Asking God For Help | Frank Brancato

But may I also say that we need God's help with everything.

I got to tell you, in my life, every time I've tried to tackle

something by myself, thinking I got the way, I came up short.

I made a mistake. I stumbled, I ran into

roadblocks and difficulties. Every time I try to do it on my

own. I think that's everybody.

I'm going to make a statement now that may seem redundant

because I've said it many times, and if it's redundant, I'm going

to say it's OK, I'm good with that.

But when we pray to God, I believe with all my heart I

believe this to be true, that God wants us to be vulnerable to

him. I realize that the word

vulnerable is not a very fun word, and it's not a word that

people like to say because you know why people think

vulnerability is weakness? And it's not.

God wants us to be vulnerable to Him, So much so that without it

or the lack of vulnerability comes with it, The lack of

humility. And that's everything in our

demeanor. Before God, God wants us to be

vulnerable. What else, though, the Bible

does tell us, though, to be? Courageous and to be strong.

And I got to tell you, in my whole life, my kids can tell

you, my family can tell you. I have always been about trying

to live by the principle of never quit, never give up.

No matter what I have always felt in my life, I've always

thought, I've always looked at examples of people motivating

examples, for example in sports where somebody didn't give up,

because I think that transfers into life.

I really do. I think about Dave Waddle in

1972 in Munich. Remember that he wrote Ran the

800. He told his story 50 years later

He said the 1st 200 meters of the race.

It was absolutely hopeless, but something inside me said never

give. Up and he came from behind and

he won the race, made history. I believe in courage.

I also believe in the concept of this very fact right here.

There is no such thing as courage where there is No Fear.

So fear's not the problem. Courage is your reaction to it.

I believe in that. But hold my point I I I'm

talking about being vulnerable to God.

I'm going to get there. I got a point here.

The Bible even talks about being courageous and being strong, not

just being vulnerable. I'm.

Going to give you an example of don't turn there, I'm just going

to, I'm going to refer to it. So stay with me, just listen to

me. But in Joshua chapter one, it

was right after Moses had died. And God told Joshua he said, my

servant Moses is now dead. And then he tells him this.

He said, you be strong and of good courage.

And then he told him why, How you going to do it?

He said as I was with Moses, I will also.

Be with you. That's number one.

Why else could it be strong and of good courage?

The second thing God said? He said.

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

How about that? It's great to understand.

I got to be strong. Just know where the strength

comes from. It comes from God.

It's not. Us.

And when you're vulnerable to God, when you pray, I believe

with all my heart, that's when God shows up.

When you try to tackle it on your own, you make.

Mistakes Judas Iscariot. Betrayed Jesus, Peter denied the

Lord and all the disciples forsook him and fled when they

focused on their own opinions, their own thoughts, and their

own strength. We need God in everything.

Before we go into the passages that are before us beginning in

verse 11, though, you remember that Jesus taught a lesson about

prayer. Remember that and I'm going to

be. Very brief about our review.

He taught a lesson about prayer and he said this is how you're

not going to pray. Don't do this, don't pray like

the hypocrites do to be seen by men.

Don't do that. He said if you do that, and

that's the reason that you pray, is to be seen by men and get the

Pats on the back from people. He said you're getting nothing

from God. Then he said if you go in your

private place and you pray to God and you do it in secret,

even that which God sees in secret, he's going to reward you

openly. Great stuff, right?

Then he gives a model prayer on things to pray for and this is

what he says. Again, these were words that

were never to be memorized and recited over and over again.

He gave a model prayer and this is what he said beginning in

verse nine of Matthew chapter 6. In this manner, therefore pray.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

And then the first thing he says, this is review our Father.

This describes God's paternity. God's paternity is twofold #1 He

is the Almighty Father. He is the Heavenly Father.

He is the great creator of all things.

That's Father. But not only that, he is our

Father. Like Paul said, we cry ABBA

father. That is an Aramaic term of

endearment that children use for their dad.

It's another word we can plug in their dad or daddy.

I said this, Terry, you weren't here when I preached on this,

but your father stood right here many years ago and said he is

our daddy. That's ABBA.

So when you pray to God, that's the relationship that you have

with him in that grade. But remember his lofty position.

He's in heaven. And even his name is to be

praised. We don't ever take it in vain.

His name is to be praised. Then he said this your Kingdom

come or when the Kingdom comes. Now I said this last time, I'm

not going to go very far into this.

