April 26, 2026: Deliver Us - Matthew 6:13

We're working our way through the Lord's Prayer, ever mindful

of our Lord to whom we're praying.

We have a loving Father who has adopted us out of his great

love. Not only is he a loving father,

he is a powerful God full of wisdom.

So he's not only loving, but he's able.

And this is the one to whom we pray.

This is the one that we present our request to.

We notice that the Lord's Prayer presents as 6 petitions, and the

order is important. The first 3 are about God, about

His name and His Kingdom and His will.

And after we've prayed through this, we are in the proper heart

position, the proper posture to present our requests to God.

We're now in the third of these three, in the sixth of the 6th,

as we look at this particular request, praying against

temptation and evil. This is the second sermon out of

three that I intend to spend just on this particular

petition. And last week we took the first

part, Lead us not into temptation.

And we talked about how we were praying for protection,

protection against all kinds of things.

Temptation may include trials and tests from God, temptations

arising from our own evil desires, temptations arising

from the culture around us, from the world, temptations that come

from the devil and his minions himself.

We ask for the Lord to keep us even from entering into those at

all on the prevention side, on the protection side.

And we talked like that last week and we'll continue talking

this week about how dangerous is the spiritual life.

We have these terrible enemies that include our own evil

desires, the world and the devil.

We not only need protection from going into these temptations, we

need deliverance from them. Once we are within, we need

divine deliverance. And this morning we're going to

talk about this deliverance. It's funny, my, my family

recently has gone down an interesting rabbit trail

regarding prison breaks of all things prison breaks.

What's so compelling about prison breaks?

It all started with Mark Rober. Many of you know of his YouTube

channel is super smart engineer who designs obstacle courses for

squirrels. I know it sounds crazy.

You can look it up. It's amazing.

You'll be transfixed and then you'll be like, what am I even

doing with my life? But Mark released a video which

is scientific geeky engineering deep dive on a historic escape

from Alcatraz, the Rock in San Francisco.

Super interesting. We're watching this.

We're geeking out. So interesting.

And then, of course, after that video is over, the algorithm has

you and its clutches and start suggesting things.

Oh, they like prison breaks. They might like this one about

El Chapo and how he escaped twice, twice from maximum

security prisons down in Mexico with his tunneling goons busted

him out of there. Amazing, amazing.

And then our third, I guess we wanted to make it a trilogy as

our family descends down this this path.

We're geeking out right now over something I hope is a little bit

more refined, but we're geeking out right now over Alexander

Dumas masterpiece, The Count of Monte Cristo.

Amazing, amazing. What's so interesting about

prison breaks? Particularly interesting if

you're cheering for the one who needs to get out because he's

been incarcerated unjustly. We in the Bible are told amazing

stories of deliverance over and over and over again, trapped

against all odds and released in a nick of time by God's mighty

hand, by his agents of redemption.

It's a massive theme, and I would commend to you a study on

deliverance in the Bible. Entire denominations have become

fixated maybe too much on the theme of deliverance, but we

would do well to consider that the Lord's Prayer teaches us to

beg God for deliverance. So the first thing, first point

today is that we are commanded and taught to pray for rescue.

We need divine deliverance. The Bible says deliver us from

this evil. And next week I'll talk more and

unpack more about what evil we're considering.

But for our purposes this morning, it's anything that

comes into our lives that that tempts us, that draws us off of

faith in God, all manner of evil, and in this second part of

the petition, deliver us from evil is this parallel to

temptation. We have to continually remind

ourselves of the spiritual dangers that are against us,

these enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil.

Our text this morning that that Russ read goes this way.

Now these things took place as examples for us that we might

not desire evil as they did Paul's.

Looking back and thinking about the children of Israel in the

Old Testament. Any kind of riffs on some of the

stories in your Old Testament? Do not be idolaters as some of

as some of them were. As it is written that people sat

down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did

and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the

test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor

grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

Now these things happen to them as an example, but they were

written down for our instruction.

That includes you and me, on whom the end of the ages has

come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks

that he stands take heed lest he fall.

No temptation has overcome you. That is not common to man.

God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your

ability. But with the temptation, He will

also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure

it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from

idolatry. We're supposed to pray for

rescue from temptation, but then this text teaches us that we

need to look for a way of escape.

You pray for rescue and then you participate in His plan.

Participate in His plan. There is a joke that I heard

years and years and years ago. It's called the Drowning Man.

