PowerPoint

Jack Graham: There is often, as you read through Proverbs, this great contrast between the wise and the foolish, choosing wisdom over foolishness.

Guest (Female): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how wisdom abstains from dangerous habits. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, Wisdom Over Foolishness.

Jack Graham: And now take God's Word, please, and begin finding the book of Proverbs. The Bible talks about the foolishness of this world, the wisdom of the world which is foolishness, and the wisdom of God which is righteousness. Now when we talk about someone being a fool, it grates on us, doesn't it? It's like putting your fingernails on a chalkboard. It's offensive to call someone a fool or foolish. That's not accepted in public or polite company.

And of course, we know if you read the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus says that we are not to call anyone a fool in anger. We don't have that prerogative or that judgment or discernment to know one fool from another. But God has the prerogative to describe someone as a fool or as being foolish. As a matter of fact, at the close of the Sermon on the Mount, He told that famous story about the two men who built their houses, one upon sand, and when the storm came, the house collapsed. Jesus said great was the fall of it.

And the other man who built his house on the rock, and when the storm comes, the house stands because it is built on a firm foundation. Jesus went on to say that if you build your house on sand, the shifting tides and sands of this world, it will collapse. Your life will collapse if you don't build your life upon God's truth and the foundations of faith in Christ, as opposed to building your life on that firm foundation. Jesus, who is the rock, and we build our lives upon the solid rock, that is wisdom as we obey the Word of God.

Yes, Jesus said there's such a thing as being wise and such a thing as being foolish. The Bible says in Psalm 14, verse one, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. Fools make a mock of sin. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. And Jesus spoke of that wealthy man who had so much that he was building bigger barns and taking early retirement just so that he could eat, drink, and be merry. And He said, I will take your life and you are a fool, and your soul is required of you this very day.

Now, what is a fool? Because if you're going to deal with the book of Proverbs, there is certainly this point of wisdom, the proverbs of wisdom. This is wisdom literature in the Bible, but there is often, as you read through Proverbs, this great contrast between the wise and the foolish, choosing wisdom over foolishness. So we better decide, according to God's Word, what is a fool? What is a fool? Well, I have four facts about fools that I want to give you today and as we think about wisdom.

You know, a fool is not someone who is mentally deficient but rather typically someone who is spiritually deficient and morally deficient. And so, here are some facts about fools. Number one, fools do not accept instruction. Look at chapter one of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter one and verse seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Put your eyes on verse 22. How long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

So a fool is someone who does not respond to or receive the instruction of God. They are simple. They are scoffing and scornful. The word simple here in the Bible for foolish really means gullible or senseless. How many times have we said maybe, what were you thinking? That's the idea. It's just to think simply or gullibly. It's not thinking, not receiving instruction. It has to do with scoffing.

And fools are secondly easily led astray. In chapter five, verse 23 of Proverbs, he dies for lack of discipline and because of his great folly or foolishness, he is led astray. This is the picture of a person going in the wrong direction, being seduced by the world and its pleasures and its passions. It's the picture of living for yourself rather than living for God, and therefore we are captured by the tentacles of our own sin and our own failures.

Thirdly, a fool does not consider the consequences of choices. Sooner or later, your choices will catch up with you. This is why the Bible says do not be deceived, God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, he will also reap. I'll tell you something else about fools, and this appears again and again in the book of Proverbs, and that is it brings tension and division in the family. Look in chapter 10 of Proverbs and verse one. Chapter 10, verse one. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the sorrow to his mother.

Foolishness brings tension to the family. Chapter 17, verse 25. A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him. I can't tell you through the years how many times concerned parents have called me because of the foolish decisions and activities and actions that their children are taking. Bad decisions. Foolishness fractures families.

And parents, do you ever stop, I hope you do, to remember how vital your influence is upon your children. I had a wonderful family and I'm thankful for the parents I had and the influence they had upon me. And one of the reasons that I tried to stay as straight as I could as a young man and as a teenager is I never wanted to bring shame upon our family's name. My older brother was a minister, my grandfather was a devoted deacon in our church, and my parents were faithful and loving and kind, and I never wanted to do anything in my life that would bring shame upon our name, to fracture our family, to be a fool in this family of faithful.

