I have some questions for you. Is everything good that happens to you a gift from God? James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
Is
everything bad that happens to you an attack of the Devil? How do
you know? In Romans 7, Paul talks about doing what he doesn’t
want to do and says he makes bad choices when he is in his flesh or when the
old man comes out. And we know that bad choices have consequences. So, maybe
not everything that happens to us is from Satan. Sometimes it’s because we make
bad choices and sometimes it’s just because we live in a fallen world where the
rain falls on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)
Do
you believe in luck and if so, is there good luck and bad luck or are these
good and bad spiritual forces? I know, it’s getting pretty deep
around here quickly, isn’t it? Is God sovereign – meaning, is God in charge of
this world, this universe, this church, you? If God is in charge, do
we still have free will or are we puppets that just think we have free will
because God wants us to think that? Those are some deep questions,
that’s for sure and I’m not going to answer most them because, partly, I want
you to have something to talk about over lunch today, but mainly because I
don’t know the answers to most of them.
When
people ask me those kinds of questions, I’m usually pretty quick to quote Isaiah
55:8 that says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. I’m fine
not understanding all there is to know about how God works because if I could
understand Him completely, He wouldn’t be much of a God, right?
I
will say that I know that God is sovereign and while not everything that
happens is His will, like sin, for instance, but His overall will is going to
be done. Job 42:2 says, “I know that you can do all
things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” We know that God can do
anything He wants. He gives and He takes away and He doesn’t have to
ask our permission, does He?
But
there really is a devil and he is called the prince of this world so evidently
he must be pretty powerful as well. Would you agree to
that? I hope so. I don’t know about you individually but this church
has been hammered on by the devil. He has tried to kill us
financially and relationally, by trying to disrupt our unity and our good
name. He has tried discouragement, pride, job-loss, job-change,
sickness and even death. He has tried storms. He has
tried to confuse us with lies that sound truthful. We’ve had the
cops disrupt our service. We have had drunks disrupt our service and
almost had a fistfight once or twice with some crazy women. And when
that doesn’t work, he gets the sound system to go on the fritz and when all
else fails, he will lull you to sleep in the pew with a lullaby.
So,
I guess we are doing what we are supposed to be doing but it’s
hard. It’s real hard. It’s hard because Satan, while not
as powerful as God, is more powerful than we are. He’s stronger,
bigger, faster, meaner, tougher and he has been doing this for a long time so
he knows what works and what doesn’t. He knows how to push our
buttons. He knows our weaknesses and our strengths and he hates us
so the only thing that keeps him from prowling around and devouring us is the
mighty right hand of God.
We
are finishing up our look at the Lord’s Prayer in the Psalms and we come to the
last line of the Lord’s Prayer that says something we have all said a hundred
times but we might not really understand. So, turn first to Matthew
6 and let’s read verses 9-13 but our focus will be
on verse 13 and then we will go over to the Book of Psalms
and get an illustration of what that part of the prayer should sound like.
As
you turn there, let’s do a little review of what we have learned about the
Lord’s Prayer. First, how should we start? “Hallowed be thy name.” We
should start with praise, right? We should praise God just for who He is and
what He has done. Secondly, when it says, “your Kingdom come, your
will be done” what does that mean? It means that we want God’s will
to be done in our lives. We want what He wants and we know that won’t
ultimately be done on earth until Jesus comes back and so we wait and pray for
that. Third, “Give us today our daily bread.” What does
that entail? It is not just asking for God’s provision of everything we have
and are. It is also acknowledging that He is the one that provides it. Fourth,
we saw last week, “Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors” means
that we HAVE to forgive others. We have to go to God for our own forgiveness
and it may be the secret to life itself when we understand just who we are and
who God is when we ask for that forgiveness.
We
know that the Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer but not necessarily a prayer to
be repeated over and over. It is a skeleton that we are to flesh out
with our own prayers so we get the model from Matthew and the examples from
Psalms. So, let’s read it from Matthew 6:9-13 right
now and see how Jesus said we are to pray.
“This, then, is how you
should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your
kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give
us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
As
I have studied the Lord’s Prayer for the last few weeks, every week I
think, “Well, obviously this part of the prayer is the most important.” So,
as we come to the last part, I have thought the same thing and I finally just
concluded that Jesus just really knew how to pray! In just a few sentences He
has summed up everything we need to pray for and how it should be done.
