WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.080 If you have a Bible or an app, open it up to Matthew chapter 6. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.400 We are going to be specifically looking at verse 13 this morning. 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:11.919 Matthew chapter 6, verse 13. 00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:25.440 We've all seen this moment in like a television show or a movie where there's someone who has been swept out into the ocean and they're struggling to stay above the water, right? 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:29.679 They're flailing their arms, the waves are overwhelming them. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:44.079 And every single time, pretty much in these films, the writer puts in this situation that there are two types of help present on the beach. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:48.159 The first one is always that stranger who sees what's going on, right? 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:54.479 They witness that this person is struggling to stay alive, but they're too weak to do anything about it. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:56.560 They just kind of turn around and yell for help. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:02.240 They're near, they're present, they see what's going on, but they have no ability to do anything about it. 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:10.879 And then the person who does have something to do, to be able to have the strength to rescue them and pull them out of trouble, where are they? 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:15.840 They're the lifeguard that's a quarter mile down the beach, that they've got a radio in with an ATV. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.400 They jump in and come to save the day, right? 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:33.439 But the reality is this that person who's in trouble either has someone near to them that's too weak to rescue them, or is able to rescue them, but too distant to know that it's even going on. 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:38.799 They need in one person both. 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:46.079 Someone who is near to them to see their trouble and who is strong enough to deliver them from it. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:51.760 That's what we're invited to in this last line of the prayer, Matthew 6, 13. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:58.319 For four weeks we've been learning by Jesus how to pray. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:06.959 And we've been called to pray to a Father who knows us, who sees us, who pays attention to us as his children, right? 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:14.400 We learned in the first week that we don't have to do things to cause our father to pay attention to us. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:19.520 He simply desires to be near to his children. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:25.120 And in that nearness, he provides for us our daily bread. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:28.319 He pardons us in our unsettled debts. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:34.800 And this morning we're invited to see how he preserves us through all evil. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:45.520 In this very last line that Jesus ever teaches his disciples how to pray, he asks one more thing of this ever-present Father, that he would preserve us. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:55.840 And underneath that prayer exists the exact same question as the person who is battling against the waves that are seeking to overwhelm them. 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:59.919 Is our Father close enough to see the danger we're actually in? 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:03.120 And is he strong enough to do anything about it? 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:05.520 Let's dive into this together. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:13.759 Now, this request to not lead us into temptation, but to deliver us from evil, it doesn't stand alone, right? 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.400 We can't just read this verse in isolation. 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:20.400 We have to see it in the entirety of the prayer itself. 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:31.439 It's this last line of one single prayer, and it flows from what we looked at last week, this need for forgiveness of what we have done. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:37.680 This one seeks to protect us from what can undo us. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:41.840 Evil within and evil without. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:18.959 So this specific request comes in these two halves, right? 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:25.759 Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil, but it's one single plea that we're making to the Father. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:35.759 If we look at the first half alone, that he would not lead us in temptation, what we're not saying is God, don't set a trap for me. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:42.240 God, do not try to ensnare me in something that will overwhelm me. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:44.160 No, that's not what we're saying. 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:54.480 Actually, Jesus has this brother named James who wrote a book that we have in our Bible, and he makes it very clear about the nature of God. 00:04:54.639 --> 00:05:00.879 That he's not one who sets traps, or he is not one who tempts us as his children. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:03.199 James 1.13 says this. 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:18.079 So we have to be clear what we're asking. 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:23.040 We're not saying, God, please don't set a trap for me. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:48.319 What we're asking for is closer to this admission that we ourselves do not have the strength necessary, that we don't have the true ability within us to live a holy life of which we're called to, and to live for the glory of his name, which we should aspire to, except if we obtain that strength by his hand alone. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:53.600 This word for temptation, it means like test or trial. 00:05:54.160 --> 00:06:03.600 And the idea of this is to experience a situation that reveals what you have within. 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:10.319 It reveals how far that you can go right before you go wrong. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:12.000 It's kind of like this. 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:20.879 When I was a worship pastor for many years, I held several different auditions for singing or instrumentation. 00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:25.680 And the auditions were never meant to entrap them. 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:29.120 They were never meant to crush them or overwhelm them. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:35.360 Simply this: those auditions were meant to reveal what was true within. 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:45.279 It was pushing them to the limit to see how far they could go before they could not go any further. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:48.319 That's the nature of this temptation. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:51.759 We're not asking God to stop testing us outright. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:59.680 What we're actually asking him to do is to not hand us over to something that we cannot endure. 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:06.000 So we're pleading with him, Father, do not lead us into temptation. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:15.040 Now the second half, deliver us from evil, it's the kind of weightier part of this prayer because it acknowledges something. 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:22.399 It acknowledges the presence of evil and its desire to overwhelm us. 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:26.240 This word deliver that it starts with. 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:35.920 It really gives us the picture of someone who's reaching into danger and is with force pulling someone out to safety. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:38.079 It's a kind of a violent verb. 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:39.360 It's not gentle. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:46.800 It is reaching into a fire and yanking them out so that they may be preserved and protected. 00:07:47.040 --> 00:08:05.040 And so it's a verb of rescue that only works if the person doing the delivering is near enough to know what you're going through in this life and strong enough to be able to deliver you out from it. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:15.839 Why would we pray a prayer to a distant being who is weak and unable to intervene into the trials and troubles that we face in this world? 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:23.920 This is putting God near to us and strong enough to actually pull us from the trials we face. 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:32.240 Now, this word evil, it's a word that has been argued about for centuries. 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:34.960 And here's kind of the root of the argument. 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:38.960 Is this evil in a sense of something within us? 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:47.679 Sinfulness, rebelliousness, or is this evil as in someone who has a face and a name? 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:49.759 Is this the evil one? 00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:51.919 And they've gone back and forth on this, right? 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.399 Is this evil within or evil without? 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:57.120 What are we talking about here in this prayer? 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.600 And I love the way that J.I. 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:04.799 Packer, who I've been using throughout this series, brilliant writing on this subject. 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:13.440 I think he settles it well for us because he says this, that both readings, he says, comes to the exact same thing. 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:18.639 And that's because the danger was never only external. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:20.240 He's this is what he's saying. 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:26.399 It may be the evil one, the devil, right, that comes to uh uh destroy us. 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:31.360 He's like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour in this world. 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:46.639 But if we only limit it to that evil which is without us or outside of us, then we're really missing the presence of the evil that resides within us because of the sin and rebellion that we still hold on to. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:57.519 Here's what Packer says: Sin in our hearts, spawning all kinds of inclinations to do something other than God's will. 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:01.440 Here's what he says that supplies half the danger for us. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:09.039 If we're concerned about evil and we're only looking at the outside of ourselves, we're missing half of the real risk. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:20.320 Whether or not that evil one, the devil himself, ever shows up to exploit our situation, there is enough presence within us. 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:31.679 And so whether the threat we're facing wears a face and has a name, or whether it lives within our own chest, the reality is still the same. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:37.759 We cannot outmanage either one of them ourselves. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:50.480 We are too weak, we are too pathetic to be able to outmanage the presence of either an evil within or an evil without. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:11:11.279 So if we put both halves together of this plea, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from the evil one, what we get is a request that really only makes sense if the one you're asking has these two things true about them that he is near and that he is strong. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:12.559 Right? 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:15.519 He has to be close enough to see the danger coming. 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:20.320 He has to be close enough to be aware of the risk and the threat of which you're facing. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:25.120 But he also must be strong enough to do something about it once it arrives. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:27.519 That's the very nature of this prayer. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:31.759 Scripture names this combination of the two directly. 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:37.600 If we think that we are the only ones who have wrestled with that reality, well, we would be fooling ourselves. 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:42.240 Israel wrestled with this reality as they were wondering, where is God? 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:44.000 Is he too distant from us? 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:45.679 Where is God in our suffering? 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:47.600 Is he too weak to deliver us? 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:55.360 God himself had to speak through his prophet Isaiah to comfort his people and to set the record straight once and for all. 00:11:55.519 --> 00:12:03.279 In Isaiah 59:1, he declares this: Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:10.159 It's not too weak and feeble that it can't pull you out of what you're in, or his ear dull that it cannot hear. 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:14.960 He's not so distanced that your cry to him falls deaf. 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:21.200 See, we've been wrestling with this reality since the beginning of time. 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:27.679 Here's what God says to us as people. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.240 I'm not too far away, I'm not too weak. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:36.320 I'm near enough to hear you, I'm strong enough to save you. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:43.200 And that's what this final prayer request is actually testing. 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:50.559 You see, every earlier line of this prayer assumed something about the Father that we're praying to. 00:12:51.279 --> 00:13:09.759 It assumed that the Father gave us his attention, that he knew what we needed before we even asked, that we didn't have to work to build our own street corners of which we perform on, or have these exhausting long prayers, that we'd finally wear him down so that he would listen to us. 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:12.720 No, he's near to us, he's paying attention to us. 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:23.600 But this is the one moment that actually asked whether his attention upon his children comes with strength to do something about their circumstance. 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:34.240 You see, it's easier to believe a father who knows us is not distant from us. 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:38.399 It's harder to trust that his nearness comes with power. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:50.799 It's harder for us to trust that his nearness comes with enough strength behind it to actually reach into our situation and rescue us from whatever is trying to pull us under. 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:56.320 And that final request of this prayer asks both at once. 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:05.120 You see, church, our Father is near enough, and he is strong enough to preserve us. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:07.840 We have to have hope in this. 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:11.519 We have to have functional faith in this. 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:24.960 If we say that next to everything else that we've already prayed in this series, you can actually see how deliberately this prayer has been building toward this moment. 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:29.279 Our Father, you are in heaven. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:32.639 Give us our daily bread. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:35.919 Settle our debts and pardon us. 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:39.120 And will you protect us? 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:41.919 Will you protect us? 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:48.159 It's as if this prayer, this part of the prayer, demands the most faith. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:55.840 You see, we've prayed to a father who's near enough to his children to know exactly what we need before we ask. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:01.600 We've prayed to a father who's strong enough to provide our daily bread, pardon our unsettled debts. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:09.360 This final request, ask him to be both near and sh and strong, that he might preserve us. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:16.639 Our very present rescue against evil from within, ourselves and outside of ourselves at once. 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:19.519 Here's what I love about Dallas Willard. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:22.720 He's a profound writer on spiritual formation. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.120 He says this about this final prayer request. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:30.559 He says that it is a vote of no confidence in our own abilities. 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:34.000 This is how he's summarizing it all together. 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:38.480 This is clearly a vote of no confidence in our own abilities. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:43.440 And that's exactly right. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:48.639 The whole prayer has been teaching us to depend on a father. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:16:01.919 Not to be self-reliant, not to trust in ourselves, in our own determination, in our own grit, in hard work, and able to acquire resources. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:02.559 No. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:12.480 A child who is weak and unable to depend on a father who fully is able for us. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:21.120 Because what's at stake is not just our provision or our pardon. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:28.720 What's at stake is whether we make it through tomorrow to continue to need to even say those prayers. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:32.799 And that's where we struggle. 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:34.960 We struggle. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:41.919 Not because we would ever say out loud, like we're too churched or too good of Christians. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:51.440 We know the right answers enough that we're never gonna say out loud that we believe God is distant from us or that we believe God is too weak to do anything about our circumstance. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:53.200 We're not gonna do that. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:55.279 We never say such a thing. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:03.519 But saying that out loud and believing it deep within your chest, those are two very different realities. 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:12.799 Most of us are already living out an answer to this question, and it shows itself in the very essence of our prayer life. 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:14.240 Can I tell you this? 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:25.759 One of the things I've been wrestling with the most in this series is my own prayer life because it says out loud what I've tried to keep quiet, that I don't really depend on God. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:29.519 Else I'd pray more. 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:37.440 I don't really see him as a near and present father, or I converse intimately with him more. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:44.640 I don't really see him as one who is strong and able to deliver me, or I would rely on him more. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:49.759 I rely on myself much more than I do him. 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:54.960 And the most clearest evidence in my life is my lack of prayer. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:09.279 If our father really is near enough to us, church, if he really is strong enough to preserve us, then the failure was never his. 00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:15.839 It was always ours, rooted in distrust of who he is. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:17.200 Right? 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:19.680 This is all about the character of God. 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:25.920 If we really rightly know him, it should cultivate trust in him. 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:29.200 But many of us do not know him rightly. 