Signs of Life - Contentment (May 10, 2020)

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Introduction: Just as we are now paying very close attention to certain metrics and vital signs of physical health – our temperature, cough, fatigue, 1 Timothy was written to show us what metrics and signs we should be paying attention to for our spiritual health. In this passage, we get another glimpse into what was going on in this unhealthy church at Ephesus. There were very influential people in the church teaching things that were not in agreement with the sound (ie, “healthy”) teaching of Jesus Christ and with “the teaching that promotes or leads to godliness.” (ie a real/genuine Christian life). Paul teaches Timothy how to tell the difference between a real, growing faith in Jesus and an unhealthy, empty counterfeit – look for contentment.

To start things off, ask yourself a question: How content are you today? This may seem like an unfair question give all we are facing - global pandemic, sheltering in place, job disruption, economic uncertainty and more. But could it be that what we think we need to be content right now is not what we actually need? Before moving on, let’s define Christian contentment:

• Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. (Jeremiah Burroughs)

• Or, paraphrased slightly: a calm, inward satisfaction in what I have been given by God

Coronavirus and Contentment, is this really possible? Paul says it is and shows us how.

1) How to Stay Discontent

Paul begins his instructions to Timothy by showing us how to stay discontent. In verses 3-5, Paul paints a picture of a very unhealthy approach to God that is “out of agreement” with the sound “healthy” teaching about Jesus Christ. He lists out the symptoms of this spiritual disease: being conceited, having an unhealthy interest in arguing (controversy), envy, quarrelling, slander, suspicion (thinking the worst of people), constant disagreement, etc (v.4).  Next, he reveals in where this pride/relational unhealthiness comes from – a discontentment which is rooted in a false belief about God and godliness.

• The false belief is “imagining that godliness is a way to gain.” [The key words are “a way to” (also translated “a means to”]

Paul exposes the belief at root cause of all this unhealth – It is thinking that our relationship to God, and our obedience to Him, is a means to something else; that we hope to gain/receive from Him in return for what we do for Him. This is living for God to get from God, which is in direct opposition to the belief at the heart of Christianity – that we live for God for God.

Paul then shows us how our false beliefs about God are very closely connected to our false beliefs about money. He doesn’t not say that money is evil or that material things are bad. He does say the love of money (v10) and desire to be rich (v9) is what lies at the root of our discontent.

But what drives a love of money and a desire to be rich? It’s the hope of having the power to control our circumstances. It’s the belief that these circumstances will lead to contentment.  When we look to money for the power to control our circumstances, that is when money becomes a substitute for God (an idol).  This is why Jesus said it is impossible to serve both God and money.

At any point in our lives (and possibly even more so in this current economic moment), we can be tempted into using God to get the circumstances that we want or to look to money as a god to protect or change our circumstances.  Here’s Paul’s message - looking to our circumstances for contentment is a sure-fire way to stay discontent

2) How to be Content

Christian contentment is not a matter of changing our circumstances or somehow ignoring or detaching from the reality of hard circumstances, it is a matter of becoming more aware of all we already have been given in Christ by grace in any circumstance.

• This is what Paul is saying in verse 6 ,“godliness with contentment is great gain”. A genuine, living and growing relationship with God through Christ is not a means to something else, it IS great gain itself. This is the secret to contentment

It is easy to fall into the trap of interpreting God through our circumstances. If things aren’t working out for us, we think how could He be loving and good? But we must learn to interpret our circumstances through God and the “teaching of Jesus Christ” (the gospel).

• In the cross of Christ, we see the hard truth about the circumstances we really deserve because of our sin. Jesus took these circumstances we deserve in order to give us what we really need. Himself. In the cross we also see God’s mysterious wisdom - He was able to take the worst possible circumstances and work the best possible circumstances from it

If God would do this for us, we can learn to trust that, “Everything is needful that He sends; nothing can be needful that He withholds.” (John Newton). When we interpret our circumstances through the lens of gospel/grace, we are able to accept the two hard facts about life that lead to true contentment.

1. The difference between what lasts and what doesn’t (v7). We are born with nothing and we die with nothing. All our circumstances in this life are temporary – but God promises to “never leave nor forsake us”.

