The Agony of Alignment

It is just a matter of time. Many of us, we showed up at church for the first time- we like, all right, it's time for things to change, and then you leave and maybe something changed, but not everything changed. And I want to encourage those of you in here who were trying to follow God- I mean, you showed up today. Can you just give yourselves a hand real quick? I just I've had enough conversations at this point where I know that there are people who are ready to rid themselves of some of the addictions that they have, some of the frustrations and struggles, some of the negative or bad habits, some of the thought processes that have been ingrained in them generation after generation, some of these curses that you've been calling them.

God's going to remove him as you follow him, but it's a matter of time. Am amen somebody. It's a matter of time. It's not going to happen in one moment. You can find eternity in Christ Jesus today, but this process that we call sanctification, ation or alignment to God's will is.

It's a matter of time. It takes a second, and so, if you have your Bibles, I would encourage you open up to Mark, chap 14. We're going to be starting in verse 32. I want to talk about this idea today of alignment and, just as a quick note, people have been asking lately if you don't have a physical Bible. I know you got your phone, but if you don't have a physical Bible and you want one, please let someone with a name tag or orbit shirt let us know, or come to me, because we want to help you get to that place where you're able to really take God's word and start putting it into your, your world, like your personal life.

We believe that God's word, God's power and your connection with his people is really going to help you get to the place where you really are. You're doing what we believe we're called to do, revolving everything around Jesus. So Mark, chap 14. It also be on the screens. Verse 32: they went to a place called Gethsemane.

Say that three times fast. And Jesus said to his disciples: sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James and John along with him and began to be deeply distressed and troubled. Here's what he says: my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death. He said to them: stay here and keep watch.

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that, if possible, the hour might pass from him. ABA, father, he said: everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet, not what I will, but what you will. Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Simon, he said to Peter: are you asleep?

Could you keep watch for one hour? Watch and Pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Once more, he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

They did not know what to say to him. Returning the third time, he said to them: are you still sleeping and resting enough? The hour has come. Look, the son of man is delivered into the hands of Sinners. Let me pray, father.

God, we thank you for today. We thank you for all that you were doing in this community, not just this church, but this, this community, the West Valley, Buckeye, Goodyear, Lichfield Park and wherever else people might be coming from. We know, we've seen it with our own eyes, we've touched T it with our hands. We know that you are doing a mighty work and so, God, I pray that, as you do your work, we would begin aligning to your will in our personal lives and in this community. God, be with the people here.

Give them a specific ability today to understand what you have for them. God, we love you and we trust you. It's in Jesus's name that we pray and all God's people said amen. Will someone in the back go to the kids and tell them just to turn it down a little bit? I hear it in the back.

I imagine they're going to hear it. Hey, you know, work it out then walls apparently, it's funny thinking about the idea of alignment. Anyone ever in here ever had car issues? Nobody, just just just a couple of you, the people who, who just been driving a couple years, let's, let's practice again. Anyone in here ever had a car issue?

Awesome, see, that's honesty. We like honesty here at Orbit Church. Yeah, we've all had car issues, and here's what I know. And if you don't do it this way, I need you in my life, because you'll help me get better and better and better, which is the goal of ministry and life in Jesus and our interaction with him. Right?

So the problem is with car issues, I wait until it's too late. Anyone with me? Amen, amen. It's not a good amen. But it's true, amen, amen.

I wait until it's too late. Even this week I'm I'm looking at a light on my cart that says that I've got 15% left in oil and it needs to be changed. I'm like I kind of want to wait, cuz you know the synthetic blend they try to sell you. It costs like $75 to $100 these days. I know it last longer, but I don't really want to pay that much.

How much longer can I go on this before it becomes a detrimental issue in my life? And one specific area: it wasn't with my current car, which is a Toyota Highlander, it was with my previous car, which is like a Ford Focus or not Ford Focus, even worse, Ford Tempo. Anyone remember four tempos? A couple you older people in the room, not that you're super old, sorry, no, like I, sorry I. I had one, you know, and on that car I didn't care to do anything with it, but it still got me to and from school, and everything anything else that I needed to do.

It was embarrassing in front of my friends, but nonetheless I, I drove that car and there was something wrong with it. I, I couldn't do my hands like this on the steering wheel. I kind of had to do that in order to keep it straight, because what was off? Somebody? Alignment was off and it was a Ford.

It was a Ford-, I keep forgetting it- Tempo. It was a Ford Tempo. I didn't care, it was just a beater up car that I could drive to and from a location. I didn't care, but it was annoying at first, and so what I would do is, eventually I got used to accommodating for the lack of alignment and since it wouldn't go straight- it would Veer off the RO- I just turned it this way just a little bit, and that's how I would drive forever. I got used to it.

It was fine. Well, that it was lightly annoying and I just had to it to the right a little bit in order to drive straight. Why do I say that? Because it's one of those small things, but over time I actually wrote it down on my handy, dandy little iPad here. Over time it can become a much bigger issue.

It's small, it's a light accommodation, but it is a huge issue. It affects the wear and tear on your tires. It affects, the way that everything works with. I don't know anything about it. So if you're in here and you know more about cars.

It affects, the way your car in general works. It affects literally everything. It increases your, it decreases your fuel economy-, the tire replacement cost comes in. The steering concerns could put you at risk and maybe even your passengers, eventually your kids, . It puts other people outside of your car at risk, because I know a lot of you shouldn't, but you do.

You pick up your cell phone and all of a sudden your car is lightly misaligned and you're looking at your cell phone and you're like, oh, shoot, I'm getting off the, I'm getting off the road, or shoot, I'm going into the oncoming traffic lane. And then you become a danger to somebody else at some point. It starts off small, it's a light accommodation, it's really not that that annoying, but it's going to become an issue and it can take time for that to occur in your spiritual walk. You know how I was going there. It's the same way.

We have become comfortable with accommodating lightly areas of Our Lives to a disrupted or misaligned system, like even if you've been coming to church. There's a way that you've been coming to church for years. Maybe you got super religious and forgot about your relationship with Jesus and you just said: I'm going to go week in, week out and it's, it's light. You're still there, you still enjoy the worship. Sometimes you still enjoy, the preaching, sometimes you still connect with church people, but you don't really care about your walk with it's lightly off and you're in need of alignment.

Others of you, a long time ago, someone said something to you. It created in you a mindset that wasn't helpful for you and it was a light adjustment. But you started going down that track and now you look at where your life is compared to where it was, however many months or years ago it was, and you see the DraStic departure from the straight path you wanted to take. You're in need of an alignment. I think for everyone in here, at at some level you are in need of an alignment, but that alignment costs more than you want to pay.

It's just. It's just a car thing, right? It's really not that bad. I could- probably could- have taken it to my dad who works on vehicles. He could have aligned it in 2 seconds, or maybe someone here realizes.

Nope, you got to have a certain machine to align that specific, specific car and in order to do that, it cost you a certain amount of money. All I know is it wasn't crazy expensive, but it was just a little off, so I wasn't going to pay for it. And many of you, you recognize the cost of stepping into your faith, the cost of starting this process of revolving everything around Jesus. You're like, ah, it's just a light adjustment of the other things in my life in order to continue living the way that I want to. It's not that far off, so I'm going to keep going.

And what I want to tell you is: you're in need of in alignment, just like a lot of the disciples. We don't see currently what's happening as a big deal, but over time it leads to some wear and tear that you're not expecting or anticipating. You're in need of an alignment from your will to God's will, amen. And that's what I want to talk about for us today. My sermon title is the agony of alignment.

The agony of alignment, . Verse 32 says this. I think it will be helpful for us to go through this again, says they. That's the disciples who've been spending three years with Jesus. Jesus comes to Jerusalem.

He's there for about a week and this evening, for them, he goes into the Garden of Gethsemane- this is the night before he's going to stand trial- then he's going to go up the hill called gtha and he's going to be crucified and then put into a grave, and we know what happens at the end. But at this point in the Garden of Gethsemane is where the disciples and Jesus find themselves, says they went to a place called Gethsemane and Jesus said to his his disciples now hear this instruction, sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James and John along with him and he began to be deeply distressed and trouble. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He said to them: stay here and keep watch.

And my first point, kind of, is a three-parter. I want, I want to help you sit, stay and watch are Jesus's three commands, and I think that's a very helpful set of commands for us. I know it applies to them in the Garden of Gethsemane, but for all of us, we- we got something in front of us that we're not looking forward to. We've got something in front of us. Even if it's just leaving here and you're going back to a life situation that is not optimal, there is something in front of you that requires you to sit, to stay and to watch, spiritually, when it comes to your relationship with God: Sit, Stay, watch.

