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

This chapter that I'd like to focus on, before I get into it, I'd just like to point out just so many great salvation verses, and this chapter, verse 1 right away just says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Can't really get any clearer than that, that salvation is by faith alone, not of works that any man should boast. He goes on to say, verse 13, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. What I want to focus on is in verse number 3 where the Bible reads, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. And I want to talk to you about the love of God tonight, us loving God. Basically, the Bible commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. In fact, that's the greatest commandment in the Bible. And the second is like, unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So, God commands us to love him. We're supposed to love God here. We're commanded to love God, but what does it mean to love God? Well, the Bible tells us right here in verse 3, the first thing I want you to see is that the love of God is that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. Now, look back at you in 1 Kings 3. Keep your finger here in 1 John. We're going to go back to 1 Kings 3, where the Bible talks about King Solomon. And while you're turning there, I'll read you another scripture. This is 2 John 6. And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. I mean, God's defining love for us as walking after God's commandments. This is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment that, as you've heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. Look at 1 Kings chapter 3. This is spoken of King Solomon. It says, and Solomon loved the Lord, comma, walking. 1 Kings 3, 3. Sorry, I didn't tell you that. 1 Kings 3, 3. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and burned incense and hideways. So, how did Solomon love the Lord? I mean, how did he do it? The comma there is telling us he's going to state now how he did it. He's loving the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father. He's following the commandments of God. That's how we know that he loved God. Now, go back to 1 John, where we were. We were in 1 John chapter 5. I read for you from 2 John. Look, if you would, at 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 says this in verse number 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from them, how dwelleth the love of God in it? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And so the Bible is telling us here in 1 John chapter 3 that there are a lot of people who say that they love God, and they say that they love the children of God, and they say that they love their brother in Christ, but their deeds don't match up with that. He says don't just love in tongue. Don't just love in word. He says love God in deed and in truth. Let your actions and your life show that you love God, and show that you love your brother in Christ, because it's pretty easy just to say, oh, I love God. And pretty much every Christian would, if you said, do you love God? Oh, of course I love God. Of course I love the Bible. Of course I love the Lord. Of course I love church. Of course I love all my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Go to Romans chapter 12, if you would. Keep your finger. We're going to come back to 1 John. But go to Romans chapter 12, and I'm going to show you that a lot of people's love is fake, because we saw in 1 John 3 that he's saying a lot of people are just saying that they love God and saying that they love you, but they don't really love you, and their actions prove that. But look at Romans chapter 12, and we see something that's similar here. It says in... Let me find my place here. Verse 9, Romans chapter 12, verse 9 says this. Let love be without dissimulation. Now, what does it mean to simulate something? Is it real if it's simulated? No. If you're in a simulator, it's not real. It's fake. So when God says let love be without dissimulation, he's saying let your love not be fake. And look at the next statement. He's going to explain to us how our love can be without dissimulation. He says abhor, which means hate, that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love in honor... What? What? Preferring one another. Not slothful in business. He goes on and gives a lot of other exhortation. But here's the thing. In order to love something, you have to hate something. He says in order for your love to be real and not a simulated love, he says you have to abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good. You've got to prefer one thing above another or you don't really have love. Like, for example, and go to James chapter 4, if you would. Flip over to James chapter 4. In James chapter 4, the Bible is talking about loving God and committing spiritual adultery. He says in James 4, 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. God is calling you an adulterer or an adulteress if you're the friend of the world. And he says you're the enemy of God. Why is that? Because, you see, if I were to say to my wife, because I've been married now for almost 11 years coming up next month, what if I just said, well, I love all women? Well, I love my wife. Don't get me wrong. I love my wife, but I also love all the other women too. Would you think that's an appropriate statement for me to make? Sure, I love my wife, but that's it. I love all women. And I love all of them just as much as I love her. Does that make any sense? Or what if she said, well, I love all the men. You know, you're one of them. That doesn't make any sense, does it? Because in order for it to mean something that I love my wife, basically I have to not love someone else. I basically have to choose to keep me only under her. And I may love other people on a different level or in a different way, of course. You know, there are other women that I might love in a different level, in a different way. But isn't there something that sets my love for my wife apart that I only love her because I'm going to keep myself only under her so long as we both shall live as we promise in the wedding vows? You see, I love my wife uniquely to anyone else. That is why my love means something. It wouldn't mean anything if I said, well, I just love all the women. I think you're beautiful on you, but that's just because I find all women beautiful. That doesn't mean anything, does it? And so there's a fakeness of people where they just kind of just, they love everybody, they love everything, they're not mad about anything, they're not hating anything. Well, they just love everybody. Well, they're fake. They're lying. They don't really love everybody because in order to love someone, you have to give them a preference and you have to put someone first. And so a lot of people, they lie and they say, I love God. And the Bible says if a man say, I love God and keepeth not his commandments, he's a liar. And the Bible says here that if you love the world, you're in James, go to 1 John 2. James 4 says the adulteress and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is enmity of God. And a lot of people will listen to this kind of preaching and they don't believe what I'm saying right now. They think, oh, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm just a big lovable, lovable fuzzball. I just love everybody and everything and I just have so much love that my love can just go around. You know, you're one of the fake people that I'm talking about if you're not getting this preaching right now because, I mean, the Bible's pretty clear. I'm backing up what I'm saying with Scripture. Love is fake if you don't abhor that which is evil and plead to that which is good. Love is fake if you don't prefer one another. Love is fake if your actions don't line up with what you're saying and it's not enough to just, I love everybody and everything in your life. But the Bible says here in 1 John 2 verse 15, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So that there tells you that it is impossible for you to both love God and love the world. You can't do it. You say, well, I love both. You can't. That'd be like saying, well, I love my wife and I love all the women. No. It doesn't work that way because part of the love that my wife would expect of me is that I only love her, that she is my only wife and she's the only one that I have that affection for. That's what she demands. And let me tell you something. God demands the same thing and he's a jealous God and you've heard of a jealous husband, right? You say, are you a jealous husband? Yes, I am. And people act like that's something bad. That's a criticism. Oh, you're a jealous husband. Thank you very much. Thank you for pointing out that I'm following God's example and being Christ-like and I hope that my wife is a jealous wife. God's name is jealous because God demands that you love him alone and that you not love the world. Now you say, why can't I love the world and God at the same time? Well, we can love the people of God and God at the same time because if you keep your finger in 1 John chapter 2 and go to 1 John chapter 5, it says in verse 1, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love who? The children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. So, when we love God, we're automatically going to love our brother and sister in Christ because the Bible says if a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment hath me from him that he loveth God and love his brother also. So the Bible says if we love God, then we'll love the children of God. We'll love those that have been begotten of God. The Bible says we've been begotten again unto a lively hope. And so we're not saying not to love people that are the children of God. We're not saying to love God and no one else. Love God, love the children of God, but don't love the world. He says if any man love the world, and listen, this ought to get your attention tonight, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in it. Is that what you want to be said of you? Do you want God to be up in heaven saying you don't love me? You do not love me. Oh, I love God. No, you can say that, but you don't love me because you love the world. And if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. He says in 1 John 2, verse 16, he says for all that is in the world, not some of the stuff that's in the world, he says for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. He said what does it mean to love the world? He said when you love the world, you love the things that are in the world, and he's talking about the things that promote the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Translation, Hollywood. You love Hollywood? You love the Hollywood stars? I mean, do you love the people of God and the children of God? Do you have love toward Pastor Anderson and toward your friends at church? And toward other believers and brothers and sisters at Christ that are not part of our church, that are part of some other church or somewhere outside this building? Do you love them, and do you delight in them? Is that who you care the most about? Is that who you prefer, one another? Or is your love all wrapped up with the stars of Hollywood? I mean, we have people today who get their magazine, a People magazine, or whatever the magazine, you know, US Weekly or whatever these magazines, and they literally feel like their friends or loved ones are these stars. I mean, seriously, they take an interest in their personal life. They just love to know what's going on with Brad. And you know, not even, they don't need to say the last name. They're on a first name basis. With Brad. With Angelina. You know, with Cameron. You know, with, somebody help me out here. Jennifer, I don't know, I'm just throwing out names. It's probably gonna line up with some star, you know? And they just love, and they basically look at the magazines and then they go see the movies, and the movies are filled with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life for one reason. Because they're not being put out by the Father. You know, God the Father has nothing to do with the production of the new Batman movie. This isn't being put out by God the Father. You know, these new movies that come out, these Hollywood movies, and the music that you delighted, you know, God wants you to love him. And he wants you to be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You know, what if I say, well, I love my wife. I delighted my wife, but honey, I'm sorry. I can't have dinner with you on Friday night because there's another woman that I'm having dinner with on Friday night. Is that all right? Yeah, would you say I love my wife? But yet, we're basically, and by the way, it's a person that you hate and that hates you. Can you imagine that? And basically, when you're palling around with the world and when you're delighting in the world, you're basically delighting in people that are the enemies of God. You're delighting in those that stand against you and those that stand against everything that God stands for and then saying, I love God. I love God and I love Tom Hanks. Well, here's the problem with that. Tom Hanks hates God. Tom Hanks makes blasphemous, anti-Christ movies like The Da Vinci Code all about blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ, dragging his name through the mud, claiming that he's a fornicator with Mary Magdalene or whatever filth that that movie puts out. And you say, I just love Tom Hanks and you don't love the father if you love Tom Hanks because if you love the world and you love things that are blasphemous toward Christ and you love the actresses that strip down off their clothes on the silver screen and you love watching people hop into bed together that aren't married on the silver screen down at the movie theater and you love to listen to all the music put out by God-hating devils and every kind of abomination of a person you can imagine, then how can you say I love God when you love the world? You love the music of the world. You love Hollywood. You love the TV stars of the world. You love everything that's against Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with God. It has nothing to do with the Bible. If you don't love God, you've got to decide, I don't love the world and I do love God. But see, we've been brainwashed today to just love everything. Love everyone. Love good, love bad. Hate evil. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 19, verse 2, you don't have to turn there. He said, the prophet came and spoken to Jehoshaphat and said, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord thy God. He told Jehoshaphat, God's wrath is resting on you right now because you love those that hate the Lord. And so ask yourself this question, do I love those who hate the Lord? And when you love the whores and whoremongers of Hollywood, you love those who hate the Lord. They don't love God. They don't love the Bible. That's why they blaspheme it. That's why they won't live by it. And so we need to understand what it means to love God. It's not just saying, I love God. It's not just a feeling in your heart that when you hear these great songs and hymns of the faith and you're singing out, you just feel so just, I love you, God. You know, that's great. But you know what? That doesn't necessarily mean you love God. Because if you love the world, you don't love God. If you would rather go watch the latest Hollywood movie and you'd rather go home and turn on your TV and see everything that the world's putting out and you'd rather pop in the CD of Lady Gaga, which is just nothing but filth and abomination, and you're going to put in the new CD from whatever wicked rock and roll group that's out right now. And you listen to that and say, I love God. You don't love God. And I'm not the one who's saying that God's the one. Because he's saying, if you love the world, the love of the Father's not in you. You should be disgusted by Lady Gaga if you really love God. Show me a person who loves God. And listen to me now. I'm not preaching my opinion. How many times should I read the verse? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. But that doesn't include Lady Gaga, right? That doesn't include The Da Vinci Code. That doesn't include Batman, where the Joker is a sodomite. Heath Ledger, who died because the wicked shall not live out half their days. Because he's a sodomite from Brokeback Mountain or whatever filthy movie. When you sit there and say, oh, I love that movie. He said, no, the love of the Father's not in you. And that's harsh words, but they didn't come from me. They came from God. And so you've got to get your heart right tonight and say, you know, I'm going to love God with all my heart and all my soul. But I'm preaching the Bible tonight. You show me a person who loves God, and they'll hate that stuff. Show me a person who truly loves God, and they'll say, man, I hate stinking Lady Gaga. It's garbage. It's filth. It's trash. Get it out of my sight. I hate the Da Vinci Code. I hate Tom Hanks. I hate Hollywood movies. I hate rock and roll. I hate the hip-hop culture, the blast scene. I mean, the hip-hop culture with its just degrading of women and just a total teaching of promiscuity and fornication and foremongering, you ought to hate that stuff. And you ought to get mad about it and say, I hate that stuff. I hate that garbage. I hate that music. I hate that movie. I abhor that which is evil. I'm going to cling to that which is good. Because you can't love the flowers if you don't hate the weeds. And you can't love God unless you don't love the world. Because if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. So there's a self-test right there. Do you love God, or do you love the world? Do you love People magazine? I mean, if you have People magazine in your house, I don't believe it's love God. I'm just coming right out and saying that. You know, whether you like it or not. Because this is what you ought to be reading right here in the Bible, the Holy Bible. Not reading about the twists and turns of the love affairs of Hollywood sleazy celebrities. You don't love God if that's what you love. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, are you saying I'm not saved? Well, no. Look if you would at John chapter 14. Because loving God has nothing to do with being saved. You see, there are lots of people who are saved who don't love God. You say, prove it. Well, because there are a lot of people who are saved who don't keep God's commandments. And the Bible says, if a man say I love God and keepeth not his commandments, he's a liar. And look, there are people out there, he says in John chapter 14, 15, he says, if you love me. Now he's talking to people that are saved here. He's talking to his 12 disciples. He's talking to people that aren't. Obviously Judas is not saved. But he's talking to his 11 disciples and he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. So he's not assuming that they love him. He's questioning that they love him. And he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Look if you would at 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. So I'm just trying to define for you what love is tonight because there's a lot of simulated love out there, dissimulation. There's a lot of people who say they love God. They don't. They're a liar. There are a lot of people out there who think that they love the children of God and they don't. They're just paying lip service. But look if you would at 1 John chapter 4. The Bible says in verse 7, 1 John 4, 7, Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. So right here, the Bible's telling us that everyone that loveth, did you get this? Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. So let me ask you something. Are people that are unbelievers, do they have love according to the Bible? No. No, because God is the source of love. And the Bible says everyone that loveth is born of God. That means they're saved. And knoweth God. That's a different subject, knowing God. Because Paul, who had been saved for many, many decades, talked about in Philippians chapter 3 that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. He talked about that his desire was to know Christ. You know, the more that we've been saved and the more that we read our Bible, the more we get to know God and we get to know the Lord Jesus Christ. That takes place over time. Salvation happens in a moment. Those that are loving people, those who truly love you, if you want to know who really loves you, it's people that are saved and that know God. Those are the people that love you. People who are not born of God and do not know God, they don't love you. Because love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. It says, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. And so God commands us to love Him. God commands us to love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Go to Romans 13. Romans chapter 13, I showed you that the love of God is that we keep His commandments. He said it in 1 John 5, 3, and He said it in 2 John verses 5 and 6. I showed you that when you love the world, you don't love God. You have to choose where you're going to put your love, on the world or on God. Solomon loved God by keeping God's commandments. You're an adulterer or an adulterer spiritually when you're a friend of the world, because whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Where did I return? Romans 13 says this in verse number 8. Owe no man anything but to love one another. So God commands us to love one another, and it says, For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So according to the Bible here, you know, everybody knows the Ten Commandments. Well, the Ten Commandments here, he basically breaks it into five on the one hand and five on the other hand. These are the last five of the Ten Commandments that he listed. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, and thou shalt not covet. Now, those have to do with our relationship with other people, not with our relationship with God. He starts out by talking about our relationship with God in the Ten Commandments. The first commandment, of course, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. That doesn't really have to do with our interactions with man. That has to do with our interaction with God. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto the deity grave an image. That has to do with making a statue, and basically people would make statues and worship that statue, and that has to do with God as well. The third commandment says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Again, that has to do with our respect and reverence for God. The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. That had to do, again, with a commandment from God, regarding God, not really harming our fellow neighbor. Honor thy father and mother. You know, this one, you can see it both ways. God is our Father, of course, and obviously we do have an earthly father and mother, but they're not really our neighbor and so forth. But anyway, we love our parents and respect our parents and obey our parents because they basically are figurative and represent God, our authority. God's the Father. They're our earthly Father. God's our spiritual Father. So according to the Bible, these commandments can basically be boiled down in just two statements. The first five can be characterized as, Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second half of the Ten Commandments can be all summed up in this one word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, because love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. So according to the Bible, if I love my neighbor, I'm not doing any harm unto my neighbor. Go ahead and answer it. No, I'm serious. But anyway, you know, if I love someone, am I going to steal from them? No. If I love someone, am I going to kill them? No. If I love someone, am I going to lie about them and bear false witness against them? No. If I love someone, am I going to covet what belongs to them and wish it were mine? No. And if I love someone, am I going to commit adultery? Like, if I love my wife, am I going to commit adultery? No. Because if I love my wife, I'm going to walk in love toward my wife, and committing adultery would harm my wife. And so if I love my wife, I don't want to do any harm unto my wife. I don't want to work any ill to my wife. That's the proof that I love her is when you look at my actions. Am I faithful to my wife? Do I tell the truth to my wife? Do I obey God's commandments in regard... Because he said, And if there be any other commandment, it's briefly comprehended in this saying, Namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. You see, if I follow God's commandments in my life, that is love. It's not just a feeling that I have toward my wife. Like, for example, people will say this, I'm just not sure I love my wife anymore. Have you ever heard people say things like that? I'm just not sure I love them anymore. I'm just not sure that I love her anymore. Well, why don't you... Well, let me help you. You don't. If you're even saying that. Okay. But here's the thing. Love is not some feeling that just comes over you that you have no control over. God commands us to love him. God commands us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. God commands us to say, Husbands, love your wives. He commands wives to love their husbands, to love their children. God commands us to love. That's a choice that we have, whether to obey or disobey that commandment. And see, if I love my wife, that means I'm going to walk after God's commandments toward my wife. That means I'm not going to commit adultery. That means I'm not going to look at pornography. That means I'm not going to be interested in a bunch of other women. That means I'm not going to spend a bunch of time hanging around with other women and going out with other women and talking with them, and we're just friends. No. That's my friend right there. That's my female friend right there. And let me introduce you to her male friend. Me. And no one else. Other... You know, another guy isn't going to come pick up my wife and just take her out to lunch just to see friends. No. I'm a friend. But I'm also going to walk in love toward my wife toward the Bible. I'm going to nourish and cherish my wife. I'm going to provide for my wife, as the Bible commands me to do in 1 Timothy 5 and also in the book of Exodus. I'm commanded to provide for my wife, to love my wife, to nourish and cherish her. Okay? I'm going to walk in love toward my wife, meaning I'm going to keep God's commandments. And the more that I keep God's commandments and do not do her any ill or harm, then that is proof that I love my wife. And if she is obedient unto me, as the Bible commands wives, be obedient to your husbands and so forth, if she's obedient unto me, that's how she shows me that she loves me. The Bible says, see that the wife reverenced her husband. Reverence is respect. If my wife is respectful to me, that shows that she loves me. If my wife is faithful to me, that shows that she loves me. She tells me the truth. If she follows God's commandments, she's going to be a loving person. And so according to the Bible, according to everything I'm showing you in the Bible, the most loving people in this world are the people who walk according to God's commandments the most. Because if they walk after God's commandments, that proves that they love God. And if they walk toward God's commandments in regard to their neighbor, that proves that they love their neighbor. And that is the most loving person. A person who's not saved is not loving. Is not a loving person. And that's why it's amazing how, you know, Christian young people will date an unbeliever. Even though the Bible flat out says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What part have ye that believeth with an infidel? And Christian young people will date an unbeliever. And they'll say, but we love each other. No, because an unbeliever is incapable of real love. They have a self-serving love that the world has. Jesus said, Jesus gives us the love of the Father. Real, true love. Not a fake love that is on today and tomorrow, it's off again. A self-serving, self-satisfying love. You see, unbelievers have not experienced the love of Christ. They don't have the love of the Father dwelling in them. They don't have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of them. And they don't have true love. Or even a person who is just walking in disregard to God's commandments. I don't think that there's any young lady who would say, I want to marry a husband who doesn't love me. You know, just as long as he pays the bills, I don't care if he loves me or not. No, you probably want to be loved by your husband, right? Well then, here's a tip for you. Marry someone who's saved, number one. And number two, marry someone who follows God's commandments. Because that is going to be the most loving husband you're going to find. And even if you find a husband who's saved, but he does not walk after God's commandments, and he does not want to obey the Bible, and he loves the world, and he loves Hollywood, and he loves going to the movies, and he loves all the rock music, and he loves worldliness, and he loves all the stars, and he loves drinking, and he loves everything that's partying and that's against God, then he's not going to love you. He's not going to love you. But if you see the guy who's walking after God's commandments, he loves soul winning, he loves to read his Bible, he loves prayer, he loves church, he loves preaching, he loves reading the Bible, he loves singing the hymns, he's going to love you. Because he that loveth God is going to love those that love God. Everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. Are you listening to me? Whosoever believeth that Jesus the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him that begat, who's him that begat? I'm trying to break his name. God, right? So everyone that loveth him that begets, everyone who loveth who? God. Loveth him also that is begotten of him. Who's that? Believe him. By this we know that we love the children of God, those who are begotten of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. So who is the young man that's going to love his wife? The one who loves God. He's going to love his saved wife that is begotten of God because it's impossible for him to love God whom he's not seeing if he's not able to love his wife whom he has seen. And so everybody who truly loves God and keeps his commandments is for sure going to love their wife. And every woman who loves God and keeps God's commandments is going to love her husband. But a woman who does not want to keep God's commandments, that does not love church, that does not love the Bible, that does not love soul winning, that does not love prayer, that does not love singing the hymns, and that loves all the Hollywood stars, and that loves all the music of the world, she is not going to love you. She may say that she loves you, but she's not going to love you in deed and in truth. And you're not going to be happy with that when you're married to somebody who doesn't love you. As a man, you don't want to be married to a woman who doesn't love you. As a wife, you're not going to want to be married to a husband who doesn't love you. Look, I'm giving you advice, young people, that you need to be not even thinking about marrying somebody that isn't falling into this category because you want to marry a loving person. And the only way you're going to find a loving person is somebody who's saved and keeps God's commandments. That's what you ought to be doing. And so, you know, you go out and you think, and look, young people today are playing with fire. There are people today that I know personally that are out dating a bunch of unbelievers, dating people that won't come to church, dating people that don't love the Bible, and I don't know what they think they're doing. I mean, I don't know what they expect to happen. You know what? It's going to be a long life for you when you marry that person that doesn't love God and that doesn't keep God's commandments. It's a long life to live. And it's time for young people to wise up and get serious and straighten up and fly right and realize, hey, wait a minute. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with somebody. I better make sure that they have the love of God dwelling in them just like I have the love of God dwelling in me. Then we're going to love each other and have a great marriage because we both are born of God and because we both love God and we both know God and we both don't love the world and we both abhor that which is evil. And abhor is a pretty strong word. Abhor that which is evil. You see, that person that you're dating or thinking about marrying that does not abhor that which is evil, you know, that's a red flag right there when they're just very tolerant of sin. And you know, everybody teaches today that tolerance is a good thing. You know, we all have tolerance and I'm okay, you're okay, everything. But you know what? The Bible doesn't teach tolerance. It doesn't. The Bible teaches intolerance. It does. I mean, God looks at stuff that's sinful and wicked. He says I want to spew it out of my mouth. He says it makes me sick. That's how we ought to be. We ought to look at stuff. You know what? We ought to look at somebody who commits adultery and think, you know what, that's wicked. And not think, oh, let's watch to see what happens next week. But I mean, seriously, that's what it is on these soap operas. People are committing adultery and we delight in that when we watch these soap operas. I mean, I'll tell you what. I mean, adultery makes me angry. It makes me upset. It destroys people's lives. It destroys marriages. You know, when somebody makes a joke out of adultery and it's funny and it's a comedy about adultery and it's a comedy about fornication and it's a comedy about being a sodomite queer and it's a comedy about all these different... You know, there's just nothing funny about it when you're mad at it, when you abhor it. You don't joke and have fun with stuff that you abhor. You know, I mean, look, I abhor evil. And, you know, I'm not perfect. I should probably abhor evil more than I do because I'm just not perfect. I'm not perfectly fulfilling that command to abhor that which is evil and to cleave that which is good. But that's what God commands me to do. He says in Acts, or I'm sorry, Amos 5.15, love the evil and... I'm sorry, love the evil. It says hate the evil and love the good. And I always have slips in the tongue like that. So sometimes I got saved people going to hell and unsaved people are all going to heaven and, you know, women are supposed to have short hair and men are supposed to have long hair. Sometimes I preach backwards, but anyway, you know what I mean. He says in Amos 5.15, look it up in your body. You know, he says hate the evil, love the good. So in order for us to have true love, we have to have some kind of a preference according to the Bible. We have to have some love and we have to have some hate. You know, how's your hate life tonight? You know, I'm not talking about your love life. I'm talking about your hate life. You know, we think hate, we think hate's a cuss word tonight. People literally say, hey, look. But you know what? Everybody hates everybody else. You know, these groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center that are just out to eradicate hate from the world and you know, we need to stop these people who are preaching hate and these hateful people and so forth. You know what? They hate Christians. They hate the Bible. They hate Jesus Christ. I mean, you look at these left-wing liberals who want to say, oh, I can't believe that you're preaching hate, but they hate what's right. They hate God. They hate the Holy Bible. They hate the Holy Bible. I mean, how many people have I had tell me that this Bible is basically just dumb? That this Bible is trash? That God's word is garbage? And to blaspheme and hate it and say that it's disgusting and that it'll curse out against God because they hate God? Because everybody hates something. Everybody hates someone. I talked to a guy and he said, I don't hate anybody in this whole world. He said, I love everybody. And I said, okay, I said, what about Adolf Hitler? Do you love Hitler? And he said, okay, that's the only person. And I said, well, I guess you don't love everybody then. I love my wife and I love all the girls. And I also love Jeffrey Dahmer and Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. And I love Jack the Ripper. But this is the garbage that's being preached today in Baptist churches all over America. And they'll call me crazy for standing up and preaching the truth tonight, what the Bible actually says. And let me just explain something to you. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said, listen to me now, who said, love the sinner, hate the sin. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said that. Let me just give you a news flash. Mahatma Gandhi is not one of the authors of the Bible. Okay, Gandhi, turn to 2nd Gandhi real quick. Okay, turn to Psalms, turn to Psalm 5. Okay, let's go to Gandhi chapter 1 real quick. Okay, Gandhi was a Hindu. He's in hell tonight. Okay, he's not a believer in Jesus Christ. Not saved. And he said, we ought to hate the sin and love the sinner. But today people walk around and that's their gospel truth, that they'll stand by that and say that all day long as if it came from the Bible. And guess what, it didn't come from the Bible. It's not biblical. You can say it all day long. And just because you repeat something 5 million times just doesn't make it true. Okay, look what the Bible says. This is, of course, God. It says in Psalm 5 verse 6, it says, Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. So he says in verse number 5, The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Okay, so God says that he hates the workers of iniquity and the bloody and deceitful man. Go to Psalm 11 verse number 5. Psalm 11 5 says, The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. So according to the Bible, and look, I'm just preaching the Bible tonight. According to the Bible, is hate just some bad word, some horrible thing that we should never participate in? We should never be hateful. What does the Bible say? It says right here that the Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 that to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to love and a time to hate. I mean, is that not in the Bible? Go to Psalm 139. And there are so many places. I'm not going to sit here and go to all the different times that the Bible talks about hate. If you really want to study the Bible on this, just go home and get what's called a concordance. You can look up every time the word hate, hated, hatest, hates. Just look it up in the Bible, and you'll see that it says a lot. And you'll see that it talks a lot about God hating a lot of people. There are 19 verses in the Bible that says that God hates certain people. And it's violent, you know, wicked, bloody people that he says he hates. And he says in Psalm 139 verse 21, Psalm 139 verse 21 says, And I'm not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, and I'm not I grieve with those that rise up against thee. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. So there's two kinds of people in this world that are believers in Christ. There's the kind that are going to read that and say, oh, I believe that because I saw it in the Bible. And then there's going to be other people who say, well, I don't like that. And so even though it says it in the Bible, I'm going to refuse to believe it, and I'm going to say Pastor Anderson is a bad and hateful preacher. Now let's see who's hateful tonight, okay? The Bible teaches that those who love God, love the Word of God, obey the commandments of God, and love the brethren and sisters in Christ, they're the real ones who love, the ones who are born again, the ones who know God, the ones who hate that which is evil and plead to that which is good. So who's loving tonight? Mr. Pastor Love Muffin down the street? Hey, he loves the people in the ghetto so much that he's never knocked their door and brought them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen to me now. Do you love people tonight? You say, well, you ought to love the unsaved. Let me tell you something. I love the unsaved so much that I'm willing to go out every week of my life for the last 13 years and go out and preach the gospel to the unsaved because I love them and want them to be saved. I don't want them to go to hell and so I bring them the gospel and preach it to them in love. You say, well, I love unbelieving. Then why don't you give them the gospel? Why are you letting them go to hell? How can you say, I love my neighbor and you won't give the gospel unto your neighbor? Do you really love your neighbor, according to the Bible? He said in 1 John 3, I'll go back there again. He said in 1 John 3, But whoso have this world's good, and seeeth his brother have need, this is in verse 17, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but indeed in truth. Let me ask you something. What greater need could someone have than the need to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ? What greater need, when an unsaved person does not even know the gospel, they don't even know how to be saved, never had it preached to them clearly, and you basically just shut up your bowels of compassion from them, how can you say that you love that person and how can you say that you love God? How can you say that you love your unsaved brother or sister or cousin or aunt or uncle and you won't preach unto them the gospel of Jesus Christ? And you're just allowing them to basically continue on the path where they're headed to hell. If you loved them, you'd preach the gospel to them. If you loved God, you'd obey his command to go out and preach the gospel to every preacher. And so a lot of the people in this world, you say, why are you preaching about that? A lot of the people in this world who seem to be the most loving are the least loving. That's what I'm saying tonight. A lot of the people who might be called hateful and not loving are actually the most loving people. Because when we look at things through God's view instead of the world's view, it comes out a little different. The person who loves the unsaved is the one who goes out. And here's what's funny. People are constantly accusing me of being a hateful person. Now, I don't think that that's true at all. I mean, I'm a pretty cheerful, I'm a pretty positive person. If anything, I'm too positive. I mean, I go through life smiling and happy, very positive for anybody who's been around me knows that I'm not a negative, pessimistic, down-in-the-mouth type person. I'm a cheerful, happy, positive person. I'm happy every day of my life pretty much most of the time. But anyway... And people will say, you know, you're so hateful. You know, you're preaching hate. And they'll say, you know, you preach hate toward homosexuals. And here's what's funny. The people who accuse me of hating the homosexuals and saying that I'm not loving okay, I promise you, I have given the gospel to more homosexuals than they have. Now, not because I'm not out on some campaign to go out and, you know, reach all the homosexuals with the gospel. But because of the fact that, you know, when you go off soloing, not everyone who you talk to that's a homosexual, they don't all wear a sign that says, I'm a homo. I've accidentally given the gospel to more homos than you've given the gospel to on purpose. Seriously. I've probably given the gospel to a hundred homos. I should get some kind of a badge for that, you know. Reach my hundredth homo with the gospel. And you know what? I don't care, you know, whether this makes people mad. I don't believe that homos can be saved. Because the Bible says, it's not because Jesus didn't die for all our sins. It's because it says in Romans 1 that the reason they're a homos is that God gave them over to a reprobate mind because they rejected God. And that's why they have unnatural affections. Men with men. And I'm not the author of Romans 1, and anybody can read Romans 1. It's pretty clear. He says three times, God gave them up, God gave them up, God gave them over. And he says they rejected Christ and he gave them over unto vile affections. Men with men, women with women. I believe it's too late for them. Jesus had given them the gospel before they rejected Christ to that degree. They could have got saved earlier, but people crossed the line with God where he rejects them. It's just like people who tamper with his word. They add to or take from God's word. He says he takes out their part out of the Book of Life. They can't get saved anymore. It's too late for them. It's like those who blaspheme the Holy Ghost. Jesus said, you have no forgiveness in this world or in the world to come. You blaspheme the Holy Ghost. It's too late for you. You're done. Pharaoh, you've rejected me too many times. I'm going to harden your heart. You're done. Pharaoh could have got saved, but he kept hardening his heart and finally the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh's heart because you know what? Finally it comes to a point where God gets sick of people saying no. And by the way, when people die without being saved, it's too late for them. See, it's never too late for anybody. If somebody dies without Christ, it's too late for them. Okay, Revelation 22 says that if somebody adds to or takes from God's word, it's too late for them. Their part is removed out of the book of life, out of the Holy City and from the things that are written in this book. The Bible says somebody who blasphemes the Holy Ghost, it's too late for them. The Bible says that people can get to a point where they rejected Christ and in Romans 1 it says that they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping thieves. Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed for every man. Listen to me now. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another. Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not to me. Flat out says he gave them up unto vile affections because of what they did. So do you think God is just randomly giving people up to vile affections today? Just, oh, I think I'm just going to give you up to vile affections because I don't like your face. No. It's people who've rejected Christ. He gave them up to vile affections and I take so much flack for preaching that but you know what? I'll preach it all day long. May. Memorize the chapter like I have and then come back and tell me that you didn't give them up. Then come back and tell me that I don't like I mean that's what it says. And you see, I take flack for preaching that because people just love the world too much. And they just can't accept what the Bible said there when he said for this cause God gave them to vile vile means disgusting I mean vile V-I-L-E means disgusting. God gave them up to vile affections because of that. Or do you think that it's normal for a man to lust after another man or for a woman to lust after another woman? It's not adorable. It's against nature. They've given over to that when God removes the normal constraint that all of us have as human beings of just a sense of normalcy and nature of what is right and what is wrong and he basically gives us the heart of a beast not us but those who reject it. And if you look at the animal kingdom today are you listening to me? The animal kingdom today does not have the same constraints that we have as human beings. The animal kingdom today does all kinds of disgusting things. Animals do all kinds of gross, disgusting, weird things that human beings wouldn't do. That's why when you look at somebody who is doing a lot of disgusting things you say well this person's like an animal. Or when you see somebody who's like a serial killer you'd say like they're an animal. They're a beast. Because that's the way animals are. Animals do all kinds of horrible things. They don't have a sense of right and wrong. They go, I mean, they tear each other apart in the wild. That's why I think it's funny when people are afraid it would be too cruel to animals. Animals are the ones who are the most cruel to themselves. I mean they go out and tear each other apart. They don't, do you think that they just get married and stay with that animal for life? No. They're going around and they're basically mating with all variety of animals They don't have the same parameters and they'll do things that we would consider gross. Like the Bible talks about the proverb of the dog who returns to his own vomit. Human beings don't do that. Human beings would look at that and say that is gross. That is disgusting. Ugh! I