Help

My. I was whispered to my friend Don Bradley who I got the privilege of standing next to and worship. Now I’m going to make there’s going to be a long line waiting to sit next to you or stand next to you, Don. But you just got an insane voice. I mean, it’s just so cool and and it’s so fun to sing next to and many of you do.

So if you see me bouncing around, it’s just because I like to listen and enjoy the moment, but it it inspires me to just pour it out. So it’s really, it’s really good. I’m glad you and I are together today. And I mean, I mean, no harm in that statement to those that aren’t here and are out camping. They got the weather they deserve, frankly.

There you go. You go. I said it. Okay. Can I tell you something that I this is not funny.

This is very serious. Most people I know will not make it in this life alone. I was that for a mood changer. It’s true. Some people try.

Some people actually practice aloneness, aloofness, independence, isolation. But unless it’s for brief periods of time, it will not pay off as you wish. It will actually go the opposite direction. So we’re smart to be together to do what this series has tried to talk about for three months now. We are made for this.

And not just this hour that we have together, but for for those times that we have like I did and 30 or 40 of us had last night, a reunion of the Israel tour team. It was it was special. It was meaningful. It was rich. And hopefully I’m taunting some of you now that didn’t go.

And you’re thinking wins the next trip. All right. And there will be other trips. And I hope you’re part of that. But that was my point.

I’m just simply saying it was really special. We shared time together. We’re sharing time together now. We’re going to leave here in a few minutes and have a donut and coffee and more time. Some of you will be in a life group.

Maybe you have a gathering as a life group this weekend. More time. And it all has a similar sort of unifying factor. And it’s the statement I made a moment ago. Most people will not make it alone.

I it’s a bold statement, but there’s I have a lot to back it up because I’m saying it on the authority of God’s word. It’s not just my sociological assessment. It’s a reality. Of what God has to say. At the beginning of this series, it’s actually almost to the day three months ago back in February, we bumped into an assessment made by God.

And whenever one of those is is encountered by us, it’s it’s worthy of our stop, look, and listen. And we’re going to do that just for a quick second. And it came in the second chapter of the Bible, verse 18. And the first half of that verse reads, it is not good. For man to be alone.

That was God’s assessment of the situation. That comes at the end of a week filled with words like, this day was great. This day was great. Really good. Really good.

Really good. Not good. Last day, God created humans. And he started with one name, Adam. But God said of Adam, before Eve arrived, it’s not good.

Not good that you’re alone. Not that God blew it. Not that God, you know, somehow was finding a fault or a deficiency in Adam and in his creation of Adam made by the way in God’s image. But more as we said then, not not that it’s his condition. He’s all alone.

And so God’s look at that says, I want you to imagine that really if you’ll take it in, Adam was alone. That means he had no parents to call or go see or bum a meal off or whatever. He had no parents. And he had no spouse, no family. And he had no friends.

I like animals, but I got to have some feedback, right? You know, you say, well, get a lab. That’s all the feedback you need. But you know what I’m talking? I want to talk to somebody and they do what?

They talk about it, not teenagers, but you get the idea. Yeah, right? Okay. So here’s the deal. He had none of that.

He was the only human alive when God said this at that time. Now, while we’re not told how long he was alone, I do know this from what I’m about to show you that God took action immediately, immediately to change that. Because the second half of the verse then becomes the solution to that problem. I will make a helper suitable for him. Again, I don’t know how much time took place between Genesis 2, 18, A and 2, 18, B.

But God said it wasn’t good that Adam’s alone, that the man is alone, no family, no friends, nobody. And the verse ends with God saying, here’s my solution. I will make a helper suitable for him. And if you read to the end of chapter 2 in the Bible, you would find that community was created. That’s how it started.

And ever since two facts have been constant, that is they have not changed. The first fact is we community is what we were made for. So from Genesis 2, 18, and it’s never been altered since, God’s saying, that’s good, and that’s what I want, and I’ve never changed my mind. So community is what we’re made for. I’ll go a step further, it is necessary.

