Sermon Tone Analysis

Not Our Tempter; Our Deliverer

Intro - normal with focus on guests

Closing out series - not doing doxology

Mention it’s roots

Difficulty writing message.

Torn.

Felt like I was a failure...

As if I was being tempted to be the old, hyper-critical me that I was when I was a musician.

That temptation got in the way of me doing what I wanted and needed to do.

But understand, that I was making a choice to go down that path.

It wasn’t until I stopped going down that path, and started to trust God again that I began to feel peace.

That was about 2 1/2 hours ago, by the way...

So before we get going, in commemoration of this last Sunday focusing on this wonderful prayer, let’s lift our hearts to the Lord together in praying just as He has taught us to pray.

In your own tradition

[pic of lens]

Like everything in the Bible, and in life, to best understand it, we need to look at it through the lens of Jesus, and the lens of scripture.

Even scripture itself!

And today, for us, if we want to best understand what temptation is, and just how it is that we are led away from it, we need to look at what Jesus Himself had experienced so that we can get a good idea of what He means here.

…turn to Matthew 4...

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pray

[picofbadfoods]

Have you ever been tempted to do something you shouldn’t?

Maybe that isn’t the right question.

Do you remember those times, or the last time even, that you were confronted with a situation that gave you a chance to make a choice?

Maybe one a choice to follow your convicitons and one a choice to give in?

Temptation, to me, is that very feeling.

That feeling of want to and need to colliding in our hearts.

And really, this picture sums up all temptation to me…[expand]

…I think that most of us, in fact, think of temptation in those terms…what we should do, versus what we want to do.

Or as Paul puts it, “I do not understand what I do.

For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

I think that sums up, for me, the difficulty we can have with this idea of temptation.

Because if we are honest, there is the temptation to cheat on a diet, or something similar - things that have no real affect on our spirutal lives, and then there are the big things, right?

The things that we sometimes view as tests from God, or some other cosmic challenge to see if we are worthy to be Christians.

It is almost as if there is nothing in between.

πειρασμός = an experiment, attempt, trial, proving

But is that what Jesus is getting at here in this prayer?

So let me ask again, now that I am fully leading the question.

What is temptation to you?

How do you define it?

Now hold on to that.

Hold on to it, because I want us to weigh that - to reframe it if you will - this is a moment when we can begin the process of changing our minds and our viewpoint from what our own experience tells us, to what Jesus’ experiences should teach us.

So with that in mind, let’s talk about this word on the screen…used 20 times…2 in Matt…noun (like an idea)

It means [swipe screen], "an experiment, attempt, trial, proving.”

Now this is why I asked you to hold onto your idea of temptation, because it should be right about know that you realize that this word doesn’t mean what you think it means!

At the least, Jesus’ application of that word is different from ours.

I think the easiest way to understand this idea comes again from Paul…[setup and read]

in this moment we see the same word, “peirasmos” only now it means trial.

But bigger than that, what it really means is a moment in time when we get to choose one of several paths.

God’s path, or the others.

[cartoonpath]

And honestly, this is a far better picture of what is meant by this word!

You see our experience, every moment we live out in this life, they are filled with opportunities to make a choice.

To choose between what we want to do, where we want to go, how we want to live, or to choose what God has for us.

We are surrounded with these opportunities!

Chances to choose the path that God has for us instead of wandering down these other paths that lead nowhere!

After all, that is just what is going on with Jesus in this moment...

[jesustempted]

Exegete briefly -

things to dwell on:

Jesus would never have been tempted by devil, could only be tempted by circumstance (just like in the garden)

Jesus would have been ending His fast anyway

Jesus’ answer to these other paths, wasn’t to rely on His strength or ability.

He chose to rely on the (recite verses)…God’s word, God’s will, God worship.

That is what guided Jesus here.

And that is exactly what Jesus is telling us when He reminds us in this prayer that we need to pray to not be led into temptation.

But understand, as the old song says, “the closer you get, the further I fall..”

how we get close to God and things start pulling us away...

THAT IS WHY THIS PRAYER AND UNDERSTANDING TEMPTATION IS SO IMPORTANT!

THIS IS A MOMENT WHEN YOU CAN LOOK AT YOUR SITUATION AND REMIND YOURSELF THAT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! IF YOU WANT TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION, YOU JUST NEED TO RELY ON GOD’S WORD, GOD’S WILL, AND GOD WORSHIP!

And when you do that, you can overcome those voices that would pull you away from God’s path.

And if you have been tuning me out listen up now, because church, God isn’t our tempter, God is our delieverer!

[read]

Our lives, our circumstances, our faults, our sin, our desires, those things can tempt us, but God does not!

What we do, we do because of us, not because God has it out for us, or wants to test us and our faith.

No God commends us for our faith, as Hebrews tells us.

Faith as small as a mustard seed, it can move mountains!

When our spirits are weak, and our souls faint within us, God alone knows the way!

He knows the traps that lie in our paths, and if we aren’t listening to Him, we will fall into them!

[don’t read]

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

…oh, but how ofter we tend to make God a scapegoat for our troubles.

We ask “why me God?” We start to dwell in the despair of our situations and temptations, and begin to assume that God isn’t there because we have failed some divine test.

But the reality, y’all, is that He is the very thing protecting us from all the troubles that would have otherwise devoured us!

[jesusshield]

walking in the dark in the woods

[ourdeliverer]

WHEN WE PRAY FOR GOD TO DELIVER US FROM EVIL, WE ARE PRAYING TO THE GOD WHO DELIVERED THE CHOSEN PEOPLE FROM SLAVERY, FROM THE WILDERNESS, FROM THE HANDS OF THOSE WHO WOULD SEEK TO DESTROY THEM AND DESTROY GOD! THE GOD WHO DELIVERED US THE MESSIAH - HIS SON - AND DELIVERED HIM TO THE CROSS FOR US TO BE DELIVERED FROM DEATH!

THE ONE WHO DELIVERED US HOPE, AND PEACE, AND SALVATION!

THE ONE WHO BROUGHT THIS WORLD A CHANCE!

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS THAT CAN SURROUND US!

A GUIDE FOR ALL THE TROUBLES THAT WE WILL NO DOUBT ENCOUNTER AS WE WALK THROUGH THE “WILDERNESS OF THE REAL.”

HE HAS DELIVERED IT TIME AND TIME AGAIN!

AND HE WILL CONTINUE TO DELIVER US - EVEN TO ETERNITY!

NO MATTER THE TEMPTATION.

NO MATTER OUR SHORTCOMINGS.

NO MATTER WHAT! HE WILL DELIVER US FROM THE EVILS OF THIS LIFE, AND IN FACT ALREADY HAS! JESUS SAW THAT THROUGH FOR EACH OF US.

AND CHURCH, WE NEED TO REALIZE THAT THIS END TO THE PRAYER IS BASICALLY REMINDING US THAT WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN DELIVERED!

JESUS DELIVERED US ALL WHEN HE DELIVERED THAT CROSS!

WHEN THAT STONE ROLLED AWAY, WE KNEW WHERE WE WERE GOING!