| April Fools |
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April 1, 2007
Fools like the folks who work at this TV station. Is it just me, or should they have asked a different anchor to do this particular story? Or how about the fool that was driving this car? Check this out. Watch the old lady and the guy driving the car very closely. Only a fool messes with little old ladies, right? Fools and foolishness are everywhere. And it might be ok on April Fools Day, but I think that most of us in our lives really don’t want to play the fool. Jesus tells a story in Matthew 7 about a wise man and a fool. And if, for some reason, you just really want to be a fool, Jesus tells you how. In fact, he tells us how to become a fool in just three easy steps. Jesus’ story begins in Matthew 7:24. “…everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27, NIV) The wise man built his house on the rock. The fool built his house on the sand. It’s a simple picture, but one that really holds some significant truths for our lives. If your desire is to be a fool, then Jesus gives you the formula in this story. How to become a fool in three easy steps. Step 1 – Disconnect. To live like a fool, you’ve got to have the ability to disconnect in your life. Jesus’ story delineates the difference between someone who is wise and someone who is foolish. The comparison and contrast in this story is so vivid and so clear that we can easily teach it to our children. But don’t let its simplicity deceive you. The dichotomy between the wise man and the fool in this story will determine the course of our life and our relationship with God. The main difference between the two is that one connected, and one disconnected. Listen to Jesus’ comparison of the two builders. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” (Matthew 7:24, 26, NIV) Jesus told this story of the builders as the conclusion to his famous sermon on the mount. He had covered a myriad of topics in this message. He talked about marriage, revenge, giving, prayer, money, worry, being judgmental. And finally, at the end he closes with the story of the wise and foolish builders. And the point is that it’s all about connection. He had just preached this amazing sermon, and he wraps up by telling his listeners, “It’s all about connection. It’s all about what you do with what you’ve just heard.” The wise person is going to take what they had just heard in Jesus’ sermon, walk away and put it into practice. Someone who is wise is going to work at applying his message in their life. They will connect God’s message to their day-to-day life. The fool is going to walk away, leaving the message behind. The application isn’t going to happen. They will disconnect God’s message from their day-to-day life. But did you catch the similarity between the two? Both of them had just listened to Jesus’ sermon. They both had come to church. A lot of us in the church will talk about our “faithful” members. And what we mean by faithful is that they’re always here. They don’t miss. They’re always at church. That is sometimes our definition of faithful. In modern day church arithmetic, Attendance = Faithfulness. But God’s math is different. In his equation, attendance does NOT equal faithfulness. Both the wise man and the fool were in attendance. They were both at church, they both listened to the sermon. But before they stood up to sing the last song, Jesus reminded them that he’s looking for something more than an attendee. He tells them that the wise person will go home and connect the message to how they think, what they say, and what they do. The fool will completely disconnect the message from the reality of life. Last weekend, Jason Miller talked about compartmentalizing our lives. That’s really the crux of what Jesus is saying. The foolish person has divided their life into compartments. Church is definitely one of those compartments, but their life has all these other compartments, too. Work, school, family, clubs, sports, vacations, etc. They all have their different boxes, their different compartments. And the fool will work hard to keep everything tucked separately into its own compartment. But the wise person doesn’t divide their life this way. God isn’t relegated to a single compartment in their life. God is their life, therefore God’s message impacts their life as a whole. Attendance does not equal faithfulness. Coming to church doesn’t make you a faithful Christ-follower anymore than walking into McDonald’s makes you a Big Mac. It’s all about the choice to connect what happens during this hour to the rest of your life. So how is your connection? How well are you connecting what you hear, learn, and experience at church to the rest of your life? For example, we just completed a six week series of messages on serving. If you were here for that series, then the question is simple: are you serving? Have you committed to serve somewhere in your church? Are you acting as a servant in your family, at work or school, wherever you are? If my answer is “no,” then I’ve effectively disconnected God’s message from the reality of my life. And that makes me a fool. If that offends you, your issue isn’t with me. Your issue is with Jesus. He said it, not me. The New Testament book of James says, “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (James 1:22, NLT) When it comes to God’s Word, his desire for us is to hear it, then heed it. Learn it, then live it. Disconnecting is the mode of operation for a fool. Which leads us to the second easy step in becoming a fool. Step 2 – Discount. The foolish builder in Jesus’ story discounted the power of the weather. Jesus lived and ministered