Exodus 29:1-30:10 ~ Matthew 26:14-46 ~ Psalm 31:19-24 ~ Proverbs 8:14-26   So each time we get to the stories of Christ’s betrayal, of his giving up his life in such truly horrific fashion, becoming the living sacrifice, laying down his perfect life for us and dying the way that he did to purchase our salvation, it is difficult because it is the most joyous thing in our very existence and yet it is difficult to watch this happen, you know?  So we see Jesus in the garden and he is seriously human at this point, right?  I mean, he is crying out to God in anguish, and these are human emotions.  This wasn’t a situation where Jesus had transcended his humanity and just kind of went through it all, just aloof to the whole thing.  He suffered as a man in this moment.  “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak,” he said.  He says something very poignant in his prayers, the final one just before his betrayer came and kissed him.  It is something that should help us as we face hardship because what Jesus says is, “Father, if this cup cannot be taken away…”    How many times have we dealt with things or faced something that we were going to have to go through and asked God to intervene, take it away, make it so that we didn’t have to deal with it, make it so that we didn’t have to go through it, somehow, miraculously take this away?  Jesus prayed that prayer.  He prayed, “Lord, if there is any other way…any other way, Father, please, any other way would be great.  If not, my will is submitted to yours.”  But Jesus resolves himself and says, “If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.”  In other words, okay, the cup is before us.  One way or the other it has to be dealt with.  In Jesus’ case, it is his suffering.  It is him laying his life down as a sacrifice for all.  He is saying, “One way or the other, this cup must be drunk.  If there is no other way to take this cup away but that I drain it to the dregs, then your will be done.”  This is a posture of surrender, a posture of giving over one’s will, and a posture of immense and total and utter trust for the Father.  Jesus knows what is coming and contemplating that kind of execution would be just havoc on the mind and body and the soul.  Jesus knows the spiritual implications of what he has to carry as well.  So this is unthinkable.    When we face hardship, we have this story.  This cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it.  In other words, if this cannot be dealt with unless we go through it, then let’s go.  Your will be done.  I’m following you straight through whatever must be done, whatever hardship, whatever difficulty, whatever we have to face to come out the other side.  Let’s go.  Your will be done.  It is important for us to understand this because we live in a world that is fallen and there is no way to avoid hardship.  There is a way to avoid a lot of hardship because so much of what we face is of our own doing.  We paint ourselves into a corner and then look to the sky for some miracle to get us out of a jam for some colossal mistake or mistakes that we’ve made.  Either way, hardship is a part of life and we have the example of Christ.  We can understand, okay, we’re not going to go through this alone.  But the only way through it sometimes is to get going and go through it as quickly as possible, trusting God that through it our good will be done.    Prayer:  Father, we come to you with trust, with an open hand and a yielded heart.  You are our sovereign Lord.  Many of us have faced different kinds of hardship.  Of course, nothing, nothing that can compare with this scene in the Garden of Gethsemane.  When we face different hardships in life, whether that be the loss of a loved one, the betrayal of someone we care deeply for, the loss of a job and the ability to provide, the loss of our health and the mortality of our bodies staring at us in the face, we face things.  So we look to you now and say remove this cup from us, but if not, we’re going through whatever we have to go through with you.  Our faith and hope is in you alone.  You are our only Savior.  You are the sovereign Lord and you are sovereign over all.  So, Heavenly Father, we place our lives and our very souls, our eternities, our very essence, everything that we ever will be in your hands and commit our trust to you, knowing that no matter what, you are the sovereign Lord and knowing no matter what you love us.  You love us.  Your heart is good toward us.  So we place ourselves in your hands in the name of Jesus, asking for your guidance.  Amen.   www.dailyaudiobible.com is the website and you are invited, of course, to the degree that you want to be involved.  There are a number of things you can get involved in.  just explore.  Explore a little bit and you’ll wander your way into all kinds of stuff.    I’ll remind you that there are a number of ways to stay connected.  Of course, the website is our primary way to stay connected, but we also have a fan page on Facebook which you can easily get to.  If you scroll to the bottom of the Daily Audio Bible homepage, you’ll see all the stay connected links.  