GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES

INTRO

Good morning! My name is Ryan, I’m one of the pastors here at Georgianna.

It’s so good to be with you in worship today…

[MENTION LIVE STREAM AT 9:45]

Pastor Corky and Deedie are out of town with friends this weekend… the man who works so hard for this church is taking Labor Day off.

How bout that…?

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And speaking of working so hard… I just want to take a moment to recognize a team that works like crazy for you all.

Isn’t it nice to come to church on Sundays and find out that coffee and donuts have just magically appeared and are waiting for you when you arrive?

How awesome is that?

Okay… it’s not magic… there’s a pretty amazing team behind the scenes to make all of this happen.

And truly I think this is important work… not just because I can’t go an hour without coffee… but smiles and hospitality are vital when we invite people into community with each other and with an Almighty God.

And so I tell them this all the time… yes, they are providing coffee and sweets… but they’re really providing a warm welcome and helping set the tone for everything that happens here.

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And here’s something unique about hospitality here… I’ve been places like this, you’ve been places like this… they’ll offer something free--- with a huge, guilt-inducing donation bucket on the table.

We don’t do that here… for 2 reasons:

We have very generous people who donate awesome coffee for an awesome cause. Mike and Shay Glover donate coffee grown at Living Hope orphanage in Zambia… where they are on the board.

YOU are very generous people who are faithful to the tithe… therefore we can provide nice options for a warm welcome… so you don’t just get donuts… you get Merritt Island Donut Shop donuts!

Here’s why I say all this:

*I want you to know there’s a really great team behind all of this… so make sure to thank them when you see them out there.

***I want to invite you to be a part of that great team. If you’re a hospitality person… if you’re a smile and a warm welcome person… this may be a great way for you to serve your church. My email is up, please let me know if you want to join us.

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Alright… so settle in with your coffee and donut… or if you’re one of those health nuts you can sip on your cucumber-melon water… or whatever you’re into.

We are in the last week of our “Things Jesus Never Said” series… have you enjoyed this?

I’m grateful to Corky and Jason and Janice and Nick for rolling with a weird idea that I thought would be fun to explore together. And I’ve really enjoyed hearing all of our different takes on some of these.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s been fun to laugh at ourselves a bit… and be convicted at the same time.

In case you’ve missed it… we been taking a look at some popular cultural catchphrases that pop up so often… maybe even have a hint of the spiritual in them… and then we just assume they came from the Bible.

But they didn’t… these are “Things Jesus Never Said.”

And once again… the heart and soul behind this series has been to try and live up to the standard that the apostle Paul sets in his letter to his protege Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:15 NIV

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

So we don’t just ASSUME something is in scripture because it sounds nice… we’re going to correctly handle the Word of Truth.

***I mentioned on week 1 the unfortunate results to a survey conducted by George Barna… where it found that the most widely known verse in the Bible is “God helps those who help themselves.”

In his own commentary on that study Barna suggested that the fact that the most widely known Bible verse is actually not even in the Bible is really just a symptom of a much larger problem…

That people of the Christian faith are unfamiliar with the Bible! Crazy!

But not so here. I’ll steal a line from Corky… not on his watch and not on mine.

Here at this church at least… we want to correctly handle the word of truth, Amen?

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So… one last time… no judgment… no condemnation… we’ve all done this so let’s course-correct together.

OPENING PRAYER

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight… O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

ME

When I graduated college… going on 20 years ago now.

Anyways, I remember having that crisis of entering the real world. I had to start adulting…

Right away I took a job doing some data entry for this big logistics company because… I had bills to pay and, much to my surprise, my dream job didn’t just land on my doorstep.

And so I worked, but I also took several months to assess what I really wanted to do, where I really felt like my talents lined up with where God was leading me…

And then I began going after that dream job… I threw my resume out there… I made phone calls… And I just knew it… a megachurch was going to call me and offer me a 6 figure salary to sing and play guitar.

