Lead Us
Notes
Transcript
Invite everyone to stand and read Matthew 6:9-13- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Baptism after service.
Reaction from last week.
Consider the trinity in our petitions.
Provided for by the Father; Sins forgiven through the blood of the Son; Led, or delivered, by the work of the Spirit.
In our petitions, we pray for dependence, debts and danger.
This morning our focus is the danger.
Read Matthew 6:13- And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Pray.
A few words about temptation.
How are we tempted? Learn the enemy- Mike Tyson’s Punch Out.
Three different ways temptation is portrayed in Scripture.
First, the difficulties of life. Suffering and trials that we endure are surely temptations in the direction of sinning.
Second, enticements to sin. We are sometimes lured into sinning by external realities.
Not just enduring difficult circumstances, but being tempted by that which seeks to do us harm.
Satan as tempter. Jesus in the wilderness.
Third, tempted by our own sinful selves, or our desires.
James 1:14- But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Here is what must be grasped this morning, we are surrounded by temptation.
Not even tempted merely by what is overtly evil.
Adam and Eve tempted by a fruit, David tempted by a woman, Abraham tempted by his own safety, Moses tempted by frustration with the people, Achan tempted by treasure.
Everything around us can tempt in some way. Much of life is temptation.
John Calvin in 1559 edition of his Institutes wrote, “We may infer that the human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.”
Our struggle is constant to take what we see around us and manipulate it’s use to please ourselves.
Temptation is within us and it surrounds us.
When we grasp this to be true, we will begin taking seriously this particular petition of Jesus- “Lead us not into temptation.”
Further, we must understand the great detriment of giving into temptation.
Why would we pray to be led away from temptation? What is the harm in it?
Martyn Lloyd Jones- “Why should we ask that we may be kept from evil? For the great and wonderful reason that our fellowship with God may never be broken. If a man merely wants to be holy as such, there is something wrong with him. Our supreme desire should be to have a right relationship with God, to know Him, to have uninterrupted fellowship and communion with Him. That is why we pray this prayer, that nothing may come between us and the brightness and the radiance and the glory of our Father which is in heaven.”
All of this is meant to add up. There is danger all around, and the danger lies in our separating from our Father. Thus, we pray lead us not into temptation.
Remainder of our time, let’s focus our attention on what actually happens in our lives when we face temptations.
Four questions that I’d like to consider.
1. What is meant by God’s leading?
1. What is meant by God’s leading?
First, we notice the action word in our text- Lead, or rather the negative, don’t lead.
What does it mean for God the Father to lead us in any direction? Is this how we believe God to work in our lives?
eisphero- to lead or to bring.
Almost imagine a child asking, “Where are you bringing me?”
One way of picturing the Christian faith. This is the heart of faith- I will follow where you lead me, I’ll go where you bring me.
Copa working her way around us. Pictures
This is to be our life in Jesus Christ, completely intermingled with the workings and direction of God.
Shouldn’t be surprised by the language of Colossians 2:6- Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him...
The well-trodden areas of our lives are meant to be dictated by the Word of God and the life of Jesus. You received Jesus, now go as He went.
Have you asked God recently, where are you taking me?
Consider the biblical examples.
Abraham- Go from your country to the land I will show to you. (Genesis 12)
Moses- Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. (Exodus 3)
David- Go and attack the Philistines. (1 Samuel 23)
Jonah- Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. (Jonah 1)
Isaiah- Go and say this to the people. (Isaiah 6)
Paul- Rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. (Acts 9)
Even find the Spirit driving Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted in Mark 1- The Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.
God is always leading, or bringing, His people into His purposes.
What is interesting is that He is typically calling them from a place of comfort to a place of discomfort.
Leave your home, go to Pharoah, go attack, go to Nineveh, go and preach to people who won’t listen, get up off the ground and go to those you have been persecuting.
For many of us, God will likely lead us away from the most comfortable of places.
In the event that God brings us to places of servitude, of loving the unlovable, of helping the thankless, then you will be taken into places of temptation.