Jesus tells his disciples to sit here while I pray. Then he tells Peter, James and John: stay and watch. And I think I think so often for us we don't see the at the level we want to. We don't see God, and part of it has to do with your life situation, but another part of it is because, just like other areas in your life, you might struggle to sit, to stick around and to be intentional. Let's talk about sitting for a moment.

I already had you give yourselves a hand, because you're sitting. There are people in here. You've never sat in church. You've never sat under, the teaching of God's word. You've never read your Bible.

You've never spent time in prayer. That's okay, like it's okay to not be where others here might have been. That is fine. But now you're here and I want to encourage you to sit under God's word. The misalignment in your life happens because you got too much of what the world says and not enough of what the word says.

Amen, this will be helpful for you. Like Paul tells us in Philippians, he tells us to think on the things that are true, right, honorable, pure, lovely and of good repute. He tells us that because he recognizes the psychological deficiency that we all have. We tend to dwell on what is negative, we tend to have selft talk that doesn't help us, we tend to gossip, we tend to talk about things that are not edifying or beneficial at all. We tend to step into situations that aren't of value to us.

But because someone else did it before us or someone else encouraged Us in that direction we do. We naturally put ourselves in Dysfunctional places. But what Paul tells us, what God's word tells us, is that as we look toward Jesus, fixing our eyes on him, the author and the perfector of our faith, that he, as our example and as our savior, can bring us into a different place, a different headp space and a different way of living. We've got to align to him. This is what Jesus is telling his disciples.

He could have just gone further into the garden, got on his knees, prayed his prayer that we all know about, and not told him to do anything. But what did he do? He said: hey, guys, listen, listen, this is an important night sit. And then he brought Peter, James and John a little further. I don't know why, I don't even want to talk about that, but he brought them a little further.

He says: watch or stay and watch. He wanted them to be there, he wanted them to be present. He wanted them to be consistent in whatever they were doing. He wanted them to be intentional. So those of you who came in for the first time today, I want to encourage you: keep coming in, because you've sat.

Now it's time to stay, not just stay at this church. I want to be very clear. I'm not just trying to grow this into a big church. I think God wants it to be a big church. I'm not just trying to invite people here so that I can talk at you.

I'm not just trying to add volunteers to the team just so that we can have a bigger church. I that's not my goal. My goal is to help you, each one of you, put Jesus at the center of your life and find a PE, peace and a purpose that you've never experienced before. And the way to do that is by is by sitting and staying in God's word. Now, if this is the place you get it, I would strongly encourage you: keep coming.

But you can have it at your house, you can have it on your commute, you can have God's word anywhere you want. I want to get you a physical Bible, but you got your phone. Everyone in here has their phone and all you got to do is open up that Bible app and start reading. God will supernaturally inspire your reading so that you would understand him at a deeper level. I know it sounds crazy.

It's happened for me, so that's all I can give you. It's what I have received. So you got to sit, you got to stay, you've also got to watch. You got to watch. When he says watch, he's telling them not just to observe, which he's telling them.

He's also saying hey, hey, be, be cognizant and aware of the things that are happening around you. Maybe it's that Jesus knows that the people are going to come arrest him and he wants to get a certain amount of prayer time or PT in before those guys show up and he tells them he watch, watch, keep guard. I think he's also telling them to watch cuz- later we'll see the descriptive that he gives to add to that command that he gives them. I think he wants them to be intentional with the time that they are sitting and staying. Anyone here know be very hesitant here.

Anyone in here know someone who's been to church for a long time but it doesn't seem to have had any impact on their life. You don't have to look at them if they're in here with you. If they are, I prob, but they're here, they're sitting, that's good. Just just three people, Yik. Y'all all know somebody who' been to church their whole life.

They can quote the Bible verses they've been showing up. Mom, Dad forced them to go. They went to the youth ministry, the child Ministry, way back in, way back in the day. They had these things for kids called like Royal ambassadors and whatever. General admission I don't G is what they.

I have no clue what it was. I didn't go to church when I was a kid. I became a Christian at 15 and I met those people. I'm not mad at those people. Some of those people were very helpful for me, but they had sat, they had stayed, but because they hadn't watched, observed and been intentional in their time under the teaching or in God's word, it had zero impact on them and I don't want that for you guys.

I want you guys to get to the point where everything revolves around Jesus. That's, that's the heart of our church, is that? I know it's a dumb illustration, it's kind of corny or weird, but it's like dude, shoot, like, get into the place where, where it's natural for you to revolve your stuff and your life around Jesus. That takes intentionality. I'm not saying you can't have an eternity with God if you're not intentional.

