Life Groups // Winter 2025 // Week 10

Posted March 14, 2025 — Lincoln Berean

Created for Pleasure // 1 Timothy 4:1-5

Introduction

Welcome to the final week of our Winter Life Group Session! We will take 2 weeks off after this and will be back the week of April 6th to begin our Spring Session which will last 7 weeks. During the Spring Session we will finish out the 1 Timothy Series and then after Easter we will start a series called Everyday Disciples. 

This week, we’ll walk through 1 Timothy 4:1-5 in which Paul predicts the false teaching that would mislead believers, how that shows up in the world today, and how we can keep ourselves and those around us grounded in biblical truth. 

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) What is one popular trend from your lifetime that you wish would make a comeback? 
 

 
2) What’s the best OR worst advice that you’ve been given in the past year? 

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) How would you summarize what you’ve learned so far from the book of 1 Timothy? 

2) Paul has made multiple mentions throughout 1 Timothy about rejecting false teaching, even connecting it to demonic influence here in chapter 4.  What steps can you take to prepare yourself to discern false teachings from true biblical doctrine? 

According to Bryan, what does it mean to “fall away from the faith”? How can we guard ourselves against this? 

3) According to Paul, where does false teaching originate from? How does Genesis 3:1-6 illustrate this? 

The false teaching Paul identifies is a form of legalism, the belief that avoiding marriage and certain foods makes them more acceptable to God. According to Paul, how should Christians who know and believe the truth respond to the gifts God has given us? 

Is pleasure a sin?  Why or why not? 

4) How does the gratitude in verse 4 keep us aligned with God’s desire for His church? 

What role do prayer and God’s Word play in sanctifying the things God has created (v.5)? 

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: Read Proverbs 3:1-12. Pay attention to the specific virtues being taught in this passage, and the reasons why they are being encouraged. Consider how you might live out those virtues on the path that God currently has you on and pray for His instruction and guidance in experiencing those things for yourself.

Prayer Focus: For the next two weeks, when your Life Group is not meeting, prioritize the members of your group in your regular habit of prayer. Make it your goal to include either your whole group or at least one individual in the group into your prayers at least once per day and use this to continue encouraging each other until you come back together to begin the spring Life Group session.

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?