Forrest: Heavenly Father, we're in this place right now and we're giving you worship and we're giving you praise and we're lifting you high, Father, even though that there is hardship and there's pain and heaviness and maybe even tragedy.
Forrest: It's right outside of the door today.
Forrest: God, I pray right now, Lord, that you would meet us in this place.
Forrest: God, I pray right now, God, that you would strengthen us.
Forrest: That God, the ones that come into the doors today that are strong, that God, today they would be made stronger by the power of your word.
Forrest: The ones that walk through the door today, God, in a life that has been decimated in the middle of hardship.
Forrest: God, I pray, Lord, that this would be a place where they would be found, loved, changed, and held by your grace.
Forrest: So, Father, right now we intercede on behalf of our city, as floodlot waters rise.
Forrest: God, we pray right now, Lord, that you would have your church, your body, be a display of your love, your grace, God, your steady right hand.
Forrest: So, Father, as we learn from your word today, God open our minds, change us, ready us.
Forrest: In the strong name of Jesus, everybody said, Amen.
Forrest: As you grab your seats, we're jumping into week two of this series, and I just need to be honest with you guys that I um my heart has been heavy since Friday morning.
Forrest: Getting a phone call from some of our school administrators about uh the elementary age boy Gabe, who lost his life on Friday to the flood waters.
Forrest: Actually, Gabe went to Hearn Elementary, which we have several teachers and administrators who are part of our church who are at Hearn.
Forrest: And uh I got to speak with uh uh principal Miss Megan Barton, as she was had to talk to her last night and try to encourage her in the midst of there's just no playbook for that, but to be able to be a place of refuge and of strength for a school and for students and even some that are here today who are thinking about that, and then now with flood waters rising, it's it it just has felt heavy.
Forrest: And I don't know if you felt that way as well, but I'm grateful to have a savior who knows what it's like to feel the heaviness and the weight of things and to walk through tragedy, and today we're gonna take a look at specifically that in the second message of blood, sweat, and tears that is titled Freely Given, one of the lyrics that we just sang a few minutes ago, and reflecting on the fact that Jesus gave his everything for us.
Forrest: And when you give your blood, sweat, and tears, that's exactly what it means.
Forrest: You leave it all out there, you poured all of yourself into something.
Forrest: But I wonder in our life of faith, what do we do when the cost of our faith or our obedience?
Forrest: It costs more than you thought it would.
Forrest: Maybe there was a time in your life where you voluntarily did something out of faith.
Forrest: Maybe it was something kind that you did for somebody else that was a sacrifice, or maybe a ministry moment, or an adoption story, or a financial sacrifice that you made, or something that you stepped into some type of pain, and you're walking in the tension of what that looks like for you to pour out and to do it by your own choice.
Forrest: That's what we're gonna look at today as we look at this moment in Jesus' life where he was in this place called the Garden of Gethsemane.
Forrest: Now, this is a real place.
Forrest: This is a place that I've been to before a few years ago.
Forrest: When I got to go to the Holy Land, there's this garden that has all these olive trees, and there's they look like they're ancient and twisted and mangled, and they have uh the olives that are there, and there's a press because the the Hebrew word Gethsemane means a press or oil press, a crushing, a weight, a pressure.
Forrest: And it's in that garden where Jesus made the greatest surrender in all of history, where he was pressed, this place where olives are pressed into oil, and Jesus was pressed as well.
Forrest: We're gonna take a look at this scene from the garden.
Forrest: And even presently today in the garden next to it, there's this basilica called the Basilica of Agony that is intentionally dark inside.
Forrest: And it just kind of shows the scene of Jesus in prayer in the garden.
Forrest: There's a stone there that traditionally Jesus was at as he prayed and as he sweat and as he poured out to God.
Forrest: And I think about my life, and maybe you felt this way too, with the backdrop of what Jesus has done for us and the agony and the pain that we know in the story of the Passion of Easter, many times we're okay with our faith as long as it's comfortable.
Forrest: When we get asked to surrender, though, it can feel scary.
Forrest: It can feel scary, maybe even if that surrender may even lead to some suffering.
