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Matthew 6:13
¹³And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.

This verse is a warning to us that we can be lead astray if we are not careful.

1. It is a Prayer of Protection
2. It is a Prayer of Perseverance

Life is a spiritual minefield

A Prayer of Protection - lead me not into temptation, here it is referring to a time of testing

1. Prove authenticity of your faith.  Testing produces steadfastness
2. These tests have an "Opportunity for Disobedience."  The evil one brings the temptation during the test.
3. God is not leading us into temptation.  Our own desires cause us to fall into temptation.
4. "Lead us not" = "Deliver us from"

A Prayer of Perseverance
We need protection that we don't veer off course.  We need perseverance to go to the end.

The christian life is a spiritual war.  We are not waging war against flesh but against principalities but against wickedness.

Ephesians 6:12-13
¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

1 Thessalonians 3:15
⁵ For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain.


"That very few people think that we are now in a war greater than World War II.  That this war is greater than any imaginable nuclear World War III, or that Satan is a much worse enemy than communism or militant Islam.  That this conflict is not restricted to any one global theater but that it is in every town, of every city, home, mind and heart.  Or that the casualties do not merely lose an arm, eye or earthly life, but they lose everything including their soul"
John Piper


John 17:11-15
¹¹I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. ¹³"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.


3 Things We Need to do:

1. Drawing Near to God
2. Put on the Armor of God
3. Do Not Fight Alone 
   

Ecclesiastes 9:4-12
⁴ Anyone who is among the living has hope —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! ⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. ⁶ Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun. ⁷ Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. ⁸ Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. ⁹ Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. ¹¹ I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. ¹² Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.