At the same time, we also have a spiritual family, God's church. We are the family of Christ and we should never want to do anything that brings shame to the name of Jesus and shame to the testimony of our church, our spiritual family. You say, well, what I do really doesn't affect people that much. I beg to differ. Paul the apostle said, describing the church as a body, when one member suffers, the entire body suffers. And therefore, we need to make sure that we do nothing foolish that would fracture our families, our homes, our church, and the name of Christ. Foolishness brings tension into the family and so often fools are prideful. They're the last ones to know how foolishly they are living.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Wisdom Over Foolishness. July 4, 2026 will be a day of great celebration for the 250th birthday of our great country. However, there has never been a more important time in our 250 years as a nation where we need God to move in power and heal our land. That's why I'm inviting you to join Dr. Graham in a prayer challenge for our nation. To join, simply text CRY to 59789. Again, text CRY to 59789.

Remember that your support of PowerPoint Ministries helps bring the truth of Jesus Christ to people around the world. Every day we hear from listeners who are searching for answers, longing for peace, and discovering hope through God's Word, often for the very first time. Your generosity keeps that message going out. And as our thanks for your gift today, we'd love to send you Dr. Jack Graham's book, The Jesus Book, a powerful guide to help you grow deeper in your relationship with Christ. Text MAY to 59789 to give your gift and request your copy. Again, text MAY to 59789. Now let's get back to today's message, Wisdom Over Foolishness.

Jack Graham: Now compare this to wisdom. Now wisdom is seeing things from God's perspective. It is, by the Word of God, walking wisely, to live skillfully and therefore to live successfully. When you live skillfully, you live with sense and therefore life makes sense. If you walk in wisdom, you will live with purpose, but if you walk in foolishness, your life will be aimless. If you walk in wisdom, you will live with confidence, strength of mind, and peace of heart and joy of life, but if you walk in foolishness, you will live in anxiety and fear and worry.

If you walk in wisdom, you will walk in wholeness, body and soul and spirit connected together in Christ. Your mind, your emotions, your body will be intact, but if you walk in foolishness, you will be imbalanced. Life will be out of whack. Your world will be upside down. You begin to live for just the mind or you just live for the body or you live for the emotions. If you live in wisdom, you will live in contentment. You will be satisfied and fulfilled, but if you walk in foolishness, life will be incomplete. You will always be looking for the next thing, for the next high, for the next thrill.

Most of all, when you live wisely, you will know God's approval. When you walk wisely according to the Word of God, you will live with His approval in your life because you're walking in obedience to Him. Otherwise, if you walk in foolishness, you face God's discipline and or God's judgment. So it really is, isn't it, all about the choices we make. Whether to obey God or disobey God, whether to please God or displease God, whether to win in life or to lose in life.

Now I could say it is wise to choose godly companions. The Bible talks about that. I could talk about how it is wise to win souls. It is foolish to live your life without being a witness for Christ. It's certainly first and foremost wise to choose Christ as our Savior. But I want to concentrate today on what Proverbs, in narrowing this down, narrowing the search if you will, that it is wise to choose to discipline our appetites. There's a lot about this in Proverbs.

Discipline our appetites. For example, with food. Proverbs 23 and verses one and two you may want to look at it, maybe an eye opener. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you're given to appetite. Now, I battle the bulge as much as anyone, but it is important, isn't it? It's the wise thing to do. Your doctor tells you that, tells me that, but that we are to eat healthily and that we are to maintain a proper weight. That is smart, that is wisdom.

The Bible also tells us that we are to rest well. Proverbs chapter three and verse 24. Look at it, Proverbs 3:24. There are many promises as well as this proverb regarding resting. 24 says if you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Don't be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Getting the proper amount of sleep. The Psalm says it is vain to get up early, to rise up before dawn to make money just to make more of your life than it already is. It's vain thing to just live for money and to ruin your health and to waste your life.

The Bible says we're to eat healthy, we're to rest well, we're to work hard. Proverbs 10, verse 45 and there are many like passages. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, that is a wise son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

So I could talk about all of these issues of disciplining our bodies and our minds, but here's what I really feel led to focus on today. Wisdom abstains from dangerous habits. And interestingly enough, the primary dangerous habit talked about in Proverbs is the use and the abuse of alcohol. Alcohol is a dangerous habit. Now of course, we know the Bible teaches very clearly that drunkenness, the abuse of alcohol, is a sin.

There are others who, regarding social drinking, drinking in moderation, which we are advised to do by many, believe that we can drink for relaxation or amusement or sociability and that is fine. Others believe, as I believe, that we should completely abstain from alcohol. And then of course there are those who have a drinking problem, those who drink for the buzz. And I believe with all of my heart that the highest and best thing we can do, the wisest choice that we can make for the sake of our families, for the sake of our future, is to abstain totally from alcohol.

Why? It's a wise decision to make. I believe it's so wise to abstain. Why? Well, there are physical reasons and emotional reasons and social reasons and spiritual reasons. We have a massive problem with alcohol in America. Most families have been hit hard at some level by the problem with alcohol. Now make no mistake about it, I understand that alcohol is a socially accepted mind-altering drug. And it is a mind-altering drug, a legal mind-altering drug if you are of age. I want to help you wise up regarding alcohol.

So Proverbs 31 and verse four is a starting place. Proverbs 31, verse four. It is not for kings, oh Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to take strong drink. Verse five, lest they drink and forget what they have decreed and pervert the rights of the afflicted. All right, number one, rulers, leaders are not to drink, period. You say, well, I'm not a king. We are a kingdom of priests in Christ. We have all been given leadership and the responsibility of making decisions.

Let me say that Old Testament priests were forbidden to drink. Don't turn to it, but just write down Leviticus 10:9. We're told that the priests are not to drink. You say, well, I'm not a priest, I'm not a preacher, I'm not a prophet. Oh, the Bible says that we are a kingdom of priests, that we are priests unto God. Those who took the Nazirite vow of the Old Testament, Numbers six, verse three, Samson was a Nazirite who ruined his life by breaking his vow, by the way. But in the Nazirite vow, that one who made the promise was never to touch alcohol. It was an act of separation from the world and God has called us to separate, to be different, to make a difference in the world.

John the Baptist was a Nazirite. He was the forerunner of Christ, the one who said, the Lamb of God, behold, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And we, like John the Baptist, have been called to introduce people to Christ. If you are a Christian, a Christ-follower, you have a big responsibility and that is to advance the kingdom of God. And if you need a clear focus to do anything, you need a clear focus to do that. You need your head clear, your mind clear, your life clean before God.

Look at Proverbs 23, chapter 23, verses 29 and 30. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? That's emotional problem. Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? That's physical problems. Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine, those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red. Now, I do need to stop right here and say this is one of my key cases and point for my belief in total abstinence taught by the Bible.

There are two kinds of wine described in the Bible, one that is fermented, one that is not fermented, basically grape juice. And oinos is the Greek word which can mean fermented wine or unfermented grape juice. They're used interchangeably in Scripture. But the Scripture clearly says do not tarry at the wine, don't look at it when it sparkles in the cup. What does that describe? Fermentation, the bubbly. And when it goes down smoothly, but in the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder, and your eyes will see strange things and your heart utter perverse things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I didn't feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.

This shows the terrible cycle that those who are addicted to alcohol face. There's the promise, I won't touch it again, and then comes the desire and then the bottle again, the drink again, and just over and over it is repeated. And I can tell you that there are people in this room today who'd be the first among the first to stand up here and say to you, because they've battled with alcohol and they've struggled with it and many have come through this addiction in their lives, but they would be among the first to say to you, I wish I'd never touched it. The wisest thing you could do, teenager, the wisest thing that you can do, parents, is stay away from it.

