First off, happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, including both my dad, Bob, and my bonus dad, Ray. A huge shout out to both of them today. God knew that it would take both of them, a plethora of brothers, three sons and a couple friends to take care of me!

Seriously, though. I’m kind of a lot. There are so many things that I don’t know how to do and so many ways that I need to be taken care of. Just this week I needed someone to climb up on my roof and fix my dryer vent – again. And I need help when I try to cook a new recipe or take on a new craft project, or even teach a new skill to my sixth graders. I need help carrying heavy things and understanding why things are so heavy to start with. I need a lot.

I need my dad. And I need my Ray. And well, to be honest, I need help on the daily in big and small ways.

When the team was discussing the logistics of who would teach what in this summer series, I ended up with this week, Why Do We Need God? It’s both an extremely easy and an extremely hard question to answer. Let’s start with the most obvious.

1. We’re sinners.

I’m sure all of us, even those who don’t identify as Christians, have heard this term, sin. But what does it even mean and why should we even care? Let’s break this down, shall we?

Pastors Tanner and Daniel have talked about who God is and how we know who he is, through the Bible. Last week Daniel talked about God being omniscient, omnipresent, and all the other omni-things. Those are all of the “all” things. He’s all knowing, all present, exists in and outside of all time, and so on. One of the other things that God is, that we haven’t really spent a ton of time on over the past couple of weeks, is that God is perfect.

How can that be, you ask? Well, Genesis 1:1 tells us that he created everything, so he knows how it’s supposed to be. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.

He knows what it takes to make it work. He has a way to do things that keep everything perfect. Keeping with that way is the ideal. That’s why God can’t sin, because he’s the one that set the standard. He alone is able to meet it.

Genesis goes on to tell us that (1:26+) “God said, Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us… (Verse 27) so God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them: male and female he created them.”

Chapter 3 then tells us that it didn’t take long for humans to mess it all up. Most of us are familiar with the Fall, but let’s go ahead and read a bit of it together so that we’re all on the same page.

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. For clarity here, the serpent isn’t just a snake. It’s actually Satan in disguise. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

² “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. ³ “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

⁴ “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵ “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

You will be like God, knowing both good and evil. This right here tells us that while God is one hundred percent good, he knows what evil is. It’s the opposite of him. It’s rebellion against him. Satan, the Satan, is the first created being that we know rebelled against God. This is recorded for us in Revelation 12:7-9.

 ^“Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. ⁸ And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. ⁹ This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”

I have to be honest here, I do not understand all of this as well as I’d like to. How did Satan go from being called the Morning Star, the favored angel, to what we now know him as? As best as I can tell, it’s like this. Angels are not humans, so they are not created in God’s image the same way we are. To be clear, they’re not cute, fat, winged babies either. The Bible most often depicts them as warriors, fighting in heavenly realms for the Truth. As such, Lucifer was created and held up as an exemplary soldier. He was the best of the best and he knew it. Isaiah and Ezekiel tell us that he pretty much got full of himself and decided that he was as good as God. The truth is the truth, even when we don’t like it, and the truth was and is, that Satan was not, is not equal with God. He is a much lower, created being. I’m not sure how the conversation went, but at some point, as Satan was rebelling, God had enough and cast him out of Heaven. I see this in my mind’s eye as going something like this.

God: Hey, Lucifer. Dude, what are you thinking? We both know you’ve got no business going around acting a fool like this. Get it together, will you?

Lucifer: Nah. Look, Big Papi, I know you think you’re all that, but we both know I’m just as good as you. I mean check out all this drip (see Ezekiel 28:13). You know I’m the main character, bruh.

And just like middle school teachers everywhere, God said enough is enough and told Satan to kick rocks.

Okay, it probably didn’t go down quite like that, but I work all year with sixth graders, this is how my mind works.

