Deliver Us from Evil

January 5, 2025
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This week's message invites us to explore the meaning behind the prayer, "œLead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Together, we'll confront challenging questions about God's sovereignty, our struggles with temptation, and His purpose in allowing trials for our growth. Discover practical ways to seek God's strength, embrace His guidance, and overcome temptation with integrity.

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Now, because we're coming back to this series that we've been away from, you know, for the last six weeks through advent, I want to take a few moments to kind of start by reviewing a couple kind of big points, that we started with looking about understanding the Lord's Prayer.

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You know, one of the things that we've seen is that Jesus is teaching us to pray. And and it's not only learning to pray, but it's also seeing that he kind of correct some common misconceptions that we often will have. And, so some ideas that we, you know, if the problem is part of it, it's not only do we not know how to pray, but some of the things that we think about prayer, may be wrong or incomplete.

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And a good example of that is I've heard from many well-meaning people that are trying to help us understand prayer, something along the lines of, you know what? Prayer is easy. It's just talking to God. And and I appreciate the heart behind that statement. And while there's some truth in it, I also think that it's incomplete. And in the process, it leads us to maybe to believe some things that aren't fully true, that are that are misconceptions.

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The first part of that is the idea that prayer is easy. Now, in one hand you could say, well, prayer is easy. There's some truth to that. It's simple in a sense. You know, you don't need to go to Bible college. You don't need to have the right theological language. You don't need to pray the right way. Now, we actually are called to come to God as a child would come to a father in the simplicity of a of a child coming to daddy and so that's where we start.

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But while it's simple to begin to pray, that doesn't mean that prayer is easy. It's actually a skill to be learned. And that's clearly demonstrated by the fact that the vast majority of Christians would acknowledge that. I don't pray the way that I need to pray. I actually find prayer difficult. Well, almost everyone finds prayer difficult to do.

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Maybe it's because it's difficult to do. It's a skill to be learned. And so if you're struggling, you know, don't be discouraged. You're not alone. Actually, when we look even even the Lord's Prayer and the giving of the Lord's Prayer, we see even the disciples themselves struggled to pray. Now they were all Jewish men that were raised, and their schooling was actually all religious education.

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They didn't learn about, you know, math and history. They learned the Torah, and they memorized numerous prayers. They had been taught to pray since they were young. But in Luke 11, after watching Jesus pray, we see that one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And basically they're saying, you know, we've been taught all the time.

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But when we watch you pray, we realize we don't really know how to do this. And what's amazing is that in Jesus response, he didn't respond by telling them, oh, prayer is really easy. You know, just it's an easy thing. No, he actually responded by giving them and by giving us this short prayer that we often refer to as the Lord's Prayer.

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It's teaching that on one hand, it's incredibly short and simple. At the other hand, it's incredibly comprehensive and profound. And I think he gave it to us as a as a guideline, as an outline, in a sense. To learn to communicate with God is. So I think about as a parent will try to teach their children how to communicate, how to write.

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Here's the illustration that we've used in the beginning. It's actually there on the bulletin. When you think about learning or your child learning to write, how do we teach them? Well, our goal is ultimately to teach them to write sentences in words, letters and write out their thoughts. But we usually start by giving them some kind of paper where, you know, here's here's just outline of the letters, draw A, draw B, and you kind of just learn to sketch over the outline.

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And after they do that, maybe you have a copiers copy, a word. Now what are we trying to do? We're trying to give them the basics. Because if you learned to write the letters and if you learn to write the words, you get the basics in time. Then you will take that beyond the foundation, and you will learn to express your thoughts and and feelings.

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But it all is built on the foundational structure. See, when we think about the Lord's Prayer, I think that's what it is. Each phrase in a sentence is saying, here's copy this word, copy this. In a sense we say it, but it's teaching as foundation or principles that we then build on to learn to communicate to God. Now, the second misconception is that, well, it's not only easy, but it's just talking to God.

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And on the one hand, again, you look at that. There's some truth to that because it includes talking to God. And I think for most, if not all of us, when we first learn to pray, we start by talking to God. We start by telling God our our needs and our concerns. But it's also more than talking to God.

