Amen. All right, we're there in Deuteronomy chapter number 18. And normally on Wednesday nights, we've been going through the book of Ezekiel, studying the book of Ezekiel.
Tonight being October 31st, I wanted to preach a different sermon, and I want to preach tonight on the subject of exposing the occult and witchcraft.
Exposing the occult and witchcraft. And we're going to start here in Deuteronomy 18, and let me just kind of give you some terms when it comes to the occult and witchcraft.
And if you could, you're there in Deuteronomy 18, look down at verse number 9, actually, Deuteronomy 18, verse 9.
The Bible says this, When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
And God's about to explain what those abominations are. Verse 10, he says, There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his sons or his daughters to pass through the fire.
Now when he talks about someone forcing his sons or his daughters to pass through the fire, he's talking about human sacrifice.
And you're going to find that human sacrifice is often associated with the occult and with witchcraft.
And then from here he goes on to talk about these terms. He says, Or that use of divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
Verse 11, he says, Or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
And what I want you to notice here is people of that type of religion, which is why no real Christian should ever be a chaplain in the government.
It is a religion, and it is a religious practice involving magic and affinity with nature. Usually it's involved with a pagan tradition.
Also, that's kind of the definition of the word witchcraft. Let me give you a definition for the occult.
The word occult literally means hidden or hidden from view.
It has taken on the definition of anything that involves magic, witchcraft, sorcery, or paranormal activity.
And tonight, being October 31st, being Halloween, tonight is actually a night when the occult and witchcraft is being celebrated in our country and in our nation today.
And a big theme of the origins of Halloween have to do with the occult.
In fact, for the religion of witchcraft, Halloween is actually a holy day for them in which they are actually celebrating their religion.
And I want to just teach you about the occult and about witchcraft.
I want to give you three statements tonight. We're going to go through them as quickly as we can so we won't spend too much time.
But if you'd like to write these statements down, point number one is this.
The occult and witchcraft should be taken seriously. The occult and witchcraft should be taken seriously.
Today, when you talk to people about these things, they'll kind of chuckle and sometimes be annoyed or roll their eyes at you.
Today we have this idea where, well, all of that's just kind of make-believe.
When you make a video talking about why Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween, people will say, well, it's not real. It's fake.
It's just things people watch on TV or they watch in movies.
But I want you to understand that in the Bible, God took witchcraft, He took the occult, He took sorcery and magic very seriously.
In fact, He made laws for His nation against it.
When we're reading Deuteronomy, chapter number 18, we're reading the laws that God established for a nation.
And in that law, He said that these things were not allowed.
Look down at verse number 10 again.
He says, there shall not be found among you anyone that maketh the sons or daughters to pass through the fire.
And He's saying, there shall not be found among you anyone that useth divination.
So if you would have asked God, you know, is this just make-believe?
Are these just characters in a book or characters in a play or characters in a movie?
God would have said, no, this is very serious.
I don't want anyone that useth divination.
And when we're talking about divination, what we're talking about here is, you know, the foretelling of future.
This is like your palm reading. This is your tarot cards. This is the tea leaves.
That type of thing is what's involved in the divination.
Then He says this, or an observer of times.
The observer of times would be your astrology.
This is the reading of horoscopes. All of that stuff is witchcraft and the occult.
He says, or an enchanter. This is someone who casts spells.
Or a witch or a charmer or a consultor with familiar spirits.
And I want you to make note of that.
That is someone who's demon-possessed or demonically possessed, possessed by a devil.
Or a wizard or a necromancer.
A necromancer is someone who practices witchcraft, but they do it through the celebrating or through the involvement of the dead.
You know, this is your Dia de los Muertos, right?
This is your Day of the Dead. This is your, you know, celebrating death.
It's a necromancer.
And I want you to notice that God placed a law where He said these things were forbidden in His nation, in His country.
When He created a nation and gave laws against it, He said these things are not to be allowed.
