Teach Us to Pray | Daily Bread | Matthew 6:11 | Coleton Segars

All right, oh good morning, good morning.

Our teaching text for today is Matthew 6, 9 through 11.

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 this day our daily bread.

This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning.

It's been a second since I've preached here in a couple weeks, so I'm grateful to be here.

If you're a guest, I have no idea.

I didn't get to this room, it is so wide that it's hard to see like all the different people.

If you're on this side, you really spend all of your time over here and on this side.

So anyway, it's grateful you are here.

And um did not find her there.

But there was a there was a guy that was uh in our Sunday school class, and he uh one he had a date coming up that week, and so he asked for prayer.

And again, brand new Christian, the whole class was like, Yes, we'll pray for your date.

And uh I saw him uh three three days later, and he had had the date, and I was like, hey man, how how was the date?

And he was like, terrible, it was awful.

And he was like, you know why it was bad?

Because you guys stopped praying for me.

And I was like, I I have I have other reasons that maybe it didn't go so well.

This is one of them.

Um But I was so young, like as a Christian, like I didn't know.

I was like, uh I knew enough to go, this probably isn't right.

Your date probably went poorly because you're super abrasive and kind of difficult.

And it's not likely that my prayers, like, even if I did pray, God can't even, he can do anything, but maybe not this.

Um but like I knew enough to go, this is not right.

But I was so confused and disillusioned by what he said about prayer that I was like, is it really?

I was like, did I did I single-handedly like make you not get married with this person that on your first day?

Like, I is that really what it was?

But it was just an odd interaction that I had at the very beginning about prayer as a new Christian, trying to under even understand what prayer was.

And so I say that because I do think there is a lot of confusion and there can be a lot of confusion around what prayer is.

And the reason we're doing this Teach Us to Pray series is because the disciples also looked to Jesus and they were like, Hey, what you do in prayer is not what we do in prayer, and so would you please teach us to pray?

And Jesus doesn't go, No, don't worry about it, just figure it out on your own.

Um, he doesn't do that.

What he says is like, yes, I will teach you how to pray.

And he gives us this prayer teaching us to pray.

And so the whole point of the series is in order to hopefully shed some light where there is confusion or if there is this space in our background, we've been disillusioned with what prayer actually is.

It's in hopes that it kind of opens up a new world for you to go, okay, I think I understand more of what prayer is, and I want to press into it more because I actually have some understanding around it.

And so that's why we're doing this series focused on prayer.

And so, what I want to do today is really look at the last petition that Randy read, give us today our daily bread.

And I want to look at four questions.

Uh, one is what is Jesus actually telling us to pray for?

And then, equally as important, what is Jesus not telling us to pray for?

What does this petition teach us about prayer and what prayer actually is, and then how can we actually practice praying in this way?

Not just using the words, although that's fine, but to actually pray in line with the theme that Jesus is actually getting at.

And so we're gonna take these questions one by one.

What is Jesus telling us to pray for?

The first is praying for daily bread is very simply praying for every single daily need that you have, regardless of how small it is, trivial it is, menial it is, every single daily need that we have.

That's what praying for daily bread actually is.

And so theologian Frederick Bruner says this, he says, about Martin Luther.

He says, Martin Luther taught that when we pray for bread, we are praying at the same time for everything necessary for the preservation of this life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, spouse, children, good government, and peace.

And that God may preserve us from all sorts of calamities, sickness, pestilence, hard times, war, revolution, and the like.

And so when we pray for daily bread, we're literally praying for and opening up a prayer for every single daily need that we have, the preservation of everything, single thing that we need in life, regardless of how small it is.

And I think the reason that it's so important for us to remember, or at least to have this particular petition inside a prayer that Jesus is seeking to teach us, it's important because there are certain prayers and needs that we have that we can kind of be embarrassed about, wanting, and we feel like I don't even know if I can actually pray for that thing.

With everything that's going on in the world, does God actually care about this real small, trivial, menial thing in my life?

Is that something?

But Jesus actually offers this to us to remind us like he actually really does care about the trivial things in our lives.

Uh Richard Foster in his book on prayer uh says this.

He says, Jesus in his ministry, Jesus occupied himself with the trivial matters of humankind.

He provided wine for those who were celebrating, food for those who were hungry, and rest for the weary.

So it's fully in order that he invites us to pray for daily bread.

In doing so, Jesus has transfigured the trivial matters of everyday life.

If the only thing we were allowed to pray about were the weightier matters, the important things, and the profound issues, we would feel terribly alone.

But the opposite is true.

God welcomes us with our thousands of trivial matters, for they're each important to him.

If the only thing that I allowed Teddy to talk to me about and ask me for were like profound, substantial father, give me your wisdom.

It'd be a short conversation.

And he's just not gonna ask that question.

That's not what he asked me to go outside and throw the frisbee.

Like, like, you know, like the small things.

And do you want to hear what new Pokemon card I have?

And the answer is no, but I say yes.

Because I love him.

Um, but there's, you know, if if that's the only thing, then we would feel like, what am I actually able to talk about?

And I don't want to press into this because honestly, what is defined as profound is is my need for this food to taste a certain way, profound?

And if not, do I can I not bring that up to you?

And so he transfigures the trivial matters of everyday life and in teaching us to pray for daily bread.

Jesus is being kind to us.

And he's opening up the door for prayer so we can pray for parking spots at the grocery store.

He's making space for us to pray for small things like that, to pray for good weather at your outdoor event, even when it's like, you know, the the natural weather patterns are important for crops and all the rest of it.

But yes, I will care about your outside event that's happening.

Like I think he he occupies himself with the trivial matters of our lives.

He cares about us praying to not get stuck by the train or traffic when you're running late, to find the remote or the TV or your keys.

Uh, not the TV, but remote for the TV and your keys when they get in this place.

He he's okay with us praying like me and my son did on the way to Chick-fil-A, and it was 1024, and we wanted to make it there before breakfast ended at 10.30, and there are Nazis about it.

And I was like, God, please, just no traffic so that we can get there and get the Chick-fil-A, the goodness of the Christian chicken.

And we made it there and got and got the thing.

He opens the door for us to pray if you're a student for quizzes to get canceled because you forgot to study or stayed up way too late the night before.

Or as my son prays, for his teacher to give him extra recess.

He prays, he's just sitting there in class, like he's like, Lord, do it again, God.

You split the C's, give me more recess time.

Like I like Jesus is just he's again, it's it's it's almost silly.

And I I one of the other uh quotes, I didn't use it in here, but if if it had if if it hadn't been in here, if we had added that, give us this day our daily bread, you would almost see it as selfish, like, hey man, other people need bread, you're fine.

But Jesus comes from his lips teaching us how to pray, and he's like, no, no, no, seriously, the small stuff, it's okay to pray for those small things.

And so the minor trivial things that are important to us, God, as a loving father makes those things important to him.

The way that a good parent makes important things, drawings that they drew, your kids draw, and then hand it to you and be like, this is the most important thing in my life.

You take that on as a way of loving them and caring about that thing because you love them and God is doing the exact same thing.

He wants to be more deeply involved, God does, he wants to be more deeply involved in your life than every other person in your life.

And the people that you love most and the people that are closest to you, those are the people that know the trivial matters in your life.

The closest people to you.

The reason they know about them is because they you they bumped into them.

Or you talked about them randomly when you got bored and had nothing else to talk about.

Your boss and very important people in your life, you save conversations for them that are maybe a little bit bigger because you feel like talking about babysitters to your boss.

Maybe they don't care that much about that.

But the struggle of finding a babysitter, you might talk about that with your closest friend, you might talk about that with your spouse or somebody or a parent.

You talk about those smaller things to people you're closest to, and God is like, that's the space.

I want that space in your life.

I want to be the closest person to you.

You talk about anything and everything with me, that I would know you and you would know me closer than any other relationship that you have.

And so Jesus is inviting us and teaching us when you pray, you're praying in this very unique, specific, communal and relational way, praying for every single daily need you have, regardless of how small it is.

Now, that's what he's telling us to pray for.

What he's telling us not to pray for is what D.A.

Carson says, you're praying for your needs, not your greeds.

And I think we have a quote there from his commentary.

The prayer, this prayer, is for our needs, not our greeds.

Brunner again says this.

We are not told to pray for daily cake.

We may be grateful, of course, when God gives us cake, but we may not, we may only legitimately pray for bread.

That is, for our necessities.

We do not pray here for riches, affluent living, or costly clothes, but for bread only.

We don't pray for cake, we pray for bread only.

I thought that was a clever way of talking about that.

And this is vital for us because what can happen is many times people pray and then nothing happens.

So they're praying for their needs to get met and nothing happens.

And what they believe what they believe is God is not meeting my needs.

But the reality is what they're praying for is their greed or their greeds and not their needs.

So they're praying for something beyond what they actually need.

God is giving them and committed to giving you what you need, but he's not gonna answer a prayer for your greed and help you to sin.

He's not gonna do that.

And so I'm not an illustration guy, bring things up on the stage.

That's not who I am, but I was trying to figure out how to display this, and this is what I came up with.

So humor me, okay?

So, for instance, God is committed to meeting our needs, all right?

Everybody see this?

Are we okay?

He's committed to meeting our needs.

So this is he is going to do this, and we'll talk about this a little bit later.

But he is committed to meeting our needs.

He will absolutely do that thing.

The issue is when we choose to live with greed and discontentment, and it's we're we want to live beyond our needs and beyond our means and above the money that we make and the stuff that we actually are given.

We want to live beyond that.

What happens is our needs become a little greater.

In reality, they become a little greater.

And so what happens is God is still very committed.

He's like, I am going to meet your needs.

And so we're praying, God, meet our needs, meet our needs.

And he is absolutely doing that thing.

He is going to meet our needs, and he's gonna fill them all the way up and make sure I will not let one need fall to the ground.

The issue is because we've chosen to live beyond our means, he's fulfilling our needs, but it doesn't feel like he's done much.

There's still so much.

Like I still have so much debt, and I've I have so many other things.

And so he's actually met every single need that he sees in our lives.

These are the needs that you actually have.

But you've chosen to live unwisely, and now your life has this many needs, not because of natural circumstances, but because of greedy, sinful circumstances.

And he will not meet our greed.

He will forgive our greed and he will meet our need, but he's not gonna meet it.

He's not gonna enable us with a way, he's not gonna give us all this stuff and enable us to continue to just expand the bucket of our lives and enable us to sin more and more and more.

And the real challenge is like God can actually overflow.

Like it's like, I am overflow, my cup is overflowing literally, and he is blessing you so much.

But again, because you're living in such a way, like even this, you're going, but God, where's the rest?

Like, I still need more.

I need more of this stuff.

And he's like, I never committed to meeting your greed.

I will forgive your greed, but I will meet your needs.

And if we live beyond this way, then we begin asking God to do something.

And really, what we're asking him for is, Lord, please help me to sin.

Please enable me to sin.

And he's like, I love you too much.

I'm not saying no out of hate of you or punishment.

I'm saying no out of love for you.

I am not going to give you what you greedily want in order to enable you to sin.

I'm not going to do that.

I want to sanctify you and purify you of your sin.

And so I will absolutely meet your needs, but I'm not going to meet your greeds.

And so it's challenging for us because we can we can pray for those things and wonder what's happening.

And it's like, man, we actually have to look at like, are we the cause of some of the things that are lacking in our lives?

Not because he is unfaithful to his promise to meet our needs, but because we've been unfaithful to actually live according to what he calls us to live by.

And so Jesus, when he's telling us to do this, he is teaching us to pray for our needs, even the trivial ones, no matter how small they are, but he is not teaching us to pray for our greed.

God may, in his kindness, bail us out of our greed, where our greed has taken us, every now and then he may absolutely bail us out and overflow that cup because he's generous and he's kind and he is overabundantly gonna give us what we ask or imagine.

He may do that from time to time, but he will not continue to allow us to press into greed and give us that thing.

He's not going to assist in our sinful living.

He's just not gonna do that.

But he will consistently meet our needs.

And so Jesus is teaching us to pray for our needs, no matter how trivial they might be, but he is not teaching us to pray and seek our greeds from him.

Those are very, very different things.

And so, six things.

I realize this this sermon has like 20 points, but most of them are short.

I think.

What time is it?

We're okay.

Six things that should teach us about prayer, this petition.

Six things that like it just should help us understand prayer a little bit more.

Okay.

One, prayer is a practice.

Jesus is teaching us this.

Prayer is a practice that God gives you to get things for yourself.

It is a practice that He is giving you and gifting to us.

Use this practice to get stuff for yourself.

Make sure you do this.

And you don't need to miss this about prayer.

Jesus doesn't see prayer only as a way to hallow God's name.

He doesn't see prayer only as a way to ask for what God wants.

God, what do you want?

Your will to be done, your kingdom to come.

We are supposed to pray that thing, but not just that.

Prayer isn't just a way of communing with God, it's not just a practice that forms us into a more spiritually disciplined person.

Prayer, according to Jesus, because we're allowed to pray for daily bread, it is, he is saying, prayer is a way to get stuff for yourself.

Prayer is a gift to you to where you can receive things for yourself.

Andrew Murray in his book on prayer says this.

He says, There is some, and I've run into these people at seminary and pastors and all these different things, and um, anyways, but he talks about people that I've definitely had conversations about.

There is some, this idea that to ask and expect answer in prayer is not the highest form of prayer.

They say fellowship with God, apart from any asking, is more important.

Others, whose prayers are often unanswered, think of prayer as more of a spiritual exercise where we derive spiritual benefits rather than actual gifts.

While admitting a measure of truth, these views need to be kept in their true place because our Lord continually spoke of prayer as a means of obtaining what we desire.

And Jesus seeks in every possible way to awaken in us the confident expectation of an answer.

I love that.

I mean, this guy's writing from long, long, 100 years ago, long time ago.

And he's still saying, like, there was this idea that like prayer is just for your formation.

It's just going to form you.

It's not really about getting something.

And he is going, that is not what Jesus is saying here.

Prayer is used, and Jesus is giving it to us and saying, prayer is a way to get stuff that you need.

It's not selfish to ask for things.

Jesus has made it obedient to ask for things.

If you do not ask for things for yourself, you're being disobedient and sinful.

You're not actually practicing the way he's teaching you to pray.

And so to feel like I don't know that I can ask these things, I don't know that I can do that.

Why?

He is telling you you can.

And now you're obedient when you ask for things.

It's not selfish, it's obedience.

And so that's the first.

Prayer is a gift to us to get things that we actually need.

It's used for that.

Second, asking for things in prayer is necessary to get your needs met.

Asking in prayer is necessary.

But he already knows what I need.

He is saying, say these words, give us.

Asking is necessary.

He is teaching us that we need to ask.

And the reason is because many times, as Tozer says, He waits to be wanted.

He waits to be asked.

James says this.

He says, You do not have because you do not ask God.

You do not have because you do not ask God.

And then, according to verse 3, and then you do when you do ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives.

You want to fulfill your greed, that you may spend it on your pleasures and all those different things.

But you do not have because you do not ask.

And he's saying asking is necessary, and Jesus is saying that too.

We need to ask.

And Jesus is saying, make sure when you're praying, teaching us to pray, make sure you ask.

God wants us to ask because asking is relational.

The people that we're in relationship with, we ask those people for something.

We ask them for big things, small things.

It's just a relational interaction that we have with the people that we're in relationship with.

That's naturally what we do.

And he wants to be in a literal relationship with us.

He's going to ask us for things and he wants us to ask him for things.

He wants us to ask because it's relational.

Asking is a practice.

Asking people for things is a practice in faith.

When I ask Rainey for something or I ask people for something, I'm asking them to give something or do something for me.

It is a step of faith to go, I'm asking you and then hoping that you will actually do that thing.

I'm placing faith in you to do the thing that I can't do for myself or to give me something I don't currently have.

And God wants us to practice faith in him.

And so asking him is a way of practicing faith in God.

And then asking, thirdly, is like, it's just a way of opening the door to your, don't go to that yet.

Asking is just a way of opening the door to your in your life to be a thing that's like, I am asking you to do something.

You have the freedom and ability to move into my life, to add something into my life, to say something into my life, to do something in my life, to do something for me.

I am giving you permission by asking your help or asking your advice.

I am giving you permission to say something or do something in my life that maybe you didn't have permission for otherwise.

And so asking somebody for something gives them permission, and God many times waits to be asked.

Myron Augsburg, in his commentary, said, Should we ask in prayer, if God knows our needs, why pray?

And he says, It is because he waits to move until we recognize him in his will.

Prayer moves the hand of God by giving God the moral freedom to do in our lives what he's been wanting to do.

God, in his sovereign practice, does not impose his will upon us.

He's not going to force his will upon us.

Consequently, he can function in our lives in accordance with the degree of freedom that we surrender to him.

And so asking him for things is him waiting.

Like, I he I love the idea, like gives God the freedom to do what he actually wants to do.

He wants to step in, he wants to do those things, but asking is something he waits for.

He waits for permission, he waits for the access.

He is not going to force his way because true love doesn't force itself on anything.

It waits to be requested, it waits to be asked, it waits for permission.

And so he's doing the exact same thing.

And so Jesus is saying, you do need to ask.

Asking is necessary.

Prayer is a gift that we get to get things that we need, but also ask.

And if you don't have, it might be because you didn't ask.

And so prayer is something that's necessary.

Asking is something that's necessary.

The third thing, you can go to that slide now.

The third thing that Jesus is trying to teach us through this petition is that God is committed to giving us what we need.

He is actually committed to giving us what we need.

And so in teaching us to pray to God to give us what we need, Jesus is saying, be confident.

He has promised to meet your needs.

He will meet your needs.

He won't meet your greeds, but he will meet your needs.

The needs that you have, he will do those things.

And this is why Jesus says the words give us.

He doesn't say, may we have some daily bread?

He doesn't say, when you pray, if you say this to God, do you mind if I get some daily bread?

Hey, if it's not too much trouble, could you just toss a loaf my way?

Like that's not how he tells us to pray.

He says, give us.

Give us.

And honestly, it can sound disrespectful.

Like if I if your kid walks up to you or somebody walks up to you, like, give me.

The keys.

Give me food or something.

Like it can feel a little like, hey, why don't we ask?

Why don't we say please?

Why don't we say something like that?

But Jesus is saying, give us, give us this thing.

And he's not teaching us to be disrespectful.

I think he's teaching us to be bold.

I think he's trying to teach you to be confident when you approach God as your father.

And it's not because we deserve it.

Be confident because you deserve it.

It's not that.

He's like, you can say and be bold and just say, give me my daily bread.

Give us our daily bread.

You can be that bold and you can be that confident because that's who he has chosen to be.

He has chosen to be a father to you.

That makes you his kids.

And so you get to ask for these things.

You get to boldly go before him.

He has promised to actually fulfill these things in your life.

He's promised to be faithful.

And so you don't have to hem and hedge and go, hey, honestly, I haven't been great this week, but if you could, just throw me a bone here.

He's not saying that.

He's like, be bold, not because of who you are necessarily, but because of who he is and what he has promised.

Jesus is teaching us to like be bold because of who he is.

Be bold because of what he has promised.

Take him up on his promise.

You can hold him to it.

You're actually leaning on his faithfulness.

You're not taking advantage of him or being disrespectful.

You're leaning on.

I believe you are who you say you are.

I believe you will do what you said you will do.

And so because I've seen you do it before and you've promised to do it in the future and you've promised to do it in my present, I am leaning on that confidently and boldly.

Give me today my daily bread.

It's not disrespectful.

He is committed to giving us what we need.

And so we can pray those things that way.

Pete Gregg in his book, How to Pray, says this.

He says, our primary privilege as God's children is to ask audaciously and repeatedly for everything we need, expecting him to answer, naturally or supernaturally, by whatever means he sees fit.

Our primary privilege as his kids is that we get to ask audaciously.

What an amazing word.

We get you to roll in and just ask for these things.

And then expect an answer from him.

Like, however you want to do this, I'm just expecting you to treat me as a son.

I'm expecting you to treat me as a daughter.

And I know that you have promised to be a father to me.

I know that you've promised to actually want to meet my needs.

And so I'm asking for my needs, not my greeds.

I'm asking for the thing that you promised to give.

And so give me that thing you promised me to give.

And so we get to pray boldly.

Give us what you promised.

It is not disrespectful, it's trusting.

That's number three.

Are we doing okay?

We go?

We got three more.

All right.

Number four, you can ask.

Jesus is teaching us you can ask as vaguely or as specifically as you want.

Vaguely or specifically as you want.

Sometimes we get in this rut of like, did I pray for the right thing?

Did I say it exactly right?

Somebody said to me the other day, you know, I prayed that it would not rain or something like that, but what I didn't pray for is that it wouldn't storm.

I'm like, bro, he gets it.

Like, you don't have to, he's not like up there going, well, he didn't say storm, so lightning's coming.

Like he's not doing that.

That's not who he is.

You just get to ask vaguely and sp or as specifically as you want.

That's the gift of a God who already knows your needs.

We still need to ask, but we can also go like, I'm asking for daily bread.

That's the vaguest thing you've ever heard.

I'm just, I don't actually need bread, but you told me to pray this thing.

I know that I have needs that I don't even know anything about.

You've promised to meet my needs, even if I don't know what they are.

Please do that thing that you know about me that I don't even know about myself.

So I can pray these words when I'm going, I don't know what I need for this meeting.

I don't know what I need for this confrontation.

I don't know what I fully need for this day.

I don't know how much money I need for this vacation.

I don't know all the different ins and outs of every single thing that happens in my day, but Lord, you see time before it began.

Like you know, give me today what I need.

And it's like, and that's all I got.

It's that vague.

And the gift is that our prayers aren't answered on the basis of our specifics.

It's not like, sorry, you didn't crack the code on that one.

I would have given you something, but you didn't specifically ask for this, and so I'm not doing it.

We don't have to deal with that pressure.

Jesus has given us freedom just to be like, just talk to the person that loves you and knows everything about you.

And just to ask him for what you need, even when you don't know what that thing is.

Now, I would encourage you every now and then to ask for things specifically.

Not all the time, and I'm not saying you have to, and it's not for God's benefit, like, oh, finally, he said something specific.

Now I know what to do.

That's not what he's dealing with.

But asking for things vaguely, many times, God can be meeting our needs.

And because we ask so vaguely, Lord bless me.

Lord bless them.

It's like maybe you'd see it, but it's very possible that that vagueness could actually fall under or fly under your radar, and you're like, God hasn't done anything for me today.

And it's like, well, you were kind of vague.

He's actually kept you alive and you're still breathing, your heart's still pumping, your cells are still regenerating.

It's pretty strong.

It's a good day.

But because it's so vague, it's just easy for those prayer requests to kind of fall away and not actually realize God is doing something in my life.

And so it's important every now and then to pray specifically about things.

Like, I'm actually asking, not for not for this, I'm asking for that.

And then to expect, and when he actually answers that very unique, specific prayer, it's so much easier to see, like, man, you saw exactly.

I asked for exactly that.

So um this um yesterday the youth had their fundraiser at Mosaic and they were praying for$10,000.

We want to raise$10,000.

And they raised, and so specific, God, give us$10,000.

And they raised like$10,240.

It's an amazing thing that they raised.

And it's like, man, what a gift that they didn't just say, we just we'd like some money, like just which is a fine prayer, but something so specific and something kind of audaciously big, like we need$10,000 from Randos to show up and eat barbecue, and we need to raise$10,000.

And they got$10,000 too, which is amazing.

And so God did that thing, did that thing, and it's very specific, like, thank you for seeing us and hearing us.

And so you can pray vaguely, you can also pray specifically.

It's not in order, God doesn't need your specifics to answer a prayer.

He doesn't need that for you to crack a code to finally get his hand to start working in your life.

But it is a way that we actually are able to see his hand at work in our lives when we pray specifically.

And so, as vaguely or as specifically as you want.

Number five, I would encourage you to ask for yourself and for others.

The text is give us this day.

And so give us this day our daily bread.

It's not just meant for you, although you can pray for your own needs, but you can also pray for other people's needs.

You can look at other people around you.

You can sit in a coffee shop and look around at the people in this coffee shop.

All of them have different needs, and you can pray the exact same prayer that encapsulates every single person in that room and go, give us every single person in this coffee shop.

That person over there needs encouragement.

That person needs to calm down, that barista needs to take their job seriously.

That, you know, you can go around, give us today our daily bread, and you can say it super vaguely, like, Lord, meet the needs in this room.

I'm not just praying for myself, I'm praying for everybody.

Would you do that thing that you're so good at?

You know every single need in every single, but there's a hundred people in this coffee shop, and you know every single need that they actually have in their hearts.

Give us today our daily bread.

It's meant to be for the community that you're in, the world that you live in, the church that you're a part of, the family that you have, the the nation that you're a part of, like give us today what we need today.

You are big enough to not only deal with the little thing that's going on in my heart, but also big enough to deal with the huge things that are happening in the world and the universe.

And so pray for the needs, not just for other people.

This is what people do.

They pray for their daily bread and they forget to pray for themselves.

You can pray this for yourself and for others.

Somebody asked during the Q ⁇ R, like, why what is why do we do communal prayer gatherings?

Why do we do those things?

And it's like, because Jesus said, when he said, teach us to pray, he was like, pray together, do this thing, pray for others, pray with others, do that thing.

So that's number five.

Number six, I'm doing this in 15 minutes.

Okay.

Number six is um we gotta trust him in unanswered prayer.

It's difficult, but you have to trust him in unanswered prayer.

It's hard, it's painful, it's frustrating, it's uh it's sad.

But we need to learn to trust him in the midst of unanswered prayer.

Jesus is promising that God will meet your needs.

He will meet your needs.

And so the logical conclusion, if you are praying for something that you think you need and God is not giving that to you, the logical conclusion that you should draw is he will meet your needs.

He will not fail.

He's never failed and he won't fail.

He will meet your needs.

And so if you don't have something you think you need, the logical conclusion you should draw is he doesn't think that you need that.

And so you might think, I need this thing, and I'm praying for it, and he and he's not giving it to you, and so you don't have it.

And the conclusion he has drawn is like you don't actually need that.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't continue praying for these things and be persistent in prayer and ask and ask and ask and just ask, seek, and knock over and over and over again.

But if you don't have it, and he has promised to meet your needs, that seems to be a thing that he's like, that's not a need you actually have.

And as challenging, and I've had people come up to me afterwards, so you're saying that I didn't need my husband in my life.

You're saying that I didn't need I'm like, look, I'm telling you it's difficult, and trust is the implication of trust is you don't understand, and you have to trust him anyways.

