Learning to Pray, Part 4: Daily Dependence

Type: Wednesday Evening Service

Series: Fresh Fire: Learning to Pray

Sermon: Part 4: Daily Dependence

🗣️ Speaker: Pastor Tom Van Kempen

This message explores the profound simplicity of "Give us this day our daily bread" from the Lord's Prayer, revealing how it teaches humble dependence on God rather than self-sufficiency. God desires daily relationship over efficient provision, inviting believers to trust Him one day at a time instead of hoarding or worrying about the future. Beyond physical needs, this portion of Lord’s prayer points to a deeper spiritual hunger that only Jesus, the true Bread of Life, can satisfy through fresh daily communion with Him.

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• Full Transcript

  Good evening. Oh, you guys sound so good. This Wednesday night crowd is so beautiful, so awesome. I really appreciate all of you being here. And welcome to Fresh Fire, Learning to Pray. I call it number four. It's kind of actually number five because the first one was on a Sunday morning and the other subsequent four have been on Wednesday nights. So it can be four or five. I'm calling it number four. and as the title states, we're learning to pray. So please don't be offended by that statement because we will be forever learning to pray, just so you know. There's not the super spiritual prayers and the novice prayers. We're all novice when it comes to prayer. We all need to learn something. We all need to grow in figuring out what this supernatural dialogue is really all about. But when I'm talking about learning to pray tonight, I'm specifically referring to this idea that the Lord's Prayer is more than just a couple of verses in the Bible. It is literally a guide, a model, an outline to organize our thoughts about who God is and how he operates in this two-way conversation that we call prayer. So we started out where Jesus said those two words, our Father. Say Father. Father. Yeah. We learned that if we really want to get into prayer, if we really want to understand it, if we really want to maximize the potential that we have in prayer, we have to be able to identify God as our heavenly Father. If we just see him as this mighty king, we're going to miss out on many of the benefits that prayer offers. If we see him as this distant God, we'll probably never take anything to him in prayer to begin with. And so we need to see him as father. So Jesus starts this model off by saying, our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That's right. In other words, before we really get into the petition part of our prayer, before we get into asking God for things, let's just hallow his name. Let's just celebrate who he is. Let's just praise the name of Jesus Christ. And maybe you've thought about this. Maybe you've wondered, why do most churches, especially on the Protestant side, but maybe even Catholicism, why do they start with a song or two or three or four songs? And this is one of the primary reasons, because Jesus trained us, Jesus taught us, that as we begin coming to God with whatever it is we come to Him with, we should begin with praise. Who can say amen? And we don't praise Him just because He's our Father, but hallowed be Thy name. His name is so varied. And in the Old Testament, there's dozens of names. And in the New Testament, Jesus has dozens of names. And so between the Old and the New Testament, there's probably at least 50 different names, maybe more, and titles of who God is and what he wants to represent in our lives. And as we discover those and learn more about those, it becomes easier and easier to celebrate who he is. And it becomes easier and easier to believe him to do the miracles that we oftentimes need in our own lives. But there's one other thing we need to get before we get on to asking God for our stuff, and that is your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, the proper priorities is God first in us after that somewhere along the line. Whatever it is God wills, that's what we're looking for. And what's interesting is when we look at the subsequent verses, verses 11, 12, and 13, each of them is like an individual prayer inside of the Lord's prayer. So let me read verse 11 to and this is a part of the Lord's prayer, but it's also a prayer in and of itself. Listen to it. Just a couple of words. Give us this day our daily bread. Would you say that with me? Give us this day our daily bread. One more time. Give us this day our daily bread. Wow, it seems pretty simple. Seems like there might not be much to preach on here, but you're going to be surprised because modern humanity looks at bread a lot different than people did in Jesus' day. I, for one, love bread, but I'm now afraid to eat it. Aren't you? For the last 20 years, we've been told that it's the worst thing in the world. We've been told that the processing of bread makes it dangerous and that we shouldn't be eating that stuff. We're told that it contributes to obesity and heart disease and diabetes. And so we have all these low-carb diets, these no-carb diets, these keto-friendly everything restaurants, and the list goes on and on and on. If you actually walk into a restaurant today and you ask for a bread basket, they act like you're asking for a basket of dynamite or something, that you're going to do harm to somebody. But listen, when Jesus teaches us to pray, He doesn't say give