Now you're there in Deuteronomy. Go backwards to the book of Exodus.
You're there in Deuteronomy. Just go back, pass the book of Numbers, Leviticus, into the book of Exodus.
And notice Exodus 22.
Exodus chapter 22.
And I want you to notice that God actually places a death penalty on those who would practice witchcraft.
Exodus chapter 22 and verse number 18 says this, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
The word suffer there means allow.
And God says that in His government, in His, you know, perfect system of law, He says, I have placed the death penalty upon someone who practices witchcraft.
And here's what I want you to understand.
The occult and witchcraft and sorcery and these things should by Christians be taken seriously.
They're not a game. They're not just something to have fun with or something that's fake or something that we can just kind of, you know, dress our kids up.
The Bible takes these things very seriously.
But our society has made the occult and witchcraft fun and entertaining.
I mean, you can't, you know, if you go to a bookstore today, go to any bookstore in America and every bookstore in the United States of America is going to have a major section in it that deals with the occult, that deals with witchcraft.
And these are things that people read about.
Even when you talk about children's books, you know, the most famous one would be the Harry Potter series of books, which even adults read, you know.
And then, of course, you've got the Harry Potter movies.
And these have been things that have been put out in order to desensitize us to, you know, the wickedness of sorcery and wizards and witchcraft.
But here's what I want you to understand.
God takes these things very seriously.
God looks at these things as they're not just kind of fun and game.
Magazines and tabloids, you know, sold at checkout stands, at grocery stores, promote psychic readings and promote, you know, promote the horoscopes and promote, you know, the telling of the future.
You've got games.
If you go to the toy section in most stores today, even if you go to the toy section at Target, you're going to find on sale, you know, the Ouija boards and the dungeon and dragons and the types of fantasy games
that are like that.
Television and movies often promote.
I asked Brother Stuckey to do some research for me on, you know, any famous movie.
I don't know anything about movies or things like that.
So I asked him, you know, if you can give me some, you know, get a list of movies that promote, you know, witchcraft and that promote sorcery.
This is the list he got for me.
He said movies in 2018 that promote witchcraft.
One movie is called Halloween 2018.
I guess they're not very creative with their naming of movies.
But Halloween 2018 promotes Halloween, you know, The Nun.
That sounds scary.
The First Purge.
I don't know what this is.
It's something about where you can kill people or torture people and there's no punishment for it or something like that.
Jigsaw.
These are all popular movies right now.
TV shows that are out right now that are popular that kind of promote these things.
American Horror Story.
I've never heard of it, but I'm sure some of you have.
The Walking Dead.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
This is a spinoff, the Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
That was a show that was on when I was a kid.
But in this one, she's older.
And instead of being nice and innocent, this is more of a dark and satanic version of that show.
But, you know, Hollywood has always promoted these things.
Even Disneyland.
You know, Disneyland has the biggest promoter of witchcraft and sorcery.
Disneyland, I mean, even back with their, you know, what was the name of that movie?
Was it Fantasia?
Where you've got Mickey Mouse being a sorcerer.
You know, Disneyland is one of the biggest promoters of witchcraft and selling these things to children today.
And TV, look, it's always, whether it's, you know, shows today like The First Purge or American Horror Story,
or whether it's, you know, Bewitched back in the 70s.
I was listening to somebody earlier and they were talking about how that show Bewitched.
You remember that show Bewitched from the 70s?
You know, you had the witch, I think her name was Samantha, the witch, you know.
But on that show, her mother was named Endora.
And, you know, she was named after the witch at Endor from the Bible.
And just, you know, that just shows you that Hollywood and the media has been promoting these things from day one.
You know, they've been promoting everything that is anti-God.
Music, many popular recording artists are personally involved in sorcery and witchcraft, in Satanism.
Popular songs often involve the aspects of the occult.
And album covers often portray the occult and satanic symbols, especially in heavy metal music, you know, in education.
