Our good and gracious of God promises to be with us no matter what we face. He will never leave us nor forsake us. This is the promise. And for those of us who believe in this, we rest. And in this we find peace, strength, hope. By the end of today, even victory, like the journey we're about to go on together. Some of you're gonna be thinking, man, where's the victory in this? I promise you it is. There it is there at the end. It is there. So I wanna pray for us. But you see, I want to admit that not everybody in these rooms believes yet. Those of you at Fenton and Grand Trail with Mid Rivers, those of you watching online, I know there are people who are saying, wait, what is this? We are inviting you into a life that is different, a life with God in charge. It's the kingdom life, Jesus would say. So let me now pray for us. I'm gonna ask God to do some pretty big things, and then I'm going to close with this prayer we've been studying, but it'll be worded just a little differently. There's a, a writer who said, sometimes it's good to to kind of reword these things, still faithful to the, to the scriptures, but maybe our ears will hear something different. So if you would, if you're ready, would you pray with me? Father, we come before you now, and I am asking that you would, that you'd, that you'd do a mighty work. Lord, I'm, I'm asking that you would give us soft hearts what I'm praying in the conversation we're about to have in the context of your word, that you would keep us from pulling our guard up. Lord, I pray that you'd keep our feet from the temptation to run away from this. Pray that you keep our eyes wide open. Lord, I pray that our ears would be eager to hear what you have to say. Holy Spirit, we're asking you now to soak these places to, to, to teach us and to lead us. And I'm asking that at the end of our time together, may that be the beginning of something new and fresh in our lives. We ask all of this now in your name, but Father, father now, dear father in heaven and always near us, may your name be treasured and loved as you reveal who you are. May your rule be completed in us and your will be done on earth, just as in heaven. Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us. Please don't put us through trials. Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil, because you are the one in charge and you have all the power and the glory to is all yours for. Yes, yes, yes. Amen. Now, those were words of, of Dallas Willard and Eugene Peterson. But that last part is a paraphrase of the word. Amen. So be it. This is what we want in our lives. Yes, yes. So here's the thing. We're gonna now keep this, this prayer going. And the next thing Jesus teaches us is to pray. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to turn around, say hi to some folks. Uh, as you do that, the conversation starter will be like, when you hear the word temptation, what's the thing that comes to mind? Okay? I wouldn't overshare, especially if you're just meeting them. But then use the app and let us know, because in just a second we're gonna look at what our first impressions are of temptation. Go ahead, talk to each other. All right? All right. We got lots more to talk about here. I can't wait to to, for us to just continue this conversation. But let's start off with this. When Jesus says this in the prayer, what does he mean by the word temptation? Now, one of the things that will help us is Greek is the original language of the New Testament. So we always go to the Greek to go, okay, so what was he saying? Uh, it helps us here, but it needs an explanation. So the word there for temptation can actually be used and is translated two different ways in the New Testament. So it, it can mean a, um, it it can mean like a, a test or a trial. So some people think that, that what Jesus is saying here is you need to ask God to protect you from those moments, those trials, those tests where you'll be on the verge of giving up on God. Now, the truth is, we all have these tests, and we're all susceptible to these moments in our lives. And so a part of that is God, I I don't want to be led in that direction, okay? So that's a part of it. But of course, the, the main way that many of us think of temptation is this second part. It's an enticement to sin, right? It's, it's that, it's that, Hey, I want you to consider like a different way than God's way. And, uh, these temptations can come from the outside. They can come from the inside. By the way, a temptation in and of itself, I don't know that that's always an evil thing. I mean, Jesus was tempted, let's say that. So being tempted, it's what you do with the temptation. It's what you do with this thing. Does it take root? Does it get down into you? Are you letting it kind of start to have its way in your thoughts and your heart? The Book of James puts it this way. It says that, um, each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Now, we're gonna talk a little bit more about this word desire in a minute. Again, not a bad word if appropriately understood and focused, but