INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Today hope is ending; no I mean this is the last message in our Hope series.
• Hope can provide a variety of benefits for us. Hope can cause us to soar to great heights; hope can also sustain us through difficult times.
• Hope in what we believe can also provide a foundation for our life that will help us to be able to stand in the midst of the storm.
• The 4th chapter of Ephesians deals with this issues of unity of the Body of Christ along with the issue of maturity in Christ.
• We are told how the different God ordained positions within the church were designed to help accomplish those goals.
• Verse 13 is a key passage.
• SLIDE #2
• Ephesians 4:13 (ESV) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
• Hope is not directly mentioned in our passage but hope is implied by the fact that we have to place hope in what we believe or else we will have no foundation on which to build our life.
• Let’s explore Ephesians 4:14-15 together this morning, we will start with verse 14!
• SLIDE #3
• Ephesians 4:14 (ESV) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
• The first observation we will make this morning is…
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
Our hope in what we believe…
I. Gives us a foundation.
• A goal for a Christian is to mature in one’s faith. Our hope in what we believe will give us a foundation that will allow us to survive the storms that hit our faith, the storms of deception and disbelief that will cause us not to grow in Christ.
• Paul speaks of no longer being children who are tossed to and fro. The word translated “children” denotes a person who is unthinking and impulsive. One who lacks the judgment to make good decisions.
• Those who teach and preach do so with the hope that one is grow, and will be stable in their faith so that they do not chase after every wind of doctrine thrown at them.
• Children can be easily persuaded and confused. They will jump from one opinion to another at the drop of a hat.
• There were those within the church at Ephesus that were trying to dissuade people from putting trust in what Paul was teaching.
• In order to maintain unity and to strive for maturity having hope and faith in what one believes would keep them from becoming petulant little children.
• Children and in particular babies cry out because of their own pains and needs. Without hope in what we believe we are reduced to focusing on self.
• When a child wants something, or are hurt, they pay no mind to where they are, what the situation is, they just cry out.
• The hope we have in the doctrine that we believe in can provide us a stable foundation that will allow us to stand strong in the storms.
• Verse 14 shows some of the traps that folks who are not grounded can fall into.
• …tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
• When we are not sure of what we believe, we will have no stability, whenever the next new thing or fade comes along; we will get caught up in it.
• A ship without an anchor will get tossed all over the ocean when the storms come.
• A person without the anchor of hope, belief and faith will get tossed mercilessly into the rocks of life.
• We can get pulled in by HUMAN CUNNING. The word cunning is the Greek word for “cube” which was literally uses to speak of dice throwing. A cleaver person could actually hold two sets of dice in his hand and throw whichever set he wanted.
• The dice was also loaded to get the desired results. This deception was used to trick folks out of money.
• We can be fooled into making God’s kingdom OUR kingdom if we allow ourselves to be tricked by a cunning person.
• WE would call that being PLAYED today.
• Craftiness denotes being willing to do ANYTHING to take an unfair advantage. It referred to the practice of adulterating a product.
• They would take a pure product and mix other things in it so they could have more products to sell. What you were paying for was not what you were getting.
• Deceitful schemes are cleaver methods or strategies. People who come in with false teaching or with generally trying to get people to buy into a false premise will cheat, they will adulterate the truth, they will do anything they can, use every method at their disposal to lead people astray.
• If we have hope in our beliefs we will not be taken down a path we ought not to go, but the way this goes for our faith on other people.
• If we believe in them, we will not believe the first bad thing another person says about them.
• Let’s look at verse 15.
• SLIDE #5
• Ephesians 4:15 (ESV) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
• SLIDE #6
Our hope in what we believe…
II. Gives us a foundation to properly speak the truth.
• I want to focus on the first part of verse 15. The issue is speaking the truth in love.
• This is a mark of maturity and our hope in what we believe will give us the foundation we need in order to be able to this.
• When we are faced with those who would try to disrupt unity and growth we must be willing to take action, but our action is not to fight fire with fire, but rather we are to speak the truth in love.
• If we have hope in what we believe, we will not be tempted to take vengeance out on our own because we know that God will deal with whatever needs to be dealt with.
• SLIDE #7
• Ephesians 6:14 (ESV) Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
• WE are encouraged to stand on the truth.
• Speaking the truth in love is a means of promoting the growth and unity of the church and of each member of the church.
• Speaking the truth in love is not always an easy thing to do. We are tempted to go to two extremes when it comes to speaking the truth.
• For some the focus is on the TRUTH!
• For some, they will be more than happy to speak the truth, but they forget the love part.
• EXAMPLES
• This is what the Pharisee’s had a tendency to do. They would say things that were factually true, but they did it from the wrong motivation.
• They LOVED being right, they LOVED telling other people how they were failing.
• This is in part why we are encouraged and warned when it comes time to help another brother or sister in Christ who is struggling.
• SLIDE #8
• Galatians 6:1 (ESV) Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
• The temptation is to come off as high and mighty.
• The other extreme we can face when it comes to speaking the truth in love is to focus on the LOVE part.
• How this manifests itself is by being afraid to speak the truth because we think that if we love someone we would not share a hurtful truth.
• We see this happening today when churches will not address certain social issues because we do not want to hurt someone’s feelings by telling them their current life-style is not pleasing to God.
• So we try to ignore the issue or we try to postulate that since God is a god of love that His love will not allow someone to die and go to hell.
• So we do what we called in college stringing pearls to make it look like God does not disapprove of what is going on.
• Now when it comes to speaking the truth the focus ought not to be on TRUTH OR LOVE, but rather the combination of the two, to speak the TRUTH IN LOVE.
• It is not an either or situation.
• If we have hope in what we believe about God, we will not be afraid to speak the truth in love because we know that or God is greater and stronger than any situation.
• We have the confidence in what we believe to know that by sharing the truth in love that the situation can change!
• Let’s look at verse 15 once again.
• SLIDE #9
• Ephesians 4:15 (ESV) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
• SLIDE #10
Our hope in what we believe will…
III. Give us a foundation on which to grow.
• The last part of verse 15 tells us, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
• This is the ultimate goal for each of us; our hope in what we believe will help to make that happen.
• IF we do not know what we believe when we face the storm of doubt, we will get blown away.
• Let us trace the line of thought back through the last four verses. Paul’s goal is for the infant (v. 14) to grow to maturity in the fullness of Christ (v. 13).
• This is the reason the saints (v. 12) are to be equipped by the leaders (v. 11).
• When all God’s people are enlisted in active service in the kingdom, “we all” (v. 13) grow “in every respect.” College Press NIV Commentary, The - The College Press NIV Commentary – Galatians & Ephesians.
• When we are grounded and rooted in Jesus, who is the head of all things, we should move as He moves, we should do what He calls us to do.
• Jesus practiced what He preached.
• We should do all we can through the power of the Holy Spirit within us to do the same!
• Our hope in what we believe will provide the foundation we need in order to grow in Christ.
• As we grow we will be able to stand strong during the storms of life.
• SLIDE #11
• Matthew 7:24–27 (ESV) 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
CONCLUSION
• Where is your hope placed? What are you building your life on?
• A hope built on Jesus is a hope that will benefit you for all eternity!
• Our hope in what we believe in will give us a foundation in which to build our life on!
• Are you ready to place your hope in Jesus?
