comes that moment in time in our service where we ask ourselves how has that voice of truth been
working in our individual lives the whole point of this moment is to bring together what you heard
from God in the moments of your silence and solitude or when you were alone and it was just
you and God God was working you saw something heard something when you read your Bible when you
listened to what God had to say there what the words of Jesus spoke maybe read the red text in
the New Testament or you went back and looked at what the prophet Elijah had to say or what
King David said in the Psalms and he felt the Lord speaking to you maybe had an experience with
another individual could be sharing the gospel or witnessing to someone whatever it might be
and in that moment you felt God was at work don't experience those things alone bring them into your
church let's work together to live and grow and reach new heights in Jesus the vision of our church
is that we realize that we're all on a journey and the next step is available and we work together so
that each individual can find that next step even though it's not the same step for you as it is for
anybody else in the room maybe you could all be uniquely going to the next place that you can
take them but together we can work together and one of the ways that we work together is by sharing
stories of what God has said to us throughout the week so what happened this week that you want to
talk about what did you see what did you hear how many things so I was told if I were to do it today
I want to do next Sunday so I gotta hear from you guys next Sunday I get nothing be quiet but um
you're just saying some things that made me think one of the great verses is be still and know that
I am God and I'm thinking that verse I always thought it was like you know be quiet no be still
I'm God I got this I just told Dan I'm gonna tell you all so cool right he's not cool to you but
and you're a part of it too not just donation but we do this to the church life station all the
ministries that we do is that we're all a part of this your prayers your encouragement us being uh
the glory of God in all of us Christ the month of hope of glory and um I prayed this prayer with
this little girl who wants her cat for like two days one day I don't know it was really fast and
the cat came right back on the porch that was the craziest day I ever seen I'm telling you I watched
it for myself and the cat was walking as if like it was led to the porch and it was like I should
pray just asking God dude and I was like God's gonna bring the cat I care less about the cat I
just want to share the gospel pray and the cat came back and um just recently this chris led someone
to the lord of Jesus I just there's so much good out there and um the reason I share that I don't
tell you like you gotta talk to pastor Dan but me and Dan talk about things and sort things out but
we're talking about God and we're praying and and every time we talk about something I hear something
and it speaks to me in my life and um I'm sharing something at team's church which I'll share
another day we'll have time for that but it was really cool but I thought this was awesome my kids
I don't coerce them to Jesus I haven't brought them to Jesus I give them the opportunity
and my son says this I said can you say it again I'll just record it and to you it might be like
like what is this but I don't know but it's just so cool because it came out of his mouth and then
it's funny my younger son Sam he's the stronger one so he gets right to the point but this is what
this is what we said let me turn it up should be over here because I tried it before we did this
I we're suffering every day and when we suffer we can't see it but and can't feel it but
but
because it's 500
But all I want you to hear is that every day you're suffering and won't ever stop and you won't stop suffering until you die and accept Jesus into your life. Amen.
It's Mother Son saying.
It's true. It's my son Sammy, six years old, Nehemiah nine. I don't care if it was from them, I don't care if it was from you. It was just God speaking through them.
And I thought it was so cool and we could change it up a little bit, but we all are suffering. That's the first thing to understand is that and sometimes people help us, sometimes people don't.
But we know one that did help us. That's right. We know one that's with us in suffering and he knows that too, but he wants to share it because he deals with ADHD. He is constantly suffering.
I have ADHD, but not like that. Like I can do my job. I don't eat, but sometimes he can't control himself because he can't deal with himself. Things bother him like other people do. He suffers and he knows it.
But he has known doctors and counselors and medicine. He has seen the grace of God. And I just want to close on this. We read John chapter three and I said, what are you getting out of this son?
I'm going to cry, but I don't care who said it. Your voice can say it. But I said, what are you getting out of this? Because that's what I wanted to hear. I'm so proud of him.
He goes, for the first time, Dan, when I read it, I could understand it. I know I've been teaching for years and now he can read it and he talked about things and he understood what was being said.
Now, does that mean he said grow? I don't know, but the cool thing is that God's given him a chance to grow, an opportunity to grow. He wants to get baptized here soon and the church is going to, but he's just so smart.
And I'm just so thankful that no matter what, we're all smart. I'm just so thankful to see what God is doing in that boy and what God's doing in all of you.
That's what this is all about, really. It's what God is doing in you. So I encourage you. I'm not saying you have to do what I do or take notes, but I put my life for Jesus every day.
That's how I learned from Jesus. Because I live it for him. I mess up just like anybody else. And I have messed up. You know my story. I failed miserably.
But God did it. I got back up and his church helped me get back up. And you're my brothers and sisters anyways, the family of God. I am forever grateful, eternally grateful. Thanks for all you do.
Anyone else? Last Sunday was Mother's Day and we're called service. So Barbara and I were blessed to go out and deliver flowers to mothers. And the joy and the love we see in people's faces.
I mean one lady, she opened the door to her job on the fourth. She had no idea. Just that joy in her face right there. I mean it put us over the top. I think we did holy deliveries.
We just had a blast. I said just the love and the joy in the power of her face.
Over the past few years I noticed a difference. When I first got saved it was a lot of absorbing, a lot of learning and just taking in what everybody had to share.
And now I'm a lot more comfortable sharing what I know and what I've learned. And there is still a lot to learn. God is huge. It feels like sometimes you can never fully understand.
Sometimes I have conversations with my grandparents and they'll come in and I tell them I have a blessed day or I have a week off or whatever. And they just look at me like, wow, it's so great to see young people as Christians.
And I'm like, it is. It's a beautiful thing to see because nobody in our generation really tries anymore. But one of my older grandparents, we were having a conversation about God and religion.
And sometimes they just say things to me and it's like God wanted me to hear that because it just stops me from my prayers. And we were talking about why questions that we want answered.
Like why God does certain things or why God has plans. And we don't need the answers. We have His words to lean on and we know we can follow what the answers do.
And it's people in today's world trying to compare the creator of everything to humans. And it's an unrealistic comparison. You can't ever expect them to follow the ways of humans.
It's like trying to ask why ants are doing the things that humans are doing. Why do they build their structures and have this site? It's a completely unfair comparison.
And you don't need to pray in the spirit because you don't need to pray about everything. And so we talked about that. It was really, we were talking for probably about an hour.
I'd say about 6 o'clock and we just got caught up in translation. So it was really eye opening.
Alright, so we're going to pray together this time. A little more worship, a couple songs to release the children and the leaders to the classroom. And then go to the Word.
And I'm excited. God is working in our midst and I would encourage you to look for what God is doing this week. Don't forget Tuesdays have a great opportunity.
Great opportunity to just talk to anybody. If anybody comes on our live, you can go on the docks and share with them your faith. Ask them their situation.
Listen. Listening is probably more than 50% of what we should be doing as we're trying to share the gospel.
We really only have one thing to tell them and that's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
But you might have to listen to a lot of what they need or want to hear or want to say.
It will feel better about the situation sometimes if you get the word out. So let's pray together and then we'll continue on.
Father in heaven, I do thank you so much for this body. I know there are probably a lot of pastors out there that got it all together.
They got their seminary degree and I'm grateful that I got to go to seminary.
But I look at the people and I think they got it all together and they don't need a church that helps them grow.
And they don't need friendships and brothers in Christ stand alongside them and lift them up.
And maybe that's what they think and that's how it's sometimes sort of presented. And I'm grateful that that's not my experience.
Even though sometimes it's hard. When I listen to me and my family suffer and I feel like sometimes I'm suffering.
I remember going through COVID and even since then I see it in popular social media and everything now.
I think about the way the world is as far as accepting certain things that truly are evil, that truly are wrong.
And even a lot of times calling it good. And Father we pray that we will not call evil good.
That we will just be bold enough and be real enough about your word about who you are and not call it evil good.
And that means even like when we find ourselves doing things that we think are right or things we want to do or things that make the world a better place or we're blessed by it.
We realize Lord that was not what you wanted us to do. That's not who you wanted us to be in that moment. That it's nothing but sin. It's nothing but wickedness.
And we can be anywhere along the road as far as we think we've come as much as we think we know and it could be wickedness.
And Lord I'm grateful that we have folks on our body who will step up and they'll say hey this is the experience that I had or this is how God touched me.
And it's been just about everybody in this room at one time or another. Lord and because of that I grow.
And I hear and I go yeah I want to hear from God the way my 9 year old to 10 year old daughter hears from him.
And I want to hear from God the way Tony Kate does. But at the same time I know that I might not be able to hear from God the way somebody else does.
But I can hear from God the way you want me to hear. The way you want me to experience. The way you want me to grow.
And so Lord we submit ourselves to you as we worship you as we give our tithes and offerings sure as we serve as we practice spiritual disciplines.
All of them Lord we submit to you that you would be our individual and our corporate leader this year. This our people.
These are brothers and sisters in Christ. We gather together today for this purpose.
And that's a funny phrase to be saying because it starts with certain other kind of gathering.
But we've gathered together for this purpose to reach the heights of Jesus today individually and corporately.
And we look to you for your power and for your authority for your work.
We know that sitting in these chairs right now is somebody that's in pain.
We're praying Lord that you would provide comfort. I remember when I was over on Mott Street corner Mott and 6th Street.
Yeah 6th Street I think I got that right. And there was that girl she's someone from school.
She had high fever and they give her medicine and everything that they've done they couldn't give her that fever.
She put her hand on the inside of the screen door and I put my hand on the outside and we prayed and said God deal with this just now.
And you dealt with it. You took that fever down and you made her healthy and strong and you saved her soul.
I pray Lord that that's exactly what happened that you did indeed save her soul. That she is indeed headed to be with you.
I pray for Mark who gave his life to the Lord through with Chris talking around the phone.
She talked to him again this week and said he's so excited and even his wife has seen a change in him.
I pray for anybody that might be in this room who has not experienced the transformation through Jesus.
Or is not looking to reach the next step. They're here for some other reason.
We pray that you break through that tough veneer. That you break down the walls that they built.
And that you'd work. I pray that we would when necessary as you see fit as you lead us to set aside that hour.
To talk with an older person or a younger person or somebody from another walk of life about Jesus.
About God. About what it means to be blessed in Christ. And by what it means to your follower of the year.
We ask you to bless our efforts. Bless our giving. Bless our serving.
Lord bless our breath. Bless our strength.
Lord for those of us who couldn't be here today because of her. I'm thinking specifically of how Adamus Christ goes through it.
Day in and day out. She never knows what she's going to be able to do and what she's not. It's hard for her to be here.
And June Brister is the same way. Day in and day out. Not knowing where things are going to be.
I just pray Lord that you bless them with healing.
And you call them so profoundly to yourself that they would know with whom they are walking.
If they're walking with strength. If they're overcoming pain. Overcoming hurt. Overcoming suffering.
And experiencing your presence in a way that heals and strengthens.
And anybody whose name I didn't call. And anybody who's suffering in some way that we're not thinking about right this second.
Lord we pray that you'll move. We pray for my dad who just came to mine to deal with dementia.
I pray that his mind will become clear and functional again.
And maybe that's hope beyond hope. But there's hope beyond earthly hope in our God.
And that's you. We pray that you'll do all these things and so much more.
Whatever it is that you desire to do, your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
We pray this thing from Jesus. Amen.
We pulled this song out this week. Looking at a focus recently of making it simple.
Of bringing it back to basics. And when I pulled this song out it hasn't been done in a really long time.
I don't think I've ever done it. And I didn't realize how apt it would be in a moment where I spend the inspirational moment taking a breathing treatment.
Because it's one of those days. So we're going to get through this.
But I want you to listen to these words. And if it comes out or it doesn't, it means something to the animal.
It means something to the animal.
Your things, when I feel the power of stuff being, is ready to begin.
And today, when I feel I'm letting go and soaring on the wind,
Without looking out the roaring rain, how to survive, I get on my knees, I get on my knees.
I am in fallen love and shadowyness reigns, See I don't know how perfect power will hold my hand.
I can be in a crowd all by myself, only once and it will.
When I feel there's a need to talk with God, He is Emmanuel.
When I close my eyes, know that I can feel there's only one.
I get on my knees, I get on my knees, Then I am in fallen love that changes me,
See I don't know how perfect power will hold my hand.
So the text for the day is Proverbs chapter 26.
This is God's word and if you allow it, whatever I get right or whatever I get wrong, you will be affected.
It is a coincidence, an interesting coincidence that Proverbs chapter 26, we're going to begin reading in verse 4.
So Proverbs chapter 26 verse 4.
But Proverbs chapter 26 includes one of the verses in the Bible that a long time after I became a Christian
really provided some freedom to me, really freed me up from a problem that I was having.
So I am by my nature, before I got saved, a people pleaser.
Do you know what I mean by that?
So I very much do not like it even now when people are thinking bad of me, when rumors are flying and so on.
If you look just briefly before we get into the sermon today at the second half of verse 2,
the first half says, like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying.
If you've ever seen a sparrow or a swallow flying, they're pretty graceful but they can be all over the place,
zipping back and forth, that kind of thing.
And they don't spend a lot of time on a branch because they're all moving a lot.
And it says, so a curse without cause does not alight.
That means when someone says something bad about you, and it's a lie,
and even if it's a very well presented lie and a lot of people hear it or whatever,
it makes the internet, thousands of people, whatever, that kind of thing,
it will not have an effect on you if it does not have some truth to it.
If it is not fitting, it's not appropriate, then it will not touch you.
And I thought that really freed me up because I've had a lot of people over the years who thought bad of me.
And I've never really done anything in many of those cases where people were kind of coming down on me
or talking about me or that kind of thing. I never really did anything.
I didn't think I did to deserve it.
And still, they were really coming down on me or saying bad things about me.
And that verse reminds me that no matter what somebody says about me, I don't have to worry about it.
Because if it isn't deserved, it won't affect me at all.
But that's not the sermon today. I was kind of hoping it was when the Lord led me to Proverbs 26.
That's kind of an easy thing to preach. I was kind of hoping that was it.
But nope, God said, nope, you're going to start in verse 4.
I'm going to take you through verse 4 through verse 12.
And then we're going to see something in here that's a little different than you might expect.
26.4 says this, Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him.
Verse 5 then says, Answer a fool as his folly deserves, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
So those paired verses are very interesting because the translation is hard.
Where we get all these words, 10, 12 words per phrase there in the original Hebrew, in the original language, is just a few words.
So they really have to sort out the meaning.
In fact, if you read like the King James Version, it'll basically say, Do not answer a fool according to his folly.
And then in verse 5, it says, Answer a fool according to his folly.
And you're like, well, wait a minute. It's almost the same thing.
So what does it exactly mean? But then you understand from the other words in the verse there,
you understand from the other words that what it means in one case is different from one of these in the other.
So to answer a fool according to his folly would be to talk back to him the way he's talking to you.
Or to deal with him the way he's dealing with you.
So he slices your tires, you go and slice his tires or make a huge deal out of it or blow him up on the internet or something like that.
Something vindictive, something mean, something outspoken.
That would be to answer them according to their mistakes, whatever their mistakes are, right? Their folly.
And then in the second case, it's saying you don't do it that way, but rather it says, Do it according to as his folly deserves.
So in other words, justice is dealt with.
And you're going to realize that a lot of times, the human version of justice is not the same thing.
So if somebody does something bad to you, doing the same bad thing back to them, that's not justice.
That's vengeance. It's a big difference between justice and vengeance.
If somebody does something to you and you do something back to them just like they did to you, plus a little bit more,
which is what we want to do, right? Because we're mad. So we got to do it.
Now it's revenge. We've got to go a little further.
Then that is even worse. So now you become the villain, if you will.
So you're warned here not to be like them. Don't fall into the same trap that they have fallen into.
If you do unto them the way they have done to you, they're going to start thinking they were right to do it to you in the first place.
Somebody says something bad about you, you say something bad about them, they're going to go, yes, see, I was right.
If it was wrong and stupid in the first place, what they did, now you've given them the reason, right?
After the fact. You did it after the fact, but you gave them the reason to do what it was that they did.
Now somebody throws something at you. You throw it back at them, then they're going to throw it back at you.
Now we've got a game of catch going, except we're beaming each other with whatever it is, and nobody can catch it.
Nobody can catch it, people are getting hurt, whatever. And who started it? How many times in high school do you come up and the teachers are like, well, who started it?
Well, he punched me first. Yeah, I saw him punch him first. So the one who throws the first punch gets into the most trouble.
But the one who throws the first punch, as far as everyone else is concerned, yeah, he threw a punch back.
So it's both people's fault. So if he hadn't punched him first, he probably would have punched him. So there you go.
So you don't want to do that when dealing with a fool. Talk about what a fool is in a second. Rather, do it as his folly deserves.
Lest he be wise in his own eyes. So he doesn't start thinking that what he did wrong was right.
You don't want to get confused. As a people, we don't teach that wrong is right.
There's a line in the sand. And it follows largely the teachings of scripture and the commands of Jesus.
That's pretty much where the line is because God is the one who decides what's right and what's wrong.
And if a person is a fool and they're acting on the wrong side of the line and you start doing things to them that are wrong,
then the effect of that is going to be they're going to start thinking they're right because you're supposed to be on the right side of the line, right?
You're the one that's saved or talking about God all the time. But then you do something wrong and people start thinking, well, that must be okay then.
So we don't want to do that. So before we go any deeper into the text, you gathered by now that most of this is about a fool.
Most of what we're talking about today is about a fool. Let me say to you by way of opener, if you are in this room,
you are almost definitely, not completely for sure, but almost definitely not a fool.
So if you think of yourself as a fool, I'm asking you now to go, no, I'm not a fool. To realize you're not a fool.
Okay. A fool is one of two things, according to scripture, a fool. One thing a fool is, is a person who does what they do and they cannot ascertain that what they are doing is their folly.
So they lie, not knowing that lying is bad. Before I got saved, Sherry and I moved in together and we had Alicia, we were not married.
Okay. No idea. Never crossed my mind. I thought I was doing the right thing because I stayed in her life.
I said, well, I'm not going to marry you just because you had my baby like they used to be back in the old days. That would be wrong, I said.
I'm not sure that's true, but that's what I said. Okay. And then I said, but I'm not going to leave you either.
I'm going to have to take care of this baby because I made this problem. I'm not going to walk out on it.
All right. And so I thought I was doing right. But God says otherwise. God says there's a lot more there.
Right. As we shouldn't have been having sex, I was saying, we shouldn't have been living together. We shouldn't have been sleeping together.
Right. And we should have been devoted to one another before we did any of that kind of thing. You understand?
So I didn't know. I was ignorant. That made me a fool. I was a fool at that time because I was doing what I should not have been doing, not knowing any better.
That's one definition of a fool. The other one, and it's built into the word. So the same word in the Hebrew has these two definitions built into it.
The other one, a fool is somebody who is arrogant about what they know. So they're doing what they perceive to be the right thing.
Right. You should be doing what you think is right. And they do better. So day by day, they might be doing better.
But day by day, they're assessing themselves saying, I'm good enough. I'm good. I'm doing better.
They don't go to sleep at bed, to bed at night thinking, oh, I screwed up today. I'm going to tomorrow. I'm going to do better.
They go to bed tonight thinking, I did pretty good today. I know I made mistakes, but everybody makes mistakes.
I didn't get this quite right all the time, but nobody gets it right all the time. Right.
So they feel pretty vindicated in themselves and they're not challenging their behavior even where it's wrong because they got it together.
So this is a real danger because as people get older without Christ, talking about outside Christ, as people get older, they get wiser in the ways of the world, the way things work, maybe even the Proverbs. Right.
These are observances of how things work. So they get wiser. But getting wiser, not going to save you.
You could be the wisest man who ever lived and be lost as all get out. Right.
So the wiser you get, the harder it is sometimes, the wiser you think you are anyway, the harder it is for you to recognize your error.
And so a fool is one of two kinds of people, somebody who's not wise and doesn't know it or somebody who's wise and does know it.
That's what the Bible is talking about when it says a fool.
So now we have a fool here and we ought not to answer a fool according to his folly.
We shouldn't give back or do back to them the way that they did us basically.
And we should do as they deserve. So what do you do with a fool acting in their folly?
They're not going to hear you. It's not like you can correct them. Right. You're casting your pearls before swine.
So what you do is you continue to live right. You continue to be right as an example, to speak right, to stand right, let it bounce off. Why?
Don't forget verse two back up there because an undeserved curse will never alight. It will never fixate on you.
Whatever they decide to do to you, they really can't touch you.
If a man should decide to blow my brains out, God forbid, before I'm old enough to die of natural causes, I'll go straight to heaven.
He'll actually be doing me quite the favor. Not my family or my friends or I hope not you, but he'll be doing me quite the favor.
Now I'm not asking anybody to do that. I don't want that. There's no desire. We don't want that.
We want to serve the Lord the fullness of the time that the Lord has given us to do so.
But understand that no matter how bad somebody does to you, it can't really hurt you if you're walking in Christ and living for the Lord.
Okay, we're going to go on. We've got a little bit more in the text.
So we finished five and basically remember it ended with we don't want him to be wise in his own eyes.
I think that wrong is right. Verse six. He cuts off his own feet and drinks violence who sends a message by the hand of a fool.
Understand? So basically we got this fool guy again or gal and he cuts off his own feet and drinks violence who sends a message by the hand of a fool.
So here's the interesting thing about this. I'm not going where you're thinking I'm going.
This says if you send a message with a fool, we've already clarified what a fool is, one of those two things.
Then it says if you cut off your own feet and drink violence, that's going to be like, that's dumb.
You're hurting yourself real bad by sending a message with somebody that you know is a fool.
Right? That's what it's on the surface. That's what it says.
But I want you to get this that in Christianity, this is largely what God is doing.
You follow? God is reaching out to people who in their own existence would be fools.
They could not save themselves. There's no way.
And bestowing to us the gospel a message by which people can be saved. That's exactly what God is doing.
And so God cuts off his own feet and drinks violence in trying to bestow to us a message while we are fools.
Very clearly displayed there. That's exactly what God has done essentially to himself.
But God can handle it. In any case, if you have a fool in your life, don't send your messages via him.
That would be a mess. Verse 7.
Like the legs which hang down from the lame, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
So we've got legs of a lame man, somebody who cannot walk. Their legs are what? Well, not useful.
Maybe cause pain, but that's about it. They really aren't useful.
And a proverb is like that in the mouth of a fool. So the proverb is what?
Well, we're reading the proverbs. It's an observation about how the world works.
How God oriented things. How God set it up. What God is doing. Something about God or something about creation that God created.
