Pray Like This: Lead & Deliver Us - Pastor David Houck | 9.20.26

Like to invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter six, beginning in verse nine, as this morning we wrap up our look at the Lord's Prayer.

Beginning in verse nine, Jesus prayed or Jesus said, Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

So my last time saying this, at least for a while, this is a model for prayer, not a tradition or a ritual that needs to be practiced, but a model, an example of what our prayer should look like.

We split it into five sections.

It began with the person that we pray to, our heavenly father.

Jesus said, Your God is like a father, a father in heaven.

And the only way we can call him our heavenly father is if we have accepted his son, Jesus.

Then it turned to the praise.

He said, Hallowed be your name.

Meaning that is a prayer, a request in itself that God would be glorified.

Now God is glorified.

All glory belongs to God, but it's a prayer that his glory would be recognized by others.

Then it turned to the priority of prayer, not our needs, but that God's kingdom would advance on earth.

God's kingdom would come, that God's will would be done in the earth and in our own lives personally.

Then he turned to the petition of presenting our needs before God, not necessarily everything we want or everything we think we deserve, but praying that God would grant us what He desires us to have and what He knows that we need.

And then last week we looked at Jesus' words on forgiveness.

We pray for forgiveness to receive Jesus' salvation, but we continue to pray for forgiveness, not because we need to continually earn his salvation, but because we need a daily cleansing throughout our spiritual journeys.

As we fall into sin and temptation, we need God's continued blessing upon us so that we can enjoy our salvation and enjoy our fellowship with Him.

And we do this as we forgive our debtors.

We share that forgiveness with others.

And today we look at the final section, our request for protection, particularly protection from sin.

I've shared this before, but it's been a while.

Now I love donuts, but Billy had a problem with donuts.

In fact, on his way to work, he had a particular donut store that he loved, and he would stop and he would get a dozen donuts every morning, and he would eat them throughout his breaks at work.

Now, as you can imagine, this had detrimental effects upon his health.

It was a problem, and people recognized it was a problem.

And finally, his doctor, his friends, and his coworkers were able to convince him to change.

And he did.

And it wasn't long before you could see the positive health impacts.

He began to lose weight, he looked healthier, he had more energy, and he was doing really well for several months.

But then one day his coworkers were incredibly discouraged to see Billy sitting at a table with a dozen donuts in front of him, eating them.

And they said, Billy, come on, man, you've been doing so well.

What happened?

You giving up?

And he said, Well, you know, this morning, I just really wanted a donut.

And so I prayed, God, if there is an empty parking spot right in front of the donut store on my way to work, I will take that as a sign that it's okay I have a donut today.

And he said, and wouldn't you know it?

On my seventh time around the block, there was an empty parking spot right there in front of the door.

We can all relate to the story of Billy.

Maybe your problem isn't donuts, but we all have something, or perhaps someone, some sort of temptation that draws us in more than any other.

If you're a Christian, this can be incredibly discouraging.

It's I see that it's especially discouraging for younger believers, meaning believers who are newer to the faith.

Because I'll hear so often following someone's uh salvation, following someone receiving uh Christ as their savior, that you know that they're doing really well and they're excited about life, and they say, you know, the things I used to struggle with, I'm not really struggling with them anymore.

It's great, it seems like God has forgiven me and freed me of everything.

And oftentimes I caution them.

You know, I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but often what you see happen is that time will pass on and eventually the struggle returns.

And they're greatly discouraged by that and they're frustrated, and they wonder why.

They might even begin to question whether or not Christ has really freed them, maybe whether or not this is real at all.

Immediate freedom is certainly possible, and I hear those stories, but oftentimes believers are blindsided when the struggle returns.

Maybe you've experienced this.

Maybe you're experiencing this now, and you wonder why.

It's because while Christ has rescued us from the punishment and power of sin, we have not yet been freed from the problem of sin.

Through the sacrifice of Jesus, we've been rescued from the punishment and power of sin, but in our lives, the problem of sin remains.

At the cross, Jesus completely defeated the power of sin in the lives of those who would come to accept him as Lord and Savior.

And he took upon the punishment of sin, the eternal death that we deserve.

