The Three Fools

[0:00] We're reading tonight from Proverbs chapter 6 and the first 19 verses.! My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you've struck hands and pledged for another,! if you've been trapped by what you said and snared by the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, to free yourself since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands. Go and humble yourself.

[0:29] Press your plea with your neighbor. Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

[0:42] Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler. Yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

[0:58] How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.

[1:14] A scoundrel and villain who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks with his eye, signals with his feet, and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart.

[1:30] He always stirs up dissension. Therefore, disaster will overtake him in an instant. He will suddenly be destroyed without remedy.

[1:43] There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

[2:16] That is the sure word of God, which Peter says we would do well to pay attention to as to a light shining in a dark place. Or like David says, a lamp to our feet, a light to our path, to lead us in the way of peace, the ways of wisdom.

[2:35] Pastor Jason, come and open God's word for it. Well, we all know about the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus and gave him their kingly gifts.

[2:55] We actually don't know how many there were. We don't have really any idea. Three is traditional, just one for each gift. That's where that number comes from, but there could have been 20 for all we know.

[3:08] Anyways, we know the three wise men. Tonight, from Proverbs 6, we're going to be introduced to the three fools. I like to think of them as the three wise men's hapless brothers that don't know any better.

[3:24] Here's three fools, and they're fools in each their own way, to their own degree. It begins with just being naive, all the way down to plain evil.

[3:38] So we begin with the well-intentioned friend who's trying to help, and we're going to move all the way to the absolute scoundrel who's the son of the evil one.

[3:50] What is the common denominator, though, between these three people, these three men, these three fools? It's just that folly, no matter what shape or form it takes, no matter what it looks like, it always tends to pulling apart relationships, communities, the fabric of life.

[4:18] And so what we're going to be talking about tonight is how can we avoid becoming these three fools and really wreaking damage and havoc on our own lives, our own families, our own communities to watch out for these characters.

[4:34] Folly always tends to that same thing of pulling apart relationships, of stressing and straining communities, of breaking the bonds of shalom, of peace.

[4:49] And wisdom, wisdom is seeing the fabric of reality and then living in harmony with it. So wisdom actually, as we live it, as we do it, as we, it's in our hearts, it strengthens communities.

[5:04] It strengthens families. It strengthens marriages. But fools stress and stretch and break the fabric and they break the fabric of community.

[5:19] So, I know of a situation right now. No one here knows, except for my wife, who this person is. It has nothing to do with anyone here.

[5:30] A sweet young Christian lady and her husband are miserable and stressed out right now because her family is really into this QAnon conspiracy stuff and they're Christians.

[5:43] They've kind of combined it with some sort of modern day Christian prophets and prophecies about Donald Trump. And so, somehow their family has now been transformed by these ideas and they've almost become a kind of a cult.

[6:01] And dad's always sending out videos expressing what's going to happen or what this modern day prophet has said about what's going to happen next. It's kind of, it's just crazy stuff.

[6:14] And the young lady, her husband, are not buying it. And so, the result is, is the family thinks that the devil has blinded her. They think there's something really wrong with her.

[6:27] And so, if that was you, if you're in that situation, and maybe to some degree you are in some situation, but like, if that was you, how would you feel? What would your relationships be like?

[6:39] It would be stressful. It would be strained. Here we are, a few days from Thanksgiving and Christmas is around the corner and your family is fraying apart. And that's what folly does.

[6:53] To whatever degree, that's what folly does. It always tears that. It's always straining and ripping the fabric of relationships and of reality.

[7:03] And it tears at that shalom where wisdom encourages flourishing and prospering and joy and peace. We've seen the abundance that comes out of living a wise life.

[7:16] That's what he's been trying to woo and win his son for towards. My son, this is why you need to listen to me. This is really good. This is good for you. This is going to be good for your family.

[7:27] This is going to be good for everyone. Wisdom encourages flourishing and shalom, wholeness, and folly tears into power no matter if it's just being naive. And we're going to see that.

[7:39] James says that the wisdom from above is peace loving. And he begins that little phrase in James or that little section in James with the idea of peacemaking.

[7:50] Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. But folly, he says, is full of selfish ambition. It's just motivated by self.

[8:01] It's full of envy. And then it says disorder. Disorder. Where things are not where they should be. Things are not in the situation that they should be.

