 Hey man, so keep your place there in Ezekiel chapter 13. We're going to be going through this story in the Bible this morning, and hopefully my goal this morning is to show you how relevant the Bible is to your life today and everything around you. So keep your place in Ezekiel chapter 13 throughout the whole sermon. We're going to keep going back to Ezekiel chapter 13, so we're going to have you go somewhere else. You're going to keep a bookmark there, and we'll keep coming back and going through this story verse by verse. But I was in a house the other day. I was in a house the other day in this house. I could tell that this house was built sometime in the 50s. This house was built sometime in the 1950s because I noticed in the living room in this house, I also have owned, in the past, I owned a house that was built in the 50s because the living room in this house, I could tell because it had this very narrow hardwood floors. It was actually in the house, it was funny because the house had been remodeled. You could tell several times. But this original floor remained in this house that I was in, and it was actually got me thinking about this sermon in this chapter in the Bible because everything around us now is fake, is the kind of the way I started to think, and it reminded me of this chapter in the Bible. See these hardwood floors into this house were real hardwood floors. They were actually real hardwood of some kind. I know this because I used to have a house that had one story. The house was all of this hardwood floor. You could actually, I did this, you could actually sand down these hardwood floors because it's an actual thick plank. It's about a half inch or more thick. You can actually sand the entire thing down, refinish it, re-varnish it, and it looks just like new. Again, versus what we see today is everything is just fake. It looks like hardwood, but it's not. An example is our fellowship hall. Garrett and I, we installed that fellowship hall floor in about four or five hours, that entire floor we were able to put in. It looks like hardwood, it looks, but it's not. It's fake, it's actually plastic. And when it comes to that floor getting scratched up and worn out, we'll just pull that floor up and we'll throw it away. There's no refinishing it, there's no redoing it, anything like that. It just got me to thinking about all these different things. We're living in a fake world today. Everything around us is fake. We're building a shed at my house. Jacob and I, well, let's turn more into like a barn at this point. But I'm showing him measurements and I'm saying, okay, what was that number? We need to subtract three and a half from that. He's like, why three and a half? Well, Jacob, it's because a two by four isn't two inches by four inches. It's one and a half inches by three and a half inches. But if you remember or you've ever been in a building that, again, was built before 1950, we had some old granaries on the farm. And if you look at the timber in that barn, it was two inches by four inches. It was actually real. And that wood, I still remember some of that wood when I was modifying some of those buildings, that wood was so hard you could barely get a skill saw through it. The wood was such high quality wood. Now you cut this wood today and it's like just you cut through it like butter. But the point is everything's fake today. You look at baseboards you can buy at Home Depot. They're not even wood, most of them. They're compressed paper, basically. Some of these baseboards, they're not even actual wood. You look at wood blinds for your house. They're not wood, they're plastic. Everything is fake around us, not just construction things. You think about things in our social life. You think about people's friends. People say, I have 2,000 Facebook friends. It's like those aren't your real friends. Those are fake friends. Many of those friends anyway are fake. Think about phone calls. Think about text messages. My wife got a text message from a random number earlier this week and it sounded like this was someone that wanted to be her friend and then she wasn't really sure who it was. And then I got a similar text message just a couple of days later. Here's the thing. Everything's fake. All these things, these people that want to be your friends and they're reaching out, they're just scams. They're just trying to feign friendship, feign that they want help or something like this. They're all fake just to scam you. There's so many fake things around us in the world today. You think about the news, don't get me started. The news, I mean not only, look, not only is the news much of it fake, but a lot of it is just simply the opposite of what's true. A lot of it is just simply something that is just completely untrue. Think about the government and the lies and all these different things that come out. I mean, look, that's why I'm thankful. I'm thankful for this wealth of knowledge that we have from all over the world. At least you can get pieces of information that comes from somewhere other than five media companies that control everything that Americans see in this world. Because look, a lot of it's fake. The thing that kills me about our country, not to go off on this, is that our country tells so many lies at this point that it is well known around the world, in populations around the world, that the government in the United States, the media in the United States, they're just, it's all fake, it's all lies. Think about this for a second. Think of Rahab in Joshua chapter two, when she hid the spies and she lied to the authorities in Jericho. They said, where did they go? And she hid the spies and she told them that they went a different way so the spies were able to get away. Why did her lie work? Because they believed she was credible. This is the irony of just like, just being this known liar around the world is, it's not even going to work because nobody believes anything we say at this time. You say, oh it's all covert and it's just espionage, but it doesn't work anyway because nobody believes anything that we say. Because we've lied about so many things. We've been fake about so many things. You think about, I mean, we have zero trust anymore. You think about somebody in Vietnam, a South Vietnamese person that was helping the Americans that we abandoned. You think about somebody in Iraq that was helping the Americans that we abandoned, in Afghanistan that we abandoned. I mean, think about this, the millions of people that have died because of all the lies, all the fakeness that has come out of our nation. It's all fake today. Even the causes that we're told to care about today are fake. Well, what's the biggest cause you can think of? There's global warming and climate catastrophe that's coming up. Look, I'm telling you, it's all fake. How do I know it's fake? Because I just look at what's happening around us. We blow up two pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Yes, we did it. Look it up. Pay attention to what's happening. These pipelines release enough methane gas to be the equivalent of every single car that will be running in the United States for an entire year. As far as the, according to the own climate activists, scientists, science themselves, it was as bad that methane release was as bad for the environment, for global warming, for climate change, as every single car that will burn CO2, burn hydrocarbons, and create CO2 for an entire year in the United States. But where's the outrage? Where's the outrage? There isn't any outrage because it's fake. It's manufactured fakeness for an outcome that people want. That's why you don't see outrage. That's why you don't see news about it, because it's all manufactured. It's all fake. The point I'm trying to get at is that we're surrounded by fake today. We're surrounded by fake today. Now turn to Ezekiel chapter 13. Ezekiel chapter 13. Who is Ezekiel? Ezekiel was a prophet that was a prophet during the time of Josiah up until the Babylonian captivity. He was a prophet in Judah, the lower kingdom, at the time of Ezekiel. The northern kingdom of Israel is already gone. They've already been taken away into captivity by the Assyrian Empire. Ezekiel was a prophet at the same time as Zephaniah. This is just for your Bible reading knowledge. He was a prophet at the same time as Zephaniah. He was a prophet at the same time as Habakkuk. He was a prophet at the same time of, of course, Jeremiah. So that's why you'll see a lot of the same concepts in these four prophets, especially, because they're all going through the same thing in the nation of Judah at the same time. Look at Ezekiel chapter 13 and look at verse number one. Look what the Bible says here. It says, in the word of the Lord, knowing that we're surrounded by fake today, let's read this and see how relevant this is to us today. And the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man. So this is the word of God now. This is what God is prophesying through Ezekiel. In verse two, it says, son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts. Hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. So right away, Ezekiel or God is speaking through Ezekiel here and he is, he is rebuking the prophets of this land. He's rebuking the, the men of God of this land, the pastors, the spiritual leaders that are prophesying, they're not prophesying. You know, there's God saying, I have not given you any vision. It's like, you've not seen anything from me, yet you are prophesying all these things. He calls them foolish prophets. He says, oh Israel in verse four, thy prophets are like foxes in the desert. So what kind of prophets are these? Is kind of what I want you to be thinking about as we read these next couple of verses. What kind of prophets are these? Are they preaching false doctrine? What is their main problem that God is getting at here? Look at verse five. You have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. So right away here in verse number five, he says, you've not gone into the gaps and you've not made up the hedge. He's saying, you're not offering the protection that you're supposed to offer. Meaning that a prophet, a true man of God, is supposed to offer you, offer the people, offer the nation protection, okay? And he's saying, you're not doing that. Instead, look what they're doing in verse six. He says they have seen