We All Need God

1
We All Need God!

• R. Travis said
  Find the Lord Before You
  Need Him!
• Some People Dont Seem to Think They
  Need God.
• Members of the church in Laodicea didnt seem to
  think they needed God.

2
Rev. 317,18 Because you say, I am rich,
have become wealthy, and have need of
nothingand do not know that you are wretched,
miserable, poor, blind, and nakedI counsel you
to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you
may be rich and white garments, that you may be
clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not
be revealed and anoint your eyes with eye salve,
that you may see.
3
Mankind Always Needs God

• Many non-Christians provide the evidence.
• At the death of a loved one.
• During sickness and difficult times
• When they are afraid of dying.
• They start talking about God and praying.
• Even Christians Sometimes Act as if
• They Do Not Have a Need for God.
  

4
How Could Something So Obvious and Important be
so Hard to Recognize?

• There Are at Least Three Possible Reasons.
• DISTRACTION
• DELUSION
• DENIAL
• Lets look at the first of these.

5
DISTRACTION

• We Are Often Too Busy to Recognize Our Need for
  God.
• Luke 1216-21 Then He spoke a parable to
  them, saying The ground of a certain rich man
  yielded plentifully. And he thought within
  himself, saying, What shall I do, since I have
  no room to store my crops? So he said, I will
  do this I will pull down my barns and build
  greater, and there I will store all my crops and
  my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you
  have many goods laid up for many years

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take your ease eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul
will be required of you then whose will those
things be which you have provided? So is he who
lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich
toward God.

• The Here and Now Has Us In Its Clutches!
• Are We Too Busy Here and There?
• While We Are Busy Here and There, We Neglect the
  Work of God.

7
1 Kings 2039,40 Now as the king passed by,
he cried out to the king and said, Your servant
went out into the midst of the battle and there,
a man came over and brought a man to me, and
said, Guard this man if by any means he is
missing, your life shall be for his life, or else
you shall pay a talent of silver. While your
servant was busy here and there, he was gone.
When the king of Israel said to him, So shall
your judgment be you yourself have decided it.
8
The Cares of This World and the Deceitfulness of
Riches Can Choke Our Spiritual Lives!

• Matt. 1322 Now he who received seed among
  the thorns is he who hears the word, and the
  cares of this world and the deceitfulness of
  riches choke the word, and he becomes
  unfruitful.
• Distraction from Spiritual Needs Is Common in
  Times of Plenty and Affluence!

9
Matt. 621,24 For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also No one can serve
two masters for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or else he will be loyal to the
one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and mammon.

• The More We Have
• The Less Thankful We Are, and
• The Less Dependent We Become (diminishing our
  feeling of need for God).

10
For This Reason, Perhaps, God May Allow Us to Go
Without!

• Deut. 81-3 -- Every commandment which I
  command you today you must be careful to observe,
  that you may live and multiply, and go in and
  possess the land of which the LORD swore to your
  fathers. And you shall remember that the LORD
  your God led you all the way these forty years in
  the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to
  know what was in your heart, whether you would
  keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you,
  allowed you to hunger, and

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fed you with manna which you did not know nor
didyour fathers know, that He might make you
know that man shall not live by bread alone but
man lives by every word that proceeds from the
mouth of the LORD.

• Material Wealth May Be a Distraction!
• Matt. 619,20 Do not lay up for yourselves
  treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy
  and where thieves break in and steal but lay up
  for your-selves treasures in heaven, where
  neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves
  do not break in and steal.

12
1 Tim. 617 Command those who are rich in
this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust
in uncertain riches but in the living God, who
gives us richly all things to enjoy.

• Sometimes Unimportant Things Are a Distraction to
  Us.
• Luke 1038-42 Now it happened as they went
  that He entered a certain village and a certain
  wom-an named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at
  Jesus feet and heard His word. But Martha was
  distracted

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with much serving, and she approached Him and
said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has
left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to
help me. And Jesus answered and said to her,
Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled
about many things. But one thing is needed, and
Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be
taken away from her.

