Icebreaker Option: Have you ever built or made something that did not go as planned?
HOPE: Where have you seen God at work in your relationships in your family and your faith community during this last sermon series?
SERMON SUMMARY:
Pastor Justin Kendrick delves into the significance of the Book of Psalms in shaping our prayer lives. From Psalm 1, he explored how nurturing thoughts, habits, and relationships are fundamental ways that we are formed. He then looked at how spiritual formation begins with filling our minds and reflecting on God’s truth. He underscored that transformation can only be possible through Christ's fulfillment of the law and the grace he extends to his believers. The sermon concludes with an invitation to surrender in prayer, emphasizing God's desire to bring transformative blessings into our lives.
HEART:
• Is there a Psalm that particularly resonates with you or that God has used in your spiritual formation?
• How does the truth that God wants you to be blessed challenge you?
HEAD: Read Psalm 1
• How does the psalmist describe the actions of the blessed individual?
• What word pictures are used to describe the one who is blessed as compared to the wicked?
• What does this Psalm say is the proof that someone is deeply rooted in God and how are we to understand this in light of the gospel?
HANDS:
· How can you nurture your own spiritual growth (head, heart and hands) to become more like the tree described in Psalm 1?
In this sermon, Pastor Justin encouraged us to begin praying the Psalms. When we pray the psalms, we're training our hearts to understand and interact with God in the way that he intended.
• How does this challenge you? How will you integrate this into your time with God?
• What Psalm will you commit to pray through as your starting point in this prayer journey?
HOPE: Prayer
• Ask God for greater delight in His law and a willingness to surrender to His will as He works in our lives.
• Pray for a deepening of our relationship with God through meditating on the Psalms.
• Pray for grace to encourage and support one another as we deepen our discipline of prayer in the weeks ahead.
GOING DEEPER: Questions to reflect upon and encourage the conversation to go deeper.
Psalm 1 and 2 are introductions to the whole book and they contain 2 themes that are ground rules for how we are supposed to pray. Spend time reading and reflecting on these chapters.
• What are the themes explored in these chapters?
• What examples of these themes can you identify in the book of Psalms?
• How does this move you to a God centered view of reality?