The Better Helper - February 8, 2026

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Not long ago, there was a news story that covered the story of a man who broke

down on the side of a busy interstate.

You would almost think it was the area between Nampa and, you know,

eastern Boise, just because of all the traffic that goes by and all the traffic that's there.

Not exactly sure where it happened, only that it did happen.

And as the man in the story was recounting what happened, he said,

yeah, I blew a tire and I pulled over as quick as I could.

And as soon as I got over there, I looked, my spare was flat.

There's nothing I could do. I don't have a pump or anything. So luckily he had AAA.

And so he takes out his phone and he decides to call the service.

And so as he was on the phone talking to the guy, he said, well,

it's going to be about an hour before we can get a truck out there.

He said, all right, I'll just wait. He didn't have anything better to do.

He was just on his way home from work. And so no hurry or anything.

Well, about two minutes after he hung up with AAA, all of a sudden,

as is the custom, someone pulls up beside and says, hey, let me help you.

I know exactly what to do.

And so the guy's like, right, maybe I just need to cancel AAA if this guy's

going to help me. And so the guy said, hey, can you pop your hood?

And the driver said, well, why do I need to pop my hood? It's the tire that's

blown. What's this after? No, just pop your hood. I know what I'm doing.

I've helped people in this situation before. And he says, okay.

So he pops the hood and immediately the guy brings one of those fancy battery

jump start things and he hooks it up to the guy's battery.

The battery was fine, but he says, all right, let's give it a start.

Let's see what happens. And he pushes the charge button and whatever he did,

he overloaded the guy's battery so that now his

truck wouldn't start right well some help that

was well about five minutes later as the guys are tinkling with the uh tinkering

with the system they're not tinkling tinkering it's a different roadside stop

all right not one of those kind of roadside stops tinkering with the battery

right there man i'm in so much trouble.

Another guy pulls up and says, oh, hey, I know exactly what's wrong.

It's probably your alternator.

Listen, I've got a tester in my car. And so he goes over and brings out this

thing with more cables and hooks it up and starts saying, okay, start it.

Oh, wait, you can't start it. The battery's dead. Oh, hey, I got an idea.

Let me call my friend. He was right behind me. This guy's an expert.

And so no doubt, 10 minutes later, here the guy comes.

And the guy shows up. And instead of a toolbox, he brings his cell phone and

says, hey, I've watched YouTube videos. I know exactly how to fix this thing.

And the guys, the three guys there by now started tearing the dude's engine

apart, trying to reach a component in these new trucks that's way down deep, trying to fix it.

Well, it wasn't an hour, but about 30 minutes later, the truck finally shows up.

And the driver of the tow truck comes and he sees three guys under the hood.

And he sees the owner of the truck standing back by the blown tire,

which was the problem in the first place.

And he just scratches his head and says, what's the problem here?

The three guys proceeded to try to tell him, but it's the guy with the problem

who could actually say, no, this is what's going on.

The man who originally broke down told the reporter who was doing this special story, says,

I really appreciate the effort that these kind citizens offered me stopping

on the busy interstate, but none of them could actually help me because they

didn't look at what the real problem was.

As a matter of fact, they probably meant well, but they weren't the right helper.

So thank you for towing my car away. It has more problems now than it did from

my blown tire. when it comes to our life and our world is full of helpers.

But a lot of times people can't help because one, they don't know our problem.

They don't know what circumstance we're in, or they don't bother to find out what the problem is.

They just start giving us advice or they just start tearing in to our life to try to help fix us.

You know, we have friends and friends can encourage us, but friends can't always

help us carry our own guilt of a circumstance.

Or a situation or even a problem that we might have.

Therapists and counselors, they can try to help guide us, but they can't conquer

the fears that are really deep down in our soul that only God can take care of.

Even technology, as wonderful as it is, it can make life easier,

but it can't heal the human heart.

We have all these things, all these people that can help us,

but even the strongest person in our life with the most ability to help,

a lot of time they're going to eventually reach the end of what they can do.

They're going to eventually reach the end of their limits to be able to help us.

And that's the good news about Hebrews chapter 2 this morning.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

It tells us that God has given us the right helper.

As a matter of fact, God has given us the best helper in all of our circumstances,

the one who stepped into our humanity, who suffered with us,

who defeated death and the grave, and now walks beside us through this life.

As a matter of fact, has not left us abandoned, but given us his spirit to help us through everything.

And so this morning, I just want to read to you Hebrews chapter 2,

Hebrews 2:10–18

verses 10 through 18. This We'll close out our study of chapter 2 in Hebrews,

and we'll start chapter 3 next week.

Hear the word of the Lord from the book of Hebrews. In bringing many sons to

glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists,

should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Both the one who makes men holy and those who are being made holy are of the same family.

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

He says, I will declare your name to my brothers. In the presence of the congregation,

I will sing your praises.

And again, I will put my trust in him.

And again, he says, here am I and the children God has given me.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity,

so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil,

and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.

For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that

he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service to God and

that he might make atonement for

the sins of the people because he himself suffered when he was tempted.

He is able to help those who are being tempted.

Father, thank you for your word And thank you for sending us the best helper

here, Lord, the better helper than any other one that was available at the time

or has been since, God. Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for his rescue. Thank you for our Savior, the Messiah,

Jesus Christ. Lord, we love him. We love you.

Speak to us today through your word, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you for honoring God's word. You can be seated.

I just have a simple message this morning, and that is that Jesus helps us.

If you don't remember anything, just remember those three words.

Jesus helps us. Now, I know you're going to be praying today.

Perhaps if one of your teams is in the Super Bowl, you're going to be praying, Jesus, help us.

Help us to get that first down. Help us to get that touchdown.

Help us to get the extra point. And Lord, help us to be humble when we win.

All of those things you're going to be asking Jesus to help you with today.

But I want to go deeper than just the surface level, yay, go team,

or as my wife's shirt says, yay, sports or something like that,

that she is wearing today.

Jesus helps us in three ways that it says here, right here in the scripture, I want to share with you.

As we look through verse 10 through 14, we could see the first way,

and that is Jesus helps us by sharing our humanity and struggles.

God didn't send a distant angel to come in and help all of humanity who was

stuck in their sin and their brokenness, who had a problem they couldn't deal with.

Jesus didn't even send Michael, the archangel, to come and to take care of the problem.

No, the scripture says that Jesus has sent his son to step fully in to our human experience.

It was only by sending his son that the problem could really be taken care of.

It was only by sending Jesus that Jesus could fix what ails humanity.

As a matter of fact, it's Jesus' suffering that equipped him to serve us completely or perfect.

There wasn't nothing wrong with Jesus that he had to suffer so he could be better.

It wasn't anything like that. The idea of perfect here is the idea of completion.

I think the word in Greek is teleos. It means it is finished.

It's done. It's all taken care of.

Jesus suffered, and that equipped him to help understand what we go through

as human beings, what we go through in life when we are tempted,

what we go through life when we grieve, what we go through life with in the

ups and downs of just trying to make ends meet, in the ups and downs of just

trying to live life in relationship with other people.

Jesus experienced all the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the suffering.

As a matter of fact, Jesus knows our world, I would say, from the inside out,

not just from some far distant God that's detached from his creation,

looking down on everyone and trying to understand.

No, God sent his son Jesus to come and to be one of us, to live amongst us.

I love this show that's on TV. I don't know if it still is, but it's called

Undercover Boss. Has anyone ever watched that show?

It's amazing. I really love it when the employees are bad, and they just treat other people bad.

And then the boss is one of the ones that gets treated bad.

And guess who gets their up and comings in the end? It's that employee that's bad.

They usually get fired or retrained or whatever terminology you want to use.

But Jesus came down to experience what we experience.

Jesus knows our world. Jesus lived with limits. I mean, look at the Christmas

narrative, the Christmas story, the Christmas account.

The son of God born as a vulnerable baby to a young lady that wasn't married

yet to her betrothed Joseph.

The limits that Jesus had as an infant, being born like that,

growing up, learning how to walk, learning how to talk.

He had these limits. He was born in poverty.

As a matter of fact, when Mary presented an offering on account of Jesus,

she brought an offering that the poor would offer at the temple.

Born into this poverty, the pressure that came.

I believe Jesus labored with Joseph in the trade, the carpentry,

whether that was the wood or the stone of the area, that Jesus worked with Joseph

to help provide for his family up until the age he was 30.

Was about his father's business, his heavenly father's business after that.

So Jesus knows what it's like to labor, to work, and to work hard.

We know that Jesus preached from a borrowed boat, that he fed multitudes from

a borrowed lunch, that he rode into Jerusalem, not on a white stallion,

but on a borrowed donkey,

that he fed multitudes with this borrowed lunch, rode into Jerusalem, and that even Jesus,

he was buried in a borrowed tomb.

Jesus knows what it's like not to have and to rely and to trust in faith.

As a matter of fact, here's what Jesus said in Matthew 8, verse 20.

Matthew 8:20

Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

Boy, anyone ever felt like that before? I got a whole bunch of nothing. And that's about it.

Well, Jesus knows the limits. He knows the poverty. He knows the pressure that life brings.

Jesus felt exhaustion. Jesus felt grief.

Scripture recounts that when his friend Lazarus died, the shortest verse in

the English Bible we see says that Jesus wept.

It's not just that part of the grieving process, but we know Jesus felt that loss.

We know Jesus felt relational disappointment as he was there in the Garden of

Gethsemane, and he was betrayed by one of those that he chose with a sign of intimacy, a kiss.

That as Judas did that.

The temple guard arrested Jesus and all of his close friends,

they fled. They got out of there.

We know Jesus knows what that's like to be backstabbed, to be talked about.

We know that Jesus faced temptation, and when he did, he faced it head on,

and he understood the weight and what it felt like to be tempted.

I mean, think about it. Jesus, the Holy One, the one that is pure,

being tempted with the filth and the ilk of this world's brokenness.

What kind of suffering that must have been. But you know, it's because Jesus

shares in our humanity and our struggles, because he lived and because he lived

what we live, that he is the better helper.

He's the one that truly understands and understands us. And so are you trusting him today?

Are you trusting Jesus? Do you understand that he's been through what you've been through?

You understand that Jesus has got victory over what you suffer from today,

what you may even struggle with today.

So Jesus helps us because he shared in our humanity.

He shared in our struggles. But also, we know Jesus helps us by breaking the power of death.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of those old Western TV programs that are on.

Gunsmoke, Bonanza. I mean, you can go down the list.

Thanks to MeTV, I get to watch them all. And I got this little recorder so I

can record them when I've got some downtime. I like to watch them.

And every so often, there's an episode with a snake oil salesman that shows up.

And these guys sell you long life and everlasting.

And it's not according to Scripture. It's according to the little potion they

have in their little bottle.

And those guys are usually run out of town or they find themselves in a predicament

because they always give you something that will fight death,

that will overcome death.

When it comes down to it, it's only Jesus who really has broken the power of death.

You see, Satan used sin and death to hold humanity in fear, and he still does.

He still likes to hold us captive by this thing called death.

Think about if you've ever had that diagnosis shared with a doctor to you in

a hospital room or one of your loved ones right next to you,

the fear that comes over you, the fear that death could be impending.

It's frightening. It's worrisome.

It's scary. And the enemy loves that. He loves to use sin to do that.

But I got to tell you, Jesus confronted every attempt to derail his mission.

Whether it was the temptation that Satan brought to him or,

whether it was the time even as an infant when Herod wanted Jesus dead,

and so he slaughtered a lot of innocent children in order to see that that's

happened. But it didn't happen.

You see, all these attempts were thwarted by Jesus time and time again.

When the enemy meant harm, Jesus brought about life.

And as the Scripture says in John 10.10, brought about life more abundantly

than even what was there before.

Jesus confronted every attempt to derail his mission.

And it's through his death, it's through his resurrection that Jesus shattered

death's power. Let me say it like a preacher.

Jesus shattered death's power. Hallelujah.

That's nothing you can take lightly because the power of death is gone now.

Do we still encounter it? Yes.

Do we still suffer the effects of it? Yes.

But guess what? The eternal part of it is taken care of. And if you are trusting

Jesus today, you can trust him in that.

That yes, we're still going to have loved ones that die. That yes,

we even might die before Christ returns.

