So yeah, little kids will be dismissed for the nursery time. That'd be great Wonderful. All right. Well, we had a good time at camp with the Lions and the Bears I got to play on both teams at times. So that was fun for me. So I'm a winner and a loser and that awesome So but anyways, we had a good time and we're gonna get in the Bible here shortly. I heard a story some time ago about The Lone Ranger and Tonto. You know who Lone Ranger and Tonto is? Well, you might not. Some do, some don't, okay? So, it was a TV show, Western show, back years ago, black and white, most of it. And so, as the story goes, the Lone Ranger and Tonto went camping out in the wilderness. And as they were out camping, they had set up their tents for the night and soon fell asleep. Well, in the middle of the night, Tonto wakes the Lone Ranger and says, Look towards sky, what you see. Lone Ranger says, well, I see millions of stars, Tonto. Tonto says, Kimo Sabe, what that tell you? Lone Ranger thought for a minute and he said, well, astronomically speaking, it tells me that the universe is huge and there's billions of galaxies out there. He says, astrologically speaking, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. He says, time-wise, it appears to be three o'clock in the morning, and he said, meteorologically, it looks like it's gonna be a beautiful day, and theologically, it tells me that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. The lone ranger says, what does it tell you, Tonto? Tonto says, kimosabi, you dumber than buffalo. It means someone stole tent. You know, sometimes we can be just like that. We can wax eloquent on all the problems around us or things that we see. But oftentimes the problems that plague us the most are the ones that we are blind to, isn't it? Let's take our Bibles tonight and turn to the book of Proverbs, chapter 26, if you will. Proverbs 26, and we're going to read verse 11. If we could all stand out of respect of reading God's Word, I'd love to stand when we begin a service and read the Bible. So let's do that. Just going to be one verse. We'll have a word of prayer, and then we'll be seated. Here the Bible says, as a dog returneth to his vomit. So a fool returneth to his folly." Let's have a word of prayer together. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the Bible. Lord, the Bible is the only assured book there is in this world to know what is absolutely true and to discern from that which is false. And Lord, we pray that you would give us the wisdom of this proverb, that we would learn and not make the mistakes that so many in this world make on a daily basis. We'll thank you in Jesus name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Purpose of this message tonight is twofold. One of that is we've made some of the kids made a lot of decision this week and this is gonna be encouragement to stay true to those decisions. And it's also gonna be an admonition for us in our walk with the Lord. How many here today have a dog at home? Raise your hand. Woo. Lots of dogs around here. Can you please let me know what dog it is? Raise your hand. I'll choose you and see what kind of dog you have. What kind of dog do you have? A Border Collie German Shepherd. All right. There's a dog. Yes, sir. A dumb dog. Does it have a variety or breed? Lab and chow, okay. Sounds like something you eat, right? All right. You have a pug. That's not a dog. A pug. What do you got? You're a dog, you're no better. You're a sister, right? All right. So what do you got? Australian shepherd. All right. What do you got? A Yorkie. Is that from New York? A Yorkie? That's not a dog. What? Two boxers. I guess one pair of underwears isn't enough, right? All right. All right. What do you got? No, no. I said you. Okay. Well, did you know, you know, those, would you say you had a Yorkie or a pug? Yeah, well, did you know that a Yorkie could kill a German Shepherd? Do you know that? Yeah, it could get stuck inside the German Shepherd's throat and it could choke him. He could die, couldn't he? Yeah, do you know in America we all love our dogs, don't we? Yeah, we do. But did you know in Bible times they did not love their dogs? In fact, dogs in the Old Testament were scavenger animals. They would travel around often in packs and they would attack other animals. And if they were hungry enough, they would attack people as well. They did not like dogs. They didn't keep them as pets like you and I did. And in fact, The Jews especially didn't like dogs, and they would refer to Gentiles as dogs. And that wasn't a kind term. And so we see this comparison, and you have seen this, haven't you? You've seen the dog get sick, and you've seen it go eat some grass, and then you see it vomits. And that's disgusting, but what it does later is when it goes back to its vomit. And eats it. Disgusting. You say, Brother Shane, that is terrible. Well, I want you to listen carefully. God puts it in the Bible for a reason. It's his illustration, not mine. So let's learn what the Bible has to say. All right, first we're going to see the fool's folly. And that would be his number one, his character under the fool's folly. So we're going to look through Proverbs. We're going to say mainly in Proverbs. We're going to look at a couple of verses. So turn over with me to Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 7. Proverbs 1 and verse 7, and