I Have Decided (Week #6) I’m Responsible
Pastor John April 13, 2025

Open with prayer.

1. We are responsible for whatever harvest comes (from the choices or decisions that we sow). Review Gal. 6:7-9, which is a great lesson to be learned by God’s children. What is a victim response (playing the victim)?

2. We will make bad choices. Rom. 3:23-24, Prov. 14:12, Prov. 28:13, Matt. 7:1-29,
   Rom. 13:12, I Cor. 15:33, Eph. 4:1b-24

3. Christ paid the price for our sin and bad decisions. Isa. 53:5-6, Matt. 20: 28, John 1:29, Rom. 6:23, Col. 2:14, Gal. 3:13, I Peter 2:24, Heb. 9:28, Heb. 10:14, I John 2:2, I Tim. 2:5-6, Titus 2:14, II Cor. 5:21

4. Christ’s final day
   

   A. Religious leaders plot to kill Jesus. Matt. 26:3-5, Luke 22:2, John 11:45-57

   B. Peter denies knowing Jesus. Matt. 26:33-35, 69-75, Mark 14: 29-31, Mark 14:66-72, Luke 22:54-62, John 13:36-38, John 18:15-18
   How do these accounts differ?
   

C. Judas betrays Jesus. Matt. 26:14-16, 47-56, Matt. 27:3-5, 24-25, Mark 14:43-50, Luke 21:37-22:6, Luke 22:47-71, John 13:21-31, John 18:2

 D.  Pilate, a Roman governor, hands Christ over to be executed.  
       Matt. 27:17, 24-25, John 19:12

1. What consequences result from their decisions in Jesus’ final days?
   

   A. Religious leaders, Matt. 28:15, other verses?
   B. Judas, Matt:27
   C. Peter, Matt.26:75, Mark 14:72, Luke 22:61-62, John 21:15-19, plus other results later in his life
   D. Pilate, nothing specific in the Bible, but ancient writers say he was recalled to Rome in shame and committed suicide. Another story states that his wife was baptized as a believer and that he had her executed.
   E. Speculate on what could have resulted if these people made better choices.
   F. Could Jesus have paid for our sins and delivered His grace without shedding His blood on the cross?

2. How does Pastor John say, “We are all part of the crowd”?
   

   We need to be like the thief on the cross. Luke 23:40-43, I John 1:9
   Find at least one Bible verse in our study, or from your own Bible research, to support the following statements.
   A. Make good choices.
   B. Take responsibility for our choices, not blaming others or mocking God.
   C. Confess our sin.
   D. Repent and try to reconcile with those against whom we’ve sinned.
   E. Accept God’s healing forgiveness.

3. Adam and Eve committed the original sin (Gen. chapter 3). We are still living with the consequences. Without sin entering the world, think about what things in life would be different today.
   

8 Consider these quotes (from the secular world) about the inevitability of consequences from our choices.

  A.  Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.
       Robert Lewis Stevenson
  B. Sometimes, when I consider the consequences of little things, I am tempted to think that there are no little things.  Bruce Barton
  C. It’s easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.  Josiah Stamp
  D. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.  

Alfred A. Montapert
E. You can say whatever you want, but there’s going to be consequences to it. Neal Brennan
F. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices.
James E. Faust
G. Life is about making choices, seeing those choices through, and living through the consequences. Molly Bloom

*Close in prayer.