Our Daily Bread (The Lord's Prayer Explained - Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's Word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

So we are told in verse 11 to pray to God and ask for a pray and ask for a

Mercedes -Benz, right? That's the as the song goes. Or an

F -150 if that's more your style. And I would just say if you have one, hey, thank

God that you have one. What does he say? Give us this day our daily bread.

What does that tell you? Well, here's the thought that some people have and I actually think it's, I mean, there's some truth to it maybe.

The thought that some people have is you shouldn't pray for anything big. Just pray for your daily bread, you know.

If you get a slice of bread for dinner tonight, just be happy with that. Be content with that. Well, if that's all we did have, if we just had the bare minimum, we should be content.

Amen. But this idea, don't pray for anything beyond that, don't pray for anything big.

I just want to, I'm not sure that's what Jesus is saying. I just want to read what one commentator says. Give us this day.

The word bread here doubtless refers to everything necessary to sustain life.

This petition implies our dependence on God for the supply of our wants.

As we are dependent on him one day as much as the other, it was evidently the intention of the

Savior that we should be offering our prayers every day.

So give us this day our daily bread. In other words, just pray every day.

Yes, whatever you need, pray for that, but pray every day. So if that's the intention that lines up with what the

Apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, that means that Christians are to pray what? Without ceasing.

That doesn't mean that you need to be praying every minute of every hour of every day. That's not the point, but pray every day.

We can do this. We should do this. Pray every day. In scripture, the

Jews did this and Christians did this. They prayed before what event? Every time they did something, they would pray.

What is it? Before they ate, right? Bless the meal. So we would ask God and pray to bless the food.

So I think that's what he's saying. Pray without ceasing. Pray every day.

Ask God for the things that you need, but doesn't God already know the things that you need?

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things, the daily needs, they will be what?

Added unto you? So I would just say don't limit

God. Well, I'm just going to pray for the basic things. Well, you can pray for the basic things, but don't limit

God. I think there's two errors. There's the prosperity gospel, where that guy was praying to the

Lord, Lord give me a $65 million private jet. That's a little excessive, I think.

So I think that is one error. But the poverty gospel, I think there is an error called the poverty gospel.

Because a father, parents, I don't want to use the word spoil, but sometimes parents want to give their children above and beyond, don't they?

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Jesus will say later in chapter seven, I know that's not what

I'm supposed to be saying right now. Jesus will say in chapter seven, or what man is there among you?

If his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

If you then being evil, and Jesus is just acknowledging the sinful condition of mankind, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

So I think God oftentimes wants to give us above and beyond. In Psalm chapter two, just to add to this, the father says to the son, ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.

You realize the father is going to give to Jesus all things? Like literally all things, the whole world, the nations are yours.

Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possessions.

If we are in Christ, what does that mean? We get to share in all of that.

So don't limit God. Okay, enough on that. Let's move on. Verse 12, and this is vital.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now there are a lot of people that like to have their debts forgiven.

But we're not talking about your mortgage and credit card and all your debt. He's talking about sin, right?

So we do the traditional version, if you can call it that, of the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of the service.

And we don't say debts, we say what? Trespasses. What does that mean? Forgive us our trespasses.

This is like when you were a kid and you wandered onto your neighbor's lawn over the fence and they got upset with you.

No, he's talking about sin. Forgive us our sin. That's what he's saying.

So the idea of being forgiven, to pray every day and to ask

God every day, forgive me of my sin.

So to continue the same idea from the last petition, we are to pray for that all the time.

Not in order to get re -saved or to get born again, that we need to keep getting forgiven every day because we can lose our salvation and then get it back and pray and lose it and pray and get it back.

That's not what is going on here at all. Some churches do teach that. And I believe that they are sincere.

They think that people can lose their salvation. We don't believe that that is the case. So what's he saying then?

You are sinning, you're missing the mark every day. And I think we understand that.

Unless you're perfect, every day, some way, somehow, we're all missing the mark.

We're humble enough to say that, that's true for me, it's true for you, it's true for everyone. The person who says that's not true for me,

I don't sin every day, I hardly ever sin. They're lying to you right then.

They need to pray and ask God forgiveness about that. Only Jesus is without sin.

Like if you say you have no sin, John writes, you what? Deceive yourself.

And he says you're deceiving yourself because you're not fooling anyone else. So this is not about being saved and lost and then getting re -saved.

This is about staying in right relationship with God. This is about our fellowship with God.

