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First Responders NIGHT OF HOPE (2024)
This episode is the message that was given by host Tim Fisher for the first annual, First Responders Night Of Hope.
Physical and mental health are very important for everyone but our spiritual health should be just as important if not more. This episode is the message from Night Of Hope; forgiveness, redemption, grace, love and HOPE.
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Hello everyone, this is Tim Fisher. This week's episode is going to be something different. This will be the message that I spoke about at our first annual First Responders Night of Hope. I hope you enjoy here. It is Tonight's about hope and that hope that we so look for in so many things many times. Besides, jesus is Jesus Christ. I have a story I wanted to tell you here real quick before we get started.
Speaker 1:I was coming back from Colorado last year in September. I'd like to help out different organizations and wounded firefighters. There's an adaptive sports center in Colorado. We were there for a week. I flew out there. We came back on Sunday. Three of my flights got canceled.
Speaker 1:A three-hour trip that was supposed to be direct turned into about 14 hours. I'm sorry, I know it was miserable, very miserable. I get stuck in Vegas as the plane is going back to the terminal. I'm trying to listen in to what they're saying over the intercom. I'm in the middle seat. I'm tired. It's been 14 hours, listen to me. Okay, I like the aisle seat. Okay, I love the aisle seat. Right, firefighter, I want like the exit. Okay, I want to get up and use the restroom as much as I can. I'm stuck in the middle between two in humans that I do not know. I don't know if they're clean or not. I'm miserable, it's hot. And the gentleman next to me, as I turn on transparency on my headphones, says to the woman who's dressed very interestingly and I'll just say works at a club because there's children here. And he says to her you should have probably eaten your makeup so you can look beautiful on the inside, because you look like a two or three on the outside. Now, gentlemen, gentlemen, can I tell you something here real quick? You want to see some fireworks go off? Say that. Say that to a woman. Okay, it went off and there was yelling and fighting and all this. Anyways, we de-board the plane.
Speaker 1:She's embarrassed, she feels dejected. I see that she looks sad and I go over and talk to her and I told her I said hey, miss, do you mind if I just buy you a cup of coffee? She looked at me. She looked confused, right, because I'm sure every man that's ever talked to her has wanted something from her. And I said no, look, I know this is kind of weird. I get coffee when I'm pretty bummed out or sad or going through difficult times, and I just go for a walk and pray. And she kind of looked at me really confused and hesitantly, said, okay, we talked for like 30 minutes 40 minutes probably.
Speaker 1:Come to find out she was raised in a Christian home, left home, ran away, did her thing. Now she flies to Vegas, works at certain clubs to make money on the weekends and it comes back home. And she was pretty sad and she felt embarrassed. I told her look, there's no shame around me because you have no idea where I've been. Okay, I'm a prodigal son. I left my faith. I knew exactly what I was doing and it went terrible.
Speaker 1:Okay, before she left, I opened my phone to the Bible app and this is the verse that I read to her. I said hey, I'm just going to just share with you a quick verse. I was like hey, I'm not like that person that says turn or burn. Okay, that's not me. You know, if you don't believe the Lord right now, I've read the Bible. You know it's not going to work out. I just wanted to give her something to leave with and I said you know the verse that somebody showed me when I was coming back to my faith a few years ago. And this is it. It's Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. I never saw her again.
Speaker 1:After that, fast forward about January this year, I'm stressed out, trying to get this whole event going. I want to do something for our community. I get a message on Instagram and it's from her. I was shocked. She found me because the podcast that I have with my good friend, jordan Jimiola. Somebody recommended it to her and said hey, there's this guy on there that's a firefighter and he's like a Christian now and she became a Christian. She said she sent me this message and said hey, when you read that verse to me, that was the first time in my life I felt hope. First time eight years. She said she stopped going to Vegas working in those clubs. She made amends with her family. She's back in college. She tried to make it here tonight but she works night shifts to try and make money so she can go to college. No-transcript.
Speaker 1:Hope is an amazing thing and it can take you through some of the darkest times of your life. Now, life can be interesting. At one moment you could be having this mountaintop experience, the joy of a newborn baby, your wedding day, getting the dream job. You've worked for the promotion, big in the fire service and police right, even the military. The promotion, the car you've always wanted, and then, just like that, things can change. Fired from your job, you can't make ends meet, you didn't get the promotion, leaves you questioning life. What's going on? Is there any hope? And I'm here to tell you tonight that yes, there is, and that hope is in Jesus Christ, and that's why we're here tonight.
