Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. Something doesn't quite sound right here. Maybe I need more volume in these headphones.

It is 1042 on Saturday, March 14th.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. Actually I don't feel fine, but that's all right.

Somebody that I don't like to quote very often, a pastor, was dying, and they asked him how he felt, and he said, almost well.

So, I am almost well. I did find this morning very fascinating.

I have the GPS on my kids where they are. Hey, there's Michael Matthews. How are you?

You need to get back into town. I need some snow blowing in my yard. For those who are listening on the radio,

I'm doing a Facebook live show right now for I don't know what reason, if anybody ever watches them, but we're just going to do it to prove that we're alive.

I woke up this morning, and I had last night looked to see where my kids were, and it usually tells me they're in college or whatever because I buy their phones, and therefore

I tell them I need to be able to see where you are and continue to make it, and it didn't work.

So I woke up this morning and walked into the living room, and there were my two children from Los Angeles. They're no longer children.

They're adults. Maddie and Gracie were there, and so it was quite the surprise. I thought, are you coming home because I'm dying or what?

I had to see dad one last time. Anyway, I just have felt much better, and my life has nothing to do with the virus.

I just have some numbers, blood numbers that aren't so great, and so I thought, I don't want to get this virus now.

Anyway, maybe I've already had it and finished. Anyway, tomorrow, on Sunday, we have decided that here at Bethlehem Bible Church to do a live stream.

I don't know. There'll probably be 15 people here just because some of the elders and some of us will just show up, tech people, and we're going to have a service at 10 .15.

I'll preach a message and have an altar call. There's Luke trying to FaceTime me.

That doesn't really work here. Anyway, let's see what happened last week for an update on No Compromise Radio because I haven't done shows lately.

I was in Los Angeles for the Shepherds Conference. The Shepherds Conference to me is one of those times where I can see my friends from around the world and contract viruses.

I didn't feel very well, so one day I left early and just went to the pool and sat in the sun.

I figured it was therapeutic, but I was glad to talk to people and just sit and chat with Phil Johnson for a couple hours or I don't know.

I didn't go to that many sessions. I at least went to one session. All right.

For today's show, by the way, as we are still planning,

Israel, February 24th through March 4th of next year, 2021,

I think we have about eight deposits in. I think I have about 24 slots open. You want to send in your $300 if you want to email me.

That's reserved a slot. It's refundable through October. That is No Compromise Radio, 307

Lancaster Street, West Boylston, 01583, and that is in the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Anyway, all this stuff is going on regarding the virus and everything else and people stocking up.

I did see that young man who bought $17 ,000, 17 ,000 bottles of water and then he was going to sell them on eBay, but then eBay said no, so he just has a garage full now.

Maybe he should go in the swimming pool, filling up business. Anyway, I was coming home and I walked into the garage with,

I don't know, some soup and Gatorade, and what else did

I get? Hardtack and Pemmican and Spam, and it dawned on me when

I walked in the door, you know, sometimes Bible verses just come into your mind. I don't mean in some kind of weird, charismatic,

Francis Chan -ish way or anything like that. They just, you know, the Spirit of God, I mean, honestly, the

Spirit of God takes the word and brings it to our mind very often, right?

You're studying and then some Bible verse pops in your mind. And what popped into my mind when I walked into the garage carrying all my, what did

I have? I don't know, zinc tablets. What else did

I have? Jalapenos, they last for a long time. I did find out that Twinkies, by the way, contrary to popular opinion, they don't last 25 years, but just 25 to 40 days.

That's because there's no dairy in Twinkies, so you didn't know that. Anyway, I walked home into the garage and then

I said to myself, give us this day our daily bread. And the

Lord Jesus has taught us to pray that very thing. Can you imagine the bread of life, the Lord Jesus, sustainer, provider of all life, not only physically, of course, but spiritually, told us to pray.

Give us this day our daily bread. And I thought that was such a, it really hit me.