All that takes is a decision you can make it today. But what I am saying is, if you want to be aligned to God's will, you got to be intentional. Amen, you got to be intentional. You got to sit, you got to stay and you got to watch. And you might think, man, why is he being so harsh on the disciples?

Why is Jesus telling them to sit, stay and watch? Well, it's because he knows the severity of the situation that they're about to encounter. He knows that if they don't sit, stay and watch, there's going to be a negative consequence for the disciples, for him and for the entirety of Christendom. Right, like this is so early in the process and there's this kind of weird thing that happens in this next set of passages. Right, it's weird because, like I, I grew up when I became a Christian.

It's like Jesus, Jesus is equal with God. Jesus is also man, and combining the two has always been a difficult thing for me. What we believe as a church in, like Big C church, is that Jesus is both man and God, meaning he gets what it means to be God and he gets what it means to be man. He gets both, and that's a difficult thing for me to comprehend. It's okay if it's above my pay grade and above your pay grade.

One of these days Jesus is going to promote us into heaven and we'll figure it out. But right now I don't get it. And so when I look at this situation here, I'm like what What's Happening Here? Jesus feels his humanity and he knows what's about to happen. And can you empathize with Jesus for a moment?

Like, think about your own stuff. Like I, I was sitting here, stressed out this morning because, I was on my way, I get up at 4- 4:00 in the morning. Yeah, yeah, you want to be a logistics team, let's go 4:00 in the morning. So I was driving up here, was coming down Yuma, and I got a call from my boy, Ray. Ray, you in here, Ray, I see you back there.

Ray picks up the trailer and he said: okay, so the gate won't open for the trailer place. And I'm like that has this pipe and DP here. That has a stage, it has tables for outside, it has like the dra, it had play panels for the kids area. I'm sitting here like, oh okay. I'm sitting here like what are we going to do?

And it took like because this is serious, this is real stuff. And for you've got something coming up or you got something you regularly thinking about. It's serious. That's how you empathize with Jesus. You recognize the severity of the things you're thinking about and think about what you have to do in order to get, get where God wants you to be and align with his thought process in the situation.

So I'm sitting here now. Clearly we got it. It opened at 6, which we got to have a conversation with them about that, cuz I was a little too stressed. But you know what it was interesting? Because while the Lord allowed that cup to pass from us this morning and we did normal church, it was a good exercise for me, because God put that in front of me on purpose and it was serious, and so he wanted me to sit to think on it and to think about, to be intentional, like God, what are you doing?

And I'm sitting here like okay, I guess I'm talking about the agony of alignment, and the Lord wants me to figure out how to talk to people without pip and DRP and sit in a gym and make it look like not Kosher when it comes the typical guest experience and room Dynamics. He wants me to adjust, he wants me to stand on. This stage, said I was going through that whole thought process and I'm sitting here like you know what? I wish it would have been different, but, Lord, not mine, but whatever you want, and we're going to figure it out because you know more than I. And that was just a small moment.

What is it for you that requires you to sit, to stay and to watch? Verse 35 says this, and we'll go to 36, going a little farther, farther. Jesus fell to the ground and prayed that, if possible, the hour might pass from him. ABA, father, he said: everything is possible for you. Take this cup for me, yet not what I will, but what you will.

Amen. My second point I want to. I encourage you to pray, but there's an ellipses there, which means there's a second Point: pray the right way. Pray the right way now. I'll clarify that over the next few moments.

But for some of you in here you have't pray. I could have said: pray anyway, like pray anyway that you can like. If you're not praying and you need to step into your walk with God, the right way might come later, but right now you just need to talk to him. You don't have to be perfect to pray to God. You don't have to.

You don't have to have all your stuff together, you don't have to be going to Church regularly. You can open up a conversation with your creator right now, and it's going to be different than you expect, but I am so glad that you simply open up that conversation. Amen, some of you, praying is all you can do right now, and that is okay, because I don't want to make you feel guilty, but I do. It might feel like dragging sometimes. I feel like pushing or encouraging sometimes, but I do want to help you move forward in your faith so, as you move on from Simply praying, which is maybe a discipline you need to develop, just pray.

There is a way that helps you get farther in your connection with God and in your understanding of his will for the word. So that's why I say: pray the right way. What do you see Jesus do right here? It says going a little farther. He fell to the ground and he began praying that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

And he says: this is how he talks to his father. He says: everything is possible for you. That's what he says: everything is possible for you. What is he doing? Jesus is tapping into the character of God that he understands.

You could say that he's looking at Scripture or God's word to understand. I think he might also be looking at his own experience and history to understand. He was well versed enough in God's word in the Old Testament that they used to know that God can do the impossible. He did it with Abraham, he did it with Isaac, he did it with Jacob, he did it with Joseph and he did it with the Israelite people when he brought them out of Egypt on dry ground, and then he brought them over the Jordan River on dry ground and then he developed in them a kingdom That Grew and grew and grew. He amassed things around the Israelite people, things that were perceived as impossible.

He did. God can do the impossible, and Jesus is saying, hey, you can do all things, and if you can't take this cup from me, what is Jesus? He is? He's looking at God's work, and one of the ways that you can pray the right way is to look at Scripture, to look at God's word. Many people we go in this is how I started.

It's okay, pray any way that you can, but the way that I started praying I was 15 when I became a Christian. I didn't know nothing about prayer. I'll never forget I was at McAllister's Deli the first time they asked me to pray and I was scared because there's a bunch of Baptists sitting around me that had been in church for like 14 years. They went to church in the womb, right, and so I'm sitting here like I don't know how to pray, and so I would just talk and then I would go home and I would pray, and the way that I prayed was: God help me win this game. Some of y'all laughing cuz you get it, but like God, God help me get this girlfriend.

God help this girl like me. God help this date go. Well, God, do this for me, do this for me and do this for me. Right, like that's not bad. Anyway, I was connecting with God, like that makes a difference.

But I think there's a better way, and one of the ways that I've learned comes from a lady. I mean it comes from Jesus, but it comes from a lady, way back in the Middle Ages, called Jean gon. She wrote a set of excerpts that they compiled into a book called exper, expc- ing the depths of Jesus Christ, and what she says is: You' got to pray the Scriptures because what she knew, what Jesus knew, what we all know, is that if I'm left by myself without any guide or compass, then I'm just going to go all into my ADHD places and even if you're not, you're going to go into all the places that you care about and think about. And what you're not naturally going to do is try to ask God what he thinks about a situation. Many people say I'll pray about it when a task is put before them.

I asked this girl to- I mean, she was a worship leader, right. Asked this girl to- I hope she's not watching- asked this girl to lead worship for me one time when I was teaching a message, and they didn't want me to lead worship and teach at the same time. So I was like, okay, then I'll find someone to do it. And I knocked on a dorm room door and I asked her. I said: hey, can you lead worship tomorrow?

She was already serving in the youth ministry, she was already doing all this stuff. She said: hm, I have to pray about it. And again, if she did, that's cool, she. I said how long do you need need to pray about it? And she said an hour.

I called her 3 hours later and I was like, hey, did you pray about it? See, that's one of those things where sometimes it's it's a little pet people, mind. I think sometimes we say we're going to go to God In Prayer. Really we don't want to do something, we're not even thinking about God, and we just say I'm going to pray about it to avoid something we don't want to do. Sometimes we say I'm going to pray about something when God's already told us what to do.

Amen. His word tells you that you can be obedient to God. His word tells you that you can understand more and more about him. His word tells you how to live. His word tells you certain things that you should or shouldn't do.

His word is so clear and you should talk to God about all of these things. But if your prayer life is consumed with asking God about a bunch of things he's already said sometimes, I'm not saying he's going to do this, but I'm like I feel like God might, might think: just I gave you the tools, just just look at them. You're asking, like if my wife were to come up to me and ask me about a restaurant- and she does that, don't get me wrong- like we asked which of these restaurants. But if you were to come directly to me and say, hey, Matt, what do you? It's easier for me with her, cuz I eat everything.

She do eat anything right here. Yeah, I walk up to her and if I say, hey, we should go get some seafood or sushi tonight. Why would I do that? You might think she likes sushi, but I know her. I know she hates Sushi.

She hates anything Seafood. It's been a real problem for us in our marriage. Right, it's a joke. Someone came up to me one time and said: you got to got to work on your marriage a little bit. It's a joke, but she doesn't like it.

So why, in my con connection with her, would I go to her and ask her about something that I know she the answer to- and we do this with God. We act like we need to ask him things that that he's already got answers to. What I'm not saying is: don't ask him things. What I'm not saying is you need to know all the answers before you go ask God things. What I am saying is this: God has placed his character in his word and it's accessible to each one of you, and so I want to encourage you: take God's word and begin putting it in your world.