us today our kale smoothie. Amen for that, yeah. He doesn't say give us this day our almond flour wrap. He says bread. And in the ancient world, bread was not a side dish. It was life itself. if you didn't have bread, you didn't have a future. So by telling us to pray for bread, Jesus is inviting us into a life of total dependence. He wants us to realize that the fire of our spiritual life requires fuel from his hand every single day. Say every. Every single day, guys. It's not once a week. It's not Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. We need something from him every single day. So from this verse, I have four things that I believe this prayer, this verse is trying to teach us today. And number one is this. This prayer teaches humble dependence on God. Robin, it begins with one simple word, give. this is not a selfish child demanding his or her heavenly father give them what they want this is a person who has already gone through the first three steps that we talked about in the introduction they see god as heavenly father they're in all of his many way names and vast resources and they're more interested is in his kingdom than their own and in light of all of this. They approach their father, they approach the king, and they make a very humble request. Two images come to my mind. The first one is a child asking their father for something. So I remember moving into the first house that my parents ever owned. It was, what was the address? 415? Was that the address, Dad? Do you remember? 415? 315 South 4th Street. Yeah, 315 South 4th Street. We moved into that house when I was 10 years old because I was going into fifth grade. And in fifth and sixth grade, I would walk by the store that my dad owned on Main Street. So you must be a really pretty cool guy if you own a store in Main Street, right? And that was my dad. So I'd walk by that store. I'd often, because it was like 7.30 in the morning, and they didn't open the store till 9. So I'd look in the store windows, and I'd see what was going on in there. And then I'd make my way to school. And then after school, I'd come back the same way, And I would invariably, at least once a week, I'd walk into my dad's store like I owned the store. Because I'm the owner's dad. I'm the king's kid. But listen, listen. I would ask him for money, typically. Maybe for some candy at the Osco drug across the street. Maybe I'd ask for some money for a new pair of tennis shoes because I'm joining basketball in a couple of weeks. Or I'd ask him for some money just for some school supplies. And here's what's interesting. Yeah, he was my dad, but he was also the boss. And so I would approach him with a little bit of confidence and a whole lot of fear. Not that he might say no, but just he had this aura. He was this owner, this master of his domain, it looked like to me. He was in charge. He was my dad. Now, I know my dad loved me, but I just knew that he may say yes, he may say no. So I wrapped all of my requests in as much honor and respect as I could muster up. This leads me to the second image, a servant asking a king. This first word give also means grant. And the idea here is like a king granting a petition. This again is another respectful request from someone who knows who they're talking to, who also knows that they have nothing to offer the king other than their gratitude and maybe a very positive, humble attitude. God doesn't grant our petitions because we earn it. Not because we achieve something. Not because we deserve it. Everything is grace. Say grace. Everything is grace. We struggle with this because we're trained to pay our own way. I'll give you an example. Recently, I walked into a restaurant in town, and it was packed. There wasn't an open seat. Robin and I wanted to eat. We were kind of in a hurry. We wanted to get going. And someone from the church was sitting at a table, table for eight, and there was only six of them. So the man of the house said, would you like to join us? And I said, sure. So we sat down, everybody took the order, and the cashier asked, is this going to be on one check or multiple checks? And I said, one check. I'll pay for everything. And so I thought everything was okay. They get ready to bring the bill over to my table. I give them my credit card and it is intercepted by someone else at the table. And then it's intercepted by someone else at the table. Two different people did not want Pastor Tom and Robin to pay for it because we have to pay our own way. Now listen, I'm grateful, okay? But this often happens to you probably too at a table where you're wrestling for a bill because sometimes we almost feel embarrassed to take someone else's money, don't we? Sometimes we feel like we don't deserve it. Sometimes we feel like I have to pay my own way but listen, everything is grace. Say grace. The air you breathe is grace. The job you have is grace. The shoes you're wearing right now are simply by grace. Everything is grace, and everything, therefore, is a gift from the hand of God. Do you understand that the Greek word for grace is charis, C-H-A-R-I-S, if I'm going to put it in English. And the Greek word for gift is charisma, just add an M-A on the end, and you've got the word for gift. So a gift is given not because you earn it, not because you deserve it. It's just given by the giver. Now listen, I know You think you work hard for the money. So hard for it, honey. Who