One day God will bring ultimate freedom, healing, and restoration to His people.
Scripture: Jeremiah 30:8-22
Central Truth
The kind of freedom God brings isn’t about getting to do whatever we want; it’s about being able to serve and worship God with nothing standing in our way. In the original context, Jeremiah’s audience would’ve understood that God would bring them out of captivity in Babylon. For us, a day will come when absolutely no one will rule over us but Jesus.
Key Question
If we don’t allow Jesus to rule over our lives, who or what will rule over us? Explain.
Keep in Mind
Just a quick glance at the world reveals our need for freedom, healing, and restoration. And our culture is all about doing things on our own, self-empowerment, self-assuredness. We’re told that we can do anything we set our minds to. But instead of helping us grow into who God made us to be, pursuing these things can often lead us to be filled with things like selfishness, anxiety, bitterness, and anger.
In our do-it-yourself culture, students may struggle to grasp that there’s nothing they can do to heal their sin sickness or restore themselves to God. While this might seem overwhelming or even limiting—and students might find it counterintuitive that true freedom from the stuff that overwhelms them rests in giving themselves completely to Jesus’s loving rule and reign—ensure students that salvation from God is the only way to true freedom. There is freedom in giving up ourselves to Jesus.
APPLICATION
What attitudes of actions could be getting in the way of you fully serving Jesus?
THE WIN
FOR THE STUDENT: Israel and Judah were obsessed with doing things their own way, serving their own desires instead of serving God. But that ultimately led to their downfall. We’re always serving something, and when we do things our own way, we’re only serving ourselves. Like Israel, this will lead to our downfall. In serving God and doing things His way, though, we find freedom, healing, and restoration.
FOR THE LEADER: Sometimes preparation and studying can get in the way of our ability to connect with God on our own. Although you serve students as you teach, and that’s important, remember that it’s ultimately God you’re serving. Allow yourself to rest in the truth you read as you study.
