Scripture:

Eph. 2:12　That you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

I. The situation of man:

  1. Describe how man is born, raised up, encounters sicknesses, and dies. The human life can never depart from these four things: birth, aging, sickness, and death.
  2. Conclude that everything is vanity.

II. The hopelessness of the human life:

  1. Use further examples to illustrate that once a man dies, that is the end of everything for him.
  2. Conclude that the human life is hopeless.

III.  The reason for hopelessness:

  1. The reason why the human life is hopeless is that man has lost God. Without God there is no hope.
  2. God wants to be everything to the human life. Only when man has God will there be hope for his life.

IV. How to have hope:

  1. Do not ignore the sense of emptiness. The sense of emptiness tells you that you need God, who is the hope of life.
  2. Recognize that God can be everything to the human life.
  3. Repent and turn to God.
  4. Receive the Son of God, Jesus Christ. To have the Son of God is the way to have God. Once man has God, his life will be full of hope.