Advent Week 4

 Good morning everyone. How's everybody doing? Welcome to Canopy. Good to see you all this morning. Happy last Sunday of Advent. Cody Whittick is gonna be lighting the avid candles. Give it up for Cody. Everybody lighting the four outside candles. Perfect. Perfect. The last candle today, the last Sunday of Advent is love.

Um, so we are talking about what it means to be people of love to receive and to give the love of Jesus. And, uh, with that in mind, this passage of scripture came to mind as I was praying for all of us this morning. Uh, it's Isaiah 61. This is what Jesus quoted when he walked into the synagogue of Nazareth.

So Jesus came to earth and when he showed up on the scene and gave us his mission statement, his purpose for being here, this is what he said, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the broken heart, end to proclaim freedom for the captive.

And release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn. Here's the part that stood out to me. And provide for those who grieve in Zions, bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes. The oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

I just, those words were really heavy on my heart this morning. Um, as I was praying for our communities, we were all praying together. It's got this sense that the Lord wants to offer a trade today. You know, we all come in here carrying stuff. And that the image that came to my mind was like, bags of trash.

Like, like just stuff that, that's heavy, you know, whether it's, um, sadness or distraction or, or hurt or pain, unforgiveness, anxiety, stuff that we're carrying in today. And I just get the sense that Jesus says on this day, where we're talking about love, that Jesus says, I love you so much that I want to trade you what I have for what you have.

So you come in. You give me the bag of trash and I'll give you hope. You come in, you lay that stuff on my feet, and I'll give you peace. You come in, you give me the heaviness, and I'll give you joy. Come in with a broken heart and I'll give you all the love you ever need. Just this sense of people walking out the doors, coming in with these bags of trash and walking out the doors with gifts from God.

Just get the sense he wants to give gifts today during, during worship, really throughout the day, but really like what we're about to do here with these guys are gonna lead us in is not warm up for what's gonna happen next. Like we walk into this space, we sing these songs about God because they reorient us in who He is, and we encounter his presence in worship.

So if I could ask everyone to stand together and starting right now, you know, let's not use this as warmup time, starting right now. Let's be attentive to the fact that our father loves us and he's here to give good gifts to his kids and let's worship. All right.

Way.

How beautiful you.

How he love

Wow.

Soak his love this morning.

Sing. He just me.

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Love

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every song.

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I just lift up.

I've got one.

Um, during our pre-service prayer this morning, um, I was just reminded of a time when we were out in the parking lot, we were still meeting out there and um, Josh got up and , he made us all take off our shoes because it was a reminder that where we're standing is holy ground. We're in the presence of a king.

We are in the presence of God. And I'm not gonna ask everyone to do that this morning. Um, but I just get a sense as we continue to sing this song that a few of you might need to take off your shoes just as a physical. Like this is a reminder as I worship and I'm standing on holy ground. And I know it sounds weird, but I just get a sense that the second you do that, the spirit's gonna unlock something in you.

Um, and it's not for everyone this morning, but I just feel like there might be a few of us. Um, we just need to do that. It's just an acknowledgement of, God, I'm here where I'm standing is holy because you are here Lord. And so if you need to do that, I just wanna invite you to take a risk and just do that again.

It's not for everyone. This morning, but I just have a sense that a few of us might need to, so we're just gonna continue to sing. And if that's you, I just wanna invite you into that. Just take a bold step

inside,

see it again. So come on.

Lift up your song cause you got

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except for singing.

It's not.

So God come before you this morning, um, just acknowledging that we're stand this holy ground, acknowledging that your presence is there, acknowledging that you are above all else.

Revelations four says, all the elders surrounded the throne and took off their crowns, and they cried. Holy, holy, holy, holy. As a Lord God Almighty, one who lives forever and ever, who sits on the throne. And God, we wanna be that this morning and every day we wanna take off whatever this world puts on us as achievements.

Lay it at your feet. Cause you are holy, you are worthy.

Amen. Amen. You guys, it's so good to worship together. Josh? Yeah. Hey, um, we're gonna have the kids hang with us for just a second. They've got a, a special presentation for us in just a moment. Um, so go ahead and say, Hey, to somebody you know or don't know or whatever, uh, and then, uh, grab your seat.

All right, everyone. Welcome to Canopy. So good to have you here on this last Sunday of Advents. Um, my name's Josh. I'm one of the pastors here. Um, we had an amazing night happen on Thursday night. How many people were here for Carol's night, for West side nights, one of the best nights of the year. We wanna just show you in, in case you weren't here.

We wanna make you jealous so that you're, you put it on the calendar for next year, um, show you a quick video of what happened. Um, so we're gonna, Eli, can you hit those lights back there real fast, man? Would that be all right? Right there on that? Oh, yep. There you are. Nope, this way. Perfect. All of them.

There it is. Oh,

go.

There it is. So that was our December West side night. It's our carols night. Um, an amazing time if you were there. So glad to have you if you missed it. Good news as we have another West Side Knight. Next month, it's the third Thursday of every month. We have a, a dinner party for our neighborhood. This one was especially big and over the top, but they're always just a celebration, a time to, to be together as neighbors across all sorts of boundaries and divides, uh, artificial.

Wow. That light is, uh, that's, that's special. It's flickery. Okay. Sorry, I got distracted. Anyway, Westside Nights is great. Put it on your calendar. Third Thursday of every month. Join us. It's an amazing time together West, uh, Carol's night. So good. Um, with that, I wanna invite up our kids' director, Lila, our kids have something to say.

Lila loves. Lila loves the microphone, by the way, so give her a little bit of extra. Just a little. There you go. Great. Great. All right. If you are in preschool, elementary, can I have you guys come join me at Pier by the tree? Yeah. Don't be shy. It's okay if you weren't here last week. Um, but I wanted our kids to be represented on our tree.

So last week when we were learning about the Christmas story and reflecting on our memory verse, um, you guys all took a minute to pray and reflect on that by yourselves, right, Omar? And then they drew pictures or wrote words of. What that meant to them. Maybe something they heard in prayer, um, or their hopes for this Christmas season.

Um, Omar, do you remember what you wrote?

You didn't write one ? Well, we have, um, Jesus on the cross, a lot of nativity scene. Um, and Audrey, you wrote, were reflecting on our memory verse, right? Paisley? I'm sorry. Paisley, right?

What? . You guys are pranking me right now. Okay. Well that was really special and I was really proud of how you guys, um, spent that time. And I want you guys to put your ornaments on the Christmas tree. It's okay if it's not yours. Um, just help your friends and get them on the tree and they're actually normal size, unlike your parents' little ones.

And then go line up by our teacher.

All right. While they're hanging those on the tree, all the rest of you kiddos, you can make your way up too and head to any kids who were checked in. You can head to church. If you didn't get a chance to check in, talk to Lila and she'll help you out. But, uh, all of our teachers are over here. Take our kids to church.

Have an amazing time. Make sure to pay careful attention cuz your parents are gonna wanna know what you learned afterward. That, that one's your, there we go,

All right. All right. Little bit of chaos. We love having our kids in worship with us though, cuz um, worship is something you learn. You know, the, the Bible talks about one generation commending the teachings of the Lord to the next. And this is the way that we can do this together. It's by worshiping together, being one community and family.

So it's well worth it for a little bit of fun and a little bit of chaos. Um, thanks kids for the way that you, uh, you're decorating that tree so beautifully. Yeah. Fantastic. Alright. Right. Few announcements before we invite up Mike to speak here. We, uh, we are in the fourth week of Advent. Mike, I'll just, uh, just to prep you a little bit, Mike is, uh, we've been working our way through the Lord's Prayer and Mike is tackling the last piece, um, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And we thought, who better to talk about evil than Mike Rigdon. Right. I'm just kidding. I did I take your joke? Oh man, I'm so sorry. I didn't, I didn't read your notes. Anyway, anyway, anyway. Um, so we'll getting to that in just a second. But before we do a quick, uh, few quick announcements about what's coming up, um, we have this Saturday is Christmas Eve.

It's on the 24th this year. It's gonna be, come on guys. That was, that was all right. Give me, gimme something. There you go. Uh, it's gonna, we're gonna be meeting at Marin. We can't meet in this place. It'll be at Mariner's Christian School, which is on the other side of town. The address will be on the app, all that sort of stuff.

Service starts at five o'clock, but come at four o'clock for a tailgating party. We'll have cookies, hot chocolate, uh, that, that's our version of tailgating around here. So cookies and hot chocolate, it'll be really fantastic. Time to hang with one another, then we'll have service at Mariners Christian.

It's gonna be fantastic. Time together. How many times did I say fantastic? So far? A lot. Okay. Four times. Thank you. Hold up the fingers. All right. Next. We will not be gathering in this place on Sunday the 25th. Instead, we will give everybody a chance to be in their homes with their families. However, we're doing something for the third time, our third annual church in a bucket.

So when, yeah, Brandon's excited. When you walked in, you saw some buckets that were all lined up over here. They have little seemingly random items in them. Um, but what I need you to do is on your way out the door, every sort of family units, whatever that means for you, whether it's you and your roommates, or you and your family, or just you take a bucket on your way out and just take it home with you.

You can look through it if you want to, whatever you wanna do. But don't, you don't have to try to figure it all out. It doesn't make sense. There's no instructions. The instructions will be in the form of a video that will be released on Christmas Eve, so kind of Christmas Eve night. We will, we'll put the, the video out there, uh, and it'll explain everything that's there and you can just kind of.

Again, with whoever you want to on Christmas morning, whenever you get a chance, just sit down, watch the video. It's not gonna be an hour long. It'll be 15 minutes max, right? Mike? 15 minutes? Yes. Solid. Perfect. I gave every person who's sharing on the video two minutes and Mike said he's gonna take 10. So we'll see.

Um, it might be closer to 25 minutes, but I'll let you know. Um, watch the video, kind of unpack the buckets together, and that will be our, our Christmas service. Then the following Sunday is New Year's Day. We will be having service in this place together. Um, and that's, uh, at our normal time at 10 15.

However, we wanna start off the year. One of our values here is to be a family of Jesus followers learning to live free. So we wanna start off the year, the new year as family together, and we're gonna be doing that. Is Julie Dunbar in here? Are we still on? Are we still on track for the plan? We're gonna be gathering at 9:00 AM Right?

For breakfast burritos in the parking lot. So we do this thing Julie has been leading the charge with, with a few others. Um, Well, we gather in a park on the first Sunday of every month, uh, just to kind of have a time of, uh, breakfast together before the service for anybody who wants to show up. And we're gonna start that off, not in the park this, this time, um, but, but here in our parking lot.

Um, so just come early for breakfast burritos, be family together, nine o'clock, then in at 10 15 for the service. It's gonna be a fantastic time together. All right. Two other things real quick. Two last, yes, five. That's fine. Thank you, Marco. I appreciate that, man. Two other things. Um, one is, um, we are taking a trip to the Holy Land in June.

Yeah. And you've seen emails from me about it. You've heard announcements and you might think I missed the, uh, the deposit deadline. That is in fact technically true. However, we still have spaces available. So if you want to go to the Holy Land, the dates are June 17th to 25th. Um, you haven't missed the deadline, although it's coming up very quickly, like the hard deadline.