Forrest: See, oftentimes we want God's will as long as it aligns with ours.
Forrest: And there's this internal resistance that we have to fully trust what God has for us in his plan.
Forrest: But what if the path that God has you on for peace and purpose requires some pain as well?
Forrest: What if the healing that God's doing in your life, well, it's predicated by wounds?
Forrest: See, we say that we want God's will, but I think that most of the days what we truly want is comfort.
Forrest: Which is an aspect of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is our comforter and comes to us in our times of trouble.
Forrest: But we're gonna see what Jesus said in this moment where he was willing to say, God, not my will, but your will be done.
Forrest: Because Jesus is here in the garden on the night that he's arrested, and he begins to pray and ask for God to intervene, if there's any way that this can happen, for God to remove it.
Forrest: In this beautiful moment of surrender that we're going to learn from today.
Forrest: This is in Luke chapter 22, starting in verse 39.
Forrest: Here's the story.
Forrest: And he came out and he went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives.
Forrest: And the disciples followed him.
Forrest: And when he came to that place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation.
Forrest: And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.
Forrest: Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
Forrest: And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
Forrest: And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Forrest: And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, Why are you sleeping?
Forrest: Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.
Forrest: While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and a man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them, and he drew near to Jesus to kiss him.
Forrest: And Jesus said to him, Judas, would you portray the Son of Man with a kiss?
Forrest: Jesus, in a moment of preparation of what he knew was about to befall him on the cross, he takes time to go and to pray to the Lord and ask for God if there's any other way that this mission can be accomplished, would you do it, God?
Forrest: And in agony and in pain and sweating, he surrenders.
Forrest: It reminds me of what he said in John chapter 10, verse 18, where he said, No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
Forrest: Jesus wasn't a victim.
Forrest: He gave his life voluntarily.
Forrest: See, he had freely given to God his obedience so that God could do something on a cosmic scale for the salvation of the world.
Forrest: And he said yes.
Forrest: And oftentimes for me, I know I want to say yes to God until it hurts.
Forrest: Maybe you're in that place where you feel the press of obedience and you're just kind of wishing for an easier way out.
Forrest: And you're wanting control more than you're wanting surrender.
Forrest: And what will help each one of us is if daily we follow Jesus' example in the truth that we would choose God's will over your wants.
Forrest: Choosing his will over what our desires are.
Forrest: But the world will tell you, hey, just figure it out yourself.
Forrest: You you got this.
Forrest: Just follow your gut.
Forrest: Do what feels right.
Forrest: Surrender doesn't always feel good, but it always leads to good.
Forrest: And Jesus, he surrenders with sweat dropping from his brow to supply to us what's freely given, but not free.
Forrest: See, Jesus' surrender and his sacrifice for us, it was freely given, but it wasn't cheap.
Forrest: It was freely given, but that doesn't mean it didn't cost anything.
Forrest: It was freely given to us, but it wasn't free.
Forrest: And so maybe that looks like for you that you need to in the morning start to pray to God, not my will but yours be done today, God.
Forrest: Maybe there's an area of your life where you're resisting to follow God's leading and be obedient, and you need to release it to Him in prayer.
Forrest: See, this night, Jesus' prayer happens, and it comes right after what we talked about last Sunday, as Jesus was in the upper room.
Forrest: And during that time in the upper room, and they had they celebrated the Passover meal.
Forrest: And at some point in the evening, Jesus grabbed a towel and some water and a basin, and he began to wash his disciples' feet, including Judas, who was about to betray him.
Forrest: And Jesus praised this incredible prayer for the church and for its unity that would still be a prayer that would be coming to fruition 2,000 years later with us right now.
Forrest: And he takes the bread and he takes the cup and he tells them that this is the cup of the covenant of my blood poured out for you.
Forrest: This is my body.
Forrest: This bread is my body broken for you.
Forrest: Do this in remembrance of me.
Forrest: And we're still doing this and remembering what he did for us now, 2,000 years later.
Forrest: The communion that we have with God, the cup and the bread.
Forrest: And Jesus in the garden, he's praying, God, if there's any way that you could remove this cup, would you do it?
