Pray This Way - Enough Is Enough

I'm going to jump right into what is for us a summer long look at how Jesus told us to pray. Now if there's one thing that I want you to be able to remember when we get out of this summer long look at the Lord's Prayer, I want you to remember that this is not what Jesus told us to pray. In fact, right before he gave the disciples this model prayer, he told them quote, and when you pray, do not use vain repetition as the heathen do. In other words, don't just keep saying this, right?

For they think they're going to be heard by their many words. This then is how you pray, not what you pray. So we are going to engage in some repetition right now, but it is not going to be vain. Alright, so let's say this together as we kind of press it into its model, into our heads, join me, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thine in thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever, amen. Give us this day today our daily bread, and it is on this request that this whole model of prayer suddenly makes a turn. So far, what Jesus has been petitioning God for, and he's already made a couple of requests, they were things concerning God, his name, his kingdom, and his will.

Steve and Tim and I have talked about those over the last few weeks, but today what we're going to look at is Jesus is essentially saying, after we have prioritized the model of prayer, right, after we have put the things of God before our own felt needs, and why not because God is like a narcissist in the clouds, but because those are the things that are the priorities, those are the things that we actually need the most, then you can bring to God the petitions regarding yourself. Jesus says, after praying for the glory in the kingdom of God, pray for your needs. Specifically, he says, he uses this term, pray for daily bread. And perhaps there's no more loaded sentence in all of the scriptures than that.

Seven words, give us this day our daily bread. I mean, the concept of daily bread is so full of meaning, and it unlocks in so many ways the power and the purpose and the mystery behind prayer. You see, when Jesus said to those who are following them, give us this day our daily bread, they had a frame and a reference word that we don't, when we just said it, we just said it, when they heard it, he hearken them back to the history of their people. Let's look at it.

Now, if you've been around the church, you know some of the story, Genesis is the first book in the Bible, and Genesis is essentially the grand beginning of our story, our creation. God's purpose for us, which was to walk and to live and to work and enjoy him in one another and a creation. But you know, if you've been around, that wasn't enough for us. It wasn't enough for them, then we're us now.

Why? Mostly because we choose another path. We are really big fans of building our own kingdoms, not his, and being our own kings. This has significant consequences then, and now separates us from God.

We live with this brokenness inside us. We miss out on our purpose. But God never gives up. His pursuit of his people, if you read in Genesis, he begins his pursuit of people through men like Abraham, Isaac, onto Jacob, and Joseph.

And Genesis actually shares the story of God's pursuit of his people into the establishment of a nation called Israel. Now, in the second book of the Bible, it's a book called Exodus, this nation that God creates of people, this covenant people, they find themselves enslaved by the current ruling world empire, Egypt. And God calls them out of slavery, out of Egypt, to himself, under a new leader that he's raised up named Moses. Now, you know the story, it's on every Easter, right?

Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston, big shoulders, old, really a pretty, not very good film actually, right? And it goes on forever, but that's another story. But if you've watched it, God does all of these crazy miracles to get his people out. And when he does, after he's performed a miracle after a miracle after a miracle, he calls them out to himself, and where does he call them to?

The wilderness, in fact, specifically calls them to the desert. Now, if you have ever been called by God, blessed by God, seen him move in miraculous ways in your life, felt really close to him at one moment and followed him, yet you find yourself in a desert this morning wondering, well, wait a minute, what happened? Where are you? This is not just their story, then maybe it's yours.

So let's jump in. Here's what happened. This account, this Exodus account was written by this Moses, this new leader. According to Moses, it was the 15th day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt into the desert, and they're getting hungry.

It's the 15th day of the second month. In fact, this is how hungry they got. They grumbled. If we had only died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, I wish he would just killed any.

There we sat around pots of meat. We ate all the food we wanted. But you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Now, guys, can you imagine the audacity of people, loved by God, called by God, freed by God, miracle blessed by God, now complaining about God?

Have you ever heard of such a thing? Are you aware of anybody that could be so blessed? And the next minute, complaining. Now, the reality is, unlike a lot of us, they actually had something to complain about.

They had a real problem. They had a felt need. They were hungry, like real hungry. And they began to presume that God, despite all that he had done.

Now, remember, these are the same people that just walked through the middle of the Red Sea. They begin to presume that because they're hungry, God has dropped the ball and has let them down again. And what do they begin to do? Just like us all the time when we get ourselves in desert places and we begin to wonder if God's there.

They start to look forward or look backwards to the good old days of slavery and think, you know what? God's not coming through for me. Forget, God, maybe I'm just going to go back to the way things were. So we jump into the story.