See, that was the soft deadline, but I couldn't tell you it was the soft deadline, or everybody would've just. Missed it, right? For those who have missed it. However, there's a hard deadline coming up here before the end of the year. I would love to chat with you. So if you wanna talk about that trip at all, come and talk to me After the service, I will be hanging out.

Would love to tell you more about it. And then finally, finally, we would love to invite, if this is your home, church, would love to invite you into giving to Canopy, uh, as part of our worship together. So we believe that breathtaking generosity ought to be the norm for the people of God. Like not just like kind of tipping God or giving occasionally, but that we ought to be people who are defined by generosity because that's how Jesus is defined.

I mean, the fact of the matter is we are celebrating a holiday in which the king of all creation laid down his crown, left his throne, and descended to us in an act of radical generosity to give himself away. And that sets the paradigm for how we live our lives. And so we believe that giving is to be the hallmark of the people of God.

That doesn't just mean to church. But there is a reason to give to the church. And the reason is this, when we do this, it increases the capacity of the church and our ability to be of, of use in ministry to God's people and to the world beyond. And so we think that across the board, giving us this amazing thing that God has given us as, as a special gift because money is the primary de dis, dis distractor and detractor from, from, from God.

It's the thing that gets our attention, most of all. And so God and His wisdom says, I know that's gonna happen to you. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you this generous gift of giving that will help to reorient money in your mind. And so giving sets us free and it empowers the church to be a part of setting other people free.

And at the end of the day, this is like this massive opportunity for us. And so we wanna invite you if Canopy is your home church, to consider Two things. One is, what does regular giving to this church look like? If you haven't stepped into that yet, we wanna invite you to regular giving in this community cuz it expands our capacity as a community and it's good for you as well.

Second, if you are a regular giver, we wanna invite you to maybe consider increasing your regular giving. Finally, I know I said two, but there's a third. Finally, uh, we know some people give toward the end of the year. They're looking for, for opportunities to give at the end of the year. If you are a year-end giver and you want to give to Canopy, um, or any of those things apply to you, all of the, uh, the ways you can give us on the screen website app, and then this beautiful giving box that we have up here on the stage.

So if you wanna talk to me more about that, um, I'd love to chat with you. If you wanna know what Canopy does with the money, I'm happy to, happy to share that. Just one, one last thing is we want to practice what we preach around here. So just so you know, 26% of whatever comes into this church we give away ourselves wanna be people, not just individuals who are breathtakingly generous, but a church, like a whole community.

Uh, in West Side nights, the Carroll's Knight you saw is put on, um, almost exclusively by the funds that come in through your giving, um, part of the way that we get to, uh, get to bless our neighborhood and our community. So, with that said, Pastor Mike, deliver us from the evil. I'm gonna try. Uh, well, good morning.

How we doing? Awesome. Uh, it's, it's great to be with you. Uh, as Josh mentioned, we are in the final week of our advent, um, uh, as we approach Christmas and we've been unpacking, we've been unpacking the Lord's Prayer, and here at Canopy, um, we end every single Sunday gathering we have with the Lord's Prayer.

And, and for us, if you're anything like me, uh, the more that we step into a regular rhythm like that, or when something comes repetitive, it can also almost dilute the power or authority of something that we are doing. Does that make sense? So when something becomes repetitive, it can almost become diluted, or it becomes a way that we almost lose the power and authority behind the things that we're saying.

That's why when we talk about worship, right? We talk about teaching, we talk about these things as approaching it fresh every single day, but more importantly, the reason why. We've decided to spend four weeks unpacking the Lord's Prayer is that we believe that this is a prayer with praying. Like there's something to this prayer that Jesus invites us into when we, we want this prayer every time we pray it, whether it's in a space like this, or whether it's at home around the dinner table, or when we're tucking our kids into bed, or when you're closing, your eyes going to bed and you're reciting this prayer, that there's a freshness, that there's a longing, and that there's something there that, that Jesus wants to experience and do through us.

We believe this prayer changes things like we believe that this prayer has the power and authority to influence our lives, to ch in fact bring power and bring healing and align our hearts. And so when we say this prayer, every time we say it, there's something in me that's obviously longing, a freshness from God, but, but we want this to be a place where we approach this prayer with humility.

We want to, we wanna approach it with reverence. We wanna approach this prayer with faith that in fact, when we pray the Lord's Prayer, it changes things. It can change our families. Can change our lives, change our church, can change our world. So we just, as a church, we just believe that this is the prayer that Jesus wants us to be praying.

So if that's true, it's in our best interest to actually know what in fact, we're praying. Does that make sense? So it doesn't become robotic that it be as fresh and there's power and authority every time we declare it in as simple as a prayer, this is, is we've been discovering over the last few weeks, and it's filled with depth and it opens up our lives to greater intimacy with God.

And this is actually the point of prayer, right? Like prayer is intimacy with God our father. And that's how we, that's how the prayer begins, our father in heaven. So when we pray what we're, what we're what we're doing there is we're drawing an intimacy with God. And if we only pray because we think we have to or out of obligation, or that's what good followers of Jesus do, we're, we're missing the very purpose of.

Prayer is intimacy with God. He's our father in heaven. And when we come to him in prayer, we're recognizing how much he loves us. And here we are at week four of Advent and traditionally, um, within the church, uh, the fourth, the fourth week of Advent is all about what Love, not the love that we have within us, or the love that we can give to the world, although that's part of it, but primarily about the love of the Father, that God loves the world so that he gave us Jesus, right?

