Well, hey now, saints, sinners, bootstrappers,
and the blessedly burned out. Welcome back to
the semi -seminarian. Where we've got one foot
in the book of Acts and the other planted in
a Waffle House parking lot at 3 a .m. Asking
God if maybe, just maybe, he helps the ones who
can't help themselves. Now listen, there's a
phrase I grew up hearing like it came straight
out of red letter scripture. God helps those
who help themselves. Folks stitch it on pillows,
print it on posters, and fling it. Like confetti
at the poor, the tired, and the worn out. But
here's the thing, friend. That ain't gospel.
That's Franklin. So, tonight, we're taking that
phrase out back. Not to bury it, but to examine
the bones. And we'll talk about Aesop and Ben
and Paul. And we'll see what the actual good
book says about help. Hope and the holy foolishness
of grace. If you've ever felt ashamed for not
being enough. If you've ever been told to quit
praying and start working. If your soul's tired
of being your own savior friend, pull up a chair.
Because we've both got some unlearning to do.
I'll see you on the other side. You guys mind
if I fire this in there? Okay. I'm going to begin
with just the phrase. So they say God helps those
who help themselves. You ever heard that one?
Of course you have. Folks say it like scripture,
like it's carved into the back wall, the church
behind the baptistry. But let me tell you something
that might surprise you. It's not in the Bible.
Not even close. Now, I know what someone might
be thinking when they're hearing this, thinking,
yeah, but pastor, surely that's in Proverbs somewhere.
Nope. Not Proverbs, not Psalms, not Paul, not
Jesus. It ain't scripture. It's sentiment. And
like a lot of sentiments, sounds good until we
hold it up to the light. So tonight we're going
to talk about it. We're going to sit with this
phrase like an old neighbor sitting on the porch,
and we're going to ask difficult questions. And
we're going to listen to what the Word of God
actually says, not what culture says, not what
our bootstraps say, not what the lie of self
-sufficiency whispers in our ear. And instead,
we're going to let grace talk. So God helps those.
Let's look at where this phrase actually comes
from. It shows up for the first time in history
in Aesop's fable, one called Hercules and the
Wagoner, and it was written in the 6th century
BC. The gods help those who help themselves is
the actual quote. And this line comes at the
end of the fable. where Hercules tells a wagoner,
a guy who has a cart, a wagoner, that cart is
stuck in the mud, and the guy is praying for
the gods to get his wagon out of the mud. Hercules
comes along and says, the gods help those who
help themselves. The moral, don't rely on divine
help unless you're already making an effort.
Then we jump to the 17th century, barely, 1698,
Algernon Sidney, Discourses Concerning Government.
He says God helps those who help themselves.
However, Sidney was arguing for self -governance
and individual liberty, not preaching a sermon.
He meant it politically, not spiritually, not
theologically. And then, where we've probably
heard it, A poor Richard's Almanac, which was
produced by Benjamin Franklin in 1736. God helps
them that help themselves. Good old Ben was all
about thrift and industriousness. And while there's
nothing at all wrong with hard work, Franklin's
quip wasn't divine revelation. It was colonial
common sense. So it ain't divine revelation.
It's folk wisdom. It's colonial bootstrap theology.
And while there's a kernel of truth about personal
responsibility in it, it turns real fast when
we try to turn it into the gospel. Because here's
the truth, my dear friends. The gospel is not
about what we can do for ourselves. It's about
what God has already done for us. So let's open
the scriptures and actually see what does the
Bible say. Romans chapter 5, 6 through 8. And
if you somehow believe that that phrase, God
helps them who help themselves, if you're still
at this point thinking, nope, it's still in there,
listen to the words of Paul and you tell me how
we reconcile the two. Because Paul says in 5,
6, and 8, for while we were still weak, at the
right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For
one will scarcely die for a righteous person,
though perhaps for a good person, one dare even
to die. But God shows his love for us in that
whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for
us. Notice the language here. Still weak. Still
sinners. Ungodly. No one's pulling themselves
up by their sandal straps here. Paul isn't describing
people who got 90 % of the way there and then
got a divine boost somehow. He's describing God
who doesn't wait for effort but moves first.
Well, I don't know, Jim. Is that true? Well,
let me point you to Genesis 3. This is a biblical
pattern from the very beginning. But the Lord
called to the man, where are you? Genesis 3 and
9. God rescues Israel not because they earned
it, but because he made a covenant with them.
In Deuteronomy chapter 7, it was not because
you were more in number than any other people
that the Lord set his love on you and chose you.
For, he says, you were the fewest of people.
