Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

The Lord's Prayer is our series on Sunday mornings. My name is René, another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. And as we begin, I want to just remind you, make sure you prepare some communion elements there at home. I've got mine already because at the end of the service today we're going to be partaking together.

Now as we start, I have a question for you. How are you feeling today? Are you feeling up? Are you feeling rested? Are you feeling ready to go and ramped up? Or do you feel a little weary and worn down? If you're anything like me, to be honest, you feel kind of exhausted. You know, my friend Kurt Harlow, who's also a pastor, was saying just this past Monday that he feels exhausted right now because of three things. And personally, I totally relate to these. So I want to relate them to you. I wonder if you can identify with the things that are making me and Kurt feel exhausted.

First is uncertainty. You know, I like things to not change. I like predictability. I like to know what I'm doing two or three days in advance. Two or three weeks in advance. I like a plan, right? Uncertainty is wearing me down. Second, conflict. I hate conflict. I want everybody to just get along. And then threats and temptations. I get so worn down if I feel like I'm always feeling threatened by things or always resisting some temptation. Now, look at this list. This is all of our lives these last four months or so, right? Uncertainty, I feel like every day things change. Almost every half day I get texts, news bulletins, what's open, what's not open. You can do this. You can't do that.

How about conflict? I don't know about you, but I feel like I've been managing conflict constantly. People emailing me upset about COVID, people upset about how the church is gathering or not gathering, people upset about all the chaos and injustice in our culture and how the church is or is not handling it. How about threats and temptations? Well, obviously the virus is a real threat right now. Job insecurity, financial insecurity, health insecurity is a super real threat right now. Economic loss is a threat. And experts say when we're under threat, we become vulnerable to our favorite temptations. We lapse back into our oldest and worst personal coping mechanisms, temptations, whatever your past overindulgence is.

For some, it's shopping and predictably online shopping has exploded. For others, the temptation is drinking and liquor sales have just skyrocketed by the double digits. For others, it's pornography. For others, it's anger and domestic violence and all these things have become much bigger problems since the virus crisis. So how do we handle these three things biblically? Well, in the next three lines of the Lord's Prayer, they cover these things right in a row. Uncertainty, how about give us today our daily bread? Conflict, which often leads to harsh words and anger and regrets. How about forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us? How about threats and temptations? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

This is why I say I cannot think of a portion of scripture I would rather be studying right now than the Lord's Prayer. And this morning we are at the halfway point. We are making the turn from the first half of the Lord's Prayer into these three phrases. Quick recap for you. First half of the Lord's Prayer is orientation, right? Before we plunge into asking God for stuff, we get oriented to our Father in heaven reminding us God is good. We say, "Hallowed be your name. God is holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I remember that God has a plan. You get oriented to this big picture before you start focusing really on yourself and your needs.

Then you get to the second half of the Lord's Prayer that we start today, which is about petition, asking God for help. Really, you could say that the first half is wow, the second half is help. But you got to start with the wow. You got to get oriented in the midst of all the uncertainty and conflict and threats and temptations. You got to remind yourself there is someone bigger than all of this. Wow. Then you get to help for those specific concerns starting this morning with the phrase, "Give us today our daily bread."

Now I want to address something right off the top. In case you're thinking, "Well, this prayer doesn't apply to me because I'm gluten free. I'm on a no-carb diet, so I'm not going to pray for bread." Well, listen, from ancient times, this prayer was understood to mean much more than just, "Lord, give me some sourdough. God, may I please have another baguette." Daily bread has always been seen as a metaphor for any daily necessity. This has always been seen as sort of a poetic way to refer to that.

For example, 1529, Martin Luther wrote, "What does daily bread mean?" Well, he answered, "Everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, and about spouse, about children, about employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and other things like these." Does that make sense? In other words, paraphrasing him in a world of uncertainty, you are praying, "God, give me today whatever I will need today."

Now, of course, for the Jewish people hearing Jesus say this for the very first time, it had to remind them of when 1,400 years or so before Jesus, Moses led their ancestors through the desert and God provided fresh manna, which was a bread-like substance that was around them every morning like the dew, and they would gather it up to eat. And by the way, it was called manna because the Bible says the first day they came out of their tents and saw it, they said, "Manu," which is Hebrew for, "what is it?" And so that actually became its name. What is it? We don't know, but it tastes good. The Bible says it tasted something like honey on a coriander seed cracker. And I don't even know what coriander seed actually is, but that sounds super good to me.

But they got just enough to gather for that day. If they tried to store some up for the future, it would go bad. And this is why one day Moses said to them, "Always remember this moment because there will come a time when you will be a wealthy nation and other nations will actually buy food from you. But always remember what it felt like to rely on God day to day because really, no matter how wealthy you are, that is all you can ever truly do." Same applies to you and me. You know, we may feel like, "I've got stuff stored up. I'm going to be okay. I've invested wisely. I got my home value. At least if I own a home, I've got some savings if I don't." But truth be told, it could all disappear tomorrow, right? Now that's not likely, but after the first half of 2020, who's to say what's likely and what's not likely, right?

Ultimately, we can only live and rely upon God one day at a time. Now don't get me wrong. It's not wrong to plan for the future. In fact, the Bible strongly advises it, but don't put your ultimate hope in those plans. They could all change tomorrow as we've been learning this year. Put your hope in God's daily provision. And this concept is so comforting because these days it's so easy to look at the world and feel overwhelmed and ask, "How will I make it through this uncertain future?" You know how you're going to make it? One day at a time. That's how. And as I said, that's all really that you can ever do.

Here's what I'm getting at in this introduction before we plunge into this prayer. "Give us today our daily bread" is much more than a prayer request for bread. It describes an entire way of looking at life. And in this, I've been very influenced by Pastor Ray Pritchard's great work on this. He says, "This prayer suggests a lifestyle," what he calls daily bread living. A certain attitude, a certain way of looking at life he's convinced is what Jesus is teaching us in this prayer. And Ray Pritchard says there's four components to daily bread living, and each of these four comes from the text.

Now you can follow along with these in the notes, which you can download at tlc.org/notes. But it's very simple. These are four qualities that develop in your life. If this prayer, "Give us today our daily bread," becomes a reality for you deep down on a daily basis. First, gratitude for what God provides. And this concept comes from the very first word, "Give." Now that's a recognition that every single thing I have is really given to me by God. It's a gift from God. Now you might say, "But wait a minute, I've worked for every single thing that I've got." Look at this. Moses tells the Israelites when they're about to enter the promised land, "When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you." Now they could have said, "Well, wait a second, we've had to fight for every single acre." But ultimately, even the opportunity to do that is a gift from God.

Like David said, after the amazing generous temple offering, "But who am I? And who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you. And we've given you only what comes from your hand." Ultimately, everything comes from God. Every slice of daily bread and every dollar I have, every shirt I wear, every thought I think, because the brain you use, the strength you have, every heartbeat, everything comes from God. The beauty around you. Have you ever stopped to think, "Why do I even notice beauty?" God could have given you eyes that only see black and white as apparently some creatures on earth have. God could have designed your taste palate so that you're very satisfied with like hamster pellets or something. But he didn't do that. He created a whole world of beauty.

And it's yours to enjoy like these amazing hiking trails around here, or savoring the juice when you bite into a ripe nectarine, or losing your breath in the ice-cold ocean, or watching your kids, or in my case, your grandkids play, or listening to beautiful worship music. All these things are gifts from Almighty God. And when we see that, when we direct our attention to that reality, man, it changes us. I had the privilege of meeting one day Dr. Robert Emmons. He's the world's leading researcher on the effects of gratitude. He's a professor at UC Davis and UC Berkeley. His research shows people who keep gratitude journals, check this out, are 25% happier, sleep a half an hour more per night, exercise 33% more per week. Their blood pressure is on average 10% lower. They're more self-confident and more generous than those who do not. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Gratitude is just so good for you and me. Look at these comments from people who did keep some of Dr. Robert Emmons' gratitude journals. One person said, "Well, it helped me get out of the negative and remember that not all is lost." Another said, "I was reminded rather that there is still so much more to feel good about than to feel bad about." Another said, "It helped the negativity vanish if only for a brief moment." Wouldn't you love to experience that? Don't you feel like there's more than enough negativity in your life right now? These days it seems like we get a daily, hourly diet of it. A.W. Tozer once said, "A thankful heart cannot be cynical." And we need that because we live in a cynical age.