vanity and lying divination, saying the Lord saith and the Lord have not sent them. And they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. So what they're doing is they're saying things that aren't from God and they're saying that they are from God. And then what they're doing is they're getting others on board, so look, it's not just the prophets here. They're giving others, they're giving people what kind of hope are they giving them? They're giving them fake hope. They're giving them fake hope. They're giving them hope that is not real. So much, and they're so good at it, listen to this. Look at the last part of the verse. They're giving people such fake hope in such a convincing way that the people are actually helping them. The people are actually confirming what they say. So they're actually getting disciples after themselves and the people are actually confirming the fakeness of what they're putting off here. Look at, in 2nd Timothy, y'all just read it to you. You keep your place in Ezekiel. 2nd Timothy chapter four, verse number three, the Bible tells us, kind of gives us this, kind of gives us this people that will be, the kind of people that will give hope to these fake prophets, to these false messages. Look at this, in verse number three, it says of 2nd Timothy chapter four, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They'll grab teachers that tell them what they want to hear. They'll heap to themselves, meaning they will seek out these type of prophets in Ezekiel chapter 13. And then the people will confirm the fakeness is what's happening here. Because it's what they want to hear. I mean, a sign of the truth. Look, a sign of the truth. And we'll get into this in a little bit more detail. But a sign that somebody is telling you the truth is when it's things that you don't want to hear all the time. Yes, there should be good news, but if it's good news all the time, you must raise a flag and say something's wrong here. I mean, this kind of reminds me of what the Bible says in Proverbs 29.5, where it talks about flattery. This is something just tells you just good things all the time. You know, the Bible says there, it says a man that flattereth his neighbor, it says spreadeth a net for his feet. This is somebody, so like somebody that, you know, I have this friend and like this friend just like tells me good things all the time. It's just nothing but how great I am, nothing but how wonderful everything is all the time. Something's wrong there. Something is wrong there. Look back at Ezekiel chapter 13. So that's what these prophets are doing. They're just giving this fake hope. They're just giving this fake message and all the people are on board with it and they are helping spread it or confirm it, the Bible says. Look at verse number eight. Therefore, because of this, thus saith the Lord God, because ye have spoken vanity and seen lies, therefore behold, I am against you, saith the Lord. Verse nine, in my hand shall be on the prophets that see vanity and that divine lies, and they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord God. And here is really the coup de gras right here in verse number 10 about who these prophets are. It says because, even because, God's like trying to really get it across to us there. He says because, no really listen is what he's saying. It says because, why am I against them? Why am I against these prophets? Because even because they have seduced my people peace and there was no peace. And one built up a wall and lo others dogged it with untempered mortar. The title of the sermon this morning is untempered mortar. Untempered mortar. So what kind of prophets were these? They were the kind of messengers that were saying that they had this message from God and they were giving these people fake security. They were giving these people think about what is about to come upon this nation of Judah. They're about to be destroyed. They're about to be taken into captivity by this powerful empire of Babylon. But these prophets are giving these people fake security. These people think that they have this wonderful wall built up in front of them. They have this wonderful wall, but the Bible says that it's fake strength. It's untempered mortar, meaning mortar. You know that what gives the brick strength, you stack up a wall full of bricks and it's just gonna fall. You could push it over with one hand. I mean the wall could weigh 10 tons and if there's no mortar you could push it over with one person could push it over. The mortar is what gives the wall strength but this is mortar that never solidifies. It's mortar that just, it stays liquid, it stays jelly. So it's just, it looks good, it looks right, it looks strong but it's fake. It's like those fake hardwood floors. It's not real hardwood. It looks good, it looks pretty, but it's fake. It's not going to last. And these people are telling these people this and they get people on board to start spreading this fake message as well. So the problem is that they weren't strong. The problem is that they weren't strong. Think about a terrible situation that would be to be this completely weak person, to be a completely weak organization or nation or whatever it is when you think you're the strongest. That is a disaster, a recipe for complete disaster. Boy, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Isn't that, I mean isn't that the case? I mean in Judah, God sends Babylon to destroy them. You say it's a good story. This is a good story in the Bible. But look, the Bible's relevant for us. There's a reason that God put this in the Bible because it is relevant for us today. This prophet in Ezekiel chapter 13, this is the pastor today. This is the pastor of many churches today. This is the pastor that is filling a church full of people. Filling a church full of people just giving nothing but good news. Nothing but this social gospel. Nothing but be a good person. Give money to the church. Give money to the homeless. Let's go build a building in some third world country and let's ship diapers across the world. Let's give Tylenol to little children. It's the pastor that's preaching the prosperity gospel today. What is church all about? Well, church is all about you coming here and again, you giving money. I mean this is always about what it comes down to with these types of prophets. But hey, you give money, you come and you serve in the church and God will just fill you with blessings. God will fill you with 10 times the money. God will fill you with all sorts of things in your life. Maybe the church has a drug rehab center. Let's get people off of drugs. Maybe it's just a social club. Maybe it's just a place where you go to hang out and get some sense of spirituality. They name drop Jesus. They name drop Jesus to whatever message the pastor wants to tell them. You say how in the world, you say just think about it for a second. You say how in the world, look at verse number three. How in the world could you go into 10 different Christian churches in Fresno today? Let's not even go across California or across the nation. How could you go into 10 different Christian churches in Fresno and get 10 different complete different messages? How is that possible? Well, verse three is how it's possible. Thus saith the Lord God, woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit. That's why it's possible. Because every single pastor today, not every pastor, but the pastors of the majority of these churches are just following their own spirit. Look, folks, this is one message here. This is all the same message, but you have all these different passages falling. All the different, their own spirit, their own message, which is basically their own personal business plan of whatever they want it to be and whatever they want it to be to grow their church or grow, you know, their organization. You think about different Bibles today. Look, this is one message right here in the King James Bible. But then you look at 150 different Bibles, that's a different message. So you wonder how you could get different messages from different Christian church. It's very easy to see because all these other pastors are just following their own spirit. They're following their own Bible version. That's how you get, I mean, you have no idea what you're gonna get when you walk into a place today. It's just vanity, as verse number six says. It's whatever these prophets want. Yet, here's the common problem in Ezekiel chapter 13 with all churches everywhere. The people are in danger. This is the problem. The people are in danger. The people in those churches are not safe. It's what the Bible is saying here. Because why? It's all untempered mortar. It's all untempered mortar. These people in all these churches, look, we meet them every single week out soul winning. They think there's a wall. There's no wall. They're in danger. You say, what are they in danger from? They're in danger from the wrath of God. That's how you walk up somebody who's been in church for 20 years and you ask them, do you know if you're going to heaven? And they have no idea. Because their church is built on a false foundation with untempered mortar. They see the wall, they're not even worried. They're not even worried because they think that there's a wall there, but they're not safe. Because he did believe it not. Has the wrath of God abiding on him? The Bible says. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah at the same time as Ezekiel, he's seeing the same problems. He's seeing the same thing. That's why, look, that's why when people come in here, they're our first concern for any visitor is that they're saved. Our first concern, our first questions that we will ask any visitor that comes here are, are you sure that if you died today, you know that you're going to heaven? Because what is our major concern? Our major concern is for their actual safety. It's for their actual peace, as the Bible says. Jeremiah 23, 21. I have not, God says this. He says, I have not sent these prophets. Yet they ran, meaning they went anyway. Imagine the irritation of God. He has all these people claiming his name, name dropping Jesus as we called it. Name dropping God, running out in front of the people. He said, I've not sent them. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. Literally putting words in God's mouth. The prophet of Ezekiel chapter 13 is this prophet. The prophet of Ezekiel chapter 13 is the modern day pastor in America today. The prophet of Ezekiel chapter 13 in Jeremiah chapter 23 is our actual leaders today too. You say, what do you mean? I didn't watch, you know, I didn't watch the State of the Union. What was it, Tuesday? I didn't watch it, but I guarantee you there was a statement in that speech that said, the State of our Union is strong. Now look, I used to be really political when I was in my 20s, like really into politics, really into the Democrat, Republican thing and all that. And look, I figured this out, I figured this one out before I was even saved. It was like, I don't listen to every president, you know, the presidents that I liked, I don't listen to them, be like, State of our Union is stronger, and I'd be like, yeah! And then I listened to presidents, the next presidents that were just wicked and evil, you know what I thought at the time. And I was like, what? Wait a minute here, you mean, no matter what's happening in our country, the State of the Union is strong. I was like, hmm, always? It's always good, all the time? I was like, somebody's lying to us here. Look, we should figure, can it, again, if it's nothing but good news all the time, you're being lied to. Just like the prophet, Ezekiel chapter 13, everything's fine. Peace. But God says the problem is there was no peace. There was war behind that wall that they couldn't see. Americans need some discernment today. Unfortunately, as Hebrews chapter five says, that discernment only comes from the meat of the word. That discernment, that judgment between good and evil that Ezekiel chapter, or Hebrews chapter five, verse number 12, talks about only comes from the meat of the word. So as we abandon the word of God, as we abandon the Lord, we will just lose all that discernment. That's why it's happening. So yeah, they're false prophets in Ezekiel chapter 13. But what were they doing? They were convincing the people that they were safe, and it was all fake. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 13. Actually, go to Isaiah chapter 31. I'm sorry, keep your place in Ezekiel chapter 13. Go to Isaiah chapter 31. Isaiah chapter 31. Look at Isaiah chapter 31 and verse number one. Our leaders today are these same prophets in Ezekiel chapter 13 saying, everything's fine. Everything, we're strong. We're safe. We're wealthy, they say. Look at verse number one. It says, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots. First of all, let me say something here. It's in, woe to them, God is saying, don't you go Israel. Don't you go and rely on some foreign nation and war materials and horses and don't you rely on the strength of this world. You had better rely on me. It says, because there are many, well, they had many horses, many chariots and in horsemen and in the men because they are very strong. But they look not into the Holy One of Israel neither seek the Lord. The Bible is saying those worldly things, those weapons and those soldiers and all those things that you would think make you strong, it's like they will not make you strong. Just like, you know, we say, we are wealthy today. Look, even our money is fake. The only reason that our money works today is because not everyone realizes that it's fake. Yet, everything is fake today. But here's the irony of Isaiah chapter 31 verse number one. These people were relying on actual horses and actual chariots and actual men. We're relying on fakeness. And the Bible is saying that even if those things aren't fake, if you don't rely on the Lord but you rely on other things, it doesn't make any difference. Even if our money was real. Even if our strength was real, it wouldn't matter. Because the real ones won't work either. You say, this sounds bad. How does this end? Isn't the Bible great? The Bible tells us how it ends. Look at Ezekiel, go back to Ezekiel chapter 13. The Bible tells us, we can see, look, we can see the more you read Ezekiel, go read Ezekiel 13 four times today. And just the parallels will just fill your brain. You will just like, just continue getting parallel after parallel of things in your individual life, of things with our country, things with families. I mean, the whole thing, the parallels are all there. And all we have to do to see how it ends is just keep reading. Look at verse number 11. Verse number 11, it says, Say unto them, which dob it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall. There shall be an overflowing shower, and ye, O great, hailstones shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it. This is what Ezekiel and Jeremiah and all these prophets were doing. They were telling the people, dobbing the wall, they're like, hey, that is untempered mortar, that is not gonna work. But the people didn't listen. Look at verse 12. Low when the wall is fallen, shall it not be set unto you, where is the dobbing, whereeth you have dobbed it? Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, I will even rend it, with a stormy wind in my fury, and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. God says, I'm going to knock it down. So will I break down the wall, that ye have dobbed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, more on that later, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. That's kind of the main point right there. Thus I will accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have dobbed it with untempered mortar, and will say unto you, the wall is no more, and neither they that dobbed it. To wit, the prophets of Israel, which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, which see visions of peace for her, when there is no peace, saith the Lord God. So what can we take from this? What can we take for this? The first thing we can take from this is this. Lies are not strength. Lies are not strength. Words are not strength. Turn to Isaiah chapter 41. Things people say that sound good, that illicit emotion, that is not strength. Strength only comes from, true strength only comes from one place. Look at Isaiah 41, look at verse number 10. The Bible says, fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. God will strengthen you, is what he is saying here. I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. This tells us where our strength should come from. As an individual, as a nation, as anybody that wants to be truly strong, they will get that strength. The only true strength comes from the Lord. In Deuteronomy chapter 31, the Lord said, be strong enough, good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them. I mean, they were going into a fight with these people that were clearly militarily stronger than they were. And God is telling them, don't be afraid of them. It says, for the Lord thy God, he it is that doeth, that doth go with thee and he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. He's like, you don't have to be afraid, even though they look like they have more horses and more chariots, because I'm going with you. Again, just like Amaziah. It wasn't the people, it wasn't the mercenaries. It wasn't, you know, the extension of his army. It was whether or not the Lord was with him. Why? Because true strength only comes from the Lord. You say, what about me personally? Well, in Philippians chapter four, verse 13, the Bible says, I could do all three things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Our strength personally is no different. Our strength personally comes from Jesus Christ himself. That's the only true strength. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 13. And look back at verse number 14. You see, these walls with this untempered mortar, God is gonna tear these walls down. He's gonna tear these walls down. Why is he gonna tear them down? He's gonna tear them down so he can expose something. So he can expose something. Look at verse 14. He says, I will break down the wall that you have dobbled with untempered mortar and bring it down to the ground so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered. That's the second thing you need to understand about what God is gonna do in these types of situations is that God will uncover the foundations. God will find out what this wall that was dobbled with untempered mortar was built upon. And the reason he tears it down is to discover the foundation. And so the people can see the foundation. He will find out what was holding you up, these people up, other than the Lord. That is what God is trying to show. Or in the case of this wall, what you thought was holding you up. What you thought was protecting you. You say, yeah, I get it. I see the parallel with our country today. I see the parallel with churches today. I see the parallel with nations today. But what about us personally? Well, here's the thing. We can apply this directly to ourselves personally too because look, your Christian life needs to be real. Your Christian life needs to be genuine. It needs to be built with tempered mortar. It needs to be built with the truth. You see in Ezekiel chapter 13, they thought they had a protective wall. You think about our families today. I want my family built on the right foundation and I want to dobb my family with tempered mortar. But you look at what we're being told today. You look at what we're being told that we need to strengthen our families today. You know, today is Super Bowl Sunday. Found out at the coffee shop this morning. But I just got the thinking about this, driving to church this morning after hearing that at the coffee shop this morning and we're being told that sports and activities and all these organized things are just necessary for your family. You just must have them for the strength of your children. All these organized activities. You know what I got to thinking? I got to thinking like, oh, I have to have my kids and all these organized sports and all these organized things and all this organized stuff. And I'm just like, what does that lead to? What does that wall lead to? That leads to somebody being 40, 50 years old, laying around on a couch, wasting all their time watching sports. I mean, at best. I mean, I'm sure that many wicked things will be put in front of people's faces as they watch something like this today. But all that aside is you have to ask what does that tempered mortar or what does that untempered mortar lead to? It leads to just like some fat, lazy lifestyle. So we're wasting four hours every Saturday, four hours every Sunday, much more probably through all the different sports and all the different seasons. Why does it lead to that in people's lives? Isn't playing sports and all these things good? Look, it leads to that because it's built on a false foundation and it's dogged with untempered mortar. That's why. I'm not against activities. I'm not against sports and all this. Jacob and I went out on an activity on Saturday and we went through this place in the wilderness. We walked across this crazy bridge that was something out of some kind of adventure book or something where it's literally got the planks missing out of it and we're walking across this bridge and I'm like, I'll meet with the best dad or the worst. I'll let you know in half an hour. And I'm like, don't step on the broken planks. We're walking across this thing and then the bridge was destroyed at the end. We literally had to crawl down the end of this bridge. And it's like, but here's the thing. I guarantee you one thing, when he's on his deathbed when he's 95 years old, he'll remember that day. But I'm not against activities. I'm not against sports. The kids will be out playing ball today. They'll be playing basketball. They'll be playing kickball or hit each other with the ball, whatever they play. But here's the thing. I don't need some wicked foundation, some wicked organization that is the foundation of that to have activities and have kids do fun things. It's not the activity, it's the foundation. It's the foundation. Things, these are things that we're told will strengthen but actually weaken. See, the Bible is more concerned about who you are hanging around with and who you are organizing with. And that is the problem with all of these philosophies. Think about schools today. Think about schools and education and these walls that are built. That these foundations that people start building on, 65% of fourth graders can't read. You're like, is that real? That's real. You say, why? Because it's a bad foundation. I'm sick and tired. I am sick and tired of listening to stories or hearing stories from the news or from word of mouth about kids being abused in school. Kids, some kids even dying from what's happening in schools. I am sick and tired of just hearing about this wicked foundation that people are telling everyone is necessary that are just hurting children. And you know what? These people that go to the school boards and they argue against these sick things being taught in school and they argue against all these things. You know what they're doing? They're dobbing the wall. They're dobbing the wall. They're trying to dob the wall. They're dobbing the wall. It's untempered mortar. This is the problem. This is the problem. This is the reason that no matter how hard they try, how hard they go into those situations and try to dob that wall with more and more and more untempered mortar that that wall will fall because the foundation is rotten. It's like going and trying to argue with Satan that he's not doing a good enough job raising your kids. What the Bible says is that we should raise our kids. It's these profits that will tell us, oh, you can't do that yourself. You have to take it to these people over here. This is the foundation that you need. That would be too hard to do yourself. The dobbing of that wall is not gonna work. These institutions, you know, they say, you can't do that yourself. It's too hard. They won't be socialized. They won't be socialized. This idea that the only way your kids can be socialized if they go to one of these satanic institutions and socialize with kids exactly their own age. It's a false foundation. It's untempered mortar. I watched the kids, one of the things my favorite parts of Sunday morning is watching kids blast through the church doors here. Sometimes I think they blast through the church boards, church doors literally minutes before their parents. I'm like, are they jumping out of the car before it stops moving? They blast in here. We got kids from four years old to 12 years old to 16 years old all playing together here. And they just, it's real mortar. That's the real mortar. And it works, it's real mortar because it's built on the right foundation. It's built on a true foundation, a true socialization. Give me a break. I got five year olds that come up to me and shake my hand every single service. They come up to me and they shake my hand like a man. And it's crazy. It's absolutely false. You got kids here that listen to the Bible preached. They're not in coloring books. They're not playing with toys. They're listening. I can tell. I can tell if you're sleeping. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. You can tell. Look, you say, how is that possible? How is it possible that they like coming to church and they listen to the preaching of the word of God because it's a real foundation and it's real mortar. That's how. And it's building a strong wall. That's how it's possible. If you build on a rotten foundation with untempered mortar, it's gonna fall down. And that's what people really need to realize. God will tear it down. God will tear it down to show us those foundations. But the sad thing is, is that these people thought that they were protected. That's the sad thing. That's why God's gonna tear it down. God's not just gonna let it go on forever. James chapter one, verse number two, 22 says, but be doers of the word. And not hearers only deceiving your own selves. Another way of putting that is, hey, build your life on the foundation of the Bible and dobb it with tempered mortar. Do the word. That's talking about the Christian who listens but doesn't act. And the higher, look, the higher you build that wall of inaction, the worse will be the fall of it. So we need to constantly check our foundations. Go back to Ezekiel chapter 13. You need to constantly be checking your foundations in your life. You know, you'd be asking yourself, when you do things, men, when you lead your families, why am I doing this? Why am I putting so much effort in this area? Is the foundation correct? Why am I leading my family in this direction? Why are we going here? Why are we not going there? You know, you need to think down these details of these situations and leading your families to make sure that the things that you're doing that you're not like, you know, oh, I started, you know, another building project over here on a false foundation and I'm putting a lot of effort and a lot of time into this, that wall is gonna fall down. Especially for you, because why did God do this? Look at verse number 22. Why did God do this? Why was he so, I mean, think about the prophets. We've got four different prophets here screaming at, you know, that are documented in the Bible. I'm sure there were many more just yelling at these people, telling them to get right, telling them God's gonna do this. Why? It's because God actually cares about these people. We are talking about God's people here. Look at verse number 22. Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hand of the wicked. So here's what God is saying. He's so upset at these prophets and the people that are helping these prophets. He's gonna tear them down. He's like, because look, the righteous, the people that truly do believe in me, you're hurting them. He's like, you're hurting the righteous people that he should not, and look, he strengthened the wicked, says, that he should not return from his wicked way by promising him life. Therefore, you shall see no more vanity nor divine divinations, for I will deliver my people out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. God's gonna tear these walls down, even individually in our life. If I start going building a foundation over here that is not on the Bible, that is, look, any Christian can do this. Any Christian can lose their way and start building foundations on rotten foundations and start dobbing those walls. Those are the Christians that are like, oh, I think, yeah, but they just kind of twist the Bible to what they want their life to do. They kind of twist God's word to what they really wanna do when they're building on their rotten foundation over here. It doesn't matter how they twist the word of God, how any of us would twist the word of God if we get back slid and start building somewhere else because God's gonna tear it down. Why? For our own good, that's why. Because he loves us. Because he loves us and he's going to rip these things down. Why? To expose that foundation. To show us. When we build a 50-foot wall and he's gonna tear it down and say, look what that wall was built on. You're gonna be like, oh, better get back to this foundation over here. All of this in Ezekiel chapter 13. Well, there's parallels everywhere. Parallels everywhere. It's for our own protection that God is gonna tear this down. Look, it's better. It's better to build on the right foundation. Because the problem is, when God tears down the wall, and we're gonna talk about this in detail tonight, when God tears down our walls, that we built on a false foundation, that we dobbed with untempered mortar, when he tears those walls down, some bricks are gonna hit us. And it's better to not have him tear down that wall. I'm glad that he will. But it's better to not start building it in the first place. So look, everything it's good to see around us. It's good. Don't get frustrated. It's good that you can see that everything's fake. It's good that you can realize this. That means you have discernment. That means that you're consuming the meat of the word. So it's good. It's good. But we don't wanna have that in us. We don't wanna have the fakeness in our lives. We wanna have strong solid foundations and strong walls with real mortar that actually protect. Because imagine, there was no peace with this nation. Imagine that wall came down that was dobbed with jelly. It was dobbed with this liquid and it fell down and what did they see? They saw the army of Babylon right at their gates is what they saw. And it's okay to realize these things and have that discernment between good and evil. But we don't want that in our lives. We wanna build on the proper foundations. With the real building materials, you know the real hardwood is what we want. And that's what we have here. Let's bow our heads and have it work.