God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
Notes
Transcript
False Parable
False Parable
A Farmer was driving his wagon along a wet and muddy country road after a heavy rain. The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at last came to a standstill when one of the wheels sank to the hub in a rut.
The farmer climbed down from his seat and stood beside the wagon looking at it but without making the least effort to get it out of the rut. All he did was to curse his bad luck and call loudly on GOD to come to his aid. Then, it is said, GOD really did appear, saying:
"Put your shoulder to the wheel, man, and urge on your horses. Do you think you can move the wagon by simply looking at it and whining about it? GOD will not help unless you make some effort to help yourself."
And when the farmer put his shoulder to the wheel and urged on the horses, the wagon moved very readily, and soon the Farmer was riding along in great content and with a good lesson learned.
This almost sounds like a parable you would read in the Bible right?
A farmer in trouble on the road, calling out to God for help, and God showing up to “help” the farmer get out of his trouble.
There is a good lesson to learn from this parable. We can’t just look at our problems and whine and think they are going to get fixed.
But it is NOT from the bible, it is from Aesop’s Fables written 600 years before Christ.
In the late 1700’s, Ben Franklin used this parable as inspiration for the well-worn saying most of us have heard before: “God helps those to help themselves.”
We Americans like this saying, which explains why many people believe it is a quote from the bible.
Our post-modern materialist culture is embraces the idea that we are responsible for our achievements in life, and if we are unsuccessful — i.e., healthy, wealthy, and wise — then it’s our fault because we’ve been lazy or not worked hard enough.
And like many of the values and ideas of our culture, we have a bad habit of assuming these ideas must be biblical.
Embracing the VERY misguided and even dangerous belief that some how our efforts impact whether or not, and to what extent, God will help us.
Here’s my goal today:
I want to spend the next few minutes blowing up that idea that I really believe is ingrained in many of our hearts.
And my prayer is that hearing the truth would free us from the constant pressure to do more and do better, and free us from the pride of thinking we have the power to fix ourselves.
1 All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. 2 After Amaziah the king rested with his ancestors, Uzziah rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah.
3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. 4 He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his father Amaziah had done. 5 He sought God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, the teacher of the fear of God. During the time that he sought the Lord, God gave him success.
6 Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod. Then he built cities in the vicinity of Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7 God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs that live in Gur-baal, and the Meunites. 8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for God made him very powerful. 9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the corner buttress, and he fortified them. 10 Since he had many cattle both in the Judean foothills and the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many wells. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands.
11 Uzziah had an army equipped for combat that went out to war by division according to their assignments, as recorded by Jeiel the court secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders. 12 The total number of family heads was 2,600 valiant warriors. 13 Under their authority was an army of 307,500 equipped for combat, a powerful force to help the king against the enemy. 14 Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones. 15 He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was wondrously helped until he became strong.
16 But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar. 17 The priest Azariah, along with eighty brave priests of the Lord, went in after him. 18 They took their stand against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no right to offer incense to the Lord—only the consecrated priests, the descendants of Aaron, have the right to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully! You will not receive honor from the Lord God.”
19 Uzziah, with a firepan in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But when he became enraged with the priests, in the presence of the priests in the Lord’s temple beside the altar of incense, a skin disease broke out on his forehead. 20 Then Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw that he was diseased on his forehead. They rushed him out of there. He himself also hurried to get out because the Lord had afflicted him. 21 So King Uzziah was diseased to the time of his death. He lived in quarantine with a serious skin disease and was excluded from access to the Lord’s temple, while his son Jotham was over the king’s household governing the people of the land.
22 Now the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz wrote about the rest of the events of Uzziah’s reign, from beginning to end.
King Uzziah was the 10th king to follow Solomon in the line of David in Judah.
By this time, the kingdom was divided into the Northern and the Southern kingdoms and Uzziah was the king in the south, in Judah.
From 2 Chronicles 24-26 we read about 3 kings, Uzziah, his dad Amaziah, and his dad Joash.
All three have similar stories.
They started off strong, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, listen to and following God’s direction.
But at some point, all three went astray and their reigns ended badly.
King Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king in Judah.
Though he was young, he was a good king who was faithful to God and sought the Lord’s help.
And Uzziah was successful king.
He had numerous military victories against some of Judah’s worst enemies.
He accomplished many building projects and improvement in Judah during his reign
Agriculture boomed under his leadership.
And he was able to grow the army into a strong force and even developed new and sophisticated technology to protect the city from invaders.
Uzziah was a good and successful king, but something went horribly wrong.
2 Chronicles 26:16 (CSB)
16 But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction.
His success and power as king had gotten to his head.
So Uzziah went to the temple of the Lord and rather than go to a priest to burn incense before the Lord as he was supposed to do, Uzziah decided he would do it himself.
Why would the “king” need a priest?!?
Azariah the priest and the 80 other priests in the temple confronted Uzziah and demanded he stop what he is doing immediately.
But Uzziah’s pride was too deeply seated for him to listen to their reason.
He lost his temper and lost control, outraged that the priest stood up to their mighty king.
And moments later he was struck with leprosy on his forehead.
In that moment, the man who thought himself to be the most powerful man on earth, someone that had accomplished so much and held so much power, was now forced to go into quarantine never to come out.
Uzziah’s story is pretty straightforward really.
He let his success get to his head, right?
Too big for his britches, perhaps?
We don’t see it in the story and we don’t blatantly hear it in the words of Uzziah, but if we could have spoke to him, I think Uzziah would have believed the saying “God helps those who help themselves.”
Here are three reasons I say that:
Here are three reasons I say that:
Uzziah’s Problems:
Uzziah’s Problems:
1) He didn’t see the HAND of GOD.
1) He didn’t see the HAND of GOD.
At 16 year old, Uzziah couldn’t really have known he would be as successful as he was by the time he was in his 40s or 50s.
Those early years were marked with a dependence on God and a eagerness to do what was right in God’s eyes.
He had a deep relationship with Zechariah, I imagine early morning breakfast meetings where he would drill Zechariah with question, eager to know God’s will and hear God’s voice.
But as he became more and more successful, Uzziah’s eyes and heart began to gradually turn away from God toward himself.
He began to see himself in a much bigger way than he once had, and in turn see God much smaller.
Did you notice how careful the Chronicler was to point out the source of Uzziah’s success?
5 He sought God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, the teacher of the fear of God. During the time that he sought the Lord, God gave him success.
7 God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs that live in Gur-baal, and the Meunites.
8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for God made him very powerful.
15 He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was wondrously helped until he became strong.
It wasn’t Uzziah winning the battles, conquering the enemies, multiplying the crops, building the buildings, and prospering the people.
Sure, Uzziah was a godly man, a visionary leader, and a military hero. But he was nothing without God’s help, without GOD’s HAND.
Uzziah’s pride kept him from seeing the hand of God.
Humility is when you are able look past your accomplishments and your struggles and see that…
Who you are, God made you.
What you have, God gave you.
What you know, God taught you.
Where you are, God brought you.
Humility is when you acknowledge the hand of God in your life, moving, shaping, and working in you, around you, and through you.
Believing the lie the “God helps those who help themselves,” keeps us from seeing the hand of God in our lives shaping our stories.
The victories, the successes, the accomplishments
As well as the struggles, the stumbles, and the setbacks.
He is working in them ALL.
He is SO BIG, SO STRONG and SO MIGHTY, there’s nothing OUR GOD CANNOT DO…in you.
2) He couldn’t see his OWN NEEDINESS.
2) He couldn’t see his OWN NEEDINESS.
16 But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar.
Uzziah’s success and his strength as a king caused him to become proud.
Not only did he fail to see the hand of God in his life and begin to take credit for what God had done in and through him,
He also couldn’t see his own neediness.
At some point in all that success, Uzziah stopped seeing God’s power and stopped seeking out God’s help and started seeing his success as a result of his hard work, ingenuity, or ability.
So Uzziah showed up to the Lord’s temple with the intention of burning incense on the alter...
17 The priest Azariah, along with eighty brave priests of the Lord, went in after him. 18 They took their stand against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no right to offer incense to the Lord—only the consecrated priests, the descendants of Aaron, have the right to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully! You will not receive honor from the Lord God.”
God had given the responsibility of offering sacrifices and burning incense to the priests in the line of Aaron.
It was their calling, their job, and their responsibility, and not anyone else’s.
But it is often hard for us to admit that we need someone else’s help in life isn’t it?
It was for Uzziah.
The underlying belief in the statement “God helps those who help themselves” is “there really aren’t any problems that I can’t handle with a little effort and ingenuity.”
