Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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This is fun.
Praise God.
You know, these things work.
They work.
I'm telling you, this is God's Word.
When God tells you something, you can be
sure it works.
You don't have to figure it all out.
You don't need to look into the depths
of it in order to have it work
for you.
All you need to do is just do
it.
It works.
Praise God.
Well, I'm kind of extra excited tonight too.
My dear son Daniel came home from Africa
tonight.
I have seen his face and I am
happy.
Praise God.
You know, I used to spank that little
fella.
Don't spank him anymore.
He's bigger than I am.
All right.
The next session here, the title of this
session is The Bondage of Foolishness.
The Bondage of Foolishness.
Proverbs 22, verse 15 says, Foolishness is bound
in the heart of a child, but the
rod of correction will drive it far from
him.
This verse is one of the key verses
on child training in the Bible.
One of the most important.
It is filled with deep insights.
It gets right down to the heart of
the matter and reveals some of the deepest
needs that a child has.
It's very important that we understand the needs
that our children have.
Now, this is my prayer this evening, that
God will open our eyes to see the
root cause of much of our child's wrong
behavior.
It is a matter of roots and fruit.
If you get the root, don't forget, you
will also get the fruit.
So, it's always wiser to go after the
root.
Amen?
We're going after the root in this session.
We're going to look at several words that
will help us define what this word foolishness
is.
But first of all, consider a more modern
English word which most of us know very
well.
And it is a synonym of foolishness, and
that is silliness.
Silliness is bound in the heart of a
child.
Now, all parents can relate to this word
and readily admit that they see it in
their children.
Is that an amen?
Yeah?
Okay.
Good.
Some time ago, and I can't remember where
I find these things.
You know, when you find something, you don't
think, you know, I might have to tell
somebody else where I found this, but I
don't know where I found it.
But somewhere in my studies on this verse,
I found this picture of what foolishness is.
The word picture is an uncontrolled spiral.
You know, these little jack-in-the-boxes,
you know, you put Jack down in there,
there's a spring on him, and you put
him down in there, and you turn the
box a little bit, and all of a
sudden, Jack just flies out of the box.
That's the picture of foolishness.
That's the word picture.
Just an uncontrolled spring flying through the air.
You never know which way it's going to
go.
So, silliness, or a spirit that is out
of control, is bound in the heart of
a child.
It is very important that we learn to
identify this silliness, and thus identifying it, we
can avoid it some.
Now, let me give you these definitions.
Foolishness.
The Hebrew word foolishness, which you find in
Proverbs and in this verse, is defined this
way.
Stupid, silly, no sense.
The word picture for foolishness, get this, is
a fat, jolly man.
Foolishness.
The Greek word for foolishness is defined as
silly talk, a joker, and a buffoon.
I'll tell you what that is later.
That's an old English word.
The Greek word is moral, which is where
we get moron.
That's the Greek word for foolishness.
Moral, where we get moron.
Another word, folly.
You'll find this word in Proverbs in many
places.
The Hebrew word for folly is the same
as the word for foolishness.
In the Hebrew, same word.
Folly, foolishness, same one.
Now, let's go to the dictionary.
Now, when I go to the dictionary, I
go to 1828 Webster's Dictionary.
These new ones, they're changing the words quite
a bit.
The word folly in the Webster's Dictionary is
not a high criminal act.
It is not a high criminal act, but
actions of nonsense, silly, vain, and trifling.
Webster's 1828 on the word silly.
Want of common wisdom.
Simple, witless, silly, stupid, harmless, folly.
Fool in Webster's Dictionary.
To trifle, to toy, to spend time in
idleness, sport, or mirth.
Webster's Dictionary.
Dull and senseless, no sense, nonsense, no control
over one's senses.
That's the definition.
A joker, a buffoon, a jester.
One who speaks to excite laughter.
Words that are not real and have no
purpose.
And last of all, a buffoon.
To be funny, to trifle, to make jokes,
and to play the fool.
Now, this is quite a list of words
to ponder.
