First Responders

This powerful message challenges us to embrace our calling as spiritual first responders in a world experiencing gross darkness and moral crisis. Drawing from the Great Commission in Matthew 28, we're reminded that Jesus has given us both authority and purpose: to go and make disciples, with the assurance that He is always with us. The sermon unpacks 2 Corinthians 5, where Paul declares we are ambassadors for Christ, literally representing God's appeal to a broken world. The most striking element is the parable of the Good Samaritan reframed as a first responder narrative. Just as the Samaritan bandaged wounds, poured healing oil, transported the injured man in his own vehicle, and stayed with him until he could be handed off to professionals, we are called to patch up broken people, stop their spiritual bleeding, and bring them to the church where deeper healing occurs. The empty chairs around us aren't just vacant seats—they represent hospital beds and therapy chairs waiting for wounded souls we haven't yet reached. This isn't about guilt; it's about recognizing that someone was a first responder to us when we were lost, and now we have the answers others desperately need. The question isn't whether we're capable, but whether we're willing to be dispatched by God into the lives of those waiting in darkness.