Text: Matthew 4:1–17; Matthew 6:11
Topic: How Jesus meets a deeper hunger in our lives

• I'd like you to have two different scenes in mind as we begin.
• One of them is relatively peaceful; the other is a battle.
• The first scene is of Jesus having recently entered his public ministry.
• Jesus has gathered the people together to teach them how to pray.
• In this text, Jesus is not simply teaching us motions to go through or words to repeat.
• Jesus is seeking to train our hearts, so that we might pray in a way that is appropriate to our relationship with God.
• The question we have to answer is, "What is he instructing us in? What is he trying to get into our hearts?"
• Now, in the second scene, Jesus is alone.
• The Spirit has led him to face serious temptation from the Devil concerning his hunger.
• Why, when Jesus claims so emphatically that man does not live by bread alone, does he include an appeal for daily bread in his brief model prayer?
• Many early commentators simply could not believe that Jesus was talking about real bread, but I believe he is.
• With this request for daily bread, Jesus is trying to instill three lessons in our hearts.

• First, Jesus teaches us to pray for daily bread, because he's training our hearts to be aware of our dependence on God for everything—all the way down to the most basic level.
• Jesus has deliberately chosen the most basic thing he can think of that would be easy for us to take for granted.
• We readily acknowledge our dependence on God when the big things come along, but we must become aware of our dependence on God in everything, top to bottom
• God used the gift of manna to train the people of Israel to be dependant on him.
• Jesus does the same thing in Matthew 6:11, instructing us to pray in such a way that we will remember our dependence upon God.
  • Deuteronomy 8
• Folks, the simple truth is this: we are dependent on God for all things.

• Second, Jesus teaches us to pray this way because he wants us to cultivate real gratitude even for the most basic things.
  • Illustration: In Directions for Daily Communion with God, Matthew Henry captures this well in a prayer: "Some will say 'I don't have anything to say to God!' … Have we not just slept, and is not sleep a gift from God? It is the morning of a new day. And is not each day a precious gift from God? Have we not clothes to put on this morning? Is there not food for us to eat?"
• Our prayers should mirror those in Psalm 103.
• A request for bread should always be followed by a prayer of thanksgiving.
• Fathers, when you gather around your table as a family, pause before you eat and tell your family, "All this is from God, so let's thank him for this food."

• Third, Jesus teaches us to pray in this way to help our hearts remember that bread alone will never satisfy.
• He's training our hearts to learn that we really live by something else.
  • Deuteronomy 8:3
• To paraphrase, God gave Israel manna so that they would have the daily experience of knowing that while the bread is good, it's not enough.
• In Matthew 4:4, Jesus responds to the temptation of the Devil by repeating those words from Deuteronomy 8: "Man does not live by bread alone, but he lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
• As Jesus speaks those words in Matthew 4, he has in his mind both the historical reality of Deuteronomy 8 and the purposes of God.
• Jesus wants us to pray for daily bread, realizing it's not enough.
• We need a different kind of bread—the words of life from God.
• God's got bread for you that does satisfy, and Jesus wants us to be aware of our need for that bread every day.
• In one of the most dramatic scenes in all of the Gospels, having just fed five thousand people with bread, Jesus says to the crowd, "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world … I am the Bread of Life."
• Jesus teaches us to ask for daily bread to remind us that bread is not enough.
• It is God's Word that gives us life.
• Can you say with the psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but you, and having you I desire nothing on earth; yes, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my life and my portion forever"?

• In Matthew 6:11, Jesus wants to instruct our hearts toward an awareness of our daily dependence on God for everything, to be grateful for all that we receive, and to turn us to the bread that really satisfies.
• The very one who is speaking these words of instruction about prayer is addressing our hearts, saying, "I am the Bread of Life. Come to me."