Temptation

3.9.2025

Sky & Tara Jones

Sky: Good Morning! We’d like to invite all the kids up front to sit here around us while we share this morning’s message. While that’s happening, please turn to your neighbor and share the best part of your last week. 

Tara: Hi! My name is Tara Jones and this is my husband and best buddy, Sky. We are parents to Murdoch and Endee Jones. Those two are often keeping us on our toes. Many of you help us wrangle and hug on them and for that we are so grateful. 

Before we begin our shared message with you today, let’s pray together: Jesus of kindness, we ask you to help us stay in you always. Far from temptation and protected from evil; steady when it comes and centered firmly in your love for us. Amen. 

Last Family Worship Sunday we learned from John and Barbara Davis about asking God to forgive our debts as we forgive those who have sinned against us - the way Jesus did by dying on the cross for our sins. This week, Sky and I are going to talk about the request we make to God in the Lord’s Prayer that he leads us not into temptation, but delivers us from evil. 

Sky, have you ever been tempted to sin? 

Sky: Temptation is the desire to do something wrong. To do something you know you shouldn’t. Oh boy, have I. 

Maybe some of you have seen the clips of kids whose parents set one mini marshmallow out on the table in front of them and give instructions not to touch or eat it. If they obey, they will be given another. Then the parent leaves the room. It’s a psychology experiment to test the child’s ability to delay gratification and resist temptation. You guys want some marshmallows? (Hand out marshmallows for kids.) 

What about you? If your mom or dad or grandma put a marshmallow in front of you and asked you not to eat it, could you wait until they said it was time??! That would be hard! 

Tara: In the first part of this section of the Lord’s Prayer we pray: Lead us not into temptation 

God isn’t the one actively leading us into temptation, this phrasing is sort of confusing. The temptation we are talking about here is the work of the the devil. 

What we ask here is that God protect us during times and situations that cause us to be tempted; times and situations that could turn us away from God and toward sin. For the record, the human condition to wander and drift, is totally normal, so if you find yourself there, you’re in good company. 

Last week, Pastor Chuck Bush reminded us that the things of this world, all the shiny/tempting things, won’t make us fulfilled if they are outside and away from Jesus. 

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Jesus wants us. He is in us and around us. He is actively lapping at the shores of our lives seeking us again and again. 

Tests, like the marshmallow challenge, can be difficult. Others can be terribly painful. But these can also be used as opportunities to reveal our character, God’s character, and invite us into a loving relationship of trust with him. 

When we choose to take the easy way out, that is often the path of sin. Satan is working at every moment to bend our choices towards his evil ways. Temptation can be subtle, like when we are tempted to be in control or tempted to know how things are going to turn out. Sometimes they stand out a little more. 

Some of my go-to sins are wanting to be liked, or defaulting to anger, or worry. These sins make me crave recognition and adoration from others, or they result in me being irritated, frustrated, or grumpy towards my family. Sometimes I even think, “I’m stressed! Where are you, God??!”  

In response to these sins God says, “Tara, stay calm, be patient and show self control. Be quick to listen and slow to speak. Trust in me. Talk to me through prayer and seek my peace.”

Many of you might be tempted to sin like I do, and we all face our own unique challenges. 

Perhaps when we pray Lead us not into temptation, instead what we are saying here is, “Lord, don’t let us give in! Strengthen us! Protect us! We need you!” 

Sky: In the second part of this section we pray: But deliver us from evil 

Tara, you mentioned the devil earlier and that’s what I’m going to talk about: evil that comes from the devil himself. The devil is the worst bad guy around. Can you guys think of any villains from TV or a movie you’ve seen? Tell me one. (Wait and see what the kids come up with.) 

Those are all super scary villains and bad guys. They are mean and have bad motives to trip up and trick the good guys. They are also all pretend - just made up. The devil though, he is real. 

The devil wants to set traps for us to fall into that will pull us away from God. Do you know why he wants to do that? Because the only person able to resist the devil and beat him for good, is Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate hero and good guy. He’s on our side. But the devil knows that we aren’t perfect like Jesus so he uses that against us and tries to trick us and fool us. He tries to make us feel like we would be better off without God or that God couldn’t love us because of all the mistakes we make. 

In a small prayer book by Max Lucado, it reads, “it is not me, but Christ in me that makes me worthy.”

Jesus came to Earth a long time ago to live a perfect life then die so you and I could be saved and when we die we can be with him in heaven forever. Jesus died to make us perfect in his father’s eyes. 

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When faced with evil, we can often feel alone. We feel like we are alone escaping the reach of the devil as though it’s a storm bearing down upon us and we have to come up with our own shelter. 

But Jesus is there to help you with your real, genuine problems - because temptation and evil are real - all we have to do is sincerely ask for help. 

If we pray, a genuine prayer laying it all at his feet, the more freedom there is to acknowledge the reality of all a life with God can be. That life is one where God can be our shelter and we don’t have to face the storm alone. 

In your life, when you face temptation and evil, the work of the devil, call out to God in prayer. Remember that despite your shortcomings, your shame, and your brokenness, you are loved and worthy, a son or daughter of the king. 

Authors Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie say, “even if you sit among broken things and your confidence seems to shrink with each day, know that you may feel lonely but you are not alone. You are united in love with all of suffering humanity, and with our God who came to suffer and die. A God of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But one who also came that we might have life.”

We will close with this: stand firm and hold fast. Be encouraged and strengthened in every good word and deed. Direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. 

Tara: In place of temptation, Lord, we ask that you provide opportunity for us to do good in your name. 

Sky: Lord, Keep us from evil and all things that want to take us away from you. Give us the strength to honor you in all that we say and do always. Amen.