HOW TO SPOT A FOOL
INTRODUCTION: On April 1st, 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in an American newspaper announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" especially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper, but all the items were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The next day, Burger King issued a follow-up. The follow-up press release said that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others had requested their own 'right handed' version." Although being an April fool is relatively harmless, being a real fool isn’t. Let’s find out why?
1) How can we spot a fool?
• A fool is antagonistic toward God.
a. Psalm 14:1-3. Atheists are fools. There is no God. There is no one I’m answerable to; I can do what I want. Being this way, giving no thought to God results in living a corrupt life filled with foolish behavior. Prov. 10:23a, “A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct.”
b. Psalm 74:18, 22. Fools mock God. Revile means to insult, scorn, despise. These are people with hatred toward God. There are people today who basically say f*** God. People mock God because of their hatred for him. Others may mock God because of they don’t take God seriously. Tancredo Neves was running for President in Brazil. During the campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency. He did get the votes to win, but he got sick a day before being made President, and then he died. An unknown White Star Line employee at the time of Titanic's launch on May 31, 1911 said, "Not even God himself could sink this ship." “In Campinas, Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend. The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: "My Daughter, go with God and may He protect you." She responded: "Only if He (God) travels in the trunk, ‘cause inside here....it's already full". Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none of which were broken.” Gal. 6:7-8.
c. Prov. 19:3. Fools blame God. I screw my life up yet when the consequences of my actions come to fruition I blame God for not rescuing me. “Why did you allow this to happen to me?” We get upset at God for not getting us off the hook when we break the law. We get upset at God when we get cancer although we abused our bodies for years. Instead of taking responsibility for the ruining of our lives by our own foolish behaviors, our heart rages against the Lord and we pout the blame on Him.
• A fool is prideful.
a. Prov. 10:8- In my pride, I won’t accept commands. “You’re not going to tell me what to do”. A fool will not accept being told what to do. A fool will always reject authority. A fool despises structure and boundaries. In my pride I want to always do things my way. But I will continue to be frustrated because I will always be subject to some form of authority whether I like it or not. Therefore, to be resistant toward it will only lead to more trouble in my life.
b. Prov. 12:15-A fool thinks he’s always right. In my pride I will not be open to receiving advice because I already know everything. In being this way I close myself off to learning a better way of doing things. I close myself off to growing. In my foolish pride I will stay stuck.
c. Prov. 17:10-A fool will not accept a rebuke. In my pride I am not open to input and correction. I will not accept you calling me into account. I will not accept responsibility for my wrongdoing. Prov. 1:7. A fool rejects correction and discipline. Instead of being humble and accepting disciplinary action, I reject it, which is foolish because in my rejection of correction I just set the stage for repeat offenses which causes more consequences which sets the stage for more disciplinary action.
d. Prov. 26:11. A fool doesn’t learn from his mistakes. John Wayne is quoted as saying, “Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid.” Life is going to be harder when you don’t learn from your mistakes. Life will be harder when you’re prideful and don’t want to learn a better way. Life is going to be harder when you’re stubborn and you want to keep doing things a certain way and every time it ends in frustration. Def. of insanity. You “kick against the goads”. There’s a difference between acting foolish and being a fool. We all at times do something foolish. Hopefully we say, ‘well, that was dumb; I won’t do that again”. That’s learning from our mistakes. But a fool will persist in their folly; they will purposely return to vomit. Not learning from our mistakes will make our lives painfully hard.
• A fool is easily angered.
a. Prov. 12:16-it doesn’t take much to set off a fool. A foolish person is easily annoyed and instead of squashing it, they quickly snap. Instead of overlooking it a fool will display his lack of self-control.
b. Prov. 14:16-17-fools have hot tempers and do foolish things without thought of consequence. A fool in his anger is reactionary instead of controlled. In my anger my actions are reckless and are done instinctively without any regard for the aftermath. This is how a fool winds up in jail.
c. Prov. 20:3-A fool looks for a fight. It’s one thing to become provoked into anger but a fool looks for opportunities to display his anger. It’s as if the fool actually enjoys being angry.
d. Prov. 29:11-a fool is out of control. There is no restraint whatsoever. All bets are off. There is no walking away. There is no filter on his mouth. There is no thinking things through; there is no self-control. When a fool gets angry there’s no stopping until the destruction is complete.
• A Fool is recognized by his mouth.
a. Prov. 18:6-7. A fool runs his mouth and it gets him into trouble. A fool doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. He keeps antagonizing a situation. He provokes people to anger. He pushes people to their limit.
b. Prov. 15:2-A fool is recognized by the foolishness of his speech. Better to be thought of as a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.
c. Prov. 15:14-a fool isn’t spending his time on learning and growing. A fool isn’t trying to be discerning. Instead he runs off at the mouth. He feeds and lives on foolish talk, gossip, lies, slander, senseless discussions, coarse joking, etc. A fool’s mouth gushes out foolish, hurtful and harmful speech.
d. Prov. 18:2-a fool is opinionated without the benefit of understanding. He’s good at talking a lot about what he doesn’t understand.
