! 1 THE PRAYER OF JESUS #5: LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION (Matthew 6:7-13) 2018 Rev. Dr. Brian E. Germano [PROP NEEDED: SermonSpice video] [LaGrange First U.M.C.; 3-18-18] --I-- 1. WATCH VIDEO "The Skinny on Prayer" (by The Skit Guys at www.sermonspice.com, Original video 4:33, edited to 3:15-4:30, Total Time, 1:15)] 2. [READ POEM "Besetting Sin" (by Irene Holsted)] There came a gentle tapping let me in! I opened and beheld a very little sin. He entered with apologies and scarcely raised his eyes As if abashed to contemplate tempting one so wise. I found myself amused at this and set out to explore This little cunning sin I d let inside my door. I petted him and teased him & gave him bread & wine, Grew fond of him, then adopted him, this little sin of mine. He twined around my heartstrings & grew so very dear I loved him & assured myself he was too small to fear. He soon spied out my weakness & therein was the rub, He built himself a treadmill, my weakness at the hub. With every revolution my darling little sin Enlarged himself and multiplied over and over again. At last he stooped & lifted me & placed me on his knee, Now he is my besetting sin and makes a pet of me. 3. We're continuing a series exploring the meaning and value of "The Prayer of Jesus" we know as "The Lord's Prayer," which he first shared to be a pattern/skeleton around which we can develop our own personal & corporate prayers (like today's scripture video) A--And today, our attention turns to Verse 13, the sixth and final actual petition of the prayer, which focuses not only on the dangers of temptation (like the poem we just read), but (more importantly) on the power of God to help us overcome it. B--So, say this verse with me, if you will [ON SCREEN]... "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." As we've done each week, I want us to look at this petition a phrase at a time. --II--
! 2 4. So, the first phrase in this sixth petition is "LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION..." A--Now, this wording presents a bit of a dilemma, because it seems totally inconsistent with the nature and character of God as portrayed in the Bible. 1--After all, James 1:13 explicitly says "No one, when tempted, should say, 'I am being tempted by God';for God cannot be tempted by evil & he himself tempts no one" 2--So if that's the case, then what do we make of Jesus here inviting us to pray specifically that God would not "lead us... into temptation"? B--Well, first we need to know that the word the King James Version translates as "temptation" (Greek peir-asmos) more accurately means "testing, trial, or adversity" which is why other Bible translations use those words instead of "temptation." 1 1--Think about the fact that when an auto maker first designs a new car model, one of the most important things they do before putting it on the market is put it through a series of road tests to see how well it will perform in the rain, scorching heat, snow and ice, after 100,000 miles of wear, and so on. 2--The "testing" isn't meant to break the car, but to reveal vulnerabilities that could cause hurt and injury, so that those can be corrected and improved. 2 3--It's the same with when our faith is "tested" ("tempted") -- it's not meant to trip us up, but to help us see our vulnerabilities, and where our faith needs improvement. 4--Only... God's "testing" is fundamentally different from that of an auto maker, in that God doesn't cause the testing/adversity -- all He does is take the adversity we already experience as a natural part of life & use / redeem it for a higher purpose. C--When my wife Trish was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2006, at first the news threw us both for a spiritual loop -- as if someone had punched us in the gut, leaving us stunned and without breath. 1--But as we progressed through it all -- the surgeries, radiation, & chemotherapy -- we learned to trust God and appreciate each other more, to value each day and not take for granted what we have, and to increasingly understand that though God was not the cause of the cancer, nevertheless He was the one who could help us get through it. 2--We learned, you see, that when we're in the midst of challenges (ie,"being tested") we need to be careful of becoming bitter/angry towards God (as some do) -- After all, "Adversity/trials can either make us better or bitter -- the choice is up to us!"
3--How does James 1:2-4 (CEB) put it? "Think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. After all,... the testing of your faith produces endurance. [And] let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing." 3 D--The bottom line is that "lead us not into temptation" is not about a God who arbitrarily and callously tries to trip us up, or who willfully brings bad things down upon us for sport... just to see how we'll react. E--Instead, it's about a God who loves us and who yearns to guide us away from things that will harm us and towards things that will help us thrive and flourish. --III-- 5. But, closely related to this first phrase is the 2nd one, "...DELIVER US FROM EVIL." A--This is actually another example of the literary technique known as "parallelism" I mentioned several weeks ago, where one phrase restates & clarifies a previous one -- in this case, "deliver us from evil" helps us better understand "lead us not into temptation." B--In this case, the word "evil" here can mean either "evil (in general), or the evil one, or evil impulses." And, doesn't evil and "temptation" come from all of these sources? 1--E.G., Are there times that bad things result from the generic "evil" of our world -- like cancer and other illnesses, natural disasters, and other tragic things that just happen in life? Certainly! 2--Are there times when evil comes from the intentional actions and behaviors of other people ("evil ones" like Adolf Hitler), or from oppressive human systems like American slavery or S. Africa's Apartheid? Yes! 3--And is there a personified supernatural force in our universe who causes hurt and suffering? Is there really a "Satan" or "devil"? Well, in my experience, there is. 4 C--So, this certainly is a prayer for God to protect us from these. 6. But the source of evil that we perhaps need deliverance from most is the one we most often forget about... ourselves (i.e., "evil impulses") A--Oh, we like to blame the problems and sufferings of our messed up world and even in our individual lives on someone or something else -- we blame God, the devil, our spouse, our boss, our President, Congress, or local government, our pastor and/or our church, and so on.,...! 3
1--...All the while forgetting that whatever our "trials/temptations" might be, none of them -- whether they be anger, gluttony, drug abuse, inappropriate sexual behavior, anxiety, fear, or gossip would have any power over us if they didn t already have a home in us in the first place! 2-James 1:14-15 says that "Everyone is tempted by their own cravings; they are lured away and enticed by them. Once those cravings conceive, they give birth to sin; and when sin grows up, it gives birth to death." B--So, before we pray for God to "deliver us" from the "temptation/evil" of life that's "out there" [POINT AROUND], maybe we first need to pray for deliverance from the selfish and sinful inclinations & motivations of our own hearts, "in here" [POINT TO MY HEART]! 5 1--That's why I like THE MESSAGE version translation of this verse so much, "Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil." 2--The devil, after all, can't make us do anything that we ourselves don't already want to do (he can helps us do it, but can't make us)! 3--Maybe that's why an ancient Jewish prayer put it this way, "Lord, let us not fall into the power of temptation, but when we find ourselves surrounded, let us not be overpowered by it." 6 4--In other words, "deliver us from evil" basically means "Lord, save me from what would derail my faith and life, whatever the source of that might be." 7 --IV-- 7. In Verse 13, Jesus invites us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." A--This is a petition that admits we will face temptation and evil of all sorts in this life -- that "besetting sins" like those in the opening poem will come knocking at our hearts' door. B--But it also reminds us that when we come to God boldly in prayer, acknowledging our own weakness and vulnerability to temptation and evil, that God will deliver us --... 1--He'll give us the maturity to see life's challenges as opportunities for growth,... 2--The strength to choose to say "No" to temptation when it comes our way,... 3--And the power to be forgiven even when we occasionally fall to it. 8 C--So, no matter what the "test," "trial," or "temptation" you and I might be facing, my prayer is that we would all learn to accept to God's power to endure and overcome -- to be victors in life, not victims of it! 8. [PRAYER]! 4
! 5 ENDNOTES: 1 For example, the NRSV says "Do not bring us to the time of trial." 2 Another example of a form of "testing" is exercise and discipline. Without exercise, the body deteriorates. Without hard, grueling practice, a sports team will never win games. Without disciplined study, its difficult to do well on school exams. And in like manner, without "trials" and "tests" in our lives, our Christian faith will never be challenged to grow and "win" in the "game" called life. 3 In the Bible, many places that are sometimes translated as "temptation" in English actually more accurately should be understood more in the sense of "testing." For example, find the use of "temptation" in the KJV versions of Genesis 22:1 (God "tempting" Abraham), Mark 1:12 (Jesus being "tempted" in the wilderness), James 1:1 ("Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptation..."). In each of these, "trials/testing" is a more accurate description of what is really happening. 4 In theological circles, these three are sometimes described as Natural evil (bad things that happen in nature and in our natural world), Moral evil or Corporate evil (bad things that result from the actions/inactions of people, individually or collectively/systemically), and Supernatural evil (bad things that result from the supernatural realm of satan/the devil). 5 This is why it's fundamentally important to we give attention to what is happening inside of us if we are to grow into the love of neighbor to which we are called. We need to be aware of our own motivations, desires, impulses, and dispositions that are otherwise hidden from us so we can seek healing. We can never look at someone else's sin or crime and say "I would never do anything like that!" because the minute we do, we might be falling prey to the temptation of "pride." In other words, all temptation has its origin within ourselves... within US, not just with the world around us! 6 The original prayer (found in the Jewish service of morning and evening prayer) states "Do not bring us into the power of temptation." This has often been interpreted to mean, "When we find ourselves surrounded by temptation, may we not be overpowered by it" (Cited at http://www.oocities.org/fibredrive/ Hardsayings/21temptation.htm). 7 Read also 1 Corinthians 10:13. 8 "The final petition is a request for divine protection in our lives, asking God to lead us away from the temptations that may sidetrack us from God s will and to rescue us from the attack of the evil one that may come in various ways and forms to harm us" ("The Lord's Prayer," article in The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible).