Introduction:
Knowing His Resolve: How to Face Trouble Confidently Like Jesus (John 18:1-11):
- Know what's Comin . (John 18:1-4a)
- Remember who has the Power . (John 18:4b-6)
- Rest in His Promises . (John 18:7-9)
- Follow His Example . (John 18:10-11)
Isaiah 51:17 - Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.
1 Peter 2:21,23 - For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps... When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:01
John 18, are you there?
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We're in the homestretch in our series, "Knowing Jesus." And where we are in John's Gospel, we're getting to his betrayal and arrest.
00:17-00:22
So I was thinking, as I always do, to introduce a sermon.
00:22-00:38
Like, what personal story or understanding do I have for my own life where I can connect with the events that we're seeing here, and the truth is I've never been arrested, but I've been very, very close.
00:41-00:51
And some of you know this story, and I'm going to try to make it quick, because it's longer and crazier than I'm about to tell you.
00:52-01:00
But when I was in college, one of the jobs I had, I was a magazine vendor, I had two Walmarts and two Kmarts, and I was in charge of all their magazines.
01:00-01:08
And the one day, I usually worked late at night over third shift because that way you didn't have to walk around customers and all of that.
01:08-01:14
So the one night I went into work and I'm stalking the magazines.
01:14-01:15
I'm at the big rack right there at the front.
01:15-01:18
It was a Kmart in Chillicothe, Ohio.
01:18-01:24
And I'm rotating the magazines and all of a sudden these two police officers come up to me.
01:25-01:43
And they said, "Sir, we received a report "that you're here to kill someone." And I'm like, "What?" I'm laughing, I'm like, "What are you talking about?" And they weren't laughing.
01:44-02:04
They said, "No, we have a report "that you are obviously here with malintent." And I'm like, "This must be some kind of a joke." and they're like, "This is not a joke." And I'm like, "Okay, clearly you have the wrong guy." So the one police officer, you know, they wear those little radios on their thing.
02:04-02:52
They're like, "Can you please describe the suspect?" And I'm like, "Here we go, vindication straight ahead." And it came back through, they said, "Caucasian male, 5'10, medium build, "blonde hair, maroon dress shirt, "khaki pants, brown shoes." And I was like, "Oh dear." I said, "There has to be some kind of mistake." I said, "I work here." They said, "Oh, you work here." And I'm like, "Hang on." No offense, but if I didn't work here, What I'm doing right now with the magazines is awfully weird.
02:55-02:56
So like, oh, you work here.
02:56-03:04
So they took my driver's license and I found out some of these facts afterwards, I'm just summing it up for you, but they went and talked to the manager.
03:05-03:07
They went to the manager and they said, do you know a Jeffrey Miller?
03:07-03:10
The manager says, no.
03:13-03:15
And the police officer said, he says he works here.
03:15-03:18
The manager goes, oh no, there's no Jeff Miller that works here.
03:21-03:22
(sighs)
03:22-03:54
Well, finally, one of the cashiers that works third shift recognized, she goes, "Oh, oh, oh, that's magazine guy." They're like, "Oh yeah, magazine guy." And they said, "Do you think he would ever hurt someone?" And then the one cashier goes, "No, he's a preacher." And the police officer said, "That might mean something to some people." So they frisked me right in the front of the store.
03:55-04:14
And as I was being frisked, I was praying to heaven that nobody from the church walked in at that moment to show up like, "Hey, there's Pastor Jeff getting frisked in the front of the store." "Yes, hope to see you in church tomorrow if I make bail." Well, again, it's a very long story, but they ended up just like, have a good night.
04:14-04:15
Well, they left.
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And I found out later what the problem was.
04:21-04:26
I was eating a roll of spree on the way in, and it comes in those long foil tubes.
04:26-04:37
And as I was eating it, walking into the store, I folded it in half and put it in my pocket, and somebody thought I had a switchblade and was going in to gut somebody in Kmart.
04:39-04:55
Which was really funny because at one point when the police officers were talking to me, They said, "Do you have a knife on you?" And I said, "Yeah." And they're like, "Pull it out nice and slow." So, all right.
04:59-04:59
(audience laughing)
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And I'm not kidding you, this wasn't a knife.
05:02-05:04
The knife I actually had was about half this size.
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(audience laughing)
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I'm like, "Here it is." And they're like, "You can put that away." So anyways, that's a story of almost getting arrested.
05:17-05:29
But in that moment, it's also a story of staring down more trouble than I could ever imagine having to handle in one moment.
05:29-05:37
And I gotta tell you, I was trying to play it cool, but I was freaking out with every second that ticked in that whole affair.
05:37-05:39
And like I said, I gave you the short version.
05:40-05:46
And we're getting to this scene in John, and he's so selective in his details.
05:48-05:55
Because here, Jesus is about to face way more trouble than my little K-Mart incident.
05:56-06:05
But John, in the selection of his details, wants to make one thing absolutely clear, no question, don't miss this.
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John wants us to know Jesus was no victim.
06:11-06:15
I mean, up to this point, Jesus was verbally attacked many times.
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And we've gone through God's Word, we've seen that.
06:19-06:21
But no one could lay a hand on Jesus physically.
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In fact, we saw at least twice in John's Gospel in chapter 10 and in chapter 11, they wanted to get Him, but Jesus eluded them.
06:31-06:35
But now, Jesus' hour had come.
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And in this scene that we're about to look at today, you know, Satan wanted to make this look as bad as possible.
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He wanted to make Jesus look as bad as possible.
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But Jesus was no victim.
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Jesus knew His mission, and in the face of trouble, Jesus stepped up.
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In what looked like the worst kind of trouble.
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Now, granted, we are never going to face anything like Jesus faced in this passage.
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But if we're honest, church, sometimes we do stare down the barrel of trouble.
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of insurmountable odds, of more than we can handle, true or false.
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We feel it sometimes, don't we?
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Don't we?
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Don't leave me up here. Just me?
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Really, just me.
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We stare down things like, maybe possibly losing our job.
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And then, "How am I going to provide for my family?" Or maybe you have a prodigal child, maybe fighting an addiction, and you're like, "I don't know how to handle this." Or maybe for some it's some financial mountain.
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Like, "I've got way more than I could possibly handle financially here." For some it's a serious health diagnosis.
08:21-08:25
Like you go to the doctor and you get some news you didn't want to hear.
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You're like, "How am I going to face this? I wasn't ready for this." And maybe for some of us, maybe somebody is out to get you.
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Maybe some of us actually have a person that is out to get you.
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Whatever trouble you're facing, or will face, you're going to look at this passage today and you're going to say, "Man, I wish that I could face trouble as confidently as Jesus faced trouble." Right? I mean, we go back to chapter 16 and verse 33.
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Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble." He said, "But take courage, I have" - what? - "overcome the world." And sometimes, church, I think we read that verse and we think, "Oh, Jesus overcame. That's wonderful. Hooray." and I'm going to heaven, so hooray, my troubles are over when I die.
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Hallelujah. But how do I deal with trouble now?
09:31-09:52
Well that's what we're going to see in this passage, as Jesus showed us how we can confidently face whatever trouble is before us, right? Whatever your trouble looks like, you don't have to run, and you don't have to fear. You can face it the way Jesus showed us to face trouble.
09:53-10:00
So on your outline, if you're taking notes, which I always encourage, knowing His resolve, how to face trouble confidently like Jesus.
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Number one, know what's coming.
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Know what's coming.
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Let's look at the first four verses.
10:11-10:16
It says, "When Jesus had spoken these words..." That's the prayer from chapter 17.
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It says, "He went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered." It says, "Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
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So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
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then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward.
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Stop right there.
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Let's get the scene.
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After Jesus prayed, He went to the garden and Judas shows up with this enormous crowd.
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And this is a huge crowd.
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You're like, how big of a crowd was it?
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Well, verse three says it was a band of soldiers.
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And literally, that word band is the word cohort.
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And that was a technical term that referred to a group of 600 soldiers.
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Okay, so there were the 600 soldiers in the cohort and there were temple guards, which scholars estimate there were hundreds of temple guards, and all of them armed. Do you have the scene?
11:41-11:51
Now, we don't know the exact number, but it's safe to say that in this garden at night, hundreds of armed people showed up.
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For what?
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They wanted to get one controversial rabbi.
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You're like, "Why so many?" Well, some would say, "Well, they knew how powerful Jesus was, and I think there's an an element of truth in that, but I think there was something else too.
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They not only knew how powerful he was, they knew how popular he was.
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Everywhere Jesus went, there were huge crowds that gathered, right?
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And I think that the authorities were thinking, what if there's a commotion and a bunch of Jesus fanboys show up?
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You know, like these hundreds or thousands of people that would come and listen to him preach, like what if all these fanboys show up and they're like, "You ain't taking him," and all of a sudden there's this big riot.
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So like, what if we have this massive show of force on the front end, and we just bring hundreds of people armed.
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I think that's what was happening here.
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And this garden was a place that the Bible says Jesus went often.
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And you're like, "Well, whose garden was it?" We don't know, but we do know that many Jerusalem residents would often have a garden outside the city, a private garden.
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So apparently Jesus and the disciples knew whoever owned this one, And it was a popular place for Jesus and the disciples to go.
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Your Bible tells us that Judas knew that Jesus would be there.
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But more so, don't miss this, Jesus knew that Judas was going to be looking for Him there.
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I mean, come on.
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Jesus knew that Judas knew.
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And Jesus knew that Judas would be there.
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And I think we just have to pause and parenthetically say, what a commentary on how far Judas had fallen, right?
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Did you imagine how evil you have to be to say, "Hey guys, I got a plan.
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I know where Jesus goes to pray.
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Let's get him there." Like, how wicked is that?
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Let's jump him while he's praying?
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Judas is gone, right?
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And if Jesus wasn't so resolved to His mission, He would have gone elsewhere. He knew Judas was going to be there.
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If Jesus wasn't so dedicated to doing what the Father sent Him to do, He would have said, "All right, boys, pack it up. We're heading west." But He didn't do that.
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Verse 4, key phrase, you have to have this underlined and/or highlighted in your Bible.
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It says that Jesus came forward.
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Underline that. He came forward.
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Do you see this scene?
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Garden, night, here comes hundreds of armed law enforcement to where Jesus is praying, and what does Jesus do?
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Shrink back, hide.
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No, the Bible says he stepped up.
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He came forward and met them.
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And you're like, well, why would Jesus step forward so boldly?
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What would make Jesus step forward in the face of all of this?
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What would make him so bold to step forward like he did?
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Well, we don't have to wonder because the Bible tells us.
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In the very previous phrase, see that in verse 4?
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It says, "Jesus knowing all that would happen to him." That is how Jesus was able to step up.
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He said, "I know exactly what's going to happen to me, and I ain't running from it." It's astounding how many people today are responding in despair to world events.
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It's astounding.
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Fear of getting sick, fear of mandates, fear of job loss, fear of lockdowns, fear of supply chains breaking and empty shelves at the store and horribly corrupt leadership.
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Now please hear me, I'm not minimizing these things because these are all legitimate issues.
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I just want to say this church, as followers of Jesus Christ, shouldn't we respond to these things differently than the world responds to these things?
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Jesus was able to boldly step up and face the trouble before Him because He knew all that was going to happen to Him.
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And right now somebody is streaming this sitting right here and you're thinking, "Well, that's easy for Jesus, because Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to Him." I mean, yeah, I hear what you're saying, Jeff. Real easy for Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen, that's easy for Him to step up and be so bold because He knew everything that was going to happen. And to that I would say this, That's a fair point.
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That's a fair point.
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Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen.
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I'm like, "Man, if only we did." I mean, could you imagine?
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Could you imagine if we knew everything that was going to happen?
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I mean, wouldn't it be amazing?
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I'm just spitballing here hypothetically, But wouldn't it be amazing if God told us everything that was going to happen?
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What if God had some people write it down?
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And put it in... I know, let's make it the best-selling book of all time.
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And we'll get people to put it in hotel drawers.
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Wouldn't that be awesome if God did that?
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And that way we would know everything that's going to happen.
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Well, I think you see the point, right?
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Listen church, this is where I need to remind you, like Jesus, we know all that's going to happen.
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We know. And this is a whole other sermon series, we'll do that later.
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But just to give you a down payment on that.
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You know, the Bible tells us in the last days, people are going to be selfishly wicked.
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Look at 2 Timothy 3, like the first five verses.
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Not now, later. Just write that down.
