We all know that some people are the real deal – and others, well who they say they are, isn’t who they really are on the inside.  And that – that’s dangerous.  So question is – how do you tell the difference between the real ones and the phoneys.  Turns out – there are some very clear indicators.

Funny thing you know but what we say and how we say it, well it’s a dead give away for who we are. What’s going on in our hearts, either good or evil. In fact we just can’t help ourselves. What we say is truly a mirror to the soul. It’s because, I think, our mouths are connected to our hearts and whatever’s going on in our hearts, well ultimately that overflows to our mouth.

The problem is that sometimes, sometimes we meet people who aren’t for real. What you see definitely isn’t what you get. These are people who lie and deceive and manipulate. Now I always find that sad because I want to believe the best in people. I want to give every person the opportunity to excel and to shine and to use their gifts and their talents and their resources that Gods given them.

But as much as that’s who I am from time to time I’ve been bitten, if you like, by people who are hiding something. And so something I’ve had to learn to do and something I’m still learning to do is how to discern good from bad, the genuine person from the liar and the deceiver.

It’s sad that we have to learn that but learn it we must otherwise we’re going to be taken in and taken advantage of. So for me it’s a fine line between giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to excel on the one hand but being wise and discerning on the other.

How do we do that? Well fortunately God has some wisdom for us on this important subject and as it turns out its wisdom that works.

Over the years I’ve interviewed dozens of people for different roles and positions in the companies that I’ve worked for, the company that I owned and now the ministry, Christianityworks to which Gods called me to.

So it’s a familiar thing to me now. We figure out what help we need, we write down a position description and with that position description we always document the attributes of a person that we’re looking for. We’re all different and we’re not all suited to every position, that’s obvious, so the attributes of the person, their gifting and their disposition, they’re incredibly important. Then we advertise the position, we receive written responses, we sift through those and we come up with a short list.

Then you interview those people and the point of me sharing this with you is simply this. Over the years countless people in these interviews have tried to lie their way into positions that I’ve been interviewing for. One way to look at it is they’re just putting their best foot forward, that’s one way.

But the reality is that if we look at the role and then deceive ourselves and the prospective employer because we really want the job or we really need the money, even though we’re not cut out for it, just think about that, what a crazy thing to do. Imagine being in a job that you’re not cut out for day after day after day. And yet people do it all the time.

I’ve only ever been interviewed for a job once and I’ve only ever had 4 jobs in my life. But I never, ever want to be in a role that I’m not cut out for.

So how do we discern what’s going on in people? What are the tell tale signs and signals that we need to be looking out for? Have a listen to Gods wisdom and that’s what we’ve been doing together over these last few weeks on the program in this series called Wisdom That Works. Listening to Gods wisdom throughout the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament.

Anyway have a listen with me to what God has to say through King Solomon on how to discern a liar from the person who’s real. Proverbs chapter 10 beginning at verse 18:

Lying lips conceal hatred and whoever utters slander is a fool. When words are many transgression is not lacking but the prudent are restrained in their speech. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver but the mind of the wicked is little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for lack of sense.

So there it is, Gods wisdom about lying lips and the reason that we need to be so careful of the liar is that his or her lying lips conceal hatred. Hatred’s a dangerous thing and right there in that one sentence God tells us how we can pick the liar who’s concealing hatred. Have another listen, Proverbs chapter 10, verse 18:

Lying lips conceal hatred and whoever utters slander is a fool.

You see a liar may deceive the rest of us for a little while but in the end he or she can’t help themselves, they have to show their true colours. And the person in whose heart there is bubbling away, this most dangerous of all cancers, hatred, eventually is the person who utters slander.

Eventually they can’t help themselves and this liar is the one who goes around speaking ill of other people, the gossiper, the one who says, ‘I don’t mean to gossip but Mary, did you hear what Mary did? Well you have to wonder.’ And on it goes. Do you know people like that?

If you do then the chances are that they have lying lips that are trying to cover up hatred. And when they just can’t help themselves anymore, when it becomes such hard work this deception they have going on they let their guard down and the way they do it is by gossiping and slandering others.

And so if you know someone like that be wary, be very wary of trusting them, of confiding in them, for relying on them ’cause when the pressure’s on there’s every chance they’ll let you down. There’s every chance that they’ll be gossiping about you behind your back.

Lying lips conceal hatred and whoever utters slander is a fool.

