There’s Another Option: Hope

October 11th, 2009

Ephesians 2:1-10

Story: Ethan in the “snow.” Stop the story at him crying in the rain, trying to wipe
himself clean, finding it unsuccessful.

Maybe last week, Bill convinced you that you’re a lot like my nephew. We stand
in the rain, trying to clean ourselves off.

We, perhaps feel exactly the way Paul describes the human condition in
Ephesians 2:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live
when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the
spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them
at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and
thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath1

Notice:
“ALL OF US…”
“Sinful nature…”

Because of this sin, we are objects of God’s wrath.

Can we stop for a second, because we’re so busy, and recognize the fact that in
our sin nature, we are objects of God’s wrath…by nature?

I think we can feel the weight of that sometimes. We feel down. We feel like
we’ve been tipped off the boat of life, drowning.

And many of us have had those nights, which St. John of the Cross called “The
Dark Night of the Soul,” and you lie in bed and think, “There is no other option.”

That’s loneliness.

Last week was heavy, but I’m so thankful and so pleased to tell you that I was
assigned to tell you the good news, the greatest news in fact.

The Good News, or the Gospel, is found in the sentence that follows what we just
read in Ephesians: But, because of his great love for us, God made us alive…”

1The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1996, c1984). Eph 2:1.
Dr. D Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “These two words, in and of themselves, in a
sense contain the whole of the gospel. The gospel tells of what God has done,
God’s intervention…”

I’m so excited I get to tell you this…Lloyd-Jones is right. The gospel is all about
God’s intervention into the world, including your life.

It’s the other option.

And before going on in Ephesians, listen to Paul’s prayer to those he’s writing to:

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the
hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and
his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his
mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms… 2

This is really my part, before Colton comes up and closes: Hope.

What is Hope?
English word does no justice; Biblical hope is life-shaping certainty about the
future.

“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” –
Hebrews 11:1

But you say, well Chris we can’t really be sure of anything.

That’s somewhat true. But I would qualify that by saying you can’t be certain of
anything that hasn’t yet been done.

You can be certain about one thing: what has already been done.

This is why we call is good news. See, Bill and I are just telling you what has
already happened. This is news. Listen to Paul go on:

4
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with
Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ
Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his
grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been

2The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1996, c1984). Eph 1:18.
saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works,
so that no one can boast.3

You see, the hope is not in us or through us or dependant on us!

That’s what you can be certain about.

The other option is not you getting yourself better, or cleaning yourself off…but it
is you realizing and believing that this is the way to being saved from yourself.

Think about it: if you are tired of yourself, and can’t seem to get over yourself,
how are you going to save yourself?

If you had the power to save your own life, don’t you think you would have
already? You wouldn’t be like what we heard last week: always battling against
yourself.

The gospel is God placing the work of salvation, healing, and restoration of life in
his own hands, on his own shoulders.

“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who
hopes for what he already has?” – Romans 8:24

See the Bible argues that whatever you have for yourself is no hope anyways. So
if today all you’ve been after is yourself and trying to do things yourself, I’m afraid
you’re actually hopeless.

Personal Story: 8th grade missions trip.

-Don’t know why I went
-Didn’t think there was any other option in life other than to fight for
popularity
-Saw this community who rejected that, and heard the Word of God speak
about this other option, Jesus.
-The Spirit of God inhabited me that week. After that, I lost a lot.

I think so often we’re hoping in something that is seen. We’re hoping in ourselves
or in a job or even in good things like family and success. These are good things,
but they are things we can see…is that really hope?

“But I still can’t be certain…”

3The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1996, c1984). Eph 2:4.
Maybe this will help your searching process: Stop looking for God himself on
earth, and start looking for the clues he’s been dropping you.

“When a Russian cosmonaut returned from space and reported that he had not
found God, C.S. Lewis responded that this was like Hamlet going into the attic of
his castle looking for Shakespeare. If there is a God, he wouldn’t be another
object in the universe that could be put in a lab and analyzed with empirical
methods. He would relate to us the way a playwright relates to the characters in
his play. We (characters) might be able to know quite a lot about the playwright,
but only to the degree the author chooses to put information about himself in the
play. Therefore, in no case could we “prove” God’s existence as if he were an
object wholly within our universe like oxygen and hydrogen or an island in the
Pacific.”

What has God written in your story to show you that he is real, he cares for you,
and that you need him?

But you know where the hope REALLY begins? Is that the greatest evidence
God ever gave us for his reality is in his Son Jesus Christ. You see,

We just tread water and hold on to what we can. But there’s a whole boat of
people who are dry and we’re content just treading and grabbing whatever
makes us float.

Don’t you want to be dry? Don’t you want to stop swimming?

ORDER OF EVENTS:

Turn/Greet
My teaching
SONG (You Alone Can Rescue)
Bill C. Teaching
Bill pray
Bill intro communion
ME: past, present, future implications of communion, just talk past
Bill: present and future
Me: logistics
Song: Hungry
Song: The Stand
Closing: Me benediction, Bill dismiss