Getting Bread for the Hungry — Phil Beach Jr.

Listen carefully for a few moments in the book of Luke. We have to see what God is doing in light of this truth that I'm about to read from the Bible. Yes, the Holy Spirit is moving. Yes, the Holy Spirit is laying hold of us.

Yes, the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. Yes, the Holy Spirit is healing our hearts and cleansing us. Yes, the Holy Spirit is crying out and saying, I don't want outward form. Now listen, let me just say this by way of confirmation that the Lord is saying that, but don't misunderstand and think that our problem is necessarily once a week when we gather.

Rejecting Religion as a Seven-Day Lifestyle

Because that is not the real controversy that the Lord has with His people. It's not coming up with some kind of a way of gathering that looks like it's not conforming to a form. God hates religion that is in our life seven days a week.

That's what God is after. He's not necessarily after rebuking a company of people on Sunday morning because two and a half hours they're religious. That's not it. Let me tell you, there wouldn't be an ounce of religion on Sunday morning in the church if people weren't religious Monday through Saturday.

You can't be religious on Sunday if you're not religious Monday through Saturday. So, lest we begin to feel that the moving of the Holy Spirit is because He's after some kind of a change for two hours on a Sunday and possibly in the future on another day, we are deceived.

That's not what God is saying. He is after the spirit of religion that's got a hold of our lives Monday through Sunday. We won't bring religion when we gather together if there is a vital, living, meaningful, fresh relationship with Jesus every day.

Jesus' Teaching on Prayer and Spiritual Bread

Luke chapter 11. In light of what the Holy Spirit is saying, in light of the Holy Spirit wanting us to pray and to seek Him, listen to these words. Luke chapter 11. It came to pass that as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray.

That must have struck the heart of Jesus in a most wonderful way. Teach us to pray. But the moment His disciples made the request, teach us to pray, Jesus became aware that there had to be a readjustment in their hearts if they were to pray effectively.

And we'll see what Jesus taught. Now, of course, we read verses 2 through 4. Our Lord's Prayer. We all know it. Teach us to pray. And then Jesus said, When you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Etc. etc. Go down to verse number 5. And He said unto them. Now, this is right after He taught them how to pray. Now, what Jesus is doing now is this.

He introduced to them an understanding on how to pray. But after He did that, He plunged right in to the very depths of their being and put His finger on a fault that was in their life that was preventing them from being able to effectively pray the way Father wanted them to.

This fault that Jesus addressed has been the fault in the church ever since the Bible was written up to this very moment. And it is the reason why we pray and God is not answering our prayers in the full way that He wants to.

Listen carefully to what Jesus said now. Because He teaches us what the circumstance must be if we are to have true prayer birthed in us. Which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves?

For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed and I cannot rise and give thee.

I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity That word importunity can be translated reckless audacity. Reckless audacity. His persistent, non-stopping.

Because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed. And then Jesus goes back into teaching His disciples about prayer. Ask, again I say unto you, ask and it shall be given to you.

Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Listen, for everyone that is seeking, everyone that is asking receives and he that seeks finds and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

We're familiar with this portion of Scripture. Then Jesus said, If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good gifts to you? But do you see what Jesus did? He changed the focus of the motive of the heart.

He introduced prayer. Then He told a little story about a man who was begging for bread. What did he need the bread for? Somebody else. Hello? Somebody else. Remember the story? Which of you, having a friend, would go to him at midnight, request bread because a friend of yours has come on a journey.

And listen, you have no bread to give him. The only time that we're going to see the Lord Jesus Christ pour out His Spirit and answer our prayers and fill the temple of God with bread is when our hearts have been so dealt with by God and so fashioned by God where we are aware of our need for bread that we might serve others.

The Church Must Receive Bread to Serve Others

The church must, we must be delivered from a self-centered, self-relating, everything revolving around us mentality. Notice the words of Jesus. Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine is on his journey, he's come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.

Have you been gripped with the overwhelming revelation that will bring you to your knees in tears that you don't have any bread to set before anyone who comes to you for help? Or are you still convinced that you have something to give them?

Something of your personality, something of your charisma, something of your Bible doctrines like Al was talking about, something of your religion. Oh, I need help. Well, come to my church. They don't want church, they want Jesus.

We shouldn't be telling people, well, go do this or go do that. It is a sign that we have no bread in the house. The house is empty. You remember the great story of Naomi. Why did she leave Bethlehem?

Because there was a famine and there was no bread in the house. There was no bread and she went and wandered in Moab, which is a picture of the world and the way of the world. And her wanderings resulted in what, Naomi?

What would it have resulted? She lost everything. But let me tell you something. Hallelujah to God. There was a rumor that spread. Listen to the Spirit of God now. There was a rumor that spread through Moab and it fell upon the ears of Naomi.

There is bread in Jerusalem once again. And Naomi said, we've got to go back. We've got to go back. There's bread in the house. Naomi, we know the story took root. They went back and they were blessed.

And brothers and sisters, I'm telling you, we don't need to advertise. We don't need to conform to the world. When bread comes back into the house, the word will spread. When the bread comes back, when the church of God finally gets a hold of the bread of God, the bread of heaven, Jesus said, I am the bread of heaven.

When we finally get a hold of it, when God finally brings it to us, when it finally comes and finds a place in our life, in our homes, when it finally is a part of our very life, the word is going to spread.

People are going to find out. There's bread in Jerusalem. And the lame and the blind and the confused and the religious and the hurting and those whose marriages are ready to be destroyed and the homosexuals and the drug addicts are going to come and they're going to say, where's the bread?

And we're going to say, Jesus is the bread. Jesus is the bread. Do you see it? Do you see it? Teach us to pray, Lord. Jesus loved them so much. And He told them a parable. Y 'all can't pray right until you realize the true motive that prayer must be springing out of can't essentially simply be for me.

But it's got to go beyond. We've got to come to the place where we see that our calling as the church is the soul of the earth, the light of the world. We have the words of eternal life. Let me tell you something.

If the church keeps silent, the world will go to hell. If the church keeps silent, the devil will rise up and take over. It is the presence of God in the church that's restraining sin and evil. We've got to see that our calling is not to be religious.

It's not to do our own thing. But it's to come as a beggar before a holy God and be filled with enough bread to meet our own needs sufficiently so we forget about ourself. We're too preoccupied with ourself, aren't we?

We're too preoccupied with our needs. We're too preoccupied with the things of this life. We're too preoccupied, Gary, with our own world. And we have forgotten that God's heart is broken because there's people who are in need.

Yesterday at this graduation, Lord, have mercy. God, I looked and I looked and I said, Jesus, Jesus, you are the bread of life. Jesus, give us bread so that we can give this bread to the people who are hurting.

Has it gripped your heart yet? Have you seen it, beloved? Has it caused you to weep? Verse 9,. And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given to you. When God's people are asking for bread, when God's people are requesting the Holy Spirit, when God's people are asking for the manifest presence of Jesus to come into their lives with the motive of their heart being, God, I've seen that I'm a beggar.

I've seen that I don't have bread to set before all these people in my life. I beg you to give me bread so I can feed others, so I can give you to others. When that becomes the very heartbeat of our life, I'm telling you by the authority of God's Word, bread's going to come from heaven.

The Holy Ghost is going to come from heaven. Jesus is going to show up and we're going to see the glory of God. The world's going to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ reflected through the church in this late hour.

A Living Relationship With Jesus

But it's a call to relationship. It is a call to relinquishing our life into the hands of God. Relinquishing the things that God puts His hand on. It's a call to follow Jesus and let Him have His way.

All right. It's 12. 12 .08. Now, the bread. Listen, Jesus wants to give us bread, beloved. He wants to give you and me bread. But He wants us to submit to His Holy Spirit so that we can recognize why we're here.

He wants us to have bread so that it can be given to others. Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Young people, you are at the threshold of a generation that is dying for bread.

People in your generation are looking, where's the bread? Where's the reality of God? I have got cousins who have grown up in a so-called Christian home who are now in their mid to late teens and they're wandering.

They don't believe the Bible anymore. They don't believe in Christianity. They're going to yoga. They're going into the Eastern New Age. Why? Because they've looked and they've said, there's no bread here.

There's religion. There's hypocrisy. There's outward form. And they're wandering around right now. Let me tell you something, God's heart is broken. God wants a manifestation of Jesus just like it happened in the days of Acts when Jesus walked around and people followed Him and they were amazed and He healed the sick and He spoke the words of eternal life.

