04:29):
God, to lay aside our will, tosurrender that to you.
God is a scary thing, and weconfess that this morning.
But God, this morning I praythat through your word, your
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spirit would reveal to us thetruth and the freedom and the
beauty of surrender.
But God, that we would not justwalk away with an intellectual
understanding of it, but God, wewould understand and we would
apply it, God, and that we wouldleave here today able to pray as
(05:12):
Jesus prayed.
Father, not my will, but yoursbe done.
So teach us this morning, Ipray.
It's in your name.
Amen.
So the picture we saw just a fewminutes ago of Gethsemane in our
text this morning probably looksa lot more like this.
(05:32):
The hour is late.
Jesus has left the upper roomwhere he shared uh the Passover
meal with his disciples.
He's washed their feet, he'sleft that upper room, he's
making his way to Gethsemane.
Judas has already set in motionhis plan to betray our Lord
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Jesus.
And so at this point, the weightof the cross, the shadow of what
is to come is weighing heavy onJesus.
And I want you to understandthat because we don't have time
to unpack it as deeply as Iwould love to, but I want you to
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think because in the Garden ofGethsemane, we see the humanity
of our Lord Jesus, fully God,fully man, but we see his
humanity take center stage herein the garden.
He is, as a man, is feeling theweight of the cross, and he is
dreading it.
(06:37):
The full weight of the cross isstarting to bear down on him as
he enters into the garden.
Keep that thought in your mindthis morning.
And so as we start to thinkabout what the prayer that he
prayed, I want you to thinkabout the prayers that we pray.
Most of us come to prayer withthe purpose of changing God's
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mind.
Hoping that when we come to himwith with in prayer, right,
about a situation or aboutcircumstances in our life, our
hope is that through prayer itwill somehow change God's mind
about our circumstances.
But Jesus is going to show ussomething here in this prayer.
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He is going to show us that theultimate goal, the deeper goal
of prayer is not to bend God'swill to our will, but it is to
actually surrender our will toHis.
Prayer of surrender is a prayerthat trusts God enough to say,
(07:47):
not my will but yours be done.
And so this morning, the bigthing I want you to consider as
we work through this text isthat surrendering to the will of
God will only happen when wetrust the heart of God.
And so we're going to see howthe heart of God is on display
through the prayer of Jesus.
(08:08):
And my hope this morning is thatwe would come away with a deeper
conviction of the heart of Godtoward us.
Because in understanding it andin believing it, and as Mark
said earlier, placing our faithin that the character of God and
the heart of God is for me.
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It allows us to be able tosurrender to him, to surrender
our will to his will.
And so let's jump in.
I want you to see, first of all,the weight of this moment.
We've already talked about itbriefly, but I want you to see
in the text how Matthewdescribes the weight that Jesus
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bore.
He said, Jesus cries, he says tohis disciples, My soul is very
sorrowful, even to death.
And then he begs them to prayfor him, to support him, right?
He is going through the darkestmoment of his earthly life right
here as he considers what liesbefore him just a few hours into
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the future.
And it is weighing him down.
He's crushed by the cross andwhat is to come.
Not just the physical suffering,although that is absolutely part
of what he dreads.
He knows the pain, the physicalpain that lies ahead, but the
dread is even deeper for himbecause he knows that he is
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about to experience the agony ofdrinking the cup of God's wrath
toward sin for you and I.
And so as his humanity is ondisplay, he's not just detached
from this moment.
He is feeling every second ofthe dread.
(10:00):
But I want you to notice what hedoes with his sorrow, with his
fear.
He takes it to the Father.
First Peter tells us to cowl onhim, to cast all of our
anxieties on him.
Why?
(10:21):
It says because he, the Lord,cares for us.
And here is the first connectionto God's character when it comes
to a prayer of surrender.
Surrender requires trust in thefact that the Father cares for
you.
He cares for you.
(10:41):
We sang about it just a fewminutes ago.
He cares for you, and he provedthat in the cross.
Jesus drinking the cup of God'swrath was for you to be able to
experience fellowship with him,to have your sin atoned for.
(11:02):
You can trust his character.
He cares for you.
And so Jesus, in this moment, hedoesn't sit back and hide what
he's feeling.
And I want you to understandsomething.
When we talk about a prayer ofsurrender, we're not talking
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about hiding our emotions.
We're not talking about somehowtrying to act like what's going
on around us is not going onaround us.
It's not a naivety that says,oh, everything's great.
No, Jesus in this moment is notsaying everything is great.
(11:46):
Things are heavy, and he justcries out, this is heavy.
But who does he cry out to?
The one who cares for him.
Church, we can surrender becausethe Father absolutely cares.
So do you pray like that?
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Do you mask your fear and yoursorrows when you pray?
Do you just throw out words andphrases?
Or are you coming to the Lord inprayer?
With the cries of your heart,with your fears, with your
confusion, with your with youranxieties.
What are you bringing to him?
(12:27):
He invites you to come to him.
Not hiding, but transparent andauthentic.
Want you to see the request thatJesus made of the Father.
He not only felt the weight, buthe makes a request.
Father, if it's possible, letthis cup pass from me.
(12:50):
This cup, it's talked about inthe Old Testament multiple
times.
It's the cup of God's wrathtoward sin.
And Jesus knows that he's aboutto drink it.
Why?
So that we don't have to, amen.
He's gonna take this cup andhe's going to drink it.
But in this moment, in hishumanity, he says, Father, if
(13:13):
there's another way for you toredeem and restore fallen
humanity to us, let it happen.
If it could happen another way,I'd prefer not to drink this
cup.
He prays it three times.
(13:34):
The Son of God.
Fully God in this moment.
Fully man, but yet he has topray this three times.
This request that he bringsbefore the Lord.
And he's honest.
God, if there's another way,Father, let it be so.
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He's lamenting what lies ahead.
That's something very freeing.
And I want I don't want to moveon from this too quickly.
Honest lament is actually thelanguage of faith.
To come before the Lord and say,God, I am struggling in this
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moment.
I don't understand it.
I don't like what is before me.
I want something desperately.
But it is clear to me that itlooks like there is something
else that you want from me, orwhat I want doesn't seem to be
coming to fruition.
God, I don't like it.
We are afraid to pray thatprayer, I think.
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Because we think God is going tobe angry with that prayer.
Jesus prays that prayer.
He says, God, if it's possible,I don't want to do this.
Honest lament is not a lack offaith.
It's actually the language offaith.
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That says, God, I want to trustyou.
But I'm struggling to trust youin this moment.
So God, would you help me towant to trust you with the thing
that I don't want to trust youwith?
Jesus wrestles with the Fatherin this moment.
(15:29):
But ultimately, we're going tosee that he surrenders.
But before we get there with thenext phrase, I want you to
understand what allows Jesus toeven wrestle with the Father.
