Harvest Pointe Christian Church, Milford Ohio is a non-denominational Christian Church (Church of Christ) on the Eastside of Cincinnati OH

Trusting God’s Provision | Series: Teach me to Pray | 03-14-10

Trusting God's Provision
(Give us today our daily bread)
Series: Teach Me to Pray (The Lord's Prayer)
Matthew 6:11

  I. Prayer should be a daily expression.

 II. Prayer should be a daily expression of our dependency on God. Revelation 3:17;  Luke 12:16-21

     A. This prayer reduces anxiety. Matthew 6:26,31-34; Philippians 4:6-7
     B. This prayer will increase your contentment. I Timothy 6:6-8
     C. This prayer will increase your appreciation for each day. James 4:14; Psalm 118:24

III. Prayer should be a daily, unselfish expression of our dependency on God.

     A. We begin our prayer by saying, "Your".
        "Hallowed be Your name"
        "Your kingdom come"
        "Your will be done"

     B. We continue our prayer by saying, "Our".
        "Give us today our daily bread."

Full Text 

Remember that old commercial where there is this 30 year old son still living at home and he demands his parents upgrade his room?  He wants room service, a data port for his computer, and points for free airline miles.  And the family, and especially the old grandmother, are laughing at him asking, "What do you think this is? A Holiday Inn?"
Well, sometimes when we pray we make requests of God like we're living in a hotel ordering room service.  We say, "Father in heaven, give me good weather, financial success, perfect health, gifted children, and my team to win the NCAA Tourney."  Can you picture God laughing in Heaven and asking, "What do you think this is?  A Holiday Inn?"  James 4:3 says, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
Folks, there's a big difference between living at a hotel and living in the Father's house. In a hotel, the owner is a stranger, but in the Lord's house the owner is our Father. In a hotel, you get what you order even if it's something that's not good for you, like a rich desert. But in God's house you only get good gifts. In a hotel, the employees exist to serve you, but in God's home you're expected to do your part to serve others. In a hotel, you might order from a big menu. But in the Lord's house, you get what's served for the day. In a hotel, we have to pay for all the services, but at His home we receive the riches of his grace free.
In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught us how to appropriately make requests of the Heavenly Father. He said in Matthew 6:9-11, "9This, then, is how you should pray:  'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And here's the phrase that we're going to look at today:  "11Give us today our daily bread.'"
Jesus taught us to make requests. Don't be afraid to ask because God loves to give good gifts to his children. Since we're a part of God's family, it's important, though, that we make appropriate requests when we pray. So, let's carefully look at what Jesus meant by this phrase, "Give us today our daily bread," because we're not exactly ordering room service at a Holiday Inn.

I. Prayer should be a daily expression.

The Lord's Prayer just takes for granted that we talk to the Father every day: "Give us today our daily bread." Now some people are on the weekly prayer plan. They show up at church on Sunday and try to get all their requests made for one week. Some reserve prayer for emergency use only. They only pray in a crisis: when they face a serious operation, a child is lost, or there's financial trouble. For them, talking to God is like a 911 call out of desperation.
But when Jesus taught us to pray, it's obvious that He intended prayer to be a daily practice. He didn't say, "Give us this week," or "Give us this month," but "Give us today our daily bread." Dwight L. Moody once wrote, "A man can no more take his supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God's boundless store of grace from day-to-day as we need it."
Now, that's not too much to ask. The Muslims have a mandatory law that they are to pray five times a day. Daniel, a hero from the Old Testament, opened a window and faced Jerusalem and prayed three times every day. Prayer will become a source of power in your life only when you develop the habit of praying every day.
There are some things that we do every day that become second nature to us. You shower. you brush your teeth, get dressed, kiss your mate goodbye, raise the garage door before you back out of the garage. Those are good habits that we need to practice every day.
And I want to challenge you to develop the habit of praying to God in private every day. I'm not just talking about muttering a few sentences while you drive to work in the morning. "God be with me and my family and all the missionaries. Amen." "There, I did it, didn't I?"
Give God at least a little of your time every day. It doesn't have to be a long time. Maybe if you just start out with a few minutes as a beginning point. Or maybe read a few verses of Scripture and let God speak to you through his Word. Then use the Lord's Prayer as a guideline for your thoughts. However you do it, try to do it at the same time every day so it becomes as much a part of your day as brushing your teeth. And eventually it will become second nature to you and a vital source of spiritual energy. 
Parents, you can teach your children the habit of daily prayer. When our children were little, we used to do bedtime devotions. Sometimes we read them a Bible story. Sometimes we used some helps. The one they loved the most was the fruit of the spirit. There were cards with cute pictures to help them remember and a cassette with songs. We used that one over and over again. Those are good memories. But more than that, they knew God is real and a part of our home.

