If you are a parent, you know every child toddler goes through the stage of saying the word no to most every instruction. This is a normal developmental stage. No one teaches kids to do this because it is something we all are born with. We all are born with the desire to say “no” to authority so we can do whatever we want.

By saying “no,” we are rejecting the authority of the person to whom we are responding. Kids can love their parents deeply, but in that moment, they are rejecting the authority of their parents. From birth, all of us are good at rejecting the authority of our parents. We are also adept at rejecting God’s authority, saying no to what He wants and doing instead what we want. It’s called sin, and we are born with a sin nature. Saying no to our parents often led to punishment, and the same is true when we say no to God. And no amount of good on our part will cancel out our punishment.

In this session, we will discover we are sinners, and on our own, we can do nothing about it. Thankfully, God did not leave us in this state.