Three contractors were on a tour of the White House. One is from Minnesota , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from Chicago. As they are walking through they notice a broken fence and ask if it would be possible to submit a bid to fix it. They are told of course.
All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. “Well,” he says, “I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”
The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, “I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”
The Chicago contractor doesn’t measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, “$2,700.”
The official, incredulous, says, “You didn’t even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?”
The Chicago contractor whispers back, “$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence.”
“Done!” replies the government official.
Money is the source of all kinds of trouble and worry. We spend a lot of time thinking about it, we spend a lot of time trying to get it. Hopefully we spend some time planning and dreaming about how we would spend it and actually enjoying the things that it buys. But as we look at the model prayer that the Lord gave us we are reminded that the most important thing that we can get with money is provision, the things that we need to survive the day. Thinking of that most important thought is should not surprise us to find the issue of provision being addressed in the Lord’s prayer. Please stand and read it with me.
Matthew 6:9-13, “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”
We’re continuing our walk through the Lord’s Prayer today. We’ve been looking at in comparison to the circulatory systems. We’ve said that the Jews of Jesus time believed that your spiritual life was like your physical life and your circulatory system. If your blood vessels are clogged your physical life suffers. In the same way there are spiritual arteries that enable our spiritual life to flow. If our spiritual arteries are clogged then our spiritual life suffers. If our spiritual life suffers, so does our life the thing that we need most is peace with God. If there is now peace with God then there is no peace.
As Jesus gives us the model prayer He is walking us through each artery so that they will be clear. So that our spiritual life can flow to and from God. The first artery was relationship. The most important thing that we have to do in life is to have a relationship with God. When we do that we find that He wants to act as our Father. We also have to have a proper understanding of that relationship because even though He wants a relationship with us, He is still God, He is still the exalted one and we are not. We’re going to see that is a comforting thing. The next artery is that of priority. Who’s kingdom comes first is it your’s or God’s. Jesus would say later in Matthew 6, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” When you put God first, He is free to give you the blessings He has always desired to give you. God didn’t make you and send His Son to die for you, and then raise Him from the dead to just stop blessing you there.
Today we are looking at the words, “Give us today our daily bread.” This section is concerned with the artery of Provision. It can be applied to money and we will do that because that is appropriate for our culture. The word that Jesus used here that’s translated as “bread” was “arton” which means that which is essential to sustain life. What do you need to get you through the day? As Jesus is praying, He is talking about provision. Just the ability to get what you need to get you through the day. When you are worried about what you are going to eat, where you are going to spend the night, it’s hard to think about anything else. Worry clogs up our ability to focus on God. So naturally Jesus addressed it in this prayer.
1. A Matter of Context
For us there are a couple of things that we need to get straight in order to understand the context. See Jesus is praying for daily bread. I think that we gloss over those words. Most Americans can not relate to the urgency of this prayer. I mean when was the last time that you really worried about where you were going to get food from for today? We live in a country that has been bless with an abundance. Even today, even in the great recession when we think that we have it so tough, we don’t. We have a life of luxury. A recent study found that the poorest American’s have more than 90% of the worlds population. In a country like ours do we really understand the urgency of this prayer?
A friend of mine asked a missionary to Haiti how American Christians differed from Haitian Christians. She answered, “American christians have everything they need. If they don’t pray or read the Bible for weeks, it makes little difference in their daily lives. They still have food to eat, a place to sleep, regular income. They don’t need to practice their faith every day.” She was right we don’t have that need and we don’t sense that urgency.
When I was a child my parents gave me an allowance of two dollars a week, sometimes. But here’s the deal. That allowance that I thought was so small was easily enough to by a loaf of bread and have money left over. These people were in need of bread every day. They got up to work to get money to eat. Or they got up to pick their food from the crops that they grew or to catch it for the day. This was an urgent prayer and a very real need.
Here’s the thing about need, when we are in need it forces us to be dependent on God. Have you ever felt desperate for something? How about that feeling that there are things that you need that are beyond your control. In those times when all we can do is pray, our prayer life gets really good. I don’t know why it is that sometimes it takes us being desperate for our prayer life to get so good because God is so good. We should want to have a relationship all the time. It doesn’t matter how bad things are God can always help and it doesn’t matter how good you think things are because God can always make them better. Our prayer life shouldn’t depend on our circumstances so as Jesus is showing us how to pray, as He is giving us a model, He says, “You know what, every time you pray, pray for what you need.” If you do it all the time then that’s not a special reason for you to pray.
