WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:30.000 Will open the message with a prayer as we did last week. And if you weren't here. We're praying through the Lord's Prayer in different languages and Phil might like to quickly explain to us. For those who don't know, Phil has spent time in the mission field in different countries, but one of the countries he spent time in is Fire Away Philippines. 2 00:00:30.000 --> 00:01:18.000 That would be Nigeria. Jan and I lived there for 20 years, spread over a long period. The official language of Nigeria is English. However, there are 300 indigenous languages, but of those, about three major ones. And one of those in the north part of Nigeria is the language of Hausa. And that's the one that Jan and I became familiar with. And I prayed the Lord's Prayer every morning in Hausa with a group in our prayer times when I was working in the medical department for five years. So this was my everyday for five years, I prayed this prayer in the Hausa language. So I think might be the first time I've got to pray it here in Summerhill. Here we go. 3 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:33.000 Well, let's pray the Lord's Prayer. Feel free to keep your eyes open during this. We're going to put the screen on. I'm going to pray the first line and Phil is going to pray in Hausa. The first line also repeating after me goes like this. Our Father who art in heaven. 4 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:35.000 Ubunmu wanda chicken sama. 5 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:49.000 Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 6 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:57.000 Abinda kakesu ayishi a chikendunia kamoyada akayinshi chicken sama. 7 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.000 Give us this day our daily bread. 8 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.000 Kabamu ranganga abincinini. 9 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.000 And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 10 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:15.000 Kagar FA tamana le for thin mu kamar mu ka garfata wadhanta sukhman. 11 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.000 And lead us not into temptation. 12 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:22.000 Karaka kaimu chikunjaraba. 13 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:24.000 But deliver us from evil. 14 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Ama ka khachemu da gamagun. 15 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.000 For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory. 16 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.000 Gama mulki de iko da girma nakane. 17 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 Forever and ever. Amen. 18 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.000 Har abada amin. 19 00:02:44.000 --> 00:10:38.000 Thank you, Phil. Thank you. You can clap. You can clap. Why not? Why not? Part three of our series the Lord's Prayer. The context of it is Matthew, chapter 5, 6 and 7. Jesus well known message called the Sermon on the Mount where we started talking about God as father. This is a little hexagon. Correct me if I'm wrong. Hexagon, anyone? Anyone? Hey, there we go. Six Sides. So there are six movements to the Lord's Prayer. You might remember week one, we talked about God, not just being God Almighty, but God being. And this is Jesus, a first century rabbi, introducing us for the very first time. You can call God Father. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. His name is to be made holy. Not only that, we got into your kingdom come. You see, a kingdom needs a king, right? A kingdom has a king. And so he's not just a father, but he's also a king. He's king and father. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And today, well, it might just seem like a quick one liner to us, but there is just so much to this line of, in fact Israel's history. In just these few words, give us this day our daily bread. And of course, over time you and I have prayed. I'm sure this prayer, whether it's in church or a special occasion or at a funeral, we kind of just read on. But this is called the hinge. This is the bridge between the top half of the Lord's Prayer and the bottom half. You see, the top half has these deep, profound spiritual truths of this creator God of the universe that we can in fact call Father, that we pray that his kingdom will come and his will will be done. But right in this middle of this prayer, we come to the third part today of him being provider, where we request this piece of bread of all things. We're requesting a piece of, of bread. Give us this day our daily bread. And of course, what we're finding here, we're finding Jesus Himself. Echoing the story of the Israelites in the wilderness on what it means to trust God as provider. Let's get right into it this morning because this line points to the reality very much so that God is our provider. And of course, God has many names. And one of his names, of course is provider. In the Old Testament, God is given names that describe people's lived experience of him. And in Genesis chapter 22, Abraham has an experience of God and he gives God the name. He's the one. Abraham's the one who gives God the name Jehovah Jireh, which means the God who provides Jehovah Jireh, our