Help 1 – God Calls for Help

Pastor Chris FluittSermons

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Help is a good thing!  In times of stress, frustration, and burden, it is so nice to hear someone offer their help.
Everyone needs help at times… except God.
God actually does not need your help.  God is self-existent and self-sufficient. He is not going to fall apart if you aren’t around.. He actually does not need you.
Ouch that sounds harsh.. Even harsher is what our value as human beings is through a natural lens.  If you boiled our bodies down and sold off our chemical makeup like scrap material it would be worth $4.50. Yikes!
In the relationship between God and man… Man needs God. God does not need man.
BUT EVERYTHING CHANGES when the self-existent, self-sufficient God of the universe looks to mankind and calls for our help.
The God who doesn’t need our help created a plan that includes us.  In this we find we are worth so much more that $4.50.

Help 1 – God Calls for Help from Redemption Church on Vimeo.

 
Help 1 – God Calls
Help Bumper
Welcome to Redemption Church. My name is Chris Fluitt.
1) Help is a good thing
If you have ever been overwhelmed by work, stress, the weight of countless moving boxes… only to have someone offer their help… You will definitely agree that Help is a good thing.
There are times when the smallest act can help us greatly.
Psalm 121:1-4 (NIV)
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.
3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
 
2) Everyone needs help at times
We need advice. We need people to listen and care. We need new ideas. We need reassurance. We need someone else’s strength at times.  We need an extra pair of hands occasionally.
Everyone needs help… except God.
God has all power. He doesn’t NEED your help lifting heavy things. He has all power in His hands (Matt 28:18)
God has all knowledge. He doesn’t NEED your advice. He knows and understands everything. (1 John 3:20; Psalm 174:5)
God is everywhere. He doesn’t NEED you to go across the room or across the world to talk to that person. He is actually already there.  Where could you ever go to get away from His Spirit? (Psalm 139:7)
God owns everything.  He doesn’t NEED your stuff or your money.  Everything is made by Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16; Psalm 50:12)
 
3) God does not NEED your help
 
If God needed our help then He would not be God.  No one needs to cook Him a meal or he will starve. Your worship of Him is not NEEDED so that God will have a healthy self-esteem. You don’t NEED to talk to Him or else He will become lonely or bored.  God does not NEED your money or else Heaven will fall into foreclosure.
If God needed you to do something or else the world would fall apart… or do something or else He ceases to exist… then He would not be God.
4) God is Self-Existent & Self Sufficient
Self-Existent – Existing independently of any outside source. Only God is self-existent.
Self-Sufficient – Needing no outside help in satisfying one’s basic needs. Only God is self-sufficient.
 
When it comes to the relationship between God and man it is evident that man needs God and God does not need man. And as a part of mankind that can feel bothersome. We like to think we are important. We like to think that we matter.
Stick with me as I say something difficult to hear..
Intrinsically, in and of ourselves, we are not important and we don’t matter.
When you look at us in the NATURAL eye we don’t hold much value.
If you took a part the human body and sold it like it were scrap material it would be worth about $4.50.
5) $4.50
If you break down an average human body, the chemical composition has a worth of $4.50.
This is what your body is when you break it down:
65% Oxygen
18% Carbon
10% Hydrogen
3% Nitrogen
1.5% Calcium
1% Phosphorous
0.35% Potassium
0.25% Sulfur
0.15% Sodium
0.15% Chlorine
0.05% Magnesium
0.0004% Iron
0.00004% Iodine
 
Looking at your life through a natural lens is bleak. There is not much hope for us in the natural.
God is self-existent and self-sufficient and we are worth about $4.50
 
This all changes when God, who has never needed to look outside of himself for anything because everything He needs is within Him already, looks at humanity and calls for our help.
6) God calls for our help
God needs no one. He could rely on Himself only to do everything. Yet God does something very risky.
Allow me to talk to you about 7) RISKY BUSINESS (joke)
No not that Risky Business starring Tom Cruise…
8) Risky Business
God needs no one, so there is no need to look outside of himself to receive help from others. This is ideal for everyone, because God doesn’t fail. Allowing others to help is actually risky.
But this is exactly what we see the God of the universe do.  He does it constantly in your Bible. Over and over He looks to the $4.50 creation and calls on them to help.

