Sermons 2025

Text: 4th Petition of Lord’s Prayer 

Outline 

1. Daily Bread 

2. Thankful Bread 

Sermon 

Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer “Give us this day our daily bread.” 

What does this mean? God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. 

What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors and the like. 

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Did you enjoy breakfast this morning? It was pretty tasty and helped to make you less hungry. This is an example of what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer. We pray that we will be given everything that we need for this body and life. Our daily bread includes lots of things in our lives, our clothing, our homes, our money, and much more. How does God give us our daily bread? How can we use the daily bread that we are given to help those around us? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you. 

1. Daily Bread 

We pray here that we may be given our daily bread. We pray not in thanks for what we had yesterday. Nor do we beg for what we will receive tomorrow, or next month, or next year. Rather, we pray for daily, what we need here and now. How do we get our daily Bread? 

Ultimately everything we have and are comes from the beloved Hand of our loving Heavenly Father. If God were not watching out for us and giving us every good gift, we would be able to do nothing for ourselves. 

As one such example, make your own oxygen to breath. How long would you last? At most maybe a few minutes before death sets in. 

We do not even think about our breathing or our hearts beating, they just happen. It just goes to show how we take even the smallest things for granted. Even worse, we fail to give thanks for the good things that we do receive. 

We fall into the prideful trap of Satan and the world around us in thinking that I have everything I have because I worked hard for it. It is the reward of my efforts and dedication. The reason I have money in the bank is because of my hard work at my job. The reason I have clothing, food, drink, a loving spouse, and roof over my head is because of my hard work and efforts. We fall in love with our possessions and things, always seeking to outdo do one another, not in showing love, but in who can have the best, biggest, most expensive and brightest toy, at least until something better comes along that we desire. 

In our pride and arrogance, we are blinded to the fact that there are people out there who worry and wonder where their daily bread is going to come from. Moms and dads, even children, going to bed hungry again. Just here in Montana alone, 67% of households live below the poverty line, with many of them stating that money for food is stretched tighter than ever, to the point that some are like Amanda from Billings. With everything cut already from the budget, “I now am selling my plasma to try and bridge the gaps but we are still struggling.” That comes from a family where the parents are nurses, I am sure that it is even worse for those who are less fortunate….From a survey of 652 people from 2041 households, 60% of Adults have ate less or skipped meals because there wasn't enough money for food. Of these, most (55%) did so almost every month. 

1. Thankful Bread 

Our Lord knew this pain of hunger. In the incarnation, He knew what it was like to be hungry and thirsty, to need to depend upon the Father for every good blessing daily. In His perfect obedience to the Father, Jesus shows us how we can rightly thank God for every blessing that He gives to us as we are in service to our neighbors. When the disciples come to Him after He has taught five thousand people all day, saying, “Lord send them away to find food.” Our Lord replies, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Luke 9:13-17) Our Lord gave thanks to the Father for the daily bread He provided for them, then He broke and gave until all were fully satisfied, including providing for His own disciples from the leftovers!

 Rather than depending upon Himself, Jesus fully depended upon the Father for His daily bread, knowing that the Father would give everything in His time. Even upon the cross, suffering the humiliation, shame, and agony, Jesus still commits Himself into the Father’s care. 

Knowing that our Lord has suffered, died, and risen to forgive us of our pride, arrogance, and worry, we are transformed by His Spirit working in us. We do not need to worry about what the future holds. We do not need to horde food, to be greedy, or wasteful. 

Rather, we can live content, knowing that the Lord will give us everything that we need to support this body, and life, unto life everlasting. Being content does not mean that life will be easy, that we will never want for things upon this earth. Rather, we trust that we will have simply what we need. We look, not to ourselves or to the work of our hands in pride, but simply to the Lord to open His hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Secure in what our Lord has done for us upon the cross and content with every blessing He provides, we strive to show that contentment in our daily lives. 

We take up collections, like we did this past Thursday for the Rescue Mission that their hunger could be eased. We have blankets, quilts, gas and food cards, to give out to those in need so they and their children can be warm, and full bellies, even if for a night. We help others to find stable jobs so that they can provide for their families and have a roof over our heads. Because being content does not just mean sitting idle waiting for our daily bread to just fall out of the sky. It means we are busy working to provide not only for ourselves, but also for those around us. 

Just think, where does your food come from? The farmer grows the crops, the fieldhands help to plant and harvest them. The rancher cares for the animals, the butcher kills and processes them, the grocer sells them, the cashier make sure that everything is paid for so that no one breaks the Seventh commandment. It is through our vocations, as simple and as varied as they are, that the Lord meets our physical and spiritual needs. Through the work of our hands, the Lord blesses us with daily bread, that we might daily be a blessing to those around us. As we begin this new church year, let us always be hard at work, in thanksgiving for what our Lord has done for us through His incarnation, death, and resurrection from the dead, until the day when all hunger, thirst, and pain shall be no more, forever and ever. 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.