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Well, my only disappointment was that Carl didn't come up and sing with them.

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But Carl assures me that he and Herb McDonald are going to sing a duet here shortly.

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So we'll look forward to that.

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Of course, Herb's got a sore throat right now, but things will get better, right Herb?

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It won't get worse, is that right?

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I invite you to open your Bible with me tonight to Luke chapter 22.

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As you're doing that, let me encourage you to remember Ted Esler and Todd Lang made in

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prayer.

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They are in Zagreb, Yugoslavia this evening, and will be catching flights back to the United

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States in the next few hours.

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They have been there this last week on a survey journey, seeking a place where Ted and Annette

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and their family might live this fall as they anticipate service in Croatia as missionaries

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for the Lord Jesus Christ.

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So remember the two men as they return to the United States over the next few hours.

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I'm going to begin reading in verse 39 of Luke 22, and I'll be reading from the NIV.

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Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.

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On reaching the place, he said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation.

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He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, Father, if you

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are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.

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An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him, and being in anguish, he prayed more

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earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

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When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted

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from sorrow.

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Why are you sleeping?

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He asked them.

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Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

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It seems to me that the Garden of Gethsemane may be the neglected stop on the road to redemption.

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As I look back over my life, I've heard not many sermons on the Garden of Gethsemane except

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sermons about the fact that disciples ought not to pray, ought not to sleep when they're

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called to pray.

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The Garden of Gethsemane was the place where Jesus was alone.

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Yes, the disciples were there, but they were not with him in spirit at this point.

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And he deliberately withdrew himself physically from them some distance so that he would be

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completely alone.

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One is immediately struck in the text that this was not a place that was foreign to Jesus

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and to his disciples.

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The NIV puts it this way, Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives.

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Another translation says, as his custom was.

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The Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane served as a customary place of retreat for

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Jesus and his disciples, perhaps on a number of occasions, certainly during these last

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days during the week of his passion.

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If you look back in chapter 21 and verse 37, you'll notice it says, each day Jesus was

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teaching at the temple and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called

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the Mount of Olives.

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And so during that final week, each evening, Jesus was there in the garden.

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If you have ever taken a tour to the Holy Land, you know that the Garden of Gethsemane

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is still there in some form.

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At least the olive trees that were a part of that garden are still there, some of them.

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And some of those trees date back 2,000 years.

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There is very little doubt that some of the trees that are still growing today on the

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Mount of Olives were the trees that were there under which Jesus and his disciples retreated

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during this week and under which he prayed on this night that we read about in Luke chapter

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22.

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His disciples being left behind on this occasion, although the other writers of the Gospels

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record that he took with him three of the disciples who went a little closer to where

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he was, but eventually all of them being left behind, Jesus withdrew to a spot alone to

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pray.

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And there he experienced the last quiet that he would experience until the time that he

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died the next day.

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This was his last quiet moment, but as we will see, it was a moment of great intensity

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in his life.

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Alone there in the garden, Jesus prayed to his father.

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It is an intimate moment.

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As we read these words, it is almost as if we are walking on hallowed ground, entering

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that garden and observing our Lord kneeling in prayer.

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I feel as though we are almost intruding into a personal conversation of the Son of God

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with this Heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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But here in this moment of solitary prayer, you and I can learn something that will help

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all of us in our prayer life.

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The first observation I make is that solitary prayer has its time and its place.

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But not all praying is in private.

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There were many times, in fact, when Jesus prayed in public and prayed with his disciples.

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On one occasion when he had finished praying in their presence, they said, Lord, teach

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us to pray.

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For some of us, praying in groups can be a rather intimidating experience.

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It's good for us, however, to learn to pray with others being present.

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I remember as a young boy who was probably seven years of age at the time, experiencing

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my first prayer meeting.

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A family in our neighborhood who went to a very fine evangelical church in our small

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town was taking care of us for a few days and took us along to prayer meeting on Wednesday

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night.

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Of course, if they lived today, that would have been a good reason to stay home because

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they had some guests with them.

