We're here in Galatians chapter 4, and in the bulletin I said I'd be preaching from John 16,
but I had written this sermon like a month ago, but I forgot until recently that it is Independence Day here.
So the name of the sermon is The Importance of Freedom.
It's a very appropriate timing for a sermon.
And let me just say this, my throat is a little bit sore today, so I'll try to be dynamic, I'll do the best I can.
But we have five points here today on the importance of freedom.
And I want you to notice here, number one is this, the importance of freedom, number one is for salvation.
It's important, obviously, that people are saved, that they are saved and on their way to heaven.
Galatians 4 verse 19, it says,
My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you.
And so when you think of the church of Galatia, the book of Galatians,
this is a church that gets mixed up on salvation.
Now this is not a Pentecostal church, this is not a Catholic church,
this is not a false church, this would be what we would say nowadays as basically an IFB church.
A church that is right on the basics, they're right, they have a solid foundation,
but they allow false prophets to preach to them and to teach them, and as a result, people have gotten confused.
Now we can understand this because many of us came from Bible Baptist churches before you were here,
and unfortunately, whether it was the pastor or other people that would guess preach,
they would confuse a lot of people about salvation.
They didn't just make it simple, it was actually very confusing to people.
That's what's happening in the book of Galatians.
Now, obviously when you're saved, you're saved forever, nothing can ever change that,
but the truth is that if you were to listen to someone who's a heretic preach to you all the time,
and look, there's some people that are just obviously a heretic, there's no question,
but then there's people that will be smooth talkers, they'll be Baptists, and they'll preach repentance of sins,
and they'll make it really confusing.
I'm not saying you've got to turn from your sins, but if you're really saved,
there's going to be at least a little bit of a change happening.
They make it confusing.
We've got to make it simple.
And unfortunately, people are coming into churches, Baptist churches,
and they preach confusing messages about salvation.
That's what's happening here.
Now I said in verse 19, I trail and birth again.
Now when you think about a woman who's going through labor,
I was there when our son Zephaniah was born, and look, it takes a lot of work for a baby to be born.
The mom works very hard.
Now that's a great picture of salvation because of the fact the baby does no work at all.
They do no work whatsoever.
It's the same thing with us.
We do no work to be saved.
Jesus Christ did all the work.
We just believe on Jesus Christ.
But a mom does a lot of work when that baby's born.
And he says, you know, I trail and birth again.
It's like when we preach the gospel, there's a lot of work that goes into getting somebody saved.
You can't just come over there and just two minutes later, boom, you've got a salvation.
No, it takes some work.
It takes some time to get them saved.
You're going to have to spend 15, 20 minutes to get that person saved,
and if there's any problems along the way, you're going to have to add another five minutes onto that.
If they're a little bit confused on internal security, a little bit confused on baptism, things like that,
you might have to spend more time.
It's a lot of work, okay?
Now, if you preach the gospel one time, then, yeah, we have the energy for that.
But one of the downfalls of being in a receptive country is you could literally preach the gospel four or five times in three hours.
And it gets very tiring.
I remember when, and not so much here because it's very common, but in the U.S. when I would preach the gospel,
sometimes, you know, you'd be on a roll, you'd get somebody saved they want to hear.
Then you'd talk to somebody else and they want to hear.
And then in the back of your mind, you're sort of thinking, I hope nobody else wants to hear the gospel.
I'm tired, you know, I'm exhausted, I don't know if I can do this anymore.
Look, it takes a lot of work.
And Paul the apostle is basically saying, I preached the gospel to you, I labored, you got saved, I trained you,
and now I've got to labor again because you're confused on the basics?
Look, salvation is the most basic topic when it comes to the Christian life.
That's the milk.
Understanding repentance of sins is, you know, the worst salvation.
That's the milk.
That's not the meat.
That's the milk because people need to have an understanding to get saved.
They need to understand that they're not turning from their sins.
And he's laboring again.
Why?
They've gotten a little bit confused on salvation.
They're allowing false teachers to come here and basically muddy the water to go in between, go both ways.
Verse number 20 says, I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice,
for I stand in doubt of you.
What is Paul saying when he says I stand in doubt of you?
He's basically saying, I'm not sure if all of you are saved.
I stand in doubt of you.
Now, look, he is not questioning their salvation because they're drunk.
He's not questioning their salvation because they're drug addicts.
He's not questioning their salvation because they committed adultery or committed fornication.
No, he's questioning because what they believe is very off.
And he's not for sure.
Look, if we lead people to the Lord, and then afterwards they seem to believe something completely foreign or different,
we have to wonder, did that person really get saved?
Now, hopefully, just as a baby Christian, you can be led astray and go every which way.
But it is possible that if you got somebody saved and you prayed with them,
and five years later, they are still carrying around their rosary beads.
And they're still saying, Pope Francis is the greatest thing in the world,
and the only true church is the Holy Catholic Church.
Look, I don't think they got saved.
Now, look, that happens to all of us that are soul owners.
Yes, we're all going to get false conference.
John the Baptist had a false conference, you see, in the Bible.
There's no shame in that.
Because if you're preaching the truth so much,
when you're getting some people saved, you're going to have some people that didn't quite get it.
Even when you pray with people sometimes, afterwards you find out they're still a little bit confused.
But what's happening here is basically people are getting confused on salvation.
Now, this is a big problem, because salvation gives you freedom.
Before I was saved, I lived in doubt every single day whether or not I was going to heaven.
For two years I was scared, I was on my way to hell.
And look, I never drank, I wasn't out fornicating, I was homeschooled,
but you know what, I realized, I've committed sins, I'm guilty,
and I just didn't know if my works would be enough to get me to heaven.
And look, there's a lot of people out there that are ready for a soul owner to preach the gospel.
Verse 21, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Basically Paul's saying, do you not even understand what you're saying?
Do you not hear the law? Do you not realize what you're saying?
That you're trying to be justified by the law, or you think that we need to follow some of the parts of the law?
I mean, Christ freed us from that.
Now we know obviously that we should still obey the commandments of God,
we'll talk about that later on in the sermon,
but the truth is that in terms of salvation, it's believe and no works whatsoever.
We don't have to do any works whatsoever.
Now, verse 21 is interesting because if you look at the book of Galatians,
Galatians 2-21, 3-21, and 4-21 are all awesome verses about salvation.
That's a good way to remember.
2-21, 3-21, those are some you can sometimes use in your gospel presentations.
And then 4-21 also, and he's basically saying, you know, you guys are our global.
