A FOOLISH SON

Proverbs 17:25 (KJV)

A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.

The Bible says “a foolish son is a grief to his father.”

·   I doubt that anyone here wants to be labeled foolish and

·   I am sure no parent here wishes his children to be a grief to them

This principle is found a number of times in the Proverbs:

Proverbs 10:1 (KJV)

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Proverbs 15:20 (KJV)

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

Proverbs 19:13 (KJV)

A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.

Please notice with me that it is not “the” foolish son but “a foolish son.”

That leads me to suggest to you that there could be forms of foolishness in these children.[1]

They might be foolish for

I. Lack of Obedience

Proverbs 1:8 (KJV)

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

Obedience might be considered to be one of the major themes of the Proverbs.

·   Obedience to our parents

·   Obedience to wisdom

·   Obedience to leadership and

·   Obedience to the Lord

These principles surface again and again in the Proverbs.

And really it does not matter in what category of life we find ourselves, obedience is still an appropriate course.

·   The child is, of course, to obey

·   But so is the king

·   There is a law that the student is to obey

·   There is a law that the citizen is to obey

·   There is a law that the soldier obeys[2] and so

·   There is a law that the son is to obey

Some of the laws will be Scriptural[3] ones

Some of them will be social ones[4]

Some of them will be civil ones[5]

The truth is, to disobey any of these laws will put a person in poor standing in the world surrounding him and will bring a curse upon himself and pain upon his parents.

The Proverbs begs obedience of us, Proverbs 2:1-6 (KJV)

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

Can you hear the pleading in this father’s voice?

Parents – take seriously this business of training up your children.

You won’t be able to make them make right decisions all of their lives so, while they are young, and you have that power, use it carefully and mostly to teach them why they should obey and not only that they must obey.

The easy thing to do as a parent is to crack the whip.

The problem with doing that too generously without lots of training alongside it, is that the kids may grow up to turn from the whip without thinking about the reason for it.

Young people – your rebellion and your disobedience and disrespect for your parents will eventually be your own undoing.

Two times the Proverbs says,[6]

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Your parents are trying to help you avoid your own hurt.

I heard the story of a missionary in Africa whose son was out playing in their front lawn while the dad was working in the yard one day.

The boy was running around the trunk of this tree when the father saw a poisonous snake working its way down the branches toward the boy.

The father yelled to his son, “Stop!”

He said it firmly, maybe even frantically.

But he also said it in a way some might have thought was angrily.

·   He did not explain himself and

·   He did not have time to let his boy disobey him a time or two first

His son stopped in his tracks and the dad was able to move him to a place of safety.

If the boy had ignored his dad or argued with his dad he would have been bitten by the snake.

The snake can be for you a picture of anything dangerous.

When you mom or your dad tell you to do something you need to do it:

·   The first time they tell you

·   As soon as they tell you and

·   Exactly as they tell you

There may not be a poisonous snake in your way, and you may not be able to see the danger of disobeying right away – but when you mom or dad tell you to do something, its for your own good.

It is a foolish son or daughter who disobeys mom and dad.

They might be foolish for

II. Lack of Diligence

Proverbs 15:19-20 (KJV)

The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

Notice the connection between the slothful man and a foolish man.

My Sunday school lesson this morning was on the slothful man (or sluggard)

He makes excuses why he can’t do anything – he is lazy.

One of his excuses is that he will be uncomfortable

·   It’s too cold or

·   It’s too hot or

·   It’s too hard to do or

·   It hurts to do it

When I started riding my bicycle I could only ride about 2 miles before my seat couldn’t stand to be on the seat any more.

After a month, I could go 5 miles before it hurt

Two months into it I could ride 10 miles without my backside hurting on the bicycle seat.

These days I ride 20 miles pretty regularly and have ridden up to 100 miles.

My backside does hurt a little bit after 30 miles – I just keep riding anyway.

Some of us need to stop making excuses about it hurting and start doing something to get better.

Another excuse is that it’s too dangerous.

Everything has some element of danger.

Take responsibility, learn how to do things as safely as possible and get off your duff and do it.

Statistics say that 1 out of every 8 Americans dies in their sleep.

If you are going to let danger stop you from doing things, you had better stop sleeping!

Some people’s excuse is their excuse

You can’t talk them out of their excuse. Seven people, the Bible says, can give them reasons why their excuse is no good, but they stand by it anyway.

·   Stop arguing

·   Stop justifying

·   Stop excusing away why you are lazy

And just admit it, you don’t get up and get busy because you don’t want to be busy, diligent and hard working!

A foolish son is not only disobedient to his parents but he is lazy and make excuses why he or she doesn’t want to obey his parents.

Young people, stop making excuses, stop being lazy.

Get up and do what you are told!

·   Do your homework

·   Clean your bedroom

·   Take out the trash

·   Mow the lawn

I don’t know what your parents have instructed you to do.

I am just telling you whatever it is – do it.

·   You don’t need to watch TV

·   You don’t need to play video games

·   You don’t need to lay on the couch

You need to do as your parents say.

Finally the foolish son might be foolish for

III. Lack of (spiritual) Vigilance

Psalms 14:1 (KJV)

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

You want to talk about breaking your mom and dad’s heart –

There isn’t a mom or dad in this room who would not be devastated if you grew up:

·   to turn against God or

·   to not get saved

I don’t want to make it sound like we are super godly or like we do not have any problems.

But those of us who come to church on Sunday nights do that because this means more to us than just religious ritual.

·   We are here because we believe the Bible

·   We are here because we want to learn the Word of God and to walk worthy of our salvation and

·   We are here because we want to help you get saved and live your whole lives for the Lord

-If any of you choose not to get saved

-If you quit church when you grow up

-If you rebel against the Lord while you are growing up

I promise you; that will break your mom and dad’s heart.

More importantly, it will break the heart of the Lord.

·   God loves you so much that He gave His Son so you could be forgiven of your sins and saved

·   God loves you so much that he sent preachers all over the world and some of them have suffered and died, just so the message of salvation could make it here for you

·   God loves you so much that He is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance (and be saved)

·   God loves you so much that He is waiting to keep his promises to all those believers who have ever lived until others get saved

What a foolish thing it would be, if you did not ask Jesus to forgive your sins and to save you.

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[1] I am also accepting that what would be true of a son would be equally true of a daughter. Girls – you don’t get out of this one!

[2] Though I don’t think I can find this one in Proverbs

[3] Obey the Bible commands

[4] Simple rules of etiquette and good behavior – it’s what makes people want to be around you

[5] John Locke, I believe, called this our social contract. The natural right of government to make and enforce laws for the public well being.

[6] Proverbs 14:12 (KJV) and Proverbs 16:25