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the city of the Damascenes with a garrison desirous to apprehend me, and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would fill Pastor Jones with your Holy Spirit as he steps forward to bring forth the message that he has studied and give us hearts and ears to accept that message today, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. 2 Corinthians chapter number 11. So what I'm preaching about this morning is the subject of Santa Claus, the subject of Santa Claus. And the title of my sermon is Santa's Claws. Santa's Claws. Let me just start out with a disclaimer. What I'm not preaching against is I'm not preaching against Christmas. I'm not saying, hey, you're a wicked person if you celebrate Christmas. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I'm not up here saying that you're foolish or you're a reprobate or something like that. We're going to get into that here in a moment. But every year about this time, being today is December 1st, you start to hear a lot of people get excited and talk about Christmas and talk about all these things, the Christmas spirit, right? Well, what do they mean by the Christmas spirit? We need to take a look at what the Bible has to say about these things. And so if you would, look at verse number four. You're there in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Look at verse four. It says, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if he receive another spirit, which he have not received, or another gospel, which he have not accepted, you might well bear with him. And so what he's saying here is if you neglect teaching, if you neglect knowledge, you neglect to learn the truth of the Bible, you could be led astray, right? And that's what I don't want to happen. You say, well, why bring something like this up? This is childish. Well, I don't think it is childish. And you're going to see why here momentarily. But the Bible says, if you would turn to Colossians chapter two, Colossians chapter two. You know, I hear this a lot, especially the last couple of weeks. We've got a guy at work that's been counting down the days till Christmas for like the last month, right? You know, and I was just thinking about this. I'm like, why are these people so excited about Christmas? Because none of them are saved. None of them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And to come to find out, it's just the spirit of Christmas according to the world. Okay. So that's the thing. That's what we're going to take a look at this morning, but why are you turning to Colossians chapter two? I'm just going to read for you. First John chapter four, verse one, which says beloved believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. And so the Bible says also to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. I have a biblical mandate. You have a biblical mandate to prove all things, right? Look, I like Christmas. We celebrate it in our family, you know? But you know, if you're going to do Christmas, you're going to celebrate it as a Bible believe in Christian, you should celebrate it correctly. Okay. Look down at verse number 16, Colossians chapter two, look at verse 16. It says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of unholy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days. So go to Romans 14, Romans chapter 14. So here Paul saying, Hey, don't let people judge you and what you eat, right? You want to be a vegan or a vegetarian. That's your business, right? We shouldn't fight. We shouldn't, we shouldn't squabble over doubtful disputations, right? The Bible doesn't say a whole lot about either one. Now we know obviously in the old Testament, they were told to eat meat, right? So we have that, but it's not clear enough to where we should fight each other and be like, I'm kicking you out of church, you vegan, you know? And the same goes for somebody who wants to respect unholy day. Okay. You just got to understand what he's saying here. He says, don't let somebody judge you in respect of unholy day or a holiday, right? So what does that mean? If you're going to celebrate a holiday or a holy day as a Christian, you need to make sure it's holy. Okay. So that's why, you know, and you say, well, you went up here and you preached a whole sermon about Halloween, but yet now you're saying Christmas is okay. Well, you know, Halloween is obviously satanic and I've proved that. And it almost goes without saying, but in today's day and age, you know, when we have people that can't even unload their dishwashers without a maid, you know, we really do need to explain these types of things. And so you're there in Romans chapter 14, look at verse number six. It says, he that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he does not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks. He's saying, Hey, look, you know, these things that don't matter, we shouldn't fight about them. Just let it go, right? I'll tell you plenty of doctrines that we can fight about and stand on and get angry with. Go to second Peter chapter number three. So I like Christmas for a couple reasons though, because it does get the name of Christ out into the community. You know, it is a good icebreaker. Even in this month, you know, people say, well, why are you here? You know, well, come on, man. It's Christmas. You know, don't you know the Christmas story? Look, most people understand the Christmas story. They understand that it has significance of the Lord Jesus Christ. They understand that whether or not they agree with it. And obviously we know most of them don't is beside the point. What we need to do is we need to figure out the aspect or the spirit that's associated with Christmas and whether or not that is biblical. And really, it just goes back to how you celebrate the holy day, right? It's about Christ. It's about the birth of our savior. It's about, Hey, guess what? You can rest now once you put your faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says, you know, that the gift of God is eternal life. It's a free gift. It's not something that you have to continuously earn. And you know, if somebody wants to celebrate that on December 25th and amen, let them do it. You know, we don't want to argue about it, but I'll tell you what, one thing that I do not like about this time of year is Santa Claus. And we're going to go through that. Okay. I don't have a problem with Christmas, but I do have a problem with Santa Claus and we're going to spend some time here looking at that. So second Peter chapter three, look at verse number 17. He says ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also be led or being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. Look, just because you're saved, just because you're in this church, just because we do a lot of Bible preaching and we go out and preach the gospel. And because we, we stand against sin and we draw the line, we're fundamental, we're independent, all that stuff. That doesn't mean that you can't fall from your steadfastness. Now, obviously you can never lose your salvation. Amen. Praise God for that. But you can backslide. And the reason is laid out very clearly here. You know, he says ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked. You know, there can come a point in your life where you decide to maybe just cut back on your Bible reading, come back on your prayer, cut back on your soul wanting, cut back on the things of God and wind up falling from your steadfastness to where you're not as strong as you once were. Right. We need to constantly maintain knowledge and grow. Look at verse 18. He says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So he's saying, Hey, you need to continuously feed the new man. You need to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Well, how do you do that? You do that by studying his word. I preach this every single week. That is how a person grows in Christ. Like it's not automatic. You're not going to get saved and just roll out of bed and know all the hymnals right now, know all the hymns and the hymnal and know how to do every single thing. It is a work. You have to work at being a strong disciple, right? You don't have to work to be saved, but you have to work at being a disciple. And we need to understand these things so that we can help explain them to other people. And so that we don't fall into the wicked or the air of the wicked. Okay. That's the point of this sermon. And I do have some application. I've got five points for you this morning. If you would go to Matthew chapter number 18. Now the first point or the first claw of Santa Claus, right? Cause he's going to, this is what he does. This is what the world does. You know, they dig them claws into you and it's hard to get them out. Okay. It is hard to get them out. So claw number one is this Xmas business. Yeah. Everybody in here seeing that, right? Oh, you know, somebody sent me a message the other day. Hey, are you coming to our Xmas party? Knowing that I'm a pastor and it's like, what the hell is wrong with you? Yeah. I mean, seriously, you know, there's all, that's just an abbreviation. There's nothing wrong with it at all. Okay. Christmas has nine letters in it. Okay. Guess what? Independence day has 15 letters. How come you don't see around July 4th X-dense day or X day. You don't see that. Right. And why is that? Because the world, they why they'll tell you, Oh, we love Christmas. We're excited about the lives. We're excited about the gifts. We're excited about the coverages. I mean, the presence, you know, they'll say all that stuff, but the world hates Jesus Christ. So you know what? The part about Christmas that I hate the most is Santa Claus. Okay. Like I said, I don't have a problem with the holiday itself. As long as you're going to make it Holy, you know, do it right. Make it, make sure it's about the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. That's fine. But the first claw, the first point this morning that I want to talk to you about is just real quick. And it's this Xmas stuff. I think that's wrong because why? We know that the world hates Christ. They want to take Christ out of Christmas. That's why they do it. I mean, think about it. Veterans day, 11 letters. I mean, do you know the outcry that you would get if somebody said, you know what? Let's just abbreviate Veterans Day by X Day, right? I mean, there would be civil war if they decided to do that, if the marketers and the government and the politicians decided, you know, we're going to release documents that just say X Day because it's too long. So Christmas, nine letters, Veterans Day, 11 Independence Day, 15, right? Halloween has nine, but they don't abbreviate Halloween. They're proud to spell that out clearly. It's got the same letters as Christmas. So why do they do that? It's because the world hates the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to be aware of that as a believer. That is not okay. Don't do that. Don't be doing this abbreviated garbage. It's trash. Now, number two, I want to show you that, or claw number two is that Santa Claus destroys the faith of children. It destroys the faith of children. And before I get into that, I do want to read to you a little bit of history about Santa Claus. And this is just mainly for your knowledge, just so that you're aware. I want to mention a few things here. This is, I just took this from Wikipedia. Now just listen to this. It says, Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Chris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts to the homes of well-behaved children on the night of Christmas Eve, December 24th, or during the early morning hours of Christmas Day, December 25th. Now that's a problem right off the bat. Okay. Now I don't really need Wikipedia to understand that Santa Claus is evil. All I need is the word of God. The Bible says the entrance of thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding unto the simple. That's what the Bible says. Now, the more that the word of God goes in, the more you can discern, the more that you can understand, the better you can judge truth. And that's what we're about in this church, right? Truth. We're not about appeasing people. We're not about appeasing the world and trying to bring a bunch of people in here. If a bunch of people come in here, amen, that's great. We'll turn them into mighty warriors if they stay. However, we need to just measure the spirit of the world against the Bible. And Santa Claus is the Christmas spirit that the heathens proclaim. But notice what it says. It says he is the father of Christmas. It says Father Christmas. Well, what did Jesus say about calling a man your father? Right. That's wrong. That's not okay. He goes on to say this. The modern Santa Claus grew out of the tradition surrounding the historical Saint Nicholas, a fourth century Greek bishop and gift giver of Myra, the British figure of Father Christmas and Dutch figure Sinterklaas, himself also based on Saint Nicholas. Some maintain Santa Claus also absorbed elements of the Germanic god Wodan. I might be pronouncing that wrong on purpose. I don't know. It says wooden. We'll just call him Wodan, who was associated with a pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the wild hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky. Now, some people will say, well, see that there, right there is why we shouldn't worship him or why we shouldn't subscribe to Santa Claus. No, the Bible's the reason why I don't subscribe to Santa Claus, okay? I cannot prove these things to you. I have no idea. I wasn't alive back then when this stuff all started. But you know what? I have what I can see today and I have the word of God and that, my friend, is enough. So it goes on to say Santa Claus is generally depicted as a portly, jolly, white-bearded fat bastard. Oh, wait. Hold on. Sorry. Illegitimate child. Wait. Bearded man, sometimes with spectacles, wearing a red coat and white fur collar and cuffs. White fur cuffed red trousers, red hat with white fur and black leather belts, boots and carrying a bag full of gifts for children. This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of the 1823 poem, a visit from St. Nicholas and a political cartoonist named Thomas Nast. All right. This image has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, children's books, films, advertising. You all know that. All right. So that's just a little bit of history about that. Let me just read to you a little bit about this Germanic guy. It says, prior to Christianization, the Germanic peoples, including the English, celebrated a midwinter event called Yule. With the Christianization of Germanic Europe, numerous traditions were absorbed from Yuletide celebrations into modern Christmas. During this period, supernatural and ghostly occurrences were said to increase in frequency, such as the wild hunt. Remember, I just read that. A ghostly procession through the sky. The leader of the wild hunt is frequently tesselled as the god, lowercase G, Wodan, or I guess he's also called Odin. And I've heard that somewhere else before, but it says bearing many names. And it just goes on to say that, you know, they looked to him as a God. He had a cloak. They got a picture of him on Wikipedia of this guy and he kind of looks like a Santa Claus figure. But like I said, you know, you can just take that for your own knowledge. Just so you kind of have an idea of what the, the history is according to the world. I don't really care about that. All I, like I said, all I need is the Bible. All I need is to see with my own eyes, what's going on in the world and measure it against the word of God. And that should be enough. I'm not going to sit here and argue and fight with people over whether or not, you know, this is Odin or whatever. I don't care who he is. He's a, he's, he's a creep. He's a creep and he's not God, but the world portrays him as God. The world wants us to teach our children that he is like God. And that, my friend, I'm telling you that is wrong. And we're going to go through that here. All right. So number two is the put, teaching your children and that they should put their faith in Santa Claus really can do harm. Now I grew up believing in Santa Claus and that's probably why I'm somewhat messed up. No, I'm just teasing. Just teasing, just teasing. All right. So think about this though, right? This is what the world does. Okay. They, they get their children. They say, okay, Santa Claus is real. He's this guy that's going to bring you presents. And you know, he flies through the sky. He knows what you're thinking. He knows what you're doing. And if you're good, if you're a good little boy, if you're a good little girl, then he will bring you your gifts. Okay. That, that, that whole idea itself is so contrary to the gospel, right? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Right. But what does the world tell us? Well, as long as you follow the Bible, you got to follow the commandments. You got to do good. You got to turn from your sins. Look, the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. Nobody can turn from all of their sins in here for there's not a just man upon earth that do with good and sin. If not the Bible says so this idea really, it screws people up because now when we go knock on doors and try to preach the gospel and we ask them these questions, they're like, oh yeah, you got to turn from her sins. Oh, kind of like Santa Claus. If you want to get your gifts, you got to earn them. Well then it's not a gift. It's a lie. That's what it is. And then later on the year you say, oh, well you lost a tooth, put it onto your pillow and the tooth fairy will give you money. Right. And then guess what? Easter comes along. And then this fat buck tooth buddy comes to your house and gives you a basket full of chocolate and treats. And then guess what? One day you grow up and your parents say, you know what? We were just kidding about all that. Well, then the kid thinks, okay, hmm, my parents told me something was true. Turned out it wasn't. They were just trying to praise me. I never did see Santa fly through the sky. I never did see him on my roof. I never did see the tooth fairy. I never did see a real Easter bunny. I never did see all this stuff. And then you go and try and give them the gospel and tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ who they can't physically see. Right. And you try to tell them it's a free gift. And now all of a sudden these concepts don't make sense. So you lose credibility in the side of your children. And like I said, look, if you've done that, I'm not mad at you. Right. I'm not saying you're a wicked or anything like that. Just change. Right. It's not right. A lot of people will say, oh, you know what? You're, you know, you're going to ruin my child's Christmas. Look, I'm not going to be a partaker in your lies. Right. I'll just tell the story right now since I'm thinking about it. I was going to tell it later, but there was a situation in our family where somebody, somebody got mad in our family and said, your kids told my daughter that Santa Claus wasn't real. Right. And I want an apology and I want cash. You know, she didn't really say that, but here's my thought. Amen. I don't care. I could not care less. Right. Now I'm all about peace and being gentle and the seven pillars of wisdom that we're talking about on Wednesday. Amen. Praise God for all that. But you know what? I'm not okay with subscribing to other people's lives. It's not okay. And I'm not going to do it. So like I said, telling your child to place their faith in Santa Claus, it promotes unstability. And what I want to do now is I'm just going to take you through Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and just show you the attitude that Jesus Christ has towards children, just to give you some insight on how important this is. So you're there in Matthew chapter 18, look at verse number one, Matthew 18, look at verse number one. It says at the same time, came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven and who shall, who so shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. Verse six, but whoso shall offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. And what I'm not telling you this morning is that if you talk to your kid about Santa Claus and you offended him that you're going to go to hell. Okay. That's not what it's talking about here. I believe he's signaling to people there that were reprobates, people there that were offending children. And he's just letting them know, hey, you know, having your head explode in the middle of the ocean would be better than offending one of these little or what you're, what you're going to get. But notice the attitude that Jesus has towards little kids, right? The disciples doing what they normally do, right? Who's going to be the greatest. Who's going to be the best, man. Who's going to be like Samson. You know, I want to be like David, you know, that like, like they always did. And Jesus is like, let me get a little kid. It takes a little child. And he's like, you know what? You need to become like this. And the disciples had to be like, Oh man, what is he talking about here? I gotta be like a little kid. This doesn't make any sense. You know, but Jesus is saying, Hey, you need to be humble. Obviously we know that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is beginning of knowledge. You have to have a fear of God before you can be saved. This is why we tell people about hell and route. So any right, because we need to pull them out of the fire. We need to make sure that they understand where they're headed and make sure that they understand that they need to be saved. We need to put a little bit of fear in them. Amen. That's what the Bible teaches. But Jesus here is saying simply, Hey, look, I care about these little children and all of you who are going to enter into the kingdom of God, you better get yourselves right. You better, you know, you better make sure that you're like this. You're not puffed up and proud like the Pharisees and the Sadducees trying to work your way to heaven. Look at what I did. I thank God that I'm not like all these other people, you know, like the, the Pharisees would often pray like that. Turn to Mark chapter number 10, Mark chapter number 10. So the most vulnerable thing, the most vulnerable people on the planet really are little children. And what's, what's Santa Claus geared towards? He's geared towards little children. Same with the tooth fairy, same with the Easter bunny. These ideas are put forth to little children. And it's interesting how important Jesus says little children are to even him. So you're there in Mark chapter 10, look at verse number 13. It says, and they brought young children to him that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuke those that brought them right. So again, the disciples are like, Hey, we're trying to figure out who's the baddest dude here. Who's going to be the best. So you guys just need to get out of here, but look again, same story, verse 14. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased and said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God. So Jesus said, Hey, allow, he says, suffer the little children, allow them to come to me. Don't allow them to go to someone else. Don't allow them to put their trust in some fat guy who thinks he can fly through the sky with reindeer and a bag of treats and toys to appease and to placate your covetousness, right? That is wrong. That is wrong. He says, allow them suffer the little children to come to me and forbid them not. So when we take our child, our children's faith off of Jesus Christ and place it on Santa Claus, guess what we're violating this verse right here, because that's what he says, forbid them not teaching them to put their trust in some mythical figure, especially the one that you don't, you know, for a fact isn't true. Guess what you're it's wrong here. He's saying, Hey, you're forbidding them from coming to me in some aspect. And I don't want to violate this at all in any facet. Okay. Look at verse 15. Verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Go to Luke chapter 18, same story. Last one here. We're just going to look at this. It's good to compare the different stories in the gospel because they all give you a little bit more of the piece to the puzzle. So Luke chapter 18, look at verse number 15. Look at how it puts it here in the book of Luke. It says, and they brought unto him also infants that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuked him. So not only did they bring little children, but also infants, because people were like, Hey, I understand that this man has to be, he has to be fully God in order to do the miracles and to speak the way that he's speaking. They're saying, I want him to bless my child. That's the attitude that we need to have. We need to bring our children to the Bible. Infants. That's why we're a family integrated church. That's why we don't have Sunday school. That's why we don't have, you know, a separate building for the children. And I've been to churches like that before where they won't let your children into the sanctuary with you. Right. They'll say, no, you need to check them in across the street at this building over here. Right. That's not okay because that gives opportunity for predators to come in and snatch your children. And you know what? We don't want to forbid children to come into Christ. Right. And they start that at a very young age at infant stage. Right. That is wrong. My friend, we need to do things the right way. And look what Jesus, he rebuked him verse 16, but Jesus called them unto him and said, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God. Right. Verse 17, verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter there. And so we can see by the time you get to Luke, he's talking, not just children, but also infants, right? Infants, children are very, very special in the eyes of God. And we need to understand that and we need to protect them and we need to protect their faith. We need to protect their emotions and protect everything about them that we can. You're teaching them about some mythological figure named Santa Claus is not the way to do it. It does not please God. And we're going to spend the rest of the sermon going over that. If you would turn to Proverbs chapter number 22, Proverbs chapter 22, and then keep your place in Proverbs because we're going to go back quite a few times to Proverbs and Psalms as well. So Proverbs chapter number 22, look at verse six, Proverbs 22 verse six. It says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. So what is the wisdom that we can glean from this, that we can adopt, that we can practice? We need to train up our children, whether they're interested in it at the time or not, doesn't matter. Train them up anyways, because the Bible says, hey, those seeds, they're going to grow, right? When they're older, then they are not going to depart from that. But you know what? If you do the opposite of that and you train your child up to believe in falsehood and lies and things that are not right, not wholesome, guess what? When they're old, they're not going to depart from those either. So we need to be careful with that. All right. Turn to go back a couple of chapters, Proverbs 15, Proverbs chapter number 15. So we're going to move on here. So the second thing I don't like about Santa Claus is that he is geared towards children. Children are vulnerable. Children will often believe anything that you tell them because they trust you, right? You want to raise your children so that they trust you even in the latter part of the years. You know what? Because you know what? When they grow up and they move out and they get married, right? And they start living their own lives, they're going to come to you for counsel. They're going to come to you for knowledge. And guess what? You want to be there for them, right? Yeah, I get it, you know, that a man or woman get married, you know, they start their own family, they depart home. Amen. Praise God for that. That's his order. That's the way he's prescribed that we should live. You know, we should do that. Obviously, not every situation is like that. But at the same time, you should be able to go to your parents. You should raise your children to always be able to say, hey, you know, what do you think about this? Right? And your kids, don't be so puffed up when you grow up thinking that your parents don't know anything because they've lived their lives, they've got experience, they've got knowledge, right? And you need to go to them and ask them, hey, you know, how do you fix this? How do you do this? What do you think about this? Is this wise? Right? I mean, think about that. They've lived their lives and they've got life experience. And so in our end of it, right, being Bible-believing Christians, being fundamentalists, we need to be rock solid. We need to be above the world. We need to be above the wisdom and the reproach of the world. So number three, point number three, the thing that I do not like about Santa Claus is it promotes greed and covetousness. And you say, well, not everybody who believes in Santa Claus is covetous, and that's true. You know, that's true, but he doesn't help the cause. I mean, think about it. You know, you can take your kid down to the mall, put him on Santa's lab, and what's that guy going to tell you? By the way, half the time, he's probably a pervert, right? But what's he going to tell you? I'll give you everything you want. What happens when you don't get it? You get all upset and you get angry, right? And then that builds upon itself year after year after year, an attitude and a mindset of covetousness. And God hates covetous. Look, if you're a covetous person, you need to stop. You need to learn to covet the right things. I'm going to show you how to do that here. Like I said, I do have some application this morning. It's not all just Santa Claus bashing, all right? So Proverbs 15, look at verse number 27. It says, he that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall live. You want to learn how to cause trouble in your home? Raise a bunch of greedy kids. You will have trouble, my friend, I promise you that. You will have trouble in every aspect of your life. I mean, what does it say? He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house. Mom, dad, you decide to get a covetous attitude, guess what? You're going to trouble your own house. Children, if you guys learn to be covetous and start to desire a bunch of materialistic and things that don't really matter in this world, guess what? You will trouble your parents. You will trouble your own house. And you ought not to be like that. It makes God angry. Turn to Proverbs chapter one. Another thing that I don't like about Santa Claus is he makes him source or himself basically the fountain of gifts, right? The Bible says that we're supposed to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for gifts, right? And by the way, you know, you don't want to be this kind of person that's always expecting something too. And that's just another thing about old Santa bear, you know, old Santa and his claws. Once he gets that claw on you, that claw of covetousness, right? What happens? You start to expect these gifts, right? What does that do? It gets you into the mindset of pride and arrogance, especially if you can get all those gifts, especially mom and dad, if you do get them everything that they want, right? We should be a people that don't expect gifts. The Bible says it's better to give than to receive. So while you're turning to Proverbs one, I'm gonna read for you James chapter one, verse 17, which says every good gift in every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So I had you turn to Proverbs chapter one, look at verse 17. Proverbs one verse 17 says this, surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird and they lay wait for their own blood. They lurk privily for their own lives. Verse 19, so are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof, right? Go to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. You want to have a miserable working career guys, go ahead and work for somebody who's greedy of gain. Like Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam will put you in the wrong mindset, but that's definitely a topic for another day and I'm not saying you shouldn't work for the government. I've had a great government job and there were some things that bugged me about it, but it's, you know, one of the best jobs I've ever had. The Bible says, you know, anybody who's greedy of gain is just basically like a bird flying to his own death, flying to a snare, flying to a trap, right? It's a snare and that's why God's people should not be greedy, right? We shouldn't expect anything because then when you do get something, I mean, you're gonna be that much more excited. Romans 13, look at verse nine. He says for this, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness, thou shall not covet, right? Did you know that that's a commandment in the Bible? People say, oh, you know, what do you keep going back to these Old Testament for? Well, why does Paul keep doing it? We're in a New Testament book here. He says, thou shall not covet. He says, if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in the saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Turn to Exodus chapter 18, Exodus chapter 18. It is a commandment in the Bible that we not covet, you know, and somebody says, well, you just said you can covet good things. And we'll get into that here in a minute because it does, what he's talking about there is coveting materialistic goods, right? There are some good things that we can covet, but before I get there, I want to show you a couple of things here. So while you're turning to Exodus 18, let me read for you 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 39, which says, wherefore brethren covet to prophecy and forbid not to speak with tongues. So get everybody in here can covet the gift of prophecy, right? Not prophecy like the world teaches prophecy, right? But to prophesy or to preach and teach God's word, you say, well, women aren't supposed to preach, right? But women go out soul winning and preach the gospel every week at our church. You know, women in our church preach the gospel more than Paula White does more than Joyce Meyer does. Because first of all, she's not saved and never preached as the gospel, but she does get on stage. I get, I'm guessing weekly and preaches sermons and stuff like that. But we have ladies here that go out multiple times a week and preach the gospel to people and teach doctrine to people at the door in their house. And amen, praise God for that. But you know what? That is something that you can covet. That is something that you can desire. You should be greedy of godly things, not greedy of worldly things. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul also tells them, hey, you need to covet the best gifts, right? You need to covet good gifts. You need to covet things that are going to edify your brother and sister in Christ. And by doing this, you'll fulfill the commandment, love thy neighbor as thyself. So Exodus chapter 18, let me show you another benefit of coveting good stuff and not coveting bad things. Exodus chapter 18 verse 21. So first of all, in this chapter here, Moses' father-in-law Jethro is basically observing things. He came to visit him and he sees Moses judging the people. And it's a lot of people. And he takes him aside and he's like, hey, you know, this thing that you're doing is not good. You know, you're going to wear away. I mean, this is a big task that you have. You need some help. And so what he's doing is he's giving him some good advice, right? And this advice that he gives him, you can find throughout the rest of the Bible too. And so keep that in mind here. And he's like saying, hey, look, I can make things better for you. You know, if you would just seek out certain people, right? People that have certain attributes that are godly, that believe in God's word, that are going to study, that have wisdom, and you're going to place these people over these other matters, and then they're going to bring the hard stuff, the people will bring the hard stuff to you, right? So he's teaching them delegation, right? That's also another little side lesson for us in this story here is that, you know, you guys have families, you know, you learn to delegate some stuff to the children, you know, delegate some tasks and some chores. It teaches them hard work, right? It teaches them responsibility. It teaches them accountability. And it also frees you from pulling your hair out, especially you moms at homeschool, right? Exodus chapter 18, let's pick this up here in verse 21. He says, moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, notice that, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds and rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. So he's saying, hey, look out people that are able, people that are ready, willing and able to do the work of God, right? But he says about these able men, he says, they need to fear God. Why? Because that's how you increase knowledge. That's how you increase wisdom. He says, men of truth. Well, people that want to teach your children about these fairytales, right? And these falsehoods are the opposite of this. You're not a man of truth. You're not a woman of truth. You're not a person of truth when you do that. But he also says hating covetousness. So you need to be careful about the holiday. You need to be careful about this idea. Don't promote a culture of covetousness in your house. I'm not saying don't bless your children. Look, it's better to give than receive. But teach them to be appreciative of those things. That's all I'm saying, right? Verse 22, he says, and let them judge the people at all seasons, right? And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. So shall it be easier for thyself and they shall bear the burden with thee. Verse 23, if thou shall do this thing and God command thee so, then thou shall be able to endure and all this people shall also go their place in peace. And so the things that I want you to understand, if you want to be a person that can, that has optimal judgment in life, learn to be able, learn to fear God, right? And what else? You fear God, you're able. What else? You make sure that you're a person of truth, right? The truth always wins. You need to put the things in the Bible above the things of the world. Look, and I understand that some people are going to look at this sermon and they're going to be like, you're crazy, I hate your church, blah, blah. It's like get in line, right? Because I'm already going to get the message anyways. I could get up here and just read. I could just get up here and read 1st Corinthians chapter 13 about charity and guess what? I'm going to get a hate message. You know, it doesn't matter. So I'm already in trouble just for opening the church doors in the morning, let alone, you know, preaching this sermon. So just keep that in mind, right? Jethro gives Moses this great wisdom here, right? But the key thing that he tells them is make sure that those able men, those people that fear God, that want truth, that they hate covetousness. So that tells me that we, look, we're kings and we're priests in the New Testament. We've already talked about that, but we also need to make sure that we hate covetousness and we teach that to our kids. Hate covetousness, hate desire and greedy gain and things like that of the world. Go to 1st Timothy 6, 1st Timothy 6, and I'll show you the answer to covetousness. You say, okay, well, you got me. You stepped on my toes. I'm covetous. You know, and by the way, we all go through periods of covetousness, right? If anybody's ever seen my truck, I hopped in the flesh when I bought that a few years ago. Okay. I'll admit it. You know, this isn't a Catholic church. I'm not going to sweep stuff under the rug. Right. But nonetheless, I've been chasing for it ever since. All right. So, all right. 1st Timothy chapter number six. Let's take a look at this here. Here's the answer to covetousness, right? Say, well, I'm dealing with a child or I'm dealing with somebody that's, you know, got a covetous attitude. What do I do? Look at verse number five, 1st Timothy 6, verse five. It says perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such withdrawal by yourself. So you run across somebody who is constantly talking about greedy gain, right? That guy at work who's always like, man, I just bought this new boat. I just bought this new jet ski. I just bought this new truck is always talking about materialistic goods. Distance yourself from that person. Don't hang out with them. You see a brother overtaken in that kind of fault, try to talk them out of it, right? I mean, don't beat them up or, you know, do something crazy like that, but you need to talk them out of it because it's a snare. It's not a good way to be, but you know what? The world that's, that's okay with them. That's how they are, but I'll tell you what, it will drag you down every single time. Look at verse number six. It says, but godliness with contentment is great gain, right? So if you want to learn not to be covetous, guess what? You need to learn how to be content. And you know what? It's a gain. What does that mean? It means something that you got to apply yourself to. It's something that you have to gain. You have to go out and seek, admit that you have a problem, right? Admit that somebody has a problem and you're going to help them or whatever it is, a child or maybe a relative or another brother in Christ and say, you know what? I'm going to teach you that godliness with contentment is great gain. Why? Because it brings peace to you. Look, it sucks when you're in this mindset and you want all this stuff in the world and you can't have it because you don't have enough money. Look, we've all been there before, right? You want some fame, you want some glory, you want some new car, oh, I want that new Beamer, I want that new Lexus. Look, it hurts when you can't get those things physically, right? So just let it go and don't desire it, right? And guess what? You'll become a person that hates covetousness. God's going to open up your mind, your understanding and make you a mighty warrior for Christ, which is why we come to church, which is why we do these things. So let's move on here. You guys go, let's see here, go back to Proverbs chapter number one. Number four, claw number four is the call to play along can entice you to sin. And I kind of already ranted about this, but I'm just going to do it again because I really hate this, all right? It's the idea, you better not tell my child Santa's not real just because you don't believe it. Well, you know what? I'm not going to necessarily go out of my way to do that, right? Because I do want to try to keep the peace. I do want to try to win people, but I'll tell you what, I'm not going to cross the line. It's kind of like with these sodomites, right? Let's say, you better call me heat, you better call me sheath, you know? The guy's six, five with a full beard and says he wants to be called Janica or Jennifer. No, you better refer to me as sheath. No, I won't do it because you're enticing me. Now you're trying to molest my mind. You're trying to take my spirituality away from me. You're trying to rob me and I'm not going to let it happen. I'm not going to do it. And you know what? People come up to me and say, hey, you better not talk about this or that, about Santa Claus. Guess what? Get out of my face then. Look, there's like 5,000 other churches around here that you could go to this morning, okay? If people come in here and don't like this, then get out. It's that simple. So number four is the call to play along will entice you to sin. We need to make sure that we are people that stands firm on what we believe. Could you imagine the disciples saying, oh, I'll call you she, sir, man, or dude, what? Could you imagine the look on the Lord Jesus Christ face? He'd be like, haven't you read Genesis 19? Haven't you read Judges 19? Haven't you read the book of Jude? Haven't you read second Peter? Haven't you read the whole Bible? What is wrong with you? All right, Proverbs chapter one, look at verse 10. He says, my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Consent thou not. Call me she, but I'm eight feet tall and I got to be. No, I'm not going to do it. You lose your job. Great. Look, I've been out in the wilderness. It's not that bad, right? And by the way, we're going to have classes sooner or later on how to survive out in the woods and how to do stuff like that, because you know what? A lot of us are going to want to lose our jobs in the future, right? Especially these kids. We've got to train up a child in the way that she goes. When they're old, they won't depart from it. You know what? One thing I did forget to tell you is that at first Timothy chapter five, you don't have to turn there, but Paul does tell Timothy, you know, he's saying, hey, he says, neither be partaker of other men's sins and to keep thyself pure. And that goes hand in hand with what we're teaching on Wednesday about the seven pillars of wisdom. What's the first one? It says first is pure, right? We need to be a pure people. You have the pure new man. If you're saved, it's a free gift. God's already borne you again. You've already, you've already got that. Now you need to maintain a life of pureness, right? We need to be sanctified. We need to be holy. We need to be set apart. But going back to Proverbs chapter one, he says, hey, look, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. So we don't want to play along with the world. We don't want to play along in their game because we lose. If you subscribe to that, guess what? You lose. And you know what? Some of us, you know, we go, we go around family this time of year, right? And guess what? Some of you might be challenged. Hey, you know, I know you guys don't believe in Santa, but we do. So you need to play along. You know, you need to figure out, you know, in your mind how you're going to try to peaceably remedy that, if you can. The Bible does say to live peaceably with all men, if you can. It says, if it's possible, as much as lieth within you. But you know what? There may come a point where you have to draw that line and say, no, I'm not going to do it. And just let what happens, happens. But you know what? God's always going to take care of his children that decide to put the truth above the world. So why don't you guys turn to Psalm chapter number 33. Psalm chapter number 33. Why you turn to them and read Psalm 26, which says this, for thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth. Would be to God that every one of us says, hey, I'm going to wake up every single day from this point on and walk in God's truth. I'm going to decide to put that new man on. I'm going to decide to put aside the falsehoods of the world. I'm going to decide, you know what? I'm not going to let other people entice me to sin. I've got enough problems of my own, right? I can sin fine by myself without surrounding myself with people that want to push me further down the rabbit hole there. So Psalm 33, look at verse four. It says for the word of the Lord is right. And all his works are done in truth. Guess what? All of Santa Claus's works are done in falsehood. Every single one of them. See, I don't need Wikipedia to tell me that Santa is some false God. I don't care. All I need to do is go to the mall and look at the guy, look at the story, look at what I'm being told at work, look at what I'm being told in the world and measure that to the Bible. And the Bible says this, for the word of the Lord is right. So guess what? The Bible is right. Santa Claus is wrong. It's just the way it is. Turn to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. So we see that all his works are done in truth. That means someone else's works in the world are done in falsehood, done in lies. So who would be that? Who would be the father of all lies? Let's take a look at this. John chapter 8, look at verse 44. John 8, 44. This is what Jesus said. Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. And when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own heart for he is a liar and the father of it. So the person who says that he is the father of Christmas, Santa Claus, is a liar. Who promoted that idea? Who sewed that into our culture? What's the devil? It has to be the devil. It surely did not come from God. Didn't God say, I will not share my glory with another? Right? But what does Santa Claus say? Hey, I can do that. I can be omnipresent. I can be all over the place. I can read your thoughts. I can fly through the heavens. It's falsehood. It's not true. Who is the father of all lies? It's the devil. So let's move on here and go back to, go back to Proverbs. Proverbs 15, or no, Proverbs chapter 20. I got so many of these. Last one. Claw number five are the similarities between Santa and the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not talking about appearance. I forgot to mention this here. Some people will tell you, you know why I don't believe in Santa? Because if you change the letters, it says Satan. Look, don't fall for that one. Okay. We got to be above that. All right. And if you have it, you know, I'm not mad at you. I'm just saying Santa means holy. Okay. The word, it means holy. So like I said, don't get lost. Oh, you know, if you change the words around, it's like, okay, that's just probably in my opinion, this is my opinion. I believe that's just a coincidence. Right. But you know, what's not a coincidence is John chapter eight, verse 44. You know, what's not a coincidence is him flying around through the air, the stuff that said about him and measuring that to the Bible that that's, that's wrong. Listen to this here. Who's heard this before. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake, for goodness sake. So now goodness is a thing like a, like a God, like goodness. Well, what does that mean? When I was in the military there, they used to write this saying down. A lot of times it would say, do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. You know, how about do the right thing? Because God said, it's the right thing to do, but we've lost that today in our society and in this country. So you there in Proverbs 20, look at verse six, most men will proclaim, proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who confined. So there's no wonder, look, most people in the world are going to proclaim their own goodness, right? Which is obvious by the statement I just read to you. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. That to me sounds like what I read about the Lord Jesus Christ. Like he knows your thoughts, right? We're studying through John on Sunday evenings. Look, I'm in the middle of my own, my own Bible reading right now and Matthew. And it's so interesting how often times where Jesus is talking with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And it says that he knows their thoughts, right? And he starts talking to them based off of their thoughts. Sound like Santa Claus? Knows what you're, knows when you're sleeping, knows when you're awake, and he knows if you've been bad or good. That would also imply your conscience, right? The world is saying, hey, this bearded guy knows whether you're good or bad, not just physically, but also internally. Go to Proverbs 15 again. And while you're turning there, I'm gonna read for you Psalm 16 two, which says, oh my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee. Proverbs 15, look at verse three. So you gotta be good for goodness sake, according to the spirit of the world. Proverbs 15, look at verse three. It says the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, not Santa Claus. So it sounds to me like we have an imposter. That's what it sounds like. Like I said, I don't need Wikipedia. I don't need YouTube videos. I don't need any of that. All I need is what they provide and what I can measure, what I can audit based off the word of God. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Turn to Matthew chapter 28, and I'm gonna read for you 2 Chronicles 16 nine. It says for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. Here in thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth, thou shall have wars. So what's God telling the people here? He's saying, hey, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, not the eyes of Santa Claus. And what is the purpose of God running his eyes to and fro throughout the earth? To show himself mighty amongst his people. Well, guess what? According to the world, according to Santa Claus, his eyes run to and fro throughout the earth to give everybody whatever they want. And this doesn't just apply to kids. You know, a lot of people, adults even want to continue on with this idea of Santa Claus, right? I know because I see them at work. I see them talk about this. Oh, my favorite, oh, Santa, I'm gonna go sit on his lap. You're 30 years old. What's wrong with you? You know, the Bible says, is anything too hard for the Lord? And obviously, that's a rhetorical question. Is anything too hard for the Lord? That's in Genesis, right? And that is the idea that is pushed with Santa Claus. It's not too hard for him to come down the chimney that you don't have, little boy. Don't worry about it. He's got magical powers. He could make that happen. See how dangerous that is? That is wrong. That is not okay. You see the similarities between Santa and Christ and God, the Lord. What have you turned to, Matthew? Matthew 28, look at verse 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. I love this verse here. He didn't say all power is given to me and some other guy on a seasonal basis. No, all power is given unto me. You know what most churches do today? They ignore that verse. You say you're being arrogant. No, I'm being honest. It's true. He said all power. That includes the power to preserve his words. That includes the power to have these words transform your life. All power is given unto me in heaven and earth, not to Santa Claus, right? But the world would say, no, he has this power, right? Even Norad can track him. Even Norad knows where he's at, you know? And sometimes he dodges Norad and we don't know where he kind of blitzed off the screen, right? He could make it from one end of the earth to the other in the same night. I remember when I was a kid and people want to argue with Santa Claus, it's one of the things they'd bring up and they were right. You know what I mean? You know, learn later on in life, they were right. But the Bible says all power is given unto the Lord Jesus Christ, right? God has all the power, not Santa Claus. You think you would have to have quite a bit of power to be able to go to every single house of every good person in the world and give them gifts and say, well, he doesn't go to Japan because they don't believe in him. It doesn't matter. We just keep this right here in America and that's enough to proclaim the stupidity. It's falsehood. It's not true. It's a lie. If we're going to celebrate Christmas, do it in a holy way. Make it about the Lord Jesus Christ. People say, well, he wasn't born in December. Amen. Okay. That's great. Celebrate in July then. I mean, do whatever you want. You have liberty in Christ, right? But make sure you do it the right way. Make sure you do it holy. We should do all things to be pleasing and pure to the Lord Jesus Christ. All right. Listen to this here. What do I got to have you turn next? Go to Acts chapter one, Acts chapter one. All right. So check this out. Here's another similarity. The night before Christmas. And there's tons of these and I'm not going to go through every single one of them, but listen to this. The night before Christmas, it says this. As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky. So up to the housetop, the coursers they flew with the sleigh full of toys and St. Nicholas too. This is just a poem here talking about how Santa flies through the heavens and, you know, he gets, goes up above the clouds here. Look at this. Acts chapter one, verse nine. This is very similar here. It says this in verse nine. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they look steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in wide apparel, which also said, you men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come and like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. So look, it's no coincidence that Santa is painted as a guy that can fly through the heavens, go up to the sky and travel like that. You know, I mean, the Bible says that Jesus Christ was taken up by cloud into heaven. You know, God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. You know, he came down from heaven. Elijah was received up into heaven, you know, by God, you know, by the cherubs, the cherubim. So you see the similarities here. If you just think about the story here with Santa Claus, you're going to notice a lot of similarities here between Santa and Christ. And that is, I mean, that's not just a coincidence. That's by design. That's by the principalities and the powers of darkness that rule our world, that rule our country, right? There's a, think of, just remember this. There's a reason why the world loves Christmas, but hates Jesus Christ. They love Santa boy, you know, they love Santa Claus. And they'll admit, okay, I get it. You know, I often do this. I ask people, you know, at work, whatever, that aren't saved, what's Christmas about? And they'll say, oh, that's about the birth of Christ. You know, but for me, it's, you know, it's, you know, I don't go to church, but you know, it's, you know, we got Santa and, you know, we got the elves, elves, that's kind of a weird thing too. I didn't even get time to talk about the elves, you know, but hey, there's, how about that? There's another similarity, right? Between Santa and the devil, as the devil and his minions were cast out, right? And his ministers of darkness, the angels, right? Well, Santa has his elves, you know, it's all the same thing, right? We read in second Corinthians, the devil transforms himself as an angel of light, right? That would, to me, would be Santa Claus. It seems okay, right? He's not going on, lopping people's heads off. He's not like some, you know, crazed maniac, right? But all he does is, yea, hath God said, salvation's by grace through faith? Surely that's not what it means, right? Just twist the truth a little bit. And like I said, what this does is it sows discord, it sows instability into children. And then when they grow up, they're like, oh, I mean, think about it. Day after day, every time we go soul hunting, what do you got to do to be safe? Turn from your sins. You got to be good, right? What does Santa say? If you're good, you get your gifts. It's not true. That is not the definition of a gift. A gift is something that someone did not pay for. All right. Go to Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy chapter 33. Here's another verse for you there. Another similarity. Same thing. Santa Claus flying on a sleigh through the heavens. Deuteronomy 33, look at verse 26. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who writeth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. Verse 27. Deuteronomy 33, 27. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms, and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy them. What do you think about that verse there? Verse 26. Isn't that pretty interesting? Isn't that kind of similar to what people say that Santa does? Flies to the heavens. He's there to help you. He's there to bring stuff to the poor and needy, right? Isn't that what the story is about Saint Nicholas? He's there to help people in the time of need, but the Bible says there's none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who writeth upon the heaven in thy help, right? So when we say no, there's another guy that can do it too. That is wrong. It's not okay. It is unbiblical, and that's what I'm trying to teach you this morning. Go to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter number 2. And you know the sad thing? Most people have never read Deuteronomy chapter 33, and wouldn't even be able to make that connection. I've been to independent fundamental Baptist churches, right? Well, they'll say, I'll just be talking about this with the pastor, and they'll say, hey, you know what? I don't believe it's Hannah, obviously. We don't teach our kids, but I don't preach about it because I don't want to offend those that do. Well, then you violated my point about letting people entice you into the sin, you know? So now you've compromised. Now you've become weak, and God, you think God's pleased with that? No, we should preach the whole counsel of God. Look, this is what is in our world today, the month of December. You're going to see a lot of this, right? We ought to be wise, right? Wise as serpents and harmless as doves is what Jesus said. That is the recipe for success out there in the world, sharing truth. But anyways, Ephesians 2, look at verse 2. It says, where in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Let's remove Christians out of this for a second, right? Santa Claus flies through the air magically. Look, there's a connection here. The Bible says we need to beware the prince of the power of the air, right? The devils, do you know how they travel? Through the air. How they go to and fro in the air, right? We don't understand all the intricate details of that, but nonetheless, they can go to and fro throughout the earth. And this is saying, hey, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in children of disobedience. Look, the world loves Santa Claus so much, right? But they hate Jesus Christ. What does that mean? These people are children of disobedience. I'm not saying they're all reprobates, but most people that advocate for this, most people that really push this, when it gets down to it, they are the children of disobedience, which is why they have no problem telling you, hey, don't say anything about my wine this Christmas. Don't say anything about my booze. Don't say anything about me telling my child that Santa came tonight. It's like, fine, but don't draw me into your conversation. And the second you crack that bottle open, I'm out anyways, but that's another topic for another day. Verse three, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past and the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. So we didn't understand, hey, look, we've all been there, right? We've all got the old man. Nobody in here is perfect. Nobody in here and the old man and the flesh is going to be without these desires, but we need to actively fight them. We need to make sure that we become a people that hate covetous. That's against greed, right? That's against falsehood. Listen to this. Let's see, why don't you guys go to Psalm chapter 37 and we're almost done. Listen to this. Here's another poem. Here comes Santa Claus. Here comes Santa Claus. Write down Santa Claus lane. Bells are ringing. Children singing. All is merry and bright. Hang your stockings and say your prayers, cause Santa Claus comes tonight. Who's ever heard that sign? Yeah. Who are you singing your prayers to, little kid, little child? I don't see anything in that passage, anything in that little poem about Jesus Christ. What I see is Santa bringing people joy, physical joy. I see kids singing hymns and praises to him, right? That's what it says. And what else does it say? All is merry and bright. Why? Because of the presence of Santa Claus, because of the hope that he gives you. Hang your stockings and say your prayers. Well, who are you singing your prayers to? Obviously, it's Santa Claus, according to this, because he comes tonight. That's idolatry. That's wrong. That's not okay. That does not make God happy. That is, that is this. Oh, you're ruining the Christmas spirit. Well, you have the wrong spirit. I'm here to prove the spirits. I'm here to try the spirits. I have a biblical mandate to do that, and so do you. Psalm 37, look at verse four. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart, not Santa Claus, right? Delight thyself in the laws, in the statutes of Jesus Christ, of the Bible, right? Not in what you might get from Santa Claus. That is not going to bring you happiness, right? You say, oh, I'm getting a new stereo, man. I'm getting a new computer. That's great. Amen. You know what? But guess what? Six months from now, there's going to be one better than that, and you're probably going to covet that one. So you better learn to start hating covetous so you can bring yourself some peace. Go to Matthew 7. Matthew chapter 7. Who remembers the acronym that Jesus taught when you want to pray? Ask, right? We're going to learn about that here real quick. Ask. You really want some? Don't go to Santa Claus. Go to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask. Look at Matthew 7, verse number 7. He says this. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Say, I want to get my prayers answered. Well, guess what? Did you ask? And furthermore, did you ask a miss? Are you asking with carnal desires? Do you not understand the law of God? Because if you don't, you're unstable, you're double-minded, you're not doing things right, then you're not going to get what you asked for. But he says, number one, you better ask, and number two, you need to seek, right? This is, look, here's a quick example. When we go out sowing him, why do we always pray? We're asking God to use this mightily for him. Lord, is there anybody out here that is receptive? Anybody out here that would be saved, right? And then we go and seek those people, and then we go and knock, right? That is how you should pray. You ask, you seek, and then you knock. So you pray for something, Lord, I need help in this, and then you seek the resolution, and he will guide you. The Bible says that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And then you knock. You take these opportunities and you test them. That's what we do when we're knocking on someone's door. We're testing, hey, is this a house that we might be received into? Or are they going to slam the door? I go to Life Church, bam, get out of here. Verse number eight, for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Jump down to verse number 11 here. It says, if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Look, you need to learn to ask the correct things. You need to learn how to apply these things in your life. And look, God's better than us. He's saying, hey, you know, you guys are evil, right? You guys give good gifts to your children. Why wouldn't God do that for his children? And of course he will. He will. Now, he's not going to do it, you know, when you want me, maybe. Maybe he'll do it sooner. Maybe you'll do it later, right? But you're going to receive something. You ask, you'll receive an answer. It might be maybe, it might be not now, or it might be no, or it might be yes. You know, it just depends. The key point there is to ask. Remember that acronym, ask, ask, seek, and knock. Okay. Let's move on here. Go to first Peter chapter two. First Peter chapter two. While you're here, I just want to read this because I think it's interesting here about Santa Claus and the similarities between him and Christ. Isaiah chapter 14 verse 13 says this, just listen. It says, for thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. And I do find it interesting that Santa has so many attributes that are like the most high, right? Where's the source of that? It's the devil. You know, people like to make fun of us. Oh, you're one of those fundies that says that Santa's like the devil. Yes. Amen. Praise God. Let's you know, and if you're a person who's saved and you're saying that, let's see who, let's see what happens at the judgment seat of Christ. Let's see what happens. I'll put my stance up against yours any day of the week, any day of the week. First Peter chapter two, look at verse 15. It says for so is the will of God that with in well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. That's the point of this sermon. I gave you a little bit of application as we went throughout this, but the important thing is that we need to be a people that can put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Why? In hopes to reach them. That's what we do. We're about reaching people, fulfilling the great commission, getting people saved, getting them discipled, getting them out there in the community and continuing on what Christ taught us. That's the goal of the season. That's what we should be thankful for. And that my friend is better than anything Santa Claus is going to offer you or your children. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for the light of your word. I just pray that you would bless the fellowship after the service. Lord, please take care of us and keep continuing to give us that great seal Lord. And according to your word and according to the truth in Jesus' name. I pray.