Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Joshua Trosper

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Matthew 6:5–15 ESV

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Proverbs 30:7–9 ESV

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.

Let’s pray.

- PASTORAL PRAYER

MISSIONARY - Scotty - May the numerous Bible studies continue

LOCAL CHURCH - Grace Bible - Philipp Garwood

LWC

- may your word be preached with power

-give us ears to hear and eyes to see

-Be glorified

This morning, we come to the our sixth sermon through the Lord’s prayer. In previous weeks we have gone through the address and the first three petitions of this prayer.

Let’s listen to again to the first half of the Lord’s prayer and let’s recall what we have already covered.

Matthew 6:9–10 ESV

9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

I want us to notice this about the first three requests. The first three petitions are not about us or our immediate needs. With exception word ‘our’ there in the address of the prayer, all the pronouns used in the Lord’s Prayer up to this point are second person pronouns that are referring our heavenly Father.

We are to pray like this;

hallowed be YOUR name

YOUR kingdom come

YOUR will be done

I point this out, not to fill our minds with grammar facts about the Lord’s Prayer… I am pointing this out because I hope this changes the way that we pray.

I hope we don’t go on praying like whiney children that just cry - give me, give me, give me! We often use even a wonderful thing, like prayer, for our own sinful desires. We do this because we are selfish, disobedient and discontent.

James warns about such a misuse of prayer when he wrote this;

James 4:3–4 ESV

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

In the first half of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray not to pray for our good, but God’s glory. This is so important, because so often inmost desires, and consequently our prayers as well, have nothing to do with the glory of God. We have this sinful tendency to fix all of our attention in prayer on the things that we want and that which we think we need. But, this is not the way that we have been instructed to pray. In our prayers, we are to pray for God’s name to be hollowed, for his kingdom to come, and for his will to be done.

BUT, we can take this principal about praying for for the glory of too far and misunderstand prayer in a completely different way than those who simply treat God like a cosmic vending machine. What I mean is this; if we begin to think that we can’t make our daily requests known to God because we are to only pray for God to be glorified, well then we will only continue not know how to pray.

This week, as we begin the second half of the Lord’s Prayer we see a notable shift take place. In the second half of the prayer, Jesus gives us three additional petitions that we are to pray. In those petitions, we are instructed to pray for our own personal needs. This change is easy to identify if you highlight the pronouns used throughout this prayer.

While the first three petitions use the second person pronoun - your - the later three petitions use the first person pronouns that all refer to us.Listen to the pronouns used in the latter three petitions;

Matthew 6:11–13 ESV

11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

While the first three petitions focus on the glory of God, the later three are about God acting for our good.

We need understand this about prayer; making our personal requests known to God for our good is not a misuse of prayer so long as we do not separate those requests from first and foremost seeking the glory of God. As we come to this fourth petition, where we ask for daily bread, we must not try to pluck this prayer from the previous of the petitions. If we do separate this petition from all the rest, we will find ourselves unable to say these words with Paul;

Philippians 4:11–13 ESV

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Let’s make sure that we don’t divide the petition for daily bread from the other petitions that we have already covered.

With this in mind, let’s consider what it means to pray this fourth petition.

What does it mean to pray,

Matthew 6:11 ESV

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

There are all kinds of ways people have interpreted these words

- some believe this request is referring to the bread that we eat at the Lord’s Supper

- others think this is a request for God’s kingdom so that we can eat with him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb

- while others try to make this petition about asking for Jesus who is the bread of life.

Those are certainly creative interpretations - but they are far too creative… These interpretations are made, likely out of an ascetic view that believes that the needs of the body are sinful.

Perhaps these interpretations are made, because we have just had three requests before that have had our eyes fixed heavenward towards the glory of God - and some find it unthinkable that we could make go from praying for God to be glorified only to quickly shift to fixing our eyes on our stomachs by asking for such an ordinary mundane need. But that’s exactly what this petition is about.

1. We are to pray for daily bread, because God cares about our life.

When we ask for daily bread, I don’t think we are limited to only asking for bread. I think that in this request for bread, Jesus is teaching us that we are to ask for all the necessities that are needed to sustain our physical bodies.

The essence of asking for daily bread can include things like asking our heavenly Father to provide us with needs like:

a home

or a car

a job

or even our health

When we pray, give us today our daily bread, we are asking God to give us all we need for the good of our weak and perishing physical frame.

The Scriptures are full of proofs that demonstrate God’s care for our physical needs.

If you think our request for daily bread is a mundane or trivial to God, think again. God cares for his children so much, that keeps track of the things that some of us would count as trivial!

Matthew 10:29–31 ESV

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Except for those who are are trying to prevent their balding - the number of hairs on our heads is rather unimportant to us… But our Father has each hair on our head numbered.

Oh that we would know and believe that our heavenly Father cares about our physical bodies, and the needs that we have to sustain our life in this world.