Then when He went up to heaven and the Holy Ghost came down on the New Testament church, the same thing kept happening. The Bible says wherever the disciples went, wherever the early church went, the known Lord was shaken upside down.

Devils were cast out. Revivals broke out. Riots broke out. You can't know this Jesus and have everything just remain the same. This is what God wants, beloved. He wants this. But don't equate it to something that has to happen two and a half hours on Sunday morning.

If this doesn't get a hold of you where you're thinking about it at night and you're going about your day and in your spirit, you're groaning and when you have free time, you're on your knees before God.

If it doesn't get you there, then don't think you're going to be able to come in two and a half hours on a Sunday or one hour on a Wednesday night and get it. Because it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

It's not going to happen. So Jesus is walking in our midst, walking in the church, and He's saying, this is the way. I am the way. I am the bread. And His Holy Spirit... Listen, God is taking every means necessary in everyone's life right now to prepare our hearts to be able to cry out the prayer of the beggar.

Give me bread so that I can give it to others. The question isn't, is God going to do it in my life? No, that's not the question. The question is, are we going to respond and cooperate with God? See, it's never a question of, is God going to call me?

The question is, if God calls you, as we preached a few weeks ago, are we going to give excuses? Excuses? Verse 13, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit Is Given to Serve Others

There is a spirit that must be cast out of the church. And it is a spirit that makes the believer think that the sole purpose of the Holy Spirit's ministry in my life is for me. You see, in context, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit being given in answer to prayer, but the prayer in context has to do with me realizing I have to help others.

How many people are on their face before God, seeking for bread, for the Holy Spirit, for the fullness of God, because their life has been shattered at the revelation that they are beggars and don't have bread and can't help people?

They've come to see their religion is worthless to God and worthless to people. Their Bible doctrine is worthless to people if it's not energized by a living relationship with Jesus. Their church is worthless.

People don't want religion. They don't want church. They don't want a program. They want bread. How many people are in the place now where they're in travail in their soul because they need bread, not because they want to be some great person.

Oh God, send the Holy Spirit so I can lay hands on the sick and they can be healed so I can stand behind the pulpit and prophesy and I can preach and I can travel. That's a wrong motive in wanting the Holy Spirit.

But that's essentially what, for the most of the time, is present within the heart when we ask God for something. It's tainted because we want something for us. I challenge everyone here by the love of Jesus Christ.

Consider the words of Jesus. Consider what was spoken by our brothers and sisters this morning. Consider this word of exhortation. There is a phrase that is in the Bible, and it's a frightening thought, but I feel that it's necessary for us to discuss it for a few moments.

Remembering God in Daily Life

When our life is reduced from one of vibrant living relationship with Jesus Christ, that does not mean a call to monastic living. It doesn't mean quit your jobs, neglect your responsibilities, and go live in a monastery somewhere.

But what it means is that you continue to engage in the things that you are involved in, but you are doing it because you are in a union with Jesus and your heart is being energized by love for Him. You are daily seeking God in the midst of all what you have to do.

When our life fails or falls from that posture into one of outward, external religion, we come to the place where God begins to say, my people have forgotten me. Now, these are the words the Lord whispered into my spirit several days now, and it dovetails exactly to what has been shared.

When religion becomes our Christianity, and we become addicted to following the impulses of our own desires, and the traditions of our own lifestyle, and we are not talking now in the context of a two-hour Sunday gathering, but I mean Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and the vibrant...

Because this is what Jesus is saying to His church. Jesus is standing in the midst of His church right now, and He's saying, hey, did you forget that I'm what it's all about? I'm what it's all about, Jesus is saying.

I'm what it's all about. You've got 101 things you're doing, but I am what it's all about. Listen, when Jesus is no longer what your life is all about, this is what happens. There is a particular phrase...

Just give me five minutes. There is a particular phrase that runs throughout the Word of God, which merits our sober attention. The phrase is, my people have forgotten me. Notice, first of all, that this is not a cry from the heart of God that's referring to the heathen.

It does not say that heathen nations have forgotten me. But the prophets cried out, my people who are called by my name, my covenant people have forgotten me. To forget God, listen, does not mean that we cease from being religious.

It does not mean that we stop going to church or reading our Bible and good Christian books or even stop praying. None of these things in and of themselves stop necessarily. Rather, when the prophets through the Holy Spirit cry out, my people have forgotten me, it refers to God's people living and working and existing as if God was not.

