Speaker 1: Hey, what up.
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to church.
Speaker 1: Everybody I'm excited about today.
Speaker 1: We're going to have a little bit more of a, dare I say, spooky day today in church.
Speaker 1: It's the right month for it.
Speaker 1: It's the right day for it.
Speaker 1: But here's what I want to do.
Speaker 1: I really want to provoke you to shine your light more intentionally.
Speaker 1: To shine your light more intentionally Now.
Speaker 1: I got to warn you.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the devil today.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about demons.
Speaker 1: Today, jesus believed in the devil.
Speaker 1: He talked about him like he was a real guy, like the forces of hell were real.
Speaker 1: So if that's scary to you, just pretend like you're just watching a Halloween show or something like that.
Speaker 1: But the Bible presupposes all that is true, and so that's where we're going.
Speaker 1: That's one of our starting points is that that stuff is real.
Speaker 1: Here's what I got to tell you At the end of this talk, I might say some stuff that you're like I will never agree with that.
Speaker 1: I will never think that.
Speaker 1: Actually, I'll tell you that's super okay, you do not have to.
Speaker 1: We're talking about very peripheral issues today.
Speaker 1: When I say peripheral, I mean this is not essential to the gospel and that means nobody goes to heaven or hell based on what they believe about Halloween.
Speaker 1: Just so you know, that's a real outside issue, kind of like what you believe about the end times.
Speaker 1: It's fine, whatever you believe, I don't care, I'll teach you what I think.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, what matters most is coming to Christ by grace, through faith and knowing him personally and relationally, having your sins forgiven because you believe that he died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin and then he rose from the dead.
Speaker 1: That's the gospel and that's the big deal.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's just contextualize this.
Speaker 1: This is a little deal as we get in here.
Speaker 1: Paul had a lot of problems with the Corinthians.
Speaker 1: The Corinthians had a lot of problems with Paul, and so Paul's writing a letter to them to answer some of their questions, and they've been accusing him a lot, and one of their accusations toward Paul is hey, man, you're kind of a slave of people.
Speaker 1: Whatever they want you to do, whatever group you're with, you act different around that group.
Speaker 1: Paul, you're different in person than when you write your letters.
Speaker 1: You're different among the Jews than you are among the Gentiles, and we just want to call you on it.
Speaker 1: And Paul, he's already correcting them on a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: He is their pastor, apostle, after all.
Speaker 1: And so this is what he says 1 Corinthians 9, 19.
Speaker 1: For though I am free of all men, I have made myself slave to all so that I may win more.
Speaker 1: He says I am a slave, but I'm not a slave to people the way that you think I am, but I do make myself a slave to all so that I may win more.
Speaker 1: When he says win, he means he wants them to come to know Jesus Christ relationally, personally, so they have a personal relationship with God, so they know that they are forgiven and they walk with him forever in this life and in the next one.
Speaker 1: That's what he's saying when he says win.
Speaker 1: Now he's going to say the word win quite a bit here, but I want you to notice he says slave because he's saying the win is so important to me that I might as well be a slave.
Speaker 1: A slave doesn't have a choice of what they're going to do.
Speaker 1: And so Paul says I don't even really have a choice, man, the command of my Lord is I must preach the gospel, I must help everybody understand Jesus Christ, I must intentionally shine my light and on some levels I don't even really get a choice in the matter.
Speaker 1: Verse 20, to the Jews.
Speaker 1: He's going to explain it now To the Jews.
Speaker 1: I become like a Jew so that I might win Jews To those under the law as under the law, though not myself being under the law so that I might win those under the law.
Speaker 1: He says you know the Jewish folks of his time who have not yet become Christians.
Speaker 1: He says you know, they do a bunch of extra stuff.
Speaker 1: They do Jewish stuff.
Speaker 1: And Paul says when I'm around them, I go ahead and I do the Jewish protocols because I want to be able to reach them.
Speaker 1: As an example, in Acts, chapter 16, paul brings Timothy with him.
Speaker 1: Timothy is a Greek.
Speaker 1: That means he's not circumcised.
Speaker 1: That means everyone who's Jewish.
Speaker 1: If he's ministering with Paul, they're gonna be like that's a Gentile dog.
Speaker 1: What is he doing here?
Speaker 1: You're ministering with Gentiles now.
Speaker 1: And so what Paul does?
Speaker 1: He has Timothy circumcised.
Speaker 1: Not because Timothy needs to be circumcised by the way, that was like the religious right that made you a Jew okay, not just for kicks.
Speaker 1: So he has Timothy circumcised to prove to everybody hey, man, this guy's, don't worry about it, he's all good with us, he's just fine.
Speaker 1: He loves the same God, yahweh.