The Lord cares about the practical needs that we have - and his care for our frame is reflected by those who have true religion. James puts it this way.

James 2:15–16 ESV

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?

We are commanded to love our neighbor and care for their physical needs, like their nakedness and their hunger. This command is given, because our care for them is a reflection of the love that God has for man. But the best image of the care that God has for his people’s physical needs is found, not in Christian love that is marred by sin - rather the best image of God’s love for mans life and his physical needs is demonstrated by Jesus!

Matthew 15:32 ESV

32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

We could go on, and talk about the compassion of Jesus who demonstrated the care of the Father for all those who had physical needs, but to do so would take up the rest of our day. So instead you have some homework. Go home and read Matthew 8 and 9 and read of Jesus’ compassion that he had for those who came to him with sickness, and for those who were harassed without a shepherd. Read these stories and recognize that God cares for our life as well as the physical needs of our body.

Know of God’s care for our needs, and let that knowledge motivate us all the more to go to him in prayer as we ask him to give us our daily bread.

But God’s care for our life is not the only reason we ask our Father to give us bread.

2. We are to pray for daily bread, because we are utterly dependent on God for the basic necessities of life.

Many of us do well by going to the Lord with our greatest needs.

We have learned to go to him when we are sick

We have learned to pray when we are worried and afraid

We know that we should pray when matters are out of our hand

Even nominal Christians will pray when their life is in danger

But for most of us, daily food doesn’t really feel like something that we need to go to God for.

After all, it’s not like we are wandering in the wilderness in dependance on God mana from heaven. Most of us are affluent enough to keep our pantries full. And our refrigerators. AND that extra freezer that we keep in the garage.

And even if our own storehouse of food is running low, many of us are just a stones throw away from a grocery store. And if our preferred store doesn’t have our lactose free milk in stock, it’s no big deal because there are at least another two dozen stores within fifteen minutes from our house that will have what we need.

Most of us know very little about what it is like to depend on God for daily bread, because we have an abundance of food. Even the poorest among us, have some access to food. I’m not trying to ignore or overlook those who have legitimate hunger… But for the most part, we Americans, we aren’t even remotely concerned about starving to death… for the most part, we more concerned about weight loss and obesity than we are about hunger and starvation. Most of us hardly know what it is like to not know where our next meal will come from.

But let’s not be so foolish so as to not realize where all our food has come from.

Consider the wealth and comfort the Egyptians enjoyed in the book of Exodus. They had the Nile River which provided abundant food and riches. But all of that was consumed when God sent the plagues to destroy their crops and livestock.

Consider again all the riches that Job lost. And what was his response?

Job 1:21 ESV

21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

In other words… All that Job had, and the things that were lost, were recieved by Job from the hand of God.

And again at the end of Job we read,

Job 42:10 ESV

10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

We would be absolute fools to think that our food and our fortunes are the mere result of our own industry.

If we recognize that all we have has come from the hand of God, then we ought to pray all the more that God would give us our daily bread, because we are far more deponent on him than we even realize.

2. We are to pray for daily bread, because we are utterly dependent on God for the basic necessities of life.

You might have put seed in the ground. And you may have worked hard to water it every day - but God caused the seed to grow and produce fruit

You may have worked hard to earn your paycheck - But the Lord is the one who established the work of your hands

You may have even built your house - but unless the Lord builds the house, the builder labors in vain.

Understand this; all that we have - be it the food we eat, or the families that we have made - all that we have - from the houses we bought, to the health we enjoy - all that we have is a gift that has come from the hand of God.

So when we pray, we should pray like this. Give us this day our daily bread.

And if you have a need that you think is too big for our God to provide, think again.

Was feeding the five thousand too difficult for Jesus when there were only five loaves and two fish?

and again, is it too difficult for the Lord to feed the birds or to cloth the lilies?

Like the previous point, we could spend the entire morning, and even all our life considering every way in which our God is active in providing for his people… but for a more comprehensive view on God’s provision, go home and read Job chapters 38 and 39 so that you might discover what it means for God to uphold the universe by the word of his power.

We should ask our Father in heaven to give us our daily bread, because we are no more able to providing food for our mouth, than we are able to ensure that we can take our next breath.

Now, just a word on the relationship between our eating and our working.

2 Thessalonians 3:10–12 ESV

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. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

While we are to ask God for our daily bread, we should not expect him to give us any food if we are not working. We shouldn’t pray for daily bread with open hands without then putting those same hands to the plow. Even in Eden, God provided all the plants for Adam to eat, but this provision did not come apart from Adam’s responsibility to work the ground and keep it.

So we should ask that the Lord would give us our daily bread in our prayer, and then we should work hard with our hands. And when our work becomes fruitful, give ought to give thanks to God for establishing the work of our hands by providing for all of our needs. For all that we have and will receive is but a gift that comes directly from the hand of God.

Let me press this fourth petition further.

3. We are to pray for daily bread, because bread is sufficient for our bodies today.

Understand the simplicity in this request that we are instructed to pray. When we ask for daily bread, we are only asking for the basic necessities that our body needs for today.

Let me clarify this in two points

First, when asking for daily bread we are not asking for not steak and lobster.

And second, when asking for daily bread we are not asking for a silo of wheat to sustain us for the next year

Let me elaborate on both of these

1. First of all, when we ask for daily bread, we are asking for the most basic necessities for life (as opposed to asking for rich fine food)

Many of us are accustom to all kinds of luxuries - and often we blur the lines between what is needed and what is wanted.

I say this as the one who prefers to preach from his iPad - when paper would do just fine

But in asking for daily bread, our requests must not be used as a way to grumble in discontentment when the Lord has already given us all that is needed for life.

When we are asking for bread, we ask for the basic food that is needed for nourishing our bodies and giving us strength.

When we ask God to provide us with a vehicle that our family needs, we are not asking for a faster car, or a more powerful truck, simply because we are discontent with the minivan that God has already given to us

When we ask God for a new home - we aren’t asking for a bigger house, with more land, for the sake of our ego or impress our friends

When we are asking for daily bread, we are only asking for that which is needed for life - not what is desired for luxury, for comfort, or for pride

2. And second, when we ask for daily bread, we ask God to give us ONLY what is need for today.

In this prayer request, we are asking for one day’s food at a time, because tomorrow we are going to return yet again to the Lord in dependence for our life.

When we ask for for daily bread, we aren’t asking for abundant riches for retirement. Instead we are praying for just enough money for today to meet our daily needs.

When we ask for daily bread, we ought to apply the wisdom of Proverbs 30

Proverbs 30:7–9 ESV

Be watchful if in your prayer for daily bread, and make sure you are not actually asking for riches. Paul gives us this warning for those who seek such things.

1 Timothy 6:9–10 ESV

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Soon enough, we will cover the final petition - lead us not into temptation. How can we pray for riches, when those riches are the very temptation that make it difficult for a man to enter the Kingdom of God?

Listen, when we ask for daily bread, we are neither asking for luxury, nor are we asking for savings, but instead we are only asking for the basic necessities for today.

Our request for daily bread evokes the imagery of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.

Remember, God had delivered Israel from slavery, and he was going to give them the promised land.

This new land was said to be flowing with milk and honey

The land had clusters of grapes that were so big it had to be carried by two men.

But in order to get to the the promised land, Israel would need to go through the wilderness. Now, traveling in the desert, with all their children, and with the elderly was no easy task. But it wouldn’t be impossible, because their God who delivered them from slavery would supply them with the all the food that they needed.

Unfortunately, Israel was not content with God’s provision, for time and time again they grumbled against the Lord for bringing them into the wilderness where they had to eat mana.

Friends, let me remind you of something. Israel’s story is our story, for we too have been delivered from a greater tyrant who made us slaves, - for we were slaves to sin before God saved us. And even now, God is leading us into our own promised land that has greater riches than milk and honey. Our promised land has streets of gold and pearly gates. And more than this, in that land there is a river that flows with the water of life, and by that river is the tree of life. This is the promised land that we are traveling to!

But in the meantime, we have this life, this wilderness that we must travel through. And in our wilderness, Satan will tempt us in every way that he can. He will try to make us to grumble against God. He will tempt us to even settle for the wilderness or return to Egypt all together. He will tempt us to try to create our own little heaven here on earth - through luxury, wealth, and comfort.

But settling for the riches of this world instead of heaven is like trading your birthright for a bowl of beans all because you are hungry.

Let us guard ourself when we pray for daily bread. In our prayers, fight off discontentment that might creep in your heart, for our God has given us all that is needed for the wilderness.

And to guard us from our discontentment, let us learn one more lesson.

4. While daily bread is sufficient for our bodies, bread is not sufficient for life.

We are far too anxious about the things that are needed for life. We might get anxious about our work, our finances, about our heath, and all the possible ways in which we might die. But Jesus kindly corrects us.

Matthew 6:25 ESV

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

While we are to pray for daily bread, we do not need to do so anxiously. In fact, as we pray for daily bread, let us not only ask for bread, for bread is not all that is needed for life.

Daily bread is only one of the three petitions that we must go to God for. For we don’t just need daily bread, but we also need forgiveness of our sins and deliverance from evil.

And though we ask God for our daily bread, even hunger has it’s purpose for the good of God’s children. Even in withholding food from us, God lovingly discipling us for the purpose in preserving our life.

Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV

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.

Even after Jesus fed the five thousand, they too would soon hunger again. And their hunger had it’s divine purpose. For in their hunger, revealed that there is a better bread that will satisfy.

John 6:35 ESV

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

So when we pray, let us ask God for daily bread. But when we ask for daily bread, let’s not grumble with discontentment, nor should we only seek the gift from God. But when we ask for daily bread, let us seek the giver of every good gift who alone can satisfy.