modern-day word that we use more, freedom.
But the Bible says in chapter 5 verse 1,
the Bible says,
Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of Midas.
So the first two words there, see what it says?
Stand fast.
What does that mean?
I mean, don't move.
Don't change.
Don't let anybody push you around
when it comes to this doctrine is what he's saying.
He starts out right away talking about the most
important aspect of liberty.
He says,
You're not saved by the works of the law.
He explains that there.
He says,
If anybody thinks that they're justified by the law,
you know, you talk to people and they say,
Well, I'm going to heaven
because I keep the Ten Commandments.
Sometimes I ask those people to quote to me
the Ten Commandments.
Because I'll say,
That's your way to heaven, right?
Can you quote them for me?
And 99% of people can't even quote the Ten Commandments.
But they say they're justified by the law.
Well, Jesus says here in verse number 3,
you see that?
It says,
I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he's a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you
whosoever you are justified by the law.
You're fallen from grace.
He's saying here that
people who were teaching the Galatians
that they had to be circumcised
in order to go to heaven.
They were adding some kind of works to salvation.
You know, the Bible says,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
But they were trying to add something
like many people say,
You must be baptized also in order to be saved.
You must live a good life to be saved.
Hey, here they were adding circumcision.
Paul said,
If you're going to add one part of the law,
you have to add the entire law.
If being circumcised is part of getting to heaven,
well then you must have to keep
every law in the entire Bible
which would condemn us all guilty before God
because nobody can keep the law.
No one can obey every word of this book.
Not even for one day of your life.
That's why we're all sinners.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And so that's the subject that he deals with.
But then he gets into another subject
if you go down to verse number 13.
And he gets more into just the Christian life.
You know, after salvation,
which is by grace through faith,
plus nothing, minus nothing,
he says,
For brethren,
so he's talking to those that are saved,
people that are born again,
children of God,
For brethren,
ye have been called unto liberty,
only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another.
For all the laws fulfilled in one word,
even in this,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Now what is freedom?
I think a lot of people misunderstand
what freedom really is
and what liberty really is.
Turn back, if you would,
to Genesis chapter 2.
I'm going to show you a perfect example in the Bible
of what freedom is.
There's a lot of confusion in 2007
as to what freedom is.
People try to abuse the subject of freedom.
We're constantly having our freedom
taken away from us in the United States.
You say, well, in what way?
Well, you know, Jesus,
I don't have time to turn there,
but Jesus, when he spoke to Peter about paying taxes,
he said, if you're paying taxes,
you're not free.
That's what he said.
And I'm not saying you shouldn't pay your taxes
because then he turned around
and paid his taxes to the next verse,
and I pay my taxes.
But you know what?
When 40% of my income
and 50% of my income
is going to the government,
that's not freedom.
When they spend half my money for me,
you think that's freedom?
It's not.
You remember in the end of the book of Genesis
when Joseph bought up all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh?
And what did he do?
He had them paying 20%,
one-fifth,
they had to give the fifth part to Pharaoh.
And they were owned by the government
and they had to give the fifth part.
I guess the government owns me two-fold
because I give 40% of my money by the time
they tax it coming in, right,
on the income tax,
and then they tax it out on the gas pump
and they tax me every time I turn around.
Every time I do anything,
I'm paying some kind of a government fee.
That's not freedom.
The taxes are going up all the time.
We're losing freedom, okay?
Freedom is being taken away from us all the time.
Now, look at Genesis 7,
but at the same time,
our government's getting more loose and permissive
when it comes to the sin and filth, right?
They, in the name of freedom of speech,
they have pornography on television,
pornography on billboards,
because it's all freedom of speech.
Well, where's the balance?
Well, there is no balance.
There's what the Bible teaches about what freedom is.
People misunderstood.
Some people say, well, our total freedom,
so let's have no laws.
Let's have anarchy.
Well, that doesn't make any sense.
But then the government turning us into a police state,
which is what they're doing,
doesn't make any sense either.
What's the answer?
Well, God has the answer.
Look at Genesis 2, verse 16.
We're going to see freedom illustrated in the Bible.
The Bible says in Genesis 2, 16,
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
Boy, isn't that freedom.
See the word freely?
He says, you're free, Adam.
You can eat what you want for breakfast.
Hey, eat what you want for lunch.
Eat what you want for dinner.
Do whatever you want.
But then look at the next verse.
He says,
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it,
for in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die.
Now, I guess Adam wasn't free,
because there was one tree that he couldn't eat from.
No, that's not it at all.
See, God's teaching us right away in the Bible
that freedom is allowing you
to decide what you want to do.
What you want to do with your money.
What you want to do with your time.
What you want to do with your life.
What you want to buy.
What you want to spend your time with.
Where you want to go.
Hey, that's what freedom is.
Making your own decisions.
Making your own choices.
But that doesn't mean that you can just do whatever you want.
See, God here gave Adam a very expansive,
a very broad commandment here saying,
You do what you want, Adam.
You name the animals whatever you want.
We see later in the chapter.
You eat whatever you want,
but there's one tree that you're not going to eat of.
And in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die.
Look at verse number 1 of Genesis 3.
Look how the devil tries to turn things around
and tries to make him feel
like he's not experiencing freedom.
In Genesis 3, 1, the Bible says,
Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field,
which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said,
Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Now you see how he phrases it?
He puts it so that God is saying,
You can't eat of every tree.
You can't just eat whatever you want.
Now is that the way God phrased it?
God said, No, eat whatever you want,
just except one.
The devil's trying to make it sound like,
Well, we can't do anything.
We can't eat every tree.
And of course, she corrects him for that.
But see, the devil tries to
misconstrue what freedom is.
And what did he do?
He talked Eve into eating that fruit.
She gives the fruit to her husband,
and he eats too.
And boy, that's freedom, right?
They got to do the one thing they weren't allowed to do? No.
Because right after that, they're kicked out of the garden.
Right after that, the earth brings forth thorns.
Right after that, the man is forced to work
by the sweat of his brow just to survive.
Hey, he was much more free
before he broke God's rules.
Now look if you would at...
Look if you would, let's turn...
I'm trying to think of where I want to have you turn.
Turn to Matthew 22.
And while you're turning to me,
I'm going to explain to you some other things.
But look at Matthew 22 in the New Testament,
the first book in the Bible.
You know, God gives us so many choices in life
that He allows us to decide,
I love being free.
And if you think about it,
even though God made that one rule
in the Garden of Eden,
man still had the choice
whether he was going to obey that rule.
He just gave him consequences,
that if you do it, you're going to be punished.
But He gave man total freedom in the Garden of Eden.
And yet He said,
if you do the one thing I told you not to do,
you're going to face the punishment of death.
Think about the choices that God gives us in life.
God gives us the choice to decide
who we're going to marry, right?
I mean, nobody told me who to marry.
God didn't tell me who to marry.
God didn't force me to marry someone.
Hey, God gave me the choice who to marry.
We talked about this in a sermon a few months ago,
but like the Bible says in Numbers 36, 6,
this is the thing which the Lord doth command,
concerning the daughters of Zelophead,
He's talking to some women,
saying, let them marry to whom they think best,
only to the family of the tribe of their fathers shall they marry.
So what's He saying?
He's telling these women, marry whoever you want.
Choose your husband.
Choose who you want to marry.
But, here's a restriction,
make sure you marry to the tribe of your fathers.
You know, the spiritual implication there
of not being unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Don't marry an unbeliever, the Bible says.
You think about, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 7, 39,
you don't have to turn there,
the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth,
but if her husband be dead,
she is at liberty to be married to whom she will,
only in the Lord.
See that?
God says that a woman can marry whoever she wants,
only in the Lord.
A man can marry who he wants,
pick the one you want, only in the Lord.
Now I talked about in that sermon,
I talked about in that sermon the dangerous doctrine,
and it was the sermon I preached on dating and marriage,
it was about a month ago,
or maybe two months ago, who knows.
Time flies.
But in that sermon I talked about how dangerous this doctrine is
that's taught in churches, and it's taught by the world,
and it's taught by the movies and the Hollywood and the songs,
that there's just this one person out there for you,
that one person who's the will of God.
And if you miss the will of God for your life, you know.
So you've got to be in the will of God to find that one person.
Now the Bible does not teach that anywhere.
God teaches the free will of man,
and God teaches that you have the right to decide
who you want to marry.
It's your choice,
but you're going to have to live with your choice, obviously,
and God puts a restriction on it that they must be a believer,
they must be saved,
but you're allowed to pick who you want to marry.
Now you say, why is that such a dangerous doctrine, Pastor Anderson?
Well, I'll tell you why.
Because then people are married, right?
Things don't work out just right?
I married the wrong person.
No, the Bible says,
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing,
and a paineth favor of the Lord.
The Bible says again,
a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Now to say I married the wrong person,
I mean, who is this wrong person?
You chose to marry that person.
God created that person.
It doesn't matter who you married.
That's the will of God for your life once you're married.
But people get this idea,
because they're listening,
they're pumping their mind.
And I know people who've gotten into the midlife crisis
and got a divorce.
Because why?
They're pumping their mind with a bunch of music
that tells them that,
oh, it's just so wonderful.
The first time I lay eyes on you,
I was so in love with you,
and every day it's so wonderful,
I've never thought it cross-worded.
That's not reality.
That's not life.
That's a lie.
It's an illusion.
Okay?
Anyone who's been married
is nodding their head right now.
Okay?
That's not reality.
That's not what it's really like.
It's not this perfect, lovey-dovey,
and then the whole rest of my life.
It's just only been about you.
Nothing about a career,
nothing about shirts,
and that's all right.
It's just all about.
It's all about Jesus in the front row here.
Okay?
No, that's not true.
That's not real.
I remember I went to an independent
fundamental Baptist church,
and they had a wedding,
and they were singing a wedding song.
I didn't understand why this church
that preached against rock music
was singing a Shania Twain song in the wedding.
Because I looked it up and did the research,
because the song was so bad,
I figured out where the song came from.
And this is the way the song went.
You're the reason I believe in love.
Okay?
From this moment, I am blessed.
I live only for your happiness.
Isn't that just ridiculous?
I don't live only for my wife's happiness.
I mean, my wife's happiness
is very important to me.
But did you know that I also live for God?
Did you know that I also try to please
the boss at work?
Did you know that I'm also raising kids?
My whole life is not wrapped up
in one human being called my wife.
Now, I love my wife more than
any other human being on this earth,
but there's more to life than just
romance between a man and a woman.
When you get to heaven,
you guys are going to be married.
Now, don't get bought into the lie
where everything in life is wrapped up
in that relationship between a man and a woman.
That's what every movie's about.
That's what every song's about.
That's what the whole world thinks about.
That's what every magazine's about.
Why?
Because you spend in your life,
how long of your life are you really
going to spend dating
compared to the length of your life?
I mean, I spent a few years in the dating phase.
I've been married for a long, long time.
Yet, if I turned on the radio,
I'd hear songs about dating.
I wouldn't hear songs about
being married for 20 years,
unless it's the country western stupid station.
And then it would be about
something about breaking up
and drinking and whatever,
losing your dog and all that kind of stuff.
But if you turn on the pop music station,
by the way, if you play
back mass string on heavy metal,
you play country music backwards,
you get your dog back,
you get your wife back,
you get your kids back.
But anyway, just kidding.
But anyway, here's the thing.
You turn on the pop music station,
what's it all about?
Seeing somebody, you know,
finding that one person.
Hey, that's one small part of your life.
That's one small phase in your life, dating.
Marriage lasts a lifetime.
You know, God will.
That's what God wants to be
until death lasts two parts.
And so that's such a dangerous doctrine
to think that there's just one person
that's right for you,
the only one,
and then you get these people.
Here's the other reason why
I don't like that doctrine that's unbiblical.
Number one, because people get married,
and they say,
I married the wrong person,
and then they're unhappy,
they don't love their spouse like they should,
even if they don't get a divorce,
you know, their heart's in the wrong place
because they think there was somebody
better out there for them.
No.
The one that God gave you
is the best one that's out there.
You say, well, I've been divorced
or remarried.
Hey, the one that you're with right now
is God's will for your life.
That's who God gave you.
Stay with that person
now that you're married to them.
But the other thing that bothers me about it
is you get these people who date
for years and years and years.
You know, dating for like five years.
I'm just not sure it's the right one.
When are you going to figure it out?
It's been five years, okay?
Why don't you just commit to something?
Why don't you just decide
that you're going to love somebody
instead of just stringing somebody along
for five years?
Because you're just not sure
that you tingled just right,
and it's that one person.
It's just not like the NSYNC song
that you heard.
It's just not like what Britney Spears
sang about,
and so you're just not sure
it's the right person.
Hey, why don't you just pick one
and get married, would you?
Only in the Lord.
There's so many reasons
why I don't like that.
But you know what else
I don't like about that doctrine?
Love is not a feeling that you get.
Love is a decision that you make.
That's why God commands you
to love people.
Because God commands you
to love somebody,
it must be possible for you
to decide to love somebody
that you wouldn't normally love.
God commands me to love my wife.
I sat around and it just didn't hit me,
this feeling of love.
I must not love you anymore.
I'm sorry.
I'm going to have to move on
to someone else.
No, I decide to love my wife.
I decide to love my enemies.
I decide to love people in this world
because God has commanded me to do so.
There's so many ways
that God gives us freedom,
and most of the message
is going to be about love,
because we're going to see
that love and liberty
and love and freedom
go hand in hand.
We're going to get to that.
But there's so many areas
where God gives us a decision
of what we want to do,
but then He places still
restrictions around that,
like the Garden of Eden,
like getting married.
He lets us choose
within a parameter.
Think about being a pastor.
The Bible says,
he that desireth
the office of a bishop,
he desireth a good work.
So a person can desire
to be a pastor.
A person can decide,
you know what?
I would like to pastor a church.
I would like to be a preacher.
That's what I decided.
You say,
did God call you to preach?
Yes.
I was walking down the street
one day,
and all of a sudden,
the sky lit up
and the angel of the Lord
descended and stood in front of me.
And I fell on my face,
and he laid his right hand
upon me and said,
Fear not.
I have called you
to preach the gospel.
I've called you
to go to Phoenix, Arizona.
And I got up on my feet,
and I knew what God
wanted me to do with my life.
No, I wanted to be a bishop.
I wanted to pastor.
The Bible says,
if a man desireth,
if a man, a man,
desire the office of a bishop,
he desireth a good work.
If he could 25th degree,
I sought for a man,
God said.
But I found none.
He's looking for a preacher.
He's looking for somebody
to stand in the gap.
He's looking for somebody
to preach the gospel
and start a church
and do something for God.
Hey, you don't have to have
some light shine on you.
Hey, if you desire
the office of a bishop,
you desire a good work,
but then you get
into the restrictions.
A bishop then must be
blameless, the husband
of one wife,
vigilant, sober
of good behavior,
given the hospitality,
apt to teach,
not given the wine,
no shtiker,
not greedy, a filthy lucre,
patient, not a brawler,
not covetous.
He listens to who
that man needs to be,
but he says,
you can be that man.
But you've got to cut the mustard.
You've got to live up
to the standards
that are listed there.
And so there are so many
things that are like that.
You're in Matthew 22.
Let me quote one verse for you.
Now the Lord is that spirit,
the Bible says in
2 Corinthians 3.17,
one of my favorite verses
in the Bible.
And where the spirit
of the Lord is,
there is liberty.
Think about that.
Let that saying sink down
into your ears.
Where the spirit
of the Lord is,
there is liberty.
You want to know
where God's spirit is?
There's liberty there.
You want to know
where God's spirit is
in a church?
It's the church
where there's liberty.
You want to know
where God's spirit
is resting upon a nation?
That nation will have liberty.
Now we'll get into that more.
Look down at your Bible
in Matthew 22.36.
The Bible says,
Master, which is the greatest
commandment in the law?
Verse 37,
Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart
and with all thy soul
and with all thy mind.
This is the first
and great commandment,
and the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself.
On these two commandments
hang all the law
and the prophets.
He said you could sum up
every commandment
in the Bible
to those two commandments.
Love God and love your neighbor.
Look, if you will,
and we'll explain this more.
Look at Romans chapter 13.
Forward in your Bible
to the sixth book
of the New Testament,
Romans chapter number 13,
and we'll see it illustrated
a little bit more in detail.
You see, God says
you can hang the whole law
and the prophets
on these two commandments.
The ten commandments
can be summed up
in two commandments.
In Romans 13,
he talks about the latter half,
loving thy neighbor
as thyself,
and he lists
the last of the commandments.
He lists the last five
because remember there were
two tablets of stone,
five commandments on this tablet,
five commandments on this tablet.
He lists the latter five
in Romans 13.
Look at verse number eight.
Romans 13,
Owe no man anything
but to love one another,
for he that loveth another
hath fulfilled the law.
For this,
thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear
false witness,
thou shalt not covet.
Now, you count
five commandments.
If you're reading
a King James Bible,
there's five commandments there.
If you're reading any other
modern version,
there's only four.
They leave out the one that says
thou shalt not bear
false witness.
Did you know that?
In Romans 13, 9,
the one about lying
lies.
And so they leave out that.
You'll see it.
Look it up sometime
when you get your hands
on one of those
and then throw it in the trash.
But Romans 13,
9 here lists
five commandments and says
it's briefly comprehended
in this saying,
thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself.
Okay?
And then the first five
commandments deal with
your love for God.
Thou shalt not have
any other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image.
Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath
because we can only honor
thy father and thy mother
because your father
represents God.
And so you have those five
and then you have the five
dealing with your neighbor.
Look at the next verse.
Love worketh no ill
to his neighbor.
Therefore, love is the
fulfilling of the law.
Now, when you love God
and love your neighbor,
the Bible says you will
automatically fulfill
the rest of God's laws.
Now, a lot of people
abuse these passages and say,
doesn't matter what you do,
doesn't matter how you live,
it doesn't matter if there's
a law in the Bible.
You don't go by the
letter of the law.
You just live a life of love
and everything's fine.
No, what God is saying here
is that if you love your
neighbor, you will fulfill
God's commandments,
not his suggestions,
not his preferences,
but his laws, his commandments.
I mean, God commands you
what to do.
