Become // 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 one

can be Irish 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 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 RSVP

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. MEANS more than likely not.

And of course, there's the classic, I

will 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 your 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

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

plans 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 these desires aren't the the

superficial selfish ones, 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 isn't

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." The

thing is, is that because God rain 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 for

many of our leave students like 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 I

ADVANCE MY BUSINESS BUSINESS? be

concerned 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 doodoo kind of thing

where some going to intuit it God's will

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 just if 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 PARALYSIS 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 you 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 of 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 one

as 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 aim, 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 that 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. NOW 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 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 or

that author's vericus. 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 it? What how can I

summarize that with a scripture? Well,

in 1 Thessalonians 4 and:e3, the 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 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 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 are

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

Yeah. They 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, "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

father 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 of 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 his

reigning will that just exists and we're

not always aware of it. 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

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?"

And 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 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 very much. So in

my house when I come dinner time I can't

stand people throwing out food. You 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 L's like you

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

at the table. So, I have this weird PTSD

thing where like I can't throw FOOD OUT.

IT'S LIKE SINFUL TO ME. IT'S like wrong.

And how crazy is that 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. It's 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 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

1 Corinthians 10:23

Corinthians 10:23, he says this to the

church. He says well they 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 B. 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 English. 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,

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 going to 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 un

again that 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 LIKE to visualize it as almost like

you're a 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 in 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.

It 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 burdens. I will teach you. I

will show you. I will counsel you. 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 extreme

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 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 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, 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

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 Google and type

in where I wanted to go and Google

printed for me on three pages step by

step. That's how you navigate. You go to

junction XYZ, turn left, drive for 20

km, turn. That's how I first and of

course satnavs came out which were very

funny because it never worked. amount of

cars that drove off cliffs into the

lakes was hilarious. And then 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."

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. The 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.

You may 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 road saying, "Well, you chose it.

you deal with it when you reverse ALL

THE WAY BACK AND YOU'LL find where we

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 inter

wherever you find yourselves 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 step.