Posted on 12/27/2011 by Chandler Fozard

This may be one of the hardest blogs I’ve ever posted.  I don’t know what 2012 holds.  Who but God does?  I didn’t know what 2011 would hold.  But that didn’t stop me from living as if I did.  The expression “fools rush in” is perhaps best known in the context of two people who think they’re in love and are moving the relationship too fast.  But I think the phrase is a fair description of my life.  And I know I am not alone.  I think it’s a fair description of how many men in prison end up there in the first place.  They rush in to get what they want.  They hurt somebody, steel something, and now they’re in prison.

See, by nature, we want to be God.  This was the problem in the garden and nothing has changed in that regard except, perhaps, we’re locked in whereas Adam and Eve were free.  They could have chosen not to sin; without Christ, we cannot.  A few of us would like for there to be no rules.  But most of us want there to be rules, I believe, we just want to be the lawgiver.  If we could, we would demand obedience from all of our subjects, even God.

We want to do what we want, when we want, how we want.  That’s what sin is all about.  We fall short of what God requires because, by nature, we would rather set the requirements.  I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.  I want what I want.  And no one, not even God, is going to stand in my way.

Of course, I’d never admit this when I’m cooking up a scheme to get what I want.  The thought never crosses my mind.  I’m just doing what comes natural.  As natural as a fish swims in the ocean and a lion hunts his prey.

“But…wait a minute!” you say, “You’re a Christian now.  That can’t be true for you anymore.  You’ve left all that behind now.  Right?”

Wrong.

I wish.

Not yet.

The focus of my energies has certainly changed.  I once used my powers of persuasion for pure, unmitigated evil.  Now I use them for…good.  Well, sort of.  Um, okay, not necessarily “good” by God’s standards—since it seems it’s still all about me—but good as in the outcome of what I do now is a far cry from what I did then.  Anyway, enough about me, let’s talk about me.  See, I can’t even write this blasted lesson without doing it again.  Anyway, I hope you get the point.  And, if you don’t, keep reading.

The point is “fools rush in,” and I seem to be the most foolish!

All Such Is Foolishness

What does a fool look like?  What is foolishness?

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”  (Psalm 14:1).

1) Fools live as if there is no God.  In other words, we live as if there is not a sovereign, loving, holy God to whom we must all one day give an account.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made big decisions without first praying, searching the Scripture and/or seeking counsel.  But I can tell you that 100% of them have failed.

Dr. Tommy Kiker is a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  In God’s providence I visited on the day he preached a sermon that convicted me and inspired this blog.  During one illustration, he related the story of a pricey automobile he purchased as a young seminary student.  He told of the pain and financial hardship it caused him.  Though he was not married when he bought it, he also pointed out how much it hurt his wife and young family to struggle to pay for the car he’d foolishly purchased.  I wonder how many of us have similar stories?  Oo-oo, oo-oo, me, pick me!

After God called me to the ministry, I wanted to quit my job and get started.  The elders at my church counseled me to take it slowly.  God’s Word certainly does.  But I was ready for a change!  I asked the elders whether or not I should advise my business partner.  I said, “If I was investing in someone and they had changed direction in a way that was going to impact the bottom line, I would want someone to tell me.”  They advised me against doing so.  After all, I didn’t know what tomorrow held, how long it might take to get off the ground, to become ordained, to raise the support I would need.  But that didn’t stop me!

Two months later my business partner and I parted ways and I was out a six-figure salary and benefits for my family.  The church gave $14,000 over the next year to help us avoid losing our home.  Money they expect us to pay back at some point.  Even without interest, do you have any idea how much living as if there was no God cost me then?

What about you?  Are you able to recall a time when you rushed in and made an unwise decision?  What about a time when you lived as if there was no God?

You wanted to have a relationship so you just took the first one that came along.  You wanted to have sex so you did.  Now you have an ex-girlfriend and a kid whose name you don’t even know.  You thought you knew it all so you quit school.  You wanted to live on your own so you left home.   But now it’s hard to find a job because you don’t have an education.  You found you couldn’t pay the rent without selling drugs or stealing from people so now you’re in prison.

“Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.”  (Proverbs 18:2).

2)  Fools are self-centered and self-serving; we don’t really want understanding; we just want to be right and do what pleases us.

The fool just wants to give his opinion.  I just had to tell my business partner.  I had to let the elders know why I was right.  Those of you who’ve read my book, Changed Behind Bars: The History of My Redemption, will recall another time, shortly after my release from prison, that I behaved equally as foolishly.  I wanted to take communion but the elders of that church wanted me to wait.  When they said I must, I let it be known that I did not agree with their interpretation of Scripture.  They could have their little communion service; I would worship somewhere else!

The KJV words the verse, ““Fools find no pleasure in understanding but that his heart may discover itself.”  I do not know Greek or Hebrew but I can’t help but wonder if it’s not a more accurate translation.

It’s as if to say fools don’t really want understanding, we just want to what makes us feel good, what we think is right.  We just want to do what pleases us.  How many times have you or I, in an attempt to justify our sin, said something similar to the proverb, “I want to do what makes me happy.  Oh, as if!  Are you kidding me?  You are—er, I am—just not that important!  Fools live only for themselves.  My kingdom come, my will be done, on earth as it is in my heart.

We don’t really want understanding.  We just want everyone to know how wise we are when, in reality, we’re just fools.  You knew better than your parents or the people God placed in your life to counsel you what was best for you.  Prisoners think they know better than those in authority over them, from the police who arrest them to the warden over the prison.  You’re real smart.  Just ask you, you’ll tell us.  You don’t really want understanding; you just want everyone to know how right you are and how wrong everyone else is.  You’re a fool but, hey, you’re in good company.  I am right there with you.  I didn’t really want to learn how to start a ministry the way God wants; I just wanted to do it the way I knew how.  I was a fool.

Proverbs 1:7 states: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

3)  Fools Don’t Seek or Listen to Wise Counsel. 

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  When the ministry was first beginning, I had a sear brother who offered me wise counsel.  He’s a grey-headed man, respected throughout the city as a Godly man, and he’s rich too.  He said to me, “I wouldn’t view God’s blessing on the ministry as confirmation of His approval of what you’re doing or the way you’re doing it.”

What?  What are you talking about?  If God blesses it, surely He’s in it.  “Not necessarily,” he said.  In the Old Testament, God used an ass to get His Word across.  And if He can use an unwilling ass, think what He can do with a willing one.  Thanks, Rich!  If I am honest, there was a part of me that despised his counsel.

Not too long ago, one of the men I’ve been mentoring for years was released from prison and I have continued working with him on the outside.  I really believed school was the best thing for him, most agreed, so he applied to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I asked him what he would do if the elders discouraged him from attending.  He said, “Well, if God opens up the door, I’ll view that as a sign from God.”

I said, “Not necessarily.  That may be what I did with this whole ministry thing and look where it’s taken me.  Hope Prison Ministries could cease to exist because I viewed God’s blessing on what I was doing as a sign of His confirmation it’s what I should be doing.”

He said, “Thanks, Chandler,” perhaps despising my counsel just the same.

The Wise

The Scripture has much to say about planning wisely.

Luke 14:26-33says, “²If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  ²⁷Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  ²⁸For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  ²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,  ³⁰saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  ³¹Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  ³²And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  ³³So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

1)  Wise people count the cost.  In this parable, Jesus teaches that knowing Him is to be prized above all else.  With the Apostle Paul, we should be willing to lose everything else in the pursuit of gaining more of him.  But the parable also contains a very simple lesson in economics.  To illustrate a spiritual principle, Jesus uses an illustration any fool should know: before entering into any new venture, wise people take time to think about and plan for it.  Any fool knows that!  Well, except this one.

I didn’t take time to plan at all.  I heard the call and had my marching orders!  What fool takes time to plan?  How many times have you started something but then failed to finish it from lack of counting the cost?

You want to be a Christian?  How much time do you spend in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship with the saints, learning from those who are wiser than you?  How much time do you spend serving other sacrificially, giving yourself away just as Christ your savior gave Himself for you?  You want to be a husband, a father, a business owner.  You want to be in the ministry?  Any idiot can have sex and pop out another child.  But why are there so many orphans and kids in the world?  Why are there so many divorces?  People didn’t count the cost.

Why do you think there’s a housing crisis in this country?  People wanted homes.  Most people have the dream of wanting to own where they live.  God fearing men and women were praying about owning their home.  So when the banker came along and said, “I have the answer to your prayer!  It’s called an Adjustable Rate Mortgage, and you can own your own home.”  People signed on the dotted line and then went around everywhere telling people how God had provided for their needs.  Fools.  They didn’t read the fine print.  They didn’t listen when the banker said there will be a balloon payment or a jump in their interest they won’t be able to pay.  They didn’t count the cost.  Now they’ve lost their home.

I know one man who spent his entire savings on remodeling a place he was leasing for a coffee shop.  But he left himself no savings, no operating capital.  He’s no longer in business.  In fact, Harvard says that one of the top reasons businesses fail is a lack of start-up capital to provide the cash flow a new business must have during its early years.

I wanted to start a ministry.  God had called me to do it.  But I wanted to do it my way.  I didn’t count the cost.  And because I didn’t, my church ended up paying the bill.  My family could soon be hurting once more.  The church wanted me to slow down, take things slowly.  We require missionaries to raise their support before they go in the mission field, Chandler, we want the same for you.  Haters, I thought.  They just don’t know.  Fool.  I was a fool.

Men want out of prison.  They want to make parole.  They say they’re going to get out, get a job, be a faithful, loving husband and father, a good employee, perhaps a business owner or in the minister.  But they’re not counting the cost.  They are not really thinking about what it will take for this and that to happen, what they need to be doing in preparation.

God, if you’re listening, please don’t let Hope Prison Ministries go the way of La Melodia Coffee House because I didn’t count the cost.

James 4:13-16says: “¹³Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— ¹⁴yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  ¹⁵Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’  ¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

2)  Wise Men Never Boast.

I’ve read the passage above in James many, many times.  But it never really hit home until this year.  I should have learned the lesson long ago.

Don’t kid yourself.  This passage is about so much more than just adding the words, “…if the Lord wills” to the beginning or end of everything you say.  It’s about an attitude of the heart, our posture before the sovereign, loving, holy Creator, God and Savior of the world and of our hearts and souls.  It’s about coming to the realization that I can’t do anything without God.  If He wills I’ll finish this message today, if He doesn’t, I may not make it through this sentence.  If He wills, Hope Prison Ministries will succeed.  If he doesn’t, it won’t.  The Psalmist said unless God builds the house, our labor is in vain.  Dear God, please don’t let the labor of the last year be in vain.

Boasting about what we’re going to do is called evil by James.  Do you know why it’s evil?  The passage says one of the reasons it’s evil is that people will mock you when you fail.  But what makes it really evil is that people will mock your God.  Look at Chandler, they will say, he’s trusting in God.  He’s giving himself away to the ministry, and God’s not providing for him.  Oh, you and I may not look at it that way.  I know God has provided for me.  He just wasn’t providing what I wanted.  I wanted a successful ministry, lives to be changed all over the world, God just wanted me to be humble.  I wanted a five course meal but what I got was dish of humble pie.  But because I boasted, there have been those who have mocked me and mocked God.  One man I’ve been witnessing to has said, “You’re trying but God isn’t answering your prayers.”  Dear God, teach me to keep my mouth shut.  All such boasting is evil.

Taco Bell was my first job.  I was in a foster home and so the money I earned was pretty much mine to do with as I pleased.  I wanted a new computer!  First, I wanted the old Commodore 64, then it was a Tandy 1000.  Man, all I knew was that I was going to get one.  I was so determined to have one that I arrogantly declared one day, “I am going to get that computer no matter what!”  My foster mom at the time said, “Chandler, I wouldn’t say that if I were you.”  Two days later the bicycle I used to get to and from work was stolen.  Computer today; no job tomorrow.  Bicycle today; work tomorrow; computer later…maybe?  Hmmm.  Which one do you think I chose?  I needed the bike so I could earn more money.

The ministry wasn’t a year old and I was already telling everyone what I was going to do.  1) Find prisons to teach in.  2) Raise money for an apartment to house and mentor men after they are released.  3) Write a curriculum for use in faith-based dorms that’s going to change the world.  Imagine the arrogance!  Little prayer, less planning, ready, fire, aim!

Dr. Kiker offered a humorous yet terrifying illustration in his sermon.  He said, “It would be kind of like me jumping off of a building and bragging about how I can fly.  Only, the ground’s coming up mighty fast.”

After February, barring divine intervention, Hope Prison Ministries will run out of funds.  It’s been a great year.  But the ground’s coming up fast.

If you’re like me, you’ve spent your whole life foolishly rushing in to get what you want, when you want, how you want.  And the ground is coming up fast.  Those in prison probably feel like they’ve already hit rock bottom.

But hear the hope of the gospel men in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31: “¹⁸For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’  ²⁰Where is the one who is wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  ²⁶For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

If the Lord wills, Hope Prison Ministries will continue another year in one form or another.  If He doesn’t, we won’t.  His will be done.  I invite you men, come be a fool with me.  Let us not be fools in the delighting of our own hearts, but in the boasting of our weakness in dependence and trust upon the God who has become our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, doing for us what only fools believe they can do for themselves.

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