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They took us along and went to church with us in accompaniment.

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I remember well the point in the service when we all broke up into prayer groups.

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The women stayed in the auditorium and the men, of which I was one, went to a back room.

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There we knelt in prayer.

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I remember as a young boy listening to these people in the church praying around and realizing

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that it was going to be my turn eventually.

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However, a marvelous thing happened.

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When I woke up, they had already passed me, so I didn't have to pray out loud.

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Praying in groups can be intimidating.

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It's good for us to learn to pray when other people are around.

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After all, when we pray and others are around, we need to remember we're not talking to

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them anyway.

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We're talking to God.

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They happen to be there listening to us.

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Sometimes we feel like, well, what if I say the wrong thing?

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What if I make a fool of myself and what I say in my praying?

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Can we ever make fools of ourselves when we're praying with sincere hearts to God?

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I think not.

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It is good for us to learn to pray in groups.

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It is a little disappointing that when we call for a prayer meeting as a church or announce,

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for example, that on a Sunday night we're going to break up into prayer groups, it usually

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divides the attendance in half.

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I think the part of that is a reticence on our part to pray when others can hear us.

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If we learn to do that, it can be a wonderfully strengthening experience.

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I look at the services of prayer that we have periodically.

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I give thanks to the Lord for those circles, those small groups that pray together.

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I know that every time there are some people present who have never before prayed in front

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of other people.

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It is a wonderful thing to break through that barrier of intimidation, which is self-imposed,

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and to learn to pray even though others are listening to us.

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It's good for us to learn to pray in public.

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I'm always grateful when I go to a restaurant and look around at others who are just sitting

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down or who are just being served their food, and they pause for a moment to pray.

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That does my heart good.

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It gives you the feeling that there are some people out there who don't just sit down

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at the trough like a bunch of hogs, but they stop for a moment and recognize that what

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is before them is the gift of God, and they're saying thanks to God.

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It can be a matter of testimony to other people as they recognize that we want to take a moment

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and are not ashamed to do it in public, to say, God, I give thanks to you for your provision

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in my life, including this food.

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I remember hearing the story about one group of men traveling, evangelists and song leaders

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they were back in the 40s.

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As I remember, a couple of them were the Palermo brothers, as some of you know or would remember

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from right here in the Twin Cities.

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They were getting ready to pray around a table, quite a few of them, in a public restaurant.

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One of them said, well, man, let's confirm our testimony and get down on our knees and

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pray.

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They got down on their knees in that restaurant and gave thanks for the food.

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Well, I've never done that.

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I must be quite honest with you, but I try always to pray.

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Even when I have a guest with me who may not be a Christian, I say to them, it is my custom

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to pray before I eat.

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May I pray for both of us?

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You know, I've never had one person say, oh, forget it.

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They're always grateful, and they say thank you for doing that.

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I have looked up and seen their faces a little red, but that's all right.

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I remember one occasion in a restaurant, and I've told you about this before, some of

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you, that our staff, when I was pastoring another church, was at a restaurant eating,

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and we looked over and there were two mothers who came in with their children and sat down

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to eat, and they all bowed their heads and prayed.

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I was so touched by that that on the way out, I stopped by their table and I said, I want

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you to know that I appreciated seeing you stop to pray before you ate.

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And one of the ladies looked up at me with a big smile on her face and she said, we always

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do that.

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We're Jehovah's Witnesses.

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I was speechless, believe it or not.

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It is good for us to learn to pray in public, but solitary prayer has its time and its place.

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Jesus' warning in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5 about praying like the hypocrites is not

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a warning against praying in public.

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It is a warning against praying to be seen by men.

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We don't want to do that and fall into that trap.

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Jesus is not giving an injunction there against praying in public, but there are moments when

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prayer alone is necessary and desired.

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Moments like Jesus was in here and moments like he had had before.

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In the Gospel of Mark in the first chapter, Mark tells us about an occasion when after

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a full day of ministry, Jesus got up early the next morning before the sun even came

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up and went out by himself to a lonely place and there he prayed.

