1 00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:04,320 My friend Sean Demars is in his late 30s. 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,880 He's married to Amber. He has two school age daughters, 3 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:12,840 Patients and Bella. He's a pastor of a church in 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:15,720 Decatur, AL. Some of you may remember I took 5 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:17,480 a day trip to Alabama a few months ago. 6 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,680 It was to hang out with Sean, teach a group of pastors he 7 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:22,480 gathers, record a couple podcast interviews. 8 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:27,440 Sean has a large and colorful personality. 9 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:30,080 He has a weightlifter's physique. 10 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,680 He has tattoos. Just from looking at him, you 11 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,280 might be able to guess that he spent time in the army, but you 12 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:42,920 would not at all be able to guess what his life was like 13 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:50,040 growing up or the kind of person he was before he became a 14 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,440 Christian. Sean tells the story in a book 15 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:59,360 called Rebel to Your Will. He grew up with a single mom who 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,120 was addicted to drugs for his whole childhood. 17 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,320 For most of his childhood, he was homeless, living in their 18 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:12,080 car or in hotel rooms. His mom abused him constantly 19 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:16,960 and viciously. By his teens, he began doing 20 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:21,440 drugs, then selling drugs. He quickly got into trouble with 21 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:26,560 the law and he was placed in a juvenile detention facility in 22 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:30,200 Paint Rock Valley, AL. That's when he was 15. 23 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,040 It's a prison, but on the side of a mountain. 24 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:38,000 It's far from any town. While he was imprisoned in Paint 25 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:42,240 Rock Valley, Sean frequently cut his forearms, leaving them 26 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:48,720 zigzagged with scars. 1 morning, he tried to repeatedly bash his 27 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:53,000 head against a brick wall. The third time he did it, he did 28 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,360 it so hard that he fell flat to the ground and immediately 2 29 00:01:57,560 --> 00:01:59,440 counselors came over to restrain him. 30 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,880 It was 9:00 AM. It was the third time he'd had 31 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:13,960 to be restrained that morning. How did Sean get from who he was 32 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:22,240 then to who he is now? What or who brought about such a 33 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:26,920 radical change? This morning we continue our 34 00:02:26,920 --> 00:02:30,240 series in Mark's Gospel with chapter 5, verses 1 to 20. 35 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:33,360 If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand and 36 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:35,840 someone will bring one to you. Feel free to put up a hand. 37 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:38,800 Dawson is already on the way. Just lookout for the man in a 38 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:45,480 blazer with the Bible. In this passage we meet a man 39 00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:50,680 who lived alone, you might say, in a kind of solitary 40 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:53,800 confinement. He lived on the side of a 41 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:57,920 mountain in a kind of de facto imprisonment. 42 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:04,240 Verse five of our passage tells us that much like my friend Sean 43 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:12,400 when he was 15 years old, this man was always crying out and 44 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:19,880 cutting himself with stones. But then something happened to 45 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:25,120 him. Someone did for him what he 46 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:32,640 could never do for himself. Please listen as I read the 47 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:36,800 whole passage. Mark 5, verses 1 to 20. 48 00:03:45,430 --> 00:03:48,950 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the 49 00:03:48,950 --> 00:03:52,350 garrisons. And when Jesus had stepped out 50 00:03:52,350 --> 00:03:56,390 of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man 51 00:03:56,390 --> 00:04:01,400 with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs and no 52 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:06,440 one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had 53 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:09,240 often been bound with shackles and chains. 54 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:15,000 But he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in 55 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,839 pieces. No one had the strength to 56 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:23,680 subdue him night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains. 57 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:28,040 He was always crying out and cutting himself with stones, and 58 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:33,000 when he saw Jesus from afar he ran and fell down before him. 59 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:38,280 And crying out with a loud voice he said, What have you to do 60 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:43,480 with me, Jesus, son of the Most high God, I adjure you by God, 61 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:48,960 do not torment me. For he that is Jesus was saying 62 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:53,560 to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. 63 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,920 And Jesus asked him, What is your name? 64 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:03,960 He replied, My name is legion, for we are many. 65 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:12,280 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 66 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,680 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 67 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,960 and they begged him, saying, Send us to the pigs, let us 68 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,840 enter them. So he gave them permission, and 69 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:29,600 the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs. 70 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:34,440 And the herd, numbering about 2000, rushed down the steep bank 71 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,320 into the sea and drowned in the sea. 72 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:43,000 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. 73 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,240 And people came to see what it was that it happened. 74 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:50,840 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed man, the one 75 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:55,360 who had had the legion, sitting there clothed and in his right 76 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:57,600 mind. And they were afraid. 77 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,600 And those who had seen it described to them what had 78 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:04,760 happened to the demon possessed man and to the pigs. 79 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:08,360 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 80 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:12,920 And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been 81 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:17,120 possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 82 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,800 And he did not permit him, but said to him, Go home to your 83 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:29,640 friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and 84 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:37,600 how he has had mercy on you. And he went away and began to 85 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:44,640 proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. 86 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:57,960 And everyone marvelled. The Gospel of Mark records 87 00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:02,240 several exorcisms, several times when Jesus drives a demon out of 88 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:04,000 somebody. But this one is the most 89 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:11,520 dramatic and detailed, and the passage raises very many 90 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:15,240 questions. Many of the questions that most 91 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:19,400 naturally occur to us, I would submit, are questions the 92 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:24,800 passage simply doesn't answer. To help us not be distracted by 93 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:29,960 them, I'm going to list several Why do the demons not want to 94 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:34,440 leave the region? Why do the demons want to enter 95 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:39,120 the pigs? Why does the herd of pigs rush 96 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:42,000 into the sea once the demons enter them? 97 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,960 Did the demons do that on purpose or by accident? 98 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:54,720 When the pigs drowned, what happened to the demons? 99 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:01,600 And what are we to make of Jesus permitting such vast destruction 100 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:06,800 of animal life? From another angle, what are we 101 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:09,600 to make of Jesus permitting such vast destruction of people's 102 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:17,480 livelihood and wealth? Our passage does not provide any 103 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:20,200 clear or explicit answer to any of those questions. 