Thank you. I'm excited to teach a little this morning. I'm going to teach a little history this morning. You know, July 4th is a historic day, and I think as we go along, the church kind of forgets. Everybody kind of forgets. You know, it's about firecrackers and ice cream. I mean, lots of ice cream. And, uh, you know, and that's all good, that's all cool, but we kind of, I think a lot of times in America, we forget about the roots of the American experience, which are embedded in Christianity, and there's no way to separate that.

A lot of guys have tried under the pretense of separation of church and state, which I think is a good idea, and I'll teach you why as we go into this, but not elimination of the reality of history of how God and Michael Medved, who was a Yale history professor and a really cool dude, he has a radio show on Spotify. He began to teach on the incredible connection between Divine Providence and the events that brought America into existence. Of course, you can't be at Yale and teach stuff like that, so they got rid of him as quick as they could. But he went on to become a real prominent authority on American history, and he wrote a book called "The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the History of America."

Let me give you an example. In the Mexican War, Polk was President then, and the Mexicans had agreed to— the government of Mexico had agreed to sign a treaty and, you know, end the war. Originally, the Secretary of State of America wanted to have them cede California to the United States of America. And folks, I don't mess with that; just get us out of the war. But he sent a messenger to the signing of the treaty in Mexico City. But it takes a long time to ride a horse from Washington, D.C., to Mexico City, I don't know if you know.

So when they got there, unbeknownst to the negotiators, the representatives of the U.S. government, they went ahead and convinced the President of Mexico to sign the agreement and basically cede California to the United States of America as part of the settlement. They didn't get word until it was too late; it was a done deal before they found out Polk didn't want them to do that. But what nobody knew, including the President in Mexico or the President of the United States or any of the people in the negotiation, is three days earlier, three days before they signed the treaty, they had discovered gold in California. Three days before! No one knew it but the gold miners.

Instantly, America went from a country that was having a hard time paying its bills to the richest nation on Earth. If they had done what they wanted to do, California would still belong to Mexico. He said this is just an instance of how God has interfered in the history of America to create the nation that has His calling on it. If you know, I don't think we should ever forget that. Do you? Amen.

Karl Marx died in 1883, and he wrote a book called "The Communist Manifesto." It's a very, very important book because it's the basis of the modern-day socialist movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day progressive movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day Democratic Party, and it's the basis of the modern-day Republican Party, and it's the basis of the modern-day Libertarian Party, and it's the basis of the modern-day Green Party, and it's the basis of the modern-day Tea Party, and it's the basis of the modern-day Occupy Wall Street, and it's the basis of the modern-day Black Lives Matter, and it's the basis of the modern-day Antifa, and it's the basis of the modern-day alt-right, and it's the basis of the modern-day alt-left, and it's the basis of the modern-day religious right, and it's the basis of the modern-day religious left, and it's the basis of the modern-day secular humanist, and it's the basis of the modern-day atheist, and it's the basis of the modern-day agnostic, and it's the basis of the modern-day new age movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day postmodern movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day post-structuralist movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day post-colonialist movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day post-feminist movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day post-Christian movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day post-modernist movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day post-humanist movement, and it's the basis of the modern-day post-Marxist movement.

I want to talk a little bit about history this morning and about where the spirit of the Lord is. The concept of freedom is God's idea; only He can sustain it, and only He understands how it works through a society. Let's start in Leviticus 25, one of the most important feasts and one of the biggest historic markers, and it's built around the concept of freedom, and that is the Jubilee. The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61:1 said, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because He's anointed me to preach Good Tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty."

Galatians 5:1, this is what Paul the Apostle said: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free. Stand fast in the liberty and don't become entangled in the yoke of bondage which is all around us." Second Corinthians 3:17, this is one of my favorites: "Now the spirit of the Lord is; there is liberty."

We need to spend some time teaching the cultural crosswinds that we're in right now and understand kind of what's happening. It goes back to a German philosopher who lived between the years of 1774 and 1883, Karl Marx. He wrote a book called "The Communist Manifesto," and it's a very important book because it's the basis of the modern-day socialist movement and it's the basis of the modern-day progressive movement and it's the basis of the modern-day Democratic Party and it's the basis of the modern-day Republican Party and it's the basis of the modern-day Libertarian Party and it's the basis of the modern-day Green Party and it's the basis of the modern-day Tea Party and it's the basis of the modern-day Occupy Wall Street and it's the basis of the modern-day Black Lives Matter and it's the basis of the modern-day Antifa and it's the basis of the modern-day alt-right and it's the basis of the modern-day alt-left and it's the basis of the modern-day religious right and it's the basis of the modern-day religious left and it's the basis of the modern-day secular humanist and it's the basis of the modern-day atheist and it's the basis of the modern-day agnostic and it's the basis of the modern-day new age movement and it's the basis of the modern-day postmodern movement and it's the basis of the modern-day post-structuralist movement and it's the basis of the modern-day post-colonialist movement and it's the basis of the modern-day post-feminist movement and it's the basis of the modern-day post-Christian movement and it's the basis of the modern-day post-modernist movement and it's the basis of the modern-day post-humanist movement and it's the basis of the modern-day post-Marxist movement.

We need to understand the cultural crosswinds that we're in right now and how they are based on Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto." We need to understand the concept of freedom and liberty that God has given us and how it is the basis of His system. We need to understand how the spirit of the Lord brings liberty and how we can stand fast in that liberty. We need to understand how to proclaim liberty throughout all the land and how to teach others about the concept of freedom. We need to understand how to be free from the yoke of bondage that is all around us.

Karl Marx was never taken seriously as a philosopher in his own lifetime, but I don't know of any other individual that's had his dramatic impact on the 20th century as he had. He basically gave birth to Marxism, a governing system called communism, which abolishes all private ownership of property and confiscates the wealth of the wealthy and distributes it back to the working class. Marx believed that profit was evil, but Jesus said, "Cast out the unprofitable servant." Jesus said profit is not only not evil; it's necessary. You can't be a viable institution if you don't make some profit.

Now, excessive profit is extremely evil, but the way a capitalist system deals with excessive profits and greed is through a thing called competition. You start making too much money, and somebody's going to come along and put in a business just like yours, and they're going to start doing what you do for less money. Marxism claims to be the ultimate answer to class struggle, and they want you to forget history. It's important if you're going to embrace Marxist philosophy that you need to forget about things that have happened over the past 75 or 80 years.

Marxism will not tolerate any kind of contrary opinion, so the Marxist system is basically one of tyranny. It's for your good; you just have to trust the government. This is why the neo-Marxists want to cancel history, alter history, and call America evil. If they can convince you that America was evil, they can get you to fall out of agreement that it was created by God for God and for His purposes. So that's why they attack you and try to alter history and try to get you to forget about it. But if you study history closely, like great minds like Michael Medved and great historians do, there can be no doubt in your mind that America was created by God.

Karl Marx lived at a time of the Industrial Revolution, and there was disruption. People were being driven off farms into the cities, and they were being exploited. He was trying to find a way to help the working class, and he thought that the way to do it was to abolish private ownership of property and to confiscate the wealth of the wealthy and redistribute it back to the working class.

The way a capitalist system deals with excessive profits and greed is through a thing called competition. You start making too much money, and somebody's going to come along and put in a business just like yours, and they're going to start doing what you do for less money.

Marxism is not the ultimate answer to class struggle. It is a system of tyranny, and it is important to remember the history of what has happened over the past 75 or 80 years. The neo-Marxists want to cancel history, alter history, and call America evil. But if you study history closely, there can be no doubt in your mind that America was created by God.

The sermon transcript is: The cities they were working in factories and sweatshops. It was not a good environment at all; they were being abused by the people that owned the factories. There's no question about that. And it was a time when the church in Germany was corrupt. Let me tell you something: anytime the state and the church get married, you've got problems. Because history will tell you that the church will just become another way that they can politically control people. That's why the church has to be an independent institution, submitted not to the government but to Jesus Christ, to be led by Him, that can be a bastion of truth that doesn't pull punches and tells you the way it is and doesn't care about how popular they are. They care about whether you survive or not. They care about whether you embrace and live the life that Christ has called you to live, and they inform the politics. The politics take care of themselves when God's people stand up and they become who God's called them to be.

This was the era of John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. There was tremendous abuse of labor during this time, and the church was completely corrupt. So Marx became an atheist; he didn't see them doing anything that was helping people, and he was probably right about that. But here's the thing that did happen: the church reformed itself, and so did capitalism. Capitalism reformed itself. It's amazing. If Marx came today, he would say, "If you study this, you have to come to the same conclusion." If Marx came to America today and looked around, he would go, "There's no need for another system," because capitalism, to a larger degree, has healed a lot of its evils.

There are labor unions now, and you can't abuse labor. If you try to abuse labor, you'll get put out of business. The people that are working in the factories in America now have got 401(k)s, and they own the factories. They own the stock. The stock market is so important politically in America because the average everyday guy has a huge investment in it. He would have never dreamed of a stock exchange where companies would become public holdings and not belong to individuals.

Now, there are some individuals that have huge stock positions. Amazon, the guy, the dude, whatever his name is, the bald-headed guy that was a book salesman that started it—anyway, he's got a lot of Amazon stock that makes him wealthy. But you know what? I bet you got some Amazon stock in your 401(k) too, and it's done pretty good for you. Can I get a witness out of somebody?

Karl Marx would say, "I have nothing to object to. Why don't they let it go?" Because they're not interested in equity; they're interested in power. That's the thing you have to understand. They use the concept that he created or the objections that he had into the social deal. In fact, Marxism should be called Cainism. We studied Cain and Abel last week. Marxism should be called Cainism.

If you look at the core of what they believe, they want to confiscate anybody who's done well, made any money; they want to take it and give it to other people. That's wonderful, except that doesn't work, and that's been proven over and over and over again. What you end up with when you install a Marxist system is you have a handful of individuals, elites, that get to the— I understand that Vladimir Putin could be the wealthiest man in the world. I would suspect that he probably is. He's not a very good communist, is he? You get what I'm trying to say? It's just a way of tyranny.

Whenever you see communism, you see tyranny. It sounds good; we want to make everybody the same. I got news for you: everybody's not the same. Can I get a witness out of somebody? Everybody's not the same, and God didn't create you to all be the same. He didn't create you to do all things under the communist system. Then I would be able to draw just as good as Ryan can, and my little stick figures—you would have to applaud that and appreciate it because everyone has to be the same. It's ridiculous, but somehow it's taken a hold of our youth. Many of our youth, and part of it is because the church has not stood up and called it what it is.

Communism is not born out of compassion for the poor; it's born out of resentment for the rich. There was a dude, a communist named Antonio Gramsci. He was an Italian Marxist who lived between 1891 and 1937. He was critical of Mussolini and the fascists, and I don't blame him. He got arrested, put in jail, and he died in prison. But he figured out the improbability of ever getting people to vote in a communist economic system, so he developed a theory called cultural Marxism, and he became known as a neo-Marxist. He was the first one to carry the banner of neo-Marxism, a term that is quite common in American universities now.

The theory of the neo-Marxists is this: they both basically took the Seven Mountains vision. You remember the Seven Mountains Vision? We've taught on it over and over and over again. We have a slide to the Seven Mountains Vision, which is basically based out of Isaiah chapter 2, verses 2 through 3. It said, "It shall come to pass in the latter days," say the latter days—we're in the latter days. "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on top of the mountains, and He shall be exalted above all the hills, and all the nations will flow to it. Many people shall come and say, 'Come, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths, for out of Zion shall forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'"

In other words, if there were three men that received this vision of Christian leaders, powerful Christian leaders: Francis Schaeffer, who was a Presbyterian minister and a philosopher, started a deal called the LaBrie house in Switzerland. It's where he lived; he opened his house, had people come in—young Christians came in and got discipled there. They're all over the world now. He had a tremendous influence on Christian thought. The other one was Bill Bright, who started Campus Crusade for Christ. He was carrying the battle right to the heart of the battle, which is in the universities in America. It was a magnificent organization at one time when he was alive.

Then there was a guy named Lauren Cunningham, who started Youth for a Mission, and they had powerful influence. He took youth all over the world from America to the mission fields. I know a lot of guys that devoted their lives to that ministry. They had powerful effects for the kingdom; they were on three different continents, and they got this vision out of Isaiah 2 at the same time. Only later, when they ran into each other, were they able to confirm that this is a vision God is saying will happen in the latter days.

What happened to Gramsci? He co-opted the Seven Mountains Vision. It's where God plants His people on the Arts and Entertainment Mountain, the Business Mountain, the Education Mountain, the Family Mountain, the Government Mountain, the Media, and the Religious Mountain, which would be the church. In other words, wherever you are, wherever God has planted you, He wants you to have influence.

And dang it, I'm just going to tell you, you're not going to have influence if you're just average. Don't take a job and just be average. Take a job and do it with gusto and ask God to lead you and just show you and give you insight until you get where you can. If I could ever learn to weld the way Ryan can paint—come on, somebody! You're a Christian; you're called. Your work is supposed to be spectacular. It's supposed to be so good, and it carries the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Your work does.

I watched them promote you over there. You started out sweeping the floor or whatever you were doing, and now they keep moving you up because you have a heart for the people that you're taking care of, and it shows. It's from the Lord. The scripture says in due time, He'll promote you. Do your work as unto the Lord, not men. In due time, He'll promote you. He doesn't want you to be average; He wants you to be spectacular.

A great barber makes you look good and then draws a picture of you to show you how good you look. Where can you find a barber like that? This is the core of the vision. And so what's happened is the communists, the cultural Marxists, the neo-Marxists have co-opted our vision. They've done it better than we have. Now, are there neo-Marxists in the area?

Good morning, everyone. Today I want to talk about the influence of the entertainment and arts industry in high-level positions of influence. Have you heard about the BlackRock blackmail? BlackRock is the biggest institutional investor in the world, and they manage your 401(k) accounts. They buy shares for Apple and other companies with your money, but they also take your voting proxy. They dictate who's on the board and who's not, and they set out these DEI requirements. They have a lot of power, and they want to take your freedom.

Marxism looks good on the outside, but it comes from the spirit of Cain. God said that the mountain of the Lord would become greater than the other mountains, and they would gravitate toward it. When the church starts to rise up and the remnant church begins to go out and point out these inconsistencies in these philosophies and the dangers of them, then they can talk to Christian people about becoming promoted through the lens of Christianity, and that's what I'm talking about today.

I have been for a long time. I confess that I need to get real, get over that. While I've been bashing Hollywood, you know, and been aggravated with them, there are a handful of Christian actors that have just gone and been promoted and are doing fantastic work. There’s a new movie on human trafficking with Jim Caviezel; they say it's a blockbuster. I want to know why the left accuses everybody of being racist and everybody of being slave owners, and they never say a thing about human trafficking, about children trapped in the sex trade. I want to know why they never say anything about that. There's an inconsistency there, and Christians are the ones that are fighting that fight.

If you believe me, say Amen. And Christ has guaranteed they're going to win. So from Gramsci's biography, this is what his biographer said: Gramsci viewed churches as charities and the media and schools as organizations that needed to be invaded by socialist thinkers. My God, that's what they've done! They took our vision and they used it effectively, and now we're suffering the consequences.

I want to take it back. You want to help me? I want to take it back. I want Christians to quit getting all pinned up in the church and saying it's yicky out there and to go out there and begin to make a difference. I've told the story of the welder at the Exxon plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I preached this message one time, and he said, "Man, that's my story. I didn't have an engineering degree, but I just prayed the Lord would show me what I needed to fix. He would show me how to do it; He would show me who I needed to depend on, who I needed to call on." Pretty soon, he's the head of engineering for the largest oil refinery in the world, and he doesn't even have an engineering degree. That's what God can do!

He's discipled everybody who's under him in his department. The leadership of all his disciples—I'm sure Exxon, you know, with BlackRock—if BlackRock finds out, they're going to be selling. Oh, I forgot; they don't own any Exxon stock because they're anti-oil anyway. Forgive me, Lord. I get frustrated when people just cannot seem to see the reality that's all around them, and they're supposed to have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Capitalism and Christianity have to go together. If you don't temper the rawness of capitalism with Christianity, that's when you begin to get into real problems. Because capitalism can be a selfish sort of a system where all you care about is you. But Jesus, when a Christian man or woman puts in a business, it's not about them; it's about helping their community. It's about employing people; it's about giving people the opportunity to prosper. It's about strengthening the church. That's the motivation for a Christian businessman or a Christian businesswoman, but they have to do it through the lens of Christianity, and that's what I'm talking about today.

Paul is saying, "No longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother, beloved especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord." So Paul is saying to Philemon, "You have a choice. You can either keep him as a slave or you can set him free." And Paul is saying, "Set him free."

And then he says, "If he has wronged you or owes you anything, charge that to my account." And then he says, "Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say." So Paul is saying to Philemon, "You have a choice. You can either keep him as a slave or you can set him free." And Paul is saying, "Set him free."

Paul is saying, "I'm an apostle, and I can drop the hammer on you, and I can make you forgive him. I can require it, but I'm asking you to do it for me, not out of compulsion." This is the way Christians handle social injustice. They do it through love, and they don't criticize, and they don't plan cues against oppressive classes. They try to teach the oppressors the power of genuine Christian love, that life is better than the life that they're living, and they need to show and demonstrate forgiveness.

Christians love liberty, but if we're going to be a people who love liberty, we have to grant liberty. Jesus said, "If you don't forgive, my Father in Heaven won't forgive you." I don't care what anybody has against you; you have no right to harbor a grudge and become resentful. You've got to let it go. Paul says to Philemon, "Do this for me. If you can't do it because it's the right thing, do it for me."

Christians change the world through relationships; they don't do it through political campaigns, even though they inform the politics. This is why it's important that you scatter out and get on the mountain. Figure out where it is; get on it because God wants you to begin to form relationships there with unbelievers. You don't understand the power of just living the Christian life before people and how it changes the way they see things. You teach them what liberty really is because you know what liberty is, and you know the price that was paid for it for you to be free.

Where the spirit of the Lord is absent, it says, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." But I would say also where the spirit of the Lord is absent, there's always tyranny. History shows that wherever atheist Marxist intellectuals have gained power, tyranny has been the result. The tyrannical leader's first agenda is to get rid of the church because the church is the place where people hear about what liberty is.

The Lord told us six years ago, "I'm going to shake the heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land. I'm going to shake the nations, and they shall come to the desired nations." The same word that Isaiah used, "And I will fill this temple with glory," says the Lord of hosts. "The glory of the latter temple will be greater than the former," says the Lord of hosts. "In this place, I will give them peace," says the Lord of hosts.

COVID was an apocalypse. The Greek word for apocalypse means revelation. COVID was a revelation where all this stuff that had been going on in our government and in our institutions that we did not do became exposed. All of a sudden, we realized someone had been planting tares while we slept, and the church took all this stuff for granted. We vacate the place, and we expect the devil not to occupy it. How ridiculous is that?

When we send our kids to school and into colleges, we need to send them in there to make a difference. We need to send them in there with a solid understanding of liberty and what liberty is. The recovering of America can only be accomplished by the remnant church. It's not a political battle; it's a spiritual battle.

Second Corinthians 10, verses three through five: "We may walk in the flesh, but we don't war in the flesh. Our weapons are mighty in God for coming against strongholds and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Jesus Christ."

If I would quit trying to be angry and resentful for these young people that are so mixed up that I see on television and start to love them the way Jesus would love them, but not allow them to ever continue to lie to themselves or lie to society about what true liberty really is—if I would just say, "You know what? I'm going to love on them and show the world what liberty is."

Watch my knee. He led the fight against tyranny in communist China. He was a great, great Christian pastor, and he did amazing things for God in early China. He was arrested by the communists in 1952 and placed in prison. He spent the next 20 years there; he died in 1972. But while he was in prison, he led prisoners and guards and prison guards and wardens—all of them—to Christ. He created and brought heaven to bear in the prison that they locked him up in.

On the day of his death, Niue allegedly left a note under his pillow, and the note, which his niece found later in his belongings, said, "Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days." This is the greatest truth in the universe. When you remove that great truth from your culture, nothing but lies and deception begin to take place. Freedom is a Christian concept, and the only place you find true freedom from oppression is where the spirit of the Lord is.

If America perishes, freedom will be lost forever from the face of the earth. We don't have to worry about whether we're being effective or not. We don't have to worry about elections. If we'll go out and stand for the truth, we've got to quit sending mixed signals to people. We have to tell them the truth, and we have to stand on the truth, and we have to help them embrace the truth. Come on, somebody!

So the Holy Trinity is "E Pluribus Unum," one out of many. You can't give an American a DNA test and tell if he's an American or not because there is no genetic ethnicity. There's an idea. Americans are Americans because they buy into the idea of "E Pluribus Unum." The other idea they buy into is "In God We Trust." It's on your quarter. It begins with our trust in God.