It is that he trusts in theFather's compassion.
He trusts that the Father loveshim.
(15:50):
He trusts that the Fatherunderstands the weight of this
moment, that the Fatherunderstands how heavy this is,
how hard this is.
Jesus' request, Father, if it bepossible, flows out of a deep
understanding of hisrelationship with the Father.
(16:14):
Does your prayer life reflectthat?
When you come before the Lord inprayer, are you praying those
honest prayers or are theysanitized?
God's not threatened by yourrequests.
Hear me.
God is not threatened when youcall out to him with the
longings of your heart, even ifyou know maybe they're not the
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best things.
It is okay to say, God, I don'tlike this.
I don't understand this.
But the only way that honestprayers like that make sense is
when we are deeply trusting inthe fact that God is a
compassionate Father, full ofmercy, full of love, who wants
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us to cry out to him with thosevulnerabilities that we all
have, to bring those before him.
But now the phrase, that is thephrase that we're building to,
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right?
The phrase that we need to pray,nevertheless, not my will,
Father, but yours be done.
Jesus praying this.
Look at the surrender that heoffers in this moment.
He has not denied his desire,he's expressed it three times to
the Lord.
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Three times he has gone throughthis scenario that we're walking
through.
Crying out to the Lord.
But each time he ends the prayerwith a prayer of surrender, not
my will, but yours be done.
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Jesus has not denied his desire,but here's what he's done.
He's saying, God, Father, mydesire, I am laying it down
under your will.
If my desire conflicts with yourwill, then let your will be
done.
(18:30):
Can you pray that way?
This week, this has been achallenge because I, as I've
meditated on this scripture,I've had to ask myself time and
time again, do I pray this way?
God, if my desire is in, if itconflicts with your will, God,
am I willing to place my desireunder submission to your will
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and pray, not my will, but yoursbe done.
God, if there's an area ofobedience in my life that I am
resisting out of pride or out offear, God, am I willing to say,
not my will, but your will bedone?
If there's a circumstance thatis ahead of me and I don't
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understand it, am I willing tosay, God, I will walk through it
if that is what you want,because not my will, but your
will be done.
That's the surrender that Jesusoffers in the garden.
But it reminds me of a garden afew thousand years before Jesus
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is in this garden.
Paul describes Jesus as thesecond Adam.
The second Adam, the one who wasable to do what the first Adam
was unable to do.
Jesus, the second Adam, the onewho came to reverse the curse
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that was brought on by the sinof the first Adam.
So in a garden, a few thousandyears before Jesus was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, Adam criedout to God, not your will, but
mine.
God, I don't want to trust yourplan.
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I want what I want.
And because that was the cry ofAdam's heart, sin entered the
world.
And it infected it, and itinfects us.
And because of sin, deathentered the human race.
But in a garden a few thousandyears later, Jesus on his face
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before the Father, wrestlingwith the Father.
As all the demons of hell arepressing down on him in this
moment.
This is the critical moment.
This is the place where if thisdevil is going to break Jesus,
this is the moment where it'sgoing to happen.
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And in this moment, Jesus doesnot cry out, my will, not yours.
What does he say?
Not my will, but yours be done.
The second Adam in his surrenderbreaks the curse of sin, defeats
death, makes it possible for youand I to be able to have a
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restored relationship with ourCreator.
Amen?
How was Jesus able to pray thisprayer?
Adam and Eve doubted God'scharacter.
They thought God was holding outon them.
They believed the lie of theenemy that said, God really
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doesn't want you to have thebest.
And so they doubted thecharacter of God.
Jesus is trusting the characterof God and the wisdom of God.
Surrender, a prayer of surrenderrequires that you and I trust in
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the Father's wisdom.
That God's ways are higher thanour ways, that his thoughts are
higher than our thoughts, thathe is sovereign over all things.
And even if we don't understandwhat is going on around us, with
our finite understanding, we cansay, I can see such a limited
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view.
My perspective is so small.
But God, I can trust that youhave all wisdom, that you have
all authority.
And so even if it doesn't makesense to me, I can trust that
you are wise.
Couple that with the fact thatyou are caring and you are
compassionate and you areloving, and I can then say, God,
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not my will, because I mightmiss this.
I might be mistaken in what I'mwanting in this moment.
So, God, I am going to choose byfaith to trust your wisdom in
this moment and surrender mywill to yours.
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Surrender is not for the faintof heart, is it?
It's not a passive thing, is it?
Surrender takes guts.
Surrender is active.
We have to constantly besurrendering, be reminding
ourselves of these truths aboutthe character of God, so that we
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moment by moment can say, Not mywill, but yours be done.
I love that the scripture givesus, as it moves on, a little
insight all three times as Jesusprays this prayer into the
weakness of the disciples.
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I think this is here as awarning, as an encouragement, as
an admonition.
But as I thought about it moreand more, I am so thankful this
is here because it shows mesomething about the character of
God as Jesus prays, and then hegoes back and he finds the
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disciples sleeping each time.
What does Jesus do in thesemoments?
He urges them to watch and topray, does he not?
And he says something to them.
He goes, the spirit is willing,but the flesh is weak.
What's he talking about here?
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He's saying, Listen, my spirit,my spirit is able to do in you
what you were incapable of doingyourself.
But you've got to cry out to me.
You've got to call on me.
Your eyes have to be on me.
But where are their eyes?
They're closed, they're asleep.
Rather than choose to pray,they're choosing to sleep.
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Jesus was not.
See, Jesus understood part ofthe character of God.
He was trusting in the Father'sprovision, was he not?
The disciples had not learnedthat yet.
But he gives them a little clueas to what lies ahead.
Is that there was coming a timeafter Jesus was crucified and
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buried and he rose again andthen he ascended to the Father.
What did he do?
He sent his spirit, just like hepromised, to indwell these same
men who were asleep in thegarden.
And that spirit was going to beprovisioned for them to be able
to speak the name of Jesus withboldness, to be able to face
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their own death and their ownpersecution, to name the name of
Jesus and not to shy away fromwhat was to lie ahead.
And in this moment, I think forus, we are in this are meant to
see that a prayer of surrenderrequires that we understand the
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Father's provision for us.
He does not expect us tosurrender to him, to muster up
the strength to do it in our ownstrength.
He knows that we are onlycapable of surrendering to his
will when it is the Spirit'sindwelling power working in us
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to do it.
And he says, the Spirit iswilling.
Your flesh is weak.
In and of yourself, we areincapable of this.
But through the indwelling powerof the Holy Spirit, as a child
of God, we can do this.
That's the hope.
Is that we can surrender ourwill to the will of the Father.
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But we get lazy in our spiritualwalk.
Rather than fall on our facesand wrestle with the Lord in
prayer, going to the pages ofHis Word to try to get our will
and submission to His will, wechoose to distract ourselves
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with other things.
This is an admonition, this isan encouragement for you and I
to understand that we must runto the Father because only there
will we find provision for thestuff that we will face in this
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life.
Finally, I want you to see thestrength that Jesus received in
this moment.
After he prays three times, hecomes back to the disciples,
wakes them up again, and hesays, Rise.
Let's go.
What did he do?
He set his face to the cross.
(28:05):
Think about how we entered thegarden and how we left the
garden.
He entered the garden weigheddown with sorrow and fear.
He left the garden with resolve.
We read this account in theGospel of Luke.
It says that the angels came andstrengthened him in this moment.
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See, his prayer in the gardendid not change the path that he
was on.
But it did change his posture.
He went from saying, Lord, ifit's possible for this cup to
pass from me without me drinkingit, please let it be so.
But he left the garden saying,let's go to the cross.
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Father, this is your will.
This is your plan.
And I submit to your plan.
It was the strength of theFather that allowed Jesus to
pray that prayer of surrender.
Church, for you and I, a prayerof surrender means that we have
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an understanding that it is thestrength of God that will enable
us to walk through this life.
He is the one who will sustainus.
He never abandons us.
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He walks with us, sustaining usand strengthening us through it.
Um I wasn't gonna tell thisstory, but but I'm but I'm I am
I changed my mind.
Um 13, 14 years ago, my fatherpassed away of cancer.
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And it was a difficult time.
You know, he fought, wanted tobe here, has eight kids.
A lot of them were young at thetime.
And so there was this desire,like, I want to fight this, I
want to get well.
But it really became clear inthe summer of uh 2011 that that
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was not the Lord's plan.
That the Lord was going to takehim home.
And so we were, uh we took atrip.
We realized this will be ourlast chance to do something, and
so we made a trip to Atlanta togo see the Braves play.
And um on the way down, um I putin a CD, because that's what we
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had at that time, um, in our carplayer.
Like if you don't know what a CDis, then I don't want to talk to
you.
Um but but we put in a Need toBreathe CD.
And there's a song on therethat's never been released as a
hit, it's never been on theradio, but the song is called
Garden.
And it is their take on theGarden of Gethsemane.
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There's a picture hanging on mywall with the words to this
song.
And it says, Let the songs Ising bring joy to you.
Let the words I say profess mylove.
Let the notes I choose be yourfavorite tune.
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Father, let my heart be afteryou.
I think that captures the heartof Jesus in the garden.
I sang that song at my dad'scelebration of life service when
he went home to be with the Lordbecause that was the song he
sang on repeat for the last twomonths of his life.
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Lord, I don't understand it.
This is not what I would havechosen, but if this is what you
have chosen, God, I want totrust you and I want my life to
sing a song that pleases you.
And it was in those two monthsthat I saw my dad surrender to
the will of God, and it was abeautiful picture, and it has
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been something that hassustained me and been an example
for me throughout my life theselast 13 and 14 years.
There is a beauty in surrender.
Because Jesus surrendered to thewill of the Father, and he
defeated sin and death and nowreigns.
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He sits at the right hand of theFather, he has sent his spirit
to indwell you and I.
Because of that, we can nowsurrender to his will in our own
lives because his spirit dwellsin us and empowers us to do so.
So why do we resist it?
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Why do we resist surrenderingour will to the Father?
Well, I think one reason isbecause of what we've looked at.
We miss the character of God.
We don't attach surrender to ourunderstanding of God's
compassion and his care and hiswisdom and his provision and his
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strength.
We separate those things.
Right?
We leave all of these amazingtruths about his character over
here, and we just say, Lord,I've got to surrender.
I can't think about that at themoment.
So that's the first thing I wantyou to understand.
Don't detach surrendering yourwill to the Father from under
from a deep understanding and anapplication of his character
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into your life.
You can't do it.
But there's one other lie thatwe choose to believe about
surrender.
And I had this lesson taught tome uh by my oldest daughter
many, many years ago when shewas about four years old.
Anybody know what these are?
Little swimmies, right?
That's what we call them anyway.
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You put floaties, you put themon your arms for the pool.
So my daughter, she's about fouryears old.
We were at the beach with mygrandparents.
Um we had gone down to the beachthat day, and then uh we had
gotten enough sand, and so wedecided to come back up to the
pool.
And so we were there by thepool.
We blow these things up, we putthem on Avery's arms.
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I get in the water, I reach forher, she climbs in the water,
and I'm thinking she's justgonna go.
Like I'm gonna kind of give hera little push, and she's just
gonna swim and kick around, andshe's just gonna play, and it's
gonna be wonderful.
That's not what happened.
Um, I did not know afour-year-old's arms could be as
strong as hers were in thatmoment.
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She had a vice grip around myneck.
She would not let me go.
She was terrified of me lettingher go swim in the water by
herself.
She's like, Daddy, no, I don'twant to go.
Please don't make me go, right?
And I'm sitting here and we'recausing a scene in the pool, and
it's it's bad.
Um, but I and so I'm trying topry her hands off my neck, and I
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finally do, but they immediatelygo from my neck to the edge of
the pool.
And she's now, you know, justlike her knuckles are turning
white, holding on to the edge ofthe pool.
Daddy, I don't want to go.
Don't make me go out and swim.
Like I want to stay here withyou.
So I pry her hands off the side.
I was like, Avery, we're gonnado this, right?
Trying not to cause a scene forthe other people there trying to
enjoy the pool, but her hands gofrom the side of the pool back
(35:40):
to my neck, right?
And I'm like, okay, we're notgetting anywhere here.
So I'm trying to reason withher.
You can't reason with afour-year-old.
I learned that.
But um, I was trying to say,honey, you'll enjoy this.
I'm gonna be right here withyou.
This is going to be fine.
Like, you're safe.
You've got floaties on.
I am right here beside you,nothing's gonna happen.
No words that I could say wouldchange her mind about the danger
(36:06):
of the spot she found herselfin.
So I whisper in her ear, I say,honey, you have two choices.
Because at the end of the day,you are gonna get out there in
the water.
You are not going to be scaredof the water.
So we can do this one of twoways.
One, when I say go, you can letgo of my neck and you can just
(36:28):
swim out into the middle and youcan enjoy the water.
But if you don't choose thatoption, the second option is
that I will pry your arms off myneck, I will spin you around,
I'll put my hand under your cutelittle bottom, and I will launch
you into the middle of the pool.
And then you will learn that youcan trust me, that these things
will keep you afloat, and thatthe water is something to enjoy.
(36:49):
If you want to read my book onparenting tips, I'm about to
write it.
But um, Avery chose option two.
Um, and so I kept my word,right?
Uh she went sailing.
