Don’t Be a Fool - Final?

When I was in college, I had a roommate who, at any given moment, was convinced something was seriously wrong with him.

Every symptom became a diagnosis.

A new mole? Skin cancer. Stomach pain? Stomach cancer. A lingering headache after a stressful week? Brain tumor.

And the common denominator wasn’t his health—it was his source.

He kept going back to Google.

We live in what many call the “Age of Information.” Answers are instant. Opinions are endless. Voices are everywhere.

And yet, for all the information we have… clarity feels harder than ever.

Because the real issue isn’t access to information— it’s authority.

Who—or what—do we trust to tell us what’s true?

Today, we are continuing in our new series called Solomon Gets a Smartphone. Where we are looking at how we can learn how to navigate modern-day times and technology with ancient wisdom, wisdom from God’s word. So today, we are going to consider a proverb given to us by King Solomon, so would you turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs 13:20. If you’re using one of the Blue Bibles we provide for you, it will be found on page 951.

Proverbs 13:20 NIV

20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

The power of this statement is so clear it is almost self-evident: if you want to be wise, surround yourself with the wise; for only a fool would surround himself with fools.

But how do we know if we’re surrounded by people who are truly wise?

Wisdom is the ability to live skillfully. It is the ability to take information and know how to properly apply it. Thus, wisdom must proceed from a foundation of true. And so, in order to establish who is wise, we need to first ask the question who is the messenger of truth?

How do we know what is said is true?

Technology has not only given us access to more information, but also more misinformation. You can find things that aren’t true in blog posts, in social media, in the news, in limitless forums of information.

The issue of truth is not a new problem, but it is one that has become exceedingly challenging with the rise of technology.

Especially with the invention of AI, it is exceedingly easier in the modern era to fabricate information.

›     How do you know what you hear is true?

This is the issue of epistemology. Epistemology is simply the ology - the study of episteme, knowing or understanding. Thus, epistemology is the theory of how we establish what is true. It’s the means by which we truly know something.

How do I know that I am in this room? How do I know that I’m not dreaming right now?

Is my knowing based on sensation? Is my knowing based on logical reasoning? Is knowing based on external or internal sources of truth?

Over the centuries, we have answered this question differently.

Historical approach

Prior to the Enlightenment, truth was objective. The means of “epistemology” or the means by which you know something to be true was external, not internal. Thus, truth was viewed to be rooted in God as the source of all knowledge. Reason was viewed by Augustine and Aquinas as a tool to understand God’s revelation not a replacement for it. Further, because truth was external their was great value and importance placed on the church, a faith community by which believers could together keep in alignment with God’s teachings.

This is why Jesus’s brother writes in Jude 3, “I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” the faith and teaching of God’s word are clarified and preserved in the context of a local church.

The teaching of God’s word and doctrines of it have been preserved since the time of Moses all the way through the life of Christ and the first followers of Jesus.

However, the enlightenment began to shift the means of epistemology.

After the enlightenment the means of epistemology, or the means by which we verify that which is true was inverted from external to internal, we now decide what is true.

The means of knowing, begins with what we think and what we feel and then progresses outward. Thus, skepticism has emerged and we as a society are hesitant to trust institutions and authority.

Now the authority for truth is not the institution but the individual. Thus truth has become fragmented, into personal truth.

And what happens when we bring our personal truths to our devices and technology; we are confronted with a particular danger.

And here’s the danger of the search engine—it doesn’t correct you, it confirms you.

A search engine is not designed to tell you what is true. It’s designed to respond to whatever you type into it.

So if you come in afraid, it will feed your fear. If you come in suspicious, it will deepen your suspicion. If you come in already leaning a certain direction, it will give you more of the same.

It doesn’t challenge your assumptions—it multiplies them.

And what happens is we begin to follow threads— article after article, video after video, opinion after opinion— until we’ve built an entire case… not on truth, but on what we were already inclined to believe.

That’s confirmation bias.

It’s the tendency to search for, interpret, and trust information in a way that confirms what we already think is true.

So now, instead of being formed by truth, we are being reinforced in our preferences.

And here’s where this becomes dangerous:

You can always find a voice to agree with you. You can always find a perspective to justify you. You can always find “evidence” to support you.

Which means—left unchecked— you can build a worldview entirely shaped by yourself.

And that is a dangerous place to be.

Because when we become both the seeker of truth and the standard of truth… we are no longer being led—we are simply being echoed.

And the danger is that the algorithm learns me and who I am faster than I learn who I am. This leads to us being discipled not by Jesus, not by the church, but by the algorithm, which constructs for us a world of our own making.

To prove this point all you would have to do is trade phones with the person next to you and see how different your news feeds and social media feeds are.

The challenge of modern-day times is that we can build digital worlds of our own making, and in doing so, if we are not careful, the algorithm can begin to replace person-to-person discipleship.

Thus, when formation is shaped more by algorithms than by faithful relationships, authority quietly shifts—

instead of being shaped by God’s Word, we begin to shape what is true.

In so doing, we have become the arbiters of truth.

So what if my truth says your truth is a lie? Who is right?

What if I open my phone and come across some headline, or some Instagram reel, how do I know that they are accurate and trustworthy?

The world’s answer: Does it align with how I feel and what I’ve experienced?

Experience certainly is a valuable source of knowledge, but the challenge with experience is how do you know whether you’ve interpreted circumstances rightly?

You know this. Anytime you or someone in your family experiences conflict two stories always arise, both “true” and yet two very different depictions of what happened and why it happened.

