[0:00] My name's Chris, for those of you who don't know me. It's a beautiful morning outside, and welcome if you're new here.
[0:10] I feel like I'm six feet above contradiction here, so it's quite fun. Have you ever sat back and thought, why on earth did I do that?
[0:23] I bumped into an old friend a while back, and I hadn't seen him for a while, and we started talking, and for some reason we started getting on to our childhood.
[0:34] We started talking about the crazy things that we had done when we were children. He started on a story telling how he'd kind of had this dramatic escape from the police, and it was kind of, I don't know, somersaulted over a fence, and it was just this amazingly dramatic, exciting story.
[0:52] Then it went on to my turn, and I started talking about this story about I had started playing tennis when I shouldn't have done at school over the weekend, and after a while it just didn't sound particularly exciting.
[1:06] You know, wow, crazy childhood. And so I thought, okay, let's add a few kind of touches to this to make it a little bit more exciting. So the caretaker who asked us to leave the tennis court, he became someone who chased us down the road like shouting at us.
[1:22] And then the hole in the fence that we managed to get through, which actually we could stand up in and was huge, suddenly became this very small, tiny hole that we could only just squeeze through before he was about to grab us by the legs and catch us.
[1:38] And my friend was impressed. I went away. And as I was walking along, I had this battle inside of me thinking, did I lie?
[1:50] And I was thinking, well, it's kind of true. You know, there was a hole. There was a caretaker. You know, and maybe that hole was much smaller than I really thought. And you know, like the devil and the angel inside. You know, so I'm battling inside me, going on all this way for about 20 minutes.
[2:06] Okay, it's a long walk back. And then finally, I think I had a moment of honesty where I realized, actually, I think I lied.
[2:18] And then I thought, why did I do that? Why did I do that? And I realized I do the same thing at work. You know, I'm looking at some random YouTube video at work.
[2:29] I'm sure you would never do that. And someone comes past. And quickly, I minimize the screen and go back to looking as if I'm looking at my work email. And if someone asks me, oh, what were you looking at?
[2:41] I'll just say, oh, just some work stuff. You know, just some work stuff. And it's stupid because there isn't any strict rule in our office about, okay, you can't ever look at a YouTube video.
[2:52] But it's because I want to give the impression that I'm a hard worker. I want to be seen as something. I want to be recognized as something. So why, with a friend, do I feel the need to lie to them?
[3:05] Why do I feel the need to put up an image? Well, I think, on reflection, it's because I crave the approval of other people. And I have a strong conviction that lying is wrong.
[3:21] Integrity is very important to me. If somebody tells even a small lie to me, I will question their integrity and look down on them, maybe.
[3:32] But what I've realized is, over the last few months, is if you had asked me, do you lie, I'd only say, oh, very, very occasionally, not really very often. But I've realized that if my approval, if my recognition, if my sense of respect in front of other people's eyes is on the line, then I can turn into a compulsive liar.
[3:57] And it's because I want to maintain this image. And deep down in my heart, I'm like an orphan who wants other people's recognition because I've forgotten that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me, who accepts me, who delights in me.
[4:15] And I have to get someone else's approval because God's is not good enough for me. And I work for the church. So you can fire me if you like. And I'm sure none of you do that.
[4:32] But we're going through this series on prayer. We're kind of coming to the end of the series. And we've been saying that prayer is like a needy child calling out to their loving Heavenly Father in response to Him reaching down to them.
[4:49] Prayer is essentially a VIP access pass available only to family members into the presence of the King of all creation. It's been paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ.
[5:03] And if we trust in Him, we can enter into that relationship and call our King our Father. And we don't get that pass by queuing for hours to get a ticket.
[5:16] It's our Father who reached down to us in Christ and draws us to Himself. And prayer is an invitation to enjoy this newly bought relationship with Him and to find satisfaction in our Father.
[5:32] That is what prayer is about. And if you look in this prayer, in the Lord's Prayer, you see our enjoyment of God starts in worship. It says, Our Father, hallowed be your name.
[5:44] Holy be your name above all names. Because worship is your response to what you see as valuable and precious in your life. Whatever controls your heart is what will worship.
[5:58] Whatever consumes your thoughts, whatever directs your behavior, whatever in those everyday moments is shaping you, that is what you're worshiping.
[6:09] In that moment with my friend, I was worshiping the idol of approval. Because that was what was shaping my heart. And even though I could tell you with conviction that lying is wrong, the worship of my heart always directs my behavior more than what I think just in my head.
[6:30] Which is why the Lord's Prayer starts with worship, but it finishes with warfare. And this is what we're going to look at today. Because every day, I don't know if you realize it, but we're actually in a worship war.
[6:46] We're called to be lovers. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love other people as yourself. Lovers of God. Lovers of others. And yet every day, we're in a battle for our affections from where we're going to place our love.
[7:00] It's a war for what's going to captivate you. It's a war for what's going to wrap you up. Is it yourself that's going to wrap you up, or is it you're going to find satisfaction in God?
[7:11] That's why we, as a needy child, need to be praying this prayer. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us. Deliver us from evil.
[7:24] Deliver means rescue. I need rescuing in this war. So let's have a little look into this idea of temptation a little bit more.
[7:35] So we're going to look at what temptation is, how we get snared, and how we overcome. What temptation is, how we get snared, and how we overcome.
[7:45] Okay? So what is temptation? Okay? Well, let's look in this verse. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
[7:56] I don't know if you've read that verse before, but if you have, and like me, I always found that really strange. Because think about it. Firstly, how can a loving father lead you into temptation?
[8:10] If temptation is meant to be bad, why would he lead you into it? Strange. James 1, in the passage we read earlier, says, God does not tempt anyone.
[8:21] So it's just never made sense to me why we pray, God, don't lead me into temptation. Strange. Secondly, am I praying for God to remove all temptation from me?
[8:32] You know, Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, and God didn't just remove the temptation. Am I asking God to make all attractive women or men suddenly seem ugly to me?
[8:44] Or chocolate smell like durian? Do you know, is that what we're asking? Some people like durian, but it's okay. We can talk with you later. We'll pray for you.
[8:56] Yes. Deliver us from evil. Yes. So, so to understand temptation, I googled it.
[9:07] And do you know what I found? Temptation is a brand of cat treats, deodorant, chocolates, a nail collection, sunglasses, handbags, and a jewelry and fashion store.
[9:17] I looked more deeply into this topic, and I discovered that it's a behavior which is kind of naughty but nice. You know, it's something maybe which prevents you getting your goals, you know, so we overeat, it's overspending, it's spending too much time on Facebook, it's procrastinating, it's inappropriate sex, it's worrying.
[9:38] All of these things are right at the top of the list of what temptation is. And they, and they can be. But the Bible has a different definition of what temptation is.
[9:50] If you look in James 1, verse 14, it says, each person, and it's in your bulletin, each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire.
[10:02] That word lured and enticed means to be literally drawn away. Temptation is anything that seeks to draw your heart away from finding satisfaction, security, hope, comfort, delight in God.
[10:21] It could be anything, the obvious, money, work, pornography, they're on the surface. For me, lying was my surface sin, surface temptation, but underneath, temptation is born and birthed out of your desire.
[10:38] It's a desire for approval, security, control, any of those things and to find them in anything other than God. But the word temptation in the Bible also has another meaning.
[10:53] And the second meaning is to be tried or tested. In verse 12 in that passage in James, it says, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. That word trial is the same word for temptation.
[11:07] temptation. And what it means is God leads us in life into testing situations, just like Jesus in the wilderness. And he does it to strengthen us and to teach us how to trust him in those moments.
[11:22] But temptation comes in when we want to satisfy our desires in the wrong way, at the wrong time, and apart from God and the way he wants us to live.
[11:32] Calvin, who was the great French reformer, he used to say, said this about this verse. He said, you know, there are temptations on your right hand and temptations on the left hand.
[11:44] He said, on the right hand, you've got temptations of success, riches, approval, when everything seems to be going well. And you are tempted in those moments to think, I can do it.
[11:58] I can rely on myself. I'm pretty good, aren't I? Look at the way I manage to do things. And I don't really need God in my life. That's the ones on the right hand.
[12:10] I can satisfy myself my way. But then on the left hand, there's temptations when everything seems to be going wrong, when you're not getting what you want, when there's suffering, when there's insecurity, when you fail, when there's rejection, all those other things.
[12:25] And we're tempted to worry, tempted to complain, tempted to find the security he would long for in anything other than God. I don't know where you are right now.
[12:39] It's 2016, but God has led you to where you are right now. And I don't know whether everything's going really well for you, or everything's just out of control.
[12:52] You know, you may have got your bonus, you may have got your pay rise, you just think things are great. Or you're struggling, you look at the financial situation in 2016, you look at your work, you look at your health, you look at your kids, and you're stressed out.
[13:07] I don't know which it is, but God has led you right here, and he's calling to you, and the question is, where are you looking for right now for your security, for your comfort, for your pleasure, for your approval, for control?
[13:22] Every day, we're tempted to find those things in our work, in other people's opinions, in our great plans, in our families, in our spouses.
[13:38] And if you want to know where temptation is lurking, just look at the things which stress you out. Look at the things which make you fearful, make you frustrated and angry, because lurking underneath, you may find that temptation has got you.
[13:55] But temptation is not sin in itself. Otherwise, Jesus would have sinned when he was tempted. Having a thought entering your mind isn't sin. We have people putting thoughts in our minds all the time, you know, colleagues, parents, media, Satan, all kinds of things, but the key word here is have we entered into temptation, or are we refusing to let it in?
[14:19] In Genesis 4, I don't know, you know the story of Cain and Abel, God says to Cain, who's just had his sacrifice rejected, and he's feeling jealous, he's feeling angry, he's feeling like, oh, my brother, it's not fair, life's not good, and God says to him, you know what, in this moment, you have a choice, because sin is crouching, like a lion, waiting to pounce, and he says, it wants to master you, but you must rule over it, that's what God says to us with our temptations, when I was a kid, every Christmas, there used to be this movie called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I don't know if anyone has seen it, there's a few people, okay, go ahead and watch it, but there was one character who just really freaked me out, in fact, he's been voted one of the scariest children's characters in a movie, he was called the Child Snatcher, and he would ride into town on a cart, and he'd get out of the cart, and he'd call for all the children in the town to come, and he'd offer them free ice cream and lollipops, and though the kids knew that they shouldn't go out to see him, the offer of free sweets was too much, and they were drawn out of their home, and they were lured into his cart with the ice cream, and as soon as they went in, he would slam the door, and he would reveal that it was actually a cage that were inside of, and then he would ride off with them imprisoned.
[15:51] Can you see how I was scared as a kid, you know? I'm still traumatized by it, you know, but that's what entering into temptation is. It imprisons you, it ensnares you, and this prayer, lead us not into temptation, is saying, Dad, Father, right now, with the circumstances that you have placed me in, with the temptations around me to just drawing me to find my satisfaction in anything other than you, don't let me entertain them, don't let me be captivated by them, don't let me be drawn away from you in these situations, don't let that lion that's waiting to pounce steal my joy in you, because my relationship with you is more important than anything else.
[16:44] That's what this prayer is saying. Provide me a way to overcome. So what's tempting you at the moment? Do you know?
[16:57] Do you know? That's what temptation is. How do we get snared and trapped? Genesis 3, before Cain's story, The Fall of Man is a great passage just to show how temptation works.
[17:13] God gives a command. He says, don't eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge and good and evil. I want you to trust me. I want you to depend on me. I don't want you to be independent. I want you to stay close to me.
[17:25] But then Satan comes with a lie. And all temptation starts with a lie. Satan says, did God really say, did he really say, you can't eat from any tree in the garden?
[17:42] God hadn't said that at all, but he'd said, only one tree. But all temptation works like this. It starts with placing doubt as to whether God is really good and whether you can really trust him.
[17:55] God's holding something back from you. You won't die, Satan says. You won't be imprisoned. God knows that if you eat from this tree, you'll be like him.
[18:06] You'll be satisfied. You'll be powerful. You'll have approval. You'll have security. You'll have everything that you want if you just do this thing. God is trying to stop you habit.
[18:18] You obey God and you're going to miss out. That's the lie that's coming in. That's the lies in my story at the beginning. I can't rely on God for my approval.
[18:30] I need it from someone else because that's what's going to satisfy me. But it never does. You know? The people I crave their approval spend very little time worrying about me.
[18:41] I spend more time worrying about what they think about me. And even if they think I'm great today, well then tomorrow they may even think I'm an idiot. But it starts with a lie that that's what will satisfy us.
[18:54] But it starts with a lie and then it moves on to a desire that you dwell on. The woman sees the tree is good for food and a delight to the eyes and it's desired to make you wise.
[19:07] Now, I don't know if you've thought about that story if you know it but the woman didn't just kind of glance at the tree and oh that looks really good for food. No.
[19:18] She stops to linger. She gazes on it. She starts to salivate. Wow. Oh, that fruit looks good. And that then leads over a process to then she eats it.
[19:35] You know, some of you will know Mark 6 is tomorrow or Tuesday I think. Do you know what the prize is? A hundred million dollars.
[19:49] Oh. Now, I don't do Mark 6. Never have. But when I heard about it you know what went on in my mind.
[20:02] My mind went for a little wonder. I started wondering well, what would I do if I had a hundred million dollars? And obviously I'd give a large amount to the church and to charity but just think about the holidays, the houses, the cars.
[20:20] And you know, I had a little while just kind of dwelling on it and you know, talk a little while with some other people about it and you know, after a little while I suddenly started to realize something.
[20:32] My heart was slowly beginning to get captivated by the thought of it. And the crazy thing is I might proudly proclaim to you that I have never bought a Mark 6 ticket and I wouldn't be so greediest to do that.
[20:49] But in my heart I've been captivated and greed has begun to pounce and I'm walking into the cage and if I allow those thoughts to just continue and just drift and just wander a little longer you know, my heart bit by bit will no longer see giving for example on a Sunday as a joy but it will feel a bit like I'm losing out.
[21:18] You know, I could have that money for so many other things. And when my heart begins to get captivated by finding pleasure and security in money or in relationships or in achievements or anything else that could be dwelling in your mind, the less I will find joy in Christ as my pleasure and the less in my life I will be generous and joyful about it.
[21:44] The Bible says you can't serve God and money but it's just a thought, you know, it's just a thought we say. John Owen, the 16th century English preacher, he said this and this was convicting, he said, you've entered into temptation not just when you've actually committed the outward sin but right when your heart secretly begins to like the temptation and you're happy to feed it.
[22:14] Do you know why I didn't resist that thought? Because I like it and I'm happy to feed the lion and the lie I'm believing is that money can give me satisfaction and security in life and I've forgotten that I have a good heavenly father who says he will satisfy me with good things and I can trust him to provide what I and my family need.
[22:42] Lead me not into temptation. What have you been dwelling on in your mind this week? What's been running around there captivating your thoughts and your heart?
[22:57] Where are you outwardly doing the right thing but inwardly the idea of your heavenly father satisfying your desires just seems a little bit crazy.
[23:08] It seems totally out of your current reality because maybe you're in the cage and Christ is wanting to set you free to see that he can be those things that your heart desires.
[23:24] Temptation is anything that draws us away from Christ. We get snared when we believe lies and when we dwell on temptation. How do we overcome temptation?
[23:35] Third thing. The problem with temptation Oscar Wilde the playwright summed it up very well. He said I can resist everything except temptation.
[23:52] You see temptation is all around you. I just look on the MTR and there are pictures of beautiful women which will either tempt you to lust or to despair. There are pictures of Facebook of everyone's happy life which will tempt you to just look at your own and be dissatisfied.
[24:06] You go into the office, you go into the playground, the behavior of your colleagues, it tempts you to get mad, fearful, look down on them, crave their approval, want to be like them. It's all around wherever you go.
[24:16] Even this morning you may have had some temptation on the way. And so monks for over a thousand years thought the solution to this must be we've got to escape the world.
[24:29] So they built monasteries up on mountains way away from people to escape this dangerous evil world. But the problem was the monasteries became as sinful and filled with lust and greed and drunkenness as everywhere else.
[24:43] So our society has come up with a different solution. And this was great, I found this on Friday in our office. This is just preacher's dream.
[24:55] It was like Special K. On the back it says, let's hear it for willpower. It says here, a new way to conquer temptation.
[25:10] When cravings sneak into your day, turn to new, positively delicious Special K. Here we go. This is the solution. Okay.
[25:22] Underneath it says, tell us how you beat temptation and share encouragement on Facebook. So do you know what I did? I went on to Facebook because I wanted to tell you a great story about how someone had been helped by Special K.
[25:42] And I went on there. I didn't find a single testimony about the greatness of Special K in beating temptation. I was very disappointed. I don't know if you take Special K but maybe it helps you.
[26:01] You should write in if it does. But David Brooks of the New York Times, he says, the fact that we fail to keep most of our New Year's resolutions struggle to lose weight shows us that willpower isn't the solution to temptation.
[26:19] Your willpower is not like a dam that can block the torrent of self-indulgence. It's more like a muscle which tires easily. Moreover, you're a social being. If everybody around you is overeating, you'll probably do so too.
[26:36] Willpower, doesn't matter how hard you try, is not the solution. And even if you think you've got the willpower, listen, I can walk along a street without having to look constantly at my phone.
[26:52] Occasionally. And I feel very proud about the self-control that I exercise. Sometimes even when a WhatsApp goes off, I will resist. And then I walk along and I see these people who don't have the same amount of self-discipline that I have, and they bump into me.