Speaker 1: Look, he's committing to Yahweh.
Speaker 1: Now he's not bringing up that.
Speaker 1: You know Timothy doesn't actually need to be circumcised.
Speaker 1: There's a whole book of Galatians about that.
Speaker 1: He doesn't need to add anything to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: But so I can minister to y'all I'm going to act like, and we're going to be like you, so that you can see that you want to actually have what we have.
Speaker 1: Lots of examples I can give you, but for time we're just going to keep on going.
Speaker 1: Paul was what.
Speaker 1: He was flexible and focused.
Speaker 1: He was focused on the win, but he was flexible with which kind of person he was with to make sure he would reach them in a way that was helpful.
Speaker 1: Parents, you know about this.
Speaker 1: If you've got more than one kid parents, you know exactly what this is like.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's some kids.
Speaker 1: When they've done something wrong, you just look at them and they'll start to cry and be like I'll never do it again.
Speaker 1: Just give them the right.
Speaker 1: Look, there's other kids, dude, you got to tie them up and lay them down right and you're going to have a lot of explanation, a lot of why and a lot of threatening to get them to do the same thing that the quiet kid will do.
Speaker 1: It's two different approaches.
Speaker 1: Now, honestly, it's the same love.
Speaker 1: You love them.
Speaker 1: You're loving both of them with the same parental love.
Speaker 1: And Paul is saying I'm loving both of them with the same gospel, but I'm approaching them in different ways because I need to in order for them to get it to be open to it.
Speaker 1: Verse 21, to those who are without the law this is Gentiles as without the law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without the law.
Speaker 1: He says I let love lead.
Speaker 1: I'm still under the law of Christ.
Speaker 1: What is the law of Christ?
Speaker 1: That is love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1: Paul says I of the law of Christ.
Speaker 1: What is the law of Christ?
Speaker 1: That is love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1: Paul says I'm still going to do that, but you know what.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to add all the Jewish protocols, I'm not going to make the sacrifices, I'm not going to wear the right clothes.
Speaker 1: I'm going to actually try to look and be like them.
Speaker 1: So they think, oh, here comes a guy who's like me.
Speaker 1: When I was working in construction my early twenties, I was in one of these phases.
Speaker 1: I probably went through several phases in my 20s where I was so zealous that you could see me coming down the road for Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: You'd be like that guy wants to talk about Jesus to somebody.
Speaker 1: I was in one of those modes and so it was very outspoken.
Speaker 1: I was on a construction crew and all the Christians they were like dude, you are zealous man.
Speaker 1: That is awesome.
Speaker 1: The problem is the folks that I really wanted to talk to, the ones who were far from God, they were like whoa, slow the flow there, carter, you're like an eight and I'm like maybe interested in talking about level two.
Speaker 1: What should I have done?
Speaker 1: I should have lowered my presentation to level two.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean I go out to the strip clubs with them.
Speaker 1: It just means I become more approachableable and I don't have to work Jesus into every conversation.
Speaker 1: I'm really just actually trying to love them with the love of Christ.
Speaker 1: That's how Paul's thinking about the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: As he approaches them, he says dude, I don't have to start sinning, but I have to be convincing that I am the same kind of a human as they are.
Speaker 1: And, guys, we have to do this.
Speaker 1: You have to do this at school.
Speaker 1: If you're a Christian, you have to figure out how to do this at your job, where you don't want to shroud your light but at the same time, you have to make sense to the people around you.
Speaker 1: As a church, this is what we have to do.
Speaker 1: We have to create spaces where people of different backgrounds can come and they can hear about a relational friendship that lasts forever with Jesus Christ, and we need to prioritize making that happen.
Speaker 1: Verse 22,.
Speaker 1: To the weak I become weak that I might win the weak.
Speaker 1: I have become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some.
Speaker 1: I do all things for the sake of the gospel.
Speaker 1: I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may be a fellow partaker in it.
Speaker 1: Guys, that's the ambition, at least of our gospel.
Speaker 1: I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may be a fellow partaker in it.
Speaker 1: Guys, that's the ambition, at least of our church.
Speaker 1: We want to do all things for the sake of the gospel.
Speaker 1: That means we're always going to tilt the table, man, imagine you could, if you could just lift a pool table and you're playing pool with somebody and you see your ball going the wrong way and you just kind of lift the table and tilt it so that you know you win the game.
Speaker 1: That's cheating in pool, but really that's how we need to do it at church.
Speaker 1: We're always tilting the table to make it about people that don't yet know Jesus Christ so they can hear the message of his love.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean we're not helping people grow up in all things, but we're always bringing it back to yeah.
Speaker 1: But there's people right now who were like me, who almost knew but didn't quite know, and Jesus was ready to change my life.
