How Kingdom Citizens Pray: Our Need

Jesus Messiah

Welcome

Good morning family.

Today is Palm Sunday, the day nearly 2000 years ago when Jesus the Messiah entered the city of Jerusalem riding a donkey, celebrated by a crowd of people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!”

Although they didn’t fully understand what was about to happen, there was likely some recognition that Jesus was fulfilling a prophecy that Zechariah the prophet had made 550 years earlier in Zechariah 9:9...

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Isn’t that good news? Our King comes to us!!! Our King is righteous! Our King is a Savior! Our King is humble!

In just a moment some of our children have a bit more to share about what happened that day 2000 years ago, but first…

3 quick announcements:

1) A word about PBC. We are Worshipers.

Life is worship!!! PBC gatherings are like a pit stop

2) Easter at PBC

Good Friday communion service in the chapel, April 15 at 6:30 PM

Joint Sunday School & Breakfast, Easter Sunday at 9 AM

Easter Sunday, 10:30

Flyers at the blue flag

3) TableTalk at 5:30

"Bear burdens for one another” (Sterling Tollison)

Now I’m going to ask you to remain seated as we listen to our little ones who have “prepared praise” for our Savior King.

PBC Kids Presentation

Hosanna Loud Hosanna

Hosanna (Praise is Rising)

The Power of the Cross

Prayer of Confession (Covetousness), Adam Hess

Lead Me to the Cross

PBC Catechism #15

Why do we take the time to go over a catechism question every week?

Princeton theologian Archibald Alexander said, catechisms are like firewood in a fireplace. Without the fire—the Spirit of God— firewood will not in itself produce a warming flame. But without fuel there can be no fire either.

More important than us catechizing each other in this worship gathering, is you catechizing one another throughout the week. Especially those with young children!

WSC, The Baptist Catechism by Benjamin Keach, or the New City Catechism

This year, we’re going through a catechism created from our church statement of faith and covenant. If you’d like a copy, contact the church office.

Where did our sinful nature come from?

Though created in the image of God, Adam and Eve voluntarily rebelled against God and brought sin into the world through the Fall.

Pastoral Prayer (Hopson)

Thanksgiving—The Spirit calls

General call goes out to all who hear the Gospel

But the effectual call, that resurrects our dead hearts, is produced by the Spirit to those whom you will

As Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

Spirit, if you had not called us, we would be damned

Call more today!

Take the firewood of this worship service and use it to ignite a flame in the hearts and minds of everyone here or watching online.

Create faith that does not yet exist, and strengthen the faith that does

Prayer for PBC—Meet our needs

You invite us to pray for daily bread

Physical (healing, strength)

Financial (neither poverty nor riches)

Emotional (lonely, anxious, afraid)

Prayer for sister church—Grace Baptist Church (Ryan Davidson)

Continued unity and faithfulness to God’s Word

Prayer for US—Religious freedom

Understanding of religious freedom has shifted from the free exercise of religion (which ensures our freedom to live out our core beliefs in the culture) to the freedom to worship (which allows us to gather like this as long as we keep our unpopular beliefs to ourselves)

Help us to remember that true Christianity is always personal, but never private. We cannot faithfully follow Jesus if we check our Christianity at the door when we leave here.

Give us courage to obey God rather than man if/when our liberties are threatened

Prayer for the world—Czech Republic

President Miloš Zeman (mee-lowsh zay-mahn)

11 million souls

Largest religion is non-religious (72%) —40%+ profess atheism, 16% agnostic.

Social issue(s)—crime, sexual immorality, substance abuse, depression, suicide (all at higher rates than during communist control)

Spiritual issue(s)—Copies of newly translated Czech Bible to be distributed among the people

Local churches—healthy and holy

Laborers

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

Last week things in the Boutot home were a bit more chaotic than usual. We were entrusted with three extra children to care for in addition to the five that God has already blessed us with.

It reminded me of a what a stand-up comedian with five kids named Jim Gaffigan once said. If you want to know what it’s like to have so many kids, “Just imagine you’re drowning... and someone hands you a baby.” [1]

In all seriousness it wasn’t too bad. The children were all very well behaved. In fact, Holly and I were asked several times what it was like to care for 8 KIDS for a week and our normal response was that 5 and 8 aren’t that much different.

