THE LORD’S PRAYER
Matthew 6:11
GIVE US THIS DAY
#5 of 8 in a series on
The Lord's Prayer
(Note: If you have
missed any of the previous 4 outlines on the Lord's Prayer, please e-mail me at
jpeters@alltel.net and I will gladly forward the parts you need.)
Who needs to hear about
God's miraculous provision for His Saints?
We do! We have lived in relative
wealth and prosperity for so long, we take it for granted.
But that could be coming
to an end!
The stock market
continues to tumble.
Businesses continue to
cut jobs.
The "mad cow"
and "hoof and mouth" diseases are threatening meat supplies in
Gas and oil prices
remain high.
There seems to be much
concern about recession.
And although I'm no fan
of recession or economic hard times, perhaps these financial challenges are
good for us. When times are real good people kind of forget about God.
When times are bad we
are reminded that we are absolutely dependent on God.
We have been studying
the model prayer, the Lord's Prayer. We said that the Lord's Prayer is a
skeleton for prayer, and that we need to put meat on that skeleton by
elaborating on these requests as we pray.
The first part of the
Lord's Prayer centers on God and His glory ("Hallowed be Thy name, Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done.") The next part of the Lord's Prayer
centers on the things that concern us.
"Give us this day
our daily bread."
Bread is basic food. I
think every culture has a form of bread. When we are praying to God for our
daily bread, we are asking Him to provide for our basic needs. Does this mean
that man does nothing in order to provide for himself? No! Proverbs 13:4, 2
Thessalonians 3:10, Ephesians 4:28
Why does God tell us to ask
for our daily bread, even if we seem to be able to provide for ourselves? We
are dependent on God to send the sunshine and the rain, and the proper weather
conditions. We are dependent on God to give us good enough health so that we
can work.
We are dependent upon
God to provide us the wisdom and ability to work.
We are dependent on God
to make jobs available so that we can work.
In order for us to pray
properly concerning our daily bread, I think that we need to consider three
things, all three of which are covered here in Matthew 6.
PRIORITIES
Everybody has a list of
priorities, those things which are most important to us. And everybody's list
of priorities is different. The priorities of the young ladies who sang this
morning are different than the priorities of their parents. The priorities of
our young adults are different from the priorities of senior citizens. The priorities of our grammar school children
are different from those who are middle-aged.
One of the things that
we must realize is that all two often my priorities are different from God's
priorities. As Christians, our
priorities should be God's priorities.
If we expect God to answer any of our prayers, including the prayer for
our daily bread, we must make sure that our priorities are in line with Him.
In Matthew 6 I find that
God has much to say about priorities. I've summed them up with four words
beginning with the letter "F".
* First
Matthew 6:33
When you wake up in the
morning, what do you think of first?
I mean other than having
to make a trip to the bathroom.
Your first thoughts are
probably a good indication of where your priorities are.
Jesus says to seek first
the
Now let me tell you, you
can't productively seek God's Kingdom unless you are a member of God's Kingdom.
Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3 - Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the
Once you are a member of
God's Kingdom, it means that God the Son, is your
king. After all, we can't have a kingdom
without a king, can we?
Jesus said in John
13:13, Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well;
for so I am.
As Christians, how do we
go about making sure that Jesus is king in our lives? By following Him as
disciples. Luke 9:23
* Faith
As members of God's
Kingdom, our faith should squarely rest on God.
But all too often we get worried or anxious about our needs. In Matthew 6 Jesus assures us that our loving
Heavenly Father has everything under control.
Read Matthew 6:25-32.
God is simply telling us
that we are not to worry, but we are to trust!
Let us realize that God
loves and is concerned about us. In
fact, God considers us very important. Luke 12:6-7
* FACT
Jesus shares a very
important fact concerning priorities in Matthew 6:24.
It's amazing what people will do for money.
They will become
traitors to their countries, as this recent spy scandal has shown us.
They will become
immoral.
They will lie.
They will steal.
They will sacrifice the
well being of their families.
They will work
themselves to death.
Jesus is saying in this
verse, "You can't serve God and money."
For so many, money and
the things that money can buy become a God.
Wanting money and the things that money can buy is idolatry! Colossians
3:5
Very often we are
anxious not about the basic needs that we have, but we are anxious or worried
because we want things that we don't need or put ahead of God on our priority
list.
In the context of this
passage Jesus says you can't serve God and Money at the same time.
But the truth is not
only can you not serve God and money simultaneously, but that you can't serve
God and anything else simultaneously.
The fact is we will only have one master. The question is who will that Master be?
We wonder sometimes why
God doesn't seem to be providing for us as well as we think we could. Could it
be it's because we have the wrong Master? Deuteronomy 6:4-5
* FORMULA
READ MATTHEW
If you are putting God's
Kingdom first
If you have faith that
God will provide for your needs
And if you believe the
fact that you must serve God instead of money,
The logical conclusion
is to invest what money you do have into the
Jesus is not suggesting
that we must live in poverty.
Jesus is not suggesting
that you shouldn't save for retirement.
Jesus is suggesting that
we are not to hoard or stockpile our wealth.
When we invest our
treasures in the things of God, there is eternal reward.
I think especially of
investing in missions.
PROMISES
Matthew 6:33
Here is God's great
promise.
As you put the
You will have the food,
clothes and shelter that you need.
It is as if God is
saying, you take care of my business, I'll take care or yours.
Also see Philippians
As we give cheerfully,
with the right attitudes and for the right reasons, God is able to make it so
that we have what we need can share in every good
work.
So let's believe these
promises!
PETITIONS
Give us this day our
daily bread
You probably thought
we'd never get to this verse!
But I feel that it's
only as our priorities are right and as we claim the promises of God, that we will
experience the full impact of our prayers.
Thinking of bread as our
basic needs, we bring them to our loving Heavenly Father. We ask Him for them, because we realize that
He is the true source of all blessing.
And notice we are to
come daily to ask!
It's daily bread.
It's daily needs.
Matthew 7:7-11