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Why? Because the goal of prayer is relationship. It's communicating with God. So it's not just talking, it's listening. It's being with him. And again, I think about this how it's true and the way we teach our children. In fact, as I thought about this, I think about even my own personal life. My my grandson now is about 20 months old and he's learning to communicate.

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We're teaching him words and, and he's getting every, every day he comes in, he's got new words and, you know, and my name is Poppy, and he doesn't get that, but it's pop. So when I come in, it's he comes into our house, he calls out, bop, bop, you know, and and he comes and looks for me and he knows how to communicate.

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He sees me. He comes and takes my finger and he draws me to wherever he wants to go play. I mean, he's learning communication and that's wonderful. But most of his communication is a case with all young children, is telling us what he wants. Why? Because parents learn by by starting to tell their kids, by their parents, by saying things, communicating basically what their needs and desires are.

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But you know what? A couple years from now, I really hope that his communication ability has gone beyond just calling me Bop and telling me what he wants. I hope he learns to listen. I want to have a conversation. And I think about that now. Even with all my children who are now young adults, if you were to hear me interact with any of my young adult children in all that they ever did, was come to me and said, dad, I want this, I need this, I need.

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And that's all they ever did was telling me what they want. You think that's kind of a dysfunctional family? You know why? Because you're just justifiably look at it. I'm a lousy parent. I never taught my kids to communicate beyond the stage of a two year old telling me what they wanted. Now let's apply that to our relationship with God.

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When we see our prayer, life is just talking to God and telling him what we want it, suggesting that our communication in relationship with God should never get that beyond of a two year old. Now God wants something more than that. It's not just talking to God, it's telling him our needs and and desires, but also building relationship.

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It's listening to him. It's being with him now. Okay, so we look at those foundational ideas, and then we come back to this last petition, and we try to understand that he's teaching us then to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And I'll say as we dig into that piece and apply these principles, I want you to see that this part of the prayer addresses one of the questions that that at least for me, it bothered me for decades.

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And that's the question of why does God allow temptation today? Personally, I was really troubled and confused by this to the degree that that that it even had, you know, was a bit of a crisis of faith. You know, by the fact that you know, God, why did you want to be tempted? I struggle with the temptation in my life.

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You know, I would give in to it. I repent, ask God to forgive me, and I'd ask him, God, now deliver me from evil. I want you to take this temptation from me. But he never did. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have struggled with temptation? One or more areas of temptation over your life?

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Okay, so we all have. How many of you have prayed and ask God, God, I'm struggling with this. Take it away. Give me victory. I ask you to remove that temptation. How many of us have prayed that? Okay, how many of you have had God answer the prayer the way you hoped he would? They just like that the temptation was gone.

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You know the answer. We had a lot of hands. They aren't there anymore. Now think of it. Why is that? It's not what happened to me. You know, the fact is, is that I struggled and it led to, again, this crisis of faith. God, if you really want me to live a holy life, if you're sovereign, then why don't you just take the temptation away?

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See the question that we've got to ask if God is sovereign and if he desires our holiness, why does he allow us to be tempted? I know some people might suggest, well, temptation. That's an area that God has no control over. He's not the source of temptation, so he doesn't control what we're exposed to. But let me ask, is that a right view of God?

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Is God really weak and powerless over temptations we face? Are we really just the victims of Satan's schemes over which God has no control? I don't think so. But then if he does have control, why doesn't he keep us from those temptations? Because if God wants me to live a holy life, then wouldn't keeping me from temptation allow me to have victory and to love, you know, live more holy?

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What's Jesus teaching us to pray when he's saying pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil as it is. We're just praying. God shield us from temptation because if that's the prayer we've all prayed, it and we would all come back and say, but that's not been answered the way that I hoped it would. So what is he teaching us to pray?

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That's what we've got to dig into this, but dig into it. Let me lay of the foundation of three foundational principles that we need to understand, to understand both temptation and prayer. Number one is that the Bible is clear. God is not the source of temptation. It's an idea taught throughout the Bible. But but I think it's most clearly taught in James and James one.

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There's a great passage that explains temptation, and he starts by laying down this essential foundation of the fact that God is not the source. Look what he says in verse 13. Let no one say when he is being tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and He himself tempts no one. And his logic is clear here God is incapable of tempting others because he is and susceptible to evil.

