Big Ideas
1. We all reject the ruler – God – by trying to run life our own way without him.
2. But we fail to rule ourselves or society or the world.
2WTL Narrative
The sad truth is that, from the very beginning, men and women everywhere have rejected God by doing things their own way. We all do this. We don’t like someone telling us what to do or how to live – least of all God – and so we rebel against him in lots of different ways. We ignore him and just get on with our own lives; or we disobey his instructions for living in his world; or we shake our puny fists in his face and tell him to get lost.
How ever we do it, we are all rebels, because we don’t live God’s way. We prefer to follow our own desires, and to run things our own way, without God. This rebellious, self-sufficient attitude is what the Bible calls ‘sin’.
The trouble is, in rejecting God we make a mess not only of our own lives, but of our society and the world. The whole world is full of people bent on doing what suits them, and not following God’s ways. We all act like little gods, with our own crowns, competing with one another. The result is misery. The suffering and injustice that we see around us all go back to our basic rebellion against God.
By rebelling against God, we’ve made a terrible mess of things. The question is: what will God do about it?
Biblical Reference
There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understand, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away. –Romans 3:10-12.
Theological Truth
The theological truth we are establishing is the doctrine of sin; the universal depravity of mankind. The truth is, we have all rebelled against God. We have all sought to be our own gods, during what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. No one wants to submit to God, we want to be our own gods, the center of our own world. Some of us do this actively, denying God’s existence and others of us do this passively, wanting nothing to do with God. The fact is, we have all rejected God’s authority as our Sovereign.
Transition
What will God do about this rebellion?
