Lead us Not into Temptation

Okay, well, this week I'm going to continue with what we began last week. And you'll remember last week we looked at the model prayer that Jesus Christ gave in Matthew 6 from a little bit different angle. You'll remember in Matthew 6—and you can turn over there as we begin here. I'll just spend a couple minutes kind of rehearsing a little bit of what we talked about last week. But when Jesus Christ was talking to the disciples, he told them in this manner, pray.

He didn't tell them to memorize the words. He gave them kind of a guideline what to pray. And we spent some time last week going through the first several phrases in detail there, looking at what Jesus Christ would say if we want to have our prayers heard, if we want to come before God and have him hear our prayers and pray in the manner that he directed, there's things that we should look at in that prayer. You know, many congregations—not of the Church of God, but in the world—you know, just memorize that prayer and think if they just say the words, God is happy with it.

And that's not at all the case. You know, we talked about the first part of that prayer. It's really divided into two sections, if you will. The first part, our Father. We talked about Jesus Christ using every word as he said that prayer in which we should pray. He has some meaning to us. And the word our, our Father, didn't say my Father or your Father, our Father.

We are family, and that's what Jesus Christ, or what God the Father has called us to be. His Father is our Father. We talked about the word Father and that God our Father provides everything we need, spiritually and physically, and we can look to Him. And as a role model for physical Fathers as well, because as He loves His children, as He wants the best for His children, as He provides for His children, as He seeks out what they are and where their talents are.

In fact, He gives us the talents. He wants us to be ready for what He has in mind for us the rest of our lives, just like physical Fathers want what's best for their sons that they grow up to become, that they grow up to become profitable and productive members of society.

We talked about He's in Heaven, you know, and we talked a little bit about Heaven and what goes on in Heaven. You know, the world's religions don't know a lot about what goes on in Heaven.

They have a misconception about what goes on in Heaven, just that there's something that happens. They know people are happy. They know people are not people, but beings that are in Heaven, not people who are in Heaven, but beings who are in Heaven, that they're happy and they're joyous, but they have no idea that God has a plan, that God is working, that there is something going on in Heaven all the time.

It is a place of work. It's not a place of relaxation and just staring off into, you know, space for the rest of eternity. Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. And we talked about what that means. When we come before God, you know, we said modern translations have it, and it may be more appropriate because we can hear hallowed be your name. That means something to us, but probably hallowed has a meaning that we only think of when we think of this passage of Scripture.

Let your name be kept holy. That's not God's responsibility. That's not Jesus Christ's responsibility. That's your and my responsibility to keep God's name holy. In our families, with the people that we come in contact with, at work, at school, play, neighborhood, when they know that we keep God's law, that we're in God's church, it's our responsibility to keep His name holy. And we do that by how we live, how we behave, how we are applying the principles of God into our lives. And when we come before God in prayer, in manner, God's looking. God's looking at what are we doing, what mindset are we in, what attitudes that we have, who is it that's coming before Him, not just with magical words, but with an attitude and with a life that demonstrates what it is, what it is we're living, and when we approach God, our Father, we know who He is.

And we ended last week on Your Kingdom Come. We talked about the kingdom coming to earth, the kingdom that is in heaven today, because there is a system of government in heaven. And Jesus Christ died, and Jesus Christ will be coming to earth again, and that kingdom, that system of government, that way of life, that way of life, He will bring with Him. And we are called to be living that kingdom in our lives now, that way of life. That we talk about every week when we come to church, when we read the Bible, it's there.

God wants to see, is this something we really want? Is Thy Kingdom Come words that we just say, or is it something that we feel? And maybe that's something I know as I think about it, Thy Kingdom Come? What does that really mean to me? And we finished off there, but let's continue with the first, the last line of this first section of the prayer, where, I guess the next to the last line of the first section of the prayer, where it's the attitude that we come before God in when we are praying to Him, the manner in which we pray.

And the next line there in verse 10, it says, Your will be done. Now those are words that we say often. Probably, I would think in most prayers that we offer up, we say, Father, Your will be done. Another phrase that we could say that just kind of rolls off our tongues, but what does that mean? What is God's will? And do we really mean it when we say God's will? Do we really think about everything that that means when we say Your will be done?

Because we're saying a lot. When God hears us say those words, He's looking into our hearts. Do you really mean, do you really understand, Thy will be done? Well, let's look at a few scriptures here that talks about what God's will is. Let's go back to 2 Peter. 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. Familiar Scripture says, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

His will isn't that people perish. His will is that people come to repentance. He wants to give eternal life. What precedes that is repentance. His will is that we will recognize who we are, how we are living contrary to His will, His way, toward the principles of that kingdom in heaven, that we pray, Thy kingdom come, but we are living in concert with that, and when we recognize that we are not, that we will come to repentance. And you know what repentance is? That's a matter of turning from our way to His way.