Seriously, though, after Satan was kicked out of Heaven, he was determined not to go alone. He had already gotten one-third of the angels on his side, much to their detriment, but he wanted more. After he saw that God had created a new world and put Man in charge of it, he immediately started in with his scheme to deceive and destroy as much of it as he could.

Back to Genesis 3. “The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. ⁷ At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”

At this point, can we just give a collective sigh? And let’s be honest, Eve catches a lot of flak for her part in this, but hello? Adam was right there with her, and he took it. And you know what, chances are, you and I would have done the same thing. You know this and so do I. So does God.

I imagine at this point, God looking into Eden and shaking his head. I have four kids and before I was a parent, I had a reasonable understanding of what I think God felt in that moment, but now, I think I have a better one. I have watched the children that I brought into the world make choices that I know will break them. I’ve told them the Truth; I’ve taught them the Way and pointed them to the Light only to have them sometimes choose the Dark. It is heartbreaking. I know that most of you who are parents have had this. Don’t get me wrong, my kids aren’t all out there making terrible choices all the time, but like their parents before them, they are humans, and they sin. It’s devastating but have to let our kids live their own lives and make their own choices. It’s like that with God, too. He wants good for us. He knows what works and what doesn’t but even when he straight up tells us, much of the time, we have to learn it for ourselves.

Here’s the other thing. When we are living in rebellion, God can’t be around it. He just can’t. Habakkuk 1:13 states: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong doing. So when we are in sin, which is just a Christian word for rebelling against the way of living that God has given us, God can’t be around us. He just can’t. It’s so against his nature and the way he has set for us that he can’t be around it. But he loves us so much that he needed a work around. In the Old Testament, he gave his chosen people, the Israelites, instructions for how to remedy this imbalance. It involved a lot of sacrifices, often in the form of a bird or in many, many cases, a perfect lamb. The blood of the lamb became a symbol for a way for God’s people to be brought back to him. In the famous Exodus story, where Moses and Aaron speak to Pharaoh on behalf of the Lord and his people, and famously tell him that God demands he “Let my people go,” the blood of the lamb is painted over the doorposts of believers. When the final plague sweeps through the nation, the blood literally stops the Angel of Death from stopping at those houses. It’s a powerful story. If you’re not familiar with it, I recommend you read the first twenty or so chapters of Exodus. It’ll wake you up and make you think.

Moving forward 1500 or so years, here comes Phase 2 of the redemption plan. That may seem like a long to us, but keep in mind that God, mind-blowingly, lives outside of and independent of time. In 2 Peter 3:8, it says “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day.” It goes on to say “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness to be. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” God doesn’t see time like we do. And since he’s perfect, omnipresent, and all-knowing, he knows how to lay everything out in the best ways. He doesn’t need hindsight because he already knows. Again, mind-blowing, right? I’m so glad we serve a God who is bigger than us. If I understood all of who he is, would he be a God worth worshipping anyway?

Back to that Phase 2 of the Redemption Plan. In his way, which is so much higher than my way, God decided it was time and let Jesus know he was up. Since he’d been on deck for a few millennia, Jesus was like, “bet.” He was ready to go. Being God and being with God (If you’re not sure how the whole Trinity thing works, go back and watch Pastor Daniel’s sermon from last week. It’s more than I can get into today and still make it through the rest of what I need to say), he knew the heart of God was for all to come to him. This is reaffirmed in John 3:16-17, that famously tells us “God so loved the world…for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him would be saved” and 1 Timothy 2:3-4, which says, “God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Jesus came to earth as a mediator between us and God. As a living sacrifice because well, there’s nothing we can do to be good enough. Nothing. Romans 3:23 and beyond tells us “Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins…. (v26b) God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just and he makes sinners right in his sight wen they believe in Jesus.”

The plan, send Jesus to earth, fully God yet fully man, and have him teach the new Way to his followers. Allow this to make some people angry enough to kill him for it. Then, just like in the Exodus story, let the blood of the lamb, this time, Jesus, serve as a way for us to be saved from the penalty of our sins. He went through a lot for us. Mocked, whipped, and ultimately crucified. That’s so much but he did it because he knew we needed.

