Spiritual Tragedy

Matthew 26:36-46
Length: 17:44

This is a message given on June 7, 2009 at the Bowdertown United Methodist Church.

Spiritual Tragedy

This morning’s scripture gives us a description of a Spiritual Tragedy or a path to spiritual destruction.

The first thing we see in this passage is self-confidence with the disciples. If you remember, while the disciples were still in the Upper Room after having been a part of the Lord’s Supper, they were arguing among themselves as to which would be the greatest in the Kingdom.

Talk about self-confidence. These guys had it here, but self-confidence always opens the door to temptation. This is the first step on the path of destroying your spiritual life. We become confident in our own ability to live our life with our own power.

The disciples thought they too could do this. Notice what happens next. As they enter the garden, Jesus tells them to stay alert, watch out for me, while I go over there and pray. What happens?

They all fall asleep. This is in the next step on the path of spiritual destruction. The disciples all fell asleep physically while they were in the garden of Gethsemane with Christ. They thought they could do this on their own, but they fell asleep.

Today, we can fall asleep spiritually by ignoring evil in this world, becoming indifferent to the injustices that we see happening all around us. Letting the world corrupt our morals.

I believe there is a right and a wrong, a black and white. There is no grey area in God’s eyes. We are the one’s who create the gray area of our life.

There is a term in the computer industry, garbage in, garbage out, meaning if you put bad data into the computer it will process and return bad data to you. If you are putting garbage in your brain from television, books, magazine, or whatever, then you are naturally going to start to have that garbage replicate itself in your life.

As we continue to doze in our spiritual life, we will have less and less concern for what we put into our brains and hearts. This leads us to the next step, which is the temptation. This is what Satan uses against us to really draw us away and keep us away from God.

Each of us is tempted by different things, but usually it has to do with our rights. I have a right to do what I want, read what I what, watch what I want, listen to what I want.

Anytime I think about temptation, the story of Joseph pops into my mind. No doubt you are familiar with the story from Genesis 39. Joseph was a nice looking young man in charge of Potiphar’s household. Potiphar’s wife becomes interested in Joseph and wants to sleep with him.

Joseph gives an excellent speech about why he cannot sleep with her. But as I have said before, words without action often times mean nothing. So Joseph proves himself later by not giving in to the temptation.

The scene occurs when Joseph is alone in the house with Potiphar’s wife. She grabs him and tries to seduce him into sleeping with her. Joseph literally leaves his shirt behind and runs from the situation. Joseph knew right from wrong and he fled the temptation of having this, no doubt beautiful, women thrust herself upon him.

Joseph did not give in to the temptation. Unfortunately, for many people today the temptation leads to the sin. This is only natural for the self-confident, evil tolerant person. Without the help of God, we cannot withstand Satan and avoid sin. We are all sinners, Romans 3:10 tells us there is none righteous, no not one.

The last step is the actual disaster. When you trust in your own confidence and believe that you can live your life in your power and you give in to temptation and sin then you often find yourself calling your sin by a different name.

Instead of calling it sin, people call it a lifestyle choice or a quirky habit. And as you no longer look at your sin as being sin, you no longer feel the need to repent and ask for forgiveness from God. This leads to your spiritual destruction.

This is exactly the path the disciples followed that night in the garden and this is the path we follow when we do not trust in the Lord.

The disciples were confident in themselves. They didn’t need help to stay awake. Then they figured a little nap won’t hurt, there are after all 10 other guys here watching, right? They all fall asleep and when they wake up there is the mob, which came to arrest Jesus.

This passage is a sad example of what can happen to people as they relax in their spiritual journey, but there is some good news too. This passage also provides an example for a spiritual victory through Jesus Christ. The path of victory is the exact opposite as that of destruction.

This means confidence in God rather than yourself. Seeing evil and injustice in the world around you and addressing it as such. Resisting temptation, not through your own will, but through God’s power. And of course, obeying God’s will rather than your own.

That is your challenge this week. Be confident in God, don’t turn your back and ignore the wrongs of the world. Pray that God will deliver you from temptation and if you find yourself in a tempting situation flee from it. Most importantly, if you should find that a failure did occur and you did sin, take it to God and ask for forgiveness and seek to obey His will.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the many lessons that we find in it. Help us to continuously study its truths so that we may put into practice the things that we do indeed learn from you. Help us to trust and obey. Cleanse our hearts and purify our minds as we prepare to communion with you and others. AMEN.