Ephesians 1:1-7 // Nick Serban IV

In Ephesians 1:1-7, the message centers on chosen, adopted, and redeemed in christ. Explore Ephesians 1:1–7 and discover the grace, identity, adoption, and redemption believers receive through Jesus Christ. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.

The sermon follows the biblical text into practical discipleship, connecting doctrine with identity, character, and daily obedience. It challenges listeners to examine the assumptions shaping their lives and to allow the truth of Scripture to renew the way they think and respond. The emphasis is not merely on understanding the passage, but on becoming the kind of people whose lives are formed by it.

Along the way, the message engages themes including Ephesians 1:1-7, chosen, adopted, and redeemed in christ. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Ephesians 1:1-7 teach about chosen, adopted, and redeemed in christ? It also considers how should chosen, adopted, and redeemed in christ shape the way Christians live?

For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.

What does Ephesians 1:1-7 teach about chosen, adopted, and redeemed in christ? | How should chosen, adopted, and redeemed in christ shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Ephesians 1:1-7 in everyday life?

Ephesians 1:1-7, chosen, adopted, and redeemed in christ, ephesians 1, 17 grace, redemption receive jesus christ, redeemed in christ

Ephesians 1:1-7, Ephesians 1:18, Psalm 90:14, Psalm 17:14, Psalm 73:25

• Read Transcript

  I'm really excited um that my mom just basically gave me the the greatest layup ever with communion. Um because that's really what we're going to be talking about today as we get into the book of Ephesians. Um Paul came to the city of Ephesus in Acts chapter 19. Ephesus was a a huge city. It was the epicenter of worship uh for most of the Greek and Roman gods at that time. specifically there was a a goddess named Artemis u which we'll talk more about as we get deeper into this series. Um but over two years Paul preached and the the followers of Jesus uh grew in number and uh 7 to 10 years later while he was imprisoned uh by the Romans Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus. And uh it's actually kind of funny because there's a lot of old manuscripts where at when you read the beginning of this um it actually it says, you know, to the church in Ephesus. Um but there's a lot of translations that just say to the saints because this was a letter that wasn't just for the Ephesians, but it was sent out to to many other churches. Uh because it's so so powerful. There's so many things and truths in this. It's arguably Paul's greatest letter in my in my opinion, too. It's it's probably one of the greatest letters uh in the New Testament that Paul writes. It's considered the pinnacle of his teachings uh when it comes to doctrine, understanding of God's character, and really how we should live our lives as believers in the way of Jesus. We've talked about this before. Remember that we weren't called Christians back in the early church. It we were called people of the way and following Jesus. Paul's missionary season in Ephesus would turn this city upside down. From the economy to the political climate, all because of Jesus. There's six chapters in Ephesians. The first three chapters really focus in on the gospel and the person of Jesus. And then the the chapters 4 through six really shows us how the gospel should affect our lives, how we should be living our lives and how a transformed life in Christ can actually change the world. There's something really cool that when when you study this in history and again we're we're going to look at the the goddess of Artemis and all these things that took place within this city. But 400 years after Paul's missionary journey that there is no mention of the goddess of Artemis. They actually etched it out of all of the stone buildings throughout this city. There there were no more gods, idols other than Yahweh. And it was all because of what took place in this moment. And my prayer for you, my prayer for us as a church is that this would literally change our lives because it can. Paul actually prays for the Ephesians that they would get it, that they would understand this in Ephesians 1:18. It says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, that we would become dwelling places for the spirit of God." This is it's an invitation to us to be changed by Jesus with the Holy Spirit active in each and every one of us. And and it's kind of wild to even look at this because it we have to remember that this is a letter to believers. And so when when Paul says this, when he says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened." Have they not already been enlightened because they're already followers of Jesus? have they not already like understood all that God has given them and his grace and all of these things, but he's he's really trying to make a point of remembering like Pastor Kim was talking about. Maybe you grew up in church and a lot of times in church it can become about something other than Jesus. Sometimes it's just a belief system. You happen to grow up in a Christian home. You've heard teachings. You've attended gatherings. But maybe there's something lacking in your life. Maybe you you you said the prayer because you know I I want to go to heaven. Yeah, that's great. But yet there's still