Let's go to Matthew chapter six, please. Matthew chapter six. And we're going to once again go back to our theme passage for the year. Our theme for this year is pray without ceasing. We want to learn to pray. We want to get ahold of God and have the Lord bless our families and our church. and learn how to talk to him, develop a relationship with him. In order to do that, I decided I would go through this Disciples Prayer. Many people call it the Lord's Prayer, but really it's not the Lord that is praying here. He's giving us a pattern for disciples to pray. So really it's the Disciples Prayer. And each one of these phrases, we've learned a lot from. And I wanna look at that once again here today. We're gonna focus on one particular phrase. But in verse number nine, it says, after this manner, therefore pray ye, our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And this is the phrase we'll be looking at today. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Father, I ask you, Lord, that you would just give me the power I need to preach this passage. Lord, I want to do honor to you. I want to lift up you today and let Christ have the preeminence among us. Pray you'd help me to get out of the way, and Lord, just to have your word speak. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. It's interesting, this little prayer request here, give us this day our daily bread. We've heard it a million times. It's such a little request in this prayer. It's interesting that to pray for our daily bread is such a small part of the whole prayer, but it is what occupies our minds mostly, because it has to do with the good of our body. And so it's amazing, such a small little phrase, you'd think the Lord would give us a paragraph to talk about our physical life, yet give us this day our daily bread. Romans 12 one says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. That's why the Lord is requiring us to give our bodies to him. Because otherwise our bodies would be probably the most important thing that we would think of throughout the day. The good and the comfort of our body. So the Lord immediately, when he's dealing with discipleship, in Romans chapter 12, he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. And we know the body is not the most valuable part of your life. Your spirit, your soul and body, and of course, your spirit is what became regenerated at the time of your salvation. That's where the new birth took place. The soul is that part of you that makes up all your decisions. It's the chooser. Every decision you make comes from your soul. You'd think the Lord would say, present your soul a living sacrifice. Present your spirit a living sacrifice. No, he says, present your body. Because he knew that the external part of us, the part that connects with this world, is the part that grabs most of our attention. And it is the part as well that the world tries to attract. And it's the part that the devil tries to use to get into our soul and to cause us to make decisions. So our body is a vital part to sacrifice. We have to put that as a living, not a dead one. He doesn't want you to kill yourself. He wants you to live yourself. He wants you to be alive. He wants you to be a living sacrifice every day, doing what the Lord's asked you to do and presenting your body in that purpose. We do not have to dwell on our needs because God knows all about them. He knows everything you need. Lord, don't you understand what I need? Yes, he does. Lord, don't you care? Yes, he does. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Matthew 6, 7 says, but when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Say, if I pray for an hour, the Lord will hear me. He says, be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. Amen. I think you need to ask simply, but you need to ask fervently. You need to ask from your heart. So many times with a prayer like this, people recite it. And I'm, like I said before, I'm all for memorization and reciting scripture. And I want you to know the disciple's prayer. It'd be great if your children would memorize the whole prayer and would be able to stand up together and say this prayer. But I'm gonna tell you something, it has no impact unless it's coming from a believing heart. And so that's why he says, after this manner, therefore pray ye. That means after the pattern, not necessarily the words, not just reciting in vain repetitions, but it's after understanding what I'm talking about here, our Father. Remember we talked about the paternity of prayer. He's our Father in heaven, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, the piety in prayer, exalting God for who he is. And then thy kingdom come was the prophecy in prayer. and how that all of our prayers have something to do with the future, and we're always preparing for what God has for us, and how that has a profound effect on our present life when you truly believe what the Bible says about the future. And then we have the purpose of prayer. Not my will, but thy will be done, or let thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's the purpose. It's getting our will molded into his, not his into ours. Let my will on earth be done as it is in heaven. No, we need to allow His will to be manifested through our lives. That's the purpose. And here we have the provision, the provision. One little phrase among all those things, among all that pattern that we're supposed to follow after, but yet He did put it in here. He did put it in here. He wants us to talk to Him about our needs, our physical needs. But just because it's a little phrase, don't let the simplicity of that statement cause you to