Welcome to Sunday Fuel! This series of questions is designed to assist your personal reflection and fellowship with others about the sermon from this past Sunday.
Go to This Sunday’s Sermon (start at 25:25).
Though this message (and these questions) are geared towards parents, Pastor Kim reminded us that this psalm is for all of us because we all worry about something.
- Before reflecting on the following, identify a worry that weighs on you—something beyond your control, a concern that weighs on your heart, a circumstance that you are trying to change. How do you typically respond to this worry?
- Consider picking one of the two key questions from the sermon to explore:.
Key Question 1: Is parenting about me or Christ?
- Considering the words you say, the values that are reflected in the decisions you make:
- What desires have become demands?
- What rival idols am I inadvertently introducing to my children?
- What additional worldly metrics of success do you believe your child needs on top of faith in Christ?
- What do these desires and idols reveal about who is truly at the center of our home: me, my children, and our happiness–or Christ?
2. Respond in humility to God as one step towards peace in Christ.
- Start your prayer as David did, not with who you are, but who you aren’t (v. 1).
- Humbly acknowledge you need help with everything in your life, even the things that seem within your control.
- Confess any sin in your heart: disordered desires, competing rivals or misplaced worship.
- Pray for biblical humility: cry out in desperation for his grace, trusting that He will help you live for Him and live in dependence on Him.
- Repent and ask Him to help you care about the things He cares about. Prayerfully ask Him to guide you to show you how to love consistently with His values. What might that require in how you respond, speak, decide, or act?
Key Question 2: What am I really hoping in?
- Putting our hope in anything other than Christ will prove to be uncertain and contribute to our fear and worry. How might even your good hopes for your children fall short of the sure and certain hope found only in Christ?
- When your hopes feel weak, what truths about God and the Gospel do you need to remember? How do your hopes in Christ help you to find hope in your situation?
- Respond in prayer, putting your hope in Christ.
- Remind yourself of the hope the gospel brings to your situation.
- Confess the ways you are putting your hope in changed circumstances or your ability to control the situation.
- Focus on a truth about God or a promise from His Word and ask Him to help you get to know this truth or promise in a personal way through your fears and worries.
- Praise God that Christ is not subject to the fallenness of the world. Praise Him that He is not just above circumstances but in control of them, that He is the source of contentment and has both authored and entered our story and will see you through it to His glory and your good.
Other parenting messages:
- Mother’s Day 2024 message from Pastor Tim on Psalm 121: Kept By God
- Counseling Youth: Gospel Hope for Teenage Hearts: series by Pastor Dan Nah
