2022.09.25 Teach Us To Pray - Jesus Remember Me
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Teach Us To Pray - Jesus Remember Me
Teach Us To Pray - Jesus Remember Me
Matthew 6:5-13 • Luke 23:39–43
I hope talking through the Lord’s Prayer has had an impact on how you pray Jesus’ model prayer.
We wrap up this week with the final statement in the prayer itself:
Matthew 6:13b (NASB 2020)
...deliver us from evil.’
What is deliverance?
Rescue from bondage or danger. -- answers.com
The movie titled Deliverance is a disturbing story of 4 men being tortured out in the back woods, first by locals, and then by Nature itself. Their situation has no hope. They’re in desperate need of rescue from the multiple dangers surrounding them.
Read
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Just like the four men, we are in a struggle. Just like the four men, we are desperate for a rescue of some sort. Unlike the men, we’re struggling against unseen powers and forces of darkness. We need deliverance.
Read
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
22 And almost all things are cleansed with blood, according to the Law, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
And I set the stage this morning with the passage from Luke’s gospel. As Jesus hangs on the cross, one thief is poking at him - telling him to prove himself to be God’s son by rescuing all three of them. The other thief tells him to stop, “We are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
And in his desperation, he cries out to Jesus for a different type of rescue:
42 And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”
The firs theif is seeking deliverance, but it’s the wrong kind of deliverance. He’s asking Jesus for deliverance from their execution … an earthly threat.
But this second thief asks for deliverance from the unseen. He asks for an eternal deliverance, which is perfectly in keeping with Jesus’ nature.
It reminds me of a scene in the movie Bruce Almighty. Bruce meets God (played by Morgan Freeman), and he complains about all of the slights he’s experienced in his life. So God gives Bruce his powers. At first, it’s awesome. Bruce gets everything he always wanted. But eventually the weight of God’s job is more than he can take and the world is descending into complete chaos. As he wakes up to the realization that he’s been asking for the wrong kind of deliverance his entire life, an otherwise funny movie takes a serious turn. Bruce finds himself walking in the rain on a dark night, and he drops to his knees in the road and shouts:
“You win. I'm done. Please. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to be God. Please, help me.”
And Jesus spoke these words to the thief:
43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
TODAY … YOU … WILL BE … WITH ME … IN PARADISE!
Our world is filled with darkness. The evil powers that wrestle against us surround us. We often find ourselves wandering aimlessly in the rain … desperate. We cry out: “What am I gonna do?!” instead of crying out: “RESCUE ME!”
TODAY … YOU … WILL BE … WITH ME … IN PARADISE!
Teach Us To Pray - Jesus Remember Me
Teach Us To Pray - Jesus Remember Me
Last week, I told the story of my near affair with a woman from work. In my desperate time, God rescued me. As I drove to the radio station that Sunday night, I was desperate because I wanted what I wanted … but I knew better.
I called the person who knew me best at that time. And God used him to speak wisdom and to jolt me back to reality. I wouldn’t want to imagine what my life might look like if I had followed my temptation.
I was far more desperate than I even realized. The darkness that surrounded me was my invited guest.
Hannah was not quite 2 years old. Annette and I weren’t talking about all the things bothering us. We just silently blamed the other person for everything and let our mutual resentment grow. We were headed for disaster and didn’t seem interested in anything changing. Neither of us wanted out of the marriage, but we both wanted out of the problems … without being willing to work toward fixing anything.
In the middle of the darkness of my temptation, God used my friend to reach me. He used my friend as the agent of my deliverance. When he said, “Satan is lord of the silence,” and told me to go home and tell Annette … a lifeboat was put in the water with my name on it.
It took a long time for us to get to anything remotely resembling Paradise … but today, I can report, Annette and I have the strongest marriage I know of … glory to God! In the middle of our darkest point, he rescued us. He didn’t use my gifts or my abilities … he used my own stupidity and pride to get to me. And today, I can say confidently he delivered us from the evil we were playing with.
And he’ll do the same for you!
From what do you need deliverance today?
What will it take for you to drop to your knees and call on Jesus for the spiritual deliverance he’s desperate to give you?
I pray that you have the courage to ask him for it!
Because if you will ... TODAY … YOU … CAN BE WITH HIM … IN PARADISE!
Satan is lord of temptation and silence.
Jesus is lord of deliverance!