You can stay connected through Facebook, through Twitter.  We have a Flickr account where we upload pictures from where we travel or where things are going on in the community and, of course, we have a You Tube account.  So you can stay connected in a number of ways.  You are encouraged to do so.    Guys, I don’t think I mentioned this yesterday, in fact, I’m trying to think if I mentioned this in the last couple of days.  I may have forgotten, but it is just because I’m traveling.  Men of the UK, Europe, and beyond, coming up in May we have a Wild at Heart Boot Camp in Wales.  We are putting a men’s group together to go to this.  I would say it is over half full at this point, so probably another week we’ll take names and then we’ll lock it in.  But we will take a group of men from Europe and beyond to Wild at Heart Boot Camp.  You can find out all the information on the event that you want to by going to RansomedHeart.com.  But if you want to be a part of the Daily Audio Bible men’s group, come back to the Daily Audio Bible website, click Community at the top, and then click Men.  Go into the men’s area and find the particular event that is for Wales, click its graphic, and that will lead you through the registration process to be in the Daily Audio Bible men’s group.  What this does is bypass their lottery system altogether, guaranteeing you a spot with the Daily Audio Bible men so we bunk together and are there as a group together.  We all have something in common as we get there and you are invited to do that.  No money is going to be taken at this time.  That is not where we’re at in the process, but do not register for the group unless you’re committing to go because I’m going to turn those names over to Ransomed Heart, they’re going to contact you for payment in a few weeks.  So don’t block somebody else from going just because you might want to go.  Only sign up if you are committing to go.  I really look forward to this.  I think it’s going to be an outstanding time.  I look forward to spending time with you guys.  We have enough interest, so I’m going to go over and we’ll all be together.  I’m looking forward to that.    If you want to support the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website.  There is a link on the homepage that allows you to support the Daily Audio Bible.  Thank you for your faithfulness.  I mean, sincerely, thank you for your faithfulness.  The Daily Audio Bible doesn’t work unless it’s done as a family and so it is all of us together supporting it that makes it work.  So thank you for keeping it going and keeping the mission alive as we bring the spoken word of God to whoever will listen anywhere in the world.  Yeah, and if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.   Alright, that’s it today from Kansas City.  Oh, you know what?  I forgot all about that.  I didn’t even tell you what is going on.  So I have meeting this morning with Forerunner Music which is the music division of the International House of Prayer.  We’re putting together a musical piece that will serve 3 specific justice issues.  Of course, ours here at the Daily Audio Bible is the human trafficking issue.  So resources harvested from this project will go to Exodus Cry.  Then also there is an adoption mission that IHOP has begun and founded that is placing children with families in an economical way, trying to cut through the red tape in an economical way, provide low cost adoptions.  So part of the harvested resources will go to that.  And then the other part will go into a nonprofit organization raising awareness and resources for tweens, reaching directly into their culture.  So we are meeting with these guys, kind of finalizing the order of songs, but later on, late in the summer this will release.  Of course, it will support the Daily Audio Bible in that it will tell about the Daily Audio Bible as well as all these other organizations and it will release everywhere, all over the place.  Any Christian bookstore you go in, you’ll be able to get it.  Of course, we’ll also sell it at the Daily Audio Bible.  So that is sort of…you know, we have this Coffee~Justice~You program going on.  Here is another piece that we’re working on down the road, another resource that can raise awareness to the issues that we hold dear to our hearts, also that we can sow into and have a reminder, a memento of what we did in the process.  Alright?  Then, of course, I’ll spend a minute with Benji Nolot who we had a great time with the other week on WindFarm Live and shake his hand and just get updated there on all the stuff that they’re doing.  Of course, my son is in Kansas City, so I’m going to hug his neck, kiss his cheek, and spend as many moments with him I can too.  So that is what is going on here.  I have to go back out of Kansas City later and down to Tulsa and then back to Kansas City to fly out to Nashville.  So, yeah, that’s it.    If you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number.  Love you all.  I’m Brian.  I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.