If you’re gonna be healthy and whole and alive, and a whole bunch of other things. But here’s the second fact, community, and you know this from experience, so do I. Is complicated. And that has caused some to conclude no thanks. You get hurt once, and what do you do?

You step back. Get hurt twice, and you step further back. And it keeps going until you’ve got very little if any community in your life. And if God says that’s what you’re created for, and we’ve established that from his word throughout the series, then we’re living on less than he created for us, amen? That’s what I’m trying to kind of quickly connect at the beginning.

So today’s study that we’re gonna look into now is built on a biblical bias, and you can write this down. And that is that help happens best in community, okay? I can send you somebody to get help, a doctor, a psychologist, a counselor, pick your person. But their help, the benefit and the impact of their help increases greatly if there’s a relationship there, right? In other words, you can say hey I got this problem in my body, and we go see a doctor, and they do their work, and they try to help you there’s a certain outcome.

But if you go to a doctor that’s your friend, but you trust that you know that there’s conversation and some kind of connection, they could give you the same help, but the results are what? They’re better. My doctor heard me, listened, cared, and intervened, did some sort of assistance. So help happens best in community. Adam, we could say correctly needed help.

That’s not a rip on men, I’m just historically observing something. Adam needed help. And did you know the first name, did you recognize when I put that up there, the first name of the woman? Helper. Her first name was not Eve, it was Helper.

God said I will create someone suitable for you and her name, both a noun and a verb is helper. The first female in the creation scene is known as helper. Helper closely connects who she was with what she did. Now stay with me, this is really important because in our modern world there’s pushback on this. She was a helper and he needed help.

That’s a correct statement. Based on the theology of Genesis 2 18. By the way, helper, when you hear me say that, is emphatically not a demeaning term. Why do I say that? It is frequently, here’s why, it’s frequently, the word helper is frequently used to actually describe God in the Bible.

Every time I’ve shared that, that image in counseling, I have women in particular, like it’s almost like it fills them with life. And for good reason, here’s some examples. Psalm 33 verse 20 says, we wait in hope for the Lord. He is our help. Same Hebrew word, folks.

He is our help and our shield. Say, well, that’s one verse. Here’s a second. Psalm 46 one, I quote this all the time when I go see people in the hospital. God is our refuge and our strength.

I make it more personal. He’s your refuge and he’s your strength. He’s your ever present or constant help in times of trouble. And this is one of those times. That’s why you’re in this hospital.

A little later in Psalm, same idea. Psalm 115 verse 11. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, he is their help. And their shield. You get in the connection here that the Bible is making.

How incredibly complimentary to women. That’s not the main theme of my sermon, but I couldn’t blow past it without pointing out the obvious. That’s really good news. I mean, it’s God saying, I crowned you, woman, with a name I use for myself. I’ll talk about high calling, high privilege.

By the way, for some of you that might be curious and wonder about how this all unfolds in the Bible. She has actually four names, the one one we’ve come to know is Eve. Did you know that? The second name, so she starts with helper. The next name in verse 23 of chapter two is woman.

She’s simply known as woman and named woman by Adam. And then a couple of verses later, she’s known as wife. He took her as his wife and the two became one flesh. It’s not until a whole chapter later, chapter three, verse 20 that she’s known as we’ve called her today, Eve. Helper, woman, wife, Eve.

That’s really cool. I don’t know about you, but I got a charge out of that. I was studying that and went, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. That’s cool. Adam’s just Adam, or dude, whatever.

But anyway, you get the idea. All right, so here’s the deal. There’s an important connection that I want to explore in the Bible this morning when it comes to help. That’s the idea I’m getting at. It’s a title of this message.

And here’s the connection. Adam wasn’t the only one who needed help. He was just the first one. And Eve wasn’t the only one who gave help. She was just the first one.

That points to this, the rest of the Bible represents people. All people, men and women, young and old, all people, you and me, we need help. We need it. So you try to go solo after you hear this message. And I mean this with a little bit of an edge.

