Please keep your Psalter handles out and turn to page 62 in the back and open your Bibles this morning, if you would, to Matthew chapter 6 and we'll take up reading at verse 24 and then I want you to mark that because we're going to read an Old Testament passage before Matthew 6 and once you have found that, turn to Exodus chapter 16. Hear now the word of God from Exodus chapter 16, an excerpt from the exodus of God's people from Egypt into the wilderness. Beginning in verse 1, The whole Israelite community set out from Elam and came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, If only we had died at the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. But you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Then the Lord said to Moses, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them to see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days. So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we that you should grumble against us? Moses also said, You will know that it was the Lord who gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You're not grumbling against us, but against the Lord. And Moses told Aaron, Say to the entire Israelite community, Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling. While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud. The Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I and the Lord your God. Turning now to Matthew chapter 6, picking up in verse 24. Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? look at the birds of the air they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not much more valuable than they who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life and why do you worry about clothes see how the lilies of the field grow they do not labor or spin yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these if that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire. Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? The pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. With that as context, old and new, we turn our attention now to the Lord's Prayer again, picking up the fourth petition, which is chapter 6, verse 11, where Jesus teaches us to pray, Give us today our daily bread. We turn our attention to the Psalter hymnal now, to the Heidelberg Catechism, number 125, where we explain, we confess what it means. Have you respond to this question, what does the fourth request mean? Give us this day our daily bread means. Do not take so that we come to know that you are the only source of everything good. and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing. And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put trust in you alone. Do take care of all our physical needs. People of God, who do you trust? Who have you trusted that has let you down? Our political leaders, our financial gurus, your mortgage lender, your spouse, your parent, your friend, your minister, yourself. Who can you trust? Really. Whether you believe it or not, the fact of the matter is that there is only one who is truly trustworthy and who will never disappoint. And that is the triune God. Our trustworthy Father in Heaven, to whom Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, His trustworthy Son, directs us in prayer in the power of His trustworthy Holy Spirit. Yes, people of God, there's only one you can trust, and that is God and God alone. And we know this. But do we really believe it? In our text today, Jesus teaches us the petition that will move us from this knowledge to this trust. In our triune God, as we pray for Him to give us our daily bread throughout our life. We've learned to pray that our Father's name be sanctified, that His kingdom come, that His will be done. And as we've seen, all these heavenly petitions have earthly implications for us, His people. And now in the fourth petition and the two that follow, the Lord shifts focus and He has us focus on more earthly things. but not at the expense of heaven. And with this shift of focus, Jesus helped to prepare his disciples for what would come and what we experience now after his death and resurrection, but before his return in glory. That as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we still live on the earth. We are still mortal. And we have need of sustenance in this world. We live as pilgrims. Pilgrims traveling through on our way home, and along the way, we need provision. This fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer, Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread, is the petition of pilgrims, which asks for all things necessary from our Father in Heaven throughout our journey. With this petition, Jesus teaches us to ask for all things necessary to sustain us physically, in this world by directing our attention to one specific and very earthly thing, bread. Now Jesus describes this bread with a word that appears nowhere else in the Bible, nowhere else in any Greek literature. And this uniqueness allowed this word to be lifted from its context early in the history of the church so that it was explained in a very spiritualized way. Some of the early church fathers could not accept the idea that the sons of God, who are going to be living in this world, praying for and acting to hallow God's name and extend his kingdom and to do his will, will need sustenance. Instead, they focused on the seeming insignificance of a loaf of bread when compared to the kingdom of God, the will of our God and the name of our God. It just seemed insignificant. It couldn't possibly be bread. So Origen thought that the bread was too earthy and small to pray for, so he concluded that it must refer to the word of God, to Jesus Christ, the bread of life. And along the same line, Jerome translated this unique word to describe this bread as something more than physical, which found expression and finds expression today in the Roman Catholic Mass in the Eucharist, which they believe to be ordinary bread that becomes the flesh of Christ. More than physical bread. You see, we started down a bad road early on because this word, it was hard to understand. 500 years ago when William Tyndale first translated the scriptures into English, he translated this word as daily. And therefore we read our daily bread. Why? There was no reference point for this word. But I think if we follow Tyndale, we follow the context within which this word is found. And let it help us understand the nexus, the import of this word. And it's not out there somewhere. It's right here and it's right now. The translation daily bread is supported by Jesus' own words in this same verse when he speaks about today or this day. And in Luke's account about day by day. Together, these certainly encourage us to think of this word is having to do with today or a day. That there's something about this bread that makes it essential or needed or necessary or important for today. And this understanding ingrains strength when we consider just the context in which it was spoken, the life of Jesus Christ and that of his disciples. In their day, as it is today around most of the world, contrary to our supermarket experience, bread is baked a day at a time. Most people get their bread on a daily basis. There was and is only one used by date in most of the world, and that's today. Use it today. Most of us don't know that experience, but I know many of you do. You know the experience of getting up in the morning and going to the bakery to get a loaf of bread for today. And going the next day to get a loaf of bread for today. Some of you may know what it is to pray for that it will be there when you get there. Well, today, nearly every English Bible agrees with Tyndale, daily bread. And we can do so with much more confidence, or at least some more confidence, thanks to a discovery a hundred years ago of one more evidence of this word. Not in the Bible, not in a literature book, but in someone's scrap of paper that was found in a garbage heap that had to do with his daily provisions. Daily, daily bread. The focus that Jesus would have us make is on something very mundane, very routine, very necessary. But he does so for a greater point. So we must agree that there's greater significance to this bread of which Jesus speaks. But we believe the significance is not found by spiritualizing it out there someplace. But by understanding that Jesus is using a very common figure of speech that we use all the time. And that's to speak of something very specific in reference to something very broad. To speak of a general class of something by a very specific example. For example, we often refer to the general class of soft facial tissue, whether it be Kirkland brand or puffs, as Kleenex. If I say Kleenex and I ask for Kleenex, I could get 15 varieties today. But you'd all know what I meant. And that's the way bread is used in the Bible often. And it's used here in our text today. Jesus is using the word bread to signify to us the broader category of food. What we need to eat. And there's no denying that we need food to eat to live in this world. But there's also no denying that we need water to drink. And we need clothing to wear. Jesus said as much when he taught against worry in Matthew chapter 6. As we read, he said, do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. They're necessary. Therefore, when we pray for daily bread, we're asking for food, which has even a broader reference to food, water, and clothing, at least. How far does this reference go? I can't give you a dividing line. Does it extend to shelter, employment, good government? I think so. But I can't give you a stopping point. God did not give us a shopping list to ask for what we need for today. He didn't give us a checklist that we can go through every day to ask for all these things we need. And even if he did, you know how good you are at reading owner's manuals when you get one. We wouldn't use it anyway. Therefore, in this petition, Jesus is teaching us to defer to the perfect knowledge and the perfect goodwill of our Father in heaven that he would provide for us. That which he knows that we need. And that's why we confess in Heidelberg Catechism, answer 125, that give us this day our daily bread means do take care of all our physical needs. Or as the original answer reads, be pleased to provide us with all things necessary for the body. We're looking to you, because we don't know what to do. Unless we think this conclusion is too broad from a loaf of bread, from daily bread to all that we need for our bodies. We need only look beyond the grocer's shelf to see that bread is a very appropriate, specific, to refer to all that we need in this life. Even in Jesus' day, the making of bread required men and women with strength and with know-how to cultivate the field, to plant the seed, to tend the crop, to harvest the grain, to grind it, to mix it, to bake it. And that's not to mention all the tools that were needed to be discovered and built and used to do that. And beyond that, it would be all for naught if the Lord did not make the sun to rise and the rain to fall and the wind to blow and the plants to grow. For a loaf of bread. Children, it seems like you should just go to the store and grab one. And it's true. But with every loaf you grab, there are many hands, talents, skills, days, acts of God that have made that loaf of bread. The psalmist in Psalm 104 verses 14 and 15 is right to bless God for his comprehensive provision in making grass to grow for the cattle and plants for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth, Wine that gladdens the heart of man. Oil that makes his face to shine. And bread that sustains the heart. That's all God's doing. And we are to think of it when we think of a loaf of bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Now because these implications are so far reaching, there are some who twist this petition for what we need into a petition for what we want. Asking for anything and for the best of everything. They name it and they claim it. And I think the only answer to them is Jesus told us to pray for bread. The most basic and essential and needful picture of what it takes to keep us alive in a day. He didn't teach us to pray for dessert. Well, not only did Jesus teach us to ask for all things necessary for the body in the figure of a loaf of bread, He reminds us that as pilgrims far from home, we are to ask for it from our Father who is in heaven. Our home. And this, and in all the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, we are making a request of God Almighty, who is our Father through faith in Jesus Christ. And we are reminded of that here and in all the petitions that follow these last three petitions with the language of us and our. Now Jesus started this prayer teaching us to pray in the plural. But here's the first time it's used in a particular petition that we are to pray for God to give us our daily bread. When we are praying for daily bread, we're not telling God to gimme, gimme, gimme. This isn't about me. We're not praying for ourselves only. We're praying for all Christians everywhere. Each one in this room, to be sure. But even beyond this room. And when we pray for our daily bread, we confess our dependence on God, who's the cause of all that we get, and on others whom he chooses to use as means to bring us our sustenance each and every day. There's no bread, there's no sustenance that comes to our table, that comes to our household, that comes to our livelihood that's not been touched by countless people that we may never know that are sovereign means in the hand of God, that are means in the hands of a sovereign God. At the same time that we confess our dependence, we also commit ourselves to share that which God would give us. Give us our daily bread. How can we pray, give us our daily bread, and refuse to provide for the rest of us when there's need? James warns against this in chapter 2, verse 15 of his letter. He says, Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, daily bread. If any one of you says to him, Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? And when Jesus gave a sneak peek of the final judgment in Matthew chapter 25, he revealed that when we share our daily bread with others who have need, we are sharing with him. Whether that be giving something to eat or something to drink or something to wear. Whether that be visiting a prisoner or comforting the sick. Or showing hospitality to a stranger. Whatever way we are giving. In all these things Jesus will say, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you did for me. So when we pray, give us our daily bread, we are committing ourselves to sharing. what God gives us. Unless we be seduced to think that we are communicating or we're committed to share only with other believers, we can't draw the line there either. Paul exhorts us in Galatians 6, verse 10, he says, as you have opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to those who are in the household of faith, but to all men. And Jesus put a point on it in chapter 5, verse 43 of Matthew, just before this prayer. It says, you've heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. And as we read in Romans this morning, chapter 12, do not repay evil with evil, repay evil with good. Show hospitality, give liberally. That's not just to us. the people of God, is to us, image bearers of God. Jesus teaches us that as we ask our Father in Heaven to give us our daily bread, to give us our daily bread. When we ask Him to give it, we're declaring our own inability to secure it for ourselves. Our own inability to earn it or produce it. And this is not a small thing, people of God, to pray, give us this day our daily bread. It is a profession of faith. And it grates against our being, against our old nature. There's a publisher years ago who wrote an essay to explain why he'd given up on prayer. And it centered around this petition. He wrote in there, how can I maintain without lying that God has a hand in this meal? He'd come to the conclusion that somehow it was somehow dishonest to pray to God to give him his daily bread when he was the one who had the job. He's the one who got the paycheck. He's the one who went to the store to buy it. He's the one who carried it home, opened it up, made a sandwich, and sat down to eat it. What's God have to do with it? That's our nature. So to pray, give us our daily bread, is an act of faith. this man did not see the big picture. The truth that everything we eat and drink and wear, everything we need to sustain our lives, is a gift of God. And praying for our Father to give it to us is really a matter of fundamental honesty, to acknowledge the truth to His face. He is the cause of all that culminates in providing what we need, and we are utterly dependent on His gracious provision. Every hour of every day. Give us this day our daily bread. And yet when we pray for the Lord to give us our daily bread, we must work for our bread. They are mistaken who believe that asking God to give us our daily bread somehow opens the back door to the lazy porch. Somehow we can ask God to give us our daily bread and then wait for the FedEx truck to show up. the slothful person, that's what they think the lazy person, that's what they think work has been God's appointed means for obtaining our daily bread from the beginning from before the fall Adam was charged to what? tend the garden the garden that would feed him and after the fall work remains, frustrated to be sure less fruitful to be sure but work remains as the means that God has given his people and given mankind to procure the vehicle through which he will give their daily bread. Therefore, Paul rightly admonished the saints in chapter 3 of his second letter to the Thessalonians. There were men that were idle, that had believed this lie. Well, I've prayed for my daily bread, now I'm just going to wait. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you receive from us. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule, if a man will not work, he shall not eat. This is the means. We must be careful here. This does not mean that everyone who works will be able to procure all that he needs. There always will be those who apply themselves, who are good stewards of what God gives them, And still they find themselves in need. This is not unrighteous. This is not something to be admonished. This is life in a fallen and sinful world. Yes, it is more blessed to give than to receive. But that is not to say it's not blessed to receive. Yes, God loves a cheerful giver. But in order for a giver to give, there must be someone to receive. there may be times in your life and there have been in my life when our Father will give us opportunity to be cheerful receivers and our human pride does not like that position but He uses that circumstance to teach us gratitude to Him for providing for us by the hands of others to whom He has given much for that very purpose so yes if a man will not work he shall not eat but that doesn't mean that if he's doing his best and he can't earn enough that he's somehow sinning against God and as we work for our daily bread that we ask our Father in Heaven to give us we can do so without anxiety or worry when Jesus warned against worry about food and drink and clothing about worrying about our daily bread Jesus points out its futility. He said, who of you can by worry add a single hour to your life? And he goes on to say, since you cannot do this very little thing. I just find that verse funny. You can't do this very little thing. Why do you worry about the rest? It's futile. And as the children of our Father in heaven, we can be certain that he will give us all that we need. He has promised to give all that we need. Not only did Jesus promise it here in the text we read this morning, but Paul assures us in Romans 8, verse 32, He who did not spare his own Son, who gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Paul's argument from the greater to the lesser, he's saying that our Father in heaven has given us the best thing, the greatest thing already. He's given us his Son. And in His Son we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Now! And if He's given us this, how will He not give us the lesser things that we need? Even our daily bread. Is that not what Jesus promised in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33? Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And all these things, food and drink and clothing, daily bread, all these things will be given to you as well. and because we ask our father to give us our daily bread we not only confess our dependence we not only commit ourselves to sharing but we also admit that there's no room for envy or covetousness of those things that God will give to another if we have prayed on behalf of us instead of on behalf of me and we can know that that giving is an answer to our prayer that God has given to another among us for his own purposes that he has exercised his right to do with what is his as he pleases to fulfill his purposes we may be tempted with Asaph in Psalm 73 to envy the arrogant when we see the prosperity of the wicked we might even be tempted to envy the prosperity of the righteous but we are assured by David in Psalm 37 that better the little is with the righteous better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked for the power of the wicked will be broken but the Lord upholds the righteous better the little that the righteous have if that's all the Lord will give you better is the little than the wealth of many wicked for you see we're reminded here that our pilgrimage will one day end This road does not go on forever. The Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. He'll set all things right and he will judge between the wicked and the righteous, between the sheep and the goats. And on that day, those wicked who took for granted the good gifts of God as if they were something that they deserved and that they earned and it was their due, they will hear the sentence announced in James chapter 5, you have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence, you have fattened yourself for the slaughter. but until that day until that day we will need to ask for all things necessary for our bodies from our father in heaven throughout our journey throughout our journey home there is a journey and we are on it and we are dependent and we need God's provision and we need it daily as pilgrims on our way home we carry no reserves we carry no provisions we need it given to us every day. Therefore, Jesus teaches us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. Give us today our daily bread. Like Israel in the wilderness who collected manna day after day, we are totally dependent upon the gracious provision of our God day after day. We're dependent on him for all things necessary to sustain our lives. And we will until our faith becomes sight, until we stand with glorified bodies in His presence. Because we are not yet home, we have not yet received our inheritance, that inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade. It's kept in heaven for you, and we're being guarded for it here, but it is not yet in our hands. And as the sons of God, we don't ask Him for it today, like the prodigal, that we might spend it however we want. No, we wait upon our Father day by day. And when we recognize our dependence, that it is total, that it is continual, we will, by God's grace, get a sense of the urgency of this petition. For I fear that this urgency is lost on most of us. Now, we may think we've felt it a little bit these last few months with the turmoil in the stock market and the turmoil in the housing market and all these things that could be and certainly have happened that are not comforting. But I think we've all done it from the comforter of our home over the dinner table. We've not felt this urgency. Most of us have never experienced what it is to sleep without a roof over our head. to not know where our next meal is coming from, to start off a day without a penny to our name. But even though we don't have the experience, let us not be deceived to think that that is the only time this prayer is urgent. I suggest to you that the more that we have, that the less we feel this urgency, The more we need to pray, give us this day, our daily bread. This prayer is not just for the poor. They know they need it. It's also for the rich, who forget that they do. It echoes the prayer of Agur in Proverbs chapter 30, verse 8 and 9. He prayed, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, who is the Lord? Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God. Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. That I may not disown you or dishonor you, my God. Ager prayed his prayer with purpose, a heavenly and God-centered purpose. And we too are to pray, give us this day our daily bread with the same sort of purpose. That it's not just about us. There is a heavenly implication. Hatterberg Catechism Answer 125 directs us to this purpose when we confess that asking our Father in Heaven for all our physical needs, we're making this request for a purpose. So that we come to know that He is the only source of everything good. And that neither our work and worry nor His gifts can do us any good without His blessing. That's what this petition is to work in us. To develop our relationship with our Father. To know that He is our everything, our all in all. We are prone to live like it's our work and it's our worry that gets us what we want. It gets us what we need. Or at least it causes God to help us because we've already helped ourselves. That's how we're prone to live. Even though we know that's not right. The Lord warned Israel against this lie in Deuteronomy 8, verse 7. He says, You may say to yourself, My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce well. We can also grow content with the good gifts of God that He gives to the children of God and the unrighteous alike. The good things of life. We can enjoy them so much that we neglect to pray for the blessing of God to give them. We just take them up. As though we deserve them, as though they are ours. Yes, every good and perfect gift comes from above. It comes from the Father of heavenly lights. But unless they are attended by His blessing, they do us no good. They do us no good. We see the truth of this in Haggai, chapter 1, when the exiles returned from Babylon, repopulated Jerusalem. They got distracted from the worship of God. They got distracted from their relationship with God by, of all things, a housing boom. The word of the Lord came to them by the prophet Haggai saying, Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses? While this house, his house, the temple of the Lord, remains in ruin? Do you really have your priorities straight? Now this is what the Lord Almighty says, give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but you harvest little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you're never full. You put on clothes, but you're not warm. And you earn wages, but only to put them in a purse with holes in it. We might sum this up saying, you have received many gifts, but they profit you nothing. You've not asked me for them. And you've not received my blessing. Our catechism warns us against that. We're called to persevere in the school of prayer, asking for and receiving all things necessary for this life, not only to sustain our life, but in order that more and more we will come to know and to acknowledge through our act of prayer that our Father is the only source of every good. And so, answer 125 continues, in this way, we might say, help us to give up our trust in creatures and put trust in you alone. By way of teaching us to pray this petition, give us this day our daily bread. as you work us in the school of prayer that we recognize that you are the only source of every good. In that way, help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put our trust in you. By nature, the creature I trust most is me. And by nature, the creature you trust most is you. But as we come to know that our Father is the only source of every good through this practice of prayer, we will more and more withdraw our trust from our own intelligence, our own strength, our own strategy, our own assets, our own hard work, even our own worry. And not only that, but through the practice of asking our Father in Heaven to give us this day our daily bread, we will more and more withdraw our trust from all creatures. All those who by nature disappoint. Who are by nature not trustworthy. Who cannot save. And this will happen as we more and more trust in God alone. To give what He alone can give. Our daily bread. Amen.