This is a sermon about prayer. I'm finding out that God works in pretty funny ways, sometimes. Our Sunday School lessons upstairs are about prayer, so I've been reading a lot of Scripture on prayer. In my life, God has created circumstances that have convicted me to pray, reminded me to pray, and in fact, forced me to pray.

• It seems that everywhere I turn right now, God is challenging me to a deeper, more powerful, more effective prayer life. How many of us in this room would like a deeper, more powerful, more effective prayer life? That's what God is inviting us to this morning.

This sermon is about prayer, but let me tell you what this sermon is not. It's not a ?How-To' instruction message about prayer techniques. It's not a message about prayer posture or the place where you should pray. It's not a message intended to make you feel guilty because you haven't been engaged in meaningful prayer.

This sermon looks at what may be the most powerful prayer our Lord Jesus ever uttered, and finds ways that we can learn from Him. The setting for this text is on the western side of the Mount of Olives, in a grove of olive trees known as the Garden of Gethsemane. (Plug Wednesday night: lesson is on gethsemane, and we will learn what that word is about )

Why was this prayer in the Garden of gethsemane the most poweful prayer? It didn't avert Jesus' death? It didn't cause the crowd to accept Him? It didn't change the minds of the Pharisees or the Romans. What made this prayer so powerful is that it prepared Jesus, not only to willingly face death, but to willingly take on all the ugliness, pain, sorrow, suffering and brokenness of sin, in His death!

Jesus knew what lay ahead ? and He willingly chose to go anyway ? nurtured and strengthened and comforted by prayer.

The power of His prayer is not about where He was ? not about the words He particularly spoke ?. Not about the time of day ?. Not about whether He was kneeling or standing or whether His eyes were closed or open. The power of this prayer is about the deeply held beliefs that Jesus had, the radical faith that moved His heart.

• endearing term ("Our Father" He prayer in the model prayer)
• fathers are supposed to know what's going on with their kids

- Jesus reminds us that the image of a father was even more powerful, because our Heavenly Father is perfect

-Not a new concept: In Jeremiah 1 God says "I knew You in your mother's womb, before I formed you, I knew you"

-in Matthew Jesus said the Father knows the number of hairs on each of our heads

- God is the Creator of the world, which includes you and me, but we are not window dressing, not accessories to His creation ? we are His children, His kids!!

• Adoption or new birth into a family has privilege.

(ill) If you were the child of a father who belonged to the Augusta National Country Club, you would have the privilege to play golf on the Masters Course..

I want you to circle "everything He has belongs to us"

(ill) A will is the legal document that outlines the inheritance from a father or mother to their descendents. The last will and testament of someone doesn't do into effect until someone dies. Then, you read the will and see who's named.

T/S: When Jesus died on the cross, it put into effect God the Father's New Testament, and you and I were named as heirs!! Everything He has belongs to us! God's love, God's peace, God's righteousness, God's joy, God's strength. EVERYTHING!

• You need to take this to heart!
• Jesus felt confident bringing the issues of His heart to God because He was certain of God's love for Him.
• No single issue derails people more than this one! Doubting God's love.
• Because we get our view of God from our earthly fathers, and they aren't perfect
• Because we think our past is really bad, and if anyonee knew it they would think less of us.
• Because in almost every other place on earth, we are accustomed to conditional love - affection and acceptance because of how we act or what we do.
• God loves us just because of who we are.
• Listen, if you doubt God's love, you will be fearful of God, distrustful of Him. And nothing weakens a relationship more than fear and a lack of trust.
• Will you unburden your deepest cares to God, if you don't absolutely trust His love? Of course not.
• If you are unsure of God's love, you will view prayer with a lack of certainty, wondering what good will it do. Can't pray with conviction and faith if you are doubleminded.

Rick Warren says you only do what you believe. Reason we are guilty of not praying is often because we are unsure, not certain, whether God really cares for me personally.

APP: "Absolutely nothing can get between me and God's love."

(God's love covers your sin, neglect, apathy and doubt. All you have to do is believe that!)

• Model prayer >> on earth as it is in Heaven
• Jesus was sure that God's will would prevail. He was certain that God was Most High, Most Powerful and in complete control over what was happening.
• The Old Testament contains dozens of stories of people who learned this lesson:
• Residents of Jericho

- Job and his friends

- Nebbachannezzar

(ill) I learned a valuable lesson about who is in control from Papop, my grandfather. I once saw him knock down a charging 2000 pound bull with an iron pipe. He was the strongest man I ever knew. I never questioned the power he had to enforce his will. And yet, I knew just as certainly that he loved me.

The result? His words carried weight with me. I didn't cross pop. And, I wasn't afraid to bring my problems to him. I knew that if I had trouble, he was big enough to fix it.

T/S: How about our God's power? Are you sure of it? Aware of it? Did you see the sunrise this morning? Or the incredible moon on Friday night? What about the raw might of the thunderstorm Tuesday night? Or have you read about the empty tomb outside of Jerusalem?

Our God is in control.

He gave the power to His Son Jesus of Nazareth.

And Jesus Christ gave the authority to access that power to you and me.

There a lot of myths that people believe, about how the world works.

• Self determined. It's about my efforts only.
• The Force or Karma. Good and bad energy at work in everything living and inanimate.
• Fate/Luck/Chance. Nothing or nobody is incontrol.
• God is in control. That's the correct answer.

APP: God is control. God rules. God reigns.

• Jesus accepted God's will, even though it caused Him pain and suffering and even death. He did so, because He believed - Jesus had a radical faith - that God's will was good and perfect.

• In the face of war casualties, that may stretch some people this week. If God is in control, and His will is perfect, why did God allow was and death and oppression?
• God's will is perfect, but we are not. Sin's affect can be seen all throughout man's history, but that doesn't change what God desires, or what is God's will.
• Part of God's will is to allow men to possess free moral choice, the will to choose that seperates us from animals and plant life.God allows us to make bad and evil choices.
• But He is at work, even in evil choices, to bring about His ultimate will. His Master Plan is redemption for what is His: us and the world.

(ill) Let me show you how God works. My friend Dave Scalf and his wife Amy can't conceive children, thee doctors say. So they pursued adoption. Years. Loads of money. But Dave and Amy felt like God was calling them to love a child, so they signed up to take high risk babies. Babies from crack addicted, alcohol abusing, cigarette smoking prostitutes.

Do you think God intended for little babies to be conceived in sin, to grow in a womb polluted by narcotics and booze? No way.

But let me tell you what God did. 15 months ago he brought Sophie. Mother was crack addicted prostitute. Sophie is perfectly healthy.

This week, God brought Isaac. Heroin addict mother. Homeless prostitute. He's perfectly healthy.

T/S: He takes heartaches and moves into the brokenness with His perfect love.

He takes our suffering and demonstrates His perfect comfort.

We may not see the big picture, but His desire is always for our eternal good.

Our model in life for believing this is Jesus. See what you face in an eternal perspective. In what you face, trust that God is at work. Jesus faced the cross with this approach and this belief.

APP: God's plan for me is good and perfect.

(ill) There was a boy playing in a sandbox, trying to get a big Tonka truck over the side. He was struggling, because the truck was almost as big as he was.

His dad was watching, and encouraged him, "Use everything you've got, son. Use everything you've got."

Frustrated and irritated, the son finally snapped back,"I am using everything I've got."

"Not yet, you aren't son." The dad replied. "You haven't asked me."

T/S: Are you using everything you've got? Or is it time to be reminded that God loves you, and He is able and willing to do something about what's on your heart? Have you asked Him to work in your life?

If you are not a Christian, the prayer God wants to hear is a prayer of repentance, asking for His love to turn your life around.

If you are already a Christian, God is just waiting to hear from you.