Icebreaker Option: What's the funniest or most memorable thing that happened to you while trying to accomplish a simple task?
HOPE: How did you experience God in the Psalms this week?
SERMON SUMMARY:
Pastor Justin Kendrick's sermon focuses on Psalm 103, which is a prayer of spiritually remembering what God has done. He explored three crucial characteristics of God’s kingdom found in this psalm: higher logic, deeper change, and clearer vision. By preaching the truth of God’s kingdom to themselves, believers can align their thinking with God's truth, experiencing transformation, and living with hope and purpose.
HEART:
• Can you identify a time in your life when experiencing God's love as His child led to personal change or growth?
• Are there truths about God that you remember with your brain but need to reaffirm with your soul?
HEAD: Read Psalm 103
• What is the psalmist instructing himself to do in this psalm and why?
• What do we learn about the Father’s heart for us in this psalm and how should this shape how we see ourselves?
• How does this passage help us understand our present reality in light of God’s kingdom?
HANDS:
• Higher Logic: What is an example of the upside-down nature in the kingdom of God and a specific way that this should impact your faith journey and relationship with God?
• Deeper Change: Are there times that you struggle with your identify as God’s child and how does this hinder your faith journey and relationship with Him?
• Clearer Vision: What are some practical ways you can strive to maintain a clearer vision of God's kingdom as you navigate life's challenges?
Praying the Psalms: How can you use psalms of confession, specifically Psalm 103, as a pattern for your prayer life to embrace the characteristics of God's kingdom more fully in your life?
HOPE: Prayer
• Ask God to help you apply the higher logic of the kingdom of God to your life this week, humbling yourself and relying on His grace.
• Pray for a deeper change in your identity as a beloved child of God, allowing His love and acceptance to transform you from the inside out.
• Ask God for a clearer vision of His kingdom, enabling you to navigate life with purpose and hope, trusting in His promises for the future.
Going Deeper: Questions to reflect upon and encourage the conversation to go deeper.
Pastor Justin referenced Mark 1:14, 15. “In order for us to actually experience the fullness of the kingdom…we actually need to know how this kingdom is different from the kingdom of the world.”
Jesus explained the kingdom of God through parables, “the kingdom of God is like.” Mark records Jesus’ kingdom parables in chapter 4. Matthew unpacks the kingdom teachings more fully in chapters 13, 20, 22 and 25.
• What do these parables teach us about a kingdom mindset?
• In reflecting on these truths, what in your ways of thinking and living needs to change?