Halloween has become a huge deal in our nation.
It's an approximately a $7B business with approximately eight gazillion kids
going around offering ultimatums to their neighbors.
So, the question that I get is, "Is it okay for a Christian to participate in Halloween?"
So, permit a super-fast history lesson.
Halloween has its roots 2,000 years ago in the Celtic and Druid tradition of celebrating their new year.
Their new year was on November 1st and to do this, they would lite bonfires.
This is a Pagan religion.
Lite bonfires, wear animal costumes and masks, and animal sacrifices to their false gods.
Well, about 43 A.D., just about 10 years after Jesus,
the Romans come into that land of Ireland.
And you think, "Oh great! The Romans are Christian!"
Well, not exactly yet.
So now they just merge two Pagan holidays together
until about 900 when the Pope at the time
attempts to try and Christianize this holiday by moving All Saints Day from May into November 1st.
So, now we have this tradition of All Hallows Eve.
So, just by the question, "Is it okay to celebrate Halloween?"
I think we know intuitively there's something not quite right with Halloween.
So I think there's two sides to it.
On the one side we have cute trick-or-treaters in neighborhoods
getting together and bobbing for apples.
And I mean seriously, we spent $350M on pet costumes.
That's a true statement.
On the other side, though, there's a serious undercurrent of the occult, the demonic,
witches and this things that go back to these Pagan worship.
And the Bible doesn't just warn against this, the Bible says very clearly we don't want to have anything
to do with the demonic, with mediums, or anything.
The Bible says very clearly . . .
So, what do I do?
I've always let my own kids trick-or-treat.
And they can wear cute costumes,
and I let them get together with their neighborhood and I enjoy giving out candy to the neighborhood kids.
But as soon as that starts to tip in any way towards the mccobb, the demonic, the occult
we don't get near it.
Our battle, again, is not with flesh or blood.
Our battle is with the dark forces of this world.
And your spirituality, your relationship with God, is way more important.
In the end, why would we want to celebrate something so dark
when we can celebrate the life of Christ that is so beautiful?
As some of you know, I'm from the State of Colorado and I get asked about pot a lot.
Although it's illegal in the federal government level,
our state has allowed marijuana use, along with 24 other states in America.
That's the medical use and that's not what we're going to talk about today.
You can use lasers in medical use or chemo treatments and you don't use those everyday.
But my state, along with three others, has allowed recreational use of marijuana.
So, the question that I get often, "Is it ok for a Christian in one of these states to smoke marijuana?"
Well, the Bible doesn't explicitly say anything about pot.
However, from what we do know about pot, it's very different than alcohol.
The Bible says that you can have a glass of wine and it can even be good for you.
However, pot is a little bit different.
The purpose of smoking pot is to get high.
It's a hallucinogenic.
You don't put it in your brownies so that they taste better.
The THC levels in pot today is much, much stronger than it used to be.
It's gone from one to four percent, according to WebMD, to seven percent.
And that is the chemical that causes this high.
And as you face this, as you use this, it's not something that gradually comes on.
As I understand it, the high from smoking pot is instantaneous
so the sole purpose for using this drug is not for your health, it's not for flavor.
It's so that you can get high.
So, where does that put us as a Christian?
It is possible, obviously, to drink too much alcohol.
But is it possible to have pot and not have too much?
The answer, really, is no.
This is a hallucinogenic, on one side of it.
On the other side, God says to us:
Does my state allow the smoking of marijuana?
The answer is yes.
But the state is not our conscience and when it comes to our Christian life, the state is not our guide.
We follow our Lord who says be alert and so reminded as you go about this world
and the temptations that you face as you serve me.
If you're part of a health club, you can guess that 20 million people practice yoga a year.
So the question is not, "Is yoga popular?"
The question that I get, "Is it okay for a Christian to practice yoga?"
Now, there's different types of yoga.
On the one side we have a purely physical form which is called Ashtanga yoga.
Ashtanga yoga is usually a series of poses that are linked together very closely
or you might see it in your gym as power yoga.
Those can be completely separate.
Those can be completely separate. However, the most popular form of yoga is called Hatha yoga.
However, the most popular form of yoga is called Hatha yoga.
So, this is not to be confused with hot yoga but you could practice hot Hatha yoga.
Hatha yoga is spelled H-A-T-H-A.
This is the most common in your gyms and around the country.
Hatha yoga has a long history of being very closely intertwined with Hindu worship.
And the purpose of Hatha yoga, through this series of poses,meditation and discipline,
is to connect your true self, your Atman they call it,
with your divine, kind of this interpersonal spirit called "Brahman."
For a lack of a better term, it's like the force in Star Wars.
You're trying to connect yourself with the Brahman.
And, in fact, yoga itself means a yoke or bonding.
So where does this put us as a Christian?
While it might be possible to practice just the physical aspects of yoga,
maybe you go to your gym and they don't mention anything about meditation and
they simply go through a series of poses, you could probably do that.