But it's because the Lord loves you and is keeping
the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord
has brought you out of a mighty hand and redeemed
you from the house of slavery. God sends prophets
to a people who continually fail and still says,
return to me. Zechariah the prophet, first chapter
of his prophecy, the third verse. Therefore say
to them, thus declares the Lord of hosts, return
to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return
to you. The heartbeat of the Bible is not divine
reward for human effort. It's actually divine
mercy despite human inability. Psalm 72 and 12,
for he delivers the needy when he calls the poor
and him who has. No helper. Psalm 46 and 1, God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help
in trouble. This, friends, is the witness of
Scripture. God is a present help. God is not
some distant judge waiting for us to prove ourselves.
He is not some cosmic employer looking at our
resume. A help. A refuge. A savior. Now let's
step back for just a moment and let's actually
think about why does this phrase feel true to
us? Because most of us were raised in systems
that reward performance. School, sports, work,
even the church. You show up, you do the work,
you get the grade. It's cause and effect. Effort
equals outcome. And somewhere along the way,
we began to mistakenly believe that God operates
on the same system. And it's the thing we've
talked about a gazillion times. We think of faith
like a vending machine. You put in the right
prayer, the right effort, the right sacrifice,
and out pops your blessing. But that's not faith.
That's a transaction. That's superstition with
a cross stamped on it. This mindset is more deeply
ingrained in us than we care to admit. It shapes
how we approach prayer, worship, even our sense
of worthiness. When life goes wrong, the first
question is often, what did I do wrong? It's
the same system the elder brother lived in, the
one in Luke 15. stayed home, everything right,
followed every rule. And when the prodigal, the
younger brother came home, the father threw a
party. What did the older brother say? Look,
these many years I've served you and I've never
disobeyed your command, that you've never gave
me a young goat that I might celebrate with my
friends. And he's keeping score. And when the
father acted out of grace instead of fairness,
It didn't feel like love. It felt like a betrayal.
And that is what performance -based faith will
do to you. It will make grace feel like injustice.
And it'll make mercy seem impossible. But the
gospel is not capitalism. It's not karma. It's
not merit. It's mercy. When we turn the kingdom
into a meritocracy, in other words, the smarter,
the ones that are the achievers, they're the
ones that rise to the top. When we put our focus
on that, when that becomes the currency of the
kingdom of God, grace dies. And the cross becomes
a ladder. Church becomes a competition. And God
becomes a taskmaster instead of a father. And
the danger of phrases like God helps those who
help themselves is they sound like wisdom. You
know what they do? They teach us to trust in
ourselves instead of God. They tell us that divine
love is something we earn, not something we're
given. And that lie, friends, it will wear your
soul. Let's go deeper into Luke 18. Because Jesus
directly addresses this kind of thinking. Two
men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee
and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee prayed,
and this is Luke 18, 11, and 12. God, I thank
you that I am not like other men, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that
I get, but the tax collector couldn't even raise
his head. God, be merciful on me, for I am a
sinner. Luke 18 and 13. Next verse, Jesus says,
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other. The man who did nothing
but beg for mercy, he's the one God declared
right. You want to know who God helps? The ones
who know they need it. This parable flips the
script. It dethrones religious effort. It undercuts
spiritual pride. It humbles this performative
believer. And lifts up the broken one who can
barely speak. And this is not just a spiritual
point. This is a pastoral one. Because the truth
is half the folks in our pews don't feel like
they're doing enough. And the other half are
afraid someone else is getting something they
didn't earn. But grace is not given on a basis
of comparison. It's poured out on the basis of
need. The Pharisee helped himself. The tax collector
couldn't. One got applause from the crowd, and
the other got mercy from God. Romans 8 and 26.
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness,
for we do not know what to pray for as we ought.
The Spirit herself, I like to use, intercedes
for us with groanings too deep for words. And
let me tell you something personal, friends.
I've been in moments where I didn't feel like
I had a single word left, if you can believe
it. I've stood in a hospital hallway with a friend
whose child had died. I've sat on a back porch
with someone who confessed something they'd carried
around for 20 years. I didn't know what to pray.
And I didn't know how to fix it. But I do believe
this, the spirit was groaning right there, not
watching from a distance, not making a list,
but weeping with us, praying with us, holding
the words we couldn't in the moment seem to find.
The Greek word for help in this verse, it's this
long and I'm horrible at it, literally means
to take hold together with someone. The Spirit
doesn't just do it for us. She kneels beside
us. She carries it with us. This is what makes
Christian help different from the world. It's
not advice from above. It's accompaniment from
within. And this is where I think theology meets
tenderness. Because our God doesn't just reward
the strong. She empowers the weak. She doesn't
cheer from the bleachers. She gets on the field.
So if you're out of words, that's okay. The Spirit
has some. Maybe she's praying them right now.
The Gospels, friends, are a walking and talking
contradiction to the phrase, God who helps them
who help themselves. Okay? Now, I'm going to
pause here for one second because I'm about to
throw down on what I am calling a hermeneutical
blowtorch. I want to kill something with fire.