lose the depth of what's being inferred by the statement. Bread is a basic necessity of life, the symbol of all that is necessary for survival and for a full life. There's much meaning in this simple request, much meaning. I got two major points. I don't know if I'll get to both, but I'm gonna give you one point today. And I wanna talk about our daily prayer to the Lord, our daily prayer. What does it mean to pray this daily? Because if you're saying, you'll give us this day our daily bread, that means you're actually praying daily. That means today I'm praying for the bread, and tomorrow I pray for the bread, and the day after I pray for the bread. And so it's a very consistent prayer as I'm looking for the Lord to provide my needs. What does this mean? Well, the first thing I wanna point out is it's a prayer for the provision of others. Notice that in this prayer, it says our Father, which are in heaven. Not my Father, but our Father. So right away, he's taking into account not just me, it's not just about me, I'm talking about a bunch of people here. It could be your family, it could be your church, it could be many people around you. But when you're praying, it's never just about you. It's our Father. And then, give us this day. So he's not just talking about himself here, you're not just praying, saying, oh Lord, give me what I need today. You're saying, no Lord, give us what we need. You're thinking about others. Our prayers must be consumed with the welfare of others. In Philippians 2.4, it says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. That doesn't mean being a busy body in other people's matters, and some people are very good at that. They're not busy enough in their own life, so they gotta get busy in other people's lives. That's a sin, by the way. You don't wanna do that. But what you wanna do is you wanna pray for the good of others. You can usually tell when someone's struggling. You can tell when they've been out of a job. You can tell when they don't have enough. And it's those that should be in the us. Give us. Amen? Doesn't mean you necessarily have to go to them and accentuate that. That can be a pretty embarrassing thing. But it's something that us as the children of God should be in tune with as we look at the people around us and realize there are people struggling, even in this congregation today, there are those that have a hard time even getting the groceries into their house. So we're saying, Lord, give us our daily bread. We must be concerned about the lives of the people in our church. It should impact our prayers that others would have what they need to live. And that should be a concern of our heart. Amen. Then you know you're getting past just your flesh. It's all about me, me, me, me, me, me. No, it shouldn't be just about you. Look on the things of others. Not to, like I said, not to get involved in other people's business, get your nose out of their business. But you know, when you notice something, pray for them. Pray for their needs. There's been people that have struggled here. People that didn't have jobs, we've been praying for. People that had a hard time putting groceries on their table, and food on their table. Folks, that should burden us. Say, oh no, no, the Christian life is all about the spiritual, so we're not concerned about the physical. Well, if you'd read the book of Acts, you'd see that that's the one thing that the church of Jerusalem told the church in Antioch, is don't forget the poor. Cause that's one thing you can become so spiritually heavenly minded, you become no earthly good. Amen. And there are some earthly needs that we need to be praying about. Our prayers for ourselves should ultimately be for others as well. You know, you ought to pray for yourself a lot, which means you need a lot of things, you know, but why do you need those things? You need those things because of others. So what you need to do is you need to pray that you want wisdom. Lord, if any of you lack wisdom, let them ask of God that give it to all men liberally and upbraid it not. So you want wisdom. But why do you want wisdom? Remember Solomon when he prayed for wisdom? The Lord said, ask what you will and I'll give it to you. He says, well, I don't know coming in from going out. I really don't know how to do this thing of kingship. And I guess I need understanding. I need a wise heart. He says, wow, because you've asked for a wise heart and not for all the riches, I'm gonna give you the wise heart and all the riches. Well, I made the right choice. But the reason why he asked for wisdom was because he didn't know how to lead the people. Give us this day. So even when you ask for wisdom, it's not just about you. It's for your family, it's for the church, amen? We want strength. Lord, give me the strength. Why do you want the strength? You want the strength for you? Or do you want the strength for others? It's gotta come a time where it's gotta get past ourselves, and I think that's one thing we can learn from this daily prayer, is that it's give us, give us. Romans 14, 12 to 13 says, so then let every one of us shall, so every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. That should be a big part of your life, is being concerned that you're not hurting people. Now that can be done many ways. You can say the wrong words, you can do the wrong things, you can be the bad testimony. I remember I had one person tell me about even men that struggle maybe with immodesty and so forth, and how that as a man you're geared with your eyes, and ladies you're geared by the touch and so forth, and I had a lady say, well that's their problem. So why should I be dressed