That is the way that he brings you from misalignment to alignment. He uses his word. So one of the ways you pray, the right way, is by using God's word. I said here: prayer. Prayer moves you from world to word.

Jesus reflected on God's character. Right, everything is possible. He made requests from his father and he submitted and he aligned to the will of God, because he knew what the will of God was, as clear in Scripture, in the prophecies and in his own experience. Second thing is: prayer can prepare you for the calling he has for you, and one of the ways to pray, the right way, is to. I know you have your desires, hopes, dreams and Ambitions.

But one of the ways that we can pray effectively is by going into our prayer time with a recognition of what Jesus says. What does he say? He says not my will, but your will. He goes in with a request, but he goes in with an understanding that says: even if you don't do what I want you to do, even if you keep me sitting a little while than I, a little while longer than I want to, even if the bad things that I'm scared of occur in my life, even if I, I still submit to your will. Th.

This will be helpful for those of you who might have gotten frustrated at God because something didn't happen in your life that you wanted to happen. I get it. I've been there. There have been things for years in my life that I've been praying to God for and for some reason he didn't feel in him, in his will, that I was supposed to receive some, some of those things, and sometimes I get frustrated in my flesh. But here's what I know: his ways are higher than my ways, amen.

He's better than me. He's got a better perspective. It's bigger guys. He sees what I don't see. He sees the cosmic powers that are trying to be at war with my body and with my mind and thought processes.

He sees all of that stuff and if he says no, I've come to recognize in a good day, on a good day, I've come to recognize that his will is better than mine. Scripture and going in with a recognition that his will is better than mine, helps Center my thoughts not on me but on him. Prayer is helpful. Prayer also prepares you for the calling God has for you, verse 37 says. Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.

Simon, he said to Peter: are you asleep? Could you keep watch for 1 hour? Watch and Pray so that you will not fall into temptation. Yall heard this before. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Once more, he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. Returning the third time, he said to them: are you still sleeping and resting enough? The hour has come.

Look, the son of man is delivered into the hands of sinners, and what we see here, before I get to my third point, is that that Jesus wanted them to pray because he knew that prayer is your best combat against Temptation and struggle and trials in your life. He, he, knew that prayer and connecting with God was the best way to prepare for it, because you know what. What was going to happen after is that the disciples were going to scatter out of fear of the authorities and Jesus was going to be the only one led to the cross that day, just a few days before that, Peter, well, one of the disciples was telling Jesus that, hey, we're going to go with you to endure whatever you have to endure. And Jesus knew better. But they didn't.

And Jesus told them to pray so that they wouldn't enter Temptation. He says the flesh is weak, but I know your spirit is willing, but your flesh is. We, it's, it's it's. It's tough to combat the desires of the Flesh. And in order to combat the things that you struggle with, in order to beat those generational curses, in order to get where God wants you to be, you, you have to be willing.

Galatians tells us to crucify the Flesh and its desires. We have to be willing to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus if you want to get to the resurrection. You got to recognize that before that comes, a grave. Before that comes gotha, before that comes Gethsemane, and all three of those things LED Jesus to the point where he was able to accomplish God's mission in the world. But it was agonizing to align to God's Will and he had to be prayed up.

But the disciples, they flaked. They weren't prayed up, they fell asleep and they scattered. Here's what it did. You have this little girl walking up to Peter saying you were with Jesus. He's like no, I wasn't.

He starts cussing this little girl out. You see what happened with some of the other disciples: they scattered. Now praise the Lord that we have an understanding of History through the traditions, and Catholic tradition tells us that every single one of the disciples, except Judas, they died for their faith. But in this moment it was a lapse in their judgment because they weren't prepared for their calling. Had they pray rather than slacked or slept, it would have been a much different story.

A Scripture Pro tip, like when the Scriptures repeat something, that means they want you to hear it or see it. When they repeat it, and three times in this passage we are told that the disciples were sleeping. Now, little little fun like trail that I want to take you on. Is that the Gospel of Mark which we're in right now, most Scholars think was Peter the Apostle dick ating to John Mark, what his experience was in the whole situation. So if I take what most Scholars say, I look at this and I say Peter wants us to know that he and everybody else was sleeping.