But the faith that we have in Jesus will see us through.

How do I know that? Because I looked in the resurrection chapter,

1 Corinthians chapter 15, and I read these words, and we're not at a funeral

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

today, so we really celebrate this.

1 Corinthians 15, 55-57, where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have victory now over that.

Victory now because of what Jesus has done.

You see, Jesus frees us from the fear of dying.

You don't have to be afraid. You don't have to worry because Jesus has already taken care of that.

He's already taken care of the problem.

The sting is no longer there because Jesus defeated sin. He took care of it

once and for all upon the cross.

I looked this thing up in this book called The Art of Dying by Robert Neal,

and he listed three aspects of this fear, this fear that plagues all of humanity, this fear of death.

Another lady, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, she has a book called Death,

The Final Stage of Growth, and there's four principles I just want to share

with you really quickly.

You see, death still exists, but the sting is gone. The future is sealed,

and we trust Jesus in that. But why does this fear still exist,

or why do we allow it to exist sometimes?

Here's some four reasons. Take them or leave them, whatever you like to do.

It's not in the Scripture, so you have that freedom.

But it makes sense. Why do we fear death? Well, first, we fear the loss of mastery or control.

We're dead. There's no more control over our life, right?

When we die, that's it. We can't control what happens. We can't make those choices

that we wanted to make when we were alive. That makes sense.

Well, secondly, we fear incompleteness and failure is why we fear death.

Oh, there's just something else I wanted to do in life, and now my life won't

be complete because I didn't get to do it.

We might fear death because we know we've blown it in life, and we're trying

to make up for it, and we just know that we're not going to be able to anymore

because death is impending.

So we fear on what we're going to miss out. We fear on maybe what we can't set right.

And that stokes the fear in our life. Maybe we fear, and for a lot of us,

I think this would be it, we fear the separation from our loved ones.

We don't want to be separated from our families. We love our families.

We want to see our grandkids.

We want to see grandkids, but we want to see grandkids grow up and we want to

see great grandchildren and so on. We want our family to continue.

And so we have this fear that we're going to be separated from them.

And then last, we fear of being led to a realm of unfamiliarity.

We're not sure what's going to happen next.

We have a glimpse from Scripture, and boy, is it glamorous. Boy,

is it exciting. But we don't know for sure.

And some of us have the weakness of needing to know things, or else we get really freaked out by it.

In my hand, yes, the only one raised, but I know there's others of you here.

We fear these things, but we shouldn't fear them.

We shouldn't let this fear rule us. It's a tool of Satan that he wants to use

to control us, to keep us timid, to keep us powerless and futile.

You see, we shouldn't worry about losing control because we know the one who

controls everything is in control.

We've got to trust God. We shouldn't fear about incompleteness or failure,

things we haven't done yet. We can't go back and change anything.

But yet we can trust God, the one who gives us the forgiveness,

We can trust God, the one who will lead our families when we're not able to lead them anymore.

We can trust God in all of these things. We can trust God as we enter from this

life to the next, that he's already got things planned out for us.

And we can trust God in that.

When Jesus said to his disciples, hey, I got to go away because I'm going to

go prepare a place for you.

That's got to be awesome. Think about it. In six days, God created everything

that we see now. It's pretty spectacular.

Now, how many days has Jesus been ascended to heaven and he's been working on stuff since then?

Can you only imagine what it's going to be like? Thank you. Yeah.

Love it Someone's getting excited this morning And the Super Bowl time is not

even here yet See, it's kind of like this We could trust God We could trust Jesus,

When I was little And we were up camping Kind of up a little north of Idaho City,

We would always go in like the fall and my dad would take me and my little brother

and we'd go up there and cut firewood and get enough for, you know,

get enough for the winter.

We usually either stay, you know, in our old beat up van or we take a tent.

And there's this one time I really had to go to the bathroom.

Here's where the tinkling comes in, if you're wondering. Okay.

I really had to go, but it was dark outside.

It was one of those days, nights, I should say, where there's no moon out and

you know how dark it gets in the wilderness.

And I really had to go. And my dad, he said, just get up. There's a tree over

there. Just go squat over there and do what you got to do and then come back.

And so I got out of the van and I closed it quiet. I didn't want to wake my

brother up. And I started going. And all of a sudden you hear the hoot owl.

And then all of a sudden you hear this crunching of the brush just off in the distance.

And you know that it's not Smokey the bear that's out there,

but it's the meanest grizzly bear that you ever saw, right?

That's just what gets in your mind. This fear encroaches and gets in you.

And so I didn't even make it probably three steps before I was back and said,

dad, you got to come with me.

Dad, come on. And so of course, like all good dads do, they grumble and complain a little bit.

And then they go and say, here, here's the tree. I'll hold my flashlight there. Do your business.

Thankfully, Jesus is not like maybe our dads or we have been before.

But Jesus is like that older brother, if we could say it this way,

who knows the way, who's not afraid of the dark, who can help us go through

the forest, not to go to the bathroom,

but to go to somewhere greater, to go to somewhere where he has been before,

where he knows what it's all about, to go to this place that he's prepared for all of us.

Jesus will get us there if we'll trust him. He can help us face the valley of death without fear.

Christians today, don't be afraid. Now, don't go out and do something foolish

and put your life in danger needlessly.

All right? Don't do stupid stuff.

You want to hear when you enter into all eternity, well done,

thou good and faithful servant.

Not, why'd you do that for you, idiot? You don't want to hear that.

That's not in the scripture.

And I think it's not there for a good reason. Don't do stupid things.

Now, it doesn't mean you don't take risks for the kingdom of God,

but we don't live foolishly.

We trust the Lord, and we trust that He's going to lead us through this.

Jesus broke the power of death, and so we can trust Him.

Jesus has shared in our humanity and our struggles that we can trust Him.

And third this morning, Jesus helps us with compassion, with mercy.

And I would say with real-time support.

See, what Jesus does is that he draws near. He drew near to us.

According to the scripture this morning, he entered into our humanity.

When we read that verse again in verse 17, for this reason, he had to be made like them.

Like who? Like us, fully human, it says, in every way, in order that he might

become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might

make atonement for the sins of the people.

Jesus drew near to us, so near, in fact, that he became one of us.

Jesus is not detached from our reality.

Jesus is not indifferent to the human experience.

I believe that Jesus is deeply moved by our pain.

Why? Because he suffered that same kind of pain that we suffer.

When you hurt, I believe it hurts the heart of God.

How does God know that? He knows that because of what Jesus suffered through.

I don't know. I hope you didn't get depressed as I read the opening psalm this

morning because it was kind of heavy.

Perhaps I should have put a disclaimer or a trigger warning or alert or something.

But that's the messianic prophecy of what Jesus would go through in his suffering.

And I didn't even read the whole chapter.

Les came by the office this week and we talked about verse 1,

my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

We know that Jesus cried that out on the cross.

That'll be a sermon here in a few months, I believe. But in the meantime,

it just shows us Jesus suffered the same kind of suffering that we go through.

Because while we might not really understand Jesus draws near to us,

we do sometimes feel, and again, it's just a feeling.

You don't live your life based on feelings, but sometimes we feel like God has forsaken us.

Maybe it's a choice that we made, but yet we gaslight and we say,

no, God, it's your problem. You caused this.

Well, God didn't tell you to make

the choice you made to find you in the circumstances you find yourself in.

But Jesus drew near to us. You're not despised. You're not unloved. God loves you.

I don't care what circumstance you're in, no matter how ugly life might get,

you're still loved by God.

He still treasures you.

He still created you in his image. So there's something to be said about that. Jesus drew near to us.

In Greek mythology, oftentimes the gods up on Mount Olympus were there and they

would dictate and cause havoc amongst all the people.

And these gods were so distant and they would only come down to earth in order

to cause a little chaos over here, to mess around a little bit with a woman here,

to go over here and to cause a war between fighting factions of the gods.

And again, it's not capital G, it's small g, just so you know.

But that's the Greek mythology in that, is that there are these gods,

but yet you could never know them. They were distant. They were far off.

You could never understand them.

God would never come and truly give up his power to make himself like one of us. But Jesus did.

Jesus draws near to us. He still does today. Jesus has walked our road.

