Icebreaker Option: What is your favorite way to take a trip or is there one you would like to try and why: plane, train, car, bike or boat?
HOPE: How did you experience God in the Psalms this week?
SERMON SUMMARY:
Pastor Chrisy Kendrick preached from Psalm 32 on vulnerability in prayer, emphasizing the importance of confessing sins honestly to draw closer to God's heart. By embracing raw prayers of confession inspired by the psalms, we experience true joy, freedom, and connection with God. Developing a habit of spending time in God's presence through regular confession and prayer cultivates intimacy with Him. The sermon concludes by encouraging listeners to trust in God's love and the power of the cross, fostering a deeper relationship through vulnerability and honesty in prayer.
HEART:
• How do you personally react to the raw and honest passages in the Psalms?
• Think of a time where you were honest with God in prayer. How did that change your perspective or bring you closer to God’s heart?
HEAD: Read Psalm 32
• What does this Psalm identify as the reason for joy and what does David identify as necessary to have this connection with God?
• When we don’t speak with God about our transgressions, what is the result according to this passage?
• David uses a word picture as a caution. What do we learn about God’s character and our own from this description?
HANDS:
Chrisy gave three practical steps that nurtures our vulnerability with God: pray, confess and believe.
• How can you seek a deeper connection with God in your prayers?
• What do you need to do to strengthen confession in your prayer life?
• How can you remind yourself of Jesus' sacrifice and love during times when you feel unworthy or hesitant to bring your vulnerabilities to God in prayer?
• What Psalm will you commit to pray through this week to train yourself in vulnerability with God? Consider Psalms: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143.
HOPE: Prayer
• Pray for willingness to make space for God to work in our hearts both individually and as a community of faith.
• Ask God to reveal areas in our lives that need confession and vulnerability.
• Pray for the courage to embrace this invitation to pray deep, honest, and raw prayers.
Going Deeper: Questions to reflect upon and encourage the conversation to go deeper.
We again heard of God’s covenant love in this week’s sermon - an unbreakable love that demonstrates mercy, kindness, goodness and the favor of God. Hesed is used 129 times throughout the Psalms. Spend time reading some of these passages and considering how the writers speak of God lovingkindness (translated “steadfast love” in the ESV).
• How do these passages help you understand God’s heart in a greater way?
• What does this truth compel you to do?