Satisfied in Him (Ephesians Pt. 1) | Francis Chan

well tonight we're going to start I'm going to start uh teaching through the book of Ephesians and uh this is something that I have wanted to do for the last couple of years and uh we're finally getting around to it um I don't think I've ever been this excited to teach through a book of the Bible um and ever this excited teach through a series this is a book that I I memorize the book two years ago and the whole time I'm going through it I'm going this is incredible this is incredible I can't wait

to teach this and and now I feel like that that time has come and my prayer for you is that this would literally change your life that the words of this book would be lifechanging I mean like supernaturally lifechanging that that's that's what Paul prays for uh in Ephesians he's I'm praying that these the eyes of your heart would be enlightened and that that somehow he talks about how in your inner man how the love of Christ would then start to dwell inside of you he's praying this for a church he's praying this for these

Believers and this is what I've been praying for you because if if this is just oh here's some thoughts on Ephesians um let's just go home um but the thought that God himself could actually transform some of your lives and it just gets me excited because I have this concern especially for those of you who've been a part of church for a while maybe even grew up in church a lot of times church can become about something other than the person of Jesus sometimes it's just a belief system that you grew up in you happen

to grow up in a Christian home and so you're raised with these doctrines and you go to these gatherings others of you maybe there's uh there's something lacking in your life you're hoping for to find something in the church others you you're like gosh I I need help with my marriage I need help in relationship I just want to be happy and so you come to the church and maybe you've built good friendships good relationships you know church is a easy place to do that because we're kind of obligated to love you um and so

it's like okay let me let me go there bill some relationships a lot of things can be going well and you still miss it I mean when when Justin was sharing on Easter and he was just talking about Christ like the person of Jesus being our treasure and that not fading but but it's he himself being our treasure like like this is what our excitement our hope everything is found in him this person I just thinking how many people get this not how many people believe this is true or or how many believe this is

in the scriptures or that this is what the Bible says but how we really get it how we just go no I am obsessed with this person I am so madly in love my joy is found in him there's an old uh song I think it's old um Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace I love that song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth they grow

strangely dim it's not like you're you're trying to not love certain things anymore it's just weird suddenly you're like yeah that doesn't do anything for me anymore it's weird I used to love that I used to be obsessed with that that's all I could think about and now it's just like that's fine it just grows strangely Dim when you get it when you realize the treasure that you have in this person of Jesus you're like wow this other stuff that I was pursuing that I was obsessed with it just I don't know why it doesn't

thrill me anymore ever since I started seeing Jesus for who he is and what he feels about me and what I feel about him I really don't care about much anymore in uh Psalm 90 verse 14 says this satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love this is this is the idea is every morning you wake up and you're satisfied you're satisfied that God loves you you recognize how steadfast like to know that the god of

the universe loves you desires you and it's steady it satisfies you you every morning and we can Rejoice all the days of our lives this is what it means to be a Christian this is the message of the book of Ephesians contrast that if you look in Psalm 17 starting in verse 13 he's talking about the unbelievers those who don't believe in God who don't follow and it says arise O Lord confront him subdue him deliver my my soul from the wicked by your sword from Men by your hand oh Lord from Men of the

world whose portion is in this life you fill their womb with treasure they are satisfied with children and they leave their abundance to their infants as for me I Shall Behold your face in righteousness when I awake I shall be satisfied if IED with your likeness he he's he's contrasting people of the world and this is why I go some of you maybe you don't get it because sometimes in church we can almost idolize family and we can make it all about that and as like like our goal in life is to have a nice

Christian it's great to have a nice Christian family I have a nice Christian family it's cool you know but the idea is he's saying you know it's the people in the world that go that's all I need my family is my life my family is everything to me and and what he's saying and I've heard Believers say that I'm like wait that's not very biblical your family is everything to you that's what people in the world would say they would say I've got money I've got children and I'm going to leave in them an inher

you know an inheritance and it says they're satisfied with that that's the mark of the unbeliever you fill their womb with treasure they are satisfied with children and they leave their abundance to their infants but as for me the psalmist says I'll behold your face in righteousness and when I awake I shall be satisfied with your likeness you know what satisfies me Lord It's just just any glimpse of you it's you it's this person again in Psalm 73 in verse 25 he says whom have I in heaven but you and there's nothing on Earth that