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And there were other occasions like the time when he was about to select the twelve who

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would be with him, whom he would train for ministry when Jesus spent the whole night

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in prayer alone before such a decision.

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As Luke tells us in the fifth chapter and sixteenth verse of his Gospel, Jesus often

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withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

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Solitary prayer has its time and its place.

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Perhaps after a busy and pressure-filled schedule that you've had, it's a good time to get

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alone to pray.

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Or when facing major decisions that will impact your life, get alone to pray.

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When facing trials, get alone to pray.

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But more than just because we have need, but because also we want to be intimate with God.

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Solitary prayer has its time and place and such a time and place came again for the Lord

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Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane.

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The second observation I make is that solitary prayer can ask any request.

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There's a natural reticence when we're praying with others to ask some things.

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There are some things that are very private and personal that we are very cautious about

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talking about in front of other people, even if we're talking to God about them.

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There are times when we don't want to ask certain things or say certain things because

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we're not sure how those listening might interpret it.

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But the fact is that there need be no reticence at all when we are alone with God, bearing

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our soul before Him.

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You and I can say anything, anything that is on our hearts.

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I was talking with someone recently who was expressing certain feelings that he had about

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God to me.

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And I said, have you ever told God you feel that way?

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And he said, no, no I haven't.

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The fact is that whatever that person might say would never surprise God.

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God is never caught off guard when you and I are completely transparent and honest with

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Him.

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Solitary prayer can ask any request, bring up any subject.

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And here Jesus asks a request that is most amazing.

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He asks the Father that the cup be taken from Him.

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Father, if you're willing, take this cup from me.

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Question arises, of course, what is the cup to which Jesus refers?

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There are some who say that it was death, that perhaps Jesus' humanness, His true humanity

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is showing here that He was afraid to face death.

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I hardly think that to be the case.

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In fact, true courage may be in recognizing painful and certain death and then choosing

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to embrace it.

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I don't think Jesus was withdrawing from death itself.

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Nor do I think, as some suggest, that He was concerned about dying prematurely, that He

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was afraid that the pressure, the spiritual pressure that was on Him in the Garden of

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Gethsemane might kill Him before it was time.

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I don't think that that was the case because He said, I have the power to lay down my life.

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And I have the power to take it up again.

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He could choose the moment when death would take Him.

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So it wasn't really that He was afraid of dying prematurely.

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It seems to me that the cup is best explained by going to the Old Testament and seeing there

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what the cup often pictured.

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One example of that is in Psalm 75, I invite you to turn back to the Psalms with me.

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Once you've arrived at Psalm 75, notice verse 7, but it is God who judges, He brings one

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down, He exalts another, in the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with

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spices.

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He pours it out and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs.

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What is this cup that the psalmist pictures in the hand of God?

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It is the cup of judgment which the wicked must drink from the hand of the Lord and not

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unjustly.

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It seems to me that the cup that Jesus is praying about in the garden is just that cup.

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It is the cup of the judgment of His heavenly Father that He must drink to bear the sins

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of humanity.

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It was a cup that involved His separation from His heavenly Father, His being forsaken

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by His heavenly Father.

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It was a cup that involved not merely physical suffering but the terrible spiritual torture

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of becoming sin for us, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

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And as the holy nature of Jesus anticipated the drinking of that judgment from God and

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becoming sin, there was such revulsion within Him of that idea that He prayed what He did.

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Such a thought as this, Father take this cup from me.

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And yet you notice that He carefully phrases it.

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The paramount thing to Jesus was not the suffering He was about to endure, but it was the will

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of God.

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And He says, as Luke records it, Father if you are willing, yet not my will but yours

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be done.

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That was paramount to Jesus.

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And when you and I come to our Father in our solitary praying and we ask of Him the requests

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of our heart, then we must also come to Him with a will that is yielded in advance, saying

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Father here is my will, but not my will, yours be done.

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There is a lady who has in the past attended our church who is at the present time dying

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of breast cancer.

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And I have prayed with her a number of times in recent days.

