THE LAST HOUR: Watch & Pray | Stacy Morris | 9-21-25

Morning, y'all can have a seat. For those of y'all that don't

know, my name is Stacy Morris. I am Director of Ministries here

at Refuge Church and I am also Pastor Steve's wife and he is

out of town today so it gets to be me.

For those of y'all that know me, you know that my most favorite

place to be aunt in the whole world is with a microphone

talking about Jesus. You can put me on a street

corner. I don't have to be here

anywhere. I don't have to be on a stage.

I could be hiding under a bed. It doesn't matter to me if I

have a microphone. I can talk about Jesus.

I am. I'm in a I'm in a pretty good

spot. So God showed up last week and,

and, and so did his people. Churches across the world were

crowded and they were full. Here's what I'm going to tell

you. The enemy didn't like that.

The enemy was not it was not a huge fan of of that situation.

And so this week, like the enemy didn't even wait.

He didn't go, well, let's, let's let him settle in a little bit.

No, he's like, you know what? Monday morning, boom, we're

going to start attacking. So just within our church body,

this is just Monday. I'm talking about someone in

this church had a family member who tried to commit suicide.

Another member of our church found somebody in their storage

unit who had committed suicide. And in our parking lot, a man in

a car that does not go here committed suicide.

That was Monday. So the enemy was like not we're

not we're, we're going to make sure we destroy that.

But the enemy isn't very smart because he didn't realize that

our good God can do amazing things with brokenness.

He can do amazing things with the enemy's schemes, right?

Because the enemy doesn't get to win.

Do I seem really loud or is it just me?

Does it seem just loud here? OK, I am loud minus the

microphone, so my apologies. He got an Amen because she knows

me. She knows me.

OK, so we are in a sermon series titled The Last Hour.

There's a lot to learn at the end of the journey.

As Steve talked about last week, the last hour can be

challenging. He related that to a road trip

and you know, if you've ever travelled, I don't know, with

yourself or children, you know that last hour like you are

going, you know what, Jesus Take Me Home.

Like I'm not, I'm not going to make it because the last hour

seems like the worst. I don't know about you all, but

especially this week, but sometimes it feels like are like

are we living the last hour? Like is Jesus about?

Is it? Is it going to be back at you

know, eleven O 8? So like I'm start.

I'm starting to wonder sometimes, right, if we are in,

we are in our last hour before Jesus comes.

What, what would you do if you knew it was your last hour?

How would you spend it? What would you do and think

outside of like, you know, like if you're, if you are on, on

death row, they give you a final meal right in your in your last

hour, right? Think beyond that.

Think beyond what you would earthly do per SE, but what

would you do? What would you do for the

Kingdom? What would you do in your final

hour? Or would that even be your

thought in your final hour? Jesus gives us a lot to think

about when it comes to our last hours by looking at what He

chose to do in his pastor Steve shared last week about the Last

Supper and betrayal, right? He went through it and he said

he washed the feet of disciples. He instituted communion

symbolizing his upcoming sacrifice.

I wonder how confusing that was. All right.

What do you mean? Your body broken for me?

You're standing right here. What do you mean your blood?

Like, is that confusing? I don't know.

It makes sense now. But did it make sense then?

I mean, sometimes prophetic things don't make sense, I

guess. He foretold of the betrayal of

Judas and Peter's denial of Jesus.

So Jesus spent his final hours serving his friends, witnessing

to them about the goodness of God, warning them of upcoming

pitfalls and breaking bread with them.

Is that what we would choose in our final hour?

OK, those y'all that know me know that I love a good Bible

drill. So get out your Bibles because

all the scriptures are not going to be on the stage.

They're not going to be up there on the screen, right?

Some of them are going to. You're going to have to read

them. I know y'all are so excited

about it. Get your phones, your Bibles,

whatever you got. And we're going to turn to

Matthew. We're going to go to Matthew 26.

I marked it, but it still doesn't mean I can turn the

pages. Oh, and just because y'all don't

need this information, I got new readers.

OK? This is why it's important.

Typically when I'm up here preaching, I wear readers and

then I can't see y'all because I can only see if if y'all have

ever worn readers. You understand that once you

look up everything be blurry. Only the words are clear.

I have bifocal readers now, so I can see clearly all of your

little faces now. So y'all can't be y'all can't be

falling asleep. I can see you now, but then I

have the readers at the bottom. I tell you, modern technology,

it's amazing. OK, sorry, I digress.

Matthew 26. We're going to start in verse

36. Let me find 36 right there.

Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called

Gethsemane, and He said to them, sit here while I go over there

and pray. He took Peter and the two sons

of Zebedee, Richard, James and John along with him, and he

began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then he said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the

point of death. Stay here and keep watch with

me. Going a little further, he fell

with his face to the ground and prayed.

My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me

yet? Not as I will, but as you will.

Then he returned to his disciples and found them

sleeping. Couldn't you men keep watch with

me for one hour? He asked Peter, watch and pray

so that you will not fall into temptation.

The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went away a second time and prayed.

My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away

unless I drink it may your will be done.

When he came back, he again found them sleeping because

their eyes were heavy. So we left them and went away

once more and prayed the third time saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, are

you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come and the

Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.

Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer.

Who? There's a lot.

There's a lot we're going to. We're going to stop with that

and we're going to pray. God, thank you so much for your

word. I thank you for what we are

learning about your Son. I thank you that He is our

example of how we should strive to live our life.

God, I ask that you be with us as we go through your scriptures

and speak clearly to our hearts. Speak clearly to our souls and

to our minds so that we can hear the message to ingest it God and

apply it to our lives once we walk outside of this building.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for all that you have

to say this morning. In Your name we pray, Amen.

Jesus knew what was coming. Sin was coming for Him, not His

sin. Our sin was coming for Him.

He didn't sin, but our sin was coming for Him.

He was 100% man and he was 100% God, so that means he felt all

the human feelings about what was to come with all the

knowledge of God as to what was coming.

That's a lot. That's a lot to take.

I don't know that inside of me that I could take all of that as

a human. He was probably dreading the

physical torture that was going to happen, right?

A lot. His body was going to be ripped

to shreds, and he was probably dreading that as a human with

his human emotions. That wasn't the worst part.

It sounds like the worst part, but that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part is on the cross, all of our sin came upon him,

all of it. And in that moment that he took

all of our sin, God the Father could no longer look at him

because God can't look on sin. He could no longer look on him.

So he was in darkness. I don't mean darkness like we

turned off the lights, darkness like it's night time.

I mean evil, lonely, oppressing darkness that He suffered for

our sins and He knew it was coming before it happened, which

is why he went to the Father and prayed.

He was without the presence of God.

The title of the sermon is watch and pray, watch and pray.

It's what Jesus was asking his disciples to do.

It's what He's telling us to do today.

So when I was preparing this sermon, I was preparing it on

Tuesday because Steve left to go out of town Thursday morning.

And I, I, my techie is, is limited.

Like I have limited techie abilities and it does not go to

building slides. That's it.

Not it. Lance was out of town in

Colorado, so he was not here to do that.

So Steve had to build the slides, which he had to build on

Wednesday. So I had to write the sermon on

Tuesday. And you already know how, how,

how Monday went down. Monday, Monday was it was a hard

day. And so I sat down here at church

Tuesday to write the sermon and was interrupted, was

interrupted, was interrupted, was interrupted.

And then I couldn't focus my mind.

I couldn't get it together. I finally said I got to go home.

I got to, I got to go figure it out at home.

I probably decided that about 4:00.

I said no, just to get off at 3:00, but whatever, who's

counting? 4:00 I said I'm going home.

I'm going to do it at home when I got home.

And guess what? Lives in my house or

distractions all up over the place.

So distract, distract, distract. I finally sit down, finally

going to write the sermon and I'm like, OK, here we go.