the Bible says here, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Did you see that? A fool despise wisdom and instruction. Now also Proverbs 15, 5. Proverbs 15.5 says, a fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. Now, what we find the first character of the fool I'd like to see is that he does not listen. Now, that's the nature of him. Consistently, when someone gives him instructions, he doesn't want to listen to that person. This is the character of the fool. Now we're going to build the characters, not just this. There's other things as well. So first, he doesn't listen. Now go to number, the second one, and that's found in Proverbs 27, verse 22. Here the Bible says, Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." You know what we find here? This is illustrated by, let's say we take, for example, mustard seeds and we were to grind them up. in a bowl. Pesto will be the thing that you grind it with. And he says, even though you do this to a fool, his foolishness won't depart from him. Do you know what that means? He refuses to change. So here's the second characteristic. The first one, he does not listen. And number two, he refuses to change. Heard a story about a little boy who would tell tall tales, so much so that they were really lies. And his mom would discipline him, discipline him, everything she could think of, and the boy just kept telling these stories. And she said, I just don't know what to do with my son. So she did the smart thing and she went to the pastor. She said, pastor, my son, he's lying. He's exaggerating. I don't know how to get him to stop telling these stories. And so the pastor thought for a moment, he thought, well, I know what I'll do. I will make up an unbelievable story that nobody could believe. And that way he will see how foolish it is for good people to lie. So he made up a story. It went like this. He said, now, son, years ago, I pastored an old country church way out in the woods. And we didn't have air conditioning or anything. We would leave the back door of the church open. And he said, one day, a big old grizzly bear stooped over and walked in the doorway and came right down the middle aisle of the church. He says, and then it started eating people like hamburgers. One after another, little boy's eyes got big. And he said, do you know what happened next? He said, what? He says, then a little old black and white dog ran in from the back of the church also. And it jumped on top of that big old grizzly bear. And he started wrestling in the front of the church. And he said, hair was flying everywhere. And he says, you know what happened next? The little boy said, what? He says, that little old black and white dog killed that big old grizzly bear. He said, now son, can you believe that story? Little boy said, oh yeah, because that was my dog. He didn't get it, did he? He refused to change. No matter how ridiculous you could make his foolishness seem, he just refused to change. What other characteristic of the fool do we find in Proverbs? This one's actually found in Ecclesiastes, written by the same author. Of course, all scripture is given under inspiration of God, but Solomon also writes, Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse nine, be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosoms of who? Fools. The third picture, if you will, of the fool is, first, he doesn't listen. Next, he refuses to change. Third, he is quick to get angry. The Bible says, anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Let's go to the next characteristic, Proverbs 18 in verse 6. Here it says, A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes. This tells me that the fool is argumentative. Did you see that? His lips enter into contention, meaning he's argumentative. So if you give him advice or you give him instruction, he does not listen. He refuses to change. He's quick to get angry with you, and he instead argues with you. But we're not done. One more characteristic that's found in Proverbs 12 and verse 15. Here it says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. You know what we find here? Here's the last characteristics we're gonna cover, and that is he's right in his own eyes. Boy, how would you like to be around somebody who when you talk to them, they refuse to listen to you? They refuse to change. They get angry with you, they argue with you, and they are right in their own eyes. Does that sound like somebody you wanna hang out with? I don't think so. And so the question comes to me, and I thought to myself, well, if the fool could act this way, where does the foolishness come from? You think that's a good question? I wanna know, how does someone get to be like this? And thankfully, the Bible always gives us the answer. So let's look at Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22 in verse 15 tells us exactly where this foolishness comes from. Here the Bible says, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Did you see that? You know what that tells me? That we are born with foolishness. That means every one of us that come into this world, come into this world with a nature that does not want to listen, with a nature that refuses to change, with a nature that's gonna be quick to get angry, a nature that is gonna be right in their own eyes. Does that make sense? And so the jobs of parents is to drive the