Need & Prayer

Roger Cooper

Our Father In Heaven • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Matthew 6:11

Exodus 16:15–20

Prayer

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Invocation

The Lord is in His holy temple.

Let all the Earth keep silent.

I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the House of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand at thy gates oh Jerusalem.

Prayer

For beloved I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. For indeed he who has begun a good work is faithful to perform it and if he started blessing you… He is faithful to perform it. Amen. Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. To all of you in your respective places: the deacons, clergy, the missionaries, and to each of you in your respective places. I want you to know that you are somebody in God’s Kingdom. Amen. I am prayerful and thankful for this day we have to stand here to declare his Word and be both hearers and doers of the Word. That in mind, I want us to go to the Word of God as we are preparing to close out our series on Prayer next week (all things remaining unchanged during that time).

Amen for the past two weeks we have covered Prayer from the perspectives and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the lens of the Lord’s Prayer, or the Servant’s Prayer… the Lord has sought to uncover a heightened and deeper understanding of prayer in his people through the revelations present in the scripture. We have learned the Foundations of or IN Prayer but we have also learned how to be Reflective In Prayer. How to structure prayer and master the art of approach, as it pertains to the master. Furthermore, by reflecting on our own selves and taking the scripture inward rather than simply projecting it out we have learned the power of letting God’s work be done IN us. And so now we will be picking up the scripture from Matthew 6 and we will perhaps bring in a few other scriptures to elevate some additional meaning from the text and help us to learn just a bit more.

I must warn you… today we will move rather quickly so you better jump on the train before it pulls out of the station. I will not be long nor will I wait on you to catch up with the move of God. Once Again… I will repeat the Words that have echoed in my spirit the past two and a half weeks… Move Now or Miss God.

Give Scripture: Matthew 6:11 & Exodus 16:15-20

Introduction

I dont know how to start except to say that…

It is a praying time church.

I have to start by letting you know that their is a difference between the church and the Kingdom.

Church (little c) is the building that we assemble in and is composed of the millions of people who call themselves saved.

The Kingdom (also known as the Church (big c) is the unified body of believers who follow the voice and Word of God to the exclusion of all others.

Now… sometimes we as Kingdom citizens (much like national citizens in the US) do not follow and obey the Word of Law to the T but you are still a citizen.

You pay tax, vote in elections, and can run for office.

But you still speed, you let your car insurance lapse, and you miss your traffic ticket appearance.

Knowing these things it is important to understand that mistakes do not revoke your Kingdom citizenship but it is also important to know that membership in a Church (including this one) does not guarantee you Kingdom citizenship either.

And so going forward… the Kingdom is what God is looking for… the church (little c) is what we have come up with.

That said… Now more than ever, it is a praying time as we see things unfold from the scripture in front of our very eyes.

It is especially a praying time because of the changes and shifts within our society at large but even within the smaller society of the church.

The world and the church are in bad shape because of choices we continually make that put us against God’s calling.

We as the Church have traded the cross for a platform.

We have bartered the Gospel for monetary gain.

We have given away our anointing in exchange for accolades.

We have stepped off our altar to get onto a higher stage.

We have forsaken KINGDOM for church mentality.

As a consequence of these changes and because of the dereliction of our duty given to us by Christ, we find ourselves at a crossroads where the Church is increasingly looking like the World we are supposed to save.

As a result, I feel right saying that now is a praying time more than anytime previous in the history of the Kingdom.

And I am not saying all of this for some generational suffering comparison, something that we as the Church and even as people like to do...

Because we have a tendency to do two things as it pertains to people’s suffering; which is; to glorify and minimize people’s suffering.

We sit and tell stories to one another about the beatings we received as children, and then we laugh about being hit upside the head with a rake.

Now the truth is that, often times when we laugh we are overlooking the genuine conversation about the pain we have dealt with.

And yet, in the same breath we will use our experiences to try one-upping each other and downplaying the feelings, emotions, and experiences of people.

Many of us will look at young folk who say they are tired or sore and tell them they are too young to be tired.

Or we look at older folk who may not be as spry as they used to be and tell them to move out of the way.

But can we just admit that we all have experienced hurt in some fashion… and that hurt makes it difficult to be us in this world.

Older people are hurt because they fought for freedom and suffered while doing it.

But younger people are hurt because freedom they are told they have appears like a lie used to make a teacher feel better in February or Congress feel better in June.

And while some of our hurts are superficial, the reality is that some of them run deep.

Church hurt, though often the subject of jokes and ridicule is a real pain and it affects all of us in ways that we may not even realize.

I don’t meant to minimize pain over racial injustice and inequality that black people face everyday but Church hurt is real.

Its real because its one thing to have a group of historically racist people act racists towards you or even for someone you just barely know to undermine you.

Its still wrong but at least you know what to expect from these types of people.

But what about when you get hurt from the last people you expect.

