I remember a story a friend told me a few years back. She said she was in the drive through at McDonalds getting something for lunch. I don’t remember exactly what it was she said she ordered because it was a long time ago, but for talking purposes we will say it was a Big-Mac. She gets up to the speaker and out of habit she says, “I need a Big Mac combo.” For some reason the way she said it caught her attention that day. She was telling me she thought to herself, did I really say that, “I need a Big-Mac.” I don’t need a Big-Mac, I want a Big-Mac. And with that we got ourselves into a pretty in depth discussion about what we perceive as needs.
I know that we all do this quite often. I need a new coat, I need new shoes, I need you to turn the heat up. I need a fork, which some of us found out was not actually necessary at the men’s breakfast last month. What kind of things come into your mind when you think of a need? If you remember from two weeks ago when we read 1 Timothy 6, Paul described our needs as nothing more than food and clothing. I know I would consider a few more things than that to be needs. I know that there are a vast many things which we consider needs, that fall more definitively into the category of wants. But I don’t want to talk today about what we perceive as needs or wants, rather I want to talk about what lengths we go to in order to satisfy needs. What does a need cause you to do?
I started thinking about this a few weeks back during the day. Nothing particularly great or exciting was happening. I didn’t read anything by any great author that sparked my intrigue. In fact it was a pretty plain regular day with a lot to do and not much time to do it. In fact I was in the middle of working on a sermon a few weeks ago. Sarah had called and we were only able to talk for a moment because I had a lot of things to get done. I was really hungry, but I was skipping lunch and breakfast, because I did not have time. As I was working, trying to keep distractions at bay, a need suddenly arose in me. I needed to use the restroom. So I got up and did what needed to be done, but then on the way back a realization hit me. When I had a pressing need, a real need that absolutely had to be addressed, no matter how busy I was or how many things needed to be done I took time and fulfilled that need. Imagine that you probably did not think of using the restroom when you were thinking of needs in your life. But realistically that is one of the most basic and unarguable needs in your life. It is something that must be done. When you feel a need, a true need that you cannot get away from, come to light no matter what you are doing you stop it all and go to fulfill that need. A true need interrupts your day. It takes priority over everything else until it is accomplished. I mean just think about it for a minute. Imagine the inconveniences you overcome when you need the restroom. You will make time for it. You might wake from your sleep and even get out of bed for it at 3am. There is not much I would get out of bed for at 3am. You would leave the tv and get off the couch. You would even stop at a gas station slowing your progress on a road trip. But none of this is what struck as profound to me. As I was thinking about this I had to ask myself do I treat God as a need in my life. Is He a great enough need that I would wake from sleep, forgo meals, turn off the tv, set aside a busy workload for. Does God interrupt and dictate my schedule or does he fit into it? Take the busiest day of your life and you will still find time to use the restroom, but take that same day and will you find time for God?
Turn with me Psalm 109:21-31
Psalm 109:21 - 110:1 21 But you, O GOD my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me! 22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. 23 I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. 24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat. 25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads. 26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love! 27 Let them know that this is your hand; you, O LORD, have done it! 28 Let them curse, but you will bless! They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad! 29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak! 30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. 31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
If you ever take time to read the Psalms or read the story of David you might notice something. David did not simply want God, but he firmly believed that he needed God. He cries out, “Deliver me.” He says his knees are weak from fasting because he has been seeking and pursuing what he needed, which was God. Only God can save him. He stands at the right hand of the needy. David believed firmly that without God’s active participation in his life he would be unable to survive. Not just physically, but emotionally. He cries out in another Psalm, “Why are you downcast, oh my soul” and then, “Yet I will still praise him.” He will still praise him because he knows that God is the only one who can fix the downcast soul, the only one who can fulfill the need. David knows and believes that God is a basic requirement in his life, just as food, water, and going to the restroom are.
I am not sure if you are familiar with it, but there is a place in Michigan called White Castle. It is a unique fast food joint that sells sliders. Well their slogan is, “What you crave.” They would like you to think that you need White Castle burgers and that is debatable. But ultimately we do need God. So is there a craving for God in our lives? I think that for every need in our life there is a craving to fulfill it. Think about it. How do you know when you are hungry? Well you get this empty feeling in your stomach that needs fillings. Thirsty? Dry mouth and throat. Sleepy? Drowsy eyes and yawning. Restroom? Ultimately for every real legitimate need we have in our life there is a craving, or a desire to fulfill. We don’t have control over it, we can’t choose to stop desiring sleep, food, water. So then do we crave God, do we have a desire deep down that is calling out to be filled? Yes we absolutely do. I think often times we just have a hard time recognizing it. I need to be loved, so I will fill my life with friends. I need to have a purpose, so I pour myself into my job. I need to feel happy, so I fill my life with things. I believe that deep within each and every one of us there is a very specific craving and empty feeling that needs to be fulfilled. A need that can only be filled by God. He is what we need. Without him we are nothing and we will fall apart. I know that we need to have the emptiness filled more than we need our empty stomachs filled, or our bathroom needs met. We need God more than we need to sleep. But what is happening is we are filling our need for him with inappropriate responses. What happens when you feel pang of a need and address it with the wrong solution? What would happen if every time you were hungry you went to sleep because you thought that the hunger pangs and empty stomach was actually telling you that you were tired? What if every time you felt tired you went to the bathroom? Or even worse yet, what if every time you needed the bathroom you went to the kitchen? What would be the results? I am sure you can imagine all the absurd complications this would bring about. Well we were designed to need God, just as much and even more so than we were designed to need food or sleep. So what will happen if when we feel hunger pains for our God, when the need arises, we don’t recognize what it is our spirits are telling us and we try to fulfill the need with something else? Romans tells us that when we refuse to acknowledge God, when we do not fulfill our need for him appropriately we are left to a debased mind and stray away to things that pull us into sin. When we do not function according to the ways we were designed to function things get messy, like if you couldn’t recognize the need for the restroom. When we don’t recognize our need for God and fill ourselves with him we fall, and we fall hard, right into sin. Turn with me to Romans 6:20-23;
Romans 6:20-23 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I told you the results were messy. When we do not fulfill our need for God the result is death. God is an absolute necessity to our lives which cannot be replaced by anything. I think often times what happens in the church is we feel the need for God, the pain and emptiness calling for fulfillment, and we fill part of it with God, but not all of it. We find other things to fill the gaps, the voids. In fact many times I think God isn’t even the first place we go to. God is such a great need in our lives that he can’t simply fit into our schedule and our lives but rather our schedule and lives should be at his mercy, defined by him. When God calls we answer, no matter where we are or what we are doing. You may have to work 8 hours today and you are in the middle of your shift, but what if your need for God arises right in the middle. Are you willing to let God invade any place and any time in your life that he chooses? Are you willing to allow your need for him to mess up your schedule? Because let’s face it, if you had to go to the bathroom right now, you would get up right now and leave to fulfill that need. Do you believe that you need God that much? Do you believe you need him more than you need to go to the bathroom? Because if you did, then when that need came calling it would not matter what you were doing, you would let it interrupt.
We have been talking about generosity lately and I believe when we allow God to function in our lives, when we let his Spirit work being generous becomes a need in our life. It is not just that we should be generous, but we need to be generous, just as we need to eat. We need God’s Spirit to work within. We need him to fulfill us. We need our God. What will that need drive you to do? Will you allow the need for God to interrupt and dictate your day? "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14)
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