Righteous Prayer Focuses on the Provision of the Father

Hi, this is the Human Proclaim podcast, The Messages of John Fonville. You're listening to season four called Pray This Way: The Divine Pattern of Righteous Prayer. Here's message number 9 called The Provision of the Father. All right, if you have your Bibles, you can take them and turn to Matthew chapter 6. The Lord's Prayer.

Verses 5 through 15 is our passage.

So, what we have seen in this is that we have these seven themes about God the Father, and that, and just very quickly as we review, righteous prayer focuses on the knowledge of God as Father. It begins with this filial, this sonship address, our Father in heaven. Second, righteous prayer focuses on the honor of the Father. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Then third righteous prayer focuses on the kingdom of the Father.

Our Father in heaven, your kingdom come. Establish your rule and reign in our lives through your word and Holy Spirit. And then righteous prayer focuses on the will of the Father, our Father in heaven. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So these first three petitions. Focus on the Father's honor, the Father's kingdom, and the Father's will. And the primary concern of prayer that Jesus teaches us is that God the Father's adopted sons in prayer are concerned with their father's honor, with their father's reign and rule, and with their father's will. But beginning now in chapter 6, verses 11 through 13, which we're coming to, a shift occurs in the prayer. And the final three petitions focus on the believer's needs as well as the needs of others.

And so this brings us to the fifth theme and the fourth petition. And the fifth theme is verse 11. Righteous prayer focuses on the provision of the Father. Look what Jesus says when he teaches us to pray. He says, when you pray, pray like this.

Pray saying. Our Father in heaven, give us this day our daily bread.

Now at first glance it seems that this petition appears out of place or perhaps is less important because it's focusing on the temporal daily needs of believers. That's A wrong way to think about this. First of all, we're going to see that God calls his creation, the physical creation, very good. Second, God Himself assumed a physical body and became a part of His physical, very good creation. Third, J.I.

Packer says, to see this as out of place or to see it as less important, J.I. Packer says. is hyperspirituality Which expresses an unspiritual egot. I like that. Fourth This petition is inseparably related to the first three petitions.

We cannot do the will of God and fulfill our individual vocations in life without our daily bread. That is, without the Father's constant providential provision for all of our temporal and spiritual needs. And then, fourth, John Calvin makes this observation. He says, Neither do we bid farewell to God's glory, the honoring of the Father's name. Hallowed be your name.

We're not leaving that behind. On the contrary, I want you to understand that give us this day our daily bread. It's a very God-centered petition. Even though it's focusing on our needs, it's really, as you'll see this morning, extremely explicitly God-centered. The goodness of the Father's continual provision for our daily, temporal, and our spiritual needs works to the praise of His own glory.

It works to the hallowing of his name. Again, J.A. Packer says, petitions looking to God. As the sole incompetent source of supply of all human needs, down to the most mundane. Denying our own self-sufficiency humbles us.

And so the acknowledging of our dependence, our complete dependence on the provision of the Father, glorifies him. This is very God-centered petition. And so, in this petition, we'll come to see that God the Father. What is God the Father like? He's generous.

He's giving. He is the unending fountain and source of temporal and all spiritual blessing, and he generously is giving all the time. James says it like this in James chapter 1, verse 17. He says, every good gift. And every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God delights in giving the Father, God the Father delights in giving to His children every good temporal and spiritual gift. He's generous. And he's giving. God the Father generously Provides, gives to us both our temporal needs and our spiritual needs. Every second of our life.

So let's look at this first of all. God the Father provides for our temporal needs.

So what does it mean to pray, give us this day our daily bread?

Well, first of all, it it certainly includes the food that we eat. This past weekend, I was having a conversation over dinner. And I was informed that a particular pastor had told this other person at their church. I was so shocked by it, I wrote it down. The pastor told his congregation: quote, we have a big God.

And we should pray big prayers.

So we should stop praying little stupid prayers like, Dear God, please bless this food that we're about to eat. God already knows that he's going to bless the food, so stop praying these little stupid prayers. My wife had to help me bite my tongue at the dinner table because this give us this daily bread was fresh on my mind.

