A couple weeks ago, we started a series called People, and we're spending our whole summer talking about people. What we think about people, our opinions of people. And if you're here for the first time, you might be thinking, I thought church is where you talk about God. And it is, and we do. We talk about God all the time. But the thing is, for us, the subject of God and the subject of people, those are not disconnected. Jesus always, always married together the idea of loving God and loving people. And so for Jesus, it was never this thought, hmm, should I should I serve God today or should I go serve people? It was the same thing for him. In fact, Jesus actually said in his life, hey, uh, if you want to show your love for me, go and go and serve. He told this story once about how these people are gonna be in heaven and they're gonna hear Jesus say, you know, you visited me in prison. You fed me, like you clothed me when I was naked, you you gave me something to drink when I was thirsty, like he's basically saying, You helped me, and they're all gonna be like, Well, when did that ever happen? And Jesus says, you know, whatever you did for the least of these, it was like you were doing it for me. So the way we serve people is directly related to the way we love God. Loving God, loving people, they're the same. In fact, what we think about people reveals what we actually think about God. And so, if you want to find out what someone really thinks about God, look at how they treat people and what they think about people. And so we've we've said a few things over the last few weeks. We've kind of planted a flag in the ground and said, this is what we believe about people. Number one, we said we believe in messy people. We believe in people who who aren't perfect. And so this is not a place, this is not a place where you ever, ever, ever have to keep up appearances. In fact, please let this be the one place in your life where you don't have to keep up appearances, where you can you can come in and you can be honest and open and real about where you are and not have even a shred of worry about what people are going to think. We believe in you. And then we talked about how we believe in young people. Like I said, we invest heavily in the next generation. Last week, we said that people are plan A. That's what we believe. We believe that people are God's plan A for this world, that the way God wants to work in this world, the things God wants to do using people, is his primary plan. We're not the backup plan. We're plan A. And Jesus really shows us that. The fact that God became a person to change the world is proof that people are plan A. And so practically, last week we we said that as a church corporately, right, because we're a family, we want to make sure that we are supporting the church individually to do what God has called us to do. We believe that you are plan A. We believe God's gonna put something on your heart one day that He wants you to do for this world. It might be something simple, but simple and easy are not the same thing. Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest things, right? It might be something simple, it might be one person that you feel you feel called to. You want to invest in this person and help them see Jesus and know Jesus and encourage them and help them out of a tough spot. Or it might be something God puts on your heart that feels so big for you, you're thinking, there's no way I could do this. I don't even know where to begin. Regardless of whatever that is, we want to know about it. So that we can support you, so that we can pray for you and meet with you and talk with you and connect you with other people who maybe are called to the same thing. And who knows, maybe we need to do something big as a church to support you in what God has called you to do because you are the church. And so if God puts something on your heart, you're part of this church, this family, we need to help you say yes to God. And so at the back four columns, we have these cards now that just say, I'm feeling called. And that's for you to fill out and drop in in the boxes the same place we do giving, the same place we do prayer request cards. Drop those down and someone will connect with you, will contact you, just to find out what you're feeling called to do and how we can help. And if you actually have our mobile app, which you should, by the way, it's free, it's awesome. Um, on the connect page of our mobile app, there's also a section that says I'm feeling called, and you can submit it through the app as well. We just want to know what God is putting on your heart so that we can support you corporately because we believe you're plan A. All right, so we've talked about how we believe in messy people, we believe in young people, we believe that people are plan A. Today, we're gonna add one more thing, and it's gonna seem like we're taking a turn. It's gonna seem like we've gone from rah-rah, we believe people are awesome and all this stuff to all of a sudden. Hold on, this seems a little less positive, but trust me, it's not. It's just it's just reality. We believe people need help. We believe people need help. That means I need help. That means you need help. There's no cheers, no one said amen, and that's okay, right? Help is not something that we usually say victoriously, right? Like we don't walk in public places and go, I need help. We don't do that. But I have three kids at home, and literally, I need help. I don't know what to do. I'm freaking out sometimes, and and and I'm I'm 33 years old, about to turn 34, and and and somehow, through some crazy series of events, I leave this church. I need help, right? Like, can we just admit together as people that we need some help from time to time? And like by time to time, I mean all the time that we need help? Okay. In fact, because we have this tendency to go like, I don't I don't need any help. I'm good, I'm good, I'm fine, I'm good. Let's just get that out of our system and let's just admit together that we need help. And if you don't, would you guys be okay with some audience participation? All right, on the count of three, can we just yell out together a cry from our hearts? Help. Just one word, help. Can we do that together? All right, here we go. We're gonna do it on three. One, two, three, help.

I need somebody. Oh yeah.

Well done. Well done. That is my favorite Beatles song, by the way. Help. We sang, we sang with the Beatles. We just sang with the Beatles. How incredible is that? How incredible is that. Total side note. Anyone have young children that watch Netflix and cartoons? Are you guys familiar with the beat bugs? Do you know what the beat bugs are? Okay? The beat bugs, it's a cartoon about bugs who only have four legs. They're not anatomically correct at all, but whatever. They're bugs and they sing Beatles songs. And so, to young children, like my daughter loves that show, and so she hears a song like this and she goes, It's the beat bugs. And I want to be like, no, no, it's it's it's the Beatles, okay? Hold on a second. This is not like what's happened. This is bad. We've got to make sure that we're educating our children in the history of rock and roll and whatever. All right, back to our point. People, people need help. We need help. And and it's so funny, we we struggle so much admitting that, really admitting how much help we actually need. Because we live in a culture and in a world that values self-sufficiency. I mean, you think about the classic American story. The American success story is someone who pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps with no assistance, with no help, without a dollar to their name. They just do it. They just will themselves to success and they do it on their own. And that's a fantasy. Because no one, no one becomes successful on their own. We all need help. If you know the basic story of the Bible, at least the beginning of the story, God makes this beautiful world, and it's all good, right? The first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1, it's this poem, really, and God makes this and he says it is good, and he makes this and he says it's good, and then he hands it to us. He hands this world that he's created to us, and quickly, at least the way the story goes, quickly, it becomes less good in our hands, right? We're the ones that mess it up. We're the ones that that cause this crisis to happen, and then God begins to put things in motion to fix it. But when he makes it, it's good. And so we we read that story and we let that sink in, and we're like, yeah, yeah, God made it good, we made it bad, yeah, I get it. But it's funny because there's this one part of the story we often overlook. That before we mess it up, before we we do our thing and it all goes off the rails, God actually looked at the world and he saw that there was one thing that wasn't good. And I love this by the way. That means when God first created the world, it was a rough draft. That God saw that it needed a revision, a revision, and that reminds me that it's okay to be in process because God created the world and he was okay with it being in process. He was okay with it needing an update from time to time. And so let's let's look and let's see that thing that God said wasn't good. It's in Genesis chapter 2. We're gonna start in verse 18. Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him. So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And the man chose a name for each one, and he gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals, but still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. Please take note that the Bible never says that man woke back up. Never says that. And so, ladies, if you've been wondering why we are the way we are, we're just as we're we're we're literally like sleepwalking through life. That is what men do. Okay? So while the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man's ribs and he closed up the opening. And then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. At last the man exclaimed, This one is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman, because she would take she was taken from man. And this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Something that has not happened in many marriages ever since. So, just being honest, just being real. That's why God made dimmable lights. Whatever. Okay, back on track. So, so God makes man, and he named the man Adam, and then God basically looks down and he goes, This guy is toast without help. Like if this guy doesn't have help, he's just gonna wander around aimlessly. He's not gonna have any clue what to do. And so God gives him a helpmate. He gives him woman. And and women show up on the scene, and they've been they've been helping us out ever since. And ladies, aren't you so grateful that you were created to help us out? Right? Isn't that an honor? And you just feel so fulfilled in that? Can you sense the sarcasm? And guys, aren't you so grateful for the help? All the help we get, we get so much help, whether we want it or not, right? Isn't that nice? It's funny, Megan, my my wife, we've been married 12 years, and she has this very wise. Is Megan in the room? I learned to ask this. Not that she would like yell woo or anything like that if she was, whatever. Well, just what we're gonna she'll listen to anyway. Um, Megan has this this why she's so wise, and she says this this saying, this proverb basically, and and it's brilliant. Unasked for help is often unhelpful. Okay? Unasked for help is often unhelpful. I really believe that. It's it's beautiful, it's wise. But my wife does not live by that at all with me. Because she gives me unasked for help all the time. And I've talked about this before, and it's because it's a constant frustration in my life, and I love her so much, I want to say that disclaimer. Woman of my dreams. Okay, but like when we drive in a car together, it is almost always a maddeningly frustrating experience anytime we drive together. Get an amen. And it's like, it's like I drive by myself all the time, and I'm fine. Every morning I leave and I come back and I get to where I need to go with relative ease, and I'm usually on time, relatively, like I get there, but then when Megan gets in the car with me, it's like in her mind, I've never driven before, and without her help, we're gonna die. You know? And now I've asked her, hey, would you rather just drive? And she's like, no, no, no. She just wants me to drive, and then she wants to tell me what to do. And so as we drive, she's always freaking out about things, and she's always pointing out obvious things happening around me. That's what she does. 98% of what she points out to me is so blatantly obvious that there's no way I would miss it. Like she'll say, Be careful with that truck. And she's talking about the giant semi-truck right in front of us, as if I don't see it, right? As if I'm unaware, I'm like, oh, thank goodness, I wasn't even looking in front of me. I hadn't thought about that, right? 98%, 98% of her of her help as I drive is worthless. Hold on. But it's that 2%, see? It's that other 2% where she literally saves our lives. It's that other 2% where where every once in a while she will see something that I do not see. She will recognize that I'm doing something that is going to end in disaster, and it's that other 2% that rescues us. And I hate it, like I'm grateful to be alive, don't get me wrong. But it's that 2% that justifies to her the other 98%, and it just keeps the cycle going, right? But the truth is, I actually need more help than I admit. I get frustrated and I'm like, I know what I'm doing, I know how to drive, I don't need you helping me out except for the times that I do. And those, those, those pop up. I actually I need help. And so I'm grateful that God created a woman to help me out. Now, let me just say this and we're gonna move on. Because sometimes, you know, scripture gets gets taken out of context and twisted to to put certain people down and lift certain people up, right? And Jesus showed up on the scene and he like messed with all that and made it clear that we are equals, okay? And we hear the word help, and we go, oh, women were made to help men, and some of the men are like, that's right, women were made to help me. Um, but I don't know why my voice went southern there. I apologize. That was not a knock. I live here too. But uh but the Hebrew word that we translate help, it has the connotation of equal partnership. Okay? In fact, and this is this is so beautiful, uh, a theologian named Matthew Henry, who lived in the late 1600s to early 1700s, beautifully observed that Eve was made of a rib out of the side of Adam, not made out of his head to rule over him, or out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Okay? Isn't that awesome? And so, I'm just saying, that that word help, it doesn't mean subservient. It doesn't mean less than. It means equality, it's a partnership. And in our culture, we devalue the word help. We we equate help with failure, right? Having to admit a need for help is the same thing in many cases as us saying I've failed. And so because of our value and self-sufficiency and doing it ourselves, we look at a word like help, and that word, to us, it's a it's a negative word. To need help means you're not good enough. To need help means you're not successful enough. To need help means you you have failed. But here's the thing if needing help means you're a failure, that means Jesus was a failure. Because Jesus needed help. He really did. Jesus needed help. And as we go through some of these examples, I just want you to think about this for a second. And maybe you're here for the first time and you're not exactly sure where we stand on the subject of Jesus, and I'll just let you know, make it really clear. Jesus is the God of this universe, he is the author of creation, he is the Lord of Lords, He is the King of Kings, He's the answer for our society, He's the answer for this world. It's it's Fourth of July weekend, and this is the time that we kind of look at our country and we reflect on where things are. And in my lifetime, I've noticed that we're always searching for a leader. We're always searching for the next leader who's gonna rise up and fix things. We're always searching for the next candidate who's gonna come around and finally, you know, do what needs done. But in reality, that leader showed up 2,000 years ago. His name is Jesus, and if we would just follow him, everything would work out. So Jesus is like really high up on our list, meaning at the top. We think Jesus is is everything. We think he is the answer for your life. And so we have to understand that because understanding that, and then saying that Jesus, that Jesus, the one who walked on water, the one who commanded the weather, the one who healed diseases, who healed the blind, who rose from the dead, that Jesus needed help. It's a pretty powerful thing to think about. Because Jesus isn't some some weakling, right? Jesus needed help. Jesus actually needed people to help him pay for things. Like, think about that. Jesus needed help paying for things in Luke chapter 8, verses 1 through 3. The Bible says that soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the good news about the kingdom of God. And he took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases, and among them were Mary Magdalene, whom he had cast out seven demons, Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's business manager, Susanna, and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples. Jesus, his ministry was funded by other people. He needed help paying for the things that needed paid for for him to do his ministry. He accepted charity. I've met so many people who will be in tough situations and they'll be telling me what's going on, and they'll make it clear I don't want charity. So don't offer it. Don't offer charity, I don't want that, I can't receive that. I just I couldn't let myself accept that. Jesus accepted financial help. And that's just crazy to think about. The last week of Jesus' life is this constant reminder of the fact that Jesus asked for and apparently needed help to do the things God called them to do. And so, for example, in Matthew chapter 21, we get this really short story. It says, as Jesus and the disciples approach Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. And Jesus sent two of them on ahead and said, Go into the village over there. As you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there with his colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you're doing, just say, the Lord needs them, and he will immediately let you take them. Now, as I read this as a kid, I always thought this was interesting. Because it's it's basically theft, right? You know, go go take a donkey and a colt. This would be like someone coming to your house stealing your car and your child's bicycle at the same time. Like, just take their transportation and the other little form of transportation at the same time. And and Jesus just says, hey, if anyone asks you, right? If you get caught, if anyone asks you, just say, the Lord requires these, and they'll let you go. And I always thought this was like some Jedi moment. Like, here's the disciples, and they're taking the the donkey and the colt, and someone goes, Ah, what are you doing? That's my donkey, that's my colt, and they just go, the Lord requires it. You know? These are not the droids you're looking for. And and that person goes, Okay, whatever. But that's not what's happening here. That's not, it's not a this isn't a miracle. Here's what's happening. Jesus traveled to Jerusalem several times. Jesus had a lot of friends in a lot of places. And Jesus clearly had a relationship with these people. He had friends, and he had talked to them in advance, and he had said, Hey, look, I'm gonna need a donkey and I'm gonna need a cult. I don't have that. Like the God of the universe didn't own it'd be like it'd be like if God were a person today and he didn't own a car. Like he needs, he needs help with transportation. He needs a ride. And so he had talked to this friend of his in advance and said, Hey, when that day comes, when I need that that ride, can I can I can I borrow your donkey? Can I borrow your cult? And they said yes. So this is someone that Jesus had gone to ahead of time and asked for help. Jesus is being beaten and tortured and led to be crucified. He becomes so physically weak that he can't carry his own cross. Which must have been so ironic for him because he grew up as a carpenter. So how many times had he lugged around some heavy piece of wood? This must have been like an old hat for him, but but he was beaten so badly that he could not carry his own cross. And so what happens? He gets help. Matthew 27, 32, along the way, he came across a man named Simon who was from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. When Jesus is on the cross, he's being crucified. Verse 26 of John 19 says, When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, Dear woman, here is your son. And he said to this disciple, here's your mother. And from then on, the disciple took her into his home. This is Jesus on the cross dying. He sees his mother, and he says to John, his friend, his disciple, Will you please take care of my mom? I need your help to take care of her. This is Jesus asking his friend for help. We see Jesus at so many places in his life and in his ministry needing help from other people. And he apparently was not ashamed to ask for help or admit that he needed it at all. And I have to look at my life and I have to ask this question. If Jesus, I mean the Jesus we just talked about, right? King of kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus, the name above all names, the name that one day will cause every single knee to bow, the name that will make everyone fall to their face in reverence for who he really is, regardless of how this world tries to deny who he really is, that Jesus needed help. And if he needs help, how much more do I? And if Jesus had the ability to get over pride and ask someone for help, shouldn't I be? Able to do that. But I struggle with that so much. It is so hard for me to just say these words. I don't know what I'm doing. Please help me. But it shouldn't be. Because if my king, if my God can ask for help, I should feel freed up to ask for help myself. Right? People need help. I need help. Often it's professional help. And I and I I get it, I seek it. You need help. That's the reality of our existence. And it's not even the result of sin. Because remember, before sin entered the world, before we messed it all up, God looked at Adam and he said, That guy needs some help. We need help and we need to be okay with that. We've got to be okay saying, I cannot do this on my own, and I'm not going to try. I'm not going to waste the energy trying to do on my own what God wants to do with me and do for me. We need help. And so I want to encourage us this morning to recognize, A, our need for help. Just to recognize it, to admit it. To recognize the fact that we would absolutely be lost without help. We live in a world that kind of convinces us that we're actually on our own. It didn't used to be that way. It used to be that you you very much knew the people you depended on because you lived in small, close-knit communities. And you knew the guy that provided milk, and you knew the guy that provided crops, and you knew the guy that would do this or do that or do this or that. You knew those people. You know, you knew the woman who provided a service that you desperately needed to survive and you had relationships with them. Now we still need all the same things. We just don't know the people who provide them. We go to the grocery store and we're like, food magically appeared. I will buy this with my hard-earned money. But no, someone had to grow that food and someone else had to take that food and deliver it to where we get the food. We are just as dependent on help as we've ever been. In fact, I think more so. We've got to be able to admit that we need help. We need to be ready to give help at every opportunity. So who in your life do you help? Actively, purposefully? Do you intentionally provide help to people? There is a kind of help, by the way, that's unhealthy. There's a kind of help that actually hurts. There are situations where people will ask for one thing, that's the last thing they actually need, and we we shouldn't do that. But sometimes we also use that as an excuse to just not help. But see, I need help, you need help. And let's be honest, one day, if things are going great for you right now, one day there will be a day where you will need help. Just like Jesus had his moments where he needed help, the same's gonna happen for all of us. And it's interesting, the people that Jesus went to for help, by and large, were people that he had already helped.

Right?

When he goes to John and says, Help, help my mom, John said yes, because Jesus had poured so much of his life into John. Jesus had invested into John. Jesus asked for help from the people he had already helped. The only exception I can think of is the guy who carried his cross. And I don't know this, but I'm pretty sure God's made that up to him by now. Okay? The people that Jesus went to for help were people he had already helped. And I run into situations all the time because of my role that are that are difficult and hard. And sometimes there's this common thread when people come to me and they explain their situation and they're like, I just need help. And if I ask, well, who in your life will help you? Is there anyone you know that will help you? And oftentimes the answer is no, and that's why they're coming to the church, which is okay, by the way. If you need help, like we're here. And we love you, and we will help, we'll do whatever we can. But so often I'll meet with people and I'll say, well, who do you who do you have that you can get help from? And they'll they'll say, no one. And and what ends up happening is is this. And and they have a lot of different reasons why, but essentially they've kind of lived for themselves for the last 20 years, and they've really not done anything other than what they wanted to do and what they felt like they needed to do for themselves. And so the day comes when they need help, but they haven't helped anyone. They haven't invested in anyone, and so when the day comes when they need something, there's no one that's ready to invest in them because they haven't invested in anyone. I'm telling you this, we should want to help people just because it's the right thing to do, just because it's good to do, but not lose sight of the fact that when you help people, when you invest in people, you are winning shares in their heart. And when the day comes in your life where you need help, it will not be, it will not be hard for you to find it. Like there are people in this church, people I'm looking at right now, and I just I know you well enough, and I know how you live your life well enough to know that if you needed help tomorrow, there would be a line out the door to help you. Because you help people. So not only do we need to recognize our need for help, we need to be ready and willing to give help at any moment to help the people around us. Because the people you help today, they're probably gonna be the people helping you tomorrow. So help people. People need help, help people. Number three, finally, we're gonna wrap up. The worship team, if you guys want to make your way out, accept help. Recognize that you need it, give it every chance you have, but accept it. Like accept help. In Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16, the Bible says, now that we know what we have, Jesus, this great high priest with ready access to God, let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who's out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, he's experienced it all, but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help. Romans 8.26 says the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. We have a God who wants to help us. And we're a family, we're connected together, we're a community. And if you're in a situation where you need help, you need to let us know. Because God wants to help you, He loves you. Like we talked about last week, what's his plan A for helping people? And so don't be shocked when you pray and you ask God for help. When you cry out in your heart, you say, God, help, please help. Don't be shocked when God says, I will help you, and he brings a person alongside you to do it. That's often what we don't want, right? My finances are a mess. God help. We have an amazing financial counselor who will meet with you. Nah. Like, what? That's a direct answer to your prayer. No. I just want more money than I can waste. Okay. But I've had those conversations. But accept the help when the help is given. People are amazing. And we believe in people. We believe that messy people can do great things. We believe in the next generation. We believe in people regardless of age. We believe people are plan A. But let's be honest, we believe we people need help. And as a church, as a family, let's be a family that admits the need for help, that looks for every chance to give it, every chance that comes up, that we jump on every opportunity. If we say, you know what, I can grab a backpack, I can grab some school supplies, I can volunteer in an hour of my time, you know, twice a month. I can I can give a percentage of what God's given me to something bigger than myself. I I can listen to God and say, God, what do you want me to do? And then when he puts it on my heart, I can say, yes, I can do it. I can be someone who helps. Let's be that church. But let's not lose sight of the fact. All the while, let's not lose sight of the fact that the day will come when we need help. And when that day comes, we need to accept the help that's given. The help from God, the help from each other. Because we love each other. People need help. Will you pray with me? Jesus, thank you so much for your love. Thank you so much, Lord, for giving us a family of people to spend time with. Not just on Sunday mornings, not just at block parties, but even throughout the week. These are people who pray for one another. These are people who root for one another. God, we want to see each other's lives go well. And we know, Lord, that you're the only one. You're the only one who can really make that happen. We need you, Jesus. We need our king. We need our leader to lead us where we cannot get to on our own. We need you to help us. Lord, I know there's some of us this morning, and what you need to help us do is actually help us have the courage to ask for help. And I pray if that's the case, that you would do that. And God, I pray that if there's any of us here that sit here and realize, you know what, I haven't been giving any of myself to anyone but myself. I need to step up, I need to help. That you would give us the courage to step up and say, I'll help. Where am I needed? But God, for all of us, I just pray that you would give us the humility to understand our situation. That we are people made in the image of God. But we are people with needs. We're people who need help directly from you and from the people around us, God. So make us people who can admit that and who can receive that and accept that when we need it. And we ask all this in your name, Jesus, because we love you and you're awesome. Amen.