104 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:25,000 But I don't think we need to answer any of those questions to 105 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,400 understand the main point of the passage. 106 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:33,200 And I do think there's one crucial question that the 107 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:37,200 passage does answer, at least implicitly. 108 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:39,880 It's probably a question that occurred to many of yous. 109 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:45,760 You're studying the passage. Why does Jesus grant the demons 110 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:49,200 request to enter the herd of pigs? 111 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:53,680 I don't think the passage tells us explicitly, but I think we 112 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:55,520 can gather from the whole narrative. 113 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:00,720 I think the answer is that the demons treatment of the pigs 114 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:06,960 served to dramatically demonstrate Jesus's power. 115 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:10,880 Jesus's power was dramatically displayed and expelling the 116 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:13,640 demons from the man and restoring him to wholeness and 117 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,440 sanity. It was further displayed. 118 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:22,680 It was confirmed, attested, blown up and put on a billboard 119 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:25,600 by what the demons did to the pigs. 120 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:30,520 It made the invisible reality of that deliverance even more 121 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:32,000 visible. It was visible in the man 122 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:36,120 himself, but what it made visible was the magnitude of the 123 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,880 powers that were tormenting that man. 124 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:44,720 Hey, what was wrong with that guy who used to live out by the 125 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:47,040 tombs? Do you hear about that? 126 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,240 That weird guy Jesus came in. He seemed to be better after the 127 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:52,760 what? What was with that guy? 128 00:09:54,160 --> 00:10:03,160 It wasn't mental illness, it was 2000 evil spirits tormenting 129 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,880 him. Jesus is granting the demons 130 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:11,160 request, showed the magnitude of the forces that were tormenting 131 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:16,080 the man, and thereby showed the magnitude of Jesus's power that 132 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:20,680 overcame them. It showed everybody around how 133 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:25,560 powerful Jesus is. You see, this passage is about 134 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,320 what Jesus did to this man and for this man. 135 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:33,840 But it isn't only about what Jesus did to and for this man. 136 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:39,360 It's about how the man himself responded and how his neighbors 137 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,800 responded. And it's ultimately about how 138 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:50,960 you will respond. Jesus won a decisive spiritual 139 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:55,000 battle against the whole legion of demons that day. 140 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:00,960 But Jesus confrontation with the legion wasn't the only front in 141 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:04,320 the battle. Instead, our passage reports a 142 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:09,680 multi front spiritual battle. Here's the main point of the 143 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:15,360 passage. Only Jesus can deliver you from 144 00:11:15,400 --> 00:11:19,840 all of Satan's tyranny, including unbelief. 145 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:28,320 Only Jesus can deliver you from all of Satan's tyranny, 146 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:34,920 including unbelief. We see that theme unfold in our 147 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:40,120 passages reports of this multi front spiritual battle. 148 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:46,360 We'll walk through the passage into five points .1 torment. 149 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:51,200 We see the demons torment of this man in verses one to five. 150 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:53,640 Look again with me at those verses. 151 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:00,640 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the 152 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:04,240 garrison's, and when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, 153 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:08,080 immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean 154 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:11,520 spirit. He lived among the tombs, and no 155 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:15,280 one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had 156 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:18,360 often been bound with shackles and chains. 157 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:23,120 But he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in 158 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:26,000 pieces. No one had the strength to 159 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:29,120 subdue him. Night and day among the tombs 160 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:31,960 and on the mountains. He was always crying out and 161 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:37,600 cutting himself with stones. First one tells us that Jesus 162 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,880 and the disciples crossed by sea and came to a new territory. 163 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,560 It's on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee. 164 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:50,200 The place name Garrisons refers to the whole region. 1 notable 165 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:55,440 fact about this area is that in Jesus's day it was not inhabited 166 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:58,480 by Jews, but by non Jews, Gentiles. 167 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:02,520 That holds for the whole region mentioned in verse 20, the 168 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,600 Decapolis. That just means the 10 cities. 169 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:08,280 Each of those 10 cities were predominantly populated by 170 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:12,400 Gentiles. So this is Jesus's first foray 171 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:17,640 into Gentile territory and as soon as he arrives, this man 172 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:19,840 comes to meet him. We're told that he has an 173 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:22,640 unclean spirit, meaning he's possessed by a demon. 174 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:27,160 We will soon learn that there is more than one demon, but the 175 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:34,080 point here is that the source of his problems is evil, hostile, 176 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:41,840 powerful spiritual beings. This is not a mental delusion or 177 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,720 psychological disorder. This man lives under the 178 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:49,360 dominion of evil spirits. His whole life consists in being 179 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:54,760 tormented by evil spirits. He comes out of the tombs 180 00:13:54,920 --> 00:14:00,160 because that's where he lived, among bones and the decomposing 181 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:06,440 remains of human beings. How could he live among tombs? 182 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:10,120 It's because tombs in that time and place were like big rooms or 183 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,480 chambers cut out of the side of a rock. 184 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:15,800 It can be big enough to stand up in, so he can make a shelter 185 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:17,600 that you can sort of camp out in. 186 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:22,800 This man lived in the tombs because he could not live 187 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:27,920 anywhere else. He had to live far away from the 188 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:31,680 living. He could only live among the 189 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:34,840 dead. His life was a kind of living 190 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:39,120 death. No human contact, no healing, no 191 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:44,120 relief, no pleasure, no enjoyment, no prospects for 192 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:49,520 change, only isolation and suffering and pain. 193 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:53,040 We learned that people often tried to restrain him with 194 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:55,600 shackles and chains. Whether they were trying to 195 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:58,520 restrain him from harming himself or harming others or 196 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:02,320 both, the text doesn't say. But it does tell us that however 197 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,560 often people tried to restrain him, he would break free with 198 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,520 superhuman strength, and so he suffered. 199 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:11,880 Verse 5 tells us that continually, night and day, 200 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:15,600 among the tombs and on the mountains, he cried out and cut 201 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:19,200 himself with stones. Meeting this man is like meeting 202 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:25,480 a zombie in a horror movie. He is the living dead, and all 203 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,400 this suffering turns himself destructive. 