Your Protection

Amen. I'm pleased to have a seat. Thank you so much to everyone who's participated so far in our service.

My name is Graeme. I've got the privilege of being the pastor here of this church and it's a joy to welcome you here this morning,

especially maybe if this is your first time with us. Fantastic to see you.

Love being Scottish is that when we see the sun, which is not frequent, our faces go pink.

And I see a lot of pink faces this morning. I'm sporting one myself, which I take it means that we enjoyed our time in the sun yesterday, right?

And we enjoyed the main event yesterday. And what a day of football it was, I tell you.

But here we are, Matthew chapter 6. This is where we're going to be this morning, finishing our little series in the Lord's Prayer.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So why don't you turn to Matthew chapter 6. We'll be honing in in verse 13 this morning, but we'll be taking in the whole prayer as well.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So why don't you turn there and let's pray as we come to God's inspired word this morning.

Father, thank you that your word is a lamp unto our feet and it's a light unto our path.

And so, Lord, as we turn there now, we ask that your spirit would come and he would challenge us and he would change us and he would mold us

and he would make us more like your son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Well, if like me, you love lookalikes, you will love this website that I found this week that tried to match animals with the people that they looked like.

So other than trying to describe this to you, let me just show you what it means.

Okay, so here's a dog. Who does this dog look like?

Vladimir Putin.

Now, I'm not volunteering.

I'm not volunteering to be the one who tells him that he looks like a dog.

How about this one? What about this cat?

This is Cher.

How about, I can't remember what order I did here.

What about this owl?

Anybody in the owl?

This is Owen Atkinson.

How about, I think I've got two more.

What about this dog? This is my favourite.

Okay, what about this dog?

This is John Travolta.

What about, this is the last one.

What about this cat?

This is our friend Donald.

And who does this animal remind you of?

So according to the Bible, this animal should remind us of you and it should remind me of me.

And here is the reason that I'm reminded at this point of the reason why I love the Bible.

And why millions of others around the globe base their lives and build their lives on this book, God's Word.

And it's because it tells us the truth about what God is like.

It tells us the truth about what our world is like.

And it tells us the truth about what we are like.

And I love that God, when he comes to pick an adjective to describe us, when he comes to pick an animal to describe us like, when he comes to pick a simile, what does he say?

What are you like?

You are like lions.

No, he doesn't.

He says, you're like sheep.

You're like sheep.

And we see that so clearly in these words today that Jesus tells his disciples to pray in the Lord's Prayer.

The disciples want Jesus to what?

Teach them how to pray.

Jesus replies, pray then like this.

Start with God.

Your Father in heaven, revere his name.

Long to see his name.

Put in lights for the world to see.

Seek his kingdom first.

Seek his glory, not your own.

Long to see his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

And having established that he is your heavenly father because of Christ,

then ask him and know him to be that heavenly father to you.

The one, the heavenly father who will provide you with your daily bread.

The heavenly father who will pardon, who has made a way for our sin to be pardoned in Jesus Christ.

And finally, as the heavenly father who will protect you and who will lead you and who will guide you in your daily life.

Here's where we are this morning.

Verse 13.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Now before we get into the application of this for our lives,

it's going to be really helpful for us to clarify in our minds what this means and what this doesn't mean.

Because what it doesn't mean is that God is the author of temptation.

James 1, you can check this out later.

James 1 and verse 13 make that explicitly clear.

That there is no sin.

There is no evil in God.

Rather, he is perfectly holy.

So none of us, when we fall foul to sin, can say, well, it was God that led me there.

The devil made me do that.

No, no, no, no.

Our sin that's in our hearts that we followed led us there.

God is not the author of sin.

But what these words do mean is that while Satan is on the prowl,

we can trust that if we know this God as our Father through Christ,

that he will always lead us, not always to comfy pastures,

but to good pastures where he has purposes to accomplish for our good as his sheep

and for his glory around the world.

So here is a prayer that Jesus is inviting his disciples to pray that says,

Father, I know that I wander.

I know that I go astray.

I need you to protect me.

I need you to lead me.

I need you to guide me where it is good for me to go.

And what a comfort for me to know that while I do that,

that that is something you tell me in your word that you specialize in.

