Good morning. Our scripture reading for today
comes from Matthew chapter 8, starting in verse 28.
If you're using one of the Bibles under your seat, you can
find that on page 763. This is Matthew chapter 8,
starting in verse 28. And when he came to the other
side, to the country of the Guardianese, two demon possessed
men met him, coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one
could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, What
have you to do with us, O Son of God, have you come here to
torment us before the time? Now a herd of many pigs was
feeding at some distance from them.
And the demons begged him, saying, If you cast us out, send
us away into the herd of pigs. And he said to them, Go.
So they came out and went into the pigs.
And behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into
the sea, and drowned in the waters.
The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told
everything, especially what had happened to the demon possessed
men. And behold all the city came out
to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave
their region. This is the word of the Lord.
What's going on? Port City family and friends,
how are we doing? Good.
My name is Tanner. I'm one of the pastor's here.
I love that new song, Jesus. Thank you.
Could somebody just say thank you this morning?
Somebody challenged me this week.
They said, Tanner, if you don't learn how to be grateful,
everything is either a prospect or a problem.
And maybe you can relate to that.
Everything in your life either feels like a problem that's got
to get out of the way or a prospect to materialize into
something new. And y'all, thank you.
Just helps you receive the moment and ultimately we are
thankful for Christ. Y'all in the person of Jesus, we
have all we need y'all. That's that's that's the truth
of the Bible. And if we can't get there, we're
always just going to be plagued by discontent.
So what I want to do is just go to the Lord in a quick word of
prayer and we're going to dive into our amazing texture today.
Will you pray with me our Father God, what we know not this
morning. Would you teach us God, what we
have not would you give us and what we are not, would you make
us? Lord, let let the words of my
mouth, the meditation of my heart during this time and God,
all of our hearts just to be meditating on what you have for
us. Be with us our Lord, our rock,
our Redeemer and everybody who agree with that said Amen.
Well, y'all, I love the five senses.
What a gift they are to taste food is amazing.
The one that kind of blows my mind sometimes is sound.
OK, sound, you can't see it, but the way that sound works is it's
it's like frequencies of like vibration, OK, and it it hits
our ears and we hear it. It's amazing.
All right now some frequencies are either so high or so low you
can't hear them. But just because we can't hear
them doesn't mean somebody or something can't hear them, OK?
Perfect example is the dog whistle.
If you go into the middle of downtown Norfolk right now and
you blow a dog whistle, none of y'all jokers would hear it, but
every Unchained dog in our great city would come running, OK?
Now why would that happen? Because they are attuned to the
frequency, right? Just because your senses can't
experience it doesn't mean it's not real.
And we all agree with that. OK, I bring up that illustration
because as we get into a text about demons, it is helpful for
us to just have in mind that life is more than our senses and
their experience. OK?
There's something we can't explain that a frequency
illustration is helpful for us to keep in mind.
And here's what I would encourage us to think about.
God is reality, God is the frequency, God is what we're
after, what we were made for. Anything other than him and life
with him is a distortion of reality.
Somebody say distortion. OK, so as we get into a
conversation about demons and all that stuff, that's all just
the distortion of what is truth, what is reality, which is God
himself. So my hope for us is that we
walk out of here wanting to walk with God in reality.
Are you with me? That we don't beg him to leave,
but we beg him to stay and we beg that we would get in life
with him. OK, so to get there, we're going
to look at our story from three perspectives.
First, the demons, second from Jesus, and 3rd, from the
Gadarenes, the people themselves.
OK, if you are ready, let me hear you say I'm ready.
All right, let's start with the demons, verse 28.
And when he came to the other side, to the country of the
Gadarenes, 2 demon possessed men met him coming out of the tomb
so fierce that no one could pass that way.
And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us?
O son of God? Have you come here to torment us
before the time? Now a herd of many pigs was
feeding at some distance from them.
And the demons begged him, saying, if you cast us out, send
us away into the herd of pigs. Two quick notes and we're going
to get in. OK, some of y'all know that this
text is in multiple gospels. OK?
This is the gospel where two men are mentioned and the others one
is mentioned. And sometimes you're like, what?
Are they different? Relax, OK?
Differences in gospels are differences in emphasis, not in
reality. It's not in what occurred, but
in what they want you to see and what occurred.
OK, so the other gospels emphasize one man who is the
most changed and was the focus of conversation with Jesus.
Our text is focusing on two men and they really, they aren't the
center of the story as much as the demons are.
And the people, the Gadarenes, are you with me?
OK, second thing, as we get into a conversation that involves
demons, what CS Lewis said in the mid 20th century is as true
as ever. He said anytime we talk demons,
one of two things happens. We ignore them or we have a
propensity to obsess over them. OK, that's just what humans do.
We ignore them completely. Mistake.
We obsess over them entirely. Mistake.
OK, so by our time ending today, we will we will kind of land
somewhere. And I just want you to hear this
is not a sermon on demons. This is a sermon on reality with
Jesus. OK, so we're not getting all of
our demonology from this text, but we got to do a little work
to get our minds around it a little bit.
OK, so here's the first thing I want you to see about demons.
Demons are an assumed biblical reality that fit within a
spiritual and material view of the world.
OK? They're an assumed reality as a
part of spiritual material view of the world.
All right. The Bible assumes a material
spiritual world where both are are together at all times.
They're not separate, they're just together.
The the way I've heard it explains that human beings, we
are the ones made in God's image where we are material beings in
a spiritual world and we're spiritual beings in a material
world. We are the ones who can do both.
Kind of like a an amphibian is made to do land and water, if
you will. We are made to do spirit and
material. We are the amphibians of God's
creation. And the Bible just assumes this,
friends. It does not explain it as much
as it just describes our existence in this material
spiritual world. Here's just one example of how
the Bible be like, say what? Explain that?
It's not going to explain it. Acts chapter 12.
My man Peter gets out of jail miraculously.
Thanks. He's dreaming.
Hey, he gets up out of jail, realizes he ain't dreaming.
He goes over to where he knows the church is praying for him,
knocks on the door. A girl named Rhoda comes and
checks out the door. She's like, it's Peter.
They're in the backroom praying for Peter.
She goes to the room and tells the homies, hey, Peter's at the
door. You know what they say back?
It's his Angel. And they were dead serious.
They weren't trying to play with Rhoda.
So here's the point. Is there like a doppelganger
Angie to a version? Of you.
I don't even know what that means.
The Bible just assumes it. Are you with me?
Like they were just like, oh, it's his Angel.
She's like, no, no, no, it's really Peter.
OK, So that was a real conversation.
It's just an assumed part of their worldview, OK.
And most of world history, and most of parts of the world,
they're still. There.
OK. It's kind of like when you see
the water when you're at the ocean, just 'cause you can't see
what's going on under it. You wouldn't be so arrogant as
to say nothing's going on under that water, just go stand in it.
OK. Second thing, demons are an
assumed biblical reality that fit within the Bible's story
view of the world. OK, so we've got the material
spiritual realm are together in the Bible's eyes and also the
Bible's story makes sense of their existence.
OK. Here at Port City, we try to say
often the Bible is the most compelling story in world
existence about where evil comes from.
There is no story that compares to it.
This is not some chaos creation of the gods and there's just
some war going on. That's not what the Bible
teaches, OK? The Bible teaches that God made
all things good, all of it. He created humanity in his
image. And during the creation process,
unbeknownst to us, there was the creation of, in the spiritual
realm, angels, OK, God's messengers to carry out his
will, All right. And in this creation, at some
point, the lead Angel, the lead person of the rebellion named
Satan, OK, Lucifer LED a rebellion against God and was
kicked out of heaven. That happened.
OK, Now. Because he hates.
God in his glory, He wants no part of alignment with God and
on God's frequency, what he decided to do was deceive
humanity because we were the ones made in God's image.
So I'm coming for them, OK. And so he deceives humanity into
sinning. This is Adam and Eve taking the
fruit and eating it. OK.
It was our own volition to choose to sin.
We were deceived, but we sinned. So now yo, we are falling.
Somebody say falling. Here's what I want y'all to get
for the for the rest of the sermon, what it means to be
fallen. If you think about God's
frequency, God, God just is. He is reality itself.