I was almost slain in the Spirit when I realized that. And I thought, how often do

I pray that? How often should I pray that? But the Lord Jesus teaching us to pray our

Father who art in heaven. And then he asks us, not even ask us, that's wrong,

I wish I could edit this. He tells us, pray this way, pray in this manner. Remember what's going on? We're in the

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And then in chapter 6, he's talking about what we would call the

Lord's prayer. But remember, Jesus never prayed that prayer. Why? Because, A, it was a template, it was a paradigm prayer, how to pray, pray in this manner.

But additionally, and more importantly, since Jesus never sinned, he never had to say, forgive us our debts, forgive me my debt, forgive me my sins.

That's something that Jesus never said. And the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray the right way.

And if I could talk a little bit today about the prayer, give us this day our daily bread, that portion of the prayer,

I think that would be good. I did find a very fascinating quote by Lloyd -Jones, I think you will agree,

St. Augustine and Martin Luther, and many other saints, who have said that there is nothing more wonderful in the entire

Bible than the Lord's prayer. And we probably memorized it,

I did when I was a kid, as a Lutheran, and we would repeat it, replete with, thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen.

Even though you'll see that in brackets in your Bible, or not in the Bible, depending on how you look at it.

Don't forget, when you come to the Lord's prayer, there are some extreme hyper -dispensational types that would say that this prayer is not for today, it's for just the millennial kingdom.

You want to ignore them. Some will say that this is such an easy prayer, and wonderful to recite, because it's both vertical toward God, and horizontal...

I can't see my notes. Oh here, prayer has an opening address, then six requests.

The first three requests are for God's glory, the next three are for our good. I mean, generally speaking.

So today I want to talk a little bit about, give us this day our daily bread. I mean, we could do a whole sermon on, hallowed be your name, or your kingdom come, or you will be done, or forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation.

Every one of those would be a great sermon, and I have preached those sermons. And I don't know, maybe

I'll preach one of those sermons tomorrow here to two people. Yeah, how's that going to work tomorrow? Should I wear a suit?

In the old days, when I did a show, what was that show called?

We did Evangelistic Cable TV in North Hollywood, California. I need to wipe my nose, but I don't want to touch my face.

And what was that called? Oh, Narrow Gate Ministries. And Narrow Gate Ministries, I would have a suit and tie on behind a pulpit in this motorcycle garage where they would work on Harleys, and Indians, and Triumphs, and then

I would have shorts on. Back in those days, I think it was OP shorts. Remember those? Kind of Velcro -ish.

No, no, no, not Velcro. What do you call that? Corduroy. Right? And anyway, maybe that's going to be like that tomorrow.

There's going to be basically like 10 people. I'm going to be up in the pulpit, and it's going to be church. So for those who are going to watch on live stream, when

I give the altar call, I want you to come up to the phone and then just touch it. Come up to your computer screen and touch it.

And that will be in lieu of coming up to the front where we have the proverbial altar.

Our Father who art in heaven. Now before I even say anything about give us this day our daily bread, we recognize that God is a good

Father, and that He is not just close to us as a Father. We would call that the eminence of God, but that He is different than us.

He is transcendent. He is holy. That's why we talk about hallowed be thy name.

And I want you to remember that this is not a prayer that you just need to repeat. Years ago, somebody told me that they were going to leave the church because we never said the

Lord's Prayer during the worship service. Can you say the Lord's Prayer in a worship service? Well, you certainly could, because if you do scripture reading and you come to Matthew chapter 6, there is the

Lord's Prayer. But to repeat or to sing every single week, that's just not what we would do, because Jesus said pray in this manner.

He didn't say pray this, although there's nothing wrong with it, but it's supposed to just be a template. So you're thinking about our

Father, and it's just not me. It's corporate. It's our. We have a Father. And this is a prayer of the saints.

And then you say to yourself, our Father, what does a father do? He protects. He provides. He encourages.

He admonishes. He disciplines. He protects our Father who art in heaven.

And He's not just a God who's close, but He's transcendent, and He's above us. And there are spiritual realms that we can't see.

And so you just begin to, it's just a good template. We like templates, do we not, when we pray? Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

Because our default, at least my default is, when you begin to pray, it's just,

I'm sorry to say it this way, but it's just gimme, gimme, gimme. I need, I need, I need.

