Rescue Me

Ezekiel 34:11-12, Luke 15:3-7

The REAL American heroes I believe are our Fire Fighters, EMTs, good, devoted police officers, the doctors and nurses in our hospitals and ERs or that lifeguard on our many of our beaches or that of the Red Cross workers, or our National Guardsmen or Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen; these are our real American heroes.

Ever since 9-11, these men and women have done the impossible in order to rescue those from a flood from hurricanes or a burnt-out home that interrupts and destroys a family dream but a wiliness to go on.

These are the real American heroes we need to acknowledge for a job well done that they do.

The History Channel gave us 5 of the best rescues in our lifetimes and I’ll mention a few.

It was an ordeal with an unprecedented international audience: the struggle of 33 Chilean miners to survive more than two months underground after a shaft of the copper mine in which they labored in Copiapó, Chile crumbled in August 2010. As rescue workers attempted to retrieve the men, other mine shafts they used for the work caved in. Meanwhile, the men were stuck behind 770,000 tons of rock as their families waited breathlessly, many in tent camps on the surface, for word that they had survived.

In October 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure became a household name when she stepped into an abandoned water well at her aunt’s house in Midland, Texas. Stuck 22 feet beneath the surface in a slender well shaft, she was trapped in the well for two and a half days as rescue workers struggled to determine how best to extract her. As the media circled, rescue workers considered and abandoned a number of plans before deciding to drill another well shaft next to the well, then create a tunnel between the two shafts. The rescue played out on live television, creating accusations of a media circus.

When the SS Andrea Doria collided with a Swedish ocean liner in 1956, it could have been another Titanic. The Italian liner hit the MS Stockholm due to operator error during a foggy afternoon in the waters off of Nantucket Island, and the nearly head-on collision couldn’t be averted by panicked crew members. Onboard Andrea Doria, passengers felt a huge jolt along with the sound of clanging metal. In one of the lounges, the ship’s orchestra was playing “Arrivederci, Roma” when they were hurled from the stage by the sheer force of the crash. As crew members workers struggled to figure out how to load the remaining lifeboats, other ships in the vicinity hurried to help rescue the passengers and crew. The Titanic disaster had been characterized by a sluggish response and a lack of help from other ships, but this sinking ended up being a triumph of teamwork and organizational skill.

Now in our Scripture, both Prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ in the New Testament talks about sheep. I often wondered why sheep are a such an important animal out of all those in the Aminal Kingdom.

The reason in a Biblical sense why God chooses sheep it represents purity, meekness and humble.

I.GOD’S PLAN FOR SHEEP FROM A BIBILICAL PERSPECTIVE.

A) In Genesis 21:28 – Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

B) Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and told them to draw out and take lambs according to the families to kill for Passover according to Exodus 12:21

C) Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and a young goat, for Passover offerings that they are too present according to 2 Chronicles 35:7.

D) John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God” right before John baptized Jesus in the Jordan according to John 1:29.

II.GOD’S PLAN FOR SHEEP IS FOR THE SALVATION OF MANKIND. Sheep were important to the nomads and agricultural life of the Hebrews and similar peoples. Secondly, sheep are used throughout the Bible to symbolically refer to God’s people. The very first shepherd was Abel. He was also humanity’s first murder victim, slain by his brother Cain.

In times of trouble when other animals are likely to steal or eat them, they are in need to be rescued that’s why they have sheep dogs to protect them.

Even in your own life, when you were lost in a world of sin, you tried alcohol, you tried drugs, you tried wine, women and song but one day Jesus rescued you just like the illustration Jesus told of the lost sheep. And that’s when Jesus picked you, cleaned you up, turned you around placing your feet on solid ground and then He told you that you are His own; His child, that lost child because John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His own begotten son that whosoever believe in Him will not die but have everlasting life.”