So as we step into this four fourth week of advent, I want us to keep the love of God as our focus, as we unpack this last portion of the Lord's. That is if we, that if we, that if we long for the love of God in our lives, not just a broad understanding of God's love, but a love that's exclusively found in the person.

That's, that's what sets this a little bit different. That's the depth, that's the weight. That's where we experience the intimacy. God, when we, when we actually pray this prayer together. And so I want to invite us to stand. We're gonna, we're gonna pray this prayer together. If you've missed any of the weeks leading up to this, I encourage you, go here, YouTube, or a podcast and kind of unpack it or listen to it again so we can continue to experience this prayer in a fresh way.

Jesus was with his disciples. He taught him to pray, and he said, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us of our debts as we forgive those who trespassed against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil on power and the glory forever and ever.

Quick joke. You guys all went niv, V 19 90 84 . This is the updated version. You can have a seat. You can have a seat. So I have the joy to unpack the last bit of this prayer. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And as I was, Josh was kind of asking, Hey, which week do you guys want him? And I fought a little bit over about, you know, the, the last week's message.

And I was like, fine, fine, I'll take, I'll take this one. And then it hit me. And this was where Jo, Josh stole my joke. Um, I feel like I'm most qualified to speak of this one. This is when I looked at him, I'm like, this is, this is the week that I feel most qualified to speak. And of course I'm saying that with a little bit of tongue in cheek.

But let's all be honest for just a second. When it comes to, when it comes to temptation or when it comes to experiencing evil, some form of evil, could we all just agree that we all have quite a bit of. So when we talk about temptation, when Lord says, pray that you're not led into temptation. Pray that you are delivered from evil.

There was something that jumped inside of me to say, wow, these are two very important realities in life that all of us face on an every given day, a daily basis, right? So there was this moment of like, oh, I gotta do this. To like, oh gosh, actually I think I have quite a bit to say about temptation and evil because it's all around all the time, right?

And so when, when we pray or when I pray out loud, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. I'm not just praying this prayer for the world. I'm praying this prayer for me. And that's the shift here. That's what we almost see happening in this moment. I pray from a posture that recognizes how easily I am to fall into sin or tempted with.

I pray from a posture that realizes that evil is not only out in the world, but evil is also within me. Is that okay to say? Would anybody agree with me? That, hey, this is something, this is a reality that we deal with all the time, right? First Timothy one 15, the Apostle Paul lives his life from this same posture.

Not there's something wrong out there, but there's something very broken within me, right? And he says, in one Timothy one, five, Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am the worst. Some of you always like Mike, what's that weird tattoo on the inside of your arm? It's actually that first Timothy one 15.

This was a verse that radically shaped my discipleship with Jesus not to have a pity party. And Paul is not having a pity party here. He's not saying, feel bad for me. Look how bad I am. Oh, you gotta feel bad, whatever. No, no. He's living his life from a daily posture. That recognizes and approaches his relationship with Jesus, with humility, independence, and that's the invitation here when we get to this last port of this prayer, right?

Like we have to approach Jesus with humility, independence, temptation and evil are realities that I, if I can just say for my sp myself, speaking for me, that it would be much easier for me just to ignore. It would be much easier for me just to pretend like it doesn't exist. Look for the good, look for the light, and let's just get on with our lives.

Not really paying attention to the darkness or the evil or the temptations or the things like that. New Testament says, Paul says, the, the sin that so easily entangles me. It's much easier to pretend like I'm okay than it is to actually face the temptation and darkness that I'm dealing with on a daily basis.

Are you with me here? Yeah. So darkness according to Jesus in this. Is just as much of a reality as light. Evil is just as much of a reality as love. Satan is just as much, just as real.

This is the reality we live in. Um, I have a five year old dirt daughter. I have three kids. Rosie's five, like most five year olds. Uh, Rosie has a deep, deep fear of darkness, and ever since we do, we got her, we adopted her. But there was al obviously just, um, from the day that we got her, she just didn't like being alone in a room.

And she never, like, as soon as lights got turned off, didn't matter where it is in the house, she would get filled with a lot of anxiety and fear. And so, particularly at nighttime, every single night when we're putting her to bed, there's always a moment when the light goes off in her room. Uh, she's afraid of.

And, uh, if I, if I, and she requests every single, every single night, can you leave the hallway light on, leave the door open? But when we first got her, I was still trying to figure out navigating to be a compassionate and loving father. And, uh, by way of comforting her in that fear, I, I, what I said to her early on was, Rosie, you don't need to be afraid of the dark.

Everything's fine. Jesus is in this house and you're just trying to comfort your daughter and to get her to see, there's nothing to be afraid of. Like, whatever it is that you're afraid of actually isn't true. And my heart was to comfort her in those moments. And then I begin to realize that that wasn't helping her at all.

And actually saying those words downplayed the fact that darkness is scary. That, that that darkness wells up a fear and a real emotion that's inside of her. And by me dismissing that reality, downplayed her fear. Are you, are you following me here? So I've learned that, that my role in that moment with her isn't to downplay the darkness, but to validate it.

So we put a nightlight in her room, , not just any nightlight. We put one of those nightlights that like sing kids songs, right? Her first. Her first one was the crickets sound, and we, or birds, actually it was birds chirping. We'd have people come up for dinner. I'd be like, am I in a rainforest ? Oh, that's our daughter's singing nightlight upstairs.

So we did that, right? And then we make sure the door's open and the, and then the hallway light's on, and now the bathroom light has to be on all night. And there are moments still in the middle of the night where I'll wake up and I'll take our dog out to go use the restroom. I'll come up and I'm like, oh, she's sounded asleep.