The temptation in these situations is to leave behind the command of God, to live for self.
When we pray that God would not lead us into temptation, we pray that God would not take us so near to the places in which we find our defeat.
God, keep me from the places where I cannot have victory over sin.
We can never avoid all temptation, and we know that God does in fact grow us through our ability to reject sin. But we also know the danger of helplessness.
Daniel Doriani- “We ask the Lord to lead us away from the temptations that will defeat us. We pray that our Father will so arrange our life that we can remain loyal to Him. We do not look for a trouble-free life. Disciples face the tests that are common to mankind. But we do ask God to spare us from tests we cannot endure.”
In many ways, we are merely asking for help. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that holds tightly to the grace of the Father.
So we pray for God to keep me away from temptation, but if I find myself within its grasp, get me out.
2. What does God accomplish through our temptations?
2. What does God accomplish through our temptations?
If God does take us to places of temptation, what happens when we find ourselves there?
We know that God works all things together for our good, so how does He accomplish this when we face the circumstances that draw us into sin?
First, God kills our pride as we deal with our temptations.
Remember Peter- Even if they all fall away, I will not.
Pride swelling. But what happened to that pride when he was questioned in the courtyard? When temptation reared its ugly head, Peter was humbled, went away weeping.
No longer a puffed up chest, no longer a desire to be seen, but it had turned into a weeping in solitude.
Thomas Watson- “Better is the temptation that humbles me than the duty that makes me proud. Rather than a Christian should be proud, God lets him fall into the devil’s hands awhile, that he may be cured of his swelling.”
When we are tempted to give in to sin, we are no longer proud but find ourselves relying completely on the work of God to set us free.
Second, our temptations cause us to long more for heaven.
Watching movies about war- Just a few blocks from your house. Imagine hearing the gunfire. Imagine the longing to be brought into a place of safety.
When we face temptation, and when we recognize the danger, we find ourselves seeking safety.
Third, our temptations prepare us to minister to and provide comfort for others.
The Christian faith is a faith of relationship.
Communal prayer. Others are being and have been tempted as well.
Quicksand- Young Adult Ministry.
Do we seek out help?
God will use the most ferocious of temptations as an opportunity for us to provide help for others who are truly in need.
3. How does God lead us away from temptation?
3. How does God lead us away from temptation?
When we pray for God to help us either by leading us from temptation or by getting us out of temptation, what does God do to answer our prayers?
First, His Spirit reminds us of God’s promises.
John 14:25-26- “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
This is the work of the Spirit, to remind. What we know, the Spirit causes us to recollect.
Conversations where things are brought to mind that we haven’t considered before. Things are put together in new ways like never before. This is the Spirit’s work.
During times of extreme temptation, we become like someone whose house is being robbed.
In the panic, we lose our minds. We can’t remember where we have placed our weapons of defense.
This is what the Spirit does, bringing to mind the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, as our best possible defense against the attacks of the enemy.
1 John 4:4- Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 Corinthians 10:13- No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
James 4:7- Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Christ battled Satan and temptation with the Word of God, we are to do the same.
Second, God removes the tempter.
Job- Satan does what he is allowed. He does nothing until God gives permission.
Watson- Sheep straying, the shepherd sets the dogs on them until they are brought back to safety. Then the dogs are called off.
Likely said it before, it is when a person struggles most that our hearts are drawn toward them.
Not a hugger, until a person has a broken heart.
Grandpa holding grandma’s hand. Never have I wanted to come more to the aid of my grandpa and remove any amount of pain that He is feeling.
God is like this. Shown in Jesus. Healing the leper- Mark 1:41- Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
Are we seeking God’s help in our daily journey? Are we aware of everything that surrounds us? Do we find ourselves to be dependent on God’s help alone?
Charles Wesley- Jesus, My Strength, My Hope (1742)- I want a godly fear, A quick discerning eye; That looks to Thee when sin is near; And sees the tempter fly; A spirit still prepared, And armed with jealous care, Forever standing on its guard, And watching unto prayer.