modestly for them? That's their problem. Well, the problem is that's not just their problem, the Lord made it your problem. He says right there that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. But I'll guarantee you, if you've got that kind of attitude, you're not a give us this daily bread kind of prayer. You're saying give me. Give me, Lord. Do this for me, God. No, the first thing we need to understand when it comes to praying is it's always about others. Even when you're praying for yourself, you're still praying for other people. If I'm praying for strength for my life, it's because the people around me need my strength. If I'm praying for wisdom for my life, it's because people around me need my wisdom. If I'm praying for love from heaven, that God would give me a love for Him and love for others, I'm gonna tell you something, it has to be about others, not about me. It's gotta be that way, folks. We've got to start praying. Give us! Give us! Not just me. We also, number two, we pray for today's provision. Give us this day. We must not be consumed about tomorrow. Now I wanna balance this out, and I understand you can easily, it's so easy to go one way or the other where we live in that kind of world. If you've been taught this way your whole life and found that it let you down, you're going to go all the way this way for the rest of your life. You should have gone this way and just stopped right here in the middle. Amen. But most people. I remember there was a lot of folks that came out of the Hutterite colony there in Manitoba. We had hundreds of them leave. And of course, they were underneath thumb there. They could do barely anything. But many of them, when they left this, they went way over there. and their life was no better than it was over there. That's because you gotta learn balance. The Lord wants us to spend far more time thinking about today than tomorrow. Our lives become stagnant when we live in tomorrow. They really do. But I'm not saying, and here the balance comes, I'm not saying you do not wisely prepare or protect yourself against the challenges that may come tomorrow. Because the Bible says in Proverbs 22, 3, a prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. So you wanna be prudent, you wanna guard yourself against the challenges of tomorrow, you wanna protect yourself against the things that you may have to face and so forth, but that doesn't mean that you do not give most of your thinking to what is today, because a lot of people, they've got their eyes so fixed on tomorrow, they never become what God wants them to be, never. Oh, I believe this with all my heart. I've taught preachers. Eight years I was teaching in the Bible college and so forth and had a lot of guys. They had, oh yeah, the future. Oh, this future. One day, one day on the horizon, I'm going to be this and I'm going to be that. And I'm going to say, if you're not going to be what God wants you to be today, you will never be what God wants you to be tomorrow. Never. The will of God doesn't start tomorrow for you. The will of God starts today for you. But so many people, it's about tomorrow. Well, tomorrow, I'm preparing to make a choice for tomorrow, preacher. You're never gonna be prepared for a choice for tomorrow if you haven't made your choice for today. Amen. It's such a thing as, you know, when you're walking, you're walking along, taking this step, this step. I'm saying, hey, I'm going to take some steps. No, you're taking steps right now. Every step you take is bringing you somewhere. And when are you taking the step? Tomorrow? No, you're taking the step today. Every step you take today leads you to where you're going to be tomorrow. So stop thinking about tomorrow's steps and start stepping today. That's why, you know, I'm guilty. When I'm hearing a message sometimes, when I was initially a Christian and listening to the preaching of the word of God, I'd have this really interesting method of putting it on a shelf. You know what the Lord's gonna do today? He's gonna bring you something for your step today. But you're gonna shelve it because you're not concerned about the step today, you're thinking about all your steps tomorrow. It was only when I began to take seriously the thing that the Lord was speaking to my heart today that he brought me to the steps tomorrow. Do you understand that? And that's why so many people never fulfill the will of God for their life. They're constantly in a state of one day I'm going to do this, when that is not God's will for your life. God's will begins this particular moment as you submit yourself to Him and the step, the place that's under your feet right now. If it's not the will of God for you, why in the world do you think it's gonna be there tomorrow? When are you going to hit the wheel? At what step are you going to get it? Amen? It's got to be now. It's got to be today. As the Word of God speaks to your heart, as the Holy Spirit convicts you, wherever you may be, you need to say, yes, Lord, I'm gonna do that. Now, it may seem so inconsequential to you. It may be something, oh, that's not that important. The Lord says, because I put it on your heart, it is important. And if you can't treat the little things with importance, then how in the world will you ever handle the big things when I give them to you? Amen. So whatever it is, as I'm preaching that little thing that climbs up to the top of your brain, and it's sitting right there right now, it's saying, yoo-hoo. You're either going to take that thing and shelve it and live in this fantasy of God's will for tomorrow, or you're going to say, no, today. Today I face it. Today I deal with it. Today I surrender myself. You know what it is. Folks, I don't have no microphone in your home. People say, Pastor, you've been listening to my family? No. I've got enough problems with my own family. Keep it on top of them. You know, it's not bad at all. I just know how we all are. We all battle. Amen? Including this guy. I have to keep these principles before me every day or I'm gonna mess up for tomorrow. Amen? So wisely prepare. And the fact of the matter is you don't know what you will truly need until tomorrow. Until your tomorrow becomes today, you don't really know what you need. Proverbs 27, one says this. Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I always say that to people that are maybe not saved and I've been witnessing to them and saying, hey, you need to get saved. Well, you know, I'm not ready. Don't boast of tomorrow. Don't boast that you have a tomorrow. That's a pretty prideful thing to think you even have a tomorrow. And in fact, the matter is, Christians, that's why the Lord gave us the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ, so that we wouldn't think tomorrow, we'd always think right now. Yeah, I know the Lord may come back tomorrow. No. I even hesitate to say the Lord will come back today. All I can say is the Lord will come back, period. And that could be any breath that you take could be the next breath. The Lord could be here. You can't even say soon because that somehow infers that there's a little moment between now and that time, folks. You have to live like He could be here now. Amen. The imminent return of Christ, by the way, and I'm gonna say it again, that's why the devil has thrown that mid-trip rapture garbage into the churches today, to get people off kilter. To cause Christians to recline instead of incline. This morning your ears should be pushed forward, not pushed backward in your seat. But if you've got time, what's the big deal? I got tomorrow. Ah, tomorrow. You don't have a tomorrow. Boast thyself not of tomorrow. You don't know whether you got tomorrow. Many of you have very valuable lessons you've learned in your life from people. I had a brother, he was 16 years old. One thing he taught me is this. One day he got out in his white pickup truck and he drove out. I never saw him come back. He went out that day, it's not like he said, I just want to let you know, I'm not coming back. He didn't know that was his last time out the door of our house. He didn't know that was the last time he'd say goodbye to his brothers. 16 years old. It was over. Next time I heard about him, it was, A lot of tears. He never knew that was the last day. If you'd know this was the last day on earth, how would you live your life? You're supposed to live your life and you're supposed to do with what God's doing in your heart. You're supposed to do with it like this is the last time you'd ever get to make a choice. Today, right now. Those of you that are lost without Christ, you may not have another moment. You need to make that decision now to be saved. So I was rejoicing my son. At six years old, he prayed a prayer, and I was the one that helped him with it. But this week, he says, Dad, I'm struggling with my salvation. I've been struggling for a while. So he settled that. at 16, 10 years later. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so glad he didn't wait another day, another week, another month, 10 years went by. You know, so many things could have happened. The Lord is good. I understand that. And the Lord knows and so forth. I'm not saying I don't have this weird view of things, but at the same time, folks, it really teaches us that you just need to make your decision today, whatever that is. If you're lost here today, don't worry. But mom and dad says, don't worry what your friend says. Don't worry whether you've been baptized or whether you're a member of a church or any of you need to get saved. You just get saved. You just get saved. All the rest of the things will fall into line. And that was one of the things even Levi was telling me, he was saying, you know, I was just afraid, you know, here I was baptized. And well, guess what? He's baptized now. A couple days later we went into the tank and he's the first person we baptized in our new tank. Al was and then Levi. Amen. I'm glad Al made that decision too. He could have put that off for a long time. There's enough going on today to take our thoughts. You know, the Bible says in Matthew 6, 34, take therefore no thought for the moral. For the moral shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And that means, folks, you have enough to pray for, enough to fight for, enough to prepare for, for what's right under your feet. You don't have time to waste on something that is later when you've got so much today. Give us this day our daily bread. Think of the things we need to be doing right now. I think sometimes the devil knows how to do that. He knows how to plant that thought. You know, here you're starting to take seriously, yeah, I need to get this straight right now. And all of a sudden that thought comes in, yeah, but you can wait another day. All you know is that's not Bible. The Bible says take no thought. How many thoughts for tomorrow? No thoughts. That's in the Greek too. No thoughts for tomorrow. Now, that's talking in balance, because if you look at the context of the passage, it's saying, don't be concerned about the foods you're eating, and the clothes you're wearing, and the shelter, and the home. You know, that's how people make real bad mistakes. when they think that it's all on them to make their decisions about all these things that God promised he would do for you. All