Church of the Nazarene Harrisonburg

Gethsemane Gathering

“Stay awake with me and pray”

Today we are going to have what we call a Gethsemane Gathering.

You may recognize the name Gethsemane from the gospels as it is the name of the garden where Jesus went to pray.

Let’s dive into the story in Matthew 26

Matthew 26:36-41

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to pray with him. Hours before his crucifixion, Jesus is pouring his heart out to the father, and he doesn’t want to do it alone. He wanted his closest friends to pray with him, to keep watch.

Jesus is pouring his heart out in prayer and he returns to find his 3 closest friends are taking a nap. Arguably when he needed them the most, they missed the opportunity.

Jesus goes away a second time, wrestling, pouring his heart out in prayer. As he finishes praying he comes back a second time to check on his friends, and they are fast asleep. again. This time, he doesn’t even wake them up. Jesus just goes back to pray on his own. A foreshadowing of what was in the hours ahead. That’s the story of the Garden.

Today our goal is to symbolically give back that one hour that the disciples missed that night in prayer.

We are going to spend our time together today in prayer and worship. We will focus on 7 different areas in prayer while the band leads us in worship throughout the service.

Our first area of focus is Souls

Father,

For the one, for the many, I pray.

None are lost to You, for You know just where each soul You created has wandered.

Let me be to those who don’t know You a voice of hope, a peace-filled presence, and an example of the transformation You can make in a surrendered life.

So that they each and all might come to know You. Amen.

Opportunities

Father,

Open my eyes that I may see the opportunities You place in front of me.

Let no conversation, no interaction, no path crossed be wasted.

I give You each coincidence and happenstance and invite You to give meaning to each moment of my life, so that I may be a part of Your movement all around me. Amen.

Petitions

Father,

I don’t know how to ask it.

I don’t know what to say.

Tam without words.

But You know. You know my heart, my mind and my needs better than I know myself.

So I trust You and give myself over to Your way. Amen.

Relationships

Father,

Where they are wrong, give me the grace and humility to forgive.

Where I am wrong, give me the grace and humility to apologize.

Where others are at odds, help me broker peace.

Where I am at odds, help me accept counsel.

Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do. Amen

Adoration

You are more than all I could ever hope for.

You are perfect and holy, above all others.

You give such good gifts and yet without a single gift given, I am richly blessed with You alone.

When I was all that is undeserving, You gave everything I could never deserve.

Father.

Abba.

Lord.

Yes/Yield

Father,

You have my yes.

Yes to whatever, to wherever, to whenever, to however.

Yes, to all of You. Amen.

https://www.bible.com/events/49341785

Church of the Nazarene East Rockingham Campus

Gethsemane Gathering

“Stay awake with me and pray”

Today we are going to have what we call a Gethsemane Gathering.

You may recognize the name Gethsemane from the gospels as it is the name of the garden where Jesus went to pray.

Let’s dive into the story in Matthew 26

Matthew 26:36-41

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to pray with him. Hours before his crucifixion, Jesus is pouring his heart out to the father, and he doesn’t want to do it alone. He wanted his closest friends to pray with him, to keep watch.

Jesus is pouring his heart out in prayer and he returns to find his 3 closest friends are taking a nap. Arguably when he needed them the most, they missed the opportunity.

Jesus goes away a second time, wrestling, pouring his heart out in prayer. As he finishes praying he comes back a second time to check on his friends, and they are fast asleep. again. This time, he doesn’t even wake them up. Jesus just goes back to pray on his own. A foreshadowing of what was in the hours ahead. That’s the story of the Garden.

Today our goal is to symbolically give back that one hour that the disciples missed that night in prayer.

We are going to spend our time together today in prayer and worship. We will focus on 7 different areas in prayer while the band leads us in worship throughout the service.

Our first area of focus is Souls

Father,

For the one, for the many, I pray.

None are lost to You, for You know just where each soul You created has wandered.

Let me be to those who don’t know You a voice of hope, a peace-filled presence, and an example of the transformation You can make in a surrendered life.

So that they each and all might come to know You. Amen.

Opportunities

Father,

Open my eyes that I may see the opportunities You place in front of me.

Let no conversation, no interaction, no path crossed be wasted.

I give You each coincidence and happenstance and invite You to give meaning to each moment of my life, so that I may be a part of Your movement all around me. Amen.

Petitions

Father,

I don’t know how to ask it.

I don’t know what to say.

Tam without words.

But You know. You know my heart, my mind and my needs better than I know myself.

So I trust You and give myself over to Your way. Amen.

Relationships

Father,

Where they are wrong, give me the grace and humility to forgive.

Where I am wrong, give me the grace and humility to apologize.

Where others are at odds, help me broker peace.

Where I am at odds, help me accept counsel.

Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do. Amen

Adoration

You are more than all I could ever hope for.

You are perfect and holy, above all others.

You give such good gifts and yet without a single gift given, I am richly blessed with You alone.

When I was all that is undeserving, You gave everything I could never deserve.

