Your Protection

It happened on an ordinary day.

Jesus had withdrawn to a solitary place to pray—something he did regularly, a rhythm his disciples had observed countless times. After Jesus finished praying, one of his disciples approached him with a request that would change everything: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1).

It's a remarkable request when you think about it. These were Jewish men. They'd been praying since childhood. But they'd seen something different in Jesus. They'd watched him pray with an intimacy, an authority, an expectation they'd never witnessed before. His prayers weren't performances or recitations. 

 When Jesus prayed, things happened. Sick people were healed. Demons fled. Storms calmed. The Father's will was done.

We will go deeper in the Lord’s prayer around five phrases in the prayer: Our Father, Your Kingdom, Give us, Forgive us, Lead and Deliver us. This is an invitation to go deeper by Learning to Pray with Jesus.

Transcript

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Thank you for listening to an audio resource from Stanwich Church, located in Greenwich in Stanford, Connecticut. The vision of Stanwich Church is to know Christ and make him known.

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A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 6, verses 9 through 13. 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 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. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy word.

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The most compelling reason to pray is because Jesus prayed. The what, the how, the when are all found in his own action of prayer. So beyond the model that he's given us, he's modeled for us how to tap into the Father and be accessible to the Holy Spirit to do ministry. But his most prominent prayer was his prayer in Gethsemane. If you remember, he has the Passover meal with his disciples and he goes to Gethsemane and he prays that the cup would be removed from him. Luke tells us that that intensity of prayer was so strong that his sweat was like drops of blood. He was in agony. This word is used only one time in the New Testament by Luke in this situation. It is a word that could be used to speak of a struggle for victory when you're wrestling. It was so strong that Luke says that angels from heaven were sent to strengthen him. And the writer of Hebrews says that he cried out with loud cries and tears. We've seen the aspect of drawing and intimacy to God in prayer through the Father, partnering with His work, your kingdom come, looking to Him for provision for life, your provision, your daily bread that you would give to us, forgiveness of sins. We now come to His protection. Because we need the Lord to protect us, we're in a dangerous world. And it's fitting that Jesus, who came as light and the darkness had not overcome it, and John would say of him, he came to destroy the works of the devil, that the final phrase would be about the devil. So let's just break these two phrases apart a little bit. Lead us not into temptation. The leadership of God, it's absolutely essential for our lives. When we try to create something, we make a mess. But if we will allow ourselves to be led by God, he will take us into places that will surprise us and amaze us, because his kingdom will come into those places through our lives. We see this in the Old Testament. When Moses is called by God to go back and be part of the liberation of the people, he says, I'm only going if you're going. It's kind of an echo of what Jesus is going to say later. I only go where the Father's going. Having that kind of direction in our life. In the wilderness, they had a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night leading them along. Psalm 23, which is such an important psalm to us, we're told twice that the Good Shepherd leads us so that we would find still waters and paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And then this amazing aspect, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear. Why? You are with us. See, when God commissions us and sends us, he doesn't send us out on our own. He comes with his presence to be with us. And so when we're praying for God to lead us, we're linking in to one of the most essential things of life. But lead us not into temptation. Would God lead us into temptation? Has anybody ever wondered about this phrase? Yeah, a lot of people have. Especially when you consider what it says in James 1.13. Because Scripture can't contradict itself. Says, let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. So what's going on here? We know that Satan is the tempter. When Jesus was taken out into the wilderness, we're told that he was tempted by the tempter. We know that God and his holiness, our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name, a holy God couldn't entice you with sin, and he wouldn't set you out for sin. One scholar tries to back translate into the Aramaic and basically says that this idea of permissive sense, that God don't allow me to get there. Our prayer this morning, I chose it specifically for today because of the phrase that's in here, don't let us yield to temptation. But I think there's a better explanation. You see, the Greek word for temptation there is the same one that we translate, trial or testing in other places. God won't tempt us, but he will allow trial and testing to come our way. Think about it. In James, that first chapter where I just read verse 13, verse 2 says this count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. Well, first of all, that's ridiculous. Count it all joy. You wouldn't say count it all joy when you have temptations