God looks at the person that comes before Him in prayer. When He looks at me, when He looks at you, does He see people that really mean that? That when He brings something to our attention that's contrary to His will, do we repent? Do we make excuses? Do we say, not that important? Or just count it as something that we don't have to deal with right then? Because God's looking, He's looking and seeing, do they really mean, my will, God's will, be done?

In 1 Timothy 2, 1 Timothy 2, and verse 3, Paul as he's writing to a young minister here, in verse 3 he says, For this is good and acceptable, in the sight of God our Savior. Oh, we should take note of that. This is what God would like to see. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

That's what His will is. His will is not that everyone in this day and age come to the knowledge of the truth, but that His will is that eventually in His time and as His plan goes, everyone will come to the knowledge of the truth. That's what His will is.

He loves all mankind. Today, for you and me, that's our time that we've come to the knowledge of the truth. That's what His will is. A book back, or a couple books back, in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 4. Beginning in verse 1, Paul writes to the church there about the things that please God. Same things that we would do today if we're looking to please God if we do His will. Chapter 4, verse 1, 1 Thessalonians, finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.

For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. We know what commands God gives us. We talk about those you read. The Bible you've been, you know, most of us have been around for a while. We know what God wants us to do, for this is the will of God.

Your sanctification. You are set apart. You are there for a special purpose that He's working with, with the people that He calls today. This is the will of God, your sanctification. Then He speaks what was a common sin back then, but we could fill in any of the sins that we have that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. And that may not be what our weakness is, but it could be something else.

It could be any kind of addiction that we might have or the thing, the sin that does so easily be set us. Fill in the blank, you know what it is, that you should abstain from that sin, that you should know how to possess your own vessel in sanctification and honor. Not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who don't know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also forewarned you and testified.

For God didn't call us to uncleanness, but He called us in holiness. He called us to become holy, like He's holy. He called us to become blameless, like He is blameless, that over the course of our lives we would be ever allowing God to open our minds.

We would ever be looking to change. We would be ever comparing ourselves to the standard that is Jesus Christ and the standards we read in the Bible and allowing God to mold us in that shape. That's what He called us for. Therefore, He says in verse 8, He who rejects this doesn't reject man. If that's not what our purpose is, if that's not what our will is, to become pure, to become holy like God is holy, to let Him do that things in us. Therefore, He who rejects this doesn't reject man, but God, who is also given His Holy Spirit.

How can that person who rejects that pray and have God believe the words, thy will be done? His will for us is that we are in a constant state of allowing Him to perfect us, yielding to His Holy Spirit, becoming more and more like Him. And if we're not willing to do that, if we're holding things back on God, if we say, no, not this, no, not that, I read that, I hear that, but that's not that important, God's not going to hold me accountable for that, how can that man pray?

Thy will be done. Chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians. Pick it up in verse 16. Rejoice always. Paul says, a mark of a true Christian following God, the fruit of the Spirit, the second one listed as joy. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Be in contact with God. Be in contact with Him and know that He is with you and watching what you do every minute of the day, and that we would be committed to that everything we do is done to God's glory.

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. That's His will. Do we think about those words when we go through our week? Do we think we should be rejoicing? Do we think we should be giving thanks in everything? Are we mindful of those things? Are we mindful of God who provides everything that we have, everything that we ever will have, even the ability to have wealth?

You know, Peter, Peter was mentioned in the sermon at Peter learned a lot of lessons in his life when he was walking with Jesus Christ. He was one of those outspoken people who just said what was on his mind, and oftentimes we can look at some of the words that Peter said and say, probably in that situation I might have said exactly the same thing of him, and yet Jesus Christ would rebuke him from times to times.

We think about the times that he denied Christ three times after he said, I would never deny you, yet he did. He learned a valuable lesson in that case, and there was another valuable lesson that he learned in regard to God's will. Let's turn back to Matthew 16. Matthew 16, and this is right after. Right after, you know, God reveals to Peter, you know, after the transfiguration that this is, that this is, that's right before the transfiguration after Jesus Christ is talking about his church, that Jesus is the Son of God.

You know, God looked at Peter, saw his heart is in the right place, revealed that to him, but as we get, go down to the chapter we see one of those, one of those examples of Peter where he says something, and you know he's well-meaning, but he had to learn a lesson. Verse 21 of Matthew 16. From that time, it says, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day.

Now, here's someone that Peter loves, the apostles love, they're walking with him, they're talking with him, you know, just like any of us. And Jesus Christ is saying, you know what, this is going to happen. I'm going to die. I'm going to have to be put to death.

He's letting them know this is what's happened, this is what's going to happen. Be prepared for it. Now Peter, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. Now I can see myself saying that same thing to Christ. If any of you came and told me, you were going to be killed in three days, I said, no, no, that won't happen, that won't happen. He didn't want that to happen. No one wants to see harm come to anyone that they love. But Christ taught him a valuable lesson when he said, in verse 23, get behind me, Satan.

