His Will // I will ye! | Ps. Jamie Corcoran

Today's uh message uh as we kick off

this series I will yeah you is all about

the topic the subject matter the theme

of God's will this idea that there is a

God who exists he is real and that he

has a plan he has a purpose and that he

has a will not just for the world

generally speaking but also for our

world and our lives personally and

specifically speaking but I find it

interesting how in our culture the

culture of Ireland where you're born

here or have come here uh Everyone can

be Irish. It's a spirit. And in this

culture of Ireland, it's like we love

doing things or saying things or being

oxymoronical like almost being being uh

you know uh what's the word you know uh

contradicting ourselves in how we speak.

So for example, if you ask an Irish

person when they went to an event and

they didn't like or wasn't good, how did

it go? They will say it was great. Yeah.

Translation, it was crap. It wasn't

good. Um, you think about, for example,

an event, you're doing a birthday party,

a wedding. The French gave us the RSVP,

right? Which is like respond play,

respond please. And when you get an RCP

invitation, there's two options. Can you

make it to my birth anniversary event?

Yes

or no? But the Irish come along and say,

well, actually, we're going to invent a

third category. Maybe. Maybe I'll go. In

fact, all over Ireland right now in all

different kinds of WhatsApp chats,

there's all sorts of polls and RV RSPs

and there's yes, no, and then there's

maybe because we don't like to commit to

things unless we unless we're absolutely

sure we want to go. And sometimes what

happens is you say to Irish person, hey,

will you come along? Will you go to that

thing? Will you? And they say, maybe

yeah, which means what? I'm not going.

Maybe. Yeah, more than likely not. And

of course, there's the classic, I will.

Will you bring out the rubbish? Will you

do your homework? Will you go to bed

early? Will you be there on time? Will

you? I will. Yeah. Translation, "No, I

won't." And of course, where I'm from in

car, we used to say, "I will I will I

Peter say, "Hey, will you do your mat

tonight?" I will I will you pick a bed?

I will I will you in town will I?

Meaning, no, I won't. And the reason for

this is actually because I did some

research this week is because in the

Irish language there's no definitive way

to say yes or no. Uh usually Irish

language takes the verb of the of the

question and expresses a negative or

positive onto that. So we kind of

translate that into English by doing

almost like a double negative. I will.

Yeah. Meaning no I won't. Now this is

funny as a cultural observation but it

gets quite serious when it comes to our

relationship with God. Because when it

comes to a relationship with God, there

is this idea that I have my will, my

way, my plans, what I want, and they

live in contention or oppose to what

God's will is, what God's wants are,

what God's plan is for life. And if

you're not a Jesus follower and you're

new, you're very welcome. Today is an

opportunity for you to sneak peek into

what are these Jesus followers supposed

to do in relation to what God's will is.

And if you are a Jesus follower, I want

to hopefully clarify today and help you

in this series to see that God's will

when you understand it is actually not

just God's arbitrary random separate to

your plans will. But actually it is the

best way to live your life. Now behind

this is is a battle of wants. What I

want versus what he wills. And part of

the uh tensions we uh incorrectly assume

that what he wills is not what I want.

But if you stop for a second and think

of this, imagine if you're not Jesus

follower, if you are, think of this.

God, the supreme being of the universe,

created you on purpose and for a

purpose. And he put into you value

systems, destiny. He put into you this

idea of the the desires. They aren't

self these desires aren't the the

superficial selfish ones or the deep

ones. Well, who is best positioned as

your creator to deliver on the very

things that are deep in your soul? The

answer he is. Sometimes what we really

really want is actually what he really

really wills. Because our heavenly

father is exactly that. He is a good

father. He is a kind father. He is a

generous father. He hasn't come to spoil

our fun. He hasn't just randomly take

out his anger and vengeance on us

because he himself is a ball of rage.

You know, he is a he is a trustworthy

father and he has put in us things that

we don't understand yet in terms of

desires. But actually, as we journey

with him, we realize the true

fulfillment of everything I want is to

be found in my own ability to

manufacture my destiny. but to walk with

him as he wills it. God isn't seeking

anything from us, but he wants the best

for us. And if there are seasons or

times where there's boundary lines or

there's best practice or wisdom that

says, "Hey, that probably isn't wise or

good. You shouldn't go that way." They

think it's not because God's reign our

parade. It's because he wants the best

for us. Now what happens is especially

with those of us who are Jesus followers

is when it comes to trying to figure out

what's God's will for my life should I

go to this college that university

[snorts] for many of our leave students

like what which what should I put top of

the CEO uh form should I go out with

this guy or that guy should I commit

should I get married should I move

should I stay should I go should I go up

should I go down should I get in the

property market out of property market

should advance my business business be

conser like we have all these questions

and the challenge is sometimes we tend

to overspiritualize

what God is actually thinking for us. We

kind of think it's this weird, you know,

random uh voodoo dudoo kind of thing

where some going to intuit it God's

will. We to have smoke and mirrors and

all these things and we we we simply

over complicate how simple God's will

is. The other thing we can do is we can

overanalyze it. We just like, oh my

gosh, is it this? Is it that? What if

that? If I this if God's will is a real

thing and I miss it, does that mean my

whole life is over? And so we trap

ourselves like decision paradas thinking

my gosh how am I supposed to know? But

the one thing we all do for sure is we

also tend to us underestimate

how good God is, God's plans, God's

will, God's promises, and God's

faithfulness for our lives. So for the

next few weeks, what we're going to do

is we're going to unpack this idea of

how do we uh not fall into this trap,

but this earn or simply put understand

how do I understand what God's will is

for my life. And again today in part

one, I want to lay a foundation. I want

to put in some pillars. I I want I want

to put something in a base in today that

we can build from for the next couple

weeks to give the understanding of what

God's will is. But ultimately speaking,

we're talking about my life. What is

God's specific personal will for us? So

today we'll keep the foundation. Next

week we'll get into detail what that

looks like. Now when it comes to God's

will, one of the reasons why God's will

can be confusing why it can seem

overwhelming is because by nature the

fact that he is God meaning he is

outside time. He is not limited by our

mortality. He's not limited by gravity.

He's not limited by our economy. He's

not stuck in the limitations that we all

share. Therefore, as that is his person,

what he wills is equally complex. For

example, there are actually four aspects

to the will of God. We tend to ask the

question in one aspect. The fourth ones

I come to the end, but actually there's

four aspects to God's will there. Number

one, God's reigning will. Now, if you

look at uh books, you read, you know,

study theologians say, scholars, they

talk about this. This reigning will re

refers to God's supremacy. that if God

is real, if there truly is a supreme

being who's in control of all things,

then his will, what he wants, he gets

because he is reigning. We can't stop

ultimately what God's plan and purpose

is for the world. But number two,

there's also God's revealed will. That

is the part of his will that he makes

known to us. The primary way we know it

is through his word. He instructs, he

guides, he tells here's the best way to

live in the world I created based on my

reigning will. Then number three, to

make things even more confusing, there

is God's permissive will, which means

God also allows things for a momentary

period of time to happen outside what he

wants is best. And number four, the

question we're all interested in, but

what's God's personal will for me in our

list? And to answer that, what's God's

personal will? We got to have at least

have a basic understanding of what one,

two, and three are. So here's number

one, God's reigning will. Scholars often

rec call this or term it God's sovereign

will because he is God because he's

ultimate because he is supreme. He is

the sovereign. God does not have an

opinion on how things should go. God

does not change his mind. God is not

moody. God doesn't say ask me on

Thursday and then I'll decide. God does

not wait to see what the weather is like

before he commits. He has a plan that is

an action that is outside time for

everything inside time. Well, he created

the cosmos and the planets and people

and land and seas and mountains and all

the things. Everything was created

according to his plan. And he tells us

in his word in Isaiah 46:10,

Isaiah 46:10

everything I plan will come to pass.

Everything I plan will come to pass.

intention is as is captured in Proverbs

Proverbs 19:21

19:21 when it comes to us. We also have

plans. But the difference is everything

God plans comes to pass but not

everything we plan comes to pass. It

says many are the plans in a man's heart

but it is the Lord's purpose that

prevails. We all have aims, goals,

desires. We have things that are

important to us. We're trying to achieve

certain things personally or in sport or

on our career or financially or security

or relationally. We have many plans.

They come and they go. Some work, some

don't. But ult at the end of day, when

all of time has stood the test of time,

it will be ultimately the plan of God

that prevails. It is unstoppable.

It is unavoidable.

