# Go Us Up

Key Passage: Mark 14:41-42
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14 in God’s word this morning. Praise the Lord for young people that are in church, and pray for the families that have them in church. That’s key. And praise the Lord for all of them that are here. Mark chapter 14, God’s word this morning. We’re going to read just two verses.

Then we’ll pray and we’ll go back and discuss the context of the verses. Then we’re going to preach on three words. Last week we did the saying. We’re kind of on this three-word thing right now, you know? Just three words. In fact, I’ll tell the words to you ahead of time: Go, Us, Up. And that’s the title of the message this morning for our PA guys: Go, Us, Up.

Those are the three words we’ll emphasize this morning. Mark chapter 14. We’re going to start in verse 41. Mark 14:41. If you’re there, would you say hallelujah? Don’t worry, we’re not having a faith healing or anything. We can still say hallelujah. We’re all right. Yeah, we’re good.

I failed to mention it this morning, but we do have two, I believe, two first-time guests this morning. We’re honored to have them. Thank you for being with us. Praise the Lord for it.

Mark 14, verse 41 of God’s word. The Bible says, “And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come. Behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go: lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.”

Would you read for me with me those first five words of verse 42? We’re going to read it out loud together. Here we go: “Rise up, and let us go.”

Jesus is about to come to the greatest fight there ever has been. It had been prophesied from the very beginning that this would happen. We’ve mentioned it here recently a lot: Genesis 3:15, in the very beginning. And talking to the serpent, of course, Satan using him, and said, “Hey, the seed of the woman is going to bruise your head, and you’re going to bruise his heel.” Speaking of Jesus going to the cross, and his heel rubbing against that cross would crush the head of Satan. This fight was just on the scene. Jesus knew that.

The greatest hour, the greatest battle there ever has been, by far greater than any battle, whatever it may be. This battle was for your soul and for my soul. This battle was just on the horizon. Jesus is about to go there. Before Jesus goes into the battle, he goes to this garden. Jesus often went to this garden. It was his prayer closet, Gethsemane. Those that followed him knew that’s where Jesus goes and prays a lot of times. He goes out kind of outdoors, there in the garden. We get to enter in and peek in a little bit at Jesus going to the garden before the battle.

By the way, can I say something here? The battles that are won in the Christian world are not won out in front of everybody. They’re won in a garden somewhere, in prayer. The great battles are won alone with God. We often say, “Well, look at that victory out in the open.” But that victory was won somewhere alone with God. Matthew chapter 6 says three times, “Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” Yes, understand, on the cross, the final victory was won, and he made a show of Satan and his little demons, openly triumphing in it. But can I say, friend, I believe that battle was won even before that. I believe it was won in the garden.

Jesus goes to this garden, and his apostles are following. He says, “Come on, fellas, let’s go over here. There’s a battle on the horizon. I can feel the battle winds blowing, if you will. We need to go pray.” He goes there to the garden, and the majority of them just kind of stay there. But he takes his inner three: Peter, James, and John, his elite soldiers, if you will. He said, “Let’s go over here,” and he said, “Now, fellas, you need to pray.”

Then Jesus goes a little farther. About as far as a stone’s throw, Jesus went. The Bible says there he fell on his face and began to pray. I would imagine that was the greatest prayer meeting there ever has been. Jesus—He was God in flesh, but he became the Son of Man. He often called himself that to emphasize his humanity. And he’s there praying, agonizing, the Bible says, to the point that it began to sweat, and his sweat became blood. You know, the doctors say that can actually happen. You get so intense—I believe it’s called the capillaries in your skin can burst, and you begin to get blood mixed in with your skin and your sweat. Jesus is so agonizing in prayer, and he’s praying. This great battle is going. I think right there the battle was either won or lost in Jesus’ prayer. He’s so intense; he’s sweating, and he’s sweating blood.