So it wasn't the time or the place to give them an exposition of the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer.

So I just started praying to myself, Father. Oh, Father, help this person see. how ungrateful they are and help this pastor see he didn't have a clue what he's telling his church. Jesus, in contrast, who prayed in little stupid prayers, bless this food. Teaches us to ask for the Father's blessing upon our food.

Do you know why? Because it is not food that nourishes our bodies, it is the Father's blessing. Food is not my God. My Father in Heaven is. And Calvin says, even in the abundance of food, without the Father's blessing, we will not be nourished.

Zacharias or Sinus, the author of the Hutter Catechism, quote, even though we receive from them the food, even though we receive from them, yet they will not profit our bodies if the blessing of God does not accompany them. God through Moses said to the people of Israel, man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. If God doesn't want your food to nourish your body, listen, you will not get nourishment from it. We have lots of medical professionals in this congregation. People have digestive issues, and they can eat all the food they want, but if their digestive tract does not work, they will not benefit from the abundance of food in this country.

You can take all the vitamins you want, but if God says don't work, it will not work. God feeds you, God nourishes you, God provides for you. Father, bless this food to the nourishment of our body. Thank you for it. It is not a little stupid prayer.

It is a humbling prayer that glorifies your Father for his provision to give you health and nourishment. God the Father cares for his people. He cares for his creation. Psalm 136, verse 25, he gives food to all flesh. For why?

Because his steadfast love endures for ever. God the Father's generous provision for us puts on display his steadfast love for you and me. But this petition doesn't just solely focus on our food, so I don't want to just camp there. There are many other things that we have to have that are necessary to sustain us in this life. Bread was a staple diet in Jesus' day, and it is in our day.

And so the term bread. It's simply a way of speaking. Give us this day our daily bread. What is the bread? Give us this day all the temporal, physical blessings that we need from your hand.

To sustain our physical life, that's what you're praying. Give us food, give us clothing, give us health, give us civil peace. When the church has civil peace, we can take advantage of that civil peace through a government that gives us freedom to freely flourish and spread the gospel. And so it is certainly true that to our modern sensibilities, particularly in the United States of America, we have a hard time relating to this prayer because our culture is super abounding in abundance. I remember walking through the slums of Nam Penh in Cambodia.

Looking at little children totally naked with their stomachs bulging out like a great big beach bowl from malnutrition. Walking through those slums, and I got so sick from the smell, started. You know. And then I went and reflected on this, and I saw that the Bible is, Jesus is teaching us. Not what the world is, but what the world should be without sin.

And so, in our culture of superabounding abundance, it's quite easy for this petition to lose its significance and relevance, but listen. We don't get the import of this petition because we fail to live with a biblical view of life and reality. In providing for our temporal needs, this petition teaches us some amazing important lessons. And here's the first one. In providing for our temporal needs, this petition teaches us of the Father's providential care.

You understand, nothing comes to us by chance. There's no such thing as luck. It's called Providence. Nothing comes to us by pulling ourselves up, an American individualistic we can do it ourselves, do it by your bootstraps, self-individual determination, and sweat equity. This petition is an acknowledgment and a profession of the providential care of our Father, especially towards his people in the church.

So in praying this petition, We say that we're giving ourselves, Father, to you, to your care. We're entrusting ourselves to your providential care that you might feed and nourish and preserve us. A gracious Father, we say, doesn't disdain to take even our bodies, Calvin says, under his safe keeping. In guardianship, in order to exercise our faith in even small matters, we, while we listen. While we expect everything from him, even to a crumb of bread and a drop of water, it's coming from the Father.

Jesus teaches us that our Father in heaven, He cares about our daily bread. He cares about our temporal everyday needs. William Hendrickson says, he says, all men, even the richest, in order to have, in order to consume, in order to enjoy food, are dependent upon the condition of the soil. Upon the condition of the water, upon the condition of the weather and the health of their body. All men are dependent upon the general state of the economy.

Together with all its contributing factors, ecological, social, political, which in the final analysis means that all are dependent upon the sovereign God who is in control of the universe.

Now, ordinarily, God the Father works and provides for our daily bread. Through means. Through the ordinary vocations in which he's given us.

So, implied in this fourth petition is what's called the reformed doctrine of vocation. It's a beautiful doctrine. The doctrine of vocation is not simply a synonym for your job. For your profession. The term vocation includes your job and your profession, but it goes beyond that.

It includes every kind of legitimate work. Or social function, which is a distinct calling from God for you to fulfill. And so God has given distinct callings to everyone in this congregation. And he's given to you to fulfill that. Unique gifts, unique skill sets, unique talents, unique abilities that only you can do.

And so the doctrine of vocation teaches that God is active listen behind the scenes. What? Working in your distinct callings, in your everyday human labor, in your family responsibilities, in your social interactions. Yes, in your profession, your job, providing for the daily needs of life. I want you to listen to Gene Veith because he is an expert in the doctrine of vocation.

And I want you to listen to what he says. It's a brilliant insight. He says, quote, take one of the Luther's examples we pray in the Lord's Prayer. that God give us our daily bread, which He does. He does so not directly as when he gave manna to the Israelites.

None of us go out in the morning and look up to the sky and say, okay, God, feed me. He doesn't do it like that. He provides for us through the work of farmers. and bakers. And we might add truck drivers and retailers.

In effect, the whole economic system is the means by which God gives us our daily bread. Each part of the economic food chain is a vocation through which God works to distribute his gifts. Similarly, God heals the sick. While he can and sometimes does so directly, we pray for a miracle, a direct intervention, unmediated work of God.

Well, God sometimes does do this. In the normal course of things, he works through doctors, nurses, and other medical experts. God protects us from evil with the vocation of the police officer. God teaches us through teachers. Orders society through governments, proclaims the gospel through pastors.

Luther pointed out that God could populate the earth by creating each new generation of babies from the dust. Glad he didn't choose that way. Instead, he ordained that human beings should come together to bring up children and families. The offices of husband, wife, and parent are vocations through which God works to rear and care for children. In other words, in his earthly kingdom, just as in his spiritual kingdom, God bestows his gifts through means.

God ordained that human beings be bound together in love, in relationships, in communities, existing in a state of interdependence. In this context, God is providentially at work caring for his people. Each of whom contributes according to his or her God-given talents, gifts, opportunities, and stations. Each thereby becomes what Martin Luther terms a mask of God. And then he finishes with this: He says, God who pours out his generosity on the just and on the unjust, the justified and the unjustified, is what that means.

Believer and unbeliever alike hides himself in the ordinary social functions and stations of life, even the most humble stations. To use another of Luther's examples, God himself is milking the cows through the vocation of a milkmaid. Give us this day our daily bread. That's what that means. And the Father caring for us and providing for us through this endless number of vocations through which He is masked and hidden, working behind the scenes to give to us our temporal daily needs.

Notice it implies generosity on our part because Jesus does not say, pray, give me. He says, when you pray, give us. Do you know what that means? It means that we are to intercede not only for our temporal needs, but for others. The needs of believers all over the world are included in this petition.

Because we constitute one family who are united in one Christ. This is not the prayer of a consumer, but of a servant. All of our vocations are channels of God's love, and the purpose of our vocations, whatever they are, are to serve others.

So when you pray, give us this day our daily bread, you are including your fellow brothers and sisters in the church primarily with that in your families and other people as you have the ability. You see, entrance into the kingdom of God, as we've learned, is a miracle. It has nothing to do with our works, but once we are in the kingdom by the grace of our Father, through his Son, by the Holy Spirit, a Trinitarian work, once we are in that kingdom, we are to pray for and we are to do the will of God, right? Your kingdom come, your will be done. You can't pray, your will be done, if you're not ready and willing to love and serve your neighbor, because that is the will of your Father, to love and serve your neighbor.

And so one Lutheran theologian puts it like this: God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does. And so through His providence, God the Father works to distribute His gifts to us through our vocations, which implies also, listen, our readiness to work. God doesn't ordinarily feed us with manna from heaven. Work is the necessary means that the Father has instituted by which we ordinarily. There's room for the extraordinary, but ordinarily God the Father has instituted work by which we receive and which we share temporal resources with one another.

