God has Needs
Part One (of 4)
God Has A Need For Love
John 4:3-7
Pastor Dan Turpin
Objective Sentence: Everyone can minister to God by looking through the windows of His soul that allow us to see His needs.
Introduction; Pastor Dan: Years ago while at my first church I preached a message from John 4:3-7 which says, v3 Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee and … came to the Samaritan village of Sychar … v6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. v7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” From that encounter I learned two things about God:
1) God Has Needs
2) You have the ability to minister to the needs of God.
One day at church a lady asked, “What do you think God looks like?” In jest I responded, “God looks like me.” It seemed like a foolish statement at the time but for some reason I couldn’t get away from that thought. The Bible declares (Genesis 1:27), “God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” From this verse I learned that God really does not look like me, but I do look a lot like Him. My desires, passions, emotions and feelings are the traits of my person that I inherited from Him. God is like us and we are like Him.
John 1:1 declares, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Moses gave us the Ten Commandments inscribed in stone by the finger of God Himself. These commandments are a reflection of God’s divine nature. They are windows into His heart, mind and soul—telling us what He is like and how we can have relationship with Him. The statutes of the Lord reflect His needs. His commandments reveal His true character.
# I. God has a need for Love (Ex.20:2-3 I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the
place of your slavery. 3 “You must not have any other god but me.)
A. Eerdman’s: God’s character is expressed in the law; it bears witness to His spirituality, holiness, mercy and
sovereignty …truth and righteousness are visible in its every precept.
1. Love God (1 Jn. 4:7-8, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; andeveryone who loves is born of
God and knows God. v8 He who does not love does not knowGod, for God is love)
a. Mark. 12:30 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and
with all your strength. This is the first commandment.
b. Pastor Dan: The power to keep every command is provided by the One who gave us every command to
keep.
c. R. T. France "To know about God is nothing; to know Him is everything".
d. Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
e. Pastor Dan: Some, maybe most feel that the commandments, these windows into God’s soul are grievous
and the only purpose they serve is to reveal our proclivity towards wrongdoing. They are not! They reveal to
us the potential we have in our relationship with God and what He can accomplish in us as we walk with
Him. The commandments do not deal with the actuality of our weakness but the potentiality of our strength
in Him.
f. David Bevin: Whatever the depth (or shallowness) of our relationship with God, we can always
know Him better…. There is no greater pursuit than the pursuit of a deeper relationship with God and
nothing should have a higher priority in our lives.
g. Phil. 3:10 That I may know Him and the power of His...
2. Seek God (Col. 3:1- 4. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is,
sitting at the right hand of God. v2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. v3 For you died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God. v4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with
Him in glory.)
a. Pastor Cho "Seeking must be with the whole heart." To ask implies want; seeking implies loss and
knocking implies need. We must ask with confidence and humility; seek with care and application; and
knock with earnestness and perseverance. Until you come to the point of asking you will not receive from
the Lord.
b. Hos.10:12. Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to
come and seek the Lord until He comes and rains righteousness on you.
c. Mike Bickle "The first step toward experiencing intimacy with Jesus is our decision to pursue Him more
than we pursue other good things such as anointing, health, happiness and success."
e. H.G. Wells "Faith in God is the first and the last thing; and until a man has found God, and been found by
God, he begins at no beginning and works to no end.
f. Thomas a Kempis "If you seek your Lord Jesus in all things you will truly find Him, but if you seek yourself
you will find yourself, and that will be to your own great loss.
Closing and Invitation: Donald Grey Barnhousee "Someone has said that our great matters are little to God's power and that our little matters are great to his love". As soon as we have this conception of God, we shall see that he invites us to come at every moment, and that he is really longing for fellowship with his children. Sometimes he brings us to the end of our resources so that we shall ask him for what we need.