provider. Abraham's the one who gives him that name. Because it's not just what God does, but it's who God is. And God as provider has a rich history throughout Scripture, which Jesus would have known this when he prayed this prayer, he wasn't teaching the disciples how to pray. The disciples already knew they were Jewish. They knew prayers, they memorized prayers. Remember, they knew how to pray. Teach us to pray. We saw something in Jesus that we just admired, just love his relationship, now that we know, with his Father. And so Jesus knew this. And when he said, give us this day, every Jewish person that was listening would have recognized this as a reference to another really important and well known part, part of Israel's history, the exodus from slavery in Egypt, of course, with Moses as their leader at that particular time in history. And so as we build our picture of God this morning as provider, we're going to turn to Exodus chapter 16. And let me just kind of paint the scene for us where the Israelites have escaped Egypt at this time, they're in the desert and food is scarce. People are starting to grumble. I don't know about you, I would probably want to be one of those people as well, who would also be starting to grumble. And you think about this scarce environment that the people of God find themselves in. They cannot. They do not have the ability to harvest. They do not have the ability to plant. They do not have the ability to be settled. They are in a time of nothing. And when you're in a time of nothing, all you can do, all you can do is trust God. For this day. This day. Verse 4. Let's pick it up. Verse 4, Exodus chapter 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, I will rain down. Say this word with me. Bread. I will rain down bread. Now that's an interesting thing, first of all, to be raining down upon you. But it's an interesting thing, isn't it, that God would choose to rain down bread upon his people from heaven for you, the people, to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. Daily bread, remember? Daily bread. Enough for that day. This is a trust test between God and his people. This daily trust of God. Of course, this is a big part of praying in our own personal prayer lives, realizing that God is the only one who can truly meet our needs on a daily basis. Let's Read on. Exodus 16. This is verse 13 to 15. In the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, what is it for? They did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, it's the bread. It's the bread. Here's this word again. It's the bread the Lord has given you to eat. And when the measured. Sorry. And when they measured it by the Omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much. And the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. Then Moses said to them, no one is to keep any of it until morning. I wonder if you'd be in this category. He says, however. However, the naughty ones among them. Is that you? Is that me? Could that be me? However, some of them paid no attention to their leader. They paid no attention to Moses. 20 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Hmm. 21 00:10:39.000 --> 00:13:40.000 They kept part of it until morning, but it was in fact full of maggots and began to smell. So what we're talking about, this is daily trust, daily trust for daily bread that God will show up tomorrow. But you don't need to worry about that, because why? One of his names, Abraham, was the one, Jehovah Jireh, our provider, the God who provides. That's who he is, not necessarily what he does. That's who our God is. Give us this day. Our daily bread is a declaration of trust in that our God is a provider. And of course, the Israelites, you might be familiar with the story, and if not, allow me to share with you. They failed this trust test. Their grumbling, their lack of faith, their longing for the old life. We want to go back to Egypt meant that what could have been an 11 day trip became a 40 year journey in the wilderness. This is an incredible story, not just known within the life of the church, but also outside. I think people know this outside. And so this whole generation, including Moses, including Moses, died before entering the promised land. A little bit of homework today or during the week is Deuteronomy 34. Very, very simple passage, Deuteronomy 34 this week, if you could, where Moses is on the mountain. He's looking and he sees the promised land in the distance. And it clearly says that he died at the age of 120. And it says that his eyesight was still good. Who would like good eyesight at the age of 120, right? His health. Scripture teaches us that Moses was still very healthy at 120, yet he died at 120. Enter Joshua. We won't go there today. But the daily provision of bread sustained each day for 40 years because God needed to teach a new generation that they could rely on him to survive every day. All they had, all they had was a daily trust in a God who provided. And that generation conquered the promised Land. Because they were trusting God. That's all they knew what and how to do. They were the ones who got to walk in the promise because they trusted God every day. Let's read on. In Deuteronomy, it shares the story here. This is Moses now speaking about God, and he says this. That he gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known to what. To humble you