(Preached at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, May 27, 2015)
Much of America cheered some months ago when a Texas mother fought off three masked home invaders who came into the house where she and her little son were. With a pistol she had in her bedroom, she shot one intruder in the stomach and ran the other two off. Americans applaud — rightly so — those who do whatever they need to do to protect their family.
But as important as that is, there is a greater responsibility you have towards your family than protecting them physically, and that is protecting them spiritually. The greatest enemy your family has cannot be shot with a gun, or physically barred from your home. The greatest enemy your family has is spiritual, and must opposed by spiritual weapons/means. II Corinthians 10:3-5 says “although we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, and the weapons of our warfare are not according the flesh, but are Divinely powerful …”. That is why we must learn to PRAY — and call down the power of God to protect and to work in the lives of those we love.
Tonight we continue our study on the Model Prayer, and we come to the last of the 6 major requests of the Model, Praying For Spiritual Protection. We have seen that the Model Prayer is not a “script” that we are to endlessly repeat, but is an outline of the categories of things the Lord wants us to talk about with Him when we pray. We’ve seen that we are to begin with praise, then pray for God’s Kingdom’s work next, then surrender our lives to His will — then lift up our requests, and requests for those we love, before we spend time in confession of sin and forgiveness of others. The final request, which we are studying tonight, is found in :13 and reads:
“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Continue reading
shawnethomas 