OK to be fallen in your sin nature now you default into not
wanting to be a part of His reality.
Are you with me in your fallenness?
You don't want God, you don't. That's what it means to be
fallen. You want no part.
You want no piece of that pie. You want to do you now.
Reality is what you say it is. That's what it means to be a
Sinner. It's me, myself, and I.
So demons are distorted from reality.
They know what it is and want no part of it.
Humans have been deceived into kind of like we live life as if
we are God. But here's what I want you to
hear. That is hard to hear, but it's
the truth. In some kind of way, neither of
us want alignment with God. Are you tracking with me?
In our fallenness, we also want no part of God being God and
living with him, His way, and submission to Him.
So in some kind of way, we're on the same page as demons.
That's tough. OK, Second Corinthians 4 says
that the God of this world, referring to Satan, has blinded
the minds of unbelievers from understanding the gospel.
We can't see straights. That's what the Bible teaches,
which explains why most demonic activity, when you think about,
well, if demons are real, why don't I see crazy stuff all the
time? You've bought into a Hollywood
version that what that means is paranormal.
But if the goal is being out of alignment with God, anything is
fair game. The most minuscule things are
fair game. It's distraction.
Anything that keeps humanity from living with God is the win.
Are you with me? So you could almost make the
argument to go too paranormal as the movies do.
It would stir us up and get us realizing we ain't in alignment
with God. So let's avoid.
That let's just settle for distraction.
Let's settle for some moralism, Be good people, Whatever it
takes for you to not take Jesus in his way seriously, and the
fact that you need him to die in your place, for you to be made
right with God and to live in alignment with God is fair game.
So in today's text, we see the word possession.
The idea of possession is that the individuals under the the
possessed state, their agency has been removed, right?
Like these people are not acting, it's like they're being
acted upon. But most demonic activity is
influence, not possession. It's just, it's through ordinary
looking stuff, distraction, you name it, to just keep us from
alignment with God. Anytime God is not aligned with
the demons are winning, you know?
So anything is fair game. And I would say as you think
about what we all want to know, well, what exactly is demonic?
I would encourage you not to just think that something is
demonic, but is it being leveraged demonically?
Sure, anything can be. Are you with me?
The more something is directly defining who God is or what it
means to be human, the more I think that activity is
inherently demonic, but the more that it is just being leveraged
to keep us from alignment with God.
It's being influenced by the demonic.
Let me give you an example. Recently I was asked to pray at
something and the person said just don't pray in Jesus name
and I was like you know. And I was like.
I'm not feeling that, you know, and I said back, hey, no, they
told me back that was an opportunity.
Listen to language for you to share unconditional love without
mentioning his name. So just to be clear, God, who is
love and a man who died on a. Cross.
To sacrifice himself for those who created who are sinful.
I am unloving to bring up his name.
I could have been loving by not mentioning his name.
Yo, that's demonic. Yo to take love and it not
include Jesus and kick him out the table that he built and say
you're unloving if you let him even at the table, that's
demonic. OK, That's like big D demonic.
OK, now. And listen, that doesn't mean my
friend is possessed by a demon. OK?
Y'all ain't listening to the sermon.
I'm just saying how we've ideologically cosigned that way
of thinking progressively over hundreds of years has been
demonically influenced to where they think they are loving all
of their guests by. Keeping me from saying his name.
Do you see that In the name of loving them, guarded them from
big bad me? Think about that.
Being protected by demons. OK but there's other examples
y'all. Anything that keeps us from
alignment with God. Y'all there's so many things
just distraction. Just the use of things that
keeps you from focusing on who God is.
I'll just tell you one just real basic way if you want to cut
some demon influence out of your life is to put your phone in its
place and treat it like a tool and not a pet.
I'm just telling you this, we have allowed them to become pets
that are attached to us and not tools we use for a project.
Y'all, your phone is a tool, not a pet.
If you want to just decrease how much demons are influencing you,
just use your phone less, OK? That is just big facts.
OK, I can, I can keep going, but I'm gonna stop.
The point is that that if you think through distortion, a lot
more things come into play. If the goal is alignment with
God, anything that keeps us from that is the enemy.
OK, OK. Third thing about demons, they
don't deny Jesus's authority over reality.
They just hate it. Did you notice in our text, they
initiate the conversation with Jesus?
They come up to him, they see him coming.
They previously had this whole area locked down through this
man's agency, these two men's agency being overridden.
Nobody even went that way. So they haven't seen a human
probably in a while. And the first one they see is
Jesus. OK, they see him and they cry
out. What are you doing here, Son of
God? Have you come to mess?
With us before the time you know that's alluding to one day Jesus
going to throw them in the lake of fire and it's game over OK
but they're they're like this ain't your moment it's like he
caught them off guard oh snap. And they're coming up with a
plan for how he can handle them. OK, They know who Jesus is.
They. Refer to him, Son of God.
G the the the Bible is clear. James 2 tells us demons are
extremely aware of who Jesus is. They just hate it.
They they aren't denying who he is they are just in opposition
to who he is. Which leads us y'all think about
that statement. They're aware of the truth but
don't want alignment with it, which means anytime that we know
the truth of who God is, of what He wants for us, of what it
means to live with Him and we know it but don't want it,
there's some being in the universe that agrees with you
and it is a demon, OK? I'm just saying again, that
doesn't mean you're possessed at that moment.
I'm just saying in our fallenness we share a lot more
in common than them. Then we realize we don't want
alignment with God. Knowledge is not our issue many
times it's our desire. Let's talk about Jesus.
Man says one word, verse 32.
And he said to them, go. So they came out and went to the
pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into
the sea and drowned in the waters.
Two things about Jesus. First, Jesus has the power to
restore reality. Y'all, if you weren't with us
last week, What does he say to tell the storm to be quiet,
peace be still, right? And our text didn't.
He just stood up and rebuked it. But in other gospel accounts, he
just says peace in the water. Still this week he says go and
demons leave. What Matthew is painting for us
is a God, the God man who restores reality.
Storms aren't supposed to almost kill people on a boat.
Demons aren't supposed to take over someone's agency with just
a word, just one word. And I don't know what tone you
hear Jesus saying go in. I just hear go.
I just hear. I just hear go.
You know, sometimes we're we're so funny.
We think, we think he had to scream that, you know, I want to
do an aside right now. I'm going.
To do it, I remember my my football.
Coaches we were struggling in high school with man, we just
weren't hyped before games. Then we would lose.
We're like it's 'cause we're not hype.
And I remember him just going on a rant that hype don't do you no
good. He's like bro, y'all are either
executing or you're not. He was like, we used to do
silent huddles right before the game where we say team on three
123 team. Then we go whoop em.
He's like, it doesn't matter. It's and what he's communicating
now that I'm thinking about it is either you got it or you
don't. You know, it's not about how big
you bark. Jesus just said go and they went
to the pigs because he's reality.
Are you with me? God's word, y'all is effectual.
You know what that means? It means His word does what it
is like his word go made them go.
You get what I'm saying? It's weird for us because our
words never effectual. I can't even get my kids to do
what I want them to do, you know?
But it's like his word is the means by which it happens.
God spoke in the word world came into existence, right?
Hebrews tells us that God upholds the universe by the word
of his power. We crave a God who is so
powerful and good that his word can make reality happen.
And that is what Jesus does here.
He just says a word and they go. His power and authority is so
smooth in contrast to these demons who were fierce.
Look at verse 28. It's said that they were so
fierce these two men that no one could pass that way.
So you get this image of their fierceness of, of creating fear
in those who come by and their their authority and power was
shown through the, the, the ways that they took control and and
screaming strong what this imagery of fierceness and Jesus
just with a word go and all things go back to the way they
were supposed to be. You ever been in a situation
where the pecking order gets reordered real quick?
You ever notice that like somebody had the power till
somebody else showed up? You ever been there?
I love watching this with little kids.
You go to a playground, you got a couple of like 4 year olds
hanging out with like a second grader, that second grader's
older brother in them so hard making up rules.
I mean, just no, no, no, no, you can't do that because of this
and this rule over here just making up stuff.
But the second, like a fifth grader, walks up.
That second grader turns like oh, what game do you want?
To play with like, oh, OK, so now we asking questions of being
kind and saying thank you. You went from controlling the
show to just the pecking order changed.
OK. And that's what happens here is
literally demons are plotting their own demise and giving
Jesus the idea of what to do. Well, if you are going to cast
this out, just send us some those pigs over there.
Yo. They weren't like, let's fight
them. Let's take them on seriously.
They weren't like, oh, quick little showdown, let's impress
Lucifer real quick. Let's get a couple of licks in
on the son of God. They literally like, let's get
out of here. Second thing about Jesus, Jesus
is the author of reality. Y'all.
This is such a picture of what's coming one day.
There's no more. There's no more misalignment, no
more storms, no more demons, no more agency being removed.
Y'all, flourishing is his way. Things get changed when he
speaks. He's the author of reality.
He made us to flourish with him. Somebody say flourish, thrive,
Y'all In this series we've been begging the question, what do
you think thriving is? I think we think we know what it
is. I think we think we do.
I think part of our problem is we don't think we need help to
know what flourishing is, right Y'all let me just tell you that
Jesus is right about flourishing.
He knows what it is, He knows what it looks like, He knows how
to get there. OK and let let me give you one
example. Matthew 544 says love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Want to know what our idea of what to do with enemies is?
Gang violence? Gossip about your friends behind
they back hate the other political party.
We just stir up so much division so quickly.
It's so natural to us, so we can't confuse what's natural to
you. And you're good at it and you
could do it as thriving. Are you with me?
Just 'cause you can, and just 'cause you have the power
doesn't mean it's actually flourishing.
We do damage with what feels natural to us.
Jesus, what He says is flourishing is flourishing.
He is the author, He is the authority.
And just cause it's normal to you doesn't mean that's what you
were made to do. So I just got to ask the
question, do you think you're living well?
Do you think you're thriving according to who God is,
According to this God who can just speak and the bad goes and
the good is restored. These people's lives were
changed. These two men, now they could
think they had their agency back because of what Jesus did.
Apart from him, they had no agency.
His intervention saved their lives.
His intervention changed that area.
Now we can walk there again because Jesus came through.
When he comes frequency flourishing is restored, y'all.
Apart from him we cannot flourish.
You know what the Bible teaches? For you to be made well and
flourish with God, you need a new nature, y'all.
What we think is, if I try harder, I'll flourish.
Even God. You give me the flourishing
plan. Give.
Oh, the book must be the way to flourish you to.
I'll get there. Just give me the book and I can
get there y'all. The issue with flourishing isn't
your effort first, it's your nature.
You need a new nature. The Bible says you need to be
born again of the Spirit of God. Until you want God, until you
want His way, until you want his authority, until you want
Christ. It does not matter that you know
even what flourishing is if you don't want Him in it.
We would always construct a reality where we're in control.
We run the show. No submission, y'all.
You need a new nature. And for some of you, that's what
you're being asked to consider in this sermon is just to think
about have you received the nature of God?
Have you been born of the Spirit of God?
Does God indwell you? Do you want to live under His
rule, under His authority, under His way?
Do you agree with Him that you're not well apart from Him?
That's what you need. That's the Bible's assessment of
you to live on God's frequency with Him and to like it, you
need a new nature. That's what the Bible teaches.
Let's talk about the gatherings. Let's talk about the gatherings.
It's a fun word to say. Somebody say gathering.
Aha, y'all did better than I thought you would.
Verse 33 the herds been fled and going into the city they told
everything, especially what had happened to the demon possessed
men. And behold, all this city came
out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to
leave their region. Now what A.
Shocking end to our text. 2 things I want us to consider.
First, submit to reality with King Jesus.
Submit to reality with King Jesus.
Y'all. Have you ever had the thought
that if you had undeniable proof of Jesus, reality and authority,
you would submit to it? If you had mental proof, you
would submit to it. Y'all, this story is the
definitive proof that we are wrong about that.
OK? The Bible is clear that our
issue is not mental. They saw, they could not deny
what had happened to these men. Y'all used to be crazy.
Y'all used to be possessed by some demons.
We couldn't even walk on the South side.
Now we can. And we appreciate you, Jesus.
We'll keep walking through here, but can you please leave?
OK, so their issue was not what they didn't know.
They still didn't want it. Y'all the herdsmen they saw this
jump go to y'all just imagine being the herdsmen.
Jesus rolls up. They're just standing back
watching couple guys that I'm scared of run over to Jesus.
Next thing I know, maybe they don't even hear it.
Next thing they know, go, pigs drown.
Let's go tell everybody. Let's get him out of here.
He's got to get out. I mean guys, this is crazy.
We think if we knew we would want y'all.
Listen to me, Be very careful not to blame on your mind what
your heart hates. Listen to me, be very careful
not to blame on your mind what your heart hates.
There's some people in this room who have genuine mind based
questions about the faith, about life in Christ, about reality.
We need to talk about those and praise the Lord for your
humility to keep asking those and keep asking those.
But many times what I've found is we can leverage our brain to
guard our heart. We can poke holes with the
Google. We can poke holes with the
chatty GPAT. Give me the five arguments that
Christians can. You know it's not hard to find
things, y'all, to leverage your doubt longer when your doubt is
being driven by hatred. OK, so there is a doubt that is
looking for the Lord and then there is a cynic angry.
Wouldn't do it even if I saw the pigs.
Ha, don't care, please leave. OK.
And in my experience more people are there where the gatherings
are then where we tell ourselves.
If he really did then I would. No you wouldn't.
What the gatherings represent y'all is ignorance is bliss.
Don't want to know? Can you leave?
Glad for what you did? Please just leave.
One of two things is happening. Either they are filled with tons
of idolatry or they just want ignorance to be bliss.
Idolatry is the is the idea that they so are frustrated at the
money they lost through those pigs and they're afraid of
Jesus's presence being a threat to their pocket that they said
you got to leave. Y'all, when a whole herd drowns
like this, that's a lot of money.
You messing with my bacon, no pun intended.
Money bacon, somebody OK, you messing with the bacon either on
my plate or in my pocket. And because you messing with
that, you got to go. So it's all good.
I'm glad you helped those guys, but you're crazy.
Get out of here man. So it's either their love of
money that led them to get him to leave or, and y'all, can I
just tell you there's so many people that want nothing to do
with Jesus over love of money. Y'all, it is our love for things
more than Jesus that gets us to beg him to leave.
Your heart is what's getting you to get your brain go find
whatever argument you need. But you're being driven when you
go look that up by your love of money.
So we just got to get a little more real about what's going on
underneath the surface. Or they're just kind of
ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is bliss is like, ah,
I don't know how to explain what I just saw.
And that's cool for those guys. But no, have you ever shared
your testimony, Christian, with some people and they go.
That's so great for you. I'm so happy for you.
I. Remember one time I shared my
testimony with somebody about Jesus Christ down in my place
and I'm like weeping. It's.
Like that is amazing. I'm so happy for you.
Something similar happened for me when I found tea like the
drink and I was like let me. Maybe I missed something.
How does T help you when you Daniel sin like what what was
the what's the what's the bridge there?
What's the but like that that what's behind that is ignorance
is bliss like that is so good. I'm so glad you're not demon
possessed anymore but please leave like.
And the second you imply that I need what you just said, bye
bye. Make it go.
Bye, bye. OK, So I just want you to hear
that we all do that. We all think ignorance is bliss.
Even the Christians in the room, there's certain things when the
Lord starts tapping. We want to play stupid, don't
we? We like the play that.
Can you just leave Jesus? Come back on Tuesday, Jesus.
Let me make a little more money, Jesus.
Can I overwork a little longer, Jesus?
Can I keep being annoyed with my spouse on this longer?
Can I harbor the resentment longer?
Can you come back in a couple of weeks?
Jesus? OK, so we all do this.
We think ignorance is bliss, whether it's money or the status
quo. They said Jesus got to go.
So I just want you to hear if you're there, yo, ignorance is
not bliss. What a missed opportunity by the
Gadarenes. Y'all that Jesus just think
about why should, why should they beg him to stay?
Why y'all? I couldn't help but feeling the
difference between the Gadarenes and the Samaritans.
Do you remember in John chapter 4 when the woman at the well
goes and has the interaction with Jesus and she falls in love
with him, we think, and she goes back to town and tells everybody
and they all come out and meet Jesus and then they beg him to
stay for a few days? Y'all remember that?
And they say we no longer believe because of your
testimony, but because we have seen for ourselves that this is
the Son of God. Y'all, they begged them to stay.
I want our city. I want us to be Samaritans, not
gatherings, OK? And what will get you there,
what will make you the person who begs them to stay, is when
you look at the cross, y'all when you see what Christ has
done. We're talking about the God of
all flourishing, who made all things.
Y'all who leveraged all of his power to give it all away.
He's a servant. He's the son of suffering.
He is the one who didn't leverage his power to make a
spectacle of his power over demons for other people to take
note of. He just did it.
To demonstrate his authority and so that we could take comfort.
But he didn't leverage his power for show.
He leveraged his power for the good of others.
He leveraged his power to give it away for sinners, to make
them right with the Father. That's what the cross is about,
is the God of all power and authority being nailed to a
piece of wood. He built wood, He made wood and
he was nailed to it. That's the Son of God.
Why would you beg him to leave when he's trying to save you?
Why would you beg him to leave when he's trying to bring you
into flourishing? So for some of y'all, I'll just
pray for the first time you would get real with yourself and
y'all we've all played dumb. I played dumb for about four
months. The dude was like what you going
to do with this Jesus stuff T and I kept being like, I don't
know, I was just playing dumb for like 3-4 months.
Ignorance is bliss. And eventually the Lord was
like, hey man, you got to make a decision.
If some of y'all really got to decide where you're at with
Christ and stop playing the ignorance is bliss.
At least I go to church card. Does that make sense?
OK, now let me finish talking to believers here for a minute.
I want us to flourish with Jesus by loving neighbor and fighting
our enemies. OK, Remember with demons, we do
one of two things. Obsess over them or ignore them.
We're not going to do that. We're not going to obsess over.
We're not going to ignore them. OK, so here's here's what I want
to do. A lot of times the demon
conversations just aren't integrated into other things.
Like it's almost like this off off on the side kind of thing.
So I want us to integrate like the Christian life and how
speaking into the spiritual realm, thinking about demons
like how that fits. Does that make sense?
You are saved by God to live with God.
Somebody say live with God. That's the goal of your life is
through Christ by the Spirit. Live with God and love your
neighbor as yourself. OK.
And as you do that full of the Spirit eyes on the Son of God,
setting your mind on things that are above, not on things that
are in this earth, as you are loving your neighbor, yes, you
have an enemy. So fight your sin and fight your
enemy. That is the Satan.
And by the way, your neighbor is not your enemy.
You know that, right? Can we get real clear that your
neighbor is not your enemy? OK.
Y'all what our? Culture is trying to make us
think is that people are the problem.
You know, Ephesians 6 is very clear that we fight not against
flesh and blood. So when somebody is driving you
crazy, that is not necessarily a an instance of demonic activity
where you need to pray that God just changes them.
He's trying to change you to love them.
OK, so we need to love our neighbor, not hate our neighbor.
And we have an enemy who hates our neighbor.
Are you with me? What this text should do is like
think about the men being possessed.
Like we should have compassion for people when they're tripping
and we should want them delivered.
I'm not saying everybody who annoys you is demon possessed.
Amen, somebody. I'm just saying your goal is to
love your enemies. Your goal is to love people and
you have an enemy of your soul as you do that.
OK, now James Ford tells us resist the devil and he will
flee first. Peter 5.
Be sober minded and watchful. Your adversary is prowling
around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
Not talking about non Christians.
Talking about you. Believer.
So here is what I've noticed. There are four types of
Christians. When you can't find a parking
spot, there are four types of Christians.
You ready First Christian can't find We're all in the car
together. We're driving around and can't
find the parking spot. Lord, I can't find the.
Spot what is wrong with me? Why can't I trust you in Jesus
name? I never beat and they start
beating themselves up. Let's call him Jerry.
Jerry just beats himself up. That's Christian one.
Christian 2. God, I thought you were
sovereign. Give me the spot in Jesus name.
