Wednesday, July 4, 2018

July 8: Accountable


How would you feel if someone treated you badly after you had given everything imaginable to them ,including your love and grace? If you are like me, I am sure you would feel betrayed, disappointed, angry, or maybe even vengeful. Can you imagine yourself or anyone doing this to God after all He has done to give us salvation and all the many other blessings He so freely bestows on us? David did this, and it broke God's heart! But, God didn't walk away. He held David accountable because He loved him. David responded by taking full responsibility for his sin. We can learn a lot about accountability as we lead this session with our group.

As you lead this session, please keep in mind that there will be some who: (1) don't know Christ and need to understand that they will be held accountable for rejecting Christ, but that Christ offers forgiveness and an eternal relationship with Him, (2) are professing believers who need to understand the tragedy of the sins that they commit and the slam it makes toward the grace God has so freely given.

The focus of this week's session can be summed up with this statement based upon God's broken heart as described in 2 Samuel 12:7-12:

"I (God) have given . . . yet you (David) despise Me"

This is how God felt about the way King David, who have been given so much, chose to "despise" God when he sinned against Him with Bathsheba and all the additional sins this led to.

HANDOUT - The downloadable teaching ideas provide a handout on the last page, a list of accountability questions. I suggest this as an optional application point at the end of the session.

PSALM 51 - I highly recommend you incorporate Psalm 51 into your session. The downloadable teaching ideas suggest using it at the end of the session.

DOWNLOAD THE SUPPLEMENTAL TEACHING PLAN