True Freedom I Pastor Robert Gay

[SPEAKER_00]: High Praise Podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High Praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and turn your Bible to the Galatians chapter five.

[SPEAKER_01]: Galatians chapter five.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to minister some things this morning concerning true freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever you say the word freedom, people have different ideas of what that looks like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has their own idea of what freedom actually is.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I want everybody to understand that Jesus is the author of true freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: There really is no freedom outside of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can live in a free nation and still be in bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know what I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: As a matter of fact, this is a wonderful nation that we live in.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank God for the U.S. as we've already articulated.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is there's a lot of people.

[SPEAKER_01]: a whole lot of people in the United States while they live in a free country, they still live in bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: They still live in chains.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here this, I believe that we have to do more than just, it's wonderful that we sing this song, a freedom, it's a great declaration, no more shackles, no more chains, but understand this singing the song by itself.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't understand what that means and how to walk in it, you will still walk in a place of bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: As a matter of fact, you can come to an altar and even give your life to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've seen it happen before.

[SPEAKER_01]: People get saved and there's a measure of deliverance that they receive, but however they never really fully receive the freedom that is available in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so this morning I want to share some things about what it means to walk in true freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody say true freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: because you have to understand that there is a fake freedom also.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was very interesting this past Wednesday night, and by the way, last Sunday had a powerful message.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you didn't, uh, weren't here and you didn't hear Pastor Joshua preach last Sunday, you need to go listen to that message.

[SPEAKER_01]: But powerful message, powerful move of the Holy Spirit within the service.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in Wednesday night, very, very similar, we had a worship, we had a fellowship, but in a worship and prophetic night, and the Holy Spirit showed up in a very powerful demonstrate, but part of the word of the Lord, is where I'm going.

[SPEAKER_01]: Part of the word of the Lord, and I remember Pastor Gary getting up and prophesying this, had to do with counterfits and compromise.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you are here?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you remember what was prophesied about counterfits and compromised because here this, the devil will always offer you a counterfit to that which is real.

[SPEAKER_01]: You always will.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a master counterfitter and a lot of times people think that they're receiving and walking and what Jesus paid for them when the reality is they have balled into a counterfit.

[SPEAKER_01]: that the devil has, a counterfeit that hell has produced.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because let's hear this, the devil has no ability to create.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is not a creator.

[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing he could do is counterfeit and pervert what God has created.

[SPEAKER_01]: God creates a family.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does a devil do?

[SPEAKER_01]: He perverts it and brings in a counterfeit to what God created.

[SPEAKER_01]: God created male and female.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does the enemy do?

[SPEAKER_01]: He creates a perversion.

[SPEAKER_01]: He creates a counterfeit to what God actually created and intended to start out with.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have to realize that once you get saved to a certain level, please hear me hear I say this, the devil loses and there's a loss in hell whenever you are born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: So,

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows that you've been born again and he knows that you've given your life to Jesus so what he does is he comes and offers some type of counterfeit so that you don't fully realize everything that God has for you and also

[SPEAKER_01]: You fail to actually become the person of impact in the society and culture.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you know that God has called you to impact your society, your family, the culture, everybody around you, we are called to be salt and light and to see change and transformation in the lives of others.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the enemy wants you to buy into account or fit.

[SPEAKER_01]: so that you are prevented from actually functioning and operating in the manner in way that God is created you to operate in.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that you actually, for what God's purpose and plan because you buy into that counterfits.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Galatians 5-1 says this, stand fast, everybody says stand fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: stand fast, therefore, in the liberty or the freedom by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a vioca bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, one of the things that we see in this scripture is that you can actually get saved, you can be free, but yet you can go right back in to bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, many Christians never fully walk out of the bondage that they actually were

[SPEAKER_01]: Many people at the time of salvation, again, they experience a great measure of freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember whenever you got say?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember when you got say?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember the freedom that you experience whenever you got say?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember the people have different types of experiences?

[SPEAKER_01]: Some people that they don't feel anything?

[SPEAKER_01]: But most people, whenever you talk to them, they'll tell you how they felt like something was lifted, that there was a heaviness that was lifted off of their life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody relate to that, whenever you got saved, you felt there was a heaviness that was the things that were weighing you down, that they were lifted.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a new freedom and liberty that you had.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they get saved and they experience that, but over the course of time, many of them fall back.

[SPEAKER_01]: They become entangled again in the yoke of bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, some just exchange one brand of bondage for another brand of bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this typically takes place as a result of counterfits and compromise.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really kind of just picking up on this word that was even prophesied on Wednesday night because I believe whenever the Spirit of the Lord speaks things prophetically, he intends for us to hear it and hear it very clearly.

[SPEAKER_01]: not just get excited about it for the moment, but actually be able to embrace it so that it makes a difference within our life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here, if you're just hearing a prophetic word and it's getting you excited for the moment, but you're not embracing it and saying, Lord, let that be done in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you're missing out on the fullness of what God intends for the prophetic word to do within your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you have to understand that counterfits and compromise is the tools of the enemy.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's what he uses in the lives of believers to put them back in a place of captivity and bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: As I said already, Satan, the devil, he is the chief counterfitter.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is the master counterfitter.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is the king of all counterfits and all counterfitting.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not a creator.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's only a counterfitter and a perverter.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is how he deceives people.

[SPEAKER_01]: He counterfits things and makes it look like the real.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, here are some things that you need to know about counterfits.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you're going to understand all of this as we get into this message more this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what you need to know about counterfits.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, what gives them ability to even circulate is they disguise themselves as the real.

[SPEAKER_01]: A counterfit is not going to advertise, I'm a fake.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: A counterfeit disguises itself as a real in order to put itself off as something that is genuine when there is actually no genuineness about it whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, that has absolutely no value to purchase what you want.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me say it another way, when you embrace a counterfeit that the enemy has, you end up being short, being able to actually receive what God desires to release in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because a counterfeit doesn't have the ability to purchase, it only purchases from those who are deceived by it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number three, they're the guarantee that the real exist.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you know that counterfeit always ensures, and it guarantees that the real exists, let you don't you think about this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever seen a counterfeit $3 bill?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why have you, these are, this is another trick question.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for that one answer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why have you never seen a counterfeit $3 bill?

[SPEAKER_01]: because a $3 bill doesn't exist to start out with.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a real $3 bill, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to see a counterfeit $4 bill or a $9 bill or a $22 bill or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it doesn't exist.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you have to understand any kind of thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: counterfeit that the enemy offers is always the guarantee that the real exists.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's a lot of people I'll just want to throw this in.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of people, you know, that they don't receive the prophetic because they are overly concerned about maybe counterfeits that are out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: But understand this, the counterfeit and the fake and the false.

[SPEAKER_01]: only guarantees that the real actually exist.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of there are real profits and there's the real prophetic that brings edification, exhortation, and comfort, and builds up the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: In listen, I'm not going to allow somebody who's a fake and a fraud dictate what I do or what I don't do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just because they were fake doesn't mean that I'm fake or you hear what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: And it doesn't mean that you're fake.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: It means this.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to, yes, we have to practice discernment and we have to, you know, have watchful eyes, but understand this.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's way too many people today in the body of Christ that are throwing out the baby with the bath water.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that things happen and they see things happening even within the church, many times.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so what they do is they throw the baby out with the bath water so they forget that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anything that even looks like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But understand this, the counterfeit is the assurance that the real actually exists.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's true fatherhood, and even within the church, but then there's also those that would attempt to use fatherhood and try to control him and manipulate people.

[SPEAKER_01]: But how many of you know, just because somebody who said that they were a spiritual father tried to control him and manipulate doesn't mean that we reject those who are spiritual fathers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is this making sense?

[SPEAKER_01]: So we have to make sure that we don't allow the counterfeit number one embrace it, but then whenever we see it, we don't need to react to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just need to know that the real exists, amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you look at somebody and say the real exists?

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's the last thing you need to know about counterfeits.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is this.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you use them, you go to jail.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you can go all kind of places right here.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, whenever Christians begin to buy in to counterfeits and when they begin to receive the counterfeits, what ends up happening is they go to jail, they go to bondage, they go to a place that God never intended for them to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I see it happening on a regular basis, there's a bit of like many times I see believers, Christians who oppose things and I just go, well, that sounds cute, but it's a counterfeit.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's error.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: And today, I want to shine the light on some of these things, particularly in the light of walking and true freedom, because here this God desires for you to walk and true freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tell somebody, God wants you to be free.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, we're real quick to quote scriptures and they're wonderful scriptures, but you gotta also read them in the full context of what's being said.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said, you know, if you continue in my world, then you're my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we like to take the last part of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The truth will make you free.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm here to tell you the truth, but that's not what Jesus is talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about actually continuing in his word and then also being a discipline to one, living in this, I'm getting off a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: But under certain, this, you can't walk in freedom if you don't learn how to walk in discipline.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the reason you that are parents, it's important that you discipline your children and teach them, and by the way, just discipline them also in life skills.

[SPEAKER_01]: Discipline them in the things of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now,

[SPEAKER_01]: There was one time I think I've told this story before, but Pastor Josh was not here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if he's watching him, I'd be watching, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I might, we'll take it up whenever he gets back and what I'm about to say.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, whenever he's real little, he was about two years old, and we were going to church one morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, okay, Josh went, it's time for us to go to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to worship the Lord today.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, I'm not going to praise the Lord today.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he said, I don't feel like praise in the Lord today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, was anything wrong?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I just don't feel like praise in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't say quite that gruff, OK?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's just kind of a teeny voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, so I said, well, Joshua, you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says, the Bible says, Joshua, will praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua says, I will praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: You put your name in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua will praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so worship started up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was on the front row.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Pastor Stacey, she was up on the platform with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was on the keyboard, and we were leading worship.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody's dancing, everybody rejoicing, and we're all praising God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wish I could do this sometimes in some adults, but nonetheless, but nonetheless.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, so he decided that he was going to sit down.

[SPEAKER_01]: wrong thing to do, wrong thing to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: We taught him, you're going to praise the Lord, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, I'm going to sit down.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we couldn't do anything at the moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, Pastor Stacey, she kept looking at him going.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he didn't respond, you know, he just sat there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one thing y'all need to know about Pastor Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a little headstrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway.

[SPEAKER_01]: But by the way, you know what, that's not a bad thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could either turn that into God or the determination, or it can end up being turned into Burbel, you know, one or the other.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank God he turned his into determination or Mom and Dad helped him turn it into determination.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, as soon as he got down, the worship finish he kept right now, and she came down on with that platform.

[SPEAKER_01]: She grabbed him by the hand and took him right outside and just me and I say applied the board of education to the seat of learning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you what happened next Sunday?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know what happened next Sunday?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you what happened last Sunday?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you were here, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's running all over the platform.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where he got it from.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you where he got it from, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why, sometimes we feel like we can't discipline our children in the things of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you to me, it was more important that my children knew how to praise and worship God than clean up their room.

[SPEAKER_01]: To me, it was more important that they'd be on church on Sunday morning than even be at school on Monday morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll hear what I'm saying.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've always prioritized the other things, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what, by the way, all of us have had to go through.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you had a mom and dad, they hopefully you did, had to teach you some things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And how many glad for the discipline that you're mom and dad, this is not the message, but I'm just saying this.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is no freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, freedom isn't doing whatever you want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not true, Freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I could just do whatever I want to do, that's not true, Freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Living with no parameters and boundaries and living a selfish, self-centered lifestyle, that's not Freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the road to bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's what we have thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, particularly we are being times focused so much on our rights.

[SPEAKER_01]: But on everybody here that's just because you have a right, number one doesn't mean it's right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And not only that, but it doesn't mean that it is freedom in manifestation when you exercise that right.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can exercise your right and go straight into bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: You exercise your right and go straight to hell.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So we have to understand, but because the culture is messed up and mixed up, it's been that way for a long time.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not talking about any specific generation, because every generation has those things that they have had to contend with, as a matter of fact, does anybody here remember in the 60s that was what was called the hippie movement?

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I remember the hippie movement?

[SPEAKER_01]: Then if you do, okay, am I the only one that remember?

[SPEAKER_01]: I was a 60's child.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did anybody ever do any reading or studying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Doc, you remember that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you have a long hair back then?

[SPEAKER_01]: You did?

[SPEAKER_01]: No way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you kidding me?

[SPEAKER_01]: You had the fro?

[SPEAKER_01]: You had the fro going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the 60's.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, in the hippie movement, it, again, predominantly, it took place in the 60s.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, please don't be offended by this terminology shouldn't be, you know, but that's what they call it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were called hippies.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the hippie movement, because they felt that they were hip, so they were called hippies.

[SPEAKER_01]: The hippie movement, you heard a lot about freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the reality, in fact, is most of what they did, actually led to bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: They participated in all sorts of sinful behavior, and they did it all in the name of freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: In likewise today, there are Christians who are participating in sinful behavior, and they do it in the name of freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: They do it in the name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody's gonna tell me what to do, bless God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody's going to tell me what to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm my own man, I'm my own woman, I do whatever I want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see how many times the word I keep being used in there?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's always what I, what I, what I, and so what happens is, you know, and what happened in the hippie movement, there was great bondage that took place.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we need to destroy

[SPEAKER_01]: This spirit of deception that the enemy has brought even into the church today because many people, although they were saved, they've went back into a yoga bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: They've allowed other things, they've taken the counterfeit freedom, rather than true freedom in Christ Jesus, rather than actually living a life that conforms itself to what God has commanded, not what you think you should do.

[SPEAKER_01]: conforms your life and everything that you do to what the Lord desires for your life, rather than what you've dreamed up.

[SPEAKER_01]: God desires to liberate you today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell somebody God won't you free today?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, one of the counterfits that the enemy will use and he'll call this freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: The counterfit that the enemy will call freedom in your life is actually the counterfit of rebellion and self-will.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the reality true freedom is fostered by submission and obedience, and we'll say it again, the counterfeit of rebellion and self-will is what the enemy uses in the name.

[SPEAKER_01]: It guises itself as freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the reality is submission and obedience is what leads to true freedom,

[SPEAKER_01]: Now back in the hippie movement that, you know, really it was a revolution against established order, which in their mind, that brought freedom, if I rebel against the established order, then I will walk in freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: They would rebel against authorities, it'd be a matter of fact, they called the police.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if anybody remember what, you know, remember what they called the police officials?

[SPEAKER_01]: They called him pigs.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had no respect of authority whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm gonna pause here for just some of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want everybody to understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: God felt that it was so important that we respect authorities is that one of the 10 commandments is this, you honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you and you will live a long time on earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why would God command us to honor our mother and our father?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because that is the first place of authority that a child learns.

[SPEAKER_01]: They learn to honor authority by the way that they treat their mother and father.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here I please, you don't get mad with me, but if you're a mom and dad, don't let your children sass you and cuss you and talk to you like a dog or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I brought you in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: You all heard it, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll take you out.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to take them out.

[SPEAKER_01]: You all understand what I mean.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's an old, just cliche.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is, hey, you've got a roof over your head.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's going to be some honor as long as you live under this roof.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'll praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, there's nothing wrong with saying, yes, ma'am and no, ma'am and yes, sir and no, sir, all right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know, when I preach, I always get in people's grill, but that's just, that's my gift, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had the gift, the gift of getting in your grill, praise the Lord, whatever that is.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we have parenthood today has taken on this form of, we need to let the kids experience their freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: So where did that end up for you?

[SPEAKER_01]: How did that work out for you?

[SPEAKER_01]: So what's the fruit of that?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I had a daddy, still got a daddy right here.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, I love my daddy and I appreciate my dad and my mom also, I love him so dearly.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: My daddy made me walk the line.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he said, this is the way we're going to live.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what we're going to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things that I learned at a very early ages, you did not talk back to daddy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you don't talk back to daddy or Mama.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mama had to hairbrush.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just have to know the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Since Mama's here, I won't tell you that story.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got to now, Mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I can be on.

[SPEAKER_01]: One time, I did.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got saster, but she thought I'd saster.

[SPEAKER_01]: And next thing you know, there was a hair bush coming my direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: That says, I'll just leave it at that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the only time you think about that ever happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was just one way to show everybody who's that.

[SPEAKER_01]: My mom and dad, I have to qualify.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, my mom and dad were not abusive parents or anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, we're not promoting beating children.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody understand that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or that's not what I'm saying.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what I'm saying, you know, if you train them when they're little, go back to what, with Pastor Josh, we train them when they're little.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, we didn't just train him.

[SPEAKER_01]: We trained our daughter that way also.

[SPEAKER_01]: We trained them to engage in the service.

[SPEAKER_01]: We train to whenever it's time for worship, then you put down everything else and you lift up your hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: When your hands are lifted up, you can't have everything else in your hand, doing everything else.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you go to the job assignment, that's one thing in your own stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one, but in your supposed to be doing something, that's one thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: But understand this, if you don't, then the hands are in the air and feet are moving and we're worshiping and praising the Lord with all our might, soul and strength.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they were all taught that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our youngest son, Mike, at Pastor Michael, he was here leading.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have to tone him down sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I feel like I need to put a bridal on him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's shouting and I'm almost embarrassing me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're getting just a little too wild now.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is, we taught our children to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the ways that we taught him is we demonstrated in front of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: We participated with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: They all prophesied now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying this to beat myself on the chair.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying it because we trained our children in the way of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Train up a child in the way that he should go.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when he's old, you train them up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And whenever they were little and I would travel and we would minister in places, there were a lot of places, they didn't have kids church or they sat there on the front row.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the message that you heard last Sunday, that's a regurgitation of 20 years of ministry that Joshua, Pastor Joshua heard me preach.

[SPEAKER_01]: That wasn't, there was some original stuff in there, don't miss understanding what I'm trying to say is this, those kind of things don't just happen automatically.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't happen by accident.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, you're all following me today.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is not about parenting, but it sure is good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise the Lord, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's this counterfeit of rebellion in self-will.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what the hippie movement, that is what it produced.

[SPEAKER_01]: The attitude that was present is nobody's going to tell me what to do, bless God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what, we still see that within the church today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody's going to tell me what to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: You tell me no, and then I'll go the other way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you just got to understand them.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I don't understand that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's called rebellion.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what's causing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still rebellion.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still self-will.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you can't allow somebody to speak into your life and if somebody says you need to do something, and you decide to go the other way than understand this, it's still rebellion.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you all hearing me?

[SPEAKER_01]: So we see again, as I've said, you know, the Bible actually declares this that we're to honor our Father and our Mother, children obey your parents.

[SPEAKER_01]: It sees re-articulated in the New Testament that we're to obey our parents in the Lord for this is right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because God wants us to have this understanding of submission and obedience to authority.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rebellion does not lead to freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rebellion brings bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: Freedom has boundaries.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lawlessness will always lead to imprisonment.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you live in a lawless manner, it will always end up leading to a place of imprisonment.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there are Christians who believe that freedom and Christ is found by Rebelling.

[SPEAKER_01]: against what God has ordained.

[SPEAKER_01]: They rebel against the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: They rebel against their pastor.

[SPEAKER_01]: They rebel against their employer.

[SPEAKER_01]: They rebel against the leadership, even leadership in the nation.

[SPEAKER_01]: They leadership, civil authorities also.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, it's nobody's gonna tell me

[SPEAKER_01]: Anything, all I need is Jesus, and all everybody hear this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you need Jesus, but whenever you get Jesus, there's also an understanding that I am going to willingly obey and submit myself to Godly authority.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's just the understanding, is everybody, get everybody say amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the road that leads to freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you live a life of rebellion, I'll tell you, it will not work out good for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You'll eventually crash.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've never seen anybody who decided that they were going to live a rebellious lifestyle, come out on the other side, actually with a trophy.

[SPEAKER_01]: The reality is those that live in that manner ultimately, they end up crashing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somewhere along the road, things crash, their families crash, their finances crash, their health crashes, different things can crash in their life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here this God doesn't want you to crash.

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you look at somebody say, God doesn't want you to crash.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, he wants to live in his blessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants you to live in a place of prosperity, healing, deliverance, hold this.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what God desires for you and your family.

[SPEAKER_01]: But understand this in order to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't embrace a counterfeit version of freedom and expect to come out on the other side shouting the blessings of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you following what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to actually come to that place of obedience and submission because that is the place and that is the road that will lead to true freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another thing is this in the hippie movement that had what was called free love.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you'd have any remembers again some of you do some of you weren't alive.

[SPEAKER_01]: But basically that was a song that was out in the hippie movement doc.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know you remembered this when it was this.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not with the one you love then.

[SPEAKER_01]: love the one you with.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this was the motto that they live by.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if we're not with the one we love them, I'll just find me somebody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love the one that I'll remember as a young boy, eight years old, nine years old, in the sixth season, I can remember them having advertisements on television because

[SPEAKER_01]: The reality is sexual transminent diseases became an epidemic actually in the United States.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's some of you that are old enough may even remember the commercials they had.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was called VD by the way, I don't know if it was okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: VD commercials.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they would advertise, you know, to try to keep people from actually contracting venereal disease.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I'm, you know, as a young boy, I'm on one of the world, I don't know what that is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank the Lord, but nonetheless,

[SPEAKER_01]: But there was an epidemic in the society because what was promoted was this idea of freedom and just loving whoever you want to be with, abandon faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just need to abandon commitment.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, if you haven't read Pastor Stacey's book, sure commit, but you need to get a copy, and you need to read it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's an awesome book about marriage, and both men and women can read that book.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is this, the counterfeit of unfaithfulness is actually the counterfeit that will lead you into even greater bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: The reality is we need to live with an understanding of true heart commitment and true faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Get everybody say amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever this happened in the hippie movement, it was a rebellion actually against the God or Dane institution of marriage and home.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear this, it is the institution of marriage.

[SPEAKER_01]: and the institution of the home that protect freedom in a society.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is commitment that holds people together when the storms of life come, and by the way, they do come.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a feeling of love that will keep you together.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the heart commitment that I'm going to stay with this individual, and I'm going to be faithful to them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can everybody say amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: See, love without commitment is nothing more than a cheap thrill.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't believe that God won't see any of us to have a cheap thrill in any area, amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: God won't just live committed lifestyles.

[SPEAKER_01]: God won't just live faithful lifestyles.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live in a day where shallow commitment seems to be the norm.

[SPEAKER_01]: gone tomorrow, they're with you today, they're gone tomorrow, you know, I think one of the things that I think there's so wonderful about this church body is the fact that we still have all of the founding elders within our church except for one or two couples, we have still all the founding elders, my mom and dad are here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pastor Gill and Ruthie, they've been here for almost 30 years, praise Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pastor Paul Begoese, have been here for almost 30 years.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because there was something within them that they realized we need to be committed to something.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I want to give you some qualifications for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I understand that there's sometimes there's situations where it may require you to walk in a different way and go down a different road.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you know what, I treasure the relationships that I've had for 30, 40, and 50 years.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_01]: I treasure the fact that these men and women have have walked with us, brought with pastoral states, you know, all through these years.

[SPEAKER_01]: We call Gil one times, we play with him, we call him the, was it one service Gil?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that what it's called?

[SPEAKER_01]: One second service Gil, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second service Gil, because Gil has been here since the second service, Paul was here at the very first service.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gil was here the second service, but the only reason he wasn't here the first service was because he didn't know about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is that they have been with us and they are faithful as a matter of fact, their son Jerry is here today, and his beautiful wife are visiting with them over the weekend.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we saw, and also a grandchild also praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Back to the home and the family, we have to understand the way the world defines things today as this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Freedom is you get to love whoever you want to love and it doesn't matter what gender they are.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care about the understand this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what DC says.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what any lawmaker says.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't change the fact of what God said.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I said it doesn't change what God said.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what the Bible says is that God created them how?

[SPEAKER_01]: male and female, and he put one man in one woman.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't say, but Adam and Eve, and I don't see anybody else there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I see a snake trying to enter in the scene, and Eve didn't, you know, and Adam or Eve never even either one did what they were supposed to do, and that caused problems.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is, got put one man and got put one woman together.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is the basis, that is the foundation of the family.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's this, nobody, I don't care who you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's to change it or rewrite it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can make a law out of it, but it still doesn't mean that it's right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody can have a right to do whatever they want to do, but it doesn't make it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's that you can exercise that right, but I will tell you, it is not the road that leads to freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the road that leads to bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: The reality is, God did it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tell somebody, God did it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: When he put one net in one woman together, that was his plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know I probably say this frequently, probably about every time I get up here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, next time I preach, it's very possible, I might say it again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you say it?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because people need to hear it today, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: If we don't say it, if the church doesn't say it, the world's not going to say it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And these are things that are facing our culture and our society, they are things that are glaring us in the face, and if we don't, with the truth of God's word, push back with the standard of righteousness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does it mean we hate people?

[SPEAKER_01]: Does it mean we don't love them?

[SPEAKER_01]: It just means this.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to stop preaching the truth just because somebody decides that they're going to do something that is different, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we get a destroy this counterfeit of unfaithfulness.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to destroy this thing of this thinking that I don't have to be committed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, this carries over in every realm of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: It carries over in church.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard people say before, does it really matter what church you go to?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as a matter of fact, you don't need to really go to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about it here this.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a counterfeit.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a lie.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's false.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a road that will ultimately lead to destruction, just like all of these other things do.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, true freedom requires greater responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can everybody say responsibility?

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the truth.

[SPEAKER_01]: The free or you get the greater your responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to close with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever you were a child, you didn't have much freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, Jerry, when you were child living at home, you didn't have much freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember living at home.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have a whole lot of freedom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Basically what I did is whatever moment that he told me to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was always wherever they said.

[SPEAKER_01]: I ate whatever they put on the table.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have any kind of, you know what, you know what my ability to choose was, the ability to choose was, yes sir.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was the choice I was given.

[SPEAKER_01]: No serve was not even on the menu, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: It was yes, sir, and yes, man, that's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't have any other choice.

[SPEAKER_01]: You had to do exactly what you were told to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't have any freedom to choose or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, you also had no responsibilities.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just had to show up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have to cook.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have to clean what kind of sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't wash clothes, I didn't do anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: But as you grow up in me mature, there's something that happens, and that is this.

[SPEAKER_01]: You get greater freedoms, but with those freedoms comes greater responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is no freedom without responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the reason I say, we have to get rid of this fake idea that freedom means that I have no responsibility, and I don't have to have any commitment, and I don't have to be faithful, my friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: The more free you are, the more faithful you gotta be.

[SPEAKER_01]: The more free you are, the more responsible you gotta be.

[SPEAKER_01]: The more free you are, the more committed you've got to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, freedom in marriage doesn't mean I get to go do whatever I want to do, you know, find some other woman, you know, no blessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, I don't want to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And also, I value my life, but the reality is this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I married her 45 years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's the woman for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to stay with her.

[SPEAKER_01]: Freedom looks like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're inseparable.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are close.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a feeling of responsibility that we have of looking out after each other, protecting one another and also loving one another and caring for one another.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, just in case you didn't know today is Pastor Stacey's birthday.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll elu ya.

[SPEAKER_01]: You thought I was gonna forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just saved the best for last.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll elu ya.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see, that's what freedom looks like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Freedom isn't just doing whatever you want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, living however you want to live, showing up whenever you want to show up.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, freedom is this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I take on responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm faithful.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm committed.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the road and that's the path that leads to two freedom in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you try to get there any other way, I'm telling you, you're gonna end up sadly disappointed.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're gonna end up on the road of destruction.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says, there's a way that seems right to man, but the end there of is,

[SPEAKER_01]: It's death, it's destruction, you crash.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what happens to so many believers again, back to the opening scripture.

[SPEAKER_01]: Stand fast, everybody says, stand fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't you just go ahead and stand up right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Stand fast, everybody says, stand fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the freedom, come on, say, in the freedom, in the liberty, wherewith Christ has set you free

[SPEAKER_01]: with the Yoke bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you look at somebody say, I ain't going back, come on tell them I ain't going back.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going back to a place of bondage.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to a place for captivity.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going back to a place where I don't experience the freedom that God's called me to experience, because freedom is not doing whatever I want to do, whatever my flesh dictates.

[SPEAKER_01]: freedom is conforming to what he has said and living a discipline lifestyle.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I choose to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many this morning I say, I'm going to forsake the counterfits and the compromise and I'm going to embrace the real today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that this message has blessed and encouraged and identified you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.