Helpless but Secure in Hope

This might be a tough sermon today. Basically it speaks of our true position, as humans, before God. For sure…made in the image of God, but still in…since the fall…we’re all in a nature of sin. We all do wrong things that pull us away from God. And we’re also in a world that is not perfect. We all know that. We’re broken and the world is broken. But where we end up should be encouraging to you. Lucky for us we know someone who can fix that right?

This week and the next two Sundays will be a bit of a series I guess as we take a look at what Jesus (from a specific perspective) has truly done for us. Today we’ll look at hope, next week bravery (and we’ll reference Veteran’s Day as well), and the following week, reasons to be thankful. And they will all connect. I guess, following the last number of weeks on being ‘weird in this world’…where normal just doesn’t get it (actually leads us away from God)…These next few weeks might be…Why be weird? Or, the outcomes of being weird.

Our main passage for this morning will be from Romans 5:1-11 and we’ll read through that

Romans 5:1–11 LEB

1 Therefore, because we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces patient endurance, 4 and patient endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless, yet at the proper time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For only rarely will someone die on behalf of a righteous person (for on behalf of a good person possibly someone might even dare to die), 8 but God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Therefore, by much more, because we have been declared righteous now by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, by much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 11 And not only this, but also we are boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Today we’re going to look at our station in life…both before Jesus…and after. You might even say…before our personal faith…and after we took hold of faith.

Here’s a nice little quote that doesn’t beat around the bush.

“We are all born equal…equally helpless.”

Yes…what a way to open up a morning right?

Have you ever felt helpless? Or powerless?

I was getting gas the other day up in the Belden area. $3.35. Yeah. And I had our big red truck. Yeah. Some of you are groaning and yes, I will take your pity. When I was done and putting the handle/nozzle back into its place on the pump when I noticed that someone…with whiteout, had written the word, in all caps, PRAY.

The Bible explains that this is really our situation. Helpless. Now we aren’t just talking about having a bad day or when we’re caught in a bad situation. What we’re looking at today is our life-situation…our eternal-situation. However, if we get a glimpse of what we’ve been promised for our eternal life situation it will give us a much different perspective on the difficult situations that happen in our daily lives where we too…may be feeling helpless.

There’s an evangelist…an apologist that I love to watch. Some of you might have seen him before. His name is Ray Comfort and at his core…he loves street preaching. And he just loves talking with people…anyone at all. He’ll take up any topic. He’s just a very neat person. On many of his videos - where he’s talking specifically about God and Heaven…he’ll ask people in the crowd if they believe in God.

Most will answer yes…or to some higher power. Sometimes one from the crowd will actually walk up to a microphone where he can talk directly with them. He’ll then ask if there really is a God…do they believe in right or wrong…and most subscribe to some form of morality. A moral code so to speak.

He then asks if they think they’re a good person. Now this is where the thinking begins...

Most everyone will say yes…but then you need to say “good based on what”....the 10 commandments is an easy place to go. Its right there in scripture and is the basis for the Law in the old testament.

He then asks if the 10 Commandments are true…have they violated them. He goes through them. And most all say they are guilty of violating at least a couple if not a few of them. Well, if that’s true, then we’re guilty. They’re not good.

So then he’ll sometimes ask...”Do you fear God?” or “Do you think the fear of God is a good thing or bad thing?

So I’m sure, some of you were thinking…if someone walked up to me on the street and began asking those questions…what would I say? How would I respond?

So if it is true…that we’ve sinned…that means two things.

1. We’re guilty.

Let me say that again…we’re guilty. Of sin…against God. That’s hard to say isn’t it?

2. We can’t undo our sin. We can’t fix it. We can’t become innocent on our own because we can’t be good enough.

And so if we continue down this thought…it means there’s space between us and God. Eternally…the question would be…Heaven or Hell? If we’re guilty of sin. Separated from God. On the wrong side of justice…Heaven or Hell? We can’t be good enough to be with God.

So that’s our state or our position apart from what we might say in the church world…apart from grace or forgiveness.

Let’s look at what our passage says now. And I’m going to walk you through this in a couple of different ways. At first I’m going to put it up on the screen and walk you right through it verse by verse. Then we’ll go back and dig in just a bit. And remember, we’re thinking about this idea of being helpless…but secure in hope.

Romans 5 READ

Once we were all of those things…Now we are not if we’ve placed our lives in Jesus’ hands.

Jesus - the one who lived and died…and then came back to life to show us the true version of life to the fullest.

Reconciliation - That means that the way back to God has been made. We couldn’t do it on our own, Jesus did it for us. Justice has been satisfied.

Let me read this verse…and I think it will be up here on the screen…see if this resonates with you.

Isaiah 32:17

Isaiah 32:17 LEB

17 And the work of righteousness will be peace, and the work of righteousness, quietness and security forever.

Quiet confidence. That sounds a lot like secure hope doesn’t it?

A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "Eighteen to nothing--we're behind."

"Boy," said the spectator, "I'll bet you're discouraged."

"Why should I be discouraged?" replied the little boy. "We haven't even gotten up to bat yet!"

Hope. Not hope like we Americans sometimes use it…like I hope we win the lottery…but Hope meaning security. My hope is in something secure. Meaning…I know where I’m going. I know what will happen to me. I know that death is not the end. I know there may be bad days…but I also know that those are part of a fallen world…but I’ve been saved from this fallen world through Jesus - Amen?

I believe in a physician when I put my case into that physician’s hands, and trust him to cure me. I believe in a lawyer when I leave my case in his hands, and trust him to plead for me. I believe in a banker when I put money into his hands, and allow him to keep it on my behalf.

I believe in my Saviour when I take Him to be my Saviour, when I put my helpless case into His hands, and trust Him to do what I cannot do for myself—save me from my sin.

Have you done this? Do you want hope?

The incredible thing is this…when we can wrap our heads and hearts around this type of security…we can share our hope with others. We can do things that Ashley mentioned to us before…providing hope to kids. We can be generous with everything with have because we know who has been generous with us. Our worldview is that we have peace and security in Christ…and He wants us to share our peace and security…our hope.

The first question was this…Do you want this hope that Jesus offers?

The next might be this…Do you know of someone who needs hope like this?

This is when we do what we can to help take care of our Church Family stuff....blessing our community stuff isn’t it?

We gather Hope in Christ and we share this hope with others.

That’s what we do.

And when we can live with this perspective…we will have peace…quiet security forever. Amen?