Deliver Us - Matthew 6:5-15 • Russell McCutcheon

Good morning, CTK. It's great to be standing before you this morning as we prepare to open God's word.

Before we get there, I want to give you guys an update. First, I want to say thank you to pastor Elliot for sharing what he shared last week about ten weeks with reconciliation. I want to officially invite you for ten weeks from September 13 until the week of Thanksgiving to join us. If you're contemplating reconciliation, give us ten weeks to see. Check us out to see if this is somewhere you want to possibly be. But I also invite others who like what's taking place with us and you know you're gonna stay with CTK, come and join us and invite someone to come with you. That'll be so great.

And I want to say God has been kind to us this week because we have the official place where we will launch outdoors. We're gonna launch at Knightdale Station, at the pavilion that's owned by the YMCA at Knightdale Station. We have that pavilion and the field. God has met us—we didn't know when we were gonna find a place. We were actually getting nervous and wondering if we would be able to launch on the thirteenth, but this week God met us. And so I'm so grateful to share that information with you. So we are launching September 13 at Knightdale Station in the back where the YMCA pool, the outdoor pool is, and we're gonna have a 9AM service. And so I look forward to seeing any of you who may want to join us.

Now let's turn our attention to God's word. In Matthew chapter six, we're gonna read verses five through 15.

When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites because they love to stand and pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you.

When you pray, don't babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.

Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and do not bring us into temptation or deliver us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive others, your father will not forgive your offenses.

— Matthew 6:5-15

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Let's pray. Father, meet us in this moment where your word is open. Holy Spirit, comfort us, stir in us a desire to want to obey you, to glorify your name in the earth during this season. We ask this in the name of Christ Jesus, amen.

The Story of Kamani Maruge

Young elementary students who may be watching me, especially those of you who may be in the first grade, and parents you listen to this as well. I have a question for you elementary students: What would you do if an 84 year old man showed up in your classroom to begin learning for the first time?

Now, I get it—because we're in a pandemic and school looks different right now. Many are online or virtual, many who may not have done homeschooling are now homeschooling. So I know that this time is sort of weird, but just imagine that everything was normal and you would go to school every day. What would you do? How would you feel if an 84 year old man was sitting next to you? Would you be frightened? Would you be happy? Parents, how would you feel if this person was sitting next to your son or daughter in the classroom?

Well, this is exactly what happened in the country of Kenya in Africa. A man by the name of Kamani Maruge, at 84 years old, decided to go to school for the first time to learn to read. A great movie that tells his story is called The First Grader. You see, he never received an education, but in 2005, he was determined that he was gonna learn to read.

Now, people in the community were really ridiculing him. Parents were upset with him. Even a teacher at the school that he was attending did not like the fact that here was this older gentleman, very older gentleman in school with very young kids. This man met a lot of resistance, but he would not stop on his quest to go to school and specifically to learn how to read.

The reason he wanted to go to school and learn how to read is because of one letter. He received a letter and he couldn't read it. And so he felt like in order to be able to read this letter, he had to go back to primary school. He had to go to where the young students were to get the basics, learn the letters, so he could learn to read this letter. This is the only reason he wanted to go to school.

Then finally, when he learned the contents of this letter, this letter informed him that the Kenyan government was going to compensate him for his bravery. What am I meaning or what am I speaking of? Kamane Murugui was a soldier in the Kenyan army that wanted freedom during the time of British colonial conquest, during their takeover of Kenya. He was a part of the group that wanted to free the Kenyans from this nation. And so he was tortured, his toes were cut off, and then finally they got their freedom. And the Kenyan government realized who this man was, and so they sent a letter to him stating that they were gonna give him some money to compensate him for his bravery, but he did not know how to read. And finally, he learned what that letter said. He did all of this to go to school at 84 years old simply for one letter. He risked it all to make it happen. See, no matter if you're young or old, there will be moments in this life where we would have to take a lot of risks.

