Sermon: Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?

Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?Sermon preached by Pastor Julius Buelow on March 15, 2026 at Mt Olive in Lincoln, NE for the fourth Sunday in Lent.This sermon explores the dangers behind that phrase and how God operates entirely on a system of free grace which enables us to live freely for him.Sermon text: Galatians 4:21-31 21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you really listening to the law? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman. 23However, the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through a promise. 24These things can be used as an illustration; namely, the women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery. This is Hagar. 25You see, this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is in slavery along with her children. 26But the Jerusalem that is above is free. She is our mother. 27For it is written: Rejoice, barren woman who does not give birth. Break forth and shout for joy, woman who does not suffer birth pains, because the barren woman has more children than does the woman who has a husband. 28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. 29But just as back then the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so this is also the case now. 30But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, because the son of the slave woman will certainly not receive the inheritance with the son of the free woman.” 31For this same reason, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free womanHoly Bible: Evangelical Heritage Version (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House, 2019), Ga 4:21–31.