Bible, Fix My Prayer Life - Part 6

Matthew 6:5–13 NASB95

5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is 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 do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

today’s focus is on “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil”

We’ve learned that prayer is connecting with God, and this part of the prayer helps us connect with God because you will see that it is based a desire to do right and being humble

And the Bible tells us to do right (Deut 6:18)

and the Bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble

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

let’s look at this temptation

God does not want us to sin . . . He warns us to not sin

in addition, in the book of James, the Bible teaches us that God does not tempt us to sin

meaning that God does not try to trick us into sinning and say, “Gotcha”

like cops do a sting operation against a suspected a criminal

but that’s the story of many false gods from greeks, egyptians, romans, hindu, norsemen . . . . some of their gods derive joy and pleasure by tricking humanity (think of Loki from Norse gods); so you had to honor that god but also watch out for them because they were sneaky and try to mess you up

God is not like that, so why did Jesus say we should pray this way, “and do not lead us into temptation”

And on top of that, the Bible says something interesting when it comes to the start of Jesus’ ministry on earth. . . .After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Bible says this

Matthew 4:1 NASB95

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Jesus was led by the Spirit of God to be tempted by evil (the devil)

and it is important to know that another word for tempted is tested . . . a temptation IS a type of test: character, discipline, obedience, faith

Then when we look at the Bible in context, we see that God does test people, not just Jesus . . . here are just a few examples

Job was tested (explain - will he remain faithful in hard times)

Abraham was tested, those exact words are written in the text (enough faith to kill his only son? . . .explain)

The disciples were tested, those exact words are used (faith to believe he could do anything, feed 5000? explain)

So we need to understand why Jesus would have us pray, “God don’t test me” . . . when indeed God will test me . . .

we have to look at the why

it has already been stated that God is not trying to deceive you nor is God looking for a “gotcha” moment

And when we look at the tests that God gives people, the PURPOSE is to often to promote, bless, teach, grow our faith, or some combination of the these things . . . that’s what happened with

Job (learned more about God, and received double the blessings)

Abraham (faith grew, God blessed his blessings)

Disciples (faith grew, learned more about power of Christ)

Jesus was tested and when he passed, he was promoted to full time public ministry

in other words, There are godly reasons behind God’s tests . . .When God leads you to a test, it is plan not to harm you but to prosper you: to promote you, to bless you, to teach you, to grow your faith

so back to Matthew

Matthew 6:13 NASB95

13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

So we are not praying, God don’t ever let any test come my way

but we are saying, Lord if it isn’t You trying to promote me, bless me, grow me, teach me, then I don’t want any part of it

the opposite of leading into is leading away, so Lord lead me away from temptation/test that didn’t come from you

keep me away from those temptations

protect me from those temptations

close doors that need to be closed

in fact, hide them, cause I might try to open them anyway

God I pray that you put guardrails around my life

just like the guardrails at a bowling alley when you are trying to teach a beginner how to bowl

I want your guardrails in my life, or else I might fall into the gutter

THIS is a prayer for a person willing to acknowledge their weaknesses

No, I’m not all that strong

Yes, I have faults, plenty of them

THIS is a prayer for a person who knows something about 1 Corinthians 10:12 that says, “if you THINK you are standing strong, be careful not to fall”

THIS is a prayer for a person that knows that apart from you God, there is no good in me

THIS is a pray for a person who understands that the last thing they need are extra tests

I don’t want to be tempted by what I see

I don’t want to be tempted by what I hear

I don’t want any new temptations to enter my mind

I don’t want to cross the line, so Lord, don’t let me even see the line

Real life example, don’t look down on me, just try to take a lesson from this example

I know I am not all that, and have never been all that, but before I got married, there were some situations that presented themselves . . . .romantically . . .physical romance . . . . but I did not recognize the signs until years later . . . ohhhhhh, that’s what she was trying to do . . . . that’s what she was up for

I didn’t see the line, so I didn’t try to cross it, I was like “enjoyed the evening, good night” . . . I don’t know what would have happened if I had seen it (well I do) . . . so thank, you Lord . . . .that’s what this prayer will do

so “lead me not into temptation” Because I don’t want to take any chances of disappointing you

“lead me not into temptation” Because I don’t want the consequences of yielding to temptation

the married person says, don’t let any attractive person try to flirt with me, even though the attention makes me feel good

the broke person says, don’t let any of my family or friends suggest an illegal get rich quick scheme . . . that would be tempting

some of you need to pray, Lord, don’t let anybody cut me off while I’m driving, cause I would be tempted to say some thangs’

Lord, I don’t want to be in a position where a lie will get me what I desire . . . lead me away from that

Proverbs gives another example

Proverbs 30:7 NLT

7 O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die.

this is a serious requests

Proverbs 30:8 NLT

8 First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.

we can understand the “lie” part

but then he says, I don’t want too poor nor too rich!

Keep me somewhere in the middle

We understand why a person would not want to be poor, but why would anybody not want to be rich?

Proverbs 30:9 NLT

9 For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.

If I get rich, I’ll be tempted to conclude that I don’t need you because I have so much money

If I am poor, I will be tempted to conclude that I have to ignore you commands and steal because I have so little money

there is temptation in being rich

there is temptation in being poor

he is praying, lead me away from those temptations and put me in the middle

I don’t want nuthin to with anything that might lead me to doing wrong

That’s why I try not to to look down on people, especially if I haven’t faced their temptation

I know that you should not sell drugs, but I really don’t know if I would sell drugs or not, I have not had that temptation

relatives sell drugs

friends sell drugs

selling drugs is just a normal lifestyle

and I get desperate for money and someone say you can make a quick $1000

And this prayer says, I don’t know what I would do, and I don’t want to know what I would do

So Father lead me away from it

This is probably the reason why I was never young, rich, and fine at the same time . . . I would probably would have been out in those streets (the only thing I have been is young and that was enough to handle)

back to our main scripture

Matthew 6:13 NASB95

13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

Commercial: If this is your prayer, the assumption is that you are not leading yourself into temptation either

by what we watch

what we listen to

by where we go

who we hang with

but deliver us from evil

not just help me stay away from sin and evil, but help me get out of evil . . . out evil situations . . . get away from the evil one

to pray, “deliver us from evil” you must be humble, and in being humble you are saying these three things:

the first is, “I need help”

Too many people don’t understand that they need help

too many people think, “I got this”

“I can get out of this on my own”

“I can deliver myself”

but this is a prayer for people who realize, “I don’t got this”, I am trapped and I need help

trapped in evil conditions

trapped in evil Addictions

trapped in evil atmosphere

trapped in an evil mindset

trapped in evil relationships

“Deliver me” means father, I need you to pull me out I am in bondage and cannot fight Pharaoh on my own . . . deliver me!

I’m not too proud to admit that I need you now

second, when you say, “deliver us from evil” you are admitting that you might not be aware of every evil in your life .

when you give God permission to deliver you from evil, you are giving him permission to deliver you from ALL evil . . . . even evil that you cannot discern

evil that might be disguised as good

evil situation that you think is a good situation

evil person that you think is a good person

evil relationship that you think is a good relationship

Lord deliver me from it even if I don’t understand why I need to be delivered from it.

I said, You are admitting two to things:

I need help

and I might not be aware of every evil in my life, so Lord you decided what’s evil in my life

The third” when you pray this, then you are open to however God wants to deliver you

I call it “you have to be willing to listen to Moses”

by that I mean God chose Moses to deliver the Israelites from slavery and take them to a better place, but they spent 40 resisting his leadership . . . thus 40 years resisting God’s deliverance

but when you pray this, you will accept whoever or however God decides to use to deliver you

it might be someone you least expect, Like Moses

for the Israelites they could say, “last time we saw you, you were running from the law” (that was Moses story)

so it could be the advice of that grandmother

words of that preacher from that small church on the corner

it could be from the words of a child

it could come from the words of someone you are angry at

it might take some hard times to deliver you

God might choose to take a long time to deliver you . . . or a short time

But the attitude is, “I don’t care how you do it, just deliver me, you know the best way! . . . . anyway you bless me I will be satisfied!

US

and I pray this for my brothers and sisters

I pray for our young single men

I pray for our single women

I pray for your married couples

I pray for our young people being brought up in this world where sin is not only running rampant, but is in their faces

Father, lead US not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

guide us away from temptation

protect us from temptation

move us away from temptation

and deliver us out of evil

rescue us from evil

bring us out from evil

save us from evil

evil we see, and evil we don’t see

we need your help. we are too weak and helpless

we are not wise enough, nor smart enough to do this on our own

Father we humbly ask that you help us, and help us in whatever way you think best

Jesus

every true born again, bible believing christian is basically someone who is saying, “Lord, deliver me)

I need help

I need deliverance from sin and the punishment of sin

I can’t be good enough on my own

Jesus save me

and thank God that whosever calls upon the name of the lord shall be saved