How calming are the words of our text tonight. These words are timeless. He speaks in present tense. He speaks about all times. No matter what is happening, we must let these words sink down into our heart. Life is not easy, but it is possible. God never said that life would be easy, but He did say we can live a good life. Some times everything goes our way. The Lord was not speaking to those days in this text. It is in the dark, uncomfortable days that our text speaks to. An untroubled heart is rare. Jesus speaking here had just delivered some very troubling news. to the disciples. To comfort them, he speaks these comforting words: Let not your heart be troubled. To understand the significance of His words, it is important to understand what He did not say. He was speaking directly to them and not some unnamed people. He did not say let not your life be troubled, He said let not your heart be troubled. We cannot do a lot about life, but we have control over what happens in our heart. He is calling for us to play our part in life and understand that though life may be troubled, our hearts need not be. The bible tells us that we will experience tribulation. But through it all, our text tells us that no matter how heavy the burden in life may be, it is possible to have a peace inside like a river that passes all understanding. While others may be losing their composure, our text gives us the comfort of knowing that we can remain calm in the face of adversity. The basis of this untroubled heart is faith in God. God will not allow anything to happen in our life that has not passed His approval and knowledge that we can endure it. No matter what may happen, God's hand is there to guide, direct and lift up those who have stumbled. We may not understand what is going on around us, but we have peace like a river when we understand that God is in control. God has a plan for our life. Knowing this is the second key to an untroubled heart. Our life is not left to fate, there is a divine order and plan. We must get in step with His plan. When we are in step with HIs plan, we know that all things work together for the good. Life may not get easier, but it will be sweeter when we are in step with God's plan. When we get to the end of life, we will be able to look back and see the path He has led us down. The only way to get through this world with an untroubled heart is to understand that there is a future that will make all of this worth it. That is the secret to an untroubled heart.

How calming are the words of our text tonight. These words are timeless. He speaks in present tense. He speaks about all times. No matter what is happening, we must let these words sink down into our heart. Life is not easy, but it is possible. God never said that life would be easy, but He did say we can live a good life. Some times everything goes our way. The Lord was not speaking to those days in this text. It is in the dark, uncomfortable days that our text speaks to. An untroubled heart is rare. Jesus speaking here had just delivered some very troubling news. to the disciples. To comfort them, he speaks these comforting words: Let not your heart be troubled. To understand the significance of His words, it is important to understand what He did not say. He was speaking directly to them and not some unnamed people. He did not say let not your life be troubled, He said let not your heart be troubled. We cannot do a lot about life, but we have control over what happens in our heart. He is calling for us to play our part in life and understand that though life may be troubled, our hearts need not be. The bible tells us that we will experience tribulation. But through it all, our text tells us that no matter how heavy the burden in life may be, it is possible to have a peace inside like a river that passes all understanding. While others may be losing their composure, our text gives us the comfort of knowing that we can remain calm in the face of adversity. The basis of this untroubled heart is faith in God. God will not allow anything to happen in our life that has not passed His approval and knowledge that we can endure it. No matter what may happen, God's hand is there to guide, direct and lift up those who have stumbled. We may not understand what is going on around us, but we have peace like a river when we understand that God is in control. God has a plan for our life. Knowing this is the second key to an untroubled heart. Our life is not left to fate, there is a divine order and plan. We must get in step with His plan. When we are in step with HIs plan, we know that all things work together for the good. Life may not get easier, but it will be sweeter when we are in step with God's plan. When we get to the end of life, we will be able to look back and see the path He has led us down. The only way to get through this world with an untroubled heart is to understand that there is a future that will make all of this worth it. That is the secret to an untroubled heart.

The place is all that Luke would call it. It was His familiar face. The garden of Gethsemane was a familiar place to Jesus. It was quite different from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was crowded with people coming in for the feast of the passover. Jesus retreats to a familiar place for a time to pray. There is no other place in scripture that revels such an intimate view of our Lord. In no other place do we get such a view of the cost of HIs sacrifice. In this text we are given a view of a private prayer of a powerful man. We are allowed to come into this setting by the writing of Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all give us a glimpse into an very personal prayer of a spirit in agony. Jesus was the sacrifice. None other could redeam us. The others; bulls, lambs, turtle doves could only push sin aside, but this sacrifice would redeam mankind.

In the pouring out of His soul, there is much to be learned. The writers used word agony to describe the scene. All of us know something about agony. It references being in the midst of a struggle; one that requires all of our attention. The limits of the flesh and of man were laid down in that moment of agony. Mark tells us that in the garden, He became sore amazed. What could cause this in HIm given all He had seen. He had delt with the pride and arrogance of the religious leaders of the time. He had witnessed the torment of demon posses. The affects of lame and broken lives. What is it that amazed Him in the garden? Bro. Hughes suggests that the thing that amazed Him was the cup of sin that he was about to drink. What amazed Him was the sin of man. How far man had fallen from the time of the creation until then. The events in the garden at that time changed the world forever.

So what does this scene reveal? First it shows that dealing with flesh is no easy thing. Doing the will of God will take some kind of decision and determination. This decision pushed our Lord to the point where His sweat fell like drops of blood to the ground. It is no easy thing to bring our flesh under subjection. It is no easy task to tell our flesh: No. All the struggles that we feel in our flesh, Jesus knew that and even more. It is not easy to deal with our flesh, but it is important that we must. Secondly, this story reveals the voluntary way in which He suffered. No one made Him go there. He went willingly. He did it because He loves US. In the garden that evening there was a revelation of the full weight and breadth of sin. Not His sin, but ours. We live in a world that mocks sin. That trivializes sin. That promotes sin. Forgive us Lord for treating so lightly the sin that You came to forgive; that You agonized and for which your blood fell. As long as we trivialize sin; as long as we excuse sin; as long as we entertain ourselves with sin, we let His suffering and sacrifice be for nothing. Don't let it fall in vain.

The place is all that Luke would call it. It was His familiar face. The garden of Gethsemane was a familiar place to Jesus. It was quite different from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was crowded with people coming in for the feast of the passover. Jesus retreats to a familiar place for a time to pray. There is no other place in scripture that revels such an intimate view of our Lord. In no other place do we get such a view of the cost of HIs sacrifice. In this text we are given a view of a private prayer of a powerful man. We are allowed to come into this setting by the writing of Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all give us a glimpse into an very personal prayer of a spirit in agony. Jesus was the sacrifice. None other could redeam us. The others; bulls, lambs, turtle doves could only push sin aside, but this sacrifice would redeam mankind.

In the pouring out of His soul, there is much to be learned. The writers used word agony to describe the scene. All of us know something about agony. It references being in the midst of a struggle; one that requires all of our attention. The limits of the flesh and of man were laid down in that moment of agony. Mark tells us that in the garden, He became sore amazed. What could cause this in HIm given all He had seen. He had delt with the pride and arrogance of the religious leaders of the time. He had witnessed the torment of demon posses. The affects of lame and broken lives. What is it that amazed Him in the garden? Bro. Hughes suggests that the thing that amazed Him was the cup of sin that he was about to drink. What amazed Him was the sin of man. How far man had fallen from the time of the creation until then. The events in the garden at that time changed the world forever.

So what does this scene reveal? First it shows that dealing with flesh is no easy thing. Doing the will of God will take some kind of decision and determination. This decision pushed our Lord to the point where His sweat fell like drops of blood to the ground. It is no easy thing to bring our flesh under subjection. It is no easy task to tell our flesh: No. All the struggles that we feel in our flesh, Jesus knew that and even more. It is not easy to deal with our flesh, but it is important that we must. Secondly, this story reveals the voluntary way in which He suffered. No one made Him go there. He went willingly. He did it because He loves US. In the garden that evening there was a revelation of the full weight and breadth of sin. Not His sin, but ours. We live in a world that mocks sin. That trivializes sin. That promotes sin. Forgive us Lord for treating so lightly the sin that You came to forgive; that You agonized and for which your blood fell. As long as we trivialize sin; as long as we excuse sin; as long as we entertain ourselves with sin, we let His suffering and sacrifice be for nothing. Don't let it fall in vain.