[8:12] And so wisdom brings health, but folly creates disorder. Folly is the acid that tears apart the bonds of community and of relationships and of churches.

[8:23] And so as we begin, we need to see that that's what these three fools have in common. That's what all folly has in common. The first means well, but he ends up destroying things.

[8:37] The sluggard, Proverbs tells us the one who is slack in his work is brother to the one who destroys. Yeah, he might not quite be the one as bad as someone who just out and out destroys something, but the end result is very, not very different.

[8:52] And then it goes right down to the scoundrel who stirs up dissension among brothers. So I've asked this question already, but I think it's good for us to ask this, for me to ask this again.

[9:08] What's around you? Is there stress and strain or is there peace and wholeness? Is there a desert or is there wholeness and flourishing, a garden?

[9:20] Happy relationships or afraid relationships? Shalom or strain? And so we're either, we either need to learn to do better in all of these areas or we need to make sure that we see the danger for what they are and avoid it.

[9:39] So do you want wholeness and health and fullness of joy in relationships? Proverbs 6 is going to help and contribute to that. So we have these three fools.

[9:54] These three fools. And we're just going to look at them. They, it breaks down fairly easily. So we're just going to look at these three fools each in turn. And the first is a well-intentioned friend.

[10:06] A well-intentioned friend. Can you be a fool and be a friend? Yes. Can you be a fool and be well-intentioned? Yes. That's what we're going to see here. The well-intentioned friend. This person who is trying to be nice, you see this in Proverbs 6.

[10:21] Let me see here. The first little section verses 1 through 5. Here he is, the well-intentioned friend. He's trying to be nice. He's trying to be helpful. But he has got himself entangled financially with someone else.

[10:39] Now, I was just getting stressed out doing a little research on this. I can't imagine actually being in this position. But I was just getting stressed out just doing research.

[10:51] I read a blog post and the title of this blog post is, What do you do when a family member or friend won't pay back a loan? Now, imagine you're on the internet and that's what you're trying to look up and try to find out.

[11:02] You're not doing so hot and things. But here they are. Here's some of the ideas. Offer gentle reminders. Suggest a payment plan. Offer to help them figure out finances.

[11:15] Barter. So have them do some yard work or do some house work for you instead of paying you off. Have them trade something. Give you something. Hold a joint garage sale.

[11:27] If they're ignoring your text, emails, or won't answer the phone, you need to talk in person. Now, that might not sound stressful, but you've got to put yourself into that position.

[11:37] If you are there and you're looking at these sorts of tips, things, the relationship is already strained. I don't really even like going to garage sales. And about the very last thing I ever want to do is to hold a garage sale with someone who owes me money.

[11:53] And oh boy, sitting down with someone and trying to suggest a payment plan or, hey, I'll help you with your finances or having a gentle in-person conversation with someone.

[12:05] how do you feel if someone isn't paying you back money they owe you? I wouldn't be a happy camper.

[12:17] That would be a very, very, very difficult conversation to honestly have. I'm going to feel more like a mafia don and less of a Christian pastor. I'm ready to give them an offer they can't refuse.

[12:28] And that's what getting entangled with someone financially leads to and can do to a person. And so the father says if you've been ensnared, you've got yourself into trouble.

[12:44] This person hasn't done this to you. You've actually done this to yourself if you've been ensnared by the words of your mouth. And what he has in mind here is in particular is what we would call co-signing a loan.

[12:57] If you've signed your name, if you've co-signed a loan or somehow or other, you have said, you know what? I'll pay your debt. If you won't pay, I'll be your collateral.

[13:10] If you've somehow entangled yourself into a situation where now your financial livelihood, your financial well-being is dependent on someone else and someone else's character, then he says, that's the foolish situation.

[13:27] The wise solution is get out now. Get out of it as soon as possible. Get out of it now. Now, I want to put this into sort of a wider context of what does the Bible say?

[13:40] What did the Old Testament say about lending money, about helping people that needed help? The Old Testament in Deuteronomy 15, 7, 7 through 10, this section in Deuteronomy 15, it gives some very clear directions about lending money to your fellow Israelites.

[13:57] The Lord is not against it. We just need to be clear about that. We have that saying, neither lender nor borrower be. Well, that's generally probably a good idea, but the Lord is not totally against lending money.

[14:15] The Lord says, be generous. You should be generous with your brother if he's in need. Lend him without interest. It was not something that you could, it wasn't a business arrangement.

