Saved By Our God - Brendan Hurley - 9th Aug 2026

Father, we thank you that you speak to us in

your word. We ask, Father, that this morning

you would help us to see how awesome, how wonderful,

how beautiful your grace is. And we ask this

in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Well, Greg

and Jasmine both go to the same church. It's

a nice little church. And at church, they sing

songs like we do. And on one Sunday, they decide

that they're singing Amazing Grace, that wonderful

hymn. And as Greg sings, he stands there and

he gets tingles on the back of his neck. Oh,

yes. Grace is amazing. Praise God. He's just

so overjoyed. But as Jasmine sings... She feels

numb. I wish Grace felt amazing again. And her

mind starts to wonder, what's for lunch? She

just drifts off. Now how did the same song elicit

such different responses? What made each of them

react so differently? Well, for Greg, he became

a Christian six months ago. His decision to follow

Jesus was unlike any other. He goes, it's the

best decision I've ever made. He has received

a profoundly deep joy, confidence and enthusiasm

since he started trusting in God's grace. He's

been blown away by it. I mean, he feels like

he won the lottery. He's got the same energy

as those people who are in Toyota ads. you know,

oh what a feeling, like that Jesus died for his

wrongs, that God loves him even when he didn't

deserve it, that he's got a new family in his

church of believers, a new hope that one day

he'll have life forever. Greg is so thankful

and it drives everything he does. He wants to

become more and more loving. He's regular at

church. He's joined a growth group. He wants

to learn everything he can about God's grace.

He serves at church and he tells people at his

workplace about Jesus because he wants everybody

to know about God's grace. It's so good. But

Jasmine's been a Christian for 20 years now.

And she used to feel like Greg. But lately God's

grace has lost its glossiness, its shine. It

feels kind of dull and boring. I mean, she knows

a lot about God's grace and she could probably

explain it to you better than Greg can. But right

now for Jasmine, life is really hard. Her marriage

is tense. Her kids are challenging. Money's really

tight at the moment. and right now work is a

nightmare. She's got that co -worker who just

keeps stabbing her in the back and she's trying

not to stab back. She doesn't tell her friends

at work about God's grace because she just doesn't

know what to say anymore and doesn't have the

enthusiasm to want to. She'd rather just keep

her head down and get through the day. Actually

for Jasmine she's starting to envy her friends.

One of her friends just got divorced and she's

doing the whole eat pray love adventure thing

and She thinks yeah, I want that I want that

freedom grace It just feels blah What good is

it? It doesn't help with my problems. What has

God's grace done for me lately? Now this morning

I want to ask What do you do if grace stops feeling

amazing? What do you do if grace starts to feel

more and more dull? Well, I think our passage

today shows us what we do and reminds us how

incredible God's grace is. Here's the big thing

I hope you take away from today. Grace feels

amazing when you stop to appreciate its beauty.

Grace feels amazing when you stop to appreciate

its beauty. And here's what I'm praying will

happen for each of you today. If you're here

today and you're a Christian, I hope you'll be

reminded of why God's grace is so amazing. I

hope you walk out that door overjoyed because

you've seen how good God's grace is. If you're

a Christian, but you're in a deep rut like Jasmine,

and you might have similar struggles to her or

different ones, I hope today you'll walk out

that door and you'll feel rich delight around

God's grace again. I hope that this passage will

pull you out of that rut. And if you're not yet

a Christian, I hope you, just like Greg, will

see how incredibly wonderful God's grace is so

that you can embrace it and take hold of it for

yourself. So grace feels amazing when you stop

to appreciate its beauty. But what's so amazing

and beautiful about God's grace? Well, there's

three things we need to see from our passage.

We were hopelessly lost. God met our every need

and all of this was undeserved. So let's look

at the first one. We were hopelessly lost. Here's

the thing about the good news of grace. It won't

feel good if we don't see how bad the bad news

of sin really is. Grace won't feel amazing if

we don't see how lost we truly were. How bad

were things for us? We'll have a look at verses

one to three. It's very bleak, but it's something

we need to hear. It starts with, as for you,

You were dead in your transgressions and sins

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. All of us also lived

among them at one time, gratifying the cravings

of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of

wrath. It's bleak. We were dead in our sins.

What's that saying? We were spiritually dead.

We couldn't do anything. We were completely powerless

to save ourselves. I don't know if you've got

any renovations that need doing around the house.

If you do, you call a handyman, don't you? Or

you fix it yourself. The one thing you don't

do is you don't go to the cemetery. You don't

go to the cemetery and go, oh, well, I'll ask

one of the dead people there to fix some things

up at home for me. I mean, corpses, have you

ever thought about, they can't even bury themselves,

can they? They're very unhelpful. And that's

what this passage is driving home to us. We were

spiritually dead. We can't do anything. We can't

even lift a finger to help ourselves and save

ourselves. But not only that, in verse two and

three, we see that we were slave to Satan's rule.

Did you see it there? We used to live when we

followed the ways of the world and the rule of

the kingdom of the air, the spirit who's now

at work in those who are disobedient. All of

us also lived among them at one time, gratifying

the cravings of our flesh. Do you know, what's

it mean to be demonic? Does it mean that you

sit there with a Ouija board and pentagrams?

I mean, that's one way. But this passage is saying

to us, if you are demonic, you're someone who,

you could be someone who works hard in a white

collar job, you love your wife and kids, you

kiss your wife goodbye as you go off to work,

you do very well in your job, you act fairly

kindly and nicely to people and honest. and you

drive home and you don't road rage on the road,

but you live your life ignoring God. That's satanic.

You do what you want. It might even be fairly

aligned with some Christian values, but you do

what you want following your desires, your sinful

desires. You're actually under Satan's rule.

And because we're all like this, we are justly

facing a collision course with God's wrath. Do

you see it in verse three? We're following its

desires and thoughts like the rest we were by

nature deserving of wrath. Because we've spent

our lives ignoring God, we've taken the crown

off God's head and put it on our own and said,

I'm in charge. I mean, that's a coup against

the creator of the universe. And because of that,

we're facing judgment. We're facing eternal agony.

It's awful. And Jesus doesn't mince His words.

He says it's awful. I mean, in the gospels, He

talks about how it's better to amputate a piece

of your body if it causes you to sin than to

go into judgment. I mean, in the Gospels he uses

metaphors that can barely describe how awful

this judgment will be. It's awful. In Enfield,

Connecticut in 1741, revival broke out. And it

broke out as a preacher named Jonathan Edwards

preached a sermon called, Sinners in the Hands

of an Angry God. It's a famous sermon. It's got

a vivid description in it that humans, sinners,

that we're like spiders dangling from a flimsy

web and God is like a man who picks up that web

wanting to rid his house of such creatures and

he picks up the web and he carries the spider

over to the fire. We had a mouse in our toilet

the other day so I can kind of resonate with

that. You don't want stuff like that in your

house. But then Edwards makes us feel the weight

of our situation by describing it like this.

Here's what he says. Again, these are hard words,

but they're what we need to hear. He says, Oh

sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in.

It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless

pit, full of the fire of wrath that you were

held over in the hand of that God whose wrath

is provoked and incensed as much against you

as against many of the damned in hell. You hang

by a slender thread with the flames of derriere

and wrath flashing about it and ready every moment

to singe it and burn it asunder and you have

no interest in any mediator and nothing to lay

hold of to save yourself. Nothing to keep off

the flames of wrath. Nothing of your own. Nothing

that you have ever done. Nothing that you can

do to induce God to spare you one moment. And

then he goes on. You think that's heavy enough.

Look at this. He says, Your wickedness makes

you, as it were, heavy as lead, and to tend downwards

with great weight and pressure towards hell.

And if God should let you go, you would immediately

sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the

bottomless gulf. And your healthy constitution

and your own care and prudence and your best

contravance and all your righteousness would

have no more influence to uphold you and keep

you out of hell than a spider's web would have

to stop a falling rock. It's intense, isn't it?

It's hard to hear, but it's what we need to hear.

All of us are in that boat. We're all in the

same boat. If you grew up going to church, If

you're kinder and more moral than most of your

friends, if you're a Jew or a Gentile, if you're

from any background, anywhere, no matter what

you've done, this is you, this is me. This is

what we're all facing because we ignore the creator

of the universe and try and run our lives without

him in it. Now, if you're hearing this and you

want to instantly write it off and go, Brendan,

that's not true, you know, stop being a fear

monger. I mean, consider this. Have you thought

through the implications? If hell is not true,

there's no grand justice or purpose in the universe,

is it? I want to ask you, what's the alternative?