what we see here is something that can help us understand what Jesus is not saying. Had someone last week who said, this is the line that I struggle with, because it sounds like we're saying, God, please don't tempt me to sin. Now, we know this can't be what this says because this is against the nature of God. We know this. And his word even says it like the phrase right before the one that I just read to you in. James says, by the way, if anyone's tempted, you need to know it's not God who's tempting you because God does not tempt. So we can just say real clearly here that God never leads in this direction. I mean, that's just not who God is. That's not what he's doing. So we have to get to a place where we begin to understand what all of this means. Now, part of it means really simply, God, just keep me away from any of those situations where I might be close to sin, just lead me in a different direction. It's a very poetic way of saying, just lead me away from that. But anytime I mention the word trial or test, the synapses start to fire. And you start asking questions about, like, I got questions about why things happen right now. We're not gonna fully open that can of worms, but since it's already kind of opened, let's just say this much. First of all, it is way appropriate for us to pray. God, please protect me from those trials. Please protect me from just protect me, Lord, in this random, uh, world. I I'm asking for your protection. And he does, I would just say, as an aside notice when he does, like in your everyday moments where it's like, God, I think you just kept me from that. Thank you. I want to give you glory. Have that conversation with him. Notice those things. But Jesus himself says that in this broken sin filled world where pain is flying around, none of us get out of it unscathed. Jesus said this, in this world, you're gonna have trouble. So we understand that, and we've talked about that, and we will talk about it. Again, that's not the purpose of today. I just wanted to let you know, we're not afraid to go there in this conversation we have, we will, again, if you're really wanting to, to, to kind of do a deep dive on that. Now, I would highly recommend the explorations class, which is about to fire up some of you. It's time you could get some questions answered. I think you'd be really, really pleased with having taken that step. But I want you to know that Jesus says, even when you're facing these things, I don't want it to be the defining word in your life. I don't want it to be the last word, which means there is such a thing as hope. Now, I just want you to know that I see so many of you deal with and face and react to the situations in your life with such grace. It honors God. Last week we were talking about what it is to, to forgive people. And for some of us, it was kind of a difficult conversation. We had certain names that came to mind. For some of us, maybe usually happens, somebody will just kind of use the theoretical question and go, yeah, but could God forgive? And we just kind of go down that road. I want you to know that there were people in the rooms. It's not theory for them. Some of the worst, most difficult stories you were imagining. I watched people in real time lean in and say, God, I wanna do it your way. God, I wanna follow you. I mean, it was such courage, such grace. I I wish I could tell you that that was my initial reaction. Every time something blows in on me, I hope, I hope I eventually get there most of the time. But I've seen people just navigate that. And I need you to know God sees that too. I was with someone this week who, uh, is in the fight of her life, and if we're gonna be really honest, I think she's towards the end of that fight. And she said to Robin and I when, when we were with him, she said, people have been asking me for a long time now, where does the grace come from? How come you have this peace? Where is your courage come from? How are you handling this the way you are? And she said, I've got a one word answer for 'em every time they ask me. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. Jesus is my courage. Jesus is my hope. Jesus is my peace. It's Jesus a gang. I just need you to know that's not an empty cliche. We believe it is Jesus. And if you're in the middle of something right now, even though that's not the topic today, come find me. Because we will have someone walk with you who isn't gonna pat you on the back and just say, they're there. It'll all be okay. Someone will walk with you, who knows what it's like to stare into the face of a storm, and they'll remind you that Jesus is enough. But now, what are we gonna do with this prayer? It you'll allow me to just get a little Bible geeky on you for just a second. For us to understand this fully. We have to remember that Jesus was a first century Jewish teacher, rabbi, if you wanna use that term. And one of the things that rabbis would do is they would use a, it's a technique and it was called parallelism. So Hebrew parallelism is you take two things and you put 'em next to each