It is not appropriate to pray for the Kingdom to come because

the Kingdom has already come. This phrase right here, your

Kingdom comes means when the Kingdom comes.

And we already established that what is the Kingdom?

Well, first of all, Jesus is reigning over his throne, on his

throne over the Kingdom. Now the Kingdom is the church.

Who's the church? The church is the people.

In fact, the word church is the word Ekklesia, meaning the

called out ones. We are called out by the Gospel

Romans 10/17. We obey the gospel when we're

baptized for the remission of sins.

We become Christians and we're in the Kingdom.

Remember this. It's a spiritual Kingdom.

Remember what Jesus said to his disciples.

The Kingdom is within. You.

I love that. Kingdom is within you and he's

reigning now, so we don't pray for a Kingdom to come in the

future. It's already here, all right.

In a secondary sense, the only future reign of Jesus is not in

another Kingdom that's going to come.

The only future reign of Jesus because the word Kingdom

actually means rain. So the only future reign of

Jesus where he is not reigning now but will reign someday is in

the heart of a non believer today that becomes a child of

God down the road and then Jesus can reign in their hearts too.

That's the only future reign of Jesus because the Kingdom is

already here and it's going to be in the same Kingdom that

those people come to too. So anyway.

And Jesus says your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

All right. It's interesting though, before

Jesus says specific things to pray for and ask for, he tells

us to honor God, and that's really important in our prayers.

That we first honor God. Philippians chapter 4 talks

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

about that very thing too. You begin by praise and

adoration to God before you pour your request out to him.

But we're going to talk about 3 specific things that we need

help with from God that we need to pray for three three very

specific things. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 11.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus says give us this day Our Daily Bread, You know, later on

in this chapter. And verses 25 through 34 is a

beautiful depiction of how God cares for his own He cares for

us. In this verse is one of the

specific things that we pray for, and that is our daily

provision. David even said this in Psalm 37

and 25. I've been young and now I'm old,

yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his

descendants begging bread. Jesus says right off the bat,

give us this day, Our Daily Bread.

So I want to say this though too.

Even though God is our provider and all of that, there's a

condition. On receiving, have you ever

stopped to consider that in James chapter?

Four and verse 2. James says you do not have

because you do not ask. I was driving down the road the

other day and I thought of this. My family, and I know it is the

same for all you other fathers too, but my my family is

everything to me and I would give my family anything and

everything and I would do anything and everything for

them. That's just how I feel in my

heart and I will do it regardless.

But I kind of want them to ask if they want something from me.

And then I kind of wanted to thank me when I do now, if I

feel that way, Can you imagine how God feels that provides

everything? In James Four and two, it says

you don't have it because you don't ask for it.

So we have to. Ask, one man said a long time

ago. An unclaimed promises, like an

uncashed check. When there are things that are

promised to us that are dependent on prayer, we need to

ask in order to receive it. God knows our needs.

He knows our needs. He knows our thoughts.

He knows everything. Can you imagine a God that knows

us so well that the very hairs on our head are numbered?

That's an amazing statement there, that the Bible talks

about how well God knows us, but yet He knows our needs.

But. We need to ask first the phrase

right here. Give us this day.

This obviously is depending on God for our immediate needs.

If you drop down to verse 34 and I'm just going to make a

reference to it, it shows that our concern about the future is

unnecessary because God takes care of the things that we need

daily. Israel's journey through the

wilderness illustrates this concept by the way that God

adequate adequately provided each for his daily bread or

portion or manna. You know what happened, though?

Some of them didn't trust God, and they greedily stored up more

than just for their daily provision.

You know what happened? Exodus 16 and 20

notwithstanding, they did not heed Moses.

But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms

and steak, and Moses was angry with them.

I know this is all of us. And I'm going to say before I

make this statement, this is me too.

But sometimes we spend so much time about tomorrow that we fail

to recognize and appreciate and be thankful for what we actually

have today. It's hard.

It's hard because you know why? Because we know we need to plan.

I'm going to get to that in a minute, by the way, right?

Kind of planning. We know we need to plan.

But unfortunately what we do is we add to the planning worry

instead of being focused on what we have today and be thankful

for what God provided today and also trusted he'll provide for

tomorrow. Instead of being thankful for

today, we worry about tomorrow. I love that song that Ivan Kosta

wrote a long time ago. I love this song.

It's called Just A Handful, part of that song says.

Oh, the quiet that we forfeit over wealth and keeping up,

never learning in a hurry. That a handful is enough.

Then it says, Lord, I pray for just a handful and for quiet in

my soul. Help me spurn the greed of

others and use my handful for the Lord.

Beautiful words. God wants us to rely on him for

our daily needs. A great example of this, or a

great illustration of this principle is found with the

shepherd and the sheep. And by the way, in ancient

times, it wasn't the plush green fields of Palestine where you

found the sheep. Listen, this powerful stuff.

Think about it. Where'd the sheep go?

They didn't have the plush green fields of Palestine.

You know where they Had you found them?

That was prevalent to see the sheep.

In the desert of South Palestine wasn't in Galilee plus fields of

Galilee, it was in the. Deserts of South Palestine as we

found the sheep, what's the point?

Every one of those sheep never worried about tomorrow of the

little green grass that would be taken that they would have to

eat for tomorrow. You know why?

They trusted in the shepherd. The shepherd came every day,

took him out of the fold, and took him to some green patch

somewhere where they ate. Don't you see?

That's us. The Lord is our shepherd, and I

shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green

pastures. He delivers me beside the still

waters. He restores my soul.

When you trust in the Lord as your shepherd, understand we are

the sheep. Don't worry about provision.

God will provide. God provides those needs.

The Lord does not provide abundance or does not promise

abundance. And I'm going to tell you, if

you have abundance, good for you.

And that's wonderful because it's a blessing from God.

And if you have abundance, great for you.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But there's no promise at all for abundance, the promises for

provision that we need daily. This phrase right here, Our

Daily Bread, obviously bread is the staff is of life.

It is what we need to physically sustain our needs.

But if you look at this phrase right here, Our Daily Bread, the

context here goes beyond that. And it is talking about all of

our daily needs, everything that we need every day from God.

The Lord's instruction is both practical and necessary.

Why is that The Kingdom that we've been talking about is a

Kingdom of workers. I'm going to say something to

you. I appreciate our brother praying

for me as a preacher and praying for preachers that preach the

gospel, but I'm going to tell you all something right now.

What you said was true and thank you, but you're all preachers

with your life and you are preaching sermons with your life

and everybody's watching and in fact those.

Sermons are more powerful than anything proclaimed verbally

from the pulpit. You know why, 'cause if it

doesn't go along with your life and your example, it has no

value. It has no merit, has no power,

has no effect. The way you live.

The way you act, the way you treat people, are you really

Christ like? Does the beauty of Jesus really

be seen in you in your life? Do you live the life of a

Christian? Do you live a life that

professes what you say? You believe all of these things?

That's the sermon of your life, and that's important and that's

powerful. We are a Kingdom of workers, and

you know what we need as workers.

We need our needs sustained. All of us.

Not just a preacher that preaches for a living, but every

child of God needs provision too, because they are preachers

taking the sermon of their life, their example to everyone that

watches. We can't be preoccupied with the

cares of life too much, folks. I know this.

I know we live in a country right now where we are very

blessed. I know that.

And somebody might say, well, it's really easy to say it

living in the United States about God providing it's really

easy to say that because, I mean, look around.

Us. I drove here today and I had to

turn down the seat because it was too hot.

The heated seat. Tina had it turned.

I don't like that I turned it off.

I was driving her car. I don't like that hot seat.

My point is, look at the luxury we live in.

But I'm going to tell you this, God's promise is to third world

country people too, not abundance, daily provision.

I've been very fortunate and blessed to be a part of the work

in the Philippines. I can't anymore.

I can no longer travel overseas, but I've been there 15 times.

You know what I've found In the poorest places that you can

imagine in the world, They all had something to eat.

All the Christians. Everywhere we went.

They had shelter and they had food.

They had what they needed every day.

That's what God provides. That's what God promises.

OK? So let's not be overly

preoccupied with worrying about our needs.

So what's the difference between planning and being overly

occupied? You know, even the.

Apostles understood that you got a plan, and my dad told me my

whole life. My dad, oh, my dad was

repetitious. Some of you knew him very well.

My dad was extremely repetitious.

And you've heard me say this too, You know he thought you

only had retained 1/3 of what you heard, so he told everything

three times. My dad was extremely

repetitious, but one of the things that he constantly told

me is the phrase that you've all heard people don't plan to fail.

They simply fail to plan. That's a good concept.

