Lenny Skutnik was just one of thousands of federal workers heading home from work that January night – the night Air Florida’s Flight 90 crashed into the Potomac River near the Pentagon. The plane had failed to clear the 14th Street Bridge, and it fell into the frigid waters of the Potomac. A few passengers who had managed to get out before the plane sank were in the icy river, crying for help.
Lenny Skutnik saw the plane go down ... he heard the cries of the passengers in the water ... and he jumped into the river to try to help. He actually managed to save the life of a woman who otherwise would have almost surely died in the Potomac that night. A couple of weeks later, during President Reagan’s State of the Union address, Lenny Skutnik, everyday guy, was introduced as a real American hero on national television by the President of the United States.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about “The Making Of A Hero”.
In a few moments of courage and self-sacrifice, a man did something that suddenly gave his life dramatically greater significance. He became a rescuer – and a hero. That’s how an everyday Christian becomes a hero – by becoming a rescuer of someone who is spiritually dying.
A rescuer is what God summoned Moses to be. It’s what He’s summoning you to be. In our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 3:7, we read about the day God announced that Moses would be a hero – a rescuer. “The Lord said, ‘I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out ... I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them.’” God, the ultimate Rescuer, hears the cries of enslaved and hurting people. That’s why He sent Moses to the Jews. It’s why He sent His “one and only Son” to a world He so loves, to sin-slaves like us who, in the Bible’s words, were “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).
I’m sure Moses was excited about God coming down to rescue His people – until he heard those shocking words that would change his life forever – “So now go. I am sending you.” God was planning an incredible rescue mission, and He was summoning Moses to join Him in it. The Lord was asking Moses – and He’s asking you – to do what an everyday guy named Lenny did by the Potomac River the day of that awful crash – to hear the cries of dying people, abandon your personal safety, and rescue people who would die if you stay where you are.
It’s a sobering picture of the crossroads at which you may be standing. The Lord has heard the cries of people around you who are trying to make life work without a Savior. He has seen their lostness. He knows the awful eternity awaiting them without Christ. And He has come down to rescue them. But God will rescue the people in your personal world through a personal representative – through His “Moses”. Through you.
His promises to you are the same as they were to Moses - “I will be with you” (Exodus 3:12) ... “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:12). When you rescue a dying person, your life takes on a greater significance than you could have ever imagined. And God is summoning you by name, like Moses of old. He has heard the cries of the dying people near you. Will you listen to His call?…“So now, go... I am sending you.
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