other. And they're parallel. They're, they're parallel. And they both essentially are saying and meaning the same thing. But what happens is they help each other. They like, you get to learn what it means. So like the first one is this poetic, you know, lead us not into temptation. But then you get to this second part here. So the first thing for us to really, if we're gonna understand this, is to realize that these two are connected. And this one is gonna help us understand that one. So what does he say deliver us from, I wrote down here the evil, because in the Greek, that's what it is. There's an article there, and it's the evil. So some people, uh, think this is, uh, like the evil of the world. I don't think anybody's gonna argue with me that there's evil in this world, are you? I mean, we see it, we all see it, we all sense it, we all grieve it. We've all been affected by it. But then there are others who say, uh, what's really going on here? And some of your translations would say, deliver us from the evil one. Again, I want to talk about this for just a second. There's evil in this world, but the Bible teaches that there is one who embodies evil. He's not like you or me. And he is not God's equal, but he's somebody we should talk about. You see, when Jesus, just a couple of chapters earlier is in a battle in the wilderness with the forces of darkness, it says there, he's described, the word used there is diablos. We get our word diabolical from it. It means accuser or slanderer. There is one called the devil called the evil one that Jesus was waging war against in the wilderness. And I just want to say this out loud. He is not a metaphor. He is not a, like, this is how we talk about the bad things. I'm telling you, he is a person. He is a, he is a, an a. He in the, in the deep and mysterious past, he was an a, a created being, a glorious created being who filled with pride decided that he would rebel against God because he wanted to be God. And in that mysterious, deep past, he took others with him who now are the enemy of God and the enemy of all that God is doing. Friends, I want you to understand, he's not a fat guy in a red suit with a pitchfork. You see, there are two errors that we can make here if we really, really wanna talk about it. There are two different errors that we can make. One of them is to just say, there isn't such a thing as evil. You know, it's like, ah, people, people do dumb stuff. People do harmful stuff, but it's not evil. Don't bring spirituality into it. Come on. It's just people just do stuff. So, so sometimes this sneaks in because we treat it as a joke. 'cause we get nervous about it. So I just said it a second ago, but the devil is not. Satan is not the evil one, is not somebody dressed in a red suit with a goatee, horns, pointy tail, and a pitchfork. But that's the joke that we make for the life of me. This is for free, by the way. It's been free all weekend long for the life of me. I don't know why anyone in two weeks would dress up their kids or themselves as the devil and think that's funny or cute. It's not. He's not a joke. Now, I know some of you, his parents are like, oh, man, I gotta go back and get them another costume. Well, it'll be worth it. So Lewis says that there are two equal and and and completely wrong errors that people make. The first one is, we roll our eyes. Now, these are my words, not his. We, we, we, we roll our eyes. This can't be that big a deal. The second is, we become Obsessed. And that could take different forms, right? It can be like, I just have an unhealthy interest in this. All I do is read it all I did, man, any movie, Ooh, I, in all of these documentaries, Ooh, ooh, ooh. And you're, you're all over it. Or it can become that you now become filled with dread and fear, and you begin to see things around every corner and under every rock. I'm telling you, the forces of darkness are thrilled with either one of those errors. The Bible doesn't put this in here so that we would live with fear. The Bible puts this in here so that we'll be aware and that we will, we'll, we'll have our eyes wide open as we go forward with this. You see, what this prayer is, is a prayer of, of admitting that, that we're going to need help. Like, if we were to go back to the prayer itself, I believe what's going on here is that, uh, we are praying. Father, I help me protect me. Please just lead me away from these little trials, these little tests. Anything that gets me on the edge of, of, of, of sin. God lead me away from that. And the big, huge, once in a lifetime moments, God please protect me from those things. Lead me from those things. Why? Because I need His help in the temptation. I believe of Jesus' life. I'm talking about the all time temptation. It wasn't in the wilderness. It was in the garden of Gethsemane. So Jesus. Now, if he's gonna pay the debt for our sin, if he's gonna pay the debt for our, for, for, for what we have done, if he's gonna make a way for us to, to, to enjoy life with God forever, he's now going to die a, a death like no other. Because he