The Lord's Prayer

K.

We're gonna have our our readings now. We've got 2 readings today. The first 1 from Matthew chapter 6 and the second 1 from Ephesians chapter 6. First 1, Matthew chapter 6, verses 5 to 14. 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. 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. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him. This then is how you should pray. Our father in heaven hallowed be your name. 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 have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil 1.

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. And then flip over to Ephesians chapter 6 and verses 10 to 17. Finally, be strong in the lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of god so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of god so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after having done everything to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil 1. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of god.

Pete. Sorry. We we should have had verse 18 as well. That's my fault. I'll just read that from chapter 6 of ephesians and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert, and always keep on praying for the lord's people. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the pastor's preachers of this church, and if you're new here or it's first time you're visiting, then really, really great to have you. Can I just underline the the vision dinner? Those videos, we we actually do have a media team in this, in this church, and they hate us as staff doing anything as you can see.

The media team do really good stuff. But you gotta remember, this is how it works. We need an advert, oh, it right, for the vision dinner. Great. Well, why don't we just go to the place and see what happens?

And that's what we do. There's always ideas. People have all kinds of ideas. There's grand ideas, and they're all wonderful. And then basically what I do is I just look around and see what's there, and there was a pig on the floor, and there was these funny stump things, and there's an organ.

So, obviously, we have to do that. So that that's how it works. But the vision dinner, it's really important. And and whether you're a member or not a member, we really want to encourage you to come. And if you can get babysitters so that both, couples can come, then it'd be really, really good.

It'd be a love lovely time together. It's a lovely setting, and we want to share some things with you. And, so it's really important to start the year off there. So do do do try and come to that. We've been doing a series, if you can remember in the lord's prayer, and this is the last 1.

And then we had a a sort of gap, and we had, Morris Kanard, helpfully taking us through Habit Cook. For the summer. We're just back here closing this series, then we start a new series next, next, next week. So we're just finishing this. Let me pray.

Father, we pray, please, that you'll help us. Help us to have ears to hear and help us to have hearts to receive your word. Challenge us, encourage us, rebuke us where necessary, help us to be people that, by your spirit, are doers of your word, and not just heroes only. We pray this in the name of the great Triangle god, father, son and holy spirit, amen. I was reading some spurgeon, which I often do, this week, and I came across this.

Spurgeon, was doing a a sermon on this very passage, but he said that he was looking through his books, And he found a book of addresses, a book of sermons to young people, and he said the outlines, of these sermons for young people, he said, struck him as perfect gem. And this is, and this is what he writes. The text is the lord's prayer. The exposition is divided into the most instructive heads, headings. Our father, which art in heaven, a child away from home.

Hallowed be thy name, a worshiper, thy kingdom come, a subject or a citizen, thy will be done, sorry, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. A servant. Give us to stay our daily bread, a beggar, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, a sinner. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. A sinner in danger of being a greater sinner still.

And he says the titles are in every case most appropriate and truly condenses the petitions of the lord's prayer. And I think they do. They're wonderful. Really wonderful. Every believer is a child of god away from home.

And if we get that, and the lord's prayer teaches up, we'll start praying this prayer. If we realize that this is not home, it is not comfortable here. It's not home. You can't relax and let your hair down here as you can at home. Every believer is a child of god away from home.

Every believer is a worshipper. That's what we should be. Hello'd be your name. Worshiping the the holy 1, the thrice holy 1, taken up with his name being honored, sad when we hear it dishonored. Every believer is a subject or a citizen.

Thy kingdom come. We're about the kingdom of god. We're living as citizens in a kingdom. We're aliens in this world. We're away from home, remember.

A servant, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're serving god's will. We're living it out. We're wanting to see god's will in our lives so we can communicate it to others and serve the lord. A beggar give us this day our daily bread.

We beg for the food that god would give us, not just food, but bread from heaven. His word to feed us, to feast upon, to be able to sustain us in this world, a sinner. Forgive us our debts. We're sinners. We're still sinners.

Forgive us lord. Help us to forgive others. Help us to live a forgiving life and a sinner in great danger. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Every believer is those things, all of those things.

I love that. And every believer knows that it's only the massive, I mean, bigger than massive, massive grace and mercy and love of god that we're the children of god in the first place. It's all to do with god. It's all to do with him sending his darling son. It's all to do with Christ on the cross, his shed blood, the sacrificial atonement, to bias from our sin, to bias from a dying world into becoming a child of god.

It's not to do with our stealth. It's not to do with our ability. It's not to do with our powers. It's not to to do with where we were born or how much money we've got or how religious we may be. It's none of that stuff.

It's all to do with him. And so As we came to Christ in desperate need, it's now and always continually desperately in need of him. God is our father. We need the lord Jesus Christ, our savior. We need the holy spirit, the 1 who fills us.

We need all of the persons of the blessed holy trinity to work for us and in us and be with us. Otherwise, we'll fall. Otherwise, we'll move away from being children of god, just as quickly as adam and eve fell, we'll fall. And so we have to pray this line that we're on this morning, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1.

Do you pray that prayer? Daily? See, this part of the prayer takes us deep into the reality of the Christian battle. We're in a battle. We're praying, our father, do not let me lose the joy of my salvation for desiring silly other things.

Our father, do not let the evil 1 break my love for you. Our father. We've left those things. We repented of those things. We turned from the things of the world and the things that delighted our hearts that you said were wrong.

We've turned from a selfish way of life and just living for self. Our father, we've left those things. We've turned from them. We've been rescued from them. You've rescued us from the enemy of life.

You've rescued us from the enemy of our souls. We've escaped his clutches, the very 1 that breathes out hell itself and wants to drag us down into hell. Our father don't let us fall for his lies and his traps anymore. We don't wanna fall for them again. Our father, the evil 1 prowls around we're told in the Bible, like a lion ready to rip us apart and kill us if he possibly could.

Our father, his footsteps and his footfalls are very silent and he creeps down low with his eyes fixed on us, ready to pounce on us at any time. And our father, we often don't see him. As he's crawling up upon us. And without your help, he'll drag us down and rip us apart. Stop this father.

Stop my temptation to listen to him. Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from the evil 1. This is a prayer for protection for our lives, isn't it? It's such a vital part of the prayer.

This is a prayer that actually really understands us, doesn't it? It's not like the silly things that we're told to look in the mirror and say, I believe I believe I believe in myself. No. This is a prayer that says, I'm weak. I'm weak.

I'm weak. But it's it's it's a prayer that knows that god knows I'm weak, which is even better than me knowing I'm just weak. God understands it. Christ understands it. He's given us this prayer for us to pray and for god the father to hear.

This is a prayer that expresses the real Christian life a battle, and we are called. We are called to battle. But we can't do it on our own. We are totally and utterly dependent on him. I mean, that's the that's the thing of the Christian life.

We are called to be totally committed to the battle. But we're called to be totally dependent on him. And being totally dependent on him doesn't mean I'm totally involved in the battle. I'm totally in I'm totally dependent on him means that I will go into battle of life. Against all the things that will tempt me to chuck god in and to listen to the evil 1.

So I've got a number of headings. Here's my first. Our father in heaven. This is our prayer. Our father in heaven protect us.

Our father in heaven protect us. We're in a world to protect us. Actually, Jesus prays this same prayer really for us, in in John chapter 17 where he he prays this long prayer for the disciples and then those who will follow him and come later. It's an amazing, amazing prayer. And I think I might have, asked to have these verses up.

But here's Jesus praying for us. It's John chapter 17 verses 15 to 18. There it is. My prayer. This is Jesus.

My prayer is praying to the father. My prayer is not that you take them as us out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil 1. You protect them from the evil 1. They're not of this world. They're not at home in this world.

You know, our father in heaven. We're children, not of this world. They're not of this world, even as I am not of it, sanctify them. That means make them pure, make them righteous, make them godly, give them a backbone to stand up for that which is right, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.

And as you send me into the world, I have sent them into the world. So we're being sent into the world commissioned by Christ to be in this world of temptation and evil and and sin and satan. We're commissioned to go into this world, and we're commissioned to keep pure and sanctify ourselves, and we do that through the word of god. We'll come back to that in a minute. We're not to go into the world paralyzed.

