Jesus and the Agony of Unanswered Prayer (Mark 14:32-42) | Dr. Erwin Lutzer

Well, yes, he did use the word old, my

old pastor, and that's fine. You know,

there were there was a group of guys who

always ate at the same restaurant. In

their 50s, they um ate there because

they liked the waitresses.

In the 60s, they ate there because they

liked the food. In the 70s, they ate

there because um they liked the soft

music. In the 80s they ate there because

they'd not eaten at that restaurant

before.

So somebody said, "Pastor Looter, if you

were to do exercises, you could add 15

years to your life." I think they're

right. I've been doing exercises now for

six weeks and I feel 15 years older

already.

Well, we do bring you greetings from the

great state of Illinois and somewhere

here. My wife is sitting. Where are you,

honey? Uh, there she is. Why don't you

stand up and we'll give you a hand.

We've been married for 56 years. And and

she told somebody the other day that the

first 50 were the most difficult.

By the way, you all got an extra hour to

sleep, didn't you? You know, in our

hotel, there's a woman that was

complaining about the change because she

said the extra hour of sunlight is going

to hurt her garden.

[Laughter]

Am I going too fast for some of you?

You know, your pastor and his wife, they

were actually um in a Sunday school

class being asked questions about their

marriage. event. It reminded me of a

couple in Chicago who were out for their

40th

wedding anniversary. Each was 60 years

old. An angel appeared to them and said,

"What would you like for your

anniversary?" And uh the wife said,

"I've never traveled. I'd like to." And

the angel flashed a sword and in her

hands were two tickets for a world

cruise.

It was the man's turn. and he took the

angel aside and said, "You know,

I'd really like to be married to a woman

who is 30 years younger than I am." And

the angel flashed his sword and

instantly the man was 90 years old.

The dream is free. The hustle

The hustle is sold separately.

I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh at my own

jokes, but that really goes like that.

It's a delight to be here, and I want to

tell you that the more I get to know

about your church and Pastor Mike, the

more impressed I am about all of your

different ministries. I encourage you to

get behind this ministry in every way

that you possibly can. He's told me a

little bit about a group for this and

for that for this age group and all that

and you are very fortunate and I want to

say this with all sincerity. You're

probably more fortunate than you realize

you are. And so thanks to God for your

pastor and for all those who support the

ministry.

But today I have the privilege of

speaking about something that is very

serious and that is God in the garden.

and the agony of unanswered prayer.

There are two gardens in the Bible that

are very important. The first was the

Garden of Eden where the first man fell

and the first Adam said no to God. And

then there's the Garden of Gethsemane

where the second man said yes to God.

A couple of years ago, I was introduced

to a brand new term and that term is

deconstruction.

people deconstruct which means we used

to call them backsliders. People who

leave the Christian faith and why do

they do that

so often? The reason is because of

unanswered prayer. They ask God because

of healing. So they want somebody to be

healed and God doesn't heal them. They

want a resolution of a problem and God

doesn't answer. Maybe they're going

through some issue within their family

and they don't see the answer and they

say to themselves, "What good is God to

me anyway?" And they leave the faith.

Well, today I want you to understand

that Jesus himself experienced

unanswered prayer.

In the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus

Christ found himself on the way to the

cross,

we turn to the 14th chapter of the book

of Mark.

Mark chapter 14. Now, I know that many

of you don't bring your Bible, but you

do have your cell phone and you have

your Bible on the cell phone. So, find

it on the cell phone, find it on your

computer, find it on your jackhammer,

whatever it is that you brought. But all

those of you who are under 30, would you

take a moment and look at me? This

actually is a Bible. You see this? Do I

have a witness? This is a Bible.

Everyone, the 14th chapter of the book

of Mark, I'm going to pick it up at

verse 32.

And they went to a place called

Gethsemane. And he said to his

disciples, "Sit here while I pray." And

he took with him Peter and James and

John and began to be greatly distressed

and troubled. And he said to them, "My

soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

Remain here and watch." And going a

little farther, he fell on the ground

and prayed that if it were possible, the

hour might pass from him. And he said,

"Aba, Father, all things are possible

for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet

not what I will, but what you will." And

he came and found them sleeping, and

said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?

Could you not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray that you not enter into

temptation. The spirit indeed is

willing, but the flesh is weak." I'll

stop reading there. But if you read the

next verses, you discover that Jesus

prayed the same thing two times more and

came to them two times and they were

asleep.

Now all of us know that Jesus Christ is

both God and man. That is to say, he had

a divine nature and a human nature. And

those natures were brought together in

such a way that there was one

personality.

So Jesus was not schizophrenic.

He was one personality. But here we see

perhaps more closely than any other

place the fact that Jesus Christ was

really seen here as a man. And there are

ways that we can notice this. Notice the

text. It says that he was distressed. He

was troubled. And he had a sorrow unto

death. A sorrow that kills.

In the book of Matthew, we find that

Jesus threw himself on the ground face

down in the presence of God. There was a

heaviness there and an emotional

turbulence that you and I cannot really

grasp. I want to say as a parenthesis

that if you believe that all emotional

distress is sinful, then Jesus would

have sinned. But clearly it is not. This

was a human response

to the agony

that indeed he was facing. It was an

unimaginable

weight. Now when Jesus prayed there, my

father, all things are possible for you.

Please remove this cup. The question we

have to ask is what is the cup? And

we're going to answer four questions

that we can ask about the cup. The first

is simply this. What was the cup? What

was the cup? Now, there are some people

who say, "Well, the cup was um the fact

that he was going to be crucified." And

we can understand that. Could you take

out a moment and imagine in your mind

what it would be like to be nailed to a

cross with nails through your hands and

your feet and you are hanging there and

you are dying of thirst and unimaginable

agony? we would all be terrified.

But yet, even so, that's not really the

agony. That doesn't adequately express

the agony that Jesus was feeling at this

moment. The Romans crucified many

people. And some of them went to the

cross with much more, what shall I say,

what more evidence of courage than

Jesus. Here the agony that Jesus was

experiencing was the cup of the wrath of

God. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter

51, it speaks of the cup of his wrath.

And it says that God in uh Revelation

14:10, the wine of God's wrath in his

cup of fury. Now, I want you to imagine

something. Hell is forever. And I want

you to imagine that all of hell

was comprised in three hours.

And Jesus endured an eternity of hell in

three hours. And philosophically, I

might say that only God can take an

eternity and squeeze it into three

hours. So there's mystery there. But

Jesus endured that.

Now you must understand that there was

no sin in Jesus

but our sin was laid on him. And can you

imagine

the agony that he knew

lay ahead of him

and you know we can think about it we

can try to grasp it but we can't.

But God blesses for trying to think of

what he went through on our behalf.

Maybe I can give you a very homey

illustration. My wife and I were in a

home and they had a little dog by the

name of Annie. Annie was scampering

around and they said they spent $7,000

on surgery so that Annie

could walk.

Now, whether or not you should spend

$7,000 on a dog, that's a separate

question that have may have a variety of

answers, especially in California.

But let's leave that aside. Here's my

point. Little Annie had no idea

how much it costs for her to be able to

walk. It was beyond her imagination,

abond beyond her mental capacity. All

that she knew is she was lame and now

she can walk. She was lame and now she

can run. And you and I have no idea of

how much it cost Christ to redeem us.

All that we know is we were blind. Now

we see. We were in darkness. Now we are

in light. We were overcome by guilt. Now

we have been forgiven.

We know all that. But all that we can do

is to contemplate the agony that Jesus

had. The cup of God's wrath. Now there's

a second question and that is this. This

is critical. Who gave him the cup?

In the book of John chapter 18, Jesus is

leaving the garden of Gethsemane. He's

going out and Peter is using his sword.

You remember that experience? And Jesus

says to Peter, "Put up the sword." Then

Jesus says this, "The cup which my

father has given me, shall he not drink

it?" Jesus didn't say, "The cup which

Judas has given me, shall I not drink

it?" Jesus did not say, "The cup which

the Sanhedrin gave me, shall I not drink

it?" The cup that Pilate gave me, the

cup that Herod gave me, shall I not

drink it? No, the cup which my father

gave me. Now Jesus was able to look past

all of the intermediating

circumstances.

He was able to look through all that and

beyond all that he saw the sovereignty

and the providence of God. So God didn't

do the evil.

But in allowing the evil and even

orchestrating it to some extent, the

fact is that they now understood

that uh let me say this, Jesus

understood that the origin of the evil

was not with God, but that this was part

of God's program. And so what Jesus said

is the cup which my father has given me

because he was able to look beyond the

immediate cause and see that the

ultimate cause of all things was God.

And you know the cross we love to preach

about the cross and the reason is

because the cross is like a kaleidoscope

that brings together all of God's

attributes.

Where was the greatest injustice

committed? At the cross. Innocent man

crucified. Where is the greatest

justice? At the cross. Our sin was paid

for. Where is the greatest love? At the

cross. So you have the cross of Jesus

Christ. And now

Jesus says, "This is the cup.

It has come to me from my father.

Shall I not drink it?"

You know, Jonathan Edwards was a great

theologian and he said that Jesus was

looking into the furnace of God's wrath

and Jesus knew that this cup was from

the father. Now the father also loved

the world. So we should not think of the

father being the one who is reluctant to

save.

But we can know that it's because of the

trinity that we can be redeemed. And who

gave Jesus the cup? The answer is said

God. My father has given it to me.

There's a third question we have to ask

and that is what is the request? Well,

there it is in verse 36.

Remove

this cup.

Abba father, all things are possible to

you.

Remove this cup. prayed three times,

remove the cup. Now, Father,

isn't there some other way that this

could be done? Can't you just let

bygones be go bygones? Or isn't there a

human being that might be able to die?

What about the blood of sacrifices of

animals? Maybe that that can atone. Is

there not some other way? Could you

remove this cup?

That's the agony that Jesus had and that

was his prayer. Now, many of you have

been to university or college and you've

taken a course on comparative religion

and you'll hear things like this. Oh,

Christianity

is just like other religions because

other religions also need a sacrifice of

blood and so Christianity is like they

are.

Yeah.

But only in Christianity does God become

the sacrifice.

God was in Christ reconciling the world

unto himself.

God is the one who reconciles us and it

is he who redeems us. That's why God is

a redeeming God. Now, I need to tell you

this, and I hope you aren't shocked that

unless you're as perfect as God,

you'll never get to heaven.

This might be a good time for some of

you wives to lean over to your husbands

and say, "Honey, I love you, but you're

in trouble."

But that's true.

But in Jesus Christ, the good news is

God demands perfection,

but he supplies

what he demands.

And so in Christ we are accepted by God.

And what we must understand is that it's

because of the trinity we can be

redeemed. Islam also believes only in

one God. But Allah is not a trinity. And

that has huge implications for the Bible

for redemption. But the point is this

that yes the request is that the cup

might be removed. That is the request.

But what is the answer to the fourth

question? What is the response?

The response is no. No from God the

father. And the response is yes from

Jesus.

Jesus bows

before the father

and says, "Yet not my will

but thine be done." In other words, the

response of Jesus is to say, "It's not

it's not what I desire. This is not this

is not the kind of situation I'd like to

be in. I wish that the cup could be

removed, but if you insist,

thy will be done.

Oh Christ, what burdens bowed thy head.

Our load was laid on thee. Thou stoodest

in the sinner's dead. It's bear all ill

for me. Death and the curse were in our

cup. Oh Christ was full for thee, but

thou has drained the last dark drop to

empty now for me.

Wow. What I'd like to do is to now ask

ourselves this question. Why should this

change our prayer life? And I hope that

as a result of this message, your prayer

life will be changed. Maybe you will see

prayer in different light and maybe it

will ignite something within you about

prayer that has died along the way.

First lesson is this. Today's prayerless

Christians are tomorrow's backsliden

children. If you're taking notes, God is

going to bless you in very unpredictable

ways. I notice that young man, you're

sitting in the front. I notice that

you're taking notes. In heaven, your

crown is going to be so heavy that your

head is going to be tilted, brother. So,

thank you. Keep taking notes. Today's

prayerless Christians are tomorrow's

backsliden children.

Here's Peter.

And uh, oh Lord, even if just the few

verses before, if we had begun reading

earlier in the text, even though all men

forsake you, you can depend on me. And

we point that out. But it says that all

the other disciples said the same thing.

Oh yes,

Jesus said, you'll notice there in the

text, he says that the spirit is

willing. Oh yeah, we raise our hand.

We'll die for Jesus.

Nice play, Shakespeare. Could you come

up, young man, and get this? Or I'll

I'll do it. But yeah, I think that this

young man probably has more agility than

I do. You know, you'll notice that you

didn't even need any steps. Now, is that

mine over there?

Why don't you just fly?

Yeah.

One time I was on the plane with Mike,

uh, your pastor, and he didn't want to

use a seat belt because after all, he is

Mike. And a flight attendant says, "Uh,

you need a seat belt." He said, "No." He

said, "I'm uh I'm uh you know, the the

guy who flies. what's his name? You

know, um, come on, help me here. I'm

>> Superman.

>> Superman.

He said, I'm Superman. And the flight

attendant says, well, Superman, you

should know that Superman doesn't need

an airplane.

A little bit of apocryphal ideas thrown

in is perfectly fine. And thank you so

much, brother. And I might need you

again. It depends on the speed of the

wind and the uh need for help. Thank

you. So, first of all, I want to

emphasize that here they are. They're

they're not praying. They are there in

the garden

sleepy. And you and I might be sleeping

through a revolution in America.

You know that um everybody thinks, oh,

things are much more open. there's more

open to spirituality now because of the

assassination of Charlie Kirk maybe.

But brothers and sisters, I think that

we are going to be facing a backlash

where things are going to get very, very

difficult.

And Jesus said, "The spirit is willing,

but the flesh is weak." And then notice

what he says. This ought to be

underlined in your Bible. Verse 38,

"Watch and pray.

Watch. What do you watch for? You're

watching for the enemy.

And you know the enemy today has come

into our homes.

The enemy is in technology which is

instantly addictive.

I notice in my own life we are so easily

distracted because we have I wouldn't

doubt that there are some people

listening right now who are on their

cell phones but you're not in the 14th

chapter of the book of Mark. you are

somewhere else looking for some other

thing to watch or some other uh idea or

some other message that is going to come

to you. It's very difficult for us to

watch. I wrote a book about Adolf Hitler

and one of the things Hitler said to his

people is this. You parents, you raise

the child, you feed the child, but the

heart of the child is going to belong to

the Reich. The heart of the child is

going to belong to the kingdom that we

are building. And today through our

school systems and through the evident

cultural streams that we are at, the

message is you can feed the child, you

can clothe the child, but the heart of

the child is going to be stolen. And

that's just one other means of

temptation

in today's modern age. So Jesus says,

"Watch, watch for the enemy. watch where

he comes into our lives. And then he

says "Pray."

My wife and I flew here from uh Chicago

on Friday, and we're glad for the fact

that the airplane had oxygen masks. Now,

we didn't need them. We didn't need

them. Only once in all of our flights. I

don't know if she remembers,

uh we did have the oxygen masks come

down. That was in another country where

there isn't quite as much care given to

the airplanes. But you know, we're glad

that it's there

just in case. And that's the way many

people, even Christians, view God. Oh,

we're so glad that he's there if our

child gets sick, if we get fired from

our job. We're just glad that God is

that is there when we need him.

Let me ask you a personal question. What

if Jesus said to you, "Could you not

watch with me for an hour? Could you you

say, "Well, Pastor Looter, I wouldn't

know what in the world I'd say. I mean,

I can tell God exactly what I think he

should do in two minutes. I can give all

my requests to him." Yes.

Could I suggest that prayer is more than

you asking God to do A, B, and C? In

prayer, we have to get beyond

we have to get beyond

the idea of supplication and we have to

get to God himself. The enjoyment of God

at thy right hand there are pleasures

forever more. So we come to God and we

understand our real need is not the

answer to most of the prayers that we

pray but our real need is God himself.

And you know that old acrostic that

you've probably heard that I heard many

times in prayer meetings is actually

very good. Acts

acts think of acts a adore. I spend

every time every morning usually before

I get out of bed and also after I get

out of bed just spending time adoring

God. You read some of the psalms. You

speak about his greatness and you get

your mind off of all the things that are

happening and you begin to adore God. So

acts adoration

confession,

thanksgiving, and then supplication

because watching and waiting for God is

not something that is simply a matter of

coming with our requests. So Jesus said,

"Uh, could you not watch with me for one

hour?" So today's prayerless Christians

are tomorrow's backsliden Christians. So

here are the disciples. By the time you

get to verse 50 in this passage, you'll

notice it says, "Everyone forsook him

and fled." Everyone forsook him and

fled. Oh, the spirit was willing. Yeah,

please.

Uh but um the flesh is very weak. and

the flesh is very weak. Secondly, our

cup must be answered. Our cup of

unanswered prayer, I should say, must be

accepted from God.

I think I'm going to close this Bible

because the wind is blowing it. And I'll

make sure that we don't have our brother

have to do a hop up onto the step again.

Okay. I I I said to Pastor Mike,

somebody said, "Pastor Mike, there could

be wind." He said, 'Well, I can't

control that. I said, 'Yeah, Pastor Mike

is not into u he's not into he's into

sales. He's not into management.

So, because of that, we can't control

the wind. Okay? Our cup must be accepted

from God and not from men.

Now I want you to hear this very

carefully because this could be

transforming for you. And that is this.

You and I like Jesus have to be able to

see beyond.

We have to see beyond the trials that

come to us and we have to see God. Is

there someone in your life who would

like to see you crucified? They would

like to see you in uh perhaps in

injustice and other things you're

experiencing and they want to do all

that they possibly can to make life

difficult for you or you might be going

through cancer

some other thing what you and I have to

do and when I explained this to a person

he said you know this is difficult to do

but once you do it it can be very

freeing

what do I mean you have to look beyond

the instruments. You have to look beyond

the immediate cause and see beyond it.

God. Think of Job. Best illustration

that comes to mind. He loses his kids

because of a great windstorm.

Lightning comes and strikes all of his

cattle. And who did it? The devil.

Clearly,

he was given permission by God to do it.

But at the end of the day, does Job say,

you know, the the devil gave or excuse

me, the Lord gave and the devil took

away? No.

The Lord gave.

The Lord took away. Blessed be the name

of the Lord. Wow. What Job is simply

saying is God is not the cause. He's not

the immediate cause. But I look beyond

what happened to my children. I look

beyond the cause and I see God and I

take this from his hand.

There's a poem that someone gave me and

it's really good theologically. And what

this poem does is it helps us to

understand

how oftenimes our bitterness and anger

can be alleviated. As a matter of fact,

the person who gave me this poem said

that that happened to him. You can find

it on the internet. Look up at look it

up later. It's entitled from his hand.

But here's the poem. I will not take

that bitter thrust which rent my heart

today as coming from an earthly soul

though it was meant that way. But I will

look beyond the tool because my life is

planned. I take the cup my father gives.

I take it from his hand. He knows and

even thus allows these terrible things

that irk. I trust his wisdom and his

love. Let patience have her work. Though

human means have brought the sting, I

firmly take this stand. My loving father

holds the cup. I take it from his hand.

Now those who watch may wonder why these

things do not disturb. I look right past

the instrument and see my lord superb.

The trial which would lay me low must

pass through his command.

He holds the outstretched cups to me. I

take it from his hand. I want you to

take the trial that you are facing.

Perhaps someone who is causing you a

great deal of difficulty through a

lawsuit or whatever.

Things may be said about you that aren't

true and there's nothing you can do

about it. I want you to see that beyond

all that

is God.

He doesn't do it. But it's the

instrument that he uses to bring into

our lives trials which will force us to

draw close to him. We take it from his

hand. And now I'm going to give you a

third lesson which is really

mind-boggling when you think of it. And

that is this. Our redemption was founded

on an unanswered prayer.

I get the chills. I've contemplated

this.

What if God had answered?

What if God had taken the request and

says, you know, I love you because

you're my son, the Lord Jesus. As I look

at humanity, it's just not worth

redeeming them because, you know,

they're a bunch of sinners and deserve

hell. So, let's abort the plan.

Let's abort the plan. You and I would be

unredeemed.

But here is an unanswered prayer that we

ought to thank God for because if he had

answered it, the results for us would

have been disaster.

multiplied.

Brothers and sisters, God may be doing

more through an unanswered prayer than

he is doing through an answered prayer.

You have no idea of God's hidden agenda.

And we we're not we're not able to pry

into everything that God does. We don't

know why he does what he does. That's

the essence of faith, of course. But we

do know this, and if you're taking

notes, you should write this down. We

live by promises.

We don't live by explanations.

So, we have to understand that beyond

all of the unanswered prayers, God is

doing something that you and I might not

see in this life. Though sometimes we do

see it in this life, God may be doing

things that we will only understand in

eternity. And in the Bible, there are

illustrations of this. We don't have

time to go into it, but always remember,

it's so important to recognize

that unanswered prayer, unanswered

prayer, there's a reason why the prayer

was unanswered.

And so, we must be willing to say with

Jesus, this is not what I want. This is

not what I'm praying for. Nevertheless,

thy will be done,

my Jesus, as thou wilt. Oh, may thy will

be mine. Into thy hands of love I would

my all resign. through sto sorrow or

through joy. Conduct me as mine own and

help me still to say, my Lord,

thy will be done.

Fourth,

unanswered prayers are not unheard

prayers. Unanswered prayers are not

unheard prayers. In Hebrews chapter 5,

it talks about this moment in g with

Jesus life in Gethsemane. And it says

this that Jesus

when he was here on earth in his flesh

and I believe it's a reference indeed to

Gethsemane he cried up to God with

longsuffering and tears. He cried

himself up to God who was able to save

him from death and was heard in that he

feared.

Greek scholars tell us that the word

heard,

that word is a really positive

word. It means that God did indeed hear.

Now, God didn't answer the way Jesus

asked, but later on Jesus of course was

raised from the dead thanks to the

resurrection. But the point is this that

we have to understand that those prayers

were heard. And brothers and sisters,

your unanswered prayers are heard by

God. Even if he doesn't answer the way

in which you think he should.

Many years ago when I was in college,

Bible college, we were doing some

visitation

and I knocked on a door and a mother

came to the door and she was crying.

Amazingly, after all these years, maybe

30 or 40 years, I still see her in my

mind's eye as she was taking her

handkerchief and wiping the tears from

her cheeks. And she said, "Oh, forgive

me." She said, "I was just praying for

my wayward son." Well, I don't know what

happened to her weward son, but I know

this.

Her prayer was heard by God.

And God hears the prayers of his

children, even the unanswered prayers.

In the book of Revelation, it speaks

about the fact that the prayers of the

saints are brought before the Lord. And

it's like a sweet savor in the eyes of

God. They are received.

And I like to think that in that imagery

are included a lot of unanswered

prayers. But blessed are those who go on

believing,

go on trusting because an unanswered

prayer does not mean that God is deaf.

He has hidden purposes

when he says no. So remember this, keep

praying. Keep praying. Don't give up. It

could be that God wants to hear your

persistent prayer, that you are

overcoming all of the hindrances to the

answer to prayer and dealing with issues

in your own life. For example, if you're

praying for weward children, one of the

things that I've learned is that God

often uses weward children to speak to

the hearts of their parents in ways that

he might not have the attention of the

child's parents before. So you keep on

praying and believing and trusting.

Number five, Jesus was abandoned

so that we might always be accepted. He

was abandoned so that we might always be

accepted.

Jesus on the cross when he hung there,

you remember he said, "My God, my God,

why hast thou forsaken me?" Now we

should not think that there was a break

in the trinity. The essence of the

trinity of course was not broken. But

what we must understand is that there

there was a break in fellowship

because the sin of the world Jesus was

being treated

as a criminal not because he did any

criminal activity

but criminality was laid upon him. And

so in those moments which we cannot of

course fully understand in those moments

of mystery we find that Jesus and the

father was absent in this sense in the

sense of fellowship. By the way at the

end the very last words of Jesus on the

cross. I hope that you remember this.

The very last words of Jesus on the

cross was father

into thy hands I commit my spirit.

fellowship was back. The only time when

Jesus ever called the father God was on

the cross when he said, "My God, my God,

why hast thou forsaken me." And Jesus

did that on our behalf so that we would

never have to be forsaken by God. If

you're a believer in Jesus Christ,

here's a promise you can hang on to

among many, many others. Hebrews chapter

13:E5 where the scripture says I will

never leave thee nor forsake thee. In

the Greek text there are actually five

negatives. I will know not leave you. I

will know not forsake you. Jesus is

saying the scripture is saying five

times never never never.

He does not forsake us because he has

Jesus was forsaken on our behalf so that

we will not be forsaken. Now there may

be some of you who are listening to this

who have never savingly believed on

Christ. I don't know where you are at on

your spiritual journey. You may have

prayed a prayer when you were young. And

of course the prayer itself doesn't save

us. It's the transfer of trust whatever

is going on in your life. And some of

you, you know, you may be investigating

Christianity. You may be wondering about

it. You may even have doubts. That's

fine as long as those doubts are honest.

I think, for example, of the song that

is sung at Billy Graham Crusades. It

used to be when Billy had those large

crusades.

Just as I am without one plea. You

remember what the stanza says? Just as I

am, though tossed about, with many a

conflict, many a doubt, fightings

within, and fears without. Oh lamb of

God, I come. I come. And even now as

you're listening to this, you can

savingly believe on Jesus if he's worked

on your heart and you see your

sinfulness and your desperate need for a

savior.

For me it was in the garden he prayed,

"Not my will, but thine."

He had no tears for his own grief, but

sweat drops of blood

for mine. He bore my sins and my

sorrows. He made them his very own. He

took my burdens to Calvary

and suffered and died alone.

What a savior we have. What a savior.

And thank God

for unanswered prayer

that Jesus said, "Nevertheless,

not my will, but thine be done." I'm

going to pray now. And even as I pray, I

want you to pray. If God has talked to

you, what has he talked to you about?

The need to reignite your prayer life.

the need to

get serious in terms of your

relationship with God. The ability and

let me explain something. There's a big

difference between you praying about

something and committing it to the Lord.

Big difference. You can pray about the

same thing and keep the burden on your

shoulders as best as you can. Take that

burden and transfer it to the soul to

the shoulders of Jesus Christ about whom

it is said that the governments of the

world shall be upon his shoulders.

transfer it to Christ

and if it comes back to you, give it to

him again and again until finally you

can say, "Father,

I receive this cup from your hand. And I

believe that you'll do in my life what

needs to be done because I am yours."

Let's bow together in prayer.

Father, we thank you for all these

people who have gathered. We thank you

for this ministry. And I ask now in

Jesus' name that as your Holy Spirit

speaks to people,

many who have issues that need to be

resolved, many who need to come to Jesus

Christ for forgiveness, many who come to

you with doubts. We ask, oh God, that

you will overcome those doubts and show

them the wonder of the cross and the

beauty of Jesus

who bore our sins and our sorrows, who

called them, his very own. Do that,

Father,

now and in the future. We do love you,

Jesus. We only pray that you would that

we would love you more.

Our savior, our God, the one in whom we

trust and in whose name we pray. Amen.

[Music]