Thus a more helpful question to evaluate truth is: Does this align with God’s Word?

God’s Word has to be our standard for truth.

God’s word is the one truth that is total and complete. It is the one truth that is eternal. Is 40:8.

Jesus himself said, John 14:6

John 14:6 NIV

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So suppose you hear something on your social media or news platform, and it sounds good, it sounds Biblical.

How do you know that it’s Biblical and wise — Not just intelligent or eloquent?

When Solomon instructs us to “walk with the wise”, he is instructing us not simply to surround ourselves with those who have information, but those who know how to live skillfully.

Skillful living requires an application of truth.

So how do you know who is wise?

The wise, live lives marked by righteousness.

The word “righteous” simply means living rightly, and we do not define what right and wrong is; God does.

Jesus tells us that if you can evaluate the roots by the fruit. If it’s rooted in truth it should be evidenced in righteousness

Luke 6:43–45 NIV

43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

The challenge of technology is that it makes information more accessible than ever. But how do we establish what is true and profitable to apply to our lives?

We need the ability to evaluate whether or not there is evidence of righteousness in their lives.

Their credibility comes not only from what they say, but also from how they live. Technology has made it far too easy for us to hear what people say, but exceedingly challenging to evaluate how they live. And to be honest, the internet isn’t the best place to evaluate people’s life choices. Relationships are the best place to do that.

This means we need to have relational proximity to people who embody what is wise and true.

In other words, we know what is wise and right by walking with the wise.

The way we discern truth is by walking with the wise.

In fact, this truth has had a deeply profound impact on my own faith journey.

The summer before I entered 9th Grade became a transformational season for me. Not just because I was transitioning from middle school to high school, but also because my relationship with God was growing and part of the catalyst for that growth was a man named Atanasio, or Nasa. (Show picture) Nasa was my true mentor. He was one of the first people whom I met and said to myself, “I want to be like that!” He was this massive dude, a phenomenal athlete, and yet full of joy, full of knowledge of God’s Word, and full of wisdom.

I have excelled over the years in academics. I was on the A-honor roll in HS, and then went on to get my PhD in Anatomy & Cell Biology. Yet despite my accumulation of knowledge and my pursuit of knowledge, the thing that I have craved is wisdom.

Wisdom is knowledge applied. It’s skillful living.

How do I know how to live skillfully? By finding godly people who know how to apply God’s Word and being connected to a local church.

The correlation between wisdom and truth is that both are found in Christ and when we know what is true, it informs us on how to live.

Nasa and I met at a Christian camp over the summer, and yet we’ve always lived in different states, so when I came back home and got connected at Wooddale Church, I got plugged into the Sr High program, where I met other godly students. And best of all, I met a man, I refer to as “Deano”! (Show picture)  This man is a leader here at our church and has had one of the most profound impacts on my life. Dean is a phenomenal husband, father, businessman, and follower of Jesus! And I have had the greatest privilege to know him, to see his life on display, to have dinner with him, etc. And my life has exponentially increased in value, not because of what I have accomplished academically, but because I have found someone who models for me what wisdom looks like.

Both Nasa and Deano are on my “Mount Rushmore” of most impactful people in my life. My dad is also on there.

One study found that the students who stayed most connected to the church in their faith journey after graduating high school had 5 adults in their lives who modeled for them what wisdom looks like. This 5:1 ratio indicates to us not only that we need mentors to teach us God’s word, mentors of whom we can evaluate the fruit within their own lives, but the number 5 is an indicator that we need to be connected to the church community. We can’t do this in isolation.

In fact, we know this from Scripture. In one of the most profound verses that clarifies for us the purpose of Scripture, we read this:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God’s word not only teaches us what to believe, but also how to live. It is the source of wisdom. This passage comes to us from the apostle Paul, who was writing to his son in the faith, Timothy. In this letter to his spiritual son, the statement about the power and importance of God’s Word is preceded by this,

2 Timothy 3:14–15 NIV

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Verse 15 reveals to us that the Scripture is the source of wisdom, and yet the medium of communication of this wisdom isn’t a text message, it’s not an email, or an Instagram reel. The medium through which God’s Word was expressed to timothy was through the relationship he had with Paul. Verse 14 says, “you know those from whom you learned it”

Do you know those from whom you are learning?

The goal is not throw away our phones or immediately to unsubscribe from whoever it is that we follow. Rather, the way of wisdom would encourage us to reflect on if we’ve surrounded ourselves with the foolish or with the wise. And for those of us who think we subscribe to only “wise” people or podcasts, we need to realize that wisdom isn’t found in headlines or search engines but in truth embodied in individual lives and transmitted through relationships.  Thus, without personal relationships with mentors and a local church, we miss the opportunity to truly walk with the wise, as Solomon admonishes us to do.

If we do this, there is a promise:

Proverbs 13:20 NIV

20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

The promise: you will become wise.

If we are to be truly wise, we need to have our discipleship journey, the process by which we become more Christ-like, to be driven not by an algorithm or a subscription, but by those who are wise, by Christians, who live righteous lives.

Application: join a group! study God’s word in the context of community. Doing so allows you to grow in your relationship with Jesus, it protects you from false ideas, and helps provide the support system to live according to God’s word, even when life is difficult.

(Mark of Maturity) Commit to Life-Changing Relationships, by doing so, you are choosing to walk with the wise.

SIDE NOTE: Next time (If I preach this again, I could totally use Neo & The Matrix as a analogy between discerning truth and how technology makes this harder)