Jesus in Gethemane. The Power of Prayer in the Deapths of Despair 

<p>Jesus in Gethemane. The Power of Prayer in the Deapths of Despair </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Kalamazoo SDA Church

Daniel Ferraz

Watch & Pray

I would just like to ask you to bow your heads with me as we approach this infinitely important topic.

Father in heaven, we thank you that you have done all you could to show us how much you love us by sending your son Jesus to be born of a woman and to live a human life that the Almighty God the Creator the Word was made flesh so that by His poverty we might be made rich.

And He that knew no sin was made sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Oh Father, please come and speak to us today that we may trust you as never before as we go forward in these last days of Earth's history and we pray these things in Jesus' precious name.

So my question to you is good morning and how are you?

Do you have any challenges in your life today?

If you have challenges in your life today, what will you have tomorrow?

If we don't know how to deal with the challenges of today, how will the challenges of tomorrow deal with us?

Or if I don't know how to deal with the challenges of today, how will the challenges of tomorrow deal with me?

Friends, I want to share with you what I have found to be extremely encouraging and comforting to me, my family, and that has sustained me through some of the darkest moments in my life.

Have you had any dark moments in your life?

Where you came to such a low point in your life that you felt that it was impossible to go any lower.

What was that point that was the darkest point in your life?

Maybe you haven't had the darkest point yet, maybe you're too young to have a darkest point, where somehow life just seems to come to an end, come to a halt, and you seem to have no strength.

I think of many young people, I think of many people young and old, And the lowest point of their life is when they're driven to the point of not wanting to live anymore.

I think that's probably the lowest that a person could go to, not wanting to live anymore.

You know, when I was ministering in England in...

That was 10 years I had in England, from 91 to 2001.

I was at a church north of Watford that was called Hemel Hempstead.

Now Watford is kind of like the hub of Adventism in England.

There you have Stanborough Park, which where the boarding school is, and the main kind of white church there.

And you'll know why I said that if you talk to me afterwards.

And it has the South England Conference offices there in Watford.

It has the British Union offices on Stamford Park.

Albans is just about 13 miles away from Watford.

All of this is about north of London, say 20 minutes up the M1.

And it's there, a little church called Hemel Hempstead.

They had a couple of boys, and then they had a third boy and they were similar ages to Esther and Jessica and I really became friends with them.

They were kind of our age so that was nice you know pastor goes and and it's easy to to mix and mingle with members of your own age And he had a brother, the father of this family, he had a brother that was a member in that church as well, and he'd been through some very, very trying and difficult times.

His wife had left him, probably more because of his problems.

So I would spend long nights, past midnight, with him and praying with him and helping him and encouraging.

Anyway, it was his brother and his wife that had these children and we were really close to them.

And then we moved to Switzerland and were there for 4 years.

Yeah, I mean it has the most beautiful mountains in Europe.

As you know, the Mont Blanc reaching there about 4, 000 meters.

And so they came 1 winter vacation for a skiing vacation.

And We would have them in our home and we would drive just about an hour into France to go on the skis, the ski lifts and the slopes there as a whole family, 2 families.

Their middle boy was a very lively little chap and he was very talkative and full of fun and very kind of lively and we would enjoy our times together.

And they spent about a week with us this particular time.

And all of this friendship was going on, and it was such a wonderful thing.

And then 1 day after we had moved here to America, we had a very, very sad, sad and troubling email from the mother, and said that their little 14-year-old boy, their little middle boy, had taken his life.

And the thing about it was, is that he had written a little note, he had come to the depths of despair, of depression.

And apparently, depression in teenagers can be very high and very drastic.

And so with this devastating news, we kind of Didn't know what to do, didn't know what to say other than we're praying for you.

And of course the mother now is very involved in, you know, organizing so that people can be aware of this and help young teenagers that have depression and to realize that these low points can be so low that they crush out the desire to live.

And friends, what is the solution to this kind of thing?

What is it that we can hold on to that will help us go through the depths of despair and come out on the other side victorious?

And I want us to think about the depths of despair and look at Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane with me if you will.

I mean let's turn to Matthew 26 and we see Jesus is the 1 that is constantly encouraging his disciples.

Now Jesus in Gethsemane is looking for human companionship and he's looking for human encouragement and he wants to see his disciples in prayer.

You see they had been in the upper room and Jesus had said that you're all going to be offended by me.

In other words that they were all going to run and leave him.

And they started saying no we won't and Peter pipes up and says well if even if everybody leaves you, I will never leave you, even if I die.

And of course Jesus is able to know and understand what's going to happen.

And he says to Peter, look, it's going to be, the cock is going to crow 3 times and you're going to deny me, or twice, and you're going to deny me 3 times.

And everybody is thinking that they have their relationship with Jesus okay.

And Jesus is going through, after the upper room experience, he's going through the Mount of Olives.

And as he's going through the Mount of Olives, he sees the vines and he says that, I am the vine and you are the branches.

No man can produce fruit unless he is in me.

And so he's giving his discourse, but then it suddenly hits him when he comes to the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he says to the majority of disciples, just stay here and watch with me a while.

And they knew that when they came to the Mount of Olives and to the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus was going to pray.

In fact, James and John had been with Jesus before.

And they had been with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

And so Jesus takes them a little bit further away from the rest of the disciples and he says watch here.

And they are noticing Jesus is struck with fear.

He is struck, he is weakened to the point that he says, my soul sorrows unto death.

He has a burden that is upon him that is crushing the life out of him.

He says in verse 38 of Matthew 26, he said unto them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death.

Now he wasn't thinking of committing suicide, but the burden of the sins, the terrible nature of sin was upon him and the separation that that brought to him was crushing the life out of the Son of God.

Back to Menu

Watch & Pray

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine