The passage

Good morning! We are currently in a series called Foolproofing Your Life, which is an exploration of this unique book in our Bibles called Proverbs. Last week we explored the differences between the naive, the fool, and the mocker. This week we want to talk about one way to avoid becoming a fool. So, if you have your Bibles I invite you to turn to the book of [[Proverbs 13]] verse 20; it will also be up on the screen. Also if you have the YouVersion Bible app on your smartphones, you can check out our live event called "Foolproofing Your Life 2: Walking with the Wise" which has today's Scripture and outline. Today first we'll explore the actual words and message of a proverb; then we'll give two illustrations from Scripture; and finally we'll talk about how it applies in our lives.

So, Proverbs 13:20. It reads:

Become wise by walking with the wise;

**hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces. **

(The Message)

The first thing we should notice about this proverb are the two main verbs: walk and hang out. The first verb, to walk, is one we've explored before. It is one of the favorite words of the author of Deuteronomy and shows up in quite a few psalms. It is usually applied to walking with God. It is a word associated with being on a road, a journey, a path. And though that journey or path may have an ultimate destination, it seems that very often the point is the walk itself: to be with God, to enjoy His presence, to follow Him wholly and completely.

So when we see a proverb that says, "Become wise by walking with the wise," the author is not talking about a new YMCA fitness routine, but rather a lifestyle, a long-term process of _walking, _abiding, staying in contact with.

Our second verb, "hang out" is a little bit harder to nail down. Some translations you might see are "companion" or "befriend." But the way it's used in Scripture is almost always negative. It can refer to "hanging out" with violent men, prostitutes, gluttons, or idiots. There's this sense that the kind of "befriending" or "hanging out" that is happening is fleeting, pleasure-seeking and selfish. It's like those people we all know who hang out with us only to get something out of it. The first person in our proverb is walking with the wise; they're patient, willing to go slow. The companion of fools, however wants something out of it, something that feels good right now.

Here is how I would paraphrase this proverb:

When you live among wise people, not in a rush but purposefully, don't be surprised to see yourself becoming like those wise people: and that's a good thing!

But when you get all chummy with foolish people with no inhibitions, maturity, or wisdom expect to end up just like them: in constant trouble.Or, in short: your life is shaped by who you spend your time with.

**Watch Your Life Fall to Pieces. **Let's give some examples example from Scripture. In the book of [[1 Kings 12]] we come across the story of Rehoboam. His father Solomon is now dead, Rehoboam is the new king, and the leaders of the nation are gathered to hear what he will do as king. The leader of the northern regions of Israel comes to Rehoboam and says, "Solomon was great and all but he just about worked the people to death with all of his battles and temple-building. Would you be willing, King Rehoboam, to lighten the work load of the people?" Rehoboam basically says, "Give me three days to think about it and I'll get back to you."

He first asks advice from the older men who had counseled Solomon. They say, "If you're willing to be their servant today, they will be your loyal subjects forever." But he rejects their advice and instead goes to his friends that he has grown up with. This is the advice they give:

10 "This is what you should tell those complainers who want a lighter burden&11 'Yes, my father laid heavy burdens on you, but I'm going to make them even heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!'"

To which we all give a collective, "Yikes!" But King Rehoboam decides to follow this advice. He tells the leader of the northern region, "Eh, I think I'm gonna beat you all with scorpions," to which, surprise, surprise, the northern region rebels and suddenly our not-so-wise king is left with half the amount of territory, taxes, and people. D'oh!

So what happened? Exactly what the author of our proverb thought would happen: Rehoboam made companions with fools and watched his life fall to pieces. The son of the king who brought the nation to its heights was the son who split the nation apart.

This history lesson highlights an important nuance of our proverb: just because you have walked with someone for a long time--in Rehoboam's case he had grown up alongside his advisors--does not automatically mean that those friends are the wisest people in your lives. Just as we discussed last week, the most important question we should ask ourselves about the decisions we are making is, "Is it wise?" The same applies for our trusted companions, confidants, and mentors: "Are you wise?" We'll talk more about this later.