Because you might still be sitting there thinking,
I don't know, Pastor. I do know my Bible pretty
well. And there is something in there that sounds
a lot like this. And we're going to talk about
it. And I hope that when you leave here tonight,
you will fully understand. the absolute damage
you can do to people weaponizing this verse of
scripture. So let's talk about the verse that
folks love to weaponize. Comes to us in 2 Thessalonians
3 and 10. Paul says, if anyone is not willing
to work, let him not eat. Gotcha, pastor. Oh,
no, you did not. I drove over to Tulsa and seminary
for too many times to get this one wrong. I've
heard this verse tossed around to shame the unemployed,
the mentally ill, the houseless, the ones in
the food line who can't give anything back. But
let me set the record crystalline clear. First,
Paul is addressing a very specific issue in the
early church at Thessalonica. Some folks in that
early church were so convinced that Jesus was
literally coming back any day now, they quit
their jobs and were freeloading off of the generosity
of others in the church. Paul isn't rebuking
the poor here. He's correcting idleness rooted
in bad eschatology. Right? And you can actually
kind of... get where they're coming from, right?
Because they're first -generation Christians.
It's likely they might have known somebody that
said, I was there. I saw him alive. I saw him
dead. And I saw him alive again. And then the
last time I saw him before he went into the clouds
was I'll be back. Why wouldn't I think it's next
week based on the pattern? So they quit working.
And you're like, okay, well, what are we talking
about here? Well, first of all, I want to point
out also that Paul is not living a lavish life
of comfort when he says this. He was a tent maker
by trade, and he often refused support so that
he wouldn't be seen as a burden. But that didn't
mean he expected everybody else to do the same.
Paul regularly encourages generosity and mutual
support in the body of Christ. This verse has
been so twisted into a club to beat up the already
bruised. To say, you're poor, must be lazy. You
need help, you must not be trying hard enough.
But the whole of Scripture tells a different
story. Isaiah says, is it not to share your bread
with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into
your house? The brother of Jesus, James, says
if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and
lacking in daily food and one of you says to
them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without
giving the things they needed for the body, what
good is that? And since you brought up Proverbs,
Proverbs 19 and 17, whoever is generous to the
poor lends to the Lord. and he will repay him
and or her for their deed. 2 Thessalonians 3,
verse 10 was not written to justify our callousness
towards others. It was a pastoral and a communal
safeguard. Paul was trying to protect this fledgling
church from totally collapsing under the weight
of the few who had abandoned their responsibility
to the larger group. In a community shaped by
generosity and mutual care, Paul's warning was
meant to preserve the integrity of the whole,
not to shame the weak. And when pulled from that
context and aimed at the vulnerable, it becomes
a theology of cruelty. Right? So what I'm trying
to say here is, and they talk about this in Acts.
You guys know your Bible, right? I don't have
to go to a specific verse. You guys get this,
right? Beginning of the church, they talk about
we all gave what we had and nobody was in need,
right? Well, that requires everyone's participation
in some way, right? Because what happens if half
the people are trying to give and be generous
and the other half say, I don't want to work
anymore because Jesus is coming back tomorrow.
What happens to the church? It goes away. We
don't talk about it 2 ,000 years later because
it dissolved. And Paul is very much trying to
present. Prevent this from happening in Thessalonica.
Not trying to beat up on the poor and the unfortunate.
So let's bring that blowtorch. Let's burn the
misuse. Not the scripture, but the way it's been
twisted to hurt people. Guys, let's reclaim the
gospel of help for the helpless. Bread for the
hungry. Healing for the wounded, not judgment,
not suspicion, just Jesus. So, maybe you've been
trying to help yourself. Maybe you've been hustling
for holiness. Maybe you thought if you just prayed
harder, served longer, tied better, then maybe
God would somehow know this. Friend, let me tell
you, he already has. And he's not waiting for
your perfection. He's just offering his presence.
Grace is not earned, it's received. And you know
what? It's scandalous. It's reckless. It's prodigal
because it shows up in the least deserved and
the most needed. So here's the truth. God helps
those who can't help themselves. Or better yet,
God helps. That's what makes him God. Amen? Amen.
Thanks, guys. So, maybe that phrase we all grew
up hearing was meant to motivate. God helps those
who help themselves. But motivation without mercy
ain't the gospel. And if the gospel don't sound
like good news to the worn out, the wounded,
or the ones too tired to help themselves, then
that ain't Jesus talking. Scripture don't say
God waits on the self -sufficient. It says while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It
says he gives power to the faint and to them
who has no might, he increases strength. It says,
come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. That's not bootstrap
religion. That's blood and bone grace. That's
mercy for the ones lying flat on the floor still
saying, I can't. So, if all you got today is
a whisper, if your prayer sounds more like sighs,
if your faith is hanging by a thread held together
with duct tape and disbelief, you're not disqualified.
You are exactly the kind of person Jesus came
for. Because God don't just help the strong,
he helps the helpless. And thank God for that.
Because most days, that's me. And I bet it's
you too. Hey, I'll see you next time.