As if He was insignificant. So as to rely upon something other than a vital union with Him. When the prophets cry out, my people have forsaken me, He is speaking to a religious people who daily gather together and daily engage in New Testament ritual tradition.

When the prophets cry out, my people have forgotten me, He is addressing a people who are deeply religious and devoted to their acts of righteousness. But they have forsaken the living God. There is no vital relationship with Him.

The heart is no longer tender before God. The conscience is no longer moved at the slightest sense of wrong. There is a whole system of outward structure in the home and in the family and in the lifestyle and it is quite religious.

But God is nowhere to be found. The Bible speaks of certain conditions which were the cause of the Lord's people forgetting Him. What is it that causes us to forget the Lord? Remember, it doesn't interrupt our religious life.

It doesn't interrupt our religious ceremonies. But it causes us to forget God. I have four things that I'd like to mention. Number one, Isaiah 51 verses 12 and 13. Isaiah 51, 12 and 13. I, even I, am He that comforts you.

Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man? And the Son of Man which shall be made as grass. And thou hast forgotten the Lord thy Maker. One of the reasons that we have forgotten the Lord is because we are afraid of man.

The Fear of Man Causes People to Forget God

We are afraid of people. We are afraid to break our religious traditions. We are afraid to break the traditions in our homes. We are afraid of what people think. We're afraid of what our friends think.

We're afraid of what our peers think. We're afraid of what our neighbors think. We won't go outside and get on our lawn and on our knees and kneel before God and start holding a prayer meeting because people might think we're weird.

And let me tell you by the Word of the Lord that all those who name the name of the Lord and are bound by the fear of man forget God. They continue to be religious. They continue to be devoted to their religious traditions.

But they forget God. They depart from a vital, living, vibrant, Holy Ghost filled, faith filled walk with God into a religious tradition. The fear of man is a snare to the soul, the Bible says. Galatians 1 .10.

Paul said, If I please men, I no longer am the servant of God. Number two, Isaiah 17 .10. Just a few more minutes. Just want to get these out. Because thou has forgotten the Lord thy salvation and has not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shalt set in with strange slips.

Verse number nine. In that day shall his strong cities be as forsaken and an uppermost breach and they left before of the children of Israel and there shall be desolation. Thou has forgotten the God of thy salvation and has not been mindful of the rock of thy strength.

Forgetting God as Our Strength

Number two. When we forget that God is our strength, then we have become ensnared by our own strength, our own pride. You remember Daniel 4 .29 Nebuchadnezzar stood before the whole city of Babylon and he said, Oh, look at the kingdom that I have made by my wisdom and by my great might and power.

When we become enamored by the works of our hands and addicted to ourself and our accomplishments and our gifts and our skills and our so-called strengths, we are in danger of forgetting the Lord our God.

Restlessness and Spiritual Dissatisfaction

Number three. Jeremiah 50 verse six. Jeremiah 50 verse six. One more after this. Jeremiah 50 verse six. My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains.

They have gone from mountain to hill and they have forgotten their resting place. The third cause of causing us to forget God is what I have called a spirit of restlessness. A spirit of restlessness. There is a spirit of restlessness in the church today and the soul of the Christian is dissatisfied with God.

They're wandering. They're going to and fro and within they're seeking cisterns that they might drink from. But the cisterns are polluted and they've got holes in them and they're muddy and murky and there is a spirit of restlessness that's come upon the church.

Women are committing adultery because there's a spirit of restlessness upon them. They're not content with the lot that God has given them. Men are committing the sin of destroying their family because there's a spirit of restlessness on them.

They're not satisfied. They've got to get more. They've got to conquer. They've got to go, go, go. And many are suffering. There is restlessness in the church today. And I tell you, the spirit of restlessness will cause you to forget God.

It will get a hold of you. And it will cause you to wander to and fro. And you'll go from this teaching to that teaching, from this church to that church, from this congregation to this preacher to this book and all along your spirit is not drinking from the Lord God Almighty.

And the last cause is found in Hosea chapter 13 verse 6. Hosea 13 verse 6. I encourage you to either take notes or get the tape and pray over these things. I am the Lord, verse 4, that brought thee from the land of Egypt and thou shalt know no God beside me but there is no Savior beside me.

