"Are You A Leader or a Follower?"
The Lord's Prayer Series: Part 4
(Matthew 6:9-13)/ Sunday, October 29, 2006

Introduction: Chuck Swindoll, a well known Evangelical Free pastor, once said: “Where there is no temptation, there can be little claim to virtue.” (C. Swindoll, "Sanctity of Life," Word, 1990, p. 51) Temptation is a part of life. But if we want to gain character and strength, if we want to be able to live for God, we have to learn how to let God lead us past the temptation that exists. Satan wants to trip us up and keep us from living a life of following Jesus. In fact we are reminded in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” And yet we are given great words of encouragement 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.”

This morning we finish our series on the Lord’s Prayer with the phrase: “And lead us not into temptation, but keep us from evil.” Up to this point we have talked about how the Lord’s Prayer is about focusing our prayer on God, being committed to seeing God’s Kingdom come about more in this world, and seeking God and His will for our lives, trusting faithfully that God will provide for us, not necessarily what we want, but all that we need. / In this last phrase, it is still about trusting, but trusting that God will give us the power we need to be guided into the right paths.

I. The Pull of Temptation- (Matt. 4:1-11, 6:13; Genesis 22:1-18; Heb. 12:2)

a. Does God lead us into temptation? When you look at the Lord’s

Prayer, you can see that it is actually a theological statement on the nature of God; a nature which includes who God is, what God desires for the world, God’s providing nature, and God’s presence in our lives in regards to temptation and testing. Jesus teaches us, with this last phrase, that God would not lead us into temptation.

I think for many of us, this might sound like a strange petition; “lead us not into temptation.” Why would God even think of leading us into temptation? The Bible tells us that God is a compassionate God; one who sees our suffering and rescues His people from their bondage. In the Psalms we are told that the Lord is our Shepherd, and we shall not want. Also, that God “hears our cries and lifts us up out of the slimy pit to set our feet upon a rock.” Does this same God seek to lead us into trouble and tribulation? Would God take us to the place of temptation where we might slip and fall?

One of the challenges of understanding the Bible, is that sometimes when the translation from the original language is translated into English, the English word (or phrasing) might seem to have a different connotation to us than the Greek had intended to mean./ But we can check this fairly simply. All you have to do is go back to the Greek and see what the Greek word means. Now if you don’t understand Greek or how to interpret the Greek, then there is another, simpler way. This simpler way is to look at different versions of the Bible (New International, Revised Standard, King James, etc…) and see what words were used for the Greek word.

For example: the New Revised Standard version says: “And do not bring us to the time of trial…” The Modern English Bible says: “Do not bring us to hard testing…” The King James version and the New International versions say: “And lead us not into temptation…”/ So, by doing this study we can see that the words used were temptation, trial, and testing. And by doing a little more studying, we can see that it is referring to the kind of testing that challenges us in order to strengthen us.

When Abraham took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him to God, Abraham was having his faith tested by God. And by faithfully going there, God provided a ram for the sacrifice instead of Isaac. Before Jesus started His ministry, He went out into the wilderness to be tested. Jesus was able to avoid the temptations of Satan. By passing the test, Abraham, and Jesus, and others gained strength and self-discipline. And each time we overcome our temptations, we gain strength to be able to serve God more faithfully.

So, in praying this, we are not asking God to take us into trials or temptations that we cannot bear, but to that we will not go into these trials and temptations alone; we are praying that God will give us His power as we encounter these temptations. In other words, we are saying: “God, do not lead us into trials without your help!”

b. Learning obedience- Illus.: “Leslie Dunkin and his dog.” If you have

ever owned a dog, you will appreciate this next illustration. A man named Leslie Dunkin tells a story of a dog he owned when he was a little boy. Periodically, Leslie’s father would test the dog’s obedience. It is a test you have probably seen before. He would place a tempting piece of meat on the floor and give the command, “Stay.” The dog, which like all dogs loved meat, must have had a tremendous desire to go for the meat. The dog was placed in a quandary of whether or not to go for the meat, or obey his master. But Dunkin says that his dog never even looked at the meat. Dunking thought that the dog did this, because if he looked, the temptation would have been too great. So the dog would look at Dunkin’s father’s face instead.

The challenge for us is that temptations do exist. In fact, there was a recent survey done in Discipleship Journal where the readers ranked areas of the greatest spiritual challenge to them. Here are the top 10…1. Materialism; 2. Pride; 3. Self-centeredness;

4. Laziness; 5. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness; 7. Sexual lust; 8. Envy; 9. Gluttony; 10. Lying.

The survey respondents also noted that the temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God and when they were physically tired. Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer, avoiding compromising situations, Bible study, and being accountable to someone. (Discipleship Journal, November/December, 1992)
To overcome the temptations in our life, we need to not look at the temptation, but rather to keep our eyes focused on Jesus; the author and perfector of our faith. To pray this petition, “lead us not into temptation,” means that we trust that God knows our breaking point better than we do. We are praying for God to not lead us past this breaking point; we are praying that God would help us to trust and cling to Him, so that we might stay faithful; we are praying that God would overwhelm us with His presence and saving strength. This is what the Lord teaches us to pray!

