A Firetruck, A Rescue Boat, and A Helicopter
The story goes something like this…
A hurricane was coming which prompted an evacuation notice but this man said I don’t have to leave, God will take care of me. So he rejected the warning and stayed. When the waters started rising a rescue boat came, but this man insisted God will protect me. So he rejected the warning and stayed. Then while sitting on his roof due to the high waters a helicopter came, but he again rejected the warning and stayed anyway confident God would save him. Unfortunately, God did not save him and he died. When he got to the judgement throne of heaven the first question he asked God was why didn’t you save me? God’s response, I tried to save you that’s why I sent you a firetruck, a rescue boat, and a helicopter. So, unfortunately, because you rejected those you also rejected me so you can't enter heaven.
For those still sitting on their rooftops, who have pushed away the many invitations God has sent to save them, who have rejected the ones close to them who have tried to tell them about Jesus…
Here are a few more firetrucks, rescue boats, and helicopters…
No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him. - John 6:44
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. - Luke 19:10
For our sake he made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21
How often would I [Jesus] have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! - Matthew 23: 37
He [Jesus] came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. - John 1:11-13
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16
There are many more verses in the Bible telling us of how God is pursuing us, of his offer of forgiveness through his son Christ Jesus, and of how the Holy Spirit will place people in our lives to draw us to Jesus. This message can be one of those as well. Don’t wait any longer to be saved…
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. - Romans 10:8-10
This message is not only an invitation to let Jesus save those who need forgiveness, it’s for those who have already been saved (accepted the free gift of forgiveness), but are still holding onto that old house, their old life. If not already doing so, it's time to live life worthy of the gift you have been given.
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:17
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. - Ephesians 4:1-3