Or consider that we're sinners. I mean, every,

we're people, we know we're We all have a dark

side. One of the things I love that I think is

unique to Christianity is how raw and real Christianity

is about our dark side. If you're sitting there

and you're going, no, Brendan, I don't want to

hear this stuff. You're a fear mongerer. Please

don't just write me off. Don't just ghost me.

Come and do coffee with me. Let's talk this stuff

through. It's important. But if you're here today

and you're a Christian, I've got something for

you too. Grace won't feel amazing if you can't

see how lost you were. It just won't. And it's

so important that we regularly remember what

we were facing. Play it out in your head now

and again. Okay. If God's grace had never interrupted

my life, what would have happened to me? I would

have kept going in my sin and one day I would

have stood there before Him with no argument,

no plea, and I would have been condemned forever.

I was following Satan like he was the Pied Piper.

I was following him to hell, to pain that I could

never imagine. And as you remember that, pray.

Father, help me to see where sin was taking me.

Help me to see how amazing Your grace is that

it saved me from all of that. That will make

grace feel amazing again. But that's not all

we need to see. We've seen the bad news, but

here's the good news. We were hopelessly lost,

but... God met every need. Every need. Think

of a Swiss Army knife. What's the deal with a

Swiss Army knife? Great gift for Father's Day,

if anyone at home is thinking that. It's got

a blade, it's got scissors, it's a bottle opener,

it's got all the gadgets in it, doesn't it? It's

like the knife is trying to meet your every need

for every possible situation, isn't it? And God's

grace is like that. It's a spiritual Swiss army

knife. It meets your every need, no matter who

you are or what you've done. Come with me to

verse four. But, I had a preacher friend of mine

who every time he preached this, he'd always

say, I like big butts and I cannot lie. This

is the best butt, isn't it? But because of His

great love for us, God who is rich in mercy,

God has done something. When we couldn't do anything,

God took the initiative. He stepped in. He did

something. Because He loved us. And what did

He do? He made us alive with Christ, even when

we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace

you have been saved. and God raised us up with

Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly

realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming

ages he might show the incomparable riches of

his grace express in his kindness to us in Christ

Jesus. Now, did you spot the connections that

these verses had with the previous three verses

that we looked at? See, we had all these needs.

We were hopelessly lost but God has met our every

need. So here's what they were. We were dead

in our sins and what did God do? He made us alive

with Christ. We were following the ruler of the

air. We were slaves to Satan's lies but now we're

seated in the heavenly realms. Why seated? Well

because when you're sitting on a throne that's

what you do isn't it? Jesus is sitting on the

throne. And you sit down when you're done, don't

you? Well, Jesus has done His work. He died on

the cross to save us. It's done. It's paid for.

That's why He's seated in the heavenly realms.

And then we were deserving of wrath. We were

on a collision course with God's wrath. That's

what we were facing. God's judgment. But now

we look forward to incomparable riches. Riches

so good that they don't compare with anything.

that we have in this world. God has been unimaginably

kind and generous to us. He's provided for our

every spiritual need. And He did it by uniting

us to Christ. What happened to Jesus happens

to us. We were dead, but we've had a spiritual

resurrection. We're made alive. We were under

Satan's rule. Now we're seated with just like

Jesus is spiritually and when Jesus experienced

wrath for us, but he's going to experience incomparable

riches on that day of judgment and so are we.

God saved us when we couldn't save ourselves

because he united us to Christ. When we lived

in Geraldton years ago, we were a couple of hours

from Kalbarri National Park, an amazing national

park. But now and again, you'd hear of people

getting lost out there. Some would even die.

And it was wonderful when you'd hear the good

news that someone who was lost had been rescued.

Here's what it looks like. It's a beautiful place.

In 2017, I remember reading about two women who

got lost out there without food or water. And

emergency services found them the next day. They

were cold, but they were found. They had the

police helicopter scanning over, looking for

them. And what do you think they did when they

found them? Do you think they just put them in

the helicopter and took them back? No. I bet

they were cold, so they would have put a blanket

on them. They would have been thirsty and hungry,

so they would have given them a bottle of water

and a snack. They would have done everything

to meet a whole range of their needs. Because

that's what good rescuers do, don't they? And

it's the same with God's rescue by grace. It's

not just that Jesus bore our punishment and took

our sins on himself and took God's wrath on himself

It's that he made us alive. It's that he raised

us up. It's that he gives us future riches You

know grace stops feeling amazing when you lose

sight of what you have Our gaze can get so focused

on pain and problems we have now that we forget

to stop and smell the spiritual roses once in

a while. We've got to be good, like consistent

and solid at looking at how much God has given

us. Consider the cost of the cross and consider

all the wonderful benefits that the cross has

brought you. Think about how different your life

is now. How wonderful eternity will be because

of what Jesus has done. And do that every week.

Actually, not even every week, every day. We

should gaze at what we have and thank God for

it. Let me ask you, when will you do that in

your day? Have you got a set time? that you try

and go, yes, I'm just gonna spend, even if it's

five minutes, I'm just gonna spend time thinking

about God's grace and how much I have because

of it. Maybe you wanna put it in your calendar

now, I don't know. But there's one more aspect

to grace that we need to see if we're gonna see

and feel how amazing it is. And here's the last

one. God met our every need. after we were hopelessly

lost. But here's the thing, all of this was undeserved.

All of it was undeserved. Come with me to verse

eight. For it is by grace you have been saved,

through faith. And this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works, not by your

performance, so that no one can boast. For we

are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to

do good works which God prepared in advance for

us to do So your salvation if you're here and

you're a Christian and you're saved do you know

who to blame? It's God's fault It's not your

own doing that includes the salvation the grace

the faith all of it It's God's fault that you're

saved He gets all the credit for saving you You

didn't earn it. Even the good works you do now

as a response to God's grace. That's what Christians

should do. We should respond to God's grace and

go, thank you God, I want to please you now by

doing good works. But even that, it's not something

you earn. It's not that you somehow earn God's

grace. No, no, that's God's workmanship. You

know, God's whittled you into something more

and more looking like Jesus because His grace

saved you. We have nothing to brag in or boast

about. Well, actually, that's not true, is it?

There's one thing we have to brag in and boast

about, God's incredible grace. Our best efforts

do nothing, but what a God we have. Salvation

is completely from Him. I don't know if you heard

about it, but a week ago in California, there

were conditions out at the beach that were just

incredibly rough. 10 -foot waves, strong rips,

and people still went to the beach, of course.

But there was a 10 -year -old boy out there who

got knocked over by one of the waves, hit his

head on the sand, and he got knocked out and

swept out to sea. And there was a young rookie

lifeguard who was only 16 who saw this happen,

a guy named Ryder Williams. And he swam out and

saved this 10 -year -old boy. Now the 10 -year

-old boy did nothing, did he? He was a goner

if it weren't for Ryder. It was someone else

doing it. It was Ryder willing to put himself

in harm's way, giving of himself that saved this

little boy. And it's the same for us. God's grace

is all his generosity. It's all unearned. It's

a gift. It's kindness that cost him. The only

thing we contribute to our salvation is our sin.

Now, where does this need to land for us? That

God's grace is undeserved? Well, grace won't

feel amazing if we believe we're entitled to

it. Grace won't feel amazing if you believe you're

entitled to it. One of the reasons Christians

should daily confess their sins to God is doing

so keeps you humble. It reminds you that You

didn't get what you deserved. You got better

than that. You got mercy and grace. When we stop

and pause and pray and realise how many sins

we've done, how even how good works are so tainted

by selfish motivations. And then we see that

God has forgiven us and loved us and treated

us way better than we possibly deserved. It moves

us to gratitude and appreciation, doesn't it?

God gets the credit for my salvation. He loved

me when I didn't deserve it. And I need to keep

seeing how undeserved His love truly is. All

right, let's wrap up. We started by asking, What

should we do when grace stops feeling amazing?

And the answer we saw was this. Grace feels amazing

when you stop to appreciate its beauty. Grace

feels amazing when you stop to appreciate its

beauty. And we looked at three aspects to the

beauty of God's grace. We were hopelessly lost,

but God met our every need. And all of this was

undeserved. Okay, but how should this affect

us? Well, that depends on who you are. Some of

us here are like Greg prior to his conversion.

You remember Greg at the start? If you're like

Greg prior to his conversion, you haven't yet

received an experience God's forgiveness, love

and grace. And if that's you, come have a chat

with me. If you've got questions, if you're going,

Brendan, I think you're horrible and I want to

tell you how wrong you are. Okay, cool. Let's

do it over coffee. I'm even happy to do it now.

Come talk to me. I'd love to talk to you about

it. Don't put it off. Because I reckon this is

if you trust in God's grace, this is the best

thing that will ever happen to you. Will you

put off something that could change your life

forever? Come have a chat with me. But some of

you here today are like Greg after his conversion,

and whether you're new to Christianity and it's

all recent and you're going, wow, this is amazing,

or maybe you're an old hand and you've been a

Christian for a long time, but you're still joyful

and blown away by God's grace. If that's you,

keep plumbing the depths of God's grace. Keep

going. It's inexhaustible. You could spend eternity

mining into God's grace and you'd never reach

the bottom. Don't stop. The more you dig, the

better it gets. And it's so important that you

do. Because you know what drives everything in

the Christian life? God's grace. What makes a

Christian praise God authentically and gladly?

God's grace. What makes a Christian joyfully

obey God's will? God's grace. They're thankful

for it. What makes a Christian share the gospel

with their co -workers and with their friends?

You know, I want you to know about Jesus. I'm

going to tell you, even if it's awkward, what

makes them do that is... They see how great God's

grace is. Grace will strengthen, satisfy, and

drive you. But we need to keep digging into it

for that to happen. But some of us here are like

Jasmine. We've stopped appreciating the beauty

and the wonder of God's grace, even though we

are Christians. And in part it's because life

is hard and we're tired and frustrated and maybe

we're hurting about some things going on in our

life. But the main culprit, if I'm honest, is

that familiarity has bred contempt. We've taken

grace for granted. Now what's the solution then?

If familiarity breeds contempt, should I just

not be familiar with God's grace? No. The solution

is to be curious and appreciative of God's grace.

It's getting more familiar with God's grace,

but in a positive way, with fresh eyes trying

to see it again and again. How do you do that?

Well, I've tried to show you a bit of that today.

You've got to remember what you were, what you

were facing. Remember and see what you have and

also see what it is that you deserve. And try

and picture and imagine those things. You know,

God's given us a wonderful gift of imagination.

Try and think of illustrations and pictures that

just help you take to heart God's grace. Maybe

read Ephesians 2, 1 to 10 again and again. Just

do it for a week. You don't have to, you know,

okay, well I've read Ephesians 2, 1 to 10 today

and now I'm going to go to Ephesians 2, 11. No,

you... You can read the same passage again and

again so it sinks in. Read it slowly, read it

carefully, read it prayerfully. Get regular praying

to see the beauty of God's grace. Ask God that

you'd see more of it. Thank God regularly for

it. Confess your sins to God and give him great

praise for his forgiveness. And if you're still

struggling, tell a friend, tell a Christian friend,

tell your growth group leader, come talk to me.

But find ways to see grace again with fresh eyes.

One of my favourites, and I've shared it before,

is that beautiful book by Tony Reinke, Newton

on the Christian Life. I love it, it's a good

one. And I know there's some of you here today

who've started reading it and are loving it too.

But don't let yourself stay in a place where

grace feels meh. Take the time to marvel at it,

to savour it, because nothing is more amazing,

precious, sweet or beautiful. Know it and treasure

it until your heart sings joyfully again. And

seek to do this all the days of your life until

you breathe your last breath. I'll close with

this. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, is

an incredible man with an incredible story. He

was a captain of a slave trading ship. Just like

Stephen talked about, he was dealing with human

trafficking. And John Newton did some appalling

evil things. Things that you'd think were unforgivable.

But in a storm one night, he cried out to God,

which was just the most unbelievable and amazing

thing that someone like him would. And God's

grace saved him. He started reading the Bible.

He started seeing how loved he was by Jesus.

And it transformed his life. So much so that

he wrote not just amazing grace, but so many

other incredible hymns. He became a pastor. He

started working in the abolishment of the slave

trade. He did some amazing things. But at the

heart of it all was that he spent his whole life

remembering and clinging to God's grace. When

he was asked what he could still remember is

his mind started to fade. His last words were,

These two things I still remember. I am a great

sinner, but Christ is a great Saviour. I want

to cherish grace so much till the day I die that

I can say those same words too. I hope you will

too. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

so much for your grace. And we ask, Father, please

help us to see its beauty, to see its wonder.

Give us soft hearts that would receive it, cherish

it, and love it. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.