And I would encourage you to ponder them
deeply.
Because there is a secret in those words.
A key that will open up many insights
to you about where your children are at
and how you can help them.
And if you truly love them, you will
find out how you can help them.
Instead of just always getting the stink.
There is a goldmine of discernment in these
definitions.
The words foolishness and folly.
It does not describe evil and wickedness.
This is an important distinction.
There are other words in the book of
Proverbs that do describe evil.
But there is a distinction between the two
of them.
They are also translated fool and foolishness.
But they are different words.
Now, Proverbs was written so that parents can
learn.
And number two, so that children can be
instructed in paths of righteousness.
That is the motivation behind the writing of
the book of Proverbs.
And remember, our goal is a righteous, ordered
life for our children.
Amen?
So the warning is given to us to
get this foolishness out of our child while
they are young.
In a child, it is simply silliness, nonsense
and lack of control.
But if the child is left to himself,
the child grows up and the silliness grows
up also.
When folly grows to maturity in adults, the
Hebrew word changes.
And it becomes words like evil, wickedness and
perverse.
So here you have a child who has
foolishness bound in their heart.
And you have a parent who lets the
child to himself.
When that silly, just simple nonsense, nothing absolutely
wicked about it.
When that silliness grows to maturity, it becomes
rank, evil and perversion.
And thus, the plea from God to us
is to deal with it and get rid
of it and keep it out while they
are young.
That is the plea.
This revelation changes our perspective on our child's
silly antics quite a bit.
Lots of parents, you know, think it's pretty
cute, you know, little Johnny and all his
silly little antics.
Once you begin to see this nonsense for
what it is, you also begin to see
what eggs it on.
Or should I say, what draws it out
of the child.
Sometimes us parents are guilty.
We are the guilty ones who stimulate the
children on the foolishness and nonsense.
Sometimes it is one of their siblings or
a foolish minded playmate who would be guilty.
Sometimes it is an activity.
It could be certain books or even certain
games.
As you begin to discern what foolishness or
silliness is, then you will begin to also
see what makes it happen.
If you're smart, you will begin to eliminate
the things that make it happen.
That only makes sense.
I mean, who wants to keep spanking a
child, right?
Now, you may react a bit here.
I realize I'm treading here a bit tonight.
You may react and say, well, wait a
minute.
Can't the child be happy?
And the answer is a resounding yes, the
child can be happy.
However, there is a big difference between a
child that is filled with nonsense and a
child that is joyful, happy and in control.
And it is vital that God begins to
show us the difference between the two of
those.
Many times we are calling silly nonsense happy
child.
But yet we still have to scratch our
heads at all the junk that it produces
that we have to try to deal with
in the child.
May God open our eyes to see what
is happening inside this child's heart.
When we begin to see this difference, we
can begin to work with our children on
a deeper level.
We are now not just dealing with fruit,
but we are dealing with the root that
made the fruit.
And you will always get better results when
you deal with a root than you will
if you deal with the fruit.
And by the way, if you deal with
the root more consistently, you will save them
a lot of poor character.
Alright, silly, laughing America.
We live in silly, laughing America.
Let me just read this to you.
We have been influenced by our society more
than we realize.
Let's face the raw facts, brothers and sisters.
America is laughing her way down the broad
road that leads to destruction.
Telling jokes while they go.
Everything has to be funny and fun.
The people who make the movies, print the
books, and design the toys know about this
foolishness that is in the children.
And they are developing and designing a whole
new way to reach the next generation.
Now, if you want to reach the next
generation, you will do something silly.
And then you will reach them.
Only problem is, it doesn't work, does it?
Look around you.
It doesn't work.
The puppet show is not really getting the
depths of the truth in the hearts of
even the Christian little children.
This new program is called Foolishness 101.
Even the Christians have succumbed to these new
methods.
Now Moses, the prophet Moses, the patriarch Moses,
that firing man who stood on the mount,
that Moses is now a funny little man
with a big nose and a funny beard.