Now, why am I talking about risks in a series where we've been looking at the Lord's prayer? You see, Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray. In another gospel, it was the disciples that went to Jesus and asked him to teach them how to pray. So Jesus is teaching them. See, these were disciples. And if we understand the context of disciples, Jesus was pouring into them for a purpose. He was about to unleash them to have global impact. And as they were going into nations and engaging people who are not like them, they would meet a lot of issues. There would be problems. They would be engaging different cultures and Jesus was preparing them. There would have been a lot of risks involved. Their mission was to make much of Jesus throughout the whole earth. But not only did they have a great mission, these disciples—I'm sure they wanted to be able to commune and talk with God in their everyday lives.

My friends, if you're in Christ today, we are people who need God in the mundane of our lives, in every aspect of our lives. And we also need him as we go about doing his business, being on mission. And that mission that he has given us is to impact the world. Now, how do we start with impacting the world? We start at the end of our toes. The world begins where our toes end. And based on Matthew 28, we are called to go. We are not called to stay in our safe place, but it's dangerous you may say, right? Things are too uncertain right now, Russell. Like you're asking us in the midst of a pandemic to go and be about God's work. Yes, I am with you because this is a time that's unprecedented, especially for me, but God's mission does not stop because of this pandemic. We have to figure out creative ways to engage others for the glory of God to see them come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, when people in scripture wanted to stay still, God had to come and do something. So if we look at the book of Genesis, God had told Adam that they would fill the earth. He told Noah the same thing. After God destroyed the earth, you need to fill the earth and subdue it. And so in other words, you had to spread out on the earth. But after this, people wanted to stay and build a tower that went up to heaven. They didn't want to scatter. And so what did God do? God came down and confused their language, causing the people to now spread out over the earth.

But even in the New Testament, God had given the disciples a mandate that they were to be his witnesses.

Based on Acts 1:8, witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

But if you see around Acts chapter 8, if you see Acts chapter 7, you see the people just huddling in one area. So what did God allow? God allowed persecution and when persecution happened, what happened? The people then scattered. God wants his people to saturate the earth with the knowledge of who he is.

See if we're committed to God and obeying him, we can trust his purpose and plan. We can trust him. And when in trouble or distressed, when in danger, my friends, he is able to rescue us.

God Is Our Deliverer

So our main thought from this text, especially as we look at verse 13, our main thought is this: God is able to deliver us from our spiritual and physical distress. God is able to deliver us from our spiritual and physical distress. In other words, our God is a deliverer. He delivers. See if we encounter trouble as we are doing what God has called us to, we can trust God again, our God is a deliverer.

As followers of Christ, we know because of placing our trust in Jesus that he has spiritually rescued us. We have been saved by grace through faith. And we say hallelujah to that. We sing words of songs like this: "I was a slave to sin till you sent your son to my rescue. On a cross he bled and died, also I could have new life." We praise God for his deliverance from sin, Satan and death.

But do we also know that God cares about our physical lives also?

Do we understand that? That he will come to our aid in the here and now when in trouble. See, again, we have a God who cares about our spiritual and physical lives. That's why we have this prayer. We've been going through this prayer looking at God who's our father in heaven, but then you see an aspect of this prayer where physical needs needed to be met. So as this section of Matthew shows us, we don't pray to inform God on matters he's ignorant of. That's not why we pray because he already knows what we are experiencing. We come to God in prayer to worship Him.

So as we look at verse 13, here are the things I would like for us to notice. First, God does not tempt us, He tests us. God does not tempt us, He tests us. Secondly, we can ask God for deliverance. We can ask Him for deliverance. And finally, we want to end with this truth, the battle has been won.

God Does Not Tempt Us, He Tests Us

Let's look at our first point that God does not tempt us, he tests us. Look at the first part of verse 13. Jesus gave this model, he says, And do not bring us into temptation, telling the disciples this is how you pray. See as this prayer starts going back to verse nine, it lets us know that when we come to God, we come to him with praise in our hearts and praise on our lips for who he is. You see our God is in heaven. Our God is holy. He has a kingdom that's different from the kingdoms of this world. In heaven, God's will is perfectly done for there was nothing new in heaven that would hinder it. There's nothing in heaven to hinder it. Jesus teaches us to pray that we have a similar state of affairs here on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, we come to God to adore him for who he is and for his works.

