‘Blessed to be a blessing’

By Ron v. Leerdam
Scripture Reading Psalm 62

Lord’s Day 50

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
I love fishing! Particularly in a boat because you are able to move around trying to find where the fish are biting.
I often like to say, ‘They call it fishing, not catching.’
Some 10 years ago I was invited by a friend to go fishing with him in his boat off Port Fairy, Victoria.
Early one morning he asked me what might be a strange question.
‘Can you pray to catch fish?’
I replied yes – but not with much conviction.
How would you answer? Is it okay to ask to pray for a fish?
Today I can with conviction say YES!
Why? Because the our Lord Himself taught us to pray,
‘Give us today our daily bread!’
Recently I was out fishing with a friend.
We kept moving around because all we had caught was a few Gurnard and one small Snapper.
It was nearly time to go home and we were blessed with a Gummy Shark, I said, ‘Thank you Lord!’
Then I started thinking about this sermon.
We were blessed with a large snapper and another good sized one. We went home praising the Lord for his unfailing love and faithfulness – fish an answer to prayer!
Does that mean God promises to give us fish every time we go?
No! Only if it is good for us.
We can make our plans, but do so knowing that our sovereign God has his plans that are ultimately for our good. As we step out in faith turning our hand to this or that; we say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

“Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say,
‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the Name of my God.” Proverbs 30:8-10

When we pray to the Lord, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’,
we are asking Him to take care of all our physical needs.
The term bread is not just a reference to a loaf of bread.
It embraces all our temporal needs in order to live.
Without water we thirst and die.
Without food we cannot live.
Without shelter we freeze or bake in the sun.
Our Lord who has wonderfully made each of us in His own image has given us all we need to live.
Unfortunately, indeed tragically, too often people do not acknowledge that every good gift comes from the hand of our Father in heaven. Jesus teaches us to pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
God is gracious in answering prayer: ‘Blessed to be a blessing’

Is Jesus teaching us to just pray and trust God will provide all we need, sending manna from heaven and water from a rock? When the Israelites entered the promised land, the manna stopped. Now the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob could work the land and reap the harvest. The Lord promised to bless them with plenty if only they would faithfully keep His commands.
But unbelief and turning away from the one true living God to worship idols would result in God cursing them. God’s temporal blessings would vanish and instead of peace with the nations they would be taken into captivity. This punishment from the hand of Almighty God came so that God’s people might recognize that they are called to worship Him alone – the giver of every good gift.
God’s desire was that they humble themselves, repent of their evil ways and return to Him. Jesus summarized the laws of the Old Testament saying,

’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:30-31

God wants us to be wise in the way we live.
Each one in faith and as they are able turn their hands to work for a living, engaging in building a business or working for a boss or farming the land?
If God does not bless our work we die.
So it is with thankfulness that we bless the Lord and praise Him the giver of every good gift. Does God want us to give away everything we get?
Not necessarily, but he wants us to be generous in giving to those in need.
My dear friends, each of us has to wrestle with the evil inclination that rises from our hearts – selfishness, self interest, me first, my way or the highway.

The one who is wise learns from Scripture,
“One man gives freely, yet gains more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will be refreshed.
People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.” Proverbs 11:24-26

These temporal blessings from God are received in order that our ultimate aim each day the Lord gives us life and breath is to:
‘Seek first the kingdom of God and all the other things we need
will be given as well.’ Matthew 6:33
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul?
Salvation is by Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone,
and the final authority for all Christian teaching is the Bible alone.
We thank God for His mercy!
We thank Him for His grace.

Along with the Psalmist we declare;
“Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from Him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken…
my hope comes from him…
Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him…
Do not trust in extortion or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.
One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”
and “You reward everyone according to what they have done.” Psalm 62

We thank Him that we may read the Scriptures in our own language and that more and more people throughout the world are being given access to the Bible the living Word of God, the word of life. We can read the Word of truth and have our faith nourished. The Reformation was no accident but came under the sovereign hand of God. Christ as the Head of the church is in heaven. Because He is in heaven we, His members are also represented in heaven and can be assured that the day is coming when we will be united with Jesus in glory. All power and authority has been given to Jesus. He is the ruler over all things. Scripture tells us that at this present point in time Jesus is interceding for all whom the Father has given Him. That is; Jesus is our advocate bringing our prayers before the throne of grace. Let me ask you, could we have any more any positive encouragement to pray than this?

