Session #3- We Need Rescue

Hey everyone — before we jump into tonight, I need your help with an activity. This one’s loud, so you’ve got to be ready.

Here’s how this works. I’m going to describe a situation, and you’re going to tell me out loud if you think it actually fixes the problem.

If you think it fixes it, shout “YES!” If you think it does not fix it, shout “NO!”

Let’s practice.

If I say, “Eating only candy is a healthy diet,” what do you say? (Wait for “NO!”)

Good. Some of you answered very confidently.

Before we start, I want you to know where we’re going tonight. There are three truths we’re going to walk through together:

The problem is relationship

Trying harder can’t fix the problem

We need rescue.

Keep those in your head. We’ll come back to them.

Opening Scenario

Scenario 1 — The Room

Alright.

If your room is an absolute disaster — clothes everywhere, garbage on the floor — and instead of cleaning it, you just shove everything under your bed…

Does that fix the problem? (Let them shout “NO!”)

Right. The mess is still there — it’s just hidden.

Scenario 2 — The Smell

Okay, next one.

If you play hard all day, get super sweaty, and your clothes smell really bad — and instead of changing your clothes, you just spray more deodorant…

Does that fix the problem? (Let them shout “NO!”)

Wait it doesnt work??

Now you just smell like sweat and deodorant. That’s not better — that’s worse.

Scenario 3 — The Phone

this one might make some of your start twithing.. but..

If your phone screen is cracked — like really cracked — and instead of fixing it, you turn the brightness all the way up…

Does that fix the problem? (Let them shout “NO!”)

Right. It’s just a bright, broken phone.

Land the Point

Alright — here’s the question.

If something is broken… does trying harder fix it? (Let them shout “NO!”)

Exactly.

And that helps us understand what we’re talking about tonight.

What we just talked about helps us understand something important about our relationship with God.

Last night, we ended with this picture.

GOD |———✖———| US

That X represents sin. Sin broke the relationship between God and people.

And tonight, that picture still hasn’t changed.

That’s what we’re going to talk about tonight.

The problem is relationship

Before we talk about effort, or good deeds, or trying harder, we need to be really clear about what the actual problem is.

Here’s the first truth for tonight:

The problem is deeper than behavior — it’s a broken relationship with God.

A lot of times when people think about sin, they think about rules. They think about actions….or They think about doing bad things.

But the Bible shows us that sin is more than just bad behavior. Sin is a relational problem.

Look again at the picture we’ve been using all week.

GOD |———✖———| US

That X in the middle represents sin. And sin didn’t just break a rule — it broke the relationship people were created for.

The Bible says this very clearly in Isaiah 59:2:

Isaiah 59:2 NLT

It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.

That verse doesn’t say, “God stopped caring.” It doesn’t say, “God stopped loving people.” It says sin cut off the relationship.

This is why, in Genesis, Adam and Eve hid from God. This is why shame entered the picture. This is why distance showed up.

The relationship God created us for was broken.

And this isn’t just about Adam and Eve.

Romans 3:23 says:

Romans 3:23 NIV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

That word “all” means everyone. It means you. It means me. It means your cabin leaders. It means every human who has ever lived.

No one is standing on God’s side of the line by themselves.

So tonight, the picture still looks like this:

GOD |———✖———| US

And here’s why this matters so much.

If the problem was just behavior, then rules would fix it. If the problem was just mistakes, then trying harder would fix it. If the problem was just bad choices, then promising to do better would fix it.

But the Bible says the problem is relationship.

And broken relationships don’t get fixed by pretending nothing happened. They don’t get fixed by hiding the mess. They don’t get fixed just by saying, “I’ll do better next time.”

That’s why understanding the problem correctly matters.

Because if we misunderstand the problem, we’ll look for the wrong solution.

And that leads us directly to the second truth for tonight.

Trying harder can’t fix the problem.

Now that we understand the problem, this is usually the next question people ask.

“Okay… then what if I just try harder?” “What if I stop doing bad things?” “What if I become a better person than I was before?”

That leads us to the second truth for tonight:

Trying harder and doing good things can’t remove the X.

This is where a lot of people get stuck.

We start believing that effort will fix the relationship. We start believing that if we do enough good things, the bad things will cancel out. We start believing that God will accept us if we just improve enough.

The Bible actually talks about this kind of thinking.

Proverbs 14:12 says:

Proverbs 14:12 NLT

There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

That verse is saying something important. Sometimes what feels right isn’t what actually fixes the problem.

Trying harder feels right. Being good feels right. Doing more feels right.

But that doesn’t mean it removes the X.

Now let me be very clear, because this matters.

Being kind is good. Helping people is good. Making better choices is good.

The Bible never says those things are bad.

But the Bible is also clear that good behavior doesn’t heal a broken relationship with God.

Isaiah 64:6 says this:

Isaiah 64:6 NIV

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

That doesn’t mean God hates good things. It means good things don’t fix the real problem.

Think about it like this.

If a friendship is broken because trust was broken, doing nice things doesn’t automatically fix it. The issue isn’t effort — the issue is relationship.

That’s why, even when we try really hard, the picture still looks the same.

GOD |———✖———| US

The X is still there.

Good behavior doesn’t remove it. Trying harder doesn’t erase it. Promising to do better doesn’t fix it.

And that can feel frustrating, or even discouraging.

But it’s actually leading us to something really important.

Because once we realize that effort doesn’t work, we’re finally ready to ask the right question.

We need rescue.

So if the problem is deeper than behavior, and trying harder doesn’t fix it, then what do we actually need?

That brings us to the third truth for tonight:

We don’t need more effort — we need rescue.

The Bible is very honest about our situation.

Romans 5:6 says:

Romans 5:6 NLT

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

I want to focus on one word in that verse — the word helpless.

Helpless doesn’t mean lazy. Helpless doesn’t mean stupid. Helpless doesn’t mean worthless.

Helpless means unable.

The Bible is saying that, on our own, we don’t have the ability to fix what’s broken between us and God.

That means we don’t just need better advice. We don’t just need more rules. We don’t just need stronger willpower.

We need help from outside ourselves.

Think about it this way.

If someone is drowning, you don’t stand on the shore and shout instructions. You don’t yell, “Try harder!” You don’t say, “Just swim better!”

They need someone to step in and rescue them.

The Bible is saying that spiritually, that’s our situation.

The relationship between God and us is broken, and we don’t have the power to fix it ourselves.

So tonight, the picture still looks like this:

GOD |———✖———| US

And that’s not meant to make us feel hopeless. It’s meant to make us honest.

Honest about our limits. Honest about our need. Honest about the fact that if this relationship is going to be restored, God has to be the one to do it.

God Is Just

And before we end tonight, I believe some of you might still be asking this:

Why doesn’t doing good cancel out the bad?

Or, to put it another way: Why can’t we rescue ourselves?

……

And the answer is this:

Because God is just.

God being just means he can’t ignore sin- even when we do good things.

Doing good doesnt erase guilt…. . And our own human effort does not fix a broken relationship between a God that needs a punishment for sin.

Sin need punishment because God is Holy and perfect God cannot be around sinners…

And once we understand that, everything we’ve talked about tonight starts to come together.

Closing: The Gift We’re Waiting For

So let’s put everything together one last time.

Tonight, we learned three truths:

The problem is relationship

Trying harder can’t fix the problem

We need rescue.

And right now, the picture still looks the same.

GOD |———✖———| US

The relationship is broken. The X is still there. And we can’t remove it ourselves.

But here’s the most important thing to understand tonight.

God did not look at this broken relationship and walk away. God did not ignore the problem. God did not say, “Figure it out on your own.”

Instead, God chose to act.

Our theme verse for this week says it like this:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” (John 3:16)

Notice how that verse starts. It starts with God. It starts with love. It starts with giving.

The Bible teaches that when we couldn’t fix the problem ourselves, God stepped in and did something for us.

And that’s where tonight stops.

Because we’re not answering how God fixed the problem yet. We’re not answering what that gift really means yet.

But we are saying this clearly:

If we can’t fix the problem ourselves, then God has to do something for us — and tomorrow we’ll talk about the greatest gift God has ever given.

That gift wasn’t advice. That gift wasn’t rules. That gift wasn’t effort.

That gift was His Son.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about who Jesus is, why He came, and what He did to deal with the X once and for all.

Close

Before we finish, let’s take about ten quiet seconds.

No talking. No moving around.

Just think about this:

God knows the problem. God knows you can’t fix it on your own. And God is not finished with the story.

(10 seconds)

Then pray.