Even kids are being taught about these things in school.
They're being taught about it in college.
The New Age movement consists largely of people involved in the occult and pagan religions.
And then, of course, we have Halloween, which is being celebrated tonight, which is the holy day for witchcraft,
when we basically dress all our kids up and teach them to celebrate things like death, witchcraft, you know, fear, and things that no Christian should believe.
And here's what I want you to understand.
I just want you to get from the Bible that God takes these things very seriously.
They're not fake and fun things for him.
For him, he says, look, you find the witch, you put her to death.
You know, you don't allow these things into your society.
You don't teach your children about them.
And somebody said this, the best trick the devil ever pulled was to make the world believe that he was make believe.
And we as Christians need to, you know, not just kind of roll our eyes and think like, ah, man, you're just a little extreme.
It's just a fun holiday.
It's just a fun game.
You're not going to celebrate all week.
No, God takes these things seriously.
And we as Christians should look at the occult and at witchcraft and we should take it seriously.
But second tonight, I want you to notice not only is this something that we should take seriously, but the occult and witchcraft should also be considered satanic.
The reason that we want to take it seriously and the reason that God puts the death penalty on witchcraft is because its source is Satan himself.
You're there in Exodus.
Go to the book of Leviticus just real quickly.
Leviticus chapter number 19.
Look at verse number 31.
Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 31 says,
Notice what he says, that have familiar spirits.
Regard not them that have familiar spirits.
Now the term there, familiar spirit, is speaking about someone who is demon possessed or possessed with the devil.
He says,
Look at Leviticus chapter 20 and verse number 6.
Notice what he says.
And the soul, Leviticus chapter 20 verse 6,
Notice what he says.
I want you to notice that the Bible associates these two things.
A familiar spirit or a devil or a demon and wizards or witchcraft or sorcery.
Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 33.
You're there in Leviticus.
You're going to go past Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles.
2 Chronicles chapter 33.
And look at verse number 6.
2 Chronicles chapter 33 and verse 6.
2 Chronicles 33 says this,
Now the he there is referring to Manasseh who was king at the time.
It says he caused his children to pass through the fire.
And again, I want you to notice the Bible associates all of these things together.
Familiar spirits, witchcraft, human sacrifice, and also fornication and whoredoms are associated with this.
If you remember the verses we just read, he talked about not being defiled by them.
He talked about not going and whoring after them.
In 2 Chronicles 33, 6 he says,
And he caused the children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.
Also, he observed times, that's your astrology, your horoscopes, and used enchantments, those are your spells,
and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar spirit.
That's your demon possession.
That's your possessed by a devil.
And with wizards, he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
Go to the New Testament, Acts chapter 16.
Acts chapter number 16.
And look at verse number 16.
You've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
Acts chapter 16 and verse 16.
I just want to show you that when we talk about these things, God brings up the familiar spirit,
the familiar spirit, the familiar spirit, the demon or the devil that possesses these people.
You say, why does God bring that up?
Because here's what you need to understand.
When we're talking about a witch or a sorcerer or a wizard or a necromancer, a palm reader, a psychic,
when we're talking about those things, what we're really talking about is someone who is possessed with a devil,
someone who is demon-possessed.
That's what we're talking about.
And because of that, it's the religion of the demon-possessed.
And because of that, God says, don't allow that religion in your life.
Don't allow it in your society.
And in fact, in his perfect society, when he established the nation of Israel, he said, put those people to death.
Acts 16. Look at verse number 16.
Acts chapter 16 and verse 16 says this.
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, knows what he says, a certain damsel, knows what he says,
possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her master much gain by soothsaying.
The term soothsaying there is referring to fortune-telling.
And again, I want you to notice that you say, well, how does somebody do soothsaying?
How do they have fortune-telling?
Here we're told it's done through a damsel did it when she was possessed with a spirit of divination.
That's talking about the fact that she's possessed with a devil.