God, I'm ready to go. And I have about 135 points.

And I felt like that was a little aggressive for a Sunday

morning, right? Like I don't know if y'all were

really willing to sit with that. I didn't plan to cater food

today. So I was like, God, I, I, I got

to get it together and all about me.

I got to get it together. I have to focus.

I, I, I, I, I. And God said precious Angel

baby, this thing about you, girl, he said over and over in

my mind, I kept hearing the word, It's simple, simple over

and over in different ways, just simple.

And I was like, OK, I'm obviously over complicating

things. And then you all that know me

know that it's a gift, it's a talent.

So I just stopped what I was doing.

I stopped my my researching and my studying.

And I mean, I read every commentary from here in Yonder.

I was just diving into research and study and God just stopped

me. And it's like, no, no, no, it's

simple. So I stopped and I prayed and

then as God does it, it all just poured out.

I wish I had stopped sooner because I was up till 2:00 AM

riding because I didn't stop to pray till, you know, midnight,

whatever, it's fine. I did it.

I stopped and I prayed and God was like, this is what you have

to say. So Steve would would be so

disappointed, but I only have two points 2, that's it, just

two. But I got a lot, I got a lot of

my two points. So the sermon is watch and pray.

So we're going to start with watch, right?

Simple watch Matthew 2638. We read Matthew 26 already.

But in verse 38 he said, and then he said to them, my soul is

overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.

Jesus asked the disciples to keep watch.

He was going to pray, right? Because he knew evil was coming.

Evil is coming for you today. Are you watching?

Are you watching for that? One of the things that our

prayer crew, we have a lot of positions with prayer crew, but

one of the positions on Sunday morning for prayer crew is chair

prayer. And so someone comes in as

typically me or it is Laura Clark, we come in and we lay

hands on every single chair in this sanctuary and we pray for

the people that are going to be sitting in them.

So all of you, all of you were prayed for probably while you

were at home still getting ready, right?

We pray over the chairs. So this morning as I was, it was

my turn to pray. I was praying over the chairs.

The thing that kept coming into my mind was, Lord, protect them

from evil. When they enter into this

building. God, I pray that evil is left

behind. As a matter of fact, when they

enter into the parking lot, I pray that it doesn't even follow

them because it follows you, because the enemy does not want

you to be anywhere near Jesus. He wants you to have doubts.

If he can, just, if he can just get one doubt, just one, He's

got a foothold to stand on. Like if you watch someone climb

the side of a mountain, right, they're trying to find a place

to put their foot. They need the tiniest.

If you ever watch someone climb a mountain, they need the

tiniest sliver of a rock to get the spikes of their shoe on, to

give them leverage to go forward.

The enemy is the same. You just need something small.

You don't need something big. And if you're not watching, he's

going to find that foothold first.

Peter, 58, says be alert and of sober mind.

Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion

looking for someone to devour. Picture that a roaring lion.

Think of what they do. They get low in the grass and

they hide and they're very still and you don't know that they're

there until they attack you. They've been watching your every

move, finding just the right moment where you're just the

most vulnerable to jump in and get you.

The enemy is the same. That's why he's likened to the

lion. I don't know about y'all, but if

you go on a safari in Africa, I don't suspect you'll lay down

and take a nap, right? No, you're probably not even

going to go by yourself. You're going to have a tour

guide. You are going to probably have

some weapons on that tour bus. You are going to be on the high

alert, paying attention because everything around you kind of

wants to eat you there. So you're going to be paying

attention. Here's what I'm going to tell

you. It's the same.

It's the same everywhere around you.

There is something trying to attack you, whether it is social

media, whether it is your neighbor, whether it is your own

thoughts. Something is trying to attack

you and it is led by the enemy. We are called to be Watchmen.

OK, so I just did a little research on Watchmen.