Paul wrote in Romans chapter 6, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death.

Romans 6:23

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now, what is sin?

Sin is anything and everything that falls short of God's perfection.

God is good, he is righteous, he is holy, he is just, he is merciful, and that's what he requires of humanity.

But humanity, both as a whole and as individuals, we have chosen to live apart from God's holy standard.

To embrace darkness instead of light, to pursue our own selfish desires rather than God's perfect will.

We choose to live apart from God, and that's exactly what we will get: eternal separation from God and all that is good, eternal punishment in hell.

Those are the wages of sin.

But the free gift of God is eternal life offered through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit, God Himself dwelling within us, defeats the power of sin in our lives.

We were once slaves to sin, unable to change, even unaware of just how sinful we were.

But then the Holy Spirit, given to us through Jesus, frees us from that slavery.

He frees us from that bondage, he reveals to us what sin is, and he gives us the power to overcome it.

But it doesn't always feel that way.

Why?

Well, Paul wrote to the Galatians, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

You become a Christian.

Honestly, we should probably tell everyone.

That's great.

So happy.

Welcome to the fight.

Because the battle against sin and temptation begins after you become a Christian.

There wasn't a battle before at all.

You weren't fighting, you were defeated.

You were totally under Satan's control.

You were on his side, whether or not you accepted that.

Now it is a fight, it is a constant struggle between your new spirit and your old self.

This is the problem of sin that we will face for the remainder of our lives on this side of eternity.

That's why, as we looked at last week, Jesus taught us to pray, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, because he understands we need God's forgiveness.

Jesus knew that even once we're freed, the struggle will remain.

Sometimes we'll be victorious, and other times we will stumble and fall.

I'm comforted by the fact that the Apostle Paul, one of, if not the most influential figures in church history, the man who wrote half the New Testament, understood this struggle.

He wrote to the Romans, for I do not understand my own actions.

Anyone relate to that?

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.

He's talking about God's moral standard.

So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Are you following this?

I know he uses a lot of words here to say one thing, but so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God and my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death.

Can you relate to this?

He's just talking about the constant struggle, the desire to do what is right in God's eyes, yet the pull to do what is wrong.

This constant tension within and the constant reminder through all of this of just how wretched we are.

If you feel this way, you're not alone.

I mean, come on, the Apostle Paul experienced this.

But fortunately, Paul doesn't end there.

Verse 25, he says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

While our earthly, corrupted flesh still serves our sinful nature, thanks be to God that through Jesus we have been freed from the punishment of that sin, and we have been given a desire to do good.

But there's even more hope.

That one day this struggle, this constant tension will end.

Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6

There will come a day for each and every one of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, where we are either called home through death or raptured up to meet Jesus when he returns.

And when that happens, our old bodies will pass away, and with it the sinful desires of our flesh.

And then at the end of this fallen, broken universe, we will be given new, perfect bodies so that we are able to enjoy the good things of life, enjoy life for all of eternity to the fullest, without the internal struggle of sin.

That's what we look forward to.

That's what I look forward to.

But in the meantime, between now and then, Christ teaches us to pray for God's perfection.

Protection, excuse me.

Now, protection from who or what specifically.

Well, first of all, it's protection from ourselves.

We like to blame Satan for everything.

You know, the devil's uh under every rock and behind every bush in our lives, right?

But there's a little devil on our shoulder whispering in our ears.

You'll hear people say, the devil made me do it.

But oftentimes, other than being the great deceiver who initially led humanity into sin, Satan really has nothing to do with our sin and temptation.

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote that really we are the ones to blame.

Said in chapter one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

What James is saying here is that most of the temptations we face are not external temptations, they're internal.

It's not the devil dangling something on a string in front of us, but an inward desire that leads us astray.

It is the lust of life, it is covetousness, it's the inward fleshly desire to do what is wrong.

That's why Jesus told his disciples, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Meanwhile our spirit may desire to do good, our flesh is weak to temptation, and so often we're the ones to blame.

Deep down we desire the sin, whatever it may be, and we willingly put ourselves in the position of temptation.

And then at that point, it's often a losing battle.

It begins with the desire, and as James says, then it is conceived, meaning it gives way into action, and that action is sin.