Speaker 1: I just needed to hear it explained the right way.
Speaker 1: So Paul wants to be not just someone who receives the gospel, he wants to be a participant in it.
Speaker 1: That means he says I want to do this with Jesus.
Speaker 1: I don't want to just enjoy Jesus, I want to be Jesus's little helper while we do this thing.
Speaker 1: One of the ways that we do to do this is we do big days.
Speaker 1: We're trying to close the distance between people and God.
Speaker 1: You guys have heard me talk about big days before.
Speaker 1: Many of you know about this.
Speaker 1: So when there's something like Easter or like a summer backpack event, something that we can kind of put on a little bit of a party, we do it.
Speaker 1: And we do it to have fun as a church, of course, but also to help people that might not quite be interested yet in coming to church.
Speaker 1: But they'll go to their kid's fun thing because their kid needs something fun to do.
Speaker 1: And when they go, our hope is they'll see that we're not.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say this this is just slow with what I mean.
Speaker 1: Okay, they're going to see.
Speaker 1: Oh, they're not Amish, those are just normal people.
Speaker 1: Okay, not that there's anything wrong with being Amish.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying in some people's minds, you know, dude, come on, admit it, you can admit it.
Speaker 1: You've been in Walmart and you've seen somebody Amish and you're like oh, that's what they are to be there.
Speaker 1: And so we're trying to prove to them now that we love them, we bless them.
Speaker 1: That's not how we roll or how we do it, but you can trust that we're actually just normal, everyday people like you.
Speaker 1: So we do stuff like Christmas, we do stuff like these different events, and one of the ones we do is Halloween Boo Bash, and this is the one we get the most pushback on, and it's understandable why we would get pushback on it.
Speaker 1: For some folks, they were raised in an environment where Halloween is very fun.
Speaker 1: It's a family thing, it's something that everybody does.
Speaker 1: They all participate.
Speaker 1: Other folks they were raised or they came to know Christ in an environment where Halloween was kind of looked down on or this is negative, or don't have any participation with this because that's actually the devil stuff.
Speaker 1: I know you didn't know this, but that all belongs to the devil and for those people they're coming at it from a different perspective.
Speaker 1: So what do we do?
Speaker 1: Here's what we do.
Speaker 1: I want to take part of this message and talk to you about Halloween.
Speaker 1: I want you to know why we do boobash, why we think that's a good idea, and I want it to be based on God's word, not just on my word.
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for those who just trust the elders and that they're doing what they think is right, but I want to explain it to you.
Speaker 1: Here's the deal Halloween is not one thing, it's multiple things.
Speaker 1: People are doing different things on Halloween and actually Halloween came from multiple places.
Speaker 1: Okay, some of it's a little pagan and Celtic, some of it's a little bit Catholic, some of it is just local folks that do what they did, and there are some anti-God organizations that participate very aggressively in Halloween.
Speaker 1: But it's not really all one thing.
Speaker 1: And here's something we've got to understand as Christians.
Speaker 1: We're going to have a little theology class real quick.
Speaker 1: Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: Association is not how Christians determine what is wrong.
Speaker 1: God's word is Association.
Speaker 1: Let me say it again Association is not how we determine what is wrong.
Speaker 1: God's word is how we determine what is wrong.
Speaker 1: What do I mean by association?
Speaker 1: That means when I hear a concept, if I think of this other thing that is evil, I say this thing is also evil.
Speaker 1: Okay, if I say the word giraffe, most everybody listening to my voice is going to think of a tall animal.
Speaker 1: There might be somebody who's when I say giraffe, they think of their grandma, their sweet grandma, who passed away Because grandma had a picture of a giraffe in her hallway.
Speaker 1: So they associate giraffe with grandma.
Speaker 1: Now, if you go to explain to somebody what a giraffe is really, though, you're not going to have to talk about grandma, because grandma isn't really a giraffe.
Speaker 1: She's just associated to giraffes in that one person's mind.
Speaker 1: So, if we're going to be accurate, what is a giraffe?
Speaker 1: It actually is a tall animal.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with grandma.
Speaker 1: I know it sounds weird, but this is what people do with things related to Halloween all the time, and I'm going to take you through and we're going to have a Bible study about it, just so you understand.
Speaker 1: Other thing you don't understand we don't travel beyond what is written.
Speaker 1: You can get this right from 1 Corinthians, 4, 6.
Speaker 1: This is a big thing in this church.
Speaker 1: Paul says you should learn from us not to go beyond what is written.
Speaker 1: Don't be glorying in different ones that think they have special insight and they're talking about this thing, and so you think they're cool, so you're kind of devoted to them.
Speaker 1: No, never do that.