We're to go into the world praying this prayer, leaders not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. We're to go into this world praying this prayer, not paralyzed, but knowing that we need none other than the protection of almighty God. This is spiritual stuff going on here. There is evil. Not all people are good.

Shortly, we know that. Not all people that smile are good. Not all people anyone that winks at you always be suspicious of a winking person I never get it when anyone winks at me, and I have that quite a lot. I don't know what's up with you. Is there something in their eye or is is my dazzling beauty just taking it up them and they can't sort of, you know, I don't know what it is, but if anyone winks at me immediately, I'm suspicious.

Yeah? The winking eye. You know, it's saying, anyway, look. That that's pro that's a proverb sermon. I'm sure I've preached on it.

But there are people that are about no good, not all experiences are are for our good, even though they may look like it. Not all experiences and not all things are gonna grow our relationship with our heavenly father. The world is full of sin, the world is full of sinners, and the world is full of satan and demons. If you don't believe in satan and demons, you're in for you're in for trouble. There is a liar, satan, he's a murderer from the beginning.

Jesus warns us about him. He's real. He's vicious. He's the tempter. And so we have to pray leaders not into temptation.

But deliver us from the evil 1. It teaches us that we're liable at all times to be led astray. And we are asking none other than god our father, our heavenly father, none other than the 1 that orders heaven and earth to restrain us from going into any place that would injure our soul and set our our vulnerable desires alight and take us into temptation. When we look at our own weaknesses and our sinful desires, we should shudder at the danger we're in, spiritually. It's a prayer against the sense of self security.

It's a prayer against self sufficiency. We are inadequate to survive without god. Paul talks about the armor of god. We we read it. Chris read it for us in Ephesians chapter 6.

And he shows us that there's a warfare going on, and the Christian, life is a warfare. And he shows us that if we're to survive, we need none other than an armor that's made by god. Yeah? You can't just go on with your own armor. You can't go in your you need an armor that is made by god.

Let me let me read that passage again. It may come up. Finally, be strong in the lord and in his mighty power. How? How can I be strong in the lord and in his mighty power?

Put on the full armor of god. So that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. He's a schemer. He's a planner. He works.

He lies. You know, he's he's he's forward thinking. He's got a diary. He's scheming and planning. For our struggle, it's not against flesh and blood but against the rulers and against the authorities and against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the full armor of god so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything, to stand, stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which can, you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil 1. There's the word again. Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of god.

We're in a war. We're in a war. I mean, we we can't just casually walk out You see it, don't you? When you see the places of war, you go to, you know, Ukraine, and they're being bombarded by bombs, you don't just casually walk out and say, what an ice cream? So we have a chat down by the river where they're bombing?

You don't see that in Gaza, do you? You don't see that where the bombs are dropping? People are running and moving. I'm trying to find just a few belongings they've got and moving on to another place and another place and another place. We're in a war, brothers and sisters, a spiritual war with a scheming devil, far stronger than us, And so there's this enemy outside attacking us into seductions and trying to get us to surrender and give in and doubt god and doubt is very word But there's a war inside.

There's a civil war going on as our desires and passions of the old nature are stirred up. And so we must pray lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from the evil 1. But it's not all negative. We can be strong in the lord and his mighty power as we rely on him.

As we put on the armor of god. Look at the armor of god. We need truth. We've gotta keep coming back to truth. We need righteousness What is good?

What is right? What is gorgeous? What is right that god says is right? We need the gospel of peace. What is that message?

Do I know it? Do I understand it? And as I I need to stop taking it out, and as I take the gospel out into the world, it's part of my defense. It's like, you know, football match is boring, if utterly boring, isn't it? If all they do is is just defend the goal and stand there.

Part of the defense is to get a goal into the back of the net of the opposition. And so we are part of how we put the armor of god on part of how we defend ourselves from the enemy is to know the gospel of peace and put the gospel boots on and march it around the world and speak it out. We need faith as a shield. We we trust what god says. It's faith.