Forrest: Not my will, but yours be done.
Forrest: And so it begs us to ask the question: what was in the cup?
Forrest: What was in that cup?
Forrest: Was it Jesus?
Forrest: Was he afraid physically?
Forrest: Obviously, he was in Israel and he grew up in Israel.
Forrest: He'd seen crucifixions before.
Forrest: He knew was was about to take place and what he was going to endure.
Forrest: Jesus asking for it to be removed of betrayal.
Forrest: His friend, who he'd poured his life into, was about ready to sell him out.
Forrest: That he would go to his death.
Forrest: What was in the cup?
Forrest: What needed to be passed or removed?
Forrest: What was Jesus asking for?
Forrest: We have some clues from the Old Testament and from the New Testament.
Forrest: At the very end of the book in Revelation, as judgment is being poured out on the earth, the angels that are pouring out this judgment.
Forrest: In Revelation 14, we see this picture of the angel that is enacting God's judgment.
Forrest: And in verse 19, we see the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Forrest: And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and the blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle for 1600 stadia.
Forrest: Jesus.
Forrest: This was to come.
Forrest: This was a part of the plan.
Forrest: God's justice was not just going to be overlooked, but instead it was going to be poured out and it was going to be satisfied.
Forrest: And Jesus said to us, I'll drink this cup so that you don't have to.
Forrest: Freely given, but not free.
Forrest: Jesus takes on the wrath and judgment that was intended to burn against sin.
Forrest: Those who are outside of God's salvation, outside of his seal, Jesus willingly drank the cup of God's wrath.
Forrest: And one of the bloodiest times in American history.
Forrest: Union soldiers who were fighting for a number of reasons, not least for the abolishment of slavery, the institution of slavery in America.
Forrest: They sang this song that we're still familiar with today, called the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Forrest: As they would go into war, into battle.
Forrest: And you've probably heard this at one time or another, but some of the lyrics go, Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Forrest: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
Forrest: Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Forrest: His truth is marching on.
Forrest: Choosing to follow God.
Forrest: And maybe you find yourself in here today, and there's some level of obedience, something that you've been avoiding that may even cause you some pain, and you must be thinking, like, oh, well, if it causes any pain, well then God's not in it.
Forrest: Well, if it hurts, then it can't possibly be God.
Forrest: But we see in this decision and choice of Jesus, for him to say, Not my will, but yours be done.
Forrest: And he gave us his life.
Forrest: And so he's asking for you to give him yours in return.
Forrest: That's the truth.
Forrest: Jesus gave his life so that you will give yours to him.
Forrest: See, pain doesn't mean that you're somehow off track.
Forrest: It may actually mean that you're right where God is molding you and where he's helping you to become the person that he's made you to be.
Forrest: What does that mean?
Forrest: Well, that means that some of us may need to take the step to forgive that person, finally forgive that person who hurt you.
Forrest: To step into it.
Forrest: Maybe that means that some of you need to stop putting off the thing that God has told you that you already should have done.
Forrest: The thing that He's already placed into your heart.
Forrest: He's already told you.
Forrest: And stop holding back and waiting and kicking the can down the field.
Forrest: And maybe that looks like for some of us that we need to wake up in the morning and we need to just say out loud, your will over mine.
Forrest: But the world's gonna tell us, like, can you just like chill out about this Jesus stuff?
Forrest: Is it really like that serious?
Forrest: Like, there's a lot of religions out there, there's a lot like chill out.
Forrest: I remember when I was growing up, there was a youth leader in the youth ministry that I looked up to a lot, and he was heading to be a pastor and was in seminary school and was super encouraging to me.
Forrest: And a few years later, my mid-20s, after God had called me to ministry, and I met up with him, and at that point he had uh left the ministry call and left church, and I was just asking, like, man, like what what happened?
Forrest: What why what what's going on?
Forrest: Like, what in the world went on?
Forrest: And and he looked at me, he said, you'll figure it out when you get older.
Forrest: Like there's like just kind of this inevitability of life that like the fervor that you once had for Christ that you know, like as you get older, well, you know, you see some things, you go through some things, you know, just sit chill out.