And so often, even the desire itself is sin.

And we willingly put ourselves there.

But the best way to overcome temptation is to avoid it.

As Christians, we might not run into sin at full speed, but we often creep towards it.

We toy with it, we play with the idea of it, we see how close we can get to it without giving in.

Convincing ourselves that that's okay.

We think, I mean, as long as we don't go all the way with whatever it is, we're okay, right?

I mean, we're just playing with the idea.

We're just thinking about it.

It's just a fantasy, but we're not actually doing it, right?

But that in itself is sin.

That is your evil desire to do what is wrong.

That's your flesh saying, come on.

Embrace the old way.

Isn't it attractive?

Isn't it appealing?

But make no mistake, willfully and intentionally putting yourself in a position where you know you will be tempted is sin.

Oftentimes this just happens when we're doing something, when we're not doing something that we're supposed to.

We know we should be doing something else, but we're not doing it.

And by that, we place ourselves in a place of temptation.

King David, great example of this.

We read in 2 Samuel chapter 11, verses 1 through 2.

2 Samuel 11:1–2

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.

But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof of a woman, from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.

While the kings went out to battle, David remained.

David should have been out to battle.

David should have been leading his men, as he so often did, but instead he sent someone else in his place.

You might know the rest of the story.

He summoned Bathsheba, this woman.

He had an affair with her, she became pregnant.

He then tried convincing, uh pulling her husband back from the lines from battle in order to have her or have him sleep with the wife so that he would think that the child is his own, but because he was a righteous man, he said, How can I do that when my men are off to battle?

So then David hatched this great plan to have her husband killed in battle.

And in the midst of that, so many other men died too.

Then he tried to deceive and conceal his sin.

He should have been off to battle, but he stayed behind.

He was idle, he was bored.

Boredom is so dangerous.

He wandered to the roof.

Who knows how often he did this, what his motivation was, how many times he saw Bathsheba.

I don't know, but regardless, his abandonment of what he was supposed to do caused him to be where he shouldn't have been.

Proverbs chapter 4, verse 14 through 15 says, Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil.

Proverbs 4:14–15

Avoid it, do not go on it, turn away from it and pass on.

Don't even step foot on the path to sin.

Don't toy with that idea.

Don't play with it.

Don't think you are stronger than you are.

Well, I can handle it.

Because our flesh is weak.

Our flesh cannot handle it.

Delete that app.

Stop talking to that person.

Don't go to that bar.

Don't hang out with that group.

Don't watch those shows or movies or play those games.

Don't go to those stores.

Don't browse that website.

Avoid those aisles.

Do everything you can to avoid the temptation in the first place.

And Jesus said, you really can't go too far in doing this.

He said, better to gouge out your eyes and cut off your hands than to give into temptation.

Chances are right now you are thinking about exactly what you need to do.

All they have to do is talk about sin and temptation.

You look at the title and you instantly are thinking of whatever you struggle with.

Everyone's got their thing.

And you know when you put yourself in that position.

And you've probably known for a while what it is that you need to do.

But we resist it, we avoid it.

But nothing will change unless you make a change.

If you want a result you've never had before, then you have to take actions you've never taken before.

You need to do whatever is necessary.

And the truth is that oftentimes removing temptation from our lives is a lot easier than we make it out to be.

Because following Jesus leads us away from temptation.

We take steps in order to remove temptation.

So, in the example of King David, that would mean not going up to the roof.

But as King David should have been off into battle, we should be following Jesus.

So we know what not to do and we know what to do.

And by doing the right thing, we avoid the temptations.

Jesus teaches us that we should pray and lead us not into temptation.

Now, this prompts a lot of confusion.

A lot of people wonder if this means that otherwise God will lead us into temptation.

Is that why we have to ask that he would lead us away?

No.

James wrote in 1 verse 13 let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

God is never the source of temptation.

God is not dangling carrots of sin in front of you.

Rather, Jesus is teaching us to ask God for the strength to follow him rather than follow our own desires.

And Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 12, again Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world.

John 8:12

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

By following me, you will not walk in darkness.

The early church, these believers were not first called Christians.

That was a derogatory term given to them later.

They were disciples.

They were students who followed their master.

This movement of Jesus followers was not initially called Christianity, it was called the way.

These are not passive terms, these are active.

Christianity really means nothing today.

Anyone can call themselves Christians.

But these terms describe individuals who were committed to following the way of Jesus.

And by following Jesus, we will naturally avoid so many temptations we would otherwise wander into.

Paul wrote, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

He says this is one action.

He's not saying walk by the spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

He says these aren't two different battles, this is one and the same.

If you walk by the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

To walk by the Spirit, he means be obedient to the Spirit's calling, informed by the written word of God.

You open up your Bible, you read what it says, and you allow the Spirit to transform your life and be obedient to God's word.

It's seeking first God's kingdom rather than your desires.

It's being proactive.

Paul wrote to Timothy, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

You're running in one direction.

You're leaving the earthly youthful passions behind, and you are running towards, you are pursuing righteousness.

And by doing so, you remove so many opportunities for sin to even take place.

That's why Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 27 give no opportunity to the devil.

Ephesians 4:27

Don't leave opportunity for your flesh to draw you away and for the devil to pounce.

Which leads us to the second form of protection.

It's protection from Satan.

Jesus said, lead us not into temptation.

He said, but deliver us from evil.

Some translations even say the evil one.

There is an enemy out there.

To say that there isn't is to say that Jesus is a liar.

You cannot be a Christian and say there is no devil.

And Paul said that this struggle isn't against flesh and blood, all right?

It's not against the atheists, it's not against those who vote a different way or who are part of a different denomination.

Our struggle is against the Prince of Darkness, his army, the powers that rule over this fallen earth.

Peter said, be sober-minded, be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

There's an enemy out there.

He roams over the earth.

This fallen, broken world is his.

And he's seeking someone to devour.

Who is he seeking to devour?

Christians.

We are his enemy.

The unredeemed, those who haven't placed their faith in Christ, they're not enemies of Satan at all.

They already belong to him.

It is when we are purchased by Christ that we switch sides.

Jesus said to the religious hypocrites, He said, You belong to your father, the devil.

You're a child of Satan.

You belong to him.

You do his will.

Satan has no reason to devour those people.

He already has them.

The struggle begins, the conflict begins when you are no longer on his side, when you have been purchased by Jesus.

And the devil will do everything he can to keep us from being obedient to God's will, to keep us from enjoying our salvation, to keep us from sharing the good news with others and being an image bearer of Christ as we are called to do.

He will wage war against us for as long as we live on the earth, which is why Jesus prayed the following for us.

It was a prayer for his disciples then, and he said, This is a prayer for all disciples to come.

He said, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

There is an internal battle, which is often the one to blame, but there is also an external battle.

There will be temptation that comes from the outside.

This is the temptation that Jesus experienced.

Matthew chapter 4 says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

You wonder, well, Jesus was tempted?

Didn't we just read that God cannot be tempted?

Well it's interesting that there's one word that is translated as both tempt and test.

To be tempted and to be tested.

They can be used interchangeably to an extent.

What matters is the context.

If it comes from within, or if it comes from Satan, or if it comes from the world that he rules, it is temptation.

If it comes from God, it's a test.

Now that might seem like it's just semantics, but it's not.

It's about the purpose.

Satan may place something in your life with the purpose of making you fail.

But God may place you in a difficult situation with the purpose of making you stronger.

Now, when we are placed in difficult situations, when God people say, people say God doesn't give us more than we can handle.

No, that's about temptation.

But God 100% places us in situations that are beyond our strength.

Why?

So that we rely on Him.

But in those moments, the devil creeps in and he tries to take advantage of that time and says, no, no, no, don't go to Him, come towards me.

Go to the old ways.

And that's when He pounces and presents you with external temptation.

That temptation is not from God.

When you're in a difficult time in your life, when you're faced with different struggles and trials and difficulties, you have the choice to cling unto God and remain obedient or drift back to your old self.

It all goes back to the parable of the sower and the sower in the seeds that Jesus told.

So there are some people who immediately receive the good news of the gospel with great joy.

Someone tells them about Jesus, they start going to church, they're on fire, they are passionate.

It seems like they're good.

