Dangerous Prayers | Mark 14:32-42| February 15, 2015
By Dr. Steven Bezner. Part 4 in the series “House Of Prayer.”

Introduction

Good Morning. If you have your Bible, I want to invite you to take it out with me at this time and turn to Mark chapter 14. We’re going to be in verse 32 and following. We are finishing up our series on prayer, as I’ve already mentioned. Today we’re going to look at those prayers that you pray when your back is against the wall. If you want to find those kinds of prayers in our church, you go through the prayer requests that come into the offering basket. People that are looking for prayer will go and find any place to find someone to pray for them. I’m always moved whenever I read through the prayer requests that come into our offering basket each week. There are people who are desperate; they are needing prayer. They are asking the Church to intercede on their behalf. That’s the thing that I want us to think about today. What do you pray when your back is against the wall? Here’s the truth: If you want to know what your theology is… if you want to know what you truly, honestly believe about God… listen to the things that you pray and look into your heart and see the things that you feel and believe when you have nowhere else to turn, and you will clearly understand the picture of God you possess in your mind.

1. We can be honest in the bad. (v. 34)

In 2010, one of my friends (her name was Beth) gave me a call. Beth and I grew up together. We were on the cradle roll together at church. We had gone to the same high school and the same youth group at church. We ended up actually going to the same university. We ended up serving at the same church together for ten years… she was the children’s pastor and I was the associate pastor at this church. We had been together basically for the majority of our lives. She and her husband and two children lived one block over from me and Joy and from the boys. I had known her my entire life. She called me and she said, “Steve… I have pancreatic cancer.” What do you pray when you get that phone call? What do you pray when it feels as if you have no option? There’s nothing good that can come of whatever situation you are in… that you are powerless. What is it that you pray? I think that we have to know this because this is the question that people ask. They say, “Steve, I believe that prayer is powerful and I want to pray, but I feel like sometimes the prayers that I need to pray are a little too big. How do I pray?”

Let’s start in verse 34… actually, let’s read the whole thing first… 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 further, He fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, ‘Abba, 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 He said to Peter, ’Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ And again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer Him. And He came the third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come.’”

I think the first thing that I notice whenever I read this passage, this fourth prayer from the Gospel of Mark that Jesus prayed, is there in verse 34.“He said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.’” Jesus is honest right up front. He says, “I’m depressed; I’m sad. What’s about to happen I don’t like. I don’t want to do this.” I don’t know about you, but then actually, if I think about it, it kind of catches me off guard. I think, “This is Jesus. He’s the Son of God. He should probably have a little more positive attitude in this moment.” …But actually, no. He is being completely and brutally honest. He’s coming before God, saying precisely what is on His mind. He says, “This is what I think right now. I don’t want to do this; I’m sad… I’m sorrowful… even to the point of death.” If Jesus can do that, I think it’s actually comforting for us that we can be honest in our prayers in the bad. Whenever you have something bad going on… I know the temptation actually is to not really be all that honest. I know what you’re probably thinking. “Well, Jesus is God’s Son, so He’s probably allowed to be a little more honest. He can probably be a little more frank.” I mean, my kids, even though I don’t like it, sometimes they’ll say things to me I wish they wouldn’t say, so if you’re the Son of God, you can probably get away with some of those things. But Scripture says, “You and I are sons and daughters…” If we’re sons and daughters, that means that we can speak to the Father in the same way that a child speaks to his earthly father. We can be completely transparent… completely honest. You can be honest in your prayer. I don’t know how else to put this… but you can complain. I know what you’re saying, “I can complain?” Yes. Have you read the Psalms? Wow. (Laughter) I mean… David: “How long, O Lord?” He says it over and over and over. “How long? My tears are my food day and night.” It sounds like David was a blast to hang out with sometimes. Right? But you know, you do; You have these prayers that are exultant… that are celebratory… that are thanksgiving prayers. They are enthronement Psalms, but then you have these dirges… these funeral marches… these laments, and they sound terrible and yet here they are, written in this Book. Why? …Because you can be completely honest with God. You know, we don’t typically read those in service. You know, come in here and read those sad prayers because everybody wants a little bit of a pick-me-up. I understand that, but they’re still here. You can be completely honest with your God.