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The people are going to be selfishly wicked.
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We're seeing it.
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We spent a year going through Revelation, and we've talked about the things that God said are coming soon.
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A coming one-world religion, a one-world economy, mark of the beast, assault on Israel, famine and pestilence and natural disasters.
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All of these things God said was going to happen.
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And church, we're watching it happen before us.
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And people have asked me several times, "Do you think the vaccine is the mark of the beast?" No, it's not.
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But here's the purpose that it's serving.
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The purpose that that is serving is conditioning people to get some things in their mind.
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that in order to do business, you have to receive a certain mark.
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So that when the mark of the beast comes, at that point people are already going to be so used to this idea.
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"Oh, I've got to get something in order to do business. Okay, I'll do that.
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I mean, we've been doing that." People are being conditioned.
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So church, here's your options.
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You can watch the news in despair, Or you can watch the news and say, "Huh, God said this was going to happen, and it's happening exactly as He said." Because we're seeing the prelude to all of the end-time prophecies.
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God gave us the biggest spoiler alert in history when He gave us His Word.
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So we too, church, we can step forward knowing what's coming.
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So know what's coming.
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Secondly, remember who has the power?
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Remember who has the power?
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This is one of the most amazing scenes in the whole Bible.
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Pick up where we left off in verse 4.
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It says, "Jesus came forward and said to them, 'Whom do you seek?' They answered Him, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' Jesus said to them, 'I am He.' Judas, who betrayed Him, was standing with them.
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When Jesus said to them, 'I am He,' they drew back and fell to the ground." So stop there for a second.
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Now, literally in the Greek, when Jesus said, "Whom do you seek?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." Literally in the Greek, He said, "I am." And that's significant because "I Am" is the name of God.
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Go back to Exodus 3.14, that's the tetragrammaton.
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It's the name, God's personal name.
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And that's exactly what Jesus said when they responded to His question, "Who are you looking for?" Hundreds of armed men.
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Jesus spoke the name of God, and they collapsed.
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And I've read so many commentators this week that either ignore this scene, or they try to explain their way around it.
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But it's pretty straightforward what's happening here, right?
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Jesus steps up and He says, "I am," and they fall.
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You're like, "What was that like?
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What was that like?" Did you ever see, did you ever see like, like, like Benny Hinn, like waving at people and they all fall down?
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Have you ever seen that?
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This was like Benny Hinn but real, is what was going on here.
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And sometimes, they're like, "Why is that in there?" Number one, because it's awesome.
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But secondly, sometimes we just forget who's really in control.
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Sometimes we forget who has all the power.
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I mean, can you put yourself in the disciples' sandals here for a second.
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They're in the garden, it's night, it's dark, they're praying, and here comes hundreds of armed guards?
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And they're like, "Oh, did you see this crowd of people that's come?
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Do you see all...
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There's like hundreds of them and they're armed." You take those hundreds of guards, you multiply them by a trillion, you give them each a tank, and it's not going to be enough.
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But so often church we stand facing trouble that looks to us like an army of hundreds of armed soldiers. And we're faced with this mountain of trouble before us and we say, "Well, all you can do is pray." Oh, don't say that! Don't say that!
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"All we can do is pray." You are not allowed to say that.
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Is that how we view prayer? Really? Is that how we view prayer?
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but we have this one last ditch Hail Mary effort.
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We're gonna, I guess we'll cry out to the Almighty who created all things by speaking them into existence.
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You know, the same God who loves me with an infinite love and would love nothing more than to show Himself powerful and mighty and loving on my behalf.
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I guess all we can do is cry out to Him.
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We don't say all you can do is pray.
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We say this, we say the best thing we can do is pray.
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Do you believe that Jesus has all power and authority?
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Do you believe that?
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Well, let me ask you, do you pray like that?
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Because when you do, and when Jesus shows up before all of your troubles, and says, "I am," you're going to see them fall like dominoes.
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So church, remember who has all the power.
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You want to face trouble confidently?
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Remember who has the power.
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Number three, how to face trouble confidently like Jesus rested His promises.
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Look at verses 7 and 8.
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It says, "So He asked them again," after they picked themselves up, "So He asked them again, 'Whom do you seek?' And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He." Literally, "I told you I am.
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So if you seek Me, let these men go." So Jesus said, "Who are you looking for?" Twice.
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And Jesus' response here is, "Look, if you're looking for Me as you said twice, and as I confirmed twice, then you're going to let these people go." Jesus was not a victim. Did I mention that?
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I love this. Jesus is approached by this massive mob, and He's still giving the orders, and they're still obeying Him.
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He kept the disciples from a faith-destroying experience, or possibly a life-ending experience, and He commanded their release.
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In verse 9, it says this is to fulfill the word that He had spoken back in chapter 17, verse 12, "Of those whom you gave Me, I have lost not one." Usually that kind of phrasing goes to, "He fulfilled something from the Old Testament." But here, it just takes us back a few minutes to when Jesus was praying.
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He promised he would lose none of them.
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And apparently they heard him pray that, right?
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Because they wrote it down.
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But you understand, church, the disciples thought it was going to be really hard for him to keep that promise in that moment they saw all these guards show up.
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And I think we can relate to that, because isn't that the way it is with God's promises?
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I mean, God's promises are so easy to believe in this room, right?
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I share them with you, and you're like, "Amen! Yes!" And you're singing, and your hands are up, and they're so easy to believe here, right?
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But once you go out there, and the guards show up, whatever that looks like in your life, we start to doubt that He'll keep His word.
27:46-28:05
I mean, Jesus knew - we already talked about this - He knew they would flee and abandon Him, and eventually - spoiler alert - Peter is going to deny three times that he even knows Jesus, and then there's that whole awkward, ashamed Peter on the beach afterwards talking to Jesus.
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And I look at all that took place with the disciples as Jesus was going through what He went through, and I just have to ask myself, how much easier would it have been for the disciples if they had just believed Jesus in the first place?
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And I thought, you know, that same principle's true for you and I, isn't it?
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I mean, yeah, we're going to face trouble, that's for sure.
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But refusing to believe Jesus' promises is going to bring even more trouble.
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And you end up bringing self-inflicted trouble, because you won't believe His promises.
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In other words, the sooner you commit to resting in Jesus' promises, you will save yourself a lot of pain.
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So how to face trouble confidently like Jesus? Rest in His promises.
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And finally, number four, follow His example.
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Follow His example. Look at verse 10.
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It says, "Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.
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The servant's name was Malchus." I love this scene because Peter pulls out his sword and with surgical precision, just like he meant to, cut off the guy's ear.
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Then he was like, "And if you don't leave, I'm gonna take the next ear." Actually, I don't think Peter was trying to cut his ear off.
29:57-30:01
I think he was trying to take his head off, and he missed.
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Now look, Peter gets a bad rap from a lot of people, right?
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But I think a lot of it is unjustified.
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Because, you know, back in John 13, verse 37, Peter said to Jesus, "I'll lay down my life for you." And whatever else you want to say about Peter, he was backing those words up here.
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He knew he didn't have a snowball's chance against this many people.
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He's like, "I'm going down swinging, man. I will go down swinging." Well, look at verse 11.
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"So Jesus said to Peter, 'Put your sword into its sheath.'" Quickly corrects Peter.
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Jesus says, "Peter, this isn't the way. This isn't how we do." So Peter tried to stop Jesus, And so Jesus had to stop Peter from stopping Jesus.
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Yes.
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But then Jesus says, "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given?" You're like, "What's he talking about? What's the cup? What is the cup?
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What's that mean?" The cup is God's wrath.
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That's what the cup is.
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You see this all through the Old Testament.
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Like one example here, Isaiah 51.17.
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"Wake yourself, wake yourself! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord." See this? "The cup of His wrath.
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Who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.
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So often in the Old Testament, God's wrath is pictured as a cup of very intoxicating drink.
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And God's like, "I'm going to make you drink it down." It's God's wrath.
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And Jesus here is saying, "Peter, am I not supposed to drink the cup that the Father has given me?" Jesus knew when He was on the cross, He was going to bear the wrath of God.
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And essentially, Jesus was saying to Peter, "Peter, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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Are you trying to get me to skip my whole reason for coming to the earth in the first place?" See, that's how our sins are taken away, by the way.
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You can't be good enough or do good enough to take your sins away.
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the only hope that you have of being forgiven of your sin is believing in Jesus Christ, because when He was on that cross, He took God's wrath in your place.
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You should have been nailed to the cross, and I should have been nailed to that cross bearing God's wrath, but Jesus stepped in and said, "No, I will do that.
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I will drink the cup so that you don't have to." And that cup wasn't pleasant.
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You know, it was a cup of agony, it was a cup of torment, it was a cup of pain, and we get that, but you have to notice here, Jesus very clearly pointed out that it was a cup that the Father had given to Jesus.
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In other words, it was the Father's choice that Jesus drink this cup.
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Church, sometimes God, just as He chose a hard road for Jesus, Sometimes God chooses some hardship for us.
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Like, "Well, how do you know that?" Well, He chose a hard road for Jesus, and Jesus said, "A servant is not greater than his master." Right?
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So sometimes you've got to get it in your head that the trouble that you're facing and the hard road that you're on John is God's choice for you.
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But too often, unfortunately, we respond to the trouble like Peter did.
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It's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what Jesus said." But Peter's like, "We're going to do this my way.
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I will take them down one ear at a time." As silly as that sounds, we do the same thing, right?
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Like maybe you're facing some huge financial burden and you're like, I know what God says about trusting his provision, but step aside, Jesus, because I have a credit card.
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I'm gonna take care of this for you.
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And we say, well, I know what God said about forgiving others, and there's somebody in my life right now that I just haven't forgiven and I'm unwilling to forgive, but you know what?
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Step aside, Jesus.
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I'm gonna handle this grudge my way.
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Maybe you are having problems with a prodigal child of any age, maybe they're still living in the home, and you're like, I know what your word says about disciplining children, but step aside, Jesus, because nobody tells me how to parent my kids.
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And that's what we have here, church.
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Peter acting in the flesh, doing things his way.
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And that never works.
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That's why Jesus said, "Put that away." And there's something in your life right now that you're trusting instead of what God has told you to trust.
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And Jesus is saying to you, "Hey, you need to put that away.
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Start doing it my way instead of doing it your way.
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There's good news because Peter eventually learned.
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He eventually learned because sometime after this, Peter wrote these words.
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He says, "To this you've been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps." He says, "When he was reviled, He did not revile in return when He suffered.
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He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly." Did you see that? Peter wrote that.
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Peter's like, "Man, I've been swinging that sword like a madman, and you know what I saw? I saw Jesus instead trusting the Father." He's like, "That's the example that I needed to learn." And he says, "Church, that's the example that you need to learn." Jesus gave us an example to follow.
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that in the face of our worst trouble, my conduct is not based on the way other people treat me, my conduct is not based on worldly wisdom, my conduct is not based on how I'm used to handling things, my conduct is based on the Word of God.
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So I'm just going to do that, and I'm going to entrust myself to God, because that's the example that Jesus demonstrated.
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So, church, trouble's coming.
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And you don't want to make decisions on how to react to it when the trouble shows up.
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"Peter, you want to decide ahead of time.
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Look, here's how I'm going to face trouble.
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First of all, I know what's coming.
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I'm going to remember that Jesus still has all power.
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So I'm going to rest in His promises.
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I'm going to follow His example.
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And when the trouble shows up, I'm going to step forward.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, We just want to pause right now and thank You for the example that we have in Christ.
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Peter very clearly told us, "Jesus gave us an example to follow in His steps." And so often, God, we confess to You, "We are too much like Peter.
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The trouble comes and we're going to hack away and handle it our way." God, I pray that we would take a closer look in this passage at the way Jesus confidently stepped up.
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and what motivated Him to be so trusting and powerful and faithful in the face of the kind of trouble that would honestly just make most of us collapse.
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Father, we pray for a humble and holy boldness.
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Whatever trouble was before us, Father, I pray that You would give us Holy Spirit, wisdom, and strength to step forward like Jesus.
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In whose name we pray to You, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 18:1-11
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
What “trouble” are you facing right now? What promises from God's Word directly address your situation?
How does knowing what's coming (end-time prophecies) equip us to handle these global troubles confidently? How confidently are you handling them?
Recall Peter's actions in John 18:10. Tell of a time you tried to handle the trouble before you in your own way (instead of God's). If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
Breakout
Pray for one another.