2. The difference between what we need and what we want (v8). There is much God gives us that we don’t truly need – Paul says we receive all of it with thanksgiving and enjoy it but realize that these things will never make us content. Just the basics are enough

3) How to Stay Content

Contentment is not something we achieve once and never lose – it requires constant attention and monitoring to avoid the temptation of falling into discontent.  Discontent, when left undetected and untreated, is a serious disease of the soul that does leads to ruin and destruction.  To stay content, we need to take a few preventive measures: .

Resist misunderstanding.  Contentment does not mean:

• We do not feel or acknowledge difficult emotions (ie Stoicism)

• We do not pursue change and growth, or even changes in our circumstances – but we act from a place of contentment in our identity in Christ, even when things don’t change.

• We do not cry out to God in our adversity and suffering asking Him to help and change things

• We simply accept injustice. Instead we seek “His kingdom come” while praying “His will be done”

Receive the gift of less - There are all kinds of things that we’ve had to cut back on or no longer have.  Thomas Watson writes “Be content; if God dams up our outward comforts—it is that the stream of our love may run faster to Him!”. Sometimes we learn contentment in seasons of want.

Receive the gift of limits - Most of us imagine contentment outside of our current situation with all its commitments and restraints. But Christian contentment teaches us that what God wants to give us in our real and current circumstances with all its limitations is far better than what we could ever find in our imagined circumstances. It is in our current life circumstances with our limits where we will find God Himself, the only source of true contentment.

There is a rich spirituality in these principles: Stay inside your commitments, be faithful, your place of work is a seminary, your work is a sacrament, your family is a monastery, your home is a sanctuary. Stay inside them, don’t betray them, learn what they are teaching you without constantly looking for life elsewhere and without constantly believing God is elsewhere. 

Ronald Rolheiser, Domestic Monastery

DIAGNOSE – Using the definition of contentment above, how content are you? Give yourself an honest rating on a scale of 1-10?

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. How do you fall into the false belief at the root of discontentment?

3. Answer this question – What one thing do you believe that – if you had it or if it happened – would make you truly content?

4. Does your own relationship to money reveal a tendency toward idolatry?– ie making money your god to give you the circumstances you believe will make you content?

5. Do you find yourself interpreting God through your circumstances? How so? What would it look like to interpret your current circumstances through the truth about God and what he has done for you in Christ?

6. How does the gospel help us trust the love and wisdom of God when we struggle through unwanted and difficult circumstances?

7. How can receiving the gifts of less and limits lead us into true contentment? Is there a way God is teaching you this now?

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Signs of Life - Fight the Good Fight (May 3, 2020)

1 Timothy 6:11-16

Introduction: 1 Timothy is a short letter from an older, seasoned pastor (the apostle Paul) to his young co-worker named Timothy. Paul is guiding Timothy in the signs of a healthy church. The church in Ephesus, where Timothy was a pastor, had been exposed to leaders and influencers who were spiritually unhealthy. Paul is providing the cure for this malady. Central to this spiritual malady was false doctrine. People within the church were promoting false teaching that was unhealthy. And it’s unhealthy because it’s not true. In this passage, Paul gives a surprising and counter-intuitive metric of a healthy church: a healthy church – and a healthy Christian – is marked by an intense struggle to preserve the truth of the gospel even at great personal risk. Healthy Christianity engages in the good fight.

Question 1: What’s the fight?

If you’re conflict-avoidant, you and Timothy probably shared the same Enneagram type. If you find this metric of spiritual health questionable, Timothy probably shared the same feeling. By his culture’s standards, Timothy was considered young in a time when youth wasn’t an asset. From evidence in the New Testament, we also discover that Timothy was mostly inexperienced, very shy, and suffered from some kind of physical disorder. Timothy wasn’t looking for a fight. But Paul says he needs to engage in a fight. What’s the fight?

There is always a fight against doubt and unbelief, but that’s not what Paul is talking about in 1 Tim 6:12. Paul is empowering Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith; fight the fight to preserve, uphold, and guard the apostolic faith. Fight to guard the gospel. In fact, this theme of preserving sound doctrine, true teaching, the truth is central to the theme of 1 Timothy. In 1 Timothy 1:18-19, Paul had instructed Timothy to wage the good warfare. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul, in his swansong, says: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

Mixing both athletic and military metaphors, Paul is saying there’s a fight, a wrestling match, a race to uphold the good news about Jesus. There’s a lot of implications of that. But at the very least we can say that Paul is inviting us not to preserve a religious principle, a philosophical idea, a rule of life, or voting bloc, but preserve the good news about a Person: Jesus of Nazareth. It means Christianity is not about a religious idea or political agenda, but a person who is at the center of reality.

This is crucial for Paul and New Testament Christianity because what a church believes shapes how it lives. As Dorothy Sayers wrote, “It is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It is a lie to say that [doctrine] does not matter; it matters enormously.” Christianity makes claims about facts. Facts about reality. Facts about your life. Facts about Jesus. Getting to know him and how he relates to all things matters.

But there’s always a risk. If Christianity is true, then there are things we need to flee and things we need to pursue. For Timothy, who was naturally conflict-avoidant, Paul is showing him how to wage the good warfare. This would require a cost for Timothy. There was something in Timothy that needed to die so that Christ could work in him the courage and confidence to guard the gospel against influential false teachers

Question 2: Where’s the power for the fight?

For Paul, the power and resources to nobly fight the good fight came from three places.

First, Timothy (and all of us) have tremendous resources in the presence of many witnesses – the church. Timothy is exhorted to “take hold of the eternal life” to which he was called in the presence of many witnesses. Scholars debate whether this refers to Timothy’s ordination as a pastor or his baptism as a Christian. Perhaps baptism is what Paul is referring to. Baptism is the sign and seal of God that he gives his free grace and eternal life to those who trust in Jesus. So Paul is reminding Timothy to remember – to appropriate – his baptism in a new way. This is what preaching and the sacraments are designed to do: beat into your head and heart who Jesus is, who you are in Christ, what you possess in Christ, and what your future is in Christ. Don’t neglect this powerful resource.

Second, there’s power in the presence of the God who gives life to all. Notice that in vv. 15-16 Paul piles on the theological doctrine. God is invincible – He’s the Sovereign. He’s also the immortal one. And the invisible one. Theology matters. Paul is communicating truths to both Timothy’s head and heart. We have a God who has within himself all the resources we need for any situation in life. While the nature of our sin, sorrows, and weaknesses are complex, one thing is true: in moments of sin, anxiety, rage, selfishness, fear and failure, we are forgetting, neglecting, or subconsciously denying something about who God is.

Third, there’s a deep power and resource in Jesus Christ who made the good confession. The confession that Paul is referring to in v. 14 could mean Jesus’ words before Pilate. But it also could refer to Jesus’ voluntary death on a cross. The language could also be translated “in the days of Pontius Pilate,” and so it bears some similarity to the line in the Apostles’ Creed that says: Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Jesus ultimately suffered under Pontius Pilate on the cross. But that’s not all it was. The voluntary, substitutionary death of Jesus was a confession – a good confession – heralded across the world that God loves us. That God smiles on us. That God delights in us. Paul calling Timothy to risk his life for the truth that God loves us. But Jesus gave his life to confirm the truth that God loves us. So one old theologian said: “Whenever our hearts waver, let us remember that we should always go to the death of Christ for confirmation.”

DIAGNOSE – Where in your own heart do you find you are struggling to preserve the truth of the Gospel? What about in this cultural moment – in what ways are you seeing the truth about Jesus sidelined, marginalized, or denied?

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. Are you conflict-avoidant or do you find that you thrive in conflict? Share how this passage challenged either of these tendencies in your own life. What resources did you find?

3. Paul is writing to a pastor, but the implications are for every Christian. In what ways is it everyone’s responsibility to guard the gospel? What does that look like in your life, in a church, in society to “fight the good fight?”

4. Dorothy Sayers said that doctrine matters enormously. What theological truths have been impacting your life in this season?

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Signs of Life - Care For Those In Need (Apr 26, 2020)

1 Timothy 5:1-8

Introduction: Just as we are all paying very close attention to metrics of health (such as positive tests, deaths, the shape of the curve) in the COVID-19 pandemic, the book of 1 Timothy was written by the apostle Paul to help Timothy bring a spiritually unhealthy church back to health again. Even though so much has changed in our world, the signs of a vibrant, growing, healthy faith have not – they hold true no matter the circumstances. The sign of life that is at the heart of this passage (and so many others in the Bible) is caring for those in need.

Caring for those in need has always been - and will become even more so in the days ahead – one of the most important, crucial signs of life for every follower of Jesus and every faithful Church. This passage provides us with the necessary steps to becoming people who truly care for those in need

Step One - Identify Those in Need

At this point in our health crisis, it is clear that many people are in great need right now. There will also be a tidal wave of needs following in the wake of the pandemic and quarantine. Before we can offer care or help, we have to first identify those in need. As obvious has this may seem, one of the hardest and most persistent barriers between those who have help to give and those who need that help, is that oftentimes the those who have help to give don’t really see those who need help.

In this passage, Paul identifies widows in the church as a group in need of special attention and care. Paul is telling Timothy to carry on a ministry that started at the very beginning of the Christian church. Acts 6 tells us about how the early church had overlooked a group of widows in need and how they stopped everything until they found a way to care for them.  Throughout the Bible widows are identified over and over by God as those in need of special attention and care. Why? Because they were so often overlooked, unidentified, and unseen by people. Widows were among the most vulnerable and voiceless in the ancient world.

What can we learn about how God identifies widows for his people - over and over again? Although human beings may forget and overlook the vulnerable and voiceless, God does not. He sees them, identifies with them and tells his people to do the same. Paul is telling Timothy to identify those widows who are “genuinely in need” (v.3) and “truly in need” (v.5 and v.16 later on) to care for them. He is saying they must be seen and never overlooked.   Christians must do the same for the vulnerable and voices in our communities today.

Step Two - Value Those in Need

In the ancient world, not only were widows vulnerable and voiceless, they were not valued. For women at this time, their value and status was tied to their husband. When a husband died, a women’s worth and value died too. But Paul says this should never be the case in the family and household of God. In fact, the Bible teaches throughout that widows are valuable in and of themselves - they have value independent of their relationship to a man (a radical idea in that time).

In fact, the text goes on to talk about “enrolling widows on a list” using the same word that was used for military enlistment. From the earliest days of the church this was interpreted as creating an official position of ministry. Early letters described elders, bishops, deacons and “an order of widows”. This order of widows provided a valuable ministry of prayer and care for others in need.  

The step of valuing those in need is a step we cannot pass over. We are often guilty of helping someone in need from a sense of superiority or paternalism. This is not the kind of care the Bible calls us to. God is called the “Champion of the widow” (Psa 68:5). God champions those who are not valued; those who are forgotten or cast off. He champions their need, but he also champions their value – what they have to give We cannot jump from seeing the need to simply meeting the need. If we are to care for those in need the way this text and the rest of the Bible calls us to, we must value the person in need, as a family member, a friend and an equal.

Step Three - Provide for Those in Need

God calls His people to give both presence and provision to those in need. Paul’s focus here is on providing for the physical and financial needs of those in distress. Notice how God answers the prayers of the lonely widow who prayers day and night to God for provision. He answers their prayers through his people, the church. The ministry of provision is described using the language of worship as a sacred duty. It is a matter of “godliness”. It is pleasing to God. Our genuine worship of God can never be separated from our practical care for people (see James 1:27!)

In this time of uncertainty with all things we are facing ourselves, how can we look outside ourselves? The answer is the Gospel. The gospel is the good news that God first identified our great need, and because He so valued us (“for God so loved the world), He provided for our need (that He gave His only begotten Son). So when the Christian sees someone in need, we shouldn’t first see someone who needs our help - we should see ourselves. We should remember that we were (and are) poor and so needy, that we valued despite our poverty such that all our needs were provided for by the One who became poor for us. The gospel reminds us everything we have – we didn’t earn and we don’t deserve. It’s all a gift from God to the poor and needy (me!). The gospel reminds us any care we give – we give as those in need ourselves.

Such a gospel mindset was behind the care the early Christians gave that extended through plague and disease. In the words of Carl F Henry, “The early Christians did not say “Look what the world is coming to!” [and retreat into fear or judgment]; they said “Look what has come into the world!” [which they displayed by sacrificial care].

DIAGNOSE – How ready to you feel to begin thinking outside of yourself to those who are (and will be) in need because of this pandemic?

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. What is hardest for you in identifying those truly in need? Why do you think it so hard for those who “have” to see and identify the “have-not’s”. Who would you identify as the most vulnerable and voiceless in our community?

3. What is hardest for you in valuing those in need? Do you tend to think those in need should help themselves? or that they need your help?

4. Mother Teresa was fond of saying, “We need the poor more than the poor need us”.  What do you think she meant by this?