204 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:33,680 It seems like his only possible relief is in harming himself. 205 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:38,800 He's in torment. Neither he nor anyone else can 206 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:45,040 do anything about it. Now, on the one hand, this man's 207 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:48,360 suffering is extreme and extraordinary. 208 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,160 That's why the passage narrates it at such length. 209 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:55,200 You don't meet someone like this every day. 210 00:15:56,160 --> 00:16:01,680 But on the other hand, this man's suffering is not unique. 211 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:09,160 When my friend Sean was near rock bottom, his life strikingly 212 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:14,400 resembled this man's story. But the point of Mark's 213 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:17,760 narrating this man's experiences is not merely to show us this 214 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:21,160 one man's suffering. It's actually to show us that 215 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:26,840 this man is more like all of us than any of us would want to 216 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:31,640 admit. This man is fully captive to the 217 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:36,040 powers of evil and beyond human help. 218 00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:42,720 That's not only true of him, spiritually speaking, that also 219 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:50,000 is true or was true of every single one of us. 220 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:55,680 The spiritual condition we are born into is that of being 221 00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:01,800 captive to powers of evil and beyond human help. 222 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:06,160 Hear how the Apostle Paul describes all of our condition 223 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:09,160 in Ephesians 2 verses 1:00 to 3:00. 224 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,839 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you 225 00:17:14,839 --> 00:17:18,240 once walked, following the course of this world, following 226 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:22,359 the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at 227 00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:27,640 work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all 228 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:32,640 once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the 229 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:38,200 desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature 230 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:41,960 children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 231 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:50,680 What this man is, we all were, and some of us still are. 232 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:53,960 Spiritually speaking, the condition we're born into is a 233 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:58,240 living death. Spiritually speaking, by fallen 234 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:04,760 nature, each of us is a zombie. We're all the living dead. 235 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,560 My guess is if you're not a believer in Jesus, that 236 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:13,040 description sounds extreme or bizarre. 237 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,760 We in the modern West like to view ourselves as competent, 238 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:23,520 powerful, able, self-sufficient. We live by a myth of 239 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:27,320 self-sufficiency. We live by a myth of all 240 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:31,000 powerful individual agency. You can accomplish whatever you 241 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:35,960 set your mind to do, but there are powers that work in this 242 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:37,840 world that are stronger than you. 243 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,880 There are individual, individual, excuse me, there are 244 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:47,480 invisible powers at work in this world that are too strong for 245 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:52,360 you to do anything about. This world is a spiritual 246 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:56,720 battlefield. It's one thing to be in a battle 247 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:00,920 after training for it, preparing for it, and entering it with 248 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:05,120 eyes wide open. It's another thing all together 249 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:10,120 to be on a battlefield and not know it. 250 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,920 Notice how the effect of Satan's dominion in this man's life is 251 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:21,280 degrading and dehumanizing. Satan's torment aims to make 252 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:24,400 this man's life into a less than human one. 253 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,160 One element of that dehumanization is that the man 254 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:32,720 is driven to seek relief in harming himself, cutting himself 255 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:39,880 with stones. You bear the image of God, and 256 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:43,360 so does every human being you will ever made. 257 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:50,320 Just as you should treat others with respect and dignity because 258 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:54,400 they bear God's image, so you should treat yourself with 259 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:58,640 respect and dignity because you bear God's image. 260 00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:03,240 Brothers and sisters, a passage like this, a statement like this 261 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:06,520 in verse 5, should stir us to compassion. 262 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:12,920 When someone is in such torment that hurting themselves feels 263 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:17,520 like their only form of relief, we should compassionately care 264 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:21,640 for them and do whatever we can to help them, support them, 265 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:26,080 protect them, and try to help get to the root of their 266 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:30,800 suffering. If you are ever tempted to harm 267 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:35,720 yourself as relief from suffering, reach out to other 268 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,400 believers. Reach out to people who know 269 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:41,560 you, people you can trust. Talk to me or Michael. 270 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:45,520 We'll be glad to meet with you, pray with you, offer you 271 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:49,080 whatever help we can, and connect you with counselors who 272 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:52,320 can help care for you over a longer term. 273 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:59,360 Satan hates image bearers and works to destroy them. 274 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:05,720 Jesus loves image bearers and works to restore them. 275 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:10,160 We begin to see how he does that in .2 confrontation, 276 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:14,440 confrontation. We see Jesus confront the 277 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:17,440 spiritual beings tormenting this man in verses 6 to 8. 278 00:21:22,770 --> 00:21:26,890 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 279 00:21:27,650 --> 00:21:30,770 And crying out with a loud voice he said, What have you to do 280 00:21:30,770 --> 00:21:33,330 with me? Jesus, son of the Most high God, 281 00:21:33,850 --> 00:21:36,330 I adore you by God, do not torment me. 282 00:21:36,970 --> 00:21:40,640 For he was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean 283 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:44,440 spirit. In these verses, Mark begins to 284 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,560 recount the meeting between Jesus and this demon possessed 285 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,320 man in more detail. That the man fell down before 286 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:55,920 Jesus shows that the demons controlling him recognize 287 00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,240 Jesus's superior power and authority. 288 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:03,200 Now it's difficult to even talk about the man's actions because 289 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,720 he's controlled by the demons. It's the man's mouth moving, but 290 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:12,360 it's the demons talking. Now the phrase what have you to 291 00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:15,440 do with me is basically a plea to be left alone. 292 00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:19,440 And the demons confess that Jesus is the Son of God. 293 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:23,480 There is a sense in which the demons answer the disciples 294 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:25,520 question. From the very end of last week's 295 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:31,040 passage in 441, the disciples asked who is this that even the 296 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:35,960 winds and the waves obey him? The demons answer rightly the 297 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:41,520 Son of the Most High God. Now that is a true answer, but 298 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,400 that does not tell us anything good about the demons spiritual 299 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:47,920 condition. You can believe and confess that 300 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:51,800 Jesus is the Son of God and still be a demon. 