Peter wants us to know how they flight and why would he want to tell that to the incoming generations of Christians? He wanted to tell them that. And he wants you to know that God wants you to know how susceptible we are to Temptation and the way to combat that is to pray, Amen, to sit, to stay, to watch and to pray. And so my third point, I want to give it to you. I wasn't going to make it the-, the sermon title, but I didn't.

I didn't want to be too shock, value, esque, . But I want to say this: don't sleep on your calling. Don't sleep on your calling, but I get how hard it is, my, my wife and I. I told her I'd buy her shoes for using her twice in the sermon today. I'm sorry, sweetie, my wife and I, we have this thing that I like to do, it's called like sitting on the couch for downtime and I put on a movie that I want to watch and she tries to sit there in align with me while I'm watching the movie and she tries to enjoy it while I'm watching the movie.

Now she's a great wife, that's what she does. It's not her view of a good time. Let's just say it this way: her thoughts are not my thoughts. Her ways are not my ways. You know what I'm saying.

Just use some Scripture imagery here. I want to help connect it for you and I get it. I'm just selfish husband who wants to sit there at 10:00 at night, after the kids are asleep, and start a movie from scratch, right, and she's like: I got work tomorrow, I want to go to bed, and so we'll sit there and I'll turn it on and I'll look at her and I'll say, hey, sit, please, please. Right, we're equals in this relationship. Sit, Stay, watch.

That's what I'll tell her. Sit, Stay, watch. I don't tell her to pray, but I say: connect with me, right, that's what I'm telling her. I tell her to pray, that's too sacriligious for me. But I look at her and I say that and then we start the movie.

Guys, I'm not talking bad movies, right, Like A Few Good Men. I'm not like it's a good movie, it's a great movie for me, but like it kind it could be kind of boring. I'm not talking Dune part one, right, if you've seen Dune part one. If you haven't, then I just am totally irrelevant to all of you right now. But you know the movie that's kind of boring but you liked it anyways.

I like those movies. But when I invite her to watch with me, I don't put on those movies. I put on like really good movies. Sometimes I even put on a chick-flick for. And then I look to my right 5 minutes into the movie every time what's she doing?

Guys sleeping. And I'm not saying it's the same, but I kind of lightly understand what Jesus might have felt with his disciples for that moment. Y I was hoping y'all would laugh more to that, but just I'm looking, I'm like couldn't you stayed away for a minute? Couldn't you stayed away for an hour or two and a half hours of the Doom? Like couldn't you have stayed away just to connect with me?

Because this is serious, I'm. I'm joking, right, I'm clearly joking my wife, I have a great relationship. Don't come up to me afterwards say: I've got a counselor for you. Don't do that. We have a great relationship.

But I think there's a connection here, because Jesus is both man and God. And In This Moment, yes, we know that he's the example for us, he's our savior, and when we look at him, he's he's like: not my will, but thy will be done. And we know Jesus is going to do that. But when he comes back, he, he is still in the form of man. He knows he's going to have Nails in his hands, in his feet.

He knows he's going to get a crown of thorns. He knows he's going to get flogged. He knows he's going to have to drag a Cru to fix up the mountain. He knows that he's going to die. And so he comes back to his disciples and he's like: could you just sat, stay, watched, prayed for a minute, knowing how serious This Moment's about to be?

Amen, couldn't you have gone through the agony of trying to stay awake so that, in the long term, God would work through you more effectively? I, I, I think as a man. I Think Jesus is, is hurt because he feels alone. In that scenario he's aligned to God's will. But the disciples, they slept on their calling and how is this applicable to you?

I, I, I think I don't want to talk too much mess about the disciples. Like I said, they all died for their faith, they all did a lot of good stuff, but it was a lapse for a moment. And we know that even Peter, he had to go through this process of reconciliation with Jesus, so that Jesus could then put him back on his calling to. He says: feed my sheep. Like there was a lapsed moment and they scattered because they weren't prepped.

They didn't Sit, Stay, watch, pray. They didn't do what Jesus had told them to do. And for us? Many of us wonder why God hasn't done what we want him to do in our life. Many of us wonder what it looks like for us to have a purpose that's fulfilling.

Many of us are still anxious and struggling. We're just sitting or we're just staying, but we're not intentional and we're not connecting with God and because of that we're almost we're sleeping on our calling. And if God were to speak directly to us and tell us what's coming, we wouldn't hear it in the first place, because we haven't gone through the agonizing process of aligning our will to his. Let me be clear. God's ways are different than our ways.

