It has been difficult for me to come on this blog and edit some of the information, but today I braved that storm.
After the attack that took Mike's earthly life I found a sermon open on his computer. He had just finished this sermon titled "Foolish" and was planning on speaking this summer during our return to the U.S. I wanted to share the sermon with you as Mike definitely had a way of challenging people to step out in faith and his message certainly spoke to me.
FOOLISH
adjective
1. resulting from or showing a lack of sense;
ill-considered; unwise:
a foolish action, a foolish speech.
2.
lacking forethought or caution.
We spend
much of our lives simply trying not to look foolish, don’t we?
Even back in
school I was the kid sitting in the back row…… ya, you know me.
Parachute
pants, U-men sweatshirt in 90 degree weather. high top reeboks…. Untied, Velcro
flapping. Full on mullet, No way I am looking foolish!
I would hide
from the teacher when they were going to ask a question. I did NOT
want to be called for the answer, because 9 times out of 10 I didn’t know it! I would look foolish! People would
laugh at me. If I looked
foolish enough, other people wouldn’t want to be seen with me! They felt if
they would hang out with someone that appears to be foolish, they may think
that they are foolish too!
There are
many Christians who believe if you ever look foolish, it is a bad witness to
God. Because you
are a Christian you act a certain way, you do certain things. You are to
be reserved, and proper in the eyes of man. Because you
are a Christian you need to deal with your money in a very responsible way,
which is true! A way that
nobody could ever question your wisdom in the choices you make regarding your
future wealth. Right? We would
never act childish, or...We cannot,
and will not appear to be foolish in any way.
What if that
part was not exactly true.
What if…. God
clearly called you to appear to be completely and utterly foolish?
How many in
this church today can say, without a doubt I’m all in.
WHATEVER God
was to ask, without hesitation, I am in.
What I am
talking about is not just a momentary act of foolishness, but something that
could have people questioning your sanity! Or an act
that has detrimental consequences to your financial security, or to your social
status.
This is
something we really need to ask ourselves, and be completely honest with
ourselves.
See if we
cannot honestly answer this question, we will never know the answer because we
will simply ignore the call God is giving us. Chalk it up
to “God never calls us to make a bad decision in the eyes of man, and certainly
doesn’t ask us to look foolish.”
Are you
willing to be laughed at, mocked, be thought less of in the eyes of others, If
God asked you to?
Foolish with our money
Let’s look
at money. This is a very touchy subject with a lot of people. Rightfully
so. It’s our means of survival, it gives us our status, it’s what helps us help
others, it can make us look like we really are good, or make us look like we
are really foolish. There are
about 800 scriptures that deal with money in the bible, Jesus spoke of money
more than he did heaven or hell! When we
think of money, most of us put all our thoughts in to how to get it and how to
keep it for the future. When as
children of God, we should be concentrating on how to use it, how to give it!
And yet, O Sovereign Lord, you have
told me to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even
though the city will soon be handed over to the Babylonians.”
God is asking Jeremiah to make what in
the eyes of man is a BAD investment.
Now this is where most business savvy
people in the church will say, well God has given me business sense to know
what a bad deal is, so he is expecting us to make the good financial decision.
God helps those who help themselves
right? We are to use our own intelligence and allow God to pick up the
difference which is out of our control.
No, this is not what God says.
God wants us to surrender it all to
him.
Not just the things we think we can’t
handle with our own abilities.
Foolish with our actions
Acts 16:23-25
23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into
prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. 24 So
the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the
stocks.
25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.
Praying and singing hymns?? Are you
kidding me?
OK, the praying I get.
For most of us, there is nothing like
difficult hard times or circumstances that make us pray! We have a bill coming due, and we have
no money, we become prayer warriors! More seriously, we have something go
seriously wrong in our lives. We lost that job, or that friend we
thought we had seemingly stabbed us in the back. That lab result came back from the doctor’s
office with a very bleak outlook.
Woah….. What do we do then?
The world would totally understand the
prayer. Amazing how many people begin to pray when facing life altering
situations. I don’t care if you have never talked
to God in your life, when that test comes back positive for cancer……… people
pray.
But what the world cannot understand.
What the world will not understand, is the man or woman brave enough, bold
enough, wise enough to sing joyfully to the Lord at such a time! The world will look at you as a
complete fool! This is not how you are supposed to act in the face of terrible
news!
It would have been easy for Paul to be
bitter at those who put him in Jail. He could have easily said “This must
not have been of God, that’s why I am here stuck at the will of man in this
miserable place!” But no, this is not what they said, but
instead prayed and sang hymns, where ALL the others could hear.
Foolish with our praise
2 Samuel 6: 16-22
16 But as the Ark of the Lord entered the City of David,
Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King
David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt
for him.
17 They brought the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside
the special tent David had prepared for it. And David sacrificed burnt
offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. 18 When he
had finished his sacrifices, David blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 19 Then
he gave to every Israelite man and woman in the crowd a loaf of bread, a cake
of dates, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people returned to their homes.
20 When David returned home to bless
his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in
disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly
exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”
21 David retorted to Michal, “I was
dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his
family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. 22 Yes, and
I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my
own eyes! But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am
distinguished!”
How people
who do not know God expect people to act or react.
Obedience
often looks like foolishness.
Willingness to look foolish.
Only works with the direction from God.
God appointed decision will never
contradict the bible.
Something only appears to be foolish
when we fail.
God never fails.
Paul may have looked foolish
It is good to use
what you have learned here on earth in your day to day lives, but we must be
willing to sacrifice our self taught wisdom when God calls to us. I am speaking of a
radical love, that makes you do radical things. Things that people of
this world cannot understand.
See if you try to
convince yourself that God does not exist, if you take him out of the equation
of a Christian life, our lives will no longer make sense to them.
They will try to
convince you that you are foolish!
There is a whole
different level of living above and beyond what the world deems wise and good.
A level where things
happen than non-believers, and even young believers can’t understand, and will
even at times mock. When we become
Christians, God wants us to break free from the world. We are no longer of this
world, but just visitors. You are part of a new
culture, not fully understood by the other.
Sometimes we are
nervous that WE will make God look foolish.
If this doesn’t work,
God will look foolish.
God can never look
foolish.
And if someone claims
that God is looking foolish, they are acknowledging Him, and guaranteed, they
are about to be astounded by Him!
Foolishness with our
money
Foolishness with our
praise and worship
Foolishness in times
of despair and troubles
Do you feel like you
may be being called to do something, but every fiber in your human body won’t
let you do it because you have been so conditioned not to make yourself look
foolish?
Have you dismissed
any Ideas that may have been from God because they simply didn’t make sense to
you?
We may not
always be comfortable with what the Holy Spirit is prompting us to do, but His
words will always lead the Christian to an abundant life.
You will
never persuade someone that God has spoken to you by out-arguing them. Only God
can convince them of the Veracity of his word to you.
You need to
be patient and allow God to vindicate you in His time, and in His way, a time
will come when the wisdom of your choice will be Evident LUKE 7:35
John 13: 7
Joshua 1:9
