[0:00] And so, you know, we're in a series of daily things, and probably a couple more this week, but looking at what does God daily provide for us, what are the things that we can expect from God day by day by day, and what are the things that God expects of us by day.
[0:22] And so, we can read in the famous verse of Matthew chapter 6, verse 11, give us today our daily bread.
[0:34] So, he once asked Dr. Johnson, or accused him of caring too much for his stomach. And he replied, those who ignore the needs of their stomach are soon in no condition to care for anything else.
[0:49] That's right there. And let me just remind you, the Lord's Prayer, you know it so well, we pray it so often. Our Father who is in heaven, and so remember that without that relationship with God, it's impossible to pray.
[1:06] We need that relationship with God, our Father in heaven. And then, we have our priorities, and our concerns, as God's children. What are our priorities? What are the things that we're concerned about, as God's children?
[1:21] We need to say that God's name will be hallowed, that his kingdom will come, and that his will will be done. And that's our first concern, as the people of God. What are we most about in this church? We are most about the glory of God. And tonight, we see our needs. So, there are three needs. We're only going to look at the first one.
[1:42] But we need God's provision for this life. And then, we need God's pardon for our sins. And then, we need God's protection from the evil one.
[1:54] And so, give us today, our daily bread. It's that first of our needs, you know, God's provision for this life. Lord, keep us, keep giving to us, our bread. Some people think it's really unspiritual to pray of your bread.
[2:12] Jesus has taught us, isn't he, to be concerned with God's glory, and to be taken up with God's kingdom. To be really concerned that God's will is being done on earth as it is in heaven.
[2:27] But now, he tells us to pray of our daily bread. And some people, throughout history, have been so convinced that this doesn't fit, they've spiritualised it. It must be, they think, that Jesus is speaking of the Eucharist, or the Mass.
[2:42] Or maybe, he's speaking about the Bible. The bread of life, the scriptures. But when Jesus says bread, he means bread. When you pray, ask God to give you bread for your belly.
[3:00] It's fixed, isn't it? How can you, how can you go today? How can you be part of God's kingdom? How can you do God's will on earth? Let's go bread and say. As the psalmist says, often does he, dead men don't praise God.
[3:17] In the grave, who will give you thanks? And if you and I are to live, and pray, and work for God's glory here on earth, as it is in heaven, then we're going to need whatever is necessary to keep God and soul together.
[3:32] You see, I mean, to connect, how it beautifully fits together. It's interesting, it's that angels don't need a square wheel to do God's will.
[3:43] But we do. So don't spiritualise this word away. It's a request that God will provide for our day-to-day needs, so that you and I can live for his glory.
[3:54] It's embedded in the Lord's will. And it includes, doesn't it, food and clothing and shelter. It includes a job.
[4:05] And many other things. And when you pray, Jesus says, pray for these things. Pray to God, for God, to give you what you need. And the implications of this, I will look outside.
[4:19] The implications, firstly, for life in general. And then particularly the implications for the lifestyle of a Christian. So implications of life in general, right? We live, don't we, in a world city.
[4:34] I love it. I hope you do. And when you live in a city, you are so many steps removed from things as they really are.
[4:47] There are Christians that go on and on and on about being in the city and living in the city. And there's a kind of impression, I think, given in lots of Christian books today, that the city is where it's at.
[5:03] But in many ways, nothing can be further than the truth. In the city, where does milk come from? Where do you get milk from?
[5:16] Little. Yeah, so you get milk from. When you think of milk, isn't it? You don't think of cows munching away in the manna. When you think of milk, you think of the supermarket.
[5:27] Where so many steps removed, aren't we, from the real world of the city. So you think of bread comes from, you know what? And according to Jesus, it is God what's food on our tables.
[5:40] And that is why he teaches us to pray like this. Granted, God does so through beans, doesn't he? He does so through the laws of nature. But what are the laws of nature?
[5:52] Seatime and harvest and so on. What are the laws of nature? They are simply God's ways of doing things. That's all. The fact that we call them laws of nature is just because God wills it so.
[6:07] That's all the Bible says. He appalls all things by the word of his power. And so remember that tomorrow morning when you've got milk in your conflicts.
[6:20] Because behind that world of conflicts is the power of the faithfulness of God. You wouldn't live in otherwise. The next time for you are going to continue to go home tonight.
[6:32] Behind that cover is the God who causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And the God who causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust.
[6:42] And we need, as Christians, to get this perspective of life. We have problems with the reality of God. Why do we have them?