• A fool is irresponsible.
a. Prov. 17:16-A fool has no sense of wise money management (nor does he want any). A fool doesn’t plan ahead. A fool doesn’t form a budget. A fool doesn’t pay his bills first. A fool spends money foolishly.
b. Ecc. 4:5, “The fool folds his hands and ruins himself”. A fool is lazy. He doesn’t want to do anything productive. He doesn’t want to better himself. He doesn’t want to improve his situation. But he doesn’t understand that he will be ruined by his folly. Prov. 24:30-34. A fool’s life will be ruined by his laziness. He will lose whatever he has gained. He will be left in a dire situation. He may even lose his life; all because he was too lazy to be responsible with what God had blessed him with.
c. Luke 12:14-21-A fool is greedy and selfish. A famous millionaire died of cancer. For weeks he suffered intolerable agony. Although surrounded by every luxury and receiving every possible care, he died as wretchedly as a pauper. There was the usual publicity, flowers, telegrams, an expensive bronze casket and a towering beautifully carved tombstone. After the funeral a relative turned to another and said, “How much do you suppose that Harry left?” Back came the reply, “He left everything he had.” Yes, Harry could take not one thing with him. He worked harder than a slave would. He grasped, saved, cheated, lied and where legally possible, he stole as he amassed his great fortune. He lived for self. He left all he had. He faced God without hope or plea. Harry was a poor fool. Prov. 11:4, “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” A fool trusts in money. A fool is greedy and selfish.
2) How not to become a fool.
• Don’t hang around with fools. Prov. 13:20. If I hang around with the wise, I will see the benefits of wisdom and practice it. However, if I hang around with fools, I will be negatively influenced into foolish behavior. Prov.14:7. We shouldn’t listen to the counsel of fools. We shouldn’t be taking advice from worldly people.
• Don’t entertain foolish arguments. Prov. 26:4-If I allow myself to get caught up in foolish debates then there will be two fools talking. 2nd Tim. 2:23, “Have nothing to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” Entertaining foolish arguments produces nothing good.
• Don’t trust your own perspective. Prov. 28:26. “The only one I trust is myself”. Well, according to Prov. 28:26, you’re a fool. Instead of trusting in my own “wisdom”, I need to trust in the Lord. When we make decisions based in how we feel or how we perceive things to be, we are a fool. He who leans on his own understanding will soon reap the destruction from his foolishness.
• Build wisely. Matt. 7:24-27. Jesus is finishing his great sermon that began in chapter five. He taught on so many important subjects and he concludes with bearing good fruit and not wanting us to be deceived (21-23) Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?” “Therefore…” Because of all this, especially the importance of what he just said, be wise and not foolish; build your foundation on the solid rock of Jesus. In 1174 the Italian architect Bonnano Pisano began work on what would become his most famous project: A separately standing eight-story bell tower in the city of Pisa. There was just one “little” problem: builders quickly discovered that the soil was much softer than they had anticipated, and the foundation was far too shallow to adequately hold the structure! Before long it began to tilt...and it continued to tilt...until finally the architect and the builders realized that nothing could be done to make the Leaning Tower of Pisa straight again. It took 176 years to build the Tower of Pisa and during that time many things were done to try and compensate for the “tilt.” The foundation was shored up; the upper levels were even built at an angle to try to make the top of the tower look straight. Nothing worked. The tower has stood for over 800 years, but it leans 18 feet away from where it should be. Experts say that one day it will fall; all because it wasn’t built on a solid foundation. “Hears these words and does not put them into practice…” Eze. 33:28-33. Hearing Jesus’ words and not putting them into practice is foolish and it will cause ruin. Prov. 14:1, “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.” I’m responsible for the tearing down of my house. I devise my own demise by not listening, by not heeding, by not trusting, by not building on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. I chose to build foolishly instead of wisely.
• Keep watch and be prepared. Matt 25:1-13. We need to be wise and be prepared for the Lord’s return. If we keep putting off being ready; if we are lazy and complacent we are foolish. The fools have lamps with no oil. The fools fall asleep. The fools are ill prepared. “There is a legend that speaks of an oriental king whose servant was also his personal friend and favorite. One day, the king impatiently presented his servant with a golden bell, saying, "If you ever find a greater fool than yourself, give this to that person!" Years passed by and the king was lying on his death bed. The king called for his servant and told the servant that he was going on a long journey - and, that he was ill prepared! The servant asked, "Is it an unexpected journey?" The king replied, "No, on the contrary, I have been forewarned these many years; but, I have been so engrossed with the cares of government and the pleasures of this world, that I have given little thought or attention to the matter!" Whereupon, the servant silently handed the king the golden bell - the servant had found a greater fool than himself!” Don’t think you have plenty of time. Don’t think you can continue to reject the gospel. There will come a day when the door will be closed and it will be too late. Don’t be found sleeping. Don’t be found without oil in your lamp. Don’t be a fool.