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:31.519 We do not relate to him rightly. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.559 Therefore, our life is riddled with distrust. 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:43.119 You see, we relate to our Father either as too distant or too weak. 00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:48.160 I would submit that this is how most of us in this room relate to him. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:52.960 Some of us in this room relate to him in both ways. 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:56.880 As both too distant and too weak. 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:01.039 You see, I had a very unique perspective in writing this sermon. 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:04.799 When I was four years old, my father walked out on us. 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:06.880 My father wasn't around. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:15.599 So I've learned that if I'm ever going to have help, it will be a help driven by myself. 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:19.440 So my problems weren't brought before a dad. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:23.200 My problems were kept close to me. 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:28.480 I had to deal with that and be strong in the midst of that. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:32.079 When I was a freshman in high school, I moved in with my dad. 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:35.599 And something very interesting happened. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:46.000 He was in the room, but he was too emotionally and relationally weak to actually help me in the ways that I needed him to. 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:51.920 I had him present, but he couldn't help me. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:58.640 So writing in this prayer, I'm like, Lord, this is how I relate to you. 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:11.599 Every single one of us in this room project the sins and imperfections of our Father onto God, our true and faithful perfect father, and it distorts the way we're able to relate to him. 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:13.519 It's just natural. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:20.240 You see, some of us we quietly decide he must be a distant dad. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:22.640 Here's what we've got to look at this prayer. 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:31.039 It's I you gotta just be amazed at the master of how he even laid this prayer out. 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:34.400 So we start this prayer with our father who is where? 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:35.839 In heaven. 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:36.240 There we go. 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:37.119 Pentecostal. 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:37.759 Come on. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:40.720 Little call and response action. 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:42.480 Our father who is in heaven. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.720 Most of us in this room, we interpret that our father who's a distant dad. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:51.279 That's actually not what the text means. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:54.960 Better translated would be our father who is of the heavens. 00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:56.720 Here's what it's communicating. 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:01.680 Our father who has no limitations on his capabilities. 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:05.200 When you're praying our Father who is in heaven, here's what you're really praying. 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:14.559 My dad, who is sovereign ruler over all creation, whom every Adam answers to his beckon and command. 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:24.400 He is the one who has such power that he can control the outcome of any situation, and there is nothing outside of his kingship. 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:25.920 That's what you're saying. 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:31.359 You're not saying, our father, who's a distant dad. 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:36.240 But some of us we relate to him that way. 00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:39.119 Rather than as a present father, and so what do we do? 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:40.799 Well, we just stop praying. 00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:43.279 We stop bringing our weaknesses to him. 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:50.880 We start involving him in the threats that we face, and we determine to face them ourselves in our own strength. 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:54.960 Others of us, we may have never doubted that dad was there. 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:59.759 We just aren't convinced that his being present in the room is enough to. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.799 Actually, change anything about what we're facing. 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:10.799 So we keep relying on our own strength, on our own resources to get us out and to get us through. 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:19.680 And so these are different doubts for sure, but they actually produce the same result: a gritted teeth, self-reliance. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:26.880 We end up carrying alone, but we were only ever meant to ask him to carry for us. 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:32.079 And here's how I think it plays out for us who believe that he is distant. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:34.960 You know, we believed he's too distant, and so what have we done? 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.119 We've stopped praying altogether. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:41.039 Just like me, from 4 till 43. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:43.519 My birthday was Monday. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:45.039 Thank you. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:48.160 Let's just go around the room. 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:57.200 If you want to take some time to honor me, I just stopped bringing stuff to my dad. 00:22:57.519 --> 00:22:59.279 He wasn't there to hear it. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:01.519 Why did it matter? 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:05.839 I wrestled with my anger. 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:15.440 And I don't think any of us in this room are stopping our prayer life because we have this clenched fist anger toward our father. 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:24.400 I don't think it's because we've stopped noticing the threat and danger that we're facing of evil within and evil without. 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:28.240 It's not that we don't need him because we're not going through anything. 