Speaker 1: Never go beyond what is written.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because what is in God's word is enough.
Speaker 1: It's enough.
Speaker 1: That's like super encouraging.
Speaker 1: You don't have to worry that there.
Speaker 1: Know that you're going to find out about later.
Speaker 1: If it's not in God's word.
Speaker 1: You don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 1: God's word is complete.
Speaker 1: He did the whole thing right.
Speaker 1: He included everything you need to know, because he's a caring father.
Speaker 1: So we don't travel beyond what is written.
Speaker 1: We don't add laws.
Speaker 1: Now, the Pharisees they added a lot of laws in Jesus' time.
Speaker 1: They did Some of you know about laws.
Speaker 1: They went beyond what is written.
Speaker 1: What did that do?
Speaker 1: Well, it killed people's spiritual heart, because they're like man.
Speaker 1: I just can't do anything right.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to fall back and forget about this.
Speaker 1: But it also, in addition to making people feel bad about themselves, maybe it just characterized God's word as something different than it is.
Speaker 1: It's God's word and God's very clear about this.
Speaker 1: He says Proverbs 36, do not add to his words or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.
Speaker 1: Jesus told the Pharisees you worship me with all these man-made commands, but your hearts are far from me.
Speaker 1: These commands, they take your heart from me because you think it's about those and not about the heart.
Speaker 1: Carter, do churches do that today?
Speaker 1: Yes, let's step on some toes.
Speaker 1: Prepare yourself.
Speaker 1: Some folks would say it is like a life or death issue what you wear to church.
Speaker 1: Like your church outfit, it better be excellent, because God is an excellent God.
Speaker 1: God is an excellent God.
Speaker 1: But there's nothing in the Bible that says you better wear something that's excellent according to the standards of our particular time right now.
Speaker 1: There's nothing in the Bible that says anything about that.
Speaker 1: And yet people will say now I'm down.
Speaker 1: If you want to dress, dude, you, doll it up.
Speaker 1: Baby, you look good in that thing, do it, yeah.
Speaker 1: But don't tell anybody that God expects you to do that, because that's adding to God's words.
Speaker 1: Some won't like this.
Speaker 1: I was once a part of an environment that said Christians, just don't drink.
Speaker 1: You just can't drink.
Speaker 1: That's clearly not in the Bible.
Speaker 1: I mean it's clearly not in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Jesus literally drank at the Last Supper.
Speaker 1: Hello, now there's warnings.
Speaker 1: There's warnings about drunkenness.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is a vice.
Speaker 1: This will lead you astray.
Speaker 1: And for somebody that maybe that's been part of their past, it probably is true.
Speaker 1: For them, yeah, they should not drink unto the Lord.
Speaker 1: That's a good idea, but that's for them, that's not for everybody else.
Speaker 1: Guys, we don't add to God's words when we're interpreting scripture.
Speaker 1: Here's what we do.
Speaker 1: We ask what did it mean?
Speaker 1: Not what could I associate it with.
Speaker 1: Not what could I think it means for me.
Speaker 1: Today, we literally ask what does it mean?
Speaker 1: So here's a scripture that folks have a great heart and they mean really well, and I could understand how, how much they love Jesus and that's why they think this.
Speaker 1: But they'll toss out.
Speaker 1: Hey Carter, what about?
Speaker 1: Ephesians 5, 11 have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Speaker 1: Isn't that mean?
Speaker 1: Don't have anything to do with Halloween or demons?
Speaker 1: Well, here's the problem.
Speaker 1: What you're calling darkness is not what Paul meant when he said darkness.
Speaker 1: What did he mean?
Speaker 1: Look at the verses that preceded it, because he's in a whole section.
Speaker 1: The Bible isn't just scattered verses.
Speaker 1: It's really a guy writing a real letter to a real people, and it's also God's word.
Speaker 1: But we have to understand it the way they understood it.
Speaker 1: We don't project anything on it, we don't just associate it.
Speaker 1: I don't hear the word darkness and so I associate it with ghouls and goblins and all these other things, unless Paul meant that.
Speaker 1: If he meant that, that's what I should do, but if he didn't, I want to be exact, I want to be precise.
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons you come to church.
Speaker 1: You come to church is because you want those scriptures unfolded to you, because it actually matters what it actually means, not just what we can come up with.
Speaker 1: But among you there must not listen to what darkness is in Paul's Ephesians 5, but among you, check it out.
Speaker 1: There must not even be a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.
Speaker 1: Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking which is out of place, but rather thanksgiving, for you can be sure of this, that no immoral, impure or greedy person such a person is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God.
Speaker 1: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Speaker 1: Therefore, do not be partakers with them, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Speaker 1: Live as children of light.
Speaker 1: He says what is darkness?
Speaker 1: Well, first Paul says it's y'all, it's us, it's humans.
Speaker 1: Why are we darkness?
Speaker 1: Why were we darkness?
Speaker 1: Because Paul says y'all were into all that stuff.
Speaker 1: That was your life, like you loved that greed and that lust and that swearing.
Speaker 1: I mean he puts swearing in there, dude.
Speaker 1: So does that mean if you watch any movies with swearing in it.
Speaker 1: Now you're participating in darkness.
Speaker 1: If you're just associating, then that probably is how you're thinking about it.
Speaker 1: He goes on Verse 10, and find out what pleases the Lord.
Speaker 1: Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Speaker 1: So can we just?
Speaker 1: I'm just making the case.
Speaker 1: In the scripture, what is darkness is the sinful vices that grip all of us.
Speaker 1: And he's saying if you're really a Christian and you've trusted Christ, act like it, because you're acting like the people who don't inherit the kingdom of God, even though you do if you've actually trusted Christ, because you're acting like the people who don't inherit the kingdom of God, even though you do if you've actually trusted Christ.
Speaker 1: I'm going to use an example, and it's not.
Speaker 1: It's an expression of something happening in the Bible.
Speaker 1: It's to wait what I'm saying, but I don't want you to take this as this is the most important thing you're going to hear today.
Speaker 1: I know a guy I've got a friend.
Speaker 1: He discovered early on in his walk with Christ that he had what is called the gift of discernment of spirits.
Speaker 1: You can find that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12.
Speaker 1: And what this gift is is, he would tell you, when he's around people, there'll be a sense, a flash before his eyes, and he'll see a demonic entity.
Speaker 1: And he says, the spirit of God will reveal to him what kind of temptation that person is struggling with, based on what that demon looks like.
Speaker 1: It doesn't stay all day.
Speaker 1: He says it's not CGI, it's just a flash before his eyes.
Speaker 1: He says to me, the reason God does that is so he can pray for them.
Speaker 1: He doesn't necessarily mention to them that he sees a demon or anything like that, but he has that gift to tune in to what is going on in the spiritual realm.
Speaker 1: Now here's what he told me If you've seen the movie the Conjuring, it's a little bit like that.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit like there's like Lorraine, she's kind of picking up on stuff.
Speaker 1: Now the Conjuring is very Hollywoodized, but it's a little bit like that.
Speaker 1: It is a real spiritual gift that he doesn't talk about a lot because he doesn't want to freak people out, but it's been happening for years.
Speaker 1: And here's what he told me.
Speaker 1: He said, carter, I've never seen a demon of trick-or-treating.
Speaker 1: I see demons of lust, I see demons of fear, I see demons of greed, I see demons of unforgiveness.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything that has anything to do with a pumpkin.
Speaker 1: There's no demons that I've seen that are anything like that.
Speaker 1: Now, I can't take his word as scripture, but I can take it as an example of well.
Speaker 1: That's weighty, though Like that's a big deal If you've been seeing this for 25 years and you haven't seen anything about Halloween that is meaningful to me.
Speaker 1: So what do we do?
Speaker 1: We avoid sin and reduce the distance.
Speaker 1: We avoid sin and we reduce the distance between us and the people God loves.
Speaker 1: If we can avoid sin and we reduce the distance between us and the people God loves.
Speaker 1: If we can avoid sin and reduce the distance, that's what we do.
Speaker 1: As we said, halloween is not a gospel issue.
Speaker 1: But let's answer the question which of the different things people do on Halloween are evil?
Speaker 1: Remember what we said.
Speaker 1: We said Halloween is not one thing, it's multiple things.
Speaker 1: It's actually all the things people do and I'm going to show it to you in God's word.
Speaker 1: I believe let's start with origins.
Speaker 1: People say, well, because of where and I used to actually believe this because of where Halloween came from.
Speaker 1: Like pagans did it in olden times, they had this festival of Sanhame and they would, you know, they'd throw cows and bones into the fire and they'd do sorcery and witchcraft and divination and they'd try to talk to the dead and because of that, that means Halloween is bad.
Speaker 1: What they're doing right there is called the genetic fallacy.
Speaker 1: It involves dismissing something based solely on its origin rather than considering its current meaning.
Speaker 1: In context, people might have done something like that and it reminds you of Halloween, but that doesn't mean that has anything to do with what people are doing today.
Speaker 1: Ages ago, someone uses the word bully.
Speaker 1: They actually mean that's a bully person, that's a fine person, right?
Speaker 1: If you was bullied today, it means an intimidating person.
Speaker 1: Well, you wouldn't go up to somebody and be like let me correct your usage of bully, because the real usage is fine person, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: And they'd say I live now, not then.
