The Prayer That Turned The World Upside Down - Session 7 - Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Fighting The Enemy Through Prayer

The Church of Divine Guidance Sunday Morning Adult Bible Study Group studying the book Prayer That Turned The World Upside Down: The Lord's Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution by R. Albert Mohler, The President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Lord’s Prayer is the most powerful prayer in the Bible, taught by Jesus to those closest to him. We desperately need to relearn its power and practice.

The opening words of the Lord’s Prayer have become so familiar that we often speak them without a thought, sometimes without any awareness that we are speaking at all. But to the disciples who first heard these words from Jesus, the prayer was a thunderbolt, a radical new way to pray that changed them and the course of history.

Far from a safe series of comforting words, the Lord’s Prayer makes extraordinary claims, topples every earthly power, and announces God’s reign over all things in heaven and on earth. Study along with us by getting a copy of the book by clicking this LINK or the image of the book in the study notes. 

And lead us not into temptation,  but deliver us from the evil one.  
Matthew 6:13 NIV

The Illusion Of Enemy Less Christian Discipleship

Because of sin and mankind's fall the world is a very dangerous place. Jesus told us as much in His description of the last days.

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.   “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,  and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,  but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.  For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.   “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
Matthew 24:4, 6-14, 21-22 NIV, 

He continues for the rest of chapter 24.

He said in John

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 NIV

The Bible clearly teaches that the Devil and his demons are real and that these invisible enemies are bent on destroying our spiritual lives.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8 NIV

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12 NIV

When talking about our enemies we can go one of two ways. We can obsess over them blaming them for everything that goes bad or we can refuse to discuss to talk about them at all. Both extremes are harmful. We must acknowledge and be aware of the fact the Bible clearly teaches that the Devil and his demons are real and that these invisible enemies are bent on destroying our spiritual lives.

I like the quote from the Screwtape Letter which I'm going to read.

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.  One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors...

WHY WE NEED THIS PETITION

Temptation, is I believe, a weapon that the enemy uses in spiritual warfare even though much temptation comes from within.  We will talk about that later.  

When we did our study Prayer Warrior Praying Your Way To Victory we discussed the fact that prayer is a powerful weapon against our enemy in spiritual warfare. 

Prayer Is Always a Powerful Weapon Against the Enemy

In prayer ask God to do a lot of things for  us.  It’s not that He is unaware of the problem or doesn’t know what's going on. He knows what is going to happen before it happens. Before we see the need, He already knows the answer.

 “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

           

God has set it up that we pray and He answers. He doesn’t make us robots. He doesn’t impose His will on us. He waits for us to choose His will over our own. The reason He does this is so we will walk with Him in an ever-deepening relationship.

When you bring your concerns and needs to the Lord and ask Him to meet those needs, that is called petitionary praying. When you petition God for something, don’t stop praying. Bring it to Him again and again if you need to until you have peace in your heart that you have truly left it in His hands. After each prayer, thank Him that He has heard your prayers and that He will answer in His way and in His time.

           

God is very specific about what He wants from us. You must be specific too. As you pray, tell God that above all you want His will to be done. Because if you are praying for something that is not His will, you want to know it and be led by His Spirit to pray the right thing. Do not sit in judgment on how well you think you prayed. That is not your job. Your work is to pray. It is God’s work to answer the way He wants to. And definitely do not sit in judgment on how God has answered. You simply pray and leave the outcome in God’s hands to answer in His way and time. Then every time you pray, your prayers will become a weapon against the enemy and his plans for your life.

Jesus’ reminder to pray regularly against temptation reminds us just how prevalent and dangerous the appeal of sin can be in the Christian life.  He instructed His disciples to pray asking that God provide daily, and that includes this petition, to lead us not to temptation.   He also provides an example of consistent prayer.

Jesus prayed first thing in the morning.

“In the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35).

           

Jesus prayed at night.

“He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12).

           

Jesus prayed alone.

“When He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there” (Matthew 14:23).

           

 Jesus prayed without ceasing.

“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass,man to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

           

We need to pray as Jesus did—day and night, without ceasing, in private communion with God.

Jesus’ reminder to pray regularly against temptation reminds us just how prevalent and dangerous the appeal of sin can be in the Christian life.  

This petition also reminds us that we are not able to resist temptation by our own power. Most people know by experience that your willpower is not quite as strong as we would like to think.

Jesus does not teach us to pray, “Lord, give me more willpower in the fight against sin.” He teaches us to ask for shepherding and deliverance—“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” These words express a heart of dependence, not self-sufficiency. 

We’ve talked about our dependence on God the past couple of sessions. In Session 5

Give us today our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11 NIV
 

Reminds us of our dependence on God for even the most fundamental needs of life.

The petition “forgive us our debts” emphasizes our most urgent spiritual need which is forgiveness. Saying we owe a debt to God means that we have failed to give him the obedience he is rightly due. We owe God our obedience, and we have failed to pay up. Thus, as sinners, we stand before God condemned, rightly deserving his just wrath. Only God’s forgiveness can clear our guilt and establish a meaningful relationship between God and us.  Now Jesus is instructing them to pray for endurance in the fight against temptation. 

DOES GOD LEAD PEOPLE INTO TEMPTATION?

When we ask this we are not implying that God tempts anybody.  We are not asking Him to not do something that He normally does.  The Bible is very clear that God does not tempt anybody. 

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
James 1:13-18 NIV

Mohler says that while God doesn’t tempt He does test us.  The only disagreement that I have is that I say that the tests don’t originate with God but He allows the trials, temptations, and testing that comes from our enemy to “test us”.  We won’t talk about that today but if you’re interested in my point of view read my blog post Does God Test Christians?.  It’s on my website.  It doesn’t matter if you agree with Mohler or me me because the petition is the same, and that is that God gives us the endurance to pass the test. 

THE ANATOMY OF TEMPTATION

Temptation can be both internal and external. We've talked a couple of times about internal temptations. We have some control over them but if we don't deal with them they can get out of control.

Pride leads to arrogance.

Lust leads to sexual immorality.

Ultimately, we are at war with our own desires. Our greatest enemy, indwelling sin, is with us at all times.  Satan can use these weaknesses against us.

The adversary will exploit those weaknesses at every opportunity. This is why we need the Lord’s gracious hand to guide us away from temptation at every turn.

Scripture, however, demands a clear and drastic response to temptation.

Jesus told his disciples,
        
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matt. 5:29–30)

Jesus didn't really mean for you to dismember your body but the point was to take drastic measures not to sin. It may mean leaving a relationship, a job, a church, whatever just do something to keep from or stop sinning. Get away from the temptation.

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT . . . REALLY?

        
While the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer is typically rendered “deliver us from evil,” most modern scholars and translations note that the most appropriate translation is probably “deliver us from the evil one.”

We must ask for protection from Satan. The fact that Jesus tells us to do it tells us that we can’t do it on our own. We are told to resist not engage. He has been defeated by Jesus but he is still dangerous.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7 NIV

Temptation comes to individuals, churches, and institutions. We know the power of temptation by looking in both history books and the mirror. If we are honest with ourselves, we are not up to the task. But Jesus teaches us that we have access to deliverance from sin and temptation by the grace and mercy of God, which is why we must repeatedly pray this prayer of deliverance. We are frail in our flesh and must pray for God’s protection from evil. As the familiar hymn “O Worship the King” reminds us: “Frail children of dust and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail; thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.”

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