Life Groups // Spring 2025 // Week 5
Posted May 2, 2025 — Lincoln Berean
Technology // Proverbs 9:1-18
Don’t forget the Life Groups Picnic Celebration scheduled for Sunday, May 18th! We invite you to come together for an old-style Pot Lunch meal to celebrate all that God has done in Life Groups this past year. Weather permitting we’ll enjoy outdoor games and activities and there will be a few ways to share some of what God has done in your life through your Life Group this year. The Life Groups Team is providing the main meat dish. When you register, let us know how many are attending (including kids) and also what side dish you are bringing. We also need to know allergy notes related to your dish (i.e. your side dish contains gluten or dairy, etc.). The link to sign up is: https://www.lincolnberean.org/LG-picnic
Introduction
This week Pastor Ryan took us through Proverbs 9, looking at the invitations of lady wisdom and lady folly as a way of addressing how an everyday disciple of Jesus can live with intentionality when it comes to the use of technology.
In addition to the sermon and these discussion questions, LBC is recommending resources each week that you could look at if you want to dig further into this topic. After the sermon each weekend, you can find links to these resources on our website. Below is a picture of the resources for this week. There are no links to these resources here. Here is a link to the webpage: www.lincolnberean.org/everydaydisciples
We invite you to look over all the questions on the following pages and write your thoughts down before you meet with your group. Some people even use these questions to take notes during the sermon. The questions are meant to stir your thinking and prompt open discussion, and we do not expect you will cover every question each week.
Warm Up (Suggested time: 30 min)
1) If you could invent a new technology, what would it be?
2) If you could get rid of one piece of technology, that has supposedly “made our lives easier”, what would it be?
Getting Started
Transition into group discussion.
1. Open group discussion with prayer. Here are a few potential prayer items:
a. For the Spirit of God to lead you in truth
b. For the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in your lives
c. For grace to hear and apply what the Spirit says to you
2. Choose someone to read the passage aloud for the group.
Study Questions (Suggested time: 40 min)
1) As you reflect on this passage and Pastor Ryan’s sermon from this past weekend, what do you hear the Holy Spirit highlighting as important for you as a disciple of Jesus regarding technology?
2) Prior to this weekend’s sermon have you thought much about how technology impacts your life as a disciple of Jesus? Why or why not?
3) Pastor Ryan pointed out the unique structure of Proverbs 9. Wisdom and Folly are both personified as a woman calling out. Use the table below to compare and contrast the invitations of each.
4) Proverbs 9 is also structured in a way that highlights the response of a wise person versus a wicked person to these invitations in verses 7-12. Below is the structure outline from the NIV Application Commentary.
Wisdom’s Invitation (9:1–6)
Description and location (9:1–3)
Invitation to the simple—“life” (9:4–6)
Learning Wisdom (9:7–12)
Responses of mockers and wise persons (9:7–9)
“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10)
Final outcomes of mockers and wise persons (9:11–12)
Folly’s Invitation (9:13–18)
Description and location (9:13–15)
Invitation to the simple—“death” (9:16–18)
As you look at this structure, verse 10 stands out as a main point of the passage. How does this verse play into our use of technology as disciples of Jesus?
5) How does technology call out to you?
As a disciple of Jesus, how do you discern whether this call is the voice of wisdom or folly?
6) Often, we immediately adapt to using new technology without thinking about the cost of using that technology. Take a few moments and reflect on the technologies you use regularly (phone, computer, email, texting, social media, automobiles, electricity, Amazon.com, etc.). How are you being formed by your regular use of technology? Is your use of these technologies making you more like Jesus or less? (As an example, is it creating patience or impatience in you?)
What would it look like in your life to use technology in a way that serves you as a disciple of Jesus?
A good question to ask would be, “Is this technology helping me to live in the fear of the Lord or is it drawing me away from God?” Of which form of technology that you use, do you most need to regularly ask that question? How can your Life Group help you in moving in this direction?
Personal Spiritual Exercises
Just like physical exercises help strengthen and stretch our bodies for healthy living, these spiritual exercises are meant to move us spiritually in ways that may be new so we might experience inner growth. Since God longs for us to experience Him with our whole selves—mind, body, spirit—we invite you along each week to strengthen your souls with suggestions and prompts.
Scripture Focus: Take a few moments and read Matthew 7:24-27. Consider this thought, “Often we think we are using technology to build something sturdy, but more likely it could be building something ‘sandy’ in us.” Is this true of your use of technology? Ask God what he thinks about this idea and write down what you hear from the Holy Spirit.
Prayer Focus: Spend a longer time reflecting on the technologies you use regularly (phone, computer, email, texting, social media, automobiles, electricity, Amazon.com, etc.). How are you being formed by your regular use of technology? Is your use of these technologies making you more like Jesus or less? (As an example, is it drawing you into loving relationships or away from them?) Take some time to talk to God about these reflections and if necessary, make a plan for whatever changes you might need to make. Consider who you could share your plan with as a further commitment to using technology to live in “the fear of the Lord.”
Prayer (Suggested time: 20 min)
A significant part of “coming together” is being open and honest with our lives. Sitting in a group of people for prayer may be new or it may be familiar to you. If you would rather not pray aloud when it is your turn, feel free to pray silently and then say “Amen” aloud signaling the next person in the group to pray. Whether or not you choose to verbalize your prayer, everyone is a participant in sharing this time before God together.
Take a few moments to prepare a prayer request. What did the message, working through the above questions or the discussion cause you to notice about your own relationship with Jesus? Would you be willing to share your prayer request with the group?