of all kinds. We don't want that. But we know that trials are good because it goes on and say, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. See, God will put us on trial. He will test us. It's not like an evil professor that wants you to fail. Some of you have had professors like that. I used to set my students up to win. I wanted them all getting A's at the end. So I'd actually give them the questions even before the exam happened. I wanted them to learn, to grow in that experience. And God's not testing us like that. He's testing us like being in a spiritual gym to get muscles, you need resistance. And so sometimes trials and testing are his very gift to us. In fact, you're gonna see by the end of this little segment of prayer that trials are what teach us to pray. We get lazy when we're comfortable. We go what I call the Israeli cycle, the Israel cycle of the Old Testament. Goes well, we forget God. Things start falling apart, we're in trouble, we cry out to God, He rescues us, and it's good again. But we forget God when it's going well. And we drift away from Him. It's a pattern that happens in our life. Trials are your friend. Anyone have trials here today? Aren't you happy? It can change how we perceive these things in our life. That's why James can say, have all joy. You see, God wouldn't take us into temptation, but out of his love, he'll bring testing because he wants to make us like Jesus. And we won't be fully there on this side of the Jordan River, but when we cross over, we will be glorified like him, we're told in the scriptures, but we can progress in that understanding. I want to be more like Jesus tomorrow than I am today. And that's called being a disciple, of simply walking with him. I think 1 Corinthians 10, 13 helps us in this aspect as well, because though God will lead us into trials, he will not overwhelm us. Interestingly, it's translated in our Bible temptations here, but I would translate it trials. No trial has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you enter to trial beyond your ability. But with the trial, he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Not only does God provide the trial, he provides the escape. Because he's for you. He wants to see these things released in your life. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Another bad translation. In the Greek, there's actually a definite article. So a better translation would be lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. In fact, that's how we translate it in John chapter 17, Jesus' great highly priestly prayer. Jesus prays, Father, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but I'm asking you to protect them from the evil one. So why don't we translate it evil one in most of our Bibles? Because we've been saying it this way since 1526, and if we change it, it will mess all of our liturgies up. But I want to bring us back to that, that this highlights the element that when we're praying, we're tapping into God's presence because we're in a war. We're in a spiritual battle all the time. Every day is a conflict. It happens on multiple fronts. First of all, I am walking spiritual warfare. I have a foot in Adam and I have a foot in Christ. And those two are fighting all the time. My spirit and the flesh are at battle all the time. Anybody relate to that? We're in a world that's moving away from God, that doesn't want to be a part of God's plan. And so when we walk out into society, we know that the current is moving against us. And most of all, we have this enemy of our soul who works in schemes and plans to try to bring us down. Paul reminds us that we are not battling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers in the heavenlies. And we need to remember this. Now, I want to pray against all evil. I've told you this is how I pray for my grandkids on a regular basis. Lord, give your angels charge over them that they may walk in your ways. That's from the Psalms. And that's because they have dirt bikes. And they're crazy. But I love it. Then I pray this protect them from the evil one, and protect them from evil people. So certainly I want to shut down evil in a general way, but when we understand behind this, there is an enemy who has plans. The old uh intervarsity fellowship, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, there's the other one, Satan hates you and he has a terrible plan for your life. And the further you go along with God, the more trouble will come your way. So, what's my so what this morning for us? Prayer has multiple functions as we've seen in the Lord's Prayer. There's the intimacy piece, our Father in heaven. There's the alignment piece, hallowed be your name, acknowledging that He is everything. There's the intercession piece, uh, your kingdom come, your will be done. There's the supplication, priest, give us our daily bread. Uh we're receiving ourselves if we actually think we're providing for ourselves. We live in a place of incredible opportunity. There's no doubt about it. And we've all, well, some of us have worked really hard. No, we've all worked hard to get here. But if ever God turned his view away from us, all the blessing would go away in a moment. It drives us to gratitude and an expectancy that he's the one who's always the provider. After supplication comes confession of our sins and really an empowering of the Holy Spirit that we'll be able to forgive others as a statement. But then we come to this last piece of protection. It's a war cry. Every time you pray is a war cry, no matter what kind of prayer it is. But Jesus finishes this prayer by reminding us that we have an enemy, and when you're in war, there's an urgency to your prayer. John Piper says it this way: uh, in