Praying to Be Like Jesus [B]

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Well, we are going to continue our look at Mark chapter 14 tonight, if you’ll turn there with me. I was told after the message this morning, somebody came to me out there at the door and said, you know, you started talking about Ceausescu this morning, and then you were talking about Stalin, and I was interested. He said, and then you started talking about conforming.

He said, and I got a little scared. He said, and then started talking about Greek philosophers, And I thought, where are we going with this? And then I realized you were saying Plato and not Plato.

And so if it alleviates your fears at all, I’m sure I’m much more qualified to discuss Plato than I am Plato. And that’s what we were talking about this morning, was being conformed to the image of Christ. And that word to me has implications and connotations of God working in us and molding us and shaping us into what He wants us to be. and that we are to look to the example of Christ and follow the example of Christ. And that was the whole point of the story with Nicolai Ceausescu, that he was studying to be a shoemaker.

And if he’d paid attention to what he was supposed to be doing and just had watched the shoemaker, he probably would have been all right. Certainly Romania would have been much better off. But he would not watch the shoemaker and try to do what he did.

And so many times we try to live the Christian life and try in some vague way to pursue Christ, try to pursue being like Christ, and yet try to do it without actually doing the things that Christ did, first among those being prayer. And as we’ve gone through this series on prayer, like I told you this morning, this won’t be the last message in the series on prayer, but it’s the last message on reasons why we pray. And we’ve come to the point now that we’ve covered ten reasons that I see in the Scriptures why we’re supposed to pray, and this one, I believe, is maybe the most important reason that we should pray is to be like Christ. Because Jesus Christ prayed.

More than anybody else in Scripture, Jesus Christ prayed. And we continue on with our look at this passage tonight, that if we want to be like Christ, if we want to be, as Romans chapter 8 says, conformed to the image of His Son, which is God’s plan for all believers. That’s what we’re predestined to, is once we are believers, God’s plan, God’s will for all believers is that we be conformed to the image of His Son.

And if we want to do that, one of the things that we need to do is be fervent in prayer, because that’s one of the most visible things that Christ did that sets him apart from other people in the Bible, apart from, as I mentioned this morning and talked about at length, him being God in human flesh. Just from a human standpoint, though, one of the things that sets him apart most from other people is the amount of time that he spent in prayer. Let’s look at the passage again, starting in verse 32, and it says, And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane.

And he saith to his disciples, sit ye here while I shall pray. And I won’t spend as much time in explaining the passage as I did this morning. But he brings Peter and James and John with him as it says in verse 33, and he taketh with him Peter, James, and John and began to be sore amazed and very heavy.

So he goes away to pray. He takes Peter, James, and John with him. They were sort of the inner circle from among the 12 disciples.

And he says, sit here and watch and pray. And I shared with you this morning that I really believe his reason for telling them that was so that they would watch him and follow his example. And it says, as he began to pray, or as he prepared himself to pray, he became greatly amazed at the thought of what was about to happen to him.

He knew what was going to happen to him at the cross. Became very amazed and very heavy, or depressed, sorrowful. And saith unto them, My soul, verse 34, is exceeding sorrowful unto death.

Tarry ye here and watch. So he tells them he’s under this great agony at the knowledge of what’s to come, and he says, I’m going to go pray. You all sit here and watch.

It says in verse 35, And he went forward a little and fell on the ground. He’s prostrate now before God the Father, and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. Prays to God and says, If there is any other way, let’s do that.

If there’s a plan B here that will work, let’s do that. And verse 36 says, and he records some of the prayer, And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And so what he basically prays as I’ve sinned is, Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me. And he’s not just talking about if there’s any other way for this to progress and play out.

Certainly there were other ways this could progress and play out. If all you’re talking about is if there’s another option besides me doing this, there’s the option of not doing this. If he was just looking for any way out, there’s another option.

I mean, he was God in human flesh. He could have zapped them all and walked out. What he’s talking about here is if there is any other way that mankind can be redeemed, if there’s any way that we can make a provision for you to have mercy and grace toward sinful man, if there’s any other option here where your justice can be carried out, If there’s any other option here where your holiness can remain intact because you have not compromised with sin, Father, if there’s any other way that all of these things can come together and work, let’s do that.

