What Do People Want?

We're going to be continuing in our series going through Philippians.

This message is titled, What Do People Want? And we're going to see this in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Philippians chapter 4, verses 11 through 13, and then 19. I have learned to

Philippians 4:11–13

be content whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,

whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do all things through him who gives me strength, and my God will meet

all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

So I read an account of a preacher who decided to keep track for one week of

all the requests people made of him at the church and of all the questions that he was asked.

When people stopped by to see him, what did they want?

When people called him on the phone, what was on their mind?

What was bothering them? What did people really want? He made a list that week

and categorized all of his encounters with people based on their wants, expressed or implied.

Now it goes without saying that almost everyone wants something.

Here after we come out of Christmas season when all the kids are wanting everything,

everybody wants something.

There's a passage in Psalms that tells us that even a deer pants after or longs for water.

So also should we long for God. I pant after you, O Lord, wrote the psalmist.

And Isaiah asked, what do you spend money on?

Why do you spend money on things that are not bread? And why do you labor for

things that do not satisfy?

I mean, that's kind of a question. Why do we work so hard for stuff that really

isn't going to be that good for us?

And who of us is going to take it with them?

Think about this. What is it that people really want, and just how important

are these things anyway?

So let's take a look at this pastor's list and see if we can discover some answers

to those questions, maybe even some of those things that we see that we want.

Well, first of all, here we are in a new year, and we've come through the Christmas

season with all of its pomp and circumstance, but even more than that with all

of its food. And yes, that's it.

First of all, people are concerned about food.

Now, that doesn't come as any surprise, does it? But I mention that because

that's the first area that is commonly asked of any pastor, especially in inner city areas.

When I was the pastor in Peoria, Illinois, every week people would come by our

church building or even by our house next door to the church asking for money,

saying that they were hungry and needed something to eat.

Hunger can cause pain beyond description. Most of us can't even imagine the

pain because we've never really been hungry.

We might feel our stomach growling for a little while, you know,

like about 30 minutes after breakfast.

Well, sometime like that. But we've never really been hungry.

Of course, some of us think we're hungry all the time. Just ask a teenager.

But there's no comparison to what we feel in real hunger.

We eat regularly. We go to bed having had plenty to eat. Yet we're told that

half of the world is starving.

And even in this land of plenty, there are always people without going without food.

But even they are not starving like those in many of the third world countries

whose lands are devastated by drought, poverty, and civil war.

A church in Florida was burned in an act of arson.

The preacher said, I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure I know who did it.

A transient came by asking for food, but we don't keep any food here at the church.

And so he became very angry, and I'm convinced that he started the fire on his

way out just to get back at us.

People will do almost anything to satisfy their hunger.

In the Old Testament, when famine swept across Egypt and only Pharaoh had food

stored up for that famine, you know the story, when Joseph was leader in Egypt,

people were willing to sell their property,

their clothing, and even their lives as slaves for food.

Do you remember what happened after Jesus fed the multitudes of 5,000?

They wanted to make him king. They wanted a king who could always miraculously give them food to eat.

This is a great king if he can feed us. Wow.

Jesus can supply all of our needs, but he is especially concerned about our

eternal needs. Jesus said, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never

be thirsty. So we might have a craving for food, but Jesus said,

I am the only food you really need to feast on.

Secondly, this pastor wrote down the word knowledge.

Hardly a week goes by without someone asking me questions about the Bible.

In fact, this past week, one of my former co-workers at the farm store in Greenville,

Illinois, asked me some questions about the Bible.

Sometimes the question people ask is like this. Where in the Bible does it say

cleanliness is next to godliness?

Where is it? It's not in there.

And yet we think that we have all the answers, and we want to know these things

because we want to spout them out to other people.

Or what verse says God helps those who help themselves?

Not in the Bible. Now, it probably is, there's some truth to it,

but also God helps those who help others.

Then again, someone may ask, whatever happened to the Ark of the Covenant?

I wish I knew the answer to that one.

You see, there are some questions that we just can't seem to answer.

People ask all kinds of questions. It seems that people are hungry for knowledge.

Most of the time, people are hungry for knowledge because they think that knowledge

about things is what will save, and they think that knowledge about things puts

them up above everybody else.

If I know more than that person, I'm going to be better.

I know a young man who says that he wants to learn everything there is to know

about the Bible and about God and Jesus before he makes his decision whether

or not he's going to follow Christ.

