here is this mentality in the Christian community today that, in a certain degree, the primary purpose of the Sunday Church meeting is to meet the needs of men and women.

With that mentality, I whole-heartedly agree. Of course we preach, teach, exhort and encourage for the needs of the Saints, but, in the Church world today, sadly, the needs have lost it’s proper definition, and it has caught a whole new one. The new definition of today’s needs is in it’s core the wants and desires of men.

Of course we have a lot of needs.

• We need to make money to provide for our families; for food, clothing and shelter.
• We need our businesses to succeed, or to be promoted in our jobs for the security of our families, and the futures of our children.

Yeah. We got that. So we preach messages saying, “God will provide!”, or “If God did that for her, He’ll do it for you!”, or “You know why she was saved and she prospered? Because she believed! So believe!”.

But then, are those really needs? ‘Coz if you ask me, they’re all just “wants.”

• I want to make money so my family has good food to eat everyday, lots of clothes, and a good place to live.
• I want my business to succeed, or be promoted, so my family can have security even after I’m gone, and we can buy all the stuff we want, and enjoy everyday life.

I’m sure such a train of thought in the evangelical world is found somewhere in the Bible. You can justify it by using verses like Psalm 37:4 and Matthew 6:33.

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

But then that raises another question, what are the desires of our hearts? As a sinful depraved being, I desired a lot of things. I desired money. I desired satisfaction for my lusts. I desired to satiate and feed my flesh with worldly things. So if I delight myself in God, would He give me those things?

Or are these desires spoken of, the desires of a regenerated and renewed heart? Doesn’t that tell us something quite radically different?

What if then we take seriously what the Bible says about these so called “needs” of today?

“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 yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:25-33)

Well, look at that, the Bible actually says something quite different! The Scriptures emphatically say to not think of the things of the flesh, food and drink, clothing and shelter, where those are what the Gentiles, the heathen, seek after! Neither does it say to seek after these things, and endeavor to attain them for the enjoyment of ourselves, that it is the “desire of God” for us. No! But the Bible tells us to lay up our treasures in heaven!

What are the true needs of men? The true needs is that there is only one need. The true need of men, of the redeemed, is to know their God.

Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. (Job 22:21).

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty glory in his might, let not the rich glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord. (Jer 9:23-24)

The problem with the Church today is that we are so afraid to preach God for who He is because of the thought that people might not get it. That the things of God may be too deep for them to grasp. That maybe it would only be uninteresting to them. But that is why these things are needs not wants! In our sinful estate all we ever want is the satisfaction of ourselves. But as the Apostle Paul would repeatedly remind Timothy and the saints in Ephesus, it’s about doctrine, doctrine, doctrine! Not psychobable-emotionalism to satisfy the felt needs of men, but a reality of the God of Scripture may be known!

I pray that we would proclaim again the Truths of Holy Writ about our most Holy God. There is no other comfort besides that. All joy and peace and all manner of Christian living may only be found in a true knowledge of who God is.

And if there is no desire in the congregation to know their God, I think that tells us something. For blood bought sinners to not desire to know the depths of God’s grace and the fullness of His nature, doesn’t that tell us something terrifying? That maybe, just maybe, we have deceived ourselves into thinking of serving the saints, but in truth we are just giving depraved sinners comfort in their sinful estates while still wedded to their idols and sins.

We have thrown out theology and doctrine out the window just to make things easier and to make people happy and encouraged in the lusts of their flesh and the deadness of their souls.

We have thrown out theology and doctrine out the window just to make things easier so people can easily “grow”, “Go disciple! Go disciple!”, but still in the deadness of their souls.

It is in the foolishness of preaching that pleases God to save men. It is the God that saves that redeemed sinners want to seek and know as drawn by Him. The saints do not want to simply know the benefits of salvation, but in the overwhelming magnitude of the love of God shed forth through His grace… all that a feeble saint, such as I am, would ever want is to know that God, though in my sin and death, would still find it pleasing to keep me in His sweet embrace.

May God help us all.