Speaker 1:I'm a first responder. I've been a firefighter for 17 years. I know that's shocking because I probably look very young to all of you and, if you don't know yet, my mother and father are here. My mom is African-American and my dad is white, so I am beige. Okay, beige, don't fade baby. Okay, it is what it is. It takes a long time for me to crack. Okay, been a firefighter for 17 years, I have witnessed my fellow firefighters struggle in difficult times and make terrible decisions and I, being one of them, I know because I hit this very deep low in my life a few years back, and I'm not the only one.
Speaker 1:I've talked to many firefighters who have thought of taking their life, and thank God. I've talked to them a few times and I know what that feels like, because you can get to a place where you think you have the dream job, you think you're doing what's cool and what's right, and you feel empty and you have nothing. Decisions have consequences. We all know that and unfortunately the leading cause of death in first responders now is suicide. I don't know if any of you knew that. I found that out a few years ago and looked it up after I started going to counseling At my department.
Speaker 1:I work for a department I won't say their name, ocfa. They are an interesting department. I love working for them. There's great men and women that work there, but they have the St Cole Counseling Team International and it's free for us. I've been going and using it. It's free to your family. But I looked up these stats and I couldn't believe it, because I remember telling my therapist I'm like man, I feel like I'm kind of going insane here, man. I see all this crazy stuff at work and yet I can't even help myself. So it doesn't matter how great your life is going. I don't have Jesus Christ at the center. What do you have? What truly do you have?
Speaker 1:There's a reality that I try to tell a lot of people many times because I teach at fire academies. I teach a college class now and I have to be very, actually very careful what I say, because it's just a different time, as we all know. But I always start and tell the class you are responsible for your own life. You have a beginning date and you have an end date. That end date I have no idea when it's coming. You know when you were born. But what you do with that dash in the middle is up to you, and if you aren't successful in your life or if you don't do well, you have no one to blame but yourself. They all look their shop. I'm like, yeah, welcome to life. Okay, death and taxes, baby, it just comes for all of us, okay. But there's one thing I tell them all the time is I've never seen or hearse with a moving truck driving behind it. I've never seen or hearse with a big bank account being pulled behind it in a vault.
Speaker 1:It's a harsh reality that I tell people Everything, we have, everything we do everyone. You see, we don't live forever. I don't know if you've thought about that yet. That was a sobering thought for me one day. But God has a plan for you and he had a plan for me. In Jeremiah 29, 11, it says for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord Plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Speaker 1:Hope, oh, it's such a beautiful thing to hold on to. So what's your hope in? Is your hope in technology, relationship, your Facebook or Instagram followers? I'll tell you right now. If you have a lot of Facebook and Instagram followers, it's like being rich in monopoly. Okay, it means nothing. Okay, it means nothing, and people care about it so much.
Speaker 1:Is your hope in your talents? Is your hope in your government or your politicians? Don't answer that question. That's rhetorical, okay, especially that one. All right, if your hope's in the government. God bless you, good luck, okay.
Speaker 1:But if you really look around, we are living in some of the wildest times. Bad as good, good as bad, countries are threatening nuclear war. You can literally identify as a cat and I'm supposed to play along with it. That's crazy, right? It's an interesting time for all of us to be alive right now. But if your hope is in things, if your hope is in people or institutions, I'll tell you right now you're always going to be disappointed. Most of the time when people are searching for purpose, meaning and hope, what they are really looking for is something that transforms a person, that transformed excuse me, it transforms their heart and their soul. Something that, even when you're at your greatest low and feel like your entire world is caving in, will give you peace and will give you fulfillment and I'll tell you tonight has found him Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now I've told a made mention of my life and that I'm a prodigal son. I grew up in church and there's some people here tonight that I used to go to church with and grow up with. High school they brought their kids it's great, I see cowies, what's up? I used to do worship. I used to write songs. I went to school for music. I loved it and I just didn't care anymore. I didn't want to hear anything about Christianity. I didn't want to hear anything about church. I didn't even want to be around my own family for a time because of what they believed. I could tell you right now that was one of the biggest waste of times that I ever had in my entire life.
Speaker 1:The prodigal son story is something that touches me so deeply because it's me. I lived it. It's a tough, tough experience, the prodigal son it's in Luke 15, 17 through 30, 32. But the prodigal son so, as a father has two sons, his youngest says, hey, dad, I want my inheritance, I want what is due mine. His dad loved him enough that he gave it to him. He said all right, you can have what you want. His son took that inheritance, traveled to a far land and squandered it all of it. He had nothing left. It got so bad. They had nowhere to stay, he had nowhere to eat and all those friends that were around on the good times were gone. I call those friends boomerang friends. Okay, I've had a few of those in my life. I'm going to tell you right now if you have friends that are only around for the good times and don't want to help you to the bad, let that boomerang fly right on by, because they ain't your friend.