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One of the things she asked me to do was to pray that the Lord would take her home.

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I don't think it's wrong to ask that request.

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It would be wrong to demand it of God, but I don't think it's wrong to ask Him.

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And as we prayed together, we prayed that the Lord would be pleased in His time and

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His way to take her home as it would be His will.

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You see, we could even ask something like that together, but it needs to be postured

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in such a way.

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Father, if it's Your will, do this.

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And even if those be not the words of our lips, let it be the attitude of our heart.

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Father, I ask what is on my heart.

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I ask my burden.

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Here is what I would wish that Your will be done.

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The marvelous thing about solitary prayer is that you can ask of God whatever you wish.

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God will never be offended, alarmed, or surprised.

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Thirdly, I observe that solitary prayer taps spiritual resources.

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You'll notice on this occasion, and only Luke records this, and though there are some

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who contest the authenticity of this text, it does seem to have sufficient merit for

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it to be placed in those translations.

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Luke records for us that there in the garden, as Jesus prayed alone, there was an angel

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who materialized with Him in the garden.

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And it says that there the angel strengthened Him.

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You'll notice that Jesus, it says, knelt down and prayed.

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Kneeling was not the customary posture of praying for the Jews.

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More customary they would stand and they would lift their hands to God in prayer.

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If you see pictures today at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, you'll notice that is the posture

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of the Jews who are praying there as they bob back and forth before the wall in their

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praying.

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They're standing with their hands outstretched to God.

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But on this occasion it says that Jesus knelt and prayed, and Matthew and Mark tell us that

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He fell on His face in the garden and prayed.

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But an angel, it says, ministered to Him and strengthened Him.

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Think of it.

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This created spirit being comes to the Creator robed in human flesh and ministers to Him.

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And in some way that we perhaps cannot clearly understand, actually strengthens the Almighty.

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Jesus was in a moment of great physical and mental anguish.

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And as He prayed alone, there were spiritual resources that were tapped to strengthen Him.

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That's exactly why Jesus told His disciples on this occasion to pray.

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He wanted them to pray because He knew trial was coming.

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In fact, in earlier verses here in this very chapter, He had warned Peter in particular

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that he would be tempted and would in fact deny the Lord.

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And so Jesus says to His disciples, pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

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Pray.

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Why pray?

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Because you need the spiritual resources that come by prayer.

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Prayer was their very best defense and it was their strength against approaching temptation.

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Solitary prayer taps spiritual resources.

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Well, of course, I'm not suggesting that when we pray in groups, we don't tap those

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resources because we do.

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When you and I are alone before our God in prayer and lifting our hearts to Him with

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earnestness and sincerity, it unleashes all kinds of spiritual resources to come to our

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aid.

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And though no angel may materialize and appear in our presence, you can be sure the angels

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are involved in that moment of prayer.

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None of us can understand fully all that that would mean.

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But it's a marvelous thing to contemplate.

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I'm trying right now to think of the author who wrote those couple of books.

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Frank Peretti has authored a couple of books on spiritual warfare, which are not theological

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treatises, understand.

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They are novels.

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They're fictional.

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And yet he has an intriguing way of just playing with your mind and opening to you some possibilities

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as to how prayer and the angelic world interact.

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If you want to read a book, you can't put down and get one of Peretti's novels.

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Solitary prayer taps spiritual resources.

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I noticed the exhaustion that was brought on the disciples.

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He says it was brought on them by sorrow.

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It is in times of emotional exhaustion that we especially need to pray and to tap the

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resources of God.

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Immediately comes to my mind, and perhaps yours, Elijah, who also in a moment of emotional

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exhaustion ran.

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He took time to pray but ran until God had him cornered in a cave on Mount Horan.

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When you and I are exhausted, whether it be by sorrow or other emotions, in that moment

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we must understand the importance of prayer so that we can tap the resources of God in

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our human weakness and thus experience the strength of God.

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The fourth observation I make is that solitary prayer can involve extreme intensity.

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I've already talked about the fact that Jesus, according to two of the writers of the Gospels,

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fell to the ground on his face.

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We read here of the anguish that he was experiencing.

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The word in the original language is our word, agony, and it refers to the anguish, the all-out

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pressure, of an athletic contest.

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Jesus is in here, as it were, a spiritual contest in which his soul is in anguish.

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He said to his disciples, according to Matthew's account, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow

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to the point of death.

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The Son of God is saying those words.

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My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

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He says to them, stay here and watch and keep watch with me.

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The language suggests that there were several periods of prayer, and in fact the other writers

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of the Gospel record of this event tell us that Jesus prayed, and he would come back

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to his disciples and find them sleeping, wake them up and say, please pray.

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He would go away again and pray by himself.

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Come back and find them sleeping.

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And three times he did that, coming back to find them asleep.

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But he himself, again and again and again, prayed in this time of extreme intensity.

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You and I only have to go to the Psalms and see there that the writers of the Psalms knew

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the meaning of tremendous pressure in life.

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I'd like you to turn again to the Psalms, to the 88th Psalm, which has been called the

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saddest Psalm in the Bible.

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Psalm 88.

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If you are depressed, this is not the Psalm to come to.

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This is God's Word, and the emotion that is expressed in this Psalm was very real to its

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author, who is said to be Heman.

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Oh Lord, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.

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May my prayer come before you, turn your ear to my cry, for my soul is full of trouble

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and my life draws near the grave.

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I am counted among those who go down to the pit.

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He is talking about Sheol, the grave.

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I am like a man without strength.

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I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no

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more, who are cut off from your care.

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You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.

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Your wrath lies heavily upon me.

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You have overwhelmed me with all your waves.

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You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them.

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I am confined and cannot escape.

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My eyes are dim with grief.

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He continues with the same kind of a theme.

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It seems to me that these words of Psalm 88 may very well have been some of the emotions

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that Jesus felt.

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The psalmist sees himself here as a dead man in verses 4 through 6, as the ones who go

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down to Sheol.

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He sees himself as a drowning man in verse 7, where God's waves have overwhelmed him

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and he is sinking beneath them.

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He sees himself in verse 8 as a defiled man, whom no one wishes to be around.

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He sees himself in verse 14 as a doomed man, whom even God himself has rejected.

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Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?

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Have you ever felt that way?

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Does God really care what I am going through?

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Someone might say, well yes I have felt that way, but I would never tell God I felt that

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way.

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Do you think he doesn't know it?

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And here is a writer of Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit who puts those very words

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into the eternal revelation of God.

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So I see again, you are not going to surprise God with anything you say to him.

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This psalmist is crying out of deep anguish, a time of intense suffering in his soul and

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bearing his heart before the Lord.

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There have been times in my own life when I have done this and I have said things to

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God that I was glad no one else was around to hear.

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I wasn't proud that I felt the way I did about God, but I told God exactly how I felt.

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And I think I am correct in saying that without exception when I have done that, I have gotten

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halfway through my discourse of complaint, or I have gotten almost through it, and suddenly

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I am broken.

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When the crisis passes and getting that poison in my system out before the altar of God somehow

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is cleansing, it's a catharsis for the soul, and God pours in his healing balm.

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Solitary prayer can involve extreme intensity.

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Going back to the Gospel record, we see that this was such an intense time in Jesus' life

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that the perspiration was perfuse.

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You would expect Dr. Luke to note the details that he had heard about.

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Remember, Luke was a physician.

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And so he puts it this way, and being in anguish he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was

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like drops of blood falling to the ground.

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Now people understand that differently.

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There are those who believe that the capillaries below Jesus' skin actually burst because of

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the pressure that he was under, a pressure that you and I will never know, we could never

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know.

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Only he could bear it.

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Only he, a sinless man, could experience what he experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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And it may be that those capillaries in bursting allowed blood actually to seep through the

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skin so that the sweat was red in color and was partially blood.

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Or it may be that the sweat was so perfused it was like a dripping cut from his forehead,

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just a constant drip of sweat.

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But you get the picture, don't you?

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Of the Son of God in a moment of extreme intensity pouring out his soul to God.

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And the final observation I make about this garden experience is the solitary prayer leads

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to renewed service.

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After Jesus had several times prayed and come back to the disciples, he ultimately came

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back, the time of prayer was finished, and he awoke the disciples.

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And he awoke them to the events that he knew were in store.

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Events that very quickly unfolded as Judas and the soldiers came and found him in the

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garden and he was placed under arrest and the disciples fled.

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Solitary prayer, you see, does not lead to the life of a monastic.

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Solitary prayer is not the prayer only of monks who withdraw from the world to their

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selves.

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Solitary prayer leads to renewed service, to revitalized service on behalf of others.

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Again I think of Elijah who after his time with God on Mount Horeb was able then, strengthened

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then, renewed then in order to go back down and to accomplish what God wanted him to do

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to conclude his ministry.

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The purpose of solitary prayer is not to remove us from our service but to restore us for

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it.

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Each of us has a garden as it were within our hearts where we are called upon to be

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alone with the Lord.

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One hymn writer put it this way in a hymn that is rarely sung anymore.

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There's a garden where Jesus is waiting.

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There's a place that is wondrously fair.

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For it glows with the light of his presence, tis the beautiful garden of prayer.

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There's a garden where Jesus is waiting.

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And I go with my burden and care just to learn from his lips of comfort in the beautiful

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garden of prayer.

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There's a garden where Jesus is waiting.

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And he bids you to come.

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Meet him there just to walk and to talk with your Savior in the beautiful garden of prayer.

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How long has it been since you've been to that garden?

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Maybe it's not a garden like Gethsemane with this kind of intensity at this moment, but

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it's a garden nonetheless.

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On the other hand, maybe there are those here who are going through the pressure and the

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stress, the wringer of life.

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The Savior invites you to come to that garden and to pray.

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That garden may be cultivated and kept because we are often there, or it may be a garden

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that has frankly been neglected and has become disordered and weeds have grown up.

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But it's never too late to go to that garden and pull up those weeds and to cut them back,

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to cultivate it and make it a beautiful place where you and the Savior meet for some solitary

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praying.

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Let's bow together.

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There's a garden where Jesus is waiting and he bids you to come meet him there.

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How is it in your prayer life?

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Is that garden frequented?

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Are you daily, regularly, consistently with Jesus in that garden of prayer?

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Dear friend, how he wants to walk and to talk with you in that garden.

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But you must make the decision to turn in the gate and to spend time there.

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Is that the desire of your heart?

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Is that the commitment of your heart tonight?

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So that before you go to bed this evening, you're in that garden with Jesus.

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And tomorrow, in the next day, as you go on the course of your daily routine, will you

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say tonight, Lord Jesus, I'll meet you in the garden?

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For there he walks and he talks with you.

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And he would put his arm around you and tell you that you're his and he loves you.

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And there, in pouring out your transparent requests and feelings before the Lord, you

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will tap into his eternal resources.

457
00:41:24,300 --> 00:41:36,940
Lord, I pray that that garden may be one that will find us present tonight and this week.

458
00:41:36,940 --> 00:41:39,020
Forgive us when we neglect it.

459
00:41:39,020 --> 00:41:45,580
We do it to our own weakness, to our own sorrow.

460
00:41:45,580 --> 00:41:53,340
We would come to that garden, that beautiful garden of prayer, and we would there lay bare

461
00:41:53,340 --> 00:41:57,260
our souls before you.

462
00:41:57,260 --> 00:42:04,540
Jesus, what a friend we find in you.

463
00:42:04,540 --> 00:42:09,340
All our sins and griefs to bear.

464
00:42:09,340 --> 00:42:18,060
What a privilege to carry everything to you in prayer.

465
00:42:18,060 --> 00:42:26,980
Thank you for opening this garden for us to enjoy in fellowship with you.

466
00:42:26,980 --> 00:42:34,780
Amen.