And knowing that there wasn’t, he says, nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And that doesn’t indicate that there was a disagreement between God the Father and God the Son. And God the Son is saying, I still don’t agree with this plan, but I’ll go along with it.

What he’s saying is that he understands what he’s about to go through. And he’s not looking forward to what he’s about to go through. But he’s willing to do it because it needs to be done.

And so he goes willingly to the cross. See, people will try to focus on not what I will instead of focusing on when he says, but what thou wilt. In that statement, he is agreeing with God the Father about what needs to be done.

And he cometh and findeth them sleeping. He returns from an hour of prayer, and he sees Peter, James, and John asleep there where he left them. And he says to Peter, Simon, sleepest thou?

Couldst not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The Spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

He’s warning Peter that Jesus is not the only one in need of prayer here. Jesus up to this point has been praying for himself, and when he’s even been talking to them about prayer, He’s been talking about his need for prayer and saying that he’s exceedingly sorrowful unto death. And we see part of his prayer recorded here.

But now he tells Peter, you need to pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. He talks about Peter’s need to pray and their need to follow Jesus’ example.

It says in verse 39, and again he went away and prayed and spake the same words. He went and prayed the same thing to God the Father again. Jesus’ need for prayer was not completed.

after that first hour. He goes and prays probably again for another hour. And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy, neither wished they what to answer Him.

So when He wakes them up and asks them again, Can you not even stay awake for one hour? They didn’t even know what to answer. And verse 41 says, And He cometh the third time.

So He’s gone away again for a third time to pray, and when He comes back to them, He says unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. I find it very interesting. I didn’t mention this this morning, But in two verses here, he tells them, sleep on. And then in the next verse, he says, get up and let’s go.

Now, that’s not a contradiction there. What he’s saying is it really doesn’t matter. The time you’ve had available to pray and spend time with the Father here is past. Now the work begins.

But he says, sleep on now and take your rest. It’s enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Rise up, let us go. though he that betrayeth me is at hand. And what we see here, we only get a small snapshot of what Jesus actually prayed for as far as recording his exact words.

But what we see here is Jesus’ entire attitude toward prayer, the need for prayer that he had, the need he felt that his disciples had for prayer, and some of the things he instructed them to be praying for. And as we pray because Jesus prayed, And because we have a responsibility and a privilege to follow His example as believers in trying to be conformed to who He is and how He would have us to live, as we pray, there are some things that we can learn from this passage. We’re just going to briefly look at the things that we talked about this morning and then focus in on the remaining three things that we didn’t get to yet.

First of all, prayer draws us closer to the Father. We see this because He not only calls God the Father, Father, but He calls Him Abba. That word means Daddy.

That’s not a word you would just call anybody, any acquaintance off the street. That’s a word that indicates a level of intimacy that we don’t see up to this point from anybody when they’re talking about God the Father. And folks, part of the reason for that is, as I said this morning, because Jesus Christ is God the Son, God in human flesh.

And yet we also see as we read through the Gospels, there’s this continual relationship between God the Son and God the Father. They were in constant communication, constant contact, because God the Son was regularly taking time to spend time in prayer with God the Father. And as I challenged you this morning, if we feel like God is not as close to us as we would like, it’s really not a problem of God’s closeness to us.

It’s a problem of our closeness to God. And maybe we should consider spending more time in prayer than what we do at the present time. But prayer draws us closer to the Father.

We can’t spend hour after hour after hour in prayer and do that consistently and not walk away without a feeling of drawing close to God the Father. Second of all tonight, prayer strengthens our faith in the Father. Jesus indicates here His faith when He says, all things are possible unto thee.

There’s nothing that’s impossible for God, or as I said this morning, there’s nothing consistent with God’s nature that is impossible for God. Folks, there are some things that God can’t do. You realize that?

First time I ever heard that, I was a child in church, probably on a Sunday night, and thought the preacher was a heretic, because everybody knows God can do everything. And unfortunately, I was a five-year-old who would talk back to the preacher sitting in the pews. But I just was horrified at the suggestion that God couldn’t do everything.

But the Bible says there are some things God can’t do. God can’t lie. God can’t sin.

God can’t compromise with sin. that anything that is consistent with God’s nature is possible for God to do. Think about that.

Think about all the things that that entails. We will say something like that, but when it comes time for us to actually believe it and put our trust in a statement like that, that God can do anything, we’re running around trying to figure out how we are going to fix the situations in our lives rather than trusting in the God who we believe can do anything consistent with His nature. As I said this morning, whatever problem there is in your life, whatever hurdle, whatever obstacle, whatever situation, and you’re looking at it thinking, God, can you handle this?

Yes, God can handle that. God can fix your family. God can get your finances in order.

God can take care of the problem at work. God can also change your heart about the situation. Folks, we serve a God for whom nothing is impossible.

That’s consistent with His nature. That doesn’t mean he always answers in a way that we think he should. But when we pray and step back from our problems, quit looking at our problems, because when we’re this close to them, they look huge, and step back and take our eyes off of our problems and spend time in prayer putting our eyes on God, the problems aren’t quite so daunting anymore, and it reminds us of the God we serve and his power and that we need to have faith in him.

Third of all, prayer brings us in line with the Father’s will. And Jesus even prayed here in verse 36, Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt.

As I said earlier, in his human flesh, Jesus Christ was willing, if there was any other way, to go that way. But, as he sits here praying about it, God, whatever you want. And we go to God so often and say, I want you to do this, I want you to take care of this, I want you to work in this situation in this exact way.

And so many times, God’s answer to us is not to work in that situation the way we think he ought to work and the way we try to tell him to do. Do you realize? Pay attention to yourself as you pray over the next week or so and count how many times you tell God how to do his job.

I do it a lot more than I should. Not that I ever should. But we say, God, I want you to work in this way.

I want you to work. And, folks, he doesn’t work for us. I tell my kids that all the time.

I don’t work for you. Tell Benjamin that. We need to hear that when it comes to God.

He doesn’t work for us. It’s the other way around. And he doesn’t always do exactly what we want him to do and work that situation exactly the way we want him to.

Sometimes his answer is to work on us in the midst of the situation and say, this is my will for you. And God begins to change our hearts from the inside out. Now tonight, that was just a brief overview.

Not as brief as I would have liked, but just a brief overview of what we talked about this morning, leading us into the final three things that we see when he comes back and speaks to Peter in verse 38. Fourth of all, prayer keeps us diligent to do the Father’s will. Prayer keeps us diligent to do the Father’s will.

He tells him in verse 38, watch ye and pray. There was going to be a time coming very soon when he was going to be called on to live out his faith, and it was going to be difficult. And he was told to be vigilant, to be alert.

And we’re told, I don’t think it’s by accident that it’s Peter who writes to be sober and be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. I think Peter was well acquainted with that process. And Jesus here tells him, watch ye and pray.

He’s telling him, be vigilant, be alert. And when we stop praying and take our eyes off the Father, we’re most susceptible to putting down the work we’re supposed to be doing for Him. Prayer keeps us diligent to do the Father’s will, to be about the Father’s business.

Some of you may be tired of hearing Benjamin and Madeline stories, but I’m sorry, you’re supposed to talk about what you know, and I don’t know much else right now. Benjamin’s getting to that stage in life where he wants to sort of be helpful, and he’s really not yet. A little bit, he can be.

And at night, before he goes to bed, we’ll say, pick up the toys. I don’t work for you. You pick up your toys.

Pick up the toys. And he will, if he goes and takes a handful of toys to his room, at this point he just throws them in there. As long as they’re not in my living room, I don’t care.

Just throw them in there. Takes a handful of toys, and if he comes back and says, Daddy, I pick up toys, he’ll pick up another handful of toys and take them and throw them in there. If he doesn’t come back and say anything to me, he runs off looking for his kitty cats, or he runs off wanting a sippy cup, or he’s in the kitchen screaming for cookies, or something like that.

If he’s not constantly talking to me saying, Daddy, this is what I’m doing. Daddy, this is what you wanted me to do. Daddy, this is what I’m doing next.

And I think we are like that a lot of times. That if we’re not constantly focused on talking to the Father and talking with Him, conversing with Him about the things that He’s called us to do, we’re not necessarily all that diligent to continue doing what He’s called us to do. We quit praying, we take our eyes off the Father and His will, and we get distracted.

We get distracted. I am easily distracted. Y’all may not know that about me.

Sometimes I can focus my mind like a steel trap. Other times I walk into a room and think, what did I come in here for? Because I’m cleaning four different rooms at a time.

I can spend my whole day cleaning the house and not get anything done because I’ll start cleaning dishes in the kitchen and I’ll see something on the counter that needs to go back to my bedroom and take that in there. Then I’ll get started putting laundry away and notice toys in the floor under the laundry and then go start cleaning the kitchen. I’m easily distracted.

Folks, that’s true in my spiritual life too. I’m easily distracted. And if I was a wagering kind of man, I would wager I’m not alone in that.

We, as a human race, are easily distracted. And it’s been that way from the very beginning. God gave mankind some jobs to do, didn’t he?

He told Adam to name the animals, told him to take care of the garden, told them to replenish the earth and subdue it, be fruitful and multiply. God gave Adam and Eve jobs to do, and yet they were distracted by fruit. They were distracted by lies and went off and did something else.

If they’d just been diligent, that’s easy for me to say that. Hindsight is 20-20, but if they’d just been diligent about what the Lord was telling them to do, they wouldn’t have had time to mess around with the snake and his fruit. But as humanity, we are easily distracted from what God has called us to do.

And it’s not by accident that Jesus tells Peter here, you need to watch and pray. Maybe the reason we don’t accomplish as much as we should in our Christian lives, maybe the reason we are not growing as much as we ought to be, to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, is because we’re not watching and praying. We’re not being diligent in following God’s will where He’s already revealed it to us.

We’re too busy chasing down distractions. So we need to watch and pray. Fifth of all tonight, closely related to the previous one, prayer protects us from the temptation to disobey the Father.

Prayer protects us from the temptation to disobey the Father. He tells him, watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. He says, when you watch and pray, it’s going to prevent you from falling into temptation.

Watch and pray so that you don’t fall into temptation. A few weeks ago, I was preaching on something else. I think preaching on praying to find strength, and kept saying over and over that I don’t believe the adage that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.

but I do believe God doesn’t give us more than He can handle. And a very dear lady in the church came to me afterwards and said, I think you’re wrong on that. And I said, well, show me and I’ll look it up.

And brought up the verse that was talking about temptation and God not suffering us to be tempted beyond what we’re able. And I think we were talking about two different things, but she’s absolutely right. When it comes to temptation, God does not give us more than we can handle, more than what He has enabled us to handle.

Now, in talking about the burdens of life, I was talking about something completely different, but that’s a point well taken. Folks, that verse says that God does not suffer us to be tempted beyond what we can handle, and that God always makes a way out of the temptation if we’re willing to look for it. Folks, sometimes that way out, that exit sign, is prayer.

We get in situations where we’re tempted and we think, well, if God makes a way for me to get out of it, where is it? we’re looking for some big door lit up with a blinking exit sign, and somebody showing us out. Folks, Jesus told Peter, Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

When we’re tempted, we need to hit our knees and pray. When we’re not tempted, we need to hit our knees and pray. But especially when we’re tempted, we need to pray.

We need to pray in preparation for the temptation that will come. Let me tell you what. I can tell you when you’re going to be tempted every day.

Every day, there are going to be temptations. We need to start each day with preparation, watching and praying, lest we fall into temptation. I’ve read in many places where people have said, and the one that comes to mind is Leonard Ravenhill, a book I’ve quoted numerous times, Why Revival Tarries.

And Ravenhill just said that a praying man will stop sinning and a sinning man will stop praying. Folks, I’d rather be in the first category. Now that doesn’t mean, and this verse doesn’t mean, that prayer makes us sinless.

The only thing that will stop us from sinning is death. But prayer greatly increases our opportunities to escape from the temptation. Greatly increases our strength in standing against temptation, and probably more importantly, increases our speed and our agility at running away from temptation.

Prayer protects us from temptation to disobey the Father. And finally tonight, prayer strengthens us for the Father’s work. Jesus tells Peter, the spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

We sort of hit on this this morning a little bit. That so many times God calls us to do something, and we know what he expects us to do. Either we read it clearly in his word, or we just know.

There are some things that God has written in his word that we know are his will for us. For example, making disciples. Is it God’s will for me to make disciples?

You better believe it is. And we know that’s something we’re supposed to do. Other times, God reveals things to us maybe more specifically, and you just almost hear it audibly that God says, I want you to go talk to your next-door neighbor about Jesus.

And folks, so many times, whether it’s through the revelation of the Bible, whether it’s His Holy Spirit impressing it upon us, folks, we will know very clearly what God wants us to do. And a part of us wants to obey. I don’t think there’s anybody in this room who doesn’t want to follow God’s will for their lives.

I mean, for crying out loud, this is the Sunday night crowd. It’d be much easier to be somewhere else tonight. I’m sure every one of you had other things you could be doing tonight.

Plans with friends, dinner out, sitting at home watching TV. There are other things you could be doing. But you’re here tonight, presumably because you want to learn God’s Word, because you want to worship together like we’re supposed to.

Obviously, there’s a desire to do God’s will. And yet sometimes, because it’s going to cost us something, the Spirit is willing. We want to do God’s will, but it’s just too hard.

The flesh is weak. Now, I go talk to my neighbor. You know, he might laugh at me, or he might slam the door in my face.

It’s going to cost me a little bit of my dignity. God says, I want you to give money to support that missionary. Okay, I’ll give a little bit.

And God says, no, I want you to give a little more. We wrestle with it. And folks, those aren’t the only things.

Sometimes it’s knowing how to respond in a situation. and you know the Christ-like response to somebody else and what they’ve done, and yet it’s so hard to do that sometimes. Even though we desperately want to please Christ and do His will, sometimes the flesh pops its head up and says, wouldn’t it just be so satisfying to tell them what you really think?

And we do. Folks, so many times the Spirit is willing to do the right thing, and yet the flesh is so very weak. And that’s one of the reasons He told His people to pray.

Prayer strengthens us for the Father’s work. You notice Jesus always had just the right amount of strength. He always had sufficient strength to do what God had called him to do.

He always knew what God had called him to do and did it. He was tempted. He was tempted just as everyone else is, and he was able to resist. He had a closeness with the Father.

We look at all of these attributes of Christ and we think, I want that. And when I talk about being conformed to the image of God’s Son, when I talk about being more like Christ, I’m not saying, Please, I think you all understand this, but I just need to clarify this just in case. I am not talking about becoming gods ourselves, okay?

I’m not a Mormon. What I’m talking about is watching His example. To be a disciple means to follow Him and do what He would do.

That’s what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about a change in our nature from human to divine. I’m talking about becoming more like the person we should be in Jesus Christ. And we look at all these attributes and think, you know, I know that’s what I’m supposed to be, and I really would like to be that, and yet I fall so far short, and I know we all do.

Have you considered how much time we spend in prayer? Because prayer, this intimate conversation, ongoing conversation with God the Father, kept Jesus in good stead for his entire earthly life and ministry. And Jesus, quite simply, the story.

. . Well, this is hypothetical. I can’t even.

. . I don’t even know how to finish that statement.

so I won’t. But nobody could do the things that Jesus did without that relationship with God the Father. Now, Jesus had that because he was God the Son.

But ladies and gentlemen, if Jesus Christ needed to pray, if Jesus Christ needed regularly to pray in order to do the things that he did, and do them in the way that he did them, what makes us think that we can do anything about being like him if we don’t pray as well? And as believers, if we want to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, I believe one of the places we need to start is with prayer.