You know, there's something that we're taught, and I can't say that I've always

abided by it, foolishly, but.

But as you're counseling people or as you're dealing with a grieving family,

the words that you don't say, especially if you've never experienced what they've experienced,

you don't say, I know how you feel, because you might not know how others feel.

If you haven't lost the same person that they've lost, if you've never been

in the same circumstances that they've been in.

I can't say I know how you feel when you get that diagnosis of cancer.

I know how I feel as a father hearing my child get that diagnosis,

but I don't know what Adam felt when he heard that.

See, I don't know what it feels like when you just can't overcome something,

and this problem, this addiction is just too large and just controls your life.

I can't understand that because I've not been through some of that,

and so I can't say, I know the way that you feel.

But we have a God that does because he has a son named Jesus who experienced those things,

who was tempted through all of these things and experienced maybe not the exact

thing that we experienced, but all temptations can fall into at least three categories.

The lust of the flesh, those things that our bodies, our physical bodies crave.

The lust of the eyes, those shiny things that we see.

Oh, I got to have it. Oh, I got to have her. or I got to have him.

I mean, the lust of the eyes, those things that catch our eyes and the pride

of life, those things that puff us up, that make us feel real good,

that feed self, that feed the flesh.

Oh, the power that we crave, the recognition that we crave, the credit that we desire.

See, all those temptations that can fall into those categories,

is Jesus was tempted by each one of those.

And yet he overcame them. In the temptation of Jesus, as you read the gospels,

you'll notice that it was only three times that Jesus was tempted and that's it.

If that were the case, we'd be like, man, he got off easy.

You know, you know how many times I'm tempted? You know how many times a day that I'm tempted?

I was listening to a speaker once and this was directed to men.

So he said, man, here's a challenge I want.

I want you to put a hundred pennies in one of your pockets.

And each time you're tempted to look at a woman in lust or each time you have

a sinful thought about the opposite gender, I want you to take that penny and

put it in the other pocket.

He said, I can guarantee you, most of you, by the time lunchtime rolls around,

you'll have one empty pocket and one full pocket. It's not going to be the same ones that you have now.

Talk about the frequency of that for some. Jesus was continually tempted.

It wasn't just three times and out. There was a continuous temptation that went on and on and on.

But yet, Jesus walked our roads so he knows what it's like to be tempted.

But he also knows, and here's what we can trust, he knows what it's like to

overcome that temptation.

He knows what it's like to trust the word of God and what the Bible says to

overcome those lusts of the flesh, those lusts the eyes, the pride of life.

Jesus has shown us how to overcome that. And so we know that Jesus is our ultimate example.

You see, those who suffer become the best comforters.

If you've been through something that someone else has truly been through,

you can come alongside them and you can say, hey, I'm here with you.

Jesus came to our human experience, experienced everything, and is able to walk alongside us.

As the ultimate example, we see him in Scripture as being merciful,

as being patient, as being ready to forgive.

We see Jesus, and we trust him in our journey together.

We trust this one who has already made the crossing from this life to the next,

who defeated death, who defeated the grave and has ascended to heaven.

We continue to trust him because he's going to lead us all safely home.

Are you trusting Jesus today?

You see, when we look to Hebrews 2, it finishes this out that Jesus is truly made fully human. Why?

So he could be our high priest.

The idea of the high priest was certain times in the year, he would go before God.

Before the almighty creator of the universe, he would go before him in the temple

and he would offer sacrifices that would push sin forward until the next year.

It was by the blood of these innocent animals that were killed and these offerings

and these sacrifices that were made that would push sin forward.

Why was sin getting pushed forward and not just dealt with? Well,

because they didn't have the capability to do that.

Why? Because the priest was a sinful person just like you and just like me. it was just a man.

As a matter of fact, the priest had to atone for his own sins before he could

offer the sacrifices on behalf of everybody else.

He was incomplete, the high priest was, in order to do that.

He could not enter the Holy of Holies without first taking care of his own sin problem.

But guess what? That's not Jesus.

Jesus lived our human experience, but without sin.

I know that just blows your mind, because it blows mine.

I can't wrap my brain around it, but that when he was tempted, he overcame that.

Well, wait a minute. Didn't he get mad and start throwing stuff in the temple, temple courts?

