“The Lord’s Prayer, Part 8”

(Matthew 6:11)

Introduction:

1. Over the past few Sundays we have been looking at what the Lord teaches us with
regard to prayer.
a. We have learned how not to pray.
b. We have learned some things about how we are to pray.

2. Some questions I want you to ask yourself as we begin this morning and as we
continue over the next few weeks, are:
a. Have you learned anything new about prayer?
b. Have you been reminded of some things you might have forgotten about prayer?
c. If the answer is yes to either of these two questions, has this made any difference in
the way you pray?”
d. Remember that no amount of teaching will do us any good, unless we are willing to
be corrected by it and to put into practice the things that we learn.
e. Jonathan Edwards once wrote this, when he was involved in a debate over whether
unbelievers who believed the truth of the Christian religion and who lived
outwardly moral lives and who had received the sacrament of baptism, but had not
made public profession of faith, should come to the Lord’s table – he believed that
they shouldn’t, while most people and ministers at that time believed that they
should – he wrote, “A minister by his office is to be the guide and instructor of his
people. To that end he is to study and search the Scriptures and to teach the people,
not the opinions of men – of other divines or of their ancestors – but the mind of
Christ. As he is set to enlighten them, so a part of his duty is to rectify their
mistakes, and, if he sees them out of the way of truth or duty, to be a voice behind
them, saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it.’ Hence, if what he offers to exhibit to
them as the mind of Christ be different from their previous apprehensions, unless it
be on some point which is established in the Church of God as fundamental, surely
they are obliged to hear him. If not, there is an end at once to all the use and
benefit of teachers in the church in these respects – as the means of increasing its
light and knowledge, and of reclaiming it from mistakes and errors. This would be
in effect to establish, not the word of Christ, but the opinion of the last generation
in each town and church, as an immutable rule to all future generations to the end
of the world” (Murray, A New Biography, chapter 16).
f. The purpose of teaching is for us to learn, and the reason why are to learn is so that
we might live the life Jesus calls us to live.
g. This is just to remind us that all the learning in the world won’t do us any good at
all, unless we put into practice what we learn.

3. Well, so far we have learned to pray with our minds and hearts engaged; to pray to be
seen only by God; to pray according to the pattern Jesus teaches us, since prayer is an
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act of worship; to pray corporately, as well as privately; to pray with familiarity, as

well as with reverence; to pray that all men would fear God and reverence His name;
to pray that His redemptive kingdom would continue to advance on this earth through
missions, the ministry of His Word and through witness; and that all men everywhere
in this world might bow the knee to Jesus and obey Him perfectly, even as the saints
and angels do in heaven.
4. We have also learned by the order these petitions are in, to pray for the things that
have to do with God and His kingdom and glory first, before we begin to lay out our
petitions before Him that have to do with our personal needs. In other words, the
glory of God is much more important than our needs or the needs of those around us,
which is why when we pray for those needs, we must do so with His glory in mind.
5. This morning we will want to begin to look at what we should be praying for
ourselves. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (v. 11), which
is a prayer that the Lord would provide for our daily needs.

I. The first question we should ask regarding this petition is, “Why do we need to pray
for our daily bread, since God seems to provide it anyway?”
A. The answer is really quite simple, but again we should remind ourselves, so that
we will learn not to take God’s goodness for granted. Why should we ask God to
provide what He already provides?
1. When God first created the world, what did He do to provide for the needs of
His creatures?
a. The Lord filled His world with fertile plants, with trees which were laden
with fruit, and with everything that was needed to sustain man.
b. He told Adam, when he placed him in the garden that he could freely eat of
all of the trees. There was only one from which he could not eat.
c. Now did God owe these things to His creatures? Not really. Even here we
see God’s goodness. Adam and Eve did not deserve these things. They did
nothing to earn them. But it pleased God, not only to create this new creature
called man, but also to take care of him, in much the same way as we take
care of the children that we give birth to. Our children haven’t done anything
to deserve the kindness and care that we take for them. But we are compelled
to do so out of the love we feel for them, because they are our flesh and our
blood, not to mention the fact that the Lord commands us to provide for
them. In the same way, God was compelled by His love to take care of His
children, Adam and Eve (Cf. Luke 3:38).

2. But if God wasn’t legally bound to take care of man when He created him, what
about after he fell? They forfeited whatever goodness the Lord gave them
through their sin.
a. Originally, man’s labor was to be richly rewarded. The earth was to yield its
produce to him without a struggle. This again was God’s goodness.
b. But with his fall into sin, things changed. The Lord said to Adam, “Because
you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree
about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is
the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
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Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants of
the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the
ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you
shall return” (Gen. 3:17-19).
c. Things became hard for Adam, much harder than they were before he sinned.
But did they become impossible? No. God could have just as easily
withdrawn all of His food and provision from man and from all of His
creatures for man’s sin and let them all die, but He didn’t.
d. Why didn’t He? Again, it’s because God is good. That is His nature. God
gives even to His enemies things they don’t deserve. He provides for
everyone and everything. The psalmist writes, “He sends forth springs in the
valleys; they flow between the mountains; they give drink to every beast of
the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the
heavens dwell; they lift up their voices among the branches. He waters the
mountains from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of
His works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the
labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine which
makes man's heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil, and
food which sustains man's heart” (104:10-15).
e. There is no one living who deserves this kindness from God. Not only didn’t
we deserve it to start with, and not only did we forfeit our right to it through
Adam, but we also rebelled against God every day of our lives before coming
to Christ, and still sin against Him everyday after coming, because we’re still
not perfect. And yet, out of His mere goodness, God still provides for us.
f. Certainly, God also provides for all of His creatures so that He can continue
His plan to call out all His elect. When they have been called out, then His
goodness will cease.

B. But now, does the fact that God gives this goodness to us freely any reason why
we shouldn’t pray for it and thank Him for it? No.
1. We need to remind ourselves that there are places in this world where the Lord
has chosen to withhold His goodness, not entirely, but substantially.
a. There are places in the world, such as in India, Africa, China, and in the
former Soviet Union and its satellites where people are starving to death
every day.
b. Their sins have so offended and provoked God that He has visited them with
His judgment. This is the legacy their leaders have left for them. Remember
what Paul says, that even though God reveals His goodness throughout His
creation, He also reveals His wrath against sin. He writes, “For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. . . For even though they
knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became
futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Rom. 1:18,
21). This verse literally means that God pours out His wrath on mankind
every day, for their rejection of Him as their God. They see Him, they know
He exists and that He provides for them, but they don’t thank Him. And so
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God, in His judgment, removes His goodness in some measure, and allows
them to suffer more of what they already deserve because of their sins,
presumably that the Gospel might have greater inroads in the future.

2. Now here in America, we enjoy God’s goodness to a greater degree. But we

mustn’t allow this prosperity to deceive us into thinking that somehow we
deserve it.
a. We’ve fallen into the same sins as these other nations, and worse. Many in
our country are atheists. Many are involved in false religions and idolatrous
worship. Many are grossly immoral. The rights of homosexuals and lesbians
are increasing all the time. We have murdered millions of unborn children.
b. The only reason why God is as good to us as He is, is because there are still
many of His people here – many who are saved and many yet to be called.
But that number seems to be dwindling, as our nation plummets deeper and
deeper into sin.

3. All this is to say that we should never take God’s goodness for granted, but
should recognize what it is that God is doing for us, thank Him whole-heartedly
and pray that He would continue His mercies.
a. The fact that our sins are still increasing and that God’s judgments against us
are increasing, should remind us that God is taking our sins seriously, even if
we aren’t.
b. We need to remember that whenever He brings judgment on a wicked nation,
the righteous are also affected to some extent. In our nation’s prosperity, we
will have prosperity, and in their suffering, we may suffer as well.

C. But now is asking for these things and receiving them from Him all that we are to
pray for? Is this all Jesus teaches us to ask for in this petition? No. We should not
only ask that He would give us these things, but also that they would sustain us.
1. It’s one thing to have food, it’s still another for this food to do us any good.
2. When we are sick, our bodies can’t use the food the way they need to. There are
some diseases which keep our bodies from receiving the nourishment they need.
3. Since what we are praying for is that the Lord would sustain us by meeting our
needs, we also need to recognize this as a request that the Lord would sustain
our health. Here we are told then that we may pray for one another’s physical
well-being.
4. And so as we ask God to give us (notice again the corporate nature of this
prayer) our daily bread, let’s also remember to include our brethren who are
suffering from sicknesses and diseases. If we are to love our neighbors as
ourselves, how much more our brethren? And if we would not want to suffer
illness and disease, how much should we be praying for those who are?

B. But now how often does Jesus tell us here to pray for our bread? He tells us that
we are to ask for these things each day from God.
1. Notice that Jesus tells us to pray that the Father would give us “this day our
daily bread,” not monthly or yearly.
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2. Why do you suppose that is? Jesus wants us to rely on God daily to supply our
needs.
3. The problem is if we get too much, we might forget how much we depend on
God for that bread. Or, on the other hand, if we get too little, we might be
tempted to steal. Agur, one of the authors of the Proverbs, wrote, “Give me
neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, lest I be full
and deny Thee and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or lest I be in want and steal, and
profane the name of my God” (Prov. 30:8-9).
4. Having too much or wanting too much seems to be the greater problem. Jesus
warns us that greed can sometimes lead to apostasy. He once said to the
multitudes who were following Him, “‘Beware, and be on your guard against
every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life
consist of his possessions.’ And He told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a
certain rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself,
saying, “What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?” And he said,
“This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and
there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul,
you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink
and be merry.’” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is
required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” So is the
man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God’” (Luke 12:15-
21).
5. Let’s learn from this that we must rely on God daily to feed us and never to
loose our sense of dependence upon Him.

II. And this brings us to one last thing I want us to see from this petition this morning,
and that is that we should pray not only for our physical bread, but also for our
spiritual bread. I believe that Jesus has our physical bread primarily in mind here, but
I don’t think that He intended that we should not also see in this petition a request for
the much more important spiritual bread of life.
A. Just take a look at the Lord’s Prayer as a whole and you can see that this is His
main emphasis.
1. He has already told us to pray that God’s name would be reverenced, that His
kingdom would come with power, and that His commandments would be carried
out by all men perfectly on this earth.
2. After the petition we are looking at this morning, He will tell us to pray for the
forgiveness of our sins, for the ability to forgive others, to keep us from
temptation and to deliver us from evil.
3. The things that are most important to Him are spiritual things.

B. What are the spiritual things then that the Lord might intend for us to pray through
this petition?
1. First, we are to pray that we might know His will.
a. When the devil tempted Jesus by telling Him to make bread from the stones,
Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4).
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b. Our daily bread is also a picture of how much we need the spiritual bread of
the Word to sustain us and guide us.

2. But second, we should pray that we might do His will.

a. Once, when Jesus was hungry, His disciples came and offered Him bread.
When they did, Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,
and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).
b. This shows us that obedience to Christ’s Word is true nourishment for our
souls.

3. But finally, it also teaches us to ask God for the true bread out of heaven to feed
our souls and to give us the strength to do His will.
a. Jesus told the multitudes, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for
the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you,
for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal” (John 6:27).
b. What is that food? Jesus says, “"I am the living bread that came down out of
heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also
which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh” (v. 51).
c. In this petition, we should also look to Christ daily to nourish our souls, so
that we might be able to do all that He calls us to do.
d. Jesus is not only the Creator of our spiritual life, but He is also its Sustainer.
And so as we come to God for the bread to nourish our bodies daily, we must
also come to Christ each day to nourish and sustain us spiritually.
e. Let’s remember this when we come to the Lord in prayer now, and let’s
remember to put this into practice when we come to Him daily.