It’s been almost 20 years… still waiting on that phone call.

But here’s what did happen. A really great church Chattanooga, TN offered me a part-time job … and I took it.

Like many of you, I found out that the more realistic way to enter into your dream field was through an internship or a low-paying part-time gig.

That is the actual way the world works.

Now, I had no benefits, but I was young and healthy and things like medical insurance were for the birds…

Until about 4 months in when I got bronchitis… and my job was centered around this idea that I could sing.

Now I know everyone gets a cold here and there, but every now and then it gets more serious into something where you actually need medical attention.

But being 22 years old… and without insurance… it may as well cost me a fortune at that time in my life.

So I trudged on until my boss and co-workers got tired of me coughing and complaining and they made me go to the doctor.

And the church footed the bill.

And this is certainly not the hardest thing that someone can go through… but I did learn something about myself.

I had never really had to receive help.

My family wasn’t wealthy, but we had always had enough… I grew up taking mission trips and helping who we would call the “less fortunate.” We were the money and aid givers… not ever the receivers…

And I learned that receiving help wasn’t the most comfortable thing for me.

WE

I think we like to be the helper.

I KNOW that Georgianna LOVES to help and LOVES to be generous.

We like to do for others… and church… OF COURSE… this isn’t a bad thing. This is one of our strengths.

But there might be some shadow sides that we don’t always consider.

Maybe, just maybe… we would think something is wrong with us if we ever found ourselves in a position of needing help…

This was me, grappling with the idea of my church paying my doctor bills.

What’s wrong with me, that I can’t do it?

Maybe, just maybe… we like helping because we think it means we have something of a higher status than those who need help.

And if I’m going to be really honest today… then this might also be me at times.

And you might not want to acknowledge it… but this might be all of us at times.

And so we struggle with being on the receiving end…

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My wife, Allison, um… doesn’t have any faults…

But if she did… it might be this one.

Did you see what I did there?

Many of you know that she will bend over backward to help someone out.

But try and do her a favor. I dare you. You will have a loaf of bread and a thank you note so fast…

Allie LOVES to help people!

She loves to take pictures… she loves to bake bread… she loves to teach your kids.

But she’s a work in progress when it comes to receiving :)

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So our last “Thing That Jesus Never Said” IS “God helps those who help themselves.”

Now, admittedly, this particular phrase has kind of been the butt of the joke for this series.

I know Jesus never said this… You know Jesus never said this...

And so WE don’t go around saying this...

BUT… do we LIVE like it still?

Maybe we don’t say it out loud, but do we live our lives as if being in God’s good graces depends on your own performance?

And if you can’t do for yourself… well then don’t bother crying out to God.

GOD

Jesus’ ministry takes place at a time when the idea of EARNING God’s favor would have been very popular … especially among His own people… the Jews.

For a lot of people following God had a lot to do with your own performance.

There was a rulebook, so to speak… and there were over 600 rules… and a big question looming over people was, “How good are you at keeping all the rules?”

But Jesus comes along… and you heard this last week… He boils it all down to 2.

Loving God and..... ____________________________

And in the book of Luke, Jesus encounters a religious expert who seems a little unsatisfied with this 2 Commandment version of the rulebook.

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Now, SIDENOTE: Don’t you always just love when a religious “expert” enters the scene with Jesus?

Like I read this and I’m thinking, “I don’t think he knows what he’s walking into...”

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Also, what kind of title is religious expert??? How do you get to be an expert at this?

This is kind of how I felt when I graduated seminary and they said I had a Master of Divinity.

Like, okay, I’ll take the degree… but I’m not sure if that’s true.

Anyways, just a glimpse into my weird mind when I hear “religious expert.”

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SO… religious expert… divinity master… doesn’t like the 2 commandment version of the law.

And so he presses Jesus a little bit and he asks, “And who is my neighbor?”

This guy would have had a pretty limited definition of neighbor… in that culture your neighbors probably referred to your fellow Jews.

And so loving your neighbor meant loving the people who looked like you… thought like you… believed like you.

Jesus doesn’t give him a direct answer about who his neighbor is… He tells him a story…

And this story is going to stretch his idea of who his neighbor actually was… as well as the role that he would get to play in the story.

We’ll come back to that.

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Go to Luke 10, starting at verse 30

You’ve heard this story before. Whether you’re a person of faith or not… it’s going to ring some bells for you.

It’s a story about someone who is in desperate need of help.

And here’s what I want us to be aware of today…

We love to look at this story as if we are the helper. We LOVE to put ourselves in the position of being the hero. Or at least trying to be more like the hero.

But whether we always nail it or not… make no mistake, THAT is the person we almost always identify with.

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And just like Jesus stretching the religious guy’s mind a little bit...

Let me stretch you a bit today…

What if we’re not always the hero?

What if we’re the one in need?

What if we try to experience what it is like to accept help. And What if God is working through people that we would never expect?

…

How comfortable are we with the idea that all we can do sometimes is just receive?

PASSAGE

Luke 10:30–37 (NIV)

30 ...Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

[THEY LITERALLY GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO NOT HELP SOMEONE]

33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii

[YOUR BIBLE MIGHT HAVE A FOOTNOTE THERE THAT TELLS YOU IT IS 2 DAYS’ WAGES]

he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

REFLECTIONS

You've heard this story before… In fact it is so popular that we have hospitals and aid agencies and thrift stores named after the hero… the Good Samaritan.

Often times the take-away of the story is to help the needy… be like the Good Samaritan.

That’s who we identify with… we measure how we’re doing with how much we are or are not like the Good Samaritan.

But the religious guy’s question wasn’t “Should I help the needy?” His question was “Who is my neighbor?”

Should we help those in need? Of course we should!

People, if you find someone beaten and bloodied and left for dead on the side of the ride… please help them!

Can we all just agree on that?

But Jesus’ teachings are actually packed full of meaning. I’m convinced of this.

As I researched this sermon there was a Bible commentator who said that this story can’t be reduced to a simplistic meaning… because a simplistic meaning is hardly worthy of Jesus’ teaching.

And so I wonder… is it possible that there is more going on here than simply just a call to help people?

Yes, that is there… but what else?

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In those days teachers like Jesus might speak in parables like this one. Parables were simply stories told with some sort of lesson or punchline at the end.

Often times they would use the “Rule of 3,” as in you might include 3 examples- with the third one being the correct one.

So in our story… you have a priest who is not a neighbor… he walks on by.

… you have the Levite, a Temple assistant and he is not a neighbor either… also walks on by.

And the people listening… not only the expert, but probably just the everyday, regular people… they were always around Jesus...

The audience would be waiting on the third example. Waiting on the correct answer… Waiting on the role model in the story.

Now it would have been no surprise that the clergy were the first 2 examples… Jesus had already come into conflict with the religious elite of the day.

But his audience probably would have assumed that the role model was going to be a layperson. It’s going to be one of them… The common Israelite… doing his or her best to follow God…

The story would have been about the people right? It’s not about the powerful. It’s not about “The Man.”

It’s about us.

The role model in the “rule of 3” should have been the faithful Jew… coming along to care for their brother, their “neighbor” (to use their definition) who is in need.

And then there is a twist…

And it’s really pretty shocking… but we sometimes lose it today because maybe we don’t know much about Samaritans…

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Let’s talk about Samaritans for a minute.

Jews don’t like Samaritans.

In fact, they REALLY don’t like Samaritans.

It’s probably as strong as a prejudice… a prejudice which grew out of a long, shared history together...

Now I love history, so stick with me for just a second…

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Long before the time of Jesus there was a unified kingdom called Israel. They had a great king named David.

Unfortunately the kingdom was short-lived and it split into 2 Factions…

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a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom.

