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Abounding Grace · Jaden Gray

God Has Done so Much for Us Part 2

April 7, 2026·26 min·2 clips
God says the first thing to build is the mercy seat, where he will meet and speak to you above the law.
The question starts at the cross. Pastor Ed treats Exodus 25 as more than building instructions. Acacia wood, the ark, and the mercy seat all turn toward what Jesus has done, and he keeps bringing the issue back home. The sermon says many believers still come to God as if obedience, achievement, or public approval can make them acceptable. That gets the order wrong. The believer does not meet God at a judgment seat but through mercy, because Christ's blood is presented as enough. Pastor Ed keeps circling that point. Perfectionism, pride, the itch for notoriety, and the need to one-up others all become signs that someone is slipping into a works approach to God. His own testing moment makes it plain. Wanting the perfect score after a training video becomes a small, honest picture of how self-approval can hide in everyday life. From there, the gospel turns outward. Inviting people to hear the message matters because the gospel carries God's power to change lives. Mercy is not treated like soft religious language. Pastor Ed describes God as withholding what people deserve and giving them time because he is merciful. That is what makes the ark imagery land. The lesson presses listeners to stop trying to reach God by commandment keeping and to see the mercy seat as the meeting place. Once grace is in the right order, obedience stops being a performance for attention and becomes a response to what God has already done. The tone is warm, but it does not let the listener drift. It repeats the needed question until there is nowhere else to stand.

As heard by us

A clear sermon on dropping performance and resting in mercy through Christ.

Abounding Grace reads as a direct call to drop spiritual self reliance and stop trying to earn God’s favor. Ed Taylor keeps pressing the same point from different angles: pride, perfectionism, and striving all miss the mark, and the only path he leaves standing is mercy through…

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Why you'd press play

When you keep grading yourself, this one tells you to stop and come to mercy.

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