But if you give in to cynicism about everything, what happens is you stop trying. You give in to doubt and anger and despair. So what are you going to do about it? Well, the cure for cynicism is thankfulness, gratitude to God. But don't miss this. It needs to be very intentionally practiced. Gratitude doesn't grow accidentally. Neuroscientist Rick Hansen says, "Our minds are Velcro for negative info, but Teflon for positive." In other words, negative stuff, for some reason you remember it. Positive stuff, it just bounces right off. So you got to be very intentional about realizing God gives you the things you get to experience every day. It's all a gift every single moment, every breath.

In fact, I want to challenge you. Maybe you're eating breakfast right now. Look at your daily bread or your daily oatmeal or daily yogurt or at lunch, your daily salad or whatever it is you love to eat and say, "This is a gift from the hand of God in answer to my prayer right here." And we're reminded of that when we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Then the second component to the daily bread mindset, I get confidence that God will provide. When I pray this prayer regularly, I start seeing it answered and I'm grateful for it and I get confident that God will provide.

Look at these words, "Give us today our daily bread." You know, I discovered in my research that the word daily used here in the original Greek appears only twice in the whole Bible, both times in the Lord's Prayer here in Matthew and then when it's repeated in Luke. And scholars for a long time thought maybe Matthew invented this word, zero examples of this word outside the New Testament in any Greek literature until just a few years ago, researchers found this word in one other place, a parchment fragment of a grocery shopping list. A woman who was head of her household wrote down all the things that she or her servant needed to buy when they went to market. And next to some of the things on that list, they wrote this same Greek word. It apparently meant buy this item daily. You know, buy this one fresh.

In other words, some stuff you could buy in bulk and store, grain, dried meat, wine, but veggies, fruit, bread, buy fresh. That kind of deepens the meaning of this word, doesn't it? And it brings me back to the story of the man and remember they only got what they needed for that one day. And so praying this means praying something like, "Lord, give me fresh strength to get through this day, to do today's work, to raise my kids today and even to survive today. Give me what I need today."

You know, I often ask my mom, widowed twice at relatively early ages, severe financial hardships in her life, terrible diseases, and much more. I asked her, "How did you make it through all that?" And she would always say a version of this, "God gives you each day the grace you need for that day, but not always sooner." And I think Jesus really elaborates on this line from the Lord's Prayer with exactly this emphasis just a few verses later in the same chapter in Matthew 6, when he says, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." What's he getting at? Well, look at how Eugene Peterson paraphrases that verse. "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now." Man, just that first phrase, that's a challenge for us in a distracted world.

We're constantly being buzzed and dinged by all kinds of notifications. "Give your entire attention to what God is doing in the world right now, and don't get so worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when, when the time comes." I think that's the reason for the double emphasis in this prayer. Give us today our daily to remind you and me we can be confident God is going to give you whatever you need, whenever you need it, each new day.

And then the third component of daily bread living, contentment with how God provides. Contentment with however God chooses to answer that prayer. Somebody said, "It's give us today our daily bread, not give us today our daily cake." In other words, we pray for our needs, not our greed, right? Now, why is this important? I'll never forget going camping one weekend when the kids were little. Jonathan, our oldest son, was maybe seven years old. And very early one morning, he and his little buddy had gotten up, and Lori and I were still slowly drowsily waking up inside the tent. And we hear him whisper through the open flap, "Mom, dad, mom, mom, dad, mom, mom, dad, mom, dad, what, what is it? We, Roger, and I just want one thing, and we just want one thing. What, what? Just one little thing, and then we'll leave you alone. What is it? What do you want? Matches."

