Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Rescue Glue - #3930

Friday, February 1, 2002

We had seen some very painful scenes at Ground Zero in the rubble of the World Trade Center -- firemen, policemen, emergency personnel, combing through the wreckage for their fallen brothers and sisters. Later, pausing for a moment of silent tribute as the remains of one of them was carried out. But at a time when there was talk of reducing the number of workers at the site, we saw a scene that was painful in a different way. Tempers flared in the raw emotions of that moment, and some of those firefighters and police who had been fighting together to save or find people in the rescue and recovery effort were suddenly fighting with one another at Ground Zero.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Rescue Glue."

The moment was short-lived, but it still hurt - people who on September 11, and the days that followed had been so united in trying to rescue the dying, were now fighting with each other. That kind of heartache is something God has been all too familiar with for a long time. His people, who should be united in an all-out effort to rescue the spiritually dying, are instead battling one another.

Unfortunately, it's not a new issue. Way back in Philippians 4:2-3 , our word for today from the Word of God, Paul was writing about some rescuers who had turned on each other. He said, "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. (These two women who had been co-workers of his.) Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life."

Now, notice, when these women were actively involved in "the cause of the gospel" - that's getting the life-or-death message of Jesus to people - they were together. But when they drifted away from the rescue mission of Christ, they stopped contending for the Gospel and started contending with each other. That's still happening today.

Rescue unites God's people. When believers, when a church, when a ministry is focused on rescuing the dying, whatever it takes, there's no time to battle with each other. They're too busy battling for the lives of lost people around them. There was no conflict between those New York police and firefighters when they were in that wreckage, desperately working together to bring some people out alive. Turf and ego and divisive issues just don't seem important when people are dying.

But so many of us, so many of our churches, are focused on ourselves rather than on those who are dying spiritually. And when we start focusing on our issues, our kingdoms, our likes and dislikes, our agendas, we start bickering, forming cliques and power blocs, criticizing our brothers and sisters, and elevating things that are relatively trivial to being way too important. Important enough even to fight over.

Remember this: rescue unites -- self-focus divides. It's a sad scene when the people who are supposed to be rescuers start turning on each other. You see, while God's spiritual rescuers are battling with each other, we're losing the battle for people who will die if we don't get to them. We have to fight for them, not against each other!