There’s a sense that we carry around an unfulfilled-ness within us. That there is something wrong and the something wrong is not only outside, but it’s also on the inside.

Most people won’t tell you that.  But I think that if you can get below the surface, you’ll find that there is that. If others feel that, they and you are correct. That’s what we are talking about this morning—this unfulfilled-ness and the reason we have for it.

Question: What’s the difference between a knife-wielding assassin and a surgeon? Both use a knife. Both inflict pain. Both destroy bodily tissue. But there is a difference.

The assassin inflicts pain in order to destroy. The surgeon inflicts pain in order to heal. That’s a big difference.

As witnesses to the Good News, we might inflict pain, but hopefully the reason we do that is to bring healing.

Last week we began with some good news. It’s good news that we are created with a purpose and that purpose is to know and glorify God. Our lives have meaning and living this divine purpose satisfies the soul with joy and life.

The problem that we have is that we cannot live naturally in this because we have a problem. We can’t live out our purpose [on our own]. We have to reckon with some bad news to get to the Good News.

There’s an adverse reality here. Frankly the gospel (the Good News) makes little sense if you don’t understand the bad news.

The reality is this—in our natural states we are all separated from God. Every one of us has a major illness and without radical treatment, we will die. That’s the reality.

If you had cancer, would you want the doctor to only tell you good news?

Doctor: “Your pulse is good. Your blood pressure is perfect. Your lungs are working perfectly.”

You: “Thanks a lot but what about this volleyball coming out—”

Doctor: “Don’t worry about that. Just good news here. Your lungs are good.”

None of us would want this. The only hope we have of healing is to face and treat the reality. The bad news of the diagnoses of cancer leads to the good news of a cure.

This morning we deal honestly with a problem that demands the cure of the gospel.

There are realities we would rather ignore ourselves and we would rather not talk about with other people. But we do that at own peril and at the peril of other people, as well.

Our passage this morning is from Ephesians 2.

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