And it is inevitable. We can choose to

live our life in ignorance of God's

sovereign will. We can choose to live

our lives in rebellion to God's

sovereign will. We can choose to, you

know, uh pretend like there isn't this

this reality happening. That's okay. We

have that choice. But our lack of

belief, our disinterest, our rejection,

our rebellion, our not wanting does not

take away the fact at the end of the

day, God's plan is this. Every knee will

bow and every tongue will confess that

Jesus Christ is a son of God and savior

of the world. That will happen cuz that

is God's plan. That we may always

understand it. We may not like it. We

may not accept it. But he's daddy and

daddy calls the shots. That is his

sovereign plan. Now the second kind of

aspect of God's will is God's revealed

will.

God's revealed will is often called by

scholars his moral will. And his moral

will is revealed to us in his word. This

is his best practice for how we do this

thing called life. And upon first

reading, sometimes we fall into the trap

of thinking, my gosh, all God wants to

do is steal all the fun and make us all

boring religious types. But actually

when you act actually deep you know dive

into the truth of God's God God's word

and how it applies to us. What God's

word is saying is that we ultimately

every single person are called to be

like his son his son Jesus. Well who is

Jesus? Well Jesus is kind and he's

compassionate and he's generous and he's

merciful and he's gracious and he's

patient and he could had self-control.

He was sacrificial. He loved other

people. He was incredible. I think that

we think even without thinking we think

that every person in the world would

make the better world if we were all

more like Jesus. If all of our spouses,

our kids, our employers, our employees,

our government officials, if everyone in

the world was a little bit more like

Jesus, perhaps the world would be a

better place. That's what it means. We

talk about God's moral will revealed in

his word. God's moral will is uh in

essence very clear. There's no

ambiguity. When you read the word, you

see it. It is very consistent. It

doesn't change Old Testament to new this

or that author's verices. And number

three, it is unchanging. Which means

what God's moral will tells may suit our

particular prevailing cultural moment.

It may be acceptable. It may even be

popular. But a lot of times God's clear

and consistent and unchanging revealed

will for us is usually countercultural.

Usually requires us as Christ followers

to be uncompromising in our commitment

to him at the expense of our own

ridicule of people laughing at us and

thinking we're crazy. We don't get a

vote. We don't get an ask. It is his

revealed moral will for mankind. Now,

what is what is a what how can I

summarize that with a scripture? Well,

in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and:e3, the

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

Apostle Paul said this, and we just sang

about it. God's will for you is to be

holy.

Holy. And you go, really, Jamie? Holy? I

I don't think I'm the holy type. Well,

neither am I. The part part of the

reason part of the problem we we push

back is because we actually have a

misconceived idea of what holy means.

The word holy in the Greek language with

which the apostle Paul wrote this letter

is the word hagios. Hagios. And it means

set apart. Set apart. For example, how

many of you when you go to your fast

food restaurant of choice, whether it be

Burger King, KFC, or McDonald's, you get

your tray of food. How many of you now

even realizing this have a way a

methodology for how you consume all that

good stuff that is pretty predictable?

By that I mean this let me do let's

let's do a little a survey. How many of

you if you're in McDonald's or place

with a burger you eat your burger before

your fries? Hands up. Burger before your

fries. These crazy people there only a

few of them here. Thank God. How many of

you eat your burger and your fries at

the same time? All South Americans

going, "Yep, of course." Pretty cool.

Yeah. You think, "Oh, we're so unique."

Not really. Uh, how many of you eat your

fries and then your burger? These are

God's people right here. These are the

chosen ones.

Well, in case you can't tell, I'm in the

latter group. I have a very kind of

systematic way of consuming my

McDonald's. So, usually goes like this.

I order a quarter pounder meal because a

quarter pounder is the best thing since

sliced bread. It has sliced bread in it.

It's even better. Uh, then I have my

large fries. And because, you know, we

want to enjoy and savor the moment and

it isn't very filling, we might go for

some onion rings or some, you know, a

cheese bites. Me, I love chicken

nuggets, McDonald's chicken nuggets. And

I also get like a mayonnaise dip and a

curry dip. And I dip nuggets in both.

Don't judge it until you've tried it.

It's very liberating. And how I eat is

I'll eat my fries first, nuggets second,

and and before I even start eating, I

have I open the sauces, pour out the

fries, p the nuggets, bit of salt, no

ketchup for me. I take the burger and I

set it apart. It comes off the tray

somewhere safe. Not too far. It's

unsafe. Safe enough that if you want to

get it, you got to come to me to get it.

