Skip to main content

Ask Rewind

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon — answers are grounded in the actual transcripts.

The study, discipleship, and teaching platform built on your church's own preaching.

Product

How it works
Pricing
What's new
Churches on Rewind

Solutions

For churches
For teaching teams
For groups
For seminaries
Agency partners

Company

About
Contact

Legal

Trust & your data
Terms
Privacy
How we use AI
Accessibility

© 2026 Rewind

Burdens & Blessings | Week 3 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

38 min

Pastor Rocky High · Dec 3, 2024 · 4 min read · 38 min listen

The big idea

Quoting the message: Following Jesus is surrendering our will, not getting our way, end quote..

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 6Jesus faced His own moment of not wanting what the Father had for Him.
Point 2 of 6It is not sinful to not want what God wants for you — the sin question is about follow-through.

Point 3 of 6Jesus in Gethsemane reverses what Adam and Eve did in Eden.
Point 4 of 6Surrendering our will means praying for change in us, not just in our circumstances.
Point 5 of 6Surrendering our will means refusing to go it alone and choosing real community.
Point 6 of 6Surrendering our will means trusting God's character rather than judging Him by our circumstances.
Take it into your week
Transcript

Ask Rewind about this message

Sign in to ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

Matthew 26:36
Matthew 26
Genesis 3

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Rocky High · Dec 3, 2024 · 38 min watch · 2 min read

Burdens & Blessings | Week 3 | Sermon

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 26:36
Matthew 26
Genesis 3

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Following Jesus is surrendering our will, not getting our way, end quote..

Jesus knows what it's like to face something we don't want, and in the Garden of Gethsemane He shows us that the only real option is surrendering to the Father's will rather than demanding our own way. What Adam and Eve broke by grabbing for what they wanted in the Garden of Eden, Jesus healed by surrendering in the garden of Gethsemane — and that same choice is set before us today.

Key points

1
1Jesus faced His own moment of not wanting what the Father had for Him.
Pastor Rocky walks through Matthew 26:36-46, describing Jesus falling face down in Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood, and praying that the cup be taken from Him. He contrasts this raw, agonized scene with the sanitized flannel-graph version he grew up with in Sunday school, showing Jesus genuinely wrestling before surrendering.
2
2It is not sinful to not want what God wants for you — the sin question is about follow-through.
After Jesus prays a second and third time for another way, Pastor Rocky asks directly whether it's sinful to not want to do what God wants, and answers no — righteousness or sin is determined by whether we follow through, not by our initial reluctance.
3
3Jesus in Gethsemane reverses what Adam and Eve did in Eden.
Pastor Rocky retells Genesis 3, showing how the serpent got Eve to question God's word, question God's goodness, and question God's provision, leading her to reach outside God's will for the fruit. He quotes Max Lucado's line that in Eden Adam took a fall and Satan led him to a tree that led to death, while in Gethsemane Jesus took a stand and went to a tree that led to life.
4
4Surrendering our will means praying for change in us, not just in our circumstances.
Using a story about finding the answer key in the back of his math book but getting no credit because he skipped the work, Pastor Rocky shows that God often wants to do something in us before He does something for us. He points out that Jesus's prayer always ended with 'not my will, but yours,' modeling prayer that seeks transformation, not just a transactional answer.
5
5Surrendering our will means refusing to go it alone and choosing real community.
Pastor Rocky tells the Muhammad Ali seatbelt story to illustrate the false bravado of insisting we don't need help, then notes that Jesus brought Peter, James, and John into the garden to witness Him in a vulnerable state, while Adam and Eve hid from God and each other after sinning. A video testimony from Bria about the Embrace Grace ministry illustrates what it looks like to admit need and receive support from community.
6
6Surrendering our will means trusting God's character rather than judging Him by our circumstances.
Pastor Rocky returns to the story of his son Orion trusting his father with medicine despite not liking it, applying it to trusting God even when we don't like what He allows. He states that we cannot judge the love of God based on circumstances but based on the empty tomb.

Application

Pastor Rocky frames the response as three moves: pray for change, be in community, and trust in God.

Pray for change in you, not just your circumstances
Don't just ask God to fix the outcome; ask Him to change you in the process, following Jesus's pattern of praying 'not my will, but yours.'
Stop pretending to be Superman or Superwoman
Admit you need help instead of isolating, and let people into your real struggles the way Jesus let Peter, James, and John see Him vulnerable in the garden.
Be the community someone else needs
If your season is stable, look for who around you needs support, and consider giving to Rock Point's Hope Outreach so ministries like Embrace Grace can keep helping people like Bria.
Choose to trust your heavenly Father
Even when circumstances are hard and you don't like what you're facing, decide to trust God's character and goodness rather than judging Him by your situation.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. We're gonna start in verse 36. Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, sit here while I go over there and pray”
Read the whole chapter →
Paraphrase of the transcript
And what we're gonna do with our time together this morning is we're gonna look at a moment where Jesus is in the Garden Of Gethsemane, and we're gonna see him pray for a different outcome. And what you and I are gonna wrestle with from time to time is there are things that we want to do that directly go against the will of God in our life, and we will have a decision to make. We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 26.
From the transcript
“And then in Genesis chapter three, our enemy shows up in the garden. Here's what it says. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

There is something striking about the fact that Jesus — fully God, fully man — knelt in a garden and asked for a different way. He didn't perform calm acceptance. He fell face down. He said, 'My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.' That is raw, honest prayer. And it is the first thing Pastor Rocky pointed us toward: Jesus modeled what it looks like to bring your real self to the Father, not a polished version of yourself that pretends everything is fine. The Garden of Gethsemane is not a scene of quiet resignation — it is a scene of anguish that ends in surrender. What makes it beautiful is not that Jesus didn't feel the weight of what was coming. He felt it completely. What makes it beautiful is that He didn't let that feeling have the final word. He prayed, 'Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.' That word 'yet' is doing a lot of work. It holds the tension without resolving it too quickly. You are allowed to feel the weight of hard things and still turn toward God. That is not doubt — that is faith doing what faith is actually meant to do.

For reflection

Is there something heavy you have been carrying that you haven't yet brought honestly to God? What would it look like to pray about it the way Jesus did — without hiding the hard part?

Pray

Pray for the courage to be fully honest with God about whatever feels heaviest right now.

Day 2

Before there was a Garden of Gethsemane, there was a Garden of Eden — and what happened there is the reason Gethsemane had to happen at all. Pastor Rocky drew a sharp and clarifying line between these two gardens. In Eden, the enemy came with three moves: get Adam and Eve to question God's word, question God's goodness, and question God's provision. The fruit looked good. It looked pleasing. It looked desirable. And the reach for it — the choice to take what God had not given — broke something in the whole human story. What is worth sitting with today is how ordinary that moment looks. There was no dramatic villain. There was just a quiet whisper that maybe God was holding something back, maybe His word wasn't quite right, maybe there was something better just outside the boundary He had set. The same three questions still show up today. When circumstances are painful, it is easy to wonder whether God is really good, really trustworthy, really enough. Naming that pattern — recognizing it for what it is — is the first step toward not repeating it. The enemy hasn't changed his playbook. That means we can learn to spot it.

For reflection

When your circumstances are difficult, which of the three questions tends to hit hardest for you — doubting God's word, His goodness, or His provision? What does that tell you about where you need to anchor your trust?

Pray

Pray for clarity about which of the enemy's three tactics you are most vulnerable to right now, and ask God to strengthen your trust in that specific area.

Day 3

Jesus didn't go to Gethsemane alone. He brought Peter, James, and John. He asked them to stay close, to keep watch, to be present with Him in the hardest night of His life. And then He walked a little farther and prayed. It is worth slowing down here, because Pastor Rocky made a point that is easy to skip past: choosing community over isolation is part of surrendering your will. Jesus — the Son of God, who could have handled anything on His own — modeled what it looks like to say, 'I need people near me right now.' He didn't deliver a lecture to His disciples that night. He asked them to be with Him. There is a version of faith that convinces us we should be able to handle hard things quietly, on our own, without burdening anyone. But that version of faith isn't what Jesus modeled. When the disciples fell asleep and left Him alone, something was genuinely lost in that moment. Community is not optional decoration on the Christian life — it is part of the design. Saying 'I need help' is not a confession of weakness. It is, as Pastor Rocky put it, the posture Jesus Himself took.

For reflection

Is there a place in your life right now where you have been going it alone when you could invite someone else in? What has made it hard to ask for that kind of help?

Pray

Pray for the humility to let someone else into whatever you are carrying, and for God to bring the right person across your path.

Day 4

Jesus prayed the same prayer three times. He went back to the Father, and He asked again. Pastor Rocky didn't gloss over this detail, and neither should we. Honest prayer is not always a single, tidy moment of surrender that resolves everything. Sometimes it is returning to the same hard thing again and again, still choosing to say 'not my will, but Yours.' There is something deeply freeing in that. It means you are not failing when you have to keep bringing the same struggle to God. You are not spiritually immature because the surrender doesn't come instantly. Jesus prayed the same request three times, and each time He landed in the same place — trusting the Father. What changed wasn't the circumstance. What changed was something in Jesus' posture toward it. That is the shape of what Pastor Rocky called 'praying for change' — not just asking God to fix the situation, but asking Him to do something in you while the situation is still hard. God often wants to work in you before He works for you. That is not a delay or a punishment. It is the way He shapes the kind of faith that can hold weight.

For reflection

Is there a prayer you have brought to God more than once, feeling like you should be 'past it' by now? What might it look like to bring it again today — honestly, and with open hands?

Pray

Pray for patience with the process God is doing in you, not just the outcome you are waiting for.

Day 5

After Adam and Eve reached outside God's will, they hid. That is the first recorded human response to broken relationship with God — not running toward Him, but pulling away and covering up. Pastor Rocky's contrast between Eden and Gethsemane illuminates something important here: where Adam hid, Jesus went forward. Where the first human response to fear was isolation, Jesus moved toward the Father in prayer and then walked willingly toward the cross. We tend to do what Adam and Eve did. When we have grasped at something outside God's will, or when we are afraid of what God might be asking of us, the instinct is to pull back, go quiet, and manage things on our own. But the pattern Jesus set is the opposite. Surrender doesn't begin with having everything figured out. It begins with staying in the conversation — with God and with the people He has placed around you. You don't have to have clean hands before you come back to the Father. The whole point of what Jesus did is that you can come as you are and be received.

For reflection

When you sense tension between what you want and what God might be asking, what is your first instinct — to draw closer or to pull back? What would it take to practice moving toward God instead?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to stay in honest relationship with God even when you feel like hiding.

Day 6

After the third prayer, Jesus stood up and walked toward His betrayer. He didn't wait for the fear to disappear first. He didn't wait until the circumstances changed or until He felt ready. He rose and moved. This is where Pastor Rocky's third application lands with the most weight: at some point, you simply have to choose to trust. Not because your circumstances have improved. Not because the hard thing went away. But because the empty tomb is real, and it tells you something definitive about the character of the God you are trusting. That tomb being empty is the ultimate answer to every question the enemy raises. Is God's word true? The resurrection says yes. Is God good? The resurrection says yes. Does God provide? The resurrection says yes — even through death itself. The trust Jesus is calling you to is not blind optimism or a refusal to acknowledge that things are hard. It is a decision, anchored in a historical event, that God's love is not determined by what your situation looks like today. He is still on His throne. Everything He has for you is for His glory and your good.

For reflection

What would it look like for you to take one concrete step of trust this week — not because the circumstances are resolved, but because the empty tomb is true?

Pray

Pray for the kind of trust that is rooted in who God has shown Himself to be, not in how your situation looks right now.

Day 7

Looking back across this week, the movement of the passage is worth seeing as a whole. Jesus arrived in the garden in anguish. He prayed honestly — three times — for a different outcome. He brought His closest friends with Him. He kept returning to the Father. And then He stood up and walked forward in trust. That arc is the shape of surrender, and it is not a single moment — it is a practice. Pastor Rocky drew the comparison to Eden because both gardens were places where a choice was made about whose will would govern. In Eden, the reach went outward — toward what looked good and desirable outside of God's design. In Gethsemane, the reach went upward — toward the Father, again and again, until trust won. The invitation this week and every week is to live in the Gethsemane pattern: honest prayer, real community, and chosen trust. Not a performance of those things, but an actual posture of heart. You won't do it perfectly — none of us will. But the direction matters. The empty tomb is still true. God is still good. And the same Jesus who modeled surrender in that garden is the One walking with you through yours.

For reflection

As you look at this whole week, which of the three practices — honest prayer, chosen community, or deliberate trust — feels most like an invitation God is extending to you right now?

Pray

Pray for a willing heart to keep returning to the Gethsemane posture — honest, connected, and trusting — in whatever your week ahead holds.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Jesus had the power to walk away from the cross — and He didn't want to go. This message sits with that tension and asks what it looks like to follow Him through it.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 26:36-44, Jesus prays three times for the cup to pass, yet each time surrenders to the Father's will. What does that repeated honest prayer tell us about what surrender actually looks like — and what it doesn't look like?
2
Pastor Rocky made the point that it is not sinful to not want what God wants for you — what makes it sinful or righteous is entirely in the follow-through. How does that reframe the way we might think about the hard or painful things God allows in a person's life?
3
In Genesis 3:1-6, the enemy works by getting Eve to question God's word, God's goodness, and God's provision. Where do we tend to see those same three tactics show up in everyday life today?
4
Pastor Rocky described Jesus bringing Peter, James, and John into the garden rather than going alone. What might it mean for a community like ours to take that posture seriously — choosing connection over isolation when life gets heavy?
5
Pastor Rocky challenged us to judge God's love not by how our circumstances look right now, but by the reality of an empty tomb. What difference does it make to anchor trust there rather than in what is immediately visible?
6
This message draws a contrast between Adam and Eve grasping outside God's will and Jesus surrendering to it. How might that contrast shape the way we as a community pray — not just asking God to change our situations, but asking Him to change us in the process?

Pray together

Surrender — asking God to do whatever He needs to do in us, trusting His goodness even when the path is hard

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Sign in to save this message.

Go deeper

Continue the series

Burdens & Blessings

Week 3 · 3 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 26 Genesis 3

Explore related topics

Community and Vulnerability Gethsemane Overcoming Temptation Surrendering Your Will Trusting God's Goodness

Related sermons

Love Defined | Week 6
Pastor Bill Bush · Oct 3, 2026
Shares scripture
Victory Weekend | Full Service
Pastor Hunter Jones · Jan 5, 2026
Shares scripture
Easter at Rock Point 2025 | Message
Pastor Bill Bush · Apr 21, 2025
Shares scripture
Fixer Upper | Week 1 | Sermon
Pastor Bill Bush · Feb 24, 2025
Shares scripture
Burdens & Blessings | Week 2 | Sermon
Pastor Bill Bush · Nov 25, 2024
Shares scripture
Burdens & Blessings | Week 1 | Sermon
Pastor Hunter Jones · Nov 19, 2024
Shares scripture

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →