Miracles | Week 8 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

And, again, we were, you know, we went to Denver for a little bit, saw my wife's family out there, and we mostly learned you gotta wait till July to go to Denver because it's still raining out there. So we sat inside with a couple old people and did really nothing all day. So that was that was not very exciting. And then we went to Sedona the last couple days, and I did a wedding for an amazing couple in the church. And, again, went up there, did some hiking, and Sedona is beautiful. If you've not been yet, man, just go check it out. Amazing hiking trails all over the place. I've only I've only been there twice. We went up a couple years ago for an anniversary trip and just went up obviously to do this wedding. And, again, I think it's an incredible place, great hiking trails, but also, like, can I just be honest? Like, Sedona is kinda weird. Like, there's a lot of weird people that are in Sedona. Like, they just all, like, congregate up there together. You know? And I don't like, no offense if you're, like, one of the people who are, like, that's my tribe.

I just you know, I walked around Sedona, and everybody talked about how there's, like, there's, like, an energy there. And fully a 100% you can feel

like a different energy that's there. But I also just gotta let you know, man, not all of that is not all of that's from God. Right? Like, walk around and you see these things that say, the Sedona crystal vortex, and I'm like, I don't know what that is, and I really honestly, I don't I'm not sure I do wanna know what that is.

And the other wild part was is that, like, every corner of Sedona, like, you turn a corner, every other building is full of psychics and energy balancing, and you can take these aura photos. And we were looking at the hotel we were staying at, and every morning they had something like this that you could go and do.

And I started to just sit back and I just wondered, man, how often do unsuspecting people walk up here thinking that they're doing something that's harmless

and they're unintentionally opening doorways and pathways and windows to allowing the demonic realm to begin to take hold in their life and in their their families. And then in the providence of God, I just thought it was crazy that I was there in Sedona less than twenty four hours ago, and today,

I would be teaching a sermon in Mark chapter five about Jesus delivering a man from demonic depression. Like, he's literally oppressed by more than 2,000 demons,

and we don't know how he got there. Maybe he took a quick trip to Sedona and did a psychic reading and something got on him, like, who we don't really know. And again, I I I'm not trying to be tongue in cheek with it, but I I I do need to just, a pastor, kind of warn us that the these things matter, and it's a big deal. K? What I wanna talk to you about today, the miracle we're going to look at today is the miracle of deliverance.

And it's not something that we talk about a lot in church, But the truth is is if you read the gospels, you read Jesus' ministry, what you will see all throughout it is deliverance, where Jesus goes to people who are being attacked by the demonic, who have been filled by a demonic spirit, and he cast the demon out of them. K? And this is something that we need to understand is a part of the ministry that we've been called to as the hands and feet of Jesus. K. Mark chapter five,

here's how our story today begins. It says, so so they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the Garrisones.

If you're taking notes or you have a bible, highlight underlying circle that thing that says the region of the Garrisones. It'll make sense. I'll come back to it here in a second. Verse two says that when Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man oppressed or a man possessed by an evil spirit came out of the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained even with a chain.

Whenever he was put into chains and shackles as he often was, he snapped the chains from his wrist and he smashed the shackles.

No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night, he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. This sounds like a guy that's been a Cardinals fan for too long. Right? He's just been tormented.

They're never you know, he's just he's struggling. Right? This is a guy as much as I I'm joking that literally has been possessed by demons to a point that he he can no longer even live with the rest of society. He's been put out basically on an island by himself and we see Jesus get out of a boat and go up and begin to have an interaction with him. Now what's interesting is this miracle happens on the other side of a miracle we looked at a couple weeks ago where Jesus takes his disciples out into the middle of the Sea Of Galilee, and on a boat, a storm erupts. And what does Jesus do?

He speaks to the storm. He calms the storm. And upon the storm calming down, they then get to the other side of the lake and they have this interaction with a man possessed by a demon.

I think these two miracles are connected. I think what Jesus is trying to show us is that one of his specialties, one of the characteristics and part of the nature of God that we need to understand is that Jesus specializes in bringing calm to chaos.

You go all the way back in the Genesis account of God creating the earth. What did he do? He took the chaos that was without form and he began to speak and out of chaos, he brought he brought order. This is good news for those of us who are here today who find ourselves in a bit of a chaotic season,

who find ourselves who who whose marriages are in a a a a completely chaotic moment, whose finances have been turned upside down, whose businesses feel chaotic. The good news is is that we serve a God who specializes in bringing calm to chaos.

We watch this man who literally has been forced to live on the fringes of society because of the possession of the demons, and we don't know his story. We don't know what happened. We don't know how he got there. All we see is kind of the end of where he ends up, but here's what I need all of us to see this morning.

The enemy has a really simple plan for every single one of us. His goal, the Bible tells us, John chapter 10 verse 10, that Jesus has come so that we can have life and life abundantly,

but the enemy has come to kill, steal, and destroy that life. His goal is to get every single one of us to be so messed up from the things that we've allowed, the lifestyles that we've chosen to live, the lies that we've believed,

that eventually because of our choices or the things that we've allowed to take possession in our hearts, that it forces us to live a life of isolation. That's what the enemy wants for all of us. He's trying to destroy your calling. He's trying to destroy your integrity.

He's trying to destroy your marriage, your family, your legacy, all of it. And I just wanna say on this Father's Day, the reason I love Father's Day is this is a day that is about legacy. And dads, your role matters. I'm telling you, the things that you wage war with, if you don't wage war with them, you unintentionally,

you pass them down as bondage to your children. But you can be, in the name of Jesus, a generational curse breaker. You can be a cycle ender where chains can be broken in the name of Jesus because of one person's obedience

to saying yes to the things of Jesus. And so what I wanna do today is I wanna just do kind of a a church one zero one on demonology. K? Now again, I thought back on it. I've been in church for a long time, and and I don't actually think I've heard a sermon in a church on the spiritual realm when it comes to how the demonic stuff works.

Now again, I've been in seminary settings where we've talked about this stuff, but we don't we don't talk about deliverance and how we actually deal with the spiritual realm. And so there's a couple really simple things I want us to see from this passage today. K? The first thing if you're taking notes, the first key that I want you to understand about the spiritual realm is that number one, the spiritual realm is very real and it's very active.

If I could, and I wish that I could, if I could give you a pair of glasses that would somehow peel back the layer between the physical world that we interact with and the spiritual realm that is happening all around us, I'm telling you what it would primarily do is it would wake you up to realize there's a war that's being waged over your life and over your family. And one of the greatest lies of the enemy is he's convinced us that he doesn't exist.

And if you get outside of America, I promise you, seeing demonic activity, it's all around. The danger about America is that demonic activity is much more subtle.

It seems to be much more passive and underground. And if you're here and you're a Christian, you go, man, I'm not so sure about how all this demonic activity works, go find a book by CS Lewis called The Screwtape Letters. Amazing book where he writes from the narrative of a master demon named Woodworm,

and he's essentially writing and educating a new demon on how to begin to oppress people and eventually possess people with demonic forces. And his basic argument is trying to convince people that they don't exist.

But what you and I need to understand that the scriptures are incredibly clear about is that the spiritual realm, it is very real and it is very active. Remember what Paul tells us. Ephesians chapter six verse 12 says that for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

See, what Paul is saying is that you and I will be tempted to think that the battle is with our boss, the battle is with our coworker, the battle is with the Republicans, the Democrats, or the independents, But what Paul is saying is, no. No. No. All of that is a front. The real battle is a spiritual one.

The real enemy that you need to defeat is not a physical one that you can see, but a spiritual one. But if you believe that the spiritual realm doesn't exist, you won't engage in the fight. And whether you're afraid of him or you just think he's not there, the enemy's winning because you're not engaged in the battle.

And I need us to know that the spiritual realm, it's very real. And the reason that some of us are getting our spiritual butts kicked is because we think that it's not even there. I love this quote from CS Lewis. CS Lewis says that there's two equal and opposite airs into which our race can fall about the devils.

One is to disbelieve in their existence.

The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. K. Again, if you've been in a church setting where, like, there's a demon behind everything, like, is not helpful and it is frustrating. They're like, I didn't make it to church on time today because the devil the devil got me. It's like, no, bro. Starbucks drive through got you. K? Like, that was your own dumb decision. Like, you you played golf. That's why you missed church. Right? Like, it's not it's not always the devil that misplaces your keys.