Good luck. ‘Cause it’s not gonna work really well by design, by the creator’s design. If Adam could have pulled it off on his own, would God spend time with Genesis 2, 18b? No, it’d have been a shorter verse. All right, we’re together on this.

So from the first pages, I want to take you to the New Testament now. First pages of the four Gospels. You can see this again and again. Jesus calling people. And he says to these people two words roughly.

I mean, basically they all boil down to this. Follow me. And he says it to a variety of people and they respond. Command Jesus was describing something, a very different direction for people. At every level, those two words announce this.

If you choose to follow me, and by the way, there is a choice. If Jesus says to you today, through what you’re hearing from his word, if he says to you today, hey, put your name in there, follow me. You have a choice to make. And people throughout history have had a choice to make. All the way back to the earliest days in the Bible.

You get to choose. And if you choose to follow him and say, okay, I will, it will change you by God’s design on purpose. What defines you? What drives your life? What excites you and becomes the thing that matters the most to you?

All of those things will be influenced above all else by the one who looked to you and said, follow me. Yes. So it’s this journey with Jesus that I wanna talk about that is not a journey to be done or tried alone. We need help. He’s calling people to journey on with him.

And here’s why we need help on that journey. It will be at times a delight and a joy. It’ll be times one of those pinch me. I believe it. This is so cool.

And I have those frequently, but I’ve also had the opposite. Seasons where none of that was true. You had that? You’re just like, I’m just grinding it out. Remember I used the expression journey?

It’s not a sprint, right? You know that. I’m saying this to you who might be checking Jesus out early in the process. He’s not calling you when he says, follow me. He’s not saying, days, a few weeks, a month if it works out.

He’s going, he’s not talking sprint, a hurry up thing. He’s talking marathon. Now, if you have an image of a marathon, anybody run a marathon? Okay. Well, look at that.

You’re all smiling today. You weren’t in that marathon smiling, right? I mean, really, there’s picture marathon runners. I don’t care where they are in the race. Maybe, you know, five miles in, they’re like, right to the finish line.

I mean, it’s a freak show. It’s scary stuff. It’s hard to run a marathon. It’s hard to follow Jesus, right? That’s, you say, oh man, don’t blow it.

Jesus said it this way when the disciples were starting to gather in big numbers because they were kind of psyched. They were like, man, this guy’s got it. He’s got the touch. I wanna go places with him. He says, great.

Anyone wants to come after me? Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and what two words did he end that sentence with? Follow me, Luke 923. He did that. He still does that.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer went on to say if any, Jesus, when he calls a person, a man or a woman, young or old, when he calls a person, he bids them, come and die. See? The process of dying to self, the process of facing another day in a world where we are aliens and strangers, Peter said and first Peter, is hard. And you won’t make it if you try to do hard without help. So we need each other.

Find your way to Hebrews 12 and we’ll spend the balance of our time in a couple of Hebrews sections. Hebrews chapter 12, Titus, Philemon, your Bible’s getting pretty thin by the time you get to Hebrews. There’s just James for second Peter, a few little postcards by John and then Revelation and we’re done. We’re not gonna cover all that this morning, but yeah, I did. So Hebrews 12, I just wanna tell you what you’re turning there.

This passage was like, if you were the first century audience to hear this passage, this would have been like oxygen to you. You would have been wheezing hard, finding it hard to breathe and then suddenly, long as you’re so open. This would have been oxygen to Hebrew Christians in the first century. Put that together. Oxygen, really?

‘Cause up to this time, these people were Jews. They were known as Jews and the Jewish religion, Judaism was the acceptable religion in that culture in that day. Not by foreign governments, I’m not going there. But I’m talking about Jewish people were part of Judaism. It was the accepted, embraced religion of that time.

And then Jesus comes along and says things like I said, follow me. And they did, like I said, but then it got hard. And these people are like, wait a minute. Thought we were punching a ticket for a cool ride. And some of them went all the way to maybe I don’t wanna carry on.

