HOPE in Christ

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HOPE in Christ

• Finding Happiness in a Broken World
• Eph 21-10 and Selected

Pastor Dave Martin Cross Creek Community Church
July 27, 2008
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What makes people Happy?
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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

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HOPE
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• Dr. Emil Brunner 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.

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• Psalms 625 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone
  my hope comes from him.

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• Ephesians 21-4 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

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Every person is either

• Spiritually DEAD

or Spiritually ALIVE
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I. The Spiritually Dead are following

• The ways of the WORLD
• The ways of the DEVIL
• The ways of the FLESH

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Spiritually DEAD
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• Ephesians 212 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.

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• Romans 623 For the wages of sin is death, but
  the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
  our Lord.

We have HOPE in Jesus!
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Jesus Christ loves us and died for us
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• Romans 58 But God demonstrates his own love for
  us in this While we were still sinners, Christ
  died for us.

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• Hebrews 926-28 26 But now he has appeared
  once for all at the end of the ages to do away
  with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as
  man is destined to die once, and after that to
  face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once
  to take away the sins of many people

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• and he will appear a second time, not to bear
  sin, but to bring salvation to those who are
  waiting for him.

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• 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.
• Ravi Zacharias

See 1 Jn 31-3
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Spiritually Alive

• Ephesians 24-5,8-10 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.

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II. The Spiritually Alive are experiencing

• 1. Gods GRACE
• For it is by grace you have been saved
• 2. Through FAITH
• through faith--and this not from yourselves
• 3. Doing MINISTRY
• God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to
  do good works

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• Romans 1513 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.

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Remember those three things that Psychologist say
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

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• Do you have HOPE in Christ?

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Lets Celebrate Together

• 1 Corinthians 1123-28 23 For I received from the
  Lord what I also passed on to you The Lord
  Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
  24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and
  said, "This is my body, which is for you do this
  in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after
  supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the
  new covenant in my blood do this, whenever you
  drink it, in remembrance of me."

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• 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this
  cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he
  comes. 27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or
  drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
  will be guilty of sinning against the body and
  blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine
  himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of
  the cup.

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With Genuine Hope in Christ, Let us

• Honestly Examine your heart
• Remember what Jesus accomplished
• Thank Him for changing your life
• Expect His return any moment

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Our

• HOPE

Jesus