Sermon Central
-
Getting The Help We Need
Contributed by Paul Decker on Mar 21, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: God is an unfailing constant.
GETTING THE HELP WE NEED
S: Jesus and the Holy Spirit
C: God with us
Pr: GOD IS AN UNFAILING CONSTANT.
Type: Inductive
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Live in the assurance that God does not fail
• Rest in Him, for He resides in us.
Version: ESV
RMBC 20 March 05 AM
INTRODUCTION:
1. Have you ever needed help?
ILL Help: C & H breakfast in bed
In the popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, we find Calvin in the first frame making breakfast for his mom. He says with a big smile on his face, “Hi Mom! Since you are sick, I’m brining you breakfast in bed!”
In the second frame he continues, “I prepared eggs, toast and orange juice all by myself!”
When we come to the third frame, Calvin is carrying a frying pan in one hand and a tool in the other, saying, “The eggs kind of burned and stuck to the pan, but you can probably chip them out with this chisel.”
In the final frame, mom is sitting up in the bed, asking, “Um. . .where is the toast and orange juice?
To which Calvin responds, “Dad said not to tell you about that till you’re better.”
Sometimes when we try to help, we need help to be of help…
ILL Help: George and the Dragon
There is another story about a man needing help…
A poor vagabond, traveling a country road in England, tired and hungry, came to a roadside Inn with a sign reading: "George and the Dragon." He knocked gently on the door. The Innkeeper’s wife stuck her head out a window. "Could ye spare some victuals?" he asked politely.
The woman glanced at his shabby clothes and obviously poor condition. "No!" she said rather sternly.
"Could I just have a pint of ale?"
"No!" she said again.
"Could I at least sleep in your stable?"
"No!" by this time she was fairly shouting.
The vagabond said, "Might I please...?"
"What now?" the woman interrupted impatiently.
"D’ye suppose," he asked, "I might have a word with George?"
Now please don’t take offense to that if you are married to someone named George today…
On a more serious note…
Sometimes, we feel like our lives are disintegrating.
It seems like the floor is giving out, and we are tumbling out of control.
There is not enough month at the end of the money.
Our marriage is a struggle instead of a joy.
We have lost one to death that is very precious to us.
The priorities of our children are askew as the things of the Lord are set aside for other pursuits.
An illness never seems to go away.
Each one of these things can make us feel like it is all out of control.
For…
2. When our world is crumbling, help seems out of reach.
This is how the disciples felt.
You may remember from our study last week that they had hearts that were far from tranquil.
They had argued about who was the greatest.
Jesus embarrassed them by washing their feet.
Judas’ sudden departure left them puzzled.
Peter was silenced because Jesus told him that he was going to deny Him three times.
And Jesus said He was leaving.
They were losing Jesus.
Their Messiah, their hope, their friend…was leaving them.
Jesus knows their anxiety.
He knows that they are worried.
So He tells them…
“Trust in God; trust also in me.”
You see…
3. We are to find relief in trusting Jesus.
The message He gave them is still true for us as well.
Let’s consider now the rest of John 14, picking up where we left off last week…
OUR STUDY:
Jesus is saying…
(15) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (16) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, (17) even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
(18) I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. (20) In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (21) Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (22) Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (23) Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (24) Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
