Sermon Transcript October 23, 2011 Lord, Teach us to Pray Daily Bread Selected Passages This message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church on October 23, 2011, at 511 Maple Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109 by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. This is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) 563-8286. An audio/download version of this sermon may also be found on the church website at www.wethefc.com. 1
SCRIPTURE TEXT Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread Matthew 6: Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Psalm 145:15-16 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. James Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If 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? Proverbs 30:8-9 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. John 6:35 I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 2
INTRODUCTION Lord, teach us to pray. This is the request we are bringing to Jesus this fall. We want to learn to pray. It is a request that ought to be on our lips much beyond the length of this sermon series. It ought to be a request we pray until the day we die. There is always room for growth. Lord, teach us to pray. We have discovered, through this series, that there is much to learn in this simple request. Here are some of the things we have been learning about prayer through this series. God is not just concerned that we pray, but what we pray. The purpose for prayer is not to get God on board with our agenda, but for us to get on board with God s agenda. Prayer most definitely changes things! It changes us, not God. Daily ask, seek and knock on God s door for the filling of the Holy Spirit. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. I trust you have been making these adjustments to your prayer life as we go along. Through this series on the Lord s Prayer, we have been learning what to pray. When the disciple asked Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray, Jesus responded by giving him the Lord s Prayer. He said it this way, in Luke 11:2, When you pray, say... Through the Lord s Prayer we are learning what to pray when we pray. The Lord s Prayer is shaping the content of our prayers. I would really encourage you to build your prayer list around the outline of the Lord s Prayer. There are six requests in the Lord s Prayer. The first three requests force us to focus our prayers on God s agenda for the world. Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the first note of prayer ought to center on God s glory, God s rule and the spread of the gospel of the kingdom, and that the will of God would be obeyed and accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. The outline of the Lord s Prayer is similar to the outline of the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments teach us how we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. And so it is with the Lord s Prayer. My first request in prayer is that my life would bring glory to God and that my life would be used to advance God s kingdom of hope to a world that is filled with despair. God, help my life be conformed to your will so that others may see You in me. Prayer most definitely changes things. It changes me. This brings us to the second half of the Lord s Prayer. The second half of this great prayer communicates to us that God is indeed concerned for our needs. Peter tells us, in 3
1 Peter 5:7, to cast all of our anxieties on him, because he cares for you. However great or small those cares may seem to be, we are invited to bring them to God in prayer. In fact, some would argue that the second half of the prayer covers every area of human need. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. There is nothing that we can pray for ourselves that is not covered in this section of the prayer. Psalm 103:14 says that God knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. So, through this prayer, we are invited to not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. So this morning we want to look at the request give us this day our daily bread. I would like to share with you five thoughts about this request that should help you know how to pray this prayer in your own life. I would like to take the word BREAD and build my five thoughts around each letter of this word to help you pray this prayer. B - BREAD IS BREAD The letter B stands for Bread is Bread. This request ought to give you confidence to bring your physical needs to God. It is interesting to see how this request has been viewed by church leaders throughout church history. Some of the early leaders of the church had a difficult time accepting the notion that we would be invited to pray for such basic needs as daily bread. So they spiritualized this request. Origen said that daily bread was too earthly and small to pray about. He thought this request had to do with the Bread of Life, that is the Word of God. 1 After all, Jesus did say, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jerome thought the prayer give us this day our daily bread had to do with sacramental bread, therefore this request was referring to the bread taken at Communion. 2 These early church leaders felt it was too trite or not spiritual enough to pray such a lowly prayer for our physical needs. After all, if you look at the first half of the prayer, it is filled with such lofty spiritual requests. Then the second half of the prayer begins with this request for daily bread, followed by forgive us our debts and lead us not into temptation. Those were two big spiritual requests in their own right. They thought that, if you were to include a physical request, it would come at the end of the prayer because they felt that the spiritual aspect of man was far more important. Calvin challenged this notion and, I believe, rightly so. He said that this interpretation was exceedingly absurd. 3 Martin Luther added, Bread is the symbol for everything necessary for the preservation of this life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government and peace. 4 It is very valid to pray for 4
the physical needs of the body, such as food. It is how we were created. We need food to sustain us and God made us that way. In praying for our physical needs, we express our dependence upon God. Our physical needs are not minor needs. As I look at this request, I would boil it down to a simple request that God meet our every need. I would not limit it to the physical and I would not limit it to the spiritual. It is a request that God would meet any need we have, according to His will. Barclay put it this way. We believe that it is just what it says, that it is a petition for daily bread, a petition that God would give us the simple, ordinary things which we daily need to keep body and soul together. 5 Isn t it a great encouragement to know that we can take the simple issues of life to God? God is not just the God who is shaping the great events of the world. But God is the God who cares that His humblest child has bread to eat. He tells us, in Matthew 6, to not be anxious about what we will eat or what we will drink. Why? Listen to what Jesus says, Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? So when you pray, give us this day our daily bread would you simply recognize that bread is bread. God invites you to bring your everyday needs to Him and to look to Him for sustenance and provision. R - RECOGNIZE THE GOOD GIVER The letter R stands for Recognize the Good Giver. This request tells us something about the character and nature of God. He is a good God. In the gospel presentation some of us are learning right now, we begin with the affirmation that God is the loving ruler of the world. It is in God s nature to provide what is necessary for us. We can approach God with our needs because we know that God is good and delights to give us what we need. We see this goodness of God in providing for His people time and time again throughout the Scriptures. We see His goodness on display at the creation of the world. In Genesis 1:29-30 we read, And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. It is the same thing we read after the flood in Genesis 9:3. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. This is summed up for us in Psalm 145:15-16. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due 5
season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. Clearly, God is the Good Giver. Do you know what happens when you pray this prayer and recognize God as the Good Giver? It is a prayer that recognizes that God is at the center of all things in your life. I am currently reading a book by D. A. Carson entitled The God Who Is There. In this book, he reflects on the philosophical axiom made popular by Descartes, I think, therefore, I am. Every first year philosophy student is forced to ponder this thought. The problem with this statement is that it begins with I and not with God. You can t explain your existence apart from God. God is always the starting point for understanding life. Carson writes, Our existence is seen as dependent on him, and our knowledge, a mere tiny subset of his. It... is proper to begin with God, not with the I in I think, therefore, I am. If we exist, it is because of God s power. 6 This prayer reminds us, that all of life, including the food set before you each and every day, comes from the Good Giver. So all of life is to be orientated around God. Do you know what sin is? Ultimately it is replacing God with I. It is you wanting to be God! It is you wanting to rule your own life. When Adam and Eve made the first cry of independence from God, they brought this curse upon all of creation. Why are things a mess in this world? Because we told God, who is life, to shove off! Listen to the curse that Adam s sin brought upon this world. Cursed is the ground because of you, in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. The curse of sin reaches down to the provision of our daily bread. So this prayer recognizes that God is the Good Giver and that all of life is to be lived with God at the center of it. The challenges of living in this fallen world, where we have to make ends meet and to put food on the table, put us on our knees and cause us to recognize that all of life is to be lived in dependence upon God. Might I add this? Are you ever caught up with the wonder of God s grace that even though you are sinful, God has provided abundantly for you? Often we ask the Why Question when we feel God has given us a raw deal. We cry out, Why God? None of us have been given a raw deal. Why are we not asking the Why Question when it dawns on us that God has been so good to us and has not treated us as our sins deserve? Why God, are you so good to this rebel? His goodness and His provision can be traced all the way down to the food on your table. This prayer recognizes God to be the Good Giver and, therefore, reminds us of His grace and that all of life is to be lived with God at the center. 6
E - EVERYONE IS IN FOCUS The letter E stands for Everyone. When you pray Give us this day our daily bread, like all the requests of this prayer, you are praying this prayer for everyone. It is not Give me daily bread but rather, Give US this day OUR daily bread. So in this prayer Everyone is in focus. Here is where you pray for the sick and for the suffering. Here is where you pray for the lonely, the elderly, the widow and the orphan. Here is where you pray for the heartache you see on the news, and for the abused, the persecuted and the prisoner. God, would you please supply their daily bread. I agree with what Philip Ryken says on this matter. He writes, Food for the world is a matter for prayer. Hunger is not an agricultural problem, by and large, but a spiritual problem. There is more than enough food to feed the world, and yet people still go hungry. The poor lack bread because of greed, sloth, corruption, oppression and warfare. That is why the church prays for bread. First we pray for God s kingdom to come and make things right. Then, whenever God s kingdom comes, our prayers are answered, not only for the kingdom, but also for bread. 7 Do you know what we also need to pray here at this point? God give me a heart that even cares. God give me a heart that actually breaks for the needs of others. God give me a heart that is filled with compassion. We get so weighed down with our own daily bread needs and by our own busy lives, that we forget to pray for the needs of others. Oh, God, would you break my heart and move me to pray for others. But that is not all this prayer addresses. Sometimes we think that when we have prayed for someone, we have accomplished our Christian duty towards them. This request ought to move us into actions of mercy for those in need. We should pray, Father what do you want me to do for that person? James says, Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. This request is dealing with the stuff of our request. So what should we do? Just pray? James said, If 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? This request points us to our duty to our brother and sister and our neighbor. Do you know what is exciting about that? You may be God s answer to the prayers of that person. You may be the means by which God supplies their daily needs. Start making a list. Make a Monday list and a Tuesday list and so on. Pray systematically for people you know and ask God to lay one of those people on your heart and ask Him to show you what you can do to minister to that person. God will use you to supply His bread for that person. What a privilege and what a joy! 7
If I can give you just a little plug for next Sunday. Next Sunday I am going to talk about how to develop an effective prayer ministry for others. I want to challenge you to pray with a sense of expectancy that God is going to work in that person s life. I want you to learn about how to be guided by the Holy Spirit in your prayers and introduce to you the role of the laying on of hands when it comes to prayer. I can t wait to share this with you. But for now, simply know that this request has everyone in focus. A - ATTITUDE IS KEY The letter A in BREAD stands for attitude. When I study this request, I learn that the heart of this request deals with my attitudes. It is not just a request that deals with the needs I have and bring to God. It is a request that reminds me to evaluate my attitudes. So attitude is key to this request. Here are three attitudes expressed in this prayer Give me this day our daily bread. Contentment: The first attitude that this request evokes for us is the attitude of contentment. The word daily in this request is a hard word to translate in Greek because this is the only time it is used in all the Bible. It can mean things like essential or sufficient. So, at the heart of this request is this attitude: Father, give me this day, that daily portion that I need, just for this day. It is the same prayer we find in Proverbs 30:8-9. Would you pray this prayer? Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. That doesn t sound like an American prayer. Why would we even utter a prayer like that? Agur, the writer of the proverb, explains why we should be content to pray for daily bread. He writes, Otherwise, I may have too much and disown You and say, Who is the Lord? That does seem to be the problem in our affluent culture. We don t think we need God. But then he goes on to say, Or, I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. So the request is that God simply provide what I need for this day and just for this day. Lord help me to be content with that. I remember visiting a lady in the hospital who had a double mastectomy, suffered clinical depression and had three small children. Her plate was full. I remember sitting next to her as we were talking about her situation. She looked up at me and said, Pastor, this may sound cliché, but I am learning, through this trial, what it means to live in each day and to appreciate each day that God gives to me. And my prayers do not drift too far down into the future, but for grace and God s provision for this day. The opposite of contentment is worry. Have you ever noticed how worry often concerns itself with tomorrow? Jesus tells us, in Matthew 6:34, Do not worry about 8
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. This prayer does not concern itself with tomorrow. We don t even know if we have tomorrow. Furthermore, when we fixate on the uncertainties and worries of tomorrow, we lose sight of the many ways God is supplying our need for today. I am trying not to be trivial about some of the hard things of life that we all face. But if we would learn to live in the day that is given, we would learn to see the hand of God s daily provision in so many ways. My prayer for myself is that, like Paul, I would know the secret of being content. In Philippians 4 he expresses the attitude of praying for daily bread. He says, 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. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Where does that strength come from? It comes from bowing your knee and asking for God to you this day, that daily portion you need, just for this day. Dependence: The second attitude this prayer evokes within us is a sense of dependence. When we pray this prayer, we are recognizing that we are dependent upon God. When we pray give us, we are recognizing our dependence upon God. During the time of Christ, this request had a little more punch to it. Workers at that time were paid daily wages; and the pay was often so low that it was impossible to build any kind of savings. Therefore, the day s pay purchased the day s food. If you lost work or if there was a famine in the land, this request became quite literal. They literally depended upon the good hand of God for their food each day. It was a request for work. It was a request for rain. It was a daily dependence upon the smile of God. Now bring this request into our crowded refrigerators, our stuffed pantries and our extra supply of food we keep in our deep freezers. It kind of loses its punch. A.W. Pink asks, How can I sincerely ask God for this day s bread when I already have a good supply on hand? 8 It is almost like we come to this request and snicker under our breath as to say, I can handle this one. It is like the prayer Bart Simpson prayed at the dinner table when he was asked to say grace. He folded his hands, bowed his head and prayed, Dear God, we paid for all these things ourselves, so thanks for nothing. If that is our attitude, then we are fools. I remember talking to someone once who was recovering from an illness. He said to me that he knew he wasn t going to die soon because God needed him here. I thought, boy do you have it backwards. This request is confessing daily that I need God. God does not need anything. Paul asks, who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? No one! We are the creatures, and this request reminds us that we depend upon God for the very breath we breathe. 9