Speaker 1: I don't care what it meant, I care what it means Because I'm here now and, guys, it's a little bit like that.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things.
Speaker 1: Did you know that other religions did baptism in the time of the Jews?
Speaker 1: That wasn't exclusive to Yahweh's people?
Speaker 1: Did you know that there's holidays, like Valentine's Day, that were actually connected to the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia?
Speaker 1: Did you know that likely Christmas Eve was a turning from Saturnalia into Christmas.
Speaker 1: Now, on Saturnalia there was gifts exchanged and it was around Christmas time.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you what actually happened.
Speaker 1: Guys, we could say, well, don't do any of that, because that's connected to those origins.
Speaker 1: Here's what we should do instead.
Speaker 1: And here's what they did.
Speaker 1: See, it wasn't like one Saturnalia.
Speaker 1: People came along and said, okay, guys, real quick, we're going to like, in all the books, change it to Christmas, and people are never going to know and we're just going to trick them into following Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's not how it happened.
Speaker 1: There were actual Christians that said, oh my gosh, we just came to know Christ.
Speaker 1: And we see, there's something that we were doing.
Speaker 1: See, there's something that we were doing and it was a perversion of something God would want us to do.
Speaker 1: The devil had stolen this thing, and here's what we're doing we're taking it back.
Speaker 1: In other words, gift-giving isn't for the devil, it's for God, it's God's thing, it's God's people.
Speaker 1: Celebration and feasting and eating, that's a God thing.
Speaker 1: God made that, the devil didn't make that.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to snatch that back.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, the devil had it and he called it Saturnalia.
Speaker 1: I don't care, I'm taking it because, why?
Speaker 1: Because it belongs to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Now here's what we've got to get.
Speaker 1: If you're going to get anything in this message, here's just please.
Speaker 1: Jesus won and the devil gets nothing.
Speaker 1: So if you hear from anybody, oh, that's the devil, that's the devil's day.
Speaker 1: Precious, did the devil make any days?
Speaker 1: When he makes a day, he can have a day, but he cannot have October 31st, because this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice in it and be glad it's God's day.
Speaker 1: Devil, you can't have it, I don't care what you do on it, it's God's day.
Speaker 1: Jesus won and the devil gets nothing.
Speaker 1: We see this in Colossians 2.15.
Speaker 1: He disarmed Jesus at the cross, disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.
Speaker 1: This is what would really happen.
Speaker 1: Rome would go, conquer a land.
Speaker 1: They would take their prisoners, make them slaves, cart them back to Rome, strip them naked, put them in chains and cart them through the city and they'd say look, this is what we do to our enemies.
Speaker 1: We win.
Speaker 1: Now Paul uses that same picture in Colossians 2, verse 15.
Speaker 1: Listen to the message version.
Speaker 1: It gets at it more clearly.
Speaker 1: Jesus stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the cross and he marched them naked through the streets.
Speaker 1: They don't have anything left.
Speaker 1: So if you think something belongs to the devil, dear heart, you've been lied to.
Speaker 1: He doesn't get anything.
Speaker 1: Now his servants will try to say that he's got stuff and he'll try to convince them that he does.
Speaker 1: But if you remember, he's a liar and he's been a liar from the beginning.
Speaker 1: So, with all that as backdrop, aren't there evil things that people do on Halloween?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's Wiccan stuff, there's satanic stuff, there's new age rituals.
Speaker 1: You can go on YouTube and you can find stuff, and some of it might be rather horrifying.
Speaker 1: Sure, they do that.
Speaker 1: Now I'll tell you too, they do that every day anyway.
Speaker 1: Like that's not this is the only day that they're trying to cast spells and do something against somebody, but we're not supposed to do that.
Speaker 1: If you're a Christ follower, you're not supposed to do that.
Speaker 1: If you're currently doing that, stop Deuteronomy 18.10.
Speaker 1: Why shouldn't they do it?
Speaker 1: Because the scripture says they shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts bells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Speaker 1: Well, carter, see, I'm afraid, though.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid that those witches are going to curse me.
Speaker 1: That's what they're doing on Halloween.
Speaker 1: They're meeting and they're cursing Christians.
Speaker 1: I got good news for you.
Speaker 1: If you've trusted Jesus Christ, you cannot be cursed because you've already been blessed in the blessed one.
Speaker 1: You are blessed beyond the curse, all the curse that was attached to you because of sin, and check it out, it's sin that's cursed.
Speaker 1: Okay, god's not cursing you Anytime that something bad that seems like a curse is happening.
Speaker 1: A lot of the time that's a result of the sin that is reaping bad stuff in your life, but you can't be cursed.
