A message for Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH, Sunday, May 19, 2024.
For the “Live in Church” audio version of this message, select here.
Our prayer for this message indeed is to allow the Spirit to have an ongoing conversation as to where we are in our daily walk with Jesus. It will involve insight into how you are living your life today and the importance of including Jesus in your daily living. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit speaks to you, as well.
In Matthew, Chapter 5, Jesus delivered a message to his disciples and to the crowd who had come to hear him speak. This section of Scripture is commonly known as The Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus spoke about receiving blessings from God, the kingdom of heaven, human behavior in contrast with the Commandments, and how one should live whether you are in public or out of sight. It was within this communication that he introduced the importance of prayer. In typical Jesus fashion, he often provided examples of people who were highly visible public figures.
Matthew 6:5-15 NIV
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘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 today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
In verse 13, the Greek for temptation can also mean testing. The ‘evil one’ can also refer to evil in general.1
I want you to see that this message about prayer is consistent with the communication that Jesus had with one of His disciples:
Luke 11:1-4 NLT
1 Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:
“Father, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
3 Give us each day the food we need,
4 and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.”
I’m deliberately sharing the New Living Translation verses to show you where the focus needs to be for each of us as we formulate our prayers in the manner that Jesus is teaching us.
- Proclaiming the name of God and His holiness (and meaning it)
- Thanking Him for His daily provision of food (because you need just enough)
- Regularly ask for God to forgive our sins
- Have a longsuffering attitude with others—be patient
- Protect us when we are tempted to sin against Him
Jesus wants us to know that each of these points are the fundamentals within prayer. Every prayer that we utter to God does not require each of these elements, but I will challenge you that in your time when you sit quietly before the Lord, as Jesus was doing according to this passage, all of these fundamentals are necessary. Especially the element of not yielding to temptation.
The phrase “lead us not into temptation” acknowledges that God is our Leader. It is not in His nature to tempt us to commit sin or with evil (James 1:13). We have to put ourselves in the position to move away from temptation, and God will help us to be successful in this area.
2 Peter 2:9a ESV
(Then) the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials.
Jesus implores us to pray that we resist temptation every day. We must do it because we are in Satan’s domain. He is relentless in his effort to damage your relationship with Jesus.
Satan executes the same strategy to tempt you into sinful behavior. As you recognize his strategy, it will help you to be more successful in your efforts to resist temptation.
James 4:7 AMP
So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you.
You and I are to submit to the authority of God because He is our ultimate authority. Satan is not our authority. If we stand firm against him—and sometimes it is all about just taking that stand against him—he will depart from you.
Let’s look at some examples as to how a couple of people failed to do this, and also the example of Jesus where He was successful during His wilderness journey, and the methodology behind it.
Genesis 3:1-7 NIV
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
What went wrong here? (Well, we know the answer, don’t we?) First of all, who is this serpent and what was his purpose? His purpose was to harm God’s creation. Adam and Eve were the first two people on earth, but I want to add something that is true for all of us. J. Vernon McGee noted that Adam and Eve were created innocent, but neither of them was created righteous. Righteousness is innocence that is maintained in the presence of temptation, and temptation will either develop you and make you a stronger person, or it will destroy you.2 Overcoming temptation is a pass-fail test. You will either come out of it with innocence or fail as you succumb to it.
What did the serpent, or Satan, do to cause Adam and Eve to commit sin against God?
They both succumbed to temptation through the following stimuli:
- The lust of the flesh
- The lust of the eyes
- The pride of life3
All three of these can be used individually or with a combination of two or three to trip you up.
For clarity, let’s define the word “lust” in this context. The Bible speaks of lust in several different ways, but it essentially involves the desire to please oneself, and it can lead to unwholesome actions to fulfill one’s desires without regard to the consequences.4 It involves possession and greediness, and moves in the opposite direction of becoming more and more like Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 NIV
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
In the context of this passage, the words “control your own body” in verse 4 refers to learning to live with your own wife, or learning how to obtain a wife. In verse 6, the Greek word for brother or sister refers to a believer in Jesus Christ, man or woman, as part of God’s family.5 Believers should know and understand better than those in the world as to the importance of living in self-control. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:23).
Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit to get her to believe that the Lord was keeping something from her. That was the lust of the flesh. The fruit was pleasing to the eye. The lust of the eyes. She desired the fruit to obtain wisdom (that is one’s own wisdom). The pride of life.
When she handed off the fruit to Adam, he was in accord with Eve’s thoughts. Instead of knocking the forbidden fruit out of her hand and telling her to stop, he also disobeyed God’s command. The temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan revealed the fleshly desires that, in their hearts and minds, were more appealing than pursuing the things of God. The fall of man began there and it was passed on to all humankind.
Romans 5:12-14 NIV
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
Thankfully, the consequence of our trespasses does not end there.
Let’s move to the passage where Jesus, upon the commencement of His ministry after His baptism, faced the tempter in the wilderness:
Matthew 4:1-11 NIV
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
If you’re looking for a boilerplate example on how to stand against temptation, look at this example from Jesus. He wants you to see how you can succeed when Satan pours it on, and even see it when you’re not at your best. Remember that Jesus was in the midst of fasting and was very hungry. Yet, He succeeded where Adam and Eve failed.
Satan tried the same tactics against Jesus. He told Jesus to turn the stones to bread. This was an appeal to the lust of the flesh. Jesus responded with the Word of God:
Deuteronomy 8:1-3 NLT
1 “Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Next, Satan takes Jesus to the highest point of the temple and tells him to throw himself down while misquoting Psalm 91:11-12 (leaving out details that involve how Jesus was obedient not to His own desires but to the will of His Father). This was the spiritual temptation—the pride of life. Jesus answered with a portion of another verse from the section of Scripture that commands having the proper reverence for God:
Deuteronomy 6:16 NIV
Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.
Satan’s final temptation involved the view of all of the kingdoms of the world AND their splendor. This was the fleshly temptation in that it involved a lust for power. Some of us may falter when this is waved in front of us. It may be money or influence that gets us.
Once more, Jesus answers Satan with the Word of God:
Deuteronomy 6:13 NIV
Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
Remember, Satan used the exact same playbook against Jesus that he used against Adam and Eve. Jesus showed us how to beat Satan’s playbook and resist Satan:
1. Bone up on your knowledge of Scripture. All of Jesus’s answers came from Deuteronomy. How about that? Furthermore, Satan takes advantage of those who are ignorant of the Word of God. We see that he is familiar with God’s Word, but he uses it to his advantage for those who fail to keep its proper context and as justification for their trespasses.
2. When we resist Satan, he will leave you alone. And that’s what you want. You don’t want him hanging around.
This is a 24-7 effort. Daytime or nighttime. The prayer that Jesus shares with us about not leading us into temptation and delivering us from evil is how we always need to pray for strength. We have victory over Satan’s temptation efforts because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. It is not in our ability to stand firm in Jesus. It is Jesus that enables us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let this be your takeaway for this message. We all have a choice to make.
1 Corinthians 10:12-15 NLT
12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
14 So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15 You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true.
So if we go back to Romans, chapter 5, we can see how Jesus matters more than ever in that He makes us righteous—not because of anything we have done—but because of what He has done for us on the cross…
Romans 5:18-21 NIV
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Thank you.
Copyright © 2024 Melvin Gaines
1 Bible gateway passage: Matthew 6 – NIV – Bible Gateway. (n.d.). https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6&version=NIV#en-NIV-23296
2 McGee, J. V. (n.d.). A quote from thru the Bible Commentary, volumes 1-5. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9592373-righteousness-is-innocence-that-has-been-maintained-in-the-presence
3 Houdmann, S. M. (2019, December 16). Home. GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/how-does-Satan-tempt-us.html
4 Houdmann, S. M. (2004, August 28). Home. GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-lust.html
5 Bible Gateway passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 NIV – Bible Gateway. (n.d.). https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%2BThessalonians%2B4%3A3-8&version=NIV
Melvin Gaines 