Our Daily Bread

Good morning.

It's uh great all being here together.

For one thing, I lost that nagging concern that I was on the wrong time.

So unless we all are, but that would be memorable.

I want to remind you about Wednesday nights.

Uh through uh through March, Wednesday nights at his hands is is going on.

Got something for everyone, great classes for men and and women.

Uh Financial Peace University is happening.

We've got uh groups for junior high and high school, the Freedom Group, uh Freedom from Addiction Group, Art Group, and I'm probably forgetting um say the men's and the women's groups.

Um so anyway, if you haven't, um join us on Wednesday night.

There'll be uh from eight to nine, there'll be movie uh music in the coffee shop, and so we can hang out together afterwards.

Uh want to remind you as well that there's uh prayer cards back where the giving stations are.

And every week we've got a prayer team that prays for every single uh prayer request.

And we're talking about uh specifically about prayer over these uh few weeks.

And uh please, if you have any uh uh need at all, write it down and drop it back there in that box and we'd love to pray for you.

And after uh afterwards, every Sunday, we've got a prayer team back in the prayer room, which is just outside in the hall.

And sometimes, you know, we're just discouraged enough that we need someone to share their faith and their confidence in God uh with us.

And so if you're uh discouraged or carrying some sort of uh weight this morning, please don't leave uh with it.

Please stop in the prayer room and let somebody uh help you give that over to our Father.

Let's pray.

Abba, Father, Daddy, Father, we just thank you, we praise you for adopting us as your kids.

Holy Spirit, we thank you for teaching us and ask you to teach us this morning that every one of us would leave when we heard something directly from you.

And Jesus, our friend and our savior and our king, we thank you for teaching us how to pray.

And it's in your name.

Amen.

So we're taking a few weeks to talk about a prayer that literally, I mean, very literally changed the world.

It changed people's perception of God, explained a whole new relationship that we can have with God, explained how we can talk to our Father, God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus.

He says, pray like this, and he teaches this, and we call it the Lord's Prayer.

Whole prayer is only one minute long, and the key, I think, to that is just the simplicity of it all, and how simple it is for us to talk to our Father.

The prayer starts with the word Abba, uh, our Abba.

We translate that um Father, but really the closest English translation is daddy.

You know, and Jesus says that it's not like our earthly daddies, it's our heavenly daddy uh who is so wonderful, we could sum it up with the word um holy.

And so when we're talking to God in our own words, in our own way, we're simply talking to our loving dad.

And Jesus said, pray like this, our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.

And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Last week we talked about may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And we read Isaiah 65 together, and I didn't quite have time to finish what I wanted to share, so I kind of want to start with that.

It was 475 years before Jesus was born, and the prophet Isaiah talks about a time to come.

He's talking about time on earth.

He's not talking about heaven.

He says, No longer will babies die when only a few days old, no longer will adults die when they've lived a full life, no longer will people be considered old at one hundred, only the curse will die that young.

In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.

Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards.

For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard won gains.

They'll not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune.

For they are people blessed by the Lord, and their children too will be blessed.

I will answer them before they even call to me.

While they're still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers.

We talked about this once before, but when when Isaiah made that prophecy, the average life expectancy was twenty-eight years.

You know, not uh life span.

The average baby that was born, on average, would live for twenty-eight years.

So when Jesus came to earth as a man, how long do you expect the average life expectancy had grown to?

Twenty-eight years.

Five hundred years difference, and still the average life expectancy on earth was twenty-eight years.

You might remember how Jesus launched his ministry.

He said, When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the scriptures.

The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him.

He enrolled the scroll and found a place where this was written.

It's kind of a really dramatic moment.

Next, as he rolls up the scroll, handed it back to the tenant, and sat down.

All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently, then he began to speak to them.

The scriptures you have just heard has been fulfilled this very day.

The time of the Lord's favor had come that very day, and it's still the time of the Lord's favor because his kingdom has come.

His will, little by little, is being done.

That day God infused himself into the world through his son Jesus.

And we get to be part of that.

Every time that we're loving or helping, sharing, every time we do that, the kingdom comes a little more and a little more and a little more.

No longer will people be considered old at 100.

The life expectancy was 28 years.

Then it grew to 30.

And then in modern Europe it was 35.

And then at the turn of the century, it was 40.

And today, worldwide, it's over 70.

In the U.S., it's almost 80.

Today, over a thousand people have their 100th birthday every day.

It's projected that within 25 years there'll be six million people in the world over the age of 100.

See, sometimes we just think that things are getting worse and worse and worse and worse.

And we're living in a world that is getting better and better and better and better because Jesus' kingdom has come.

The moment he came, things started getting better.

Diseases are being cured, poverty's being addressed.

Just in this country, uh, slavery's been eliminated.

The oppression of women has been eased.

There's so much less uh racism.