Maybe this isn’t really worth it after all. So this response comes to that consideration, people saying, you know what, it’s too hard. Following him, I tried it, but I’m not sure I wanna stay with it. And so these words in Hebrews 12, come on the heels of the writer pointing to a whole bunch of people that persevered through hard. If you wanna look at that study, we did a whole study for months and months called By Faith.

And you can get it online on our website. Here in chapter 12, he’s pointing to them as he goes on. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so many people who did it right, who persevered, that’s what verse one’s saying. So many people, such a great cloud of witnesses, all those listed in chapter 11. Let us throw off everything that hinders in the sin that so easily entangles.

And let us run with perseverance. There’s the race idea. Run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, now our eyes are on him in this illustration, the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

He persevered through unparalleled pain, the cross, squirming its shame as he hung there near naked. And he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Don’t let your image, don’t let your eyes blink here. Go to verse three, consider him who endured such opposition from sinners. And why consider him?

We’re told at the end of verse three. So that you will not grow weary and lose heart. The purpose for pointing to Jesus is to say, if you’re facing hard and you need help, keep your eyes on Jesus so that you too. Will not lose heart. So I’m curious how many, how long ago did some of you make a decision to follow, to say yes and follow Jesus?

If it’s 10 years or more ago, raise your hand, okay? Almost everybody here, don’t feel left out if it’s more recent. Within a while is the point. Now another very honest question. Since saying yes to his offer, follow me.

How many of you who had your hand in the air a moment ago? How many of you have found it difficult and even come to a place where you felt like giving up? Okay, I love this church. I love our honesty. My hands are up, both of them.

Okay? So we’ve known Jesus a long time and everybody without hesitation, most everybody put their hand in the air and said, you know, that’s been me. Okay, I’m gonna, if your thought to possibly check out and give up has been sometime in the last five years, raise your hand. Okay, so let’s get more vulnerable, more honest. That’s something that was well back when I was a teenager.

No, we’re talking something recent. You don’t have to raise your hand on this, I’ll ask it. How many of you raising your hand would say no, it’s actually right now pastor? Today. Again, you don’t have to, you know, unless you feel like, okay?

I appreciate, I really do. This is real stuff. It is a marathon. So we’re told very practically, keep your eyes, look at what he says again. Notice the practical encouragement about how not to give up and it starts in verse one.

For sake is the word. Let us see it, throw off, that’s the word for sake. Okay, throw off everything that hinders in the sin that so easily entangles us. Any of you climb Mount Hood, to the top? I would say Mount Everest, but they’re having a terrible time there and a lot of people have died this week up there.

But okay, so you know, whether it’s Mount Hood or Bull Mountain, you better not carry a lot of weight, right? I mean, get over a hill or a mountain, it’s hard. So the Bible knows that and it’s saying throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. The word is for sake. Everything that hinders following Jesus.

Can I give you a better image of throw off, it’s so tame. The actual image here is strip off. I had coffee this morning, how many had coffee? You know, early, okay, great. What kind of coffee?

No, just, okay, so, so I had a coffee, I had a cup of coffee and I knew I was gonna say this to you and I was, I was very self aware of my coffee. And I thought, what would I do if it was this whole big ol’ honkin’ mug? And it was the first of several. But anyway, it was, some of you’re saying that explains a lot right now, pastor. It’s good, thank you.

So I got this mug, right? And I was kind of this time, I sit in my chair and I was aware of what I’m about to tell you and I held it this way. Because if that, this is a lot of weight and one little, we call it thing. The thing you hold on to. Handle.

(congregation laughing) That’s why I use sipper cups now. (congregation laughing) So what happens if that, you’re gonna bring me a mug? No, if that handle breaks off and it’s over me. And it’s scalding hot water on my shirt and my pants. What do I do?

Oh, oh man, I better get this shirt off because ah, that’s burning me. That’s now a second degree burn. What do you do? (congregation laughing) Not gonna do it, but. (congregation laughing) It’s going, I’m dropping trowel.

