INTRODUCTION
All of us can think back on some bad decisions we've made based on bad counsel or poor judgment. But all of us can also think back on some bad decisions we've made when we knew they were wrong, but we just didn't care. Chasing after a sense of power and independence, we rebelled, all the time thinking we were unique. But as we'll discuss in this session, our rebellion will take us down a well-traveled road and will demand from us a high price.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Would you say that by nature you are a rule-follower or a rule-breaker?
- Describe a time when you rebelled. How did it make you feel?
- Why do we rebel, even when we know the consequences?
- Have you seen other people turn their backs on what was best for them to follow their own paths? What were the results?
- How does rebellion isolate us?
- Read 2 Chronicles 36:11-13. Where in your life do you find yourself acting like Zedekiah? Where do you find yourself rebelling against God and following your own path?
- Read 2 Kings 25:1-7. Zedekiah paid a high price for rebelling against God and against Nebuchadnezzar. What are the consequences that you have experienced from rebelling?
- Read Jeremiah 21:2-10. How have you experienced God's mercy and grace (vv. 8-9) when you stopped rebelling and surrendered to him?
THINK ABOUT IT
If you are a believer, you more than likely will repent of your rebellion, eventually. It is just a matter of how many scars and how much wasted time and potential you bring along with you. What is rebellion costing you? Why not surrender now instead of later? If you are not a believer, why keep pursuing your own course? Why not surrender to the God who has taken in rebel after rebel after rebel?
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Are you currently rebelling? What do you need to do in order to repent? Quit that job? Get out of that environment? Cancel that trip? Give up that habit? Get out of that relationship? Go home? Come clean?
CHANGING YOUR MIND
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 36:12