April 10, 2022 Sunday Worship Service (Steve)

So we're all thankful for the work that's being done here. The service has been done. We got some new members and a few young Christians and they're working and helping out and serving and they're just beginning this process and it's not an easy thing to get before it for them. We're thankful for their efforts because it's not only is a good thing for them personally, but for all of us, it's a good thing to see, young Christians grow in the Lord. We're so thankful for the people that you're with us that we can worship God and our savior in Jesus Christ together. And think about all the good things that Jesus has in store for you. And me is what we have to look forward to in that realm above. I think about how the the Bible goes from Genesis to Revelation and we think about the whole scheme of human Redemption, Paul and caps. And basically, one long sentence. You says God was manifested In the Flesh and that he was justified in the spirit among Angels priests among the Gentiles to believe that on into the world and received up in glory. That's why we're here today, all because of that, and everything that was involved there. Involve you, and involve me. We have been talking about. The Lord's Prayer from Matthew chapter 6, and this is the last time we'll be discussing that, this is the fourth week. Talking about that one prayer that Jesus gathered his disciples together and he was teaching them how to pray. In fact, they asked him.

Now, they had been praying all their lives, but there was something about the way Jesus prayed that caught their attention and they were thinking to themselves. What's different about what he says when his prayers as opposed to one. I say my prayers and so perhaps you wonder that yourself when you read that passage and we're trying to make application from this passage concerning what our prayers should look like. We know that the prayer begins Our Father, Our Father. Who are or who is in heaven with our father in Heaven? Same way, same thing, but he's talking about this Collective ideal about us together. Having one, father. And that he's our father together. And he says, Hallowed be thy name. Let us keep Halloween. Your name is the rendering, let us keep glorifying your name. Not just simply we recognize you as glorious but that we keep on making you glorious that we keep providing you the glory that you deserve. That's what that means. As we continue, says that kingdom come thy will be done. We focus a lot on that because it's the key part of the prayer. That Kingdom Come remember. Sometimes we're striving with God to establish our own kingdom. But there really is only one Kingdom and that's the kingdom of Christ. And the kingdom of Christ. We are to live a certain way. The way the king tells us to live. And so what we say in our lives, when we understand what Jesus has done for us, is that it's no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me. I have denied myself. I am now to pick up my cross daily and follow him. That means I Surrender, everything about me. And I give everything to him. It means I give up my kingdom the way. I want to run my life the way I want to say the things that I want to say. And now I turned it over to him and I said, let me speak the things that you want me to speak. Let me do the things that you want me to do. Let me be a part of your kingdom and met your kingdom Reign on me. That's the point here raining so much upon me having an influence upon me so much that I can say that, I will be done, not my will, but I want to do things your way. I know you gave us away. But I want to do those things your way. In the way that you prescribe them in the way that you just lay them out for us in Scripture. It's always fine here. A great example of how Jesus is trying to get the attention of his disciples. He sang this ought to be the focus of your prayers. Remember we liked it when we pray. We like to put ourselves first. We like to say Lord take me out of this issue or this problem. I'm in. Play Always jump ahead of where we need to be.

We can't be self-centered and that's the point that Jesus is really making. He's trying to draw self-centeredness out of the picture and give God's enter this to the prayer. By kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. We all know we're going to eat, right? We all know, we're going to have food and sustenance. But the thing about it is, is to pay homage to the one who supplies it. We often, we don't think about those things. We really think about our shelters, our homes. We rarely think about the water we drink, and just last night. It's all commercial. I guess it was some little town in Africa, or wherever, and it's this little boy, drinking out of a mud puddle. That's how they drink their water. And here we are and one of the greatest Nations, the Most Blessed nation in the history of man time, and we really give thanks for the water that we drink. Little bits of food and pieces of food that we have during the day, it all comes from God and be thankful that you have that and keeping the back of your mind that there are others who do not have such things. Those would be considered luxuries. Luxuries for some and so when you go out to the Golden Corral, when you go down, when you go down to whatever place you go to. If you're going home to eat, give thanks for the food that you have. Give, thanks for the food. That's going inside your belly. Because others do not have such a luxury. lazy thing to think about, When we think about those things, when we go to God In Prayer. So, our daily bread, give us our daily bread. And the other thing to think about is this idea of