You are in offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Peter, from a human perspective, I understand, Jesus Christ might have thought, I understand where you're coming from, but what you are saying is in conflict with the will of God. The will of God, the plan of God, is that I will in three days, or after three days, or in three days, be crucified. And I will be crucified and then be resurrected in three days.

It will happen. That's the will of God. You may not want to hear it. From a human perspective, it is a very difficult thing to talk about. Just like what you heard about in the sermonette, some of the things that are in prophecies about what happened between now and the return of Jesus Christ, they are difficult things to think about.

And we don't want to think about them. It is the will of God. It is the plan that He has mapped out. It is what is going to happen. And Peter learned a lesson. My human emotions aside, when I pray, thy will be done, I have to recognize and know God's plan and accept it, be prepared for it, and fully support it. When we pray, thy will be done. Do we really mean it? Do we really get God's plan? Are we really behind it? Are we really looking forward to thy kingdom come? That is the phrase right before this one. When we say that, are we really prepared to say, thy will be done? To think about what that means when we tell God, thy will be done. These things will happen. And I support it. I'm there with you. I understand it. And I know that ultimately, for Jesus Christ to return to this earth and set up His kingdom, a time for all of mankind living at that time and then in the future to know you and to experience what it is to know you, I know those things have to happen, and thy will be done, no matter what the personal discomfort to me might be.

Peter had to learn that lesson. We need to think about those things and not be afraid of them, but to ask God, ask God to help us to say those things, to be prepared, to have the faith, and to look to Him the way that He wants us to. Let's turn back to Isaiah, Isaiah 55 and verse 8.

In the Bible study later, we'll reference this verse again as we begin. Isaiah 55 and verse 8. God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. I understand your thoughts, mankind, but my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the eternal. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.

And my thoughts than your thoughts. I'm looking at things from a different perspective than you might be. You may still be looking at it from a human perspective. God is looking at it from His plans perspective, from a long-term perspective, the same perspective as we know God and as His Holy Spirit works in us, that we begin to see things in that light, too. The things that we may react to humanly and appropriately humanly by who we are, when we pause and we think what God's will is, what His plan is, then we begin to understand what He's doing and accept it and take ourselves out of the here and now to the eternity and with a future that God has planned for all of us.

Thy will be done in this attitude, in this lifestyle, in this way you're living when you come before God in this manner, pray, Jesus Christ said. And He went on in the next phrase, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Now, we know God's plan. We know that Jesus Christ will return to earth. We know that He will establish His kingdom on earth.

We can return to some verses. There, in fact, let's just turn to one that we don't often turn to back in Zechariah, Zechariah 14. Of course, there's the verses in Revelation as well that talks about Jesus Christ returning to this earth and taking the kingdoms of this world and making them His kingdom. But in Zechariah 14 and verse 2, speaking of that day yet ahead, God inspired Zechariah to say this, I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem.

The city will be taken, the houses rifled, the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Before His return, not so good things happen.

Not so pleasant things happen in Jerusalem, the city of God, the city that He has already said will be the capital of His kingdom when He returns to earth. Verse 3, then the eternal will go forth. He will fight against those nations as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split into from east to west, making a large valley.

Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, half of it toward the south. He will return, and this is where He will return to when He brings His kingdom to earth, when His will and His kingdom comes to earth. Let's look at the very last verse of verse 5. It says, Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with you. Well, that's those who, through the course of their lifetime now, the ones that God calls, the ones who respond to God, who do His will and repent, who live a life of repentance, who live a life of submission to God and surrender to God, who allow His Holy Spirit to lead them, guide them, purify them, mold them into who He wants us to be, letting go of our own ideas, our own identities, our own whatever it is that we have, letting all those things to Him, all those saints, all those saints who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, as it says in Revelation 14, all those saints will be with you, Zechariah says, when you return.

So we know that the kingdom physically will come to earth at the time that Jesus Christ returns. We look forward to that day. But for you and me, for you and me, the kingdom, the kingdom of God should be living in our homes and in our lives now. We talked last week about our citizenship being in heaven.

That's the standards we live by. If there comes a conflict between the laws of the land and the laws of God, we follow the laws of God. We're ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We're ambassadors on this earth, showing the world the way God's life is. They should see in us the honesty, the joy, the love, the peace, all those fruits of the Spirit as we develop those things. And as they come into a body of a body of the church of God, they should see those things that Jesus Christ said they should see.

