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

All right, the verse that I wanted you to see there really in that chapter is verse seven there where it says, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And the sermon I want to preach today is not going to be a popular sermon maybe, and it's maybe going to step on some toes, but this is a sermon of why we should not celebrate Halloween. And so I want to get into this subject of Halloween. Why are we having a harvest party and not a Halloween party? Is it wrong to celebrate something on the 31st? Well, no. It's not 31st. It isn't inherently bad. And so we're going to talk about this, but I first want to get into where Halloween came from. What is Halloween? What's the name even mean? What's it talking about? But then you'll see that what's being celebrated today isn't even what they were celebrating back then, or what the whole point of it was. And so both what it was for to begin with, I don't agree with, and what it is now, I don't agree with. But I kind of want to get into this subject of why, and I'm going to give you some reasons why Halloween's not a godly holiday. And what's a holiday? A holiday is a holy day, or a day that's set apart from the rest. Does that make sense? Like holy, sanctified, all that means is you're setting it apart. Doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be something for the Lord, necessarily. We celebrated Kendall's birthday, and that was a day that was set apart for her birthday. Does that make sense? Like you can celebrate things that aren't necessarily like praising the Lord, or things for the Lord, but what is Halloween? What is it today? What is all this stuff about? What was it to begin with? Now Halloween itself, and I'll just give you the etymology of the word here. The word Halloween dates to about 1745, it says. Now this is according to Wikipedia, so you can check your sources on this. So I'm not the one, the historian that figured this out, and it's of Christian origin. And if you go back, it's like a Celtic, like it goes back to Celtic, and back, actually, what it is, the Bible, or not the Bible, Wikipedia, it says it's All Hallows Eve. So Halloween, what's hallow mean? To honor, to praise, right? And so to hallow something is to honor something, or to praise something, to hold up high, right? All Hallows Eve, Eve just means like, if we would say Christmas Eve, what is that? It's the night before Christmas. Well this is the night, or the evening before All Hallows. Now what's All Hallows? So that's what Halloween is. It's supposed to be like kind of an Eve before a holiday, or a feast. And so this is celebrated throughout a lot of cultures, but mainly Catholicism, mainly Catholic, because you have, what's the big holiday in Mexico? Day of the Dead. It's the same thing as Halloween, same kind of concept, but the Day of the Dead, what it extends back to is this All Saints Day, or All Souls Day. And so the way this would work, and not that you need to know all this information, but Halloween was on the 31st, it's the Eve before All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day. And then the 2nd, so November 1st was All Saints Day, November 2nd was All Souls Day. Now what was that day about? What's this festival about? Well what they would do on this day is they were remembering saints that died. So not crazy, it's not awful, you know what I mean, when you think about the fact of remembering somebody that has died, but they take it to a new level, right? Because you know, we think of my friend Wes Thompson, who died tragically and drowned, and we were doing, basically the day he died we would do like a soul winning marathon in memory of him, right? And it was kind of like in honor of him as a friend and stuff like that, but they take it too far. Does that make sense? Like you can take something where you're saying, well I want to take this day and remember this person, or you know, like you go to a graveyard and you remember a loved one that passed away. Is that wrong? No, it's not wrong to do that, and put flowers on a grave or to remember somebody. But they go to what a lot of, and they use this word, veneration. Now what is veneration? This is a term they use a lot in the Catholic Church, and particularly with one person. Can anyone guess the one person they love to venerate more than anybody? Mary. Mary. They venerate her, right? Now even more than Jesus it seems like, it's all about Mary. Everything, all the statues are Mary and all this stuff, and we're going to see that another day about statues and all the stuff that they have there, but veneration, if you just look up the etymology or the definition of the word, it means to worship or revere something. Now what does, and this isn't just the Catholic Church, it goes into the Greek Orthodox Church, it goes into a lot of other churches, Methodist churches and Protestant churches and all this stuff where they worship saints that have died, and that's where you get into the sinfulness of it, is that we're not supposed to worship man. And so there's a fine line, not a fine line, but there is a line between honoring somebody and remembering somebody and worshipping and revering somebody, does that make sense? And so that's where we've got to look at, so what's this holiday, what was this holiday about before? It wasn't crazily bad, although they took it way too far to where they were venerating saints and praying to saints and praying to Mary, and they start going into worshipping saints. And you think about the fact that they'd have a saint for all these different things, like saints for the animals and saints for all this stuff, and all it goes back to is all these other gods that the Greeks had and the Romans had, where they had a god for every different thing that's out there, god of the wind, god of the sea, and so they had a saint for everything. And so it goes into idol worship and goes into multiple gods, basically. And so you can call it whatever you want and they'll say, well, we're not worshipping Mary, we're venerating her. Tomato's a motto, my friends. You can say that all day long, but if you're bowing down and lighting a candle and praying to her, what would you call that? I would call that worshipping somebody and revering and venerating somebody right there. And so I didn't make a little statue to Wes and bow down on my knees and light a candle and pray to him. Do you see the difference? And so the holiday in itself dates way back, but it's of Catholic origin. It doesn't mean Catholics, like we were talking about last Sunday morning, we believe Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights. The Catholics believe that. So you know what? They're right about some things. And so it's not like I'm just dogging the Catholics all day long, but here's the thing. They have a lot of traditions and a lot of holidays and a lot of things like that that are not biblical, that are against what God says to do. Now I'll get into that, but they also do this too where the All Saints Day, well, if you think about that, then you'd be remembering every single Christian that died. If you literally were going to say, okay, this is All Saints Day, we're going to honor all saints, you've got to remember every Christian has died from the foundation of the world to the end of the world, until that point you're in. But you know why they can do this is because they don't believe every Christian is a saint. They believe that the Catholic Church, and they do this with like the popes when they die, Pope John Paul or whatever, when he died, if you remember, they like basically beatified them or whatever, beatified, I don't know what word they use. They beat them. I don't know what they did. But anyway, basically there came a point, they're like, he became a saint. We had this meeting and all the popes and cardinals and all the birds got together and they said, this guy's a saint. Now, do you think that's how someone becomes a saint? No, the Bible teaches, if you go to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, I'll just straight up say it, every believer is a saint. Every believer is a saint. Everybody that's put their faith on Jesus Christ is a saint. And we covered this in length about salvation and how someone that's saved and is born of God does not commit sin because he's born of God and his seed remaineth in him. And that your soul is perfect and sanctified and you are a saint. You're not always walking as a saint because you can walk in the flesh. Remember that walking in the spirit, walking in the flesh, we've been covering this. And if you're interested in that, come on Wednesday nights to the Wednesday night studies in Romans 6, 7, and 8, and we're going to be still going through that stuff about the old man, new man. But my soul is sanctified. My soul is holy. My soul is a saint. Because what does saint mean? It just broke down the word. It just means one that's sanctified. And there's many verses to go to this, but I just want to show you this one. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, it says, unto the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. Now he's saying those that are sanctified and those that are called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. So who's saints? All that call upon the name of the Lord. Simple as that. So this isn't something where you have to, like, I have to give you that title of saint, you know, or the church has to have a meeting where we're all going to decide, is he really a saint? Is he at sainthood? You know? And this is after God dies. I mean, at that point, good night. If he's not a saint, he's in hell, you know? So I mean, you better make your choice quick, you know? Anyway, it's ridiculous, that whole thing right there. But you know, All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween, a time, the thing is that, what we'll get into is the fact that we're not supposed to worship man, we're supposed to worship God. And so you think of, like, the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, 9, it says, After this manner, therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. When I think of hallowed, when it says All Hallows' Eve, all I can think of is hallowed be thy name. Right? Blessed be thy name. Who are we supposed to hallow and honor and venerate and worship God? So I want to show you some verses on that, and I know this is kind of simple, but we're supposed to be worshiping God, not man. And then we'll get into what is actually celebrated on Halloween. So this isn't really, like, what I'm talking about right now is what the holiday was kind of about to begin with. Does that make sense? It was about honoring and venerating dead saints, right? But that's not what they do today. You know, that's not what Halloween's about today. And then I'll get into the fact that I love the fall festival, and the thing is, most of the stuff that you do at Halloween, or a lot of it, I'd say 50%, if not more, of the stuff you do on Halloween is not wrong or bad. It's the stuff that's mixed in with it that's bad and wrong. And we'll get into that. You know, like, carving a pumpkin's not inherently wrong. And pumpkins are not wrong, amen? We're going to have pumpkin everything on this Tuesday. And so dressing up's not inherently wrong. You know, like, all this stuff, you know, bobbing for apples, you know, candy, amen, is not inherently wrong. And so what's mixed in with that, though? And what's the holiday? What do they try to put that holiday in? And you'll see that it's not Christian with that aspect in there, right? Remember, the devil's not always trying to, he's not always just like, hey, you know, do this, you know, like, something really bad. Worship Satan. No, he's going to try to mix stuff in there to get you confused and get you kind of desensitized to it. And so, but go to Matthew chapter 4 and verse 9. Matthew chapter 4, and I'll turn to these with you, because I only have the verse reference down. Matthew 4 and verse 9 and 10. And so I just want to show you a few places where, where basically, where to worship God, not man. Now this is the famous passage where Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. And Satan's tempting him, obviously. And so, Matthew 4 and verse 9 and 10 there, it says, And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. So Satan's saying to this, to Jesus, if you'll fall down and worship me, I'll give you all these kingdoms, all this stuff, right? And verse 10, it says, Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. So who are we supposed to be worshipping and serving? The Lord. And so, you know, venerating saints, I don't believe in it, I don't think it's something we should do. We definitely shouldn't be praying to saints. Show me where that's in the Bible. And show me where anywhere in the Bible where anybody honored or did some kind of veneration or anything like that for someone that died. Show me in the New Testament, show me in the Old Testament where someone did that. And that God approved of that. And actually what we'll see is these verses where someone's trying to worship a man, and they're constantly like, don't do that. Don't do that. I'm a man. And so in Acts chapter 10, this is the story of Cornelius, Acts chapter 10 and verse 25, Acts chapter 10 verse 25, so this is the story of Cornelius, Peter's coming to him, and remember the angel appeared to Cornelius and said, Send for Peter, and he's going to tell you how to be saved, pretty much. In chapter 11 it goes through the story again about Cornelius, and so Cornelius in his house ends up getting saved, but this is when he first meets Peter in verse 25, and it says in verse 25, Acts 10, 25, it says, And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But notice what Peter did. But Peter took him up saying, Stand up, I myself also am a man. So did Peter accept that worship? No. Now this is an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Peter is one of the high up, you know, even in the Catholic church they think he's like the pope, the first pope or whatever, even though he was married and had children, and it's ridiculous. So anyway, Peter was an apostle, he's one of the twelve. So if anybody was to be worshipped out of all the saints, wouldn't it be Peter? And Peter said, Stand up, for I myself am a man. Revelation 19, and so we have John, this is John the apostle, who wrote, penned down Revelation. Revelation 19, Revelation 19 verse 10, By reason I fell at his feet to worship him, and he said unto me, See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant and thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So if you know the story, one of the seven angels that has the seven last vials, this shows you that those seven angels, this is a little nugget, those seven angels that have the seven last vials are Christians. They're not angels as far as the elect angels or the holy angels like Gabriel and Michael. These are actually, if you think about it, God gives these seven guys, these seven believers, the opportunity to pour out judgment upon the earth. But anyway, that's a side note. So basically this angel is telling him this story and showing him this vision and he falls down to worship at his feet and he says, See thou do it not, I am your fellow servant and of the prophets. And chapter 22 does the same thing. So it's interesting that John, this is the same person that's talking to him and he does it again. So John, who is a disciple who Jesus loved, was a great man of God, but he got caught up in this. Obviously if you were seeing this vision you can imagine what maybe you would do. I mean, when you're seeing all this stuff that's going on. But in Revelation 22 and verse 8 and 9, it says, And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book, worship God. So is there any doubt that we should be worshiping God and not any saint? Now these guys, obviously that angel was a good, must have been a good saint, must have been a really good Christian because he has the honor of pouring out judgment upon the earth in the last days. And Peter was one of the inner three, Peter, James, and John. He's number one. You think it's like how you go in that order, it's Peter, James, and John of the inner three of those twelve. And he says, Don't worship me. So, but, go to Romans chapter fourteen. So before you think that I'm just like against all holidays and against fun and I'm just a stick in the mud when it comes to holidays, go to Romans chapter fourteen. Because here's the thing, if you come away from the sermon and you say, you know, Pastor Robbins, I just like, you know, everything about Halloween and I want to do this. You can do what you want, you know. I'm not going to come to your house and like kick your pumpkins over and like do any, you know. And I'm not going to look at you any different, my friends, because you can do what you want. I just want you to see this is why I don't celebrate Halloween and the reasons why I don't celebrate Halloween. But I want you to know first that here's the thing, when it comes to holidays and people celebrating things, we're not to be judging all our brothers and what they do and what their holidays are. You know what I mean? Like if someone wants to celebrate President's Day and someone doesn't, if someone wants to celebrate the Fourth of July and someone says, you know what, our country's wicked, I don't want to celebrate that holiday, fine, whatever you want to do. You know, like that's what, you know, Romans fourteen is talking about this and we're not to be judging our brothers and sisters on like different things that they do. If you don't want to celebrate a birthday, then that's fine, I don't care, but don't judge me on that. Does that make sense? Like as soon as you say, well, it's wicked and it's simple for you to celebrate the Fourth of July, that's where you get into commandments of men, right? Because there's nothing inherently wrong about it. Now if there's a holiday that's like, we're going to worship Satan, that's where you got problems. Does that make sense? You know, that's where you get into issues. Now Romans fourteen verse four, it says, Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth, yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks. Now when we get into Romans fourteen, we're really getting into all the aspects of this. As far as like, if you're eating bacon and someone's like, I don't eat bacon, you know, that's fine, you know, just don't judge me for eating my bacon, my friends, you know. And so the thing is, is that when it comes to holidays, it's steaming a day, right? If you take a day apart, if you say Saturday's my day that I'm going to do this for the Lord all the time, right? I'm going to dust my day off, I'm going to be doing all this stuff and it's for the Lord and I'm doing all this, that's fine. I have nothing against your little holiday that you're setting aside every Saturday, right? But as soon as you come to me and say, if you're not doing what I'm doing on that day, then you're not right with God, that's where we have problems. Does that make sense? If you have a holiday and you're holding it and saying, I'm honoring the Lord, I'm doing this for the Lord on this day, that's fine. Here's the thing, I celebrate Christmas, I celebrate Easter. If you don't want to celebrate Christmas, that's fine. I don't, you know, it doesn't matter to me, you know, what you celebrate or what you don't celebrate here when it comes to those type of holidays. But when you come to me and say, Christmas is a pagan holiday and you're not right with God if you celebrate Christmas. That's where you have problems because I'm not celebrating Santa Claus here, I'm celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and there's nothing wrong with celebrating something that's holy and something that's good. Does that make sense? Now, if you don't want to celebrate that day and you're like, it's not on December 25th, I guarantee you it probably wasn't on December 25th. But that's not the point, you know, you set days apart for a reason. And so, all I have to say at the beginning of this, you know, if you have a holiday that you're celebrating, that's fine, I don't care. But I want to give you some warnings when it comes to Halloween because Halloween is not what we were talking about to begin with, with honoring dead saints and all that stuff. And, or, you know, and venerating, now venerating I think is where you get into sin, if you were to actually do that holiday the way they wanted you to do it. But it's more so, Halloween celebrates fear. If you just think of Halloween, what do you think about? Being afraid, fear. Now, underneath all that, you have all the nostalgia and you have all the little kids' stuff that you do. Does that make sense? And so, it's veiled with that, with the fact that it's fun, it's about trick or treating, it's about like going and getting candy. But in the high part of that, it's all about fear. It's all about being afraid of something, you know, going to haunted houses, watching horror movies, and, you know, being, getting scared. Does that make sense? Like the whole thing is about being scared of something. And what this really comes down to is that we're not supposed to be afraid of anybody but God. As much as we're not supposed to be worshiping anybody but God, we're not to be afraid of anything, anything, anyone except for God. And so, for God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So we are not to be afraid of anything besides the Lord. And so, we see here that there's a lot of times the Bible talks about fear not and I'm not going through all the different times. Fear not, that phrase fear not is used 62 times in the Bible. The phrase be not afraid is used 28 times. And we're not going to go through all of those but, you know, that's a lot of times to be mentioning not to fear something. And that doesn't mean that that's the only place he's talking because that's just a phrase, right? Those are the places where it's talking about not to fear and not to be afraid. But those phrases are used 62 times and then 28 times and I just want to go through a couple of them and just see that hey, throughout the Bible, God is telling us don't fear, don't fear, don't fear, only fear me, trust in me. But then we have a holiday that's teaching us to fear what man will do unto us. Does it make sense that the whole thing about going to haunted houses and horror movies is being afraid of what some psychopath is going to do to you, right? And we'll get into the dangers of it too because you're really putting your trust in a lot of people that they're not actually psychopaths. Does that make sense when you live in a world of psychopaths and killers and pedophiles and rapists and all this other stuff? And so phrase not to fear, Genesis 15 one, and you don't have to turn all these but if you want to write them down you can. Genesis 15 one, after these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying fear not Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Exodus 20 20, and Moses said unto the people fear not for God has come to prove you and that his fear may be before your faces that you sin not. Deuteronomy 31 six, be strong and of good courage, fear not nor be afraid of them for the Lord thy God he is that doth go with thee, he will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Joshua 10 25, and Joshua said unto them fear not nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight. Isaiah 35 four, say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense he will come and save you. Matthew 10 28, and fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So that's just a little piece of the fear not. Notice that the big thing is that we're not to fear man, we're supposed to fear God. Don't fear him that's only able to kill the body, fear him that's able to cast both soul and body into hell and to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now obviously we know that God as saved people will never send us to hell, but who are you going to fear? The person that's only able to do that or the person that's actually able to destroy your soul too? And so it's just giving you the fact that God's stronger and more powerful therefore that's why we should trust in him. He's more powerful than any man that's here on the earth so why should we ever fear what man will do unto us? And there's plenty of verses you know that we're not to fear what man will do unto us or what flesh will do unto us and so I don't want to belabor that point. First Peter chapter three verse fourteen I think of this verse when going out soul winning because we're not to be afraid to go out soul winning even though we're going up to strangers and going up to stuff that you never know what's going to happen. But in first Peter chapter three verse fourteen it says but and if you suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled. Now notice isn't that exactly what Halloween's about is being afraid of their terror? Terror, fear, being afraid that's what that the holiday inherently is about. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man to ask you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So notice not to be afraid of them but you're to serve the Lord and have an answer to every man with meekness and fear, fear of the Lord and tremble before the Lord and so there's a lot a Bible in this Psalm two, Psalm two if you want to turn there you can, Psalm two. So I just want to give you verses on this and here's the thing I know most people probably aren't afraid on Halloween it's not like most people know that it's not real like the horror movie is not a real thing but most people are watching it to get scared does that make sense like they're watching it to get like jumped they get scared of something and it's adrenaline rush it's all about the adrenaline of getting scared knowing that they're not actually going to die type thing and so I understand I understand the arguments behind this but the thing is I don't I'm always in the aspect of wanting to be without fear and bold so if I'm going through a haunted house you know my first instinct is to punch the guy in the face you know what I mean like when you think about people coming at you with a knife or a hatchet or something like that what's your first instinct of doing and it's just kind of like anyway we're going to get into that a little bit but Psalm two verse eleven I just want you to see some more verses on fearing the Lord so we're not the fear man is that clear we're not the fear what man will do unto us and so I'm not afraid of what man will do to me he can kill me that's what I'll go to heaven to be asked out of the body to be present with the Lord for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain so you know I have a desire to pardon to be with Christ which is far better so go for it you know but but when it comes to fearing the Lord we are supposed to fear the Lord Psalm two verse eleven it says serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they to put their trust in him so we see here and who's the Lord we're talking about here the son of God this is an Old Testament verse on the sun and so we're supposed to serve the Lord with fear proverbs nine verse ten proverbs nine verse ten and there's there's a few verses on this but this is a great verse to know to fear the Lord and this is the beginning as newborn babes in Christ our first motivation with the Lord is fear does that make sense when you think of fear to get saved even like the fear of hell to get saved but even as a Christian as a newborn babe or as a child you know like an even a child to a parent the first thing the only thing that's going to get them to obey usually is fear and so but proverbs 9 10 it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding notice that's the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 13 Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13 it says let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man so no question we're supposed to fear something but it's only God that's only reserved for God and so but I do believe as a mature Christian that fear fades away does that make sense like when I get like my children right now like Clara she doesn't obey me because she loves me does that make sense she obeys me because she doesn't want to get spanked and that's the way it starts off right when I was younger I obeyed because I feared my parents on what they would do right and so you get the belt you get spanked whatever and so but now if my parents were to say you know Jason go take out the trash do you think I'm afraid of my dad's gonna beat me you know maybe but but no why am I thinking of trash because I care about my parents I love my parents and I want to help them does that make sense you see how the fear switches to love because I'm not a child anymore I'm not a I'm not a little child that's that's you know trying that needs to be corrected it needs that fear of their parents in their in their hearts right and so I do believe there comes a point I believe once we eat once we are perfect and we have our spiritual bodies there's not gonna be any more fear does that make sense because it's all about love love is the fulfilling of the law and it says if you love me keep my commandments the whole duty of man is to fear God and to keep his commandments but here's the thing you can either be motivated by fear or you be motivated by love so if you're motivated by fear and you keep his commandments amen then that's what needs to happen but you know a lot of things I do it's not because I fear him necessarily it's because I love him and want to do something then there are things that I'm like no I need to do this because I don't want I don't want God's judgment coming down upon me right so first John chapter 4 kind of talks about this so in the end I do believe there's gonna be no more fear just as much as gonna be no more pain when when you think of the new heaven new earth and and old things are passed away all things have become new then we're all in that perfect state of or we're serving and and reigning with Christ through love and not fear anymore but first John chapter 4 verse 18 it says there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that fear it does not made perfect in love so a baby Christian if they're they have to fear God that's fine but they're not perfect in love meaning that they're still immature about certain things and and they need fear they need that fear of the Lord to get them to do things does that make sense but then you get to a point that you know it you're doing it because you love the