How Real Men Provide Real Help in Real Trouble

What do you do when you cannot fix it or explain it?

1. You can ignore it

2. You can make it worse

3. You can help

• Positive & negative case study The Lord’s Gethsemane Prayer Matthew 26
• Gethsemane – near Mount of Olives near olive garden means “oil press”
• Jesus final hours before the cross
• Up all night in anxiety praying

1. What do they need from me?

Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”

• Some days are sacred days
• Serving is not doing what I think they need, but what they think they need

2. Am I welcome to be physically present?

Matthew 26:37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,

• Did they open the door, or did I kick it down?
• Like a first responder, you need to get to the scene

3. What are they feeling? 

Matthew 26:37 he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

• People can go through the same thing and feel different things

4. Am I listening?

Matthew 26:38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

• Listening is loving

5. Am I staying focused?

Matthew 26:40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?

• Like a sport, you gotta play the whole game

6. How can I watch and pray?

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray

• Like a military scout you need to be on the lookout and radio your commander

7. How can I walk with them into their suffering? 

Matthew 26:45 “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

• Jesus is walking at His betrayer & the painful will of God
• The people who love you walk in when everyone else is walking out

Discussion Questions

1. Who needs you to be present and prayerful for them right now? How?

2. How can we pray for you?