07 Feb Discussion Guide: Where Can Wisdom Be Found? Week 4
Prayer
Take the first 10 minutes of your time together to listen to what God is doing in one another’s lives and pray for any specific needs people in your group may have.
This week we continue our series Where Can Wisdom Be Found. We will be taking a look at the Wisdom Literature of Scripture and asking the question, “How can we not just obtain the wisdom of God in our lives, but actually live out that wisdom for the world to see?” We will see that God’s wisdom isn’t just a concept to be learned, but is actually a person to be known.
Discussion Questions
David Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand
Foolishness is more than being stupid, it’s that deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance.
How would you define the word foolishness?
What would you say is the craziest, or most foolish, thing you’ve ever done?
How do you know when something is foolish?
Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Why is it so easy and tempting to follow the path of foolishness?
It is so tempting because of two typical properties attached to almost every foolish choice we are faced with. First, the foolish choice rarely appears to be foolish. It typically makes since in our minds and the unwanted consequences are not readily apparent. Second, the foolish choice usually promises to give us the thing we really want. The relationship, the pleasure, the satisfaction, the relief, the foolish choice dangles the carrot before our faces and invites us to take a bite.
Why is it so difficult to receive correction from others when they see us acting foolish? What is the danger in refusing that correction?
because correction implies we are wrong about something, and no one likes to be told their wrong. Typically the foolishness we chase after is some kind of promise to give us love, security, identity, and acceptance. So, when someone comes to us to lovingly tell us what we are pursuing is wrong and foolish that immediately feels like rejection which is the very thing we are trying to get away from. In reality it’s actually the love and security we ultimately need in our relationships.
What does the fact that we easily pursue foolishness and don’t like people correcting us in that pursuit reveal about the nature of our hearts?
To put it simply, it reveals that our hearts are selfish. We want what we want, when we want it, how we want it, and for someone to tell us that thing we want is foolish is to rob us of what we think will make us happy.
What would the world’s “wisdom” say about the self-serving pursuit of power, fame, or popularity?
Our culture celebrates that pursuit. It tells us we ought to chase after that which brings me power, pleasure or security because, after all, I deserve to be happy don’t?
1 Corinthians 1:18-21
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe
What is the difference between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world?
How does Jesus model the wisdom of God for us?
How does Jesus’ life, death and resurrection empower us to be fools in the eyes of the world ?
Closing Thought
Elizabeth Elliot
“God never withholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God’s refusals are always merciful — “severe mercies” at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better.”
Is there anything thing you may be pursuing that could be foolishness in the eyes of God? What might be needed in that pursuit to help you pursue God’s wisdom?