In the Bible. There are two different kinds of

Watchmen that is talked about. 1 is a person appointed to guard

and observe to prevent harm. So they were centennials or

guards that sat on the city walls or in the in the

watchtowers, right? Because cities had big walls

around them. So they would sit on the walls

and they were watching for danger.

They were watching for their enemies.

They could be marching in to attack them.

That's what they're watching for.

Now, the walls were built for protection, right?

Yeah. But those walls couldn't do the

whole job. If someone wasn't guarding the

wall, the enemy could break the wall down.

They could burn the wall down, right?

The Watchmen were there to protect not only the people in

the city, but the walls that protect the city.

We're going to go to Nehemiah. So you're going to flip yourself

into that. Old Testament people.

Here we go, Nehemiah. And it's in chapter 4.

OK, And I'm going to kind of poke around this chapter instead

of reading the entire thing to you, let me give a little story.

So Nehemiah is called by God to go help rebuild the wall.

OK? He is heading to go help the

Jews rebuild their wall. It has been burned.

It is rubble, it is crushed and he is coming to rebuild it.

The enemies are like what? They're going to build a wall

that's just going to crumble. Like what a waste of time.

So the enemy, their enemies are mocking them and laughing at

them. Ha ha ha.

You're never going to be able to do it right.

Wait a minute. It helps if you don't re flip

the page because Esther's not where I want to read for all.

Just want y'all to know that. So we're going to start in verse

4. It says hear us our God, for we

are despised. Turn their insults back on their

own heads, give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.

So Nehemiah is like God don't let the enemy win.

We're trying to rebuild this wall.

Don't let the enemy in, verse 6 says So we rebuilt the wall till

all of it reached half its height, for the people worked

with all their heart. But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the

Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashad heard that the

repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps

were being closed, they were angry.

They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem

and stir up trouble against it. But.

We prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet

this threat. They were watching.

They were watching. They prayed, Lord, strengthen us

and they are watching. Meanwhile, the people of Judah,

well, they're, they're, they're complaining a little bit.

Oh God, we're too weak, right? We're not.

I don't think we can do it. God, we can work and watch.

What was me? I don't think we can do it.

And God's like, hi, you have my strength.

Clearly you can do it. OK.

That's what happens, right? We complain.

Oh, we can't do it. Too tired.

Have you ever gone on a walk with your children?

See. Y'all get it?

OK. Same.

That's what they were doing. What was me?

Yeah, it was terrible. It was awful.

So they posted guards while the people were working.

People were guarding the workers day and night.

OK, When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and

that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall.

Each to our own work. But here's how they did it.

From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other

half were equipped with Spears, Shields, bows, and armor.

The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah

who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did

their work with one hand, held a weapon in the other, and each of

the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.

But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

It took a village. It took a village of people to

watch. Isn't that what we are?

It takes a village of people to watch against the attacks of the

enemy. You're not supposed to do it

alone. Just like you wouldn't go to

Africa all by yourself and hope for the best.

It takes a village of people. OK, the second type of Watchmen,

they they were prophets and spiritual leaders called to

guard people's spiritual well-being.

So their role was to sound the alarm like the guy in the with

the trumpet. They were.

I wish I had one that would have made this.

I could have just bugled for you.

That would have been great when sin threatened the community and

to call God's people to repentance in order to avoid His

judgement. For example, in Ezekiel 317, God

tells the prophet, I've made you a watchman, so hear the word I

speak and give them warning from me.

OK, so the Watchmen were not only messengers of warning, but

also stewards of accountability. Did you catch that?

Stewards of accountability, if they failed to deliver God's

message, Not only did the people suffer, but so did the watchman

because he didn't do his job. He didn't do what he was called

to do. So the image of this watchman

underscores the urgency of repentance and the weight of

spiritual leadership. Get them Bibles out again.

We're going to go to Mark, OK? Mark 13.

Oh my God, I flipped right to it.

And we're going to start in verse 32 and we're going to read

through 37 work 1332. Here we go.

But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels

in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Be on guard, be alert. You do not know when that time

will come. It's like a man going away.

He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with

their assigned tasks, and tells the one at the door to keep

watch. Therefore, keep watch because

you do not know when the owner of the house will come back,

whether in the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster

crows. I don't know about y'all but my

rooster crows all day. So see.

Tony agrees 24/7. If you turn the back porch light

on, he must crow at it. I'm just saying he crows all day

long 24/7. That's no stop it.

Or at dawn if he comes suddenly, do not let him find you

sleeping. What I say to you, I say to

everyone. Watch parallels here.

Beautiful. OK, I want you to see this.

The owner Jesus of the house, the church left his house, left

us the body of Christ to care for it.

And we each have what are assigned tasks.

Everyone is called to keep watch and to be a watchman.

This is why we have Christian communities.

This is why we come to church on Sunday.

It's why we have our groups. It's why we do special events.

To have you come and be a part and fellowship together and

build a relationship together, right?

Because that makes us stronger when we get to know each other.

Like, have you ever seen a husband and a wife, right?

So they're in a they're in a space and the wife decides she's

ready to go. And so she gives her husband the

eye and he's like, oh, it's time to go.

Are you ready? Yeah.

A good example of this. I just watched it.

Was it last week? Week before?

I don't know. I served at the welcome desk and

Jason Henry was on the door and Mary Henry was at the desk when

someone came in. And he wasn't sure he'd he'd

give Mary a look and then Mary would be like, oh, is this your

first time visiting? And then boom, now we know we

got first time visitors, right because he only had to look at

her and she knew, right? So when we joined together as

community, we get to know each other.

We get to know. And then you can walk in at

church and go, you look off what's going on.

I see, I, I see, I see something in you.

What's going on? If you don't know someone, you

can't do that, right? We are building relationships

with the body of Christ so we can keep watch together as a

group over ourselves and each other.

Are you? Are you keeping watch or have

you let sin infiltrate your mind, your thoughts, your heart,

your spirit, your life? Are you connecting with God and

His Word daily? Are are you sleeping in?

Are you being vigilant about what you let yourself see and

hear and think about, or are you giving the enemy that foothold

that I talked about earlier? These are questions for you to

think about. Isaiah 5610 through 11 says this

is a tough one. Israel's Watchmen are blind.

They lack knowledge. They are all mute dogs.

I don't want to be that. They cannot bark.

They lie around in dream. They love to sleep.

They are dogs with mighty appetites.

They never have enough. They are shepherds who lack

understanding. They all turn to their own way.

They seek their own game. I don't know about y'all, but

that is not the kind of watchman I want to be.

That is not what I want God to say about me or any of us.

A good watchman is vigilant, accountable, courageous,

faithful and compassionate, not afraid to share God's Word and

sound the alarm at any sign of danger or trouble.

Have you ever known someone who you see is about to or currently

taking a step that doesn't line up with the Scriptures right?

It's not. It's not a biblical direction

that they're heading. We probably all have.

Do you say something to them? Do you?

Do you point it out in love? Do you do you ask good questions

even if they're going to get mad at you?

I have and I have not, right? But I have.

I have lost friends because I could see the the direction they

were stepping and and their actions didn't align with the

word which all of our actions should align with the words.

It wasn't. And so I asked some good

questions and well, they, they, they didn't like my good

questions. They didn't like, and they were

offended that I seemed maybe unsupportive of their choices.

I can't deny that I wasn't supportive of their choices.

That is not a good sign right there.

That's not a good sign. That's just, that's a terrible

sign. I've only got to .1, which is

why we're going to two points. OK, I'm going to go faster.

OK. I have lost friendships because

I tried to point them to the book.

That makes me sad for two reasons.

One, because I love those people.

I love them with my whole heart and I want the absolute 1000%

best for them. And two, because I see where

they're going. I'm watching and I see and I am

afraid for their life choices and I want them to be in right

relationship with the Lord. OK, we're going to move on to

pray and let's just begin praying now that Stacey going to

get through this. OK, go back to Matthew 26.