I mean, it’s a problem here, right? And you do it instantly. And you don’t sit here and contemplate it. Well, you know, it’s only, you know, a flesh burn. No, the Bible’s saying, look, strip off is the idea.

Everything that hinders and do it now. Don’t wait. Notice too, strip off the, circle the way word everything ’cause it means everything in this statement. It’s not say be selective. Things that are convenient.

Things that are comfortable. It’s saying give heave ho quick to everything. So for sake, everything that hinders and entangles us in this race. I love this where I don’t have time to go as deep as I wanted to here, but I love that the Bible doesn’t get real specific here. You think about it.

Everything that hinders and the sin that’s, we get the sin part, of course. Some things are really sinful and that’s a no brainer. Get rid of it. Stop it. Find the way of escape.

1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, and there’s a promised way of escape every time you’re tempted to sin. So find that. Here’s a hint. Look sooner than you’ve been looking. Really?

Yeah, because if you keep stumbling over a certain sin, you’re not looking for the way of escape soon enough. So look sooner. It’s like that exit ramp on a freeway. Oh, blew by the exit ’cause you weren’t looking. You were texting.

That’s the problem here, right? Get off, get off. So anyway, you get the idea. So some things are sinful, but any distraction could be a time-waster, brain on our spiritual energy. You’re too into watching shows on TV.

You’re too focused on Fox News. You’re too, whatever. Stop it. Stop CNN. I’m not digging on Fox.

I don’t care. I don’t watch news anymore. But don’t get locked into those things. I thought of some examples, but man, can I give you two that pop into my mind? And I only give these to you because they are things that I have fought through, and they are things that I think represent a mega threat to my soul.

So the first one’s money, anxious about money, which I already leaked the secret. That’s my second one, anxiety, worry. So here’s money. This is why I tell you it’s a threat of your soul. Strip this thing off.

Deal with this if it’s true in your life. Paul says my favorite passage in the Bible on money. First Timothy chapter six, it’s much longer than these three verses. But he says this, those who wanna get rich fall into temptation. Might fall into temptation?

No, they do fall into temptation. And a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. There’s a whole bunch of words I wanna go deep with, but let’s just say I don’t like any of them when it pertains to me. Ruin and destruction? No.

I wanna be alive and whole. Not ruined and destroyed. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. I’ve heard so many preachers even say, well, it’s just a root. That’s enough for me.

It should’ve seen me mauling the weeds in my garden yesterday. Debbie’s garden, I should clarify. I was not nice to them. I just blew ’em up and it was really fun. But Debbie’s not here.

There was some collateral damage on a couple of rose bushes. But anyway, so look at this. Look at this. Some people eager for money. What happens to them?

They’ve wandered from the faith. Y’all, can you pay a bigger price? You wander from the faith and in doing so, you do what? You pierce yourself with many griefs. That’s a self-inflicted wound that we’re reading about there.

Nothing here is being told to us that we can’t do. We’re told to do it. So they’ve wandered from the face, pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, is talking to Timothy, which is why it’s very personal, man of God. Flea from this, meaning you’ve got something you can do.

So do it. And the second one is worries. And there’s so much in the Bible. Proverbs 12, 25, anxiety in the heart of a man or woman weighs it down. But a good word, cheers it up, makes it glad.

Where does the good word come from? The Bible and? Very often? Community. Community.

My favorite today, okay? Thank you, Laura. Community, right? When I’m down, so many times I’ve been down, you have come along and said, hey, I love you, bro. Anxiety in the heart of man weighs it down.

Jesus went on much deeper in Matthew six. There’s a whole bunch there. Why do you worry, saying what shall we eat? Hi, I know food, clothing, houses, cars, cell phones. I mean, it just goes on and on.

The things we tend to, no, I’ll be personal. The things that I find myself at times worrying about. And God says, stop it. And there’s a reason he doesn’t go. He goes, here’s the deal I love you.