This is the upside of suffering. Suffering reminds us of the reality that we are dependent upon God. Some of you have learned this in a very real way through losing your job. It has not been easy. It has not been without anxious moments. I have no doubt that you have found yourself on your knees calling upon God for needs you once thought easy to take care of and meet. But I also know you have seen God meet your daily need. You have learned to live in dependence upon God. This prayer reminds us of this reality whether we are in times of need or in times of plenty. Gratitude: The third attitude that ought to mark this request is gratitude. Make sure, when you pray this prayer, you are filled with an attitude of thanksgiving. In Philippians 4, we are told not to be anxious and not to worry. Rather, we are told to come to God by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Go into your time of supplication knowing that God is good. God is faithful. God is supplying your daily need every day through a multitude of provisions from His gracious hand. James tells us, that every good and perfect gift comes from above. Paul asks, What do you have that you did not receive? There is nothing that we have that we have not received. Remember, the request is give us. May we always ask with a humble and grateful heart. Carson says, God is the source of every good, whether food, clothing, work, leisure, strength, intelligence, friendship, or whatever. 9 He does not owe us any of these things, but He lovingly gives us all of these things. Make your requests with a heart of thanksgiving. Sometimes you may feel that God is not answering your prayer the way you want, and so it is hard for you to give thanks. But God is good, and we have already prayed in this prayer it is His will we want in our lives. Sometimes we need to pray for eyes to see God at work in our lives so that we can give thanks. This was Joni s experience. Joni Earikson Tada was paralyzed from a diving accident. She said that her favorite Bible story was the story of the invalid by the pool of Bethsaida. Jesus encountered him there and healed him. She used to close her eyes and envision herself sitting on that mat and pleading with God to heal her. It hasn t happened. What is up with the daily bread? Thirty years later, she went to Jerusalem and, in her wheel chair, she rolled up to the sight of this great miracle. Her mind went back thirty years, remembering her cry for healing. She said it dawned on her at that moment that God had not given to her what she wanted, but had given her something far better. He had turned her wheelchair into a secret intimate place of prayer that she knows she would not have had if it had not been for her suffering. All along God was answering her prayer, and, at the pool, she was able to give Him thanks. 10 God is present in your every need and He is providing for 10
you. You may not even see how yet, but give thanks anyway, because you know He is faithful and is providing your very need. Attitude is key with this prayer. When you pray Give us this day our daily bread you are not just praying about your needs, but you are addressing your attitudes. You are praying for a spirit of contentment in times of plenty and in times of want. You are expressing dependence upon God. which is where God wants us. Finally, you are making these requests with gratitude for the many ways God is good to you. D - DEEPER TRUTH There is one final letter for us to consider in the word BREAD. The letter D stands for deeper truth. It is fascinating to me that, after Jesus feeds the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, He can t shake the crowd. They pursued Jesus all the way to the other side of the lake. When they come upon Jesus, He says to them, in John 6:26, that they searched for Him because He filled their bellies. Then He said, Do not labor for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life. Then He goes on to talk about how He is the Bread of Life. He says, in John 6:35, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. As this request teaches us to depend upon God for the sustenance of life, it ultimately points us to Jesus. We are not only dependent on Jesus for physical life, but also for spiritual life. Through His death on the cross, Jesus paid for our sin. Through His resurrection from the dead, Jesus gave us the sure hope of eternal life. And so, when we make this prayer for daily bread to satisfy our hunger, it points us to Jesus, who alone can satisfy our deepest hunger. I am struck by all the angst we are seeing displayed around the world because of our teetering economy. Whether it is Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party, there is real concern over the financial future of our country and the world. I believe it is appropriate to have concern over these issues and to be engaged in them. But I also wonder, at times, if the ultimate source of this anxiety rests in the fact that our ultimate sense of security seems to rest in the economy. We forget that Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We all know people who have an abundance of bread, but also have empty lives. Physical bread can only satisfy for so long. It eventually goes stale and spoils. But spiritual bread, Jesus Himself, is able to satisfy the deepest hunger of life. Until you find Jesus, you will never be satisfied. This request stops short if it does not take you to Jesus, the Bread of Life. So when you pray this prayer, pray that you find the deeper meaning to the request, and that you would rest in the security that comes in knowing Jesus. He is life eternal. 11
He is life abundant. He is life! Repent of your sin and rely on the work of Jesus and you will have life. CONCLUSION Pray this prayer this week. Give us this day our daily bread. Remember: B - Bread is Bread! R - Recognize the Good Giver E - Everyone is in focus A - Attitude is key: Contentment, Dependence, Gratitude D - Deeper meaning is Jesus 1 Origen, Origen s Treatise on Prayer trans. and ed. by Eric George Jay (London:SPCK, 1954) 167 2 Jerome, quoted by D. A. Carson, Matthew Expositor s Bible Commentary, 12 vols (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984) 171 3 John R. W. Stott, Christian Counter Culture, (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1978) 149 4 Stott, 149 5 William Barclay, The Beatitudes and The Lord s Prayer for Everyman, (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1963) 222. 6 D. A, Carson The God Who Is There (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2010) 18 7 Philip Ryken When You Pray (Phillipsburg: P & R Publishing, 2000) 108 8 A. W. Pink, The Beatitudes and the Lord s Prayer, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1979), 108 9 D. A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1978) 68. 10 Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Estes, When God Weeps, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997) by Dr. Scott W. Solberg - All rights reserved 12