Forrest: Well, now I'm a lot older, and I still don't understand them.
Forrest: I still don't understand the thought of like, well, you know, just chill out.
Forrest: Because Jesus is the one who went to the cross and bore on the pain and bored, I'm gonna sin, and bored on the shit and some of them, give it to them, it's gonna be crossing them and for me.
Forrest: And then the people who And complain about trivial things when it comes to church and church life.
Forrest: These are people who don't love anybody who's lost.
Forrest: They've never known or don't love a prodigal.
Forrest: When you actually care and love about people who don't know Jesus, you don't worry about these minute details and conflicts.
Forrest: You're worried about if they're gonna walk through these doors on a Sunday and if God's gonna meet them, and I want to see a environment created in this place where somebody can come to know the saving knowledge of Jesus.
Forrest: They never loved the prodigal, they never had somebody in their life that you're just they're just waiting for them to walk through these doors.
Forrest: Jesus, gave us this cup of grace that we get to follow as it's poured out of grace to us that we let it flow to others.
Forrest: And only by him surrendering his will can we carry his will for our lives.
Forrest: Freely given, but not free.
Forrest: You're worried about something.
Forrest: Something that maybe in the tragedies and things that we're we're just bracing for what's happening with our city right now, and you're you're you're worried and you're wondering, and you're sweating, thinking about it.
Forrest: Jesus knows right where you are.
Forrest: Because later in the story, we see that Peter, as he's denying Jesus, he's standing around a campfire.
Forrest: It was not warm that night, it was cold, and Jesus was still sweating.
Forrest: He was sweating under the agony that he knew what was about to happen and the tragedy that was going to be right in front of him.
Forrest: And he carried the will of God into it even still.
Forrest: And maybe some of you're like sweating it out right now.
Forrest: And I want to ask you that you may be sweating it out in your faith, and there may be in the midst of this something that God is forming in you.
Forrest: He's changing in you, he's helping you to become more like his son, Jesus.
Forrest: Wanting you to trust in him and be obedient to him, even when it's difficult or challenging or hard.
Forrest: Jesus has said, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
Forrest: And there's so many times in my life where I want to be free without letting go.
Forrest: Like I want I want to feel free, I want to do all the things that God has for me, but I'm not willing to let go of what I need to let go to.
Forrest: Instead, I'm holding on to what God has called me to lay down.
Forrest: And maybe for some of you today, that is what God is literally waiting on you to do is to release what you're holding on to and lay it down for Him.
Forrest: Just as Jesus was willing to say, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done, God.
Forrest: And he spoke it out.
Forrest: He said it to the Lord.
Forrest: And we learn in this that our surrender to God, it's not something that's secret, it's not something that's hidden, it's not silent.
Forrest: Our surrender is something that we speak out and as we surrender to God and we receive what he's given to us.
Forrest: We learned last week that the receiving of his grace, this isn't something that we just take as a gift and then we put it up on the shelf.
Forrest: Or we open it, we take it as a gift, but then we never open it.
Forrest: But the receiving is actually that you receive the gift and then you use it.
Forrest: That you receive God's grace for you and you don't just like have it and have this like great, oh wow, I've got the grace of God, but you actually take it out and you utilize it for your life and see other people be able to receive it as well.
Forrest: It's not something that's silent, it's something that you carry with you.
Forrest: And you're able to drink the cup of communion and carry your cross because Jesus already carried his for you.
Forrest: Freely given.
Forrest: He actually ended up serving 17 years in the state penitentiary here in Frankfurt and downtown because he helped 47 slaves cross into the north.
Forrest: And during his time at the prison, where he served two stents and received, ended up see receiving two pardons.
Forrest: But during his 17 years, he recorded in his biography that he endured 35,000 lashes, whippings.
Forrest: And he counted the cost to see others' lives paid for.
Forrest: One of the men that he helped to escape, Lewis Hayden, made his way to Boston, a freed slave, and he began a campaign to raise funds from Boston to help Fairbank to ultimately be released.
Forrest: He was willing to help those that he could to find freedom.