Forgive us. Our Death, as we forgive our debtors, some translations, say forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us or someone forgive us. Our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, but literally the word is death. It's interesting because throughout the Bible, we have different words for sin. Percentage, how much Chia for transgression is another word. And for iniquity. There's another word. But consistently when they're tied together, they simply means sin and the same thing here. When he's talking about death. He's talking about the death, you and I owed. Jesus Christ. What's the death? The price that was paid on Calvary for your sins. That's the debt. The good thing about that is our debt is over with. I want to repeat that is over with, we owe nothing because of Jesus Christ. He paid the sin debt. He paid the sin debt, not you not me. Yes, salvation is conditional. But by the same token, our sin debt has been paid. We need to be thankful for that. We need to realize that we need to understand this for Jesus Christ. We're doing them out of love. We're doing a lot of me. Doing it out of love. Some of us become in with the idea that we need to do things in order to get to heaven. God tells us not to think that way, we're not doing things to get to heaven. We're doing things to please God. Is it significant to please God? Yes it is. Is it necessary to please God? Yes it is. We need to do those things to please him. But we want to please him, because we want to please him. We want to do it out of love. Just the way you want to do things for your children, out of love, you reverse the things that you want to do something for your parents out of love, because they're your parents. Now, we have a father in Heaven, who's our father? We want to do things to please him simply because he's our father. And why not? We have a good good father. He has blessed us with everything about. God for the Forgiveness of sins in our sin debt. What? He's trying to tell us his he wants us to stay out of the sin debt as much as possible. Now, he tells us that it's never going to be that way. Because there's only one person who has no sin debt whatsoever. That's Jesus Christ. The very one who paid our sin debt and so he says, there will be times of stumbling. But woe to those who stumble. So you saying you're going to send? The wall to use in but then it's like, you don't have to be in a state of Terror to understand that you're forgiven. As you walk in the light of God's word and when you do that, you continue to have the Forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so The Sermon on the Mount is what we've been studying for some time. And with this last sermon concerning prayer, we're going to be leaving the showing on the mountain heading on, to other portions of the Gospel passages because we're trying to go in chronological order as well. But as me think about this context, first, we have the greatest woman ever. Preached chapters 5 and 6 and 7 of Matthew. In chapter 5 is talking about the Beatitudes and then he's talking about the heart and then he's talking about giving and knowing and he's talking about praying and then he's talking about judgment. But just before he begins teaching his disciples. How to pray. We have to remember what took place before. Jesus started preaching, The Sermon on the Mount And just before The Sermon on the Mount, we find Jesus being tempted in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4. So, we think about the idea of Jesus being tempted. That's the context. That's where this Falls in line with our study this morning.

Are we go and do not lead us into temptation, but Deliver Us from the evil one. This is the point that he's really closing out with here. The idea is There's a face behind evil. There's a personality behind evil. Corey says lead us. Not into temptation. That's where. Temptation comes from the devil's, the source. And then he says, Deliver Us from the evil one. That's not Deliver Us from Evil. But the funk is here is the face of evil on the evil one. You know, Jesus talks about the devil in various ways and a various times throughout his ministry. He calls and say he calls them the address Terry, he calls him, the devil.

