Seeking the Face of GodUsing the Ancient Prayer

Jesus Gave Us

“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”The Gospel of Matthew 6:9-13

?It temptation really a big deal

King David1040-970 AD

Matthew 6:9-13

9 Pray then like this:“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.10 Your kingdom come,your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 “Give us this day our daily bread,12 and forgive us of our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Leader: This is the word of the Lord!People: Thanks be to God!

Matthew 6:9-13

Seeking the Face of GodUsing the Ancient Prayer

Jesus Gave Us

“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”The Gospel of Matthew 6:9-13

When we pray this prayer,

we correctly orient reality.

1

“The very word ‘sin…’ seems to have

disappeared, was a proud word…. But the word

went away. It has almost disappeared—the word, along with the notion.

Why? Doesn’t anyone sin any more? Doesn’t

anyone believe in sin?”

Karl Menninger, Psychiatrist & Author

“

”

The Original Temptation

Genesis 3

“…suppress

the truth….”

~ The Apostle Paul in Romans 1

When we pray this prayer, we bravely battle our weakness.

2

“And when he came to the place, he said to

them, ‘Pray that you may not enter temptation.’”

~ Jesus of Nazareth in The Gospel of Luke, 22:40

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love…”

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

“Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own evil desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin

when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

~ James, the brother of Jesus in James 1:14

“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.’”

~ James, the brother of Jesus in James 1:13

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by

the devil.”~ The Gospel of Matthew 4:1

“I know, my God, that you test the

heart…..”~ King David in

2 Chronicles 29:17

“For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the

LORD your God with all your heart and with all

your soul.”~ Deuteronomy 13:3

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him….”

~ Job 13:15

When we pray this prayer,

we stand firmly in grace.

3

“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 like we are,

yet without sin.”

~ Hebrews 4:15

“Let us then with confidence draw near

to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and

find grace to help in time of need.”

~ Hebrews 4:15

The small choices we make in the face of temptation

that tell the big story of our lives.

Every time you make a choice you

are turning the central part of you, the part of you that

chooses, into something a little

different than it was before.

~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable

choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central

thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish

creature…~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

…either into a creature that is in harmony with

God, and with other creatures, and with

itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God,

and with its fellow creatures, and with

itself. ~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and

peace and knowledge and power. To be the

other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage,

impotence, and eternal loneliness.

~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Each of us at each moment is

progressing to the one state of the

other.

~ CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

flickr images courtesy of:Gabriel S. Delgado C. http://www.flickr.com/photos/neogabox/3969921829Used with permission: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/