So, yes, he died for us because he was perfect and we’re not. We needed him as a sacrifice.

But if that’s the end of the story, eww. I mean, yes, but there’s no hope in that. Thankfully, I think there’s a second reason we need Jesus.

• He gives us hope.

If the story ended at the Cross, it would be enough for us to be forgiven. And let’s be honest, that’s a pretty sweet deal. We don’t deserve that. What grace it is to be forgiven. But it leaves us in a spot with a lot of room for doubt and honestly, without a lot of hope. Because when Eve and Adam agreed with the serpent and rebelled against the Creator, they also brought in death to the world. For the first time, but also from that moment forward, the perfectness of Creation was defiled and ultimately, nothing here would last. Death would come for us all.

What a remarkable thing for Satan. I mean, that’s what he wanted. Death and destruction. To take away all hope.

But God, two of my favorite words, by the way, but God is bigger than that. He wanted more for us, so he gave it.

This is my favorite song ever, as it encompasses the whole story of Jesus in just under four minutes. Yes, there’s an anthropomorphic cucumber. It’s from Veggie Tales, okay. But even though that part is a little silly, I want you to just focus on the words. And the stained glass, which is not anthropomorphic vegetables.

To set it up a little bit, Mr. Nezzer, the cucumber, who has lost his grandmother and wants to keep her memory alive through making Easter eggs in his factory, has become a bit of an Ebenezer Scrooge. He ends up having a Christmas Carol like experience. Hope, the fairy, has shown him Easters past and present. He’s just left a house where he’d watched a little boy, who is sick and dying, talk with his parents about how Mr. Nezzer is missing what they have. He remarks about how they can be so calm while knowing that their son will likely not see the next Easter. How they could be staring death in the face and still have peace.

“He died for us, to give us life, and to give us hope, he rose.”

As someone who has grieved hard, I have leaned heavily on this hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 says this: ^“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.”

To be honest, I don’t know people deal with death with no hope. I’m just glad I don’t have to. Hope changes everything.

That takes me to my third reason we need Jesus.

• He makes us better.

My daughter, Abby, and I were talking earlier this week, as I was preparing for today. I asked her thoughts on why we need Jesus. Her answer was one I’ve thought myself at times. She said that knowing Jesus makes her a better person. It gives her a moral compass and a reason for the things she does. We talked about how if Christianity is wrong, and neither of us think it is, and she dies, how she won’t regret living for Jesus. I mean, let’s be real, if you’ve lived for Jesus, you’ve hopefully practiced love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. You’ve fed the hungry and clothed the naked. You’ve taken care of widows and orphans. You’ve loved your neighbors and yourself. It’s not a bad life.

• He brings us each other.

Hebrews 10:23-25 says this. ^“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

When I started today, I told you I was needy. That I’m a lot. That I needed my dads. Truth is, I need my dads, my moms, my sister, my brothers, my kids, my friends, my church. All of this is true. I am so thankful for those that humbly serve as the hands and feet of Jesus, who have embraced me and loved me in all my imperfections and sins. Who have shown up to cheer us on when we needed it, to celebrate with us in our victories and to lament with us in our grief. We needed you. We still do.

But mostly, mostly we need Jesus.

I don’t know if you know him. I hope you do. If you don’t, but maybe today has made you think that you’d like to, come talk to me. I’ll be up here for a while we sing. So will Pastor Daniel. And if you don’t know us or don’t feel comfortable with us, look around. This room is full of people who know and love Jesus and would love to tell you more. Find one of them and start the conversation. And when you’re ready, talk directly to Jesus. He doesn’t need anything from you. You don’t have to clean up or bring him anything. He’s not needy like we are, but he does want you to come to him. He desires to have you near him. He wants to meet your needs. I say let him.

*This is the text of a sermon I preached today. If you’d like to watch, here’s the link.