1 00:00:06,310 --> 00:00:07,920 Again, we thank you for this time. 2 00:00:08,010 --> 00:00:11,480 It's been a joy to be able to come and give you praise and 3 00:00:11,490 --> 00:00:14,640 worship this morning. We thank you for the opportunity 4 00:00:14,650 --> 00:00:20,240 to stop and remember our Saviour when we take communion. 5 00:00:20,310 --> 00:00:24,020 Lord, as we come to hear your word this morning, Lord Mayor 6 00:00:24,030 --> 00:00:27,080 hearts, be open to hearing that we will be challenged and 7 00:00:27,090 --> 00:00:31,660 stirred by your word in. Father, we thank you for that 8 00:00:31,810 --> 00:00:35,520 all we do pray for those in our congregation who are having 9 00:00:35,530 --> 00:00:38,090 their struggles and trials at the moment. 10 00:00:38,100 --> 00:00:41,570 Lord, we just pray for continue to pray for the Pinay family and 11 00:00:41,580 --> 00:00:43,470 uplift them. And I said you will be with 12 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:45,810 them. Your hand of comfort will be 13 00:00:45,820 --> 00:00:49,650 upon them in this time. Would we bring them before you 14 00:00:49,660 --> 00:00:50,950 will. We pray for those that are 15 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,690 unwell in there's many but law especially remember Robbie 16 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:59,260 Fleming and Gwen Burger or just pray that your hand of killing 17 00:00:59,270 --> 00:01:02,590 will be upon them and hand of peace and comfort on them also 18 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,230 and their families. All we remember Justin Bailey in 19 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:08,670 hospital at the moment asked that you will be with her and 20 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:10,590 watch over her. Lord, we pray. 21 00:01:10,860 --> 00:01:14,870 Thank you for all your goodness and blessings that you pour out 22 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:18,760 onto us And Lord, we we just pray this morning and pray for 23 00:01:18,770 --> 00:01:22,320 Dan and as he brings your word that you've laid on his heart, 24 00:01:22,390 --> 00:01:26,200 give him clarity of thought in mind as he brings it message. 25 00:01:26,310 --> 00:01:29,960 Lord, we just pray for our our hearts that they will be open to 26 00:01:29,970 --> 00:01:32,700 hearing that word. We pray for our Sunday School 27 00:01:32,710 --> 00:01:37,080 Lord, as they go in our team class that they say go out and 28 00:01:37,170 --> 00:01:40,620 hear the message that there the Sunday school teachers have 29 00:01:40,630 --> 00:01:42,930 prepared for them. Lord, may their hearts be open 30 00:01:42,940 --> 00:01:45,950 to hearing your weird. Lord, we thank you for for our 31 00:01:45,960 --> 00:01:48,920 children and the blessing that they are to our church. 32 00:01:48,930 --> 00:01:52,080 We thank you for our Sunday School teachers and their 33 00:01:52,090 --> 00:01:55,790 willingness and desire to bring your word to our children. 34 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,690 So we thank you for there. Our Father, we thank you for the 35 00:01:58,700 --> 00:02:01,640 offerings that are given, whether it's online or in the 36 00:02:01,650 --> 00:02:03,910 box. Lord, we just pray and thank you 37 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,290 that you are the one who provides all that we have and 38 00:02:07,300 --> 00:02:11,090 Lord, may it be used, may those offerings be used for your glory 39 00:02:11,140 --> 00:02:14,500 and that you will be honoured. So Lord, we bring these things 40 00:02:14,510 --> 00:02:17,470 to you now and we thank you for this time that we share in Jesus 41 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:21,130 name, Amen. Good morning. 42 00:02:21,140 --> 00:02:25,490 Hey, we are continuing our series through the book of Luke. 43 00:02:25,540 --> 00:02:28,570 Title of the message Jesus has power over. 44 00:02:28,580 --> 00:02:30,390 The scene and the unseen. Right. 45 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,230 So we've been going through the book of Luke, and Luke was a 46 00:02:34,300 --> 00:02:36,490 medical Doctor Who became a missionary. 47 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,600 And he's writing this letter to a guy named Theophilus. 48 00:02:39,610 --> 00:02:43,070 And he said, I've interviewed as many eye witnesses as I could to 49 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:47,010 try and put together an orderly account of what happened, all 50 00:02:47,020 --> 00:02:48,710 about Jesus, right? Who was Jesus? 51 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:51,310 What did he say? What did he do? 52 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:55,200 What happened, right? And so a small sample of some of 53 00:02:55,210 --> 00:02:59,490 the things we've seen so far, Jesus fulfilled a whole bunch of 54 00:02:59,540 --> 00:03:03,030 Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, right? 55 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:05,590 So the Messiah means that the appointed 1, the anointed one. 56 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,510 And then in the Old Testament, there's all these prophecies 57 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:11,110 about how the Messiah would come and save his people. 58 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:13,850 And Jesus fulfils a whole bunch of those, right? 59 00:03:13,940 --> 00:03:15,550 He was a direct descendant of David. 60 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:19,190 He was born in Bethlehem, Mother was a virgin, and on and on and 61 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:20,460 on and on, right? So there's a whole bunch of 62 00:03:20,470 --> 00:03:23,090 those. He resists Satan in a very 63 00:03:23,100 --> 00:03:25,010 vulnerable time. He's able to resist Satan. 64 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:28,500 The very voice of God booms out and approves of him. 65 00:03:28,540 --> 00:03:30,550 That's. Pretty serious kind of sign 66 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,940 there. He was able to heal all kinds of 67 00:03:33,950 --> 00:03:37,360 physical ailments, right? He healed Peter's mother-in-law. 68 00:03:37,430 --> 00:03:41,480 He healed a man with leprosy, which that was an incurable 69 00:03:41,490 --> 00:03:45,390 disease in in those days, paralysed man right was able to 70 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:49,430 walk, get up and walk. He remotely healed the centurion 71 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:51,830 servant right. He didn't even have to go to the 72 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,250 house to do that. He even raises someone from the. 73 00:03:55,260 --> 00:03:57,110 Dead. We saw that two weeks ago. 74 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:03,080 He also, he shows incredible wisdom and scriptural insight as 75 00:04:03,090 --> 00:04:05,410 he teaches and he can, he's able to teach with authority. 76 00:04:05,420 --> 00:04:07,890 He's saying from God's perspective, this is how God 77 00:04:07,900 --> 00:04:10,110 sees it. And this is God's own life and, 78 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:15,370 and, and has this, this has this authority as he as he speaks, 79 00:04:15,380 --> 00:04:18,760 but also this, this insight. And he claims to be able to do 80 00:04:18,769 --> 00:04:22,830 things that only God can do right, such as forgive sins. 81 00:04:23,290 --> 00:04:28,120 And these miracles that he's doing act as signs or we would 82 00:04:28,130 --> 00:04:31,460 say in modern English as proof to show that he is who he says 83 00:04:31,470 --> 00:04:34,430 he is. So let's continue with Luke's 84 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:35,930 eyewitness account of what happened. 85 00:04:35,940 --> 00:04:40,790 We're going to Luke chapter 8 and we'll start off in verse 22, 86 00:04:40,930 --> 00:04:42,170 right? I'm going to look at two big. 87 00:04:42,180 --> 00:04:46,220 Events in the story of Jesus that that Luke gathered to hear 88 00:04:46,230 --> 00:04:50,480 the for us from eyewitness. So Luke A 22 starts off and it 89 00:04:50,490 --> 00:04:54,120 says this. Now it happened on a certain day 90 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:57,750 that he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, 91 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:00,370 let us crossover to the other side of the lake and they 92 00:05:00,380 --> 00:05:02,750 launched out. Alright, so just a bit of a 93 00:05:02,820 --> 00:05:05,850 explanation on this. This is what used to be known as 94 00:05:05,860 --> 00:05:08,160 the Sea of Galilee. That's how it looked on Google 95 00:05:08,170 --> 00:05:12,030 Earth as of about Thursday. It's a lake. 96 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:15,650 In in northern Israel, what's now northern Israel, and you can 97 00:05:15,660 --> 00:05:17,190 see you, I don't know how well you can see. 98 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:19,290 But right at the top there is the town of Capernaum. 99 00:05:19,300 --> 00:05:21,390 That's where they were and they're going to make sort of a 100 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:25,190 diagonal trek across across the lake from the from the top there 101 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:29,550 over onto the Eastern Shore. Now this lake is a is a really 102 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,570 weird one in that it actually sits below sea level. 103 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:34,930 It's about 270 metres below sea level. 104 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,900 And you can probably see there that there's a kind of big, 105 00:05:37,910 --> 00:05:39,890 quite big steep mountains all around it. 106 00:05:39,940 --> 00:05:42,410 Fish over on the eastern side there right on the right hand 107 00:05:42,420 --> 00:05:45,770 side of the the screen. And So what happens is very, 108 00:05:45,780 --> 00:05:48,230 very hot air that's coming up from the Jordan Valley can get 109 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:52,110 trapped on top of the lake. And then you get this really 110 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:54,870 cool ear kind of blows in over the top. 111 00:05:54,980 --> 00:05:57,900 And when you get these kind of storms, like these wind storms 112 00:05:57,910 --> 00:06:00,850 that come in the, the locals call it the Shakir. 113 00:06:00,900 --> 00:06:03,000 And when the Shakira comes in, particularly from the eastern 114 00:06:03,010 --> 00:06:06,890 side, it'll roll down over those hills and straight down onto the 115 00:06:06,900 --> 00:06:10,310 lake hits the hot air and, and cause these massive storms. 116 00:06:10,370 --> 00:06:11,710 And this can happen in 30 minutes. 117 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:14,310 So you can go from the lake looking like like glass. 118 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:16,000 It's about the size of Lake Rotorua. 119 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,030 Yep, it can go from looking like glass to three metre waves, 120 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:21,310 right? 10 foot waves. 121 00:06:21,540 --> 00:06:26,150 Now in about 30 minutes in 1992, they had one of these Shakir 122 00:06:26,380 --> 00:06:30,750 storms and the people that lived in Tiberius, which is the city 123 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:33,810 over on the West western shore there, they thought there must 124 00:06:33,820 --> 00:06:35,870 have been an earthquake. It's quite an earthquake prone 125 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:38,750 area because because of the way that the waves were chopping 126 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,190 around and there were three metre tall waves and they were 127 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:42,570 chopping and they must be an earthquake. 128 00:06:42,580 --> 00:06:44,670 They actually hadn't been. It was just the storm had come 129 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:47,510 down, you know, the cool wind that hit the hit the. 130 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:49,720 Hot, hot air. And that's what what had 131 00:06:49,730 --> 00:06:52,010 happened, right? They launch out across the lake 132 00:06:52,020 --> 00:06:54,240 going to make this diagonal trip. 133 00:06:54,300 --> 00:06:58,190 And then verse 23. But as they sailed, he fell 134 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:00,140 asleep. Jesus fell asleep in the boat as 135 00:07:00,150 --> 00:07:03,300 they were sailing and a windstorm came down on the lake. 136 00:07:03,380 --> 00:07:06,580 So you see that sort of wording there, and they were filling 137 00:07:06,590 --> 00:07:12,770 with water and were in jeopardy. Now, whoever Luke interviewed 138 00:07:12,780 --> 00:07:16,710 about about this described this as a windstorm, right? 139 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:19,630 And we're probably talking about the Shakira as it comes down. 140 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,310 But interestingly, in Matthew's account, he uses the word 141 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:27,170 seismos to describe it. The Greek word seismos, That 142 00:07:27,180 --> 00:07:30,450 word has a double meaning in Greek and it can can either be 143 00:07:30,460 --> 00:07:35,050 translated storm or earthquake. It's where we get an English 144 00:07:35,060 --> 00:07:37,570 word seismic from. And so it's probably the same 145 00:07:37,580 --> 00:07:39,690 thing that they saw in 1992, right? 146 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:44,060 Where there was chopping up so big that it felt like I felt 147 00:07:44,070 --> 00:07:47,330 like an earthquake, right? So the body's getting swamped, 148 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:50,800 possibly, you know, waves 3 metres tall and they are in 149 00:07:50,810 --> 00:07:52,880 jeopardy, right? Their, their lives are in real, 150 00:07:53,210 --> 00:07:56,880 real peril here. Look at the start of this 24 And 151 00:07:56,890 --> 00:08:00,800 they came to him, to Jesus and awoke him saying, Master, 152 00:08:00,810 --> 00:08:04,480 master, we are perishing. And Matthew's account, they say, 153 00:08:04,490 --> 00:08:07,260 Lord, save us, right? Rescue us. 154 00:08:07,670 --> 00:08:11,940 We are perishing, right? We're about to die, rescue us. 155 00:08:12,270 --> 00:08:15,020 In Mark's account, it tells us that Jesus was actually asleep 156 00:08:15,030 --> 00:08:20,000 on a pillow and while all this is going on and they woke him. 157 00:08:20,010 --> 00:08:22,610 Up. And they said, don't you care 158 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:28,900 that we are perishing? Don't you Care now when a storm 159 00:08:28,910 --> 00:08:32,700 is so bad that the professional fishermen think they're all 160 00:08:32,710 --> 00:08:34,120 going to die? You know, it's a bad storm, 161 00:08:34,130 --> 00:08:35,850 right? The guys that are out on that 162 00:08:35,860 --> 00:08:37,140 lake everyday. What? 163 00:08:37,150 --> 00:08:40,419 But what's interesting is as we look at the all three of these 164 00:08:40,429 --> 00:08:44,420 gospel accounts is we see that the disciples are terrified 165 00:08:44,430 --> 00:08:48,750 about what might happen. They believe Jesus can actually 166 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:51,030 save them. You know that that he could 167 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:54,170 rescue them, but they doubted whether he would. 168 00:08:54,820 --> 00:08:58,020 Or whether he even cared. There's a number of times in the 169 00:08:58,030 --> 00:09:00,750 Gospels right the the four books of the Bible that that tell the 170 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:05,340 story of Jesus, Jesus life. Where he he says, here is all 171 00:09:05,350 --> 00:09:07,320 the bad stuff that is going to happen to you and he kind of 172 00:09:07,330 --> 00:09:09,330 lays it out for them. He never pulls any punches on 173 00:09:09,340 --> 00:09:11,620 this stuff, right with the with the disciples. 174 00:09:11,850 --> 00:09:14,630 Like on one occasion he said you'll be arrested, you'll be 175 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:17,620 put on trial, everyone will turn against you. 176 00:09:18,110 --> 00:09:21,180 And then he says, and do not fear. 177 00:09:22,690 --> 00:09:25,340 Do not fear, right? They risk you. 178 00:09:25,350 --> 00:09:28,490 Don't be afraid. Let's weird, isn't it? 179 00:09:28,500 --> 00:09:30,480 Cause you think, well, didn't you just say that you're going 180 00:09:30,490 --> 00:09:32,210 to be arrested and put on trial and everyone's going to turn 181 00:09:32,220 --> 00:09:34,850 against us Yeah. And then in the middle of that. 182 00:09:35,530 --> 00:09:40,580 Do not be afraid specifically actually that occasion, he said 183 00:09:40,590 --> 00:09:43,430 This, he said. And do not fear those who kill 184 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:48,170 the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who's able 185 00:09:48,180 --> 00:09:52,620 to destroy both soul and body. In hell, right fear God, right 186 00:09:52,630 --> 00:09:55,610 don't worry about people who can only, you know, at the waist and 187 00:09:55,620 --> 00:09:58,500 kill your body and and Jesus introduces them and he 188 00:09:58,510 --> 00:10:03,210 introduces us to something that he'll go back over and over and 189 00:10:03,220 --> 00:10:08,130 over again in the Gospels, right and and here's the great news 190 00:10:08,180 --> 00:10:10,610 for. For you and me, these guys that 191 00:10:10,620 --> 00:10:13,310 he's teaching this to didn't get this to the till the very end, 192 00:10:13,620 --> 00:10:15,610 right? This wasn't one of those times, 193 00:10:15,620 --> 00:10:18,560 you know, where one of these lectures where you know he's 194 00:10:18,570 --> 00:10:20,490 talking and they go, Yep, alright, got it. 195 00:10:20,500 --> 00:10:22,530 Yep, full stop. Okay, what's next? 196 00:10:22,810 --> 00:10:26,280 This was an ongoing process to be able to find themselves in 197 00:10:26,290 --> 00:10:30,700 very difficult circumstances and yet not allowed fear to take 198 00:10:30,710 --> 00:10:33,580 hold. You know, Jesus said, he said 199 00:10:33,590 --> 00:10:36,070 not too Sparrow sold for a copper coin, right? 200 00:10:36,270 --> 00:10:38,170 Sparrows aren't worth much, right? 201 00:10:38,250 --> 00:10:40,720 And and he said, but not one of them falls to the ground apart 202 00:10:40,730 --> 00:10:43,430 from your father's will, right? Even even God cares about what 203 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,380 happens to them, he said, but the very hairs of your head are 204 00:10:46,390 --> 00:10:48,770 all numbered. Do not fear. 205 00:10:48,780 --> 00:10:52,960 Therefore you have more value than many sparrows, you know? 206 00:10:53,060 --> 00:10:55,140 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He, he really cares. 207 00:10:55,150 --> 00:10:57,220 He cares about the minute details, right? 208 00:10:57,330 --> 00:11:00,000 So here's where Jesus is taking his followers. 209 00:11:00,550 --> 00:11:05,870 He's taking us to a place where our faith in God is so big, 210 00:11:06,060 --> 00:11:09,120 right and so strong. It takes us to a place where our 211 00:11:09,130 --> 00:11:11,930 faith and our Father's love is so strong that even in the 212 00:11:11,940 --> 00:11:16,430 middle of circumstances where it looks like it looks like our God 213 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:20,080 has forgotten us. Or maybe he didn't even know us 214 00:11:20,090 --> 00:11:22,820 to begin with. You're in the middle of a light, 215 00:11:22,830 --> 00:11:27,210 we hear him whisper. Fear not, I'm with you right 216 00:11:27,300 --> 00:11:29,410 now. The message of Jesus was never 217 00:11:29,420 --> 00:11:31,350 this right. It was never fear not. 218 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:35,710 I won't let bad things happen. He never said that right? 219 00:11:35,720 --> 00:11:37,730 He, he was very clear about that. 220 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:42,120 The message of Jesus was don't be afraid when bad things 221 00:11:42,130 --> 00:11:45,540 happen. That's confidence in God, right? 222 00:11:45,730 --> 00:11:51,260 That's confidence that's so big, so sure of God's presence, so 223 00:11:51,270 --> 00:11:55,050 sure of God's love, so sure of God's protection. 224 00:11:55,850 --> 00:12:00,880 Faith is so big that it actually overwhelms and overshadows the 225 00:12:00,890 --> 00:12:05,680 things that we're afraid of. See the place where God wants to 226 00:12:05,690 --> 00:12:08,980 take? You and God wants to take me is 227 00:12:08,990 --> 00:12:12,320 to a place where we wake up every single day and think. 228 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:18,760 What would it look like for a person like me if I had absolute 229 00:12:18,770 --> 00:12:23,520 confidence in God? What would life be like, right 230 00:12:23,570 --> 00:12:28,480 That you, you, you'd wake up and say, what decision would, might, 231 00:12:28,490 --> 00:12:33,570 would, would I make if I, if I had absolute confidence that God 232 00:12:33,580 --> 00:12:35,790 was with me, right? So what, what, what decision 233 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:39,470 would I make in light of what my employees are saying about me? 234 00:12:39,560 --> 00:12:43,060 Or what decision would I make in light of what my boss is about 235 00:12:43,070 --> 00:12:48,090 to ask me to do? What decision would I make is I 236 00:12:48,100 --> 00:12:49,520 have a doctor's appointment this morning. 237 00:12:50,180 --> 00:12:52,680 Right. What would somebody like me do 238 00:12:52,690 --> 00:12:56,120 if they were absolutely confident that God could protect 239 00:12:56,130 --> 00:12:59,630 the soul despite what somebody might do to the body? 240 00:13:01,560 --> 00:13:05,960 What would somebody like me do if I had that kind of confidence 241 00:13:06,190 --> 00:13:08,960 in God, right? And that's where Jesus was 242 00:13:08,970 --> 00:13:11,220 trying to take the side of this where he's trying to take us. 243 00:13:11,730 --> 00:13:14,220 And Jesus saying I want you to follow me because if you. 244 00:13:14,230 --> 00:13:16,060 Follow me. That's where I'm going to take 245 00:13:16,070 --> 00:13:18,040 you right. I'm going to take you to a place 246 00:13:18,050 --> 00:13:21,680 not a not a denial, not of hocus pocus, not of followed this 247 00:13:21,690 --> 00:13:23,800 formula and you can get Jesus to do what you want. 248 00:13:24,050 --> 00:13:26,220 I'm going to take you to a place that your face. 249 00:13:27,220 --> 00:13:30,450 And may Jesus would say, And then your heavenly Father is so 250 00:13:30,460 --> 00:13:34,310 confident that even in the midst of circumstances. 251 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:37,710 That should terrify you. You won't be afraid. 252 00:13:38,890 --> 00:13:41,700 Over and over and over. Again, he's taking them there. 253 00:13:42,330 --> 00:13:43,700 All right, back to the storm, right? 254 00:13:43,750 --> 00:13:45,250 So that's that. They're there. 255 00:13:45,260 --> 00:13:47,800 They think they're going to die. Don't you care that we're 256 00:13:47,810 --> 00:13:50,980 perishing, Right? This, this number 24, they came 257 00:13:50,990 --> 00:13:54,080 to him and they woke him, saying, master, master, we are 258 00:13:54,090 --> 00:13:57,380 perishing. Then he arose and rebukes the 259 00:13:57,390 --> 00:14:01,330 wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and 260 00:14:01,340 --> 00:14:04,530 there was calm. There's 25. 261 00:14:04,540 --> 00:14:07,040 But he said to them, Where is your faith? 262 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,310 Where's your faith? And in my account, he says, why 263 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:14,540 are you so fearful? How is it that you have no face? 264 00:14:16,650 --> 00:14:18,110 Interesting. I like when you when you look at 265 00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:20,090 that, right? Well, actually, let's look at 266 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:24,450 rest of this. 25. And they were afraid, and they 267 00:14:24,460 --> 00:14:28,300 marvelled, saying to one another, who can this be for? 268 00:14:28,310 --> 00:14:32,190 He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him, 269 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:36,110 right? They were afraid that that 270 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:39,270 phrase in in Greek is they fear the great fear. 271 00:14:40,030 --> 00:14:42,500 Yeah. So before they they thought I 272 00:14:42,510 --> 00:14:46,050 was gonna die in a storm, right? And so they had this level of 273 00:14:46,060 --> 00:14:48,260 fear. But now they realise who they 274 00:14:48,270 --> 00:14:51,750 were in the boat was. Now, now they fear the great 275 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:56,790 fear, right? They realised, you know, they, 276 00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:58,150 they suddenly got this sort of picture of. 277 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,540 What it means to fear the one who can control the destiny of 278 00:15:01,550 --> 00:15:06,190 the soul and refuse to fear anything or anyone with the most 279 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:11,390 they can do is simply harm your body right in that moment they 280 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:14,050 got a snapshot. What it means to understand. 281 00:15:14,060 --> 00:15:20,750 Fear not, your Heavenly Father knows what you need, where I can 282 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:25,070 be in terrifying, fearful circumstances and still not 283 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:27,460 fear. And Jesus says that's where I'm 284 00:15:27,470 --> 00:15:32,500 trying to take you. So, so far, Luke, right we've 285 00:15:32,510 --> 00:15:36,570 we've already built up this picture that Jesus has mastery 286 00:15:36,580 --> 00:15:40,380 over sin and disease and even death. 287 00:15:41,140 --> 00:15:44,610 And now we've just seen over the forces of nature, right? 288 00:15:44,700 --> 00:15:49,390 He just tells the storm could it, and it stops and it stops, 289 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:50,990 right? Well, what about things you 290 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,290 can't see right? What about things like mental 291 00:15:54,300 --> 00:15:57,650 health? What about demonic influences 292 00:15:57,660 --> 00:16:01,390 that plague us? What about that stuff about 1? 293 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:05,910 50 years ago, the way people saw disease and the way it spread 294 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:07,510 was very different to the to the. 295 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:10,030 Way we view it now. Right. 296 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:12,810 They handed kind of a actually a weirdly sort of evolutionary 297 00:16:12,820 --> 00:16:17,160 view of the way things work. So the idea was that if you left 298 00:16:17,170 --> 00:16:20,250 some meat out on the bench, it would eventually grow into 299 00:16:20,260 --> 00:16:23,520 maggots, right? There was that was kind of the 300 00:16:23,530 --> 00:16:26,830 way people thought. And that if you, if you drank 301 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,350 bad water, it would grow into bad stuff inside you, right? 302 00:16:30,420 --> 00:16:34,410 The word malaria is Latin for bad water, right? 303 00:16:34,420 --> 00:16:35,810 Because that's what they thought was happening. 304 00:16:35,820 --> 00:16:38,610 If you drink water that was too stagnant, it would grow into bad 305 00:16:38,620 --> 00:16:40,210 things, right? They didn't realise it was the 306 00:16:40,220 --> 00:16:41,500 mosquitoes that lived around there. 307 00:16:41,510 --> 00:16:43,950 That was that was a spring, their disease, right? 308 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:45,670 They even thought this about the air, right? 309 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:48,550 That if you breathe in bad air, it would grow into bad things 310 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,570 around you. This is a plague mask from the 311 00:16:51,580 --> 00:16:54,080 Middle Ages. The way this thing worked, they 312 00:16:54,090 --> 00:16:55,970 got this big leather beak, right? 313 00:16:56,060 --> 00:16:58,750 And in the end of the beak they would stuff like lavender and 314 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:00,650 rose petals and nice smelling things. 315 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,490 And the idea is you just breathe in nicely air, right? 316 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:05,869 And you wouldn't breathe in the bad air and then it couldn't 317 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,569 turn into bad things inside you. Alright? 318 00:17:09,900 --> 00:17:12,109 But then this guy came along, Louis Pasteur. 319 00:17:12,500 --> 00:17:15,650 And Louis Pasteur said, well, that doesn't work right because 320 00:17:15,660 --> 00:17:18,210 I can take piece of meat and I can stick a big glass. 321 00:17:18,220 --> 00:17:21,690 Jar over it and it doesn't grow into maggots, right? 322 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,000 But I can take another piece of meat that's got some maggots on 323 00:17:24,010 --> 00:17:26,069 it, and I can stick that in the jar with it, and then all of a 324 00:17:26,079 --> 00:17:28,069 sudden the other one's got maggots on it, right? 325 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:31,920 And, and he came up with this zoom theory, right? 326 00:17:31,930 --> 00:17:35,920 And this zoom theory was, maybe there are some bugs, you know 327 00:17:35,930 --> 00:17:37,630 how you get tiny little ants and things like that. 328 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,400 Maybe there are some bugs that are so small we can't even see 329 00:17:40,410 --> 00:17:43,570 them. So there's this invisible realm, 330 00:17:44,450 --> 00:17:46,390 but it affects the visible realm. 331 00:17:47,790 --> 00:17:50,090 Yeah. And people thought he was crazy. 332 00:17:50,650 --> 00:17:56,200 The entire medical fraternity of France, so to say. 333 00:17:56,210 --> 00:17:58,960 Look, medicine is about empirical science, right? 334 00:17:58,970 --> 00:18:02,540 It's things that you can observe and, and, and, and, you know, 335 00:18:02,590 --> 00:18:07,780 write about this idea of an invisible realm you can't see 336 00:18:07,790 --> 00:18:09,720 that's affecting the the physical world. 337 00:18:09,790 --> 00:18:12,830 It's still like a fairytale. Does it stay in your lane? 338 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:14,460 You're not even a real doctor, right. 339 00:18:14,830 --> 00:18:17,220 But then he cured a kid of rabies. 340 00:18:17,450 --> 00:18:19,790 Rabies is one of most deadly diseases there is in all of 341 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:21,750 recorded history. Once you get the full on 342 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:24,680 symptoms of rabies, only about only six people have ever 343 00:18:24,690 --> 00:18:27,910 survived the fallen symptoms so this kid gets bitten by a very 344 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:30,480 rabid dog. He's going to die and Louis 345 00:18:30,490 --> 00:18:33,090 Pasteur through his germ theory, he comes up with The Smiths and 346 00:18:33,100 --> 00:18:36,050 and saves the boy's life. And then everybody took notice, 347 00:18:36,060 --> 00:18:38,150 right? And then he came up with a, you 348 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:42,850 know, where the cure anthrax and other things as well, right? 349 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:45,970 And now the stuff that he talked about, we just, we just know it, 350 00:18:45,980 --> 00:18:47,480 right? We know there's this invisible 351 00:18:47,490 --> 00:18:50,180 realm, but it affects the visible realm, right? 352 00:18:50,190 --> 00:18:52,160 That's why we wiped the bench down after there's been meat 353 00:18:52,170 --> 00:18:54,250 sitting on it, raw meat sitting on it, right? 354 00:18:54,540 --> 00:18:56,650 We just kind of know that's the case. 355 00:18:57,120 --> 00:19:01,850 Why did I tell you that story? Fishermen's 1940s written all 356 00:19:01,860 --> 00:19:04,310 destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the 357 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,390 discerning of thwart, right? Paul's quoting Isaiah 29 there, 358 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:10,290 right? When you think about the story 359 00:19:10,300 --> 00:19:16,710 of Louis Pasteur and then you look back on those doctors who 360 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,650 were some of the wisest people in the country at the time and 361 00:19:19,660 --> 00:19:23,390 said, you're crazy, right? And we think, wow, they look 362 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,730 pretty stupid now, right? You look at that plague mask 363 00:19:26,740 --> 00:19:28,910 looks just looks comical, doesn't it, when you when you 364 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:31,830 look at it now, right? And the idea of an unseen realm 365 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:34,370 that affects the the visible realm is just something that we 366 00:19:34,380 --> 00:19:36,640 we all. Accept now when it comes to 367 00:19:36,650 --> 00:19:40,000 fighting disease. But in the Bible is very clear 368 00:19:40,010 --> 00:19:42,330 and Jesus talks about this and it's all through the Bible. 369 00:19:42,340 --> 00:19:47,610 There's a different kind of unseen realm, but it's very real 370 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,700 and it affects the, the physical realm, the world that we live 371 00:19:51,710 --> 00:19:53,500 in. Alright, so we're gonna have a 372 00:19:53,510 --> 00:19:57,740 look at how this works, right? Verse #26 Then they sailed to 373 00:19:57,750 --> 00:20:00,550 the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee, 374 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:02,580 right? So they did that diagonal trick. 375 00:20:02,590 --> 00:20:05,240 So they're actual, that western side of Galilee was a different 376 00:20:05,250 --> 00:20:08,060 country in those days, right? So they're in Gentile territory. 377 00:20:08,140 --> 00:20:10,290 Sometimes you'll see it. The region was called the Gaga 378 00:20:10,300 --> 00:20:12,840 scenes. But the biggest town in that 379 00:20:12,910 --> 00:20:15,950 region was the IT was Gadara. So sometimes it's called the 380 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,020 country, the gatherings. It'll be like this part of 381 00:20:19,370 --> 00:20:21,190 Waikato and we call it, you know, the land of the 382 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:24,140 Hamiltonians, you know, so you, you get that Kettering's 383 00:20:24,150 --> 00:20:26,700 magazines sometimes Google scenes. 384 00:20:26,870 --> 00:20:28,790 So this is where they go, and Jesus. 385 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:32,720 That was aware of the need of a man across there and I believe 386 00:20:32,730 --> 00:20:35,350 Jesus went across especially for this man. 387 00:20:36,230 --> 00:20:39,110 Bubble indicates that if people. Are really searching for Jesus 388 00:20:39,190 --> 00:20:40,720 and for God's reality in their lives. 389 00:20:40,730 --> 00:20:45,460 God will bring about opportunity for them to meet Christ Jesus 390 00:20:45,470 --> 00:20:47,340 promised seek and you will find right. 391 00:20:47,350 --> 00:20:51,890 So in verse 27, we're introduced to this scattering man who's 392 00:20:51,900 --> 00:20:55,220 about to have this encounter with Jesus that's not only going 393 00:20:55,230 --> 00:20:57,880 to change his. Eternal destiny, but it's going 394 00:20:57,890 --> 00:21:00,680 to change his everyday life from this point on. 395 00:21:01,420 --> 00:21:03,950 And this guy has some pretty serious issues. 396 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:07,090 Severe problems of the most extreme kind. 397 00:21:07,300 --> 00:21:10,110 And so the good thing about this story is that if Jesus can help 398 00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:13,970 this man, he can help you no matter what your issues are, no 399 00:21:13,980 --> 00:21:16,210 matter how extreme they seem, right? 400 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:18,670 And he can fix mine as well. Let's have a look at this number 401 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,580 27. And when he stepped out onto the 402 00:21:21,590 --> 00:21:26,040 land, they met him, a certain man from the city who had demons 403 00:21:26,050 --> 00:21:30,100 for a long time. All right, so let's not get too 404 00:21:30,170 --> 00:21:34,360 excited about the, the, the, at this point about the idea of 405 00:21:34,370 --> 00:21:37,060 demon position. There is a lot of religious 406 00:21:37,070 --> 00:21:40,600 hype, there's a lot of superstition and there's a lot 407 00:21:40,610 --> 00:21:45,380 of Hollywood exaggeration and dramatisation when it comes to 408 00:21:45,460 --> 00:21:48,980 this idea of demon position. God is not responsible for that 409 00:21:48,990 --> 00:21:51,230 hype, right? And the association, the 410 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:53,900 associated confusion that comes with. 411 00:21:53,910 --> 00:21:56,860 It. Satan is right, but this this 412 00:21:56,870 --> 00:22:01,180 kind of two dangerous extremes, extreme views, which we can take 413 00:22:01,190 --> 00:22:03,000 when when it comes to demon position. 