301 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:56,600 Genuine saving faith in Christ is much more than 302 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:00,520 acknowledgement of the truth about who He is. 303 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:06,280 Now the demon then speaking through the man, says I adjure 304 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:10,000 you by God, do not torment me. The statement is ironic on 305 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,720 multiple levels. It's ironic that the demon would 306 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:17,720 invoke God's name and power as if he expects God to be on his 307 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:20,720 side. It's ironic in that it echoes 308 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,120 language that exorcists in Jesus's day would use to bind or 309 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:28,880 cast out demons. They would adjure them in God's 310 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:33,120 name to come out that that kind of verbal formula is an effort 311 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:36,520 to verbally bind the behavior of a demon. 312 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:41,640 And so here the demon tries to verbally bind Jesus's behavior 313 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,400 as if he's the demon who needs to come under control. 314 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,160 This man cannot be bound by humans. 315 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,760 The demons who bind him try to bind Jesus. 316 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:57,320 It's also ironic because the demons ask not to be tormented, 317 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,600 which is exactly what they're doing to this man. 318 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:06,200 Typical bullies. They dish it out, but they can't 319 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:12,160 take it. These demons who show no mercy 320 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:16,960 are begging for mercy, and it's important to recognize that 321 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,680 they're begging. Now, First Eight gives us 322 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,360 background information that tells us what Jesus said before 323 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,760 the demons responded. Here, it's that he commanded 324 00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:31,520 them to leave the man. Now, this interaction between 325 00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:34,760 Jesus and a demon is different from what we've typically seen 326 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,000 so far in Mark's gospel. Typically, when Jesus casts out 327 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,600 a demon, he just says the command and the demon instantly 328 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:46,160 obeys. Here Jesus commands and then the 329 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:51,520 demon begs for mercy. Presumably, had Jesus chosen to, 330 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,760 he could have effectively removed the demon, or the 2000 331 00:24:54,760 --> 00:25:00,440 demons by a word. But here it seems he allows the 332 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:05,480 demon to beg out these terms of surrender so that we would learn 333 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:11,680 and profit from the exchange. So there are two armies squaring 334 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:16,840 off here, Jesus on one side and, as we will soon learn, a whole 335 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,520 legion of Satan's army on the other. 336 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,240 But the outcome of the conflict is not in doubt. 337 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:24,920 It is not as if Jesus is going to lose. 338 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:27,920 It is not as if Jesus even has to fight. 339 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,360 As soon as Jesus opens his mouth, the demons start begging 340 00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:34,160 for mercy. The demons are defeated as soon 341 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:36,800 as Jesus speaks. It's just a question of whether 342 00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:40,600 they can obtain any favorable terms of surrender. 343 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:45,360 One lesson from this passage. Demons are real. 344 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,240 Demons exist. Demons harm people. 345 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,360 They're really at work in the world today. 346 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,960 But all of us who trust in Christ need have No Fear of 347 00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,800 them, because next to him they're powerless. 348 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,360 Jesus is infinitely more powerful than any and every 349 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,200 demon. He is the stronger man who has 350 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:13,520 come to bind Satan and deliver Satan's captives. 351 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:18,880 That's why this confrontation quickly results in .3 352 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:22,240 deliverance. Deliverance. 353 00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:28,120 Verses 9 to 13 report the somewhat surprising way in which 354 00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:31,120 Jesus delivers the man from his demonic tormentors. 355 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:33,880 Look first with me at verses 9 and 10. 356 00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,400 And Jesus asked him, What is your name? 357 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,440 He replied, my name is legion, for we are many. 358 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:49,800 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 359 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:53,200 A legion was a unit in the Roman army. 360 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:57,000 It's exact numbers varied, but it was typically about 6000 361 00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,960 soldiers. Now the point here is not that 362 00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:03,160 there were exactly 6000 demons inhabiting this man. 363 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:05,440 The point is just there was a whole lot. 364 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:09,680 They constituted a kind of unit of Satan's army. 365 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,840 The the fact that the demon is called legion makes crystal 366 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,760 clear what's going on here. This man's life is a spiritual 367 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,760 battleground between God and the armies of Satan. 368 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,760 And it's not just him. What's true of him is true in 369 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:27,880 one way or another of each of us. 370 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:32,520 Your life is a spiritual battlefield with eternal 371 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:36,720 consequences riding on the outcome of the battle. 372 00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:42,080 Again, in verse 10, the text does not specify or imply a 373 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,800 clear reason as to why the demons don't want to be sent out 374 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:48,560 of the country or the region. And I've got better things to do 375 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,680 in this sermon than speculate. So we move on to verses 11 to 376 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:55,440 13. Now a great herd of pigs was 377 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,480 feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him saying, send 378 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,040 us to the pigs, let us enter them. 379 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,520 So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and 380 00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:09,040 entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about 2000, rushed 381 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:13,560 down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. 382 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,840 One element of the passage that is not as obvious today because 383 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,240 of our kind of cultural background is purity. 384 00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:23,720 This man was the epitome of unclean. 385 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:28,800 He's a Gentile, unclean, possessed by a demon, unclean, 386 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:34,000 dwelling in tombs, unclean. And then Jesus drives the demons 387 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:38,240 out into pigs. Which two Jews were unclean? 388 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:42,040 Now, despite all the questions about this part of the passage, 389 00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:46,880 the main point is clear. The man is delivered and the 390 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:50,120 demons are defeated. Whatever the demons were hoping 391 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:55,240 for by being sent into the pigs, drowning is not exactly a 392 00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:58,760 triumph. In fact, that this is an army of 393 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:03,720 demons who are in some sense drowning in the sea sets up an 394 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:08,000 echo of the Exodus. God parted the Red Sea so that 395 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,120 the people of Israel could come through, and then he closed it 396 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:16,000 up on Pharaoh's army so as to drown the Egyptian army. 397 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,960 Israel was delivered, the army of Egypt drowned. 398 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:25,880 Here this man is delivered, and the army of Satan is drowned. 