Sermon Tone Analysis

Subject: Stay woke

Matthew 26:36-43

“Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding 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, O 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 findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye 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.

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.”

Matthew 26:36-43 KJV

Subject: Staying spiritual woke when your Eyes are heavy.

Introduction:

If the question was asked if you had 24 hours on this earth what would you do.

Who would you spend it with, where would you go, Some would say they will take a foreign trip, others would say they will attempt to check off everything on their bucket list.

However, my brothers and sisters in Matthew we find Jesus, knowing his time was at hand, and his hour was at hand.

He choses the place of Gethseneme, He chose his disciples to spend this time with, and he spends this time in prayer with the father, We find Jesus asking the disciples if they could watch and pray… because he understood that the time was nearing that he would be going to cross.

However, when came back he found the disciples sleep.

My brothers and sister the bible speaks of three specific references of two in which we are references today.

It speaks of a physical sleep, a spiritual sleep.

Natural Sleep The sleep that the human body needs., and during a person’s sleep in biblical God may make his will known by a dream or vision.

However there is a Moral or Spiritual sleep In a figurative way that is used in the bible, sleep is used as a symbol of spiritual laziness, spiritual carelessness, or spiritual inactivity. .

In the New Testament those who are the Lord’s servants are called to watch and to be sure that when their Master comes he will not find them sleeping Jesus gives an example of the kingdom of God being compared to 5 wise virgins who had oil in their lamps and 5 foolish who did not have any oil in their lamp and instead of the foolish going to get oil they all fell asleep and behold the bridegroom came and foolish asked the wise for their oil but I believe the wise stated if you would have stayed woke you wouldn’t have to ask for our oil.

This scripture is compared to Christ’s return, for no man knows the day our the hour he shall return, the bible says he coming like a thief in the night, this scripture advises not to let him catch us sleeping with our work undone.

My brother and sisters we must stay focused on the spiritual call and assignment on our lives.During this life we are constantly challenged to maintain our spiritual life.

The challenge to maintain spiritual alertness and to refrain from spiritual sleep comes in a number of scriptures in the epistles: (Eph 5:14, states Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” ;(1 Thes 5:6, states“So be on your guard, not asleep like the others.

Watch for his return and stay sober” .

My brothers and sisters in Matthew 26th chapter we find the disciples sleeping, although the disciples were physically sleep they were also sleep in the spirit. .

.I believe we all at some point or another need a spiritual awakening, Look at someone and say are you woke.

My brothers and sisters by no means am I telling you not to get your physical sleep.

Please get your physical 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep as recommended by the health experts.However, my brothers and sisters we are referencing being awake in the spirit.

Keep your spirit alive.

Many of can remember a couple of years ago the term woke became a term used to define someone who is in tune with what is going on in society.

When someone was “woke” to something it was assumed that they were aware of something they were attentive to something.

In contrast if someone was sleep on something or someone it meant they were not aware of something or doubting something.

My brother and sisters I believe we all should stay woke spiritually.

We stay woke spiritually when our prayer life is awake, we stay woke spiritually when we are in Gods word.

Its imperative that we all should stay woke spiritually because the enemy is constantly looking for ways to distract us, to get us off track in any way he can.

When we are spiritually woke we understand the enemy tactics and strategies.

1 Peter 5:8 advises us to stay alert what out for our great enemy the devil, He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Paul tells the Corinthians that Lest Satan should get the advantage of us we are not ignorant of his devices.

We have to understand that the enemy is constantly trying to defeat us and if he see us sleeping, if he catches us sleeping in the spirit.

He will get the victory.

Context

Text-As we get to the text we find that

Jesus Goes to pray in the Garden of Gasthemene, He and his disciples were just departing the last supper, the feast of the leaven bread, He understands the season that he was in, Prayer was necessary as his spirit was vexed, As he and his disciples went to toward Gesthemene he asks the disciples to sit and wait and he taks Peter James and John to the mountain of Gethseneme to watch and pray.

