(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, so Matthew chapter 26, so there's a lot going on in Matthew chapter 26, covers the Last Supper there with Jesus and the disciples, talks about the betrayal with Judas, and then of course goes into Jesus going into Gethsemane to pray, which is what we're going to focus on this evening, we're going to kind of work this thing backwards, we're going to talk about the Lord's Supper tonight, and we're going to talk about what happened after that this morning. So what we're going to focus on this morning is Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and his interaction with the disciples at that moment, look down at your Bibles at Matthew chapter 26 and look at verse number 36, Jesus goes and he goes to pray, we see some interesting things about Jesus in this story and that's what we're going to look at this morning, look at verse 36 of Matthew chapter 26, then cometh Jesus, then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane and sayeth unto the disciples, sit ye here while I go yonder and pray, and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, that of course is James and John, so we've got Peter and James and John as kind of Jesus' inner circle here, those are the three that are the closest to him, and he began to be sorrowful and very heavy, then he saith unto them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, tarry ye here and watch with me, so he asked them to stay there while he goes and prays and you can just kind of start to feel the pressure, the stress coming upon Jesus in this moment, turn to Luke chapter 22, we get kind of a different perspective, the nice thing about the gospels is that you'll get a little bit more detail in one gospel than you will in the other in certain situations, so go to Luke chapter 22, this story is also in Luke chapter 22, look at verse number 44, Luke chapter 22 and verse number 44, so Jesus is obviously feeling heavy, he's feeling sorrowful, you can almost feel the stress here, look at verse 44 of Luke chapter 22, and being in agony, the Bible says he's literally suffering here, he's in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground, so now what does this mean, what does this mean as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground, now I believe that this is something that literally happened, it's not saying, look if it was just talking about like he was sweating so much, sweating profusely, it could have just said his sweat was like great drops of water falling to the ground, but the interesting thing is that sweating blood is actually a condition that can happen to somebody and if you look it up, it's called hermitohydrosis, it's true and it's caused by people that are suffering from extreme amounts of stress, so this can literally happen to somebody who is very very stressed out, alright, look and stress, I mean we'll talk about stress for a few minutes, stress is something that is very real with people, stress is something that can actually cause physical symptoms, you say well stress is an emotional condition, now stress can actually turn into high blood pressure, headaches, heart attacks, all these different things, diabetes, skin conditions, all these things if you look up causes or things that are caused from stress, all these physical things are caused from stress, including and up to sweating blood, like probably not any of us have ever met somebody who was so stressed out that they were literally sweating blood, but it is something that can happen, so just think about our stress, turn to Hebrews chapter 4 because the Bible says, if you look at the front of your bulletin, that we have Jesus this high priest, Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14, but the Bible says in the next verse and we'll look at it in detail, that Jesus, he was not somebody who was God on this earth and man on this earth, Jesus was 100% God, 100% man, he literally admitted, I mean have you ever heard the stupid argument that well Jesus never claimed he was God, he just claimed he was God in Matthew chapter 26, they said are you the son of God, are you the Christ, and he's like that's it, what does that mean, he's like you said it, you got it buddy, and that's why, and they all knew exactly what he was saying, that's why they all freaked out and started to try to kill him, and started to push this mob to kill Jesus, but let's just look at this idea of stress, because Jesus is under an extreme amount of stress, I mean the Bible says that Jesus, he wasn't God in the flesh and then he just had immunity from all these things that we deal with in our lives, Jesus, he dealt with everything that we deal with, and that's why I believe that this story of Jesus in the garden is, in my opinion, the best example of Jesus' humanity, of Jesus just being a man, is he is feeling this infirmity, look he's feeling just the stress, right, but let's talk about stress for a minute, let's talk about stress, see many times with us, and we'll talk about Jesus' stress versus our stress, and then we'll talk about how we can deal with stress, is it possible to get rid of stress in our lives, we'll talk about that this morning using this example from Jesus, many times with us, stress is self-inflicted, many times with us, we cause our own stress, you say how, well, sin, that's how, sin will cause you stress, you know, this is what the doctors will never figure out, when somebody goes to the doctor, and they're like, hey doctor, I'm stressed out, and they're like, here's some pills, the doctor's never gonna dig deeper and figure out, hey, what's causing that stress, it seems like they don't seem to care today, honestly, that's my personal opinion, but that's what the doctor's not gonna dig into, but here's the thing, a bad lifestyle can cause you stress, you say, what do you mean, drunkenness, gluttony, all these things, drunkenness and gluttony are together in the Bible, you know, all the time, whenever you see gluttony, it's just together with drunkenness, well, this will cause you stress, you say how, how, because long term you're gonna have many health problems, you know, you're gonna have wounds without cause, the Bible says, these things will cause you stress, sin will cause you stress, how about this one, money, money causes people stress, I mean, sin with money can cause a lot of stress, you know, think of someone with a gambling problem, somebody that's just really greedy and they've got a gambling issue and they're all constantly, look, all of a sudden they're gambling, you say, how could gambling cause stress, isn't it fun, every billboard that I see, everyone's smiling, but look, when you lose all your money and you can't pay your bills and you can't support your family, you're gonna be stressed out, you're gonna have stress in your life, I have heard stories of people that nearly committed suicide because of the problem of gambling, that's how much stress, it can lead people to the point, that's why I always tell the kids when we see the billboards, when everyone's smiling, it's like, winning, you know, it's like, you know, you can work for 40 years and save up an entire retirement, they will take it from you in five minutes, they will throw you out the door and they won't blink an eye, winning, and then you'll go and kill yourself for all they care and they won't care, that's wicked people, that's a wicked thing, but look, sin will cause stress, is the point I'm trying to make here, 1 Timothy 6, 10, we talked about this Wednesday night, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which some coveted after, and that's kind of the key word right there, covetousness, covetousness will cause you stress, they've erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many, what, many sorrows, that says if you love money and you're gonna go and try to make money in unjust ways, try to make money quickly, you're gonna end up with a lot of sorrow in your life and one of those sorrows is gonna be a lot of stress in your life, Proverbs 22 says, verse 7 says, the rich rule with over the poor, the borrower is servant to the lender, look, if you're just, you could not even have a gambling problem, but you could just be bad with money, you could just be covetous, you could just be this type of person that every single thing that you see you want, you just covet everything and you spend way more, look, it doesn't matter how much money you make, especially in America, you could spend it all and more, and then guess what, you're gonna become a servant, you say, in America, no, we're free, we're free, no, if you spend more than you make and you end up in debt, you will be a servant, that is a universal truth, I don't care what time, you know, what country you live in, what part of history you live in, the borrower is servant to the lender, money's a funny thing, money's a funny thing because it's not like you just can't just be like, well, I just don't, not gonna worry about it at all, I mean, as a matter of fact, if you work hard as the Bible says that you should, you're gonna have a couple nickels to rub together, that's just what's gonna happen to you, because that's what will happen when you follow the Bible, but after that, it also must be managed properly according to the Bible, and you can't fall in love with it, you can't fall in love with your nickels is the key, or you'll end up in servitude, you know, but look, money can cause stress even if you don't do anything wrong, think about that, maybe somebody falls on hard times, they lose their job, maybe the economy, you know, look at 2007, 2008, many people got laid off, many people couldn't pay their bills, money is a part of life, you know, it's part of life, and it can be very stressful if, you know, things go wrong in that area, maybe there's unexpected bills, maybe, you know, at any moment, things can happen, car repairs, health problems, all these different things, money is actually the top reason, one of the top reasons for divorce consistently, by the way, is just financial problems, why, because it just creates such stress on a relationship, alright, well here's another, speaking of which, there's another source of stress, relationships, relationships in our lives can cause us stress, your marriage, your friendships, all these different things, we're really gonna focus on the strife coming from relationships tonight, alright, that's what we're gonna focus on tonight, but the point is this, we can self-inflict a lot of stress upon ourselves, just through doing things that the Bible says we shouldn't be doing, just by going against the laws of God, by just continuing in sin, and just, you know, getting ourselves into all kinds of trouble, we can just add a bunch of stress upon ourselves, are you in Hebrews chapter 4, look at verse 15, but the question is, Jesus is pretty stressed out here, so what, did Jesus have sin? Why is Jesus stressed? Look at Hebrews chapter 4, look at verse number 15, the Bible says, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, oh, look at this, yet without sin. Jesus felt everything that we feel, he felt every temptation of the flesh, yet he didn't give into it, he did not sin, look, if Jesus sinned one time, he couldn't have been the sacrifice for our sins, I got a lot of really good friends that I've known for a long time in this church, but no matter how much I like you, I can't die for your sins, why? Because I have my own sins to pay for, that's why. That's why God had to come and do it himself, but he came and he did it as a man, as a real man that felt everything, that felt the temptations, felt the what, the infirmities, including the stress that we feel, except, you say, Jesus didn't have sin, so where did his stress come from? There's another source of stress, there's another source of stress that doesn't have to do with sin, there must be, because Jesus felt, Jesus felt the stress, what is that? And that is this, responsibility, responsibility will cause stress in your life, so you say, I mean, look, the responsibilities that we have in our lives will cause us stress, there's probably gonna be a base level of stress in your life, is what I'm trying to get you to understand this morning, it's a fact of life, look, caring about people means you will have stress in your life, I mean, the opposite of that is like, I guess I'll just not care about anybody, you know, caring about people, loving your wife, loving your family, having these responsibilities, cause like, love isn't like, what do we learn here from the Bible, love isn't like, hey, love ya, love is actually doing things, love is actually sacrificing things, I'm glad God's definition of love is not the definition of love that is being portrayed today, because the definition of love today that is portrayed, you know what it is, it's lust, that's all it is, love to God is actual sacrifice, and you know what, if you sacrifice and you love people in your life, that's a responsibility that you have, and that is going to cause you stress in your life, look, working hard, just working hard, as the Bible says you should, 1 Timothy 5.8, providing for your family, as the man should, that will cause you stress, I can remember times in my, I mean, I can remember times from 20 years ago, where I was so stressed out over what, over work, over a job, there was a time I can remember 20 years ago, that I was physically sick, I was so stressed out over something that was going on at work, there was just like, there was a deadline, and we were all under the kind of pressure, look, this isn't unique to me, we're all under the kind of pressure that if we didn't make this deadline, we're all fired, and then it was a Friday afternoon, and everything looked good, and I found out that I made some mistake in this one part of the design, it was going to cost us like three weeks, it was just a mistake I made, like, oops, I made a mistake in the design, I still remember walking with my wife that afternoon, after I got home from work, I told everybody about the mistake, and I just went for a walk with my wife, and I'm like, I'm fired. I'm done. I was just under, I was physically sick all weekend long. Look, that's just life. That's just providing for your family. That's just, like, I wasn't fired, but I can still remember that feeling that just, I felt like I was gutted. Look, it has physical, it has physical ramifications for us, this stress. That's why, you know, women, women appreciate your husbands. You say, well, my life is stressful too, raising the kids, teaching the kids, I get that. I get that. And husbands should appreciate their wives, but God put the man in charge as the leader in the family. People don't want to hear that today. But the husband is in charge of the family, meaning he bears the burden of everything. He bears the burden of providing. He bears the burden of being the spiritual leader. If something spiritually goes wrong with the family, if somebody, if one of the kids goes off a spiritual, you know, a cliff somewhere, you know, God doesn't look at the wife, God looks at the husband and says, that's your fault, you're leading. Look, this is a heavy burden to bear, and it's why he gave it to the man is because he tells, he tells us in 1 Peter chapter 3 that the woman is the weaker vessel. The man is stronger, he's able to bear it. You say, what, physically stronger? No, always stronger. But you say, well, I know this one lady and she's stronger than her husband. Well, that's sad. But my point is this, my point is this, God designed these heaviest burdens to be put on the shoulders of the husband, of the leader, of the family. Okay, it doesn't mean that women are weak. They're weaker than their husband. That's why they're separate roles. You know, we're trying to get rid of all roles today, too, aren't we? But God puts the man in charge of the family, and that is a heavy burden to bear. Okay, it can feel, like, it can feel crushing at times, you know, for a man to be in that type of situation. So look, what people will do is try to get rid of stress in their life. They're like, this is stressful, I'm going to get rid of stress. I'm here to tell you tonight that it's not going to work, or this morning, I'm sorry, it's not going to work. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse number 13. You say, this is stress and I can't handle it. Look, this is why men need to be men. Men are supposed to be hard. Men are supposed to be able to bear burdens. You know, men are not supposed to be effeminate and weak. Why? Because they have this responsibility put on them. They are supposed to be stronger. They are supposed to be able to bear it. So people will try to get rid of stress. There's this base load of stress on them in their life because of what? Because of responsibilities. Because of providing for their family. Because of leading a wife and leading children. Look, it's stressful. I mean, I don't know what kind of families you all have, but you know, amazing kids in my family and I don't know, the kids aren't perfect all the time. You know, they go off this way and they go off that way. You kind of got to, you know, you kind of got to get them. It's stressful. It's stressful for my wife. It's stressful for me. But it's my responsibility if it all goes wrong. That's why don't come to me as a man and say, oh, I got divorced and it was her fault. No, it was your fault. You say, well, did she do, maybe she didn't do everything right, but you were in charge. You're in charge. If that ship sinks, you go to the captain. You don't go to the first mate or the guy swabbing the deck and say, hey, what's the deal, man? No, the guy leading the charge is the one that bears the burden. 1 Timothy chapter 5, look at verse 13. So people will try to be, they'll try to get rid of responsibilities. Maybe, you know, look at somebody who's just wealthy. Maybe they inherited a bunch of money and they're trying to just have a stress-free life. But look at what the Bible says. And with all they learn to be idle, we're talking about single ladies here, but this, it doesn't matter for my point. Wandering about. So we have people here, we have these ladies in this verse that are idle. Wandering about from house to house. And not only idle, but what? But tattlers also, busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 11, I'll read it to you. For we hear, now he's talking about men, he says, we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all. So here were people that, you know, they're just like, hey, I'm gonna get rid of, this work is stressing me out, I'm not gonna work. What happens? They get into disorder. You know what that means? They get into sin. So what the Bible here is saying is you wanna throw off all your responsibilities and be somebody who's idle, you know what's gonna happen? You're gonna fall into sin is what's gonna happen. And what comes from sin? Stress. Like, ah! Like I thought I had it figured out. Look, the point is idleness leads to sin, it leads to strife, which leads to stress. So look, trying to get rid of stress in your life is a fool's errand, is what I'm trying to get you to understand. You say, Pastor, this sermon is stressing me out. Look, here's what you do when you're feeling stressed out. You make sure, you just do an accounting of your stress. You make sure that your sin isn't, your stress isn't due to sin. That's step number one. Alright? And step number two is deal with it. If it's not because of sin, deal with it. And let's follow Jesus and how he deals with it. Alright? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, look at verse number 13. Just deal with it. You say, how do I deal with it? Well, first of all, you have this comfort right here. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13, it says, Therefore hath no temptation taken you but such as common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you, look at this, to be tempted above that ye are able. Whatever stress that you have upon you, God tells you, he promises you that you will be able to handle it. If you, it's not because of sin. Alright, you get into sin, you're gonna get into the chastisement of God, you're on your own over there. But God is saying, if you handle it the right way, he's like, you'll be able to bear it, is what he's saying. So, if you're stressed out, just because of responsibilities that are upon you, you will be able to handle it if you handle it in a godly way, is what God is telling us here. And the second one is this. Go to Romans chapter 8. Pray about it. Pray about it. What did Jesus do? He prayed. He prayed. Look at Romans chapter 8 and verse number 26. You know, if this story tells us anything, it tells us that God cares about our infirmities. Look, he's identifying by giving Jesus, when God came to this earth as the Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ, he came bearing our infirmities. He came, look, couldn't God have done it any way he wanted? No, but he chose to come feeling our infirmities. Of course, the infirmities that we feel that are not due to sin because he was without sin, but he didn't come here like, hey, this is going to be a cakewalk for me. He didn't even have a place to lay down his head. The Bible said he didn't come as a king. He didn't come as some, you know, wealthy person with no problems. He came as a common man with common infirmities and here, when we see this infirmity, he had way more infirmity than you and I will ever feel. Look at Romans 8 chapter 26. Pray about it. Pray about your infirmities. Pray about your stress. Likewise, the Spirit, because guess what you have if you're saved this morning. If you're saved this morning, you have the Spirit, the Holy Spirit inside you. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. If you don't even know what to pray for, the Spirit will help you. The Spirit will intervene for you, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You're like, I'm stressed out. I don't even know what to do. Just pray just like that. God, I'm stressed out. I don't know what the problem is here. Help me see the problem. The Spirit will intervene and the Spirit will word it for you to the Lord. That's what this is saying here. This is an incredible advantage for the saved believer this morning. Pray about it. Let's go back to the garden. So a man here, God, God in the flesh here that is without sin is experiencing unprecedented amounts of stress. Like I said, I think this is the greatest example in the Bible of Jesus's humanity right here. Because not only was he fully man, but he was experiencing our infirmity more than we ever will. You say, why? You say, why? Say, I feel a lot of stress sometimes. I have a lot of responsibility in my life. The reason that his stress was more than ours ever will be was because his responsibility was to bear the sin of the entire world. That's what he was stressed about. That's what he was praying about. Go back to Matthew chapter 26. Go back to Matthew chapter 26. You say, what did he pray? What did he pray? And you should always pray this way. You should always pray this way. Go to Matthew chapter 26. I don't mean repeat this over and over. Okay? That's not what I meant. You should always pray this way. Put a bookmark in Matthew chapter 6. We're going to read Matthew chapter 26 and verse number 39. Put a bookmark in Matthew chapter 6. I want to show you both of these because this should be part of every single prayer you make for the rest of your life on this earth. Matthew 26 verse 39, the Bible says, and he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. You know this matches exactly Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus teaches us how to pray. Are you at Matthew chapter 6? Look at verse number, this is the Lord's Prayer. Okay? This is the Lord's Prayer. But look at verse number 7 before we even go to verse number 10. So people use the Lord's Prayer. Jesus is telling us, pray like this. He's like, when you pray, do it like this and then he goes into what the words of the Lord's Prayer are that I've probably said, you know, when I was a Lutheran, I probably said that Lord's Prayer like, I don't know, several thousand times in my life. We just repeat it, just chant it. We have to memorize it, all these different things. But look at verse number 7, which is funny. When you pray, use not vain repetitions. Jesus is literally saying, don't just repeat things. Because who does that? As the heathen do, for they think that they should be heard for much speaking. What vain repetitions do, if I give you a Bible verse and I tell you that everything, every time something's going wrong in your life, just say this Bible verse 10 times and everything will be fine, that Bible verse, what will happen is it will become meaningless to you. You will lose the meaning of it. So it's ironic that Jesus literally says, don't use vain repetitions. He's giving us a methodology on how to pray in the next couple of verses. And we see him exercise that methodology. Look at verse number 10. He says, thy kingdom come. He says, after this manner, therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, verse 9, hallowed be thy name. He's giving respect to God. And then in verse number 10, he says, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He does the same thing in Matthew chapter 26. He's asking for something specifically. He's saying, God, if it's possible that this burden be lifted off of me, let it be so. But then he says, but not my will, your will, as he's praying to the Father. It's another great example of the Trinity as well. Of the three persons of the Godhead. Meaning, Jesus here has a question that he's literally asking as the person of the Son of God to God the Father. But who is dominant? He says, but God, your will be done. Every prayer that we make. Because look, here's the thing. We pray for a lot of stupid things. God, I hope I win the lottery. We pray for a lot of dumb things in our lives. So if you're going to pray for something specific in your life, always make sure that you give that reverence to God. It's like, God, but I understand, like, your will be done, not mine. Like, your ways are higher than my ways. What God is doing, and look, you'll see this in your life. You'll be like, why wasn't that prayer answered 10 years ago? And then you'll see 10 years down the road go, oh, yeah, God's looking out for me. Holy Spirit was interceding for me there. Because what we think, I hate to break it to you, but what we think, what you think, is not always the best thing. All the time. So always add that reverence that Jesus is doing here. God, your will be done, not mine. Thy will be done. Look at Matthew chapter 26, look at verse 40. Now let's get into the sermon. That was all introduction. Look at Matthew chapter 26 and verse number 40. This is really the application here. Alright, this is really the main application. I'm just joking. We're not gonna be here for two hours. Matthew chapter 26, look at verse number 40. So we see Jesus is very, very stressed out. And we see that stress in our lives can come from sin, self-inflicted stress, or it can just come from responsibilities that God gives us. And we need to bear that. We need to pray about that. We need to just make sure that we're handling that stress in the right way, and God promises that He won't give us more than we can handle. Alright? It's a great promise in 1 Corinthians. Matthew chapter 26, verse number 40. Let's continue the story. And He cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep. So He prays for a while. He goes back and they're all sleeping when He asks them to watch. And saith unto Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away a second time and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. Now He's realizing the answer coming from the Father at this point, and He's saying, okay. Onward, forward. And He came back. He came and found them asleep again the second time, for their eyes were heavy. And He left them and He went away and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Just telling God that He's ready. He's understanding God's answer. Look at verse 45. He comes back the third time. Then cometh He to the disciples and saith unto them. He doesn't even tell them to wake up at this point. He just tells them, hey, just sleep. It's here. Sleep on now and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. Behold, He is at hand that doth betray me. So we know what follows after this point. Judas and the soldiers come into the garden to arrest Jesus. We'll talk about the rest of that story on Wednesday. But let me close on this thought. Jesus was going through a lot of pain and suffering here. He was going through a lot of physical pain due to this stress of this burden that was put on Him to what? To be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. And He asked the disciples, could you hang out here and just look out for an hour? And three times they failed. Three times they fell asleep. Why? Because their flesh was weak. They wanted to stay awake, but their flesh was weak. He says, can you not watch? I mean, look, it's hard to stay awake, right? For an hour when you're tired. But one hour, though? Really? From the guy that, from the God that is going to provide our eternal salvation, you can't stay awake for one hour? He's going to give us salvation for what? For staying awake? No, He's going to give us salvation for free. We can't stay awake for one hour. But look, this applies to us. You're all getting ready to beat up on the disciples and you're like, yeah, these guys are terrible. These guys are bad. But can you not watch applies directly to us. You know what it applies to? It applies to the fact that you're saved today. The fact that you're saved, how? Because you trusted on that sacrifice. Because you trusted on Jesus Christ. Not because you're great. Not because you're good. Not because you did one good thing. But because of this sacrifice that is about to happen here, the fact that you trusted on that and God promises, if you believe on Jesus, trust wholly on Him, you are saved in an instant. Nothing that you did. And then He just, can you not watch for one hour? You say, what are you talking about? The fact that you're saved for eternity and nothing can ever make you not be saved today? God promises not only will He save you, give you eternal life, but guess what? This is hard to believe, but it's actually eternal. He will never take it away from you. Otherwise it's not eternal. Thanks for the eternal gift that lasted for two and a half years, that lasted for three weeks. No, God can't lie. He promises, I do this, you trust on this, you have it, that's it. And then we can't watch. What are you talking about? I'm talking about the things that we won't do. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about when you come to church three times a week or when you, maybe you don't come to church. I'm talking about the fact that, you know, we read the Bible, we hear the Bible preached, and we're like, we hear something and we know what God wants us to do, but we're like, yeah, but that one thing I don't want to do. Well, can you not watch? Can you not watch for one hour? Things that you're just hanging on to in your life and you're just like, you know what the Bible says, and you're just like, no. That's the same thing. Can you not watch? You're like, ah, I don't like that part of the Bible. I'm not going to do that. That part of the Bible right there, that doesn't fit my life as I see it right now. What the Bible is teaching there. What Pastor talked about two weeks ago. That doesn't fit my life as I want to live it. But you know what? Can you not watch? How about this? The things that we know we should not do, but we hang on to anyway. Here's the funny thing about Jesus. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Turn to Romans chapter 5. But you know, after all that, after all that, Jesus paid anyway. He came back the third time and he's just like, just stay sleeping. I'm going to pay anyway. It wasn't a situation where Jesus is like, you know what, you don't deserve this. Otherwise this never would have taken place. See, the thing you got to understand about God and about how he redeemed us is that he stepped forward first. He stepped forward first. Look, the true Gospel is that, you know, as we hang on to sin, he paid. As we, you know, as we refuse to separate in our lives, as the Bible says we should as Christians, he paid. As we, you know, as we fall asleep again and again and again in our lives, he paid. He paid anyway. Look at Romans 5.8. But God commendeth his love toward us, meaning he showed his love towards us. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There's your salvation right there. There's your, I mean, he did it while we were yet sinners. Otherwise, you know, we'd still be waiting a long time, forever. It never would have happened. So you want, the question that, the point of the sermon is this, you want God to move out, to move in your life. You want God to step out for you. Can you not watch? Can you not watch? Look, it's your move. You get it? We got this chess game around here where you hit the, you hit the clock, right? You make a move and you hit the clock and then the other guy, Jesus was like, bam, your turn. And the clock's running and running, running and running. He smashed that button while we were yet sinners. Can you not do what God wants you to do? Can you stop hanging on to the things that he tells you not to do? It's the garden story. He's about to complete this monumental task for them and they couldn't do the smallest thing for him. And you're like, ah, those guys are terrible. But you know what? That's us. That's us in the Christian life. You know, this is the question, the question that a lot of people that believe in works-based salvation will ask, somebody who believes the Bible and believes the correct gospel, that we're saved not by works, that we're saved by the blood of Christ only and just by trusting on that. And it has nothing to do, not one percent with any of our works. People will ask, people will ask, but they won't understand. The unsaved that see that gospel and don't believe it and see someone that believes that gospel, they'll say, well, why have the works? They'll say, why, why have the works righteousness people that are not saved because they're trusting in their works, they'll ask, why have the works? This story is why. This is why. Because Jesus asked us to watch. Our salvation was free. We know, look, we know we are without excuse. We know what was given for free. We know. And look, staying awake, obeying God is literally the least we can do if we love God. If we love God. Look, he already proved, he already proved that he loves us. You say, well, I love God. I love God. No, love is action. Love is sacrifice. Don't go tell your wife you love her and then go out and be some kind of whatever. Love is action. And that's why God says, if you love me, obey my commandments. It's like, otherwise you don't love him. He proved that he loved us no matter what. That's why we do the works. That's why we follow the Bible. It's our move. Look, it's perpetually our move. There's no more moves he needs to make. He saved us for nothing. And it cost him, you know, everything. It's our move. He already proved that he loved us. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.