2 KINDS OF GRACE

related to the
______________
___________________that we access by
faith

Saving
grace:
Sustaining grace: _______________________
_____________________ what He’s called us
to be and do, regardless of the _____________
EXPLANATION OF LAMENT
Critical parts of lament

Filing a _________________________

Deciding to _____________________
INSIGHTS FROM PSALM 42 (see back page)
Some people are _____________________________
Other people should be _______________________
Psalm 42
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon — from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me —
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Small Group Questions
Pastor Mark Brewster
Sustaining Grace
1) When we think of grace – do we recognize that
there are multiple forms? Mark mentioned
saving grace (that we have been focusing on in
Galatians), and sustaining grace or strengthening
grace (the strength God gives us to be and to do
what He’s called us to do, regardless of the
circumstances). Where and how have you
experienced God’s sustaining grace?
2) Our first response to most trials is to seek a way
out. However, often God gives us the grace to
stay in the trial and learn the things He is trying
to teach us. Why do you think God teaches and
equips us in this way?
3) Do we think of “lament” as a form of worship?
How is it the “other side of worship”? The 2
critical components of lament are: 1) filing our
grievances before God and 2) deciding to trust
Him in spite of what’s happening in my life. Have
you filed any grievances with God recently?
Have you purposed to trust Him with that
situation?
4) Read Psalm 42:1. Does my soul thirst for God?
If not, why not? Read vs. 2, what’s our response
when people ask us where God is at, what is He
doing? In this passage - the Psalmist feels like
God has abandoned him; he winds up confused
over how God is so real and near at one moment
– and then seems aloof and absent at another.
Read vs. 9, where the Psalmist asks, why can’t I
count on you anymore? This passage details the
Psalmist filing his grievance – but then deciding
to trust in God! Have you ever allowed God to
strengthen you through this passage? Have you
shared it with others?
5) Mark indicated that some people are afraid to
lament and other people should be afraid to
lament (if we are truly just complaining instead of
lamenting). Why would that be?
6) In one of his darkest moments, Mark wrote his
own, personal lament, asking if cancer was
indeed, a “good and perfect gift” from God? Do
you believe that would be helpful for you – to
write your own lament to God; to honestly pour
out your heart to God and ask where He is and
what He is up to? Have you ever tried it?