Our Daily Bread

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Turn with me, if you would, this morning to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. And this verse we’re going to look at this morning coincides well with Thanksgiving coming up and with things that we should be thankful for, but that was not on purpose.

I didn’t set out to write a Thanksgiving message. As you know, we’ve been studying through the Lord’s Prayer, and this is just where we happen to be this morning. Still don’t believe it’s a coincidence, even though it wasn’t on purpose on my end.

You know, in our country, for the most part, throughout our history, the idea of dependency has been thought of as a bad thing. It’s almost a dirty word. We don’t want to be dependent on anybody.

We want to do it ourselves. And I say historically because that’s not always the case anymore, but most people look at life, I think a good portion of people look at life and say, I want to do it myself. That’s why in America we look up to the self-made man.

We look up to the man who climbed the ladder all by himself and ended up at the top. Our country was built by people who left Europe in search of a better life, whether it was religious freedom, whether it was political freedom, whether it was economic opportunity. They left and they said, you know what, the wilderness, and digging something out of the wilderness with our own two hands is better than what we have here, so we’re going to chuck everything, and we’re going to leave, and we’re going to go over to America.

And even the Americans, once we, I say the Americans like we’re not the Americans, but even the early Americans, after they had settled the eastern seaboard, after they had clawed civilization out of the wilderness, said that’s not quite enough. And you had people pouring over the Appalachians into Tennessee and Kentucky, and soon that wasn’t enough. And they went across the Mississippi, and folks, in less than 200 years, the Americans built a country across a continent.

And our society has been based on the idea of independence and self-determination and doing it yourself. And that’s why so many people reacted so badly when they were told, you didn’t build that. And folks, I include myself in that.

I cringed when I heard you didn’t build that. Although the phrase, when you look at our lives, when you look at everything we have, it’s true, we didn’t build that. But I don’t believe government did.

As we get around to the premise of today’s message, I believe that the one who has built everything we have to be thankful for is God. I look at my life, I didn’t build that. God built that.

But we tend to look at dependency as though it is such a bad thing. And we’re afraid to ask for help. We’re afraid to let it be known that we need help, that we rely on anybody, and we think we can just do it all ourselves.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is not reality. Understand me, that is not reality. And I’ve had to tell so many people here who’ve been in difficult situations and the church wants to help them out, there’s nothing wrong with taking help if you need it.

Folks, there’s no such thing as a self-made person. We are all dependent, not only on one another as a church, but even more so we are ultimately dependent on the God who made us and the God who sustains every breath of our lives. Folks, we know what dependency looks like.

If you look at a child, you know what dependency is. I think of my kids when they were first born and they couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t do anything for themselves.

Couldn’t even hold the bottle. I remember by the time Madeline was born, Benjamin had been holding his bottle for a long time. And when she was born, I forgot they don’t come out of the womb knowing how to do that.

And so at the nighttime feedings, you have to sit up and try to stay awake with them and hold the bottle. That’s rough when you’ve gotten used to being able to just put a bottle in their bed and go back to sleep. But we’re born completely dependent on somebody else.

And dependence, whether we like to admit it or not, lasts through our entire lives. Last night, I’ve told you before, my kids are completely dependent on me at this point. Last night, I told Benjamin, as I do about once a week, whatever you want for dinner, I mean, within reason, I’ll fix for dinner.

And last night, I was kind of disappointed because he said he wanted sandwiches. Really, you couldn’t give me more of a challenge, but that’s fine, that’s easy. He wanted sandwiches and big cheese.

He likes when I cut it off the block. And for Madeline, she still only has about four or five teeth. I have to chop everything in small pieces.

She eats what we eat, but I have to chop it in small pieces. She’s dependent because if I just hand her a sandwich, she’s not going to be able to do anything with it, except gum it maybe. She’s completely dependent on me to be able to eat.

Benjamin’s a little older and a little more self-reliant, yet when I put his food down, I also handed him a Kool-Aid pouch and then realized, wait, he didn’t know how to unwrap the straw and stick it in the thing. Okay, he’s still, I forget sometimes, he’s still dependent on me. And even though they’ve grown and they know how to do more things than they used to, they are still dependent on me.

Ladies and gentlemen, even though as we get older, we grow and we learn how to do things and we learn how to contribute, we are still ultimately dependent on the God who made us and who sustains every breath that we take. We’re going to look this morning at the Lord’s Prayer again. We’re going to look at the whole Lord’s Prayer for context, but then we’re going to focus in on the next verse where we left off, which is verse 11.

It says, starting in verse 9 of chapter 6, After this manner, therefore pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

And I’ve prefaced this every week by saying, and I’ll say it again this week just for those who have not been here before in this series, that he starts off by saying, after this manner, pray ye. In other words, he doesn’t say in these exact words, pray ye. He’s not giving us a script that we are just supposed to repeat.

As a matter of fact, earlier on in this chapter, he tells us not to be like the heathens who use vain repetition, thinking that they’re going to be heard for their much speaking. Folks, when we’re praying, we are having a conversation with God. And just as you wouldn’t want to sit on the phone and talk to somebody who’s a broken record, repeating the same phrase over and over, repeating the same phrase over and over, I’m sorry, that’s annoying to me already by the third time.

Folks, if we’re just using vain repetition and just repeating words with no meaning, with no heart, with no thought behind it, it’s not a conversation with God and it’s not real prayer. This is not a script for us to use and just repeat. I’ve seen people that get in trouble begin to pray the Lord’s Prayer as though it’s some kind of magic spell.

Folks, this is not a magic spell. It is not a script for us to follow. It’s more an outline of the subject matter we’re to pray about and the attitude with which we’re supposed to do it.

And we look this morning, in particular, at verse 11 where we’ve left off where he says, quite simply, give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. That is a simple phrase, but with so many great implications of what this means about our relationship to God and about His relationship to us.

And first of all, in this, we see that prayer confesses the fact that we are dependent upon God. And initially, when I was putting my notes together, I said that we are entirely dependent upon God. And I still maintain that that might be appropriate, but I also don’t want to give anybody the idea that dependence on God means that He expects us just to sit around while He does things for us.

You know, God can provide us an income. God can provide us an income, but it doesn’t mean that waiting on God and being dependent on Him means we sit at home every day and expect Him just to mail us a check. It doesn’t necessarily work that way.

God can nourish us, but it doesn’t mean we stay in the living room and expect God to teleport the food in from the kitchen. Okay, I don’t want us to get the idea that dependence on God means that He doesn’t use us as a means sometime toward His provision. But ultimately, we are dependent on God.

That’s why I left out the word entirely. I was afraid it could be misconstrued. But folks, prayer confesses that we are dependent upon God.

It asks, give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Folks, this word give is a Greek word didyme.

and I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing that correctly. But we’re not to think of this word, this didomy word that’s translated as give, we’re not to think of this as a transaction. You know, I walk in every Monday to Chick-fil-A and I tell them, they ask, how can I help you?

I said, I tell them, give me a number one with extra pickles. Of course, I say please. It would be rude just to tell them, give me a number one with extra pickles.

But I tell them, give me that, please, and whatever else I need. But there’s the expectation that I’m going to give them some money in exchange. You know, they like that.

They kind of frown on it if you don’t. And I can say give all I want, but it’s a transaction. It’s not a gift.

Folks, that’s not what this word means. When we’re asking God to give us this day our daily bread, when we pray this, or some variation on it, because again, we don’t have to use the exact words, give us this day our daily bread. But when Jesus prays this, when Jesus teaches us to pray this way, This word give doesn’t simply mean a transaction as though we’re expecting God to do something for us, knowing that we’re going to do something for him in return.

This is not a you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours kind of transaction. This word indicates a one-way transaction, I guess. A one-way interaction.

Quite literally, we are asking him to bestow things on us. We don’t use the word bestow very much anymore, but it’s a good, colorful, meaningful English word. To bestow on somebody means you’re going to drop it on them.

You’re going to not physically drop it on them, but you’re going to give it to them with no expectation of anything else being done. When I read this word, I think of God literally dropping the blessings on us. And there’s no way we can send him up anything in return.

I thought this week of the Berlin airlift. Now, I don’t know if we were, excuse me, I’m a little tongue-tied this morning. The Germans at the time, 1948, 49, that era, were under the Marshall Plan, so I don’t know if they paid for their stuff or not.

But there was a time when Stalin and the East Germans said, if you haven’t figured out, I’m fascinated by the Cold War. That’s why I think I talk about it in every, use it as an illustration in every message. But Stalin decided they were going to starve out the people of West Berlin so that they would have to hand it over to the communists.

And the Allies came through with the Berlin airlift. And for days, for months even, every 90 seconds I think it was, a plane landed in West Berlin because that was the only way they could get supplies in. And quite literally, they were dropping the supplies in on the people of West Berlin.

And there was nobody there standing at the airport giving the Allied soldiers a check for everything they just dropped off. The Allies might as well have parachute dropped the supplies into West Berlin. Folks, that’s what I think of when I think of this word.

We are not, this is not a transaction with God where we give Him something and He gives it back. I’m sorry, He gives us something and we give Him something in return. We might as well be asking God to make a parachute drop of blessings because if we want to be completely honest, we have nothing to give God in return that is worth the blessings that He gives us.

I’ve said to you on a regular basis that God does not owe us a thing. God is not under obligation to us for anything. And even in the beginning, when we sinned against him, after he created us and loved us and provided for us, we sinned against him.

And as a human race collectively spat in his face, ladies and gentlemen, he would have been completely justified if he had said, I’m through with you all. If you want sin and death and hell and all the consequences, have at it. Enjoy.

I’m through with you. And as a just, holy God, he would have been completely justified in doing so because he did not owe us forgiveness. He did not owe us the perfect sacrifice to buy our pardon.

He didn’t owe us salvation, and he certainly doesn’t owe us any of the blessings that he gives us now. And yet he gives abundantly and richly out of his goodness. And we’re completely and utterly dependent on God’s goodness for the blessings that we receive.

He might as well be parachute dropping the blessings into our lives for all that we contribute. And when we pray, we’re confessing that we’re dependent on God because we’re going to him with our petitions. And how often do we take our petitions to God?

And by that, I mean, I’ve said before, getting our grocery list filled, going to God and asking him for all the things that we want and need. Some of them very important, very valid needs. Some of them more frivolous wants, God, I’d like a new Macintosh computer, something like that.

Not really a need, but we take God our grocery list and we ask him for things, but we never stop to think about the implication. And that means that we are dependent on him for those things. it’s almost as though we just expect that we’re owed those things surely we don’t ever have an entitlement mentality with god do we do you think surely not but folks even in the even in in going to him and asking him for those things we’re entirely dependent on him just by the asking I was talking to brother ed last sunday night and he was talking about painting his kitchen he’s been painting his as I’ve been painting mine and I’m about ready to put another coat on my living room because I went from brown to yellow, and it takes several coats.

I don’t have a ladder tall enough to get up to the ceiling. And I asked him if he had a ladder, and he said yes, and I said, when you’re through with it, can I borrow it? And he said yes.

Folks, I’m not entitled to that ladder, and by the way, I’m not saying this as a subtle way of getting you to bring it. I’m still not ready for it, but that’s not a subtle hint to him, bring the ladder. Folks, when I asked him that, he doesn’t owe me his ladder.

I’m not entitled to his ladder. I’m dependent on him for his ladder. in asking him for that.

He could easily say no and I don’t have another ladder I can just pull out of my back pocket. Folks, when we ask God, the very fact that we go and ask God to do things for us, to give us what we need, should remind us that we are dependent on him, otherwise we wouldn’t be needing to ask. Second of all, this morning prayer confesses that our dependency never ends.

As I alluded to in talking about my kids, and I do hope there’s a day that I don’t have to chop up their food for them. One day years from now, I’m not anxious for that yet, but I still believe they will always be dependent on me for something, even if it’s just a father’s love. But folks, we never outgrow our dependency on God.

And what I was talking about with them, even though they’ve grown to where they’re able to do a few more things for themselves, they’re still dependent on me. It doesn’t matter how big we get. It doesn’t matter how much we age.

It doesn’t even matter how how big we get for our britches, we don’t outgrow our dependency on God. We are as dependent on God the day we die as we are the day we are born. We’re completely dependent on God.

Because you see, he says, give us this day our daily bread. And looking at this, I wanted to pick this apart because I’ve heard teaching on this, and not that I’m the final word, not that I’m the expert, but I’ve heard teaching on this Lord’s Prayer from time to time, and at times it has seemed so shallow, and I thought there’s got to be more to what he’s saying. And so I tried to dig into what I could understand of the Greek.

I’ve told you before, I’m not a Greek scholar. But I, well, I’ve told you I have friends who are Greek scholars, and some of you thought, well, that means, no, my best friends are dead men, as one writer said. And these commentaries and people that I study and get to know from and glean what I can from what they have to say.

Folks, this indicates an ongoing, the grammar in the Greek, I know it doesn’t necessarily show up in the English, but it indicates an ongoing request. It indicates there’s something here ongoing when he says, give us this day our daily bread. He’s not talking about just praying once and asking God to provide for him. This is a daily ongoing request. God give us this day our daily bread.

And then tomorrow, God give us this day our daily bread. And then the next day and next year. And folks, every day, God, give us this day our daily bread.

And it’s not that he has to be reminded. It’s that we need to be reminded of where our daily bread comes from. And so we ask him, we should ask him each day for his provision for that day.

The Christian, ladies and gentlemen, should never come to a point where he’s self-sufficient. Folks, that goes against everything. That goes against everything I believe when it comes to politics or culture or society.

People ask me about my political views. I tell them Christianity and capitalism. I mean, the idea of saying, don’t ever be self-sufficient feels strange to me, but I’m talking about in God’s economy.

I’m talking about in dealing with God, we should never get to a point where we are so self-sufficient that we delude ourselves into thinking we are no longer dependent on God. And I have heard people who are Christians say they are self-made men, and I think, I admire your work ethic, but I hope you don’t mean that. I hope you don’t mean that the way it implies.

We should never get to the point where we’re self-sufficient, where we think to ourselves, thanks for the help, God, but I’ve got this from here on out. We should never get to that point, and yet we do. And the reason I know we do is because I do.

I pray hardest when there’s a time of difficulty, but then it seems like God takes care of the difficulty, and it becomes a little easier to sit back and not pray quite so fervently about what’s going on, because things ease up, things improve, and I think I’ve got this, forgetting the fact that the reason things have gotten easier, the reason things have improved is because God is in control, that I didn’t fix this, I didn’t have this when it was difficult, and I don’t have this when it’s easy. We should never get to a point where we think we’re self-sufficient. This dependency on God is an ongoing state, and our need for God’s provision is a daily reality.

Turn with me for just a moment to Numbers chapter 11. I’m sorry, not Numbers chapter 11. There are two passages I looked at this morning.

Exodus 16. Turn with me to Exodus 16. It’s where Moses is writing to describe the manna.

They’re wandering in the wilderness and they’re hungry and they cried out to God. Maybe cry out is the wrong word. Complain might be more accurate.

And God promises to provide them bread from heaven. And starting in Exodus 16, 14, it says, and when the dew that lay was gone, behold, upon the face of the wilderness. There lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

And by the way, he’s already said that he would give them manna every morning. He’s described it a little more. And now we look at when it’s actually provided.

And when the children of Israel saw it, verse 15, they said to one another, it is manna, for they wist not what it was. They didn’t know exactly what it was, and so they named it manna. And some have speculated that it comes from the Egyptian word menu for food.

But they gave it this name manna, said for they didn’t know what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. And there is all sorts of speculation on what exactly manna was.

And from the description, I can’t for the life of me figure it out. But I know God was creative enough to make up all the species of plant and animal life that are on the planet today, including the ones that have gone extinct over time. And it doesn’t surprise me the thought that God could come up with some other food source that we don’t completely understand or can identify.

Folks, when you begin to believe in and grasp the idea of an omnipotent God who can do anything that’s consistent with his nature, it answers a lot of the questions that people have about the Bible. Well, how could God possibly do this? How could God make the virgin birth happen?

How could God part the Red Sea? He’s God, okay? That’s your big theological answer for today.

He’s God. He can do what he wants. But they had this manna, and as much as scholars don’t recognize what it is, even seeing it, they didn’t recognize it either, and so they just called it manna.

This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

And so he says, go out and gather everybody, gather up what they need to eat, and take it back to your tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. So a few maybe didn’t gather enough, and a few gathered too much.

And when they did meet it out with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. So in this passage, we see God has, there’s no transaction going on here.

There’s no even pretense that they’re working and contributing to the food. The only thing they’re doing is going out and gathering it. And God quite literally is dropping the food from heaven for them.

I mean, you can’t get much more dependent than that. God is literally air dropping food on them. They go out and they gather it and they bring it all together.

And it says, even those who gathered more than they needed didn’t have extra. Those who didn’t gather as much didn’t lack anything. And Moses said, let no man leave of it until morning.

This is the important part to go along with the point this morning. Notwithstanding, they hearken not to Moses. See, that’s surprising because they always seem to listen to what Moses told them to do.

I’m sorry, that was sarcasm for you all who don’t speak it as a second language. They were always not listening to Moses. They were always not listening to what God said or to what God said through Moses.

And I would want to shake these people and say, wake up if I weren’t just the same way. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not to Moses, but some of them left it until the morning. Now, that doesn’t mean they just left the dishes and went to bed and said, I’ll get it in the morning.

That means they thought, I’ll hold some over for the morning just in case. Folks, there was a lack of trust that God was going to do what God said he would do. There was a lack of trust here that God was going to provide that led them to say, I will save some over so that I’ll be self-sufficient in the morning just in case I need it.

But some of them left it until the morning and it bred worms and stank and Moses was wroth with them. So what they kept over until the morning, God said, okay, it’s not going to be usable anyway. There’s a reason I told you not to hold any over.

There’s a reason I told you to trust me. And they gathered it every morning and every man according to his eating. And when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

See, that’s what confuses me. What kind of bread melts? And yet, he’s God.

I’m not going to question it. But they were told in this, God will supply your needs every morning. God will provide what you need every morning.

Don’t try to be self-sufficient. Don’t try to think you’ve got this, that you can handle this, that you’ll hold some back for a rainy day. And by the way, I’m not trying to discourage you from saving for a rainy day.

That’s not what I’m talking about here. That’s not what the Bible teaches either. But what this is about is to trust God.

When he had specifically said, I’m going to bring you the food every morning. Don’t hold any over. And they said, just in case God is not a person of his word, let’s hold some back so we can take care of ourselves.

It doesn’t work that way. Folks, our dependency on God never ends. Third of all, this morning, and going along with the story of the manna, prayer expresses our faith that God supplies our needs.

It not only confesses that we’re dependent on him, that we need him, but it it actually expresses that we believe he does meet those needs we’re dependent on him for. Because not everybody who’s dependent on somebody for what they need gets what they need from that person. I read a story this week on the internet, and I can’t tell you what part of the country it was in, but I clicked on this article, and there’s a baby who looked like E.

T. , and I don’t say that to make fun of him. Face was sunk in and everything, and it turned out the parents hadn’t fed this baby because they just didn’t feel like it.

for months. Some of you may have seen that same article. It’s a heartbreaking story.

I thought that baby is completely dependent on you for all of his nourishment, for all of his needs, and you thought I’ve got better things to do. See, not everybody who’s dependent on someone for their needs gets those needs met. I’m happy to report the child was put in protective custody.

I saw pictures where he looks healthy again, just looks like a normal kid his age. Folks, just because we’re dependent doesn’t mean that that dependency is met, that our needs are met. But folks, when we pray, we’re not only confessing the fact that we’re dependent on God, we’re expressing our trust that He is someone who will meet the needs He promises to meet.

Prayer expresses our faith that God supplies our needs. I don’t see any time in the book of Exodus here where God failed to send the manna. I don’t see any time when they were hungry.

I don’t see any time when they starved to death in the wilderness because God failed to live up to his promises. And I have to be reminded, and you may as well, have to be reminded that God keeps his promises, that God takes care of his people, that God meets the needs of his people. Again, God does not always supply all of our wants, but God meets the needs of his people, and God takes care of us, and God is in control.

God is in control. Seems like on an almost daily basis, something will happen, and I will begin to panic and think, how am I going deal with this? What am I going to do now?

And then I think I need to pray about this. And as I pray, God does something incredible in my heart. Even before I see a change in the circumstances around me, God begins to remind me I’ve got this.

And folks, as we pray, we cannot help but through that prayer be reminded that God keeps his promises, that God takes care of us, and God supplies our needs. And prayer by its very nature is an expression of our faith in God. We wouldn’t be praying to God and asking Him to do things if we didn’t believe that He could do it, if we didn’t believe that He would do it.

And I know we see this sometimes when people pray on television in shows. I’m not talking about on the religious channels, but when there’s a comedy or a drama and they have somebody praying and somebody will say, well, God, if you can, if you’re really there. Folks, I don’t think I’ve ever prayed that, and I’m not saying that to sound super spiritual. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed in that frame of mind, God, if you’re really there, or God, if you can do this.

If I didn’t think God could do this, I wouldn’t be asking him. But the fact is, I know God can do anything that’s consistent with his nature. And just by the very fact of asking him, just by the very fact of asking him to do what we need to meet our needs, we’re expressing our faith that he can do it.

And in this verse we see, he says, give us this day our daily bread. And bread was quite literally to these people, the stuff of life. If you had anything to eat, it was bread.

And you might have other things to eat at other times, but you always had bread. And a lot of societies, most societies don’t have the problems, the first world problems that we have when we want to go out to eat with each other after church and we have too many places to pick from. Isn’t that annoying?

Most people in most places around the world have a staple that they eat, and then whatever else they have with it is optional. But they have the one staple that they depend on. For a lot of people around the world, it’s rice. For some cultures, they eat a lot of potatoes.

For them in their day, they had bread. They had bread. And even if they didn’t have any vegetables at the time, even if they didn’t have any meat, even if they didn’t have any honey, even if they didn’t have anything fancy to go with it, they at least had bread to sustain them and keep them alive.

And so praying for our daily bread means that we are correctly placing an enormous amount of trust in God because we are asking Him to be the sole supplier of what we absolutely have to have, of what we absolutely need. Now, we may be talking physical needs here. We may be talking spiritual needs.

But it’s not by accident that he used bread and told them to ask for their daily bread. He didn’t tell them to pray for their daily milkshake, ladies and gentlemen. He said, your daily bread, the stuff we absolutely have to have.

We’re asking God to supply him. And we’re expressing our faith that if we ask him this, he’s going to do it. And God, would you supply our deepest needs?

Would you take care of our deepest needs? And by praying, we’re expressing that we believe he can do that. And fourth of all, and finally this morning, prayer