II. Overcoming Evil- (Matthew 6:13)

a. Christ the King- One of the books my kids’ love to read is the

Frog/Toad stories. The series is about the adventures of 2 friends: one a toad and the other a frog. In one particular story, Toad has baked some cookies. The smell causes him to eat one of the cookies, which tastes so good he runs over to Frog’s house so that Frog can enjoy them too. Frog eats a cookie and loves it so much that he has to eat another one. Together Frog and Toad eat many cookies. But then Frog says: "You know, Toad, I think we should stop eating. We will soon be sick." Then Toad responds: "You are right. Let us eat one last cookie, and then we will stop." So they eat one last cookie, but there are still many cookies left in the bowl, tempting them. So they have another./ Frog suggests to Toad: “To stop eating we must have willpower.” “What is willpower?” Toad asks. “ "Willpower is trying hard not to do something you really want to do," says Frog. "You mean like trying hard not to eat all these cookies?" asks Toad. "Right," says Frog. And so frog puts the cookies in a box. But they know that they can still open the box. So then Frog ties some string around the box. But they know that they can cut the string. So Frog puts them up on a high shelf. But they know they can still get them with a ladder. So Frog puts the cookies outside for the birds, and the birds fly off with them. "Now we have no more cookies to eat," says Toad sadly. "Not even one." Then Frog says: "Yes, but we have lots and lots of willpower." To which Toad replies: "You may keep it all, Frog, I am going home now to bake a cake." (Ray & Anne Ortlund, Renewal, Navpress, 1989, pp. 73-74.)
To overcome, we need help. We have to admit that we cannot heal the brokenness of our sin on our own. We have to understand that Christ is to be the King, the ruler of our lives. And as we think about the question which is raised by the title of the sermon, “Are you a leader or a follower?,” hopefully the answer is that you are a follower; a follower of Christ the King.

Who gives us strength when we are feeling weak? JESUS CHRIST. Who guides us in right paths when we go astray? JESUS CHRIST. Who picks us up when we fail or fall? JESUS CHRIST. Who is there to help us to overcome the evil in the world; the evil in my life? JESUS CHRIST. As the well known writer C. S. Lewis once said: “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.” That is what Jesus does for us.

b. Life governed by Christ- Jesus knew that people could become

defeated in life. He saw that defeat take place in people’s live through physical disease, monetary wealth, and confused priorities. Time and time again He saw people not living the abundant life He had come to give. Jesus knew that to have abundant living, we would need to not only know the Lord’s Prayer, not only pray the Lord’s Prayer, but live out the Lord’s Prayer. This last phrase of the prayer, “but deliver us from evil,” tells us that to have abundant life, we must overcome evil, and this evil can only be overcome by celebrating the holiness of God, celebrating the intimacy we have with God, setting aside our will for God’s will (a will which comes to us from heaven), and being centered on a trust that God will provide for our needs.

This closing petition should not be a surprise to any of us, for this petition demands from each one of us the recognition that this world is filled with evil forces and evil powers. It is a petition which clearly recognizes that we do live in a world which none of us ever escapes involvement with, nor the consequences of, these forces of evil. Without this final petition, the prayer would not be complete, because we have to acknowledge the existence of evil that can be at work in our lives. For Jesus to ignore this reality would not be helpful to us, because this area of life is what can trip us up the most.

And so, in the midst of such powers of evil, our Lord teaches us to pray that the Father would deliver us from evil; the evil that to our dismay, sometimes thrives in this world. It is like the story that Jesus told of a farmer who spends his entire life cultivating his field and then planting good seed, only to discover that all along there is an evil force at work to destroy all of his good efforts./ As we live in this world, we live in a world where evil can affect us, and that we, in many ways, are powerless on our own to bring about our own deliverance from it. But this prayer reminds us that evil does not win; Christ is the victor, and in Christ we have victory as well.

Conclusion: A couple of weeks ago the St. Louis Cardinals beat the N.Y. Mets in game 7 of the National League Championship series, IN NEW YORK! This was largely because of a man named Jeff Suppan. Suppan is a pitcher for the Cardinals, and he pitched so well in the seventh game (as well as in an earlier game the Cardinals won) that he was voted the MVP of the series. Now, when he got this award, was he the only one celebrating? NO. The who team was celebrating, because they knew that by his strength, he helped the team to victory, and into the World Series! Even though he was the MVP, it was considered a team effort.

Jesus is our MVP, because He is the one who makes victory possible. But we are ALL a part of the winning team! Through faith in Christ we have access to the power of God which enables us to overcome temptation and evil. Through faith in Christ we have the understanding we need to live life with fullness and depth and meaning.

As we close, think about these questions: What settings are you in when you fall? Avoid them. What props do you have that support your sin? Eliminate them. What people are you usually with? Avoid them. There are two equally damning lies Satan wants us to believe: 1) Just once won't hurt. 2) Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God's use, and might as well enjoy sinning./ As the great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said: "Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin." Now you might ever thought knowing Latin would be important, but in Spurgeon time it was important. The point is, as we trust ourselves to Jesus Christ, He will help us to say “NO,” and that is greatly important. May we leave here today with a renewed hope that we can overcome temptation and evil, this day and every day, as we follow our savior and Lord Jesus. Amen.