When I first took my first responder training one of the things I learned about was “The Golden Hour” for heart attack treatment. I learned that those patients who receive treatment within the first hour of experiencing heart attack symptoms reduce there chance of death from 10% to 1% and reduce the damage done to their heart by ½ in fact in one study 40% of patients who where treated within that first hour showed no damage to their heart at all, in situations such as this time is of the essence.
Many of us here today serve on fire departments, ambulance crews or as first responders. We wear pagers similar to this one and those of you who have heard it know that it is loud. When it goes off the tone is followed by the dispatcher who says, “Attention Plainfield First Responders! You’re needed at 815 Main street for a 13 year old female who fell down a flight of stairs.” Or something like that. When the pager goes off the clock is ticking for whoever needs help, time is of the essence and so that is why you will see whoever is needing to respond to the page rushing out to their vehicles and then rushing to the scene.
When people need rescuing or saving it becomes a race against the clock, a golden hour so to speak. Sometimes we have been called out on what is called a search and rescue mission. Those are when someone is lost or missing. Depending on the time of the year, and the situation surrounding the disappearance the lost may have more or less time but it is almost always a race against time. As a general rule a lost person in the dead of winter, when it’s 15 below, doesn’t have as much time as someone lost in the spring when the weather is milder. However if the person lost in the spring is suffering from a severe injury then their time may be shorter. But whatever the circumstances it is important for rescue crews to find and save them quickly because the patient or victim is helpless. They need someone else to save them, and anyone on the fire department or ambulance crews or first responders is more then willing to come help when they are called. And there is the key component, we must be called. When someone discovers they are lost, or realizes that they are having heart attack symptoms then they call for help and help is dispatched.
In our scripture today Pastor Paul writes about time and our condition in verse 6. The NLT translates it, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” When we needed it, when we were utterly helpless, Christ came and died for us sinners. He came to save and rescue us. But Christ acts like emergency response personnel in this regard He doesn’t come unless He is called. Christ, being omnipotent or all-knowing, knows that we need rescuing; we need the salvation that he offers. However, He doesn’t force it upon us but waits for us to call on Him.
I’m often amazed when I see stories of hikers rescued in the dead of winter in the mountains. I’m no expert hiker or mountain climber, but I know that the weather can change quickly in the mountains especially in the winter. I also see that some roads are closed in the winter. To me that is a good indication that perhaps in the winter getting too far off the beaten track, hiking in remote places isn’t such a good idea. You run a higher risk of getting lost, or running into bad weather that will trap you. And yet year after year lots of hikers must be rescued, most of the time the rescue teams go out after the hikers didn’t come back or missed some contact deadline, it’s late in the game before the rescue attempts begin and because of that sometimes the rescue ends with the finding of the hikers remains.
The main reason that it happens that way is because those hikers didn’t realize or wouldn’t admit that they needed rescuing or saving until it was too late. The same holds true for heart attack patients, sometimes they ignore the signs until it is too late. And the same is true for the salvation that God offers us through His Son Jesus Christ.
Every single one of us comes into this world lost, in need of rescuing, in need of saving by Jesus. God knew that and that is why He sent His Son Jesus who willing came to live as one of us die on the cross for our sins and be raised again on the third so that anyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life. But here is the catch. You have to call on Him. You have to take the initiative.
Another thing I learned as a first responder is that you have to have someone’s permission to treat them. If they don’t want help you cannot touch them. Their arm could be chopped off with an artery spurting blood but if they say, “No” when you ask if you can help them then you can’t touch them. It’s obvious that they need saving but without their permission you cannot save them.
It’s the same with Jesus. If you won’t admit that you need saving, that you are a sinner, then Jesus will not save you. Not because He doesn’t want to but because you need to ask Him too. Salvation is there, it’s right before you. God freely gives it but you have to ask for it, you have to realize that you need saving. Once you do that then Jesus does the rest, in fact He has already done the rest. He gave His life to save us.
I know that there are many of us here who have already realized that we need Jesus to save us and have admitted it and accepted the salvation He has to offer. But if you have never realized that you need the salvation Jesus offers then I hope and pray that today the Holy Spirit will convict you of that and you will accept Jesus’ saving grace this morning. Come as we sing.
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