foolishness out of them. You know, the Bible also says in Proverbs 19 and verse 18, Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Proverbs 23, 13 through 14, Withhold not correction from the child. For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. That's what the Bible says. Bible says in Proverbs 19, 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Listen, discipline is so, so important. I'm gonna tell you, I'm so thankful I had parents that believed in discipline. And a big reason for that was because I came into the scene. You see, I had an older brother, and he was pretty compliant. He didn't cause much trouble. But then I showed up, and they had a strong-willed child that was very competitive on their hands, and they didn't know what to do with me. So they started taking parenting classes at church. And he said, we got to figure out what to do with this boy. And so they told him and explained to him how important discipline was. And so I got spanked. You can ask my parents more than all three of my brothers combined. My family was very patriotic. My dad would apply the stripes and I would see the stars. But because of that, I'm standing here today. But a child left to himself will bring his parents to shame. It's so important to have discipline. It's so important to discipline the foolishness out of us because we are born that way. And we're born that way, listen, because we're all sinners. And sin separates us from God. God is holy. He cannot allow any sin into heaven. And sin is rebellion against God. And since God is always just, He must punish sin. And if someone could go without punishment, God would no longer be just. God would never no longer be God. And so, man who rebels against God, born in this world, is condemned to an eternity in hell. But God loves you. and he sent Jesus to take your place on the cross, the just for the unjust. There's a story about fellows who are out prairie dog hunting. We got prairie dogs around here, pastor? Whoo! Sometime when I'm back, someone, please take me prairie dog hunting. You don't need a license for that, right? Amen, amen. Yeah, I could go. I would love to do that. I think it'd just be fun. All right, but I heard about some people that, prairie dog, we do coyote hunting out in our area. You can do them anytime because they're a nuisance. They eat all the deer, even though we got more deer, it seems like, than anywhere. At least the cars always seem to find them. All right, so anyways, they were out prairie dog hunting, and now since they were out prairie dog hunting, there was a brush fire. It must have been out west here somewhere. because the brush caught on fire and it was so dry that the fire just caught and was moving very rapidly with the wind and everything. And so the three fellows took off running and they were running, but one of them stepped in, maybe it was a prairie dog hole, I don't know as the story goes, but he broke his ankle and he fell. And the other two guys were continuing running. They realized he wasn't running anymore. They looked back and they saw he had fallen. So they went back to help him. And when they went back to help him, they realized they weren't going to make it. That fire was coming too fast. So one of the fellows got an idea, he pulled out a set of matches and he lit a fire right where he was and let it burn and let it burn around them and then he quick stomped it out and put it out so that when the fire came, it wouldn't burn them because where the fire has come, the fire cannot come again. And that's what God did for us. Jesus died on the cross to take your sin, take the judgment of God for you. And if the judgment of God came on the Lord Jesus for you, God's judgment will never fall on you. But listen, you must become a child of God. And that is to believe that Jesus died for your sin, was buried and rose again. If you call on his name, you can become his child. And the fire cannot come where the fire has already been. All right, so we see this is where the foolishness comes from. But next, I'd like to note his stupidity, if you will. We find his character displayed for us, but his stupidity. Why do I say his stupidity? You say, that's not a nice word. Well, I'm going to tell you, if there's anybody that just seems to be absolutely out of his mind, it's got to be the fool. You know, the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 29 verse 11, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. You know, we were made in the image of God, and God loves us so much that He gives us the instructions to know how to live life. He's given us all the instruction books. Is anybody here a pastor? How old do you have to be to start driving in this state? Fourteen and a half? Okay, does anybody have their permit right now in the room? All right, Gunner, he's got his permit. All right, let's say I come to Gunner and I say, hey, Gunner, I've been reading the internet. And I know you know everything's true on the internet. And I read on the internet that you can put water in your car and run it that way. And I'm going to save the world. There's going to be no more global warming. And it's going to be cheaper. And it's going to be safe for the environment. And that's what I'm going to do, because I hear people saying, you can put water in your car to run your vehicle. What are you going to say to me, Gunner? You're