[14:26] That wasn't what it was supposed to be about. And you had to remember that every seven years in God's economy, that loan, that debt, would be forgiven. So just as every four years we have an election, every seven years they would have a debt forgiveness.

[14:41] And so it was a very generous system for the poor. It was a very generous system. It was God's wisdom for creating a flourishing society in Israel.

[14:53] And so when you were giving to someone, you had to do it with a very loose hand. You had to be generous. And you had to realize that the loan was practically a gift.

[15:12] It was probably going to be a gift. If they could pay you back, good. But you had to be ready for that seventh year to roll around. And you needed to be ready to let it go.

[15:25] Now, I think there's a great deal of wisdom there, just very practical wisdom. Generally, if you can't afford to give it to someone, you're probably not in a position to lend it to them.

[15:39] If your brother or sister is in need, loaning them money can be dangerous. I'm not saying you totally rule it out. I'm just saying it can be very dangerous.

[15:50] It can be dangerous for them and it can be dangerous for you. Instead, I think wisdom is better just give what you can. Proverbs 22, 7 says, the borrower is servant to the lender.

[16:04] Now, the lender could be a very nice person and trying to be really nice and trying to help the situation out and everything like that, trying to be a good friend. But that doesn't mean that Proverbs 22, 7 isn't true.

[16:16] That it does fundamentally change the relationship when you lend money to someone. Lending and borrowing money changes that relationship. And so Thanksgiving tastes different when you're eating it with your master instead of your father or your mother.

[16:33] It's different for them and it's different for you. But what Proverbs 6 has in mind is even worse than that.

[16:44] I'm just saying those are also can be very delicate and in staring relationships financially and you need to be careful with those. But what Proverbs 6 has in mind is even worse than all of that. You've signed on as collateral for someone.

[16:59] You've signed on to say if they can't pay I'll pay it. Now in our world in our economy in our modern world if someone else if they need a co-signer it's because the bank doesn't really think they'll probably pay.

[17:16] So you're saying I'm going to pay. And so now your life and your finances are not dependent on you and your character and what you're doing but now it's dependent on them.

[17:29] And he says if that's the situation then right now get out of it. If you can whatever it takes to get out of it.

[17:40] He says go and humble yourself. And that's a very nice way of saying the word humble yourself means to just go throw yourself down on the ground and let yourself get trampled on.

[17:53] let yourself just you just be a mat on the floor let them say whatever they're going to say let them get as mad as they want at you let them call you every name in the book let them just trample you down but that's if that's what it takes to get out of it then you just go and you humble yourself you call yourself every name in the book you say I was wrong I was a mistake I should have never done it but get out of it.

[18:20] And he says like a gazelle getting away from a hunter now whether that's a human hunter or a lion or whatever but a gazelle is frantic it's full of frenetic energy or a bird escaping a snare you don't see a bird or a gazelle nonchalantly getting himself out of the situation they're full of energy they're chewing off their own legs to get out of there and that's what you have to be like if you have now ensnared yourself you've entangled yourself financially with someone else get out of it and do it right now don't let sleep come to your eyes slumber to your eyelids so don't wait don't sleep don't procrastinate it's the very next thing on your to-do list is what he is saying don't delay and again maybe you were trying to be kind and nice and that is certainly commendable proverbs 17 17 17 and 17 18 are two proverbs that are stacked back to back and they're obviously meant to go to with each other proverbs 17 17 says a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity there's times when we need help when we need someone to help us out and that's what a brother for is for that's what a friend is for but the very next verse says a man lacking in judgment in other words a stupid person strikes hands and pledge and puts up security for his neighbor in other words yes people are going to need help and we are going to want to help them and we want to do what's right but don't do this help in one way don't help in another way for their sake for your sake don't get entangled financially with others it will cost you it very well could cost you your relationship and it will probably cost you money even the federal trade commission has a warning on co-signing and I thought this good to read you are being asked to guarantee this debt think carefully before you do if the borrower does not pay the debt you will have to the creditor can collect this debt from you without first trying to collect from the borrower the creditor!

[20:41] can use the same collection borrower such as suing you or garnishing your wages etc. Now a collector coming after me because you didn't pay is not going to make either one of us happy that's not going to lead to the shalom that wisdom has promised and so if you've done it get out of it right now and don't get yourself into it to begin with so that's the first fool!

[21:15] they're trying to be nice they're trying to help someone out but now they've been ensnared and there is an extremely important lesson there that is applicable not to just financial situations but to all sorts of situations and it's this that having good intentions is not the same as being wise having good intentions is not the same as being wise you can mean well and you know we can say well god bless you for meaning well that's so good but it can still bring ruin if you do it in the wrong way so that's the first fool the well intentioned friend now secondly we have the slugger he's our second fool and it says go to the aunt you slugger consider its ways and be wise Charles Bridges the seventh or 19th century commentator insightfully and very sadly says this see how far man has fallen in sin that we have to learn lessons from an insect see how far we've fallen in sin that we have to learn lessons from an insect so how far we've fallen how far we've fallen if this is the case we're made in the image of

[22:37] God made like him in wisdom and righteousness and holiness we were to be like God to have dominion over the animals and now here we are we're getting sent out to the front yard to the backyard whatever to learn from a bug on the ground but yet this is what sin has reduced the mind and the heart of man to where we have to go and learn lessons from insects so but here we are and so we have to learn the lesson consider its ways and be wise so what are his ways young people older people Jason Webb what do we have to learn well it has no commander no chief no queen no king at least like we do no master the same word is used of the Egyptian taskmasters that were that are whipping the Israelites to get them to work in Egypt who drove the Israelites hard in slavery the slugger needs that kind of taskmaster in order to get them to do something the slugger needs someone telling them what to do sometimes harshly in exactly what to do or they don't do it so you need a whip and you need to tell him every little thing or he's not going to do it but not the ant no taskmaster necessary he is his own boss he's self-motivated he's busy at work he's busy doing what needs to be done and no one is bossing him around we tell our kids our children you know if you tell yourself what to do then mom and dad don't have to tell you what to do if you are your own boss then you don't get bossed around and so that really is the goal of parenting in order to raise children and so that now they're self-motivated they're doing what they're supposed to they've thought about what needs to be done and they have reasons for doing it and they're doing it without mom and dad saying this is what you need to do and you need to do it now and have the whip out and everything like that someone is going to move you that's true of all of us someone is going to tell you what to do it's going to be someone on the outside either mom or dad your boss at work your teacher or it's going to be yourself the aunt doesn't have a commander he's his own commander he's doing what he needs to do he's his own boss and so no ruler and yet what does he do he prepares ahead of time he's not only working to get food for right now he's working ahead he's storing up things he's taking care of what needs taken care of he stores his provisions in the summer and gathers its food at harvest he prepares he works ahead he thinks ahead and he gets to work you know we learn one thing from the birds

[25:41] Jesus in his sermon on the mount we learn a lesson from the birds they don't sow or reap birds are not ants you know birds don't store up things they don't store away in barns they are completely thoughtless about the days to come if you look at it from an ants perspective birds are completely irresponsible they don't think ahead they don't plan they just get up and they go find their food and they eat their food and they fly home and sleep in their trees as happy as can be and Jesus says we need to learn from them not to worry not to worry our father knows what we need and will provide for us he'll feed us but that doesn't mean that the lesson that we need to learn from birds is not to worry the lesson that we need to learn from ants we need to combine those two lessons and the ant tells us they know what needs to happen and they get the job done and they work hard at it they don't you don't get any excuses or delays with an ant but not the sluggard the sluggard it is nothing but feet dragging and excuses and at the end of the day it doesn't matter what they say the job isn't done so not the sluggard when are you going to get up when are you going to get going when are you going to get working and his answer is just a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and the father says the wise man and poverty will come on you like abandoned the sluggard doesn't decide to do nothing all at once and that's very helpful that's very that's a real x-ray for my life you know the little excuses that I come up with the little things that's just the pathway to being a sluggard the sluggard doesn't decide one day

[27:37] I am absolutely going to do nothing and have one big excuse he just has a bunch of little actions a little delays a little excuses one at a time one delay at a time one thing at a time and until it brings sudden poverty on you again you could have met I was going to mean to get around to those things I was going to mean to do that but if you don't do it it doesn't do you any good until sudden poverty is on you now we do a need to have a slight aside here and we need to be very careful about understanding the relationship between being a sluggard and poverty and we're going to we need to not misunderstand what it's saying here the sluggard becomes poor but Proverbs never turns that sentence around it never turns the idea around to say that poor people are lazy it says the sluggard will become poor but it never says poor people are lazy

[28:42] Proverbs says laziness brings poverty but it never flips that sentence around to say poor people are lazy and I think that's too often what we can sort of take out of the book of Proverbs and then start applying to situations in our life and that's not always the case again we're going to talk about this more Lord willing some other time but poverty in Proverbs is not always the result of laziness some people are born poor can't help I mean that's just the situation they're born into hard work and laziness has nothing to do with it and if you are born poor then you're put into a situation where you naturally don't have as many opportunities to get well paying jobs etc etc and so hard work and laziness have very little to do with it some people are reduced to poverty by injustice there's Proverbs talking about that that the poor man's field makes plenty of food but injustice sweeps it away so he's a hard working man he knew exactly what to do he was working wisely and yet injustice swept it away and so you can be a rich lazy fool and you can be a poor hard working wise man now again it's easy for us to look at people and situations with that sort of simplistic lens and say that they're just all lazy we see poor people in the inner city and say they're lazy or it's a culture of laziness or and all

[30:17] I'm saying is that is too broad a brush to paint with we need to have a finer brush we need more nuance it might be easier to see if we're not talking about our own culture something that's so close to us so if we were going to India and they have the caste system there and the lowest are the dalits the untouchables and if you were to go to India you were to get in your airplane and you are not your airplane you were getting into the airplane you fly over there and you see what's going on you wouldn't say these dalits are lazy this is a whole culture of laziness because that would be to blame something that's very systemic that's a big problem it would be a systemic injustice and that whole way of looking at it leaves the rich people who are on top feeling very justified about themselves and the poor condemned for their lack of work ethic so if you were to go to India you would say a lot of this poverty here maybe not all of it but a lot of it doesn't have really much to do with the degree of how hard working these people are or not now with that being said poverty though is the bitter fruit of being lazy so that is certainly and definitely true and sometimes we need to be careful we need to realize this is talking about more than just financial poverty

[31:53] I think that's clearly what's on the surface it's not just financial poverty that we're talking about there are other kinds of poverty just as there are other kinds of ways of being rich there are other kinds of poverty and we can be very selective in our sluggardliness we can be very selective sluggards so there's intellectual poverty where you're lazy mentally you don't like to think about anything too difficult you just want to be entertained you want to think you want the music you want the YouTube videos and all day that's what it is it's consume consume consume you never read a book you never have your thoughts challenged you never go deeper you never are learning something maybe you want to but you never get around to it and now you don't have any deep thoughts in your head you don't have any broader intellectual ideas you're mentally intellectually poor

[32:54] I'm not saying that you are mentally slow or something I'm just saying you have been a sluggard with your brain so now you're intellectually poor there's relational poverty where you're not putting in the time and the energy the hard work to develop relationships and so you are relationally poor you can't you have very few friends that you can turn to because you haven't put in the work that real friendship requires there's spiritual poverty where we we sing a song where we're rich in things but poor in soul so maybe we're hard-working people in our jobs and we have all sorts of financial wealth and yet we are spiritually poor our relationship with God is superficial we don't have deep communion we don't have fellowship our faith and our hope they're small things and we're spiritually poor and it's not because you don't have opportunities it's because you don't work because I haven't been working like

[33:58] I should you know faith isn't against effort faith isn't against effort faith encourages empowers and motivates effort faith is against self-righteous works it's against leaning on yourself and depending on yourself for your standing it's not against effort to develop a closeness to God a knowing the word of God a living and communion with God so we can be selective sluggards you know hard workers they can pour their life into their work and no one would ever call them lazy all their co-workers their boss at work never call them lazy they're not lazy that way but spiritually or relationally they are see because for them work is satisfying work is gratifying work is that's their thing and so but when they come up to something that is really hard for them then it's it's a different story they can become lazy so they can be really hard working at work but when it comes time to marriage or relating with their teenagers or relating to the people at church or drawing close to