It is at Gethsemane we see get a glimpse of the relationship of the God the father and God the son communicating.

We get to sit in the prayer room of Jesus as he goes into prayer.He goes into prayer because he understands that he was about to go the cross and become the ultimate sacrifice for sins.

He understood the necessity of prayer-

He often separated himself away from others to pray.

He withdrew himself to go to the wilderness

He withdrew himself to go to the garden of Gastemene.

He made sure he maintained communication with the Father.

He set the example for prayer for his disciples.

They need not have an excuse for praying.

He set the examples for us as well that in times of trouble and uncertainty we should not hesitate to pray.

My brothers and sisters in times as this I believe we need stay prayerful as never before.

with Crime rate steady raising in our community we need to stay prayerful.

With social and political unrest, we must stay prayerful.

With wars and rumors of war we must stay prayerful.

When our children cant go to school without the fear of being shot down, we must stay prayerful.

As We continue to fight for social justice,.

When we cant go into the grocery store without fear.

There is no doubt we need to stay prayerful.

Because Jesus understood the necessity of prayer y.The first time he prays that the Lord take the cup--

He prays the first time and makes the petition, father, if it is possible may this cup pass away from from me.

However, despite all of this he understood that God’s will should be done.

Truth of the matter is I believe all of us have been at this point.

Is there anyone ever prayed for God to take some things away from you.

Jesus shows that even he himself would rather not go through, however if it its in his will Lord im willing.

There are times we may pray Lord take this cup away from me, However the truth of the matter is some things we are just going to have to go through, Even in midst of this we understand that God is with us as long as you keep going through sooner or later your going to come out.

Jesus is at the point in the prayer giving himself totally to the cross.He understands his mission.

However, he prays and ask God is there another way that I can accomplished this task.

He then returns to his disciples from prayer and he finds the disciples sleep.

He comes back from prayer and he find the disciples caught sleeping.

Can you imagine being caught sleeping on the Job by Jesus your boss.

Not once not twice but three times.

The disciples had one job and that was to watch and pray.

Be on the look out.

Be aware.

Stay alert.

The second prayer he prays Lord let your will be done..2.

The second prayer - was a submission to the fathers will.

“He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”

Matthew 26:42 KJV

(In other words he was sayingLord do it your way)

He came back and found the disciples sleep again.

This was the three times, each time he came back

In the most pivotal moment of Jesus he finds the disciples that were in his inner circle sleep.

These were the same three disciples Peter,

James and John, that Jesus took with him on the mount of transfiguration, which shows that these were the ones who he trusted to complete the task.

However, When he needed them disciples most he found them sleep.

He asks his disciples could you not pray with me for an hour.

These were the same disciples that disrupted Jesus sleep when the storm raged and Jesus was at the bottom of the boat sleeping.

Is there anyone can relate to fact that sometimes those you have need of are sometimes sleep, It is at this point that Jesus understand that he had to face this battle alone.

My brothers and sisters its good to have a support system, its good to have people in your corner, however the truth of the matter is that sometimes we wont always get encouragement from others, sometimes the ones we think are praying for us is praying on us, However, I can testify that it is this point, that if we cant find no one else to encourage you, if you cant find anyone to pray for you or pat you on the back sometimes you have to do as David did and encourage yourself in the lord, as the song writer Donald Lawrence stated speak over yourself encourage yourself in the Lord.

Although the disciples time and time again failed Jesus in their inability to stay alert, Jesus continued to show them grace because he understood that what he was about to do on the cross, the sacrifice of his flesh was going to cover the failures of their flesh.

Is there anyone her Glad that no matter how many times I messed up Im glad God gave me grace after grace.

As I read this text I thought to myself how could the disciples sleep on the son of the living God.

How could the disciples sleep on the way maker,How could they sleep on the miracle worker.