Jim Van Gelderen: Okay, the book of Proverbs chapter number one, Proverbs in chapter number one. Well, it certainly is good to see you here at the Thee Generation Youth Summit. And I know more than once I’ve called it the Cola Clash Plus.

I asked our students how many had done that. I think we had 100% participation. So this year we’ve switched up the themes, and it’s now the War Max.

And this brings back little memories to me, because in 1984 I began traveling, just a kid at the time, kid preacher, and we conducted the war, Army and Navy. In fact, I was looking in the room and posted on that, And in the fellowship halls there are some of the posters we used in 1984. And so that’s retro, brother.

But anyway, that was kind of neat walking in there and seeing some of that brought back a lot of memories or just a little nostalgia with those days. And certainly it’s exciting now. We’ve got four-way.

This is the first time in human history. Now, folks, this is unbelievable. You’re going to be glad you’re here.

I often say this to young people. I’m telling you’re going to be telling your grandkids about this week. Now, you won’t be telling them this week.

But anyway, you’re going to be telling them sooner or later about the warm acts. You’re going to say, I was at the very first time Minute Men Ministries used the war theme four-way. This is historic.

Unbelievable. 37 years in the making and you are here. Now, aren’t you thrilled?

Aren’t you excited? Okay, you don’t seem to be impressed. Okay, but anyway, you’re Generation Z.

That’s your problem. Okay, but anyway, I was preaching recently in a church. I said, how many of you are our greatest generation?

I think that’s 19, born before 1945. Of course, they raised their hands. And I say, oh, you baby boomers, raise your hand.

And 1945 up to 62, 63, someone there, and all the baby boomers raised their hand. And I looked at them and said, you are the normal people in the room. You think right.

And then I said, how about you baby busters? And then I went to the millennials and said, these are the weird people in the room. Okay.

And then I said, what about Generation Z? They’re really weird. Okay.

But anyway, that’s where it is. You didn’t think that was funny either. Okay.

That’s your problem. Okay. Get a life.

We’re going to have a great time this week. And we got four-way competition. And I’m telling you, we got a historic, this is, we got some historic team captains.

I mean, these guys have some wars under their belts. And so you’re going to have a great time. And how many of you, this is the first time you’ve ever come to the Thee Generation Youth Summit?

Can I see your hands first time? Okay, got some first timers. How many of you, this is your second time?

Second time to the Youth Summit? Okay, great. And it looks like I’ve got a lot of veterans out here.

And we’ll certainly look forward to having some great time. Got some new competitions, a few different spins on some of the classic competitions. And so that’ll be a lot of fun out there.

We’ll enjoy that part as well. And I don’t know, might get a nail-biter. I think that was last year we had a nail-biter.

That was a great one all the way to the last. And so who knows what will happen. Usually in the four-way, you get a weak sister early on.

I was weak sister. I was really glad that Pepsi decided to be the weak sister because their team had a great time last year. And that’s one of the few times I’ve ever seen a team coming forth, and everybody’s glad they were on that team.

Okay, but anyway, so if you weren’t here last year, you’re not gonna get that, but we had a great time and looking forward to a good time this year as well. I’m just interested in knowing what states everybody is from. Okay, so we’re just gonna do something right real quickly to find out a little bit about where everybody’s from.

Do we have anybody here from Ohio? Anybody from Ohio? Okay, okay.

I have the obnoxious, that’s great, okay. And anybody from Michigan, okay? Michigan, okay.

Those are the people that need to kind of face off with each other, okay, there it is. since that’s kind of already going on. And then Indiana.

How about Indiana? We have some Hoosiers here. We’ve got a few Hoosiers.

Okay. Illinois. Illinois.

Oh, good. I’m glad you’re here, because I’m glad I’m not from Illinois. Okay.

Okay. But anyway, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.

It’s a great place to be from. It really is. Okay.

Politics in that state got problems. But anyway, we’ll leave that one alone, since we’re already in trouble. Okay.

How about Iowa? We have some. I know we have some.

Yeah, there it is. Iowa. There they are.

Okay. Yeah, there are the corn. They learn how to do that in the cornfields.

They can’t see each other. Okay. So I had a friend of mine told me he was driving down south, and he came across a cornfield that had been harvested, and there were just four corn stalks, just four of them, and it said Joe Biden corn maze.

But anyway, I shouldn’t have said that. It just scratched that off the recording. Okay.

But anyway, I thought that was pretty funny. Okay. But you guys out there, if you don’t know what a corn maze is, just talk to the people out there in Iowa.

They can get you hooked up for corn maze. Okay. Now, let me see.

Pennsylvania. We have any Pennsylvania? No Pennsylvania this year.

Hey, I know we got some Virginians in here. The Commonwealth of Virginia. Okay.

Got some Virginians here. Okay. And, of course, I’ll have to mention the great state of Wisconsin.

Okay. Okay. Good job, Trey.

I love it. Okay. Good job.

He seems to be the only one proud. in the state, okay. I guess the Brewers fans are still in mourning, okay.

Can’t cheer right now, okay. And Minnesota, I know we got some Minnesota, okay. When you talk to Minnesota, it’s not Minnesota, it’s Minnesota, okay.

So make sure you say it right. They’ll be glad, okay. I think we got any other state I’ve missed.

I probably have missed somebody, okay. Florida, oh yeah, Florida. How did I do that?

I know these Floridians, good, Florida, and that’s one of the street, okay. Oh, South Carolina. Yes, South Carolina.

And back there is Tennessee. We got Tennessee. Okay, great.

What did he say? Oh, Kentucky. Yeah, okay.

Somebody else said Tennessee. Okay, there it is. Good.

That’s great. Well, it’s good to have everybody here, and I know some of you came at great lengths to be here, and it is certainly a thrill to see you here. And I believe God wants to do some great things this week.

I know you’re going to have a great time, but we’re asking that we’ll be certainly every message just pre-preaching, asking God to work in your heart, and I hope you’ll keep your heart open. We just want to open up tonight, and I want to warn every adult in the room, this is a teenage message, okay? You would not hear me preach this on a Sunday night at Falls Baptist Church, okay?

So I want to warn you ahead of time. It’s just some of the humor that’s used in a moment might be a little bit, well anyway, it’s teenage, okay? We’ll just leave it at that.

But I want to warn you ahead of time, because I don’t want to do this disclaimer in the middle of the message. But anyway, Proverbs chapter number 1. If you want to go to Proverbs chapter number 1, we’re going to read a few verses of Scripture, and then we’re going to dive right into a message that’s a little bit of a blunt title, but it’s, Are You a Fool?

Are You a Fool? Let’s go to verse 20 of chapter number 1 of Proverbs. Wisdom crieth without.

She uttereth her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place of concourse and the openings of the gates. In the city she uttereth her word, saying, How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity?

And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you.

I will make known my words unto you. Go back to verse number 22. And I want you to see a question that the book of Proverbs poses here.

It says, how long ye, and we’re going to move down to the bottom part of the verse. We’ll cut out the middle part of the verse because we want to get the flow here. How long ye fools will you hate knowledge?

I want to preach a message tonight, Are You a Fool? Back years ago I was in a Christian school there at my dad’s church, Marquette Manor, and in those early days of the Christian school there really was no way to pretty much do, nobody really had a handbook on how to do Christian schools, they would just do different things.

And I remember from time to time, I don’t know why, but it seemed like it was last period, every once in a while they’d have a fun time. And there’d be a bunch of skits, that’s of course loosely said, but anyway, there’d be a bunch of skits and there’d be a talent show which was actually funnier than the skits. But anyway, and we do different things.

And I remember, I don’t know what was going on. It was one of those times. And I believe I was either a junior or senior.

Upperclassmen seated in the back on this side of the auditorium there, the old chapel there at Marquette. And we had one of our teachers who was kind of just a funny guy and just card and liked to have a good time. And he was dressed up like a magician.

He lowered the lights and he kind of had a real spooky voice. And he said, I want to prove to you this morning or this afternoon, the power of suggestion. And he said, could I have a volunteer?

Now, there weren’t many that volunteered, in fact, just a smattering of hands, because nobody really knew what they were volunteering for, but he looked around like he was just looking, and he picked a guy up, which was a plant, which simply means he was a part of the gang. And so the guy came up, and he had a table set up, and he put the guy on this big eight-foot table.

That was back when those tables were really heavy duty, and he put that on that eight-foot table, and put a sheet over him, and he explained to the guy, as soon as I pull the sheet over you, I want you to sit up as fast as you can.

Then he explained, of course he could hear all this, he explained to the student body, what I want you to do is say as softly as you can and as slowly as you can, the words, you can’t sit up.

He said, then I want you to repeat them, say them a little bit faster, a little bit louder, and he said, at the very end I want you to be saying, scream at the top of your lungs as fast as you can, you can’t sit up, you can’t sit up. He said, I’m going to prove to you the power of suggestion. Well, it was last period.

We were in a festive mood, so pretty much the kids started saying, you can’t sit up. A little bit louder, you can’t sit up. A little bit faster, you can’t sit up.

Pretty soon we were screaming, you can’t sit up, you can’t sit up. And sure enough, he pulled that sheet off that guy, and the guy grimaced, and he clenched his teeth, act like he was trying to sit up, but he didn’t sit up. Now again, it was all part of the gag.

I mean, he could have sat up. He was just acting like he couldn’t. And so he had six guys come, and they carried them out like a board.

That’s what they did. Just carried them right out. And so he said, do I have another volunteer?

Well, now you’re getting more kids. Okay, yeah, I can do that. And kids are volunteering.

He’s looking around like he’s trying to find somebody. He picked somebody, which was also a plant. Okay, so the second guy comes up.

Same thing. Put him on the table. Put the sheet over him.

Begin the situation. You can’t sit up. A little bit louder, you can’t sit up.

A little bit faster, you can’t sit up. Pretty soon we get the fever pitch. You can’t sit up.

You can’t sit up. Pulls it off. Same guy.

I mean, different guys, same thing, you know, clenching his teeth, acting like he’s trying to sit up. He doesn’t sit up. Same six guys come carry him out like a board, okay?

Kind of like Acts chapter 5, okay, but anyway, and carry him out like a board, okay? But anyway, and so one last time he says, do I have one, some of you don’t believe it yet, he said, one more volunteer. Now, I will tell you, there was a freshman, they were sitting right in front of me, and there was one of those freshman kid, he bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

This kid honestly thought those guys could not sit up. So he was the kind of guy that spent all summer long doing push-ups. I mean, bench pressing.

I mean, the guy, honestly, he did look pretty ripped. He really did. He wasn’t real smart, but he was pretty strong.

You know what I’m talking about? And he was sitting over on this side. I can still remember he had his hand up like this.

He’d go, ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me, like that. Now, we juniors and seniors seated behind him, we had no idea what was going to happen. But we knew whatever was going to happen needed to happen to him.

You with me on this? Okay. Now, we were very spiritually minded in this.

We wanted the boy. He was proud. He needed a little humbling.

You know what I’m talking about? Ooh, ooh, pick me. Now, this is the kind of kid, you can always tell kids like this in Christian schools because they have sunburned armpits.

You know what I’m talking about? They walk around like this. You know what I’m talking about?

Flexing as they go. You know, that’s the kind of kid he was. He really was.

And so the teacher had real good crowd savvy, and he’s looking around. He sees all the seniors and juniors pointing to this kid. pick me.

And he kind of just acts like, oh, ran and picks the kid. Man, I’ll never forget that kid stood to his feet as cocky. And he looks at the entire student body and says, I’m going to beat this thing.

And he walks up. Of course, he had a kind of unusual gait. He didn’t walk normally.

He kind of walked like this, you know, kind of walked like this. And he’s coming up flexing while he’s coming up. You know what I’m talking about.

Some of you guys do it all the time. Okay. But anyway, and it’s kind of bad because most of you don’t look like you have much to flex.

But anyway, Okay, but anyway, he’s walking up like this, and we put some down, and puts the sheet over, and he pulls out a cream pie, right about where his face would be if he were to sit up. Now, I want to tell you, from the back of the auditorium to the front, there was 100% participation. I mean, you could see kids’ tonsils as we began to say, you can’t sit up.

A little bit louder, you can’t sit up. A little bit faster, you can’t sit up. Pretty soon, we’re screaming, you can’t sit up, you can’t sit up, and man, I’ll never forget it.

He pulled that sheet off that kid, that kid sat up like a lightning bolt right into that pie. That pie went 360 degrees. And I’m absolutely certain that that kid was glad he had whipped cream on his face.

Because I’m sure, because we laughed a whole lot louder than you did. We laughed and we laughed and we laughed. And I am sure he felt like a fool.

Now I got a question for you. Have you ever felt like a fool? Notice I did not give a personal illustration.

Okay, but I could have, and you could have too. There’s been times in our life when we have felt very foolish for whatever reason. But I’m telling you, friends, it’s one thing to feel like a fool, but it’s another one to be one.

The book of Proverbs deals with the subject of a fool over and over again. And honestly, we could preach every message on the fool these three days, and we would not exhaust it in the book of Proverbs. So what I’d like to do is ask two questions tonight, maybe a third as we come along.

The first one is, according to the Bible, are you a fool? And if you are, the second question is, how long? How long are you going to be a fool?

Because they’ve got really good news for you. You don’t have to leave a fool. You can come here a fool, but you don’t have to leave a fool.

The Bible even tells us how to get that taken care of. But first of all, you’ve got to answer the question, are you a fool? Because some of you, I’m not trying to be in kind, but send me in this room in a moment you’re going to find out according to the Bible you’re a fool.

So the question has got to be, well how long? How long he fools God says you’re going to hate knowledge. How long are you going to be a fool God is saying?

I will tell you friend more than once in my life I have to say according to the Bible I’m a fool. I need to do something about it. And my friend if you’re not a student of the Bible there’s times you’ve had to say you know what?

I am being foolish according to the Bible. I need to deal with this. So let’s just look at a few things and a few verses on the fool and then we’ll just come back to the remedy here at the chapter 1, we will not leave the book of Proverbs.

So, let’s go to Proverbs 14. Would you do that, Proverbs 14? And I want you to look at verse number 16.

Proverbs 14, I want you to look at verse number 16. The Bible says, A wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident. Okay, what does that verse mean?

Okay, what it’s saying is this, a wise teenager, let me just say it for you young people, a wise teenager fears what sin can do to scar in Mara’s life, and he departs from it. He says, no way, I’m not going there. But a foolish teenager rages.

That’s the idea. He rushes into sin. And is confident means he has no fear.

So, what the Bible is telling us here is a wise teenager fears sin and its consequences, and he departs from it. But a foolish teenager rushes right into evil and sinful activity, and he has no fear. Do you know, young people, obviously some fear is unhealthy.

I believe my wife tomorrow is going to be dealing with insecurity, and that’s some fears that come with that. A lot of young people struggle with. We realize that some fears are not healthy fears.

We understand that. But some fears are very healthy. There are some fears that have probably saved my life.

I remember years ago, my wife and I were just married a couple years, and we were driving from Chicago, Illinois, where I used to live. My parents still lived at the time. And I was driving down to Greenville, South Carolina, and for whatever reason, I took Route 41.

I think I was going to stop by, we’re going to stop by Murfreesboro or something, see my aunt and uncle at the time. I can’t remember, but I was going down Route 41, right south of Chicago. Some of you know where that is, in the state of Indiana.

And it was perfect condition for black ice. Now, most of you, how many of you know what I’m talking about, black ice? Okay, when I’m down in Florida, okay, the Florida people did not raise their hand.

I got to tell them what black ice is. No, some of them did. But I have to explain it sometimes as Southerners.

You Kentucky people, Tennessee people, you guys know where black ice is? Okay. It’s obviously when it’s about 30, it’s 33 up in the atmosphere, it comes down to planet Earth, it’s 31, 32, and that comes down as water and hits the road or hits the signs and it turns to ice.

Now all of us veteran Northerners know it’s extremely dangerous. So I grew up in Chicago, so I’m nervous about it. I know it’s, I’m seeing the icicles off the signs.

That’s your first indication you’ve got black ice, icicles coming off the road signs. And so I’m, you know, I’m concerned about it and kind of looking at the trucks going by and it seems like, you know, the water’s spinning off and looked like they had salted the roads and all that kind of stuff and everything seemed to be fine. So I’m driving down the road and everything seems to be okay.

And we crossed the county line, getting south of the metro area there. And when we did, the salt trucks had not salted up to that point. Now for any of you Southerners, up north we salt the roads.

I know you salt your food, we salt the roads.

okay but anyway kind of takes care of the ice okay but anyway so uh i drove across that county line and i’m telling you right now it was like driving onto a hockey rink i’m telling you the truth i had all of a sudden i realized my car is just doing this there is nothing gripping anything it’s kind of weird you’re thinking what do i do i don’t even know how to drive you just i’m just passively holding on i didn’t know what to do and

so pretty soon the car is turned completely sideways it’s taking up both lanes of traffic and it is sliding down the road i’m thinking this is different i’ve never done this before. Then the car completely turns around. I’m going backwards.

My wife and I are going backwards down the highway. I have to think quickly. We just kind of passed.

We didn’t know what to do. And so we slid off the road and went in between some signs and went down into a banquet and the car was about to flip when it hit the other side of the banquet and bounced back and we were fine. We had an adrenaline rush that probably took five years off our life, but we were fine.

Didn’t have any scrapes, no bruises, nothing. And so I get out of the car, felt like, you know, pretty foolish about it. And I’m just sitting there and somebody pulls up and says, can I take you down?

There’s a wrecker right down a couple miles down the road. And so my wife and I hopped in and we went down and got in a wrecker. And of course they were busy that morning and we hopped in and we had a two lane highway and so a divided highway.

And so we drove past the wreckage and we went up about a mile, came across the median and began to make our way back toward the accident. And when we did, I’ll never forget this. Right before we slid off the road, there was an embankment that went way down into a field.

And I’ll never forget the horror that went in the pit of my stomach because I realized that if we had left the road there, we would have rolled multiple times, I probably wouldn’t be here. Ever since that day, I’m gonna promise you something. I fear black ice.

Do you know that fear has maybe already saved my life? I was in Interstate 80 in the state of Iowa several years ago, and I’m going down the highway about 25 miles an hour. You say why?

Because I saw about 25 semis and contortions. You do not see semis. you know, like upside down, you know, on their side, jackknifed.

And I went for hours, 25 miles an hour. I’m going to tell you why, because I fear black eyes. You see, that’s not a bad fear.

See, when you fear some action and its consequences, you depart from it. You say, I’m not doing that. I’m not going to be the idiot that goes 55 miles down the road and ends up in a bad accident down the way.

Okay, so you understand that. Let me give you another example. Several years ago, I was back at Marquette there.

I was just a high school student, and we had a baseball team. hardball baseball team. And our team absolutely loved the game of baseball.

We stunk. We really did. But we loved the game.

And so we had no fans. You know what I’m talking about? No fans.

If we went to a game, we went alone. Okay. But that was okay.

And we always lost almost everything we played. But we loved the game. And so we were going down to a doubleheader down in Decatur, Illinois at a Christian school.

This was the early days of the Christian school movement. And our coach was driving the bus, an old, you know, school bus. And we’re coming down to what before Interstate 55 was even completely done.

So it had stops and it had railroad and whatever, for those of you familiar with Interstate 55. And so our coach came to a railroad gate and the gate was down and the lights were flashing. And I remember as we came up to that particular gate, we kind of waited and we waited and we waited.

And finally the coach, I’m not saying he should have done this, but he backed up the bus and he kind of went slalom like this around the gate. And when he did, we started to look down the railroad tracks. We were bored.

we didn’t have cell phones back then we’re all bored and we’re looking down the we’re looking down the railroad tracks and there was a train coming now it was only going about five miles an hour it was no danger to us but it was getting very close to the intersection so we all kind of gravitated to the back of the bus and we began to watch people who now saw this huge train you know it went for miles it was going to hold you up for

20 minutes and I mean people started trying to beat that train I mean guy you know just we’re sitting there thinking when’s this going to stop We’re kind of intrigued by it all. People are just doing the slalom, you know. And finally, I’ll never forget it.

The train was in the intersection when a semi-tractor trailer truck tried to beat the train. It was one of those moments we’re thinking, there’s no way he’s not going to make it. But we didn’t close our eyes.

We’re thinking, this is going to be cool. You know what I’m talking about? We’re high school kids.

You know how that goes. Now, fortunately for the driver, the cab did get past the railroad. I remember he hit his horn, and I don’t know if he had brakes or not, but man, that locomotive slammed right into the middle of the trailer part of that tractor traffic.

And when it did, I’m telling you, you would have thought that thing was made out of toothpicks. It just splintered it. It just went everywhere.

And there was a cargo of corn, and the corn just exploded up. It almost looked like slow motion. It really looked kind of cool, I’ll be honest with you.

It just exploded up. Of course, these days, you videotaped it and all that kind of stuff. But anyway, it’s just in my mind’s eye, and I remember all that.

But I will say this, that day I got a fear for not crossing railroad intersections when the lights are on or the gates are down. There’s been many times I’ve come to a gate, couldn’t see the train, maybe a rural railroad station where there’s no gate, there’s just flashing lights, and I have never gone through one. You know why?

Because I fear what locomotives can do going five miles an hour. That’s what I fear. See, that’s not necessarily a bad fear.

So the Bible is telling us, gang, I want you to understand this. what God is trying to help you understand, a fool has no fear of sin and its consequences. See, a wise teenager sees where looking at filth on the internet will do to sully his brain, to bring filth to his mind and destroy a foundation for a pure marriage.

He sees where that leads and he turns from it, he doesn’t go there. But a foolish teenager rushes right into looking at filth on the internet and they have no fear. A wise teenager fears what lying to his parents teachers or others would do to corrupt his integrity and hurt his walk with God and he departs from it saying no I’m going to be truthful but a foolish teenager rushes right into dishonesty deception and lying and they have no fear.