But in the same regard, I think in America, our posture is more of one of just saying, hey, the the the demonic realm doesn't really exist. Right? It's not really there. That was for, like, the the biblical times.

But what's interesting, again, we're studying the miracles of Jesus. There's 37 of them recorded. We know he did way more than that. But of the 37 that are recorded, there's only a few miracles that are repeated. K? He he feeds a large crowd a couple times.

Dead people, he rises three of them from the dead. People who can't see, it's four or five times that he gives them sight back. The number one miracle that happens 10 to 15 times depending on whether you count the ones that happen in a crowd is Jesus delivering people from demons.

A third of all the miracles that Jesus did was casting demons out of people. The demonic was all over Jesus' ministry. So the logical question is why? Why was it so prevalent then? And two,

why don't we talk about it at all in church today? The the number one reason why it was so prevalent when Jesus was there, again, the New Testament talks about this. It tells us that Jesus' presence on this earth, it literally it signaled

d day for the demonic realm. They knew that Jesus' presence was the beginning of the end for them and that what Jesus was coming to do was to destroy the power that the enemy would have over God's creation and that Jesus' death on the cross would be the final nail that would break the enemy's back and that they would no longer have power over God's people.

Because of that, the demonic realm kicks up to an all time high and we watch demonic oppression happen all over the place and not to just like bad people out there, to church people. Demonic possession happens. Demonic oppression happens.

And so the second question is is why don't we talk about it? And it's often because we're either terrified of it or we don't understand it. And I'm telling you, you and I can't wage war with something that we don't understand.

The scriptures say we need to know the schemes of the devil so that we know how to thwart them, so we know what he's gonna try to do. He's not doing anything new. He's running the same play. He can't create, so all he does is he he imitates.

But if he convinces us to just put our head in the sand and think there isn't a spiritual battle, I'm telling you, you are already in the position of losing.

But the good news is is that you and I don't have to be terrified of it. See, know often when we think of the demonic, we're like, I've seen the movie, the lady's like head spins and she spits all over the place and like it's it's terrifying. I'm telling you that's not how most of it works. It's very subtle.

What I also want you to see is that you don't have to be scared of it. Look at how the story continues in verse six. Okay. Verse six says that when Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek, he screamed,

why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the most high god? In the name of god, I beg you, don't torture me. You notice the two things that the demon knows about Jesus? He knows his name and he knows his power and his authority. And the demon asks a very weird thing if you don't understand

what Jesus is going to eventually do with all the demonic beings. He asked Jesus not to torture him because he knows a, he has the power and the authority to do it, and he also understands that eventually that is his destiny.

So you've got to understand the reason that God created hell, hell wasn't created for you and I. Hell was created as a place of eternal torment for the demonic beings who chose to rebel against god. See, the demonic beings know that eventually this is where they're going to be. This is why all they can do is wage a warfare of of lies and misinformation trying to trying to scare you. See, this demon, when he sees Jesus, before he's even spoken a word, he's terrified of him, begging him, don't don't torture me. And look at verse eight, for Jesus had already said to the spirit, come out of this man, you evil spirit. And then Jesus demanded, what is your name? And he replied, my name is Legion.

See, Legion is a Roman army term that essentially means 5,000. This is a man that is possessed not by one demon, but by an entire legion of them. All I'm saying is that he probably had more issues than you do. K?

Because he says there are many of us inside this man. Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them into some distant place. There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby.

Send us into those pigs, the spirits begged. Let us enter them. So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water. K. The first thing you need to understand is that the spiritual realm is much more real. It's much more alive and active than you could possibly understand,

but the story shows us a really important kingdom principle. See, you and I don't have to be terrified of demonic beings

because they don't have any real power or authority over us. See, we think that what's happening in heaven is like this big cosmic battle between god and Satan. We've gotta like pray the right prayers and get the right, you know, crosses in the room and to get all the people with the right robes in there and then maybe we can have victory.

And now this story proves to us that Jesus and what he did on the cross two thousand years ago is more than sufficient to break any power that the enemy tries to present over you. The second thing that I want you to see this morning about

the reality of the spiritual realm is that Jesus is far greater and more powerful than any demonic spirit. The reason we don't have to be afraid of it is because we have access to a power source that can break the back of the enemy. Now, does that mean that we run around and we mess with it? No. That would be crazy.