But it isn't going to be in the way of

what I'm doing because it is the point.

It is everything in the fries and

nuggets is preparation

for what's about to happen next. It is

the cherry on the cake. I love once

everybody's gone, they going, "Oh, my

food's gone. Oh, wait. I have a burger.

I'm just enjoying that burger. It is to

me a holy thing." Thinking that's crazy.

You can't make a quarter pounder holy by

Yes, I can. That's what the word means.

Set apart. When scripture teaches about

God is holy, it means he is set apart.

Set apart meaning he is different than

us. Set apart meaning he is worthy of

our devotion. Set apart meaning we

should be dedicated to him. All set

apart means is that we as his when he

created the world, the mountains, the

oceans, the valleys, he set us apart for

a specific purpose. And when we become

his followers, by definition, by

becoming his followers, living

counterculturally, we're no longer on

the tray. We're in the world of the

world, we are different. We are devoted.

And again, devoted can get a bad rap

because devoted sounds so old school and

so, you know, uh, religious, but

actually, let's be honest, we want more

devoted people in the world. We want as

employers devoted employees who love

their job, who work hard, who are

honest, and on time, right? employers.

We want as employees employers who are

equally to vote, making sure that we get

what we deserve in terms of our pay on

time, right? Especially when it's

overtime.

But more importantly, in the context,

for example, of marriage, you don't

understand the value of devotion until

it's not there anymore. If you've been

through betrayal and heartbreak or

walked through with someone you know and

love, you see firsthand just how

devastating it is when a person makes a

commitment like marriage and promises to

be devoted but falls short of the

devotion. It is devastating. But when

people despite all the failures and

flaws we have as human beings over time

remain devoid for the long hall. It's

incredible to see the kind of family and

legacy and future that is built not just

for them but for their kids and

grandkids when they're devote. God wants

us as his people. If you're a Christ

fathers I'm talking to you right now.

God wants us because we're different

because we're called of him to be

devoted and to live out lives of

dedication that he comes first. It won't

always be easy

to live wholeheartedly for Jesus in this

world. But what I can say with certainty

is it will always be worth it. It's not

easy to live out and live according to

God's revealed will in this world right

now. It won't be easy. But let me tell

you this. As you trust him and live

wholeheartedly for him, what you will

see with time is it is always worth it.

So God's reigning will, God's reveal.

Number three, God's permissive will.

Here's one the here's here's where it

kind of gets interesting. Here's where

we get pushed back in tension and

sometimes confusion. Cuz God has this

reigning will that just exists and we're

not always aware of. We don't understand

how it fully works, but it is. We have

God's revealed will which we see in his

word. But there's also this idea that

inside God's reigning and revealed will

is space. Because God isn't a

controlling God. He isn't a manipulative

God. He gives us freedom to make

choices. This is so important because

when we see people who are supposed to

res represent God, but they are trying

to control you, control your life,

control your behavior, control your

choices, if God is not controlling, then

those people do not represent God. Next

slide, please.

You with me? If God is not controlling,

then people who pretend to represent

God, when they try to control you,

they're not representing God because God

[clears throat] doesn't control you.

God's will will prevail at the end of

the day. And God has shown us through

his through his word the best way to

live our lives. But God does not

manipulate, coercse, or control us into

living our lives his way. He gives us

the freedom of choice. But here's the

problem. With every choice, there are

consequences.

And with the choices given to mankind,

we must accept the consequences.

Sometimes people say, "Pastor Amy, if

God is real and if God is good and if

God is loving, then why is it that so

many people right now are starving

across the world?"

Now, I'll say, "Well, it isn't because

God isn't good. God is good." They go,

"How do you mean?" Well, God gave us an

earth that creates enough food for

everybody in it.

The problem is people in their free will

have made choices that hurt other

people. Meaning some parts of the world

have so much food that they don't just

eat what they need. They throw away the

excess. And again, our country is sadly

one of those. I'm the kind of person

where I didn't grow up with very much.

So in my house when it comes dinner

time, I can't stand people throwing out

food. Any with me? It just it just I oh

my soul. So, like last night we're out

having dinner and we're after eating and

one of the kids didn't finish their

their their curry and rice. There's a

few spoons left. I was like, "You better

finish that curry and rice." Like, "It

needs to get in your belly right now.

This is We're not leaving this place.

That's in you. It's leaving in you." You

know what I'm saying? It's not leaving.