I need some spam. I need some Purell. We have quite a bit of Purell here at the church. I don't know if you,

I thought probably people come to the church and probably try to steal it or something. I don't know the Purell. I think you can do all kinds of things with Purell.

To me, the most interesting Purell story was five to 10 years ago, and they started putting a lot of this hand sanitizer, antibacterial, in prisons.

And then the prisoners figured out how to extract the alcohol out of Purell so they could drink it.

And so then they had to get non -alcoholic Purell -type things, because the prisoners have lots of time and they are fairly smart, right?

We're going to talk today. Hey, it's been a long time since I've done this show.

How am I going to do this tomorrow? I'm going to preach tomorrow to no people. I'll just pretend, right?

What am I going to do? I'm going to like, you know, when they teach you to preach, that you look to your left, you look in the middle, you look to your right, and you kind of establish some eye contact.

What am I going to do tomorrow? There's going to be nobody. My kids are home, as I said earlier, and I said, well, if you want to come to church tomorrow, you can.

If you want to just live stream it, you can't do it. All right, so give us this day our daily bread.

Here's the first thing I want you to think about. So 13 minutes into the show, we're finally going to be serious about the

Bible, but hey, it is my show. We kind of do what we want. Matthew 6, 11, give us this day our daily bread.

I want you to think how awesome this is, how wonderful God is in light of all this.

Okay, here's the awesomeness part. I think my brother used to say awesome sauce or something like that.

Here's the awesomeness part. Can you imagine how many Christians are on this earth and they're all praying to God for this provision, right?

Not just bread, bread, but all of what we might need to sustain our bodies physically in terms of eating and drinking.

You know, it's real food. This is physical realm stuff. It is used regularly for a symbol of all of our physical needs.

Some include this idea for clothing and shelter as well, but everything that we need, right?

Temporal life needs. Lord, would you provide those? And we're to pray that. I'll tell you what,

I don't often pray that, except when I come home from the grocery stores when there's panic in World War Z, right?

God can hear every Christian's request for temporal sustenance.

This is why I don't do Facebook Live. This is exactly the reason why.

I can always edit the other stuff. And what's even more awesome is

He can simultaneously provide it all. Can you imagine how many Christians?

I don't know, because there are many people who proclaim Christ and who really aren't, and there's a faith that doesn't save.

I know all that. But can you imagine you go to your heavenly father and he has so many resources. I mean,

I thought I had enough food and canned spam to last with Haley, my oldest daughter, who's home, and my wife and I, and dog.

I got some dog food. And we could always use the dog for dog food, but that's like Ernest Shackleton and endurance talk.

If we had to, we would. I wouldn't like to, but she's too old. But now

I've got two more kids at home. And so I, now the dad, I feel, I think,

I process the idea that I need to provide for my children here, and I probably should go get some more food.

But if I'm a dad that thinks that way, and I'm tainted by sin, and I am, that's not a third -class conditional.

That's true. I mean, that is a third -class conditional, true. Then how about the father in heaven?

All these thousands, millions, billions, I don't know, trillions, no, there can't be trillions of Christians.

But throughout the centuries there have been, and they all cry out to their father, would you provide? Could you meet these needs?

And back in the old days, of course, they didn't have canned foods. Remember those explorers in Canada?

They determined where they were and where they died because they had so much food that they packed in lead cans that they could see the trail of when they would relieve themselves out on the trail, and then they would urinate lead, and they would find out, oh, that's where they died because they were slowly getting lead poisoning.

Throughout the centuries, you've got people who are with crops and seeds and everything else, and they cry out to God, God, would you give us sustenance?

Would you provide everything that we need, the symbol of all our needs that we have? This is really the greatness of God, the immensity of God, the

Godness of God. How could we have millions of people asking the Lord day by day to provide?

This points, as some commentators say, points to the ability of the Lord to accomplish what he commands, and he commands us to pray, give us this day our daily bread.

Then he can fulfill those requests. That is amazing.

I love Philippians 4 .19, and my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

What great truths to remember. How about Psalm 145? The eyes of all look to you, speaking of the

Lord, and you give them their food in due time and open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Isn't that good? When I think of this, I think of the Lord and how unfathomable are his ways.