Walk with the Wise

A great illustration of walking with the wise comes from Jesus' disciples. In Luke chapter 5 we have this great report of Jesus walking along a lakeshore and being pressed in by people wanting to hear Him preach. So Jesus does what any normal person would do when people want to hear preaching&He gets in a fishing boat. He meets a man named Simon who is willing to row Him out a little ways, and Jesus preaches for a while. After He's finished, He tells Simon to cast His fishing nets. Simon, the professional on the boat, with a hint of annoyance casts his nets. You can almost hear him, "Grumble, grumble, what does a preacher know about fishin'?!" But as they lift their nets, he realizes that they are so full that he needs help to unload all the fish! We pick up the report in Luke verse 8:

** 8 When Simon realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, "Oh, Lord, please leave me--I'm too much of a sinner to be around you." **

** 10**Jesus replied to Simon, "Don't be afraid! From now on you'll be fishing for people!" **11 **And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

And so for Peter and eventually many others, they begin this years-long journey of being with Jesus. The disciples quite literally walked and walked with Jesus, who, according to Scripture is the very embodiment of Wisdom. Much of the Gospels tell of the foolishness of Jesus' disciples. But by the time we get to the book of Acts, those disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit and start to show signs of wisdom themselves.

Now, make no doubt, what Peter did was difficult. He had a job, a family, and friends. No doubt some of those friends thought that what he had done--abandoning his fishing business to follow a preacher--was the epitome of foolishness. But wisdom is sometimes difficult to recognize. It is not always the obvious thing. The obvious thing is not to let this preacher on to your boat and certainly not to let him tell you when to throw your nets. But the first act of wisdom you can engage is the humility to say, to quote Billy Joel completely out of context, "You may be right; I may be crazy."

__

Application

So let's ask ourselves some application questions. The first question is:

  1. Who are we walking with? In other words, who are those people in our lives that are shaping us as a person? Make a list. Don't bother yet judging the quality of those people (Good, Bad; Wise, Foolish); just take an inventory of the people in your life who have the most influence on you.

After you've done that, the second question is 2) Who from that list is wise? You may need some help because--like it or not--you may not be the best judge of wisdom yourself. Hopefully you can find at least one wise person and ask them who else in your life is wise.

The third question then is 3) How can I walk more often with wise people? Here we begin talking about how we are spending our time and who with. Now maybe some of you are thinking, "I spend most of my time with my kids and they're idiots!" First of all, we don't use the "idiot" word around here. Secondly, we're talking about your peers and older. Which of them can we begin to re-prioritize our lives around in order to walk alongside them?

Did you know that's actually why we as a church think small groups, Missional Communities, and The Journey are important? We don't have these apprenticeship processes just so we can count heads and pat ourselves on the back. No, what we as the staff and leadership of this church earnestly desire for each and every one of you is to be formed into apprentices of Jesus. And much of that is a long-term discipleship process, patiently walking alongside the wise.

The final question we should be asking ourselves is 4) What companions are in my life that are shaping me towards foolishness and destruction? Now I think it is very rare that Scripture gives us warrant to completely cut people out of our lives. Jesus quite frequently spent time with very foolish people. However, He was not _influenced _by them. So that's the question we're asking: who has influence in our lives who, quite frankly, just shouldn't? And how can we put that unhealthy influence to an end? For some of us, that may mean a complete cut off or separation from a friend, or even more painfully, a family member. For a lot of us, it will mean less time spent with that person; less advice asked for from that person. But remember: don't walk through this alone; walk through it with someone who is wise!

Conclusion

Ultimately, our highest desire is walk with the Wisdom Himself, Jesus Christ. He is the author and the perfector of our faith, the one we should pattern our lives after. So, for those of us who have already began our journey with Jesus, we should be continually asking the Holy Spirit for help in continuing that walk. For those of us who have yet to begin that journey, you have an invitation to start that journey today. If you'd like to talk to someone about first steps you can take, there is team of people would love to talk and pray with you in our prayer .

One way in which we want to continue walking with Jesus is by the sacrament of Communion. In Communion, we take up the bread and the juice and we are reminded that God Incarnate, Wisdom-walking-around-with-skin came earth to redeem us so that we could be His people.

Together let's stand and sing this hymn as we prepare our hearts for this wonderful and beautiful mystery we are about to partake in.