Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, when we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, the scripture, prayer and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your hopes to strabist find you, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Daily Together on Mission, podcast. This is Travis, and as usual, it is wonderful to be with all of you, friends that are friends of Jesus.
And speaking of Jesus, this morning, we're going to talk just a little bit about Jesus. It's always something about Jesus. We always start our day with Jesus. We're going to be in Matthew, chapter 26, and we're going to look at the story of Jesus and his few best friends in the garden of Gethsemane, right before his crucifixion.
Now, I'm going to share what Gethsemane means in just a moment, but first I have a question, how are you feeling pressed? How are you feeling weighed down? And maybe it's relational. Maybe there's a relationship in your life that was going smooth, and now it's not.
And how did it take this turn? How could I be estranged from this relationship? How could there be so much difficulty in this relationship? It's painful, it's painful, it's confusing.
I don't like it, it's pressing. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get around this. I don't know how to get through this.
Maybe it's emotional. Maybe you're feeling depressed, or lonely, or abandoned, or feeling like a failure, or confused, or there's too many big decisions, and it's like you're being pressed down. It could be physical. It could be something that's just hurting, you know, your body.
It could be spiritual. There could be a sense of, God, where did that loving feeling go? It feels so dark. It seems like I could see before, but now I can't.
I mean, what is pressing you? What's heavy right now? And in Matthew 26, verse 36, then Jesus went with his disciples, his friends, to a place called Gethsemane. Gethsemane literally means olive press.
Gethsemane is the pressing. And in olive press, obviously, you held bars above and put all your weight on the olives, and it pressed them. Gethsemane is the pressing. And so Jesus goes to Gethsemane because he is pressed.
He is so heavy with what is upon him. And whatever is upon you, spiritually, physically, emotionally, maybe you knew that it was coming, you've sensed it. There's been foreshadowings of it, and now it's just here, and it's hit you, and you're feeling pressed. And Jesus is there in Gethsemane, and he goes there at the end of verse 36, and he says, sit here while I go over there and pray.
And so Jesus, in the midst of the pressing, goes to prayer. Now we might think, oh, that's so spiritual. Of course Jesus goes to prayer when he's pressed. But prayer is not a place to go to be good.
That's how we've heard about prayer. Oh, let's go to prayer to be good. Let's go to prayer to be regular. Let's go to prayer because it's a spiritual discipline.
Prayer is not a place to go to be good. Prayer is a place to go to be real. To go to be pressed. To go to be real.
So Jesus, in the midst of his pressing, he goes to this place of prayer, not to be good, but to be real. And as we look at the story as a biography, what a great model. Whatever the pressing looks like in your life, let's take it to prayer. And let's not try to be good in prayer.
Let's try to be real because that's what prayer is. And then notice in verse 37, he takes Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him. So not only is Jesus going to be real with his father in prayer, he's going to be real with his friends in the pressing. I don't know about you, but when I'm being pressed, sometimes I keep it to myself.
Sometimes I'll try to hide it. Sometimes I'll try to make sure everything's good, but to go to the Peters and the Jameses and the Johns in my life to be real. Wow, what a model this is. What a powerful, powerful model of what it looks like when we are in a Gethseman experience, when we are pressed.
And then notice, Jesus at the end of verse 37, he begins to be sorrowful and troubled. And in verse 38, then he says to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. I mean, sorrow troubled, overwhelmed to the point of death. I mean, when Jesus is pressed, God knows about it and his good friends know about it.
He's feeling it. He's expressing it. He's emoting. He's sharing.
He's being real. You know, some have said the depression is the result of pain or sorrow or struggle accumulating and being stored up in our hearts or our minds. Well, Jesus didn't allow for difficulty and grief and pain to be stored up or clogged up. He expressed it.
He communicated it. He said to God and his friends, I'm full of sorrow. I'm troubled. I'm overwhelmed to the point of death.
I need you. And that's also a beautiful thing in this story. Jesus expresses his needs to his friends down in verse 40. Jesus returns to his disciples.
He finds them sleeping. He says, couldn't you keep watching with me for one hour? He expresses his need. He communicates to his friends how much he needs them when he is pressed.
When he is experiencing sorrow, he wants them to be there with him. And then in verse 39, we're going back up the famous prayer. He says, Father, if it's possible, may this cup be taken from me. And I love the tenderness and the vulnerability of Jesus and amidst the pressing at this point.
It's such an incredible invitation to you and to me in our pressing God. Is there any other way? Is there any other way to avoid this? Is there any other way to get around this?
Oh, God, is there any other way to escape out the back door? God, is there any other way to avoid this pressing? I don't want to drink this cup. Is there any other way?
And then Jesus says, yet, it's not about my will, but about your will. In other words, I trust you. If I'm being pressed spiritually, physically, emotionally, spiritually, if I need to walk through this, I trust that not only are you good, but you have my very best in mind. And I don't know if there is anywhere in the entire story of scripture where we see a better model of what it looks like when we are pressed, when we are in a corner against the rope, out of energy, out of options.
Jesus goes to his Father to be real. He goes to his friends to express the feeling, the sorrow, the heaviness. He asks God if there is any other way. He tells his friends that he needs them.
And he says to his Father, I trust you. I trust you. I trust you. And then he goes and he faces the ultimate pressing.
And so what I know about my life and what I know about your life this morning is that we are being pressed. And the truth is we can never avoid Gethsemane. We can never avoid the pressing. We can never avoid the heaviness that comes spiritually, emotionally, and physically in our lives.
We have no control over that, but by the power of the Spirit we do have control over what we do in those seasons, those moments, those times where we are pressed. And so could we just reflect on this story this morning, read it through, enjoy the presence of Jesus, bring to our heart and our mind that place where we are most pressed. And let's just say something like, Father, not my will, but your will be done. We'll talk soon.
Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today. If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store. And check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram, or even check out our website at inlandvignard.org.