399 00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,360 As I mentioned at the beginning, Jesus's choice to allow the 400 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,720 demons to enter the pigs, presumably knowing what would 401 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:38,920 happen when they did, created a larger, louder demonstration of 402 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:41,760 His power. It created a standing witness to 403 00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:44,200 what He had done. Every time somebody would walk 404 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:48,160 by that big old hillside where that massive herd of pigs used 405 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:53,040 to graze, it would prompt a series of questions. 2000 pigs 406 00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:55,640 was a massive herd in those days. 407 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,280 Massive. Everybody would know about it. 408 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,800 Poof. They disappear whenever anyone 409 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,280 walks past for a long time afterward. 410 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:06,560 What? What happened to that enormous 411 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:08,720 herd of pigs? Where did they go? 412 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,920 Who did that? How? 413 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,680 Why? Whenever anyone saw it, it wood 414 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,720 forest A reckoning, It wood forest an accounting. 415 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,000 I grew up in California, and I heard a lot about seismographs. 416 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,080 If you don't know what a seismograph is, it's a 417 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:30,080 scientific instrument that measures the force of an 418 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,320 earthquake. It measures how much power the 419 00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:37,720 Earth releases when tectonic plates slip past each other or 420 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,040 smash against each other. It tells you how powerful those 421 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:46,360 forces were. In our passage, the grisly death 422 00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:52,680 of a huge herd of pigs functions like a seismograph. 423 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,480 It measures the impact of Jesus's deliverance of this man. 424 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:01,960 It shows us how much power it took to save him. 425 00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:10,600 Only the kind of power that could drive out 2000 demons was 426 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:14,960 enough to make this manhole that also is a picture of our 427 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:19,680 salvation. Only the kind of power that 428 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:26,120 would enable Jesus to give his life and death on a cross and 429 00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:31,960 pay for sins, and then rise again from the grave, triumphing 430 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:36,280 over death forever. Only that kind of power, only 431 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:40,760 that much power is enough to save you and enough to save me. 432 00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:46,840 We might not have the precise spiritual form of bondage that 433 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:53,200 this man had, but each of us by fallen nature are subject to 434 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:58,200 evil powers beyond our control, are hopelessly enslaved, and are 435 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:02,360 beyond human health. Not to mention the massive debt 436 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:07,640 of sin we've all racked up by the way we've rebelled against 437 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:11,400 God. What kind of power does it take 438 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,600 to deliver from that? The Gospel of Mark's answer is 439 00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:17,680 the cross and resurrection of Christ. 440 00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:20,840 That's how He pays for all the sins of all those who will turn 441 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:23,920 from sin and trust in Him. That's how He releases us from 442 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,320 death's dominion. That's how He guarantees us an 443 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:32,600 eternal welcome in His Kingdom by His death and resurrection. 444 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:36,080 And all you need to do to receive that infinite merciful 445 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:38,320 power is turned from sin and trust in Him. 446 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,600 All you need to do to be released from sin as completely 447 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:46,160 as this man was released from 2000 demons is turned from sin 448 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:48,920 and trust in Jesus. If you're not a believer in 449 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,880 Jesus, I would urge you come to Him in faith today. 450 00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:58,800 He can make you as sound and sane and whole and happy as He 451 00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,320 made this man. And that's what he promises to 452 00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:06,160 do for all who believe. And yet we know that not 453 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:10,920 everyone will believe. This very passage shows us that 454 00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:16,120 even the majority of the people who saw what had happened didn't 455 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:23,320 believe in Jesus, didn't accept it .4 Unbelief, Unbelief. 456 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:28,720 We see widespread unbelief in response to this miracle in 457 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:33,480 verses 14 to 17. Look first at verses 14 and 15. 458 00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:38,160 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country, and 459 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,440 people came to see what it was that it happened. 460 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,160 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed man, the one 461 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:48,480 who had had the Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right 462 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,040 mind. And they were afraid. 463 00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:53,320 Naturally the news spread quickly. 464 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,160 When people came to see what had happened, they saw a man who was 465 00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:03,240 previously The Walking Dead, now clothed well, sound of mind, 466 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:06,760 sitting there listening to Jesus's teaching. 467 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:11,560 The fact that he was clothed implies that he was previously 468 00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:15,440 unclothed. Jesus has restored this man's 469 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,600 humanity. Jesus has restored this man's 470 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,000 sanity. Whereas previously chains 471 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,040 couldn't restrain him, now he's sitting there willingly, 472 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:28,520 peacefully, quietly listening to Jesus teach. 473 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:35,639 This is a perfect calm after the raging storm of demon possession 474 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,000 last week. In the passage we studied, Jesus 475 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:43,000 calms an outer storm. Here he calms an inner storm. 476 00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,960 And the result, the peace that follows, is just as perfect, 477 00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:50,560 just as instant, just as complete. 478 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,639 Just as the man's demonic torment is a picture of all of 479 00:34:55,639 --> 00:34:59,960 our fallen condition by nature, so also his restoration is a 480 00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:02,240 picture of what it means to become a follower of Jesus. 481 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:06,800 To be converted to Christ is to be transformed by his grace. 482 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:11,160 To be converted to Christ is to be rehumanized after being 483 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,400 dehumanized by Satan. To come to Christ is to be 484 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:19,720 restored, made well, made whole. To come to faith in Him is to 485 00:35:19,720 --> 00:35:23,880 have both your humanity and your sanity restored. 486 00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:30,800 To come to faith in Jesus is now to experience an inner, peaceful 487 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,920 compulsion to listen to him and follow Him. 488 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:40,000 If you're a believer in Jesus, does anyone in your life think 489 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,480 you're crazy for being a Christian? 490 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:47,440 This passage shows the shoes on the other foot. 491 00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:55,160 Jesus restores your sanity. But not everyone who saw the 492 00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:58,920 evidence embraced Christ for themselves. 493 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,920 Look at verses 16 and 17. And those who had seen it 494 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,640 described to them what had happened to the demon possessed 495 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:09,880 man and to the pigs, and they began to beg Jesus to depart 496 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:12,840 from their region. Sometimes people think that the 497 00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:16,360 townspeople asked Jesus to leave because they were mad about the 498 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,080 financial loss they'd incurred through the death of this 499 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:23,640 enormous herd of pigs. But actually the text rules out 500 00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:25,800 that interpretation. And not only do I think that is 501 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:28,240 not the case, but I think it cannot be the case. 502 00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:31,360 Here's why. It's not the herdsmen who begged 503 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,120 Jesus to leave. It's the people the herdsmen 504 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:38,360 told it to, who then came and saw what had happened. 