Lord does that make sense now you can fall back and now you're back into the fear realm does that make sense not like you you arrive here and never get back to that point because you can fall out of church you can fall out of soul winning you can fall out of reading your Bible and the fear of the Lord has to bring you back into it does that make sense so and not until we're all perfect and sinless you know in heaven as far as our bodies are concerned will that happen fear is associated a lot of times with unbelievers so revelation 21 8 we read this verse probably every time we go soul winning right this is a verse that we show people that hey your sinners and by your sin you would deserve to go to hell what's the first two things that are mentioned but the fearful and unbelieving and embalming murders and horrible murders and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars have their part in the lake which burns the fire and brimstone which is the second death the fearful and unbelieving the number the first thing that's mentioned there is fearful Hebrews chapter 2 in verse 15 and I know I'm kind of blowing through this stuff but I just want you to see you know what is fear associated with Hebrews 2 15 says and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject the bondage Jesus came to die on the cross and to destroy the works of Satan to destroy the devil and and destroy you know he's the accuser of the brethren right he's the one that's accusing us by the law and under the curse of the law that we would go to hell and Jesus destroyed that he destroyed the works of the devil and that's why he came and to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject the bondage meaning that before you were saved you were afraid of death and I was too my friends when I before I got saved I was afraid to die because you never know what's going to happen after that and an unsafe person should be afraid of death because after that's the judgment after that's hell and so fear a lot of times associated with unbelievers as believers are we supposed to be afraid no he's not giving us the spirit of fear now that we're saved we're not in bondage anymore we're not in that bondage of fear of death and so what does Halloween propagate though fearing death fearing what man will do unto us you know all the horror movies that are out there glorify this and normalize it and so but anyway Proverbs 8 35 it celebrate its glorifies death and the thing is anything that's like glorifying people dying being murdered being tortured like all this stuff that these horror movies and all this stuff does it's not wisdom it's not wisdom from above it's wisdom from that's of the earth that's sensual devilish you know and the thing is can you really say Halloween is like is a holiday that really is about God and his grace and all that stuff no what are the things that people dress up as devils demons you know vampires like these mystical creatures or something like that and so it's it's a holiday that that glorifies a lot of stuff that's just not what what we're supposed to be glorifying better Proverbs 8 35 it says for whoso findeth me findeth life now if you know what Proverbs 8 is talking about it's talking about wisdom and wisdom is personified what is personified me meaning that you take an attribute and you give it basically a person a person like you would say wisdom is this woman and you're talking about this woman does that make sense so wisdom is personified says saying her her her you know hold on to her so it's personifying wisdom and wisdom it says for whosoever findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord it's interesting in Proverbs that wisdom and the virtuous woman you look at those two things and there's exact verses what does it say whosoever findeth the wife findeth a good thing and in favor of the Lord it says wisdom is far above rubies what's that what else is far above rubies a virtuous woman so anyway all that say is that wisdom is personified here and it says you obtain favor the Lord but he that sent against me wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death and so is death is you know loving death is that something that's wise or something that's foolish and so you think about these these these how these these horror movies and all this stuff and the dangers of this okay you got to think about this when you go to like a haunted you know like ranch or something like that like fright farm or something something you know where you're going around and people are jumping out at you what you got to think about is that that's a perfect ground for people to come in that are psychopaths and they're not a part of the show do you don't think that has happened I've heard stories about how like someone like you know murdered somebody I don't want to say it's just so graphic I don't want you to mention it how they murdered somebody and they thought it was a part like it was a show they thought it was like a part of the you know like it was around Halloween they thought it was just a gag or something like that and there's actually not and so you got to think about that that you're putting a lot of trust in the fact that everybody that's coming at you is a part of the game you know that's a part of this little this little game of scaring you instead of it actually being some psychopath and so there are crazy psychopaths out there that will like want to like kill people and rape people and molest people and do all this crazy stuff and they're gonna do it at night what is Halloween all about it's all about doing stuff at night in the darkness one thing that my dad taught me we kind of joke about it is to come in before it gets dark now my dad his dark when it gets dark is like three o'clock to him and even in this winter time even in the winter time it's not dark right so but there's a lot of wisdom in that because what happens at night most of the stuff that happens at night is not good there's a lot of wisdom in the fact of doing stuff in the day doing stuff in the light not in the darkness and so I go to John chapter three John chapter three and so we're not supposed to fear but also just the fact of when this holiday takes place at night and I'm not saying everything at night is you know wicked or wrong but this is where sin abounds this is where sinners want to be this is where all those reprobates and all these crazy psychopaths want to be in the darkness because it it conceals what they're doing and so John chapter three and this is a famous passage you know right after John 3 16 but in verse 20 there it says so John 3 verse 20 says for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deed should be reproved but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God so it says in verse 19 it says and this is the combination of the world that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil so what why these sinners where do they want to be they want to be in darkness I want to be in the night and so this this holiday celebrates the fact that things are done in darkness these wicked things that are done in darkness we're not talking about like a Christmas Eve or you're singing carols and amongst the fire here and then the house you know what I mean we're talking about going out of your house going around you think about all the things that you teach your children not to do and then like at this time you're like all right talk to strangers take their candy and you know like and here's the thing you know like my parents were definitely with me when we did you know and that you know I celebrated Halloween most people that I know celebrated Halloween and so but they were with me they