'our Greatest Need.'

What is your greatest need?

There are times in life when we just want so much out of it that we forget to consider what has really happened to us. Like the wasp that’s so busy tasting the sweetness of the Jam that its oblivous to the fact that its body has just been severed in half..... It forgets its greatest need for a split the result is death...

I suppose you can ask a variety of people ‘what is our greatest need?’ And no doubt you would get a variety of answers from money, success, possessions, good health to have a loving family. These things are not bad in themselves but often like the wasp they can distract from what truly is our greatest need!

‘People today know exactly what they want, but is it what they need?’

As we look at ourselves in the west today we are more affluent than ever before and you would not be wrong in thinking that materialism is our greatest need.

The Enlightenment dictum: Cogito ergo sum’ (I think therefore I am) has been changed to ‘Tesco ergo sum’ I shop therefore I am. ‘

Having much.

As we look into the lives of people in the west we find a real superficiality they say we have never had it so good. Yet for many who have tasted so much of the benefits of materialism and the accolade of fame, we find that rather than them being happy with their lot so many are deeply troubled. For many lives appears meaningless a chasing after the wind as King Solomon said.

French philospher Jean-Paul Sartre said, “There is something about the glory, the horror and boredom of being human” that cries out for an answer beyond us.

In 2003 Mike Tyson was declared bankrupt he owed a stretch limo firm $309,000. A year earlier he had spent $174,,000 on a white gold necklace with 80 carats of diamonds. He once splashed out $140,000 on two white Bengal tigers and $1.5 million on four Bentleys in one afternoon. The staff at Versace in Ceasers Mall in Las Vegas will never forget the time Tyson and his entourage left the shop with $250,000 worth of gear. Currently in 2005 after his defeat against journeyman Kevin McBride he owes creditors $30 million dollars.

Mike Tyson was interviewed after his final defeat against journeyman Kevin McBride, “Who am I? What am I? I don’t even know. I’m just a dumb child whose been abused and robbed by lawyers, I’m Just a fool who thinks he’s someone.”

Having little

On the other side of the coin there are those who are poor who are still crying out the same questions as iron Mike Tyson. For them too life becomes just as futile and meaningless exercise. In fact many have given up a long time ago.

Just go down to any of the major cities of our country and see the destitute people living upon our streets. They have nothing, many have given up and live a life of prostitution, alcoholism and drug addiction and abuse.

(8 million people die a year as a result of poverty) Make poverty history is to be commended, but where the real poverty lies is not in the feeding of this world the end of global debt but in our relationship with God it needs to be restored. How many are dying with out Jesus Christ?

The death rate is awesome every second people are passing into eternity without Christ.

Our greatest poverty is in our relationship with God. Our greatest need is not to end poverty but to end the poverty we have with God.

1) Jesus has got time for others. v1-2 Set the scene Luke 5; 17-26.

A few days have passed and Jesus is back in Capernaum he’s come to his home base v1 it may of well been Peters home it doesn’t say but we could infer from 1:29 The people obviously had picked up on the grapevine that Jesus was back in town v1. There appears to be a huge crowd forming outside the home where Jesus is located. The crowd is not only outside but also inside with the door of the home wide open and people standing in the doorway and in a few minutes there will be even a group of men upon the roof determined to see Jesus.

No time

I suppose Jesus is the equivalent to our media and sports personalities of our day who are continual hounded by the press and the public. Continually hiding and seeking refuge from the people who desire to meet them. But unlike the celebrities who live behind electronic fencing and surveillance cameras with a couple of Doberman pinchers in the driveway.

Open door

Jesus has the door to his home wide open he is prepared to meet with people he invites people in! Because unlike the celebrities of our culture he cares for people and has a relevant message v2 He preached the word to them.