We're not leaving here. And of course,

Lord's like, "Yo, don't he fine? He's

going to explode and get belly aches."

I'm like, "He can get a belly ache, but

that food is going in his belly." Why?

Cuz I come from a household where there

wasn't always food on the table. So, I

have this weird PTSD thing where like I

I can't throw food out. It's like sinful

to me. It's like wrong. And how crazy is

it in our world as as difficult as

things may be for our lives that we

still live in Ireland in a country of

excess when right now people starving?

There's enough food for everybody in the

world two times over. Oh, what about,

you know, resources or education

opportunities or all these things? When

you pull the thread on the consequences

of pain in this world, it isn't God's

fault is that men and women have made

choices that hurt other men and women.

If the world was more like Jesus, there

would be kindness. There'd be

generosity. There'd be no debt. There'd

be grace and service. But because we

want to live our lives anti-Jesus, the

consequence is we live in a world that

looks nothing like Jesus. Now, you may

say, "Well, still that seems like, you

know, too simple." Like, if God were go

if God were real, God would intervene.

Hang on a second. What do you want? Do

you want a God who controls you or not?

Do you want a God who's so involved in

the world, dictating your choices, your

plans, your future, controlling you that

his will prevails all the time? Or do

you want to live in a world where you

actually have free will and choice? But

I think the problem is you don't like

the consequences of your choice. So you

want God to give you freedom in your

choices, but you want daddy to come and

clean up the mess when the consequences

arrive. Which do you want? A God is in

control all the time, our God that gives

us free will. The truth is God gives us

free will.

And yet, even though we're free to

choose and we can choose the right

thing, the wrong thing, a good thing, a

bad thing, the wise thing, the unwise

thing, when we choose the wrong, the

bad, the wise, God is so gracious, so

kind. He doesn't just leave us in our

mess. He comes to our rescue. The

Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:23, he

1 Corinthians 10:23

says this to the church. He says, well,

they were said to him, you say, I am

allowed to do anything. It's true. You

can do whatever you want. It's a free

country. You can do whatever you want.

Just because everything is permissible,

the Apostle Paul says not everything is

beneficial.

Just because you can doesn't mean you

should. Let me give you an example of

this. I love the full Irish breakfast.

It's brum on full Irish breakfast.

Seriously, it is. Come on. It's worthy.

It's worthy of a bullet. We don't have a

lot going for us in Ireland, but man,

the full Irish breakfast is worthy of

international respect. And and don't

talk about this English breakfast

nonsense, okay? Don't even go there.

It's a full It's not full. It's a full

Irish. They took everything from us.

They're not taking our breakfast as

well. It's our breakfast, right? I love

it. I love I love the black pudding.

Black pudding is like a heavenly reward

for all the rain we get. Like, oh, the

poor Irish. Let's give them black

pudding. Thank you, Jesus, [laughter]

for I just love a full Irish breakfast.

I love a full Irish breakfast so much

that I know places where you can get one

after breakfast hours.

Last night at 6:00 in the evening, I had

a full Irish breakfast. Didn't make it

myself. I bought it in a restaurant. I

won't tell you where. Those in the inner

circle know

I love I appreciate just it's good for

my soul. like nothing beats on a cold

dark rain a full Irish breakfast and a

cup of tea. It's just honestly however

even though I love a full Irish

breakfast and I appreciate and I can eat

if I wanted to a full Irish breakfast

every meal I have every day for the rest

of my life. I can do that. That's my

choice. God's not going to control me.

Jamie, you shouldn't eat the breakfast.

But the consequence is if I eat a full

Irish breakfast every meal for the rest

of my life, the rest part won't be very

long, will it?

I'm bringing that timeline way forward.

Is that God's will? What is that? Well,

let me ask a question. Is a full Irish

breakfast good? If you're vegan,

vegetarian, you're gonna say, "No,

forgive us. Please forgive us." But if

you're not, yes, it's good. It's good

for us to enjoy the things of this

world. But when does a good thing become

bad? I'll tell you when when when it

controls us more than we're controlling

it. When I can say, do I want yes or no?

Should I have yes or no? I'm in control.

But when I can't help myself, when it

becomes an addict, I have to have it.

That's where a good thing becomes a bad

thing. It begins to control us.

