Good morning and thank you for being here to help us honor our local heroes, our firefighters.
Fire, really is a good thing. We need fire. Fire produces heat. People need heat to survive. One of the first things we want to do when we go camping is to start a fire. Campers need fire for cooking, cleaning and heat if it’s cold outside. No one is concerned about the fire as long as it’s contained.
But fire can get out of control. A fire that is out of control is a serious concern. It’s dangerous. It takes lives and destroys our infrastructure and buildings. No one appreciates a fire that is out of control. This is when we need our firefighters. We call them when we need a fire to be extinguished, or rescue.
Right now in my home state of Colorado many firefighters are battling out of control fires that are approaching the city of Colorado Springs. As of now, almost 350 homes have been destroyed and over 35,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, and two people have been killed. The fire is so hot that investigators can’t get anywhere close to discern what caused it.
Now, it’s true that an out of control fire is destructive, it destroys property and takes lives, but I would like for just a moment to talk to you about how an even more dangerous fire than our town has seen or that the city of Colorado Springs is fighting. A fire that is so devastating that you have no hope, without the rescue of the ultimate fireman, to escape it. I would like for just a moment to talk to you about how Jesus is like a fireman who was sent to rescue you and I from certain death.
Death is God`s enemy. God didn`t create us to die. When Adam and Eve sinned they introduced death into the world. Death is the result of disobeying God. But God also made us with a soul, an eternal thing that lives in every human person. This eternal thing belongs to God because He made it, but, we have the choice to give our soul to His enemy if we decide we would rather live with death than with life. God gives us the choice to live with Him if we desire Him, or we can choose to ignore Him. The reward for choosing Him, is eternal life with Him in heaven, but, the punishment for ignoring Him, is hell. The key to our eternal life is and always has been obedience.
This is what the Bible says about this:
Romans 5:12 - When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 - So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
1 John 2:23 - Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
Jesus said in Luke 19:10, “I came to seek and save the lost.” That sounds just like a firefighter’s job description. Seek and save people who need rescue.
You may be asking why you need rescue. Do you believe you’re a good person? You try to live a good life, obeying the laws, paying your taxes. You don’t cheat, steal, and you probably haven’t killed anyone; though you may have thought about it. So why do you need rescue? God surely wouldn’t let you suffer eternal death? Would He? Why should you fear an eternal fire?
Let me explain this way. If you break the law and you’re caught you will be entered into the court system. At some point you will face a judge who will declare you guilty or not guilty. If the judge believes you’re guilty based on the evidence presented at your trial the judge will then render a sentence according to what the law allows for the crime you committed. James 1:14-15 says, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”
Death is the consequence of sin. Death, eternal death, is what we deserve for our sinful actions. God has judged the world and found it guilty, including you. This is why you need rescue. Because you are not perfect as God is, He can’t allow you into His presence. No matter how good you think you are, you will never be as good or perfect as God. Something, or more succinctly, someone had to step in, take your punishment, and declare you perfect before God. Hebrews 2:14-15 confirms, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
Most everyone knows John 3:16, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” But not so many are familiar with John 3:36, “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” Believe me when I say, you need rescue. You need Jesus.
What you may need this morning more than anything else is a shift in your perspective about God. We need to understand that God is love and we like to talk about that part of His nature, but this God of love allowed His own Son to die a cruel and violent death by execution on a cross as a common criminal. Why would a dad who loves His son allow that to happen if he had the power to stop it? Because God hates sin; He hates your sin. Sin brought death into the world because sin cannot co-exist in His presence. He kicks sinners out of His presence. We defile heaven and He won’t allow heaven to be defiled. Jesus Christ is the only way that sinners like you and I have any access at all to God. Jesus himself said this, in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” You should fear God. You should be scared to death of what God can do to you. He is the creator of the Universe a righteous force who is intolerant of disobedience. You stand no chance of God’s justice and wrath unless Jesus Christ is between you. God alone is worthy of our praise because when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Romans 5:6
A story is told of a family awakened by their smoke detector in the middle of the night to discover that their house was on fire. The father ran into the upstairs bedroom of his children and carried his 18 month old baby in his arms while dragging his 4 year old son by the hand.
They were halfway down the stairs when the little boy remembered that he had left his teddy bear in the bedroom, so he broke free from his father’s hand and ran back to the bedroom to retrieve it. In the confusion, the father didn’t notice that his son wasn’t with him until he got outside. By now the little boy was trapped by the flames and smoke in his second story bedroom. Smoke swirled around him and he coughed and cried out from the upstairs window, “Daddy, Daddy! Help me!”
His father yelled from below, “Jump out of the window, I’ll catch you!”
In the darkness and smoke, the little boy yelled back, “But, Daddy! I can’t see you!”
Daddy shouted back, “That’s OK, son. I can see you! Just jump!”
In the darkness and confusion of your life, sometimes it’s very difficult to see God, but, God sees you.
A brave fireman won’t think twice about jumping into a burning building to save those who need rescue. Jesus was just as brave. He offered His life so that you can have a relationship with Him and ultimately beat death. You can and should live eternally with God, but, you have to reach out for the hand of the One who came to rescue you. He sees you even if you are having difficulty seeing him.
Jesus is the ultimate fireman and you are lost without him, today, you can reach out for rescue.