a fool. You're going to say, you can't do that. Be like, you have to put gasoline in that tank. That's the only way it goes. And I'm not going to listen to him. In fact, I refuse to change. No, I'm putting water in. That's what's going to happen. I get angry with him because he's insistent. You got to put gasoline in. And then I become argumentative. I start arguing with him. I said, listen, I read it on the Internet. Here's the page. Here's the thing you can go to. And we start going back and forth. And ultimately, I just refuse to change. I said, I don't care what he says. I'm going to do what I want to do. What's going to happen when I put water in my gasoline tank? Ain't gonna run no more, right? And you say, that would be stupid. You know what? I would agree with you. That is stupid. But you know, it's just as stupid for us to think that we can live life differently from what God instructs us to live life. Doesn't that make sense? So the fool we see, he's so stupid, if you will, or foolish, in that God tells us exactly how to live life. All right, so let's now go to the fool's return to his folly. So back to our text, that's Proverbs 26 and verse 11. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so the fool returneth to his folly. We've seen what he's like, we've seen how foolish he really is, what his character is like, and now we're gonna see his return to his folly. Boy, what a picture. Vomiting. I remember I was in the third grade class. He's getting ahead of me, isn't he? I was in the third grade class, and there was a kid. I'll say his name is Joe. It surely wasn't Joe, but I'm just using that name to protect the guilty, all right? And so that day for lunch, he got chocolate milk. and chocolate pudding and chocolate ice cream Snickers bar. That's what he had for lunch that day. Nothing else. He got it all from the cafeteria. I still remember like yesterday. I remember coming up with the tray, and he had all the stuff, and we were sitting at the desk, and he ate all of that, and his tummy wasn't feeling very good. Well, I'm going to tell you a little while later All of that came back out on a gold carpet right next to me. And it was all those little chunks of peanuts were still in it. And you could smell it. Did you ever smell somebody that threw up? Oh, doesn't that make you feel like you got to throw up? You say, brother Shane, that's disgusting. I just ate pizza. Why are you telling me this? Because God says it. And you say that's disgusting, but you know what's even more disgusting? If you were to go back and eat it again. Now, I want you to understand the Jews would have seen this a lot because these were scavenger dogs and they were not eating pedigree dog food. They were eating dead carcasses that were sitting and rotting. And so they would have seen dogs vomiting quite often. And they also would have seen quite often dogs eating their own vomit again. And you see, Brother Shane, that's so nasty. Why does God give us that picture? Because, listen carefully, that picture portrays how the Lord views a fool going back to his folly again. Do people ever return to things that they shouldn't be doing? Yeah. Oh, you know, there are so many things like people that get hooked on alcohol, and they drink, and they drink, and they drink, and they say, oh, I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm going to stop it. And then they go back again. Perhaps that can happen with drugs. They have the drugs, and the drugs, and they go. Then they go back again, right? Can that happen? It can happen. Part of that reason, especially with those things, is because the way God made our bodies. You see, when you use a foreign substance like that, like alcohol and drugs especially, it introduces a chemical into your body which produces an excessive amount of what is called dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical that your brain produces and releases into the limbic system of the brain, that's the top of the head. And when that happens, it's such a surge of what your body can naturally produce. And it creates this great high or this sensation that your body likes it and it wants to feel it again. And it's for that reason the next time someone drinks or the next time someone partakes of a drug, they never quite feels just like the first time. And so they have to take more of it in order to get the same feeling again. And then it happens, your brain adjusts, and then they have to do it more and more and more. And some people even can OD because they just want to get that feeling again. And then your brain has the capacity to remember things. So even if you put it off for a long time, if you go back to it, the people who go back to it usually go back just as strong or stronger than they were before. Because your brain always remembers what that feeling was like. So it's important that someone stay away from something like that, wouldn't you say? Yeah, it is. And you say, oh yes, maybe that's what the Bible's talking about. A fool returning to his folly is like someone who is drunk going back to drinking again. But listen, I want us to look, that's not necessarily what it's saying. We can use that certainly as a good application, but rather, the fool returning to his folly is a fool going back to its nature again. What does that mean? Well, the pastor gets up and he preaches on drinking, or he gets up and he preaches on substance abuse, or he gets up and he preaches against bad music. Would you agree with me there's good music and there's bad music? I'm guessing Highway to Hell is probably not a good song for people to listen to. Would you agree with me? Everybody say, amen. All right? Maybe A.C., D.C., we should just stick with A.C., air conditioning, and leave all the rest of it alone, right? Maybe there's some bands that they don't produce good Christian things, and so we say, hey, you know, Christians really shouldn't be part of that music because it doesn't glorify God. And sometimes, Pastor, when a preacher gets up and he preaches at it, you know what some people do? They don't want to listen to that. They don't want to change, that's for sure. Oh, don't mess with what I'm doing. They become angry with the pastor or the preacher. And they're right in their own eyes. They're argumentative. Boy, what does that sound familiar like? Isn't that the nature of the fool? You see, that's the fool going back to its folly again when you act that way. And so, You know, if someone gets up and he says, listen, you shouldn't be watching bad movies on the TV. You shouldn't be watching bad things on the television. You shouldn't be voluntarily listening to people take God's name in vain all the time, right? Yeah. And you say, well, I don't know about that. Listen, if it's black and white in the Bible, we are a fool and we're returning to our folly again if we don't listen, if we become angry and we refuse to change. All right. How does this go also by way of application? Now, I remember talking about music. You know, it's so interesting. You know, even a five-year-old can learn some discernment about music. You know how I know? Because I was five once. I grew up in a house. My parents taught us, you know, there's good music and there's bad music or whatever. I didn't really know too much, but all I knew was mom played music in the house all the time. And then we had a television. Please don't. Is that okay? No, I'm teasing. Yeah, we had a television, and when the commercial would come on, mom would say, turn that down, that's bad music. So we go up, and sorry, we didn't have the clicker. We had to turn it down like this. And so Mom would say, that's bad music. So I'd go up there and we'd turn it down. And pretty soon, when a commercial came on, if it had that kind of music, Mom didn't even have to say anything. We'd just get up and we'd go over because, you know, kids were the channel changers back in those days. And they were the volume control in those days. And so we'd go up and we'd turn it down. And, you know, I just, that's all I knew is what Mom told us to do. And then we would go over to, I remember going to our neighbor's house because she was a hairstylist and she was going to cut, my hair, and she had rock music playing. And I said real loud, Mommy, that's bad music. My mom was a little embarrassed. But you know, as a five-year-old, or six, or whatever I was, I was able to tell there was a difference. I'm not telling you I understood everything about music. I just knew by the sound it was different, right? You know, shouldn't we, as Christians, If we're older, have discernment to know there should be a difference between the sound the world plays and the sound a Christian plays? I think so. But you know what happens sometimes when someone gets up and says something like that? They say, I don't know about that. They say, I don't think I'm going to change. And they want to argue with you. They're right in their own eyes. No matter what you do, they just continue to do their own thing. You know what the Lord says? In his eyes, that's like a fool. That's like the dog going back to its vomit again. Let me ask you kids. You made some decisions this week, didn't we? Hey, we want to stick by those decisions and do right, don't we? You don't want to go back and make the same mistakes again, do we? No, we want to go on for the Lord, don't we? Absolutely we do. And listen, how about when God tells us in the Bible, children, obey your parents in the Lord. Does God say that in his Bible? Yeah. Let me ask you, how do you respond to when your parents tell you to do something? Do you refuse to listen? Do you refuse to change? I mean, literally, I know some teenage girls that refuse to change. Do you argue with them? Do you become angry with your parents? And are you right in your own eyes? Like the little girl whose daddy said to her, Susie, sit down. And she didn't wanna sit down. And daddy came closer and he said, I said, sit down. And she was still standing. She says, Susie, if you don't sit down, you're gonna get a spanking. And so she sat down and she said, Daddy, I just want you to know, I'm sitting down, but I'm standing up in my heart. Well, sometimes kids can be honest, can't they? Let me ask you, how is your heart towards your parents? Let me ask you adults, how is your heart towards God when the word of God tells us to do what God tells us to do? Let me ask you, how do you respond when the pastor gets up and he preaches the word of God and he helps explain it to you to how to live life to please God? How do you receive it? Will you be the fool today or will you be the person who learns from the lesson of the fool? Let's have a word of prayer together. Every head bowed and eyes closed, no one looking around.