The kingdom of God should be among us today. When Jesus Christ returned, when he was on earth the first time, he said, the kingdom of God is among you. I'm here! Let's turn over to Colossians. Colossians 1. We live God's way of life. We'll be there when Jesus Christ returns. We'll see him bring physically kingdom to earth. Colossians 1. Let's pick it up in verse 9. Colossians 1 verse 9. For this reason, Paul writing to the church at Colossians 4. For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, don't cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

There's Paul talking about God's will. That you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Notice verse 13. He's delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. Citizens in heaven, living by his kingdom and the rules of his kingdom today, imbued with the spirit today of God. That leads us to live different lives than we did before. To live lives that are in concert with the way God wants us to live, the way the whole world will live when the Spirit of God is poured out on all of them. People who are being prepared for that today to teach those things when Jesus Christ returns, and the only way we can teach them is if we learn them today.

If we're experiencing them today, if we're yielding to God today, the way we will be asking people or teaching them and working with them in the millennium, you need to yield to God. You need to let God's Spirit purge that from your mind. You need to ask God to cleanse that so that that thought doesn't come back all the time, but that you continually, when you feel it come, ask God, purge it, clean it, renew my mind, renew my heart.

I don't want to think that way anymore. That's the old person that was put to death. I don't want to be that person anymore, but we need His power. We need His Spirit to erase those things from our minds.

We simply can't do it without Him. Mankind, for all the good intents of some people's mind, they just can't do it. Without God's Spirit, we can't become who He wants us to become.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

For us, the kingdom of God should be, we should be living by those standards today.

In our homes, that should be what governs us. That should be what we are teaching.

Our children, that's what we should be learning as God brings us ever more closer to the perfection that He wants in you and me.

The responsibility is on us.

He'll provide the incentive or He'll provide the urges, I guess. It's up to us to respond. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

And we know His will is done in heaven. And in heaven, there's joy. There's anticipation.

There's unity. There's harmony. There's everything good. Among God's people, those same qualities should be there if we are doing God's will, if we are allowing Him to build His kingdom inside our homes and our lives today.

So we come to the first part, the end of that first paragraph, if you will, of when Jesus Christ said, in this manner, pray. Now, we don't have to say all those words every time we pray to God, but look at what He says. When you come before me, this is the person that I am looking to.

When I see Rick stand before me, I hear the words he's saying. Does his heart, does his choices, do his choices, does his manner in everyday life reflect the words that he's saying?

Does he really mean those? And I see what he is. Do I see the manner he comes before me?

That's what God wants to see in you and me. And if we come before him in that attitude, and if he sees that in our everyday lives, that we're striving for those things, and we make those choices, and that our hearts are with him. Then he says, ask. Ask. Before we ever do that, we have this mindset of how great God is, what He does for us that we're dependent on Him for everything. And then the next part of Matthew 6, the prayer here. Let's go to verse 11. Then we begin asking for the things that we need. But even as we begin to ask for the things that God gives us, we have to be mindful of what He does. In verse 11 it says, give us this day our daily bread. Now let's just look at the first four words there. Give us this day, this day. Could just say, give us our daily bread, or give us bread. Give us whatever it is, right?

Give us this day. Every day come before God, and recognize what He does for us. That it is Him who provides our health, our wealth, our food, physical, the physical things that we need as He goes on in chapter 6 to talk about. That He provides it all, and then we come before Him, we recognize it's Him. It's not us. It's Him. It's not us. What does that do to our attitudes when we recognize every time we come before Him, that He's the one who does these things for us? It puts us in an attitude of humility, doesn't it? We may think that, wow, we're so great, we have these great jobs, we make this great income, we do these nice things for our family, and we may think, ah, you know, look what we can do, look what we can do. It's God who provides.

It's God who makes those things possible. And when we think every day as we come before God, thank you for what you provide for us. You know, Deuteronomy 8, I think is verse 18, God told Israel, He would tell His people today, it's not you who get wealth, it's me who gives you the ability to get wealth. It's me who provides that. Be thankful, be recognizing it. Come before me, and when we ask, when we ask, pay attention. Oh, God knows, it says in Matthew, I think right here in Matthew 6, yes, down in later on in the chapter, God knows the things that we need before we ask Him. Why does He tell us to ask? Because we need that humility of recognizing that it's Him who gives. You know, a mistake that gets made so many times, you know, in families today, and we are guilty of it as well, we know what our children need or want before they will even ask it, and sometimes we just give it to them. We just hand it out, and so they come to an expectation of, everything is just given to me. Whatever, whatever I want, I'm given. They don't even have to come before you in humility and ask, can I have this? Can I borrow this? If it's mine, if it's yours, it's mine, and sometimes the failing. God says, you come before and you ask. Now let's go over to Luke, Luke 11.

Luke 11, we have the same model prayer, or the manner of prayer, recorded here when the disciples come before Christ, and they say, teach us, teach us how to pray, and Jesus Christ repeats these same words to them in that instance. And down in, it's interesting, the context when you read the prayers in Luke 11, right after Jesus Christ repeats those words, then he says this in verse not five, accentuating part of that prayer, maybe for the disciples that were there that day. In verse five, he says to them right after he prays, it says, in this manner pray, or here's how you would pray, he says, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me on this journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he'll answer from within and say, don't trouble me, the door is shut, my children are with me in bed, I can't rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he's his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be open to you, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. God's will is to give, God's will is to open, God's will is that we would find. We have our part to do, recognizing that it's him who opens minds, him who gives, him who provides. And we ask. We ask.

