Psychologists say three things make people happy:

1.  They need something/someone to love…

2.  They need something to do…

3.  They need something to look forward to… (HOPE)

What is HOPE?  Dictionaries say Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount of despair, wanting, wishing, suffering or perseverance… believing that a better or positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary…

Dr. Emil Brunner (Swiss Theologian) said, “What oxygen is for the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of human life.” Take oxygen away and death occurs through suffocation, lack of breath; take hope away and humanity is constricted through despair ~ and hopelessness set it.”

(Hope is found over 160 times in the Bible) God tells us HOPE comes from Him…

Psalms 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

Do you ever get down… Feeling all alone?  Discouraged?   Hopeless…

The Devil was having a yard sale, and all of his tools were marked with different prices. They were a fiendish lot. There was hatred, jealously, deceit, lying, and pride--all at expensive prices. But over to the side of the yard on display was a tool more obviously worn than any of the other tools. It was also the most costly. The tool was labeled DISCOURAGEMENT. When questioned, the Devil said, "It’s more useful to me than any other tool. When I can’t bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools, I use discouragement, because so few people realize that it belongs to me." Satan is never happier than when he sees people giving in and giving up to despair and becoming lost in hopelessness.

(p 827) Ephesians 2:1-4 ¹ 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 wrath. 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…

Every person sitting here this morning is either:  Spiritually DEAD OR Spiritually ALIVE

I.  God tells us the Spiritually Dead are following after three things in their lives…

·         The ways of the WORLD (in which you used to live… secular worldview, humanistic …)

·         The ways of the DEVIL (ruler of the kingdom of the air…dark, wicked, sinful, thought life…)

·         The ways of the FLESH (gratifying the cravings of our fallen sinful nature / sin DNA…)

Look at this simple graphic…

Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus Christ loves us and died for us… (go over the graphic)

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ravi Zacharias said, “Hope is that indispensable element that makes the present so important. Significantly, the absence of future hope has an amazing capacity to reach into the present and eat away at the structure of life, as termites would a giant foundation.”  (See 1Jn 3:1-3)

 

Turn to 1 John 3:1-3 (P863)  ¹ How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Spiritually Alive… Ephesians 2:4-5,8-10 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… ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.¹⁰ For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

II.  The Spiritually Alive are experiencing …

1.) God’s GRACE   2.) Through FAITH  3.) Doing MINISTRY / SERVING / DOING GOOD WORKS

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Remember what the Psychologists say three things make people happy:

1.  They need something/someone to love - Jesus

2.  They need something to do - Ministry

3.  They need something to look forward to – Hope of Eternal Life

Therein lies the believers HOPE!