Introduction
Good morning. The past 6 weeks we have embarked on a journey together looking at the some of the storms in our lives and how God is calling us to stand strong in their midst. We have looked at storms from within like – anger and anxiety and storm from without like times of loss and war. Last week we looked at how the Holy Spirit helps us through the storms of life by speaking to us by His very presence and enables us to be His witnesses.
This week we are going to look at How Prayer Helps us to Stand Strong in the Storms of Life. And I want to concentrate on one storm in particular – the Storm that come through Temptation. I want to look at Prayer – not just as a prescriptive measure (meaning praying prayers of confession and restoration after the temptation has born its ugly fruit )
but as a preventative. to enable us prevent the temptation from entering into our lives – kind of a “Apple a day keeps the doctor away”
Our scripture this morning is taken from Luke 22:39-46. The context of this passage is that it immediately follows Jesus’ and the disciple’s time together in the Upper Room celebrating the Passover. Hear the Word of God.
Luke
22:39-46
39 And He
came out and proceeded as was His custom to the
45When he rose from prayer, He came to the disciples
and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46and said to
them "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray
that you may not into temptation."
Let’s Pray
What
is Temptation?
So what is temptation?
Notice that Jesus did not say “Pray that you will not fall into sin” – but to pray that they would not even “enter into temptation.” This morning let’s look at how prayer helps us to do this.
Most of us have a pretty good idea of what temptation is. The dictionary defines temptation as
the desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid
There are a lot of terms that we use in the church that the world doesn’t understand – but temptation isn’t one of them. For example, Mark Twain said
“I deal with temptation by yielding to
it”
Mark Twain
I found this
bumper stick on the web:
To understand what Jesus meant in our
scripture this morning, I would like to share 3 foundational truths about this
idea of temptation.
The first is:
I. That Jesus taught us to pray about the temptations in our lives. Not just in our passage today – but also in the Lord’s Prayer where we are instructed to pray – “Lead us not into temptation.” What does Jesus mean when he said that? We know from the book of James that God doesn’t tempt people with evil (James 1). So why do we ask the Father not to lead us into temptation? Of all of the parts of the Lord’s prayer – this is the one I pray the least – And it is because at a deep level I have not known what it meant.
There are at several ways to look at this.
One approach that a number of people take is to look for an alternate meaning. The Greek word used both in our scripture this morning and in the Lord’s prayer can mean two different things: temptation or to trial or test. In English we have separate words for this – but in the Greek there is just one. Usually we can tell which is which from the context. So one way to reconcile this is to translate it as “trial” or “test” Don’t lead us into trials. Don’t lead us into a time of testing. For example:
In our Communion Liturgy developed by Tom Belt we sing “Save from the time of trial”
Now certainly this is easier to understand – because a trial is a much broader word than temptation and doesn’t conflict with God not tempting us with evil.
The problem with this is that it doesn’t fit with the context. Writers don’t use words of two different meanings if the context does make it obvious. Virtually no New Testament scholars accept “trial” or “testing” here. Only one translation of the Lord’s prayer translates this “trial.” Most translators take the context – “but deliver us from evil” to tell us that temptation is the clear meaning in this prayer.
So that path isn’t very satisfying -
Here’s the approach I just begun to with this part of the Lord’s prayer. When I pray “Lead us not into to temptation” I say:
“Lord wherever you lead me I going to be tempted – so Lord don’t lead me into temptation but deliver me from the evil within.”
We admit that we are weak in our flesh. We confess that we are susceptible to temptation.
II. The second foundational truth that we need to understand about temptation is the fact that to be tempted is not a sin. Jesus was sinless and was tempted. Not just in the desert – not just here in the Garden – but the book of Hebrews says that he was tempted in every way as we are.[1]
III. Finally a third foundational truth
about temptation is that it is everywhere.
Usually we think of temptation as involving only the really big sins –
the ones that destroy families or get our name in the newspaper.
Or in the disciples’ case – the denial of Jesus and the running
away. But my experience is that
the more powerful ones are the internal ones / what we think / how we judge others
/ our attitude / our tendency to despair in tough circumstances.
In a
great book that provides us a lot of insight into temptation, The Screwtape Letters by C..S.
Lewis, Lewis records letters from a supervisor of a junior devil assigned to
tempt a young man. Listen to some of the
ways the junior tempter is instructed to work:
- “We sometimes
tempt a human to live in the past.” That is either to live burdened by past
pain or buoyed by past glories. We
are frequently tempted to do this.
- “Keep
pressing home on him the ordinariness of things.” In other words we are
tempted to miss the transcendence and mystery and wonder of God’s
creation.
- “Build up
between [loved ones] a good settled habit of mutual annoyance” – Screwtape goes on to say “When two humans have lived
together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice
and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the
other.” Of course
that happens to none of us.
- “[God] wants
men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them
thinking about what will happen to them.” Not only are we tempted to live in the
past – we are tempted to live in fear of the future.
This
is where most of us live – not that we aren’t tempted to do the really big
outward sins of the flesh – I don’t want to minimize them or their potential
for destruction – but I believe that the temptation to pride, to thinking too
highly of ourselves, to judge, to speak a word out of place, to despair, to
anger, to live in shame, to doubt God’s faithfulness are far more prevalent and
probably more deadly.
I think Jesus foresaw the storms of temptation that were brewing for the disciples over the next three days. Imagine being one of the disciples during that period. The doubts / the anguish / the betrayal / the accusing / the second thoughts. It was the inner temptations that were going to torment them after they had deserted Jesus.
But whether large or small temptations / internal or external - God is telling us to today through the Word that prayer is the vehicle that will prevent us from entering into temptation.
How
does prayer help us with temptation / both inward and outward
But a good question at this point is “How does prayer help us not to enter into temptation?“
Of course most of us have experienced how prayer can be effective in the immediate circumstances – when you find yourself thinking those awful thoughts – and you offer up one of those quick arrow prayers – “Lord help me keep my focus.” “Satan be gone.” And by His grace, the temptation is broken.
But I don’t think this is the kind of prayer that Jesus is talking about here. When Matthew and Mark tell this story they add this phrase of Jesus:
“Could you not keep watch for one hour?”[2]
I believe that when Jesus told the disciples to “Watch and Pray that you not enter into temptation” He wasn’t talking about arrow prayers – but of preventative prayer - long term prayer that builds a deep relationship with God that changes the way we do everything.
Dallas Willard defines this kind of prayer as:
“Talking with God about what we are doing together.”
I believe that the kind of prayer that Jesus is talking about is the kind of prayer where we sit at God’s feet and gaze into His eyes and hear His Heart beat.
Let me offer some of the ways that prayer has done this in my life:
- Helps us to gain God’s perspective – When we take time to sit with the Father, He reveals His perspective on things in our life. My perspective on things often leads to temptation – “They are always doing this.” “This situation is so messed up.” “I am worthless.” His thoughts are not our thoughts and spending time with Him helps me to hear His thoughts.
- Helps us to remember and believe what Jesus said. Remember the first temptation in the Garden - “Hath God said?” Satan is still in the work of questioning what God has said – “Oh He really didn’t mean it like that” “That doesn’t apply to your situation.” Always the “Whisperer.” Spending time in God’s presence awakens our heart to believe – Faith is not a leap in the dark – Faith is a connecting the dots of God’s faithfulness. I believe Jesus word because He reminds us daily of His words as I sit at His feet.
- Helps us to understand the schemes of the enemy / to expose His snares. As I have been developing a two-way relationship in prayer with God, I have found that he often reveals to me snares and traps in the road ahead. Sometimes it is very specific. He once warned me about a specific relationship. In our business, God has warned us on several occasions about situations that without prayer we would have missed.
- We want to please God - Knowing that I will come into the throne room of Him who knows all and loves me is a powerful motivator - a strong incentive to not enter into temptation. I have found that when I begin avoiding God – I usually have something to hide. And hidden-ness is one of the powers of temptation. “No one will know.”
- We are transformed through prayer. As we spend time alone with God – He is going to work transformation in our lives / our desires are different. The power and the draw of temptation lessens. By God’s grace I can say that there are situations today that were temptations a few years ago that no longer have any power. And I credit it to the transforming work God is doing in me.
How
can we develop a lifestyle of prayer – the role of habit
So how can we
develop this kind of life style of prayer that helps us stand strong during the
storms of temptation? Our passage today
gives us a hint. Jesus went to the
Garden / the
“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
I look out there and see each of you. Every one of you has a willing spirit – but we don’t have the habits / the spiritual disciplines to bring our weak flesh into alignment with our spirits.
Jesus said to the disciples “Can you not watch with me for one hour?” One hour in prayer? When I first became a Christian – spending an hour in prayer was impossible. I was asked to be part of a prayer vigil for a friend who was going through open heart surgery and to pray for an hour. After about 3 minutes I looked around the room and said to myself “Now what.”
And I felt tremendous guilt. I had no clue what to do for one hour in prayer.
But prayer is something we grow in – it’s communicating in a new language. Praying in a conversational way with God for an hour when we are just beginning our journey in prayer is kind of like holding a one hour two way conversation with an infant. Can you imagine that? And unless he’s selling Quizno’s subs, you aren’t going to get very far.
Prayer dialogue with God is a new language and it will take time to learn. Start small. Start with 10 minutes a day – make it regular – make it your habit. Then watch it grow. I am not talking about Bible study – as good as that is – I am talking about getting alone with God and talking to Him and then listening to what He says.
But what is going to motivate us to begin such a habit?
The ideal is quite
simple. God is the “lover of our souls.” He is the tender and loving Heavenly Father.
Should not that image alone draw us into His presence every day?
Isaiah 62:5 says
that God rejoices over us as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
Who wouldn’t want to spend time with such a God? One who looks at us as a bridegroom looks at his bride?
If these images are true – and they are - why don’t we wake up every morning running to be with Him?
“Good morning Lord!” – instead of what we normally do
“Good Lord morning?”
To put it simply – that’s the ideal – and we don’t live in that ideal world. The images are true – but the world, our weak flesh and the devil are going to do everything they can to prevent us from doing this. The reality is that someday the couple so much in love at the wedding could wake up and look at each other and wonder where their passion went.
And the same can happen to us with God.
Every marriage counselor knows that the way back to the passion and the love in a marriage is to build the habit of spending time together – they tell us that the love and the passion will follow. And the counselor will also tell us this works – even if the passion and the fire and the love were never there!
The love and the fire and passion and the experience may get us going but it is the habit that will sustain that for a lifestyle.
Some of you have
heard of Elizabeth Eliot – a wonderful woman of God. Several years ago at
Jesus, facing the storm of his life – went to pray –as was his habit – his custom and then said to the disciples:
“Get up pray that you may not enter into temptation”
Don’t wait for the storms of life to overcome you before you develop the habit that Jesus developed. Our heavenly Father is there / waiting / knocking / longing to develop that relationship that all of us long for. Our spirits are willing – but we need the disciplines / the habits to bring our flesh into alignment with our spirit.
Get up and Pray – and learn to Watch with Jesus until one hour seems like just one minute. “Can you not learn to wait with me for an hour?”
Let’s ask him to set our hearts and our minds and our souls on fire to the task of developing such a habit.
Let’s pray