Eventually what's given as a blessing

becomes a subject matter of abuse and

hurts us and those that we love. And on

again that this is obviously just a

funny story but but seriously speaking

when it comes to our life our choices,

relationship choices, addiction choices,

career choices, uh vengeance choices,

the things we choose to keep secret.

Those things can be far more serious

than whether I should have a full Irish

breakfast three days in a row.

>> Yeah,

>> that's the challenge. The challenge is

God has given us freedom to choose. But

which choice can consequence? Here's the

good news. The good news is that God our

father in Christ Jesus can redeem all

the pain, all the brokenness, and all

the fallout from our poor choices. In

fact, he promises us that we come to him

like last week. Come to me all of you

who are weary and hated evident and I

will give you rest. The call, the

invitation of the good is the gospel is

that even though we're broken, even

though we've made, and even though we're

living in the consequence, the fallout

of some pretty stupid decisions, even

those God can redeem. There's God's

reigning will. There's God's revealed

will, God's permissive, and lastly, the

one we want to get to, God's personal

will. And we talk about God's personal

will, we mean it's personal. God's will

for you. And if you're not a Christ

follower, Jesus follower, someone has

faith, let me encourage you. God

believes in you even if you don't

believe in him. And he does have a

purpose for your life. In fact, we as a

church are are just so passionate about

helping people find and live out their

purpose that we've built the whole thing

around that idea. One of my favorite

scriptures is found in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

2 and verse 10. The apostle Paul the

author again writing to a church like

ours in a city called Ephesus which

exists in modern day Turkey. He says in

verse 10 for we are God's handiwork.

That word handiwork in Greek is the word

poua where we had the English word poem

which simply means masterpiece.

Like when God was busy creating the

valleys, the mountains, the seas, the

stars, the plants, all the complexity of

creation, the very pinnacle of

everything he made, at the very top of

all his creation, I visualize it as

almost like your photograph. There's a

photograph of you, his kid. He loves

you. And we as humanity are the are the

the kind of uh the masterpiece of his

creation. But we weren't just created to

sit on a shelf and look good. There's a

purpose created in Christ is to do good

works for God prepared the vance for us

to do. We call this in our church your

extraordinary purpose that we are

ordinary ordinary broken people trying

to figure this thing out and at the same

time ordinary people in an ordinary

world God has an extraordinary purpose

for our lives. There's a reason for our

being here. The problem is how do we

find it? I love this scripture in the

book of Psalms verse 38 verse 32 forgive

me in verse 8 where it says this

[snorts]

it [clears throat] says I will instruct

you and teach you in the way you should

go. I will counsel you with my loving

eye on you. What God is saying to us is

essence when it comes to his will is

that he's not going to leave us alone to

fumble through life and try to figure

this thing out by ourselves. No, he

promised that if our heart is open to

him, if we do come to him, he says, "My

yoke is easy. My burden, I will teach

you. I will show you. I will counsel

you. And all the while, I will keep my

loving eye on you." Understand God's

eyes towards you are not vengeful. God's

eyes towards you, not disgust. God's

eyes towards you, not ones of rejection

and hatred. God loves you, and his

loving eye is on you. And like any

parent father in the world, I if if

you're willing to trust, he wants to

lead. He wants to show. He wants to

guide us into our extraordinary purpose.

Now, over the next three weeks, that's

we're going to unpack in great detail.

What does it look like for us to live

out God's personal will for my life? In

other words, how do I understand what

God's will for my life is? Well, very

simple. Don't overspiritualize.

Don't overanalyze

and simply don't underestimate the

goodness of God. When you want when you

don't understand God's hand, trust God's

heart. He's a good father. So how we do

it? Well, in essence, when it comes to

God's reigning will, the pervasive will

of God is going to happen regardless. We

get to trust God's reigning will that he

is God. He is in control. He is supreme.

When it comes to what God's revealed to

us in his word, we got to choose to obey

what God has revealed his word, knowing

that what he has called us to do and be

is good for us and good for the world.

When it comes to asking questions like

why do bad things happen to good people

and why are there consequences? We have

to accept that God's permissive will

makes room for people to make choices.

And people's choices don't just affect

them. They affect the world around them.

And if that person is a president or a

leader of a country, it can affect the

whole world because we have free will.

And lastly, as we set the series, when

it comes to God's personal will, let's

make a decision to walk out and walk in

God's personal will for our lives. As I

close, let me finish this because I

understand that we live in a day and age

in Ireland where there's so much

complexity and so much uncertainty. And

a lot of people, a lot of us, including

myself, all of us, all occasions, we're

living under this weight, this weight of

anxiety like what should I do? Should go

up, down, left, right? You know, should

I buy, not buy? Should I save? Should I

spend? Should I invest? Should I hold on

to? Like there's just so much and and so

many people are living under the burden,

the pressure of that anxiety, of that

uncertainty. And when it comes to God's

will, you think, "Oh my gosh, here's one

more thing that I could screw up and

ruin my whole life." I want you to know

that God's will for life isn't a burden

you carry. Jesus promised us that he is

the one carrying the weight, the burden

of this, but we are invited into

obedience to him and to walk with him

through this life. It's a bit like

traveling with a GPS. Now, I'm old

enough to remember what life was like

without a GPS. Anyone with me? I

remember when Next slide, please. I

remember when uh back in the day when

you were going somewhere, you had in the

glove box multiple maps. There was the

all Ireland map, there was the east of

Ireland map, there was the Dublin city

map which was the hardest to read.

There's all these and usually what

happened is if you had both parents, one

person's map reading and the other

person's driving. And usually, just to

make life even funnier, the person doing

the driving was better the map reading

and the person that the map read is

better than the driving. Don't ask me

why that is. That's just a thing for a

reason. I don't know. It's like a

phenomena. Okay. Uh, and then of course

the internet came along and I can

remember the first time I ever drove to

Naven County Me. I was trying to figure

out how do I get there? There was no M9.

There was no M3. And I remember having

to go on to Google and type in where I

want to go. And Google printed for me on

three pages step by step. That's how you

navigate. You go to junction XY Z turn

left drive for 20 km turn. That's how I

first nav. And of course satnavs came

out which were very funny because it

never worked. The amount of cars that

drove off cliffs into the lakes was

hilarious. And eventually we get to

where we are now where your phone has

don't take for granted everybody. Your

phone is GPS. Okay,

but a GPS is a good analogy for this.

Why? Because what happened? You you

punch in I want to go to X place and it

says, you know, there's the route. You

press go and you're driving along and

all of a sudden you get distracted.

You get bullied out of your lane. You

miss a sign. Whatever. You take a wrong

turn. What happens when you're driving

along and you take a wrong turn? Does

your GPS say something like, "You are an

idiot. You are the worst driver I've

ever worked with since my creation. You

are such a disgrace. You should pull the

car, give up your keys, and take public

transport for the rest of your life."

[laughter]

Now, the GPS doesn't understand what

we're thinking about ourselves in our

insecure moments.

Does GPS say you're so bad at this, I'm

switching off now and go blank? No. What

does it do? It says you've obviously

chosen a different path than what was

best recommended.

Not not not the the consequence isn't

now you're cut off or by your over to

you. You don't want my help. Okay, I

won't help you. Now GPS isn't going to

have a bad ad to us. It just simply says

recalculating.

is going to find out based on where you

are from the consequence of your choice

how best to get back on track. Now, you

may need to drive down some country

roads. Yeah, it's worth celebrating God.

Yeah. [applause]

You may be met with a couple of cows on

the way. You may have to deal with the

consequences momentarily of your but

ultimately there is hope that you can

get back on track. That is who the Holy

Spirit is.

>> God does not leave us lost down some

side roads saying, "Well, you chose it.

you deal with it when you reverse all

the way back and you'll find where you

left me. God never leaves leaves us.

>> As soon as you return your heart to me,

I will guide you out of this mess and

back. So, what I'm saying is don't feel

overwhelmed

by the will of God. It isn't an

overwhelming thing. Why? Because you

don't carry it. He does. But there is an

invitation through Jesus, which we'll

unpack next week, to take steps towards

living that will out. But in the

interim, wherever you find yourself

today, whether you're far from God,

close to God, lost, secure, uncertain,

wherever you are in life, there is a

recalculating,

a recalibrating, a redirecting, an

invitation to come to me, all of you who

are weary and heavy, and I will give you

rest. So as we close today, my prayer

for you is that as you open your heart

to him, his voice, his presence will

begin to niggle, whisper, just lead you

along the right path. What seems like a

baby steps because think about as well

when you type in, you know, I want to go

to like X place. It doesn't give you all

steps. All it says is turn left now,

turn right, travel for 400 meters. It's

like you don't need to know every single

step. You just need to know the next

step. The Holy Spirit and his grace

leads us to our next