you need to do is keep your heart right, keep your principles straight, you gotta work hard, let the Lord bring in your paycheck. Amen. But as soon as you start taking the Lord's responsibility, boy, things go off balance for you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. I always say to people, you need to have two lists in your life. The one list are all those things that God said he would take care of. And the other list is all those things you should be seeking for. The kingdom of God and his righteousness. This is your action list. This is your prayer list. These are the things you do. These are the things you make decisions about. These are the things you say give us as they are daily bread. Amen? Because he promised them. He promised them. But you know what? It's when you start seeking these and forsaking these, That's why this morning there ought to be people with their families sitting in the house of God today. But they can't be here because of this list. See, this here is this list. Winning souls is this list. Learning from the Bible is this list. That's the seeking. That's your responsibility. That's what you need to do. That's where you got to focus. That's today's stuff. This is tomorrow stuff. This is the stuff you say, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Amen? There's so much we miss because our mind is not set upon what we are doing in the present. The will of God is under your feet today. Tomorrow, it will be seen if we are in the will of God today. If the will of God didn't start today for you, it doesn't start tomorrow. Do you understand that? Because every time the will of God starts, it starts in a today, not in a tomorrow. And I've learned to discern between the two. When I get a young man that I'm called to preach and they're always talking about the horizon, I'm saying, you've probably got some sin in your life, don't you? Because they got themselves distracted. They're thinking about tomorrow when they should be dealing with today. And you say, hey, if you don't deal with those issues of your day today, there's no horizon. Take no thought for tomorrow. Amen. My next point is pray for sufficient provision. Give us this day our daily bread, daily. A content praying Christian will pray for today's needs. In Luke 12, verse 15, it says this, and he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully, and he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? See, you can get all kinds of things stored up here, and I'm not against, here's the balance, I'm not against a savings account, I'm not against your RRSPs, I'm not against your retirement and things like that, but folks, sure, do that. But do you understand, there's a good chance that I may never see my life insurance money, or my family will never see, there's a good chance that I may never see my retirement fund or anybody else because the Lord may come back. So what I don't wanna do is focus all my attention on all these things for the future I need to focus on today. What can I do with this today? The rich man said, how can I be a blessing? How can I be used? How can I give to others? How can I help people? How can I do the will of God? But no, what he did is let's just build some barns and let's store up for years to come so I could just take it easy and everything is great. Isn't that interesting? By the way, that's very close to a lot of philosophies of believers today. Lots of us. We are only interested, a praying content Christian, we're interested in what is sufficient for our lives. Not looking to hoard God's blessings. Later on, you'll see it talks about laying aside treasures in heaven. See, that's the way it ought to be. When we're laying it aside on earth, you may never see it. But I'll tell you something, if you use what God has given to you today to lay aside for the treasures of heaven, you know one day you will see that. Same context. A content praying Christian does not compromise. I'm gonna give you this because in Proverbs, this just spoke to my heart as I was meditating on this. I was thinking of this particular passage. It says in 23, one and two, it says, but when thou saidest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite. So in other words, If you aren't careful about your covetousness for tomorrow, when you're in a position to get more, you're gonna go for it, and you're gonna compromise. So the Lord says, hey, when you're sitting with a ruler, and the reason why they're giving you all of this is because there's something they're expecting from you. Learn to put a knife to your throat. Say, no, I'm okay. Think about it. If you're discontent when you're approached by that ruler with that extra stuff that you say, wow, it'd be great to have, you just may give in. But a praying, content Christian that says, give us this day our daily bread will never compromise, never. They will put a knife to the throat because they'll say, you know what? I feel I'm sufficient for today. That's okay, ruler. I have what I need. Yeah, but you could have so much more for tomorrow. Oh, the Bible says take no thought of tomorrow. Ooh, I almost had him. A praying content Christian is not compromised. Amen. My fourth point is pray for what is necessary in provision. Notice, give us bread. Take out all the words in between. Give us bread. I don't know if that's what I'd be praying for. I'd say Chevy half ton. I'd say four by four. Some of you guys, I want a Corvette. I don't know what you'd pray for. Give us bread. Bread is representative of what we need, not what you want. I wanted to preach further in this. I have so much I wanted to say in relation to this passage, but I knew I'd never get there. In fact, I put a whole other point together that I knew in my heart when I was doing it, I'm not going to preach this. I just like studying. 