  • He called on Adam & Eve to take care of creation in the Garden.
  • He called on Abraham to father a nation.
  • He called on Moses to be a deliverer.
  • He called on Gideon to be a General.
  • He called men & women to be judges, priests, prophets, & kings & queens.

 
God did not need to do this.  But He chose to RISK in order to include mankind in His plans. This gives us VALUE… PURPOSE… A CHANCE TO HELP.
In the New Testament, His plans get way more Risky.
For the first time ever the self-existent, self-sufficient God put Himself in a position to be reliant on a Hebrew woman. This is the incarnation.  God literally depended on humans to carry, deliver, and raise Christ.
God made the plan of the incarnation, where God would come to earth in a human existence. He formed this plan before the creation of the world. He gave details to prophets.  But then there came a moment where God placed the entire plan into the hands of humanity.  God formed a plan that would fail without human cooperation.
This baby grew up and looked into the eyes of believers and told them… “I am leaving… I need you to do this… I need you to preach my Gospel… I need you to teach repentance and to Baptize in my name”
Jesus did not figuratively need them. He did not symbolically need them. No He built a plan that needed, AND STILL NEEDS, human involvement.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.(NIV)
Until His Gospel is preached… the end cannot come.  God asks people to preach His Gospel.
The God who never needs anything outside Himself, created a plan that is completely reliant on Human cooperation.  This sounds like a terrible idea, but God absolutely has a reason.
9) You know that you are worth more than $4.50
The natural says you are worth $4.50, but I don’t think I can find anyone who would surrender their life for $4.50.  Any takers?
You won’t find an atheist to agree with this. Atheists believe only in the natural and observable.
You won’t find a humanist to take the $4.50.
You won’t find someone to take the $4.50.
We realized we are more valuable than that.
We somehow understand that our life is too important to throw away like this.
God declares your worth over and again in scripture.
Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.(NIV)
 
Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,(NIV)The price that Jesus paid on the cross declares you incalculable worth!
Ephesians 2:5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.(NIV)
Ephesians 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,(NIV)
Ephesians 2:7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.(NIV)
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–(NIV)
Ephesians 2:9 not by works, so that no one can boast.(NIV)
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.(NIV)
But also… God thinks you are so valuable that He has made you an integral part of His plan.  BY CHOICE He made His plan include you.
He does not just show your worth through the cross. He shows your worth in His desire to use you.

  • Stop looking to your perfection to define your worth.
  • Stop looking for the opinion of your family and friends or social media to define your worth.
  • Stop looking at your accomplishments or your bank account to define your worth

6) God calls for our help
The God of all the universe who needs no one’s help.  He’s calling for your help.
The most amazing moments in life are the moments where God has used me for His purpose. Nothing else compares.
When you answer His call you step into greatness.  You step into eternity.
Have you ever answered His Call?
Every year the NFL (national football league) holds a draft of top College football players.  The best part of the draft is watching people receive the call.  The owner of the NFL team calls the player to tell them they are being drafted… In a way it is inviting the player to help.
This past offseason a player named Jaylon Smith was thought to be a #1 caliber talent in the draft. That is until he suffered a devastating knee injury that ended his collegiate career.  He watched the NFL draft with His family, unsure when he would get the call.  With this injury he might not be able to help a team…
NFL DRAFT CALL
You can tell that call meant everything to Jaylon Smith. Jaylon welcome to the Cowboys.  We hope you get on that field soon and have great success.
6) God calls for our help
God calls us to be on His team.  Regardless of our injuries, scars, mistakes… He has a position for you.
The Bible is a large book of God calling people to be on His team.  Just like Jerry Jones calling Jaylon Smith, God calls out to people.  Come be in my Kingdom…
One day God called a man named Abram and a woman names Sarai. He called them to be the father and mother of a great nation… They said.
One day God called a shepherd on the backside of a mountain.  God said “Moses I want you to deliver my people from slavery.” Moses came up with excuse after excuse of why God had called the wrong guy.  God says – “You are the guy. I will help you, will you help me rescue my people.”
He called Gideon to be His general.
He called David to be a Giant killing King.
One day He looked some fishermen in the eye and said… “Follow me and I will make something out of you. I will make you fisher of men.”  They dropped their nets.
When God calls you should drop everything to answer the call.
God is calling your right now. Say yes in this altar today.