There are many churches today that are "seeker friendly" Bro. Hughes declares that he wants a GOD seeking church. Our text indicates that this is not a new problem. Paul writing to Timothy, had to council him on how to act in the House of God. Church is not about us. Church is not supposed to cater to us. This is the church of the LIVING God. We do not build it for our glory. We build it so that we can come an lift our voices, lift our hands, and lift our praise to the God of heaven. We must remember that God expects us to be open to Him when we come into His house. He doesn't need our thought or our words. He knows that, what He wants is our worship. Too many have forgotten that our lives were not changed by a song service, or a program. It was changed by the infilling of the Holy Ghost. His spirit picked us up and cleaned us up. Our life is not owed to talent or ability. It is owed to Him; the living God who came to earth and died for our sins. God deserves more than we are giving Him. Our worship has to be more than words we sing. It has to be more than following a schedule. It has to be more than a program. If we will quit making church about us, and start making it about Him, He will start making His power available to us. God is alive and still moves by His Spirit. He is very near those that hunger for Him. Our words of worship are a vehicle that take us into His presence. Where He is there are answers, solutions, healing and redemption.

There are many churches today that are "seeker friendly" Bro. Hughes declares that he wants a GOD seeking church. Our text indicates that this is not a new problem. Paul writing to Timothy, had to council him on how to act in the House of God. Church is not about us. Church is not supposed to cater to us. This is the church of the LIVING God. We do not build it for our glory. We build it so that we can come an lift our voices, lift our hands, and lift our praise to the God of heaven. We must remember that God expects us to be open to Him when we come into His house. He doesn't need our thought or our words. He knows that, what He wants is our worship. Too many have forgotten that our lives were not changed by a song service, or a program. It was changed by the infilling of the Holy Ghost. His spirit picked us up and cleaned us up. Our life is not owed to talent or ability. It is owed to Him; the living God who came to earth and died for our sins. God deserves more than we are giving Him. Our worship has to be more than words we sing. It has to be more than following a schedule. It has to be more than a program. If we will quit making church about us, and start making it about Him, He will start making His power available to us. God is alive and still moves by His Spirit. He is very near those that hunger for Him. Our words of worship are a vehicle that take us into His presence. Where He is there are answers, solutions, healing and redemption.

Today's message is for anyone who has ever felt like giving up and running away. Life is tough enough to deal with, but when we add in our own mistakes, it makes it almost unbearable. Circumstances can be overwhelming and can drive us to our knees in prayer. When life catches up with us and our mistakes find a way of resurfacing it can be devastating. Being heartsick is a troubling place. Bro. Hughes comes today with a word for a sore heart. A word's value depends upon two things: The person speaking the word and the condition of our heart. Comforting advise for someone who has never experienced what we are facing is not of much value to us. We want someone who has been though the fire and survived. Someone who has never experienced adversity cannot relate to our situation. David faced adversity. He fought a lion, a bear, a giant and great failings in his own life. In our text David states one of the most important pieces of advise that any of us can hear: I will trust in thee. Who is this man who wrote this psalm? Is he a man who is happy? Is he a man who has everything going his way? When this psalm is written, Davids son was leading a rebellion against him. There was a mob in the street seeking to find him. This is at the end of David's rule he is running for his life. This is not a man who had things going his way. Many of his prayers had gone unanswered. He felt alone and abandoned. But David did not regard God's silence as indifference. He knew that just because God does not answer, it does not mean that He does not have an answer. This man who faced a lion and a giant was now afraid. After all this, David concluded with : I will trust the Lord. David ask for wings to fly away, but he realized that he needed more than fleeing could provide. He needed something that would give him peace right where he was. What he found was that it was better to trust in the Lord than to do anything else. It is such a simple answer. It was the resolution that changed all the bad that was going in in his life. It was the determination that he would cling to God no matter what.

