Pray Desperately

INTRODUCTION

Well, good morning, again, church family. It’s so good to be back in this room, isn’t it? I want to remind you that, tonight, at 5:30pm, we are going to gather in here for a time of prayer. I want to encourage you to make it a priority to be here. It’s one thing to go through a sermon series called “Teach Us to Pray.” It’s another thing to put it into practice. So, make sure you’re here tonight.

As we come, one more time, to Matthew chapter six, we’re finishing up this six-week series…RECAP…

Let’s begin in verse nine:

Matthew 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 past week, our nation’s military went on the offensive against the evil Iranian regime…a threat to the safety/existence of Israel and a threat to America—“Death to America!”

But…believe it or not…there is a greater and eternal threat…not across the world in the Middle East…lurking in our own hearts…in our homes…a threat that is coming after our children, after our marriages, after our very lives.

Temptation and the evil one—Satan—who is roaming like a lion looking to devour…looking to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

One of the wisest things I’ve ever been told—sin will take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and make you pay more than you ever wanted to pay.

Jesus ends this lesson on prayer by teaching us warfare prayer.

Piper—“You cannot know what prayer is for until you know that life is war. Prayer is a wartime walkie-talkie. It is not a domestic intercom to ring up the butler to bring another comfort to the den where we are already more secure than we should be.”

Pray for protection from sin’s pull

“Lead us not into temptation…”

What does this mean?

If you’ve read Matthew’s Gospel, you’ve seen this same language already.

Matthew 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Matthew Exegesis

The petition asks that God will not do to the disciple what he did do to Jesus (4:1) because the disciple is keenly aware of his own weakness and the likelihood that he will succumb to the temptations that Jesus so powerfully resisted.

Make clear—God does not tempt us.

This is a prayer for strength in the midst of temptation to overcome temptation. We do have an alternative…1 Corinthians 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.” …so when we do succumb to temptation, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Lord, guard my steps…I don’t even want to go near the road of temptation. I don’t want to even want to find myself in any setting in which I am tempted. I don’t want to even allow myself in a situation where I will be tempted.

Proverbs 7:24–26 “And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng.”

So many pastors who have been disqualified from ministry.

ILLUSTRATION—NOT TOEING THE LINE...STAYING AWAY FROM THE EDGE

Pray for strength over sin’s power

Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Some of you are in bondage to sin’s power. You’re trapped in addiction. Pornography. Alcohol. Some of you are trapped by sin’s power—anger.

Pray for deliverance from Satan’s power

Lost people