414 00:22:03,070 --> 00:22:06,470 On the one hand, they can be like those doctors in the time 415 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:08,830 of Louis Pasteur and we say invisible realm. 416 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:12,220 That's all nonsense and just dismiss it right, when the Bible 417 00:22:12,230 --> 00:22:13,710 is very clear that it's a real thing. 418 00:22:14,020 --> 00:22:18,450 The other extreme is we just see a demon under every rock, right? 419 00:22:18,460 --> 00:22:21,970 And, and and we think that everything that happens is some 420 00:22:21,980 --> 00:22:24,360 some sort of, you know, demonic influence and stuff. 421 00:22:24,370 --> 00:22:29,030 I used to work with a guy and the river near his house burst 422 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:31,990 its banks, but he didn't want to drive around the long way. 423 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,440 So he decided just to drive through it and he drove in there 424 00:22:35,450 --> 00:22:39,390 and completely swamped his car completely flooded it and was 425 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:40,840 diesel engine. So what have got an engine 426 00:22:40,850 --> 00:22:43,200 completely destroyed? It and insurance didn't cover 427 00:22:43,210 --> 00:22:45,390 it. Oo kind of a tragic thing to 428 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,630 happen, but a young boy who wasn't a wealthy guy at all 429 00:22:48,740 --> 00:22:50,850 heard about this and said man, I heard what happened. 430 00:22:50,980 --> 00:22:55,140 I want to give you a car and gave him a car as a replacement. 431 00:22:56,190 --> 00:22:59,730 So three days after doing this, he takes the new car that's been 432 00:22:59,740 --> 00:23:01,420 given to him. He drives down to the same spot, 433 00:23:01,430 --> 00:23:04,840 doesn't want to drive around and drives through the same place 434 00:23:04,910 --> 00:23:07,880 and floods the new car and destroys it, right? 435 00:23:08,130 --> 00:23:11,020 And then he's telling everybody, and Satan is really. 436 00:23:11,030 --> 00:23:14,200 Giving us a hard time this week, yeah? 437 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,220 Was he there? Yeah. 438 00:23:17,260 --> 00:23:18,770 Was he though? You know, sorry. 439 00:23:18,780 --> 00:23:23,350 These are the extremes, right? And the truth lies somewhere in 440 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:27,570 the middle as we look at what? Scriptural demon position is you 441 00:23:27,580 --> 00:23:30,630 start to realise it's very real, but it's not as mystical and 442 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:34,620 it's not as hocus pocus as it's made out to be and hopefully by 443 00:23:34,630 --> 00:23:38,150 the end of this morning. We'll see the issues more common 444 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:42,070 than we probably realise and the idea in in the in the area of 445 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:46,030 modern living in areas that we might not have recognised as 446 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,910 being associated with with demon position. 447 00:23:49,100 --> 00:23:50,530 But it's a biblical issue, right? 448 00:23:50,540 --> 00:23:53,100 And so. We want we want to come to this, 449 00:23:53,110 --> 00:23:57,280 you know, a balanced so might not not get overcome with 450 00:23:57,350 --> 00:24:00,640 emotional develop some Hollywood style fantasy about the stuff. 451 00:24:00,710 --> 00:24:04,580 What we're going to see is that demon position really has is 452 00:24:04,590 --> 00:24:09,000 really to do with what or really who is influencing your life or 453 00:24:09,010 --> 00:24:11,640 who is in control of your. Life. 454 00:24:11,870 --> 00:24:15,460 And any mature Christian will tell you that when it comes to 455 00:24:15,470 --> 00:24:17,970 influencing the world, there are ultimately two sources. 456 00:24:17,980 --> 00:24:21,390 Right there is God or Satan, right? 457 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,580 And from there, you know good or evil, God or Satan, and even 458 00:24:25,590 --> 00:24:28,820 many ungodly religions acknowledge that truth. 459 00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,300 And so when we boil it down, the decisions that you make will 460 00:24:32,310 --> 00:24:36,690 either take you toward God or away from God, right? 461 00:24:36,700 --> 00:24:39,200 They they either please God or that they please Satan. 462 00:24:39,940 --> 00:24:43,050 And the problem with the Get Irene man was that he had 463 00:24:43,060 --> 00:24:46,670 allowed his life to be influenced by Satan, by demont 464 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,410 demonic things and to the extreme that in his mind he lost 465 00:24:50,420 --> 00:24:54,210 all control over it and get a remains problem that was that he 466 00:24:54,220 --> 00:24:57,550 had had had demons a long time. He was possessed, right. 467 00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,590 He was under their control, under their mastery. 468 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,350 Now, before we look more closely at. 469 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:04,670 What being possessed is really about. 470 00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,310 Let's have a look at the effects it had on his life. 471 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,720 Right? So there's 27 there and he wore 472 00:25:10,730 --> 00:25:15,070 no clothes, nor did he live in a house, but in the tombs. 473 00:25:15,940 --> 00:25:17,890 So just a few things about him, right? 474 00:25:17,900 --> 00:25:19,550 He's he's personally dysfunctional. 475 00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:24,510 Poor self-care, no clothes, disinhibited, kind of cast off 476 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:27,390 any restraint when it comes to his presentation. 477 00:25:27,430 --> 00:25:29,210 He didn't care for himself. Right. 478 00:25:29,780 --> 00:25:31,750 He's also domestically dysfunctional. 479 00:25:33,020 --> 00:25:35,810 He he's got no real home. He lives among the tombs, right? 480 00:25:35,820 --> 00:25:38,970 Graves of the dead. He's not able to provide himself 481 00:25:38,980 --> 00:25:40,870 with with an appropriate place to live. 482 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,480 And verse 28 tells us he was. Afraid. 483 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:47,850 Let's have a look. There's 28. 484 00:25:48,550 --> 00:25:52,220 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and he fell down before him, and 485 00:25:52,230 --> 00:25:55,800 with and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with you? 486 00:25:55,810 --> 00:26:00,450 Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I beg you, do not torment me. 487 00:26:03,310 --> 00:26:06,960 He knew who Jesus was and I I think most people do, but they 488 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,320 spend most of their lives trying to avoid as a reality, right? 489 00:26:10,490 --> 00:26:13,460 And and he understood his wickedness, and he assumed that 490 00:26:13,470 --> 00:26:15,840 Jesus had come to punish him like he deserved. 491 00:26:16,310 --> 00:26:18,610 That isn't why Jesus came, right? 492 00:26:19,330 --> 00:26:22,640 Jesus doesn't hate us, right? He hates anyone godliness and 493 00:26:22,730 --> 00:26:24,700 and ungodly influence in our lives. 494 00:26:24,770 --> 00:26:28,240 Scripture says, you know, for God sent not his son to condemn 495 00:26:28,250 --> 00:26:32,080 the world, but the world through him might be saved, right? 496 00:26:32,090 --> 00:26:34,910 Might be rescued, delivered right? 497 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,890 What else about him? Man was under extreme 498 00:26:37,900 --> 00:26:40,340 psychological and spiritual persecution. 499 00:26:41,860 --> 00:26:46,180 Torment from was so extreme that Mark tells us in his account 500 00:26:46,190 --> 00:26:49,390 that the guy cried day and night, cutting himself with 501 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:53,390 stones. Yeah, so this is in in mental 502 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:55,950 health profession, they call this a tension reduction 503 00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,450 activity, right. And it's where the inner anguish 504 00:26:59,460 --> 00:27:03,390 is so extreme that people will will physically hurt themselves 505 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:08,350 to try and cover for the. The inner pane right make make 506 00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:12,990 some out of pain, right? Can you imagine what how much 507 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,950 you must be suffering right to to go through these extremes to 508 00:27:17,020 --> 00:27:19,730 to seek relief, right. We're cutting yourself feels 509 00:27:19,740 --> 00:27:22,990 better than what you're experiencing on the inside and 510 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:24,690 and. When people do this, it also 511 00:27:24,700 --> 00:27:26,590 has. Some other benefits for them, 512 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,050 like they feel like they're punishing themselves, right, and 513 00:27:29,060 --> 00:27:31,490 so it can bring some relief when they feel like they've been 514 00:27:31,500 --> 00:27:33,690 punished enough for what they've done right. 