in the minds of those that are here, in their hearts, dear God,
please help us understand this great truth.
It's one of the rudimentary truths of the Bible.
It's something that's found throughout the Bible,
but it's something that we don't know too much about in 2007, unfortunately.
God, please just teach us the truth from the Bible tonight.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Now, the book of Nehemiah has a theme throughout it of building a wall.
That's the whole book. That's what it's about.
In Nehemiah chapter 1, we did not read.
We just read Nehemiah chapter 2.
But in Nehemiah chapter 1, we see Nehemiah, he's in captivity.
He's been there for about 70 years.
The children of Israel have been there.
He's probably younger than 70 years old. We don't really know.
So he's probably lived his whole life in captivity, to be honest with you.
And what happens is he hears this report.
One of his friends comes back from being in the nation of Israel.
They come back and he asks what the condition of Jerusalem is like,
what the condition of his nation is.
And he says, oh, it's terrible.
Yes, some of the Jews have gone back to the land there,
but he said the walls of the city are broken down.
He said the walls have been destroyed,
and therefore the enemy can just come and go as they please.
The city's a ruinous heap.
It can't really be established because there's no wall.
And so this makes Nehemiah very upset.
In chapter 2, he goes to the king.
The king sees that he's upset.
He tells the king what he wants to do,
that he wants to go there and build a wall.
Now, what motive would this king have for seeing this wall built at Jerusalem
that he cares nothing about?
No motivation at all.
But for some reason, God put it in his heart, is what happened.
God controlled the heart of this king to put it into his mind to love Nehemiah
and to want to do this for him and to build up the city of Jerusalem
and to build up the wall.
You see the same thing also at the beginning of Ezra.
We won't turn there.
But in Ezra chapter 1, well, let's turn there.
Let's see this.
Look at Ezra chapter 1.
Just the book before Nehemiah is Ezra.
These are kind of twin books that go together.
I love this verse. It's interesting.
But look at Ezra 1-1.
The Bible reads in Ezra 1-1.
Now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled.
See, God's word always will come to pass.
It will always be fulfilled.
And the Bible says the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia,
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom
and put it also in writing saying,
Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia,
The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth,
and he hath charged me to build them a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Isn't that amazing?
God commanded this heathen, ungodly king.
He put it in his heart.
He stirred up his spirit to put forth a decree that this temple be built.
Well, now the temple's already been built.
They built the temple.
Now that the temple's been built, now they're going to build the wall,
okay, around the city in the book of Nehemiah.
Now look at chapter 2. Look at verse number 16.
The Bible says,
And the rulers knew not whither I went or what I did,
neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests,
nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in,
how Jerusalem life waste and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more an approach.
See, Nehemiah understood the danger of not having a wall.
I mean, he understood. He said, We're in distress.
I mean, I work in the alarm business.
Distress is like when you push the panic button.
Now, they get an alarm signal down at the monitoring company.
You know, this means nothing to you, but this is what I do, okay?
And they get an alarm signal.
You know, the policeman comes out and checks and sees what's going on.
When they get that distress signal, you know, when they get the panic mode,
I mean, they rush in there.
They think somebody's being held up. They've got to act fast.
Distress is an emergency. Distress, think about the word stress.
I mean, distress is danger.
He said, It's dangerous to be living in this city when there's no wall here.
Well, he says, There's a distress, and he says, We're a reproach.
We're a mockery. He said, Our city lies waste.
There's no sense building our city any further.
We built the temple, but there's no sense building houses
and building up wealth and fortifying ourselves
if we don't have a wall of protection to protect our investment here.
He says, We need to rise up and build the wall.
That's what this whole book is about, the book of Nehemiah, building the wall.
Now, think about this. What's the purpose of a wall?
The purpose of a wall is to keep something bad out, primarily.
Now, there are some walls that are also to keep good things in.
Now, think about this. My children, when they're really young, they're toddlers.
It's very important for me to keep the door, my front door, shut.
Do you think?
Now, there's a couple reasons for that.
One is that we don't want bad people to come into my house.
This isn't the old days anymore. This is South Phoenix.
And so you keep the door shut, locked all the time.
Now, the other reason is we don't want the young child to stumble out,
and we can leave something good.
So a wall, would you say that a wall is a good thing or a bad thing?
Very good thing.
Now, in our day, walls are thought of as a bad thing.
I remember when I used to be in the liberal New Evangelical churches.
I don't know if you know this, but from the time I was 12 to the time I was 16,
we went to the NIV rock band Baptist church.
And during those years, they had this song,
and they didn't sing the old hymns like we sing.
They sang the praise worship music,
and there was a song called Let the Walls Fall Down.
And it was just all about tearing down.
In His love, no walls between us.
It was an ecumenical, universalism type song.
But let the walls fall down.
Walls are good.
You say, what about the walls of Jericho coming down?
That was good.
It wasn't very good for the people that lived in that city, was it?
See, the wall was designed to protect them,
and when that wall came down, it was bad news for the people inside.
And so when your wall comes down, that's bad news for you.
You'll end up like they ended up all being killed, okay?
So walls are very good.
All throughout the Bible, I don't want to belabor you
by showing you the hundreds and hundreds of Scriptures
throughout the Bible of building up the wall,
fortifying the wall, defending yourself,
building up the defense, the wall.
Why is it that we have on the sign here,
the literature, rather, and everywhere,
faithful word, Baptist Church, why is it?
Why? Because we're building a wall.
You say, that's divisive.
Yes, I know. That's why we do it.
That's why we use the term Baptist.
Our goal is to build a wall around our church
and to say, this is a Baptist Church.
Now, are all Baptists the same? No.
We're independent Baptists.
But by being a Baptist, right away,
we're letting everybody know, we do not speak in tongues here.
We're letting everybody know,
we don't believe you can lose your salvation.
We're letting everybody know right away,
we believe that the Bible is God's Word.
Because these are the things that Baptists stand for.
And if all Baptists don't agree,
this is what Baptists are supposed to stand on.
They're supposed to believe that salvation is by grace through faith.
They're supposed to believe that the Bible is infallible,
Word of God, no mistakes in it.
They're supposed to believe that baptism is by immersion,
after you get saved.
These are basic walls that we set up and say,
you're not going to know what this church is like
until you come and visit and listen.
But you're going to get a pretty good idea right away.
This is a Baptist Church.
Don't bring in heresy.
Don't bring in false doctrine.
Don't bring in idolatry.
Don't bring in these things that we're going to be against
because we're a Baptist.
It also helps us to keep certain things in.
The same things that I mentioned to you.
We're keeping in the right doctrine of being a Baptist.
You see, if we just put on the sign,
such and such, faithful word, Christian church.
If we just put on the sign some vague kind of a definition
of just faithful word, community church.
Faithful word, Christian church.
Well, the problem with that is
people would have no idea what kind of a church this is.
And so what's going to happen?
All kinds of people would be coming in
that don't want to be a Baptist.
They don't believe salvation is by grace through faith.
They don't believe that Jesus is God.
They don't believe that the Bible has no mistakes in it.
And so we use that as a way to protect ourselves,
to protect our church, to give us an identity,
to build up a wall of division that say,
let me tell you what separates,
what divides this church from other churches.
So that's a very positive thing to have a wall.
But we need to have walls in our own personal life.
You need to have a wall around your family.
You need to have a wall around your own life.
Building a wall is what we're talking about.
Look down, if you would, at Nehemiah chapter 3, verse number 13.
Now, they're beginning to build the wall in chapter 2.
Nehemiah preaches and gets everybody excited and says,
we're in distress, we're in a bad situation.
We must build this wall.
Get on board with us.
And they said, let's rise up and build.
They got excited.
They said, we're going to get behind you,
Nehemiah, we're going to build this thing.
Well, then in chapter 3, they begin to build the wall.
I want to draw attention to verse number 13, though.
And it's just going through, talking about who's building what portion of the wall and so forth.
But in verse 13, the Bible says, the valley gate...
Now, remember, this wall must have gates in it to let certain things in and out, people in and out.
It says, the valley gate repaired Hanan and the inhabitants of Zenoah.
They built it and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof,
and a thousand cubits on the wall onto the dungate.
So this particular group of people, they built a gate called the valley gate.
They put all kinds of doors on it, locks, bars.
I mean, is this thing fortified or what?
It's a serious gate that they're building, a serious thick wall.
And it says that they built from there a thousand cubits on the wall,
which is basically, just so you know, that's 500 yards, okay?
And so 500 yards, and then it says all the way to the dungate.
But the dungate repaired Malchiah, the son of Rechab, the ruler, a part of Beth-hassarim.
He built it and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
Now this is an interesting gate, the dungate.
What do you think the dungate was for?
Do you think it's to bring things in or to bring things out?
Hey, the dungate's to bring something out.
There were other gates called the sheep gate, the fish gate, all these different gates.
Hey, that's probably to bring something in.
But you know, God says, if you're going to build a wall,
if you're going to build, and we know that building a wall is a good thing,
because otherwise you're just open to attack.
You have no protection.
But he says, if you're going to build a wall, you've got to have some gates in that wall.
There are certain things that you want to let in,
but there are certain things that you want to get out, okay?
Can you imagine building the wall around Jerusalem and saying,
nothing's going to go in and nothing's going to go out.
I mean, can you imagine what it's going to be like without that dungate?
You must have that gate, okay, to get the bad out, okay?
Now flip over to the next chapter, look at chapter 4,
and look at verse number 10 of chapter number 4.
The Bible reads in Nehemiah 4.10, and Judah said,
the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed.
They're in the process of building the wall.
They're into the project, and they're getting worn out.
Things aren't going right.
And it says, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed,
and there is much rubbish. What's rubbish?
Trash, garbage.
He says, there's all this rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall.
So what's one of the hindrances to you building the wall
that you need to be building in your life?
Well, one of the hindrances is the rubbish.
It's the trash. It's the garbage.
It's the dung that you need to get out.
You wonder why people can't put a division between what's right and wrong.
Think about this. How about your house?
You know, you ought to have a wall around your house,
and I'm not just talking about physically,
but I like to walk into my house and feel like I'm in a safe place.
I like to walk in my house and feel like this is a righteous home.
I mean, when I'm at the gas station, I'm being exposed.
I'm hearing rock music over the PA.
I'm seeing dirty images on the magazines.
There's a bunch of booze over here that I'm forced to look at.
But when I come into my home, that's my Jerusalem that I want to walk into.
I mean, I want to walk into that city of God.
You know, walk in and say, this is my home where I can leave my children.
I'm not just going to leave my children in the gas station and just run around.
No, but in my house, you know, my children just run around.
It's a safe place where I can relax.
My kids can be there. My family can be there.
It's a place that I have to protect my home.
So I want to make sure that I get all the garbage out of my home.
Now, part of the reason why people are against building walls
is because they have so much junk in their life.
That's why they don't even see the need to build a wall,
because there's not a difference between what's inside the wall
and what's outside the wall.
Now, if everything going on outside the wall is also going on inside the wall,
what do you need a wall for?
Okay, the whole point of the wall is that you have something that's very different
that you're trying to preserve, you're trying to protect,
you're trying to keep it the same.
Think about this. Think about the United States and Mexico.
Okay, we need a wall.
Anyway, that's not what this sermon is about.
But the United States is very different than Mexico.
Have you ever been to Mexico?
It's a little bit different than the United States, isn't it?
Now, the United States and Mexico, if they were both the same,
you wouldn't need a wall, okay?
But because they're very different,
we want to protect and keep America the way it is right now, more or less,
rather than have it become more like Mexico.
Because if we have no wall, if we have no border,
pretty soon the two...
Think about this.
If you mix together something that's maybe half...
Think about this.
You mix together milk. Think about milk, okay?
Yeah, the 4% milk, that's what I drink, praise God.
You know, the whole milk, okay?
The whole thing, you know, I'm either going to go all the way one way
or all the way the other way.
I'm not one of these middle of the road people, you know.
I'm going to go all the way, hot or cold, on or off, right or wrong.
Whole milk, 4%, okay, is what I like.
Well, and then you've got, say, 1%.
Actually, let's just go with nonfat milk.
I don't like nonfat milk at all.
To me, it glows kind of blue.
Have you ever noticed that?
You put it on a counter and you have fluorescent lights, it kind of glows blue.
And I've never been able to figure out why it has that glowing blue tint.
Put it up in your hand if you've experienced that.
Tell the truth, all right.
Don't just put it up in your hand because everybody else is.
But anyway, think about this.
If I've got nonfat milk here and whole milk here,
if I mix them together, whole milk has gone down a couple of notches.
And you say, well, the skim milk has gone up a couple of notches.
That's what happens when you amalgamize, when you mix things together.
See, if we mix together the United States and Mexico,
basically we'd be dragged down a little closer to where they're at
and their economic prosperity would go up a little bit.
Okay, that's what would happen.
Do we want that to happen?
No, this is our country.
We've worked hard for it.
We didn't mess up our country, so we want to keep it the way it is, right?
We don't want to give them all our money.
And so the differential between what's inside the wall and outside the wall
is probably going to determine how much you even want to build that wall
by how big of a wall you're going to build.