Sometimes it just feels wrong, but god said it so I'm gonna trust him. Seems to be against our culture. God said it, I'm gonna trust him. Yeah, but what about this? God said it.

I'm gonna trust him. There's salvation as a helmet that I know that actually I'm saved. My mind is set on the things of what Christ has done for me, the gorgeous savior, and then the the sort of the spirit, the word of god. I can go out if I'm praying lord leaders not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, if I'm listening carefully to that and putting on the armor of god. Psalm 46 verses 1 and 2, I think might come up.

They're lovely words. You probably know them. God is our refuge and strength Listen to this, an ever present help in trouble, ever present. Yeah? See, we mustn't we mustn't treat god like you know, he's up there in the heavenly realms and I come across a temptation or there's a difficulty, and I ask him to come and zap me or send a miracle or do something.

No. No. No. No. He's ever present.

He's always there. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though there's a raging battle going around me, god is with me. God's are not paralyzed. I go into this world.

Of Satan and temptation, and I pray confidently, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. You'll do it. I'm dependent on you. I'm gonna fight, but I'm dependent on you. So we're not paralyzed.

And just before I go on to the next point, this isn't just for me to pray this privately. None of this is a private prayer. It's our father. This is for the church. We pray this not only for ourselves, but for each other.

It's not just my personal battles, it's the battles for all of us. That's why we need to pray brothers and sisters. I mean, we'll show our faith if we're prayers. We can't have faith in god if we're not gonna pray. That's why the prayer meeting next week is important.

You should try to get there. Now I know some can't, but if you can, get to the prayer meeting. We need to pray this. We don't just do this at home on our own. This is this is not a mumbling prayer that I just mumble out.

Our father is husband's name, hello, the other thing that kingdom come though will be done. God bless, mommy, god bless daddy, god bless the whole world, our man. It's not a prayer like that. It's a church prayer, our father. We'll never win the battle if we're not praying this for each other.

Here's my second heading then. Our father in heaven lead us. Our father in heaven lead us. Our father in heaven protect us. Our father in heaven lead us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. You see, temptation is when I'm faced with something that's seemingly attractive, the seemingly attractiveness of going away from god of following my own ways of sin. And I'm gonna be drawn into that. You see, not following god very often does look attractive, and I am in danger of that. Temperature puts us in a position where we have to decide, god or me.

This way or that way. Eve, she was tempted, and boy, did it look attractive? Just just think how good the fruit looked that the evil 1, the old snake himself, made her look at. It was good. He said it was good for food.

Well, that's great, isn't it? What's wrong with food? Nothing wrong with food? Does god want us to enjoy food? Yes?

Does god want us to enjoy the different flavors of food? Of course, he does. We don't just eat pulp. We have all kinds of different flavors. There are apparently there's over 2000 species of fruit in the world.

So he wants us to eat the different fruit. It was only just this 1. So it's amazing, isn't it? So it's good for food. It's it's pleasant for the eyes.

Co it looks good. Mean, I don't know what shape it was. I made me a banana. Oh. 0, it looks really good.

It's pleasant to the eye. Like the color, it stands out. Really nice. Like the different little black specks are down. It's just ripe enough, isn't it?

The whole thing was attractive. It's desirable to make you wise. You wanna live wise, don't you? You want a good life? The whole thing is attractive, and that's exactly what happens.

So she had a choice decide, decide between god or the devil. Who will she listen to? Tempation is always the forks road. There's a signpost that says ruin, but as you look down the signpost that says ruin, it's a lovely view. It's a wonderful experience.

And there's a signpost going the other way that says obedience And as you initially look down that, it looks quite a hard narrow way. And you have to go for 1 or the other. It's a forked road, and it's the evil 1 that is giving you to go down the ruined road. It's not god James says, when tempted, no 1 should say god is tempting me, for god cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone. It's not god as the author of temptation.

It's satan coming to us and stirring our own hearts. That's what he's doing, lighting a match for the fuse that will go into our explosive sinful hearts. Every time we sin, it's an internal decision that we've made. We need to understand that. It's an inside job.

The temperature is on the outside, But in the end, it's an inside job. We can't start saying, but devil made me do it. No. The devil tempted you, but your desires made you do it. James chapter 1 verse 14 says, each 1 is tempted when by his own evil desire tempted when?

By his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. So there's a dragging and an enticing, but there's an own evil desire going on here. So when we come to temptation, we need to say there's a forth road. Am I gonna go my way or god's way? However, pleasant, that way may look.

And then I need to say that there's no period in the Christian life where you're exempt from temptation. Don't start thinking, you know, when I'm older, I won't have any temptation. I've told you this before, but I when I was in Australia, I remember a young man, asking, and he he must have been well well into his eighties, an old Christian man, and, I was at a conference with this man, and a young man asked this old man, when will sexual desires and sexual sins be taken away from me? Cause he thought, well, you know, he's 86. He can't still have them.

And the old man wisely said, alright, mate. I wouldn't trust myself until I've been dead for at least 3 days. Yeah? And he's right. He's right.

These temptations don't they come in different forms. The old are always lurking, but suddenly there's a new form. We're children of god. Yes. But we still have this old nature.

And so we need to pray brothers and sisters, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. Have a look at this first here because this helps us with the whole business of temptation. 1 Corinthians and chapter 10. I think I asked them to put it up. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 12 to 13.

We got it? Yep. Here's Paul writing, and I think this is very helpful. He says, so if you think you can stand firm, be careful that you do not 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 provide a way out so that you can endure it. There's a whole load of helpful things there. Let me just quickly go through them.

If you think you can stand, be careful. If you think you can stand, you won't pray leaders not into temptation and deliver us from the evil 1. You just won't pray that. You won't pray because you think you'll you'll be able to stand on your own. And Paul's warning us, if you think you can stand, be really careful because you're about to fall.

And then he says, secondly, that there's no special temptation to you. So you can't start saying, as I think a lot are saying these days, you don't understand my life You don't understand what I'm going through. You don't understand the agonies. Well, I probably don't. What's that gotta do with it?

God does. God understands everything. He knows exactly what you're going through. He's been tempted in every way as you are. Yeah?

So there's no special temptation. You can't say, I especially have attacks in this way. So get rid of that. It's not my fault because I have these big ones. Then he says 30 that god is faithful.

Well, that's wonderful news. God is faithful to his children. He's a father in heaven. That's good news. And then he says no temptation is beyond what you can bear.

The temptation that you and I know about, they're not unbearable. They're extremely attractive. They're massively desirable They're very compelling, but they're not unbearable. There is no occasion in my Christian life that I can say I didn't will fully sin. I can't start saying, you gave me too much god.

And so we pray that prayer to remind us that he won't lead us into too much unbearable temptation. That's why we pray. Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from the evil 1. Do you see what I'm trying to show you how important this prayer is?

Are you getting this this line? Of course. My conduct has to correspond with my prayer I can't pray. Leave me not into temptation and then go everywhere that there is temptation. Can I?

This isn't some magic lucky charm job, is it? That I say my prayer and then I I go It's like a magic charm, and then I go anywhere I like. This is lord. Don't let me be led by my sinful desires to a place where those desires will be found into flame. And if I'm praying that sort of prayer, I can't I can't go I can't, you know, I can't go there myself.

It's a bit like imagine carrying gunpowder. You got 2 bags of gunpowder, dry gunpowder. Yeah? And a bloke says, I'll lead you to the factory where we can put it away and it won't blow up. And you say to him, don't lead me down a road where there's sparks and fires and bomb fires.

Yeah? And he says, no, I won't lead you down the road where there's sparks and fires and, gum, and bomb fires. But you have to put out your cigarette as well, mate because that's liable to blow this whole lander. So our conduct and our prayer need to go together. Now just before I move on, there is another way of taking this first verse 13, and I like it very much.

I've given you 1 way And then I think that's good, obviously, because I've spent quite a long time on it, but there's another way of interpreting this verse. And, I think it's really, really good. It comes from I've only ever read this in 1 place, but I think it's really good, and and you can discuss this. It comes from a book called Tom Wright, and he says this prayer is not so much me asking God don't test me. The word test and temptation are the same word.

