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

Man, it's great to be here once again. Every time I come out here, things are getting fancier. You got the mural since last time I was here, got a real piano, and I love the sign outside on the building. It's better than the sign that we have in Tempe. We're not allowed to put up a big sign. We can only have window lettering. Things are looking great around here. Keep up the great work. Keep up the soul winning. It's pretty exciting what God's doing around here. If I would have known Paul was going to be here filming me with three cameras, I would have actually written a sermon. It's good to see Brother Paul again on his way back from Ventura. In Proverbs chapter 1, the part that I want to start reading is in verse number 10 where it says, My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not, if they say, Come with us. Let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole as those that go down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil. And on and on the passage goes. The title of my sermon tonight is Hip Hop Culture in Light of the Bible. The Hip Hop Culture in Light of the Bible. You say, why do you read this passage? Well, there are a lot of things in this passage that rebuke the hip hop culture. And in fact, the whole book of Proverbs is pretty much one big rebuke of the hip hop culture. And I've identified about 11 or 12 things tonight that are wrong with this so-called hip hop culture. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the rap music, the graffiti, the gangster culture, the gang way of life. And it involves sagging your pants, drinking, fornication, smoking pot, all the different things that go with it. It's a wicked culture. And let me just start out by saying this, thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. And when you get involved in a movement like hip hop or when you get involved in that group of people and you identify with that music and that style and that culture and that way of dress, you are following a multitude to do evil. There's a multitude that's going down that path and it's a wicked path. What's wrong with the hip hop culture according to the Bible? Well, the first thing that I would point to as being wrong with it is pride, pride. Go if you would to first John chapter number two. First John chapter number two, one thing about rap music that I've noticed just comparing it with all the other types of worldly music and obviously there are lots of other wicked cultures out there and we could go after other styles and so forth. But tonight I want to talk about the hip hop culture and one thing that's kind of unique to the rap music and the hip hop culture is that they're probably the musicians who talk the most about themselves in the song. I mean think about it, they talk about themselves, they keep naming their own name over and over again and if it's a song by Snoop Dogg, you're going to know that like five times before the song's over because he's talking about Snoop doggy dog this and doggy dog that and the chorus of the song might just be his name over and over again. Dre this, Dre that, Dr. Dre's back and here's why I'm better than all the other rappers. It's a culture that's filled with pride. And look what the Bible says in First John chapter two verse fifteen. It says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And the Bible here is mentioning these three major problems with the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And the hip hop culture embodies all three, but especially the pride of life. I mean think about it, it's a culture that glorifies what? Having a fancy car, wearing gold chains around your neck, having a lot of money, having a fancy house, wearing fancy clothing, look at me, look how much money I'm making, look how cool I am, look how I can flow at the mic better than this other rapper, whatever. It's all based on pride. And the Bible says that everyone that is proud is an abomination to the Lord. So why would you want to follow a culture and a lifestyle and role models and heroes that are obsessed with their pride in themselves when the Bible says that the devil or Leviathan is a king over all the children of pride? It's wicked because it promotes being prideful. Obviously the hip hop culture also promotes the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. This is how the hip hop culture teaches women to dress, like a hoochie mama, the short shorts, the low cut top, the tight fitting clothing, dressing like a hooker and a whore. In fact, in the hip hop culture, you just, that's what you call women, right? Just hoes. They're just a hoe. Just a whore. And that's not even considered a bad thing to them. This is what's glorified in the hip hop culture. So there's your lust of the eyes right there. What about the lust of the eyes? Looking at all the cars and looking at the clothing and looking at the money and the drugs and the partying and lusting after those things with your eyes or lust of the flesh because we know that the hip hop culture promotes fornication. It certainly doesn't promote getting married and having children and being a family man and being faithful to your wife. I mean, I remember, and look, I'm not really familiar with the hip hop music that's coming out right now, but I'm familiar with the hip hop music of the nineties a little bit just because that's when I was a teenager and when I was a young adult, I worked with people that would play it in the work truck and stuff. So you know, going back about 15 to 20 years, I'm familiar with some of that music. I remember when I was a young adult, Dr. Dre had a song on the radio that was just all about committing adultery. That was what the whole song was about and it even said, Hey, I know you have a husband and this and that, but I just want to whatever anyway with you, it's just all about committing adultery. I mean, that's wicked. The Bible says that adultery is wicked. They shall surely be put to death for committing adultery and then you're just going to make light of that, sing songs about that, promote that, glorify that it's wicked as hell. And so, uh, the hip hop culture needs to be rebuked tonight. It's hard to find preaching against it. I tried to find, I searched YouTube before I came down here. I was trying to find somebody preaching against graffiti. I couldn't find it. I mean, I'm, I'm not saying it's not out there, but I couldn't find any preachers rebuking graffiti. Well, you know what, I'm going to preach against graffiti right now because graffiti is part and parcel of the hip hop culture. You know, when I looked up the words, just hip hop culture and a couple of different encyclopedias, it brought up graffiti right away as being like one of the four pillars or, or, or, or the 10 main points of the hip hop culture. Graffiti was always pretty high up on that list. And let me tell you that graffiti is wicked. It's annoying. It's stupid. I'm sick of it. And brother Mejia said that there's even been graffiti on this property. Even the garbage can of FWBCLA has been graffitied. Now here's what's so stupid about this. You say, well, you know, what, what does the Bible say about graffiti? I couldn't find any scripture on graffiti, but, but here's a scripture on graffiti. How about this? Therefore all things whatsoever you would that man should do unto you, do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets. How about love thy neighbor as thyself? And you know what I've noticed about the hip hop culture is that they like to keep their stuff pretty nice. They like to keep their car pretty nice, right? They like to keep their clothing really nice and clean and looking good. But isn't it interesting how when they whip out the spray can, they make everybody else's stuff look like garbage. They go to somebody else's business, somebody else's house, somebody else's neighborhood, somebody else's property, you know, real men of God and women of God, they work and they build things and they buy things and they own things and they live in a neighborhood and, and they pay to be there. And then some idiot comes and graffitis up their neighborhood, messes up their housing prices, makes it all look trashy. You know, some businessman is just trying to make a living and he comes to work in the morning and finds graffiti all over everything from some young prideful, arrogant punk wants to mark his territory like a dog or something. He's going to spray paint his name on there like, I was there, fool, moron. It's wicked. And you know, it's amazing. They want their clothes and their car to look nice. I wonder how these hip hop type people would like it if we came and just graffitied on their nice new Escalade, right? Graffiti on their excursion or whatever they got, their Cadillac, their hoopty. How would they like it if we just graffitied on the side of it? And graffitied on the mansion of these rap artists and graffitied on their wall and they wouldn't like that. Well, you know what? We're supposed to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. That's what Christ taught. So there's your Bible verse on graffiti. But what else is part of the hip hop lifestyle? Go if you would to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1. One of the things that you'll notice about the hip hop culture is that it involves sagging your pants. Now, when I was a kid and a teenager and wearing baggy clothes first kind of became popular and became a thing, people would sag their pants. But they didn't sag them to the level that we're seeing now. I mean, back when I was a boy, sagging your pants was just an inch or two. And your shirt was so big, you didn't even see how much you were sagging because they'd wear these giant shirts and a giant pants. So at least their nakedness was covered. And at least you didn't see their rear end and their underwear. But nowadays is this thing where they have their pants sagged down so far that their entire rear end is exposed in their underwear and then you just see everything. And I mean, the way that these people walk, they literally have to hold up their pants because their rear end can no longer hold up their pants. So it's like they have a hand on it holding up their pants and it's like their pants start like here. You know what I'm talking about? Who's seen that? It's everywhere. I mean, their pants start down here below the inseam. And some of these pants are even designed to be worn down there so you can't even pull them up. They don't even go up high enough. I remember one time, you know, we saw this guy, he was trying to like push start a car with some other guys and wearing his pants like that. So he's kind of like pushing with both and kind of like, you know, and then eventually he starts push starting the car, his pants just fell down to his ankles right in the middle of Southern Avenue, like right across the street from our church because it's just so stupid. But you know what? Whenever I see these guys walking down the street with their pants sagged way down like that and they could barely even walk, they look like a toddler with a full diaper when they walk, right? But whenever I see these guys walking with their pants sagging like that, you know what I think to myself, that is the most impractical garment. That is not the garment of a worker. See real men go to work and they wear clothing that's practical for what they're doing. You know, they wear a shirt and pants and shoes that they can move around in, that they can do stuff in. They're not going to wear something that takes their hand as a full-time job just to keep it from falling down. And it's the stupidest thing. Anybody who's not involved in the hip-hop culture looks at people with their pants sagged down like that and they think that that person looks like a complete idiot. Only their fellow hip-hop brothers and sisters would even look at that and think that it's cool. Nobody else thinks it's cool. Nobody else thinks you're a fool. And you need to grow up. You need to become a man, put away childish things, and you need to gird up your loins like a man. There's your Bible verse. You say, oh, you're preaching your opinion. Preach the Bible. Yeah, gird up your loins like a man. Have your loins gird about with truth, okay? Your belt is meant to go around your waist. It's meant to be girding your loins, not to be girding your mid-thigh. It's nonsense. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 13. The Bible reads, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He said, gird up the loins of your mind. Let me tell you something. The way that you dress will impact the way that you act and the way that you live your life. You know, if you dress up in a shirt and tie, you're going to act differently than when you're wearing a sweatsuit, right? And when you put on work clothes, when you put on the car, you're going to act differently than somebody who's wearing a silk tie and an Italian suit, right? The way that we dress has to do with our frame of mind, our mindset. That's why when people relax, they like to dress down in order to relax. You know, maybe they get home. They want to just take it easy. They change clothes. They relax. And when you go to church, you dress up just to get in a more serious frame of mind or you go to work. And a lot of jobs, you don't deal with the public at that job, but they still have a dress code. Now other jobs have no dress code if you don't deal with the public, and you can come in in your pajamas and whatever. But it's been shown that people who actually dress up for work actually perform better. In fact, one of the best pieces of advice that is often given to people who have to work from home, let's say they have a home office, is get up, take a shower, dress up to go to your home office, and you'll do a better job at work because it puts you in a work frame of mind. So girding up the loins has to do with your clothing, but here God says, gird up the loins of your mind. Okay, so yes, gird up your literal loins by pulling up your pants and putting on a belt, but you know what? We need to have a mentality that matches that. So when you're dressed up like a gang banger and you say, well, you know, but I'm not a drunkard. I don't smoke pot. I'm not in a gang. I don't steal. I'm not violent. I don't do graffiti. But when you're dressed like that, I guarantee it's going to affect the way you think and you're going to start acting like those people because you're dressing like them. You listen to their music, you dress like them, and pretty soon you're going to start to act like them. So you need to not only gird up your literal loins, you need to gird up the loins of your mind and get that hip hop mentality out of your mind. Get it out of your mind. It's not cool. There's nothing glamorous about it. It's an illusion. Everything that the devil has to offer is an illusion. He makes sin always look good. He makes it look cool. He makes it look fun and exciting, but it's an empty life that's worthless when you follow that hip hop lifestyle. What else does it say in this verse? It says, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober. Now how are you going to live the hip hop lifestyle and be sober? Part of the hip hop lifestyle is drunkenness. Now I remember when I was a kid, the jukebox network. You remember that one? Nobody knows what I'm talking about. On TV, on cable TV. Maybe it was only a Sacramento thing. I thought it was everywhere. Well you know you had like MTV, VH1. Well then you had the jukebox network and it was a thing where you call a 1-900 number and pay a couple bucks and you pick what video you want to watch. It was just all rap music. It was all hip hop music. I guess that's who had just the money to burn. I was like, how do they have so much money to just be constantly controlling this jukebox 24-7? But then I figured it out. I went into some of the ghetto neighborhoods in Sacramento and I saw there'd be like a vacant house sometimes and they jack onto that phone line and then they're just calling the 1-900 number on somebody else's phone line and just racking up the bills. But I remember anytime you went to a jukebox television, it was just all rap videos. The biggest thing I remember about rap videos was the blurred out bottles. Every rap video is just all these bottles of brown liquid and clear liquid but all the labels were blurred out. It was some kind of a rule where they weren't supposed to show the labels on the drinks. I just remember all I could, if I think of a rap music video right now from my childhood, I just picture a bunch of guys just holding bottles, just, yeah, you know, and it's just all these blurred labels. It's all about drunkenness. It's all about drinking. It's all about alcohol. It's all about the 40, right, or whatever the liquor. Wine is a mocker. A strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. It's wicked. And not only when the Bible says be sober is it telling us not to drink alcohol, it's also telling you not to smoke pot because when you're smoking pot, you're not sober. Now if you would flip over to Genesis chapter 1 because there are always going to be people who try to justify sin. And no matter what the sin, people will try to find a way to justify it and say, well, you know, the Bible doesn't really say that it's wrong. Whether it's drinking, whether it's fornication, whatever the sin, they'll find a way to justify it. And smoking pot is one that I've seen more and more people these days trying to justify as Christians that they can be a good, godly, Bible-believing Christian and still smoke pot. That, hey, there's nothing in the Bible against smoking pot. It just says not to be drunk. Well, it doesn't just say not to be drunk. It says to be sober. You're not sober when you're smoking pot, okay. But they'll point to this verse. I've heard them, you know, point to Genesis chapter 1 verse 29. And God said, Behold, I've given you every herb-bearing seed. Amen? God gave us marijuana. I've given you every herb-bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree-yielding seed. But look what it says. To you it shall be for meat. So what's he saying here? He's saying you eat the plants for food. Meat means food in the Bible. And so he's saying your fruits and your vegetables. And by the way, when the Bible says herb, it's often just referring to vegetables. Like in the New Testament where he says, One believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. It's not saying he's just eating herbs and spices, what we would think. It's talking about eating a vegetarian diet, that the weaker in the faith would eat only herbs. He doesn't realize that every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused and that God gave us the animals to be our food as well. But they just point to this and say, Well, see, you know, pot is a herb and smoking the herb, mon, you know, Jamaica, mon. Look, he said it's food, number one. But number two, this is before man is kicked out of the Garden of Eden. So this is before the earth is even cursed. So at this point, everything is very good when God looks on the earth. But think about how many poisonous plants there are out there right now. So to get this attitude that says, Oh, every plant is for our food, really? What about the berries that are poisonous? You know, I know if you go out hiking, there are certain berries that you're not supposed to eat because they can make you sick. Or what about toadstools and mushrooms that are poisonous? Some of them are even deadly. And so, you know, Oh, God gave us all these plants and it's all meat for us and it's all for the healing of the nations, man. The new heaven and the new earth, we're going to be healed through this stuff, man. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation. But here's the thing about that, though. Why don't we take some poison oak? And why don't we roll you up a fat blunt? And you can smoke that for a while. Why don't you smoke a poison oak blunt? Why don't you, why don't you use that for your food? Because it's poisonous. There are all kinds of poisonous plants and things that in our day are not for consumption. So taking some Bible verse of the garden of Eden, the perfect earth before any sin has entered is not a proof text for smoking marijuana. And by the way, smoking anything is going to harm your lungs. That's right. Why? Because you're putting all these burning hot little particles are coming into your lungs. I mean, look, even just burning wood, I mean, even just standing in front of a campfire just sucking in all the smoke isn't going to be good for your lungs. It's not helping you. And you notice that people who smoke pot cough all the time, just like people who smoke cigarettes get that smoker's cough and they're coughing all the time. I mean, look at that. I don't know. That video that I uploaded from that, from that bogus video, Skype wedding, who knows what I'm talking about? What was that guy doing? A lot of all of his videos, he has hundreds of videos. It's pothead who claims to be a Bible believing Christian. And he said that he wants his channel to bring glory to God. He said, God, he had a show called the weekly weed review and he literally said that God showed him that God wants him to keep doing this show and that he's right where he's supposed to be. I mean, this guy is claiming to be just right smack dab in the middle of God's will, just smoking pot, looking like a complete idiot. And the whole time on his videos, it's just, and then he has some bong and he takes a hit off the bong. It's a fool and you know, there's always so much propaganda. Look, if you want to just Google it or go on YouTube, you'll find so many people telling you, Oh, smoking pot's good for you. Smoking pot, it doesn't damage your lungs at all. It's actually healthy. It's actually beneficial. You know what? Every pothead has got a channel like that. Every pothead has written an article like that, but you know what? We've all known people who actually smoke pot and we all know that it's not making them any smarter. I've been around potheads. I know what they're like. You know what it does? It makes them apathetic. It makes them not have any drive or ambition. It makes them just want to sit around and be an idiot and goof off and not live a serious life. Hey, you need to grow up. You need to be sober. You need to gird up the loins of your mind. You need to get rid of that trash and get a clear mind and get out there and do something with your life. Get motivated. Hey, look, don't give me some drug to slow me down. Why would I want some drug to mellow me out? I don't want to be mellowed out. I want to get more fired up. Give me some downer, some depressant, some drug that's going to make me cool and make me like Bob Marley or something. Not trying to be Pastor Marley up here. I'm not trying to be a spiritual Bob Marley. Hey, I want to get up here and I want to be amped up. I want to be fired up. I want to be thinking clearly. I want to be excited about something, passionate about something, zealous about something, care about something. Not just some pothead that just sits around and hangs out around the house and just smokes pot and chill. I just need it to help me to relax. No, you need to sit on a nail, buddy, and get up and do something for the Lord. And get out there, get a job, build something, make something, do something with your life. Smoking pot is wicked. Drinking is wicked. Graffiti is destructive. It's harmful. It's annoying. It trashes the place. It's wicked. What about the love of money? Go to 1 Timothy chapter 6. First Timothy chapter 6. You know the love of money is a huge thing in the hip hop culture. I mean, my mind on my money and my money on my mind, right? I mean, that's what it's all about. See, to the hip hop culture, success is making money, right? That's success. I mean, success is driving a Cadillac. Success is driving an Escalade. Success is having the spinners and the tinted windows and the hydraulics and having money and barbecues every day and all this stuff. Look, that's what it's all about. That's what they want out of life. You know, that's not what our life should be about as Christians. The love of money is the root of all evil. And when they're not holding up their bottles and going like this, you know what they're holding up? $100 bills because it's all about the Benjamins, right? And they're holding up their $100 bills and showing off their money, gold jewelry, right? Gold chains, the earrings, the necklaces. You know that's what it's about. It's about flaunting wealth, flaunting money. It's about loving money. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter number 6, verse number 10, well, let's start in verse 9, but they that will be rich, those who want to be rich, fall into temptation and a snail of air, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. I mean, people who want to be rich, they fall into all kinds of foolish and hurtful lusts. And it says the love of money is the root of all evil, verse 10, which while some covet it after, they've erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Now let me ask you this. Do any of those words in verse 11, do any of those remind you of the hip hop culture at all? Like when you think of righteousness, when you think of godliness, faith, love, I mean, is it love when all the women in their life are hoes and female dogs? Is that love? Is that godliness? No. No. He said, faith, love, patience, meekness, okay, meekness? No way. Just, and you know what? God says that it's an abomination, the proud look, right? Not only is everyone that's proud an abomination of the Lord, but these six things that the Lord hate a proud look, right? But it's, you know, just look at their faces on the album covers and on the posters, on the video, right? It's always just like, it's always a proud look. It's not meek. It's not humble. It's not easy to be entreated. No, it's a proud look. It's certainly not meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Not get in a fist fight, right? Not go get into a fight down at the bar. It's fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, where unto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. And with the love of money goes the idea of the jewelry, right? This is a big part of it. Now flip over if you would to Genesis chapter 35, Genesis chapter 35. You know, when it comes to the jewelry, the Bible tells us in the New Testament that women should not wear gold and pearls and costly array. They shouldn't be decked with a lot of expensive clothing and expensive jewelry. But instead they should be wearing modest apparel, right? Not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which become with women professing godliness with good work. Now it is interesting that the Bible does not have a commandment that says for the men not to be decked in gold and pearls and broided hair and costly array. So why did God say for the women not to do that? But he doesn't say that about the men. I'll tell you why. Because the Bible just assumes that men are not going to be decorated up like a Christmas tree because it's effeminate. That's why. Beautifying yourself as a man, being a pretty boy, putting on a bunch of jewelry is effeminate because the desire to appear outwardly beautiful is inherently feminine. And so the Bible tells us that we should not be effeminate. Men who are really into fashion and spend $75 on their hairdo, get a haircut. No, no, we'll just go in and spend $15 on a haircut, thank you very much. Or better yet, my wife will cut my hair, right? Or better yet, you know, I'll cut it myself in the dark with scissors, but I'm not going to go to some fag haircut that costs $80. Some salon somewhere. Why? Because real men aren't into their appearance that much. To just want to be all decorated and all jeweled up and it's effeminate by nature. Now when you study this subject in the Bible, like I said in the New Testament, you have the condemnation on the women wearing fancy jewelry. Usually God doesn't want men putting on a bunch of fancy jewelry either, but he just assumes that men aren't going to be that into their appearance anyway because usually they aren't. Usually men don't really care that much about it. But when you study the subject of earrings in the Bible, you'll find a positive mention of earrings on women in the Bible where God talks about an Ezekiel putting earrings in their ears of women. But you'll notice that when you look up men wearing earrings in the Bible, you'll find some pretty interesting verses that associate it with that which is wicked and pagan. Look if you would at Genesis chapter 35, I'll show you an example. Genesis 35 verse 2 says, then Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him, watch this, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand and all the earrings which were in their ears and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. Isn't it kind of interesting that when they're getting rid of the strange gods, they're also getting rid of the earrings out of their ears and they're burying the idols and they buried the earrings as well with them. That's been interesting. Now let's compare that with Judges chapter 8. Judges chapter 8, this is in the story of Gideon, there's some battles going on and it says in Judges chapter 8 verse 24, and Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you that you would give me every man the earrings of his prey. Okay, so these are in the Bible men that were wearing earrings and the men who were defeated in battle, they're taking the earrings out of their ears. And it says that you would give me every man the earrings of his prey and then it says for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites. So notice this isn't God's people, this isn't the Israelites that have the earrings, it's people that are worshiping false gods and it's the Ishmaelites that are wearing earrings that have to take the earrings out. And I'm not against women wearing earrings as long as they're modest, as long as they're not some super expensive pair of earrings, you know, the super diamonds or pearls or costly because the Bible says that we shouldn't be prideful like that, just showing off wealth and really fancy things. We should be humble and modest and not have gold and pearls and costly array. But men wearing earrings, it's effeminate. Men need to get out of their mother's jewelry box and start acting like a man, okay? And I remember back when I was a kid, again, if you wore the earring in the left ear, you're straight. And if you wore the earring in the right ear, you're a sodomite. Remember that? Is that still how it is? Or I think now it's just there's so many sodomites anymore that you can't even identify them like that. But back, see, I remember later it became popular to have it in both ears. But when I was a teenager, you didn't have it in both ears. It was either the left or the right. And so I remember my pastor said, that means you're this close to being a homo, you know. It's just stupid. Why are you wearing an earring? And you know what, teenagers, kids, they want to get rebellious and they dress like a punk and whatever. But it's like you're 40 and you got your earring, you're 50. You know, when are you going to grow up? You know, name the great preacher who has earrings. Name me the Baptist preacher that wears earrings, that's your role model, that's your, because I can name for you all the rap artists that have earrings. I can name, you know. So who are you modeling after? Who are you following? Are you following, okay, are you getting earrings in your ears because your dad did that? Because your pastor did that? Is it because the boss at work did that? Is it because spiritual role models in your life, your grandfather, your uncle, your pastor, your Sunday school teacher, whatever, no, no, no. It's because your rap idol or your hip hop hero is the one who has those earrings. Well, you know what, you need to quit following that trash, quit looking effeminate and take off the earrings and be a man. And you know what? Well, you know, what do you mean effeminate? Look, there's so much effeminacy in the hip hop culture. There are so many sodomites in the hip hop culture and, you know, it's disgusting. And so you say, oh, these are real men. No, they're not. Those aren't. That's not manliness. That's not the right kind of manliness. Just because you pull out a gun and shoot at somebody or just because you can drink, you know, woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine. You think that's manliness because you can drink so much and smoke so much and you've gotten a bunch of fights and you went to jail and that makes you so tough and so cool. No, it just makes you a screw up and a loser is what it makes you. It's nothing to be impressed with about that. What else is involved in the hip hop lifestyle besides the love of money, besides all the stupid jewelry and all the gold chains and all the expensive wasted money on jewelry, besides smoking pot, besides getting drunk, besides graffiti, besides the pride and the arrogance and the proud look that the Lord hates, besides sagging your pants and looking like you have a dirty diaper. I'll tell you what else is involved in it, stealing, stealing. The Bible said thou shalt not steal. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him work with his hands and be honest and have to give to those that need. But the hip hop lifestyle is all about stealing, right? It's a violent culture. If you listen to the lyrics of the rap music, what do they talk about? They talk about being violent, raping, stealing, breaking in, breaking the law, getting arrested, going to jail. There's a warrant out and that's what it's all about. It's glorified. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I think you're a racist because you're preaching this sermon because you're preaching against black people today. Well, you know what? That's a lie because there are plenty of Hispanic people that are mixed up in the hip hop lifestyle and there are plenty of white people that are into the hip hop lifestyle. And you know what? Did we forget about the Beastie Boys and Eminem, right? Are there any other white hip hop, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, but look, look, it's the same garbage. And you know what? We, we see the white people sagging the pants, the gold chains, the baseball cap sideways, smoking pot, getting drunk. This has nothing to do with race. It's not about race. And you know what? Yeah. Are there a lot of black people that are involved in the hip hop culture? Yeah. It's part of what's destroying their neighborhoods. And you know what? I'm sick of this racial garbage where it seems like being a white supremacist now is kind of like, it's kind of taking off a little bit amongst certain people because the media is always trying to stir up like races against each other and black against white. And it seems like I'm just getting all these comments on my channel lately telling me, Hey, you need to stand up for the white race and you, you know, you're like, they cause, because they think that I'm too inclusive because I am inclusive because we're all of one blood. Amen. Amen. And then they say, Oh, well, can't you see, you know, and then they'll give a bunch of statistics about black America and tell me, see, that proves that white people are better. But you know what? That proves because it's not the fact that they're black. It's the hip hop culture that's destroying their lives. And look, you look at the statistics, 70%, we just put out a documentary about Iceland and at the beginning it mentions that 70% of African American young people are being raised in a home without their biological dad, 70% 70% now look, it's not because they're black because you know what, 30% are doing it right. And you know what? I would guarantee you anything that the 70% of black people who are producing children out of wedlock and the children are being raised by a single mother. You know, I venture to guess that for the most part, that's probably the 70% that are into the hip hop culture. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the 30% of black people where the mother and the father are in the home raising their children are not into hip hop. It has nothing to do with their genetics, it has nothing to do with the color of their skin, it has to do with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and NWA and Public Enemy and all this junk that they're listening to. And if white people listen to it, they're going to screw up their lives the same way. And if Hispanic people listen to it, they're going to screw up their lives the same way. And you know what, black people who actually love the Lord and actually live a respectable life, they hate hip hop more than I even do. Because they know what it's doing to their culture. They know what it's doing to black America today. Hey, the urban ghetto black culture today that's based on hip hop, it's of the devil, it's wicked, it's ruining people's lives. It is not a racial issue, it's a sin issue. There's nothing to do, and you know what, people just want to pull that out and then preachers are afraid to preach on this stuff. Then they're afraid to preach against the graffiti and the rap music, no I'm going to call it out. Call me a racist if you want, because you know what, some people are just going to call you racist no matter what you do, but you know what, if you really love black people you tell them the truth and tell them to throw their stupid rap music in the trash. If you love people you're going to tell them the truth. It's drinking that's the problem. It's welfare that's the problem. It's pot that's the problem. It's stealing that's the problem. It's pornography that's the problem. It's sodomy that's the problem. It's all this other vandalism and gang banging, all this junk that's the problem. It has nothing to do with the color of people's skin, that's nonsense, it's junk. That's just an excuse for black people to just hide behind so that they can just continue to be a loser because they'd say, well you know, you just don't understand what it's like to be black. You know, why don't you show us how to be a godly black Christian? And you know everybody's got an excuse, the Native Americans have their excuse and then white people have their excuse and now white people whine about how like, oh you know because we're white we can't get a job because of all the affirmative action, you know, just everybody just wants to just whine about it and just, look I'm sick and tired of it from both sides. Why don't we just quit talking about it? You know I'm just sick and tired, everything is just, oh you know the blacks this, oh the white this, just shut up and just be a man and grow up and work because you know what, anybody who wants to succeed in this country can succeed. Anybody who wants to get dressed in the morning, put on a belt, pull up their pants and go to work is able to succeed. And you know what, anybody who comes to Faithful Word Baptist Church with their pants pulled up and sober can come to this church and they will be considered the same as everybody else. Rich, poor, white, black, Jew, Gentile, it doesn't even matter, in Christ we're all one in Christ Jesus. You know, look, I would love to see, I would love to see a whole generation of black preachers that would rise up and be independent fundamental Baptists like us, right, and call their people to repentance and get them out of this culture. So don't come at me with that, oh this is so racial, so shut up. And you know this whole Black Lives Matter thing, let me just go off on a tangent, it's a fag website. You go, if you go to that Black Lives Matter website, you know what, it's all about sodomites, it's what the whole website's about, click on it. What We Believe, it's like a church, you know how churches have a tab called What We Believe? I went a couple days ago to blacklivesmatter.com and I went to the What We Believe tab and it said, oh, we affirm the LGBT, we affirm the transgender. It was just all, it had several points promoting sodomy, promoting abortion, promoting wickedness. And then you click on their staff of the people who run it and it has to tell you what pronoun to call each person on their staff. It literally, go, if you look, it lists the staff and it says like, this person used the pronoun he, this one used the pronoun they, and then the little bio, when it talks about them, even though there's only one person, it keeps calling them they, they like this, they like that, they do this, they do that, that's garbage. You know, you need to get off blacklivesmatter.com, if you're black, and get on faithforwardbaptist.org and start listening to some Bible preaching and everybody on staff uses the same pronoun, he, and you can listen to some Bible preaching and quit worrying so much about being black and start worrying about being a Bible-believing Christian, you know, and I don't care about being white. You know, if somebody asks, I did an interview earlier today, it was like a TV interview, and the question was like, so, you know, how do you feel about, you know, white people this, white people that, and I just said, like, I don't, I don't really identify as a white person, because I, like, I don't care about the plight of white people in this world. You know what I mean? Like, that's just not a thing to me. You know what I care about? The plight of God's people. And I have way more in common with a Chinese person who loves the Lord Jesus Christ than some white person who rejects Christ. I have no, what fellowship hath he that believeth with an infidel? I don't care how white you are. So we need to get off this racial thing, and you know what, and part of the hip-hop culture, it pushes that racial divide a little bit and tries to promote, hey, be proud to be black, be proud to be Hispanic, white pride, Latino pride, La Raza, and black pride. No, no, no. Him that glory had let him glory in the Lord. That's another garbage aspect of the hip-hop lifestyle, and you know, these white rappers like Eminem, what a joke. What a loser. You know, I remember one time, like 10 years ago, Brother Jimenez came to visit me in Phoenix, and he was staying at a hotel, and he was driving back to the hotel, and he could hear somebody's stereo from their car, and for a minute he thought that they were listening to my preaching. And he was like, he was like, is this guy listening to Pastor Anderson? You know, because he heard yelling, and it was like, and the yelling was something about I hate faggots or, you know, so he's like, he's like, are these people listening to Pastor Anderson? So he rolled down his window, it was Eminem that they were listening to. But here's the thing about that. But then Eminem, a few years later, is performing with Elton John. See what I mean? These people have no integrity, they have no beliefs, they don't stand for anything, and they act like they're such rebels, don't they? Yeah, we're such rebels, yeah. I'm such a rebel. But except that they don't actually stand for anything that's actually against the culture, they're actually just in lockstep with the devil's plan for this world. You know, if you want to be so tough, you want to stand up to something and fight the power, you know, that's what we're doing as fundamental Baptists. We're fighting against what? Not flesh and blood, but against rulers of the darkness of this world. We're fighting against principalities and powers. Spiritual wickedness in high places. So if you want to fight the power, you're playing right into the devil's hands, right? And you're playing right into the politician's hands. You're playing right into the liberal Democrats' hands. You're playing right into the New World Order's plan right there. Fight the power. You're controlled. Gangster rap was started and promoted by some Jewish promoter who just wanted to make money. He doesn't care about black people. He doesn't love the black culture. No, no, he just wants to make money off these people. And he took that group, NWA, right? And this Jewish promoter guy, he took NWA and he made them a big success and he managed them and got, and you know what, that group was just all about just being so wicked and so offensive that they were in the news all the time and the police were shutting down their concerts and they're just doing all that for publicity, just pushing how wicked they could do it, how they could just get up and say the most vile, filthy things about women, about fornication, about adultery, about violence. You know, it's just, you're fighting the wrong fight. You know, we need to get in the Lord's army and fight his battle. That's the power that we need to be fighting. We need to fight against the prince of the power of the air, the devil. And the way we fight against the devil is by not loving money, not smoking pot, not getting drunk, not vandalizing and looting and doing graffiti and fornicating and sagging your pants and getting in a gang and all this. It's all wicked. And you know what, you don't need a gang, you need to get in the local church. That's your gang. You know who your gang is? Your mom and your dad and your brothers and sisters, there's your gang. My household's like a full blown gang. We have like, we have 11 people in our gang. Word to your mother. So I mean, you know, this hip hop culture is garbage. And you know what, the fact that all these kids are being born out of wedlock amongst all nationalities, white, black, Hispanic, I mean look, the nation of bastards, the nation of white people, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, those are the places that lead in having kids out of wedlock. So this is just a sin problem. It's not about a particular nationality, but today we need to bring back the institution of marriage. And you know what, in this church, marriage is not optional for people who are living together or people who are shacking up. It's required. You know, and I know that in our church in Tempe, I mean people that are living together in fornication, we've thrown out at least 20 in the last 12 years of our church's existence. And whenever we find out that somebody is living with their girlfriend in sin, we give that person ultimatum and tell them, look, you got seven days to either get married, stop living together or don't come back to our church until you fix it. And about half of them left and just, you know, they just, they can't come back. And I said, good, then get out because if you're going to continue to live in fornication, you cannot attend our church. The Bible says put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And it says the same thing about drunks. And I know that it's something that's going to continue to come up. It's something that has come up in every year of our church's existence because of the day that we're living in where fornication is acceptable. And let me tell you something else. This new garbage doctrine that says you don't need a marriage license. That's not allowed either, right? You need to be legally married. And we've all known people who've done this. You know, I talked to brother Mejia. He said he'd known a bunch of people where they say, oh, my wife, this, my wife, that. But then when you dig deeper or pin him down, it's like, oh, well, we're not really married. I worked with a guy like that and he'd always talk about his wife, this, that. One day I asked him, I said, well, how long have you been married? And he said, well, you know, we're not actually married. I just kind of consider her my wife. Don't come to church and pull that. Now obviously, we're not really going to know. We're just going to have to take your word for it because, you know, we're not going to go pull the records at the city hall and check out the legality of your marriage. But let me tell you this, so you know what? That's wickedness. And if you're in that kind of a phony marriage right now where you're just like, well, we just kind of promised each other, no. And I'm not going to re-preach my sermon from Sunday night, but you could download and listen to my sermon that I preached in Tempe on Sunday night, a whole sermon about why it's biblical and why you need to get a marriage license, why you need to be legally married and I proved it from the Bible in many different scriptures. So look, if you're in one of these bogus common law marriages or whatever, you need to get a real marriage going. Amen. And you say, why is that? Well, I'll tell you why. It's because of the fact that these fake common law marriages, they're too easy to get out of. It shouldn't be that easy to get out of it. It's just like breaking up with your girlfriend or something. And what it is, is it's men who don't want to make the commitment. It's women who don't want to make the commitment, so they want to have that easy way out of not getting legally married on paper so they just have a fake marriage because then they can just kind of just slink their way out of it whenever they want. No, no, no. It's binding, legally binding. And so we need to have a culture that promotes marriage, real marriage, legal marriage. Don't give me, you know, isn't it so convenient how this little conspiracy theory about marriage licenses, isn't it just so convenient for these people who lie and say that they're married when they're really not or these people who are just living in sin, living in fornication? It's a really handy doctrine for them because then they can just say, oh, well, we're married, you know, because we did our own little vows and whatever. That's pretty convenient for them. They can have their cake and eat it too. It's nonsense. And that convenient little doctrine is perfect for people who want to live in sin and live in fornication and just move from woman to woman or from man to man. It has no place in, and the reason it's just so popular is because there's so many people in that situation. And then some Bible teacher gets up like Kent Hovind or whoever and says, oh, marriage licenses are unscriptural. They're just like, great, you just condone my lifestyle. Great, that's the best news I've heard all day. They just eat this stuff up with a fork and a spoon because it's what they want to hear. They have itching ears and that's what they're given that doctrine of, oh, yeah, we don't. And then these lie about, oh, you know, marriage licenses only came about at the Civil War. And that was just to stop white and black people from marrying each other. Abraham Lincoln didn't have a marriage license. And then I googled it and I googled Abraham Lincoln's marriage license and it came up in like .03 seconds. And I printed out Abraham Lincoln's marriage license. But you don't just believe everything you hear. And you know what? Don't be carried about with every diverse and strange wind of doctrine. You need to be rooted and grounded in what you believe and not just believe every crazy new thing that you hear. Look, your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, they got married. They got the license. People have been doing it for hundreds of years because it's legally binding. It's a Christian tradition. It's what we do because we don't switch wives just like we're just changing girlfriends or changing jobs or changing the tires on our Cadillac or our Hoopty. And you know what? This hip hop culture, it's garbage. The rap music, you need to go home and take all that gangster rap and throw it in the jar. I'll bet you there's people even in this room right now that have this junk in their collection right now. I guarantee you that there are people in this auditorium that still have Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre or whatever the new guys are that says probably the same thing. You know, you need to go home and just throw that stuff out and get rid of it. And you need to also tear down those idols even in your heart. And you need to start buying clothes that fit. And you need to start wearing a belt and pulling up your pants. And you know what? Look, if a visitor walks in dressed like that, obviously we want to treat them well and reach out to them and show them the love of Christ. But you know what? If you're a regular member here, I wouldn't be surprised if Brother Bruce Mejia doesn't just tell you, hey, why don't you pull up your pants? What are you doing dressing like that? Why are you coming here like that? You should know better than that. Grow up. Be respectful of God's house. Be respectful of yourself and the people around you. And so the hip-hop culture is ungodly for all of these reasons and more. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And we thank you so much for a life that's worth living that's not about how much money we can get and what kind of pimped-out ride we can drive or what kind of fancy house or swimming pool or what we can drink and snort and smoke, Lord. Thank you so much, Lord, that we actually have a life that's worth living, Lord, that we can win souls and we can read the Bible and we can enjoy true love within marriage between a husband and wife. We can love our parents and our brothers and sisters and our children, Lord. I pray that no one who's in this room tonight would ever smoke a joint ever again, would never take a drink from a 40 ever again, would never look up to or lust after the lifestyle of a rap artist ever again, Lord. I just pray that we would put this hip-hop culture and hip-hop mentality far from us, Lord. And I pray, Lord, that through soul winning and through the efforts of this church there would be a great revival, Lord, amongst the black community that many people would receive Christ as Savior, Lord. And amongst the Hispanic community and amongst all people, Lord, that people would be pulled out of darkness and into the glorious light of the Gospel, Lord, and that people would get out of this hip-hop lifestyle and become godly Christian people, Lord, that follow the principles of the Bible which are pretty much opposite of hip-hop in every possible way. Lord, we love you and thank you for saving us in spite of our sins, Lord. Help us to be more like you and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.