Sermon Transcript

Good morning, everybody.

Well, I left you all on a cliffhanger last week. Last week, we went through the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. And the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, the aim was to ask God for help to glorify Him. And it really is a cause to orient our minds to the heavens, to the place where God’s throne is.

Well, that was last week. Last week, we were in the heavens. Today, we return to Earth. Last week, we focused on glorifying God. This week, we focus on beseeching God for help in our earthly bodies while we wait for Christ’s return.

Would you please stand with me as we read the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9–15. I’m reading from the Christian Standard Bible today.

Therefore, you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

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Father, I ask that You would please be with us today. Father, I pray that You would catapult our minds to the heavens to see You on Your throne. I pray, Lord, that You would strengthen us with the splendor of heaven today. You and all of Your majesty, we need to exalt You as telescopes to show the world about how great and majestic You are here on earth. But we cannot do that without Your help.

And we also need Your help to remain in a state of dependence on You. So please help me focus on the word of the Lord and accurately portray its intended meaning to Your people. I pray that You would help everyone focus and protect us, Lord Jesus, from the enemy who seeks to thwart and tempt us to destroy today’s gathering. And we tell him you are not welcome here in Jesus’ name. And we ask that You would please protect us and that You would guard us and make us more like Christ today. Help us to cherish the Lord’s Prayer more than ever before and to have it be a renewed tool in our prayer belt. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

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All right. So, folks, we live in America. We have the world’s biggest military. We spend more on our entitlement programs in America than I think we do on our military. Here we are, the land of flowing milk with honey, Doritos, Oreos and everything else that you can imagine. We have a land abundant with food. We have a land with abundant opportunities for housing. I know it doesn’t feel like that in the triangle right now, but from what you can see in the construction, housing is booming. Everything is booming. We have parking lots filled with transportation that you can just purchase. And not only can you purchase, but you don’t even have to buy it with cash. You walk in, sometimes with bad credit, and you can get a car. You can fly to Europe for $600.

We live in the modern age in a land that is filled, replete. We are overflowing with blessings, and it is no wonder that American society no longer has a focus on God. We have become so abundant, it is easy to forget about Him, and we tend to only remember Him when tragedy strikes our families. And then we’re back in the foxhole, and we’re praying to the Lord.

But the Lord’s Prayer today, the Lord has given us this prayer so that we can combat our tendency to forget about the Lord when things go well. This prayer not only beckons God to ensure that we flourish on earth, but it also ensures that we lean on God for our flourishing. In the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking Him for help, but it also fosters in our hearts the reminder that we need Him for help. And for Americans, this is so critical because we have everything at our fingertips, and it is so easy to forget that we need Him as the source for our survival.

And that’s why the main point for today’s sermon is that we ought—remember our sermon leaflets—we ought to deepen our reliance on the Father through prayer for our physical, our spiritual and our moral flourishing. So if you don’t know this word flourishing, it’s this image that you’ve got these new flowers that are just budding in your garden. Right? And it’s just beautiful. And when you have a strong, fertile land, then it looks beautiful. It’s vibrant. It’s lively. It’s producing fruit. This is what I mean when I’m talking about human flourishing. We are succeeding physically. We are never hungry. We are never thirsty. We are never without shelter. When we flourish spiritually, we are always near to the Lord. We are always forgiven of our sins. And when we flourish morally, we are always succeeding in those moments of temptation. That is a flourishing humanity, and that is what we need to rely on the Lord to flourish in those three domains, and Jesus has given us the Lord’s Prayer to help us do it.

The Last Three Petitions: Our Dependency on God

These last three petitions—the first three focused on us exalting God—the last three focus on our dependency on God for help, with the first being physical sustenance.

1. Physical Sustenance – “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

Now, sustenance can be food, but it can be literally anything that helps you stay alive. This petition is, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Do you notice He says, “Give us this day”? That kind of assumes that Jesus intends for us to be praying the Lord’s Prayer every day. “Give us our daily bread this day.” So if you’re not praying it tomorrow, then you’re not going to be praying for your daily bread.