You know, just 75 years ago, uh so many kids were being abandoned in this country that churches all over the country built orphans' homes.

Today people stand in line and pay thousands of dollars to adopt a child.

Jesus is transforming the world by transforming people.

The time of the Lord's favor has come, and his kingdom has come.

You know, and our um our Christian subculture can just be so apocalyptic about everything.

And uh, you know, wars and and rumors of wars.

Terry sent me a link to a video that was pretty interesting.

It was talking about the technological advances and the medical advances, how they're happening at such a fast pace that we're gonna be able to feel that impact dramatically soon.

Um and it also mentioned something I hadn't thought about.

But we are living in the most peaceful time in the history of the world.

I never even really thought about it.

You know, we we think about Syria and Iran and everything going on, that per population, never in the history of the world have fewer people been at war.

And I think it's because God's kids are praying and doing God's will, and little by little his kingdom comes, and it won't be done until heaven.

But salvation, health, peace, long life, blessings for you and for your children.

This is his will for you.

May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This morning we're gonna quickly look at the the next verses.

Give us today the food we need.

You might have learned that it is give us this day, our daily bread.

This is a very unusual verse in the Bible because it uses a word that's not used anywhere else ever.

I mean, in all literature, this word is only used once.

We talked about how Jesus spoke Aramaic and the New Testament was written in Greek.

Well, there's a Greek word in this prayer that is translated daily in the King James Version.

It's not really, they don't even attempt to translate it in the New Living Translation, but it's Epausil.

Now, this word became a great theological debate.

Now, I don't know if you've noticed this, but sometimes Christians like to argue just a little bit.

And back before ESPN, they uh made a big deal out of this uh uh out of this word.

For hundreds of years, this was like the big theological argument.

What does this word mean?

And so normally if they wanted to understand a word, they would just see how it's used in context somewhere else.

But this word's not used anywhere else.

And so they couldn't learn it that way.

And then finally, over time, they were able to go back and find enough things from the early churches to get a better idea of what it meant.

And they had it part right because the word, the construct of the word requires that it's some sort of measurement.

You know, but it seems odd that it would be give us this day our daily bread because it's kind of redundant.

Um and the measurement they believe now, and and I think is right, is not time, it's a measure of abundance.

And so it would be something like um, give us what we need today from your never-ending storehouse.

It would be a verse of abundance.

And I want to say you don't need to understand Greek to uh understand the Bible.

I mean, I certainly don't.

And and Jesus usually talks in broad strokes that that are big concepts, like you love God with all your heart, love your neighbor like yourself, and that'll pretty much get you through all the details, that type of thing.

But in this word, it's important.

It's interesting.

Please give us today's portion of your never-ending supply.

See, our daddy gives bread from a storehouse that will never run out.

And Jesus wants us to know that God will take care of us, he will provide what we need every day.

And so, why would we need to pray about it if he wants to provide it for us anyway?

And there's a few things.

There's one thing we lose, and then there's a few things we gain.

The one thing that we lose is fear.

Fear is a debilitating, joy-stilling, life-crushing thing.

The two biggest fears most people have are the fear of death and the fear of running out, of not having enough.

In Hebrews 2, it says, Because God's children are human beings, made of flesh and blood, the Son also became flesh and blood.

For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil who had the power of death.

Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

See, that's one fear we don't have.

I mean, I'm not afraid to die at all.

I'm actually uh looking forward to it.

Um I really am.

I mean, what an adventure that's gonna be.

I I you know, I don't want to be exactly, you know, necessarily this afternoon, because you know, we want to have long lives and we want to enjoy our families and and and uh see our great grandkids and all of that.

But I absolutely have no fear of dying.

I'm I'm looking forward to it.

And we don't need to have any fear, any one of us, that we'll ever not have enough.

We're always gonna be able to eat.

You're gonna have food, you're gonna have clothes, you're gonna have a roof over your head.

You will have enough.

This is really important to Jesus.

I mean, he really wants us to know this.

Right after he teaches this uh section on prayer, almost in the same breath, it comes so quick, he says this.

That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life.

Whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear, isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing?

Look at the birds.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns where your heavenly Father feeds them.

And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

And why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.

They don't work or make their clothing.

Yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith?

So don't worry about these things, saying, What will we eat, what will we drink, what will we wear?

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Now you Eugene Peterson says it this way in the message.

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers, most of which are never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax.

To not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving.

I love that word, relax.

You know, we can even maybe we can do that right now.

We just take a deep breath and relax.

It's gonna be okay.

It's gonna be okay.

We're gonna make it.

We can relax.

We have an Abba in heaven who loves us, he'll take care of us.

And I don't want to be cavalier at all because I know right now, especially, um, there are people with tremendous financial stresses.

And and it's scary.

And I've I mean I've been there.

I've been where I've worked three jobs to to buy milk.

After we were married, uh a couple years after, we saved up a little money and upgraded to a mobile home.

Um you know, about 15 years after that, uh we sold, we had a garage sale and sold our our furniture, sold our table to buy food.

Um, and sat on the floor and ate it.

Uh I had a job that was like 60 hours a week, and Susan had a paper route.

This isn't that long ago, where um it was an afternoon AJC route, and on Sunday mornings I'd get up at 3 and go down to the center in Holly Springs and roll all the papers and then deliver them probably to some of you.

So if it was late, that was my fault.

Um, but we but we made it.

I guess I just want you to say that that I get what it's like to be worried about paying rent, to be worried about how are you gonna have enough money.

Jesus gets what's that what that's like.

You know, and we got through all that, but what I realize now is I didn't need to be scared.

I could have relaxed and watched for God and saw how he was gonna work.

A lot of times at that period of my life, he would work at the very last minute.

But he would work, and now I look back and I'm actually I'm so thankful.

I learned so much during that time that Jesus is being serious, it's not some platitude.

This is the truth.

You don't ever have to worry about having enough.

You will.

Jesus has made you that promise.

And so we lose fear when we pray, and we gain confidence, we gain enthusiasm, we gain anticipation of what God's gonna do next, what's gonna happen next.

Jeremiah 29, 11 says, I know what I'm doing.

I have it all planned out.

Plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future that you hope for.

Last year we spent a couple months studying the 23rd Psalms together.

And in the last verse, it says, Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.

Surely.

For sure.

Definitely.

God's goodness and unfailing love will pursue you all the days of your life.

Your life will not go from one bad thing to another.

It's gonna be just the opposite.

It's gonna be filled with God's love and God's goodness, and we can look forward to it.

When we trust our Abba Father to provide for our daily needs, we get gain confidence, we gain joy, we gain anticipation for our future, for walking out this big adventure with God, and we gain thankfulness.

Just that small word, give us today the food we need.

You know, it's a humble acknowledgement that everything good comes from God.

It's a gift.

Everything.

James, Jesus' brother, says it like this Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.

You know, we kicked off the year this year talking about having an abundance on the on the inside.

Um so much of health and joy and happiness works together with thankfulness.

Colossians 2, it says, Let your roots go down into him, and let your lives be built on him.

Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

We all have so much to be thankful for.

I mean, truly, everything we have good comes from God.

Our abilities, our talents, our children, our friends.

Give us today what we need from your storehouse that never runs out.

We've been adopted by our Abba in heaven.

We're living in a time where God's kingdom has come and is still coming.

Things are getting better and better and better.

We're living in the most amazing country, in the most amazing time, the most peaceful, abundant time in the history of the world.

And God loves us.

He takes care of us.

He's going to take care of you.

He gives us each day whatever we need.

Daddy, please give me what I need today from your never-ending storehouse.

So if the worship team wants to come up, we'll stop there.

Might get done a little early today.

Talking about praying is one thing.

Praying's a uh is so much better.

So each week I want to take this minute and just give us a chance to pray.

You know, it may be, it could be anything.

Um, but it very well could be our daily needs.

You know, what is the one thing that you need from God?

Um one thing I wanted to say, I just couldn't figure out a good place to put it, is pray for your work, pray for your school, pray for everything.

Sometimes we feel so selfish, like, you know, God's working on bigger things.

How could I pray for this deal I'm working on, or how could I pray for favor of my boss or for this promotion or that type of stuff?

But what happens when we pray for that type of thing is we're allowing God into that part of our life.

He cares about all of it, but now we're talking to him about that much more of our life, and we get to see him in that much uh more of our life.

And he answers uh those prayers.

But uh whatever the one thing is you most need from God, let's just take a minute right now.

Jesus said, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty again.

See, Jesus wants us to know we can trust him.

We don't have to worry about things.

We don't have to worry about dying, we don't have to worry about running out and not having enough.

He'll take care of us.

But the big thing Jesus does is bread for the inside.

He actually gives us life.

You know, and it's as simple as praying.

When we talk to him in our own words, in our own way, and just tell them that we're gonna trust him and tell them we're gonna follow him.

You know, the spirit he created us with comes alive and connects with God's Spirit, and we start changing from the inside out.

And before long, not only have we changed in the inside, but things around us are changing too.

Um He is the He is the bread of life.

So if you've never done that, man, today would be a great day.

Well, let's stand, get ready to pray or sing one more song together.

I hope you all have a great week with God.

So, Abba, Father, just praise you.

You are holy.

We ask to that you keep coming, that your kingdom would come, and that just like your will in heaven, things will be done your way here on earth.

We have needs, Father.

We ask you to provide for whatever needs we have.

Especially, Abba, I ask you to just bless each person here, to hear and answer our prayers today.

Jesus, we love you, we praise you, we thank you.

It's in your name.

Amen.