something empty. There's still a void that that needs to be filled. Maybe you need help with relationships, marriage, parenting, your job, breaking bad habits, being a better person. Or maybe you just want to be happy. I want to be happy. Nothing wrong with that. Your motivations for pursuing Jesus tend to have multiple aspects to it. And so you come to church, we build relationships. It's really easy to to build relationships with people in church um because we're kind of obligated to love you. [Laughter] Um, you build relationships, you learn some good teaching, you feel good maybe saying some prayers and singing some songs. Lots of things can be going well and we can still miss what Paul is talking about here. What is what is it that we're missing? What are we searching for? Remember Paul before he became Saul, he was a man that persecuted Christians until he met Jesus. And he wasn't a disciple of the 12. Jesus had already ascended to heaven, but Saul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. And from that point on, Saul became Paul and he became a dwelling place for the spirit of God. We actually talked about this in our small groups this last week on how incredible it is that someone who didn't walk with Jesus for 3 years could have such deep understanding of who Jesus is. And and here's what's amazing. That is available to every one of us that we can become a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. I heard I heard one of my buddies talk about this this last week. you know, when when we get to heaven and we're and we're we're looking at and meeting maybe meeting Elijah and Elisha and all these guys like or like Samson or people in the Bible and we we we talk about all the things and miracles that they did and all that they saw and and like wa this is awesome like this is so cool. I mean, obviously we're going to meet Jesus and that's really cool, too. But like, look at all these cool things. Like, you brought fire down from heaven and all these miracles and all this stuff. Like, right? Like, it's going to be so cool. But, but I I wonder if they will look at us and say, "What was it like to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit every single day? What was that like?" Because I didn't get to experience that. But you you you have you have the spirit of God available to you every single day. What was that like to be transformed daily? This is an invitation to us to be changed. Again, it's it's it's so much more than just praying a prayer and and and buying your fire insurance, you know, so you don't go to hell. That there there's something that that wants to to shift inside of you and change you. It's the Holy Spirit. There's so much more that that that God has for us. And and the invitation again is here in his word. And and Paul found this and he's sharing it with us today. And and and so before we before we get to the howto, like we get to chapters four, five, and six, like telling us, you know, how we should live and and the the things that we should do and all these things because I think sometimes we get really focused on all that I need to do. Our hearts need to understand why we're doing it. Our hearts need to understand who Jesus is, what his grace is, and and and and move from that place into doing. He came to the knowledge of Jesus, the person of Jesus, who he is, his plans and desires for us, everything that's found in him. this person of Jesus. Jesus is a person. He's not just somebody in a story book. The teachings of Paul throughout the New Testament all came from this place of him being absolutely obsessed with Jesus. madly in love with this person that Jesus, the spirit of God dwelling inside of him actually transformed him and enlightened him, gave him insight, self-control, peace, and joy that that our obsession with Jesus could actually make the things of this earth unattractive. And this is this is what's what's what's shifting my heart because the more time that I spend with God, the less I want to sin, the less my body is drawn to those things that used to scratch an itch for me or used to do it for me. or the more time, the more that I obsess over Jesus and become a dwelling place for his spirit. It's like the the that song, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth grow strangely dim. Because I I remember, you know, discipling kids in in in youth ministry and one of the things they that they always said is like, I gave my heart to Jesus, but nothing happened. Like, I still I'm still doing the stuff I was doing before, you know? I'm still I'm still sinning. I'm I'm I'm still all these things. Well, this is going to this is the shifting message today that's going to show us the way. Instead of trying to fight sin and bad behaviors in my life, all of a sudden sin doesn't do it for me anymore. I used to maybe love getting drunk, pornography, getting high, gossiping, or maybe you you obsess over making money, making plans, social media, sports, celebrities, horoscopes, politics, your own image. It's all you can think about. We obsess over these things. But when we realize that the treasure that we have in the person of Jesus and behold him in our hearts, he changes us and all that other stuff just begins to fade away. When we we begin to know the grace of God, sin no longer thrills us. Because let me say this, Jesus didn't die to save us so that we could keep on sinning. His death and