Lead Us Not Into Temptation - Matthew 6:7-13

A four-year-old girl was learning to say the Lord’s Prayer.  She was reciting it all by herself without any help from her mother.  She was doing real well and you could hear her voice growing stronger and louder with each passing phrase.  Finally, she came to the end of the prayer and said, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us some e-mail.  Amen.”

We are gathered together to offer worship and praise to a God that is intimately closed and concerned with us as we pray, “Our Father.” “Who art in heaven” reminds us that this God that we are intimate with cannot be defined or limited by any of our experiences, for He is creator of them all, and because of that there is nothing in all of Creation that can come between us and God.  We remember to honor God with our lips and our all of our actions, so that His Name may remain holy before all people when we say, “hallowed be Thy Name.”  “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven,” finds us asking God to transform our world and our very lives that they be conformed to his Will, not on some future day, but here and now…that God might make His love, His grace, His peace ready and evident right here, right now.  In doing this, we are then able to ask God to provide us with our needs through “Giving us our daily bread,” and trusting that God will provide all that we truly need, regardless of whether it is what we thought we wanted.  Then we ask God to treat us as we treat others as we pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Today, my brothers and sisters, we conclude what we began six weeks ago.  As we come to “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we find ourselves at the end of what, as Christ taught it, is known as the Lord’s Prayer.  We ask God to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

An overweight businessman decided it was time to shed some excess pounds. He took his new diet seriously, even changing his driving route to avoid his favorite bakery.

One morning, however, he arrived at work carrying a rich caramel chocolate cake.  Everyone in the office scolded him, but he kept his smile. 

"This is a very special cake," he explained.  "I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning and there in the window were all kinds of amazing baked treats.. I felt that this was no accident, so I prayed, 'Lord, if you want me to have one of those delicious cakes, let me have a parking place directly in front of the bakery', and sure enough, on the eighth time around the block, the Lord indicated that I should have this caramel chocolate cake by making a spot for me right in front of the bakery door!"

Last week, we confessed that we were sinners and asked God to forgive us those sins, just as we forgive those who sin against us. And we, in our faith, know that God, through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven us our sins, as we also forgive those who have wronged us.  For us, the logical next step is to strive to keep from committing those same sins again.  We hear the words of Jesus speaking to us, as He did to the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on, do not sin again.”[i]  However, we know that we cannot do it on our own, but must rely on the grace of God, so we pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  The problem is, on various occasions, we may find ourselves committing the same sin again.  We find ourselves eating one more slice of cake, we find ourselves  going back into that adulterous relationship, we find ourselves lying or cheating again, we find ourselves gossiping again, we find ourselves overspending again, we find ourselves overeating again, or we find that needle, glass of alcohol, or cigarette in our hands again.  We find ourselves right back where we were and then we wonder why God is not protecting us. 

The answer, my brothers and sisters, is not that God is ignoring our request, but that we are putting ourselves in harm’s way.  God has not let us back to our old sins.  We have exercised our free wills and we have taken ourselves back to that spot. 

Too often we find ourselves like the man driving around the bakery.  We find ourselves near the place of our temptation and circle and circle going back and forth between avoidance and giving in, until we just cannot resist any longer.  The call of that sin draws us back into its clutches. 

We find ourselves, like David, up on that rooftop gazing down at beautiful Bathsheba.  Instead of resisting the sin, he circles a little closer.  He wants to know her name.  Upon learning her name and that she is married, instead of saying, “No, I know it is wrong,” and turning away, he circles even closer, inviting her to his palace.  Refusing to resist what he knows is wrong, he continues to circle closer until he finds himself in the midst of sin—like the man finding his parking place. 

Matthew Henry, in his commentary on the Bible, once said, “Those who would be kept from harm, must keep out of harm’s way.  If we thrust ourselves into temptation we mock God when we pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’”[ii]  We must resist the urge to get back into those situations. 

If we know the person on the other side of an improper relationship is going to be in a given place, we should not go to that place, or at least insure that we are not alone with that person.  If we find ourselves in a situation where we are tempted to lie or cheat, we need to strive to tell the truth and face the consequences.  If we find ourselves in the midst of those who would gossip, we need to excuse ourselves from the conversation.  If we know that we are easily tempted to eat foods that are going to add additional pounds, we stop bringing them into the house and we stop looking at the dessert menu. Or if we know we are tempted to overspend, we need to stop looking at the sales ads and in the store, go strictly by our list.

My brothers and sisters, temptation can be overcome…we have God’s Word on it.  The author of Hebrews writes, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”[iii] “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”[iv]  Further, Paul offers the promise that God will enable us to overcome any temptation we face: “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”[v]

I’m not saying it is going to be easy.  It is not easy.  It is not something that we can do on our own.  But glory be to God, He offers His grace to us.  He can and will strengthen us.  He will deliver us from evil, if we but trust in Him and strive to stay away from that which tempts us.  And God does not expect us to do it alone.  Why do you think that so many in groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are so successful?  It is because the folks in those groups know that they have someone else in that group who truly understands, their sponsor, who they can call on if the temptations start coming and that person will help them through that temptation.

J. R. R. Tolkien offers this same message in The Lord of the Rings. The young hobbit Frodo finds himself charged with destroying the most powerful, and evil, magical ring anyone could imagine.  That ring serves as a source of temptation for many throughout the epic, all wanting to possess its power, a power that would quickly possess them, much as it tried to possess Frodo.  Fordo talks repeatedly about how he must carry the ring, that is his task alone to destroy this source of temptation.  However, his journey to destroy the temptation begins and ends with his friend Sam by his side…a journey that he could never have completed alone, he was only able to complete because of the support and encouragement of his friend.

With that in mind, we realize that this part of the prayer brings us full circle for we know from praying “Our Father” that God has given us one another.  And, my brothers and sisters, one reason that we have one another is that we may aid one another in resisting these temptations.  My friends, we are called to be a gathered body—to be God’s presence for one another.

In coming back to Our Father, we have now completed our journey.  I pray that this time of examination of how powerful this prayer is has enabled each one of us to re-examine what we learned so long ago as children.  I hope that we have rediscovered the power of this prayer and how it can change our relationship with God, our relationship with the world, and our relationship with each other.  May they never be for us empty phrases, words without meaning, but the words of a transforming prayer, as we join together now in prayer saying, 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.  Forgive us 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.

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[i] John 8:11

[ii] Logos, Digital Version of Matthew Henry’s Commentary On The Whole Bible

[iii] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Heb 4:15). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[iv] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Heb 2:18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[v] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (1 Co 10:13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.