Forrest: And he paid for it with some serious suffering.
Forrest: Listen to me.
Forrest: Jesus paid more.
Forrest: So then you could give everything to him.
Forrest: He chose to take the cup.
Forrest: He chose to take the cross.
Forrest: He freely gave so that you could freely give.
Forrest: So that you could drink from the cup of communion with God.
Forrest: He willingly gave up his will and surrendered his so that you would live.
Forrest: One of the last verses in the Battle Hymn of the Republic goes like this: In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea.
Forrest: With a glory in his blossom that transfigures you and me.
Forrest: As he died to make us holy, let us die, that all be free while God is marching on.
Forrest: That we would be the ones in recognition of the cross of Christ and the cup that was poured out on him.
Forrest: That we were the ones that were seeing freedom.
Forrest: And we were the ones that were made holy so that then we can see other people be made free as well.
Forrest: That we would be able to, in the middle of pain and tragedy and hardship, that we would be the ones that are carrying the grace of Christ on our lips and on our lives and our hands?
Forrest: Can you imagine?
Forrest: Can you imagine your life if you would stop resisting what God is asking you to do and you started to fully trust Him?
Forrest: Can you imagine what it would look like?
Forrest: If you believe that the Father had good plans and purposes for you, even if it's painful at times, but it's going to lead to your good.
Forrest: Jesus, he drank the cup of wrath so that we could taste his mercy, his grace.
Forrest: What was freely given, but not free.
Forrest: And we sang it earlier.
Forrest: It's never been about deserving or earning.
Forrest: It's a gift that's freely given.
Forrest: Let me tell you, it's only by the blood.
Forrest: This freely given salvation that we have, that Jesus gave all of himself, and we don't have to earn it.
Forrest: We don't have to deserve it.
Forrest: We just have to say yes and mean it.
Forrest: And so I wonder in a room today, is there anybody in here that you haven't yet said yes to Jesus and truly meant it?
Forrest: Maybe you prayed a prayer one time when you were young, but there has been zero fruit of your salvation the rest of your life.
Forrest: At one point you said that you gave your life to Christ, but the rest of your life you've just been doing whatever you wanted to do.
Forrest: Give everything to Him.
Forrest: And I want to tell you that if you haven't given your life over to Jesus and received His death, burial, and resurrection on the cross for you, for you then to be made alive, the wrath of God will pour out on you.
Forrest: From this life into the next.
Forrest: By the blood of Jesus, you can be set free.
Forrest: And you can be saved.
Forrest: And your last breath on earth be the first breath in the presence of God in heaven.
Forrest: Don't wait.
Forrest: Bow your heads, Father, all across this room.
Forrest: Lord, I thank you, God, for those in the room that walk in today securely in your freedom and your grace.
Forrest: God, let us not take for granted what you did for us.
Forrest: Let us not feel routine or be cheapened, but instead, God, that we would flow out the grace that poured out for us.
Forrest: And Father, I pray right now that today, God, if there's anybody here who's not received you as their Savior, who's not been set free and forgiven, who's not asked for your forgiveness, confessed you as Lord, believed in your death, burial, and resurrection, that today would be the day of their salvation, that they would pray, Jesus, save me in their heart and their mind.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin, that you gave everything for me, and that you're alive.
Forrest: I give you my life today.
Forrest: Cleanse me, wash me so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I commit my life to you.
Forrest: Thank you for giving me yours.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Nobody looking around.
Forrest: Today you prayed to receive Christ as your Savior.
Forrest: Today you prayed to receive his forgiveness.
Forrest: At the count of three, I want you to raise your hand to heaven as a sign before God, and so I can pray for you if that's you.
Forrest: Lift that hand up, ready.
Forrest: One, two, three.
Forrest: Anyone in here?
Forrest: Father.
Forrest: I pray, God, that we would be people who have your grace on our lips and your purposes in our heart.
Forrest: That they would be people even this week.
Forrest: That God we're able to extend, show love, in the way that you've called us to, and you've given us the example for.
Forrest: We praise you.
Forrest: We thank you, God.
Forrest: For your mighty work.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Everybody said Amen.