You know, sometimes we ask, and we might ask one time, heal me of this. This situation is bad at work. Fix it for me, and we may never ask again. And just think, well, God didn't answer that prayer.

What are the words Jesus Christ said? Give us this day. Sometimes we need to ask God and ask him over and over and over and over and remind him. The persistence. When he sees that's where our heart is, and maybe he teaches us lessons as we learn to ask day and day and day and ask him, what is it? In what manner am I praying? What should I need to say? Where does my heart need to be? What do I need to learn that you would answer this prayer? Give us this day. Ask.

God knows what we need. We ask. He knows what we need to find. We seek. He needs what we need to have opened. He'll provide. Verse 13. If you then, he says, you, being evil, there's a strong word, evil, a word that we'll look at later a little bit here in the same manner of praying. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Ah, what is it that we should be asking for? Wealth? More money?

Doing his will? Yeah? Thy kingdom come? Things that I need to change in my life?

Give us this day our daily bread certainly has a physical aspect, you know, certainly for Israel, ancient Israel had a physical aspect. Remember when God gave a manna? He didn't give him a week's worth of manna at one time. Didn't go out and say, hey, on Sunday morning or the first day of the week, oh, and you know what? It'll last you for seven days. You don't have to go shopping again until the following first day of the week. They had to go out every single day. And if they tried that they were going to be, you know, kind of like get ahead of God and had a better idea, I'll save enough so I don't have to go out here on the second day, they learned you've got to go to God every single day. It's him who provides every single day. Jesus said, Jesus Christ said, give us this day, our daily bread. When Elijah was there and he was being fed by the ravens, it was every single day that the ravens brought him food. He could have sent in a Federal Express box and said, here, Elijah, this is what you're going to eat for the next however long you're going to be here. It was every single day that that raven came. And Elijah knew God is providing.

Every single day. He knows my needs. He knows what I need. He provides every single day.

And I need to every single day be mindful of him. And recognize in humility, it's him who provides. And he will provide generously as many of us can attest. When we're praying in the manner and in the attitude and in the life that Jesus Christ prescribed for us. Let's look at a verse in Psalm, Psalm 37.

Psalm 37.

For these verses, this...

Oh, Psalm 37. I was going to say that's not the verse. Psalm 37 and verse 25.

I have been young and now I am old. Yet I haven't seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. At first God promises, you know what? My people aren't going to go hungry. I'll provide for them. But you notice the key word in there?

I have not seen the righteous forsaken. Who are the righteous? Those who are doing.

And those who are living God's will. Whoever relinquished control of their lives to God's will.

He doesn't say, just because you go to church on Sabbath, just because you say the words, I'm going to provide everything, I have not seen the righteous forsaken. Those who are doing my will. Living my will. Yielding their lives to me, which is his will.

You know, in the chapter there in Matthew 6, or the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, as Jesus Christ begins that Sermon on the Mount that has so many foundational principles for the Christians, as we mentioned last week, one of them he says, is blessed is he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness.

Give us this day our daily bread. It doesn't have to be just bread. There's many things that we need.

Whatever it is that we want to ask God for or need in our lives, ask him.

Ask him. Because we all have needs and they're all different based on our circumstances and the situations that we encounter, relationships that we have, even trials that God would put us through, ask him.

Ask him, but make sure your life is being lived in a way that God will look and say, look, he's praying in this manner. In this manner, I asked.

Now, Matthew 6, you can go on. He says, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses. It should just be translated, forgive us our sins. Trespasses can be an easy word sometimes. Forgive us our sins, those things that we do that are not in accordance with your will, those things that we do that may just be habitual, that we have to learn, gotta break that habit.

Maybe the language that we use, the things that we've done all our lives and we have to discipline ourselves, can't use that word anymore, can't use that phrase anymore, can't respond that way when I'm angry anymore. Could be things that we do, the way we do anything in our life, that we forgive us our sins. You have to ask, is there ever, is it ever a complete prayer that we would ask God, that we'd forget to ask God, forgive us, forgive us our sins? Because if we pray and we don't even think, well, I don't have anything to ask God to forgive me for today, right? Remember last week I talked about the confessional and whatever, going into the priest, and when you're a second and third grader, it's like, well, I don't even know what to say, I'll just make something up. We don't make something up to God. He knows what our sins are, and if we are thinking that, you know, we don't have anything, we might ask God, ask God, show me, like David did so many times, show me the motives of my heart, show me what's in there, show me what I need to do to become more like you, show me the things that need to be weeded out of my life, the attitudes that need to change. That's one thing we can ask Him for, but He says, forgive us our trespasses. Ask God to forgive. Ask God to forgive.