God help us.
And somehow, nobody realizes it.
Somehow, they are not getting it.
And they just keep on going.
And it gets more silly and more silly
all the time.
And I'll pay my respects to some of
the issues a little later on this week.
Remember our definitions.
When folly and nonsense grow up, it becomes
wickedness and all manner of evil.
This is a commentary of American society.
Folly and foolishness has grown up and it
is all manner of evil, even in the
churches.
But it doesn't seem like anyone has made
the connection.
But brothers and sisters, we better make it.
We had better make the connection.
It is not progress.
I think it's alright to have a good
time.
Please, don't misunderstand me.
I'm all for good.
Clean, family friendly, relationship building fun.
I believe in it.
We do it at our house.
It's a good thing to do.
But I'm not for all the nonsense that
is going on in our land today.
Most of what is called fun today is
far from this.
It only breeds more nonsense.
Alright, that's enough on that word.
You can chew on that one for a
few days.
I'm sure you will.
Let's look at the next word.
The next word we want to look at
is the word bound.
This is an awesome word.
It puts an urgency into our child training.
The Bible says this folly, this silliness is
bound in my child's heart.
That's serious business.
If all this folly is going to produce
those things, then I better figure out how
to get it out.
The word bound is very interesting.
It is the same word used to describe
what they did to Samson.
Remember?
I mean, he was the catch of the
century.
When those Philistines caught Samson, they had the
prize of the century.
That guy had escaped them so many times,
when they bound him up, they bound him
good.
That's the word that is used.
That's the word bound.
This silliness, this uncontrolled spirit is bound there.
And some of you may be saying, yes
brother, I know it, I know it, it's
there.
I know what you're talking about.
Most parents do know what I'm talking about.
Most parents have not pondered it long enough
to get down to the real issues and
get down to the place where they can
help their children and deliver them children from
all of it.
I want you to also notice in this
text where it is bound.
The text says, in the heart.
The heart?
Oh, we learned about the heart the other
evening, didn't we?
The heart is the most powerful part of
the human's being.
The heart is the place where they choose.
The heart is the place where they're motivated.
The heart is the place where they desire.
And the Bible says that foolishness is bound
in the heart of your child.
This is getting more serious every minute, isn't
it?
Amen.
I want it to get more serious every
minute.
Maybe you have tried different methods to get
rid of it, but to no avail.
Some parents simply live with it.
They call it the terrible twos and wait
for the day that the children grow out
of it.
Right?
Terrible twos?
Well, I don't believe in the terrible twos.
I want to assure you there is a
way you can loose those children and let
them go free.
Terrible twos is not biblical.
That's psychology.
That's Dr. Spock.
That's what Dr. Spock produced.
It's not biblical.
The terrible twos can become the sweetest stage
in a child's life, I promise you.
We often say at our house, every house
ought to have a sweet little two-year
-old all the time.
Only thing is, you can't just keep having
a two-year-old around.
But bless God, the children get married and
have grandchildren and then you have little two
-year-olds around again.
We say at our house, with a two
-year-old around, who needs a television set?
Right?
Listen, when that little two-year-old is
at peace with its family and with its
parents and it's subdued and it's under subjection,
they are the sweetest little things to have
around you could ever find.
And the most entertaining, humorous, natural humor you'll
ever get.
You'll never need a TV and a TV
will never match it.
The joy, the blessing, the sparkling joy that
a little two-year-old brings to a
household when that child is in its place
according to the Bible, it cannot be compared.
So, terrible twos, we're going to throw that
one out the window.
We don't believe in those.
And some of you may have a terrible
two-year-old, but I'm saying that for
all the rest of you who don't or
all of you that are just starting to
have children.
Mark that one out of your theology.
There is no such thing.
And if you don't believe that there is
no such thing, and you practice what God
says, guess what?
You probably won't have terrible twos.
Hallelujah.
Okay.
So, what do we do with this foolishness?
Now that we've established that it's there, and
we've established that it is there in a
very strong way, and we've established that it's
very urgent that we learn what to do
with it.
What do we do with it?
Well, you can yell at it, but it
won't go away.
You can plead with it, but it won't
go away.
You can give it rewards and promise it
big toys, but it will not go away.
You can stand it in the corner, but
it will not go away.
You can even slap it and spank it,
and it will not go away.
How do you get rid of it?
If you will give your child a loving
spanking, like I described to you last night,
I guarantee you it will free.
And your child will be at rest and
full of an obedient heart, and that is
the will of God.
Notice also that the Bible says, far from
him.
Glory!
Far from him!
That means it's not going to come back
in two hours.
Right?
Far from him!
It's not going to come back in two
hours.
Sounds great, doesn't it?
We all know how this thing works, by
own experience.
We know those times when a child was
manifesting the conduct mentioned above.
We gave him a good, sound spanking, and
found the peaceable fruit in the child when
we were done.
We all know that that works.
They were peaceful, they were content, they shared
their toys, they were kind, and they were
just a good little boy or girl the
rest of the day, and the next day,
and the next day.
You know why?
The child has been set free from the
bondage of foolishness, and all the junk that
comes out of it.
The child has been set free.
The child is at peace, the child is
at rest, and guess what?
So are you, and so is your house.
Just like the scripture says, And you shall
have rest, and he shall bring delight to
your soul.
Remember the little two-year-old?
Delight to your soul!
That precious little fella, that little girl bouncing
around there so sweetly, being nice to everybody.
Why is the child free?
Because you drove that foolishness far away from
them.
Listen, parents.
Do your child a favor.
Drive that foolishness out of their heart.
A word of caution here.
Some parents think the harder you spank them,
the further it will flee.
That is not right.
I have heard parents testify to me with
their stick in their hand.
And then they were spanking their child and
saying, You foolishness, you get out of here!
Go!
You just go!
Go now!
You know, and letting the child have it.
Dear parents, please.
Don't do that.
Change your mind.
It is not the stick itself.
It's the whole thing that I described to
you yesterday.
It is that loving, patient, kind, overflowing parent
who graciously, full of mercy and compassion, spanks
the child that chases foolishness far away.
So, don't increase the swats to get rid
of it.
And don't increase how hard you hit to
get rid of it.
Change your heart.
You will get better results.
Some children live in the midst of all
this silliness and nonsense described earlier all the
time.
It breeds more of the same.
Often it breeds worse things also.
These things build up day by day, don't
they?
Have you ever seen them build up day
by day?
See, if you let that there, it is
going to get worse.
It will not get better.
It will not go away.
The child is not going to get rid
of it by having a better day tomorrow.
It will not go away.
Your dear child needs a loving spanking.
The child's conscience gets defiled.
Selfishness takes the lead.
And they are miserable.
And you can tell they are miserable.
When we see the child like that, immediately
we begin to think, this child needs to
be set free.
I see it as a terrible injustice and
an unloving thing to leave your child go
around for days in this condition needing a
spanking.
That's not love.
It's not love.
They are frustrated.
They are discontent.
And they can't seem to be happy with
anything.
You know it and they know it.
That's why sometimes when you do finally relieve
them, it's like, oh, thank you.
Phew.
Man.
Am I glad to get rid of that
load.
You know, they say those kind of words.
Many times when I have to give a
spanking, I give the spanking with both the
act and the root in mind.
I'll find myself speaking to the child because
I've been watching the child.
And I've been seeing their conduct.
And you know, when the foolishness is there,
but they haven't done an act that you
can say, this is wrong.
You need to be spanked for this.
You just look at it and you say,
this child is not right.
This child is not right.
So then when you finally find yourself in
the room to lovingly care for the child,
I often bring them back and let them
look at the last couple of days of
their life and help them to see.
Do you see how foolish, how uncontrolled you
were there?
Do you see where you were?
Do you see this?
Do you see?
Yeah, they see.
Well, that's what made this, that called you
up here to receive this spanking.
You begin to work deeper with them when
you understand this.
Other thoughts on foolishness quickly here.
Once you see what it is, and you
learn how to get rid of it, then
if you love them at all, you will
not want it to come back.
Once you learn what it is, and you
learn how to deliver your child from it,
you will become keenly interested in where this
whole thing comes from.
There have been times that I have watched
it on a Sunday afternoon There have been
times when we had somebody over for a
Sunday afternoon visit, and there was a bunch
of foolishness going on, and by the time
Sunday evening came around, I saw my child
in need, and they needed to get a
spanking, and on Monday morning in my prayer
time, the Lord would speak to my heart
and say, You know, Denny, it's your fault.
You left him run like that all day
yesterday.
What else do you expect?
I had to bow my heart.
What brings foolishness back?
I have observed just a few.
Foolish children breed more foolishness in other children.
Number two, too much choking around the house
will breed foolishness in your children.
In fact, the children wait for the opportunity
at times.
Oh, Dad's getting a little light here.
Dad's getting a little free.
Oh, boy, we can all just let her
rip.
You ever see that?
I have.
Then I get convicted and I think, Yeah,
that was my own fault because I got
light-hearted.
What I did a little of, man, they
jumped in, whole hog rolled all over the
floor, you know, held their tummies with laughter
and everything.
Yeah?
It's Dad.
It's Dad, not the boys.
It's Dad.
Silly activities and unsupervised activities, all the nonsense
books, nonsense movies and videos, nonsense entertainment in
this world.
There is a multitude of things, and I
trust that most of them, you don't allow
them.
Let us reason together, brothers and sisters.
If spanking is the only way to get
rid of it, and it is, it seems
pretty unloving to allow these things that breed
more of it in my child.
That doesn't make sense, does it?
So, the whole thought there is, once you
recognize what it is, and you begin to
get discernment that you can see what's happening
here, you learn how to get rid of
it, you learn the things that bring it
back, you start making some decisions to protect
the child, and guess what?
Not as many spankings.
Let me give you an example.
A few years ago, I spotted foolishness in
little Joshua.
I saw it two days early.
I knew what it was.
I knew things weren't right.
I knew he was out of character, but
he didn't do anything wrong.
He was just kind of, you know, conscience
guilty, rolling around, doing silly things here and
there, but nothing that I could say, Oh,
my son, you're going to have to have
a spanking.
So, here's what I did.
In my quiet time in the morning, I
prayed, Father, Joshua needs a spanking.
I know he does.
I see the foolishness.
It's in there.
I can see it all over the place.
Would you please help me today to see
something?
Because, see, when it's there, you all won't
see it, you know.
They'll be rolling around out in the back
where you can't see them.
I just prayed that prayer.
And that was it.
I went on to other things.
Then, I went out to the shop, started
working.
I was working at the cut-off saw.
And after I was out there for about
one hour, the Lord just said, Go to
the house.
Go to the house.
Turn off the saw.
And I started heading up to the house.
I walked up to the door of the
house.
And I opened up the door.
And there was Joshua throwing himself on the
floor.
Because he didn't get the toy that he
wanted.
And there he was.
I mean, he fell on the floor.
He rolled over and looked up.
And there's Dad, standing right in the door,
caught in the very act.
Well, that's how it works.
See?
Now, when I took that little fellow upstairs,
and went through all the things that we
talked about last night, we discussed the very
act.
But we also discussed the heart that he
had for the last two or three days.
And he bowed his heart and said, You're
right, Papa.
I know it's that way.
I know I've been out of order.
I should have come to you and said
something.
And there we are.
We're working deeper than just the act.
And guess what that will get you?
You will have more willingness from their will
if you will deal with the heart than
if you just deal with the act.
Proverbs 20, verse 30 says, The blueness of
the wound cleanseth away evil, so do stripes
the inward parts of the belly.
In this verse, we see another aspect of
spanking.
It really is the same aspect as the
last verse was saying, but it's just put
in a little bit different way.
