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Next Sunday. Two years old, everybody.
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I guess you don't like your church.
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I said two years old.
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So come ready to celebrate. Bring somebody with you. It's gonna be incredible. And next week, we're closing out the I'm Too Smart for this series. Come for the series finale. Amen. Don't say all. Next year. We're spending a block. We're doing Ecclesiastes next year, so we'll be back in wisdom literature next year. All right, let's go to the Word of God. Proverbs, chapter 26, verse number 11. I got a short time and a long way to go, so don't hold all your Amens to the middle. Throw them all out at the beginning. Here it is. This is Solomon. He says, as a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat. I want to stop the reading of Scripture today and talk from this topic in our time together. I'm not going back. Clap your hands, everybody, if you. I'm not going back. Can we do this? Can we take a stroll? A stroll down memory lane? Amen. Can we take a stroll? Y'all say what's up to our New Jersey family? Let's say what's up to our New Jersey family? Let's take a stroll down memory lane. Y'all know I was reared and raised in a small town called Killmichael, Mississippi. But I went to college at a small liberal arts school in Jackson, Mississippi, called Millsaps College. And I played basketball there. And my freshman year, I didn't get on the court much. I was on the team. Why y'all laughing? Karen, why you laughing? I was on the team, but I wasn't on the court. So after my freshman year, I'm like, man, I gotta get better. I need a trainer. But the way my finances were set up, I couldn't get a trainer. And it wasn't a big Division 1 school. It was a small Division 3 school. So there wasn't a lot of resources thrown into the athletic department. And so I'm in this quandary. I need a trainer, but I'm so broke, my wallet text me and said, we breaking up. So one of my cousins, who was almost like a brother to me, was going into his third year at Morehouse College. And so he said. We were having a conversation. He said, hey, okay, you're trying to improve your skills so that you can get on the court more. Why don't you come to Atlanta? I got an apartment in. I think it was called East Point. I'm not even asking what that Means anyway. So I'm like, okay. He said, there's this place, it's open 24 7, and some of the best basketball players in the off season, they come there and play. It's called run and shoot. So I can get you access to run and shoot. That way you can play with some of the best players in the South. It's going to improve your skills. And I got two jobs for you. I work at a summer camp in Marietta from 9 to 5, and then I work from 8 to 12 for this company that's contracted by UPS to load and unload the planes. Now, I said, okay, I'm in. So I come to Atlanta the summer after my freshman year of college, and I work in the day at the camp in Marietta, and then at night, I work for this company that's contracted by UPS to load and unload planes. And if you're wondering what the sermonic implications of this story are. Being raised in Riard in Kilmichael, Mississippi, I didn't see a lot of planes. As a matter of fact, at that point in my life, I had never been on one. So my professional experience was also practical education for me, because I'm looking at the plains, and I noticed something back then that has implications for us right now. Somebody asked the preacher, what is it? I noticed that planes couldn't go backwards on their own. That if a plane went backwards, it had to be pushed backwards. That when a plane landed, it could.
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Go forward on its own, but it.
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Could not go backwards on its own. Because here's the lesson. The things that fly high don't go backwards easy. And I want to know, am I talking to anybody in the room that has a revelation of your existence and you realize and recognize, I have not been called to be a car. I've been called to be a plane. I want to fly high emotionally.
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I want to fly high relationally. I want to fly high spiritually. I want to fly high professionally. I want to fly high mentally. I want to fly high financially. Well, here, ladies and gentlemen, is something that we need to take in consideration if we want to live at high altitudes.
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If you want to go high, you can't go back.
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Did you hear what I just said, Pastor? Where did you get this from?
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I got it from Proverbs.
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I got it.
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I was reading a statement that this.
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Sage named Solomon makes in Proverbs, chapter.
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Number 20, 26, verse number 11.
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Solomon says something so interesting here. He says, are y'all ready for this? I said, are you ready for This. I didn't say it. This is what Solomon said. Solomon said, as a dog returns to vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Now watch this. Solomon is not calling people dogs. He's using dogs as an example, as an analogy, as a metaphor to get humans to evaluate their behavior. He's not calling them a dog. He's saying, when a dog does this, that's the equivalent of you doing that. So he says, dogs. Watch this. He's saying dogs, especially in the ancient near east, they're undomesticated, they're not trained. And he says their instinct causes them to keep going back to what made them sick.
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Wait, where's my.
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I'm just trying to find my sick. I'm going to say it again. He's not calling people dogs, but he's using dogs as an analogy, as a.
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Metaphor to get people to reflect on.
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To think about their behavior. And he says, as a dog returns.
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To vomit, so fools repeat their folly.
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The dog's instinct is to keep going back to what made it sick. And he says, when fools repeat their folly, what fools are doing is going back to what made them sick. Now, when he says fool, he's not saying not smart. He's not saying unintelligent. He's saying that a person is operating with the absence of godly wisdom. So it says, whatever area of I'm not allowing Godly wisdom to govern me is an area that I'm vulnerable to making unwise decisions, which Solomon says, I'm a fool in that area. Come on, now. So I can be wise financially but a fool relationally.
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It doesn't mean I'm dumb.
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It just means I let godly wisdom govern my finances, but I let my instinct pull me back.
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Oh, my.
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In the area of relationships. Come on. That I can have godly wisdom in the area of my relationships, but then I just let my instinct and my impulses drive me professionally. He says, in that area, I'm a fool. Watch this. I'm not a fool just because I made a mistake. Give me the text again. I know who I'm preaching to. Y'all want the Bible? I know who I'm preaching to. You say, show me in the book. Here it is. So fools. It doesn't say so fools have folly. It says, so fools repeat. Did you hear what I just said? It says repeat. Listen to this, family. Listen to this. A fool's greatest mistake isn't the mistake they make.
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It's their refusal to learn from it.
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Maybe Change Global will put some fire in the chat for they pastor because I need to hear somebody talk back to me today. A fool's greatest mistake isn't the mistake that they make.
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It's their refusal to learn from it. It means that Solomon is advocating for self awareness, that I can't have spiritual formation without self awareness, that I can't develop.
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If I'm in denial, I gotta be.
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Honest and aware of my instincts.
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And all of us have instincts in some areas that pull us back into folly. Folly can be described as a sin or a weight. Pastor, where'd you get those terms from? In the Book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews and Hebrews 12, verse number one says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. Let the church say, wait. Come on, say wait. Okay, but that's not all he says, right? And the sin. So he's distinguishing rich between sin and wait. And both of them can entangle us. Sin refers to. To that which is unrighteous. Weight refers to that which is unwise. Some people trapped in sin. Then there's other people trapped in weight. But both of them need to get delivered. Y'all aren't talking to me. Some stuff hurt us. Not because it was unrighteous, but it hurt us because it was unwise.
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Okay. Okay.
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Y'all.
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Okay. Can I have two minutes here? All right. To go on a rabbit trail.
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See the word.
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Somebody say proverbs. So I wanted. This is something here. It would really take me probably about.
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Two years to exhaust all that's in this book for us.
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The word proverb has roots in a Hebrew word called masha.
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And so although the primary meaning of.
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Masha refers to a parable or proverb, we call it a truism. It comes from a root that can also mean to rule or have dominion. If I'm remembering my Bible correctly, when God created the human species, the Trinity has a conversation with itself and says, let us make man in our own.
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Image and in our own likeness, and let him have dominion.
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Did you hear what I just said?
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Let him have dominion.
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Masha. The same word is used in Psalms 110, verse number two, I think.
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And it says, the Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, rule Masha in the midst of your enemies. So in other words, if I will let wisdom rule over me, then the things that have been ruling over me, I'll start ruling over them. If I will let wisdom have dominion over me, then I'll take dominion over those things that have been taking dominion over me. If I'll let wisdom get on top of me, then I'll get on top of those things that have been on top of me. Am I making sense here? So Solomon is offering us some wisdom.
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He's saying, listen, like a dog returns to his vomit. So fool repeats that folly that I can't stay on top if I keep going back. I can't go high if I keep going back, and the devil wants to keep pulling me back.
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I got instinct in areas where I.
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Go backwards, so I need to be.
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Aware so I can interrupt the instinct with wisdom.
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Gosh.
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So some people can't go forward because they aren't aware of the instinct to go backwards.
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Are y'all catching this? I had a conversation with my coach one time, and I was using something I'm not good at naturally as an excuse to justify my underperformance in that area. And as a good coach, he won't let you use excuses to exempt yourself from responsibility. So he said to me, darius, all right, some things you get by default. You just instinctively, that's what you do. Then other things, if you don't have it by default and you need it, you gotta get it by design. So if you don't have it, you can sit and use not having it as an excuse, or you can go get it. And even though other people do it.
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Naturally, if you do it intentionally, as long as it get done, you win. He said, daris, you don't have to.
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Be amazing at that. You just gotta be proficient enough at that to get you where you're trying to go. Now, they may be amazing because they got it intuitively, but if you do.
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It intentionally, then you'll get to where you need to get to. You just. You've got to be.
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You've got to refuse to be controlled by instinct. So sometimes the instinct, that default response. Remember last couple weeks ago I talked about the fear of man is a snare. So sometimes people pleasing.
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It's an instinct you're not going to.
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People please your whole life, then hear a sermon on people pleasing and then.
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Think, you're never going to have the instinct to people please again. That is a dysfunctionally ingrained habit that has been in the ecosystem of your life and your way of living long before you ever heard a sermon on it. And what the sermon did is give you a revelation that you're struggling with that. And it gave you an indication and education on what you can do about that. But it's gonna take time for you to relearn how to manage your life. Without being insistent, snared by the opinions of people. A sermon shows you what needs to be fixed. It tells you how to fix it, but it doesn't fix it. The instinct is still going to be there. So I need to be aware.
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Oh, my. If I had time. If I had time.
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If I had time. We would dig into our theology around deliverance because some of us think deliverance is the absence of instinct. And deliverance is not always the absence of instinct. Sometimes deliverance is instinct management. Let me go over here. I still got the instinct. I'm just managing it. I still got the desire. I'm just managing it. And there's some instinct we have to go backwards.
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There are some errors. If certain things happen, it triggers the instinct to go backwards. Moses instinct was to respond to things with anger. So when he saw injustice happening and an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he killed the Egyptian instinct. Now, instead of looking at himself and saying, what in me can make me snap that fast? He buried the man. So he buried the evidence instead of fixing the issue. So we all have instinct to go backwards.
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Let's normalize it.
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Can I get a witness in the church? Where's my honest people that will say.
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PD is some stuff I have to. Me and me have to have a counseling session. Let me go to this side. It's sometimes me and me. Sometimes me have to ask me now. What you doing? Put the phone down. Me? Put the phone down. You're not lonely, you're bored. Put the phone down. You don't want them. You just bored. Put the phone down. Me.
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So how can I interrupt? How can I interrupt instinct? What's the framework that I use so that when I find myself about to instinctively go back to that which has made me sick, habits that have made me sick, perspectives that have made me sick, ways of living life that have made me sick. How do I interrupt that? Does that make sense? I'm giving you a biblically grounded view of spiritual formation.
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This zap.
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Zip. Spirituality is not biblically grounded. Listen to me. So I want to give you a framework. So when I start going back, how do I put the filter of my. What do I put my instinct through the filter of? So let me. Is it okay if I just give you three things real quick and we go home? Here it is. Number one. Is this. This is not boring. Is it? Okay, all right. Some people. All right, here it is. Number one. Number one, don't go back. This is from Henry Cloud. Don't go back if the reason you left is still.
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Did you hear What I said, sometimes.
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You have to look back and say, still there, can't go. Still there, can't go.
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There's a reason I left.
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The Bible is filled with examples of this truth. In Exodus, chapter number 16, you got a group of people that prayed for freedom and an exodus from a place called Egypt. I mean, they prayed for it, family. They prayed for freedom from Egypt. And here it is. They're thinking that Egypt is hard. So when they get out of Egypt, they're getting out of hard. Not knowing there's no such thing as a no hard. There's a hard that comes with being in bondage. And there's a hard that comes with being free.
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You just got to choose which hard you willing to deal with. So they got out of one heart, that's Egypt. Got into another hard, that's freedom. And they start dealing with the hardness of freedom. And here's what they start saying. They say if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There, meaning Egypt. We sat around pots of meat and.
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We had all the food that they wanted.
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So now they're in a season where they got to depend on God for what Pharaoh used to give them. Because bondage supplies too. Bondage will feed you too. Some of us weren't in lack when we were in bondage. So now they got to depend on God for what Pharaoh used to give them. They said we had all the meat we wanted, but you brought us out.
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Into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. So look how the enemy has infected them with selective amnesia.
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Now, when y'all were in Egypt, you were crying, you calling on the name of the Lord. You're saying, lord, please, please get us out of Egypt. And God taps Moses on the shoulder and sends Moses to lead you on an exodus out of Egypt. Now I've given you what you prayed for, and you've got what you asked for. And I've shifted you from Egypt, which is bondage, to the wilderness, which represents freedom. And now that you got free, the devil's got you. Remember remembering the food, but you forgot Pharaoh. We had food, but you had Pharaoh too. And you, when you had food in Pharaoh, you looked at the Pharaoh and said, you not worth it.
