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

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. 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. 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.