Look for the Bare Necessities

Well, we do have an opportunity, each Sabbath, to dig into God's Word to help us get through, to persevere, to fulfill our destiny of becoming like God's Son, Jesus Christ, toward our ultimate destiny of joining their family. And to that end, we now begin our sermon study with the title, Look for the Bare Necessities. That's our title today, Look for the Bare Necessities. And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to open up to Luke chapter 11.

Luke chapter 11. We're going to begin in verse 3 in just a moment. Of course, once again, we come to the moment in our series where Jesus is asked by the disciples to teach them how to pray. And in the answer, Jesus provides for them a form of words to his disciples, a form in which they should employ in the course of prayer. And we've noticed in previous sermons that the prayer begins with God and his glory before it ever gets to man and their needs. As we've seen before, if you look at verses 1 and 2, it begins with the instruction for us to address God as Father.

So right off the bat, we understand that this is an invitation not to everyone, just by simply their existence here, but this is a specific invitation to those who may call him Father, those who have become children of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, his Son. So we can say right off the bat, perhaps so many have give little value to this model prayer because they stumble right out of the gates.

Let that opening phrase that opening word to address God as Father here, unable to address God in this intimate and familial way. Then we see that Jesus Christ has a concern with his Father's name.

It is to be hallowed because it represents his character and his essence there. Then Jesus has a concern for his Father's kingdom. We saw that last sermon. We are to pray that his kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, verbalizing our desire to bow beneath our soon-coming King's rule, bending our will to his, acknowledging Jesus Christ as King and Lord over all areas of our life.

And now it is after that, and only after that, that we come to what we could maybe refer to as personal requests here. And we come to verse 3 in particular for our study today. Verse 3, Jesus now moves to the part of the model prayer where he says, this is what you should pray. Pray to the Father, verse 3, give us day by day our daily bread.

And that is the first of three subsequent requests. We are to first look to our Father to supply our daily needs there. Then, and we'll get to this in future studies, we are then to seek day by day his forgiveness, something we absolutely need every day. And then we are to day by day ask to be shielded and helped in temptation.

The temptation that we face day by day. So we see that now the part of the model prayer now ushers into this really this personal daily requests, beginning again with this request to give us day by day our daily bread. We're familiar with this phrase aren't we? I don't know if you've ever done a word study or looked at some of the commentary on this particular part of the model prayer. If you have, you will very quickly recognize that most commentators will look to spiritualize this part of the model prayer where you will find them many some commentators for example pointing to their understanding that this bread here it is the bread of the Passover.

Some commentary say, you know, this points us they will say to one of the symbols that Jesus Christ instituted in the New Covenant Passover tying that New Covenant Passover with the this model prayer here and you know I it's not necessarily an unhelpful rendering or interpretation of this but I don't believe that's right. Others suggest that the bread here refers to the Word of God. Perhaps you've heard that. Where essentially in this part of our prayer we are to pray, Father give us day by day your word. Some commentators refer to it that way.

Not unhelpful. We need God's Word daily, of course, but I don't know if that's quite right in what Jesus Christ is putting forth here. Lastly, some commentators suggest that this part in the model prayer we're requesting Jesus Christ himself, the bread of life. The bread of life. Again, not unhelpful, but I don't know if that's exactly it.

Because I think it would be fair to say in our culture that if bread represents anything, it most prominently represents daily sustenance. Would you agree with that?

And it's most common for men and women to think of bread in terms of the requirement for the most basic of life's concerns, we could say. And I think that is the primary focus of this part of the model prayer here. So I don't want to spend any more time on on the other possibilities, but I just simply wanted to acknowledge those other interpretations there. But again, I think I believe it's right to say that this request in its most purest form is a request from the Father to give us and that we would be supplied with all that we need day by day. And the bread represents in our culture those things that aren't necessarily the luxury items of our human experience. Now, this bread is the request of the requirement for our most basic of life's concerns. And if you think of bread in that way, you will immediately bring your thoughts perhaps to the Old Testament picture that we find in Exodus, Exodus chapter 16.

If you have your Bibles, let's turn over there, if you will, to Exodus 16 verses 14 through 21.

In thinking of bread as our sustenance, the thing that we need day by day, we're reminded of the experience here in Exodus 16 verses 14 through 21, the experience of God's people wandering for 40 years. And one of the ways in which God unfolds their dependence upon him is in the provision of manna each day. And God was making clear to them that there was enough only for that day. Let's see this. Exodus 16, let's break into the story here in verse 14.

Here's the story. Verse 14, And when the layer of dew lifted, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is this? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded.

Let every man gather according to each one's need. One omer for each person, according to the number of persons, let every man take for those who are in his tent. Verse 17, Then the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who had gathered much had nothing left over, and he who had gathered little had no lack.

Every man had gathered according to each one's need. And Moses said, Let no one leave any of it till morning. Notwithstanding, they did not heed Moses, but some of them left part of it until morning.

And those that did that, it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it with every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.

Let's stop there. I heard someone say, Ooh, out there. It's not a good picture of those who left it over till morning. By the way, an omer is just simply a unit of dry measurement.

An omer there. So it was, and we see here, that God's purpose was to see that if his people obeyed him and depend on him for their daily need. And of course, as humans do, and all the beauty of their human nature, right, immediately some disobeyed and thought to themselves to keep more for tomorrow. Failing the test immediately, because the instruction was there was to be no carryover. And if you carry it over, there's going to be worms, and it's going to smell.

Nevertheless, a husband trying to score points with his wife said, Honey, would you like me to go get you some of that manna that was from yesterday? And she says, Sure, bring me a little coffee with it. That sounds good. And all of his good intentions go horribly wrong when he uncovers it before her. And there the smell and the worms there. Poor guy. But why did that happen? Why did that happen? Well, there was to be no saving up for the next day. And so when you take this Old Testament picture here and you come to the New Testament phrase, give us day by day, our daily bread, we can understand it in that way. And you and I realize that the wonder of God's plan in teaching his people in every age to trust not in the provision which makes us keep more over until the morning. Rather, trust in the provider which allows to trust in him each and every day. So whatever it is in us, that longing to trust in our own provision which would then move us to keep some over. Rather, the teaching here is to trust in the provider that allows us to trust in him each day, day by day. In other words, we have it for today. Don't take any for tomorrow because God says, God says, listen to this, I want you to be able to wake up tomorrow and discover that the same God who provided for you today will provide for you tomorrow.

That's the wonderful discovery that we make every day when we open our eyes. The same God that provided us yesterday is the same God that will provide for us this morning.

And this is the remarkable understanding and the depths of it. I want you to begin to think about what are the depths that I need to reach in this understanding. This was so important, this particular lesson was so important for God's people to understand.

So important that God instituted a reminder for future generations to come.

In fact, if you allow your eyes to go down to verse 32, staying here in chapter 16, look at verse 32. Then Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, Fill an omer with it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Wow! Isn't that amazing? Who would have thought that this was such a primary lesson for you and I to understand? So important! He instructs it to be passed down from generation to generation. Have you ever thought about this part of the prayer in that significant way?

Well, it is repeated and re-emphasized in the book of Hebrews. Let's turn over there. Look at Hebrews 9, verses 1 through 4. Turn over there, if you will. Hebrews 9, verses 1 through 4. We discover that the Hebrew writer writes about this jar of manna being kept in the tabernacle so that the people would come and see it. Look at this. It was to be kept throughout all generations. Hebrews 9, verses 1 through 4. It records, then, indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service in the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared, the first part in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.

And behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, and which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. And above it were the carabim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat of these things we cannot now speak in detail. There, let's stop there. Amazing! You know, you only have room for so many items in this space. And one of them pointed specifically and directly to this part of our prayer each day. This understanding of the daily sustenance that we were to pray for.

Why keep a golden pot that had manna in it? Well, it was so that we would be reminded that for 40 years in the wilderness, God never missed a single day of giving them their daily bread.

Never missed. There was never a day in which God did not provide. And so they kept it, and they talked about it, and they passed this understanding on to generation to generation, concerning the wonder of His provision. Father, Father, give us day by day our daily bread.

Now, I know you've all been singing this already when I announced the title, but you know, the jungle book, looking for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities. Forget about your worries and your strife. I meet everyone now. The bare necessities. That's why a bear can rest its ease with just the bare necessities of life. It's a wonderful song. You'll never look at that song the same, right? I wonder if the writer had this in mind. You know, this part of the model prayer. Wonderful. And that's what Jesus Christ is speaking about here, this request.

The simple. Father, we are just simply requesting the bare necessities of our life.

I just find this so interesting here, of all the things we could have come up with.

And, you know, this would have been a good experience if we hadn't read this portion of Scripture and we had asked as a group to break out into smaller groups and come up with kind of a model prayer, you know. Perhaps we would come up with certain aspects of the actual model prayer, but I don't know. I don't know. And I'm suspicious if we would have come up with this.

Perhaps we would have. I don't know if we would have put it first on the list, you know, of our personal daily requests, you know. What if we go with our daily sustenance? We should put, no, no, let's not go with that first. You know, surely there's other things that we would put first in our daily requests in this part of the prayer.

But this is where Jesus Christ goes. When you pray, say, give us day by day our daily bread.

What does that do to us when we pray that? You know, the Father already knows what we need before we ask. So, often prayer gives us something, right? And this is a reminder. When we pray this in the depths of our heart, we'll be reminded that the Father cares for us, He loves us, and He's concerned with our basic personal needs to get through life.

The Father, whom we know through Jesus Christ, is deeply interested and personally concerned with our basic material needs to get through life.

And when you begin to think about this, you see this echoed all throughout Scripture. You actually see the model prayer given to us from time to time in Scripture. It's all there in, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. So, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That's akin to, Father, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness. And what's the second part? Is, and all these things will be added unto you. So that's what we're seeing here in this model prayer where God will then add to us our daily needs. Provide that to us in that way. Now, perhaps it's important at this part of the study to say and to make a distinguishing remark between our needs and our desires. Okay.

And to state that when we pray this part of the prayer, God does have a full understanding of the difference between our needs and desires. Where He's able to distinguish between those two.

And perhaps what we might think is a regard as a requirement, God might understand that it would not be the most helpful thing in our needs and providing us our ultimate needs. We understand this. Any of you who have had the privilege of being a parent, your young child, your young son, your daughter comes and absolutely begs you for something, right? But you know it's not best for what they need. At some point I asked for a motorcycle. There was a there was a young kid in our neighborhood who had a motorcycle and it was a it was one of those small motorcycles. So it was called like a an Indian Indian 50 or something. I can't remember now. I should have wrote that down. This is back in the in the 90s, I guess, or 80s. But boy, I wanted one of those little dirt bikes, you know. I wanted it. If you had asked me, I would have said, no, I absolutely needed. But thankfully, I had a father that understood it was not actually what I needed, right? And the categorical no came from him. So in our in this part of our prayer, we understand that the that the Father knows what we need. Father knows best, right? Certainly true.

And so part of truly praying this part of the model prayer is to fulfill the first part of the model prayer where we want to align our our will with the Father's will and really take time to think about, now, I want to request this, my need. Is it a basic need? How would the Father look at this? Because I want to try to align myself with him so that my requests are actually my needs. So, you know, it takes some some thought. We want to make thoughtful prayers in in requesting our needs. Again, it's this distinction between what we might want and what we actually need.

The the writer of Proverbs picks up on that notion. Let me show you this. This is a quite remarkable passage. Proverbs 30 verses 7 through 9. Proverbs 30 verses 7 through 9 we're given some understanding between wants and needs and this may help us align our requests with the will of God here. Here's a pretty profound understanding here. Proverbs 30. Proverbs 30. Look at verses 7 through 9.

He writes, Proverbs 30 beginning in verse 7, Two things I request of you, deprive me not before I die. Verse 8, Remove falsehood and lies far from me. Here it is. Give me neither poverty nor riches.

Feed me with the food allotted to me. We could say bread. Lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and still and profane the name of my God.

So we want to hallow God's name, right? So we're seeing notes of the model prayer here in a wonderful way. What a wise man he is. Give me neither poverty or scarcity, we could say. Give me neither poverty nor riches.

One will make me so affluent that perhaps I won't turn to you for my daily needs.

We don't want to be in that position. And the other might make me so desperately impoverished that I might turn to my own means and try to take for myself, thereby not relying on you to give me what I need and dishonor your name. Remember, we want to hallow God's name, his character, his essence. So in fact, Father, would you give me exactly what I need?

That's our ultimate request, because there's issues on both sides there. So again, we're thinking deeply on this part of the model prayer here, and it's quite deep here. So there can be great difficulty in truly praying this part of the prayer. There's an inherent difficulty in making this request for day-by-day daily bread. And I think the difficulty lies in a couple of ways. One part of the difficulty is not desiring more than what you have, you know? The difficulty arises from being content with daily bread.

The philosopher Epicurus, who lived in the fourth century, he wrote about this understanding.

He says an interesting quote from the philosopher Epicurus.

The secret to contentment does not lie in adding to a man's possessions, but in taking away from his desires. Very helpful. Again, he says, the secret to contentment does not lie in adding to a man's possessions, but the secret to contentment lies in the taken away from his desires. So the secret is, perhaps, we could say in being content with day-by-day daily provisions from God, daily bread. And so part of this prayer is to pray, take away any part of my desires that don't align with this understanding of this part of the prayer. I want to be content with your daily bread there.

And so, in requesting our day-by-day daily bread, we are at the same time submitting to, delighting in, what the Father gives us. So at the same time, we're submitting to and delighting in what the Father gives us. That's what Jesus was teaching as recorded in Matthew. Let's turn over there. Matthew 6 verses 31 through 34. Turn over there, if you will.

Matthew 6 verses 31 through 34. This is more on this understanding of God giving us exactly what we need. And really asking the Father to give us only what we need, right?

Matthew 6 verses 31 through 34. These are the words of Jesus here.

Therefore, Matthew 6 beginning in verse 31, therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear?

For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. And this is what we referred to earlier. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will shall be added to you. I love this next part.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Let's stop there.

So don't worry about the basic necessities of life. I am here to give them to you, what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, what you're going to drink. Your heavenly Father knows you need these things here. You know, it's in the Psalms.

He brought you into this world. He intricately created you in the womb.

He knows you need these things. He's guided you through life up to this point.

God remains sovereign over the things we need.

So we're recognizing and acknowledging that the Father will provide our daily bread in this way.

Some of our biggest worries, some of our biggest anxieties can be removed. If we just grab on to this principle for today, okay, for today, for this moment. Father, I want to pray to you for what I need at this time. Right now, Father, would you give me my daily bread? Boy, if you live in that space when you need to, it's not a condemnation for future planning of any way. But if you're in a moment of worry, this passage speaks to you here. And you'll have just this godly contentment to come over you when you truly pray this part of the prayer. Again, we see this all throughout Scripture. I had to even cut away from some of the Scriptures, but let me give you one more here. 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 through 10. 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 through 10 here.

Paul wanting to get across this understanding so young Timothy could pick it up and pass this on to his future congregations. Paul had this understanding here that we were speaking about.

And really, Paul, as he normally does, he explains concepts in a unique way. And so Paul's going to give us here 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 through 10. He's going to explain it in such a way between two fixed points. When we come into the world and when we exit the world, but he's going to be punctuating what we're speaking about here. 1 Timothy 6, verses 6. Now, godliness with contentment is great gain, he says, for we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we cannot carry nothing out. And here it is. In having food and clothing with these, we shall be content.

Let's stop there. Isn't that amazing? And that's one of the beautiful gifts that Paul had. He can take concepts that we understand, but put it in a different way, and that's what he does here.

You know, you recognize these two fixed points, he says, and the focus is having a godliness with contentment between these two fixed points.

If you're a parent, again, you understand that when you welcomed your son or daughter into this world, they did not come with any packages, right? They did not come fully clothed into this world, but they were absolutely satisfied with their entry into the world, right?

An entry with nothing from the mother's womb. And if you consider our exit, it is the same there. You know, there is the phrase, there are no pockets in the shroud, you know? It's a well-known phrase. There's no pockets pointing to the larger understanding. We don't take anything with us at that time. So when this dawns upon an individual, they're in a better position within their hearts and their posture to be able to pray, give us day by day our daily bread. We brought nothing into this world, and it's certain we cannot carry anything out, and so having food and clothing with these, we will be content. It says here, with this we'll be content. In the clothing there, there is this context of covering.

So there's this context broader than even just our clothes, but shelter as well.

Covering. These are the basic needed things for contentment, and to get this is pivotal to make this part of our prayer. Father, please give me daily food, clothing, and shelter, and with this I will be content. And any discontentedness in my life is on the account of being seduced into the lie that I need more than my daily provision. That's where discontentedness lies. This is not a call to poverty. This is not a call to poverty. This is not condemning riches. And Paul points that out. Look at continuing here. Look at verses nine and ten here. It's all in the heart. It really is not what you actually own or not own. Verse nine and ten, but those who desire to be rich, those who desire to be rich, there's the key word, there's the key word, who desire more than daily bread, those fall into temptation and a snare into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves with many sorrows. Let's stop there.

You see how important it is to have this daily bread understanding because it helps us from desiring anything more which leads to destruction, and God doesn't want destruction for us. So we're tempted to not love our daily bread. So that's our prayer. Help me to love my daily bread, Father, to appreciate it, to be overwhelmed with your daily provision in this way.

And so, in order that I might put my ultimate hope in all provision in you, God, look at verse 17. Go down to verse 17. Paul continues here. Verse 17, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God. Notice, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. That's a key there. Don't trust in anything other than what the Father gives us, His daily provisions. And like a loving, wonderful Father, He longs to give us richly all things to enjoy, to enjoy. So this is not just a matter of being out on the corner, you know, gloomy, downtrodden. Now, what we find is that God seems to always give us much more for us to enjoy the riches from God. The great riches, we could say, which exceeds the basics of food and shelter and clothing. And as we begin to conclude here, we have that great summary, the great understanding of really where this all is leading to. And it comes to us there in verses 18 and 19. Here's verse 18 and 19. Here's the great summary of all that we've spoken about today, our daily provision from God. Here it is, verse 18.

Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves, think of the the manna, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. Let's stop there. How could there be any greater summary to punctuate this part of our prayer to the Father?

This is what it's about. Father, give me exactly what I need, my day-to-day provisions, so that I can lay a hold of eternal life. Father, give me neither poverty nor riches.

Feed me with the food allotted to me. I don't want to be full and risk denying you.

I don't want to be rich, so I feel drawn to take it into my own hands, my own provisions.

Keep me from those temptations.

I don't want to profane your name. I want to hallow your name in every way. And Father, with the basic necessities of life, I'm going to look for those basic necessities, so that I may do good.

Father, give me exactly what I need in this physical life to keep moving, no more, no less, so that I might be rich in good works. Give me what I need, so that I be ready to give, and willing to share.

Father, give me exactly what I need. I don't want to store up anything here on earth, but I want to store for myself a good foundation, not for now, not for this time, but for the time to come, so that by grace through faith, Father, in your incredible mercy and love, that I may be able to hold on and lay hold of eternal life.

May we all truly pray this part of the prayer in a greater way today. Father, day by day, give us our daily bread.