God Helps Those That Helps Themselves

The Bible Doesn’t Say That

“God Helps Those That Help Themselves”

Today we are going to start a series called, “The Bible Doesn’t Say That.”

You see we hear statements all the time that people say that when you hear it, you think obviously that’s in the Bible.

And the reason is because these statements have just enough truth in them to sound right and make it feel like that WOULD be in the Bible.

This morning I’m going to talk about the saying, “God Helps Those That Help Themselves”.

A study showed that 81% of people believed that saying was in the Bible.

68% of them were born again Christians.

Benjamin Franklin popularized it in his Poor Richard Almanac

But it originated from one of Aesop’s Fables where Hercules says to a man whose wagon is stuck, “Tut, man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel. “The gods help them that help themselves.”

Yet people like Bill O’Reilly on his show was trying to make a point about people getting jobs and doing things to get their life on track and he said, “God helps those who help themselves. Isn’t that in the bible?”

The truth is, that saying is NOWHERE in the Bible.

But it sounds like it makes sense

And again there might be just enough truth to believe it.

“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” 11 We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.”

Some of you are going to write that down to share with your teenager later!

Yes God makes it clear in his Word that He does not approve of laziness.

We are to work hard and provide for our families.

But that’s not what this phrase is saying.

And this saying can be very dangerous.

So this morning I want to share 3 dangers to this mindset of “God helps those that help themselves.”

WE THINK SELF HELP IS THE BEST HELP

The Self Help industry is estimated to be worth $11 billion in the United States alone.

Apparently we need Self Help in all sorts of areas of our life. Look at some book titles for self help books.

“The Beginner’s Guide to Human Sacrifice”

“How to Poo on a Date”

“How to Raise Your I.Q. by Eating Gifted Children”

“How to Live With an Idiot”

People are consumed by Self Help

Which means we are putting our attention and emphasis on ourselves.

And what happens is we take that mindset into our walk with the Lord.

And when we put our attention on to ourselves and in our humanness, it’s easy for things like worry to creep in.

Because we put so much pressure on ourselves.

So we worry, “What if I can’t do this?” or “what if I fail?”

“ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Worry is a HUGE part of many peoples lives.

Jesus is saying when you try to HELP yourself and do it on your own, worry is going to creep in.

But when you seek HIM FIRST, he’ll take care of you in ways that you could never do.

You’ll see worries that you use to have disappear.

Because one thing we have to remember is that following God is not about us and what WE can do.

It’s always about God and what HE can do.

And God is sitting in heaven saying, “there’s just some things you can’t control.”

Things that you can’t do.

That’s where I come in!

Self Help is not the best help. God’s help is the only help we need.

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

We can do all things through whose strength?

Christ’s strength

PRIDE

This can give us a selfish mindset. It’s all about me.

This can then lead to pride.

Pride isn’t just being arrogant.

It’s the mindset of I can do it myself.

Pride was the FIRST sin

The devil was a worship leader in heaven and pride settled in where he said he wanted to be like God.

He felt like, “I could do better.” “I can do what God does.”

A lot of times we act like we can do what only God can do.

That’s a form of pride.

WE want to prove that we can do something.

But God is telling us that’s not the way to handle the situation.

Pride is something we want nothing to do with.

Listen to these verses

“The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished.”

“Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.”

Clearly God has some strong thoughts about pride.

It affects everything

First, it affects our relationship with God

“And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride.”

It can hinder our prayer life

Our ability to talk to God

It affects our relationship with others

Pride makes us think that certain people are inferior to us.

“Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!”

The GREATEST obstacle in showing love and kindness to others is pride.

We think, “I can’t associate with that person”.

YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE!!

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,”

It’s not you over other people, it should be people over you.

Jesus would seek out the lowest of the low.

The outcasts

And He would connect with them because He knew the VALUE of every person.

We are called to do the same.

Dan Seaborn spoke last week on marriage.

Some of your marriages are struggling because of pride.

You think, “I can fix this MY way.” or “I don’t need anyone telling me what to do in my marriage.”

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

We are called to humble ourselves, which is relying on God in every area of our life.

Taking the attention OFF of us and strictly onto HIM!

WE THINK OUR SALVATION IS ABOUT WORKS

When you think that God helps those that help themselves your mind starts to shift from grace to works.

We feel like we have to jump through all these hoops and figure things out on our own before we can get right with God.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I just need to get some things figured out before I give my life to God”?

That’s the OPPOSITE of what God wants from us.

God wants us to come to Him SO HE can help change us.

“ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

So many of us are tired and weary because we keep trying and trying to fix our issues and deal with our burdens alone and Jesus is saying, “GIVE IT TO ME!”

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

The help you need isn’t gonna come from yourself.

It can only come through God.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”

You can’t EARN your way into heaven by works.

Otherwise, it allows people to boast about what THEY did and not God.

It reminds me of a parable Jesus told.

“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Notice how Jesus wasn’t too interested in all the awesome WORKS of the Pharisee.

He cared about the HEART of the tax collector.

Who wouldn’t even look to heaven as he prayed because he didn’t feel worthy.

It wasn’t about what he’d done it was about his heart changing toward God.

It’s like the thief on the cross

I don’t recall reading the bible and it saying that Jesus had to let the thief down so he could do some nice things before he would be allowed into heaven.

He believed in Jesus and Jesus told him that, “today you will be with me in paradise.”

You see the problem is when you think it’s all about you and works you treat your relationship with God like a ladder.

You feel like God’s at the top of the ladder and the more good things you do you get closer to Him.

But when you mess up all of a sudden you start dropping away from God.

It’s kind of like Kanye West saying his Christian scorecard just went down.

You see God loves us so much that He made it so we didn’t have to climb the ladder to meet Him.

He said I’ll come down to you in the form of my son Jesus!

And all you have to do is surrender your heart to me.

Believe in me and what I’ve done for you.

And let me do a work in your life.

THEN your works will be the by product of the work God is doing.

Stop living life in your own strength.

God’s in the business of Helping those Who CAN’T Help Themselves!

Give Him a chance

Allow his grace to come in and move in your life.

Receive the forgiveness that He offers you.

Too many people try to WORK their way back to God because of the guilt they feel from their past.

They think God won’t forgive them unless they earn his trust back.

Or they believe that they are gonna get what they deserve.

If we all got what we deserve then we would all end up in hell!

But my bible says...

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

He came down the ladder and said let me fix your brokenness!

Let me take that guilt and shame.

I remember sitting with a girl that my wife worked with at the time.

She kept saying, “God can’t forgive me. You don’t know what I’ve done to Him.”

The answer to those people is, “You don’t know what HE’S DONE FOR YOU!”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

It says “WHOEVER” believes.

Not whoever is perfect.

Not whoever goes to church the most

Not whoever has climbed the ladder the highest by their good works.

It’s WHOEVER BELIEVES.

You’re a whoever!

That means giving your life to Him, receiving His forgiveness, and following the leading of the Holy Spirit who’s doing a work in your life.

So in closing the 3 dangers of believing that “God Helps Those That Help Themselves.”

We think self help is the best help

God’s help is the ONLY help we NEED

Pride

Pride affects our relationship with God and people

We think our salvation is about works.

It’s not about earning our way to heaven.

It’s about receiving the gift God gave us through Jesus’ work on the cross.

Altar Call