Maybe you heard the story about the Christian school teacher who asked her class one day, Now, boys and girls, how many of you say your prayers before eating? And just about every little boy and girl raised their hand except for one little boy named Johnny. And she turned to Johnny and she said, Johnny, she said, You don't pray before you eat? And he said, No, teacher. He said, I don't have to.
He said, My mom's a good cook.
Well Uh-huh.
Well, we chuckle at that because we realize that the purpose of prayer is not to sanctify the food when we're at the home of a bad cook. We understand that. But if we were to turn the question around and say, okay, so what really is then the purpose of prayer? I wonder what answer we would get from different Christians.
Well, we'd probably get a variety of answers.
Some people would say the purpose of prayer is to change situations around us, to change things like at our home or at our work or in our marriage or with our health or with our finances. Other people would say, well, the purpose of prayer is for intercession for the needs of other people.
Some folks would say the purpose of prayer is for confession of sin or for worshiping God or for thanking God for all of His goodness or for giving God praise. And indeed, all of these are legitimate purposes. For prayer.
However, We're going to see today in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ another purpose for prayer, a deep and strategic and powerful purpose for prayer that I like to call the prayer of realignment. Remember, we're in a series entitled People Jesus Met. And today we're going to watch as the Lord Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane and meets a group of sleepy disciples who learn a lot about this realigning purpose for prayer by watching it actually happen in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're going to talk about today.
So let's go back 2,000 years and let's see what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. And then let's bring all of that forward and let's talk about what difference it makes for you and me. Matthew chapter 26 is our passage. And remember, here in Matthew chapter 26, Jesus Christ is a very good thing. Jesus already knows that he's going to be betrayed by Judas.
He already knows that he's going to be arrested by the Roman soldiers. And he already knows that he is going to be sent to the cross. And so, after eating the Last Supper with His disciples, verse 36 says, Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane. Today, there's a beautiful church there. Right next to it is a big olive grove.
And in this olive grove, there are at least four olive trees that are more than 2,000 years old, meaning that they were actually there on the night that the Lord Jesus Christ spent in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Well, he went to Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And he took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be grieved and distressed. Then he said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face to the ground and prayed.
Inside this church in the Garden of Gethsemane, there's an enormous rock, often called the Rock of Agony, and a beautiful mosaic that depicts the fact that this is the traditional site where the Lord Jesus fell on the ground and where he prayed that night. He prayed, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. And said to them, You could not keep watch with me for one hour?
So Jesus went away a second time and prayed, Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, thy will be done. Then Jesus came back. And again found the disciples sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
So Jesus left them again and went away once more and prayed a third time, saying the same thing. And I love what Luke's Gospel adds. Luke 22, verse 43. It says, And an angel from heaven appeared to Jesus and strengthened him. For being in anguish, Jesus was praying very fervently, such that his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.
Now, as I've told you many times before, I work out five days a week and you say, Lon, it shows.
Well, thank you so much. God bless every one of you out there. But the point is, I know what it's like to sweat like this. I ride the elliptical machine for 50 minutes at level 12, get my heart rate up near 120, and when I get done, I am soaking wet all the way down to my socks. But, friends, remember, when I sweat like this, it's because I'm doing intense physical exercise.
The Lord Jesus was sweating worse than this, but he was not doing any intense physical exercise at all. The reason he was sweating like this is because of an intense crisis that he was having in his soul. Let's talk about that for a minute. It's obvious from this passage that the Lord Jesus Christ, in his human nature, did not want to go to the cross.
Now, why?
Well, there's two reasons. Number one, it was because of the physical pain of the cross. We all know when you were crucified. That they nailed your hands and your feet to the cross, but that isn't what killed you, my friends. No, no.
What killed you is after hanging on the cross for hours or sometimes even days, you became so weak that you couldn't expand your diaphragm and breathe anymore.
Now, for a while, you could push up with your legs and you could create a little space in your diaphragm. Can you imagine how painful it would be with two nails through your legs to try to push up with your legs? But people did it, but even after a while, that wouldn't work. And as your heart rate fell, bodily fluid built up in your lungs, and essentially you suffocated. Essentially, you drowned in your own bodily fluids.
It was a ghastly way to die. It was a horrific way to die. But beyond just the physical pain of the cross, Jesus was also not looking forward to the spiritual. Pain of the cross. You see, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21 says that he, that is Christ, became sin for us on the cross.
But in the Old Testament, the prophet Habakkuk says, God, your eyes are too pure to look upon sin. And what this means is that in some way you and I will never understand, when the Lord Jesus became sin on the cross for us, God the Father had to turn his face away from God the Son. There was a spiritual fracture in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, a fracture that had never occurred in the history of the universe. This is why Jesus cried out, Matthew 27, verse 46, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And this spiritual pain that the Lord Jesus knew was come.
Coming, far outweighed in his mind any physical pain he knew was coming. The bottom line, my friends, as we said earlier, is that in his human nature, the Lord Jesus Christ simply did not want to go through with the cross. And we must understand. That here in the Garden of Gethsemane, this is the pivotal point in Jesus' entire earthly life. Think about it now.
If Jesus had turned back here, if Jesus had come out of the Garden of Gethsemane refusing to go to the cross, everything else he had ever done here on earth would have made no difference for our salvation. All the miracles Jesus did here on earth, friends, could never pay for our sins. And all the great sermons that Jesus preached here on earth could never have purchased eternal life for us. And all the healings that Jesus performed here on earth could never have opened the gateway of heaven for us. Only the death of Jesus on the cross.
Only the shed blood of Jesus on the cross could accomplish the redemption of mankind. And this is why Peter said, verse 1, Peter 1:18, we were not redeemed by perishable things like silver or gold or miracles or healings or great sermons, but by the precious blood of Christ. This is why the Apostle Paul said, Acts 20, verse 28, that God purchased the church. God redeemed and purchased us not with his miracles, not with his healings, and not with his sermons, but with his own blood.
Now We all know how it turned out at the end of the Garden of Gethsemane. We all know that by the time Judas and the soldiers came to arrest him, Jesus had resolved this crisis. Jesus had surrendered his will to God's will, and Jesus had decided resolutely that he was going to the cross. In fact, listen to what he said as he came out of the Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 26, verse 45. Then Jesus came to the disciples and said, Behold, the hour is at hand for the Son of Man to be betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer. And from this moment on, Jesus never flinched once when he came to the cross. From this moment on, never again was there even the slightest hesitation or reservation about Jesus going.
So, friends, this raises the million-dollar question. And the million-dollar question is: how did this transformation in Jesus' heart take place? The million-dollar question is: how did Jesus win this battle between God's will and his human will?
Well, what did Jesus do in the garden? What was the only thing Jesus did in the garden? Huh? What did he do? He prayed.
That's right. Friends, it was a deep prayer that he prayed. It was an agonizing prayer that he prayed. It was an intense prayer that he prayed. It was an excruciating prayer that he prayed.
But that prayer slowly but surely realigned Jesus' human will and brought it into perfect harmony with the clearly defined will of God for his life, which was to go to the cross. They say, Well, on, I understand what you're saying. But doesn't this struggle that Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemane between his human will and God's divine will, doesn't this undermine his deity? Friends, not at all. Remember, temptation to disobey God is not sin.
It's sin. Sin happens when we succumb to the temptation. To say that the Lord Jesus was tempted in the Garden of Gethsemane to disobey God's will presents no problem at all for his deity. In fact, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 says that Christ was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. The important thing is that Jesus did not give in to this temptation in the garden, thereby preserving both his sinlessness and his deity with absolute impeccability.
So, let's summarize. What have we learned today from the Garden of Gethsemane? Friends, we've learned that the victory of the cross was won in the victory of the Garden of Gethsemane. In Gethsemane is where the true battle was fought. In Gethsemane is where Jesus' human will was brought into one harmony.
100% alignment with God's will for his life, and the spiritual mechanism that Jesus used to achieve this victory was. Prayer.
Okay, now that's as far as we're going in our passage today, because now it's time for us to ask our most important question.
So, are you ready? Are you sure? All you people in Kabul, Afghanistan, are you ready? I heard that. Here we go.
Come on now. One, two, three.
So what? Yeah, you say how sweet it is. You say, Lawn Love. I appreciate the story here, and it's great. And I'm glad there are four trees there from the time Jesus was in the garden.
But what difference does any of that make to my life today?
Well, let's talk about it. You know, back in 1980, when I first came here as your pastor, we had a piano in our old building that had been donated to us. It was an East German piano, but it had a problem. And the problem is, this piano kept going out of tune. It kept slipping out of tune.
We would have to retune the piano at least once a month, sometimes more. And one day, as I was walking through the little auditorium there, and the piano tuner was sitting in there going, you know, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you know, trying to get it right, I stopped and the thought occurred to me. I thought, you know, Lon, you are just like this piano. You, your heart, is constantly slipping out of tune with what you know to be God's will for your life. And friends, I wish I could tell you that that only happened once a month.
And that I only had to be retuned to God's will once a month, but I am such a deep sinner, I am such an incorrigible sinner that I need to be retuned to the will of God not even just every day, but many times every single day.
Now, sometimes it's just with little stuff, like driving the speed limit, or stopping at stop signs, or not thinking bad things about people. But, friends, there are those times when we are talking a major Garden of Gethsemane, knock-down, drag-out, spiritual brawl between me and Almighty God. Where God says to me, Hey, Lon. I want you to go east, and I say, Lord. Lord, that's wonderful, but I'm planning to go west, Lord.
Yeah anybody can relate to this? Can you relate to this?
Alright, I'm not the only person that has this, right?
Okay, friends, what this means is that every Christian, every Christian life has its Gethsemanes where it's our will versus God's will and where it is a fight to the death, or at least it feels that way.
So, here's our question. The question is: how do we wrestle our human will to the ground and make it say uncle to the will of God?
Well, the answer is we do it the very same way the Lord Jesus Christ did it 2,000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane. We do it with prayer. Prayer for God to realign our stubborn human will with His will for our life. And it goes like this. God Here I am with a great dilemma on my hands, God.
I've got your will over here. I want to go this way. And I got my will over here wanting to go the opposite way. And Lord, I need to get my will aligned with your will.
So, Lord, please. Do a supernatural work in my heart. Send an angel to strengthen me and help me the way you sent one to the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And Lord, bring me out of my garden of Gethsemane the same way you brought Jesus out of his garden of Gethsemane. Bring me out 100% aligned with your will, 100% dedicated to doing it your way, even if it takes hours or weeks or months or years to get me there, Lord.
I am not letting go of you. I'm like Jacob in Genesis 32. I'm not letting go of you, Lord, until you bless me and you make this realignment happen to me. Amen. You know, in 1983, I was having my quiet time one evening And I came across a verse in the Bible.
From the Lord's Prayer. And here's what it says. Matthew chapter 6, verse 12, it says, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And there was a cross-reference in my Bible to Mark chapter 11, verse 25. And Mark 11, 25 says, And when you stand praying, Jesus said, if you have anything against someone, Forgive them.
And suddenly I realized that That if I really wanted the power of God to be operative in my life, if I really wanted the power of God to be operative in my ministry, if I really wanted to see the power of God be real and strong and authentic with me, I had to reach the place where I was free of all hatred, all bitterness, all malice, all unforgiveness towards every other person alive. And folks. This brought me face to face With my mother. You see, My mom and I had a horrible relationship growing up. She tried to control every aspect of my life.
She tried to smother me as a person. And when I didn't do what she wanted me to do, she wanted me to be her little robot. And when I didn't do what she wanted me to do, she verbally abused me and she rejected me. My mom would go sometimes weeks and refuse to even speak to me as a little child when I wouldn't do what she wanted. And I hated my mother.
I hated her from the time I could even remember knowing her. And it wasn't dislike. I hated her. Even in 1983, when I read these verses, Think about it, I'd been a follower of Jesus for twelve years. I was a seminary graduate.
I had taught seminary for five years. I had been the pastor of Maclean Bible Church for three years, and I had never forgiven my mother. I still hated her. But now I realized My Garden of Gethsemane had arrived. And so I got back on my knees and I said, All right, Lord.
I know this is your will for me to forgive my mother. Lord, I have two problems. Number one, I don't even think I want to. And number two, even if I wanted to, I don't think I can. Lord, she hurt me so badly.
I don't think I can. But I need you to take my will, which is way over here. And I need you to somehow, someway, work in my heart and align my will with your will, Lord. I need you to realign me, to soften my heart. I need you to give me the ability and give me the desire to fulfill this command of forgiving my mother.
And I don't know how you're going to do it, Lord. I'm willing to have you do it, but I can't do it. You say, wow. I said amen. You say, what happened then?
Did you stand up? and immediately say, Thank you, Jesus, I've forgiven my mother. No. When I stood up, I still hated my mother. Honestly.
I'm telling you, I had to pray that prayer for two solid years. I prayed that prayer. Lord, you got to change my heart. Lord, you got to soften my heart. And friends, don't ask me to tell you how it happened, because I can't.
Don't ask me to decline it or to conjugate it for you, because I can't. Don't ask me to empirically pick it apart, because I can't. All I can tell you is, two years later, something happened in my heart. And suddenly, God had taken all the gangrene out of my heart towards my mother. The hatred, the bitterness, the malice.
and had replaced it with pity. and compassion. and forgiveness. I don't know how he did it. But he did it.
And then I said, Well, now, Lord, I probably ought to tell my mom this.
So I said, you open the door. And I'll tell her.
Well, in 1985, my mom had a birthday party, and I went down to Atlanta for a birthday party. And at the end of the party, it was just she and I cleaning up. And my mom turned to me out of the blue, I mean out of nowhere, and said to me, she said, You've hated me all of your life, haven't you? And I thought.
Okay, here we go, Lord. This is my moment. I think this is it. And I said yes, Mom. I have hated you all of my life.
And I said, you know why? Because you tried to control me. You tried to smother me. You abused me. I said, but Mom, I want you to know something.
It was not all right what you did to me back then. But because of what Jesus Christ has done in my life, It's okay now. Mom, it's okay now. And for the first time in 30 years, that night, with tears in my eyes, I put my arms around my mother. And I hugged my mother, and I kissed my mother, and I really meant it.
You know what, friends? My mother My mother came to Christ not too very long after that, and I can't tell you that because we got reconciled, that that was the reason she came to Christ, but I'll tell you one thing: it certainly didn't hurt. And you listen to me. What God did for me, God can do for you. You maybe have somebody in your life like my mother who's hurt you so badly that you say, Lord, I don't want to forgive them, and even if I wanted to, I don't think I could forgive them.
Oh, friends, you take that into the Garden of Gethsemane. And you pray the prayer of realignment and ask God to do for you what He did for Jesus and to do for you what He did for me. And I'm telling you, God will do it. I can't tell you how. What difference does it make how?
But he will. Or maybe it's something else in your life. Maybe it's a struggle you're having with slandering someone, or undressing women with your eyes, or being horribly judgmental of another person, or manipulating other people for personal gain. Or maybe you've done something wrong and you're refusing to humble yourself, even though you know you were wrong, and go back and ask for forgiveness. Or maybe God's been asking you to go somewhere or do something, and you're saying, Lord, I'm Jonah.
If you're asking me to go one way, I'm going the other way. Friends? Take that stuff into the garden of Gethsemane. And get on your knees and ask God to realign your heart. The problem with this is so often we try to deal with this in the energy of the flesh.
We try to bring our stubborn will under control in our own human strength. And we can't do that. Friends, listen to me carefully. As followers of Christ, these battles between our human will and God's will, these are supernatural battles. And we must fight them with supernatural weaponry.
And the weaponry we must use is the same weaponry that the Lord Jesus used in the Garden of Gethsemane, namely prayer. Prayer for realignment, relying on God. Listen, by the power of the Holy Spirit to change our hearts, to realign our hearts, to recalibrate our hearts, and bring them into line with His will. To repeat what I said earlier, God will do this for us. If we're willing to be like Jacob and say, Lord, I'm not letting go of you till you do.
Well, let's conclude. Visiting the Garden of Gethsemane. For God to spiritually realign your heart and my heart, folks, this needs to be a daily experience in our Christian life. And sometimes the realignment only takes a few moments. And sometimes the realignment can take weeks or months or years of prevailing prayer.
But listen, just remember. As a result of his prayer for realignment, the Lord Jesus Christ came out of the Garden of Gethsemane spiritually different than he went in. And the same thing will happen to you and me. Folks, this is the highest purpose for prayer. All the other purposes for prayer we talked about are right and good, but this is the highest purpose for prayer.
This is the deepest purpose for prayer. This is the greatest purpose for prayer, namely, not to change stuff. But to change Uh to change us.
So here's my question as we close. In what area of my life, or your life, if you're asking somebody else? In what area of my life? Do I need a garden of Gethsemane realignment? with God.
Come on now, let's be honest. Where is that? And Once you've identified it, Then the question follows: Am I willing To stay in the Garden of Gethsemane until the Lord Jesus does it. For me. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us much today about prayer. Thank you for taking us deep today into the recesses of what prayer can be all about. Thank you for teaching us. that the greatest purpose of prayer is not to change stuff. is to change us.
And so, Lord Jesus, Teach us to go into our garden of Gethsemane. Every day. Asking for you to do for us what you did for the Lord Jesus. To bring our stubborn human will into perfect alignment. Perfect harmony.
but the will of God for our life. Lord Jesus, change the way we pray. Because we were here today. Change the very way we approach you in prayer because we were here today. And we ask these things.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