The beautiful part about this is, in God’s kingdom, there are both the rich and the poor. It is not wrong to be rich, but it is wrong to live like you are rich and not like the poor. Why? And what do I mean by that? Do I mean you need to suffer? No, I mean the pauper, the poor man—when he is suffering, where is he at every day? The homeless? Both of these are praying: “Lord, I need food today. Bring it my way.” The millionaire may forget to pray these things because he doesn’t need to. He could just wake up and spend his dollar. Very easy. But the Lord’s Prayer brings the wealthy and the pauper to the same playing field. We both come before the Father’s throne, and we ask for help.

If you are wealthy—basically, if you’re American, because as Americans, we’re already in the top 1% of the world’s economic paradigm; we are richer than everyone else on earth—if you are rich, this prayer is more important for you than it would be if you were poor. Because if you were poor, it wouldn’t be a thought; you’d naturally pray. But if you are rich, you forget that all good things come from heaven. And if you’re American, you’re rich. So truly, wake up in the morning and beseech the Father, “Father, renew in my heart today, renew in my mind that all of my sustenance comes from You. I have this house today because of You. Don’t let me forget that. Don’t let me forget that the jacket I’m wearing comes from You. Don’t let me forget that my air conditioning, my heater, all of this, this comes from You. Don’t let me become haughty and proud and forget that I am living and breathing in this home because of You.” And if you’re American, you really need to be praying this because it is easy to forget.

And this isn’t just us as Americans. This is actually all humanity. And this all started in the garden. The devil said to Eve, “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1) Right? He came to Eve, and he said, “Did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?” (Gen. 3:1). And she said, “Well, actually, He said that we can’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 3:2–3, paraphrased). And then he says, “Well, that’s only because God doesn’t want you to be like Him, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5, paraphrased). And so what does Eve immediately begin to doubt? She doubts whether God is going to take care of her. She doubts God’s goodness and love for her. So she partakes of the tree. It says that she saw the fruit (Gen. 3:6). She saw that it was good for the taking and gaining of wisdom (Gen. 3:6 – “good for food…a delight to the eyes…and to be desired to make one wise”). And she decided to be like God (Gen. 3:5–6). And she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which she wasn’t supposed to (Gen. 2:17; 3:6). She was replacing God in her life. She gave birth to the sin of self-sufficiency.

Now, some of you might hear me say “sin of self-sufficiency” and think that I am speaking another language. How can it be sinful to be self-sufficient? But Church, that is an American lie. God did not make any of us to live on an independent island, and He certainly didn’t want us to live independently of Him. So now it enters into our DNA and it destroys our DNA, and we decide that we want to be self-sufficient apart from God, and that culminates in the Tower of Babel. You get to Genesis 11:6, and you see that they desire to make a name for themselves, and they were to become so successful, verse 6, Genesis 11:6, it says that nothing would be impossible for them. What does that mean? Nothing would be impossible for them to do apart from God. They would now be able to do anything outside of God’s power and help. So God obviously sees there’s a problem with that, and He destroys their language, He confuses their language, and He scatters them all around the world (Gen. 11:7–9). Why? To save their dependency on Him.

But it’s not just them. Once God saves Israel out of their Egyptian slavery in the book of Exodus (chs 12–15), He pulls them out, He brings them to the wilderness. They’re no longer enslaved, and they say, “Lord, we’re hungry.” That’s a good thing. “Lord, we’re hungry. Feed us.” So God says in Exodus 16, “I’m going to give you manna from heaven” (Ex 16:4). And so He gives them the manna. And He says, “This manna is going to fall for you every day, except the day of the Sabbath. It’s not going to fall on the Sabbath” (Ex 16:5, 22–30). But every day it falls, you go and you gather your manna, but only enough manna for the next 24 hours” (Ex 16:4–5, 16–20). Why? Well, on the eve of Sabbath, they were allowed to gather for two days so that they could rest (Ex 16:5, 23–30). But why? It was because He did not want them to gather and store for the future (Ex 16:19–20).

Why do we store for the future? Why do we have IRAs, 401(k)s? Why do we have all of these options of hoarding our money in safe vaults? Now look, I do it too, right? I’m planning for retirement. I’m planning for rainy days, but so much of us like to plan for our rainy days specifically to relieve ourselves of anxiety. But what is anxiety? It’s always the fruit of a lack of faith. If you were 100% certain the Lord was going to always give you food, always give you clothing, and always give you shelter, you would never be anxious about anything. Because even if you die, you know you’re going to be with the Lord Jesus. We literally have zero reason for anxiety. Am I anxiety-free? No, not at all. Do I struggle with anxiety? Absolutely. I’m no different from you. But I am logical, and I can tell you it is illogical to be anxious. As Christians, it is illogical. 401(k)s, IRAs, they’re good things, but they must not be the reason why you do not feel anxiety.