The people who were supposed to love you unconditionally and who were supposed to judge you with love and clarity of thought based on the scripture.

The people who were supposed to give you a lap scarf and some tissues when you feel convicted because that short dress was ALL YOU HAD TO COME INTO THE DOORS. But instead they talk about you and whisper when you think they cannot hear.

And so not only are we dealing with problems in the world but we as the Church have abandoned our posts and so I feel that now… ESPECIALLY NOW is a time for prayer. For this self-same reason my subject today is...

Give Subject: Need & Prayer

Read Scripture: Matthew 6:11

Matthew 6:11 KJV 1900

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

In this portion of scripture we see that Jesus himself is speaking to us about our prayer lives, and one component of that is we seek out our daily bread.

In this portion of the prayer and in this part of the scripture we have finally approached our own needs.

After we have fixed our own posture and attitude BEFORE ever approaching prayer...

After we have established relationship with Our Father....

After we have worshipped his majesty...

After we have praised his deity...

THEN, and only THEN, does Jesus’ outline for prayer call for YOUR NEEDS.

Put simply, your needs must be among the last things that you worry about when engaging in prayer.

But I want us to look at something else in this scripture that I think we must see to make our prayer lives that much more effective.

Give us this day our daily bread does address your needs and is said by Jesus in this manner to make it easier for us to understand… and yet just as much as it has to do with our need it also has nothing to do with our needs at all.

First of all… give us this DAY our DAILY bread… as much as God wants to supply your every need according to his riches and glory he also wants you to trust him.

Can you trust God from day to day for your provision? Can you trust God from meal to meal?

If the refrigerator is empty do you ask God for the next meal or do you ask him to fill your refrigerator?

I’m not trying to undermine your prayer life, its nothing wrong with wanting to fill your refrigerator but CAN YOU TRUST GOD WHEN THE ANSWER IS NOT OBVIOUS.

Do you have 1/2 tank faith or do you have gas light faith.

See some people trust their car so much they will drive for miles on the gas light because they know what they can get out of it.

But some people only let their car get to about 1/2 a tank before they start thinking about getting gas.

And God wants to know can you KEEP COOL when then tank is on E and the gas light is ON or do you start to panic.

I will prove it to you through Exodus 16:15-20.

Exodus 16:15–20 KJV 1900

15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. 16 This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. 17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. 19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. 20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

God wanted the Children of Israel to depend on him and have faith in his ability to supply their needs on a DAILY BASIS.

However, give us this day our daily bread also underscores Christ’s function as the bread of life… Our needs cannot go beyond his means to supply.

So many times we ask God for his help when we really do not want his help, but we instead want him to give us the means to do it ourselves

But here we see that Jesus indicates our needs can be fulfilled by the DAILY BREAD.

Now we dealt with the daily but the bread… I heard John 6:35 say, “I AM the BREAD of life… he that cometh to me shall never hunger...”

Jesus is telling you after you have done all the previous steps, then you approach in your need and in your need you ask for more of Jesus.

You ask for more Jesus because nothing is beyond his power and ability to do and fulfill.

For he was wounded for our transgressions.

Bruised for our iniquity.

The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him.

And by his stripes.... WE ARE HEALED… Jesus himself is our daily bread so when you feel need get Jesus. When you feel hungry… get Jesus.

Because if you get some Jesus he can take care of everything else.

Conclusion

You may say to yourself how do you know that I can give it to Jesus?

How do you know that if you take care of God’s business, he will take care of your business?

How do you know that if you do God’s work, he will work it out for you?

How do you know that Jesus can do anything but fail?

Well, I can only tell you that I tried Jesus for myself… and he been good to me.

Because when I was sick… in my body, he was whipped for me.

When COVID had weakened my lungs... he was pierced in his side for me.

When I was thirsty… he caused a well of water to spring up from within me.

When I was hungry… he said, I am the Bread of life.

When I was tired… he said I shall give thee rest from your sorrow and your fear.

When I was weak… he said my strength is made perfect in your weakness.

When I had a problem.. he became a very present help in the time of trouble.

And when I die..... OH WHEN I DIE!!! He said I am the resurrection and the life..

NO MAN… I SAID NO MANN!!!

Shall come to the father but by me...

So you see

Its plain to me

That you and I

We Need He

He Who WAS

He Who IS

and Sho’ Nuff He Who SHALL BE

I don’t know what you need… but if you get in prayer.... hold on..... hold out… The Baker is coming early in the morning and before the sun rises… the BREAD OF LIFE shall meet your daily needs...

How do I know it. BECAUSE EARLY.... EARLYYYYY Sunday Morning he got up with all power… all power… all power.... all power. In his hands. That is why David prophesied down through the volume of the book and said WEEPING MAY.... ENDURE FOR A NIGHT. BUT JOYYYYY. JOYYYY. JOYYYYY. JOYYYYY. JOYYYYY. JOYYYYY… Is Coming in the Morning.