Because the kingdom was based on a particular religion… each faction their own place of worship…

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and both kingdoms thought the other’s place of worship was a challenge to their own. You might even say blasphemous.

Over time both kingdoms are conquered by more powerful nations and they’re forced into exile… starting with the Northern kingdom.

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On top of that, the northern kingdom begins to intermarry with the surrounding people and cultures that had taken over… which was a big no-no…

And out of these mixed relationships you end up with a group of people called Samaritans.

This is just a tiny snapshot of that shared history.

So to the Jews of Jesus’ day, the Samaritans did it all wrong. They worshipped in the wrong place. They married and had families with the wrong people.

They had desecrated God’s sacred intentions with His chosen people.

HERE’S THE POINT:

The Samaritans were the villains in all of the stories… not the good guys.

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We lose this today, because now the word Samaritan is almost synonymous with good. But back then, good and Samaritan never went together.

A Samaritan is the last person that should be the hero…

And maybe just as uncomfortable… a Jewish person should be the last person accepting their help.

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Now when we talk about stories like this… and when Jesus TELLS stories like this… the point is really to identify with a certain character. To see yourself in it.

If parables have some sort of lesson or punchline, then we have to ask ourselves, “Who are we or who should we be in this story?”

And again… the common answer is to be like the Good Samaritan. Help people in need, right?

But let’s go back to Jesus’ original audience here… There’s the religious expert… and probably a whole crowd of everyday, average Jewish people around them.

And, in the story of the Good Samaritan, the everyday average Jewish person isn’t the hero… it isn’t the man with compassion… it isn’t the man offering help.

The everyday average Jewish person in this story… is the man on the ground.

As much as they would try not to… they probably would have identified with the victim.

Yeah, I’ve been on that road before, it is dangerous… well, my priest would have helped me… man, what would I have done if a Samaritan (of all people) was my only hope!

We hear this story today… and we’re inspired to be like the Samaritan…

but we also have to ask ourselves a really uncomfortable question...

“What if it was me on the ground?”

APPLICATIONS

If God helps those who help themselves… and if being in God’s good graces depends on our own performance...

Well what happens when I’m beaten and helpLESS?

Maybe literally… but more often metaphorically… we’ve all felt like this before.

What happens when you’re not always the helper? What if you don’t always have the resources or the upper hand?

We have a knee-jerk reaction to want to be the Samaritan in our stories…

We want to be the aid givers… and again, don’t mishear me… when this comes from the right place this is a beautiful goal!

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But at the end of the day, I wonder if the Good Samaritan story is about more than just helping the needy. That message is certainly in the Bible, there are plenty of other stories that will tell you to do just that.

But don’t forget how THIS whole story started.

Jesus is confronted about who our neighbors actually are.

And He tells a story where loving your neighbor is actually NOT about helping the needy.

Because in this story YOU are the needy… and loving your neighbor means giving someone the dignity and blessing of receiving their help when you can’t help yourself.

Even if the neighbor is someone you don’t like!

I think of this story and I wonder what it would be like if Corky stumbles and falls in his front yard and the only person to help him up is shirtless lawn-mowing guy across the street!

The story of the Good Samaritan forces us to imagine swallowing our pride… and let our neighbor help the needy… even when it is us.

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There was a popular Christian song a few years back… and I’m sure it’s extremely well intentioned, but it had this one line that I couldn’t get over.

This song asked the question, “Was I Jesus to the least of these?”

Maybe you’ve said something like that before… I’ve said things like that before.

Speaking of Thing Jesus Never Said… did you know that’s not in the Bible?

That we could BE Jesus to the least of these?

***Jesus actually says… when you have done it for one of the least of these… you have done it for me.’

The command is not to BE Jesus TO someone. We are told that Jesus IS the least of these.

So when are helping the “least of these”… according to scripture, we are not Jesus in that scenario. They are!

When you encounter the “least of these” you are not “being Jesus” or “bringing Jesus” in that situation…. You are meeting Jesus…

You have the privilege and blessing of encountering Jesus as you encounter those that you are serving.

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The religious guy asking Jesus the question would assume that he would always be about the work of God… and bringing God’s works to others.

And Jesus tells a story that forces him to imagine the work of God coming to him from another source…

An unexpected neighbor…

A neighbor that he would never assumed any good would come out of.

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In the story of the Good Samaritan… the everyday average person… the person probably most like us in the story… He doesn’t encounter a God who only helps those who help themselves.

On the contrary… he is helped when he cannot help himself.

And he is offered aid from none other than a Samaritan… someone he would have considered to be the “least of these”

But that is exactly where Jesus will be found.

WE

So no, “God helps those who help themselves” is not something Jesus said… it’s NOT in the Bible.

And, in fact, it may be helpful to get comfortable with the idea that, sometimes, we are the needy.

And maybe we can benefit from the help of others.

Don’t assume that we always get to be on the giving end of Jesus… be on the receiving end as well.

Look to receive from others and receive from Jesus, maybe in places where you don’t expect.

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Try this out…

If you join with one of Georgianna’s ministries that are the helping kind…

If you pack meals… if you volunteer at Cambridge… if you go on a relief trip…

look for all of the Samaritans.

Go ahead and assume you’re one of them, because you are.

But see the work of Jesus in the other volunteers. See the work of Jesus in the staff of these organizations. If you get to meet the people who need a house rebuilt after a storm … meet Jesus as you meet them.

If you volunteer at Cambridge… see the face of Jesus in the faces of those kids.

I get the privilege of going to Guatemala with Georgianna in November… and on this trip we get to go as the medical aid givers… and right now I’m trying to prepare myself… not to BE Jesus to them… but to meet Jesus in them.

God doesn’t only help those who help themselves…

Sometimes you are the needy… and I don’t know about you, but I need all the Jesus I can get… so go and receive.

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In my early 20s I couldn’t really afford medical attention, but without it bronchitis could have turned into pneumonia.

In my late 20s now, I know better :)

It would have gotten worse before it got better. And I would have still had to go to the doctor.

As much as I didn’t want to be the needy… My church had something for me that I couldn’t provide on my own.

Our Samaritans… our neighbors… “the least of these”... I have a feeling they have much to offer us…

It might be a unique and fresh encounter with Jesus.

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I’m sure that God actually does help those who can help themselves.

But I’m grateful that He helps me too.

So I would invite you to Get comfortable with your need.

Get comfortable with the things that you just CAN’T do for yourself.

You don’t always get to be the hero. You don’t always get to be the Samaritan…

Sometimes we are helpLESS.

So Look to experience Jesus… and look to receive from neighbors that you may never have expected…

CLOSING PRAYER

Who You are, who we are, who You’ve called us to be…

COMMUNION

BENEDICTION

PROMOTE NEXT SERIES!!! Standing Firm. How do we have a rock solid faith… with everything going on around us?

Church I LOVE it when we give. I absolutely cannot wait for the Pie Auction. Nothing that I say should diminish our joy that comes from giving… we SHOULD be like the Samaritan!

But sometimes we’re on the ground. And sometimes we need to receive. And sometimes we need to experience the love of Jesus coming from another generous person.

This is what GriefShare is for.

This is what Meal Trains are for… when you’ve had surgery… when you’ve delivered a child)

This is what Men’s Ministry and Ladies Bible Study are for… fellowship and accountability

bill and Joanne

All these things that we cannot just do for ourselves.

Go it alone and pull yourself up by your bootstraps… might be super American...

But it’s not in the book.

This life and culture that says God helps those who help themselves… not in the book.

If you need help, receive help.

God might just be trying to bless you, maybe through unexpected ways… maybe through unexpected people.

Church… I love you… And I love receiving Jesus from you…

We’ll see you next week.