sang that? Ooh, secular people over here. But I'm telling you, I wrote that phrase down, and that's the first thing that popped into my head was Donna Summer. And so I did some research, and I was like, where did that song come from? and she actually walked into a restaurant one time with a person who had been working all day in the restroom. You know, a fancy restaurant or hotel has those kinds of things. And the phrase went through her mind, she's working hard for her money. She wrote a song based on that. And so we all think that. I don't know very many people who go, you know what, I got away with murder today. I didn't work at all and I made a whole bunch of money. Everybody thinks they work hard for their money, but the Bible says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. God gives us every dollar, every piece of clothing, every home we live in, every car we drive, the box of cereal in your cupboard, the can of soup that's right next to it. God gives it all as a gift in Jesus' name. Who can say amen? Sure, I get it. We work hard. But even the strength to work hard is a gift from God himself. So this particular line in the Lord's Prayer resets our posture from self-sufficiency to God dependency. But there's more. While we're learning to depend on God, Jesus reminds us that we are not standing in the bread line alone. Look at the next word here. Give us. Give us. We talked about the plural nature of this prayer a couple of weeks ago, but this is where it really takes on added emphasis. Point number two is this. This prayer emphasizes the communal nature of the request. Jesus did not teach, give me my daily bread. He said, give us. Yes, faith is personal, but it is not ever private. You cannot pray this prayer with a closed fist or closed eyes. In all of our personal prayers, God wants us to have an awareness of other people's needs. The Lord's Prayer pulls us out of our nearsighted focus and forces us to see a much bigger picture. God wants you to see the whole church. We're all in this together. Amen? Who can say amen? We're all in this together. God wants you to see your entire family. It's not you and your wife and your children. It's a family unit. Give us this day our daily bread. God wants you to see the entire community. I want to show you a video here real quick. Look at this. The evidence of the major winter storm is all over the south. Here in Mississippi, piles of tree branches, even entire trees brought down by thick ice, litter the ground throughout neighborhoods. It actually really sounds like a gun going off. You just hear it when it pops and then it quumbles and hit the ground. Basically, you know, the branches falling off and just hitting the roof and everything. And then we had car damage. Well more than a week after the storm, power remains out to thousands. And it's expected to be out for several more days. But hope is here. Convoy of Hope is partnering with our friends from Chick-fil-A to deliver thousands of hot meals to residents affected by the storm. More than 10,000 sandwiches and sides being delivered by Convoy of Hope and volunteers to churches and community gathering spots. Many like this one without power themselves. Distributions here by flashlight, but making a real difference in the lives of people like the water, groceries, blankets, generators, propane tanks and more being delivered by Convoy of Hope to people in four states. Thank you. We appreciate everything that you're doing for us. It really helps people out that don't have anything. I just want to say thank you and you know, there's a lot of people out there still in need. you for your support of Convoy of Hope that allows us to provide hope in every storm. Convoy of Hope is one of the ministries that we support on a regular basis. And we should never forget that when we're praying, God, I need, I need, I need, that if he starts providing in any way, shape, or form, we should remember the people who've been devastated in parts of our community, but around our entire nation. I mean, there was a snowstorm, what do they call it, Snowmageddon or something like that? Dozens and scores of people have died. Many people have lost important things in their lives, houses, garages, roofs, all kinds of things. That picture that you saw, that was actually south of where I lived in Mississippi. Oxford, Mississippi is less than two hours from the Gulf of Mexico. And they're experiencing things like that. And the reason I bring this up is because we have a Convoy of Hope ministry that actually puts together toiletries. Do we have the toiletry list also? I hope we have that. But we put together things like shampoo and bars of soap and toothbrushes and all of these different things. But we rely on the congregation to go to the store and buy those things. and we've got a box right there out in the foyer out there where we place those things. But it seems like we easily forget that that is a ministry because things here in Florida weren't that bad. Oh, it got cold for a couple of days. We might have had a couple of broken water lines here and there, but we should be grateful that what happened up north didn't happen here and take our good fortune, not in heap it upon ourselves, but share with other people who can say amen. So I just want to challenge you this week. Maybe you can go to the store and buy a couple of supplies for our Convoy of Hope ministry that meets