mean can you imagine that? But a dog just pfft! It's like ugh! You could feed that dog all kinds of weird stuff. Ugh! Oh! Oh look! Here's more food! But a human being is going to look at that and say that's repulsive. That's disgusting. Well guess what? That's how a normal human being looks at homosexuality. They look at that and they say it's gross. It's sick. It's not natural. No. It's revolting to the human mind. Unless you've been turned over to a reprobate mind. Unless you've rejected Christ so many times that pretty much he just gives you over to whatever your vile lust leads you to do. Just like an animal. Whatever it feels like doing it's just going to do it. And it has no constraints on what's gross or what's weird or what's perverse. It just doesn't even know the difference. And a lot of these sodomites will say well in the wild animals do this in the wild so it's normal. No. Because you know I'm a man. I am a man created in the image of God. And so I'm not patterning my lifestyle after an animal. And saying well penguins did it. So I'm going to do it too. Well animals do a lot of other weird things that I'm not going to do. And I'm not planning on living like an animal. I'm planning on living like a human being with dignity in the image of God. And so I'm getting off on a rabbit trail. That wasn't really part of my sermon tonight. That was just kind of a word from our sponsor. But I got a little bit off on that. But you know what? It just illustrates my point completely. People love the sodomites of Hollywood, the homos of Hollywood, more than they love Bible preaching. So if they have to choose between giving up Elton John, because he's a sodomite. Or giving up Heath Ledger, because he's a sodomite. Or Leonardo DiCaprio, sorry girls he's a sodomite. Or Keanu Reeves, or they have to give up, I don't know who the current sodomites are. If they have to give up R.E.M., you know the lead singer of R.E.M. is an open sodomite? Who knows who the band of R.E.M. is? If you want, if you're willing to admit it, give it a go. If you have to give up your R.E.M. CD, or go into a Bible preaching church, it's like you'll choose to stick with R.E.M. and Elton John and Clear Eye for the straight guy, and you'll stick with Heath Ledger and Batman, and you'll stick with your Hollywood sodomite heroes. And let me tell you something, there was a time when I was listening to me now, when I was a teenager, and I was listening to all the world's music and all the Hollywood movies, and let me tell you something, some of the bands that I listened to, I realized that the lead singers were sodomites. I had R.E.M. CDs in my collection. I had CDs from other groups that later on I found out, hey, these guys are sodomites. These guys are openly sodomites. And you know, at that point, and I have movies in my collection where the actors were sodomites. And you know, if you'd be honest, you probably have to. You know, when you really research it and figure out who these people are, that it's a lot of Hollywood and a lot of the music industry. You know, at that point, I had to come to a point in my life and say, should I be delighting in a person who the Bible says hates God? The Bible says this person's an abomination. The Bible says they're a reprobate. And the Bible says they hate God. Should I delight in this? And you know, you love the music. You love the movies. But you know what? I finally just had to decide, you know what? I love God more. And I don't want it to be said of me that the love of the Father is not in me. And so I had to remove my love from those type of things. Because he says, I mean, he spells it out in Romans 1. He says, even as God, even as they did not like to retain God out of their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. He doesn't even end the sentence there. He says, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God. Did you hear that? Haters of God, it says in Romans 1. Haters of God. So is that who I should love? I'm going to go home and listen to the music of God haters. And if you're listening to REM, that's what you're listening to. And I'm just using that example because that's the music of my generation. Now that I'm getting old and everything, I'm talking about my generation. I can't relate to the young people anymore. But whatever your generation is, I'm sure it's more filled with homos and sodomites than any music that I listen to. And that's saying a lot. So I had to make a decision to love God and put away that stuff because I decided, hey, these are haters of God. These people hate God. They're against Jesus Christ. And I just had to decide which side am I going to be on. And too many Christians today, they want to have it both ways. They want to have their cake and eat it too. It's like they want to love God, and they want to love the world. It sounds great, doesn't it? If we just went to the average person on the street, we had a microphone or something, and we said, should we love the world? Yeah. Right? Shouldn't we love the world? Shouldn't we love everybody? Yeah. Okay. Isn't that what most people do? Because it doesn't sound good. It almost sounds like John 3.16. For God's sake, it sounds like John 3.16. For God so loved the world. I mean, it sounds like something that's the right thing for us to do. You know what? Let's just love everybody. It sounds good. Let's just love everything. Let's just be really loving. Let's just get all the heat out of our lives and just be a really just love, love, love type person. Love sounds like a positive thing, but when God says here, love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That makes me stop and think, wait a minute. Let me just kind of hold my horses on all this love that I'm just putting out in all directions here. Let me see if I can decide here where my love is going to be and not to just bestow my love upon everyone and everything. Because then it becomes meaningless. When I love REM, I don't love God. You know, because God says you've got to choose where your love's going to be. And we've got to decide that we want to love God, keep his commandments, love the children of God, get the sin out of our life. You know, walk after his commandments. And look, this sermon I'm preaching tonight, it's not a popular message tonight. You know, and honestly, a lot of people hear this kind of sermon and they'll get upset about it. But the honest truth is I've been around long enough. I was saved as a six-year-old boy and I've been in a Baptist church my entire life. I've gone to church most of the time, pretty much Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, my entire life. And you know what, I've seen the people who try to have it both ways my whole life. I've been in churches that tried to have it both ways and worldliness ran rampant and it was like, yeah, we love the Bible, we love God, but it's okay to get in our car, we'll still listen to the world's music at this church. I remember somebody told me, they said, our church is so cool because they said it's King James only. You know, it's a soul-winding church but we can still like watch movies and listen to all the rock and roll and nobody really cares and you know, it's just so laid back and you know, it's like, women in pants is fine, it's just like, whatever. Like, they don't have all the dumb rules. You know, it's just, we can just, King James, and Soul Egg, and Amen, but we can still have everything else. But you know what, I grew up with those kind of people. I've seen the lives of those kind of people and I'll tell you right now, the people who are still going to be with it, the people who are the legit, glorified soul winner, they get rid of that stuff. They love God and they abhor that which is equal. And look, I tried having it both ways for a little while. Whenever I first got into an independent Baptist church, when I was 17 years old, because before that we were going to some denominational Baptist churches. I got into an independent fundamental Baptist church and I mean, I had all the worldliness, all the worldy music, all the worldy movies and my hair was bleached blonde and punked out and you know, can you picture that? Blonde hair, punked out, I