Luke 11:1-13
Please turn in your copy of the
scriptures to Luke’s gospel, chapter 11. We read again, I
think for the fifth or sixth time, verses one through 11. And then today we focus on the
phrase, give us this day or each day, our daily bread. You’ll find that in verse three.
Next week we’ll do forgiveness. The next week, temptation. And
then we’ll look at another phrase that’s not in Luke’s version
of the Lord’s Prayer, but found in Matthew’s, for thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. So after today,
three more in this series on the Lord’s Prayer. But today,
give us each day, our daily bread will be our focus. Let’s give
our attention to God’s word. It is from God. It is his word
spoken through his servant for our edification. Now Jesus was
praying in a certain place and when he finished, one of his
disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught
his disciples. And Jesus said to them, when
you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we
also ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead
us not into temptation. Jesus said to them, which of
you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to
him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived
on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will
answer from within. Do not bother me. The door is
now shut and my children are in bed with me. I cannot get
up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not
get up and give him anything because of his friend, yet because
of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you
will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one
who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his
son asked for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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 him? Amen. Let us pray together. Lord,
we want to honor your word. We want to obey it. So help us
with soft hearts, help us with open ears and help us with minds
that understand the principles, the values, the teachings of
your kingdom. We need your help and grace and
so we ask for it now in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Do you remember,
a little Bible quiz time for you, do you remember the three
items that can be found in the Ark of the Covenant? Now I’m
meaning from the Bible and not from Harrison Ford’s Raiders
of the Lost Ark, something like that. In the Bible, what are
the three things that can be found in the Ark of the Covenant,
wherever it may be? Well, there was Aaron’s staff
that budded and it budded in order to show the rest of the
Israelites, this is God’s chosen servant. Remember, there were
people who were jealous of Aaron’s position. They were jealous of
Moses position. And God said, I’ll show you who
my man is. And his staff sprouted sprouts,
it budded. And so that’s one of the items
found in the Ark of the Covenant. The other, the second item, I
think, you know, It’s the Ten Commandments. It’s the tablets
of stone, the second ones. Remember Moses broke the first
one. It’s the two tablets which contain the two tables of God’s
law. But the third thing that you’ll
find in the Ark of the Covenant, wherever it may be, is a jar
in which is contained some manna. from the wilderness experience
of the Israelites. And each of these items is a
wonderful memento of God’s goodness to Israel. He raised up Moses
and Aaron as deliverers, and so the staff of Aaron. He gave
them a law. The two tablets of stone are
there. But day by day, God provided
for his people in the wilderness He provided them bread from heaven,
water from the rock, and quail for meat by night. And it’s a
reminder that each morning God provided them with exactly what
they needed for that day. Every day they were met with
provision from heaven in the midst of a wilderness that had
nothing to offer them. One of the things we remember
of the wilderness generation is they left Egypt with nothing. They lived in a wilderness with
nothing, yet they had everything. Excuse me. They lacked nothing. They lived in a wilderness, had
nothing, but they lacked nothing. They had bread, they had quail,
they had water, and they had leadership. But there’s something
else we don’t often think about, about the wilderness generation.
We caught a bit of it in the reading from Malachi. Their shoes
did not wear out. Their clothes were not moth eaten. God provided for them exactly
what they needed. And so today, as we study this
phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, give us this day our daily bread,
we understand it has a wide meaning. We’re not simply asking God to
drop simple morsels of bread, but we’re praying an expansive
prayer where everything we need for life is provided to us by
Almighty God. And I want you to think about
this big theme as we look at the Lord’s Prayer. Give us this
day our daily bread. Think of it this way. God provides
us with our daily needs, not so that we’ll be happy, not so
that we’ll be full. Those are byproducts. but for
the main purpose of giving us what we need in order that we
might serve his kingdom well. So every morning when you eat
your Wheaties or you pour your cereal or you butter your toast
or pour your cup of coffee, you need to think that God has given
you this sustenance, not for your own benefit, although they
were our personal blessings, but so that you might serve the
King of Kings that day and work about to bring glory to his holy
name. God provides us with our daily
needs so that we can seek first his kingdom. I want us to think
about give us this day our daily bread from three perspectives,
three categories. First, let’s think of our provider. We have the wealthiest benefactor. God himself is the one in whom
we live and move and have our being. It is God who made us,
sustains us. He is the one who owns everything.
And he is also the one who distributes our needs as we have need of
them. God is our provider. And I want
you to think about this. This is something you often don’t
think about. Why does God owe you provision?
Is it something of yourself you’ve done good, you’ve worked hard?
No, he simply owes you provision because he is your covenant God.
He promised to love you. He promised to care for you.