Now,
lastly, Jesus tells us we should pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil one.” We
know, though, that God doesn’t tempt us to sin. James 1:13 makes
that plain when it says, “When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting
me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” The misunderstanding comes
because, while the word “temptation” is correctly translated, the Greek word
originally used could mean “temptation” or “trial”.
But while James also tells us to “consider it
pure joy when we go through trials” the meaning of Jesus is, “Lord,
protect me - lead me away from - anything that might lead to sin, even if it is
a God-given trial.” Both lines of verse 13 have to do
with avoiding sin, whether by our old sin nature or from Satan
himself. Yes, we need trials to grow and mature and prove God’s
grace but our prayer should be that God would protect us from the very worst
thing that could happen to us.
What do you think is the worst thing that can happen to
us as Christians? Is it cancer? That’s pretty awful. Is it some form of dementia?
That’s such a cruel disease. What about divorce? Malachi 2:15 says that
God hates divorce. Is that the worst thing that can happen to us? Bankruptcy? Starvation? Death of a loved one? Death of
our own body? What is it?
When we ask God for protection, we usually mean for Him
to protect us from sickness or car wrecks or Joe Biden being president but what
Jesus says we should pray for is protection from sin. Sin is the
worst thing that can happen to us! It puts a barrier between us and God and
keeps us from His ultimate protection in all those other cases. Not only that
but it scorns and scoffs at the suffering of Jesus on the cross that provided
our forgiveness for that sin. So, sin is the worst thing that can happen to us
as Christians and should be avoided at all costs. So we ask God for His
protection from it.
Last week we saw that King David understood how to go to
God for forgiveness in Psalm 51 and this week we see that
David also knew how to ask for protection. Well…he kinda knew. Okay,
he didn’t really know at all but it’s not his fault and we are going to
use Psalm 140 as an example any way of how to ask God for
protection. Turn to Psalm 140 and let’s read through it
once just like David wrote it.
1 Rescue me, Lord, from evil men; protect me
from the violent,2 who devise evil plans in their
hearts and stir up war every day. 3 They make their
tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their
lips.4 Keep me safe, Lord,
from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways
to trip my feet.5 The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
they have spread out the cords of their net and
have set traps for me along my path.6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.” Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy. 7 Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, you
shield my head in the day of battle.8 Do not grant the wicked
their desires, Lord;
do not let their plans succeed.9 Those
who surround me proudly rear their heads; may the mischief of their lips
engulf them. 10 May burning coals fall on them; may they be
thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. 11 May
slanderers not be established in the land;
may disaster hunt down the violent.12 I
know that the Lord secures
justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.13 Surely
the righteous will praise your name,
and the upright will live in your presence.
Now,
does anybody see any problem with that prayer for us today? Should we pray
similar prayers? Should we pray that our enemies have burning coals
fall on them and be thrown into Hell? Because that is what David is praying
here. This is what is called an imprecatory prayer. David
is famous for this kind of prayer and it is the kind of prayer almost all of us
have wanted to pray at one time or another.
The problem
is that this is not exactly the prayer we are to pray. David, and
everybody else in the Old Testament didn’t really have a good understanding of
Satan like we do today. The scriptures had not been written showing
them that there was an evil spiritual being behind sinful man and they didn’t
have Ephesians 6 that tells us that our battles are not
against flesh and blood so David was doing the only thing he knew to do as he
prayed for God’s protection.
That
passage in Ephesians 6 (verse 12) tells us specifically that
our battles are not against flesh and blood but they are against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Now
if we substitute those satanic forces for what David calls evil men, then our
prayer is powerful and effective…and biblical and that’s what we want.
But
maybe you think it’s not all that important to pray for protection against
satanic forces like that. You’re not demon possessed. Is
it really necessary? Well, first, Jesus told us to pray this way and that
should be good enough but He did so for a reason. You may not be
demon possessed but do you ever feel depressed? Do you ever feel
discouraged? Do you ever have impure thoughts or bad thoughts
against somebody else or even yourself? Are you tempted to go back
to that old habit that God has delivered you from? The real question
is, are you ever tempted to sin?
