Jeremiah 30:6-7 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

God has given Jeremiah a word of restoration but this came first. Does your sin and rebellious heart cause you this much pain? Probably not. We have this defensive mechanism that wants to protect our sanity so we justify our actions or blame others. We want to believe that our actions are not worthy of such great travail. What we fail to remember is that all sin no matter how we feel about them are equal in the sight of God.

I lied but I am not a thief. I stole but I didn’t kill. I killed but it wasn’t murder. I murdered but I had to do it. What we don’t want to admit to ourselves is that all sin requires travail before restoration can be accomplished.

Some of us would rather suffer loss than to admit our rebellious heart caused us to sin. Repentance is painful and none of us like pain but without it we are only lying to ourselves.

Lying to yourself is still a lie and as bad as any other sin because it frees you up to continue in sin.

John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Would you like to hear that you are the spawn of Satan just because you lied?

I didn’t think so.

1 Samuel 15:21-22 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

You cannot honor God thru rebellion. My question at the last was, did King Saul accepted his punishment for disobedience? It did not take long to see the answer was no.

1 Samuel 16:1-2 And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord.

Samuel knew Saul’s heart and that Saul would kill anyone that tried to replace him.

At this time many of you will say to me, “But I am no king?” Yes, that is true but the principal still applies. A rebellious heart cannot be trusted. The issues of service don’t have to have titles like pastor, elder, deacon or any title within the hierarchy of a church. We are called to serve God to glorify God in many ways.

Over the years we have seen many fall from grace because of their rebellious hearts. Most do it very publicly but do not fool yourselves into thinking they are the only ones.

We will never know what could have been done for King Saul if he had repented of his sin. Forgiveness and restoration is only possible if the rebellion is broken.