And part of the reason that I'm teaching this message is I came across a thing that Pew Research Group did where they studied 40,000 Christians that attend church regularly and six out of 10 of them that say, yeah, I'm a Christian. I go to church regularly. They also said that they regularly practice new age traditions.

What they mean is that, yes, I I go to yoga and I do the mantras and I do the chanting.

When I wanna connect with a loved one, I go see a medium. When I'm uncertain of the future, I go and I I I I consult with a psychic. I get my my tarot cards read. And the reason that we do silly things like that as Christians is because we don't understand the doors that those things are opening.

I'm telling you, I had some really good friends that lost a loved one who were followers of Jesus, who loved God, And all of a sudden in their grief, they just wanted so deeply to connect with their loved one that they wanted to start going to this medium. They asked me, what do you think? And I'm like, well, why are you wanting to go? Well, because my friend went and the information that they gave was just incredibly accurate.

And I'm like, look. I'm not I'm not discouraging you to not go to a medium because I don't think it'll be accurate. What I'm saying is that the reason I would not go to a medium is because it's incredibly accurate, and what's rooting that the scripture say is actually the demonic.

And when you're consulting with a medium, what you're actually doing is you're entering entering into the demonic realm.

Think about it for a second. You think Satan's not wise enough to give some person who probably has a really prophetic gift that is wired supernaturally the way that God has created them that hasn't figured that out yet? That God would that Satan wouldn't be wise enough to give that person a couple pieces of information about your dead loved one so much so that when you hear it that you would all of a sudden go, well, maybe this is where the real power is. And in a moment, all of a sudden, Jesus is taken off the throne of your life.

You don't think Satan is cunning enough to do something as silly as that? And I'm telling you, as your pastor, as somebody who loves you, if you are engaging in these new age practices, I know it seems silly, like it's just it's just a horoscope. What I'm telling you is that you are opening up doorways.

You are opening up windows where you are allowing the demonic to come into your life, and you do not realize what's potentially attaching itself to you. And you and I gotta understand that these things are real,

but the good news is is that Jesus is much more powerful than them. We don't have to be afraid of them. We don't have to if we have gone there, go, okay. What do I do? We just reclaim the the the territory that the enemy has taken in the name of Jesus. Say, devil, you gotta go. Satan, you gotta go. In the name of Jesus, I bind you. I I I break loose all that you're trying to do in my life and in my family. In the name of Jesus, you've gotta leave.

But what I need is to walk out of here this morning understanding

is this picture. K? There's this picture of what we think is happening up in heaven right now. K? It's like this great cosmic arm wrestling between Jesus with his beautiful long flowing hair and great beard and like he's doing his best to fight against Satan. It's just like, but he's just so buff and I don't know who's gonna win. Like, this is the picture that we often think of when we're thinking about spiritual warfare,

but this is not accurate. There is no real battle that's happening. K? Even before creation, when Satan rebelled against god in heaven, there wasn't this big battle that happened. It literally god said, okay, you're done and he threw him out of heaven. See, the angel or the the the demon here in our story,

he knew that Jesus has authority and power. He's begging him to not do what we're thinking he's gonna do. He's saying, don't don't torture me. We don't have to be afraid of the devil, yet that's one of the greatest tactics that he has over us is fear and intimidation.

It it's a warfare of lies cause it's his native language is what the scriptures say. It's all he can do. It's deception. Because Satan can't create, he imitates, he fabricates, and then he presents it to us as something that's real and genuine and authentic.

At the end of the day, boiling all this down, here's the question that you and I have to wrestle with. When it comes to your life, who has ownership? Who has ownership of your life? Because the scriptures tell us there's only three options.

Option one is that you are the owner and the lord of your life. Option two is what we're seeing here in Mark chapter five is that the enemy can also become the lord of your life. He can become the owner of your life or

or Jesus can be the owner of your life. I was thinking through even how do I make this really practical and take home for you. K? So I gotta give you some illustrations.

You gotta bear with me because this is all I have in my house. K? My nieces and nephews are out my house a lot, so I got I got a Barbie boat and a Barbie to deal with. Alright? Don't judge me.

But this is a lot of us. Right? You could call her like Santan Sally or you know, Mesa Mary, whatever whatever city you're from. Right? Like, put yourself in her seat and this is a lot of us. You're like, this is just my life and like, I've done my thing and this is me. I'm doing my thing. I just got from Pilates. I'm just going about my life and we we think that like we are in control of this thing. And then all of a sudden, when you've been in control of your life, you start to realize like, man, when when I'm at when I'm in charge, when I'm at the helm, I I tend to wreck myself a lot. And you start to get into some sticky moments. You start to make some poor decisions.

And all of a sudden, what begins to happen sometimes unintentionally again, we don't know this guy's story in Mark five. We don't know what led to him being possessed by 5,000 demons. We just see the end of the story. But I promise you, if you could go back early in his journey,

there was probably some seemingly innocent and insignificant decisions and compromises that he made. And what ends up happening is, again, if I had a door here, I would open it, but it's a boat. Boats don't have doors, so you gotta go with me visually. Okay? That sometimes what we do is we we open a doorway

whether knowingly or not. And what we've opened a doorway to is something that the story the scriptures teach us, The bad guy always gotta be the joker. Right? Obviously, he's gotta be joker. All of a sudden, you invite the enemy to come in,

and he begins to be a copilot with you in your life. And for so many of us, this is the position we find ourselves in today. We're like, he's not running my life. I haven't, like, prayed a prayer surrounding my life to Jesus or or to Satan, but, like, sure. There's some things that I'm wrestling with. There's some things that are there, and I need you to understand the reason that this is so dangerous is because the enemy will not stay where you've invited him to stay.

See, he always wants more, and his his desire is to kill, steal, and destroy every single part of your life. And you can only be in this posture for so long. And eventually, what begins to happen is the devil that you thought was just gonna play a part of your life was just gonna stay in this corner, in this arena of your life. I'm telling you, it's like a mold that is in the corner of your basement that you think, ah, it's just there. It's not that big of a deal. We'll keep the lights off. We won't talk about it. All But of a sudden, that thing, man, it gets into the air conditioning,

and all of a sudden, it spreads around the entire house. And what Satan's goal is is to become the lord of your life.

And there are a lot of people that we're dealing with that the truth is is we'll try to talk about counseling. We'll talk about all of these things, but the truth is is that they have what the scripture says, a demonic stronghold that we need to do business with. And church,

I need to tell you this is the ministry of reconciliation that we've been given from heaven. We are the ambassadors from heaven who have been tasked.

Part of our original assignment is to understand that there are people all around us that are dealing with demonic strongholds that we need to do business with. We need to cast them out. K? I want to remind you of the original passage that Jesus gave to his 12 disciples when he sent them out. Here was their first assignment to go into ministry that is also part of our assignment. Matthew chapter 10 verse five, Jesus sent out the 12 apostles

with these instructions.

Don't go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans. Only go to the people of Israel. God, if I had an hour, I would walk through the implications of this. But what Jesus just said is he told his closest followers, k. We're gonna go do some crazy business for the kingdom of heaven, but don't go to the bad people out there. You guys aren't ready. We gotta deal with the church people first. He says, don't go to Samaritans. Don't go to the Gentiles. Those are outsiders. He says, go to Israel,

the church people, and watch what he's gonna tell them to do with the church people. He says, go to God's lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the kingdom of heaven is near. You wonder what the kingdom of heaven is like? It's one where you can heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and here it is, cast

out demons. That's a crazy bit of instruction for Jesus to tell his apostles to do with church people. It says that there are people who are here because of your proximity to the things of God, you will be tempted to believe that you have protection

from the dark one and I'm here to tell you that proximity to the things of god does nothing for your soul. It is only after you've bent the knee to the lordship of Christ that you actually have protection for your life and for your family. In church, we have the responsibility. We've been given the assignment. The only thing that has changed from Matthew chapter 10 is that now it is available to the Gentiles and it is available to the Samaritans. It's no longer just for Israel. It's for all of the world. But our responsibility is still the same, to go and announce the kingdom of heaven is here. And if somebody is dealing with something that is of the demonic root, our responsibility is to cast that thing out. How do we cast out demons? You ask good questions at the 11:30 service. Let me show you.

You gotta go and get yourself a Batman. Come on, somebody. Batman is cool because it's the only one that we could potentially ever be. Right? He's a 100% man, a 100% bat. Right? That's not true. That's Spider Man. But here here's what Jesus is saying.

Here's what casting out demons looks like. See, it's not enough to just sit there and say, hey, it devil, you gotta go. That that's part of it. You do have to cast the demons out. And if you've never seen this, I'm telling you, it can be a little bit sketchy when it's happening. I have watched in multiple settings where somebody literally manifests a demon, and the people around come around saying, the name of Jesus, it's time for you to go, and you watch that demon come out. But what happens is is when the devil has been cast out, when the demon has been cast out,

now there's a void that is here.

And the temptation of every human is to go, okay, this is where I take back control of my life. See, if you if you cast out Satan without filling in the greater good with the greater god, you've missed the whole point. See, this is where bending the knee to the lordship of Christ comes in where we go, look, I am asking Satan, you've gotta flee. I am asking Jesus and the power of the holy spirit to take up dwelling

inside of my body and inside of my being. This is

this is the picture of what a life fully surrendered to Jesus. It's Batman driving. You just being Barbie. Let your hair go. Like, it's just an amazing it's an amazing ride. Right? As silly as it is, this is literally what Paul says in Galatians chapter five. Right? That our lives are no longer our own.

When we've surrendered our life to Christ, we no longer get to say this is my life. No. No. Your life has been crucified crucified with with Christ. Christ. The life you now live. You live through the power of the resurrection of Christ. This is the picture of a fully submitted follower of Jesus. Understanding that my life, my family,

my business, my finances, my talents, all of it. It's not mine. It's god's. He has taken up occupancy in my heart, and all the enemy can do for those of us who have said yes to Jesus,

he can no longer come in and possess you. All he can do is oppress you. He can sit on the outside and he can speak lies to you. He can whisper sweet nothings to your ear hoping that you will try to override God and take back control of your life because he knows he has no real authority.

The good news for those of us who are Christians is that Christians cannot be demon possessed because the spirit of God in the demonic, they can't be roommates. K? So if you're here and you've given your life to Jesus, good news is you can never be possessed by a demon again.

It doesn't mean that you can't be oppressed though. And there are times, there have been seasons of my life where I can I can feel the spiritual battle happening?

I've learned as I've gotten older. I've learned as I've become a follower of Jesus for longer that when Satan is attacking the strongest, it means that God's about to do something powerful in my life and that the enemy knows it. And so he's coming along, and he's trying to get me to to do something to derail my life so that the plans of God won't come to fruition.

I'm here to tell you that maybe maybe the devil believes in your future more than you do. And I just wonder what would happen if a bunch of Christians began to believe in the potential of who they are and who Christ is in them as much as the demonic realm believes in your potential.

And when you feel the when you feel the the demons attacking and spiritual opposition coming,

your scripture, this is the scripture you have to remember. First John chapter four says, but you you belong to god, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people because the spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

Your prayer is that he who is in me is greater than he who is in this world. Satan, you have no power here. You have no authority. I am not going back to the former life. I am not going back to the addictions. I am not picking back up the bottle that I've gotten victory from. I am walking in the freedom that Jesus purchased on the Christ for me to have. Yes.

The spiritual battle, friends, I'm telling you, it's real and it's all over the place, but Jesus is far more powerful than any demonic being. You can walk in

victory. Look at how the story ends. It's kind of a bizarre bizarre ending to the story. Jesus puts these demons into this herd of pigs and then they run off the cliff and look at verse 14. It says, the herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside spreading the news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. In verse 15 says, that a crowd soon gathered around Jesus and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed, perfectly sane,

and all the people were afraid. Verse 16 says, then those who had seen what had happened, they told the others about the demon possessed man and the pigs and the crowd began pleading with Jesus. This verse is shocking. They start pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone. Like, what?

The town that knew, like the crazy guy that's running around naked cutting himself. He's sitting here sane in his clothes and all the people that witnessed the miracle of his deliverance are telling the community, this guy, Jesus, did it all. The great deliverer, he's here. And what's their response?

Good for you, bro. Jesus, get the heck away from me. Why?

Because you've gotta understand there's a level when it comes to deliverance where there's there's a bit of a fork in the road. And this is one of those stories that kind of always always bug me because we again, the focus is the primary focus is the man who's delivered from the demonic.

But you realize that there's a second deliverance in the story as well. The part of the story that's always kind of bugged me that I've never really understood is is why the pigs. Like, Peter would be up in arms. Right? Like, 2,000 pigs just launched off of a cliff. Like, Jesus is claiming to be good. Like, what

is happening here? Remember in the beginning when I told you to write down, highlight, underline, circle that they were in the region of the Garrisones? You know what's amazing? This is the only miracle in the entire Bible where Jesus does his ministry outside of Jewish occupied land. He's in a Roman occupied city.

Now here's what's interesting about that. See, Jews, because of Levitical law, they could have nothing to do with pigs. They couldn't eat it. They couldn't touch them. They could they could not be pig farmers because it would make them ceremonially unclean. But in this moment, in Roman culture,

they understood that there was a massive profit to be made from being a pig farmer. And so what Jesus is doing in a non Jewish occupied area to a bunch of Romans is he's doing a second deliverance. Honestly

honestly, it's the deliverance that I think more of us sitting in this room need than it's the the the deliverance of Satan. See, what Jesus does is he delivers one man from Satan, But now there's a second group of people that Jesus is trying to minister to. But he goes after the one thing that we tell God you can't touch,

and he goes after their stuff. He goes after their business. He goes after their resources.

And what he's trying to do is set them free, but all they can see is bondage and slavery and captivity, and their response is, no. No. No. I I don't want anything to do with this. See, by Jesus taking the herd of pigs and throwing them off the cliff in today's world, in today's money,

theologians argue that that would have been a business that was probably worth $500,000 up to a million dollars. It was a significant amount of money that was represented in these pigs. And yet what Jesus was trying to do was to get us to see, guys, our propensity,

our natural leaning as humans is to find deities and things that will always let us down. And I would say sitting here where we live in America in 2025, one of the greatest lower g gods that we will try to run and find satisfaction and meaning and significance in, it's not necessarily Satan. It's our stuff.

And some of us have built such a successful life in such a big business that we just have no need for God. And you gotta understand that the the scriptures are incredibly clear that it's not bad to have things, but the problem is is your things will try to have you.

And there's so many stories, but there's one about the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and he's like, Jesus, I did all the stuff. I kept all the commands. I've memorized the bible. I've done all the stuff. And Jesus said, man, you've done a phenomenal job, but there's one thing you still gotta do. Get rid of all of your stuff and follow me. And it says the man walked away sad. Why? Because he had he had many possessions.

And the problem wasn't that he had possessions. The problem was that his possessions had had him. See, and this is the problem with Jesus, is that Jesus is not going to just come into the parts of your life that you're comfortable with him coming into. Jesus wants to be lord over everything.

And the problem is is that you also need to understand that your finances,

they're not yours as well. And that god, one of the reasons that he talks so much about money, the reason that generosity is such a paramount kingdom value is because it's the number one way that we wage war with our hearts that naturally will lean to self sufficiency.

The second deliverance that Jesus came, it wasn't from Satan, but it was from stuff. What I think that some of us need to do business with is the reality that, man, I've I've been running after all the wrong things. I've tried to find my meaning, my purpose, my significance, my value, and my worth in my possessions

and not in who Jesus is. The third thing, if you're taking notes, the last thing that I want you to know about the spiritual realm is that everyone is either being delivered by Jesus or is requesting to be delivered from Jesus.

There's only two options. You can accept the deliverance that Jesus is here to give you, or you will be unintentionally being the ones that say, Jesus, I want nothing to do with you. The truth is that you and I, we're supposed to be people who walk in freedom,

but I know that there are so many of us who are followers of Jesus, who are Christians, and we're still walking in bondage. We're still enslaved in certain parts of our life, and I don't know exactly what it is for you, but I promise you there's only two reasons that Christians walk

in not freedom, but in bondage. It's it's either because of the lies that we believe or it's the lifestyle that we choose. It's only one of two options. It's either a lie that we've allowed the enemy to speak over us or it's a lifestyle in here that we've chosen

to live. Those are the only two ways that we can live in bondage as followers of Christ. Otherwise, overwhelming victory is ours in Christ is what the scriptures say. That we're supposed to be set free,

yet why are so many of us walking in bondage? Here's how the story ends. Last couple of verses I have for you. Verse 18, as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed, he begged to go with him. But Jesus says, no. Go home to your family and tell them everything that the Lord has done for you and how merciful he's been. So the men started off to visit the 10 towns in the region and began to proclaim the great things that Jesus had done for him, and everyone

was amazed at what he told them. You know what's amazing? The first non Jewish missionary that we find anywhere in the Bible, it's this guy who moments before meeting Jesus was a maniac. And after having a profound encounter with Jesus and being delivered from the demonic possession, he's now a missionary

evangelizing the hope of the world that can only be found in Christ.

It tells me that what you and I need more than anything is we need a touch from heaven. We need to be set free from the things that have been having control over us. And I I know I know that sitting in this room, I don't know exactly what it is. I don't know what the doorway is. I don't know what the struggle is,

but I know that there's some people who are here who are walking in bondage, who are enslaved to some things, and I believe that Jesus is gonna set some people free today. So here's what I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm gonna ask everybody to stand to your feet. I want to right now kind of just turn up the spiritual temperature of the room for just a second.

Again, I believe with everything in me that when we as the ecclesia of god, as the church, the body of Christ, when we gather, when we pray, when we worship, things happen.

God moves. This is the place where the realities of heaven, they touch the realities of earth, and we're not here to just check a box and to go through motions. No. We're here so that chains can fall off, so addictions can be broken, so marriages can be restored, so finances can be recovered.

So if you're here this morning, and, man, you need some freedom, you need some chains to come off, I'm telling you, don't walk out of here the same. I'm gonna ask you, everybody in this room, close your eyes, bow your heads, create a faith filled environment with me right now. For those of you who are here, man, just be praying with me. I believe that there are people who are here that you know when I say the word bondage, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't know if it's an addiction that's been under the under the covers for years that's with been you for a long time.

I don't know if it's an anger problem that comes up out of nowhere. I don't know if it's just a a problem with lust that you can't get over.

But I'm telling you, if you're here and you want to say yes to Jesus coming in and setting you free, Again, this is not a prayer of salvation. This could be for Christians or non Christians.

This is a moment where we say, look. Maybe we've opened up some windows and doorways, and we've allowed the enemy to have a foothold into my life. But right now, I'm saying no longer. No more in the name of Jesus. I declare and decree that Jesus is the lord and that the blood of Jesus breaks the yoke of the enemy. If that's you right now, I'm gonna ask you again, eyes closed, heads bowed right where you are. Just throw your hand up in the air. All faith. There's hands going up all over this room. Do not be ashamed or don't let the enemy whisper in your ear. We are walking in freedom. Father, we see every hand, every heart responding to you. Father, I thank you right now that supernaturally,

addictions are being broken. Freedom is being restored. God, I know that you know the cry of every single heart that's here. So if you would, if that was you, you can put your hand down.

Just pray a simple prayer like this with me in the quietness of your heart. Just say, Jesus, I declare your authority over my life. I say, in the name of Jesus, Satan, you have to go. You have no place here, that my home, my life is dedicated and consecrated to the lord.

And Jesus, you have your way. Satan, you have no place. I bind you, and I tell you in the name of Jesus, you must leave. It is in Jesus' mighty name all God's people said. Amen and amen. Hey. Let's do this. I

I could not think of a more fitting way for us to just center our time together with just worshiping God because he's worthy. Our prayer team is gonna be down here in the front. If you would love to pray with somebody, man, I'm telling you, there's some amazing people that would love to pray with you. But let's worship with all that we have because Jesus is worthy.

Let's pray. Father,

that is our heart. That is our cry. That, father, we want nothing else but you. So, God, all the things of this world that would tempt us to settle for things that are second than your best for us. Father, we pray through the power of the holy spirit that your scriptures would be true, that there would be nothing that would tempt us so great that we wouldn't have a way out. Holy spirit, we ask for you to renew our minds daily.

God, continue to make us into new creations that we know that being changed happens in an instant, but being consecrated, being made into the image of Christ, it happens incrementally over time. Father, we thank you for the renewing power of the resurrection of Jesus. We today make decision to walk in freedom.

It is in Jesus name. All god's people said, amen and amen.