Peel back the layers of Proverbs to find out what kind of fool you are. The parallels between biblical archetypes and present-day personas, reveal how naiveté, mockery, and stubbornness can capsize our journey, and how embracing divine wisdom sets our course straight.
Whether you're a 'simple' soul caught in the riptide of social media, a 'mocker' drowning in cynicism, or stubbornly trying to see your tasks through, today's sermon offers the lifeline of Lady Wisdom. We explore the gravitational pull of our personality traits, ultimately finding solace in the depth of Jesus' wisdom. His teachings provide us the blueprint to erect our lives on a foundation as solid as rock, rather than shifting sands.
Peel back the layers of Proverbs to find out what kind of fool you are. The parallels between biblical archetypes and present-day personas, reveal how naiveté, mockery, and stubbornness can capsize our journey, and how embracing divine wisdom sets our course straight.
Whether you're a 'simple' soul caught in the riptide of social media, a 'mocker' drowning in cynicism, or stubbornly trying to see your tasks through, today's sermon offers the lifeline of Lady Wisdom. We explore the gravitational pull of our personality traits, ultimately finding solace in the depth of Jesus' wisdom. His teachings provide us the blueprint to erect our lives on a foundation as solid as rock, rather than shifting sands.
Hey, what up? It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church. Welcome to our podcast. I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2:I was a youth pastor before coming here and I will tell you two stories that kept me up early on. There were both summer trips early in my ministry and I was responsible for kids on those trips. I don't know if you know this, but like, if you send your kids in youth ministry they're supposed to come back right. Like I always said, 95% return rate was good, but parents disagreed with me on that. One example was my very first trip with high schoolers. We took 38 high school students to Jamaica, queen's, new York City, and we took them on the subway to Manhattan and we took them to Central Park, into different places downtown and we had protocols, you know, like if you miss the subway, we'll just get off on the next one and then you get on the next one and then you get off on the next one and then we'll all beat together. Or in Central Park, here you're with this group and if you get separated, go back to this place and if there's nobody there, then go to this place. Right, and if you weren't following closely, that last set of rules requires the child's obedience. So rules were in place, but the child had to follow the rules in order to stay safe and we lost a student for like over an hour in Central Park. Couldn't find them. Okay.
Speaker 2:So junior high trip, this time second story. Junior high trip was to Colorado, gunnison, colorado, up in the mountains, and we had some free time. So I thought, hey, let's go to this waterfall, that's supposed to be really cool. I didn't think, oh, it's on private property. And so the kids ran ahead. They ran ahead of me. You're thinking that it's going to be like a gun story or something? No, no, no. So they're sitting down like this and I'm behind them and they're having a grand old time. And when I get up to them I realize that this is a cliff edge and it's 80 feet down. And so, as the leader who's almost lost someone in Central Park, you know, like my anxiety just pulls me to the ground and I say, children, please get away from the ledge. And they're like, oh, there's another ledge 12 feet down. If we fall, we'll fall onto that. If you die, I get fired. If you die, I get fired.
Speaker 2:Foolishness, foolishness is kind of missing reality, you know, and I should have known better. Foolishness is this idea that I'm not a sink with the way things actually are and I should have known better, should have known safety protocols can't be in the hands of children that I'm responsible for protecting. This morning, we're talking about foolishness, particularly, or in particularly, three types of fools that are found in proverbs, and we're going to see what looking at foolishness can teach us about biblical wisdom. So, bringing you back up to speed wisdom is this skill of living and it's applied to all areas of life. It doesn't help us to be a wise business leader but foolish in our relationships. It doesn't help us to be wise with computers but foolish in negotiations. It doesn't help us to be wise in parenting but foolish in marriage. I've got to cover all the bases, and that's what we're going to be talking about this morning. Okay, so if we are looking at foolishness, then this message is only important to you if you can see yourself as a fool. Now I'm not going to directly call you a fool, but see if this hits broadly, we'll soften our way into it. Okay, I do think this applies to all of us. Hopefully you could see how I've already been a fool. Okay, let's continue. All right, so being a fool again. The last part is important. You should know better. So this doesn't apply to, like small children who would be tempted to follow a ball into the street or cry over spilled milk or would put their hands on the stove. Right, they don't know better. It's our job as adults in their lives to teach them to do that. But at some point age of reason or whenever you think is appropriate, as a parent, at some point you hold them accountable to knowing what they should do is right, and so, if they don't, that's foolish right.
Speaker 2:In Proverbs in particular, or in the Bible in general, proverbs sits in the midst of a big story. Proverbs are short sayings that teach us about life, and it's in the context of all that God has done so far, and so we know that Proverbs should align with the way God has created the world. In fact, that's a very important theme in Proverbs. If we can align ourselves with the way that God has ordered the universe, things will go better for us. So you know there are physical boundaries that we, physical limitations that we have to deal with. Not only do we typically not survive 80-foot falls if we're a junior higher, but we also know that, because of how our body deals with sugars and fats, those foods get stored on our bodies more quickly than other types of foods. We know that if we never move, our muscles atrophy and our joints stiffen, and it shortens our lives. These are physical limitations that we have.
Speaker 2:There are psychological limitations that we have to deal with. There's an old phrase that goes two birds were on a branch, one wanted to fly off. How many birds are on the branch Two? It takes more than wanting to, you know, it takes more than the desire to do something right. Okay, in our emotional lives it's better. I mean, this is so common In our emotional lives. When our emotions are disjointed from reality, there comes relational conflict almost immediately. And so it benefits us if we can align with what is actually happening and then have our emotions reflect to us what's actually happening. That's going to be an ideal world.
Speaker 2:There are social limitations that we have to deal with. Right, we know. I mean, this is America, so you do you and individuality. But if everybody's selfish society kind of falls apart and there are spiritual limitations, moral boundaries that God has set on our lives, it's not enough to be productive, we ought to do good, and if we don't, well, then we are bad and things don't go as well. The second truth so God created. There's a certain order with all of reality right, a certain order of physical, social, psychological, moral. Also, the world is falling. Things aren't the way they're supposed to be.
Speaker 2:So I want you to think back with me for a second on a football play. Even if you don't know, I'll explain what happened. Okay, so the Seahawks are facing Tom Brady and the Patriots and they're on the goal line and if they hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch, who's one of the best running backs of all time, it seems like a guarantee he can just pound it in at some point. But instead they choose to throw the ball and it's intercepted and the game is over and people have gone back and forth about whether this was wise. There's a bunch of different ways to look at this. I won't bore you with stats on March, on Lynch or on safeties, being able to make that play, etc.
Speaker 2:Rather, I'm going to pull the conversation back for a second and say but the world is fallen, that even if you can set up a game where everybody plays fair, our hearts are still corrupt. So I'm not saying in that Super Bowl that the refs were paid or that. I'm not saying that I'm a Bears fan. So whatever have at it. But what I am saying is that is true regardless. Who knows if the refs are going through a divorce or something at the time. We bring ourselves into whatever situation we are and we are less than what we ought to be, and if we all are like that, then it's just not always going to work out in our favor, even if you play it right. So there are general truths about the way that God has planned things, but sometimes life just sucks, just broken.
Speaker 2:This morning we're going to go into three different words that come back up over and over again in Proverbs Three different fools and we'll see how it applies to our lives. So we know that God has set things up the way that they're supposed to go, but our sin messes with all of it. So then, how do we fit in this right now? And we'll see if you can place yourself in. If you can, what kind of fool are you?
Speaker 2:So Proverbs 1.22 says here are the three fools. How long will you, who are simple, love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery? And fools hate knowledge, and I know fools will kind of fool. I'll give you a different word in a second, but okay. So we're going to start with simple, then we're going to do mockers and then we're going to do the standard. Fool Might call them the stubborn or the obstinate, something like that.
