Give Us Our Daily Bread (Part 1)
Luke 11:1-3
Intro. – There are many passages in the New Testament that relate to the subject of prayer. However there are three that I want to draw your attention to if I may:
1. Luke 18:1-8 records the parable of The Importunate Widow who found a way to handle reluctant judges and discovered the key to release the power she needed.
Luke gathers up the whole point of that parable in his introductory statement when he said Jesus gave this that men might learn they must either pray or faint – one or the other.
Prayer is an absolute imperative in the Christian experience for it is the only channel man has to the power of God. James reflects this when in his blunt way he says "You have not because you ask not," {James 4:2b RSV}. If we do not ask we will never receive, so the first and most important lesson is that prayer is essential; prayer is a necessity.
2. Luke 18:10-14 records The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican -- "Two men went up into the temple to pray." Here we learned something of the nature of prayer. Prayer is not a parade of our accomplishments before God with what we are, nor is it an attempt to bring pressure upon him to constrain him to move in order to fulfill his debt to us because of what we have done for him. But, as we saw in the prayer of the publican, prayer is ever and only the cry of a helpless child in need to a wholly adequate, willing, and eager father. Prayer is an awareness of need in our own life or in the life of someone else for whom we are praying.
3. Luke 11 records The Model Prayer – How to Pray. This is the Lord’s own practice in this matter of prayer and the attitude of continual expectation that marked his prayer life, and extended deliberate periods of prayer. So impressive was this that his disciples, watching him pray, saw that here lay the secret of his amazing power and wisdom. At the close of the prayer, one of them said to him "Lord, teach us to pray."
This prayer is intended to become a guide to prayer. Each of these areas is capable of infinite expansion as to detail, but, in principle, this is a completely adequate prayer. Nothing more needs to be said if we have genuinely prayed as our Lord teaches us. There is no essential area of life neglected. God’s interest and love for man touches the whole of our lives in every single area. That is why Paul says "Pray about everything. And do not forget," he adds, "to thank him for the answers," {1 Thessalonians 5:18}.
We have considered The Address – Our Father which art in heaven: Focuses on the relationship God has with his children.
Next we considered The Name of the Person to Whom we are Praying – Hallowed be thy name: We approach God’s person with the recognition that God is holy – that is, he is set apart and unique. There is none like him, and no one has the authority he possesses.
Then we considered The Plan of God – Thy kingdom come: God has a plan for our life and desires to rule our life with Kingdom principles so that we can be a recipient of his blessings in our life.
Then we considered The Desire of God – Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth: God’s nature is to bless us when we pray we are to expect something to change.
Then we considered The Source of God’s Blessings – Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth: The basis for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven is contained in the promises of God – The promises of God are heavens answers to earth’s problems.
I want to consider tonight the fact that because we have the promises of God as the source and basis of God’s blessings in our life then we should not be bashful in asking for our daily needs to be met since it is God nature to bless us.
Illustration – Paul Harvey told about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered she had certain instructions for the little tike: "Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask."
She put him in the child’s seat and off they went up and down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. Seeing the chocolate chip cookies he said, "Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?" She said, "I told you not even to ask. You’re not going to get any at all."
They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items she had to back track and they ended up in the cookie aisle again. "Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?" She said, "I told you that you can ’t have any. Now sit down and be quiet."
Finally, they arrived at the checkout. The little boy sensed that the end was in sight, that this might be his last chance. He stood up on the seat and shouted in his loudest voice, "In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?" Everyone in the checkout lanes laughed and applauded.
Do you think the little boy got his cookies? You bet! The other shoppers moved by his daring pooled their resources. The little boy and his mother left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.
This part of the prayer teaches us several important things: First of all it points out:
I. The Need For You To Begin To Claim The Promises Of God For Your Daily Needs
Secondly it reveals that:
II. God Is Concerned About Our Daily Needs
A. It reminds us that God is the source of all things that we need. There is much teaching in this simple request:
1. It teaches us to overcome selfishness and show concern for others.
2. It eliminates worry and anxiety about tomorrow and the distant future.
3. It also teaches and helps us to trust God day by day. "The just shall live by faith...." day by day.
4. It teaches us that every believer has a portion of daily bread which is his.
5. It teaches us to ask for the necessities, not the desserts of this world.
6. It teaches us to confess our inadequacy and dependency upon God even for the basics of life.
7. It teaches us that we should to come to God daily in prayer and trust Him to meet our needs.
B. It teaches us that God cares for man and his welfare.
1. He cares for man’s physical well-being (Matthew 6:11; Matthew 6:25-34).
a. "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:31-33).
2. He cares for man’s mental and emotional well-being.
a. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7).
b. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4:8).
c. "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).
3. He cares for man’s spiritual well-being.
a. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor. 3:16-17).
b. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s" (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
C. It reminds us that we should take time to give thanks for his blessings.
a. I know there are many who are ready to argue that Jesus said elsewhere, "Your Father knows that you have need of these things even before you pray" {Matthew 6:8}, so it is not in order to inform God of our needs.
b. And there are others who say it really makes little difference, whether they pray about physical things or not. They get the necessities of life regardless.
c. Furthermore, some say there are many people who never bother to pray at all and who are eating steak and ice cream while we Christians are trying to get along on hamburgers and jello. What is the point, then, of praying?
4. The answer to that question really touches the central value of prayer.
a. Obviously, prayer is not something by which we inform God of our needs or influence him. But prayer is designed to influence us. It is we who are in need of this kind of prayer, not God. Of course, he knows what we have need of, for he knows everything about us. But prayer is something we need. God does not need to be told, but we need to tell him, that is the point.
b. If you want to see why, ask yourself the question, "What happens to me when I neglect this area of prayer?" If you are honest and look at your life over an extended period of time, you will see that, inevitably, a slow and subtle change occurs in the heart of a Christian who does not pray about material things, who does not take time to thank God for his daily supply of food, shelter and raiment -- the necessities and the luxuries of life.
c. What happens is that we take these things for granted, and gradually we succumb to the quite foolish delusion that we actually can provide these necessities ourselves.
d. We become possessed with the incredible vanity that our wisdom and our abilities have really made these things possible, that we can supply these things quite apart from God.
e. And when we begin to think that way, we find pride swells within us and a kind of blindness settles upon us, a blindness which darkens our spiritual insight, and we become moody, restless and depressed.
f. Illustration – The book of Daniel vividly describes this type of thinking in the story of Nebuchadnezzar, that proud monarch of Babylon, the greatest king of the greatest nation of his age. He walked out in the evening hours upon the battlements of his palace in the city of Babylon, looked out over the city, and said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have made? My wisdom has built this, my ability has brought it to pass," {Daniel 4:30}. He reveled in what he thought were his powers, inherent in himself, by which all this came to pass. As a result of that defiant assumption of basic powers of supply in his life, God brought upon him his judgment. He became a beast, and was turned out to grass, to eat in the fields like an animal, which is simply God’s dramatic way of saying that ingratitude causes men to become animal-like, to become beasts, with all the ferocity and self-centeredness of a beast growling over his food.
h. It is we who need to give thanks to God, it is we who must always be reminding ourselves that everything we have comes from his hand, and that any moment he can turn it off if for any reason he may choose, that it is only his grace and his goodness that keep it flowing unhindered to us.