And I looked outside and he and his buddy had piled up a bunch of pine cones like grenades with pine needles stuck inside like fuses to bombs. And their plan was with the matches, they were sure they were going to get an answer to their request from us is to light them all on fire and throw them into the forest as they played war. We said no. You know, what a disaster it would have been if his request had been answered the way he wanted it to be answered. But he wasn't that unusual. Little kids often ask for things they think would be great. But really we as their parents know they're not, right? I mean, what a disaster if every seven-year-old got everything they wanted, right? Or every 15-year-old, or every 50-year-old.

You might remember there was an old 50s TV show, Father Knows Best. But in human life, that's not always true, is it? Far from it. But when it comes to our Heavenly Father, he always knows best. As Tim Keller said, "God always gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows." Man, that's good. It's so good I'm going to repeat it. God always gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything that he knows. Now, this is not an easy truth. A couple of verses for you. Hebrews 5:7 says, "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears." It says, "He was heard because of his reverent submission." Now, wait just a second here. We know when this happened. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus pleaded for God the Father to take the cup he was about to drink, which was the agony of the cross. This says that prayer was heard. But he died. He had to drink that cup. He prayed for life and he got death. But Father knew best.

The crucifixion turns out to be, I would argue, the central event in human history. And Jesus Christ's prayer for life was heard. It was answered. A resurrection followed. Ever seen like God answers your fervent cries and petitions and tears for life with a death? You know, we are not in a faith where our faith's founders said, "Hey, you know what? If you'll only pray super hard, then you're going to get everything that you want." No, this was the exact life experience of the founder of our faith. He prayed for life and he got death. But you and I will also experience what he experienced next. Resurrection follows. God will always resurrect. God will always redeem every pain. God never wastes a hurt. This principle is all throughout the Bible.

The apostle Paul had some sort of painful physical ailment and he said three times, "I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me." But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." God gave him the grace that he needed for the moment. And he learned contentment with how God gives. Can you see how this is all adding up? Each component of daily bread living leads to the next. You start with gratitude, you get to confidence, you get to contentment. And then finally, the fourth component of daily bread living, generosity through which God provides. How does this happen? Well, watch this. Jesus told us to pray, "Give us today our daily bread." Not give me today the stuff I want or give me today my daily bread. That's a completely different prayer.

Every time you pray us and our, you're praying together with your brothers and sisters. In fact, try this. Next time you pray, give us today our daily bread. Think of what the us and the our means. If you're a regular member or a tender of Twin Lakes Church, just think specifically of what it means to our church body here at TLC. The people we as a church are in partnership with around the world that we share our daily bread with among others, us and our for us, means our brothers and sisters in Mexico and in Africa and in India and in Eastern Europe in the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz County. Like Ray Pritchard says, "This imparts a bigness, a vastness, a broadness to your prayers. It takes you out of the narrow focus of your own problems and it opens you up to a whole world of people all around you."

And this is exactly what the Bible means when it says in 2 Corinthians 9, "Now he who supplies seed of the sower and bread for food," in other words, "he who answers your prayer, give us today our daily bread, will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way," why? "So that you can be generous." In other words, why do you think God gives you that daily bread? One reason, so you can be generous with it.

You know, I'll never forget a friend who works for Second Harvest Food Bank here in Santa Cruz County told me that they were doing food distribution at a park in Watsonville one day and one little girl, she told me the little girl was maybe eight or nine years old, was getting a bag of bread for her family and they offered her some other things and she said, "No, just that bag of bread." Why? And here's what she said, "My mama told us to pray for daily bread last night because we have no more food at home and then today I came to the park and you are the answer to my prayer." What a blessing to be able to be the answer to somebody's prayer for this.