You've probably heard it before too.

It's the kind that preachers like, which probably means it's

not that funny. A fellow was stuck on his

rooftop during a flood. He was praying to God for help.

Soon a man on a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the

man on the roof. Jump into my boat, I can save

you, the stranded fellow shouted back.

No, it's OK. I'm praying to God and he's

going to save me. You know that where this is

going. So the rowboat went on.

Then a motorboat came by. The fellow in the motorboat

shouted, Jump in, I can save you.

To this the strain of man said, No thanks, I'm praying to God

that he is going to save me. I have faith.

So the motorboat went on. Then a helicopter came by and

the pilot shouted down. He must have had a tremendous

voice. Grab this rope and I will lift

you to safety. To this, the stranded man again

replied, No thanks. I'm praying to God and he's

going to save me. I have faith.

So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.

Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned.

He went to heaven. He finally got his chance to

discuss the whole situation with God, at which point he

exclaimed, I had faith in you, but you didn't save me.

You let me drown. I don't understand why.

To this God replied, I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a

helicopter. What more did you expect?

And the points well made. If you're going to pray for

rescue and he's providing a way of escape, then we must needs

participate in this plan. I have three ES for you to

concentrate on under this point. The first is that we need to

engage. We need to engage the text for

this idea comes to us from Ephesians 6.

I'll just read verses 10 through 18.

It's famous. Many of you haven't memorized.

It has to do with the armor of God.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His

might. Put on the whole armor of God,

that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the

devil. For we do not wrestle against

flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers, over this present darkness, against

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be

able to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all to stand firm.

Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,

and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness

given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the

shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming

darts of the evil. 1 and take the helmet of salvation and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Praying at all times. Listen to the emphasis on

praying, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and

supplication to that end. Keep alert, and with

perseverance making supplication.

There is prayer again for all the Saints.

We pray, but then we actively are involved in the plan of

rescue. This is not complete passivity.

There are times when we wait on the Lord, but even that waiting

is a prayerful waiting of vigilance and activity with God.

So not only are we to engage, sometimes the Bible just says in

the words of Monty Python, run away, run away, run away.

And for this we have our second E, which is escape, escape.

Sometimes the right thing to do is not to engage.

As a a warrior with armor to stand against, you're just

supposed to book it out of there as fast as possible.

Bible says this their key verse. No temptation has overtaken you

that you that is not common to man.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your

ability, but with the temptation he will also provide.

See it there the way of escape. And then he says down in verse

14, flee, run away, run away. Perhaps what comes to mind for

you is an awkward story in Genesis when Joseph, Prince of

Egypt, is being seduced by the wife of his boss.

And he says to her, look, my masters withheld nothing from me

except you. This is wrong.

No, she won't listen. She grabs onto his clothes and

he runs away and she's holding his robe.

He just books it out of there. He just runs away.

This notion of running away or fleeing is also brought forth by

Paul to his protege, the young pastor Timothy.

Look at second Timothy 222. There's that word again.

Flee. So flee.

Youthful passions. Some translations have lusts

there. So flee youthful lusts and

pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those

who call on the Lord for a from a pure heart.

Not only is he supposed to flee youthful passions, but he's also

supposed to flee stupid conversations.

What's a stupid conversation? Passion.

That doesn't sound very nice. Well, hang with me for a second,

Paul says. Have nothing to do with foolish,

ignorant controversies. You know that they breed

quarrels. So maybe I'm the only one, but I

don't think I am. I'm sure many of you been in a

conversation where you just, you weren't really sure if you

should engage because you knew that it probably had a chance of

going the wrong way and becoming unhinged.

And you went ahead and engaged and it went, it went totally off

the tracks, off the rails. And like the hydra of Greek

mythology, that Serpentine beast with the snake heads, you cut

one off and two more pop up in its head.

It breeds quarrels. Social media ground is just like

their, their social. What did I just say?

Social media is like their breeding ground, right?

Madness, madness. Paul says you don't have to do

that. Better you don't do that better

you don't do that. Now you do have to engage.

You do have to have these conversations sometimes they're

not avoidable. And we're going to talk about

that some more. But in this text, he says don't

have anything to do with them. So Joseph escaped, Paul tells

Timothy to flee certain things at certain times, but even our

Lord Jesus sometimes just has these these Jedi moves.

Have you ever noticed this? These texts are always so

compelling to me. Here's an example of Jesus just

kind of disappearing from a very intense situation in John 859

says so they these, this angry mob picks up stones with which

to stone him. They they pick up stones to

throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the

temple. It's so funny.

There's another place where they want to pitch him off of a Cliff

and the text says that he just walked right through the clouds.

Like, how does that even work? Is there like a look on his

face? He's like, he just walks right

through. He's unarmed and he just walks

right through. It's amazing.

But he doesn't stick around. Do you notice that he leaves

sometimes? You're supposed to flee.

So we talked a little bit about taking a stand or engaging.

We've talked about fleeing or escape.

But the third E that I have for you this morning is endurance.

And I think probably most of our lives are lived here where we

have to bear up under something, a difficult relationship that's

a chronic temptation, a contextual problem at work that

won't go away. And you have to bear up under

it. And you have to come up with

different ways to walk with the Lord in this difficult

circumstances, in these difficult circumstances.

You can see it again in that key verse from First Corinthians

10/13. No temptation is overtaking you.

That's not common to man Keep reading.

God is faithful. You will not let you be tempted

beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also

provide the way of escape. There it is that you may be able

to endure it. Interesting juxtaposition that

the escape here is an endurance under with the Lord.

That's where most of us live most of the time.

And again we can think of Joseph back in Genesis.

Yes, he fled Potiphar's wife, he escaped, but it's like out of

the frying pan and into the fire because she frames him and he

has to go to the dungeons for at least two years, possibly up to

12. The scholars don't know.

The text is ambiguous. He's down in the dungeons having

to endure an affliction that isn't his fault as an innocent

man when he had Egypt at his fingertips.

Sounds like Edmund, poor Joseph. But then we can continue and

think about Timothy again, Paul's injunctions to Timothy.

Again, you can think about Paul being an incarcerated man, wrote

a lot of these letters while he's in jail, innocently

enduring underneath it. But he says to Timothy, Timothy,

the Lord's servant, you pastor, must not be quarrelsome, but

kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil,

correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them those people that are arguing with you

that you're gently trying to teach, grant them repentance

leading to a knowledge of the truth.

And then he talks about them escaping, that they may come to

their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being

captured by him to do his will. So Timothy, your endurance under

this evil may be a means of escape to the people that are

putting that very same pressure on you.

Can you hang in there and then drag you down into a stupid

conversation? But gently teach, kindly teach.

Perhaps they'll come to their senses and be rescued from their

snare. But besides Joseph and Timothy,

we can think about Paul himself given affliction, said he begged

God to take away, and God said no.

First Corinthians chapter 12, verses 7 through 10.

1 Corinthians 12:7–10

It's Paul's testimony, part of it.

So to keep me, an apostle, from becoming conceited, that's

having a big head. Because of the surpassing

greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh.

Look what he says, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep

me from becoming conceited. 3 times.

I plead with the Lord about that, about this, that it should

leave me. But he said to me, My grace is

sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so

that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I'm content with weaknesses,

insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

You may beg God to take that thing away, and he may say to

you, My grace is sufficient. Your recourse, then, is to walk

with Him through that affliction as well as you can, giving glory

to God as you do. To bear up under this is an

endurance given to you by the Holy Spirit, by Jesus Himself,

that you may bear up under this tremendously difficult

circumstance. We're not only thinking about

Joseph and Timothy and Paul, we can think about the life of our

Lord Himself, can't we? His endurance Hebrews 12/2

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, for

The Who, for the joy that was set before him.

There's that word endured the cross, despising the shame, and

is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

I don't know what you're going through, whether you're supposed

to take a stand or you're supposed to retreat or whether

you're supposed to bear up under it.

But we pray all along, deliver me, deliver me, help me to be

holy, help me to represent you well.

And should I even die from this trial, I have a bright hope and

future with you. Praise God.

Praise God. The Lord is obviously the most

compelling example of all of them for the greatest prison

break of all time. It's not from the rock, or from

a prison down in Mexico, or an island prison off the coast of

France, but from a Rolling Stone tomb all those years ago on

Easter morning, he broke the bars.

He walked out of there and that jailbird 3 at last is our divine

rescuer, which gives us tremendous hope when we pray to

him. Deliver me that he can do.

He escaped from death. One of my most favorite hymns of

all time actually has a jailbreak verse.

You know there's a jailbreak verse.

It's fantastic. Charles Wesley, I love you.

I can't wait to meet you someday.

Deidre has instructions. If I croak this, you're going to

have to sing this one. Brighton, take note.

You're younger than me. This could be your job.

Listen now, long my imprisoned spirit lay fast, bound in sin

and nature's night. I think it's really exciting

because Jesus comes in and there's like, like beams of

light shooting out of his eyes. It's super weird and super fun.

Ready, thine? He's talking about Jesus.

Thine eye diffused A quickening ray.

Quickening means resurrecting ray.

Thine eye diffused A quickening ray.

I woke. The dungeon flamed with light.

My chains fell off. My heart was free.

I rose, went forth and followed thee.

Free at last. Free at last.

And many of us can resonate with the entrapping bondage of sin.

And we know what it's like to sting this hymn and think about

our pardon in the gospel being kind of a jailbreak.

But many of our experience has been even in the Christian life

of, of a bondage to sin, besetting sins that are

entrapping and super hard to escape.

And we're so tired of repenting over and over again, yet again

for that thing that I just cannot kick, I cannot get rid

of. Maybe they're addictions, a

toxic persons that pull us away from the Lord.

And we wonder, does the gospel have the kind of power that the

preachers talk about and the people sing about?

Because here I am again, entrapped, enslaved.

It's a common, common story, probably the usual testimony.

And what we have to think about is the incremental nature, the

bit by bit aspect of the way the Lord rescues us from bondage.

Sometimes. Sometimes it's not

instantaneous. Sometimes it's like those

assiduous little diggers, digging bit by bits, day by day,

with the Lord's help, tunneling through all of the rock to get

out of there. There are a lot of surprises in

nursing school. I had no idea what I was getting

into. Sign up for nursing.

That sounds good. Lots of surprises.

I won't regale you Some of them unpleasant, some of them

surprisingly interesting and pleasant.

One of the things that surprised me that I was dreading that I

turned out to like a lot because I found it super compelling, was

in my mental health nursing class because we were required

to attend an A a meeting Alcoholics Anonymous.

I was super nervous. I didn't know what this meant.

I'd never been to anything like this before.

And I they get to this Community Center and there's just this

blue haze outside the Community Center because these addicts are

just trying to take one day at a time and they're fighting their

worst demon 1st and it's not cigarettes.

So you get into this, this Community Center, there's

probably a couple 100 people in there.

It was a big meeting. Huge.

And I was, I was amazed at the the steady, courageous vigilance

of people taking one day at a time, literally.

And I was surprised and compelled to how churchy some of

the things were about the meeting.

There were testimonies of, of addiction, testimonies of

sobriety one day at a time. I learned all kinds of things.

They've got a, a token system because you have to take one day

at a time and sometimes that's all you got.

They give you a physical representation, says one day

sober. Here's your coin.

Stick it in your pocket. You feeling tempted, get out and

hold it for a minute. Run away.

Do whatever you need to do. Call your sponsor.

Two days sober, three days sober, one week sober, one month

sober. Finally one year sober.

They're not supposed to think about all the years and years

and years one day at a time. So much of the Christian life,

particularly when we're dealing with besetting sins, is just

like that, scraping to get out of cell with Jesus.

Deliver me from evil one day at a time, with a courage to do

really hard things that have tempted you and have made you

fall before radical surgeries against things that you really

like. Maybe it's the Internet.

Suddenly we thought we would die if we didn't have the Internet.

I remember life before the Internet.

I know that's kind of like saying I'm 100 years old.

We have to kind of hit rock bottom and beg God as we are

taught to do in the Lord's Prayer.

Deliver me. And for some, it will be quick

and rapid. For most of us, it'll be a slow

and steady work over days and years and decades.

So I'm so blessed by folks who have taught me that courage, who

struggles far harder than anything that I have faced.

For the Lord Jesus Christ is free as a bird, and he will make

us free too. That's the power of the gospel

to change lives. So to conclude, friends, we need

protection from going into evil, but when we're in it, we need

divine rescue from evil. So we cry out to God for help

and we look for a way of escape, whether that means literally

running away or engaging or enduring with Christ.

We've been concluding the service this series by praying

together as a church, the Lord's Prayer.

If you don't know it, that's OK. I'm going to say it out loud.

When we get to the the line where we don't know which word

to use, sins or deaths or trespasses, we're going to say

trespasses. So will you pray with me, my

friends, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,

thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in

heaven. Give us this day Our Daily

Bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those

who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but

deliver us from evil, For thine is the Kingdom, and the power

and the glory forever. Amen.