Father.

Abba.

Lord.

Yes/Yield

Father,

You have my yes.

Yes to whatever, to wherever, to whenever, to however.

Yes to all of You. Amen.

https://www.bible.com/events/49338349

Church of the Nazarene East Rockingham Campus

Joshua: Part 7 East Rock

“Hold fast to the Lord”

We are continuing in Part 7 of our teaching series through the book of Joshua.

Within the story of Joshua we read of the people of God encountering real obstacles to living out their faith in the Lord. Flooded rivers, fortified cities, and giant armies. real things that would cause any normal person to fear.

But what we see is that in the face of these challenges, is the power of God’s presence and his continued faithfulness to his people. That’s the story of Joshua, and that’s our story today.

Real challenges met with the real and true faithfulness of God.

Today we are in Joshua chapter 23 looking at the farewell address of a very old Joshua.

Joshua 23:1-2

After a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man, summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials—and said to them: “I am very old.

The battles are done for now and the people of God have rest. After 20-25 years they are finally getting to peacefully enjoy God’s gift to them of the promised land.

Joshua appears here as a very old man, gathering the leaders of Israel together to share his heart with them. These parting instructions are critical for future success of the people of God.

Joshua 23:3-5

You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you. Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the Lord your God promised you.

Joshua begins by remembering and reflecting on all that God had done for the Israelites in fulfilling his promise to his people.

While they did have rest in the land at this time, but there was still more territory for them to take possession of. Canaanites, the enemy nations, were still living in some farther regions of the promised land.

But they were not to worry- God would fight for them, just like he had before. God was faithful then, he’s faithful now, he will be faithful in the future.

All the people needed to do was remain faithful to Him- That’s what Joshua says next

Joshua 23:6-11

“Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now. “The Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. So be very careful to love the Lord your God.

Rather than associating with the other nations, the people of God are to hold fast to the Lord.

To hold fast to the Lord can carry the idea of two objects being glued or welded together. Relationally It speaks of loyalty and fidelity. It means to stay close, embrace, to hold on.

That’s the way Joshua is encouraging his people to be with their heavenly father.

The people of God had seen the blessing of embracing the Lord.

He gave them life and identity as his children. He brought them into this land over incredible odds, and even their own mistakes. God had fought for them, he had driven out powerful armies from their path.

He gave them power to do impossible things. One person routing a thousand. This is the picture of life holding onto God.

When you are superglued to the Lord, there is no enemy that can stand.

Joshua 23:12-13

“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.

This is quite the contrast from life in relationship to the Lord.

Rather than the promise of God’s presence, his power, his plan for their lives, if his people turned away from him, they could be sure that it would not go well.

Listen to what Joshua says. If you turn away from the Lord, if you don’t cling to him and you go and embrace the ways of the foreign nations, the ways of the world.

They will become a snare for you.

This carries the idea of being entangled, confined, controlled, held captive by circumstances. Deceived.

It will be a trap-

Literally you will take the bait and be trapped. Stuck. Caught in their grasp.

They will be a whip on your back-This imagery is of scourging, like Jesus and Paul received.

They will be a thorn in your eye. A simple eyelash in your eye is enough to stop you in your tracks. Imagine a thorn.

This misery would be their path until they perished form the land God had given them..

All that God had done for them in giving them their land, all he miracles we have studied so far, they would forfeit, they would lose, if they chose to forsake the Lord.

Think of the enormous tragedy in that statement.

And it was their choice, Joshua loved them enough to warn them in his final words.

If you follow the story of God’s people after the book of Joshua, you wont get far until you see them making the very choice that Joshua warned them about.

They began to intermarry with the people who were still in the land. They picked up their values, took on their morals, and began to worship their gods.

And they were trapped, enslaved, beaten, suffered immensely, until finally a few hundred years after Joshua, they were completely removed from their land by the Babylonian empire. Just like Joshua said it would be.

They became glued and attached to the world, rather than embracing and clinging to the Lord and it cost them everything.

In verse 8 Joshua told the people to hold fast to the Lord.That whole idea of loyalty, embracing, sticking fast, literally being glued to the Lord.

That is the same word and the same idea in verse 12 when he warns them not be allied to the world. Don’t be glued to the world, to the neighboring nations.

The simplicity and clarity of this is striking. Joshua doesn’t mix any words, doesn’t sugar coat the truth. He says “you have a choice; you can embrace the Lord, being loyal to him and find life or you can embrace the world, be loyal to its values, and find misery and death.

Friends, as striking and tragic as that warning was for the people in Joshua’s day- it’s every bit as true for us today.

As Christians, we have a great inheritance of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and God’s presence living within us and going before us. But if we turn away from that, if we choose to embrace the world, we will set our lives on a course of misery leading to destruction. We become trapped, snared, beat down, miserable, on a pathway of destruction.

So i would ask you today, what are you “glued to”? What we give our lives to, what we embrace in this world is not a matter of opinion and preference, it’s literally a matter of eternal life or death.