How uninscrutable? I did also stock up on some of these,

Fair Life Nutrition Plan, and I wanted to just make sure that it wasn't too geriatrically driven.

So these aren't some insurer things. These are for weightlifters. These are for serious bicyclists. Oh, to ride a bike.

Had knee surgery two months ago, slowly recovering. My quad and my ham on the surgical leg atrophied, so we have a little limp.

Tommy just said, I don't often pray for these either, brother. Thank you for the reminder. I mean, it's so true.

We have so much time now to just sit and think, okay, I need food. All right, go to the store.

Well, yes, we have to go to the store. They're our means to the end. And God doesn't just, you know, give us food from heaven via parachute or maybe peapod.

Uber Eats. How are Uber Eats doing right now? I've never tried

Uber Eats. But anyway, we just go to our Father and we say, give us this day our daily bread.

Isn't God good in all that He provides? That He cares? That He cares for us?

And remember, we don't have a great track record. We are creatures. We are sinful.

And yet it matters to God. Remember 1 Peter 5, cast all your cares or anxieties upon the

Lord because He cares for you. That's a good reminder. And for Christians, I think we regularly think

God is angry with us. God is mad at us. You, dear Christian, are seen in Christ Jesus.

And God is not mad at His Son. How could He be? This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Therefore, when you're in Christ, apposition, you're a

Christian, He's not mad at you. He cares for you. Oh, you might be disciplined.

We will be disciplined. But it's not out of anger. I never wanted to discipline my children out of anger.

I probably did, but not too often because I'd send them into the room and wait for a few minutes before I went in to take care of the situation.

But if I'm concerned about that, how about the Father of lights, as James 1 calls

Him? He would never discipline out of anger. We are troubled and we are fretting and we are worrying.

And of course, God isn't worried. And we ask Him, would you please provide for my family?

I mean, in the middle of all this chaos, I know we, I'll include myself, are negligent.

Would you please provide? And then if you're a dad, maybe our single mom or the leader of the family, and you're thinking, you know, we can trust the

Lord. We'll go shopping, but we can trust the Lord. James 1 17, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the

Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. Give us this day our daily bread.

I found a story about a king and they tried to find the successor to the king's throne.

And he had infant twin sons. They didn't know how to choose which sons, which of the sons to pick.

And according to this legend, quote, finally, they noticed that one was sleeping with his fists tightly shut and the other with his hands extended wide open.

They chose this ladder. And they say, when he became a man, he was known as the king with open hands.

God is good and does good. That's what

Psalm 119 says. It's the goodness of God. Everything he does is good.

And for his children, can you imagine? God's goodness rules and reigns when we think about these things.

And so when you ask God, you can think about how good he is. He is unchangeably good. He is, his goodness is underrived as our theologians would tell us.

His goodness is eternal. He's eternally good. And therefore he cares for us.

What does it say in Matthew 7, the next chapter? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

Like for food. Could I have food? You know, it reminds me of the days where people would say, well, I don't know if I want to have any more children because I don't know if I can provide for the children with what

I'm making. Well, how about if you want to have more children? It's probably, it's not unbiblical.

And then I think probably the Lord will provide for you when you have more children, not before. First John 3.

How great is the love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are.

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. God, this great unchanging

God, is good and he's eternal. And things, people, seasons, viruses come and go.

You know what? I think, I think tomorrow I'm going to try to preach a whole sermon without mentioning the virus. I remember the old sin virus,

S -I -N virus. HIV came out years ago and one pastor I know called, it's the

S -I -N virus. Sin has affected. Remember Chisholm's song, great is thy faithfulness.

O God, my, what? Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not.

As thou has been, thou forever will be. So stock up on some food.

No problem. Get some peanut butter, get some fair life nutrition plan. But before you do any of that, why don't you just say,

Lord, would you, would you please take care of us? I have children and we need to feed them.

Would you grant us our daily bread? Well, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio.

That was a fast 24 minutes. We should have these shows played next week. I have not been recording since I haven't been feeling well, but we'll come in and do a few here and there and just try to keep this thing floating.

You can always write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. And I think I'll do a couple more Facebook lives.

I have no idea why. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.