Lead Us Not Into Temptation

On December 6 1941, US intelligence intercepted a Japanese message asking about ship movements and the location of naval vessels at Pearl Harbor. A cryptologist gave the message to her supervisor, who said he would look at it after the weekend and get back to her on Monday. Early on the morning of December 7 a radar operator on Oahu spotted a large group of airplanes heading for the island. He told his supervisor, who said it must be American B-17 bombers on a training run. The danger was there. But people weren’t ready for it and the result was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And, in all reality, there is danger around us all the time isn’t there? One thing I’ve noticed since having kids is that there is no one as capable as finding out how to get hurt as well as children can and if it weren’t for parents keeping an eye out for them, they would all die.

Well, as we turn over to Matthew 6 to look at our final lesson on the Lord’s Prayer, we find that Jesus wants to teach us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Or, as DeYoung puts it, “We need our Father’s help because we are full of danger within us and stalked by danger around us.” And as we look at this passage together today, I hope that we will see the dangers laid out in the Christian life and that we will find ourselves resting upon the strength and wisdom of the Lord is our day to day lives as we learn to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

As we look at this text, we will find that Jesus is telling us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation. Now, in James 1 :13, he tells us that God does not tempt people. So, what is Jesus getting at here? Well, Jesus is essentially telling us that we should be asking God to keep us from situations in our life that might tempt us to sin against Him. But now we have another question which is, “What is temptation?” The Bible has three ways of using that word. The first is that temptations are trials and testings in the lives of believers, the second is external temptations to sin like Potiphar’s wife tempting Joseph, and the third is internal temptation like lust and anger. Now, Jesus faced the first two temptations, so He can relate with us, but because He didn’t have a sin nature, He never had internal temptations. So, what we find ourselves faced with here is that we should be asking God to guard us with situations that might tempt us to sin against Him either in thought or action. So, as we learn to pray this prayer and incorporate it in our lives, we will be acknowledging these three things that I want to point out:

That we aren’t strong enough on our own.

That we deeply desire walk in holiness.

That God is sovereign over our daily lives.

We Aren’t Strong Enough on Our Own.

Illustration: Years ago there was a really popular young preacher that had gained quite a bit of popularity where I was from. He was once severely addicted to drugs and alcohol and the Lord saved him. This guy had an extremely likable personality and was a great speaker. Years later I saw a post on Facebook that he had died so I looked him up on Facebook since it had been years since I heard anything about him. Apparently he fell back into addiction, was divorced from his wife and children and ultimately, he died as a result of those drugs. Remembering how good of a preacher he was, I went back and found the most recent sermon I found online, which was apparently one of the last he preached and in that sermon he said that it didn’t matter what was sent his way, he was never going to fall back into those old ways. Now, his desire was probably fine here, but what I want us to gather both from his story and from this text is that we are not strong enough to stand on our own and if we do find ourselves in these situations, we must run to Him for help.

Charles Spurgeon said, “I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.” One thing I gather from that quote is that his eyes weren’t stuck on the waves. Guys, whenever you’re tempted, you’ll begin to find your mind focused on that topic that made you mad, that news that crushed your spirit, or that girlfriend that you’re lusting for so deeply that you almost drown out the thought of God from your mind. You must strive to remember Him. Prepare yourself in the mornings with prayer and Bible reading and be saturated with thoughts of Him so that when these things come, you immediately think to run to Him. Why, because point 2,

We Desire to Walk in Holiness.

When I was a kid, we went camping with some friends and one night, as it got dark we decided to walk down a trail to go catfishing. Well, I was one of the last in the line and just as my friend stepped, I looked down and right between us was a massive copperhead that he stepped over without seeing it. Guys, there is danger everywhere in our Christian lives and we have to always try to be aware of it where ever it may be. When we pray this prayer, we are acknowledging that we don’t want to sin, but we want to walk in righteousness.

I can’t help but to think of Christ in the wilderness where He fasting for 40 days and during that time Satan appeared and tempted Him with three things that we can call pleasure, Satan tried to tempt Jesus, who hadn’t eaten for 40 days to make stones into bread; he tempted Him with pride in trying to convince Jesus to jump off the Temple and call the angels to catch Him so He could prove to everyone that He was God, and he tempted Jesus with power by telling Him that if He would bow to Satan He could have the whole world. But Jesus was the sinless Son of God and He was saturated with the Word of God and He had responses immediately ready whenever Satan attacked Him.

Guys, where are you prone to be tempted? Kevin DeYoung said, "...In which room is the devil most likely to whisper into your ear? Is it the bedroom with its pleasures, the boardroom with its power, or the bathroom mirror with its pride? Know your enemy. Know yourself. And know from whence your help comes." or, in other words, how are you most easily tempted to sin? Some of us don’t care about popularity, but we’re controlled by comfort and pleasure. Some of us don’t care about comfort, but we have to be liked, we’re controlled by likes and follows and compliments. As Christians we want to walk in holiness and if we are going to do that, we need to know where we are most easily tempted.

And overall, this is my last point, when we pray this prayer, we recognize

That God is Sovereign Over Our Daily Lives.

If we hate sin and want to walk in holiness but we’re so weak, we might think to ourselves, “Why would God ever allow us to enter into these situations?” The answer is that it is in these seasons when our faith is really put to the test. James 1:3 says,

James 1:3 NKJV

3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

It is in these moments, that we are to, as Paul says, “Count it with all joy.” because we know that, “All things work together for good for those who love God.” It is with this in mind that we can say, “Lord, I want to be faithful to you, but I’m so weak so I ask that you’d keep me from circumstances that might tempt me to sin against you. But Lord, if those times do come, help me to run to you for deliverance and strength.