Yeah, but he did not sin in that.

Now, don't start going throwing the tables over and the Super Bowl nachos go

everywhere. That's not what we're talking about.

See, there's human emotions in control. There's righteous indignation.

Jesus lived without sinning. He was tempted like you and me,

but he never gave into that temptation.

And so he's able to make intercession for us because he doesn't have to take

care of any of his sin problems on his own because he has none.

So he can truly go before God and say, Father, will you please forgive Pastor Mike?

He does not think things through sometimes. And he said these careless words

to his wife, and I know she's going to kill him.

So you need to forgive him quickly before that happens.

Lord, please help him. And that's just one hour of the day. You get the idea, right?

I didn't say anything today, right, honey? I'm good. You heard it.

I'm going to take that all the way till midnight.

I'm going to keep playing it back.

Jesus stands on our behalf before the Father. He's our advocate.

We're not alone, though.

Because Jesus has given us his Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God,

indwells believers to help us, I should say, as we live this life and as we

try to live it as Jesus would have us to live it. And how do we know about that?

Well, we look in the scripture.

So I want to tell you, today when you walk back to your cars and you head home

for the week, your Super Bowl parties or wherever you're going to go,

the weight of life begins to settle on your shoulders again.

Remember, you're not following a distant God, but in fact, Jesus is right there beside you.

As a believer in Jesus, his spirit fills you and strengthens you so you can

carry that weight, or better yet, you can take that weight off and put it onto Jesus.

Because Jesus said, cast all your cares upon me because I care for you.

Cast your cares on Jesus. Walk with the one who stepped into your humanity,

who felt your pain, faced your temptations, carried your sorrows,

and broke the power of sin and death himself.

Trust him. Guys, I want to tell you, Jesus is the better helper.

He knows what ails you and he knows how to fix it. Will you trust him today?

Pray with you. Father, I pray that you would speak to hearts in this very moment,

that God, as we wrap up this portion of our worship gathering and prepare to leave to serve you,

that Lord, if there be any wicked way within us, Lord, if there's anyone here

this morning that just has some unconfessed sin, they just need to give to you,

may they do that right now.

We know Jesus stands between us and God advocating for us.

Lord, we know that 1 John 1.9 says that if we confess our sins,

God, you're faithful and just to forgive us of those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Lord, would you do that for that one in here today that is just struggling,

that can't overcome those temptations, that continues to fall.

Lord, remind them that Jesus overcame that and Jesus can help them to overcome that.

But just beyond sin management, God, we know that you can help us to live into

the life, as the scripture said today, to be the ones that you are making holy.

Lord, help us to live into that by the power of your Holy Spirit,

denying sin, but God taking up your cross, the cross of Christ and following Jesus.

Lord, help us to live into that holiness that you provide for each of us.

While your heads are still bowed and your eyes are still clothed this morning,

nobody looking around really, I just want to ask you, I'm not going to embarrass

you or I'm not going to call you out or anything, I just want to know,

is there someone I could pray for this morning?

You're just struggling in that Christian walk.

You're just, you're trying.

It seems like every time you try, it's one step forward and two steps back.

Thank you. I'm going to be praying for you.

Have raised your hand this morning, I just want you to trust God.

Trust Jesus. He'll get you through and he'll see you to the end.

And like your big brother, he'll walk you through the valley of the shadow of

death. And at the end of that is some glory.

It's the glory of what God's prepared for you.

Father, I pray that you'd be with those this morning that have raised their hands.

God, I pray that, Lord, you would give them encouragement in their hearts to trust you.

And Lord, it's hard to do that sometimes because we see the brokenness,

we see the yuck, we know what we've been through.

But Lord, if we can give that to you, God, it frees us up from carrying that

weight, the weight that you already carried on the cross that you've already taken care of, God.

I pray this morning, Lord, that you would just remove that from them.

Lord, help them to walk in the newness of life that you provide for all believers.

And Lord, help them to grow in their faith, I pray.

And Lord, be with us as we prepare to leave, God. May we remember that Jesus

is better, that Jesus helps us as we go throughout this week.

Father, we need the help of our Savior. So Lord, be with us,

we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.