How To: Pray Today

Man.

How is everybody today?

We good?

Having a happy, happy 5th of July.

If you got here early enough, you know, you got to hear Jeff do his Jimi Hendrix impression.

That was fun.

That was fun.

Who uh, absolutely.

I love that.

Um, who's here last night for 4th of July, just out of curiosity?

Very good, very good.

I asked the same question in the 9 o'clock service, a little less enthusiastic.

I think it's because they were there, they're just tired.

Uh man, it was a blast.

We had amazing food, we had a lot of fun for the kids, and God was so good to us, He held the rain off until the second that the fireworks began.

That was so nice of him to do.

I remember like the first firework went off, and I was like, oh God, it didn't rain.

This is awesome.

You held it off, and then literally I was like, well, never mind.

Um but it only lasted for a few seconds, and it was it was so much fun.

We'll we'll definitely look forward to that next year.

Uh I've got a few announcements for everyone before we jump into the message, but first I want to share a story.

At the back four columns, we have these cards.

They're they're there for you to share your story, for you to tell us what God has done in your life and to share you, share what he's done for you because it encourages all of us to know what God is doing in our lives.

Not just as a church, not as some large group, but individually.

And this story has to be shared today on July 5th, and you'll see why.

This was written by one of our high school students.

Five years ago, my sister and I were brought to live with our great aunt and uncle.

Before we lived with them, we lived with our birth mom.

She wasn't a very good person.

My siblings and I were exposed to things that no kid should ever see.

We were all abused and neglected.

We never knew how sincere love actually felt.

But God must have convinced her that it would be best if she let us go.

So on July 5th, five years ago, my sister and I were blessed to have a real mom and dad.

Our aunt and our uncle love us so much and they care so, so, so much about us.

They put their lives on hold to raise two girls.

They gave up their golden years to make sure that we have a family.

God gave us the best parents ever.

Yes, we have issues, we still do, of course we all fight, but that's what real families do.

God gave me something I never thought I would have: a bed, a home, real food, good memories, and most importantly, a family.

Thank you, Jesus, for such a great five years.

Thank you, Aunt Missy and Uncle Jerry, and we can't wait for many more together.

How awesome is that! And uh, and Aunt Missy and Uncle Jerry, if you are here, uh thank you so much for doing that, for making that sacrifice.

Because wow, you've changed lives.

You've changed lives.

And that's what we do when we follow God.

When we when we as people just submit to God and say, you know what, God, you tell me what to do.

I'll do what you say, I'll follow you.

Lives change every single day.

And so thank you guys so much.

And for all of you who support other people, you guys are incredible.

I've got a few quick announcements.

Number one, uh in the main lobby, you'll see a desk called the Connect Desk, and that is where you can go to get connected uh every single Sunday.

And the main way you can do that is to join a team or to be part of a home group.

We have amazing home groups.

Those are on break for the summer, but they start back in August, which is really, really close.

And so we have groups for men, groups for women, groups for married couples that meet pretty much every night of the week.

So you can definitely join a group there.

You can even sign up now and we'll get you connected with groups before they even begin.

There's there's no reason to wait until the groups actually start back.

So take advantage of that.

Also, join a team.

I have so much fun, and I've gotten to know so many people here, mainly by serving, by serving alongside people.

And it's an amazing way to get connected and also use your gifts to help other people.

We are passionate about a few things when it comes to our volunteers.

Number one, we don't want to burn you out.

Whenever you join a team, you're not signing away your ability to go to church.

That's not how it works here.

And number two, we want you to find your fit.

We want to put you on a team where you are good at what you do, where you feel like you're you're wired for it.

It's not something where we're gonna make you work with the kids if you're like, I don't like children.

Well, we need you in the kids' area, so just you know, grin and bear it.

No, no, no.

We we want people in the kids' areas who like kids.

It's crazy, I know.

Um, we want people on our welcome team who like to smile, who are really friendly.

We like people on the coffee team who get up early.

We we need that.

People who want to serve.

And I just want to encourage all of us, you know, the fall's about to start again, and that's always a big time here.

And so if you've been coming for a while, but you don't feel connected, get connected.

Join a team, join a home group, get to know other people here, be part of what God is doing here, not just on Sundays, but but all throughout the week.

And what God's doing in some of the areas of this church, you may never even get a chance to see if you don't join a team or you don't join a group.

So take advantage of that for sure.

Baptisms are coming up really soon.

So if you're ready to get baptized, you're ready to make that step in your relationship with Jesus, just go to the main lobby, you'll see a TV that says baptisms.

We'll get you signed up, we'll give you all the details there.

We're always excited to share in that moment with everyone when they when they go all in with Jesus.

It's awesome.

So we'll do that in a few weeks.

Uh, the only other thing I want to talk about is Canvas.

Canvas is an event coming up this Friday night.

Our art group is putting this on.

I think the tickets are$30, but here's the way this works.

If you weren't here last week when we announced this, you pay$30, you get to come to this art event that our amazing artist and the art group are putting together, and you get a canvas.

You get to paint on that canvas whatever you want to paint, trees, stick figures.

That's all I know how to paint.

So that's what I do.

Um but but even more importantly, the art group will help you.

That Marlon actually leads the art group.

He's the one that does all the really cool tree of life paintings around the church that are kind of a symbol of who we are as a church.

Marlon's gonna do a demonstration of how he paints those, so you can kind of watch him and do your own version of a tree of life painting, which is a cool thing to have.

You can take that home.

But the great thing is that all the proceeds go to benefit benefit of family here at the church.

We have a lot of amazing people, and and you are amazing people, and sometimes life hits us hard, and sometimes we have situations in life that we survive, we get through, we thrive through because of God in our lives, but we still need some help.

And so we love to use events like this to help those people, and every dollar that is is purchased or the tickets are purchased with that all goes to the family in need.

So it's a great thing to be part of.

You can get a ticket today over at the infodesk, I believe, is where those are.

So take advantage of that.

Uh I want to say a big thank you to everyone who helps financially, everyone who gives, especially those of you who who give consistently.

There's something special about making a choice and a decision to be generous and then committing to that on a regular basis.

And look at this story that we just shared of this family, this great aunt and great uncle who sacrificed something.

They sacrificed their their empty nest years to take on two teenage girls, two preteen girls at the time, and that's that is a sacrifice.

But they don't regret that at all.

My wife and I, we we give and and we don't make a ton of money, so what we give wouldn't blow anyone away.

But it's a percentage of what we make, and we commit to that.

We give that same percentage every single month.

And if we if we had that percentage in our own finances, we could do some pretty crazy stuff, like take a vacation to Panama City Beach every three to four years.

We could do that, right?

But I very much doubt that I'm gonna be sitting on my deathbed one day going, like, I could have gone to PCB seven more times if I hadn't supported a church.

And that's not gonna happen.

Because there's nothing I've ever been part of that's as big as this church.

There's nothing I've ever been part of that's as important as what God is doing in this church.

And it's an honor for me, it's an honor for my family to help support it.

I know many of you feel the same way.

I just want you to know that when you sacrifice something, when you lay something aside and you give it to God, it blesses him and it blesses people.

So thank you for that.

There's four columns at the back of the room if you want to do that or do it online, but thank you from the bottom of my heart, and and I believe God's as well.

Um, want to pray real quick?

Yeah, we can clap for that.

That's awesome.

I uh I want to pray to start the message.

I do want to ask a favor, and I don't do this very often.

Um kind of have a personal thing.

I just found out this morning that my my nephew, uh his name's Jacob, he's a teenager, awesome kid.

He's my older brother's son.

He had a really bad accident last night involving fireworks and spent the whole night in surgery.

Um he's okay, he's alive, he had uh some pretty extensive surgery on his hand and on his face.

And um, I just want to ask that you would pray for him.

I told my brother this morning that I'd have everyone pray and uh just pray that he he heals perfectly, that he heals faster than doctors expect him to, and that you know his summer is gonna be a lot different than he was expecting it to be, but that he would be encouraged, and and I just appreciate that if you would if you do that as just as a favor.

Um so let's pray and uh pray for Jacob if you if you remember to later today.

Jesus, thank you so much for everything you give us.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for your passion, thank you that you gave up everything for us.

There's nothing that you will ever ask us to give that you have not given and given more of than you would ever require of us, Lord.

And we are blown away by that.

Thank you, Jesus, for who you are, for accepting us as we are, for loving us enough to not let us stay that way, and for equipping us and empowering us to be the people we're meant to be.

We we love you, Jesus.

We ask all this in your name.

Amen.

So we are continuing a conversation about prayer.

We started this conversation a few weeks ago as part of our summer series that we're calling how-to.

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus gives us a how-to for life.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He shares three practices that all of us can take part in, that all of us can apply to our lives.

And these are three practices that propel us forward in life.

They propel us forward in our own lives in very, very practical ways, but they more importantly propel us forward in our relationship with God.

Because let's be honest, what good is it to go forward in every aspect of life except for our relationship with God?

At the end of the day, that's what matters most.

And Jesus says, look, if you want to do these three things, you will grow.

You will grow.

We have a God that loves us so much that he doesn't simply demand from us, but he gives us the how-to.

He teaches us, he works with us, he even works within us to empower us to do the things he calls us to do.

Religion demands much and gives little.

God, in reality, demands little and gives much.

When we really look at what God's asking us to do in life as his followers, it's so doable.

And then he goes that extra step to actually teach us how.

So in Matthew 6, Jesus says, here's how to give, here's how to be generous people.

This is the way it works with God.

You want to receive from God, show him that he can trust you with more.

Give.

We spent two weeks looking at that.

Right now we're on the second part how to pray, how to communicate with God.

We're spending a lot more time on prayer than any of the other two because, well, for a few reasons.

Prayer is powerful.

It is the most powerful tool that we have.

It works, it's effective.

But prayer is also hard.

It's difficult to engage in.

It can be confusing, it can be intimidating, it can become routine and mundane and monotonous.

It's meant to be real, fresh, exciting, it's meant to be passionate.

And then eventually we'll move to fasting, which will be so much fun to talk about.

And just so you know, don't worry.

We're not gonna do like a year-long church fast, okay, or anything like that.

But it is, it's exciting.

In my opinion, it's exciting to really dig into God's word and look at what He promises will make us grow.

I want to grow.

I believe you want to grow.

Prayer.

Prayer makes us grow.

Every week we've taken a look at one word that we can apply to our prayer lives, one simple word that will give us a new angle, a new perspective on prayer, something that will help prayer be accessible and powerful.

The very first week it was the word simple.

We can pray simple prayers.

Religion loves extravagance.

We have to pray these long, elaborate prayers, but Jesus didn't really pray that way very much.

Matthew chapter 6, we're gonna look at it again today.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He gives this example of prayer.

We call it the Lord's Prayer.

We we read it, we timed it a few weeks ago.

17 seconds.

That's how long that prayer was.

We can pray very short, very simple prayers in our own words.

Two weeks ago it was honesty.

We want to pray honest prayers.

We don't need to set aside our emotions to pray.

We don't want to come to God stoic.

If we're angry, we can pray angry.

If we're dejected, we can pray with that discouragement, with that frustration.

We can go to God in complete honesty when we pray.

Last week we looked at the word small.

It's so easy to think to ourselves that we can't go to God with our small problems because he's got so many, so many bigger problems to deal with.

It's selfish to go to God with this little thing when God has these huge issues in the world that he's obviously trying to work out, but that is not how God is.

So much of what Jesus prayed for were little things.

We can go to God with whatever it is that we have, whatever's troubling us, even if it feels so inconsequential and small, because God cares about the small stuff.

Today we're gonna add one more word to that list.

I want to start though by looking at this prayer.

Once again, Jesus gives it in Matthew chapter 6, this awesome example.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Matthew 6, 9.

This is then 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, and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

It's this very short, simple prayer that Jesus gives.

And I want to talk today about one specific part of that prayer.

It's actually verse 11 in those verses, Matthew 6 11.

Jesus said, Give us today our daily bread.

Give us today our daily bread.

This sounds simple enough, right?

It sounds like Jesus is saying, Hey, God, provide the food that we need today.

Help us have enough for the day at hand.

But believe it or not, this verse has been widely discussed and debated.

There have been all kinds of theories about what Jesus really meant here because religion loves to take what is simple and make it complicated.

It's just what happens.

There have been a lot of debates about this verse because people really believe that Jesus cannot be talking about something as simple as bread for the day, food for the day at hand.

Jesus must be speaking in a metaphor because Jesus loved to speak in metaphors.

In fact, it would have been frustrating at times to be one of Jesus' followers.

It can still be that way because we just want straight answers.

We just want someone to tell us like it is, and Jesus loved to use stories.

So people would say, Hey, what's the kingdom of God like?

And they want Jesus to explain it, to draw a chart, to make some type of formula on a board, to really just explain it as it is.

And Jesus would say, Well, it's it's kind of like a pearl in the ocean.

And you're like, What?

Well, please help me out.

Jesus loved to do that, though.

I think the reason for that is that great teachers, great teachers don't give you all the answers.

Great teachers make you ask questions.

And Jesus is a great teacher.

One of Jesus' favorite metaphors is bread.

He said, I'm the bread of life.

The very last night he was with his followers before the cross, that moment that we commemorate each week with Lord's Supper, Jesus said, Take this bread and remember me.

This bread is my body, it represents my body, which is going to be broken on the cross for you.

Jesus loved metaphors.

He loved bread.

We've talked about this before as a church.

Jesus, God, big fan of carbohydrates.

Huge.

And I know that that's a trend in our culture now.

Don't eat bread, don't eat carbs, but if you want to follow Jesus, you need to be okay with carbs from time to time.

Okay?

I am the gluten-free bread of life.

I don't know what it is.

Who knows?

If he was alive today, you know, it's so taboo, he'd say something else.

He'd say something else.

I'm the nutrition sheikh of life.

You know, take that.

So this debate about what this verse really means came from this concept of Jesus perhaps speaking about something very, very deep, very spiritual when he mentioned bread in this prayer.

It was it was emphasized by this one word that appears in the original text.

The New Testament was written in Greek.

That's what Jesus spoke.

He spoke the common language of the people.

He spoke Greek.

And the word that gets translated daily in this verse was a Greek word, Epiosus.

And here's what's really interesting about this word.

It's what added to this debate about what this verse really means.

That word appears nowhere else in ancient Greek literature.

Nowhere.

In fact, for centuries, people thought Matthew made this word up, or Jesus made this word up when he first gave this prayer.

Because when they translate the Bible, they take the original language, they take the Greek and the New Testament, Hebrew and the Old Testament, and they cross-reference the words that are used with all kinds of other words, the same words that were used in other texts from the same time.

So we have a context.

Because if you are a grandchild or a grandparent, you know that the same words mean different things to different generations.

But this word Epiosis, we can't find it anywhere.

We have no idea where it is.

It's a mysterious word, and that mystery led people to go, well, it can't be just daily bread.

It's got to be something deeper than that.

But then, not that long ago, an ancient Greek document was found that had that word in it, that had that word Epiosis.

And it was not a political writing, it wasn't a spiritual writing, it wasn't even philosophy, it was a grocery list.

An ancient Greek grocery list was unearthed, a shopping list, and this person had a list of things they needed to buy Epiosis for today.

And so after centuries and centuries of debate, we go, oh, he was really talking about bread for today.

Okay.

It is the simple thing that it seems like it is.

Again, religion loves to complicate, but Jesus took what is complicated, he made it simple most of the time.

So he prays, God, give us today our daily bread.

I want to focus on that word today.

That's the next word we've had simple.

We've had honest.

We've had small.

Today's word is today.

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to live life one day at a time?

It is so hard to live life in the present, is it not?

I mean, we have things in our culture that tell us live in the now, live in the present, enjoy every day you have because you never know if you have another one, and that's true, but we don't seem to be wired to do that.

It is easy to live in the past.

It is easy to live in the future.

I mean, you talk about living in the past.

I know so many people, I've done this myself, that get fixated on specific moments in the past and start to think thoughts like how different life would be if only that moment were different.

One of the iconic movies of my generation and the generation right beneath mine.

It's a great movie, Napoleon Dynamite.

Anyone seen that movie?

Some Napoleon?

Okay.

All right, some of you are cheering, so I'm gonna actually expect some participation from those of you that did.

Um, there's a character in the movie named Uncle Rico, one of my favorite characters.

And Uncle Rico is in his early 40s, but he's living in the past.

He's obsessed with the past.

In fact, there's one specific year that Uncle Rico cannot escape in his mind.

Can anyone name that year if you've seen the movie?

Close?

Close?

82, boom, you got it.

Well done, well done.

1982.

You know that because he's always talking about 82.

In fact, he he used to play football, and so he has this line he says, back in 82, I could throw a pigskin a quarter mile, right?

Ridiculous thing to say.

That's part of that movie.

It's funny.

See, here's the situation.

In 1982, in the movie, he played football, and his coach did not put him in on the big game.

The state championship.

He didn't get put in the game.

And he believes that had his coach put him in the big game back in 82, he would have thrown the winning touchdown pass.

College scouts would have seen him, they would have brought him to college, he would have become an NFL quarterback, he'd have millions of dollars, he'd have a mansion, he'd have a hot tub, he'd have awesome things like that.

And so he lives his life.

His life has not worked out the way he wants it to.

He lives his life saying, Man, if only things had been different back in '82.

I have known a lot of Uncle Ricos in my life, not actual people named Rico that happen to be my uncle, not like that, but I mean people that have the same mentality where you look back and you say, Oh, if only, if only it were different.

Ten years ago, if the economy hadn't done what it did, if if this person would have given me the promotion that I deserve, ten years ago, if I'd have made a different choice, I'd have more money, life would be better, and here's the thing that might be true.

But if that is our mentality, we'll be saying the exact same thing ten years from now about this year.

If we live in the past, if we live looking backwards, we cannot look forward, we have nothing to look forward to.

It'll just be that in 2025 we'll be saying, oh, back in 2015.

If this would have happened, if this would have gone differently, then life would really be good.

There's this tendency as people to categorize the past as the glory days, to put a shine on the past that isn't 100% authentic.

And we live life looking backwards.

It's that very tendency that caused the Pharisees to miss Jesus.

They were the religious leaders, they were the experts in the word of God, they were the ones that should have seen Jesus coming from a mile away, and they missed him.

God was right in front of them, and they could not see it.

And it all had to do with their tendency to live in the past.

They were looking backwards.

See, they had this idea of the Messiah.

The Messiah was going to restore Israel to the good old days, to the glory days.

The Messiah was just gonna make things like they used to be.

That's what they thought the Messiah was gonna do.

They couldn't see that maybe, maybe God wanted to do something new.

Maybe the glory days hadn't even happened yet.

But they were so convinced that they had that they missed Jesus.

In fact, we see this tendency when they ask Jesus why he doesn't observe every tradition that they followed.

In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus says this no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.

New wine is still expanding, it's still fermenting.

And in those days they stored wine and wineskins.

When a wineskin was old, it would become rigid, it couldn't move, it had no flexibility.

And if you put new wine in that, you would lose both the wine and the skin.

So you put new wine in new wineskins so it can move, it could be flexible, it could grow with that wine.

And Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, You're old wineskins.

You are so stuck in the past that you cannot experience this new thing that I want to do, this change that I want to make.

Your heart can't handle it because you refuse to look at what's right in front of you.

You refuse to see what I want to do now because you're so convinced that I've already done all the things I want to do.

If we live in the past, it's a trap.

I believe it's a trap from Satan himself because I think Satan loves it when our attention and our focus is on things we can't change.

And we cannot change the past.

We can't.

It's easy to live there, though.

It's also easy to live in the future.

This is where I tend to get stuck.

Living in the future, living a few days from now, a few weeks from now, looking at the next big thing on my agenda.

Have you ever been so stressed about something that's gonna happen tomorrow that you forget to live life today?

Have you ever had whole days, whole weeks go by where you don't enjoy a single day because you are so focused on what's gonna come up in the future?

You're so worried about a situation, and when it actually happens, it's not half as bad as you thought it was.

Maybe it's not even bad at all, maybe it doesn't even occur, but you still wasted days worrying about it.

It is easy to sacrifice today for tomorrow.

Happens all the time.

In fact, two years ago, and I know I've shared this story before, but it bears repeating.

It's a cautionary tale, so listen.

Two years ago, I heard my wife say, afraid.

She asked me a question that no man ever wants to hear, ever wants to hear his wife ask.

She came up to me, it was five o'clock, six o'clock on a Wednesday night.

I was here at the church working, and she came, she said, Justin, do you know what today is?

Now, men, if you hear your wife say that, you are already in trouble.

It's it's bad.

And you know what you do?

You start going through a mental checklist of all the things you could have forgotten, right?

Like, oh no, did we have plans?

Are we supposed to go to her parents' house tonight?

I don't think so.

I don't remember making plans like that.

Is it Mother's Day?

No, Mother's Day's in May.

I'm good there.

Is it our anniversary?

Our anniversary is also in May, so that's a hard month for me.

May's got Mother's Day anniversary, it's crazy.

I'm going, what is going on?

It was September 2013, and I went, September, September.

September is the month in which my wife was born.

That is what it is.

September 18th, 1984.

And I look at my I look at my calendar, and guess what day it is?

It's September 18th.

Now, this was not a situation where I had I had ordered her a gift and I'd wrapped it.

I just happened to forget the day of.

Or I had made reservations and made plans, but the day just got away from me, and I said, Oh, yeah, of course I know it's your birthday.

We're going to your favorite restaurant.

Here's your gift.

No, no, no.

I just flat out forgot about my wife's birthday.

Flat out forgot.

And I can't stress this enough.

That can never happen again.

Okay?

And I'll tell you, it's not going to.

For for a big reason.

Some of you right now are gonna pull out your phone and you're gonna set a reminder on September 17th.

I'm serious, do this.

September 17th, email Justin and remind him, I don't care if I get 700 emails, whatever it takes, I've got it on mine.

I'm just saying I don't I don't want to have any chance for this happening again because it cannot happen again.

Barely survive the first time.

Okay, the 11th.

Boom, the 11th.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

In fact, if you just some people take the 11th, the 12th, the 13th, let's just divide into sections.

This cannot happen again.

Okay?

It cannot happen.

And see, the reason I missed her birthday was really simple.

I was so focused on what was coming up.

I had all these deadlines.

Things were crazy here at the church.

I was transitioning into a new role that I'd never been in before, and it was uncharted water.

So I had a lot of deadlines in my mind associated with that transition.

Things were crazy at home.

We had decided to sell our house and we were gonna put it up on the market.

And there were a lot of things that needed to get done around the house for us to be ready to show it, for us to move.

We have moved three times in our marriage, two of the three times Megan has been pregnant.

So when I say we moved, that is not accurate.

Okay?

I moved, and I think it was just part of her strategy.

It's a brilliant strategy, if you really think about it.

And so I was crazy.

It was all these things at home.

I've got to get, you know, stuff done in the kitchen, I've got to get the bathroom repainted, I've got to get things packed.

I had all that in my mind because our first house showing is gonna be this day.

That's when the open house is gonna be.

So I was crazy thinking about those things.

We were just a few months away from having our second child, so I had all the stuff in my head that had to happen by that time.

It was insanity, and I was living deadline to deadline, and because of that, I didn't even know what day it was.

I mean, I really did not.

It is so easy to live in the future.

It is so easy to focus on what's coming up, and scripture actually speaks to this often.

Proverbs 27:1.

Proverbs 27:1

Don't brag about tomorrow since you don't know what the day will bring.

We don't know what's gonna happen today.

We'd like to think we do.

We can make great plans, there's nothing wrong with that.

Proverbs also speaks to planning ahead, that's wise to do, but never at the expense of today.

Jesus says it best, he always says it best because he's Jesus.

He's the ultimate authority on humanity because he both created humanity and became one of us and experienced humanity.

So no one can speak to our condition like Jesus.

That's why it's so obvious to me that Jesus is God.

Because when you read his statements about our condition, about who we are, there is no way that a 30-year-old carpenter from the first century, who spent his entire childhood and life learning how to make things out of wood, could know the human heart so well.

And Jesus does.

Here's what he says in Matthew 6, 34 don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.

Today's trouble is enough for today.

I love how the message version puts it.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now.

And don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now.

That's the way that we're called to live.

Yes, we plan ahead.

Yes, we think about possible scenarios, but never at the expense of today.

We may not be wired to live one day at a time, but we we have to.

Because that's the only way to live.

That's the only way to experience life for what it is.

What if we could become those rare people, and they are rare, those rare people that experience the fullness of every day we're given?

How could we do that?

The answer is actually pretty simple, in my opinion.

It's it's pray.

It's to pray.

You know when you have a real problem and you tell someone and they tell you to pray and you feel like they've insulted you?

And even as a spiritual person, you're like, no, no, yeah, I agree, prayer's good, prayer's healthy, but I have a real problem, and I came to you and you said pray, I've already thought of that.

Right?

But prayer really does work.

Prayer is so often the solution to our problems.

And if we want to be people that live every single day of our lives, if we want to be people that live and experience everything that today has, the answer is prayer.

We pray like Jesus did.

Jesus prayed, God, today.

Give me the bread I need today.

How often do we pray today about today?

That's what he did.

See, it would have made more sense for Jesus to say, give us this week, our weekly bread.

Right?

God, give us this month, our monthly bread.

In fact, let's just go one step further.

Give us this year our yearly bread.

I want to pray for a year's worth of bread because if God gives me the bread I need for today, guess what's gonna happen tomorrow?

I'm gonna need that again.

And that's just not very efficient.

But there's an amazing quote by a rabbi from years ago.

I love this quote.

He who possesses what he can eat today and says, What shall I eat tomorrow?

is a man of little faith.

See, God seems to want us to live in daily dependence upon him.

We see it all through Scripture.

God really wants us as people to live in daily dependence.

And that's not very convenient for us, because it would be so much better if we could live in yearly dependence on God.

If you knew that your whole year was taken care of and you didn't have to worry about going to him, praying for anything for another year, that that would feel nice from our perspective.

Probably not for God.

He might want us to come to him more than once a year.

And it seems that regardless of how we're wired, regardless of how we are naturally, God wants us to live in daily dependence on him.

If you want a great example of this, you look at the book of Exodus.

The story of Exodus is the story of the people of Israel leaving Egypt and going to the promised land, and there's 40 years in between that time.

40 years of some really interesting hardships.

It was a great social experiment.

What happens if a million people live as nomads in a desert for 40 years?

You'd have some major problems if that was your life.

Number one, what are we going to eat?

There's a million people in a desert.

There does not seem to be a million people's worth of supplies in your average desert.

So God provided, and God did it miraculously.

In fact, these were miracles within miracles.

It was really cool.

God made it rain bread, carbs, again, I mean it's there.

Bread from heaven.

He made it rain bread from heaven.

They called it manna.

We still use that phrase sometimes.

If something just sort of lands in your lap and it's a blessing from God, you're like, oh, it's like manna from heaven.

He made it rain bread from heaven, and that's a miracle in and of itself.

Every day, every day the Israelites woke up and there was bread all over the ground for them to eat.

Sanitation standards were very different back then.

And they just picked it up and they ate it.

But see, here's the miracle within the miracle.

We see this in Exodus chapter 16.

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

God speaks to Moses.

He says, Look, I'm gonna make it rain food from heaven.

Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day.

I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.

On the sixth day, they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.

So there's actually three miracles here.

The first miracle is it's gonna rain bread.

That's a big miracle.

I've never seen that.

The second miracle is that no matter how much they gather, if they only gather a little bit or if they gather an incredible amount, when they prepare it, they will have what they need for the day.

That's the second miracle.

The third miracle is that every seven days, when it's the sixth day of the week, the day before they're supposed to take a day off and have rest, have a Sabbath, which was a crazy concept to an ancient culture, to take a day off.

If you didn't work in a day, you're gonna die the next day.

But God says, no, take a day off.

The third miracle is that on the day before that day, whenever they prepare that food, there will be enough leftovers for the next day as well.

Completely independent of how much they gathered.

So we've got a miracle within a miracle within a miracle, but God knows our hearts.

He knows our tendency to worry about the future.

And so he says, Do not let them save manna for the next day.

They need to trust me that I will make it rain more.

But the people did not follow these instructions.

We see it a little bit later in Exodus 16.

Verse 17 says, So the people of Israel did as they were told.

Some gathered a lot, some only a little, but when they measured it out, everyone had just enough.

Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, those who gathered only a little had enough.

Each family had just what it needed.

Then Moses told them, Do not keep any of it until morning.

But some of them didn't listen, and they kept some of it until the morning.

But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell, and Moses was very angry with them.

So some of these people, and it's easy to see why, if you're dependent on the weather for your food, that's that's troubling.

The weather's not always dependable.

Fourth of July would be a great example of that.

Some of them prepared their food.

Now remember, it didn't matter how much they gathered, when they prepared it, they would have enough for what?

One day.

But some of them were so worried about tomorrow that they willingly chose to not eat what they had for that day because they wanted to save some of it for tomorrow.

That means they were willingly choosing to eat less than they needed to eat because they wanted to save what little they had for tomorrow.

And God had promised them, I will make it rain every day, every day but the Sabbath.

But don't worry, I've got that covered.

It's our tendency as people to want to live week by week, month by month, year by year.

But God teaches us to live in daily dependence on Him.

Because here's the reality we live in daily dependence upon God.

I mean, we kind of laugh about the concept of depending on the weather for our food.

We still depend on the weather for our food.

We don't feel it here in America because we have grocery stores and things like that.

But if it doesn't rain for a few months, we will feel it.

We are dependent on God for everything.

We still are.

We just don't think about that very often because we so happen to live in a time and in a culture where we are as comfortable as people have ever been.

And it creates a false sense of security.

We forget that it's God that holds all things together.

It is Jesus that holds all things together.

We live in daily dependence from God, whether we realize it or not.

And that actually shows you an amazing aspect of God's character because there are many people in this world that do not give God any credit.

They don't even acknowledge Him, and yet God still provides oxygen, food, water, shelter, love, support.

God is so gracious, He gives us everything we have.

We live in daily dependence on God, and that's the best way to live.

That's how we experience life every day, to remember that every day is from God, that God has given us one day at a time.

That's the way He wants us to live.

And the way that we get ourselves into the mindset of daily dependence on God is to pray every day about our day.

To pray every day about the day.

Because you can't pray about today if you don't pray today, right?

So we need to be people that pray every day about the day at hand.

I'll be honest with you, it's it's incredible how often I forget to pray for my days.

I'll pray for my weeks, I'll pray for my months, I'll pray for some big goals that I have, but when it comes to praying for Tuesdays, I don't pray for a lot of Tuesdays.

Even with my children, I have a one-year-old girl, I have a five-year-old boy, I pray for them and I often pray for their future.

I pray for their spouses already.

I really do.

For my son, he's five, so you know, if he can get married 21-ish, somewhere around then, I pray that he has a wife that loves him, that can handle his energy and his talkativeness.

He got it from me.

And I pray for a wife that can give him focus in life because that's what Megan does for me, and I need it desperately.

My daughter, she's one, so 39-ish years from now, when I'm ready for her to get married.

Really, when I'm ready for her to let me choose the person that she will marry, because that's that's that's just gonna happen.

It has to happen.

Is that how it happens, dads, with girls, right?

I've learned the tricks though.

I was a youth pastor, so I've worked with teenagers.

I'm just gonna say things about the boys I don't like.

Like, I love him.

He is really awesome.

I think you should marry him.

She'll break up with him in a minute, right?

And then when there's a boy that that I really like, I'm like, I don't know about that one.

I don't know.

I mean, and she'll be like, ooh, there's mystery now.

I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go there.

That's the way you gotta do it.

You gotta play the game, okay?

See, I pray for her to have a husband.

And my prayer is really specific.

I want her to have a husband that loves her just a little less than he loves God.

That's what I want for her.

Now, these are prayers that are years out.

Years out, but it's amazing how how infrequently I pray for their days.

It's amazing how infrequently I pray for my son and my daughter's day at hand.

And there's a few reasons for that.

One is that I I often pray at night for them.

And when you're praying at 9:30, the day's done.

There's a little bit left, there's sleep, but there's not much left.

And if we only pray at night when we go to sleep, we're not gonna pray for our today's, we're only gonna be praying for tomorrow.

So this week I actually made it a point.

I'm gonna pray at the beginning of my day for my day.

I'm gonna pray at the beginning of my day for my children and my my wife's day.

Because God cares about today.

Jesus would not have prayed, give us this day our daily bread, if your needs today were not important to God.

So the question's really simple.

Have you prayed today about today?

You can pray about tomorrow, tomorrow.

There's nothing wrong with praying about the future.

There's a time for that, but again, it's never at the expense of today.

So have you prayed today about today?

The good news is it's it's 1210.

There's a lot of today left.

The 9 o'clock people had even more, I'm just saying.

But there's a good bit of the day left.

So if you have not prayed today about today, you can do that now, and the day is not over, the day is not wasted.

What do you need today?

We're gonna we're gonna worship here in just another moment.

Before we do that, though, we're gonna take a moment.

The worship team's gonna play some music, and we're gonna spend one entire minute.

It's crazy, praying for our days.

And see, this is gonna be a challenge because it's easy to pray about the past.

God, I'm so sorry about yesterday.

God, please forgive me about you know, my life.

It's easy to pray about the past.

And there's a time and a place for that, it's just not right now.

It is really easy to pray about the future.

You close your eyes, you start praying, you're like, you know, tomorrow I've got a big meeting, and nope, nope, oh no.

Today, what do you need today?

What do you need from God to happen today for this to be a day that you never want to forget?

Ask God today for what you need today.

Now, I didn't really plan this out.

We did this in the first service, and I hadn't really thought about what I would pray for.

So I was on stage for a minute, I hadn't thought about that.

I'm like, oh, I should probably pray too.

Uh otherwise I'm just staring at a bunch of people praying, which is weird.

Like, yes, yes, yes, you, close your eyes.

What are you doing?

Like, I wouldn't do that.

So I'm like, oh, I'll pray too.

And I hadn't really thought about what I was gonna pray, but it made it good, it made it real for me.

So I was like, okay, God, what do I need?

I need to, I need a nap today.

I need a nap today at three o'clock, which also means I need my kids to take a nap today at three o'clock.

I need that.

So please let that happen.

I prayed for that.

I uh I prayed that I would find my wallet.

Uh if you know me well, I lose things.

And last night at 4th of July, I was working the info desk from 8 to 9 p.m.

with my wife, and I distinctly remember putting my wallet, because it was uncomfortable when I was sitting down, I put it in my wife's purse.

I went to look for it this morning and I couldn't find it.

And then my wife informed me that her purse was not at the info desk last night.

And so somebody has my wallet.

If you were here last night and you happen to leave your purse at the info desk, please, please check, because I'm pretty sure you have my wallet.

And that would be if you don't give it back to me, that will be the second time this calendar year I've had to go and replace everything in my wallet because I lost my wallet a few months ago.

I'm the pastor of this church.

Um they don't give me important things.

It's good.

Um I prayed for that.

Maybe that memory is just crazy.

Maybe I'm thumping about putting it in a person.

It wasn't I just I don't remember.

I wasn't really the tenants, so maybe maybe it's hum.

I don't remember my look pretty hard, but we'll see.

Maybe the person whose person to put it into will find it and humble me and I don't just please get them out of praying for that because I really do need that to happen today.

That would be great.

What do you need today?

What do you need?

Does it occur to you that today is really important to God for you?

Does it occur to you that your July 5th could be just as meaningful to you as the July 5th that this young girl wrote about?

What do you need today?

Ask God today.

Ask him now.

And you know what?

Ask him tomorrow.

If what you need today doesn't happen today.

Ask him every day for what you need.

But let's just start, let's start that now.

The worship team's gonna play a little bit.

We're just gonna bow our heads or look up if you want to be different.

You know, just look somewhere and pray.

Pray about today.

Pray about right now.

Let's do that together.

Just tell yourself to quit it.

What do you need today?

What do you need right now?

Father God, it's uh it's amazing sometimes how long a minute can feel.

We tend not to value our minutes or even our days because we're so worried about larger chunks of time, but it's moments like this that make me remember how long a minute really is.

Which makes me think about how long a day must be.

How much you can accomplish in a day, how much you can do in our hearts, how much you can do in our lives.

Today is very important for every single one of us because today is the day we've been given.

Today is the day we have.

You say in your word that every good and perfect gift comes from above.

Well, today is a gift from you.

It's just up to us if we want to open this gift or set it aside for later.

We do not want to waste our days.

We don't want to be people who sacrifice every today for every tomorrow.

We want to be people who live life one day at a time.

We want to be people who live life trusting in you, depending on you, believing that you will make it rain.

Whatever we need you to make it rain.

We love you, Jesus.

Give us today our daily bread.