Give Us This Day: The Workaholic's Faith Problem

Sermon outline

"Give us this day our daily bread" is a daily prayer of trust, so do the natural and let God be supernatural, staying in His will through fellowship with Him and His church, balanced work and faithful giving.

1. Do not worry about tomorrow

   No one can serve two masters. Do not worry about what you will eat, drink or wear: the birds neither sow nor reap and the Father feeds them, the lilies neither toil nor spin and Solomon was not dressed like them. Worry cannot add a single hour to your life. Seek first the kingdom, and leave tomorrow's troubles for tomorrow, because there is enough to deal with today.

   Illustration: Every Valentine's Day everyone buys lilies, and God says He dressed every one of those flowers.

   “Brothers and sisters, we've got to let God drive the car.”

   • Matthew 6:22-34
   • Ecclesiastes 3:14

2. Faith at the table, not only in prayer

   If any lack wisdom, let him ask in faith without doubting, because the doubter is a wave tossed by the wind. You cannot thank God for His provision in prayer and then sit at the dinner table planning a second job, extra shifts and selling things from the garage on Facebook. That is a double-minded man. It is not skill or education that brings promotion, or the teachers would be the millionaires; it is the Lord.

   Illustration: The emotional rollercoaster of this bill and that bill is the wave of the sea driven and tossed to and fro.

   “On one hand, I want to have faith, but on another hand, deep in my heart is fear.”

   • James 1:2-7

3. Do the natural and let God be supernatural

   You can put on a red cloak and say you are Superman, but God is super and you are not. When the month comes up short, the instinct is to do more advertising and more phone calls. Instead keep working faithfully, stand on the word, be diligent in giving, tithing and serving, and let God bring what you could not.

   Illustration: A property agent used to fifty thousand a month makes fifteen, and starts making TikTok videos, phoning the database and thinking about extra jobs. A businessman on service level agreements has a short month and prints more cards and updates Google My Business. Is life not more than food and clothing?

   “We do what is natural, but we allow God to be supernatural.”

   • Deuteronomy 28:1-9

4. Worry about nothing, pray about everything

   The minute you start functioning in fear you stop praying, or you pray panic prayers. In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known, and the peace of God that passes understanding will guard your heart and mind.

   “You notice that the minute that you start functioning in fear, you stop praying.”

   • Philippians 4:6-7

5. Requirement one: fellowship with the Father

   To be in the will of God, constant fellowship with Jesus through personal prayer and the word is essential. We do not come only when we want something, need something or face a crisis, and then conclude the God thing did not work and that God helps those who help themselves. Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

   “When you hear that, please give that person a clap upside the head because that person was not a praying individual.”

   • Hebrews 10:22

6. Requirement two: fellowship with the church

   Do not forsake assembling together; this is the word, not the pastor telling people to come to church. People who want to be known at the nightclub want to slip in and out of church unnoticed. God expects fellowship with your church, its leaders and the people around you, with accountability, so that when one suffers all suffer. Adult children cannot stand on their parents' faith.

   “One day when you're standing before the Lord, you're not standing there with mom and dad and granny and grandpa.”

   • Hebrews 10:24-25
   • 1 Corinthians 12:21-26
   • James 5:16

7. Requirement three: diligent and balanced work

   Earn your living with your hands and command the respect of the outside world, but do not go to the opposite extreme and let the cares of life and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. A false balance is an abomination, and the workaholic has put his faith in the work of his hands. As soon as people get busy, church is the first thing they drop. And if you will not work, you should not eat.

   Illustration: They don't forget the engagement party, and they don't miss the lunch at ten with the gammon, but church gets dropped.

   “When we are workaholics, it means that we are putting our faith in the work of our hands rather than the Father.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
   • Matthew 13:22
   • Proverbs 11:1
   • 2 Thessalonians 3:10

8. Requirement four: obedience in giving

   Bring the tithe into the storehouse and God will open the windows of heaven. Tithing one month and not the next is functioning in fear. It is not about the amount but the faithfulness of a child saying "my faith is in you, Father".

   Illustration: His father's mother, on a pension until the day she died, still put her tithe in an envelope and brought it to church herself.

   “We as a family, let me tell you, we are products of tithing. We are products of giving.”

   • Malachi 3:10

9. Daily bread means daily communion

   "Give us this day our daily bread" is not a list of wants. It asks for what is necessary for today: the wisdom, the supply, the rest and the grace for today. Praying once a week and revisiting it seven days later is not a relationship.

   Illustration: A husband five years married stops speaking to his wife, greets her warmly two weeks later, then ignores her for another few weeks. She would think he had lost his mind.

   “Lord, give me what's necessary for today.”

   • Matthew 6:11

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