This week we start a new series titled, "The Hope Series." For the next four weeks we'll see where does our hope come from, how do we get hope, and does it really make a difference. This week, "Hope That Stands in the Storm." John Killinger, a Christian author, tells a powerful story about a man who is all-alone in a hotel room in Canada. The man is in a state of deep depression. He is so depressed that he can't even bring himself to go downstairs to the restaurant to eat. He just seemed to have hit a wall, and can’t bring himself to go any further.
He is a very powerful man, the chairman of a large shipping company, but at this moment, he is absolutely overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of life... He’s just lying there on a lonely hotel bed, far from home, wallowing in self-pity. All of his life, he has been fastidious, worrying about everything, anxious and fretful, fussing and stewing over every detail. But now his anxiety has gotten the best of him, so much so he can’t sleep or even eat. He is worrying and brooding and agonizing about everything, his business, his investments, his decisions, his family, his health, even, his dogs back home. Then, on this day in this Canadian hotel, he craters. He hits bottom. Filled with anxiety, completely immobilized, paralyzed by his emotional despair, unable to leave his room, lying on his bed, he moans out loud: "Life isn't worth living this way, I wish I were dead!" And then, he wonders, what would God think if he heard him talking this way. Speaking aloud again he says, "God, it's a joke, isn't it? Life is nothing but a joke." Suddenly, it occurs to him that this is the first time he's talked to God since he was a little boy. He is silent for a moment and then he begins to pray. He describes it like this: "I just talked out loud about what a mess my life was in, and how tired I was, and how much I wanted things to be different in my life. And you know what happened next? A voice!! I heard a voice say, 'It doesn't have to be that way!' That's all it said." He went home and talked to his wife about what happened. He talked to his brother who is a minister and asked him: "Do you think it was God speaking to me?" The brother said: "Of course, because that is the message of God to you and every one of us. That's the message of the Bible. That's why Jesus Christ came into the world to save us, to deliver us, to free us, to change us and to show us that 'It doesn't have to be that way.' A few days later, the man called his brother and said, "You were right. It has really happened. I've done it. I've had a rebirth. I'm a new man. Christ has turned it around for me." He’s still prone to anxiety. He still works very hard. But, now he has a source of strength. During the week, he often leaves his office and goes to the church nearby. He sits there alone on a pew and he prays. He says it clears his head. It reminds him of who he is, and whose he is. And every time he sits there in the Sanctuary, he thinks back to that day in that hotel room in Canada and how depressed and lonely and lost he felt when he heard that voice saying: It doesn't have to be that way. This morning we are starting a new series I’m calling “The Hope Series.” We’re going to be spending the next four weeks looking at hope – where does it come from, how do we get it, and can it really help. This morning’s message is titled, “Hope That Stands in the Storm.” The man in Killinger’s story was facing a storm. A storm of life. Some of you have faced this storm, too. Some of you may be in the midst of a storm right now. Some of you maybe even on the precipice, uncomfortably close to the edge, trying desperately to hold it all together. Our reading for this morning is from Ephesians 4:14-16, and it reads, “then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” This passage gives us both the problem, and the solution. The cause and the cure. To start, we need to understand the context of the message. Paul is telling us in Chapter 4 about the importance of unity in the church, living lives worthy of the calling you have received. And he tells us it’s only in living in the church, in unity with other believers, using our special and unique gifts in the church, so that everyone in the church can reach wholeness and fullness in Christ. But in our reading this morning, he gives the cause, where we are before we reach this wholeness and fullness in Christ. Verse 14 started by saying, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching.” When it says, then we will no longer be infants, it implies that now we are like infants. So let’s understand the cause of our storms of life. First, we haven’t reached maturity in our faith. We haven’t reached wholeness and fullness in Christ. We are like infants, still trying to get by on our own, but not quite sure how do that. Do you remember what it’s like to have little kids around the house? Some of you are still in that stage. Why do they call it the “terrible two’s?” At birth, and in the first year or two, they can’t really do anything. Rolling over is a major accomplishment. Then they might start to crawl a little. But then they learn to walk and talk, and with this newfound mobility comes a sense of independence. Only they don’t have the knowledge and the wisdom to keep out of trouble, they’re always getting into trouble. We call that stage the terrible two’s because they’re always getting into trouble. And when is this stage over? When they surrender to the will of their parents. And it’s not when they turn three. But adulthood can be like that, too. We make decisions and do things that get us into trouble. It’s like we’re tossed around, blown here and there. Paul was right, wasn’t he? What is the cause? Paul said we are “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. But this isn’t biblical teaching. This is the teaching of cunning and crafty men. It’s the teaching of secularists and humanists and all those who try to explain how to get by in this life without God, the one who created you and formed you for Himself. Ultimately, we aren’t surrendered to God our Father. This is the cause of the issues we are talking about this morning. We are each born with a God sized hole in our heart. Because we’re meant to in relationship with God. And when we’re not, we have to grasp at other things to try to fill that hole, only nothing else fits. Drugs won’t fill that hole. Sexual relations won’t fill that hole. Pouring yourself into work won’t fill that hole. Even spending every moment with family, won’t fill that hole. It can’t be filled with money, it can’t be filled with possessions. It can’t be filled with people. Drugs and alcohol may numb the emptiness, but the hole is still there. The hole can only be filled with God. That’s why in Colossians 3:5, Paul writes, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed.” Why? Because these are the things we use to try to fill that hole on our own. But they won’t work. Which brings us to the cure. How do we cure it? How do we find the hope that will see us through this storm of life? I’ve got three quick and easy steps, all taken from our reading in Ephesians. First, Surrender to Christ. Our reading this morning tells us He is the head. If we’re struggling with a loss of hope, if we’re struggling to find meaning, if we’re struggling to make our way, we’ve got to return to the head. We don’t tend to like that word, surrender. We want to be in charge. Surrender has a negative connotation; we think we’ve failed. But if we are really created for him, and we can’t seem to find our way without him, what’s left? Repent of all the things you’ve been doing to find meaning, and surrender yourself to the one you were created for. Surrender your life to Jesus. Second, confess to other believers what you’re going through. Paul said, “From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love.” That’s part of the role of the church. We confess our sins to one another, and we help each other, we build each other up, we encourage each other, we comfort each other, we become real with one another, and in the process, we all become mature and reach wholeness and fullness in Christ. We all live as disciples. Protestants don’t emphasize confession as much as we should, we think it’s a catholic thing. But it’s biblical, we should be confessing to each other. We don’t need a priest, but we need to talk to somebody. Third, open yourselves to God’s love. Paul wrote in that last verse I shared, that we build each other up in love. Why is it sometimes so hard for us to allow ourselves to feel love from others? To allow ourselves to be loved. Human nature tends to keep us at a distance. When we’re hurting, when we’re going through a storm, it’s not only hard to let others know, it’s hard to trust others, and it’s even harder to let ourselves be loved. But love is one of the tools we use to build each other up. Love is the key. Can it be that simple? Just surrender, and confess, and open ourselves up to God’s love. Yes and No. It’s simple, but it’s hard. It’s hard to surrender our will, we want to try to figure things out on our own. I’m the same way. It’s hard to confess to others here in the church, we don’t want to them to know the struggles we’re going through. It’s hard to open yourselves up to love, it leaves you vulnerable. But it’s we are made right with God. And it’s in being right with God that we find hope.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2024
Categories
All
|