PREACHED: OL,
“CHRISTIANITY, THE ANSWER TO HUMAN NEEDS”
TEXT: II Peter 1.3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and
excellence.”
INTRODUCTION:
j THE CHURCH HAS AN INFERRORITY COMPLEX!
A. Jay
Lockhart recently wrote an article in which he noted a statement made by a
well-known television personality who said that conservative religious people
had better get used to the fact that the future does not belong to them.
B. We
have heard that and similar statements so much in our pluralistic culture that
we start to believe it.
C. The
world thinks that we are out of touch with human needs and should wake up a
“smell the flowers.”
D. Sadly,
they fail to realize that hospitals, orphanages and other care organizations do
not spring out of atheism but religious compassion.
E. Humanists,
atheists and postmodernists often demean Christianity with the same accusation
leveled against Paul by false teachers:
1. II Cor 10.10 “For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and
strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is of no account.”
a. We are
often dismissed as an irrelevant relic of the ignorant and superstitious past.
k THE TEXT—TRUE CHRISTIANITY, THE ANSWER TO MAN’S NEED
FOR THE FULL RICH LIFE!
A. Back in
the 1985, at the ACU lectures, Paul Faulkner shared some encouraging
information that he had gleaned from a respected family therapist and
psychologist.
1. The
information—What we have in Christ Jesus fills the
void and emptiness that man has sought to fill with the secular.
2. He
pointed out that psychologists have long understood man’s basic needs and
questions in life, but did not have the answer to those needs.
a. Without
those answers man cannot be properly adjusted or find any sense of well-being.
B. What
are those questions that reveal man’s basic needs for well-being and how does
Christianity answer them?
DISCUSSION:
uŘ “WHO AM I?”
A. IDENTITY -
1. DR.
LYNN MCMILLION: “Self-esteem is the value
a person places on himself based upon the value they think others place on them.”
a. Sadly,
the world doesn’t always reinforce a positive self-image.
1) We
live in the age of the “put-down.”
a) The
most popular “humor” is that which casts a negative view of somebody or some
group.
·
“You Know You’re a Redneck if…”
·
“Are you some
kind of rightwing religious nut?”
B. Paul’s
Positive Position -
1. I
Tim 1:12-17
vŘ “IS THERE ANYTHING BIGGER THAN I, SOMETHING OR SOMEONE IN WHOM I CAN
TRUST?”
A. FAITH—Something
to believe in!
B.
Humanism fails because of the weakness of man…
Liberalism fails because of its cold intellectualism…
Existentialism fails because of its uncertainty…
Hedonism fails because of the insatiable appetite of the flesh and the
emptiness after the party is over…
C. Only
Faith in a God who loved us so much that he gave his most precious
possession—his Son—to make us his special possession really satisfies man’s
need of something to believe in!
D. Matt 5.16
John
10.10
Eph 6.10
James 1.17
Heb 13.8
ŽŘ “DO I HAVE A FUTURE?”
A. There
is so much anxiety and fear about what the future holds:
1.
Job –
Marriage
–
Health
–
Wealth
–
Retirement
–
Death
–
World
conflict –
Future
of our Nation –
B. Suicide
is on the increase because secular man sees nothing but a dismal, stressful,
hopeless future!
1. Cults
that commit suicide seeking something better—sadly many are religious.
a.
Jim Jones
“Comet” cult waiting for the space ship
C. II
Cor 4.16-5.9
ŹŘ “DOES ANYBODY REALLY LOVE ME?”
A.
John 3.16
John
15.12, 13
Rom 12.9
1. The
true church is an “oasis” of love and companionship in a “desert” of hate and lonliness.
yŘ “DO I REALLY BELONG ANYWHERE?”
A. Man has a basic need for friendship and
acceptance.
1.
I John 1.3 “That which we have seen and heard, we
proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
Psalm 133 “Behold,
how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity! It is
like precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of
Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the
Acts
B. An old hymn rings out:
“My soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea,
So burdened with sin and
distressed:
I head a sweet voice saying,
‘Make me your choice;”
And I entered the Haven of
Rest.
How precious the thought that
we all may recline,
Like John the beloved and
blest,
On Jesus’ strong arm, where
no tempest can harm,
Secure in the Haven of Rest.
I’ve anchored my soul in the
Haven of Rest;
I’ll sail the wide seas no
more;
The tempest may sweep o’er
the wild stormy deep:
In Jesus, I’m safe evermore.”
zŘ “HOW DO
I RID MYSELF OF MY NAGGING GUILT?”
A. Psalm 130.1-4a “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let
your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord,
should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is
forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my souls waits, and
in his word I hope…”
Rom 7.24
Eph 4.31, 32
{Ř “IS THERE PURPOSE AND DIRECTION FOR MY LIFE?”
A. Man has a basic need for a philosophy of
life!
B. Christianity answers the basic questions:
1. What is reality? II Tim 1.12; Heb 11.1, 6
2. What is valuable? Luke 12.15; Matt 16.26
3. What
is truth? John 8.32; John 17.17; II Tim
3.16, 17
CONCLUSION:
Brethren! What we have as Christians is the
satisfaction of all the basic needs of mankind! What we have is the answer to the
questions in the
fearful heart of modern man!