The scriptures say, Moses writes, then the Lord said to Moses, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people that go each day and gather enough for that day, in this way I'll test them and see whether they'll follow my instructions. And on the sixth day, they're to prepare what they bring in and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days. So here's what God is saying to his people, I'm going to do it again.

I am yet again going to provide for you grumblers miraculously. And I'm going to do it in two specific ways. I'm going to provide bread daily, daily bread for my people. And I'm going to provide enough for them each day.

And one day a week in order that you don't have to go out and do this day after day, I'm actually going to let you sit, chill. Chill is a biblical word for Sabbath. I'm going to allow you to not have to go out on the Sabbath. I'm going to create this day for your rest.

I'm going to give enough so you don't even have to go out on one day. For one day you'll get two days worth of food. And so Moses writes, when the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, what is this?

For they did not know what it was. Moses says to them, it's the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded. Everyone is to gather as much as they need.

Take it Omer, an Omer was an ancient measure, probably equivalent to about two to three liters, kind of like a two liter bottle of soda. Take it Omer for each person you have back in your tent. And the Israelites did as they were told. So I'm gathered much, some little.

And when they measured it by the Omer, the one who gathered much didn't have too much. And the one who gathered little didn't have too little. And here comes the key to the whole story guys. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

And so God once again, for his people he miraculously provides, and very specifically, notice he provided for them just as much as they needed, and just when they needed it. But he was going to do it day by day by day. Now, the Israelites had a couple problems with that. And what I would tell you, it's probably the same problems that I have with it, and maybe you do too.

See, confession time for me, I don't want just what I need, just when I need it. I would prefer to have more than I need, like way more than I need, and I want it right now. I mean, really, we're in church, you're all spiritualed up, right? But let me just, let's kind of be truthful here, let's deal with the reality.

When is the last time you were happy with getting just what you needed? I can't remember the last time I was happy to get just what I needed. Now I know you're looking going, well, I am sure, sure, sure. I know I remember you told me, remember that last annual review you had at work, and your boss called you in and told you how you were crushing your goals, you were blowing the other selves guys and targets away.

He said you were doing such a good job, that he was going to give you a big raise. I remember, remember how you told him, oh no, no, no. I don't need a raise. I already have just what I need, just give it to someone else.

Remember when you did that? I mean, has anyone ever seen a buffet advertised as an all you can need buffet? Anyone? Just come in, you can take just what you need.

We have all you can eat buffet, like all you can possibly stuff in your gut, buffets, and now I don't eat out a lot of buffets, but I have been to some all you can eat. And see the thing about all you can eat, like, do you know, okay, if you've done it right, we do it with seafood, something on vacation. You can all you can eat crab legs, right? So we'll sit there and eat the crab legs, and you know when you get to that feeling where you're like, I'm a disgusting human being, right?

Like your stomach is just, you have butter everywhere, your stuff. Yet, what do you do? You order another one, just to make sure, right, that you can't possibly put any more into your gut. I mean, which one of us is not like, refusing up.

I mean, imagine, I fly on planes, right? This is the waitress coming back and going, sir, I see that, you know, you're a little jammed in there, would you like to move up the first class? No, I have all the leg room I need, right here. The grocery store gets us all the time, you know, you go, I see it with chips, you go, and you buy a bag of Doritos, right?

And there's the giant bag next to it for the same price. Does anybody buy this and go, no, this is just what I'm going to need, why would I buy that? You buy the bigger bag, this is why you're covered as full of stale chips at home. This principle explains all of that.

And day by day, I mean, you're kidding me, day by day, who could live with that kind of uncertainty? I mean, I want more than I need, and I want it right now, or else I might have to not rely on myself, and what I stored up. I might have to take comfort in something other than me, or my savings. I might have to have just what I need, that if I mean if I have to live that way, I mean, I have to trust somebody other than me.

It means I have to live by faith and not by sight. Who would want that? Yeah, and neither did the Israelites. And then Moses said to them, guys, no one's to keep any of it till morning.

God's giving you just what you need. However, some of them paid no attention to Moses, and they kept part of it until morning. But then it was full of maggots and began to smell. See, the Israelites did just what you and I would do given the opportunity.

They run into the field and they grab their daily bread, all right? But it's like enough daily breads for 20 or so dailies. I mean, why would I trust God to provide? When I can just, when I can take it myself, I can provide for myself what I need.

