Sermon Tone Analysis

According to history.com,

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.

Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.

On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints.

Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain.

The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween.

Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.

One of our family traditions this time of year is to watch popular movies.

There is a list…Sleepy Hollow, Hocus Pocus, and Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

Now, out of these, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is my favorite.

Something that I enjoy about the classics, and boy was Charles Schulz able to crank out classics!

But in watching it it this year, there was something that stuck out to me.

We find a great opener when we find Lucy and Linus picking out a pumpkin.

It’s brought inside, and Lucy plunges a knife in the top, starts scooping out the insides, and Linus exclaims “Ohhhh, you didn’t tell me you were going to kill it, WAAAAAAHHHHH!”

It’s just funny.

Almost as funny as when Linus jumps in the leaves with the sucker and gives the great epiphany “Never jump in a pile of leaves with a wet sucker”.

Just GREAT lines…especially for a big kid like me who loves sarcasm and wit.

But we find the plot change, as the gang prepares their costumes for Trick or Treat.

All except Linus, who is at the table writing a letter.

“Dear, Great Pumpkin, I’m looking forward to your arrival on Halloween night.

I hope you bring me lots of presents”.

[Charlie Brown enters]

Charlie Brown:

Who are you writing to Linus?

Linus:

This is the time of year to write to the great pumpkin!

On Halloween night the great pumpkin rises out of his pumpkin patch and flies through the air with his bag of toys to all the children!

Charlie Brown:

You must be crazy!

When will you stop believing in something that isn’t true?!

Linus:

When will you stop believing in that fella with red suit and the white beard that goes “Ho, Ho, Ho!”?!

Charlie Brown:

“We're obviously separated by denominational differences” [Charlie Brown walks away]

It just happened to dawn on me...

I have heard this line at least once each year (more often when we bought it on dvd)… we can be obviously separated by denominational differences.

In scripture we find a conflict among good and evil.

Tricks

In creation, God saw everything that He had made - as a whole of creation placed in Eden - was very good.

Perfection.

Yet, there was something else that would soon go on.

We find a description of Satan who was also in Eden, tasked as being the guardian cherub.

But in perfection, there was imperfection.

Satan’s heart was proud.

Proverbs 16:18 “18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

The proud spirit preceded Satan’s fall.

He gave up perfection, for what he wanted.

There was a shift in the universe that day.

As Charlie Brown would say Satan and God obviously were separated by denominational differences.

It would not be long until his pride would lead to the fall of God’s creation until His return.

I have said it many, many times…Adam and Eve were placed in God’s perfection…and Satan was still able to influence them into sinning.

Notice his tactic.

“Did God actually say” - Satan tried to make Eve second guess God’s Word.

But then Even added to God’s Word.

God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’

So we blame Eve for the origin of sin, right?

Wait!

Who did God give His command to?

ADAM… Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Adam was given the directive to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Notice it came with a consequence - when you eat of it, you will surely die.

Then Satan blatantly contradicted God “you will not surely die”.

Eve was deceived…she ate…and she gave it to Adam, and he ate.

If Adam had been the man of the house, He would have stopped Eve from eating.

Instead, he stood idly by while she willfully sinned and didn’t even say a word.

“They were obviously separated by denominational differences” It reminds me of 1 Peter 5:8.

Satan will contradict God boldly knowing he is deceiving them…just as he has deceived himself.

Satan is full of tricks, and will do whatever is necessary to bring all of human kind down with him.

But there is good news, even though Satan tries to trick us, God offers us a treat.

Treats

I could go on and on about ways Satan can trick us, but to be honest, his tricks are nothing compared to God’s treats.

When Adam and Eve sinned, the relationship caused death.

Not an immediate physical death, but the separation of the spiritual relationship God created with us and the spiritual death that went along with it.

Spiritual death is the eternal spiritual separation of God and His creation.

We find New Testament confirmation that our sins cause this spiritual death.

Notice the tense - were.

We were dead in our sins, following our own desires, the ways of the world, simply put we followed Satan.

There is a way to restore our relationship with God.

BUT - changes the whole picture.

Because of God there is something different that happens.

We were created because God wanted us.

We were formed by His hands, received His breath resulting in life.

Even though we struggle with sin, He still extends us mercy - taking away our misery because of His great love for us.

If we receive Christ as our Savior, we become one like Christ, and are extended grace - the unmerited favor of God - have been saved.

These words can be translated as “you are in a saved state”, not “just” saved, but passing from death unto life.

But because of our struggle with free will, it does not mean we will be able to live a sinless life.

Paul tells us in Romans 7:19

Mankind’s soul will constantly struggle with our humanity.

It’s rare, but we get to look into the life of Paul, what he felt, learned, and experienced as he struggled to please God on a road to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

Paul knew he did not have any inherent good.

He knew that, in the flesh, his human nature was sinful, depraved, and corrupt.

Paul knew, without God, there was nothing good in his flesh.

It did not mean that he did not ever do any good things or works, just that he was unable to be as good as he should be, that he was not perfect in God’s eyes, and was unable to please God because he constantly fell short of God’s glory.

What is the reason of Paul’s feelings of inadequacy?

He was contaminated by the disease of sin.

We are in constant battle because of sin.

Why do we constantly battle between good and bad, Godliness and inadequacy, morality and sin???