Today's message is for anyone who has ever felt like giving up and running away. Life is tough enough to deal with, but when we add in our own mistakes, it makes it almost unbearable. Circumstances can be overwhelming and can drive us to our knees in prayer. When life catches up with us and our mistakes find a way of resurfacing it can be devastating. Being heartsick is a troubling place. Bro. Hughes comes today with a word for a sore heart. A word's value depends upon two things: The person speaking the word and the condition of our heart. Comforting advise for someone who has never experienced what we are facing is not of much value to us. We want someone who has been though the fire and survived. Someone who has never experienced adversity cannot relate to our situation. David faced adversity. He fought a lion, a bear, a giant and great failings in his own life. In our text David states one of the most important pieces of advise that any of us can hear: I will trust in thee. Who is this man who wrote this psalm? Is he a man who is happy? Is he a man who has everything going his way? When this psalm is written, Davids son was leading a rebellion against him. There was a mob in the street seeking to find him. This is at the end of David's rule he is running for his life. This is not a man who had things going his way. Many of his prayers had gone unanswered. He felt alone and abandoned. But David did not regard God's silence as indifference. He knew that just because God does not answer, it does not mean that He does not have an answer. This man who faced a lion and a giant was now afraid. After all this, David concluded with : I will trust the Lord. David ask for wings to fly away, but he realized that he needed more than fleeing could provide. He needed something that would give him peace right where he was. What he found was that it was better to trust in the Lord than to do anything else. It is such a simple answer. It was the resolution that changed all the bad that was going in in his life. It was the determination that he would cling to God no matter what.

A battlefield evokes something from us. Gettysburg, San Jacinto, Normandy and others cause us to replay in our minds the famous battles that took place so many years before. We are taken back by the events and the history. Life is a battle. It is a strange and dangerous journey. The soul of man is an active battlefield that still engages in conflict with the enemy. No matter the age or stage in life, we never outgrow the battle. We are a target of an enemy that seeks to destroy. Bro. Hughes observes that life is alternately building and battling. Our life is a series of battles. How well we do in these battles determine the outcome. Sometimes what appears to be a small skirmish, becomes the turning point in a person's life. In our text, Bro. Hughes finds a proven strategy for winning the battles of life. There is no better case study of the battles of life than the life of Joseph. His life is both instructive and inspiring. He was a great dreamer. The world both loves and hates a dreamer. Joseph had to live through a nightmare in order to see his dream come to pass. How did Joseph stay true to his character, to his convictions and to his God in the face of the opposition he encountered? In Joseph's story we find drama, pressure, conflict, and pleasure. There was power, temptation and many other elements that the greats of literature use to compel their audience.

Joseph was tempted by a woman. She tempted him relentlessly. In this story, we see a man who was steadfast in his resolve to keep himself and his reputation pure. In the moment of great temptation, Joseph left it behind for the promise of a greater destiny. In a moment, Joseph had a decision to make. A moment can make or break a life. If he had succumbed to the moment of pleasure, Joseph would jeopardized his entire future. Joseph faced great odds and stood to overcome. At this time, he was a young man. Daily the advances of this attractive woman must have worn upon him. She was Potifer's wife. She had power and influence. History tells us that women of this time, especially women of power, were very loose in their morals and that this was accepted. She flattered him. Flattery can make us do a lot of things. She also used the promise of promotion to entice him. Joseph was second to only Potifer and he knew it. The enemy will try to convince us that he can give us something that we already have.

How did Joseph win this victory on this battlefield of temptation? The answer to that question are found in our text. The first anchor to Joseph's defense was that he took time to look around and see how blessed he was. Since the garden, the devil has tried to focus man on what he did NOT have rather than what he DID have. When the devil comes against us, the first thing he will try to blur is our vision of how blessed we are. We do not need whatever the enemy has to offer, because God is with us. Joseph was blessed. He was chief of all of Potifer's house. Potifer held nothing back. Joseph realized that God had put him in a place of blessing, and he was not willing to betray that trust. Potifer had trusted Joseph, and that was worth more to him than the moment of pleasure would bring. Joseph was thankful. He did not feel entitled to take any liberties with her, he was simply thankful for what he had.

