Past Sermons |
1st May 2005 |
Ain't Nothin' We Can't Handle
John 14:15-21
Did you ever wish that you had a friend in high places -- someone to help you when the chips were down?
Did you ever wish that you had someone to talk to when you were lonely -- someone to listen to your problems -- someone who listened and actually cared -- someone who would love you even when you were in the wrong?
Have you ever heard someone say, "He doesn't have a prayer." What they mean, of course, he is hopeless.
Have you ever felt like you didn't have a prayer? That you were hopeless?
When you felt hopeless, wouldn't it have been nice to have a prayer? Wouldn't it have been nice to talk to God and know that he is listening? Wouldn't it be nice to know that God loves you and will help you?
Because, if God loves you, you are not hopeless! If God will help you, you have hope! If God loves you and will help you, things just might work out!
Or perhaps you never felt hopeless. Perhaps you're one of those beautiful people that we see in magazines -- with symmetrical features -- good hair -- perfect teeth -- great talent - successful by every outward message. No???
There are people like that, you know. Or at least it seems that way. Beautiful! Successful! Never in doubt!
But beautiful people have their problems too. Philip Yancey, in his book, Where is God When it Hurts?, talks about interviewing the beautiful people -- famous football players -- movie stars -- authors -- TV personalities.
He talks about how we idolize them -- how we want to be like them -- how we want to know every detail of their lives -- their clothes -- their romances -- even their toothpaste. Then he goes on to say this:
"Yet I must tell you, that in my limited experience, these 'idols' of ours are as miserable a group of people as I have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriages. Nearly all are hopelessly dependent on psychotherapy.
In a heavy irony, these larger-than-life heroes seem tormented by incurable self-doubt."
Tormented by incurable self doubt! Hard to imagine, isn't it? But we know that it's true. We read the magazines and see the headlines … and so we know about their broken marriages -- their addiction to drugs and alcohol. We know that their talent has a dark side
If the beautiful people find themselves "tormented by incurable self doubt," we need not feel odd if we, too, sometimes feel lonely -- isolated -- uncertain. That is part of the human condition.
And you know, that, I think, is how Jesus' disciples felt -- lonely -- isolated -- uncertain. You might even say that they felt betrayed. Jesus was talking about leaving them. He was talking about dying.
The disciples had made great sacrifices to follow Jesus. They had staked everything on him. They had walked away from their fishing businesses. They had left home and family.
They had allowed themselves to believe that Jesus was the one who would turn everything around -- would make everything right. They had believed that he was the Messiah -- the one who would save Israel.
And now he was talking about leaving them. Can you imagine how they felt? The sense of betrayal! Why had Jesus asked them to follow him if he intended to leave them? Why had he brought them this far only to abandon them?
Jesus knew that his disciples were afraid, so he made them a promise. He said, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever."
The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Greek word that is translated "Advocate" is "paraklete." What does paraklete mean? It means "someone called in to help." A paraklete could be a lawyer called in to defend you. It could be a witness called in to testify in your behalf. A paraklete could be anyone called in to help in your hour of need.
Jesus, knowing that he would soon ascend back to the Father, promised his disciples a paraklete -- someone on whom they could call when they needed help -- someone who would be there for them in their hour of need.
Jesus promised that this paraklete would be with them forever. That is where we come in. The paraklete that Jesus promised to these first disciples is available to us as well.
This paraklete is there to help us when we need help -- to guide us when we need guidance -- to steer us right.
When Jesus talked about the paraklete, he was talking about what elsewhere is called the Holy Spirit -- God's Spirit dwelling within us -- God's Spirit living in our hearts.
The promise that Jesus made to those first disciples is a promise to us as well. Jesus has made it possible for us to have a paraklete -- a helper on whom we can call in time of need.
All that probably seems pretty obvious. If you have gone to church for any amount of time, you have heard that the Holy Spirit is available to all of us - to be a helper, to be a support, a comforter, a counselor. It is all pretty academic.
Unfortunately, for many of us that's where it remains … in our heads. But it isn't simply academic at all, because it works -- it helps.
I remember reading about Colonel Thomas Schaefer, the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. Embassy in Teheran when that embassy was overrun and the Americans taken prisoner.
Colonels are seasoned veterans and tend to be strong -- and Schaefer was no exception. However, being taken prisoner in a hostile nation -- not knowing if he would ever see his family again -- held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell with nothing to read and nothing to do -- Schaefer found himself at the edge of his limits.
But he had a deep faith, and so he got down on his knees and prayed, "God, I cannot handle this. I need your help."
Then he writes, "And I got it!" He received the help that he needed to survive those long, seemingly endless, days of captivity. The paraklete -- the Holy Spirit -- gave him the strength that he needed.
John Claypool is a minister whose little daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. He thought, "I don't believe I can survive if she should die." But he believed what he preached and so he called on God to help him. He describes what happened.
He says: "The truth of the matter was that this crisis did bring its own special potencies with it. Looking ahead I would say, 'I do not think I can stand it,' and looking back I would say, 'I do not know how we were able to survive,' but the truth is we did … I and my daughter and the members of my family were met in the worst of times by energies we knew nothing about ahead of time.
"All I know is: the Lord did provide as he promised and coming to trust in him is enormously encouraging to me as I face the future."
As you see from these examples, those who live in the presence of the Holy Spirit cannot expect easy lives -- Jesus never promised us a smooth and unrumpled path -- but the Spirit helps us to prevail no matter how difficult the circumstances.
Earlier in this sermon, I mentioned Philip Yancey, who interviewed football heroes -- movie stars -- television personalities -- only to find that these beautiful people had feet of clay -- that they were "tormented by incurable self doubt!"
He went on to talk about the other side of the coin -- people whom he calls "servants" -- missionaries -- doctors and nurses working in Third World countries -- linguists living among primitive people in remote places, often for decades, to translate the Bible for those people. Yancey says:
"I was prepared to honor and admire these servants, to hold them up as inspiring examples. I was not, however, prepared to envy them. But as I now reflect on the two groups side by side, stars and servants, the servants clearly emerge as the favored ones, the graced ones.
"They work for low pay, long hours, and no applause, wasting' their talents and skills among the poor and uneducated. But somehow in the process of losing their lives they have found them."
Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit, and he has delivered on that promise. By virtue of being sons and daughters of the living God we have access to this Paraklete, this Holy Spirit and we can expect the Spirit to help us when we need help -- anytime -- day or night.
A student named Steve Winger from Lubbock, TX was taking a challenging class in Logic at a local university. The course and teacher were known for exacting and demanding exams.
The final exam was looming, and the professor mercifully told the class that each student would be permitted to bring in a single 8 x 11 ½ inch sheet with as much information as they could put on that one sheet for help during the test.
On exam day, each student came to class clutching their precious pieces of paper with as much information as possible. Some students had crammed lines and lines of font so tiny and so numerous onto that single sheet that you had to wonder how they could read it.
But Steve walked in with a single blank sheet and a friend who was a senior student and who had an 'A' in logic the semester before. Steve bent down and placed that single, blank sheet of paper on the floor next to his desk. His expert friend stood on the paper.
The professor noticed the extra body in the room and asked what he was doing.
Steve piped up, "You said we could bring in what ever we could fit on a single piece of paper for help on this test, well, this is my help and he can fit on the paper!"
He had followed the instructions to the letter and was the only student in that class to score an 'A' since he had his expert friend standing along side him.
The Holy Spirit is like that friend, standing along side us, supporting us, and guiding us.
Are you facing an important decision right now? Are you strangled by wrong choices? Do you fear for your children? Is your relationship floundering? Does the future (or the present) terrify you?
Then turn to God … Open up your heart. Ask for what you want. And then listen to the Spirit's direction.
The only question is whether we will follow faithfully. And sometimes that is the hardest part of all. But if we will, God will bless us with lives that become stronger day by day -- with faith to drive out fear -- with lives solid at the core.
I would like to close today with an old Southern prayer. It says:
"O Lord, help me to understand that you ain't goin' let nuthin' come my way that You and I together can't handle."
Pastor Tom |
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