"The Great Physician and His Sleepy Followers"
As we change.
in New York, it is is called
And Lujan.
As we tear.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleanse and part? Are you washed in the blood?
Are you trusting in his grade?
How are you?
Videos of Bob.
Are you in love?
Are you washed in the blood?
Home.
Where in Georgia?
You win. Hallelujah.
Everything To God In Prayer.
Everything To God In Prayer.
G-Eazy.
Standing on the Promises of Christ to die is die with you.
Standing on the Promises. I cannot. listen to the spirits, call resting in
The dog shoes.
And life more abundantly.
OMG.
He passed and we follow him.
More than conquerors.
Gross train.
Wonderful, song service, thank you for. I don't know whether to thank you for the business meeting or not. But when I found out this morning, the first order of business was a business meeting, you scares me, half to death, you know that. So I just want to tell everybody now, take a deep breath. That's behind us. Okay? And it's okay to smile. We're in God's house with God's people and life is worth the living, just because Jesus lives, and we're going to see him very soon. So thank you for being here today. I pray that to you will receive a blessing from being in the service. So good to see brother. Bobby Sparks here today. Glad he he slipped in on this this morning. I'm so thankful. See you here my brother and I feel honored to stand in this Pulpit that you that you held for so many years. And thank you for your presence here today and your friendship. And your fellowship. I want to thank the church for allowing me to serve as your pastor and I pray that I will be a blessing to you. Pray for me and Debbie as we make the transition from being missionaries transitioning, back to a pastoral Ministry. It is quite a a transition and thank you for voting to do some work on the parsonage. Thank you for all the things that you've done to make it possible for us to come and to serve here with you. And I pray that you will continue to pray for me that I will have God's wisdom and that I will know his will as I stand before you and seek to leave this congregation also want. Thanks brother, Eugene for the good work that he has done in leading as interim. Pastor, thank you for your leadership. If you have your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26. We're going to be looking at verses 36 through 41 for I text today. I'm entitled to message the great physician and his sleepy followers. The great physician and his sleepy followers. I hope we don't have any sleepy followers here today. You know why? I have a, I have a policy. I'll just start this off with her the right way. I have a policy if you fall asleep. While I'm preaching, I will start over. OK? And so it would it would behoove you to stay awake. Even if it's boring, even if it's not good to stay awake for everyone else's sake, it is good to be in the Lord's House. It's good to have the opportunity to worship Him in spirit and in truth and I pray that that's what we've come together to do in Matthew chapter 26. If you would stand with me while we read the scripture together, Beginning in verse 36.
Then cometh, Jesus with them on to a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples sit you here. While I go and pray younger and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then say, if he unto them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, tarry, ye here and watch with me. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will. But as thou Wilt and he cometh unto the disciples and find at them asleep and saith unto Peter. What could you not watch with me one hour watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. Let us pray our heavenly father. Once again we approached your throne of grace. We pray your blessing upon the reading of your word and upon the preaching which will follow father that it may be according to your will in your purpose if there's someone here today father that does not know you as their personal Lord and Savior, I pray that your Holy Spirit would convicted and draw them to you. And that before they leave this house today, they will repent of their sin and trust in the Lord. Jesus Christ. Or we pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated.
This portion of Matthew's gospel record, the events immediately preceding the arrests and the trials of Jesus. Jesus, and his disciples had left the upper room in Jerusalem made Dawn crossed over the the brook kedron. They're going to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives and gets symmetry means in the Hebrew language. It means an oil press and they would bring the olives down from the Mount of Olives and they would press them. They're in the garden. It was to this Garden that Jesus off and went to pray and possibly, he and his disciples spent nights there because Jesus had no home on this Earth. And so it's quite possible that he and his disciples would spend nights there, and then return to Jerusalem to preach and teach in the temple on a daily basis. And this would would make good sense because I remember Judas. Iscariot had been dismissed from the upper room to go and to do the work that he was going to do to betray Jesus. And he would know where to find him, because this was a common place where Jesus and his disciples would Resort Jesus. Now, with the eleven Apostles, he left eight of them, probably near the entrance to the garden and he took Peter James and John with him further into the garden to pray. And as they walked the events in the sufferings that lay ahead began to press heavily upon Our Savior. Jesus Christ. In the Bible says that he he said, I am feeding sorrowful even unto death. He was, he was trying to describe the immense pressure and spiritual stress, that was laid upon his shoulders. No. Here today and none of those disciples could fully comprehend. What Jesus was about to do, he was coming as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, he was coming to pay the price, he was coming to lay down his life for our soul salvation. And the weight of our sin, the weight of responsibility had begun to crush him. It was, it was Heavy upon his shoulders. He, he stated to them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful and very heavy Jesus as the all-knowing Son of God. He knew what was about to take place and he could feel the burden of the events that would soon follow. As Jesus Was preparing himself. He spoke of these beasts 3, a trusted Apostles that he took with him further into the garden. In the Bible, says he separated himself from them and went a little further and fell on his face and in agonizing prayer, preparing for the cross Even in this dark hour, we see. Jesus still concerned about those disciples. He had all the weight of the world on his shoulders and yet he was still concerned about those men that had followed him. Those trusted Apostles in this dark hour in our day and time. All the things that are going on in the wickedness of this world, I want to assure you today that Jesus does care about you. He does care. Oh yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is filled with our grief or sorrow or pain or stress. He understands everything that you're going through and he loves you with a love, that cannot be comprehended in our text verse 41. Jesus as the great physician, he came to those disciples that he did, ask them to pray with him to watch with him and he found them sleeping. And I remember when Jesus went into the temple and he saw them changes of money in the Bible says he planted a whip out of cords. And he, he drove them out of the temple. If I have been Jesus At Night Out of give a whip and do some Apostles, okay. It woke him up but he was compassionate. He was loving even in this hour of great grief, and he woke them up and he said, couldn't you watch with me, even one hour? I want to, I want to challenge you.
