I Am With You In the Garden | I AM... The God Who Gets Close | Menlo Church Live Stream

Mar 29, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: God is always at work, even when we cannot see it.

The story of a woman praying for a dorm room years before it was answered is a powerful reminder that God's timeline is not our own. He is orchestrating events and moving in hearts long before we are aware of our own need. Our prayers are never wasted or forgotten, even when the results are delayed or hidden from our view. He is always doing more than we can see or imagine in the lives of those we love. [28:29]

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, ESV)

Reflection: Think of a long-standing prayer that you have not yet seen answered. How might this story encourage you to trust in God’s unseen activity and perfect timing in that situation?

Day 2: The burdens of life are real and will eventually crush us.

Life has a way of adding responsibilities and pressures more quickly than we can release them. What begins as manageable can, over time, build into an unbearable weight that threatens to break us. Like water pressure behind a dam, the strain can appear normal until the moment it is not. No one is immune to this process, and thinking we are strong enough to handle it alone is a dangerous assumption. [35:22]

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, ESV)

Reflection: What specific responsibilities or pressures have been building up behind your dam recently? What would it look like to honestly name that weight instead of pretending it isn’t there?

Day 3: Jesus understands our deepest sorrow and anguish.

In the garden, Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He did not hide His anguish or put on a brave face, but honestly expressed His pain to the Father. This means that no depth of human suffering is foreign to Him, and we are never alone in our darkest moments. His experience gives us permission to be honest about our own pain, knowing He meets us there with perfect understanding. [39:02]

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3, ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life are you feeling a pressure to pretend you are okay when you are not? How does the image of Jesus in the garden give you freedom to bring your honest emotions to God?

Day 4: We were never meant to carry our burdens alone.

The world offers solutions that either tell us we are stronger than we think or that our burdens are lighter than we think. But the Christian faith offers a different hope: we are not strong enough, and our burdens are indeed too heavy, but we have a Savior who carries them for us. Our calling is not to find greater strength within ourselves, but to finally release the weight we were never designed to hold. [46:05]

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7, ESV)

Reflection: What is one burden you are currently straining to carry in your own strength? What would it look like, in a practical step this week, to consciously cast that anxiety onto God because you know He cares for you?

Day 5: We can trust Jesus with our scars because He bears His own.

The resurrected Christ kept the scars in His hands and feet as an eternal reminder of His identification with our brokenness and His victory over it. He does not ask us to hand Him our wounds only to trick us or hand them back; He proves His trustworthiness by having borne the ultimate burden Himself. We can surrender our deepest pains to Him, with hope that our scars will one day tell a story of His glory. [55:25]

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24, ESV)

Reflection: What wound or scar in your life feels too personal or too deep to entrust to anyone? How does the truth that Jesus willingly bears His own scars for you make Him a safe place for your pain?

Sermon Summary

A college story recounts a skeptical search that turned into conviction when repeated reading of the Gospels and patient Christian friends led to belief in the resurrection and a kneeling at 122 Jolene Hall. Interwoven with that testimony are two images of Atlas—one triumphant and one crushed—which trace a journey from youthful idealism to adult realism, cynicism, and the slow accumulation of burdens. A dam-and-water metaphor describes how responsibilities stack over time until pressure reaches a breaking point; strength or self-help alone often cannot prevent catastrophe. Modern coping options—distraction, increased skills training, and cognitive reframing—can help in limited ways, but they fail when sorrows align with the real structural brokenness of the world.

The Garden of Gethsemane provides the counterpoint: Jesus knowingly walks into betrayal, kneels in anguished prayer, and experiences sorrow “to the point of death,” sweat like drops of blood. That moment shows a God who fully understands human overwhelm and who refuses a distant, untouching divinity. Attempts to hand burdens to fellow finite humans expose limits: friends, therapists, and family can empathize but cannot bear ultimate weight. Ancient myths about Atlas and Hercules point to the search for a reliable bearer; the Christian claim answers that search in a God who becomes human, takes on the world’s burdens, and bears scars as proof of faithful, lasting care.

The cross reframes suffering: what once represented ultimate punishment becomes the place where burdens are nailed and removed once and for all. Trusting that redemptive work changes how people relate to scars—not erasing them necessarily, but promising they will one day reflect glory. The final appeal invites honest prayer, letting go of the need to control outcomes, and surrendering personal load into hands that already carried the greatest burden. The closing moves from doctrinal claim to immediate practice: open hands, a simple prayer of surrender, and ongoing confidence in a God who both understands anguish and proved his commitment through sacrifice.

