Number 6, Matthew chapter 6, we have been looking at the model prayer. Here in chapter 5, 6, and 7, Matthew is the Sermon on the Mount. And there is so much in this sermon that the Lord laid out here in these three chapters of Scripture that we have, so many things that He teaches us, so many principles of life and how we are to live for Him that He records for us here in this passage. And this is one of the questions in Luke chapter 11 that the disciples even ask the question, Lord, teach us to pray. And he gives them this model that he is including here in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6. And we've been looking at these different phrases here in the prayer itself. And he tells us again in verse 9, he says, After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the power and the glory forever. Amen. And He goes on to say, if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses, He says. And so He gives us this prayer. This is a model prayer. This is not, again, as I said Sunday afternoon, there's nothing wrong with praying the Scriptures. There's nothing wrong with praying this prayer just as it's written. You can do that. But it's not the intent of it. The intent is not, this is not our prescribed prayer that we have to say in that order and by all these words and then it's acceptable. That's not the case. That's not what it is. It's just an example that the Lord has given us. These things should be in your prayers. It begins with an acknowledgement of who we are in God, and the fact that He is our Father. And after we have that acknowledgement that we have that place before His throne, that we can come in and bring our prayers and our petitions before Him, it begins there with praise to His name. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. and earth as it is in heaven. So there's praise of Him. There is declaration of His sovereignty as we looked at on Sunday afternoon concerning His will being done in this earth. And then tonight we're going to look at verse 11. The next phrase, give us this day our daily bread. And this begins the part of prayer that is our petitions. The things that we have burdening us, the things that we have on our hearts, the things that we have on our minds that are plaguing us, those things that we're designed to see God work in, our prayer list that we just read over, our unspoken requests, those things are on our hearts. This is the part of the prayer where that's where we are to give our petitions before His throne. And so often as we've been looking through this passage, so often if you just keep in mind your own prayer life and keep in mind how you go before the Lord to pray, I know me, too often I launch into the petitions without spending the time of praise first. And the Lord still knows, He still hears, He still hears my prayers, even though I might have things out of order. But we need to pay attention to how our Lord tells us, pray this way. Pray this way. Begin with that praise. Begin with that worship of who God is. Begin there. And we're beginning with the worship. We begin with His greatness. We begin with His holiness. We begin with His sovereignty. Suddenly what happens is the things that plague our hearts, the petitions that are riding on us, those things kind of get smaller. when we're focused on who He is, when we're focused on His worship, when we're focused on His sovereignty, it makes our problems just a little bit smaller. And so it helps us even to begin with that worship first. And so, give us this day our daily bread. That's the next phrase here. From the moment of conception, A baby faces a life of absolute dependence. At the start of his new life, he is dependent on his mother to provide nourishment in the womb. Once he is born, he's dependent on his parents for food and clothing and shelter. He cannot provide any resources for himself. And unlike every other earthly creatures that are out there, he can't even come to his mommy to get what he needs. She's got to go to him, you see, to bring those things, those needs, to supply those needs for him. And so he has to have help with bathing, with eating, with getting dressed, even burnt, put up, in bed, And nobody would argue the necessity for that round clock care for an infant. That's just expected. We know that's what needs to be done. It is absolutely dependent on his parents to be sure that he's got everything that he needs. In much the same way, we as the children of God, we Christians, we're very much like that infant. It's absolutely dependent. We are totally dependent upon our God. We need Him for everything. Jesus says in John chapter 15, without me ye can do nothing. Without me ye can do nothing. We have to have Him for everything. We have to be depending on Him for all things. And even for our food, our clothing, our shelter, just as infants get dirty throughout the day, we live in a world of sin that pollutes our walk with Christ. And while our Lord has paid the penalty of our sins, past, present, and future, we still fail Him every day. We still come short of His glory. We still sin against Him. And so because of that daily sinning, we need that daily cleansing as well. We need to be cleansed by Him. And so we need to come to Him confessing our sins. that we can be cleansed, that our fellowship be restored with Him. And just as infants desperately need the protection of their parents from the harmful things that are in this world, so we too are dependent on God who guards us from the circumstances of this life that can hurt our spiritual walk with Him. And so we need Him for everything. Everything. Every aspect of our lives, we need Him. And the Lord is teaching us that even in this prayer. When He says, give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Indeed, to pray for our needs. And the Lord teaches us here how to pray for our own needs. Again, that we've honored Him after we have lifted up the name of God. And we see these needs here. It begins in verse 11. He says, "...give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so these are those daily needs that we have, that we are dependent upon our Lord for. And though this is dealing with man's needs, it does not set aside the fact that God is exalted even in the supplying of our needs. He is exalted, He is honored, He is glorified even in the supplying of our needs. because He is the one who gives us our daily bread. He is the one that forgives us our sins and our trespasses against us. He is the one that keeps us from temptation. He therefore glorifies Himself by meeting the needs of His people in their everyday lives. Now, praying for our daily bread may seem irrelevant to us today. Because at home, I've got two freezers, and then one on the bottom of the refrigerator. And those things are packed full. Got food in all of them. We've got a refrigerator. Now it's looking a little bad. Not been to the grocery store in a day or two, but there's still food in there. There's still food in there. We've got a pantry that's absolutely full of food. We've got our can cabinet, and it's absolutely full of canned stuff in there. Got two or three loaves of bread laying there. The dogs even got food at the house. I mean, there's all kinds. We even have emergency food. that I've got in the house. Supposed to be about six months worth. If we get hungry, I don't think it'll last six months. But it's supposed to be six months worth. We've got food all over the place. We live in such abundance in our society that we don't get this idea of give us this day or daily bread. We're so used to grabbing what we want and when we want it, and it's right there at our fingertips. And so much so that we get bored with what we've got at the house and say, let's go out and eat somewhere, you know. And we do that too much instead of eating what we've got at the house. But this idea of praying for our daily provisions, give us this day our daily bread, doesn't have quite the same impact on us as it did in this day when the Lord was speaking to His disciples here in this Sermon on the Mount. For one, they didn't have refrigerators and freezers to put all their food in, to store it up. And so they had to have other methods by which they would preserve their foods. Bride was mostly what they would have. and particularly dried fish in the area of the Sea of Galilee. I imagine it didn't smell real good around that area with all the dried fish that people were eating and partaking of. Bread was something that was very common in which they would bake every day, making bread to supply for their daily meals. But we don't have... Right now, I'm not concerned with what I'm going to eat for breakfast in the morning. Not concerned with what I'm going to eat for lunch. I know there's food there. I know I've got food in the house. I'm not too concerned with it. Josh made some turkey chili last night. Man, that stuff was good. And I talked about it all day, and then we didn't eat it when we got home, so we'll have to eat it tomorrow, I guess. Good stuff. We've got a whole bowl of that sitting in the refrigerator right now. So I'm not worried about it. It's not something that's forefront on my mind. And I would imagine that you all have the same, that you probably thought little today about the provision of food that you've had other than, I'm hungry, it's time to get something. Give us this day our daily bread. Our dilemma too often is not what, is in what to have rather, not whether or not we will have. What to have, not whether or not we will have. Now we expect this maybe to be the case in third world countries, to ask such a request, but truly do we think often about Give us this day our daily bread. A couple weeks ago, Jonathan challenged the kids in the Sunday school class to pray, to pray more. And one of the prayers that we were talking about is praying for your meals. Thanking God for what he has blessed us with. thanking Him for what we enjoy every day, that His provision for us, that even when we may not say, give us this day our daily bread, we still sit down three or four or five times a day, and there's food sitting before us, and we should spend that time thanking you, Lord, for your provision. Thank you, Lord, that you've given us this food to have. Thank you, Lord, that you've provided for our needs today. Bread here is speaking more though than just our food. It's more than just the bread. But it's all of our necessities. Not luxuries, but necessities. And if God chooses to bless any of us with luxuries, it is purely of His good grace. But He has promised to give us our needs. He's promised to bless us with those necessities that we have in this life. He holds all the universe in balance. keeps the planets spinning as they're supposed to and keeps them in their elliptical orbits around the sun and puts the stars out every night for them to shine. He is in absolute control of keeping all of those things in place and working as they should and yet he is still concerned with your daily breathing. With your daily breathing. So this petition that the Lord enjoins us to pray is the recognition and the affirmation that every good gift and every perfect gift is from the Father of Lights with whom there is no changing, no variableness, neither shadow or turn, as James says in James chapter 1 and verse 17. Every good gift, every perfect gift, every blessing we enjoy each and every day, it's from Him. Every provision that we have, it's from Him. Everything that you've enjoyed this day is a blessing from Him. He's the one that has provided it. He's the one that has provided it. We work hard. to have what we have, but even in our working hard to provide what we have, to earn the money that we make, to buy the stuff that we use and have, we cannot lose sight that it is still the provision of our Father. Because in all of our working hard, if it was not for His provision for the strength If it was not His provision for the health, if it was not His provision for the jobs that we have, we would not be able to get those things. He provides it all. He provides it all. And so we should not only ask Him for it, but we should also thank Him for it as well. Deuteronomy chapter 8. In verse number 18, Deuteronomy 8 and verse 18, Moses says here, But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers as it is this day. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get well." It is in Him that we are given the strength. It is in Him that we have the ability. It is in Him that we have the blessings that we enjoy each and every day. So we should have a thankful heart. for the continued blessings that our Lord provides for us every single day. Every single day. Give us this day our daily bread. Thomas Watson, the Puritan preacher, I really like reading after Thomas Watson. He's got some wonderful sermons. He wrote wonderfully explaining these things. He writes this concerning this model prayer. He says, If all be a gift, see the odious ingratitude of men who sin against their giver. God feeds them and they fight against Him. He gives them bread and they give him affronts. How unworthy is this? Should we not cry shame of him who had a friend always feeding him with money and yet he should betray and injure him? Thus ungratefully do sinners deal with God. They not only forget His mercies, but abuse them. When I had fed them to the fool, Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse number 7, when I had fed them to the fool, they then committed adultery. Oh, how horrid is it to sin against a bountiful God, to strike the hands that relieve us. To strike the hands that relieve us. Indeed, it is a sad state that man forgets every single day that everything he enjoys, every blessing that has come his way is from God. It's from God. He's the provider of it. He is the provider of it. So we must never presume on the grace of God's provisions. And thanking Him for His daily kindness in meeting these physical needs. Give us this day our daily bread. He is alone. the source of our provisions, and we must give Him glory for it. We must be thankful before Him for it. We cannot be so crass that we forget to thank Him for those blessings we enjoy. The heart of this petition is expressed in the word, give. Give us this day our daily bread. This is the heart of it because it recognizes the need of the child of God. I can't get this myself. It has to come from my Father. Give us this day our daily bread. even though He may have already provided the necessity, we ask it in recognition of His past provision, His present provision, and then what He has promised for our future provision as well. So we trust Him in this prayer, in giving this request. It is showing our trust, our faith in what He is accomplishing for us, in providing for us each and every day. Go over to Psalm 37. Psalm 37, and look here. Beginning in verse number 3 and 4, Psalm 37 verse 3 and 4. He says, Trust in the Lord, and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Verse 25. He says, I have been young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I have been young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. The Lord provides for his people. He provides for us. And we're all testimonies of that. We're testimonies of those continued blessings we enjoy each and every day from our Lord. Hold your place here in Psalm 37. We'll be right back to it. Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter number 9. And look with me beginning in verse number 7. Not only is He the one that provides all of these things for us, but it is also in His provision to us that He allows us even to provide for others. 2 Corinthians 9, Paul says here in verse 7 down through verse 10, he says, Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food. Now, it goes on to say, verse 11, Well, let me finish reading verse 10 right there. "...and multiply your seeds sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness." Then verse 11 he says, "...being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God." So he said, the Lord has provided this for you. He has given you all that you have and he's given you all sufficiency and all things, he said, that we ought to be able to bless others so that others are praising the name of God through our giving as well. God fulfills the needs of his people. Notice, Particularly, this promise belongs to the children of God. Back in Psalm 37, again in verse 3, this is a description of a child of God. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord, he says, and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Then he says in verse 4, delight thyself also in the Lord. and He shall give thee desires of thine heart." Verse 5, he says, "...commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." Verse 7, "...rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." And so we see here this description is the children of God that this is applying to. They trust Him. They delight in Him. They commit themselves to Him. They rest in Him, you see. I notice that David draws a comparison there in verse 18 through verse 20. He says, The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked, he says, shall perish. And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. They shall consume into smoke, rather, shall they consume away." God is committed. He has even promised to provide for His children. Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter number 18, verse number 29 and verse 30. Luke 18, verse 29 and verse 30. And He said unto them, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting." We see, I should say, in this world and read of all of these problems that come, famines that are happening here and there and droughts and diseases that are in the world. Those things come not because of poor policies or poor agriculture or poor programs or poor politics or overpopulation. These things exist because man takes such a low view of life. He rejects God. He rejects God's Word. He rejects the principles of God's Word. And in that, these things are a part, now, of our world. Because man rejects God. Man rejects the principles of God's Word. Man rejects the things that God has declared. And so we see these problems occurring in societies all over the world. Hinduism, for instance, has overrun countries like India, where they will not kill an animal because it is considered sacred, but they'll readily strangle their unwanted girl babies when they are born. Readily do that. But they'll let the cows walk. People hungry and cows everywhere. In fact, the cattle in India consume 20% of India's food. 20% of India's food is consumed by cattle alone. And rats and mice get another 15% of it. But they can't kill them because that might be Uncle Bob. Or it might be Aunt Sally or whoever. On the other hand, Christianity has been a blessing to the West particularly. our Christian roots, our heritage, along with respect for the Word of God that is evident in the founding of our nation and had been seen so much throughout history, made that evident, the blessings of Christianity in this part of the world. But the secularism of Europe has shown clear negative effects in the last 30 years. poverty and joblessness and anti-Christian sentiment continues to increase not only in Europe but very swiftly coming into the United States to the point that America literally has fed the world for many, many years. And that's all by the grace of God. But our anti-Christian attitude is affecting our nation as well, and the economic climate is a direct result of the rejection of godly principles. In fact, just a few years ago, just a few years ago, for the first time since the beginning of our nation, we had to import wheat from Russia in order to feed our nation. A low view of life is the culprit for these realities. A high view of God is necessary to have a high view of life. Without a proper view of God, There cannot be a proper view of man. In Matthew 6 again, he says in verse 25, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on, is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment. He goes on to say in verse 32, he says, after all these things, those very things that he just mentioned there, after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that He hath need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." In other words, don't worry about the provision of these things. Don't worry about what may be coming tomorrow. Don't worry about those things. You focus on Christ. You seek His kingdom. You seek His righteousness. You make that first. You trust Him. He's going to provide everything we need. Trust Him. Give us this day our daily bread. As you focus on the spiritual, God has promised to take care of the physical. And He's done it many times through miraculous means. And I love reading about those and seeing those times. George Mueller, at one time, George Mueller took care of, he and his wife took care of many orphaned kids back in the 1800s. And there was one time that they were totally out of food. Had nothing that day to feed those kids. And they sat down at the table, as they always did, to eat. And they had nothing to eat. And George Mueller told the children, he said, let's pray that God would provide for us this day, our daily bread. And so they begin to pray. While they were praying, there was a knock at the door and they go to the door and there's the baker is there at the door. And he said, brother Mueller, He said, I had this big order of bread today to bake and the people didn't show up and this bread is going to go to waste. Would you be able to use this bread today to feed these kids? And he said, yes, thank you. And they brought the bread in enough to feed the kids. They continued in their prayer. And as they continued to thank God for the blessings he'd given, there was another knock at the door. They went to the door and it was one of the local dairies was pulling their cart by and the cart broke down. The wheel fell off the cart. And he said, we've got to unload all this milk and get this out of the street. It's going to go to waste. Can you use this milk today? Yes, bring that milk on in here. They went back to pray and there was a potato truck come by or potato wagon and they brought potatoes into this. The Lord's just in that one prayer. He showed those kids over and over and over again. I'll provide, I'll provide, I'll provide. Trust Him. Give us this day. Our daily bread. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3, verse number 10. Paul says, for even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." Now, while we're trusting the Lord, while we're trusting Him to supply all of our needs, He still tells us work. Work. Provide. Do. And so we have the obligation to work. We have the obligation to do. We have the obligation to set forth. But He's still the one that provides it for us. He provides us the ability. He provides us the opportunities. He provides us the money. He provides us the health. And that which we have, He has provided that as well. Work. Do. and trust Him to provide. Trust Him to provide. He is always the source of our physical well-being. And even with our refrigerators and freezers full, we are still to pray each and every day, give us this day our daily bread. Our prayers should focus on Him as provider. Let's all stand. We'll be dismissed.