Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. This morning I'd like to think about one phrase from the Lord's Prayer. It's something that has been going through my mind a little bit the way Laverne said that one phrase went through his mind. And that phrase you will find in Matthew chapter 6 verse 11. [00:00:35] It says there, give us this day our daily bread. I looked at a number of different translations and it was interesting to me to find that although many times the Amplified uses many words to say what the scriptures said, This is what the Amplified said. It was word for word identical to the King James Version. I think they were saying, we don't know how to make this any clearer. [00:01:08] Give us this day our daily bread. There were other translations that made just a slight difference. The meaning was not changed at all. Like the modern Berkeley, give us today our daily bread. In very same meaning, just different words. What was Jesus saying when he said, give us this day our daily bread? And why are my thoughts, why is it that my thoughts went to this? Perhaps it is because of the current economic condition that we face when some of us are wondering, you know, will we have a job tomorrow morning? [00:01:47] and others of us wonder as well although we may be in a different situation we wonder what is in the future for us and I trust that this time of meditation on God's word will not be a doomsday type of thing but rather will give us the assurance will help us to focus on the things as Horatio Spafford did. What did Jesus mean by bread? I think we're all acquainted with bread. [00:02:18] I even thought it might be helpful to have a loaf of bread or a bun to set up here just to recognize what it is. You know, bread is something we make with flour and water and usually we add some things like shortening and salt and sugar. Yeast is usually a fairly important one. Of course, in the Bible we have the unleavened bread as well. which we use for our communion but I think it may have had a broader meaning as well. It could have been food in general and one source that I looked broadened it even more and said the necessities of life or the necessities for the sustenance of life [00:03:05] And I'm not sure what all you would put down there. I would put down food for one thing. And I think clothes, at least some clothes are a necessity. And shelter. This past week reminded us that we need a shelter. And these things are given to us by God. And we are to ask God to give them to us. This week I was also, well it was just, was it yesterday or I think it was the day before because it was colder than it was yesterday. [00:03:38] I was able to watch some birds, I think they were just the lowly sparrows out in a bush just on the west side of our house. I was inside, it was darker where I was and they couldn't see me. But I marveled at how a little bird that weighs what, an ounce or two? I don't suppose it weighs more than two ounces could withstand sub-zero temperatures out in the wind. You saw, I noticed some of the things that they did but God provided for them [00:04:09] and God, the same God that provides for them provides for us as well. I did find some things in the commentaries that I thought were interesting I inherited a, no I didn't, we bought it at parents' dispersal sale, I guess. But I have a commentary that I use some, not a great deal, but it's a Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown commentary, and they had one statement on Matthew 6, verse 11, [00:04:40] that I thought was significant. And I'm just going to read this statement verbatim. In limiting our petitions, however, to provision for the day, What a spirit of childlike dependence does the Lord both demand and beget. The Lord asks us to depend on him for sustenance is what I am saying. Matthew Hendry had a little more to say. [00:05:10] He said this, we ask for bread, not dainties, we could say not desserts, but for bread. Not the superfluities, but that which is wholesome. We ask for our daily bread, which teaches us not to take thought for tomorrow, which teaches us divine providence. We beg God to give it, give it to us. The greatest of men must be beholden to the mercy of God for their daily bread. [00:05:41] And it's not give it to me, but notice, give us. We are asking not for only ourselves, but for all people as well. And I like that. I appreciate that. It also teaches us charity to the poor, to the needy. You know, this day, as our bodies daily need bread, food, our spirits need God. As I was meditating upon the phrase out of the Lord's Prayer, I had to think of some other things in Scripture. [00:06:15] And I'd like to turn to Exodus chapter 16. And as I was thinking of bread for the day, food for the day, I thought of something that the children of Israel experienced. And I suspect that you know what we're going to be looking at. I'd like to read the last part of Exodus chapter 16. And I'd like for you to notice, maybe just making a few comments here, the children of Israel had just crossed the Red Sea. [00:06:45] They were about a month and a half out of Egypt when this happened. And they had just experienced a miraculous deliverance through the Red Sea. But it was long enough for them to experience hunger. and they began to be in want here and also when they began to be in want they started murmuring and they started complaining. I said I was going to start reading at verse 16. I think I'll move back just a few verses. [00:07:19] You have the quail coming up in verse 13. God told them I'm going to give you meat, I'm going to give you bread. And he gave the quail in verse 13, but I'd like to begin reading in verse 14. And when the dew that lay was going up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lays a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was. [00:07:50] And manna, I understand, is what is it in their language. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, and omer for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more and some less. And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. [00:08:26] They gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses. But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating, and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. [00:09:01] And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake today, and seize that which ye will seethe, or cook that which ye will cook. and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning and they laid it up till the morning as Moses bade as Moses bade and it did not stink neither was there any worm therein and Moses said eat that today for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord [00:09:33] today you shall not find it in the field six days you shall gather it but on the seventh day which is the Sabbath in it there shall be none we could go on reading In the following verses here, you read that on the seventh day, some of them went to gather the manna, but it wasn't there. And again, people needed to learn to trust God for his provision, not only to trust God, but to obey. And I guess maybe that's one and the same, trusting and obeying. [00:10:08] But they needed to trust God. And I don't know what it is that you see here. Why was it that it bred worms here and stank? I think one of the other translations says it got maggots and stank. It was the idea, the very same things. Maggots is a kind of worm. And it's the kind of thing that you loathe. You don't want to see that kind of thing. But what is it here that God was trying to teach the people? [00:10:44] And maybe we should open it, maybe we'll open it for you afterwards so that you can share. But one of the things that I think of is that people needed to trust God for their daily provision. I don't know if you noticed what Matthew Henry said or not. Matthew Henry said that the rich know less than the poor. The rich need to learn to trust God. And that is true. When we were more of an agrarian people, when we were farmers, we would harvest, we would put away things, and we would put away things for the year. [00:11:20] And I would ask the question, is that then not consistent with asking God for our daily bread? And I think it's obvious. The question is obvious. It is consistent with depending on God for our daily food. Now, what about rich people? People that have a healthy bank account, do they have to trust God for their daily food? It is obvious that they do, isn't it? Even though we have money in the bank that might buy many loaves of bread [00:11:54] I need to trust God that I will be able to go and purchase that I need to trust God that I will have the health to be able to digest and enjoy that We are dependent on God for every breath that we take You know, it's just simply by God's design that we live And that we are given the things that we are, whether we have more or whether we have less. [00:12:26] We equally depend on God, or we should equally depend on God. It's interesting to note here, in verse 18 of the verses that I read, if people gathered a lot, they didn't have any extra. If they gathered a little, they had enough. and it's interesting to notice how God blessed that little. Did he multiply it? I don't know. I looked up the amount of an omer and it's approximately two and a fourth quarts. [00:12:58] That's a very approximate figure. You may come up with something different. Enough for a person for one day. Does this have a spiritual application is one question that I would ask you. Do you need spiritual sustenance on a day-by-day basis? Or can you eat enough for one day to go for two or four? Can we? I think the question is obvious. We can get enough for a day. [00:13:30] And I think the lesson when people gathered more and it stank and became wormy, I think the lesson is that we need to trust God for our daily, the daily things that he has for us. One person who was a cancer survivor was asked the question, what is the greatest truth that you learned in your battle with cancer? And this was her answer. [00:14:02] God will give you just what you need to get you through each day. And she further said this. She said, if I start borrowing trouble from tomorrow, if I start worrying about tomorrow, or next week, or next year, my peace evaporates like rain in the desert. So what she was saying is that the thing that she learned from her experience was that God gives strength for the day. [00:14:32] Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 33. I was thinking this was a verse, I knew the verse, I remember well when at the heading of one of her letters to me, Amy used this verse, but I was thinking it was in Jeremiah, but I looked in my concordance and being prejudiced toward Jeremiah, I looked at Jeremiah and it just wasn't there. And when I looked a little bit more, I found it in Deuteronomy chapter 33, and it's the last part, part B of verse 25. [00:15:11] The first part says, thy shoes shall be iron and brass. God was telling the children of Israel that their shoes aren't going to wear out. And as thy days, so shall thy strength be. Does that sound similar to the testimony of the cancer survivor? God provides grace for the day. He doesn't provide grace for tomorrow. If we start worrying about tomorrow, then we are reaching into something that is not ours to worry about. [00:15:46] I would like to point out one thing that this is. This, I understand, was a part of the blessing that Moses pronounced on the children of Israel, and it was specifically to the tribe of Asher, that verse 25 that I read. Before he died, he pronounced that blessing upon them, and that I did not remember about that verse. I knew that it existed. Now, what's the lesson for us today? We looked in the past, how can I live so that I am living according to the truth that God has for us? [00:16:23] Is the truth that I can live carelessly? I don't think so. God's going to make a way for me, so I can live the way I want to and it's okay. I think that is tempting God. Remember what Jesus told Satan when he came to tempt him? Satan quoted scripture, but God told him, It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord God. And I think we need to act responsibly as God's people. [00:16:56] We need to do the best that we can. You know, if we have a bill coming due next week or tomorrow, And we don't know how we're going to pay that. God has promised to take care of his children. And I'm not saying that we're always going to be able to pay that bill. I think there are some things that we as God's people can do. If I find that I cannot pay a bill, what are some things that we should do? [00:17:30] I don't know about you, but, well, I think I do. Having been in business, I have had a number of times I have had a person come to me. This doesn't happen really often. But people have just come to me and said, I'm sorry, I don't have what I need to pay that bill. You know what that does to me? I don't know what it does to you. But it gives me the confidence that that person hasn't forgotten that he is interested in paying that bill [00:18:04] And it's pretty easy to have patience with that person We don't dare leave it there But as God enables us, then we need to take care of those things Is it not true that God wants us to do everything that we can? I think it was on a Wednesday evening recently We were discussing something and then somebody mentioned something about, doesn't God want us to lay money aside for a rainy day? And I don't know how you feel, how does that tie in with scripture? [00:18:39] And this person indicated, this is what I've been taught. Is this true or not? And I'm going to let you say what you, how you feel about that. I do think that we are responsible to take care of those people that God has entrusted to us, our families. What did Paul write in one of his epistles? That he that provideeth not for his own is worse than an infidel. So I think, and I think what Paul was saying there was not when a person can't provide for his own, [00:19:13] but when a person just simply out of negligence does not provide for his own. So I think we are called upon to be industrious. Do you remember what Jesus said about the lilies of the field? He said they don't toil, they don't work, they don't spin, they don't worry about tomorrow. And he said yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these, I think is what he said. Maybe we would say, but God has gloriously clothed them. [00:19:47] Even better than Laura Bush or you can put in the name Sarah Palin or Michelle Obama. I don't care who you put in there. But that's what God thinks about the lilies. He provided for them. Doesn't he provide more for us? I'd like for you to turn with me to 2nd Corinthians I'd like to look at just a little bit of one of the things that I think we are to remember as we consider our daily bread [00:20:21] one of the other things that I should have mentioned I didn't, we could turn back to Genesis chapter 3 and look at the curse and what God had to say to Adam and to Eve well he said this specifically to Adam But I think God wants us to be industrious I think God wants us to work, to work hard, to do our best Because this is what he said By the sweat of thy face, or in the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread That's what God said, that's a part of the curse But it is that which we will find fulfillment in doing [00:20:54] And I don't, I'm just going to leave that 1 Corinthians chapter 8 I'd like to begin reading at verse 11 because Jesus talked here to those people who had more than a day's supply and while it was Paul writing, I think Jesus or the Holy Spirit inspired him to do that. If you remember, the Corinthians had talked about taking an offering for the needy people [00:21:26] and somehow it seems as though they had never gotten around to it, if I understand correctly what he is saying here. But Paul wrote to stir them up here, he said now it's time that you put actions to your words And listen to what he said, verse 11 Now therefore perform the doing of it, the taking of an offering That as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not [00:22:01] For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, he that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack. And there are more verses that we could read here. But you notice he is quoting from the very scripture that I read. I didn't even notice that until right now. But that there may be an equality is what he is saying here. [00:22:40] And I wonder, how do you feel about the people that beg for money, if I may say it in that way, and they say, God will give you a blessing if you go to the bank and borrow money to give to my cause. In the scripture here, is there anything that would give us an idea on that? Did you notice what it said in verse 12? How should we give? according to what we have. Right. [00:23:13] It doesn't say that we should go and borrow money to give, does it? I don't think that was intended. I think the intention here is, well, you notice what he said in verse 14, that there may be an equality. So they have enough to eat. At this point, your plenty is going to give them enough to eat. And I'm not sure if he was referring to down the road, that their plenty should supply you or if he was perhaps talking about spiritually that there is their spiritual abundance [00:23:45] provided for your want and now your physical abundance provides for their physical want. I'm not sure. But either one I think would be correct. I think it is right to give as God has prospered us. That's what I think he said in a verse later on in this same chapter. Now, I'm not saying there is never any room for what I just said, but as a general rule, I think we should give according to what we have. [00:24:16] I'd like to go to the next chapter and look at two verses, then, as I think of giving. Chapter 9, verse 6. But this I say, he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, not because he has to, for God loveth a cheerful giver. [00:24:50] Are we cheerful givers? God loves a cheerful giver. And I would just ask the question, what determines how much we give? Is a tithe the way to determine how much to give? And I'm not going to tell you exactly how you must do. I think a tithe can be a starting point. But as I look, and I didn't look up the scripture reference, we could do that. But as I look at the account of Jesus when he noticed the widow giving, [00:25:26] It seems to me that he gave us a principle there that we can learn from. I don't think we should do less than tithe, especially not in our land of plenty. There are people who tithe who have much less than we do, but yet they tithe and they're blessed for it. But there is one thing, as I look at the poor widow, I started saying that, But as we look at the poor widow, it seems to me that Jesus is saying, I am more concerned with how much you have left than with the size of the check you put in the offering. [00:26:04] Is that saying too much? I think that's what I understand him to say. And so while I think that if we want the blessing of tithing, we must tithe, I trust that we will not say, oh, now I've given 10%, good, now I can stop. Because if we have more, I think God asks it of us to give more. Now what effect should this have as we face uncertain times? My job, my occupation may hang in the balance and there are some people who were doing well a year ago and today they are not doing well at all. [00:26:45] So, I read in, I think it was in our newspaper, our daily newspaper, that there were a number of contractors who committed suicide in New York. And the reason was, they had just put up a huge building, and when they came to receive their pay, they were told there is nothing for you. and rather than face their deaths, they committed suicide. We might think that's in New York. [00:27:18] But I am here to tell you this morning that there are people of our people of whom I have it said that are very depressed because of the times. And I don't think God wants us to live that way. The thing that I think God would have us do in times when we have, we don't know how we're going to meet our needs or maybe our job is hanging in the balance, our occupation may be in jeopardy and it may be in jeopardy when we don't know that it is in jeopardy [00:27:50] because that is just the way these earthly things are. They're transitory, they're passing, we cannot depend on them and I trust that we find our security in God. Might it cause us to turn to God to recognize him as holy and as sovereign and in control of all things? Not only that, he is intimately concerned about you and about me. He wants our well-being even more than we wanted ourselves. [00:28:23] So if we turn to him, he will not let us down, even though we may think that we were let down. Job thought he was let down too. and he did not know why and I don't know if Job ever knew why but he got a picture of God as he drew close to God and God told him Job this is who I am and he said you answer these questions if you can and Job said I am but dust and ashes he laid his hand on his mouth he said he didn't have to have an answer God did not have to answer to him [00:28:56] and he doesn't have to answer to us either but he does want us to experience him That is the assurance that I have. Number two, may it cause us as never before to recognize the need to be good stewards. And good stewardship is more than money. We need to be good stewards of our money. I recognize that. We need to use wisely and frugally those things that have been entrusted to our care. But what about the time that we're given every day? [00:29:29] We need to be good stewards of our time. The Bible refers to redeeming the time because the days are evil. We need to be good stewards of the spiritual riches that God has given us. Are we sharing these with people? Do we have a burden to share these with our people? With people that do not know God? I think it also behooves us to pay our bills in a timely fashion as God enables us to. are to take care of our obligations. [00:30:02] Number three, if we have of this world's good, may it cause us to look for ways to help others. As I talk with people, there are things, there are some encouraging words, and I'd just like to share, to pass some of these on with you. And I think some of you have heard me say this, but a person whom I have known for over 40 years, and I think I've said this before, But if you will allow me to say it again, just in the last month he said to me, Glenn, there is one thing that we can do with the things that God has given us. [00:30:40] He was talking about financial things and he is, we would consider him well to do, I would guess. He said there's just one thing we can do and that is help others. As I was talking with another young lady in an office where I go to, she said something about times being difficult. But she said, if we can remember to help each other, that we're here to help each other, we can make our way through these things. May our aim be like that [00:31:14] and I didn't, I haven't confirmed this but I read this somewhere about the owner of Papa John's Pizza he has something for us I think he's a Catholic if I'm not mistaken but he has a goal that's a worthy goal he's not a poor man as I understand it but his goal is to die poor and I don't know what you understand by that statement but I understand him to have a goal to give away [00:31:46] what he has because he recognizes that that's the only good that we can do with it. May it be our goal as well. May we take seriously the words of Jesus, was it? When he said lift up your heads for your salvation draws nigh, your redemption draws nigh. I'm not sure how it is, but that is what God, I think, would have us see and take heed of in these times when things, all at once, we know what God knew all along. [00:32:22] These things, you know, the Bible says that riches can take wings and fly away, and we're seeing that that happens. May God help us to look for the true riches that can only be had in Him through Christ Jesus.