And Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Last Sunday I gave Tim the day off for Father's Day. I preached a sermon in a series about the Lord's Prayer. To be honest, this was one of the times I would have to agree with the critics who say I cannot preach. It just didn't seem to flow the way I thought it should. People were complimentary as they left the church. People said they liked the Pinocchio analogy. But I still wondered what I could have done better.

I had a good intro. Chris played the video of a 2-year-old singing The Lord's Prayer that is the popular now. That was the perfect lead in to my opening of: A mother was teaching her three year old daughter The Lord's Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, she repeated it after her mother. One night she said she was ready to solo. The mother listened with pride, as she carefully enunciated each word right up to the end. . . "And lead us not into temptation", she prayed, "but deliver us some e-mail, Amen.” Cute story. But how true that we understand email more than we recognize evil. Today we consider the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer which is two-fold; Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. . .

I got good feedback: Nodding heads when I pointed out that some of us have been reciting the prayer for years, others are just learning it, but what is important is that we learn to live it. Chuckles when a picture of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket came on the screen as I said this is what came to mind when I thought about examples of temptation. We reviewed the Blue Fairy telling Pinocchio he must learn to choose between right and wrong and how she and Jiminy Cricket told Pinocchio about a conscience and Jiminy warned Pinocchio that the world is full of temptation. Everyone still seemed to be with me when I noted that if a wooden dummy like Pinocchio can learn from his mistakes and listen to a less-than-perfect cricket, surely we can learn the lessons Jesus showed us through his prayer.

But as I moved on to talk about the types of temptations and why we are tempted, I just did not feel like the message was flowing as well as it should for all the time I spent working on this. Was I really being the vessel for God's message? Or was I just babbling Donna crap?

Maybe I was just being overly sensitive because I had read the letters from a couple who said I could not preach. Tim assured me that it was a good sermon, but suggested that maybe it didn't feel the same to me because it was more of a teaching sermon than an inspirational sermon. A very close friend suggested that maybe I felt rushed because recognition of fathers and other parts of worship gave me a late start. But I have to question if it was not because it seems hypocritical to preach on overcoming temptation when, in fact, I often seem to give in to it.

As Christians, we are in a constant fight with the desires of our sinful natures. We constantly need God's guidance to keep our needs and desires in proper balance. I can preach that, but I am not sure I live it. Just the fact that I have gained a stone in the last year should tell you that I have given into temptation. But my lack of willpower with regard to food is not the only area in which I feel I have failed to be the best person I could possibly be.

I struggle every day. Almost everyone does. So here is one point I made Sunday. Jesus' example did not say 'lead ME not into temptation,' but rather 'lead US not into temptation.' I pointed out that Pinocchio had a fairy and a cricket. We have the example of Jesus, the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit standing ready to help us resist temptation AND we have the support of other Christians. So remember to support your friends. Pray for them. Help them stay on the right path. Because it is hard to resist temptation by yourself.