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Evil doesn't have any appeal to God, and because God can't be tempted to sin, the conclusion follows he himself tempts no one. He's never tempted anyone because he can't. He cannot be the source of evil in any way. It's a moral impossibility. Now, this is important to remember because every once in a while here, people argue that they're facing a temptation.

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Well, God sent it this way. I mean, I've had people that say, well, you know, I'm married, but God sent this person in my life. They're they're my soulmate. This is the person. No, no, for God didn't send this person for you to have an affair. Or I hear this all the time when people will argue about they have, you know, kind of sexual desires outside of marriage and, and, you know, they'll say, God gave me that desire.

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That's what he wants me to do. No, temptation doesn't come from God. What's a shame? Say, where does it comes from? It continues in James 114. Each person is tempted when he's heard and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death. And it's saying that we all have sinful desires, desires that are not given by God.

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Not all our desires are godly or from God. Why? Because we have a sin nature in in our sin nature. It means that part of our human nature is fallen. So part of our natural desires are distorted by sin. They're not from God. They're not always things God wants us to pursue. So first of all, sin is not from God.

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But second of all, while he's not the source of temptation, he is sovereign over temptation. Yes, Satan will seek to tempt us, but he does not have free reign. This is not an area where Satan, you know God's like. Well, I don't control what is. And now God is sovereign over it. And in that he actually protects us so that he only allows that which we can handle.

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With this help. This is an idea that, again, it's taught throughout the Bible. One story that some of you may know is the story of Jobe. In the beginning of the Book of Job, Satan comes to God and he ask permission to test Jobe. And in all the trials and temptations that come in the following chapters, all were by Satan's hands.

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But none of them were, except through God's permission. They were allowed by God, and he had to get God's permission. Another passage that teaches the same idea is in Luke chapter 22 as Jesus right before he's, you know, he's the last up with his followers and right before he now predicts Peter's betrayal. And, and while they were eating the last Supper, look at what Jesus warned Peter right before this prediction.

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Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might shift you like wheat. But I prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. This is amazing. You know, he's saying, okay, Satan wants to have you, wants to sift you with wheat. And he's saying, I know it, and I'm allowing it that God allowed the temptation.

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Why? Because we're going to see that it actually was for some good. And probably the best passage was clearly taught in First Corinthians chapter ten, verse 13. Look what it says. No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. And God has faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation he will provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

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Now there's a lot there, but let me just point out a few things. God is faithful, and in his expression of his love and his faithfulness to you, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability with his help. But it also means that as an expression of his sovereignty and his love and his faithfulness to you, that he will allow you to be tempted.

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He's in control, he's sovereign, and he's allowing some, but limiting it. But it's only that what he knows that we can handle with his grace, and that he can use for our good and growth. Which leads to the third point, which again, if God's not the source and he's sovereign, that means that God allows a limited temptation for our growth.

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Now, I'm going to acknowledge at first that for some, this might almost seem wrong. And how could you say God allow temptation? And how can it be for our good? How could it be for our growth? Hey here, we need to step back and understand and recognize what our ultimate problem is. You see, when we talk about temptation, we talk about our struggle against sin.

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But our ultimate problem isn't just our sinful actions, it's our sinful nature. It's our sinful heart. My problem isn't what I do. My problem is who I am, and what I do just reveals who I am. Now. The question is then how does temptation play into this? All this temptation caused me to sin. No, there's no temptation that ever causes me to sin at all.

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What it does is it. It doesn't bring sin into my life. It reveals the sinfulness that was already there. Let's go back to James one again. We saw in verse 113, you know that God is not the source. No, say I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. He and He himself tempts no one.

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But then it continues. Each person is tempted when he is lured, enticed by his own desire. The problem is the desire within us, the evil that's there. And all the temptation is, does, is bring it out. Let me use a kind of an illustration here. You know, let's just say, you know, I've got, you know, let's say if we had this table and it was, you know, pure white cloth and it's like, okay, this is pure and it's white.