didn't just like let me go like off and just get abducted somewhere you know what I mean but here's the thing you got to think of the dangers that that are in a lot of the stuff that you do there and so if you want to go door-knock and come out with us this Sunday afternoon and we'll go give the gospel you know and you know you may throw some people off let's go on after our harvest I go out and get you know it's that trick-or-treating really hey what must it do to be saved you know like hey do you know hundred century one to heaven and so I'm not against door-knocking but what are you door-knocking for so but things that happen at night another first Thessalonians chapter 5 we talked about this when we're talking about the coming of the Lord and we've kind of we went through this verse but think about this in this light of the fact that we're supposed to be doing things of the day work for the night is coming my friends and so night is not when you're doing work you know when you're usually doing work and doing the night is when you should be sleeping night is when you should be getting rest not gallivanting out in the world and that's when bad things happen that's when sinful things happen and not necessarily getting murdered but you know think of fornication you think of adultery you think of all the stuff it's always wanting to be done in a corner not in the light someone that commits adultery they're not just like doing it in the parking lot in front of everybody right that is something they're gonna go find a corner to do in in the darkness and hopefully no one ever finds out about it they want it to be secret and so and I don't have the verse written down but it talks about bread eaten or bread eaten in secret is sweet you know and you think about the fact things that are done in secret yeah it's pleasurable it's more pleasurable when it's secret and all this stuff and there's a lot of truth to that but that's where a lot of wickedness happens but in first Thessalonians 5 verse 5 it says year all the children of light and the children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night neither that are drunken are drunk in the night where are the alcoholics where's the alcoholics go to the bar now if you're truly an alcoholic you're just drinking throughout the whole day right but but most time people are going to the bar is it is it is it lit up like this in the bar you know everybody's been so far now I'm just kidding you know like but you know like clubs and bars and all this stuff no it's not lit it's not lit like this it's like a cave Holly was making fun of me because I like the you know like I don't like a lot of light in the house but it's all about natural light you know I want candlelight you know but but if the sun's shining in I'm all for it but the thing is is that that a lot of these things that happen it's in darkness you can't see people they're more attractive when you can't see them you know like there's a lot of reasons why you'd be in the darkness but so people like the darkness because their deeds are evil so should we be doing all this stuff at night you know mark chapter five gonna mark chapter five and what you got to think about is what is this stuff about you know there's a house over here that when I was pulling in I just saw that has like all these ghouls and goblins and all this stuff I mean it's it's like decked out so you think about tombs ghosts vampires all this stuff and I understand the cartoon esque part of it you know what I mean like where it's like kitty and it's and it's stuff like that but you got to understand that we get desensitized to it by doing that though does that make sense like there's a lot of things that Hollywood movies do and we're gonna see what the Bible teaches about you know like like witches and wizards and necromancers and people that are demon-possessed demons stuff like that and we need we need to be sober my friends you know I'm all for having fun and I'm all for having a good time and you know we can have a lot of good fun but we need to stay away from the things that God hates and God does not like and God punishes and if God hates it I need to hate it does that make sense and so we need to kind of think about this so mark chapter five verse two so we're gonna what what happens at the tombs or in the graveyards you know obviously if you're taking your loved ones some flowers there's nothing wrong with going but do you go at night to do that usually I mean maybe if you got up late at work or something like that but usually you're going down in the daytime and you're there and you're just there to you know because you miss your loved one and all that but notice what it talks about with with the tombs and all this different different things so mark chapter 5 and verse 2 it says and when he was come out of the ships talking about Jesus immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit so there's this man that comes out of the tombs what's he have an unclean spirit what's an unclean spirit a devil one of one of the fallen angels who had his dwelling among the tombs so who's dwelling among the tombs is it a normal person is that where you want to hang out that night is the tombs in the graveyard no it's a man that's that's that's possessed with the devil and it says and no man could bind him no not with chains because that he had been often often bound with fetters and chains and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in pieces neither could any man tame him and always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones so here's a guy that's cutting himself and this is something that that's that's prevalent in our in our society cutting yourselves cutters I don't know what they call them it's they call them cutters or what they call them but anyway you think of like the stuff that people do and you just think of demon possession you know and that's still around my friends I do believe people are still devil-possessed and so but when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshipped him now this is an interesting story because every time someone's possessed with the devil they'd come up to him and the devil will start speaking and saying thou art the Christ thou art the Son of God and if you know Jesus didn't want him to be himself to be known openly until after his resurrection there's a whole the whole reason for that because then he couldn't go into the cities like they were throwing them so much that he couldn't do any miracles and do all the stuff he wanted to do but anyway so he cried and worshiped him and cried with a loud voice and said what have I to do with thee Jesus thou son of the most high God I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not now another place talks about torment me not until the time right you know and it talked it basically the devil's know that their end is is the lake of fire their end is hell for sure but right now they're wandering on the earth just like Satan is and they know that their end is coming and so they're just out to do what they can before that time but it says for he said unto him come out of the man thou unclean spirit so why did he say this to him because he's saying to come out of this man he's trying to get this devil out of this man and he asked him what is thy name so he's asking this person who's talking through the person the devil the devil but we'll see it's not just one devil inside of him and he answered and said and saying my name is Legion for we are many so there are many devils in this this guy so that's why he's like cutting himself and he's casting himself into you know there's all these cases of what appears someone that's devil possessed they're like trying to injure themselves what the devil's all they want to use to kill yourself they were there self-destructive in the end they want you to die and so but he's in the tombs he's cutting himself so all this stuff about death and all this stuff that that is is likened to demon possession so should we as Christians be involved in that type of stuff I don't believe so I think that we need to stay far away from it you know the cemeteries have their places you know obviously we we bury our loved ones there and and it's very biblical to bury believers because it's a picture of the burial where you put the seed in the ground and then it's gonna be it's gonna be chance of wheat or some other tree or grain right so the resurrection is pictures of the the burial and the resurrection so I don't believe you should burn the bodies of somebody but if you did it doesn't change the fact they're gonna be resurrected right it's not like you burn the body oh well they're not gonna be resurrected no it's just the fact that's a picture and the heathen practices are the burn people so so if you have a loved one that was burned or cremated you know they're fine if they're saved you know they're still gonna be resurrected but but it's a picture of the resurrection so there's nothing wrong with cemeteries in their place but but to glorify it in that aspect instead of instead of that you should be saying hey I don't want anybody that's in this grave in these or that that's gonna be going into these graves to die and go to hell so I'm gonna preach in the gospel so but Halloween glorifies wizards and witches and necromancers and and all these different things like demons and all that so let's see what the Bible teaches about those because you know witches and wizards and necromancers and all that stuff do exist there are people that conjure up spirits devils but they conjure up spirits and so they think they're conjuring up like some dead loved one but your your your loved ones either in hell or in heaven and the only people that have ever come back from the dead are people that are in heaven like Samuel that came back from the dead or like Saints that when Jesus rose from the dead a lot of saints bodies that were in the tombs came back from the dead and walked around the earth Lazarus was raised from the dead after four days and so you don't see someone coming back from hell remember the rich man he didn't even ask to come back from hell he just said send Lazarus Lazarus and send him back to my family so you know unless you're some miraculous event where someone's bodily coming back and talking to you that's that's been dead they're bringing back Devils and so but let's see Exodus chapter 22 and if you want to turn there I got these in order actually chapter 22 and these aren't the only places but these kind of the big ones Exodus chapter 22 and verse 18 and I'll try to be quick with this and just kind of get through this real quick here but what you got to understand is that we need to be we need to be on the mindset of God we need to be on Christ's mindset and think about sin the way he thinks about sin that's why when you come up to me and you ask me if I love the homosexuals if I love the queers if I love the pedophiles I don't because God doesn't because God hates them and it says he will love them no more because they're reprobate silver as and and the Lord has rejected them and I'm supposed to hate those that hate thee as it says in Psalm 139 so why do I have that is because that's what I think should be done no that's because that's God's mindset and I want to be in step line and step with God and so we got to take that in all avenues that if God hates something if God loves something I need to love it if he hates something I need to hate it if he's doing something I should be doing what he's doing every ways and always we need to be following him and what he does if God judges a certain sin you know a certain way then that's the way we need to think about it and so Exodus 22 in verse 18 it says thou shalt not suffer a witch to live that's pretty simple but what's that saying you know a witch you know we're not the suffering women what does that mean they should be put to death go to Leviticus chapter 20 in verse 27 Leviticus chapter 20 in verse 27 the dreaded Leviticus but this isn't only in Leviticus my friends this is throughout the Bible but but Leviticus obviously we had already gone through all the the queers and bestiality and all this stuff and Leviticus 20 verse 27 it says a man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit or that is a wizard shall surely be put to death they shall stone them with stones their blood shall be upon them what does the Bible say about someone that has a familiar spirit or that's a wizard they should be put to death what about a wish they should be put to death Deuteronomy 18 verse 9 Deuteronomy 18 verse 9 now this just gives you a whole list of things and Deuteronomy 18 verse 9 and you can just this would be the last place I'll have you guys turn and then we'll close it up but Deuteronomy 18 verse 9 it says 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 there shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire or that uses the divination or an observer of times or an enchanter or a witch or a charmer or a consultant with familiar spirits or a wizard or a necromancer for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord thy God drove them out from before thee there's a tour de force with all the things that God hates because what is the abomination is things like that you hate now abomination is just a word it doesn't mean that it only applies to what God hates because it says that we're an abomination to the unjust and and it says that the sacrifice of the Lord was an abomination to the Egyptians you know when it's talking about sacrificing when Moses was wanting to go out to the wilderness to sacrifice so abomination what it what is an abomination well Proverbs 6 says these six things that the Lord hate yea seven are an abomination so what's an abomination something you hate or detest so God hates divination observer of times enchanter a witch a charmer a consultant familiar spirits a wizard and a necromancer should I love it should I be trying to be one should I be dressing up like one and here's the thing a lot of people just don't think about that they don't think about the condemnation that God puts on they should be put to death the Bible says think about what other things should be put to death the murderer but what is Halloween Halloween you dress up as like Michael Myers or something like that and what is he just a big murder now he's fictional right but they base all this stuff off real-life people like Jeffrey Dahmer Jeffrey Dahmer killed and ate people and he was also a queer by the way which you'll find out with a lot of these serial killers that they're actually queers which makes sense because only a reprobate would do something like that only a reprobate you could be a cannibal only a reprobate can be someone that would you know do that type of wicked stuff but so is it so all these things that Halloween is promoting and telling you that you should you should dress up like this you should do this and they all should get the death penalty in the Bible so should I dress up like Jeffrey Dahmer should I dress up like someone that like that literally killed their whole you know like another person that killed their whole family or someone that did this now I mean you'd be crazy to think that that's what you should be doing but Hollywood romanticizes it does that make sense so this is how they suck you into it because they romanticize it and the fact that this is cool this is fun this isn't like Jeffrey Dahmer or or it's the Jeffrey Dahmer stuff and the Michael Myers and Halloween and Jason Friday 13th is all about scaring you but we taught we already talked about should we be afraid of anything besides the Lord no so should I be watching a movie that's gonna make me afraid no it wouldn't make any sense but Hollywood romanticizes this stuff you think of like Harry Potter Twilight now if you're a man and you're watching Twilight I wonder but here's the thing but but Twilight and you know Twilight it's about what's Harry Potter about wizards and witches you know they're going to school for witchcraft and wizardry then you have Twilight it's all about like this vampires that are loved that love each other and want to become a vampire and then you have like Lord of the Rings and I'm just naming a few where it's all about wizards and magic stuff and you know you know all of us are probably guilty or a lot of us are realty of watching stuff like that reading stuff like that and liking stuff like that but what you got to understand is that they're gonna try to give you they're gonna give you that medicine with a little placebo they're gonna give you that medicine with a little bit of sugar so that you don't think about what God thinks about that and so Harry Potter you know obviously we suffer not a wish to live Hermione should die you know like like Harry Potter should die you know like those I'm just being serious with you being candid that's what the Bible teaches on those subjects is the fact that a witch suffer not a wish to live or wizard or a necromancer what's a necromancer if you look at the etymology of necro it means dead someone that's conjuring up the dead or that deals with the dead and so Twilight what's it about vampires people that drink blood well that's a good thing to look at when Leviticus and Deuteronomy talk about not to eat the food they eat the blood or to drink the blood and that you're because it's the life that's in the flesh and it condemns against anybody that drinks the blood and they're gonna cut off from their people if they were to drink the blood but we're gonna talk about drinking blood with vampires and the Lord of the Rings you know wizards and all that and so so movies and all this stuff and I understand there's a lot of nostalgic stuff there you know I think of like stuff when I was a kid you know besides the fact that when my mom traumatized me by taking me to some like haunted house but we have things you know from our childhood that we that were fine and like my dad dressed up as a as a gorilla one time and there's nothing wrong with dressing up like a gorilla right cuz here's the thing is there anything wrong with dressing up no is there anything wrong with getting candy no is there anything wrong with with carving a pumpkin no but you know what should you be carving it up you know is there anything wrong with a lot of these things no but what are you associating it with you know now my dad did scare me when he was in the grill outfit but he wasn't trying to scare me and it was like it was just a funny thing now I mean it's hilarious when someone's in a gorilla suit I don't know why it's just hilarious when someone's in a gorilla suit but all I'm saying is that there can be good fun with that and there's a lot of things that you know growing up where there's a lot of good memories a lot of good stuff and you know the holiday can be good and we can make it good that's why we're you know we're having a harvest party because I'm not against a lot of the stuff that's around Halloween does it make sense I love harvest you know that the Bible has feasts and celebrations about the harvest the firstfruits and the feast of gathering in gathering the feast of weeks those were celebrations that they were to do every year every year they were supposed to do these celebrations on the harvest so I love fall you know I think you know my mom that's her favorite see that's my favorite season because that's that's when you know it's the best weather except for today you know where it's like 40 degrees or 30 some degrees outside but I love the fall weather it's my favorite time of year so yes I want to I wouldn't mind having a holiday and having candy and having pumpkin stuff and having all this stuff but we got it we just need to take out that that garbage that they try to put in there does that make sense and the stuff that God wouldn't like we need to take out of that and we're all probably guilty of this my friends you know as far as like doing this and it's not just Halloween there's other things that you can do this with with other holidays and and where we're not honoring to God in certain ways but it's just and here's the thing if you come out of this say you know what you're crazy you know I think it's fine that's fine I don't care you know like I do care you know like as far as I'm just kind of telling you this is what the Bible teaches this is why I don't celebrate Halloween so you know if you want to I that's fine I don't care you know like you still come to this church it's not like it's like a requirement or anything like that but I just want to give you my reasons is because it's about fear and it's about like a lot of things that God punishes with the death penalty and so I don't want to celebrate that I don't want that to be a part of it all the other good stuff that's about it or the other stuff that I like about it bring it on I'm all about it but we need to we need to stick to the Bible and here's the thing if the Bible says that's what I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna stick by and whether it's something that I would like to do or not you know I need to go with what the Bible says on that so anyway hopefully that all makes sense you know and you don't think I'm crazy for not celebrating Halloween and I'm not out judging people that do because a lot of people do it's a it's a it's American holiday right it's a thing that most people do but I'm not going around like all that wicked person because they celebrate Halloween or they do this or they do that I don't think anything about of it honestly like I don't care you know like if they want to do that they can do that I just personally don't do it and a lot of times what this comes down to is people judge me you know that's what usually happens they're like oh you don't celebrate Halloween why you know it's like if you don't drink why don't you drink you know like so usually it's more so I'm in the defense like hey this is why I don't do it my friends is why I don't drink this is why I don't do this because we're constantly in judgment as Christians is like why we wouldn't do certain things but we're I'm not a Jehovah Witness I do believe it's okay to celebrate holidays I do believe that birthdays are fine you know Christmas Easter you want to celebrate the 4th of July you want to celebrate anything in the harvest or pumpkins or you know like and just have a good time there's nothing wrong with that my friends but we need to make sure that anything that the Bible teaches we need to we need to have that mindset of this is not something good this is something we need to separate just as much as like Santa Claus I don't want that in Christmas I don't want the Easter Bunny and and and Easter you know that's just what we do that's what you know but if someone has Santa Claus on in their house or they have an Easter Bunny in their house I don't care you know but that's just I'm giving you what I believe and where I stand on Halloween and so so we'll just end with a word of prayer dear heavenly father Lord we thank you for today