And yet I don't know that he really wants to know Jesus. I think he wants to

find and excuse himself for not believing in Jesus.

He wants to find something in the Bible that would refute Jesus.

And so, yes, many do really want to know God's word, but we also want knowledge

about the world around us. We want knowledge about other people.

We want knowledge about ourselves. We have artificial intelligence now that

is supposed to create everything and do everything for us, and I'm a little scared of it myself.

It could be a really good thing, but it could be a danger as well.

God has given us a desire for knowledge, and this has brought about many of

the conveniences we enjoy today.

Without that desire, we would probably still be living in a very primitive world. in Washington, D.C.

Over New Year's Eve time.

They portrayed the history of America on the Washington Memorial.

It was really interesting to see all that happened and all the technology that

we as Americans have developed as if we did it on our own.

We'd probably still be riding around on horseback or walking and only traveling

a few miles a day if it wasn't for technology and knowledge and thinking and

being able to develop things.

Now, right now, with the price of things and automobile repairs and insurance.

Riding horses or walking like the Amish maybe doesn't sound so bad.

But then again, how many times have you ever paid to care for a horse with food

and shelter and vet bells.

The dollars per mile are pretty expensive on caring for a horse,

and yet it's also a very awful thing.

To step in a horse's exhaust. But because the horse wouldn't get us where we

wanted to go soon enough, we invented other ways to travel.

Because we're basically lazy, we've come up with all kinds of gadgets to make

life easier, all because of our desire for knowledge.

Computers were developed with the idea that we can do all our things and have

spare time to do. No, what computers have caused us to do is just do even more faster.

And we run ragged with what we're doing. But Paul mentions a knowledge that

is evil, a knowledge that puffs

up, that causes pride, that brings about arrogance and even division.

I think we can see that in our modern world. When our children are small,

we test them to determine how intelligent they are.

Then we divide them into categories. Here are the slow ones,

and here are the average ones, and here are the fast learners.

It doesn't take children long to figure out which group they're in.

And when they're put in those groups, they stay in that group because they identify

themselves in that group and never go out of it.

And then they develop complexes in keeping with their particular group.

Then we send them off to college, especially public universities,

where there are all kinds of different things being pumped into their mushy, mealy brains.

Their personalities change and they become different because of the knowledge

they are fed, or so-called knowledge.

I heard of a girl, the story about a girl who went off to college.

She didn't write very often, but on one occasion, she wrote a letter to her parents.

When they got the letter, they were elated. They had actually received a letter

from their daughter had gone away to college, and I'm sure Liz was the one that

wrote this letter to her parents.

Dear mom and dad, I would have written sooner, but all my stationery burned

up when the dormitory burned down.

Then she went on to say, but don't worry. I found this good friend and I've

been living with him now for the last three months.

And mom, I thought you ought to know that he's such a good person,

such a good friend that we've decided to get married.

And oh, by the way, You're going to be grandparents soon,

After she had written Well, Liz didn't really write that And after she had written

all that She signed her name And then added a postscript P.S.

Please disregard all of the above The dormitory did not burn down I'm not living

with a man I'm not going to get married And I'm not pregnant But I did get a D in history I agree.

I guess she wanted them to look at things in a little different perspective.

Knowledge is a tremendous thing. But the most important knowledge is for us to know God.

Not knowledge about God, but truly knowing God.

The Bible teaches that we should always be in pursuit of that knowledge,

the knowledge of knowing God and being intimate with him.

In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John are these words.

Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

That's the real knowledge, knowledge that will set us free both now and for all eternity.

Next, this pastor listed companionship as a want that was expressed to him.

I often encounter people who are lonely and in need of companionship,

and there's no greater time of a sense of loneliness than after your spouse has passed away.

Think and pray for Doris as she goes through this day celebrating the life of

her husband who's passed away.

God created us to need others. That's one of the reasons why we attend church,

for community and relationships.

I saw this many, many years ago when we lived in downtown, like I said,

downtown Peoria, I noticed that so many of the homes, get this, had front porches.

Can you believe that? They had front porches that were wide and expansive for

people to come and greet and sit down for a cup of coffee. And now what do we do?

We hide ourselves on a back deck with a security fence, privacy fence around

it so nobody else can see us.

Join part of our community. That's one of the reasons people join clubs.

That's the reason God designed for us to live in families.