Well, what would happen with Israel in Exodus 16 if they hoarded more manna than they were supposed to? The Lord promised that maggots would eat it up (Ex 16:20 – “it bred worms and stank”). Why? To save their dependency on the Lord.

And then you get to the book of Proverbs. I love this prayer. So, Agur, he’s one of the authors who contributes to the book of Proverbs. And he says in Proverbs 30:8–9,

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

Agur recognizes the human proclivity when we have too much. We forget about the gift-giver, the Lord who loves us and sustains us.

So let’s bring this back to the Lord’s Prayer. The model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, we pray this because it creates and reminds us of our dependent state on the Lord, even when times are good. And we ought to be praying it every day.

So, what is the bread that Jesus is talking about? Is He only telling us to pray for literal bread? Because some people believe that when Jesus is telling us, “Give us this day our daily bread,” they’re referring to Jesus Himself. And that is because of John 6. Jesus said to them,

“Truly I tell you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “give us this bread always.”
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.” (John 6:32–35, CSB)

In verse 41, Jesus says, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” In verse 48, “I am the bread of life.” In verses 50-51,

“This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:50–51, CSB)

Sounds like a slam-dunk deal, right? So when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, are we praying, “Just give us our daily Jesus?” I don’t think so. And that is because we have to interpret the Lord’s Prayer in the context of the entire Sermon on the Mount that appears in Matthew. Nowhere does Jesus appear to be the bread of life outside of John’s gospel. And within the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is about to jump on this anxiety thing and really drive it home. He says in Matthew 6:19–24, He’s saying, “Don’t store up treasures on earth, but store your treasures in heaven.” And then He says in verse 25,

“Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25, CSB)

And Jesus goes on to remind them, “Look, I feed the birds (Matt 6:26) and I clothe the lilies of the field (Matt 6:28–29). Not even King Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these (Matt 6:29), but yet the lilies of the field are.” And He asks them the simple question, “Are you not of much more value than they? (Matt 6:26) If your Father takes care of them, will He not much more clothe you (and take care of you), O you of little faith?” (Matt 6:30–31).

So a big theme in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5–7, where we currently are, a big theme in the Sermon on the Mount is that the Heavenly Father is the source of all of our physical sustenance. So I do not think that the Lord’s Prayer is saying, “Give us our daily Jesus,” but I do believe that it is a good idea for you to say, “Jesus, draw near to me.” There is nothing wrong with that.

Martin Luther saw this as a reference to everything, not Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther, the German monk who started the Protestant Reformation. In his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, I love how he lays this out. “Give us this day our daily bread” is a “reference to everything necessary for the preservation of this life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government and peace.” This is everything that is going to sustain you physically. So in America, that could be good health care coverage, right? Good doctors, good food supply chains, everything to sustain us physically because we serve a God that does care for your body. He does care for you.

So if you’ve got a fracture in the hip, you pray against that. You ask this, “Lord, give me a good body,” right? Fibromyalgia, you pray against that. “Lord, give me a good body.” Everything that is good for your physical sustenance.

One other thing that really hit home for me personally, there was one time, one time, that we got to fly first class transatlantic and beautiful. It was so great. This is a 16-hour flight, and I got to lie down on a flat bed and sleep through it. We got to use our points. It was fantastic. This is normally a $20,000 ticket, right? And we got it for like $900. Can’t beat it. We flew from Houston all the way to Japan. That was a sweet gift from the Lord.

But when Jesus is saying, “Pray for your daily bread,” this is a very humbling prayer. You are literally just praying for the bare necessities. And this is a reminder that things like first-class flights, very expensive designer handbags, super expensive clothes—look, I love French food. I made a French dish last night. It’ll knock your socks off, but it’s an expensive dish. I love fine things as well, just like anybody. But the Lord’s Prayer is a reminder that our head is supposed to be on the place of necessity. We don’t go to the Lord and say, “Lord, please get me first-class tickets,” right? Because our minds need to be centered firstly on glorifying Him, making much about Him, and showing the world how beautiful and great He is. That’s our priority. And then we are asking Him to sustain our physical life so that we can glorify Him. It’s all a circle.

2. Forgiveness from Sin – “Forgive Us Our Debts…”

So that’s the first thing. The first thing is we need to deepen our reliance through this prayer on the Father for our physical sustenance. But the second one is we deepen our reliance on the Father by praying for forgiveness from sin.

In the Sermon on the Mount so far, Jesus has repeatedly counseled us against hypocrisy. He says, “Do not be like the hypocrites when you give to the poor” in Matthew 6:2. “Do not be like them when you pray” in Matthew 6:5. And “when you fast” in Matthew 6:16, “do not be like the hypocrites.” And He will continue to criticize these hypocrites as He goes throughout the Gospel of Matthew. And so in this petition, there is a subtle warning to not be like the hypocrites. We are warned against hypocrisy once more. We need to ask the Father for forgiveness, but we must not even dream of asking Him for forgiveness if we are refusing to forgive someone else. Do not be like the hypocrites when you ask for forgiveness.

But we must understand the warning of hypocrisy. We must first understand, before we understand this warning of hypocrisy, we must understand what Jesus means by forgiveness. In the Lord’s Prayer, He says, “Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors” or “those who have debts with us.”

I love that Jesus worded it this way. I mean, it’s almost like the guy’s a perfect author. He is, by the way, in case you didn’t know that. But I love that Jesus called sin “debts” here. And that is because the idea of debt explains the nature of sin perfectly. When you sin against someone, it is a transaction. But if I were to sin against Owen, I’m incurring a transaction that I expect Owen to pay for. That’s the sin. Sin is doing something that costs some kind of currency, but you’re refusing to foot the bill. That’s the idea that Jesus is bringing up here. And we’re going to get to how that relates to the cross. But for now, Jesus says, “Forgive us, Lord, of our debts as we have forgiven those who have debts with us.”

Guys, when we are forgiving people, we must refuse to exact vengeance. Vengeance is saying that person made me mad. They incurred a debt on me, and I want them to pay for the bill. But forgiveness is saying, no matter what they have done, it costs me a lot. I am accepting the charge, and I will pay for all of it. And I’m not even going to let them know there is a bill. That’s forgiveness. I accept the charge for this transaction.

Yesterday, this happened to me. I’m at Wegmans. If you want an opportunity to practice forgiving somebody, just go to the grocery store a week before Thanksgiving. You will get ample opportunities, I promise you. Look, people over 70 don’t walk fast until it’s time to shop for Thanksgiving. And these people were just ramming with carts, elbowing people, “Yeah, get out of my way, I was here first,” right? “Get your hands off my 30-pound turkey.” “You don’t look like you can lift that 30-pound turkey,”—but you can for Thanksgiving. I’m telling you, these people are wild and wicked before Thanksgiving.

And there is this couple, they probably look like they’re in their 50s, and their basket is full, like they’re going to take care of everybody in their HOA neighborhood, okay? (They look like HOA people.) So they are coming to check out at the checkout line. Here’s a lane. The man with the cart goes in this lane to check out, but his wife says, “I’m going to run reconnaissance and check out all the other lanes.” So Emma and I are checking out with seven items for my fancy French dish. And we’re going to check out, and this woman runs in front of me and Emma with my seven items to run reconnaissance, and she turns around standing in front of me, looks at her husband, and she goes, “Come on, honey,” and tells me and Emma to push aside while her and her husband and their HOA groceries check out for everybody.

And you know what my first thought was? Some of you are asking, “Do stand your ground laws apply in grocery stores?” No, it doesn’t. Not that we want to. But seriously, in that moment, I had just been thinking about the Lord’s Prayer all week. And that was my first thought, was I need to be able to look at this person right now and say, “I accept that charge. You just insulted me in front of my daughter. You embarrassed me. Now I’ve got to go find a new line because your items are going to take 30 minutes to check out. But also, I’m just infuriated that you would be so selfish. And I know that you’re contributing to the downfall of local Wake Forest culture. Because we all want citizens of Wake Forest that looks out for one another. We don’t want citizens that says, ‘I’m getting mine first.’” Right?

And I had to look at this, take the embarrassment, take the anger, and just go, “Jesus, I accept this transaction. I will foot this bill. Will You also forgive me for all the ways I sin against You?” You see, the Lord’s Prayer is powerful because it refuses to allow you to go to God and say, “Forgive me,” without first checking your own heart and asking, “Have I forgiven everyone else first?” That’s a big deal.