Speaker 2:So here we go, the simple. The simple does not mean simple minded or having simple tastes, unsophisticated. The simple again refers to folks who should know better, and here it's the gullible, it's the folks that just fall for stuff you know. In Proverbs 14.15 it says the simple believe anything but the prudent, give thought to their steps. Think the prodigal son. He asked for his inheritance early to make wise business decisions, no, to live a fast lifestyle and to burn through everything. There's an old song that my grandmother used to sing when my mom's friend, robin, would come over. It's about a Robin and the song goes poor little Robin is walking, walking, walking to Missouri. He can't afford to fly. And the point of the song is this very thing this little kid from Missouri thought he could go and live the fast lifestyle and then it just crushed him and he had to walk back home.
Speaker 2:It's like our teenagers in the audience who you know not all of you, but some of you, or you know someone they think of social media as only a good. They think that they're in control when they're on social media and that the life that they're curating is the way that it should be. They're doing right in their own eyes. But we know that social media companies hire a lot of people to battle you psychologically so that your attention stays in the app right, and it would benefit you if you knew that to make decisions. It's like folks who maybe some of you are living paycheck to paycheck even though you don't have to. You just don't save and you're like a strong wind away from an emergency when you could just store three months' salary and then if a medical bill came up, it wouldn't crush you. It's like a CEO of a company who keeps falling for those phishing scam emails. They keep clicking the links and at some point you have to do a risk assessment and say, like well, the CEO is going to keep doing this. Maybe our data isn't as protected as we thought it was.
Speaker 2:In the church it looks like this the simple the gullible kind of shut off their minds and they just want to chase the spiritual high. They don't question whether their emotions, whether they feel good or not, are aligning with the way things actually are. The simple, the gullible Is that you. Number two the mocker, the stubborn, the scoffer. Our society really doesn't look at these people as fools. In fact, we often praise them.
Speaker 2:If you've ever been on Twitter, you've met people who mock other people. If you've ever watched a 24 seven news channel, they hire people who mock other people, and these people aren't stupid. They're very smart. Actually, often they are super confident because they know so much about something and they belittle other people. The mocker, though, in the Bible, is a fool.
Speaker 2:Proverbs 21-24 says the proud and arrogant person mockers his name, behaves with insolent fury. This is the most important thing. This doesn't just affect the keyboard warriors of the world. It also comes into our homes, when people are excelling in our families or in our communities, and we don't stand for that Like no, no, no. In this house, you can't think that you're smarter than other people. What if they are smarter than you? In this house? You can't. We all play the same sports. You're not better than me at. Whatever it is Like if you can't let other people excel and you only seek to tear them down as a mocker. It doesn't seem obvious at first, but over generations, you limit anybody's achievement. You keep them from doing what God has called them to do. This ties directly back into envy, into jealousy, into anger. You know, we just justify ourselves all the time when really we just don't want that for another person.
Speaker 2:Two mistakes I hear about this in the church. The first is letting politics dictate how we help others. So follow me on this. But there are poor people and oppressed people in the world and God calls us to help these people. In fact, god gives them places of honor and so when we try to help, if you lead out of conservatism, you're gonna say, yeah, they should really help themselves, they should really dig deep and then work hard and if they overcome these challenges, that's gonna be super meaningful in their lives. And if we're more progressive, we're gonna say there's all these structural hindrances, there's all these functional ways, policies, government issues, how cities are literally structured that keep people poor. And, as a Christian, both are wrong or at least incomplete. When we help folks, if all we do is mock the other side instead of actually helping, we're a fool.