That's the reason we enjoy our fellowship with one another because God created

us to be in community with each other.

We need others. We need friends. We need companions.

We need people who care about us, and we need to be people who care about others.

That's an important part of life. John chapter 15, verses 13 through 15,

John 15:13–15

Jesus said something very important.

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friend.

And you are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants

because a servant does not know his master's business.

Instead, I have called you friends for whatever, for everything that I learned

from my father, I've made known to you.

But there are also bad friendships.

Parents are always concerned about their children, especially when they are

running with the wrong people.

And I'm sure that children grow tired of listening to their parents' warnings.

But our friends, maybe more than anyone else, influence the molding of our character.

Have you ever purchased a case of any kind of fruit?

We have all heard the phrase, one bad apple spoils the whole lot.

If you have one peach or apple or orange and there is a spoiled spot in it,

if it touches other fruit for very long, that other piece of fruit will spoil too.

And so the whole lot will be spoiled.

That's why growers put dividers or in between the fruit before they're shipped.

But wouldn't it be great if one good apple made all the rotten apples good?

Hmm. Doesn't work that way with fruit.

One bad influence can influence a whole crowd to be equally bad.

We see that in the Antifa and BLM riots and the shootings and the gang activity.

It's interesting to me as Mike was talking about Oklahoma City bombing back on April 19th, 1995.

After the bombing in Oklahoma City, when all of that was torn down,

The two major gangs in town, the Vice Lords and the Crips,

stopped their arms and went down and worked side by side in the rubble,

trying to take it out and try to find people.

Interesting that in all of those bad apples, they could come together and try to do some good.

Wouldn't it be something if we could be so influential?

If one good apple could redeem a whole lot.

That's why choosing the right friends is important. When a friend betrays us,

that's a deflating experience.

You made a friend and trusted that friend with some of the deep confidences

of your life, but that friend betrayed you.

Jesus experienced that with Judas.

When he looked at Judas and said, friend, what you are about to do, do quickly.

His heart must have been torn and breaking when he said those words knowing

what Judas was going to do and wanting to love Judas into not doing it.

I wonder also how he feels this morning as he looks in our hearts on this first Sunday of 2026.

The fourth category of wants that the pastor listed was love.

One of the fun parts of my job is talking to people who are in love,

or seem to be, and want to get married.

I like to study people. In fact, when we go to restaurants, my wife knows that

when we sit at a restaurant,

she has to sit at one side of the booth so I can sit on the other side to watch

people as they're coming and going,

because I just love to study people.

And I always study them carefully when they come in, this couple.

I notice if they're holding hands when they enter my office.

I notice if he puts his arm around her, and if he pulls out the chair for his

fiance, I I notice how they look at each other.

I watch for those signs of who speaks first or who dominates the discussion.

When I ask a question of one partner and the other intervenes and tells the

answer for that person, one person may not be necessary in that couple.

I learn a lot about a couple in premarital counseling within the first hour of being with them.

There's something very fascinating about two people in love with each other.

It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. And one of the worst parts

of my job is seeing people whose love has grown cold.

Maybe that's not the correct way of putting it.

Maybe it's better to say these are people who have starved their love and are killing it.

These are people who once loved each other, but no longer. They are infected

with a critical spirit, always nitpicking on their spouse.

Nobody in here is like that. but now they're looking for ways to get even with

each other and for reasons to dissolve the relationship that they once enjoyed.

I have had people come to me and ask if I could counsel them on how to get a divorce.

Holy cow, that is not happening.

We need a counsel on how to rectify our marriage and come to Christ.

So they're not looking for ways to get even. That's one of the hardest things

to deal with in ministry.

Love is risky, isn't it? You put yourself out there completely.

I tell people it's not a 50-50 partnership marriage. It's 100% commitment to

the other person You are surrendering yourself,

Completely To that other person And yet everyone needs to be loved And we all

need to love I'm not sure which we need the most I'm not sure if I need for

you to love me more Or if I need to love you more.

We need both. We need to give love, and we need to receive it.

And yet, when we give love, we risk that our love will not be returned or that

it might even be betrayed, and that's a frightening thing.

So sometimes we hold back, but God's love is a love that is always there.

God has not held back. We can always count on him to return our love and never to withhold it from us.

In fact, God so loved the world that what?

He gave his one and only son for us. Bible says we love him because he first loved us.

We can learn how to give ourselves more completely to one another through the

experience of giving and receiving God's love in our lives.

