Missions Paul

Temptation – 2

Luke 11 v 4 “And lead us not into temptation.”

I have faced and seen many temptations in my life. They generally fall into the following categories:

1. The temptation of not having.

Temptation will come in the area of your lack, what you need or think you need, in the place of emptiness. It strikes at what you previously held as a personal belief or value for your life.

“Did God really say? Maybe not!” “Why not? Maybe God understands.”

Temptation comes to emphasise your restricted life. It will highlight freedom as being the most important thing and cause you to forget that you are already free. The temptation of lack occurs in marriages, finances, work places/positions, in every place of society, in churches, in poor and rich nations.

2. The temptation of being secretive.

Temptation will try and fool you into thinking you can manage the consequence of sin. It will blind you to the effect on the people you influence.

3. The temptation of needing to be needed.

There is a temptation that tries to move the person from the place of adding value to focusing on feeling valued.

The craving to feel value can hinder a person from being valuable. We are most valuable when we get to the place where we do not need appreciation from people.

The craving to feel valued is one of the most common reasons people make bad decisions, “I’m leaving. I just don’t feel valued anymore.”

The craving to be valued causes people to assume they are most valuable when they are most valued.

4. The temptation of needing answers for your suffering.

God did this to me, Satan did this to me, maybe I did something wrong that brought this suffering?

Sometimes, stuff just happens and there is no one to blame.

But temptation draws you away from the treasures that can be found in suffering. It slows up the process of all things working together for good.

 

However, when temptation strikes these reasons don’t seem to have loud voices.

May we all strengthen our lives with these lessons so that when temptation strikes we do not fall.

Temptation

Luke 11 v 4 “And lead us not into temptation.”

If only the destruction of temptation lay in whether or not you had a chocolate too many.

The cream cakes are ‘naughty but nice’ so we have been told for many years.

There is a fragrance called ‘temptation’ which I guess if you wear the idea is to attract.

Adverts after adverts carry so many slogans, ‘Go on you deserve it,’ ‘One won’t matter,’ ‘Pay for it later,’ ‘live now.’

These are examples perhaps at the small end of the scale of a path that knows no end and which has ruined and continues to ruin countless lives, families, churches, communities and yes even nations.

No one really knows what it is that causes a person to be tempted to such destructive means, No one really understands the mind of the one being tempted at the time.

What was Samson thinking when he kept going back to Delilah, even when he knew she was trying to kill him through a sexual trap?

Why did Judas betray his friend even when there must have been doubts in his mind over what he was doing?

Why did Ananias and Sapphira pretend they were giving everything when they weren’t, they must have wondered if anyone would find out?

Temptation is irrational.

We will not know the answers to these questions, they are held within the mystery of fatal attraction.

James 1: 13-15 “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

At the end of this prayer Jesus is teaching his disciples, he tells them to pray about the spiritual battle. It is a path that we will all face to go down which in hindsight we would not want to go down.

The temptation to say NO to the cross, NO to surrender, NO to the leading of God’s Spirit in your life.

There are times the Holy Spirit will lead us into a desert experience where for a period of time we are tempted by our own desires in that place. If we give in to those desires we sin. If we surrender to God we mature in the power of the Spirit, just as Jesus did.

This final sentence is asking for the ability to control our desires and not be controlled by them.

1 Corinthians 10: 12-13 “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

The dangers of temptation are obvious but it will:

• Pull you from your focus.

Floyd McClung: “An unfocused vision results in taking the side-roads of life and then calling them the main road.”

• Pull you from faithfulness.

Paul described the shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonments, personal attacks and physical hardships as like being ‘under a sentence of death.’ But he believed God was using these attacks to strengthen his faithfulness.

2 Corinthians 1:9 “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”

• Pull you from the fellowship of God.

Adam had it, Moses asked for it, Israel lost it, but Jesus gave it! God’s awesome, amazing, dazzling, beautiful presence, His glory.

 

As we resist temptation we will remain focused, faithful and in fellowship with God.

