Lord, Teach Me How to Pray - Matthew 26:36-39

Today we reach the halfway point in our

series entitled Lord, teach me

to pray.

And my hope is that you've been reminded

that prayer is so much more than just

asking God for stuff.

Prayer is

what reveals the things that are in our

hearts. It reveals what we truly love.

It deepens our relationship with God. It

helps us and gives us strength when we

go through the trials of life. Literally

the health of your prayer life

determines the health of your real life.

The health of your prayer life

determines the health of your real life.

And that's why Jesus didn't just teach

his disciples that they should pray, he

teaches them how to pray. So when the

disciples came to Jesus and they asked

him, Lord, teach us to pray, he

responded with what we call the Lord's

Prayer. And as we've seen over the last

few weeks, the Lord's Prayer is short

enough for us to memorize, but it's also

deep enough to spend a lifetime

exploring.

Every phrase of the prayer opens the

door to a much larger theological truth.

So when Jesus says, pray Our Father, he

assumes that you understand spiritual

adoption. But when he says, pray

hallowed be thy name, he assumes that

you understand worship.

When when he says, pray thy kingdom

come, he assumes that you understand the

difference between the kingdom of the

world and the kingdom of God. And today

we're going to come to one of the most

challenging phrases in the entire prayer

when Jesus says,

pray thy will be done.

And it's challenging because if we're

honest, most of us don't struggle with

telling God what we want him to do.

We we don't struggle with telling God

that our will needs to be done. The real

challenge is learning how to trust God

enough to pray, "Lord, not my will, but

your will be done."

So today we're going to answer the

question, "Why did Jesus tell us to

pray, 'Thy will be done?'"

Look, I got a a love-hate relationship

with Google Maps. In fact, it's more my

problem than Google's problem. I I think

I hate Google, but Google loves me. Um

so, you know, I'll type in a destination

somewhere maybe up in Virginia Beach and

Google Maps will tell me that I need to

take a left in 500 ft. And I'm like,

"No, I've lived here for 20 years. I

know you can go Blackwater, Pungo, get

to Virginia Beach, you know.

I I I can avoid all the Outer Banks

traffic that way." So I just turn off

the phone and throw it to the side. But

then like 20 minutes later, I'm driving

through some neighborhood that I've

never seen before and people got goats

in their front yard and I'm pretty sure

I just pulled into somebody's a

driveway. And suddenly, guess what? I

become very interested in what Google

has to say.

I almost feel like Google shames me

sometimes. It doesn't, but I feel like

it does.

It's like, "Are you done trying to do

this on your own, man?"

Maybe you should listen to the

all-knowing, all-seeing global

positioning system. But isn't it kind of

funny how we uh

we resist direction until we're lost?

Like when life isn't

going well, when life starts to fall

apart, when the diagnosis comes, when

the marriage struggles happen, when when

the job disappears, suddenly we're we're

interested in God's direction.

So Jesus is like,

"Let's not wait until life falls apart

to ask God for help.

Let's not wait until we're lost to start

praying God's will be done. Let's learn

to pray that in the good times so we'll

be ready for the bad times.

See, most of us were raised in a a

culture where we were taught one simple

lesson and that's the less authority

that you have

in your life, the happier you're going

to be.

Less authority,

more happiness. At least that's how I

felt as a child.

I always felt like authority was the

thing that was standing between me and

true happiness. Whether it's mom and dad

or whether it's the school principal or

even the youth pastor. And then my

culture was and reinforcing those

mindsets.

The movies, the cartoons, the sitcoms,

the hero is usually the person that was

breaking the rules, rejecting authority,

and following their own path.

My second favorite form of entertainment

as a child behind college football was

wrestling. And I grew up in what's

called the attitude era of wrestling.

And the biggest star in the business was

not someone who respected authority. It

was a guy that was giving his boss a

stone cold stunner every Monday night.

So to me, the message was clear. More

freedom plus less authority equals more

happiness.

Then my parents came along

and taught me the Lord's Prayer.

And in that prayer, Jesus tells me that

every time I pray, I should include

Father,

thy will be done.

