Sermon Tone Analysis

Overview and Review

We are not to pray longing for attention, but we are to shut out distractions

We are not to pray believing our success in prayer depends on the length of our prayer

We are to approach God as both Father - close to us and loving of us, and as in heaven, far from us, other than us.

we are to pray first for God’s Name to be exalted and treated as holy.

We are to pray second for God’s kingdom to come and rule in our hearts and to rescue people from the kingdom of darkness.

We are to pray third for God’s Law and Commands to be obeyed as they are in heaven.

Now we come to the final three requests that cover the whole of the life of a person.

First, they cover every aspect of our life.

Our physical life needs

Our Right standing with God

Our Protection from Evil

Basic meaning

Give us this day our daily bread.

If you have a footnote, the footnote says: Give us our bread for tomorrow.

We are to pray for our daily bread.

Man lives by bread at least in some way, bread is necessary, but bread alone Moses is saying is not sufficient for the fullness of life.

But bread is necessary.

Our request is asking God to give us the necessities that are sufficient for today.

Not everyday for all time.

We are to pray for our daily bread, daily.

If it is give us what is sufficent for today, then we don’t have it for tomorrow and that means we ought to go and ask for it every day.

Objection:

If God already knows what we need, then why tell us to ask for what we need?

Because God is pleased to relate to us, he wants to talk to us, he wants to hear from us, He is our father.

You want as a father to hear from your children, even if you already know what they need.

Illustration:

A.B. Simpson: If God were to take all the grace he would give to us over our entire life time and give it to us in one lump sum we could not handle it.

But instead God deposits it like into a ban account.

So you have all you need in Christ, however everyday, you are required to write a check on the account of God’s grace and go cash it for that day, so you have what you need for that day.

Implications

This is surprising

Is not this one of the most wonderful things in the whole of Scripture, that the God who is the Creator and sustainer of the universe, the God who is forming His eternal kingdom and who will usher it in at the end, the God to whom the nations are but as”the small dust of the balance” - that such a God should be prepared to consider your little needs and mind even down to the minutest of details in this matter of daily bread?

(Lloyd-Jones)

This is about our necessities

We are not here called on to come and pray about our luxuries.

How well do we do in telling these two apart?

This is about all our physical needs

Another way of saying it is the total of our biological life.

So it is not just the food we eat and the water we drink.

It is our rest, our health, our needs to survive in this world.

SO our bills being paid.

Now it might not be about getting a brand new car, when the one you have is just fine.

It is about needs and necessities.

This shows our utter dependence upon God.

The bread you and I would eat, daily we are to ask God to please give it to us, we are to ask for God to help us with all our life needs.

How can we tell a need from a luxury?

A need is something that we certainly cannot live without.

Food clothing, shelter, water, health.