Matthew 26:39 KJV And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Luke 22:41 KJV And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
I. INTRODUCTION—THE UPPER ROOM PRINCIPLES
-The two passages that we have read is activity that follows the Last Supper which took place in the Upper Room. If you were to read John 13-16 you would be able to hear the words of the Lord and to observe some of His actions there. I have referred to that particular passage of Scripture in the past as the Upper Room Principles.
• The understanding that death has an appointment with all—13:1
• The prevalence of evil to be among the good—13:2
• There is a will of God that we cannot escape—13:3
• You find there a principle of servanthood—13:4
• The blessing of the basin and the towel—13:5
• The hindrance of personal pride—13:8
• The cry for cleansing—13:9
• The need for brothers to serve each other—13:14
• The greatest example set by the Lord—13:15
• The gift of fellowship opens the door to betrayal—13:21
• The troubling presence of a devil among disciples (Tares/Wheat)—13:23-27
• The new commandment of love—13:34
• The hope of Heaven—14:1-4
• The true identity of Jesus, He is the Father—14:5-14
• The connection between love and obedience—14:15-21
• The promise of the Holy Ghost—14:26
• The Vine and the Branches—15:1-8
• The evidence of the greatest love is laying down your life for another—15:14-17
• The men the world will love to hate—15:18-19; 22-27
• The anointing of God does not exalt a servant but the Master—15:20-21
• There is no place that sin can hide—15:22
• Be careful not to allow the persecutions of life to offend and embitter you—16:1-4
• There are penalties that will come from associations with Jesus Christ—16:3-4
• The works of the Holy Ghost—16:7-16
• There is pain that takes place before the joy of birth—16:19-22
• The principle of prayer—16:23-28
• Before peace comes tribulation—16:29-33
-This is just a quick summary of the principles that Jesus gave to His disciples that last night before the Crucifixion.
-Despite the actions of Judas, prior all of the trouble that was to befall Jesus on that night, the disciples appeared to have been enjoying a time of closeness and camaraderie.
II. THE GARDEN SCENE
-After the Jesus and the remaining disciples had ate and sang a hymn they left the Upper Room to go to the Mount of Olives. He had spent every night of the Passover week there (Luke 21:37; 22:39).
-It was here that the Lord would spend a night of agony in the Garden of Gethsemane among the olive trees. He was moving in this direction for privacy and prayer to be ready for what was to come to Him.
-The place was just a short distance from the bridge that crossed the brook Kidron at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
A. The Disciples
-Jesus leaves eight of the disciples at the gate of the garden. This is grace in action. The Lord knew that these men, in their present state of faith and love were not able to handle the strain that was about to come to the Lord.
-We ought to thank God for His grace when He allows us to stay behind and not have to contend with some of the challenges of life that would be detrimental to us. Throughout the Bible there are similar situations when this took place.
• Abraham telling the servants to remain at the foothills of Moriah so that he and Isaac could go and worship. He was going to sacrifice but called it worship—Gen. 22:5
• Moses left Joshua before going into the mountain to receive the Law—Exo. 24:13
-There are times when we may feel as if we are being left alone but it is the grace of God in action that is shaping us into what God desires to bring out of our life.
-But just as there were the eight who were handled carefully by the grace of God, there were three—Peter, James, and John who had the same measure of grace. They weren’t any better than the other eight but God chose to pull them on with Him.
-They had experienced the Mount of Transfiguration with Him and now they were about to accompany Him to the place where they were needed the most.
-They were now about to watch a soul experience a storm.
George Dawson—Great characters and great souls are like mountains—they always attract storms; upon their heads break the thunders, and around their bare tops flash the lightning and the seeming wrath of God. Nevertheless they form a shelter for the plains beneath them. . . Higher than all men, around His head seemed to beat the very storms of sin; yet beneath the shelter of His great, consoling, sustaining spirit, what lowly people, what humble souls. . . have gained their life in this world and eternal rest in God.