[6:54] Because we live in an age, don't we, that assumes that nature itself is self-sustaining. We look at secondary causes, don't we? But we're not the first stage to do that.
[7:07] And there's something new about that. The human race has always been making that mistake. And so you go back to that wonderful passage that I read in Deuteronomy 8.
[7:19] To that passage where the people were forgetting God. And they were forgetting God because they were looking at secondary sources. So in Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 17 and 18.
[7:31] Do you see what it says? Moses says, beware that you say in your heart. My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this month.
[7:44] And you shall remember the Lord your God. For it is he who gives you power to get that wealth. Don't say it's in my power. Don't say it's by my might. That God has given me all this.
[7:56] It's not my earning ability. It's not my special skills. It's not my talent or my fitness or my health. No, no. If you are healthy tonight, thank God. Because it is God who is giving me that health.
[8:09] And if you have any talent at all and any skill and any ability, then you can be made in his image. And you're not a rule. You're not an animal.
[8:23] You are made in his image. And you reflect the image of God that creates your Lord, his creativity. Don't say it's by my power.
[8:35] The fact that God that he made you. He gives you the power to get wealth if you got wealth. It's God, you see, from whom we get our daily bread. He is the source and supplier of all our needs.
[8:45] And granted, he uses second recourse as he uses our talents and our abilities. The paycheck we get. But do remember this, that every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, says James.
[9:02] The Father of lights, with whom there's no variation, no shadow to him. It's a lovely description of God, isn't it? This is God, our Father in heaven. Jesus calls him the Father of lights.
[9:17] No, you fly over a city at night. And you see those hundreds and thousands of pinpricks of light.
[9:28] And all those homes and the offices and the street lamps and the stadiums. And you see this kind of vast array of light.
[9:41] They all come from one power source. One common source. Each of them have one parent power. So there's a power plant. And all of those lights are shut off.
[9:55] And the whole town is plunged into darkness, isn't it? And James says the world is light. Life is like that. God is the Father of lights, different lights.
[10:08] Intellectual lights. Some people are brilliant, aren't they? Where did that come from? The gift of God. All the lights that are in this world. All the lights that are in this world. All those little pinpricks of light. God is the Father of all.
[10:19] We get that perspective on life. And we need to understand that. Paul says in Colossians that all things hold together in him.
[10:31] Do you understand that too? Is that your understanding of life? That your life is day by day, moment by moment, in the hands of God?
[10:44] He keeps your heart beating. He holds the world together moment by moment. He gives you seed time for harvest and food. In the shops it is because of his mercy that you are not consumed.
[11:01] If God would withdraw his support momentarily, if you were to take his hand off this world just for a split second, then he could. He could have a good conscience for someone. Not at the end of all things. Do you have a sad last night?
[11:13] That you, you exist by the good pleasure of God. That's how we live, isn't it? We don't like to think like that. I have John Edwards.
[11:25] Not the triple jumper. The American theologian. He's a very famous preacher and philosopher. Probably the greatest man in America has ever had. In the 18th century, he's a great, great man.
[11:38] And he preached his most famous sermon in the Great Awakening. And it was the title of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
[11:50] This text was through Deuteronomy, chapter 25. Their foot shall slide in time. It's a remarkable sermon you can read today.
[12:02] There were 500 people who became Christians but converted as a result of that sermon that day. And as he preached, apparently, according to Ironman's accounts, people were holding onto the pillars in the church.
[12:15] They were holding onto their fears. And there were some people that ran out of the graveyard and they were holding onto the trees. There was such a sense, as John Edwards preached, that people are very stiff into eternity.
[12:29] How do you explain that? You say, oh, it's mass ischemia. It's emotionism. Well, you couldn't think of anything about more unemotional preacher than John Edwards.
[12:42] He was short-sighted. He stood in the pulpit and he read his notes. And as he read his notes, so great was the impacting power of the ministry in that meeting.
[12:57] That people just realised the truth of what I'm trying to say to you. I wish I could preach to you the same effect. You've got homes under you.
[13:08] And you've got jobs. And you've got your family. And you've got money. You've got so much. But do you realise that if God were ever to withdraw his support, you'd have nothing.
[13:24] Do you realise that sometimes? If God was to so much as snap his fingers, that would be it. You exist by God's pleasure.
[13:40] And your life is in his hands. And so I urge you tonight to seek God while you may be found and to call upon him while he's near because it's of his mercy that you're still alive.
[13:57] And today he's given you your daily bread. And today he gives you everything that you need to do. Body and soul together. And so if you ever ask to stop yourself and ask yourself, why am I alive?
[14:09] Why am I alive? What am I doing here? And the answer to the Bible says is because God is merciful to you. Because God doesn't want you to get in the zil.
[14:24] Because God doesn't want you to perish. And that's why you're alive tonight. He's given you, if I can say it, he's given you space for repentance.
[14:37] He's given you space and time and breath in your body so that you tonight can call upon him. That's how we wish you. That you can call upon him for forgiveness and deliverance.
[14:54] In 2 Peter, people were asking a question that we asked today. Where is God anyway? Where is he? Where is this God?
[15:08] In 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 4, they said, where's the promise of his coming? Why is he so slow? You say you believe in God, but where is he?
[15:18] Forever since the Father's last, all things are continuing as they were. If you're preaching, life goes on and on and on and on. Where is God? Nothing ever happens.
[15:29] Nothing happens to me. Nothing happens to others. In 2 Timothy 3, he says, the Lord has not spoken for sinners. There's some concern.
[15:40] So let's spread his patience towards you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's why you're allowed to not. That's why Jesus Christ hasn't come back.
[15:54] That's why God is one thing to do. He's patient on suffering, and he doesn't desire that any should perish, that you might have died. The count of God is to greet the majestic Lord, the God who is worshipped and adored by any of the Lord's kingdom of God, whose will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[16:12] The God who rules the universe, why should he be concerned about my life? But he is. That's how my son says, doesn't he? I'm poor, and I'm need, and yet the Lord gives upon me.
[16:30] It's something very, very important to our life in general. It's something to say about life as a Christian. Because only a Christian can pray this prayer through.
[16:44] I hear not only a Christian, you can pray through the Lord's Prayer. Why else would you want to pray that God's name might be hallowed, and that his kingdom would come, and that his will would be done?
[17:01] Why else would you put God's will and God's name in God's kingdom before your daily bread? Except for Christ. Remember John, Jesus says to his disciples, they're worried about him, and John, Jesus speaks to the woman at the well about her life, and the need for her soul, and the disciples catch up with him, and they say, we've got nothing to eat, and you've got nothing to eat all day.
[17:32] And Jesus says, that I've got food to eat that you know nothing of. My food is to do the will of him who has sent me. That's why I need drink. There's something more important than eating and drinking, and it's in God's will.
[17:47] I don't really christianism like that. And so sadly, there are many people out there, and their religion is summed up just by this, giving me today this daily bread.
[17:59] And they've got no sympathy, they've got no interest in any of the other petitions in this prayer. They've got no concern for God's glory, and they've got no interest in his kingdom, and they've got no desire to do his will, and they've got no sense of the need to be forgiven, and they've got no sense of their danger, and their need to be delivered from evil, but they pray, you must today have any bread.
[18:25] This phrase is Christian. I don't need a Christian, I don't need a prayer this phrase. And if we pray like this, we have to accept one of the sisters, we have to live like this.
[18:40] We have to live, don't we, a daily time, daily bread. Give us today what we need. Keep giving to us our bread to live in daily conscious dependence upon God.
[19:00] And that means a simple lifestyle for them, doesn't it? doesn't say give us day by day our daily donuts, it doesn't say that. It doesn't say it says give us our necessities, not niceties.
[19:20] There's no prosperity across the earth, none of all. Give us some things which are necessary to live like, to glorify you. George, I love you now.
[19:32] Start with all those two of the totes. And he talks about this, and he says we live from hand to mouth, God's hand to our mouth.
[19:45] It's great, isn't it? We live from hand to mouth, God's hand to our mouth, in daily dependence upon us, and our needs. That doesn't mean you're not to think ahead, you're not to rely for necessities in life, you know, finally the Bible tells you to do that.
[20:00] You're to make provision. But you're not to be so wrapped up in these things as to forget God. We are to be wrapped up in God and God things. We live a day at a time.
[20:13] And some people never do that today. I think in some ways it's the Christian who can really only live today.
[20:25] People, we live in a city don't we, where people are so regretful of the past, and yet they're so fearful of the future. But the Christian, what do we know tonight?
[20:36] We know that the past is forgotten and forgiven. A present joy is given. And there's a future grace that is promised. Glory is crowning heaven.
[20:49] The past is taken care of, and so is our future. and so we can get on with living today. Day by day.
[21:01] Not worrying, not anxiously, but daily depending on the goodness of God. God. And so Christ saved, gently, and reverently, so what if I lose my job?
[21:19] So what if my health declines? Because God doesn't go away. He's still there. And God is the source, and God is the supplier.
[21:31] And those other things, they are the secondary causes, they are only the means of his supply and his generosity. Take no thought of tomorrow, Jesus says.
[21:44] Don't be anxious about these things. So I asked John Wesley, when he read this, how would he live tomorrow if it were the last day he could spend on earth?
[21:56] And he said, just as I live today. Just as usual. So I'll go to the Christ out too.
[22:13] And you see this is a social application. I've got to hear you see this until this week. It's a social application as well as a personal application. So when you pray, our Father in heaven, you see we're praying together, aren't we?
[22:27] Our Father in heaven, and then you come to give us this day our daily bread. There's a corporate dimension to this.
[22:41] So when you pray this prayer, you're not just praying for yourself, Jesus said, give us our daily bread. So maybe tonight you know someone who's in real need. And you get down to praying, you remember that person that if God has blessed you with more than you need, you're going to put your hand in your pocket and you're going to do something to relieve that need.
[23:03] Because that's why God blessed us. Why does God bless us with more than we need? It's not to reward us, such a mistake we often make. No, God gives us more than we need. It's a responsibility, it's a stewardship, it's a trust from God.
[23:17] And so the church is God's agent for his people. And so as we pray this prayer, we think of our brothers and sisters and think of where is their need that I can help?
[23:29] To be friends to the strangers, to the sick, to the hungry, to care for the homeless, to be sheltered for those in need. to be and to be happy. But we have to say, you must spiritualize these words for them.
[23:44] But I won't finish by saying you must isolate them either. Because give us today our daily prayers and one of the sex petitions. And it's the only one to do with our bodily and physical needs.
[24:00] Instead, remind us that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has to do with this life as well as the life to come. You shouldn't be embarrassed about enjoying this life.
[24:13] Let me read to 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 8. Timothy 4 and verse 8. Where it says this, treat yourself of godliness while the treatings of some part of godliness is of value in every way.
[24:34] Godliness is of value in every way. It holds promise for the present life and for life to come. And so you should be into going to enjoy life.
[24:47] God gives us things richly to enjoy, but there's more to people in existence than life in this world. And so Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the birth of God.
[25:05] And you and I are creatures whom God has put eternity in our hearts, and we are made for eternity. And when you look at this petition in the Lord's Prayer, it brings that point home very, very powerful.
[25:19] Because what use is bread if you've got civil conscience? And what use is bread if you're under the wrath of the name of God? God, and what use is if you get everything in this world, everything in this world, and this world's got to offer you, that you end up in a change where God is not?
[25:40] Well, it's right, it's in Tucket that all. What I'm saying to you is that your physical needs are important, but the salvation of your soul matters much, much more.
[25:55] What advantage is it to be fed and clothed now if you're totally and utterly unprepared for the world to come? There's a verse in Psalm 106, when you treat that believe.
[26:11] Let me finish it. It's a verse which I discovered recently, and it's a shocking verse. It's on Psalm 106, verse 15.
[26:26] And the Psalm, Psalm 106, is rehearsing how God has dealt with his people in the Exodus. And he reminds them because they worship God, he reminds them that in the wilderness, and they lusted after things, they wanted things, but not God.
[26:47] They did the dirty on God who brought them out and God had been so good to them, he'd been so kind to them, and they forgot it all. And they were in the wilderness with so many tokens of his goodness, so many reminders of his faithfulness, so they began to kind of want other things.
[27:05] And the Psalm 106, tells us in verse 15, he gave them what they asked. He gave them what they asked. Terrifyingly, God often does give you the desire of your heart.
[27:23] But then look what happens in verse 15. He gave them what they asked, and he sent a waste of disease among them. There are many of us that are rich in things, but destitute and poor spiritually, poor in sorrow.
[27:42] And we want our daily bread, and some rest are polite enough to say thank you for it, but how many of us want the God who sends it to us? And we want the gift, but we don't really want the God who gives it to us.
[27:57] And so all I want to say to you is we close the night to care. Be careful that God does answer your prayer, and that God may give you everything that you want in this life, and yet you might send the needless into your soul.
[28:14] What about your soul? What about the life to come for forgiveness and deliverance? Look to God for your daily bread. And look to him for salvation to look to him for deliverance to come to him in Jesus Christ so that your sins might be pure.
[28:35] So that you can enjoy good sweat and being with a pure conscience. I look to him for deliverance from loving you with such a group. Let's pray to that.