The third one is liberty because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where He ain't, there aren't any. I don't know whether I said that right. You take the spirit of the Lord out of anything, and tyranny is what comes next. If you believe that, say Amen.

So what are we celebrating exactly here on the 4th of July? These words were written in 1776, and this is what we celebrate on the 4th of July: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

We govern the government, and what we are here to do is to insist that no one tries to abridge our rights, which don't come from government. Our rights don't come from government; our rights come from God. We're endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights. Governments can't take them. That's liberty! Come on, somebody! That's freedom! That's what that is! And if the government didn't give you the rights, they're not going to take them away either.

I don't like it; I'm sorry, but I'm just telling you the truth. This is what we celebrate on the Fourth of July—this idea that was born of the spirit. When you read Medved's book about the incidents and the events around the writing of the Declaration of Independence, you will see that these are just accurate historical events. He doesn't shade it; he tells you the fine details that you don't learn in history class.

If you look at that and you go, "Man, there is no way this was an accident. You can't flip a quarter ten times and have it lying on its edge once, much less every time." That's what the odds of all of these things happening in American history.

I'm proud to be an American, but I don't know what some people are that live in this country. I don't think they understand these concepts because if you don't understand the spirit of the Lord, you likely don't understand what liberty really is.

There are two books that I recommend that you get if you've got kids that are headed for college. I recommend you get "The Magna Carta of Humanity" by Oz Guinness. Oz Guinness is a great Christian thinker. He was born in communist China; he was raised there. His parents were missionaries and doctors in China. He saw, whenever Japan invaded China, he saw the Chinese government intentionally flood the Yangtze River to stop the Japanese Army and intentionally kill 500,000 of their own citizens—that's communism. He saw that when he was seven. He saw his mother and dad's friends executed. He knows what communism really is.

When he was a teenager, they got him back to England. He was educated at Oxford. He's an Oxford fellow at the Christian School of Apologetics there. He's one of the greatest men of understanding of the importance of freedom, and the subtitle to "The Magna Carta of Humanity" is "Sinai's Revolution: Faith in the Future of Freedom."

God brought His people into a covenant—it's Sinai—and He said, "You're going to be different. You're going to operate by different principles. You're in covenant with me, and that gives you freedom to be who I've called you to be."

And then the other one is, of course, "The American Miracle" by Michael Medved. It's one of the greatest. Maybe your kids got to read those books before they go to college. They have to read them so they'll know the way it really is.

And I want to know why. You've got to prepare them before you send them to college to know the difference between a lie and truth that ain't right. Amen.

And I don't think all colleges are that way. I'm just here to tell you this—that as your pastor, it's an honor to teach you truth. I hope I get taken off YouTube. That's why that's a badge of honor. I would really love to have that. Great men of God have been canceled off YouTube right and left. I hope that they hear this message and they decide that I've gone too far because all I've done is tell you exactly the history. I haven't shaded it. I didn't say Karl Marx was a bad individual. And if you all don't like it, I'm sorry, but I'm just telling you the truth.

As we take communion this morning, I really want to—and I'm excited about this Fourth of July. Hey, we've got a lot to be thankful for. The grass is green; the firemen can sleep tonight or Tuesday night or Wednesday night. Man, it's just what God is doing.

I'll tell you another thing too: the healing vision. God said the people are going to migrate back to this part of the country, and this will be Goshen. It'll be Goshen in the midst of all this despair because it'll be different.

I was mentoring or ministering to a young man who's involved with a school system of a school district here, a small town here in this region. He was talking about how the school board meetings start with prayer, how everybody on the board has a relationship with Jesus. He was talking about how if they have something really serious they need to decide, they pray about it and come back. Man, I'm telling you, that's the whole difference—that Jesus is in charge.

He said sometimes they have a disagreement about what Jesus is saying, but they work that out. What they do is let the spirit of the Lord lead them because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, freedom, success, and prosperity. Jesus said, "I've come to preach the good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, and to set the captive free and to teach them what real freedom is."

Freedom is not debauchery and permission to just live any way you want to and to commit sin willingly and not expect some consequence. Freedom is freedom from oppression. It's a freedom to live and be who God created you to live and to be, and what He created you to live and be will be consistent with this. Anything else is a lie.

I hear a lot, "He just made me this way." No, the devil did! You bought the lie! Amen! So we're going to celebrate freedom.