And that proverb is useless in the mouth of a fool.
A fool again? Somebody who's ignorant and doesn't know it. And somebody who's wise and does know it.
Which results in arrogance or a form of ignorance.
Verse 8. Like one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a fool.
Now I forgot I was going to bring a sling today and show you what this looks like.
But basically here's what a sling looks like.
There's a long strap of leather. Two long straps of leather. And in the middle is a little pocket.
And you put the stone in the pocket. You pull it tight.
And you hold both strings with your fingers in between.
And you whip it like this. And then you let go one string at just the right time.
And the string comes out. Or the stone comes out and flies hopefully in the direction.
I've hit the ground. I've thrown it up in the air. I've hit behind me. All kinds of places.
But I've also hit things in front of me after a little practice.
And it flies out and hits the target. And it's dangerous.
Slings were like the guns of David's day.
The slingers of Gideon were unbelievably dangerous.
Like a crowd of 100 men would charge them across the field and not one would make it.
That's how dangerous they were. Like charging 100 guys with handguns.
They've all got a handgun. There's 100 of you. And you've all got pocket knives.
Charge them from 100 yards away and see how well it goes.
If anybody gets there, it's amazing. That's how slings were in their day.
But if you put a stone in a sling and then you tie a string around it.
And then you swing the sling. When you let go of the extra string, what happens?
Well it just swings around. It makes a kind of whish, whish, whish. Nothing happens.
You might get a little club. Like you smack somebody upside the head of it.
Or you could maybe kill a gnat if you were really accurate.
It's useless. And so what he's saying is like one who binds a stone in a sling,
so is he who gives honor to a fool.
So these people who met those standards of what we set, right?
These people who give honor to fools are like those who bind a stone in a sling.
You can't do it. You can't take a foolish person.
Okay now I'm going to share an inside story. I didn't ask her and it's okay.
Don't pick on her about anything.
I went to her award ceremony this last week. It was a great experience.
She's sitting there with no idea what award she was getting.
They don't tell them in advance.
But I knew it wasn't all A's because she didn't get all A's.
I knew it wasn't all A's and B's because she got a C, one C.
So we knew she wasn't all A's and B's. So we knew it was a character award.
And she's waiting.
Well right before the character award that she got was a group of kids got a character award called kindness.
And they were supposed to be these kids in every grade that were the kindest kids or they were very kind.
Showed a great deal of kindness in there.
And Ariana said to me very softly as she was sitting there and she said,
you know sometimes I debate these awards as they were going up front and I said why?
And she said because that girl who's from my classroom, she's not kind to me at all.
She's mean to me. She's one of the kids that bullies me.
And she's up there standing in front of the entire school, everybody getting awards,
all their parents, 500 people in the room, whatever, 300 people, whatever it was in the room,
getting an award for kindness.
And I said to Ariana, I said well here's what the world does sometimes.
Just understand, okay, sometimes they'll see somebody doing something kind
and they'll give that person an award for kindness even though some other time they might see them do something not kind.
And they do that because they're hoping to foster greater kindness in the future from that individual.
So honor the person who is not kind at another time, honor them for their kindness,
hoping that they'll be more kind later and that's what the world does.
That's why all the kids on the kindergarten soccer team get a medal.
Because the hope is they'll try really hard every year because they're going to get a medal at the end of the year.
It's a pretty foolish notion when you think about it.
And this is what the book of Proverbs tells us about that.
It's like one who binds a stone in a sling so is he who gives honor to a fool.
If this person cannot be kind, if they're not smart enough to figure out that being unkind or being a bully
part of the time is wrong and they think that's acceptable,
then giving them an award for kindness because they were kind another time is not going to foster kindness.
Giving your kid 50 bucks because they cleaned their room once after they didn't clean their room 20 times in a row
is not going to create a kid who wants to clean his room, it's just going to create a kid who wants 50 bucks.
And if they think they got a shot at getting 50 bucks again, so what do they do?
Well, here's the key. I got to skip 20 times cleaning my room, then I'll clean it on the 21st time and get the 50 bucks.
Honor to a fool doesn't do any good.
And so if you run into somebody who doesn't, don't bother. Don't waste your breath.
Respect, that's one thing. Love, that's another thing. Be kind, that's another thing.
Because that's what we're required to be. But to honor them for some small action, hoping that that's going to turn into a character trait,
it's just not going to happen. Verse 9, like a thorn which falls into the hand of a drunkard,
this is also translated a variety of ways in different, and I'll give you a why in a second.
So like a thorn which falls into the hand of a drunkard, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
So we've got a proverb in the mouth of fools, someone talking about what God says,
somebody shares a proverb, right? And they're trying to what?
When you share a proverb, typically you're trying to impart wisdom, trying to move people in the right direction, whatever.
Trying to give a solution, something like that.
The words here, there's only like three words in the Hebrew, and so it might be translated a staff of thorns, right?
There's another way to say that. But basically what we have is if you have thorns in your hands,
you have a weapon covered in thorns and you try to hit somebody with it, who gets hurt?
You do, right? The person that you hit somebody, if you have a staff full of thorns and you swing it at me,
and you've got it gripped with both your hands, and I put my hand up, I'm going to get hurt from there to there.
And your hands are going to be crippled, you won't be able to do anything with them for days.
And so that's what he's saying. The fool who applies this proverb,
it's basically they can only damage themselves.
The tool that we've been given to use to understand and act in wisdom in this life becomes damaging.
I'm reading an essay, a book right now called Wit and Humor in America.
And it's actually a series of ten books, they're published in 1917, and I'm enjoying it very much.
And I was reading this book about these people that decided to get in this book,
short story about these people that decided to get a little society going in this farmhouse.
And they started out saying, we're going to get back to nature, we're going to get away from all this urban life
and all these rules of society, everything, we're going to get back to nature.
And then they get off there and say, well, back to nature means we only eat vegetables.
So somebody, one of the wisest young people in the group that ranged between 15 and 25 years old,
said, well, back to nature means we must be vegetarians.
So they started talking about what vegetarians are. I mean, no salt. The guy's like, well, I love to eat a good onion,
but I can't know salt. So there's some people sneaking salt, right? Because salt is not a vegetable, for sure, it's a mineral.
And they're working through it. And then the next day, the same wise guy who led them to vegetarians,
said, you know what, I went into town and I was buying the supplies for the kitchen
and I discovered beer is a vegetable.
And they start talking about it. Beer is a vegetable. Yeah, it's all vegetable matter.
Now, the nutritionists in the room, they realize that vegetables really isn't anything.
So you tell your kid they've got to eat their vegetables, you're really just telling them you have to eat certain foods
that are full of nutrition. But like strawberries are vegetable matter,
but we call those fruits, right? So vegetable is not a real word for a type of food.
So, but beer is made from vegetable matter. So he said, so I bought a six pack of beer
and they said, well, I don't think that's right. I don't think it's good for you. I don't think it'll work.
It doesn't really fit. And he said, well, we're going to try it. And he drank a beer and he got kind of tips
and he started doing stupid stuff. And he handed another guy a beer and he drank a second one.
And the other guy drank half of it and gave another guy half of one. But he's between 15 and 25 years old.
So pretty soon, Arcadia is full of drunk idiots doing stupid stuff, right?
Because beer is a vegetable.
This is the way Proverbs work. I'll give you an example, a very close to home example.
If you raise your child in a way that they should go, when they are old,
they will not depart from it. That's a proverb, right? And so this is what Christian
adults do. Well, I raised my kid in the Lord, so I
can guarantee that the end of their story, they will be found faithful
in God. That's a misuse of that proverb.