[27:13] And I look at them and I think, why can't you be as disciplined as me? Can't you just have a little bit of self-control, a little bit of willpower, just to not be a slave to your phone?
[27:28] And the thing is, where I feel I have strong willpower, do you know what it does? I have little patience for those who seem to be weaker than me in that. And the love in my heart for them shrivels.
[27:42] And do you know what? I've actually entered into another temptation, that of pride and self-righteousness. You rely on willpower, you'll have entered into temptation of self-righteousness.
[27:58] Now, don't get me wrong, in the moment, willpower, you have to use willpower to resist. Like, if you want to shout at somebody, now, me, anyone, okay, count to ten, hold your tongue, punch something, not a person, the wall, okay, use every ounce of your willpower to resist.
[28:21] Absolutely. But you've got to realize that the problem, ultimately, is not your will that's the issue, it's your heart that's the issue, and willpower can't change your heart.
[28:37] Because the lying, the anger, the greed, the lust that drives you, is not there because you're not disciplined enough. It's there because your heart has been captivated by something other than God.
[28:49] That's why. Special K, on their website, say, you are strong, and we are here to help you stay that way.
[29:03] the Lord's prayer says, you are weak, you need a savior, you need a deliverer, you're a child, you need a father, we are sinful, we need someone to rescue us.
[29:20] That is why this prayer, lead us not into temptation, should be constantly on our lips, because it recognizes our weaknesses. I can't resist temptation by myself.
[29:33] I might stop gambling on Mark 6, but I can't change the greed in my heart to love God more by myself. You know, there's an old Greek myth about the sirens, who are kind of mermaid-like creatures, whose beautiful voices lured sailors to steer their ships towards the sound, and then they would dash themselves on the rocks, and be destroyed.
[29:59] Time and again, the sailors sailed past the sirens, they would put their fingers in the ears, they would do anything to stop the sound, yet every time it was too much for them, and they would steer their ship, and they would dash into the rocks.
[30:17] Then one day, a ship came along, and the siren voices, these beautiful voices, called out, and the sailors were going crazy trying to resist, and then a guy called Orpheus, he gets out his lyre, and he starts to play this beautiful song, and the song was so beautiful that it drowned out the voices of the sirens, and the ship carried on and sailed past.
[30:44] It was the only ship that survived. This is how our hearts will resist temptation. the way to resist is to have a more beautiful song that is playing in your hearts, a more beautiful song than the things around us that captivate us are telling us.
[31:04] It's to find our approval and our comfort and our recognition and our satisfaction in Christ, in his death who has brought us into his presence to be loved by the one whose love is boundless.
[31:17] And here's the thing, listen, you will only live for Christ if you are satisfied in him. You will only live for Christ if you're satisfied in him.
[31:35] You will not drink from a muddy puddle if you realize that there is a fountain there that you can drink from. And the gospel of Jesus Christ is that more beautiful song.
[31:47] this Hebrews passage that we read out, it says, we don't have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who's been tempted in every way and yet without sin.
[32:06] Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence to find grace and mercy in our time of need. for a liar and an approval freak like me, Christ came down.
[32:23] He was tempted like you and I were, tempted to be his own savior, tempted to seek his own glory, and yet when I get lured into that cage, he didn't.
[32:37] He resisted. resisted. He stayed totally dependent, loving and obedient to his father because he found his satisfaction and approval in pleasing his father because he knew his love.
[32:54] And though he resisted every temptation, he doesn't look on you and me with self-righteousness upon our weakness as we fail and say, can't you do any better? Look, I can do it.
[33:05] Why can't you? He doesn't say that. But with compassion, with sympathy, he says, run to me. Turn to me. And I have grace enough to satisfy your soul in any moment of need.
[33:22] So the lure of whatever is tempting you at the moment loses its appeal. And it's not just grace, there is mercy for those of us who have stumbled, even this week. who is in that cage of temptation.
[33:36] His mercy is vaster than the ocean. If your sin is like a dripping tap, his mercy is like the Niagara Falls. It is incessant. It is constant.
[33:47] It is there available. He asks us to run. That is why he says, pray to me. Run to me. Will you run? Turn. Repent.
[33:57] Turn to him and find that there is somebody who loves you more than you could imagine. Because he's a father who wants to hold you.
[34:10] He's a father who will supply all of your needs. He says, if I have given my life for you, how am I going to hold back anything good that will satisfy your soul?