Growing up, we rarely had a repair man in our house.
If the washer or dryer went down, my dad was going to try to fix it first before he called anyone.
Same with the furnace, cars, TVs, microwave, or basically anything else.
I still have that in me, but I often come to the realization that I am not my dad in that regard.
It doesn’t take me long to know I need help.
Uzziah had come to believe that his happiness and success, and his ability to conquer things in life depended, at least in a large part, on himself.
He knew the role and responsibilities of the priests, but why would a powerful, successful, and capable king need someone else to do something he could do himself.
Our pride leads us to believe we have a lot more power over our own lives than we actually do.
We believe that the things we say, the things we do, and/or the things we don’t do somehow manipulate God into doing the things we want Him to do.
So we pray, attend church, give tithes and offering, serve, help other people, stop doing certain things “Christian folks” aren’t supposed to do, in order to move God into our favor.
Much the same way the people I saw in Hindu temples in Nepal rang bells, turned wheels, and washed in dirty water to satisfy their gods and move them them into their favor.
When we believe we have that kind of power over God we fail to understand what the bible teaches us about the reality of our spiritual condition apart from Christ.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
When Paul writes about our spiritual condition apart from Christ, he doesn’t say we are weak or asleep.
He says we are DEAD, unresponsive, and HOPELESS to help ourselves.
He says the we are BY NATURE children DESTINED for WRATH (aka eternal punishment).
Praise God that “God helps those who help themselves,” isn’t in the bible, because we would be a hopeless bunch wouldn’t we.
God doesn’t help those who help themselves, He helps those WHO CAN’T help themselves.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
Only after this God-given, grace-empowered help does Paul say
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Yes God doesn’t expect us to work, but only after He works in us and only out of a response to the grace we have been given in Christ.
When we fail to see our neediness we carry a burden that will rob us of the joy of God’s salvation and the goodness of God’s grace.
3) He missed the OPPORTUNITY to EXPERIENCE God’s HELP.
3) He missed the OPPORTUNITY to EXPERIENCE God’s HELP.
Alister Begg rightly points out that Uzziah had 81 opportunities to turn away from his pride and unfaithfulness to God.
Azariah and 80 brave priests confront Uzziah and implore him to leave the sanctuary.
But his anger showed his heart.
His pride kept him from admitting his neediness.
And ultimately, his hardness led him to miss out on God’s grace.
Uzziah’s punishment doesn’t come when he burst into the temple or when he grabs the firepan to offer the incense.
It comes after he refuses to listen to the warnings of the priests.
Uzziah couldn’t see the hand of God that had shaped his life, made him the man he was, and was offering him freedom from the weighty responsibility to carry his own salvation.
Uzziah couldn’t see his desperate need for God’s Word, God’s power, God’s guidance, and God’s grace.
And so he was carrying the burden of responsibility himself and it would ultimately destroy him.
When Jesus says in Matthew 11:28
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
He is talking to people like Uzziah and like you and I who are carrying way more burden that we have to.
On September 8th, 2008, Thomas Vander Woude and his son Josie were out working on their family farm in Nokesville, Virginia. Josie was 20, but he wouldn’t be moving out any time soon. He had down syndrome. So Josie became Tom’s constant work companion out in the field. On this day, while Thomas was working out on his 26 acres of field, Josie was off in a different part of the yard when a broken septic tank cover gave way under his feet. The tank was 8 feet deep and filled near to the top with sewage. Thomas saw his son fall in and so he rushed over to help. He pulled and pulled on his son’s arm to no avail. Even worse, no matter what he did, Josie was continually sinking into this pit of filth. Thomas knew that his son would surely die if he sank beneath the waste. So this father did the only thing he could to save his boy: He got down into the filth with him. He treaded in the sewage in an attempt to keep Josie’s head above the water line, but sadly Josie was still sinking. Vander Woude would not give up though. Taking a deep breath, he plunged his whole body into the sewage head first and held his boys body up from underneath so that Josie could keep his head above the water. When rescue crews arrived, they pulled Josie out of the tank alive, but Thomas, 66 years old, was dead.
That’s what Jesus does for those who can’t help themselves. He has plunged himself into the filth and always holds us up so that we can live! So if you’re helpless, be of good cheer! Your Savior Jesus Christ has done and will continue to do everything necessary to help you.