And so you cannot pray this prayer of petition with integrity if you're not working. You see, God meets our needs through lawful, ordinary means. This is the way the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians: let the thief no longer steal. But rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands. Why?

Why work?

So that he may have something. Doesn't mean you can do everything, but he has something to share with anyone in need. To the Thessalonian believers, Paul said, For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. That doesn't mean that you can be Bill Gates and just get everything. If you're working and still can't quite make it, others will help you.

But if you're not working at all, Paul says, don't eat. And so Zacharias for sign is looking at this: God's provision in our work. He says, God gives all things freely, but not without labor and prayer on our part.

So when we pray, give us this day our daily bread. Our Father in heaven, because you are good and you care for us, provide everything that we need necessary to sustain us for each given day.

So that we might hallow your name, do your will, preach your gospel, and love and serve our neighbor in the various vocations that you've given to us. Give us this day our daily bread. Second, when we pray for these temporal needs from the Father. It's an acknowledgement that all that we have, both temporal and spiritual, is a gift. Give us this day our daily bread.

In other words, you don't have it, so give it. It's a gift. We can't fail to recognize that due to sin, listen, due to sin, the perished kingdom. We have no right to expect anything from our Father. We have no right to expect anything from God after the fall except judgment for our sin.

He owes us nothing. This is his world. This is my father's world. You didn't create it. You broke his law.

He owes you nothing. And yet, because he is so generous and so kind and so filled with grace. Even to his enemies in Matthew 5, verse 45, right before the Lord's Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that the Father is the source of every temporal blessing for everyone. For he makes his Son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Did you hear what Jesus said?

He makes His son. It's not yours. He makes his reign. It's his rain. It's his sun.

It's his soil. It's his food. It is his provision. And it is your need, which you have no right to, but because he's good and kind, he gives it. even to his enemies.

The Father's rain and sunshine are his gifts. They're not our just desserts. And so Graham Goldsworthy says: Our daily bread is a reminder to us that we are dependent entirely on the grace of God for our continued existence. We receive the good things of the earth as gifts. from his hands.

Everything in the kingdom is a gift, temporal or spiritual. And then, when we pray, Father, give it meet our temporal daily needs. This petition is teaching us to trust in our Heavenly Father's provision. Give us this day our daily bread. We are learning as sons to trust in the goodness of our Father to sustain us.

Wholly depending on the providential care of our Father to give us everything we need. And oh, how often do we fail to do that? Israel did it in the wilderness. Moses said, You don't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And what did Israel do when they received the manna?

They complained. God fed them through that difficult journey and they failed. God feeds us in our difficult pilgrimage journey. And we fell. And so we are learning to trust in our Heavenly Father.

Back in Jesus' day, it was customary to pay workers only for their day's work, and the pay was so low they couldn't even save back then. They couldn't attend a financial seminar. to learn how to save because they didn't get enough to save. And their culture was an agrarian agricultural culture. And so one crop failure and it was disaster.

And so this wasn't empty rhetoric, give us this day our daily bread. They had to pray it every single day. They had to learn to trust. And so Jesus is saying, How do you trust in my Father?

Well, He's teaching us how to do that in the Lord's Prayer. He's given us the character of the Father. What kind of Father do we have? We have a gracious Father. The address of the Lord's Prayer: Our Father in heaven, we have a gracious Father.

We have a glorious Father, hallowed be your name, we have a sovereign Father, your kingdom come, we have a commanding Father, your will be done. And Jesus says here in verse 11: we have a generous, giving Father, trust Him. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 19 verse 17 where he affirms that God is the highest of all good the psalmist in Psalm 100 verses 4 and 5 he calls on us he says give thanks to the Lord And bless his name. Why? Because he is good.

In other words, he is filled with generosity. We have to remember that his provisions are coming from good hands. Generous hands. Because he is good, full of generosity. We're taught to trust him.

In Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 through 34, right after the Lord's Prayer, he says, Don't be anxious about your daily bread, your daily needs of life. Don't be anxious about that. Why? Jesus says, look at the birds. Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you of not more value than those birds? The reason Jesus speaks of the Father's providential provision and care for birds is not to show you that you shouldn't work and just sit around and let him feed you. The point is this. The point he's making is that if he cares for a lesser creation, non-mate in his image, and feeds them, how about the pinnacle of his creation in his image that he says is very good?