is like no other. He stands as one theologian says on the edge of a whirlpool of evil that is ready to take him under. And Jesus is in the garden, pour in his heart out saying, father, I don't want to, is there another way besides this horror? He takes three friends with him. He asks them, essentially, will you stay with me? It's really vulnerable. Will you stay with me? Will you stay awake? And will you pray? In the middle of his heartache, he comes back and finds more heartache because they're asleep. You guys know the story, many of you. And so Jesus says, could you even just stay up for that long? But then he warns them. He says, essentially, evil is closer than you think it is coming, man. It is creeping towards us. It's about to surround us. You need to pray that you don't fall into temptation. And then here it is, 'cause the spirit's willing, but the flesh is altogether now weak, weak. The reason we pray this prayer is, father, I need your help. 'cause I don't got it. I need your help because I can't face this on my own. This is a prayer where we are asking for his help. Uh, there's, uh, I think it was Kevin de Young, I wanna give him credit, was the one that first used this word when I was thinking about this. And he said, part of what this prayer is, is it's a moment where we admit, like we, we, we, we admit God. I'm, I'm admitting that there is such a thing as evil. I'm admitting that there is an evil one. I'm not. I'm not gonna, I'm, I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna make light of this one. Peter five, eight says that your enemy is like a lion on the prowl seeking to devour you. Now, that's a sobering thought. You know what? Right before that, he says, be alert. Some of your translations would say, be watchful. Be of a sober mind. That word be alert is the same word that Jesus uses in the garden when he's telling these guys like, watch, it means keep your eyes open. It means you need to not live in denial about this. So what is it that we do in this prayer? We admit that there is such a thing as evil. We admit that there is such a thing as, as, as one who tries to destroy us. One who will DD distract us, one who will, uh, uh, tempt us. But we also admit there is one who has defeated him. We admit that Jesus is enough. We admit that we can't do it, but we admit there is one who steads in our stead and says, let me help. We admit all of this together in our prayer. We are admitting this. It's like the, uh, uh, the, the, the prayers of the Psalms of Old God is our help and refuge. He is our help and time of need. God is our refuge and strength. It's God who is our refuge gang. I want you to understand, when we pray this prayer, we are not praying. God, just give willpower. 'cause willpower alone isn't going to cut it in those storms and trials and temptations. You and I are saying, God, please help me. I need your help. But just so we're clear, it doesn't mean that we aren't responsible for our choices. Y'all probably know the story. I don't know if it's true or not. Little boy get, he gets caught cheating. Like Susie's test is right there, and he completely copied it. He knew the answers were right because, well, it's Susie, you know, and, and you know, he gets in trouble with the teacher. He comes home. Mom tries to make it a teachable moment. She starts to bring God into it and says, you know, what do you think God thinks of you cheating? God does not want you to cheat. And little Billy, what does he say? Hey, if God didn't want me to cheat, why did he make her answers so easy to read? And we all have heard that story. We kind of go, oh, that's kind of a cute story. I don't even know if a version of that story ever happened. I wanna tell you the truth. Sitting in these rooms, we are all versions of that story. You know how? 'cause we blame shift. It's what we do. It's, it's what we do. We, it's hard for us to admit that we're a part. Let me ask you this, lean over to somebody. It's real quick. Should be an easy answer. Uh, what's the one word that drains any meaning out of an apology? There is one word that torpedoes an apology every time. Lean over and tell somebody real quickly. Go ahead. All right, so sites, are you with me online, people in homes, cars, people who are here right now? Let's see if we're all thinking the same thing altogether. Now the word is what? Yeah. So I've been saying this all weekend long. I think this is the only time in, in my career where I've ever had the church say the word, but together. But, uh, which is a little weird. It's odd. I'm not gonna lie to you. Uh, it just drains all meaning from it, doesn't it? If somebody comes to you and says, Hey, I'm really sorry that I gotta blew you up in that meeting, but I just wasn't feeling well today. I'm really sorry that you kind of caught me, gossip being about you. But dude, you said something about me last week. So lemme ask you this. What does it sound like to God? Father, forgive me. Oh, I know I am, I know I was really short with her, but I've been so tired lately. Father, I, I, I know I said something