Except at mealtimes. At mealtimes it’s like The Hunger Games. But worse because nobody gets eliminated.

Mealtimes were hard because kids are naturally needy. And nothing really reveals their neediness quite like mealtime.

For one thing, no kid is ever a little hungry. They’re either too full to eat another bite (unless it’s candy) or they’re SO hungry you have to stop EVERYTHING and feed them right now!

And when you have multiple children to feed, it’s even more complicated because you can’t just give everyone the same thing either. I wanted to just give every kid a single slice of bread, but that didn’t work. Some of them wanted peanut butter and fluff, or peanut butter and jelly, or ham and cheese, etc.

Even though they can see you making 37 sandwiches for lunch, they’ll still ask you 13 times if you’re making something for them!

And even if the kids try to help they end up spilling the Kool-Aid all over your food so it’s easier to do it yourself.

Few things reveal the neediness of children like their need for basic necessities like food.

But kids, don’t feel too bad. Because even though the grown-ups in this room probably hate to admit it, the same is true for us.

Few things reveal our neediness like our need for basic necessities like food.

Turn to Matthew 6:11

Jesus is teaching Christians how to pray

After telling us how to approach God (as Father)...

Jesus lists six petitions (requests)

Remember, the point is not necessarily to repeat these verbatim, say amen and be done with your prayer time, but to view the petitions as categories for prayer

1) “Hallowed be Your name” (God’s name to be recognized as holy)

2) “Your Kingdom come” (God’s churches to be healthy, holy, and faithful, Jesus to return)

3) “Your will be done” (people to obey God’s Word—lost to be saved, Christians to be obedient)

Now if Jesus stopped there you would think that prayer was only supposed to be about super serious, super spiritual things. But Jesus is far too practical and down-to-earth for that.

So with the 4th petition He shifts focus to something basic, something necessary, something that reveals our neediness...

Matthew 6:11—“Give us this day our daily bread,”

This fourth petition has only 7 words in the English language, but in these simple words Jesus shows us an inconvenient and uncomfortable truth about ourselves. We are needy.

With God’s help we’ll look at each of those 7 words, and there we’ll see

Five Reminders that We Are Needy:

1) We Must ASK

“Give us this day our daily bread”

Let’s look at that word GIVE.

Does anybody inwardly bristle a little bit when you see that word ? Do you feel demanding?

Like a child who says, “gimme!”?

It could be you feel that way because you struggle asking.

Last week, we talked about two pitfalls in prayer from James 4:2-3. On the one hand, we’re tempted to not ask. On the other hand, we’re tempted to ask selfishly.

I was curious where most of us struggled, so I took an informal poll of the congregation and nearly 90% of the respondents said “not asking” was the greater struggle.

Jesus knows this is the greater struggle, which is why He repeatedly tells us to ask...

Matthew 7:7—“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Mark 11:24—“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

John 15:7—“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Several stories in Luke 18 illustrate this principle...

A widow received justice from an evil judge because she keeps asking. If an unjust judge will respond to the persistent asking of a widow, how much more will your heavenly Father respond to the persistent asking of His children?

Two men go to the temple to pray. One of them asks for nothing, but essentially brags to God about how great (he thinks) he is. The other man asks God for one thing: mercy. And he receives it.

The disciples rebuke parents for asking Jesus to bless their babies. “Don’t come to Jesus with petty things like that!” But Jesus rebukes the disciples and welcomes the asking families.

A blind beggar screams to Jesus, asking for mercy. Everybody tells the beggar to be quiet. Jesus invites the man to ask whatever he wants. He wants to see, and Jesus heals him.

In his book, A Praying Life, Paul Miller says, "All of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in the Gospels can be summarized with one word: ask. His greatest concern is that our failure or reluctance to ask keeps us distant from God.” [2]

Remember: prayer is not a magic formula. Asking doesn’t guarantee we receive whatever we want.

But, if we ask in Jesus’ name (in other words, ask with a heart that truly wants what He wants) we will find our hearts are ready to receive whatever God gives us.

Tim Keller—“The basic purpose of prayer is not to bend God’s will to mine, but to mold my will into His.” [3]

Why don’t you ask?

Pride? (I don’t need any help!)

Fear? (what if He says “no”?)

Ignorance? (I didn’t know I could!)

Impatience? (I don’t want to wait so I’ll just do it myself)

Shame? (I don’t think I deserve to ask Him for anything)

Bitterness? (He’s said “no” too many times in the past)

Unbelief? (I don’t believe God is strong enough to handle this/I don’t believe God is kind enough to handle this)

We are needy so we must ask. There are things we simply cannot do on our own.

But if there’s a part of you that still feels selfish for asking, consider a second reminder from our text...

2) We Must SHARE

“Give us this day our daily bread”

Let’s look at that word US.

It is not enough to ask the Father to meet MY needs. We must take it a step further and ask the Father to meet OUR needs.

What Jesus has in mind here is more specific than praying “Dear Lord, please meet everybody’s needs, Amen!”

The same group that prays “our Father in heaven” here prays “give us this day our daily bread”

This is a prayer for the Father to meet the needs of your brothers and sisters in the faith

I believe the first and most natural place to apply Jesus’ teaching here is in the context of your local church

But how do you know what your brother or sister needs?

Galatians 6:2-3—“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

Share your time with others so you can learn what they need

Start simply by getting to know them—ask questions about them!!! Don’t just talk about you or your interests!

A great way to do that is to share a meal together after church or at some other time

ASK them—how can I pray for you?

The more you invest in a relationship, the more likely they’ll be to open up about their needs

Share your burdens with others so they can learn what you need

Notice Galatians 6:2 again. Jesus has a law that I must help bear your burdens. But I cannot obey that law if you will not share them with me.

You may not be comfortable talking much about your needs, but you must share your burdens with each other.

You don’t need to share every burden with everybody. Some burdens require a greater level of trust, and that’s okay.

Share deep and share wide

Share deep by finding 2-4 trusted brothers or sisters who really know you and can share your burdens with you

Share wide by, as best as you’re able, getting to know as many people in your church as you possibly can and sharing burdens with one another

Church directory—we have 147 members in this church. With a little bit of effort there’s no reason why there should be anybody here that you don’t know at least a little bit.

But remember, the goal is not merely to know them but to know them so we can pray for and with them to our heavenly Father!

At our monthly prayer meetings we gather in smaller groups around tables and pray over a page or two of our church directory. Last Sunday night, one of the young men at my table was praying for one of our members that he didn’t know very well. And in his prayer, he asked that God would help him to get to know this person so he could pray for him more accurately in the future. That’s what I want for every single one of you that calls PBC your church home.

Simple application: Get a prayer calendar at the blue flag after the service

We are needy so we must share. We cannot faithfully live the Christian life without one another.

To paraphrase Galatians 6:3, if you think you’ve got this on your own you’re fooling yourself.

Let’s consider a third truth from our text that reveals our neediness...

3) We Must PERSIST

“Give us this day our daily bread”

Let’s look at three English words here that all convey the same idea: THIS DAY and DAILY.

There is some controversy over how best to translate the original language here. The word “daily” is only found here in popular Greek literature.

Some have suggested it actually means “tomorrow” not “today” [4]

More likely, the term means “the day that is coming.”

So if you pray it in the morning you’re asking for provision for today. If you pray it at night, you’re asking for provision for tomorrow. [5]

But the point is that we must repeatedly ask. Jesus doesn’t tell us to ask for “this week’s bread,” or “this month’s bread,” or “this year’s bread,” or “a lifetime supply of bread.” He says to ask for daily bread.

Now, of course, Jesus isn’t implying it’s wrong to think, plan, or pray, for long-term concerns.

Instead, He intends to teach us two important principles:

We need grace and provision from God every day

God only gives us grace and provision for the moment that we’re in.

This ought to remind us of how God fed His people in the wilderness with manna

So, we must persist in prayer. If you poured out your soul to the Father this morning, guess what? He wants you to do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that.

Maybe that seems cruel to you. I mean, God could give you a lifetime supply if He wanted to, couldn’t He? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10). The silver is His, the gold is His (Haggai 2:8). He could say a word and you’d never need anything ever again. Why must we persist in prayer?

Because God loves you far too much to give you anything less than the very best. And the the very best God can give you is Himself. And by inviting you to come to Him daily, He’s inviting you to receive Him!!!

We are needy so we must persist. Above everything else, we need God! So He invites us to come daily seeking His help to meet our needs.

Let’s consider a fourth truth from our text that reveals our neediness...

4) We Must ACT

“Give us this day OUR daily bread”

Let’s look at that word OUR.

Now at first, this may seem a repeat of the word, “us,” but there’s a little more going on here.

In the original language, “our” is in a grammatical case that indicates possession. So the emphasis here is not only on our corporate need for bread, but on the fact that this is our bread. It belongs to us.

Now that might seem strange to you at first. After all, God doesn’t owe us anything. That’s true.

But the emphasis here in that little word “our” is that this is bread we have not only been faithful to pray for, but faithful to act for.

400 years ago the Dutch theologian Herman Witsius put it like this: “When we pray that our bread may be given us, we are taught industry. We call it our bread, which means that it is to be procured by our own labour. None but a madman will expect that the ravens will bring him bread and flesh, though this once happened to Elijah. . . . Every man must labour in his calling to earn his own bread.” [6]

As we come to the Lord with our requests, let’s consider how He is also calling us to act.

Think of a farmer in Jesus’ day. He prays to the God of heaven for a good harvest. He prays specifically for rain to water his crops. He knows that without the rain he’ll harvest nothing, so he prays. But that’s not all he does. He plows the ground and plants seed.

So too with us! We pray for daily bread, and if we are able we get up and act.

Don’t stop at praying for God to provide. If you’re able to work, get a job!

Don’t stop at praying for God to save your lost family members. If you’re able, tell them about Jesus!

Don’t stop at praying for God to deliver you from an addiction. Talk to someone and take the necessary steps to get help!

But be careful here. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’re independent and self-sufficient.

In the movie Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart plays the father of a Virginia family at the outbreak of the Civil War. He promised his wife on her deathbed that he would raise their seven children as good Christians. So he reluctantly gathered them around the table and gave a blessing before the meal. In one scene he prayed,

“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’ it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we’re about to eat. Amen.” [7]

One way to avoid this sort of mentality is to remember to act not only for your daily bread but our daily bread

Consider an example from the Apostle James...

James 2:15-16—If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

Don’t just pray that God will meet your brother/sister’s needs. If you’re able to help them, help them!

If we’re faithful to do this, you may find you’re able to stockpile a little less for yourself, which also will help you to rely on your Father a little bit more.

Randy Alcorn—"How can we meaningfully pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,” when we own the bakery?” [8]

We are needy so we must act. When God answers prayers, He usually uses ordinary means. And often that means you and I rolling up our sleeves and working for our bread. Or for someone else’s. But we don’t do it in our own strength. We do it in the strength that He supplies.

Let’s consider a final truth from our text that reveals our neediness...

5) We Must TRUST

“Give us this day our daily BREAD”

Let’s look at that word BREAD.

What does Jesus mean by bread?

Some of the early church fathers couldn’t imagine that Jesus literally meant actual bread, so they taught that this was a prayer for God to feed us with the bread of communion, or with His Word (we even have a popular devotional called “Our Daily Bread” today).

John Calvin’s response to these interpretations was simple and to the point: “This is exceedingly absurd.” [9]

So what does Jesus mean? He means exactly what He says! He means bread!

Bread was a staple necessity in Jesus’ day. It was essential provision for the life and health of the body.

In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther said that “daily bread” means “Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. [10]

Here’s the amazing thing. The God whose name is holy, whose Kingdom is coming, whose will is perfect and beautiful and good and unshakeable, that God cares about you. And He doesn’t only care about your spiritual wellbeing. He cares about your body’s needs. He cares about the most mundane and basic aspects of your life.

We are needy so we must trust.

This is a God you can trust.

I was thinking last week about how different Jesus is from me. I’m not strong enough to quickly and accurately meet the needs of five hungry children. And I’m not kind enough to do it without occasionally getting frustrated or stressed. But not Jesus.

He is strong enough to turn a few loaves of bread into enough food to feed thousands of hungry people. But having that strength is one thing. Plenty of people in this world could feed thousands or even millions, but instead of giving they take. Jesus isn’t like that. He is strong and kind.

His kindness is evident in how He notices the hunger of the crowds. And their hunger doesn’t stress or irritate Him. Jesus won’t send them away.

He can provide because He’s strong. And He does provide because He’s kind.

Trust Jesus, because He’s so strong He can provide your daily bread.

Trust Jesus, because He’s so kind He will provide your daily bread.

Jesus Strong and Kind

Benediction

Philippians 4:19-20—“And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”