I’m your father. They take care of you. What pagans run after, the pagans run after all those things. You’re heavenly father knows you need all them. So seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

And all those things you’ve been worrying about, they’ll be added to you. Don’t be anxious, by the way, about tomorrow. But tomorrow will take care of itself each day, today has enough troubles of its own. I know this is an illustration that doesn’t really work this time of year, but I think of my kids that were little people and they would get ready to go to school. And they were so jacked with excitement.

They were so filled up. And not once did they worry about, did they get all my supplies or is my backpack correctly filled and on and on? Why? It’s not theirs to do, right? Who worries about that stuff?

Debbie, that’s right, that’s good. The helper, remember? But here’s the deal. Kids aren’t supposed to worry about that stuff. ‘Cause their father takes care of them.

It’s the same thing Jesus is saying. Don’t worry about that stuff, Steve. ‘Cause it’s entangling you. This is only part A. There’s more to come.

There’s a lot more. I want to, oh man, there’s a ton more, but I don’t want us to miss the personal engagement piece here. And I’ve asked two people to join me at this time. John and Violina Ripley, and they’re gonna, in just a couple of minutes, share with you about how they’ve been helped and how they’ve extended help, in the context of life groups. And this would be the Ripley’s.

John, take it. Would you? – Well, where I thought you were gonna go, Steve, is forsake, forsake, forsake, and then later in Hebrews, don’t forsake, gathering together. So next week, right? – I didn’t attend your seminary.

Sorry, that’s okay. – It is next week. – So we’ve been thinking about the benefit of our youth, of our small group, and how it has helped us and encouraged us. And we’ve got a couple short stories. These might not work for you when you’re a group.

That’s okay, they work for us. Violina. – So there, for a while there are, our group was, we had fun giving each other a hard time. And it got to be a little, singing for a while. And so we walked into group one day and Cindy had an empty mason jar on the table.

And she says, “Any time you’re seeing someone with a comment that’s not kind or whatever, you owe a dollar.” – So this is an example of the jar. – We don’t have quite enough yet to take the group to Hawaii. – We don’t even have enough to have pizza. – Oh, don’t moderate too much.

There’s a 20 in there. There’s five. Are you kidding me? – There’s some of us that have chosen to pay ahead of time. (laughing) has helped us realize words hurt sometimes.

And so we’re more conscious of building up rather than tearing down. – Second one is similar. I learned, I like to joke. I learned a long time ago that joking about others can hurt. So I tend to joke about myself.

And again, Cindy, wise woman, one day told me to stop that. That it’s not a good example and that it’s not helping others. So she offered to help me to stop that. So she offered and has carried through on the threat several times that if I say something negative, I’m gonna need help demonstrating. If I say something negative about myself, she takes it upon herself to, go ahead.

Slap me upside the head. (laughing) – How you lost your hand bro on this time. I don’t know. – Dollar. (laughing) – Get outta here.

(laughing) – One hand per hit, you do the math. (laughing) – Let’s give it up for the rivalry. You guys are great. (laughing) (audience applauding) All right, let’s, man, this was good. I’m gonna ask the worship team, lead us in the last song.

I know there’s a couple, but I’ll let you. Yeah, last couple of songs. And we’re just gonna, you know, there’s half a sermon left. But in the reality, there’s a couple hundred sermons left. Really, the application is up to me and to you to keep our eyes on Jesus and then reach to others that need to be encouraged to be helped ’cause this road, this path, as we’ve established today is not terribly easy.

At times, it’s just downright almost impossible. And Jesus would say, no, it is impossible without help. So that’s where we come in, that’s where he comes in, right? We would like for you to, if you filled out a prayer request today in the connection card that you would turn that in now in the offering plate, the ushers are gonna come. And they’re gonna gather morning offering and they’re gonna gather prayer requests.

And we’d like you to be a part of that as well. And let’s stand and be led in final worship and be on our way.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 5,544 words.