Teach us how to pray pt 7

If you have a bible open it up to Matthew 6. I have titled the message this morning. Teach us how to pray pt 7.

Let us pray…

When you came in today I provided a little document kind of summing up how the Lord teaches us how to pray. I know summertime has been crazy for many of you all in and out week to week so as we close this part of Matthew out I want to just recap what we have learned so far before I dig into the final part this morning of this prayer.

Remember Christ wants us to direct our prayers towards God and not men. We pray to the one true God. When we pray we pray with sincerity. We go to God being Changed by Jesus Christ making our petitions to him known. We pray secretly. We want to get to a place in our walk with God where we have moments where we get away with God and God alone. We pray specifically. No ask is to big or to small for our God. So we expects us to ask him all we need.

When we pray to pray to God our Father who is in heaven. I have talked about this time and time again we are not talking to just a friend when we pray we are talking to God who is our Father and like a Father he desires to hear our very own needs, and better than our Father on earth he is in heaven, and he is all powerful, which leads us to pray with adoration. If you missed that sermon I highlighted the fact that we are to pray with this adoration based on the fact of who God is and what he has done. And because of who he is you can approach him with confidence.

This prayer only continues it gets even better. When we pray we pray to live out the kingdom come in the present age. We want to live out God’s truths on the earth in the place he has called us to. When we pray we pray your kingdom come we also pray that satan’s kingdom is destroyed. We want God to rid the devil of this place, to destroy his schemes, and his get rid of all the false doctrine and information that he puts on this very earth. Also When we pray your kingdom come we pray the gospel will reach all the corners of the earth. We want to see God’s kingdom advance even to the corners of your very own neighborhood. Also when we pray we pray for the fullness of the Kingdom of God to come. Even Wednesday we joked about seeing each other on the other side we are ready for Jesus to come back, but we can’t neglect everything else until he does we must continue to pray.

The prayer does not even end there. .

When we pray we are to pray the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven because it is an antidote for our sinful hearts. ( we should pray God make me more like your son, because being like Christ is key for fighting the sinful flesh. Also.When we pray we are to pray the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven while keeping our eyes on Jesus. One of the best prayers we can have is just let my eyes never part from you God and your ways.

There is even more. When we pray we are to pray the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven with total devotion. Ask God to make you fully commited to him.

It does not end there. We are to pray daily for our physical needs. ( from the roof over our head to meals we eat and everything else physically that we need we are to ask God to provide that, but not only that we are to pray daily for our spiritual needs. ( that he grows us makes us more like Christ and gives us those desires )

And yet even after all that the prayer is not over. Christians need to pray to God for forgiving heart. We need to pray that we are truly different, and what makes Christians unique is the ability to Forgive because they have been forgiven, and that prayer for forgiveness is a life long thing.

So if you are at a point now where you don’t know how to pray there it is right from the bible itself. I have given you this tool to teach you now to pray And we are not done. Today we pray for what I believe is another important part of our very own prayer lives and I want you to walk away from the message understanding this as our main idea today.

When we pray we need to ask God to not be led into situations where we are tempted by Satan.

Let me read to you the Lord’s Prayer today and we will finish up our study of this life-changing prayer.

Matthew 6:9–15 (ESV)

9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

12 and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Today our focus will be on verse 13, and verse 13 is a verse that is powerful, and it would have been just as powerful to the people that Jesus was preaching to.

A prayer that was prayed during Jesus time looked much like this the one they would often pray listen to this example of one they would pray night and day.

Lead me not into the power of transgression, And bring me not into the power of sin, And not into the power of iniquity, And not into the power of temptation, And not into the power of anything shameful.

Jesus prayed something like this in Matthew 26:41

Matthew 26:41 ESV

41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus knows just how hard life is for his followers. So he wants us to focus on praying that temptation will not come, and we will be delivered. That is why he says this in Matthew 6:13 .

Matthew 6:13 ESV

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

Before I get into any points today we need to understand something quite clearly. And that is that God does not tempt us. How do we know that because the bible teaches us that very thing. James 1:13

James 1:13 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

God is good he does not have evil attributes. He does not go around and say today I am going to temp Luke, or Bill, or Dustin, or Audrey, Kory, Amber, Megan, Paul, Kevin, Brian, that is not what God does. But he does test us, and he doesn’t remove all temptation from our lives.

But Its good to pray to God don’t put me in situations where I may sin again you o God. But with the Trails, and Tests we often face temptation. And this prayer is a much about getting you through that temptation than to never have any at all.

Few points to help us pray and grow as Christians.

First is this.

When we pray we need to pray that trials end up not being temptations.

All of us including Christ go through many different trails in this life. And often I have noticed in my reading of the scripture in talking to others, and even in my own life that in the midst of Trails and in the midst of God testing us temptation becomes a real thing.

In fact I read this week in one of my commentaries that. Satan’s influence is behind every attempt to turn a testing into a temptation to evil.

We have seen in this book the reality of this point. That Satan is the tempter. Remember Matthew 4:1-11

Matthew 4:1–11 ESV

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

what did Satan do in this text he tempted him, and this text teaches us that is what Satan does. In the trials of this life Satan will tempt us while God is trying to test us but we need to pray to God saying don’t let the trials of this life tempt us to a place where we begin down the road of ungodliness.

We see the example of Christ and say I am not like him, I cannot deal with Satan like he did. Maybe not, but he has given you the tools in this text to do that. If you remember when I preached this text. What did Jesus do to fight off Satan he knew the Word of God, he was prepared for the trial before the temptation. Alot of us would do a whole lot better with the temptations in this life if we read our bibles and knew the Bible, and knew how to handle the situations we may face, with a strong biblical response.

What else helped him not be tempted he did not test the Lord, the fall of man happened because of what? Adam and Eve testing what the Lord said… Satan will use moments in your life that were meant to test you and use them to temp you, its a serious thing when we say to God I am just going to see how this looks, when God’s word says otherwise,

and if you remember from that Sermon I also said We fight temptation by worshiping and serving the Lord. Trials dont manifest into temptation if you are Serving and worshiping the Lord. If your goal is always let me do what God has for me to do the temptations that the tempter may bring will not effect you. Because like I mentioned in part of this Lord’s prayer already today. Keeping your eyes of God helps us in all walks of life.

Satan may cause you to be tempted, but God does not. So the remedy to fight temptation is know its not from God so keep your focus on him like Jesus did in the wilderness, and his life of faithfulness paid off big time. We read in

Hebrews 2:10 ESV

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

trails may bring suffering, but let that mold you. Not the temptations. We need to be praying point 1 here When we pray we need to pray that trials end up not being temptations, because if we approach it that way God will truly do something in us.

James 1:2–3 ESV

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Listen to this.. So the proper prayer regarding temptation is not that we be delivered from all temptation, for facing and overcoming it is necessary for the health of our souls.

But proper prayer does ask God to deliver us from overpowering temptations, recognizing that we are weak and liable to fold under severe testing. It was Peter's fleshly presumption that led to his terrible failure.

Hours prior to his fall he said in effect, "I don't know about the rest of these others, but, God, when you look at me you are looking at a real man.

All the rest of them might forsake you, but I'll never forsake you." But hours later he denied Christ in sweaty, sordid, foul language that had not come from his lips in years. Our presumption can take many forms. We need to see the weakness of our flesh.

That is why this prayer is so powerful, because its a call to God that we cannot handle the weight the temptation without the help of God.

The man I just quoted from shared a story, and he says.. History records the fate of two men who were condemned to die under Queen Mary. One of them boasted very loudly to his companions that he would be a man at the stake. He was so grounded in the gospel that he knew he would never deny Christ. He even said he longed for the fatal morning like a bride for her wedding. His prison companion was a poor trembling soul who, though determined not to deny his Master, was much afraid of the fire. He said he had always been very sensitive to suffering, and he was in great dread that when he began to burn, the pain might cause him to deny the truth. He urged his friend to pray for him and spent his time weeping over his weakness and crying out to God for strength. The other man continually rebuked him and chided him for being so unbelieving and weak. When they both came to the stake, he who had been so bold recanted at the sight of the fire and went back to an apostate's life, while the poor trembling man whose prayer had been "Lead me not into temptation" stood firm as a rock, praising and magnifying God as he died a cruel death. The proper prayer for protection is soaked with the awareness that we are profoundly weak and liable to fall.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

When we pray we need to pray that trials end up not being temptations. One man knew he was weak and went to God over and over again, another man went confidently yet failed in the moment. We need to pray that knowing that God will always deliver us, even in the midst of a firery death God is faithful, and we might not escape the temptations in this life, but we will escape them all in eternity. Trust God that we will not let the trials of this life turn into temptations that we cannot overcome. .

Second and final point is this…

When we pray we need to pray that God will deliver us from Satan.

Satan is real, and his power is real. We see the works of Satan in our everyday lives, we see the power of Satan in our communities, in our workplaces, in our churches, in our families in this world his presence is surly felt. I was reading this week that so many have this misconception of who Satan actually is thinking he is just this red guy with little horns and a pitchfork.

But the bible says otherwise. Satan was created as a Holy Angel. Isaiah speaks of his name prior to him being kicked out of heaven as Lucifer. Isaiah 14 explains who Satan is and what happened.

Isaiah 14:12–15 ESV

12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

Ephesians 2, John 12, and 2 Cor 4 all talk about how he is the prince of power of the air. He is the accuser. Rev 12. He is the Tempter Matthew 4, he is the deceiver Genesis 3, Rev 20.

One man said his very name means adversary or the one who opposes. He is nothing but pure evil.

I read this week that. this Germany Scholar Helmut Thielicke said in post world war 2 Germany, there is a dark, mysterious, spellbinding figure at work. Behind the temptations stands the tempter, behind the lie stands the liar, behind all the dead and bloodshed stands the murder from the beginning.

And we are praying that God will keep us from the evil one. And even though there may be spiritual warfare going on in the world each and every moment during the day.

Who is powerful, who accuses us who tempts us, who deceives us there is something better, or should I say someone better.

One man said… "Deliver us from the evil one" should be a part of our daily prayers. I pray regularly that God will put a hedge around my church and a hedge around my family. I also intercede for various ones who I know are undergoing attacks from Satan, praying they will be delivered from his power and his emissaries. It is crucial that this be part of the daily prayer life of believers.

Satan want’s to destroy those who are not already his, that is why we need to pray this pray, but also know at the end of the day this..

Revelation 20:10 ESV

10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Though Satan has great power on earth his final destination is being tormented as he has been tormented since the fall of mankind.

I remember back in 2014 really wrestling with my life and my calling to ministry saying quite loudly in my car by myself I am coming for you Satan, bold statement at the time, but the year I had I was like I am tired of Satan getting involved in my life in my friends life in my church leading people away from God and towards him, and even though your temptations might seem so very strong today know this believer in Christ. Your final destination is not where Satan’s is, and though he may be powerful, with God living in us and working through us, he will deliver us.

As we close out our 7 week journey of the Lord’s prayer we can know this. God hears our prayers, and the reason why he hears our prayers is because the same Son who taught us these amazing truths on Sermon on the Mount lived a sinless perfect life despite the bible teaching us that he had temptation along the way,

and what did he do even thought he was sinless. He died on the cross, and he showed us and Satan that the power of God is far more powerful the effects of sin in our lives, because Jesus though he died on the cross 3 days later he rose again to never die again, and though temptations may seem great in this life know that the one whom you pray through did not fall into 1 of them,

and so when pray as saved people born again believers go to God praying for the things he asks you to pray for because he knows what best for you, and what is best for you is to take this prayer make it part of your lives, because like the Beatitudes that shape your very character the Lord’s prayer will shape your prayer life not only today, but for all of your days. So when you don’t know how to pray look to matthew 6, and let the Lord show you the way.

If there is anyone in this room that has not been born again know this. Sin pulls us away from God and it leads us down the path of unrighteousness, and Satan the prince of the air wants you to believe that you don’t need Jesus not only to be saved, but for your everyday life, and I am telling you today don’t believe the enemy because if you do… it will lead you to a sinful death seperated from God for all eternity. But despite the bad news that we are seperated from God.

Jesus came not only to give us good teaching like teaching us how to pray he went to the cross, and died so you and I could have a right relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ.

And you can only know that today by repenting from your sins, and turning to Christ for salvation. And the Bible says this to those who have done that.

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a wonderful gift to those who belong to Christ let us pray.

The Lords supper is one of two ordinances the Local church has the other is Baptism.

At the last Supper Jesus said these very words… Luke 22:19 “19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””

Its a reminder of the work of Christ on the cross, how his body and blood were shed for believers.

The Lords supper is an act of unity in the Body. Now before we take of this I want to be clear this is for believers only. So if there are any children or unbelievers who have not came to know the Lord yet this is not for them you, but can be a moment that we teach them about Christ.

Listen to the words of 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 “27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

You can also take the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner if you are living with some sort of un-repented sin. Repent of that. The Lord takes this moment very seriously, and so should we, and that being said let us take a moment to pray in silence for ourselves and our own standing with God, and I will close with pray in a moment.

The bread and the wine symbolize the body and blood of Jesus and I want to pray for each one before we take it.

Pray for body.

1 Corinthians 11:24 “24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””

Pray for the blood

1 Corinthians 11:25 “25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.””

1 Corinthians 11:26 “26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

We are going to close after the singing of Silent night this morning, after that you are free to go, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas, and will see you all next Sunday!