“Hope: Is It Too Late?” Jeremiah 13:16-27 (NLT) Compass of Salinas/Marina Life Group Discussions January #1

1. I LOVE the book of Jeremiah. He is one of my heroes in the Bible! Steadfast for the Lord; uncompromising despite the cost; loving. Please read Jeremiah 13:16-27. • What question does God ask His people?

• What do you think God means by that question?

• God’s people believe in Him and worship on the Lord’s Day, but the rest of the week they forget God and live like the pagan culture around them. They live in sin, especially sexual sin. Instead of being light, they were part of the darkness. So, with that background what does God mean by His question and could it be God’s question of us at Compass? Explain how.

2. Consider the following quote from the message: They were unfaithful in marriage. Integrity was vanishing. Lying was epidemic. Messed up lives were normal. And God asks “Can a leopard change its spots?” (Jeremiah 13:23) We would ask it this way: Can people conquer their sins and change? Can people change behavior and attitudes they’ve had for years? It’s a giant question. Pete is an alcoholic. He admits it. But can he change? Can he conquer his addiction? It doesn’t take much for Jill to get angry. She is as addicted to anger as Pete is to booze. She has been an angry person for so many years she thinks it is not a problem. She says she can’t change the way she is, so get use to it. Bobby is a messed up teenager. His parents are at the end of their rope. They have lost hope for their son ever changing. Can a leopard change its spots? My guess is that everyone here has asked that question even this last week. Can my life be better? Can I lose weight? Can I bring my spending under control and get out of debt? Will my wife or my husband ever change and care about making me feel loved? Can I overcome my lack of self-confidence and stop being my own worst critic? Can a leopard change its spots? Your answer will determine the kind of life you have because - - every NEXT level of your life will require a DIFFERENT YOU. Our life will NOT improve unless we improve. Who are you pessimistic about? Or maybe it’s you that you are pessimistic about. Honestly, is there something about yourself you’ve given up hope of changing? The good news I have is that God never gives up on anyone! Do you realize that Jesus is optimistic about you? 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If Jesus lives in you, you will become a new creation.” Jesus is an optimist. • Please underline the most important or challenging sentence and say why.

• “Every next level of your life requires a different you.” What does that mean? How does it apply to a marriage or to your career?

• How does it apply to becoming a person pleasing to Jesus?

• How could this be the reason many Christians do not grow, do not improve? Why is this quote a problem for people? Many resist it? Why and tell us the 2 favorite excuses people use to resist that quote.

3. The following quote is decisive for the kind of life any of us make for ourself. Please read it carefully several times. Is it getting easier to say, “I was wrong?” Honestly, can you remember the last time you said “I was wrong.”? I am convinced that many people have an enormous need to always be right and never wrong. The problem is that we will never improve what we will NOT admit needs improvement. The very heart of sin is pretended innocence. Most people think hell is for bad people and heaven is for good people. That is wrong. Actually hell is for people who think they don’t need forgiveness, and Heaven is for those who admit they have done wrong things and ask forgiveness. No one changes what they won’t admit is wrong. That is why some marriages cannot be saved. Pretended innocence. One of my favorite Winston Churchill quotes is this: “My success is due to my refusal to use available excuses.” It can be painful to say “I was wrong.” That’s why a lot of us can’t remember the last time we said it! Jeremiah said to the people in verse 22, “You ask, Why is all this happening to me? It is because of your many sins.” In Jeremiah God has been warning His people for years that pain is coming if they don’t change. God literally says “Open your eyes. Can’t you see what’s coming?” Some of you are thinking: Is it too late for some of us to save our marriage, or our reputation or our job? Is it too late to avoid the pain? I don’t know. It may be that for some of us we are getting close to it being too late. Unless we open our eyes and see what our attitudes and behavior are producing, unless we open our eyes, ONE DAY IT MAY BE TOO LATE. As much as I want to encourage you, I cannot say it will never be too late. If we don’t learn to say “I was wrong”, one day it will be. • Underline the most important or challenging sentence and say why.

• Is it getting easier for you to say “I was wrong?” Can you remember the last time?

• Why is saying that so hard for many of us? How could we release ourselves to say it more often, and what would be the benefit of admitting when we have been wrong?

• More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them. The best apology is to change. What do you think? Is that true? On a scale of 1 to 10 how good are you at admitting you were wrong in what you thought, said or did?

4. Consider this quote: Secondly, Jeremiah says, “You have forgotten God!” William Barr, the US Attorney General, gave an extraordinary speech last week to the law school of Notre Dame. Let me read parts of it. He said, “Immorality is a form of tyranny. Immorality enslaves people to their appetites and lusts”. He asked, “Why is Christianity good? Because it trains people to want what is good. It instills moral discipline and restraint against our appetites and lusts. When a nation forgets God, it deteriorates. It is the reason for the epidemic of lying, for the unprecedented number of marriage breakups, for our drug problem, for division between parents and children. Then he took his gloves off. He said, “There are secular forces at war with religion in America, forces that want Americans to forget all about God. It is called secularism - - that is political correctness - - and it has itself become like a religion that conducts inquisitions and excommunicates anyone who dares disagree with its doctrines.” Those who defy the beliefs of this secular religion are figuratively burned at the stake - - socially and professionally by the media and social media. They are verbally attacked in restaurants. I want to interject at this point that an example from last week is when the New Orleans Saints’ linebacker Demars Davis was fined $7,000 for wearing a headband that said “Man of God”. He stood up to the NFL. He put copies of his headband on sale for $25 and has raised $120,000 for a hospital charity. He refused to allow the secular religion of political correctness – and it is a religion of ORTHODOXY – to silence his Christianity. Now back to Barr. He said that these high priests for secular morality are pushing it into schools like LGBT indoctrination for young children and teaching children in our schools that their gender is THEIR CHOICE regardless of what their body is like, and that boys can use the girls bathrooms if they claim their identity is feminine. That was his speech, and of course, predictably he was called a Nazi and burned at the stake by the media. Jeremiah begged God’s people to open their eyes at what is coming. We need to do that. We need to be active in our schools and especially careful who we vote for. We need to vote for religious freedom because Christianity is the basis of the moral fiber of our country. We cannot afford to have political leadership that will pass laws that silence Christianity and make our people forget about God!!! Is it too late? There still is hope but one day we may have sunk too far. Can a leopard change its spots? Yes, if we don’t forget God in our country, and if we resist all those who attack Christianity. We CANNOT BE PASSIVE AND SIT THIS FIGHT OUT. • Underline the most important sentence and say why you agree or disagree and why it matters.

• Why did he say Christianity is good?

• C.S. Lewis said, “Why aren’t Christians obviously nicer than non-Christians? If our conversion to Jesus does not change us dramatically, then we must suspect our conversion was imaginary.” (Mere Christianity). What does Lewis mean? Is he right or no?

• Please write out in longhand 2 Corinthians 5:17.

• So is the Bible saying Lewis is right or wrong? ………..If change so dramatic is to happen that we are called ‘a new creation’, a new person, then why are so many Christians about the same as they were before believing in Jesus. Their attitudes are just as negative, just as judgmental, same temper problems they’ve always had, same self-centeredness etc. Why? What’s your diagnosis?

5. (Personal and private so be honest. Meditate before you answer and listen for the Holy Spirit). What’s the next level for you? What needs to change in you but you’ve been resisting? Surrender it to the Lord quietly.

Pray for each other.