What she didn't know is that asshe was flying through the air a
(37:11):
few feet away, I was swimming tothe very spot where she would
land.
So that I was right there.
But what happened?
She pops up after she goesunder, you know, she sputters
for a minute, and then sherealizes I can fly.
I'm good to go.
And so, you know, this is a fewmoments after that.
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She's like, this water is fun.
I am chilling, I am having thetime of my life in the water.
Surrender, but what did she haveto do?
One, she had to learn that shecould trust me.
That what I said was true, thatI was not going to leave her,
(37:54):
that I wasn't telling hersomething or asking her to do
something that I wasn'tconfident was best for her.
I wanted her to enjoy the water.
But it required that shesurrendered her will to mine.
But surrender without trust iswhat we were experiencing in the
first few minutes (38:15):
fear, dread.
But then she learned to trust.
And so surrender broughtfreedom.
Church, that's the beauty ofsurrender.
That is the beauty of thisprayer, is that when we trust
the heart of the Father, thereis freedom to say, God, I don't
(38:37):
know.
I don't know what's gonnahappen, but I know you do, and
so I can trust you.
So this morning, in the timethat we have left, I want to
implore you to not get up.
(38:58):
We're about to sing two songs,and uh a lot of times people
choose to get up during thistime and make their way uh to
the FLB for your growth group.
The growth groups aren't outyet, so please, please stay in
the room because we're gonna dotwo things here.
One, we are gonna have some timewhere you, just at your own
(39:20):
pace, can take the elements ofthe Lord's Supper.
And then I want to give youspace to be able to wrestle with
what is your not my will, butyour will moment that you're
wrestling with right now.
And so our our worship team isgonna come and they are gonna
(39:42):
begin to lead us and they'regonna begin to sing.
And so, in this moment, thefirst thing I want you to do
during these two songs is if youhave placed your faith in Jesus
as Savior, then I want you tosit and to contemplate his body
(40:09):
that was broken and pierced foryou.
And his blood that was shed foryou.
How fitting that we've beenlooking at the passage from the
Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus let his hands and his feetbe pierced.
(40:30):
Isaiah says, by his stripes weare healed.
His broken body allows us tofind healing in life.
Jesus drank the cup of God'swrath so that we could drink the
cup of redemption.
And so as you consider thetrusting the character of God to
(40:52):
allow you to approach these, notmy will, but your will be done
moments that we're all going toface in life.
Start with just remembering thecharacter of God that is on
display through the work ofsalvation that Jesus purchased
for us on the cross.
(41:12):
Now you may want to do this justby yourself, right there where
you sit.
If you're with your family, youmay want to, or some friends,
maybe you want to circle up anddo this together.
You may want to come here anduse the altar and use this as a
place where you or your familycan come and partake the Lord's
Supper together.
But I'm gonna give you space tojust guide yourself through
that.
(41:32):
But this is for those who haveplaced their faith in Jesus.
If you have never placed yourfaith in him and trusted him,
then the first thing you must dois bow your knee to the Lord
Jesus, to accept his gift ofsalvation for you, and you will
have a moment to do that in thisservice if that is where you
(41:54):
are.
But then the second thing that Iwant you to do, after you've had
a time to worship the Lord andremember him through communion,
I want you to take a couple ofmoments, and I want you to
consider what is that not mywill, but your will be done,
moment that you are facing rightnow in your life.
(42:17):
And are you willing to submit itto the Father, to lay it down
and say, nevertheless, not mywill, but yours be done.
Maybe you need to do that righthere.
Maybe you just need to come andsimply lay it down at the altar.
We'll also have uh we'll have uhministers down front who will be
glad to pray with you aboutthose things, or you can just
(42:40):
come by yourself and just pray,God, I'm laying it down before
you.
Because I want what you wantmore than I want what I want, or
at least I want to want it morethan I want to want what I want.
So God help me.
I'm wrestling with this, but I'mgonna start praying a prayer of
surrender until I can really layit down.
But would you use these twosongs as a chance to worship the
(43:04):
Lord through communion and thento start wrestling with a prayer
of surrender?
Father, would you take this timethat we're about to have?
God, would you do what only youcan do in this moment?
God, if there's anyone here inthis room who does not know you,
who have never surrendered theirlife to you and place their
faith in you and your finishedwork on the cross as the thing
(43:26):
that can restore theirrelationship to you.
God, I pray that they would meetme or one of these ministers
down front during these songs tounderstand how they can accept
you as Savior right now.
For the rest of us in this room,I pray that we would be bold to
do business with you in Jesus'name.
Would you stand as we sing, aswe partake of the Lord's Supper?
(43:48):
You have freedom in this moment.
But let's do that together.
Well, good morning.
It's good to be with you today.
I'm excited for us to continuein our series on prayer.
And I don't know if you've everhad the opportunity to travel to
Israel and walk in the footstepsof Jesus.
It really is a life-changingexperience.
And if you have, you may knowwhat you're looking at on the
(00:22):
screen right there where uh thispicture was taken.
It was taken just a couple ofyears ago when I had the
privilege to be there with someof our church family.
And we're going again, by theway, in February.
Just a shameless plug that ifyou would like to go, come see
me.
We're going in February, and youcould have the chance to do
that.
But anybody know where thispicture is taken?
(00:44):
This is in the Garden ofGethsemane.
That's right, at the foot of theMount of Olives in the Kidron
Valley, right across from wherethe Temple Mount would have been
in Jerusalem.
And so that is the scene of thetext where we will be today.
So if you have your Bible, openit to Matthew chapter 26.
And as you're finding your placethere, one other thing I need to
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let you know, at the conclusionof our service today, we're
going to have the privilege ofpartaking the Lord's Supper
together.
And so as you came in, youshould have received uh the
elements as you came in.
But if you did not, right now,if you would slip up your hand,
we have uh deacons who are gonnacome down the aisle.
They have these, so if youforgot to grab one, just put
(01:26):
your hand up, keep it up tillthey come to you.
They will make sure that you getone uh so that you've got that
for uh just a little bit laterin the service today.
But in Matthew 26, Jesus is inthe Garden of Gethsemane.
And today in our series onprayer, we are coming to the
prayer that we've all beendreading uh to consider today,
(01:50):
and that is the prayer ofsurrender.
Um, even just the word, right?
I can feel it.
It like kind of sucks the airout of the room because
surrender is all about lettinggo of something none of us want
to let go of, and that iscontrol.
Amen.
And so today we are going to seethe prayer of surrender that
(02:14):
Jesus prayed in one of the mostprofound, uh, powerful moments
in Scripture during Jesus'earthly ministry.
We hopefully today, my prayer isthat we would understand what is
necessary for you and I to beable to come before the Lord in
prayer and surrender our will tothe will of the Father.