snarky behind his back, but he drives me crazy. God, forgive me for being prideful and always having to have the last word and to win every argument. But you and I both know I'm right. Most of the time When we say that we are refusing to admit. And part of this prayer is I am admitting that I need help. I am admitting that I don't have this. I'm admitting that I'm even a part of the problem. God, will you please help me in these moments? And so what we do is really we begin to ask for help about real specific things. You see, I'm, I'm telling you, these tests, they come, these trials, these temptations, they come all the time, all the time. And here's a little pro tip. I wish I lived it out. The little ones lead to the big ones. The little ones are great opportunities to practice what it's like saying, okay, Lord, lead me away from this. Okay, God protect me. But I'm gonna tell you what, if we don't practice this in the little ones, when the big ones show up, we're not quite ready. You see, I just don't want anybody to be surprised when these things happen. Are we asking for help? Are we asking for it early? Father, uh, I I I I'm just gonna admit to you, I get so angry whenever people bring that topic up. I need your help. Well, I, I, I, I, why are my, I'm, my thoughts are getting so dark and cynical about that person. I need your help. God, when did I just get all gossipy? I need your father. I'm saying things that if online about people that if I had to say it to their face, I would just blush God, I need your help. God, there's a physical attraction to someone, and that relationship is out of bounds. I need your help. You see, when you and I can get to a place where we are alert, where we're watchful, and we go to God early, then, then, then, then we have a chance. So let's just review a little bit of how we can handle these temptations before we leave, okay? And to do that, I'm gonna ask if we can, to, can we just all admit that we're not experts in this area? I'm not gonna ask for show of hands. We're not gonna do a mass confession. I'm just gonna say that most of us would be willing to go, golly, I could use a little bit of help, right? So here's how we're gonna do this. Do you know, uh, I mean, I know a lot of you do. It's years old now. That meme that is on the socials where people just kind of publicly admit, huh, I didn't know that, but now I do. I was today years old when y'all know that. And so then people just confess things that you're like, well, I knew that all along. I knew that stressed spelled backwards was desserts. That person didn't know that. Uh, I knew that the Staples logo had like an undone staple. And that's a part of, I knew that. I knew that. But we do this, right? I was today years old when I, so to get us in the mood for that, let me just show you a few. You probably know all of these. I'll bet you, you know, at least one of them. I was today years old when I learned how long an owl's legs are. Now, first of all, that's pretty embarrassing for the owl, but that's impressive. This next one, I guarantee a lot of you knew I was today years old when I knew that if I text pew pew to another iPhone, uh, user, they'll get a laser show. Now, I know a lot of you knew that in previous services, people took that off their phones and started doing it to other people. Just wait. But that's true. You know that this one's a little scary. I was today years old. Nope. Next one is, okay. So I learned an average cumulus cloud weighs over 1 million pounds. Think about that. How does it stay? Stay in the, if that's what, go ahead. Fact, check me. That's crazy. This is the one that'll freak you out a little bit. Freaked me out. This is new to me. I was today years old when I learned about the hammerhead bat. That is Africa's largest bat. It is the stuff of nightmares. Do not Google what its mouth looks like. It attaches to the side of Lord. They think it might be a reservoir for Ebola. I was today years old when I learned about that. Okay? We can't end with that. I was today years old when I learned that harvest mice like to crawl inside flowers to eat the pollen and sometimes fall asleep inside. There we go. That feels a lot better, doesn't it? Okay, lean over to somebody right now and tell 'em, it might not have been today, but sometime recently, there was something that you learned and you were like, I had no idea. That's, I just learned that. Go ahead. Tell somebody real quickly, somebody something that you've learned recently. All right? So now we're in, now we're in learn mode right now. We're admitting, okay, so here's the thing. When it comes to temptation, I think there are some things that we could learn or maybe remember, you see, you might wanna write these down. These are the things that you'll talk about in your small group. I was today years old when I learned that the core lie, like the one at the center of the temptation, is I don't need God. Now, I know that sounds obvious, but this is the lie that has been whispered since the beginning of our story. Go all the way back to Genesis. You don't