You know, J.I. Packer, the famous theologian, says that there is no way around it. Whenever David was praying like this, he simply put his complaining. Now I don’t know about you, but I was always taught by my parents to never complain. Did anybody else’s parents ever tell them to not complain? (Laughing) I got an “Amen” out there. That’s right. “You don’t complain.” I said that to my kids maybe yesterday. I mean, I’m just saying. Right? “If you don’t like what we’re doing… too bad. Get over it. This is the way that things are going. I don’t care about your complaints.” To make it even worse, Philippians 2:14, the same thing. Paul says,”Do everything without grumbling or complaining.” So you start to think, “Am I really allowed to complain?” Paul told me not to complain. Who is Paul talking about? He’s saying, “Don’t complain… to who?” “Other people.” Don’t go take all of your complaints... You know why that is, right? Whenever you’re complaining to other people, you basically are looking for one of two outcomes. Right? Number One: “If I complain, maybe they’ll give me my way. I don’t want to make my bed. I don’t want to clean the bathroom. I don’t want to go to work today.” “Okay, you don’t have to.” Yeah. Right? Number Two: I go to someone and I say, “Doesn’t it stink that we have to work in such an environment like this?” And they say, “That’s right; it does stink.” And you say, “Alright; I’ve got somebody else who agrees with me.” Basically you’re looking for one of two outcomes: either to get your own way or to have someone who commiserates with you. Neither one of those, if we’re really honest, is all that productive… because if I’m complaining in a way where I don’t get my way, typically that’s selfish behavior, and if I’m going to find other people who will look at me in that way and to kind of rebel against the system… typically nothing good comes out of that either. Occasionally there are exceptions but typically, whenever I’m complaining, the spirit within my heart is not a good thing. That is different than complaining to the Lord. Complaining to the Lord is not the same because God already knows what you think anyway. He already knows what you feel. Many of us though come before the Lord and we think, “Well, I’m really mad at God right now, but, you know, I’m going to kind of tone it down a little bit… kind of rein it in. So, Lord… You know I’m a little disappointed, but You are God, so if You could just kind of see things my way… maybe… if it’s not too much of a bother… (Laughter) …and You could work that out for me, I’d really appreciate that.

You see, many of us come before the Lord and we have this idea that “I have to have good manners whenever it’s time to pray because if I don’t have good manners when it’s time to pray, then God may not hear my prayer and He may actually reject me.” We believe, subtly, that “if I have had the right heart attitude when I come into prayer, or if I have the right words that come out of my mouth, then God will receive me.” Yeah… that’s not in this Book.

Here’s the other thing. Did you know this? Did you know that if God only answered the prayers of those who use the right words and had the right motives whenever they pray, God would never answer any prayers because we are terrible people. We have mixed motives every time we pray. We are always attempting to be evil in some pocket of our heart. We cannot help it. We have iniquity running through our veins. Nevertheless, God answers our prayers anyway. If you ever attempt to manipulate the Lord through your prayers, that’s really a subtle form of legalism because you believe, “If I act in a certain way, then God will answer my prayers and therefore God likes me more.” No. God answers your prayers because He’s gracious… because He’s God. He just chooses to answer your prayers. You don’t have to mind your P’s and Q’s whenever you come in and you talk to the Lord. You can completely be honest.

You know those people in your life that whenever you say, “Hey, it looks like something is wrong; is everything okay?” You know those people that they say, “Yeah, I’m good; everything’s fine.” And you know that they’re lying to you right then; you know those people. Right? Those people, in that moment, you think, “If they don’t tell me what’s happening, we’re in relational dis-ease; we’re in a bad spot.” So what do you do? You go, “No, seriously… what’s going on? I want to know. Come on. Tell me. Tell me.” And you do it until finally they break down and they tell you because when they tell you then it shows you, “Okay, our relationship is healthy enough to withstand whatever is going on, and we’re going to work through this issue together. Sometimes there may be a giant fight that comes afterwards, but we’re still going to work through this. Right? That’s the reason that you do that. The Lord made you; He knows you. Don’t treat Him like, “Well, you know, if I’m just kind of quiet, then we’ll work it out.” No. Because do you know what’s happening? You not speaking the thing that’s within your heart, all that does is hurt you. …Because actually, whenever I’m transparent before the Lord, do you know what happens? It happens that I actually begin to learn more about my God because I learn that I can say whatever is going on within my mind and within my heart and God still receives me. God still wants to hear the prayer that you pray. God still wants you to know that when you complain, when you rale at Him, you are allowed to because it teaches you about who He is… that He is a God who honors even those who feel that they’ve been betrayed… that they’ve been hurt.