I think you may be in... I think you may... nope, we did move to the Psalm. Go back to Luke. Luke again.

Luke 9.

You know, again, it's a humbling thing to come before God and to ask Him for things, but also to recognize we're not perfect people. You know, John in 1 John tells us, if we say we have no sin, then we're fooling ourselves. We make Him a liar. Of course, we all still have sin. None of us are perfect in where God wants us to be. It's a lifelong process. In Luke 9 and verse 23, Christ said, if anyone desires to come after me, if his will is to follow me, let him deny himself. That's a hard thing to do. Let him not just do the things he's always done, live his life the way he always has, falling into the same traps, doing his things. Let him deny himself. Let him seek my will, my direction, my guidance, and take up his cross. Notice it says there daily. Daily. Remind ourselves daily. We need his forgiveness. Daily we need his mercy. Daily we need Jesus Christ's sacrifice for our sins and the payment for our sins that he's given us. Let him take up his cross daily and follow me.

Forgive us our trespasses. Psalm 66.

Psalm 66.

And verse 18.

Quite a telling verse here. Psalm 66 verse 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, if I regard iniquity in my heart, if I kind of harbor it there, if I kind of pay attention to it, if I kind of let it be there, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. Should our prayers daily be? And then this manner we pray, forgive us our trespasses, show us our trespasses, show us our sins, show us our weaknesses, show us where we haven't yielded to you, show us what we need to change. If I regard iniquity in my heart, if I give place to it, and I say, doesn't matter, God's okay with that. That can't be that important to him. It's what I want to do, and I've justified to myself, and I've made excuses to myself, and you know what?

That's, I'm sure God isn't going to hold me accountable for that. If I regard iniquity in my heart, he will not hear. He will not hear. Jesus Christ said in this manner, pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

There's a qualifier. God will forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us, those who offend us. You know, right there in Matthew 6, 14, if you're in Matthew 6, or if we turn back there, you'll see in that place where Jesus Christ says in this manner, pray, and recites those words, it says right after there, if you forgive your brother, you must forgive your brother for God to forgive you. It's a requirement. It's his will. We don't harbor grudges against one another. We don't stop speaking to one another. We just say, you know what? That person said something against me. I'm just not going to talk to them anymore. It's a big congregation. Does God really care if this person or that person or that group I just don't like and I'm not going to talk to? Of course that bothers him. He didn't call us to be lone wolves. He didn't call us to be little cliques. He called us to be a body. A body. Koinonia. We talked about Koinonia a few weeks ago. The fellowship and what God is building in the family, all in one. And you know what? We're all humans. We all make mistakes. We say things that will offend one another. It's a human thing that we have to overcome. It's a whole human thing also that we have to learn to forgive and say, okay, I get it. I've made mistakes too. And that we don't let those little grudges and those little things make us and separate us and divide us. God is about harmony. God is about unity. He can forgive anything and He does forgive anything when we ask. Now we need to be mindful. In Matthew 18, I won't take the time to go through Matthew 18 in concert or in detail here, tells us how to do that. If you've been offended, do what God said. Do it His way. Go to that person and say, you know what offended me when you did that? I saw you doing these things. See what their attitude is.

If the attitude isn't right, then bring it to the church. Because you know what? We all have to learn to admit when we do things wrong and how to live in concert with God's way. That's the way to peace.

It's the way to harmony. It's the way to joy. It's the way to the kingdom of God.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

You know, remember Job 42? You can mark down Job 42. I didn't write down the verse here, but after Job went through all of his trial, remember what God had him do before he would restore him?

He said, Job, go pray for your friends. Those friends who antagonize you, those friends who said things against you, those friends who incited you to do the things that you did, Job, you handled it wrong too. Pray for them. Forgive them. And when he did, when he did, with the right attitude and the right heart, God forgave him and God restored him.

So we all have to be willing to forgive. When someone comes to us and says that not to be defensive, acknowledge it. That's what repentance is. The first step to repentance is acknowledging it, not fighting against it, not thinking if you can speak louder than them or convince them otherwise or convince yourself you didn't really do it. That's not repentance.

Repentance is recognizing it and then making the peace with God and with the people and letting your heart be turned to what God's will is. I'll give you Ephesians 4, 32, which you can look at later. In Hebrews 12, 15. Hebrews 12, 15 is a very telling verse. It says, don't let any road of bitterness come up among you. Don't let any grudges come up among you. Don't let these little things build up in you because when the bitterness comes, by that many are defiled.

Because God says, I will only forgive you. I will only hear you when you forgive others.

If we harbor grudges, if we say, I will never do this and I won't forgive, we're not thinking about thy kingdom come because we're not really praying, thy kingdom come, if we can do that and if we are harboring those things.