In order to stay close to God, we need to confess. When we do things wrong and to ask him forgiveness, yes, dare

I say, every single day. Anyone who's married knows what this is like.

You know, to keep the relationship good, you need to admit, okay,

I was wrong, I'm sorry. You know, doing that once a year doesn't cut it.

It needs to be every day. So this is the idea of staying in fellowship.

And it helps to clear up verses 14 and 15. Skip ahead. Verses 14 and 15,

Jesus says, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

Some people have really been hurt. This is probably true with this crowd right here, that there's at least a few people you haven't, there's someone you haven't forgiven.

Does that mean that God hasn't forgiven you, that he won't forgive you? You can't get into heaven or that you're not really, unless you forgive this person or that person.

I don't think that's what's being said at all. Some people are really hurt and it takes a while for them to forgive.

It's not like, okay, your relationship with God is severed because of that. It's just that your relationship with God will be hindered because of it.

We understand Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We have faith in him. Our sins are forgiven.

So he has forgiven us of how many of our sins? One of our sins? Two? A few of them?

All, right? We believe in that full forgiveness. So if that's true, how can we withhold forgiveness towards someone else?

See, it's not a matter of, you need to do this in order to get into heaven. That's not the point.

But to have that right relationship with God, we need to be forgiving other people. Because if you don't, if you're harboring bitterness, that will affect your relationship with God.

That's what he's saying. Because I can sympathize with some people. You've been hurt and you don't want to forgive the person.

I can sympathize with you, but you don't have to answer to me. You have to answer to him.

Okay, we're almost done. Verse 13. And do not lead us into temptation.

And, you know, this verse, there was a, I don't know if it was a scandal, but a few years ago, there was, it was reported on the news that the

Pope wanted to change the Lord's Prayer. Remember that? This was the part that he wanted to change.

Of course, people got all upset about it. And I do not think we should change the Lord's Prayer. But, you know, this does kind of sound misleading.

Do not lead us, well, who are we talking to? God. God, don't lead me into temptation.

Does God lead us into temptation? The book of James tells us that God tempts no man.

God isn't going to lead you into temptation. So what's being said has been suggested that what is meant is that we are to pray asking

God to not allow us to fall into temptation.

Jesus goes on, but deliver us from evil, or more specifically, deliver us from the evil one.

This implies that God has power over Satan. So that if we call upon the

Lord in prayer, he has the ability to deliver us. If we diligently seek him.

In the garden in Matthew 26, the night Jesus was betrayed, you remember how he told his disciples, guys, stay awake and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

And what did they do? They all fell asleep. And then when the temptation came, how did they fare?

Yeah, they all, they all failed. Presumably, if they had stayed awake and prayed, they would have been delivered.

There was another occasion. Jesus told Peter, he said, Satan has asked that he may sift you like wheat.

But Jesus told Peter, but I have prayed for you. So when we realize that Jesus is in heaven today, acting as the one mediator between men and God, that he is our advocate.

Jesus stands before the father. When we pray, our prayers go up, not to Mary, not to the saints, not to other people.

Our prayers go up. They get to God through who? Through Christ.

He is our advocate with the father. Is that an encouragement to you?

That Jesus, if we have faith, when we pray, it's as if Jesus is praying for us.

That the Holy Spirit in Romans 8 is interceding on our behalf. So I hope that's an encouragement to you to pray.

Let's say there's somebody who doesn't pray hardly at all. You know, if you're praying zero minutes a day, if you prayed one minute per day, that would be a huge success.

If you're praying five minutes a day, maybe make it 10. But pray every day.

You know, prayer makes a difference. So in conclusion, the Lord's prayer is a model prayer.

Not to be repeated 15 times in two minutes. I guess that would be repetitious if we did that, but it's not vain.

The Lord's prayer is not vain. This is the word of God. These are the words of Christ.

And therefore, they are powerful, just as prayer is powerful. And when we recognize that, and how

God is our father, and he wants to do things for us, then we can say in worshipful response, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.

Amen. And Lord, we do thank you, and we do praise you. May your name be honored, not only in this house, but in every church house in this land.

I pray that, Lord, you would lead us and guide us. I pray the name of Christ would be honored.

And Father, we pray, asking for your kingdom to come. And if there's any here this morning, who are outside of your kingdom, may today finally be the day that they bow the knee to King Jesus.

We ask all of this in his name. Amen. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.