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.519 As we said earlier, some of it lives inside of us. 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:33.440 Some of it is within our chest. 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:42.400 It's the sin that you and I have confessed so many times to God that we don't have new language to put around it anymore. 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:47.839 We just feel exhausted because we keep bringing it to him over and over and over again. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:55.119 But how do we leave that prayer session with our own determined strength to overcome it in ourselves? 00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:03.039 Some of us, it comes from us outside, the dangers of this world. 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:04.640 The evil one himself. 00:24:05.039 --> 00:24:07.279 It has nothing to do with our sin at all. 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:10.720 But we still feel the threat of being overwhelmed by it. 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:16.559 And so, whichever kind you face, the instinct is the same. 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:26.000 We've simply decide God is too distant or the trouble is too far outside of his reach for prayer to actually matter in this moment. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:29.519 And so we go quiet. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:35.279 We go quiet toward the very person that we're supposed to be inviting into this mess. 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:48.799 We contend against these evils alone, convincing ourselves we have to, because we simply have a distant dad that we're dealing with. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:53.440 Now, others of us, we believe that he's actually just too weak. 00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:56.480 And so we carry the weight ourselves. 00:24:56.799 --> 00:24:57.440 Right? 00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:00.079 We don't doubt God is near. 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:02.000 We know he is present. 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:05.440 We just don't quite believe that he's actually capable. 00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:14.640 Now that may seem outlandish to say to some of you, but why do we have this ongoing propensity to grit our teeth and push through trials? 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:24.160 Or scour about, gathering up our own resources whenever the presence of trouble and danger faces us. 00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:26.799 Why do we do that? 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:30.240 Well, because ultimately we're relying ourselves to get through it. 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:40.559 It's as if we pray to a father who's near, but then we functionally work to preserve ourselves through our own self-reliant determination. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:54.160 Now, some of that determination shows up in the very sin we keep confessing, but as I said before, we we meet it with this white-knuckled effort instead of trusting in the deliverance of the hand of the Father that we just asked for. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:05.200 Some of it shows up in these dangers that we can't manage at all, relationships that are falling apart, diagnosis that you get from the doctor, financial stressors and calamities. 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:09.599 We can face all kinds of different evils and threats in this world. 00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:22.799 They're not of the sin within us, and yet still we spend ourselves, we exhaust ourselves trying to control the outcome that we never really had the ability to control in the first place. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:27.519 You think you can determine if you'll be here tomorrow? 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:29.599 You can't. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:44.960 You see, we never doubt he's there. 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:49.119 We just aren't convinced that his nearness comes with power. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:01.599 We aren't convinced that there's strength to rescue, and so we live in this struggle of self-reliance because we simply have a weak dad who's right here. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:03.920 He just can't do anything about it. 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:11.359 And everyone in this room, we struggle with that reality in some way. 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:27.519 We all have been disobedient, distrustful sons who deserve to be crushed because we did not put our hope and trust in our Father. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:35.200 But our hope is not in our gritted teeth or our self-reliance. 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:41.599 Our hope is in Jesus who perished so that we would be preserved. 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:50.720 Jesus died as a son full of rebellious distrust toward his father. 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:58.400 So that you and I could be brought into the family of God where we would be preserved forever. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:05.359 You see, every distant and weak dad we made our father into, Jesus never bought it. 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:07.119 Jesus never believed it. 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:10.160 He didn't succumb to such doubt. 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:13.279 Even when we look at the Garden of Gethsemane, right? 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:22.240 There in the garden was the greatest evil that the world was able to bolster and stage against the Son of God. 00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:25.359 All wickedness bearing down on him. 00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:26.799 And what did Jesus do? 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:34.400 He didn't go silent because he was believing that his dad was too distant or too weak to do anything about it. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:38.880 No, Jesus in the garden, he goes to his father and he prays. 00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:43.119 Look at what he says in Mark, Matthew 26, 39b. 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:48.160 He says, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. 00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:50.720 What did Jesus do? 00:28:51.039 --> 00:29:04.559 He prayed, he asked, he brought the trial and the trouble straight to the presence of his father, exactly the way that our doubt and distrust refuses to. 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:53.200 And that trust came even when the answer was no. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:54.799 No. 00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:06.799 And church, the full weight of that answer, no, it fell on the cross of Christ. 00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:22.960 The full weight of that no lands clearly on Jesus, who experienced the very thing that our doubt only ever imagines. 00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:24.960 Think about what we struggle with. 00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:37.759 We're going through this trial and this temptation, or we're going through this circumstance, and we fear that God's actually not near to us to see what we're going through, that he's not actually strong enough to pull us out and rescue us. 00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:47.920 And here, Jesus, who fully and perfectly trusted in his father, now stands in our place, crying out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:49.519 That's not a statement of doubt. 00:30:49.599 --> 00:30:56.000 That's an honest declaration of what happens when a son distrusts his father. 00:30:57.119 --> 00:31:06.480 Crushed under our wickedness, our sin, and our rebellion, so that we could be a child preserved in the family of God. 00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:10.960 He was forsaken actually and fully. 00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:15.440 He was delivered over to the full weight of evil rather than delivered from it. 00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:17.599 He never doubted his father's nearness. 00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:20.640 He never doubted his strength, not for a single moment. 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:24.079 He was willing, though, to perish as though he did. 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:36.319 To be treated as the rebellious son you and I are, carrying the abandonment and the defeat that our distrust deserves. 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:44.640 You see, church, Jesus perished under exactly what our distrust always feared. 00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:57.680 And because he trusted his father perfectly all the way through, all the way to the end, what we see in the resurrection is that death could not hold him. 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:05.599 That ultimately his trust in his father is our hope for eternal life. 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:09.119 Death could not hold him. 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:15.039 And here's what that proves for us. 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:25.279 The empty grave proves for us that the father never was distant to him, that the father never was too weak to redeem him and rescue him. 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:28.720 And he's not for us either. 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:34.240 Because in Christ, we don't have a distant and weak dad. 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:39.039 We have a near and strong father who will preserve us all the way. 00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:43.920 So, church, here's my prayer for us. 00:32:45.279 --> 00:32:54.079 We can trust our Father who provides for, pardons, and preserves us. 00:32:55.279 --> 00:32:56.400 I don't know about you. 00:32:56.559 --> 00:33:01.039 I've been praying this Lord's Prayer for every day since we started this series. 00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:05.440 Most days I don't get past our Father. 00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:09.359 And it's like 20 minutes I'm spending here. 00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:11.359 Just thinking about the reality. 00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:17.519 And this morning I was driving in, I was thinking about the gift of hour that I was about to walk into. 00:33:18.720 --> 00:33:30.799 The gift of hour where we're able to encourage one another and worship together, pray for one another, sit under the preaching of the word, confess our sins and shortcomings together, be nurtured at the table of bread and wine. 00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:31.440 The R. 00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:37.680 I was just reflecting on that and celebrating on that for I don't know how long it takes me to get here necessarily. 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:40.240 I usually just black out and then arrive. 00:33:40.480 --> 00:34:03.279 But then the Father, the family that he created, through his son, our true and faithful elder brother, that all of us have this family that transcends even our most natural ones, riddled with imperfections and problems and shortcomings and tensions, but oh redeemed fully in Christ Jesus. 00:34:06.640 --> 00:34:31.519 And just praying this prayer, it's allowed me to see a dad I never had, who is present to me, who provides for me in ways I've never been, who pardons me when I absolutely mess up, and who protects me from myself and from this evil world around me that seeks to undo me. 00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:36.000 What intimacy he's inviting us into. 00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:38.880 It's not a distant dad. 00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:41.039 It's not a weak one either. 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:59.119 It's a father near enough to feed us when we're hungry, near enough to hear us when we failed, near enough to settle our debts that we can't settle ourselves, near enough to reach into whatever evil in hell that is trying to pull us under today. 00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:01.119 That's our Father. 00:35:02.239 --> 00:35:04.159 And he's strong enough. 00:35:04.880 --> 00:35:08.239 He's strong enough to actually do something about all three. 00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:12.159 That's who we've been praying to this whole time, church. 00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:22.400 Our Father provides for us, pardons us, and ultimately preserves us to the end. 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:31.280 Which means that this very last request of this prayer, it actually becomes the most absent of anxiousness. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:34.480 Look at what Jesus has already walked you through. 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:37.519 Don't you know that this is your father? 00:35:38.159 --> 00:35:42.320 Don't you know he already knows exactly what you need before you asked? 00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:48.400 Don't you know that his hand is able to provide something as simple as bread for you to eat? 00:35:48.639 --> 00:35:57.039 Don't you know that the debts that you can't settle, he pardons and acquits you of guilt? 00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:03.119 And now in this place of peace, child, don't you know he'll protect you? 00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:14.960 You see, believed upon and rested in rightly, it is the safest line that you and I will ever pray. 00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:18.559 Because he is a father who is of the heavens. 00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:23.440 He is a father who is distant or who is not distant from his children. 00:36:24.559 --> 00:36:27.840 He is the source of our true hope in this life. 00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:36.639 And so this prayer, as we wrap up, this is something interesting to reflect on. 00:36:37.119 --> 00:36:57.360 This prayer that begins with being known, ends with being kept, and the in-between of that intimacy and relationship is where you and I get to live in freedom and joy every day of this life. 00:36:58.000 --> 00:36:59.280 Let's pray.