Our first scripture is Matthew 6, 25 to 34. Matthew 6, 25 to 34, and then we’ll take a peek at 1 Corinthians 15, 58. We’ve already read Psalm 104 and seen the goodness of God and creation, how each looks to the hand of God to see that their needs are met. Okay, Matthew chapter six, beginning at verse 25, the Lord Jesus says, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore, do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
And then 1 Corinthians 15, 58. It’s a passage we considered several Sunday mornings back. Paul says simply to the Corinthian church, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Amen, God’s word.
Some of you know that back in 2012, I was serving in a congregation and things got messy very quickly. Many of you know Robert, our Sunday school teacher, he gave me a call as one of the elders in the church called me up in I think June of one summer and said, hey, The church is out of money.
You’re going to need to take out a home equity loan. And when this is all over with, we’ll make sure you get paid back. Well, the problem with a home equity loan is when you just bought your house, guess what you got none of? Equity. Yeah. So fast forward about four months later, I was in a position where I needed to resign from that pastoral call on the spot immediately. and with no parachute to pull and no backup chute to catch that failure. And so, one Sunday afternoon, a group of men in the church. Now, hit pause for a second and remember, I’m a planner, I’m a budgeter, I’m a fretter, I’m a worrier, I always kinda know what’s about two steps ahead. Well, I had to jump ship and One Sunday afternoon, during all this big church mess, four or five men of the church called me and said, meet at such and such a place.
And I showed up. And they said, don’t worry about it. OK. They said, we’re going to make sure your mortgage is paid. We’re going to make sure your insurance is covered. We’re going to make sure this, that, and the other. And for two and a half years, that was October of 2012 until I came here in March. No, it was May of 2015. So what is that? It’s two and a half plus years.
I always had a paycheck. I always had money in the bank. We lived in our house for nearly two years in that town, which is unheard of when a pastor’s run off. Never missed a beat. Our kids had everything they needed. We never missed any payments, never missed any medical costs, never mentioned anything. The Lord provided all kinds of ways. It was either donated or I found work or the Lord provided this or that. And it was quite amazing. And one of the things that I learned during that time is we very often fly economically on autopilot.
You know, most of you have direct deposit, right? You wake up one morning, you flip open your bank app and there is your money. It’s your social securities app in there. It’s your pension put in the bank. whatever payment, and it’s just there. And so we go on autopilot, and the thing that I learned during that time is it’s more spiritually beneficial to fly by stick. It’s more beneficial in many ways to fly by sight. The instruments are out. The autopilot does not work. And to rest on it and to rely on it is rather futile, and I think that’s something that this passage is trying to teach us. You may have a bunch of money in the bank. Your doctor may have given you a clean bill of health recently after looking at your lab work. It could be that you’re on top of the world and feeling good, but unless the Lord blesses it, it does not work.
I always think of the time that Israel spent in the wilderness. And if you look at three or four places in the scriptures, it says of the Israelites, their shoes did not wear out. I’m pretty sure it says it somewhere. I could be making this one up, but I always say it anyway. It sounds biblical. Their clothes were not eaten by moths. Over in Nehemiah, it says your feet did not swell. That’d be pretty important, wouldn’t it? meandering for all those years, your feet did not swell. But what is God able to do? God is able to sustain us in this world against all odds.
And I believe we need to, through our study of this passage tonight, we need to consider whether we are daily dependent on the Lord, or are we pretty sure that we’ve got the world by the tail and we’re doing pretty good? I would imagine there’s a mix of both.
It’s wonderful, isn’t it, that we’ve worked hard? It’s wonderful that we’ve saved well. It’s wonderful that maybe we’ve been responsible in life, and God does want us to be and do those things. But we don’t want to be practical atheists. We don’t want to be those who wake up and say, you know, today’s going to be an okay day. My barns are full. I’ve been diligent.
I’m going to be fine because of my hard work. We want to be those who beg God daily, somewhere back in 2007, I think it was, back when we used to read things in print and on paper, there was an article in World Magazine, and this tells you how, not how good my memory is, it tells you how much it stood out to me.
The article was entitled Dependence Day, and it was written by a lady who was a widow. She had been all of a sudden destitute because of the death of her husband, must not have a lot of the benefits that some do receive at a spouse’s death. And so she found herself working in a cafe, freelance writing for places like World Magazine. And she wrote an article called Dependence Day.
And something in the article stood out to me. She said, you know, I just wish that one day I could wake up and God will have given me enough where I wouldn’t have to worry for a little stretch of time. And as she meandered through the article and thought about this or that, she finally ended the article by saying something like this, but God wants us begging daily. He wants us daily dependent on him.
Think about creation. Think about the world and everything in it. How did God make this world? Well, he took what was formless and void and he formed it and he filled it and made a habitat, habitable, suitable for mankind. And he made day and night, he made greater lights to rule the day, lesser lights to rule the night. He gave moons and stars and seasons. He gave plants and seeds and harvest and fruit bearing. And he made mankind to live on the earth, to work the ground, to keep the ground and to harvest it and to make himself Lord or have dominion over it. And I think so much of our daily bread we simply find in the way God has ordered this earth. We live in a world where we’re made to wake up, we’re made to work, we’re made to be productive, we’re made to pull our weight, so to speak.
But contrast that with perhaps what is the big fight of our election this week. There’s a lot of people that don’t work. There’s a lot of people that don’t want to work and won’t work. I think I read maybe in recent months, where one third of men are not in the workforce. Now that does not include retirees. That’s one third of working age men are not in the workforce.
And so how does one of them, if he’s a believer, and let’s assume maybe some are, maybe they’re ill, they’re struggling with something, maybe they can’t work because of sickness or some debilitation, let’s excuse them for a moment and be charitable. But how does someone who won’t work get on their knees and say, give me daily bread? When God has made the world and ordered it so that we do work, we are productive. We are productive not only for ourselves, but for the sake of others.
Think of how many times lately your heart has been tugged because someone around you needed something and you said to yourself, I can meet that need. I can meet that need because God has been good to me. God has been gracious to me. And maybe you didn’t think this, but now looking back, you see it. The answer to their prayer was you. The answer to their prayer was your kindness, your generosity, your extra, your overflow. And so, because in some time past, people have taken care of you in some gracious way, you have had your heart moved to help those that you see. who are in difficulty, and that’s a wonderful thing.
But we live in a world that expects things to fall out of the sky. And so I think one thing to consider from this passage, when we pray, give us this day our daily bread, we should count on, we should rely on the ways that God has made this world and so ordered it to work. There’s a bit of work we must do in order for reward, in order for provision. But let’s think for a moment about the meaning of give us this day our daily bread from the Heidelberg Catechism.
It says first, it means that we should ask the Lord to provide for all our physical needs. We just read through Matthew chapter six, the Sermon on the Mount, where God is giving the kingdom values, the kingdom principles to the people in the Judean countryside or out in the Galilean countryside that are listening to his preaching.
And he’s reminding them God made you and God made you body and soul. And he cares for you both body and soul. And just as he cares for the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, he knows the numbers of the hairs on your head. He is gonna provide for you. And so do not be anxious.
I know probably most of us have some idea of a budget. Most of us have some idea of what it takes to live. Most of us have some idea of where the paycheck comes from and where it goes and what’s allotted for this and for that. And perhaps many of us understand the contingencies.
If you live in a house and it has an air conditioning unit, it has a roof, it has a hot water heater, a dishwasher, a stove, a refrigerator, and we haven’t even gotten to the people in it yet, those things are going to break down, in fact, I think. Frank and Brenda replaced it all about two weeks ago, right? The dishwasher, the washer, and the dryer. That was y’all’s week a few weeks ago.
But you think about all the contingencies. If everything broke all at once, you couldn’t afford it. But think about how God stretches your money. He stretches your budget. But he does that when we trust him. He does that when we acknowledge that everything we have is from him. And so we pray that God would provide for all our physical needs but also that we would recognize that he is the only source of everything good.
You know, you could have a bank account full of money. You could have a brand new dishwasher, brand new roof, a brand new washer and dryer. I mean, you could have your life organized and everything just ship shape, tip top, rock and roll, ready to go.
And you’re not walking with the Lord and he gives you a little break tap, right? You’ve had those. where he reminds you you’re not God. He reminds you you’re not self-sufficient. He reminds you that you do need him. He reminds you that you’ve been thinking a bit too big about yourself lately. And he reminds you that you’re human and that it’s in him you live and move and have our being. And so one of the points of praying this prayer is not just that our needs would be met, but it’s also that we would recognize God is the only source of everything good.
Remember when Paul was making his way from the churches at Galatia, he skipped on through Asia, over to Macedonia, has that vision at Troas where it says, come over to Philippi, come over to Macedonia and preach to us. So he goes to Philippi, shamefully treated, skips on down to Thessalonica, to Berea, to Athens, and eventually gets to Corinth. But when he’s in Athens, he walks around and is very troubled because of all the idolatry. And he goes into Athens where they have all their idols and he sees the place where they have a blank spot just in case there’s a God that they haven’t been made aware of yet.
And so it’s to the unknown God. And he uses that as his evangelistic opportunity. And he says, okay, you don’t know who this God is, but I do. Let me tell you about him. He is the God who made heaven and earth. He made the world and everything in it. And it is in him that we live, move, and have our being.
Well, that upset the apple cart, because in ancient Rome, in those days, they thought they were something. And to have a God who was that sovereign, that self-sufficient, or made us not self-sufficient, that really upset the apple cart. And I think we feel that same way today. We want to say, maybe 50% God, 50% me. But go back to that lady’s article from years ago. We need to be at a place of daily dependence.
And so we recognize that God is the only source of everything good. He is the father above, the father of heavenly lights. He loves to give good gifts to his children. Remember what James says to the folks who believe they’ve got the world by the tail. He says, you say you’re going to go here or there, and you’re going to set up and conduct business or trade here or there. and make a profit. And he says, ought you not say if the Lord wills.
We’re so used to our fridges being full. We’re so used to our cabinets being full. We’re so used now to door dash and drive-thrus and we’re so used to food being available. But think through those places around the world where there is not food and there is not food unless it’s brought in from the outside and how they do desperately cry out for it?
I think we’re so blessed, we’re so bloated, we might could say. And perhaps we do say a prayer, we thank the Lord for it. And hopefully it’s not words, hopefully we mean it from our hearts, but do we really recognize that everything good comes from God? The second thing this passage points out that I think is really sobering It says that God is the only source of everything good and neither our care or our work or even his gifts. We can enjoy the gifts God gives us because we live in a wonderful world. We can enjoy the things God gives us because we live in a wonderful economy. We can enjoy the things that we care about and work for.
We can have them, but they be of no value to us. That’s what keeps me awake at night, I don’t know about you. I’m not worried about not having, I’m worried about God not blessing it because I have not called on his name or affirmed him or thanked him. And isn’t that what scares you the most? We’ve probably not done without or been without, but if God were to withhold his blessing, doesn’t matter how many pairs of shoes we have or how full the cupboard is, it doesn’t matter.
And you feel this sometimes in your daily life. Do you ever feel like I work hard but I got nothing to show for it? Do you ever feel like you woke up early and you made a really good to-do list and you just couldn’t get it done? And perhaps God was putting the brakes on and saying, Let me come down and see what you have done. What you are building up to the sky is a name for yourself.
And these are the sobering things I think we ought to consider. Unless God blesses what he gives us, unless God blesses our efforts, our care, it will come to nothing. And so we want to be careful not to put our trust in chariots or put our trust in horses or put our trust in our ingenuity, our checkbook, our Edward Jones account. We don’t want to put our trust in that the grocery store shelves will always be full. That’s why those people on TV get you to buy stuff, right? And you stick it in your basement. Because you think the apocalypse is coming because they told you it was. And so you got to get the MREs and the gold, right? But God may not bless that stuff either, you know. But we should withdraw our trust from all creatures and place it in you alone. Think of a couple places in the Bible where people didn’t put their trust in God alone. The first I think of is David. At the end of his life, it says, Satan incited him to take a census. Count my fighting men. Let me know what’s in the arsenal, what’s in inventory.
In case another nation rose up against Israel, what could we do about it? And that’s exactly the wrong thing because God always fights for his people. It only took 300 with Gideon’s army. You think of the very weak position Israel was in at the time of, was it the prophet Elisha and was it Hezekiah and they were surrounded and they looked up on the hills and saw the angels surrounding and encamping around the people of the Lord.
We can say truly, we can say surely. God is good to Israel. God loves his people. He will not let his people go hungry. Oh, for sure we may go through hard times. We may go through difficulties. But he never leaves us and he never forsakes us. And so when we pray, give us our daily bread.
It’s way more than put the cornflakes on the breakfast table. It’s way more than spaghetti in the pot. It’s way more than maybe the medicines we need, or the doctor’s care we need. It’s really all about affirming our allegiance to Almighty God. And so perhaps you’ll look in your pantry with a different perspective. You’ll look in your fridge with a different perspective.
The next time you drop $12 on drive-thru, number one, you’ve gotten off pretty cheap. But thank the Lord. We swipe our cards. Just a swipe. We slide it back in its little slot and we scarf it down. And it’s gone before we know it. The remnants are on our shirt or on the floor mat, you know, because we ate it in such a hurry.
But give us this day our daily bread and give us our physical needs. But most of all, God, make us recognize that you alone are the source of everything good. Let’s pause and ask that God would help that. to be so in our lives. Lord, we are very rich people, very blessed people.
The change in our pocket, the money in our bank accounts, the weeks of maybe not what we’d like to eat, but it’s food and it would last us in our pantry. It’s way more than most of this world. And yet we open the fridge and stare and say, there’s nothing to eat. We follow our whims and we go here and there. We want what we want and we usually get what we want.
But most of all, Lord, we pray that you would capture our hearts, that you would help us to think about what is true and what is lasting. And that’s that the eye of the child, the eye of the pet, the eye of the animal looks to its maker and holds out its hope that it will be fed. and we couldn’t be in a better spot than to be dependent on you. So help us to believe that and trust in you, we pray in Christ’s name, amen. We want to sing about the contentment of having joy in Jesus Christ, number 494.