Deliver Us

Well, good morning and welcome to Church at the Grove online.

My name is Nathan.

I'm one of the pastors here, and we're so thrilled that you're joining us this morning.

If you haven't already, we'd love for you to connect with us online.

We'd love for you to jump in the chats and share where you're watching from, who you are, and connect there.

And we'd also love for you to download our Church at the Grove app.

It's the best way for you to kind of follow along with what's going on in the life of our church and how you can best get connected.

But this morning we're in the middle of a series called Teach Us to Pray.

And as I was thinking about this morning in this section of scripture that we're going to talk about today, it reminded me of a story when I was in high school.

As a high school senior, we were allowed a certain number of college visit days.

And the college visit days were phenomenal because you got to skip school, it was an excused absence, and you got to go to a college that you might spend the next four years of your life at.

And so I took full advantage of the five or so days that they gave us to visit these schools.

And so me and three of my friends, we jumped in my 1997 Nissan Maxima, and we drove down for one of our college visit days to uh Milledgeville for Georgia College and State University.

And I had been to the lake a time or two, and so I knew how to get to Milledgeville.

Now, this is before, remind you, this is before smartphones, this is before really everybody had GPS, especially high schoolers had GPSs.

And so for me, I knew kind of the direction.

I knew that if I went from Loganville, I drove down 81 and got off at 142, and then took a left on 20 and headed east towards Augusta, and then got off on 441, it would dead end pretty much into the school.

And so we got there right on time.

We did a great college visit, and I ended up going there for my first year of school.

But as we were leaving the college visit day, I remember that one time my parents took a back road to get to the lake.

So as we passed through these back roads, um, we passed through this cult that was once there called the New Wabian Nation.

It had these huge pyramids that were kind of in the middle of nowhere in Eaton.

And I was thinking on the way home from the school visit, I was thinking, man, it would be really cool if we could drive by there just to see it, because it was just kind of an unusual sight.

And so I thought I remember remembered the way to get there, and so I took a few turns and I happened to miss the one pivotal turn that would have taken me right by there and led me in the direction to go home.

But instead, I missed that turn, and we drove and we drove and we drove, and I started to realize this doesn't seem to be the right way.

And uh I was a man, and so I wasn't gonna stop and ask for directions.

Plus, I was dating a girl that was in the car with me, and so I didn't want to look foolish in front of her, so I just continued to drive and act like I knew the direction I was going.

Went through Monticello, went through Jasper, and eventually ended out in Locust Grove, hitting 75 south of the perimeter.

A drive that should have taken an hour and a half max, ended up taking almost four hours as we hit rush hour traffic to get back to Loganville where we were trying to go.

And I say that story because I never intended to go in that direction.

I intended to go a little different route, but end up back at home.

But instead, I ended up way out of the way, ending up in a place that I never really wanted to be.

As I think about that, that's the story of a lot of our lives, right?

We all have heard stories, we all have known people, and maybe we've experienced this, where we've maybe determined the direction that we wanted to go in our lives, but we ended up in a different destination than we intended to go in.

I mean, we've heard stories of young couples that get married, and they sit in front of a church and they stand in front of a pastor and they vow to love, honor, and cherish each other until death do them part.

And there was no intention in their minds that divorce would ever even enter into the conversation.

But a few years pass by and maybe a couple of conversations with coworkers or an old flame reunited over social media, and eventually the marriage is ending in divorce.

They never intended to go that direction, but that's where they ended up.

Uh we've heard stories of people when it comes to debt.

They never intended to get into debt, they only got a credit card for emergency situations, but this emergency popped up, and then this incredible sell came forth at their favorite store, and they had to get it because it would be foolish not to, and one thing led to another, and then now they're in massive amounts of credit card debt.

They never intended to go that direction, but that's where they ended up.

We see this with addictions, right?

We see where people maybe start drinking with just socially with some friends, and it's harmless, it's fine, but then eventually one thing led to another, and every day there has to be a glass of wine, or every day there has to be a beer, and it's beginning to harm relationships in their family and with their kids.

This is all directions that no one really ever wanted to end up in.

It's never a destination that you ever wanted to end up in.

It's not the direction you wanted to go in life, but that's where you ended up still.

And that's what we're talking about this morning, is we're talking about praying prayers where we are not deceived into going down the wrong direction.

This is a common trap, I think, that many people fall into, especially followers of Jesus, where we're misled by the ways of the world and our culture, and we fall into the traps of the enemy, and we're deceived into believing that we're heading in the right direction.

But ultimately, we end up in a destination that we never intended to end up in.

So directing prayers, these directing prayers deliver us from being deceived.

Directing prayers, the prayer we're talking about this morning, deliver us from ultimately being deceived.

Now, if you're just joining us, like I said, we're in the middle of this series called Teach Us to Pray.

And so far, we are looking at the Sermon on the Mount and we're looking at the Lord's Prayer, and ultimately, we're looking at kind of the components of the Lord's Prayer and ultimately what they mean for our lives.

We started off this series talking about how when we pray, we're praying to our Father who is in heaven, that our prayer is ultimately about relationships.

It's not that we're praying to some cosmic force that's out there, but instead we're praying to a relational God that is our heavenly Father that cares and loves for us deeply.

We've talked about praying bold prayers, praying that God's will would happen here on earth as it is in heaven, his perfect will.

We've prayed that God would meet our physical needs as we rely upon him.

We even prayed last week of talking about forgiveness and how we need God to work in our relationships so that we can have peace in our relationships with one another.

And today we're looking at this idea of deliverance, the deliverance from being deceived by the evil one.

And so, with that said, I want to read the Lord's Prayer for us this morning from a different translation that maybe you're not familiar with, the New Living Translation.

It says this in Matthew 6, verse 9.

Matthew 6:9

Pray like this, our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need, and forgive us of our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

And that's the verse we're gonna focus on this morning is and don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Again, it's a prayer of deliverance from being deceived by the evil one.

Now, there's a few things that we've got to understand.

If we're ever going to be able to pray this prayer with any boldness, with any conviction, there's a few things that we've got to understand in order for this prayer to make sense for us.

The first thing we've got to understand is that we live in a spiritual world.

Now, I think this is something that we oftentimes forget in our world and our culture today.

We live in a science-driven society that's technologically driven as well.

And so there's always an explanation to explain everything away in our culture and our world today.

You know, people aren't gravitating towards sin, but rather it's their family uh history, it's in their DNA, they're kind of preconceived to kind of go in certain directions.

There's always, there's never miracles, right?

It's always something that can be explained away by science and just the culture at bay.

And so when we talk about there being a spiritual world, we have to understand that.

There is more than that comes to our eyes than just the physical, but there is something behind the physical that is equally as great but even more powerful.

Um it reminds me of a story found in 2 Kings chapter 6.

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

It's one of my favorite stories.

It's about a man named Elisha, and he's this incredible prophet of God, and he's got this young assistant that he's kind of training and mentoring, and they wake up one morning and they're faced with the Philistine army at their door.

Um, this massive army is coming to attack them.

And this is how it's played out.

2 Kings chapter 6, verse 5 15, it says, When the servants, the servant of the man of God, got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere.

2 Kings 6:5

He said, Oh sir, what will we do now?

the young man cried to Elijah.

Don't be afraid, Elijah told him, for there are more on our side than on theirs.

Then Elijah prayed, O Lord, open his eyes and let him see.

And the Lord opened the young man's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elijah was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

And in right after that passage, we see that God strikes the enemy troops with blindness, and they're able to be led to a different part in a different country, a different territory, and Elijah and this young man's lives are spared and saved.

But we see that there's a spiritual world that we can't see, but it is very much there.

It's very much real, but it's more powerful than the physical world that we actually live in.

The second thing we have to understand is that we're involved in a spiritual war.

So not only is there a spiritual world, but we're involved in a spiritual war.

Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12 says, For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

See, I think oftentimes we not only forget that there's a spiritual world, but we definitely forget that there is a spiritual world that war that is happening all around us.

And if you're not living as if you're in a battle, if you're not living as if you're in a spiritual war, then you're losing the spiritual battle.

And here's what happens the enemy comes, and the enemy is not, again, it's not flesh and blood, it's not the people of this earth, but rather it's the spiritual forces of this world.

And so that's the real enemy.

And what they do, that the tool in their tool belt that they use more than anything else, is the tool of deception.

They begin to get us to believe the lies to ultimately bring destruction into our lives, to ultimately lead us into a destination that we never really wanted to go.

That's what the enemy does, right?

It says in John, it says that the enemy comes or the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

That's the goal of the enemy.

And they do this by deception.

They begin to get us to believe lies.

They begin to get us to believe lies that comfort is the ultimate goal in life.

And so if you can just be comfortable, if you can just be happy, if you can just have enough money where you have no pain in your life, that's the goal that you should work for.

And forget about the kingdom, forget about the mission, forget about pushing back darkness.

That's not what you need to focus on.

You need to focus on comfort.

The enemy will deceive us into believing that a relationship will distract us with the relationship so that we'll miss out on the mission that God has given us.

The enemy will come and he'll enslave us to a screen.

I think this is killing a generation that we find ourselves in where we see that people are glued to their phone screen or to a TV screen and they're enslaved maybe to pornography or entertainment or social media, whatever it might be.

And the enemy uses that to deceive us into falling victim in the spiritual battle, into the spiritual war.

He'll get us to believe that we don't need real community in our lives.

We don't need real godly, biblical, intentional community in our lives, that we can do it on our own.

We don't need anybody else.

You're independent, you're strong, you're wise, you can do it on your own.

You don't need other people to fit in, and plus you're too busy.

And we begin to believe the lie, and as a result, we lose the battle.

He begins to get us content in thinking that filling a church on a seat on Sunday mornings at church is ultimately what our spiritual duty is.

Or maybe watching a service here online and ingesting spiritual content is ultimately the pinnacle of our spiritual growth and development when we miss out on the bigger picture that God has for our lives.

See, the enemy uses deception to deceive us into believing that there is a world out there that is much different from the world of Jesus.

Jesus wants our eyes to be open to see that there's a spiritual war and that there is a battle that is going on right before us.

And so when we pray the prayer, God, lead us not into temptation, that we would not fall into these traps.

Ultimately, what we're praying is, God, renew my mind.

Help me to understand what is true.

Help me to not be deceived by the lies of the culture and be deceived by the lies of this world.

But instead, let me know what is true.

Let me know what is holy.

Let me know what's noble and trustworthy, and let me think about those things.

When I think about those things, that's where the battle is fought, and that is where the battle is won.

We have to know what the truth is.

And this is why it's so important for us to pray a prayer, saying, God, lead us not into temptation.

Help us to not be deceived into going the wrong direction and ending up in a destination we never intended to go, but instead, Lord, let me walk in the truth of your word and your will for my life.

The third thing we've got to understand in order to pray this prayer the way that God would intend for us to pray is that we've got to understand that our enemy is daunting, that our enemy is real and he is formidable, that he is a daunting enemy.

1 Peter 5, 8 says, Stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil.

He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

That we have an enemy and he is a real enemy, and he is out to destroy our lives.

And he's not someone to be taken lightly, but instead, he's a roaring lion.

That he's he's powerful, he's a formidable, daunting enemy.

C.

S.

Lewis, in one of his books called The Screw Tape Letters, which is this incredible book, it's a fictional account where C.S.

Lewis is imagining an elder demon that's kind of training a younger demon in the evil practices to see the darkness kind of continue and expand in our world today.

And this is what he writes.

He says, I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping your patient in the dark.

The fact that devils predominantly are comic figures in the modern imagination will help you.

If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in your mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that, which is an old textbook method of confusing them, he therefore cannot believe in you.

And this is what our enemy has done.

Our enemy has got us in our world and our culture today to believe that he doesn't even exist.

And we'll never win the battle.

We'll never be able to pray with conviction that God would not only lead us not to temptation, but to deliver us from the evil one.

We'll never pray with conviction for God to deliver us from the evil one if we don't believe that there's actually an evil one.

And so that's why we've got to understand that our enemy is real, that he is daunting, and he's formidable.

Our enemy is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Charles Quarles writes, the disciple is so weak that he is no match for the devil.

He seeks, he needs a savior, not an assistant, a hero, not a helper.

He needs a champion who will fight the evil one for him and who will snatch him up from the clutches of the enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.

See, we are no match for the enemy on our own.

But the great news is, and this leads us to our fourth point, that our hero in the spiritual war is unbeatable.

That our heavenly Father, Jesus himself, that he is unbeatable.

In fact, he's already won the victory, and that through him we can have victory in the spiritual battle that we face.

This is why it's so important for us when we come to prayers of deliverance, we pray, God, lead us not to temptation because he knows what is true, he knows what is right, and so we seek his mind.

We need him to fill us with his presence so we know the direction we need to go.

But then we also pray, deliver us from the evil one because he has the power to overcome.

Now, see, here's the interesting thing.

I think that we've kind of bought into another one of the enemies' lies in this idea of dualism.

Now, dualism is just the simple thought of um that there's kind of the evil force and there's the good force, and they battle against each other, and they're kind of equal, and we kind of know that the good's gonna win out, but we're not totally sure.

It's kind of like a Star Wars movie where you've got the dark force, right?

You've got Vader and you've got the dark lord, and then you've got Luke Skywalker, and they're they're battling against each other, and you don't truly know who's going to win out.

And that's sometimes how we can view the enemy and our Lord Jesus, but that is not the truth.

It's not about dualism, but it's ultimately about domination.

That Jesus and the Lord, our heavenly Father, dominates the enemy.

There is no comparison, there is not even a question of who comes out on top.

I love what Romans chapter 8 says.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It tells us of our incredible victory that we have with Jesus.

Listen to this passage.

It's long, but it's so full of truth and so full of greatness.

It says this in Romans chapter 8, verse 31.

Romans 8:31

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?

If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he also give everything else?

Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?

No one.

For God himself has given us right standing with himself.

Who then will condemn us?

No one.

For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting at a place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Does it mean that he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or persecution or hungry or are destitute or in danger or are threatened with death?

As the scriptures say, we, for his sake, we are being killed all day long.

We are being slaughtered like sheep.

Verse 37 No.

Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today or our worries about tomorrow.

Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or the earth below.

Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's the enemy that we see, that's actively working against that, but that's the Savior that we have.

We have a real hero that in this spiritual battle that is unbeatable, that he has the victory, and that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ.

First Corinthians chapter 15, when it talks about the cross, it says, But thank God he gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

This is why we pray the prayers of deliverance, asking God to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil because he is the one that ultimately brings victory into our lives.

We don't achieve that on our own, but instead we plead for him to work and to move in our lives in such a way that he rescues us and that he leads us in the paths that we need to go.

So we've got to understand that as we pray this prayer, that we live in a spiritual world, that we are in a spiritual battle, we are in a spiritual war, that our enemy is daunting, but our hero is unbeatable.

And so we rely completely and fully on him.

We trust in him to be the one that helps us to overcome.

We need him to be the one that gives us the power to have victory in our lives.

And so we fall to our knees and we pray, lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Now, let's just get real for a moment.

I know that for you and for so often times in my lives, there's things that seem to plague us.

There's sins that have a deep rooted grip on our lives.

And you maybe have tried to quit, you've tried to change your behavior, you've tried to overcome some type of addiction, and you just continually come up short.

You throw the stick in the fire saying, I'm never gonna do this again, and it always Comes right back a few weeks or months or years later.

Man, are we praying prayers like this?

Are we trying to do things in our own power or are we praying to a holy God that's all powerful?

And are we asking him, lead me not into temptation?

Help me to believe your truth.

Help me to not be deceived by the lies of this world.

Help me to be rooted in the scriptures that you have given me.

Help me to be basking in the love of your Son.

And then let me be delivered from the evil.

And are we praying bold prayers like that, full of conviction, asking God and relying completely on Him to help us to be delivered from the ideas of deception?

There's a way out, there's victory.

You can overcome.

And I believe that if we will be the people that God has called us to be, then we can have victory in our lives and that we can be free from following the deceptive ways of the enemy.

Now, for some of you, you might be watching this morning or whenever you might be watching this, and you might be going, like, I don't have any victory in my life.

Like, when you talk about this whole kind of concept of a spiritual world and a savior and an enemy, like that's that's foreign concepts to you.

And this morning, I want you to understand that, man, this spiritual battle has truly been won by Jesus.

For uh John 3.16 tells us, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish, would not die, would not be led astray into deception and destruction, but instead would have eternal life.

And that's the beauty of the gospel.

And that's the invitation that our Heavenly Father is inviting you into today.

He's inviting you into a relationship with him.

And so that's the first step to take.

If you've never put your faith and your trust in Jesus, man, that's the first step today to do is to put your faith and your trust in Jesus.

To not be misled and deceived by the enemy, but instead to recognize your spiritual need and dependence upon him and put your faith and your trust completely and fully in him.

We say here at Church of the Grove, it's ABC.

It's about admitting that we're sinful, admitting our need for salvation, then believing that Jesus is Christ, that he came to earth, lived a perfect, sinless life, died on a cross, rose again on the third day, and now offers us a relationship with our Heavenly Father.

And then finally confess that Jesus is Lord, commit our lives to him for our salvation as our forgiver and the one that is now the Lord and the Savior of our lives.

And if that's the step that you feel like you need to take, or maybe you just have some questions about that, we would love to start a conversation with you.

And you can just simply pull out your phone right now and you can text the word start to follow, all together, start to follow, to 9700 and somebody on our staff or a volunteer will follow up with you this week and give you more information about how you can pursue a relationship with Jesus.

But for the rest of us, maybe you call yourself a follower of Jesus.

Let us not fall and be shy about following Jesus, but let us live bold lives, lives full of conviction.

Let us pray this prayer with conviction.

Lead us not into temptation.

Let me not be deceived by the enemy, and let me have be rescued and delivered from the evil one.

And I believe that if we will be serious about praying prayers like this, then God will not only shape and mold our lives into the men and women He wants us to become, but He'll lead us to the destinations we ultimately want to end up in, and we'll make a difference not just in our lives and in our families and in our homes, but in our community and ultimately around the world as we pray for God to move mightily on our behalf.

Let me pray for us.

Lord Jesus, I thank you, Lord, for who you are and for what you have done.

Lord, we thank you, Lord, for just the good news of the gospel, Lord, that you saw sinful creation, Lord, and you sent your son to deliver us and to rescue us from the sins that so easily plagued us.

And so, Lord, we praise you and we thank you for that.

And Lord, I know that there's so many people that are struggling, and they maybe have ended up in destinations that they never intended to go.

They maybe have bought into the lies of deception, and they've been deceived into following a path that you never intended them to go.

Lord, help them to see the truth.

Help them to not be led into temptation, Lord, but deliver them from the hand and the grip of the enemy.

Help them to see that there is a spiritual war, that there is a spiritual world, that there is a daunting enemy, but there is a hero that is unbeatable.

Lord, help us to trust completely and fully in you.

And we ask and we beg, Lord, that we would not be deceived, but Lord, that we would walk in the paths of righteousness and that you would lead us to where we should go.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for your word and for your truth and for the power that comes with that.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.