A wise teenager fears what cheating will do to again destroy his integrity, his walk with God and he departs from it saying no I’m not going to cheat but a foolish teenager rushes right into teaching, to cheating on class work, home school or Christian school or public school and they have no fear. See, friends, it doesn’t matter what the sin is. A wise teenager fears what alcohol, drugs will do to corrupt his life and he departs from it.

But a foolish teenager rushes right into using alcohol and drugs and they have no fear. See, the Bible is telling us a fool has no fear of sin and its consequences. But that brings us to point number two, Proverbs 26, would you do that?

Proverbs 26, please. Proverbs Proverbs 26, we’ll be looking at verse number 11. Very interesting verse of Scripture.

This is a very picturesque verse of Scripture, but I want you to see it. Here it is. It says, As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

Now, let’s just be honest. That’s picturesque. Now, I’ll be honest with you.

I have never seen a dog eat vomit. I’ve seen dogs eat pretty disgusting things, of which I’ll not go into, but I’ve never seen a dog eat vomit, but I have come close.

Several years ago, I was walking into a house, and they had the garage door up, and they were coming in for a meal, and we didn’t know the people, but they were from the church, and they were expecting us to come, and I’m walking through the garage, and I look down on the garage floor, and there was something that kind of looked like oatmeal, is what it looked like. It was like this, but it was on the floor, like this.

It was about two inches high, and it was, of course, graded it out, and it was circular. It was irregular, but it was circular. You know what I’m talking about.

And so I’m walking by, I’m looking at that, and most of the time in garages, you don’t see stuff like that. And so I looked at the owner of the house, and I said, what’s that? He laughs.

He said, oh, he said, my dog. He just threw up. So I asked the follow-up question, which I think is an obvious follow-up question.

I said, well, aren’t you going to clean it up? He said, no, man. He said, the dog will do that.

Now, this time, I’m just really not interested in meditating on that. I’m about to go in and eat a meal, which I’m hoping is not a casserole at this point. You know what I’m talking about?

So we get in there. I can’t remember what the meal was. We eat the meal like sponge, of course, those thoughts from my mind.

And I walked out the door, and when I came back in the garage, I thought, you know, I had a nice meal. I wonder if the dog did. And I remember walking over to where I remember that place to be, and I’m telling you, to use the oatmeal analogy, there was not a grain left.

It was gone. There was nothing but a wet spot where it used to be. Now, I don’t know about you, that’s kind of gross.

What do you think, if I can use a teenage word? Now, if you work in youth ministry, you have vomit stories. I could tell you vomit stories all night, but I probably have some fresh ones that I’m talking about.

I remember one time I was telling some vomit stories at a Christian camp in Colorado, and all of a sudden I heard a gagging sound, and there was a little commotion over here, and I’m telling you, some kid had lost his breakfast, and he’d lost it. Kid, he was wearing a hoodie, and he’d lost it in the kid’s hood. I was just right in the kid’s hood.

It was like great. I’m thinking, man, that is great. What a vomit story.

That one will, you can tell that one. That was unbelievable. But I’m telling you, my all-time favorite.

We were in 1994. We were in Williston, Vermont. I’m leaning against the wall and watching my two guys do a comedy routine that I do not allow them to do anymore.

Haven’t probably allowed it in 20 years. It’s called Café Le Chou. And Café Le Chou is this French cafe, and the customer comes in, and he sits down.

The waiter sits him down, kind of has a fake French accent, and sits him down and says, you know, what would you like? He orders usually an appetizer. Usually we did carrot sticks or celery sticks, something like that.

And then the waiter would say, how would you like them chewed? Would you like them lightly chewed, medium chewed, or watered down? And the customer would just flippantly say, well, I’d like them lightly chewed.

And so the waiter would take a carrot stick and go chop, chop, chop, spit, chop, chop, chop, spit, and the carrot sticks would come down on the plate and the customer would eat them. I mean, it was no sleight of hand. It was the real deal.

And I mean, kids are starting to gross out a little bit. And then he would say, what do you want main dish? And he says, you know, usually a hot dog or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

That was what we would use. And he’d come back and he said, how do you want it chewed? Lightly chewed, medium chewed or watered down?

And the customer kind of says, well, why don’t you medium chew it this time? And so he takes three or four bites, you know, his cheeks are bulging out and he chews on a, but when it comes out, it’s like a ball and has teeth marks all over it and drops down on the plate and the customer eats it. I’m telling you all the truth.

And I’m sitting over here watching that kids are starting to freak out. You know, there’s a reaction going. Of course, guys love the reaction.

And then he said, what do you want for dessert? And usually for dessert, they would do a brownie. Brownies were great.

And so he’d bring the brownie back and said, how do you do? Want to, you know, lightly chewed, medium chewed? Water it down this time.

He’d go, water it down, baby. And I’m telling you, he’d stick the whole brownie in his mouth. He’d chew on it.

He’d chew on it some more. Just when you think he’s going to spit it out, he’d chew on it some more. And I’m telling you, when he spit it out, it didn’t look like a brownie.

It looked like chocolate pudding. And I mean, it dropped out on the plate. There was brown saliva all the way around that little.

And I’m telling you, the customer would but they weren’t done. Then the waiter would bring back a glass of water and said, how do you want it? Swish, washed, or gargled.

And he said, why don’t you gargle it? And he’d take as much as you can put in your mouth. You hear him, you know, like that, and spits it back in.

Brownie pieces are swimming around, carrot sticks, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and the customer would drink it. Kind of a dumb skit, don’t you think? You know why I don’t allow it anymore.

But anyway, I’m sitting over here. I’m leaning against this.

crowd is going absolutely bananas, and I’m sitting here watching it, and right on the front row of you, this is the skit, right over here would be the front row, and all of a sudden on the end of the front row, I heard it, a gagging sound, and I remember I just turned my gaze from what’s going on the skit over to that end of the row, and have you ever seen something, and it’s like a digital camera, that frame in your brain, and that’s exactly

what happened, what I saw was this, a poor little junior high kid, hands on his stomach. I don’t know if you know this, when you throw up, your stomach kind of intensives, but he had his hands on his stomach, his mouth was wide open, and the vomit began about three inches from his mouth. That was the first frame I got, and it was about, I will tell you, about a foot and a half, two feet long.

And the best way to describe it, for all you geography people, it looked like Nova Scotia. That’s what it looked like, okay? Looked exactly like that.

And so it’s about a foot and a half long like that. It hadn’t hit the ground yet. It hadn’t hit the ground yet.

It’s suspended in air. That’s the first thing I saw, and I’ll never forget that. And when it hit the ground, it wasn’t like a pancake.

It was like dominoes. It went like, just like that. And I am telling you, poor kid ran.

He runs out. Place is going absolutely up for grabs. And I began to notice something.

There was a wall of aroma that began to sweep across the room. Kids were jumping over chairs to get away from them. Now, I’m going somewhere with this, so please understand.

I’m going somewhere. Adults, just hang tight. Close your ears.

Okay. Do you know what no teenagers did? Not a teenager in that room grabbed a spoon and came up.

Oh, a hot meal, not one. You say, why in the world would you tell all these vomit stories? And the answer is, because I want you to think about the revulsion of vomit.

Because that’s what God’s trying to do here. He’s trying to say, just like a dog goes back and does something that’s absolutely disgusting to a human being, that’s what a fool does. He goes back to his folly.

Oh, you say, preacher, you’re talking about the kids last year made a decision at the generation of youth summit then went back to their sinful ways. Not necessarily. In fact, I think maybe what this is is when the Holy Spirit of God convicts a young person or adult for that matter, do you know what He does?

He helps you see your sin in a certain sense like He does. And my friend, if you could see your sin from God’s perspective, it would be revolting and disgusting. And Holy Spirit conviction begins to give you some understanding disgusting and revolting your sin is.

But you know what a fool does? Even after Holy Spirit conviction, he goes back to it. So a fool goes back to his sin after God convicts him of it.

I’m not sure that emphasis is making a decision and going back on it. I think the issue is God convicts you and instead of responding to the Holy Spirit, you go back to your folly. A fool goes back to his sin after God deals with him about the wickedness and the disgusting nature of his sin, number two.

Number three, let’s go back to Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs 13 and verse number 19. Proverbs 13 and verse number 19.

There’s another characteristic of a fool. Let’s notice quickly. It says here in verse 19, the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, but it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.

Now that brings me to a third point, and that’s this. Fools hate to get right with God. Fools hate to get right with God.

It’s abomination for fools to depart from evil. I’ve been, a few times, I’ve been in a Christian school where it came out later that literally going around the Christian school was pressure and saying, don’t make a decision. Now it hasn’t happened often, but it has happened.

And you can always almost sense it. It’s kind of funny because of those cases, they were all into the competition. They were all into the games.

But when it came to preaching, you could sense the resistance. You could have cut it. See, God says when a man says, I’m not responding to God.

I’m not making a decision. I’m not going to do what God wants me to do. God says that man’s a fool.

I remember several years ago when I was short time as a youth pastor and just helping my dad out as an interim youth pastor before I went back to graduate school. We sent some buses down to the camp in Middle Tennessee and had a guy’s bus and a girl’s bus.

And as I understand it, because I was actually not able to go on the trip someone else went, but as I understand it, there were a group of young men in the back of the bus who got together, about seven, eight young men got together in the back of the bus. And the leader got up and said, okay, guys, nobody’s making a decision at camp. You get that?

And if you crack, you owe everybody else in this group a steak dinner. You got that? Now, you have to understand, this was not Texas Roadhouse.

This was Ponderosa, okay, which is a totally different definition of steak. But anyway, so you may not understand that, but all the older people do. Okay, but anyway, they say, if you crack, you’re going to owe everybody else in this group a steak dinner.

And all, I think, eight of them agreed to do that. Well, these guys made a terrible mistake. They forgot about something they should not have forgot about, and that was the Holy Spirit.

Man, when they got to camp, I was Dr. Paul Levine and Dr. Ron Comfort, and I’m telling you, I’m telling you, those guys got shredded up one side and down the other.

On Wednesday, the first guy cracked. He got saved. How would you like to be a part of a covenant that was trying to keep a kid from getting saved?

Wednesday, the first guy got saved, and then like Thursday, they were dropping like flies. On Friday, there was one guy left. He had seven steak dinners coming to me.

He’s the one who told me the story. He said, Preacher, I was walking around camp. I had seven steak dinners coming to me.

And he said, but I was absolutely miserable. on Friday night he got right with God. May I tell you friend, every one of those guys came to Camp Fools, but hallelujah they didn’t leave Camp Fools.

Now I’m not trying to be unkind, but some of you young people in this room, you’ve come here fools. But you don’t have to leave fools, we’re going to come to that in a moment. Now let me show you one other thing, or a couple other things here.

Look at Proverbs 14 and verse number 9. Here’s another definition, another thing of a fool. Proverbs 14 and verse number 9, it says, fools make a mock at sin.

Do you know when a man tells a dirty joke, he’s letting everybody know that he’s a fool? Anybody tells a dirty joke, he’s a fool. Anybody laughs at a dirty joke, they’re a fool.

If you laugh when somebody’s sarcastic about the teacher and disrespectful to the teacher, you’re a fool. See, fools laugh at things that aren’t funny. Do you know sin puts people in hell?

Anybody that laugh at sin is a fool. Anybody that laugh at something and put people in hell is a fool. You see that?

That’s pretty easy to see. Fools, God says, make a mock at sin. I’m telling every kid in this room who tells dirty jokes, you’re a fool.

You’re an absolute fool. You laugh at dirty jokes, you’re a fool. Some of you do.

You go to the Christian school, into the locker room, somebody tells a dirty joke just to be cool. You laugh, you’re a fool. The guy telling the joke’s a fool, you’re a fool for laughing.

See, God says it very clearly that any time that people laugh, you watch some dirty sitcom, tell me your buddies and talk about the humor on some dirty sitcom, God says you’re playing the part of a fool. Now let’s move to the next one. I want you to see a consequence here in Proverbs 13 verse 20.

You should be right about the same spot. 13 verse 20. It says, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Now I want you to see, we’ve asked the first question is, are you a fool? The second question I want to ask you is, do you hang around fools? See the first one was, are you a fool?

Some of you had to say, yeah preacher I am a fool. You’re looking at pornography at night on your cell phone, you’re a fool. You’re disrespectful to your parents, you’re a fool.

You sneak behind your parents back, you’re a fool. You cheat on a test, don’t get it right with your teacher, you’re a fool. You lie to your parents, you’re a fool.

See, you’ve got to answer the question, first of all, are you a fool? And some of you say, according to the Bible, yeah, I’m a fool. The second question then is, do you hang around fools?

The Bible says if you walk with wise men, you should be wise. You know what I’ve learned? You hang around people smarter than you, it rubs off on you.

It’s kind of nice. I will tell you, I love hanging around wise people because they’ll say wise things. And you think, well, that’s good.

That’s really good. I’ve got to remember that. That’s helpful.

But God says you hang around a fool, you’ll be destroyed. Now please hear me. You do not have to be six feet under the ground to be destroyed.

You can be walking on two good legs and have your life destroyed. I’m talking to young people in this room heading for destruction. You know why?

Because you hang around fools. Man tells a dirty joke who’s a fool. You’re a companion of him, you will be destroyed.

there’s young people in this room you say well preacher I’m not a fool but the truth is you hang around them and I will tell you I’ll be honest with you I’m going to mention this because I think I should we received a letter I don’t know a little while ago from a mother who sent her daughter up here to the V generation youth summit and I will tell you you know what that young lady did she met another fool and I’m telling you unfortunately that

other fool is in the process of destroying her daughter Listen, just wake up, smell the coffee, because some of these people in this room right now, young person, are fools. Don’t be foolish enough to hang around them. Doesn’t take long to pick up who a fool is.

And if you’re a fool, you’ll probably be drawn to fools. But God says you will be destroyed. You say, preacher, why are you preaching this thing so hard?

Because I don’t tell you, in 37 years of ministry, I’ve found you hanging around fools, you’ll be destroyed. I remember I was in a Christian school in the state of West Virginia. a dear man in the church came to me and said, Brother Van Gelder, and he said, this week I’d like to come down and pick you up.

Will you have a few minutes? I want to show you something. I had no idea what he was going to show me.

He pulled his pickup truck into the parking lot. If you’ve ever been to West Virginia, that’s a normal mode of transportation. He pulled his pickup truck into the parking lot, said, Preacher, you got a few minutes?

I said, yeah, you know, actually I do. We drove up on his property, went past his home, and went up a little ways, and he got out of the truck, and we walked up a little knoll, and the knoll had trees completely around it, but on the top there were no trees. We got to the top, and I looked down, and I realized there was a grave on the top of the hill.

He said, that’s my son. He was 16 when he died. He said, I want to tell you the story.

He said he went to the Christian school down the hill here. He said, the one you’re ministering to, and he said he met a young man who was a fool. So for whatever reason, the young man was still in the school.

And he said, he said, my son was just a simple young man. He was a good young man, had a good heart, but he was simple. And he was easily influenced.

He would teach Sunday school. He’d do anything for anybody. He’d help people down at the church.

Everybody loved him. Said one night, the fool, foolish young man, said to my son, hey, let’s go out Friday night. And so his son went through the dad and said, Dad, so-and-so wants to go out here for a little bit.

And he said, is he a good guy? Is he a good guy? Is this going to be okay?

And unfortunately his son said, oh yeah, he’s okay. Now young person, you learn this. You cannot level with your parents about who you’re hanging around with and one day you will regret it.

If you’ve got a brain between your ears, you’re going to level about the people you want to hang around with so your parents can have some wisdom in what they say or do. And if your parents say don’t hang around them, use your brain and don’t hang around them. But unfortunately, oh, he’s okay, Dad.

He’s okay. He’s a good guy. If he had not made those statements, he’d probably still be alive.

Well, the fool challenged this young man to a drag race. This is West Virginia. It’s not flat.

Challenged him to a drag race, and so obviously the fool takes the lane you should be in, and this young man who was what I would call simple took the lane you shouldn’t be in. As they were speeding down the road, they crested a hill, and there was a car coming from the opposite direction. There was a head-on collision, and this young man was killed.

I’m going to tell you why he was destroyed. Because he was hanging around a fool. Listen, I just want to tell you right now, at the DGNU Summit, you can meet fools here.

I’m telling you, you ought to use your brain. I’m not hanging around a fool. He tells a dirty joke.

He’s off-color. Man, I’m not hanging around him. I’m not going to be a companion of fools.

So the first question is, are you a fool? The second question is, do you hang around fools? But the third question, go back to Proverbs chapter number 1.

Proverbs chapter number 1 and we’ll finish. Proverbs chapter number 1, let’s look at verses 20 through, well actually just look at verse 22. We already talked about wisdom cries without, but look what it says here.

It says, how long ye fools will you hate knowledge? So the first question is, are you fools? Some of you have to say yes.

Some of you are going to have to say number two, yeah I’m hanging around fools. And here’s what God’s saying, okay how long are you going to be a fool? Because you’re hanging around fools, you are a fool.

That’s what God’s helping us see. So God’s saying, how long? How long are you going to hate knowledge?

How long are you going to be a fool? And then God tells us what to do about it. Look at this.

Turn ye at my reproof. So God says, here’s what I need to do. I’m going to be convicting you.

I’m going to be dealing with you. I’m going to confront you with Bible truth. I’m going to give you wisdom from the Word of God.

Here’s what you need to do. Turn at my reproof. And God says, I’ll do two things.

Behold, I will pour out my spirit. Let me just read it exactly. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you.

Now, I recognize we live in a different dispensation, and I recognize if you’re saved, the Holy Spirit already lives in you. I get that. So, I would say that what this is saying is, when you deal with your sin, guess what?

The Holy Spirit who lives in you is no longer grieved, and He’s no longer quenched, and the Holy Spirit becomes real to you. So, here’s what God says. Turn out my reproof, and God Almighty will become real to you.

You know one of the things that has marked this fall, I’ve been in four different meetings, our team has been in more than that, but I’ve been in four of those meetings. The thing that I think has marked the fall is young people who experience the reality of the Lord Jesus in their life. And you know when it happened?

When they were turning from His reproof. When young people get broken over their sin, get broken, maybe go to mom and dad and get some things right, or get right with a teacher, or whatever they’ve got to do. Man, they’re on their knees, maybe confessing sin, maybe for asking God to deal with the bitterness in their heart.

And you know what happens? God marches through the door and He shows up. You know what I found?

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. God shows up at the strangest times. You get broken before God and I’m telling you, God will show up.

He’ll say, I’ll make, behold, I’ll pour out my spirit into you. Then He says this, I’ll make no my words into you. In other words, the Bible will become alive.

You know why? Because you’re no longer grieving the teacher. You’re no longer grieving the author.

And when that happens, friends, the Bible comes alive and there’s things you begin to learn. and the Spirit of God teaches you. And wow, so here’s what God’s saying.

How long am I going to be a fool? You know what you need to do? Turn it my reproof.

God says the Holy Spirit will become real to you. The Word of God will become alive to you. Turn it my reproof.

I remember in 1996 we began our very first War of Special Forces tour, which is our ministry in Christian schools. That entire tour we had 13 meetings, which is a lot of meetings, and 13 meetings. So 13 times I heard one of our team members give his testimony, I’m always right there.

He’s going to give his testimony. I’ll preach right after. I believe it was the Thursday testimony and the young man was named was Brian.

Brian talked about the fact when he was in junior high at a large Christian school in the southeastern part of the United States man he got right with God. I mean got saved I should say. And for a while he began to live for God.

But he said when he became a freshman, don’t miss this two things became more important than being right with God. Number one his music and number two don’t miss this his friends. He said those things became more important than being right with God.

And you know what the truth was? Brian was now not only a fool, he was hanging around him. Fortunately, after his sophomore year, he went off to a large Christian camp in the southeast.

And it was a Thursday, and I don’t know why it’s always a Thursday, but it was a Thursday night. The preacher preached, and it’s a well-known message. I’ve heard of this message.

And the preacher preached, and to be honest with you, it doesn’t really match what Brian was going through, but the Holy Spirit uses anything. It’s amazing. And so he preached that message, and Brian was sitting right out there, and sitting right, Brian was hearing five of his friends before he’d get to the aisle.

That night, Brian, I remember he talked about his testimony. He says, that night, he said, I didn’t care anymore. He said, I was sick of not being right with God.

He said, that night I turned, I walked in front of those five friends, and I left them. He did not only leave them literally, he left them spiritually. He said, I’m done.

He came down that aisle, tears streaming down his face. He grabbed the camp director’s hand. So I’m turning him aside to another counselor who dealt with him.

And Brian would describe it this way. He said, I was going this direction. I came into the service and he said, an hour or whatever and 15 minutes later, I came out of the service going a completely opposite direction.

He said, the next year I really struggled to get victory over my music. He said, I wasn’t completely in victory. But he said, there was a difference.

And the difference was this, I wanted victory. He said, by the time I was a senior in high school, he said, I was living in complete victory over the wrong kind of music and my friends. And he said, God sent a revival to our Christian school.

And I know a little bit about that revival, and it is still being felt in the lives of some of those young people touched by it who are now serving the Lord across the globe. Brian is a pastor in the state of Georgia, preaches every Sunday from the Word of God. Now here’s the point.

You know, one day he went down and walked into a camp service, just like some of you come to the generation you some, he walked in a fool. But he heard the word of God, and you know what he did? He turned at God’s reproof.

And do you know what God’s done in his life? The Holy Spirit’s become real to him, and the Bible’s come alive. And his life is forever changed.

He’s not lived it perfectly, nobody does. But he would tell you, my direction has forever been altered. You see, friends, are you a fool?

Do you hang around fools? So how long? How long are you going to be a fool?