But then, then life happens.

Either they're faced with a difficulty or an unexpected crisis, or they're offended by something, or they realize that becoming a Christian requires more than they're willing to give.

Or they're drawn back to their old way of living.

And rather than pursue God in those moments, they fall away.

And they prove in those moments that their faith was never genuine.

They faced a test and they failed.

When you succeed in a difficult time, that was a test that proved your faith is genuine, and a test that proved that God is within you.

But when people fail, it proves that it was a temptation.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Because if we turn to Jesus, he gives us the power to remain steadfast in the tests and trials, to lead us away from the situations that would present great temptation.

And Jesus answers those prayers because he sympathizes with us in our weakness.

Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

Jesus is the only person we can turn to for help in our trials because he understands temptation, yet he was able to overcome it.

How to overcome, how to fight.

Because not only has he been there, but he succeeded.

It's the difference between getting unwanted advice from someone who has no idea what you're going through and someone who has and has overcome.

He was able to overcome and he gives us that power too.

But in order to make use of that power, in order to have the strength, we must ask God for protection.

And as we close, I just want to go quickly through how God protects us.

What exactly we are asking God for?

We know who we are asking for protection from, ourselves and the devil, but what are we looking for when we ask for his forgiveness?

How does he protect us?

Well, first of all, he guards us from attack.

He guards us from attack in the first place.

Paul wrote, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

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

As Christians, we cannot truthfully say, hey, no, no, no, you don't understand.

You don't understand what I was facing.

It was too powerful.

Because that's not true.

There's no temptation that's unique to you.

We all experience temptation.

We all experience temptation to the same degree.

So that's a lie.

As believers, we can't ever honestly say I couldn't help myself.

Or the temptation was too great.

Because that's not true.

Satan, as powerful as he is, is a defeated foe.

He has lost his power over the lives of believers.

He cannot master you or me.

If we belong to Christ, we belong to Christ.

Satan has no power over us.

He cannot give us a temptation that is guaranteed to make us fall.

Not with the Holy Spirit within us.

Greater is He living inside of me than He who is living in the world.

In the story of Job, Satan had to ask God for permission to afflict Job.

Satan can do nothing that God does not permit.

God knows what we can handle, he knows the temptations that we can overcome, and he knows the temptations that we can't overcome.

And he does not allow his children to enter a situation where there is no hope.

Paul wrote, but the Lord is faithful, he will establish you and guard you against the evil one.

So we pray that God would guard us from attacks.

Secondly, God protects us by guiding us with the truth.

The word of God, our Bibles reveal to us what is right and what is wrong.

You can't ever say, I didn't know it was a sin, because God has given us his word that tells us what sin is.

And it instructs us how to live.

It shows what God requires and what Satan desires.

Sun Zhu famously wrote in The Art of War, know your enemy.

If you want any chance to be victorious in battle, you have to know who you're fighting against.

And God has given us all we need to know.

Paul said, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.

We're told who he is, what his tactics are, and how he can be defeated.

It's all found in God's truth, his written word.

And it's actually his written word that Jesus used in his fight against temptation when he was tempted.

Said then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

When battling temptation, he quoted Scripture.

To try to fight temptation on a daily basis, without grounding yourself in the word of God on a daily basis, is walking into a battlefield without a weapon.

You need to saturate yourself in scripture and combat Satan's lies with God's truth if you want to be victorious.

Which leads us to number three, he gears us for battle.

He guards us from attack, he guides us with the truth, and he gears us for battle.

Paul said to the Ephesians, 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.

So right there he's saying, you can stand against the schemes of the devil.

So stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, 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 one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

You cannot defeat temptation on your own.

If you've never given your life to Christ, sin is your master.

There's no fight there.

The ability to fight the war against sin and temptation happens only when you are given the weapons and the armor to fight.

And we don't make our own armor or forge our own weapons.

We take upon God's truth, his righteousness, his gospel of peace, the faith that he grants us, and the powerful weapon that is his word.

But even so, as we all know, there are times when we find ourselves walking down the path of temptation, but it's not too late.

Because number four, he gives us a way out.

Continuing what Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, No temptation has overtaken 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.

On the road of temptation, there There are many exits.