Now the other tell tale sign comes in the very next verse. Verse 19:

When words are many transgression is not lacking but the prudent (On the other hand) restrain their speech.

I remember a work colleague of mine, James, who used to say, ‘I’m always suspicious of people who talk a lot. I always think they’re hiding something’. Now of course some people are just talkers and that’s fine but James had a point and his intuition, as it turned out, reflected God’s wisdom. Often people who babble on and on and on, telling us how good they are and how talented they are and how much they can do for us. Often they’re the ones to watch out for.

When words are many transgression is not lacking.

In other words, sometimes all those words are a cover up for the failures and the sin and the weaknesses and the inadequacies they don’t want us to see. It’s like a magician, like an illusionist. A big part of the trick is to distract your eyes to get you to look at something else while they perform the trick right under your nose.

The opposite to this sort of person is the prudent one. And the prudent one restrains their speech. They’re someone who doesn’t need to impress us. They know they’re good and capable, they understand their limitations and just have a quiet confidence in who they are. They don’t need to blah, blah, blah to distract us from the truth.

The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the mind of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for a lack of sense.

You know, 9 times out of 10 when we stop and listen to what’s actually being said the truth is simple and it’s pure and it rings out clear as a bell. It’s unmistakeable. Honesty, decency, goodness, they have gravitas, they have a weightiness to them, you can’t miss them.

This is the wisdom we discover in the Bible. Lying lips conceal hatred. When words are many transgression isn’t lacking. The prudent restrain their speech. The tongue of the righteous, well it stands out, it’s like choicest silver whereas the mind of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for a lack of sense.

I’ve got to tell you, it is just amazing the wisdom, the wisdom that we discover in the Bible. This wisdom from God that actually work

Many people imagine that if they started believing in God – well, man, look at all the things I’d have to give up.  And that’s true – there are some things we have to turn away from.  But what I never expected was that all of a sudden what I wanted would change – and then, that God would give me the desires of my heart.

This week again on the program we’re looking at some of Gods wisdom. The sort of wisdom that actually works. To be frank when I first started reading God’s word, this thing called the Bible, my expectations of that stuffy old book were pretty low. I thought it was pretty much irrelevant, truly.

And well, if I was going to call myself a Christian, well I suppose I have to pray and I suppose I have to read the Bible, just one of those chores, the price you have to pay to get eternal life. Seriously, that’s what I thought. So the last thing I expected was this vibrant living thing, God speaking His love and His grace and even His wisdom into my life in a way, get this, in a way that actually works. In a way that radically makes my life better.

But that’s exactly what I discovered. Page after page, verse after verse as I read it and thought about it and how it might work in my life and prayed about it, I met God. I met a Jesus who wants to make my life better by getting rid of the sin out of my life, the stupid things we all want to do that end up hurting us and robbing us of the life He planned for us.

And then by taking our hearts and filling them with His love and humility and showing us the depth of joy that comes from living our lives for Him, living our lives with love for other people. My friend, let me tell you, with all that I am this was the very last thing I expected to find in the Bible.

See the funny thing is the reason I’d held my life back from God for the first thirty six years was I was afraid of what I’d have to give up. I’ve always been pretty clever, I’m fortunate, I have a quick sharp mind and always been industrious and resourceful.

And so what I’d done in my life was to take these 2 natural talents, other people have different talents but these were mine, and used them, well used them for me of course. I’d figured out that I could use them to make lots of money. I knew that because I was strong and articulate and driven. I could crash through just about any obstacle. I could walk over just about any other person to get to where I was going.

To make the career. To get the recognition. To get the wealth that I hungered after. And deep, deep down I knew that if I invited God into my life to be my Lord and my Saviour I’d have to get off the throne, I’d have to surrender that to Him. Not sure I could have quite put it into those words back then but that was it.

It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God, I’ve believed pretty much for most of my life that He was out there somewhere, I just had this uneasy dread that one day the day of reckoning would come. It’s just that I duped myself into believing that my brand of evil, frankly let’s call a spade a spade, that’s what my selfishness was, that my brand of evil was somehow, well okay, I’d get by, it wouldn’t be too bad.

It was good that I was driven. It was good that I was getting wealthy and recognised in my field and industry. It was good that I was making it and that con job, my friend, is a con job that the devil is working on countless people walking on this planet today.

It’s not evil what you’re doing, it’s good, it’s good that you’re making it, sure go for it. And if someone gets in your road just roll over the top of them and squash them like a fly. I wonder perhaps if you don’t relate to just a little of what I’m saying.

This is a universal human condition; it’s a condition that God calls sin. And the worst thing is, the most dangerous thing is that we end up believing that it’s good. So have a listen with me now to God’s wisdom on the difference between good and evil. It’s a wisdom that shines light on this oh so important topic and it’s the sort of light, I think, that makes us see evil for what it is. And my prayer is that it makes us desire good over evil.

Have a listen, Proverbs chapter 10 beginning at verse 22:

The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it. Doing wrong is like sport to a fool but wise conduct is pleasure to a person of understanding. What the wicked dread will come upon them but the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the tempest passes the wicked are no more but the righteous are established forever.

See God being God, He always starts off by telling us about the blessing He has in store for us. God reveals Himself to us as our Father. Jesus literally to the horror of the religious leaders of the day, Jesus called Him Dad. And listen to me, every dad wants to bless his children. We do, we love to bless our kids and God is no different.

The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it.

Friend, God wants to bless us and when He does He makes us rich. I’m not talking about money necessarily, you know sometimes He blesses us financially but money isn’t what makes us happy. There’s something deep inside that makes us happy, a deep abiding joy.

The sort I could never find when I was working at my particular brand of evil in this world. The sort that always eluded me. I thought I had to give something up by giving up my evil ways and sure, in one sense, I did. But the reality was that the prize was that one thing I’d been looking for all my life, doh.

I was living the first part of this next verse without realising the blessing in the second part:

Doing wrong is like sport to a fool but wise conduct is pleasure to a person of understanding.

So, I was living like a fool and as I said earlier I always had a deep sense of dread down inside that one day this would all come unstuck, one day the house of cards would fall over, one day something bad would happen, that one day I would have to stand before God and give account.

And that’s exactly what God said is going to happen, next verse, Proverbs chapter 10, verse 24:

What the wicked dread will in fact come upon them but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

See the wicked live in dread but the righteous look forward to goodness and God’s saying, ‘I will grant that which you look forward to’.

I’ve proved the first bit of this in my life because it’s exactly what happened, what the wicked dread will come upon them. In fact did come crashing down upon me. But I also in the process of discovering the profound truth in the second part now that I’m living my life for Him. That the desire of the righteous will be granted.

God grants us the desire of our hearts when we’re living out our lives for Him. Elsewhere, Psalm 37 in verse 4 He tells us so:

Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Friend, God wants to give us good things like any dad and now that the desires I have going on in my heart are for the most part things that spring out of the delight I have in God. My point is we all have things to deal with, you do, I do, but more and more my desires flow from God’s desires.

You know what? God’s a great Dad. He’s a fantastic Dad and I’m discovering He really does want to bless me with His joy and His peace and His love right in the middle of the storms of my life. Right in the middle of all the trials and the challenges.

A lot of them haven’t gone away, in fact the more we step out onto the spiritual battlefield to weigh in for God on this planet, the more the battles are going to come our way. But in the middle of those God blesses us. That’s the point.

And how does it all end? The story of life when we either live out a life of rebellion against God or a life honouring Him? What’s the end game? Proverbs chapter 10, verse 25:

When the tempest passes the wicked are no more but the righteous are established forever.

And all those years I thought I was going to lose something by going out and serving God. What a fool I was.

Every day, billions of financial transactions take place around the world.  From buying a toilet role on the way home at the corner store, to buying and selling of global corporations.  And a good percentage of those transactions involve deception and corruption.  So – question is – how to avoid the bad ones.

Let me ask you something today. Have you ever been ripped off? You know, you go into a store and you buy something and you take it home and it doesn’t work and then when you try and take it back and the store owner wants to have nothing to do with you.

It’s a horrible feeling isn’t it? I remember one time I knew someone who bought a brand new car. It was a reputable brand name, still a globally successful car maker today. And he took it home; it was a nice feeling for him buying a new car. And one thing after another started to go wrong.

Some things were small and niggly, other things like the brakes failing were serious. For one reason or another my friend had bought a lemon. Not sure if that terms familiar to you in your part of the world but here in Oz we call something that’s broken from the ground up, something that you really can’t ever fix a lemon.

And this car, to be honest, was a lemon. Now any car purchase is a significant amount of money especially a brand new car. It was a lot of money this new car but the manufacturer refused to replace it. They fixed this, they fixed that, then the next thing would break and the car was never quite right.

My friend, needless to say, felt totally ripped off and whilst I’ll keep the name of the manufacturer out of this program, if he was here right now he’d be only too pleased to tell you their name and he’s told many, many people already and probably he’ll tell many, many more for the rest of his life.

Now I don’t know how many commercial transactions take place across the world each and every day but with global population heading pretty quickly now towards 7 billion you’d have to say each and every day there are many, many billions of transactions that go on.

From buying a toilet roll down at the corner store on the way home to corporate takeovers of large global companies and everything in between. I mean just imagine the number of purchase and sale transactions that happen on all the stock markets around the world.

So, many billions of transactions each and every day. Filling out a tax return is a financial transaction, most people have to do that once a year. How much did we earn less any legitimate deductions equals our income on which we have to pay tax. How easy is it to tell a few little lies in there?

We know that the tax office can’t check every piece of information. People know their chance of getting caught or getting audited is pretty low. Throw a few receipts, things that didn’t really relate to work, claim them as work deductions. Who’s going to know? They can’t prove anything.

And so countless people lie on their tax returns. A bit of extra money in their pocket, tax man already has so much, he won’t miss it. Or you go to a cafe, have a few cups of coffee and some cake with some friends and when it comes to paying you notice they’ve forgotten to add the last piece of cake that someone ordered. Do you draw it to their attention or not?

Do you see how with all financial transactions we’re involved in on a day to day basis, do you see how easy it is to be dishonest? I mean perhaps you and I wouldn’t go into a supermarket and steal something off the shelf, that would be dishonest after all and you might get caught.

But if the young girl at the checkout gives us too much change do we point it out to her? Who’s going to know? So we hate being ripped off, we hate it when we’re on the receiving end of this but many, many a people are happy to rip others off.

In fact there’s research that’s been done by the American Jewellers Association in relation to employee theft because in the jewellery business the biggest problem isn’t armed robbery, it’s theft by staff and here are the results.

10% of people will always steal no matter what. 10% of people will never ever steal but 80% will steal if they’re given the opportunity and if they think they won’t get caught.

So, I was talking with a man who owns a large jewellery operation and he said it’s sad but true. He has to build his business and systems and security and surveillance camera’s on the basis that 90% of his employees are likely to steal from him. 90%!

Over these last few weeks we’ve been talking about Wisdom That Works. Just diving into God’s word in the Old Testament wisdom Book of Proverbs and plundering it for wisdom. The sort of wisdom that actually works. And so, what’s God’s wisdom on this whole thing of financial honesty and dishonesty?

See this is a big issue. Billions of financial transactions going on around the world each and every day and a percentage of them, perhaps more than we’d like to imagine, are corrupt. Now you might think that word ‘corrupt’ is just a little bit harsh, a little bit direct but what else do you call lying on your tax return? What else do you call not telling the attendant that they’ve given you too much change? It’s theft, its corruption.

What’s Gods wisdom? Well here it is, Proverbs chapter 11, verse 1:

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord but an accurate weight is His delight.

Now that may not seem like a whole lot of wisdom on first glance. Well of course if there is a God He will see the deception that no one else sees and of course you’d expect Him to not like it. So what? Well here’s the “so what”. Just have a listen to what Jesus has to say. Luke chapter 12, verse 4. Jesus said:

I tell you my friends, don’t fear those who kill the body and after that can do nothing more but I will warn you whom to fear. Fear Him who after he is killed has authority to cast you into hell. Yes I tell you, fear Him.

I know, look I know people don’t much like it when I talk about the fear of the Lord but my friend, there are consequences. If a false weight, if a dishonesty in a financial transaction is indeed an abomination to the Lord and if one day you and I are going to give a reckoning to Him on that day of judgement, wouldn’t you think that steering clear of false weights make an awful lot of sense? Do you think? Listen again:

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord but an accurate weight is His delight.

Maybe that’s why Solomon later writes in Proverbs chapter 9, verse 10:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

See wisdom is about getting it right and whilst receiving eternal life has nothing to do with our works, what we do it’s a free gift of grace from God. My friend, we can’t profess to believe one thing, to believe Jesus is the Lord of our lives on the one hand and then to live our lives in completely the opposite direction.

Jesus put it this way. He said, ‘look, not everyone who calls me Lord is going to enter the Kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven’. Because what we do is the true reflection of what we believe.

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord.

Friend, if you are involved in any deception, in any lying, in any financial transaction, any business that you know is a false balance, that you know doesn’t honour God, that you know cheats the tax man, that you know cheats your customers or your business partners. Friend, today I want to encourage you to hear the word of God into your life and turn away from that:

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord.

But the opposite is also true.

An accurate weight is His delight.

That word “abomination” literally means that it is disgusting and wicked in God’s eyes. And so I guess the question is and this is the question of wisdom here. The question is, do we want to disgust God or do we want to delight Him? And that, that my friend is a question that each one of us needs to answer for ourselves.

Here’s one of the biggest deceptions going around at the moment.  If I hang onto all my money, then I’ll be safe, secure and happy.  Hmm.  If only that were true.  But it isn’t.  By and large, it’s a lie.  Safety, security and happiness – I mean real fulfilment – only tend to come our way, when we let go of the money.

Not so long ago we spent several weeks on this program talking about money. And the reason for that is that God has an awful amount to say about money. I heard a man say something that really struck home with me recently on this subject. And what he said was this, “that smack bang in the middle of every human heart lies desire for safety and security.”

It’s one of the most natural of all human desires and there’s actually nothing wrong with that. The bit where we get it wrong though is when we go looking for that safety and security in the wrong places. Some people look for it in a relationship and it’s good and it’s right for us to trust in people, that’s good, we’re social creatures.

But even relationships fail. Ultimately a man and a woman who’ve been married, who’ve been soul mates for a life time, well that’s going to end when death them do part. And in an increasingly materialistic world many, many people go looking for their security and their safety in money, in wealth.

And so we spent several weeks chatting about that because so many people have become slaves to wealth. Chained to this desire for money that they’ve wandered away from their faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Well as you’ll know if you’ve been able to join me in the last couple of weeks, at the moment we’re taking a walk through the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. It’s a book of wisdom and the bit of wisdom we’re up to today; the bit we’re going to talk about is about giving our wealth away.

God’s wisdom is invariably counter intuitive but it’s powerful and we’re going to listen to Him on this very subject today.

So, what does God have to say about this? Well have a listen; we’re going to read just a few short verses from Proverbs chapter 11 beginning at verse 23:

The desire of the righteous ends only in good, the expectation of the wicked in wrath. Some give freely yet grow all the richer, others withhold what is due and only suffer want. A generous person will be enriched and one who gives will get water. The people curse those who hold back grain but a blessing is on the head of those who sell it.

Isn’t it interesting how God here, in His words, links good, righteousness versus wickedness, with giving freely versus withholding. Verse 24 flows directly from 23, almost and example of what He’s saying. Lets look at them again, the 2 verses:

The desire of the righteous ends only in good, the expectation of the wicked in wrath. Some give freely yet grow all the richer, others withhold what is due and only suffer want.

See that’s a Hebrew literary construct, it’s called a couplet. We’re meant to read verse 24 as a practical illustration, a parallel of verse 23. Righteousness versus wickedness is reflected by giving freely versus withholding. That’s not something we always necessarily want to hear but as is always the way with God, God makes it clear that with righteousness comes God’s blessing.

Listen carefully. God is a God who wants to bless us. Yes we all have storms that rage through our lives from time to time and no He doesn’t always take those storms away. But in the eye of the storm there is a peace and a calm. God wants us to live in His peace and His calm and His blessing no matter what’s raging at the moment.

And when it comes to the way in which we spend our resources, not just our money but our gifts and our talents, everything at our disposal, there is a God who wants to bless us through how we do that. So let’s read verse 24 and understand the blessing:

Some give freely yet they grow all the richer. Others withhold what is due and only suffer want.

Giving freely means we grow richer and withholding means we suffer want. I used to be a withholder. I was mean with my money. I never, ever gave to people at a time when I was earning a bucket of money in the commercial world. Why? Well I worked hard for that, I earned it.

And whilst I might have thrown a little bit of loose change into the tin next to the Salvation Army guy in the shopping centre, the bulk of my wealth stayed in my hands. It was mine, all mine. And so fooled was I by this whole thing of wealth that somehow I never had enough.

As much as I earned, as much as I clung to it I never felt that I had enough. And when calamity and financial storms hit me and friend, I don’t care who we are, how rich we are, they do and they will. And the question is, where is our safety and security? We’ve withheld it all and all we do is suffer want.

