FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
When Your Sin Won't Stop | Mark 5:1-20
When your sin won't stop, but Jesus won't give up – this powerful message explores the greatest miracle God performs in our lives: spiritual freedom.
Through the story of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5, we discover how Jesus confronts the spiritual forces that isolate us, overpower us, and ultimately aim to destroy us. While we may be no match for Satan, Satan is absolutely no match for Jesus Christ.
The transformation of this man, from living among tombs to becoming a missionary to ten cities, reveals the process of spiritual breakthrough in our own lives. Sin follows predictable patterns – it isolates us from community, manifests with power we cannot control ourselves, creates misery despite Satan's promises, and ultimately aims to destroy us completely.
What makes this account so compelling is Jesus' approach. While everyone else avoided this man, Jesus walked directly toward him. When the entire community banished him to the tombs, Jesus engaged him personally. This demonstrates God's heart toward our struggles – not judgment or disgust, but compassion and power to transform.
Through personal stories shared by church members – from overcoming addiction to finding faith during terminal illness to being freed from decades of bitterness – we see that spiritual freedom remains the most profound miracle God performs today. The testimony of one woman captured it perfectly: "Sometimes the greater miracle isn't healing, but the transformation of a heart that trusts Jesus regardless of circumstances."
For those battling persistent sin, this message offers practical steps: allowing the Spirit's conviction, confession, believing in complete forgiveness, living in repentance, studying Scripture, establishing accountability, and seeking professional help when needed.
What spiritual chains is Jesus breaking in your life today? And what is your "Decapolis" – the community God is calling you to influence with your testimony of transformation?
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All right, put your hands together if you're excited to be here this morning in church. Man, what a great morning the Lord has for us so far. God is so good. It is so good seeing all of your smiling faces and we're just so thankful for your presence and for all of our first-time guests that are here, our first-time guests that are online. There is nothing more important than gathering together as the body of Jesus Christ as we get to worship Jesus together. Like Pastor James and Raven said that we are studying the series.
Speaker 1:I Need a Miracle. How many y'all need a miracle in your life? My hand is up. Raise your hand right now. And man God is. He is a God that does miracles. He is our miracle working God and God is doing miracles in our lives. God is doing miracles in our church. Even just last week, god did a miracle in our church for Upward Basketball Sunday, from our preschool ministry to our high school ministry. Just in our next generational ministries, including all of our kids, all of our teenagers and our volunteers we had 190 last week in our NextGen Ministries. Put your hands together for what God's doing as he is raising up the next generation of Jesus followers.
Speaker 1:I want to remind you of our student camp that is coming up. That is, june 20 through 23, for all of our teenagers. So just a reminder, because you need to get signed up, registered and all of that. How many of y'all you went to student camp as a teenager back in the day? You remember those days and, man, that was awesome and it was life-changing. And so if you have a teenager, if you know of a teenager, you just get them registered, get them paid for. Maybe you don't know one, but God used it to change your life. Maybe you want to pay for a teenager and you want to support somebody to go. Then you have that opportunity. You can give in that way as well.
Speaker 1:Let me pray for us this morning. Heavenly Father, we love you and God, we just thank you that you are here with us. God, we thank you for your presence. God, we thank you for your word and, father, we just pray in Jesus' name, lord, that you would speak to our hearts, you would change our lives. For the glory of Jesus, we pray and we ask all these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said amen.
Speaker 1:So here we are in the series I Need a Miracle, and it's five weeks through the month of March. Last week we talked about our need for a miracle, that it was a miracle of belief over doubt, as we looked at Jesus calming the storms in our life and walking with Jesus upon the waters. This week it's going to be on freedom and how our freedom you'll see here on the screen our freedom over sin. We want to talk about this miracle that the Lord wants to do in our life. And then next week is going to be on how God wants to do a miracle of provision over our need. The following week how God wants to heal the sick. The following week how God wants to bring new life to things that are dead in our life.
Speaker 1:And the reason I kind of share with you that schedule of this preaching series is so that you know who to invite on specific Sundays. Now I pray that you invite people every single Sunday to get in the Word of God, to hear from Jesus, so they can follow him too. But also there are specific needs that people have in their life in specific ways that you can be praying for them. But as well, we wanna encourage you that you can share your story. So with these Sundays that are coming up. Maybe you have a story in life where God has provided for you in one of these ways and you're gonna get to hear some of those stories already this morning. Also, I want you to know that we have an I Need a Miracle wall, and you'll see that right out in our lobby. There's one up in our offices by the sanctuary, and this is where you get to write down the miracle that you need or you desire. You're praying for God to do in your life so that people can walk by the wall, so that you can walk by the wall and you can pray for each and every one of those tags that we can pray that God would continue to do miracles in people's lives.
Speaker 1:This morning I had my little girl, brooklyn, with me. It was about eight o'clock, she was in her wheelchair and I was wheeling her by a wall and I stopped and I said hey, baby, you want God to do a miracle in your life. This is a miracle wall. And she said, yeah, dad. And I said what miracle would you love for God to do in your life? She said I would love for God to do a miracle that I could walk, and so we wrote that down on a tag and we put it on the wall. Sign her name on it, brooklyn. You don't have to put your name on it, but just so that you can be praying for her, so that we can be praying for one another, and it's all culminating together to a worship and prayer service that we have on Sunday night, march the 30th, and that is all going to be culminating in this.
Speaker 1:I Need a Miracle where you can pray for all of these together that a miracle would be done. Or when God does a miracle, we see his power. But listen to me, when God doesn't do the miracle, we see his wisdom, because God has greater things in store in our life. So this morning, what I want to talk to you about in terms of a miracle is last week, when we talked about how your storm won't stop. This morning, I want to talk about when your sin won't stop, because one of the greatest miracles that God could ever do in your life is a spiritual miracle. In other words, we need God to do more in our heart than any other area of our life.
Speaker 1:So you can open up your Bible with me to Mark, chapter 5, starting out with verse 1. Mark 5, verse 1, it's a very interesting passage of Scripture. Very interesting, it is about a demon-possessed man, right. And so whenever we come across these passages, we're not exactly sure what to do with these passages, because we don't see a lot of demon possession.
Speaker 1:You know, there are two extremes when it comes to people that think about the demonic, or Satan or evil or all of these type things. You know, one extreme is that people don't believe in it at all. No such thing as Satan, no such thing as demons, no such thing as evil, no such thing as hell. They've never been at the DMV, right, they've never been to Walmart on a Saturday. Like they don't get it, they don't get it. And then other people, like they think of demons in everything, like they're hyper-spiritualized. You know, like man, there's a demon in my car. No, you just didn't change your oil, sorry. There's a demon in my bank account. No, you're just calling Amazon ordering too much. Amazon Prime's coming to your house too much. Right, there's a demon in my kid. That may be possible, I don't know. But we, just people, kind of see it as two different extremes. But Jesus gives us these passages because he wants us to know that there's a spiritual realm. There's a spiritual war around you, that not everything is visible, Not everything is physical, but everything is spiritual, including our lives.
Speaker 1:Mark, chapter five you'll see here. Mark, chapter five, verse one, says they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes, and Jesus had stepped out of the boat. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. This man, he lived among the tombs. No one can bind him anymore. Now I'll be real honest with you. We don't know anything about this man. We don't know what kind of life this man had lived. We don't know if this man had a family. We don't know if this man had a job. We don't know if this man was respected at one point in time in his life. We don't know what this man went through. We don't know what this man had to deal with in his life. We're not even sure how this man became demon possessed.
Speaker 1:But here's what we see there is a man that is banned to the tombs. In other words, they kicked him out of the city, they kicked him out of the city, they kicked him out of the town and he is banished to the tombs. And even other gospel writers said that they tried to bind him with chains and with shackles, and he had the strength and he was able to break them apart. One of the gospel writers said that he would break them apart and he would just run out into the wilderness again and he would be doing all of these things. So he lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Other gospel writers said that no one would even go around him. They would not even go to that area. Night and day, among the tombs on the mountains, he was always crying out and he was cutting himself with stones.