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And I bring this, you know, this, this, this thing water out here and, and you sit there and you say, okay, well, well, what we want is we want to keep the cloth white. We want to keep it pure. But what happens is that if I come in a jar of this water and suddenly I'm start to hit it and it starts to spill over and suddenly, you know, because the water is I mean, it's it's it's murky.

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It's dirty, it's what's happening is a staining the cloth. Now, what is the problem? It's the problem. The fact that I'm putting it. What's the problem? What's inside of the of the jar? When I bump the glass, it's just revealing what's inside me. I can put another jar out here. And if it's pure water and I bump it, pure water comes out and it doesn't stain the cloth at all.

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There's nothing. There's no problem. But the fact of the matter is this. When I bump it, the problem is not the bump. The problem is what's inside. See, temptation is a revealer. It reveals what's inside of me. It reveals the true state of my heart. And we have to remember that God's ultimate concern isn't just what I do, it's who I am.

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We can put it this way, you know, even more important than the righteousness of our behavior is the integrity of our heart. God is concerned about what's inside and what is inside will always come out. But if I could have self-control and just do the right things and not be changed on the inside, that's not God's desire for me.

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It's not just that I do the right things, but that I'm the right kind of person. He wants me to have a righteous heart, a righteous heart that is then revealed by the righteous things that I do. But if I have a wrong heart, when I'm tempted, the true state of my heart comes out. And another place Jesus teaches.

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This is Luke chapter chapter six. For no good tree bears bad fruit. Nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor grapes picked from a bramble bush. For the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil out of the evil treasure produces evil.

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For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Do you see what it's saying? The problem isn't the bumps. The problem is what comes out is an expression of what's inside. That's one of the reasons that God allows temptation, because he wants to reveal to us what's in our heart. He wants to expose. I can hide my sinfulness and not be aware of it.

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He wants to expose it. And I might see the problem, the mess that comes and how it can mess up the tablecloth. And I can say, well, well, you know, it's because of it, because of the bump. It's because of the temptation. But again, when we look at it, the problem is not the temptation, it's what's inside. It's the pollution with inside it.

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And the temptation just revealed the problem. So God's ultimate desire for you and for me is not that we never sin. It's not that we never do bad things. His desire is to change our hearts so that our heart becomes more pure and more aligned with God. Let's go back to this imagery. His desire is not that we don't ever make a spill and make a mess.

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His desire is that he would change our hearts so that when temptation comes and it spills over, that it doesn't mess up the tablecloth because we're pure and he allows us to be tempted when our life is bumped and we will be bumped, we will face temptation and it reveals the true nature of a heart. It doesn't reveal to God.

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It's not like God is sitting there saying, oh, I don't wonder if you're good or bad. God knows it. I don't know it. I too often think I'm better than I am, and it's that revealer that that shows me God's got to do work in my life. See, he's trying to teach us something. He allows temptation do, in a sense, to try to teach us several things.

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And it's for our growth. It's trying to help us to become more like him. One of the things that it does is it teaches us that we need to be daily dependent upon God and our strength and his strength that we see our need. Why? Because if we never knew temptation and you able to live a life without struggling against sin, what would be the result?

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Would we be closer to God? You know, I thought about that in my own life, and I told you I struggled with this question for years. And as I really struggled with it, and I really realized before God, you know, if God were to remove all temptation and the result would be that I didn't send anymore, the result would not be a closer relationship with God.

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You know what it would be? Probably first and foremost, I would become proud. I look at how righteous I am, look at how I become proud and arrogant. Look down at other people that still sin. I don't send because I'm a good person. I'm proud of who I am. And second of all, I would be self-reliant. I'd be a Pharisee who's proud of who I am, and then I'm self-reliant.

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Because why do I need to depend on God's strength? Because, look, I can have spiritual victory in my own strength. So what does God do? God says, okay, I want to draw you close to me. I want you to rely on me. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to remind you of your weakness. Because in your weakness, there's where you discover my strength.

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I'm going to make you be dependent on me. That's what Jesus is teaching us to pray here. You see, if we understand that we're in the spiritual warfare, if we understand that we face these temptations that are greater than what we can bear, it forces us to rely on God. What he's teaching us to pray is essentially God.

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I know that today are going to bring various temptations, and I know I don't have the strength in myself to know victory over these God, give me your strength. I need you, you. I mentioned Luke 22 a few moments ago and that's where Jesus predicted Peter's betrayal. And right after Jesus told Peter he would betray him. Look what Peter said.

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Luke 22 and 33 Peter says, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. To Peter. You know I'm gonna be betrayed. I'm going to be, you know, and but you're going to betray me. And Peter's like, no, I'm not, you know? Jesus, I'm not going to. I'm not going to fail. In fact, if you look at what he's saying and what you're saying is, Jesus, I don't need you.

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You need me. You're going to go through a hard time. I'm going to be there to hold you up. And you see this arrogance. And Jesus said, Know, Peter, I see a need in you that you don't see in yourself. And so I'm going to let you be tempted. Satan wants to sift you, and I'm going to let it happen, knowing that you're going to fail, because I hope that at the end you're going to understand that you need me in ways that you don't think.

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Now. See, that's an again. It's an expression of our need. It's an expression of God. I know I'm going to fail. I think about even a few minutes ago when we read first, first Corinthians 1013, you know the verse right before that, first Corinthians 1012, we we don't memorize this verse. It's an important verse says, therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

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And you know what he's saying. If you think that you've got things covered, if you think you do not need God's strength, if you think that you're beyond temptation, if you think you can go out in your own strength, watch out because Satan's got you. Because you're not relying on God's strength. And then the next verse, well, let me show you in the next something here.

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And God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Now, I want you to see something here. It's actually teaching us God will give us more than we can handle on our own. He will give you more than you can handle on your own strength.

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He will not give you more than you can handle with his provision and with knowing where you're at and knowing his provision, he will say, I'm going to I'm a little bit limited temptation enough to break you on your own, but enough that will drive you to me. And if you look to my means of provision, my way of escape, then you'll be able to have victory.

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So it's teaching us dependance, but it's also teaching us in a way that reveals our character and where we need God's transformation. You see, it's not only showing us our need for God's provision, but what it's doing is it's revealing who we are. Why? Because, like Peter, we can come back and we can say, Jesus, I don't need you.

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I've got this down and you know you need me. And the fact of the matter is that all of us can do that. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought. And temptations don't make our character. They reveal our character, and we can easily go look at it. So if it wasn't temptation, if there wasn't that person who pulled out in front of me, if they didn't do that, I wouldn't lose my, you know?

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And the fact of the matter is, it's never the temptation that brings sin in when we fail. It's not because of the temptation, it's because of our heart. And if we struggle consistently with an area of sin in our life, or temptation, it's because of our heart and we might try to go, you know, the devil made me do it to tempt temptation.

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I wasn't ready for it. And but again, the temptation didn't create the weakness. It revealed it. And God's trying to get us to see the need so that we will bring it to him and let him change us. Let me use a short clip from, finding Nemo. You know, that illustrates this, you know, so habits that have to do with that.

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Well, here's a clip. For those that haven't seen it, it's at one point in time you have Nemo's dad. Trying to find find Nemo, his son. And and he's with Dory, and and they run into a couple of sharks, and they end up at essentially an AA meeting for sharks away. It's an AA meeting where they're learning to not eat other fish.

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You know, they're not a fish are friends, not food. That's where we pick up the clip. Right? Then the meeting has officially come to order. Let us all say the pledge boy. Now I know shark not only mindless state machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish? Friends. No food except think of dolphins.

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Dolphins? Yes, I think they're so cute. Oh, look at me. I'm a a little dolphin. Let me flip you. I know something now. Do you all have your friends? Got mine? How about you, chum? Oh, well, I seem to have misplaced my friend. Oh, so I just got a feeling this will be a difficult step. You can help yourself to one of my friends.

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Oh. Thanks, mate, a little comfort. I think I'll start the testimonies. Hello. My name is Bruce Eli Bryce. It has been three weeks since my last fish. Oh my own. Oh, my hubby chopped up and made it a soup. You're an inspiration to all of us. I mean, come on, get happy. Oh, are you okay now? I'm so sorry.