This prayer also lets us know that we can address God as Father because He is a good Father. He is intimately connected with His children. Because of who He is, we adore Him and accept His will. We also come to him with our petitions. We can pray to him. We ask him as his prayer says for our daily bread. Daily bread. We come to him asking him to forgive our debts. And as this verse tells us, we come to him asking us not to bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. See, we depend on God constantly and this dependence is expressed in prayer.

Now when reading the beginning of verse 13, it reads like in the English that is saying that there's a possibility that God would bring his children into temptation. However, when we read scripture, we see that this is not so, that God does not tempt anyone. In the book of James chapter one verse 13, James writes:

No one undergoing a trial should say I am being tempted by God. Since God is not tempted by evil and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. — James 1:13

And then in verse 14 it says:

But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. — James 1:14

In reading these words, we need to understand our own weakness and ask God to keep us from anything that will cause us to sin. The Aramaic wording behind this verse suggests that this phrase means, let us not sin when we are tested rather than let us not be tested. See, this petition is a request to be kept from sinning when tested. And then the next petition in the bottom of this verse is for rescue if it does occur.

See, scripture has countless examples of God testing his people. In the book of Genesis chapter 22, we have God telling Abraham to go and offer his only son as a burnt offering. In other words, take his life, offer him to me. If we read the book of Hebrews, we see that Abraham, because he believed God, knowing that he loved this son of promise, believing that if he did kill him, that God was gonna raise him up. He took his son and was going to obey exactly what God told him. And as he is lifting that knife to do what God told him, verses 12 through 13 of Genesis chapter 22, God says:

Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your only son from me. — Genesis 22:12

The text says, Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in the place of his son.

And then a New Testament example happens in Matthew chapter four, right before this, we have Jesus being tempted by the devil, right? Being tempted after he had not eaten for forty days, forty nights. See the sense of this word tempted is also to be tested. So Satan, he was tempting Jesus to abandon the mission of God in his weakened state. But what did Jesus do? He combated the devil with these words, it is written. Jesus, 100% God and 100% man could have done whatever he wanted to do to get his energy up, to tell Satan to get out of the way, but he was on mission and he defeated the enemy by relying on the text. He said, it is written. In his time of testing, he trusted the word of God. Jesus had a mission to accomplish. And in his earthly ministry, Jesus experienced much difficulty.

He went through a lot, but he trusted in God and his word and the mission that God had given him to do. With the disciples, Jesus would also lead the disciples in places of testing, like when they were on the sea and storms arose. Jesus was strategically preparing them for the mission that they were to embark on. Like the disciples, like Jesus, God always has a purpose for testing in our lives. And because of that we can trust him.

Being prepared for the mission of God is like going to a pizzeria. Now I'm not talking about Domino's Pizza or Pizza Hut or maybe Godfather's Pizza, but I'm talking about a place where you go and everything is done right before you on the spot and it starts with the ball of dough. The person preparing the pizza takes this ball of dough, squeezes this ball of dough, presses this ball of dough, beats this ball of dough, stretches this ball of dough, throws this ball of dough all in the air. In other words, this dough is going through it. But this dough has to go through a lot so that we can enjoy it. Now, we don't go to the pizzeria for the dough. We don't want the dough, we want the good stuff. And what is that? We want that special sauce, that marinara or that pesto, praise God. We want that nice cheese that's cooked just right, hallelujah. We want the meats, all kind of meats or if it's just your favorite meat topped with veggies. That's what we want to enjoy. But we can't get to the good stuff until the dough has been prepared.