I'll pull door closed, and I flip the light off. And I'm not joking between one and one 30, every single, every single time I do that, she wakes up crying. And it's another moment where I'm like, oh gosh, this darkness is real for her to validate her fears. But I think as, as small as this sounds, I think we will actually, in this.

With how we navigate darkness with my daughter and validating it, not downplaying it will actually influence the way that she deals with her fears. So if we validate her fears and then we, if we acknowledge them as she gets older in life, she'll know how to appropriately identify her fears as an adult.

Does that, does that make sense? And not let those fears run her life, but the older we get easier it is to ignore it somewhere along the line. And I think for a long time, a lot of well-meaning followers of Jesus have actually downplayed the power of darkness over people's lives. For too long, the church has done this where you can almost step into an environment of Jesus followers and darkness, temptation.

Evil is never even talked about or addressed, and it's a reality that you and I face and are walking in every. So I think in order for us to grasp the power behind this prayer, we must accept the reality of temptation. We have to accept the reality of evil and not shy away from it. We have to acknowledge the darkness and the power behind it, not to give authority to it.

It's not what I'm suggesting, but to invite the power and presence of Jesus into those very moments. Jesus declared, I'm the light of the world. So Jesus never shied away from darkness. Jesus never pretended like darkness didn't exist, right? This is what makes Christmas so powerful, and this, if we, if there's anything that we can do in this final week leading up to Christmas, is this.

Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. He came into a dark world. God, our father knew that the darkness was too heavy for us to carry on ourselves, and so he gave us Jesus to meet us. We needed a light. So God gave us Jesus to walk in it. Notice how I said that by the way, God didn't send us Jesus to, to help us stay out of the darkness.

He sent us Jesus to help us navigate in the darkness. And I think this is what the last part of the prayer is all about. So I wanna break up this prayer into two parts, and hopefully this helps us reshape power, the authority that we can approach his prayer with humility, with reverence, with faith, to actually no one.

Pray this prayer. In the most darkest moments, in the most the the moments where we're tempted the most, that we're actually praying, Jesus, come be with me first. Jesus says, pray that you're not led into tempting. Now there's a difference, I think being led into temptation and being tempted. It seems to me that Jesus knows that we're gonna be tempted, right?

Like this is his, his main concern is not that, don't be tempted. His main concern is that you're not led into temptation. We see this in Mark chapter four, right? Where Jesus is being tempted by the devil in the desert, right? He's being tempted. But Jesus was never led into temptation by the devil to be led into temptation.

I think, and this might sound, um, a little intense, but to give your life over to the work of the devil in your life, right? So the reality is that we're gonna be, we're gonna be tempted. But to be led into temptation is almost a submissive act of me actually giving my soul whatever moment, big or small, in the, in the moment to the work of the devil in my life.

So Jesus never did that. For me, if I can think about the times that I've actually given myself over to the work of the devil in my life, it has happened both in unintentionally and it's also been intentional. There are two different, when I'm thinking about my life, and maybe for you too, right? So there have been times in my life where I unintentionally stepped into sin and, and I think what, what I mean, what I mean by that is that it's not that I was choosing sin, it's just that I wasn't choosing to follow Jesus closely or prioritizing my, in my, him in my life.

So I got busy, or I was filling my life with all these good things, but I, I stopped spending time with Jesus. I stopped surrounding myself with, with solid community like Canopy Church, or I stopped going to my table or whatever it might have been. Then I just stopped prioritizing him. And so slowly over time, I began to prioritize other things, and that's when my soul began to slip.

That's when I started stepping in and allowing the darkness to. Move itself in, and maybe you can relate to that. Covid was big for that for a lot of people because what happened in isolation is that the devil worked in a lot of people's lives. They had a lot of pastorals, a lot of coffees with people that, that Satan used that time in isolation to really get after people mostly through isolation, right?

And being away and by yourself. And then the other time had been just, uh, where I intentionally stepped into it. I was led into temptation because I just made a decision to do it, knew what I was doing. I didn't care, and I just did it anyways. And now the results were the same. I was led into temptation because I decided sin, I decided to step into something that I knew wasn't good for me, did it?

I know this sounds pretty intense, but I think Jesus wants us to take seriously the power of temptation in our lives. Cause it leads us away from him. And that's, and that's what, it's a journey that we're on. It's a path that we're on. So temptation just steers us away. It puts us and points us into a different direction.

It's not that Jesus don't misunderstand me. It's not that Jesus isn't present with us. When I give myself over into temptation, like Jesus is with me all the time, right? He's present with me. When I fall into temptation, it just pulls me out of the life that Jesus wants from me. And I, I, I love these, these words that James, the brother of Jesus says in James chapter four, verse seven.

He says, therefore, keeping this in mind, everything we just kind of talked about, submit to. Resist the devil and the devil will flee for you. So for followers of Jesus, this is actually sums up the journey that you and I are on or the, the choices that you and I can make every single day. Right? And, and by the way, can we just say that the order matters here, like we must first submit to God, like if we want to have the power and authority to the re resist the devil.

And the promise is that the devil will flee from you, but you have to first submit yourself to God. Why? Because the devil is constantly coming at testament, says he's looking for some power. seeking out devil's coming at us every single moment. In the times where I cross the line from temptation into sin, I can honestly tell you it happened because I wasn't.

And that's not easy to say. As a pastor,

temptation is a reality that we face every day. And so what James says, submit yourselves to God. We're not just talking about every Sunday, there's so much more going in my life beyond this space. There's so much darkness and temptation that I face. And I can imagine for you the same thing, that if I'm not submitting myself to God in every second, not just daily, I say every second of every day, we are subject to the work of the devil in our lives and after us.