First of all, it's not even what it said in the first place. Secondly,
a proverb is not a promise from God about anything. A proverb is an observation
of the way things work. So what the proverb actually says is if you raise your child
in the Lord, and they live to be old enough,
and they get to be old, they're going to look back on the way they were raised when they were
young, and they're going to think, oh, well if I do these things,
I'll be better off. Because it worked for me when I was young. It's how
my parents wanted me to do it. They honored their parents, maybe you die. And so I'm going to honor my mom
or my dad because they died, and they're not around anymore. That kind of thing.
That's what that proverb is saying. So typically a young person who gets the teachings of the Lord
remembers them if they get to be old enough. Guess what the problem is?
Many of them don't get to be old enough because if they ignore the Lord in the middle of their life,
a lot of times they don't make it to be old. So they never get around to it. So you can't claim
that as a promise. So that's what he's saying. People misuse proverbs,
misuse the wisdom of the Lord. And so like a thorn, or a staff
of thorns, which falls into the hand of a drunkard, so is a
proverb in the mouth of fools. Verse 10. Like an
archer who wounds everyone, so is he who hires a fool,
or who hires those who pass by. And so if you hire a fool,
we give the definition twice of what a fool is. Or if you
hire just anybody, somebody that happens to be going by, anybody that will do the job,
then it says like an archer who wounds everyone. So it's a
known fact that you can't shoot people who are fighting the enemy like they're
fighting face to face because you're just as likely to shoot your friends as you are to shoot your enemy.
It's called friendly fire. You don't fire into a mob.
This is friendly fire all over.
So in other words, if I hire somebody who is a fool, or I hire those who are just
passersby, then I could be doing damage to everybody. So does anybody
get the irony of this? Because exactly what kind of people is God
taking into the kingdom of God? Well, passersby would
be a pretty darn good description, wouldn't it? Go into the highways and byways
and search out anyone you possibly can and invite them to my feast because those who were supposed to come to my
feast wouldn't come when they were called because they all made excuses. So let's get
some people who don't make excuses. Guess what? You and I were fools
and passersby, and now you're not a fool or a passersby unless you
are in the small minority in this room that is still a fool.
Verse 11, like a dog that returns
to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. So the
fool continues to do what is wrong even after he
starts to get an inclination that maybe it isn't quite right.
When we were younger, my mom and dad let my brother and I get a little
black lab. A little puppy started out about like this big. It was so
cute. And then it got to be about like this big and it was still so
cute. But as it got to be about like that big, I started to notice it had really big feet.
And I asked my dad, why is his feet so big? He's always falling down
tripping on himself, bumping his nose on stuff all the time. Why is his feet so big?
My dad said, well the feet's a pretty good indicator. It's going to be a pretty big dog. Now my mom
wasn't in the room when my dad said that, but little did I know, my mom did hear
that. And one day the dog ran away and wasn't there anymore.
Whenever we were in school, so we couldn't search for it, we searched but we never found it.
It was because my mom got rid of it. She came clean later and said she got rid of it. We don't know big dog.
But the point is, this dog was a fool.
It chewed on everything. It ate everything. It got into everything.
If it could, it would have ate the cockroach killer. It ate everything.
It tore up the yard, tore up the fence, dug out on the fence, ran around, ran out in front of cars.
Like some dogs will chase cars. This dog would chase cars
from the front. It was that bad.
I thought this dog is really dumb. It's really a fool. And we started
trying to teach it. And you beat it when it would do things wrong or you give it treats and it would
do things right and back and forth and back and forth. One day it was in the backyard
and it went out by the grapevine and it threw up at the bottom of the grapevine.
Big old chunks of stuff that it had eaten partially digested was all nasty
and stuff. And then a few seconds later it went over and started eating it. And I'm like, oh no!
Don't do that! I don't know what I'm chewing it away. My mom said, yeah dogs
just do that. I'm like, oh that's disgusting! And then later we were in the house and it was licking
my brother's face and I was thinking, that's funny! Because it was eating the vomit
and I was licking your face and my brother was like, oh! And he ran to the bathroom.
This is what the Bible says.
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.
Now obviously a fool repeats his folly because he's too ignorant
to know. So what is it really talking about? It's talking about a fool that's breaking free.
It's getting out. He's starting to figure it out. He's figuring something out and he goes, yeah, I really
should wear my underwear on the inside of my clothes. I wanted to be like Superman while I was growing up, but once I
reached teenage years and after so many people picking on me and comments were made and social media
about me and everything, I started wearing my underwear on the inside of my clothes. But then one day he gets out of bed and he says, well, you know,
I did think the better of it, but I guess I will wear my underwear on the outside of my clothes.
Just one more day. Just for old time's sake. That's what it's talking about. It's talking about a
fool that goes back to his folly after he's left it behind or after he's
figured it out. Well, guess what? A fool who's figured
it out based on our definition. Is he still a fool?
He's breaking out of being a fool. He's leaving it behind.
He was a fool and couldn't know better. And now he knows better at least in that one area and he goes
back to it. So he's like a fool, but kind of like not a
fool? Well, that's dumb. That's a whole
new dumb, isn't it? And that's
what he's saying. Last verse. Do you see a man wise
in his own eyes? Oh yeah, there's a fool. Oh wait.
Look at the second half of the verse. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is
more hope for a fool than for him.
You get it? You see a man wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
So in other words, we're not talking about a fool.
A fool is a man who's wise and he just keeps going, oh, you know,
no big deal. I'm good. I'm like anybody else. I'm making mistakes, but I'm like anybody
else. He keeps giving himself excuses for why it's not quite working. But now we have a man
who's wise in his own eyes. And so he thinks that he's got it
together. So he's not looking at his mistakes and saying, well yeah, I made a mistake.
But you know, everybody does that. He's looking at his mistakes and saying they're not
mistakes. That's different.
A whole other different. That's worse than a fool, if you will.
Alright, so there are a few things that I really want you to see in here that I felt the Lord
was really laying on my heart. And they go like this.
If you are here today, I'm going to assume for a moment, let's just assume
for a moment, that no one here is a fool.
That would only be true. You would only be a fool if you refuse to consider
the possibilities or if you were somehow unable to
consider the possibilities. And since you're here, I'm going to assume that you're
considering the possibilities. So let's talk briefly about, and these are just summary teachings.
I could preach a 20 sermon series on foolishness, fools,
wisdom, senselessness, all that kind of thing. Because a lot of it is in the New Testament.
But summary, New Testament may call us to appear
foolish. In fact, the Bible says, 1 Corinthians 1, 18, that the
preaching of the cross appears foolishness.
And so, are we supposed to preach the cross? Are we supposed to realize that we need
our sins paid for? That Jesus did that? Yes, we are.
And so, the Bible calls us to preach the cross. And so, we may be
called by God to appear foolish.
At the same time, the New Testament clearly calls on us not to be foolish.
Remember, so we've got what fools are. We know what those are. And foolish
means to look like a fool, or to act like a fool. And so, the New Testament calls
us not to be foolish. There's a parable about ten virgins.
Five of them brought extra oil.
All ten of them trimmed their lamps. The five that brought extra oil, they know
they've got enough until the bridegroom comes. But the ones that didn't bring extra oil, they asked the ones
that did bring extra oil. And they say, can we get a little of that extra oil you brought? Because
we're afraid our lamps won't last until the bridegroom comes. And the wise
in the situation, those are the foolish ones. They ask for more oil.
And the wise say, no, we can't give you of our oil
because we need to make sure we have enough oil until the bridegroom comes. Because the most
important thing is that we're ready when the bridegroom comes.
So the Bible is calling us not to be foolish like the fools
who didn't get ready for the bridegroom coming. And I submit to you, they did get ready. They just didn't do
enough to get ready. They did have lamps. They did trim lamps.
They just didn't bring any extra oil for the lamps. So they didn't do enough to get ready. They didn't know how long
it was going to be. And they weren't sure. And they weren't careful. They weren't diligent. They weren't hard working.
So they were foolish. Not fools. Because fools don't have lamps
because they don't need lamps. They don't think they need lamps. Or the other kind of fool
says, well, yeah, we have three things of oil.
And we'll sell it to you. And they come and try to make money on the situation.
They're all distracted from what actually happened, the bridegroom coming. That's all in Matthew
25. You're welcome to read it. But the bottom line is we are called to not be like the foolish
but be like the wise. And there is some discipline in that because we're also
called not to give of the resources that God has given us. You cannot surrender His
Holy Spirit. You cannot surrender His Holy gifts. The gifts of the Spirit.
What God has given you, you can't give those things up so that somebody else
can go to heaven. When I was a young Christian and I didn't know what was
going to happen with my kids, I begged God. In fact, there was one particular moment I begged God that God
would save Alicia. She was about five at the time. And we were at a party. She was dancing.
And I said, Lord, just like this, I'm standing on a balcony overlooking
them dancing down with the kids down there. And I don't dance. I really, I mean, I kind of do. But mostly
just when it's me and the Lord. But not much. And slow dance maybe.
And that kind of thing. And I'm looking down there and she's dancing. And I
said, Lord, if it means me not being saved,
if I have to give up my salvation so that she can be saved,
then do that. Save her.
It's so important. And God said back to me, he says, you can't do that.
But don't worry about it. I got that one.
Now I want you to know that gave me great peace when she was 17 years old and walked away from the Lord.
Because God had told me
already, I got that one. And I looked back 12 years earlier
and I remembered that moment. But God said, you can't. You cannot give up what
God has given you. All you can do is use it to lead people
in the right direction. And sometimes you will look foolish using it. You're given of your money when
you don't necessarily have enough money. You're given of your time when you don't necessarily feel like you have enough time.
Et cetera. Sometimes you will look foolish doing it. But we're called to sometimes look foolish just not
to be foolish. 1 Corinthians 3 19 says,
for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So everything that
they think they're getting right, as wise as they think they're getting, they're growing up and figuring it all out.
They're just fools. It's all foolishness. God's wisdom
is so much better. For it is written, he taketh the wise
in their own craftiness. So these people have figured it all out. There are people
out there in the world that have figured out after much experimentation, much thought and
reasoning that there is no God. They're sure of it. They can even present some good evidences.
They're just flat out wrong. They're sure. There are people out there that are sure
Jesus is not the way. They've got evidences beyond evidences.
There are books and philosophers and even historical things that they can quote and they can argue it
really well. Convince any old fool that they're absolutely right and they're
absolutely wrong. And it plays out
with things like abortion and LGBTQIA
question mark agenda and progressive politics and all of these
things that are happening across the world because these people are very convinced and
very sure but they're just very wrong. And you
can go fight with them if you want. You can go to a fist fight. It won't take much. Just go say a few
things and you get it started. You can get them to come to your house and beat your windows
out or break your car up or riot in your city. You can get it started. You really can.
It really won't take much.
But you'd be wasting your effort because what you're really supposed to be doing
is living for the Lord because the wisdom of the Lord is not like the wisdom
of the world which we'll see in a moment. So these summary teachings
from the New Testament take away this. If indeed we are not fools then the Lord
can and will save us and we will recognize, remember
the one kind of fool, we will recognize and we will desire that salvation
and we will allow that salvation and this being so
we will live to learn and grow and be transformed into the likeness of the
Lord, wash, rinse, repeat.
That's what Christianity is. That's what reaching new heights in Jesus is.
And if you ever come to a moment in time where you've gone far enough, figured out enough, got to
the place where you've got it together and you can make a decision without, as the Bible says,
consulting many counselors, without spending time in prayer, without using His Word
to confirm your actions, then you can know this for sure. You will fall into
folly. Both sides of the road of the highway of holiness are
covered with pits and demons and snakes and vipers and you will fall off the
road if you do not do it the way the Lord has shown you to do it because the wisdom
of the world is foolishness with God. Sometimes
we will be called to act foolish and if we're called to act foolish
and we just can't, we refuse, there's no way, then
guess what you are. If God says I want you to act the part of a fool in this moment
and you just cannot do it, you're not able to be obedient to the Lord
because you're too inhibited, too concerned about what you think, what might happen, what the results
will be, how much it will cost you, whatever, then you my friend, at least in that
moment are foolish because the one who can give you every
cost calls you to cost you something, then you pay the cost.
The one who can heal your every hurt calls you to be hurt, then
you be hurt. It's God we're talking about.
If we are not fools, then the Lord can and will save us
and we will recognize, desire and allow it and this being so, we will live to
learn and grow and be transformed into the likeness of the Lord, wash, rinse, repeat.
Would you like me to say all that one more time? The bottom line is a fool
is a person who doesn't think they need anything, they're all good, it's all fine
and maybe they're not looking over here saying ignorance is bliss, it truly is.
Not knowing what you don't know is the safest thing for you.
As soon as you know something you don't know, you may have to react or do
something about it. Ignorance is bliss.
And the fool lives there. The other kind of fool is somebody who's come some
distance and they think they've got wisdom, they've got it figured out and they don't
need somebody else to tell them.
They have much humility in that last kind, but quite a bit of arrogance.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1 beginning
in verse 18, we are in the conclusion now.
1 Corinthians 1 beginning in verse 18.
Yep, 1 Corinthians 1, 18.
I'll break it down
a little bit, but we're just going to go through it. It says this, for the word of the cross is to those
who are perishing foolishness. But to us
who are being saved, it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever
I will set aside.
What's God doing? God's kicking out wisdom.
He's kicking it. You don't get saved by getting wise,
you get saved by getting Jesus.
Hang on to that for a moment. Verse 20, where is the wise man?
Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world
through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the
foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified
to Jews the stumbling block, to Gentiles foolishness,
but to those who are called, listen closely we're going, this is going to get hot,
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and what? The wisdom of God!
24, but those who are
the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men and the weakness of God
is stronger than men. Jesus
is our wisdom!
You don't have to figure it out, you just have to get saved.
And then let Jesus figure it in.
Boast in the Lord, he says, and in the Lord alone.
26, for consider your calling, brethren,
that there were not many wise according to the flesh. Is there anybody in this room
that came to Jesus after becoming truly wise
according to the world? We don't even have a PhD in the room.
Not one. We don't have any psychotic
knowledge of the world. We don't have any
medicine. We don't have any psychiatrists.
Is there anybody in the room who came to Jesus after becoming truly
wise in the world standards? You really saw
a lot, saw it all, really figured it all out. If you did
I guarantee I could tell that part of your story. You figured
it all out, you got it wise, reasoned it, and realized that none of that was
getting the job done and turned to Jesus instead. That's how it goes.
That's why when you're witnessing to somebody who's like that, got it all figured out, you don't
go there. It's not about reasoning and figuring it out and telling them how the
stars connect and how, you know, Lamassil looks like a cross that holds your cells together
and it can't possibly be evolution because they're creatures that are literally one
cell organisms that have more parts and they're too complex to have evolved up from anything and there's
only one cell. Right? You don't have to make those
arguments with somebody who's like that. You just need to say, I get it.
You're wise. You have a ton of reason, you have a ton of knowledge, you got it all figured out. But let's
just ask this basic question. Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, what are you going to do about that?
And if they say, well I just flat out don't believe that
reason and wisdom dictates me otherwise, you can stop wasting your time.
