And each one of these children, Lord, and even the parents as
well. And I just thank you, Lord, in
Jesus name we pray, Amen. All right, so tonight, so I
could come up here and I could talk about, I could just dive
into the, the darkness of, of Halloween, right?
The, the symbolism, the costumes, the historical
background behind it. I could dive into all of that,
right? So I know this is a topic that's
kind of been a little bit controversial in some people's
eyes, you know, should Christians celebrate Halloween,
You know, should Christians go trick or treating?
Should Christians dress up? Should, you know?
And so the biggest thing for me, and the biggest reason why I
choose not to celebrate Halloween is because God talks
about in his word how we're supposed to be set apart from
the world, right? We're not.
We're supposed to be lights in darkness.
And the reason why is because we are in the world, but we're not
of it, right? So we're we're called to be
lights. We're called to be lights and
we're called to be different from from the world we're
supposed to love different from the way the world lives.
We're supposed to talk different the way the world talks and
we're supposed to live different, right?
And because of that, we're going to receive a lot of hatred and
persecution from the world. And in the past is that we're
going to look at today Jesus kind of shares with his
disciples this very lesson about hatred from the world and why we
get hatred from the world, right?
And the reason behind it. And I think it's important for
everyone in this room, but especially the kids, because I
think you guys can agree with me that in today's world, the kids
get attacked with so much work. So where I'm going to go with is
I'm going to go to John chapter 15 and I'm going to look at
verses 18 through 25. So this is the, the title of
this section in my Bible is called the world's hatred.
OK, so I'll, I'm just going to go verse by verse with this.
So we'll start with verse 18 where Jesus says, and this is
Jesus talking to his disciples here and he's talking about, he
says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world will love its own yet, because you are not of the
world. But I chose you out of the
world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you.
A servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
But all these things they will do to you for My namesake,
because they do not know Him who sent Me.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin.
But now they have no excuse for their sin.
He who hates Me hates My Father also.
If I had not done among them the works which no one else did,
they would have no sin. But now they have seen and also
hated both me and my father. But this happened that the world
that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in
their law. They hated me without a cause.
Alright, so just kind of going through this.
So starting with verse 18, if the world hates you, you know
that hated me before I hated you.
So why does the world hate us? I hated Christ first, simple as
that, you know, and we're talking about Jesus Christ, the
perfect Son of God came into the world, never made a mistake,
never sinned, right? Did all these signs, all these
wonders and they still hated him, right?
Not even just the the unbelievers, but even his own
people hated him. Could didn't accept him, right?
So if he suffered and he was persecuted, right, what makes us
think that we're not going to be right?
And I mean, I could go into a bunch of examples of, of people
who who ended up losing their lives over the gospel, so many
different martyrs and, and, and people throughout history as his
own disciples, right? Christ himself murdered because
of his because of the truth. And the world just couldn't
accept it. And you know, Jesus told us in
Matthew 5 in the beatitudes, he said, blessed are you when they
revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you
falsely for my sake. Notice he says when, not if,
when. So what that tells us is if
we're believers and we're truly walking in in Christ, we are
going to receive persecution from the world.
It's just it's guaranteed, right?
So we and we know that it's the world hates us because I hated
Christ first, right? So we know why that hate's
coming. Verse 19 he says, if if you are
of the world, the world will love its own yet because you are
not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you. So why does the world hate us?
Because He chose us out of the world, we are different from
what the world thinks is normal, right?
We don't do the same things the world does.
For example, tonight everyone else your guys's age is out here
dressing up in costumes or going around trick or treating.
They're watching horror movies. They're doing all this stuff
right. And you guys are here in the
church, fellowshipping with other believers and hearing the
Word, right? If we acted just like the world
did, the world would love us, right?
There would be no persecution, there'd be no hate.
There'd be none of that, right? But because we don't join in
what the world does, it's weird to them that we don't
participate in something like Halloween, right?
It's weird to them. So they're going to respond with
hatred and mockery. Mockery, right?
So refusing to wear a costume or trick or treat, refusal to go to
a costume party, like I got invited to a bunch of them this
week and I said no to all of them.
I got met with a lot of different stuff, right?
Choosing to honor God will shine an uncomfortable light on since
what that means is like, if you guys are different, right?
And the world tries to get you to, to participate in sin and
you go against it because of your faith in Christ, right?
The world sees that and they feel that, right?
Because it's almost like you're shining a light on, like the
wrong that they're doing, and they can't accept it.
So in return, that's where the hatred comes in, right?
And Jesus's words here are encouragement, right?
Because like, if we're being persecuted for our faith, that
means that we identify with him, right?