Speaker 1: And in the same way some of you remember in Book of Numbers, chapter 23, balak goes to Balaam, a prophet of God, and says will you curse these Israelites for me?
Speaker 1: And Balaam tries, again and again he tries to curse them, and every time he tries to curse them, he ends up blessing them.
Speaker 1: And the lesson was he comes back to Bailey.
Speaker 1: He says, dude, I can't do this Like they don't get cursed.
Speaker 1: God won't let me curse them because they're blessed, because they're gods.
Speaker 1: So I just want to encourage you like dude, for real, you don't have to be afraid of a curse if you've trusted Christ.
Speaker 1: Now, if you haven't yet, a great idea is to trust Christ because he's going to break all the curses that might possibly ever been in your background or over your life.
Speaker 1: What else is wrong?
Speaker 1: Let me show you that in the scripture, just so you know, proverbs 26.2,.
Speaker 1: You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a hollow or swallow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, dude, just it's spiritual warfare.
Speaker 1: When you say I will not be afraid of that, I am blessed in Christ.
Speaker 1: Um, how about contacting spirits of the dead?
Speaker 1: Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead.
Speaker 1: I am the Lord.
Speaker 1: Yeah, um, guys, there are some that not only are there mediums, and often the medium doesn't even know it but they're talking to a devil and that devil is trying to give forbidden knowledge and devils are around, so they see a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: But God says mediums don't do that.
Speaker 1: That's not the right use of your life.
Speaker 1: Instead, turn that over to Jesus for sanctifying, and come to Christ and give yourself through the Holy Spirit, and you'll find you might have all kinds of gifts you don't know about, but the scriptures forbids it.
Speaker 1: God doesn't want his people going to demons for counsel.
Speaker 1: Now there's something called the day of the dead.
Speaker 1: Many of you know about this.
Speaker 1: It was in the movie Coco from Pixar.
Speaker 1: This is a holiday that is celebrated a lot in South America.
Speaker 1: There are folks I believe, most folks.
Speaker 1: What that is about is about reverence.
Speaker 1: It's about remembering dead relatives and saying here's who they were, here's the lessons.
Speaker 1: Let's all remember them.
Speaker 1: Personally, I wish I remembered more of my relatives.
Speaker 1: I wonder what their stories are.
Speaker 1: There's some who are raised in an environment where they're actually trying to contact the dead, meaning and I don't mean like you have a relationship with someone who passed away, no one's at home and you talk to them from time to time.
Speaker 1: No, I'm talking about seance-y stuff they're trying to break through to the other side and talk to literal dead people.
Speaker 1: God says don't do it.
Speaker 1: Whatever you were raised in, it's okay to reverence people that have come before you, but don't try to get forbidden knowledge by breaking through.
Speaker 1: Let's do another one Sinful partying.
Speaker 1: Some of you probably been in environments where you went to a Halloween-y type party and dude the Halloween of it all brought out more sin.
Speaker 1: Okay, so all the chicks wore the cat suits that night.
Speaker 1: People just kept on drinking and doing irresponsible stuff and there was just kind of like people start howling at the moon and there's just there's pagan revelry and yeah, don't do that, it's not Halloween, it's that, don't do that Sinful partying.
Speaker 1: But then we get to matters of conscience.
Speaker 1: These are things that are not actually wrong, but they're potentially wrong for some individuals.
Speaker 1: Going door to door I think going door to door is a great way to meet your neighbors.
Speaker 1: I think it's a fun way to meet other families.
Speaker 1: I think you find out who's around you Wearing costumes.
Speaker 1: For me, this might be different.
Speaker 1: For you, you've got your own conscience and you're free to do whatever you want, and I will bless it.
Speaker 1: I think, if the costume is honoring to the imagination that God gave everybody, part of the reason you have an imagination is because you're imaging God.
Speaker 1: You can create worlds in your mind because God creates worlds, and so if you're using your imagination, let's see these trick-or-treaters, these guys in this photo.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1: Just think about this dude.
Speaker 1: Do you see anything of the fruit of the sinful nature in that?
Speaker 1: No, that's just sweet kids.
Speaker 1: Does that have anything to do with the evil things we just mentioned?
Speaker 1: Is that contacting the dead?
Speaker 1: Is that witchcraft?
Speaker 1: It's not that.
Speaker 1: So let's not make it that.
Speaker 1: Now, some of you, you might have had a bad experience.
Speaker 1: Something went wrong with regard to that or somebody was too demonic acting with regard to that and you just never want to have anything to do with it again.
Speaker 1: I get that man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you probably shouldn't.
Speaker 1: I've got a pastor friend who he was just around a lot of dark stuff and he doesn't want to do Halloween stuff because it reminds him of spiritual trauma.
