Live Wise: The Power Of Proverbs
An Inside Job
Life is difficult. There’s no way around it. But too often, we make it more difficult than it has to be because we work against principles God put into place. Fortunately, God offers us wisdom for how to live in harmony with the seen and unseen realities of our world. In this series, we’ll look at some of the powerful wisdom God offers from the book of Proverbs that can help us thrive in our family, finances, and careers.
Links
Series
Speakers
Joël Malm
Teaching Pastor
Live Wise – Week 7
An Inside Job
Key Point:
You will never conquer habitual, ingrained sin through willpower alone.
Proverbs 20:5-12
The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him! A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes. Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”? Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD. Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.
Mark 7:20-23
“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Key Point:
Spiritual victory always comes from the inside out.
Ask:
What’s going on in my soul right now?
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
TITLE: An Inside Job
Week of 10-13-24
TEXT: Proverbs 20:5-12
CHECKING IN
If this is your first-time meeting as a group, or a new group member, introduce yourselves. Share with the group what you hope to get out of this GROW Group series.
MEMORY VERSE
Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
MAIN POINT
You will never conquer habitual, ingrained sin through will power alone.
INTRODUCTION
As your group time begins, use this section to introduce the topic of discussion. Last week the focus was that there are things in our life that cause us to run. We either need to be running FROM something, or running TOWARDS something. We need to make God our STRONG TOWER, a REFUGE and RUN towards the Father. This week we will talk about sinning, and how that we ALL want to stop sinning, but it is incredibly hard. We all do it. We all do it all the time and we don’t know why. Sin is pervasive, it’s everywhere, and no matter how hard we try we fall into its embrace.
QUESTION:
Why do we sin? Why is it that it seems like we can’t stop sinning?
UNDERSTANDING/DIGGING DEEPER
Spiritual victory always comes from the inside out.
HAVE A VOLUNTEER READ Proverbs 20:5-12 Unpack Proverbs 20:5-12 The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous who walk in his integrity— blessed are his children after him! A king who sits on the throne of judgment windows all evil with his eyes. Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”? Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD. Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.
Are there any sins you just can’t conquer and need help with?
The beautiful thing about accepting and having Jesus in your life, is that when you accept what He has done for us on the cross, He forgives our sins, once and for all. We are still going to sin, and we think about it day to day, but God won’t. We don't conquer sin to make God approve of us more, because He can't approve of us more than he does right now because He approves of Jesus Christ inside of you.
How many times have you conquered a sin only to have it come back weeks, months, or even years later?
APPLICATION
HAVE A VOLUNTEER READ Mark 7:20-23 Explain what Jesus is trying to communicate in this verse?
THINK ABOUT IT:
We often dwell on our sin. It stays with us and simmers for a long time…. Rejoice! God does not think about our sin if we are believers and followers of Jesus. This is the single best thing I have ever thought about. Thank you, Jesus, for taking it for me, for enduring all you went through for me, for dying for me. A lowly sinner that you loved enough to die for me… It is very overwhelming when you really think about it.
COMMENTARY
Just as sin comes from the inside, so does transformation. Emotions are sometimes dangerous and can lead you to a bad place. We have to change our strongholds from our thoughts, to align with God’s thoughts. We have the same power in us that Jesus used to drive out demons and move mountains. Whenever you are tempted to return to “that” thing (we all have a that) say a prayer. Sing to Jesus, say his name. We can win against sin, we just can’t do it the way we have been trying. We can’t do it alone and we can’t do it without the Holy Spirit. Every time we sin, we try to fill that small part of us that feels empty. Fill it with God.
FOLLOW UP
Throughout this week, consider sending a follow-up email to your group. Some suggestions:
❏ Questions to consider as you continue to reflect on what you learned this week:
- How can our group pray for you this week about the challenges you are facing, so that you can have victory?
- When are you most prone to Satan’s attacks? List a couple of them, then prepare ahead of time for the potential attacks.
❏ A note of encouragement, following up on any specific prayer requests mentioned during your group gathering.
❏ Remember to memorize Psalm 139:23-24 and seek ways to apply this week