Ephesians 1:15-19a: For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 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, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened. There are three things that Paul wanted the church to see with their enlightened heart. This week we will examine the first thing that Paul wanted the church to see. Paul wanted the church to know the hope to which he has called you.
Hope is something that everyone needs. And the hope that every person needs is the hope that is found only in Jesus Christ.
Today we live in a world filled with despair and hopelessness. People drown their hopelessness with alcohol and drugs. Others cannot sleep without medication. And the most tragic result of hopelessness is the person who commits suicide.
But in the church there is absolutely no excuse for hopelessness. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:27: To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
God has chosen not just to dwell with man. No, he has chosen to dwell in the man who receives the gift of his salvation. God himself has chosen to live in you. Look at I John 4:4: You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Every believer is tempted with despair and discouragement. Everyone is tempted to lose hope. But the good news is that the God of all hope lives in you. Jesus Christ, who defeated every power of hell, dwells in you, and he is the hope of glory that is in you.
We have the hope of eternal life. Forever and forever the believer will live with God. We will be free from the slavery of sin. We will not be sick again. We will never again experience lack. There will always be more than enough in eternity. But best of all, we have the hope of living fully in the presence of God. We will fellowship with him face to face.
We have the hope of victory in this life. I John 4:4 gives us hope in this life. We are from God!! We have overcome them!! Who have we overcome? We overcome every power of darkness that stands between us and the will of God. Because the greater one lives in us.
He has called us to this hope. The hope of eternal life. The hope of victory in this life. Also, we have the hope, that we will be instruments of God's grace in this world, as long as we are here. Yes, God will use YOU to make an eternal difference in someone's life. He will use you to bring salvation to others. He will use you to deliver those who are tormented and oppressed by the evil one.
How can you possibly be depressed and discouraged when you meditate on the hope of his calling?
I want to examine one other facet of hope. To have hope is to have strong expectation. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking. Biblical hope is a strong expectaion of something coming to pass. If you have hope that you will make a mission trip to Southeast Asia, then you have within you a strong expectation that you will indeed make that trip.
Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
It is not possible to possess Biblical faith without having Biblical hope, because faith is a certainty of what we hope for. There have been times in my life that I realized that in certain areas I had lost hope. And because I did not have hope, I could not have faith.
Let's return to the example of having the hope of making a mission trip to Southeast Asia. If you had no hope of ever making that trip, then it would be impossible to ever have faith that you would go. But, if you have hope, then the day comes when faith is built upon the foundation of that hope. One day you become sure that you will make that mission trip to Southeast Asia. You become certain that you will go even though you can't see in the natural realm how it will come to pass. You don't know how God will provide money. You don't know how you can take enough time off from work to go. You become certain of what you cannot yet see. That is Biblical faith built upon the foundation of Biblical hope.
I want to encourage you to dare to hope. Dare to hope based on the foundation of the Word of God. Dare to hope based on the foundation that it is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
God wants daring men and women of faith in this hour. You can be that strong person of faith, if you will dare to begin to hope.
During the days of the Civil Rights movement the phrase was used "Keep hope alive." We can be what God wants us to be, if we will keep Biblical hope alive in our hearts. It really is Christ in you the hope of glory.
Wayne L. Williams
wayne@fotwm.org