Sermon Series: “Connecting with God: The Lord’s Prayer” Part 6
Message Aim: God’s help for overcoming Temptation.
Sermon Title: “The Prayer of Deliverance”
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matt. 6:13
Message Synopsis:
“Sometimes I feel like there’s a tug-of-war going on inside of me. I really want to do what’s best but I always end up disappointing myself and God. I get really discouraged and need help getting unstuck.” If you’re honest every one of us have felt that way at different times in our lives about different things in our lives. Because the reality of living is good intentions are never good enough. If your life is going to change, if you’re going to break free from the hang-ups in your life, from the stuff that messes you up, from the past and from your temptations and from bad thought patterns and all kinds of things. It’s going to take more than “Well, I hope I’ll do better tomorrow.”
That’s why you need what we’re going to talk about Today. The Prayer of Deliverance. We’ve been looking at each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer, in depth and in detail. Today we come to “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” The answer to the temptations that we experience in life is this verse which is the prayer of deliverance. The prayer of deliverance always leads us to the path of escape.
What is the path of escape? 1 Corinthians 10:13 “The temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience.” We all have the same basic temptations in life. You are not unique in the fact that you’re tempted. Some of your temptations are more unique but temptation is not unique. We all get tempted. They’re not any different. Paul says “And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it.” God says I will always make a way out. I will never put more on you or I will never allow more on you than I put in you to bear it up. Temptation is a choice. And you only do what you choose to do. So don’t blame anybody else. Temptation is a choice to do right or to do wrong. And when you are tempted [God] will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.” Today we’re going to look at the way out.
The first step of the path of escape from the prayer of deliverance.
- I must identify what makes me vulnerable.
Notice I didn’t say identify what tempts you. You already know what tempts you. What you may have never really thought through is what causes me to be tempted by that. What makes me vulnerable to that temptation? What makes me weak? What makes me susceptible? More important than knowing what tempts you is knowing the when, why, how, where, and all the other factors that go into that temptation.
Jesus said this in Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.” In other words, you may be willing, you may want to overcome your temptation but will power is not enough. You have to watch. What is Jesus saying you need to watch for? You need to watch for the circumstances that make you vulnerable. You need to identify those and work with them.
Step one: identify what makes me vulnerable. Watch. Don’t just pray. Watch and pray. Then once you know that pattern here’s step number two.
- Plan to avoid it.
You don’t wait until you’re in the situation to decide am I going to give in to this or not? No, you decide before your emotions kick in to gear. The Bible says this. “Plan carefully what you do. Avoid evil. Walk straight ahead. Don’t go one step off the right way.” Temptation always begins with a natural desire in you. Often temptation is fulfilling a legitimate desire in the wrong way. Or fulfilling a legitimate desire at the wrong time. Or in the wrong amount.
So you know identify what makes you vulnerable. Then you plan to avoid that area.
- Step number three: I guard my heart.
This is very, very important because the Bible says that out of the heart everything comes. Out of the heart a man speaks and all of the issues of life. Temptation always starts inside of you. We think temptation is on the outside. No, it is not. The trigger is on the outside but the temptation is actually inside you.
Let’s do a little heart checkup first.
Rate yourself with 10 questions about your heart condition.
The Bible says this “Do not give the devil a foothold.” How do you give the devil a foothold? It’s a mental state. It is a negative emotion. Any time you hold a negative emotion in your life for an extended period of time whether it’s anger or worry or fear or bitterness or envy or jealousy or all of these other things. The longer you hold that you are allowing the evil one to get a stronghold in your life, in your brain. So you’ve got to guard your heart.
- The fourth thing you need to do is you need to pray for deliverance.
What I mean by that is just ask for God’s help. The Bible tells us that God is ready to help. He says we’re to pray “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” That is the prayer of deliverance. You ask God for help. The Prayer of Deliverance is often just one word: help!
Then number five, this is a real key on the six steps on the path of escape.
- I turn my attention elsewhere.
I change the direction of my thoughts. I refocus on something else. I shift my attention. Here’s the secret to temptation: don’t fight it. Just refocus. Don’t resist, refocus. Whatever you have in your life that you resist you’re just nailing it harder into your life. Whatever you resist persists.
Whatever gets your attention gets you. The battle for sin always starts in the mind. That’s why the Bible says this “Thinking about your commands will keep me from doing some foolish thing.” Why? Because if I’m thinking about your commands, if I’m thinking about truth, I’m not thinking about the dumb stuff I could be doing.
- Get a group and a partner.
Change has to come inside. You will never do it without support. You will never do it on your own. Because God has wired us in a way that we need each other to grow. We need each other to break free of habits and hang ups and hurts. You need accountability in your life. The very thing that you want least is the very thing you need most. You need a friend who checks up on you and you need a group that supports you. The Bible says this in Ecclesiastes 4 “Two are better than one because together if one falls down the other can help him up. But if somebody’s alone and he falls [into temptation] there’s no one there to help him up.” What’s the law of Christ? Love your neighbor as yourself. How do we love our neighbor as ourselves? The Bible says right there: by helping each other through temptation. That’s how you love your neighbor – by helping them through temptation.
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