 

 

Forgiveness

Luke 11: 4 “Forgive our sins, as we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us.”

The world wakes this morning to another tragedy.

“The family of British teenager Nora Quoirin, whose body has been found in Malaysia, have said their “hearts are broken”. (BBC)

Every day there are wrongs done to people. You may be reading this carrying such a horrible weight of wrong that has been done against you.

There are unbelievable tragedies today. There are many victims. Since the beginning of time God has seen what mankind can to each other. “The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10).

God has given mankind the freedom to choose.

We choose to love which blesses or we choose to sin which hurts.

Today you may be the victim because someone made the wrong choice.

When we are the sinner we cry for mercy. But the natural response when we are sinned against is to cry for justice.

The blood of Abel in Genesis 4 cried for justice. It was a prayer of ‘Get him God.’

The blood of Jesus is not ‘Father get these murderers’ but “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

What name needs to be mentioned that would cause you to react with? They may have died years ago. The event is not far from you. Is there unforgiveness still there?

Eva Mozes Kor died in June of this year as she was once again visiting Poland. She was a survivor of Auschwitz. “Forgive your worst enemies,” Kor said in a video recording of her last visit to the Auschwitz Museum posted to its official Facebook page. “The moment I forgave the Nazis, I felt free from Auschwitz and from all the tragedy that had occurred to me,” she added. Eva and her twin Miriam were cruelly experimented on by the ‘Angel of Death’ Josef Mengele but survived until the liberation of the camp in January of 1945. They lost their parents and two other sisters there. Before she died this year Eva was filmed at the site and she told of how she forgave Mengele:

“After we were set free I went home, closed the door and picked up a dictionary. I wrote all the nasty words I could find from the dictionary and spoke them out clear and loud. I then said “In spite of all that I forgive you.” I found that as a little victim I had power over the Angel of Death and I wasn’t hurting anybody. I had an interesting thought that he could never change my forgiving him. I am in charge of it. It was a very powerful feeling. If I can forgive him I can forgive anyone who ever hurt me.”

Who still needs your forgiveness?

Do it now and then ask the Father to forgive you your sins.

 

 

 

 

Our daily bread

Luke 11 v 3 “Give us each day our daily bread.”

We go every day.

We don’t miss a day.

We don’t have a holiday.

We never get too busy to go.

We enter in to the presence of the Father’s care, honouring His beautiful name and desiring His kingdom to rule our lives. We then ask in light of the benefit to others.

We do this daily.

Daily persistence means that you and God are together every day with thoughts of others.

AND it is this persistence that changes you as you see the world through God’s eyes.

We don’t have to be like Moses wanting to give up and for God to end it all or like Jonah wanting to curl up and die or Elijah running into a cave of self-pity. We choose persistence. Daily.

What do we ask for? Bread. It is a physical and a spiritual matter, the source of life.

So often church prayers are reduced to a language we don’t understand:

“I I come before your heavenly throne and beseech you to endow us with an empowerment that may cascade from your throne and take us into dimensions of glory. I am a member of the crystal shore citizens blah blah blah.”

OR

Give us each day our daily bread.

God doesn’t need to hear such lofty prayers.

He longs for reality from us.

He wants to hear prayers over what may even appear trivial matters.

He heard the prayer for wine at the party.

He hears the prayers from the hungry and the tired.

He hears the prayers from the poor, the powerless and the sick.

Today your daily bread may be so insignificant, but tell Him, don’t hold anything back.

Abba bread please. The bread I need today is …………………

Give us each day

Luke 11 v 3 “Give us each day our daily bread”

This is more than praying for other’s needs. This is praying for what you need in light of others.

The Jews thought the Messianic age would be a golden age for them. In fact it would be all about them. But the response of Jesus is what can God do through you for others?

So we bring our request after we have acknowledged the Father’s care, once we have honoured His name and desired His kingdom rule in our lives. But we bring our request in light of the benefit to others.

What do you need that will benefit others today?