Speaker 1:Now the story of the prodigal son. There came a point that he had nowhere to go and nothing to do, so he was feeding pigs and pretty much eating with the pigs. That's how low his life got. And then one day it's just like that snap for him, like you know, what in the world am I? What did I do? Where am I at right now? Like, how did I get to this place where I'm eating with pigs?
Speaker 1:We pick up in chapter 17 of Luke 15, it says but when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And this is one of my favorite parts about this story. He wanted to go back home. He didn't care what his dad thought or where he put him, he just wanted to be safe. We pick up in verse 20. And he arose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. His dad did not care what he did. He saw his son. It didn't matter where he had been, what he had done or that he had lost his entire inheritance. And we go down to verse 20. This is what his father said and I love this For this. My son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate. His dad didn't care, he just wanted his son to come home.
Speaker 1:I walked away from my faith many years ago and I can tell you what. Right now, there's nothing out there. I did what everyone said was success right, Get the good job, invest, own properties. I own properties. I invested. Some of my investments hit big. I got fat paychecks. It was amazing. I've been able to own the cars that I wanted, travel wherever I wanted to go. I've surfed big waves. I enjoy skydiving Everything you can think of I did.
Speaker 1:And there was one day two years ago where I was on my knees, absolutely crying because I felt so empty and dead inside. I was in one of the darkest places you could ever be. I climbed to my bed and I was crying so hard. I was so alone. All I could do was cry out and I just said God, please help me. And I will tell you right now. He hears every word and every whisper. That night I slept the best I had ever slept in about eight years. I think it was like 12 hours. Because I woke up at like one o'clock the next day. I was like what a time warp that was and I felt great. When I woke up, I remember going downstairs, I made coffee and for the first time in my chest I felt it in my body, my heart, my soul. I kind of felt that peace. I was like this is different.
Speaker 1:I read downloaded the Bible app I'm sure a lot of you have that All right, the Bible app on your phone and it gave you the verse. The day I downloaded the app, it popped up and it said verse the day. And this was the verse. It was Romans 10, nine 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. That morning by myself, I gave my life right back to him and I said I don't want ever go back. I don't want any of this. I live for myself. I live for pleasure. I didn't care who got hurt or how I looked to people. I was going for it. I don't want it anymore. I remember telling him take it all away. You can take my job, you can take my homes, you can take everything. I just want peace.
Speaker 1:After I changed my life. I remember the podcast with Jordan. I started talking about my faith on there a lot. I just felt different and I wanted people to know like, hey man, like yo, this is no joke, this is real, right. Like he changed me. And somebody commented they send messages right on social media. I'm not listening to your podcast anymore. You talk about God too much. I was like bye, I don't care. Are you kidding me? Like, are you going to try and hide your greatest treasure? Are you going to tell everybody about it? Then he asked how do you know? God is real? And I messaged back God's real because he changed a man like me. He gave me peace and he gave me hope. And the time when I thought it's probably better that I don't even live here on this earth anymore. I'm such a terrible person. No one in this room is too far from God's love or his reach. You're part of the greatest love story that was ever written and you were right at the center of it. You can find hope and peace in Jesus Christ, because he loves you and he died on the cross for you and he paid your debt.
Speaker 1:John 316. I heard this verse grown up because my parents have me in private schools my whole life. Trust me, I'm. You want to talk about knowing the Bible, like all the stores? I know I'm all okay straight up. I heard John 316 a million times. Right, parents have me a church in the morning on Sundays, and then church and evening on Sundays, and then I went to youth group on Wednesdays and every event and every winter camp, right, went to all of it. I heard John 316 a million times and I'll tell you what. I can't get enough of it. Now I want to hear it every day, because that meaning of John 316 means more to me than anything, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not die but have everlasting life. He saved my life. When you surrender your life to Jesus, he forgives your past, gives you peace in the present and hope for the future.
Speaker 1:You might say, tim, how can a person like me be loved by God? Look where I've been, look what I've done. Okay, good for you. Guess what? Everybody in this room has a past. Not one person in here is perfect. And there was one thing my sister told me I was like. You know I'm struggling with wanting to do this night I don't feel good enough, like sis, look where I've been. Oh, I love my sister because we have the she's my best friend man. We have some of the greatest conversations Of conversations, and she said, tim, even your best day is his filthy rags. Go for it.
Speaker 1:The Bible is full of stories of the worst people making the greatest mistakes, and God still use them. You don't think, god? You are worthy of God's love and you can be used here on earth by him. I want you to think again. Okay, joseph was abused, rahab was a prostitute, moses had a stutter, peter denied Jesus three times, abraham was older, noah was a drunk, jacob was a cheater. King David was a murderer and committed adultery. Paul persecuted Christians, and that's putting it lightly. This dude was radical towards Christians. Okay, gideon was afraid, elijah was depressed, samson was a womanizer, jeremiah was young, naomi was a widow, the Samaritan woman was with was divorced and Jonah ran from God. And you are and search your name. What are you gonna use? All those people I mentioned are considered heroes of the faith. You see, god use these people to show us that he can make what was once bad into something good, and he trades beauty for ashes. No, you can clap, let's go. I was pentacosal. Growing up, I raised a pew hoppers baby. You know I'm saying so. I'll tell you this again you will trade beauty for ashes. And when you commit your life to God, he forgives you of your past, gives you peace and a present and hope For the future.
Speaker 1:It's about a relationship with Jesus. It's not about religion. If you are about religion, I don't want any part of it. I Could care less about your church and how cool it is. I can care less about how great your worship band is. I love you guys over there, by the way, you guys are great. I'm not. I'm just saying it's not about those things. It's about a personal relationship with your creator. He just wants your heart.
Speaker 1:And once I figured it out, realized, oh, I've been doing this all wrong. I Been letting other things dictate my relationship with Lord. I forget this. I'm gonna make this personal. It changed me I. That weight of my sin, the shame and the guilt and the things I have done were lifted, and there was nothing on earth that was gonna please me or take that away.
Speaker 1:John 16, 33 says I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace, and this is Jesus talking In this world. You have trials and tribulations, but take heart, for I have overcome the world. When you become a believer, it's not like your life just becomes easy. Okay, jesus was a radical right. He was a rebel priest. I love watching that show now that shows him. Okay, some people like nitpick it and like that's not Jesus's accent. It's like dude, you're missing the whole point. Okay, like that's not. The show is amazing. Okay, there's not one episode that goes by. I'm probably not crying watching it.
Speaker 1:When you commit your life to Christ, you're gonna have hard times. You're gonna have difficult things that absolutely challenge you. I face it all the time. You think I go to work just because I'm a fireman. Everyone thinks it's a dream job that I love everybody I work for. There's a few OCFA chiefs and cabins in here, so I don't want you to repeat this back at work. Right, okay, but when I go to work and there's people I don't like to work with, it's really hard to buy my time and have a good attitude right, but they're my superiors, they're my company officers, they're my chiefs. I know that in my faith, god tells me to respect authority, so I'm going to. Maybe there's things that happen in your life that are out of your control. I'm gonna end on.
Speaker 1:This story of the worship team can come back up. I'm gonna tell you a story about my family, and they're here tonight. In 2004, my brother, luke, was killed in a car accident. I was 17 years old and he was 18. You want to talk about a nuclear bomb going off in your life? That's it.
Speaker 1:I remember the sheriff's coming to the door telling my father he needed to call the San Bernardino County Coroner's office, and it felt like all hell broke loose in our home. I've never heard my parents cry and weep the way they did. I look back on it now and it humbles me because I saw how God was working in our lives. I didn't just see how God took care of us, but I saw my parents, who were hurting and suffering, still choose to say God, you are worthy. Our son is dead, but you're still good man. You want to talk about tough and excuse to be upset? They got it. My family is the tightest it's ever been. I love them all to death. We're like any family. We have our crazy times, we have our good, we have our bad, but one thing is we always show up for each other. God has moved through my family in ways I'll never explain. He changed me and he loves you.
Speaker 1:The day that my brother died I went to his desk just to look at his stuff. I found a 3x5 card. We were 10 months older. He was 10 months older than me. He was in college, I was a senior. And that 3x5 card he had right in the middle of his desk was a verse written in Galatians 220. I keep that card close to me every day. Galatians 220 says I have been crucified with Christ. There's no longer I who live, but Christ who is with me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. He loved me. He gave himself for me. I keep that card so close because it reminds me, even when it hurts, god's in control. Thank you to everyone who came out to the First Responders Night of Hope, first annual event for this year. It was a great time. We had a good turnout. We can't thank you enough. This is going to be an annual event, so we hope to see you next year. Have a good week.