on a regular basis. And then we put all these things in a box, package it up, send it to Convoy, and then they take it to areas that are hit just like this and supply them with those basic needs that people need. Listen, you cannot sincerely pray this verse while ignoring hungry people around you. If I ask God for bread while ignoring my neighbor's hunger, I've missed the heart of the prayer. When we say give us, we're asking God to not only supply our personal needs, but each other's. That includes the children who come to walk, and they're going to be coming here in about a month. Our neighbors, our spouses, and even fellow people who are born here in America. So this prayer, when properly understood, is designed to expand our compassion for other people. When God provides for us, the natural response should be generosity. When we say, Lord, use me to help provide bread for someone else, that's exactly what he's going to Number three, this verse highlights a daily connection with God. What's the next one? Give us this day our daily. Day is actually repeated here. It's give us this day our daily bread. It seems like this is probably the most important part of the verse since it is communicated in two different ways. We live in a culture that always has backup plans. We believe in bulk buying. We don't buy one roll of toilet paper. We buy five cases of toilet paper. And when a storm is coming, we buy out the store. Right? We buy everything we can get because we want to make sure we have enough. But Jesus teaches us to pray for today. That feels a little uncomfortable to me. I sometimes prefer security over surrender. But Jesus is echoing a story in this particular verse, and his audience knew the story very well. It's the story of the Israelites and manna from heaven. This story points to God's faithfulness. Now, if you go back to Exodus chapter 16, verses 1 and 2, you will find that the Israelites begin this story by complaining. Hebrews tells us that 10 different times they complain against Moses and against God. But this is one of the first times that they do it. I think it might be actually the second or the third. But God is trying to teach us something. He's trying to teach us that we should take things to God in prayer before we complain. Who can say amen? That complaining is never the appropriate response. Complaining is never, say never, the right thing to do. It's take things to God in prayer. if we actually believe he's listening and that he's going to answer, why would we complain? He's got it all under control. But the reality is complaining comes all too quickly to our lips. It seems to be our native language. But rather than complain about your neighbor, how about praying for your neighbor? Rather than complaining about your dead-end job, pray that it is not a dead-end job or that you get a different job. Rather than complaining about your lack of pay, pray that God will raise your pay. But why did God give the manna just one day at a time? Have you ever wondered why? Why not at least a week? Preferably a month. Here's why. Dependence grows best in daily sunshine. if you plant something, you want the sun to come out. Sure, you want a couple of rain clouds once in a while to pour on it, but you want sunshine. God is more interested in a personal relationship than efficiently taking care of your needs to your satisfaction. We want, Lord, give me a five-year plan. God says, walk with me today. God often gives us just enough light for the step ahead. He points you in a direction and says, go without revealing what is at the end of the line. And notice, instead of complaining about their lack, God was inviting them to trust. Complaining focuses on what's not there, what's missing in your life. But praying focuses on the one who is walking side by side with you. God, secondly, is teaching us to trust instead of worry. We talked about this this past Sunday. You can't pray, give us this day while mentally living in next year. God's grace is delivered daily like fresh bread. Who can say amen? Jesus later says in verse 34, and we actually studied this on Sunday, do not worry about tomorrow. Why? Because tomorrow's grace hasn't been delivered yet. It's not here, but you have enough grace for today. Don't forget, we're still focused on manna. God provided this manna in the wilderness every day, so God is teaching us one final thing here, and that's the importance of fresh bread. fresh bread some of you are trying to live on a word from God from 1984 let me rephrase that many of us are trying to live on a word from God from 1984 I'm just telling you God has forgotten what's happened in the past he's moving on with or without us God is moving forward Exodus tells us that old manna breeds worms and it stank. What worked yesterday is a breeding ground for parasites and death according to scripture. So don't be telling me about the good old days. They weren't that good to begin with. Okay? We just romanticize things as time goes on. You need fresh strength for today's battles. God usually doesn't supply in bulk because if he did, most of us wouldn't talk to him again until it all ran out. So he wants us every single day. He's a daily baker. He wants you to come into the shop every single morning to see what it is that he's made fresh for you today. A fire needs constant fuel. You don't fuel a fireplace once and expect it to burn for a month. You have to feed it. This prayer is us coming to the wood pile of heaven and saying, Lord, I need more fuel to keep the fire burning today. I need new fuel. Fourth and finally, this verse hints at a deeper meaning to the word bread. Here's the last one. Give us this day our daily bread. What does Jesus mean by using the word bread? Well, the simple answer is the first one we think of. It's referring to our rent. It's referring to the car payment. It's referring to making sure there's enough food in the cabinets. It's referring to the fact that we've got kids to feed, and so we're going to make sure, Lord, give us today's bread so that I can take care of the kids, so that I can get to work, so that I can buy a couch to sit on, and all of the different things that we associate with that. But it's more than just physical things. It's also emotional things. Lord, take care of me and in my mind. Help me to get through the 2 p.m. appointment that I have this afternoon that I don't even want to talk to that person. Father God, just heal me from the baggage that I've grown up with. Help me to be better than that. but there's a whisper of something bigger than the physical, something bigger than the emotional. In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, and he's tempted to turn stones into... You guys remember the story? He's tempted to turn these stones into bread, but this is how Jesus responds. Watch this, Matthew 4.4, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Now, what most people don't know is he's using the word of God with that response right there. Because he's quoting from Deuteronomy. He's quoting what God had to say in response to him giving manna to the Israelites in Exodus chapter 16. So watch this. Exodus 16 happens God gives commentary on Exodus chapter 16 in the book of Deuteronomy and now Jesus is using the words of God where he's giving us commentary on what he originally meant. So when the devil shows up and says, hey, you know, you're the son of God, turn these stones into bread. Jesus immediately goes to scripture and says, shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In other words, God only provided manna so that they would respond to him every single day. Their need for physical food wasn't even the primary reason God gave it to them. God gave it to them because he wanted to create a dependence on him. Now, they already have the dependence, okay? We get everything from God. He just wanted them to recognize the dependence. And so daily bread was the plan from the very beginning because God's word is more important than our dinner. Who can say amen? You need his promises. You need his guidance. You need his encouragement. God has gifted us with this beautiful supernatural vehicle called prayer so that we can learn to lean on him and to seek his face, not just his hand or his blessings. And so later, Jesus says in In John chapter 6 verse 35, I am the bread of life. So again, Jesus keeps going back to this metaphor over and over and over again. But this time he says, you need me. You need Jesus. You need Jesus' life inside of you. We don't just need food on a table. We need Christ in our hearts and in our lives. If all God gave you was food, you'd still be hungry because your deepest hunger is for him. Daily bread means daily presence. It means daily strength. It means daily communion with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit, with God. So if I could have the team come on up to the front. Tonight we've learned that this one simple line, give us this day our daily bread, is actually teaching us four different things. Number one, to depend humbly on God. Number two, to care deeply for other people. Number three, to trust God every single day of your lives. And number four, to seek that deeper hunger that only Jesus can provide. If you were here last Wednesday night, we broke the fast. And if you remember, that's what fasting is all about. As we physically starve ourselves, what we're trying to do is we're trying to relate that physical hunger to our spiritual hunger. And sometimes the spiritual hunger is so numbed by this world that we don't even recognize it. But in fasting, oftentimes it can be recognized. Oftentimes it can be seen. The fire of your spiritual life doesn't burn on yesterday's bread. It burns on today's total dependence. Some of us are tired because we're trying to live on old provision, old strength, old words from God. But God's mercies are new. How often? Every morning. His bread is fresh every day. So I think I'm going to ask you all to stand with me right now. And since the Lord's Prayer is a corporate prayer, I'm going to ask you to repeat a prayer after me. And then after that, we'll have a time of worship and a time of praying at the front for those who desire. But would you just begin by repeating some words after me, beginning with this word. Father, give us today what we need for today. Feed our bodies. Feed our families. Feed our church. Feed our nation. And feed our faith. Feed us with the bread of life. And teach us to come back tomorrow for more. In Jesus' name, amen. If we've got some prayer partners, I'd like to invite you to come to the front and just make yourself available. The team is going to sing a song. And if you need prayer about anything in your life, please come on down and let these men and these women pray with you. Their prayers will make a difference in your life.