First, Peter 29 But you are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may
proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous life, right? Second, Peter 18 and 9 it says,
therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor
of me his prisoner. This is Paul talking here, but
share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and called us with the holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, right? So we're called to be different
out of the world. He called us to be set apart,
right? Romans 12/2.
And you sure you all have heard this.
Therefore not conform into this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good,
acceptable and perfect will of God, right?
Do not conform to this world, right?
Don't. Don't let the pressures of the
world, the pressures of your peers, the pressures of what you
see on TV, what you see in books, whatever, Don't let that
pressure you to change and to fit into the world's norms, but
be transformed. Why?
So that we can prove the acceptable, good and perfect
will of God. So we can be that light and show
Christ in this in this world, right?
So we can be set apart. Go into verse 20 where he says,
remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater
than his master. If they persecuted me, they will
also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will
keep yours also, right? So same thing if they persecuted
Jesus, they're going to persecute us.
And a servant is not greater than his master.
So Jesus said that after he washed his disciples feet to
kind of give that, to kind of give that example of like, you
know, you call who said you call me Lord, Yeah, I just washed
your feet. And that's the example that that
he set for us. But also shows that like, you
know, if he was met with persecution, that means we're
going to be as well as his, you know, as his servants, right?
And in contrast, he says, if they keep my word, if they kept
my word, they will keep yours also.
So those who hear the gospel and respond, right, and accept it
and listen to it, those are the ones who keep his word.
And you know our word because our word is his word.
We're out here preaching his gospel.
Everything in his word is what we're out here sharing with
people. If they accept it, they accept
Him, right? But those who reject it reject
him also, right? So like when we're talking about
sharing the gospel, and we actually talked about this in
our conversations class last Saturday that we had where if
you share the gospel with someone and they don't accept
it, they're not rejecting you, right?
It's not you they're rejecting, it's God that they're rejecting,
right? And that's what he's kind of
saying here is if they keep my word, they'll keep yours.
So if they listen to what I say and if you're speaking my words
to them, then they're going to respond if they truly accept it,
right? 21 it says, but all these things
they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not
know him who sent me. So why does the world persecute
followers of Christ? They don't know who Christ is.
They don't truly know who Christ is.
You're going to hear a bunch of different ideologies about who
Jesus is to the world. They have all these different,
their own forms of Jesus, the affirming Jesus, the one who
accepts everyone's lifestyle, no matter who they are or what
they're doing. You know, the, the one that says
love is love no matter who it's between, right?
Even though the Bible talks about how marriage between a man
and a woman, you're going to hear different ideologies with
that as you guys get older, right?
And because we don't go along with it to the world, we're
strangers, we're outcasts, foreigners.
I like to use the word aliens, right?
I, I used to use that word all the time when I was talking
about just being different, when I, I talked about I like to be
an alien, right? So when we don't participate in
the things in the world and we get persecution, it's because
the world doesn't know, they don't know the truth.
And that's why we're called to be the examples, right?
We're supposed to sit, we're supposed to be light in a Dark
World. So when they see that light,
they gravitate towards it. And then and in return they
gravitate to the Father, right? So first Peter 4/4 says in
regards to these. So he's talking about those
people who are out of the world. He says they think it's strange
that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation,
speaking evil, you said, because we don't go along with what the
world does. They're going to speak evil on
us. They're going to hate us.
We're going to get hit with persecution, mockery, You know,
kids, you know, for your guys, you know, kids will make fun of
you. Kids will isolate you.
You won't be invited to hang out with them as much.
You'll have a lot of lonely nights.
Trust me, I've been there. I'm still there.
I have a lot of friends that
aren't saved and whenever I don't go along with them to do
the things that they want to do, a lot of Friday, Saturday
nights, I'm at home by myself or I'm at home with my mom and dad
watching college football or watching college basketball, you
know what I mean? But it's because I'm not.
I don't want to go along with that darkness and neither should
you. So stay in the light.
Do not let the world pressure you into following their norms,
right? Stay in the word, stay in Christ
verse 22 he says if I'm not come and spoken to them, they would
have no sin. But now they have no excuse for
their sin. So remember, so Jesus came to
earth. All these people witnessed his
signs. They witnessed him healing
people, raising the dead, you know, making the lame walk,
making the mute speak. They saw all this stuff and they
still did not accept them. They had no, like there was no
more proof that he could have given to them that he was who he
said he was. And they still rejected them
today. You know, people hear the
gospel. They see all the stuff that's
going on in the world, right? They see like they literally see
it in the Bible coming to life right now and they still won't
accept it, right? And that's what you used to talk
about. You know, if I'm not coming
spoken, they ought to know sin. But now they have no excuse for
their sin. The world knows good and evil.
They know they're choosing to walk in the evil right?
