Dharius Daniels - I Have Needs Too

Genesis chapter 25, beginning at verse 27. I’m going to read a few verses here. It says: «The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, 'Quick, let me have some of that red stew; I’m famished! ' This is why he was called Edom. Jacob replied, 'First, sell me your birthright.' Esau said, 'Look, I’m about to die; what good is the birthright to me? ' Jacob said, 'Swear to me first.' So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.»

I want to stop the reading of Scripture there and tag the title of this text. This first sermon in this series is called «Manology.» Here it is, fellas—don’t leave me out here by myself. Here’s the topic of today’s teaching: «I Have Needs Too.»

One of the concepts that Scripture conveys about the nature of God is that God is the God who meets needs. As a matter of fact, a tent maker from Tarsus told believers in Philippi that he had gone through some situations that had given him an education: God makes provision for His people. Paul testifies in Philippians chapter 4. He says, «My God shall supply all my needs.» He doesn’t simply say God will supply all my needs, which indicates that every need I have will be supplied. He says God will supply all the need, which means if all the need isn’t supplied, God isn’t finished supplying. If things aren’t finished, God isn’t done because God is a finisher.

However, it’s important to note that if God has determined to be the God who meets needs, it’s because He knows He is serving people who will always have needs. Part of what it means to be God is to be self-sufficient. This is a human-divine distinction. God has no needs; He doesn’t need to grow because He already is everything He will be. He has no need to change because He is already the ultimate expression of perfection. He has no lack because He is the source of all abundance. He has no esteem issues because He is constant and clear on who He is. God has no needs, but humans do.

To be human means not to be God, and to not be God means there are some things you need that you can’t meet yourself. Did you hear what I just said? God is the only one that can meet all of His own needs. The rest of us have physical needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, and relational needs that cannot be met by ourselves. To ask someone to ignore those needs is to disregard their humanity. It is to unintentionally dehumanize them because to tell me to ignore my needs is to tell me to be God. Stay with me—come on, did you hear what I just said? To tell me to ignore my needs implies that you expect me—not to mention that everyone has needs.

Rich, poor, black, white, brown, male, female, young, or old—everybody is rich in some area and poor in another. However, this month we are discussing a demographic that, in contemporary religious spaces, is often dismissed, disregarded, and demonized. This month we’re not saying nobody else has needs, but I’m acknowledging that everybody has needs. I’m not saying that one set of needs within one demographic is more important than another set of needs for a different demographic, but this month, can we have a month—y’all aren’t talking to me? There are 52 weeks in a year; can we have four?

This month we want to focus on the needs of men. I know our society has a history of toxic patriarchy—a history of the subjugation of women, the denial of the right to vote, lack of access to certain roles, and disproportionate income and compensation. All of these are real ills impacting our sisters that need to be discussed and addressed. However, in an attempt to create solutions, we engage in activities that are expressions of an over-correction to the degree that we abdicate our responsibility to be our brother’s keeper. As a consequence, there has been the inauguration of an epidemic of hungry men.

Let me clarify what I mean when I say hunger. Hunger is a craving for something that meets a God-given need. It doesn’t mean that what you’re craving is godly. Did you hear what I just said? It means that what you’re craving is often an illegitimate attempt to meet a legitimate need. If there is a word that I would use to describe the dominant emotional disposition of most of the men I encounter, having served people for two decades—not just through ministry but also through the marketplace—this word is «hungry.» Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry.