The sermon is titled Breaking Free from Foolishness with Wisdom. Breaking Free from Foolishness with Wisdom. How many times have we said the same hurtful words to a loved one? We get caught up in the moment so much that even if we know what's about to come out of our mouths is hurtful, we say it anyways. Afterwards, we feel guilt rise up knowing that we hurt them and hopefully, Eventually, we apologize and we promise not to make the same mistakes. But inevitably, we end up making the same mistakes. We say the same hurtful things that hurt people over and over. This is our own foolishness of clinging to unhealthy habits and our own selfish desires, refusing to learn from our mistakes and ultimately harming ourselves and those around us. Similarly, how often do we struggle with procrastination? Deadlines loom, yet we find ourselves drawn to anything that will take our mind off the task at hand. Folding laundry, organizing the junk drawer, maybe even staring at a wall become suddenly fascinating activities compared to tackling the looming project. This foolishness just delays our progress and creates stress and ultimately undermines our own goals. Or maybe, like me, you've been working on something or cleaning something around the house, but instead of doing it the perfect, exact way that you know you should, you take a shortcut, something that will help you finish it a little sooner so you can go back to rest. You finish the project feeling good, knowing you saved some time, only to realize maybe a week later that you have to go back and spend more time on it, fixing the mistakes that you made. Some of these examples may seem silly, but the consequences can be serious if we follow the same habits as it relates to God. Many of us know how we are called to live as Christians, but the issue is that we choose to live according to our own preferences and desires. We know we should wake up early when the alarm goes off to read our Bible, but instead we press snooze We know we are called to love our enemies, but we care more about our reputation. So when somebody takes a jab at us, we throw a verbal haymaker back at them. We know we need to put our phone down, but we keep scrolling. And we know ultimately these things hurt us, but we choose temporary satisfaction over long-term reward. St. Augustine said, A taste of honey attracts only flies. So does a taste of pleasure for the senses draw men away from God. The problem with sin has been helpfully explained. Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost more than you want to pay. The sinful cycles we go through are like cycles of addiction. And there's something that pleases our eye and we want it. Maybe it's something small like a food or something pops up on your phone that you know you shouldn't linger on. Or maybe somebody cuts you off on the freeway and that desire to act out arises. So we see it, we have desire, and if the cycle continues, we choose to act out and listen to our desire. And that leads to us regretting that decision, hopefully, and recognizing we messed up and we feel guilty. Maybe we sinned. And like the fool described in Proverbs 26, we continue going back to our own vomit. The cycle continues over and over. But how do we break this cycle? We can't do it on our own. It takes wisdom. And the main argument I want you to take away from today is that wisdom actually frees us from foolishness. Wisdom frees us from foolishness. But what is wisdom? Is it just having more knowledge or intelligence? Is it just following rules and principles? No. And Proverbs 26 makes it clear that just gaining wisdom or wise sayings isn't going to make somebody wise. Wisdom is much more than that. Wisdom is a person. Wisdom is Jesus. And only Jesus can free us from our own foolishness because he is the wisdom of God. He is the one who created all things, who knows all things, and holds all things together. He is the one who teaches us, who guides us, and actually transforms us. He is the one we need. He is the one we worship. He is wisdom. He is Jesus. So to say wisdom frees us from our own foolishness is to say Jesus frees us from our own foolishness. Jesus wants you to break free from the chains that hold you in these sinful cycles. Jesus is the master key unlocking the prison doors of addiction, anger, or any other cycle that traps you, setting you free to walk in newness of life. Jesus is the skilled surgeon healing the shattered pieces of your heart, freeing you from the emotional chains of bitterness and hurt. Jesus is the anchor that holds you steady amidst the stormy seas of trials and temptations. preventing you from being tossed back into the sinful cycles that keep hurting you. In Proverbs 26, one through 12, Solomon is giving his son a picture of the consequences of foolishness and directs him to the way of wisdom. These principles help us avoid the same pitfalls and cultivate lives that reflect Jesus, who is wisdom himself. So there are three cries of wisdom in this passage. The first cry is recognize foolishness. The second cry is embrace wisdom. And the third cry is experience wisdom. So we will start with the first, which is recognize foolishness. So to recognize foolishness, we have to know what foolishness is. And we see in verses four and five that fools ignore wisdom, and they need correction. And when we read verses four and five, it may come across as an apparent contradiction. So we'll read, starting in verse four. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Verse five, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. So which is it? Do we answer the fool? Or do we not answer the fool? Well, the difference is the verse four fool is arrogant. They want to trap you in their own folly, like somebody picking a fight. If you join the fight, you just become like them yourself. They won't learn from your response. They will ignore it and draw you into their own foolishness. The difference of the verse five fool is Fool in verse five is wise in their own eyes and they must be corrected or else they will continue to think so. They are ignorant fools. This is like a child who has a word spelled incorrectly. They would read it and even write it wrong. They may even correct other children even though they themselves are wrong. And they must be corrected or else they will continue to think they are wise. Or think of a person who believes in a false doctrine or a harmful practice and tries to persuade others to follow them. They need to be confronted with the truth or they will continue to think they are wise and lead others astray. Continuing to see how we recognize foolishness in verses nine and 10, we see fools delight in wrongdoing and reckless behavior. Like the adrenaline junkie who weaves in and out of traffic on the highway doing 120, not considering the weight of consequences of one simple mistake by themselves or someone else. And then from verse 12, we recognize they lack fear of the Lord. They see themselves as wise. Like a CEO surrounded by yes men, they will never see the errors in their ways until it's too late. But instead of just recognizing what foolishness is in others, we should be asking ourselves if we exhibit these foolish behaviors. So you and I may not consciously reject God's wisdom and say, no, I would not want to follow that. But what are we demonstrating we believe in the way we live? When we hurt others with our words, What does this demonstrate we believe about God? We lash out because we feel we've been wronged. We get revenge because we believe we deserve justice. We fail to trust that God is going to get justice for us, so we take it into our own hands. We would never claim to believe that we can get justice without God, but that is what we show ourselves to believe when we punish others with our words. When we continue sinning, it reveals the foolishness of our own hearts. Jesus himself said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The root of the issue always goes back to the heart and what we believe and whatever we struggle with. Like a tree that bears bad fruit because its roots are not healthy, our lives will produce bad behaviors if our hearts are not delighting in the Lord and his ways. Foolishness may provide short-term satisfaction, but will ultimately lead us away from God, create chaos, and lead us to harming ourselves and those around us. Like a domino, one foolish decision leading to another, creating a cascade of chaos, and eventually engulfs not just the fool, but those around them. Proverbs 26.10, He sends arrows like a fool shooting at random in a crowd of people. Not every arrow will hit, but every act of foolishness is like a flying arrow sent with disregard for the people around us. Ultimately, the result of our foolishness and sin is death. Romans 6.23 states it plainly, that the wages of sin is death. We may not have murdered or stolen, but all it takes to face the consequence of sin is one sin. And if we really examine ourselves, we realize there have been times when we choose what we want over what we know is right. And Isaiah 53, six attests to this saying, we all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. We break this cycle of sin by embracing Jesus with our guilt. After we realize we have gone astray and we accept the reality that we have offended a holy God, we must run to the cross. And that verse ends with this, but the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all. When we go to wisdom himself, the one who bore our guilt on the cross, he removes our guilt and transgressions and frees us from our own foolishness. And this leads us to the second cry of wisdom, which is embrace wisdom. Embrace wisdom. Proverbs 26 makes it clear what foolishness is. So now we must understand what the biblical authors mean by wisdom. Proverbs 9, 10 explained to us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So wisdom is seeking advice and following God's ways instead of our own, laying down our own pride and confessing Jesus is Lord and worth following. Proverbs 3, 5 through 7 told us to trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes, but instead fear the Lord and shun evil. These are direct contrasts to the picture of the fool painted in Proverbs 26, who trusts in his own way and delights in wrongdoing. The only way we know wisdom is because of God. Wisdom is a gift from God, and knowledge alone can't make a fool wise. And Proverbs 26.7 shows us this, that a mouth, a proverb in the mouth of a fool is actually useless. Read it with me, Proverbs 26.7. Like a lame man's legs, which hang useless, as a proverb in the mouth of a fool. And then Proverbs 26, nine compares a proverb in the mouth of a fool to a thorn in the hand of a drunkard. Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools. And one commentary helpfully pointed out that this is not just to be understood as a proverb being useless, like in verse seven, but actually dangerous. At the time this was written, Only the wealthiest could afford enough alcohol to be consistently drunk. And the word that we translate here as thorn is better understood as a thorny weapon. It's describing someone with knowledge but no discretion, power but no responsibility, like a loaded gun in the hand of a toddler or an army under a corrupt leader's control. More knowledge in Proverbs are useless and actually dangerous in the hands of fools. What makes a fool wise? Proverbs 8 showed us a picture of wisdom, embodied. Wisdom calls out for everyone to embrace her. Hear her call from Proverbs 8. And now, oh sons, listen to me. Blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise. Do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors, forever finds me, finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who fails to find me injures himself. All who hate me love death. If the root of our sin is in our hearts and who we are at the core. Wisdom cannot be a simple behavior change or more knowledge. It has to be a complete transformation of the heart. We need more than just knowledge. We need a savior. Wisdom is more than just words. It's active. It is Christ. To get wisdom, we must know him, embrace him, and walk with him. And Paul makes this clear in his first letter to the Corinthians. Read along on the screen, 1 Corinthians 1. Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul is explaining how what the world sees as wisdom is actually foolishness and what the world sees as foolishness is actually wisdom. Christ was foolish to the world. We see this in that they put him on a cross and crucified him. But he is the power of God and the wisdom of God. In order to become wise, we must embrace Christ himself. This leads us to our third cry. Once we embrace wisdom, we need to then experience wisdom. So wisdom transforms hearts and lives. It changes everything about us because it transforms who we are at the core. This is what God's redemptive mission was in sending his son. In Ezekiel 36, we see what God's plan was for his people centuries before Christ came. Ezekiel 36, 26 through 27 says, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. This heart transplant from a hard, unchanging heart to a changeable heart, that is the foundation for wise living. Yes, we all want to do good things be good people, but all the good things we do must come as a result of us receiving a new heart. This was made possible by the work of the father sending his son to die on a cross for our sins, offering freedom to be made right with God and sending the spirit to live in those who would believe. This heart transplant through Christ is how we break our cycles of foolishness and sin. We fix our eyes on Jesus. The only way we can see real continual change is through Jesus, the wisdom of God. So what do we do to overcome temptation and continue to allow God to change our hearts? There are two groups of people in this room. There are those who have said, I believe they have a relationship with God, and there are those who haven't yet done so. So for those who are here and wouldn't say yet, I have a relationship with Christ, how do you overcome temptation and turn from your cycles of foolishness? Well, you need to turn, do exactly that, turn or repent from your foolishness and trust in Christ. You need to cry out to him for mercy and believe that Jesus died for your sins. And when you do this genuinely, genuinely, God will put his Holy Spirit in you and you will be born again at the moment you believe. Born again, you're completely transformed, you become a new person. And Titus 3 attests to this reality. It reads, for we ourselves talking about those who have now believed, were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. That is what we're called to, every one of us. Many of you have done this. Many of you have turned, acknowledged your own foolishness and turned to Jesus. Yet the reality is we, still like Paul says in Romans 7, do the things we don't want to do. Why is that? Why do we do that? And how do we continue to allow God to change us? And I say this because I struggle with this myself. When I was reading Proverbs 26, I was struck with the foolishness of the fool being described here. and questioning why am I so foolish still? Why do I still struggle with these things? This is a reality for every believer and it's something we'll continue to struggle with in this life. But there are things we can do to place ourselves in the path of wisdom. So let me give you some practical guidance on how we can continue on this path towards transformation. David Mathis has a helpful book called Habits of Grace. And that would give you even more ways to do this if you're interested. But he understands there are things we can do that God uses to change our hearts. He calls them Habits of Grace. They call them Habits of Grace because they're things that we do that allow God to change our hearts. So it's