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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Starry Night

Dear Jesus, thank you so much again for grace.

Thank you Lord that We can be still and know that you're God Lord we thank you for the beautiful Sabbath in this time of fellowship And thank you Lord for worship in the house of the Lord.

God, as we open up your word, we pray and ask that the Holy Spirit would bless us and speak to us and invigorate us.

God, we want an encounter with you today.

Just a reminder, if you haven't noticed, if you look in your bulletin, you'll find that the very first weekend of October, we are having a church retreat.

And this is going to be an exciting time.

We're going to be heading to Yosemite and We'll be staying at Camp Owona We want you to come out and join us in this camp and this church retreat if you're interested please see crystal root or somebody on the social committee and we know that God is going to do some awesome things, especially in this very fast-paced world.

It's very important to come away and rest with Jesus.

And we have some wonderful things in store for that, so make sure that you are here.

Well, we are really excited about next week because next week is our cooking school.

We also have that very special seminar taking place, but we have a cooking school taking place September 8th and that's going to be at night time from 7 to 8.30.

Now I have something I want to show you guys that's very special.

So I'm going to invite Robbie and Jeremy to bring something up.

And this introduces a new chapter in the story of Ceres.

And so what we want to introduce is something very unique.

I want you guys to see something very special.

I want you to notice the right side of this sign.

And folks, this begins the next chapter in the series stories as we go into other parts of the land.

And you guys need to keep straight, thank you.

And so that, you know, we want to take the gospel to every city.

Thank you so much you guys, appreciate that.

I know that God has something very special in store for us as we open up his word.

Why don't we open up the Bible, let's go to the book of Hebrews chapter 12.

You know I was reading a statistic that was very interesting.

And the statistic was regarding depression.

It's very interesting to note that as the world is headed into some new directions, there has been an increase in the amount of depression drugs that are being taken and prescribed by doctors.

Depression, they say 1 out of every 10 Americans has depression.

And it's very interesting to note that many drugs that are being prescribed at CVS, or Walgreens, or Thrifty's, or Rite Aid, Many of them happen to be depression drugs.

Now I'm not here to tell you that you should be not taking depression drugs or you should be.

What I am here to tell you is that Jesus understands depression.

In fact, the Bible says in Isaiah 53, he was a man, now notice this, a man acquainted with grief.

Normally we use that verb acquaint an acquaintance or acquainting oneself with something as to describe something that's personal.

And so when you see the Bible saying in Isaiah 53 that Jesus was acquainted with grief the Bible is showing something about who Jesus is that he knows what sorrow is all about can you say amen to that and I'll tell you this it look at when I look at my life and I see the times of suffering or the times of depression or darkness that has come over me I have sensed the presence of God ever so close Amen Now we're gonna notice something in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 to 2 actually this is verse 2 watch what the Bible says right here.

Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the what?

Cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God now pay attention to this This is very important Okay When you think of the cross or you think of the experience of someone being crucified it usually isn't a pleasant scene It's usually something that's described with darkness or depression.

But the Bible says something unique, even paradoxical here.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the, what's that next word?

Joy that was set before him endure the what?

Cross the negative the darkness Apparently Jesus was able to endure the experience of dying in the garden and dying on the cross all alone completely abandoned by his friends forsaken seemingly forsaken by God himself even his own nation that he came to say that he spent his entire life ministering to the Bible says that for the joy that was set before him he endured that now that's unusual Jesus was willing to endure all this for the joy that was set before him.

When in the time of Christ's life, when he was dying, that he experienced something so special It gave him strength to finish the work that God had given him to do In fact when you take your Bible, let's go to the gospel of Luke You're going to see something so unusual and there's very little said about this and we're actually going to be taking a good look at This verse today The Bible says something unique about the time that Jesus was dying in the garden Here he is.

This is the climax of his entire life All the forces of darkness are arrayed there Satan himself is Trying to make Jesus give up the purpose of dying on the cross would be a way of torturing him It wasn't designed to cause instant death It was designed to torture somebody and what Satan wanted was for Jesus to give up dying So that he would give up on humanity in other words Satan was trying to interrupt the plan of redemption So here Jesus is in the garden.

He is praying he is pleading with God He is asking that Even God himself would remove this cup the cup of death and it was trembling in the hand of Jesus and he Himself the Bible says that great drops of blood began to come from his forehead.

He was in extreme stress And this was a moment even Jesus himself says my soul is exceedingly sorrowful This was the time of Christ's life where he had never experienced such darkness and he never experienced such sorrow But at this very moment When all the universe held in the balance the Bible says something remarkable took place Take your Bible go to Luke chapter 22 Luke chapter 22 and if you're there go ahead and say amen and If you need a Bible just look ahead of you You know find a Bible behind the pew If you see somebody without a Bible, grab a Bible and hand it to them.

So we're gonna take it just a little slow but 1020 in your seminar Bibles Take a good look at Jesus as He's praying in the worst part of his life when the darkness is the greatest where it seems he himself is about to be crushed Out by the weight of sin and guilt Look what the Bible says in verse 40 when he came to the place He said to them pray that you may not enter into temptation.

And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

The book desire of ages describes this very moment when all the weight of the world was upon him And he was just feeling so pressed down right to the very ground himself And he's just praying and he's asking for some relief she even says that it was like nature itself was weeping over the author.

And Jesus himself began to pray and he says, take this cup away from me.

He's praying that God would actually remove this mission because it's so intense.

The 1 that actually manufactured the plan of redemption.

And here he is at the most horrible, the most darkest part of the plan of redemption.

Here he is, and the devil is just pressing upon him, give up and go home.

And the Bible says Jesus began to pray, and he asked, Father, take this away from me.

Nevertheless, he submits to God and says, your will be done.

And he would have died right there in that garden if it wasn't for the next verse.

Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly." The Bible says something so unique about this dark time in Christ's life.

Apparently, when it seemed that hope itself was completely lost, when Jesus himself was about to die right then and right there, all of a sudden the Bible says, an angel just appeared and you can just imagine the clouds departed and this light shone in the sky and an angel came right to him.

And the word that's used there, it says, he strengthened him.

The angel himself actually came to Jesus.

And you can imagine, this is Gabriel, the 1 who stands in the presence of God.

And there he sees his beloved commander dying.

And as he swoops down, he comes close, and the Bible says this angel actually strengthened Jesus.

Now what's very interesting about that Greek word strengthen actually means to invigorate it means what?

Invigorate now somebody please give me a definition of what it means to invigorate a Strengthen Please see Webster's Dictionary huh Anybody what does the word invigorate mean?

What else when someone is being invigorated what's happening?

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Starry Night

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