March 11, 2025 • 46 mins
When your sin won't stop, but Jesus won't give up – this powerful message explores the greatest miracle God performs in our lives: spiritual freedom.
Through the story of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5, we discover how Jesus confronts the spiritual forces that isolate us, overpower us, and ultimately aim to destroy us. While we may be no match for Satan, Satan is absolutely no match for Jesus Christ.
The transformation of this man, from living among tombs to becoming a missionary to ten cities, reveals the process of spiritual breakthrough in our own lives. Sin follows predictable patterns – it isolates us from community, manifests with power we cannot control ourselves, creates misery despite Satan's promises, and ultimately aims to destroy us completely.
What makes this account so compelling is Jesus' approach. While everyone else avoided this man, Jesus walked directly toward him. When the entire community banished him to the tombs, Jesus engaged him personally. This demonstrates God's heart toward our struggles – not judgment or disgust, but compassion and power to transform.
Through personal stories shared by church members – from overcoming addiction to finding faith during terminal illness to being freed from decades of bitterness – we see that spiritual freedom remains the most profound miracle God performs today. The testimony of one woman captured it perfectly: "Sometimes the greater miracle isn't healing, but the transformation of a heart that trusts Jesus regardless of circumstances."
For those battling persistent sin, this message offers practical steps: allowing the Spirit's conviction, confession, believing in complete forgiveness, living in repentance, studying Scripture, establishing accountability, and seeking professional help when needed.
What spiritual chains is Jesus breaking in your life today? And what is your "Decapolis" – the community God is calling you to influence with your testimony of transformation?
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, put your hands together if you're excited
to be here this morning inchurch.
Man, what a great morning theLord has for us so far.
God is so good.
It is so good seeing all ofyour smiling faces and we're
just so thankful for yourpresence and for all of our
first-time guests that are here,our first-time guests that are
online.
There is nothing more importantthan gathering together as the
(00:22):
body of Jesus Christ as we getto worship Jesus together.
Like Pastor James and Ravensaid that we are studying the
series.
I Need a Miracle.
How many y'all need a miraclein your life?
My hand is up.
Raise your hand right now.
And man God is.
He is a God that does miracles.
He is our miracle working Godand God is doing miracles in our
(00:43):
lives.
God is doing miracles in ourchurch.
Even just last week, god did amiracle in our church for Upward
Basketball Sunday, from ourpreschool ministry to our high
school ministry.
Just in our next generationalministries, including all of our
kids, all of our teenagers andour volunteers we had 190 last
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week in our NextGen Ministries.
Put your hands together forwhat God's doing as he is
raising up the next generationof Jesus followers.
I want to remind you of ourstudent camp that is coming up.
That is, june 20 through 23,for all of our teenagers.
So just a reminder, because youneed to get signed up,
registered and all of that.
How many of y'all you went tostudent camp as a teenager back
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in the day?
You remember those days and,man, that was awesome and it was
life-changing.
And so if you have a teenager,if you know of a teenager, you
just get them registered, getthem paid for.
Maybe you don't know one, butGod used it to change your life.
Maybe you want to pay for ateenager and you want to support
somebody to go.
Then you have that opportunity.
(01:47):
You can give in that way aswell.
Let me pray for us this morning.
Heavenly Father, we love youand God, we just thank you that
you are here with us.
God, we thank you for yourpresence.
God, we thank you for your wordand, father, we just pray in
Jesus' name, lord, that youwould speak to our hearts, you
would change our lives.
For the glory of Jesus, we prayand we ask all these things in
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Jesus' name, and all God'speople said amen.
So here we are in the series INeed a Miracle, and it's five
weeks through the month of March.
Last week we talked about ourneed for a miracle, that it was
a miracle of belief over doubt,as we looked at Jesus calming
the storms in our life andwalking with Jesus upon the
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waters.
This week it's going to be onfreedom and how our freedom
you'll see here on the screenour freedom over sin.
We want to talk about thismiracle that the Lord wants to
do in our life.
And then next week is going tobe on how God wants to do a
miracle of provision over ourneed.
The following week how Godwants to heal the sick.
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The following week how Godwants to bring new life to
things that are dead in our life.
And the reason I kind of sharewith you that schedule of this
preaching series is so that youknow who to invite on specific
Sundays.
Now I pray that you invitepeople every single Sunday to
get in the Word of God, to hearfrom Jesus, so they can follow
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him too.
But also there are specificneeds that people have in their
life in specific ways that youcan be praying for them.
But as well, we wanna encourageyou that you can share your
story.
So with these Sundays that arecoming up.
Maybe you have a story in lifewhere God has provided for you
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in one of these ways and you'regonna get to hear some of those
stories already this morning.
Also, I want you to know thatwe have an I Need a Miracle wall
, and you'll see that right outin our lobby.
There's one up in our officesby the sanctuary, and this is
where you get to write down themiracle that you need or you
desire.
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You're praying for God to do inyour life so that people can
walk by the wall, so that youcan walk by the wall and you can
pray for each and every one ofthose tags that we can pray that
God would continue to domiracles in people's lives.
This morning I had my littlegirl, brooklyn, with me.
It was about eight o'clock, shewas in her wheelchair and I was
wheeling her by a wall and Istopped and I said hey, baby,
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you want God to do a miracle inyour life.
This is a miracle wall.
And she said, yeah, dad.
And I said what miracle wouldyou love for God to do in your
life?
She said I would love for Godto do a miracle that I could
walk, and so we wrote that downon a tag and we put it on the
wall.
Sign her name on it, brooklyn.
You don't have to put your nameon it, but just so that you can
be praying for her, so that wecan be praying for one another,
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and it's all culminatingtogether to a worship and prayer
service that we have on Sundaynight, march the 30th, and that
is all going to be culminatingin this.
I Need a Miracle where you canpray for all of these together
that a miracle would be done.
Or when God does a miracle, wesee his power.
But listen to me, when Goddoesn't do the miracle, we see
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his wisdom, because God hasgreater things in store in our
life.
So this morning, what I want totalk to you about in terms of a
miracle is last week, when wetalked about how your storm
won't stop.
This morning, I want to talkabout when your sin won't stop,
because one of the greatestmiracles that God could ever do
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in your life is a spiritualmiracle.
In other words, we need God todo more in our heart than any
other area of our life.
So you can open up your Biblewith me to Mark, chapter 5,
starting out with verse 1.
Mark 5, verse 1, it's a veryinteresting passage of Scripture
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.
Very interesting, it is about ademon-possessed man, right.
And so whenever we come acrossthese passages, we're not
exactly sure what to do withthese passages, because we don't
see a lot of demon possession.
You know, there are two extremeswhen it comes to people that
think about the demonic, orSatan or evil or all of these
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type things.
You know, one extreme is thatpeople don't believe in it at
all.
No such thing as Satan, no suchthing as demons, no such thing
as evil, no such thing as hell.
They've never been at the DMV,right, they've never been to
Walmart on a Saturday.
Like they don't get it, theydon't get it.
And then other people, likethey think of demons in
everything, like they'rehyper-spiritualized.
You know, like man, there's ademon in my car.
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No, you just didn't change youroil, sorry.
There's a demon in my bankaccount.
No, you're just calling Amazonordering too much.
Amazon Prime's coming to yourhouse too much.
Right, there's a demon in mykid.
That may be possible, I don'tknow.
But we, just people, kind ofsee it as two different extremes
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.
But Jesus gives us thesepassages because he wants us to
know that there's a spiritualrealm.
There's a spiritual war aroundyou, that not everything is
visible, Not everything isphysical, but everything is
spiritual, including our lives.
Mark, chapter five you'll seehere.
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Mark, chapter five, verse one,says they came to the other side
of the sea, to the country ofthe Gerasenes, and Jesus had
stepped out of the boat.
And when Jesus had stepped outof the boat, immediately there
met him out of the tombs, a manwith an unclean spirit.
This man, he lived among thetombs.
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No one can bind him anymore.
Now I'll be real honest withyou.
We don't know anything aboutthis man.
We don't know what kind of lifethis man had lived.
We don't know if this man had afamily.
We don't know if this man had ajob.
We don't know if this man wasrespected at one point in time
in his life.
We don't know what this manwent through.
We don't know what this man hadto deal with in his life.
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We're not even sure how thisman became demon possessed.
But here's what we see there isa man that is banned to the
tombs.
In other words, they kicked himout of the city, they kicked
him out of the city, they kickedhim out of the town and he is
banished to the tombs.
And even other gospel writerssaid that they tried to bind him
with chains and with shackles,and he had the strength and he
(08:12):
was able to break them apart.
One of the gospel writers saidthat he would break them apart
and he would just run out intothe wilderness again and he
would be doing all of thesethings.
So he lived among the tombs andno one could bind him anymore,
not even with a chain, for hehad often been bound with
shackles and chains, but hewrenched the chains apart and he
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broke the shackles in pieces.
No one had the strength tosubdue him.
Other gospel writers said thatno one would even go around him.
They would not even go to thatarea.
Night and day, among the tombson the mountains, he was always
crying out and he was cuttinghimself with stones.
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This man needed a miracle.
I need a miracle in my life,you need a miracle in your life,
and only Jesus is the one who'sthe miracle worker, is the one
that can do a miracle.
But maybe you're here thismorning thinking but this isn't
the miracle that I need.
As far as I know, I'm not demonpossessed.
Well, I want you to know thatactually, what Jesus does with
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this man.
It reveals to us that this isthe greatest miracle that we
need, that the greatest miraclethat God can do in our life is
spiritual, because I'll go andtell you this man right here.
He had physical problems.
He had mental issues, he hadfinancial issues in his life.
He had all kind of issues inhis life, but the one that was
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driving every other issue werethe physical issues that he had
in his life.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you is to save you.
That was driving every otherissue were the physical issues
that he had in his life.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you is to save you.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you is to forgive you.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you and in me that I
need is for God to cleanse me ofmy sin.
(10:00):
I received a story this pastweek that said for years my
family, we prayed for a miraclethat God would heal my younger
sister's cancer, but instead wewatched her suffer in tremendous
pain.
The healing we begged for nevercame in the way that we had
hoped.
There was another miracle, onemy parents had prayed for.
(10:23):
Now, for over 20 years, mysister had been far from God,
running from her pain, searchingfor fulfillment in everything
but God, and just before hercancer diagnosis she felt God
pursuing her like a lion on agazelle.
She would say.
God wouldn't let her go.
So, through her battle withcancer, we watched her heart
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soften, her faith deepen, hertrust grow in God, even in the
face of death.
She believed that God couldheal her, but, even more
importantly, she trusted him,even if he didn't.
In her last months she sharedher journey with over 56,000
followers online, many of whomcaught their cancer early
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because of her story.
Others came to faith drawn byher unwavering trust in Jesus.
The lesson we learn is sometimesthe greater miracle isn't
healing, but the greatestmiracle is our heart being
transformed by Jesus Christ.
What this story teaches us ofJesus as the demon-possessed man
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isn't just that every sin is ademon, or every time that we
struggle in sin is possession.
That's not the point at all.
What the point is is that Godwants to do a greater, deeper
work in our life, in our heart,that can settle so many other
issues in our life.
Are there demons today?
Yes, there are demons today,even though we don't see a lot
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of demon possession today.
Why we don't see a lot of demonpossession?
We saw it a lot in Jesus' day.
Why?
Because Jesus was on the sceneand so Satan was doing a full
onslaught evil attack during thedays of Jesus.
There is demon possession today.
It happens a lot in other thirdworld countries, very animistic
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cultures.
Why don't we see it in ourcountry today?
Because Satan would blow hiscover.
There are so many churchesaround, there's so much access
to the gospel around.
If you saw all thesedemon-possessed people walking
around today then people wouldsay, yes, spiritual Israel,
demons are real.
Satan is real.
They'd go to church, they'dhear the gospel, they'd get
saved.
(12:37):
But Satan doesn't work in termsof possession in our culture,
hear me, he works in terms ofdeception Not in possession, but
in deception.
Can a Christian be possessed bya demon?
No, because a Christian ispossessed by the Holy Spirit.
Can I get an amen?
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So this passage is ultimatelyabout sin.
Where did it come from?
We know that Satan was an angelcreated by God and Satan.
He decided to rebel against Godrather than to worship God.
The Bible says in Revelation 12that one third of the angels
that God created followed Satanand rebelled with him, and two
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thirds of the angels continuedto follow God, to continue to
worship Jesus.
So I want you to think with me,as this passage is all about
the sin that we struggle with.
Did you know the Bible actuallygives us the three big
categories that every single sinfits into?
First category is the lust ofthe flesh, or these are lust of
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desires, or sins of pleasure,saying I want to feel.
That these are sins that mightbe sexual sin, emotional sin,
sins of laziness, or sins ofdrugs or alcohol, or sins of
gluttony or passion, whateverthat sin might be.
The second category is the lustof the eyes.
Is treasure saying I want tohave that these are sins of
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greed, materialism, jealousy forwhat other people have or
discontentment for what youdon't have.
The third category of all sinis pride, the pride of life.
These are sins of measure, orwho is it that you want to be
outside of Jesus?
These are sins of pride andfear and bragging and
controlling other people, orjust rebelling against God
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because you want your own way.
We all struggle in differentways.
Which ones of these do youstruggle with the most?
Which ones of these do Istruggle with the most.
All of them Don't look at me sospiritual.
You struggle with all of themtoo.
These are sins that Satan isconstantly seeking to deceive us
with, and I wanna remind you ofthe sin that happened to the
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heroes of the faith in the Bible.
Noah got drunk and naked.
Abraham lied about his wife andhad a child by another woman.
Moses killed a man.
Aaron made an idol as thepriest of God's people.
He made an idol for God'speople to falsely worship
instead of God.
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Samson slept with the enemy.
King David had an affair, gother pregnant and then had her
husband killed.
Solomon was a womanizer of 1 athousand women.
The Bible says Peter denied evenknowing Jesus three times, and
the apostle Paul before he wassaved, he hunted down and he
killed Christians.
What is the point?
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If God can forgive them and ifGod can continue to use them,
then God can continue to forgiveme and forgive you and use us
too.
Can I get an amen?
God is a forgiver of sin.
So what we see in that passage,we see what Satan wants to do.
Look at the isolation thatSatan wants to do.
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He's got this man out in thetombs.
He is separating him.
He's isolating him from thecommunity.
You know what he loves to dowith us.
When we get in our sin, then weisolate ourself from Christian
community.
We don't wanna be in worship,we don't wanna be in group, we
don't wanna be a part of aserving team.
Or we also see here that he wasbound in shackles and he was in
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chains, but yet he was able totear them apart.
Shackles and he was in chains,but yet he was able to tear them
apart.
Sin has an abnormal power andstrength in your life that you
cannot control.
That I cannot control.
I often think I can control sin, just like you think you can
control sin, but sin can onlycontrol and dominate us.
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We see also here that, as hewas crying out day and night
among the tombs, we see misery.
Satan's promise is happiness,but Satan, all he gives is
misery when we follow our sin.
And then last it says that hewas cutting himself with stones.
We see, what does sin want todo?
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Sin ultimately just wants todestroy us Isolation in power,
in misery, in self-harm.
The story I received this weekfrom one of you said for years I
carried a boulder of bitterness, a weight I didn't even realize
was consuming me.
My mother died when I was justone week old.
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My childhood was marked by pain, rejection and abuse.
Though I accepted Christ at age12, I still wrestled with anger
, sadness and unforgiveness,feeling like God had abandoned
me.
And as an adult, I had a family, a job, attended church, but my
heart was still chained to thepast.
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Bitterness defined me,poisoning my relationships, my
faith and my joy.
I refused to forgive, she said.
Then God stepped in, she saidone day, at Cracker Barrel, I
unexpectedly saw the stepmotherwho had hurt me the most.
She said in that moment, beforeI even said a word, before I
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even had a choice, god liftedthe burden that I had carried
for 25 years.
The bitterness had vanished,replaced by compassion and
freedom.
Years later, that same womanasked for forgiveness and I
could joyfully tell her God hadalready healed my heart.
What is the lesson that we seehere?
(18:26):
That bitterness will bury you,but forgiveness will free you.
What Satan wants to do is todestroy us.
So the question that we need tobe asking ourselves in our life
is what sins am I strugglingwith?
In what way is Satan trying tosteal me from Jesus?
Or, if you were Satan, whatsins or temptations or
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deceptions would you throw yourway in order to get you to stop
following after Jesus?
One of my favorite pastors andauthors is Derwin Gray, and he
said sin will take you fartherthan you wanna go, keep you
longer than you wanna stay andcost you more than you want to
pay.
Look at verse six.
Verse six says and when thatman saw Jesus from afar, he ran
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and fell down before him.
Now here's what you'll see inthis passage.
That's really interesting, inthis passage where it's really
hard to tell sometimes whetherit's the man who's doing it or
whether it is the demons who aredoing it in his life, because
even in this way, this could bethe man or it could be the
demons.
It could be the man.
Out of his desperation, jesuscomes on the scene and the man
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runs and desperately falls downbefore Jesus.
That Greek word, fall down, isproskuneo, and proskuneo just
simply means to worship.
It means to fall on one's kneesto worship Jesus.
It means literally to kiss hisfeet.
So it could be the man or itcould be the demons.
How could it be the demons?
Well, we see in scripture, allthroughout the Bible, that Jesus
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is the only one that hasabsolute power, absolute control
over demons.
They can't do anything withouthis permission.
So we see that he saw Jesusfrom afar.
He ran, he fell down before himand, crying out with a loud
voice, he said what have you todo with me?
Jesus, son of the most high, Iadjure you by God, do not
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torment me.
Now this looks like it's thedemons talking, because why
would Jesus torment the man?
Now, obviously there are peoplethat think, man, god just wants
to get me for my sin.
God just wants to punish me formy sin.
God just wants to judge me formy sin.
If you're here this morning andSatan has deceived you in that
way, god's heart is not to getyou to punish you, to torment
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you, to judge you.
God's heart is to save you.
God's heart is to draw youcloser to him.
God's heart is to love you.
God's heart is to provide foryou.
God's heart is to care for you.
God's heart is for you to bewith him.
So I think this is the demonstalking, because the demons know
that their days are numbered.
The demons know that a day iscoming, that they will be cast
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in hell forever, that Satan willbe cast in hell forever, and so
they're saying Jesus, have youcome to torment us before it's
time?
Notice they called him rightly,jesus, son of the most high God
.
Remember James, chapter 2, 19?
It says that even the demonsbelieve and they shudder.
(21:28):
Satan knows who Jesus is Satan.
Everything he wants to do inyour life is just simply to take
your eyes off of Jesus Christ.
Every temptation and everydeception is designed by demons
in you and in me, just to getour eyes off Jesus so that we do
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not follow him.
A story I received this weeksaid my aunt's life was slipping
away.
Years of drinking had left herwith alcoholic cirrhosis and, as
her liver failed, her doctortold the family she won't make
it through.
The night they gathered by herbedside expecting to say goodbye
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, but morning came and she wasstill there, awake and talking.
When they told her that theyhad stayed with her all night,
she stunned them by saying itwasn't just you, I wasn't alone.
She said Jesus was standingright there with me.
She said I talked to him allnight.
She said I asked Jesus to letme live to help me to finish
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raising my girls.
She said I asked Jesus to letme live to help me to finish
raising my girls.
She said I promised Jesus thatI would never drink again, and
he did.
She said her jaundicedisappeared, her liver function
returned to normal and she livedanother 20 years sober, strong
and fully healed.
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What we see that Jesus loves todo is he loves to free people
from their sin.
We see that Jesus has all thepower.
He says I adjure you, do nottorment me.
For he was saying to him, comeout of the man, you unclean
spirit.
And Jesus asked him what isyour name?
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And he replied my name isLegion, for we are many.
Now, here's the point of whathe's saying, as Jesus is calling
this demon out of the man andhe, I believe that Jesus is
asking the man his name Becausewhen everybody else is steering
clear of this man, when everyoneelse has banned this man to the
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tombs, when everyone else isavoiding this man, when no one
wants to come around this man,notice how Jesus, knowing the
man's struggle, knowing hisbattle, knowing his sin, he
walks up to the man and he's notafraid.
Notice Jesus' compassion forthe man and even though he knows
his name, jesus asks the manhis name.
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In other words, jesus knowsyour name, Jesus knows your
struggle, jesus knows yourbattle.
Jesus knows the worst thingthat has ever happened in your
life and Jesus loves you anyways.
Jesus loves to come to us andhe loves to free us from sin.
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Jesus loves, we love to see.
I want to show you this.
I think this is so important.
Is that maybe you're here andyou just feel like that you
don't have any hope from yoursin?
But I want you to know that wemay be no match for Satan, but
Satan is no match for Jesus.
We may be no match for Satan,but Satan is no match for Jesus.
That's what we're seeing herein this passage that Jesus has
all power over these demons inthis man's life, just like Jesus
has all power over the sin inyour life.
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He said what is your name?
And he says my name is.
The man starts to speak, my nameis, and then it looks like the
demons take over.
And isn't that what it's likein my sin?
And isn't that what it's likein your sin?
We think we have power, wethink we have the control, we
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think that we can live with sinin our life, but yet just when
even we try to speak, or justwhen we try to live, or just
when we try to talk is when thesin comes up again.
My name is, and then the demonstake over Legion, for we are
many.
What does Legion mean?
Legion is the largest troop inthe entire Roman army.
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It's some 6,000 soldiers.
The demons called themselvesLegion and they are saying we
are here and we are here todestroy.
That's exactly what Satan's endgame is.
Satan doesn't want you to justplay with sin, he wants sin to
destroy you.
I was thinking this week how dowe say this?
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And sin is not just a way toplease you, sin is a weapon to
destroy you.
That's exactly what Satan wantsto do to me and that's exactly
what Satan wants to do to you.
That's why that we see how theyanswer Jesus' question in this
man.
And he says then, in verse 10,he says that he begged him
earnestly.
Again, I think this is thedemons talking he begged him
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earnestly not to send them, thedemons, out of the country.
Now, there was a great herd ofpigs that was feeding there on
the hillside and they begged himsaying send us to the pigs, let
us enter them.
Now.
That's just so weird right.
Never truly understood that and, to be honest with you, I read
a lot on this topic.
Why did that happen?
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And nobody really knows,because the Bible never really
truly tells us, except for thefact that it looks like that
demons desire a host.
As weird as that sounds.
But just let me explain for asecond, because it looks like
that sin doesn't want to justrun rampant flippantly, sin
(26:57):
loves to work personally.
Sin wants to target me and sinwants to target you.
When I was a middle schoolerprobably the greatest satanic
attack I've ever been throughSome of you have heard this
story, but we probably had fiveor six TVs in the house at that
(27:17):
time.
My TV was the only TV in theentire house that got a specific
channel, a channel that wasvery sinful, a channel that was
filthy, a channel that was itwas awful.
It was in my bedroom Only TV inthe entire house that got this
one channel.
You can't make it up.
Satan was targeting me and Iremember as a middle schooler,
for two years, me falling intothat addiction and I remember
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trying to get out of this sinand I remember trying to use all
of my power and not trying totell anybody and keep it hidden,
but trying to overcome it, andI couldn't.
I remember one day we're sittingat the dinner table that
evening and my mom looking at meand my mom saying, overcome it.
And I couldn't.
I remember one day we'resitting at the dinner table that
evening and my mom looking atme and my mom saying, chip,
you're so quiet, you're sodistant, we just feel like we
don't even know you anymore.
Is anything going on?
And I couldn't even tell them.
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I remember, about a year later,my student pastor, my youth
pastor, preaching a message toour youth group and God gripped
my heart.
The Holy Spirit came upon meand I knew what I had to do and
I went into my parents' roomthat evening and I told them
everything that I had been doingin secret and in private.
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And I'll never forget thatfeeling of I don't know how
they're going to respond, but Ididn't have a choice.
I had to get it off of my chest, I had to get it out of my life
.
I'll never forget my dadlooking at me and my dad saying,
son, we are so sorry thathappened to you, we forgive you,
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we love you and we're here tohelp you.
That had a tremendous impact onmy life spiritually, not just
because that's how my earthlydad responded because I learned
a very important lesson that day.
That's how every one of ourheavenly father responds in our
crisis of sin that our heavenlyfather doesn't respond in hate.
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Our heavenly father doesn'trespond in disgust.
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond with how could you?
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond in disgust.
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond with how could you?
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond with you did that to me.
But our heavenly father alwaysresponds with I love you and I'm
going to help you and I forgiveyou.
See, we see, as he's talkinghere, and they said send us to
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the pigs.
And he said and he gave them,jesus gave them permission.
We're seeing this power ofJesus, even over the demons and
the unclean spirits came out ofthe man and entered the pigs and
the herd numbering about 2,000pigs, and they all rushed down
to the steep bank into the sea,drowned in the sea.
What is this teaching us?
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It's teaching us that this isthe ultimate destiny of all sin.
This is the ultimate destiny ofall evil.
This is what's going to happen.
Is that Jesus is going to judgeall sin?
Aren't you thankful that whenwe get to heaven, revelation,
chapter 21, verse 4, says he'sgoing to wipe away every tear
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from your eye and death and painshall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourningor crying anymore, for the
former things have passed away.
There will come a day in yourlife, in your eternal life, that
you will not have any morestruggle with sin, because all
sin will be judged in hell.
But also, aren't you thankfulthat you don't have to wait till
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that day to experience thefreedom of Jesus, that every
single sin that I struggle with,that you struggle with, was
bore on the body of Jesus, thatthe Bible literally says that he
became our sin?
The Bible says that when webelieve in him and his death for
our sin, his resurrection toeternal life, then the Bible
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says this is that there is notone sin that you cannot say no
to.
While you'll never say no toevery sin, you'll never be
perfect in this life, but Jesusis saying that he has power over
all sin and he has grace overall sin and forgiveness over all
sin.
So if you've come here todayand you are in sin and you
(31:24):
struggle with sin, like Istruggle with sin, and you're
just honest with yourself andyou're honest with God, then
just know that we don't judgeyou because we're on this
journey with you.
This is a room full of sinners,as we are all about the Savior,
and I know there's so manychurches out there that are
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struggling with hypocrisy, andthere's churches out there that
just talk about everybody else'ssin.
We need to talk about our sin.
I need to talk about my sin.
I need to talk about my sin.
We need to deal with our ownsin, and so I was thinking
through and just praying through.
How do I simplify this this weekfor a seven steps to overcoming
your sin, whatever's going onin your life and what's going on
in my life?
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Number one it just starts withthe conviction of the Holy
Spirit, allowing the Spirit ofGod to convict you, and then we
confess our sin to God and thenwe believe in his forgiveness.
We receive his forgiveness,that he forgives you 100% of
what you confess, and then welive in repentance.
That's a 180 degree directionalturn.
Instead of living in that sinanymore, now live that area in
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your life in Jesus.
And then it's scripture Ifyou're still dealing with it and
struggling with it and battlingwith it in your life in Jesus.
And then it's scripture Ifyou're still dealing with it and
struggling with it and battlingwith it in your life.
Then what do we do?
We get into the word of God.
What does the word of God,which is the sword of the spirit
, which is designed to fight thesin in your life, what does the
word of God say about my sin?
And I want to get into the wordand I want to study that and I
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want to memorize.
Memorize that and I wanna holdon to that is my promise and I
wanna speak that on a dailybasis, declare it in my life.
And then accountability that ifyou are continuing to struggle,
you need an accountabilitypartner in your life, someone
that loves Jesus, someone thatfollows Jesus, someone that you
look up to spiritually.
They're a mentor like to youthat you can be completely
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honest with and they won't judgeyou, they'll listen to you and
they'll pray for you.
And then last is counseling Ifit continues to dominate you,
then go and talk to aprofessional.
Go and talk to someone who'svery educated, that has all of
the tools that can help youovercoming that sin that is
continuing on in your lifebecause it is so common.
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Verse 14 says so.
What happens when Jesus?
He cast out the demons and theygo into the pigs and 2,000 pigs
go into the sea, says that theherdsmen fled and told it in the
city, in other words, the pigherdsmen.
They saw everything happeningand what did they do?
They ran, and so would you andso would I right.
They just saw this crazymiracle happen before their eyes
(34:04):
.
The herdsmen fled and they wentand told everybody in the city
and in the country.
So everybody came out from thecity and the country and the
people came to see what it wasthat had happened.
And they came to Jesus.
And there's Jesus.
And there's the man that hadbeen possessed, the one who had
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the legion, and he was notroaming around, he wasn't crying
, he wasn't screaming, he wasn'tcutting, he was just sitting
there.
And he was just sitting thereand he was clothed and he was in
his right mind.
And what was their response?
Notice, it wasn't worship, itwas fear.
Why?
Because everyone is used to sin, but not everyone is used to
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the power of God.
It's a reminder that you can gothrough spiritual
transformation in your life andnot everybody's gonna like it,
not everybody's gonna be onboard, not everybody's gonna
celebrate.
I think about the person thatmessaged us just this week in
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another story.
They just simply said theirwords.
Jesus has set me free from weedand vaping and suicidal
thoughts, they said.
I just want to say I'm soblessed to be here and to praise
him.
He has pulled me through and Iam so thankful.
Put your hands together forthat person and praise the Lord
(35:33):
for what Jesus has done in yourlife.
I can only imagine that thatperson probably has friends
around them trying to pull themback into their sin.
Because here's the deal Peoplethat have never experienced the
freedom of Jesus will notcelebrate your freedom in Jesus,
but those that have will.
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That's why you surroundyourself with believers.
That's why you get into thecommunity of the faith.
Get around people whounderstand what it looks like to
live for Jesus but still tostruggle with sin, and that we
can't live fake, phony lives infront of each other.
We just got be real, notreligious.
We've gotta be real with oneanother, sharing our struggles,
(36:19):
because we need to remember thathe says in verse 16, and those
who had seen it described tothem what had happened to the
demon-possessed man and to thepigs, and they began to beg
Jesus to depart from the region.
So what do we do?
Don't let the fear of othersstop you from following Jesus.
Don't let the fear of othersstop you from following Jesus.
Don't let the fear of othersstop you from following Jesus.
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Verse 18, the end of the story.
It says as he was getting intothe boat, the man who had been
possessed with the demons beganto beg Jesus, jesus, that he
might be with him.
Can you hear thisdemon-possessed, this formerly
demon-possessed man now sittingthere, clothed in his right mind
(37:02):
?
Can you hear it?
Jesus, before you leave, can Icome with you?
You're all I've got, jesus,you're all I need.
You just healed me, you justsoothed my pain, my biggest
problem in life, and you did amiracle.
And, jesus, I wanna go with you, jesus, I wanna be with you.
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He's literally saying Jesus, Iwant to be your disciple.
He stops Jesus getting in theboat, saying that he might be
with him.
And here's what's fascinatingto me and Jesus actually told
him no.
He actually told him no.
He said I've got something evenbetter for you.
He did not permit the man, butinstead he said to him go home
(37:45):
to your friends and tell themhow much the Lord has done for
you and how he has had mercy onyou.
It would be like saying man, Ijust got saved, I just got
baptized, I just overcame sin inmy life and now I just wanna
live 24-7 in church.
I just never wanna leave churchagain.
Or I wanna line up my life towhere I go to 1,000 different
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Bible studies all week long andthat's all I do is Bible study,
hop, just Bible study, hoppingall the time right.
Or I just wanna watch ChristianYouTube videos 24-7.
And Jesus is saying you canfollow me, you can believe in me
, you can live for me, butyou've gotta go.
Just like he told his disciples, go and make disciples of all
(38:28):
nations, of all ethnicities,baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit, and I will be with him,
teaching them to observeeverything that I've commanded
and I will be with you always.
He told him to.
I just have to wonder who thisman's friends were, who his
family was.
Did he have a wife?
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Did he have kids?
Did he have a job?
Did he have parents, siblings,grandkids and all the people who
had already banished him?
And he goes back into his townand he goes back into his city
(39:14):
and he goes back into his homeand they see a changed man right
before their eyes and he getsto tell them everything.
Tell them all that the Lord hasdone for you and how he has had
mercy upon you.
Everything that the Lord hasdone for me is out of his mercy.
(39:37):
I haven't deserved or earned athing.
I don't deserve my salvation.
I don't deserve to beMichelle's husband.
I don't deserve to be my kid'sdad.
I don't deserve to be yourpastor.
(39:57):
Everything the Lord has donefor me has been out of his mercy
.
And what an honor it is that weget to tell.
What an honor it is that we getto go.
It says when the man went away,he began to proclaim and all of
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the Decapolis Decapolis means 10cities.
Historians tell us there couldhave been a million people who
live in that area he goes andproclaims in all of the
Decapolis how much Jesus haddone for him and everyone
marveled, the same people thathad driven Jesus out, saying
(40:39):
Jesus, you got to go.
This man went to the samepeople and now, instead of fear,
it was the mission that madethem marvel.
I just wanna remind you, as hewas talking here.
I want us to see that he'scalling us to go home to tell
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our friends and tell them howmuch the Lord has done for you
and how he has mercy upon you.
I wanna remind you that Jesusisn't just saving you from your
sin, he is saving you to themission.
So my question for you what areyou going through in your life?
What are the spiritual battlesthat you fight that only Jesus
(41:29):
can overcome, and all of thosethings that he has overcome?
See, there's always gonna benew battles that we fight,
always gonna be new fights thatwe face, and even when we're in
the fight, we still go to peopleand we tell them everything the
Lord has done for us and allthe mercy that he has bestowed
(41:50):
upon us.
So, where is your Decapolis andwho are the people and who are
the friends and who are thefamily that Jesus is sending you
to this week to tell them allthat the Lord has done for you
and the mercy that he has hadupon you?
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I'm gonna ask us to bow ourheads and close our eyes.
With every head bowed and everyeye closed, I just wanna
encourage you right here, rightnow, just to think about what is
in your life that maybe Satanis using in your life Temptation
, deception, sin, addiction,brokenness, something in your
(42:34):
past, something that has hurtyou, something that's holding
you back, something that isaffecting all of your life or
parts of your life, that onlyGod can give you freedom.
Only God can give youforgiveness in this moment.
That you would bring it to himright now and just say, jesus, I
(42:58):
just confess this to you, jesus, I give this to you.
Jesus, I need you to free me,forgive me, be with me, jesus, I
need you, and maybe you're herethis morning and you need to
fully, finally and fully giveyour life over to him.
Maybe you haven't been saved,you haven't begun a relationship
(43:20):
with him, you have not beenfully forgiven yet.
So, right here, right now, Iwant to give you that
opportunity.
I believe that today can be theday of your salvation.
I can't save you and I can'tpray this prayer for you, but
right here, right now, I canlead you through this and you
can finally and fully give yourlife to Jesus.
Right here, from your own heartand your own words, you can say
(43:41):
Jesus, jesus, I need you and Ibelieve in you.
And you can say Jesus, Ibelieve that you died on the
cross for my sin, so I ask youto forgive me of all of my sin,
past, present and future.
You can tell him Jesus, Ibelieve that you rose from the
(44:03):
dead, you're alive.
So I turn from my sin and Iturn and I follow you and I call
on you to be the Lord of mylife.
And the Bible says that if youconfess Jesus as your Lord and
believe in your heart that Godraised from the dead, you will
be saved.
So you just say Jesus, save me,jesus, forgive me, be my Lord,
(44:29):
be my Savior.
And Jesus, thank you for thatpromise and that truth.
We believe it.
We thank you for it in Jesus'name.
And all God's people said wouldyou put your hands together for
anybody that gave their life toJesus?
This morning, we're so thankfulfor all that God does in our
life and I just wanna encourageyou just to stand right now, all
that God does in our life, andI just wanna encourage you just
to stand right now and I wannasay, as we stand together, we're
(44:52):
gonna worship Jesus one moretime and with this last song
that you're gonna love, and Ipray that your heart connects
with this song, with theselyrics, because we designed
these services for you to beable to worship him with all of
you out of what you just heard,and so I pray that, as he
continues to free you, that youcontinue to live in freedom and
in his forgiveness, that you'llcontinue to worship him together
(45:16):
.
Let's do that right now.
All right, put your hands together if you're excited
to be here this morning inchurch.
Man, what a great morning theLord has for us so far.
God is so good.
It is so good seeing all ofyour smiling faces and we're
just so thankful for yourpresence and for all of our
first-time guests that are here,our first-time guests that are
online.
There is nothing more importantthan gathering together as the
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body of Jesus Christ as we getto worship Jesus together.
Like Pastor James and Ravensaid that we are studying the
series.
I Need a Miracle.
How many y'all need a miraclein your life?
My hand is up.
Raise your hand right now.
And man God is.
He is a God that does miracles.
He is our miracle working Godand God is doing miracles in our
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lives.
God is doing miracles in ourchurch.
Even just last week, god did amiracle in our church for Upward
Basketball Sunday, from ourpreschool ministry to our high
school ministry.
Just in our next generationalministries, including all of our
kids, all of our teenagers andour volunteers we had 190 last
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week in our NextGen Ministries.
Put your hands together forwhat God's doing as he is
raising up the next generationof Jesus followers.
I want to remind you of ourstudent camp that is coming up.
That is, june 20 through 23,for all of our teenagers.
So just a reminder, because youneed to get signed up,
registered and all of that.
How many of y'all you went tostudent camp as a teenager back
(01:27):
in the day?
You remember those days and,man, that was awesome and it was
life-changing.
And so if you have a teenager,if you know of a teenager, you
just get them registered, getthem paid for.
Maybe you don't know one, butGod used it to change your life.
Maybe you want to pay for ateenager and you want to support
somebody to go.
Then you have that opportunity.
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You can give in that way aswell.
Let me pray for us this morning.
Heavenly Father, we love youand God, we just thank you that
you are here with us.
God, we thank you for yourpresence.
God, we thank you for your wordand, father, we just pray in
Jesus' name, lord, that youwould speak to our hearts, you
would change our lives.
For the glory of Jesus, we prayand we ask all these things in
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Jesus' name, and all God'speople said amen.
So here we are in the series INeed a Miracle, and it's five
weeks through the month of March.
Last week we talked about ourneed for a miracle, that it was
a miracle of belief over doubt,as we looked at Jesus calming
the storms in our life andwalking with Jesus upon the
(02:29):
waters.
This week it's going to be onfreedom and how our freedom
you'll see here on the screenour freedom over sin.
We want to talk about thismiracle that the Lord wants to
do in our life.
And then next week is going tobe on how God wants to do a
miracle of provision over ourneed.
The following week how Godwants to heal the sick.
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The following week how Godwants to bring new life to
things that are dead in our life.
And the reason I kind of sharewith you that schedule of this
preaching series is so that youknow who to invite on specific
Sundays.
Now I pray that you invitepeople every single Sunday to
get in the Word of God, to hearfrom Jesus, so they can follow
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him too.
But also there are specificneeds that people have in their
life in specific ways that youcan be praying for them.
But as well, we wanna encourageyou that you can share your
story.
So with these Sundays that arecoming up.
Maybe you have a story in lifewhere God has provided for you
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in one of these ways and you'regonna get to hear some of those
stories already this morning.
Also, I want you to know thatwe have an I Need a Miracle wall
, and you'll see that right outin our lobby.
There's one up in our officesby the sanctuary, and this is
where you get to write down themiracle that you need or you
desire.
(03:53):
You're praying for God to do inyour life so that people can
walk by the wall, so that youcan walk by the wall and you can
pray for each and every one ofthose tags that we can pray that
God would continue to domiracles in people's lives.
This morning I had my littlegirl, brooklyn, with me.
It was about eight o'clock, shewas in her wheelchair and I was
wheeling her by a wall and Istopped and I said hey, baby,
(04:15):
you want God to do a miracle inyour life.
This is a miracle wall.
And she said, yeah, dad.
And I said what miracle wouldyou love for God to do in your
life?
She said I would love for Godto do a miracle that I could
walk, and so we wrote that downon a tag and we put it on the
wall.
Sign her name on it, brooklyn.
You don't have to put your nameon it, but just so that you can
be praying for her, so that wecan be praying for one another,
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and it's all culminatingtogether to a worship and prayer
service that we have on Sundaynight, march the 30th, and that
is all going to be culminatingin this.
I Need a Miracle where you canpray for all of these together
that a miracle would be done.
Or when God does a miracle, wesee his power.
But listen to me, when Goddoesn't do the miracle, we see
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his wisdom, because God hasgreater things in store in our
life.
So this morning, what I want totalk to you about in terms of a
miracle is last week, when wetalked about how your storm
won't stop.
This morning, I want to talkabout when your sin won't stop,
because one of the greatestmiracles that God could ever do
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in your life is a spiritualmiracle.
In other words, we need God todo more in our heart than any
other area of our life.
So you can open up your Biblewith me to Mark, chapter 5,
starting out with verse 1.
Mark 5, verse 1, it's a veryinteresting passage of Scripture
(05:42):
.
Very interesting, it is about ademon-possessed man, right.
And so whenever we come acrossthese passages, we're not
exactly sure what to do withthese passages, because we don't
see a lot of demon possession.
You know, there are two extremeswhen it comes to people that
think about the demonic, orSatan or evil or all of these
(06:04):
type things.
You know, one extreme is thatpeople don't believe in it at
all.
No such thing as Satan, no suchthing as demons, no such thing
as evil, no such thing as hell.
They've never been at the DMV,right, they've never been to
Walmart on a Saturday.
Like they don't get it, theydon't get it.
And then other people, likethey think of demons in
everything, like they'rehyper-spiritualized.
You know, like man, there's ademon in my car.
(06:26):
No, you just didn't change youroil, sorry.
There's a demon in my bankaccount.
No, you're just calling Amazonordering too much.
Amazon Prime's coming to yourhouse too much.
Right, there's a demon in mykid.
That may be possible, I don'tknow.
But we, just people, kind ofsee it as two different extremes
(06:46):
.
But Jesus gives us thesepassages because he wants us to
know that there's a spiritualrealm.
There's a spiritual war aroundyou, that not everything is
visible, Not everything isphysical, but everything is
spiritual, including our lives.
Mark, chapter five you'll seehere.
(07:08):
Mark, chapter five, verse one,says they came to the other side
of the sea, to the country ofthe Gerasenes, and Jesus had
stepped out of the boat.
And when Jesus had stepped outof the boat, immediately there
met him out of the tombs, a manwith an unclean spirit.
This man, he lived among thetombs.
(07:29):
No one can bind him anymore.
Now I'll be real honest withyou.
We don't know anything aboutthis man.
We don't know what kind of lifethis man had lived.
We don't know if this man had afamily.
We don't know if this man had ajob.
We don't know if this man wasrespected at one point in time
in his life.
We don't know what this manwent through.
We don't know what this man hadto deal with in his life.
(07:50):
We're not even sure how thisman became demon possessed.
But here's what we see there isa man that is banned to the
tombs.
In other words, they kicked himout of the city, they kicked
him out of the city, they kickedhim out of the town and he is
banished to the tombs.
And even other gospel writerssaid that they tried to bind him
with chains and with shackles,and he had the strength and he
(08:12):
was able to break them apart.
One of the gospel writers saidthat he would break them apart
and he would just run out intothe wilderness again and he
would be doing all of thesethings.
So he lived among the tombs andno one could bind him anymore,
not even with a chain, for hehad often been bound with
shackles and chains, but hewrenched the chains apart and he
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broke the shackles in pieces.
No one had the strength tosubdue him.
Other gospel writers said thatno one would even go around him.
They would not even go to thatarea.
Night and day, among the tombson the mountains, he was always
crying out and he was cuttinghimself with stones.
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This man needed a miracle.
I need a miracle in my life,you need a miracle in your life,
and only Jesus is the one who'sthe miracle worker, is the one
that can do a miracle.
But maybe you're here thismorning thinking but this isn't
the miracle that I need.
As far as I know, I'm not demonpossessed.
Well, I want you to know thatactually, what Jesus does with
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this man.
It reveals to us that this isthe greatest miracle that we
need, that the greatest miraclethat God can do in our life is
spiritual, because I'll go andtell you this man right here.
He had physical problems.
He had mental issues, he hadfinancial issues in his life.
He had all kind of issues inhis life, but the one that was
(09:40):
driving every other issue werethe physical issues that he had
in his life.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you is to save you.
That was driving every otherissue were the physical issues
that he had in his life.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you is to save you.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you is to forgive you.
The greatest miracle that Godcan do in you and in me that I
need is for God to cleanse me ofmy sin.
(10:00):
I received a story this pastweek that said for years my
family, we prayed for a miraclethat God would heal my younger
sister's cancer, but instead wewatched her suffer in tremendous
pain.
The healing we begged for nevercame in the way that we had
hoped.
There was another miracle, onemy parents had prayed for.
(10:23):
Now, for over 20 years, mysister had been far from God,
running from her pain, searchingfor fulfillment in everything
but God, and just before hercancer diagnosis she felt God
pursuing her like a lion on agazelle.
She would say.
God wouldn't let her go.
So, through her battle withcancer, we watched her heart
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soften, her faith deepen, hertrust grow in God, even in the
face of death.
She believed that God couldheal her, but, even more
importantly, she trusted him,even if he didn't.
In her last months she sharedher journey with over 56,000
followers online, many of whomcaught their cancer early
(11:11):
because of her story.
Others came to faith drawn byher unwavering trust in Jesus.
The lesson we learn is sometimesthe greater miracle isn't
healing, but the greatestmiracle is our heart being
transformed by Jesus Christ.
What this story teaches us ofJesus as the demon-possessed man
(11:33):
isn't just that every sin is ademon, or every time that we
struggle in sin is possession.
That's not the point at all.
What the point is is that Godwants to do a greater, deeper
work in our life, in our heart,that can settle so many other
issues in our life.
Are there demons today?
Yes, there are demons today,even though we don't see a lot
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of demon possession today.
Why we don't see a lot of demonpossession?
We saw it a lot in Jesus' day.
Why?
Because Jesus was on the sceneand so Satan was doing a full
onslaught evil attack during thedays of Jesus.
There is demon possession today.
It happens a lot in other thirdworld countries, very animistic
(12:17):
cultures.
Why don't we see it in ourcountry today?
Because Satan would blow hiscover.
There are so many churchesaround, there's so much access
to the gospel around.
If you saw all thesedemon-possessed people walking
around today then people wouldsay, yes, spiritual Israel,
demons are real.
Satan is real.
They'd go to church, they'dhear the gospel, they'd get
saved.
(12:37):
But Satan doesn't work in termsof possession in our culture,
hear me, he works in terms ofdeception Not in possession, but
in deception.
Can a Christian be possessed bya demon?
No, because a Christian ispossessed by the Holy Spirit.
Can I get an amen?
(12:58):
So this passage is ultimatelyabout sin.
Where did it come from?
We know that Satan was an angelcreated by God and Satan.
He decided to rebel against Godrather than to worship God.
The Bible says in Revelation 12that one third of the angels
that God created followed Satanand rebelled with him, and two
(13:21):
thirds of the angels continuedto follow God, to continue to
worship Jesus.
So I want you to think with me,as this passage is all about
the sin that we struggle with.
Did you know the Bible actuallygives us the three big
categories that every single sinfits into?
First category is the lust ofthe flesh, or these are lust of
(13:43):
desires, or sins of pleasure,saying I want to feel.
That these are sins that mightbe sexual sin, emotional sin,
sins of laziness, or sins ofdrugs or alcohol, or sins of
gluttony or passion, whateverthat sin might be.
The second category is the lustof the eyes.
Is treasure saying I want tohave that these are sins of
(14:07):
greed, materialism, jealousy forwhat other people have or
discontentment for what youdon't have.
The third category of all sinis pride, the pride of life.
These are sins of measure, orwho is it that you want to be
outside of Jesus?
These are sins of pride andfear and bragging and
controlling other people, orjust rebelling against God
(14:30):
because you want your own way.
We all struggle in differentways.
Which ones of these do youstruggle with the most?
Which ones of these do Istruggle with the most.
All of them Don't look at me sospiritual.
You struggle with all of themtoo.
These are sins that Satan isconstantly seeking to deceive us
with, and I wanna remind you ofthe sin that happened to the
(14:55):
heroes of the faith in the Bible.
Noah got drunk and naked.
Abraham lied about his wife andhad a child by another woman.
Moses killed a man.
Aaron made an idol as thepriest of God's people.
He made an idol for God'speople to falsely worship
instead of God.
(15:15):
Samson slept with the enemy.
King David had an affair, gother pregnant and then had her
husband killed.
Solomon was a womanizer of 1 athousand women.
The Bible says Peter denied evenknowing Jesus three times, and
the apostle Paul before he wassaved, he hunted down and he
killed Christians.
What is the point?
(15:36):
If God can forgive them and ifGod can continue to use them,
then God can continue to forgiveme and forgive you and use us
too.
Can I get an amen?
God is a forgiver of sin.
So what we see in that passage,we see what Satan wants to do.
Look at the isolation thatSatan wants to do.
(15:58):
He's got this man out in thetombs.
He is separating him.
He's isolating him from thecommunity.
You know what he loves to dowith us.
When we get in our sin, then weisolate ourself from Christian
community.
We don't wanna be in worship,we don't wanna be in group, we
don't wanna be a part of aserving team.
Or we also see here that he wasbound in shackles and he was in
(16:21):
chains, but yet he was able totear them apart.
Shackles and he was in chains,but yet he was able to tear them
apart.
Sin has an abnormal power andstrength in your life that you
cannot control.
That I cannot control.
I often think I can control sin, just like you think you can
control sin, but sin can onlycontrol and dominate us.
(16:41):
We see also here that, as hewas crying out day and night
among the tombs, we see misery.
Satan's promise is happiness,but Satan, all he gives is
misery when we follow our sin.
And then last it says that hewas cutting himself with stones.
We see, what does sin want todo?
(17:02):
Sin ultimately just wants todestroy us Isolation in power,
in misery, in self-harm.
The story I received this weekfrom one of you said for years I
carried a boulder of bitterness, a weight I didn't even realize
was consuming me.
My mother died when I was justone week old.
(17:22):
My childhood was marked by pain, rejection and abuse.
Though I accepted Christ at age12, I still wrestled with anger
, sadness and unforgiveness,feeling like God had abandoned
me.
And as an adult, I had a family, a job, attended church, but my
heart was still chained to thepast.
(17:42):
Bitterness defined me,poisoning my relationships, my
faith and my joy.
I refused to forgive, she said.
Then God stepped in, she saidone day, at Cracker Barrel, I
unexpectedly saw the stepmotherwho had hurt me the most.
She said in that moment, beforeI even said a word, before I
(18:05):
even had a choice, god liftedthe burden that I had carried
for 25 years.
The bitterness had vanished,replaced by compassion and
freedom.
Years later, that same womanasked for forgiveness and I
could joyfully tell her God hadalready healed my heart.
What is the lesson that we seehere?
(18:26):
That bitterness will bury you,but forgiveness will free you.
What Satan wants to do is todestroy us.
So the question that we need tobe asking ourselves in our life
is what sins am I strugglingwith?
In what way is Satan trying tosteal me from Jesus?
Or, if you were Satan, whatsins or temptations or
(18:49):
deceptions would you throw yourway in order to get you to stop
following after Jesus?
One of my favorite pastors andauthors is Derwin Gray, and he
said sin will take you fartherthan you wanna go, keep you
longer than you wanna stay andcost you more than you want to
pay.
Look at verse six.
Verse six says and when thatman saw Jesus from afar, he ran
(19:14):
and fell down before him.
Now here's what you'll see inthis passage.
That's really interesting, inthis passage where it's really
hard to tell sometimes whetherit's the man who's doing it or
whether it is the demons who aredoing it in his life, because
even in this way, this could bethe man or it could be the
demons.
It could be the man.
Out of his desperation, jesuscomes on the scene and the man
(19:36):
runs and desperately falls downbefore Jesus.
That Greek word, fall down, isproskuneo, and proskuneo just
simply means to worship.
It means to fall on one's kneesto worship Jesus.
It means literally to kiss hisfeet.
So it could be the man or itcould be the demons.
How could it be the demons?
Well, we see in scripture, allthroughout the Bible, that Jesus
(19:59):
is the only one that hasabsolute power, absolute control
over demons.
They can't do anything withouthis permission.
So we see that he saw Jesusfrom afar.
He ran, he fell down before himand, crying out with a loud
voice, he said what have you todo with me?
Jesus, son of the most high, Iadjure you by God, do not
(20:19):
torment me.
Now this looks like it's thedemons talking, because why
would Jesus torment the man?
Now, obviously there are peoplethat think, man, god just wants
to get me for my sin.
God just wants to punish me formy sin.
God just wants to judge me formy sin.
If you're here this morning andSatan has deceived you in that
way, god's heart is not to getyou to punish you, to torment
(20:42):
you, to judge you.
God's heart is to save you.
God's heart is to draw youcloser to him.
God's heart is to love you.
God's heart is to provide foryou.
God's heart is to care for you.
God's heart is for you to bewith him.
So I think this is the demonstalking, because the demons know
that their days are numbered.
The demons know that a day iscoming, that they will be cast
(21:06):
in hell forever, that Satan willbe cast in hell forever, and so
they're saying Jesus, have youcome to torment us before it's
time?
Notice they called him rightly,jesus, son of the most high God
.
Remember James, chapter 2, 19?
It says that even the demonsbelieve and they shudder.
(21:28):
Satan knows who Jesus is Satan.
Everything he wants to do inyour life is just simply to take
your eyes off of Jesus Christ.
Every temptation and everydeception is designed by demons
in you and in me, just to getour eyes off Jesus so that we do
(21:52):
not follow him.
A story I received this weeksaid my aunt's life was slipping
away.
Years of drinking had left herwith alcoholic cirrhosis and, as
her liver failed, her doctortold the family she won't make
it through.
The night they gathered by herbedside expecting to say goodbye
(22:12):
, but morning came and she wasstill there, awake and talking.
When they told her that theyhad stayed with her all night,
she stunned them by saying itwasn't just you, I wasn't alone.
She said Jesus was standingright there with me.
She said I talked to him allnight.
She said I asked Jesus to letme live to help me to finish
(22:34):
raising my girls.
She said I asked Jesus to letme live to help me to finish
raising my girls.
She said I promised Jesus thatI would never drink again, and
he did.
She said her jaundicedisappeared, her liver function
returned to normal and she livedanother 20 years sober, strong
and fully healed.
(22:55):
What we see that Jesus loves todo is he loves to free people
from their sin.
We see that Jesus has all thepower.
He says I adjure you, do nottorment me.
For he was saying to him, comeout of the man, you unclean
spirit.
And Jesus asked him what isyour name?
(23:16):
And he replied my name isLegion, for we are many.
Now, here's the point of whathe's saying, as Jesus is calling
this demon out of the man andhe, I believe that Jesus is
asking the man his name Becausewhen everybody else is steering
clear of this man, when everyoneelse has banned this man to the
(23:37):
tombs, when everyone else isavoiding this man, when no one
wants to come around this man,notice how Jesus, knowing the
man's struggle, knowing hisbattle, knowing his sin, he
walks up to the man and he's notafraid.
Notice Jesus' compassion forthe man and even though he knows
his name, jesus asks the manhis name.
(24:00):
In other words, jesus knowsyour name, Jesus knows your
struggle, jesus knows yourbattle.
Jesus knows the worst thingthat has ever happened in your
life and Jesus loves you anyways.
Jesus loves to come to us andhe loves to free us from sin.
(24:23):
Jesus loves, we love to see.
I want to show you this.
I think this is so important.
Is that maybe you're here andyou just feel like that you
don't have any hope from yoursin?
But I want you to know that wemay be no match for Satan, but
Satan is no match for Jesus.
We may be no match for Satan,but Satan is no match for Jesus.
That's what we're seeing herein this passage that Jesus has
all power over these demons inthis man's life, just like Jesus
has all power over the sin inyour life.
(24:47):
He said what is your name?
And he says my name is.
The man starts to speak, my nameis, and then it looks like the
demons take over.
And isn't that what it's likein my sin?
And isn't that what it's likein your sin?
We think we have power, wethink we have the control, we
(25:08):
think that we can live with sinin our life, but yet just when
even we try to speak, or justwhen we try to live, or just
when we try to talk is when thesin comes up again.
My name is, and then the demonstake over Legion, for we are
many.
What does Legion mean?
Legion is the largest troop inthe entire Roman army.
(25:30):
It's some 6,000 soldiers.
The demons called themselvesLegion and they are saying we
are here and we are here todestroy.
That's exactly what Satan's endgame is.
Satan doesn't want you to justplay with sin, he wants sin to
destroy you.
I was thinking this week how dowe say this?
(25:52):
And sin is not just a way toplease you, sin is a weapon to
destroy you.
That's exactly what Satan wantsto do to me and that's exactly
what Satan wants to do to you.
That's why that we see how theyanswer Jesus' question in this
man.
And he says then, in verse 10,he says that he begged him
earnestly.
Again, I think this is thedemons talking he begged him
(26:15):
earnestly not to send them, thedemons, out of the country.
Now, there was a great herd ofpigs that was feeding there on
the hillside and they begged himsaying send us to the pigs, let
us enter them.
Now.
That's just so weird right.
Never truly understood that and, to be honest with you, I read
a lot on this topic.
Why did that happen?
(26:36):
And nobody really knows,because the Bible never really
truly tells us, except for thefact that it looks like that
demons desire a host.
As weird as that sounds.
But just let me explain for asecond, because it looks like
that sin doesn't want to justrun rampant flippantly, sin
(26:57):
loves to work personally.
Sin wants to target me and sinwants to target you.
When I was a middle schoolerprobably the greatest satanic
attack I've ever been throughSome of you have heard this
story, but we probably had fiveor six TVs in the house at that
(27:17):
time.
My TV was the only TV in theentire house that got a specific
channel, a channel that wasvery sinful, a channel that was
filthy, a channel that was itwas awful.
It was in my bedroom Only TV inthe entire house that got this
one channel.
You can't make it up.
Satan was targeting me and Iremember as a middle schooler,
for two years, me falling intothat addiction and I remember
(27:45):
trying to get out of this sinand I remember trying to use all
of my power and not trying totell anybody and keep it hidden,
but trying to overcome it, andI couldn't.
I remember one day we're sittingat the dinner table that
evening and my mom looking at meand my mom saying, overcome it.
And I couldn't.
I remember one day we'resitting at the dinner table that
evening and my mom looking atme and my mom saying, chip,
you're so quiet, you're sodistant, we just feel like we
don't even know you anymore.
Is anything going on?
And I couldn't even tell them.
(28:06):
I remember, about a year later,my student pastor, my youth
pastor, preaching a message toour youth group and God gripped
my heart.
The Holy Spirit came upon meand I knew what I had to do and
I went into my parents' roomthat evening and I told them
everything that I had been doingin secret and in private.
(28:27):
And I'll never forget thatfeeling of I don't know how
they're going to respond, but Ididn't have a choice.
I had to get it off of my chest, I had to get it out of my life
.
I'll never forget my dadlooking at me and my dad saying,
son, we are so sorry thathappened to you, we forgive you,
(28:48):
we love you and we're here tohelp you.
That had a tremendous impact onmy life spiritually, not just
because that's how my earthlydad responded because I learned
a very important lesson that day.
That's how every one of ourheavenly father responds in our
crisis of sin that our heavenlyfather doesn't respond in hate.
(29:12):
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond in disgust.
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond with how could you?
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond in disgust.
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond with how could you?
Our heavenly father doesn'trespond with you did that to me.
But our heavenly father alwaysresponds with I love you and I'm
going to help you and I forgiveyou.
See, we see, as he's talkinghere, and they said send us to
(29:33):
the pigs.
And he said and he gave them,jesus gave them permission.
We're seeing this power ofJesus, even over the demons and
the unclean spirits came out ofthe man and entered the pigs and
the herd numbering about 2,000pigs, and they all rushed down
to the steep bank into the sea,drowned in the sea.
What is this teaching us?
(29:53):
It's teaching us that this isthe ultimate destiny of all sin.
This is the ultimate destiny ofall evil.
This is what's going to happen.
Is that Jesus is going to judgeall sin?
Aren't you thankful that whenwe get to heaven, revelation,
chapter 21, verse 4, says he'sgoing to wipe away every tear
(30:14):
from your eye and death and painshall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourningor crying anymore, for the
former things have passed away.
There will come a day in yourlife, in your eternal life, that
you will not have any morestruggle with sin, because all
sin will be judged in hell.
But also, aren't you thankfulthat you don't have to wait till
(30:37):
that day to experience thefreedom of Jesus, that every
single sin that I struggle with,that you struggle with, was
bore on the body of Jesus, thatthe Bible literally says that he
became our sin?
The Bible says that when webelieve in him and his death for
our sin, his resurrection toeternal life, then the Bible
(31:01):
says this is that there is notone sin that you cannot say no
to.
While you'll never say no toevery sin, you'll never be
perfect in this life, but Jesusis saying that he has power over
all sin and he has grace overall sin and forgiveness over all
sin.
So if you've come here todayand you are in sin and you
(31:24):
struggle with sin, like Istruggle with sin, and you're
just honest with yourself andyou're honest with God, then
just know that we don't judgeyou because we're on this
journey with you.
This is a room full of sinners,as we are all about the Savior,
and I know there's so manychurches out there that are
(31:49):
struggling with hypocrisy, andthere's churches out there that
just talk about everybody else'ssin.
We need to talk about our sin.
I need to talk about my sin.
I need to talk about my sin.
We need to deal with our ownsin, and so I was thinking
through and just praying through.
How do I simplify this this weekfor a seven steps to overcoming
your sin, whatever's going onin your life and what's going on
in my life?
(32:09):
Number one it just starts withthe conviction of the Holy
Spirit, allowing the Spirit ofGod to convict you, and then we
confess our sin to God and thenwe believe in his forgiveness.
We receive his forgiveness,that he forgives you 100% of
what you confess, and then welive in repentance.
That's a 180 degree directionalturn.
Instead of living in that sinanymore, now live that area in
(32:32):
your life in Jesus.
And then it's scripture Ifyou're still dealing with it and
struggling with it and battlingwith it in your life in Jesus.
And then it's scripture Ifyou're still dealing with it and
struggling with it and battlingwith it in your life.
Then what do we do?
We get into the word of God.
What does the word of God,which is the sword of the spirit
, which is designed to fight thesin in your life, what does the
word of God say about my sin?
And I want to get into the wordand I want to study that and I
(32:55):
want to memorize.
Memorize that and I wanna holdon to that is my promise and I
wanna speak that on a dailybasis, declare it in my life.
And then accountability that ifyou are continuing to struggle,
you need an accountabilitypartner in your life, someone
that loves Jesus, someone thatfollows Jesus, someone that you
look up to spiritually.
They're a mentor like to youthat you can be completely
(33:18):
honest with and they won't judgeyou, they'll listen to you and
they'll pray for you.
And then last is counseling Ifit continues to dominate you,
then go and talk to aprofessional.
Go and talk to someone who'svery educated, that has all of
the tools that can help youovercoming that sin that is
continuing on in your lifebecause it is so common.
(33:41):
Verse 14 says so.
What happens when Jesus?
He cast out the demons and theygo into the pigs and 2,000 pigs
go into the sea, says that theherdsmen fled and told it in the
city, in other words, the pigherdsmen.
They saw everything happeningand what did they do?
They ran, and so would you andso would I right.
They just saw this crazymiracle happen before their eyes
(34:04):
.
The herdsmen fled and they wentand told everybody in the city
and in the country.
So everybody came out from thecity and the country and the
people came to see what it wasthat had happened.
And they came to Jesus.
And there's Jesus.
And there's the man that hadbeen possessed, the one who had
(34:26):
the legion, and he was notroaming around, he wasn't crying
, he wasn't screaming, he wasn'tcutting, he was just sitting
there.
And he was just sitting thereand he was clothed and he was in
his right mind.
And what was their response?
Notice, it wasn't worship, itwas fear.
Why?
Because everyone is used to sin, but not everyone is used to
(34:52):
the power of God.
It's a reminder that you can gothrough spiritual
transformation in your life andnot everybody's gonna like it,
not everybody's gonna be onboard, not everybody's gonna
celebrate.
I think about the person thatmessaged us just this week in
(35:12):
another story.
They just simply said theirwords.
Jesus has set me free from weedand vaping and suicidal
thoughts, they said.
I just want to say I'm soblessed to be here and to praise
him.
He has pulled me through and Iam so thankful.
Put your hands together forthat person and praise the Lord
(35:33):
for what Jesus has done in yourlife.
I can only imagine that thatperson probably has friends
around them trying to pull themback into their sin.
Because here's the deal Peoplethat have never experienced the
freedom of Jesus will notcelebrate your freedom in Jesus,
but those that have will.
(35:57):
That's why you surroundyourself with believers.
That's why you get into thecommunity of the faith.
Get around people whounderstand what it looks like to
live for Jesus but still tostruggle with sin, and that we
can't live fake, phony lives infront of each other.
We just got be real, notreligious.
We've gotta be real with oneanother, sharing our struggles,
(36:19):
because we need to remember thathe says in verse 16, and those
who had seen it described tothem what had happened to the
demon-possessed man and to thepigs, and they began to beg
Jesus to depart from the region.
So what do we do?
Don't let the fear of othersstop you from following Jesus.
Don't let the fear of othersstop you from following Jesus.
Don't let the fear of othersstop you from following Jesus.
(36:40):
Verse 18, the end of the story.
It says as he was getting intothe boat, the man who had been
possessed with the demons beganto beg Jesus, jesus, that he
might be with him.
Can you hear thisdemon-possessed, this formerly
demon-possessed man now sittingthere, clothed in his right mind
(37:02):
?
Can you hear it?
Jesus, before you leave, can Icome with you?
You're all I've got, jesus,you're all I need.
You just healed me, you justsoothed my pain, my biggest
problem in life, and you did amiracle.
And, jesus, I wanna go with you, jesus, I wanna be with you.
(37:22):
He's literally saying Jesus, Iwant to be your disciple.
He stops Jesus getting in theboat, saying that he might be
with him.
And here's what's fascinatingto me and Jesus actually told
him no.
He actually told him no.
He said I've got something evenbetter for you.
He did not permit the man, butinstead he said to him go home
(37:45):
to your friends and tell themhow much the Lord has done for
you and how he has had mercy onyou.
It would be like saying man, Ijust got saved, I just got
baptized, I just overcame sin inmy life and now I just wanna
live 24-7 in church.
I just never wanna leave churchagain.
Or I wanna line up my life towhere I go to 1,000 different
(38:05):
Bible studies all week long andthat's all I do is Bible study,
hop, just Bible study, hoppingall the time right.
Or I just wanna watch ChristianYouTube videos 24-7.
And Jesus is saying you canfollow me, you can believe in me
, you can live for me, butyou've gotta go.
Just like he told his disciples, go and make disciples of all
(38:28):
nations, of all ethnicities,baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit, and I will be with him,
teaching them to observeeverything that I've commanded
and I will be with you always.
He told him to.
I just have to wonder who thisman's friends were, who his
family was.
Did he have a wife?
(38:50):
Did he have kids?
Did he have a job?
Did he have parents, siblings,grandkids and all the people who
had already banished him?
And he goes back into his townand he goes back into his city
(39:14):
and he goes back into his homeand they see a changed man right
before their eyes and he getsto tell them everything.
Tell them all that the Lord hasdone for you and how he has had
mercy upon you.
Everything that the Lord hasdone for me is out of his mercy.
(39:37):
I haven't deserved or earned athing.
I don't deserve my salvation.
I don't deserve to beMichelle's husband.
I don't deserve to be my kid'sdad.
I don't deserve to be yourpastor.
(39:57):
Everything the Lord has donefor me has been out of his mercy
.
And what an honor it is that weget to tell.
What an honor it is that we getto go.
It says when the man went away,he began to proclaim and all of
(40:19):
the Decapolis Decapolis means 10cities.
Historians tell us there couldhave been a million people who
live in that area he goes andproclaims in all of the
Decapolis how much Jesus haddone for him and everyone
marveled, the same people thathad driven Jesus out, saying
(40:39):
Jesus, you got to go.
This man went to the samepeople and now, instead of fear,
it was the mission that madethem marvel.
I just wanna remind you, as hewas talking here.
I want us to see that he'scalling us to go home to tell
(41:03):
our friends and tell them howmuch the Lord has done for you
and how he has mercy upon you.
I wanna remind you that Jesusisn't just saving you from your
sin, he is saving you to themission.
So my question for you what areyou going through in your life?
What are the spiritual battlesthat you fight that only Jesus
(41:29):
can overcome, and all of thosethings that he has overcome?
See, there's always gonna benew battles that we fight,
always gonna be new fights thatwe face, and even when we're in
the fight, we still go to peopleand we tell them everything the
Lord has done for us and allthe mercy that he has bestowed
(41:50):
upon us.
So, where is your Decapolis andwho are the people and who are
the friends and who are thefamily that Jesus is sending you
to this week to tell them allthat the Lord has done for you
and the mercy that he has hadupon you?
(42:11):
I'm gonna ask us to bow ourheads and close our eyes.
With every head bowed and everyeye closed, I just wanna
encourage you right here, rightnow, just to think about what is
in your life that maybe Satanis using in your life Temptation
, deception, sin, addiction,brokenness, something in your
(42:34):
past, something that has hurtyou, something that's holding
you back, something that isaffecting all of your life or
parts of your life, that onlyGod can give you freedom.
Only God can give youforgiveness in this moment.
That you would bring it to himright now and just say, jesus, I
(42:58):
just confess this to you, jesus, I give this to you.
Jesus, I need you to free me,forgive me, be with me, jesus, I
need you, and maybe you're herethis morning and you need to
fully, finally and fully giveyour life over to him.
Maybe you haven't been saved,you haven't begun a relationship
(43:20):
with him, you have not beenfully forgiven yet.
So, right here, right now, Iwant to give you that
opportunity.
I believe that today can be theday of your salvation.
I can't save you and I can'tpray this prayer for you, but
right here, right now, I canlead you through this and you
can finally and fully give yourlife to Jesus.
Right here, from your own heartand your own words, you can say
(43:41):
Jesus, jesus, I need you and Ibelieve in you.
And you can say Jesus, Ibelieve that you died on the
cross for my sin, so I ask youto forgive me of all of my sin,
past, present and future.
You can tell him Jesus, Ibelieve that you rose from the
(44:03):
dead, you're alive.
So I turn from my sin and Iturn and I follow you and I call
on you to be the Lord of mylife.
And the Bible says that if youconfess Jesus as your Lord and
believe in your heart that Godraised from the dead, you will
be saved.
So you just say Jesus, save me,jesus, forgive me, be my Lord,
(44:29):
be my Savior.
And Jesus, thank you for thatpromise and that truth.
We believe it.
We thank you for it in Jesus'name.
And all God's people said wouldyou put your hands together for
anybody that gave their life toJesus?
This morning, we're so thankfulfor all that God does in our
life and I just wanna encourageyou just to stand right now, all
that God does in our life, andI just wanna encourage you just
to stand right now and I wannasay, as we stand together, we're
(44:52):
gonna worship Jesus one moretime and with this last song
that you're gonna love, and Ipray that your heart connects
with this song, with theselyrics, because we designed
these services for you to beable to worship him with all of
you out of what you just heard,and so I pray that, as he
continues to free you, that youcontinue to live in freedom and
in his forgiveness, that you'llcontinue to worship him together
(45:16):
.
Let's do that right now.
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