Good morning. Children of the Lord. Welcome to the house of the Lord, the house of
prayer. A place where we can encounter Him as a family, that we can take
everything from this week that we have stored up in our alabaster jar and break
I'm going to speak a little bit and you'll have an understanding of what I'm
speaking out about as I speak it. So we're gonna start in Matthew chapter 26 verses
36 through 46. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to
the disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. And he began to be sorrowful and deeply
distressed and he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death.
Stay here and watch with me. He went a little farther and fell on his face and
prayed saying, oh my father if it is possible let this cup pass from me
nevertheless not as I will but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and
found them sleeping and said to Peter, what could you not watch with me one
hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is
willing but the flesh is weak. Again a second time he went away and prayed
saying, oh my father if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink
it your will be done. And he came and found them asleep again for their
eyes were heavy. So he left them, went away again and prayed for the
third time saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to
them, are you still sleeping and resting? Behold the hour is at hand and the
son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise let us be
going. See my betrayer is at hand. We're going to break down the scripture a
little bit give us some insight but today we're going to be talking about
persistency and perseverance and prayer. And it doesn't come naturally to us to
to have persistency and perseverance and prayer. It's actually something we
have to work out. It's something that we have to create our flesh to
submit unto. And so and it's hard. It's something our flesh does not like. So it
says in the beginning when Jesus came to them to a place called Gethsemane.
And in Luke it's actually written that it says that he was accustomed to go
Jesus was accustomed to go there. In another word it was habitual. It was a
habit of his to go to the Garden of Gethsemane or the Mount of Olives I
believe Luke talks about. And most likely I think it's just to pray or to be with God.
And this is something that the disciples saw consistently in the Lord. And this
time around they did follow him. And I think previous times they followed him
too because of their reaction, their response to Jesus as he's praying. It
seems like this was a normal occurrence to them. And they didn't respond in a
way if you saw that in an alarm. And he said to the disciples, sit here while I
go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee.
This is the same crew he took with him when he went to the Mount to be
transfigured. So there is something that he found in James, John and Peter
that he trusted them and he found support in them to bring with him to
leave the rest of the disciples and to take with him deeper into the garden to
pray. And he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. And he said to them,
my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. And this is the instruction
he gives them. Stay here and watch with me. And in the strong's concordance
for this word watch it means to keep awake, to be villageant, to wake and to
watch. And then the word that this word derives from, it actually talks about
to wake from inactivity. And so around this time it was actually about
midnight scholars say that it was about midnight when Jesus went into the
Garden of Gethsemane. So it was late. I'm sure the disciples were tired. I'm
sure Jesus was tired. And he specifically asked them after going into prayer.
Because when he separated the trio and himself from the disciples, they went
farther on. And he didn't ask them of anything. He just started praying.
At least that's what the scripture says. But it says that he began to be
sorrowful and deeply distressed. So then he did ask of them. He said,
Hey, can you watch with me? And so with that,
he specifically asked them to watch with him, not to watch for him, not to be
with him, but to watch with him. Because the Lord was already being
watchful at this time. He was praying. And in my eyes, I think the Lord,
it sounds like to me, at least when I'm reading this, it's kind of implied as the
Lord is praying and being impacted with sorrow and distress. It would seem
natural for them to follow in that same suit, at least to follow their rabbi,
right? So if he's praying and being watchful, you would assume that they
would pray and be watchful as well. And as we go later on, it seems like
that was not the case. So it was to be awake with him and support and
hopefully pray with him, even though he wasn't specific with that. So it says,
He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh, my
father, if it is possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I
will, but as you will. Then he came to his disciples and found them
sleeping. And it's interesting because he found them sleeping and yet
there's a reason why the scripture is written because they heard his prayer.
So either they were physically sleeping, which some of them were, but at
least one of them had to have heard what Jesus was praying because Jesus
and this trio were separated from everyone else. There's no one else
there. So in order for it to be written down and have an eyewitness
account, one of them had to have heard what Jesus was praying. And that
kind of hits a little bit harder because Jesus comes to them. He already
asked them to be watchful. He said, Hey, I need you to stay up. I know
you're tired. I'm tired too. I need you to stay up and assuming, at least
I'm assuming that they would pray along with their rabbi, with their
savior, with the Christ, the Messiah. But they heard him.
The other thing is, I think they were comfortable with Jesus and who he was to them
because even in the state that he was in, they didn't move. They weren't
alarmed with him being deeply distressed and sorrowful. They weren't
alarmed with his prayer to the Lord, you know, saying, Oh, let this cup
pass from me. Because their response is sleeping. And if not fully sleeping,
that's even worse in my eyes. And said to Peter, What could you not watch with me
one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter temptation. You know, it's interesting,
he only calls out Peter there, even though James and John is there as well.
You know, and I think my perspective of why it was Peter, because to Peter, it was given much.
There was a calling that he publicly laid on Peter in front of the disciples.
Peter at that time was the only married one. Or if in general, I'm not really sure,
but he was the married one. There was already a sense of responsibility to him. There was
already a revelation. He's the one. Peter is the one that walked on the water.
Peter is the one that said, You are the Messiah. So Peter was revealed, there was revealed more
to Peter. And he was able to be a step closer to Jesus because of his willingness, his desire.
And I'm sure you guys have heard this, but the more that you are given,
the more is required of you. And so I think there's a reason why he called out Peter.
And he was chastising him for not obeying Jesus because he already came to them and said,
Hey, I need you to be watchful. And now Jesus plainly tells them exactly what he wants them to do.
He said, Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.
And that's, I think that just shows exactly why Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Not only was he vigilant, not only was he aware, sober minded, watchful, awake
in the moment where his body desired the opposite,
he was praying why so that he would not enter into temptation
because he had a destiny to fulfill. And if he wasn't in prayer,
he wouldn't have gone through that. And I firmly believe that because of the statement. He said,
Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. And I feel like we all feel that every moment of the day,
especially as believers of Jesus. Many times we choose the latter instead of the former.
We choose to do what our flesh wants. I'm tired. I'm going to go to bed.
I want to respond in this way because it irritates me.
The spirit is willing. We have such a desire in our spirit to serve the Lord, to spend
eight hours of prayer, to read the word every day, to memorize it.
Our dreams are this big for the Lord, and yet we can only fulfill a little drop.
And that's because we need to discipline our flesh. We need to tie to our flesh,
to the desires of our flesh. And a second time he went away and prayed saying,
Oh my father, if this cup cannot pass away for me unless I drink it, your will be done.
I'm not going to dwell on that too much, but if you've noticed this prayer is different than
the last prayer that he prayed. And there's depth to that. His flesh died even more.
Or he succumbed to the will of the Father even more.
And he came out and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy.
And in Mark it says that they did not know what to say to him
after he came back the second time. Again, they still heard what he was saying because
that prayer is different than the first prayer. So they had to have been intently
listening to what he was saying. And interesting as far as I can remember,
he doesn't say anything to them that second time. He just left them and he went away again.
And you know, that hurts. And I'm sure the disciples looking back
when the Lord needed them the most.
That hurts. My Jesus was alone in his hour of need. There was not one person who could stand up and
be with him. So he left them and went away again and prayed the third time saying the same words.
And again, they still hurt him because he said the same words. They knew what he was saying.
Yet they chose to follow their flesh and fall asleep and lay down.
Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting?
Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being
betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.
And the beauty of that is even if there's people that are so close to us,
people that are on our side, people who have been called to you,
even they will disappoint you and not meet you in your hour of need. You know why?
Because we're born into a world of sin.
And this completely shows how important we need our Heavenly Father,
how important we need Holy Spirit, how important we need Jesus,
because they will never, they will never leave us.
And it's, and even in this, the part where Jesus could have been offended at his close group,
the one that he's given and poured into and given specific assignments to the ones who had
revelations of who he was, this great responsibility of knowing who Jesus is,
to them, the trio, the ones who saw him in a form that no one would see until after the resurrection.
They disappointed him and he could have the full right to be offended. How dare you?
I have given you so much and yet you still disappoint me. You have no right, the audacity
that you have as a human to betray and to go against what I, your Messiah, your God,
I created you in the womb of your mother to go against me. What audacity you have.
But he didn't choose that route. He showed grace and mercy because he understood how hard it is to
defeat our flesh. And that's why he is so good. And we have to remember that, that he is so good.
Because even on our best day, it's like rags before him. He deserves so much better than that.
When I was in youth and I was really starting to encounter the Lord, I was around 16.
Our youth at that time was very small. Maybe consistently came about four to five kids.
And there is our youth pastor who was just a man of God who loved the Lord.
And we all, five, six of us decided to encounter the Lord and seek him out
to the best way that he can lead and guide us, our youth pastor or youth leader.
And so we started doing things that you can only do with a couple of people
instead of a group of 20 or 30. And at that time, right before maybe a year or so,
we used to be a youth group of 30 and 40.
And so one of the things we decided to do was overnight prayers.
And I, again, I love to pray. And that was something that was birthed in me
when I was seeking out the Lord. And I remember being so excited.
We started prayer at 10, I believe, and we went to like two or three in the morning.
If maybe not later, I don't remember.
But I remember we decided to pray. And I don't remember exactly what we were praying about.
I think probably about the youth and for those to have their eyes unveiled and come.
But we were in the side room of the church. And it was kind of closed off.
There was a couple of pews there and there was all four or five of us.
And I remember sitting in the pew or kneeling right in front of the pew
and just seeking out the Lord over what we were praying for.
And then I noticed my flesh becoming weak.
And these thoughts of like, oh, I'm so tired. That's already midnight. I'm tired.
But I had such a hunger for the Lord.
But around that midnight, between midnight and one o'clock, I remember
just wanting to give up, like, oh, I can't wait for this to be done.
My flesh started talking. My knees are tired.
At that time, I went to a church that was a little more conservative.
So I had heels and a skirt on. I had a head covering.
And so I'm uncomfortable because I'm in dress clothes
in the middle of the night at church with four other people.
And I was like, Lord, I want to be done.
And then he said, will you not pray with me one more hour?
Am I more valuable than your flesh?
And that rocked me. And so then I had to... I'm like, okay, I have to.
I can't allow my flesh to win. I can't allow my thoughts to win.
He spoke to me.
And so in that, I remember, in that time, I just...
He gave me perseverance in that prayer.
And we prayed for a couple hours. And if you know for a youth,
for, I think I was maybe 17 or 18 at that time,
to pray for four to five hours in the middle of the night,
that's impossible. I even look back now and I'm like, how?
But there was a remnant of those who loved him.
And we had a youth leader that loved him.
And he encouraged us to leave our homes.
Parents trusted him with us in that church
to seek him out in the middle of the night.
And if I'm not mistaken, it was a Sunday night.
So we had school the next day.
I look back at that, I'm like, who would ever allow that now?
Realistically, I don't... it was the grace of God on that moment.
Being faithful in the little, you will be faithful in the big.
You know, we can conversate with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit every day,
and we have time for that. We can talk to him in our mind,
and we can just have a daily conversation with him.
And I'm not saying that's easy, but it is easier
than setting a time, set away, and saying,
I'm going to petition before my Heavenly Father for something.
That one we tend to, ah, tomorrow.
I'll just, I'll do that tomorrow, wake up early, and then you don't,
and oh, I'll do it on my lunch, and then something pops up,
and that one's harder to do. Your flesh doesn't want to do that.
Because the enemy knows how powerful it is to come into prayer before our Heavenly Father.
There's a difference between conversating with the Holy Spirit day to day,
as he's speaking to us, and petitioning before our Heavenly Father.
So if we're faithful in the little, then we'll be faithful in the much.
If we sow a seed of petitioning, of praying before our Heavenly Father,
we will reap that blessing to the measure that we sow it.
If we sow only one or two seeds, we're only going to get the fruit of two seeds.
But if we consistently, repetitively sow seed after seed of prayer and petition,
and choosing the Lord and the Spirit, instead of choosing our flesh,
we're going to reap even greater things.
And with the measure that we use it, it will be measured back to us.
So if we pray, if we do, I love to pray, so I would rather pray than speak up here.
But if I do prayer in 15 minutes in, you're like, oh, can we be done?
No, we realign ourselves. It's not me, my body, my flesh is not my master. He is my master.
This is not my body. This is his body. I don't get to choose when I want to be done. He gets to choose it.
So it's staying faithful and pressing in when our flesh starts to wander out.
Our thoughts start to go. The pain in our knees starts to
make its voice appearance.
The draining of another prayer. Why are they saying the same thing over and over again?
We get it, move on. No, you're not catching it.
Sometimes we have to say things over and over again because we don't catch it yet.
Stop trying to move past it and go to the greater thing. You have not even caught the little thing first.
Our flesh starts to wander out.
Thinking about our body. It starts to get irritated and angry and agitated. It starts to yell at you and pound itself.
It's locking our eyes on Jesus.
When you lock your eyes in on something, nothing around you will distract you.
There are times with my boys when I'm praying, they're yelling, they're jumping on top of me.
I don't care. I'm locked in with Jesus. He is more important to me than my kids.
And that's a hard statement to say right now, but it's truth.
Because I will be a better mother after that prayer than I am if I'm interrupted and allow my flesh to win.
And don't think I'm so holy, super holy, where that never happens. That happens more than it should.
Let's just put it that way. But I'm still trying to discipline my flesh.
I have to realign my flesh over and over again. I have to break that and fix it again with the Holy Spirit.
Locking our eyes on Jesus. It's pouring our alabaster jar in him.
All this oil that we have. We're breaking it on him. He is worthy of our time.
He is worthy for us to break our jar before him. Our precious oil, the most precious thing we have.
One of the most precious things we have here on earth. We can never buy back his time.
He wants your time. He wants your heart. Your heart is so precious.
It's realigning our mind and our thoughts back on him. And sometimes I've learned through experience
even physically needing to rearrange and realign myself. Sometimes I feel the heaviness of my
flesh and I have to wake up and I walk and I start pacing. Sometimes that means I have to,
I've done it physically shake myself and command my flesh to be in obedience. Prayer is so important
guys. So important. It's changing our physical posture to reengage with the Lord, to lock our
eyes back with him. If the trio maybe could have not just sat or lied around in their watching
as the Lord asked them to do, they probably would have supported more than with their heavy eyes.
Yet they kept the same posture. And sometimes that same posture is the death of us.
They could have been obedient to the Lord or even vocal. Sometimes we
sometimes we can disengage when we are physically, we can't disengage when we're physically speaking out.
It's so much easier to disengage if I'm going to pray to the Lord in my mind.
And if you've noticed when that happens, oh my goodness, it's like arrows shooting.
Oh man, I have to realign. It's the Lord. And then it starts driftling slowly slowly. Oh,
no, it's the Lord. That's why sometimes we have to physically speak it out.
Our brain doesn't have enough time to think about anything else because we're physically speaking it
out. There is life and death on our tongue. And it can be positive or it can be negative.
It can be positive by we can have a life by petitioning our physical requests
or death to the enemy's weapons so that they won't prosper if we speak it out with our tongue.
It's not thinking it in our brains. It's speaking it out in our tongue. And death, oh sorry,
it's the good would be life put like life would be in the tongue if it's petitioned requests.
And death would be that enemy's weapons would not prosper. That's a positive way of life and death
in our tongue. A negative, a negative would be if we speak out in security, if we speak out doubt,
we use our tongue for that. You're bringing life into those places.
And death could be to obedience. Our tongue can speak out death for obedience
so that we would disobey before the Lord. There was power of life and death on our tongue.
What are we going to use it for? Speaking out our prayers.
Sometimes we're insecure. Oh, what if somebody hears what I'm saying?
Good. Your heart's going to be revealed. And if there's something that's not good in there,
they should encounter you. They should come and talk to you about what's in your heart.
That's the whole point of the body. Not to hide ourselves so everyone thinks we're one way.
It's so, hey, I'm speaking this out. Is this against the word? Speak to me. Tell me if I'm wrong.
We don't like that. Our flesh doesn't like that. We want to be right.
If we want to be truly right, we need to reveal what's in our heart so that we can become
right in the righteousness of Jesus. So we petition before the Lord to make us
labors for the harvest, to manifest his tangible spirit, to bring people whose hearts
are full and ready to be harvested. If we do this in prayer with faithfulness,
the measure we use our intention and desire and the love that we have for Jesus in prayer,
with sowing these words into existence, we shall view... I don't know what I wrote there. That's
and sowing and being faithful is important. It's worshiping him through prayer in a spirit-led,
undignified way. We're so used to a certain format of prayer ever since we were a child
and we stick to a certain form because it's comfortable. It's what we grew up with.
David danced undignified, not because he wanted to, but because the spirit of the Lord was upon him
and causing him to dance undignified. I have done things in prayer that does not match my
character or my personality. It's being undignified in a prayer, but not the way we want to be
undignified. It's the way that he leads us. Speaking the tongue of the spirit is a huge help
for pressing in. It sets our mind and our heart on him and it changes the atmosphere around us to
invite a manifest spirit by the aroma of the incense of our sacrifice of love.
Let me say that again. Speaking the tongue of the spirit is a huge help for pressing in.
It sets our mind and our heart on him so when we pray in tongues, when we speak the tongue of the
spirit, it sets our mind and our heart on him. Now, most of the time we don't always
know what our spirit is saying. It's the deep calling out to the deep in his tongue.
And I've gotten to a custom. He's trained me to sometimes I speak out the tongue in the spirit
and in my mind I'm also praying in my native tongue.
And sometimes I get an understanding of what the spirit is praying out
because he leads and directs my thoughts in prayer in my native tongue in my mind.
I don't allow myself to think about anything else while my tongue is speaking his word,
speaking his his language.
So speaking the tongue of the spirit, it changes the atmosphere around us.
Oh, sorry. It sets our mind and our heart on him.
And speaking in the tongue of the spirit, it changes the atmosphere around us.
And it changes this atmosphere to invite the manifest spirit.
Holy Spirit's always with us. If we if we choose, if we decide that Jesus is our savior
and we come to him and we accept him into our lives,
then the Holy Spirit comes and he dwells in us.
So he is with us always. But he's waiting. Can I trust you?
How how is this temple that I'm living in in your body and your in your soul? Is it clean?
Are there cobwebs in certain places? Am I am I subjected to this little corner of your heart?
Where I can't go this way or this way?
Because there's debris all around me. There's walls built up. I don't want you touching that.
I've locked that in my box for a reason. I don't want you touching that.
Holy Spirit's like this in your heart, in your spirit. There's no room.
Is he welcomed in your body? Is he welcomed in your mind?
Or do you have tucked him away? Is there cobwebs? Is it dirty?
He's dwelling in you.
So speaking in the tongue, it changes the atmosphere around us to invite the manifest spirit.
If he trusts us, he will manifest himself.
But he's not going to share that side of him, that precious side of him, if he doesn't trust us.
And that goes to us individually and as a body. We desire the Lord.
We can desire him all we want. If he doesn't find trust, he's not going to show up in a tangible way.
We invite him to manifest his spirit by the aroma of the incense of the sacrifice of our love.
It's the aroma of the burning incense of the sacrifice of love that causes him to come.
That causes the Father's eye to look. Wait a second. That pleases me. Do you guys smell that?
That's what we need to be. But it doesn't start with a house. It starts with you individually.
Luke 22.44. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And it says, he says, Father, it is your will. Take this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but yours be done. Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.
Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.
The agony is the flesh dying.
Have we, haven't we been there in prayer where you're like, oh my goodness, we've
experienced it as kids. At least let me, let me not put this on you guys. I've
experienced this as a child. I remember going to prayers with my Father and thinking,
can we be done? I'm starting to count the ceiling and everything around me.
My flesh is agonizing. I don't want this. Let's be done with it so we can move on to
the next thing that pleases me. And yet the Lord sets an example. In his agony,
he prayed more earnestly. He dug even deeper. He put even a farther measuring into it
so that he can receive more out. He sowed into that prayer for the reaping of it later.
He was faithful in praying that prayer and he will be faithful in much that is given to him.
We have to attach ourselves to the one who sustains us. Jesus was in agony. His flesh
was crying out and the result is that he pressed into prayer even more earnestly.
Prayer is a muscle that we have to work out. We have to train it.
Our flesh, we have to train it.
That's why sometimes you have to you have to stand up and start pacing.
Sometimes you have to speak out those words. You have to train yourself
because you you're not going to go far if you don't train yourself.
If you want to go run this tricky trot, you can't be like, oh, be fine the day of.
You're not going to be fine. You're going to be huffing and puffing.
You need a train now for this tricky trot. Go start running a mile.
So if we want to be a house of prayer, petitioning before the Lord for certain
things to happen in our country, in our state, in our city.
If there's things that we want the Heavenly Father to hear us in and to and to receive.
I'm not saying it's work. Oh, the harder we pray, the more that we pray will happen.
It's not about us. It's a willing, a dead company. It's a willing heart
that chooses not itself, but chooses the Lord. That's what woos him to that person.
If we want him to hear us, to cast his eyes towards us and say there's something there,
we need a train. We have to be sustained in prayer for longevity.
There's a reason why we come here to prayer before service.
There is a hunger in us. That's why we come early. We could have slept an extra half an
hour to an hour, especially those families with little children. You know how it is.
That's a sacrifice. Wake up your kids early. Try to get them dressed.
But there's a reason why we come here. We choose to come here.
We're not forcing ourselves. We're adults. Come on, we're choosing to come here.
So it shows hunger. It shows that we're willing to put the effort in.
See, the disciples were with him for three years. They already knew that he prayed there and how
he prayed and the length of his prayer. And yet they still couldn't, not even for an hour,
as Jesus said, to stay with him. The inner circle, the ones who he supported, who supported
him. So not only do I want him to trust in our local body, to even be in his inner circle,
because I desire for that, for our body, to be the friend of the bridegroom, to be close to
the bridegroom. We're not only the bride, but we're his friend. I don't want us to miss
the calling of petitional, intercessional prayer that he is asking us to participate in
and not be able to follow through because we didn't die to our flesh and prayer.
I don't want to miss the calling of petitional, intercessional prayer he is asking us to
participate in and not be able to follow through because we decided not to die to our flesh
and prayer. It's not easy. It's a lot of sacrifice. It's a lot of realigning your thoughts in your
mind and your body into submission. But he's calling us to it. That's what the end time church does.
There's certain things that they need to pray out in order for things to happen.
Are we going to be part of them? Are we going to be sidelined?
Heavenly Father, we come boldly before your throne.
The beauty of being in your presence
is that we get to be revealed to who you are. We get to see your heart.
We get to experience your tangible love. We get to see Jesus for who he is.
But the other side of that Lord is that there is a heaviness of responsibility
for the things that are spoken are things that we have to implement Lord.
And we will be measured with it. Holy Spirit, support us, sustain us, give us counsel
and leadership to take all of these revelations, these words spoken, these chastisements,
this knowledge, this revealing and understand that we're holding something heavy,
that there's something that we also need to do in order to respond.
So as we are being led into worship, Holy Spirit, may you find an
incense, an aroma of the sacrifice of our love and may it please you and may it cause
our Heavenly Father's eyes to move to us today.
Let us feel the heaviness of the responsibility that we carry. Sober us up.
Pray this in the name of Jesus so that the Father can receive glory through his Son.