And we saw in the Old Testament there that they're possessed with familiar spirits.
Go to Ephesians chapter 5.
You're going to Acts, you're going to go to Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians.
And while you go there, let me just kind of speak to you about this spirit of divination or this familiar spirit.
Because I've been kind of thinking about it this week and looking at it in Scripture and even listening to things and things like that.
And I've been asked in the past, what is a familiar spirit or what does that mean?
And to be honest with you, I wasn't really 100% sure, and I'm not 100% sure now, so I want to give you this disclaimer.
I'm going to give you kind of my thoughts on it, but I'm not going to tell you that this is just 100% what the Bible teaches.
Because when you look up the term familiar spirit throughout the Bible, which is the best way to study the Bible,
when you don't understand a term, just look up every single time it comes up, and hopefully that will give you some context.
When you look at the term familiar spirit, it doesn't really give you a uniqueness to that term.
It's just kind of letting you know that they're possessed with a devil.
You find the term being used in verses like the ones that we've read where just kind of a lot of things having to do with the occult and witchcraft are being kind of just listed.
You've got necromancers and wizards and sorcerers and witches and familiar spirits.
And then you also find it used, what I have found is that you often find that term or like the term we saw here in Acts 16, the spirit of divination,
it's often used in regards to someone who's telling the future or who's telling where someone's coming to them and they're kind of talking to them about that person or that individual.
So this is just kind of my guess in regards to what a familiar spirit is.
And again, I'm not going to tell you this is 100% what the Bible teaches, but just kind of as I've been thinking about it and looking at it in Scripture, here's what you need to understand.
A demon or a devil is basically a fallen angel.
What you have is the angels of God, some of them decided to rebel against God and they followed Satan.
And the angels that did that are what we know today and what we see in Scripture as demons or devils or familiar spirits.
We know that Satan is a great copycat.
He copies everything that God does.
God has a Bible, so he copies his own Bible.
It's called the NIV or the ESV or the New King James or whatever.
God has prophets. He has his own prophet.
Even as we've been studying the book of Ezekiel, God said he's going to put a mark upon the forehead to the 144,000.
And Satan said he's going to put a mark on the forehead to those who worship the beast.
Satan is always copying Jesus.
And I don't have time to develop this tonight because I'll go through and develop it better in a different sermon because we just have a lot going on.
But in the Bible, the Bible teaches this concept of guardian angels.
The Bible teaches this concept, and I can prove it to you from Scripture, where God has assigned certain angels to every believer and they are there with you.
They're there to help you or protect you or guard you or whatever, you know, it might be.
And the Bible teaches that there are angels who behold the faces of God's children all day long and they speak to God, you know, and they're there for us.
And that concept is found through Scripture.
So here's my thought.
If Satan, excuse me, if God has angels and he's assigned to every believer and Satan is the great copycat,
wouldn't it make sense that Satan would have devils that he's assigned to certain people?
And what I believe is this, and I'm not saying that there's a demon out there for every person, especially in like nations like United States of America,
but there are countries in this world, there have been for centuries and there are even now, where witchcraft is a heavy part of their society,
they have witch doctors and they've got witches and, you know, witchcraft and fortune telling and things like that.
And here's what I'm saying.
What I think a familiar spirit is, I believe that in areas of either the world or maybe in families where that type of religion and culture is accepted,
I think it would be smart of Satan to kind of assign a demon or a devil to an individual or a family or maybe a little village or a town.
And that devil's job is to get familiar with those people.
He's there to listen to your conversations in private.
He's there to see you grow up.
He's there to find out all sorts of things about you so that when that individual, and again, maybe not here in the United States of America,
but in the mountains of the Philippines or in, you know, the jungles of Africa or wherever it might be,
when those individuals go to their witch doctor, go to their, you know, necromancer, go to their card reader, go to their palm reader,
and they go and they, you know, talk about these things, then that familiar spirit is there to kind of tell them things about their lives
because their job is to kind of get familiar with them.
And then people will say, wow, that person said things about my life that nobody else knew.
Yeah, but that devil that was assigned to you might have known it.
You know, so again, you know, those are just kind of my thoughts on what a familiar spirit is, just as I've been thinking about it and kind of trying to understand it.
But, you know, I know even right now, I know pastors, you know, men that I respect, men that are legit men of God,
who have had situations where they've been being attacked by a reprobate, you know, where they're being harassed by some reprobate that lives all the way on the other side of the country.
They're being, you know, sent hate mail and they're being sent emails and things like that.
And I have been told by close friends, pastors who I trust, and they say, yeah, you know, it's crazy, this individual writes things in these emails.
They write letters, you know, they write things in these letters.
They're like expressing things that my wife and I talked about in private.
And, you know, it's like, look, either they've topped our phone lines or there's some familiar spirit, you know,
that's kind of just listening in and getting familiar with the things we talk about and Satan uses those things.
And again, I'm not 100 percent that that's what a familiar spirit is, but if I had to take a guess at it, that's what I would say.
It's that spirit of divination that kind of gets to know people, a culture, a society, a family,
and then is able to be used to draw people away from the true and living God into believing in these stupid things like palm readers and psychics
and, you know, these people that can tell the future.
And here's what you need to understand.
When it comes to witchcraft, at the end of the day, you are worshiping Satan.
Now, today many people get sucked into these things and they get sucked into not even realizing that they're worshiping Satan.
They think, in fact, witchcraft today is sold as a worship of nature.
You're worshiping nature and you're worshiping, you know, Mother Earth.
And let me just tell you something.
If you want to understand witchcraft, if you have, you know, unfortunately watched movies like Star Wars, Star Wars is basically witchcraft 101.
You know, exactly what these Jedis, you know, they're honing in the force and they're going to use the force in order to be able to make people do things.
I mean, in order to make people say things, in order to change people's views.
What are they doing? They're casting spells on people.
You know, they're using the power of the force. That's what witchcraft is.
That's what people are taught.
You know, there's the force in the universe and you can become one with the force.
It's just witchcraft and it's, again, another example of the media promoting the things of God.
You say, should a Christian be watching that? No, you know what?
No Christian should be watching Star Wars.
No Christian should be promoting, you know, garbage like that. Why?
Because the media is promoting everything that is anti-God.
So you say when it comes to witchcraft, you know, it should be taken seriously, but it should also be considered satanic.
It is devils and demons and Satan being worshipped and it is their power that they are using for people.
But I want to give you just another thought in regards to that.
When it comes to witchcraft, I believe that the gateway that allows people to be possessed by these demons or devils is drugs and alcohol.
I believe that when people take drugs and alcohol, they are opening themselves.
What do we say when someone's drunk or when someone's, you know, high?
They're under the influence.
Well, yeah, you're allowing yourself to be under the influence of that chemical or that, you know, alcohol or whatever it might be.
But you might also be allowing some demon or devil to bring and come in and take possession of yourself.
You say, show that to me in the Bible. Well, let me just kind of give you something to consider.
In Ephesians 5 and verse 18, it's interesting because the Bible says this, Ephesians 5, 18.
It says, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
Here we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit of God.
But God contrasts that with being drunk with wine.
Now, you know, often people will preach, and I agree with this, that, you know, the reason he makes that illustration is because what wine does in an ungodly way is what the Holy Spirit will do in a godly way.
You know, wine and alcohol takes control over someone where the Holy Spirit should take control over someone.
Wine and alcohol will give boldness to someone in a stupid way, but the Holy Spirit will give boldness to someone in a godly way.
You know, wine and alcohol would make people do things that they normally would not do that are wrong,
where being filled with the Spirit would make people do things that they normally wouldn't do that are right.
And I agree with that.
But here's what's interesting.
I believe that the reason God equates these things is because he's saying there is a connection between the Spirit world and being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
You know, I mean, they even call alcohol spirits.
You know, you're under the influence of spirits.
And it's interesting because, you know, when we think of witchcraft, you know, the way that witchcraft is taught to us as children,
the way it's portrayed in books and in plays and in movies, you know, don't you always picture, like, you know, some witch with a cauldron, right,
and they're making this potion, they're making this, you know, strength, this special thing they're going to take, and that's going to give them power?
You know, I remember when I, for school one time, we had to read Shakespeare's book called Macbeth.
And in Macbeth, there's these three weird sisters, right?
There's these three witches.
And there's, like, this rhyme that they tell in that book.
I want to just read it to you just because I want you to kind of see what I'm saying.
They say this in the book, they say, double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble, fillet of a fenny snake,
and the cauldron boil and bake, eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog,
aider's fork and bling's worm sting, lizard's leg and howlet's wing, form a charm of powerful trouble like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
And in this, you know, little snippet here, Shakespeare is kind of, you know, dramatizing it,
and he's talking about these witches putting these weird ingredients, you know, into this cauldron, eye of newt, toe of frog,
wool of bat, tongue of dog, you know, lizard's leg, howlet's wings, right?
So we think about them drinking this weird thing.
I do believe that there's some truth to that.
I don't think they were necessarily putting, you know, lizard's legs and bat's wings into these potions.
But I'm sure that there was real witches in some cave somewhere, you know, and they were cooking up heroin,
and they were cooking up acid, and they were cooking up drugs, and they're taking these potions and getting possessed with devils.
Isn't that what the Indians were doing?
I mean, the Indians in America, what are they doing?
They're getting high off drugs, and then they're getting possessed with the devil.
You know, here's what you need to understand.
Here's what you need to understand.
When you drink alcohol, or when someone takes drugs, they are opening up the gateway.
I'm not saying that everybody who gets drunk is filled with the devil.
I'm not saying that.
But what I am saying is this, that you open up, and you allow yourself to be under the influence of something else.
And it may be the alcohol, it may be the drug, it may be the chemicals, or it may be a spirit.
Because the occult is a satanic thing, and the way that it takes over people, go to Acts chapter 13, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
The way that it takes over people is by people being possessed by devils,
and the way that people often open themselves up to that is by being under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
And that's why the Bible says, be not drunk with wine, wear, and his excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
And as Christians, we ought to be filled with the Spirit of God, of course.
So look, we need to understand that this is satanic, that this is not of God.
And here's what you need to understand.
The occult is at war with real Christianity.
Acts chapter 13, let's just do it quickly.
Notice what the Bible says.
And when he had gone through the isle unto Paphos, Acts 13, verse 6, they found a certain sorcerer.
Notice what it says, a false prophet.
And again, just showing you that this is a religion.
There was a sorcerer who was also a religious leader.
He's a witch doctor.
A Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, which was with the deputy of the county, Sergius Paulus.
So notice this sorcerer is with this man, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God.
So this Sergius Paulus is calling for Barnabas and Saul.
He's interested in the things of God.
Verse 8, but Elamas, the sorcerer, that's the same Bar-Jesus we read about in verse 6, so foresaw his name by interpretation.
Notice what it says, withstood them, withstood Barnabas and Saul, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Here we have a sorcerer, a false prophet, who's trying to withstand Barnabas and Saul, trying to keep them from being able to get this guy saved.
He wants to turn away the deputy from the faith, verse 9.
Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost.
You say, how do you fight a false demon?
You get filled with the Spirit, that's how you do it.
He is filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him.
Notice how he talks to this sorcerer.
He says in verse 10, and said, all full of all subtlety.
You know, when you see the word subtlety, you've got to think of Satan.
Remember the serpent was more subtle than every beast of the field.
He says, all full of all subtlety and all mischief.