(02:38):
And so follow along as I readour text this morning out of
Matthew 26.
I'm gonna begin in verse 36.
And it says, Then Jesus went tothe place with his disciples
called Gethsemane.
And he said to them, Sit herewhile I go over there and pray.
And taking with him Peter andthe two sons of Zebedee, he
(02:59):
began to be sorrowful andtroubled.
And then he said to them, Mysoul is very sorrowful, even to
death.
Remain here and watch with me.
And going a little further, hefell on his face and prayed,
saying, My Father, if it bepossible, let this cup pass from
me.
(03:19):
Nevertheless, not as I will, butas you will.
And he came to the disciples andhe found them sleeping, and he
said to Peter, So could you notwatch with me one hour?
Watch and pray that you may notenter into temptation.
The spirit indeed is willing,but the flesh is weak.
And again, for the second timehe went away and prayed, My
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Father, if this cannot passunless I drink it, your will be
done.
And again he came and found themsleeping, for their eyes were
heavy.
And so leaving them again, hewent away and he prayed for the
third time, saying the samewords again.
And then he came to thedisciples and he said to them,
Sleep and take your rest lateron.
(04:04):
See, the hour is at hand, andthe Son of Man is betrayed into
the hands of sinners.
Rise, let us be going.
See, my betrayer is at hand.
Would you pray with me?
Father, this morning, as we cometo this passage of Scripture,
God, I confess it will bechallenging.
(04:29):
God, to lay aside our will, tosurrender that to you.
God is a scary thing, and weconfess that this morning.
But God, this morning I praythat through your word, your
(04:49):
spirit would reveal to us thetruth and the freedom and the
beauty of surrender.
But God, that we would not justwalk away with an intellectual
understanding of it, but God, wewould understand and we would
apply it, God, and that we wouldleave here today able to pray as
(05:12):
Jesus prayed.
Father, not my will, but yoursbe done.
So teach us this morning, Ipray.
It's in your name.
Amen.
So the picture we saw just a fewminutes ago of Gethsemane in our
text this morning probably looksa lot more like this.
(05:32):
The hour is late.
Jesus has left the upper roomwhere he shared uh the Passover
meal with his disciples.
He's washed their feet, he'sleft that upper room, he's
making his way to Gethsemane.
Judas has already set in motionhis plan to betray our Lord
(05:56):
Jesus.
And so at this point, the weightof the cross, the shadow of what
is to come is weighing heavy onJesus.
And I want you to understandthat because we don't have time
to unpack it as deeply as Iwould love to, but I want you to
(06:16):
think because in the Garden ofGethsemane, we see the humanity
of our Lord Jesus, fully God,fully man, but we see his
humanity take center stage herein the garden.
He is, as a man, is feeling theweight of the cross, and he is
dreading it.
(06:37):
The full weight of the cross isstarting to bear down on him as
he enters into the garden.
Keep that thought in your mindthis morning.
And so as we start to thinkabout what the prayer that he
prayed, I want you to thinkabout the prayers that we pray.
Most of us come to prayer withthe purpose of changing God's
(07:04):
mind.
Hoping that when we come to himwith with in prayer, right,
about a situation or aboutcircumstances in our life, our
hope is that through prayer itwill somehow change God's mind
about our circumstances.
But Jesus is going to show ussomething here in this prayer.
(07:24):
He is going to show us that theultimate goal, the deeper goal
of prayer is not to bend God'swill to our will, but it is to
actually surrender our will toHis.
Prayer of surrender is a prayerthat trusts God enough to say,
(07:47):
not my will but yours be done.
And so this morning, the bigthing I want you to consider as
we work through this text isthat surrendering to the will of
God will only happen when wetrust the heart of God.
And so we're going to see howthe heart of God is on display
through the prayer of Jesus.
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And my hope this morning is thatwe would come away with a deeper
conviction of the heart of Godtoward us.
Because in understanding it andin believing it, and as Mark
said earlier, placing our faithin that the character of God and
the heart of God is for me.
(08:30):
It allows us to be able tosurrender to him, to surrender
our will to his will.
And so let's jump in.
I want you to see, first of all,the weight of this moment.
We've already talked about itbriefly, but I want you to see
in the text how Matthewdescribes the weight that Jesus
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bore.
He said, Jesus cries, he says tohis disciples, My soul is very
sorrowful, even to death.
And then he begs them to prayfor him, to support him, right?
He is going through the darkestmoment of his earthly life right
here as he considers what liesbefore him just a few hours into
(09:15):
the future.
And it is weighing him down.
He's crushed by the cross andwhat is to come.
Not just the physical suffering,although that is absolutely part
of what he dreads.
He knows the pain, the physicalpain that lies ahead, but the
dread is even deeper for himbecause he knows that he is
(09:39):
about to experience the agony ofdrinking the cup of God's wrath
toward sin for you and I.
And so as his humanity is ondisplay, he's not just detached
from this moment.
He is feeling every second ofthe dread.
(10:00):
But I want you to notice what hedoes with his sorrow, with his
fear.
He takes it to the Father.
First Peter tells us to cowl onhim, to cast all of our
anxieties on him.
Why?
(10:21):
It says because he, the Lord,cares for us.
And here is the first connectionto God's character when it comes
to a prayer of surrender.
Surrender requires trust in thefact that the Father cares for
you.
He cares for you.
(10:41):
We sang about it just a fewminutes ago.
He cares for you, and he provedthat in the cross.
Jesus drinking the cup of God'swrath was for you to be able to
experience fellowship with him,to have your sin atoned for.
(11:02):
You can trust his character.
He cares for you.
And so Jesus, in this moment, hedoesn't sit back and hide what
he's feeling.
And I want you to understandsomething.
When we talk about a prayer ofsurrender, we're not talking
(11:24):
about hiding our emotions.
We're not talking about somehowtrying to act like what's going
on around us is not going onaround us.
It's not a naivety that says,oh, everything's great.
No, Jesus in this moment is notsaying everything is great.
(11:46):
Things are heavy, and he justcries out, this is heavy.
But who does he cry out to?
The one who cares for him.
Church, we can surrender becausethe Father absolutely cares.
So do you pray like that?
(12:06):
Do you mask your fear and yoursorrows when you pray?
Do you just throw out words andphrases?
Or are you coming to the Lord inprayer?
With the cries of your heart,with your fears, with your
confusion, with your with youranxieties.
What are you bringing to him?
(12:27):
He invites you to come to him.
Not hiding, but transparent andauthentic.
Want you to see the request thatJesus made of the Father.
He not only felt the weight, buthe makes a request.
Father, if it's possible, letthis cup pass from me.
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This cup, it's talked about inthe Old Testament multiple
times.
It's the cup of God's wrathtoward sin.
And Jesus knows that he's aboutto drink it.
Why?