And just say, well when you get tired of clinging heartily
in what I'm going to call, you can disagree with me, in what
I'm going to call your arrogance to all of your learning and you realize that beyond
learning must be something else that can actually save,
remember this. Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners.
And you can be saved by calling out to Him.
You'll have to turn from this wicked way of believing wisdom will do everything for you
and accept Jesus instead.
Because they ain't going to get it done ever. And when you figure out you ain't going to get it done, then you come back to
Jesus and then you walk away. And you can
actually be done. As Ezekiel 33 says, you will have sounded the horn,
you will have made it clear, and if they still die, they will die in their sin
by their choice. That's what it says.
But if they don't, you'll have saved them from themselves
and from sin. Verse 27 says, but God has chosen the foolish things of the
world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the
things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despised God
has chosen the things that are not, that He might nullify the things
that are, that no man should boast before God.
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us,
listen for it, who became to us wisdom from God. And
righteousness and sanctification, righteousness is when you're right by
God, you get it from Jesus. Sanctification is when you're made holy, you're set apart by God,
you get that from God. And redemption, you're brought back from your own sins,
your own lostness, and your own, as Sam was so clear
to say, your own destiny in hell. 31, that just as it is
written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.
This wisdom of God is available. But let's be very
realistic. God is taking anyone from the passersby. That's what the parable of the
soils is all about. Proximity to the gospel is what is the only
qualifying factor. Proximity to the gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ,
and accepting it. That's it. That's all that's necessary.
That's what the parable of the poor soils is all about. All of those people get saved.
All types of soil. Just be a passerby. God will take you.
But if you're a passerby who refuses, that makes you a fool.
Because you're being offered eternity. You're being offered salvation in Christ.
You're being offered an abundant life in Christ. You're being offered a Holy Spirit residence.
Including Holy Spirit gifting that you can't buy or get it or coerce anybody
into giving it to you. All you do is call on the name of the Lord and receive it.
And he becomes, by Paul's own words,
he becomes the wisdom of God to us.
And then we boast, sure.
But we boast only in the Lord. If indeed we are not
fools, then the Lord can and will save us. And we will
recognize and desire it and allow it. And this being so, we will live,
to learn and grow and be transformed into the likeness of the Lord. Wash, rinse,
and repeat. And my friend, my brother, my sister, that is the only wisdom
you need. Now all of it comes.
Here's much more to learn from the Lord. Much more leadership to receive from God.
As Caitlin so aptly put it in the inspirational moment, it seems like it never ends.
2 Peter chapter 2 says,
For if after they have escaped the defilements of the
world, by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
in them and are overcome, the last state has become far worse
for them than the first.
The last state has become far worse for them than the first. For it would be better for
them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it
to turn away from the holy command it handed to them. And it has happened to them
according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit and a
sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire. If you are
in Christ then you are no fool. But if you are supposedly
in Christ then you are missing opportunities to grow. You're not spending time with the Lord.
You're not reading your Bible or praying or listening to what God has to say. You're not applying the
teachings of Jesus to your life. You're not in church and in Bible study and whatever you possibly
can sucking up anything that has to do with the Kingdom of God
and disposing of anything that is the teachings of the world. If you're not doing that
then there is more hope for a fool than you because a
fool could at any time turn to the Lord and never look back.
This is why Jesus was able to say that the tax collectors
and the whoremongers would come and sit down in the Kingdom of God before the wise men
who were fasting two days a week memorizing whole books of the Bible teaching their version
of the truth and the good news across all of Judea
and he would say to them, a whore can come in here right now and sit down in the Kingdom of God
before you and I say to you that if you are that kind of follower of Jesus
if you can dismiss an opportunity to grow, if you can dismiss an opportunity
to spend time alone with Jesus, if you can dismiss an opportunity to serve
and give in the name of Jesus, if you can do that then a whore could
come in here right now. That's a woman selling her body to make her rent.
She could come in here right now and accept Jesus Christ by Facebook or on the podcast
and she could be better off than you because when she's saved in her sin
she lives from that day forward for her Lord Jesus Christ and she prays
and she reads and she searches and she gives and she may be poor
her whole life because every excess she ever gets she'll give for Jesus
because she knows from which she was saved. Jesus said which man
the man who has a small debt or the man who has a big debt when his debt is forgiven
loves the man who forgave his debt more
and the disciple says will it be the man who had the big debt? Of course he's going to love more
that's wrong. I mean it's right but it's wrong. That is the way
it happens but it's not the way it should be. If you think you were pretty much
okay but just had a few small sins before you got to Jesus, you don't love
God about how much he forgave you or what he did
you love God contrasting the two possible destinations
you love God according to the fact that you were going to hell and now you're going to heaven
and you can never know how bad hell is and you can never know how good heaven is
but you can know this for sure that the two are so polar opposite that you don't
want that one and you desperately want that one and you've got to love God
that way. But I see so many Christians
I see so many Christians who are like yep I'm saved now
I'm good. I read my Bible fairly often. Do you realize
you realize that if you spent
just five minutes a day, five minutes a day intentionally
reading your Bible or reading this Bible, five minutes a day
that in five years you would be an expert in the
things of God without college, without seminary
but most people just never get around to it. They never make the effort to do it
they're missing the opportunity. If you spent one minute, could you do something
for one minute out of the hour? What if you had to do something for one minute out of the hour every day?
You know there's people that do that. There's people that have to give themselves
shots or take medicines and they have to do it every hour of the day that they're awake for example
or things like that to survive. And they do it. They don't like it
but they do it because they have a medical condition and they would die without it. What if I
said to you that you would literally die, be separated from God
if you did not intake some portion of God and what God is trying to do, his Holy Spirit
is trying to do in you every hour. What if I asked for sixty
seconds out of every hour. Now I know you can't give me sixty seconds out of every hour
because sixty seconds out of the hours that you're sleeping would be tough. So I'm going to ask you for an extra eight minutes
somewhere in the day. You know what that looks like?
That looks like sixteen
it looks like twenty four minutes total. Sixteen minutes
for the sixteen hours that you're awake and eight for while you're sleeping. Twenty four minutes a day.
Could you do twenty four minutes a day and more on Sunday?
Maybe more on Tuesday? FOR GOD?
I watched a
panel of pastors sitting up on the stage and it profoundly affected me. And one of the guys
one of the questions that came from the audience he said, he said can you tell me why God was so
harsh? Why is the curse so harsh?
I mean all they did was eat of the tree that God told them not to. It's all they did.
And the curse is so harsh. Pain in childbirth, work all your lives
gotta be kicked out of the garden and eaten. Gotta have the blood of Jesus to forgive
sins or otherwise wind up in hell. That is a horrible harsh curse. Why is
it so bad? And the pastor who was answering the question said, you got it
all wrong. You don't understand it all.
It has almost nothing to do with the fruit. It has everything to do with
your creator God who gave you literally everything including life.
His breath in you literally brought you to life with his own breath. And you
look him in the face and say I don't care what you say I'm going to do it my way.
Now you tell me, is that not a fool?
And I ask you again, I say I know for a fact
I know the people in this room. I see hearts as I'm sitting I see people going like
I love God. I see people who have literally in this room there are people who have bled
and sweat. I have personally seen them bleed and sweat.
Sometimes the exact same moment for the Lord.
Because they were serving God. I'll never forget
some of those instances. I can relate a few of them to you now. And I'm just going like God is
God is showing me something in this moment. I'll never forget when Michael and I were in
the back of a block party wagon over here. And it's like what was it like a hundred and ten degrees
in the back of this block party wagon. Everything is put in there except we couldn't get the cargo strap to work.