505 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,480 It wasn't the owners of the pigs who asked Jesus to depart. 506 00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:45,600 It was simply people who came face to face with Jesus's power 507 00:36:45,720 --> 00:36:49,720 and they were unnerved by it. They didn't want anything to do 508 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:52,000 with it. The key is right there at the 509 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,480 end of verse 15. They saw the man sitting there 510 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:59,320 clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid. 511 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:05,120 Their right to be afraid. Jesus power is infinitely 512 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,440 greater than anything they can comprehend. 513 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:12,160 Their right to be disturbed. But that disturbance, that being 514 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:15,440 shaken up should have resolved itself into being drawn to 515 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,560 Jesus, trusting in Jesus instead, that disturbing, that 516 00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:22,320 being shaken up resolved into opposition. 517 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:24,680 Get away from us, get out of here. 518 00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:26,560 We don't want you anywhere around us. 519 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,600 They recognize Jesus's power, but they viewed that power as 520 00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:32,720 being kind of like the reactor core of a nuclear bomb. 521 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,120 Yes, I recognize that is a very powerful device. 522 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:38,720 No, I don't want to touch it, thank you. 523 00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:42,480 No, I don't want it living next to me, thanks very much. 524 00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:47,320 I want it sent away as far from me as it can possibly get. 525 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,680 They got the power, but they rejected it. 526 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:58,680 A lot of people claim they would believe in God if God showed 527 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:02,480 them more evidence. A lot of people claim that they 528 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,920 believe in Jesus if they saw Jesus do a miracle. 529 00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:09,640 Here, as so often in the Gospels, you have people who 530 00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:14,240 come face to face with hard evidence of a miracle as 531 00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:19,720 dramatic as you could ask for. 2000 pigs drowning in the sea. 532 00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:24,520 What on earth just happened? And yet they do not believe. 533 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:28,600 They reject Jesus. They don't want anything to do 534 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,240 with Him. The fundamental reason people 535 00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:34,680 don't believe in God through Christ is not lack of 536 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,640 information, but the condition of the heart. 537 00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:41,080 It's that we want the wrong thing. 538 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:48,640 Control is a deep heart idol. A guy like this who can do this, 539 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:53,520 you cannot control. We prefer control to submission, 540 00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,320 and Christ's power is uncontrollable. 541 00:38:57,720 --> 00:39:00,640 You cannot set limits to the demands he puts on you. 542 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:04,680 You cannot draw a boundary that Jesus has to respect. 543 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:06,520 Hey, Jesus, you don't get to do that. 544 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:08,560 I've set up a boundary. Thank you. 545 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,560 No boundaries will contain Jesus. 546 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:16,360 To come to faith in Christ is to give up control. 547 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:21,960 Sin, you think is controllable. I've got it under control. 548 00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:26,640 I know what I'm doing. I can keep it limited over here. 549 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:33,760 I've got this sin you think is under control, but the way Jesus 550 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:37,160 will transform you is not controllable. 551 00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:41,040 Sin makes us prefer control to health. 552 00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:46,120 Sin makes us prefer control to sanity. 553 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:52,520 Kids in the congregation, do you ever think somewhere deep down 554 00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:56,000 in your mind and heart, that your life would be better if 555 00:39:56,080 --> 00:40:01,920 Jesus would just go away? Do you ever think that your life 556 00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:07,720 would be happier, smoother, easier, better if you could ask 557 00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:13,000 Jesus to leave and he would? That's what the people who saw 558 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,240 this miracle wanted. They wanted him gone. 559 00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:19,680 But it's not what the man himself wanted. 560 00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:25,520 We see what he wanted from Jesus and what Jesus wanted for him. 561 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:33,520 And .5 proclamation. 5th and final point .5 Proclamation. 562 00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:39,360 This is the last stage in this spiritual battle. 563 00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:43,240 For now. This is the outcome of Jesus 564 00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:46,240 victory in this man's life. Proclamation. 565 00:40:47,720 --> 00:40:49,440 That's the theme of verses 18 to 20. 566 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:53,240 Look with me first at verses 18 and 19. 567 00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:57,720 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed 568 00:40:57,720 --> 00:41:00,120 with demons begged him that he might be with him. 569 00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:04,880 And he did not permit him, but said to him, Go home to your 570 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:09,360 friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and 571 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:16,240 how he has had mercy on you. Now in these verses, Jesus 572 00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:18,240 grants the townspeople's request. 573 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:20,720 They ask. And the next thing we learn is 574 00:41:20,720 --> 00:41:22,320 he's getting into a boat to leave. 575 00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:26,400 And the man he has marvelously delivered wants to come with 576 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,480 him. He wants to get into that boat. 577 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:33,320 The phrase that he might be with him exactly echoes chapter 3 578 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:38,360 verse 14, which speaks of Jesus calling the 12 apostles that 579 00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:43,640 they might be with him. Now, I don't think this means 580 00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:46,560 that the man is asking to become an apostle. 581 00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:50,040 Like, hey Jesus, could you take the 12 and make it 13 for me? 582 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:51,600 I don't think that's what he's asking. 583 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:55,000 Instead, I think what he's asking is that he wants to be 584 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:59,480 with Jesus as much as the apostles get to be with Jesus. 585 00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:03,360 He wants to stay with him, go with him, see all that he does, 586 00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:06,280 be with him. That's a good desire. 587 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:13,080 A desire to be in Christ's presence is a mark of genuine 588 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:17,640 faith in him. Faith is not a bare mental 589 00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:20,640 transaction. Real faith gives birth to a 590 00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:24,400 desire to have intimate fellowship with Christ. 591 00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:30,720 So the man wants something good, but Jesus has in mind something 592 00:42:30,720 --> 00:42:33,840 better. Why does he refuse the man's 593 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:37,640 request? Because in this instance, he 594 00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:42,320 wants the man to be not merely a disciple, but a missionary. 595 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:46,680 This first Gentile convert is going to become, in some sense, 596 00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:48,960 the first apostle to the Gentiles. 597 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:53,680 Jesus wants this man to go among those who know him and bear 598 00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:56,280 testimony to what Jesus has done for him. 599 00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:59,240 More on that soon. But now we need to ask another 600 00:42:59,240 --> 00:43:02,720 question. Why does Jesus command 601 00:43:02,720 --> 00:43:07,640 proclamation here when elsewhere he forbids it? 602 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:10,080 We've seen often in Mark's gospel that when he heals 603 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:12,920 someone or drives out a demon, when the demons confess who he 604 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:15,120 is, he tells them not to tell anybody. 605 00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:18,160 And he's going to do that again later in Mark's gospel. 606 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:22,360 So why the change here? The key is that he's in Gentile 607 00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:24,880 territory. When he's in Jewish territory, 608 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:26,640 he's among his own people. That's where he's living. 609 00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:28,120 That's where he's carrying out his whole mission. 610 00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:32,840 If the crowds swell up too fast, if they kind of swarm him, well, 611 00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:35,080 that, that that'll cramp his agenda, it'll cramp his 612 00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:36,840 timeline, it'll threaten all kinds of danger. 613 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:40,720 Also in Jewish territory there's a whole wide mix of expectations 614 00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:43,200 about who the Messiah is going to be and what's he going to do. 615 00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,760 Here in Gentile territory, this is not where Jesus is going to 616 00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:49,120 stay. He's going to return maybe once 617 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:52,200 in his earthly ministry. It's also there's no 618 00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:54,600 pre-existing expectations for what the Messiah is going to be 619 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:57,520 like. So yeah, he's fine with not 620 00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:02,160 preaching here and leaving this healed man in his place. 621 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,360 Jesus is not going to come back except maybe once. 622 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,520 So he leaves this man. He sends this man home. 623 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:15,920 And in this case, sending him home means sending him to the 624 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,960 mission fields of the man obeys Jesus. 625 00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:22,200 Verse 20. And he went away and began to 626 00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:26,200 proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. 627 00:44:26,720 --> 00:44:31,960 And everyone marveled. Verse 19, Jesus tells the man to 628 00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:33,800 tell everybody how much the Lord has done for you. 629 00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:38,040 Verse 20, he tells how much Jesus had done for him. 630 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:41,040 It's not a mistake. That's not a slip. 631 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:45,960 That's sound theology. All we hear about the effect of 632 00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:47,840 the man's preaching is that people were amazed. 633 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:51,840 But later in Chapter 7, Jesus is going to return to the region 634 00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:53,600 and people come to him expecting healing. 635 00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:56,360 So clearly word has gotten around. 636 00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,040 We don't know the exact outcome of the man's preaching, but we 637 00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:01,320 do know that he sowed some gospel seed. 638 00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:03,440 We do know that it made some impact. 639 00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:07,960 We do know that Jesus name and fame spread at least somewhat in 640 00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,440 that region. Now, to help us apply these 641 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:15,440 concluding verses and the whole passage, I want to focus our 642 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:22,320 application on four points. Mercy, prayer, missions, and 643 00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:24,560 testimony. Little bit of application, 644 00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:26,480 reflections, some short, some a little longer. 645 00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:31,920 Mercy, prayer, missions and testimony. 646 00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:37,400 First, mercy. Note what Jesus commands the man 647 00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:40,560 to proclaim in verse 19. Tell them how much the Lord has 648 00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:44,840 done for you and how he has had mercy on you. 649 00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:49,040 Jesus's exorcism was an act of mercy. 650 00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:53,000 How much mercy? Infinite mercy? 651 00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:58,800 What kind of mercy? Omnipotent mercy? 652 00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:06,200 Jesus is omnipotently merciful and mercifully omnipotent. 653 00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:11,520 Omnipotence without mercy is scary. 654 00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:19,160 Mercy without omnipotence might not be strong enough for your 655 00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:21,960 problems. Jesus has both. 656 00:46:23,240 --> 00:46:28,040 What mercy do you need from the Lord? 657 00:46:29,240 --> 00:46:35,760 Whatever it is, ask Him for it, beg Him for it, plead with Him 658 00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:41,720 for it, and don't give up until He blesses you with His mercy. 659 00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:45,480 Second application. Prayer. 660 00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:50,720 In our whole passage, Jesus grants 3 requests and denies 661 00:46:50,720 --> 00:46:52,880 one. A couple of you noticed this and 662 00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:54,520 commented on it and emailed me about it. 663 00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:56,560 I appreciate that. It's a good observation. 664 00:46:56,920 --> 00:47:00,480 The pattern is surprising, maybe even shocking. 665 00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:06,080 Verse 10 the demons beg not to be sent out of the country and 666 00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:11,120 Jesus grants that. Verse 12 the demons beg to be 667 00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:13,240 sent into the pigs and Jesus grants that. 668 00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:19,080 Verse 17 sounds, people beg Jesus to leave and he grants 669 00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:24,000 that. Verse 18 The healed man begs to 670 00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:30,840 go with Jesus and he denies him. Where's the logic in that? 671 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:40,760 A request granted is not necessarily a sign of grace or 672 00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:45,960 approval. A request denied is not 673 00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:51,360 necessarily a sign of judgement or disapproval. 674 00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:59,640 Jesus might refuse your request for some very good thing because 675 00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:03,560 He has something that he knows is better. 676 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:10,640 Third Point missions. Later in Mark's Gospel in 677 00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:14,440 chapter 13 verse 10, Jesus is going to say that before his 678 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:20,040 return the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 679 00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:23,080 Here in our passage we see in a sense the very first 680 00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:26,560 anticipation of this world widespread of the gospel. 681 00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:30,200 This is the first time the gospel crosses a cultural or 682 00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:34,640 ethnic boundary. In Mark's Gospel, this first 683 00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:38,440 instance of the gospel spreading to Gentiles and among Gentiles 684 00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:42,320 is something like the birth of cross cultural missions. 685 00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,160 Now in all four gospels and the book of Acts after his 686 00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:51,160 resurrection, Jesus commands his disciples to bring the gospel to 687 00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:56,720 every tribe, tongue and nation. One of the reasons this local 688 00:48:56,720 --> 00:49:02,000 church, Trinity Baptist Church, exists is to continue the spread 689 00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:04,680 of the gospel to the ends of the earth. 690 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:08,440 A friend of mine, Brooks Buser, runs a missions training school 691 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:12,000 called Radius International. The goal of Radius is to provide 692 00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:16,000 a year long intensive training program to help equip people who 693 00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:20,640 mean to bring the gospel to utterly unreached people groups, 694 00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:24,240 people who have never heard the name of Jesus. 695 00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:28,000 In an article for 9 marks from a few months ago, Brooks hopefully 696 00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:32,440 lays out four different lanes of what faithful missions work can 697 00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:34,640 look like. I'm going to lay out those four 698 00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:38,800 lanes and tweak them slightly. In a sense, these progress from 699 00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:46,120 the easiest to support or do to the hardest lane one training 700 00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:49,840 national pastors in many regions of the world. 