"Give Us This Day..."
Pastor Chad A. Miller
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 35:51
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· 27 viewsWe are needy; God is the provider. The Father cares for great Kingdom things and small things, such as feeding his children. Further, Jesus shows us that all of life must be lived before the face of God. Our lives are not divided between spiritual activities and earthly activities.
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9 After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 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.
Opening:
I’ve prayed and prayed…but I can’t tell a difference!
Do you really have to pray?
Do you really need to pray about bread?
Some years ago a publisher wrote an essay to explain why he had given up on prayer. “I don’t pray anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve given it up for Lent. Also for Advent and Pentecost.... How can I maintain, without lying, that God has a hand in this meal?” (Don Brothy - The Catholic Observer, 1974, Why I Don’t Pray Anymore)
THE PRIORITY
THE PRIORITY
Big stuff vs small stuff. Big goals vs small goals.
When given the opportunity, whether introvert or extravert, very few of us like to characterize our days as lots of small decisions. When we tell our stories, people are expecting the grand details, the sensational elements, the bigger than life stuff.
Notice the pace here…the big Holy name of God our Father, the bigness of His Kingdom, the bigness of His will…and then He steps into our kitchens, moving toward our meals.
Everybody knows that the Lord’s prayer is in two parts,
concerned first with the glory of God
and then with the needs of man,
Calvin was one of the first commentators to suggest a parallel with the ten commandments. For they also are divided in two and express the same priority: the first tablet outlines our duty to God and the second our duty to our neighbour,
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
THE PETITION
THE PETITION
Give
Give
Reminds us that we are the creatures, He is Creator
17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
We are needy, His is provider
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Us
Us
It isn’t give me…it’s give us.
In the Lord’s Prayer we are praying for God to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It makes sense - it takes a village to produce a loaf of bread
One person plows the field, plants the seed, and harvests the grain. Another person grinds the flour, and another bakes the bread. Still others deliver the loaf to the dinner table. Thus most of the bread we eat, at least in America, was made by someone else.
- Ryken, Philip Graham. The Prayer of Our Lord (p. 56). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
25 I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
Today
Today
Hudson Taylor - missionary to China wrote in one of his journals: “I am taking my children with me, and I notice that it is not difficult for me to remember that the little ones need breakfast in the morning, dinner at midday, and something before they go to bed at night. Indeed I could not forget it. And I find it impossible to suppose that our heavenly Father is less tender or mindful than I.... I do not believe that our heavenly Father will ever forget His children. I am a very poor father, but it is not my habit to forget my children. God is a very, very good Father. It is not His habit to forget His children.”
J. B. Phillips correctly rendered this clause, “give us this (each) day the bread we need.”
Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 6
The people of rural Galilee were poor and oppressed, and resources such as food were scarce. This prayer reflects the real needs of people living in difficult times.
We are told to ask for bread, as the Israelites were told to gather manna, on a day-to-day basis:
the Disciple’s walk is one that has us thriving if we live in constant dependence on God, a day at a time.
1 Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.
Our Daily Bread
Our Daily Bread
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 2. The Christian Way of Prayer
Some early commentators could not believe that Jesus intended our first request to be for literal bread, bread for the body. It seemed to them improper, especially after the noble three opening petitions relating to God’s glory, that we should abruptly descend to so mundane and material a concern. So they allegorized the petition. The bread he meant must be spiritual, they said. Early church fathers like Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine thought the reference was either to ‘the invisible bread of the Word of God’1 or to the Lord’s Supper. Jerome in the Vulgate translated the Greek word for ‘daily’ by the monstrous adjective ‘supersubstantial’; he also meant the Holy Communion. We should be thankful for the greater, down-to-earth, biblical understanding of the Reformers. Calvin’s comment on the spiritualizing of the fathers was: ‘This is exceedingly absurd.’1 Luther had the wisdom to see that ‘bread’ was a symbol for ‘everything necessary for the preservation of this life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government and peace’,2 and probably we should add that by ‘bread’ Jesus meant the necessities rather than the luxuries of life.
yet with the words “give us this day our daily bread,” he moves from the clouds of heaven to the trials and troubles of our own dusty streets and dirty kitchens.
Mohler, R. Albert. The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down (p. 110). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
Daily - The word is the Greek term epiousion, and the Lord’s Prayer is the only place it appears in the entire New Testament (Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3).
Our need, not our greed
7 Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
Provision For those who are able - through the gift of work
10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Provision For those who are not - through the benevolence of the Church body (individually, families, corporate body
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
THE PROVISION
THE PROVISION
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
APPLICATION
Don’t worry!
Have the RIGHT PRIORITY - that glorifies the Lord and makes much of Him!
Have a THOUGHTFUL PETITION - your & others’ need (not your greed)
Enjoy a SUFFICIENT PROVISION - opulence and riches are not
Transition to the offer of living bread...
RC SPROUL moved family to Holland while he was working on his doctorate.
First sentence - half a loaf of sliced bread please
Baker delivered bread daily - no preservatives, end of day it was inedible
came daily.
I agree with Dr. Sproul’s assessment that Jesus wasn’t likely using these words because there were no preservatives…but rather pointing us to a daily dependence on the Lord and His faithfulness and sufficiency for our needs.
The LIVING BREAD
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
So what’s the big deal?
Prayer is Invading the Impossible Chapter 15: The Most Prayed Prayer
The most important thing about this is not the discovery that we can ask for God’s help in the mundane matters of our personal lives. The most important thing is that we are told to. The message is plain. We must ask about day-to-day matters as well as large eternal issues. Back-to-back with prayer that the Almighty’s will be worked on earth, we should not overlook the simplest matters of life.
The BIG DEAL is that this is a command…wrought with glorious and good implications…Whether today is day one of praying or you’ve prayed and prayed. It’s a command.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,