How do you handle God’s will?

Sunday, 20 June 2021 by

Bernard Gabbott - Sunday, 20 June 2021

How do you handle God's will?

What do you do with God’s will, his revealed will? This passage gives us a glimpse at the two most popular and prevalent answers. On the one hand, in Isaac, we have the ‘I know God’s will BUT…’ response – this is the response that acknowledges that God’s will has been made clear but we humans want to do something else. Put simply, this is the response of disobedience. On the other hand, in Rebekah, we have the ‘I know God’s will SO…’ response – this is the response that acknowledges God’s will has been made clear but that we don’t trust God to do as he says, so… . Put simply, this is the response of the ends justify the means, and God cannot be trusted. Both are wrong. Both lead to a mess and both are responses that Jesus avoids, thankfully. Just listen to his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane – ‘Father, take this cup from me, but not my will but yours be done’.

Scripture References: Genesis 27:1-46, Matthew 26:36-46, Acts 4:23-31

From Series: "Genesis"

More From "Genesis"

Powered by Series Engine

Sunday, 3 July 2022
Our Love for God
from Andrew McClenaghan
“All You Need is Love”, “Love is All Around”, “What’s Love got to Do with It” and countless other songs have love in the title. Is there a word that has been misused as much and as often by our world as love? God’s love for us is, and always has been, active. The greatest action being the death and resurrection of His Son on our behalf. Today in the second in our series on Love we are looking at Our Love for God. It’s not just a suggestion or a nice idea but Deuteronomy 6:5 is a command from God that we are to love Him with our all, our everything, our heart, mind and strength. We prove our love by keeping His commandments, by not forgetting Him, no matter how comfortable our lives become. Not because we owe a debt - it’s a free gift- but so we can display our love for God to Him and to all the world.
Sunday, 26 June 2022
God's Love for Us
from Bernard Gabbott
‘Love is love’ is such a warm and fuzzy and nice phrase. It is one of the catchphrases of our times. But what does it mean? And do we realise the inconsistency of defining a word by itself… as well as the way in which such a phrase is logically inconsistent (Is my love for ice-cream the same as my love for my wife? Is the love of Jesus the same as the love of Amnon for Tamar?)… as well as the way such a phrase works as a catch-all justification for any form/type/expression of love that I find acceptable/desirable? We need some clarity on ‘love’. In this week’s ‘love’, we are looking at God’s love for us as humans – and we will see that love in the Bible (which really means all of life) is defined sharply, clearly, and wonderfully – by God.
Sunday, 19 June 2022
Christ and Conscience
from Bernard Gabbott
In the third in our series ‘Christ and…’, we are looking at ‘Christ and conscience’ – how do we make ethical and godly decisions about key matters in life? Moreover, is there some standard, some concrete and accessible standard, of the ‘good’ that guides us in such decision-making? In Colossians 3:1-11, Paul reminds us that our lives as God’s people are defined by, circumscribed by, ‘the Messiah’ – by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the ‘good’, and He is real. He is the defining standard for ethical decision-making.