It sounds good the problem is that we don’t live up to it. We tend to pray more when we are in need, when we worry. But do really understand what worry is? Worry has been defined as, “to give way to anxiety or unease; to allow one’s mind to dwell on difficulty or trouble., a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or (and here’s the key word) potential problems.” We worry about the things that have happened, as if we could somehow change them. We worry about things that might happen but in reality they usually don’t and even if they do, they aren’t as bad as we thought. We worry about things that we can’t control as if we could. Most of the things we worry about don’t even happen, and even if they do the consequences are rarely as bad as what we made them out to be. In working with youth for 20 years I can’t tell you how many times I heard the words, “my life is over!” From a teenager. Someone broke up with them, or they got a bad grade, or they didn’t make the team, and life was over. Except it never was, life was just beginning.
Here’s the thing for Christians to understand about worry. When we worry we are telling ourselves that God is not able. Think about it, hasn’t God already promised to provide for your needs. In the first sermon of this series we talked about the names of God. One of those names, in fact the first one we talked about and perhaps the best knows, is Jehovah Jireh, which means, “the God who provides.” If providing for His people is such a part of Him that it literally identifies Him and has through the millennia, why do we think that for some reason He is going to stop now? Especially here in America where we have so much compared to those who have so little. God has given us so much and yet we act as if we doubt if He will continue to provide. Or, more likely, we act as if we think He can’t. It doesn’t matter how many times we talk about the fact that He is able, if we live and think that it is up to us, then we are living as if we have to do it because He can’t do it. You see He said He would, He told us to ask, but if we live, plan and think like we have to do it by ourselves then we are acting as if He can not, and we should know better. So that is the context of this request for us. We need to understand that this is an urgent prayer because when we are in need we are forced to turn to the only one who can help us no matter what the circumstance, God. When we do that we have peace, but when we don’t we have worry. But we worry because we tell ourselves that God is not able to meet our needs, when He promised that He would.
1. God’s Economy
That is the context, but next we have to understand God’s economy. See it is different from the world. It doesn’t matter if your theory of economics was based in Adam Smith or John Keyes, God’s economy is different, it was first, and it is the only one that really works and will endure. See all of the other schools of economics were thought of by people and depend on the actions of people. The problem is that people will always eventually fail, we will always make mistakes. That makes us the the problem. But God’s economy is based on what He does, God is not the problem He is the solution.
Sometimes that’s a hard concept for us to get when we are struggling. We know that we are supposed to pray, and we do it, but then we go on living and planning as if we have to do it all. Worse sometimes we blame God for the mess we are in, or we act as if it is some kind of divine judgment. It may be, but usually it’s not, usually it’s just the world that we are in.
Even when the trial that you are going through is from God, do you realize that He is still the answer? When you turn to Him, He will provide. In Genesis 22:1-14, we read about God sending a test to Abraham. This was a test that most people would think would be nearly impossible. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the only child that Abraham and His with Sarah had. To do this God had Abraham set out on a journey, He told Abraham to travel until he reached the spot that God wanted him to use. So the next day Abraham God up, took to servants, and his only son. He chopped wood for the fire and they set out on a journey. Three days they traveled. I don’t know what was going on in Abraham’s mind exactly, but He went. We do know that even as he went on the journey, to answer this seemingly horrible request, he still had faith that God would provide.
We know that because on the third day, when they were almost to their destination. Abraham left the servants behind. He took just the fire wood, a knife and Isaac and continued to where the journey was to end. Yep, at this point Isaac thought something was a little off so we read starting in verse 7, “Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them went on together.” I can’t imagine going through a trial like this. But there it was and even in the midst of it, how did Abraham endure, because He was trusting in the Lord to provide. Because he knew who God was, Abraham knew that he could trust him.
So he takes his son. He builds and altar. He arranges the wood on. Then he takes his only son, he binds him and lays him on the wood. He reaches out his hand to grab the knife, and at that moment, at the last moment, an angel calls. He says, “Abraham! Abraham!” Exclamation points, this was an urgent call. “Here I am” Abraham replies. And the angels says, “Do not lay a hand on the boy, do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” And Abraham looked up and there was a ram caught by it’s thorns in a thicket. Abraham sacrificed the ram instead of his son.
Think of that scenario. Abraham could have blamed God for the trial he faced. After all in this case God literally sent it. God was the one who made the request. But he didn’t blame God, he trusted God. Abraham could have refused God’s request. But instead he went on a three day journey saying, “God will provide,” and God did. When have trials and difficulties in our lives. Sometimes we think God doesn’t hear. Or maybe we think that He is the problem, that God has sent a trial or punishment. But no matter what the situation is, even if it is a trial from God. God is not the problem, He is the solution. Because when we turn to God, when we put our trust and faith in Him, He can and will provide, even if it is at the last minute. God sent the trial to Abraham, Abraham trusted God, and God didn’t just provide the ram, through Isaac God fulfilled His promise and established a nation out of Abraham’s line. But more then that I’m sure you’ve seen the picture. Because God did send His only Son, and He did allow His only Son to be sacrificed so that the rest of us could live. God provided the ram to Abraham, He provided His Son for us. Do you really think that God can not or will not provide what you need to live. He is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, He already has provided for our greatest need and He will provide for the rest as well. It is who He is.