I don't fully understand it either, and I've had plenty of times where we sing these songs like you won't fail, we're gonna sing it in just a second.

You don't you don't fail, you don't fail.

And there's plenty of times where I've walked with God being like, you did fail.

You failed me.

You failed my sister, and you failed.

Like this is this doesn't make any sense to me.

And I feel confident that he understands my heart in the midst of that, that I'm just grieving.

But I do think in the midst of it, that if he is promising, I will meet every single need that you have.

Consider the birds of the air.

They don't toil or spin, they don't do any of that stuff, the grass of the field, the lilies of the field.

How much more will I take care of you and I take care of those things?

You, I promise you, I'm gonna meet your needs.

And so if you don't have it, it's very likely that he has decided you don't need it, because I will meet your needs.

David says this in Psalm 23, he says, The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I have everything that I need.

And there are plenty of things that David went without that he was probably like, I'd love to not be sleeping in a cave tonight.

I'd love for these people to stop trying to kill me.

I'd love for my wife not to be lying about me.

A couple things I'd need.

But he still says, Because the Lord is my shepherd and he will absolutely supply, he's a good shepherd, and will supply every single thing that I need.

And because that's who he is, therefore, even if I don't have it, whatever I don't have and whatever I do have, I have every single thing I'm supposed to have.

Because he is the shepherd that has promised to take care of me and to lead me and to guide me and to protect me.

And so we need to trust him as difficult as it can be.

Trust him in the midst of unanswered prayer.

All right.

Those are the six things.

There's more that this could teach you, but those are the things that I came up with.

Practical ways to pray this.

Practical ways to actually pray this.

Because I do want you to pray it.

I want our church to become a praying, praying church.

Um, Adam and I uh went to lunch the other day and he's like, man, what are your goals for our church?

He's like, maybe it's you know, maybe that's too much, maybe you don't know.

And I was like, first one, I want us to be a house of prayer.

I I don't want to rename our church House of Prayer because I think that's cheating.

I actually want people to roll into our church who are guests and just roll into here, they don't never experience our church at all.

And then they leave, and the testimony of that brand new person who's never been here before, they walk out and be like, man, that place, that church is a church of prayer.

Like I want I want that to be so true of us.

I want that to be so rich in us.

I think it would bless the father's heart to have like this pocket of space where it's like all they want to do is sit with me.

All they want to do is sit with their father.

Like, no, there's not another church like it.

It's amazing.

Like, I want that thing.

And so, practical ways that I literally do want you to consider how to practice this thing.

I don't want this to be just a teaching.

It's like, that's a good teaching on prayer.

That's great.

But if it doesn't actually lead to you actually praying and pressing into it, then I have failed and it's not doing anything.

We'll just be teaching in another series on prayer next year.

We'll probably do that anyways, but practical ways to pray for daily bread.

The first, you can literally just pray the words.

Jesus said in Luke, he says, say this, not pray like this, say this.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Give us today our daily bread.

You get to just offer him, and however long it takes you to say that, that's a breath prayer.

Give us today our daily bread.

You can pray that thing in a second or two.

And what you're doing is you're giving God the moral freedom to give you what he knows that you need.

And you're like, I don't even know what I need, but you do.

So give me today my daily bread.

Give them today.

Give my kid today, give my parents today, give my spouse today their daily bread.

Just pray the words.

Second, one of the things you can do is you can just set today's worries before him.

He does say today.

He doesn't say, give us tomorrow our daily bread.

He says today.

And so one of the things you can do is you can just think about your day as your beginning, whatever woke you up at 2 a.m.

or 3 a.m.

or 4 a.m.

You just get to set your worries before him.

And so just considering the question, what are you worried about right now?

Sitting here right now on your way to work, cooking this breakfast, making this coffee, whatever.

What are you worried about right now?

And just set that before him.

And one of the needs that you have is peace.

I need help with these things.

I have anxiety over this stuff, and I'm supposed to roll those things over to you.

Please take these things.

And so set today's worries before him.

You have bills that you have today, work and busyness and a schedule that you have today, bad co-workers today, a bad boss today, bad employees.

You got a doctor visit today, you got a friendship that's on the fringe and it's not working.

You got travel today, you got a meeting that you don't want to have that you have to step into.

You got to go somewhere for dinner, and you're like, I don't want to go anywhere for dinner, I'm tired.

You're like, I just give that to him.

I have a need here, and you just set those things before him.

Uh third, you can set your calendar before him.

I don't know how you, I don't maybe don't operate with a calendar.