However, the most popular form, Hatha yoga may use terms like, "connecting to the divinity within you,"
" your inner self,"
or "focusing on your third eye for healing."
Anything like that is just as integral a part to the Hindu religion and its practice
as bowing and worshiping five times a day in an Islamic mosque.
Now ask yourself this,
Would you go five times a day to an Islamic mosque if it made you more fit?
I think you'd say no.
So now ask yourself a little bit different.
Would I go to yoga three times a week, even though it's directly connected, in many cases, to Hindu worship?
I think you know your answer.
Our battle is not against the physical, our body.
Our battle really is against spiritual forces and when it comes to your own spirituality,
there's other ways to get fit rather than glorifying a practice of a fake religion.
The stats are in and Americans are drinking . . .
a lot.
And that Americans are drinking a lot more.
In the past 10 years, heavy drinking has gone up 17%
and one in five Americans is considered a binge drinker.
Now, before you pause and Google, "What are the criteria for binge drinker?" consider this.
The question really is, "Is it okay for a Christian to drink alcohol at all?"
The Bible is relatively silent when it comes to prohibitions with alcohol.
However, it does say it is not okay to overindulge and to get drunk.
So, what does that mean for us?
You have to look inside of yourself.
And what I mean by that is, it comes down to people.
The Apostle Paul says lots of things are permissible,
but not everything is beneficial.
Every one of us is wired a little bit differently.
If your parents are alcoholic, let's say you have one alcoholic parent,
that means you have a 50% chance of being alcoholic yourself.
If both parents are alcoholic, you have a 75% chance of being alcoholic.
So what's the takeaway?
You may be wired in such a way that you were driven to compulsive drinking.
You may be wired in such a way that you naturally are prone to over indulgence.
If that's the case, even though the Bible says it may be okay,
you step back and say, "This is not for me."
Now, you might be on the other side.
Maybe you can have a glass of wine, or even two, with your friends and you feel no compulsion to overindulge.
You never have too many and this is not something that controls your life, or ruins your body,
or your health or your productivity.
So, you're thinking, "Great! I can have all the wine I want as long as it's within a certain amount."
Not quite so fast.
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
In America right now, one and seven people have struggled with an alcohol problem this last year.
That means as you go and enjoy drink yourself,
maybe it is no problem for you.
However, you don't know where they're at in their journey to try and stop alcohol's control in their life.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
And sometimes the greater love for your brother or sister in Christ,
means you step back from your ability so that you can help them walk with God.
Because, ultimately, that's what we all want.
Tattoos in the United States are huge and only getting more popular.
One in five people have a tattoo
and that is significantly higher for people who are under the age of 35.
So the question we have is, "Is it okay for a Christian to get a tattoo?"
If you asked me this 3,500 years ago, the answer is no.
In Leviticus 19, verse 28 God says very clearly:
So the answer, very clearly, is no.
However, God gives us laws for specific times, to specific people, in specific places.
For example, at the time of Moses, God gave them specific laws
to keep them separate from the other nations.
And this really served two purposes.
One, it was to point to the coming savior, who had come about 1,500 years later,
who ultimately would fulfill all laws on the cross.
And two, it was to keep them separate from the Pagan nations.
So, if the Pagan nations use cut stones in their altar, God says, "Do not do that."
If they cut their beards a certain way, God said, "Don't do that."
If they cut their bodies in worship, God says "Don't do that."
And in this case, use tattoos in worship, God says, "Don't do that."
It is too closely associated with Pagan worship.
However, it seems in our society of the United States, since Janis Joplin was tattooed by Lyle Tuttle,
this has kind of sprung into the mainstream since the 1960s.
And society's view of tattoos, I think, has changed with it.
No longer are tattoos directly associated with bad decisions and uncleanliness and motorcycle gangs.
Instead, it's moved into an art form, from tattooers.
Now they're called tattoo artists.
So, although the Bible doesn't specifically say yes or no on tattoos,
We can get some guiding principles.
The Bible does tell us that God cares about our body,
not just our mind and our soul.
And he says your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
so you should take care of it.
Is putting needles into your body with ink is the best thing for your body?
You have to ask yourself that question.
Secondly, God says just because something is permissible doesn't
necessarily mean that this is wise.
I think you have to ask yourself, "Where exactly am I going to put this tattoo?
What part of my body am I trying to get people to focus on?"
I'm not going to show pictures, but I think you can figure out there certain tattoos that highlight sexuality.
What message are you trying to promote with your tattoo?
For many people, it's belonging to a group.
For some people, it's signifying a certain event.
And for some people it's simply art.
But the question is , "Am I giving a clear witness to my savior; am I giving a clear witness to my God?"
Because ultimately, that's the group we belong to.
A savior who died on the cross and rose again, as it says in Isaiah,
and put our names on the palm of his hands.