Opportunities to go do something else, go somewhere else, say something else, or remove yourself from the situation.

And you are completely able to take any one of those exits.

King David willfully placed himself in a situation where he would be tempted.

But then we get the story of Joseph.

The flip side.

Joseph was made the overseer of his Egyptian master's house, and we're told that he was a pretty good-looking dude.

And his master's wife daily tempted Joseph to sleep with her.

We read in Genesis 39, verses 10 through 11.

Genesis 39:10–11

And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.

But one day, when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me.

But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.

Joseph didn't remain in the house as David remained on the roof.

He fled.

He left his jacket behind and he got out of there.

That's what we're to do.

We're given exits and we're able to take them.

But the unfortunate reality is.

You don't say, well, you know what?

I'm human.

No, you fall on your knees before God and you ask for his forgiveness and his grace and mercy because he has given you what you need to overcome temptation, yet you chose to ignore it.

But there is still good news because God's protection does not end there.

Lastly, he grips us in his hand.

As believers, our failures are not the end of the story.

God does not abandon us when we give in to our temptations, even when we do so a hundred times.

The salvation he offers is not dependent upon our obedience, but upon his son's sacrifice.

And Jesus' death was enough.

Not only to cover all the sins of your life before you came to know him, but all the sins afterward too.

And if you have truly experienced the life-transforming salvation of Jesus, that cannot be lost.

That cannot be taken away.

There's nothing you can do, nothing Satan can do, nothing the world can do to remove you from his grasp.

Jesus said, I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

I and the Father are one.

Are you in your Father's hand?

If so, you are protected from the eternal wrath of hell.

But if you're not, if you're not in his hand, then you're not under his protection.

Well, is there any hope?

Yes, through Jesus.

Apart from him, no.

That's the end of the story.

If you don't belong to God, you stand condemned already.

I have to include this.

If you call yourself a Christian yet have zero desire to combat your sin, I would seriously urge you to examine yourself, as John says, and whether you are truly saved.

And that's not a question of whether or not Christ's sacrifice is enough, but whether or not you have truly accepted it.

To say the words lead us not into temptation, that's easy to say.

But can we say it truthfully?

Do we truly desire that God would lead us away from temptation?

Are we committed to follow him?

This model of prayer that Jesus gave us isn't about the words that we say, but about the condition of our hearts.

It's not some magical incantation to get God's favor.

It's a demonstration of how we as Christians are to shape not only our prayer life, but every aspect of our lives.

We serve our Heavenly Father, whom we have a relationship with through Jesus.

We seek His glory.

We seek His will in our lives and in the lives of others.

We trust God to provide what we need, and we're content with whatever that is.

We seek His forgiveness when we sin and we share that forgiveness with others.

We commit ourselves to follow Him and His Son, and we rely on His strength and protection.

You can pray this prayer all you want, but it's absolutely meaningless if you aren't sincere.

If you don't mean what you say.

Yes, this message, this whole series of messages has hopefully helped you guide your prayers.

But it's so much more than that.

It's a template to guide us as we live our lives for Christ.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you that we're even able to call you Father.

We do not deserve it.

I do not deserve it.

There's nothing we did or can do to deserve it.

It's just because you love us so much, you sent your Son to die for us, to take the penalty for our sins.

So, God, the very least we can do, it is nothing compared to what you've done.

But the very least we can do is to give our lives entirely over to you.

That our first priority would be to glorify you in all that we do so that you might be praised.

That we would seek first your will and your kingdom rather than our own selfish desires.

That we would trust you to provide what we need and only what you know that we need and what we can handle.

We ask for your help to be content with whatever that is and to share whatever that is with others.

We ask for your forgiveness, not because we think you need to die on the cross all over again for us, but because we need your daily cleansing so that we might enjoy the sweet fellowship with you without a guilty conscience.

And we ask for your help that we wouldn't be hypocrites in that forgiveness, but that we would be willing to offer it to others.

And we commit ourselves to follow you as our Lord and Savior, understanding that following you is the only path to life to the fullest.

And we ask for your protection, not just against our own selfish desires, but against the attacks of the evil one.

And all these things we pray in our Lord Jesus' name.

Amen.