and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. He's saying, this is not to break 22 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.000 you, 23 00:13:43.000 --> 00:14:27.000 this is to grow you. Whatever you are going through at the moment, whatever you're going through, keep going. This is to grow you, to give you wisdom, to give you insight, to give you discernment into your future. Keep going. You may say to yourself, this is Moses. My power and the strength of my hands have produced the wealth for me. Just press pause there for a moment. I just can't remember. That movie helped me out. Tom Hanks with the volleyball called Wilson. There you go. Castaway. Thank you. Honestly, I totally forgot that movie. You know, when Tom Hanks gets to that island. I don't know if you've seen this movie. It's called Castaway. Tom Hanks gets to this island and somehow he's feeling pretty lonely, right? And he's living in a cave. 24 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Cave. 25 00:14:27.000 --> 00:19:06.000 And he's got no idea what's happening around, how he's going to get out of. And he creates a friend. Correct me if I'm wrong, right. Creates a friend out of a volleyball. Volleyball. I think it's a volleyball. Volleyball. And he. Some. Sorry, is it volleyball? Yeah. And he puts blood on his hands, somehow creates blood and puts this face. This face on this. On this volleyball. I'm going way too far into the story. Where was it going with that? Oh, yeah, yeah, I think I got it. I think I got to come back. Oh, yeah. And he comes in because he creates fire, right? And he says, look what I have created. Do you remember that scene? Look what I have. And sometimes we get a bit like him, don't we? Look what I have done. And Moses is saying the exact same thing. Where do I get to? You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he, it is he, it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. Moses knew. Moses knew in the time of plenty that the temptation is to forget God, who is our provider. I think as we reflect on our own life, I think the biggest mistake of your and my life. When we forget who it is who in fact provides for you and I, each and every day. You see, you breathe his air. You see, you eat his food, you wear his clothes, you manage his resources. You live on his planet. You and I are warmed by his son. And you enjoy the beauty of his creation. Everything in life that is essential to you and everything in life that has value to you. Your health, your heart, your children, your grandchildren, your family, your salvation all comes from God. What's one of his names? He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. Number two. This prayer reminds us every day, every day that we should live with full dependence upon God, bar none. Now, let's be very clear. It's not that you are aware that he is provider. It's not that at all. Let's get the difference here. It's that you are depending on God to provide for you. Let's bring it home just for a moment, if we could. To Australia, To Tasmania. The problem in Australia for most of us that this prayer give us this day our daily bread makes absolutely, absolutely no sense whatsoever. Think about it. We, most of us, most of us not all, have plenty. And this prayer, should it not be for other countries who in fact need bread to in fact survive? And so for us in the country of Australia, it does not necessarily make sense to, to pray this prayer, give us this day our daily bread because we are far, well too off. And I want to bring us to a passage you may never have seen in the Bible before. I want to read this to you. I think this is outstanding. The book of Proverbs is a book written by King Solomon at this particular time in history wasn't a time of scarcity. This is a time of abundance. In fact, I would say great abundance. King Solomon wasn't the only one who wrote this book of Proverbs. I try, try to read a chapter of Proverbs each and every day. Outstanding book. There are other writers, but mostly, mostly, King Solomon did put this together and he says this. Two things I ask of you, Lord, two things. Do not refuse me before I die. Number one, keep falsehood and lies far from me. Number two, give me neither neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my. My daily bread. My daily bread. And here's why, here's why he goes on verse 9. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say, who is the Lord? In other words, I won't need the Lord if I have too much, 26 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:07.000 or 27 00:19:06.000 --> 00:34:51.000 I may become poor and steal. And so Dishonor the name of my God. To summarize, don't make me rich, don't make me poor. Just give me today my daily bread. So once again, let's come back to Australia. Let's come back to our own nation. Let's come back to where you and I live. This does not make any sense. Why? We live in a place just like Solomon lived in, a place of abundance. Where did the Israelites live? In the wilderness? In a place of scarcity. There's not a lot you can do in scarcity but rely totally and utterly each and every day upon God. Especially. Especially. Let's go there for a moment. Come on. When we solely focused on building our retirement accounts and nest eggs and equity, this request, this request that we pray, this one line is the request of somebody who all they can depend on and trust in is one day at a