Hope Above All

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STORY - Weighing myself at katherine’s mom’s house. Slowly seeing my physical capabilities get worse - not being able to chase Sam down at a retreat

Ephesians 1:18–20 NIV

I pray 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 his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

The inside is what changes first

not the outside.

STORY - I have a weakness for chips. Baked goods. Cookies. Snacks, you name it. Conversation on my pastor’s forum - how diet needs to also be a part of this.

Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened - that WE may change how WE see and understand

So, this is our starting place. this is where we should come at this issue of hope.

But here’s a question: how many of us secretly believe that this process is or should be the other way around?

Think about it. How many times have we said

Things will be a lot better if this thing just....

just what? Fill in the blank. What’s that ‘thing’?

Now, I’m not here to lecture anyone on having a thing. God certainly knows I have a few myself. But I think we could all use a shift in how we approach this question of hope. And I think that shift is what REALLY enables us to be able to have great hope.

What is the HOPE God calls us to?

STORY - Christmas is one of my favourite times of year. And i’m going to be honest - not JUST because of Jesus. But also because of presents.

And here’s a bit of a perspective shift we need to take.

Hope is defined as

a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen

We need to ask ourselves first,

What is the problem right now?

Just think for a moment. What’s the ‘problem’? What do we want to change? what do we NEED to change?

Because here’s something big we need to see and understand with our heart.

1 John 2:17

1 John 2:17 NIV

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

There’s a radical shift here. I have a suggestion for what the ‘thing’ is.

It’s our separation from God

This problem of separation from God - it’s not the top of our list of problems. It’s not like, problem 1 is separation from God, 2 is new roof for my house, 3 is the maple leafs FINALLY getting a shot at the cup.

it’s EVERYTHING. Because in God, we have everything we need. Whatever we lack in our health, we find in God. Whatever we lack in our finances, we find in God. everything. Every single little bit, every second of every day - we find meaning and hope and purpose and JOY in God.

So part of the shift is in understanding -

There’s two lists

STORY - Problems in marriage - scoreboard. What side are we on?

There’s ‘eternity’, and there’s ‘That which will pass away’.

And every problem we face in life, every problem we face on earth. Our health, our homes, our finances, our jobs. They go under ‘That which will pass away’.

Not trying to say they aren’t important - trying to say that, they’re temporary.

And under eternity, there’s one problem. ‘In my sin, I am dead. I have lost eternity.’

Yknow how they say, be grateful, because there’s always somebody who has it worse than you? I always hated that phrase. But there’s some truth in it.

Here’s a way to picture it. In every situation, there’s a ‘next worse step’.

STORY - Gaining weight, weighing myself at Katherine’s mom’s house

But see - a lost eternity? That’s the last worst step. There’s nothing past that. Everything, every problem in life, if we take it far enough, it leads back to this lost eternity.

Even death itself - that’s not the last step.

Every problem in the ‘pass away’ list - it points back to the eternity list.

And this sounds like a reason to fear - but this is the biggest reason we have to have hope in God. Because...

God’s power brings eternity to us

STORY - My prayer that God would make eternity and spirituality more real to me

Because He beat death. He raised Christ from the dead - and because He did that, he WILL do it again if you believe in him and follow him.

And I want to be clear here. It’s not that God is ignoring our temporary problems. It’s not like he’s saying, ‘that stuff doesn’t matter, don’t bother with it. Eyes over here.’

God’s trying to address something that we are always doing. We’re always trying to put ourselves, find our hope, find our joy, under the category of ‘that which will pass away’. We constantly try to find what makes us and completes us among a list of things that are passing away.

STORY - Caleb and not wanting the soft, fresh-baked cookies

And God absolutely doesn’t want US to be in this category of ‘that which will pass away’.

And this is an AMAZING reason for us to hope. Because

God already won this battle

It’s not, we should have hope, because the same power that God plans on using in Christ to defeat death. It’s not, ‘the same power that the Holy Spirit COULD turn back death but he hasn’t done it yet cause it’s been a really busy week’.

Ephesians 1:19-20

Ephesians 1:19–20 NIV

and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

So, when we ask ourselves - ‘where is God?’. Where is the answer to my prayers? We can remember - God defeated death itself.

But it’s only in light of eternity, in light of our glorious inheritance, can we really and truly understand how much Christ won for us.

I believe that God works every day, in every way, to reorient us as much as possible back towards life. I believe He can and does use everything to steer us back to eternity.

The bible says that when we ask God and don’t receive what we ask, we need to examine our motives. And we often think that means, ‘we’re being greedy’ or ‘we’re being sinful’.

But sometimes, it’s as simple as - what are we really hoping in? What’s our motive? That God will give us more that we can hope in - like money, stuff, temporary things? Are we asking God to reinfore our idea that we can only hope if we have… blank?

So I want us to try something right now. I’m going to close in prayer. But after that, I’m going to put up a prompt.

Paul started this verse with a prayer himself:

Ephesians 1:18

Ephesians 1:18 NIV

I pray 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 his holy people,

So, after I pray, I want us to take a few minutes together as a church, and pray that prayer. Pray that God would open the eyes of our hearts so that we could know this hope.

PRAY

Prompt