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I can't bear you. I'm bleeding. 000, Dory, are you okay? Oh, oh. Let's go. Intervention. Just a boy. Did you have to get on my. I see some friends. No food. Oh, oh, I'm having fish tonight. Now, what's Bruce's problem? You know, the great white. You look at it and say the problem is his nature. He's a predator.

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And and you could go to the AA meetings all the time and try to deny it. But the fact is, sooner or later, when he smells the blood, the real nature kicks in. The real him kicks in. He could try to deny it, but. But it's an expression of who he is. And what we need to realize is that the Bible teaches that a problem isn't temptation.

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It's the nature. We can try to avoid the temptation, but sooner or later we're going to get the blood in the water and the real test comes out unless we change our nature. And so, for example, you know, let's say, okay, I've got an anger problem and, and well, my anger problem was that family member and well, I'm just not going to go to family reunion because I don't want to see him because they make me get angry or or, you know, it's a coworker and I've changed my job so that I don't see them now avoiding the person.

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Does that fix the problem? It means that you okay where you're trying to make sure you don't get bumped. But is that fix the problem? No, because sooner or later you're going to see the person unexpectedly, or you're going to find somebody who acts just the way that your mom does and they get you upset. Next thing you know, you're losing your temper.

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You know, what happens is the blood's got in your nostrils and the real you comes out where there's only hope. And Bruce doesn't have any hope. You know, I really hope is is say God needs to change our nature. We need to say, okay, you know, the problem is what's coming out when it gets filled. God, can you pour something in me to remove the stain?

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That's our only hope. And that's what temptation is doing, is it's pointing out to this need that my problem isn't just what I do, it's who I am. And every time that I mess up, it's like saying, God, what are you trying to reveal to me about who I am? That you want to change? Then what happens when you really do fall?

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And let's go back to verse 12 of the Lord's Prayer. The the phrase right before this, it says, okay, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Okay, God, when I do fall, forgive me my debts. Forgive me where I messed up. But it's amazing that right after that he comes back and says, lead us not into temptation.

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God forgive me, but I want you to realize that. That it's not just, okay, I need your forgiveness. I need your change. Me, I need and I'm dependent on you to change me from the inside out so that I don't continue to fall into this. Okay, so practically, what does it mean to pray this? To not only understand these words, but to really pray it on a daily basis?

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Because that's what Jesus is teaching us to see the outline and then to understand it and then to make it part of our, our relationship with him. First of all, he's calling us to pray daily, daily, in advance of the temptation to pray for this need, because that's what it is. Ideally, this is a daily prayer, the whole Lord's Prayer.

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And see, this is a vital point that I think we can often fail at. Why? Because a lot of times, you know, you know, we're in the midst of this and suddenly we face temptation and we're like, God help me. Why? We're like, already got one foot into the temptation. And the fact is, is that when we're already when we've got one foot in, man, it's hard to turn it back if we wait until the temptation hits.

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And we haven't saw this help earlier. Tom was certainly too late. I mean, think about Ephesians chapter six. In Ephesians six, it talks about the armor of God, and it calls us to to put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. We need this to stand against temptations.

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Now, using the war imagery here, since we're at war, God calls us to put on the armor. When in the beginning of the day, not after the enemy is attacked. You. You know, if you've ignored the armor and suddenly you're under attack. And where is that you're going and trying to find that you've already lost the battle. And so we need to daily come back and knowledge.

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God. Okay, I need this before I get into the day. I need to realize that again, the strongest believers are the ones that say, I can do it. I've got this conquered the strongest believers are the one who, like Paul said, in my weakness I find his strength that I live in a daily awareness of my weakness. And I come back and I say God on my own.

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I'm going to get chewed up here and day away I come and I say, God, put on the armor. Give me what I need. God help, help change me. Give me the strength to deal with temptations I don't even know are going to come today. Second of all, we need to pray humbly in a way that is listening for God's conviction.

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Again, if you remember at the beginning of the message, I pray that one of the common misconceptions is that prayer is just talking to God when this if I just think it's praying to God talking, I'm missing something here. Why? Because when he teaches us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. It's involving listening as well.

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Why? Because God's concern isn't just for the temptation and the sinful actions. He wants to reveal the sinfulness, the sinfulness hiding in our hearts. And so when I continue to struggle in an area of temptation in my life, instead of coming and saying, God, I ask you to forgive me as I had done, and God help me resist the temptation.

