I Am The Lord Your God

Though the holiday began in Celtic regions of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and France, it quickly spread to other parts of the world. The first American colonists in New England were forbidden to celebrate it for religious reasons, though it enjoyed some popularity in the Southern colonies. By the 1800s, fall festivals marking the seasonal harvest incorporated Halloween elements, and Irish immigrants escaping the devastating Potato Famine brought with them many Halloween traditions that remain today.

The custom of trick-or-treating, in which children dress up in costume and solicit treats from neighbors, became popular in the United States in the early 20th century as Irish and Scottish communities revived the Old World custom of “guising,” in which a person would dress in costume and tell a joke, recite a poem, or perform some other trick in exchange for a piece of fruit or other treat.

By 1950, trick-or-treating for candy had become one of Halloween’s most popular activities. Today, Halloween is one of the biggest holidays for candy sales in the United States, exceeding $2.5 billion annually.[1]

But wait! During my research for this message, I stumbled across a 2017 report that stated that sales of adult-sized Halloween costumes are at an all-time high. Theme parks, usually overrun by overstimulated kids, host a different sort of clientele come October 31: a boozy, over-21 crowd. And liquor companies are taking note.

According to the National Retail Federation, a staggering 72 percent of U.S. adults will celebrate this Halloween, compared to just 59 percent in 2007. Across industries, Halloween spending has ballooned from $5.1 billion to $9.1 billion in just a decade.[2]

Ghosts, goblins and ghouls may be frightening, but what Americans are expected to spend on Halloween this year could be considered even scarier. The COVID-19 pandemic definitely put a damper on Halloween celebrations in 2020, but consumers in the United States are expected to spend a record amount on Halloween in 2021, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Plans to take part in Halloween celebrations are close to pre-pandemic levels.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In the U.S., plans to take part in Halloween celebrations are just shy of pre-pandemic levels. Americans are projected to spend $10.14 billion on the ghoulish holiday in 2021, a record high. The average amount spent on costumes, candy, decorations, and greeting cards per-person is $102.74.[3]

Lets do some basic math shall we:

2.5 Billion in candy sales

9.1 Billion for alcohol

10.14 Billion on Costumes and Decoration

That equals approximately 21.75 Billion dollars …..

So to answer the question of why is Halloween Celebrated,

Ahh my friends is for the god of money

Can I ask you another question? (I’m full of questions today) Just …..

What God are you serving?

Over the last few weeks God has been leading me to teach on the Ten Commandments …

{{ CLICK }} We taught on Exodus 20:13, You Shall Not Kill (How Precious is Life)

{{ CLICK }} Then we taught on Exodus 20:15, You Shall Not Steal, (What’s Mine is God’s )

{{ CLICK }} And a message from August 2020, we taught on Exodus 20:16, You Shall Not Bear false witness (Truth the American Way)

{{ Click }} Last week we taught on Exodus 20:17. “You shall not covet…” (When Is Enough, Enough?)

This week we are continuing our series on “The Ten Commandments”

The title for today’s message is “I Am The Lord Your God”

Once again here is the Ten Commandment written by God for all mankind found in the Book of Exodus Chapter 20 verses 1-17 …

[[ play 10 commandment recording]]

Our focal verses for today are taken from verses 2 and 3:

Exodus 20:2-3

Exodus 20:2–3 NKJV

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

So as I asked you before, which God are you serving? I just spoke about the God of many folks in this world, that is the god of money, but there are so many other gods being served today

· The god of Jehovah’s Witnesses,

· The god of Mormonism,

· The god of Scientology,

· The god of Native Americans,

· The god of Hinduism,

· The god of Buddhism,

· The god of Islam,

· The god of the New Age,

· or the more practical gods like, the god of food, the god of sports, the god of sex, god of self, the god of materialism, etc.? It can be very confusing, living in our god-filled world.

If your think about it, it was just as confusing for Israel when they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai. Israel had been a part of a god-filled culture.

There was …

· Aker, the earth-god and helper of the dead;

· Amon, the wind-god;

· Horus, the sky-god;

· Isis, the goddess of healing;

· Ptah, the Creator-god;

· and others.