5. What about the Christian faith requires that we care for people as whole and embodied people?

6. How does the gospel provide the motivation for us to move toward people in need?

7. How can Martin Luther’s advice from  letter he wrote about how to respond to a plague in 16th century guide us in caring for people in our situation? “I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.”

Where can we start? 

• Start with your own family.  God is pleased with those who are caring for parents and grandparents both now and in “normal” times (see v.2 and v.8)

• Opportunities also exist within our church – TrinityCares is our ministry for physical care and needs, so if you want to be involved, please contact responseteam@trintypresoc.org. On the other side, if you have needs or know of needs, please get in touch! Help us in the task of identifying specific needs.

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Signs of Life - Paying Attention (Apr 19, 2020)

1 Timothy 4:13-16

Introduction: Returning to our series on Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul writes to offer instructions and guidance for diagnosing and treating spiritual unhealth in the church of Ephesus. Just as our whole world is now focused on diagnosing and treating the physical threat of COVID-19, 1 Timothy’s urgent focus is on diagnosing/treating spiritual health in order to bring restoration and life back to the Ephesian church. In our world, everything has changed BUT the signs of life and the metrics of spiritual health have not. One of the most important metrics for spiritual health during this time is one of the most important metrics Paul gives Timothy – “paying attention”.

1. Paying Attention to Ourselves
In the modern world, our capacity to pay attention is shrinking. In 2015, a research study indicated that human beings have shorter attention spans than a goldfish! This underlines the challenges we face in heeding Paul’s instruction to pay attention to 2 key things, the first of which is our very own life.

What does it mean to “pay close attention to our life”? The literal translation of v.16 is “Pay close attention to your self”. “Self” can be a fairly broad concept, but it is important not to mischaracterize Paul’s intention. Because in one sense, we don’t need to be told to pay attention to ourselves! Aren’t we all already quite good at this? Self absorption, self-focus, just plain selfishness – isn’t that our main problem? Yes, selfishness is at the heart of sin

• Paul is telling Timothy to give time and space for honest self-awareness in the presence of God. Paying attention to ourselves means giving time and space to ask and consider honest questions about our emotions and our soul, such as: How am I really doing? What is really going on in my soul? How is my inner life aligned with my outer life (ie. am I pretending? hypocrisy?)? How well is my heart (how I live and what I say) aligned with my mind (what I claim to believe)?

Jesus himself modeled this. One of many examples is from Luke 5:15-16: “The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Why did Jesus need to do this?

• Jesus, the Son of God, perfect human being, often withdrew from people and activity, from needs of people, to pay attention to himself. He was deeply aware of his own need for rest and for prayer, and to give time/space for honest self-awareness in the presence of God.

Jesus also told his disciples to do this. In Mark 6:30-31, “the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest a while… for many people were coming and going and they did not even have time to eat…”

• The apostles come to Jesus, excited to tell him what they have done, and Jesus responds by asking, “When is the last time you ate? You’ve done well. But get away rest, eat”. Jesus here is saying – to them and to us – you need to pay attention to yourself, or you are risking: a) burn out and quitting or b) burn out while pretending everything is okay. In either case, you’ve lost yourself and the true good you are meant to do for others.

The Psalms can guide and inspire us – The best place to find examples of this are in the Psalms: Why are you cast down O my soul (42, 43)? Rest in God alone O my soul (62). Wake up my soul, Bless the Lord O my soul. Who is the Psalmist talking to? Himself, in the presence of God.

1 Timothy reveals that, in actuality self-awareness it isn’t just about ourselves at all. For Timothy, paying attention to himself (and the teaching he shares) is what makes him able to bring life and health to others. As Pastor Pete Scazzero says, “we cannot give what we don’t possess.”

We need each other now more than ever – spouses, kids, friends, family, neighbors. But we cannot give what we do not possess, and we cannot possess unless we give time and space for honest self-awareness in the presence of God.

However, paying attention to ourselves is not the end of the story. Paul isn’t just talking about the benefits of meditation, mindfulness, and emotional honesty, he is talking about how we become personally present to God. So not only do we need to know and be aware of our “real selves”, we also need to pay attention to the God who loves the real us.

2. Paying Attention to God
John Calvin, the great 16th century theologian, began his most well-known work on the Christian faith with these famous words, “Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God. Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.” Calvin shows us the inseparable connection between self-awareness and God-awareness. Calvin is saying in knowing ourselves, we come to know God.