Remember this prayer in its context comes off the back of Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Sorry, this prayer in Matthew chapter 6 comes hot off the heels of Jesus' battle with Satan in the wilderness in chapter 4.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Because Jesus knows that if he has an enemy, that he was fighting in the wilderness,

then his people too have an enemy, one who is crafty and one who is on the hunt to devour them.

And so Jesus doesn't want his disciples just to know that they are sheep.

He wants them to pray like they are sheep, knowing their ability to wander.

And sheep who are utterly dependent on the leading and the protection of their shepherd, their father.

So all I want to do this morning in the time that we have remaining is to come up with,

help us look through three confessions of a sheep.

As we think about what this prayer means for our life,

I think underneath, underpinning this verse 13, is three confessions of a sheep.

Now, Paul suggested last week at the end of each point we said amen.

Would it be appropriate to get us to say bah?

I don't think so.

But here are three confessions of the sheep that I think are going to be so helpful for us

as we pray this prayer in our Christian lives.

Here's confession number one.

I don't know the way.

I don't know the way.

A little girl, Chloe's favourite phrase at the minute is,

I can do it.

I can do it, mummy.

I can do it, daddy.

Getting dressed in the morning, oh no, I can do it.

Going to the toilet on her own, I can do it.

She can do it.

She got there.

The other night we're having chicken together for dinner.

She's got a big piece of chicken.

And I say to her, Chloe, you're going to need to cut up that bit of chicken.

And she nods at me.

We're in agreement over that.

I say, can you help?

Can you let daddy help you cut it up?

No, no, no, no.

I can do it.

So I watch her trying to cut up this bit of chicken.

She gets her fork.

She's pounding this bit of chicken.

Pounding this bit of chicken.

She realises in her head that this pounding isn't going to work.

And so she tries to force the fork down on the chicken, trying to get it to submit.

Cut into pieces.

Again, she stops.

She realises it's not working.

She's thinking it through.

In her head, I can see her.

She's analysing how that went.

And it didn't go well.

Quick review in her head.

She goes for the pounding again.

Chloe, what are you doing?

She stops again.

Eventually, she turns to me.

She says, daddy, will you help me?

Will you help me?

To see what Jesus is doing here, teaching his disciples what it means to follow after him.

That asking for their father's help is to be part of their very core of their lives as disciples.

It's a prayer that's not to be sporadic in their lives.

It's a prayer that's to be consistent in their lives.

It's a prayer that's to develop into a very impulse of their lives.

Dad, I need help.

Father in heaven, I need your help.

And I don't know about you, but I know that to be true in my own life.

I know my own heart.

I know it wanders all over the place.

It chases the wrong stuff.

It values the wrong things.

It dwells on the wrong thoughts.

How often do I find myself asking myself, how did I get here?

How often is it because I never stop to ask my heavenly father to help me today?

Because I don't know the way.

Let me ask you, how often do you stop and do you pray and say, Father, I don't know the way?

Here is Jesus inviting his people to come to their heavenly father.

And when we come to our father asking him to help us and protect us and to lead us, his reply is not, leave it with me.

I'll see what I can do.

It's not, it's a big ask, Graham, but I'll give it my best shot.

No, surely his answer is, my child, would you take my hand?

And would you know the forgiveness that is yours through my son who took your sin on himself at the cross so that you can go free?

Would you know that in your life?

Find refuge in me and take my hand and trust in my eternal and my sovereign and my good care and protection of you for your good and for my glory.

The words of that great old hymn, guide me, O thou great redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.

I am weak, but you are mighty.

Hold me with thy powerful hand.

See, underneath this prayer, confession number one, I don't know the way.

Confession number two, I haven't got the answers.

Matthew chapter four, if you want to flick back there, when Jesus is in the wilderness doing battle with Satan.

He arms himself, not with weapons, but you see how he's arming himself with the word of God.

Consider his responses to the devil's questions.

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

That's the devil's question, tempting away.

Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Again, batting that one away.

You see how Jesus went into battle, arming himself with scripture?

Or more precisely, if you want to put it like this, Jesus is defending himself with Deuteronomy.

This is what he's doing.

Now the implication is that Jesus in his full humanity has been devoting himself to learning God's word,

meditating God's word, loving God's word.

Of course you see it in the big old picture.

This is exactly what God said his king, the true king of Israel, was to do.

Not to have God's word, not to have his statutes, not to have his law sitting on the bedside table or up on the shelf,

but to have it stored and written on his heart.

