Give Us This Day | Learning to Trust God One Day at a Time - Matthew 6:11

Open it up to Matthew 6.

We are in verse 11 this morning.

Church, we have been in the Lord's Prayer for five weeks now.

And every week we have seen how much more kingdom-centered this prayer actually is, how much more God focused it is than the way most of us actually pray.

You know, hallowed be your name, hallowed be God's name, God's kingdom come, God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Our sovereign, all-powerful, faithful, unchanging, majestic, awesome God of heaven, who is also our Father.

We are his adopted children.

We have been praying for his name to be the most sacred name in us.

We have prayed that we would love his will more than our own.

We have prayed for eternity, for his kingdom, which has already begun to come to fullness when Jesus returns, which he is going to do.

For this whole world, this whole broken world to be made right.

Every crooked thing, every wrong thing, that God would make all things new.

And then Jesus says the next line.

Bread.

Groceries.

I mean, come on, that that's strange, right?

I mean, we were in the throne room of God, and now we're in the kitchen.

I mean, if I was writing this prayer, I would not have put that line there.

After your will be done, I'm gonna say something a bit more spiritual, right?

Make me holy, give me more faith, make me love the way I should.

And Jesus says, ask him for food.

Now, why would he do that?

Because he's not writing this prayer for angels.

He's writing it for people with real needs, physical ones, not just spiritual, people with bills to pay, people with a with a mouth full of teeth and no dental plan.

I mean, like a woman who's been ignoring a cavity since June.

I mean, it's not bad yet.

It only hurts when she drinks something cold.

So what does she do?

She stops drinking cold things.

And she's got the copay.

I mean, technically, she has the copay money.

But that money, it's also the power bill.

So she chews on the other side and she puts off the dentist's appointment.

She's fine, she's working, there's food in the house, but she's got physical needs.

See, he's writing for people like her.

And I know for some of you, some of you are hearing that, and and and it has nothing to do with your life.

I mean, you haven't thought about a copay in 20 years.

You haven't looked at any sort of price tag since the 90s.

Yes, the 90s.

I know it's revealing my age.

And you hear this line, give us today our daily bread, and you're thinking to yourself, well, you know what?

I've got plenty of food on my table.

This part of the prayer, it's not for me.

If you're thinking that, I want you to stay with me.

Because it's for you too.

Maybe more so.

See, Jesus put this line in here on purpose.

You know, right in the middle of glory and kingdom and eternity, he put this sentence about bread.

So what is bread?

I mean, what is Jesus actually telling us to ask for here?

I mean, it's not complicated.

Right?

Bread means bread.

Food.

And in that world, bread was was most of what you ate.

When someone said bread, they meant supper.

But it's wider than that.

It's wider than food.

See, bread is a way of saying everything a body needs to keep going.

You know, Martin Luther taught on this line, and he made a list, and his list is long.

He talked about how how bread in this prayer is about food, clothing, a house, work, money, decent weather, AC, good health.

He didn't have AC in there.

Good health.

Honest uh neighbors, faithful friends.

Church, look at what's in your hands right now.

A truck that started this morning, a skill in your hands that somebody is willing to pay you for.

A roof over your head, a body that that got out of bed this morning.

I mean, some of you had to talk yourself into it, but it got up.

Somebody who picked up the phone when you called.

See, all of that is bread.

Every bit of it.

And did you catch that that Luther put people on his list?

Honest neighbors, faithful friends?

See, God feeds you through food.

He also feeds you through people.

Both of them are bread.

I mean, in fact, notice Jesus didn't pray, teach us how to pray this way.

He didn't say, give me my daily bread.

He said, give us our daily bread.

See, God never intended this prayer to be a solo prayer.

Now, how does that apply to us?

When he puts extra bread in your hands, it's rarely just for your stomach.

It is so that you can be his answer to the person who might be sitting two rows over, who is praying this prayer through tears.

It's like you're asking your father, give us this day our daily bread.

You are asking the father to carry you through the day for provision.

Enough to get to get through today, and listen, that that includes God's mercy, that includes his grace to make it through the week one day at a time.

And I want you to understand something.

Understand the man who is telling you to ask your father for bread.

This is the man who went out into the desert and went hungry for 40 days.

And the devil came to him and said, You're the son of God.

Make yourself some bread.

Take care of yourself.

He wouldn't do it.

He would rather starve trusting his father than eat without him.

That is the man handing you these words.

But now let me tell you something about me.

Most of the time, I don't pray like that.

See, most of the time I pray for what I already decided I need.

Are you tracking with me on that one?

You see, I've got a number in my head.

I have a version of my life in my head.

God, I need this much, and I bring this number to God and I call it a need.

And when he doesn't hand it over, something in me says, He's holding out on me.

In fact, if I if I'm even more honest, I believe God provides.

I do.

I believe God provides.

But I'd rather have it already in the bank.

Because I can see the money.

I can't see a promise.

And when the bill is due on Thursday, money in the bank feels a whole lot more real than, you know, God will take care of it.

God will provide.

In fact, here's the part I really don't like admitting.

This is like pastor confession time.

A lot of what I'm asking God to cover, I chose.

I bought the things I bought.

I took out the loans.

I picked the place I knew what the payment was going to be when I signed it.

I chose that place.

And Jesus never taught us to pray, Father, give us this day our daily cake.

He promised bread.

And I've been asking him to cover cake.

In fact, let me tell you something else.

You know when bread stops feeling like enough?

It's not when it's the one, it's not, it's not when there's less of it.

It's when I start measuring my bread against somebody else's.

I think everybody does this.

You don't need money to do this.

You know, the guy at work got the raise you thought was yours.

Your sister put in a new kitchen.

Somebody you went to high school with is on a boat, and you're looking at that picture in the church parking lot, wishing that was you.

See, nothing in your hands actually changed.

It just got smaller by comparison.

In fact, that's what happened in the wilderness with the Israelites.

After they were freed from slavery in Egypt, God is feeding a whole nation with bread that shows up on the ground every morning.

And it isn't even two years before they get tired of it.

They start reminiscing.

Remember the fish we ate in Egypt?

The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic.

Church, they were slaves in Egypt.

And now they're standing in a desert eating bread out of heaven, talking about how good the garlic was.

See, the issue is not a food problem.

It's a heart problem.

And I've got the same one.

You see, I think the reason is that I have forgotten where it all came from to begin with.

I mean, let's look at this prayer again.

Give us today our daily bread.

First word here is give.

Give.

You see, somebody's handing it to you.

The word assumes a hand on the other end of it.

Give.

Listen, let me before I go on, let me just say this because I think this is important.

Because I don't want you guys to misunderstand anything I'm saying here.

I know you've all worked hard for what you have.

I mean that.

I mean, some of you get up at four in the morning.

Some of you have been on a job site since 6 a.m.

and it's 94 degrees by 9 a.m.

Some of you have worked for years through college, up through the ranks in the company to get to where you are.

Some of you have built a business from nothing, and you've laid awake night after night about payroll.

Look, understand.

God gave you that.

Every bit of it.

I mean, do you know how the Israelites got the manna out in the wilderness?

They walked out and picked it up.

Every morning, God dropped it and they still had to go out and gather it.

Nobody carried it into the tent for them.

The Bible never once tells a working person that working is a failure of faith.

See, the problem isn't the work.

God tells us to work.

And that's a sermon for another day.

The problem is my heart.

My heart has a tendency, a strong tendency, to turn God's gifts into independence from God.

I want his provision without having to depend on him.

So yeah, you worked hard.

You worked for it, yes.

But you pull on that thread a little?

Think about this.

You pull on the thread.

Who gave you the body that woke up at four in the morning?

Who gave you the mind that lured the skill and trade that you're able to get paid for?

Who put a person in your life who was willing to hire you when your record said not to?

Who gave you, who gave your customer, if you own a business, who gave your customer the money to pay your invoice?

Look, and if you keep pulling on that thread, I know it can it can sound silly because eventually you might be standing out in the church parking lot thanking God for whoever invented asphalt.

But listen, this is this isn't as silly as it sounds.

You see, we are surrounded by gifts we've gotten so used to that we stop seeing them.

We call them normal.

We have taken so many blessings and gifts of God for granted.

You know which one I'm thinking of right now?

AC.

I think we're all thinking AC right now.

But God gave us this building.

God gave us the clothes we wear.

God gave us everything we need to sustain life.

How often do we thank God for all those things?

In fact, can I ask everyone to just stand up for a moment and get you a little bit uncomfortable?

It's good for you.

I want you to thank God for the gifts and blessings He's given us.

Just say thank you, God, out loud.

Ready?

Thank you, God.

Say it louder.

Thank you, God.

Yes.

You can sit down.

Gotta keep you awake.

Look, and I know some of you aren't even worried about daily bread at all.

You've got plenty.

But listen, that may actually be the greater spiritual danger.

Because you can have enough in your hands that you stop noticing whose hands it came from.

You go days without consciously needing God.

So here's where I want to slow down for a moment.

Deuteronomy chapter 8.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

Moses is talking to a nation that's been in the desert for 40 years, eating bread off the ground every single morning.

And they're about to walk into the land God promised them.

I want you to hear what he warns them about in verse 12, starting in verse 12.

When you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and I'm gonna jump around here a little bit.

When you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the Lord your God.

You jump down to verse 17.

You may say to yourself, My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.