Jesus prays for an hour. I suggest praying anytime, anywhere. A little quick prayer is amazing, but you ought to pray sometimes an hour or so. Jesus prays for an hour, and he comes back over to his elite three: James and John. Imagine Jesus sees them praying—excuse me, sleeping—and he says, “Fellas, man, you need to pray; the temptation’s coming.” They kind of shook themselves. It’s very interesting; that happened three different times. Jesus goes and prays for an hour, comes back. The Bible says, in three different accounts of it, two of those say their eyes were heavy; they were sleeping. One account says they were sleeping for sorrow. You ever notice when you’re just discouraged, defeated, sometimes you just want to sleep all the time? I don’t know what all it was; maybe just weary. They had been very busy with Jesus and following Jesus. Maybe it’s because Jesus had been telling them, “I’m going to go and be crucified and suffer.” I don’t know what, but there’s sorrow, and their eyes were heavy, but also sorrow. They were sleeping. Every time Jesus goes intensely praying, I believe winning the battle, and he comes back, and they’re sleeping. Can you imagine that?

Now think about it. The greatest hour of mankind—it all centers right there. The center of humanity, predicted for thousands of years. We look back to it; that’s our salvation. And yet, in that crisis moment, the apostles were sleeping. No wonder a little while later on Peter denies him three times, even starts cursing. Friend, you’re no match for Satan, but you get God involved through prayer; he’s no match for the Lord. No wonder they all forsook him and fled at one point. But Jesus, he comes back, and they have miserably failed. They’re sleeping. Jesus is sweating. I wonder how much blood was still on him at this point already; he had been sweating as it was. It became like blood. Imagine what Jesus—so many would be exhausted. Jesus goes back, and these fellas over there, they’re sleeping. Let’s find out what Jesus does about it. Let’s find out what Jesus says. I’m curious if Jesus says, “Well, you’re sorry, good-for-nothing.” Let’s just see what he says. Verse 42, we read it a moment ago. Mark 14, verse 42. Would you look at that verse again, please, with me? Mark, excuse me, Mark chapter 14, verse 42. Here we are. This is what Jesus said: “Rise up, let us go.” Rise up, let us go.

Jesus could have said, “You sorry, good-for-nothing, a bunch of bums. It’s the crucial hour, and you’re sleeping.” But Jesus did not say that. He came, and the first thing he said was, “Rise up, let us go.” I can’t emphasize for just a moment, go. He said, “Let us go.” I still have a plan, a path somewhere I want you to go. You have failed; you have been just a poor example of an apostle, of a Christian, and yet Jesus said, “Hey, I want you to go somewhere.” Friend, can I say this? We’ve all been there before. The best failed Jesus in the crucial moments. These were his apostles; later on, he used those apostles to shake the world and turn the world upside down. These were even the three elite of the apostles, the best of the best. Can I say, even the best of the best disappoint Jesus many times? Friend, you’ve been there; I’ve been there more times than I like to admit, and I’m ashamed myself that I’ve disappointed him, that I’m not being what I ought to be, maybe in the crucial time, at the moment when the game was on the line, and I failed him miserably. But Jesus says, “I’ve got somewhere I want you to go.” Every single person here, I think everyone—you’re still in church, and God’s still drawing you, I believe. Listen, you have failed him like I failed him, but he still comes and says, “Come on, I’ve got somewhere I want you to go.” Still have a plan, still have a path for you, still have an avenue, still like to use you, still like for you to go somewhere. He says, “Rise up, and let us go.”

I think about Mr. Jenkins at Calvary Baptist Church, Lakeland, Florida. I, as a teenager, grew up in that church. Mr. Jenkins was the janitor. It was his full-time job to keep that church clean, and he took it seriously. I remember Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, if you hung around too long, gossiping, whatever it may be, I remember Mr. Jenkins flicking the lights on and all: “Time to leave.” Yes, so we’re heading out. But Mr. Jenkins, can I say this about Mr. Jenkins? For years and years, he was an alcoholic. When he was a young man, he messed his life up in so many ways, and he’d tell you this story. He drank his days and years away. Yet Jesus said, “I want you to go somewhere. I’ve got a plan for you.”

Mr. Jenkins later in his life became the janitor of Calvary Baptist Church. God had his hand on that church. God used that church, and part of that was because there was a man that said, “This is God’s house, and God’s house deserves the best. We’re going to keep it clean around here.” God used him. Yes, he had been a poor example of what a godly person, a Christian, ought to be. And yet Jesus said, “Let’s go somewhere. I’ve got something for you to do.”

