Each one of us needs help from time to time. Of course, for most of us that’s the last thing we’ll do – that is, ask for help. We want to be independent rather than dependent on anyone.
That can be see clearly near the end of life when oftentimes individuals are faced with breaking up house keeping and need to live with another family member – we’ll push it to the limit to keep from having to move in with another. Independence rather than dependence motivates us.
However, God created us to be dependent beings. We are to be dependent on God for everything and interdependent upon one another as human beings.
Another way we refuse the help we need is to the opposite extreme. There are those who in life become dependent on other human beings for everything. That’s what we call co-dependency. But, again – God created us to be dependent upon Him for everything and interdependent upon one another.
So, what is “The Help That You Need.” The help that each one of us needs more than anything else is the help of the HELPER – the Holy Spirit! John 14:26a in the NASB reads, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in My name…” Helper is one way to translatethe first word in this verae and is one of the names of God. It reveals His character, His attributes, something about God’s nature.
Now this word in my Greek dictionary is Parakletos. It comes from the Greek parakaleo which is the combination of para meaning by the side and kaleo meaning to call, thus to call to one’s side. Parakletos means to call hither, toward or to speak to, to speak cheerfully to, encourage. It is a verbal adjective, that is he who has been or may be called to help, a helper. Jesus indicates that this is whom the Father will send when He returns to the right hand of the Father.
So based on the Word of God let me suggest to you this morning that:
I. You Need the Holy Spirit to Help You Know God
I remember a couple of experiences early in my life when God began teaching me to learn to listen for His voice and to turn to Him for help. One was when I was outside playing on a sunny day. We had a maid, Beulah, who watched over us during the weekdays. Mother of course had 5 children in 6 years and 9 days, so we were door steps and difficult to watch at best.
As I was playing I heard a voice call, “Bruce, Bruce.” Well, I took off running into the house to Beulah as she was ironing and said “Here I am, what do you want?” She replied, “I didn’t call you, go back out and play.” My insistence was, “Yes you did, I heard you call my name.” “I didn’t call you, go back out and play,” Beulah said.
Another time I was riding one of our Shetland ponies, Trigger or Sugarfoot. They were prone to buck you off from time to time and one of those occasions occurred. Well, as I hit the ground I heard someone call my name, “Bruce.” I rolled over to see who it was and no one did I see. However, when I looked back the pony had just stepped where I rolled from. In God’s grace, He was teaching me to learn to listen to His voice and to trust Him to protect me. God was teaching me to depend upon Him for the help I would need in living life.
John 16:5-11 also reveals the truth that:
II. You Need The Holy Spirit to Help You Know
That You’re a Sinner
Without the convicting and convincing presence of the Holy Spirit you will never come to understand that you are a sinner and in need of a Savior. You see, every person who is born into this world is born with an evil nature, a sinful nature. And what does a sinner do? Sin! But the truth is, you’re not a sinner because you sin. It’s the other way around. You commit acts of sin because you are a sinner. You are a sinner because you were born that way. It’s in our spiritual genes. We’ve all inherited Satan’s evil nature. Ancient Israel’s King David referred to this when he said, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). The fact is, we’re all born sinners. A sinner is a person who is born with an evil nature. And because we’ve all been made sinners by birth, we’ll inevitably live sinfully – unless of course we experience the new birth.
Now, it’s the job of the Holy Spirit to help you know that! It’s His job to convince you and convict you that you are a sinner, that you’re dead to God and alive to Satan. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convince you that you will die physically one day and go to Hell which was originally prepared for the Devil and his fallen angels, not for mankind.
I remember well when the Holy Spirit helped me come to a conviction that I was a sinner and needed a Savior. I was a young adult of 20, married, and the father of one child at the time. I had been running with the boys and come to the place of desiring a divorce from my wife. Also, I was doing drugs, dealing drugs, and had an unhealthy fear of dying. I decided to go to a “fortune teller” along with one of my friends to find out more about my fate. It was there in Buena Vista, Georgia that the Holy Spirit continued the process of convicting me that the Help I needed was God.
This evil fortune teller asked questions and planted thoughts in my mind that would later be used by the Holy Spirit to convict me of my sinfulness. Questions like is your wife pregnant? Has she ever had a miscarriage? Just be patient, wait, you’ll get your divorce in a year or so.
Well, we drove back home and when I got to the house Kathy asked me what the fortune teller told me. Of course, I didn’t tell her everything, but as we talked she said to me, “Bruce, you know the Lord gives you something and if you don’t live right, He’ll take it away!” At that moment the Holy Spirit convicted me that something was not right in my life.
My friend had asked me earlier if I realized I had been talking about death for over a week. Well, I was under conviction! I went on to work on Monday morning, but by 11:00 am I could stand it no longer. I went to my dad and said, “I’ve got to go.” He replied, “Where are you going?” “I don’t know, but I’ve got to go.” I walked right out with Dad’s mouth standing wide open, got into my car, and reached down for a Winston cigarette when a pain in my chest drew me to a fetal position in intense pain and weeping. “Help, help I yelled!” Then I sought to get myself under control. As this intermittent pain and suffering occurred I drove in front of the First Baptist Church in Dadeville where I had joined as a 10 year old and made a rededication as a teenager.
My thought was, “This pastor doesn’t know me and I don’t know him, but if I can just get all this stuff off my chest I’ll be okay.” As I stood in front of the Secretary this pain came one more time and I fell to the floor rolling and yelling, “Help, help!” Well, I finally got with the Pastor and shared with him for over an hour everything I had ever done wrong. His response was, “Bruce, everything you’ve shared with me is what the Bible calls sin and it says, ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Bruce, what you need is Jesus.” I said, “If Jesus is what I need, Jesus is what I want.” Right there in the Pastor’s Study we knelt and I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior. And it was the Holy Spirit who helped me know that it was Jesus I needed.
In 1 Samuel 3:1-10 there’s as story of the boy Samuel as the Holy Spirit through the Priest Eli helped him to come to know God. The Holy Spirit may be giving you the help you need right now – listen to your spirit. Are you being convinced that you need help, that you need God in your life right now?