In 2010, Joy and I moved to plant a church. We had to sell our house. We had no financial means and so it was essential that we sell this house to be able to plant the church. So we started praying, “Lord, bring us someone to buy our house.” We put a sign in the yard. The next day, this guy shows up. “I want to buy your house.” We say, “Okay. This is kind of what we’re looking for.” He says, “I’m going to give you more than that.” Wow. He said, “…and I’m going to pay you cash.” Boom! Do you know what we did? We ran around… we started telling everybody that we knew. “Jesus rules!” You know, I mean, we were like, “Man, let me tell you what God did; this is incredible. He’s answering this prayer.” …All this kind of stuff. We were like, “Yeah, Yeah.” It was awesome! It came time to close; it was two days away from closing. We had to move out so we got a couple of buddies over there. We got the moving truck; we’re loading everything into the truck. We were talking, “This is incredible. God is just going before us. It’s amazing.” We told everybody how God was so good and how He blessed us. I remember it was raining; it was actually sleeting a little bit. It was really, really cold. I pulled the door down on the truck, threw the latch over, put on the padlock, went inside. Only one thing was still unpacked. It was the coffee pot because it was cold and we were going to drink a cup of coffee. Joy was making a pot of coffee. She poured me a mug of coffee. I grabbed it and put my hands on it. I was getting warmed it. I said, “Lord, You are so good.” I was pulling it to my mouth when my phone rang. I answered the phone, “Hello…” It was my realtor. He told me the guy had backed out of the deal. That’s what I said. (Laughter) Actually what I said was, “What do you mean, ‘He backed out’?” “That’s it; it’s over.” I had some good prayer time with the Lord that night… (Laughter) I want you to know, I was explicitly honest about the things that were taking place within my heart. I told Him, “We look foolish, God. In fact, You look foolish because I told them that You answered this prayer and now You’re pulling it back off the table. This is not a productive way to move Your Kingdom forward.” (Laughter) “Why are you doing it?”I mean, I was going after it. I really let Him know what I was thinking. I wished that I could stand here before you today and then say, “And then this fairytale ending happened.” No; it didn’t. It stunk. It took us another three months to sell our house. We got less money than was initially offered. I was mad.

Some of you are sitting there going, “Well, Steve, that’s nothing. I’ve got way bigger things that have happened to me than that. …Times that I have raled against the Lord.” What I want you to hear today is, “It’s okay.” You can be completely honest with God. He is big enough to handle it. You will not knock Him off His throne because of your words.

2. Because we trust in our God. (v. 36)

Now… whenever you come, you come as a child. You say, “I don’t understand; I don’t like this. This stinks. Why would You do it this way?” All of those things that you do, you can say them completely and totally honestly.

Now you may say, “Steve, how can you just run past that? I mean, that seems like such a cavalier attitude.” In verse 36: (This is probably the most famous sentence in this entire passage)“He said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me.” Jesus prays, “I don’t want to do this. Take this away, Lord.” But then He adds a sentence: “Yet not what I will, but what You will.” “Lord, not the thing that I want but instead what You want.” What is God’s will?

You know, most of the time whenever we talk about God’s will, we’re really saying, “What’s God’s will for my life?” Right? Did you know that right now I can tell you explicitly what God’s will for you is? Number One: If you’re not a believer, God’s will is that you would turn to Jesus Christ in faith. Number Two: If you are a believer, go make disciples of Jesus Christ who make disciples. That’s God’s will for you. I know that. I read it. That is absolutely, unequivocally true. That’s not what we mean though, is it? What’s God’s will for my life? Should I move? Should I take a job? Should I have pepperoni pizza for lunch? These are the questions that we ask ourselves and we ask the Lord. Most of the time what we really mean is not “What it is God’s will for my life?” But what we really mean is, “God, will You bless the will that I have for my life?” That’s what we really mean. We’re actually being selfish in our prayers most of the time. Whenever we start talking about God’s will, it’s expressly clear here in Scripture, Jesus Christ prays in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew chapter 6, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” That is a repetitive sentence. It is a reflection. It is a poetry use that’s used a lot of times in Hebrew poetry called a chiasm. It’s this idea that you repeat something. “Thy will be done, Thy Kingdom come.” Those two things are synonymous. “Thy will be done, Thy Kingdom come… on earth as it is in heaven.” In other words, what is God’s will? …That this earth looks a little more like heaven tomorrow than it does today. That is His will. How does that happen? Right here. This is how it happens. You are the plan, and that is God’s will. That is what God wants. Jesus is praying saying, “Lord, I want Your Kingdom to move forward on this planet, but if You could do that in such a way that does not require My life to be laid down… let’s do that instead.” And that is Jesus’ prayer. We can localize that prayer for us. “On earth, as it is in heaven…” can be “In Houston, as it is in heaven.” That is what Jesus wanted. Let me ask you a question. What would happen if we began to pray in such a way that we valued the Kingdom bigger than our own plans?