Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
This morning we continue in the portion of the Sermon on the Mount, commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer. Some would say it is better called The Disciple’s Prayer, and really, I’m good with that too. What we name it, is less important to me than the content that is in it.
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’] (Matthew 6:9–13 LSB)
The more I study the text of this prayer, the more amazed I become over the weight of each word our Lord said. I have become overwhelmed in the richness of this masterpiece. And so I am approaching these verses with almost a sense of fear over the reverence that I must use in handling these words.
This morning we have such a simple phrase: "Give us this day our daily bread.” This phrase is so simple in words, but the implications of its meaning as we dig deep into them should leave you wanting to lift your hands to God in worship over His love for you and His power. If we understand what we mean when we pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ and how little we truly trust the King of the Universe for our needs, despite his power, we should repent for our lack of faith in Him.
You may say, ‘I get it; God somehow provides for all I have and need.’ But friends, that’s just surface-level faith. When you begin to consider the level of provision God has placed in our world - the way He created the earth to sustain us, how he puts together the seasons, the weather systems, and the blessings of his creation naturally. Then you consider the blessings He provides for us supernaturally. Then on top of all of that, how He calls His people and uses the saints to supply the needs of many, these seven words in this prayer carry with them an enormity of theological weight.
Do you remember when you were a kid, and you would ask for things - like maybe going to camp, or a new baseball glove - and your parents would provide that for you? Like most American kids, we didn’t give it a second thought. Nor did most of us give any idea to how the electric bill got paid, or how the food on the dinner table got there.
However, a time came when we became adults and parents ourselves, and we discovered the realities of how these things came to be for us as children. Some of us realized that our parents labored for everything we received as children, and suddenly, we saw our parents and upbringing in a whole new light, and with a whole new appreciation.
Now you ask yourself, "There are many starving people in the world, why doesn’t God feed them?" There’s a false narrative by globalists that tell us that the world is running out of resources. Our world is overpopulated, and the earth cannot sustain human life. This myth is fueled by globalists at the WEF and Bill Gates, who want to reduce the world population to 500 million people.
The fact of the matter is the entire population of the earth can live in an area the size of Texas, and there are more than enough resources to provide plenty for humanity. The problem is corrupt governments and leaders, not space for farming. As one scientist said, the world has overpopulated cities, not overcrowded countries. In fact, according to 2021 census data, every continent (except Africa) expects to see a decline in population over the next 100 years, not growth.
Moreover, there is plenty of acreage and room for agriculture and farming to feed the entire world’s population. According to the organization, “Food First,” Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world’s food supply. Even though the global population more than doubled between 1961 and 2013, the world produces around 50 percent more food for each of us today—of which we now waste about a third. Even after diverting roughly half of the world’s grain and most soy protein to animal feed and non-food uses, the world still produces enough to provide every human being with nearly 2,900 calories daily. Our global calorie supply is ample. (https://archive.foodfirst.org/publication/world-hunger-ten-myths/)
Take America, for example. The United States is a major player in the global trade of agricultural products. In 2021, exports of agricultural products were worth some 172 billion U.S. dollars. The major crop of the US is Corn, yet 40% of all corn harvested goes to produce ethanol for cars.
According to the US Government, on average, farm sizes in the U.S. are around 445 acres in size, and in total, there are about 89 5 million acres of farmland across the country. Altogether the real estate value of farming land in the U.S. amounted to around 2.9 trillion U.S. dollars. n 2021, exports of agricultural products were worth some 172 billion U.S. dollars. (https://www.statista.com/topics/1126/us-agriculture/#topicOverview).
?Then God said, “Behold, I have given to you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has the fruit of the tree yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that creeps on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. (Genesis 1:29–30 LSB)
According to the Huffington Post, “The world already produces more than 1 ½ times enough food to feed everyone on the planet. That's enough to feed 10 billion people, the population peak we expect by 2050.” Yet consider these statistics from World Vision:
Nearly 50 million people in 45 countries face starvation.
Hunger increased in all regions of the world. Asia has the largest number of hungry people, but Africa has the highest percentage of its population.
3 billion people (40% of the world’s population) could not afford healthy diets in 2020.
(https://www.wvi.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/HungerFacts-2022.pdf)
In our travels to Guinea-Bissau, we see the effects of starvation and malnutrition. Let me repeat this before we consider these words in Jesus’ prayer, the cause of hunger is a leadership issue - a sin issue, not a food supply issue. When God made the planet, he created the earth for man, made in His own image, to live in abundance. He’s not up in heaven now, scratching His head, saying, “I didn’t know there would be this many.”
So now, as we come into this section, we come to the first petition of God’s provision for man. The first part of the prayer focused on God and now we focus on man. But understand this; both sections give the glory to God. God’s holiness and glory is the supreme issue here, and when we have the proper perspective on the nature and character of God will understand that in His majesty, he also supplies for all of our needs.
So with the right perspective on God’s provision of the world and God’s ability to create a world that will provide for us, let us consider a few things pertaining to the petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Our Daily Bread is The Substance for Life
When I started working on this message, I started with the presumption that when Jesus referred to “Daily Bread” he surely was allegorizing the petition to something spiritual. While there are applications we can draw that way, I realized that when Jesus said, give us this day our daily bread, he meant just that. We should pray to God to provide for our daily needs.
My first inclination was to steer away from this interpretation because of the abuses by prosperity preachers and those who abuse the idea of God as the one who provides for our physical needs. And while some want to use these scriptures to defile the meaning for their gain. I want you to understand a key spiritual principle here: God cares for you and your physical needs as much as He cares for your spiritual needs.
One of the best examples of this is found just a few verses away:
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 “And who of you by being worried can add a single cubit to his life span? 28 “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! (Matthew 6:25–30 LSB)
"What does daily bread mean? Everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these." (Martin Luther, 1529; Credit: Sermon Central)
God cared for their physical needs when the Israelites were in the desert heading to the Promised Land. He sent to them manna, a type of bread, and He sent it to them daily. Have you ever stopped to think about everything God has provided for us to eat? In our American thinking, we hold ourselves as the provider, we almost think we don’t even need God’s provision, but everything that goes into our mouths comes from God. That is why we should stop and bless the food provided.
Now when it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” 17 But they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” 18 And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” (Matthew 14:15–18 LSB)
Which brings me to my second point:
God is the Source of Our Daily Bread
God has given us everything good to enjoy. Praying for God to give us our daily bread is not simply the prayer of a beggar who doesn’t know where to find a meal. It is a pray that honor’s God and acknowledges God as the One who sustains us will all we have. We are saying to God, “Without You as Provider, I have nothing at all. I glorify your name in heaven as the source.”
Trust in Yahweh and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in Yahweh; And He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:3–4 LSB)
And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (2 Corinthians 9:8 LSB)
Not that I speak from want, for I learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in abundance; in any and all things I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. ?19 And my God will fulfill all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:11–12, 19 LSB)
Thus says Yahweh, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from Yahweh. (Jeremiah 17:5 LSB)
This is where the rebellious world turns away from God and finds an increase in suffering. This is graphically illustrated in 1 Kings 16. It is tragic time in Israel’s history.
In Deuteronomy 28:3, among others, God promises abundance to Israel, including in their farming, when they follow after Him and stay close to Him. But Israel rebells and follows after pagan idols. This reached a crtitical point during the reign of the wicked king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who worshipped Baal and bring Baal worship to Israel.
And Ahab the son of Omri did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh more than all who were before him. (1 Kings 16:30 LSB)
So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. (1 Kings 16:32 LSB)
What happens to the land? It dries up; famine comes to the land. God provides for Elijah by sending the Ravens to feed him. He provides for the widow through a miracle because of her faith. But the land is without rain until Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel.
The implications here are two-fold. First, the wickedness and corruption of man and our rebellion against God is the source of hunger in the world. It is not an issue of supply or too many people. Wicked leaders like Ahab bring a curse upon the land instead of a bounty.
Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear Him, On those who wait for His lovingkindness, (Psalm 33:18 LSB)
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who inquire of Yahweh shall not be in want of any good thing. (Psalm 34:10 LSB)
God makes care for our physical needs. He is concerned with the very basics of life, just as a father cares for his own children and sometimes that even comes through the blessings of other saints, friends.
Our Daily Bread is Through the Saints
If God has given to you an abundance, it is because He is equipping you to help others. God cares for His people through His people.
and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? (James 2:16 LSB)
It is shown that nations that have been under the influence of the gospel and have a high respect for biblical teaching have a lower level of hunger and deprivation. I think the core of this is a high value of man, who is understood to be created in God’s image.
America is founded on Christian principles, and it is Christianity that gives us our values and a high view of humanity that lends to the Bill of Rights. Our humanism - a high view of humans apart from God - is leading us down a path of destruction. We are in the midst of a cultural revolution that will bring about our cultural destruction if we don’t turn around and repent.
Approximately one-third of the entire population of the United States (110 million people) currently has a sexually transmitted disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the entire industrialized world.
An astounding 30 percent of all Internet traffic now goes to adult websites.
It has been estimated that 89 percent of all pornography is produced in the United States.
Approximately one out of every three children in the United States lives in a home without a father.
The number of American babies killed by abortion each year is roughly equal to the number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars the United States has ever been involved in combined.
In Canada, the leading cause of death is assisted suicide.
Over 25% of all U.S. adults have no religious affiliation whatsoever. In 1972, only 7 percent of all U.S. adults had no religious affiliation.
One of the stunning developments that has gone largely unnoticed in the secular world is the massive movement away from faith in God and the Bible. Today the United States is no longer a nation that contains most people who believe in and follow Jesus Christ. After decades of secular humanism in our colleges and universities, the resulting graduates, who now permeate American society, no longer have the Christian faith of our forefathers.
The History of the United States, Proves That A Moral People Was The Goal of the Founders Notice the specific language of the opening text from the Declaration of Independence:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
We see the events happening all around Bill Koenig, in his book, Eye to Eye, outlines exactly how major disasters in our country correlated directly with us turning our back on Israel and forcing them to abandon the land God gave them to the Palestinians. We are leading the way in immorality, abuse of children, trafficking of children, pornography, and more. Will God continue to withhold judgment? I think not, but we also know that God will provide for those who trust Him. Will you do that today, turn from the idolatry in your life, and say, “God, you are the supplier of my daily bread, all that I have and need.”
?Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. (John 6:32–35 LSB)
