How To Spot A Fool

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.