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

The chapter I want to focus on is at the end there, a famous story about, of course, Jacob and Esau, and Esau having no respect for his birthright. The Bible says he despised his birthright. It meant so little to him that he basically was willing to just sell it, just to gratify a physical appetite of eating this bowl of Lindell soup. You know, he was starving, he hadn't eaten in days, and he just barely comes in really faint, and he was so foolish that he actually sold his birthright just for food, just for something to eat, because he didn't understand what that meant. Look if you would at Acts 22. Go to the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, the fifth book in the New Testament, about halfway through the New Testament. Look at Acts 22. I'm going to show you a picture about the Apostle, or a story about the Apostle Paul. Paul has basically been arrested. He's in Jerusalem, he's preaching God's word, he's been arrested, and before he's put in jail, he basically makes this big speech to the people. And at the end of that speech, they become enraged at what Paul is preaching. They were okay with everything he said, but at the very end, he said something about how he was going to preach God's word to the Gentiles and go to these other nations, and the Jews just flipped out and got angry, and here's what they said. Look at verse 21 of Acts 22. And he said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live. And as they cried out and cast off their clothes and threw dust in the air, the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and watch this next phrase, and bade that he should be examined by scourging, that he might know wherefore they cried so against him. So basically, here he is, he makes this big speech, everybody's mad, and the Jews are screaming, rending their clothes, saying that he should be killed because of what he basically preached. And the Roman soldiers are going to take Paul and beat him in order to find out what he did wrong. Now, that doesn't sound right, does it? I mean, scourge him, like beat him with a whip, examine him by, you know, talk about an enhanced interrogation. I mean, they're going to examine him by scourging. But watch what Paul says next. It says in verse number 25, and as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came and said to him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered with a great sum, he's talking about a great deal of money, with a great sum obtained by this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. Then straightway they departed from him, which should have examined him, and the chief captain also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman and because he had found him. Now, the title of my sermon is this, Selling Out Your Freedom. Selling out freedom. Selling out your birthright as an American. Basically, selling out the freedom that you've been born with. And the reason I'm preaching this is because today, July 4th, is Independence Day. It's supposed to be a time when we basically celebrate and are thankful for our independence and freedom that we've been given in this country that's, by the way, being taken away from us. And so we need to stop and realize on a day like today what the 4th of July means. And when we look at this story, we see a lot of the same mentality as today. The government feeling like they gave rights to certain people. You notice how basically the Roman soldier says to him, Oh, well, if you're a Roman, then we're going to treat you differently. You have rights all of a sudden. And notice Paul stood up for his rights and said, Hey, you can't bind me uncondemned. You can't just examine me by scourging. You can't put me in handcuffs and beat me when I haven't done anything wrong. And when the chief captain comes to him, he says, With a great sum, I obtained this freedom. He said, I basically paid for my freedom. I paid to have the right to be free. And Paul said, I was born free. He said, I was free born. You know, we in America today have been born free. Just like Paul, just like what he said in this chapter. He was a Roman citizen. We were born in the United States of America. We were born free. And it's not the government that made us free, by the way. It's God that made us free. We'll get to that in a minute. But the Bible says here, I was free born. And then if we compare this to the story we read back in Genesis, where Esau didn't appreciate what he was born with. I mean, his birthright. It's not something that you've earned, your birthright. And let me just explain to you what the birthright was. Because he was the oldest son, basically he got a double portion of the inheritance, is what that meant. And so his birthright was that he would basically take over the family business. He would get a double portion of the inheritance. It's not something that he earned. It's just something that he was born with. And he despised that birthright. He didn't appreciate his birthright. And so he sold it out for just a bowl of soup. You know, he sold it out for that bowl of lentil soup, because he was so hungry. Paul here says, hey, I was born free. Other people paid for it. Other people paid to have freedom, but he said, I was born free. So why do people sell out their freedom? Well, before we talk about the three reasons that I think that people sell out their freedom. And I'm going to show you three reasons from the Bible. Let's just talk about what freedom is. Because a lot of people today don't even understand the concept of what freedom really means. It seems like no matter what country people are in, they think they're free. You know, it's funny, you can read books about the Soviet Union. And the people living at the height of Stalin thought they were living in a free country. Because it's all, and they did, it's true, it's all based on the definition of what freedom means. Let's get some Bible definitions of freedom, and then we're going to talk about the reasons why people sell out their freedom. Look at Matthew 17, verse 24, Matthew chapter 17. See, the Bible has a lot to say about freedom. The Bible says, now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Did you know that the first thing that God ever told mankind when he created man was basically to be free? If you go back to Genesis, right at the very beginning, when God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden, before he said anything to him, he said this, Of all the trees in the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat. The first thing he told him was, look, you have the freedom to choose, Adam, what you want to eat. He said, the whole world is before you of the Garden of Eden, of all the trees of the garden thou mayest freely eat. Now, there was a restriction, but he gave man freedom to choose and to have that freedom. The next thing he did was he gave man freedom. He was able to name all the animals, whatever he called their name, that was the name thereof. God is intended for man to be free. Man is born free, but he's everywhere in change, as the famous quote goes. Where did I return? Matthew 17. Let's get some biblical definitions of what freedom is. Look at verse 24. And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money, this is basically the tax man, you know, the IRS is coming around. They that received tribute money came to Peter and said, doth not your master pay tribute? They're saying, well, you know, doesn't Jesus pay taxes? He said, yes. And when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him. Basically, Jesus stops him before he has a chance to say a word, saying, what thick is thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, then are the children what? Free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea and cast and hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou has opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take and give unto them for me and thee. Would to God for those days when it was just a little piece of money for me and you, you know, to get the IRS off our back. But here we see that Jesus says, look, if you're truly free, you're not paying tribute to some king, some government somewhere. He said they take tribute of strangers, not of their own children. The children are free. You see, we've become, go back to 1 Samuel 8. 1 Samuel 8, in the Old Testament, how many of you have never even heard that part from Jesus before? Put up your hand if you've never heard that portion of the script. You know, but what's the one you always hear all the time? The render unto Caesar. But they won't even touch that one, you know what I mean? And it's funny because the part where he says render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar, that's when they came to him, tempting him, trying to get him to break the law. It's the same thing with the woman caught in adultery. They're basically coming to him, tempting him, trying to say, you know, well, should we give money to Caesar? Do we pay taxes, this and that? And he's saying, look, we're living under this system here, you know, I'm just going to pay it just not to offend him. But he says, you know what, I shouldn't have to be paying this, is basically what he's saying. That's basically what he said in Matthew 17. You see, I don't have time to turn there. Before we look at the place that I just had to turn in 1 Samuel chapter 8, I don't have time to turn there. But if you look in the Old Testament at Joseph, just while we're on taxation, Joseph went down into Egypt. You remember when there was a famine and basically everyone was starving and didn't have any food, so they had to sell all their land to the government of Egypt because Egypt had all the food. They had to sell their cattle, they had to sell everything. Eventually they said just buy us. They sold themselves into bondage and because they were actually owned by the Egyptian government, their body, they had to give the fifth part unto Pharaoh. What percentage is that, the fifth part? 20%. And they were total slaves, according to the Bible, complete slaves. And they were giving one fifth of it to Pharaoh. How much are we giving to Pharaoh in the United States today? What to God it was 20%. By the time they tax it on the way in, by the time they tax it on the way out, this isn't freedom. This isn't what the founding fathers envisioned today. And the people who signed that document on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence, they did not intend for their progeny today in 2010 to be totally enslaved, giving half of our money to the government. They wanted us to have freedom and God wanted us to have freedom. Look at 1 Samuel 8, I'm going to show you why people sell out their freedom. Several reasons. Verse 8, And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore, hearken unto their voice, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. Now just to give you an idea of what's going on in the story here. Basically, the children of Israel have been living under the system of the judges. A government that God ordained in the first five books of the Bible. They were living under a system that had total freedom, a perfect form of government, everything was great, but because of an outside threat of the Philistines attacking them, they basically lost faith in God. They didn't want God to reign over them. And you know, God reigning over them was not a big deal. I mean, they had a lot of freedom. But because they rejected God, and that's what he said right here, they basically said, no, we want to have a king over us. We want to be like all the other nations and have a king over us. He said, solemnly protest on them what it's going to be like when you have a king. Listen to this. It says in verse number 11. And he said, this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He's basically warning them. You don't want to have this big government. You don't want to have a king over you. Just stick with God's system. He said, he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots and to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint them captains over thousands and captains over fifties and will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers and he'll take your fields and your vineyards and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed. Did you hear that? He's going to take a tenth. Isn't that terrible? And of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants and he will take your men servants and your maid servants and your goodliest young men and your asses and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants. That is the opposite of freedom, isn't it? Being the government's servant. He says next, And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you. And the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said, nay, but we will have a king over us that we also may be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. And so I turn to John chapter 18. John 18 in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. So just before we get into the reasons why people sell out their freedom, let's just talk about what freedom is. Because a lot of people, they think they're free when they're giving half their money to the government. When God said if you're giving ten percent, you're a servant. If