III. A LITTLE FURTHER
A. An Illustration—Moonwalking with Einstein
-There has to come a time to all of us when we are willing to go a little further!
Joseph Foer wrote a book called Moonwalking with Einstein in which he tells about his responsibility as a journalist to cover the Grand Masters Memory Championship in 2005. He was astounded at the ability of these people to remember such incredible things. They would remember a thousand images in order after studying them for 10 minutes in a computer flash presentation. They would be given seven minutes to memorize the order of two separate decks of cards. He reveled in the amazing power of these people’s minds.
During his coverage of the event, one of the Grand Master Officials came up to him and was involved in an interview with him. The official told him that these were normal people who had worked to develop their minds to remember things and that if Foer would be willing to submit himself to the techniques he could do it too. Foer scoffed at this and told the man there was no way he could remember things like these people could. The official told him that he was underselling himself and that with a little work; he could do the same thing.
A month after Foer had left the competition this man’s words continued to pull at him and he contacted him and asked him if he had been joking with him. The man again affirmed to him that he could do the same thing but it would take some work to do it. So Foer allowed this man to help him and in 2009 Joseph Foer won the Grand Masters Memory Championship. The book is about the process he went through to win it all.
There is a chapter in the book called “The OK Plateau” in which he describes the point that all men reach in their pursuit of excellence in whatever field they are in. It takes place with people in their ability to type. We all start with sloppy uncoordinated efforts but there comes a time when we no longer progress. The whole process becomes unconscious and our fingers take on a mind of their own. Despite the fact that we have been told that practice makes perfect many people type all day long and never get any better at it. Why not?
The answer is found in a study that was conducted in the 1960’s by Paul Fitts and Michael Posner who described three stages people go through when acquiring a new skill.
The first is the Cognitive Stage. It involves something called intellectualizing or just thinking through how to do the skill. People discover new strategies to make it more proficient.
The second stage is the Associative Stage. It is the place where people concentrate less on making fewer errors and generally can do the skill with great efficiency.
The third stage is the Autonomous Stage. This is when one figures that he is in the place that it is as good as he is going to get. He then turns on the “auto-pilot” mode and somewhat loses consciousness about the skills he is using. Most of the time that is good because your mind is freed up to move on to new areas and not have to worry constantly with new details.
This is a medically documented fact noted by physicians who studied brain function through a specialized MRI technique. The area of the brain that was pushing this particular skill quit developing. This is what was commonly called the “OK Plateau.”
Every one of us reaches these plateau levels. Driving skills are developed only to avoid accidents and speeding tickets. It happens to golfers. It happens to musicians that have been classically trained. It is kind of like the flea who is put in the jar with the lid and he hops up and keeps hitting his head until when the lid is removed, he cannot hop out because his mind tells him he can’t do it.
Sir Francis Galton in 1869 wrote in a book “Hereditary Genius” that this was a place that we cannot go beyond. But Anders Ericcson who is a memory coach has discovered over and over that with the right kind of concentrated effort one can overcome. They believe that Galton’s wall often has much less to do with our innate limits than simply with what we consider an acceptable level of performance.
What separates the experts from the rest of us is that they tend to engage in a much directed, highly revised routine. They develop strategies to stay out of the autonomous stage. They do this in three ways: 1) Focusing on their technique; 2) Staying goal oriented; 3) Getting constant and immediate feedback on their performance. This forces them to stay in the “thinking phase” of the task they are working on.
Amateur musicians are more likely to spend time practicing music they already know whereas the professional classical musicians work solely on the difficult pieces than the tedious exercises. The best ice skaters spend their time working on jumps that they aren’t good at. Those skaters who have less ability only spent time working on jumps they have already mastered. If they are to get any better their deliberate practice has to be hard.
When a person wants to get better at something they are already doing, how you spend the practice time is much more important than how much time you spend practicing. The best way to get out of the automatic stage is to actually do things that you will fail at while you are practicing. One of the ways to do that is to put yourself in the company of the masters of the field you are striving toward and compare your efforts to theirs. It will heighten your performance!