I do.

I live and die by it.

And so sometimes I just open my phone up and I set it before him and be like, you deal with it.

Because like, I don't even know.

And like, just just like you just like like Hezekiah and uh Jehoshaphat did with the letter that they received, or one of them, like, and just set it before the Lord and like, you read it.

Like, read this letter, God.

Like, can you believe what they said?

I just opened my calendar and be like, here you go.

Like, I need help with this.

Give me today my daily bread for all the junk I gotta do today.

And so you just open your calendar and just allow that to be a space like I'm giving this to you.

Please establish the work of my hands today.

Give me what I need for all of this junk that I gotta do today.

Set today's calendar before him.

Open your phone and just show him.

Like you would show your friends, you would show the relational.

Look at all the stuff I have to do today.

Just, Lord, I think it's sweet.

I think he'd like it.

Number four, ask God to use you to give someone else their daily bread.

Do not do this only.

I know some of you, you're like, I don't like asking stuff for myself, but I will ask that God uses me to bless someone else with their daily bread.

Stop it.

Pray for yourself too.

Don't do this one only.

But I do think that this should be something that you should also ask.

He likes to use his people.

God likes to use his people to bless other people with what they daily need.

So the other day, Teddy and I went to Chick-fil-A.

We made it there because God is good.

Made it there and got our breakfast.

And uh he was holding it, it's so sweet, y'all.

He was holding the door for people.

And I'm like, we gotta get inside and scan our table and get our stuff.

It's about 1029, we're not gonna get our food, son.

And he's holding the door for these ladies that are walking in.

And uh he was there for a minute, and apparently he was just holding the door for everybody, like, it's cool, I'm waiting.

Noise whenever you get here.

And uh, so he did that, and uh, we're like eating our food or whatever, and this lady comes up to us and she's like, Sir, I just want to let you know your son held the door open for me, and I just wanted you to know, like, I needed to see something like that today.

And I was like, that's that's so he is he's he's a great kid.

We we are teaching him to do those things, but he did that on his own.

That's really sweet.

She bought him a$5 gift card, and I'm like, more Chick-fil-A, baby.

She was like, I just want to say thank you.

And I'm like, Thank you.

Um, but it was so, it was like, it was this random, like he just held a door for somebody, and it was like, but she was like, I needed to see.

She's a school teacher.

She was like, I just needed to see that the work that I'm doing.

It was like God spoke to her.

I'm like, the work that I'm doing matters.

I'm shaping children to be like this kid.

That's amazing.

And like she just needed to see a kid, a 10-year-old, hold a door for her today.

I didn't know that she needed that, and neither did Teddy, but God did, and he likes to use people to actually meet the daily needs and fill the daily bread that other people have.

And so you get to ask that in your days, to start your day, be like, Lord, I do want my daily bread, but I am also, man, lead me in those spaces where you're gonna make me a fulfiller of the daily needs that other people have.

Lead me into those spaces because I want to be used in that way.

And so that's another way that you can pray to close.

Teaching us to pray in this way, to have this petition be a thing.

Jesus wants us to understand that your father in heaven doesn't just want to be involved in the huge moments of your life, he does.

But he also wants to be deeply involved and invited into the minutiae, into the stuff that only a handful of people realistically, maybe one, only a handful of people like really know the ins and outs of every single thing.

There are certain things that you are embarrassed to talk about.

If they were like, What do you what do you need for a good day?

I was talking about this with Rainey, like, what do you need for a good day?

And honestly, I was like, you know, I was talking about sleep, and like I have a square pillow for my weird head, and I got, you know, I need like two fans on and the temperature at a certain like it's embarrassing to talk about some of that stuff.

But like Rainey knows that about me, and she actually talks a lot about it to other people, which drives me crazy a little bit.

So now a lot of people know.

Um, but she knows that stuff about me because like intimately connected, she's the closest person in my life.

And what Jesus is trying to get at is like, look, yes, he wants to be invited into the huge things, the big projects that you have, and the huge stuff.

But he wants to be so close with you that he knows not only does your spouse know, or not only does your best friend know, but like he also shares a space that's just as deep or deeper.

He wants that type of relationship with you.

And so when Jesus is saying this to teach us, pray like this, he is saying God wants to be so deeply involved in your life that he knows more about you and you invite him into more of your life than anybody else in your world.

And so he's trying to give us this gift.

He wants to have us understand about prayer.

He's not some really distant, far-off, vast God.

He is vast.

But he wants to be the tightest relationship that you have.

So pray for daily bread.

Let's close by praying this prayer together.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on 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 the evil one.