His grandson, David, was following his grandpa’s pattern as a young man, living with someone, drinking, all the rest of that. Now, I’d forget David, the first time he came to church—had long hair, messed up life. I got to know him a little bit; he told me his story. He lived several states up north of Florida. He knew his life was in shambles, and he was going the wrong direction. He said, “You know what? I’ve got a grandpa. He’s messed his life up, but God still had a plan for my grandpa.” Grandpa goes to church every time the doors were open. In fact, he’s up with the church pretty much seven days a week, and he’s involved serving God, and he loves God. David said, “If I can just get down to Grandpa, Grandpa, he’ll help me grow in the Lord.”

So David got in his old pickup truck. Didn’t have any money; he just had a little gas in there. It was back in the day, and he hopped in his pickup truck, got on the interstate, headed to Florida. Ran out of gas, had no money, pulled over the side of the interstate, left his truck there, and hitchhiked to Lakeland, Florida. He said, “If I just get to my grandpa’s house. Grandpa is a great example that Jesus came to him and said, ‘Rise up and let us go.’ And my grandpa’s going somewhere with Jesus, and I want to get involved in that.” David moved down with his grandpa, got in Calvary Baptist Church, gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ, became a good, godly young man, not 20 years old. Why? Because Mr. Jenkins said, “Hey, Jesus came by and said, ‘Rise up, and let us go.’” God had a plan, a path. Mr. Jenkins had ruined so many different opportunities, but God said, “Hey, I still have a plan for you.”

Every single person here, in some manner, in some aspect, all of us have been where the apostles are, and we’re sleeping when we ought to be standing and praying for the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus says, “Let us go. Let us go. Fellas, I still have somewhere I’d like for you to go.” Don’t let your sins in the past keep you from following his plan in the future. Don’t spend the rest of your life regretting your past. Start today living for the Lord from today on. I’m so glad we don’t even serve a God of a second chance. We serve a God of a millionth chance.

Submit your sin. Don’t make light of it. Don’t act like, “Well, it’s all right; I’m sleeping. Everybody does it.” No, no. Just a minute. I failed miserably. You know, 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins…” That confess there has to do with us seeing our sins like God sees our sins. Go to God and say, “Lord, would you let me understand what the sin in my life is like to you, and how it hurts you, and how your Son had to pay for that? And it keeps me from following the plan that you have, and I cannot be used by it.” See it as God sees it. And then start following Jesus and go somewhere with you.

Jesus always comes and says, “Rise up, and let us go.” I think about the great men in the Bible. Moses murdered a man when he was 40. But years later, when he was 80, God comes to him in that burning bush and says, “Rise up, and let us go.” David—David committed adultery, pretty much murder on Uriah. Jesus comes along, and yes, he says, “Get that thing right,” through the preacher Nathan, but it says, “Rise up, and let us go,” and God used David much in the future. Peter—he’s the one that was sleeping. Peter, that rascal, he denied him three times and started cursing, “My black, black, black, I never knew him!” Yet 50 days later, Peter’s up preaching, and 3,000 people saved and baptized. He always comes and says, “Rise up, and let us go.” He’s got a plan for you.

I think about a man in another state. Good man, good man. I did not know his story. I knew he was a good man, just a layman in a church. When he was younger, he was called to preach; he was supposed to be a preacher. He got out of the will of God and didn’t follow God’s plan for him. And yet he said, “I’ll raise my sons for the Lord Jesus Christ. I will be inside the church doors every time they’re open and at all the activities. I’ll raise my kids for the Lord.” He’s not a preacher today, but both of his sons are in the ministry today. God always comes and says, “Rise up, and let us go.” He’s always got somewhere he wants you to go with him. Always.

The first word: Go. Let’s get the second word. If you look back at that verse, let’s get the second word. It’s wonderful. It’s probably my favorite part of it all. Look back in verse 42 of Mark chapter 14. Would you read those five words with me at the beginning of verse 42? Here we go: “Rise up, let us go.” Our next word is us. Oh, there’s something there. Something wonderful there. After I have disappointed my Savior, after I have sinned against him, after I have failed him, he didn’t say, “Well, fellas, get on out of here.” He said, “Let us, let us.” Jesus still wants to be close to you.

Listen, friend, he wants to be close to you. He wants to walk with you. He said, “Let us go.” He longs to fellowship with you. By the way, Satan will say, “Well, he’s sick of you. He doesn’t want to talk to you. He’s embarrassed of you. You’re ashamed to him. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with you.” That’s a lie. He’s the father of lies. Jesus says, “Let us.” He wants to be close to you. He longs—in fact, that’s why God sent his Son to shed his blood on the cross and rise again, so for all eternity he can be close to you. Can you hear it this morning? You’re like me; you’ve disappointed him. And he comes along, and it doesn’t say, “I can’t even trust you three anywhere, anytime, what the world is going on.” He says, “Rise up, let us.” Can you imagine those three apostles listening very intently to what Jesus would say? They’re shaking themselves out of their sleep and thinking, “He’s going to be mad at us.” And he says, “Let us.” And he says the same thing to you today: “Let us.” He’s got a plan. He wants to go somewhere with you. “Let us.” He longs to walk with you.

We have a dog. My wife got it for me for Christmas: Dixie. She’s a Goldendoodle/Lab mix. She’s white. She’s starting to get a brown streak on the top of her back, but she’s white for the most part. She looks like a polar bear half the time. She’s six months old, wild and rambunctious. She’s ready to go. She’s about this high right now. She’s growing pretty quick. I think she’s going to be a pretty big dog when it’s all said and done. She’s getting there now. In the morning time, she loves our walks. I’ll go out there and we’ll walk back in the back fields and whatnot. She loves it. She has one of those collars; she can only go so far. I take that off, and man, she’s ready to go. She’s just running everywhere. She wants to get me to play, and I’m trying to pray, you know. She’s very distracting sometimes. She’ll run, she’ll jump up on me, try to get my attention, and she’ll just do the flyby, man, she’ll just kind of fly by, and she’ll snap at you as she’s going by. Then she’ll run around—you ever see a dog just run around in circles? She’ll get you up, man, she’ll do that. Then she’ll come right, plant right in front of me just waiting for me to do like that, and she’ll take off. She loves it. It’s wet in the morning with the dew, so she’s soaking wet. She’ll come up by you and shake and get you wet, and it stinks. Lately, it’s cute, but it’s been a little frustrating. I’m trying to pray, and she won’t leave me alone, making me soaking wet and jumping on me and all that. A couple of times this week, I said, “Dixie, you come with me, but I’m praying.” I remember one morning in particular, she was just wild and wet and rambunctious. I came back up to the house, and Tammy was on the front porch in the chair there—no, she wasn’t. I think she was having her time alone with the Lord, too. I sat down in the chair on the front porch, and old Dixie, she just won’t leave you alone. She’s wet, nasty, and she’s just all over us. Tammy’s like, “Man, she just won’t leave us alone.” I’m like, “I know, I know. I’m about to kill her.” I’ll be honest, finally, she laid down. She’s got to be touching you somewhere, and she laid down on my feet—not beside my feet, she laid down on my feet.

Can I be honest with you? As mad as I was at her, I still liked it a little bit. There’s something about that dog; you kind of liked it. Jesus is the same way. You fail, I fail him; I mess up. I’m running here and there, chasing my tail, trying to get things done when he can accomplish in a second what I can accomplish in a whole lifetime. And you say, “How? He’s so fed up with me? He doesn’t even want to see my face again.” And he comes along and he says, “Rise up, let us. Let us. Let us.” He wants to be close to you. By the way, if you stay over on your own, away from him, you’re not going to have victory over that sin. You’re not going to be the vibrant Christian. The victory over that sin in your life, whatever sleeping represents for you, is found when you get close to him. He’s the one that brings victory.

Two words: Go. He’s got a place, a path, something in mind for you to do. Then us. Let’s get the last word here. Let’s go back over there to verse 42, Mark 14, verse 42. Y’all owe me this morning, amen? Verse 42 right there. Let’s read those first five words. If it was just those first five words of verse 42, here we go: “Rise up, let us go.” Our last word this morning is up. He’s got somewhere he wants you to go. He would like to be—he wants to be close to you, us—but you must rise up. It’ll never change. He’ll always be saying, “Hey, let’s go somewhere. I want to be close to you,” but he’ll never lower his standards.

Friend, did you notice it started? It started with “Rise up.” “I haven’t been reading my Bible.” I understand. He’ll come and say, “Let us go,” but you must get back in your Bible. He’s not going to lower his standard. If you’re going to be close to God, you’ll be close to His Word. He’ll always come and say, “Let us go,” but it’ll always say, “Rise up.” “Preacher, I’ve lost my purity.” Whether it be physical—oh, young people, I hope you do not. I hope you save that for your marriage. So many have spent so much before they get married; it’s almost a disappointment when they get married. Whether it be your purity or maybe just purity of your mind. Maybe, man, you’ve been looking at something you ought not to look at, and you’ve lost the purity of your mind. Maybe, ladies, you’ve been listening to the wrong conversations, the smut and the talk and the gossip, and you lost the purity of your mind. He’ll always come along and say, “Let us go,” but he’ll always say, “I’m not lowering my standard of purity. Rise up.”

He always says that. “My children, they do not obey me. I’ve just lost their obedience to me. What do I do?” He’ll always come along and say, “Let us go. I want to be with you. I’m going to go somewhere.” But I’ll always say, “Rise up.” He’ll never change it where he says, “Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.” He’ll always say that. He’ll never lower his standard. He’ll still love you. He’ll say, “We’re going somewhere. I have a plan, a path.” But he’ll always come and say, “Rise up out of your sleep.” He’s never lowered. The world changes and society changes, but God changeth not. He never lowers his standard. Whatever it may be in your life, he’ll come along and he’ll always come and say, “Let us go.” He’ll always start it off with, “Rise up and let us go.” He’ll never lower his standards of music. He’ll never lower his standards of dress. He’ll never lower his standards of language. He’ll never lower his standards of holiness. You can say amen.

He’ll always come and say, “Let us go. I’ve got somewhere I’d like to go.” But it starts with “Rise up.” He’ll never lower his standard to me; he’ll always try to bring me to his standard. He never lowers that standard a bit, not for anybody. There have been millions of people over thousands of years that have tried to convince him, through many, many different societies, to lower his standards, and he never has one time. He won’t do it for America in 2019 either. He won’t do it for Hollywood either. He won’t do it for the textbooks either. He won’t do it for us, maybe even parents that want to lower our standards for people. He’ll always have his standards up there: “Rise up, let us go.”

Satan will always come and say, “Just sleep. Sleep on.” I think Wednesday night he’ll come along and sing a lullaby: “Just go to sleep. Just take it easy. Sleep on.” Satan will always do that. And Jesus will always come and say, “Hey, come home. I still want it to be us, and I still want to go somewhere with you, but you’ve got to rise up.” Always a picture: Satan says, “Sleep.” Satan will say, “Just have a pity party. Just try to justify it, blame society, blame everybody else.” He’ll give you many, many different ways to keep you just sleeping for sorrow, discouragement. But Jesus always says, “Rise up.”

All of us. I’ve been there so many times. Jesus comes in my life and he says, “Paul, Paul, watch and pray lest you fall into temptation.” Jesus is interceding for us even this morning, friend. It comes to every single one of us. So many times, I find myself sleeping, and Jesus says, “Paul, I still have a plan from this moment on. I want us to be close, but you’ve got to get up. Rise up, let us go.”

Here’s a wonderful thing about it: Once he kind of shakes a little bit and says, “Hey, I still have plans. I still want to go somewhere. I still want to be close,” and you say, “Paul, I want to be close to you too.” You start going. It’s wonderful when then he uses you to go shake someone and say, “Hey, let’s wake up. We don’t know how much time we have left. Redeem the time because the days are evil. Man, Jesus might be coming back anytime. Hey, let’s get in this thing. Hey, God’s got a plan. God’s got a plan. Hey, let’s go serving God again.”

I know him fairly well. I was at David, the grandson, Mr. Jenkins’ grandson’s wedding. I was the best man at the wedding. I can’t remember everything about it, but if my memory serves me right, Brother Jenkins, the granddad, that was an alcoholic for years, that got back on the path going with the Lord—he was so happy with the grandson. He’s proud of that grandson. Me and his grandson became co-bus captains of a bus route. We worked at the church. Mr. Jenkins was so happy that now he was going, and God had used him to kind of shake his grandson a little bit. The grandson was going with him and the Lord. That’s probably the greatest choice you can have.

Original File: Go Us Up - Pastor Paul Chisgar 4-28-19