701 00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:53,800 There are decent number of local churches, maybe a large number 702 00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:58,280 of Christians, but not much theologically rich pastoral 703 00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:00,920 training. There's one reason Michael and I 704 00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:03,760 are proposing that we support the work of Mike Crist at the 705 00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,400 Nairobi Institute of Reformed Theology. 706 00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:09,440 Lord willing, we'll be hearing from Mike in our evening service 707 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:13,080 2 Sundays from now on the 26th. Have a kind of extended time of 708 00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:15,720 Q&A, getting to know him, hearing about that ministry with 709 00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:21,560 a view to potentially supporting it as a Church Lane 2, planting 710 00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:27,160 English speaking or other trade language churches in cross 711 00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:30,600 cultural contexts. That's what Michael was helping 712 00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:33,000 to do in Dubai for the past several years before moving 713 00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,280 here. And over the past several months 714 00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:38,040 we've heard from Andy Johnson and John Pentecost about this 715 00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:39,880 type of work. If I'm not mistaken, we have 716 00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:42,560 former members of each of those churches visiting with us this 717 00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:44,680 morning. You can hunt them down, try to 718 00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:48,600 figure out who they are. Andy and John are both serving 719 00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:52,680 English speaking churches in large cities in Central Asia. 720 00:50:53,200 --> 00:50:56,440 One of the great advantages of that type of church is it can 721 00:50:56,440 --> 00:51:01,080 provide access to nearby believers who might be in much 722 00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:04,840 less reached places or among much less reached peoples. 723 00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:07,680 Friends of mine and Michaels who pastor at different churches in 724 00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:10,760 the United Arab Emirates have trained pastors from Egypt, 725 00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:16,880 Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other places like that. 726 00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:25,000 Lane 3 planting indigenous language churches in places 727 00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:27,440 where there are hardly any Christians. 728 00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:31,520 This work is much closer to the frontline of global gospel 729 00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:34,480 expansion. If you're working to plant an 730 00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:38,480 Arabic speaking church in Cairo, Egypt, or a Kurdish speaking 731 00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:42,120 church in the Kurdistan regions of Iraq or Turkey or Syria, 732 00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:45,880 you're working in a place that has hardly any Christians and 733 00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:49,440 among a people that has hardly any churches. 734 00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:53,640 Or considered Japan, which has had some access to the gospel 735 00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:56,040 for hundreds of years, and yet we're professing Christians 736 00:51:56,040 --> 00:52:03,760 remain a teeny tiny minority. Lane 4 Planting churches among 737 00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:08,120 people groups that have no gospel access. 738 00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:13,160 These are cultural and linguistic groups to whom no one 739 00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:18,000 has yet brought the gospel. In his article, Brooks reports 740 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:22,680 there are roughly 3100 language groups who still have yet to 741 00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:26,840 hear the name of Christ. Brooks goes on. 742 00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:31,240 Church planting in this category is often slow, hard work due to 743 00:52:31,240 --> 00:52:34,920 the lack of translated materials, the need for language 744 00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:39,600 acquisition, harsh living circumstances, and governments 745 00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:43,880 hostile to Christianity. As we pray for opportunities to 746 00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:48,600 advance the gospel globally, even as a young, small church, 747 00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:53,000 pray that we will find ways over time to support work in each of 748 00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:55,120 these lanes. Some of those might come easier 749 00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:58,400 than others. Pray especially that the Lord 750 00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:02,640 will raise up people from among our membership who will work in 751 00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:09,600 lane four, who will bring the gospel to places and language 752 00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:16,120 groups where Christ has never been named, just like this man 753 00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:25,640 did when Jesus sent him home. For all of us, remember that we 754 00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:31,360 will not all go, but we all must tell. 755 00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:35,600 Telling is required. Whether you tell other people 756 00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:38,680 about Jesus here or on the far side of the globe is ultimately 757 00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:43,560 up to Him. Whether you stay or you go, you 758 00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:49,720 must tell. 4th and finally, testimony, testimony. 759 00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:53,520 What is the what is Jesus commanded man to do in verse 19? 760 00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:56,840 Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done 761 00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:59,800 for you and how he has had mercy on you. 762 00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:04,160 If you're a believer in Jesus, even a brand new one, tell your 763 00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:06,760 friends and family and neighbors how much the Lord has done for 764 00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:09,360 you. Tell them how He has had mercy 765 00:54:09,880 --> 00:54:12,080 on you. Tell them your testimony. 766 00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:15,360 And by testimony I mean how the Lord saved you, how He brought 767 00:54:15,360 --> 00:54:19,200 you to faith in Jesus. While sharing your testimony is 768 00:54:19,200 --> 00:54:23,400 not in itself evangelism, sharing your testimony can be a 769 00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:26,080 part of evangelism. It can spark evangelism. 770 00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:28,400 It can confirm and help your evangelism. 771 00:54:29,240 --> 00:54:31,760 It can help people see the personal difference that 772 00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:35,360 trusting in Jesus makes. Sharing your testimony can often 773 00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,440 help to put Christ saving work into categories that people can 774 00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:41,040 resonate with and more easily understand. 775 00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:44,440 This is one reason why we regularly interview members on 776 00:54:44,440 --> 00:54:46,640 Sunday nights to hear their testimony. 777 00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:49,680 What does that do? As we hear dozens of testimonies 778 00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:53,480 of how people have come to know the Lord, it shows us the varied 779 00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:55,800 means He uses to bring people to faith. 780 00:54:56,200 --> 00:54:59,160 It reminds us that He has power to give sight to the blind and 781 00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:02,200 life to the dead. It's a reminder that the gospel 782 00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:07,440 is his power to save. You should also share 783 00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:10,920 testimonies of how the Lord has continued to work in your life. 784 00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:14,640 Bear witness to how God's grace has continued to transform you. 785 00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:18,560 Tell your Co workers, tell your neighbors, tell your parents how 786 00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:22,040 much the Lord has done for you and how He's had mercy on you. 787 00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:27,800 Only Jesus can deliver you from all of Satan's tyranny, 788 00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:31,680 including unbelief. Only Jesus can supernaturally 789 00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:35,560 restore your sanity. Only Jesus can deliver you from 790 00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:38,720 slavery to sin. Only Jesus can give you a new 791 00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:41,680 heart. Only Jesus can give you His own 792 00:55:41,680 --> 00:55:44,720 spotless record of righteousness before God. 793 00:55:45,720 --> 00:55:49,800 Only Jesus can sink all your sins in the depth of the sea 794 00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:55,360 like a herd of 2000 pigs rushing down off a Cliff and drowning. 795 00:55:56,600 --> 00:55:58,960 How much has the Lord done for you? 796 00:56:02,600 --> 00:56:04,320 He's sure done a lot for my friend Sean. 797 00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:11,920 He's sure done a lot for me. And Jesus has plenty more where 798 00:56:11,920 --> 00:56:14,280 that came from. Let's pray. 799 00:56:18,560 --> 00:56:22,880 Heavenly Father, we praise you for the power of your mercy in 800 00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:24,520 and through our Lord Jesus Christ. 801 00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:29,440 We praise you for the deliverance you alone are able 802 00:56:29,440 --> 00:56:33,600 to bring about. We pray you'd work that 803 00:56:33,600 --> 00:56:37,560 deliverance in each of us. In Jesus name, Amen.