So to get from our way to his way, we have to go through an agonizing process called sanctification. The Bible tells us in Romans 12. He says: do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Give me one thing: in a transformation process that doesn't at least appear to be agonized, you can take minerals, you can take chemicals, you can take people, you can take anything that has ever been transformed and recognize that in the middle of that transformation process there is an agonizing aspect to it. And to get to God from where you are, it takes this process.

Amen, this is the worst sales job I've ever done on inviting you into the faith, but I think if you can step in with the right expectation ations, you might actually Sit, Stay, Watch and Pray. Whoa, okay, . Jesus wants you to understand more about his character in your calling. He wants you to be ready when the enemy comes. He wants you to overcome Temptation.

He wants you to honor your calling to a monogamous relationship, to not be a gossip, to be reliable, to break generational curses, to beat addictions, to get out of debt, to be healthy, to be generous, to know him to lead others to Sit, Stay, watch, pray and- and the only way that you get to that place is if you stay away and don't sleep on your calling, spiritually, that is, and so like when you look at what happened with the disciples. I don't want that to happen to you. Praise the Lord, you guys woke up this morning and you got here and you're hearing God's word. It's not the best preaching ever, but it's helpful for you when you hear God's word and I'm trying to preach this graciously. But I have to give you what the text is say.

Jesus is distressed, it says, to the point of death. You ever been there? I haven't. I stressed about little stuff like pipe and drape being stuck in the trailer behind the fence that I can't get past. Right, that's what I stress about.

I stress about waking up and maybe someone not liking what I said that day. I'm not stressed out about the Romans crucifying me on a cross. This is how distressed he is and he says: could you keep watch? This is serious, what God's called us to, and I want to encourage you, like if, if this is easy, like every aspect of it is easy, I'm wondering how much transformation you're going to have you know what's not: agonizing, sleeping, chilling, fleeing, flaking, ignoring. That's the like, the consequences to that.

That comes later is chill right now. Right, sin is fun in the moment, but it has major consequences that come way later. Like when your lack of alignment eventually leads you to something that's not just a light adjustment, it lead, it might lead you off the road. I put here a couple things like prison, death. Like those were quick, like those were.

Those are pretty intense for the first two that I listed. But like, yeah, it could lead you to prison, death, porn, cheating, divorce, anxiety, depression, loneliness, self-destructive Tendencies, gossip, materialism, judging that you pass to your kids and their kids and their kids' kids. Like into forgetting that God saved me. Not sitting, not staying, not watching, not praying, not obeying, not caring, just living after apathetically through life, sleeping on what God called me into. And it might sound intense, but I want you to understand God has a calling for you.

That is, it's huge. And when Jesus looked at his disciples, he's looking at them sleeping and he's like all that potential, all all of that potential. And he not gone, he knew the Redemption process. But I get it when I look at people who have a, a calling that Jesus is leading them on and they scale back because they don't want to make the agon, agonizing adjustment to follow him and to wrap every aspect of their life around him. It's agonizing, and it might be hard in the present, but it last eternity.

The other stuff not agonizing yet that also lasts an eternity. Let me say it this way: following God will be agonizing for a moment, but not following God will be agonizing for eternity. Amen. We've got to make an adjustment and begin align to God's will. What does it look like for you to get to the place where Jesus is your desire?

I know that seems odd or like non-tangible to some of you in here, but for what it's worth, I have learned that when I can tap into my connection with Jesus during a hard time or a good time, it radically shifts my disposition on everything, and so I want to encourage you, those of you who have trusted in Jesus already. Don't be content with a crooked walk. Make that adjustment if you need to, in whatever area you need to, and there are others of you in here who need to make that for the first time decision to follow Jesus and I'll be a broken record with this. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you can be saved. It's that simple.

That lasts eternity, and it begins this process whereby God transforms you from the inside out. And so if that's you and you feel led right now to make that adjustment and put Jesus at the center, I want you to make that decision. Nothing's holding you back. So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, I want to pray a prayer that helps align your thoughts to God's thoughts. You might pray something like this again: if it's your first time trusting in Jesus, you might say: God, I believe that Jesus is the son of God, I believe he died on the cross and Rose from the grave.

Forgive me for my sin, make me a new creation, begin aligning me to you, and I will follow you for the rest of my life. Today is the day I make the adjustment. God, we pray that in Jesus's name, and God's people said: