(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) So I'm here with Pastor Steven Anderson, and you know, last time I was here, I talked to you about, you know, the hate that you have for people. Why are you so hateful? Why am I so hateful? Well, first of all, every single person has both love and hate. That's just part of being a human being, right? I just actually admit the things that I hate, and I hate what God hates. Right. So I think that the people who call me hateful, they're hateful too. A lot of times they hate me. Whoa, buddy, you're getting physical. Hey, look, come on, man. Thank you. Get those, get those bows go out of here. Okay. Um, so speaking of hate though, right? Because there's a lot of people that believe that God loves the people burning in hell. What would you say about that? I mean, it's absurd. Obviously the people that are burning in hell have been discarded eternally. So obviously they're not the recipients of God's love. They're not experiencing God's love. They chose that. So God let them do what they wanted. That's what the people would say. I mean, look, let, let me be clear though that God loved every single person on this whole world. Like God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. But once these people come to a point where they've rejected Christ and they've died without Christ and they're eternally damned, they're no longer obviously the recipients of God's love. God's through with them. It's, you know, once they go to hell, they can never get out again. They get there forever. Yeah. They can't apologize. Because if they did, they could, they all would like, it might take some longer than others, but I think eventually they'd say whatever to get out of there. Why do people think you're so mean? Because they don't know me because people that actually know me don't think I'm mean. But people who just see like a caricature of me online because they get just certain most radical clips from the most radical sermon, people actually know me in real life don't think that I'm mean. Yeah. Right. But people just judge you based on you're kind of scary. You ought to be scared. It's funny because you'll go to those videos where you're kicking, you're, you're kicking heretics out of the church for, you know, saying that the Trinity, they're texting members in the church saying the Trinity is a false doctrine and all this other stuff. But then these people in the comments are saying you're hateful for kicking them out, for not letting them start a false doctrine. It's my job to protect the flock. That's like saying the shepherd is hateful because he kicks the wolf out. Yeah. Because he's trying to protect the sheep, right? So, you know, it's not that I'm hateful. It's that I'm faithful. Yeah, exactly. I borrowed that from someone else. The thing is all these, like most of these churches out there, they'll just let anything fly because they don't love their people that don't care. They don't love the sheep. So they're just like, sure, Wolf, come on in. As long as his money's green, he's welcome. Yeah. You know, but I'm trying to look out for the flock. So what is cursing, cussing and swearing? So cursing is when you wish evil upon someone. So if I said, you know, I hope that your house caves in on you, that's me cursing you. Okay. You know, I hope that guy slips on a banana peel. Like that's a curse, right? A blessing would be the opposite of that. Like, Hey, I hope that you are healthy and live a long life and that things go well for you. That's blessing and cursing. Now, cussing is basically a word that is derived from mispronouncing the word cursing. Yeah. You just, the R fell out and it's just like cussing. Yeah. Well, that's not a biblical concept. There's no cussing in the Bible. There's no concept in the Bible of two words mean the exact same thing. And you know, one of them, we can't pronounce it. And the other one, we can, even though they both mean the same thing because there's this list of prohibited words, you know, that's not a biblical concept. So cussing is more like a societal thing of like our society is like, Hey, don't talk that way. But they just had a Bible issue, but they just happen to be all the words that are in the Bible. Half of them are in the Bible, you know, and it's like, how can it be a cuss word if it's in the Bible? And the funny thing about that is that like, it kind of shows that maybe the Bible wasn't being preached enough because if the Bible was constantly being preached, nobody would have ever thought like, Oh, we shouldn't say that word. They'd be like, dude, we hear that every Sunday. What are you talking about? It just shows that like our society got away from the Bible to where those words could even become cuss words. Yeah. Like bastard or piss or whatever, you know, Pastor Shelley was preaching about that and he was saying how, uh, even just talking to me, you were saying there's pastors, they will skip over those words. Yeah. Literally. Which is just bizarre. It's like a fake form of righteousness. Yeah. It's like, Oh, I'm so Holy. I'm even holier than the Bible. So, you know, the Bible is too gnarly for me. I have to like censor the Bible. You know, one of the things that they're saying now on, uh, like these influencers, these big influencers on Instagram and YouTube, they're saying that if you don't stop looking at like, you know, inappropriate stuff or masturbating, that you're going to get kicked out of heaven. Kicked out of heaven or like, you're not going to get there. I don't think that's going on in heaven. That's the way he worded it. That's the way he worded it. Yeah. But, but here's the thing, you know, everybody is a sinner. Now different people struggle with different things. Some people will be like, Oh man, I don't struggle with that at all. But then they struggle with something different. Yeah. You know, for some people it's alcohol, for some people it's drugs, for some people it's pornography, for some people it's gluttony, right? For some people it's laziness, pride, whatever. I mean, it could be all different things. And so just because you have a handle on certain things in your life, well guess what? Nobody has a handle on everything because we're all human. We're all sinners. We're saved by grace, not by works. Exactly. But if you have the faith, then you're going to do the works they'll say. But that's not true because the Bible says to him that worketh not, but believeth his faith is counted for righteousness. I can't understand that. Over, over, overload. Romans 4-5 does not compute. Well, I like it when you said, because you're talking when people say, uh, turn from sin to God. That's like going from Walmart to Geico. Yeah. Like they're not the same thing. Like you could turn from like Buddha to Jesus, right? Or turn from Mohammed to Jesus or turn from Islam to Christianity, Hinduism to Christianity. But they say, I turn from sin to Jesus. What is that? What is, that's like saying, you know, I stopped going to Chevron and now I'm going to Panda express. It's, you know, one's a gas station, one's a restaurant. Like, like how does God replace sin? That doesn't even make sense. And that's implying that like anybody can't continue to sin after they believe in Jesus. You know, the Bible says the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know, we all want to do what's right, but we also live in the simple. You're putting Panda Express in your gas tank now. I don't know. How many times have you read the Bible cover to cover? So when I was 17 years old is the first time that I read the Bible cover to cover. And then starting with 18 years old, I started reading it four times every single year. So I'd read it cover to cover every three months. So I did that up until around the time that I started faith board Baptist church when I was 24 years old. So at that point, you know, I'd probably read the Bible about 25 times when I started faith for word roughly. But then at that time I switched to where I stopped reading the Bible four times a year and I started focusing more on Bible memory. So I started memorizing a lot of chapters of the Bible. So then I would only read the Bible cover to cover more like twice a year. And then, um, then I got into more recently just reading the Bible in other languages. And so like I've read the Greek new Testament 10 times cover to cover. I read the old Testament cover to cover in Greek. I read the old Testament cover to cover in German, Spanish, Latin. I read the whole Latin Vulgate cover to cover. So now I'm more focused on reading in other languages. No, you asked me a question. The bottom line is like, I don't, I stopped keeping track at around like 25, but that was 17 years ago. So I short answer is, I don't know what, what has helped you understand the Bible the most out of everything you've done. You think, I think that the number one thing to help you understand the Bible is putting the Bible into practice. You know, you gotta be a doer of the word, but not only that is just pushing preconceived ideas out of your mind. Right. Because, uh, one of the things that is the enemy of understanding the Bible is when people approach it with just these really ingrained preconceived ideas, I've tried throughout my life to push those things out of my mind and just, you know, let the text speak to me and not try to impose my own, you know, prejudices onto the text. Yeah. And then the thing for me, I was going, I was going to ask you about, cause so I'll, I'll be reading like the, the old Testament and there's certain things that are kind of complicated, confusing to me. Like, um, was, was that that way for, for you as well? Oh, absolutely. I mean, there are things now that I don't understand. I mean, you're never going to understand everything in the Bible unless you're God. I mean, I literally, you know, at this time would say that there are, you know, it's, it's almost like the more that you read the Bible, the more you realize you don't understand just because it's so deep. There's so much there. And so, especially when I started out, there were a lot of things that were going over my head and there are still things that are my, but here's my advice to people is, especially when you're starting out reading the Bible, don't try to just understand everything because it's not going to happen. I just tell people, if you come to something in the Bible, you don't understand, just keep reading and don't get hung up because what happens is people never make it through the Bible cover to cover because every time they get to something, they get off on a rabbit trail, they start Googling stuff, they start watching YouTube videos. Like sometimes you just have to just say, Oh well, whatever. And just keep reading and at least try to get through the Bible cover to cover a few times. You know, my pastor, when I was a teenager, here's what he said. He said, read the Bible cover to cover five times before you try to study the Bible. And so that's what I did. I read the Bible cover to cover five times. That's why I read it four times that second year. Cause I want to get to the five. But then when I got to the five, you know what I said? I better read it five more. Yeah. Cause this is like the more you read, the more you realize you don't know. Right. Yeah. And there's a lot of times like when I would understand something, uh, I would just look up a sermon of yours. I'm like, Oh, that actually makes perfect sense. Why didn't I even understand that? Like, um, when I was, um, more newly saved, like James chapter two, I'm like, I don't get it, but the Bible obviously can't contradict itself. So it can't be works. And then these hundreds of other verses say it's faith. Well, do you think, you know, when I was a kid and I first read James two, I was just like, you know what? I don't understand this, but whatever. And I just went to James three and I just kept on going. You know, my advice is just focus on what you do understand, put that into practice, put into practice what you do know. And then over time, you'll understand more and more. And then you'll realize even more that you don't understand. I'm glad I don't understand everything in the Bible because then I'd be like done. And to me, it's about the journey of studying the Bible and learning. Like, I'm glad that there's way more to learn because they don't keep me busy my whole life. I'm not, I'm never going to like run out of stuff to read in the Bible. That's a fact. How long does it usually take you to prepare for a sermon? So I'm not really big on spending time preparing sermons. So I will often just spend like less than a half hour preparing a sermon or like this particular sermon. I probably spent like an hour preparing this afternoon, but here's the thing. If you ask me how long I prepared this sermon, I would say I've been preparing the sermon my entire life, you know, because this is my motto. I don't prepare sermons. I prepare myself. So I'd rather just spend like tons of time reading and studying and learning. And then when I go to actually write the sermon, it goes quick, you know? So on a particular sermon, I might only spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour. Some sermons I'll spend three, four hours preparing, but I mean, some sermons I'll spend a hundred hours preparing. Like for example, when I preached a sermon about Hinduism, I probably spent about a hundred hours researching Hinduism before I preached that sermon, literally. And like when I preached on Buddhism, I listened to like literally like 36 hours of college lectures on Buddhism on Audible, like great courses, Buddhism, and all these different like lectures that I found. I read books about it. I was looking at Buddhist scriptures, like, so I mean, a sermon like that I could put 50 hours into. When I preached on the Dead Sea Scrolls, I would say I put at least 80 to 90 hours of preparation of that sermon. But then I frequently preach sermons that I wrote in 20 minutes, 15 minutes, you know? But I'm always reading, I'm always studying, and it all feeds into my sermons. That makes sense. Yeah. So what are the four types of people in the parable of the sower? So the parable of the sower, I think the key to understanding it is to realize that it's not describing every single kind of person in the whole world. Right. And that's where people make the mistake, okay? Because obviously you've got the one that's on the good ground. That's like the best case scenario. The person, they hear the word of God, they get saved, but then they also end up serving God, producing a lot of fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100. So maybe they're winning 30 people to Christ, 60 people to Christ, 100 people to Christ, right? Right. So they're really doing a lot for God. Now the three other examples, the three negative examples are, first of all, there's the one where they don't understand it, right? Somebody hears the word of God, they don't understand, and then the devil come and catches it away from them. So that's the seed that went on the wayside, right? And that's just a person, just like Jesus said, you explain it to them, it goes over their head, and then the devil just kind of distracts them with other things and they just forget about it. So that person never gets saved. That person didn't get saved. The seed gets gobbled up before it even germinates, before a new plant is even produced. So in the parable of the sower, only one of the people is not saved. The one who doesn't understand it and the devil catches it away and nothing happens. Then there's the one where it's in a shallow earth. It's in the stony places, right? And that's the person who they get real excited about. They get saved, they get excited, they're serving God, but as soon as there's any persecution, they're out. Yeah. So they end up not being a fruitful Christian because persecution inevitably comes and then they're out. And then you have the one that's sown among thorns where they get saved and they're serving God, but then the cares of this world and all the money and fame and all the other things that they can pursue choke the word and they don't bring forth any fruit. Okay. So those are the four kinds, but think about who's not in this story. Where does the Bible talk about in this story, the person who hears the gospel, understands it and just says no to it. Right. I mean, what if I explain to somebody the gospel and they're just like, well, I understand it, but I just don't believe it. Which is like a ton of people. Yeah. But where does that person fit in the story? They don't. So a lot of people, they try to make it to where like everybody's unsaved except the one that's bringing forth fruit. But in reality, everybody in the story is saved except for the one that was on the wayside where it gets gobbled up because the other ones, they grow into a plant. They just don't end up staying with it because they get distracted by money. They get either persecuted or whatever. Yeah. So it makes perfect sense. Yeah. What is the parable of the prodigal son talking about? Well, the thing about parables is that they're operating on a lot of different levels. So there are multiple legitimate interpretations of these parables, but part of the parable is about the Gentiles and Israel. Okay. Because the older brother is Israel. They're kind of the one that was, you know, uh, serving God and the old Testament and everything. And then the Gentiles come along who'd been out, you know, with all the riotous living and all of a sudden now they're coming back to the fold and the Lord's getting all excited about the Gentiles have come to God. And then the older brothers bitter about it. Right. Well, that's just like where the Jews were bitter about Gentiles getting saved. So I think that's kind of the primary interpretation of it. It's about Israel. It's about the Gentiles and, you know, but you could also take it as an interpretation of you have two saved Christians. One of them stays in church and continues to serve God. One of them goes out and starts partying and gets backslidden and whatever. And then when they come back to God, maybe the people who've stayed faithful at church, like don't want to accept them or they don't want to forgive them and they don't want to like reinstate them into the church. So, I mean, you could interpret that parable in a whole bunch of legitimate ways. Okay. Makes sense. Um, you know, like the people that believe that you can lose your salvation, they'd say he lost his salvation and got it back. Well, he never stopped being his son. Yeah. You know, the thing is you can leave your parents' house and say, okay, mom and dad, I don't want anything to do with you. Does that change the fact that your parents' DNA is in every cell of your body? Well, guess what? When you're a child of God, you're saved and nothing can change that. You can go out and be a black sheep of the family, but you're still a son. Right. And the prodigal son never stopped being a son. So I have a friend, um, and he's telling me that Paul believes in keeping the law to be saved because in Acts chapter 21, uh, he's doing all these things. He participated in this Jewish stuff. Yeah. But here's the thing that you have to understand. When you're reading the Bible, you've got the statements and you've got the stories. The book of Galatians just absolutely destroys this idea of Paul keeping the law or teaching the law as part of the Christian life. I mean, Galatians just destroys that. But then you have the story over an act where his actions aren't really consistent with what he's preaching in Galatians. His actions in Acts 21 are not consistent with what he's preaching in Galatians. Why? Because he's being a hypocrite in Acts 21 because he's human. He's not perfect and he's making a mistake. So, you know, we could look at other stories in the Bible where men of God perhaps had two wives or something, right? Or like 700. Yeah. Or Solomon having all these wives. Yeah. Are we going to turn around and say, oh, well then, uh, we should do polygamy. No, we should go with the statement that God made male and female and the man leaves his father and mother cleaves unto his wife and they too are one flesh. So when you have a statement and a story, let the statement interpret the story. Go with the statement. Well, David committed murder, so we should all do that. Yeah, we should all go do that too. But what we should go by is the statement thou shall not kill. And Galatians is filled with statements that were not under the law. We're not to keep the Jewish, uh, way of life, the calendar, the days, months, times, years of the Jews. Oh, here's what Galatians just blows out. Well, here's what he would, he would bring me. He's like, well, Isaiah 66 talks about the Sabbath and the new moon. Well, he needs to get in the new Testament where he belongs because the new Testament clearly says, and again, Galatians is the big one that just completely just annihilates this like Torah observing Christian nonsense. The Judaizers, you know, worst nightmare is the book of Galatians. Yeah, because what he's watching is this messianic Christianity, but I don't see any messianic Christians in the Bible. No, because once you're, here's the thing, there's one congregation for Jews and Gentiles, house of prayer for all nations, one fold, one shepherd. We don't need a separate messianic Jew church and a separate Gentile church. No, we just need church for Christians, you know, and if you get saved, you're not a messianic Jew, you're a Christian now. In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Again, Galatians. Yeah, all right. Amen to that. Appreciate it. Yeah. Cool, man. Can you choke me out real quick? Yeah. Okay.