Sermon Tone Analysis

Mat 6:9 Prayer as Worship

Mat 6:10 Prayer as Kingdom Partnership

Mat 6:11 Prayer as Petition

Mat 6:12 Prayer as Confession

Matthew 6:13 (NASB95)

13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Prayer as Spiritual Warfare

Every day we are tempted by the evil one, and every day we can find deliverance and victory.

The Bible is full of good news.

Unfortunately, there’s also some bad news.

The good news is that God has an eternal, divine plan, and He’s committed to unfolding and revealing that plan to us.

The bad news is that we have an enemy—the evil one, the devil—who is just as aggressively committed to tripping us up.

He looks forward, every day, to the sabotaging of God and His plan.

And we are always caught in the middle.

However, because of what God has done through Christ, we are victorious.

The Bible tells us that the devil is like a roaring lion, prowling around seeking whom he can devour.

He does this effectively by overwhelming us in all kinds of temptations.

These are called “fiery darts” of the evil one, and they are common.

That’s why Paul told us to “Be alert and of sober mind”.

He is doing all he can to bring you down, trip you up, and defeat you.

That’s his operational mission, and he will do it by any strategic means possible.

Jesus knew this, and that’s why He included a reminder to remain vigilant, on watch, alert, and engaged in the prayer He taught His disciples.

We need to ask the Lord to “lead us not into temptation.”

Pray to withstand temptations.

Jesus knows that even those who have experienced forgiveness are tempted and can fall.

‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, follows immediately after the request, “Forgive us our debts.”

This prayer was most likely answered and the sin forgiven.

However, temptation can unexpectedly come to confront us all.

But Jesus is our Savior.

As it says in Hebrews 4:15

Know that God does not “tempt” us to do evil.

The evil one uses temptations to attack us where we are weak and vulnerable.

Therefore, we need to be aware of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities which are our desires.

We should know if alcohol, drugs, pornography, sweet food, sparkly things or money are a weakness which would allow the evil one to tempt us to do wrong.

1 Tim 6:9-11 says:

So we should pray to be spared from temptations in these areas of weakness and vulnerability as we pursue righteousness.

While God permits temptation, the devil is the one who promotes it.

It is the agenda of the evil one to see us fall not God.

Know also that God will not allow us to be tempted more than we can withstand 1 Cor.

10:13 says:

He promises that when we are tempted, it is not because He sends it but because He permits it and can allow for our limitations.

He does allow us to pass through periods of testing that could lead to a temptation of “my will be done” rather than “Thy will be done.”

The Greek word peirasmos can mean both a temptation and a test or trial.

These words are often used interchangeably in Scripture.

God tests people to refine their faith, never to tempt them to do evil.

We can see this in Genesis 22:1–18, Exodus 16:4, James 1:2, 13–15, and 1 Peter 1:7.

But what is a temptation, test or trial?

Well, a:

Temp·ta·tion is the desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise

Test is a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something

Trial is a test of the performance, qualities, or suitability of someone or something

So for us a test and a trial truly are the same - a procedure to establish the quality of the individual in a certain scenario.

In other words the quality of your personality is going to come out.

Good or bad or maybe something in-between.

This is something that God will do.

He will test us to determine the quality of our personalities. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says:

On the other hand a temptation is something entirely different.

God would never give us the desire to do something wrong or unwise.

That isn’t in His nature.

He allows the evil one to tempt us as a test of our character but He would not lead us to do evil.

James 1:13-15

While a temptation is a test of our will, a trial is a test of our faith and trust in the Lord.

But also know that a test or trial could result in succumbing to the temptation of trusting in ourselves.

A temptation is a test, even though a test or trial is not always an invitation to do evil.

(Need an illustration - a story to show the difference)

Once upon a time there was a small country church.

This church had a man who was well known in the town and the church elected him as treasurer.

He was very good at keeping track of the books and accounting for every penny that was given to the church.

But one day he decided that he needed more for himself so he could retire.

Seeing all the money coming into the church he realized that he could take some for himself and no one would ever know.

So, he began to skim a bit off the top - all it took was a little bit of creative bookkeeping.

No one would notice.

He struggled against this temptation for a while but finally gave in.

After 20 years of skimming a bit for himself he stepped down and went on his way.

Even after a full audit of the books by the next treasurer the crime wasn’t discovered.

He got away with it.

Or did he?

He was tempted to do wrong by the evil one.

This is a temptation because he wanted to do wrong.

God did not lead him to steal from the church.

He gave into the temptation which caused him to fail the test of his character.

Perhaps he failed to pray about it, he certainly failed to resist because he skimmed the money off the top and he never stepped down from the position of authority when the temptation came upon him.

This was a temptation of the evil one but also a test used by God to see how he would react to the temptation.

If the man were simply being tested, God would not have led him to do evil.

The test would have checked his character only, perhaps by seeing how he would react to finding someone else doing wrong.

Something C.S. Lewis said points to temptation and how we respond.

“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means.

This is an obvious lie.

Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is...

A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.

That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness.

They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

When temptation is overcome and trials are successfully passed with God’s strength, we grow in Christian character.

Ultimately, when we pray “lead us not into temptation,” we place our trust in the Lord’s hands.

Therefore, there must be temptations that come to us that can be avoided if we pray in advance to keep clear of them.

(Alcoholic stay away from bars or the friends that lead them into bars, or the recovering drug addict stays away from the people who lead them into using drugs and a pornography addict can keep keep wandering eyes away from inappropriate publications.)

Stuart Briscoe said, “Every temptation that comes your way is an opportunity to go wrong, but it also provides us with an opportunity to do right.”

God can give us the wisdom to understand how we can do the right thing.

Remember what 1 Cor 10:13 says: “but with the temptation will provide the way of escape.”