What Kind of Help Is Your God, Anyway?

1st Sunday in Lent, 3/9/25 Hebrews 4:14-16 What Kind of Help Is Your God, Anyway? I. He knows you. II. He shows you. III. He grows you. This first Sunday in Lent is a victory celebration. Not on the same level with Easter on which we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, but a victory celebration, nonetheless. As I mentioned in my worship greeting to you this morning, we celebrate the truth that Jesus won the victory over Satan’s temptations. It was the first victory in an undefeated ministry for Jesus. He faced Satan all along the way to Calvary’s cross during his three-year ministry on earth. Sometimes, as we heard in today’s Gospel, those attacks came from Satan himself. Sometimes they came from Jesus’ earthly enemies—the Jewish religious leaders. Most surprisingly, sometimes those attacks came from Jesus’ own disciples. And he never lost. He always came out on top. The Victor! As Christians, we know and believe that Jesus won that victory for us. His victory over Satan is our victory. We are victors with him. If only, right? If only we felt like victors. If only we were convinced we were victors. If only we enjoyed one victory after another. But that’s not what we experience. In fact, more often than not, we feel like losers, not victors. No matter how hard we try, things don’t seem to work out for us. We deal with disappointment every day. Our lives are an unending struggle. We don’t find ourselves coming out on top. Too often we’re buried on the bottom. And that has led more than one Christian to wonder. I’m guessing you have wondered, too. Wondered what? Wondered where your God is in all of this. If you’re a Christian—and I’m not doubting that—then why aren’t things going better for you? Why can’t you find the strength to live more like a Christian and find the happiness you deeply desire? Why can’t you count on your spiritual successes, instead of dealing too often with your spiritual failures? Why can’t you be more like Christ? Why can’t you come out on top like he did? And those questions lead me to this one, the one I want you to keep in front of you for the next few minutes, “What kind of help is your God, anyway? You’re not alone in asking that question. From the beginning of the Christian Church on earth Christians have been asking it. What good is your faith in Jesus when the rubber of life hits the road? What kind of help is your God, anyway? In this Letter to the Hebrews, our God gives us his answers. Let’s listen to them this morning. I. I’m not sure how popular blues music currently is, but I know country music is arguably the most popular. And it seems to me that those two forms of music have this in common: they both speak directly to the reality of the daily human existence. What do I mean? They both offer this assistance: misery loves company. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Pastor, that’s as overstatement.” Maybe so, but please hear me out. The title “blues” music is accurate. And many popular country music songs deal with the same thing—the blues of life, right? The lyrics describe how the singer lost his woman, his job, his truck, and maybe even his dog. And the only solution is to deal with it by letting others know how much life stinks. These words of the Letter to the Hebrews were written to early Jewish Christians. They had lived during that time when Jewish people both looked forward to the coming of the promised Savior and hearing that the promised Savior had come. His name is Jesus Christ. And, by God’s grace, they believed that saving truth. But life was still tough for them. They still faced the same problems and struggles in life now as they did before. To make matters worse, they now had the added problem of suffering persecution for their faith in Jesus. And one of their reactions was, “What good is my faith in God, anyway? He’s not helping me with all of this!” The writer of these words tells them, “He knows what you’re going through. He knows you.” Now, how can we be sure of that? How can God, who lives in endless glory with all power over all things possibly know and understand what a feeble, limited, suffering human being like me is going through? Are you ready for his answer? Listen to it, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Jesus shared your life, meaning, he knows what your human life is like because lived it. You might think you’re suffering like no one else. You might think that you are facing opposition as no one else has. But you’d be wrong. Your Hight Priest—Jesus—faced everything you’re facing and overcame them all. He came out on top. He never sinned. He never quit. He never gave up. He went all the way to the cross for you. Why? Because he knows you. And there’s the first answer to our question, “What kind of help is your God, anyway?” He knows you. II. The Lord has another answer for you, and it’s found in what Jesus already did for you. Right now I’m trying to think of a task in my life in which I only do it once and never have to do it again. I can’t think of one right now. Can you? Almost every task of life—if not all of them—must be done over and over again. It’s almost senseless. It’s one of the reasons I don’t wash my vehicles very often. It seems like I wash it one day and it rains or snows the next anyway. These Jewish Christians to whom the writer originally wrote these words were used to repeating tasks in their religious life—yearly, monthly, weekly, daily. And they weren’t the only Jews required to do so. Even the high priest was required to do the same. But not your Great High Priest, Jesus. The writer alludes to that fact with these words, “We have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God.” Every Old Testament high priest was only allowed to enter the special presence of God in the Holy of Holies, a small room in the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant was located. God had indicated to the Jews that his special presence was there. But only the high priest could enter it, and only once a year, as he did his repetitive work. Jesus came to this earth to accomplish the work of redeeming us. He shed his own blood so that we could belong to him eternally. How do I know he finished that work? How do I know the Father accepted that work? How do I know that there isn’t something left for me to do to please God enough to have a favorable relationship with him? Jesus not only tells you, he shows you. He ascended into heaven because his work was finished and now he rules over every moment in your life to bless you eternally. What kind of help is your God, anyway? He shows you. There’s nothing left for you to do. III. I’m guessing that you join me in admiring people who work hard and accomplish great things in their life all on their own. They weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and no one handed them one golden opportunity after another. They worked tirelessly and earned it themselves. But that situation here in this life has nothing in common with our spiritual life—our life with Jesus. What do I mean? Well, we face daily opposition from three great enemies: sin, death, and hell. Think about it. No matter how hard you work, no matter what advantages you think you might have, no matter how many breaks you might receive, you’re no match for any one of those foes, let alone all three at the same time. But that’s where your Savior, Jesus comes in. He is your divine helper in your daily battles. That’s why the writer tells us, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” He tells us to lean on our God with confidence. Why? Because our God is the God of grace and mercy. Those are two beautiful words which describe two beautiful, saving qualities of our Lord. He is gracious. In other words, he gives us the blessings that we don’t deserve, whatever we need to have a life with him now and forever in heaven. He's also merciful. That means that, in spite of the fact that he has every reason to turn his back on us because we daily offend him with our sins, he is merciful. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. No, he treated his Son as our sins deserve. And that’s our focus in this season of Lent: Jesus doing everything we need for our God to be gracious and merciful to us every day. And today—today—is your blessed opportunity to grow in that grace and mercy, to live in the daily confidence that you are a dear child of God, to grow in your faith and in your confidence in the God of your salvation. What kind of help is your God, anyway? He grows you. He knows you. He shows you. He grows you. Are you open to his help? Of course you are. That’s one of the reasons you’re here today. Too many people in our society right now report that they feel like they aren’t winning; they’re losing. And even we feel like that, children of God that we are. And, at times, it’s nothing but our own fault. We’ve conveniently pushed Jesus to the side of our daily lives. We try going it alone. We forget, too often, the big picture of living this life always with eternal life in focus. We get all caught up in living and trying to succeed—whatever that means—and we fail, we get frustrated, tired, resentful. What kind of help is your God, anyway, in all of this? Just the kind of help you need. Jesus already won your life with him now and life with him forever. So, approach him with confidence in your daily struggles. He knows you. He shows you. He grows you. Amen.