Introduction: As you and I approach the third week since the attacks on our nation’s civilians and her soil there has been a profound sense of "soul-searching" among people. Associated Press writer David Foster found three people whose search led them to make significant changes in their life. Aaron Williams quit his job, Dan Savrino called a military recruiter about enlisting and Kristin Wahrheit has decided to move to Ireland. Others are deciding to repair relationships, move to a safer part of the US, reexamine their career goals, renew their patriotism, explore their sense of worth and spirituality. (Associated Press, 9/19/2001)

It is not uncommon for survivors of near death experiences to make changes or see life differently. The sheer magnitude of this crime has personally affected our world and has traumatized our nation. Foster said, "Suddenly it seemed as if everyone was turning 40, a collective mid-life crisis that stirred smoldering dissatisfactions and awakened dormant dreams." Those making changes are "prodded by two lessons from this tragedy: Life is precious, and time is short." Kristin Wahrheit said, "I’m understanding how precious life is, and how I need to make goals happen. You never know when you won’t get the opportunity anymore." (Attacks Bring Soul Searching, David Foster, AP, 9/19/2001)

Lisa Belkin, writer for the New York Times wrote how the events of September 11 had changed her perspective of life: "I often wonder what I would regret should I suddenly get a dreaded diagnosis. On September 11, for the first time, I wondered what I would regret if the world should end. As the days that followed brought scenes of Armageddon, the thought began to dawn that I would not change anything about my life. I would just appreciate its every detail more. I wouldn’t wish that I had sailed the world or written the great American novel. But I would regret the times I had not marveled at the sheer luxury of normality. When the towers fell there were papers everywhere. Millions of sheets, representing thousands of work hours, all blowing aimlessly in the breeze. Those documents were all vitally important at 8:45 on September 11. Within hours they were nothing but ghostly debris." ("A List and a Photo to Never Forget," Lisa Belkin, New York Times, September 19, 2001)

What changed for you September 11, 2001? What resolutions have you made that previously you thought you’d get around to but now it’s urgent? What feeling did you have that our oceans protected us from the evils of war but now those are shattered? Will you see a person of Middle Eastern descent as an enemy though your conscience knows better? What fears have taken up address in your soul and evicted the sense of stability and security, see people, crop dusters, tanker trucks, airplanes differently? What mattered before that now seems senseless?

Our nation as a nation is now looking for answers. Sure, we look for answers to our immediate concerns in this crisis. This attack has causes us to look for some deeper answers to the question, "Is there any real lasting hope for life now and life forever?" I agree with David Foster’s assessment of what has settled in upon our soul: life is precious and time is short. Life is too precious a gift to waste it by not giving your life to Jesus Christ. Time for us to make that choice has never seemed shorter. That’s what I want to talk about today—real hope! Hope that makes life worth living now and will give me life forever.

You don’t have to wonder where such an expectation comes from. The Bible makes it clear. "God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end" (Eccl. 3:11). The Bible says that in each person, every person, all people, there is some sense that there is more to my life than the physical. That there is another dimension to my existence. It is this sense of eternity that makes people different from all else in the created order: God has given to people a sense of "eternity" and a desire to make sense out of the whole of life. That sense of spiritual thirst in each individual is the result of our being made in God’s image. That thirst has resulted in the studies of the humanities and science.

I’m sure that those who see life from a natural perspective have been confused by the response to these events. The evolutionist who sees only random chance as the reason for human existence marvels that after all these million years of development we can’t seem to get God out of our souls. How else can you explain that even though a tragedy as unprecedented as this is 25,000 or more people would gather for a prayer service in New York City? Why would people look to God in something so tragic? Shouldn’t we have gotten over this by now?

In all of this we as humanity try to make sense of it. One of those questions is how could someone hate so deeply and be so consumed with evil? We look for answers but are frustrated! "People cannot see…" Why? Because we are people who rebelled against the knowledge God offered us and wanted our own. Adam and Eve could not be content with what they had; they wanted to be like God. Yet they and we have cut ourselves off from God’s truth for our own answers. We now live separated from Him, stumbling blindly in the darkness of our own creation. We try to get to God but our ways always fall short. So we live with this spiritual thirst, failing to understand our eternal value and not understanding that we will never be content until we are secure in a relationship with Him.

The rescue workers in New York City and Washington never stopped looking for those needing to be saved until all hope was gone. The good news is that what you feel inside you is God conducting an all out search for you. That desire for life to have hope now and forever is God looking for you!

The words of Jesus that John records have Jesus using an example that the disciples would understand but hard for us. Jesus describes himself as a shepherd and those who have a personal relationship with Him as sheep. His desire is to protect those who are His from any attack. So in order to secure them He puts himself between anyone or any thing that could hurt or harm them. Those who want to harm those He is trying or seeking to save will be ruthless in their attack. They will use deception (steal), death (kill) and destruction (destroy). Their desire is to keep persons from ever knowing the fullness of life now that Jesus would give them. For that reason Jesus said that His purpose was to offer life to people and not just any life but an overflowing life now! What Jesus says to those searching for real hope is that the search ends in Him.

I want you to look closely at John 10:9, "I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved…" In John 14:6 he said, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." Jesus says that He is the way, the bridge from where we are to where God is. He is the answer to our thirst, our longing for meaning, our sense of aimlessness and incompleteness. How? Not by His example, not by His words, and not by goodness. The way he became the bridge for us to know life now is by His death for us on the cross. (John 3:16, Romans 5:8) He is saying, "If you want life now, real hope in and for life now then you will only know it in me and my death on the cross."

On that morning of September 11 United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania killing four hijackers, 37 passengers and seven crewmembers. The story pieced together by cell phone calls and the ongoing investigation has revealed that the intent of the hijackers was to crash the plane into the White House or the Capitol. A field in southwestern Pennsylvania, though, bears the scars of that failed attempt. What actually happened may never fully be known. Yet what seems to have happened is that four passengers, Jeremy Glick, Tom Burnett, Todd Beamer and Mark Bingham, made a decision to change the purpose of that flight by killing or restraining the hijackers and crashing that plane. They sacrificed the lives of everyone, including themselves, to protect the sacred symbol of our nation and sparing hundreds more lives.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz credits the men on the jet. "I think it was the heroism of the passengers on board that brought it down," he said. "The families of Flight 93’s victims, as well as the nation as a whole, have no doubt they are heroes. Strangers thrown into a no-win situation, they rose to the task, made the supreme sacrifice and saved who knows how many other lives in the process. Jeremy Glick’s mother Lyz said ‘I think it shows that one person can make a difference, that one person in this country has the opportunity to change this world.’" (USA Today, 9/25/01, Alan Levin)

They died for us that we might not face even more horrible suffering. "One person can make a difference…one person…has the opportunity to change this world." One person did, with arms stretched on a cross, bearing the sin of all humanity. Jesus died not only for us but also in our place! He saved us from the penalty of sin. (Rom. 6:23) We have life, real life, real hope now because of His death for us. "I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly."

The context of these words is helpful for us not merely for our knowledge, but our identity. Lazarus has died. He is the close friend of Jesus and brother of Mary and Martha. They are also close friends. Jesus was notified of Lazarus’ illness but he waited several days before he arrived. Martha greets him with, "If you had been here this wouldn’t have happened." Jesus’ words of assurance seem too cliché so she ignores Him. Jesus spells it out for her by saying that in Himself is life that is eternal—now! That in spite of the certainty of death in this life, those who believe or trust in Him live forever.

Jesus doesn’t ask of you and me anything more. What he asks of us is to believe that He and He alone is sufficient to free me from my past and give me life forever. He invites me to trust Him – "to believe in Me." Norma Hessic was on the 82^nd floor of the World Trade Center office when the first plane hit. She had worked her way down, bleeding and in shock. She was cowering in the corner of a nearby hotel when a man said, "Lady, take my hand." And led her to a local hospital. (Newsweek, 924/01, p. 7) She took his hand and found help. Jesus offers you His hand and says, "Take it! Here’s hope forever. If you take it, I promise you, I promise you, you will never know anything but life, life forever." Just take His hand.

Genelle Guzman, 31, was an office manager who worked on the 64^th floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. Time Magazine reports that after the terrorist attacks began on September 11, 2001: She called her boyfriend, Roger McMillian, just after the blast and told him she was waiting at her desk, as instructed over the loud speaker. McMillian, 38, a pressman for a direct-mail company, could see the explosions from his workplace, and he told her to get out and meet him in front of Century 21, a discount fashion emporium across from the Trade Center.

He ran and walked 20 blocks, past bloody survivors and jet parts, until he saw the street in front of the store. It was a mountain of detritus. He searched in vain, and then called his voice mail. Guzman had left a message saying once again she was staying put, as instructed. "I lost all hope when I heard that," he says.

What he didn’t know was that Guzman had started down the stairs when word came to evacuate. At floor 13, the building collapsed, and Guzman’s head was caught between two pillars. She lay in fear and agony for hours. She felt a man trapped near her and pushed next to him for comfort. She heard him cry out twice; eventually, he fell silent.

She repeatedly asked, God, "Please give me a second chance in life." There was only darkness and dust. So she said another prayer: "Please just give me this one miracle." And a man appeared above her, a saint named Paul, a rescue worker, who lifted her from the rubble. Twenty-six hours had passed. Now at Bellevue Hospital, Guzman is one of just five victims rescued from the Trade Center after Tuesday. Her head is swollen, and her legs required surgery, but doctors expect full recovery.

Guzman and McMillian, Trinidadian immigrants who loved in Brooklyn, plan many changes. "Before, we went to church on a couple of occasions," says McMillian. "It’s something you put off. But Genelle already stated in the hospital bed that this is her calling to God." (Citation: John Cloud, with reporting by Unmesh Kher and Desa Philadelphia, "In a Dark Time, Light," Time (9-24-01))

Conclusion: So what are you going to do? One of our college students, Rick White, sent several in our church an email that quoted Morrie Schwartz. It said, "The truth is, once you learn how to die, you know how to live." Nearly 7000 people died in the attack on September 11. The details of their lives are heart wrenching. This past Wednesday the families began applying for death certificates. When death came on that Tuesday morning it didn’t matter who they were or what they did—they all died. The magnitude of the loss is incomprehensible. Where each of them is in eternity is only something God knows. What matters for you is not where they are but where are you?

Why would you want to wait? There’s a song by singer Julie Miller that says, "Is there anyway you could say no to this man? How could you look in His tear stained eyes and know it’s you He’s thinking of. You tell him you’re not ready to give Him your life ‘cause you think you don’t need His love…Jesus is here with His arms open wide…He’s left it up to you. He’s done all he can. Is there anyway you could say no to this man." (Julie Miller, "How Could You Say No?")

Today He offers you real hope forever. Take it now.

Sunday, September 30, 2001

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org