And he's busting his knuckles up, blood coming out. And we're trying to get this cargo strap open
so we can buckle the stuff down so we can be done after we already both
had been going for fifteen hours. In a hundred and ten degree block party
wagon bent over the moon bounce, busting our knuckles up trying to get the cargo strap to work.
Blood and sweat and tears have been spent to serve God and the people in this
room. I'm asking you, if we're not fools, why are we
acting like fools? We are called by the Lord and
Jesus Christ is our wisdom. And there is not a moment in
the day to be spent on worldly wisdom. It all must be
on Jesus. Are you doing your part
in the relationship with Jesus? Are you receptive? Are you open? Are you searching?
Are you listening? Are you studying? Are you praying? Are you
teaching? Are you preaching? Are you spreading the good news?
If not, you are dismissing the commands and the disciplines that he's
laid out for us. Are you staying clean from the stains of the
world? Or do you watch those rated R movies with the mostly naked women? And do you
watch the violence with the mostly guts spewing? Do you listen to the shows with all the foul
language? Philippians 4, focus on the pure. Are we the kind of
people that Jesus would be proud of? Because if you're a follower of Jesus, that's the
only way. Jesus said, that one's mine. I own that one. Yeah, he's
kind of a screw up. I took him from nothing. I made him something. He's kind of a screw up. And wow!
That one's mine. Or is Jesus going, yeah, I got that one. I do
have that one. I really don't know what's going on right now in this moment. But
this is Jesus.
Present, when the phrase, let there be light,
was uttered, and nothing has ever, ever, ever been seen.
No breath has ever been taken.
No effort ever made.
Except he willed it.
And he's willing to take the passersby, and he's willing to take the fools, even though it
hurts him desperately to do so. And I'm so glad for that, because I am
one. I was a fool. I know it
with certainty. People pick on me, kind of sometimes, because they'll say, well,
I'll say, you know, this is what I believe to be true. This is what the Bible says.
And they'll say, you don't sound very certain. I'm like, no, I'm certain.
I believe it to be true, and it's what the Bible says. Well, can't you just, why you just tell me it's
right? I said, well, because I'm not judging by my standards.
It's Jesus' standards. And Jesus' standards are what's in the Word,
and what God says. That's the standard.
Two quick illustrations about how this can go,
and we'll be through. First one is a game, a child's game called, shoots and ladders.
Shoots and ladders. You've probably seen it at some point in your life.
You roll the dice, you move along the board. If you hit a ladder, you kind of climb up the ladder to a
higher row. If you hit a shoot, you slide down to a lower row.
I submit to you that shoots and ladders are a picture of what life's like, right? Sometimes, you know, you're
going strong, and then all of a sudden, you get a diagnosis. Sometimes, you're going strong, and all of a sudden, your company's
closing, bought out. Sometimes, you're going strong, and all of a sudden, your wife says something you didn't expect
was coming. Sometimes, you just get out of bed in the morning, you got set a bad headache,
can't do nothing. You're trying to figure out, what? How did I get here?
So, sometimes, it shoots. Other times, it's ladders. And by the way,
you don't actually have to count off the space, and it's kind of fun to do that, the rungs on the ladder, but it's just like,
all of a sudden, up the ladder, up I go. Right? Life is like that. Sometimes, it's way up, and sometimes,
it's way down. You start playing the game of life, because
only the people who play the game of life can win the game of life, right? So, we all started playing the game of life.
You win at the end when you go with Jesus. That's when you win.
If you go the other way, you don't win. That's the bottom line. But here's what happens.
People start playing the game of life, go about halfway through it, the game of shoots and ladders, you go about halfway
through it, and they say, you know what, from now on, I'm not going to go up any more ladders.
It's too much work to go up a ladder, so if I land on a ladder, I just won't go up.
I'll just keep counting off normally. Right?
And then God sends you a ladder, and you're like, now, I ain't got time for that today, God.
I ain't got time to be sharing Jesus. I ain't got time for the Word. I know you want to tell me something special, maybe,
but because it happens almost every time I open my Bible, but I ain't got time for that today.
Too busy fixing these problems. You gave me all this stuff, and made me this way. You made me this way.
So, it must be I got to deal with what's right before me. But that's reason, and it's logic, and it's wisdom,
and when you do that, you're worse off than a fool.
But if you'll say, okay, whatever you say, God,
I go up when I go up, I go down when I go up, and you put it truly in the hands of the Lord,
and you do your part in a relationship, and you pour your life into the Lord, and you listen,
you don't miss an opportunity to be in His Word, you don't miss a preaching opportunity. Certainly,
in our church, you shouldn't miss that, because this is what God has called you to.
If you're in New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church, if I'm up here preaching, or somebody else is scheduled,
you should be hearing it. And there's a way.
You can listen to it at 2 a.m. if you want.
That ain't true everywhere, but you should be getting it, because this is our feeding. We're sitting at the table.
Bible study, same way. Your personal Bible study time,
same way. I'm very encouraged by how much our church
talks about what God said of them, and things like that, but I'm also sometimes discouraged
by how few people can tell me what they learned in their Bible this week,
about how God did a miracle. How is it that
I feel reluctant sometimes, and I know there are others who share
that do, because how is it that I don't go seven days
without God doing a miracle, without me seeing a miracle,
and that people sit in this room all the time and say, I've never seen a miracle in my whole life.
God never did anything, but I see Him all the time.
That makes me feel ashamed, like I'm not worthy,
like that shouldn't be happening. And I'm nothing special. I was a fool
in the darkness, and didn't even know it.
And I'm not wise.
I'm not life-wise. I'm not. I know some things that I just figured out
this week that I'm pretty sure that taking allergy medicine is what's causing my migraines
during allergy season, instead of the allergies causing it, it's allergy medicine. How many times
has it taken me to get there? When the doctor said you have migraines, that's what's going on.
I didn't even know I was having migraines. I'm not wise.
But I got Jesus, and Jesus is the wisdom of God given to me.
It's the same for you. So let's do it.
Let's stop playing at this thing we call Christianity, and start
making it our highest priority. And if you're in this room, and the
teaching of the gospel is presented to you, and you've not accepted Jesus as your Lord
and Savior, I'm here to tell you today, you're a fool.
And the Proverbs of God in your hands, like listening to the wisdom of God, the things that God teaches,
it's only going to mess you up. Because you're going to make up rules.
You're going to figure out things, go like, oh I should do this. Yeah.
Bible says, you know how hard it is to not lie when you're not saved?
You'll beat the crap out of yourself trying to not lie. If you're not saved, just stop
trying. You're just killing yourself.
But when you're saved, the Lord can do mightily
in you, and you can walk away from things like that.
As we have our invitation today, this is our final song
that we're going to sing. I'm going to ask you to think about where you stand.
Did you draw a line in the sand, and when you got
saved you stepped across it, and I'll never be the same, and I'm serving Jesus, and I'm loving Jesus, and Jesus
is living in me. Jesus is living through me. If he didn't
die for you, you didn't die, and you got a death coming yet. But if he died for you, as he
died for all men, and you know it, then you've already died. The old you is gone, the new
you has come, and the new you is all about Jesus.
All about Jesus, all the time.
I know you're smart, I know you're creative, I know you're capable,
you can fix it, and you can break it. Because that's who God made you.
You may not feel that way, but it's true. You can do all
things. And being in Christ really makes
it obvious for us that we can do all things in Christ.
And we're following Jesus, and we're stopping with the
excuses, and we're making time, and we're blocking out
the things of the world, for he who is a friend of the world is an enemy to God.
And it's all about him.
And knowing it will take you to the next step, and that's reaching the
rights of Jesus. God's kicking out wisdom. I'm kicking out wisdom.
And I'm claiming Jesus. And I ask you to do the same with me.
Amen.