In knowing God, we come to know ourselves. He goes on to explain that when we consider the gifts we have received in life; when we wonder at the miracle of existence and when we become more aware of our own spiritual poverty, brokenness, affliction and our sin, it’s there that God’s hand finds us and leads us to HIMSELF.

How do we pay attention to God and reach out to grab his outstretched hand? Paul tells Timothy to pay attention to teaching (v13, 16), to public reading and exhortation (V13). The point is that God we pay attention to God by paying attention to his Word.

Timothy was asking Paul, “Help! What will save me in this tough pastoral situation?” Paul says start here - “Pay attention to yourself and to the God who saves.” Today we are saying, “Help! What will save us from this coronavirus pandemic? What will save me from the fear, the anxiety, the things about me that are being exposed that I don’t want to see or admit in this time? What will save us from death?”

Paul’s message is the same to us - pay attention to yourself and to the God who saves through Jesus Christ. What we give our best attention to – whether that is news, government, medical experts, the economy – that is what we are really looking to for salvation in this time. But only One can truly save us from all that we fear and are struggling with in this time. Our Savior who lived, died and rose again to save us.

So what does this look like? First realize what you are giving your attention to. Whatever that is – that’s your functional Savior. Turn your attention away from it. Next, refuse to hide what’s really going on with yourself. Come out of hiding. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions. Pray them to God (see Psalm 139 for an example of this). Then pay attention to God by meditating on his Word. There are many ways to do this. His attributes, his actions, his promises.

DIAGNOSE – Where is your attention most directed during this time? How might you being looking to this thing/these things to save you?

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the message most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. What does Paul mean by pay attention to our “life” or “self”? How does this not lead us self absorption and selfishness? Why is paying attention ourselves necessary for us to pay proper attention to loving others? (verse 16 makes a clear connection)

3. One of the main reasons we don’t pay attention to ourselves in this way is that we are afraid of what we might find. How does the following quote from the sermon help us with this?
   a. “The real God can handle the real you. He already knows everything about you. The gospel is that He loves the real you – the “you” that you don’t want to pay attention to! He loves that you, He has more than enough grace for whatever is really going on with you.”

4. As you notice things going on inside of your heart and mind in this time, how might God be using these things to reach out his hand to you and draw you closer to Himself?

5. What truths about God, about what God has done or what God has promised do you most need to pay attention to in this time?

6. What practices do you currently have to give time and space for honest self-awareness in the presence of God? What practices do you currently have in your life to pay attention to God through His Word?

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The Lord's Prayer - Deliver Us (Apr 12, 2020) Easter Sunday

Matthew 6:9-13

Introduction: This Lent we are looking at each part of the Lord’s Prayer. As a model for prayer and a summary of the entire Christian life – the Lord’s Prayer offers us a place to turn in an anxious and overwhelming time. The conclusion of this prayer may not be a ‘traditional’ Easter passage, but this Easter season is certainly not like any we have ever experienced before, either. What this provides us with is both practical – in that it gives us a way of thinking about and dealing with what is going on during this crisis (temptation) and tells us what we need to ask for (deliverance), and also hopeful – because if Easter really did happen, then we can have hope that God will answer this prayer and bring us through this extremely challenging situation.

1. Our Great Temptation
What is temptation? To fully understand this prayer and find its power, we must start with a clear definition of what temptation is. We tend to use the word temptation in the context of sensual temptations, but it is much broader than this: it is any circumstance, desire, occasion, or anything that draws/lures/entices us away from God & his will for us.

Note: It is important to remember that temptation is not in itself wrongdoing or sin – the Bible teaches that Jesus was tempted in every way but was without sin. Furthermore, God does not tempt anyone, nor is he ever the source of anyone’s temptation. See James 1:13-14: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”

Having established this definition of temptation, let us acknowledge that this part of the Lord’s prayer is probably the most debated and difficult to understand: “lead us not into temptation”. Even though we know that God himself does not tempt us, why wouldn’t we pray that God simply remove all temptation?

Why do we face temptation? Earlier in James’ letter, he wrote: “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials (temptations), because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing (vv. 2-4).” God never tempts us; but he allows/uses temptations and trials to test us. This is one of the main ways he shows us more about ourselves, shows more about himself, and refines our faith. Proven faith is a sign of maturity, whereas untested belief/faith is soft, fragile, shallow, easily breakable. Thus, temptation can be something that draws us away from God, but it can also be something that drives us to God.

