UNLIKELY VESSELS
Scripture: Matthew 1:1-10
Sermon:
Unlikely Vessels
I.
An Unlikely Hero
THE MARINE WHO FOUND TWO WTC SURVIVORS.
Only 12 survivors were pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center after the towers fell on Sept. 11, despite intense rescue efforts. Two of the last three to be located and saved were Port Authority police officers. They were not discovered by a heroic firefighter, or a rescue worker, or a cop. They were discovered by Dave Karnes.
Karnes hadn't been near the World Trade Center. He wasn't even in New York when the planes hit the towers. He was in Wilton, Conn., working in his job as a senior accountant with Deloitte Touche. When the second plane hit, Karnes told his colleagues, "We're at war." He had spent 23 years in the Marine Corps infantry and felt it was his duty to help. Karnes told his boss he might not see him for a while.
Then he went to get a haircut.
The small barbershop in Stamford, Conn., near his home, was deserted. "Give me a good Marine Corps squared-off haircut," he told the barber. When it was done, he drove home to put on his uniform. Karnes always kept two sets of Marine fatigues hanging in his closet, pressed and starched. "It's kind of weird to do, but it comes in handy," he says. Next Karnes stopped by the storage facility where he kept his equipment he'd need rappelling gear, ropes, canteens of water, his Marine Corps K-Bar knife, and a flashlight, at least. Then he drove to church. He asked the pastor and parishioners to say a prayer that God would lead him to survivors. A devout Christian, Karnes often turned to God when faced with decisions.
Finally, Karnes lowered the convertible top on his Porsche. This would make it easier for the authorities to look in and see a Marine, he reasoned. If they could see who he was, he'd be able to zip past checkpoints and more easily gain access to the site. For Karnes, it was a "God thing" that he was in the Porsche, a Porsche 911 that day. He'd only purchased it a month earlier it had been a stretch, financially. But he decided to buy it after his pastor suggested that he "pray on it." He had no choice but to take it that day because his Mercury was in the shop. Driving the Porsche at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, he reached Manhattan after stopping at McDonald's for a hamburger in the late afternoon.
His plan worked. With the top off, the cops could see his pressed fatigues, his neatly cropped hair, and his gear up front. They waved him past the barricades. He arrived at the site, the pile, at about 5:30. Building 7 of the World Trade Center, a 47-story office structure adjacent to
the fallen twin towers, had just dramatically collapsed. Rescue workers had been ordered off the pile it was too unsafe to let them continue. Flames were bursting from a number of buildings, and the whole site was considered unstable. Standing on the edge of the burning pile, Karnes spotted … another Marine dressed in camouflage. His name was Sgt. Thomas. Karnes never learned his first name, and he's never come forward in the time since.
Together Karnes and Thomas walked around the pile looking for a point of entry farther from the burning buildings. They also wanted to move away from officials trying to keep rescue workers off the pile. Thick, black smoke blanketed the site. The two Marines couldn't see where to enter. But then "the smoke just opened up." The sun was setting and through the opening Karnes, for the first time, saw clearly the massive destruction. "I just said 'Oh, my God, it's totally gone.' With the sudden parting of the smoke, Karnes and Thomas entered the pile. "We just disappeared into the smoke and we ran."
They climbed over the tangled steel and began looking into voids. They saw no one else searching the pile the rescue workers having obeyed the order to leave the area. "United States Marines," Karnes began shouting. "If you can hear us, yell or tap!"
Over and over, Karnes shouted the words. Then he would pause and listen. Debris was shifting and parts of the building were collapsing further. Fires burned all around. "I just had a sense, an overwhelming sense come over me that we were walking on hallowed ground, that tens of thousands of people could be trapped and dead beneath us," he said.
After about an hour of searching and yelling, Karnes stopped.
"Be quiet," he told Thomas, "I think I can hear something."
He yelled again. "We can hear you. Yell louder." He heard a faint muffled sound in the distance.
"Keep yelling. We can hear you." Karnes and Thomas zeroed in on the sound.
"We're over here," they heard.
Two Port Authority police officers, Will Jimeno and Sgt. John McLoughlin, were buried in the center of the World Trade Center ruins, 20 feet below the surface. They could be heard but not seen. By jumping into a larger opening, Karnes could hear Jimeno better. But he still couldn't see him. Karnes sent Thomas to look for help. Then he used his cell phone to call his wife, Rosemary, in Stamford and his sister Joy in Pittsburgh. (He thought they could work the phones and get through to New York police headquarters.)
"Don't leave us," Officer Jimeno pleaded. He later said he feared Karnes' voice would trail away, as had that of another potential rescuer hours earlier. It was now about 7 p.m. and Jimeno and McLoughlin had been trapped for roughly nine hours. Karnes stayed with them, talking to them until help arrived, in the form of Chuck Sereika, a former paramedic with an expired license who put pulled his old uniform out of his closet and came to the site. Ten minutes later, Scott Strauss and Paddy McGee, officers with the elite Emergency Service Unit of the NYPD, also arrived.
