Come Follow Me…

Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church

An Uphill Faith

What is Faith?

What is Faith?Faith is the courage and the confidence to ACT

when you don’t UNDERSTAND, because you trust the ONE WHO DOES

What is Faith?Faith is the courage and the confidence to ACT

when you don’t UNDERSTAND, because you trust the ONE WHO DOES

Trust – based on experience, knowledge and relationship

Action – a response, a sacrifice, a risk

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.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

Matthew 26:36-46 (NIV)

An Uphill Faithrequires Horizontal Support

An Uphill Faithneeds the confidence of PRAYER

Gethsemane:THE PLACE OF CRUSHING

He prayer SPECIFICALLY“may this cup be taken from me.”

He prayer SELFLESSLYYet not as I will, but as you will.”

He prayer INTIMATELY“Abba, Father, everything is possible for you.”

He prayer PASSIONATELY“Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly…” Lk 22:44

CRISIS prayers are most effective when they are

preceded by DAILY prayers.

Even when prayer doesn’t change CIRCUMSTANCES

it changes US!

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:20-24

I’m praying specifically for: ______________________