Praising Our God - Brendan Hurley - 19th July 2026

If you've got your Bibles open at Ephesians 1,

that'd be great. Let's pray. Let's ask God to

help us as we look at His Word now. Father, please

speak to us through Your Word. Please minister

to our pain. Please give us peace and lead us

to praise You. We ask this in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Let me just sort this out, there we go. Well,

can you think of the hardest year of your life?

Can you think what would be the hardest year

of your life? For me, it was 2024. We were living

in Broken Hill at the time, and in that one year,

we had so much go wrong in that one year, I just

couldn't believe it. So in that year we had Laura

had some really bad burnout where she was just

knocked around for weeks on end. It was awful.

I found out, I got a phone call later, a couple

of weeks later actually from my dad, that he

had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. That

year both my grandparents died. And I remember

later in the year Laura said to me, I think I've

got a spider bite on my shoulder. Can you have

a look at it? Turns out she had shingles. I then,

because I'd never had chicken pox before, I got

chicken pox from that. Later in the year I went

to a conference. While I was away, Laura and

the kids all got gastro. And then at the year's

end we had 13 people leave our church. When you're

in a small country church of about 30 to 40 people,

that's a big deal. And it was very hard. It felt

like a lot of straws on the camel's back and

that the camel's back was about to break. And

church sometimes can be especially rough because

you can share with other people how you're going

and sometimes people just don't get it. They

put their foot in their mouth and say the wrong

thing. Sometimes you're there and you're seeing

people praising God with full gusto and joy,

and you're there going, I don't really want to

right now, I'm kind of angry. I don't know, have

you ever gone through seasons like that? How

do you cope? Not only how do you cope, how do

you thrive? How do you thrive with joy? One man

who did was Horatio Spafford. He was living in

Chicago in the 1870s. In 1871, the Chicago fire

reduced a lot of his investments to ash. It was

a big, serious thing for him. In 1873, his family

decided to go on a holiday to Europe, and Horatio

was going to go with them, but some work stuff

came up, and so he ended up staying home. he'd

go along later and catch up with them. Well,

sadly, the ship they were on crashed, his wife

survived, but his four daughters all died. And

so going on the ship to Europe to be with his

wife, to comfort her, he sat on the ship and

he wrote a hymn. It is well with my soul. and

amazing him, all about the peace and joy that

is found in Jesus that leads us to praise him.

And I sit there and I go, how do you do that?

To find such peace in such immense pain, to find

such peace and joy that it leads you to praise

God. How do you do that? Well, we see the answer

in our passage. As we read Ephesians, we've got

to remember Paul isn't writing this letter at

the, you know, Crystal Brook Riley or something

like that, sitting there with cocktails beachside

by a pool. He's in chains. He's suffering. It's

painful and shameful. It'd be very disheartening

for him. I mean, he had a mission from Jesus

to go take the gospel to the Gentiles. And there

he is now in chains. Be easy to feel pretty despondent.

I mean, if I was in his situation and I was there

writing to the Ephesians, I'd probably start

my letter with, hey guys, pray for me and send

the extraction team, you know? I'd be like, please

do something. But that's not how Paul starts

his letter. Look at how he starts the letter

in verse three. Praise be to the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us

in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing

in Christ. How can he say that? He's been beaten,

mocked, he's in chains, and he's praising God.

Lord, I bless you. That's what he's saying. He's

honouring God. He's praising God. He's delighting

in God. How do you do that? How do you do that

when you're going through such pain? Well, today

I want to show you it's by seeing this. It's

by seeing that God's given us every spiritual

blessing so we should always praise Him. That's

what we need to see. God's given us every spiritual

blessing. He's emptied out his wallet. There's

nothing left spiritually that God can give us.

It's all been given to us in Christ. And that's

why we should always praise Him. We've been blessed

with the best. So these blessings, they give

us peace and joy. And this peace and joy should

go so deep that we praise God. even in the most

dark and painful moments. We see this in the

structure of our passage. So in our passage,

it starts with, praise be to the God and Father,

and as you go through, you notice that there's

this little bit about praise as we hit each member

of the Trinity. So it starts with, praise be

to the God and Father, and then in verse six,

it's to the praise of His glorious grace, and

then it shifts to the Son. And then it goes in

verse 12 to the praise of His glory and then

it shifts to the Holy Spirit and then it finishes

with the Holy Spirit to the praise of His glory.

So in the structure we're meant to be praising

the Trinitarian God. The Trinitarian God is working

as a team to bless us. And so that shapes what

this passage is all about. Here's what it's about.

Three things. Praise God the Father for choosing

us. Praise God the Son for redeeming us and praise

God the Spirit for sealing us. These are the

three things we need to see, the blessings we

have in Christ that lead us to praise Him. So

let's look at the first one. Praise God the Father

for choosing us. Come with me to verses three

to six. who has blessed us in the heavenly realms

with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For

he chose us in him before the creation of the

world, to be holy and blameless in his sight.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship

through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his

pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious

grace which he has freely given us in the one

he loves. So it's saying that we've been chosen,

we've been predestined and that this adoption

we have is God's will. Christians were chosen

by God before they ever chose God. Before they

even contemplated choosing Him. He chose you.

Your conversion, do you know who to blame for

it? It's God's fault. It's God's fault that you're

saved. It's God's fault that you're... converted.

We were dead in our sins. We couldn't do anything.

We couldn't even lift a finger to help ourselves.

It's God who chose us, who chose to save us.

And it's not that God used a big telescope, you

know, that God looked down this giant telescope

of time and he went, oh, okay, they're the ones

who are going to choose me. I'll choose them.

No, it's that God chose us. before the world

began. He chose us so that it's His grace, it's

His mercy. I mean, what a privilege. We've been

chosen not just to be saved, but to be adopted.

Did you see that? We're adopted into God's family.

We're loved by Him. He chose us to be part of

His family. It can't get any better than that,

can it? A couple of years ago, we added two new

members to our family. It was Jake's birthday,

and we went out and bought two guinea pigs. I

can't even remember their names. It shows that

we're good parents. But we adopted them. And

I remember I went to buy these two guinea pigs.

I think one of them was, what was it, fluffy?

Snowy and muddy. There we go. Snowy and muddy.

Here's my criteria. As we went out, we looked

around. This lady had like 60 guinea pigs in

her backyard. It was pretty hectic. But I'm looking

at all these guinea pigs and I'm trying to choose

which one would be fluffiest. That was the thing.

That was my criteria. Which one would be the

fluffiest guinea pig, the most cuddly? Because

then they can have the privilege of being ours,

you know, a nice cage and a playpen and food,

you know, but they had to be the fluffiest. We

didn't want any sort of shaggy raggy, no, you

had to be fluffy. But that's not how God does

it, is it? He doesn't go to the lady's backyard

and go, well, there's some people there. Oh,

yeah, they're really nice and awesome. I'm going

to choose them. No, he chooses the undeserving.

and then treats them as if they were his own

son. His adoption is full of mercy and undeserved

love, and it's all his choice. He doesn't go,

who's the fluffiest? He goes, I will choose whoever

I want to choose. And it will always be by grace.

Isn't that amazing? And here's the thing, when

you see that, when you take that to heart, it's

so powerful. especially in our deepest pain.

I mean, let's say as a kid, you had your dad

abandon you as a kid. I mean, that's going to

take a psychological toll on you, isn't it? But

if you're a Christian, you have a father who

chose you, who loves you so deeply, who's adopted

you. That's so incredibly healing, isn't it?

Or maybe you're there and you're plagued by doubt.

What if I fall away and your nails, you have

no nails because you've just bitten them off

so much, you know, you're so stressed about doubt

and you know what? You've got a father who's

holding onto you tighter than you're ever holding

onto him. He's chosen you. He won't lose any

one of his children. And it also keeps us humble.

You know, some Christians have this arrogant

swagger about them. Oh, yes, well, I chose Jesus.

You know, I'm better than that person down the

road because I chose Jesus. No, you only chose

Jesus because God chose you. You've got nothing

to boast in. It keeps you humble and grounded.

Now I know things like predestination and God

choosing us and Him being sovereign over everything.

There are tricky questions that flow out of this.

But I want to say to you, don't avoid the trickiness.

Thinking these things through is awesome. It

gives you great joy and security. Have a look

at what Article 17 of the Anglican Prayer Book

says. It says this, the godly consideration of

predestination and our election in Christ is

full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort.

It's awesome to think these things through. So

I want to ask you today, have you experienced

this comfort? You won't if you never ponder these

things and absorb them deeply within. Maybe as

you're in the car sometime this week, why don't...

chew over these things, chew over these verses,

maybe listen to a podcast on them and consider

how good it is to be chosen by God. But it's

not just the Father choosing us that gives us

peace and joy that leads to praise. The work

of the Son does that too and that's the next

thing we need to see this morning. Praise God

the Father for choosing us but here's the second

thing, praise God the Son for redeeming us. Have

a look with me at verses 7 to 12. In him we have

redemption through his blood, the forgiveness

of sins in accordance with the riches of God's

grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom

and understanding he made known to us the mystery

of his will according to his good pleasure which

he purposed in Christ. to be put into effect

when the times reach their fulfillment, to bring

to unity all things in heaven and on earth under

Christ. In Him we were also chosen, having been

predestined according to the plan of Him who

works out everything in conformity with the purpose

of His will, in order that we who were the first

to put our hope in Christ might be for the praise

of His glory. Now, how rich a blessing is this

that we have in Jesus? We have redemption and

forgiveness. Think Israel, when they're there

in slavery in Egypt, slavery under Pharaoh, and

what happens? God sends the plagues and the Passover

lamb, the Passover lamb who dies, so that God's

judgment would pass over Israel, and they end

up being freed. And that's like what Jesus does

with us. He's freed us from sin. He's our Passover

lamb who's died so that God's judgment would

pass over us. He paid the ultimate price like

a ransom to rescue us and He's forgiven us fully

of all our sins. And not only that, we know God's

plan. If you're a Christian, you know where the

universe is going. You know that all things are

going to be united in Christ. We live in a fragney

verse at the moment, not a universe. It's fragmented

by sin and brokenness. But we know that it's

all going to be united one day in Jesus. And

we've been chosen, we've been made heirs, we've

got an allotment for an inheritance. Our inheritance

is going to be that universe. That's our hope,

is that we get to share in the new creation with

Jesus. Jesus, God the Son, won all this by His

death on the cross. He suffered horribly. He

suffered hell on the cross so that all this could

be yours. I might have mentioned before about

John Paul Getty. He was an oil tycoon and many

years ago his grandson got kidnapped and the

kidnappers demanded a $17 million ransom. He

refused to pay. John Paul Getty was a very stingy

man and so they sent the severed ear of his grandson

to him. You'd think at that point you'd go, all

right, all right, I'll pay. No, he proceeded

to negotiate with them until he negotiated them

down to 2 .2 million dollars. That's just messed

up, isn't it? But contrast that with Jesus, who

gives his life as a ransom for us. He endured

the worst pain imaginable. He was willing to

pay any cost. to bear God's wrath for us. You're

free from sin. One day you'll enter the promised

land and it's all because Jesus paid that for

you. Isn't that awesome? Now if you see that

Jesus has done that for you, if you take that

to heart, You're going to feel incredibly loved,

aren't you, no matter what circumstances you're

going through. Horatio Spafford, I reckon the

best verse in the whole hymn of It Is Well With

My Soul is this one. He says, my sin, oh the

bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in

part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and

I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the

Lord, oh my soul. Despite everything he went

through, in the horrors of the fires, losing

so much of his wealth, in the horrors of losing

his four daughters, he could still write that

and sing that. Because he could still see how

loved he was in Jesus and how blessed he was

in him. And it's the same for us. All our sin

has been paid for. We have this glorious hope

in Jesus of eternal life. We know we're saved.

I want you to think of those dark times where

you've been crushed by guilt or overwhelmed by

the hopelessness and despair of horrible circumstances.

The sort of times that keep you up at 3 a .m.

at night and your hearts in absolute anguish.

And it just feels like you've run out of tears.

Well, it's these realities, these realities here

that will comfort you and calm you in those times.

It's when you draw to your mind, oh yes, I'm

redeemed and I'm forgiven. I can't out sin the

Saviour. When you let that sink in, it changes

your outlook. Or when something's going horribly

wrong with your health, with your work, with

your marriage, with your kids, whatever it is,

you can go, oh, that's right, I know where it's

all going. I know that one day I'm going to be

part of that united universe of glory in Jesus.

I know where it's headed. This is not the last

word on things. I'm going to keep remembering

that. See, when we're in guilt, when our circumstances

are, painful, whatever it might be, we've got

to take our eyes off those things and lift them

on to Jesus. To see again the blessings we have

in Christ, not just the dark times, but to see

what we have in Him. And to see it not just in

the dark times, but all the time that we have

that in Him. That's the key to peace and joy

in the Christian life. But there's one more way

in which we are incredibly blessed that we need

to see. Here's the third way. Praise God the

Son for redeeming us, and here's the third thing,

praise God the Spirit for sealing us. Have a

look with me at verses 13 to 14. And you also

were included in Christ when you heard the message

of truth, the gospel of your salvation. when

you believed you were marked in Him with a seal,

the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing

our inheritance until the redemption of those

who are God's possession to the praise of His

glory." So you've been marked with a seal, you've

got a deposit. It's trying to fill us with confidence

here that these blessings are ours, that we belong

to God. And more than that, there are four tastes

of the spiritual blessings that are ours in eternity.

In Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit, and He transforms

us so that we more and more reflect heaven's

glory. God's Spirit is the entrée of glory. He's

the deposit that confirms that glory is ours.

Over the years, Laura and I have bought and sold

a few different houses in Perth and then in Broken

Hill, and now we're living here. And you start

to get a feel for the whole process of buying

a house. When you buy a house, you get to that

watershed moment. I find it stresses me out to

no end. It's that point where you place the deposit.

Because when you place the deposit, it's kind

of like there's no going back after that, isn't

there? You only do it if you're really keen.

Here, take my $50 ,000, take my $100 ,000, because

we really want this place. And if you back out,

oh boy, that's like, no, too much is invested,

I'm going to buy it even if it falls apart, you

know. Well, God's Spirit is like that. You know,

God giving you His Spirit shows that God is invested

in you. that He's committed to getting you to

glory. He's giving you a taste, a down payment

of glory in His Spirit so that you can know,

yes, glory will be mine one day. And the amazing

thing God's Spirit does as we believe the Gospel

is He uses the things that we're going through

in our life, our suffering, to refine us. to

make us more like Jesus, to make us more joyful.

That's part of what the down payment is about.

We can be heavenly people even in hellish suffering.

I think back to a dear friend of mine in Geraldton

who had one of the hardest lives I'd ever seen.

Her daughter had been hit by a car. at a very

young age and she spent much of her life caring

for her daughter. And people, she copped it from

people and people blamed her for that and all

sorts of things. It was just horrible. It wasn't

her fault at all. But this lovely woman was so

caring and kind. Immensely generous. And you'd

think suffering like that would make you bitter

and resentful. But with her it didn't. It made

her loving and heavenly. Because God's Spirit

kept her through that suffering and even used

it to make her more like Jesus. And God's Spirit

does that with all God's people. Sometimes our

suffering, especially chronic suffering, just

tears us down and makes us want to give up. But

that's why we need to keep our eyes fixed on

the blessings we have in Christ. That's why we

need to occasionally look in the rear view mirror

and go, wow, I've been through this suffering

for ages and God's Spirit has kept me through

this and has moulded me into something different

through this. Isn't that amazing? And that gives

you the confidence to keep going, that God will

lead you to glory. We need to try and see our

pain not just as an obstacle, but as an opportunity.

An opportunity to grow in Christ -likeness and

joy, and to grow in our confidence that glory

is truly ours. Do you stop and see things like

that when you're in pain? I find it hard. It's

so easy to focus on the pain, isn't it? But I

forget to focus on the blessings in Christ. Well,

let's wrap up. We started by asking, how can

we have peace and joy in immense pain? Such peace

and joy that it leads us to praise God in the

pain. And the answer we saw was the blessings

given to us by the Trinitarian God. We praise

God the Father for choosing us. We praise God

the Son for redeeming us, and we praise God the

Spirit for sealing us. And here's the overarching

thing, the big key to all of this. God's given

us every spiritual blessing, so we should always

praise Him. God's given us every spiritual blessing,

so we should always praise Him. Now, how does

this apply to our lives, our daily lives, you

know, what you're going to do today and tomorrow

morning? Well, for some of us here, we don't

actually have these blessings. Some of us aren't

yet Christians. And if that's you, I want to

ask you, do you want to keep living without these

amazing blessings? And I hope the answer is no.

And if the answer is no, if you want these blessings,

here's what you do. If you're ready to turn to

Jesus, come have a chat with me after church.

I'll pray with you. I'll be up at the info point.

Come and pray with me and I'll walk you through

it. And if you're not ready, go on a quest to

work it out. Work out what you need answered

to make a decision. It's the best decision you'll

ever make. And again, you can come chat with

me at the info point. I'm very happy to talk

you through that. But for those of us who are

here who already trust in Jesus, who received

these blessings long ago, our danger is that

we forget them. I mean, it's easy normally, but

especially in suffering, it's just so easy to

suffer from spiritual amnesia, isn't it? to stop

remembering Christ and all the blessings He's

given us, all the benefits He's given us, and

we rob ourselves of deep joy, peace, and security

if we forget these blessings. Now if you had

to remember something, if you had to remember

anything, how do you go about it? You know, Laura

often says to me, Can you go to the shops and

get, you know, milk, bread and cheese? And I'll

go to the shops and I'll go, what was I getting?

Tacos? Meat? Like, I have a terrible memory.

So what do I have to do? I put reminders in my

phone. Sometimes to remember things I put a post

-it note on the mirror or on my desk. I rehearse

things in the car. I do those things so that

I remember things that are important. Well, these

blessings are so important. We need to find ways

to rehearse them, to remind ourselves of them.

What way could you do that? See, we need to do

it because they change how we see everything,

how we see ourselves, how we see God, how we

see our circumstances. And when we take them

to heart, not only does it give us joy, peace

and security, it makes us want to praise God.

We need them to reshape our perspective. Will

you find ways to remember these blessings? Yet

with all that said, I want to give two words

of caution. We need to make sure we feel our

pain before we reframe things and see these blessings.

If we don't feel our pain first, if we don't

allow ourselves that process to feel the pain

of our circumstances and our suffering, do you

know what our feelings are like? They're like

a tourist in another country who doesn't get

heard. You know what they do? Do you take card?

And they don't speak English, and so they go,

I know, I'll just try louder. Do you take card?

And that's what tourists in other countries do

when they're misheard, don't they? Our feelings

are like that. If we don't let them be heard,

they will just speak louder and louder and louder.

So we need to allow ourselves to feel our pain,

but then we reframe. We go to these wonderful

truths and let them reshape our perspective.

So make sure you do that process. Allow yourself

to feel the pain and then reframe. My second

word of caution is we mustn't use this passage

like a baseball bat. Be very easy to go around

with this passage and go, oh there's someone

suffering, I'm going to use it to remind them

of their blessings, you know. No, we're to weep

with those who weep, we mourn with those who

mourn. We need to use these truths but use them

sensitively. Otherwise we might push people away

from the comfort. that these wonderful blessings

give. So let's sit with people, let's sit with

them in their pain and when the time is right,

gently remind them of the blessings they have

in Christ. And we need to because these blessings

are so good. They were for me, especially in

that awful year back in 2024. They were a lifeline

when I was drowning in pain. And better than

that, they've provided unimaginable joy, peace

and security throughout my whole Christian life.

Actually, joy, peace and security that's so good,

it leads me to want to praise God. But again,

I so easily forget. I suffer from spiritual amnesia.

And so I need to keep these blessings at the

forefront of my mind. And I think we all do,

don't we? So let's pray that we would. Heavenly

Father, we thank you so much for the amazing

blessings you've given us in Christ. Sometimes

we don't have material blessings, sometimes our

life and our circumstances are incredibly hard.

But we thank you that if we trust in Jesus, we

always have these spiritual blessings. And we

pray, Father, that you would help us to fix our

eyes on them. to find great peace, joy, and security

in them, and that we would see how good they

are, how rich they are, so much so that it would

lead us to praise, worship, and honour you. And

we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.