You read the events of the kings of Israel.

Some of them did it poorly, some of them did it partially.

Jesus is the only one who did it perfectly.

And when it comes to Jesus' battle in the wilderness,

in partnership with the spirit that has fallen on him at his baptism,

Jesus draws on those scriptures.

During battle.

Implication that he has sponged up scripture so that when it comes to him being squeezed,

scripture pours out.

Because he knew that the best counter to the evil one's lies is God's truth.

Again, Adam and Eve in the garden, tempted, failed to obey.

Israel in the desert, tempted, failed to obey.

Jesus in the wilderness, fully obeys.

And so the challenge that comes to us as his people this morning

is to ask ourselves whether the devotion,

whether the hunger, whether the understanding,

whether the high view of the sufficiency of God's word for our lives,

is that something that we share?

To see how God in his grace has given us his word to arm us

against the schemes of the evil one.

How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord.

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

What more can he say?

Than to you he has said,

to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled.

I met a friend recently who was telling me a story

about a man he knows up in Aberdeen.

And this man is an elder in his local church,

but in his day-to-day job he holds a really high up management position

in one of the UK's leading corporate companies.

And because so many people need to know where he is

and what he's doing, his calendar, his diary,

is open for anyone to see.

And from eight to half eight every single morning for all to see,

he's blocked out under the title,

Word and Prayer.

Word and Prayer.

Word and Prayer.

Word and Prayer.

Word and Prayer.

Every single day of the week.

This is what he's doing.

It's a wonderful example of what everyday faithfulness,

non-glamorous, everyday faithfulness to Jesus looks like.

The man with a lot of decisions to make,

most likely involving a lot of money,

managing a lot of people,

I'm sure under an enormous amount of pressure.

And there he is saying,

eight to eight thirty every morning.

Word and Prayer.

Word and Prayer.

A man confessing with his lips and his schedule,

I am a sheep.

Lord, Heavenly Father, I need you to lead me.

I need you to guide me,

because I haven't got the answers.

Confession number two of a sheep,

I haven't got the answers.

Here's confession number three.

I can't do it alone.

I can't do it alone.

You notice as you read this Lord's Prayer through,

don't you,

that the language is inescapably corporate.

Jesus could have easily said,

my,

used the personal pronoun,

all the way through,

but this is something that the disciples are to pray together.

And you see how Jesus draws their gaze to the importance

of praying this prayer together in community.

That the principles of this prayer aren't just for a select few of them.

Actually, the principles of this prayer are for all of them.

Because Jesus knows that the spiritual battle

that his people will soon find themselves in will be so hard.

That the suffering that will come on them,

because they stand for Jesus,

because they deny selves,

deny the world,

take up their cross and follow him,

it's going to be so hard

that the world are going to hate them for it.

And the temptation to give up

is going to be so incredibly great

that they cannot afford to be without one another.

It's funny,

as you read the letter to the Hebrews,

the author,

who I think you can understand,

is a pastor who loves his people.

The thing worrying him in his mind,

the thing keeping him up at night,

is the thought that these people that he's writing to

are going to give up.

They're going to say,

do you know what?

Following Jesus is too hard.

I'm going back to my safe way of life.

One of the reasons that they find themselves in that position

as you read it through

is because they have just simply stopped meeting together.

They have stopped meeting to study together.

They've stopped meeting to sing together.

They've stopped meeting to pray together.

And whereas before,

meeting together was thought to be indispensable,

now in their minds,

it's drifted to a matter of indifference.

And so you see how we need one another

in this spiritual battle.

See how God in his grace has provided us

with one another

to walk through this Christian life with.

There's a famous story told about Charles Spurgeon.

He was sitting one evening by his fire in his study

and one of his students came into his office

and sat down in the armchair next to him.

And the student asked Charles Spurgeon,

he said,

in my Christian life,

do I really need my fellow Christians

to walk alongside me?

What value,

what importance is the church?

And Spurgeon didn't say a word.

The two of them sat there in awkward silence for a while

before Spurgeon picked up the tongs

that were at the side of the fire

and he reached in

and he lifted out one of the burning pieces of coal

and he just left it on the hearth.

And the two of them sat there for a while

and they watched this piece of coal

go from burning hot

to lukewarm

to almost all but out.

Spurgeon did.

He took the tongs again,

took that piece of coal

and he put it back into the fire.

And the two of them watched

as the thing heated up again

as it was around the other coals.

And the student remarked afterwards

that that is the best sermon

I ever saw Charles Spurgeon preach.

Why do we need one another?

Because if we drift,

if we drift,

then we're going to go out.

Confession, I can't do it alone.

Do you see how God and his wisdom

has given us each other

to live out this Christian life with.

And in particular,

when it comes to God's design

to lead us from temptation,

to guide us and keep us from evil.

Do you see the role

that other brothers and sisters

play in that?

Those who will commit

to lovingly pointing out

when you are going off.

Those who can graciously help

keep us on track.

Those who can pull us up

when we fall down.

And those who will commit themselves

to asking difficult questions

of our lives.

Keeping us accountable.

Not because they enjoy it,

but because they love us.

I wonder if this morning,

if some of us,

the Holy Spirit is challenging us

that we are withdrawing

from the center.

And actually what we need to do

is move from the periphery

back to the core.

We need one another.

We can't do this alone.

Is that you?

Then I'd love to speak to you

after the service.

Love to pray with you

to see how we can make that happen.

Anyone who you've seen

up the front this morning,

anyone that you came with

to pray that this would be true

in your own life.

I don't know the way.

I don't have the answers.

And confession number three

of a sheep,

I can't do it alone.

And just as we finish up

our time together,

let me just give you

one encouragement

and two thoughts

and then we're done.

Does that sound okay?

As we're thinking about

this whole topic of prayer,

the things that have been

on my mind this week,

I just want to give you

one encouragement

and two things to think about.

Here's the encouragement.

What struck me most

as we've journeyed

through this topic of prayer,

and I had never really

thought about this before

and I encourage you

to think about it now,

what has struck me most

is just how committed

God is to our prayer lives.

Think about it.

How all three persons

of the Godhead,

Father,

Son,

Holy Spirit,

they're all intimately involved

in our prayer lives.

And we see them all

in the context of this prayer.

God our Father

is the one who provides

our daily bread.

Jesus the Son

is the one who has made a way

for you and I

to be forgiven.

And the Holy Spirit

is the one

that the Father

and the Son have sent

to live inside our hearts

to help us say

no to sin,

no to self,

and yes to Christ

and the things

of our Father's kingdom.

Do you see how just

committed God is

to this prayer,

to the prayer lives

of His people?

But this one God

doesn't just help

answer our prayers.

Do you see how this God

helps us pray?

The Father is the one,

in the context there,

who sees and knows.

The Father is the one

who invites us

through His Word

to pray to Him.

This is the kind of God

that we're dealing with here.

We have His Word.

The Father is intimately

involved in our prayer lives.

The Son

who taught His disciples

how to pray

is the one through whom

we have access to the Father

and the one who is

at the right hand,

ascended,

risen,

interceding for His people.

He's there.

That's what He's doing.

That's what He ever lives

to do.

Intercede for His people

and the Spirit

that God has given us,

living in us,

guiding our souls,

giving us those

groaning words

that we see in Romans 8

that we need

as we pray.

To see how committed

this three-in-one

glorious God is

to the prayer lives

of His people.

Now that's not just

something to study

in a textbook, friends.

That is something

to stop and think about

next time you find

yourself praying.

Whether yourself,

on your own,

or with other people.

This is a magnificent

and a glorious thing

that's going on here.

This is mind-blowing.

That God has pulled out

literally all the stops

to make our prayer lives

a possibility.

How incredible

is our God

that this is the grace

that He shows us?

And so the question

in is two thoughts.

How are we doing

at making the most

of this glorious opportunity

that we have?

Here's two thoughts

for you.

One, two things

to think through.

Firstly,

how is this going to change

your prayer life?

There's a famous story

told of golfer

Jack Nicklaus

that at the beginning

of every golf season

he used to go to

his caddy,

his coach,

and he just used to say,

most successful golfer

arguably ever to have lived

and played the game,

he used to go to his coach

and say,

would you teach me again

the basics?

Teach me again

how to play.

Teach me again

how to play.

Teach me the rhythm.

Doing it again

every single season

he used to come back

and say that to his coach.

Remind me of the rhythm.

Remind me of the basics.

Friends,

for some of us,

would it not be

a wonderful idea

to spend the next little period

of our own private prayer lives

to focus it

and pray these words

in this prayer?

With the attitude of

teach me again Lord Jesus.

Teach me how to pray.

Teach me the basics.

Let me,

help me find the rhythm

of this prayer.

Maybe even an idea

of something

to paraphrase it,

to write it out

in your own words

as you seek to meditate it

as you go through it.

How is this study

that we've been in

over the last few weeks

going to affect

and impact

your prayer life

and my prayer life?

And secondly,

how is it going to

affect our prayer life

as a church?

I've been reminded

that not only

of the importance

of us meeting together

to pray,

but I've been reminded

of how much

the evil one hates it

when we gather together

to pray.

Do you ever wonder

why you find it an effort

to come out

on a Sunday morning?

I tell you,

the Sunday morning

is the most difficult

for the week

for us as a family

and that's no coincidence.

Wednesday nights

before I come

to the prayer meeting,

it is a spiritual battle

to get out here,

but you know what?

I'm glad every single time

I come because it is

good for my soul

to meet with brothers

and sisters to pray.

Don't underestimate

and don't overestimate,

but don't underestimate

the spiritual battle

that we are in

for even just turning up

to things.

You know,

I loved it last Wednesday.

We put out 25 chairs

for our prayer meeting

thinking I was being

a little bit optimistic

and it soon became

very clear that we need

to put out more

because more and more

people came.

I tell you what,

that is the most encouraging

thing for me

as I see us as a church

committing ourselves

to prayer.

Can I encourage you

to put that Wednesday evening,

the first one of the month,

in the diary, friends?

Make every effort

to come to that prayer meeting,

not out of a sense of duty,

but only a sense of duty,

but from a heart

that recognizes

and wants to declare

individually and together

that God,

we need you.

We are sheep

and you are our shepherd

and we need you.

Friends,

how important it is

and how special it is

and how encouraging it is

when brothers and sisters

dwell in unity

and come together

under no other reason

than we want to seek

God in prayer.

So as we close,

who does this remind you of?

Reminds me of me

and it should remind you

of you

because our God loves us enough

that he tells us

that you are sheep.

You are sheep

and what incredible news

for sheep

that the one telling

his disciples

how to pray

in Matthew 6

is the one

who has come to be

and calls himself

the great shepherd

of his sheep,

the great protector,

the great provider,

the great lover

and the leader

of his sheep.

Friends,

we will never graduate

from being sheep.

You're not going to see me

in a few weeks time

standing at the door

waving you goodbye,

goodbye to the pen

because he's graduated

to super sheep.

Do you remember

what it was like

when he was a sheep?

Oh, he was a great sheep

but now he's gone.

None of us are graduating

from being sheep.

None of us move on

from this,

these three confessions

of being a sheep

but here is Jesus

and it's to him

we look as we finish

this morning

and finish this little series

is the one who says

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd

who lays down his life

for his sheep.

Now friends,

I'm just going to put

the words of the Lord's Prayer,

we've already prayed it

this morning,

just the words of the Lord's Prayer

on the screen

as we close

and in a minute

we're just going to have

a moment of quiet reflection

but as I was praying

about this this morning,

maybe you're here today

and you think

I don't know

Jesus is my shepherd.

I've been here

over the last few weeks

you've been talking

about this stuff

but I don't know him.

Can I encourage you

that this morning

could be the morning

when you say

Jesus I need you.

Father in heaven

I am sorry for my sin

I need your son

to forgive me of it

would you come by your spirit

and make me new.

Friends,

if that's you this morning

then

do you know what

let's say these words together.

As you say them

make that your prayer

Jesus would you be

the great shepherd

and king

and saviour

of my life.

So let's have

just a moment

of quiet

and then we'll pray

these words together

as we close.

Amen.

So let's pray together.

Our Father in heaven

hallowed be your name

your kingdom come

your will be done

on earth

as it is in heaven.

Give us today

our daily bread

and forgive us

our debts

as we also have

forgiven our debtors

and lead us not

into temptation

but deliver us

from the evil one.

So Father

I ask that by your grace

that today

would be a day

and maybe even

for some of us

the first day

when we can turn

to you

and know you

and call you

our heavenly Father.

Thank you so much

for your great grace

that you show us

day after day

after day.

Help us to know

and embrace the fact

that we are sheep

and in Jesus Christ

we have an all sufficient

and a great saviour.

In his name we pray.

Amen.