Here, it says, cleanse away evil and cleanse
the inward parts of the belly.
See those words?
Basically, what God is saying there is that
spanking will clear the conscience of your child.
May I give you an encouragement?
Give your child a revival.
And I'm sure that you know what I'm
talking about.
You parents that are here, you adults that
are here, you know what a revival is.
You know what it's like when God begins
to deal with your own heart, maybe at
a revival meeting, maybe it's in your closet
in the morning, maybe it comes after some
failure in your life and you go fall
on your face in your closet, you break
your heart before God, you weep over your
need, you repent of it, you get your
heart clean, washed by the blood of the
Lamb, you yield your heart fresh and new
to God.
Guess what you feel like when you come
out of your closet?
Clear and free and full of joy and
grateful to God and it's just like everything
is all new again.
That's what a revival is.
Give your child a revival.
Brothers and sisters, the rod of discipline is
God's method for producing the same thing in
your child.
Think with me.
Our children do not understand all the things
that are involved with getting right with God.
They don't understand the depths of the blood.
They don't understand the depths of repentance.
Those things are far from them, especially if
they're young.
This is God's method to clear the conscience
of a child and bring them to that
same place where they feel clear, where everything
is open, where everything is free, where their
heart is broken, where they're yielded and it
just seems like it can start all over
again.
This is God's method for doing that.
This beautiful state of freedom, joy and clearing
is exactly what the above verse is describing.
When our children do wrong or transgress our
laws, if you do not see it, the
conscience becomes guilty.
If you do not catch it, their conscience
gets guilty.
You see, God made the conscience and the
conscience gets guilty when it does wrong.
We know that.
Child has a conscience.
God has designed the conscience to function in
His way.
When a child's conscience is not clear, a
cloud of unclearness comes over them.
If you are a discerning parent, you'll be
able to see it on their face.
You'll be able to see something is not
right with this child today.
Their conscience doesn't look right.
Something isn't right.
Sometimes a good, honest talk with mom and
dad can clear the air.
And wise is the child that will come
to their parents and say, Dad, I'm not
feeling good.
I'm not feeling good.
You know, I mean, that's a smart child.
Something isn't right in here.
Well, let's talk about it.
Talk a little bit.
Issues come out.
Pray with the child.
They go away free.
However, there are times when the child chooses
to keep silent about their wrongs and do
them more and more behind your back.
If so, the cloud prevails over them and
usually they will get into more trouble.
This is when they need a revival.
God has designed the use of the rod
to take this child and bring them back
to that place of peace and rest where
their life is manifesting peaceable fruits of good
and right like you have taught the child
in your home.
Give your child a revival.
It is results like this that cause the
child to say, I have felt so clear
and clean all day long.
You know, when you go to put them
to bed at night.
They've had their revival.
They are outside playing now.
They remember how miserable they were for the
last three days.
Now life is all fine again.
The grass is green.
The sky is blue.
They're just enjoying playing.
And they go through the day like that
and you'll hear them say when you put
them to bed at night, Papa, thank you
for giving me a spanking today.
I have felt so free and so clear
ever since you did.
And you can say, Oh, that's so good,
my child.
I'm so glad you're free and you're clear
all the rest of this day.
The bondage of foolishness is a bondage.
Do your child a favor and set them
free.
Let's stand for prayer.
Oh God, our Father, tonight we come pleading
for wisdom and discernment.
Lord, I know I've probably said some things
that some of these parents are scratching their
head on.
Oh God, I pray, give light, give insight
into the words that I've spoken tonight.
Lord, take those little definitions of what foolishness
is and bring them home to the hearts
of these parents and open up their eyes,
Lord.
Open up their eyes.
Let them see their children and the actions
of their children in a new light from
this day forward, Father.
And through that, I pray, you will bring
forth pleasant, peaceful, happy children and pleasant little
two-year-olds all over this room.
And God, all over this country, I pray
in Jesus Christ's name.
Amen.