And then another word that the pastor wrote down on his list of wants was beauty.

Surprising, isn't it? I guess all of us want to be beautiful or attractive to others.

In fact, Adam talked about that last week in the kids' time,

talked about looking in a mirror. And what do you see?

All of us want to be beautiful. Quite often I talk to people who are depressed

and worried about being unloved because they're not beautiful.

Someone says, my nose is too big, and therefore no one will love me,

or I'm too tall, or I'm too heavy, or I'm too old, or I'm too young.

There is always some blemish that makes us think we are unlovable.

God made a beautiful world, and he made you as an integral part of his beautiful world.

He painted the sky. He painted the fields. He gave us beautiful things to behold because he loves us.

And even more than that, he made us in his image.

Listen, most of us are not supermodels. I know you envy me.

I know that's hard to admit, but it's true.

In fact, I happen to be the before picture of all the diet ads and the extreme

makeover editions on TV.

I am the before picture. As far as appearances go, most of us are just plain

average, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and what I think is beautiful

may not be what you think is beautiful at all.

God wants you to know that there is a difference between inner beauty and outer beauty.

While most of us may never have glamorous outer beauty, all of us can be beautiful on the inside.

We may paint ourselves up And pretend to be beautiful on the outside But that

is not what counts What really counts is what's on the inside I listened to

something this last week It's like, why is it.

That star athletes and bodybuilders Are banned from taking steroids And competition

Because that falsely builds up their body But Yeah.

Beauty pageants, they're allowed to have all kinds of makeup to make themselves

artificially beautiful. Maybe that's something new.

Instead of AI, it should be AB, artificially beautiful.

But we paint ourselves up on the outside, and that's not what counts.

What really counts is what's on the inside.

God is the only one who can make us beautiful on the inside.

He can take away all the blemishes and the scars and make us beautiful in his sight.

Last of all, the pastor wrote down the word happiness.

I talk to people almost every day who seem to be miserable.

In fact, they want to be happy, yet they don't know how to be happy.

You see, we tend to believe that happiness can be found in new automobiles and

$450,000 houses, top-named upholstered furniture, and brand-name clothing.

But happiness has never been found there, and it never will be.

Rockefeller was asked, how much do you need to be happy? And he said more.

People are frantically searching, believing Satan's old lie that happiness comes

from the abundance of things which we possess.

But happiness doesn't come from what we possess.

Rather, it comes from what possesses us.

God told the rich farmer, you fool, this night your soul is required of you.

Then who will all of these things belong to? What shall it profit a man to gain

the whole world and lose his own soul?

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

We hear his words, but somehow for many it still hasn't sunk in, has it?

As we look at this list, this pastor made of people's wants,

we realize that these wants are universal.

Here's what people are hungry for. They're hungry for food.

They're hungry for knowledge. They're hungry for compassion.

They're hungry for love. They're hungry for beauty, and they're hungry for happiness.

But how can these hungers be satisfied.

Listen to this, Philippians chapter 4, verse 19, which we read earlier.

Philippians 4:19

My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory.

So that's the answer. That's the how. You see, God has an inexhaustible account.

God has untold riches, and it can only be found in Jesus Christ.

So whatever your need, God has the resources to give to you to fulfill your

every need, every one of them. Are you hungry for food?

Jesus is the bread of life. Are you hungry for knowledge?

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the answer to all of life's questions.

Are you hungry for compassion?

Jesus said, I am your friend, and you are my friend.

Are you hungry for love? There's no greater love than God's love,

and God gives his love selflessly and without reservation.

Are you hungry for beauty? God wants to make you beautiful inside and he can do it.

Hungry for happiness. The only source is true happiness, and that's found in Jesus Christ.

You can only have all of these things, the answer to all of your wants and your

needs, when you find Jesus.

And if you don't know him this day or this first Sunday of the new year,

I would urge that you would seek him out really, really closely.

If you want to know him better, seek him out closely. There's a chorus that we used to sing.

If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart.

Your sins, he'll wash away. Your night, he'll turn to day. Your life, he'll make it over anew.

If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart.

That's what Jesus is looking for, is to make us new in him.

Father, we thank you for all that you provided for us. We thank you for food,

for companionship, for love, for knowledge, for you.

And Father, we ask that you may transform us into your image.

And now may the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit be with you now and evermore as you go

and serve a world that desperately needs Jesus.