Red Letters #11

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

We have been diving in deep to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount for the last several months, and this morning, we are continuing that deep dive. We have been focusing on the section of that sermon that we know as the Lord’s Prayer. It probably should be known as the disciples prayer, because it was Jesus’ instructions to us as to how we should pray. We have been discovering that this prayer is life-changing. Now that we have prayed “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” we focus on His leadership - “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

A young boy in the big city wondered why he was taught to pray, “And lead us not into Penn Station.” A little girl misquoted the prayer by saying, and “deliver us some e-mail.” But kids aren’t the only ones puzzled by this petition in the Lord’s Prayer.

Jesus had just taught His disciples to pray to forgive & to receive forgiveness. But He recognizes that the opportunity to sin and to choose evil continues to be at our doorstep, so He leads us into this final petition “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Randall Denney says: “This last petition of the Lord’s Prayer expresses the longing of God’s children for holiness, for Christlikeness, and for deliverance from anything that mars Christ’s image in them.” God has placed deep within us, His children, the passion and desire to be like Jesus. He does not give us this desire without helping us to fulfill it. There are those that insist that there is nothing that we can do about continuing to live in sin, but when we have been forgiven, He does not expect that we will continue to live a life of sin.

John Wesley, who is known as the father of Methodism, and to whom we, as a holiness people look back to as one of the foundational teachers of holiness said that

A babe in Christ has enough of God’s grace that he or she does not continue to commit known sins! —John Wesley

The born again believer who has been forgiven from the awful curse of sin will not continue to willfully sin against God or against other people. God not only grants forgiveness, He grants power to no longer live in the sins that we once committed. And so, we ask Him to deliver us from this kind of life and lifestyle.

Yet, here in His prayer, Jesus tells us to pray “and lead us not into temptation.” Now we need to understand something before we can go any further with this petition. Sometimes we read this petition incorrectly, maybe not as clearly wrong as “lead us not into Penn Station,” but it is perhaps more dangerous. You see, sometimes we read it, “God, please don’t lead me into temptation.” As if to say, God, I know that you want to tempt me, but please don’t. That cannot be the meaning here, because James 1:13 says” “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” He would never lead anybody into temptation, so the emphasis here is not “don’t lead us into temptation.”

No, this prayer that God will lead us not into temptation, is first and foremost a prayer that God will lead us! Note, if we are going to pray that He leads us, we also need to determine that we are going to follow. Sometimes our situation is such that He is leading, but we are refusing to follow. Our instruction in this prayer is that He will lead us away from temptation and deliver us from evil, we say in the KJV. But in the more modern translations, the word evil is usually translated as “the evil one.” Why is that? Well, when we say it in the KJV, it seems that evil is this concept, and we pray that God will deliver us from living our lives in this general evil way, but the word that we translate “evil” in the KJV has the definite article, so it literally means “the evil one”— who is the evil one? The devil.

One issue that we would like to escape from is the reality of evil in our world. But Jesus makes it very clear that the evil one is real, and that we need to acknowledge that we have no power over his influence in our lives without God. We are powerless on our own, but Jesus says we can pray to God to deliver us from the evil one!

How is evil at work in our world?

Evil

Natural: Our universe is filled with natural catastrophes and such. We have just really begun to go through what we know as hurricane season here in the United States.

We watched just this week as another natural disaster, Hurricane Laura has devastated so many people in Texas and particularly in Louisiana. I saw just this morning that the damage, which they initially thought would be from the storm surge and flooding, was instead more from the wind, with the damage appearing like a 50 mile wide tornado. Prayer & a right relationship with God does not guarantee that we will avoid these things in our lives. Matthew 5:45 says, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” God rarely chooses to suspend the natural workings of His universe even to reward his children. We can, however, trust that He will be there to see us through and give us strength in the midst of the evil around us.

Moral: Moral evil results from sin, whether our own or someone else’s. This is precisely what Jesus is advising us to pray to God about, for the protection we need. Note, that this type of evil is not always something that we are directly involved in, but we may still be affected by the moral evil that is in our world. For example, greed may cause a car company to leave out a safety measure that only costs a few pennies, but will cause deaths if it is left out. Greed is evil - we may be affected even if we are not greedy! Systemic evil brings about damage in ways that we struggle to understand. Right now, we are learning a great deal about the effects of systemic racism in our own history. It would behoove us to listen to this conversation that is happening in this area.

I believe that the answer to this evil and all evils in our world is to allow God to take His rightful place in our lives and to allow Him to have free reign in all that we do and say. God, deliver us from the evil one - Deliver us from evil and its effects in our world!

Temptation: Lead us — not into temptation.