Well, let's go back to Matthew 6.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Verse 13, an interesting verse here, and do not lead us into temptation.

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Why would Jesus Christ say, in a manner to pray, don't lead us into temptation?

Does God tempt us?

And so we would need to ask God, don't play with me. Please don't tempt me.

Is that what he meant when he said, don't lead us into temptation? James 1 verse 13 says, God does not tempt. He doesn't tempt.

Why would we pray or why would we have in a manner in our attitude, don't lead us into temptation? Well, I looked at a number of concordances, read a number of things, and frankly, not one of them seemed to have the right answer of why God or why Jesus Christ would include that.

In this manner, pray, lead us not into temptation. What did God mean by that? Well, let's look at Matthew. We're in Matthew 6. Let's look at Matthew 5.

We do know that God does try us. Trying us, testing us, is different than tempting us.

In Matthew 5, and again, you can see a lot of supporting comments in Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount around this prayer that is right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5 and verse 29.

Now, let's look at verse 8. Here we have temptation, right? I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Verse 29. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell, into the grave. Now, that's some strong words. If you're tempted by this, if you're looking at pornography, if you've got a computer and all you can do, and you just can't keep off of those websites that have those there. If you've got shopping networks on TV, and you just can't keep off of it, and you keep spending and spending and spending. If you've got drug habits, alcohol habits, whatever addictive habits, if you just can't stop doing it, God says, you know what? Don't fall prey to it. If it is, cut it off. Get rid of it. Get rid of the computer. Get rid of the TV. Get rid of whatever it is. Don't fall prey to it. It's more important. You've got to yield to God and let him overcome it, but you may have to do some things that are very painful for you to do. Now, no one is advocating that anyone should go and cut their right arm off or proc their right eye out, right? No one is advocating that? Absolutely not. Christ is making a point here. God doesn't lead us into temptation. It's us who leads us into temptation. Of course, Satan tempts us. James 1, 12 through 15 talks about what temptation is. It's the same Greek word, temptation and tribe, but when Satan does it, what is his motive? When we look at a website and we're tempted, or if we see a little email comes through or whatever it is that's there that might tempt us to go to that website, or if we turn on a channel and we see something and, boy, we're just really enamored with what's going on in that movie or with that game or whatever it is that we're looking at. At that temptation, do we shut it off because we know we shouldn't be watching it? Do we shut it off knowing where our minds will go because we know what can happen there?

Christ says, shut it off. Turn it off. Don't do it. Don't go there. What does Satan do when he tempts us? He wants us to fail. His entire reason for being and to tempt us is get them to fail.

Let me put something in their mind. Let me put something in front of their face. Let me have someone say something to them, whatever it might be. You name it. All I want is for them to fail.

Now, Jesus Christ, or God the Father, he may try us. We may have financial difficulties. We may have a health problem. We may have something come up. What is the reason he tries us? What's the reason he gives us that trial in our life? Because his will is that we will fail? No. His will is we will be stronger because we will do his will and we will resist the temptation, or not the temptation, that we will do what is right if we need to get rid of the TV in the house, if we need to get rid of the internet in the house, or if we need to throw away our credit cards, or throw away our whatever it is. That we will do that because we are committed to succeed the way God wants us to, using his principles and using his way of life, and using the strength that comes from his Holy Spirit.

Maybe daily we need to be reminded. It isn't God who tempts us. God does not want us to fail. When we have a trial, it's not designed to make us weaker. It's not a trial that makes us that, he says, let's see if you pass this test.

There's a fine line difference there, right? When God sent Abraham out and said, sacrifice your son, your only son, to me. Was he tempting Abraham? Or was he trying Abraham to see what was in his heart? How did Abraham respond? He knew that wasn't a temptation. It was a trial from God. Yet if I have a problem, and I get an email, or I turn on a TV show, or I wander into a store, and there's all these things I want to buy, and I want to spend all my money, and I don't think about, oh, I need to have this, or these important things, I need to have this, and whatever. If I do that, and I walk into that, Satan may be tempting. We need to know God isn't tempting us. That may be something we need to look at and say, I ask God to help us overcome it. God is not into us failing.

Satan is. So maybe, just maybe, and maybe one day we're gonna, when Jesus Christ returns, we're gonna have to say, what exactly did you mean by lead us not into temptation? We know you don't tempt. We know that you say, whenever there's temptation, there's a way of escape, and we should know what that way of escape is. Lead us not into temptation. It's not you, God, who tempts.

Help us to remember that. Help us when trials come our way, or even temptations come our way, to know how to respond to them because we are doing your will. We're mindful of your will be done, not mine. Resisting and denying ourselves daily of those things, and reminding ourselves, I can't do that anymore. That can't be me if I'm praying or if I'm saying, thy will be done, thy kingdom come. That can't be me. And I can't say no to myself, I'm powerless over me. It has to be, by your might, your power, your Holy Spirit. Lead us not into temptation.

You will try. You will test. Because it's the only way we become stronger, the only way we can become what God wants us to become. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The New King James says, deliver us from the evil one. That's not in the original manuscript, but deliver us from evil.

Evil is a hard word. We heard the word evil in the sermonette. We've read the word evil.

God called us. He said, if you being evil can give good gifts to your children, how much more the Heavenly Father will give you what you ask of him?

Evil. Let's look at a few verses here. I'm going to go a little bit past, a little few more minutes here and try to finish this. Galatians 1.

Galatians 1.

Verse 4.

We'll begin in verse 3 where the sentence begins, Grace to you in peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, whose will is to deliver us from this present evil age.

The world we live in is evil. It's not of God. It's not a good world. The God of this world is not God our Father. The God of this world is Satan, who is evil. It's an evil world. Ephesians 5.16 says the days are evil. The days are evil.

Jesus Christ called the Jews of his day an evil generation because they saw it after a sign.

They just didn't believe him. It's like, give us a sign. We'll believe you if.

And he said this evil generation because they didn't have faith. And he calls us evil.

Calls people, you know, people evil. Fact is our hearts are wicked, right? Jeremiah 17. Let's turn to Jeremiah 17. Verse 9. The heart. You're in my heart. Without God's Holy Spirit, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who can imagine the things that come into our minds, the thoughts that some kind of comment that we know they're just evil? This harkens back to who I was 20, 30, 40 years ago, maybe 10 years ago, whatever it is, that thought was evil. God, I need to have this purge out of my mind and the psyche that I have. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Notice verse 10. I, the Lord, search the heart.

For my people, I search the heart. How's your heart? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

You know, the fact is, even when we talk about temptation, we can cause our own temptation, right? If we give into a temptation over and over and over again, if we never stand up and say no, if we never deny self and walk the other way, we're inviting temptation. That will come back to us over and over and over again until we finally say, it's my way that I'm continuing to do, or until we make the decision, that can't be me anymore, and I have to use God's Spirit to overcome that. God tests our heart. He searches our minds. He searches what's there. He wants us to become the people that really mean, thy will be done, that really mean, thy kingdom come, who really mean daily, recognizing who He is, what He does for us, and how we are dependent on Him for everything. Deliver us from evil. You know, oftentimes we just think of Satan as evil.

The fact is, we're evil. When we do the things that aren't of God, we're evil. We're doing evil things. Yes, Satan is the one who is, who, you know, David said in Psalm 51, I was formed in iniquity. And yes, many of the things we did in our early life, you know, are evil. We allowed ourselves to do this and do that and kind of corroded our minds and the way we outlook on things and the things that we might do and think later in life. Fact is, we're evil. We can't blame it all on Satan. We can ultimately blame it on Satan, but we are the ones who do it. And even after God calls us and after we are baptized and after we receive His Holy Spirit, it's us who do it.

It's us who yield to ourselves or to an attitude or whatever it is that it is that God would have us not be. Deliver us from evil. Deliver us, God, from even our own selves. Because even when Jesus Christ returns to earth, even when Satan is put away, you know, evil won't immediately disappear from earth. It won't immediately disappear from earth. It won't be that people are magically these perfect people who never sin, who never offend each other, who never have awful thoughts.

No, it won't happen because it's part of them. That's why there will be you and me and the people that live over into the kingdom, the spirit beings that say, this is the way. When we see them, this is the way. Walk you in it. Because they have to weed out those thoughts. They have to be purified, just like you and I have to be purified. What we should be doing now as God renews our minds, renews our hearts, renews our spirits, as we let Him make them new again, as we grow from spiritual infants to spiritual adults, adopting His ways, adopting His attitudes. And He concludes it, and I won't take much time on this. You can contemplate it. Yours is the kingdom, Jesus Christ said. After He says all these things, Yours is the kingdom. It's you, God. It's your kingdom. It's not our kingdom. It's your power that will deliver us. It's your power that will bring it about. And Yours is the glory. Not one of us can take the glory to ourselves because everything that we become in life, we give the glory to God. We give the glory to God. And we can add, you know, as Jesus Christ later said, whatever you ask in my name. So we open the prayer with our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, and we close it in the name of Jesus Christ. And when we say in the name of Jesus Christ, again, it infers we are living the life that Jesus Christ would have us live, patterning ourselves over Him, following Him, doing what His will is. So when we pray daily, we wouldn't just repeat those words that Jesus Christ said. We might use them as a tutor sometimes to remind us of the things that we should be praying for, the attitudes that should be extant in our lives. We might be using them to remind ourselves of what God wants us to do, His will not our will, as we come before Him, and measuring ourselves, why would God answer my prayer if I'm not doing His will? Why would God answer me? And using that as a motivator to pray in the way He said. Jesus Christ said, in this manner pray, in this manner pray.