At that moment, I knew I had to forgive that person because I knew I was going to be going home later and praying this prayer, and I would be asking the Lord to forgive me. So there it is. That was my grocery trip adventure.

A great illustration of this is in Matthew 18:23–35. This is the parable of the unforgiving servant. In Matthew 18, there is a servant who owes a king ten thousand talents (v 24) — roughly 200,000 years of wages. Let that sink in. Two hundred thousand years of wages! And he has to plead to this king for patience. “Just give me time. I’ll pay you back” (v 26). And the king goes one step further, and he actually tells him, “I actually forgive you” (v 27). Whoa! Two hundred thousand years of debt wiped out.

And what does that servant do? Does he go home and have a party, kiss his wife, and now we’re just going to turn our lives around, never touch a credit card ever again? No. He remembers the friend, the fellow servant, who owes him a hundred denarii (v 28) — about 100 days’ wages. And he goes to him and he says, “Time to pay up.” The man has to ask for patience (v 29). So what does the servant do? He starts to choke him (v 28). And he says, “No, you’re going to pay me my wages.” And he takes him to jail, and he throws him in prison (v 30).

The other fellow servants, they hear about this, they witness it, and they go, “This is ridiculous. This man was just forgiven 200,000 years of debt. And he did this to a fellow servant.” So they go to the king and they tell the king, “This guy just refused to show the same forgiveness that you gave him.” So in verses 32 through 35, this is how the king responds:

“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And the king was angry and handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. (Matthew 18:32–34, CSB)

So what is the lesson Jesus wants us to gain from this parable? Jesus says,

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (v. 35, CSB)

So this isn’t just a verbal, “I forgive you.” This is deep within your heart, going, “I accept this transaction. I’m footing the bill, and you will not have to pay one cent for your transgression.”

Who in your life are you still holding out to show them the bill? I know somebody in here is holding grudges. Somebody was bereaved, and you’re still hoping that somebody will pick up the slack and at least give you a little bit of what it costs you. If you want the Father to look at you on judgment day and grant you entry into His kingdom, you must not be holding any transactions against another. We, as Christians, forgive all people for all things. We hold out hope that the Lord will be our source of vengeance.

So I’m not telling you to always forego justice, but never pursue justice without forgiving them first. Always make forgiveness a priority, and not just in word, but from your heart.

I like what a fellow pastor writes here:

Forgiveness means refusing to make them pay for what they did. However, to refrain from lashing out at someone when you want to do so with all your being is agony. It is a form of suffering. You not only suffer the original loss of happiness, reputation, and opportunity, but now you forgo the consolation of inflicting the same on them.

Why? Because we as Christians find our consolation in the fact that Christ has forgiven us of all our debt, even when we’re wronged.

And that is why I love Colossians 2:14. If you’re a disciple of Christ, would you join with me in memorizing this verse? Colossians 2:14:

He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Every sin you have ever committed is written on a piece of paper, and that paper was nailed behind the head of your bloody Savior. Every sin of yours was paid for on the cross. Your entire ledger of transgressions is paid in red. All of it.

And that’s what I had to think about at the grocery store yesterday. I’m not making jokes. I literally had to think about this. And I had to remember, “Josh, you are a wicked transgressor as well. You have sinned against the Lord. You have sinned today, and Jesus has paid it all, and I’ll give that person what they need.”

So what did I do in the grocery? I said, “Lord Jesus, will You please send them someone who is filled with the Spirit, who will tell them the way of salvation, and please grant them salvation. And forgive them, and do not hold this against them.”

So, we must pay the debt of others if we expect the Lord to pay ours.

Now, this prayer humbles us because it reminds us of our responsibility to forgive others.

3. Forays with Satan – “Lead Us Not into Temptation…”

So, at this point, we have seen that the Lord’s Prayer teaches us a reliance on the Lord, Father, for our sustenance, our physical sustenance, our forgiveness from sin. And here’s another F word. We must deepen our reliance on the Father by praying for forays from Satan. F-O-R-A-Y-S. Forays.