In the same way one has to be prepared for the mission that God has called us to. And what has God called us to? My friends, you've heard me say this a lot. God has called us to make disciples of all nations—Matthew 28. God has called us to be salt and light in the earth. God has called us to be a people who share our faith with those who don't know Him. Based on Second Corinthians chapter five, we are His ambassadors. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, we are to represent Him in this hostile world. And when we are being prepared, there is some pressing and some mashing, we are being banged and thrown around. We are being prepared for the coming of God's kingdom. But until that day, faith will be forged in the trials of pain and in times of testing. God does not tempt anyone. He does not tempt us, but he tests us.

We Can Ask God for Deliverance

Secondly, we can ask God for deliverance. Let's look at the latter half of verse 13:

But deliver us from the evil one. — Matthew 6:13

Jesus tells the disciples that when times get hard, when things are tough, that they can ask God to be delivered from the evil one. Now, when I read this, I'm thinking to myself, how in the world can I avoid being in a difficult situation where I'm in trouble? See, I don't want to be in a place of hardship and testing. I want my life to be easy. My friends, if there's a gadget, a gimmick or anything that will make my life easier and free from trials, give it to me. That's what I want. But no matter how hard I try, I experience difficulties. I wonder if you're like me, especially in this season where it is very tough and things are scary. We're in this pandemic and we see news outlets and we read things and we see all of these things that's happening to people. Many of you may have been impacted by COVID physically, or you know someone who has lost their life because of COVID. We see people losing their jobs. We see people who are being evicted, losing their homes. So much is happening. I even know some people who have lost very, very close loved ones. There are myriad of things that could cause us great fear.

My friends, but do we think we serve a God who does not know what's going on? See, what Jesus said in verse eight:

Your Father knows these things you need before you ask him. — Matthew 6:8

In other words, he knows all about us. A beautiful Psalm that talks about this is Psalm 139, verses one through six:

Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down or when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord. You have encircled me; you have placed your hand on me. This wondrous knowledge is beyond me; it is lofty. I am unable to reach it. — Psalm 139:1-6

See, we read these words and rejoice on the page, but my friends, do we believe them deep down in our souls that this is true for me and is true for you? That God is intimately acquainted with us and what we need.

See in scripture we have the testimony of God and how countless times he's delivered his people. We have the Exodus. We see the people on the forty year wilderness march. We see this in the life of David. We see this in the life of Jesus. We see this in the life of Paul. God is one with the power to deliver.

When God saved us, he didn't immediately take us to be with him; he left us here on the earth. He could have, yet he is with us. When we are aware of his presence, we should take comfort because he is able to protect us. We have that promise. We have the very spirit of God living within us.

In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession to the praise of his glory. — Ephesians 1:13

We have the very presence of God living within us as Christ followers. Paul would also write:

The Lord is faithful. He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. — 2 Thessalonians 3:3

Hear those words, my friends. The Lord is faithful. And Paul says, He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. On life's journey, we have a God, we serve a God who is able to keep us and protect us. If we are caught in a situation, we can ask him to deliver us.

A lifeguard was on duty one day and he noticed a man in trouble. It wasn't just any man, but it was a very large man. He was in essence drowning. And so the lifeguard swam out to this man, but stopped about three feet from him. Why did he stop? Because the man was trying to save himself. He was beating the water, he was working hard. So the lifeguard did not have wrong feelings toward this man. He stopped because he was allowing this man to lose his energy so he could stop saving himself. And it happened. The man stopped using his own methods. And that's when the lifeguard took over. Even though he was a large man, the rescue was possible because he was resting in the strength of his savior.

See, often we try to use our own resources to deliver ourselves from whatever situation we may be in. What resources? Well, we may try to use some money. We may be trying to use our wit. We may also try to use lies to rescue ourselves, to use our own methods. But when we stop trying to use our methods and trust God's methods, we see that his deliverance is far greater than our own.

My friends, there will be moments when we're on God's mission for Him and His glory that He would need to step in and help us to bring deliverance to our lives. And you know what? He's able. He's able to do it.