1 Timothy 6, 8 says, and having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Food and raiment, what is that? Something to eat, something to wear. Not all stylish and not all the big name brands. And like I was talking last time with the folks, you know, when I was a kid, you know, and I'd have runners, my mother would just go to Sears and she'd come home with a pair of runners. Here you go kids, oh great, runners. Put them on, you wear them out, you'd have to get another pair. But we knew nothing about Reebok and Nike. In fact, it was only later on in life we got to learn about that kind of stuff. What's the big deal? Mom would just always go to Sears. You'd always get those runners, a little rubber flap that goes over the toe. You guys remember that? The first thing to go, that flap would always come off. So you'd be running around with that little flap and it was. So we learned, we got our little scissor. How many of you did that? Amen. Because you grew up in a home where your family was content. Nike's I don't think do that. But the Sears shoes do. We thought when that little rubber flap falls off, we just cut the flap and keep wearing them until the whole thing falls apart. And we had many shoes that fell apart. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a great way to teach your family. But if you're already teaching your kids, oh, you got to have this big name. You got to do this. Hey, and I like nice stuff. You can ask the sound guys here. When I buy, I don't buy any cheap stuff. I make sure they understand. We like good quality things. But folks, it's not because we want to be seen as someone with the quality. We want to perform. We want something to be good. Amen. When you will not become content with bread, you will shift your priorities and become covetous for things that you do not need. This causes you to compromise your faith. And many Christians have compromised their faith. I was talking about that this morning in Sunday school. They pierce themselves through with many sorrows. You know, when you want that stuff, when you want the goods, when you want the riches, you want the toys, It's not the necessary things that get you in trouble. In fact, the Lord always takes care of his people. Somehow you always got food on your table. I had a person come to church from my first ministry. Oh, I'm very poor. I says, before you say that, I'm going to come and visit you. We're going to look in your freezer. Why? I want to see if it's empty. Well, it's not. Well, then don't say poor yet. Now, if you've got nothing to eat, that means you go to the freezer, there's nothing there. But I'll tell you something, most of the time, there's always something you can cook up. And it's amazing, the Lord always seems to give you something that you can cook up. So what's wrong with that? Amen. Any of you gone without food this week? Because you can't, because the Lord hasn't provided it. We've all done well. That's why we have a hard time grasping this, give us this day our daily bread. You imagine there's actually people that pray in their food every day. George Mueller opened an orphanage in England and he determined, he says, I'm not gonna ask for any money from anybody. He never did except for God. He'd have times he'd have his kids sitting around the dinner table. He didn't have a one morsel of food to give them. And he prays, says, Lord, you've got to provide. And there was a knock at the door. And the bakery said, hey, we got all this extra bakery from the day. He said, would you like it? And sure. Kids were already around the table. And he prayed in his daily bread. Think about the stories that we've heard of George Mueller. Do you understand, because of that situation, we have heard the power of God being preached for generations. Because one man was content with a daily bread. But many of us will never have a testimony like that. We'll never allow ourselves to get there. The credit cards are full way before we get there. Boy, that we could just cut all those up and take away all the crutches and get to the end of that freezer and sit at the table with our family and say, Lord, we have nothing to eat. Give us this day our daily bread. Then, my friend, you'll see true Christians, people that believe God. That's what we need today. Amen? Say, well, preacher, I understand that, but I kind of like it the way it is. I get it. I get it. But folks, we need to get this. We need to have this idea of sufficiency with a portion that the Lord would give us one day at a time. Always tomorrow. Well, I don't know if we'll have enough tomorrow. And that's when you make all the bad decisions of your life are when you're fearful and you're concerned about tomorrow. And then you make bad moves and you sell out on the seeking the kingdom of God and you start taking up the responsibility of God upon your shoulders. And that's when your life goes to the pits. Amen. The Lord promised he would provide food, shelter, and clothing to his people. In Matthew 6, 25, it says, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? The context of this passage is the worry and fear that God's people have as to whether they will have enough to live. God wants to give you all the needs of your life, so you can focus on what true life is about. But you know what the devil's doing today with many Christians? He's shifting your focus to the things that God had already promised to take care of, just so you would stop this. The one command in that passage, seek ye first. Seek