Karnes left the site that night when Jimeno was rescued and went with him to the hospital. While doctors treated the injured cop, Karnes grabbed a few hours sleep on an empty bed in the hospital psychiatricward. While he slept, the hospital cleaned and pressed his uniform.
TEXT: Matt1:1-10
1 Jesus Christ came from the family of King David and also from the family of Abraham. And this is a list of his ancestors. 2-6a From Abraham to King David, his ancestors were:
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers (Judah’s sons were Perez and Zerah, and their mother was Tamar), Hezron;
Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, and King David.
6b-11 From David to the time of the exile in Babylonia, the ancestors of Jesus were:
David, Solomon (his mother had been Uriah’s wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram;
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.
12-16 From the exile to the birth of Jesus, his ancestors were:
Jehoiachin, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim;
Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
17 There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David. There were also fourteen from David to the exile in Babylonia and fourteen more to the birth of the Messiah.
Just as this story illustrates that sometimes unlikely people do extraordinary things, the text reveals to us some unlikely individuals who became a part of the most important event in all of human history.
Its an unlikely passage of Scripture: a boring genealogy, a long of list of famous and not so famous names from the Bible. Its thegenealogy of Jesus Christ, a very important bit of information. But its a genealogy nonetheless. Its a passage we skim over as we are conducting our Bible reading.
The cast of characters in the lineage of Jesus consists of some of the greatest people of the Bible: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Boaz, David, Solomon, and Zerubbabel. You would expect that. Its no surprise that great people were used by God to achieve the greatest moment in history, the birth of the Messiah, the Lamb of God who would save the world from its sins.
Yet when one takes a closer look at all of the characters that are listed in the ancestry of Jesus, there are some unlikey people included in the list as well, specifically four women with ignominious reputations, people that one would not suspect should be numbered with such notable company. The four women? Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.
1. The story of Tamar - Genesis 38
A. Oftentimes God uses those most likely to succeed.
B. Oftentimes He uses those who make wise choices.
C. Oftentimes God selects those with the most potential.
D. But sometimes God uses the least likely vessel.
E. Sometimes God uses the person least likely to succeed.
F. Sometimes God includes in His plan that individual no one would believe was a part of His grand plan.
G. In Tamar's case, He did. He used her to be a part of the ancestry of Jesus Christ.
2. . The story of Rahab - Joshua 2
A. Oftentimes God uses people who have stellar records.
B. Often He uses people who have impeccable reputations.
C. Frequently God uses those who have clean pasts.
D. But sometimes God uses those who have lived regrettable lives.
E. Sometimes He selects people who have shameful histories.
F. Sometimes God calls unlikely vessels to achieve His purposes.
G. In Rahab's case, He did. He included her as a vital link in bringing the Messiah to the world.
3. The story of Ruth - Ruth 1
A. Oftentimes its the person with the pedigree that God uses.
B. Many times the person whose father was a noteworthy individual becomes noteworthy too.
C. Frequently people with solid family backgrounds are the ones that God chooses for His work.
D. But sometimes its the person with no family credentials.
E. The individual whose father or mother was unknown.
F. The person least likely to be a part of God's plan.
G. In Ruth's case, He did. She would be used to be the great-grandmother of the future King David. She would be used by God to be a part of introducing the Savior to Mankind.
4. The story of Bathsheba - II Samuel 11
A. Oftentimes God chooses the successful, the winners, the champions, the victorious.
B. People who always do the right thing, that choose well, that make good decisions.
C. But sometimes its the person that has a devastating failure in their past, a series of terrible choices, an appalling event in their history.
D. In Bathsheba's case, God chose her. He selected her to be one of the important components in His Plan to bring a Deliverer into the Earth.
VII. Your personal story or the story of someone who was an unlikely vessel that God used or has used in a significant way.
VIII. In reality we are ALL UNLIKELY VESSELS!
A. Even the great heroes of the Bible have strikes against them:
1. Abraham lied.
2. Jacob stole.
3. Moses disobeyed.
4. Miriam criticized.
5. Samson lusted.
6. Peter cursed.
7. John wanted to call down fire on unbelievers.
B. No one is good enough.
C. No one is smart enough.
D. No one is impressive enough.
E. No one is without some shame, failure, brokenness, inability, or lack of credentials.
F. We all fall short of the glory of God.
G. We are unlikely vessels. Yet God chooses to use us anyway.
H. Its not what we've done or haven't done. It's not who we are or aren't. It's not what we have or don't have.
I. All that matters is that Jesus wants to USE YOU to bring the MESSIAH to the WORLD!
