The Lord My Helper
Notes
Transcript
Read: Hebrews 13:5-6
Read: Hebrews 13:5-6
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Introduction:
Introduction:
We all need help occasionally:
A visitor to a Bank of America in Corpus Christi experienced a rather rough afternoon recently.
He was a contractor, there to install a lock on the bank's service room ATM. While he was inside the ATM, the door closed behind him—and then wouldn't open. And he'd left his phone in the truck.
According to NPR's The Two-Way, "He had no one to call and no way to make his voice heard intelligibly through the machine."
What did he have? Pen and paper.
"So people are coming by and using the ATM machine because it's still operational," a local police officer explained, "and he's slipping notes through the ATM, through where you would get your receipt."
One of the notes read, "Please help. I'm stuck in here and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss."
Most customers believed it was a prank—until "a good Samaritan took the situation seriously and contacted the cops," who also initially believed it was a prank.
Eventually, however, the man was freed.
As one officer put it, "It was just crazy."
Source: Emily Lund, PreachingToday.com; source: Colin Dwyer, "Texas Police Make Odd Withdrawal from ATM: A Man Who Was Trapped Inside" NPR: The Two-Way (7-13-17)
Now hopefully you are never stuck inside an ATM but you’ve probably been stuck before -
More than 200 occurrences of the words helper and help confirm a pillar of biblical doctrine-that people are not self-sufficient but require help from beyond themselves. The ultimate helper is God. Moses names one of his sons Eliezer, saying, “My father’s God was my helper” (Ex 18:4 NIV ). One of Isaiah’s servant songs asserts that “the Sovereign Lord helps me” (Is 50:7, 9 NIV ). In his farewell blessing to his nation, Moses repeats the insight: “Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper, and your glorious sword” (Deut 33:29 NIV ). Moses accompanies the assertion with a cluster of metaphors that paint a majestic Near Eastern image of deity, filled with anthropomorphic imagery (Deut 33:26–27).1
1 Leland Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 378.
The writer of Hebrews is telling us we have a helper - we have someone who will be our helper.
He Helps With Iniquity -
John in his first Epistle makes it clear that if we deny sin or our need of atonement we call God a liar. Paul tells us that “all have sinned”
David gives us the Classic Passage for depravity Psalm 51:1 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
We are born in sin with no way to get out on our own -
But God is our Helper and we can say that with confidence and with boldness
I heard today on Family Talk the radio broadcast by Dr. James Dobson a tremendous story of how God can help a man when he doesn’t even know he needs help.
Lieutenant Colonel Don Coble was a hard-drinking tough military guy on his way to hell and God got a hold of him. His father died when he was 13 years old and he became a hard hearted crusty old soul who didn’t know love or how to love.
He and his wife, who’s marriage was headed for divorce, went to church with their little ones, and the preacher asked a question that day, “what are you going to do with Jesus”
That rang in his ears for days and they went back to church again and the preacher was there they got to talking and the preacher asked him, “Are you willing to put Jesus Christ in control of your life” he said yes and they went to prayer as they sang Amazing Grace.
He told how the first thing God helped him with was his x-rated mouth
Then he dealt with his drinking - he had a personal bar in his house with over $300 of adult beverages in it. He said he and his wife had quite a time pouring that liquor down the drain the tears flowing down their cheeks
He told how God taught him to love - he was overbearing and mean to his children and one day his son was a little late coming home, the boy tried to apologize but before he realized what he had done he smacked the boy in the face and knocked him down off his bike, the blood dripping from his nose.
His son looked up at him and said, “Daddy I love you.” It was then God helped him know how to love.
Whatever a person is caught up in, pornography, drugs, alcohol, you name it - God’s got grace to help you out of it.
Yes I’m so glad God helps with our iniquity - but next we see...
He Helps with Infirmity - Isaiah said:
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: Be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Infirmity can be sickness or it can be danger:
I read a story recently called "Six Days on a Raft" by Bill Harrison who during WWII was lost on the Pacific Ocean due to his boat being destroyed by a Typhoon.
The war was over they were just cleaning up some of the mines left in the ocean from the war and then heading home when the typhoon struck and destroyed their ship. Bill tells in his book how several men were able to secure a raft before the ship went down and they were in that for six days.
They lost a few more men during their stay on the ocean one to sharks when he climbed out to swim to shore. Bill says that the sharks were always around swimming and at one time even ramming their little life raft.
They were sunburned almost beyond recognition, they had sores from the salt water they had lost all supplies so had nothing to eat no fresh water to drink and had were starting to hallucinate.
On one occasion Bill and another shipmate in a hallucination seen the ship below them in the water, his shipmate swam down to get some juice he left in the fridge and was never seen again.
Bill tells so many more details than I can tell in this short amount of time, but he struggled with depression, anger and frustration that the Navy wasn't doing more to rescue them, that this had happened
On the sixth day Bill had an interesting experience where he realized he had been praying, and then would immediately become frustrated that nothing had happened. He couldn't figure out what it was, then it dawned on him he was missing faith. It was during this time that the Lord seemed to tell Bill that he was not going to survive another day in this condition.
He rounded his shipmates together and told them they had been praying but had missed the aspect of faith, of believing God. He remembered Matthew 17:20 If you have faith as small as a mustard seed God can remove a mountain" that part "if you have faith " stood out to him. He said the verse over and over
It came to him to thank God for their deliverance to praise him. He led his other shipmates who were down to 6 now in prayer and to the Lord
They began to sing they sang and sang for nearly an hour at the top of their lung becoming more and more energized and peaceful.
They finally stopped to take a break and that’s when they heard the purring of the engines of three planes overhead. Bill said he took of his shirt and waved it like a flag. They were not coming in their direction they were heading off to an island quite a ways away from them. The first two planes past them up, the third plane suddenly made a left had turn and began heading directly at us. It was a united States Navy plane Bill said it was like an angel sent from heaven Then began the rescue.
What is interesting is that there is no record of any Navy Planes in this area at this time, no one knows who the Pilots were or where they went. Bill had the number of the plane but it was nowhere around there area when the rescue happened. Truly God is our help.
God Helps us out of our iniquity, God helps us with our infirmities and last we see....
He Helps with Insecurity -
He says WE CAN BOLDLY SAY! That is say with assurance, with confidence, with all of your might and faith - HE WILL NEVER LEAVE ME OR FORSAKE ME - SO HE WILL BE MY HELPER!!!
In the book Healing the Masculine Soul, Gordon Dalbey says that when Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Helper, he uses a Greek word, paraclete, that was an ancient warrior's term. "Greek soldiers went into battle in pairs," says Dalbey, "so when the enemy attacked, they could draw together back-to-back, covering each other's blind side. One's battle partner was the paraclete." Our Lord does not send us to fight the good fight alone. The Holy Spirit is our battle partner who covers our blind side and fights for our well being.
Tom Tripp, Colusa, California. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 2.
Tonight we are all in need of God’s help and we can say with boldness and confidence “THE LORD IS MY HELPER!!!”