I desire besides you My Flesh and my heart May Fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever whom have I in h why are we looking forward to heaven the psalmist says I'm looking forward because you're there you know a lot of times we can think about all this stuff I can't wait till there's just no more death I don't have to worry about sickness I don't have to worry about getting older everything's going wrong my knee hurts my back hurts my this this this this and and that's not what

the psalmist is saying he goes I don't desire anything but you just to be near you whom have I in heaven but you I understand okay I get like some of us that have lost loved ones and and we go gosh I can't wait to get to heaven because I want to see them again okay that's I do too I do too but let's be careful if if that's all you're looking forward to if that's what you get obsessed with then it's then I just got do you understand what we have in Jesus do you

know who he is do you understand what he is like I mean I know you love this person who passed away and he made our relationships he made us to be one with one another we're going to miss each other but is there a reality to this relationship you have with Jesus where you go oh Jesus I cannot wait to see you there's nothing on Earth I desire but you so on my days of my life I'm going to pursue you I want you and then afterwards when this life is over I can't wait to

see you I can't wait to thank you for like to your face for everything you've done for me it's a person do you get this see this is this is how we are supposed to be different from everyone else out there it's like no matter what happens I can wake up every morning and be satisfied in the love of Christ so looking in the beginning of the book of Ephesians um I'm just going to let you know we are going to be staring at Jesus Jesus a lot and so if you're not that into him

you're not going to be that into these messages for the next few months um because the more I read Ephesians the more obsessed I get with knowing Jesus enjoying Jesus even as I was just looking over this passage a couple hours ago I was back there there's a little room back there and I'm just praying and just getting excited I'm just reading over these verses and meditating on them and just going God you got to be kidding me you got to be kidding me Jesus you've got to be kidding me I just felt like I'm

in this room with him I'm like yeah everything on the Earth has grown strangely dim as I think about these truths of these of these verses um in fact can I have Lisa I'm going to have Lisa just read the first three chapters of Ephesians and let's just sit under it and enjoy it um Ephesians is kind of broken up where the first three chapters talk about what God has done for us and then the last three chapters 4 through six kind of is more our response what we should do and I tend to be

a person that likes to get to just tell me what to do um sometimes Lisa will tell stories and I'm like okay come on get to the point I don't say that I'm just like but in my heart I'm like come on what's the point what's the point what do you need me to do I could have done it twice you you know that's my impatience your stories are great but the idea is some of us are impatient and we just want to be told what do you want me to do how do I'm supposed

to change my life and really the first three chapters of Ephesians are just reminding us of how blessed we are reminding us of God's grace and it's out of that that it motivates us to do what he wants us to do the doing part is easy when we get this first part so let's just soak in remember these are words coming from God this is it starts up by saying Paul and apost of Christ Jesus by the will of God that means Paul was sent by God according to his will to give us this message

so this message is from God through Paul and he used Paul to get this message to us so let's listen to what he has to say Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the Saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation

of the world that we should be holy and blameless for him in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as Sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious Grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved in him we have Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished Upon Us in all wisdom and Insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a

plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to Hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him you also when you heard the word of Truth The Gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until

we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory for this reason because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints I do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of Glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of Revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you what are the riches of his

glorious inheritance in the Saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the Heavenly places far above all Rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church which is his

body the fullness of him who fills all in all and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of Disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by Nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind but God being rich in Mercy because of the great love with which he loved

us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by Grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heaven heav L places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable Riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by Grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of work so that no one may boast for we are his

workmanship created in Christ Jesus Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for

he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of Commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the father so then

you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ Jesus himself being the Cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy Temple in the Lord in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit for this reason I Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to

me for you how the mystery was made known to me by Revelation as I have written briefly when you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other Generations as it has now been revealed to his holy Apostles and Prophets by the spirit this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus Through The Gospel of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace

which was given me by the working of his power to me though I am the very least of all the saints this Grace was given to to preach to the Gentiles The unsearchable Riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the Heavenly places this was according to the Eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our lord

in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him so I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you which is your glory for this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on Earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he may Grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to

comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever [Music] [Music] amen such a Rich book these words are so deep um I'm just going to start teaching verse by

verse and see how far we get um but in uh in Luke 6 you have Jesus choosing his 12 Apostles these were the people that uh were going to be sent out from him now one of those people was Judas es scariot um which the Bible says even in that passage he would later betray Jesus and so you see in the book of Acts in chapter one they're like oh Judas hung himself he's dead he betrayed Jesus we need another person to replace him um and as they're talking about that they say it must be

someone who was with us someone who actually saw Jesus and I bring that up because I personally do not believe that today there are Apostles in this sense and and we can disagree on that and we can still be brothers and sister but I I just personally believe that this idea of an apostle in the sense in which Paul was an apostle was something that was reserved for those that Jesus actually gave authority to and now Paul came later right because you you saw his conversion there in Acts chapter 9 but in Acts chapter 9