So that we don't have to, amen.
He's gonna take this cup andhe's going to drink it.
But in this moment, in hishumanity, he says, Father, if
(13:13):
there's another way for you toredeem and restore fallen
humanity to us, let it happen.
If it could happen another way,I'd prefer not to drink this
cup.
He prays it three times.
(13:34):
The Son of God.
Fully God in this moment.
Fully man, but yet he has topray this three times.
This request that he bringsbefore the Lord.
And he's honest.
God, if there's another way,Father, let it be so.
(13:59):
He's lamenting what lies ahead.
That's something very freeing.
And I want I don't want to moveon from this too quickly.
Honest lament is actually thelanguage of faith.
To come before the Lord and say,God, I am struggling in this
(14:23):
moment.
I don't understand it.
I don't like what is before me.
I want something desperately.
But it is clear to me that itlooks like there is something
else that you want from me, orwhat I want doesn't seem to be
coming to fruition.
God, I don't like it.
We are afraid to pray thatprayer, I think.
(14:45):
Because we think God is going tobe angry with that prayer.
Jesus prays that prayer.
He says, God, if it's possible,I don't want to do this.
Honest lament is not a lack offaith.
It's actually the language offaith.
(15:07):
That says, God, I want to trustyou.
But I'm struggling to trust youin this moment.
So God, would you help me towant to trust you with the thing
that I don't want to trust youwith?
Jesus wrestles with the Fatherin this moment.
(15:29):
But ultimately, we're going tosee that he surrenders.
But before we get there with thenext phrase, I want you to
understand what allows Jesus toeven wrestle with the Father.
It is that he trusts in theFather's compassion.
He trusts that the Father loveshim.
(15:50):
He trusts that the Fatherunderstands the weight of this
moment, that the Fatherunderstands how heavy this is,
how hard this is.
Jesus' request, Father, if it bepossible, flows out of a deep
understanding of hisrelationship with the Father.
(16:14):
Does your prayer life reflectthat?
When you come before the Lord inprayer, are you praying those
honest prayers or are theysanitized?
God's not threatened by yourrequests.
Hear me.
God is not threatened when youcall out to him with the
longings of your heart, even ifyou know maybe they're not the
(16:39):
best things.
It is okay to say, God, I don'tlike this.
I don't understand this.
But the only way that honestprayers like that make sense is
when we are deeply trusting inthe fact that God is a
compassionate Father, full ofmercy, full of love, who wants
(17:04):
us to cry out to him with thosevulnerabilities that we all
have, to bring those before him.
But now the phrase, that is thephrase that we're building to,
(17:25):
right?
The phrase that we need to pray,nevertheless, not my will,
Father, but yours be done.
Jesus praying this.
Look at the surrender that heoffers in this moment.
He has not denied his desire,he's expressed it three times to
the Lord.
(17:46):
Three times he has gone throughthis scenario that we're walking
through.
Crying out to the Lord.
But each time he ends the prayerwith a prayer of surrender, not
my will, but yours be done.
(18:07):
Jesus has not denied his desire,but here's what he's done.
He's saying, God, Father, mydesire, I am laying it down
under your will.
If my desire conflicts with yourwill, then let your will be
done.
(18:30):
Can you pray that way?
This week, this has been achallenge because I, as I've
meditated on this scripture,I've had to ask myself time and
time again, do I pray this way?
God, if my desire is in, if itconflicts with your will, God,
am I willing to place my desireunder submission to your will
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and pray, not my will, but yoursbe done.
God, if there's an area ofobedience in my life that I am
resisting out of pride or out offear, God, am I willing to say,
not my will, but your will bedone?
If there's a circumstance thatis ahead of me and I don't
(19:13):
understand it, am I willing tosay, God, I will walk through it
if that is what you want,because not my will, but your
will be done.
That's the surrender that Jesusoffers in the garden.
But it reminds me of a garden afew thousand years before Jesus
(19:37):
is in this garden.
Paul describes Jesus as thesecond Adam.
The second Adam, the one who wasable to do what the first Adam
was unable to do.
Jesus, the second Adam, the onewho came to reverse the curse
(20:01):
that was brought on by the sinof the first Adam.
So in a garden, a few thousandyears before Jesus was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, Adam criedout to God, not your will, but
mine.
God, I don't want to trust yourplan.
(20:21):
I want what I want.
And because that was the cry ofAdam's heart, sin entered the
world.
And it infected it, and itinfects us.
And because of sin, deathentered the human race.
But in a garden a few thousandyears later, Jesus on his face
(20:43):
before the Father, wrestlingwith the Father.
As all the demons of hell arepressing down on him in this
moment.
This is the critical moment.
This is the place where if thisdevil is going to break Jesus,
this is the moment where it'sgoing to happen.
(21:04):
And in this moment, Jesus doesnot cry out, my will, not yours.
What does he say?
Not my will, but yours be done.
The second Adam in his surrenderbreaks the curse of sin, defeats
death, makes it possible for youand I to be able to have a
(21:27):
restored relationship with ourCreator.
Amen?
How was Jesus able to pray thisprayer?
Adam and Eve doubted God'scharacter.
They thought God was holding outon them.
They believed the lie of theenemy that said, God really
(21:48):
doesn't want you to have thebest.
And so they doubted thecharacter of God.
Jesus is trusting the characterof God and the wisdom of God.
Surrender, a prayer of surrenderrequires that you and I trust in
(22:10):
the Father's wisdom.
That God's ways are higher thanour ways, that his thoughts are
higher than our thoughts, thathe is sovereign over all things.
And even if we don't understandwhat is going on around us, with
our finite understanding, we cansay, I can see such a limited
(22:31):
view.
My perspective is so small.
But God, I can trust that youhave all wisdom, that you have
all authority.
And so even if it doesn't makesense to me, I can trust that
you are wise.
Couple that with the fact thatyou are caring and you are
compassionate and you areloving, and I can then say, God,
(22:52):
not my will, because I mightmiss this.
I might be mistaken in what I'mwanting in this moment.
So, God, I am going to choose byfaith to trust your wisdom in
this moment and surrender mywill to yours.
(23:13):
Surrender is not for the faintof heart, is it?
It's not a passive thing, is it?
Surrender takes guts.
Surrender is active.
We have to constantly besurrendering, be reminding
ourselves of these truths aboutthe character of God, so that we
(23:36):
moment by moment can say, Not mywill, but yours be done.
I love that the scripture givesus, as it moves on, a little
insight all three times as Jesusprays this prayer into the
weakness of the disciples.
(23:57):
I think this is here as awarning, as an encouragement, as
an admonition.
But as I thought about it moreand more, I am so thankful this
is here because it shows mesomething about the character of
God as Jesus prays, and then hegoes back and he finds the
(24:19):
disciples sleeping each time.