I mean, if you live in the middle of the worst neighborhood in Phoenix
and you're living in the lap of luxury, you're making millions of dollars,
you're going to have a major wall.
You better have a wall because there's such a difference
between what's inside and outside.
The bigger the difference between what's inside and what's outside,
the bigger and badder the wall you're going to have to have
to keep it different, to keep it right.
Now, the problem with people that don't want to build a wall
is that they have so much dung,
they have so much rubbish inside their city that they're not willing to get out.
That's why their wall is suffering.
That's where the chink in the armor is in the wall.
That's where they're letting in more and more bad.
You know, trash attracts more trash.
You know, one person throws their cup,
and to me, I can't understand a person who litters.
It's disgusting to me.
I mean, when I was growing up, you do not litter.
I cannot understand a person who just wads up their paper cup
and throws it out the window.
I mean, I drive all the time, I travel, I'm on a schedule.
At least I have the decency to wad up my trash
and throw it on the floor in the car, you know what I mean?
And that little leg area in the passenger seat
gets filled with trash when I'm on a road trip.
But to just throw it out the window to me is just horrible.
I can't understand how you'd just be that destructive
to just throw trash on the ground.
But you know what happens?
One person throws trash, and then the next guy drives by,
he sees a bunch of trash anyway,
and I'll throw one more piece of trash.
But when something's perfectly pristine
and there's no trash there, people don't tend to litter there.
Trash attracts more trash, and it just compounds
until everybody's just throwing their trash out the window.
Ah, look at it anyway.
One more piece of trash isn't even going to matter.
Is that the way your life is?
One more piece of trash won't matter, will it?
You got so much trash in your life,
hey, you might as well just, you know,
throw in another piece of trash.
You ought to go through your house,
and I've done this many times.
You ought to go through your house
and take some stuff to the done gate.
Go through your house and purify your house.
Clean up your house.
I've gone through my house so many times
and just said, God, reveal to me what is ungodly in my house
so that I can remove it from my house.
I went through just dressers and boxes and stuff,
and I just said, God, show me what's wrong here.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
What would the Bible say in Psalm 139?
Search me, O God, and know my thoughts
and try me and know my thoughts
and see if there be any wicked way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting.
You've got to go through your house
and gather up the wrong stuff.
Kids, go through your room.
Go through your stuff and say,
I'm going to get rid of anything in this room
that's not pleasing to Jesus Christ.
I'm going to get it outside.
I'm going to build a wall and say,
I'm not going to let this junk in.
I'm going to take it to the gate and dump the bad,
and I'm going to slam that gate shut
and say, I'm not going to let garbage
come in and fill up my life.
You want to be different than the other people around you?
You want to be different than every other kid in your school?
You want to be different than everybody else
who lives in this world
who calls themselves a Christian
or who lives just the normal American lifestyle?
Hey, I want to be different.
I want to be first class.
I want to be righteous in the sight of God.
Hey, you're going to have to build a wall,
and then you're going to have to start cleaning the rubbish
and dumping it out that dunk gate
and having something worth protecting
and then build a wall around it and protect it.
Look at Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 1.
The Bible says,
But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard
that we builded the wall, he was wroth.
It means he was angry.
And took great indignation and mocked the Jews.
He's being mocked for building this wall.
And he spake before his brethren
and the army of Samaria and said,
What do these feeble Jews?
Will they fortify themselves?
Will they sacrifice?
Will they make an end in the day?
Will they revive the stones
out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him and he said,
Even that which they build of a fox go up,
he shall even break down their stone wall.
Hear, O our Lord, for we are despised
and turn their reproach upon their own head
and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.
And cover not their iniquity.
And let not their sin be blotted out from before thee.
For they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.
So built with the wall and all the wall thereof
was joined together under the hat thereof
for the people had a mind to work.
But it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah
and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Astridites
heard that the wall of Jerusalem were made up
and that the breaches began to be stopped,
then they were very wroth.
See, nothing makes the devil more mad
than when you start to plug up those breaches in your wall.
You know that little area in your life
where you've been letting things slip in?
You know, you've built the wall around most of your life.
Can you imagine? Think about this.
Think about the city of Jerusalem
with like 95% of the wall built.
Worthless.
I mean, completely worthless of a wall, right?
I mean, think about this.
A wall 100% built with one gate missing.
What good is it?
I mean, you could go through the spot.
I mean, unless a wall is just 100% built,
it's worth nothing.
And so it says that the devil's crowd became angry
when they saw that they were stopping up the breaches in the wall.
I mean, they were plugging up every little hole,
every little nook and cranny.
Let me tell you something.
The Bible says,
Keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life.
You know where the gates are into your heart?
The gates are through your eyes.
The gates are through your ears.
The gates are those two primary gates into your mind.
And what happens is,
things will slip in when you don't protect your gate.
When you don't protect your eyes,
you don't protect your ears,
the bad things will get in.
Now, when they come in,
you just got to get them out as best you can.
But it'd be a lot better if you just don't even let them in.
Okay.
There's so many things that we just allow the devil
to get into our mind.
When you turn on the pop music and the rock music,
just come on in, devil.
You say,
Come on, you're an old-fashioned preacher, fanatic.
Look, I don't mess with the world's music at all.
And I'm telling you,
if you mess with the world's music,
you're just letting the devil into your mind.
I mean, you turn on any of these groups.
I mean, I don't even know the popular groups right now
or what's out there.
I mean, it's probably just the same old YouTube,
and I don't know.
It's probably the same junk that was out when I was there.
You know, Britney Spears or whatever, you know,
N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys, you know, Metallica.
I'm sure they're still around, you know.
Help me out here, man.
I'm drowning up here.
I don't know the groups, you know.
I'm going to go home and study them and learn them.
But I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to let it into my gate,
and then it's going to go straight out the done gate.
But anyway, this garbage that you're listening to,
I'm telling you something.
You're letting something that's going to destroy you.
You're letting the enemy in.
You're letting the devil in.
Oh, hey.
Come on in, Lindsay Lohan.
Oh, hey, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Come on in.
Sit down.
I'm tough.
You're not going to hurt me.
They will hurt you.
It'll destroy you.
That music will put such filth into your mind.
We were just talking about this the other day.
We were going back talking about some of the groups
that we used to listen to,
and we didn't even realize how bad they were.
And then after we got right with God,
after we threw it all in the trash can,
after the music went out of the done gate,
we sat down and started looking at the lyrics,
and the lyrics were about homosexuality.
I mean, the lyrics were about filthy, abominable things,
and I had no clue.
I mean, I was shocked when I read about
how it was all about fornication,
it was all about anti-God messages, anti-Jesus Christ.