what happens is Jesus actually appears to him and so you have this situation where Paul wasn't hanging out with Jesus in fact he was against Jesus you know all the way through Acts chapter 8 I mean he's persecuting Christians he's he's dragging them off to prison killing them and uh but then suddenly Jesus appears to him and says no he says Saul Saul why are you persecuting me Saul says who are you Lord and he says I am Jesus whom you are persecuting this this light shines and and blinds the people everyone and and and

it's Jesus appearing to Paul and he starts using him after that as a cent one is someone that is given us Authority from God and that's why that's why you see in the early church it says in Acts 2 it's it's a verse that we try to live by Acts 2:42 it says those Believers devoted themselves to the fellowship to the prayers to the breaking of bread and to the apostles teaching so that's that's that's Paul that's that's Peter James John the the ones that Jesus mentions there in Luke um chapter 6 so that's why

I believe these words are special um and we devote ourselves to the apostles teaching that's what we're doing now 2,000 years later we're doing the same thing they did 2,000 years ago we devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching um he says in uh so he says to the Saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus so he's writing to a specific Church in Ephesus and he's writing to the Believers that's that's very important he calls them saints he calls them faithful because as he's sharing these things later on as he prays for

them you'd almost feel like wait why is he praying that their eyes would be enlightened aren't they already Believers why is he praying that they'd be strengthened their inner man so that Christ could dwell in there aren't they already Believers yeah they're already Believers these are prayers for believers and that's that's my prayer for us is even though we believe in Jesus and we know him there's there's ways in which he can Enlighten us and strengthen us there's Supernatural things he needs to do in our hearts and so you could be a Christian just like

the Ephesians were and yet Paul's prayer was this deeper understanding um for them and a deeper knowledge of Christ but he says in verse two it's it's a typical greeting but it's it's pretty important grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ again this is my prayer for you as a church Grace and peace that's the goal of this that you would receive Grace and peace from God the Father okay God is sitting on his throne you can't see him because he dwells in unapproachable light okay he's he's dwelling

there's lightning thunder fire Angels everything around this throne and he could choose tonight to just supernaturally pour His grace on you and his peace upon you like You' be sitting on his throne right now and just say I'm just going to bless I'm just going to bless Christine like crazy right now not because she earned it not because she deserved it not because of anything she did this week that's what Grace is I just decide to give is there anything you want more than God from his throne saying I'm just going to Lavish you with

Grace tonight and peace the peace of God for too many years I I under emphasize the grace and peace of God and uh you know as a teacher you just want to share information or insights rather than really loving people and saying God I just want your grace and your peace to be on every person in that room we should be people that are the least stressed on this planet because we have the peace of God we should have a peace that is beyond Beyond Comprehension no matter what comes our way people are like why

are you okay with all of that CU I've been given the peace of God and I understand his grace in my life he's given me way more than I deserve this is what separates us from the world but then verse three he says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ blessed the word blessed means happy okay when you think of God though do you normally think happy it's it's weird I I mean we don't we use that word towards people like you know blessed are the poor in spirit you know and

and we understand this this word has the connotation of being happy but now the idea of blessing blessed be the God and Father and it's kind of a play on words in that verse cuz blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing so three times in that in that verse blessed be the God and Father so it's like God may you be blessed because you've so blessed me with every spiritual blessing like when you came in tonight where you thinking I want to bless him

blessed be the god and father of our Lord Jesus Christ it's like those of you who are parents if you're if you're throwing a birthday party for your kid what's the one thing you want to see happen you want to see your kid happy right that's the goal I mean if you're a good parent um you know the idea is what would make him happy what would bless him but we don't often think about what would bless God like tonight I come to bless him he takes pleasure in his children let me let me let

me please him blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us because we've already received so much blessing he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places so Paul's saying blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ I I was trying to think think because honestly I don't think that way normally and I gu I was kind of psychoanalyzing myself it's like why am I not why am I stuck in some ways I think sometimes it's hard to believe that we can affect him right

I mean you're talking about a being who spoke the world into existence sits on a throne and we can't even look upon him and you're telling me there's something I can do here on this Earth that it would actually affect him he would actually feel it I mean you see it in in Genesis 6 when God was grieved that he made man you see in the New Testament that we can grieve the holy spirit of God and we started tonight reading from Psalm 149 that we can actually bring pleasure to him it's hard to believe

that he enjoys us you know sometimes I I don't know I hear songs or whatever that are like I just want to bring a smile to your face or whatever and I just go I I almost feel like sacrilegious a little bit like hey don't say that I can't bring a smile to his face I can't but then I look at scripture I'm like oh maybe I can uh Zephaniah 3:1 17 says this the Lord your God is in your midst a mighty one who will will save he will rejoice over you with gladness he

will quiet you by his love he will exalt over you with loud singing okay when you think of God do you picture him rejoicing over you with gladness look some some of us have baggage right where we are rejected for so much of our lives and you know unloved by parents fathers and so then the thought of An Almighty father singing over us and rejoicing over us is so hard to just believe it's a wrestle in Psalm 14 47:1 it says but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him and those who hope in

his steadfast love so there's some pleasure we bring to him when we fear Him brings pleasure to him and so tonight we say with Paul blessed we want to bless you you blessed be the God God I hope you see your children who feel so blessed because you've so blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places in Jesus we want you to be blessed tonight and now he goes on and he starts explaining what does he mean when he says he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing see a lot of times when we

think blessing we think Earth we think right now here's the blessing I should get or here's the blessing I want and what he's talking about in Ephesians is something so much bigger so much bigger and that's where we do need to get our heads in the clouds we do have to see beyond our immediate situation he has already blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places and then he explains it in verse 4 and I've been like anxious to get to this verse it is so beautiful even as he chose us

in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world do you believe this okay think about a time okay we've talked about God on his throne imagine the Earth has not been created yet so all there is is God and so before he creates the world before he speaks the world the universe into existence before that he chooses you he chooses you in Christ from his throne before he speaks the foundation of the world into existence

he just chose you why why you you don't even exist yet except in his mind you haven't done anything good or bad he just chose you in him before the foundation of the world you understand his choosing of you is rooted in his his gracious nature it's just it's just who he is it's out of him it's not not anything you've done nothing you succeeded in or you didn't fail in it's just God chose you before the foundation of the world that you should be holy and blameless so there's a reason why he chose he

chose you to be holy and blameless before him see when you read the scriptures like when he made Adam and Eve he walked with them in the garden right there was a Unity there there's a union there there walking together in this perfect garden he wanted this relationship but what did they do they sined against him his desire God's desire was that they would be holy that they would obey him they'd be separated from from from Evil and embrace him instead so this has always been in the desire the heart the plan of God is

to have a people that are holy and blameless that's why he chose Israel he say I want you to be this holy nation I want one nation to be different from the other nations of the world and in Deuteronomy 7 he's like I didn't choose you because you're the biggest you know or the strongest Nation you're not you're small you're weak I just chose you I chose you because a covenant that I made with Abraham and I CH to make that Covenant with Abraham just because I chose to I chose Abram and I made a

covenant and I want to make you into this nation that's holy that's already always wanted was a group of people that saw him for who he was and said I want to be holy unto you but as we know the nation of Israel kept rebelling rebelling rebelling eventually even rejecting the Messiah and so that's why you see in First Peter he says now you are a holy nation now through Jesus he was going to create a people group this was always though this was always the plan from the foundation of the world that we now

through Jesus could become those people that are separate from the rest of the world he saved us not just to to to keep us from the punishment of sin he saved us to be holy and blameless this was always God's desire a people with a heart for Him that love what he loves and hate what he hates and he says through Jesus you can have that now that's why in Jude he says now to him who is able to keep you from stum um Ling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory

blameless with great joy that that somehow through Jesus we can actually stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy I I don't know I just got so excited about that verse I'm like go so I can become your original intention for Adam and Eve like through Jesus I positionally am already washed that's what we were celebrating through communion through the body and blood of Jesus I am clean I am Holy but I'm also given power to actually live that way and to think that I can please God by being being that that

human being that he wanted in the garden holy and blameless then verse five in love that that word the phrase in love it's hard in the Greek whether you can't really tell whether that goes to verse four or verse 5 doesn't matter but in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as Sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will so in love he predestined or predetermined us for adoption to himself as Sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will that's a lot so in love he predestined us for

adoption in love he predestined us for adoption if you are a child of God today it's because in love he predestined us for adoption and I know we could get into a long long debate about predestination how can that be I'm just reading the verse um it just just there's something there right because it's in there somehow he chose us in him before the foundation of the world and somehow he predestined me I know there's a thousand questions that go with that verse and this is where we can get sidetracked and not just praise him

that whatever you chose me before the foundation of the world means I'm glad I'm here today and whatever it means that word predestined or predetermined that I would be adopted as your son thank you um for whatever that is and how that looked on your throne before the world was created I have no clue I just don't get why you would choose me I cannot believe that you adopted me as your son in love you predestined me to be adopted as your son if these truths if you if these truths aren't enough for you that

he chose you before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him like he wanted you to be part of this people group that he chose before the foundation of the world to be holy and blazing for if if if the fact that in love he predestined you to be a son or daughter of God it's just something you shrug your shoulders at ah and you'd be more excited about a million dollars or a billion dollars and I go you don't you don't get it like this is forever he we were chosen

by God adopted by God I'm truly his son last week um on Easter uh saw my daughter Dalal some of you guys know know her um we adopted her when she was 16 and um and we've seen her a little bit more lately she's she's a police officer in Oakland and um but the last couple times she's come around we we're like laughing together hysterically I mean maybe a month two months ago whenever that was like I was literally in tears just laughing so hard because the girl just cracks me up and she is she

is so fun um but I just told her this you know last Sunday I go I go gosh Dalal I just love seeing you smile I go when you smile it's like your whole face just glows and and I just go there's nothing I I just can't describe how good it makes me feel as your dad when I see you smile like this and that's why I want you you know I'm just I I I want your whole life to be like this always um that's why you got to you got to be with the

right gu stay away from some of these other clowns you've been around you know and you know I I want your future I just want to see you smiling I just want to see you happy you know and as a as a dad like like I I can't tell you how happy I am when I just see her laughing laughing laughing just something about her face that just fires me up I mean it's it's good when my other kids are happy but there's something about the her face man she just when she's happy I am

so happy and I was just thinking about that I was reading this just this is our God going when you guys understand my love and you understand how much I've blessed you and it brings joy to your face and you wake up up and you're satisfied in my love and you're not like the rest of the world that are satisfied with family or whatever else you're satisfied with seeing me and I see that smile on your face and I see you beaming I see you glowing I believe it has that effect on God that it's

that pleasure where nothing pleases a good father more than seeing his adopted children thrilled happy that they were adopted into this family I hope this week you Marvel at your adoption and you bring pleasure to God himself by the joy of your adoption by enjoying your your adoption God is glorified in us when we're So Satisfied in him and we're so pleased just to be his children God wants us happy he does that's why earlier I said you know you can grow up in church your whole life and not get it you can miss it

and I don't want you guys to miss it I feel like in um I went to Bible College I went to Seminary and it was during during that time I kind of lost all my joy um because we're very focused on evaluating ourselves and evaluating other people you know we were all I just remember having discussions with my friends where we're going go are we sure we're saved you know because we're always looking at our lives and at our sin and confessing sin which is a good thing but also just we just this burden I

don't know if he's really Lord of every area of my life and and there was like this stress of I don't know if he's really Lord because if he was Lord then why did I do this this week why have I been trying to break this sin for weeks for months and then then we started judging everyone else and going I don't think that guy's a True Believer I don't think she's a Believer I don't think and it was just always focused on us what we're doing or not doing or them and what they're not

doing and are we saved or are they saved and it just became this heaviness this weight rather than focusing on what Christ accomplished on the cross and his love for us and the pleasure he receives when his children are satisfied in him blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us for adoption as Sons

according to the purpose of his will he did this according to the purpose of his why did he do this because he wanted to according to the purpose of his will and then he says to the praise of his glorious Grace I'm just going to end there didn't realize I'd already talked for so long but um to the praise of his glorious Grace what does God want us to do praise his glorious Grace see again Grace is when he gives you something you didn't deserve you didn't earn he just gave it to you he just

blessed you with it he blessed you with becoming a son or daughter of God through Jesus Christ and he chose you before the foundation of the world and I hope that satisfies you this week and that it enables you to praise his glorious Grace but I believe that there are some of you here than have a hard time praising his glorious Grace because it's like it's too good to be true you go I can't just be forgiven like that after everything I've done I can't just be adopted and have the right to be called a

child of God because we weren't we all raised being taught if it sounds too good to be true it probably is so in our minds you go I can't just be given this for nothing there's no way he could have just chosen me before the foundation of the world before I earned anything even even if he knew all the ways I was going to fail in my life there's no way that's too good to be true and that's the enemy who does because the goal of all of this is that we would praise his glorious

Grace but if you don't believe that his grace is glorious and is that amazing then you won't praise his glorious Grace and I want to pray for you as we as the worship team comes up it's got to be a miracle because it is it's too good to be true it's one of those things where but it is true it's his glorious Grace God's grace breaks all the rules to the praise of his glorious Grace