The children of Israel didn’t have a Bible, like we do today, to know about God the Father, so which God did they serve?

The first commandment was God’s answer to my question.

God’s Answer

He stated --- I am the Lord your God

The then proceeds to tell the children of Israel, just Who He was or shall I say who He is ..

1. God reveals who He is (20:2).

God doesn’t leave it to chance. He doesn’t wait for the philosophers and the great thinkers of the day to get together and figure out who He is and what He is like. We know what happens when that takes place: you get a golden calf (Exodus 32:1–6). God chose to reveal Himself to Israel.

As we continue on our journey, We find several facts about God …

a. He is the self-existent God.

The word translated “Lord” in this passage is the Hebrew word Yahweh. It is sometimes called the Tet-ra-gramm-aton because in the Hebrew it was written without any vowels—YHWH. This name would become the most sacred of all of God’s names because it was the name that God revealed to Israel.

It was so sacred that Jews didn’t even speak it.

i. God is mysterious.

ii. God is and will always be.

iii. Everything in life owes its existence and being to God.

iv. God is independent.

b. He is the sufficient God.

He says, “I AM.” What does that mean?

i. He is all He needs. God doesn’t need anything from creation or any other source to exist.

ii. He is all we need.

c. He is the supreme God.

The word translated “God” is Elohim. This is one of the

common names for God.

i. He is the mighty God.

a. The name often implies the “fullness of might.”

ii. He is the Creator God.

iii. He is the triune God.

The word Elohim is the plural form of the word El, which

means “God.” Although Israel would not fully understand this, God was revealing Himself as the plural God, or the triune God.

We now know Him as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

iv. He is the covenant God.

d. He is the sovereign God.

He reminded Israel that He was the God who brought them

out of slavery. It is how He brought them out of slavery that

demonstrated His sovereignty. Each of the plagues was a

demonstration of God’s sovereignty over the Egyptian gods.

i. Nile to blood (7:20).

ii. Frogs (8:6).

iii. Lice (8:17).

iv. Flies (8:24).

v. Livestock disease (9:6).

vi. Boils (9:10).

vii. Hail (9:23).

viii. Locusts (10:13.

ix. Darkness (10:22)

x. Death of the firstborn (12:29)

God showed His sovereignty over the gods of Egypt, and He is still sovereign over all the gods of this world.

e. He is the sole God.

God tells His people they are to have no other gods before

him. Why? Because He is the sole God. All those false gods were not really gods. They were just distractions, some ting to take our minds and heart away from the one and only God. Our Creator.

Listen, This commandment speaks against the trends of our culture, such as pluralism, tolerance, and syncretism.

This first commandment reveals who God is. But there is a message for God’s people.

2. God reveals what He expects of His people (20:3).

As we look at verse three, we find that Our Father, has a few expectations of His people.

a. He expects our loyalty.

God expects His people to be loyal to Him. If you are married, do you expect your spouse to be loyal? Why of course. An unfaithful spouse is called an adulterer.

When we are not loyal to God we are spiritual adulterers. Hosea 4:12 says …

Hosea 4:12

Hosea 4:12 NKJV

12 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God.

God expects loyalty, and rightfully so.

b. God expects our love.

It is important to be loyal, but loyalty is not enough; there

must be love. A husband can be loyal to his wife but not really love her. God wants our love. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says:

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 NKJV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Conclusion

Camp Quest West, just north of Sacramento, California, is no church camp. Designed for the children of agnostics, atheists, freethinkers, and humanists, the mission of the camp is to “promote respect for others with different viewpoints, values, and beliefs.” It goes one step further to say, “We deplore efforts . . . to seek to explain the world in

supernatural terms and to look outside nature for salvation.”

The camp ends with what director calls “a competition for the kids to create their own religion that everyone can believe in and that will be good for all, for all time.”

Here in lies the true …

God makes it clear that religion is not up for grabs in a camp

competition: He is The Lord Your God, and He alone and is worthy of our loyalty, love and our praise.

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