was wearing all my clothes from the thrift store. I still get my clothes from the thrift store, but now I get more dignified clothes from the thrift store. You know, I had all these crazy clothes from the thrift store and I mean, I was just totally worldy as all get out and I jumped right into soul winning and I loved it. I got right into the preaching. You know, I didn't agree with all that stuff you were saying about the music and the movies and the TV shows, you know, but everything else I loved about this church. But I stayed with it and I kept going but I started feeling like I wasn't really getting a lot of people saved. I started realizing that I just felt like my soul winning was failing and I just felt like I just wasn't being what I needed to be and I would pray and ask God to help me with soul winning and finally, it's like I started realizing, you know what, I'm not filled with the spirit. That's the problem with my soul winning. I'm walking in the flesh because I'm reading my Bible and it's telling me I need to be filled with the spirit, walk in the spirit and the spirit of the Lord is telling all these people and this and that and I just thought to myself, you know what, I'm walking in the flesh so I'm not filled with the spirit. That's why I'm not really seeing God work in my life like I want them to see and I remember I had been slowly purging my music in my movie collection but I remember one time, I believe it was a Monday or Tuesday night, I packed up the last of my music. It was kind of the music that I was still hanging on to, the worldly music and I had gotten rid of the stuff that I knew was really bad but I still had a lot of just bad music and movies and stuff and I remember one time, this was a really, you know, it might sound silly but this was a really hard thing for me to do because music was a big part of my life and I remember I boxed it up and I packed it up and I drove to the church building. Nobody was there. The church was not in session. It was just a weeknight but I just wanted to just, for myself, just do that. So I drove down to the church building and I had all my CDs and worldliness that I could find in my room. I just got it all together. I put it in a box and I walked up to this dumpster in the church parking lot and I literally just looked up to heaven and said to God audibly, I said, God, you know what? If this stuff is gonna hold me back from serving you to the fullest, if this is gonna cause me not to get people saved, if this is gonna cause me not to walk in the Spirit and not to have the power of God on my soul winning, I just said, I don't need, I don't love this stuff that much, God. I don't need this stuff that much. I'm willing to get rid of it and I threw it in that dumpster. And you know, it might sound silly but that was a turning point in my life. That was a major, major turning point in my life right there because I made a decision, you know what? I love this stuff and I shouldn't love it and you know what? I'm gonna prove to God that I don't love it because I'm gonna sacrifice it. You know, the Bible talks a lot about sacrifice and I took something that I loved that I shouldn't have loved, that God said I shouldn't have loved. I should be loving that stuff but I did love it but I chose to sacrifice it to God and that's where I proved to God, I love you more God than I love these CDs and these records, these tapes. I said, I love you more and a lot of people could say, well I love God more than this stuff but they keep listening to it. They keep watching it. They keep indulging in it but I proved it to God because I brought it unto God. I brought it unto the house of God and said, you know what God, I love you more than this. In fact, I'll prove it to you and I threw it in the trash and I went soul winning right there and I believe that I went in the power of the Holy Spirit when I threw that step in the trash and I went and I knocked the first door, nobody was home. I knocked the second door and the second and I've been having a really a lot of failures in my soul. I've been going months with nobody saved and just really failing. I knocked the second door, knocked on a family's door. They invited me in. I sat down at the kitchen table. The parents were saved but the teenagers were not saved. They've been out of church for years. I won the two teenage boys to Christ at the kitchen table. They came to church that Wednesday night and got baptized and the whole family joined the church, went to the church for a few months and then they moved to a different city and went to an independent Baptist church over there. You know, and that was a great success. That's something that I wanted. That's something that my goal was to get people saved and to get them baptized and to get them in church and that's what I wanted God to use me to see some real results and to see some real power of God in my life where God's using me to do something and it happened literally within minutes of throwing that stuff away because it was a sacrifice that I made unto God. So I'm not up here just blowing smoke at you tonight. I'm telling you the honest truth tonight that I don't believe that God will bless us in our soul. I don't believe you're filled with the Holy Spirit when you're filled with Hollywood and filled with rock and roll and hip-hop. You're not filled with the Spirit. You're filled with the Spirit when you're speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And so this is a sermon about love tonight. It's a sermon about loving God. It's a sermon about loving your brothers and sisters in Christ and it's a sermon about loving the unstaid so that you can get them, excuse me, get them saved. And honestly tonight, I'm not saying it's easy. It's easy to get up and just say, yeah, don't love the world. But you know what? I know that these are things that you're attached to and you're right. I was attached to my music. You know, I used to shop at a record store that was called Obsessed With Music and I mean, that was a fitting name. I was obsessed with music. And you know, this stuff is attached to you but you know what? You've got to die to self. You've got to deny self if you really want God to use you. And you've got to love God with all your heart. And you can't share your love with the world. You know, I mean, it sounds good tonight. And you know, if you want to be a popular preacher, all you've got to do is just get up and say, love everybody. Love, love, love. Let's pass the offering plate. You know, that's a way to be a popular preacher. If you want to be unpopular, preach what the Bible says. Love God, hate evil. Hate those who hate the Lord. Love those who love the Lord. Preach the gospel to every creature. Love not the world. Let's bow your eyes and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God. And Father, I prayed it. Everyone who's under the sound of my voice tonight would have heard your word tonight and what it said and not to resist the truth, but rather to decide to maybe do a purging in their life, dear God. It's never fun to purge things out of our life, dear God. And there's always things that we need to purge out of our lives. Help us to take the steps necessary tonight. I pray that those who are under the sound of my voice would take your sermon seriously. It's really no skin off my back, dear Lord, but I pray that they would please just go home tonight and just take an inventory. You know, just open up that CD case. Open up that DVD. Open up that bookshelf and just think about it and say, you know, is this really honor and glorifying God? Father, I pray that you would just move in the hearts of every person who's here to make that decision and say, you know what? I'm going to be maximum for Jesus Christ. I'm going to do the most I can and I don't want this to hold me back. And so I pray that you would help us to get our love in order, dear God, and that we would be as loving as we need to be. Help the sermon to sink down into our ears. If I fail to express something properly, dear God, then forgive me, but please just help these people to take this to heart and take the steps necessary. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.