You know, Latasha Morrison talks about what we can do to be the bridge for racial reconciliation and she says, "One of the best things we can do to help communities of color is to help local food banks." Why? Well, in America, get this stat, a black person is 20 times more likely to grow up food insecure and food insecurity has been traced to poor academic performance and even brain development and so much more that's foundational for success later in life, literally our daily bread.

And along these lines, I just want to take this moment to say thank you for how you have answered this prayer this month for another very marginalized group. You might know that for many years we've been building relationships with four churches in the Navajo Nation out of the Arizona desert with our partner there, John Aldax, and the Navajo people, this has been underreported, have just been slammed by COVID-19. Much of their tribal eldership, their leadership has died because of it and there's very little infrastructure for a variety of reasons so those four churches reached out to us and asked for daily necessities that they just can't get right now. That includes diapers and hand sanitizer and other daily needs as we saw that the prayer for daily bread is a metaphor for any necessity.

Now I want to show you something but first I want to speak very candidly with all of you who are joining us right now. John Aldax tells me it's taken years before even the Christian Navajo people would trust us, majority culture white Americans, to help them because as a people they've experienced much trauma from years of promises broken and treaties that were not honored so frankly for them to turn to us and trust us and ask us is humbling and is healing beyond words and then for you to honor that trust is going to mean so much in building that bridge between brothers and sisters in Christ.

You know I was here at church Wednesday when the team loaded up the truck and the trailer there were literally thousands of items in boxes stacked to the ceiling and I asked John for his thoughts about all this. You know, I walked into the room, I had a trailer that was almost it was starting to fill up and then I walked into the room at Twin Lakes and saw what you guys had and I'm thinking I should have got a semi because it's I mean literally I am overwhelmed at the generosity and the love that is just being poured out upon the Navajo people. It's awesome I can't wait to get this down there and share it with them because we're not giving it out to the people directly we're giving it to the churches and then they can supply the needs of their communities and hopefully they'll win a good name in their community as well.

I've been going to the same few communities there for almost 21 years now and the biggest piece of feedback I get is kind of a surprise you came back because they don't expect it. They expect a lot of promises but not very much in the way of you know delivery so I've always tried to under promise and over deliver as much as possible. Talk is cheap with the Navajo. They say you know Missouri's a show me state the Navajo is a show me state on steroids I mean they've heard it all and they want to see some action. Things have changed for the positive but it's taken years of faithful service to them without any strings attached. So thank you so much church this is the sort of thing we want to keep on doing as a church as God enables us we can all be part of the answer to somebody else's prayer.

Lord give us today our daily bread. In fact, this single line from the Lord's Prayer give us today our daily bread it really opens you up to a whole new way of looking at life doesn't it. A whole new lifestyle daily bread living we get gratitude for what God provides. Confidence God will provide. Contentment with how God provides and generosity through which God provides. This is how to handle life's uncertainties. We rely on God's daily provision for whatever we need and it leads to these wonderful things. Wouldn't you love to have a life filled with more gratitude confidence contentment and generosity? Well praying daily God give me what I need today and then watching as that prayer is answered that's going to lead to these four things.

Here's the bottom line really praying this prayer praying God give us today our daily bread leads to daily bread living and daily bread living means believing God is good and will give you what you need when you need it how you need it so that you can share it. Well in just a moment we're going to celebrate the bread of life Jesus Christ as we receive communion but first let's thank him for how he provides for us let's thank him that he gives us what we need when we need it how we need it so that we can share it and then we're going to move into a time of celebrating his love for us evidenced on the cross through communion. So let's pray together Father in heaven we thank you so much for giving us exactly what we need when we need it how we need it so we can share it and God I know that many of us are feeling so insecure right now please help us learn to trust you each new day and to relax in that and God I pray that right now in these moments of communion that follow if there's anyone joining us on the live stream not sure they've ever committed their lives to your care they would do so in these moments they would say Lord I need you bread of life living water of Jesus Christ I believe and receive right now in Jesus name amen.