You got a plan. The apostles understood that

there's a measure of planning that has to be done, but not to

do it with boastful arrogance. Listen, understand, when you

plan, don't do it with boastful arrogance because such is evil

according to James. Notice in James Chapter 4,

James 4 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 13. Come now, you who say today or

tomorrow, we will go to such a city, spend a year there and buy

and sell and make a profit. Sounds great, right?

That's called a business plan. And by the way, I got to back up

little history real quick. Back then, ancient cities were

taken in. They were starting all over and

they were taking in whoever would come.

They wanted citizens in ancient cities, OK?

If a person was a vendor or a businessman and they brought a

business, they gave immediate citizenship automatically to

that business in their new city. You know why with business

brings people with people bring money.

So picture this. James is talking about a guy

that's going to make a business plan.

He gets a map out of some sort and he says you don't want to

do. We're going to go to such a city

and we're going to stay a year there.

We're going to buy and sell and we're going to make a profit.

It's going to be great. Sounds great, right.

Watch. Whereas you do not know what

will happen tomorrow. That's number one.

Do you know why you don't just plan like that?

You don't just plan, like I just said, like they were doing and

what James was correcting. Because the first thing you

don't know is the uncertainty of life.

And I'm going to tell you right now, I know by experience and by

God's will. I didn't.

I wasn't taken out of here, but I was almost gone twice.

And you know what? Every time I thought, hey, I got

tomorrow, I'm doing great. Something happens, some people

aren't as fortunate and they are taken out.

When you make your plans, understand there are things that

are beyond your control, one of which is the uncertainty of

life. Let's go further, for what is

your life? It's even a vapor that appears

for a little while and vanishes away.

Instead you want to say, get this, please, if the Lord wills

I talked. To this man right here all the

time, Jose and we study together.

We talk all the time. And I love what he says, hey,

let's do so, he says, God willing, God willing.

We should all be saying, Lord willing, God willing.

Hold that thought. What does it mean about God

willing you've? Heard my sermon of old, the fact

I preached it so many times over the country.

I don't preach anymore. I got tired of it, but I have a

sermon on God's will, and I talk about how God imparts his will

in three ways. And this is the words that I

told you many years ago. I'm going to modify it because I

think it's a little easier to remember.

OK, God imparts his will in three ways. #1 There's God's

determined will. Then I said there's God's

desired will. And then I said there's God's

permissive will. OK, that's true.

But I'm going to change the words a little bit.

I'm going to call it the three PS.

It's easier to understand because I get asked this all the

time. What were those three things?

Again? What are the three ways?

Again here 3 PS God imparts his will in three ways.

Here they are God's providential will, God's preferred will, and

God's permissive will. God's providential will is God's

determined will. That means this God determines.

It and he makes it happen. By Providence, he says, it's

going to happen. That's God's Providence will.

Secondly, God's preferred will. God's preferred will, by the

way, is what God prefers. But it doesn't necessarily

always happen, because he leaves it up to us to do our part.

For example, the Bible says the long-suffering of God is

salvation. Not willing that any should

perish, but that all should come to repentance.

That's what God wants. But not everybody comes to

repentance. Not everybody comes to Jesus.

So it is God's preferred will. That's what he wants.

But it doesn't always happen. What did Acts chapter 2 say?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

When the gospel is being preached?

They said save yourself. In other words, do your part, be

baptized for the remission of sins, repent of your sins,

confess Jesus as the Son of God, and then live the Christian

life. But this is the one I want to

talk about right here. Permissive When you pray, if the

Lord wills, what you're saying is if the Lord permits or the

Lord allows, that's what you're saying when you make your plans.

Say I plan to do this. But Lord willing, or if the Lord

allows, if I'm still going to be alive, if it is OK with God.

You know, a good example of doing that the wrong way was the

rich fool in Luke chapter 12. He looked at all of his stuff,

Luke 12 · chapter mention

all of his crops. He said.

I don't have big enough barns. I'll pull down my barns and I'll

build greater. He had a business plan.

He had a retirement plan. What's the problem?

Notice. He said.

I'm going to pull down my barns, build greater, I'm going to have

all this stuff and then I'm going to sit down and take my

eaves. You know what?

He didn't take any consideration?

The uncertainty of life and the Lord and the Lord's will.

Two things. You know what Jesus said about

that fella? He said, You fool.

This night your soul shall be required of you.

And as I paraphrase, then what are you going to do with all

your stuff? If you're out of here, what's

all that stuff going to do for you?