The second thing Joseph did was to look inside himself. Ask "How can I do this?" He knew that he did not have to compromise himself to gain an advantage. He chose to live by a higher standard. Joseph drew a line, and refused to move that line. The devil does not care about our lines. He will modify his attack to see if he can get us to move our line. Joseph refused to move his line.

The third thing Joseph did, was that he looked to the future to see the outcome of what she was tempting him to do. He had no future with another man's wife. The time to look ahead and anticipate the future, is before it happens, not after. Joseph looked ahead and ask "where is this taking me?" The conclusion he came to was that it was taking him down a path of destruction. In Joseph's no was the clear ring of a made up mind. That decisive mind made the difference in the outcome of his life.

A battlefield evokes something from us. Gettysburg, San Jacinto, Normandy and others cause us to replay in our minds the famous battles that took place so many years before. We are taken back by the events and the history. Life is a battle. It is a strange and dangerous journey. The soul of man is an active battlefield that still engages in conflict with the enemy. No matter the age or stage in life, we never outgrow the battle. We are a target of an enemy that seeks to destroy. Bro. Hughes observes that life is alternately building and battling. Our life is a series of battles. How well we do in these battles determine the outcome. Sometimes what appears to be a small skirmish, becomes the turning point in a person's life. In our text, Bro. Hughes finds a proven strategy for winning the battles of life. There is no better case study of the battles of life than the life of Joseph. His life is both instructive and inspiring. He was a great dreamer. The world both loves and hates a dreamer. Joseph had to live through a nightmare in order to see his dream come to pass. How did Joseph stay true to his character, to his convictions and to his God in the face of the opposition he encountered? In Joseph's story we find drama, pressure, conflict, and pleasure. There was power, temptation and many other elements that the greats of literature use to compel their audience.

Joseph was tempted by a woman. She tempted him relentlessly. In this story, we see a man who was steadfast in his resolve to keep himself and his reputation pure. In the moment of great temptation, Joseph left it behind for the promise of a greater destiny. In a moment, Joseph had a decision to make. A moment can make or break a life. If he had succumbed to the moment of pleasure, Joseph would jeopardized his entire future. Joseph faced great odds and stood to overcome. At this time, he was a young man. Daily the advances of this attractive woman must have worn upon him. She was Potifer's wife. She had power and influence. History tells us that women of this time, especially women of power, were very loose in their morals and that this was accepted. She flattered him. Flattery can make us do a lot of things. She also used the promise of promotion to entice him. Joseph was second to only Potifer and he knew it. The enemy will try to convince us that he can give us something that we already have.

How did Joseph win this victory on this battlefield of temptation? The answer to that question are found in our text. The first anchor to Joseph's defense was that he took time to look around and see how blessed he was. Since the garden, the devil has tried to focus man on what he did NOT have rather than what he DID have. When the devil comes against us, the first thing he will try to blur is our vision of how blessed we are. We do not need whatever the enemy has to offer, because God is with us. Joseph was blessed. He was chief of all of Potifer's house. Potifer held nothing back. Joseph realized that God had put him in a place of blessing, and he was not willing to betray that trust. Potifer had trusted Joseph, and that was worth more to him than the moment of pleasure would bring. Joseph was thankful. He did not feel entitled to take any liberties with her, he was simply thankful for what he had.

The second thing Joseph did was to look inside himself. Ask "How can I do this?" He knew that he did not have to compromise himself to gain an advantage. He chose to live by a higher standard. Joseph drew a line, and refused to move that line. The devil does not care about our lines. He will modify his attack to see if he can get us to move our line. Joseph refused to move his line.

The third thing Joseph did, was that he looked to the future to see the outcome of what she was tempting him to do. He had no future with another man's wife. The time to look ahead and anticipate the future, is before it happens, not after. Joseph looked ahead and ask "where is this taking me?" The conclusion he came to was that it was taking him down a path of destruction. In Joseph's no was the clear ring of a made up mind. That decisive mind made the difference in the outcome of his life.