He promised to keep you and to bless you and to make his face
shine upon you. And so our provision from almighty
God is based not on our merit, not on our hard work. Not on
what we do so that when payday comes, we get what’s coming to
us. No, it’s simply because he is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping,
promise-making, obligation-keeping God who is gracious. Think of God for just a moment.
He made the world and everything in it. He took what was formless
and void, and he formed it and fashioned it, and he filled it
with all kinds of good things that we might be blessed in this
life. And in the midst of that creation,
he planted a garden. And in that garden, he put Adam
and Eve. And when he had made all that
he had made and when he had put man the crown of his creation
in that garden, he gave his benediction every day. At the end of each
day, he said, behold, it is good. But at the very end, especially
after he made man and creation was complete, he said, behold,
it is very good. And sometimes we hear Christians
say of two extremes. We have the health and wealthers,
right? The prosperity. And they may take a passage like
Malachi, which we’ve heard probably many times in our lives. And
they say, see, look, if you give to God, he’ll give to you. And
that’s when you get into these preachers with the jet airplanes
and the fancy suits and the mansions and all the rest. That’s the
prosperity gospel. But then there’s people on the
other extreme that say Christians should be poor. Christians should
have nothing to enjoy. Christians should be broke and
they should be begging God daily for their provision. Well, which
is it? Which extreme is it? Well, it’s neither. Look at what
God has provided in Genesis for Adam and Eve before sin. He gave
them the fullness of the riches of the earth. Can you imagine
as beautiful as this creation is? what the garden of Eden before
sin was like. Can you imagine as you’ve maybe
been to the Rockies, you’ve been to some of the monuments, the
natural wonders of this world, as you have ventured around the
globe or even across our own country, maybe you ventured through
the South of the United States. It’s a beautiful creation. And
so which does God want? Does he want for us to not enjoy
anything? Does he want for us to get happy,
healthy and wealthy? Well, it’s neither. It’s somewhere
in between, isn’t it? He wants us to enjoy whatever
he has put before him with thanksgiving and with use for our needs for
serving his glory. And it just, excuse me, it didn’t
start and end in the garden when God provided. You think about
even after sin, when Adam and Eve sinned, he clothed them.
He protected them from evil. The nation grew as God called
Abraham out of paganism. He protected Noah and his family
from the flood through the ark. You remember Joseph, who was
sold into slavery by his brothers. And we think, oh, what a mean,
nasty, wicked trick. But what was God doing? He was
getting a man in Egypt who would save his people in a generation
from starvation as he became the prince of Egypt. God provided
for his people through the wilderness. He brought them into the promised
land where they lived in houses they did not build. They drank
water from cisterns they did not dig. They ate grapes from
vineyards they did not plant. They ate olives and had the produce
of the olive tree from plants, which they did not raise up. Excuse me. God is our rich provider
and we’re tempted this day and age, are we not? We’re tempted
this day and age to think it’s our own wit. It’s our own ingenuity. It’s our own hard work. It’s our own work ethic. It’s
our own abilities that provide for us. And I want to say this
to you. Yes, it is. But God gave you
that work. Yes, it is. But God gave you
those skills. Yes, it is. But God created that
market. Yes, it is. But God has given
you the increase and the blessing. If it were not for God, you would
not have the smarts, the ability or live in a time and a season
where you could prosper. God is our provider. And yes,
he puts us to work. Yes, he creates stock markets
where maybe in the last several weeks your money does grow. He
puts you in these situations where if you trust Him and walk
with Him, He will provide for your every need. And so we don’t
trust in our own strength. We don’t trust in our own abilities.
Though God does use our hard work and our smarts, but we trust
in Him, our provider. But there’s another thing I want
us to consider under this heading of our provider. It is our duty
to be God-like. to others. If God is so generous
to us, if God is a providing God to us and he entrust his
treasure to us to serve our families, to provide for the church and
to help for the poor, we ought to be God like. And as we look
at our checkbooks, as we read what the stock market has done
for our accounts and other such things, we should say, how can
I be God like as I bear his image be generous and gracious with
others. God is our provider. The second
thing we want to consider from this passage is our provision. We’ve looked at our provider,
that’s God himself, but now our provision. I doubt any of us
are in the top 1% of the United States. We hear about the 1%ers,
you know, these candidates who are now in that 20 candidate
field, which is narrowing to fewer and fewer. They want to
take the 1%ers money and give it away to the 99%ers. We hear
a lot about that. I doubt any of us are in the
1%ers. but most of us are in the top 10% of the world. Think about it for a few moments.
If you have a ashtray full of coins in your car, you probably
have more money than 90% of the world. If you have more than
one outfit hanging in your closet, if you have food in your refrigerator,
if you have some goods in your pantry, if you have a little
bit of money in your checking account, if you did a quick analysis
of what you have, You are in the top 10% of the world. And
so we are a blessed people. God has provided for us so much. And we think about how God has
provided for his people all through the years. He sent Joseph ahead
of his people in Egypt. And remember the seven years
of good and the seven years of famine? When the famine came,
God’s people were provided for. Israel, Jacob did not starve. Water came from the rock. Bread
came from heaven. Quail came from the sky. And
this for 40 years, our provision has been wonderful. The vineyards,
the cisterns, the houses, the walls, the cities. Israel inherited
a land that they did not develop, but they fell into place and
God prospered them. Martin Luther, in his study of
the Lord’s Prayer, speaks of God’s provision. You heard me
mention this list when I gave thanks in our pastoral prayer
earlier. But when we pray for our daily bread, we’re praying
for food. We’re praying for clothing, for money, for goods, for house,
for land, for property, for believing spouses, good children, trustworthy
servants, truthful magistrates. favorable seasons, peace, health,
education, honor, true friends, good neighbors. Give us this
day our daily bread is a wide and expansive list. And so dear
friends, our provision is wonderful. As we approach Thanksgiving season,
It’s really Black Friday season now, isn’t it? Y’all started
getting the emails like I have a month ago. Black Friday at
Lowe’s, Black Friday at Sears, Black Friday at this shop. You
start getting these emails, you wonder when Black Friday actually
is, but Thanksgiving is no more. Thanksgiving is now a shopping
day. It used to be Black Friday. It was on Friday. When does Black
Friday start now? After you’re done eating turkey.
And so you supposedly give thanks. You eat turkey and ham and stuffing
and whatever with your family. And what does everybody do instead
of sit around and fall asleep because all the extra whatever
that stuff is in turkey makes you sleep? The guys watch football
and the women go shopping. Okay, that’s stereotypical, I
know. But Black Friday starts on Thanksgiving Day, and so we’ve
just skipped over being thankful to wanting more, wanting more,
gotta go get the deal. And we don’t any longer, I think,
count our blessings and name them one by one. We see the glass half empty,
and advertisers have it so easy with us, don’t they? Their job
is to create need. And what do you need on Black
Friday? a microwave, an $80 microwave, an Instant Pot. I mean, you can
get that stuff year round, but for some reason on Black Friday,
we just got to have it. And so we are a people who want,
want, want. We don’t count our blessings
as we ought. We don’t name them one by one. But if we were to
look at God’s provision for us, wouldn’t we find, wouldn’t we
find that he has blessed us immensely? He has blessed us greatly. You
know, one of the sins that God lists over and over in the scriptures.
It’s one of the sins of the people of God throughout the old covenant.
And it’s one of the sins that he speaks of in Romans chapter
one, when Paul is talking about the heinous wickedness of those
who do not believe in God. And it’s this, it’s ingratitude.
We’re not thankful. And so when we are not thankful
for our provision, we are like pagans who are full of ingratitude
towards whomever or whatever the higher being is they believe
in at that moment in time. But pagans aren’t thankful. It
was the sins of Israel. Tonight, we’ll look at Psalm
106. God had delivered Israel out of Egypt, brought them in
the promised land. And guess what? They were discontent. They were
envious, they were full of lust, and they were murmuring over
and over about what they didn’t have. But think again about the
history of God’s people. We’ve recounted how God’s been
good to Adam and Eve in the garden. He sent Joseph ahead and prepared
for that famine. But think about other places
that we haven’t mentioned in the scripture where God’s people
thought they were without, but they were actually with much. The widow, In the story with
Elijah, the widow of Zarephath, she kept on making bread, kept
on making bread. And guess what? Her jar of oil
never ran low. Her pot of flour never emptied. God continued to bless her. How
about Elijah when he had to feed a hundred men with only 20 loaves
of bread? Or think of the story where the
little boy, when Jesus had a crowd to feed, he had five loaves and
two fishes. And after the crowd sat down
and were fed and Jesus blessed and served them, there were 12
basket fulls. left over. And sometimes we think
our money’s going to run out. Sometimes we think there’s more
month and less checkbook. Some of you may be fearing that
you’ve got a lot of years left to live and the stock market’s
not been good to you and the retirement funds could dry up. But remember the history of God’s
people. He has always provided. Ruth, in that wonderful story
of the Old Testament, went back and found plenty with Boaz. And you can name times in your
life where God was good. I can remember as a kid growing
up back in the fuel oil crisis of the 70s and 80s, it cost a
lot to heat our little house and our family was struggling
and an elder in the church bought us a wood stove, had our first
load of wood delivered and our house was plenty warm. After
that, I can remember after having our first child, our refrigerator
went out and we were broke from having a baby and an elder in
the church gave us a refrigerator. The year after that, we had another
child. Maybe two years later, another child. We needed a washer
and dryer. And on Christmas Sunday, we were handed an anonymous check.