in Palestine, which was the setting for this story. Much of the Palestinian terrain was sand. Sandy land was easy to come by. It was cheap because it was so plentiful. And building on this land was much easier. It’s a lot easier to sink a house into sand instead of digging into rock. So the foolish builder gobbled up this land. After all, he could build a house quickly and easily for minimal cost. But he discounted the power of the weather. During the Palestinian rainy season, violent storms and flash floods are common. But the foolish builder overlooked that. He was so set on getting this project done quickly, doing it on the cheap, taking the easiest route, that he discounted the power of a Palestinian storm. And because of that, his house came crashing down around him. Jesus’ story of the builders is also recorded in the book of Luke. But Luke gives us a more complete description of how the wise man built his house. Luke says that the wise man “dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock.” (Luke 6:48, NIV) This helps us to even more clearly differentiate between the two builders. The foolish builder took the easy road, planting the foundation of his house in shallow sand. The wise builder dug down into rock for the foundation of his house. Which house went up more quickly? The fool’s house. Which was easier to build? The fool’s house. Which was cheaper? The fool’s house. Which one withstood the storm? Not the fool’s house. We are conditioned by our culture to go after things in the quickest, easiest way possible. If I have to wait more than a minute at the Wendy’s drive-thru, I’m annoyed. If I can’t walk in to Kroger and find what I want immediately, I’m irritated. If a website takes more than a few seconds to load, I’ll surf somewhere else. If Wal-Mart takes too long to change my oil, I’m mad. That happened to somebody in our church this week, but I don’t want to mention any names (*Brian Morrissey*). In this age of microwaves, cell phones, and drive thru windows, we’re not used to waiting for stuff. But we saw what happened to the impatient guy in our video earlier, didn’t we? Our culture teaches us that waiting and hard work are to be avoided. The foolish builder bought that line, and ended up with a pile of rubble where his house used to be. Translate that into our walk with God. A lot of times we want an instant faith. Just add water, nuke it for a few seconds, and done. Doesn’t work that way. Growing in your relationship with God takes time and effort. It takes time and effort to dig down deep into God’s Word. To dig down deep through prayer. To dig down deep through accountability with another believer. To dig down deep through living with integrity. To dig down deep by serving other people. To dig down deep by giving sacrificially of your time and talent and money. None of that is easy. None of it happens quickly. If you’re looking for something to improve your life quickly without costing you anything, may I suggest that you look somewhere other than Jesus? A true relationship with Jesus isn’t quick. It takes a lifetime. A true relationship with Jesus isn’t cheap. It will cost you everything. But a true relationship with Jesus will stand when the storms come. The foolish builder lost his house when he needed it the most. When the weather was nice and sunny, you couldn’t tell the difference between the two houses. But when Steve Horstmeyer starting predicting a severe spring storm, the houses were as different as night and day. Same deal when it comes to faith. When things are good, it’s nice and sunny and everything is just coming up roses, everyone’s faith stands, wise and fool alike. It’s easy to do the Jesus thing when everything is going your way. But what about when a storm pops up? Your boss tells you that the company is downsizing. The doctor finds something disturbing and wants to do further tests. You experience rejection by a close friend. Marriage isn’t the stroll the daisies that you had planned. You worked, and planned, and prayed for something, and it still failed. What happens to your faith during a stormy season? The foolish builder discounted the power of the storm, and he lost his house because of it. If we discount the power of storms, life will knock us right off our foundation. If we’re not willing to make our faith the priority of our life, if we’re not willing to take God out of the church compartment of our lives and turn him loose in every fact of our lives, if we’re not willing to put in the time and effort to dig down deep into the rock of God, we shouldn’t be surprised when life blows us away. Which leads us to the third easy step in becoming a fool. Step 3 – Dismiss. Men are really quick to give advice when it comes to building something or fixing something. Every guy has his way of doing it, and his way is the right way. You know how it works. A guy is out in the driveway working on his car, and his neighbor comes over to see what he’s doing…and brings his advice with him. “You know, Bill, you really shouldn’t do it that way. Here, let me show you how to do it.” When there are tools in use, there is something in a guy that just wants to espouse advice. So do you think for a minute that the foolish builder managed to build this entire house without some advice? Aren’t you sure that some other builders, maybe even the wise builder, gave him some counsel about his foundation. “You know, Frank, that foundation on the sand just isn’t gonna hold.” But the fool dismissed this advice. He didn’t listen to the wise counsel of other builders. He arrogantly believed that his way was the right way. After all, it was fast, easy, and cheap, so it must be right. But by dismissing the wise counsel of others, he lost the very thing that he had built. And the same holds true when it comes to building a faith in our lives. What we’ve got to understand is that our faith is interdependent on one another. My faith depends on you, your faith depends on me. That’s why there are so many “one another” commands in the New Testament. Love one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, serve one another, even confess your sins to one another. The reason those commands are there is because we need one another. Nowhere in the Bible does God instruct us to take a “go it alone” approach to our faith. The health, the strength, and the depth of our faith relates back to your connection to others in the church. Take a look at this “one another” command from the book of Colossians. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom…” (Colossians 3:16, NIV) Teach and admonish one another. What does it mean to admonish someone? It means to advise them, to warn them. And that is what God has called us to do in the church. So often we’re afraid of hurting someone’s feelings, we’re afraid that they won’t like us anymore, so we let that fear stop us from admonishing them. We see the problem in their lives, we see the sin, but we let fear stop us from confronting it. Do you want to know what God calls that? He calls that sin. If you define sin as disobeying a command of God, and God has commanded us to admonish one another, then what do you call it when we don’t admonish someone of a spiritual problem in their lives? You call it sin. However, the flipside is also true. There are godly people who have the love and courage to confront a person when they see a problem in their life. If you are on the receiving end of this, how do you react? If this person, out of loving, godly concern, has confronted you about an issue, how do you react? You know what you call it when a person rejects godly counsel, when they are angered that someone confronted them about a sin issue, do you know what you call that? God calls it sin. If we are commanded to admonish one another, that means that there are times when I’ll be on the giving end and there are times when I’ll be on the receiving end. And if I can’t handle that, then I’m the one who’s in the wrong. Now, we’ve got to have a balanced understanding of this. The Bible commands us to speak “the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4:15) So our attitude in admonishing is paramount. This is not a free license to criticize anything and anybody. Criticism and admonishment are two different things. When someone is just criticizing you, dismissing it is ok. But when someone is admonishing you from godly wisdom, love, and experience, that’s a different story. There’s not a doubt in my mind that the foolish builder was given wise counsel about his house. And he chose to dismiss it, which led to devastating consequences. Proverbs says it best. “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” (Proverbs 12:15, NIV) A fool will take the arrogant attitude. I’m ok. I’m right. Who are you to tell me that I’m not right? How dare you? Someone who is wise will act in humility. Accepting wisdom, advice, and admonishment and using them to grow and to make better life decisions. Mr. T. has a reality show on TV Land called, I Pity the Fool. The name of the show obviously comes from that catchphrase that he made famous in the movie Rocky III. And really, there’s a lot of truth in that phrase. Fools are to pitied. Jesus pitied them so much that he warned us how to avoid falling into a foolish life. But if you’re bound and determine to be a fool, he has given you the formula. Disconnect God from the other pieces of your life. Don’t apply God’s Word in your life. Find a way to disconnect what you experience at church from all the other compartments of your life. Discount the power of life’s storms. Take the easy route and build up a faith that will shine in the good times. Don’t think about going deep into God. Don’t consider how your faith will fare in tough times. Dismiss the wise counsel of others. Don’t accept admonishment. Be arrogant about your choices. Be offended if someone dares to confront you about a spiritual issue. If you follow these three easy steps, you’ll be well on your way to being a fool. But like I said at the beginning, I really don’t believe any of us want to play the fool. I honestly believe that most of us want to live with wisdom, we want to make godly choices, we want to grow in our walk with Jesus. We want to be the wise builder who built his house with a foundation dug deep into the rock of God. So where have you built your house? What is the foundation of your life? Money, family, acceptance, sports, entertainment? None of those things are bad, but every one of them will make a horrendous foundation for your life. If your house is built on anything except a faith in Jesus, then you’ve dug your foundation into sand. And it’s only a matter of time until you get blown away. Jesus is offering you something solid. He’s the real deal, whether the sun is shining of the storms are raging. What have you done with Jesus? If you’ve never made him your Savior, your Lord, your foundation, then we’d love to talk and pray with you about that. Mike Edmisten |
Any of you who have looked at your calendar know what today is. April 1, better known as April Fools Day. A day dedicated to pranksters and their victims. Some of you have been “fooled” already today. A day when all kinds of foolishness is accepted, and even celebrated. So today, we’re talking about fools.
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