The Battle Has Been Won

And so finally, I want us to see that the battle has been won. In the book of John chapter 17 verse 4, in Jesus's high priestly prayer—this should be called the Lord's prayer, and the one we have been studying should be called the model prayer—but here in Jesus' high priestly prayer, he said:

I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. — John 17:4

What work was he referring to here? Well, in John chapter 17, you see that Jesus is praying for unity among the disciples. I believe that when Jesus says he completed the work that you gave me to do, he is talking about the work of preparing the disciples for the mission of global impact. He finished that work. For three years, he taught them, he lived with them, he walked with them, he protected them. Now it was time for him to go back to the father by paying the price for sins. It was time to go. He finished the work of depositing in those disciples.

Then in John chapter 19 verse 30, the text says:

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished." Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. — John 19:30

What did he finish here? He finished the work of redemption. On the cross Jesus defeated sin, he defeated Satan and he defeated death. Because of Jesus' victory, in Christ, we don't work for victory, we work from a place of victory. So when we are going on mission, when we are doing what God has called us to, we already know how this story ends. The battle has been won. I can work from a place of victory because Jesus is victorious. He's victorious.

So a question I have for us is this: if we are called to be on mission to impact this world by the power of the spirit, why are we so content to stay safe in our little Christian bubbles? Again, understand the pandemic but even before the pandemic, there are three and a half billion people on this planet who are lost. Even without looking at the planet, if we just look around us in the triangle, there are many people that we engage who need to know the Lord Jesus. And oftentimes we are hanging with people who are like us.

Has he called us to escape the world? No. He has called us to impact the world. Again, just look at 2 Corinthians chapter five verses 17 through 21. Are we afraid of a lack of protection when God calls us to go places that are unfamiliar? Again, remember the disciples. When Jesus was arrested, what did they do? They fled. They were afraid. Jesus said this was gonna happen. But Jesus died and was raised from the dead victorious.

And then when he presented themselves to the disciples, if we could look at Acts chapter one, verses six through eight, Jesus told them that they were gonna receive power from the Holy Spirit and they were gonna be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That word for witnesses is where we get our word martyr from. Now, they received the spirit, they did exactly what Jesus told them to do. Now, they weren't running and hiding because they had someone dwelling on the inside and they had no fear. It's not that maybe they didn't have fear on a day to day, but by God's help, they went and did what they were called to do because He was with them. And as a result, the church grew and many people were reached. They did what they were called to do. And many of them lost their lives.

John Lewis, the congressman who just passed away, knew difficulty quite well in his life. He mentioned in his documentary, maybe a few years ago when it was made, that his parents and grandparents would always tell him, son, you gotta stay safe now, don't rock the boat, don't ruffle feathers. You need to stay safe. And I'm sure I've told my kids that, maybe you have told your kids that if you have kids, or you tried to live a life where you wanted to be safe. But John Lewis came to the point where it's like, based on what's happening in my world, I can't stay safe. Because there was deep segregation, there was deep hatred because of one's skin color, there was deep prejudices. And so he coined this term and said that people need to learn to get in good trouble. Good trouble. See, he risked his life. He got in some good trouble on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. He did this because there were people who were marginalized and discriminated against. So he didn't mind getting in good trouble because it was for a greater cause.

My friends, we have a cause greater than even the cause that John Lewis had. And not saying that John Lewis's cause was not a great cause, but we serve and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and his mission that he has given us is to go to the ends of the earth with this glorious gospel. Are we willing to count the cost to do what he has called us to do?

If you're afraid this morning, take comfort that we could pray to God who sees us and will deliver us. And when trouble comes our way and it will, we serve a God who is near and ready to act on our behalf. My friends, our God is a deliverer.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your words. May we not be afraid of this mission that you have called us to and I pray that you Holy Spirit will give us creative ways in which to engage the people around us because you're not aloof to this pandemic and this pandemic will not stop your movement, your work in the earth. And so use us, teach us, help us to be wise in how we engage and not put other people in danger. Glorify your name in us, Lord God, I pray in the name of Christ Jesus, amen.