Steven Furtick — God Knows What You Need
When we come to Christ, there's often an expectation. Unrealistic expectation that he's going to take away our needs, and he does in fact. If you are a Christian, you still have the same needs now that you did before you met Jesus. The same needs, but they are now met in a different way. In other words you still have the same need for approval, but now instead of trying to get it from another human, who doesn't even fully like themselves, you are getting it from the all-sufficient, all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-present, everliving God, who gives you breath and who intricately knit you together in your mother's womb. So it's not that I don't have needs, it's not that I don't have once. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That doesn't mean I never want anything, never need anything, it doesn't mean my appetite went away, it just means I go to a different buffet now, amen. That means, I eat off a different menu now.
And sometimes we are so focused on people's behaviors, that we can't discern the needs, that drive the behaviors. And a lot of Christian teaching and preaching is focused on condemning behaviors, without understanding the need. There is no need, that you are currently meeting in your life that is an evil need or a bad need. And many of us who have various addictions need to hear this exact point. And maybe you can even leave after I say this, because this may be the whole reason God brought you here, you're not meeting the wrong need, you're just meeting it with the wrong means. This applies to overspending, overeating, over-talking, over-bragging, and yes I hear you Facebook over-sharing. It applies to every sexual addiction.