And that washer and dryer lasted us about eight or so years. Or you think about your 18 year
old car that still runs well. You think about your clothing
that lasts or hospital bills that have been taken care of.
God provides. The righteous, the word of God
says, will never grow hungry. You may not have the latest iPad
or iPod or iPhone or whatever gadget you may wish. You may
not have every desire met, but you will never go hungry. You
will never be hungry. I want us to think about a third
thing. We’ve looked at our provider.
We’ve looked at our provision. I want us to think now about
our posture. What should we live like? How
should we act in light of all these wonderful things? Let me
ask this question to get you thinking. What do you deserve? What do you deserve? What do
you deserve from God? You deserve his wrath, his curse,
his judgment. You reserve every forfeiture
of every blessing due to you for sin. You don’t deserve a
thing. Now, some of you say, I deserve
my paycheck. I deserve what I work for. I
deserve what I have earned. You deserve death. You deserve
to be wiped off the face of this earth, but God in Christ, our
great provider has given us life. He’s given us health and he has
given us everything. And so as you pray, give us this
day, our daily bread, your posture and your attitude to be Lord,
I don’t deserve it. but give us this day our daily
bread. I don’t deserve it, but I depend
on you daily for my needs. I don’t depend on my checkbook.
I don’t depend on what Edward Jones is doing or Charles Schwab
or whoever the investor may be. My trust is in you. My eyes are
on you, my provider. You are my reality and you provide
everything when there is nothing. Our posture also ought to be
grateful. Don’t be like the Israelites
who murmured, who coveted, who lusted, who were full of ingratitude
and who really used poorly what God had given them. I don’t know
if you’ve thought about that. But when God has given us so
much and we use it poorly, isn’t that quite a sin against our
good provision? So what should be our posture?
I deserve nothing. God has given me everything.
I’ll be thankful. What does that look like in our
daily life? Every day we should worship God. Every day we should
work hard. Every day we should use what’s
been given to us with thankfulness, but also with an eye towards
others and their needs. And we should be generous. We
should be God-like towards others. This is our posture. You know,
Israel had victory in Egypt. Pharaoh, the wicked tyrant who
had ruled over them so viciously, they had received deliverance
through Moses, by God, across the sea, which swallowed up their
enemies as they crossed onto dry land. And yet they grumbled
about bread. They grumbled about the water.
And isn’t that the same with us? We say, oh, the Israelites,
such wicked people. The cross is our sign of victory. But we can grumble about food
too, can’t we? I asked one of y’all when I came
in this morning, how you doing? The person said, I can’t complain.
And I said, well, you could, couldn’t you? And she said, but
I’m not. Dear friends, that’s the attitude
we ought to have. Jesus has done so much for us.
We’re a blessed people. We should count our blessings,
name them one by one. But very often we’re grumblers.
And I want to remind you, God did not deal kindly with the
grumblers, did he? In fact, he let them die in the
wilderness and it was their children who entered the promised land.
Why is it that he let them die in the wilderness? They did not
believe him. And so, dear friends, as you
pray, give us this day our daily bread, you’ve also got to pray
that in faith that the God of heaven and earth will feed you.
The God of heaven and earth won’t let your clothes wear out. He’ll
let that 18 year old car still run. You’ll get a washer and
dryer somehow, some way. There’ll be food in your cupboard.
Your oil will not dry up. Five loaves and two fish. will
be sufficient. God has a different way of doing
math. And so we must believe him for
the sin of unbelief is what caused Israel to die in the wilderness.
We must believe the impossible for everyday provision. He who
did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us, how
will he not also with him freely give us our daily bread? Pray
with me. Our Lord, we pray the prayer
of the writer of Proverbs, King Agur, give us neither poverty
nor riches, lest we look and say, who is the Lord? Who is
our God? Lord, help us to have just enough
where we trust you for the next day. but help us to have enough
where we can be generous to the poor, where we can give to the
church and where we can support our families for every bit of
their needs. Lord, forgive us for our ingratitude,
forgive us for our worry, forgive us for our anxiety, forgive us
for our unbelief. Sometimes we’re like the Israelites
who say, can Yahweh spread a tent and a table in the wilderness?
And the answer is yes, he can. You can feed us and you can nourish
us every day, and you’ve done it. So hear our thanks, hear
our confession of sin, and renew, we ask, Lord, our trust in you,
for you are a good and providing God, and we pray your blessings
upon our heads this day, in Jesus’ name, amen. We want to respond
to God’s goodness by singing number 429, come thou fount of
every blessing.