Speaker 2:The second is that I hear this in criticisms a lot. Now don't hear me wrong as a pastor, I'm not saying you should never criticize the church. In fact, your voice is important and when you're hurt or things aren't going the way that they ought to, you should feel empowered to be able to speak truth to power. But if all you do is criticize, let's get specific. If children's ministry isn't going the way that you liked, when was the last time you volunteered? This is not the Bible, this is my mother, but she said your generation should be ashamed of itself. You guys don't even help and raise your own kids. Mom, ouch. If your criticisms aren't joined with a life of service, we are less likely to hear them. They are more likely to be dismissed as the voice of the mocker. Quick aside to the pastors in the room if we don't listen to valid criticism, regardless of where it's coming from, that's on us. If you're not a pastor, you're not going to hear it. You're not going to hear it. You're going to hear it.
Speaker 2:The simple, the gullible, the mocker. What kind of fool are you? Last one, the stubborn, the classic fool. The archetype of foolishness in the Bible is a person that just doesn't listen. As Proverbs 15.5 says, a fool spurns a parent's life. Proverbs 15.5 says a fool spurns a parent's discipline. But whoever heeds correction shows prudence. A fool spurns a parent's discipline. This is classically in the Bible Pharaoh. Pharaoh had ample opportunities to repent and let the people go, and what did he do? Double down, double down, double down, never listen. This is the Israelites in the wilderness. God is disciplining them so that they might have stronger faith when they get to the promised land. And they just complain, and complain and complain. They spurn the Lord's discipline.
Speaker 2:As a pastor, one of my jobs is to help children obey their parents, not in full obedience, but to honor them at minimum Fifth commandment wholesale. And God has set us all up with different personalities and temperaments. Right, we're all different, and so, then, as a pastor, I want to be able to help you, specifically as you're built to honor God in your relationship, a child, specifically as they are built to honor God and to honor their parents. But I used to man, I've said some crazy stuff. So, for example, there's a personality test called Ocean, the Big Five, and it's based on your openness, your extroversion, your conscientiousness, your neuroticism and your agreeableness. I'm sorry, I didn't say those in order to spell ocean. And I used to say to kids you know, god wants you to be higher up on all of those scales which, if you didn't know, that's me, that's my personality, which is not ironic, because I did so deceiving myself. I taught these kids to try to be more like me and I justified it by using the Bible, which isn't. That's not good. Let's take two.
Speaker 2:Openness is your openness to new ideas, to change etc. And I think being open is important. There are better ways to do things, more efficient ways to do things, and there are new ideas that can help lots of people, but not every new idea is a winner. So the openness to a new idea is not the most important thing, it's whether the new idea is a good thing or not. God wants you to be who you are, but to be wise, you can't simply default to your setting, you can't simply be your personality. To be wise takes more, simply being open to new ideas. Many people will say you know, like being curious is a value. Intellectual curiosity is a wonderful thing, but there's a lot of dumb things out there, like you can't just take everything in and say like this is great, this is great, this is great. You have to evaluate it.
Speaker 2:Neuroticism, your proneness to negative emotions. Man, I demonize myself, thinking like God has given me a spirit of self-control, not one of fear. I'm not supposed to be afraid of anything. I'm supposed to follow God, and yet anxiety, this awareness of things that could go bad, can be super helpful. For example, emotional stability is really great in an emergency setting where you have to make decisions that aren't based on emotion. You can't base them on emotion. You need to make the right decision there. But an emotionally stable person would never be a good detective or a good investigator. It's much easier to teach someone to be controlled in their emotions than it is to be hyper-aware about their surroundings. I know that's really specific, but I'm just preaching to myself really. You guys, for you, it's how God has made you. It's wonderful.
Speaker 2:But your default setting isn't enough to be wise. You need more. You need more than that. I think this is why Jesus seems so all over the board, personality-wise to me. Sometimes he's withdrawing, sometimes he's just like with people all the time. Well, is he extroverted or introverted? You know, sometimes he's like just the gentlest of persons. Sometimes he really punches back hard to leadership. Well, is he agreeable or is he disagreeable? And the answer is he's wise. He's wise. Don't be limited by all of the Myers-Briggs stuff and enneagrams, and on and on. We can go. Don't limit yourself to those things. It's good to know your default setting, but to be wise, more is required of you. Are you simple? Are you a mocker? Are you just stubborn? How then shall we live? Well, jesus himself was a wise guy. Wise men came to his birth when he was 12. He went to the temple and everybody was like this guy knows a lot of Torah. For a 12-year-old, it's impressive, impressive, scholastic achievements for a child.
Speaker 2:In First Corinthians, paul talks about Jesus being the wisdom of God, and he sets it up, though, with the foolishness of the cross. So we know that God is wise. If it is true that God is infinite in goodness and power and knowledge, then it follows, and he knows and can do and is better than us in every way that follows. So we know that God is wise. But if God dies for us, well, that seems pretty foolish. God had it good, like the phrase if you're so smart, why aren't you rich? So Jesus was asked well, if you're God, get yourself off of that cross. It just doesn't compute. Why would a being so wonderful and powerful die? That brings us to the point of this story, the point of this message.
Speaker 2:If we're fools and we're all fools then how can we be wise? God, in his infinite wisdom, saw the created order and how we were meant to live and how our sin and our foolishness messed everything up, and he made a way for us to be wise again. Through him On the cross, jesus paid the penalty for our foolishness so that, when we trust that God knows better than us, now we're seen through the lens of Christ and in goodness and power and glory. An heir of the kingdom of God, a child of our loving and heavenly Father. Jesus became a fool so that we could become wise, and that's how much God loves us, because on the cross you have more than the divine order and more than sin. You have redemption.
Speaker 2:It isn't enough to just pay attention to how the world is and how it's fallen. We need a way out, and Christ's blood yanks us out of our own selfishness. He can't stay simple if we submit to our Father. He teaches us too much about the way that we are, the way the world is, and if you are simple, there can be a confidence that comes with knowing the Word of God and how it structures our lives, how it frames everything for us, how it teaches us right into our very hearts how selfish we are, how sinful we are, but also how much God loves us Unfathomably, how much God, this God of the universe, would pay our debt by dying the death that we deserve so that we might have life abundantly.
Speaker 2:In Proverbs there's a wisdom as personified as lady wisdom, and it calls out to the simple and to the fool. It calls out and says you come, follow me, take my words. And at the end of the sermon on the Mount, jesus says something very similar. He's calling out to the poor and he says if you take my words in and you listen and you obey my words, that's like a wise man building his house on the rock. When the rains come down and the winds beat against the house, it is not shaken. But if you hear Jesus' words, if you hear Jesus' words and you reject it, it's like a foolish person building their house on the sand. The rains come down and the winds beat against that house and it blows it away.
Speaker 2:This morning, this morning, I have to give you more than just X, y and Z. I have to give you more than just do. Oh, you're simple. Just go and read a couple of books. You need to be wise, and to be wise, I'm going to point you to the wisest of all Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is on whom you should build your life. Let's pray, heavenly Father, thank you so much for this message. Thank you for your word.
Speaker 2:God, we confess that we fall short of you, or we confess that we are simple-minded, in that we know better and we still do it. God, that sometimes we are arrogant and we mock other folks, we criticize instead of build up. And, god, we confess that we are stubborn as all get out, that we want to do what we want to do and we believe wholeheartedly that we're right. It's really hard for us to trust you sometimes. God, we pray this morning that you would change our hearts, that we might long for your presence, god, that by gazing on how beautiful and wonderful you are, you might motivate us to walk away from simple-ness into confidence. That we might walk away from scoffing into edifying, into building up in God. That you would help us with your humility and your grace, that we would stop being so stubborn-hearted and that we might serve you wholeheartedly. Lord, we pray that you would transform this church, that we might be more like you this very day in Jesus' name Amen.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank you so much for joining us today. If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out FearsChurch. We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person. Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fears Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast from. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry. It's because of you that this is possible. You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit Fears Church for more information. If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe? Share it with your friends? Click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things. Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it. Don't give up. Hang on to Jesus. He won't let go of you. Jesus loves you so much and we love you. I hope someday we get to meet in person. Thanks again for listening.