I'm Nobody's Fool I'm My Own Man

Proverbs 1:1-10 (NASB)

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

2 To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

3 To receive instruction in wise behavior,

Righteousness, justice and equity;

4 To give prudence to the naive,

To the youth knowledge and discretion,

5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning,

And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

6 To understand a proverb and a figure,

The words of the wise and their riddles.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction

And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;

9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice you,

Do not consent.

I'm Nobody's Fool I'm My Own Man

HOW TO SPOT A FOOL

Being an April Fool is relatively harmless, being a real fool isn't. So, the book of Proverbs provides valuable COMMON SENSE for developing WISDOM. Ancient schools of wisdom had final exams that required the student to finish a proverbial statement.

To have wisdom we must have fear of the Lord.

Qualities Of A Fool:

1. Declares war on God

2. Fuels his own Pride

3. Easily Angered

4. Ignores reason

5 Types Of Fools:

1. SIMPLE - immature and gullible

2. SILLY - speaks but doesn't listen

3. SENSUAL - corruptible rational

4. SCORNFUL - cruel conceit

5. STEADFAST - rebellious rejection

4 Qualities That Overcome Foolishness:

1. Question what you assume you know

2. Listen to and evaluate what you hear

3. Understanding information impacts actions

4. Accept God's creative design principles

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. IITim. 2:15 KJV

INTRO ILLUS:

There are also a lot of popular proverbs in our culture today. Let’s see how well you know them.

I’ll say the first part and you shout out how they end.

A dog is a man’s…best friend.

Don’t cry over…spilled milk.

Don’t judge a book…by its cover.

Sticks and stones may break my bones…but words will never hurt me.

Don’t count your chickens…before they hatch.

Many hands…make light work.

People in glass houses…shouldn’t throw stones.

The early bird…catches the worm.

The early bird may catch the worm, but the second mouse…gets the cheese.

ILLUS: 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.

ILLUS: A White Star Line employee at the time of Titanic's launch on May 31, 1911 said, "Not even God himself could sink this ship."

ILLUS: “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 invol ved 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.”

CLOSING ILLUS: 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.

ILLUS.

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.