And then verse 18, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

Do you hear what he's doing here?

You see, the desert was hard, it was 40 years of hard.

But Moses said the harder test is still coming.

And the harder test is the good land.

The harder test is the full house.

The harder test is when the money finally starts to work for you.

And I get that because gosh, I've lived it.

Some of you may know this.

If you're new here, you may not know this, but we were in India for 12 years.

That was home for us.

My first three kids were basically raised there.

This wasn't a mission trip, that was our life.

Second wave of COVID, we had to leave.

Didn't choose to, we were forced to.

Came back here, started over.

Now those first couple of years were hard in a way that I don't necessarily have words for.

But God was good to us.

I mean that God was good to us.

We ended up in a home we loved, in a place that's beautiful.

I mean, look around, look at where we live.

I mean, this place is gorgeous.

And then God gave us our surprise bonus baby, baby number four.

And we haven't stopped looking at her and enjoying every single moment with her since.

And then I got asked to be CEO of an eight-figure company.

And overnight our financial position changed.

We were on a high, we had plenty of everything.

And if you asked me right then, I would have told you I was walking close with God.

I didn't find out how far I had drifted until I resigned.

I stepped away from that role.

It was the right time to get out.

And I walked out feeling free, feeling secure.

I mean, we had savings.

We bought an established business where every spreadsheet, every number said this is gonna work.

And instead, the bottom dropped out.

The next two years were the hardest two years financially we've had in a very long time.

We went from plenty to constant pressure.

And the moment that security blanket just got yanked away, my real God got exposed.

And I'll tell you, I was not easy to live with in those two years.

A lot of anxiety in our house, a lot of anger, a lot of me asking God, where are you?

What are you doing to us?

Why, God?

And I'll tell you where it ended up.

It ended up with us on the floor of our bedroom on our knees with tears in our eyes, saying, God, we need you.

We need you.

And that's what got me.

See, because when we were in the land of plenty, I didn't pray like that.

I I I wasn't rebelling, I wasn't walking away from him.

I just I just didn't need him that much.

And I didn't even notice it was happening.

Now, now listen.

I don't know all of why those two years went the way they did, but I do know what they did in me.

Because I'll tell you where we are today.

We're still climbing out.

I mean, that's the truth.

It's not fixed.

We're still in a financial recovery mode.

But I'm more grateful than I've ever been.

I trust him more today with less than I did back then with plenty.

Because now, I see his hand in it.

See, we had plenty, and I thought I built it.

But God fixed my perspective.

And that's what gratitude is.

Gratitude is seeing whose hand it came out of.

I mean, you trace it back, and our father is at the end of it.

Every time.

He is the source of everything you have.

But I'll be straight with you.

Living this out, it's still hard.

Because one day at a time sounds good in a sermon, but it can be exhausting when it's your actual life.

Look, I know some of you are tired.

And not the kind of tired that sleep fixes.

You're tired of doing the math.

You're tired of the of the fact that it works out every month, just never gets easier.

You get through August, well, and here comes September.

I mean, you're not you're not in crisis.

You said that to yourself.

We're fine, and you are.

You're just tired of living this close to the line.

Yeah, my wife loves Costco.

And I'm grateful she does.

Because it means there's food in my house.

But I gotta be honest, I have gotten A complicated relationship with Costco.

I've got kind of a love-hate relationship with Costco.

I, you know, if I'm gonna go into Costco with her, I want to walk in for really just three things.

That's really all I want.

I want three things.

And instead, we walk out with a palette of toilet paper that can barely fit in our trunk.

And then I look at the receipt in the parking lot and I think to myself, oh my gosh, what did we just do?

And then I get into the car, open my bank app, and check the balance of my bank account again, a third time today.

Because here's the thing about me I don't need a full closet to sleep at night.

I need a number.

And not just enough for today.

I want next month sitting in there.

I want six months sitting in there where I can look at it so I never have to ask anybody for anything.

And that's exactly the one thing that God wouldn't give Israel.

See, Exodus 16, God tells them, gather enough for today.

That's it.

One day.

And whatever they kept overnight went bad.

Worms in it the next morning.

Now, understand that's not God being difficult.

And I should say there's there was one exception.

On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much because the seventh day was the Sabbath, and that portion didn't spoil.

So listen, this isn't an argument against planning.

You should plan, save, budget, those are good tools.

Use them, but none of them can promise you tomorrow.

Listen, the the question isn't whether you have savings, it's what you're asking them to do.

Because if that's the thing you're trusting in, if that's where your security is, if that's what helps you sleep at night, then it isn't just a closet full of groceries anymore.

It isn't just a number in your account anymore.

It's become your God.

And rightly can't do that job.

It's just toilet paper.

So you got a false God that can't hold.

So why daily?

Why give us today our daily bread?

Why would God do it that way?

Why not fill the bar once and just let them get on with it?

Here's what I know about my own heart.

I think I know about my own heart.

If God funded me for a year, there's a strong possibility.

I may not talk to him for a year.

Daily bread keeps bringing me back to the giver.

It's not rationing.

It's a standing appointment with God.

It brings me to God every single day.

And that's where contentment actually comes from.

It's not from getting more.

It's from knowing who measured out what you got.

He gives you today's amount because he knows what your today needs.

Not last year, not what your neighbor got, yours.

Today.

Measured out by somebody who actually knows you.

Let me be clear on this.

You will never, ever get to a day where you don't need him.

And that's not a flaw in your faith.

That's how we set it up.

You and I were creatures.

You've never had one day in your life that you produce on your own.

You do not graduate from depending on God.

I mean, that's the whole point.

Complete dependence on God.

So here's what I want you to see.

If your father is willing to do all of that with bread, look at what else he was willing to do.

Because if you want to know if we have a generous God, because we do, if you want to know if we've got a generous God, you don't settle that by looking at your bank account.

You settle it by looking at what he already handed over.

Here's how you know.

Romans 8 32.

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also, along with him, graciously, graciously give us all things?

Now look, Paul isn't saying God's going to give you everything you asked for.

He is saying the Father who gave you his son will not withhold anything he knows you ultimately need.

The father had one son.

One.

He didn't spare him.

He didn't hold him back.

In fact, remember that wilderness where Jesus was for 40 days?

The Spirit led him straight out into that desert.

40 days, no food.

The father sustained him without bread.

So when the devil came over and hissed at him, you know, make yourself some bread, take care of yourself, because your father clearly isn't going to.

The son could show us what true trust looks like.

And the son said no.

Again, he'd rather starve trusting in his father than eat without him.

But you know what happened?

The second the test was over, angels came and ministered to him.

Which scholars agree includes feeding him.

The father fed him.

He just did it in his own way, in his own time.

And then watch.

Watch what he does with the bread.

Five thousand people on a hillside with nothing.

He takes a boy's lunch, gives thanks, breaks it, and he hands it out until every single person there is full.

He fed everybody.

And then they nailed him to a cross.

And he said, I'm thirsty.

And they gave him vinegar.

The one man, the only man who ever deserved to be fed got nothing.

And understand, he wasn't there because of his sin, he was there because of ours, our ingratitude, our distrust, our constant grasping, our discontentment, our constant attempt to live as though we don't need God.

And the father didn't stop him.

He handed him over for you.

So don't ever wonder whether our father in heaven is generous with you.

He gave his son, all of him, all at once, before you even asked.

You prayed about the money.

Look, I don't have an answer for all of that.

I wish I did.

But I can tell you one thing, it wasn't.

It wasn't your father holding back on you.

He already gave you his son.

He is now being stingy with you now.

In fact, church, do you remember what we prayed right before this one last week?

We prayed, your will be done.

Then give us today our daily bread.

You see, that order is an accident.

The bread comes from a father whose will we already asked for.

So he's not handing you leftovers, he's handing you exactly what he knows your today needs.

And he has never forgotten one of his own people.

Church, you are not living hand to mouth, you are living from his hand to yours.

So you can come to him filled with gratitude, dependence, and contentment each and every day when you say to him, God, give us today our daily bread.

Let's pray.

Father, I just want to thank you this morning.

You know, preparing this sermon all week, there was a tension in me of my own experiences and all the various things that you taught me, and I thought everything was settled in my heart until I walked in this morning and took for granted something that seems so normal, like RAC.

But God, once again, you reminded me that you have provided everything I have.

You have provided everything we have.

So, God, let us never forget that.

Let us not take it for granted.

Let us come to you with gratitude.

Let us come to you with dependence, daily dependence, knowing that you will give us exactly what our today needs.

Your mercy and grace is sufficient for today.

And tomorrow, your grace and mercy will be sufficient for tomorrow, too.

So, Father, we thank you for being our provider.

Pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Can I ask everyone to stand, please, as we close in our song.

Church, as we sing this song together, one of the verses says that your name is breath and living water.

Let's sing the hymn today.

And it is a great, amazing gift that we do not deserve.

So let's just enjoy singing to him this morning.

For he is our breath and he is our living water.

What a mystical with all creation I say praise to the King of Kings.

You are my everything, and I will adore you to rainbows of Flashes of light.

We adore you.

Father, we praise you, we worship you, we love you because you first loved us.

So, God, we thank you for all that you do, all that you provided, all that you do to sustain us.

We trust you.

We trust you to give us enough mercy and grace for today.

We pray together in the beautiful name of your son Jesus.

Amen.