God ultimately doing the work of transformation in us but we are simply placing in the path for Him to do so, placing ourselves in the path for Him to change us. And I will mention three of them now. The first I will mention is read the Word, the Bible, Scripture. And the reason we do this is because it's more than just words on a page. It's different than any other book published in all of history because it's the inspired words of God the creator, Hebrews 4.12 says, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the vision of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So church, I would encourage you, find a reading plan that you know every day when you wake up, here's what I'm going to read in the word. The beginning of the year is a great time to start this. If you don't already have a habit of doing so, there are many reading plans you can find. But make it a habit. Every day you wake up, fix your eyes on God's word. It transforms us. It changes how we see the world. It changes what we believe about the world. The second thing, placing ourselves in God's path of wisdom. is to pray, commune with God, meet with Him, spend that intentional time with Him. There are a couple of things I want to think about praying about. The first is praying for transformation. There's a prayer, we think of it as a prayer in Psalm 8611. It says, teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart, unite my heart to fear your name. This is a cry for God to work. He's recognizing it's not me who can change myself. God, you have to unite my heart to revere your name. And then prayers of confession or repentance, recognizing we do struggle with foolishness and guilt. So James 5.16 says, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. And another prayer of repentance. 1 John 1.9 says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Don't you see that it's once we ask for forgiveness and confess our sins, then we are cleansed from our unrighteousness. It's the Lord's work in us. The last thing to place ourselves in these habits of grace is to be in fellowship with Christ-like believers. Be in fellowship with your church, real fellowship, not just being around each other, but challenging one another, holding each other accountable. Hebrews 3.13 calls us to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Church, we need to be praying for our friends in our church family as they come to our minds, as they tell us about struggles they're going through. Satan would love for all of us to be trapped in cycles of foolishness, not telling anyone what we're going through. Part of this, I would encourage you all, become a member of a healthy church. And I'm not just talking to people here that are already members, but if you're visiting from out of town, you don't live nearby, find a healthy church and become a member. Give yourself to a healthy church. And if you don't know what a healthy church looks like, read Mark Dever's book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. In the last, thing for being in fellowship with Christ-like believers that I could encourage you to do right now practically is get plugged into a life group. They start back up this Wednesday and I just wanna encourage you, there are times Wednesday and Friday that you can meet with a group in our church. I just wanna encourage you, make this a priority on your schedule. Life group is where the Bible meets real life and we walk alongside each other and whatever we're going through on a weekly basis. So church, as we leave here, I want to challenge you to commit to pursuing wisdom and breaking free from the cycle of foolishness. Through wisdom, who is Jesus, we can be free from foolishness. Christ is the only way we can break the continual cycles of our own sin and become free. So I ask, what cycle is taking you off of God's path? And I challenge you to share your struggle with someone right here before you go. We need accountability to stay faithful. We need to confess our sins to receive God's forgiveness and grace. Don't leave without seeking help and guidance from someone you trust. I can't tell you how many times I've sat in the audience and listened to either Pastor Joel or another pastor, and I've been convicted of sin, and I know I need to repent and confess and ask a brother or sister for help. And then I leave, and I get back into my normal routine, distractions, and I get back into my cycle of sin, and I forget. I forget the conviction I felt. And I think the reality is, I think the Bible would attest to this, we can quench the spirit. The spirit may be calling you, and I promise if you feel the need to confess sin or ask for help, it's not Satan that's trying to get you to do that. Only God would want you to do that. So I would encourage you, before you leave today, talk to a pastor, talk to an elder, or one of their wives because I know they would love to talk to you and walk through that with you. We're here for each other. We're here as a family to help each other. Jesus cares for you and wants a relationship with you today. He wants you to turn from your sins and experience his joy and peace. He wants you to follow him and discover his true purpose and plan for your life. Let's close in prayer. Almighty God, we stand before you humbled and