Did you know that 80-plus percent of teenagers whose parents drink will also drink? Did you know that 75 percent of parents who don't drink, their children don't drink? It's as simple as that in many ways. Alcohol steals brain cells, is damaging to your body. It's the leading cause of family violence, of car accidents and deaths. And many times people don't realize they have a problem. And so you've heard of interventions that take place, family and friends who confront the person who's got a problem with alcohol. So consider this today a bit of a spiritual intervention.

And if you do have an issue, a problem with alcohol, get the help you need. Jesus will set you free. Alcohol is an addiction. Jesus specializes in setting people free. Now of course, one of the things that alcohol does is to assist you in loosening up. But the problem with loosening up with alcohol is so often we get out of control and we are not to be under the dominion or the power of the control of anything else. People who are under the influence of course can become argumentative or abusive, even violent. They lose their inhibitions. They're more susceptible to seduction and temptation. Why? Because it's so foolish. Now you lack discernment.

Everything that we're to do is to honor God. Our language, our attitudes, and what we eat, our appetites, what we drink. Let's don't live lukewarm or lazy in these spiritual disciplines. Choose wisdom over foolishness in every area of your life.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Wisdom Over Foolishness. We want to thank you for being a part of the mission of PowerPoint Ministries. Every day through the support of friends like you, the message of Jesus Christ is reaching people across television, radio, and digital platforms around the world. So many people today are searching for answers, longing for peace, and looking for something to still hold on to. And your support helps point them in the one who offers all that and so much more, Jesus.

As our thanks for your gift this month, we'd love to send you Dr. Jack Graham's book, The Jesus Book, a powerful guide to help you move beyond simply knowing about Jesus to truly knowing Him through His Word. Text MAY to 59789 to give your gift and get your copy. Again, text MAY to 59789. July 4, 2026 will be a day of great celebration for the 250th birthday of our great country. However, there has never been a more important time in our 250 years as a nation where we need God to move in power and heal our land. That's why I'm inviting you to join Dr. Graham in a prayer challenge for our nation. To join, simply text CRY to 59789. Again, text CRY to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: Really what we're talking about these days is the importance of choices. Even the smallest of choices has important and significant impact on our lives and eternal impact upon each one of us. The choices that we make form our character and even our commitment to Christ. So it's vital that we learn how to make wise choices, seeing things from God's perspective and not make the foolish choices of this world, the disappointing choices that only hurt us and harm those around us.

And while saying that, let me explode a myth. When you make godly choices, this is when you live life to the fullest. Please don't get the idea that as a follower of Jesus Christ and making good, wise, godly choices we'll be boring and joyless. Rather, when you follow Christ, there is great joy, there is great peace, there is incredible fullness and freshness for life every single day when you make the right choices, when you live according to God's plan for your life. It's really the only way to live.

And friend, if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, this would be a great time wherever you are to bow your head and pray and receive Christ. You can pray a prayer that is as simple as this. Lord Jesus, I believe. I believe You died on the cross for my sins and rose again. So I turn from my sins, I trust in You and receive You as my Lord and Savior. Invite Jesus into your life right now. And if you're doing that, please let us hear from you. We want to put materials in your hand that will encourage you in your new life in Christ.

And for all of you who listen to PowerPoint each day, let me mention Twitter and Facebook as an opportunity to get to know me better and you better. I talk about all kinds of subjects including the Bible of course and ministry and leadership. We even talk some about sports. We talk a lot about viewpoints on culture and values. You can pick up on all of this and a personal level on our Twitter feed and Facebook page. You can find this at jackgraham.org. Simple as that. Just go to jackgraham.org.

Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. Today, if you prayed that prayer with Dr. Graham, text us so we can help you get started in your new life with Christ. Text the word JESUS to 59789. That's JESUS to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about what it means to choose to forgive rather than grow bitter. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.