in any way, but really to hopefully give you some tools and allow you to derive some convictions from the Word of God. You know, I love that we have the truth, that we have the Word of God and we can say, you know what, thus saith the Lord. It's not what some preacher thinks. It's not what some church thinks. It's what does God say? And we can we can stake our convictions upon that. And what a blessing. And so tonight, my hope that you'll you'll approach this. I'm setting the table in the sense that, you know, sometimes a preacher will preach a message. And I'm going to announce the title here in a minute. And you're going to have one or two reactions. You're going to say, oh, And you're going to set your mind already to just reject everything that I say. Or you're going to have a reaction and say, well, let's see what the pastor has to say from the Bible. And God, give me wisdom, because I want to do right. And that's your hope or your goal tonight, is that in anything and everything, as a Christian, I just want to follow God. I want to follow God. If you come to this church any time at all, I've very clearly made the point that I don't want you to have convictions that are based upon what I've preached just because I preached it or what our church believes just because we believe it. But I want your convictions to be based on the Word. And that's where it needs to be tonight. So, set the table. Here we go. You ready? You got one or two reactions. Let's see what you do. Should a Christian celebrate Halloween? So the Christian celebrate Halloween. Some might tonight say, Pastor, there's no way not happening. And then I ask you, well, why? And you may struggle to come up with reasons. You may have some. I say, I don't see a problem with the pastor, not at all. What I would ask you to do is say, okay, scripturally, what is right and what is wrong? You know, a lot of folks say, well, it's just a celebration, Pastor. You know, it's not a big deal. It's just a harmless vestige of some pagan ritual from, you know, hundreds, thousands of years ago. Some will say, Pastor, it's demon worship. That's exactly what it is. And what's interesting is that if you look at our country today, it's a multibillion-dollar event. and decorations sold, the amount of money spent on candy and costumes and food items, party supplies, greeting cards, tours of haunted houses, entertainment. But what is the history? And you may or may not know it. I'm going to go through this really quick. But this is really not the reason, all right? I just want to give you some background. the Celts, right, C-E-L-T-S, lived in what we know as Ireland today, Great Britain, France. And among these Celtic people were an elite intellectual class known as the Druids, all right. So you have this group of people, and they had this class of people, intellectual class of people. They were the priests, the judges, the lawmakers, the scientists. And they had an elaborate pagan religious festival. And it was a religious festival. And it was a religious festival. along with certain rituals. And chief among these festivals was what they called the Fire Festival or Samhain. It's spelled actually S-A-M-H-A-I-N. And it was observed at harvest time and it marked the Celtic New Year. The Celts believed that on this night the barrier between the natural world and the supernatural world was removed and that spiritual beings, were able to freely move among the mortals, the humans. And Samhain was one of the most solemn and important nights of the Celtic year. So the Celts, they lived and that's what they did and that's what they celebrated. Well, the Roman Catholic Church came along in the 800s and 700 ADs and they came in and they evangelized include these people in their religion. They begin to sort of substitute for their pagan holidays. In 835 A.D. Pope Gregory IV moved the church's Feast of All Saints from spring to November 1st to replace the observance of Samhain. Now, I want to talk a little bit about this. The feast of All Saints' Day, still observed by many today, honored the believers that had died. But the night before was a sacred vigil in the church. It became known as All Hallows' Eve or Halloween. But the practices of the Druids, they died hard. Halloween became known as a witch's holiday. Now the dressing up and going door to door came much later. It was a tradition in the British Isles and was not a practice simply restricted to Halloween. They would have, I found this interesting, they would have masked players, actors, and they would go door to door, house to house, putting on a simple drama or musical performance in return for food and drink. Sometimes these performances had Christian themes. I thought that was interesting. I didn't know that either. I thought it originated in the British Isles. But in the 19th century, the Irish and Scottish folks, immigrants who come over, they brought their traditions to North America and then the night became a tradition of mischief. And it got worse and worse, more dangerous. Vandals would go through the night, soaping windows, overturning outhouses, pulling gates from their hinges. And they would joke that these pranks were the work of witches and ghosts. And it got worse and worse. because the vandalism just got out of hand. So to counteract this vandalism, community clubs like the Boy Scouts began to organize alternatives that are safe and fun. Children were encouraged to go door-to-door and receive treats from homeowners and merchants, keeping the troublemakers away. And in 1930, the practice was popular nationwide, and you heard across our country, trick-or-treat, echoing through neighborhoods and neighborhoods. And so the boy scouts began to organize streets. So in this way you see a combination of pagan, Christian, and civic elements. So not all that a Halloween is was necessarily rooted in pagan things. This idea of trick-or-treat was not pagan in origin, but the very holiday itself is. But what you're seeing, however, in recent years is a resurgence in the occult. The resurgence in paganism, and that's certainly blossoming in our country, in North America. You've got television shows that are really focused on the occult. I've never watched it, but I saw an advertisement for a show called Lucifer. just interest in this paganism and certainly goes right along with the downward slide of our country away from Christianity. And what does this do? It makes occult themes in witchcraft acceptable. It's okay. Not a big deal. It's not a big deal. And what's happening even with Halloween today, it's becoming more and more associated with the occult, a preoccupation with the dead, and two influences that we'll find in Scripture that we're warned against. You see, I'll tell you this, Satan is not a joke. Right? I mean, people have tried to make him a joke. People have tried to downplay Satan, but my friends, he is real. The Bible clearly states that He has given Satan a certain amount of power. The evil in this world is under his control. Let's go to that scripture we looked at or talked about this morning. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Like I've said this morning, I'm not a conspiracist. I think if you're a Christian, there is no conspiracy. The Bible tells you who's in charge and who's in control. All that wicked and evil that you see is simply an outcome of what the Bible says. So there's no conspiracy. Like I said this morning, if you want to get worked up about warning people about conspiracies, why don't you get yourself worked up about warning them of judgment to come and of hell? That'll really help them. is not going to do much for them when it comes to their spiritual walk. Ephesians chapter 6, look at verse number 12. What does the Bible say? He says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, what? In high places. That's the truth. No conspiracy. It's for real. Satan is the devil. and he certainly is the first one in history to openly defy God. His blade was self-centered, a rejection of God's authority. We see that in the birth of sin. We see that happening with Adam and Eve. Of course, today sin affects the whole human race. We are all guilty. Therefore, we all deserve sin's penalty. Now, Halloween is rooted in paganism. Because if you really want to be honest, Christmas is rooted in paganism. There was a pagan holiday where a bunch of pagans would gather around a tree and worship it. Honestly, Christmas is simply a celebration of a mass of Christ's birth. So I want us to be really careful in what we say. I've had people come to our church that don't celebrate Christmas. Man, that's a blessing. you know, if that's what God has for you to do. But Halloween is a little different and that's what we're going to look at tonight. I believe the fact is, is that there's the ancient traditions that it's founded in really carry forward today. And there's three things or four things. Number one, why should we not celebrate Halloween? Number one, because it glorifies death. It glorifies death. Now let's go to Romans chapter five, if you're already there. Realize this, that death does not come from God. Death is a result of man's choosing to sin, right? Man chose the sin. God said, you know what? Your eyes will be open. You'll be able to see good and evil. And of course, we know that because of, as a result of Adam and Eve's sin, that they would, they died spiritually. God told Adam, the only thing you weren't to do was to eat from the tree. If you did, you would die. Well, I tell you, we're a lot like Adam, aren't we? See that wet paint sign, what do we want to do? Yeah. See, wet concrete, what do you want to do? Make your mark on the world, don't you? You know? It's that, don't touch it! If you have little ones, right? Reagan's going to get to this age here soon. I know you're excited about his sister, Amanda. When you get to say, no! I always laugh when the little ones, you know, you say, no, and you know they'll be like, That human nature, that rebellion against authority. Look at Romans 5, verse 12. Scripture says here, So from this scripture, who is the cause of death? Sin. Man's choice to sin. God is not the cause of death, man is. Why should we not celebrate? It glorifies death. Number two, we'll see here, understand this, we have to understand that death is the enemy. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We are in a battle with an enemy called death. Why is death the enemy? You know why death is the enemy? Because it removes life. It takes away life. God is the creator and author of life and in God's original creation There was no pain. There was no disease. There was no death until man chose to sin All right Death is the enemy 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse number 26 Was the Bible say here it says the last enemy that shall be destroyed is what? Christ was the subject of that great enemy of man. Death. Death has an end. Death will cease. The reign of death will be stopped. Once we will be delivered from death, go to chapter, if you would, look at verse number 54 of the same chapter. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immorality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in what? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. We have victory over death. And you know what? Anything that celebrates death, anything that glorifies death, we live in a society of death. Do you agree? You don't have to go too far, but simply our own county and read how many of our teenagers are killing themselves. Why? Because they're obsessed with death. They think that is the release. They think that is the escape. But death is the enemy, my friend. Right? That's why we have the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we ought to be sharing the gospel, telling people there's a better way. He said, Oh, pastor, is it really that bad? Is it really that big of a deal? I'm going to let you decide. Isn't it a blessing that you got the Holy Spirit? I hope you'll be honest and listen to Him tonight. Let's go to a couple of other scriptures. Go to Isaiah, Isaiah 25. I like this fact that death is defeated. Anything that holds death as its key, as it's sort of the, right? I mean, you say, well, Pastor, Halloween's not about death. Really? Come on now. Just come take a ride with me through the neighborhoods. What's it all about? What's every decoration about? Right? It's got tombstones, right? Ghosts, graves. Oh, it's harmless, Pastor, is it? Isaiah 25. All right, let me give you some other ones if you want to write them down. I'm going to quickly go through here. Hosea 1314. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. Oh death. I will be thy plagues. Oh grave. I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from my eyes. We read 1st Corinthians 15 go if you would to 2nd Timothy 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10. And you know what? What a message of hope we can give people. Not that death is how you get away and how you escape the misery of this world. There is no hope in death. There is only hope in Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 1, look at verse 10. What does Paul say? He says, "...but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath..." What? "...abolished death." and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. You say, Pastor, why shouldn't we celebrate Halloween? Well, because it glorifies death. If it glorifies death, I don't want to be a part of it. Number two, it honors Satan and his devils. Is God honored on Halloween? I mean, honestly, is He honored on Halloween? He's not. I mean, let's just be honest. He's not. He's not honored on Halloween. God is not even mentioned. Right. All right. But hey, you got all kinds of Satan, witches and devils. Boy, they're on it. And I'll tell you, though, Satan and his devils are the enemies of mankind. Go to first Peter, chapter five, verse eight. He's not honored on Halloween. I told you you're going to approach this from one or two mindsets tonight. You're going to, you're going to, you're going to entrench yourself. You're going to say, well, you know, he's just getting radical now. Or you're going to say, well, what does the Bible say? I want to be in line with the Bible. First Peter chapter five or say, I hope you'll be the other way. I hope you'll simply say, what does God say? I want to honor God. The Bible says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roar in line, walk with about seeking whom he may what devour. Boy, he's the God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4. You know, Satan is not a toy. He is not a make-believe thing. He's not some guy in a red suit with horns and a pointed tail. He's real. The Bible says he's a roaring lion. He's a roaring lion. The Bible says, "...in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." He's the God of this world. He blinds men's eyes, or minds, rather. He's the prince of this world, John 12, John 14, John 16. He's the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2, Ephesians chapter 6. God and Satan are at war. And the war against God that Satan is waging is twofold. Number one, Satan's purpose is power and worship. Satan desires much power and as much worship as possible. If you only have to go back and look at like Isaiah, if you want to turn there, you can. But Isaiah 14. Verses 12 through 17. The Bible says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For the said of thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. Listen, what was Satan wanting to do? I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mountain of the congregation on the sides of the mountain. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Yet, thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, and that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners?" Satan wants worship. Satan wants glory. He doesn't want God to get the glory. That was the problem from the beginning. He said, You know what? I will be like God. Satan's purpose is to hurt and to cut at the heart of God. Why? Because God's judged him for rebelling. He does everything he can to destroy the works of God, does all he can to get back at God. Wouldn't Satan be glorified if he could turn the hearts of God's people away from God? We've got to think about that. I'm glad for that. Amen. If God before us Romans chapter 8 verse 31, who can be against us? I like that. You know what? Satan, you may try to get the glory. You may try to get the honor. You may try to get the worship. You may have a day dedicated to you, but I'm a Christian. I'm a child of God. I'll not have it. It's good preaching. Amen. I'll be like that preacher got down and a man himself. Number three. I'm glad for that. Amen. I'm glad for that. Number three. This is more of a minor reason, but I think it's one nonetheless. You know what? There's a great deal of sinning on Halloween. I know you so my little junior, you know, I don't mean that by junior, but you know, my little my little, you know, junior, he don't he don't go out and sin. Given. Well, he does, but you know what I mean? He's not out getting drunk. You know, I mean, that's not what he's doing. I mean, he's just a little innocent boy. What's the big deal, Pastor? Well, understand this, my friends, what we allow our children to do, right, it just opens doors. We've got to be so careful, so careful. And not just how, what you watch on TV, what you watch on TV, well, it opens doors, doesn't it? Right, what you allow, what entertainment you allow in your home, you say, oh, it's not a big deal. It is. My heart's been broken. I just, you know, I think about that a lot. You say, well, my choices don't have consequences. They do. They do. You may not have seen it. I've been in ministry for 18 years, 19 years. I can't tell you how many times I've seen parents, well-meaning, sort of naive. And they're thinking that, you know, my choices, I choose to do this because I'm an adult. I tell my kids something different. Some of you have seen this, haven't you? And what happens to those children as they grow up? What mom and dad did in moderation, they find themselves doing in excess. I've seen it over and over and over again. What really saddens my heart is, you know who gets blamed when these children leave the church and won't have nothing to do with God? The church gets blamed. Well, if you did more for my kids. Hang on now. I'm just warning you. I love you. You know what my goal is for our church, the children of our church? It's for them to grow up and serve God to whatever capacity that might be. Whether it's man being a missionary or pastor, boy, that would be glorious, wouldn't it? But even just as glorious if they just served God in the church. We're soul winners, love God. What a glorious thing that would be! Honestly, you say, Pastor, you just don't want us to have no fun. I want your children to serve the Lord, just like I want my own children to serve the Lord. I'm trying to be as sincere as I can. All right? Well, we've got to be very careful on this day. Why? There's a whole lot of sinning that goes on. People, they get drunk, they take drugs. You say, well, that's no different. They dress in horrible, cultic costumes. It's considered by many the holiday of hell. And you know, bad boys come out for it, don't they? I'm not going to the things that happen, you know. Go to 1 Corinthians 10. Again, I'm just trying to give you some tools. You make a decision between you and the Lord. You say, well, pastor, if I choose not to go this way, are you going to disfellowship with me? No. I love you. I'll pray for you. Amen. I'll pray you grow. That's one thing I've learned as a pastor. It just takes time. I've seen it in your lives. It's exciting. I've seen God bring you along. I've seen God teach you things that I could never teach you. It's, I always, my flesh gets a little hurt because you know I've taught on something for like years and then finally someday someone will listen to another message that some other preacher preaches. Man, God can, I'm like, I've been saying the same thing! which I'm fine with. However God gets a hold of it, amen. I'm the same way, right? I mean, I think about myself, where I'm at in my Christian growth. I've certainly not even gotten close to reaching where I need to be. And you know, people could look at me and say, you know, you really need to grow in this area, Pastor Teasdale, and you know they're right. And I hope that I'll never get tired of growing. I hope that I'll never get tired of learning and saying, oh, how can I be more like the Lord? 1 Corinthians 10, verse 20, look what the Scripture says, my friends. But I say that these things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. It makes me think. If you participate in idolatry, you're fellowshipping with devils. And you see that idolatry throughout our society, idolatry whether it be a bunch of heathens worshiping a statue or the idolatry of humanity among the educated. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. You say, well, Pastor, it just doesn't seem like a big deal. You know, that's, I think, in a way how Satan wants to play it. He says, don't sit there and be puzzled over this marvel over this. He says, for Satan himself is transformed into what an angel of what light Satan himself presents and frames himself as something wonderful as a as an angel. He says, for Satan himself is transformed into what an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works." That's why we've got to test everything against Scripture, my friends. Try the Spirit, see whether they be of God. It is utterly, listen to me now, it is utterly impossible to participate in the worship Now this last one, you're going to say, oh, you've gone overboard now, Pastor. Go to Psalm 119. I don't think so. I think it's good thinking here, good food for thought. Lastly, why? Because God Himself, I believe, hates Halloween. That's a bold statement. Well, let me get you some scripture. Psalm 119, look at 104. Psalm 119, 104. And you can apply this to many different other things on this earth, many different celebrations that may be taking place. Psalm 119, 104 says, Therefore, through thy precepts I get what? Understanding. Therefore, I hate what? Every false way. God does not hate mankind, but He hates man's evil ways. Go to Genesis 6. God has no stomach for evil. God has no stomach for wickedness. We may say, well, it's not a big deal, but God says it is a big deal. I don't want any part of it. Genesis 6. What happens in verses 6? Do you realize the magnitude of these verses? God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowl of the air. For it repenteth me that I have made them." God is wearied with man's sins. Isaiah 43, 24 says, God is broken by man's sin. God is grieved by man's sin. God has grieved in the depths of His heart with man's sins. It says what? And we just read it, chapter 6, verse 6 here. Repent to the Lord that He hath made man on the earth, and He grieved him at his heart. You say, well, Pastor, what is our response? I think we redeem it, but I don't think we redeem it. I don't think we redeem it. and we use it for the Lord. Whether that be a fall festival, which I'm fine with, or as we're going to do this Halloween, we're going to get some Bible tracts and we're going to hand them out to the little children that come to our door and we're going to witness to these little children because they need to hear the truth. You say, well, that's compromising. If you don't want to do it, that's fine. I'm just saying, you know what? It's like the Internet, right? You realize that a majority of the Internet is pornography, right? That's all it is. It's smut, trash. You realize that's what a majority of the internet is used for. You realize that all these advances in video over the internet is because of pornography. But does that mean the internet can't be redeemed for God? Right now we're streaming on YouTube. The same technology that was developed by a bunch of perverts, so they could stream pornography, they're now streaming on YouTube. is now being used to broadcast the Word of God and the truth of God's Word. I love that, don't you? Can we redeem that which has been used for evil, that which has not glorified God for God? We can, and I think we can take this holiday and redeem it for Him. I think we can use it to reach people with the gospel. It's like Christmas, and I'll get to Christmas here in a couple of months, all right? You say, well, let me know, Pastor, so I don't come to church that night. all wrapped up in the gifts and the money and getting into debt and how people do. But can you use it? I've had people, oh, we don't celebrate. We're not going to have a tree. We're just going to pretend that Christmas doesn't exist. I'm like, okay, that's fine. We won't have trees in our church because I don't want to offend nobody. But we're going to have decoration. But you know what I'm going to use Christmas for? I'm going to use it as an opportunity to reach people with the gospel. to share with people why Christ came. Amen? And you know what? I think we'll use this same holiday as another opportunity to say, you know what? I want to reach these young people with the gospel. I want to put gospel tracks. You know, when they get home, especially we've got those Chick tracks, you'll read them. Wouldn't it be a blessing if some young child came to know Jesus Christ because you gave them a track on that night? Like I said, my reasons are not, you know, it's not an idea of an opinion. And really, I think the reasons are not so much the trick-or-treating. I think that's mostly innocent. But it's overall, do I want to be a part of the overall part of this? Is it really something that's going to honor and glorify God? That's where we have to ask ourselves, Lord, what's right? What should we do? And Father, I just want, and hopefully that's your heart tonight. Lord, I just want to honor You. He said, well, you know, it's so fun to see him. Hey, set aside emotion. Set aside the feeling. What is right? Amen. I love that, don't you? I can know what is right. And it cuts through the emotion. It cuts through the feelings. It cuts through, right? The tradition, it cuts through what is right. Sometimes it's hard, but we can know what is right. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank You that, Lord, we can go to it and we can look for answers and we find it. It's there. And Father, I know that tonight's message was probably somewhat challenging and certainly, Lord, it wasn't intended to pick on anyone or give anybody a hard time, but simply to teach. What is right? What does Your Word say? Lord, I pray as a church that we would never be afraid to approach these kind of subjects because, Lord, folks might get hurt or offended. Lord, I don't want it to be me either, Lord. I don't want it to be pastor thinks or pastor said. Rather, thus saith the Lord. And I pray that, Lord, that would be true up tonight. Lord, I pray that You'd help me to even have a greater understanding of what Your will is. Lord, that we would be a witness Lord, that we would be a shining light to our neighborhoods, to our friends, to our family, Lord, even to the young children that might be coming to our door this upcoming, I heard a couple of weeks here, a couple of Mondays, and that we might have an opportunity to give them the gospel and share with them the love of Jesus Christ. That, Father, there is no hope in death, that death has been conquered. There's victory over death through the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask that you bless us now, be with our brothers and sisters unable to be with us tonight, sick or otherwise. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, I'm done a little early. Let's be dismissed. We'll see you Wednesday night if you're able, 7 o'clock for prayer meeting.