Key Takeaways

1. Christ voluntarily bore human burdens Jesus chose to walk into betrayal and suffering, not as a passive victim but as a willing bearer of humanity’s weight. That choice reframes divine power: strength appears in surrender, and ultimate rescue comes through identification with human pain. Trust centers on a God who both understands the crushing and holds it on behalf of others. [54:44]
2. Honest sorrow is not sinful Intense grief and despair are not moral failings because the creator himself experienced anguish “to the point of death.” Admitting brokenness marks spiritual realism, not weakness; authenticity in sorrow opens space for true consolation and communal care. Compulsory cheer masks reality and can hinder needed healing. [39:02]
3. Finite help cannot save fully Friends, therapists, and family carry their own pressures and cannot substitute for an ultimate redeemer; empathy can accompany but not exhaustively remove burdens. This reality invites realistic dependence: accept relational help while seeking a deeper source that bears what no human can. Disappointment with finite help points toward a transcendent refuge, not isolation. [49:47]
4. Cast burdens onto a faithful God The Gethsemane prayer and the cross model surrender: entrust weight to one who proved trustworthy by suffering and scars. Letting go does not require knowing the mechanics of deliverance—only the courage to yield personal will to a loving sovereignty. Surrender shifts the posture from straining to rest, from lone effort to shared burden-bearing. [55:25]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[26:05] - College challenge and conversion
[27:40] - Answered prayers and dorm-room encounter
[29:09] - Atlas image and youthful idealism
[31:44] - Cynicism, Sisyphus, and life’s credits
[32:00] - Farnese Atlas: burdened and defeated
[33:48] - Dam metaphor: pressure builds over time
[35:57] - Gethsemane: anguished prayer and choice
[39:02] - Validating deep sorrow and honesty
[40:58] - Critique of secular coping models
[46:40] - Hercules, Atlas, and misplaced reliance
[52:03] - Christ takes burdens; cross and scars
[55:48] - Surrender versus defeat; invitation to let go
[57:45] - Prayer, trust, and closing benediction

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading: Luke 22:39-44 (ESV)
And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Observation questions

What was Jesus's "custom" or usual practice, and why is it significant that he went to this familiar place knowing what was about to happen? [36:45]
What specific details does the passage use to describe the intensity of Jesus's emotional and physical state in the garden?
What two contrasting requests does Jesus make to the Father in his prayer?
The sermon describes a process where life's responsibilities and pressures build up over time like water behind a dam. What are some of the specific examples given of how this pressure accumulates in a person's life? [34:03]

Interpretation questions

Jesus experienced sorrow "to the point of death." How does this reality challenge common cultural or religious notions that intense grief or despair is a sign of weak faith or a moral failure? [39:49]
The sermon contrasts the myth of Hercules tricking Atlas with the true story of Christ. What does the Hercules myth reveal about the fundamental problem of finding someone trustworthy to bear our ultimate burdens? [47:27]
Why is the presence of the angel who strengthens Jesus a crucial detail, especially in light of the Father's answer to his prayer to "remove this cup"?
The sermon presents modern coping mechanisms like distraction, skill-building, and cognitive reframing as ultimately limited. In what scenarios might these methods be helpful, and why do they fail when faced with the "real structural brokenness of the world"? [43:03]

Application questions

The invitation is to move from being crushed by a weight to surrendering it. What does that act of surrender look like practically this week when a specific burden feels too heavy to carry? [55:48]
Honest sorrow is not sinful. Is there an area of your life where you feel pressure to put on a "fake smile" and pretend everything is fine? What would it look like to be authentically honest with God and a trusted friend about that struggle this week? [40:01]
Friends and family can empathize but cannot bear our ultimate weight. How can we better appreciate the help others offer while also recognizing its limits, thus protecting our relationships from unrealistic expectations? [49:47]
The scars of Christ are proof of his faithful, lasting care. The young woman in the sermon found hope that her scars would one day "bear the glory of the one who was scarred for me." How does this perspective change how you view your own past wounds and present struggles? [55:25]
The image was shared of a child straining to carry a weight their parent is already fully bearing. Where in your life are you still "straining every little muscle" to hold something up, afraid to let go? What is one step you can take this week to practice releasing that strain and trusting that God is holding it? [56:28]
Jesus chose to walk into his suffering, compelled only by love. Are you facing a difficult situation you could avoid? How might the example of Gethsemane empower you to walk into it with purpose, trusting God's sovereignty and love? [37:05]

Sermon Clips

37s

#BurdenBearerJesus

“For though he had no burden of his own, in love, he took our burden, the burden of the whole world, and he hoisted it up on his shoulders, and he carried it to the top of the hill. And there, he stretched out his arms. They thought they were nailing his hands into a beam, but he was nailing our burdens into his hands. He was reversing the first disobedience of taking fruit from a tree with the ultimate obedience of giving his blood on a tree. And there on that wooden cross, Jesus became the fulfillment of all of our myths.”

42s

#WhoWillYouHandItTo

“That right there is the problem. Who can we hand our burdens to? Who can we rely on to take them from us? You know, now Hercules, he had bad intentions. I get that. But even sincere friends often can't shoulder the weight of what we need to offload. Jesus himself finds this. He asks his friends just to be present with him and to pray. But when he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Matthew in his version says their eyes were heavy.”

30s

#StrongerThanYouThink

“Really? Is that really the best we've got? Life is short and it's full of brokenness and and injustice, but there's nothing we can do about it. You know? So just try to distract yourself. Try to entertain yourself. Find some some momentary coping mechanisms, some temporary fleeting pleasures. Is that really the best that we've got? Now maybe instead of distracting ourselves from the weight of life, what we need to do is realize that we are actually stronger than we think.”

35s

#PressureBuildsUntilBreak

“of our lives include this process, this process of ever increasing pressure, responsibility over time. We take on responsibilities more quickly than we release them. The pressure of life just continues to build. And here's the scary thing. When that water pressure is just one pound less than the dam can take, everything looks totally normal, completely fine. And then when it's just one pound more than what the dam can take, then you have catastrophe. How much water is behind your dam?”

35s

#WeWereNotMeantToCarry

“Most of us have tested that hypothesis and found it wanting. It is not true to experience, and the Christian faith finds it wanting as well. Our burden does not need to crush us. That's absolutely true. But that is not because it is lighter than we think, and it is not because we are strong enough to become our own saviors. It's because we were never supposed to be the ones to carry it. In this third depiction, Atlas is shown handing the heavens to Hercules.”

35s

#HeChoseToStay

“That's very significant detail. Because Jesus, he already knows at this point that Judas has gone to betray him. And so the natural thing would have been to go and hide. But instead, Jesus goes specifically to a place that he frequented. He goes specifically to where he knows they will come looking for him. When betrayal, isolation, suffering, death, all of this is on the horizon for Jesus, he's literally standing on a ridge that looks out over the walled city that he's about to be dragged to to stand to to to stand trial.”

30s

#LossShapedMyRealism

“shame. I experienced loved ones dying. My cousin went to dinner with my aunt and began choking on a bite of chicken, and a few minutes later, he had stopped breathing and that was it. And I came to understand the the fragility of life and the the naivety of my youth. And without me even realizing it, you know, that childhood idealism, you know, quickly turned into an adult realism and then a sort of cynicism until ultimately, I think I just kind of resigned myself for a form of hedonism.”

30s

#WhoGetsTheHappyEnding

“I mean, in this world, have you seen the news? You can do anything if you just put your mind to it. Are you sure? Because I really set my mind to some really important things, and they only seem to be getting farther from reality. The future is bright. Is it? No. For who? Everyone or only for the lucky few? I remember journeying with a seeker named Dylan. We're was I was sharing with him about the Christian faith, and he said something really profound to me. He said, life is like a movie.”

40s

#SisypheanCycle

“Atlas, the fifteen foot Greek god in Rockefeller Center, triumphantly thrusting the celestial heavens above his head. This image symbolize all the mantras of my youth and never show weakness. There's nothing to fear but fear itself. You can do anything if you just put your mind to it. The world is your oyster. The future is bright. Nothing is impossible. But you know, it didn't take long before the harsh realities of life began to chip away at that childhood idealism. I experienced failure. I experienced bullying. I experienced”

32s

#FallenAtlas

“He said, but the problem is that the credits never roll. When you finally get to a point of of resolution, when things finally work out and at last you can be happy and satisfied, the credit credits, they never roll. It just cycles back into the same problems, the same frustrations, the same challenges over and over and over again. The philosopher Albert Camus, he likened life to the myth of Sisyphus, condemned to roll a large boulder up a mountain for all eternity. Every time he'd get to the top, just roll back down”

34s

#LifeLayersResponsibility

“Here's a second famous depiction of Atlas, the Farnese Atlas. It's a it's a second century Roman marble statue. It's the oldest depiction of Atlas in existence, and if you can see it's a very different depiction. Atlas is older. He's fallen to his knees. He's off balance. His head is sort of uncomfortably pushed to the side. Doesn't look like he can hold the heavens for much longer. And I wonder for you what words come to mind when you see this depiction of Atlas. For me, it's burdened,”

24s

#CarryMultipleResponsibilities

“And then, you know, maybe you get married. Well, that's a significant responsibility too, but you don't necessarily get to just drop your job just because you got married. So now you're trying to be a good spouse and a good colleague. Then, woah, maybe a child is on the way, and now you are responsible for another life. And you still gotta get up and go to work, and you're still trying to be a good spouse. And then, another child.”

26s

#ChosenSacrifice

“And you don't get to just drop the responsibility for a first child because you had a second child, you're still getting up, and you're still trying to go to work. And now all of a sudden, parents have health issues, and you're trying to be there for them. But now you're getting your own health issues, and you're still carrying the responsibility of work and friendships and family. And right now each person's experience is different and and not every life includes marriage and children. But in its own way,”

29s

#JesusUnderstandsDarkness

“He knows exactly what's coming, and he chooses to walk right into it. That is very significant because there are things in the coming hours in his life that he will be forced into as he is arrested and beaten. But here in the garden, we see that no one forces Jesus to give his life for us. He freely wrestles to that decision, and he freely makes that choice, compelled only by love. On reaching the place,”

36s

#SorrowDemandsMoreThanDistraction

“and pretend that everything's great when it's not because that is not what Jesus did. He was honest about the anguish. And the anguish, it was not overly emotional. It was not an embarrassing lack of composure. It was actually latching on to something deeply true about reality, that we live in a painfully broken world. And at some point, for every one of us, the burdens of life get so heavy that you wind up on your knees, unbalanced, with your head pushed uncomfortably to the side,”

31s

#NotAllFearsAreIrrational

“Now look. I do believe that some of these skills can be helpful, very helpful. I think that they're worth investing in. And yet, as every athlete knows, there eventually comes a point where no amount of additional training is going to make up the difference. If you can lift a 150 pounds and the weight of life gets to a 155 pounds, then let's do some additional training and see if we can get there, see if that'll be enough. But many people's experience of life is that they've been saddled with 500 pounds”

38s

#GodIdentifiedWithUs

“But let me just footnote here. Let me just footnote how amazing it is that this is how the disciples are presented in accounts that are circulating in their lifetime based on their retelling of the story when they were the leaders of the early church. Historians use what they call the criterion of embarrassment as one of the main markers for historical accuracy in a text as opposed to mere myth. In other words, when people are telling a story, if they include embarrassing details about themselves, they're probably telling the truth. Because if they were gonna fudge the story, the very first things they would change would be the things that make them look bad.”

37s

#ScarredSavior

“A good friend of mine is a clinical therapist, and he told me about a young woman who came to him. And in their first session, she had a long history of cutting herself. And at the end of the session, she said, well, there's just one more thing before I can decide whether I can trust for you to work with me or not. And my friend said, well, what's that? And she rolled up her sleeves and she said, will you touch my scars? And so my friend asked why that was important to her.”

45s

#SurrenderNotDefeat

“And she said, well, that's the only way I'll really know if you care about me, if you're willing to cross a divide to touch my scars and my wounds. As my friend put it, she needed to know, will you viscerally descend into the darkness with me? Are you willing to to reach out and be identified with my brokenness? Are you willing to reach out with your being in a in a sort of fully embodied way and be identified with mine. Through their counseling, my friend had the privilege of sharing with this young woman that there is one person who was willing to literally identify his being with ours, who did not stay far off on some distant heavenly throne”

47s

“This one not a mythical character, but one who proved his character in history. And in another story about a garden and forbidden fruit, we warred against his father, and he had every right to come with revenge and to come with punishment. But instead, he became the true Atlas, the one who held the universe in his hands, who had literally created sustained it and breathed life into it at every moment, who then voluntarily dropped to his knees in the garden. And yet that other garden where the where the olives were crushed, he chose to be crushed by the very universe he had created. And when he asked his father if he would take this burden from him,”

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