Please continue standing as we read what is most commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer”
Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Last week we took a look at verses 9b-10 and found
1) We pray to God the Father in heaven and Him alone
2) We come to Him in an attitude of humility, reverence and awe
3) The first priority on our prayer list is His Kingdom and that He has chosen us to be the conduits of His Kingdom coming to earth as it is in Heaven.
Today we take a look at verse 11 starting with:
Matthew 6:11
“Give us today our daily bread.”
You’ve all heard a child screaming, “Give it to me! Give it to me!”
That is NOT the attitude of this sentence. Remember Who we are praying to, that He is Holy and to be revered and our deepest desire is for His Kingdom to flourish here on earth!
So, we are not to be demanding!
Nor are we to be expecting to pray the prayer and for a loaf of bread to fall out of the sky and plop down on the table in front of us!
But at the same time it IS a reminder that all of our provision comes from the LORD.
Even when the Lord sent manna to the Israelites in the wilderness they had to go out and pick it up. He doesn’t want a do-nothing people, He wants people who are eager to do whatever He asks!
We have already established that God will be bringing His Kingdom to earth through His children acting in obedience to His will and that is exactly the same way that He will provide our daily bread for us.
How will He provide our daily bread through us?
He will give us breath and health to live another day.
He will provide work for us to do.
If we don’t have work we will obediently work at finding the work He has for us to do.
Out of our love and reverence for Him we will work to the best of our ability, working as if we were serving God Himself!
As a benefit for accomplishing the work He has provided for us to do we will receive pay.
With that pay we will purchase bread for that day.
That is how He provides our daily bread through us!
Suppose a person does as it says in Proverbs 24:33
“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest” and then they say the Lord’s prayer.
Will He provide the food for that person? Not according to the next verse …
Proverbs 24:33-34
“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.”
Or as Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3:10
“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’”
Now, when we look at the Lord’s prayer we see a thread running through it and that thread is the Lord and His kingdom.
Look at this! When you look closely at the sentence you notice that it does not say, “Give me today my daily bread!” but “Give us this day our daily bread.” As a matter of fact, from our perspective this entire prayer is written in the sense of the body of Christ, the church, and not just an individual.
How pathetic would the Kingdom of God be if we all operated as individuals apart from everyone else?
But, on the other hand, how mighty and unstoppable would be the Kingdom of God if we all came together in selfless unity under the Lordship of Our Father in Heaven!
Our nation has lost its moral compass. We see this in every avenue of life. The mantra of many people is looking toward Washington, DC and Albany and chanting, “Give me this day my daily bread and if you don’t I’ll vote you out of office and vote in someone who will.”
That is the final result of a self centered, self gratifying life.
Me, me, me!
In its simplest sense, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Can be interpreted as
1) God knows our needs, He is our Father and He will care for us
2) We don’t need to spend the day worrying about tomorrow because God will care for us tomorrow just as He did this day
3) We should pray for bread and not filet mignon.
We should pray for shelter and not a mansion.
We should pray for the spiritual health of Crossroads and not the size of Crossroads; if God wants us to be a big church it’s up to Him but if we are not spiritually healthy and seeking His kingdom, the size of the congregation is irrelevant!
Jesus did not even have a place to lay His head when He was on earth! Why should we desire more?
So, how does, “Give us this day our daily bread” tie into “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”?
OK. Now let’s assume that “Give us this day our daily bread” meant that we sat down at the table, prayed that prayer and a loaf of bread DID fall out of the sky and that it was enough for our daily food.
Let’s also assume that it meant that God would also miraculously take care of all of our needs; clothing, housing, transportation.
No need to go out of the house.
No one going shopping. No one going to work. No reason to leave the house at all.
Let me draw these pictures for you.
(If you would like the PPT for this section just email me at ArcadeNazarene@gmail.com)
(One circle in the lower right corner filled with black and one word in white, "World")
Explain that this circle represents the unsaved people of the world
People who live in the world have homes
(4 smaller circles surrounding the "World" circle with an "H" in them indicating the homes where the people of the world live)
The people in these homes do not know Jesus but they work, shop for groceries, go to school, some stay home due to addictions
(This statement is shown as small circles emanating from the "H" circles with letters like "S", "W", "M" indicating school, work, mall (shopping) etc.)
The kingdom of God is also in the world
(This is shown by a larger circle in the upper left corner of the slide. The circle and the text is in red and the background of the circle is filled with white.
We who are in the Kingdom of God live in homes
(This is represented by smaller red and white circles with "H" in them and red lines connecting them back to the "Kingdom of God" circle)
Now, if God just plopped down bread in front of us and we never left our homes we would never interact with those of the world who so desperately need to know Jesus as their Savior, so, He gives us the strength to go into the world to work or go to school or go shopping, etc. where we will meet those who need to know Jesus!
(This is represented by small red/white circles with "W", "S", "M" etc, just like the ones of the world and these red/white circles come into contact with the black circles of the world.)
Because we have Our Father, who is in Heaven as our God and because our greatest prayer and desire is to be faithful servants in the Kingdom of God, we diligently share our love for God with those with whom we come into contact and some of them get saved! Hallelujah!
When this happens they cease to be part of the world and become part of the Kingdom of God!
(Some of the small black circles change to red/white circles)
Those places, like work, school, shopping, are the places where we intersect with the people of the world who do not know Christ. We are Christ bearers taking the message of life to those we meet.
(This final slide shows that the "converted" circles are now connected to the "Kingdom of God" circle instead of the "World" circle.)
Think about the places in the world where you meet those who don’t know Jesus as I read this Scripture.
1 Peter 3:14-16 (NASB)
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
Yes, taking the Jesus, the Bread of Life to the world can be trying but then, we have the Lord watching over us as we head to the home He has provided for us and we can set aside time to be reenergized by the Word and prayer and hopefully Christian family members.
And, then at the end of a long week when the world thoughtlessly says, Thank god it’s Friday when they really have no intention of thanking God at all, we can say with all of our hearts, Thank God it’s Sunday when we can head to church with fellow believers to worship our Father who is in heaven, the One whose name we reverence and fear. The One in whose Kingdom we have been serving all week. The One who has provided our daily bread and we can be lifted up by His Holy Spirit once again to serve Him in the coming week.
If you have been faithfully loving Our Father in Heaven and serving in the kingdom of God all week this time on Sunday morning will bring great joy to your heart. May this be true for all of us as we serve Him this week and come back together next Sunday! PTL!!
The Kingdom of God - gatherings with other believers is where we get our spiritual batteries recharged each week.
The Home is where we go at the end of each day to be refreshed by our believing family and personal times of prayer and Bible reading.
So, when we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" this is how God accomplishes it and at the same time He builds the Kingdom of God through our contacts with those who are lost and dying in sin.
(Concluding remarks and invitation if the Spirit leads)
