When Foolishness Becomes Creative
(Proverbs 22:13-14, 16)
1. Sometimes you wonder how some creative people could have such little sense.
2. A New York fugitive that jumped bail and fled from one of upstate New York’s biggest pot busts in history has been caught in Oregon after 20 years.
John Franklin Forbis appeared bald and grizzled after Lane County Sheriff’s Office caught the 72-year-old on the edge of the coastal Siuslaw National Forest where he’s been hiding out under a pseudonym.
The aging fugitive was apprehended Thursday in the tiny community of Deadwood after falling ill and applying for Social Security benefits using his true identity, announced the sheriff's office. [mydailynew.com]
3. Both creative people and intelligent people can easily meet the definition of a fool, as defined in the book of Proverbs.
Main idea: Foolishness is not just a general concept, it shows itself in concrete situations, like the three we will examine this morning.
I. The SLUGGARD and His Creative Excuses (13)
It was 5:00 a.m and the father went to his son Shawn’s bedroom door, knocked and said, “Son, it’s time to get up. Jump in the shower and we’ve got to leave ASAP to catch any fish.”
Soon it was 5:30 and dad had the coffee brewing, the boat hooked up and he just finished packing the truck, when he noticed Shawn still wasn’t up.
Furious the dad pounded on his son’s bedroom door a second time and yelled, “Jesus rose from the dead and you can’t even get out of Bed!”
To which the son replies, "Yeah, but it took Jesus three days!!" [http://www.cleanjoke.com]
A. The Sluggard is an AVOIDER
B. What applies to avoiding work applies to avoiding RESPONSIBILITY
C. DELAYING can be good: time to contemplate or adjust
1. Moses was unwilling to speak for God, but eventually came around
2. Jonah ran away and God brought him around forcefully
3. The parable of the two sons
“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. [Matthew 21:28-33]
D. The sluggard creates fear and INFLATES the negative
1. He may convince himself that there might be a lion out there
2. A remote danger becomes a likely one
3. Laziness and lack of discipline is self-perpetuating
4. Holding a 9-5 job seems like slavery and unendurable
But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” [Numbers 13:30-33]
II. The Prostitute's CLIENT (14)
A. A forbidden woman probably means a PROSTITUTE
• This is made clear from Proverbs 2
B. Ironic that SOLOMON should pen this proverb
• Truth is often on the lips of the HYPOCRITE
C. This is a deep pit because it has the potential to RUIN a life
D. MORE sin is often a penalty from God and suggests ABANDONMENT
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” [Romans 1:26-28]
E. Some sins – if our practice – indicate a lack of REGENERATION
1. We may commit sins within, but text is about outward, literal practice
2. We might commit them and repent of them
3. But they do not characterize a true believer
4. We can be cleansed, forgiven, and changed – as the Corinthians were
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. [I Corinthians 6:9-11]
III. The “All that Matters is Money and Power” FOOL (16)
The translators have chosen the translation we will follow, but this verse is ambiguous in Hebrew. It could mean that a man who takes money away from the poor will have his money taken away by someone richer than he. It could also mean that a person will gain more from the poor than trying to buy influence from the rich.
A. Money/power grabbers take advantage of one group and BUY into another
B. Perhaps Luke 14:12-14 is a MIDRASH on this verse
He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
C. The problem is the heart: it is all about ME and MINE
We all know the story of Scrooge; he was after money itself; related to money is materialism and the love of things and spending addictions; also related to money are prestige, influence, and insulation from life's curve balls
D. Making money is itself good, but HOW, WHY, and MODERATION matters
1. You cannot reason a person who goes to excesses to moderate
2. A person convinced against his will is unconvinced still
CONCLUSION
1. Do any of these concrete examples of creative, intelligent foolish strike close to home?
2. How do we change? Brokenness, taking up the cross and walk with the Lord.
3. Monitoring ourselves, challenging our assumption, quoting the Word…mirror
