Our Daily Bread
Notes
Transcript
Invite everyone to stand and read Matthew 6:9-13- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Lay the groundwork. The order of this prayer is going to be massively important today. So let’s refresh.
Before ever getting to the various needs of mankind, Jesus says we ought to focus our attention on God, specifically on His name, His kingdom, and His will.
Once we have considered these first three petitions, then we can move to the needs of man.
Read Matthew 6:11- Give us this day our daily bread...
Pray.
Why the physical needs first?
Kids wanting to watch tv immediately.
Progression- physical needs met to sustain life, then forgiveness of sins which allows for spiritual life, then living such life.
In some ways, we have here a representation of the gospel.
Physical life to spiritual life to spiritual direction.
Further, if we are to pray for physical things, consider how much that should drive us further to pray for that which is spiritual.
Thomas Watson- “If we are to pray for temporal things, how much more for spiritual? If we are to pray for bread, how much more for the bread of life? If for oil, how much more for the oil of gladness? If to have our hunger satisfied, much more should we pray to have our souls saved.”
Praying for that which sustains our physical life ought to drive us even more into what sustains and grows our spiritual life.
Let’s find how we are to pray this specific petition.
1. Give.
1. Give.
First word- plants our prayer request in the grace of God.
We require something that we do not have.
Noticed this before- entire prayer is a prayer of grace.
God as the main doer throughout the entirety of the prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of dependence.
Highlighted in in our request for bread.
Difficult request to pray.
Everything that we need is stuff that we often already have.
We fall into the trap of believing ourselves to be self-sustaining.
Speaking of Jehoiakim, God says in Jeremiah 22:21- I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice.
Must be reminded by the word ‘give’ that everything we have, no matter the amount, can be taken away.
Is this a demand? We can imagine it being said in that way.
This is not the first thing that we say in prayer.
Remember, everything is run through the lens of the hallowing of God’s name.
This is no self-centered demand, but instead a request of dependence.
Kevin DeYoung- “When we pray, God is not glad for demands, but he is glorified in our dependence.”
Reminder that all is grace.
What do you have that you did not receive? 1 Corinthians 4. Why do you boast?
Building of the temple in the OT- A great house for God and yet Israel’s obedience was fueled by what God provided.
This is the manner of all of life. We accomplish God’s will with the raw materials that He provides.
When we recognize our dependence on God, then our attitude changes from pride to gratitude.
We pray, “Whatever you have to give, that is what I need.”
The first word of our requests for the needs of man correctly position us in such an attitude.
2. Bread.
2. Bread.
We have prayed that God’s will would be done here on earth as in heaven. Now we ask for whatever it is that will accomplish our doing of God’s will.
A few ways to understand the request for bread.
Literal bread, meaning food.
The bread of life as found in John 6- Jesus.
Spiritual food- Word of God- provides for us what even physical bread cannot.
Likely need to understand this text in its most basic form.
Give us today what is necessary for us.
Bread- Manna in the wilderness. Exodus 16. God would provide bread which would sustain them while they were in the wilderness.
God cares about the mundane.
We are people who tend to care much more about a grand feast than a morsel of bread or a piece of fruit.
This is the way that we tend to be in all of life. We give thanks at the peaks of the mountains, but perhaps not on the journey up.
We find in our prayer a God who cares about every bit of life.
God cares about the most basic form of your food.
3. Daily.
3. Daily.
Not our extravagance. We ask for what is needed to accomplish God’s will within us.
Have you ever considered what is actually needed?
Numbers 11- Crying out for meat.
We tend to ask for the things that we would most like, not the things that we most need.
Ought to come not with a statement, but moreso with a question. God, what is is that I need today? Would you give that to me?
Proverbs 30:7-9- Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 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.
Praying for our daily bread keeps us coming back to God on at least a daily basis.
Consider the father who gives in a lump sum to his child.
We have all seen this is someone, maybe we have seen it in ourselves. We do not want to be this way with God, and God doesn’t want us to be this way with Him.
He asks us to return daily.
Martyn Lloyd Jones- “This, surely, is the marvelous thing, that God likes us to come to Him. The God who is self-existent, the great Jehovah, the God who is not dependent upon anybody, who is from eternity to eternity, who exists in Himself apart from all…because we are His children He likes us to come to Him, and likes to hear us.”
I wonder if we think much about God in this manner. He desires our conversations. He desires our thoughts. He desires our requests.
4. Us.
4. Us.
Perhaps most overlooked- we pray not only for ourselves, not only for our families, but for our communities.
When we pray for our daily bread, we are praying with others in mind.
For many, the Lord’s prayer seems deeply personal.
Gravitate toward the singular understanding- Forgive my debts. Lead me not into temptation.
The entire prayer, however, is communal. From the very beginning- Our Father.
Remember the context of the sermon on the mount- primary audience is made up of his disciples. He is teaching them.
Not only teaching them about individual faith, but what the faith community must look like.
We ask not only on behalf of ourselves, but also on behalf of one another. Give others their daily bread.
Further- give me their daily bread.
What you give to me that is extra, may I find ways in which you are providing daily bread for others through me.
Our prayer that asks for daily bread rests entirely upon the wisdom of God.
J.I. Packer- “Now comes the real test of faith. You, the Christian, have prayed for today’s bread. Will you now believe that what comes to you, much or little, is God’s answer, according to His promises? And will you on that basis be content with it, and grateful for it? Over to you.”