Speaker 1: So he just doesn't want to do it.
Speaker 1: I totally get that.
Speaker 1: I totally respect that.
Speaker 1: You get to do whatever you want as you're led by your conscience.
Speaker 1: But let's not add to God's word and make everybody do what is just in our conscience.
Speaker 1: Well, what we do is we do stuff like boobash.
Speaker 1: And this leads to number two.
Speaker 1: What does it mean to become all things to all people?
Speaker 1: Here's what I wrote down I adapt my non-sinful patterns to help people far from God see me as like them, so that I might ultimately help them know and enjoy the forgiveness that comes with a more personal relationship with Christ.
Speaker 1: I do just what Paul said I do all things for the sake of the gospel.
Speaker 1: We do all things for the sake of the gospel so that we might save some.
Speaker 1: What should you do?
Speaker 1: You shouldn't violate your conscience.
Speaker 1: That means sometimes it doesn't it's not just about church stuff.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you shouldn't go to the office Halloween party because of the stuff that's going to be there that you know that's going to hurt my conscience to be around it.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's stuff happening at your kid's school that you need to be like he's not going that day because I know what they're doing and I don't want him to participate in that thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe you shouldn't watch horror movies.
Speaker 1: Maybe your whole family watches them and you shouldn't because it freaks you out and you're scared all night and you don't want that.
Speaker 1: Why give the devil that opportunity to just show you evil pictures?
Speaker 1: Here's what Paul says, romans 14,.
Speaker 1: We're going to end here.
Speaker 1: So whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God.
Speaker 1: Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves, what he means there is.
Speaker 1: If you've already, if you and Jesus are good with what you think about this, don't keep wobbling back and forth, like just pick one and do it unto Jesus.
Speaker 1: He loves it.
Speaker 1: But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith, and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Speaker 1: This is a real interesting parallel If you want to go read Romans 14 and stick in Halloween.
Speaker 1: Every time it says meat sacrifice to idols.
Speaker 1: Paul is telling them hey guys, meat is not meat sacrifice to idols.
Speaker 1: It's not, it doesn't belong to those demons.
Speaker 1: So you can just eat it.
Speaker 1: But if someone is freaking out, don't eat in front of them because they're going to think that's bad.
Speaker 1: But you get to follow your own conscience and you get to help them follow theirs.
Speaker 1: Avoid sin, reduce the distance in your life.
Speaker 1: This is why we try to reach all people through things like big day.
Speaker 1: So here's my challenge to you.
Speaker 1: There is real hard darkness that people are in right now, like in this season, and can I tell you, dude, it's not like about ghouls and crypts, it's about depression.
Speaker 1: It's about spiraling downward anger.
Speaker 1: It's about people feeling so lost and lonely that they just want to get rid of themselves.
Speaker 1: That's real darkness and it's really there, and you and I have the opportunity.
Speaker 1: We can shine our light.
Speaker 1: We can let it out in ways that make sense to people, so that we can draw near them and not hide from them when maybe they most need us right at that particular moment.
Speaker 1: Let's create lifestyles where we are tending to draw near instead of draw back.
Speaker 1: How do you love somebody that thinks differently than you?
Speaker 1: Here's a great way.
Speaker 1: You talk great about them and you say I admire their integrity, even though they don't agree with me about Halloween.
Speaker 1: I know that they're thinking that unto Jesus, and so I bless them for it.
Speaker 1: But as for you, as your pastor, I just want to shape this value.
Speaker 1: Use everything you can to bring the light of Jesus into people's lives and parse scripture rightly and avoid sin.
Speaker 1: That's all Sound like a deal.
Speaker 1: Let's pray and I'm going to invite Pastor Brandon up.
Speaker 1: Father in Jesus' name, I thank you so much for this dope group of folks that were here today, that were online listening, that are in the future listening by podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey Lord, we want to avoid evil.
Speaker 1: We don't want anything that's going to mess with us or make us regret anything, and yet we also don't want to miss any opportunities, because for many of us, we know that someone came for us.
Speaker 1: They came into our darkness and they got us, and we want so bad to be part of that for somebody else.
Speaker 1: God, would you protect us and help us this Halloween season to be a bridge to Jesus Christ, amen, and being his witness in our generation?
Speaker 1: Check out Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person.
Speaker 1: Also, if you're looking for leadership development-related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.
Speaker 1: It's because of you that this is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click on the link in the description to give now, or visit fiercechurch for more information.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe?
Speaker 1: Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things.
Speaker 1: Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.
Speaker 1: Don't give up.
Speaker 1: Hang on to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He won't let go of you.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Speaker 1: I hope someday we get to meet in person.