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But the devil will romanticize.
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Your memory of what used to torture you. And you'll be saying, it wasn't that bad. Yes, it was, bro. Yes it sis. Yes it was. Yes, it was. It was so bad. You prayed for God to get you out. It was so bad, you cried for God to get you out. It was so bad, you believed God to get you out. And now that you got out, the enemy wants to pull you back. But that devil is a liar. I don't feel no ways tired I come too far from where I started from Nobody told me that the road would be easy But I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me. I'm not going back.
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Don't go back.
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Number one, if the reason you left is still there, as long as Pharaoh's.
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Still there, go back. Okay.
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Number two, don't go back to.
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This is really going to. This is really going to test how real our church is.
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Don't go back to what's easy to get in but hard to get out of.
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Whoo.
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I need to do a singles night. And I need to do a singles night. Ooh.
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Whoo.
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Easy to get in but hard to get out of.
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How real can I be here? We need to be honest, y'all. All bondage initially, misery. If it was misery initially, then we wouldn't touch it.
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But the devil uses pleasure as bait for a trap.
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So the thing that gave you pleasure.
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In one season is the thing that punishes you in a next. But you in love with what's killing you softly. So you hate and you love at the same time. You want to leave it, but you want to stay, because it's easy to.
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Get in, hard to get out. So because it's easy to get in and hard to get out, you got to fight to stay out once you get out. Because every time you go back in, it becomes more difficult to get out. And this time, I'm going to give you a verse. Pastor Dudley and I, we're going to unpack this verse on thrive on this coming Wednesday. So here it is, this verse, what I'm talking about here, this verse. I want you to look at this verse in principle, because when you actually exegete this verse, this is really dealing with what we call demonization. And Pastor Dudley and I are going to explain that, because sometimes you read the word demon possession, and it makes people confused. And that word possession is a translation. The word there is demonization, and it can mean possession or oppression.
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Does that make sense?
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One requires an exorcism. The other requires deliverance.
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Does that make sense?
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So, so. So if you're exiting this text, this is what it is speaking to. All right, so, but I want to use this text to point to my larger principle here. Matthew 12:43. When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it Goes through arid places seeking rest and doesn't find it. Then it says, I'm a return to the house I left. So somebody get free, but they don't get. Because it's coming back.
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You got free from it, but the desire is going to spin the block. The temptation is going to come back, the instinct is going to come back.
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So God gives us supernatural freedom so you can feel. So if I don't refill that which.
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That area of my life that is now empty, so dysfunction was there.
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And if I remove the dysfunction but don't feel it.
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It says when it.
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Arrives, it finds the house unoccupied. It's clean but not filled.
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It's put in order but not filled.
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Then it goes and takes with it.
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Seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go and live there now. And the final condition of that person is worse than than the first.
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That every time I get in it, it get worse. So I got two fights. I can fight to keep getting free, or I can fight to stay free. So don't go back to what's easy.
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To get in but hard to get out of. I'm done.
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Tario number three. I'm going to see if I can get an amen here. Don't go back if you can't take the new you with you.
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If the new me can't come, we not coming. Did you hear what I just said? If the new me can't come, we not coming.
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Because when some people invite you back.
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They'Re not inviting you back. They're inviting the dysfunctional version of you back. They're inviting the old version of you back. They're inviting the passive and the docile and the timid version of you back. They're inviting the version of you back that doesn't know who they are and doesn't know who God called them to be. And you need to let them know. If the new me can't come, then none of us can't come. Because I work too hard to become who I am, to go back to who I used to be. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away.
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All things have become new. I'm done. I had hesitancy preaching this proverb I did because there are so many other proverbs that I felt like were deep, meaningful, spiritually rich. But it's like the Holy Spirit interrupted and said, no, you need to talk about this. Which makes me believe it has prophetic implications that some people needed to hear right now. Don't you go back. Your call is too great. Your future is too bright. You finally got joy.
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After all the seasons of sowing in tears. You are finally reaping in joy. God has finally turned your mourning into dancing. The joy of the Lord is finally your strength. You're finally feeling like you again. Don't go back.
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Go back. Because what God has for me, it's for me. Great God, would you make us steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. This is my prayer over your people in Jesus name. Amen. Clap your hands everybody, everywhere.