resurrection gave us the invitation and the opportunity to experience the transformative power of God's love and grace right now and and actually to be satisfied in him. Satisfied when when when the world is is constantly telling you it's not enough, it's not enough. You're not enough. You don't have enough. All these things we can be satisfied in Jesus. In Psalm 90:14 it says, "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad in all our days." Don't you want to be glad in all your days? Is this is this satisfaction possible? Because I think sometimes we've made it really complicated that the God of the universe loves us and he desires us and and desires for us to be satisfied in him. He's not playing games up in heaven with like stick and carrot. Like come on, come on. Like that's this isn't his desire is for us to encounter him every single day and be changed by him and become him and be satisfied. again. Maybe we've said a prayer. We've asked Jesus to be Lord of our lives because we wanted things to change and we wanted things to get better and we wanted to be fulfilled. But maybe you feel unsatisfied with your faith. Or maybe there's there's an area of your faith that there that you're not satisfied with or that you feel like there's there's something more here or you're not comprehending or you're not getting it or you're not feeling it. Maybe Jesus isn't enough. Maybe he's we start to have these thoughts. Maybe he's not enough. Maybe maybe he's just good for some good, you know, self-help teaching. I'm I'm I'm seeing that all over social media right now. All these guys saying, I'm I'm I'm done with the church. I'm I'm I'm I'm I I think Jesus is cool and his teachings are really great, but like I'm not doing all this weird faith stuff. And I think the big struggle especially for for this area that we live in, many of us are already satisfied with life. In Psalm 17:14, it says, "From men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You filled their womb with treasure. They're satisfied with children and they leave their abundance to their infants." And this is maybe why many of us don't get it. Sometimes in life we idolize family, even in the church. And this again, this isn't a rebuke. Just hear me. But when having a nice life by the world's standards, the white picket fence, the newer car, the 401k, and the retirement fund, the pension all ready for you, being successful and retiring in a good neighborhood with the will and trust all set up. So then your this child gets this, this child gets that, like all the things like your whole life starts to look pretty sweet and and pretty great and you're satisfied. But according to this, that life is not biblical. It's actually the mark of an unbeliever. When we're focused on money, we're satisfied with having this perfect Christian family or leaving a financial legacy. We're satisfied with that. And we have no need for Jesus. Again, this is not a rebuke. I have a 401k. I have retirement. All the things like my kids are going to be well taken care of. All the things. But that doesn't satisfy me. It's not what I'm striving for. It's not what we should be striving for. Again, there's nothing wrong with planning for your future, but but again, listen to what the psalmist says. I'll behold your face in righteousness, and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. that every day my satisfaction, my fulfillment, it doesn't come from doing all of these things or having the the right job or walking in my calling or whatever it looks like. It's just I'm satisfied in him. And again, it's so hard to grasp this because the world has told us the complete opposite. Behold your face satisfied with the person of Jesus. Psalm 73:25. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is 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. He's our portion. him, the person of Jesus. There's nothing on earth that that we should be desiring but him. That that God is our strength. He's our portion. Do we get this? It's I know I'm being tongue and cheek a little bit, but this is something that we need to wrestle with as a body, as a church, as as a as a man and woman of faith, as saints. We we we need to begin to grasp a hold of this because so many of us our goals are are completely out of whack for what our life should look like because the world has told us that it needs to look like this and you need to have all of these things in order or else you can't be happy. You're not allowed to be happy unless you have all of this in line and all this in order. But no matter what happens, I can wake up every morning and be satisfied in the love of Christ. Truly, no matter what is happening in this world, no matter how difficult my circumstances may be. So, that was just the intro. Woo! Here we go. These first three chapters of Ephesians are just laser focused on Jesus. So, if you don't like Jesus, you're going to hate all of this. Because again, it's from this deep understanding of Jesus, his grace, and just an obsession with him that when we actually get to again get to chapters 4-6 where we learn how to live it out, it all of the things that we do mean nothing if we don't understand this. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1-8. Again, this whole book, it's an invitation to more, the supernatural things that he needs to do in our hearts. And if you've been searching for more, this is it. 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 before 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. Holy Spirit, would you come? Would you enlighten this word, this text to us, to our hearts, God, that we would begin to see you, and that we would begin to sense and know you dwelling within us, that we may be changed forever, transformed by you. I really want us to take this section of scripture. Again, we're going to we're going to try to go line by line. I'm going to move very quickly today, but this is so deep. There's so much here. And I promise you that if you'll take time this week to meditate on these scriptures, God's going to reveal things to you that he has for you and who he's called you to be that will radically transform your life. I love that that Peggy Peggy's doing this thing called the 30-day challenge. Has anybody heard about the 30-day challenge? A few of you guys. Where for 30 days we spend 30 minutes a day resting in his presence and hearing from him. That's probably the the the quick way to say it. There's there's a little more there's a little more to it, but come talk to Peggy about this because if we can meditate on scriptures like this and then just wait for the Lord to speak, we will begin to possess this word in our heart. There are promises for each one of us, destinies written on your heart that we have yet to possess because we haven't understood that it's there for us, that it's that it's here for us to take, to receive again because when we get this, it changes everything. So right out of the gate, grace to you and peace from God. Grace is undeserved blessing. It's undeserved forgiveness. It's undeserved riches. It's not wealth or status of this world, but from heaven in wisdom and in insight, peace. Here's something really big here. As Christians, we should be the least stressed people on this planet. We should be radiating with peace. Peace that's beyond comprehension because if if Christ dwells within us and he is the prince of peace, we should be in peace. And this is what separates us from the world. That whatever life throws at us, we're good because we've been given the peace of God. And he's given us way more than we deserve. Undeserved grace, undeserved peace. We've done nothing to earn it. And this this this like just puts my brain out of whack. That there's nothing that I can do to earn the grace of God. That there's nothing I can I I can do to to earn all of the things that he's laid out before me. Why? Because I'm his son. And that's and that's what's being spelled out here for us now. Verse three, blessed be the God of the Father, Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Here's what's so cool. I I I I could I could do a whole message right now just on the spiritual blessings part, but I'm not going to do that. We're going to just we're just going to let that sit there and it's maybe dad will do it later. It'll be great. But I love this word right at the beginning. It says, "Blessed, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ." What this means, translate it, whatever. Happy. How cool is this? Happy and pleased be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That God can be happy. that God can be pleased, pleased with us, happy with us. God, may you be blessed. Would May you be happy and pleased, God? Would would a smile come to your face today because because you've blessed me with so many spiritual blessings. This doesn't make any sense, but the best way I can describe it, it's like Christmas morning. I've got all these presents that I've bought for my kids, and I am so excited for them to open them. like be as they start to tear the wrapping like like some of my kids, you know, they they they were like really quick. They're just tearing it like, "Hey, just enjoy opening the gift, but they're just like, "No, I got to get it now." And when I see their eyes light up, when I see the joy begin to overtake them in that moment, the smile on my face, I'm so excited that they're excited. And this and and and we're going to get this today. It's going to be so cool. God gets excited when we get excited about him. God is blessed when we stand in awe and wonder of the blessing that's been given to us. When we begin to revel in the joy of our salvation, we when we take communion, we receive communion and we remember all that God has done for us. I promise you it brought a smile to God's face because I gave this to you and because of the joy that it brings you, it brings me joy because he's a good dad. He's a good a good father. Again, it's hard to believe that we can bring a smile to God's face. And and and this is kind of funny. How many times have we come to the Lord and said, "How God, how can I bring a smile to your face today? Not often for me. But could our joy and recognizing the gifts that he's given us bring joy to the heart of God?" In Zephaniah 3:17, it says, "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness." Wow. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. Psalm 147. Verse 11. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love. It's so hard. It's so hard to wrestle with this. But there's pleasure that we bring to God when we fear him. When we obey him, when we worship him, honor him, and dwell with him. When we recognize all that we've been given, all every spiritual blessing, again, not earthly blessings, not not the money, success, possessions, family, Paul's talking about gifts beyond our eyes and beyond our hands. Things that are given to us to possess within us. And it's so powerful that we could make God happy. Verse four, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless. Funny thing really quick, this is in my notes, but I I read this the other day. That that holy and blameless right there was actually a metaphor for Pharisees because the Pharisees said they you needed to bring a holy and blameless sacrifice. So when he says holy and blameless, he's kind of nodding at the Pharisees like, "Hey, remember the sacrifice that you had to bring to the temple?" Holy and blameless. No, now you have to be you get to be holy and blameless. Sorry, just fun thing. I've got a thing for Pharisees, man. This I love it. I love it. Even as he chose us in him, can you give me a tissue? before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. Do we believe this? Like truly believe it within us not just that it's you know Bible truth. Yes, I believe it. It's in the Bible. But do we believe this within us? That before the earth was formed, we were chosen and predestined for adoption. Like this is this is wild. And I'm not going to go Calvinist on you and I'm not going to get into the predestination. Not going to do it. But there's something really beautiful in this word adoption because during that time in in Roman and and Greek history like people were dying all the time. Whole families could get wiped out by disease because they didn't have you know modern medicine and all of these things. And so you you if you had a family or if you had a home or you know property or whatever you you would have lots of kids because you you wouldn't know if they'd all survive. you know, that one of them could could could drop dead from a mosquito bite or what whatever it was or, you know, have a cold and then they're they're gone. And so, adoption was a very common thing during that day and age. And and by Roman and and Greek law, adoption was as binding as blood. And when someone was adopted into the family, they then were able to inherit all that that father had through adoption. This is so cool. When we're adopted into the family of God, we can now possess everything God has for us by the spirit of God dwelling in us. Let me say it again. When we're adopted into the family of God, we can now possess everything God has for us by the spirit of God dwelling in us. But many of us have not yet possessed it because we did not know or we do not know that it's there to possess within ourselves. And again, we have to get out of this mindset of possessing a thing, an object, material, money, whatever, whatever it is. It's the knowledge of his grace within us. When we begin to understand his grace, undeserved, given to us. When we understand that we've been chosen all for his will and all that he that all that he has for us now is available to us. It's hot in here. If if somebody can adjust the I'm sweating again. I did put a note in here. Predestination doctrine, free choice. I believe we were chosen by God so we could choose him. Amen. And this was his plan from the beginning because if you look at if you look at Adam and Eve when they were in the garden, they're spending time with God. They're enjoying all of God's creation and it's and it's great to be in union with God. Like this is the desire that that the Lord had for for us that we would just be with him. That we would just be enjoying him and and and spending time with him. That we would want for nothing and have everything that we need and we could just enjoy our life with God. That we would be again holy and blameless. Verse six, 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. We praise him when we worship and we meditate on his grace. Again, when we recognize that Jesus is the blessing, his life, his sacrifice, and that in him we have redemption. Not through anything again that we can earn or anything that we can gain. It's undeserved grace and forgiveness. When he was on the cross, we were on his mind. His desire is for us to be saved. and not just save but to live a life with him to to dwell with him just like Adam and Eve in the garden before sin came into the world. His life was laid down so that sin would no longer have power. It was always God's desire to have a people with a heart for him. And now through Jesus, we can have that. In Jude 1 24-25 it says, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. Be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time now and forever. Amen. to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. It's Jesus within us. It's it's obsessing over him and allowing him to invade our lives and and and dwell within us that keeps us from stumbling. It's not just saying a prayer, your sins are forgiven, you know, but now it's sin no more because I have Jesus within me and and I'm obsessed with him and who he is and his and his grace so undeserved and and when I dwell in this and when I when I hold him in my heart, things begin to shift and things begin to change. my desires begin to change and I can stand before him blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy with joy. I don't know about you, but I know a lot of Christians that are not joyful. I know a lot of believers that unless I saw them on a Sunday morning, I never would have thought that they were believers because there's no joy. It's like the life and light in their eyes is gone. And I and I'll tell you what, I've been in that place where where where I've I've lost the the joy of my salvation where it just becomes like this this thing that I I scratch off off my belt of like, "Yep, did that." But when we continue to come back to this and and and again revel in in in our salvation, it just starts to do something in me where I start to have joy that I've been saved. And it's and it's and it's beautiful and it's powerful and it's undeserved and and and I can't do anything about it other than just be joyful because Jesus loves me. I mean, how awesome is this? And I know some of y'all you wanted the deep word and this isn't it. I'm sorry. It's just simple Jesus. But I'm telling you, when we get this, everything else changes because it's out of this understanding of his grace and goodness that all of the good works that we do, it it all flows out of that. It flows out of that that heart that just desires to please God. When we are no longer satisfied or we we we're only satisfied in him, everything else becomes unsatisfying. We bring pleasure to God when we understand the gift he has given us in Jesus. When we recognize that we're adopted children, it brings us joy and it brings him joy. Again, through Jesus, we're forgiven of our sins. through Jesus dwelling within us, we should be full of joy because we're chosen and we're not held by sin anymore. Again, we can grow up in church our whole lives and miss this. And even over time in the faith, we can become focused on evaluating ourselves and evaluating other people. We start trying to fight sin on our own or gain wisdom from the world and how I should handle all of these things or trying to understand God in just my own intellect. And then we start questioning our salvation. We're confessing sin, which is good. Repentance though can start to feel more like shame. And then I don't want to repent anymore because I'm just reminded that of all the sinful things that I've done. And it's this cycle that perpetuates. I know it's real because I've experienced it. And so then we start to question, am I really saved? or if I'm saved, why did I sin? Why am I still sinful? Why am I critical of other believers and churches? Why am I comparing my life to others? Why am I so stressed out? Why am I not hearing from God? And after a while or maybe after a very difficult season, we get into the rhythm of we pray and we go to church because we think it's the right thing to do. And then we just become consumers. God, bless me today rather than God, how can I bless you? How can I bring a smile to your face? worship becomes about our preference rather than glorifying God. There's a really great speaker who had this line. I think it was Francis Chan where someone came up and said, "Hey, I really didn't like that song that you you sung this morning." And he said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, but it wasn't about [Laughter] you. We were we the rest of us were praising God and bringing him glory. What were you doing? Prayer can become a wish list. God, I need this. God, I need that. And we spend our lives trying to satisfy and fill the void that Jesus was always meant to fill. Where's our joy? Where's our peace? Maybe you've lost it. I've I've lost it many times where I get so focused on all of these other things and then I forget to be a dwelling place for the Lord and I and I prioritize all of these other things and then Jesus just becomes something I add on. If you've lost the joy of your salvation, or maybe it's hard to praise God because you don't think you deserve his grace. I' I've felt that where it's hard to it's hard to worship him and and and and sing songs of praise. It's hard to even go to him in prayer because I don't deserve I the the the the the world has told me and shamed me into believing I don't deserve this. So why am I even doing this? But it's a gift freely given to each and every one of us. It's a gift and it's he's not going to take it away from you. It's there for the taking to possess it within us. Again, grace is when you're given something that you don't deserve. You didn't earn it. He He just blessed you with it. He blessed you with becoming a son and a daughter through Jesus Christ. He chose you before the foundation of the world. He He just forgave you. Why? Because he did. Because he loves you. He sent his son to die for you because he loves you. When we we begin to contemplate this grace and we allow God to dwell within us, we joy just begins to bubble up within us because we bring joy to the father and he just keeps lavishing us with more and more and more. You want peace in your life, begin to focus, begin to contemplate his grace. You want self-control from from sin, begin to take time, maybe 30 minutes a day that do the 30-day challenge and spend time with him. Allow him to invade your life. Begin to revel in the joy of your salvation and watch what God will do and radically change your life. Your demeanor, how you speak. Sin will no longer have have it shine to it, have its luster to it. You'll come back to it maybe on on a bad day and it won't hit like it used to because it's not enough. It's not enough to satisfy us. Come on. When our satisfaction comes from him, nothing else matters. Not money, family, possessions. Jesus's death, it covers our worst sins, our worst failures. And it's in Jesus that we find God's grace. And Go