He'll care for you and provide for you. How much more will he do that? That's my Father in heaven. And then in Matthew chapter 6, verse 34, he says, Because your Father in heaven listen. How much more value are you?

Do you understand your value to the Father? Oh no, no, woe is me, worm theology. Get rid of worm theology. That doesn't glorify God. That glorifies you gloating on yourself.

He values you because of his son who you're united to. How much of more value are you to the Father than those birds? Jesus says, because of this. Matthew 6, verse 34, don't be anxious. Saying, What shall we eat?

What shall we drink? What shall we wear? Those are temporal needs. For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all because he knows you need them. Come to him and he'll provide it.

He'll provide it through others. He'll provide it through all of those thousands of various vocations that he's created to provide for you. In Matthew chapter 10. Verses 29 through 31, Jesus teaches us how to trust the Father. He reminds us that all things are under the Father's control and command.

He says, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father? But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not. You hear the gospel, fear not. You are of more value than many sparrows.

He says it again. Because we don't believe we're of value to the Father. But if the father places his value on something, you're valuable. And he's put that on you because of his son. And like in Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us once again in this gospel that the Father's care for sparrows.

His care for sparrows is meant to comfort and assure us of his gracious, providential care for us. You can trust your father. Jesus says it over and over in this gospel to teach us this simple point: He'll provide for you. And then this petition. Give us this day our daily bread.

It implies thankfulness for our Father's provision for all our temporal needs. A superficial reading of the Lord's Prayer has caused people to go, well, Jesus doesn't even talk about giving thanks. This is not a good prayer, it's not authentic. That's just a shallow reading of this prayer. The fourth petition has thanksgiving all over it.

Because God's generosity is so hidden all the time, and his providential dealings through vocations, the masks of God. M milking giving you milk through the milkmaid. Because his generosity is so abundant and hidden, his lavish provisions go unnoticed and unthanked. Romans chapter 1 verse 21, Paul says that the basic characteristic of fallen man is that he fails to honor God, hallowed be your name, and give thanks to God for his provision. D.A.

Carson, he says, our very ingratitude is an insult to God. The present thankless generation is an affront to him. We have taken his gifts for granted, and then when they begin to dry up, we complain and call in question the very existence of this good, beneficent God. Zacharias versus sign says, For God desires that we should take unto ourselves the assurance that when he gives us these things, he also grants unto us the privilege of enjoying his gifts. God desires that we should use his gifts, not as thieves and robbers who are unthankful.

but cheerfully with thanksgiving. We should give thanks all the time for every single temporal and spiritual blessing we receive every day of our life. Lord, Father, thank you. Ever since I've been studying this, I've just been, Father, thank you. Thank you.

I mean, everything I can think of. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You can never say it enough. Praying for our daily bread teaches us moderation, not luxury. J.

Packard just puts it like this, this petition doesn't sanctify greed. Jesus says, pray for our daily bread, not luxury. Jesus says that the Father has promised to give you everything you need to sustain your daily life. He hasn't promised you a 747 luxury liner, so stop listening to all this nonsense on TBN and health wealth gospel preachers who preach a false gospel. God has not promised a 747 luxury liner, but God the Father, through Jesus, commanded us to pray for our daily needs, and the Father will give those.

It's moderation. It's not luxury. And what happens if we are given a provision, a providential provision that goes beyond our daily needs? What do we do? First we are to enjoy them.

Herman Witzius says back in the 1600s, those who receive the great blessings of God do greatly sin when they walk around with a morose and long face, thinking that that's what glorifies God for the abundance that they've been given. Enjoy them. Don't feel guilty. Receive them with thanksgiving. And then J.I.

Packer, I guess he got this from. Herman Witzius. He says, the Bible opposes all long-faced asceticism by saying that if you enjoy health, good appetite, physical agility, a good marriage in the sense that you have been given them, you should enjoy them in the further sense of delighting in them. Such delight. Not the whole, but part of our duty and our service of God, for without it we are simply being ungrateful for good gifts.