Where we saw in Galatians 5,
where we started reading,
it said, for brethren,
you've been called unto liberty.
Only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another,
for all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this special,
love thy neighbor as thyself.
God says not to use your
liberty that you have in Christ
for an occasion for your flesh,
but to have enough love
to obey God's commandments.
If you love somebody,
are you going to steal from them?
If you love someone,
are you going to lie to them?
If you love someone,
are you going to commit
adultery with their wife?
If you love someone,
are you going to covet
their things?
If you love someone,
are you going to kill them?
No.
God is saying here that
if you'll have love in your heart,
you will obey God's commandments.
See, God's not standing over you
trying to rule every part of your life.
He's not standing over you
trying to tell you what to do
all the time.
What's he doing?
He's giving you a list
of commandments and rules
and saying, let love motivate you
to decide on your own
that you want to follow these rules.
See, it's not an excuse
to live like a fool.
It's not an excuse to live
with a lack of love
to your neighbor.
Think about my children,
for example.
When they're young children,
I dictate everything about their life.
Isn't that right?
I mean, I tell them
what they're going to eat.
They don't decide
what they're going to eat
every meal.
I decide a lot of meals
what I'm going to eat
because I'm an adult.
These children are given meals
that someone else decides.
Their activities are determined
by someone else.
What they can and can't do,
even outside what the Bible says.
We just have rules in this house.
You know, what they can
and can't do.
But when these kids
grow up to be an adult,
they will no longer
have any of those rules.
This will be the only rules
that they have,
will be the Bible.
One day we'll set them loose
and this will be their rule book.
And all of our rules
will no longer exist.
When they're a child,
they have rules.
When they grow up
and become a man,
they make the rules.
They go out and live
their own life.
They live under the freedom
that's found in this book.
Now, does that mean
that my kids can grow up
and say, well,
now I'm out of the house,
I think I'm going to go smoke pot.
I think I'm going to go drink.
No, my whole goal
of raising my kids
is to train them
and to teach them
to where they will want to
decide to live the same way
that I live on their own.
Right now, they will live
the way I live, period.
You know, my son woke up
this morning.
He came down the hallway.
He was wearing blue jeans
and he was wearing
a cowboy vest.
It looked like a cow.
It had the white
and black pattern on it.
He had a gun holster on.
He had a cowboy hat on.
He had cowboy boots on.
Now, if it was up to him
right now,
that's how he would dress
to come to church.
He'd dress like a cowboy.
He'd dress up with a hat
and guns and everything.
And that's how
he's going to dress.
Now, have you noticed
how much my son
is dressed like me right now?
Doesn't he dress
a lot like me?
Isn't that a coincidence?
No, that's because I told him,
this is the way
you're going to dress.
This is the way
you must dress.
I'm not going to tell him
how to dress.
But, see, my goal
is in the meantime
I'll train him
to help him understand
this is why
Dad dresses this way.
You know, and then
you can choose
whether you want to
dress this way or not.
This is why I do things
the way I do, son.
This is why I love God.
This is why I choose
to go to a Baptist church, son.
Let me explain to you
why I go to a Baptist church.
Let me explain to you
why I believe
the Bible is God's Word.
Let me teach you
why we have the rules
that we have
because I want him
to decide on his own
because he loves God,
because he loves the Bible,
because he loves me
that he's going to
obey the rules,
not because he has to,
but because he wants to.
You see, the moment
that you got saved,
God called you to liberty.
He said you're not
under the bondage of the law,
the bondage of the law,
by the way, which will
condemn you to hell
because you will fail
at keeping those rules.
God says,
I've lifted the curse
of the law,
and now we have
the law of liberty,
is what it's called,
which is if you love me,
keep my commandments.
See, you don't have to
keep God's commandments
to stay saved.
You have eternal life,
everlasting life,
but God says to you,
if you love me,
keep my commandments.
He wants you to serve
and obey him out of love,
not because you have to,
not because you're just
afraid of going to hell,
but because you decide
that you want to love God,
that this is your Bible,
that this is your church.
Hey, that's your choice.
That's your decision.
Now, the further you
get away from,
let me finish this chapter
real quickly.
Look at Romans 13
and look at number 11.
Verse number 11,
the Bible says,
in that knowing the time
that now it is high time
to awake out of sleep,
for now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed.
The night is far spent,
the day is at hand.
Let us, therefore,
cast off the works of darkness
and let us put on
the armor of light.
Let us walk honestly
as in the day,
not in rioting
and drunkenness,
not in chambering
and wantonness,
not in strife and envy,
but beyond the Lord Jesus Christ
and make not provision
for the flesh
to fulfill the lusts thereof.
First John, chapter number 1,
verse number 5,
the Bible reads,
this then is the message
which we have heard of Him
and declare unto you
that God is light
and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have
fellowship with Him
and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light
as He is in the light,
we have fellowship
one with another.
Who's the one with another?
Us and God the Father.
Okay.
We have fellowship
one with another
and the blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanses us
from all sin.
So what's God saying?
You don't have to follow rules.
You don't have to follow
the Ten Commandments.
You don't have to obey the Bible.
If you want to walk in darkness,
go ahead.
Walk in the darkness,
but you're not going to have
fellowship with God the Father.
You're not going to have
fellowship with Jesus Christ
His Son.
If you want to live
that kind of life,
go ahead.
Walk out that door,
commit all the sin,
break all God's rules.
God won't send you to hell.
Go ahead,
but see the kind of life
that you live.
See if you're happy
with what you turn out
and become when you live
a life of not loving God,
not loving your neighbor,
loving yourself,
going out and doing
what you want to do,
nuts to what the Bible says.
Hey, you have liberty
to do that, my friend.
You can walk out that door,
go to 7-Eleven,
buy alcohol,
buy cigarettes,
buy drugs,
do whatever you want.
God will not stop you
from doing that.
I mean, God won't stop you.
God's not going to send
His angel and stand
at the door.
No.
I'm going to force you
to stay on the right path.
You can go down that road
if you want to,
but you're going to face
the consequences
of going down that road.
That's what liberty is.
And you'll still be saved,
but you'll live a life
that's miserable.
You see, the church
where liberty is,
the church where the
Spirit of the Lord is
is a church of freedom.
If you've been coming here
for any amount of time,
you know that we have
no rules of this church at all.
Zero rules.
Anyone who's been
to this church knows
that I've never come to you
and told you to change
something about your life.
If I ever come to you
and say you need to quit
thus and so,
you need to change this,
you need to dress this way,
you need to quit
watching television,
you need to quit
going to the movies,
you need to quit drinking,
I've never told anybody
those things.
One time, have I ever gone
to one person and said,
you need to change
this and that about your life?
One time, and it was
the one time,
it was one of the one
very few things that God
tells a pastor to go
tell somebody that,
and it's because
they were living together
in fornication.
People were living together,
they were not married
and they came to church
for a while and they were
living together in fornication
and I went to them and said,
look, this is what
the Bible says,
you need to get married,
that's what the Bible says,
you're not supposed to
live in fornication.
Only time.
And anyone who's been
in this church,
people that have been here
from day one can testify
that I've never,
and that person
doesn't come here anymore.
They didn't leave
because of that.
They continued to come
a little bit,
but then they fell out.
But I can tell you something,
anybody who's been here
for a long time
has ever told them
to do anything.
Never.
Why?
Because it's not my place,
God says,
to be the Lord
over the flock.
He said I'm supposed
to be the example
to the flock.
He said I'm supposed
to preach the truth.
I'm supposed to preach
what's right and wrong,
but I don't tell people
what to do in this church
and I never will
because it's not my job
to treat you like
you're my child
or to be some kind of
an authority figure
over you that makes rules
what's right and wrong.
You say,
what are you talking about,
Pastor Anderson?
Nobody does that.
Most churches have rules,
believe it or not.
I was just talking
to somebody this week,
Independent Fundamental Baptist Church
that they joined,
and have to sign a paper.
In order to do anything
in this church,
in order to be involved
with anything,
you've got to sign a paper.
I'm out of my head.
You've got to sign a paper.
I will never drink alcohol
while I'm going to this church.
I will never go
to the movie theater.
I'm a woman.
I'll never wear pants
as a woman.
You know, what in the world
is that liberty
when somebody's standing over you,
forcing you to do what's right?
Hey, I preach what's right,
and my goal is to convince you
to love God
and to convince you
that this is what the Bible teaches
so that you will make
these decisions on your own
and not just,
well, Pastor Anderson
doesn't let us do such and such.
No.
God said not to do such and such,
and if you don't understand that,
then I have failed to teach.
If you don't understand
what right and wrong is,
if you're not inspired
to want to live for God,
if you don't have enough love
in your heart
to want to do what God said,
maybe I have failed
to preach the Bible
like I should be
preaching the Bible.
And that's why you'll find
that the church
that doesn't really preach
hard on sin
and explain to you
why sin is wrong,
that's the church
that's passing around
the paperwork to sign.
I promise I'll go soul winning
one hour per week.
Look, if you don't want
to go soul winning,
then don't go soul winning.
See, I don't care.
If you want to dress
scantily clad and be sleazy,
go ahead, you're only
hurting yourself.
You're not hurting me.
I'm still going to be
living for God.
My wife will still
be dressed right.
I'll go to bed tonight,
I'll wake up tomorrow morning,
and I'll still be
living for God,
whether you do or not.
See, that's up to you
whether you decide
to get on board.
You say,
I don't agree with
everything you preach.
I don't even know if
I agree with everything
I preach.
My wife doesn't agree
with everything I preach.
But do you agree with
everything the Bible says?
Because I think 99% of
what I preach comes
out of the Bible.
And so, whenever you get
into an environment where
the preaching is not
spirit-filled, hard preaching
on sin, that's where you've
got to have a bunch of rules
all of a sudden.
You've got to start dictating
to people what they can
and can't do.
Why?
Because otherwise people
won't know what's right
because you didn't preach
about it.
You know, sir, that's why
they don't know what's right.
That's why you've got to
tell them what to do
all the time.
The truth is there's
always liberty.
You see, I don't want you
to feel like you have to
come to church Sunday
morning, Sunday night,
Wednesday night.
Do I believe that you
should come?
I think you should come
to church Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday
night.
I believe that strongly.
But do I want you to
come to church tonight
because you feel like,
well, we have to, you know,
pack up the kids.
You know what I mean?
I don't feel like it,
but I guess I have to do
my duty.
I hope you want to
come to church tonight.
If you don't want to come
to church tonight,
then stay home.
But you know what?
There's going to be a lot
of people here tonight
because they want to come.
And it won't just be
me here tonight.
They'll say, right?
No, I'm just kidding.
There's going to be
a lot of people.
And this church has
a higher ratio of any church
I've ever been to of people
who come Sunday night
and Wednesday night.
Wednesday night is as big
as Sunday morning.
This is about, I mean,
it's pretty close.
And why?
That's because I never
tell anybody they have to.
I don't make people
sign a paper.
You must attend
three times a week.
You must go so many
one hour a week if you're
going to be a member
of this church, if you're
going to be the Sunday
school teacher, if you're
going to be in
the Christian school.
Why?
People want to come
on Sunday night.
People want to come
on Wednesday night.
Everybody who's here
on Wednesday night needs
because they want to be here.
I can't think of any
other ulterior motive
to drive all the way
from Higley Road,
to drive all the way
from Chandler.
I don't know.
What else is
possessing you to do that?
Hey, you're doing it
because you love God.
Hey, you're doing it
because you love the Bible.
Hey, I know what
I'm preaching tonight.
All kinds of great
information from the Bible.
You don't want to miss it.
If you don't come tonight,
it's not my loss.
It's your loss.
I don't ever want you
to feel like,
oh, I just have to
go to church Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night.
Do I believe that that's
what God commands you to do?
Yes.
But I hope that you come
out of love for the Bible
and love for God
and love for your church
where you want to support
what's going on at this church,
where you want to
encourage other people
that when they walk in,
hey, they see a full
room here.
Why?
Because when they see it
full, then it makes them
excited.
It makes them happy
that the house of God
is filled.
God said,
I want my house
to be filled.
See, love should
be motivating you,
not a bunch of rules,
man-made rules.
Plus, these rules
that people make,
they don't even make sense.
You can't go to the theater,
but you can rent the same
movie on your DVD.
But see, whenever man
starts making rules,
they're always flawed rules.
The law of the Lord
is perfect.
That's why I don't feel
the need to add anything
to the Bible.
I'm not going to preach
to you.
I'm not going to go
to a movie theater.
That's silly.
I'll preach to you that God
commands you not to set
any wicked thing
before your eyes
and not to love the world.
And to me, that encompasses
every single movie,
whether it's on the DVD
or at the theater.
So go to the theater,
eat the popcorn,
drink the soda,
play the video games,
and walk out the door
without watching the movie.
Because then you won't
fill your mind with the tracks
that's on the movie.
And so you have to understand
that God is a God of liberty.
You see, I remember
when I was in Bible college.
Rules and rules upon rules.
And don't tell me I'm a liberal
because I don't like rules.
It's called being a man.
It's called being a man
who doesn't like to be enslaved.
It's called being a man
who likes freedom,
like God said he likes freedom,
like God gave Adam freedom
in the Garden of Eden,
like God has called us to liberty.
It's called being a human being,
a man who loves to be free
and doesn't like to feel like
everything I do is because
somebody told me to do it.
I like to make my own decisions.
Why do people hate to go to jail?
I mean, come on, they got food,
they got TV.
Hey, they hate it because
they don't get to decide
what they're going to do today.
Somebody else is deciding
what they're going to do.
Somebody else is deciding
what they're going to eat.
Hey, mankind longs to be free
because God made man to be free.
God's not for the enslavement
of your fellow man.
Hey, I walk out the door,
I want to be able to
breathe in the air and decide
where I'm going to get in my car
and drive this afternoon.
Freedom.
Freedom is a glorious thing.
Hey, God's spirit is the spirit
of liberty, not of bondage.
But I remember when I was
in Bible college,
they had this 65-page rule book
and we had to read it every semester
that we were in college.
So, I mean, you read it again
and again and again.
You had to sign a paper.
I read the entire 65-page rule book
and you had to sign that
at the beginning of every semester.
So, you know, three times a year,
you know, you're signing this
because there's a summer session
that you read every rule.
And man, they dictated to you
there are four different types
of clothing, casual, formal,
semi-casual, athletic,
and they laid out exactly
what you can wear in all these
different environments.
They laid out what you can and can't do
in your personal time.
They told you when to get up.
They told you when to go to bed.
And here I am.
I was a married man.
I mean, I'm a grown man
and they're telling me
every little thing
what I was supposed to do.
Look, you say, well, what,
you didn't want to live like that?
Well, you know what they required?
They required a shirt and tie
every day at school.
You know what I wore?
I wore a suit.
I went beyond the rule, okay?
Did I need that rule?
Obviously I didn't need that rule, right?
Because I was wearing a suit anyway.
I mean, I wasn't even,
you know, I'm trying to be a preacher.
You know, I wanted to dress this way.
I wanted to be first class.
I found out that the way that you dress
commands people's respect.
You know, if you dress a certain way,
people treat you a certain way.
And so I wore a suit.
You know, they had a rule that
your hair had to be short hair
if you're a man.
My hair's been short since I was born, okay?
I've never had long hair.
See, I cut my hair white
because the Bible said to cut my hair.
Did I need that rule?
I didn't need that rule.
But you know what?
There were kids that needed that rule there.
There were adults that needed that rule.
They didn't even belong there.
They don't belong in the pulpit
if they needed that rule.
Why is somebody at a Bible college
trying to be a preacher
if they don't even know
that they're supposed to keep
their hair short as a man?
Unbelievable to me.
That's one of the most basic things
taught in the Bible.
They had a rule.
You must go soloing for one hour.
I went, you know, three, four hours.
Did I need that rule?
No, I didn't need that rule.
I'm sure there were some people
that needed the rule, and again,
who cares whether those kind of people
went soloing or not, right?
They're probably just going out,
knocking on the door.
Nobody's home.
Run away, run down the street.
And I knew people like that
who would pretend to go soloing.
They would disappear.
I'd watch them.
It's funny, you know,
they'd put somebody with me.
Hey, take this guy out soloing.
And I'd see them.
We'd split up for some reason,
knocking on doors.
I'd see them just down the street
standing under a tree.
Just killing time,
just trying to put in his hour.
And he wasn't really soloing.
Did you say, did that bother you?
I didn't even care.
I'm glad he's not going soloing.
He's an idiot.
I don't care what he does.
I don't feel the need to control
other people's hives.
Hey, I want to go soloing.
There are plenty of people
who want to go soloing.
The other people can go
jump in a lake as far as I'm concerned
rather than have somebody force them
to go soloing.
You know, and on and on.
I could go down the list.
You know, they had all the typical rules.
Don't go to the movie theater.
I quit going to a movie theater
years before I went to that college.
I didn't even watch TV,
which they were allowing.
And so I didn't need those rules.
Why?
Because this is what God says.
He says the law is not made
for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient,
is what the Bible says.
Laws and rules are to control people
who don't know how to make
their own decisions
and do things that are right
because they love the Bible
and love God.
Now, here's the thing.
You say, well, but come on.
These are kids.
I mean, you have to train kids.
You've got to have rules for kids.
Or you've got to have rules
for kids.
Or like, for example,
I run a business.
I have employees that work for me.
I have rules for them, right?
Of course I do.
You don't work for me.
I don't pay your bills, okay?
And my wife didn't give birth to you.
I'm not going to tell you
what to do in church.
See, the house of God
is not a business.
The house of God is not a family
where I'm dad up here
and this is mom
and you're all the kids
and we're going to tell you
what to do.
Hey, quit treating adults
like children.
Quit treating adults
like a kid or a servant
that you own
or that's your employee
that you're paying for.
You see, you say,
well, that Bible college
couldn't even function
without all those rules.
You're probably right.
Maybe it shouldn't even exist then.
Maybe it can't function
without somebody standing over them
and mommy-ing a 30-year-old man
and mommy-ing a 25-year-old man
and being a mommy
to a 19, 20-year-old boy
who his parents should have raised
and taught to decide for himself
and for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.
God wants every single individual person
to make their own choice
to read the Bible tomorrow morning,
to make their own choice
to dress like God wants them to dress,
not to have somebody breathing down their neck
and telling them what to do all the time.
Look, I live by the strictest standards
of anybody that I know.
I'm not preaching permissive living.
I'm not preaching loose living,
no rules, anarchy.
I'm preaching these rules in my hand,
the Bible only.
That's the rule book.
I don't need to add any rules to that at all.
I have no rule that I'll preach from this pulpit
except what's in this Bible
and I will not enforce these rules upon you.
That's between you and God.
That's liberty.
That's freedom.
I would hate to go to a church
where I have somebody telling me
what I can and can't do.
I'd rather have a church
where the pastor gets up and preaches
what God says I can and can't do
and so that I can understand
why I'm not supposed to do those things
and then I can make my own decision
where I decide, you know what?
I love God.
I'm going to dress modestly
because God said to dress modestly
and I'm going to wear the long skirt.
I'm going to wear the knot revealing.
I'm not going to wear everything tight and form fitting.
Or they can decide, you know what?
I love my neighbor
so I'm not going to dress in such a way
that I'm going to cause men to lust after me
because I'm dressed
like some kind of a picture out of a dirty magazine.
No.
See, that's a love issue
that you need to resolve in your heart.
It's not something where Pastor Anderson
dictates how people dress.
I don't care how you dress.
The Bible says in Revelation 22
you don't have to turn there.
Let me find it in my notes here.
Revelation 22, 11 says,
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.
He which is filthy, let him be filthy still.
He that is righteous, let him be righteous still
and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
God says, you want to be filthy?
Go ahead.
You want to be unjust?
Go ahead.
You want to be righteous?
Great.
He says, I'm giving you the choice to decide, sir,
whether you want to live for God
or whether you want to live like hell.
It's not going to affect your salvation
but it's going to affect whether you destroy your life or not.
But He says, if you destroy your life,
you're going to suffer the loss of it.
It's not going to hurt me.
It's not going to hurt God.
You know, obviously, emotionally, it will hurt
if I watch you destroy your life.
But it's really not going to change
whether I succeed in life or not.
It's really not going to change
whether this church succeeds or not.
This church is not revolved around any one person.
It doesn't just revolve around me.
I mean, it doesn't revolve around anybody.
This church is God's house,
an assembly of people who love God
and who come here because they love the Bible,
because they want to live right.
And it's nothing to do with rules.
You say, oh, Pastor Anderson's a legalist,
preaches a bunch of rules.
Find a church that has less rules than this church.
There's no church that has less rules.
But then, on the other hand,
find a church that preaches against more sins
than this church preaches against
and then bring a list of them
and I'll preach them, you know, next week.
That's great.
I need ideas anyway for sermons, okay?
So bring me that list of anything that I've missed
as far as sins to preach against.
And so that's the definition of freedom.
But see, the liberal mentality,
both politically,
if you think about a political liberal,
think about the Democrats, okay?
And I'm not pro-Republican
because they're getting so liberal anyway,
but I'm telling you something.
The liberals, what do they do?
They want to control every phase of your life.
They're the ones who want to always
bring down the speed limit,
put up all the cameras everywhere,
force you to wear a seat belt,
force you to vaccinate your children,
force you to put your children in their schools,
force you to do this, force you to do that,
force you to do this. Why?
Because they think that you're too dumb to think for yourself.
You've got to be insulted by these liberal politicians
that don't think that you're smart enough
to make your own decision.
They think that they have to be your mom.
Well, but these kids need to be in car seats.
Well, then why doesn't mom and dad put them in a car seat?
Why does the government have to tell you
to put them in a car seat?
Why is the government regulating every part of my life?
Maybe that's not the best example in the world,
but it's a great example.
I mean, there's a lot of things like that
where the government just tells you every step of what to do.
I don't need them telling me what to do.
I don't need a daddy in Washington, D.C.
I don't need a daddy in Phoenix here telling me what to do.
Or mommy, I guess. You know, Janet Napolitano.
I don't need Janet. I don't want my mommy.
I don't want Janet to be my mommy, okay?
I'd rather have a daddy than a mommy, by the way, in Phoenix,
but in the state of Arizona.
But I don't need either one, okay?
I don't need the government parenting me.
But that's the liberal mentality.
We must parent you.
We must take your money and spend it for you
because we know what's best for you.
We know what you need.
That's the liberal mentality in churches.
We won't preach on sin.
We'll just hand out a rule list that you have to sign.
We'll just regulate you and tell you what you can and can't do
in your personal time and in church.
You see, we don't need rules at this church
because you could walk up to the people after the service
that come to this church and ask them
why they believe the things that they believe.
They will not tell you it's because Pastor Anderson preaches it.
They'll tell you a chapter and verse.
They'll tell you, you know what, I thought about it
and this is what the Bible says
and this is the conclusion that I've come to.
I mean, people in the church have come to me and said that,
you know, I'm not sure I agreed with such and such that you said.
Fine.
You know, what does the Bible say?
You know, maybe I'm wrong about that unless it's in the Bible.
That's why I strive to preach straight from the Bible all the time.
And so you have to understand that God has called us to liberty,
not to bondage.
Don't ever feel like you have to do something
because you have to get to heaven
or else you're not even saved if you think that.
Don't ever feel like you have to do something
because Pastor Anderson or Faith Lord Baptist Church
is commanding you to do something.
We don't command you to do anything. We preach God's commands.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 6.24,
And the Lord God commanded us to do all these statutes,
to fear the Lord our God for our good always.
So God's commandments are for our own good, the Bible says.
He might preserve us alive as it is this day,
and it shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God,
as he had commanded us.
But the Bible says in John 8.30, you don't have to turn there,
in John chapter 8 where Jesus makes this famous statement,
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
They answered him, We be Abraham's seed,
and were never in bondage to any man.
How, sayest thou, ye shall be made free?
Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin.
Did you hear that? God says you just decide
whether you want to be free in Christ,
obeying God's laws because you want to,
or deciding that you don't want God's laws,
living the life of sin. He says you'll be the servant to sin.
You'll be a slave to sin.
Did you know that alcohol will make you a slave?
Did you know that cigarettes will make you a slave?
Did you know that drugs will make you a slave?
You think about the women's lib game.
Yes, I'm against the women's libbers.
What do the women's libs say? We want our freedom.
We want to do what we want to do.
We don't want to obey our husbands.
We want to go out and do our own thing.
So here's what they went from.
They went from living in the Garden of Eden,
of obeying husband and staying home with the kids
and raising their kids, to now they have to go work all day.
I wonder if at their job, now that women are in the workforce
several decades later, I wonder if at their job
they just do whatever they want.
Do you do whatever you want at your job?
I mean, I don't do whatever I want at my job.
When you work a job, people are telling you what to do.
So they went out of the home where
husband's telling them what to do.
Then they go to the boss. Now the boss is telling them what to do.
There's no freedom in rebelling against God.
The freedom is found when you stay in God's Garden of Eden,
so to speak, where yes, there are some rules
that God has made, yes, there's a restriction
of one tree that you can't eat,
but it's really a pretty good selection
of what you can do with your life that he gives you.
See, the freedom and the liberty comes
in a nation called the United States of America
that said, in God we trust.
That's why this is a free country.
And as the Spirit of the Lord leaves, liberty leaves.
Go to the places in the world where the Spirit of the Lord
is not there, no liberty, no freedom,
oppression, communism, dictatorships.
Why? Because God's not there.
Because the Bible's not there.
God and the Bible bring freedom.
Freedom to your personal life.
Freedom to a nation that allows people to do what they want to do.
Hey, freedom to a church that doesn't insult people's intelligence
to think that they can't make their own decisions
and decide whether they want to go soul winning
or dress right or whatever you want to say.
Hey, freedom is of God.
Freedom is what God's Spirit is all about.
And lack of freedom brings back.
You know, God's Garden of Eden is so expansive.
It's such a good selection.
I was thinking about this, getting married.
You know, think about this.
How many women are there in the United States, brother Dave?
I'm picking on him because he's a single guy in the front row here.
How many women are there in the United States?
About 150 million.
Right, something like that.
And about 50% of them are married.
Hey, that's a pretty good selection though, any way you slice it.
You've got millions and millions of choices.
But what are the homos?
I'm going to marry a man.
What?
You filthy pervert.
And obviously it's because they're a God hating pervert that they do that.
But hey, it's not as if there weren't enough women for you to pick, sir.
But no, you had to do, oh God's rules are so strict.
I mean, I have to marry a female.
Can you believe that?
Yeah, God's so strict that he gives you millions and millions of women to choose from.
But no, you have to just defy God and blaspheme God's creation and go after strange flesh.
Unbelievable.
You say, do you feel sorry for the queers?
I don't feel sorry for them one bit.
I don't feel sorry for them all.
I feel sorry for all the people that they're victimizing.
I feel sorry for the children that they recruit.
They're not reproducers, they're recruiters, by the way.
And they're after your children, keep your children safe, watch your kids.
They're recruiters.
I feel sorry for their victims.
I feel sorry that they didn't die yesterday instead of dying tomorrow.
I feel sorry about the fact that they are abusive and hurting people.
I don't feel sorry for them.
I don't feel sorry for anybody who decides that God's selection of millions and millions of women for them isn't enough.
They have to cross some line and go to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and go to something that God forbids.
What does God forbid you anyway?
He forbids you alcohol.
Isn't that terrible?
You couldn't pay me enough money to drink alcohol even if God said that it wasn't even right.
If God didn't even say it was wrong, I wouldn't even want to touch this stuff.
Oh, man, God doesn't let me smoke cigarettes.
Isn't that terrible that God wants you to live an extra 20 years longer than you'd live smoking cigarettes?
Isn't that horrible?
Isn't God mean?
Isn't it so terrible that God wants you to just get married to one woman instead of sleeping around and fornicating?
Isn't that so horrible that He doesn't want you to just hurt everybody's feelings and break everybody's hearts and have a bunch of kids that nobody knows who their parents are?
Isn't God just so... He's just such a slave driver, isn't He?
Boy, He's got such strict rules.
I mean, can you believe He wants me to cover my body in clothes?
Isn't that unbelievable?
I mean, isn't it just so bizarre that God expects me to acknowledge Him in some way?
Maybe like coming to church?
Maybe like opening the Bible or something? Isn't that terrible?
Hey, God's rules. The Bible says His laws are not grievous.
Hey, God's laws will not hurt you.
God's laws are there to protect you, and God's laws will give you a freedom that you've never experienced in your life,
where you're not just controlled by the lust of the flesh, controlled by sin and bondage to sin,
but where you can decide what you want to do today because no one is your master except Jesus Christ.
See, that's a great position to be in. That's freedom.
And so understand what true freedom is by developing love for God that will make you keep His commandments,
love for your neighbor that will help you to maybe think about how other people feel when you dress the way you dress,
think about how other people are going to affect it when you put the bottle to your lips,
think about how it affects the people that you love when you want to commit sin and be dishonest and do wrong.
Hey, develop that kind of love because you want to, because you have love,
because somebody told you what the Bible said and you decided that you were going to do it,
and you'll experience the liberty, the glorious liberty, as the Bible says, of the children of God.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, I thank you so much that I'm not some kind of a robot being controlled by God this morning.
I thank you so much that you give me the freedom to make my own choices.
Thank you, God, for allowing me to choose the wife that I wanted to marry, the one that I wanted to be with, dear God.
Thank you so much for letting me choose what I wanted to do with my life
and not forcing me to do everything every step of the way,
but just commanding me and giving me the Word of God
and allowing me to decide to love you and to do what you want me to do, God.
I can honestly say right now, dear Jesus, right now I'm talking to you.
Right now I can say that today when I go soul winning after church, it's because I want to.
Nobody's making me do it. It's because I love you and because I love people.
Father, please just help everyone in this room to understand that
and to be able to differentiate between hard preaching,
help them to understand that hard preaching is not me telling them what to do
because I want them to do what they want to do,
but I want them to want to do what you want them to do
because they love you and because they love the Bible.
Please just help this church to grow spiritually
and help the people that are here to understand these things
and why we do these things and why we preach these things
so that they can experience the liberty of the children.