Jesus takes our prayer and presents our needs to the Father. When we don’t know what we ought to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us so we humbly with reverence and awe say,
‘Lord your will be done!
Lord, I know that ultimately your plans for me are good – even though I am struggling to see how my present circumstances and situation can possibly achieve that.
When I don’t know what to pray, I say:
Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name,
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
These are requests that ask that the Lord’s cause become our cause.
We are asking our Father to help us to know Him, praise, worship and honor Him.
We are asking that He come and rule over us more and more till His kingdom comes.
We are asking that our Father’s will is done by us and all people.
The first request that deals with asking the Father to make our cause His cause is:
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
The catechism summarizes this request as meaning:
“Do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know that You are the only source of every good, and that neither our work and worry or Your gifts can do us any good without Your blessing. And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put trust in You alone.”
Who do you put your trust in for your daily bread?
The generosity of the government? We can be thankful for the pension.
We can be thankful for welfare when we have no employment. We can be thankful for the work we are able to do. But to whom ought we express our thanks?

To our heavenly Father who is the only source of everything good.
We only have to read our newspapers to see the many reasons we have for giving thanks to our Father in Heaven.
We have no war in our country – at present.
We have a welfare system – imperfect though it may be – many countries have no such thing. We are a rich nation – who can we thank for that?

Yes, the more we open our eyes, the more we must confess that God is the only source of everything good. He gives us our daily bread and more besides. To Him alone belongs the thanks. Let us never put our trust in anyone else to supply us with our physical needs.

There is a very important aspect which we can bear in mind when we are sharing the gospel with others. We pray, ‘give us today our daily bread’ in order that we might know the Father.
In our imperfect world we will come across hunger, famine, poverty, sickness, etc.
We can only minister effectively to a person’s spiritual needs if we supply their physical needs first. When we are used by God to meet a person’s hunger then
when they are no longer listening to their hunger pains, they are able to listen to their spiritual pain and we may be able to point them to the One who is the source of all good. Yes God has given the fruits of the earth to meet our physical
needs and we can know God from His gracious provision, however, we only can know of His provision for our spiritual needs through Christ.
We are Christ’s ambassadors.
We are the bearers of good news.
We can share with others of our faith in Him who is the bread of life and the living water. When we eat of Him, we have the hunger of our souls satisfied.
When we drink of Him, we have our thirsty hearts sated.
James 2:15-17 tells us that faith is expressed by action.
“What good is it brothers, if a man claims to have faith but
has no deeds?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm
and well-fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs,
what good is it?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by
action, is dead.”
In this way we show that we are the disciples of Jesus. As Jesus disciples we are often used by God to supply the needs of others and thus show others that our Father in heaven is the only true source of everything good.

If we should find ourselves in need, we can be assured that God will supply our needs – not necessarily our wants – though others.
Jesus exhorts us, “Do not worry about tomorrow, what you shall eat or drink or what you shall wear.”

Your heavenly Father knows these things. Indeed we have Jesus interceding for us before the throne of grace.
If our Father feeds the sparrows, aren’t we much more valuable than they?
Surely He will care for us.
Put your trust in Him.
Talk to those who went through the depression and war.
God was gracious.

And for those believers who did not make it, what was their destiny?
The place where there is no more want, hunger, pain, sorrow or tears and everlasting life.
Do not misunderstand the Scriptures. There are those who would place no value on material things – write them off as of little importance.
But this is not what Jesus teaches.
He taught His disciples to pray for their daily bread.
But on the other hand, we need to remember that there is more to life
than food and drink and clothes and things. Without our Father’s blessing all these gifts can do us any good.

Let me give you an example.
A man can be a billionaire – enjoy all the good things of life,
but if He doesn’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, what do all the material possessions profit him?
NOTHING.

There is a happiness, joy, peace, and contentment that money cannot buy.
It comes by knowing Jesus.
Knowing that Jesus has given you eternal life.
Knowing that that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

As is the nature of prayer, we don’t just say,
“Lord give us today our daily bread” and then wait for
manna to fall from heaven or water to flow from a rock.
But may the Lord enable us to get our priorities right to love Him first, to seek first His kingdom, to seek His blessing on our work as we work for Him – His glory.

If we fail in this, what will our life have been worth?
Let us faithfully pass on the ‘baton of our faith’ in God to our children, grandchildren and all we meet.
We declare – the creator God is the giver of every good gift – the greatest expression of His divine love is the gift of His Son our Savior and Lord.
He suffered in our place and died for our sins so we perish not but have eternal life in His Name. We acknowledge that we are travelers on a journey, we are only
passing through. We are content to live in tents or our car if we must.
We do not set deep roots into the fabric of this world but our eyes are fixed on Jesus. Our minds are focused on the heavenly city that has foundations and whose architect is God. So the believer prays every morning, Heavenly Father:
Give us this day our daily bread, so that we may continue on the journey of faith, passing on the ‘baton of faith’ for the glory and praise of your most holy Name.

Amen.