Have you ever prayed?
One solid app.
Have you ever set aside one solid hour? Prayed talking to Jesus. I hope and pray that everybody here knows exactly how long that is. But in prayer it can seem much longer. Do those disciples were weary than Walk With Jesus and he's in doing all the things that we're going on in the hustle and bustle of the ministry in Jesus and taking them. And he had observed the Passover with them. And then he had instituted the Lord's supper with them. They were tired and I'm sure they started out praying. Have you ever started praying? When you went to bed at night and drifted off to sleep and woke up and said I never finished. Oh my goodness. He said, what did you not watch with me one hour? And I want to, I want you to see some, Jesus looked at them with compassion and he diagnosed their problem. He warned of possible complications. And even then he prescribed the remedy for, okay? So he is the great physician, isn't he? And he's the best, he looks right into, he doesn't just see the symptoms. He sees the problem notice with me the remedy. He said, Watch and Pray, watch and pray. This seems like a simple request considering the disciples had made a bold pledge. If you back up there in in chapter 26 back up to verse 35, Peter said unto him do I should die with the yet will I not deny the likewise also said all the disciples Jesus said simply Watch and Pray. They said will go with you to the death. But they couldn't even stay awake 1 hour to pray with. If you see this remind you of your own Frailty and your own weakness, does it remind us that without him, we can do nothing. But apart from him, we have no strength at all. It's only in Christ that I can say, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens he said, watch and pray, you know, sometimes the simplest things can turn out to be the most difficult to do. If Jesus had told them that night when he got to the Garden he said fellas that's they're going to come here and try to arrest me. I want you to run back into Jerusalem and find me a white horse. And you fellas all fine swords and then you come back and surround me and we're not going to let this go down that way. I bet they would have run over each other, trying to get back to find a white horse and swords for everybody. But he didn't ask him to do that. He simply said, watching, pray, okay, what if you're sleeping? All right, and I think that's that sounds like a no-brainer but to be allergic to be vigilant to be keeping away. It's also translated watching 1st Corinthians 16:13 where it says w e. Stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men. Be strong to watch, means to be alert to be awake. To be spiritually. Alert is what it means. You're, I believe Jesus was commanding, his sleepy followers to be both physically and spiritually alert, and it's a continuous command in the original language. It means keep on watching. you know, he told us to watch We're supposed to be watching, even in the times we live. And we have the whole completed word of God and we know about his second coming but he said, what? are you know, not what our The Lord duska. I knew, he said we're supposed to be looking at the signs Jesus. He, he tells Christians today to wipe the sleep out of our eyes and wake up both physically and spiritually. And keep on watching for the honor and glory of God is always use the prayers to God. It means to address god without a relation with confession with supplication. And also with Thanksgiving prayer must always be offered in the name of the Lord, Jesus, all of our prayers are to be in his name. He said, if we asking his name, the father will do, the father will answer and so we pray in Jesus name. He's headed whatsoever ye shall ask in my name. That will I do that the father may be glorified in the son prayer is impossible apart from the help of the Holy Spirit. You know, it's impossible. Just pray and get those prayers to heaven without the help of the Holy Spirit, he takes those things, the Holy Spirit who, dwells us and, and, and he lives within, as he interprets, the need that we have in our heart in her mind. And he, he translates it to the Father, the Apostle, Paul wrote in Romans 8:26. He said, likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for. As we are, but the spirit itself or himself maketh, intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered. I've been called as a pastor before in the other brother in here, who served as pastor and Deacon you've been called at times to the bedside of a sick brother or sister in Christ or the bedside of a loved one. And you've been called upon to pray with them. And there are situations and circumstances that I've been told him that I didn't know what to pray. I didn't know how I should pray in that. But I can tell you, one thing, it's always safe to pray for God's will because Jesus said that I will be done in earth as it is in heaven. It's always safest to pray that it's just as there's, there's been situations that I've been asked to praying and I've even been selfish and prayed God heal. This person with might not be God's will. But I'm afraid that haven't you. We don't want to say goodbye to someone, you know, we did maybe maybe the the doctors have come in and then you and I've been in the room when the doctors walked in and said we've done all we can do. Doubt of our hands. We know they should have admitted that to start with.
