If you would turn with me in the Bible to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8, lest you wonder, we are continuing our studies in the Lord's Prayer today. I think you'll see perhaps a reason for the Bible reading as we read through the chapter, a brief chapter in Deuteronomy. but let's give attention to it as we read together the Lord's Word. Deuteronomy 8. All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. and he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land. a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten an artful, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Lest when thou hast eaten, and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end. And thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. 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. And it shall be, if thou do it all, forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them. I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall ye perish. because you would not obey or would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. Amen, we'll end our reading and again trust the Lord to add his blessing to the public reading of his inspired word. Let's do bow together as we consider the Lord's word today and ask for the Lord's help in doing so. Lord, it is for the help of heaven that we come and ask thee today to draw near and to meet with us. We come as a people that very much need to understand and apply the words that we've read. We dwell in a land where we've known great plenty. Lord, we have known very little even of the daily needs of some of these that were blessed in the land of old. And so we come asking that Your Word will be found living and powerful to us as we gather in this house. And we pray these things now in Jesus' name. Amen. It would perhaps be fitting for us both to begin and to conclude today with the words we find in Proverbs chapter 30, words of Agur and not of Solomon. There we read, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steel and take the name of my God in vain." Well, the spirit of that writer of the Proverbs surely is one that we should desire and should possess within ourselves. He doesn't say there and we don't find in scripture that it's evil or wrong to be wealthy or to be poor. We find examples in scripture whereby the Lord's own providence in his specific direction. Some of his saints were men of great wealth. We find by the same Lord's hand, the same loving Heavenly Father's hand, that in the scripture, in history, some of His saints, beloved saints, knew great poverty and great trials. The problem isn't with the wealth or with the poverty, the problem is always with the heart. But there are tendencies of the heart, and this is where the proverb takes us. where our self-centeredness, our sinful tendencies, would tend to react to one situation one way and another situation another way. It is easy for us, in a fleshly mindset, to respond to wealth and to prosperity by saying, I've been doing this. I've been working hard. all of which may be true, but it is subordinate to a far greater truth, to a far greater reality as we, Lord willing, will see in a few moments. And it may be that we suffer poverty and great need or other difficult circumstances and we are tempted then to think, why is this coming upon me? And then we would curse God. or we need a heart to respond well to wealth or to poverty. And perhaps if we, in the humility of the proverb, would tend to fear our own fleshliness and fear our own weakness, then we might be apt to pray, Lord, don't give me wealth. I don't know if I can handle the temptations that come with it. Lord, don't give me poverty and need. I don't know if I can handle the temptations that come with it. Give me grace for whatever it is that you give me. Well, we'll not turn to read, but we come today to, again, our series in the Sermon on the Mount and the lesser series in the midst here, our thoughts on the Lord's Prayer and going through this model prayer petition by petition. So I doubt if we were to give a little quiz today that the scores would be very low. You should understand by now from what we've sung and what we've read and we've already considered that the petition that we come to today within the Lord's Prayer is give us this day, our daily bread. This is the fourth of the six and or seven petitions, as we will comment upon perhaps in a few weeks. And here is obviously a transition within the prayer itself. We can see very clearly that the opening petitions within the prayer are directed primarily and exclusively Godward. Our Father, which art in heaven, the address itself gets our minds in that direction. Hallowed be thy name. Reverence must be superimposed upon everything else. Thy kingdom come. God's own kingdom, His sovereign rule, His lordship over all things. This is paramount. This is first in our hearts and minds every day, every prayer, every circumstance. Your kingdom come. And then as we saw last time, your will be done. Here we've seen the need and at times the difficulty of submitting to the sovereignty of God, submitting our wills to his will. And particularly in those areas where we may lack understanding, we don't really grasp what's going on or what the Lord is doing, to look at the big picture. I'll just tell you again, one of the greatest things in life for sometimes in the smallest and most particular problems that we're facing is to step back from that particular problem that is isolated right in our point of time and say, what is the big picture? Here's the Creator of all things, who in mercy and grace created and has responded even to rebellion in His creation by looking down upon those who deserve His wrath and sending a Savior and redeeming them. Here's a great foundation for me then to come to deal with whatever my little problems are. Lord, Your will be done. If I could submit to you today that when we come to this part of the Lord's Prayer, there's a little bit of a shift. It would be easy for us to think, as we do often in the Ten Commandments, there's a great shift there after the Fourth Commandment, those commandments that direct us primarily Godward, and then the last six that direct us primarily manward. You think, well, this is what we're following here in the prayer, and in many ways, that's true. because we do come now to focus upon ourselves. But I just submit to you that as we look at this petition and then the ones that follow, what is it that we're praying for and praying about when we pray for ourselves? Those first three petitions are God's Word. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. Now we, with those foundational things, Out of the way is not a good phrase. Those foundational petitions already laid and put in place, then we turn our thoughts to ourselves, give us this day our daily bread, but where do the petitions go again? They don't go in a self-centered way, do they? As we follow on, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Even when we come, and I put this before you now as we transition in the prayer, even when we come to that part of the prayer that focuses upon us personally, it's still God work. Lord, give us this day our daily bread. What's going to flow out of that? God sustaining us, providing for us, that we might spiritually mature. That we might reflect His glory. That we might be a part of the fulfillment of the first petitions with regard to Him, and His kingdom, and His will, and His glory. And so many have suggested, and Matthew Henry had it stated this way, God sustains us that we might serve Him. He doesn't sustain us that we might go our merry way and forget about Him. He doesn't have us just pray those things that God will get His stuff and now we go and we pray that we get our stuff. No, it's all God's stuff. It's all about Him. And the only way that any of His creatures, that any of His creation is going to know happiness and personal benefit is subordinate to God's glory and God's will. We don't come now and ask these petitions. The other stuff's done. Now we can ask for what we want. We come and ask, Lord, we want your kingdom, your name, your glory to be known everywhere and by all. Make me by forgiving me, giving me grace to forgive others and engage in that gospel thinking and gospel living. Make me a channel whereby your kingdom comes, your will is done. your name is hallowed, that you get glory. Use me as a part of this big picture." You see, that puts these petitions with regard to ourselves, then, in a very different perspective than some selfish thought of, well, now let's ask for our stuff. And so let's keep that in mind as we go forward and consider this. And actually this has us to consider what, as I suggest to you today, just three questions with regard to this petition. The first we've really covered here, what place does this petition occupy in the prayer? It occupies a place. It occupies a necessary place for we are needy creatures. of God sustaining us, of God teaching us, and of God using us in the greater picture of his kingdom and of his glory. That is the place that this petition with regard to our daily bread takes in the prayer. But the second question that I put before you when we look at the petition is this. What then is the substance of the petition? Well, preacher, that's pretty plain. Well, okay. Granted. But again, sometimes it's the simple things that we need to dwell upon. I want to look at the petition perhaps in the simplest possible way that we can. Word by word. Think of the opening part of the petition. Give. Give us this day our daily bread. What does that Word teach us? Give. It teaches us that we are recipients. We are ones who are being blessed and we must recognize even as we come in our land of plenty and the goods and the services, well goods and services, that's a phrase that was just going to come out whether I tried to stop it or not, but the goods and the possessions that we have. These things that we have in abundance. These are things that we have received. We may think, well, we've produced them. We have brought them forth ourselves. This is not indeed the case. It may be that they're the result of labors. It may be that they are the benefits of what we have labored to do and to produce. But where do we get the strength? Where do we get the skills? Where do we get the knowledge to go forth and to produce these things? Do they arise naturally? Are those talents and those gifts rather those things that come from the hand of God? We are recipients. We look, and as we utter this petition, let us be mindful that it is God that gives these things. We read also here in the petition, give us. Give us this day. This may be a small thing, but the commentators bring it out, and I think rightly so. As we utter this petition, as the Lord frames this petition in this model prayer in this way, He doesn't give it to us in the singular. He gives it to us in the plural. Give us this day our daily bread. It encourages in us then a public spirit. It encourages in us not a self-centered, selfish mindset, all I'm worried about is me. It encourages even in the most basic necessities of life. to be mindful of others, to be mindful as we pray for our own needs that others have the same needs that we have. They may be facing the same problems we face, they may be facing greater problems than we face. As we pray then, we pray for them. And it also, as we pray that prayer, a public prayer, obviously mindful perhaps most of those, and we are among those in the smaller group, the one that we know the most about, we're the most familiar with our own needs because we're experiencing our own needs, we're not experiencing the needs of others. But as we come and we pray and remember others in our prayer, is there not a note of comfort in that for us that perhaps indeed others are praying for us. Others are mindful of us. I've mentioned this recently and I don't know if it was in the prayer meeting or about the prayer meeting, but one of the things we seek to do as we gather corporately to pray week by week is to be mindful to pray for one another. Pray for others in our congregation, others of our brothers and sisters. It's easy for us, and particularly in the world in which we live, many of us, we don't have it quite as easy as Lot and Abraham did to choose by just location of where we live, whether we have contact with the world or not. Lot's soul was vexed, and that's an important part in that sad history to remember. It shows us at least the root of the matter was in him. that his soul was vexed day by day with the unlawful and the ungodly deeds of those around about him. Here, we engage and live in a world where it's not quite as easy for us as Abraham to be tucked away elsewhere. We need to guard our contact with the world in every way that we can. But sometimes as we battle the temptations of the world and the daily struggles there, we are so overwhelmed praying about our own needs, our own struggles, our own problems, we forget to pray for others. You want to know one of the best ways for help in your own struggle is to understand other people are dealing with these battles too. My brothers and sisters are out there facing the same conflict, maybe even facing more fierce conflict and more fierce temptation than I. Lord, help them. And we may find strength even for our own daily struggles as we include others in our prayer and our petition. Obviously, we've expanded to petitions with regard to temptation and spiritual battle, but what about tangible needs? We often don't know the particulars of these situations, but Lord, remember the needs of my brothers and sisters. Give them, give us, give me this day our daily bread. And of course that brings us to the next phrase, the next words. Give us this day our daily bread. I was interested to learn this time in reading through that there has actually been some controversy in church history over the word daily. You think, well, that's not one of those things that's easy to mess up. But it is. It is a rather rare word in the New Testament and in Greek literature itself. Some of those from ancient church history and the fathers, Augustine, he took it as spiritual bread. He didn't take this as a petition or a request with regard to tangible earthly needs at all. He's talking particularly in the spiritual realm. There were others, Jerome even took it and he looked upon it as super substantial bread. Reformers, champions, if we can even use the phrase that is often, I think, misused today, but that's a whole other side trail for another day, but historical grammatical interpretation, the Reformers, who were champions of getting back to that literal understanding of the Scriptures, recognized very clearly. It's not talking about some spiritual aspect here. Those other parts of life are taken up in the other petitions, and particularly those that follow. It's very clear, and it's something that this sermon itself, the Sermon on the Mount, takes up in some detail as it progresses. our mindfulness of our daily needs, our mindfulness of the necessities of life. And it is not inappropriate at all, rather it is entirely appropriate that we recognize that as we pray. We're recipients. We're dependent. Give us, give us and then this day. Now that's where we have to step back and this is where I say it becomes difficult for us. Can I put it this way? I think this is a petition that frankly it's hard for those of us sitting in this room to grasp. It's hard for us to understand. We have never been, even as we speak in our culture about people that live from month to month. I can understand that. I can understand debt and I can understand all these other things about our economy. Well, I don't know if I understand a lot about our economy except, well, we'll just forego the political comments. Money doesn't grow on trees, but we'll leave it there. But how many of us Even as tight as our budget may be and we look here, we look there, how's this gonna work out? How's that gonna work out? We're gonna not do this in order to be able to do that. Okay, I understand all of that. But how many of us have ever been in a situation where our daily bread, what we're gonna eat that day is a matter we've got to pray about. Where are the meals of this day gonna come from? And yet here's the petition. our daily bread. Can we say that it is not a sin for us, we've said already, to have abundance? It's not a sin to be wealthy, not a sin to be poor. We have to guard our hearts in these things. I'll comment in a moment about a particular verse in that regard. But as we come to look at this, even if we think about prosperity, we think about wealth, if that not being sinful, we can even go further and look in the Scriptures and find that the Scripture teaches for us that there are occasions, indeed, a normal aspect of life is to look ahead, is to plan, is to make provision. Proverbs speaks about foreseeing calamity and taking care to be ready for those things coming. And so, if it's not a sin for us then to plan or even to save for days ahead, what then of this petition? Well, let us understand here. The petition in teaching us to pray for our daily bread is teaching us not to be anxious, recognizing again we're dependent. Even if our barns are full, we're dependent. It's the Lord that's given the seed. It's the Lord that's given the rain. It's the Lord that's given the produce of the land. It's the Lord that's given strength to harvest and bring it in. It's the Lord that's provided the means to have the barn, to store the food in, and on and on and on. It is all of the Lord. The problem is if we are anxious. You see, being anxious denies that we understand it's the care of a Heavenly Father that is meeting our needs. It is the loving hand of a loving God that is mindful of our daily needs. And I say again, it is difficult for us to grasp this because how many of us again have wondered where the next meal is coming from? But think of it. A poor man can be in that place. What am I going to eat? But this is a spirit. There is a humility in this petition that should rest upon the most wealthy of men. There are people in this world, there are people in this nation that have never worked a day in their lives as it were. They have had life handed to them on a silver platter. They have seemingly endless wealth. They have everything money could buy. All they think about now is having more money because, well, at least that's what you do. But where has everything that has been brought to them on that silver platter come from? Who sent the rain that the other people, that fell upon the seeds the other people planted and made the plants that the other people harvested? and then the harvest that the other people manufactured into other food sources or other goods. Who provided all of that? Who provided the strength for these other people to do that labor that you reap the benefit of? Who provides the strength for the other people that are bringing it to you as you're sitting at your table? The richest man in the world is a man still that is dependent on the hand of God. And that is a mindset that should permeate us no matter what our earthly state may be. And a lot of this comes back to those earlier petitions. Reverence. Submission to the will of God. A desire for the advancement of God's kingdom. These are the things that are in the back of our hearts and minds when we pray for our daily bread. We are dependent upon God for this day's bread. We are dependent upon God for this day's needs. maybe appear to be laboring the obvious. I hope I'm laboring the obvious here. These are things that come up everywhere. I was driving home from the Raleigh area, I guess it was last week, coming back from seeing me and the family there, and there was a billboard advertising, I guess, a new fancy heating and air conditioning unit. It had one of the outdoor, what do you call it, compressor units, whatever, outdoor things up on the picture, and it had the description, Mother Nature, bring it. But, as our society goes, it's probably not the worst billboard that's out there as far as sinfulness and wickedness and temptation or whatever. But I saw that and I thought, what an irreverent heart. Number one, there is no such being as Mother Nature. There is a God in heaven who is the creator of heavens and the earth. And in his hand, he has his way in the storm and in the stillness. And I just wonder, I don't care how powerful, how many BTUs your little air conditioning unit is gonna be able to produce. God of heaven can blow upon that unit and you're gonna roast. God of heaven can send climate change, and I'm not talking about the political topic of our day. And no structure, no man-made instrument will be able to stay his hand. God is the God in whose hand my breath is. God is the God in whose hand the temperature of the air inside of my house is. I can reverently say I thank the Lord, and I do, for air conditioning units that work. I thank the Lord for power plants that are still online that supply the electricity for my air conditioning unit to work. I thank the Lord that I have enough money in the bank that I can pay my bill, that the power company doesn't turn off my power, even when there's power available to other people. I thank God for all of this because I am a recipient of good things from His hand in all. of this. And again, this should breed in us a humility rather than an arrogance. It's this day, it's our daily bread. And that brings us to the last word then, Bread, I think the commentators are correct here, stands for us, our daily food, but it touches all of the necessities of life. It's just the most basic necessity of life. We've read already though this morning, have we not, man doesn't live by those basic necessities alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. but bread. God, let us understand, can bless a little. Think about Daniel and his companions as those dainties and meats were brought to them in the service of Nebuchadnezzar. And when it crossed a line into their being identified with idolatry rather than with the true God, they refused those. And their countenance, the scripture says, was more healthy and robust than the countenance of their companions that ate those dainties as they subsisted on pulse. Let us understand, as the request brings us to pray merely here for bread, is that God knows what is best. God in his wisdom may have an understanding of ourselves that we do not, and he may know whether we're prepared to take much or little from his hand, and as we perhaps even in receiving little can understand that grace may be appreciated when we have little. As one phrased it, if we have little confidence in the cupboard, We have much confidence in the promise. Having thought of that, I didn't take time to look it up. I actually forgot to look it up in jotting down the quote, but we use the word cupboard. I don't know we could pronounce that with Boston accent or with a Louisiana accent or everything in between. But if you read it, it's cup board. That in itself, if you just think about the history of the language, people had a cup board. Now you go down to Lowe's and you look through all of the different kitchen cabinets and you want to know what kind of stain you want, whether you want the self-closing doors or a cup board, a place to set your cup. Our wealth is great indeed, but much grace can be appreciated when we have but little. and perhaps even having but little, perhaps just having bread, it may be that it keeps us from many temptations, and it reminds us of the dangers of having much. Scripture says godliness with contentment is great gain. You know, the Scripture doesn't say that money is the root of all kinds of evil. Scripture says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And so as we come, we see this model prayer that is to guide us in our communications with heaven. We said something last week about prayer even reflecting our view of the universe, our worldview, our take on reality. Well, our take on reality should be of such a nature that this petition that focuses upon us in particular allows us to have everything else in the right perspective. Give. I'm a recipient. Us. Others have needs as well. This day, the immediate tangible need and bread, not necessarily dainties and fancy things, just sustenance. Why? Just that I might go forth and be a vessel for your glory. Godliness with contentment, we read, is great gain. You think about those who lack godliness, and they lack contentment, and yet they possess great wealth. Well, what does the book of Ecclesiastes tell us about that? There's no gain in that. It's chasing after the wind. It's trying to catch the breeze between your fingers. There's no reality there. There's no eternal worth there. But if I can, from whatever position, whether wealth or poverty, If I can be used, if I can be a part of this history in which God is working all things together for my good and for His glory, be content, even with just this day's bread, there is great gain. As we look then, I say, what is the substance of this petition? We go through the words that we read, simple words. It teaches us something of moderation. It teaches us something of trust. It teaches us much of total dependence. It teaches us much of humility. It even would teach us, if we think it through, of the good and the necessity of labor. Because even in laboring, as Scripture elsewhere instructs us, Paul told the Thessalonians pretty bluntly, if any would not work, neither should he eat. That was the prophecy buff. He was sitting home waiting on the rapture and then coming to your house for dinner every night. And Paul said, a couple of nights of that and you need to talk to the fellow. But labor as well is part of this, but then even generosity, as the prayer and the request looks out to others. This, I say, is the substance of the petition. So what place does it occupy in the prayer? It puts us and our lives in perspective. What's the substance of the prayer? These things we've mentioned, but quickly as we close, with what spirit, I ask you? With what spirit do we ask? Well, that brings us to the context of the whole prayer. We ask with confidence, because we're asking our Father, which art in heaven. Our Lord says in a very precious portion of Scripture, and particularly for any that have been blessed to have children, which of you, if your son or your daughter comes to you and asks bread, would you give them a stone? Of course, he follows on how much more your Heavenly Father give the Spirit to those that ask. He takes even that mindset in a spiritual direction. But he touches upon our very hearts, the natural affections that sadly we read in Scripture can themselves be lost and corrupted in days of apostasy and reprobation. But which of you If your child comes and asks bread, would you give him a stone? How much more can we then, I say with confidence, ask a heavenly Father? Give us this day our daily bread. If we have a heart in trusting Him, even with food and raiment only, to be content. What confidence then we have in looking to this God who's loved us, given himself for us. He will give us the needs we have today. Let us close again with those words of Agur. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. Let us rather be as Job, say the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Give us this day our daily bread. May God add his own blessing to these thoughts today from his word. Let's bow our heads together. Our Heavenly Father, we are mindful today that it is to a Father in heaven we ask. We have known abundance in this land. We enjoy it still. Lord, we do not deny and would not just mindlessly cast off the good things. There is no designated vow of poverty that you have put in Scripture for your people to follow in order to walk with you. Lord, what we need are the right hearts, whether in prosperity or need, to have a tender and a humble heart to the God of heaven. And so we ask for such hearts as we pray give us this day our daily bread. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.