You don't even love me. What did I do wrong?
Now I'm mad at the Lord. Let's call him Larry.
So Jerry's mad at himself. Beating himself up, Larry is
confused over the sovereignty of God as he can't find a parking
space. The third person, it's like both
of y'all are tripping. We'll call him Terry.
We got Jerry Larry. Now Terry.
Terry's like let me out of the car.
I'm taking over. I'm taking authority over this
parking lot in Jesus name right now.
I'm taking authority over all these spots.
Enemy is not going to stop us in Jesus name.
We going to get a spot. Right.
Now I love those people man. The 4th person is a cynic
towards all of them. OK, they're like, Larry, you
crazy. Why are you always so hard on
yourself, man? Or Jerry?
Sorry, Jerry, stop. God loves you.
God die for you. And why you all?
Larry, you always make this about the sovereignty of God.
Larry, like God, life just happens.
There's no parking spot sometimes.
And why you always bringing Satan into it, man, It's just
life. And they're the cynic and mad at
all of them. OK, here's what I'm trying to
say. The type of church I want to be.
I think we need a little bit of Larry, Terry and Jerry.
OK, I think we need a little bit of all of it.
What I want us to be, what I want to be trying to serve by
parking the car and yes, grab. The moment, OK.
Prayer, how you talk to yourself, how you talk to God,
and how we talk to the enemy is part of how you grab the moment.
Does that make sense? Jesus, when I walk in this room
late, OK, this happens a lot of times.
We have kids. Help me remember that I'm not
defined by what anybody thinks when I walk in.
And that's true because of what Christ did.
I'm a Son of God, full of the Spirit you.
Are with me. Help me to continue to learn.
How to not be? Lazy 45 minutes before this and
get my kids and not just scream at them.
Forgive me for the way I yelled at them back there.
But now help me to be sealed in the blood of Christ as I walk up
in here and Lord help me to be focused on my neighbor.
This dude is lost and he needs you.
And right now I'm distracted by my guilt and yes by the fact
that all these children are fighting and I feel like a bad
parent. So I do take authority over
Jesus name in this moment. We are covered in the blood and
hey kiddos, right now I know y'all.
Are annoying each other, but I think the enemy might be trying
to get us to distract ourselves from what matters most, which is
Jerry. And that brother needs us to
love him. OK, can we focus on Jerry?
Not how much. We annoy each other.
We'll talk about that later. Can somebody just say Jesus?
The Lord Jesus. Lord.
That's right. Let's roll up in here.
So what I want us to do is be a neighbor focused, spirit filled,
and yes, there is an enemy trying to ruin that moment
because they hate your neighbor and you and the glory of God.
That's kind of the point. We don't fight him to fight him
for fighting him sake. We fight him for the good of
neighbor, the glory of God and the good of our city and our own
joy. Are you tracking with me?
So yeah, we got some fighting to do, but it's in the context of
neighbor, love and God, glory and our joy.
Are you with me? OK, Jesus brought you into
reality. Now go extend it.
Demons know it and hate it, so they stay pretending.
Don't let them distract you from God and neighbor.
In Jesus we have victory. Nowhere else could be safer.
So come Lord Jesus, bring our city into life with you demons.
Go Norfolk. Listen, let's see what God can
do. Let's pray.
Our Father, we love you. God, thank you so much for your
glory. Thank you for sending your Son
to bring us into reality with him.
That flourishing is where you are God, you are reality.
We want to live with you. By your spirit, God, give us an
undistorted, purified reality. God, we long for the day where
all distortion is gone. We're all demon activity is
gone. God, we pray for our great city.
God, we want them to hear the gospel.
Not beg you to leave, but beg you to stay.
We pray you will go before us. And God, help us to walk in the
victory of Christ, what your blood has purchased for us.
Help us to grab the moment for the good of our neighbor.
Help us to talk to the enemy God appropriately and align
ourselves with your reality God, and give our church the diverse
gifts and expressions of worship that we need to do this well.
And when somebody else is in the car different than us, help us
to be thankful God and not try to all be like Jerry or Larry or
Terry God. Help us all with our unique
gifts. Be full of the Spirit for the
good of neighbor. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.