What does Jesus do in thesemoments?
He urges them to watch and topray, does he not?
And he says something to them.
He goes, the spirit is willing,but the flesh is weak.
What's he talking about here?
(24:40):
He's saying, Listen, my spirit,my spirit is able to do in you
what you were incapable of doingyourself.
But you've got to cry out to me.
You've got to call on me.
Your eyes have to be on me.
But where are their eyes?
They're closed, they're asleep.
Rather than choose to pray,they're choosing to sleep.
(25:09):
Jesus was not.
See, Jesus understood part ofthe character of God.
He was trusting in the Father'sprovision, was he not?
The disciples had not learnedthat yet.
But he gives them a little clueas to what lies ahead.
Is that there was coming a timeafter Jesus was crucified and
(25:32):
buried and he rose again andthen he ascended to the Father.
What did he do?
He sent his spirit, just like hepromised, to indwell these same
men who were asleep in thegarden.
And that spirit was going to beprovisioned for them to be able
to speak the name of Jesus withboldness, to be able to face
(25:53):
their own death and their ownpersecution, to name the name of
Jesus and not to shy away fromwhat was to lie ahead.
And in this moment, I think forus, we are in this are meant to
see that a prayer of surrenderrequires that we understand the
(26:14):
Father's provision for us.
He does not expect us tosurrender to him, to muster up
the strength to do it in our ownstrength.
He knows that we are onlycapable of surrendering to his
will when it is the Spirit'sindwelling power working in us
(26:35):
to do it.
And he says, the Spirit iswilling.
Your flesh is weak.
In and of yourself, we areincapable of this.
But through the indwelling powerof the Holy Spirit, as a child
of God, we can do this.
That's the hope.
Is that we can surrender ourwill to the will of the Father.
(27:01):
But we get lazy in our spiritualwalk.
Rather than fall on our facesand wrestle with the Lord in
prayer, going to the pages ofHis Word to try to get our will
and submission to His will, wechoose to distract ourselves
(27:23):
with other things.
This is an admonition, this isan encouragement for you and I
to understand that we must runto the Father because only there
will we find provision for thestuff that we will face in this
(27:43):
life.
Finally, I want you to see thestrength that Jesus received in
this moment.
After he prays three times, hecomes back to the disciples,
wakes them up again, and hesays, Rise.
Let's go.
What did he do?
He set his face to the cross.
(28:05):
Think about how we entered thegarden and how we left the
garden.
He entered the garden weigheddown with sorrow and fear.
He left the garden with resolve.
We read this account in theGospel of Luke.
It says that the angels came andstrengthened him in this moment.
(28:31):
See, his prayer in the gardendid not change the path that he
was on.
But it did change his posture.
He went from saying, Lord, ifit's possible for this cup to
pass from me without me drinkingit, please let it be so.
But he left the garden saying,let's go to the cross.
(28:55):
Father, this is your will.
This is your plan.
And I submit to your plan.
It was the strength of theFather that allowed Jesus to
pray that prayer of surrender.
Church, for you and I, a prayerof surrender means that we have
(29:18):
an understanding that it is thestrength of God that will enable
us to walk through this life.
He is the one who will sustainus.
He never abandons us.
(29:39):
He walks with us, sustaining usand strengthening us through it.
Um I wasn't gonna tell thisstory, but but I'm but I'm I am
I changed my mind.
Um 13, 14 years ago, my fatherpassed away of cancer.
(30:08):
And it was a difficult time.
You know, he fought, wanted tobe here, has eight kids.
A lot of them were young at thetime.
And so there was this desire,like, I want to fight this, I
want to get well.
But it really became clear inthe summer of uh 2011 that that
(30:31):
was not the Lord's plan.
That the Lord was going to takehim home.
And so we were, uh we took atrip.
We realized this will be ourlast chance to do something, and
so we made a trip to Atlanta togo see the Braves play.
And um on the way down, um I putin a CD, because that's what we
(30:53):
had at that time, um, in our carplayer.
Like if you don't know what a CDis, then I don't want to talk to
you.
Um but but we put in a Need toBreathe CD.
And there's a song on therethat's never been released as a
hit, it's never been on theradio, but the song is called
Garden.
And it is their take on theGarden of Gethsemane.
(31:16):
There's a picture hanging on mywall with the words to this
song.
And it says, Let the songs Ising bring joy to you.
Let the words I say profess mylove.
Let the notes I choose be yourfavorite tune.
(31:37):
Father, let my heart be afteryou.
I think that captures the heartof Jesus in the garden.
I sang that song at my dad'scelebration of life service when
he went home to be with the Lordbecause that was the song he
sang on repeat for the last twomonths of his life.
(32:03):
Lord, I don't understand it.
This is not what I would havechosen, but if this is what you
have chosen, God, I want totrust you and I want my life to
sing a song that pleases you.
And it was in those two monthsthat I saw my dad surrender to
the will of God, and it was abeautiful picture, and it has
(32:28):
been something that hassustained me and been an example
for me throughout my life theselast 13 and 14 years.
There is a beauty in surrender.
Because Jesus surrendered to thewill of the Father, and he
defeated sin and death and nowreigns.
(32:51):
He sits at the right hand of theFather, he has sent his spirit
to indwell you and I.
Because of that, we can nowsurrender to his will in our own
lives because his spirit dwellsin us and empowers us to do so.
So why do we resist it?
(33:12):
Why do we resist surrenderingour will to the Father?
Well, I think one reason isbecause of what we've looked at.
We miss the character of God.
We don't attach surrender to ourunderstanding of God's
compassion and his care and hiswisdom and his provision and his
(33:32):
strength.
We separate those things.
Right?
We leave all of these amazingtruths about his character over
here, and we just say, Lord,I've got to surrender.
I can't think about that at themoment.
So that's the first thing I wantyou to understand.
Don't detach surrendering yourwill to the Father from under
from a deep understanding and anapplication of his character
(33:54):
into your life.
You can't do it.
But there's one other lie thatwe choose to believe about
surrender.
And I had this lesson taught tome uh by my oldest daughter
many, many years ago when shewas about four years old.
Anybody know what these are?
Little swimmies, right?
That's what we call them anyway.
(34:15):
You put floaties, you put themon your arms for the pool.
So my daughter, she's about fouryears old.
We were at the beach with mygrandparents.
Um we had gone down to the beachthat day, and then uh we had
gotten enough sand, and so wedecided to come back up to the
pool.
And so we were there by thepool.
We blow these things up, we putthem on Avery's arms.
(34:37):
I get in the water, I reach forher, she climbs in the water,
and I'm thinking she's justgonna go.
Like I'm gonna kind of give hera little push, and she's just
gonna swim and kick around, andshe's just gonna play, and it's
gonna be wonderful.
That's not what happened.