What was his problem? Planning.

No, no problem. What was the problem?

His plans didn't include God. God's got to be first and

everything falls into place because God is ultimately in

control. So the first thing we pray for

regarding ourselves as our daily needs.

The second one's found in verse 12 and it connects a very, very

important concept. Please get this forgiveness from

God for our debts and we'll get to what debt?

Means. And forgiving others of their

debts. And by the way, we need God's

help for this too. We obviously need help getting

God's forgiveness of our sins. But maybe, just maybe, we also

need. Help getting helping us.

Forgive other people. Some people have a hard time

with that. Some people hold grudges.

Some people can't let go. Don't do that.

Because according to Jesus, there's a connection between God

forgiving us if we want God's forgiveness.

There's a connection between the way we forgive others and God

forgiving us. You know, I think there's

there's a really, I think this is brilliant by the Lord.

Everything the Lord did was brilliant, but he just gets to

talking about provision. And just lest we think, lest we

think that God owes us something by our own merit for provision,

it kicks in sin. Oh by the way, you need this.

You're not perfect. All are sinners.

Bible says that Romans chapter 3 and verse 23.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

First Peter 225 for we are like sheep going astray.

But now I've returned to the shepherd and overseer of your

souls. Everybody sins.

The point is, we all need a savior and we all need

forgiveness. Have you ever stopped to

consider that when you ask for forgiveness, you're accepting

responsibility for your actions? Remember, growing up, your

parent might say I'm proud of you because you accepted

responsibility. You took responsibility for your

action. And as a parent, there's always

a softening, isn't there? You can be angry or irritated

with a child when they do something, and if they're

continually rebellious against it and they're not listening to

you, it makes you even. More angry.

But when they accept responsibility, there's a

softening in the heart of the parent.

Always. When you repent and you ask for

forgiveness, you are accepting what you've done.

That's what God wants us to do. Repentance and confession is

required for forgiveness. In fact, somebody said one time,

I love this. Jesus cannot wash the feet of

those that are not presented to him.

We have to take it to him, Take it to God, John.

Said it this way in first John one and nine very familiar

passage. If we confess our sins, He's

faithful and just. To forgive us our sins and

cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we need God's

help. We need forgiveness.

This word, confession, means confessing the sin to God with

repentance and godly sorrow. That's what confession means.

Solomon said this Solomon the wise man of old in Proverbs 28

and 13. He who covers his sins will not

prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have

mercy. Jesus adds this about

forgiveness too, by the way. Here we go.

He adds this as we forgive our. Debtors.

Now, Jesus was not saying that if I forgive other people, I

earn forgiveness from God. That's not what he's saying.

What he's saying, though, is if I want the forgiveness of God, I

have to forgive other people. I don't know about you, but man,

I need all the extra credit and the mercy that I can get from

God. I need that.

I don't want to be snake bitten, shoot myself in the foot and

disqualify myself for being forgiven because my heart won't

forgive somebody else. I don't want to do that.

More on that in a minute by the way.

More passages. You can't earn your forgiveness

by forgiving others, but you have to forgive in order to be

forgiven. In Matthew chapter 6, verses 14

Matthew 6:14–15

through 15, I'm going to drop down a little bit.

There's more said about trying to understand what the word

debts mean in Matthew 6 beginning in verse 14.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father

will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men

their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your

trespasses. What is the word trespasses mean

in this passage? It gives us a better idea of

what Jesus means when he talks about debts.

The word trespass here in the Greek literally means to slip or

fall. So in other words, you could say

it like this. And for if you forgive men when

they slip and fall, your heavenly Father will also

forgive you when you. Slip or fall?

In Luke Chapter 11 and verse 4. By the way, this is another

Luke 11 · chapter mention

parallel passage when the disciples came to Jesus and they

asked him teach us how to pray like John taught his disciples

and that Jesus gives the same kind of verbiage that he's

giving. In Matthew chapter 6, this is

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

what he says. So we say in Matthew 6 and 12 he

says debtors or debts. In Matthew 614 and 15 he says

trespasses. But let's look at Luke Chapter

Luke 11 · chapter mention

11 and verse four and forgive us our sins.

Folks, the word sin means miss the mark, and everybody has

them. When taken together, these words

paint a full picture about forgiveness.

Every person has a moral and spiritual death that goes beyond

his ability to pay. And if we.

