But it's easy to look at characters like this and we just don't take them all that seriously, right? But I actually think that's part of the problem. Because we tend to think of evil either as cartoonishly exaggerated or distant. Something out there in the world, but not something that we need to be concerned with personally. And yet Jesus, in the Lord's Prayer, gives us a sobering reminder is that we have a very real enemy. And unlike these comic book villains, he doesn't show up with a cape and a dramatic monologue. He works in the shadows through subtle temptations, misplaced affections, and slow compromises.
[00:01:47]
We live in a world that in a lot of ways kind of trivializes evil. There are like movies and TV shows that make demons like cute or funny or aloof. And at the same time, I think we often overestimate our strength. Here's what I mean. A 2018 study found that 65% of Americans believe they are more intelligent than the average person. Statistically speaking, that's lopsided. 65% consider themselves above average in their intelligence. And I found in contrast, Mensa International, which is a high IQ society, requires members to score within the top 2% on approval intelligence tests. The reality is that we often overestimate our intelligence, overestimate our morality, and overestimate our ability to resist temptation. And I believe that Jesus knows this. He knows our tendency. Which is why he doesn't teach us to pray, help me overcome evil by my own willpower. He teaches us a prayer that is steeped with dependence.
[00:05:23]
And these two words, deliver us, is a recognition that we are not as strong as we often think we are. That we are not immune to sin. That evil is real and we need a rescuer. We need someone to deliver us.
[00:06:27]
We are not asking to escape trials altogether. We are asking that when trials come, that they will not overpower us, leading us into sin. Think about it this way. When gold is refined, it goes through what? Fire. Gold goes through fire to get refined. The goal is to remove the impurities, but if left too long, the gold can be destroyed. Similarly, in my experience, and maybe you can relate, God sometimes allows trials to refine us, but he does not desire for us to fall into sin.
[00:08:48]
That's what trials often do for us. When we're rattled, when we're shaken, we should be taking stock of what comes out of me when things don't go my way, or when I'm stressed, or when the guy in front of me is driving too slow, or when the waiter gets my meal wrong. That we should be paying attention to, man, what comes out of me when I'm overwhelmed.
[00:10:00]
This means that when we pray these words, we are acknowledging our weakness and we're asking for God's strength in the difficulty. We're seeking his protection from the traps of the enemy.
[00:10:49]
This is not a polite request to God. This is one that recognizes the urgency. It's a desperate cry of someone in imminent danger. Picture a firefighter rushing into a burning building to pull someone out before the flames consume them. That's the kind of rescue that Jesus teaches us to pray. Not just like, hey, I got a good handle on things, but every once in a while if you could keep me from stumbling, it is recognizing God without you, without your help, without your guidance and deliverance and protection, I'm toast. I need you, God, every moment.
[00:11:45]
So by praying, deliver us from the evil one we're praying, deliver us from this very real enemy that has very real plans to snatch us, to break apart our marriages, to get us distracted, rescue us from our own sinful tendencies, protect us from the corruption around us. The bottom line is we are acknowledging in this prayer that we cannot do this on our own, which is so central to the gospel, by the way, that when we can do nothing to earn, deserve, or merit God's favor, he comes after us. He pursues us even in our brokenness, not when we got our life together, when we joined a small group and we started tithing and doing all these religious things. It's when we were still caught in our brokenness.
[00:13:10]
This whole part of the prayer flies in the face of so much of our sort of like Western rugged individualism. I and me and my, I can make this happen. This part of the prayer is a very unsettling posture of humility. It's declaring, God, without your help, I cannot overcome this.
[00:14:10]
We see this in the Exodus. God snatches Israel from slavery in Egypt. We see this in the Psalms where we pray, the Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. We see this in the reference that Corey made last week. Daniel's in the lion's den. God shut the mouth of the lions. And then we see this at the cross and the resurrection. Jesus defeated the ultimate act of evil. The greatest deliverance was at the cross.
[00:14:34]
And when Jesus prayed in the garden, by the way, sweating real drops of blood, like real weightiness, let this cup pass if there is any other way but not my will, let yours be done. And he was not delivered from suffering but went through it so that you and I might be delivered from it.
[00:14:58]
A sinkhole appears, a car disappears, and then they all go, man, that hole came out of nowhere. But they're wrong. The hole appears suddenly, but the process that led to it has been going on for years. The underground erosion was invisible, but it was there all along. Sinkholes remind us of two really important things. One, something can look good on the outside when underneath major problems have been going on for years. And two, our lives are affected by little choices which have a cumulative effect and can result either in moral strength or moral failure.
[00:16:01]
I would say it like this, the choices we make today become the chains that we wear tomorrow. And if we're not mindful of what it is each moment of every day that we're actually building or dismantling, God is saying, be wary of an enemy that wants nothing more than for you to be imprisoned, to be enslaved to this addiction, to this idea, to this relationship, whatever that is. If we are not daily dependent on God, we are vulnerable.
[00:17:08]
If we see other people more as enemies to be defeated rather than neighbors to be loved, we have lost the heart of the gospel. Do we have very real disagreements? Obviously. Is there very real evil in the world? Obviously. But Paul is telling us our actual battle is not other people. It's the powers and principalities. There's a bigger thing going on here and when we treat other people like they're the issue, they're the enemy, we miss so much of what I believe God wants to do in the world.
[00:17:51]
Hebrews 4.15, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with us in our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin. That means Jesus understands. Man, are you struggling in this area? Are you ashamed that you went back to this substance or that website? The posture from Jesus isn't condemnation, it's compassion. We have a high priest who gets it, who understands.
[00:18:43]
Evil is a threatening power, but a defeated one. Evil is a threatening power, but a defeated one. And because of that, we can pray this prayer with confidence because God will lead us. God will deliver us. God will keep us. And in Jesus, he already has.
[00:19:35]
Where there's temptation, there is a tempter. In fact, scripture tells us that the enemy is not just some sort of passive spectator like waiting for us to trip and kind of like laugh on our failures. Genesis 4 says, sin is crouching at your door. 1 Peter 5 says, the enemy prowls like a lion. Stay alert. Evil is real.
[00:20:26]
Let me ask you this. Have you ever looked at the world at war and oppression and justice, exploitation, the way that humans keep harming each other and thought to yourself, I wonder if something bigger is going on here. Like I feel like deep down we sense that evil isn't just an abstract concept or like a bad idea or a bad decision here and there. It has, there's a weightiness to it. And if you've ever felt that sense, not just like around you but like in you, if you've ever been surprised at like your own capacity to like contribute to harm, to hurt another person, then maybe, just maybe, Jesus is on to something when he teaches us to pray, deliver us from evil.
[00:22:03]
What looks like will feed you will actually trap you. We so often look to these things or these substances or this, whatever it is, it looks like it will satisfy me, but it's actually a trap. Fish are just a collection of appetites. They're essentially just a stomach, mouth, and eyes. And they're like, I see that? I want it. Time to eat. The one who is fishing for us knows our desires. He baits the hook and waits for us to bite. Someone fishing for you is not an if, but a when.
[00:23:26]
Sin isn't just loving the wrong things. Sometimes it's loving the right things in the wrong order. And Jesus acknowledges the power of evil, but he also makes it very clear that God is greater. Evil is a defeated enemy, but still a dangerous one.
[00:26:09]
Maturity is not what can I get away with, but what do I need to get away from? You see, a child asks, what can I get away with? How much sin, how much sinning can I do before God gets really angry? Like if I went to my wife and I said, hey, how much can I get away with before you divorce me? Is that the sign of a flourishing relationship? Do you think she's going to respond well to that question? No, nor should she. The question is like, how can I get away with? But like, Lord, what do I need to get away from? What sin have I been teaching to do tricks that God said to put to death?
[00:27:45]
This prayer is a confession of weakness. It's a rejection of self-sufficiency because the truth is we don't just need God to forgive past sins. We need him to keep us from future ones. So let me ask, where are you relying on your own strength right now, your own discipline, your own ingenuity, your own moral record, your own intelligence? And are you clinging to God like a drowning person clings to a lifeboat? Oh, that the Lord would forge in us that kind of dependence.
[00:28:40]
The battle is real but here's the good news, it's already won. Because Jesus didn't just teach us to pray this prayer, he fulfilled it. And at the cross, he faced the ultimate trial. He endured the full force of evil. The enemy did its worst to him and he exhausted its force. That is the good news of the gospel and because of his victory, we are not just rescued from evil, we are more than conquerors over it.
[00:29:39]
Victory isn't about fighting harder, it's about surrendering sooner. I wish I had learned that decades earlier. It's not about fighting harder, it's about surrendering sooner, recognizing that every breath is a gift on loan to us that we are not owed. God, we need you every moment of every day. Open our eyes to that reality because ultimately we are weak. The enemy is real and only God can save. And in Jesus, he already has.
[00:30:43]