So temptation is a reality we face every day. And so instead of judging others, when you hear about someone that's fallen into temptation instead of judging others, I think we'd ought to have compassion. because when we hear about somebody else falling into temptation or someone struggling with a particular sin or addiction, something ought to jump out in me and feel like, gosh, I am just as vulnerable.

So instead of a shame culture or feeling like I can't be myself, or if I go to church, I have to pretend like everything's okay. It's completely withdrawing and, and, and not facing a reality that we all face every second of every single day, which is the work of the devil in our lives. So, can I just say that when we talk about temptation, temptation is for sure our work to do see Jesus in mark four, right?

I don't know a better way to say it. Like we, the work to not be led into it. We have to submit to God, we have to be on guard. Our eyes have to be open, our ears have to be open. We have to allow people to speak into our lives. If there's red flags or blind spots in my life, I have to rely on the church and people that know me the best to say, Hey, Mike, have you noticed?

Or, Hey, Mike, you seem withdrawn, or, Hey Mike, you seem agitated, or, Hey, Mike, the words you're saying, don't seem all that loving. What's, are you okay? Like we need accountability with one another. We don't need shame. We don't need guilt.

So not being lead intimidation, there's ownership that I have to take over that, not on my own strength, but submission to God every single day, which means we come before him with humility, acknowledging our weaknesses, acknowledging the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Who, the pro, what, who has given us the promise us that he spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

So as we acknowledge the darkness, as we acknowledge the temptation, you also acknowledge light. Darkness has no power, has no power or authority. So you cannot just avoid temptation. Can't. It's not like you just jump out of the way as it comes at you, right? Like you'll lose. You have to actively submit to God and resist the devil, and the promise is that the devil will then flee from you.

Evil will flee if you submit yourselves to God. Doesn't mean that you're not gonna have any hard difficulties or not many things. You're gonna, there's, it's the promise here though. Commit to God, devil will flee. So when it comes to temptation, if you're in Christ, the devil has no power or authority over your life.

For my experience more times than not, the times that I've given myself over to the work of the devil in my life, it's because I allowed him

to prized by it allowed him to do

something. Jesus says then to pray after talking about temptation. He says, pray that you are delivered from the evil one. Some of your translations might just say evil. My Bible says the evil one almost personalizes who this is coming from, right? And this prayer is a whole different layer than temptation is, right?

We talk about temptation, all right? Like, I'm gonna be on guard. I'm gonna watch my life. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have my eyes open, my ears open. I'm gonna submit to God. So there's work for me to do there. But when we talk about evil, a whole nother power, there's a whole nother layer. There's a whole nother depth happening in here that is so much.

Not really up to me. Like evil isn't up to me. Nothing I can do to avoid it. There's nothing that I can do to really isolate myself. It says, pray that you are delivered from evil. What is evil? I've learned for the last 38 years of life that evil is so much more than the people or things I simply don't like.

I can call people evil. Oh, you're evil because you like whatever, right? We can get really petty about it. Put evil and attach evil to unnecessary things that probably aren't even that evil. Just something I, a preference or something that I don't like or someone that really messes. I can, I get really mad at or whatever.

But I love how NT Wright defines it, and I'll put up on the screen here, I'm gonna read this. He says, evil is a real, is real and powerful. It's not only out there in other. But it is present and active within each of us. What is more evil is more than the sum total of all evil impulses and actions. When human beings worship that which is not God, they give authority and forces of destruction in Mance, and those forces gain a power collectively, that has downed the centuries of Christian experience, cause wise people to personify it, to give it the name of Satan, the accuser, the Satan evil one.

It is not equal and opposite to God, but he or it is a potent force opposed to God's good creation, particularly to the human beings whom God wishes to put in authority over his world. If this were not so, the final petition of the Lord's Prayer would be an unnecessary anti-climax. So what is evil? NT Wright proposes that evil, of course, is everything that we worship that isn't God.

And when we do that, We're giving power and authority to things that have no business, having power and authority in the world. So we're elevating things to the level of God, and that's we're evil, not just things we dis there's so much more. In fact,

with this in mind, we can see and now understand why Jesus prays that we'll be delivered from it. The word deliver here is really, really important for us to understand. In many cases, when we think of the word, uh, deliverance in terms of, we would define it in terms of being rescued, right? The word gives me a picture of a lifeguard jumping into a deep pool with someone drowning in the deep end and jumps in and rescues them and pulls them out and saves their life, right?

that's actually what this word means. But deliverance is also when we talk about Jesus on the cross, like Jesus delivered us when he was on the cross from, from, from sin and death. So he rescued us in our sin. He rescued us in our brokenness, right? But to deliver or to be rescued from something actually, um, implies more than just being rescued from something.

It's not just I'm getting rescued from something that's only half of what's happening here. To be delivered means we are actually being rescued from one place or one reality to another. So we're being, we're being rescued saved or being delivered from a current reality into another reality. Anybody here like pizza?

We're gonna be doing Canopy Lunch Club in January and we're gonna be seeking and finding the best pizza. And I'm gonna use a little analogy here that I know is silly and you'll probably never look at pizza the same. But every time you look at a pizza from this point on, I want you to think about deliverance.

You know when you get a pizza delivered, the pizza is obviously getting delivered from one location, but it's gonna get delivered from one location to your location, right? If we understand deliverance in terms of what's only getting delivered from, but never, two, we're missing the power and purpose behind deliverance.

Are you with me on this? God, like deliverance isn't just to move something out, it's also to move us to something. So we have to think of deliverance in E of of evil in terms of moving myself, grace of God from one reality to another reality. But we also have to recognize that we cannot be delivered from evil in our strength.

We need someone. We need Jesus deliver us. And the good news, the gospel, the good news of Jesus coming is that he. That he is will, will deliver you tension that we all live in every single day, for those that are in Christ, right, that God sent Jesus to be with us in the midst of evil. That's the first part.

The second is this, that God sent Jesus to rid the earth of evil, which he is still doing, and he will one day fully accomplish when he comes back again. But until then, we still have evil around us. And we still have evil within us. Evil probably are aware of it as experts in evil like I am. Uh, it's a whole host of things.

It godlessness, it's idolatry, selfishness, prejudice, diction, pride, thick. Zs just to name a few. These are realities that you and I face live in every single day. So the question I think we need to ask is this. If evil is always around me and within me, how can I trust that Jesus deliver me? I have three thoughts.

First one is this. I would invite Jesus in step one as maybe like the Holy Spirit might be bringing a circumstance to mind or a way that evil feels like it's at your doorstep, or maybe even here's a step. Invite, Jesus. Let him sit in it with you. This is why Jesus came sit with you in darkness. The second is this.

Don't try to get out of it on your own trust and the power presence, it's his work to do. His work is to deliver you. But are you allowing him, admitting to him are you, are you allowing him to actually move you to rescue you from one reality another? There's no timetable on how long that takes. I often part of my wrestling with the power and presence of God, this like Jesus, were to never do another thing for what I still love.

Does his presence matter more to me than anything else? When I think part of ministry of the Holy Spirit in, in our lives is for us to shout a result, yes, I want him to deliver. I want him to rescue me, but if I just get his presence, is that enough? Heard us say it quite a bit around here. God is not of any machine.

He's not just looking to give you all these great things, power and presence, trust in it. And then three, for those that feel like temptation or sin, you've given yourself over or evil is just all around and you can't even barely breathe. I want to encourage you to say there's always a way back. It's never too late.

My, my favorite stories in the Bible is the prodigal sun, Luke 15th, the picture of God, his arms are wide open to there's nothing you can do for God to stop loving you. Nothing. There's always a way back, and I just would apologize. As a pastor in church and been at around churches for a long time, the church has not done a very good job.

Instead of grace and mercy, most oftentimes we can give shame or guilt or judge or put labels. Not here.

There's always a way back. It's never too late to turn. So these, this prayer, the Lord's Prayer, as we've looked at it and pulled back the layers, it's a prayer that unifies us. It's a prayer that reminds us we're in this together. It's a prayer that reminds me and steps up in faith. The shout, we need each other.

I'm not on this journey alone

prayer. This prayer is beautiful. If it was the only prayer that we prayed, it would be enough. Psalm 23 verse four,

maybe a, maybe a Psalm that you're familiar with. Even though I walk Darkest Valley, I'll fear no evil for you are with. Your rod and your staff feel like darkness is overwhelming. You feel like it's at your doorstep. Memorize this, cite it. Allow it to build faith. Allow the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to wash over you.

Jesus offers us some hope in John chapter 16, verse 33 says, in this world, you're gonna have trouble. Take heart. I've overcome the world. This is what Christmas is about. So much more than the pot roast, which I love, the prime rib, which I had yesterday. These are all good additions to Christmas, right? But Jesus has come with his coming.

He's overcome all evil. He's overcoming all sin and death. Life is found in him. And so we wanna respond. I've, I, I came in this morning, uh, to be quite honest, uh, feeling pretty good, . And then right before we started, I think there was just a moment of heaviness that set in on me. Not, not, not exclusively because of the darkness I, I feel, but just the weight of darkness.

That's just a reality in all lives represented in here. And I think the weight that I was feeling is that reality of darkness. But then I was quickly just filled with hope and faith to actually see that darkness go. I got long for that in our lives. I long for that in your life. I long for that in our church,

that the darkness trembles, that that light has come.

And so if you're here and you feel like, uh, darkness is just there, You haven't dealt with it or faced it, or, or someone has potentially even never prayed, that darkness would be freed from you. That the light of Jesus would come. We wanna respond with that and have some prayer time. Um, and by doing that, I actually just wanna invite you forward.

So if we can all stand, um, if you're, if you're here, you just need prayer, maybe something's bubbling up inside of you and you're just tired of the darkness and you just need the power and presence of Jesus just to be washed over you, allow Jesus to sit with it and you acknowledge the pain, acknowledge the hurt.

This is what we're here for. And then we can approach Christmas with expectation. We can, we can approach Christmas with longing and we can see the beauty that is Jesus. But first we have to acknowledge the reality. Darkness so we can receive the hope, the joy, the love, and the peace of our king. So if you need prayer can invite you forward.

And maybe for those here, depending on the response, if you feel like you wanna help pray, we'd love to have you pray. Just the presence and power, we're not gonna ask you what's up, God's working in your life. So the prayer is just a hand on a shoulder and that the presence and power of Jesus will come for the rest.

We have ornaments over here. This will be the last, I think the last week we do this. Um, maybe there's just a word that you wanna write down on there. Um, maybe it's something that you specifically need to be delivered from, or maybe, uh, there's something else that the Lord is doing that you just wanna hang on the tree and just place over there as a recognition that Jesus is in it with you.

But more particularly if there's a word there that Jesus is stirring up or there's a temptation or a sin. Or something you need to be delivered into. We want to invite you forward just to write it. No one's gonna read these. There's ornaments there with a very large Sharpie that you can use. And so just feel free to respond in that way.

And then Josh will be up in a little bit after worship. We're gonna worship. You wanna pray, respond. So, Lord, would your Holy Spirit come? I wanna repent for the ways of my own life, Lord, where I've downplayed darkness or I haven't taken it seriously. Temptation the ways that I've given myself over to sin, how I can just so easily do that.

So, Lord, I pray that your grace and your mercy would fall in this place, the weight that is on people's shoulders right now. I pray that you would free in Jesus name

to come. Holy Spirit, we can't bring you much, but all you do is just ask for our willingness. And so I just declare over Canopy Church that we are willing and that we need you. Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Not here.

Jesus, you.

I just wanna sit here and.

Oh, here,

when I've just gone through the motions, I'm sorry. When I just sang another song, take Me Back to

Up My Heart.

Else, Jesus. Nothing else.

Cry, nothing else

else.

You know, as we're singing this song, I just, I just closed my eyes and I got this picture in my mind of Jesus just smiling. Um, which is funny, we're talking about this super heavy thing about leading us, not an temptation, delivering us from evil, but I just wonder if like, if he was smiling when he taught us disciples to pray this way, cuz he knew he was the answer to that prayer.

You know, you talking about the evil one, talking about temptation, and then there's this sense of like, but I got you. Like I'm right here. Like, I will lead you through this, not into it, but through it, I'll lead you through it. I'll lead you back to what I made you for. There's just this sense of like, I've got you and I just, for whatever reason, I just felt like there are people in the room today that are, that you've heard this, but you're still, you're trying to like figure it out.

You know, it's like you're trying to sort out what you need to do some strategy for dealing with the thing you're going through, whatever else it is. And, and I get that, that impulse to try to like control that, that impulse, to try to, to try to sort it all out, to work through it. And I just feel like he's just saying, just, that's what this song says.

Just, I got you. Just, you don't need anything else. And so if you're like, carrying something and you're holding it and you're, you're like in your own mind, your un strength, you're trying to sort it all out. I just invite you, I, I just feel really strongly just as a step of faith. Just come up here and just sit in his presence.

He's got you. He really does. Yeah. Yeah. So we're gonna keep going. Um, come on up. Let's, uh, if you see somebody sitting here, your job is, and you feel led to pray for 'em. Your job is not to like sort it out for them. Your job is just to like carry them to Jesus. That's it. We're just gonna keep singing that chorus out.

Oh, I'm not here for

Jesus. You don't owe me.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God In the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made. That has been made in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

When my heart is overwhelmed and I cannot hear your,

if the storms of life vapor in the road, I'll lift these hands in faith. I'll believe if the storms of life and if the storms of life and the rude Getty, I will lift these hands in face. I'll say that again in the storms. If the storms life kill,

I will lift these hands and ill in our

sing. Love came down, rescued me, love came down, said me free.

I am ready

when my heart, when my heart is filled. Promise comes my way. Your hands, grace. Rest upon me

before you, your feet. I lift these hands in.

Love. Rescue me, love. Send me free. I'm your, I'm for.

I'm Love came down, love came down me. Love came down. Send me free frees. I am Mountain High. Mountain High.

I'm your all my days. Jesus. I am your. I am your. I am.

My face. Jesus. I am yours. Im your, IM your face, my place. Jesus. Am your day. I'm your, I'm your

day. Jesus.

I am your, I'm your, oh my Jesus.

Im your.

All my days. Jesus.

I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours i's. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. I am. Yours. I. Yours I. Your yours. I. Yours. I'm yours. Yours. I'm yours. Yours.

I'm your, I'm your, oh my Jesus, am yours. That I am your

Jesus.

Big yours is the globe. Yours is the day

you have because you have more on, you have more.

What,

what

Jesus.

Psalm 63 says, because you are my help, I will sing in the shadow of your wing

because you are my help. I will sing in the shadow of your wing. We get to worship in his, in his warmth and and Braves in his protection.

So I am huge. I am huge. Oh my days, Jesus. I am your, I'm your.

I'm your

Jesus. I am.

If you've been with us over the past few weeks, you might have thought it's interesting to have an advent series based on the Lord's Prayer, but, uh, maybe especially interesting to land on, on love day with deliver us from evil. Um, but this is the Christmas story, isn't it? Visit the into the darkness in chaos and brokenness of the world, the light has come and he is the answer out of love.

He steps into our mess and by stepping in, transforms and redeems it all. So we en we receive this gracious gift, the one who has come to bear our pain and our brokenness and our sin and our shame. And in doing so to change everything. And that's the invitation here. The invitation here is not, Hey, what a good Sunday.

What a good worship style, what a good message or a good time together, but like, be transformed by his presence. Leave this place to. Friendly, more free. If as you heard this, you received prayer, um, that's fantastic. But if you just had the sense that you wanted to but just couldn't for whatever reason, we're gonna stick around.

We'll be here. Come find myself, Mike Kiana. Honestly, anybody. This is an amazing community. Find somebody to pray with. We have Pete and Patty Shambrook here come this super tall Australian, good looking Australian guy out there you go. Come find these guys. Pete and Patty. Um, just anybody here would love to pray with you.

Don't. I guess what I'm saying is like, don't leave here walking in darkness. Like Jesus is here, like he's here and he's gonna go with you out there. And whether you've known that and, and received that before, uh, one time or a thousand times, or maybe today's your first day where you're realizing that, ah, this is true.

I don't have to walk through this alone. Whatever it is, if you need prayer, find somebody. Don't leave this place. It, um, you heard all the announcements. I won't recap 'em again other than to say, don't forget your bucket on the way out for church in a bucket. Uh, if you wanna talk about the holy land, I'm here.

But let's close by, uh, where we started with the Lord Prayer. So we'll pray it together. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Th is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. I'm in great being together, everyone. We will see you on Christmas Eve at four o'clock over at m.

Do you feel the world is broken?

Do you feel the,

do you know that all the dark won't stop the life from getting through?

Do you wish you could see?