Don’t Live A Foolish Life
Sermon Notes
Today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Psalms. It’s a series about giving us melodies of encouragement for everyday life, and the Psalm we’re studying today is about a foolish life...It’s about not living a foolish life...We’ve all had moments where we’ve said something, did something, made some foolish decisions that left us saying, “Well that was foolish...What I said, what I did, what I decided in that moment was foolish.”
For example I was foolish last week, to think the Giants would have a good season, only to watch them get crushed by the Cowboys 45-0...I was foolish in high school, when I egged my science teacher’s brand new car, with 3 dozen eggs...I was foolish when my kids were 1, 2, and 4 yrs old, and I made a snarky comment to my wife that taking care of the kids at home wasn’t hard work...I’m lucky to still be alive after that foolish comment...But instead of shanking me she said “Okay, then you try managing the house for a day.” So I accepted the challenge, and it was complete chaos! I kept injuring my feet stepping on Lego explosions, one of the kids kept crying, a diaper filled with poo got dragged across the carpet, and our dog kept trying to eat it. It was a chaotic mess, and I never made a foolish comment like that again...But what about you?... Have you ever said something foolish before?...Have you ever said something, did something, made foolish decisions in the past, or even recently?...Today’s Psalm is about not living a foolish life. It’s about avoiding the most foolish decision we could ever make in our daily lives. So let’s turn to Psalm 14 and get into it. You’ll find Psalms in the middle of the bible, and we’ll be in Psalm 14:1-7. Title of the message is Don’t Live A Foolish Life. The big idea is if God exists, it’s foolish to live and act like he doesn’t...If God exists, it’s foolish to live and act like he doesn’t...
Here’s your context. The book of Psalms is an Old Testament biblical hymnbook, that contains various songs and prayers to encourage us. They’re written by Old Testament historical leaders expressing their real, raw honest emotions we can all relate with. Psalm 14 is considered a lament wisdom Psalm written by King David, and it’s about people who are living a foolish life. It’s about people who are living and acting like God doesn’t exist. So let’s check it out.
Psalm 14:1-7 states, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Notice David isn’t focusing on the mind, he’s focusing on the heart. It’s because we can be intellectual in our mind, but still foolish in our heart. We can be intellectual and know the right things to do in our minds, but still do the wrong things and make foolish decisions driven by emotions in our hearts. We can be foolish in our minds too, but the focus here is mostly on being foolish in our hearts. It’s mostly on people believing there’s no God in their hearts, which includes dogmatic atheists and practical atheists. Adogmatic atheist is a person who believes God doesn’t exist in both their mind and heart. They may have intellectual reasons for not believing, but their reasons are often driven by emotions in their heart. Some struggle emotionally with not wanting to give up certain things or certain sins. Some struggle emotionally with the death of people they love. Some struggle emotionally with suffering they’ve experienced and others have experienced. Their reasons for believing God doesn’t exist in their mind, is being driven by emotional struggles in their heart. So a dogmatic atheist is a person who believes God doesn’t exist, in both their mind and heart.
Now a practical atheist is a person who believes God exists in their mind, but lives like he doesn’t exist in their heart. They believe God exists in their mind, but rarely focuses on God in their mind or heart. Most people living in Orlando are practical atheists. It’s people saying they believe God exists, but then living daily life like he doesn’t. This can also include Christians whenever we say we believe in Jesus, but then live daily life like he doesn’t exist. We’re living like practical atheists whenever we live daily life like Jesus isn’t present in our marriage, in our parenting, in our work, in our schools, in our finances, in our daily lives. In fact a great question to ask if you’re a Christian, is are you living like a practical atheist?... Are you living daily life like God doesn’t exist?...What areas in your life are you living and operating like God isn’t present?...David’s saying we’re being foolish when we live like God doesn’t exist in our daily lives. Both dogmatic and practical atheists are being foolish when we live like God doesn’t exist in our hearts. But the worse fools are Christians, because we should know better than to treat the God we love, like he doesn’t exist.
Again vs. 1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt; they do vile deeds.” What we’re learning here is it’s foolish to live like God doesn’t exist, because it leads to doing vile deeds. Why? It’s because our moral compass gets thrown off. Our moral compass, our moral standards and moral restraint always declines, when God isn’t the one driving our moral compass. Without God our moral compass leads down a path of moral relativity, which is where each person defines whatever moral standards they want, and uses moral restraint whenever they want. So instead of God being the moral compass in our hearts, we decide whatever we want in our own hearts. This always leads to moral decline, because it means we can’t have any consistent societal moral standards. There’s a guy named Arthur Allen Leff who graduated from Harvard Law School and later became a professor at Yale Law School. He’s well known for his articles on examining if normative law and morality can exist, and here’s what he concluded. Leff states, “In the absence of God, who among us ought to be able to declare a law that should be obeyed?...Either God exists, or he doesn’t. But if he doesn’t, nobody can take his place.” His point is without God we can’t have any normative law or moral standards everybody should follow. Without God all we have is moral relativity, it’s personalized opinions we can’t impose on anybody to follow. It means moral standards are fluid, and people can define whatever moral standards they want.
So without God our moral standards decline, but our moral restraint also declines. It’s because people don’t have to have any moral restraint if their moral standards are fluid. They can just change their moral standards whenever they want, to fit whatever desires they want. This is exactly what’s happening in our country today when it comes to issues like gender identity, biological males in women’s sports, the indoctrination and sexualization of children in schoolbooks. It’s societal moral decline coming from the moral fluidity of being and doing whatever desires are in our hearts. Without God our moral compass always leads to a path of moral relativity and moral fluidity. It leads to a decline in moral standards and moral restraint. It leads to vile deeds, in our personal lives, our families, our entire society. David says when we’re living like God doesn’t exist in our hearts, it leads to doing vile deeds in our lives.
Again vs. 1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race, to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. 3 All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.”What we’re learning here is that it’s foolish to live like God doesn’t exist because it leads to doing vile deeds, but it also leads to thinking we’re good people doing good deeds. It leads to thinking we’re better than we are, but David says there’s no one who does good. In vs 2 he says the Lord looks at the entire human race, but doesn’t see any good people doing good deeds, with 100% pure motives. Even Jesus said in Luke 18:19, “No one is good, except God alone.” In other words there’s no such thing as a good person, because the moment you do something bad you can’t claim you’re good anymore. I mean if you’re really a good person, then good should always flow out of you. But you did something bad, so you can’t claim you’re good anymore.
This is a major issue for getting into heaven, if you think being a good person doing good deeds is what gets you into heaven. Nobody’s getting into heaven if that’s true, because like Jesus said nobody’s good, except God alone. The point is we’re foolish if we think we’re good people, especially in comparison to God. Christians are at least willing to admit they’re fools in comparison to God. We’re willing to admit we sometimes live like God doesn’t exist and do sinful vile deeds, which is why we love Jesus for doing the greatest of deeds when he died for our sins on the cross. We’re willing to admit we need Jesus, because we aren’t as good as we think we are. So the bigger fool in this case isn’t the Christian, it’s the person who can’t admit they aren’t a good person. It’s the person who thinks they’re better than they are. It’s the person who thinks they don’t need Jesus for daily life and eternal salvation.
Vs. 4, “Will evildoers never understand? They consume my people as they consume bread; they do not call on the Lord. 5 Then they will be filled with dread, for God is with those who are righteous. 6 You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the Lord is his refuge.” David’s saying the foolish life leads to a dreadful life. When we live like God doesn’t exist it leads to vile deeds, it leads to thinking we’re better than we are, but it also leads to a dreadful life. In vs 6 he says it doesn’t end well for those who keep thinking and living like they don’t need the Lord as their refuge. It doesn’t end with the grace of God in heaven, it ends with the dreadful wrath of God in hell. The only chance they have, is to ask the Lord to forgive them for the foolish life they’re living. It’s to seek refuge, in the Lord.
Vs. 7, “Oh that Israel’s deliverance would come from Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.” David’s pleading for Israel’s deliverance and restoration from the evildoers he mentions in vs 4. He says deliverance will come from Zion, which is the name of one of the hills in Jerusalem. It’s the place where the temple was, and they’d go there to seek deliverance and restoration in the Lord. Jesus refers to himself as the temple of Zion when he says in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and I’ll raise it up again in three days.” What Jesus is saying is he’s the God who came from Zion to be destroyed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and to rise again on the third day for the restoration of our lives. He came to deliver us from the dreadful life we deserve for our sins, but also to restore us to an eternally joyful life we don’t deserve with him. If you don’t believe that in your mind and heart, Psalm 14 says a dreadful life is coming for you. If you keep living your life without the Lord, then a dreadful life in hell without the Lord is coming.
Now if you’re a Christian, you won’t experience a dreadful life in hell since Jesus already saved you from that. But if you keep living like a practical atheist, if you keep living like Jesus doesn’t exist in your daily life, you’ll experience a dreadful life in your daily life. If you keep living like Jesus doesn’t exist in your marriage and family, you’ll experience a dreadful life in your marriage and family. If you keep living like Jesus doesn’t exist in your work and school, you’ll experience a dreadful life in your work and school. If we keep living like Jesus doesn’t exist in our country, we’ll experience a dreadful life in our country. So even though Christians won’t experience a dreadful life in hell, we can experience a dreadful life on earth. We can miss out on living an abundantly joyful life with Jesus in this life, when we’re living like practical atheists hardly seeking Jesus in daily life. So what areas in your life are you living like a practical atheist?...What areas are you experiencing a dreadful life?... Whatever those areas are, bring Jesus into those dreadful parts of your life...In the words of Danny Akin, “We’re often closer to acting like a fool than we think. When we persist in sin, close our ears and heart to God, we are fools. When we attempt to live without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are fools. When we attempt to live without prayer, we are fools. When we attempt to satisfy ourselves with anything or anyone other than Jesus, we are fools. When we claim to be the masters of our own destinies, we are fools. The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ But the wise says in his heart, ‘There is a God, and his name is Jesus.’”
The big idea is if God exists, it’s foolish to live and act like he doesn’t...If God exists, it’s foolish to live and act like he doesn’t...Psalm 14 teaches we’re foolish if we think we don’t need God. We’re foolish if we think we can keep living daily life like God doesn’t exist. There is a God, his name is Jesus, and if you don’t believe in him, a dreadful life is coming. But if you put your faith in him, he’ll deliver you and restore you from the foolish life that leads to a dreadful end.
For those of us who are Christians, if he loved us enough to die for us, then we should love him enough to live for him! If we believe walking through daily life with Jesus is important, then let’s live like it is. If we believe sharing the eternal hope of Jesus is important, then let’s live like it is. If we believe Jesus is important, then let’s live like he is. Let’s live daily life seeking his guidance, instead of living daily life hardly seeking his guidance. Let’s live daily life walking with him as our living savior, instead of living daily life walking without him like dogmatic and practical atheists without a savior. Let’s pray like the old hymn saying, “Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace...Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave, the God I love. Take my heart, oh take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”