Thou child of the devil, that's usually a term used for reprobates, sons of Belial.
Thou enemy of all unrighteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
I want you to notice how Paul felt.
You say, oh, you read all those Old Testament passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Well, Paul wasn't reading Harry Potter either.
Paul wasn't watching Star Wars either.
Paul wasn't celebrating Halloween either.
He looks at the sorcerer and he says, you're a child of the devil.
You're an enemy of all righteousness.
You're not someone that we should be associating with.
Go to 1 Corinthians.
You're there in Acts.
You've got Romans, 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians, chapter number 10.
I said, number one, the occult and witchcraft should be taken seriously.
And number two, the occult and witchcraft should be considered satanic.
Think about this.
According to the Bible, according to the Bible, a sorcerer, a wizard, a necromancer, a witch, whatever you want to call it,
according to the Bible, Harry Potter was a drug addict, demon-possessed child of the devil.
And that's who you want your kids reading about.
Oh, well, it gets my kids to read.
Why don't you get your kids to read the Word of God?
And you say, well, I'm going to watch these shows about witches and I'm going to watch these shows about sorcery.
This is what we're promoting.
You say, what is this sermon called?
It's called Exposing the Occult and Witchcraft.
Why?
Because today we think witchcraft is just some nice little lady kind of just twitching her nose and she's happy-go-lucky.
We just think it's Sabrina the Teenage Witch or we just think it's some funny little thing we can play with.
No, God says it's satanic.
God says it's alcohol and it's drugs.
God says it's whoring and being a whore.
God says that it's not something that we should Christians have anything to do with.
So look, number one, the occult and witchcraft should be taken seriously.
Number two, the occult and witchcraft should be considered satanic.
Number three, the occult and witchcraft should be shunned by all Christians.
There is no Christian that should be watching any movies with a sorcerer, with a witch.
Look, there's no Disney movie you should be allowing your kids to watch when Disneyland is promoting witchcraft and sorcery
and teaching kids that these things that God put the death penalty on are fun and entertaining.
Look, we as Christians need to just decide, do we believe the Bible or not?
Do we believe the Word of God or not?
Look, can we have fun on a Wednesday night on October 31st?
Can we gather together and have the kids play with jump houses and have food and fellowship and fun and still honor the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do we have to involve the celebrating of darkness and death and everything that hates God?
The occult and witchcraft should be shunned by believers, 1 Corinthians 10.
You say, I don't like that.
Well, you know, you're not going to get all the fun without getting a biblical sermon.
But let me give you some biblical verses on that, 1 Corinthians 10.20.
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils.
You know that the Gentiles tonight are performing a lot of sacrifices to devils tonight and not to God.
And I would not that ye should have noticed, and I would not that ye should have, don't miss this,
and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
Ye cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and of the cup of devils.
Ye cannot be partaker of the Lord's table and of the table of devils.
2 Corinthians chapter 6, you're there on 1 Corinthians, just flip over, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 14 says,
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers?
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what conquered? What agreement?
What treaty hath Christ with Belial at Satan?
And what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
Ephesians 5, 11 says this,
And have no fellowship with the unproofful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
So look, as Christians, we need to just, you know what we need to do?
We need to tell our kids this is not just fun and games.
This is real. It should be taken seriously.
It should be considered satanic.
And it should be shunned.
There's no Bible-believing Christian that should play with these things, that mock at these things, that just kind of...
And look, and this is the big deal with Christianity.
You preach about these things and people just kind of want to, you know, just kind of shrug it off and say,
Ah, I think it's a little radical.
Nothing wrong with, you know, Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Let me tell you, Casper the Friendly Ghost was actually a familiar spirit.
And, you know, and this is what we're being taught to accept and to worship.
So look, we as Christians need to decide these things are real.
There's real witchcraft out there.
There's real sorcery out there.
You know, this stuff is real.
And it's satanic and it needs to be shunned by God's people.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father.