After all, aren't I much more trustworthy with God's stuff than he is? Which reminded me of a story I read this week. Some of you know I have a financial background, so I stay up on some of the stuff. Money Magazine posted this fascinating article about retirement.

If you are kind of in the financial world, a lot of times in the corporate world, when you get towards the end of your career, sometimes they'll offer you a package, a buyout of your pension program and they'll give you a lump sum. They'll offer you a lump sum versus the annuity, the pension that will pay you out over your lifetime. This is a very similar one. If you win the lottery, right?

All of those of you that have won the lottery, right? You're offered a lump sum payment or a annuity. What does everybody pick in almost every circumstance is the lump sum. Absolutely.

I am much more trustworthy with God's stuff than leaving it to God. Except for the fact, Money Magazine did a little research on this and the title of the article was a scary percentage of retirees blow through their workplace savings when they take a lump sum. They did the work on it. They showed that a fifth of people, 20% of those who opt to take their pension through a lump sum, run through all of the money in five years.

See, I don't want just what I need, just what I need. I want more than I need it. I want it right now because I think I know better, but what if it turns out that we are not nearly as trustworthy with God's stuff as he is? One researcher did the math on what God had provided for his people in the wilderness, his trustworthiness.

And so using a pretty conservative estimate, he found that God provided for the nation of Israel, ready for this. Some point eight billion courts of manna per year. And over the 40 years, God provided them 72 billion courts of manna. What you would think at some point the people would say, you know what?

He knows what he's doing. We could probably trust him. Maybe I could just rely on him, not need to worry so much. Maybe he's going to provide just what I need, just when I need it because he's done it like 72 billion times.

I think it would have done that people of Israel, well, to listen to the often issued advice of my mother growing up, we had four siblings within five years, three boys. And so there was a lot of fights, like a lot of fights. And it was constantly bickering, battering, punching, and headlocks, and, you know, no keys and all the rest. And so my mother oftentimes, when she couldn't take anymore, she would scream back or often sing to the back seat of the car, enough is enough.

You would think after 72 billion courts of manna, the Israelites could have said, you know what? It turns over line on God. Enough is enough. Like, it's enough.

He won't provide enough and it will be enough. You might look at them with this day and go, boy, 72 billion, how do they possibly not trust me? God. But take a look at our little community church here.

Say we have about 500 people that come on a Sunday and I don't know what the average age is. Say the average age is 40 years old. That would mean that God has provided for each of us individually about 45,000 meals. And as a church, he's provided daily bread for us.

Are you ready? 22 million times. 22 million times. God has shown us, just us, that he'll provide just what we need, just what we need.

Church, can I get you to think about adopting a new adage, a new life saying, post it on your walls, kids, you're looking for a cool tattoo? Here it is. For followers of God, trust this, live this way. Enough is enough.

Can I get you to say it with me one time? Enough is enough. See, you don't believe it. But it's true.

See, God has promised to provide for us enough. The model of prayer, Jesus lays out for us, is to bring to God our needs. Here's the key. To bring to God our needs, not our greed.

See, we get ourselves caught up in our greed and we lose contentment with what we have, what we've been given, and we forget that God has already provided for our needs. Now this is natural. It happens even to the most spiritual of us. Paul, disciple, the risen Jesus, wrote most of the New Testament, teaching his prodigy, Timothy, how to live.

Here's what he wrote to Timothy. He said, Timothy, for we bought nothing into the world, we can take nothing out of the world. But if we have food and clothes, clothing will be content with that. Now, I want you to track deeper with me for a minute on this, because it's pretty interesting.

What is it about the Israelites and about you and I? That makes enough, not enough. I mean, you can get the tattoo, but it's really hard to live by it. Why do we have such a propensity to hoard?

If you think about it, a lot of Jesus' stories are about hoarders. You ever watch that show on TV? That's a horrible show. Don't eat within an hour of watching that show.

But if you think about Jesus' parables, there's a lot of stories about hoarding, the prodigal son. Dad, I'd like you to be dead now and can I have my inheritance, all of my stuff, more than I need right now. I know the story of the farmer who is, his crop is coming in and he needs more than he needs. So, remember he goes, I'm going to build bigger barns.

And then I can say to myself, I have plenty of grain laid up, take life easy, eat, drink and be merry. Remember the rich young ruler? You've got it. And all that stuff will come with me.

I'll provide enough. And all about that. Now, certainly he goes to a deep-seated broken issue that all of us have. We're all trying to build our kingdoms to be our kings.

Who wants to trust and rely or follow or believe that God would provide? I think I might do better. But there's another concept that work here for you. And I think it actually messes our lives up in significant ways in a lot of areas.

Let me explain. Maybe the best way to explain it is to show you a picture of what that looks like. The non-daily bread of mindset. The enough is not enough way of living.

We teach our kids this all the time. We ingrate it to them early in life. Are you familiar with the pinata party? What genius thought this was a good idea.

Here's what we're going to do. We're going to jam a box full of candy. We're going to have blindfolded children swing a bat within close proximity of others. And then when the candy falls down, there is a no-holds bar, no rules, swarming of the thing.

I mean, the eighth graders love it. But my fourth grader comes home with a broken nose because of a pinata party. Now, of course you and I, we're older, we're more mature. We've settled into a spiritual discipline of understanding.

Enough is enough until those black Friday selves roll around. And then it's like a pinata party for adults. All to save 50 bucks on a flat screen television. Professor and theologian Henry Nower, he writes about our temptation to hoard in his book called Bread for the Journey.

Here's what he wrote. He said, as fearful people weren't inclined to develop a mindset that makes us say, there's not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I have enough for myself in case of emergency. Or there's not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy, so I better keep my knowledge to myself so no one else will use it. There's not enough love to give to everybody, so I better keep my eighth grade lunch table, so I better keep my friends for myself because I don't want others to take them away.

This is a scarcity mentality. It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won't have enough to survive. I love this. The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.

Now and continue the opposite of a scarcity mentality is an abundance mentality. An abundance mentality says there's enough for everyone. There's more than enough food and knowledge and love. With this mindset, we give away whatever we have to whomever we meet.

When we see hungry people, we give them food. When we meet ignorant people, we share our knowledge. When we encounter people in need of love. We offer them friendship and affection and hospitality.

We introduce them to our family. We bring them to our friends. When we live with this mindset, we will see the miracle that we give away multiplies. Food, knowledge, love, everything.

There will be leftovers. What allows somebody to pray for daily bread to say enough is enough is believing that there is enough of God's blessings and provisions to go around. I don't have to glom it all up. For the Israelites who was coming to see that after 72 billion courts of manna, there was plenty of manna.

God would provide you could be trusted out the way around the field every morning. For you and I, it's coming to see that God has provided just for our little church 22 million meals already. There is an abundance of God's provision and blessing. I don't need to fear or hoard.

God by his very nature is a God of abundance and not scarcity. And you are his children. This is not a prosperity sermon. This is a promise for needs and not greed.

But what if you and I lived with a mentality of following a God, a providing God of abundance? Now I'll share what's really frustrating as a pastor. This is a biblical principle and a biblical mindset that now the world is tapping into. But those must follow Jesus often don't subscribe to.

In one of the great books of the last century, the seven habits of highly effective people, Stephen Covey explains when you live in a world of scarcity, you compete for available resources even when there is an abundance of them. And abundance mindset flows out of this deep inner sense of God given personal worth and security. By faith, on the beloved, forgiven, renewed, restored son or daughter of the king. It's a paradigm grounded in belief that, look, it's God, there's more than enough for everyone.

A scarcity mindset is this belief that there's not going to be enough, there's not going to be enough, there's not going to be enough, there's not going to be enough, I'd break it mine. And it causes fear, stress, anxiety. I mean, when you get this, it can change your life in so many ways. I mean, today, all I need to do is ask God for my daily bread today because enough is enough, there's actually plenty for everyone.

When you do this and believe in trust in the God of abundance, it changes you, you will move from a person who constantly plays it safe. Oh, I have to be so careful. You have one life. And with your one and only life, do you just want to sit around hoarding and hoping and protecting?

I have to stay in this dead end job, I'm in my forties now, they're hard to come by. I'm going to stay in this bad relationship. God doesn't love God, he treats me terrible, but you know, I'm in my thirties and for women like me, I can't go back to school at night, it's not enough time. I should probably go to Guatemala, but what if I get sick?

If I volunteer at church, they're going to keep asking me again the following week, there's not enough time. Right? This scarcity mindset, literally when you embrace it, it will paralyze you. You're stuck.

If you start to understand that you follow God of abundance, you'll become more generous. A person with a scarcity mindset, you can't get sacrificial eat. If I give you money, who's going to take care of me? They'll be less for me.

A mindset that trust me, God of abundance and blessing, blesses other all the time because they don't see the world as a zero-sum game. Just because you've got a bigger slice of the pie, does I mean the mind's going to be smaller? And this doesn't just allow generosity. This allows for joy as others achieve and grow and get ahead.