II. Prayer should be a daily expression of our dependency on God.

When we pray, "Give us today our daily bread," we're depending on God to provide for the day. Remember when the Israelites left slavery in Egypt and went toward freedom in the Promised Land? God provided manna for them to eat fresh every morning. Every morning there would be these white flakes all over the ground. The Bible says it tasted like wafers made with honey.
They went out and they picked up enough to eat for that day. If they picked up more than they needed for that day and tried to hoard it for the next day, when they got up in the morning it would be full of maggots and stink. God was teaching them to depend upon him for daily food.
On the sixth day, they would gather twice as much and bake it, or boil it, or whatever because no manna would fall on the 7th day, which was the Sabbath. That was a day of rest and worship. The manna that they stored up on Friday night would not rot overnight. There was plenty to eat on the Sabbath. God was teaching them that if they obeyed his commandments He would take care of their daily needs.
Things went well for awhile, but then the rabble among them stirred up everyone else. They were tired of eating the same thing every day. So God caused a huge amount of quail to be blown in. But even as they ate, a plague struck them and the key complainers died. God was teaching them to learn to be content with what He gave them and not to crave more.
God provided food everyday while they traveled. It may not have been a huge variety, but it met their needs. And it was only a temporary thing. If they would just be patient and obedient, it wouldn't be long before they owned their own land flowing with milk and honey and they could have anything to eat their hearts desired. In the meantime, they were to trust God every day to supply their food.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "Give us today our daily bread." "Lord, I'm trusting you to provide for me today." Now, in our culture this prayer almost seems unnecessary. Why should we pray for daily bread? Most of us have plenty of food stored up. In fact, we have so much that some pray, "Lord, help me not to overeat! We want steak and lobster and fried chicken and mashed potatoes and White Castle!
And we're not satisfied with just the daily provision.  We want long-term security. That's why we have savings and stocks and retirement programs and all kinds of insurance. And that is all very good, as long as you don't get to the place you think you don't need God anymore.
When you think you are self-sufficient and you stop relying on God, you become like the Church at Sardis. Do you know what Jesus told them? In Revelation 3:17 Jesus said, "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."
Did you hear about the scientists who concluded that they didn't need God anymore? Brilliant people had been able to clone life and cure diseases and fly into outer-space. So one of the scientists was appointed to go and tell God that He could go into early retirement. He wasn't needed any more.
God said, "Well, before I take off, I want to make sure that you can do everything that I can do. So, let's begin at the beginning." And God reached down and dug some ground. He formed a man and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God nodded to the scientist. The scientist reached down and got a clump of clay. And God said, "Oh, no! You get your own dirt!"
Now, we may think that we can do without God, but in reality He is the source of everything. We depend on him every day for our survival. He is the one who created the fertile soil in which we plant the grain. He created the seed that we plant. He sent the rain, the sunshine, and the oxygen to nourish and produce the harvest. He designed our bodies to turn our food into energy. We think we can do fine without Him because we've got so much, but He is the one who gives us daily health and breath so that we can function.
In Luke 12:16-21 Jesus tells a parable.  He says, "16…The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'
20But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
21This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
So when we pray, "Give us today our daily bread," we're acknowledging a total dependence on God and we're admitting, "Father, without you we're nothing."
Now, obviously, it is not wrong to pray for more than daily bread. In the Old Testament, Jabez prayed that God would expand his borders and bless him. That's praying for more things, wants. Abraham's servant prayed that God would show him which young lady to choose for a wife for Isaac. Jesus prayed that all of his followers would be united and sanctified in the truth. The early Christians prayed for boldness. The Apostle Paul prayed that all of his fellow Jews would become Christians. So it's not wrong to pray for things beyond our daily needs.
You can pray for more things, like Jabez did. Pray for your job. Pray for big blessings. But we begin by praying, "Give us today our daily bread." And once we've acknowledged that we're dependent upon God for everything, then we ask for our wants.
Now, there are several benefits from praying for daily bread.

A. This prayer reduces anxiety.

What are you worried about right now? Something about tomorrow that you probably can't control and will probably will never happen? But if you learn to pray, "Give me today my daily bread. I'll live for today and I'll trust you for the future," it will help you overcome worry.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:26, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" You don't see robins pulling more worms out of the ground than they need and putting them in an old refrigerator? The robin goes to sleep at night trusting that there will be more worms for him to eat the next day." Aren't you a lot more valuable than a bird?
Jesus went on in Verse 31, "31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Isn't that the truth! The stock market crashes. Your job is eliminated. Your health breaks. Your kids are breaking your heart. Your marriage falls apart. But, as the worry creeps in, don't let it control you. Go to God in prayer and say, "Give me today my daily bread."
Put your trust in God. There is really no security in this world. Our trust is not in the stock market.  It can crash. Our trust is not in a good job. It can be eliminated. Our trust is not in our health. It can break at any time. Our trust is not in our family. It can be quickly taken away. Our trust is in the Lord.
The Apostle Paul taught in Philippians 4:6-7 "6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
When you pray, "Give me today my daily bread," you're saying, "Lord, I trust you to provide for me every day and I'm not going to have an anxiety attack about tomorrow anymore."
Secondly,
B. This prayer will increase your contentment.

When you pray for daily bread, it reminds you of how blessed you are. You have to say, "Lord, I not only have bread, I've got beef and pork, and chicken and fish and pizza! I am so blessed. There are people around the world who don't have enough to eat. Please help them today, and help me to be content with what I have and not complain if my meat is tough or if my mashed potatoes have lumps."
I Timothy 6:6-8 says, "6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that."
Also, if you pray for daily bread,
C. This prayer will increase your appreciation for each day.

When we pray, "Give me today my daily bread," we're acknowledging that we just have this day. We have no guarantee that we're even going to be alive tomorrow. In fact, David said "there is only a step between me and death." James 4:14 says, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." This day is important. We are not going to take it for granted. We are going to live it to the fullest.
The Los Angeles Times printed an essay by Ann Wells. It said: "My brother in law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue wrapped package. He discarded the tissue and handed me her slip. It was exquisite-silk, handmade, and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached. 'Jan bought this the first time we went to New York,' he said, 'at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion.' He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment and then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me. 'Don't ever save anything for a special occasion!' he said. 'Every day you are alive is a special occasion.' I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death. Those words have changed my life. I'm not saving anything. We use our good china and crystal for every special event, such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom. 'Someday' and 'one of these days' are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now. I'm trying not to put off, hold back or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. Every morning when I open my eyes I tell myself, 'This is a special day.'"
When you pray, "Give us today our daily bread," you're saying, "Lord, help me live today to the fullest." You're saying with Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Let's add one more word to this sentence.
III. Prayer should be a daily, unselfish expression of our dependency on God.

A. We begin our prayer by saying, "Your".

"Hallowed be Your name." "Your kingdom come." "Your will be done" Before we say, "Our", we first say, "Your." This is important because before we pray for daily bread we say, "Father, I want your will to be done in our world." Dr. David Jeremiah asked, "How can we pray verse 11 selfishly and materialistically when we just finished praying, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven'?" When we pray according to God's will, it puts our requests in the proper context.
We pray, "God, please meet my needs for today.  Here is what I think I need or even just want, but You know what I need better than I do. Give me what is best - Your will."
Now, occasionally I hear people say, "I never ask for anything for myself." That sounds noble and spiritual and all, but God tells us to ask for things for ourselves. When we don't ask for help, it negates God's power in our lives and it can be an indication of relying on self instead of God. When we pray for daily bread, we're acknowledging, "God, I need you and your protection every moment of this day."

B. We continue our prayer by saying, "Our".

"Give us today our daily bread." I wonder if Jesus used the plural instead of "me" and "my" to remind us that we are not the only ones on this earth. Sometimes people act like the whole world was created just to kiss their big toe, like everything revolves around them. But there are billions of other people in the world that God loves just as much as He loves you. When we pray, we need to keep others in mind.
It's March Madness. This is the only time of year that some people pray!  "Oh, God!  Help my team win the Big Dance!" And that is a valid request of God - unless you are a Duke fan! But even as we pray that prayer, we have to realize there are millions of other fans praying for their teams as well. God is going to answer that prayer with what is best for everyone concerned.
So when we pray, "Give us today our daily bread," we're praying unselfishly. We're saying, "Lord, I am not demanding that my needs be met contrary to your will, nor am I requesting my needs be met at the expense of others. Here are my requests for this day. Please filter them through your will and the needs of other people."
And when you start praying with other people in mind, you start looking for ways that you can meet the needs of others. Isn't that what our Church is doing with Haiti? Prayer should be a daily unselfish expression of our complete dependency on God.
At the beginning of this sermon we talked about the differences between a hotel and the Father's house. Here is another one. In a hotel you stay temporarily. You're a guest. In the Father's house you're a member of the family and you receive all the riches of his grace forever.
If you're ready to be born into the family of God, come forward when we sing and we'll help you every step of the way. Or if you are an immersed believer and would like to place your membership with us, come as we stand and sing.

Based on a 03/18/2001 sermon by Bob Russell of South East Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky.