1. #14 A Kingdom Torn in Two The Two Bombs Rehoboam and Jeroboam

2. Review

3. Concepts to Grab In three Generations, Samuels’ warnings of a king took place. What decisions are you making that will effect future generations? God is going to work with our without you. Wouldn’t you rather be on the side where you are in God’s plan of showing His greatness to the world? Fatal errors Good Movies have an impact

4. Movies have 6 categories for review Setting Characters Point of View Plot Resolution Theme

5. Today’s movie/story is titled “A Kingdom Torn in Two.”

6. I.Setting: I Kings 12 Upper Story Lower story Solomon dies and his son, Rehoboam, takes over the throne.

7. II.The Characters - second category for a movie critique Names Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, who is from the tribe of Judah and Jeroboam who is from the tribe of Ephraim. Jeroboam that he will become king, but he must wait. Jeroboam refuses to wait and rebels against Solomon.

8. III.The Point of View-third category for a movie critique This is from Lower story—our view—happenings in life Upper story is one big beautiful picture—God’s grand plan Rehoboam unfolds horizontally from our view point

9. IV.The Plot In every good story or movie there is a plot with conflict. The plot with conflict is recorded in 1 Kings 12:1-14

10. V.The Resolution The resolution is seen in 1 Kings 12:16-17 The resolution: the nation is divided into two kingdoms.

11. VI.The Theme(s) Upper story Theme God has a plan to get us back Nothing will thwart this plan

12. B.The lower story theme (seen in Jeroboam) “The ripple effects of our decisions.” – Solomon’s decisions affected Jeroboam – Jeroboam’s decisions led to a split in the nation. Trickle down effect

13. How will you respond? Upper story-God is in control – God gives us principles to live by Lower story-Live contrary to God – Our Choices effect our future generations – Live contrary to God  Consequences

14. Application:

15. Consider how your decisions impact your family, your business, your money, your neighborhood.

16. Think in terms of generations. What will your great grandchildren say of you? What do you want them to say? Consider the ripple effect of your decisions.

17. God has a plan and God can enter into your life and turn it into a story of great positive impact on others. Perhaps you need to ask God to help you start a new story today.

18. Upper Story Point: God has a plan. Jesus will build his church, with or without our help. We have a choice to make as a congregation: will we represent God well? Will we align our lives to his word and to his upper story?

19. Lower Story Point: Our decisions have ripple effects. The stakes go up when you’re a leader, because your decisions affect more people. Solomon’s negative example impacted his son Rehoboam, and Rehoboam was used to split an entire nation. In reality, the division of the kingdom was not because of Rehoboam’s decision, but because of Solomon’s decision. Solomon shows us that we don’t use people to build our authority, we use our authority to build people.

20. Lower Story Point: Our decisions have ripple effects. Our decisions can have a positive ripple effect. We can be different in our businesses, operating with integrity and treating people fairly. We can positively impact our families by the way we model God’s message to them. During the divided kingdom there were 38 kings, and only five of them followed God.

21. Challenge: Be one of those five. Regardless of your heritage, or your peers, be one of the five who starts something new so your children and grandchildren can point back to you as the starting point of a new spiritual heritage.

22. Be a church that helps the hurting, not shoots the wounded People are hurting-How will we help? Be a Church that cares for the soul. Will they Accept Christ by watching us or be driven away?