Lead us not into temptation

God moved in a mighty way this week through VBS in my life, i know but also in our community. There are some things that i will share in time to come to how God is burdening my heart.

I would like to thank all the kitchen staff for working and laboring so that our mission team and visiting kids had food. It does not go unnoticed.

To those who taught classes, went around with kids, and dealt with the chaos at the registration tables. Thank You.

To all the rest. God has begun the work, are you ready to see come to pass to why God has sent us here. He is opening the door for the ministry to take place and i personally want to say that i am beyond excited and blessed the he has chosen us to do it.

I feel as though this week i went from a candle burning to a torch.

Read .

Pray.

The progression in this prayer is magnificent fuel for the Christians life to recognize the Lord we serve and His gracious care of His children. Look how Good He is.

Our Father in Heaven:

Bringing into view the miraculous relationship between a sinner and his Holy Heavenly Father, by which we are able to cry Abba Father.

This being at the core of our prayer a desire to honor Him above all else. That He be our sole possession for it is by His power that we have been redeemed from the pit of despair.

It displays the glorious victory over sin, and shame, As i am now His child to seek no longer my own fame and respect but rather that His name be revered in my life and in the lives of those around me.

For we have just entered into a paradox that has found that His gracious and good rule is far greater than anything i could have ever conjured up or accomplished.

Your way and not my oh Lord. Your kingdom come and not my kingdom Lord for you are King and worthy to be praised.

YOU and You alone.

Then we see the praise of this marvelous God in which we serve begin to penetrate our every day living as acknowledging Him, and rightly so, as our provider.

All that we have and all that we own is because of the great supply of our Father. ‘

It is not my own to foolishly squander but is graciously given that i may be a good steward. All i have doesn’t have my name on it but His name.

do not trust in the provision but rather in the provider, who promises to take care of his Children. Its in him that i trust in times of famine. Its in Him that trust in times of drought.

Not in my savings account, not in the house in which i dwell, or the food within my refridgerator, but in the one who supplies my need. do not have to fear what tomorrow holds for i trust in the one who holds tomorrow.

And as He has transformed my heart and set me free to see this glorious grace, I now forgive as I have been forgiven.

As we are bent to harbor hatred and bitterness, towards those around us, we now act contrary to our flesh and the world to do that which does not come natural and we FORGIVE. AS GOD FORGIVES.

We pray for Gods heart to be our heart for we know now the freedom that comes when we act is such ways.

There is nothing that anyone can ever do to me that is greater than what i did to God.

When we see this truth in the clear light, the size of our sin and the forgiveness of God, can we rightly forgive those petty sins of those around us.

To do good to those who do evil, to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who persecute us.

Only possible in the transformed life of Jesus Christ and the appreciation of what He has done.

Its a wonder then when we pray, why do we act like the religious hypocrites, doing so to please men rather than the one who has worked so gloriously on our behalf.

Get real with God in the closet, where no one is watching and see how blesses so generously in the open square. This being not the fuel we use to pray but rather the fumes that pour out from our flaming passion to meet with our heavenly Father.

Yet for many of us this sharp tool essential for life is the very tool that we allow to rust in the shed of our hearts. We do not utilize it but hang it on the shelf.

Its only there for when its convenient or when I really need it.

In both instances it shines forth an attitude that is blind to the reality of our heart. For one who approaches prayer in such light is one who approaches God in such light. I only need you when i need to be bailed out, till then stay out of my life. But when its conveinent for me you may then enter.

God is not our genie in a bottle to make all our wishes come true but rather should be our treasure despite our wishes coming true, rightly acknowledging He knows best, and His way is best and my devotion is not based upon what i receive in return.

It is through this lense that we see these verses being brought forth, knowing Gods greatness our weakness that we cry for His help and guidance. With our hearts desire to be always pleasing in his sight. This should be the heart of the Child of God, though we will fall at times, this should be the cry of our heart.

v.13 Do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the Evil one.

The first truth we must acknowledge is None of us are exempt from temptation:

It is a reality and unavoidable by all.

The sinner who does not seek God and the preacher who has been saved for 50 years.

The reality proclaimed by Paul in

Romans 7:21–25 NKJV

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Isn’t it ironic that a culture that assumes everyone to be good, that has had all these technological advances yet one wonders why we cannot control our sinful impulses.

We can gather around a table for a common cause yet we cannot sit across the table from the one we have devoted our life to.

Why is it that we tell lies, cheat, steal, grow envious, proud, selfish, always trying to paint ourselves in better light?

why are we so intrigued by immorality?

why do we enjoy slander?

why are we so prone to pick apart the flaws in everyone elses families yet close our eyes to our own?

This is because When Adam sinned he took all of humanity with him.

The bible teaches us that we all lie under the sway of the wicked one in 1 john 5:19.

The heart is deceptively wicked, who can know it.

Even at this time you are saying no your different. Thats not you.

We love our sin, yet it never satisfies.

At the core of our nature since the fall is that we are not good and until we are free in Christ we are headstrong for Sin.

James 1:13 NKJV

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

Alastair Begg, “Our contemporary emphasis on education… and I think you would agree there is an emphasis on education. And none of us is opposed to a good education; we want our children to do the best they can do. But the contemporary emphasis on education is based largely on the notion that by increasing knowledge we will be able to solve most of the problems that curse our lives and make them seem so futile. Listen: education is not the answer, because ignorance is not the problem. It is not that man is ignorant and needs to be educated, and if the education takes place then he will become the perfect being in the new utopia. Nor is it that man is simply in need of a therapist because he’s been hard done by, you know, all of his life. You take the trial of the Unabomber—somebody who is clever enough, smart enough, to rage against humanity, to put together some of the most skillful, meticulous plans to destroy people—and what is his defense? That he’s nuts! He’s not nuts. He’s bad! He may be a little nuts, but his problem is not that he needs a therapist; the problem is he needs a Savior.”

Dont give me the promotion Lord if it will lead me away from you.

Dont give me the money Lord if it will begin the downward spiral of trusting in riches rather than you.

What a fog of confusion our world is in. It is then as we have been liberated by our savior that we can see this truth.

Dont give me the acknowledgement if that is what will fuel my foolish heart to trust in my abilities.

The one who seeks to honor God, knowing His character and our weakness, will be ever aware of our bend toward complacency and our hearts to wander away from His good pasture.

You see this in the heart of the children of Israel in the book of judges.

Being freed from enemies to only find there rebellious hearts running right back with more steam to the ways of life that got them into that predicament in the first place.

Sin is an inside job. When we sin we are giving in to our desires. choosing that which we love.

I think of Caroline just yesterday. She had asked for a piece of candy I told her yes you may. I Proceeded to give her two pieces of candy. Only to find her 5 min later sneaking up to the counter to try and get some more. I said what are you doing i just gave you candy? Her reply, but it was only two pieces.”

When we seek the candy of this world it will never quench our appetite. It will never be enough. The only thing that quench our appetite, satisfy our souls is the nourishment of Christ. Love Him and His word more than you love your candy. And see how your appetite changes.

It begins to crave and long for the good stuff.

We once walked according to the ways of this world, and at heart was the friend of satan, but then being reconciled back to God through faith we now are the friends of God and simultaneously now the enemy of satan.

In Christ i have overcome Sin and it no longer reigns in my life, but as one commentator stated it remains. It is there. We will not be made perfect till we are with him in glory.

If you don’t have this first victory, in Christ, you don’t have victory at all.

What good is it that you become temporarily free from the addictive bonds of drugs to only find yourself addicted to bitterness and hatred. Addicted to the love of money and sex.

Till you are free in Christ, by which we are able to Abba Father, are we truly free. Where Sin no longer has dominion.

This is because there is a new Master to which i obey. A New king on the throne of might heart that has cleared the way to be free.

One thing we can be sure of working through this text is...

God does not tempt us.

James 1:13 NKJV

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

So then why do we pray that He may not lead us into temptation if God cannot tempt us?

It appears contradictory.

At the core you see the cry.

You see it in this heart of the prayer, on behalf of the petitioner, Lord don’t let me make a mess of my life. Don’t allow me to go down a slippery slope that may lead me to become a cast away after I have preached to others.

I cannot avoid temptation, and i know in and of itself it is not sin, but dont let me get sucked in by and beaten down.

The greek word used here also and acknowledged by many scholars, can mean temptation, test, or trial.

We know that God tests us to prove us and grow us. There is great benefit to testings when we endure them. The bible even tells us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials.

One Preacher explains...

“And this is really how it goes. For example, God tested Abraham. He puts Abraham and Sarah to the test, and he says, “Now, listen, I promise you a son, but you’re going to have to wait.”[19] And the test is in the waiting. What happens? Abraham decides to take matters into his own hands, so that Satan comes along, takes the test which God brings, and says, “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to turn the test into a temptation.” And so he tempts him, and Abraham listens to his wife, refuses to listen to his conscience, and fathers a child through Hagar.[20] And all of the chaos and sadness and disaster that emerged from that was as a result not of God tempting Abraham to sin with Hagar, but as a result of Abraham’s own selfish individual propensities taking a test which came from God and succumbing to the temptation to do the job himself. Most of us can identify with that. The good news, of course, is that God wasn’t finished him. And his testing of him brought him to the high point where you find him discovering the provision in the prospect of the death of Isaac. And so the story goes on.

Now, when you begin to wrestle with that subtle distinction, you understand this: when we pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” this is what we’re saying: “God, help us so that we do not let the testing which comes from you become a temptation from Satan to do evil.” We will never be free of this until we’re with the Lord, so we need to be praying regularly, “Do not allow me, Lord, to be led into the power of temptation, where I may be caused to do evil and fall. Lord, if it please you, do not even lead me into trials, when necessary for my discipline, without your presence with me and without your power keeping me.” That’s the flavor of this petition: “Lord, if I’m going into a severe test here, don’t let me go without your power and without your protection.” In other words, we’re not asking so much that we should not be tempted as we’re asking that we should not give in to sin’s seductive allurements.”

May this be your cry.

Don’t give me the promotion Lord if it will lead me away from you.

Don’t give me the money Lord if it will begin the downward spiral of trusting in riches rather than you.

Don’t give me the acknowledgement if that is what will fuel my foolish heart to trust in my abilities.

Its when we can see the battle that is waged against our lives and how it is not with flesh and blood but rather in the spiritual realm. Enemies Seeking that i may fall. Seeking that i may disown the God who loves me.

Its when i see this war and my weakness to withstand it and then His strength who has already defeated it, do I see the light unto my path that keeps me from stumbling.

He is the only one that can keep me from the Evil One.

In a moment He can cast him away. Satan is no match for God

What He does for Evil God uses for good.

There will come a day where God will give the order and satan’s time will be up. There will be no fight at all.

But for now take heed lest you fall

1 Corinthians 10:12–13 NKJV

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

THat satan cannot even tempt us beyond what we can handle cause is faithful and even gives us a way of escape in the midst of it that we may not be over come by it.

we are left without escuse

This needs to be the prayer of our lives day in and day out.

Dont give me the promotion Lord if it will lead me away from you.

Dont give me the money Lord if it will begin the downward spiral of trusting in riches rather than you.

Dont give me the acknowledgement if that is what will fuel my foolish heart to trust in my abilities.

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 2. The Christian Way of Prayer

The last two petitions should probably be understood as the negative and positive aspects of one: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The sinner whose evil in the past has been forgiven longs to be delivered from its tyranny in the future. The general sense of the prayer is plain. But two problems confront us. First, the Bible says that God does not (indeed cannot) tempt us with evil. So what is the sense of praying that he will not do what he has promised never to do? Some answer this question by interpreting ‘tempting’ as ‘testing’,3 explaining that though God never entices us to sin he does test our faith and character. This is possible. A better explanation seems to me to be that ‘lead us not’ must be understood in the light of its counterpart ‘but deliver us’, and that ‘evil’ should be rendered ‘evil one’ (as in 13:19). In other words, it is the devil who is in view, who tempts God’s people to sin, and from whom we need to be ‘rescued’ (rusai).

The second problem concerns the fact that the Bible says temptation and trial are good for us: ‘Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials’ or ‘various temptations’. If then they are beneficial, why should we pray not to be led into them? The probable answer is that the prayer is more that we may overcome temptation, than that we may avoid it. Perhaps we could paraphrase the whole request as ‘Do not allow us so to be led into temptation that it overwhelms us, but rescue us from the evil one’. So behind these words that Jesus gave us to pray are the implications that the devil is too strong for us, that we are too weak to stand up to him, but that our heavenly Father will deliver us if we call upon him.

Thus the three petitions which Jesus puts upon our lips are beautifully comprehensive. They cover, in principle, all our human need—material (daily bread), spiritual (forgiveness of sins) and moral (deliverance from evil). What we are doing whenever we pray this prayer is to express our dependence upon God in every area of our human life. Moreover, a trinitarian Christian is bound to see in these three petitions a veiled allusion to the Trinity, since it is through the Father’s creation and providence that we receive our daily bread, through the Son’s atoning death that we may be forgiven and through the Spirit’s indwelling power that we are rescued from the evil one. No wonder some ancient manuscripts (though not the best) end with the doxology, attributing ‘the kingdom and the power and the glory’ to this triune God to whom alone it belongs.

Now, this is unappealing, of course, in a generation in which we believe that we were given perfect children. Everybody has a perfect child. That’s why the perfect child is a perfect nuisance: always in the place of position; always in the place of priority; never put through to be quiet, as a child should be seen and not heard; always exalted to the place of significance. Why? Because the people do not believe that what they have in their hands here is something that needs to be disciplined and nurtured and cared for and subdued. It is a bundle of sinful potentiality. And it doesn’t express itself in every life in the same way, but the Bible says the reason this child is a sinner, the reason this child sins—does sinful things, says no, sticks its tongue out, cusses, does all that stuff—is because he was born having had the sin of Adam imputed to him. And unless something happens in this individual’s life, then it’ll just be more of the same, and worse and worse and worse, catered to simply by expedience, and by schooling, and by lifestyle, and by all the other things that we try and put around like pillows ’round our children’s life to try and take care of all of the nonsense.

Our contemporary emphasis on education… and I think you would agree there is an emphasis on education. And none of us is opposed to a good education; we want our children to do the best they can do. But the contemporary emphasis on education is based largely on the notion that by increasing knowledge we will be able to solve most of the problems that curse our lives and make them seem so futile. Listen: education is not the answer, because ignorance is not the problem. It is not that man is ignorant and needs to be educated, and if the education takes place then he will become the perfect being in the new utopia. Nor is it that man is simply in need of a therapist because he’s been hard done by, you know, all of his life. You take the trial of the Unabomber—somebody who is clever enough, smart enough, to rage against humanity, to put together some of the most skillful, meticulous plans to destroy people—and what is his defense? That he’s nuts! He’s not nuts. He’s bad! He may be a little nuts, but his problem is not that he needs a therapist; the problem is he needs a Savior. And all day long, millions and millions of dollars are spent by Western governments in order to educatesexual immorality out of the lives of its children. Can’t be done! In order to “educate” drug addiction out of the lives of its children. Can’t be done! Why? Ignorance isn’t the problem! “For from within, out of a man’s heart, come all these things.”[12]

Our contemporary emphasis on education… and I think you would agree there is an emphasis on education. And none of us is opposed to a good education; we want our children to do the best they can do. But the contemporary emphasis on education is based largely on the notion that by increasing knowledge we will be able to solve most of the problems that curse our lives and make them seem so futile. Listen: education is not the answer, because ignorance is not the problem. It is not that man is ignorant and needs to be educated, and if the education takes place then he will become the perfect being in the new utopia. Nor is it that man is simply in need of a therapist because he’s been hard done by, you know, all of his life. You take the trial of the Unabomber—somebody who is clever enough, smart enough, to rage against humanity, to put together some of the most skillful, meticulous plans to destroy people—and what is his defense? That he’s nuts! He’s not nuts. He’s bad! He may be a little nuts, but his problem is not that he needs a therapist; the problem is he needs a Savior. And all day long, millions and millions of dollars are spent by Western governments in order to educatesexual immorality out of the lives of its children. Can’t be done! In order to “educate” drug addiction out of the lives of its children. Can’t be done! Why? Ignorance isn’t the problem! “For from within, out of a man’s heart, come all these things.”[12]

My fear is that in our churches today we have grown lax in our walks with God and thinking simply by praying this that we will never enter into temptation, or that by doing it we have mastered it.

In other words, we’re not asking so much that we should not be tempted as we’re asking that we should not give in to sin’s seductive allurements.

In other words, we’re not asking so much that we should not be tempted as we’re asking that we should not give in to sin’s seductive allurements.

“You see, there is no great gain made in the Christian life by sitting on a big easy chair somewhere and asking God to simply do everything : “‘Lead me not into temptation.’ Okay, done! Took care of that. Not a problem. Dealt with the temptation thing. Chapter 11, verse 4: ‘Lead me not into temptation.’” No, you didn’t. I’ll tell you why: because my conduct has to correspond with my prayer. My conduct has to correspond with my prayer. To pray sincerely “Lead me not into temptation” means, then, that I will not put myself heedlessly, needlessly, or willfully in the way of temptation. Do you understand that? If I am really praying “Lord, I don’t want to be tempted, I don’t want to fall into temptation, I don’t want to become a castaway, I don’t want to violate your holy law, I don’t want to grieve the Spirit of God in my life”—if I am really praying that, then my conduct must jive with it.” Alastair begg, “When you pray say.”

You see, there is no great gain made in the Christian life by sitting on a big easy chair somewhere and asking God to simply do everything : “‘Lead me not into temptation.’ Okay, done! Took care of that. Not a problem. Dealt with the temptation thing. Chapter 11, verse 4: ‘Lead me not into temptation.’” No, you didn’t. I’ll tell you why: because my conduct has to correspond with my prayer. My conduct has to correspond with my prayer. To pray sincerely “Lead me not into temptation” means, then, that I will not put myself heedlessly, needlessly, or willfully in the way of temptation. Do you understand that? If I am really praying “Lord, I don’t want to be tempted, I don’t want to fall into temptation, I don’t want to become a castaway, I don’t want to violate your holy law, I don’t want to grieve the Spirit of God in my life”—if I am really praying that, then my conduct must jive with it.

This is like praying that God may keep you from eating candy and all the while you are standing in the candy shop rubbing and sniffing all the packages. Run from it and mortify it as the Bible proclaims. Let God be your sole treasure not the things of this world and fight from Victories side. Don’t trample around the edges and cast up wishful prayers that i may not stumble or fall .

God is our source of Victory to whom we cry and to whom we need.

May be end with the prayer As Jesus did as we look to the fog of the future, not sure of what tomorrow holds, may we boldly proclaim as our hearts desire,

Matthew 6:13 NKJV

And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”