Cuz life itself isn't in their hands. It's in the hand of our Creator. God, right? They said we've done all we can do, we can't do any more for them. And I seen God raised them up and then go home and get better and then I've seen God raised them up and take them to their Heavenly home. Then it's God's Will and to God be the glory, we don't understand sometimes why he does what he does, but he always does what is right? He says for us to pray and the Holy Spirit, he takes those groanings those things for my heart and and the others them to the father in such a way. That our prayers are understood. What is he gave the remedy first and then he warns of possible complications
Possible complications. My doctor. I love that guy. He's a, he's a Christian, he's a brother in Christ. But he's giving me medicines before, and told me to take them until they're gone. And he'll say it again, take them till they're gone. And I think he knows that I'm hard of hearing but that's not why you saying it, cuz he knows when I start feeling better, I ain't taking him no more. Okay. And what he's told me is if you quit taking this before, they're all gone, what you had might come back and we'll developing an immunity if you will or resistance to that drug and you will be worse than it was to start. And so he says no you take him till they're all gone. Sometimes I think you'd like to thump me on the head, you know, you know the Lord
Don't stress on the head. Sometimes with his word, he says. That you enter not into temptation. Jesus is telling his disciples to watch and pray and then you tell them why and gave the remedy and he warns. He said, if you do not watch and pray, you will enter into temptation To enter into means to come or to go into and carries it. Is the meaning of voluntarily and willingly entering in The Temptations. Temptations can also be rendered, trials. Jesus said watch and pray that you enter not into temptation or trials. And then we read over in the Book of James. And he tells us my brethren, count, it all joy. When you fall into divers Temptation, sounds like there's a contradiction. Jesus said, watch and pray that you don't go into those Temptations. Our trials, and then Jane Says, That we can count it all. Joy, considered a joyful thing. Is there a contradiction know? It's understanding the purpose of those try. There are some trials that we can avoid my prayer. There are some trials that we can avoid by watching. Okay, if we will do that, some trials in life. We don't have to go through because we are praying up and we've been watching and we prepared there are some trials are going to come anyway. Okay, and let me give you a man's name. His name was three letters. J o b. Joe was living, right? He was prayed up. He was doing everything right. And he still went through a horrific. Unspeakable, try. Was it Jones fault? No. God brought him to it and God brought him through it. And on the other side Joe could look back and understand. Okay? Let me tell you this, it's very seldom when you're going through the trials. That you understand, why? It's real hard. And every one of you here, you've gone through something in your life. And you said, why me? Lord, you know, I've been trying to do, right? I've been going to church, I've been reading the Bible, I've been praying and and then this as if the Lord doesn't know what you're doing but you know, I've done it. I know. Lordy lordy, you know how, how can this be happening? I have been trying to do everything, right? Jesus commanded to watch and pray to avoid entering into trials by our own carelessness. In our own Disobedience, James was telling Christians to be joyful. When those trials do come that you cannot avoid their beyond your control. He said count it all joy longest and biggest that when you're going through the trial, God has a purpose for it and when you come out on the other side, you're going to be stronger. Spiritually. And you might be able to help someone else with their tryouts, okay? So, will some trials, may be avoided by watching and pray. We got to keep on watching, keep on praying. Don't ever let up on your prayer life, man, if you miss a day praying.
It's going to make life miserable. If you been in the habit of praying and you quit, it's going to be rough. Okay, stay prayed up. Get up in the morning. Pray, pray during the day. Pray, when you sit down. What you mean? You pray in the evening. Pray, before you go to bed, it says it is ever too much prayer. I don't think so.
We need prayer. And then I noticed she gave the diagnosis. He said, the spirit, indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know, the problem is never with God, the problem is, never God. It's always us. The spirit who dwells within us in the spirit who energizes in the conviction draws us, he is more than capable. But this old flesh is weak. And we must contend with the flash on a daily basis. Am I among brothers and sisters, that didn't understand that. What is the devil appeal to? He appeals to your flash? Okay? He appeals to that. Part of us that is that is degrading. That that part of us that is decaying he appeals to that. Part of us that his fleshly, the spirit, indeed is willing the spirit man. The Enderman, the Born Again, part of us where the Holy Spirit, dwells that Immortal part of the man is referred to here as the spirit. He said he is willing, he's ready? Eager characterized by even if there's already to respond without reluctance. Don't you love those? Kind that when you have something hard to do, you say, we got to go to Remember when my boys were at home and we have to go dig a ditch or go do something hard and it's a boys, we got a tough day and they would jump up and be ready to go. And I think they already know that, it's not going to be easy, but they want to go, they want to be involved, you know? I don't, you don't, you want to be eager and ready. Jesus said, our spirit is like that, the spirit man is eager and ready to respond. But what is the problem? The flesh is weak. The Flash refers to that week or element in our human nature of the carnal nature that resulted from man's fall into sin. The sinful part of man, the old man, the Apostle Paul referring to and it is weed. That means without strength is frail and feeble. It says, it's unable to resist. External Force. I want to tell you something, I just turned 60 this year. And I still think I can do what I did when I was 40. But I still bounce out and say I'm going to do it. And my body says no you just wrote a check, you can't cash. You know you just you and you ain't capable of doing used to. I had this this this human Pride that when there was something to be lifted you know I used to I used to lift a lot of stuff in, if somebody else could lift it, I can lift it. Everything you fellows ever had a problem. That's why my back hurts today in okay, cuz I would lift it, I wouldn't break every muscle in me before I would admit defeat, you know, now I'll look at it and I said, now we going to have to have three or four of us. Sometimes. Sometimes a little bit of old age gives you a little bit more wisdom. Doesn't it in our in our flesh? We're unable to withstand temptation.
We need God's help.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, five, and six. For, when we were yet without Strength In Due Time Christ died for the ungodly, you know what that verse says, we couldn't do anything about our sinful condition. We couldn't change it. We were lost and on our road to hell. It was helpless, it was hopeless, but Jesus stepped in and took our place. This is Frank's overcame. What our weakness could not do He died in our place for this reason. It is foolish to trust in the flesh. Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, wherefore let him that thing cuz he standeth, take heed, lest he fall, recognize your own weakness, recognize your own Frailty admit it before. God is good medicine. Romans chapter 7, verse 18. He said for I, I know that in me that this is the great Apostle Paul and he admitted here by the inspiration is feared. He said, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, he made that very clear in my flesh dwelleth. No good thing. You know what Paul said and put it in the East Texas language. He said my flesh is rotten to the Core
And yours is and mine is. We are rotten to the core if we admit it, okay. that's why this idea about self-esteem, if it's all the based upon our worth, It ain't worth a plug nickel. But your self-esteem should be in the fact that God doesn't make mistakes and God Made You for a purpose. And God has a Divine Purpose for your life. There for you are worth something, Jesus died for you. That should give you self esteem, right? I'm worth something to God. Even if the whole world can't see it. I'm worth something to God. Our self-esteem should never be built on our own Pride. He said in my flesh dwelleth, no good thing. He said for to will is present with me said, I know how to do, right? I know what the right thing to do is, But he said how to perform that, which is good. I find not you and you can find a lot of ways to do wrong. But it's hard to find that narrow way to do, right? It's in it. Sometimes that's the hardest thing. We need God's help. All right, this great physician that spoke to his disciples that that. He knows our condition as well. And remarkably the diagnosis hasn't changed in two thousand years. It's exactly the same. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So, therefore Watch and Pray so that you don't enter into temptation, though. The flesh is weak. God is willing to enable us to do his will. If there is someone here today that does not know the Lord as your personal Lord and Savior. While our musician comes and leads us in the verse of invitation, I want to remind you that God's power is unlimited. We simply need to yield ourselves and Trust in his ability and not our own. We need understand then if you're here today, and you're lost, You can't do anything about that. But God, stepped in and gave His only begotten son to die on the cross for your sins. He loves you that much. And if you will, repent of your sins have knowledge to God that I'm a sinner I'm under. There's nothing I can do about it, but I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me, I believe that you Rose him from the dead. God, I'm asking you to forgive me. You know, if you'll do that today, you can leave here another, a new person, brand new not just turn over a new Leaf, you become a new creature, in Jesus Christ. If you've never done that, today is the time now, is the accepted time I stand together and sing a verse of invitation.
