Dillon Community Church

‍Intro Prayer

Heavenly Father, we come together today grateful for the gift of community and for the opportunity to sit with Your Word. As we open our hearts and minds to what You have already spoken through this sermon, we ask that You would quiet the noise inside us. Loosen our grip on certainty and our need to have all the answers. Give us ears to hear not just what we want to hear, but what You want us to receive today. May this time together be more than a discussion. May it be a moment where You shape us, challenge us, and draw us closer to You and to one another. In Jesus name, amen.

Ice Breaker

Think of a person in your life, past or present, who seemed to have a gift for saying exactly the right thing at the right time. Who was that person, and what made them stand out to you?

Key Verses

• Proverbs 2:1-5
• Proverbs 13:20
• Proverbs 26:4-5
• Proverbs 24:32
• Romans 7:15

Questions

• Pastor Ryan described discernment as learning to see the world rightly rather than simply knowing more. In your own words, what is the difference between having knowledge and having discernment? Can you think of a time when you had the right information but still made a poor decision?
• Agur opens Proverbs 30 by calling himself a brute of a man who lacks wisdom, even though he is writing wisdom literature. Pastor Ryan argued this is not false humility but genuine awe before God. How does humility before God actually make us wiser rather than less confident?
• The sermon pointed out that Proverbs 26 gives two contradictory instructions about answering a fool. What does it feel like when the Bible does not give you a clear, simple answer? How do you typically respond when life presents you with a situation that has no obvious right or wrong choice?
• Paul refused circumcision for Titus but required it for Timothy. Pastor Ryan described this as the same issue with a different faithful response. Can you think of a situation in your own life where the most faithful response required you to act differently than you had in a similar situation before? What made the difference?
• Pastor Ryan said we are addicted to certainty and immediacy, and that this is part of what makes us the most anxious generation. Do you agree with that assessment? How does the desire for certainty sometimes get in the way of trusting God?
• Proverbs 13:20 says that walking with the wise makes us wise. Who are the people in your life right now who are shaping how you see the world? Are those influences moving you toward wisdom or away from it?
• Pastor Ryan described Jesus as someone who rarely spoke first, who listened attentively, and who asked questions to get to the heart of the matter. How does that picture of Jesus challenge the way you typically engage in conversations, especially difficult ones?
• The sermon ended with the idea that the church is called to be a non-anxious presence in the world. What would it look like practically for your small group, your family, or your workplace to embody that kind of calm, discerning presence? What would need to change?

Life Application

This week, choose one conversation or situation where you would normally react quickly and instead practice slowing down. Before responding, ask yourself: What is this moment actually calling for? What does faithfulness look like here, not just what is right or wrong? Take a few minutes afterward to reflect on what you observed about yourself, the other person, and what God might have been doing in that moment. Consider journaling your observations as a way of applying your heart to what you are learning.

Key Takeaways

• Wisdom resists simplicity. True discernment begins with humility before God, acknowledging the limits of human understanding rather than grasping for certainty or easy answers.
• Discernment means reading the moment. Proverbs is not a rulebook but a guide for learning to identify what each situation faithfully requires, even when that means responding differently in similar circumstances.
• Information alone is not enough. You can accumulate knowledge without growing in wisdom. Spiritual maturity is formed through active pursuit, not passive learning.
• Discernment is learned in community. We become like the people we walk with, and wisdom is caught as much as it is taught through observation, relationship, and paying attention to our own failures.
• Slowing down is a spiritual practice. Jesus modeled a life of careful observation and attentive listening, and the church is called to reflect that same non-anxious, discerning presence in the world.

Ending Prayer

Lord, thank You for this time together and for the reminder that wisdom is not something we arrive at but something we grow into. Forgive us for the ways we have rushed past the people and moments that needed our full attention. Forgive us for trusting our own certainty more than Your guidance. As we leave this conversation, we ask that You would plant in each of us a deeper hunger for discernment. Teach us to slow down, to listen well, to ask better questions, and to trust that You are at work even in the moments we cannot fully understand. Make us a community that reflects Your non-anxious presence to a world that is desperate for it. In Jesus name, amen.

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