God, thy will be done. Not my will be

done.

Not my plans be done.

But God, your will be done.

Your authority

over my life.

And that's exactly why this might be the

hardest part of the prayer for some of

you to pray.

But I want you to know that's okay.

It's fine

to feel that way. It should be

challenging.

Because we should all be able to be

emotionally honest with our Father God.

I mean, he sees our heart anyway, so why

lie?

So we can come to him and be honest in

the moment, but the key is that at the

end we start trusting God and his will

above our own.

Let's look at the most difficult prayer

Jesus ever prayed.

It's in Matthew chapter 26

Matthew 26:36

verse 36.

So in Matthew chapter 26, we actually

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

get to see Jesus pray part of the Lord's

Prayer.

He never asks us to do anything he's not

willing to do himself.

So he teaches us how to pray here.

Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Then Jesus came with them to a place

place called Gethsemane.

And he told the disciples, "Sit here

while I go over there and pray."

And taking along Peter and the two sons

of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and

troubled. And he said to them, "I'm

deeply grieved to the point of death.

Remain here and stay awake with me."

Going a little farther, he fell face

down and he prayed, "My Father, if it is

possible, let this cup pass from me.

Yet, not as I will, but as you will."

So as Jesus enters the Garden of

Gethsemane Gethsemane, something

changes. Matthew says he became

sorrowful and troubled. Those words

literally mean overwhelmed, horrified,

and shocked.

He even says, "My soul is grieved to the

point of death." Jesus feels like he's

going to die right here in the garden.

And so three different times in this

chapter he prays, "Father, if it is

possible, let this cup pass from me."

Now, here's the question.

What shocked Jesus?

It wasn't the cross.

Jesus had been telling his disciples for

months that he was going to Jerusalem to

die.

The nails didn't surprise him.

The betrayal didn't surprise him. The

mocking did not surprise him. So, what

surprised Jesus? What horrified Jesus?

What shocked Jesus?

The answer is the cup.

See, throughout history, the the cup was

referred to as the poison that someone

would drink on the day of their

execution. And throughout Old Testament

history, the cup represented God's

righteous judgment against sin. It was

called the cup of God's wrath.

It was the punishment that all of our

rebellion deserved.

As Jesus prayed in the garden, he was

beginning to experience a foretaste of

what it would be like

when he went to that cross.

It wasn't just

physical suffering. It was the

withdrawal of the Father.

The withdrawal of the Father's

comforting

presence.

Bill Lane writes in his commentary,

"It was not a shrinking from physical

suffering.

It was the horror of one who came to be

with the Father, but found hell rather

than heaven opened before him."

No one had ever experienced fellowship

with the Father like Jesus did. For all

of eternity they had been perfect in

their love, in their their joy, in their

their unity. And now for the first time

Jesus begins to taste

what separation from the Father

was actually like.

That's why his agony was unlike anyone

else in history.

Jesus wasn't simply dying. He was

preparing to drink the cup of God's

wrath.

The cup that he didn't deserve to drink.

So, all other times in human history

when you are suffering, God moves toward

you.

But in this one instance, in this one

moment, Jesus

was getting ready to suffer, and the

suffering was caused because God was

moving away

from him.

Imagine somebody hands you a contract

and they say, "Hey,

if you sign this, you're going to lose

everything that you have.

Your reputation, your comfort, your

closest friends, your future, your

life."

And so, what do you do? You read every

page.

You understand every word and every

syllable and every consequence. And

then, with full knowledge, you take that

pen and you sign your name to the

contract.

That's only a faint picture of what

happens

here in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus wasn't surprised by the cost. He

understood it better than anyone ever

could. And knowing exactly what awaited

him, get this, he still prayed, "Yet not

my will be done, but yours."

That's not just obedience to God. That's

the greatest act of love that has ever

or ever will be shown to you.

Jesus chose the cross.

So, he began feeling the weight of the

cup of God's wrath, and he prays,

"Father, if possible, let this cup pass

from me. Yet not as I will, but as you

will."