need God. You can get this. Like this'll satisfy you. Forget what God is saying. You do this. It's the core lie. Because I want to, I I told you, we talk about desire, desire's not a bad thing if it's properly understood and focused. That verse in James, another way, somebody said to dis to, to translate that is over desire. Like you have an over desire. It's an insatiable desire. It's a desire that you're saying, I'm gonna go after that to the extent that I will ignore everything about God. It, it just, God doesn't know what he's talking about. I do. This is what will satisfy me, gang. When you and I go down a road like that, it'll consume you and then it will consume you. I was today years old when I learned that, uh, idols are still a thing. You're like, man, I thought idols were like a, a thing. You know, paganism and all that stuff. That's like thousands of years ago. No, I'm telling you, anything that we are willing to say, I'll choose you over God. God has given me this way, but no, I'm gonna go this way. Anytime we do that, when it's like, I demand that I have the power, I have the control. I'm the center of attention. It's me, it's me, it's me. Anytime we do this, anytime we say, I don't care what God says about dot, dot, this is more important. All of a sudden that becomes an idol. See, we Christians are really good at this 'cause we make it subtle. Here's what it looks like, uh, for us sometimes. Uh, see, see if you can decipher this Clear. Now we know what the first one is, right? What would Jesus do? But what happens is we take our agenda, our perspective, our way of this is how the world should go. We take all of that. And since it's us, we know it's right and we put it on the shoulders of Jesus. And all of a sudden what Jesus will do is exactly the same thing as what I would do. Now, mix in a little bit of self-righteousness, a little bit of pride. And all of a sudden we get snarky with our words and we start blowing people up because it's like, oh, its me and Jesus. We're this close. The rest of you are wrong. That's an idol. We've gotta let that go and come back to him. So, uh, some of you at this point are going, dude, it's not that big of a deal. Here's what I would tell you. Sometimes when we ignore God for a minute, and then we, we like justify it with a, I'm sorry. But that minute turns into an hour and that hour turns into a habit, and that habit turns into a lifestyle, and the lifestyle turns into a disaster. And the disaster wreaks havoc inside our life. And everyone who's on the outside of our life, think of it this way, when Jesus prays earlier in the prayer, it teaches us to pray. Uh, father, your will be done, your kingdom. We want it done here as it is in heaven. What he's really saying there, as others have suggested, is, father, I want you to break up all of the patterns of evil in my life, in my neighborhood, in my conversations, in my office. I want your will to be done in, in my family, in my team, in my, my work, my church father, in my thoughts, my actions, my words. In fact, I want it so much so that it's the way you would do it in the heavens. And let's give people a little taste of who you are. You get enough people doing that together, praying that and living that out. You get a little glimpse of heaven, you get a bunch of people who ignore that and you get the opposite. So let's just take a look for just a second at, uh, at, at what some of your, um, temptations were. I wanna just take a look at these real quickly and just see, yeah, you guys are all over it. So we know that these things are wrong. We have these desires. Um, I will tell you, in each of our services, there were certain things that would come up again and again and again. Vice lustful thoughts, um, sex pornography. Can I just, when it comes to, to, to that particular vein of temptations, can I just real quickly say that when somebody objectify, objectify another individual by consuming, let's say pornography, when, when somebody devalues that person and forgets that they bear the image of God almighty, there's destruction that's flowing both ways at that point, okay? Uh, whether it's something you're consuming online or maybe it is you're going to the east side 'cause you don't think anybody notices, or maybe you just save it for business trips. I don't know. There's a reason that the Bible talks about this and tells us to be careful here. It's not even just careful. These kinds of things destroy and they lead to even deeper, uh, uh, desires and, and deeper shame. 'cause it just never satisfies. You see, there's not an idol in this world that won't fail you. They all fail you. They will all fail you. And so what we are to do is to pay attention to what might trip us. What what is stripping us up? You see, I want you to know, there's a recent study that came out, uh, of, of us adults that showed that the consumption of pornography by United States adults is up 6% from 55% in 2015 to 61%. 61% of US adults admit to consuming some level of pornography on a regular basis. That number is up to 44% if we're just focusing on women who regularly consume pornography. Now, I'm not talking about teens, I'm not talking about kids at this point. I do need you to know that there's an entire industry that wakes up every morning saying, how can I hook a kid on pornography because it's sitting right in their phone. All I have to do is get two clicks away. And I got 'em, guys, that's evil. But I'm talking about adults. And for those of us who are going, oh, but that's the world. That's the world, Greg, I want you to know that this same study surveyed Christians, those who profess themselves to be Christians. And what they found was that, uh, 'cause I want to get this right. Oh, just over half, over half of practicing Christians report consuming pornography with some level of frequency. So what does that mean, guys? Lemme tell you what it means. It means some of us right now are on the verge of getting all high and mighty and going, you tell 'em, preacher, it means some of us are having a hard time finding the next breath. It means that in each of our rooms, there are people who are fighting these battles, maybe losing them. We're gonna be a church that talks openly and frankly, and, and, and lovingly all at the same time. You see, guys, these kinds of things are so important. And pornography. Pornography, just the, the consumption of pornography alone, it destroys marriages. It destroys sexual satisfaction. It leaves such a mark on someone. Now let me just talk to the teens and the kids. 'cause before it was like, Ooh, I'm glad you're talking to the grownups. You do know that clinical research shows that when it comes to, to, to, to younger minds, that when they see porn pornographic images, there is a chemical encoding that happens on the brain that stays in the human brain into adulthood. When we see what is happening, people who consume pornography have more aggressive fantasies. They have more aggressive behavior. Guys, this is evil. And he's the evil one. So why am I saying this so bluntly? Because we can't ignore it. But hear me now, hear me now, for those of you who are on the edge of your sequel and give it to him, we can't say this in a shaming, threatening way because you know why the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And if that's the way we're gonna treat this, it all goes back into the shadows. I want you to know, if you are going through this right now, there's help. In fact, for some of us though, we might not be able to write it down. I was today years old when I learned I am not alone. Or at least you don't have to be. You wanna talk with someone. If you wanna talk with a pastor, if you wanna walk with someone, if you want us to connect you to an accountability group, if you need to talk with a Christian counselor, because this is at the addiction level, I say all of those things, let's go, let's do this together, because God is inviting us to pray to him. We need your help. Please protect us. And so he does. Now, for some of us, that ain't it. But the prayer is the same. God, I need your help. God, I I cannot do this on my own. IIII wanna live the kingdom life. But I wanna know, I I wanna know your way. I wanna know your way. You see, when I say lead us, not, when Jesus says, lead us not into temptation, what's actually being inferred there is He will lead us. Proverbs two 20 says, he will lead you onto the paths of righteousness. You want to continue on that path. You wanna stay on that path. 'cause the other path will lead you into trouble. So we ask him, father, please, I'm admitting, I can't even blame. I'm saying this out loud, Lord, but I'm just jealous of my friend's success. It's like everything seems to break their way, God. And I'm like, I'm just, I'm working hard and nobody's noticing God. I am jealous of that. Can we admit that out loud? Please leave me not into the trouble that is sitting there lurking there. Father, I don't know when, when or when it happened, but my family just stopped hanging out with me because I am so toxic. Father, I, I'm drinking more than I've ever, God. Nobody knows. But I need your help. I'm eating to deaden a pain and it's not working. I'm spending money like it's water. God, I can't even believe I'm saying this out loud to you, but I am attracted to that person and I'm not married to him. When we come to the Father who loves us, he's not thrown, he's not shocked. He's not surprised. But what he is saying is, oh, oh, okay, you wanna walk with me then? Come on, child. And he leads us. So we beg for help. We beg for protection. We ask for guidance. He will give it all to us. But then this, we ask for forgiveness because at this point, we're all stirring up stuff and it's all happening. And we're like, oh, man, you just brought up all sorts of things I don't wanna think about. I want you to know that, that the evil one is called the accuser for a reason. One of his chief strategies against you. If he can't do anything else, he will haunt you with past failures. How do we protect ourselves? Well, first of all, Psalm 32 says, you, you confess the sin, right? You, you admit, God, I have sinned against you. But after that, I would memorize a few scriptures. Some of us might need to go back to the, the talk from a couple of weeks ago. But, uh, one John one, nine, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some of us need to tattoo that on our brain. You go back to Jesus and the wilderness with the evil one. Do you know how he pushed against darkness? He quoted scripture. His his mind was saturated with scripture. You let God remind you of these things. I can't explain how, but God's grace is enough. It's enough for my stuff. It's enough for your stuff. And the God of the universe says, this will not be the last word. Are you still gonna have some struggles depending on what it is that's going on? Maybe are you gonna have consequences that you have to deal with? Probably. But there a God in heaven who says, come on, follow me. So we pray, lead us not into temptation. God deliver us from evil. And for those of you who pray this outrageously powerful, humble prayer, the God of the universe says, come on. You want to, you wanna operate at that level. I am with you. Let's go, friend, as you leave here today, I need you to know everyone has trials, temptations, tests. Every person in this room, they're different. Each one of us has different susceptibilities. We all have different like, uh, chinks in our armor, but we all have it. But if you come to him, he will, what was the word? Deliver you. He will rescue you. He will care for you and protect you. But it's us coming to him, owning our part, admitting that we can't do this. Father, please. And he will. You know what that means? It means really for some of us, I was today years old when I realized not only that I am forgiven, But that victory Is possible. See, if you come to Jesus and you are a child of the king, the Bible says that the very spirit of God now takes up residence in you. You are soaked in the power of God. Now, you go to places like one John four that says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Now you go to James chapter four, which says, submit yourself to God. Resist the devil. So you're not doing it on your own. Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil. And what he'll flee from you. It'll be for a time he'll come back, but he'll flee from you. You know what that means? That means there is victory. This isn't the story from 2000 years ago. This is our story. It could be my story. It could be your story. This is how we live our life. Gang, if I could leave you with this, when you turn your eyes away from some idol that you think will satisfy you, and you turn towards the God who died on the cross for you, the God who's resurrected, you get a clue. And a, you get a full view of who it is that will rescue you. Now, how on earth do we end this after we've just come through this journey? Well, I'm guessing some of us are gonna need to talk. Some of us are gonna need to find someone. Some of us are gonna need to go, like, get outta here, catch a breath, and then say, Hey, I, I'd like to talk to somebody later. We can do whatever it is that you want to do. But I hope that you leave here knowing that there is a God who says, you don't have to face this alone. It was, it was, it was Bishop Wright, Tom Wright that got me going on this and with this quote. And, and so I just wanna, uh, he says, to pray, deliver us from evil. Or I would say the evil one is to inhale the victory of the cross and thereby to hold the line for another moment, another hour, another day, against the forces of destruction within ourselves and the world around us. This is how we now live. Come back next week because we are going to conclude this study on this prayer, and I think the best time we ever could. But I need you to know, this is the prayer. God, save me from myself and save me from the evil one. Please protect me. Do you know who prays this prayer? People who believe that Jesus is enough? This isn't prayed by people who are on the sidelines. This is prayed by people who are in the game. This is prayed by people who are still chasing after Jesus. This is prayed by people who are willing to admit, I know I'm a part of the problem and I can't face it alone, but I'm with you, Jesus, and I'll follow you into this. This is prayed by people who know they are forgiven, but know that they are not and never will be forsaken. Are you with me? This is who prays this prayer. God, please lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil. Because you get the last word in my life. This is not prayed by people who are afraid of the dark. This isn't like we're not afraid of the dark because somebody left a nightlight on. We're not afraid of the dark because we scrunch our eyes closed and try to forget the scary shadows. No, this is prayed by people who walk into the world and know that they know that there is evil. And there there are shadows, but we're not afraid of the dark. Why? Because we followed the one who has defeated the darkness. Amen. Amen. And another way to say that is yes. Yes, yes. We'll see you next week.