wartime, you have a walkie-talkie that connects you to the general so that you get all of your orders. He says prayer is like a walkie-talkie in spiritual warfare. We've turned it into an inner calm where we ask God for more cushions for our den. Now, I don't know why he chose cushions for our den. I think maybe his wife was going to home goods too much at that point of his life, but prayer is about intimacy and connection and cooperating, but it's also about taking back that which belongs to God. And the enemy of our soul will fight against us. Folks, it's exciting what's happening in Stanford. This is gonna be unbelievable. Kaboom for the kingdom of God. But I'm gonna tell you the spiritual warfare is gonna heat up. You know that when you're doing something to give glory to Jesus, the enemy is gonna kick back. I have people say it to me all the time. How come when I make a vow or choose to do something for God, all hell breaks out against me? Hello? Uh there's Ed. Uh Ed Morgan was the director of Bowery Mission for years. He's written a memoir. He sent me a copy this week. I couldn't put it down for the last two days. But he talked about when he became uh uh baptized as an adult that all this trouble started coming against him at that moment. If you look at your life, every time you're ready to go with God, doesn't the heat come up a little bit? Yeah. And if there's no heat, I'm starting to ask, am I really making a difference in this world? Actually, the heat is a sign that I'm moving with God. And I just simply need to work in my authority to shut it down. Comfort can be one of the greatest dangers to prayer. When you think about the early believers who received this gospel of Matthew first, many of them were being executed for their faith. There was an urgency to their prayer life because the danger was around them all the time. We can be lulled into thinking that everything's okay and not realize that we are in spiritual warfare. So, as a pastor, I just want to invite you, exhort you, warn you, it's time to arm up. No passive praying, no fear-filled prayers, faith-filled prayers, and the authority that Jesus has given and has returned to us. Um, I had prepared a bunch of things I was going to share with you on uh spiritual warfare. I'm not gonna do that. The Lord told me to do something different this morning. Uh, if you want uh topics on spiritual warfare or resources, there's a lot around here. Just send me an email. Uh actually, my video course is coming out this uh summer, uh Jesus and Spiritual Warfare. And you can take that and be self-directed. Um this week, uh, opposition has broken out against a French uh group of church planters, and they spent 90 minutes with me on Zoom arming up to be ready for the battle. This is an area that I've dealt with a lot, and I'm here to help you in that spot. But I came across this piece this week that really showed me what the biggest block to our prayer life is, where the enemy could sneak in. It's from John Piper. I'm having fun reading Piper again. Pretty amazing guy. He says this in writing about prayer. I close this chapter with an earnest exhortation. Unless I'm badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God's children don't have a significant prayer life is not so much that we don't want to, but that we don't plan to. Duh. Not that we so much that we don't want to, but we don't plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don't just get up one summer morning and say, hey, let's go today. You wouldn't have anything ready, you won't know where to go, nothing has been planned. Then he says this about prayer nothing has been planned, no time, no place, or no procedure. If you want renewal in your prayer life, you must plan to see it. It's not an add-on. It becomes core. Try some new venture with God, set a time and set a place. So that's my now what for you. This is Holy Week. Put this someplace as a reminder that if you're not praying regularly, take five minutes. Use the Lord's Prayer and expand on it. Uh if you're driving someplace, put it in your car. It'll remind you not to listen to the radio or to live in anxiety, but this is a good opportunity to pray. This is dead space, except when you're yelling at other car drivers. But there is a confession part to the prayer which is really good and helpful in those moments. If you're praying 15 minutes a day, pick another aspect to go further. Allow God to grow you in your conversation with Him. He wants to talk with you. And this is the very source of getting the stuff of God. Palm Sunday, we raise these crosses as a reminder of where Jesus was going. If you think about it, those people who were celebrating him on that day towards Jerusalem, they wanted some kind of political national return from Jesus, that he would run the Romans out. Jesus was coming to them with a different type of kingdom, a kingdom of love that would go through a cross. They were celebrating, but you can tell through the course of the week that Jesus is feeling the weight of it more and more. But in Hebrews it says, He endured the cross for the joy set before him. Because he knew the other side was coming. Paul will say it this way to the church in Colossae: while our sin was being nailed to the cross, Jesus was making a public spectacle of the enemy triumphing over him. You see, the war is already won. The war is already won. We get to be the ones the effect of the battles and to bring glory to Jesus in the world where he has placed us. Oh, what an opportunity. Don't miss it. It is so good. Amen.

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To learn more about the mission and vision of Stanwich Church and how you can get involved, please visit Stanwichchurch.org.