God don't test me to the unbearable position as we testing god The prayer is, he says, God don't let me test you. And he gets that, from the old testament and also 1 Corinthians 10. Where the story of the Israelites testing god, they've left Egypt. God has saved them, made them his people, and they're in the desert, and they're grumbling. They're grumbling.

They're grumbling. Why aren't we in Egypt? If we were in Egypt, we would have water and we would have cucumbers and stuff like that. If only we weren't your people, we would and they grumble and it says they test God, now if this prayer means this, there's a lot of important stuff, isn't it? Are you sort of longing to be a non christian?

You wanna be free from the shackles of being a child of god in this world. If only I wasn't a Christian, I could do this and this and grumbling like that. Lord. This prayer is saying if this is true. Lord, our heavenly father.

Help me not test your love. Help me not test your patience. Help me not kick sand in the face of my lord Jesus who's dying on the cross for my sin. Help me not dismiss the agony that he went through. Help me not test you.

Help me not push your patience. Help me be a child of god when I'm going through trials, and love you. We even sing that song, whatever I'm going through. So that's my second point. Here's my third.

And the last. Father in heaven deliver us. Father in heaven protect us. Father in heaven lead us. Father in heaven deliver us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. Now the word deliver is interesting because it actually means draw Deliver sounds like, you know, you know, Amazon delivers a package. They leave it there and they go away, but actually deliver means draw me to yourself. Draw me to the deliverer. Pull me rescue me.

And you rescue me by bringing me to yourself. It's all about being drawn and pulled and delivered to god. Draw me to yourself. This is the prayer. Let me see you for who you are, and then surely I won't be tempted.

Let me understand that I'm a child away from home, but you're my heavenly father. Let me understand that there are difficulties at this moment and battles, but soon I'll be with you. Let me understand and draw me to who you are and what you're doing, and let me understand the world I'm in, and you'll only do that by being under his word. Some 119 verses 9 to 16. Let me read them to you.

I think they may come up. It's a wonderful question. I remember I remember finding this when I was a young man, I was just became a Christian and someone pointed this out to me. How can a young person stay on the path of purity? How can I by living according to your word?

I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. See the same prayer here? I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you. It's not just in the head.

It's working it through and meditating it and getting it into the heart. Praise. Sorry. I've hidden your heart word in in my heart that I may not sin against you. Do you see?

Praise me to you, lord. Teach me your decrees. With my lips, I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. That's why we're doing that catechism for the little ones. I rejoice in following your statutes as 1 rejoices in great riches.

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word. He delights in the law, in the word of god. He puts it in his mind and in his heart.

He meditates on it. He thinks about it. And that liberates him. What we're doing here is a washing liberating theme. We're hearing the word of god.

I hope it excites you. And then remember that Jesus is praying for us sanctify them by your word, by the truth, and your word is truth, sanctify by the word, by the washing of the word. And then remember Jesus is also praying for you. He prayed for you in Matthew, in John, 17, but we're told in Hebrews that he's he's carrying on, praying for us. And because he prays for us in our weakness, he says that we can approach the throne of grace with confidence because Jesus is where he is, the lord.

He prays for us. That we're being sanctified cleansed by the word of god. I mean, fulfill his prayer for goodness sake, but he also says because of this, you have confidence to come to the throne of grace. We have confidence to come and say, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. So let's do that.

Let's pray that prayer. Let's pray that individually. Let's pray that as a church. Let's come to the prayer meeting and pray that as a church. Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from the evil 1.

Let's pray that we're not tempt god. By not rejoicing in his name, whatever trials we're going through. Let's pray. Father, father in heaven. Hello, be your name.

We're your children. We wanna be worshipers. We wanna be servants. We wanna be beggars. We wanna be people that say lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1.

We wanna know your protection and your love, understand what you're doing in praying for us. That we may walk out into this world with the good news of Christ, the people who are blinded by the devil, the people that needs the good news of Christ, So immensely, give us courage to say leaders not into temptation, but deliver us from evil in Jesus' name.