(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. So that you're there in Psalm chapter number 11. We're gonna look at a couple verses there in just a couple in just a second. We're going to talk about foundations though this morning. We're going to talk about foundations. We're going to talk about what the Bible says about how important foundations are. We're going to look at how important it is that you're anchored to the right things that you don't fall into trusting or being anchored into a false foundation. If you look down at Psalm chapter number 11, it's a short chapter, but it's a good one. The Bible says in verse number 1, it says, In the Lord I put my trust. How say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. So the psalmist here, as he many times does, is talking about people that are after him, people that are attacking him, wicked people, wicked things that are coming after him. And then look at verse number 3 where the Bible says, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? And he asked this question in Psalm chapter 11 that is actually answered in Matthew chapter number 7. So if you flip over to Matthew chapter number 7, let's take a look at what Jesus says. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? And Jesus answers this question in Matthew chapter 7 verse number 24. Look at the Bible where it says in Matthew 7 24, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Now look at verse number 26 to see the contrast here. And this is kind of what Psalm chapter 11 is referring to. And it says, Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. So verse number 27 is basically reflecting verse number 3 of Psalm chapter 11, where it says that the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? If the foundation is sand, it will be destroyed, is what the Bible is saying here. So there's two analogies that Jesus gives in Matthew chapter number 7. He gives an analogy of somebody building on sand, and he gives an analogy of somebody building on rock. And the difference between those two things are people that hear the word and do the word, which are built on the rock, and people that hear the word and don't do the word, which are built on the sand. So we're going to look at a couple examples of foundations and false foundations. We'll look at sand and we'll look at rock examples this morning. But even when we look at these two analogies that Jesus gives us today, we can see that we're in a lot of trouble in our current culture that we're in right now, because most people, I mean, notice the difference between the rock and the sand was just the doing of the word. Both people were hearing the word, but just one person was doing it, and the other person was not. The problem today, though, is most people aren't even hearing the word at all. So most people have, you know, literally no chance of having a foundation on the rock. I've brought this up before, but I went and I looked at this again, and I looked at, you know, people that believe that the Bible is the actual word of God. And it seems like the only, the latest poll on this was in 2022, which is a little scary because I think that it's probably gotten much worse, much faster after all the COVID and people got out of church and all of that. So I think that the next poll that they do in 2025 or whatever it is, the next major poll in America is going to show, you know, a lot worse results. But basically people in America in 2022, according to Gallup, that believe the Bible is the literal word of God is about 20 percent. That's one in five people. All right. In 2017, it was 24 percent. If you go back to 2014, it was 28 percent. And the graph just, you know, it's kind of going like this as we go on. It's basically losing, if you just extrapolate it out, it's losing about one percent a year of the population in the United States. So in 20 years, it's just going to be us in this room, basically, is what it sounds like. All right. It's gonna be very few people in 20 years if this trend continues as it's going. I don't know if the trend is going to continue that way, but that's what it's doing right now. All right. So those are the people that they don't even believe that the Bible is the word of God. They don't believe it, so they're not going to hear it at all. They don't think that it's the word of God, so they're not going to hear it at all. And then there's people that they think they know the Bible, but maybe they have a wrong Bible. They have the wrong version of the Bible, which I believe, by the way, this, the false Bible versions is a major reason that people don't believe the word of God anymore. And it makes perfect sense because if you're a logical person and you go to a Christian bookstore or even Barnes and Noble or whatever, and you see that there's just all these different versions of the Bible, and look, a different version of the Bible literally means that they say different things. So we have all these Bibles and they all say different things. Well, how could that possibly all be the word of God? It's illogical. It doesn't make any sense. So I believe that the false Bible versions are probably the number one reason that people have just kind of stopped believing that the Bible is the word of God. Because when they, you know, when people say, when they bring that question to people, do you believe that the Bible, the Bible is the word of God? The Bible to that person is whatever version they have sitting in their house or whatever version that they've seen. Or maybe they don't even own a version and they just know that there's dozens and over a hundred different Bible versions. And just knowing that they decide like they all can't be the word of God. Like which one did he say? You have two verses that say something different. Which is his word? It doesn't make any sense logically. So look, since the foundation of rock takes hearing and doing, most people are almost guaranteed today to be building on sand. A hundred percent. And look, I want to give you an example today, and I'll give you an example of just relationships today. And I'm not talking about, you know, homos and perversion and all that. I'm just talking about normal relationships between men and women today. And I can tell you, if you just look at what is being considered normal today in relationships, you can see that it's complete sand. There's no rock there at all. I mean, it is almost like, I've said it before, but it's almost like if you don't have the Bible today, and you grow up in America and you want to, you know, have a relationship, you almost have no chance of having a godly relationship where you would end up married. And it is very unlikely at this point, because it is just foundations of sand that is being sold to people. And look, it's being very successfully sold to both women and to men. I mean, just look at this anti-marriage movement that we're seeing today. You say, anti-marriage movement? What are you talking about? Well, I'm talking about, they don't claim, they won't sell it as an anti-marriage movement. What it's called on the female side is this thing called feminism. That's the anti-marriage movement of the women today. And on the man side, it's just as bad on the man side in the, you know, I guess it's what's called the manosphere. And it's an anti-marriage movement. And that's especially bad in my opinion for the men, because many times it's kind of sold as a conservative type movement. It's kind of sold as an answer to feminism, yet it's a complete wrong answer. And it turns out being this anti-marriage movement, that it's the, as feminism is to men, this is to women. It's the same exact thing. I used to joke around like feminism is like, if a woman who's a feminist, she hates men, but she wants to be one. The manosphere is just like a hatred for, I mean, it's really a hatred for women is what it turns out to be, which is a hatred for, you know, purity, a hatred for, you know, marriage, and basically everything that the Bible teaches. So there's this massive anti-God, anti-marriage movement in both men and women today that is just infecting the younger generations. It is completely infecting the younger generations. You say, well, you know, why, you know, there's boyfriend, girlfriend, there's dating, fornication, you know, this live-in boyfriend, live-in girlfriend culture that we're in. You say, why can't it work? Well, first of all, it doesn't matter. God is against it. It wouldn't matter if it did work because God is clearly against it. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Let's look at the sand. Let's look at the sand that's being sold to people as concrete today, but it's just pure sand. First of all, it doesn't work, okay? 70% of live-in relationships do not end in marriage. 70%, the vast majority. And if you have known people that have cohabitated, you know this is true. 70% of those relationships do not end in marriage. And if they do end in marriage, those relationships where people cohabitated before they got married are statistically a much higher percentage for divorce. All right, but look, look at Hebrews chapter 13 in verse number 4. It doesn't even matter because God is against it. God is against it. So of course it's not going to work because God's against it, but it wouldn't matter if people thought that it did work because if God's against it, that should be enough. Look at verse number 4 of Hebrews 13. Marriage is honorable and all, and the bed undefiled. That is the bed that is undefiled. It's the only one. The one that is within a marriage, all right? But whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. I mean, look, the Bible is just saying that all this anti-marriage stuff that's being pushed is sin, plain and simple. The only way that a man and a woman are allowed to have a physical relationship is within the confines of marriage. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 18. The Bible says, flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, except for this one, though. But he that commiteth fornication, sinneth against his own body. See, women have been duped today. Women have been lied to and tricked today. Women have been convinced to be worse than harlots today. Women, I mean, the Bible is saying whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Fornication is sinning against your own body. The Bible is against being a harlot, being a prostitute. The Bible is clearly against this. It's saying it's terrible for you. You're destroying yourself. But women have been convinced by feminism to be worse than harlots. They're out there and they're being used and they're being abused and they're defiling themselves and they're not even getting paid for it. It's worse. I mean, how is this good for women? It is nothing but sand. It will literally destroy a woman's life. I mean, if I could say anything to women today, to young ladies today, I mean, I would just say this. Feminism will destroy your life. Feminism will ruin you. You go out and you just, you live with all these different people and the more people that you live with, the more boyfriends that you have, the more fornication that you commit, the less and less likely you are to find a Christian man to marry. The less and less likely you are to find a godly... And look, I'm not... Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that someone cannot get saved and reset their lives and move forward. That is not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying as a rule, feminism and adopting this will ruin your life. The Bible is saying in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, you'll literally ruin your own body. You're literally destroying your own body. But feminism teaches that, hey, go out and do that. Go out and just live with all these different people. Just have boyfriend after boyfriend, commit fornication after fornication, and then go out and get a job and get a career. And that is going to fulfill you. But guess what? It doesn't fulfill them. It doesn't fulfill them. And then maybe after several years, maybe even decades of living this life, they turn 40 and then maybe they wake up and they realize that it was all a lie. But guess what? There are opportunities that are now passed that you will never be able to have. That's why you see so many women that have gone through this and have woken up to this too late and they're like, whoa. Now I can never get married and have children and have a family. It's a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing that is ruining women today. But it's destroying them because they're building their foundation on a lie. They're building their foundation on what the Bible calls sand. The manosphere is just as bad on the male side. The manosphere is basically this teaching for men to just say, hey, take advantage of this feminism. Feminism has convinced women to have no respect for themselves. Let's take advantage of this. That's what the manosphere is teaching. It's teaching men to shun marriage. It's teaching men that every woman is a wicked feminist that is just out to destroy them. It's a lie. It's as much sand as the feminism is. And just as with the woman, the more fornication that a man gets into and the more women that he lives with and just commits fornication after fornication, the less likely he is to marry a decent Christian woman. It's destroying both sides. And it glorifies to the men. It glorifies this lifestyle of fornication. It glorifies a lifestyle of just covetousness that we just have to go out and we just have to get the way that you meet somebody decent is you go out and you just get as much money as you can. And quite frankly, all the guys that are pushing this manosphere, they're just ripping off all these guys that will never have any money anyway. They're just playing this population of young men who think that they're going to go out and start a YouTube channel and just get rich. When they should be going out and just learning how to do something that's valuable, do something that's productive to society, learn some useful skills, going out and working hard to master those skills, that's how you make a living. That is what the Bible calls, you know, just gain. By going out and doing something that's useful to your community, useful to this world that we live in, providing some goods or services that people actually want to pay for, not going out and creating some, you know, YouTube channel and creating some lie that's just going to go out and just rip off a bunch of other people. Teach you how to create a pyramid scheme. I mean, it's all the same thing. For the entirety of my adult life, people have been using the same methods to rip people off. They're just dressed differently. But this manosphere, it's just as much sand. It's just as much sand as feminism is. It's the same thing. But what's the rock say? What's the rock tell these women to do? You know what the rock says? And this is what kills me about, you know, people that are against like fundamentalism from the Bible. Because you know what the Bible says? You know the terrible thing that the Bible teaches young ladies? The Bible teaches young ladies, you know what, respect for yourself. The Bible teaches young women, respect your body. The Bible is teaching young women in First Corinthians chapter number six. Don't let people take advantage of you. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Have some respect for yourself. Don't let people damage you. Don't listen to these lies. Go to your wedding day pure. You should want to get married. And guess what? You have to teach young ladies, especially against marriage. Because young ladies, like they just want to get married. Young ladies, it's like ingrained in them since they're, you know, the time they're little girls, they just they dream of their wedding day. They have to be taught to shut that off. They have to be taught, no, no, really what you're supposed to do is not, you know, seek to get married and have a family. Really what you need to be is an iron worker. That's really what God wants for you. You know, you need to get out there with those guys that are building those bridges. You need to compete with them. You need to show that you're smarter than them. You need to show that you can do it better and faster than those things. Look, it's ridiculous. The Bible teaches these horrible things to women, like have some respect for yourself. Remain pure. Don't let people, you know, don't let people turn you into a harlot. Don't let people treat you like trash. Seek marriage, horrible stuff. Seek marriage. Children are good. Children are a blessing. Terrible, terrible teachings. Have children, get married, have children, stay home and raise your own children. Horrible, horrible things. You know what's interesting to me? I was thinking about this for a sermon idea, but I'll just throw it out there right now. You know what's interesting is like liberal logic makes absolutely no sense on so many different levels. Because whenever, I mean people have made, like my wife, you know, has stayed home and she's talked to different people that don't stay home throughout her entire career of staying home as a stay-at-home mom and raising our children. That was one thing, that was one thing that even though I wasn't saved, that was one thing I'm really glad that my wife and I, we both, we had that one right. We're like, no, no, no, as soon as we have children, we want, I want my wife raising our own children. That's one thing, before we even got married, we talked about that. I didn't want my wife working and we didn't want to put our kids in daycare and have all this, you know, I wanted my wife, I had this crazy idea, I wasn't even saved, I wasn't saved for like another 10 years. This crazy idea that I just wanted to raise my own children, nuts. But that's where we were. And what's interesting is when people find out that my wife stays home, even if they don't stay home, they always said, oh, that's great. They don't stay home, but they would always say to my wife, that's great that you stay home. Well, my question to liberals is to just follow that logic, follow that thinking. Some liberal person who works and has their children in daycare and public school would say to my wife, well, that's great that you stay home. Why is it good? Why is it great? What's great about it? Like, if it's great, why don't you do it? I mean, could we just follow it through just a little bit? Why is it good? It's the same thing, like same thing logic with like abortion. I would like to ask like, you know, liberals, like, is abortion good? It's like, is it a good thing? You will find very few people that say abortion is a good thing. And then you say, OK, if some liberal who's pro-choice and, you know, thinks that abortion should be legal, you say, well, is abortion itself, is the idea of abortion, is it good or bad? Most people that aren't just like crazy psychotic reprobates would say it's not a good thing, it's bad. And then you just have to ask the question, like, why is it bad though? And just follow that through. So to be a liberal thinker, you just have to be like a, you have to have the ability to not follow linear thought processes. Because if it's bad, why is it bad? Because if it's not good, there's only one reason it's not good. There can only be one possible reason that abortion is not good, and that's that it's taking a human life. It's very simple. It's just logical. I don't know where I was going with this, but the point is, the rock, the Bible teaches women to seek marriage, children, all these good things, all these good things. And look, even marriages themselves can be built on sand. Even people that do find themselves getting married, they can still be built on sand. If you look at divorce rates, it's really hard to like pin down what the actual divorce rate is, because I think first marriages is like 45%, then second marriages, which shouldn't even exist, are like 65%, and then third marriages are like 75% or something. So it's kind of like this mix of all these people that are just getting divorced and remarried, so it's a really hard stat to just like put one number on. But basically, it's half people end up getting divorced, or pretty close to half of people end up getting divorced. And the reason is is because the marriages are built on sand. So not only is marriage being shunned today, marriage being taught against today, which is all sand, the marriages themselves, if people do find themselves getting married, are built on sand. I looked up the number one, two, and three reasons for divorce today, and here's what it is. I mean, I'm sure you would all guess at least the first two, all right? But the first one is this. Turn to Proverbs chapter six. So let's look at the top reasons for divorce today and look at what the Bible says. We'll look at why these people are getting divorced, and then we'll look at what the Bible says, we'll look at what the rock says as far as keeping that marriage on the proper foundation, which is the word of God. Look at Proverbs six and verse number 32. Proverbs six and verse number 32. The Bible says, who so commit adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. The first reason, the number one reason for divorce is adultery. And it's adultery on both sides, by the way. Now look at Matthew chapter number five. Matthew chapter number five. So I'm gonna give an example for the men, but look, many women commit adultery today. It is, I don't know if it's 50-50, but it might actually be even a little bit more women, actually, the last time I looked at this. But the point is this. Adultery is the number one reason for divorce. Look at Matthew chapter five and verse number 28. Matthew chapter five and verse number 28. The Bible says this, but I say unto you, Jesus says, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. So this is for the men. We turn to first Corinthians chapter number seven. Jesus is saying, Jesus is saying that you shouldn't even look at another woman and lust after other women. He's like, that's adultery in the heart. And obviously, you know, we're not to equate these two things like adultery, like actual adultery is worse. Like we don't believe in all sin being equal. All right. But lusting after other women as a married man is a sin. It's adultery of the heart is what Jesus is saying. Look at first Corinthians chapter number seven. So this is for all those men that say, well, I'm just looking. I look at the menu, but I don't order. No, wrong. It's adultery of the heart. You should not be looking and lusting after other women. Look at what the Bible says in first Corinthians chapter number seven. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own life. Congratulations. You got married and let every woman have her own husband and let the husband render unto the wife, do benevolence. And likewise, also the wife under the husband. I preached on this on Thursday at the Red Hot Preaching Conference. Do benevolence, meaning, you know, doing good to each other, doing good to the husband and the husband doing good to the wife. Now look at verse number four. The Bible says this. It talks about specifically now it talks about the affections of a wife and the affections of a husband and who they belong to. Look at this. The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband. And likewise, also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife. It's saying literally your affections, your affections belong to each other. So the affections of my wife, they belong to me. And my affections that I have towards, you know, the opposite sex, they belong to her. So the only place where my affections should go is to her. And the only place that her affections should go is to me. Otherwise, what is it called? Look at the next verse. Defraud ye not one another, except it be consent for a time. So look, the Bible here is very clearly teaching that, you know, my body is hers, her body is mine. We should not, you know, defraud each other that affection, but you should also not be defrauding your affections outside of your marriage towards other women or other men. And I brought this up specifically at the Red Hot Preaching Conference, and I want to bring it up to this church, too. So if you heard this part of my sermon, I'm going to bring it up to this church, and you're just going to have to hear it again. But here's another thing about pornography that I want to bring up. Pornography is defrauding your wife. And I'm going to specifically bring up about the guys, because I just really don't believe that it's a problem for women. It probably is for some, but I don't know. But it's a major problem for men. It's a major problem for men. I think the number I brought up that I looked up, it was like 70% of Christian men regularly look at pornography. But the Bible here is saying that not only is that adultery in your heart, but you are defrauding your wife. You're stealing from her. Now think about this in the context... Look, I would like this to not be... I don't know what Christian means in that poll that I looked at, but I would like to just have a commitment. I would like to have a church where this is not a problem. I would like to have a church full of men, Bible-believing men, who are going to base their beliefs on the rock and are just, you know what, they're going to decide that this is not going to be a problem in my house. And another thing I should have brought up on Thursday, I was thinking about this, you're literally bringing it into your home. Think about that. It's something you're bringing into your house, where your wife is, where your kids are. You're importing evil into your home. How is this going to go well? But here's another aspect I want you to think about from First Corinthians chapter number seven here, about this problem with pornography with men. You're defrauding your wife. Think about a relationship that you have. Think about just a friendship. Think about two guys that are buddies, that are friends. And think about how, I mean, is not a marriage much more than a relationship between two friends? But just think about this idea in the context of just two friends. Think about just me and brother George, we like to go to the range and we like to shoot. We like to go out and go out and do stuff like that. And every single time I go out to the range with brother George, I steal a bunch of his ammo. When he's not looking, I just take a bunch of ammo and I just put it in my box, and he starts to figure this out. He's like, every time I go out with pastor, I'm missing a bunch of stuff. Every time I come over to his house, he's missing silverware. He's missing things from his house. He quickly will figure out that his friend, that he's inviting over, because he invites all kinds of friends over, but this friend that he invites over, all of a sudden he's missing valuable things from his home. Or from his gun case, or from whatever it is. What if every time I hang out with you, or every time you and I hang out with you, I steal from you? What is that going to do for our relationship? If every single time that we are together, I defraud you in some way, I've always got some scam that I'm cooking up. And I'm like, hey, I got this idea where you make a bunch of money, I just need you to give me $500. And I'm just constantly just defrauding you, defrauding you, defrauding me. What is that going to do to our relationship? Just two friends. It is going to completely destroy that friendship. Completely. So why would a husband go and just defraud his wife on a regular basis, according to these statistics? How do you think that this is going to go well for you? How is that going to work out? You know, I owe you something, and I just never pay you. It's not going to work out. And people wonder, why aren't my relationships working out? What's wrong with my relationship with my wife when they're into this trash, and they're defrauding, and they're stealing, and they're taking away from their wife something that's hers? I mean, you wonder. You wonder how people could wonder. When they're just taking their affection and they're giving it to someone that doesn't belong to, and they're stealing it from the person that they say that they love the most. And I talked about Thursday night how it just will take away your peace at home. You know, in the Bible, it's God that takes away the peace. And you know, God's eyes are everywhere. Turn to Matthew chapter number seven. Actually, go to Philippians chapter number four for the sake of time here. Go to Philippians chapter number four. Here's the second reason. I'm kind of getting long-winded here. But look, as far as pornography goes, let's just commit to not having that be a problem in this church. You know, if it's something that you struggle with or you have struggled with, just become a man starting today. Just take care of it today. Don't want any of these problems. Oh, you know, take care of it. No, just take care of it today. I don't care if you're single. I don't care if you're married. Just fix it. Because if you're single and it's a problem, it's going to ruin your future marriage. So just take care of it. Just take care of it today. It's all over the Bible. It's going to ruin your relationship, all right? Here's the second reason for divorce. Financial problems. And people like kind of roll their eyes at this one, but like this is a real thing. This is a real thing. But what does the rock say? What does the Bible say? How does the Bible say that I shouldn't have financial problems ruin my marriage? Look at what the rock says. Look at Philippians chapter four, verse number 11. It says, not that I speak in respect of wants, for I have learned. Now look at that. Look what Paul says. He says, I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Now, this one might be something that women struggle with a little bit more than men. Just being content with the things that you have. I mean, Paul says, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. That's where you want to be right there. Paul's saying, I can have nothing and I'm fine. And he's like, I can be blessed and I'm fine. Many people, they are unhappy when they have nothing and when they're blessed, they just completely turn on God. They can't be either. But Paul's saying, I can do either. I can do either. And where in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer needs. Look, especially for young couples, this is going to be a challenge for young couples. Because guess what, folks? When you're a young couple, and let me just, let me just put this out there, because I've been a young couple as well. When you're a young couple, being broke is normal. Being broke is normal when you're young. When you first get married and you first start having children, not having a ton of extra money is like, that's how it is. So what you don't want to do is you don't want to look at somebody who's been working for 25 years or 30 years or 35 years and be like, man, man, my life is horrible and this is terrible and you just be all depressed. And because look, they've been working for decades. All you have to do as a young person is just look, those are valuable times to learn to be abased. Those are good times, because let me tell you something, the most valuable times to me, when you are not abased anymore, is I value so much those times when I was abased. Because it helps you to appreciate the times when you abound. It gives you a reference point. Turn to Proverbs chapter 12. Look, all you need to do, you're like, well, I'm a young couple and we just got married and we're having children and we're broke and it stinks. But guess what, I'm gonna give you two points that all you need to do is number one, look at Proverbs 12 verse 24. The Bible says this, it says, the hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. The Bible doesn't say, he that makes a ton of money shall bear rule. It says the hand of the diligent shall bear rule. It doesn't say the person that's the smartest shall bear rule. It says the hand of the diligent shall bear rule. There is two sides to the coin to how to be young and starting out and the first one is this, work hard. That's what the Bible is saying. Men should go out and work hard. They should go out and they should find something that is just gain. They should not work hard at building a YouTube channel to make a pyramid scheme to rip people off. They should go out and they should find something that is just gain. They should learn to work hard, be diligent and master that thing and you will bear rule. The Bible says that's the first thing that needs to be done and then look, the women, the young ladies should work hard as well. Let me tell you something, the young lady that stays home and keeps the home and keeps the children can save a household a ton of money and money saved is money earned and that's the second point. You work hard and you spend wisely. Those are the two keys right there to being young and to being a base. Look at Proverbs 21, look at Proverbs 21 because I've told my kids a billion times, it doesn't matter how much money you make, you can spend it all and more. Look at Proverbs 21 in verse number 20. The Bible says this, it says there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man spendeth it up. The Bible's literally saying don't spend all your money. What the Bible is saying and I've told my kids just use the 80% rule, the 80% rule, the 80% rule, the 80% rule, the 80% rule. What does that mean? You give 10% to God, you save 10% and you live on 80. That's it, it's easy math. Look, 70% rule is better but start with 80. If you can't do 70, start with 80. Don't rob God because that's not gonna work out for you. Let me just tell you that. Save 10%. If you have savings, you have options. That's what the Bible's telling you in Proverbs chapter 21. If not, if you don't have savings and you spend it up, you're under tribute. I don't care what kind of government you live under, I don't care what century you grew up in, that's true. You're like there's no slavery in America. You go out and get yourself into a bunch of debt, you're gonna be under tribute. You go out and get yourself into a bunch of debt, get yourself a bunch of credit cards, go buy a bunch of garbage that you don't need, go spend all your money on cars and things you can't afford and get into a bunch of debt, good luck sleeping at night. Good luck having a stress-free home because you're gonna be under tribute. And look, nobody's gonna chop your head off or put you in debtor's prison in the United States today but look, you declare bankruptcy and you have no credit, it's just a hard life, it's a hard life and it's just gonna cause undue stress on your family. Work hard and spend wisely and let me tell you something and I'll give you some specific advice here. I'll give you some specific advice. You need to make yourself a budget, you need to make yourself a household budget and then here's what you do, here's what I do. You keep yourself broke. Say, you're the pastor, you must spend really wisely. I keep myself broke. The minute my paycheck hits my account, the very next day, all that money is gone automatically. It's gone. It's just, I have automatic transfers set up to all the different places that it needs to go. Whether that be a bill, whether that be savings, it's all automatic because if I have it just sitting there, I'll spend it on something. I'll go to Bass Pro Shops like I did yesterday and be like, oh, I don't really need anything here. Oh, look at that. Look at that neat little rack for fishing poles and the thing is you keep yourself broke. Keep yourself broke. That's why I love the gift cards because that's the only reason I go there is because I've got gift cards but keep yourself broke because look, financial problems can cause real stress. That's why it's number two. But the Bible says work hard, spend wisely and guess what? If you do this, if you do this, if you do what the Bible says and you build upon a rock and you just work hard and you just learn to be a base, you know, we just can't afford many things right now and you learn to be a base and you spend wisely. See, the answer is not to make more money. The answer is to learn to use the money that you have. Work hard, get that income going up, of course, but doing this makes no difference if you're always spending higher than it. It will do you no good. You must learn to be a base and you must learn to spend wisely and then guess what? Sooner or later, you're gonna wake up in 10 years and you'll be like, oh man, we got some savings here. Pretty soon, you got a couple of nickels to rub together and it's just because you built your financial life. On the rock, on what God says. God literally tells you about money in the Bible. God literally tells you, don't love it. Don't love money. He's like, you know, if you love silver, you won't be satisfied with silver. That's kind of God's way of making sure that you don't love the tool that he gives you. You need silver though. You need to buy food and you need to buy a roof over your head and you need to buy these things, but don't fall in love with it. It's just a tool. It's just a utility. Don't love money, then you get all kinds of trouble. That's the root. That's the root where all evil comes from. Don't do that, but you have to have it. Don't be this person that just has no money and never goes to work. It's like, oh, you know, just because you go to work, you love money. No, no, no. No, no, you're a bum. You're lazy. Okay, don't love money. Don't fall in love with it, but it is a necessary tool and the Bible tells you to work hard and you will get it, learn how to live without it, learn how to live with very little, learn how to spend it wisely. Pretty soon, you're gonna have some options with that money. All right, turn to Proverbs chapter 23. Here's the third reason. I gotta hustle up here. Here's the third reason for divorce. Here's the third reason where people build on sand in their marriages. All right, look at Proverbs 23 and verse number 29. The third reason is this, and I bet you could guess it, substance abuse, alcohol and drugs. Look at Proverbs 23. What does the rock say? Look at verse number 29. The Bible says, Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? Are those anything that anyone would want? No. You talk like a fool. You're sad all the time. Nobody likes you. You have nothing but sorrow. You're depressed. You're hurt. You don't even know how you got hurt. Who would want this stuff? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go and seek mixed wine. Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, and when it moveth itself aright. That verse right there, proving that all wine in the Bible is not alcohol. It's don't drink wine when it's fermented. Don't drink wine when it has alcohol in it. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. What's that gonna do for your relationships right there? Yea, thou shalt be as he that liest down in the midst of the sea, or he that lieth upon the top of a mast. Talking about you're just gonna do dangerous, risky things that you would never do. They have stricken me, thou shalt say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. All these things will happen. This person will wake up. They've been wounded. They have sorrow. They're depressed. They said and did stupid things. They're hurting their marriage. They're hurting their wife. They're hurting their husband, and they're just gonna rinse and repeat. They're gonna do it all over again. That's the sand. That's the sand that is the number three reason for divorce in America today. But the Bible says what? Don't even look at it. The Bible says don't even look at it. Stay as far away from it as possible. So look, the Bible gives you the rock. All you have to do is just listen and do the things that it's saying, and I'm just giving the example of relationships. I mean, relationships are just one example, but everything in your spiritual life is based on this same principle. A spiritual life, that's what a spiritual life is. I mean, you hear that said all the time in sermons. A spiritual life is basing everything that you do off of what the Bible says. The better you do that, the better your spiritual life is. I mean, that's what a spiritual life is, is that once I know what the Bible says, then I go have to build on that foundation. I have to do those things. There must be a building there. I mean, you have to understand that a spiritual life, following the Bible with the things in your life, not just relationships, but everything that you do, it doesn't build itself. You must build it yourself, because the same, if you go back to Matthew 7 that we looked at, there was one thing that was common between both the sand builder and the rock builder, and it's that the storms came. And what you have to see is that the storms will come. You can't manage your life. I used to be like this. I used to be this person that I had everything planned. I had the perfect plan. I was gonna do this and this and this, and I had the perfect plan, but the problem is there's always gonna be storms. There's always gonna be storms coming. There's always gonna be changes. There's always gonna be new jobs. There's always gonna be new temptations. There's always gonna be, I can't control tribulation in my life. Somebody that wants to persecute me because, you know, I'm doing the things in the Bible, and I love the Lord Jesus Christ. I just can't control that. So if somebody's persecuted, I can't control that. Those storms are gonna come. There's gonna be new temptations. There's gonna be new babies. And it's all these changes that come in and just, if that building is not built, that can just throw things off in people's lives. I mean, trouble comes, and even just change can throw people off. And many times, if like church and the things in your spiritual life are the first thing to go, you know what that means? That means that was the weakest relationship that you had. That means that that was the weakest building that you had. There was no building there, right? Turn to Matthew chapter number six. And the funny thing about this world is that if your relationship with the Lord is the weakest thing in your life, it's going to be the first thing that goes when that storm comes. And another thing that Christians need to realize, and most Christians would say that they know this. They say they have the head knowledge of this, but you see it throw people off all the time. The funny thing about this world is that it doesn't allow a relationship with both itself and the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan wants you all. The God of this world wants the whole thing. So what's gonna happen is if you think that you're just gonna have one foot in here and one foot in there, what God's really gonna do or what Satan is really gonna do is he's going to take away your desire for the things of God. Look at Matthew six and verse number 24. Jesus himself says this too. He says, no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon. So God has no gray area and Satan doesn't either. They both want the whole thing. So that's why if you get into the world in any one area of your life, what it does is it chokes out the spiritual part of that. You get into a bunch of worldly music and worldly things and you'll realize that you no longer, you're gonna see that desire for the spiritual things in that area start to go away. And a mature Christian will recognize those things. A real mature Christian won't even go down that road, but a mature Christian will recognize when that spiritual desire starts getting choked out. So look, it's either the rock or the sand is what the Bible was teaching us here. So we need to dig down. We need to dig down and we need to anchor our foundations. Everything that you build should be connected to the Bible because everything else will let you down. Everything else will fail you. I hate to break it to you, but I hope you have a bunch of good friends in the church, but your friends will fail you. Your friends will fail you. Your wife will fail you at some point. Your husband will fail you at some point. Money will fail you at some point. That's why Paul said, I need to be a based and a bound. I need to be happy in both of those things. You're gonna have good years and you're gonna have bad years. That's just the way it is. So learn to be a based and learn to bound. People will fail you. Your brothers and sisters in Christ will fail you. Your pastor might even fail you at some point. I mean, look, that's a particularly bad one. I get it. I mean, the Bible says in 1 Peter that the pastor is supposed to be an ensemble to the flock. So when a pastor falls, it is a devastating thing to people. And I've seen that happen. Look, don't worry, I'm okay. But I'm saying that your anchor, your foundation should not be built on me. That's why Paul said in Galatians 1, he's like, though we are an angel from heaven, come and preach something different than what the Bible says. If I get up here and start preaching a bunch of crazy weird stuff that's not true, like that shouldn't shake your foundation. Like I understand that would be an upsetting thing and I'm not gonna do that. But the point is that shouldn't shake what you believe because you have a Bible in front of you. You have the Holy Spirit in you. You turn to the verses. You can understand the doctrines of the Bible. So if you can't put your foundations on people. And you know, another thing is like, just a church is filled with people. And people always are looking for like the perfect church and all this kind of stuff. And like churches are just filled with people and people have problems. But our foundations are here. In the word of God. They're not in what certain people do or don't do. And that's sometimes easier said than done. But we need to have that head knowledge. So we understand that if people fall, we don't fall. Because we have that right foundation. Everything and everyone will fail you in this world at some point, but the rock never will. These promises, these commands, these ways, anchor to them, build upon them, and then nothing will shake your foundation when that wind comes. And it's coming.