Lead us
Notes
Transcript
We’ve been praying. Seeking to pray as Jesus taught us. The world has continued to spin, our lives have continued to move on; we’ve worked, we’ve had celebrations, we’ve laughed, we’ve worried, and my hope is that we’ve continued to pray.
During a discussion during this series, I’m sorry I can’t remember when or where, but we were talking about the phrase “There’s nothing left to do but pray.” If there is one thing you take away from this series it would be to pray.
Prayer should not be the last thing we do, as Christians it should be the first thing we do. I can tell you from experience having prayed at the beginning of a day and prayed through my schedule has more than once prevented me from saying or doing something that popped into my mind. In that moment I remembered “I’m a child of God.” “What would honor God now.”
fn the Gospel of Matthew we find the prayer we’ve been looking at in chapter 6. If we back up to verse 7 this all begins with Mt 6:7
“And when you pray,…
The point being we are to be praying. Prayer is something you just do on Sunday morning in church, we do it when we rise, when we sit, when we lie down, when we walk along the path. Whether you’re working in your garden, working out at the gym, riding your bike, or simply sitting at your home, you can pray. Whenever, wherever you are, you can pray.
Thus far we have prayed: Matt 6:9-12
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
and now we get to the final two of the 7 petitions: Mt 6:9-13
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
This last sentence raises some a clear question. Mt 6:13
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Why would God lead us into temptation? The truth is he wouldn’t. God does not LEAD us into temptation; that doesn’t mean we aren’t tempted. It is a part of the choice we face every single moment of every single day. Are we going to choose to follow God and the wisdom of God OR are we going to rely on our own thinking.
Joe read for us this morning, James 1:13-15
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. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
We can go back to what we call the original sin back in Genesis 3, w’ere in the garden with Adam and Eve and the sertpent says to Eve, “Did God actually say…”
“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
It’s interesting to note that’s not quite what God said. God said, Gen 2:16-17
“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Did you catch the difference? She added “you shall not touch it”. In some ways here, Eve is the first Pharisee adding to the law, perhaps to insure that it was obeyed.
Here’s the problem with those rules. They cause us to focus on the … RULES and not our relationship. At that moment when the tempter asked her, “Did actually say…” She could have simply said, “I’ll ask.” Instead she goes to her understanding of what was said.
And, just so we don’t throw Eve under the bus as some try and do, we need to remember Adam is standing right there at the time.
No, God does not tempt us - we were given the ability to choose. Otherwise we would simply be puppets to the deity. That wouldn’t be love or relationship.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Deliver us from evil, or in some translations we read Mt 6:13
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
The NIV is not the only translation that personifies the evil from which we petition to be delivered. Whether or not you personify this evil, this final petition indicates we as disciples must be consious that life is a spiritual battle.
The Apostle Paul wrote: Eph 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against …the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
We are reminded by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, 1Cor 10:13
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.
This is similar to what we’re praying and asking from God, “Deliver us from evil by showing us the way of escape.” Here’s the thing though, when we’re shown the escape we need to take it!
Sometimes that way is to go through it. Lean in to your relationship with God. You’re taking that test in school, working that project at work, filing your taxes, doing that workout - it would be easy to cheat, take a short cut, and even think no one will know. Yet you already know. God knows.
What will happen the next time you’re faced with such a challenge? In your mind you know you already blurred the line once, what’s the big deal? And then the next time, and the next.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Our own desire… we want the easy way. And once we succumb to the easy way once it’s not hard to do another time, and another, until we’ve turned entirely from God. God becomes just a word we throw out to make us think of ourselves as better.
Physical pressure is similar to the pressure of temptation in some respects. We can often escape it on our own, but we all have limits.
For example, even the atomic submarines built strongly enough to batter through the ice at the North Pole have a maximum crush depth limit beyond which they may not go with safety. The submarine Thresher exceeded that depth some years ago. As the pressure increased, the seawater crushed the sub’s heavy steel bulkheads as if they were made of cheap plastic. Searchers found only little pieces of that huge submarine.
Yet there are fish that live at the same depth in which the Thresher was crushed. How can these fish survive? The answer is that they have equal pressure within themselves. Thus it should be for all Christians. In ourselves we are doomed. But, in Christ, there is no temptation beyond our ability to resist.
Going back to the moments we are tempted. An illustration that demonstrates it well is the lesson of the dog.
Anyone who has trained a dog to obey knows this scene. A bit of meat or bread is placed on the floor near the dog and the master says, “No!” which the dog knows means that he must not touch it. The dog will usually take his eyes off the food, because the temptation to disobey would be too great, and instead will fix his eyes on the master’s face. That is the lesson of the dog. Always look to the Master’s face.
Imagine what would have happened if Eve and Adam had done that.
In closing, we all face temptations every day. Temptation to cheat ourselves or others, temptations to give into the immediate pleasure instead of the greater reward. Remember Jesus’ words in the great commission:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Whenever you’re facing temptation remember that All authority in heaven and on earth is with you always. Always look to the Master’s face.
To God be the glory, AMEN
Lead us
Lead us
Let me pray for you.