ye first. Folks, before you make that decision, you need to apply some tests to it. Does this violate? Seek ye first. Well, yeah, it does, but how could I say no? Well, the same way that God requires you to say no. Say, no, I'll trust the Lord. That's where you see God. That's where you pray, give us this day our daily bread. But if you're in charge, you never pray that prayer. You'll never pray it. You'll never mean it. You'll never know it. You'll never understand it. Amen. My fifth point is pray independence of provision. Give us, Matthew 6, 11, give us. The believer confesses his inadequacy and dependency upon God. He is dependent upon God even for the basics of life. When you pray this prayer, you're making a statement of whom you are dependent upon for your necessities in life. You're not walking around the home and saying, I'm the one who did all this, woman. I'm the one who brings home the bacon. I'm the one who calls the shots. We don't need that kind of Christianity today. We need men that say, darling, we need to trust God. Kids, we need to trust God for everything. And your dad's going to prove this to you by not giving in to this compromise. I'm going to do what the Bible asks us to do, and we're going to trust him every day. Because the greatest thing I want to teach you, child, is that you can depend upon your God. Amen. not trying to prove how great you are, Dad, how much money you can make. All of that will be worth nothing one day. But the things you teach them about God will be in their soul forever. It'll help them raise their own children and teach them those principles, and they will be a godly generation. That's what we need today, amen? Pray independence upon God. It is directly a result of what you do today, Well, I'm gonna give you this quote. As I was studying and I was looking, I don't know how I came across this, but there was a governor of New York just recently during COVID that saw that the numbers of COVID was coming down. So he had a press conference and this is what he said. He says, it is directly a result of what you do today. The number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Fate did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that. That governor had to resign a short while later because of sexual abuse. You want to know who took him out of that? God did that. Now, I don't know about the whole COVID thing and all the numbers, but all I know is if something good's happening, God did it. And if God's taking care of you, God did it. And if you've got enough food on your table, God's doing that. God does it. Are you depending upon God? Are you trusting him for your daily bread? Are we asking Lord, Lord, and you're allowed to do that with your family. Just pray and say, Lord, help us to keep paying the bills. Help us, Lord, to keep doing the right thing. Provide for us what we need. They need to hear dad say, Lord, provide for us. Because that way you're not the hero. He's the hero. Amen. My last point in this is pray daily for provision. Give us or give daily bread. Give daily bread. This teaches the believer to come to God daily in prayer and trust him to meet his needs. When we pray a prayer like this, we come to the Lord daily. You got to come daily when you say, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. That's not a weekly prayer. That's not a weekly bread. It's a daily bread. Folks, we need to go to the Lord every day and say, Lord, please provide for my family today. Give us what we need today. Folks, when we stop praying that, we are the ones that are starting to take care of our families, and you're not going to like the result of that. You gotta pray, Lord, give us this day. The disciples went to Jesus and said, Jesus, teach us to pray. Then he says, well, after this manner pray ye therefore. You know what he says in all that about all the provisions of your life, all the necessary? He says, give us this day our daily bread. That's the one thing that Jesus, the Son of God, told the disciples when they said, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. This is what you need to pray. Give us this day our daily bread. Enough for today, and I'm praying today, and I'm trusting today, and Lord, I know you're gonna provide today. Amen? That's what that means. Let's bow our heads. The Lord cares about you, but he wants you to be dependent upon him. He wants you to live a life where today, today you come to Him. What's your need today, right now? What's your need? What is it that you need? Forget the wants today, I don't want any want prayers. The Bible says He'll give you the desires of your heart when you learn to walk with Him daily. Now let's learn to walk with Him today. What's the one thing on your heart right now that you need today? Let's ask him for that. And not just ask him for you, ask him for others. Say, Lord, give us, give us this today. What's the need of your heart, Christian? Maybe you're here today, you don't know Christ as Savior. If you were to die today, are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven? Good intentions don't get you saved. Going to church doesn't get you saved. Being religious doesn't get you saved. Coming from a Christian family doesn't get you saved. Are you born again? Are you regenerated by the Spirit of God? Have you trusted Christ and the blood that he shed for you? If you're here today, you'd say, preacher, I think that's my need today. I need to be saved. Well, that's what the Lord wants to hear from you. Don't put it on the shelf till tomorrow. You'd say, preacher, that's me. I need to be saved today. Could you pray for me? I would like to get this settled in my heart.