I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. Listen, according to their pleasure, so were they filled. And they were filled abundantly and their heart was exalted. Therefore, have they forgotten Me?

The fourth cause for forgetting the Lord is the apathy of abundance. Beware. Listen, child of God. Hear what the Spirit of God is saying. Beware of the apathy of abundance. Because abundance has the temptation to steal our heart from God that we might begin to find pleasure in the things that we have and no longer find it in God alone.

The Bible says in Luke chapter 21 verse 34 that we are to beware. Luke chapter 21 verse 34. Listen to the words of Jesus. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life.

And so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.

And shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. The Spirit of God is warning us in a loving way. Beware of the apathy of abundance. Beware of anything that has stolen your heart where you are finding pleasure and comfort and you're almost sleeping now and resting because of this thing.

Beware lest you forget the name of the Lord your God. Beware. Revelation chapter 18, the great harlot Babylon is indicted by God as being filled with pleasure and sumptuous and tumultuous and the things of pleasure.

And she's drunk with pleasure. Listen, child of God. Watch out. The wine of this world will put you in a stupor before the world. Watch out. Don't allow yourself to be lulled to sleep by the abundance of this country.

Pray that God will give you the ability to take everything He has given you, everything that is good, and pray that He'll give you the ability to keep it at arm's length and not to let you hold on to anything.

Pray, pray that you will come to realize that the abundance that you have is not for yourself, but is for others. Woe unto you and me if I prosper and think that prosperity is for me, that I might be better, that I might go higher.

No, God says to the church. No, you are not prospering so that you can follow the world. That's what the world does. How can we think that that's what God wants? That's what the world does. God prospers that we might be able to demonstrate before our brothers and sisters in a lost and dying world the magnanimous, benevolent, kind heart of God in sharing.

God gives that I might give. Watch out. Beware of the spirit of this world. It's seducing the church. And beloved, those who are seduced in this way will not pray for the bread because they're too busy filling their own stomachs.

They're too busy filling the passions of their own nature. They don't have time to weep for others because they're too busy with themselves. Deuteronomy 32, verses 11 -18 God warned Israel that when they went into the Canaan land and they prospered and they got abundance, beware, He said, lest you forget the name of the Lord your God.

Wasn't the Lord precious in our midst this morning ministering to us? May He continue not only here, but may we take this into our homes and speak it to one another. And may the Holy Spirit take His Word and cause it to be a sword into our being and prepare us because, brothers and sisters, I prophesy by the Spirit of God and the Word of God and the Spirit of Jesus which is the Spirit of prophecy that God will have a people in this late hour who will be filled with bread to give to those who are in need and Christ will be glorified.

Responding to God's Call for Bread

And the question is, do we want it? Do we want to be a part of it? If we do, then say this, Yes, Lord, here I am. Do whatever you need to do, Lord, because I want in, Lord. I want in. Are you with the Holy Ghost?

Are you with the Word of God this morning? Then hallelujah to God. He's going to do it. Father, take Your Word. Take the power of the Holy Spirit. Confirm Your Word. Prepare our hearts. Give us the kind of heart that we need so that in one accord we're crying out for bread with the right motive and then amaze us with a demonstration of Your presence and glory that will bring us to our knees and that will attract multitudes of people so that they can come and be healed.

Prayer for Healing and Spiritual Renewal

Lord, I pray for my uncle Bob. Lord, heal his cancer, Lord. There's a tumor inside his colon. My aunt said that the doctors can touch it. It's humongous, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, You'll have mercy.

Shrink that tumor, Lord, so that next time they check him they say, Oh my, something's happening, Bob. The tumor's a little marble now. Hallelujah. Lord, You can do it. We continue to pray for Joanne's mother, that You'll heal her, Lord.

And we ask, Lord, that You'll fill us with bread and that You'll make Your power known in Zion once again, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. I don't mean to rush. We can stay here for another hour, but we can't, I know.

I just need to close. So, may the Lord take His Word and perform it according to His heart. Please, can we have a couple men before you run off? Can you have a couple men? We need the table back there taken care of.

Norman needs help. Just go to Norman and say, Norman, what shall I do? And he'll tell you what to do. He loves to delegate. Okay? Just ask him what you can do to help and he'll do it.