This is the reason why Jesus doesn’t tell us to pray that temptation be removed from our lives (which is not possible anyway in a world where there is still evil in us and outside of us) but that we would not enter into it when it comes. Many scholars point out that the key here is in the little preposition “into”: temptation is not something we can avoid but it is something we can enter into or not. In Matthew 26:41 Jesus tells us to “watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation”.

Why would this be a part of the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray regularly and repeatedly? The implied answer is clear - no matter what is happening in our lives, no matter who we are, young in faith or mature, there will always be some form of temptation to draw you away from God. When things are going well and life is comfortable and full of ease: we can be tempted to forget about God. On the other hand, when things are not going well, when we are afflicted and trials come, we are tempted to think God has forgotten about us.

For many of us, we have suddenly gone from a successful, productive, even comfortable life – tempted to forget about God – to the complete other side, tempted to believe that he has forgotten about us.

How can we not enter into temptations? Or when we do enter in, how can we get out? This is where we need to see how this whole prayer holds together and this is where Easter comes in.

2. God’s Greater Deliverance
God’s deliverance is always greater than our greatest temptations. What did Jesus tell us to pray to be delivered from? Evil. Although some translations read “deliver us from the evil one” – meaning Satan or the devil – I think the broadest definition is best and is meant here. We are asking God to deliver us from all the evil within in us that can draw us away from God, as well as all the external evil that can draw us away - including Satan, evil done to us, and all the results of evil in the world, such as suffering, disease, and death.

A Christian is someone who doesn’t just ask God for help. A Christian is someone who asks God for deliverance. We don’t just need help, we need deliverance. We need something, someone stronger than evil, to step in and rescue us. And Easter doesn’t offer us help. Easter announces deliverance. Jesus did not rise from the dead to offer us a helping hand – NO, Jesus rose from the dead to conquer evil and all its consequences. If the tomb is empty, then there is someone strong enough to deliver us from evil.

So how do we respond? Grab a hold of the rope that Jesus offers, and be pulled into resurrection life. If the Risen Jesus – who defeated sin, Satan, death – is pulling on the other side, no temptation or form of evil is a match for him, and he can bring us out it and through it bring us closer to Him, closer to resurrection life. With all that is happening in/around us now, don’t let it draw you away from God; rather, let it drive you to Him. We need to 1) acknowledge that we can’t control it and we can’t escape it; but 2) rather than despair over it, we can ask to be delivered, and God will answer us.

Remember, that in order to deliver us, for it to be possible that this prayer would be answered, Jesus had to choose not be delivered from death, suffering, and temptation. We will not always handle temptation well, but Jesus did. Jesus had to endure death, suffering and the temptation to take control and escape from that suffering, both in the wilderness and in the Garden. He experienced how strong the temptation is to not trust God in a world of evil and suffering BUT he never entered into it. This means two things: 1) He knows what it’s like! and 2) He can get you out! We will enter into the temptations of control, escape and even despair BUT Jesus can deliver us out. If we ask, Jesus will deliver us out.

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the message most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. Why don’t we just ask for God to remove all temptation from our lives? What “good” does temptation serve?

3. “Temptation can be something that draws us away from God, but it can also be something that drives us to God.” Do you agree with this? How have you experienced this? Read 1 Corinthians 10:12-13. How does this passage give us caution and hope in our temptations?

4. In the message, 3 great temptations for this time of COVID-19 and lockdown were described 1) the temptation of control 2) the temptation of escape and 3) the temptation to despair. What about our current crisis would lead us into these temptations? Which of these is most drawing you away from God? How are you handling this temptation?

5. What is the difference between asking for help and asking for deliverance?

6. How does Easter enable us to pray for deliverance from evil and its consequences with confidence, trust and hope that God will answer us?

7. Read Hebrews 4:14-16. What difference does it make that Jesus was tempted in “every way as we are”? Apply this to your strongest temptations you are facing now.

PRAY

• Before God (and others, if comfortable) name your greatest temptations during this time.

• Pray for God to lead you away from and out of this temptation and closer to Him. Whatever this temptation offers you, remember it can only be found in God through Christ.

• Prayerfully remember and thank Jesus for facing this temptation and overcoming it for you.

• Rest in God’s promise to deliver you (see 2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

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