There is much more that I could give to you but one particular area looked at physicians who read mammograms compared to general surgeons. It was determined the radiologists have a skill set that levels off and does not get any better after a while. However a surgeon did not fall into this category. The reason was because of the reward system. A radiologist would only become aware of his progress a month or two months after he read the X-ray. But a surgeon was confronted immediately with his work; the patient either got better or he didn’t. The affirmation of the well patient or the failure of the patient who had complications and died confronted him and both of these avenues caused him to make adjustments to get better.
-There are huge spiritual lessons in that lengthy illustration that I just gave to you. Our spiritual lives and service to God has the same sort of dynamics to it. I can only hope for an attitude that Jesus had to go a little further would get in the heart of every one of us!
B. A Little Further Will Push You to Prayer—O My Father!
-Prayer can never be one of the lost arts of the Church! We must give ourselves to prayer as never before.
-The Lord enters into a place of secret prayer. Secret prayer is the place where the most progress of the soul is made!!!
-The Lord goes a little further and He will have to wrestle here in an agony that will be more spiritual than physical. It is night and the Lord has left behind the fellowship of the table and the presence of friends.
-He has crossed the brook Kidron. He is in the Garden—a secret place. A place of prayer. . .
Matthew 6:6 KJV But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 14:23 KJV And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
Mark 1:35 KJV And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
Luke 6:12 KJV And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Hebrews 5:7 KJV Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
-This is not a practice that was strange to the Lord. He knew what secret prayer was about. But now going a little further pushed him into a place of greater prayer.
Thomas Manton—The more earnest men are, the more they desire to be alone, free from trouble and distraction. When a man weeps, and it is in a mournful posture, he seeks secrecy that he may indulge his grief. . . So here when a man would deal most earnestly with God, he should seek retirement, and be alone. Christ in his agonies went apart from his disciples. (The Works of Thomas Manton, Vol. 1, p. 13)
-Secret prayer, whatever the stimulus to get us to that place, always brings great rewards:
• Daniel—Praying alone and the great angel Gabriel was sent swiftly to him to tell him his prayers were answered (Dan. 9:21).
• Cornelius—Praying alone, an angel came to him to report his prayers were heard (Acts 10:3).
• Peter—Praying alone, God instructs him in the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles in a vision on the rooftop (Acts 10:9).
-If your prayers are going to go a little further, you will have to get out of your comfort zone. You will have to stretch your routine and discipline of prayer. You do some of that by praying. Some of it you will do by reading great books on prayer such as E. M. Bounds works on prayer. Some of it you will accomplish by devouring Scripture and incorporating that into your praying.
-Pray the Scriptures! Particularly pray the Psalms:
• Psalm 4—Prayers at Night
• Psalm 5—Prayers in the Morning
• Psalm 7—Prayer for deliverance from slandering tongues
• Psalm 32—Becoming Right with God
• Psalm 42-43—Thirsting for God
• Psalm 46—Praying A Mighty fortress is our God
• Psalm 84—A blazing song of Joy
• Psalm 130—How To Wait on the Lord
• Psalm 137—Praying out your anger
• Psalm 139—A prayer for self-examination
-The psalms were prayers and songs that the children of Israel worshiped with. In fact, if you were to go to the Wailing Wall outside of Jerusalem today, you would hear the old rabbis praying through the psalms and the prophets. This is information the devil does not want you to know. It can make your prayers to go a little further.
-If you prayers are going to go a little further, our prayer revivals have to become priority. Your prayer needs some vehemence and earnestness in it. It only takes place when we do it.
-Let’s go a little further. . . .
C. A Little Further Will Make You Embrace the Cup—Not My Will!
-Sometimes embracing the cup is one of the most challenging portions of life that we will ever face. More often than not it will take several prayer meetings to finally get to a place of victory that will allow you to say the words, “Not My Will!!!! But Thine be done!!!”
-I wish I could tell you that it was an easy thing to accomplish but it isn’t. But it will be in those wearying moments of submission that you will begin to understand that God has a place that only you can serve in.
-The challenge of the cup is that there are two worlds pulling at us. There is the love of this present world—its riches, honors, ambitions, and coveting hold that asserts itself. They seem to be so easy to gather in and to enjoy.
-The man who has any spiritual knowledge at all seems to have to fight the hardest against the undertow of this deceptive attraction.
-This world, the one we live in every day, has so little to offer in comparison to the world to come but the world to come seems so far away and the one I live and breathe in is with me every day.
-Submission to the cup will take going a little further.
-Your prayers over the cup will be a process. Jesus had to pray twice about the cup. The first prayer was for removal, the second prayer was submission. Chances are that we will have to pray more than once or twice about the cup.
-Going a little further means that beyond the submission of the will there will be a silencing of the will. It will be such a place that you will say, “I only want what God wills for me to have!” It is a place of desire for the cup.
-No longer will the thought be, “Let this cup pass” but rather it will be “If this cup will not pass from me then I want the will of God!”
-Let’s go a little further and do the will of God!
D. A Little Further Will Let the Sleepers Sleep—Sleep On Now!
-If we look carefully at this passage, we can see the progress of the sleepers.
• Matthew 26:36—Sit here while I go and pray.
• Matthew 26:37—He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee.
• Matthew 26:40—He finds them asleep.
• Matthew 26:41—Watch and pray, He tells them.
• Matthew 26:42—He went away the second time.
• Matthew 26:43—He found them asleep again; for their eyes were heavy.
• Matthew 26:44—He left them again and went the third time.
• Matthew 26:45—Sleep on now and take your rest.
-If you are going to go a little further, you will get to the place where all of the things that are supposed to be supporting you will fall asleep.
-Have you ever been in that position before?
• A fork in the road
• A challenge that is greater than your own strength
• A doubt that will not turn loose
• A thorn that will not go away
• A past that depresses you
• A wrong turn in life
-Jesus had come to that point and although He was God in the flesh, there was still that need for fellowship on a human level. He wanted His disciples to at least struggle with Him in a place of prayer but they went to sleep.
-I am increasingly coming to the point to believe that God ordains such moments for us when He lets the very things that we thought was going to hold us up. . . He lets them go to sleep.
• You depend on a person; they go to sleep in a lack of concern.
• You depend on a career, cutbacks are made and it goes to sleep.
• You depend on money, the economy is at a point that it probably will never recover.
• You depend on your work to define you, and then it becomes distasteful to you.
• You depend on your own sense of determination and perseverance, and then the wells of inspiration dry up.
• You depend on your health which has always been good, it starts to falter.
• You depend on your family and they have other obligations to fulfill.
• You depend on an organization and it falters with base motivations.
-It is good for God to get you into a position where that everything you determined to hold you up goes to sleep. You shake, prod, plead, cajole, and beg all to no avail, the sleepers sleep!
-What will you do when you get to that place? It is a position that can press us to a point of serious, heaven-shaking, and hell-rattling prayer!
E. A Little Further Will Pressure You to Your Place—Rise, Let Us Be Going!
-The last thing I have to tell you about going a little further is that the prayers, the submission to the will of God, and dealing with the sleepers is a process that pulls you to your place. . . Rise let us be going. . .
-It is a place of destiny.
-There is a calling the Lord has to every one of us. Put on the new man:
• Who is ready to think
• Who is ready to know
• Who is ready to learn
• Who is ready to do
• Who is ready to live joyfully
• Who is ready to have victory
• Who is unaware of self
• Who is sure of his mission
• Who is confident and fearless
• Who is prepared despite the circumstances
• Who is ready to take the irritations of life in stride
-The whole process can cause us to have to endure some rough teachers, but rough teachers make rugged students.
IV. CONCLUSION—I’M GOING A LITTLE FURTHER
-There are still things inside of me that I believe that God still can use. I don’t believe that we have experienced everything God has for us. . . I’m Going a Little Further!!!
Philip Harrelson
July 3, 2011