He's like, do you not get it? He's like, there's no works involved in salvation.
Verse number 22.
For it is written that Abraham had two sons,
the one by a bond made, the other by a free woman.
But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh,
but he of the free woman was by promise.
Which things are in allegory for these are the two covenants?
The one from the Mount Sinai, which gingereth the bondage, which is Agar.
For this Agar is in Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem,
which now is and is in bondage with their children.
But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all.
So the Bible says Jerusalem is free.
This is an allegory. It's an example that we should understand
that people that are saved were free.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Now, the book of Galatians, probably like no other book, destroyed Zionism.
And yet I'm sure that a Zionist would take verse 26 alone and say, Jerusalem is free.
Right? So we ought to love Israel and they're God's chosen people.
But I don't know how you can get that understanding leaving this chapter
because it's basically proving the exact opposite.
Verse 27,
For it is written, Rejoice thou, barren, that bearers not.
Break forth in pride, thou that should railest not.
For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so it is now.
And so basically 2,000 years ago,
he says that those that are born after the flesh persecute those born after the Spirit,
those that are saved.
Isn't it true today that those born after the flesh would persecute us?
Right, right.
I mean, it was true 2,000 years ago and there's no new thing under the sun.
It's still true today.
And I don't really care what false religion it is.
Obviously Judaism is a big one.
They would really persecute us, but you know, any false religion would do that.
Anyone that's trusting in their works.
I remember at my old job way back, about 10 years ago,
I was talking to one of my coworkers about the gospel and they were a Mormon.
And there was this other coworker who was a Jehovah's Witness.
And they come over and pretty soon they were both against me.
And it's like, why are the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses teaming up?
They don't exactly believe the same things.
But isn't it amazing how they team up against the first person who's actually saved?
Right.
It's like, you know, we could have had a Hindu come over, Buddhist, Jew.
They'd all come over and say, no, you're wrong.
You know, all of us are right.
That's the way it works.
It doesn't matter what the false religion is, they will persecute us.
Right.
Verse 30.
And so what you're seeing Galatians 4 is the importance of freedom spiritually.
Okay.
And what's happening is they're starting to get confused.
We've seen that throughout the book of Galatians.
They're starting to get confused on things that they used to know.
They used to understand.
The milk of the word.
There comes a point where you shouldn't question salvation at all.
And be led astray and you can move on to more of the meat of the word.
Yep.
But before you understand the end times, you need to understand the book of John and salvation really well.
Okay.
One mistake sometimes people make is that they listen to a lot of preaching.
And they just kind of want to learn all the new exciting stuff.
And it's like, hey, the new and exciting stuff is great, but start with the fundamentals.
Start with salvation.
Okay.
That's the most important thing to have down.
Okay.
And you don't have to turn there, but in Revelation 22, it talks about taking the water of life freely.
When it comes to the gospel, you have free will to believe on Jesus Christ.
Yep.
Okay.
And when you get saved, you have freedom.
You're on your way to heaven no matter what you do in the future.
No matter what mistakes you make, you are free.
You're on your way to heaven.
Let's look at Galatians 5, verse 1.
The thought continues.
And he says in verse 1, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty.
Liberty implies freedom.
Right?
The word libre, free.
Right?
Liberty, freedom.
Wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoga bondage.
When you get saved, you have free salvation.
You don't have to do any works.
You don't have to make any changes.
It doesn't matter what you do.
You're saved and on your way to heaven.
Now, look.
If you had to repent of your sins in order to be saved, the implication is that after
salvation, you're still having to work the works.
Yeah.
Because that would be the proof of if you really repented of your sins.
That's not the way salvation works.
Salvation is believe alone.
And so guess what?
After you're saved, there's no more change.
You don't have to come to church.
You don't have to get baptized.
You don't have to do any of those things to prove your salvation.
I don't question my converts because they didn't get baptized.
Okay?
If they believe, they got saved.
Verse number two.
Behold, I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
And so, you know, a lot of people will try to bring these, you know, Old Testament laws
that were done away in Christ because they symbolize salvation and Jesus fulfilled them
on the cross.
And they want to bring these back.
But what it says here in verse two is, or verse three, it doesn't profit you at all.
Verse two, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Being circumcised gives you no benefit in today's world.
That's something they did in the Old Testament.
That has nothing to do with salvation and it's not a commandment from God that you have
to follow anymore.
Okay?
And look, if you're trying to just follow every single law, you're a debtor to do the
whole law.
Can anyone say that they're doing the entire law?
No one can say that.
I remember when we were going sowing in, um, Resolve Park a few weeks ago, I guess it was
just last, last week.
You know, Brother, Brother Ehrman came when I was, I wasn't trying to preach the gospel
to anyone.
I was just trying to read the Bible, relax before I've been sowing anytime.
And then just, you know, basically this church, they sat down on both sides of me and just
these people that were going to hand out invitations in Resolve Park.
And then I started talking to the one lady cause she looked like, she didn't look like
she was the leader or whatever.
So I just talked to her and everything like that.
I asked what they believe.
And they thought you had to be baptized to be saved.
Speaking in tongues, they believe in these spiritual gifts.
And they said they were not Pentecostal, but they believe in speaking in tongues.
And they said they were not Pentecostal and not charismatic.
It's like, is there a new category that I'm not familiar with?
I mean, but their, their head guy comes over and you know, during the conversation he says
that, you know, you have to repent of your sins.
And I asked him, do you sin?
And he told me he still sins.
I was like, so you haven't repented of all your sins?
He's like, no, I've repented of all my sins.
I was like, but you still sin?
He's like, yes.
I was like, well then you did repent of all your sins.
I mean, it's like, they don't get it.
It's like, how did you not get this?
I mean, if you still sin, you haven't repented of all your sins.
And he asked me, have you repented of all your sins?
I said, no, I haven't.
And he's looking at how, how could you say that?
He's like, well, I'm not being arrogant.
I admit, you know, I'm a sinner.
And you know, they, they just don't get it.
But what it says in verse three is you're deader than do the whole law.
Look, nobody can say they repented of all their sin.
Everybody lies from time to time.
Everybody has, I mean, the thought of foolishness is sin.
Maybe I'm just really dumb, but I think a lot of foolish thoughts.
So, I mean, it's just like, you know, if you had to repent of all your sins,
like, I guess I'm not going to make it then.
But then nobody's going to make it.
And that's what the Bible is saying here in Galatians.
Verse four, Christ has become of no effect on you,
whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen for grace.
Now, people like to take verse four and to say you can lose your salvation
because it talks about falling from grace.
But what it's basically saying is that people that are trying to be justified by the law,
look, they're just not going to make it.
Because they're adding works to grace.
It's no longer grace.
You know that from Romans 11, six.
So they're falling from grace.
It's like, yeah, that's not what salvation by grace through faith is.
You've fallen from that.
It's a false belief that you have.
It's not going to get you to heaven when you believe in work salvation.
Verse 13, for brethren, you have been called unto liberty.
Once again, with salvation, we're called unto liberty.
But only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
When you're saved, you have liberty.
You have freedom.
You can do whatever you want.
But at the same time, God still commands you a lot of rules in here.
He wants you to obey a lot of things.
And in verse 13, he tells them, do not use liberty for an occasion to the flesh.
He's basically giving them a commandment.
Now, if it was automatic, then he wouldn't have to command them.
Throughout the Bible, he's commanding them to do things.
Look, if you have to command something, it's because it's not automatic.
Look, I give my son a lot of commandments.
You say, why?
Because he's not necessarily going to do everything I want unless I tell him no sometimes,
unless I give him rules and things to do.
But I want you to understand this, that yes, salvation, there's freedom in that.
There's importance in that.
But at the same time, we want to get freedom from sin in our lives.
And so, yes, you have freedom.
But according to verse 13, don't use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh.
And here's the thing.
The Bible teaches that if you do use it for an occasion to the flesh,
what's going to happen is you're going to put yourself in bondage to sin.
That's what's going to take place.
Turn to Romans 6.
Romans 6.
What's funny about this is that people that don't believe us,
they have a different view of salvation.
Or maybe they're Christians, but they're not really living very strict lives.
They'll talk about how strict we are.
It's like, man, you get up there and preach against listening to rock music.
And you preach against wearing certain things.
Like, man, you're putting yourself in bondage.
You can never go to a bar.
You can never drink tequila.
You're putting yourself in bondage.
You know, you have freedom.
Yeah, what's funny about that is look at a drunk person.
Let me ask you, how free is that person?
They can do whatever they want.
Go out and get drunk if they want.
Look, they don't want to still be a drunk.
But you know what?
The problem is that they're in bondage to that sin.
Right, yeah.
And if you choose to live a sinful life,
what will take place is you're going to put yourself back into bondage to sin.
Now, in this room, people in this room are pretty spiritually strong when it comes to salvation.
We understand salvation.
We've heard so many sermons.
You know, you've been sowing with this church.
You know what salvation is.
You're not confused about it.
But that doesn't mean that we automatically have freedom from sin in our lives.
Right, yeah.
Okay.
And that's something where we've got to make that choice.
Now, in Romans 6, this is what it says.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is free from sin.
Okay.
Now, that does not mean that we never sin.
Because we know multitudes of verses that say if we have no sin,
we say that we have no sin.
We deceive ourselves when the truth is not in us.
Right.
There's plenty of verses that tell us that,
that if we're living a sinful life,
that if we say that we have no sin, we're lying.
Okay.
Paul the apostle said the things that I want to do, I do not.
Right.
Why?
Because we have the flesh and we have the spirit.
Right.
And yes, the spirit wants to read the Bible,
go to church and go soul-winding,
but the flesh doesn't necessarily always want to do that.
Verse number eight.
Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we also, we shall also live with him.
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more,
death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once,
but in that he liveth, he lived unto God.
Likewise, reckon ye also yourself to be dead,
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, people could look at these several verses
and they could misunderstand and say, well, see,
you know, you're free from sin.
You're free from these things.
But notice what it says in verse 12.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body
that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.
So once again in verse 12, he's basically commanding them.
Do not allow sin to reign in your bodies.
Okay.
Yes, we're free, but guess what?
We can still be in bondage to sin.
Right.
This is our choice.
Yeah.
Okay.
Look, you have that choice to go out and get drunk if you want.
And if you choose to go out and get drunk all the time,
you're going to be in bondage to that sin
because you're not going to be able to stop it.
Okay.
Look, the person who's married and has a family,
they don't want to be in trouble.
Yeah.
And what's funny about it is they'll act like they do,
like, man, I just, you know, you should come out with us
and, you know, party and stuff like that.
Look, the person who's a husband and has a family,
he doesn't want to be in bondage, but he is in bondage.
He doesn't want to do those things,
but he's still doing those things because he can't control himself.
Because when you choose to allow sin to reign in your bodies,
you say, I'll just let anything enter into my ears and my eyes
and just fulfill any lust that I want,
you become in bondage.
You cannot stop.
It doesn't just stop at just looking at one thing.
No, it's going to get worse.
Right.
See, if you choose to gratify your flesh a little bit,
it's only going to get worse.
Yeah.
Right.
And it's going to lose the pleasure.
And so basically you'll go to a bigger extreme
to try to get that same pleasure,
and you're going to get worse and worse and worse.
And look, you can't quit.
Right.
Now, I don't think that smoking is the worst sin in the world.
I do believe it's a sin.
But I will say this, that, you know,
there's a lot of people that are addicted to cigarettes,
and they've been trying to quit for years.
And they can't.
Why?
Sin is reigning in their bodies, and it has dominion over them.
They want to quit because of the fact
that they spend so much money on cigarettes each year.
Like, in the US, literally, people would spend, like,
$1,500 on cigarettes in a year.
Like, $4 a day.
That's a lot of money.
Yeah.
That is a lot of money to throw down the drain
on something that's going to destroy your health
and cause you to go to the doctors to get a lot of medicine
and things like that.
It's going to cost you even more money.
That's a lot of money.
And look, the majority of people do not want to smoke cigarettes,
but they are in bondage to it.
Yeah.
They can't quit.
That's why they have so many techniques to try to quit,
and people are trying all these programs.
Why?
Because they're in bondage to that sin,
and they can't get it out of their lives.
Just because you're saved does not
mean that you have freedom from the sin in your life.
That is not a guarantee.
You've got to make the necessary actions to make that take place.
Now, notice what it says in verse 13.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments
of unrighteousness on the sin, but yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under the law, but under grace.
What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under the law,
but under grace?
God forbid.
Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey,
whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
And so what the Bible teaches here in this passage,
and in verse 16, is that you will be a servant of something.
See, people want to have freedom,
but they have to understand this.
They say, well, I'm saved.
I want to do whatever I want.
If you choose to say that you want freedom
and you think that God's rules are too strict,
you will be in bondage to sin.
Yeah.
That's the way it works.
That's what verse 16 says.
You are either going to be servants
onto whether of sin unto death, because sin
will destroy your life.
It can ultimately end in physical death.
It will destroy everything in your life.
Or of obedience unto righteousness.
And so the next time you think about how strict God is,
and man, I don't want to follow all these rules,
realize that if you choose to commit that sin that you like,
you're getting in bondage to that.
Yeah.
I would rather serve God than serve sin.
Right.
And you must make a choice.
It's going to be one or the other.
We preach hard because we want people
to have freedom from the sin of their lives.
Look, you cannot have both of these things in life.
You cannot be free with salvation
and then say, well, I want to just sin as much
as I want and have freedom.
Look, if you sin as much as you want,
you're going to be in bondage to that sin.
Right.
And it's going to take you a lot further than you wanted to go.
And it's going to keep you longer than you wanted to stay.
That's the way sin works.
And you said, I just wanted to do it one time to have fun.
And now, look, you're addicted to it.
That is the way sin works.
And so, look, I get it.
We preach hard at this church.
And in terms of churches in this area,
we probably take a stronger stand on what we believe
and things you need to do in your lives in any way.
That's true.
Isn't it interesting how the same church that
does the most soul winning is also
one that preaches the hardest against sin
and has the most commandments of the preaching from the pulpit?
Because there's both things mentioned.
Because we want people to have freedom in terms of salvation.
But I want you to have freedom from sin in your life.
And I want to have freedom from sin in my life.
And hard preaching is what the answer is.
Right.
And so, yeah, we preach hard.
We say, you got to change this.
You got to change this.
Yeah, because we want people to have freedom from sin
in their lives.
Don't be mad at me if I preach on something
and you're guilty someday.
Look, I've been to plenty of church services
where I was guilty on what the pastor was preaching on.
And he preached.
And it's like, man, that hits me pretty hard.
It's like, I got to make changes in my life.
Look, that's what you should expect from the person
preaching.
You should be glad that I'm willing to preach the truth
and I'm not worried about offending you and having you
weak.
Because I can just preach IFB sermons that would
make everybody happy.
You know what I mean?
Just preach against the sodomites every week.
Everyone's like, amen, that's great.
You're not going to grow spiritually if that's all
I preach about.
And I am willing to preach subjects that might offend
certain people, even of the most dedicated people here.
And you guys know that.
I preach sermons like that.
Not because I dislike you, but because of the fact
I want everybody in this room to make the changes
necessary.
Right.
And this includes me as well because I'm not above
this.
I still have sin in my life as well.
And look, you know, when you're writing sermons,
you're preaching against yourself quite a bit.
Oh, yeah.
That's the way it works.
But, look, you have to understand that people
that live a sinful life, they're not very free at all.
The greatest example, and it's kind of funny,
we were talking about this before the sermon,
we were talking about homeless people.
And you look at homeless people that,
and it's kind of different in the Philippines versus
the U.S.
In the U.S., by and large, they're addicted to drugs.
Whereas here in the Philippines, a lot of times
they're just kind of poor.
But look at somebody who's homeless on the streets
that's addicted to drugs.
And someone who's addicted to drugs,
they will do anything to get the money they need
just to fulfill that drug addiction.
Yeah.
They'll do anything.
They'll commit sins they never would have expected
they'd commit.
They do things that they would steal money from family,
something they would have never done
if they had a right mind.
But because they're addicted to that sin
and they're in bondage to that sin,
look, they're not very free at all.
Right.
Because when you have a clear and sober mind,
the thoughts of stealing money from my grandma
is not going to go through your head.
Right.
The thoughts of doing whatever, living on the streets,
doing whatever to get that needle injection
to get that satisfying feeling for a few minutes or whatever,
that's something that you would never do
when you're clear minded.
Yeah.
That is something that people do
when they're addicted to drugs.
Look, they're not very free at all.
And you can say, well, wait a minute.
They get to do whatever they want.
They live in the streets, no rules.
They don't have to clock in for work.
They don't have to go buy a dress code.
They can do whatever they want.
Look, they're the least free people that there are.
Right.
And yet, they look like the most free people.
They're just out in the streets.
They don't have any set time.
They have to do anything.
But in reality, they're actually the most in bondage
because of the fact they have to do a lot of things
to fulfill their needs of getting drugs
and things like that.
And they do things that they don't even want to do
because there's no other alternative.
And that's right.
And so we have to understand something
that preaching hard against sin,
that doesn't mean that we're putting you into bondage.
We're actually doing the opposite.
We're trying to get you free from the bondage of sin.
But serving God, that's something all of us need to do.
And that's something we should want to do.
And that's something we should spend our entire lives
being a living sacrifice.
That's what the Bible says.
Now, turn to Romans 13. Romans 13.
And so there's freedom when it comes to salvation
and the importance of freedom, obviously salvation,
but also just freedom from sin in our lives.
It's pretty important.
I don't want to be in bondage and go to bed every night
just feeling guilty about sins I commit.
I want to have freedom from sin in my lives.
But another important thing of freedom is this.
Governmental freedom. Personal rights.
Having freedom from what would be an oppressive government,
which by and large, a lot of governments are pretty impressive.
They're taking away the rights that we have.
Notice what it says in Romans 13, verse 1.
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,
for there is no power but of God.
The powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisted the power,
resisted the ordinance of God.
And they that resist shall receive with themselves damnation.
And so God has put certain authorities in life.
Directly this is applying to basically governmental authorities,
but any authority God has placed,
God's placed it there for a purpose.
If there would be a wife that would rebel against everything her husband says,
she's basically rejecting the authority that God's given.
And you are supposed to submit to the authorities that you're given.
But those authorities are not supposed to be tyrants.
And unfortunately with governments,
although God only gives them a limited scope of authority,
they go way above and beyond.
Probably in every country they go way above and beyond what God actually gave them
because we should have our personal freedom.
We should have our own rights to do what we want to do.
Now verse number three,
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.
Rulers are not to be a terror to good works.
So basically, a father should not always just try to put his kids in fear.
Now yes, there's time to spank them,
but it shouldn't just be where they're scared to death every single day.
There's a healthy fear that goes with being a kid, obviously,
if they break the rules.
But you know, the authority's not supposed to be a tyrant.
Wives are supposed to obey their husband,
but look, you know, husbands ought to be nice to their wives.
It's like if you're a jerk, of course they're not going to want to obey you.
It's like when you have a boss at work.
I've had good bosses, I've had bad bosses.
Look, when you have a boss that's pretty rude to you and yells at you all the time,
it's pretty frustrating.
You're really mad about,
you're like, man, I really don't want to have to do this.
You know, it's not very fun.
Now we're still supposed to obey that authority because that's the job that we have,
but it's not very fun.
Another problem with the government is they take away our rights,
but they also oftentimes will almost put you in situations to sin
or they'll take away our religious rights.
And a higher power than our government is God.
His law is above all.
When it becomes illegal to go sowing one day in our country or whatever country,
you can still go sowing.
Now there could come a time when the Bible speaks about fleeing to another country where it's more free,
although I think we're pretty free in this country to preach the gospel.
But you know, if our government were to say it's illegal to preach the gospel,
it's like, well, good luck stopping us.
I guess a lot of us would get arrested because of the fact, you know what,
we're going to preach the gospel.
We're going to do what God commanded us to do.
And unfortunately, as we get closer to the end times,
the government's going to take away those rights.
The government's taking away the rights of pastors and evangelists and preachers to preach certain sermons.
They take away the rights to preach against the LGBT.
We are in the middle of pride running.
And you go up and you preach certain things, and guess what?
The government's going to basically put a stop to it.
They don't like what you're saying.
They're not happy with it.
They're taking away rights that God has given us.
Because pastors are commanded to cry aloud and spare not.
And here's what you have to understand.
You show the people their transgressions and their sins.
In the 21st century, here in the Philippines, the LGBT is a big issue.
And because it's an issue here, it needs to be preached about.
Look, if it was not an issue, if there was no LGBT in this country, I would never preach about it.
If there was no bite my meat, then I would never preach about it.
But you know, in this country, it shocks people.
We're huge on the LGBT.
All the TV shows and everything, guys dressing up as women, it's disgusting.
So guess what? You've got to preach about it.
And people say, why are you doing this? Why can't you be nicer?
Look, I would never preach on it if it wasn't an issue.
You preach on what's an issue.
Look, if we had a problem with everybody committing fornication in our church, I'd have to preach on it.
Kick some people out and preach what the Bible says.
And unfortunately, even though it's not an issue in our church, it's an issue out there.
The LGBT is everywhere you go.
So guess what? It's an issue today.
It needs to be preached today.
We preach on what are the issues.
Verse number four.
For he is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid.
For he beareth not the sword of vain.
For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
So in verse four, it talks about the minister of God to be for good.
And look, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have no reason to be afraid.
You have to be afraid if you're doing evil.
So look, if you were someone that was committing capital crimes like adultery in the Bible or murder or just being a theft,
yeah, you've got to be aware of the government.
That's the way it's intended to be.
That if you're a bad person, then you've got to be aware.
Then be afraid, the Bible says in its verse.
Unfortunately, you have to be afraid, so to speak, if you're just preaching to trouble.
You can get in trouble for just preaching ceremonies.
That's not the way it's intended to be.
I'll tell you why.
Because God only gave government a limited scope of authority.
And unfortunately, the government goes above and beyond and takes away religious freedoms.
That's what's taking place.
And look, there's religious freedoms, but also our own personal rights.
The government should not tell you what you're going to do.
Now look, in this room, it's up to you what you do when you have kids one day,
whether or not you choose to vaccinate your kids or not.
But my point is this in this sermon, the government has no right to make that decision.
That is something where you have a personal choice whether you want to do it or whether you don't want to do it.
And look, if there's people at our church that choose to do it, that's fine.
That's their personal right.
I'm not going to be mad at them because that's their choice to do it.
I preach what I believe is smart wisdom.
I'm actually going to talk about it a little bit in the sermon on Sunday.
But if people choose to do something else, that's fine.
Because my scope of authority is not outside this pulpit and outside this church in your personal life.
No, because there's freedom in it.
And so the government, and that's something turned to Acts 22.
That is something that is becoming an issue worldwide.
The vaccination thing is becoming huge worldwide where they're basically starting to force people.
Or basically, in a lot of states in the U.S. now, they're basically forcing you to get vaccinated or you have to homeschool your kids.
Well, it's like, let's just make the decision to homeschool them.
But they're going to go above and beyond that where they take away a lot of rights and choose not to vaccinate your kids.
And look, they don't have a right to do that because of the fact that we have freedom.
And we're supposed to have freedom.
And there's nothing you can point to in the Bible that says, hey, the government should throw you in prison for basically giving you 40 lashes or giving you the death penalty because you chose not to vaccinate your kid.
I'd love to see the verse that they would pull out from that.
You're not going to find it.
And so look, we don't have the right to take away parents' rights to make their choices.
And the government does not have the right. God did not give them that option.
Now, in Acts 22, notice what it says in verse 24.
The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle and made that he should be examined by scourging, that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.
Now, isn't it interesting that you just scourge someone to find out if he did something wrong?
Maybe he's going to confess. We're going to examine him.
Instead of giving him a trial or asking a question, we're just going to beat the living fire out of him and then find out what he said.
Now, talk about a bad government.
Can you imagine if, you know, you get in an argument with someone in the street and a couple of people are,
you're going soloing, and a few people complain about you and say, you know, oh, how dare you do that.
And they say, don't worry, we'll take him and just beat him and find out what the situation is.
I mean, that's ridiculous.
And that's what's happening here in Acts 24, or 22 verse 24.
We're going to examine by scourging.
And look, this is something that governments would torture is pretty common thing for governments.
And look, you know, you're not supposed to examine someone by scourging.
Now, here's the problem with this.
When you torture people, their lives will just lie.
You know, if you go back to the Catholic Church throughout the centuries, they would basically, during the Spanish Inquisition, they'd go from town to town.
So they'd come to this town here in the Philippines in the passing, and they'd basically round everybody up and find out if anybody's a criminal or whatever.
But basically, you know, they'd take someone, and if you weren't willing to testify against your friends and turn people in, they would beat you.
This is what they would do.
And basically, they would, and they'd just take people if there's any sort of question.
They'd just start beating them.
And they'd just say, well, we'll find out what they did once we start beating them.
We'll just admit to whatever.
And it's like, well, what if they're innocent?
They're just going to beat an innocent man without even thinking about it.
They didn't even think about it.
They didn't even care.
They would just beat people.
Why?
Because they wanted to kill everybody like us that wasn't going to be growing Catholic.
And the basically, and the Catholic Church basically had governmental authority.
I mean, through large parts of the world at the time.
And they would just go to areas and just beat people.
They would examine by scourging.
Look, the government has no right to do that.
It's innocent until proven guilty.
Verse 25, and as they bound them with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by,
Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?
When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman.
Then the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou Roman?
He said, Yea.
The chief captain answered with a great sum of tamedi this freedom.
And Paul said that I was freeborn.
See, freedom is pretty important.
And look, when you have freedom, it does give you more rights.
The truth is that although I preach really hard on certain topics, that I probably am not going to have as many rights as if I was freeborn in this country.
And I'm aware of that.
Now, I have a lot of rights just because, you know, my wife is from the Philippines.
I guess probably a little bit more rights.
But look, there are rights that I might not have that other people have.
And when it comes to preaching the truth, you know, honestly the government one day might come in on me for whatever,
because I don't necessarily have as many rights as someone who is freeborn.
Okay?
And you see that freedom is very important.
Now turn to 2 Thessalonians 3. 2 Thessalonians 3.
And when it comes to government's authorities and rights, you really start to notice this when you have kids.
Because when you're raising kids, you know, it's one thing if the government does whatever it means, like whatever.
But when you're raising your child, you want to raise them in a certain way because that's your responsibility.
The government takes away those rights.
They're really offensive.
Okay?
So here's what it says in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse number 1.
Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you,
and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith.
And so in 2 Thessalonians 3, what do we see?
The Bible talks about the word of the Lord having free course.
So it's important to have freedom from the government in terms of, you know, our personal lives, but also when it comes to serving God.
In the Bible, you see times when the government basically does not allow you to serve God.
And that's happened all throughout history where you weren't able to baptize people that wanted to get baptized.
You're not able to preach certain sermons and things like that.
And the Bible says, you know, pray that the word of the Lord can have free course.
Basically, it won't be interrupted. Why?
Because there are people that are unreasonable and wicked men.
Okay?
No matter where you go, it's going to take place.
Even just today, we notice that as we went to the subdivision.
Because I had the letter of approval, and I still have the letter of approval that we have the right to mount that subdivision.
And some security guard, who obviously doesn't like the message we're presenting, basically forced us to go, and the management's not there.
And it's against the same God that actually brought me to talk to the management when I arrived, and I have the right at any time that the management, that the subdivision gave us.
And yet there's a security guard that obviously has not faith, and he doesn't want us to preach the gospel, and he tries to prevent that.
And he does prevent that. It's like, well, we already got five people saved in that area today.
So it's like, you know, you're a little bit too late for that.
But look, what you have to understand is there are people that have not faith that do not like the message that we're presenting.
No matter where you go. It's a really receptive country, but there's still those security guards that don't like what you're doing.
And just like, and honestly, it's like, it's one thing if he had said, you know what, you know, hey, you know, I understand your situation.
Like, I just need to double check. You guys can come back at another time.
But you can just tell from him, look, he didn't want us there.
I mean, he wanted me to leave. I didn't even have my ACRI card.
And I'm going to the gate to get it, and he's like, no, go out that way.
He's like, yeah, I need my ACRI card first.
And it's just like, you know, there's a man who has not faith.
You can see the look on his face like, keep walking.
Why? Because he has a bit of authority in terms of he's able to kind of boss people around.
We're taking away our rights that we have, especially when you saw the letter.
And you make a big deal, you say, well, it says 8-24, August 24th.
That is the date that they signed. It's not my fault that they put August instead of May.
Obviously, they didn't sign three months into the future.
We're only in June. It's obvious that they accidentally put an 8 there.
And you'll do anything that you can to prevent us from knocking those doors.
Why? Because he doesn't have faith.
He doesn't like the message that we're presenting.
And it's like, we've knocked there four times already.
And it's just like, you know, we've had the right to do it because the management gave it to us.
They gave us the signed form. But look, no matter where you go, people have not faith.
And that's why we pray that we have a free course.
But honestly, that's pretty small compared to persecution that could happen.
That's just one individual. It's like, whatever, we just went to the park and got people saved right after that.
So it's not like he prevented us from going solely in all of the Philippines.
But imagine if he had a compressive government who took away that right.
And that has taken place throughout history.
I'll turn to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5.
And another thing, in terms of the importance of freedom, is freedom in our personal lives.
And when I say personal lives, what I mean is in reference to the person preaching the sermons or the pastor or evangelist, that you have freedom.
That basically, the church doesn't go to your personal home and basically make your decisions for you.
As if they're mommy and daddy.
Now this is where people can misunderstand, because quite honestly, a lot of Baptist churches, the pastors will go above their authority that they have.
Now all of us need to make sure that we don't go above the authority God has given us.
Because of the fact, freedom is very important.
And if you go above your authority, you're taking away freedom that God has given you.
You wouldn't want them to do that to you.
1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12 and 13.
Now some people would take this verse, first of all, when it says, are over you in the Lord.
And they basically apply it to the fact that the pastor can basically go to your home and make your decisions for you.
Say, no, no, no, I don't want you to buy that car. No, no, no, no, I don't want you to marry that person. No, no, no, I don't want you to do this.
Look, that's the rights that people have.
They have freedom to make their own choices.
But they'll take this phrase, over you in the Lord, okay.
Now turn to 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5.
All that's saying is that in terms of the authority of this church, obviously I'm the authority of this church,
underneath pastor minutes and underneath the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm over you in the Lord in that way.
But that doesn't mean that I'm over you in your personal life.
That doesn't mean that I get to make your decisions for you, okay.
Now notice what it says in 1 Peter 5 verse 1, and we'll prove this from the Bible.
1 Peter 5 verse 1, the elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ,
and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof.
Once again, oversight. They're over you in the Lord.
Not by constraint, but willingly. Not through filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.
Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.
Neither is being lords over God's heritage. What does that mean?
It basically means you don't lord over people's personal lives.
Now look, I preach hard against sin. I preach against the television.
But look, I will never come to your personal home and break that television.
I will never come to your home and tell you, you've got to get rid of that thing.
Look, I've been to people's homes in this church that have a television.
And guess what? When I went there, I didn't make it a point to mock them for it.
I didn't make a point to criticize them for it. Why? It's their choice.
For one, somebody who's newer, they might just not know. But for two, I don't have the right.
You say, why? Because you're not supposed to lord over people according to 1 Peter 5.
I don't make those choices with people.
Now I preach against rock music, but I'm not going to go and destroy your CDs.
That's a decision that you make.
Because once you start just going above and beyond the authority you're given,
you're going to be just like a tyrannical government.
And people are going to rebel against you because you're a jerk.
And so look, let me give you a practical example.
This is something that I've seen in church before and stuff like that.
Sometimes being overzealous can be a bad thing.
And when people are new at church, they don't know much.
We get somebody saved down the street, they might ask some questions where you're just like,
wow, you don't know that?
But obviously you've got to be nice to them and kind.
You don't make them feel bad, you don't make them feel stupid.
But let's say for example somebody gets saved, they come in here and they're dressed completely wrong.
That happens a lot at churches.
Look, I will preach what the Bible says we were hoping.
And that is the best way to get people to change.
That is how you reach their heart.
You say, why?
Because I'm not just intentionally just being rude to that person.
I'm just preaching to a crowd and they're able to take that message better.
I've seen it plenty of times.
At this church we've had visitors and I preached hard during the Charismatic Series.
I preached hard against the Pentecostals and there was someone who's a Pentecostal church and someone invited.
And you know that.
They were glad afterwards. I talked to them afterwards.
And you know what, they were glad that they heard the message.
They didn't get offended.
Now look, people might get offended at first, but that is the way to get people to make changes.
My best goal is to get people to read the Bible for themselves.
Because if they read the Bible for themselves, then those changes are just going to take place on that.
But look, nobody in this church has the right to go to people's personally and say, hey, you've got to get rid of this music.
You've got to get rid of this.
No, that's something for them to make that choice.
And look, I don't do that.
I never do that.
I've never done that at a church.
I never will.
You'll never find anyone that's being honest that's going to say that Brother Stuckey came and said, you know what?
Hey, you need to burn those pants tonight.
Look, I might say that behind the pulpit.
I will never say that to someone individually.
Why?
Because they're going to leave the church if you do that.
I'll never say that to people's rock music.
I think rock music, country music, worldly music, I think it will destroy your life.
And I'll preach it from the pulpit because God has given me the authority to preach behind the pulpit.
I will never go to people's personal lives and just destroy their stuff.
And that is their choice to make.
Unfortunately, probably all of us have been to Baptist churches where pastors are like that, though.
They basically go above and beyond.
I had a pastor that told me that before you buy a car, that you need to run and buy me first.
That's true.
And it's just like, you know, and look, you know, I was respectful of that pastor.
I didn't say anything back because he is the authority of church, so I didn't answer again.
I didn't do anything.
But I also didn't listen to his advice.
It's just like, you know, I said, because I decided, you know what, I'd rather just make that decision on my own.
Now, it is possible, like, if somebody is good at something, you can get advice from them.
Like, if you have a question about a math problem, then, you know, maybe you can go to, okay, or a soccer question.
You got a question about soccer, then you'll come to me.
You know, I probably can give you an answer.
But look, there's plenty of things I cannot give an answer to.
Right? If you're asking a question about, you know, building maintenance or computer programming,
look, other people at church have the answers. I don't.
So why in the world, why in the world would Brother Timothy come to me and ask a question about building maintenance?
Does that make any sense?
Am I going to know it? No.
Why would Brother Sean Lee ask me a question about Mandarin Chinese?
Wouldn't that be ridiculous?
Look, I don't care who the pastor is. They don't know everything.
And yes, you know, in terms of spiritual advice, I would say usually if you're at a church, you respect that pastor.
You trust he can give you good spiritual advice.
But look, you know, you don't have to run decisions by me first if you're going to buy a certain shirt.
Am I allowed to buy this shirt, Brother Stock?
I don't want you to message me and ask me.
Make that decision on your own.
Now, things that are involved in church, that's different.
You say, wow, you know, I just feel like taking communion at home.
Well, it's like, no, that, you got to run by me first.
Why? Because that relates, I'm going to baptize somebody.
You know, I'm just going to do it. You know, I don't need to ask Brother Stock.
Well, no, obviously that relates to church stuff.
Right? Yeah.
But when it comes to your personal life, do whatever you want.
You want to spend money, you want to go to a restaurant and spend a lot of money, then go ahead, do whatever.
Now, here's the thing.
If people come to me and ask me for advice, I will tell them.
Okay?
I don't hold anything back when people ask for me advice from me.
People ask advice sometimes.
And you know what? I'll give them my advice.
They ask a question about certain topics, I'll tell them, you know, hey, this is what I think.
But it's still their choice.
Yeah.
Okay?
And I will always, and many people in this room have asked me questions and I've given an honest answer.
You know, what I think.
But at the same time, even if someone doesn't go with that advice, that's fine.
It's their choice.
You know, I'm not going to make those decisions.
I don't want to run people's personal life.
It's like my own life takes enough time and effort.
Why would I want to run somebody else's life?
But you see a lot of oppressive pastors that are like that.
I'll turn to Proverbs 22.
Proverbs 22.
So when it comes to celebrating Independence Day and freedom, I mean, we need to remember what the Bible says about freedom.
For one, salvation.
For two, freedom from sin.
For three, freedom from government.
The government would give us freedom, although they don't oftentimes.
Now obviously, freedom also from church, that your pastor doesn't make your rules and decisions for you.
But you know, another aspect of freedom is financial freedom.
Yeah.
Look, you do not want to be in bondage financially.
Okay?
Proverbs 22, verse 7, what does the Bible read?
It says, the rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
The borrower is servant to the lender.
What is that saying?
It's saying that if you're always borrowing money, you are a servant.
Does that sound like a critique?
No.
No?
No.
Why are you not free?
Because you're going to have to pay that money back.
Right.
If you borrow money, you have to pay that money back.
And if you don't pay that money back, then that's wicked.
Because the Bible says that if you borrow, you're supposed to pay back.
Right.
Okay.
Look, if you borrow, then guess what?
You're a servant.
You're not free to the lender.
Look, probably more than most churches, I preach.
I don't preach on timing.
I don't think I've ever preached on it.
Maybe just said a statement once in a sermon.
I've never preached on a whole sermon.
I've preached a lot to people individually about, you know, preached sermons about being
financially free.
Basically being smart with money.
Especially in this room because of the fact that if you set yourself on the wrong road
at a young age, it's permanent.
You're permanently a servant.
See, at a young age, before you become in debt, before you become in debt to everything,
you don't want to become in debt.
Because if you do, it's permanent.
It's usually permanent.
It's going to be destructive your whole life.
You're in bondage to having to pay that back.
No, at a young age, before you're married, before you have kids, it's like, do not go
down this road of basically having to always borrow money.
Okay?
Don't go down this—and you say, what's the secret?
The secret is at a young age, you don't spend a lot of money.
Right.
Because you don't have a lot of money at a young age.
Nobody has a lot of money at a young age.
Unless you're raised and your parents are rich, you don't have a lot of money at a
young age.
Yeah.
You don't need everything from day one.
Look, in America, basically everybody has a car for the most part.
But look, when—and all of my friends, as a freshman in college, they had a car.
I didn't have a car as a freshman.
I didn't have a car as a sophomore.
Say, what did you do?
When I couldn't get rides from people, I would walk 45 minutes to class.
You say, why?
Because I don't want to be a servant.
And look, I never went in debt.
Other than when I bought my house, I did not go in debt.
I didn't go in debt in college.
I had some scholarships, but I paid it off.
And look, when I graduated college, I had no debt.
You say, why?
Is it because you had an awesome big salary?
No, it's because I didn't waste money.
And once you start wasting money, there's interest on that.
I mean, and I don't know if anyone's done this, but if you buy a house and start
looking at these things, they give you an interest rate, and they'll tell you the
amount of money that you actually pay on that house.
You buy a house for $150,000, you pay $600,000 on it when you add all the interest.
The amount of time.
It's like, man, you want to pay off.
And when I had a house, basically all of our extra money went to paying off that house.
So there's less of an interest coming each time.
Why?
Because you become in bondage to that.
You don't want that.
Now, when it comes to buying a house, you pretty much have to go in debt unless you
have a lot of money.
But, you know, honestly, my sister and my brother-in-law, they graduated college.
They were smart with money.
And, you know, my brother-in-law had a great mechanical engineering job from day one,
right out of college.
And you know what?
They bought a real fixer-up house, and he basically worked his whole time job.
He came home for three or four hours, did maintenance on the house, and, you know,
they just figured, hey, you know, we're young and newly married.
We don't have five kids at this point.
And guess what?
He was able to retire basically when he was 30 and work at a family business back in
West Virginia.
He basically worked as a mechanical engineer for, I don't know, like seven years or
something like that, six years, just real smart with money.
And guess what?
They're very free.
They are able to go home near family and work at a family business where he's making
a lot less money because of the fact he was smart with money.
But he wouldn't have been able to do that if he just was buying a fancy new car,
buying a fancy house.
Look, when they got married, they didn't get in the trailer, which in the U.S.
is pretty remedial.
But they're smart because of the fact.
They say, hey, we're young now.
And then for like the next four years, then they were able to buy a house in cash in West
Virginia, which has become their permanent home.
And guess what?
They were able to do what they wanted with money.
They have money now simply because they didn't go in debt.
And look, the truth is that if you choose to be unwise with money, which look, when
people graduate college, the first thing you do is buy a new car.
They buy a new motorcycle.
They buy a new house.
It's like, why are you doing that?
Is that a smart decision when you still have a $30,000 college debt?
Does it really make a lot of sense to go in debt for a car as well?
It does not make sense.
And if you do that, you're going to become a servant to the lender.
Look, I know so many people in the U.S. that would love to move to a great church.
They can't, though.
Say why?
Well, they're not financially free.
If you have no money and you're in debt, you can't do that.
There are probably people here in the Philippines that would love to move to our church or a
like-minded church that they might not be able to do that.
And I understand it's more difficult here than the U.S., but your goal is to become
as financially free as possible.
With salvation, you're as free as possible.
From sin, you want to become as free as possible.
From our government, we love to become as free as possible.
When it comes to pastors making your rules, I mean, obviously you want to go to a church
where you're as free as possible.
You have that choice.
When it comes to financially, you want to be as free as possible.
And if you go down the wrong road, it's probably going to be permanent.
And so at a young age, you know, you don't have to go to the fancy restaurants.
You know, you don't always have to.
And look, you know, when I got married, you know, I had money.
Okay, I was able to, my wife coming to the U.S., you know, cost money and things like that.
You know, I had money, but I'll tell you what.
We did not have an expensive wedding at all.
You say why?
Because I'm not going to go in debt for a wedding.
Now, we made it as nice as possible.
Let me tell you something.
Our wedding cost less than $1,000.
All cost.
Now, we had it in the backyard of my parents' house, and they have a beautiful mountain
in the back, so it was great and everything like that.
But you say, why didn't you just make it really fancy?
Just have a nice $10,000 wedding.
Yeah, and I'd still be in debt for that.
And I wouldn't have been able to move here to the Philippines.
I wouldn't have been able to move to Sacramento to go to a good church because you become in debt.
Yeah.
And it's like, look, you know, I personally, I don't think people need to spend all kinds of money.
And you know, most people do it because they want to keep up with the Joneses.
So and so, they have a really fancy wedding ring.
So I'm going to get a fancy wedding ring.
You don't need a fancy wedding ring.
That's true.
So and so had a really fancy wedding.
Man, they had an awesome honeymoon.
Look, you don't need a fancy honeymoon.
We were lucky that somebody as a gift gave us, you know, they had a timeshare of a place
where we got to have a nice location for our honeymoon.
But look, if they didn't do that, then it's like we wouldn't have had a fancy, nice,
you know, really expensive honeymoon.
It's like we stayed at a place that, you know, they had a timeshare, so it probably goes to like $300 a night.
It was free for us because it was done as a gift.
But if they didn't give that to us, I'm not spending $300 a night on a hotel for a week.
It's like that's like $2,000.
It's like I don't have that sort of money to just, I mean, and well, I did have some money,
but I don't want to just spend it all and become in debt.
And look, you know, I never had a job, honestly, where I made tons of money.
You know, I had some nice periods, but I didn't make a lot of money in the areas I was with the companies I was in.
But I was able to buy a house.
When you buy a house, you got to make it down payment.
And look, I had enough money to be able to do that, okay?
But here's the thing.
If in your life you're not financially free, then you know what, you're not going to be able to make the decisions you want.
You say, but I just want to go out and spend a lot of money at a fancy restaurant.
When you spend lots of money at a fancy restaurant, have a really fancy wedding,
spend lots of money in your clothes, hey, you're free to do that, and then you're not going to be free to do a lot of other things.
You're not going to be able to have everything.
You know, you've got to make choices in life, and we want to be as free as possible.
Let's go to the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today.
I just ask you to help us to apply this into our lives, including myself.
God, help us as much as we can to have freedom in our lives in all areas, God,
and something that you desire to have, something that's good for us to have, God.