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Help me to do this. Help me to, you know, remove the temptation. What he's calling me to do is to listen. God, what is broken in me? Why do I continue? You know what is in my nature? That when I get blood in my water, I go crazy? What is it? My nature that when I get hit that I spill and I make a mess?

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God reveal in me the part of my character that you need to change? There's a humility here. There's a listening. There's an acknowledging that the problem isn't just the temptation. It isn't the devil made me do it. There's something in me that needs to be transformed by God. Ask him to reveal that to you. Lastly, part of what God's calling us to do is to pray a prayer where we're matching our resolve in a way that we let our resolve to act match our prayer life.

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What we're asking. See when we're saying, ingrain me not into temptation, that means that you don't continue to walk towards this temptation. You know? You know, if we say, God, I don't want to fall into temptation. I don't want to grieve the spirit of my life. It means that I try to match my contact, our conduct with that, and and put a simple way, if you on a diet, you don't go to the grocery store and load up and cookies and ice cream or, you know, I think of the story of a would a boy and, you know, mom's in the kitchen and or in the living room.

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She here's a cookie jar, you know, in the kitchen, she comes in and she's a little boy on the on the counter, hand in the cookie jar. And I told you, you can't have a cookie until after dinner. It says, I know it, but what are you doing? I'm just fighting temptation, and, you know, and that's the way that sometimes we are.

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We're kind of. We. There's something that we still love. And so we we hold on to the temptation. And there's an element where we need to realize that if I, if the goal is to get close to God, the closer I get to God, the more that I will hate the things that he hates. Temptation isn't a sin.

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Giving into temptation is a sin. But at the same point, there's times that we give in to temptation that allow things into our life that we know that are tempting. We don't hate it. And so we hold on to things. And it's almost like this little pet that we think that we can control, and we don't realize it continues to turn on us.

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So how do you know if you are exposing yourself needlessly to temptation? I'm going to give you a simple thought here. This is convicting. Is there a part of your life that you don't want other people to know about? Because if there's a part of your life you don't know one other people know about, if there's something that you're trying to hide, then let me suggest you're trying to hide it because you know it's wrong.

00;33;15;02 - 00;33;33;05

You know it's playing with sin. A simple place in your marriage. I mean, does your does your spouse have access to everything? They have access to your phone so they have access to your computer. Can you you have other people that you say, y'all can look at my search history. Come look at what I do. You know, here's what I watch on TV.

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If there are things that you don't want anybody to know, let me suggest that you're maybe flirting with sin. You're not taking this seriously in in that I want to just challenge you. If we pray this prayer, it means that we take this seriously, that we realize that temptation and sin is something that kills, and that we cannot kind of allow it to exist.

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Let me, end with a story radio personality Paul Harvey would tell the story about Eskimos would kill wolves, and what he would said is an Eskimo would take a knife and he would coat it with animal blood and allow it to freeze. And then he would dip it in the animal blood again, and he would allow it to freeze again, and he would completely do it so that it would be like a Bob's, you know, blood popsicle on a census knife completely covered by blood.

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And he said then he would fix the knife in the ground with a blade up. And when the wolf with his sensitive nose would smell the blood, he would come over and start to look at and tasting the, the, you know, the, the fresh blood. He would look at more and faster and faster, lapping up until the the edge of the knife was bare, but previously harder and harder.

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He would lick the blade in the and the night in so much was craving for blood was that he would not realize that the razor sharp edge was now cutting his tongue, and that the blood that he was tasting and devouring was his own blood. And literally, these wolves will do this till they literally die in a puddle where their own blood, because they're so overwhelmed by the temptation.

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My friends, that's the power of temptation. That's the danger of temptation. So God calls us to take this seriously, to pray the prayer daily, to recognize that that I you know, that if I'm continuing to fail in this, I can't do it on my own. I need God's grace. I need him to change me from the inside out.

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But the beautiful thing is, when we understand this, we realize that God will allow us to be tempted to drive us to him for our good, for our growth. And if we understand these ideas that we will can know victory as we learn to rely on him an increasing measure.

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