you're giving twenty percent, you're a slave to the government. They own you, is what he said in Genesis chapter 47. And so we think we have freedom, but really when you don't have financial freedom, you don't have freedom. When I'm going out and working and slaving, and then that money is not something that I can spend on what I want to spend, but someone is extorting it from me and taking it from me, that isn't freedom. And you say, why are you so upset about this? Because I don't want to be like Esau and despise my birthright and not think it's worth anything and not care and sit idly by and trade my freedom for anything because it's too valuable. God gave it to me at my birth and I want to keep it until I die. That's why. So what is freedom? First of all, it's being able to keep your money. It's being able to work and bring in money and use it for what you want to use it for, not have it extorted from you at the barrel of a gun. What else is freedom? Well, let me just read for you because I've got here in my pocket the pocket-sized Declaration of Independence and Constitution. And today, a lot of people are unaware of even, I bet if we took a poll of people just out there in the world, what July 4th even commemorates, I heard somebody saying that it was when the Constitution was ratified. People are confused about what the 4th of July even means. They don't understand what that day represents. Let me just read for you, we're not going to read the whole thing, but just one little small portion at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence because this is so important to the sermon. But it says in the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by the government with certain rights. Is that what it says? It says that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. And among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government which means any other powers that they take are unjust. According to this document, this is our founding document, July 4, 1776. And that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form so as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. And accordingly, all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. You see, the Declaration of Independence was penned by people who think a lot different than people today who call themselves patriotic Americans today who are eating a hot dog today and setting off fireworks today. They don't understand that these men said, hey, we want a government that protects our freedom, that's the purpose of government, not one that's going to take away our freedom, take away our money, take away our liberty, take away choices from us. Let me read for you my favorite part of the Constitution. That was from the Declaration of Independence. Then we'll put this away and get back into the Bible. And these are the parts that I feel like are the most pertinent. This is my number one favorite part of the Constitution, the Ninth Amendment. Okay, I'm going to read it for you. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Did you get that? Let me read it for you one more time. This is critical. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. You see, the government has this attitude that basically, if the Constitution doesn't just spell it out that you have a certain right, you don't have that right. But hold on a second. He said, look, just because we're listing a few rights here, the right to remain silent, the right not to testify against yourself, the right not to go through cruel and unusual punishments, the right not to be searched or seized without a warrant, the right to have total freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, just because we're spelling out the freedom to bear arms doesn't mean that we don't have other rights that aren't even in this document. Where did those rights come from? Who decides? Did you say, well, that doesn't make sense because then anybody could just decide that they have whatever right. No, the rights come from God. And by the way, they're all found in the Bible. I mean, if you search the Bible, you'll find the rights that we need to have freedom, the right to keep your own money was the one we just went through. But what about the right to not incriminate yourself, to not have to tell them, you know, how many times have you been pulled over by the police and what's the first thing they always ask you? What do they ask you? Yeah, they'll ask you, why do you think I pulled you over? You know what I mean? Yeah, they want you to tell them. Well, look, that's what Jesus said. Look at John 18, 19. John 18, 19 says this, The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine. So basically, Jesus has been arrested and he's in court. And they're asking him about his disciples and his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world, I have retaught in the synagogue and in the temple whether the Jews always resort, and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me what I have said unto them. Behold, they know what I said. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers, they had police brutality back then, look at them, the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? So basically, Jesus just says, look, I'm not going to answer this. Everybody knows what I've been preaching for three and a half years. Go ask them what I said. So then this officer comes up and just slaps him across the face. And Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why smitest thou me? Look at the next chapter, John 19, verse 9. John 19, 9. And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Because he wouldn't answer. Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above, therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king, speak it against Caesar. And so we see all these different things in the Bible defining for us what freedom is. If we look at the Mosaic law in Deuteronomy, we don't have time to go through all this because I want to get into the rest of the sermon. But in the Mosaic law in Deuteronomy, it said that no one could be condemned except by the mouth of two or three witnesses. You have the right in the book of Deuteronomy to face your accusers, to face them in court, and to have them testify against you. And there had to be at least two eyewitnesses in order for you to be condemned. I mean, there are all kinds of freedoms that we have. The Fourth Amendment you can find in the Bible, the Fifth Amendment you can find in the Bible. You can find these things in the Bible. God intended freedom. I've said this. We are so warped in our view of what our government should be in America today. If you took the Bible and just instituted the government of the children of Israel from the Old Testament, if you just replaced our government with the government that God gave the children of Israel before they asked for a king, people would call it anarchy. They would. Now, I'm not for anarchy. I'm not an anarchist. I'm not promoting anarchy because anarchy means no government. And I do think that there should be a government to protect freedom and to protect people's rights. That's what government was instituted for. That's what it says in the Declaration of Independence. But the thing is, if we were to set it up, people would say, Oh, you know, the government's not taking care of us anymore. I'm not getting any checks in the mail and nobody's fixing the road and all this stuff. Look, the government... Go to Romans 13. I'll just quickly show you the purpose of government. Then I'm going to get into the sermon. This is all introduction. Because today people don't know what freedom is, so I have to explain to you. There's a key thing about free. What does free mean? Like, what if I said I'm going to give you this for free? You know what I mean? People think it's two completely different words. But did you know that freedom and liberty both come from the same word? And if something's free... If I'm paying 50% of my money in order to have the privilege of living here, is that free? That doesn't sound free. But... Where did I have your turn? Sorry. Romans 13. Romans 13. You know, God explains what the purpose of government is, and then we're going to explain the three reasons why people sell out their birthright of freedom. In Romans 13, he explains the purpose of government. It says in verse 3, For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise in the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. And here's the key. For he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. You'll find this consistent throughout the Bible. The purpose of government is to punish the evildoer. And the evildoer is not the sinner. We all sin every day. If sin was illegal, we'd all go to jail every day. But the bottom line is that doing evil is harming someone, hurting someone else. The purpose of government is to punish the murderer, anyone who harms someone else in any way. If someone steals from me, commits adultery with my wife, kills someone that I love, that's where the government is there to protect people's rights, to protect the weak, to protect their freedom. But you see, we live in a day where we're mixed up about what the government is and what freedom is. Let's get past that though. I think you get the picture. Let's talk about the three reasons why people sell out their liberty. Why they, like Esau, don't have any respect for the great gift that they receive from God by being born in America. Some people today are not born in a free country. They're born in a place where they're totally enslaved. We still, on paper, have this as the supreme law of the land. And so we technically still have these rights that are enumerated in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Why do people sell out their freedom? Why do people give it up? Look, if you would, at Hebrews chapter 12. And we're going to start with Esau where we started the sermon. While you're turning there, let me read you another scripture in Lamentations 5. Tell me if this sounds familiar. Lamentations 5, 1. Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us. Consider and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers. From our houses to aliens. Does that sound familiar? We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows. We've drunken our water for money. Now look, the Bible here is saying that you shouldn't have to pay for your water. And listen to this. Our wood is sold unto us. Like we can't just cut down a tree and just have that wood or just draw... No. Our wood is sold to us. They're selling us water, he's saying. Our necks are under persecution. We labor and have no rest. We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread. Basically, they're saying we have to rely on other countries to feed us. We can't feed ourselves. Our fathers have sinned and are not and we have borne their iniquities. But look, if you would, at Hebrews chapter 12. Let's get into the meat of the sermon. Three points. Why do people give up their liberty? It's so precious. People have died for it. Why give up? Verse 16. The Bible says, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected? For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. The first reason why people sell their liberty is for a handout, for a meal, for food, for something to eat. Basically, they'd rather gratify their physical appetite. They'd rather have something given to them than to have freedom. Basically, Esau was born with this great birthright and it was more important for him to be fed. That's exactly what's happening in America today. People are selling out their freedom for the handout. They said, well what good is my birthright going to do me if I die of hunger? That's what Esau said, you remember? And God looked at him and said, Esau, you're disgusting, you're vile, you despise your birthright. He said, that makes me sick that you don't rely on me to take care of you. You just think that it's worth it just to eat that soup, to sell out what you've been born with, your freedom, your inheritance of who you are. He said, isn't it worth more to you than that? And he sold it out. Oh, what good is freedom going to do me if I'm unemployed? That's what people would say today in America. Oh, what good is my freedom? Just like he said, what good is my birthright going to do if I'm starving? Oh, what good is freedom going to do me if I can't have the health care I need? Or if I can't get the job I need? What good is my freedom going to do me? Let me tell you something. Freedom is not just, this isn't politics. This isn't a political sermon. When you lose freedom, you lose all freedom. See, the government's not just satisfied just to take all your money and to tell you what to do all day. And as it says in the Declaration of Independence, to send swarms of officers to harass you. They're not satisfied until they've taken away your freedom of religion. They're not satisfied until they've silenced preachers like me and others who preach God's word. They're not satisfied until they take your children away and force them into an indoctrination center called a public school, like they do in Germany to this day where people are thrown in jail in Germany for homeschooling their children. Ever since Adolf Hitler, homeschooling's been illegal and it's still illegal to this day in Germany. Children are taken to, and I'm not saying it's just a law that's on the books. I'm saying every year people go to jail, their children are taken to school by police escort. Who's heard some of the stories? Oh yeah, it's huge in the news. You know, you think that your freedom isn't worth that much. It's because you don't appreciate it. It's because you're not thankful for it. It's because you're like Esau. You think a bowl of soup. You think a paycheck. You think your next meal is more important than the freedom that you were born with and you're wrong. Freedom's important. It's worth standing up for. Why did Paul stand up for it and say, hey, I'm a Roman citizen. You don't have the right to do this to me. You don't have the right to arrest me. You don't have the right to beat me. You don't have the right to throw me in jail. I was born free. And another man said, hey, I understand the value of that because I had to pay a great sum of money. I had to save up and work and pay to be free. Paul said I was born free. The problem is that many people that are born free, because of that, they don't appreciate freedom. Because it's just something they were born with and they don't know what it's like to be enslaved. So they just think it's not a big deal. They think communism is cool or fun or socialism. Oh, yeah, let's try it. They don't even realize how hard it was for us to get to the point where we're at, how hard it was for people to even make this a free country hundreds of years ago. They're willing to sell it out to feed their flesh, to feed their physical abbot. I'd rather be dirt poor and eat beans and rice and be free than to be enslaved and have everybody give me everything. I don't want it. I don't want the handouts. I want my freedom. I want to raise my children the way I want to raise them. I want to have the right to respect my children because that's what the Bible says. I don't need some child molesting service to come over and take my children from me because they think that I'm abusive. No, they're abusive. We're doing what God wants. My children are the happiest, most well-adjusted children you'll ever see because they're lovingly disciplined by a mother and father who teach them right and wrong because our freedoms come from God and I teach that to my children and I bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And you can say, oh, you're just talking politics. No, we're talking about the future of my family. We're talking about the future of the world that my children are going to grow up in. I've traveled the world a little bit. Now, maybe you haven't traveled as much and that's fine, but I've done a lot of traveling. I've been all over Europe. I know what it's like in other countries. It would not be possible for me to be living the life that I'm living right now in Germany. It wouldn't even be possible. No one my age has a sixth child on the way in Germany. They don't live in a house and have a sixth child and two vehicles? No. Because you're only allowed to work 35 hours a week. You can't get a second job. The government won't let you. They'll tax you to debt. People live with their parents until they're 30 or they live in some little dorm room in some indoctrination center getting indoctrinated in a university. People in Germany don't have the freedom that we have in the United States today. And a lot of people today will look at Europe as some kind of a model. They'll say, give us a king like the other nations. And yet if you've been there, you understand that the people that are considered middle class there are living in a high-rise apartment there with very little. And they can't even afford to have children. They can't even afford to do the things that they want to do in life. And if they have children, they can't even raise them because it's against the law to even teach them and train them and keep them out of the cesspool of public schooling. This isn't a joke, folks. We're born with freedom. Don't hand it over so easily. And you say, well, you know, we're Christians so we're supposed to just roll over and die. Where is that in the Bible? Can somebody show me that? Did Gideon roll over and die when his country was oppressed in judges? When he was hiding wheat from the Midianites because he was sick of them taking all his food away and taking all his money? What about Ehud? What about all the judges that stood up and freed their people? Were they wrong? What about Paul when he stood up for his rights repeatedly throughout the book of Acts? What about even Jesus when Jesus said, I don't have to answer these questions? And I showed you John, I can show you Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the same thing. Where they're questioning Jesus, asking all these questions, and he just says, you know what? You say that I am. Are you the king of the Jews? Well, that's what you just said. Go ask the people that heard me. They know what I said. Or when he went to Herod, Herod had to finally just beat him up because he wouldn't even say a word to him. He didn't even open his mouth to Herod. Just silent. But you see, we think that our freedom is worth selling out. And people today, they'll do what's called voting their pocketbook. Have you ever heard people say that? Just thinking to themselves, oh, well, you know, I'm against universal health care, but it would be kind of nice to vote. It'll help me. That's ungodly. You're a thief. If you sit there and vote for something that's going to take money from someone else and give it to you, not that it's going to give you, not that anybody's going to get the long end of the stick on these things anyway, but if you sat there and said, well, I'm going to vote for this anyway just because it helps me, you know, is that, I mean, other people go die and suffer and bleed so that we can have freedom so that you can just say, well, you know, if I end up a little better off at the end of the day, hey, no big deal. We need to value our freedom in this country. And the problem today is that most people, if they lost some of their freedoms, it wouldn't really matter. They don't spank their kids anyway, so it doesn't matter. Preachers, if preachers lose the freedom to preach, only about 1% of preachers will have to change what they preach because the other 99% are already self-censored. You know what I mean, if you think about it? Because they're not preaching the Bible anyway, so they won't have to change a thing. But see, I happen to value my freedom, and so number one, I think the first reason, and you know this is true, it's straight out of the Bible, number one. You know it's true. People sell their freedom to fulfill a physical appetite for more wealth or money or whatever that they think they can get in their pocket. They're willing to trade freedom for that. But that's not the only reason why they trade freedom. Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 8 where we were born, and you'll see the other reason why they sell out their freedom. Number one, they sell out their freedom just because of a physical appetite. But number two, they sell out their freedom because of fear. That's right. Fear. And by the way, we as Christians should not be fearful people. How many times did Jesus say, fear not, O you little faith? How many times did the Bible say, God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind? How many times did he say, 1 Peter chapter 2, when he said, be not afraid of their terror? How many times did he say, fear not, fear not, be not afraid, be not afraid, fear not. The fearful, the fearful, it's always negative in the Bible unless we're fearing God. But today people sell out their liberty, number one, to fulfill a physical appetite. You know, give me more money, give me food, give me unemployment, give me health care, give me free air. But number two, they'll sell out their liberty because they're scared. Now in 1 Samuel chapter 8, the reason why the people were scared, and this is where they asked for a king. Because of the fact, it says in verse number 19, it says, Nevertheless, the people refused to obey, 1 Samuel 19, the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Now in 1 Samuel chapter 8, they were faced with a threat of the Philistines. The Philistines were attacking, were putting them into bondage, they were having war with the Philistines. And basically, because they were scared about how that was going to turn out, they said, well that's fine if he takes our daughters and sons, and if he takes 10% of our money. You know, would to God that's what they were taking today. But you know, if he takes 10% of our money, that's fine. And if we have to have all these standing armies, and if they take our daughters and sons and our fields and everything, that's fine, but we just need protection from the Philistines. You know, that's what it always is that gets people enslaved, is fear. They feel like the government has to protect them, and let me tell you why. Because they don't rely on God to protect them. See, and this goes back to the first reason too, I rely on God to feed me. But when you don't have God, you don't have freedom. See, I rely on God to feed me. I don't need the government to become my surrogate God. And notice that's what happened in 1 Samuel 8, because look at verse 7. It says, And the Lord said unto Samuel, Harken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. When they traded their republican form of government, I'm not talking about the republican party, but what I'm talking about when they traded their form of government of just a few elected people. And by the way, the government in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy, it only had one branch. It wasn't even three branches. It was just a judicial branch. The people were the executive branch. And they didn't need a legislative branch, because here it is. It's done. They didn't keep coming up with new laws. Seriously, I'm just being honest with you. This was the law, which is done. Like, why do we have to keep making new laws? It's already done. And then the executive branch was just all the people would just lay hands on them and do whatever they needed to do. And then they just had a judicial branch, judges, that would just interpret the law, that would determine innocence and guilt, that would investigate crimes and so forth, to basically provide some safety and security to the people. They had a very extremely limited government. People don't like God's rules, but one thing you've got to give God, he doesn't have that many rules. People don't like them. Sorry, you know, you can't be a homo. You know what I mean? And people are like, ah! It's funny, you've got a government, you reject God, you throw God out, you throw out the Bible, you throw out God's word, and you have a government that will literally tell you how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to sleep. They'll tell everything about your life. They'll dictate you have to have a permit to do this, permit to do that, license this, license that, and yet you'll trade God's Ten Commandments, or God's couple hundred commandments, for millions of laws that are oppressive and enslave you, when God just said, just don't lie, don't steal, don't commit adultery, and don't be a faggot. And it's like, no, God, we have to do those things. Put us in bondage. Make me get a driver's license. Make me pay half my money in taxes, as long as I can be a pervert. But the bottom line is that they traded a very free system found in Deuteronomy. Total freedom. I mean, total private everything, just a few necessary laws. They traded that for a monarchy that was totally abusive, totally enslaved. Why? Because they didn't want God to reign over them. They chose human government. And human government becomes a replacement for God. It's true. You can say whatever you want. You can say, oh, we can have freedom and not be Christian, and we can just be atheists and have freedom. It's not going to happen. It's never going to happen. I know it happens in your mind, as a theory, but you know, when people are wicked, they can't be free. Because wicked people want power, and they want to enslave their fellow man. Only a good person, only a righteous person, wants to have freedom and love their neighbor as themselves, and respect others, and to do unto others as they have them do unto you. You know, you kick out God. You tell everybody they're an animal. You tell everybody it's evolution, and basically what you're promoting is eugenics. Because eugenics and evolution are the same thing. Survival of the fittest, right? I mean, if somebody's a eugenicist, they're just an evolutionist that just took it to the next level. That's all. God created us equal. God created us in the image of God. We're not animals, but when you tell people they're an animal, then you have to put them in a cage like an animal. Then you have to feed them like an animal. My dog doesn't go out and get its own food. I feed it. I feed my dog every day. I'm the one who gives my dog security. I'm the one who puts a fence... Actually, the dog gives me security, but that's why I have the dog. It's a watchdog. I'm the one who takes care of that dog, but you know what my dog doesn't have anything? It doesn't have freedom. My dog has plenty of food and water, but does my dog have freedom? I don't want to be a dog. I'm a human being. I don't want somebody to feed me. I want to feed myself. I want to work for myself. I want to run my own life. And that's what God wants for us. He wanted these people to have freedom, and He warned them. He said, look, do you want a government that takes 10% of your money? He tells them in 1 Samuel 8. He said in verse 15. And it will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He's like, do you want a government that takes 10% of what you make and gives it to all these public servants and officers? Yes, God. Just give it to us. We're scared. We need the government to protect us because they think God can't protect them. God can protect us if we'll be righteous, if we do right. Righteousness exalted the nation, the Bible says, but sin is a reproach to any people. So the first reason why people sell out their liberty is, number one, because of the fact that they just want to fulfill their appetite. It's just how much I can get out of it. Oh, I can get more food, more food stamps, more money, more programs? Great. Number two, that's Esau. Number two, the children of Israel in 1 Samuel 8, they sold out their freedom because they were scared of a threat. Of violence and all these, you know, the Philistines are going to get us and they're going to kill us and everything. Instead of trusting God to protect them, they basically said, no, we have to have a king. We have to reject that form of government. Fear. Fear. Why don't people stand up for their rights today? Because they're afraid. Why will the preachers get up and preach the Bible what needs to be preached? Because they're scared. They won't stand up for it. I mean, they're afraid of what's going to happen. You know, you think about what happened to me a little over a year ago. When I basically stood up for my Fourth Amendment rights and said, no, you're not going to search me without a warrant. I don't have to answer questions to you. You know, I'm just going about my business. You have no reason to suspect me. Why did I stand up for my freedom? How many times, if I had a nickel for every time everybody said, if you would have just cooperated, you would have been out of there. That's what they said. You would have been out of there in two minutes. Right? But, you know, where does that put my kids? If everybody has that philosophy. I mean, what if the Founding Fathers of our country would have just said, like, well, man, I'm not going to risk my life. They should have cooperated. Yeah, they should have cooperated. Why didn't they just say, like, well, I'm not going to pledge. What did they say in here? They pledged their... Let me read it for you real quick. There you go. It says, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. But, see, today people would just say, well, you know, I'm not going to risk my life. You know, I don't want to lose my fortune. I don't want to take a chance. Like, you know, you could have gotten hurt really bad. You know, something really bad could have happened. Why did you do that? Because, yes, I could have just said, you know what, I only care about myself. Because the best thing for myself is just to go through and just comply, go along with the flow, never stand up for anything. Just play the game. You know what I mean? Everything would be fine. But the reason I was willing to take a beating, and then the reason I went to court and spent about $7,000 of my own money, in addition to what other people donated to help me, I spent $7,000 of my own money to fight the charges, when if I would have been declared guilty, it probably would have been a $300 fine. You know, but 13 some odd thousand dollars was spent to fight the charges because of the fact that it's worth it to fight it to have freedom. Because my children, growing up in a country where they have the freedom to worship God as they see fit, to raise their children as they see fit, to be able to make a living and be able to, I mean, I want my children to be able to live the life that I've lived. You know, whatever life they want to live, but I'm just saying I wanted to have the opportunity, like I did. I married when I was 19. You know, I was living on my own at 19. I was paying my own way. I was able to have children. I'm 28 years old right now, and I have my sixth child on the way. And I have a house, and I have cars. Why? Because I live in a country where I have the opportunity to have the freedom to live that lifestyle. Whereas there are people all over the world who cannot live that lifestyle. Tell that to the 1.4 billion people living in a country where there's a one-child policy. Tell them freedom doesn't matter. Tell the people who are getting forced abortions in China today that politics should be kept separate from religion. Look, if it's in the Bible, I'm going to preach it. And I'm not willing to roll over and die. Maybe you're willing to just roll over and say, well, you know, Jesus could come back any second, which is not true. He's coming after the tribulation, Matthew 24. Pick up the Bible and read Matthew 24. Man, don't look at me that way. Okay? Hey, read the Bible. But Christians today want to just roll over and say, oh, well, you know what, I'm just going to go with the flow. I'm just going to go along with it. I'm not. Now, look, it'd be one thing if I were born a slave. I guess I'd just be a happy slave and just try to make the best fit. But, you know, I wasn't born a slave. I was born free. And to me, it's worth standing up for. It's worth fighting for. It's worth appreciating. And you know what, if it means taking a beating every once in a while from the police, it's worth it. If it means spending money in court to fight these people, it's worth it. If it means, you know, sacrificing, if it means preaching things that are unpopular that make people upset, but if it's going to educate people of the value of freedom, you know, it's worth it. And let me ask you something. Are you even thankful today for the sacrifice that was made on July 4, 1776, when people basically just burned the bridge behind them and said, you know what, we're going to do this. We're going to have freedom. You know Samuel Adams, the father of the American Revolution? He said, we're doing this. He said, if we fail, he said, if we don't stand up, if we just let our freedoms be trampled, he said, millions of unborn people will suffer. He said, millions of unborn people will be. Let me tell you something. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it. The Bible says that man is sinful. Man is not born good. Man is a natural sinner. I don't teach my children to lie, but I do have to teach them to tell the truth. They figure out how to lie on their own. People figure out how to be lazy on their own. They have to be taught to work hard, don't they? Because mankind tends toward doing that, which is wrong. And let me tell you something. When you take out God, you take out the Bible, out of the equation, this man is wicked, and this world is a wicked place. I mean, we are just a tiny little part of the population living in the United States. And we don't even have freedom, according to the Bible. The Bible's definition, we're not even close to freedom, according to what the Bible states freedom is, from earlier in the summer when I went through some things. And there's more. I've preached those sermons on that. But you see, there are people all over the world, the vast majority have almost no freedom, because sinful, wicked man will take over and enslave everywhere, every country in the world. If you don't stop them, they will take over. They'll totally enslave. They'll just put you on the plantation and beat you and tell you to shut up and go to work, and they'll live in a big fancy house. The rulers of this world will take over and beat you and abuse you and enslave you. They've done it throughout history, always. They will do it. Unless someone stands up and fights for not just their own freedom, but for everybody's freedom. Unless you stand up to them and say, no! They'll take everything. I mean, if somebody breaks into my house tonight, am I just going to say, oh here, let me load that into the car for you? I don't want you to hurt your back. And that's what people today think that Christianity is supposed to be. You see, Christianity is not about you. Isn't Christianity all about others? And wait a minute, doesn't it matter to others if we're free? I mean, doesn't it matter to our children? I mean, shouldn't we stand up for our rights and our freedoms? Because when we're standing up for our rights, we're standing up for everybody's rights. We're standing up for everybody's freedoms. And you know, we need to just quit putting our head in the sand and saying, oh yeah, everything's going to be great. Look, we know what the Bible says. We know we're going toward a one-world government. That's what the Bible says. We know where this is going. We know that man is evil. We can look at Obama and we can look at Geithner and Biden and all these people that run our country. We can look at them and know they're evil. Like, maybe the deluded people of this world can just sit there and have this little, oh yeah, they love us. They really care about us. Are you that stupid? I mean, all you have to do is read the Bible. The Bible says that man is greedy and sinful and covetous. And that, you know, that's why we even needed this document was to protect us from the government. To put limitations on what they could do to us to take away our freedom. This is the boundary right here. I love how small this book is, by the way. You know, this should be all we need right here. In fact, this is all we need. Because, you know, anything that's good in this is in here anyway. And everything I don't like about this isn't in here. It's true. The Bible gives more freedom than this book does. This book says in the 5th Amendment that the government can take away your property as long as they pay you for it. Eminent domain. I don't believe that. But that's in the 5th Amendment of the Constitution. The Bible has a story about a man named Naboth. The government wanted to take his vineyard. They offered to pay him any price, and he said, no, I'm not selling it. And God said he was right, and then they killed him and took his vineyard anyway, because that's the way the world works. Now look, what's the third reason why people sell out their liberty? I'm done. Number one, to gratify a physical appetite. You know, just feed me, pay me, give me handouts, what's good for me, me, me, me. Selfishness. Number two, why they sell out their freedom? Because they're scared. Of a bogus enemy or a real enemy, God can't protect them. Number three, it's because they don't want God to rule over them. You can't have freedom. You can't have freedom without righteousness. You will be enslaved. Look at the children of Israel. They lived in freedom. As soon as they start worshipping other gods, they went into bondage. They went into slavery every time. Do you think it's a coincidence that as we lose freedom, our country becomes more debauched and wicked at the same exact rate? Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that as freedom goes away, people become more wicked, we see more perversion, we see just total disregard for God's laws, we see total disregard for marriage or, you know, monogamy, you know, just being married to one woman until death has to do part, being pure until you're married. You know, that's not the norm in America today. You think that's very common? For a man or woman to be totally pure when they get married and to be only just for themselves? But you remember Esau? He was a fornicator. Remember that? And that's why he despised his birthright. You know what fornication means? Sleeping around, sleeping with someone you're not married to. That's what Esau was. He loved to fornicate. And he was the same guy who said, oh, I don't care about my birthright, just feed me. Because if you're living your life to just gratify a physical appetite instead of for righteousness and godliness and what's right and doing the right thing, you will never be free. Because freedom comes from God. These people knew that. They said the rights come from the Creator. And you know what? When God looks down and seeks a bunch of wickedness and sin and smut, freedom's gone. And that's why the two, you can't deny it. Freedom has gone at the same rate that morality has gone. Because when you raise up a wicked generation, tell them there's no God, tell them they're an animal, next thing they'll do is want to enslave. And hey, it's all about me. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we just pray that you help us to understand the Bible's principles here. You put these stories in the Bible for a reason. Help us to learn from them, dear God. Help us to read the book of Acts and understand these principles. Help us to read the book of Hebrews. Help us to read the book of Deuteronomy. And Father, help us on today to be thankful for the sacrifice made by many who lost their lives, lost their fortunes, lost their honor in order to give us the freedom that we have. Help us not to take it lightly and help us not to just sell it out for anything, any handouts or some false sense of security. Help us to cherish it and love it and to understand what it means to be an American. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.