Well,
some of that may happen because we are sinful and fallen mankind but that
temptation doesn’t come from God so it ultimately and predominately comes from
Satan and his minions, the authorities, powers and dark spiritual forces of the
evil one.
So,
let’s go back and re-read Psalm 140, substituting those names for
what David calls evil men. I’m not adding to or taking away from
scripture. I’m just using this as an example of how we should pray
when Jesus tells us we should pray for protection from sin. Okay, let’s go.
Rescue me, Lord, from the powers of this dark
world, protect me from the violent demons,
2 who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every
day. 3 They make their tongues as sharp as a
serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.4 Keep me
safe, Lord, from the hands of
the wicked spiritual forces; protect me from the violent satanic
authorities, who devise ways to trip my feet. 5 The
arrogant evil rulers have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords
of their net and have set traps for me along my path. 6 I
say to the Lord, “You are my
God.” Hear, Lord, my cry
for mercy. 7 Sovereign Lord,
my strong deliverer, you shield my head in the day of battle. 8 Do
not grant the wicked dark forces their desires, Lord; do not let their plans succeed. 9 Those
satanic spiritual forces who surround me proudly rear their heads; may the
mischief of their lips engulf them. 10 May burning coals fall
on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. 11 May
slanderous devils and demons not be established in me or in Christ
Fellowship; may disaster hunt down the violent and evil spiritual
powers. 12 I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor, the addicted and the
incarcerated and upholds the cause of the needy. 13 Surely
the righteous in our church will praise your name, and the upright in Wise
County will live in your presence.
Amen
and Amen! Now, that’s a powerful prayer and an example of how we should pray
when we are asking God for His protection. If you think that is over
the top or being too dramatic by talking about devils and demons then why does
Jesus tell us to pray “deliver us from the evil one”? Why does
it say in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion looking to see whom he may devour? Ephesians 6 lays
it out plainly that these are our enemies.
One
of Satan’s favorite tricks is to put you in a position of temptation but make
you think it’s not him doing it. Do you remember in first grade when the bully
behind you in class would reach up and pull the little girl’s hair in front of
you and then pull his hand back real quick? The girl would turn around and
think you did it and you would get in trouble. That’s just what the bully Satan
does when he tempts you and you think it is your spouse or your friend or a
church member. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. Your spouse, your
friend, your fellow church member is not your enemy. Don’t fall for that. Satan
is the enemy.
All
we can do is acknowledge that God is the Protector. We can’t beat
Satan and his minions on our own. This prayer is an example, like every aspect
of the Lord’s prayer is an example, of simply acknowledging God’s omnipotence
and infinity and of our impotence and finite-ness, if that’s a word.
We
go to God with praise because He is God and we are not. We
ask for provision because He is the Provider and we are
not. We request pardon for our sins because He is the
Savior and we are not and we ask for protection from sin and
everything evil that would hurt us because He is the Protector and we are not.
That’s
the Lord’s Prayer for us today so let’s do that right now. Let’s bow our
heads and close our eyes and just spend some time praying as we have
learned. Praising God for his grace and His mercy, His love and
forgiveness.
Now,
thinking about all that God has done in our lives, we ask Him for continued
blessings of provision, making us content with what we have, acknowledging that
He is the Provider of all good and perfect things. Also, as much as it might
pain us to do it, we need to come before God humbly and ask Him for forgiveness
of all our sins. Name those sins to Him right now and turn from
those sins, acknowledging that it was that sin that put Jesus on the cross.
We
end our prayer as Jesus taught us by asking for His continued protection from
Satan and all the evil forces of this world that surround us and hammer on us
every day. Lord, keep us strong in the power of your name and
through the Holy Spirit keep us from sin. We ask all these things in
the name of Jesus, our Redeemer, Sustainer, Deliverer and
King. Amen.
If
you don’t have a relationship with God, you can today through His Son Jesus.
Ask God to forgive you of your sins and vow to turn away from those sins.
Confess that He is now Lord of your life and you will do what He expects you to
do. Based on your faith and His grace, you will be saved and you can now have
peace and joy in this life even in the most difficult of times plus you now
have the assurance of Heaven when you die. Thank you, Jesus! Do it right now.
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