Pray, Never Quit, Like Jesus: You may also have a garden of Gethsemane experience

Pray, Never Quit, Like Jesus: You may also have a garden of Gethsemane experience 

 By Kelly Durant

Matthew 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

 

2. How many of you like quitters? None of us do! It’s like you are in a soccer game, or you are at a party and someone with you says, “I’m out! See you later!” Everyone says, “No, we need you now more than ever, don’t quit!” but the quitter quits anyway! This causes his team to lose leaving his friends to miss out on victory. People that don’t follow through are like clouds with no rain, just there good for nothing! 

 

Those that quit on God are described here in Jude 8 (b) They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 

Today I want you as a Christian to see how you and I, as Jesus, also may have our moments of despair and we really want to quit, to abort the mission, but if we are doing God’s assignments you and I know we cannot fail or quit! We keep on in the ‘strength of the Lord’!

 

The only way to get through a hard trial is to pray and pray long, intensely, and openly, open to do what God wants you to do even though you do not want to do it! Jesus could have quit, but He didn’t. He was chosen to die for our sins, and He knew He had to go through it, but knowing what He went through, we can all understand Him not wanting to have to do it! And on a cross!

 

3. Do you ever pray… “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will?” That is a very hard thing to pray! It is often easy to pray, oh Lord bless me with a new car, bless me with more income, but how many times do you hear a person pray, Lord do unto me all you need to do to make me be the instrument you need me to be? 

 

When you pray, Lord, give me car, any old car Lord, what happens? You end up, as your faith expected, with some old car! But when you pray you must believe! But exercise great faith!

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

 

I have known people who have said to me, “Never pray for humility, don’t pray for God to do with you what He wants to because usually it means you will start going through a big trial and problem!” But actually, trails and problems are what we are supposed to go through in this life so you and I get purified! It’s like a fire refining the gold, so we learn meekness and obedience. But those who resist God’s breakings, those who quit early, those who jump off the mountain not finishing the climb, guess what? God makes you do a repeat until you finish the task and get it right! Each time it gets tougher so we must pray we get it right the first time!

 

4. Obedience is a tough word but we must learn it as Jesus did. Hebrews 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 1 Peter 4: 12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

 

When a Christian has a trial and life or death type moment, it has a purpose and God helps you to get through it for the victory, so you praise Him. When you have had to be in a corner without a seeming exit, when you have felt that it was the end, it is then you somehow experience that God gets you through it. There is no triumphant crown without a test! 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

 

Jesus had to suffer beyond what any of us can comprehend! Compared to His suffering and death on the cross, anything we have to go through seems to be ‘not so bad’! He sweat blood sweat and tears! But I know that despairing feeling when some trials make you feel like you are at the end of everything! I felt that way when I had 106 temperature with hepatitis, when a truck almost ran us off a cliff, and when depressed and discouraged several times!

 

5. Here is another lesson we can learn from what Jesus experienced in Gethsemane, that He needed his friends beside Him, to support him. Why did he get bothered when the disciples just went to sleep like they did like they didn’t care? Because He wanted them near in His time of despair!

 

When you experience something terrible, when a traumatic event grips you, don’t you want someone with you to support you? Sometimes they don’t even need to say a word, you just need them by you to help you to not be alone in your pain.

 

And, are you willing to be with someone when they are going through pain and suffering? I know it is no fun as I have done it a lot! When you unexpectedly have a serious issue in your life, do you have someone you can go to that will be with you, pray for you, and not let you be alone? 2 Corinthians 1:4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

 

6. Here is another point, Jesus already knew Peter would deny him, He knew His disciples would be shocked, scared, and shaken up by His death, so he wanted to warn them this… “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

 

Jesus needs us to learn to ‘watch and pray’! And what was the temptation he knew was coming at that time? To be doubting Him, like Thomas did, to be abandoning the mission, like Peter and his fishermen disciples did, who went right back to fishing instead of preaching the gospel after His death. We need to learn to pray without ceasing!

 

People that get distant from Jesus, that get distant from you and me, the followers of Jesus, start getting temped and entangled with the things of this world and they become useless to God. 2 Peter 2:20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

 

7. Jesus knew His hour to be betrayed, arrested, and crucified was coming in the early morning. He wanted the last hours of His life with His disciples nearby. He knew when he was going to die, but how many of us know when you are I are going to die? Most of us don’t know the hour that a car wreck, a heart attack, or an infection might grip us with death, and then what? It is too late for anything then! Love everyone today…tomorrow you may not get the chance!

 

That is why you and I must live ready to go, ready to stay, ready to do God’s will no matter what it is! How wonderful it will be to die in peace, assured that you knew Him, that you are connected to Him, assured that you did your best for Him, that you gave your all, and that you practiced what you learned from Jesus’ teachings. 

 

Thank God Jesus took upon Himself our sins, we know we could never be assured of eternal life by trying to be perfect in our own way. Even with obedience to all the Old Testament commands, we would never be perfect enough for God. And it is in God’s mercy we go through some hard times so we become depend on Him for everything, for peace of mind, for provisions and good health. 

 

8. The oldest book in the Bible is Job. How many of you know what he suffered? He was blessed by God, had a nice family, good health, lots of herds and riches. But God allowed him to be tempted, to go through suffering because God knew that Job loved Him and that he would resist and come through as a shining example for the angels, Satan, and all the world for generations to learn that to stay faithful to God does have its reward! He lost his health, wealth, and family murdered, all in one day!

 

Never let yourself be vulnerable to doubt God, never give up, always know that God will bless those that go through hard trials trusting in Him. Job said this, Job 13:15

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. Job 42: 12 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

 

We learn so much from Jesus, that He wants us to never give up and to be obedient to God’s will, submitting ourselves no matter what ‘our cup’ of suffering may be! We are to watch and pray and to be desperate and close to God when we are in excruciating times. We are to call upon faithful others to pray with us too! We must know we may be tempted to give up, or like in Job’s case, his wife even said you are so miserable just curse God so you can die to end it all!

 

Never listen to the voices from Satan, through your ‘friends’ or in your own head. Watch & Pray and you will get the victory and come out of the trial with a testimony of how you got through your Gethsemane experience! 

Jesus’ Leadership: Your Authority is Nothing without His! A pre-Easter Message

Jesus’ Leadership: Your Authority is Nothing without His! A pre-Easter Message

Kelly Durant        4-2-06 Re: 3-12-23

 

Luke 22:24-30

24 Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. 25 And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ 26 But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. 27 For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.

28 “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. 29 And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, 30 that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

 

2. Have you ever had a problem with a bill or service, and you call the company and the person on the other line of the phone keeps running you around in circles? In frustration, what do you do? You say, “Can I speak to the manager?!” It’s obvious that some people cannot resolve certain issues, right? You need one in authority! A leader covers all the issues!

 

The story of the life of Jesus covers so many subjects before His arrest, trail and crucifixion! If you want to know more, He covers everything from the coming of the Holy Spirit, to the hypocrisy in the fake people of God, to the Signs of the final days of earth.

You can read all of these things between John chapters 12 to 18, or in Matthew 23 to 26.

 

Today, however we are going to focus in on something in Luke that happened right after the Lord’s supper and before Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus made it clear He only acted upon the authority of His Father and today we will examine the problem all of us have with authority. Imagine, Jesus knows He will be crucified in a very cruel way in the next few days, and the disciples are not perceiving this by all that He is teaching them, they’re too worried about who will be first in the kingdom of God! 

 

3. My wife and I had meetings before with the coaches of the soccer leagues whom we did programs with and do you know what the biggest problem was with the leagues? It was not the kids getting hurt, or the lack of no money for uniform needs, it was a problem with authority, of who is in charge! Who was the leader and who obeyed who was always an issue.

 

Apart from coaches not respecting one another, a coach may often have said to some bystanders,” Hey, you are too close to the field, move back”; and the people instead of replying, “Okay, sorry, coach” and move their reply was often, “Who are you to tell us anything? I will stand where I want!”  Many people are like goats, rebellious!

 

Not respecting authority also included the people using the other fields in the park that they did not have permission to, and then we had the problem of losing the city park’s permission due to the disrespect of these people not listening to us nor obeying rules. 

 

In today’s world a lack of respect towards authority is creating a lot of negative repercussions in society and in the church! Leadership is not about who is the most arrogant bully to just appropriate it, it is about leadership as Jesus modeled it. Jesus must be our top authority!

 

4. You may be aware that some Anglo Americans complain that new immigrants do not respect their culture, and that they do not respect the laws. When you travel abroad and meet most Americans, they are the same way not following customs or language. I wish for you to see after this message today how a person can earn respect as a leader no matter the culture by doing leadership the way Jesus did it. Leadership is not a race or cultural issue, it is a God ordained issue, and Jesus is the One who empowers and guides each person, not ourselves. 

 

To begin with, as we see with these passages, a leader and his authority is not determined by himself or herself, arguing amongst others as to who should have it. For spiritual matters is determined by God, for our earthly matters it is by functional systems with rules, by skills by logic and by the merits of how one serves others, and by putting into practice good leadership. 

 

Let’s look here again in verse 26 that says that the leader is the one who serves, not just the one who sits at the table and expects to be served. Jesus says it clear in verse 27 that He wants us to follow His example by serving as He served. 

 

5. There are plenty of unprepared people today who want to be in charge because of some idea they have that their race, place, or face deserves it, that their money should buy it, or that their position should just be because they deserve it?! Even people in the church, amongst some church leaders today, wanting to be the big leaders so they have others serving and obeying them. This is what is wrong with politics today, people who assume power, but they are people full of greed and self-interests not qualified and then we see with them everything falls apart! 

 

Jesus’ way is the standard! Those of you that know Regina and I well know that we are the first to arrive and the last to go and real leaders carry out responsively their duties. Leaders are usually doing humble tasks that others could do but often don’t do so the real leaders do them.

 

I want you to know as servant leaders, as appointed commissioned Majors, we are not too proud to load and unload trucks, to cook and wash dishes, to vacuum the floors, to clean the bathrooms, and to sit and listen to people when they want our ear. Great leaders must be humble like Jesus who washed the feet of those He loved. 

 

6. I know some of you respect us and you have caught the same vision to serve, and you are humble not concerned over what you need to do to help, and Regina and I are proud of you. Jesus even says right here that we will be judges in the Kingdom of God if we show the fruits of serving Jesus in a way that wins others to the Kingdom of God. We will be judges in the New Heaven and earth Kingdom!

 

In the Salvation Army we teach others to serve Jesus by example and working hard, not being concerned if you are the leader or not, and it is the best way to follow Jesus. What is it we “Saved to Serve, and also Saved to Save”! Actually, we see by the verses of today that Jesus expects every Christian to be so thankful to have His truth, love and Salvation which came from the cross, that he or she is willing to do anything at any time for Him and others. 

We must be willing to take up our cross and follow God, serving others in love. 

 

A true leader is one who is serving so well that he or she has experienced blood, sweat, and tears on their body, as Jesus had to, to prove that they love God.

 

7. I will tell you that even amongst ourselves, as in all Corps, there has been these conversations of who is the greatest. It happens everywhere in all circles! It is just the dynamic of fallen creatures and our corrupt human nature. But respect from God, and from a handful of others, will only come with hard work. A title, or a piece of paper means nothing if the people do not see you sacrificing yourself, truly loving them by being concerned for them. 

 

Do you pray for another when you see they need it? Do you pray when you see another being out of place? In the end it is God who corrects us! Consider this verse, Hebrews 5:8

though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. If Jesus learned like that, all of us as well will need to learn by suffering as well!

 

If you want to know how to make Jesus happy with you, look at the good examples we know. Observe the people who have served in the body of Christ not even wanting a title of leadership. Some people have served hundreds of hours for years, faithfully being here without pay and you and I know their reward is in heaven. 

Most of you know in your heart if you are serving God as He wants you to or not. 

 

8. Many of you give all of your free time to the Lord and you come very often to help and serve in many ways, and this makes you be a leader by merit. Regina and I, and many people are very thankful for you, and you will be the ones who will have rewards in heaven!

 

Matthew 25: 44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” 

 

So, with us and with the Lord, anyone who wishes to be a leader and does not serve as Jesus did, will not be considered as one worthy in this life nor the next. The proud will be abased, and the humble will be exalted! Those that sit and want others to serve them at their table had better realize that Jesus expects them to be serving the table too! Who has authority in the eyes of Jesus? Only the ones who are obedient to submit and obey the rules, to do Jesus’ commands, serving others in love! Good followers make good leaders! 

Are you serving Jesus in love as we must do in The Salvation Army? Do you take up your cross daily and obey Jesus? Lead as Jesus led! Ask yourself, who looks up to me? Do they see Jesus in me? Ask yourself, does it matter I might be last in this world? The first are last in heaven! Pray..

Jesus…in Your Dreams! He visits many people this way to communicate!

Jesus…in Your Dreams!             By Kelly Durant   4-10-13   Re 3-5-23

Matthew 27:19 When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.

2. How many of you have dreams? Can you distinguish when a dream really means something and when it is just your mind floating out there trying to make a collage of strange purposeless things?

Have you ever dreamed you are flying? Many people have! According to the scientific study of dreams your mind keeps working on problems you could not solve in the daytime. People who dream flying could be learning what they will need to know after they leave this body behind! Jesus will raise us up! 

Concerning Easter, you can find tens of thousands of sermons on Jesus’ resurrection and that important day and that is priority. But there is one verse I want to explore, and that is how Jesus appears to, and appeared to, different unsuspecting people. Jesus communicates to many in dreams, even though the ones seeing Him did not choose to meet him, nor had they ever met him personally.

3. For example, the wife of Pilate had a dream, and in her dream, Jesus appeared to her, and she suddenly took seriously the injustice that was happening to him. In a dream she was touched by the purity and holiness of Jesus because she described him as a “just man”.  That was divine communication. All the rumors stirred up then were that he was a devil! But she listened to the spirit, not the world’s lies, and we all must develop that skill.

Then, like good wives do, she tells her husband what she feels and thinks about the decision he will make concerning Jesus’ trial. Often the men have the power, but women usually have a strong behind-the-scenes influence. Women often change outcomes from their influence with their words, do they not? She told him she had suffered in a dream because of him. When the wife suffers and is disturbed it affects the man as well!

That dream that she had that we do not know the details of troubled Pilate as she got through to him about the true holy nature of Jesus. This started troubling him that a just man would die, and he was accustomed to sending men to die all the time.  So much was he disturbed by his wife’s dream, and God’s conviction, that he washed his hands in public to symbolize he didn’t want anything to do with what was happening with Jesus condemnation, do you recall that?

4. Matt27: 23 And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

What we can conclude is that Jesus visited Pilate’s wife and this visit influenced how he handled the case of having Jesus in front of him. He tried to change the mind of the the people by releasing Barabbas instead of Jesus, a known murderer, but it did not work. In reality, he tried to protect an innocent man, but the people chose the death of Jesus despite that. So even evil rulers fear God’s justice!

I am sure Pilate, and his wife was very disturbed after that day.  What sort of terrible people would choose the death of Jesus, a just man over a man who was a dangerous murderous threat to society? 

5. Dreams are a major component in all our lives. A long time before Jesus birth, God sent dreams to Joseph in Egypt and there are many accounts of dreams in the Bible. Recall the dreams of Joseph of Mary to marry her and then to flee Egypt and that of the Wise Men who took action on their dream and traveled away from Herod to avoid his wrath. They did not even know of his plot to kill Jesus until they dreamed it. How do we explain such detailed communication in dreams? God is always working behind the scenes, in the spirit world!

There are day-time dreams that happen as well, but those we usually referred to as visions. Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and that changed Paul’s entire life! 

Here is a strange reality, Jesus, God, or angels have been appearing to millions of people in visions, premonitions or dreams ever since He made earth, and these experiences are so real that millions of people have taken radical decisions to start living very different lives from what they were. 

6. Referring to how dreams change others, let’s look at Muslims and those of faiths who are isolated in lands where the gospel is not heard. I have read many testimonies of people being converted just because of a dream they had of Jesus appearing to them. 

These unexplained dreams of Jesus or God have been so real that people have been willing to change their lives and their religion, often leaving their country, or even going to jail to be persecuted for their new found faith in Jesus!

How can science explain that? It can’t! Some things are just supernatural, and it is not that some people in the world are just superstitious or ignorant, to the contrary, many people know how to be sensitive to spiritual communications and act upon them!

Your spiritual sensitivity is everything in life! Have you been shown things from God in dreams, or in prayer and then acted upon them appropriately?

7. When I was 21 and deciding which direction my life would go, I was stuck between staying in the university or leaving it to serve Jesus as a missionary in South America. A major factor in my decision was a dream that came to me.

Here is my dream of being at a Bob Dylan concert. I dreamed I was in a rock concert and the main artist that I thought was the most amazing person alive back then, was being arrogant and stupid keeping the people waiting for hours. During that time the auditorium was filling up with thick smoke form the marijuana everyone was smoking. Suddenly I felt glued to my chair and I got very scared as if I felt I would die immovable, stuck right there if I did not get up immediately!

But I forced myself to get up and when I did in the isle it seemed like a drama skit of something was happening, and a guy said, “Hey you, come here and help us”. There was Jesus carrying a cross and some others people nearby and one gave me a hammer and long nail in my hands and said here, help us to crucify this man? I dropped the hammer and ran outside as fast as I could! I did not want to help them kill Jesus! I had to get away from those terrible people!

Once outside I thought it was going to be night, but instead it was day and there were hundreds of police cars and police there that were getting ready to invade the auditorium and take everyone to jail.

The Lord showed me I needed to escape my old life radically, if not I would be paralyzed from drugs and crucifying Jesus in the process. The police were representative of the angels of God that will return with Jesus to judge the world!

8. Jesus changed my life by appearing in a dream. My sister in law also told me one time that she had a dream in which Jesus told her to stop following the church of her past and follow the evangelicals. Now, let me ask you, how many of you have ever had a dream, or a vision, or an experience with Jesus communicating to you? Look around, that is quite a few of you! My point is Jesus ever since his death, and in all the book of Acts, Jesus has appeared to others in dreams and visions in various supernatural ways. 

Divine communication through dreams and visions is not history; it is a phenomenon that keeps happening today! There is a science study of the mind called ‘noetics’ to try to discover how we experience precognitions and the unexplainable. 

It is also a fulfillment of the verses of Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Take note that the last days began with Jesus birth. (Also, please contextualize that these verses are not a license to get disorderly and randomly interrupt the service to proclaim some personal revelation as if you are the most spiritual one in all the church as is done in some churches today).

9. But here is an undeniable reality, there are people that Jesus has communicated to in his pure and holy way, and they have either resisted or accepted the mission! What did Jesus tell Paul on his way to persecute Christians in Damascus? Acts 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks?

Jesus was troubling him and rebuking Paul. How? By a vision shining through his darkness! Jesus love, His nature of purity, of righteousness, His just way of fairness of bringing healing to broken hearts and bodies contrasted greatly against Paul’s intentions of destruction. Jesus getting close to anyone of us would expose our ugly selfish proud human nature which is the opposite of His! So the people that still have many sins and faults, we must assume have not really met Him! 

10. Jesus in dreams is usually not the superman that takes you by the hand and lifts you flying in the sky over the mountains and moon, He is the one who sends a message to you about something important that is happening in your life at that moment and He often is warning you to change immediately, change your attitude, move away to another place, or to take action on an important decision. Jesus wakes you and I up to a new truth and this reality requires a reaction!

Jesus appearing in a dream, or in a vision, is an unexplained internal awareness and it is as God’s Holy Spirit at work.  Those who ignore that tugging of the heart, or reject the revelation of the truth of God, miss the out on the blessings of God, and depending on what message God is convicting them of, that person might even be rejecting salvation! 

11. We see an instance of this is Acts where Stephen, filled with the Holy Ghost, reveals the truth of Jesus to the crowd but despite his vision & powerful glowing presence, despite the heart piercing conviction his anointed words brought to the crowd’s ears, they still resisted! They murdered him as they did Jesus, out of the hatred in their hearts rejecting the fact that Jesus actually is the Son of God. 

We all must bow down and reverence Jesus as Lord of Lords when the Holy Spirit convicts us, if not the only alternative is rejection by choice and an eternal separation from the God which leaves nothing but hell. Stephen’s final warning while having a vision (a daytime dream) was, Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

12.Today I want you to decide, has Jesus or the Holy Spirit ever appeared to you, in a prayer, in a vision, in a dream in the night, or in a still small voice in your heart and mind? If so, did you act on it? Or do you know someone to whom God communicated? God communicates today but few are talking about it!

John 15: 26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

God may comfort in his message or trouble you, but you must wake up.

Have you responded to some troubling dream or message gotten in a prayer? If not, it is never too late to obey God! God is merciful, but that second bus (after you missing the first) is on a different time clock of God. Many people miss God’s will and really mess things up in their lives! Start asking your friends today, have you ever dreamed with God or Jesus? Use that as a way to share the gospel of His love!