NAYLOR COMMUNITY
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it
is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have
forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us
from the evil one.’
-- I want
to open by sharing with you the story of Robert Robinson -- Robert was just a
little boy when his father passed away in 18th century England -- without a
father in the house or a strong male figure to guide him, Robert quickly fell
in with a bad crowd, and was soon given to all sorts of bad influences -- night
after night he would go out carousing with his friends, drinking and gambling
and enjoying all the vices the world had to offer
-- one
night, he and his friends found a drunk gypsy woman, and they began to harass
her and they demanded that she tell them their fortunes for free -- finally,
she pointed a finger at Robert and said, "This one will live to see his
children and his grandchildren"
-- that
struck a chord with Robert -- he thought to himself, "If I'm going to see
my children and grandchildren, then I'm going to have to change the way I'm
living" -- shortly after this experience, he decided to go hear the
Methodist preacher George Whitefield
-- in order
to avoid seeming weak in front of his friends, he suggested that they go with
him and heckle Whitefield and the crowd that came to see him
--
Whitefield preached on the text: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned
you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matthew 3:7) -- Robert left in
dread, under a deep sense of sin that lasted for three years
-- finally,
at the age of twenty, he made peace with God and immediately set out to become
a Methodist preacher himself -- two years later, in 1757, he wrote a hymn which
expressed his joy in his new faith -- a hymn that we most of us know and have
sung in church, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"
-- but
Robert's story doesn't end there -- not long after this hymn was written,
Robert left the Methodist Church -- he left his ministry -- he left his faith
-- and he wandered again along the roads and byways of his youth -- traveling
again along the path of iniquity
-- one day
he was traveling by stagecoach and there was a woman sitting there across from
him reading a book of hymns -- she ran across a hymn that she thought was
wonderful and started to hum it quietly to herself -- finally, one verse just
caught her attention, and she asked Robert what he thought of it
--
"prone to wander, Lord, I feel it -- prone to leave the God I love --
here's my heart, O take and seal it -- seal it for thy courts above"
-- Bursting
into tears, Robert said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that
hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to
enjoy the feelings I had then."
--
Robinson’s life reflects a disturbing reality in all our lives, for all of us
are prone to wander from the God we love -- we are prone to want to go our own
way -- but there is a better way -- a better path -- for us to be on
-- this
morning, we’re going to talk about that as we continue in our sermon series on
the Lord’s Prayer
-- as we have said, the Lord’s
Prayer was given by Jesus to us as a model prayer -- as a framework from which
we might tailor our prayers to God for our own lives and our own situations
-- the
prayer starts with praise and adoration -- it calls for God’s kingdom and will
to be expressed on earth as it is in heaven -- and then moves into the
parameters of our daily lives -- touching on and asking for God’s help in the
present, the past, and the future
-- we ask
for God’s help in the present when we pray, “give us this day our daily bread”
-- we ask
for God’s help in overcoming the past when we pray, “forgive us our trespasses”
-- forgive us for what we have done
-- this
morning, we’re going to focus on verse 13 as we pray for God’s intervention in
the future and ask Him to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil”
II. Lead us not
into temptation
-- so,
let’s begin by answering the question, what is temptation and where does it
come from?
-- when we
think of the word temptation, we immediately assume that it means an allure to
sin -- an inducement to do evil -- that it means we are being drawn or enticed
to give in to sinful desires in opposition to God’s word
-- that is
the modern conception of temptation -- it’s the way we use that word today --
but that is not necessarily how the Bible uses that word
-- if you
look at the Greek word that is translated temptation here in Matthew 6:13, it
is actually a morally neutral word that simply describes the act of being
tested1
-- it
refers to trials and tests that you are facing -- which is important to note
because this verse causes a lot of confusion among people
-- at face
value, it looks like Jesus says we are to pray to the Father to not lead us
into temptation -- which sounds like God is the source of temptation in our
lives -- but we know that cannot be the case, because James tells us in James
1:13, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be
tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”
-- so, if
God cannot be tempted by evil and does not tempt anyone, then why would we
pray, “Lead us not into temptation?” -- it doesn’t seem to make sense since God
does not tempt anyone in that way
-- but when
you understand the definition of the Greek word that is translated here as
temptation to mean a trial or a test, what we are asking God to do is to not
lead us into trials or tests that are likely to result in temptation and sin --
in other words, we are asking God to not lead us to the point where we will not
be able to turn away from temptation and sin in our lives
-- it is a
recognition of the fact that Robert Robinson made so clear in his hymn when he
wrote that we are all prone to wander -- prone to leave the God we love
-- when we
pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” we are literally praying to God to keep us
from wandering into places where we might give into temptation and sin
-- it is a
prayer of protection from ourselves
-- in James
1:14 we read, “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own
evil desire and enticed” -- so, our temptations come from our own desires, not
God -- our temptations come from within us
-- so,
praying to God in this prayer to “Lead us not into temptation,” is akin to
saying, “Protect us from ourselves -- protect us from our own evil desires --
protect us from wandering away as we are prone to do”
-- before I
leave this thought, I want to expound a little more on the topic of trials and
temptations
-- trials
and tests in our lives are not a bad thing -- trials and tests prove our faith
-- they strengthen our spiritual backbone -- they make us stronger and able to
stand against spiritual attacks and evil desires in the future
-- it’s
kind of like the way trees react to wind -- I’ve mentioned before that trees
that grow sheltered in a forest are not subjected to wind in the same way a
tree growing by itself is
-- when a tree is subjected to wind
on a regular basis, it responds by growing deeper and stronger roots -- its
stem gets stronger -- and it is able to withstand extreme gusts of wind without
harm
-- but a tree growing sheltered
from wind does not put down deep roots -- it does not grow stronger because it
is not subject to the pressures of the wind -- and if you thin a forest and
leave such a tree standing on its own, it is more apt to fall because it simply
does not have the strength to stand
-- that’s the idea of trials and
tests that God allows into our lives -- when we stand against the trials and
tests that come our way -- when we stand against the temptation to wander away
from God and His word -- we grow stronger and better able to stand against such
trials and temptations in the future -- trials and temptations make us stronger
in our faith
-- that’s why it says in James
1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many
kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything.”
-- so, trials and tests are good
things -- the problem comes when we allow the trials or tests to lead us down
paths we should not go -- when we follow our Godly desires and try to fulfill
them in ungodly ways -- this is the path of temptation -- this is the path of
sin
-- to sum up how this works,
temptation and sin begins within us -- with desires that we have to do
something or to get something -- these may be good and Godly desires, but a lot
of times, we try to fulfill these desires in ways that God doesn’t want
-- for instance, we all have the
need and desire to eat -- and God wants us to eat to keep our bodies strong and
fully functioning -- but when we overeat or overindulge in food, we are going
past our need and fulfilling that desire in an ungodly way -- in a way God did
not intend
-- it’s the same way with sexual
relations -- having sexual relations is a natural, God-given desire -- but God
intends for those desires to be met within the bounds of marriage -- when we
try to meet those desires outside of God’s plan, then we have wandered from His
path and are following our own way and are moving into temptation and sin
-- we are led to wander from God
and give in to temptation and sin by three different sources -- first,
ourselves -- as we give into our sin nature and follow our own evil desires, as
James puts it -- second, the world -- which tries to lure us into following its
path and not God’s -- and finally, the devil -- Satan and his minions try to
lead us away from God and try to get us to follow the path of sin rather than
God’s path
-- so, we pray to God to lead us
not into temptation, but to deliver us from evil -- the evil within us -- the
evil in the world -- and the evil from our spiritual enemy, Satan
-- “the good news is that when we
pray this prayer -- when we pray "lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil" -- God gives us His strength and His power to turn away from
the temptation that is before us
-- “He doesn't allow us to be led
into temptation but leads us away from temptation -- as it says in 1
Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to
man. And 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
-- to sum this up, when we pray
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” we are praying “Lord,
please do not lead us into a trial which will present a temptation stronger
than our power to resist it, but give us your strength to stand against it --
and, if necessary, snatch us from the fire of sin and desire -- keep us from
danger and evil in our lives -- whether that is our own evil desires, or the
evil of the world or our spiritual enemy”
III. Closing
-- I want
to close by sharing with you a story about Rich Mullins -- Mullins was a very
famous and admired Christian musician and songwriter -- he died in 1997 in a
car wreck at the age of 41
-- Mullins
once confessed in a concert that he struggled with watching pornography while
traveling alone -- One of his spiritual mentors told him, "It's not that
you're so bad, it's just that you're not supposed to go out by yourself."
-- So,
Mullins took a friend along with him on a trip to Amsterdam near its famous
red-light district -- he said he was hoping his friend would fall fast asleep
and start snoring so, as Mullins put it, "I thought, 'Maybe it would be
fun to just take a walk and be tempted.'"
-- Mullins
sat up all night waiting for his friend to fall asleep -- but he never did,
providing Mullins with the support he needed to not be led into temptation
-- while he was warring with his
own evil desires, Mullins picked up a notebook and wrote the words to one of
his more popular songs, 'Hold Me, Jesus' -- let me share a verse from that
song:
“And I wake up in the night and feel the dark.
It's so hot inside my soul I swear there must be blisters on my heart.
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace"2
-- this
verse is a reminder that temptation comes to all of us -- this darkness of the
soul that Mullins speaks of in that song we find within us, too -- whether
we’re a new believer or a mature saint or leader in the church -- it’s the same
darkness Robert Robinson spoke when he lamented in his hymn, “Prone to wander,
God I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”
-- there is in all of us this
natural bent to disobey God and give in to temptation and sin -- to go our own
way -- to wander from the God who loves us down the path of temptation and sin
-- but the
good news that we find in this prayer is that God is always with us -- that as
we pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” God gives us
a fresh outpouring of His grace and gives us the strength and power we need to
turn away from the path of temptation and sin and to follow His path of
holiness and righteousness
--
Fleetwood Mac famously sang, “You can go your own way -- Go your own way-- You
can call it another lonely day -- You can go your own way -- Go your own way”
-- to go your own way is to go the
way of temptation and sin
-- the
alternative is to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil,” and to go the way of God
-- the
choice is yours
-- let us
pray
----------------------
1 Precept Austin Commentary
2 Luke Gilkerson,
"'Hold Me Jesus': A Prayer for Porn Addiction,"
Covenant Eyes, June 17, 2010
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