Speaker 1:This man needed a miracle. I need a miracle in my life, you need a miracle in your life, and only Jesus is the one who's the miracle worker, is the one that can do a miracle. But maybe you're here this morning thinking but this isn't the miracle that I need. As far as I know, I'm not demon possessed. Well, I want you to know that actually, what Jesus does with this man. It reveals to us that this is the greatest miracle that we need, that the greatest miracle that God can do in our life is spiritual, because I'll go and tell you this man right here. He had physical problems. He had mental issues, he had financial issues in his life. He had all kind of issues in his life, but the one that was driving every other issue were the physical issues that he had in his life. The greatest miracle that God can do in you is to save you. That was driving every other issue were the physical issues that he had in his life. The greatest miracle that God can do in you is to save you. The greatest miracle that God can do in you is to forgive you. The greatest miracle that God can do in you and in me that I need is for God to cleanse me of my sin.
Speaker 1:I received a story this past week that said for years my family, we prayed for a miracle that God would heal my younger sister's cancer, but instead we watched her suffer in tremendous pain. The healing we begged for never came in the way that we had hoped. There was another miracle, one my parents had prayed for. Now, for over 20 years, my sister had been far from God, running from her pain, searching for fulfillment in everything but God, and just before her cancer diagnosis she felt God pursuing her like a lion on a gazelle. She would say. God wouldn't let her go. So, through her battle with cancer, we watched her heart soften, her faith deepen, her trust grow in God, even in the face of death. She believed that God could heal her, but, even more importantly, she trusted him, even if he didn't. In her last months she shared her journey with over 56,000 followers online, many of whom caught their cancer early because of her story. Others came to faith drawn by her unwavering trust in Jesus.
Speaker 1:The lesson we learn is sometimes the greater miracle isn't healing, but the greatest miracle is our heart being transformed by Jesus Christ. What this story teaches us of Jesus as the demon-possessed man isn't just that every sin is a demon, or every time that we struggle in sin is possession. That's not the point at all. What the point is is that God wants to do a greater, deeper work in our life, in our heart, that can settle so many other issues in our life.
Speaker 1:Are there demons today? Yes, there are demons today, even though we don't see a lot of demon possession today. Why we don't see a lot of demon possession? We saw it a lot in Jesus' day. Why? Because Jesus was on the scene and so Satan was doing a full onslaught evil attack during the days of Jesus. There is demon possession today. It happens a lot in other third world countries, very animistic cultures. Why don't we see it in our country today? Because Satan would blow his cover. There are so many churches around, there's so much access to the gospel around. If you saw all these demon-possessed people walking around today then people would say, yes, spiritual Israel, demons are real. Satan is real. They'd go to church, they'd hear the gospel, they'd get saved. But Satan doesn't work in terms of possession in our culture, hear me, he works in terms of deception Not in possession, but in deception. Can a Christian be possessed by a demon? No, because a Christian is possessed by the Holy Spirit. Can I get an amen?
Speaker 1:So this passage is ultimately about sin. Where did it come from? We know that Satan was an angel created by God and Satan. He decided to rebel against God rather than to worship God. The Bible says in Revelation 12 that one third of the angels that God created followed Satan and rebelled with him, and two thirds of the angels continued to follow God, to continue to worship Jesus. So I want you to think with me, as this passage is all about the sin that we struggle with.
Speaker 1:Did you know the Bible actually gives us the three big categories that every single sin fits into? First category is the lust of the flesh, or these are lust of desires, or sins of pleasure, saying I want to feel. That these are sins that might be sexual sin, emotional sin, sins of laziness, or sins of drugs or alcohol, or sins of gluttony or passion, whatever that sin might be. The second category is the lust of the eyes. Is treasure saying I want to have that these are sins of greed, materialism, jealousy for what other people have or discontentment for what you don't have. The third category of all sin is pride, the pride of life. These are sins of measure, or who is it that you want to be outside of Jesus? These are sins of pride and fear and bragging and controlling other people, or just rebelling against God because you want your own way. We all struggle in different ways. Which ones of these do you struggle with the most? Which ones of these do I struggle with the most. All of them Don't look at me so spiritual. You struggle with all of them too.