I love this word. I just couldn’t let go of it. I wanted to say fight because it’s another F word and it would have fit perfectly. But foray is great because it means the enemy is coming into someone else’s territory to plunge it, plunder it for goods. And that is exactly what Satan is seeking to do. He comes into the domain where we are at, and he fights against us to obtain our souls, our goods, our hope, our faith, and just slaughters them. We are in constant forays with Satan. And this is why we must pray against them.

And this is what the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer is getting at. The last petition is that we are fighting. “Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil.” So this is two requests into one petition.

So the first is leading us away from temptation. This is undoubtedly related to Jesus getting baptized in Matthew 4:1. He comes out of the water in Church. What does it say? The Spirit did what to Jesus? Well, He led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Now, God is not doing the tempting, but God led Jesus, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. And this prayer is us going into the throne room of the Father and saying, “Please do not expect me to do what Your Son accomplished.”

You see, when Jesus was in the wilderness, He went into the wilderness, and He was fasting, and Satan came to Him and tempted Him with what? Bread during His fast. And then he tempts Jesus with the question, he tempts Jesus to question the Father’s love for Him. Because he says, “If You’re really the Son of God, throw Yourself off this cliff. But the Father will send angels if You are really God’s Son that He loves.” So he tempts Jesus to question the Father’s love. And then the last way he tempts Him is, he tempts Him with all the treasures of the world. He shows Him the first class flights, the handbags, the fine leather bags, and fine French cuisine. And he says, “All this is yours if you bow down and worship me.”

And this is what we’re praying against when we say the Lord’s Prayer. “Please keep me out of those places that Jesus had to suffer in under the temptation of the enemy. We do not want to be tempted to question God’s love. We do not want to be tempted to find a source for our physical sustenance from Satan. And we do not want to be tempted to worship Satan in order to get the finer things in life.”

This prayer, this petition in the Lord’s Prayer, it is a reminder of Proverbs 16:18:

Pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall.

You see, some Christians, our brothers and sisters, they have a bad theology. They think that just because God has given them authority over demons and spirits, that means they have to run into very dangerous situations as though they’ll never be tempted. The Lord’s Prayer is telling us the exact opposite, that we must be preventing ourselves from going into these tempting places, and we need to be praying against them.

And Church, I want to say this. When the Holy Spirit speaks to you when you’re praying against temptations, He might tell you, “Then why are you looking at this? Why are you watching that? Why are you listening to this? Why do you go here? Then why do you keep hanging out with so-and-so?” Listen to the Spirit when He does that to you. Listen.

The second part of this petition is “deliver us from evil.” Now why does He tell us to do this? You see, because the first one says that we need to be protected from temptation. But the second half says that we need to be delivered in temptation. So we ask the Father to keep us out of temptation, if at all possible. But there will be times in your life where God does deem it reasonable and good for you to suffer in places of temptation. And when that happens, we pray, “Deliver us from this evil.”

It is inevitable because Satan is the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), of this world as it stands. This last petition, “keep us from temptation and deliver us from evil” (or “from the evil one”), this is a reminder that we are still awaiting the fulfillment of all the scriptures. This prayer is a reminder that you are a soldier on the battlefield. And as the scripture says, good soldiers don’t get entangled in civilian pursuits (2 Tim 2:4). Good soldiers keep their minds on the war at hand, and every single Christian is in a battle. 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 (Eph 6:12). “Deliver us from the evil” (or “from the evil one”). They are always seeking to attack Christians, and they can if the Lord permits them (Job 1:12; 2:6; Luke 22:31). But that’s why we ask the Lord for protection.

Closing Application and Prayer

Church, we have seen how the Lord’s Prayer today, the second half of it, draws us to be very dependent for our own flourishing physically, spiritually, and morally. I want you to please be praying this prayer every day. And pray through it.

If you didn’t get an email, I want to talk to you. My goal in the email last week was to flesh out the first half of the Lord’s Prayer in the first three petitions. I’m going to be doing that as well for these next three petitions in an email next week. So, please read that email when it comes in.

And I want to encourage you to make this a daily practice where you’re not just praying it, but thinking through it and meditating on the truths the Lord’s Prayer represents. Okay? And foster that dependence on God.

And I want to end today’s sermon with praying the Lord’s Prayer. Okay? And we’re going to pray this together. And this is actually a prayer that’s meant to be prayed together, because how does it begin? “Our Father.” It’s a plural, our Father.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us of our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.