So, I ask the question, why did God

begin revealing the cup in the garden

instead of waiting for Jesus to go to

the cross?

Well, here's why.

In the garden, Jesus could still walk

away.

Think about it. The disciples were

asleep.

It was the middle of the night. Judas

hadn't arrived. The soldiers weren't

there to arrest him. The nails had not

been driven into his hand. Jesus was

still free.

So, as Tim Keller writes,

Jesus saw what was coming

and he was free to leave.

If judgment had fallen in full on the

cross, it would have been too late.

Jonathan Edwards writes, "The Father

placed the cup before his son so Jesus

would know exactly what he was choosing.

Every drop of wrath, every ounce of

suffering, every moment of abandonment

all stood crystal clear before Jesus.

And that is when he made his decision,

'Father, not my will be done,

but yours.'"

Jesus wasn't trapped. Jesus wasn't

forced. Jesus wasn't the helpless victim

of a terrible father.

No.

Jesus chose the cross.

He chose to love us.

He chose to be obedient to his father.

He chose to drink the cup of wrath that

we deserved. That's why the cross isn't

merely about Jesus' suffering. It's a

love story. It's Jesus running into the

flames, not because he doesn't know the

cost, but because he loves us more than

he loves his own safety. And because he

trusts his father's plan.

And that should pray that should change

how we pray, shouldn't it?

If Jesus trusted the Father's will when

it cost him everything, then we can

trust the Father's will even when we

don't understand what he is doing.

Faith is not pretending the struggle

isn't real.

Faith is saying, "Father,

I don't understand,

but I trust you."

Father, I don't understand,

but I trust you.

So, when Jesus prayed,

"Not my will, but your will be done." It

cost him more than we could ever

comprehend. It meant drinking the cup of

God's wrath. It meant being forsaken by

the Father that he had loved and been in

unity with for all of eternity. It meant

bearing our sin and our guilt and our

judgment. And still, Jesus prayed, "Not

my will be done, but yours." Why?

Because he trusted his Father.

And because he trusted his Father, he

went to the cross.

So, he drank the cup that we deserved.

He He died the death that we deserved.

But the story doesn't end at the cross.

Three days later, the Father raised his

Son from the dead. So, the empty tomb

declares that, yes, sin has been paid

for and death has been defeated and

Jesus has been vindicated as our

victorious King. And because he lives,

everyone who trusts in him has the hope

of eternal life. That's why this part of

the Lord's Prayer is so powerful.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, "Thy will

be done." He's not asking us to take a

blind leap of faith.

Rather, he's inviting us

to trust

in the Father whose love has already

been

proven.

The cross settled forever the question

of does God love me?

Yes.

And the resurrection settled the

question forever of

can God keep his promises?

Yes.

See, every one of us faces something

that we'd rather not.

Some of you are carrying

disappointment. Some of you are carrying

grief. Some of you are carrying

uncertainties.

Some of you are carrying loneliness.

Some of you are are carrying

a season of waiting.

So, every one of us has this burden,

this cup that we would love to to hand

back to God and say, "Father, is there

any other way?"

But, before you you drink that cup,

before that cup overwhelms you, I want

you to think about something. Jesus

already came before you and drank the

cup.

The cup is empty.

He drank the cup so you would never have

to. And that doesn't mean that your

suffering isn't real.

What it means is your savior is greater.

Your savior loves you. Your savior keeps

his promises. And so, even when life

doesn't make sense, you're like, "Why do

I even have this cup?" Even when God's

plan isn't the one that you would have

chosen for yourself, even when your

prayers feel like they're being

unanswered.

You don't have to understand God's will

to know God's heart.

You know his heart.

Cuz you can look at that cup and be

like, "Wow, it's actually

it's actually empty."

You know the love of God.

You know the power of God.

You've seen it in the Garden of

Gethsemane. You've seen it at the cross

and you've seen it

in the empty tomb.

So today, don't don't just pray, "My

will be done. Let me figure this out."

And don't just pray, "Father, take this

cup away from me."

But learn to pray, "Father,

thy will

be done."