[34:26] There's that song, you know, he's got the whole world in his hands. Well, he's got your 2016 in his hands. He's got the stock market in his hands.
[34:38] He's got your health. He's got your kids. He's got your relationships in his hands. So will you trust him with them? Because there's no other hands in this universe who's a more loving, more strong, more faithful than his.
[34:52] God. And he gave his son so that we might find satisfaction in him. I don't need to crave approval from people if I keep singing that song reminding that my father accepts me.
[35:12] We don't need to rely on our jobs for security if we know that he is the most secure one in the world and he's got it all in his hands. And he says, I love you.
[35:24] You can trust me. That's the gospel. And that's what we need to keep singing to ourselves.
[35:35] We need to keep singing to each other daily. I am more sinful and weaker than I can possibly imagine, but I am more loved and more accepted than I could dare comprehend.
[35:50] So do we sing that to each other daily? I mean, if you don't sing well like me, then say it to each other. You know, this is the reason why we sing songs.
[36:01] You know, this is the reason why we read God's word. This is the reason why we have community groups. Because we need to constantly have that song in a world which is singing so many other songs to us.
[36:17] Because if you are not having that song, let me tell you, Owen will say you're already in the cage. You're already in temptation. If God's word is not something that is your dwelling on, you're delighting in, you need to pray, God, help me to delight in your word, because otherwise you're going to be ensnared.
[36:40] Did you notice this prayer is lead us, us, not into temptation? Not just me. It's us.
[36:52] We talk a lot about community here at Watermark. But I think we're in danger sometimes of missing what that means. It's not just a social group. It's not just the American club.
[37:05] It's a group of weak and broken people who are pointing each other to Christ in the normal things of everyday life. life. How does it happen?
[37:17] We share our temptations with each other. I don't know. Have you shared what is tempting you this week with anybody? Because you probably see a pattern in your life. And some of us who know that we're right in that cage of temptation, the first step that you and I need to take is to actually go and admit it to somebody, a Christian brother or sister, because that's going to be the first step of having somebody else alongside you.
[37:44] Because if you're like me, sometimes I forget, sometimes I'm so attracted that I need somebody else to sing that song to me. And if nobody knows what the song is that I need to hear, then how are they going to sing it to me?
[37:57] Some of you need to admit where you're struggling, where you're actually wading deep in temptation. And in our CGs, if we truly believe that relationship with Christ is where we find our satisfaction, then we should know the temptations of at least one person in our CG and we should be praying for them regularly, daily.
[38:25] Not as someone who's better, but as a fellow struggler in this fight, in this war, knowing that Christ has won the victory. The elders need you to pray for them.
[38:39] I need you to pray for me. Your CG members need you to pray for them. Pray not just for our physical needs, but because my heart is so tempted to go astray.
[38:52] So here's what you can pray. Chris is going to work today. He's going to be tempted to crave the approval of others, to think that money will ultimately satisfy him.
[39:06] And that can lead him to lying, to cheating, to envying, to losing his joy in you. Father, would you help him know that you will be his acceptance, his satisfaction?
[39:18] Don't let his heart be led away this week. Let him see that you are the Father in heaven who supplies all his needs. He will satisfy him. God, we need you to pray for him.
[39:30] Because this is the way we start praying. This is the way we love each other. So let's be a church that loves each other enough to pray this prayer.
[39:41] Our Father, hallowed be your name. You are worthy of our worship. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. It's all about you. Give us today our daily bread.
[39:53] We need you to provide. Would you forgive us for where we keep getting our hearts captured by so many other things? And forgive those who have hurt us so we're not tempted to hold on to bitterness.
[40:09] And would you enable us to keep you at the center of our affections? Don't lead us into temptation. Provide a way out. Give us the strength that we may honor you, that we may glorify you.
[40:21] And that in this church, people would see that Christ is our satisfaction, our delight, and he's our joy. Let's pray. Father, there are so many, so many things which draw us and pull us.
[40:51] And sometimes I admit I don't even know that they're pulling me. I don't realize I dwell on things. I pray now for each one of us.
[41:03] You would show us where we're dwelling on things which are not you. Help us to see what the things we feel like we can't do without.
[41:16] And to realize that you are the one who we can't do without. And though everything else may crumble and fall, if we have you, we have what we need.
[41:33] Help us to see that not just as a theory, but in the practical everyday things of life. When we go to our office, or go to our families, or we go to our friends, when we go on the internet this week, would we see, would we see that you are satisfying for us?
[41:55] In your name. Amen.