He called him, the blasphemer. He calls in the father of sin. And now he's calling him. The evil one, the wicked one. And so he's giving us a face. For evil because the source of Temptation and the source of sin is from the Devil, the evil one. Know a lot of people like to think there's no face that there is, the idea of a sin is just some nice troll plane of thought, that it's really not something that exists. It's not tangible. It's something that you cannot touch it, something that you cannot feel, and if you can't touch it, if you can't smell it, you can't feel it. Then. I guess it doesn't exist, and a lot of people feel that way. There's no such thing as Sin. And so Jesus paint another picture, he gives in a face. And he speaks about the devil 35 times in his ministry. Talks about a devil. Yeah, the Devil is a real, being he exists. And you know what thing about the devil is and what Jesus was pointing out is that he wants to kill you. He wants to destroy your soul. That's how much he hates you. Do you think about the extreme in the opposite direction? You have one who hate you so much and you have one who love you so much. Which Camp you want to be in? Jesus says, you got to make that choice. You got to decide what you can't be want to be in. You want to be in your Camp, my kingdom, or do you want to be In the Lord's Kingdom. And so Jesus gives us a face and that therefore there is an enemy Kingdom and these two kingdoms are at battle with one another. Two kingdoms rap battle with one another about his Apostles, but that you should keep them from the evil one. Can we find Jesus telling God, the Father, when he's praying to him, that he was praying for others that they would be on guard that they would not fall to the evil one. And so in the prayer that he's talking about is we should be praying for one another. This is not just an individual battle. It's a war. That's a collective that has a collective nature to it. And that's you and me together called The Church. There's 160 quotations in the New Testament that go like this one. Another. Enter several times in which the Bible says, pray for one another. Think about that. Do you pray for your brother? I'm not talking about just your congregational brother. Talking about your brother worldwide. The same struggles. They were going through the same struggles. I'm going through it. Don't you? Wish you had people around the world praying just for you?

What's the Golden Rule? Do unto others as you would have them. Do unto you. Pray for them whether they're going to pray for you or not. You pray for them. Why? I'm not getting anything out of this. Yes. You are. Jesus said to do it. And you're going to be blessed for doing it. So we pray for others, think about we're talking about India missions. Day was thinking about our missionaries across the world, especially in India. I need to know the troubles that they have to go through. The problems that exist in some of those countries. The terror that exists, the danger that exists. Oh, yeah. We need to pray for the spread of the Gospel that we need to pray for the safety of our Brethren, who are trying to spread the gospel in those areas. We need to pray for people. We need to pray for our Brethren. Why? Because they are our Brethren. Why do I have to pray to God? Because he's my father. Why do I have to pay for pray for my brother? Because you're my brother and my family were called the family of God. It's all we need to help one another out and there's no greater Avenue that can affect people worldwide. Then he have a new prayer. Isn't it just amazing just to take a few moments of your day to pray for someone? You don't even know you'll find out one day who they are. But right now you don't know what you're praying for them. You're praying for their spiritual will be that they don't fall into temptation, but that they're not destroyed by the evil one. Because that's how the kingdom keeps growing rather than losing. It's imperative that we pray for others, and that's a mentor. And that's exactly what our Lord is telling us to do. And here's why be sober, be diligent because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But that's just after what he said in verse 7. Cast all your anxieties upon him for, he cares for you and because of that, you be sober, you be vigilant, you be on guard against the devil. If he loves you so much. You want to love yourself so much to be on guard. Had to be aware of the Wiles of the devil. He wants to destroy you. He's no friend. He's no friend at all. Sin is destructive as powerful. Let me know the cost that it has in God, sending his only begotten son. What a cost. Would you be willing to send your only son or daughter to die for everybody else? Well, here you was his only begotten son. That's how much God loves you. And so we come to the idea of what that means. Do we have a remedy? Can we call it? Jesus, but the remedy, involves some things. It's involves a process. Jesus. Yes, but the process unfolds from there because you have Jesus, and then you have the cross, you have the blood in the Forgiveness of sins. And then you have the scriptures, the word of God, the word of Christ. And Jesus said the word that I have spoken to you. The same of Judge you in the last day, meaning you need to live according to his word.

Jesus said in John 8:31. You are truly my disciples, if you abide in my word, if you continue in my word, and so that means not just reading your Bible everyday. Includes that but not just that it means applying God's word everyday in your life. That's what it means to deny yourself. The things that I want to do and the things that would make me happy, the things that bring you pleasure, don't do by yourself because Jesus told you to

Because Jesus said so. But any says pick up your cross another word to get tough about it. Put your mind to it. Put a little effort into it. You can do it. Pick up your cross. It hurts sometimes.

Sure her Christ did it, he suffered for you and for me. And so sometimes we have to turn to say, no. I'm not going to do that. As much as I want to a kid. I can't do that. Because my Savers been hurt enough. I don't need to hurt him anymore. And so we find here the power of God's word. Just want to close out here with you with this. And, you know, this passage very well. Perhaps, you've not considered previously. Pulses, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord. And in the power of His might put on the whole armor of God. That you may be able to stand. Against The Wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against principalities against Powers against the rulers of this darkness of the age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the Heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. It's so important. He's repeating himself.

