Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgpZpltPeFI

Link to Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/SzQKGxH4zx0

Deep Cries Out

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URbYAaAK9OQ

Some of the people of Nazareth, and some of the people in Jerusalem didn't want Jesus! They didn't think that He was God.

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lFu5exnUGU

Some of the people of Nazareth, and some of the people in Jerusalem didn't want Jesus! They didn't think that He was God.

Then an angel from heaven appeared to Jesus and strengthened Him.

Then an angel from heaven appeared to Jesus and strengthened Him.

Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake for one hour? Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’

He came a third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough of that! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us go. Look! My betrayer is approaching!’

While He was still speaking, suddenly a crowd appeared, and the man named Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them.

Remember last week, when we learned that we need to pray when we have hard things to do in our lives? I have a little story about that. I had a hard thing to do a little while back. I had two willow trees in front of my house, planted close together. One of the trees had died. It had no leaves on it at all; the branches were becoming dry and crunchy. It was not going to come back. It was dead. I had to take it down, because its dead branches were becoming tangled in the branches of the other willow, and the other tree couldn't grow like it wanted to without being tangled in the dead tree.

What I needed was a chainsaw. But guess what I didn't have? A chainsaw. So, guess what this crazy lady did? I took my little bitty hacksaw to that big huge dead willow tree.

Now, sawing down a big old tree with a little bitty hacksaw is like trying to clean your whole bathroom with a toothbrush. It can be done (maybe), but it's really hard, and it takes a long time. So, I got in there and started sawing the tree down. I lobbed off the big limbs first, but when I tackled the the wide trunk of the tree, I could not get through it. I could not take it down. I went all around it, cutting notches, getting my blade pinched. I sawed with my right arm until it got tired, then I sawed with my left, then my right again. I prayed for God to help me. I sawed back and forth until I was exhausted, but I could not get through the hard core of the tree. I couldn't do it. So I left it standing there with a ring of partially-sawed wood around the trunk.

In a week or two, I saw that the tree was leaning over a little bit. A few weeks after that, a storm came, and I woke to find the dead willow lying on the ground. God did for me what I could not do: he took that old dead tree down, so that now the good tree in my yard could grow without getting tangled in those old dead branches.

The dead willow and the living willow in my yard reminded me of the way we are. We have one part of ourselves that is alive, and wants to reach to God like that living willow grows toward the sun. We drink up the Word of God like that willow drinks up water, and we reach up to God like that willow reaches up to the sunshine.

But, then we get tangled up with sin! We have a sin nature too, and that sin nature is ugly and twisted and rotting, like that dead willow, and we can't get rid of sin by ourselves.

The Bible says that everybody has sinned. We can try and try and try to take sin out of our lives. We can try to be a perfect little kid every day. We can try to obey what our parents say the first time they say it. We can try to get our rooms perfectly clean. We can try to be kind to everybody and say the right things. We can try to be a good friend. We can try to never lie, never cheat, never steal stuff, never watch bad things on YouTube or TV or Netflix. But can you get rid of all your sins by yourself? No! Just like Sis. Val couldn't cut down that old crusty dead tree, we can't get rid of our own sins.

The Bible says that sin brings death. So if we can't get rid of sin, what do we do?

We let Jesus take care of it! Give the problem to God. I couldn't get my old crusty tree down in my yard, but God could. One storm and it was down. We can't get rid of our sin, but a storm came at a hill called Calvary. It was dark, and the wind blew, and in that one storm, God took care of all of our sins. The price was paid, and now we can grow in Him. We don't have to be tangled in those old dead branches of sin, but we can be like that living willow, and be happy in the sunshine that God gives us.

But we need to repent first.

Then live for God with everything you've got.

Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England said "never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never . . ."

Let's pray that Jesus will help us when we have to do hard things.