This is not some random vague request for God’s provision sometime in the future. Rather, it is today. He will provide for us each day, for today.

Today is the most important day. Tomorrow has not been made yet, but it waits for you to think, speak and behave today before it comes into being.

Today is the day the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24)

You are now in a 24 hour period that you will never have again. You didn’t have it yesterday and you won’t have it tomorrow. Satan is out to attack your today. He’s not interested in tomorrow but today. He is planning to mess it up, cause problems and to do everything he can to make it into a bad day. He uses yesterday to do that and he knows if he can destroy today he has broken your tomorrow.

The words ‘each day’ are mirrored to the word in the same sentence, ‘daily’.

Behind this prayer is a truth: God loves us totally and we are dependent on Him.

Jesus lived dependent on the Father, “I cannot do anything on my own,” John 5:30.

Jesus is teaching us in this prayer to acknowledge our total dependence on God each day.

He is waiting for a heart today that is dependent on Him for who He is and what He does and of course for what He will do each day!

GIVE

Luke 11:3 “Give us each day our daily bread.”

After all God has done for us….

He has loved us.

He has raised us to a new life.

He has saved us by grace.

He has made us a new creation in Christ.

So is this not a bit self-centred to be asking for things?

No.

We ask in the shadow of what we have already said.

We come into HIS intimate, personal presence acknowledging HIS Fatherly care.

We desire HIS name to be honoured.

We welcome HIS rule over our rule, HIS kingdom to invade ours and the lives of others.

It is then from that place we are ready to pray, “Give.”

The illustrative stories Jesus then shares shows us we pray for good gifts or indeed the Holy Spirit.

But like Peter who prayed for food but was given a lesson on prejudice.

Or like Paul who wants his pain gone but is given grace.

We may also pray GIVE but we get strength to go through the trial not relief from it. Why?

Because we ask in the shadow of the Fathers care of HIS Name and HIS Kingdom over our lives.

Your Kingdom Come

Luke 11: 2 “He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.”

A kingdom is an area of activity.

It is a place of our influence, a place where we are free to make our choices.

We have been given these areas since childhood, for parents know the quicker a child can be given a ‘kingdom’ the quicker they can learn integrity, responsibility and commitment. “This is your bedroom (kingdom) we expect you to take care of it!”

God has an area of activity. He has a kingdom. Psalm 45:6. Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of your kingdom

In the beginning mankind was invited into this kingdom of God to reign with Him in partnership. “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” Gen 1:28

Because of the fall and our sin we lost the right to that kingdom.

The end result was that our kingdom became cursed, painful, hard work, sweat and toil for little return.

But prophets began to speak of a new, coming Kingdom of God.

Isaiah spoke of a righteous kingdom.

Malachi of a kingdom of peace and healing.

The after 400 years of no revelation a messenger comes …

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Matt 3:1

Jesus comes and of course carries on that same message. He is in fact the Message of the Kingdom.

“Your Kingdom Come” is a request that the kingdom of God overshadows your kingdom.

Let your kingdom come is a prayer for those who are finding that their kingdom is one of sweat + toil, pain + headache, much effort and little return. Is that you today perhaps? Then make the request of your Father knowing this is in line with His will and therefore hallows His name. But there is more.

The more, is to pray these 3 words over others.

On those whose broken kingdoms are far worse than yours. A couple of weeks ago I was attending a Christian Festival and saw first-hand how the Kingdom of God invaded the lives of people whose kingdom was not just broken but was in tatters. People who had never believed that Church would welcome them experienced the embrace of a new kingdom and the kiss of a Father. There are so many who feel the Church doesn’t want them when these people were the ones who swarmed around Jesus? Your Kingdom Come prayer could change your life completely.

Are you ready?

Hallowed be your Name

Luke 11:2 “He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name …”

One of God’s names in the Bible is Yahweh, it means Father. When the Jewish scribes write Yahweh they immediately go and wash their hands, such is the honour they attribute to it. In fact they avoid pronouncing the name God and use names like Yahweh instead, this is the way they choose to hallow the name.