[35:21] God we can become lazy and so I think the best of us can say I need to go back to the ant I have things I need to learn I need to learn this lesson from the ant consider his ways and be wise I know I need to go to the school of the ant now our third lesson our third fool and we're not going to spend as much time on him even though he has the most space scoundrel it's interesting proverbs 6 the father he talks directly to his son in the first part and then he points to the sluggard in the second part he says now go that sluggard needs to go and learn something but he just talks about this scoundrel he has very little to say to him directly he only is going to talk about him and say look at this person and you better not be this person he's warning him he's warning his son not to be this person and warning his son to watch out for this person and this third fool is the scoundrel verse 12 calls him so a scoundrel and villain who goes about with a corrupt mouth that word scoundrel that we have in the NIV gets taken up and transliterated into

[36:56] Greek in the New Testament and it gets changed into a proper name 2 Corinthians 6 15 what harmony is there between Christ and Belial that's the word scoundrel that's a name for the devil the scoundrel is the son of the father is the son of his father the devil and just like the father his father the devil destroyed the fabric of relationships between Adam and Eve between Adam and God he destroyed the fabric of that community like his father this scoundrel brings ruin on others and himself just like the snake did in Eden this scoundrel is a snake in the grass and that's what you see he's not out now attacking the community that's not what it says you know he's winking with his eyes he's signaling with his feet he's motioning with his hands and his feet or his fingers he is he is not all about the direct attack he is about undermining the fellowship the community and the brothers and families he's plotting evil and he always stirs up dissension and you notice what is he like verse 17 he has haughty eyes he's proud he has a lying tongue he lies he doesn't care about the life of others do you see he has an echo and an image of Satan proud lying murderer who destroys the peace of God the shalom of God and the Lord it says detests him the Lord detests him this fool is everything

[38:38] Jesus is or isn't this fool is everything Jesus isn't Jesus is a peacemaker Jesus brings peace he breaks down the dividing wall between men and man and God and between man and man and blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God they're going to be like Jesus the son of God who is a peacemaker and this fool is everything Jesus isn't God delights in his son God delights in him he enjoys he looks upon Jesus and his peacemaking efforts his shalom building and the Lord is delighted with his son he delights in this shalom maker and the one who will humbly serve others the one who saves others instead of destroying them the one who sows back the fabric for through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things it's like everything that had been undone and torn apart in the fall and what Satan has done

[39:47] Jesus undoes and just reconciles he sews it all back together and through him all things Colossians says holds together and so he is Jesus is the redemption he's the wisdom of God he is this great peacemaker and so God says this is my son with whom I am well pleased my son is so good but the scoundrel is detestable this person is the exact opposite of what Jesus is he is detestable and so what what do Christ and the scoundrel have in common so brothers and sisters any fool can destroy a church any fool can destroy a family with their words and with their pride with their deceitful behind the back talk and so how we need this wisdom that we don't become those kinds of people that that bring dissension that hollows out the community and so now instead of there being deep ties and connections between brothers and sisters it's just a surface-y smile we come here we smile but there's no real genuine peace and love how we need this wisdom our culture is is buckling our culture is falling apart more and more and the differences and the attitudes that exist and reign outside of the church will drag us down to if we participate in them if we engage in them if we think as they think and we act as they act then there will be no difference if we carry on like the scoundrel it will destroy us as much as the world so what do we have to do with these belials we have the spirit of christ in us and that is not he is not a spirit that brings dissension he's a spirit that brings peace fruit of the spirit one of those fruits is peace jesus died to make us one and he showed great wisdom and uniting people not dividing them so these three fools we don't want to be like them we want to be the opposite so where and how do we get this wisdom what will it take to not be these three fools we've talked about this again and again but I think the very the very first thing is the fear of the lord and its humility we have to hear that the wise man is talking to us not talking to everyone else he's talking to us and we can't think that we're above this beyond this if you haven't been at least somewhat convicted at any one of these points we just need to be careful we can't think we're above this or beyond this this word is for us and James says blessed is the man not who hears it but the blessed is the man who hears it and then does it you know there's no blessing in hearing believe it or not he doesn't say there's this just this natural thing that will happen to you if you hear it blessed are those who hear it but who then go on and do it the blessing is in the doing so you've seen those three things may god give us wisdom to grow in these areas to avoid the foolishness

[43:48] of these three fools well let's close with the hymn and it's going to be our final prayer it's take my life and let it be consecrated lord to thee you see wisdom is a full life thing involves your money and involves your relationship with the lord and involves your relationship with others and in this hymn we're saying lord here's my whole life take it all and be honored in it we're going to have to repeat the last phrase of each verse let's stand as we sing who Thank you.