Um, I did not know afour-year-old's arms could be as
strong as hers were in thatmoment.
(34:58):
She had a vice grip around myneck.
She would not let me go.
She was terrified of me lettingher go swim in the water by
herself.
She's like, Daddy, no, I don'twant to go.
Please don't make me go, right?
And I'm sitting here and we'recausing a scene in the pool, and
it's it's bad.
Um, but I and so I'm trying topry her hands off my neck, and I
(35:20):
finally do, but they immediatelygo from my neck to the edge of
the pool.
And she's now, you know, justlike her knuckles are turning
white, holding on to the edge ofthe pool.
Daddy, I don't want to go.
Don't make me go out and swim.
Like I want to stay here withyou.
So I pry her hands off the side.
I was like, Avery, we're gonnado this, right?
Trying not to cause a scene forthe other people there trying to
enjoy the pool, but her hands gofrom the side of the pool back
(35:40):
to my neck, right?
And I'm like, okay, we're notgetting anywhere here.
So I'm trying to reason withher.
You can't reason with afour-year-old.
I learned that.
But um, I was trying to say,honey, you'll enjoy this.
I'm gonna be right here withyou.
This is going to be fine.
Like, you're safe.
You've got floaties on.
I am right here beside you,nothing's gonna happen.
No words that I could say wouldchange her mind about the danger
(36:06):
of the spot she found herselfin.
So I whisper in her ear, I say,honey, you have two choices.
Because at the end of the day,you are gonna get out there in
the water.
You are not going to be scaredof the water.
So we can do this one of twoways.
One, when I say go, you can letgo of my neck and you can just
(36:28):
swim out into the middle and youcan enjoy the water.
But if you don't choose thatoption, the second option is
that I will pry your arms off myneck, I will spin you around,
I'll put my hand under your cutelittle bottom, and I will launch
you into the middle of the pool.
And then you will learn that youcan trust me, that these things
will keep you afloat, and thatthe water is something to enjoy.
(36:49):
If you want to read my book onparenting tips, I'm about to
write it.
But um, Avery chose option two.
Um, and so I kept my word,right?
Uh she went sailing.
What she didn't know is that asshe was flying through the air a
(37:11):
few feet away, I was swimming tothe very spot where she would
land.
So that I was right there.
But what happened?
She pops up after she goesunder, you know, she sputters
for a minute, and then sherealizes I can fly.
I'm good to go.
And so, you know, this is a fewmoments after that.
(37:33):
She's like, this water is fun.
I am chilling, I am having thetime of my life in the water.
Surrender, but what did she haveto do?
One, she had to learn that shecould trust me.
That what I said was true, thatI was not going to leave her,
(37:54):
that I wasn't telling hersomething or asking her to do
something that I wasn'tconfident was best for her.
I wanted her to enjoy the water.
But it required that shesurrendered her will to mine.
But surrender without trust iswhat we were experiencing in the
first few minutes (38:15):
fear, dread.
But then she learned to trust.
And so surrender broughtfreedom.
Church, that's the beauty ofsurrender.
That is the beauty of thisprayer, is that when we trust
the heart of the Father, thereis freedom to say, God, I don't
(38:37):
know.
I don't know what's gonnahappen, but I know you do, and
so I can trust you.
So this morning, in the timethat we have left, I want to
implore you to not get up.
(38:58):
We're about to sing two songs,and uh a lot of times people
choose to get up during thistime and make their way uh to
the FLB for your growth group.
The growth groups aren't outyet, so please, please stay in
the room because we're gonna dotwo things here.
One, we are gonna have some timewhere you, just at your own
(39:20):
pace, can take the elements ofthe Lord's Supper.
And then I want to give youspace to be able to wrestle with
what is your not my will, butyour will moment that you're
wrestling with right now.
And so our our worship team isgonna come and they are gonna
(39:42):
begin to lead us and they'regonna begin to sing.
And so, in this moment, thefirst thing I want you to do
during these two songs is if youhave placed your faith in Jesus
as Savior, then I want you tosit and to contemplate his body
(40:09):
that was broken and pierced foryou.
And his blood that was shed foryou.
How fitting that we've beenlooking at the passage from the
Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus let his hands and his feetbe pierced.
(40:30):
Isaiah says, by his stripes weare healed.
His broken body allows us tofind healing in life.
Jesus drank the cup of God'swrath so that we could drink the
cup of redemption.
And so as you consider thetrusting the character of God to
(40:52):
allow you to approach these, notmy will, but your will be done
moments that we're all going toface in life.
Start with just remembering thecharacter of God that is on
display through the work ofsalvation that Jesus purchased
for us on the cross.
(41:12):
Now you may want to do this justby yourself, right there where
you sit.
If you're with your family, youmay want to, or some friends,
maybe you want to circle up anddo this together.
You may want to come here anduse the altar and use this as a
place where you or your familycan come and partake the Lord's
Supper together.
But I'm gonna give you space tojust guide yourself through
that.
(41:32):
But this is for those who haveplaced their faith in Jesus.
If you have never placed yourfaith in him and trusted him,
then the first thing you must dois bow your knee to the Lord
Jesus, to accept his gift ofsalvation for you, and you will
have a moment to do that in thisservice if that is where you
(41:54):
are.
But then the second thing that Iwant you to do, after you've had
a time to worship the Lord andremember him through communion,
I want you to take a couple ofmoments, and I want you to
consider what is that not mywill, but your will be done,
moment that you are facing rightnow in your life.
(42:17):
And are you willing to submit itto the Father, to lay it down
and say, nevertheless, not mywill, but yours be done.
Maybe you need to do that righthere.
Maybe you just need to come andsimply lay it down at the altar.
We'll also have uh we'll have uhministers down front who will be
glad to pray with you aboutthose things, or you can just
(42:40):
come by yourself and just pray,God, I'm laying it down before
you.
Because I want what you wantmore than I want what I want, or
at least I want to want it morethan I want to want what I want.
So God help me.
I'm wrestling with this, but I'mgonna start praying a prayer of
surrender until I can really layit down.
But would you use these twosongs as a chance to worship the
(43:04):
Lord through communion and thento start wrestling with a prayer
of surrender?
Father, would you take this timethat we're about to have?
God, would you do what only youcan do in this moment?
God, if there's anyone here inthis room who does not know you,
who have never surrendered theirlife to you and place their
faith in you and your finishedwork on the cross as the thing
(43:26):
that can restore theirrelationship to you.
God, I pray that they would meetme or one of these ministers
down front during these songs tounderstand how they can accept
you as Savior right now.
For the rest of us in this room,I pray that we would be bold to
do business with you in Jesus'name.
Would you stand as we sing, aswe partake of the Lord's Supper?
(43:48):
You have freedom in this moment.
But let's do that together.
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