• We May Fail to Recognize a Need for God Because
  of
• DELUSION

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We Deceive Ourselves Into Thinking that What Is
Happening Today Is All Thats Important!

• Our Sense of What Is Important Gets Turned
  Upside Down.
• We Dont Look Very Far Down the Road.
• Gal. 67 Do not be deceived, God is not
  mocked for whatever a man sows, that he will
  also reap.
• We Are Nearsighted!
• We Only See What Is Near.

15
2 Peter 18 For he who lacks these things is
shortsighted, even to blindness, and has
forgotten that he was cleansed from his own sins.

• 1. We see sacrifices, hardship and toil.
• 2. We see what others who are not Christians
  have and enjoy doing.
• 3. We are discouraged and fainthearted.
• 4. And we have forgotten that hope, joy and
  relief we felt when we first became Christians.
• 5. Such delusion keeps us from feeling a need
  for God.

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Esau is a Perfect Example of Such Delusional
Thinking

• Gen. 2529-34 Now Jacob cooked a stew and
  Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.
  And Esau said to Jacob, Please feed me with that
  same red stew, for I am weary. Therefore his
  name was called Edom. But Jacob said, Sell me
  your birth-right as of this day. And Esau said,
  Look, I am about to die so what is this
  birthright to me? Then Jacob said, Swear to me
  as of this day. So he swore to him, and sold his
  birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread
  and stew of lentils then he ate and drank,
  arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his
  birthright.

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1. Esau traded away his future for what he
thought he needed at the moment.

• 2. He deceived himself into thinking he was
  about to die.
• 3. Do we ever, like Esau, forfeit our future (in
  heaven) for the pleasures of the moment?
• 4. Heb. 1124,25 By faith Moses, when he be-
  came of age, refused to be called the son of
  Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer
  affliction with the people of God than to
  enjoy he passing pleasures of sin.

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We Are Sometimes Like the Laodiceans.

• We Deceive Ourselves into Thinking that We Do
  Not Need God.
• We think we are rich,
  but without God we are poor.
• We think we have good eyesight,
  but without God we are blind.
• We think we have plenty of clothes,
  but without God we are naked.

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We can buy gold from God that we may be rich
(spiritually).

• God will provide us with white garments to hide
  our (spiritual) nakedness.
• God will anoint our eyes with eye salve, so that
  we may have 20/20 spiritual vision.
• Luke 1223 Life is more than food,
  and the body is more than clothing.
• Many Do Not Recognize their Need for God Because
  They Are in

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DENIAL OF THEIR NEED

• Psalm 141 The fool has said in his heart,
  There is no God.
• 2 Thess. 118,28 For the wrath of God is
  revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
  unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
  unrighteousness And even as they did not like
  to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
  over to a debased mind, to do those things which
  are not fitting.

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Prov. 3012 There is a generation that is pure
in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its
filthiness.

• Psalm 104,6 The wicked in his proud
  countenance does not seek God God is in none of
  his thoughts He has said in his heart, I shall
  not be moved I shall never be in adversity.

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Matt. 1314,15 And in them the prophecy of
Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, Hearing you
will hear and shall not understand, and seeing
you will see and not perceive For the hearts of
this people have grown dull and their eyes they
have closed, lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears, lest they should
understand with their hearts and turn, so that I
should heal them.
23
Those Who Need to Find God Can Find Him.

• Acts 1727,28 So that they should seek the
  Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him
  and find Him, though He is not far from each one
  of us for in Him we live and move and have our
  being, as also some of your own poets have said,
  For we are also His offspring.
• Remove the Distractions That Have Been Keeping
  Your From Feeling a Need for God!

24
Quit Fooling Yourself and Deal with the Fact That
You Need God Today!

• Do Not Deny Your Need for God any Longer, but
  Accept That He Exists and that You Will Someday
  Give an Account to Him of Your Life.
• 2 Cor. 62 Behold, now is the accepted time,
  behold, how is the day of salvation.