Do you remember when you were called into the new office and the boss said, you know, you're doing a good job. But Jim and that cubicle next year, he's blowing away our sales goals. He's increased his sales 20%. You've only increased yours five.

You're going to get a five percent raise. But Jim, he's going to get 20% and we're going to move him up to the corner office. Do you remember how happy you were? You weren't because you believe in a God of scarcity.

Well, there's only so much blessing since he got his. I'm not getting the mind. The concept of life being one competition, giant competition goes away. There's enough for all of us and God will provide just what we need, just when we need it.

It makes us so much more thankful and less bitter instead of fretting what others have. I can stop looking at them and start to be thankful for what I've been given. When you get this, check this out. I didn't really thought about this until this week.

When you get this, you might notice something about this prayer. You see, we think this, but it's not what's written. We think this. We think this is not saying, give me this day my daily bread.

That's a prayer driven by a mindset of scarcity. There's not enough pannada candy. Give me enough of my pannada candy. There's not enough flat panels of Walmart.

Give me a flat panel of Walmart. Jesus says, when you pray, pray, give us this day our daily bread because at deep levels, God, I trust, I believe there's enough for all of us. You can be trusted for it. I don't need to have more and I don't need it all today.

I can take all my eyes off me and think about you. This prayer for Jesus for daily bread is rooted in the prayer of the writer of Proverbs. Now you might say, you know, John, I wanted to get a Bible tattoo. Enough is enough.

That's not biblical enough for me. Let me give you the Bible tattoo then. Parents don't blame me. It's from the Bible.

Here's what the writer of Proverbs said. He said, no one's going to get this tattoo either by the way. Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread because otherwise I might have too much and disown you and say, who is the Lord? Or I might become poor and steal and dishonor the name of my God.

That is a beautiful way to pray God. Let it be for me that enough is enough. And enough is enough is the great prayer of the heart of those who follow God. Now lastly, as the service comes forward and the band comes up, we're going to gather around the community tables of church.

I want to share one last meaning, Jesus' release about daily bread. Some of you know the story. Jesus is teaching and people are following them and they're moving from place to place and crowds are beginning to gather and the day is growing long and the crowds are getting just like the Israelites hungry. And so Jesus looks at his disciples and he says to them, go and feed the multitude to which the disciples say, how are we going to feed the multitude?

We only have two fish and five loaves. Do you know what that is a mindset of? Scarcity. There's not enough here for these people to which the God of Abundance says, feed them.

And miraculously God provides for his people again and there is leftover. There is more than enough. Here's the interesting part. Jesus departs and he goes across the lake and his disciples come and follow him.

And Jesus goes, here's what he says. He goes, I know why you're here. He says, you're here because you ate the loaves and you had your fill. You're here because I provided this physical sustenance for you and that's why you're here again.

You want more of it. And he says, don't work for food that spoils. And for food that endures to eternal life which I give you. And so just like us, after 22 million meals, that was not one another sign.

More proof. Well, God, you're asking us for some crazy stuff. I mean, I don't know. Could you give me a sign?

So they asked them, what sign will you give that we might believe you? What will you do? I mean, our ancestors, they ate the man in the wilderness as it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus, that's great.

But, you know, we're hungry. He could give us a sign. Remember, our ancestors, like our bread. And Jesus says, very truly, I tell you, what's a Moses who gives you the bread from heaven?

But it's my father who gives you the true bread from heaven. So the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, this sounds really good. Always give us this bread.

Oh, Jesus, that's the provision we're looking for, that kind of blessing, the kind of stuff that doesn't run out. Would you promise to give us that? So we're worried about being hungry. And Jesus said, I'm the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. And so guys, when Jesus says to pray, give us this daily bread, he isn't just talking about our physical needs. He's actually saying you have a bigger problem. You have a deeper hunger, a greater need than just physical.

He's the only one capable of quenching the thirst of your soul, the cry of your heart. Jesus says when you pray, pray that God this day would give you a daily provision of Him, enough of Him for the day to empower and heal, guide and lead through this world into the next. Because there's a profound truth. We have a greater need for our souls than we do for our stomachs.

And for that greater need, it turns out, you know what? Here's another tattoo. You could just add to the one you got. Enough is enough.

And Jesus is enough. So this morning, for all the hungry, thirsty, scared, tired of trying to ride, I gotta get more, I gotta get more, what if something happens? Isaiah the prophet invites you to the table. He wrote this hundreds of years before Jesus prayed it.

He says, everyone is thirst. Come to the waters. And you who have no money? Come and buy and eat.

Come. Buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend your money for what is not bread and your wages for what do not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself.