Helpless
Notes
Transcript
ME
ME
*Pic of Dad and I from the 80’s*
It was a hot summer day- perfect for a birthday pool party.
I was in 1st grade, hanging out eating cake and drinking from a juice box.
So Gucci.
Now I didn’t know how to swim back then and I didn’t have any floaties, so I chilled out on the inflatable raft all afternoon.
I must have fallen asleep on that thing bc next thing I know I’m falling into the water on the deep end about to drown.
All I remember is reaching up and this big hand snatching me out of the water.
My dad saved my life that day… he helped me when I was completely helpless.
WE
WE
Have you ever been helped like this?
Maybe it wasn’t life or death for you, but someone listened to you when you were in trouble, or was there for you in a time of need.
As much as we think we can do things all on our own, we all need a little help sometimes.
Problem is, most people are too “busy” to help other people out.
Or too selfish.
Our pace of life has multiplied over and over the last 100 years, and it’s hard to keep up, much less help others.
GOD
GOD
But people not caring enough to help others isn’t a new thing.
2,000 years ago, if you were handicapped or had a serious disease, you were pretty much forgotten about.
Unless you encountered a man named Jesus.
Let’s dive into this story of a handicapped man and how Jesus saw him differently than everyone else:
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
38 Years
38 Years
This man had been disabled for 38 long years.
That’s as long as I’ve been alive!
He had been struggling with no hope for decades, just waiting for a chance to jump in this “healing pool.”
He was lost like the Israelites who went around the desert in circles for 40 years.
God helped the Israelites get to the Promised Land, but who was going to help this guy?
Despite the long wait, he kept coming back to the pool day after day, month after month, year after year.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind.
He waited and waited… and then Jesus came along.
Do You Want to Get Well?
Do You Want to Get Well?
Jesus had not simply learned that the man had been ill for many years. He had not overheard gossip or taken a wild guess.
His supernatural awareness allowed him simply to know the man had been there for a long time.
And so Jesus came up and asked this man the most obvious question in history:
Do you want to get well?
The man lets Jesus know that no one is there to help him.
Everyone just walks right past or over him.
Have you ever felt this way?
You’re hurting and no one really seems to care...
That’s where this man is right now.
He’s felt like this for so long...
He had no one to help him in, but Jesus was always the friend of the friendless, and the helper of the those who have no help:
GET UP!
GET UP!
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
It's like he said to him: "bend your will to it and you and I will do this thing together!"
Just because God is all powerful and can do anything doesn’t mean that he wants us to never give our best!
Yes, we are all helpless without Jesus, but it’s also true that miracles happen when our will and God's power cooperate to make them possible.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
When we see Jesus, we see God.
And one of the most incredible things about Jesus(GOD) is that He cares for those everyone else ignores.
And He calls us to do the same thing:
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
GOD HELPS THE HELPLESS, AND HE CALLS ME TO HELP TOO.
GOD HELPS THE HELPLESS, AND HE CALLS ME TO HELP TOO.
YOU
YOU
How will you help someone who needs it this week?
Maybe it’s a text to say “I’m praying for you.”
Or just hanging out with a friend you know is down right now.
Here’s what I want you to do to make this stick:
Take the card on your table, write your name on it, and write down how you’re going to help someone this week.
Then so you’ll remember, take a pic of your card- then drop it in the mailbox.
WE
WE
If we would all choose to help others like Christ is calling us to do, just imagine how lives would be changed!
My children, we should love people not only with words and talk, but by our actions and true caring.
Love is a verb, it takes action.
And when we choose to help those no one else does, the love of Christ will flow through us to change lives forever.
*Prayer*