Tests to develop character. Throughout our spiritual lives, we are often met with challenges. These tests will help us to grow closer to Him, or will give us stronger character. These tests are not brought by God, but He allows them to come into our lives. If it were not for His sustaining and empowering strength in the midst of these tests, they would at times overwhelm us. 1 Peter 1:7 “These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Invitation to sin. “A young man asked an old priest, ‘Father, when will I cease to be bothered by the temptations of the flesh?’ The priest replied, ‘I wouldn’t trust myself, son, until I was dead three days.’” It is when we begin to think that we can handle a temptation without the help of god that we find we cannot handle it. Paul put it this way, “So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”

Avoiding Temptation: How do we arrive victoriously on the other side of temptation?

Weak spots: A man decided to go on a diet and lose some weight. He took the diet very seriously, and even changed his route to work to avoid his favorite bakery. One morning, however, he came to work with a great big coffee cake. “This coffee cake is special,” he explained. “I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning, and there in the window were all kinds of wonderful treats. So I prayed, ‘Lord, if you want me to have one of those coffee cakes that I like so well, let me have a parking place directly in front of the bakery.’ Sure enough, the eighth time around the block, there it was.” Too often we place ourselves in situations that we know we will meet with temptation when we should be running the other way to avoid it.

Strong spots: We have already mentioned the verse from the apostle Paul concerning our strengths: when we think we are standing firm we need to be extra careful that we don’t fall. This is where I believe that the evil one attacks most of us who have been Christians for awhile. We get to a place where we think we have something conquered, so we no longer rely on the strength of God to overcome - that is when we are at the greatest danger of falling!

Failure is possible—So is victory:

A temptation to sin is not sin, but it always comes with the opportunity to sin. There were three people applying for the same job as a chauffeur. The person who was looking for the driver asked each applicant, “how near the cliff’s edge are you skillful enough to drive?” One guy replied, “within a foot.” A second responded, “Within 6 inches.” The third applicant said, “I’d keep as far from the edge as possible just to be safe.” You get the point don’t you? Avoid temptation as much as possible and rely on God for the strength to overcome.

Avoid overconfidence. Overconfidence leads to failure in sports, but more importantly, it leads to failure in the area of temptation

Run from temptation. In Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University classes, he talks about running from debt with a gazelle like intensity. When a big cat is on the hunt and chasing after a group of gazelles, they run because their life depends upon it. We ought to use that gazelle intensity to run from debt, but more importantly, we need to use this gazelle intensity when it come to running from temptation because our spiritual life depends upon it!

Don’t flirt with temptation. Let’s face it, the reason we are tempted to sin is because we feel that we will get some enjoyment out of the action. Avoid the sin by avoiding the temptation.

Take God’s way out! We pray to be delivered from temptation, but often we fail to take the way out that God supplies. It is easy to get the idea that there will always be one more out before we give in to the sin. At Cedar Point there is a ride called the Magnum. As you are going up the steps to the ride there is an opportunity for those who chicken out to get out of line. Once you pass that spot there is no other way down but to ride. We would do well to not always look for the last possible escape, but rather take the first possible escape.

Break our chains: What chains are binding you?

The prayer “deliver us” literally means “save us,” or “break our chains.” God can literally break the chains that bind us and hold us back from fully serving Him. You never have to give in to sin. The devil can’t make you do it! “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13). Deliverance can be complete because He is with us always!

The entire Disciples’ Prayer must be something that flows out of a truly committed heart. It ought to be a definition of your spirit, your attitude toward God, what is inside you? An unknown author put it this way:

I cannot say “our” if I live only for myself.

I cannot say “Father” if I do not endeavor each day to act like His child.

I cannot say “who art in heaven” if I am laying up no treasure there.

I cannot say “hallowed be Thy name” if I am not striving for holiness.

I cannot say “Thy kingdom come” if I am not doing all in my power to hasten that wonderful event.

I cannot say “Thy will be done” if I am disobedient to His Word.

I cannot say “in earth as it is in heaven” if I’ll not serve Him here and now.

I cannot say “give us this day our daily bread” if I am dishonest or seeking things by subterfuge.

I cannot say “forgive us our debts” if I harbor a grudge against anyone

I cannot say “lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in its path.

I cannot say “deliver us from evil” if I do not put on the whole armor of God.

I cannot say “Thine is the kingdom” if I do not give the King the loyalty due Him from a faithful subject.

I cannot ascribe to Him “The glory” if I’m seeking honor only for myself and I cannot say “forever” if the horizon of my life is bounded completely by time.

Early Native Americans had a unique practice for training young braves. On the night of a male’s 13th birthday, having learned hunting, scouting, and fishing skills, he was given a final test. Braves placed him in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. The experience was horribly frightening. Until then, he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But he was blindfolded and taken several miles away on this night. When he took off his blindfold, he found himself in the middle of a thick woods. He felt terrified. Every time a twig snapped, he visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. After what seemed like an eternity, dawn broke, and the first rays of sunlight began to lighten the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flower, trees, and the path out of the woods. Then to his amazement he saw a man standing nearby, armed with bow and arrow. It was his father, who had been there all night.

Our father in heaven is there watching over you ready to help you to avoid temptation He is there ready to help you overcome. What we need to do is to continually ask Him for help and be obedient to the help He provides!