time. Jesus actually believes. Jesus actually believes. That's the reality that we're all living in anyway. And here's what's happening to you and I. Jesus saw this from a mile away. Here's what's happening in your eye. We in fact trick ourselves. We trick ourselves in thinking that because we have a year's store saved up of savings or three months of an emergency fund that somehow that we are secured in Jesus mind, you are not secure. Let's go back six years ago to 2020, what unfolded in our world? Let's go back even a few years ago to the global financial crisis, gfc. Let's go back to times in history where the world was shaken up so much that where does my security come from? In my setting, we had hundreds, no, I'd say thousands of people beam in to go. What's the church thinking at this time in the COVID period of 2020? Thousands of people asking questions, those we hadn't seen for so long. What's the church thinking? Because I live in a day of abundance, I don't need God. But when scarcity comes along, this prayer is not a reminder. It's a reminder to us of where our true security comes from. And it's not in an emergency fund. It's actually that my life is sustained daily. Number three, we are to pray for a daily provision, not for a year's supply. Very clear. See, it's not just about provision. It's about daily provision. It does not say, Jesus does not say give us today a year's supply. He could have said that, by the way. He could have said that. But the truth is we'd rather have a Year's supply. Why? Because then we'd feel secure. We wouldn't feel stressed out or worried and we'd have that buffer, we'd have that little bit of extra. It's kind of that spiritual tug of war. What we're finding here between Solomon, a period of Solomon's time of abundance to that of the people in the wilderness, between you and I doing enough to provide for ourselves and us, trusting in God to provide for us and knowing that he will do so. The instructions are very clear to the Israelites. When you go out and pick up that bread, pick up just enough, just one day. Don't pick enough up for two days. Don't pick enough up for a week or a month, just today. That's God's instruction to. He wanted them to know that every single day that he would provide. So let's talk about, just for a moment, this tug of war. Steve, doesn't the proverbs teach us to plan ahead? Isn't that what King Solomon's saying? You see, this isn't about Jesus saying, don't make business plans, don't make business plans for tomorrow as much he is saying this, that remember with all your plans and make them and your work, that no matter what you have, have the attitude, have the attitude that God will provide what you need today. And that your existence today isn't the result of your planning even. Because even your planning is all a gift that you did not create for yourself. So Jesus isn't saying, let's be very clear, don't make plans beyond today's bread. It's a request, remember? It's a request for God today to give me what I need for today. And he's training your mind to see that every day comes as a gift. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, but we have today in this moment. That's where Jesus wants his followers and their mindsets to be this radical in the moment. Trust and dependence on the generosity of God for God does not promote self sufficiency. So this is a powerful line. Give us this day. Give us today our daily bread. It's a powerful line that I'm not going to worry about tomorrow. My faith in you, my trust in you to provide for this day and tomorrow, in fact will. In fact, that will be another day. There will be another day where it all starts over again, trusting you again to provide. Give us this day. And it's in this context, it's in this same context, Matthew, chapter six that Colleen brought to us there before, where Jesus says, therefore I tell you do not worry about you. I'm not going to read this all again. You heard it before. This is the context of the Bible reading this morning, Colleen, brought just a moment ago. This is what Jesus is saying to us. I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you're going to eat, drink, your body, what you wear, et cetera. And why. Why do you worry about your clothes? Is that how God clothes the grass of the field? You of little faith, don't worry saying, what shall we eat? Should we drink? What shall we wear? Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own, does it not? Does it not? I know you know that, but here's one final truth that we cannot miss this morning. One final truth. And this is where it's all pointing. He's clever, very clever. Right back with the people, God's people in the wilderness. That ultimately, this prayer directs our hearts beyond daily bread. To Jesus, the bread of life. It points beyond the physical provision to our deepest need that you can, yes, have a full stomach, but have an empty heart. You can have everything that the world can offer you, but yet feel lost and lack peace. And there's something deeply missing within. Because our deepest hunger is not for physical, it's for the spiritual. And he's the one who satisfies the hunger of the human soul with forgiveness, with grace, with mercy, with love, with eternal life and with hope. And Jesus wants them to know a little bit later on, a little bit later on this, that he declared, I am the what? Here it is. He uses this word again. How brilliant is, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. You see, people who pray this prayer are people who desire to be nourished. People who pray this prayer are people who are empty on the inside, but need God to provide for them daily. Let's be very clear, comfortable people don't pray this prayer. Hungry people pray this prayer. Hungry people gather hungry people study the living word of God. Hungry people thirst for holiness. Hungry people thirst for righteousness. And go on. In verse 51, it says a similar thing. For I am the living. Here's the word. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. And I want you to know, if you're here this morning and if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord, Savior and friend, your first prayer is this, to give us today this living bread that comes from heaven and that you will live forever and ever and ever. Give us this day our daily bread. It's an opportunity every day, every day, every day to trust God who is our provider. And by the way, when it comes to prayer, if he doesn't answer your prayers, he is still your Father. Remember the hexagon. He is still your Father who loves you. He is still sovereign King who reigns. He is still your provider, and you and I are still to trust him daily. I wanted to finish off with this because this is something I wrestled through with my studies this week in preparing such a message to bring. I wanted to finish off by saying, well, asking a question and hopefully helping answer that particular question because I asked it myself once again. I want to go back to this difference between Jesus praying this prayer, give us this day our daily bread, where he's referring to the Exodus, the Exodus wilderness prayer prayer instead of an abundance prayer to fill our barns with overflowing. Isn't Jesus a God of abundance? Absolutely he is. I'm not talking about the Prosperity Gospel. I don't believe in that. In fact, I think the Prosperity Gospel is a half truth. I do believe God does return, but not just for our benefit, not just for my benefit for others. So I do believe in a half truth of the Prosperity Gospel. I don't like that word and it's been turned into nasty. I'll speak into that at some stage later on. So why the wilderness prayer and not the abundance prayer of John 10:10? Jesus said, I've come to give you life and life in all of its abundance, life in all of its fullness. Give and it will come back to you pressed out. And it's the circumstances. It's the circumstances of those two situations. Remember the wilderness scarcity. Remember the time of Solomon, rebuilding the temple, prosperity, abundance. Why wouldn't Jesus pray that particular. So what is it? What is it? Why wouldn't he pray that we give us this day, our day of abundance, to make us rich? Yes. Work hard. Store up what Proverbs talks to us about Plant. Absolutely. Plan for next month, plan for next year. What Jesus is doing here with his prayer when he says, give us this day our daily bread is that Jesus is encouraging his disciples at this particular time in history and even to today, is that we are to put ourselves, we are to put our lives into position of radical trust, radical trust in Him. There's value to Jesus that his disciples find themselves in a place of living day by day, that if you pray this daily, if you start to pray this day, it will start to not just shape the view of all of life, but all of those things that you and I hold onto called possessions. And so Jesus wants his followers to imagine when we pray that particular prayer, that our moment by moment experience existence is not something that we've created for ourselves, but in fact we've received as a gift. It's the bread of the moment and it's necessary for this moment of existence. Give me what I need for this moment. And I want to finish up by saying, from James, Here we go. Sorry, I forgot to bring that prayer up. Wilderness versus abundance, Scarcity versus stability. Responsibility. From James, Jesus, half brother. Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You're a mistake that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, if it's the Lord's will, we'll live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes as all such boasting is evil. Give us this day our daily bread. Is Jesus inviting us into radical trust? Radical trust for provision, two questions I've got for us to sit and consider just for a moment in response to that. And as you consider these questions, I'd like to say these questions for the sound for the audio for our podcast. Number one, what are you carrying into tomorrow that God is asking you to trust him with today? Number two, have you personally put your trust in Jesus the bread of life, and are you willing to make him the deepest source of your hope, security and life? Let me close in prayer, Father. Thank you. You are Jehovah Jireh, our provider. Teach us. We pray each and every day, including me, to trust you for this day. We release tomorrow's worries before you now. We release our need for control and we simply say, give us this day. Take us beyond trusting you for what you provide to trusting you with our whole lives. May we find our deepest hunger satisfied in Jesus. The bread of life. Draw those who have never put their trust in Jesus. We pray. Give us this day what we need and teach us to trust you with every tomorrow. In Jesus name we pray. Amen and amen.