Father, let your name be holy, sacred.

Let people across the world believe in you. Let them obey you. Let them glorify you. This is the desire of God. Jesus shows his disciples that they should begin to pray in line with that desire.

The Jewish history is of course one of being controlled by foreign powers and living in exile among nations not worshipping Yahweh. God raised up prophets to stir His people and to realise that His name would be hallowed. Ezekiel wrote, “I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.” (36:23)

This promise of God to His people is that of redemption through Jesus. Isaiah carried that same promise: “When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.” (29:23)

We are living in times when people are fashioning God into their own image of what they believe God to be, so that they can be who they want to be. They believe in God, they have faith, but perhaps not the God of the Bible.

And before we roll our eyes and point the finger at this group and the next for creating their own version of God, even ‘Bible-believing’ Christians need to be careful. If our prayer life is about us then we will not receive. If we want our Churches to grow bigger than the Church on the opposite side of the road then we will not receive. If we want promotion so that we can get a bigger car, a more luxurious house to live in, more comfort in this life then we will not receive. Yes, pray for provision and Jesus instructs us to do so. But first fall into line. Make your words aligned to the glory, the honour, the hallowing of His Name. Not my will but yours be done.

When people look at us do they see a person glorifying God? That is the point.

Hallowed be your Name.

Abba

 

Luke 11: 2 “He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father …”

 

The incredible blessing for every Christian today is that they can address God as Father. This personal, intimate, familiar title is given only because of relationship.

No one before Jesus called God this name.

No one after Jesus calls God, Father, except the followers of Jesus.

Much is said about the fact that Luke omits ‘Our’ as Matthew has it recorded. There are lots of ideas about this.

However, the point is it is more about relationship than a rote. God is your personal ‘Father’ and is your communities ‘Our Father’. But you can call Him Father.

Your Father is kind (Luke 6:36)

Your Father gives wisdom (Luke 10:21)

Your Father gives the Holy Spirit to you when you ask (Luke 11:13)

Your Father knows what you need (Luke 12:30)

Your Father can alleviate your suffering (Luke 22:42)

Your Father forgives (Luke 23:34)

Your Father will take you into eternity (Luke 23:46)

Your Father has the set date and time for the end of the world as we know it (Acts 1:7).

Sit awhile and acknowledge your Father. Abba.

How to pray not what to pray, from a watching disciple.

Luke 11: 1 “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’

We were all sat watching him. Time stood still. Transfixed on Jesus who was praying in a certain place. It doesn’t matter where we were but it did matter who we were with. Jesus and His Father. We waited until he had finished. It seemed wrong to interrupt such a powerful moment of intimacy. This was not rote, though Jesus did know the Jewish prayers, he had prayed them since childhood. Many rabbis taught their disciples a prayer, but this was more than that. This was connection, relationship, heart to heart communication which appeared to be that of worshipping as well as asking. This was submission, petition, intercession, praise and thanksgiving. This was the most beautiful sight we had ever seen. This was powerful. It made us think that things would change, be effected and come into being because of this prayer time.

We sat, waiting, watching Jesus. It was so attractive we wanted what he was experiencing. We wanted this ability to enter into prayer like this. We had been appointed as apostles, sent ones, evangelists and miracle workers. But how can we speak to men if we don’t know how to speak to God? We knew how to pray, in that we were not short of words and sentences. But our words seemed cold compared to what we were seeing.

John the Baptist showed his disciples how to pray. Their prayers were that of preparation for the Messiah to come. Prayers of a change of lifestyle. Those disciples seemed to change when they prayed. Their lives followed their prayers.

We were looking for this.

“Teach us to pray”. We asked him. We wanted to know how not what. We were not needing a prayer to be spoken verbatim for the rest of our lives. We were wanting to know how to enter into this prayer life that Jesus had. Jesus seemed to be able to get there. That place of communion with God was what we were seeking.

What came next has been the one thing that has sustained us all our life.

Jesus showed us how to pray…