But here is a great truth about God. He doesn’t just want to give you what you need to survive, God wants to provide abundance. God didn’t just provide the Ram, He blessed the rest of the line of Abraham. How do we access those blessings? Well that really simple, we just don’t like to think about it sometimes. Giving starts the flow of blessings in the natural and spiritual world. It is the one area where we are told that we can test God. Malachi 3:10, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘And see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’” We talked about the idea of precepts, those times when God promises a blessing if we will do something. When does He promise to bless us financially? When we tithe. He says, “If you give to me a little bit. I’ll give you so much you won’t have room for it.”
I know what some of you are thinking. “But pastor I would give, but you don’t know my situation. I can’t afford to give.” “You don’t understand, I have all the debt on my credit card, I’ve got a mortgage, I’ve got serious bills to pay. I would but I can’t afford to give.” Listen to me, you can’t afford not to. Unless your resources are greater then God’s you simply can’t afford not to give to him, because He said, “If you give to me, I’ll give even more to you. Go ahead, test me.”
It’s a test He’s always going to pass because He owns it all, you don’t own anything. At best we’re just renting it. See everything we have wears out, or will pass to someone else. Because our time on earth is short. You want to know how temporary your stay is. Those of you who have a house do this. Go home to the house you say is yours. Go outside and take off your shoes and just walk around your yard in your bare feet. As you do, just think about how long that land has been there and think about how long that land will be there after you’re gone. It’s been there, it will be there, and God will still control who has it. He owns everything. In man’s economy the more you get the more you think you can get. But in God’s economy the more you give the more you get. But when all the economies of the world collapse, God will still be in control.
But giving is about more then just money. There’s a stewardship of our things and theres a stewardship of our life. We need to remember the concepts of rewards and responsibility. Listen to the words of Galatians 6 starting in verse 7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing Good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Let me ask you this question, what is the best thing that we can do as Christians? Is it giving of our money? No, that is a good and God will bless us for it. The greatest good that we can do is the top priority that God gives us. That is to make disciples.
Do we just know this or do we live it? See the problem is that we live in a y’all come generation. We act as if all we have to do is put a sign in the front of the church, or pass out fliers, and people will come to the church and come to know Jesus.
The problem is that we’re trying to reap a harvest when as you sow you shall reap we’re not sowing anything. We don’t go out and share Jesus. We’re afraid to tell people how good He is. If we’re not planting seeds, then why do we think that they should come? Yes Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, but once they had spent time with Him, once they had come to believe in Him. He didn’t say, “Y’all come” He said, “Y’all go.” We’re supposed to going out and telling people about Jesus. We’re supposed to be making disciples. True disciples make disciples. If we want the blessings of God, we have to live for Him. We have to give, and listen giving isn’t just about money, just like life isn’t just about money. Giving is with your life and when you give to God then you open up the artery to receive the blessings that He wants to give you.
That is the artery of provision. But there is a deeper meaning here. Because Jesus was talking about what is necessary to sustain life. Let me ask you this question, what is the greatest need in your life? It’s God. That’s our verse we keep going back to, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things, everything, even bread, will be added unto you. The first thing you need isn’t bread, it is the one who can give you not only bread but everything.
Jesus understood this, that’s why He said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and He who believes in me will never go thirsty.” He is the one that we need. We need God, we find Him by praying, we find Him by spending time in His word. That is why Jesus quoted Deuteronomy in Matthew 4:4 saying, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We need Jesus in our lives and so does every person we meet, that is why it is so important that we go and sow those seeds that tell them about Jesus. So that we can not only see a harvest, but so that they can be blessed. Look at James 1:17. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” God wants to bless you and God wants to bless the people around you. But before you can have blessings you have to have Jesus!
Do you know Him today? Two other things we need to realize about bread, first we need the bread of life everyday. Notice Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We need to spend time with God everyday. Everyday we need to commit to live for Him. He is more important then simply eating, because the life that He gives lasts forever. Most of us wouldn’t think about going through a day without eating, we should go through a day without spending time with God either.
Second thing, the bread of life can not be stored. Jesus said to pray for our daily bread. Bread doesn’t store for long. When the Children of Israel were in the wilderness and God sent bread they couldn’t store it over night. There’s too many people in America who lived for Christ at one point in their life, but wandered away and somehow think that what they did once was good enough. It’s not! Not if you want to have a healthy spiritual life, you need to be living for God, giving to God and spending time with God everyday. If you haven’t made a commitment to live for Him, He is the one you need. Do it today. If you’ve wandered away, will you commit to come back and prioritizing your relationship with Him?
