Luke 11:3

Luke chapter 11 verses 1 to 4 and he came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he sees one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them when ye pray say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done as in heaven. so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. We also forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. A baby certainly needs his father and his mother. You know, he cannot prepare his own food. He can’t change his diapers by himself. He can’t bathe himself. He can’t dress himself. Everything must be provided by the parents. He’s absolutely helpless. So when he has a need, all he can do is cry out. And mom or dad have to come along and try to figure out what the problem is. You know, he needs changed or whether he needs fed or what the case may be. But he’s totally reliant upon his parents. In the spiritual realm, believers are called the children of God. In fact, in this very prayer, Jesus directed us to call God our father, our heavenly father. and he tells us here in verse 3 that we are to petition him for our daily bread. You can’t care for yourself. You’re not an independent being. You need the Lord to sustain your life and provide the divine necessities to survive. Now we have been studying this point. that Jesus taught his disciples so that they may learn how to pray. We said that this prayer is not something that we would normally want to perhaps just repeat mindlessly every time. But it is sort of a guide for us, a direction for us. I mean, it’s good to know the prayer to memorize it, but it would be more like a help for us. There’s an important lesson. we pointed out previously and now it comes into play more clearly here. And that is the order of the petitions. You’ll notice here how God’s interest come first, and now we’re finally getting to our interest. So the first part of the prayer is with God’s interest and now we’re focusing on the second part, which has to do with our personal interest. Let me begin by saying this. God is willing. to supply your daily physical needs. Your physical needs are not unimportant to God. Christ uses the term bread here, I think in its broadest sense. Yes, certainly I think he’s talking about our daily food. But we can take it in a little broader sense, in the sense of all the necessities. that you might need in your life. Such things as your food, your clothing, your shelter, your job, your finances, or all perhaps could be included in this idea of our daily bread. Some have tried to minimize the bodily needs of people saying that, well, the soul is what’s really essential. And while it is true that, that the soul is what’s the most essential. Jesus did he not teach us here in this passage to pray for the necessity of the body here. And so we see that that is the case, even though the health of your soul is the most necessary element. When Christ was here on earth, or on his earthly ministry, he only saved souls, but he healed all manner of sickness. and disease was not unconcerned about the physical condition of people. And remember how he fed when they were hungry and they had been out there listening to him teach all day, he fed the 5,000 and the 4,000 because there was a need. God provides a complete salvation that not only includes your soul, but also your body. For you recall, there’s a self. Scripture is very clear that your body will be raised and will be reunited with your glorified soul and so that you will have a perfect body and soul. In the end, the body like unto Christ, glorious body. So your physical needs are not unimportant to God and they’re not neglected here. You are taught to appeal to God then for your physical needs. your basic physical needs in this passage in verse 3. Now, it is true that Christ is talking about those things that are absolutely necessary like your daily food. It’s not talking about luxuries here. He’s talking about necessities. We’re never promised that we’re going to have superabundance of things in this life, as if God is going to give us. riches galore and we have so much we can’t handle all the abundance that we have with regard to the physical things of this life. He’s more likely to overabundant you on the spiritual gifts rather than the physical. But your promise here to be given what you need. In the Old Testament, the Psalmist said, I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed-begging brats. which means that God provided the daily needs. In the New Testament we read in Philippians 419, My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus. The problem we have is the luxuries in life often lead to our spiritual harm, so God doesn’t promise that he’s going to give us all the luxuries that we might want in life. I’d like the prayer. of Agar in the book of Proverbs chapter 30. Feed me with food convenient for me, that which is deedful, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Just give me what I need. You recall when the Israelites were in the wilderness that God provided their daily bread by raining down manna from heaven every morning, except from the Sabbath. and they would have to go out and gather this heavenly bread for them to eat. But they complained about it, and they cried out, who shall give us flesh or meat to eat? They weren’t satisfied with the bread that they got. So they complained about God’s bread. They said, we want some fresh meat to eat. They despised God’s miraculous provision. They wanted a luxury. so God gave them their heart’s desire and rained down around the camp quail which they could go out and gather and eat so that they would have fresh meat. But the Bible records, while the meat was yet in their mouth, the wrath of God came upon them and slew them. In Psalm 78, we see that in verses 30 and 31. Now Israel’s folly here should be a warning to us that we should try to be satisfied with the necessity of life and not be complaining that we don’t have all the lectures. So you’re taught to appeal to God for your basic physical needs here. Now, the passage indicates that you can approach God confidence. for your physical needs. The idea in us going to God and asking for these needs is that God is willing to provide them for us. As a good father, God not only anticipates your needs, as Christ said in the sermon of the Mount, your father knoweth what things you have need of even before you ask. He knows what you need. But the idea is he also delights in providing and caring for his children. We had Russell Reed chapter 7 of Matthew, verses 7 through 11, where Jesus said, ask, and you’ll receive. You know, knock, seek, and you’ll find and so forth. And then he said, you being evil, because of our corruption in Adam, yet look at all the good things we provide for our children. And he’s saying, how much better is your heavenly father who will give you those things and delights to do so, those things that you need? Ask and he shall receive, because he treats you as family as his beloved children. So God is not some kind of harsh, stingy, distant, begrudging God. No. No. he has a supply and endless supply of good gifts to give his people and all he asks is that we asked for it. On the island of Trinidad, there is a crater from an extinct volcano which is completely filled with pitch. If you get inside the, the volcano itself. This asphalt is actually hard enough for you to walk off. but in different spots you see the air bubbles bubbling up through the asphalt. Now men have dug great chunks of this tar-like lake and loaded train cars full of it to pave roads with. It said that no matter how deep a hole they dig, and one time they dug a hole they dug a 280-foot hole in the asphalt on this inside the volcano that after 72 hours it’s always filled up. So it just keeps filling up from underneath. For 63 years, now they’ve been digging asphalt out of this volcano mouth and it just seems like there’s an end of the supply of asphalt there. I told you that story to tell you this. This is the way. God’s promises are with regard to his people. There’s an endless supply. Whatever we need, he’ll take care of us. We don’t have to worry about that. There’s not an allotment that this is it and you don’t get any more. He basically knows what we have need of. And certainly he’ll provide that and set that apart for us. But we never can have to worry about, well, is there going to run out? It’s never going to run out. So we can be thankful for that. Now you’re coming to your Heavenly Father, who’s loving, who’s willing, who’s merciful, and who delights to be known and loved by its children. So Christ just ask Him for your daily breath. God is willing to supply your daily physical needs. Now my second major point is this this this morning. God alone, grant you the things necessary for your earthly existence. You’re totally dependent upon God. Give us. Every good gift comes down from above from the Father of Lights, James 117. Your food, your health, your finances, the possessions you have, your job have been provided for you as a child of God. Even the social and political stability of society in which you live, in which you exist, is a good gift. We see that eroding in our society today, because we could be troubled by unrest and riots and outbreaks of violence and war and things of this nature, which would you make it very difficult to live. So we’re utterly dependent upon God for such basic things as our common bread. If God so willed, your daily bread could be withdrawn. I don’t remember if you recall that during the COVID-19 outbreak when it first broke out, when you went to the grocery store, and you looked on the shelves, the bread, the bread, their bread was gone. The toilet paper was gone. The bread was gone. It was like all the staples of life, people just swooped in and took. And you’re used to going, oh, let’s see what kind of bread I want, what brand do I want. And we have, you know, 25 different types of bread we can eat. But you go in and it’s all gone. That can happen. It could be gone. God could withhold the rain. Remember how in Elijah’s day, he withheld the rain and the ground got so hard that nothing would grow in it. Even the weeds. God could blast the crop with some sort of mildew or blight or something in this nature so that it rots in the field. God could cause the crops to disappear before your eyes, you know, back in the days when they, have the locust plagues in the east that have all this lush crop out there in the field. The next thing you know the sky is dark with locusts and they all land in the fields and eat up every green thing in sight. There could be flooding that ruins everything. An earthquake could swallow up the field. So wildfire could burn it up. The supreme folly in our day is to think that because of our scientific knowledge and our know-how, that somehow we don’t need God, that we can do it ourselves. We can’t live a single moment without God. For in him we live and we move and we have our being. He gives to all life and breath and all things, Acts tells us in chapter 17. Nothing could continue if it were not sustained. by God, and that includes you and I. Why is this earth so alive with various grains and fruits and vegetables and animals to eat and so forth? We have pictures that come back from Mars or from the moon. And what do you see? What kind of wildlife is up there? what kind of crops are growing up there? There’s nothing. It’s just barren earth and rocks. It is this one planet that God has seen fit to bless because this is the planet on which he put man and man would have needs and the animals would have some need something to eat. And so God provides these things for us. We’re so used to go into Giant Eagle or the grocery store. and buying whatever food we desire that we can become complacent about this petition. But remember, it all could be taken away in short order by the Lord. Therefore, we must pray for our daily bread. You’re totally dependent upon God. Now, you come as a humble beggar. Give us. Give us. You can’t demand anything from God. It’s not like the, we’re sort of like the beggar Lazarus. We eat the crumbs that fall from God’s heavenly table to us. You’re much like the children of Israel in the wilderness that are dependent upon God to send a man every day. All you eat comes from the hand of God ultimately. And therefore, it is certainly undeserved. It’s never deserved. It’s a good gift. So we can never say. say, God pay me what thou owest. God doesn’t owe us a single thing. So you can’t demand anything from God. You must be a humble beggar, even if you’re wealthy. Perhaps you’re financially secure and you think, well, I don’t need to seek my daily bread. Maybe you think, I’m not living hand to mouth. As soon as I get my paycheck, I don’t have to run to the bank and cash it so I can go put food on the table tonight, like some of the poor. you have a refrigerator. You have a freezer. Full of food. Maybe you have canned goods on the shelf. But my friend, unless God blesses what you possess, it will not profit you, nor will you be nourished by it. Israel demanded meat instead of manna in the wilderness. He gave them the request, but he sent leanness into their soul. And they weren’t benefited by it. They had a superabundance of quail to eat. but it led to disease and death. If God withholds his blessing, the very food you have will do you more harm than good. So you need to pray, give us our daily bread in the sense that you want God to bless what you are eating as well as providing for it. So you are a humble beggary. Now, you need daily assistance from God. Give us day by day. our daily bread. Day by day, give us this bread. Now what Christ’s word suggests to us here is that we have to come repeatedly to God for this need to be met. Like Israel, old we have to trust that the Lord will provide sustenance every day. Each morning, except the Sabbath, the Israelites had to go out and gather as much manna as they needed for that day. No other food in the desert. This is it. And so they gathered what they needed. Now, manna would not normally keep from one day to the next. If you try to keep it, the worms would eat it. Except for on the Sabbath, God made an exception because he wanted them to rest on the Sabbath. And so he made the manna last two days. He picked up on a Friday, evidently. And thus Israel could never get. get to the point where they could live independently of God. They had to keep relying upon God every day. Each morning they got up. Each morning they gathered their daily allotment of food in a similar way. God has set an allotment of food for you aside in his heavenly bank account, so to speak. And prayer is the check that you have to cash in order to get the food. that he’s promised to give you. You present your check to the Lord. You ask in prayer, and he says he will honor it. There was an insurance man that evidently had too much time on his hands, and he compiled some interesting statistics. He said, if you reach the age of 70, and you eat an average American diet, you would consume, during your lifetime, a total of, 150 head of cattle, 26 sheep, 310 swine, 225 lambs, 2,400 chickens, 26 acres of grain, 50 acres of fruits and vegetables, one person. Day by day, God provides the necessities you have, even though it may reach such proportions as this. Christ’s word suggests then you need to come regularly and repeatedly and keep writing the check of prayer. Now, let me say this. As we come to this passage of scripture, this doesn’t mean that you can’t store up food. He’s not saying a lot to store up food. Israel gathered a double portion of manna, recall, before the Sabbath, and it would last. They had to gather a double portion and carry them through the Lord’s Day. This was for the Sabbath. by God’s command that they would preserve it one day. Joseph, you remember the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine, he had to store up enough grain to keep a whole nation alive for seven years because of the long famine that was coming. So he had to prepare seven years in advance and store up grain to where he couldn’t even count it anymore. This is what God showed him to do. It wasn’t evil. It was the right thing to do. consider how scripture commends the ant as a good example for man. In Proverbs 30, 25, the answer are people not strong, yet they prepare their meat or their food in the summer. So then when winter comes, it’s stored up and they have something to eat. So there’s nothing wrong with showing prudence here in stalking up on some foods. Sometimes when you order foods, you have to buy. a quantity of them to make it worthwhile ordering. You know, when I order a millet, I’m getting 30 pounds at one time, or oats, I’m getting 25 pounds, or deer meat I’m getting 25 pounds, or buffalo meat, I’m getting 25 pounds at one time. I have to, it’s just economically, that’s the best way to do things. But what Christ is teaching you here is to pray for bread, your daily bread, for several reasons. One, this means. means you must acknowledge that the food that you receive on a daily basis has come from God. Even that which you put in your storage, a refreezer or the refrigerator, or you have stored up in a closet. Secondly, you should be content with the food God provides today. Having food and raiment, let us be content. Thirdly, you should not fret about tomorrow. if God provides your needs for today, then he will take care of you tomorrow as well. If we have enough food for today, let us be thankful and trust his providence. We should also look at this and realize that every day that we live, maybe the last day that we live. So what he does is he provides this day’s needs, and we should realize this may be the only day where it’s allotted to us. And tomorrow we may not be. be here. So God alone here grants you the things necessary for your earthly existence. Now let me conclude with just three brief remarks. And the first is this. Let this petition motivate you to be one who is thankful to the Lord for your daily provisions. If God is the giver of all your daily bread, then give him thanks. Don’t take your daily bread for granted. It’s right and appropriate for you to bow your head and give thanks to God for your daily food. And it’s a good thing to teach children while they’re young to do this. Henry, just this last time he was visiting my grandchild, he asked Rain and he said, do you parade and then say amen? Amen, pray, but he used the word parade. Do you parade? And then say amen. Yes, we parade and say amen before we eat. What ingratitude people show when they will not even give God a simple thanks for the food he puts on their table every day. Secondly, when you pray for temporal things, think about you. using them in a spiritual manner. When Israel pleaded give us flesh to eat, it was simply to satisfy their lust for meat and nothing else. They lobe them in. Sadly, you may ask that you may consume it on your own lust, as James tells us, in four or three. That’s a common problem. When asking for earthly things, especially for our daily needs, let us think in terms of what we could do if we have the strength and nourishment that comes from this food. Hannah prayed for a child, but why? It was for the purpose that she could give him back to the Lord that he might serve the Lord all the days of his life. Jacob prayed for God to be with him and to keep him on his journey. Give him bread to eat, he asked for. and Raymond to put on, and what did he promise? Then shall the Lord be my God, and of all thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth. Unto thee, I’ll tithe what God provides for me. Hezekiah was, remember, threatened by an invasion, an imminent attack by the powerful Assyrian king Sinakariv, and he prayed that God would deliver them from the power of the Assyrians. but why did he pray that prayer? Was he just concerned about being delivered? Here’s what he said. That all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. May this bring honor and glory to your name. And so when you’re asking for your daily bread, may it be that your physical body may be nourished and strengthened and that you may serve his kingdom more faithfully. as you go through this life. Lastly, remember the words of Jesus Christ, that man shall not live by bread alone. Yes, you need to pray for your daily bodily needs, like your daily bread. But don’t stop there. Israel ate the daily bread of man and the wilderness that God provided for them, but most of them died in the wilderness in unbelief. and perished. We also need spiritual food to sustain our soul. And so let us not forget that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedeth out of the mouth of God. Jesus Christ is the bread that comes down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and die not. He is the true bread that we need for our souls. So you must eat and drink of Jesus Christ, and that provides spiritual nourishment. You know anything about hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Do you have a spiritual appetite for the food which comes from the Word of God? That also is a daily necessity. So we ask for our physical needs, let us not neglect the physical or the spiritual needs as well. Let’s close.