The Lord's Prayer - Continued Series

I. Introduction

A. A lady who was speeding had an officer pulled her to the side of the road. She didn't have her seat belt on so as soon as she stopped, she quickly slipped it on before the officer got to her window. After talking to her about speeding, the officer said, "I see you are wearing your seat belt. Do you believe in wearing it at all times?" "Yes, I do, officer," she replied. "Well," asked the officer, "do you always do it up with it looped through your steering wheel?"

1. Turn to Matthew 6:11

B. The next aspect of Jesus’ prayer is for provision

Matthew 6:11 (KJV)

Give us this day our daily bread.

1. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

2. This is praying not for spiritual but for physical needs

3. Some people tend to think that prayer is just all spiritual

4. It’s also physical

a. Turn to James 5:14-15

b. We can pray for healing.

James 5:14-15 (KJV)

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: {15} And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

c. James says that the elders should pray for healing for those who are sick

d. You could pray for food and provision

e. What I would say is this, when you go to Our heavenly Father bring your need not your greed

f. Bring your need not your greed

g. Do you need a car?

(1) Ask Our heavenly Father for a car

(2) Just remember that you may not need a brand new Lambragini

(3) When a ten year old Ford will do the job

h. You need a job?

(1) Ask Our heavenly Father for a job

(2) You don’t need to start our as CEO

(3) It may be that starting as a stock clerk will suffice at the time

i. But too often we have what we need and we pray out of greed

(1) And that dishonors Our heavenly Father

5. What praying for physical need does, it enables us to grow in a spirit of thankfulness

a. Turn to James 1:17

b. James says every good and perfect gift comes from God

James 1:17 (NKJV)

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning

(1) When you pray for your food and most of us don’t pray for our food every day

(a) There are Christians in places like Hattie who get up in the morning and wonder whether they will have something to eat that day

(b) These are the people who had to pray for their food every day

(2) You and I may tend not to pray for our food every day cause we have so much food that even if the end of the world came we’d be chubby in six months

(a) We’d be alright

(b) In the pantry, in the fridge, you know

(c) Most of us have more than enough to eat

(d) What that means is that God has richly blessed us

c. We should pray for provision for ourselves

(1) And I love that he says, “Our daily bread.”

(2) Some of you say, “Well God’s already provided for my needs.”

(3) Then pray for our daily bread

(a) Pray for those who don’t have bread

(b) Pray for those who are hungry

(c) Pray for those who do have physical needs

(d) It’s not just me and my

i) It’s us and our

ii) That’s the continual language of the prayer

iii) This is God giving us a heart then as well for the poor and those who are in need

iv) So that we would have compassion and that we would be generous

d. In praying for provision as well it reminds us that literally all that we have comes from God

(1) Some of you would say, “No, no, no. I went to college

(a) I studied hard

(b) And then I got a good job and I worked hard

(c) And I earn my own food.”

(d) And I would say God gave you life and breath and intellect and opportunity and education and a job and a capacity

(e) And the Bible says that he makes the sun rise and he makes the water fall and he makes the plants grow

(f) So at the end of the day everything is still a gift

(g) And in praying for provision we are acknowledging that God is a giver