In other words it doesn’t matter how much we want to believe that it’s true, money doesn’t give you security. It’s nice but it’s not safe. Not absolutely. So Gods word, He literally says, “the one who hangs onto their wealth is going to suffer need and poverty and lack and want”. Emotional, spiritual and physical.

Alternatively the one who gives freely, who literally scatters their wealth out there like seed in a field. The one who disperses their wealth, that one will have gain and increase. That one will grow richer, emotionally, spiritually and sometimes physically too.

This is one of the most profoundly counter intuitive truths that I’ve ever come across in the Bible. But what I’ve discovered in my life is it is actually true. When I hung onto it all I never seemed to have enough, then little by little God got a hold of my heart and I was able to let some of it go a couple of things happened.

I’ve always had enough ever since. Even if some months I didn’t receive a salary. Even if some months things looked incredibly tight and we didn’t know where the money to live on was going to come from. God has never failed me. But the other thing that happened is that money lost its control over my heart.

It wasn’t the main thing anymore. God became my main thing and I truly believe that letting go and giving was an essential part of that. I’m just being honest here and sharing my experiences with you. Some give freely and grow all the richer, others withhold what is due and only suffer want.

You want to know something? From my life I can honestly say that is the absolute truth, absolutely. That’s a bit of wisdom that I only wish I’d managed to wrap my heart around much sooner than I ever did. And you know when a faith is in Gods provision, in His faithfulness we get a real sense of security happening in our hearts but look at what else happens when the miser becomes a generous giver. Verse 25:

A generous person will be enriched and one who gives will get water but the people curse those who withhold their grain but a blessing is on the head of those who sell it.

All of a sudden it makes a huge difference to our relationships and to the influence that we have in the hearts and the lives of the people around us. So let me say this again. How we give, where we give, how much we give, that’s totally between each one of us and God. You should give wherever Gods leading you to give and you should give where there is fruit for the Kingdom of God.

That is your business with God. We should never, ever, ever allow ourselves to be manipulated into giving to this particular cause or that, to be guilted into giving. The Holy Spirit knows us, let Him lead, let Him guide but give we should.

The God I serve owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He’s not sweating on my giving plan or yours, He aches to see our hearts set free from wickedness. The sort that comes when wealth is our tyrannical master rather than a faithful servant. That’s why God blesses us when we give and that’s why we suffer when we withhold.

I know it appears upside down but friend it is absolutely true.

None of us likes to think of ourselves as a fool – that’s a label we reserve for other people.  And yet – we’ve all done foolish things in our lives.  So – how can we avoid foolish mistakes from this point forward?  And how can we avoid the impact of those foolish mistakes?

Well it’s almost the end of another week and this is the 15th program in a series that I’ve called “Wisdom That Works”. These last three weeks we’ve been stepping our way through the Book of Proverbs, plundering it for Gods wisdom for our lives. The sort of wisdom that works.

Now as I said a few weeks ago Proverbs is a collection of wisdom sayings. By and large it’s not a narrative or a story; it’s a collection of pieces of wisdom that one of the wisest men who has ever walked this earth gave to his sons as young men. So it’s not the sort of book in the Bible that we tend to read from beginning to end, 31 chapters.

But I did recently in my own personal devotional time and took about three months to do it. So it wasn’t a quick skim read over, I read small bits each day and prayed over them and reflected on them and as if I didn’t already know this I was again blown away with how practical God’s wisdom is.

Just in the small number of verses that we’ve looked over together in these last 14 programs, three weeks almost, I mean these are real pearls of wisdom, wisdom that works. Wisdom that if we’ll just pay heed to it in our lives, it’s going to make our lives so much better.

And why wouldn’t the God who loves us and wants to bless us give us wisdom like that? So today we’re discovering more of His wisdom and this is about how not to be a fool.

Now none of us likes to think of ourselves as a fool do we? Me, a fool, no, no, no. I’m no fool. A fool is a word we reserve exclusively for other people. He’s a fool. She over there, she’s a fool. We’re never a fool in our own estimation, right? But if I asked you to look back on your life, if I asked you, ‘have you ever done something foolish?’

Well of course all of us have if we’re honest with ourselves, you have. Man I could write you a list as long as my arm of the foolish things that I’ve done in my life. And you too right? We’ve all done foolish things. And there’s not one of us who wouldn’t like to avoid that in the future.

Imagine if you and I could live the rest of our lives without ever doing a single foolish thing again. Well I’m not sure if that’s achievable, we’re all human but if we could significantly reduce the foolish mistakes that we make from time to time, well that’s not all bad is it? Better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick as they say.

So does God have some wisdom for us to help us to do that? Well absolutely He does and here it is. Proverbs chapter 12, verses 15 and 16:

Fools think their own way is right but the wise listen to advice. Fools show their anger at once but the prudent ignore an insult.

Now there are two parts to this bit of wisdom on learning how not to play the fool anymore. One is taking advice and the other is not flying off the handle at an insult. At first they may appear to be strange bedfellows but as I think back over my life probably 90% of the foolish things I’ve done are either because I didn’t listen to good advice or because I flew off the handle in a moment of anger.

So lets have a look at each of these 2 on their own. First things first, Proverbs chapter 12, verse 15:

Fools think their own way is right but the wise listen to advice.

Now to unpack this one let me tell you about one of the smartest men I’ve ever met in my life. He’s a computer technology guru from Finland and his name is Heikki. When I was a young officer in the Australian army I worked with Heikki who was a civilian in the computer department of the Central Army Records office where we managed all the personnel records and promotions for every soldier in the army.

Heikki was senior to me and pretty quickly I discovered that this guy was brilliant. He understood information technology in a way that I just didn’t. His thoughts and his positions and his ideas and his approaches were very well researched and incredibly well thought out.

And in those days the few of us from the IT department we’d regularly go down to the pub at lunch time and inevitably we’d debate this or that to do with Information Technology. Now Heikki was no shrinking violet, he’d argue his position on a subject very strongly.

But the moment, the very instance someone convinced him that they had a better idea, a better approach, a better way forward, you know what he would do? In an instant he would drop his own idea and take on the new one. He had no pride about his own ideas. He was just looking for the best one.

And you know something, I think that’s why Heikki to this day remains one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. Because he had no pride about his own ideas. He’d argue them strongly but instantly, without batting an eye, take on a better idea if he found it, no pride.

Fools think their own way is right but the wise listen to advice.

It’s foolish to think that our own way is always right. Other people have good ideas too. Other people can often see things you and I can’t because of their background or their experience or their particular expertise or perhaps they’re not quite as close to a problem or as emotionally involved in the problem as you or I might be.

Only the fool ignores good advice and of course we have to assess that advice just as Heikki used to. We have to sift it and sort it but if it’s good then what’s the matter with us that we would let our pride get in the road of a better way? Only a fool cuts his nose off to spite his face and we have pride about our own ideas that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Friend this is something I’ve had to learn. I’m a decisive, action orientated kind of guy. I have an idea, I think about it then I just want to get on and do it. When you’re like that it’s hard when someone comes along and says, “maybe there’s a better way of doing this”. But learning to listen, learning to be like Heikki is one of the smartest investments I’ve ever made.

The second part is just as wise. And actually it comes back to the same root of pride that stops us from taking good advice. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 16:

Fools show their anger at once but the prudent ignore an insult.

The moment someone insults us, the moment someone dents our precious ego we want to react don’t we? Some people come out punching, others, depending on their personality type, become withdrawn and detached. Different people react in different ways but anger, 9 times out of 10, is a reaction of the ego and of pride.

Sure people wrong us at sometimes, I guess we have a right to be angry but as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23. He says:

All things are lawful but not all things are beneficial. All things are lawful but not all things build up.

In other words we may well be justified in being angry but the point is that an angry outburst, most times, is just not going to solve the problem. One of the classics these days is the angry email. People react to something with an angry email and so the other person sends back an even angrier email.

And then they keep throwing grenades from their trenches and each grenade gets bigger and more lethal in this game of ping pong and before we know it relationships are destroyed and there’s an all out war going on in the office. And so I make it a practice to never ever, ever to send an angry email. Never.

Friend, whether it’s ignoring good advice or letting anger get in the road of a good outcome, the person who does those things is a fool. God has a name for them, they’re called fools. Let’s not mince our words, let’s not muck around. They’re foolish because they let pride get in the way of a good outcome.

And look back on your life and my hunch is you’ll find the same thing as I did. 90% of the things that we’ve done that are foolish are either about ignoring advice or getting angry. Can you believe how practical God is in His wisdom for us. I mean this is wisdom that works.