Matthew 26:40-42

40And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41″Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

We continue our study of what it means to “stay awake” with the second type of hardship we face.

What kind of trial or suffering will come our way to threaten the things we hold dear like our freedom, health, security, wealth, and our loved ones? The enemies of our faith work to use our desire to hold onto them to betray our faith. If we feel this threat, then it means we are awake. Though it will be painful and stressful like it was for Jesus at Gethsemane, we must pray with all our being and seek the help of the all powerful triune God to receive his help to overcome. God is waiting in heaven for us to seek His help and to join him. 

While Stephen was being stoned to death, he saw the gates of heaven open to him and saw God waiting for him. Stephen was so filled with the joy of heaven that he did not feel the pain of the stones. God sent his angels to save Daniel in the lions’ den. When we seek His power, God will send it our way. God, his angels, and our new self will enable us to defeat evil, the world, and our old selves as they try to compromise our faith. 

While fear of losing what is dear to us can cause us to betray our faith, the gaining of what we desire is just as dangerous. Receiving power, wealth, and other worldly gifts is the second type of challenge we will face, and it also requires God’s help and power. Joseph knew from the vision of his dream as a youth that he must become governor to be the light for the Israelites, the light of God’s grace. Joseph relied on God’s help. Through every difficult step he endured never being resentful and remaining obedient to God, Joseph attained the highest position in Egypt besides pharaoh. It would have been easy for him to be seduced by his position and abandon God, but Joseph never swayed in his faith. David was a shepherd boy who received God’s help to become Israel’s greatest king. While not perfect, David repented his sins and always returned to stand with God, and God blessed him. Daniel also received God’s help to rise to the highest position in Babylon but was never tempted to betray God to hold onto his position.

We do not know how high God wants us to go or what path he has designated for us. God has a specific plan and set of expectations for each of us, but we can only meet His expectations if we are awake and seek His guidance to receive His power to navigate our path to success. Only when we are awake will we recognize these two types of hardships coming our way – losing and gaining things we value- and the three types of enemies – evil, the world, and our old selves – which plot for our failure. Only when we believers are awake can we recognize them. Only when we are awake will we seek God’s power through prayer to face them confidently. We must pray and receive God’s help to be victorious, believing we can only succeed if we wear the armor of God. The Bible and Holy Spirit must show us this path and guide us through our prayers to receive God’s help to defeat our enemies. But because many of us are asleep, we do not pray, we cannot see these trials coming our way, and we cannot recognize the enemies trying to cause us to fail. 

We each have our crosses to bear. We must feel the same worry and fear that Jesus did at Gethsemane. These trials are necessary for us to make us perfect and whole in our faith. We cannot avoid them. The Lord’s Prayer does not direct us to avoid hardship but, rather, not to be led into but to be able to resist temptation. We must stay awake and pray as Jesus did to receive God’s power. Only then can we feel genuine joy, thankfulness, and confidence to be victorious just like Jesus at Gethsemane and be ready to say, “get up, now I am ready! Let’s go!” 

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1980-10-24-short2-mixdown-1b