But you don't realize it when you're caught up in it.
Why?
Because they come into your gate,
they've gotten through your wall,
and so now you're so used to it,
you don't even know how bad it is anymore.
You have so much rubbish, you can't even build your wall.
I'm going to tell you something.
Some of you need to decide
that you're done with the world's music
and just die to that part of yourself.
The Bible says that you must die to self,
mortify the members of your uncleanness,
and you've got to come to the place where you say,
the part of me that thrives on this music needs to die.
I remember I was so, I loved the world's music so much
when I was a teenager.
Literally, when I gave up that music for Jesus Christ,
it was like a part of me died.
I mean, that's the best way to describe it.
People that know me well could say it was like a part of me died.
But you know what?
That part of me had to die.
I had to die to self so that Christ could live in me.
And so it's time for you to just decide
that you need to open up that dung gate,
flush the commode, so to speak,
and start out with a clean city
and build a wall around it
and stop up every breach in that wall
and say, I'm not letting in anything that defiles.
I'm going to keep it clean and right.
But keep reading.
It says in verse number 8,
they were angry, you know,
the breach is beginning to be stopped,
and they were very rough
and conspired, all of them,
together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.
Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God
instead of watch against them day and night because of them.
And Judah said,
The strength of the bearers of the burdens is decayed,
and there's much rubbish
so that we are not able to build the wall.
Look at Ezekiel.
Flip over in your Bible to the book of Ezekiel,
toward the New Testament, big long books,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
Look at Ezekiel chapter number 22.
Ezekiel chapter number 22,
the Bible reads in verse 30,
And I sought for a man among them
that should make up the hedge.
A hedge is like a wall that's made of plants,
like thorn bushes in reality.
It says, And I sought for a man among them
that should make up the hedge
to stand in the gap before me for the land,
that I should not destroy it,
but I found none.
Therefore, if I poured out my indignation upon them,
I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath,
their own way, if I recompense upon their heads,
saith the Lord God.
God says, I'm looking for a preacher to fill in the gap,
to stand in the gap of the wall that's protecting my people.
He said, There's a wall of protection around my people,
and I need somebody to fill in that gap
and to stand up and say, No, stop, to the enemy.
No, we're not going to let you through here.
See, the devil is walking about as a rolling lion
seeking whom he may devour.
And the devil is looking for that chink in the armor.
He's walking around this church.
He's looking for the weakness.
He's looking for our weakness doctrinally.
He's looking for our weakness spiritually.
He's looking for some way that he can get into this church
and take this church.
Wouldn't he love to bring down this church?
He'd love to bring down Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Hey, wouldn't he love to bring down your family?
He's going to look at your family.
He's going to look at every member of the family,
and he's going to look for the weak link.
He's going to look for the chink in the armor
where he can get his foot in the door
and get into that gate and get into your family
and destroy and ruin your family.
Do you know how many families have been destroyed by one person?
The Bible says, well, I should have my son Solomon quote
because I believe it's in Ecclesiastes where it says about
the city being built but one sinner destroyed much good.
Is that in Ecclesiastes? What verse is it?
I want you to see this, but he doesn't know the numbers.
He doesn't remember.
Chapter 8 and 9, that narrows it down.
But anyway, return to Ecclesiastes quickly
because I want you to see this.
Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes.
I don't know. You tell me if you get there first.
Here we go.
Look at verse number 18 of chapter 9.
Great verse.
This popped into my head and I wanted you to see it.
The Bible says wisdom is better than weapons of war.
Look, you won't need the weapons of war if your wall is right.
If you could build the proper defense,
you don't even need to fight
because you've already kept the enemy so far away
there's not even a fight going on.
Do you understand what he's saying there?
Hey, wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroyed much good.
You let one wicked person in through that wall,
they can take down the whole city.
You see, I've known family after family
where they got one bad egg in there.
One sodomite is what I'm talking about.
Yes, that's what I'm talking about.
One pedophile, one person, and you know what they did?
They got their filthy hands on every person in that family
and perverted their mind and perverted their body.
That's reality.
I could tell you about it after the service.
I could tell you about it in my extended family.
I could tell you about it in people that I've heard and talked to.
Hey, one sinner destroys much good.
You can't have any chink in the armor
because the devil knows how to find the chink in the armor.
That's his full-time job.
He walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
He's looking for that weak person in the family
that he can get into that family.
And then once he gets into that family,
he can spread his virus and his corruption
and his filth and his ungodliness.
He wants to get into your life, and he'll find your weakness.
Your weakness may not be the rock music as mine was.
He might know that your weakness is as Samson's weakness was with fornication.
He might know that your weakness is with the lust of the eyes.
He might know that your weakness has to do with hanging around the wrong friends.
He might know that your weakness is laziness.
Whatever your weakness is, he'll find out.
You better fortify that wall.
You better strengthen the wall.
You better stop up every breach and be the perfect man, as God says.
Not necessarily sinless is what he's saying.
You're never going to be sinless.
I sin every day.
But see, he says you can be perfect and entire wanting nothing.
See, you can be complete.
You can be entire, perfect.
You can have a wall that's finished.
You say, well, I've got every other area of my life right.
Give me a break.
You expect me to be perfect?
Yes.
See, I've got every other...
Good night.
So what?
So I listen to the wrong music.
Look at everything else I'm doing right.
Go ahead, but you have a big hole in your wall.
You say, well, good night.
I mean, I do everything I'm supposed to do.
Solaning's just not my thing.
There's a big hole there in your wall.
That's a danger right there because the person who's not working for God,
the person who's not producing fruit for God is not rooted.
They can be moved around.
Trees that don't produce fruit are a lot easier to pluck up
than a well-established tree that's producing fruit.
And so the weakness that you have needs to go.
You need to close up that wall or else the devil's going to find it.
But here's an important thing,
and this kind of goes along with what we're saying here.
In Ecclesiastes, turn just one page over to the right
to Song of Solomon, chapter number two.
Now, we talked about one sinner can destroy much good.
One person can get in and corrupt many people.
I think about Christian schools that I grew up in.
Good night.
Every Christian school I went to, there was always at least one bad egg, at least.
There was never a Christian school I went to where there wasn't at least one bad.
I mean, good night.
You've got 20-some kids, 30-some kids in the class.
One of them is going to be a filthy pervert, period.
How do you know that?
Well, growing up, I went to seven different Christian schools,
and I could testify that all seven of them,
you could point at at least one or two kids,
and they were just the infiltrators that were just the bad eggs,
that were the bad seeds.
And I personally had those kids try to get to me
and tell me all the filth and expose everybody to filth,
and they would have the whole class exposed to their filth.
They would destroy the whole class.
