Dillon Community Church

Intro Prayer

Heavenly Father, we come before You today with open hearts and willing minds. As we gather to discuss Your Word, we ask that You would quiet the noise of our own assumptions and expectations. Help us to release our grip on the idea that following You guarantees a certain kind of life, and instead draw us into a deeper trust in Your character and Your purposes. Where there is doubt among us, let it lead us closer to You rather than away. Where there is pain or confusion, remind us that You are sovereign and that Your wisdom is far greater than our own. Guide our conversation today, and may what You want us to receive be exactly what we walk away with. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Ice Breaker

What is one piece of advice from a parent, grandparent, or mentor that you ignored at the time but later realized was completely right?

Key Verses

• Proverbs 3:21-26
• Ecclesiastes 1:1-3
• Job 23:3-5
• Matthew 11:28
• Psalm 73

Questions

• Pastor Ryan described Proverbs as a Father pleading with His child to choose wisdom over folly. Who in your life has played that kind of role for you, and how did their guidance shape the decisions you made?
• Solomon asked God for wisdom rather than wealth or power. If God offered you one request today, what would you ask for, and what does that reveal about your current priorities?
• Pastor Ryan warned against reading Proverbs as a guaranteed formula, saying that doing so can lead to disillusionment. Have you ever caught yourself treating your faith like a transaction, expecting certain outcomes in exchange for obedience? What happened when those expectations were not met?
• The Hebrew word 'hevel' describes life as vapor or fog, something real but fleeting and hard to grasp. Where in your life right now do you feel that sense of uncertainty or inability to control outcomes?
• Ecclesiastes invites us to receive ordinary joys as gifts from God even amid life's complexity. What are some simple, everyday gifts you may have been overlooking or taking for granted?
• Job's friends assumed his suffering was the result of personal sin, applying a surface-level reading of wisdom. Have you ever been on the receiving end of that kind of advice during a hard season? How did it affect you?
• Pastor Ryan said that doubt becomes toxic when it stops being curious and starts rejecting mystery while demanding certainty. How do you personally distinguish between healthy, searching doubt and the kind of doubt that slowly erodes faith?
• Pastor Ryan shared that his own season of depression and confession led him to truly understand grace for the first time, not just hear about it. Is there something in your life right now that God may be inviting you to wrestle with honestly, rather than push down and push through?

Life Application

This week, identify one area of your life where you have been holding tightly to an expectation about how God should show up or how things should work out. Write it down honestly. Then spend time in prayer, not asking God to meet that expectation, but asking Him to help you trust His character and His purposes even if the outcome looks different than you hoped. If you feel comfortable, share that expectation with a trusted friend or small group member and invite them to pray with you and walk alongside you.

Key Takeaways

• Proverbs is a guide for navigating life with wisdom, not a guaranteed formula. Reading it as a set of promises rather than general truths can lead to disillusionment and a fragile faith.
• Ecclesiastes introduces the concept of 'hevel,' the idea that life is like vapor or fog: real, but transient and impossible to fully grasp or control. This is meant to humble us and loosen our grip on the illusion of control.
• The 'myth of religious fulfillment' is the subtle but dangerous belief that we follow God primarily to get something out of it. When that expectation goes unmet, faith can collapse if it was built on that foundation.
• Honest doubt, the kind that brings questions and confusion directly to God rather than suppressing them, is a healthy and even necessary part of faith. Job models this by continuing to cry out to God even in the depths of His suffering.
• Walking through suffering and spiritual disorientation, when approached with humility, can lead toa deeper and more genuine experience of God's grace, one that moves from something we have heard about to something we have truly seen and felt.

Ending Prayer

Lord, thank You for the richness of Your Word and for the way it meets us honestly in the complexity of real life. Thank You that You do not ask us to pretend everything is fine or to suppress our questions and doubts. Thank You for the example of Job, who brought his confusion and pain directly to You and found You faithful. As we leave this time together, help each of us to loosen our grip on the outcomes we have been demanding and to trust more deeply in Your character. Where we have been reading Your Word as a formula, forgive us and reorient our hearts. Where we have been hiding doubt or shame, give us the courage to bring it into the light, to You and to safe people around us. May we walk this week not with the confidence that life will go the way we plan, but with the confidence that You are sovereign, You are good, and You are with us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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*Discussion guides come from sermon given by Pastor Ryan Leeds and material created with Sermon Shots.