We're going to go 39 through 44, and I got to open my Bible.

Matthew 263939. Here it is going a little

farther. He fell with his face to the

ground and prayed. My Father, if it is possible,

may this cup be taken from me yet?

Not as I will, but as you will. Then he returned to his

disciples and found them sleeping.

Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?

He asked. Peter, watch and pray so that

you will not fall into temptation.

The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went away a second time and prayed.

My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away

unless I drink it, may your will be done.

When he came back, he again found them sleeping because

their eyes were heavy. So we left them and went away

once more and prayed the third time saying the same thing.

Jesus knew in his final hour he needed to be with his Father.

He knew He didn't ask just one time.

He asked three times, repeatedly, the same thing.

He asked, not because God is deaf, not because he thought, oh

maybe God didn't hear me. I should ask again.

No, because he was praying fervently, because he was in

anguish and he needed his father.

That's why he went back over and over with the same prayer.

Have you ever had to pray the same prayer over and over?

I have and many y'all know Steve and I struggle with fertility

for many years. We were blessed, got pregnant

with Lance. It was amazing.

From the ages of 26 to 40, count those months, I prayed fervently

to get pregnant again. I did not until my the day of my

hysterectomy. Sitting there knowing I was

going to have a hysterectomy and I was 40, didn't need to be

carrying any baby at 40. It didn't matter.

I prayed one last prayer. God let that pregnancy test be

positive. It was not.

And truth be told, I already had a baby at home.

I had Lizzie at home. She wasn't even a year.

She's still a baby. But I prayed fervently now.

He answered my prayers in his way, right?

Just as he did for Jesus. He answered my prayers in his

way. And I have three beautiful

children and seven others that I got to foster in love and

mother. And I still hold dearly in my

heart ten children, far more than I ever prayed for, because

that's how God works. That's how God's economy works.

I'm so overtime. I apologize, OK?

Prayer strengthens you and equips you for whatever God has

in your path for the day. Ephesians 618 And pray in this

Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all

the Lord's people. Now, in this Scripture, praying

in the Spirit is not the same as speaking in tongues.

It means praying from a heart and mind guided and filled by

the Holy Spirit. That's what this is referring

to. God wants to hear all your

prayers. Big, small, silly, ridiculous,

painful shouts, right? Anger.

Sometimes we pray in anger. He can take it.

He's a big God. He even wants to hear your

impossible prayers. Those may be his favorite.

Be alert to what's going on around you in the people's lives

here so that you can pray for them, pray with them, pray over

them. Let me tell you something.

People can't pray for you if you're walking around going,

hey, everything's great. Oh, my life is so fantastic.

Everything is so wonderful and inside you're dying.

We can't pray if you're being fake.

You got to bring the real you with the real problems, with

your real issues, with your real struggles.

You got to bring that to the people so we can carry that

burden with you, so we can walk it through with you and go to

God with you in prayer. James 516 says, Therefore

confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that

you will be healed. The prayer of a righteous person

is powerful and effective. If Jesus, Jesus asked people to

pray with him, so should you, right?

We're supposed to be doing it. Here's what I'm going to tell

you. Jesus had the ability to pray

all by himself. He didn't need those people.

He did not need the disciples. I mean, I son of God didn't need

it, but he asked for it because he was a living example of what

we are supposed to do. Follow his example.

Colossians 4/2 says devote yourselves to prayer, being

watchful and thankful. Let's pray.

God, thank you so much for this morning.

Lord, I thank you that you are here and that you are protecting

us and that you are guiding us. Lord, I thank you that we can

come to you with anything in prayer and you hear us.

You not only hear us, but you answer us.

You don't answer us. You answer us in the best way

with the best way forward, the best answers for us whether we

see it or not. And I thank you for this church

family that we get to do this together, keeping watch

together. Lord, I thank you for those that

are here and those that you have yet to bring to this body.

I thank you that we get to do this life together.