Expect God to forgive us. Then we have to be willing to

forgive other people too. Do you remember in the 5th

Beatitude Jesus's Blessed are the Merciful, for they will

obtain mercy. You might remember months and

months ago when I preached on that and I talked about the idea

that there is a practical application, but there's also a

spiritual application. The practical application is a

5050 thing. The spiritual application is

100%. Let me give you the practical.

If I'm merciful to Terry, good chance he'll be merciful to me

and I think he will be. I think that's 100%.

I think Terry would be let's just grab somebody out that I

don't know and. I show mercy.

It doesn't necessarily mean that that person's going to show me

mercy. What's 100% is the spiritual

application. If I show that person mercy, God

will show me mercy. That's 100%.

That's the mercy that I'm going to get.

For sure. That's God's mercy.

OK, so when we pray for ourselves, we pray for daily

provision. We also pray for God to help us

with forgiveness. And also, if we're struggling

with forgiving others and holding grudges, we ask God to

help us with that too, so we can let that go.

By the way, I got to slip the sand.

He's got to do it. Just make it very brief.

But remember, when you forgive somebody else, even when they're

not worthy of your forgiveness, you're not letting them off the

hook. You're letting you off the hook.

You're saying I'm not going to be negatively influenced by this

anymore. You're letting you off the hook.

Just remember that they've got to answer to God, by the way,

and they can't get forgiveness from God without repentance and

confession to God. But you can do anything you want

to, and you can let yourself off the hook.

OK, now we come to a phrase that we got to take a look at here.

Then Jesus says this. After he said two things to pray

for, they said this the third one.

And do not lead us into temptation, OK?

Some foundational things that we have to notice.

First of all, God is a God of protection.

Two, God cares for it provides for His children.

David actually sang a beautiful song when he was delivered from

the hand of King Saul. Some foundational passages that

describe that in Second Samuel 22 and two.

And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my

deliverer. In Psalm chapter 18 and verse

Psalms 18 · chapter mention

two, he said More. He said he is my God, my

strength in whom I trust, my shield, and the horn of my

salvation, my stronghold. OK.

If that's the case, then why would we ask God not to lead us

into temptation? Why would we do that if God is

our fortress? If God is our stronghold, If God

is our deliverer, if God is our refuge, why would we feel the

need to ask him not to lead us into temptation?

Especially when James says that God does not tempt anyone?

Notice James 113 and 14. Let no one say when he's

tempted. I'm tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt

anyone. But each one is tempted when

he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

So why, if that's the case, do we pray for something that God

never does? OK, the answer to that question.

Comes down to the word temptation.

I'll get to that in just a moment.

But remember this though. There are trials in our life.

James talks about trials that come our way and that we should

have joy in those trials because of why, knowing that the testing

of our faith produces patience, we are tested, we are tested in

our life. It should be noted though, when

you talk about the word temptation, the word temptation

there in the Greek is morally neutral, meaning this.

It has no inherent connotation to good or evil.

It doesn't. So the word could actually mean

two things. When it says temptation, it

could mean one of two things. It could mean testing and

proving. And it can also mean inducement

to evil. We know God does not induce us

to evil, so what's my point? The context has to bear it out,

has to determine the meaning. What does the scripture?

Say that tell us about being tested.

Yeah, the Bible talks about We are tested.

And we are tested as God allows certain situations in our life.

And sometimes we look at those things and we say, that's not

fair. That's not fair.

It's not for us to know what's fair.

Remember my sermon on God pruning us?

God only prunes the good. And sometimes things happen in

our life. Situations happen in our life.

We are being tested by those situations and through those

tests that come our way, that and those trials that come our

way. When we make it through to the

other side of that trial by manifesting proper conduct,

exercising proper will on our part, we emerge victorious

through it and stronger and more refined.

Yeah, we all, we all have that. It's called maturity that

happens in our life. And I'll tell you this too.

I would imagine there's something in your life that you

have had to endure, that you made it through, and you're

better now because of it. I guarantee it, because

everybody has that. You've had a hard thing.

You dealt with it, you got through it, you got God's help.

And you know what happens? You got through it.

And because of that, you're better on this side of it.

Way better. It's called maturity.

Another example though, of how someone was tested.

How about Genesis 22? God told Abraham, take your son,

your only son Isaac, that you love, and offer him as a

sacrifice unto me Takes him to the.

Place the Bible says these exact words.

God tested Abraham. Abraham passed the test.

God said don't touch the boy and he provided a a substitute, a

ram that was caught in the thicket for the sacrifice.

He passed the test. We have things that happened in

our life too, that we are going to be tested.

It's the way that it is. However, please get this.

God does not on a whim induce his children to do evil.

Furthermore, what else does God know as our refuge?

He knows our weaknesses. And he also provides a means of

escape so that we can emerge from the trial more refined and

not be destroyed. First Corinthians 10/13.

No temptation has overtaken you as such, as is common to man,

but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted.

Beyond that, you're able, but with the temptation will also

make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

So what's the Lord's point by saying do not lead us into

temptation? Here's the point.

The Lord's point is we should pray that we can escape those

things that, in view of our weaknesses and Satan's deceit,

might bring us to sin. JW Mcgarvey said it this way.

The petition expresses our natural desire not to be this

LED, but at the same time by adding deliver us from evil.

It indicates that we expect to be brought more or less in a

conflict with evil, notwithstanding our expressed

desire to avoid it. And then we have this phrase

right here. But deliver us from the evil

one, you who that is, That's Satan.

Deliver us from Satan and all of his devices need to pray for

that. I'm going to say something about

the devil, and this is really encouraging because I know what

the Bible says about the devil. He's a roaring lion.

He's seeking about. He's all those things.

He's the father of lies. He's terrible.

He's all those things and all that's true.

But I'm going to say something very encouraging to somebody

that's when washed in the blood of Jesus, been baptized for the

remission of sins is a Christian.

Let me tell you some very encouraging things.

Satan cannot do anything to you that you will.

Not allow. You know why?

Because Satan took a weapon at the cross.

I like what one? Guy said one time He says Satan

is a vanquished foe, He's limited.

He was destroyed. He was whipped at the cross.

Let me give you Bible Colossians 215.

Having disarmed principalities and powers he made, Jesus made a

public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it.

Another passage here, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

This is talking about Jesus, Jesus, death, and the devil in

as much then as the children have been partakers of flesh and

blood. He himself likewise shared in

the same that through death he might destroy him who had the

power of death. That is the devil.

So the word destroy in your mind may think blew up and gone with

the devil still there. So what's the word destroy mean?

The word destroy means remove the power or.

Dominion. Who did that?

Jesus. Jesus did that.

So what's the encouraging part? If you're a Christian, guess

what You share in that same victory.

And Satan has no power over you that you will not allow.

It's kind of like I just heard it described like this.

The devil is like a dog, a vicious dog on a chain.

As long as you don't come in the realm of where that chained dog

is, you're in good shape. But if you get inside the realm

of that chained dog, you're in trouble.

Years ago, we had a dog. His name is Barney and Louise.

My sister had this fella come over for the afternoon and me

and Scotty and this guy were throwing the ball around.

We kept telling the guy Barney's chained up, he's a Queensland,

he will bite you. He's a watchdog.

Stay away from the dog. Kept telling him over and over

and over, kept going over where the dog was and Barney would get

real close to Barney would just leap out and just, I mean just

on the end of that chain. Well, the ball flew over there

and he just runs over there. Instead of just pulling up and

letting one of us go over there, he runs over there and he falls

on the dog. Barney jumps up and bit him on

the calf. I mean a good one, Stitches and

all. And we got sued.

So what they do is, by the way, small claims court, the People's

Court, Judge Wapner, I don't know if you remember that, but

Judge Wapner and the People's Court back in the day called us,

said you want to go to People's Court and have them settle the

case. We said sure.

So they paid off whatever, whatever it is, the case, and

then they pay you 100 bucks for losing.

That was us. We lost because dogs can't bite

people and get away with it, right?

We tried to explain. My dad got up and explained with

it, with a guy attacked the dog and the judges attacked the

dogs. Yeah, he fell on and he went

right inside the chain. The entire point is this.

That is a picture of the devil, and it doesn't matter what the

devil is if you stay outside. The realm of the chain.

You're fine. If you enter into his realm with

temptation and you allow that to be overcome, and you surround

yourself with people, for example, that are the wrong kind

of influence, you're going to fall back into temptation again.

You got to avoid that, got to stay away from that.

That's how you do that. Got to do your part.

James 47 here, you got to do it. This is our part.

Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from

you. I'm going to tell you this, and

I'm almost finished. There's a big difference between

a couple of things. Like, well, everybody's got

their own thing. I get it.

And everybody has their own struggle.

And if you don't think you have a struggle, I'm telling you

you're wrong. And if you ever get to the point

where you think, man, I've been a Christian for 50 years, I'm

good, be careful. Because now you just took the

humility out again. And that's the humility we need

for life. Sometimes we are really good at

garnishing our own traits and tarnishing the traits of

everybody else. We're great at that.

We are really great at examining everybody else, and we never

examine ourself. Have you ever had a conflict

with your spouse? I have.

I've been guilty of this. I've been wrong in this.

What happens is when two people have a conflict, when they're

both angry. In the conflict or the argument,

each person is thinking about what the other did and not what

you did and not what you need to change.

That's what we do. We point the finger at what the

other did in a conflict instead of looking inside at ourselves

with a retrospective idea of what we are.

That's the point. As Christians, let's be more

proactive and looking at us and not necessarily be so proactive

in examining the faults of others.

And by the way, I got to make this point.

Is there anything wrong with judging?

No. There's a difference, though,

between judging and being judgmental.

And I'm going to get to that difference in a moment.

Big difference. Sometimes somebody judges

something or makes a judgment. Somebody says, oh, you're being

judgmental. No, they're not.

I'm going to make another bold statement.

Every one of you, you make judgments.

Every day, every one of you. Somebody might say, well, I make

judgments. I don't judge people.

Yeah, you do. Somebody commits a horrible

crime, does a terrible thing. We all say that was terrible.

That man was awful. That was a horrible thing.

He's wrong. He should be punished for that.

Just judged. No problem.

That's not judging by appearance.

The Bible says judge not according to appearance, but

judge righteous judgment based on facts, right?

And evidence big difference. So what's the difference

between? For example, the difference

between. Judging and being judgmental.

Here's the difference. Making a judgment is an action.

It is a decision based. On evidence, that's a judgment.

Being judgmental is an attitude that's being overly concerned.

This is a direct definition, being overly concerned with

judging. That's what it means to be

judgmental, by the way. Not that you just made a

judgment. It's an attitude.

So yeah, we have to make judgments, but be careful of the

attitude. And let's not have the attitude

where we condescend to other people because guess what?

We may not think that we're have all these weaknesses, that

everybody else has to be careful because you just became the

Pharisee that poked fun at that tax collector.

Be careful that, well, I don't do it either.

Don't do that. Because when you have that

attitude, you guess what you just did.

You just send, and when you pray for the evil, deliver us from

the evil one. Maybe that's your weakness.

Pray about that. Whatever your weakness is,

Whatever that is, though, one final passage.

The Lord's going to help us through Hebrews 2 and 18.

For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, He is

able to aid those who are tempted.

We got the Lord by our side all the way.

So in conclusion, today we've talked about 3 specific areas,

three things to pray for specifically for ourself because

we need God's help, our daily provision.

Trust him that he will provide that and ask him for it, and

thank him for that forgiveness for our sins, and also as we.

Forgive others. And if we're struggling in that,

ask us to help him. Ask him to help us forgive

others, and finally to deliver us from evil or the evil one.

I'm through this morning. Thank you so much for your kind

listening. I hope these were things that

were helpful to you. These were things that were very

helpful to me. These are very practical things.

These are things that you can apply to your life 'cause you

know what? These are things that apply to

everybody. They just do.

We never know the hearts and minds of those that are present.

We always want to extend an invitation to someone that might

be subject to the gospel call. I don't know how it is with you.

Are you here and you're not a Christian?

The steps to become one are very simple.

Romans 10/17 says you got to hear the word of God.

So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Then we must believe with all of our heart.

Hebrews 11 and six. Without faith it's impossible to

please him. For he who comes to God must

believe that He is and that he is a rewarder of those who

diligently seek Him. Then we must repent of our sins.

Acts 17 and 30 Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but

can now commands all men everywhere to repent.

Then Jesus says, we got to confess him as the Son of God.

In Acts 8 and 37 Philip said this, If you believe with all

your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I

believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God upon taking these

steps. You are now a fit candidate to

go to the point of salvation to be baptized for the remission of

your sins. Mark 1616.

He who believes in his baptized will be saved, but he who does

not believe will be condemned. If you've never taken these

steps of obedience, we'd love to assist you in that today.

Maybe you have. Maybe there is something in your

life that you need to correct. If we can assist you in any way,

come forward while we stand and we thank you.

For listening to our podcast put on by the Church of Christ at

2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield. If you would like any additional

information or you would like to receive a free Bible

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