But you guys are choosing to walk in the light and if you
keep being that example and keep staying strong and and showing
people light, eventually no gravitates to that light, right?
So just keep being that example and don't feel like just because
there were, you know, just because they don't accept it
right away that you're not doing something, you're not making an
impact. That could be that couldn't be
further from the truth. They're seeing it, they're
feeling it. You may be planting a seed and
you don't even know it. So keep being alive, keep being
alive. Verse 23, it says he who hates
me hates my father. Also another thing you're going
to hear a lot of people when you talk about, ask about their
faith. Oh, I believe in God.
Well, what about Jesus? You know, who do you believe
Jesus is? Jesus was the prophet.
Jesus was, you know, he was a man who came to earth.
Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?
No. So if the world rejects God the
Son, how can they accept God the Father?
All right, That's what you're saying here.
He who hates me hates my Father. Also, you can't claim to love
God and not love his Son. It's just it's not possible,
right? And again, you're going to have
a lot of people trying to tell you who Jesus is, who they think
Jesus is, right? This right here tells you who
Jesus is. There are numerous scriptures I
could go to that talk about how Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus came to earth, died on the cross for our sins, rose again
in three days. Not even just in here.
There's historical evidence of it, scientific evidence of it.
So don't let the world try to tell you who they think Jesus
is. Let this tell you who Jesus is.
This tells you everything you need to know.
All right, first, John four, one through 6 talks about, you know,
test the spirits to see whether they're of God because many
false prophets have gone out into the world and that's
happening today. You got a lot of, I'd say a lot
of pastors that are not following this, they're going
into their own different ideologies.
A lot of Christian influencers you see on TikTok, because I
know a lot of you guys are on TikTok, a lot of Christian
influencers on TikTok going against this, right?
So stay in the word. So that way if you hear
something, you'll get some point where you'll hear something and
you almost get like a funny feeling in your stomach.
That's the Holy Spirit. That's that spirit of the sermon
inside of you telling you this is truth, this is a lie, right?
So make sure you guys stay in the word and if someone if
people reject Jesus, they are rejecting God as well.
All right, two more verses. So verse 24 says if I not done
among them the worst, which no one else has did, they would've
had no sin. But now they have seen and also
hated both me and my father. So again, like I said, you know,
the world saw Jesus do the things that he did and they
still rejected him, right. And, and I was talking about
that, about this earlier, like whenever, and he has examples
and he went out and preached the gospel last year at a witch
festival. Was it a witch festival?
And he was met with many different responses to, you
know, to, to sharing the gospel. I see a lot of St. evangelist,
when they go to different events of the world and they go and
share the gospel, people are throwing stuff at them.
They're trying to RIP the microphone out of their hands.
They're trying to do all this stuff.
Why? Because they know it's the
truth. They know it's true.
If it wasn't true, it wouldn't affect them like that.
They wouldn't, they wouldn't feel that type of way.
You know what that is? That's, that's it.
That's that's Satan inside of them trying to trying to stop
them from hearing the truth, right?
And you're going to see that you're going to have times where
you're trying to share the gospel with people and they just
don't want to hear it or they hear it and they get mad.
They may get like enraged might cause you to lose some
friendships. But you know what that is?
That's that light that's inside of you messing with the darkness
that's inside of them and they won't be able to take it right?
And that just shows you how powerful the word of God is, how
powerful the gospel is, where it can cause people to, to, to feel
just this, this, this, this feeling of hatred, this feeling
of like rejection of it, right? Because it's true.
If it wasn't true, they wouldn't care.
But because it is true, you're going to get hit with all these
different responses. That's how you know, that's how
you know that the truth is that that God is bringing the truth
through you. All right.
So again, when that happens, stay strong, stay strong because
you're making more of an impact than you think you are, I
promise you. And then we'll go to the last
verse here. But this happened that the word
might be fulfilled, which is written in their law.
They hated me without a cause. So this is a quote from Psalms
69 for to show the spiritual precedent and prophetic
fulfillment. So remember, Jesus went through
his whole ministry fulfilling the Scripture, fulfilling the
prophecies of the Old Testament. He went through the whole his
whole ministry and this, this Scripture right here shows that
they had no 'cause they hate Jesus, they hated him because
they hated him. It wasn't anything that he did
wrong because he didn't do anything wrong in his life.
They hated him because they didn't accept who he was.
And that's the same reason why we're going to get met with
hatred too whenever we try to be lights is because they don't,
they don't accept Jesus. They're not.
Again, I'm going to say it again.
They're not rejecting you. They are rejecting God, right
when they're when you're sharing the gospel and they don't accept
it, they are rejecting God, not us.
