We Need God: Genesis 3; Matthew 5-7

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33, NASB).

This article is motivated by a question that our pastor asked during bible study. Our pastor asked, “Have we lost our awe of God?” Have we lost our reverence for God? Have we lost our fear of God? The short answer to these questions is “yes.” In today’s world God is often no more than what some have called a “cosmic bellhop.” God exercises no authority in our lives. He gives no commands for us to live by. God is not talked to until we have a need for him. Like the bellhop at the hotel, God is supposed to stand ready and waiting to take our baggage off of our hands, carry our baggage to our rooms, and be satisfied with the tip that we give them.

The world is filled with troubles. We search for answers to our questions. We have long discussions and debates to find solutions for our problems. It seems that we cannot ever come to any agreement that will bring about lasting changes needed in order that we might live a wholesome and satisfying life. What is good for one person is detrimental for the next person. The proverb says it correctly: “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” Where can we find answers to our questions? Who has a solution for our problems? The world cannot answer these questions because the world has not come to realize that we need God. We need God not only in the church on Sunday morning. All of humanity needs God all day every day. Without God we may find temporary symptom relief, but only God can heal us of our diseases. In no particular order I want to offer evidences that we need God. I want to first address some particular issues that the church faces because I believe that the church is the salt and light for the world (See Matt. 5:13-16). It is the church that has been ordained by God and commissioned by Jesus Christ to take His truth and message into the world.

The world lacks love. Now in the Greek language there are seven to nine words that can be translated to the English word “love” The most common word that we see in the New Testament is “agapao” a verb and the corresponding noun “agape.” Love describes the attitude of God towards everyone that lives and all that God created. Love is known only by the actions that it prompts. It is the attitude of men who have the love of God in their hearts wrought by the Holy Spirit. “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is from God; And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 Jn. 4:7-8, NASB). The book of 1 John and the book of James tell us that love is demonstrated in our care for others. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, NASB). Our love for one another is known by how we help to meet the needs of others. A person’s most important need is to know that God loves them and God forgives sin. We need God evidenced by the fact that sin is a subject talked about too little. We know that we need God because we fail to keep His commandments, and we do our good deeds to be seen by other people (See Matthew 6:1-4).

We need God as evidenced by our failure to give God’s word priority for our model for life and for making decisions. Today, even in the churches, priority is given to the philosophies of the world, science and education. Philosophy, science, and education are not evil. It is evil on our part when we give them priority over God’s eternal word. Philosophies, science, and education are temporary and changing in ideas, evidence, and methods. God’s word is permanent; that is God’s word is eternal. It never changes in what it says and the intent for which it was said. God is eternal and immutable and so are His words.

We need God as evidenced by a lack of spirit filled worship and praise. There is a lot of cohered and choreography of praise in the churches. There is a lot of sound that pleases the ears. However, worship and praise of God that is genuine is not prompted by the prodding of worship leaders. We cannot truly praise God if we are not seeking God’s will for our lives every day. We cannot do whatever we want to do that satisfies our desires six days of the week and then have spirit led worship in the church on Sunday. This is because throughout the scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament God always distinguish the holy from the unclean and the two cannot inhabit the same space at the same time. Now, we turn to evidence seen in the world that we need God.

We live in a world characterized by violence. In Genesis 4 Cain murdered his brother Abel. The act of violence was motivated by Cain’s jealousy and envy of his brother who had found favor with God. God told Cain the solution for his problem. Instead of utilizing the solution, Cain murdered his brother. Throughout the Old Testament we find that people that do not find favor with God resort to violence. Why is this true? The book of Revelation might help us. “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon” (Rev. 12:7). “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war” (Rev. 19:11). It is not my goal to give personal belief about the often discussed and debated book of Revelation. Rather, I am using these two passages to show that there is a war in heaven between God and Satan His adversary. Likewise, it seems to me that violence in heaven is made manifest in that there is violence in the earth. Where Satan rules there is violence. On the other hand where Jesus rules there is peace.

Violence is seen in seven types including, Physical Violence, Sexual Violence, Emotional Violence, Psychological Violence, Spiritual Violence, Cultural Violence, Verbal Abuse, and Financial Abuse. Violence and abuse are major contributors to issues of abortion, mental illness, homicide and suicide. Violence is the use of force to destroy another person so as to eliminate competition.

We need God because there is an increase in the breakup of family units. In God’s creation plan He designed the family as the basic unit of human society. I believe that we need to examine how our failure to follow God’s design contributes to this issue. God created a man (heterosexual male) and gave him a job to do. God decided that the man needed someone to help him to carry out his duties. So God created a woman (heterosexual female) out of the rib of the man. Now, when we study the anatomy and physiology of the man and the woman, we learn that at the cell and tissue level man and woman are the same. God designed that cells and tissues would be differentiated in the two so that different organs and functions would be uniquely different, yet still compatible so that the two together could carry out God’s mandate that they be fruitful and increase in the earth. God intended that the union between man and his wife be permanent without interference from other people. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24, NASB). Jesus revisited the Genesis text when He addressed the questions about divorce (See Matt. 19:3-5). He concluded saying, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate (Matt. 19:6, NASB). Jesus further explained that divorce was permitted by Moses but that was not what was intended from the beginning (vv. 7-9). Space will not allow us to discuss all of the disadvantages to the members of the family when there is a breakup for any reason. The evidence shows that children from broken homes statistically do not fare as well as children from intact families.

We need God because we are overcome with the love of money and greed. Money is not evil. It is designed to be an instrument of fair financial exchange of goods and services. However, Paul the apostle writes to Timothy saying, “For the love of money is a root cause of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs”(1 Tim. 6:10, NASB). People will exchange their morals and values when they love money. Why do they love money? It is because, they love the world, and the love of God is not in them (1 Jn. 2:15). “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 Jn. 2:16, NASB).

Finally, we need God because we are all guilty of sin. Sin separates us from God. This means that we do not by nature have God’s Spirit living in us. We do not have His nature. We do not live according to His words. God gave the ancient Israelites commandments so that they could know what was required of them to be the way that God had created human beings to be. The Israelites could not keep the commands because they had a sinful nature. God saw the human need. They needed to be forgiven of their sins. They needed to be given the Holy Spirit so that they could have God’s nature living in them. God loved the world. He sent His Son into the world to die so that we can be forgiven of our sins, and we can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live by the nature of God.