We Are All Going To Need Some Help!

We All Are Going To Need Some Help

Psalm 130 Galatians 6:1-10 Text Exodus 17:8-16 July 15, 1995

How many of us here have discovered that life is full of opportunities in which we are going to need some help? Jesus faced this reality, one dark and lonely, evening as he prepared to go into the garden to pray the night in which he was betrayed. It is very significant that Jesus took the time to ask Peter, James and John to accompany him. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled, and then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."

It would be great if two things could take possession of us. The first is to have the honesty and humility of Jesus to admit, I’m hurting and I need some help. The second is to have a few friends that we could go and tell it to and they would be willing just to listen. Jesus told the disciples on his last night, I no longer call you servants, instead I have called you friends.

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. In our Scripture reading in Galatians again we are encouraged to bear each other’s burdens. Jesus put the ultimate price on the kind of relationships we should strive to have as Christians. He said, There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.

During World War 1, much of the fighting was done in trenches with each side separated by an area called "No Man’s Land" in between. This is where the dead and the dying would lay after making a charge at the other side. One soldier by the name of Jim, asked his officer, if he could go into no man’s land and bring in one of his friends who lay grievously wounded.

"You can go" said the officer, "but it’s not worth it. Your friend is probably killed and you will throw your own life away." But the man went. Somehow he managed to get to his friend, hoist him onto his shoulder, and bring him back to the trenches.

The two of them tumbled in together and lay in the trench bottom. The officer looked very tenderly on the would be rescuer who was now also bleeding and then he said, "I told you it would not be worth it. Your friend is dead, and now you are mortally wounded." It was worth it though sir, Jim said. "How do you mean it was worth it. Your friend is dead. "Yes he is, the soldier answered, but it was worth it, because when I got to him, he was still alive, and he said to me, "Jim, I knew you’d come."

That’s the kind of friend Jesus will be. He will come when we need Him, because He’s already paid the cost to love us. That’s the kind of friend Jesus wants us to be to each other in the face of our trials and difficulties. He wants us to come to the aid of others even when it means its going to cost us something. Is there someone that we know we can depend on when things get rough? Better still is there someone who know they can depend on us when things get rough for them.

Moses was a man that faced many struggles in his life, and often times he did not have anyone to talk to about it. For those of you in leadership positions in the church, on your job, or as a parent, you know that being on the top can often times be a lonely place. But God has a way of sending a friend at the time one is needed the most. Often times before the friend arrives, God sends the Holy Spirit to be the comforter in our lives.

One of the early challenges in Moses’s role as leader of God’s people from Egypt, came soon after the parting of the Red Sea. The story is found in Exodus chapter 17 verses 8-15.

It is estimated that there were around 2 million people under Moses leadership. He felt a strong sense of responsibility for each of them. One mark of a good leader is that he or she hurts, when those entrusted to him or her hurt.

With such a large number of people, there were stragglers in the rear who just could not keep up with the others. We are told in Deuteronomy that while Moses and the Israelites were weary and worn out, the Amalekites attacked and killed the Israelites who were lagging behind. Word comes to Moses of those who in the rear had been slaughtered. No doubt Moses felt that he was somewhat responsible since he had asked them to leave Egypt and follow him to the promised land.