That you may able to withstand stand. In the evil day, the day of Temptation. What day is that everyday? We wake up. We've got a daddy up Temptation that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and have and having done all. I wonder if that's one of the questions. Jesus will ask us on the judgment. Did you do all that you could.

Scary question, isn't it? We like to fall back and say yeah, but he's a god of Grace. Yes, he is but he also knows your heart. Don't leave the hard out of the picture. so, he says, Swell up from with inside you to do the things that will prevent you to entering into temptation and possibly sitting turn from it. Having done all that you could do just now. He says it one more time stand.

remember Dances with Wolves and the young Indian girl, her name was Stands with fists, she turned around, she's fight her adversaries, but that's what this was about. Its standing. It's not running from the devil. It's standing up to the devil. Stand with your fist. Stand with a fist of God's word. Is really what? He's going to talk about here. Notice having during your waist with the truth. What's the truth? God's word. How do you put on the breastplate of righteousness? What's the breastplate of righteousness? Psalm 119 172 Commandments, our righteousness, all that Commandments. But have you shot your feet with the preparation of what the gospel of peace above, all taking the shield of Faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation. You can't read that and take the helmet of salvation in the sword, of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now, for just a moment. I take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God to the truth. Having dirt in your, your waist with truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel, the faith, and now the word of God, which is the sword of the spirit and the helmet of salvation.

What different things, different expressions, meaning the same thing, the word of God, but not different things. And so he says, here's how you're doing to defeat the Devil, and that's why Jesus isn't is telling them that lead us not into temptation, but Deliver Us from the evil one because Jesus had to endure that very thing in the wilderness. I mean, the devil came at him with everything he had. And he did not fall. And so Jesus never remembers that because it wasn't just too long ago. And now he's teaching them how to pray. Surely the Wilderness encounter with Satan has entered his mind when he's teaching his disciples to pray. Do not lead us into temptation, but Deliver Us from the evil one. But that's not the only thing we can't just stop here and call it a day because there's two things necessary to overcome evil. In fact, Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 10:13 that God has provided us a way of Escape for every sin. What the word of God is one of them, Jesus told us that himself, it is written. It is written. It is written. Every time he was tempted, he say it is written. He's fall back on the word of God and that would give him the strength because that's what my father says. But also the word of God without prayer.

Is useless. The cross. Without any hint of Devotion to it is useless.

The same thing with this, the word of God Alone.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance. You have the word of God, but you still got to pray, unceasingly unendingly, and with fervor, with diligent everyday, because we do for our souls.

Let me know about it, fall to temptation. Help me not to send. Have you ever been in a situation where, you know, when you walked into it, you were going to send. Or at least you knew that you would have a chance of sitting far greater, then if you weren't there.

All of us have been there. That's why Jesus says, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Avoid it, but he says being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. It's not a marvelous. Our prayers directed to the father directed to the one who loves us. So, As we think about that prayer, to the father. He says, according to my authority by Kingdom. According to my will, you pray and ask and then at the end of it, all you pray for others? Include others in your prayer. It's a necessity.

I'll say it again. It doesn't matter if others are praying for you, but it does matter. If you are praying for others. God knows the record. He knows what's going on. He's not going to miss a thing. as soon as we close out this, 4 week, study of prayer from this one particular passage. I want us to think just how important fear can be in your lives and how much effective we can be as a congregation when we pray for the things that we desire, that God desires. We desire. What? God desires and ask him for those blessing, ask him for the help because we can't get through life. Without God. We can't get through without a supernatural being. Just not possible. It's so when we consider life, we consider spiritual life and spiritual life begins with faith. And Jesus pointed out when he says he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. You believe that. You believe that this morning and you want to do that this morning being a short of your salvation today as the day is light out. You can find that salvation and feel sure of your salvation and begin your journey together with Christ. If you've done that and you just haven't wandered the way that you should. Jesus calls you back and says sinner. Come on, come back. If you're subject to that invitation today, won't you come forward together as we stand and sing?