They destroyed all those kids.
That's why the Christian school movement,
the Christian food movement has not worked,
because I'm going to tell you something.
Back in the day, big fundamental Baptist searches were thriving,
and this is what they said.
They said, we're all going to start Christian schools,
and we're going to use them to produce an army.
This is the word that they used.
An army of pastors, a great army of Christian school teachers,
an army of soul mentors.
That army does not exist today,
because there are less now than there were back then.
Isn't that terrible?
There's less now than there were back then.
Why?
Because one sinner gets in there and destroys it.
One bad apple destroys the whole barrel.
One bad egg gets in and destroys the whole thing.
Look what the Bible says in chapter 2 of the Song of Solomon, verse 15.
The Bible says,
Take us the little foxes that spoil the vines,
for our vines have tender grapes.
You see that?
The Bible talks about vines and vineyards.
It's talking about producing fruit.
There's a lot of analogies like this in the Bible.
I believe that your children are tender grapes
on that vine of your house.
And he says,
Little foxes, little tiny foxes
that can just go through little holes in the wall.
They slip in.
They creep in.
And he said,
They'll destroy the vine.
They'll destroy the grapes on the vine.
Little foxes.
You see, it's not always an adult
that's going to defile your children.
It's not always a grown-up.
It could be another child.
Do you understand that?
The little fox.
Oh, it's just a little fox.
Don't worry about that at all.
But we've repaired the big breeches in the wall.
Good night.
We put the gates up.
This little hole over here,
nobody can fit through that hole.
Well, little foxes will fit through that hole.
And I'm going to tell you something.
You must guard your children.
You must put a wall around your children.
You must put a wall of protection around those kids.
I do not.
I've said it before.
I'll say it again.
I do not let my children out of my sight ever
except when they're under my wife's supervision.
I'm looking at my kids,
or my wife's looking at my kids,
or we're in the house.
When we're out and about,
when we're at church,
when we have other people over at our house,
when we're at other people's houses,
relatives, friends,
we don't let our kids out of our sight.
You say, that's a little bit extreme.
That is not extreme at all.
We don't let them out of our sight, period,
ever, for any reason.
You say, what about this relative?
No.
What about with this relative?
No.
And I'm going to tell you,
the Sanballads and the Tobias
and the Gishim, the Arabians,
they laugh at us,
just like they laughed at Nehemiah
when he built the wall.
People make fun of us sometimes and say,
come on, what's the big deal?
Don't you want to take your wife out to eat?
Leave it with the babysitter that you met last week.
Leave it with the babysitter you've never met
that I could refer to you.
Here's her phone number.
Here's his phone number.
Hey, don't worry about it.
We'll watch the kids.
Go out and have a good time.
Do you think I'm going to go out
and eat a meal with my wife
so that my work with my kids
can be flushed down the toilet in one evening?
Come to me after the service.
I'll tell you about the people who've been molested.
Come to me after the service.
I'll tell you about the people
that I grew up with in church
who were pornographers,
who were in jail,
who were molesters,
who were perverts,
who were predators,
I guess you could call them predators,
seeking out, trying to destroy people.
You've got your own,
so I don't even need to tell you.
Think about your family.
Think about your extended family.
Think about the people you've talked to.
I am not going to lift my tender grapes back there.
I wouldn't leave a suitcase of a million dollars
at somebody's house.
I'm not going to leave my kids
at somebody's house.
You do whatever you want.
I'm not telling you what to do,
but I'm going to tell you something.
I don't let my kids out of my sight,
and my wife doesn't let the kids out of her sight.
We keep our kids with us all the time.
You know, sometimes I've been there watching,
and I've seen people try to defile my kids.
I've seen people try to get to my kids
both verbally or physically.
But I was right there to say, no, stop it.
People tried to get to me when I was growing up.
You know, scary things.
Hey, it's reality, friend.
Read the book of Genesis
and see what people are really like.
You'll see the kind of filthy stuff
that goes on in my book.
You don't have to read all 66 books of the Bible
to figure it out.
Read the book of Genesis,
and then come to me and tell me
you're going to leave your kids
with every aunt and uncle.
It's always some pervert uncle.
Yes, it is some pervert uncle all the time.
It's always some pervert cousin somewhere.
It's always some pervert relative
that wants to get in there and defile my hard work.
You see, I could work on my kids.
I could read them the Bible.
I could preach to them.
I could love them.
I could train them.
But you know, as soon as I just let them go
into the hands of somebody,
their life could be destroyed.
All my work up in smoke
because I wanted a break from the kids.
Sorry, my wall's not that weak.
And you know, part of the reason
why my wall's not that weak
is because I try to have my house
be very different than the world outside.
I mean, we live in a godliness paradise.
That's what we try to do.
At least we're not perfect.
But we don't let all the world's trash in it.
I'm sorry, but my kids don't know
about all the American Idol.
They don't know the movies.
People walk up to them
and they talk about any movie character
any TV show, any cartoon character.
My kids don't even know what they're talking about.
Like, what?
What's that?
You know, they don't even know.
So see how different it is?
That's why we have a bigger wall.
Bigger wall.
My kids are not going to the devil
without a fight from me.
If my kids go to the devil,
it's going to be over my dead body.
And so I keep my kids,
hey, you shelter your kids.
Yes, I shelter my kids.
What do you want to do?
Leave them out in the rain?
Oh, put them out in the rain, right?
Put them out in the snow?
What kind of a stupid argument is that?
Don't shelter them.
Okay, well, I'm going to tear my house down then.
We're going to start sleeping outside, kids,
because we don't want to shelter ourselves.
Hey, I'm going to shelter my kids physically.
I'm going to shelter them spiritually.
I'm trying to protect them.
You say, oh, but they've got to be exposed to it sometime.
Hey, they're exposed to it with me out soul winning
when I'm right there protecting them.
They see the beer.
They hear the cussing.
They hear the rock music.
But they see it in its natural, real environment.
And I'm right there to say, see, son?
See what I said?
I told you, you want a house that smells like this?
You want to live in this neighborhood?
See, son?
This is where you'll end up, son.
See, that's the right way to expose your kids to sin,
not on the hellovision
where everything's clean and pristine.
And look, if you would, at 2 Peter 2.
2 Peter 2 in the New Testament
toward the end of the New Testament
in the Bible there.
And I don't care who that makes mad.
My kids are not going to be left out of my...
And I beg of you to watch your kids.
I beg you, please, I plead with you,
don't just let your kids go off everywhere
and stay with everybody
and not be under direct supervision.
I mean, you're nuts in today's world.
I mean, I think things have changed dramatically
in the last, like, 20 years.
I mean, I wouldn't have done it back then.
But I think things have changed dramatically.
Look down at 2 Peter 2, verse 1.
The Bible says,
But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord the bottom
and bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways
by reason of whom the way of truth
shall be evil spoken of.
There are going to be bad people among you,
false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing.
Look down, if you would, at verse number 12.
The Bible reads,
But these, as natural...
This is what God thinks of them.
These as natural brute beasts...
Brute beasts means stupid animal,
just a translation for you.
These as natural brute beasts
made to be taken and destroyed,
speak evil of the things that they understand not
and shall perish in their own corruption
and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness
as they that count it pleasure to ride in the daytime,
spots they are in blemishes,
sporting themselves with their own deceivings
while they feast with you.
You eat with them, is what he says.
Having eyes full of adultery
and that cannot cease from sin,
beguiling unstable souls...
Who do you think they're deceiving?
Who do you think they're beguiling?
Unstable souls.
Young people.
Children.
Teenagers.
That's who they're looking for.
The unstable souls
and heart they have exercised with covetous practices,
cursed children.
You see, the Bible couldn't be any clearer
that you must protect your children
from the wolves that will be among the flock.
He says, oh, don't worry.
There were false prophets among you back then.
They'll be among you now.
You've eaten with them.
You've sat with them.
You've spent time with them.
They might be family.
They might be friends.
They might be church members.
Don't trust anybody.
We live in this day where we're taught
that it's godly to trust people.
I don't trust anybody.
The Bible says it's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man.
You will not find one admonition in the Bible
to trust man.
All throughout the Bible, you won't find it.
Trust man.
Trust this person.
If you want to borrow something from me,
I'll loan it to you,
and the first thing I'll do
is I'll buy a new one the next day.
That's the way I deal.
You can't trust anybody, okay?
I'm not saying that I suspect people in this room
or anything like that.
Of course not.
But do I trust everybody implicitly in this room
to where I would just turn my kids over to them?
No.
You can't trust people.
I don't want you to trust me is what I'm saying tonight.
Don't even trust me.
Don't try to drop your kids off at my house.
Here, we're going to drop the kids off at your house,
Pastor Anderson, for daycare.
You're going to be our daycare.
Baptist daycare.
No, I won't do it.
I refuse to.
Why?
Because I know that if you drop your kids off at my house,
nothing's going to happen to them.
They're going to be fine.
They're going to be great.
But I'd rather teach you something.
Don't trust anybody.
That's what I'd like to get across to you.
Don't trust anybody except the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hey, when I preach to you,
don't just trust what I preach.
Check it out yourself in the Bible.
Make sure what I'm saying is right.
You can't just trust it.
The only person you really trust is God, Jesus Christ.
But look back if you would to an interesting passage in Nahum.
Toward the end of the Old Testament here,
you've got the Minor Prophets, all these little books.
Go to the book of Nahum, chapter 3.
See, the devil's looking for that chink in the armor.
He's looking for that weak spot where he can come in
and get a hold of somebody and devour them,
destroy their life.
The Bible says in Amos 3.7, just while you're turning there,
Surely the Lord God will do nothing,
but he revealed his secret under the service of the prophets.
The lioneth roared, who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?
And then down a little bit he says,
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God,
an adversary, of course our adversary is the devil,
an enemy, he's saying,
an adversary there shall be even round about the land,
and he shall bring down the strength from thee,
and thy palaces shall be spoiled.
Thus saith the Lord,
As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion
two legs or a piece of an ear,
so shall the children of Israel be taken out
that dwell in the Samaria, in the corner of a bed,
in a Damascus, in a couch.
See, he's saying, your job is to be the shepherd.
Your job is to be the shepherd.
Your job is to guard the flock.
That's my job as a pastor.
That's your job as a father.
That's your job as a mother.
You've got to guard.
You've got to build a wall of protection around your family,
those that are important to you yourself.
He said the devil wants to get a hold of your children, he says.
He said it's going to be like a shepherd
who's not paying attention,
and one of those little delicate ones of the flock
is devoured by the lion.
He says all he left is just two legs or a piece of an ear
is what was left of him after he destroyed him
and had his way with him.
But look at Nahum, chapter 3.
The Bible says in Nahum 3, verse 1,
Woe to the bloody city!
It is all full of lies and robbery.
The prey departeth not the noise of a whip
and the noise of the rattling wheels
and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots.
The horsemen lifted up both the bright sword
and the glittering spear,
and there is a multitude of slain
and a great number of carcasses,
and there is none end of their corpses.
They stumble upon their corpses.
Well, that reminds me.
It sounds like the United States of America.
It says, because of the multitude of the whoredoms
of the well-favored harlot,
the mistress of witchcraft,
that selleth nations through her whoredoms
and families through her witchcraft.
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts,
and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face,
and I will show the nations thy nakedness
and the kingdoms thy shame,
and I will cast abominable filth upon thee
and make thee vile and will set thee as a gazing star.
And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee
shall flee from thee and say,
Nineveh is laid waste.
Who will bemoan her?
Whence shall I see comforters for thee?
Of course, this prophecy is about Nineveh,
but I think it applies greatly to the United States,
the same condition that Nineveh was in.
But it says, whence shall I see comforters for thee?
Verse eight, art thou better than populace? No.
There was sixuit among the rivers
that had the waters round about it,
whose rampart was the sea and her wall was from the sea.
Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,
and it was infinite.
Pot and Lubem were thy helpers,
yet was she carried away.
She went into captivity.
Her young children also were dashed in pieces
at the top of all the streets,
and they cast lots for honorable men,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
Thou also shall be drunken,
thou shalt be hid,
thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.
All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees
with the first ripe figs,
the young ones,
the first ripe figs,
like the tender grapes that we read about in Song of Solomon.
If they be shaken,
they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.
Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women.
The gates of thy land shall be set wide open
unto thine enemies.
You see that?
The fire shall devour thy bars.
Draw thee waters for the siege,
fortify thy strongholds,
go into clay,
and tread the mortar,
make strong the brick,
and build some bricks.
Hey, get some materials ready to build a wall.
He said you've got so much sin in your life,
you've got so much garbage going on.
He says if you don't build the wall fast,
right now your gate's wide open to the enemy.
He said if you don't build that wall fast,
your children are going to be destroyed,
is what he said.
Your children will go to the devil.
Your children will be destroyed by the devil
if you don't build up the wall.
It's your job as the parent
to make sure that your children are protected
from evil influences.
If you have a TV in your kid's room,
you need to get that TV out of their room.
Say, good night, Pastor Anthony.
Just preach the Bible.
I'm preaching what the Bible's teaching here.
Don't let your kids have a TV in their room.
I had a TV in my room growing up.
You think I only watch things that were right on that TV?
No, because I was too young and too stupid
to be able to decide what's right and wrong on that TV.
And you know what?
I grew up, I got smart enough to decide
what was right and wrong on the TV.
Turned out it was all wrong,
so I threw it out the window.
Now, I don't have a TV.
I haven't had a TV in years.
But I'm going to tell you something.
If you have a TV in your kid's room,
you need to get your head examined.
I mean that.
I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm being rude.
Go home and open the TV Guide
and look at everything that's offered on that TV.
That's all the things that your kids might be watching
in that room with the door closed.
Just pick the worst one,
because that could be the one they're watching.
They're not watching that one.
Well, how do you know?
The door shut.
They got the TV in their room.
Who knows what they're watching on that TV?
Oh, they're just watching the La La Show or whatever.
No, they're probably watching American Idol,
because that's the cool show.
They're probably watching that sodomite, Blake, up there,
swinging his little booty like the queer that he is.
That's probably what they're watching.
Maybe they're watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Maybe they're watching Ellen DeGeneres on her sitcom.
Maybe they're watching MTV.
Maybe they're watching all the beer
and all the little labels that are blurred out
of all the beer bottles.
Hey, maybe they're watching some kind of a show
like Will and Grace.
Maybe that's what they're watching.
Maybe they're watching any sitcom,
since every sitcom promotes sodomy.
But then again, who knows what they're watching,
because they got the TV in their room and the door shut.
Now, what kind of a waltz do you think you have?
No, you sound like Nahum chapter 3 here,
where he says,
the gates of thy land shall be set wide open
unto thine enemies.
You ought not to let your kids
listen to music on their headphones.
Who knows what they're listening to?
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
Right. No, that's not what they're listening to.
They're listening to Oops, I Did It Again by Britney Spears.
They're listening to Hit Me Baby One More Time.
I wonder what that song's about.
It sounds good, huh?
It sounds like it cleans out Hit Me Baby One More Time.
Wonderful.
I once was lost.
See, I once was lost, but now I'm fine.
You can turn that up for everybody to hear that, right?
You can't turn up Oops, I Did It Again,
unless everybody wants to participate in the sin with you,
the garbage with you.
You say, what's the big deal?
Well, you know what?
If you want your hero to be somebody
who shades their head, is on dope,
out fornicating every night, on the cover of every tabloid,
that's your role model, then go ahead.
Oops, I Did It Again.
Whoops, I put in the Britney Spears CD again.
Whoops, I put on my headphones.
I'm listening to it by myself in my room,
and nobody knows what I'm up to.
You've got to guard your children from these things.
Your kids are not smart enough to decide
whether Oops, I Did It Again is appropriate.
You need to decide for them.
You decide what food they eat.
You decide what nutrition they eat, right?
You decide what they're allowed to go places and not go places.
You decide whether they're allowed to eat just candy all day
and no meat and potatoes and vegetables.
Would you just allow your kids to eat candy all day?
No, because that's what they would do.
My kids would love to just eat candy, ice cream all day.
Right, Sullivan? Would that be good?
He's back there eating hot. He's saying, yes, it's great.
Candy, ice cream.
How about Laura Scudder's barbecue potato chips?
Right? Yeah, he's getting excited.
Boy, wouldn't it be so good?
How about Coke, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, root beer, Dr. Pepper?
I like it.
He's like, I like it.
Wouldn't that be great? Just breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
No, you dumped it.
Hey, that'd be great.
He is not smart enough to understand that that's not what you eat.
You think he's smart enough to decide what music's right and wrong?
He's smart enough to decide what he should watch on the television,
what he's not allowed to watch on the television?
It's your job to build the wall.
It's your job to build the foot of barrier and say,
draw a line in the sand and say, this is right, this is wrong.
What's the other purpose of the wall?
First of all, it's to keep the bad out.
Second of all, it's to keep the good in.
But third of all, it's to provide a division, to provide a border,
a barrier, and say, this is right, this is wrong.
This is what we own, this is what someone else owns.
It's a dividing line like on property.
You build a wall. You have a fence between the two.
Your job, Mom and Dad, is to build the wall for your children.
They're not old enough to decide what's right and wrong.
You need to be preaching to them what's right and wrong.
You need to be enforcing what's right and wrong.
They're your kids. Take control in your house.
Take control of the house.
Say, well, they're going to do what they're going to do.
Not in my house they won't.
They're going to do what I'm going to do.
I'm not going to let my kids run wild in my house.
Don't let your kids do whatever they want.
Take the bull by the horns and say,
and from me and my house we shall serve the Lord.
It's not enough to say, well, I'm going to serve the Lord
and I hope they follow my footsteps.
No, as for me and my house, they will serve the Lord.
You say, well, I don't even have kids yet.
I'm going to turn this part of the sermon off because I don't have kids
and it just doesn't really apply to me.
You need to learn this before you have kids.
Those of you who don't have kids yet, learn this before you have kids
because it's going to be a lot harder to learn it after you have kids
and you start doing it wrong.
It's going to be a lot harder to change than doing it right.
But if you just start out from day one and say,
I'm going to protect my kids.
I'm going to guard them from the pedophiles and freaks of this world.
Oh, but the public school doesn't have any.
Don't worry about that.
That's fine.
Oh, the Christian school, that sure doesn't have any.
So they're safe there.
Oh, and Uncle so-and-so, Uncle Leroy, he's fine too.
Don't worry about him.
But anyway, I'm not going to let my kids out of my sight.
I was talking to you about this today.
Decide that now before you have kids.
Decide now what your rules are going to be.
You say, well, my rules aren't the same as yours, Pastor Anderson.
That's fine.
Your wall may not be the same type of wall as mine,
but you better have a wall.
And you better build that wall before you have kids.
Build the wall and say, well, this is where I'm going to draw the line
of where I let my kids out of my sight.
This is where I'm going to draw the line of where I let my kids be exposed to.
This is where I'm going to draw the line about what's right and wrong for my kids.
You have to decide that now.
It's a lot easier to decide it when you're sitting here tonight
and you don't have the kids and you have a clear mind
and you're just listening to the preaching,
you're looking down at your Bible,
you're thinking for yourself.
It's a lot easier than when you're all emotional about it
and you're trying to clean house like 10, 12, 13, 15, 17 years later.
You come home to your 17-year-old son and tell him,
your rock music is going to go.
Your TV is going.
All your rock bands are going to start tearing down the posters.
It's going to be a lot harder than when he's just laying there in the car seat
and you say, our son, this is where the wall is.
And he's like...
Yeah, it's going to be a lot easier
than to sit there and say, listen, 17-year-old son,
90% of your room is going in the trash right now,
which is probably what's going to happen to most 17-year-old boys and girls.
You walk into the average room all over the wall.
You know what God said to put on the wall in your house, by the way, Bible verses?
You know that's what he said, degrade the word of God in the walls of your house?
No, you'll find a picture of Brittany here.
You'll find a picture of Hillary here.
You'll find a picture of INXS here.
You'll find the Beastie Boys here.
You'll find Michael Jordan here.
You'll find...
I need to work on my worldliness.
You'll find this...
What's this guy in the Lakers?
It's like a rapist?
Kobe Bryant.
He's a convicted rapist.
Admitted, I'm sorry to my wife and everything.
Kobe Bryant is the most common jersey that I see on any teenager of any sporting...
I mean, is that true?
You know, Jordan and stuff, that's old school.
I mean, the most common jersey that I ever see is Lakers, Kobe Bryant is who you see.
These are the kind of role models that our children have.
This is what's on their wall.
This is what's plastered to the walls of their house.
Not a big verse that says,
blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Not a verse that says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
Not a verse maybe on the wall. Wouldn't this be great for your room, kids?
Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Wouldn't that be great?
How about a big sign that says, love the brotherhood.
Fear God. Honor the king.
How about a verse that says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
How about a verse that says, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
How about a verse on the wall that says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.
And the word was God.
How about a big verse on the wall that says, for all of sin it comes short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace.
How about a verse up on the wall that says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
All things were created for his pleasure, the Bible says.
How about a big verse that says up on the wall that,
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life, John 3.15.
How about a verse up on the wall that says, barely, barely I say to you, except a man be born again and he cannot see the kingdom of God.
How about a verse up on the wall that says, and the devil that deceived them was cast into lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
The first verse that I memorized as a child.
Revelation 20.10.
Wouldn't that be great to have that on your kids' walls?
Wouldn't it be great to have that on your walls?
Why don't you replace butchhead Brittany?
Why don't you replace it with like the bee attitudes while we're on bees, okay?
Why don't you replace like Lindsay Lohan with like some verses from Lamentations?
That's kind of depressing.
No, it'll be great if, you know, the Bible says by the sorrow of the heart the countenance is made better.
It'd be good to do a little weeping and to get right with God.
You see, God's methods involve a wall.
God, all throughout the Bible, his modus operandi is let's build a wall.
First let's build something worth having, the temple.
Let's spend 46 years building the temple.
I mean, let's have something worth having, a life that's worth protecting.
And then let's take 52 days and build a wall around it.
And let's stop up every little breach.
Except we're going to have one gate that needs to swing open every once in a while.
It's called the dunk gate.
In case something bad does get in, we'll take it right out.
Let's turn to one last place, Psalm 34.
Psalm 34.
Psalm 34, let's look at verse number one.
Actually, I'm sorry, let's start in verse, let's start a little bit down, verse number seven.
We're talking about this wall.
We're talking about protecting your children, protecting yourself, protecting this church,
protecting the people that we love, protecting our nation.
Walls are needed.
Look at verse number seven.
The Bible says, this is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them.
Well, wouldn't that be great to have that on the wall?
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them.
Look down at verse number 11.
Come, you children, hearken unto me.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good?
Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile.
Depart from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry.
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
The righteous cry and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.
God's protection.
He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
See, the greatest way to protect yourself, the greatest wall that you can build.
Okay, you can build the wall of saying,
I'm going to get all the junk out of my house and I'm going to have rules in my house.
Walls, this is not allowed in my house.
This is not allowed, you know, TV's not allowed in my house.
Rock music's not allowed in my house.
ACDC's not allowed in my house.
The pop music's not allowed in my house.
Immodest clothing's not allowed in my house.
Pornography's not allowed in my house.
The worldly videos are not allowed in my house.
I'm going to keep it all, the walls there in place.
But he's saying here that, you know, the greatest wall that you can have is for God, to have God protecting you.
He says, the angel of the Lord campeth around about them that fear him.
The Bible says in verse number 21,
They that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
See, he's not just saying, I'll protect anybody who's a Christian.
If you're saved, I'll protect you.
That's not necessarily true.
I've known many people that were saved whose kids were victimized.
I've known many people that were saved who were attacked and hurt.
See, God is saying here, I'll protect you.
I'll keep your kids safe if you trust in me, if you serve me, if you live for me.
I can give you a wall of protection.
Build your wall, though.
I'm not saying to just rely 100% on, God's going to protect them.
And this is what people do.
People don't use their brain.
And they say, well, I just dropped my kids off at this school, dropped them off at this nursery, dropped them off with these people.
Because God's going to protect them.
Well, why don't you leave them outside, too?
God will protect them, right?
Why don't you leave them in a parked car in the middle of Phoenix for a while?
God's going to protect them.
Why don't you just leave all the windows open tonight and leave the front door wide open, air out the house a little bit, because you know what?
God's going to protect you.
That's nonsense.
That's wrong.
God warned you and he told you to build a wall.
God warned you and said, you must protect.
You must be sober.
You must be vigilant.
Do you know what vigilant means?
Vigil is when people stay up all night.
You know, vigilant is where you're awake, you're watching, you know what's going on.
You're aware of the danger.
You're aware of the distress.
You take the steps necessary to protect yourself.
And He says if you do that and you trust Me and you fear Me, He says, I'll make sure that you come out of this thing safe.
I'll make sure that your kids grow up and live right.
I'll make sure that you're protected and safe.
You do your part, I'll do my part, and He says you'll be protected.
You don't have to live in fear, but you've got to build a wall in your life.
You've got to build a wall around your own heart.
You've got to build a wall to protect you and your children.
Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer.
Father, I just pray that you would help everyone in this room to realize,
I don't think people realize the danger of the world that we lived in in 2007.
I don't think they realize it at all.
God, it just seems like we don't learn from experience.
It happens over and over again.
Something gets into our life and destroys us from the inside out.
Some sin creeps in.
Some pervert gets into our family and destroys our family.
It seems like it happens again and again throughout history,
and nobody seems to wake up and stop the madness and decide to stop up their wall.
God, I just pray to you to give the people in this room the wisdom and the knowledge to know
that they must protect their children.
They must protect their mind.
We must protect this church.
We must have a wall around this church.
God, I pray to you, please just help us to fear you and trust you and love you.
And God, would your angel please camp around us and keep us safe, dear God.
Please camp around my house tonight.
Please camp around my children and keep my children safe.
So many sinners would like to destroy my children.
They want to destroy me. They want to destroy my wife.
Please keep us safe, dear God.
Please help everyone in this room to understand.