515 00:27:33,700 --> 00:27:37,810 It's really sad treatment of this is some success, but a lot 516 00:27:37,820 --> 00:27:39,960 of times it's not successful. A lot of times the the person 517 00:27:39,970 --> 00:27:42,920 will just switch one kind of coping mechanism for another. 518 00:27:42,930 --> 00:27:46,460 So they might switch cutting to anorexia or, you know, drug use 519 00:27:46,470 --> 00:27:50,600 or, you know, even as far as, you know, suicidal, you know, 520 00:27:50,610 --> 00:27:53,230 psychosis, these kind of combinations of these things as 521 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,890 well. So Jesus offers another another 522 00:27:55,900 --> 00:27:57,970 solution right in dealing with this kind of torment and we're. 523 00:27:57,980 --> 00:28:01,920 Going to see it's not some kind of hocus pocus or heebie jeebies 524 00:28:01,930 --> 00:28:03,990 either, right? But just a couple more things 525 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,640 about him #5 his behaviour said he's. 526 00:28:06,650 --> 00:28:10,690 Social Both Mark and Matthew in in recording their accounts of 527 00:28:10,700 --> 00:28:14,360 this man's presentation, described them as fierce right? 528 00:28:14,550 --> 00:28:17,390 Which means someone who's violent, someone who lashes out 529 00:28:17,450 --> 00:28:19,780 physically. The man at times had no 530 00:28:19,790 --> 00:28:22,420 self-control but was impulsive and driven right. 531 00:28:22,430 --> 00:28:26,660 Have a look at this 29. If we had commanded the unclean 532 00:28:26,670 --> 00:28:29,160 spirit to come out of the man, for it had often seized. 533 00:28:29,170 --> 00:28:33,060 Him and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles, 534 00:28:33,130 --> 00:28:36,550 and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the 535 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:40,830 wilderness. Last point on him, right, the, 536 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,750 the the man was socially isolated and almost certainly 537 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:47,510 lonely, being driven into the wilderness to live this kind of 538 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,900 life of pain and anguish among the tombs of the dead, right? 539 00:28:50,910 --> 00:28:53,800 So in terms of the life of a human being. 540 00:28:54,500 --> 00:28:57,040 Doesn't really get much worse than this, right? 541 00:28:57,710 --> 00:28:59,620 It's, it's an incredibly sad state. 542 00:28:59,630 --> 00:29:04,290 And so the big question is this. How does someone get to such an 543 00:29:04,300 --> 00:29:07,620 extreme state of unwellness? Right. 544 00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:10,050 This is an extreme case, isn't it? 545 00:29:10,060 --> 00:29:12,120 Like, you know, how do you get to this point? 546 00:29:13,590 --> 00:29:15,220 And the lady here is that you know well the. 547 00:29:15,290 --> 00:29:16,700 The answer really is when we allow. 548 00:29:16,710 --> 00:29:21,320 Ourselves to be open to the influence of ungodly sources. 549 00:29:22,310 --> 00:29:26,120 We're open to all kinds of emotional and mental and 550 00:29:26,130 --> 00:29:29,030 spiritual problems and even physical problems, right? 551 00:29:29,890 --> 00:29:33,040 God tries to protect us as much as possible from these kind of 552 00:29:33,050 --> 00:29:35,240 problems, but we're not puppets on strings, right? 553 00:29:35,250 --> 00:29:38,980 We, we have free will. So if we if we are determined to 554 00:29:38,990 --> 00:29:43,600 ignore God's prescription for spiritual and mental health, 555 00:29:44,260 --> 00:29:48,090 we're placing ourselves in there in an at risk situation, right, 556 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,030 to develop these kinds of problems to greater or lesser 557 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:52,800 extent. Now, like I say, obviously this 558 00:29:52,810 --> 00:29:56,600 guy is a very extreme case. There's a lot of different ways 559 00:29:56,610 --> 00:30:00,010 that we can be prone to Satan's influence, whether that's 560 00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,770 consciously or unconsciously. But let's see how. 561 00:30:02,860 --> 00:30:06,250 This guy got to this state of our unwellness right now. 562 00:30:06,260 --> 00:30:09,150 Let's go back to verse 27 again. It says there's some. 563 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,010 Winnie stepped on the land. They met him, a certain man from 564 00:30:12,020 --> 00:30:17,330 the city who had demons for a long time. 565 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,500 That would head squeak would echo. 566 00:30:21,620 --> 00:30:24,350 That means to have whole sees or possess. 567 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:26,930 This is where we get this idea of demon position from. 568 00:30:26,940 --> 00:30:30,330 Right? Have hold seasonal possess, but 569 00:30:30,340 --> 00:30:33,720 who's doing the possessing? Yep. 570 00:30:34,090 --> 00:30:37,750 And actually the grammatically it's in the the Greek active 571 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,140 voice, which basically just means the man is doing the 572 00:30:40,150 --> 00:30:41,420 action. Yeah. 573 00:30:42,130 --> 00:30:45,090 So he reached out and he possessed them? 574 00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,470 Yeah, for whatever it was. Maybe it was just he reached out 575 00:30:50,980 --> 00:30:54,370 because they could help cope with stresses in his life, or 576 00:30:54,380 --> 00:30:56,450 maybe it was for fun or whatever. 577 00:30:56,500 --> 00:31:03,990 But he reached out and possess them and so he opened himself up 578 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:07,590 to being influenced and eventually, for the most part, 579 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:13,420 he ends ur mastered by Satan. Do you do actively seeking, 580 00:31:13,430 --> 00:31:18,260 pursuing, grasping and godliness and and now it possesses him, 581 00:31:18,310 --> 00:31:20,590 right? Now you want to say here it's 582 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:22,540 one thing to make the mistake of. 583 00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,870 Giving in to ungodliness right on occasion, and and repenting 584 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:29,630 right being sorry for that and and repenting. 585 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,630 But when we continually entertain sin any ungodliness in 586 00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:38,110 our lives, we become greatly at risk of being controlled by it. 587 00:31:38,750 --> 00:31:40,820 This is what position is right position. 588 00:31:40,830 --> 00:31:43,640 Is all about losing control of our life. 589 00:31:43,770 --> 00:31:47,400 Feeling unable to make choices for myself in a situation 590 00:31:47,410 --> 00:31:49,720 because I feel overpowered, right? 591 00:31:49,730 --> 00:31:51,640 Or compelled to act in a certain way. 592 00:31:51,710 --> 00:31:53,840 Right. I just have to have a drink. 593 00:31:53,910 --> 00:31:57,340 I had to hit him, you know, I had to say that, you know, you 594 00:31:57,350 --> 00:31:59,760 know, just you experience an overwhelming desire to do 595 00:31:59,770 --> 00:32:03,850 something that you feel unable to resist, or the resisting of 596 00:32:03,860 --> 00:32:06,780 the desire becomes so distressing that you just kind 597 00:32:06,790 --> 00:32:09,950 of give in to it. We see this all the time, don't 598 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:11,830 we? In our modern world, we call 599 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:19,320 these things addictions, compulsions, obsessions, right? 600 00:32:19,390 --> 00:32:22,460 Anything that controls us to the point where we believe we can't 601 00:32:22,470 --> 00:32:25,350 control it, right? Or we can't resist the urge. 602 00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:27,470 That's something that's possessing our lives, right? 603 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:30,940 It's it's in control of us. We're not in control of it. 604 00:32:31,050 --> 00:32:34,280 Right, so the gettering man he possessed. 605 00:32:34,950 --> 00:32:37,990 These themens, right? He reached out for them, he 606 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,180 begins to toy with or pursue ungodliness and I'm sure he had 607 00:32:41,190 --> 00:32:45,300 the intention of retaining control over it but in the end 608 00:32:45,310 --> 00:32:47,760 all this stuff in his life ended U controlling him. 609 00:32:47,770 --> 00:32:51,900 Look at this number 29 free claim the Spirit unclean spirit 610 00:32:51,910 --> 00:32:54,910 come out of him, out of the man for Ed head. 611 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,150 Often seized him that would seize. 612 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:01,190 That's the same word echo right have hold seasonal possess it 613 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,630 Often possessed him. He reached out for it. 614 00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:08,550 Test it. And now it it has him, it 615 00:33:08,610 --> 00:33:11,840 possessed him. Now at this point we need to 616 00:33:11,850 --> 00:33:14,880 look more closely at the the nature of biblical demons or 617 00:33:14,890 --> 00:33:18,660 devils as they were called in In Old English, demons are the the 618 00:33:18,670 --> 00:33:21,980 fallen angels of God that followed Satan when he was cast 619 00:33:21,990 --> 00:33:23,420 out of heaven at the beginning of. 620 00:33:23,490 --> 00:33:25,300 Creation. We don't have time to go and 621 00:33:25,310 --> 00:33:28,200 look into that, but Revelation 12. 622 00:33:28,350 --> 00:33:30,460 If if you want to want to see that right. 623 00:33:30,510 --> 00:33:33,020 So they're really a group of bad angels. 624 00:33:33,450 --> 00:33:37,620 The word Angel means messenger one sent with a message, right? 625 00:33:37,630 --> 00:33:40,000 So This is why. They are sent with a message. 626 00:33:40,210 --> 00:33:41,940 What is the purpose of a message? 627 00:33:42,010 --> 00:33:43,620 I was thinking about that this week. 628 00:33:43,770 --> 00:33:47,410 I think the purpose of a message mostly is to convey information. 629 00:33:49,330 --> 00:33:51,580 What's the purpose of information is to try and 630 00:33:51,590 --> 00:33:55,930 influence decisions. Is to try and influence 631 00:33:55,940 --> 00:33:59,010 decisions. Not all information is good or 632 00:33:59,020 --> 00:34:01,670 true. Yeah, there are two ultimate 633 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:04,410 sources of information, right? Either God or Satan. 634 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:07,400 The goodness of God's information is written in the 635 00:34:07,410 --> 00:34:10,560 Bible, right for for us to you know, God's information about 636 00:34:10,570 --> 00:34:15,040 life and him and us and important life decisions are all 637 00:34:15,050 --> 00:34:20,739 found in the Bible and God gives it in an attempt to influence 638 00:34:20,750 --> 00:34:24,900 our lives for the better, right influence them towards influence 639 00:34:24,909 --> 00:34:29,540 us towards him, make us more like Christ, give us more really 640 00:34:29,550 --> 00:34:33,620 to give us the option to be protected from pain and hurt and 641 00:34:33,710 --> 00:34:35,350 condemnation. That doesn't mean that no bad 642 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:37,710 things anything happen. We just saw that the storm 643 00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:41,060 right, but but to be able to handle in the right way. 644 00:34:41,130 --> 00:34:45,199 The message is that Satan uses to influence influence us come 645 00:34:45,210 --> 00:34:46,980 from all kinds of different things, right. 646 00:34:47,110 --> 00:34:52,280 You know, maybe it's Insta, Facebook, TV, YouTube, radio, 647 00:34:52,290 --> 00:34:56,610 magazines, school, uni, you know, workplace parties, 648 00:34:56,620 --> 00:34:59,270 wherever there are people that will allow Satan to influence 649 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:01,530 them. Right now, any message that 650 00:35:01,540 --> 00:35:04,490 contradicts what God says comes from Satan, right? 651 00:35:04,540 --> 00:35:06,350 This is what? Jesus said about Satan's 652 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:07,920 purpose. This is how how he put it. 653 00:35:07,930 --> 00:35:12,410 He said the thief is does not come except to steal and kill 654 00:35:12,420 --> 00:35:14,230 and destroy. That's what he's trying to do, 655 00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:15,750 right? I have come that they may have 656 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:19,590 life and that they may have it more abundantly right over the 657 00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:22,150 top. It would mean sorry see the 658 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:27,010 Gathering man's become overcome with ungodly influences that 659 00:35:27,020 --> 00:35:30,040 we're ruining his life because he had paid attention two and 660 00:35:30,050 --> 00:35:34,370 become obedient to the influences of messages that went 661 00:35:34,380 --> 00:35:39,150 from God. They came from demons, and at 662 00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,570 that time he probably had no. Idea of what the long? 663 00:35:41,580 --> 00:35:43,610 Term impact was going to be on his life right? 664 00:35:43,660 --> 00:35:45,490 I doubt he would have got involved in these things if he 665 00:35:45,500 --> 00:35:48,370 understood the ramifications over time. 666 00:35:49,570 --> 00:35:54,350 Anytime we give ear to a message that is ungodly, we're playing 667 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,580 with fire, right? And whether you a are a follower 668 00:35:57,590 --> 00:36:01,240 of Jesus Christ or not, Satan and his demons can still 669 00:36:01,250 --> 00:36:04,900 influence you with with his messages. 670 00:36:05,370 --> 00:36:07,920 You can still give yourself over to his control now you'll still 671 00:36:07,930 --> 00:36:10,220 be saved, right? You're eternity is fixed 672 00:36:10,270 --> 00:36:13,060 salvation, but it can ruin your life, right? 673 00:36:13,070 --> 00:36:15,940 We can influence them in the wrong direction, right? 674 00:36:16,410 --> 00:36:18,720 And these messages. Can take any kind of form, 675 00:36:18,730 --> 00:36:19,820 right? You know. 676 00:36:20,390 --> 00:36:24,060 Look, you got to get drunk to cope with the, you know, the 677 00:36:24,070 --> 00:36:25,890 stresses in your life right now, right? 678 00:36:26,230 --> 00:36:28,280 You know Jesus is just a mess. None of this is real. 679 00:36:28,290 --> 00:36:30,040 It's just all made-up by somebody, right? 680 00:36:30,300 --> 00:36:32,660 You don't deserve to be loved. You're an idiot. 681 00:36:32,670 --> 00:36:34,400 You you'll never amount to anything. 682 00:36:34,530 --> 00:36:39,830 You know well, anything, right? These ungodly messages and these 683 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:44,040 messages go against what God says and their vehicles through 684 00:36:44,050 --> 00:36:46,580 which Satan wants to kind of play with their minds and 685 00:36:46,590 --> 00:36:49,140 influence us, influence us away from Christ. 686 00:36:49,430 --> 00:36:53,540 If we listen to those messages from those messengers, our lives 687 00:36:53,550 --> 00:36:58,100 will become mastered by them or or more precisely by the one 688 00:36:58,170 --> 00:37:01,880 who's propagating them. And the result can be we end up 689 00:37:01,890 --> 00:37:04,780 having total controller. We seemed to have total control 690 00:37:04,790 --> 00:37:07,980 over our lives because when we try going against these messages 691 00:37:07,990 --> 00:37:11,560 that we bought into, we we experience fear and guilt and 692 00:37:11,570 --> 00:37:15,360 anguish, and the result is being possessed by something to a 693 00:37:15,370 --> 00:37:20,220 greater or lesser extent, the extent to which our lives are 694 00:37:20,230 --> 00:37:26,130 bound up by these things. By godly, by ungodly influence 695 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:30,150 depends on how many satanic lies we've sort of bought into and 696 00:37:30,210 --> 00:37:33,750 there are those lies that we've. Accepted as adults, there are 697 00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,570 those who have accepted as kids and we've been brought up to 698 00:37:36,580 --> 00:37:40,710 believe about the world and ourselves and and and and God. 699 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,250 Look at this city right gathering man had swallowed a 700 00:37:43,260 --> 00:37:47,070 multitude of satanic lies and got ungodliness now tormented 701 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:50,140 his life since this Jesus asked him, saying what's your? 702 00:37:50,150 --> 00:37:53,950 Name and he said Legion because many demons had ended him right. 703 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:57,910 Legion means huge crowd like thousands up to thousands. 704 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,980 Think about the the multitude of satanic lies that we can swallow 705 00:38:01,990 --> 00:38:04,560 in a lifetime, right? Alright, and for the negative 706 00:38:04,570 --> 00:38:07,330 rate it it. Let's see what Jesus does with 707 00:38:07,340 --> 00:38:09,750 this guy. There's 31 and 32 that the 708 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:13,000 demons attempt to to bargain with Jesus. 709 00:38:13,010 --> 00:38:15,040 Because they know they're doomed, but they want to make 710 00:38:15,050 --> 00:38:16,700 the best of a bad situation, right? 711 00:38:16,810 --> 00:38:19,500 Says this. And they begged him that he 712 00:38:19,510 --> 00:38:22,540 would not command them to go out into the abyss. 713 00:38:23,030 --> 00:38:25,660 Now heard of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. 714 00:38:25,830 --> 00:38:28,280 So they begged him that they that he would permit them to 715 00:38:28,290 --> 00:38:30,120 enter them. And he permitted them. 716 00:38:30,130 --> 00:38:33,580 Now we think, ohh, he seems to be letting them off lightly 717 00:38:33,590 --> 00:38:36,430 here. But look what happens. 33. 718 00:38:38,190 --> 00:38:41,330 Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and 719 00:38:41,340 --> 00:38:45,260 the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and 720 00:38:45,270 --> 00:38:48,170 drowned. They didn't get off lightly. 721 00:38:48,180 --> 00:38:50,630 They ended up damned right. But but Jesus uses their 722 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:52,130 willingness for a purpose, right? 723 00:38:52,290 --> 00:38:55,690 And here it is, right? Boost 34 When those who fed them 724 00:38:55,700 --> 00:39:00,420 saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city, in the 725 00:39:00,430 --> 00:39:02,100 country. They went out to see what had. 726 00:39:02,110 --> 00:39:05,540 Happened, came to Jesus, and they found the man for whom the 727 00:39:05,550 --> 00:39:08,090 demons had departed sitting at the feet of Jesus. 728 00:39:08,340 --> 00:39:12,800 Clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid right 729 00:39:12,810 --> 00:39:15,030 because they realised who this is, right? 730 00:39:15,100 --> 00:39:17,210 Who Jesus is. They fear the great fear. 731 00:39:17,260 --> 00:39:20,490 Jesus used the the pigs as a visual aid so they could see, 732 00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:24,030 you know? Real change had gone on here and 733 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:27,300 the guy is miraculous, miraculously healed of his 734 00:39:27,310 --> 00:39:30,330 demons, right? He's freed from the enslavement 735 00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:33,650 that he's experienced by embracing a multitude of demonic 736 00:39:33,660 --> 00:39:36,500 lies over his lifetime. Now he's sane and he's balanced 737 00:39:36,510 --> 00:39:39,850 and he's able to live a life of peace and joy in Jesus. 738 00:39:39,860 --> 00:39:42,690 Now important to note here, right, the practise of exorcism, 739 00:39:42,700 --> 00:39:45,890 right of, of, of casting out demons was a miraculous gift 740 00:39:45,900 --> 00:39:48,570 that Jesus used during his ministry and he allowed his 741 00:39:48,580 --> 00:39:52,270 apostles to use it as well. Now, when these miraculous gifts 742 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:54,850 phase faded out with the fulfilment of. 743 00:39:54,900 --> 00:39:57,790 The word of God. So did this form of exorcism, 744 00:39:57,870 --> 00:39:59,800 right? Despite all of the shames that 745 00:39:59,810 --> 00:40:02,280 you see in false claims and modern religion, God doesn't 746 00:40:02,290 --> 00:40:06,140 deal with ungodly influence in this way anymore through someone 747 00:40:06,150 --> 00:40:09,340 exercising someone else, right? So. 748 00:40:09,410 --> 00:40:10,610 How do we deal with? It. 749 00:40:11,110 --> 00:40:13,080 A couple of ways, right? How do we deal with it? 750 00:40:13,550 --> 00:40:17,120 Just like the gathering man, we have to surrender to Jesus, even 751 00:40:17,130 --> 00:40:20,380 though it may feel scary doing that right when we acknowledge 752 00:40:20,450 --> 00:40:24,330 that Jesus is God and our only hope and, and, and when we did 753 00:40:24,340 --> 00:40:26,440 that, we asked them to forgive our sins. 754 00:40:26,570 --> 00:40:29,880 He freed our souls from the ultimate consequence of Satan's 755 00:40:29,890 --> 00:40:33,000 influence over us right forever. At that point we had. 756 00:40:33,110 --> 00:40:37,530 Eternal life. Roman 623 right for God for the 757 00:40:37,540 --> 00:40:40,450 wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in 758 00:40:40,460 --> 00:40:43,590 Christ Jesus our Lord, right? However, to deal with the 759 00:40:44,060 --> 00:40:47,500 demonic false beliefs that kind of get ingrained in us, in their 760 00:40:47,510 --> 00:40:50,280 minds, and the bad patterns of behaviour in our lives on a 761 00:40:50,290 --> 00:40:53,870 daily basis, that's another. Issue right, It takes time and 762 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:59,210 it takes surrenders to Jesus couple of verses there right. 763 00:40:59,220 --> 00:41:03,230 We use God's word as an. Active weapon against these 764 00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:08,710 things and we use prayer communication with God to plug 765 00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:12,640 into his power right prayer and reading the word why that's why 766 00:41:12,650 --> 00:41:15,610 we hammer the stuff all the time it's so important it helps with 767 00:41:15,620 --> 00:41:17,900 these things right but in the book of James he gives. 768 00:41:17,910 --> 00:41:19,660 Us a really simple formula right now. 769 00:41:19,670 --> 00:41:22,330 Hollywood hype here. No sensation, just humility. 770 00:41:22,340 --> 00:41:26,160 Here's what he says. Therefore, submit to God. 771 00:41:26,940 --> 00:41:29,350 Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 772 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:33,830 That's it, right? Simple, right? 773 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:37,790 But remember, submitting to God involves turning around from 774 00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:39,710 ungodly patterns of behaviour, right? 775 00:41:39,770 --> 00:41:42,290 And James goes on to explain that in the rest of the passage. 776 00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:45,730 And it might sound simple, but and it kind of has went with 777 00:41:45,740 --> 00:41:48,570 Jesus when we really surrender. But if you try and fight the 778 00:41:48,580 --> 00:41:50,590 demons and their messages without Jesus. 779 00:41:50,700 --> 00:41:52,650 Right, you'll lose. Right Jesus, without me you can 780 00:41:52,660 --> 00:41:54,970 do nothing, Paul said. I can do all things through 781 00:41:54,980 --> 00:41:59,250 Christ who strengthens me. Jesus is able to help us when we 782 00:41:59,260 --> 00:42:02,090 surrender to his authority. All right conclusion. 783 00:42:02,140 --> 00:42:08,620 Don't be misled by religious. Or Hollywood height. 784 00:42:09,150 --> 00:42:11,820 Regarding demon position, it's really a simple matter of who is 785 00:42:11,830 --> 00:42:14,420 influencing your life and who is in control. 786 00:42:14,430 --> 00:42:16,400 Who are you living, being, control? 787 00:42:16,410 --> 00:42:20,060 You'll either buy into false demonic messages that don't come 788 00:42:20,070 --> 00:42:24,580 from God, and eventually those ideas and those practises will 789 00:42:24,590 --> 00:42:25,660 control. You. 790 00:42:25,930 --> 00:42:29,870 Or you'll listen to what Jesus says in terms of false ideas. 791 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,540 We need to look at what did God tell us right in his word and 792 00:42:33,550 --> 00:42:35,800 overcome those sort of thoughts and processes and then just 793 00:42:35,810 --> 00:42:38,560 stick close to, to God to work through them. 794 00:42:39,020 --> 00:42:43,050 Now the, the get a gettering man is an extreme case, but he's not 795 00:42:43,090 --> 00:42:44,900 out of the question. My, my daughter works with 796 00:42:44,910 --> 00:42:48,210 homeless people up in Auckland. And you do sometimes see people 797 00:42:48,220 --> 00:42:53,240 at this extreme end right. But he came to Jesus with a 798 00:42:53,250 --> 00:42:55,600 confused, broken, conflicted mind. 799 00:42:56,170 --> 00:43:00,960 Jesus took their life and gave him a sane, balanced mind, a 800 00:43:00,970 --> 00:43:05,540 whole healthy life, peace in his heart, the home in heaven right 801 00:43:06,350 --> 00:43:07,600 now. Jesus will save you in an 802 00:43:07,610 --> 00:43:09,480 instant. But don't expect a miracle like 803 00:43:09,490 --> 00:43:12,430 the Gallerian guy had to sort out your daily life because it 804 00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:16,560 doesn't happen like that, right? But as we surrender everyday, 805 00:43:16,850 --> 00:43:18,880 God, today I want to do what you want me to do. 806 00:43:18,930 --> 00:43:20,730 I want to act like Jesus would act. 807 00:43:21,030 --> 00:43:23,470 Be honest about all the false messages we bought into in our 808 00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:25,600 lives. Jesus will help us get away from 809 00:43:25,610 --> 00:43:28,240 all of that, right? So we have a choice to make. 810 00:43:29,090 --> 00:43:30,600 To be like the Gallerian guy who? 811 00:43:30,610 --> 00:43:33,100 Who submitted to Jesus and was made free? 812 00:43:33,830 --> 00:43:37,200 Or to reject Jesus and continue to struggle with the curse of 813 00:43:37,210 --> 00:43:39,170 ungodliness. And in fact, in Matthew's 814 00:43:39,180 --> 00:43:41,600 account, it says there were two of these guys in the teams. 815 00:43:41,970 --> 00:43:48,460 Only one of them came to Jesus. Here's the question, will we 816 00:43:48,470 --> 00:43:49,920 let? Jesus take the confusion, 817 00:43:49,930 --> 00:43:53,300 brokenness, and strife in our life and turn it into something 818 00:43:53,310 --> 00:43:57,120 beautiful because He's the master of everything, the stuff 819 00:43:57,130 --> 00:44:00,730 that we can see and everything we can't. 820 00:44:01,240 --> 00:44:03,690 And that is our choice we're going to face. 821 00:44:04,350 --> 00:44:10,140 All right, let's pray. Line back Father, we we thank 822 00:44:10,150 --> 00:44:15,700 you for yeah, these Luke's gospel and these this amazing 823 00:44:15,710 --> 00:44:19,350 pattern and picture that's built up of who Jesus is. 824 00:44:19,830 --> 00:44:22,960 And we thank you for the fact that he is the master of 825 00:44:22,970 --> 00:44:25,560 everything over the stuff we can see and the stuff we can't. 826 00:44:25,730 --> 00:44:30,060 Thank you for the fact that you are God who cares about the fine 827 00:44:30,070 --> 00:44:32,110 details in their lives and we just pray that we would be 828 00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:38,090 people who would hand these things to you and and stay close 829 00:44:38,100 --> 00:44:40,490 to you. Lord thank you that you never 830 00:44:40,500 --> 00:44:41,930 leave us. You stay close to us. 831 00:44:41,940 --> 00:44:43,110 We thank you in Jesus name.