OK, so and again, and we are hated and rejected for the sake
of the gospel. And I'm going to repeat that for
the sake of the gospel, OK, not just hated because of stuff that
we did wrong, OK, Because Peter in first Peter talks about
there's, you know, if you're suffering because of what of, of
your wrongdoing, that's an entirely different thing, right?
But what we're talking about is suffering for the for the sake
of the gospel, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
That's where we're that's where we can rejoice, right?
Because we know that we're truly set apart and like Jesus and the
beatitudes, great is your reward, right?
Rejoice and be glad. I'm gonna read one more
scripture from first Peter and then I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap
this up. I want you guys, I want you guys
to hear this. OK, so this is first Peter 412
through 14. It says, beloved, do not think
it's strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you
as though some strange thing, strange thing happening.
So what he's saying is like, don't, don't be confused or
don't be caught off guard when you're going through these
periods of persecution, these periods of, of, of people
mocking you and the world hating you.
Don't be, don't be surprised, but rejoice in verse 13, rejoice
to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that
when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding
joy. So when we receive this
persecution, right, it may not feel great, but we should
rejoice because we're partaking in the same thing that Christ
went through that all the prophets went through, that guys
like Paul and Peter, Stephen, you know, Stephen, all those
guys in the Bible that that caught persecution for the
gospel, we're going through the same things they went through,
right? Verse 14 if you are reproached,
which basically means persecuted, hated, mocked for
the name of Christ, blessed are you for the spirit of glory and
of God rests upon you. On their part, He is blasphemed,
but on your part, he is glorified.
So when when we share the gospel and we and we are met with
persecution, we are glorifying God by staying strong in that
persecution and not letting that hate conform us or change us or
try to get us to go along with the world's norms.
Excuse me, Thank you. And that's a big thing I
struggle with. I was, I was telling this one
example that I'm done. I struggle with acceptance from
the world for the longest period of my life.
I. Hated being by myself.
I hated feeling isolated. So I'd appeared in my life where
I was trying to just make friends, trying to be popular.
I wanted everyone to know who I was until I finally reached that
point where I said, you know what?
Like I'm not actually set apart. I'm not, I'm not being the
example that I'm called to be. I'm, I'm going along with the
world for what I'm going to think about it.
We're we try to seek validation from a world that crucified the
perfect son of God. If the perfect son of God cannot
get acceptance from the world, why are we trying to why, why
should we care about what the world thinks about us, right?
Remember, Jesus said don't worry about those who can kill the
body or those that have killed the body, but those that affect
the soul, right? So where, when you know, the
world may hate us on the outside, right?
And, and you know, they can do whatever, but should we worry
about more about eternity, about where we go when we leave this
earth? I don't know about you, but I
want to be an eternity with my with my Heavenly Father.
I get careless about what the world thinks.
And that's where I want you guys to get to.
All right. So I want you guys to remember
this. Do not let the world, the, the
persecution, the hatred, do not let that make you sweat.
Stay strong. Stay grounded in the truth of
the word of God, and I promise you it'll be worth it in the
long run. All right, that's all I got.
All right, so I'm going to pray us out real quick and then we'll
let you guys get on with your evening.
I'm glad you guys were here. I'm I'm praying that you guys
were touched by everything that happened today.
And I mean it as stay in Christ. Do not, do not chase after this
world. All right?
OK, Lord, I just thank you again, Lord, just for this
night. Lord, we just thank you, Lord,
that he gave us this opportunity to, to meet with each other
tonight, Lord, and just to, to be a positive light, Lord, and
in our neighborhood, Lord, in our community.
God and Lord, I just pray that everyone here, Lord, parents and
kids included, Lord was touched, Lord, at some point.
Lord God, I just pray that you would just always remind us,
Lord, to just chase after you to, to seek first the Kingdom of
God in his righteousness. God above everything, and I pray
that we wouldn't be concerned with what the world thinks of
us. We wouldn't be concerned with
acceptance from the world, that we wouldn't be concerned with
things of this world, that we would chase after you, God,
chase after your righteousness. Lord, strive to be more like you
every single day. And I pray, God, that you would
just keep us strong in the midst of the persecution that's going
on in this world. Well, I pray for kids across the
nation, Lord, that are being attacked, Lord, spiritually,
Lord, by the things of by the things of the devil, Lord, I
pray that you would just put a special protection around them,
God. And I pray that they would all
cling to you, God. And I pray that you would just
continue just to, to show your power, show your glory, Lord.
And I pray that we would that this generation coming up, Lord,
that they would be the ones, Lord, to have this world turn to
you. I pray that you just be with us
for the rest of the night. I pray that you just keep
everyone safe as they head home and I pray that you would just
continue just to keep us strong Lord, and just keep us
persevering, Lord, in the faith, in Jesus name I pray, Amen,
Amen.