Do we yet know how to enjoy ourselves, yes, physically too, to the glory of God? Don't ever disparage the abundance that God gives you and feel guilty about it, and walk around with a long faced asceticism, disparaging what the Father has graciously given you. How else are you to respond if you go beyond your daily bread? Listen, don't abuse it and don't put your trust in it. Listen to Psalm 62, verse 10: If riches increase, set not your heart on them.

Set your heart on the Father. Proverbs 23 verse 5, I love this. When your eyes light on it, it is gone. For suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. Everybody on Wall Street who trades stocks knows what that feels like.

Yeah. 1 Timothy 6, verses 9 and 17, Paul warns, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. And as for the rich in this present age, which would be all of us in this room. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but set their hope on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Paul said that.

And for those who have more than their daily bread, then Paul ends in 1 Timothy, he says, and they who are rich, that's all of us here. They who are rich, teach them, Timothy, they are to do good. Why? Because my father is good, and we want to look like the father who's generous. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share.

So, if you have more than your daily bread and their needs, and you're not meeting them. You're having a hard time praying. Give us this air daily bread because us as your brothers in need. We are to use the Father's resources to honor his name, the first petition. To love and serve our neighbor in our numerous vocations and callings, that's the third petition.

and the fourth petition. And the sixth. When we pray for Father, give us this day our daily bread, our temporal needs that we need daily to live. He's teaching us of the importance of the physical world. You know, too often believers Have been taught the idea that humans are basically a soul trapped in a body?

Did you know that that view of the body is based upon a Greek philosophical framework called dualism? It's a pagan view of the body, it is not a Christian view of the body. Listen to Michael Horton as he explains what Greek dualism is. Just listen carefully. In Greek philosophy, The immortal soul longs for its release from the prison house, that's your body, longs for its release from the prison house of death.

But we must remember that God created man as body and soul, not as everlasting incarceration. The scriptures set forth a profoundly distinct view from Greek thought. The Bible says that our bodies Fingernails, muscles. Fat cells, which could be a good thing. All of it.

Is very good. God saw everything, Genesis 1:31. God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. No defect, nothing missing. No problems.

It was very good. To be human is to be body and soul, material and immaterial, together. Genesis 2.7, Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. This petition shows us that God the Father cares for our bodies. As much as he cares.

No less than for our souls. God the Father's concern for the temporal welfare of his people is evident throughout this world. Listen, God cares about his physical creation, which means we should have a Christian ecology. We should have a Christian environmentalism that shows God cares about his physical universe. God cares about the temporal welfare and concern of his people and the church.

How do I know that? Because he established the diakonate. What is the diakona, deacons and deaconesses, who have been instituted by God in the church and gifted those individuals to serve the temporal needs, the daily bread of the people in that congregation? Deacons and deaconesses are, quote, agents of mercy in Christ's church. They are the congregation's social welfare workers.

Believers in the church didn't starve in the first century church. I mean, the first century church was perfect because if you read the book of Acts, it was way beyond not being perfect. Nonetheless, people in the church, their needs were not going unmet. And the deacons were created because the needs were increasing so greatly to ensure that the widows. The Greek and the Jewish widows were not being neglected.

Furthermore, listen. The doctrines of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation of the kingdom of God all reveal that the human beings are regarded as a whole persons, not merely as souls trapped in a body, longing to be released from their prison houses of death. Christians of all ages Have confessed the words of the Apostles' Creed. What are they? Listen.

I believe And the resurrection of the body. And the life everlasting.

So, do you know what this petition is? And the final analysis: give us this day our daily bread. This petition is a gospel petition. You knew I'd get back to the gospel eventually. Here it comes.

The gospel testifies to the importance of the Father's physical creation. Graham Goldsworthy says, if salvation consisted of our saving our souls as distinct from our bodies, it is difficult to see why Jesus needed to be a complete human being, body and soul and spirit, and to die bodily on the cross for us. The ultimate guide is the resurrection of Jesus, which was a bodily resurrection. The tomb was really empty. Ultimately, this emphasis, Father, give us our temporal, physical, daily needs, points us, listen, to the gospel.

How? Because not only does this give us our daily bread pertain to the Father's providential giving of our temporal needs, but it pertains to the Father's giving of our spiritual needs. We are body and soul. He saves the whole package. Jesus' feeding in John 6 of the 5,000 testifies to this fact.

Bread was an influential symbol in the Jewish context, and these are Jews listening to Jesus teach this Lord's Prayer. And so when Jesus says to this Jewish audience, give us this day our daily bread, the Jews in that audience would have recalled God's gracious provision of manna in the wilderness which sustained the children of Israel through their long and difficult journey in the desert. And in John chapter 6, Jesus links the feeding of the 5,000 with the fish and the loaves. with the manna that the Father provided in the desert. And I want you to listen to what he does.

He says that the manna in the desert, as well as the fish and the loaves, which met the temporal needs of all the people there on the day when he fed the 5,000, of all the children of Israel in the wilderness, that manna, that fish, those loaves, Point to him. Who is the bread of life? He says in John chapter 6, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always.

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Back in Matthew chapter 4. Jesus in the wilderness temptation. Is undoing all that Israel failed to do in the wilderness temptation.

Read about it in the book of Numbers. And as he is going through that wilderness temptation, He is holy, perfectly as a son, dependent upon the provision of his father for his temporal and spiritual needs, never sins like Israel. Never sins like you and me. And in Matthew chapter 4, verse 4, Matthew says he fulfills Deuteronomy 8, verse 3: Man shall not live by bread alone, but upon every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus did what Israel failed to do and what you and I have failed to do.

He did it and gives us that as a gift. Jesus is the manna that came down from heaven. He is the bread of life. And it was the will of our generous giving Father in heaven to send him to us to feed our souls and to meet our basic spiritual need, which is eternal life and resurrection to defeat death.

So Jesus goes on to say, I have come down from heaven. Not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, his father sent him. And this is the will of my Father who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. No better words of comfort when you're at a funeral than that.

God the Father is a giving, generous God because he is good and loving. And though in His common grace, listen carefully, He gives to the just and the unjust all of His temporal gifts, He not only to us gives all that we need necessary for our temporal life, but to his people, he doesn't give just common grace, he gives special grace, and special grace equals Jesus. And he gives us all that we need. To sustain us in this life and in the life to come spiritually. R.

C. Sproll says, Providence, which this prayer is all about, Providence. Providence is about God's provision. An integral element of that providence is his provision for our ultimate need. of salvation For God the Father so what loved the world that he gave gift gave his only unique son That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting eternal life.

God the Father provided Jesus the bread of life to feed every hungry soul. He came from heaven to meet our spiritual needs. And the good news that Jesus is teaching us is this. We can pray with confidence that our daily physical needs will be met, and we can pray that with assurance. Because we have favor with the Father because the Father has sent his Son to give us that favor.

And so out of his goodness, God the Father in His providential care has mercifully given to us the Son, the bread of life. And he has met every need we have temporally, physically, and eternally, and spiritually. And so as we look at the rest of the New Testament and we see how this concludes, it's not for nothing that Christians share a symbolic meal regularly in the church by which we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes at the Lord's Supper. We eat bread. It's not for nothing that the New Testament speaks.

and the of the perfected kingdom of God's people eating and drinking. At a feast. Bread consistently witnesses from the Old to the New Testament of the Father's lavish provision of both our temporal and our spiritual needs. This Father's provision of bread points us forward in faith, eagerly looking for the consummation of the Father's kingdom, because that's where, listen, that consummation of the kingdom, the perfected kingdom, the whole, not just your soul is saved, your body's saved, but not just your body and soul are saved in the resurrection, the whole universe is regenerated and the whole thing is saved. The gospel has much more to do with than just me and Jesus getting right.

It's the whole universe. He's saving everything. And so we finish with these words from this theologian. He says, How abundant! is that goodness and mercy.

The remarkable thing is that God not only counts every hair on our heads. but every sin in our lives and yet in his wisdom in power and with sacrificial justice. He shows us the splendor of his providence in providing us with his son. Uh Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville. Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fondill of Fairmount Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.