Speaker 1:These are sins that Satan is constantly seeking to deceive us with, and I wanna remind you of the sin that happened to the heroes of the faith in the Bible. Noah got drunk and naked. Abraham lied about his wife and had a child by another woman. Moses killed a man. Aaron made an idol as the priest of God's people. He made an idol for God's people to falsely worship instead of God. Samson slept with the enemy. King David had an affair, got her pregnant and then had her husband killed. Solomon was a womanizer of 1 a thousand women.
Speaker 1:The Bible says Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times, and the apostle Paul before he was saved, he hunted down and he killed Christians. What is the point? If God can forgive them and if God can continue to use them, then God can continue to forgive me and forgive you and use us too. Can I get an amen? God is a forgiver of sin.
Speaker 1:So what we see in that passage, we see what Satan wants to do. Look at the isolation that Satan wants to do. He's got this man out in the tombs. He is separating him. He's isolating him from the community. You know what he loves to do with us. When we get in our sin, then we isolate ourself from Christian community. We don't wanna be in worship, we don't wanna be in group, we don't wanna be a part of a serving team. Or we also see here that he was bound in shackles and he was in chains, but yet he was able to tear them apart. Shackles and he was in chains, but yet he was able to tear them apart. Sin has an abnormal power and strength in your life that you cannot control. That I cannot control. I often think I can control sin, just like you think you can control sin, but sin can only control and dominate us. We see also here that, as he was crying out day and night among the tombs, we see misery. Satan's promise is happiness, but Satan, all he gives is misery when we follow our sin. And then last it says that he was cutting himself with stones. We see, what does sin want to do? Sin ultimately just wants to destroy us Isolation in power, in misery, in self-harm.
Speaker 1:The story I received this week from one of you said for years I carried a boulder of bitterness, a weight I didn't even realize was consuming me. My mother died when I was just one week old. My childhood was marked by pain, rejection and abuse. Though I accepted Christ at age 12, I still wrestled with anger, sadness and unforgiveness, feeling like God had abandoned me. And as an adult, I had a family, a job, attended church, but my heart was still chained to the past. Bitterness defined me, poisoning my relationships, my faith and my joy. I refused to forgive, she said. Then God stepped in, she said one day, at Cracker Barrel, I unexpectedly saw the stepmother who had hurt me the most. She said in that moment, before I even said a word, before I even had a choice, god lifted the burden that I had carried for 25 years. The bitterness had vanished, replaced by compassion and freedom. Years later, that same woman asked for forgiveness and I could joyfully tell her God had already healed my heart.
Speaker 1:What is the lesson that we see here? That bitterness will bury you, but forgiveness will free you. What Satan wants to do is to destroy us. So the question that we need to be asking ourselves in our life is what sins am I struggling with? In what way is Satan trying to steal me from Jesus? Or, if you were Satan, what sins or temptations or deceptions would you throw your way in order to get you to stop following after Jesus? One of my favorite pastors and authors is Derwin Gray, and he said sin will take you farther than you wanna go, keep you longer than you wanna stay and cost you more than you want to pay.
Speaker 1:Look at verse six. Verse six says and when that man saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. Now here's what you'll see in this passage. That's really interesting, in this passage where it's really hard to tell sometimes whether it's the man who's doing it or whether it is the demons who are doing it in his life, because even in this way, this could be the man or it could be the demons. It could be the man. Out of his desperation, jesus comes on the scene and the man runs and desperately falls down before Jesus. That Greek word, fall down, is proskuneo, and proskuneo just simply means to worship. It means to fall on one's knees to worship Jesus. It means literally to kiss his feet. So it could be the man or it could be the demons. How could it be the demons?
Speaker 1:Well, we see in scripture, all throughout the Bible, that Jesus is the only one that has absolute power, absolute control over demons. They can't do anything without his permission. So we see that he saw Jesus from afar. He ran, he fell down before him and, crying out with a loud voice, he said what have you to do with me? Jesus, son of the most high, I adjure you by God, do not torment me.
Speaker 1:Now this looks like it's the demons talking, because why would Jesus torment the man? Now, obviously there are people that think, man, god just wants to get me for my sin. God just wants to punish me for my sin. God just wants to judge me for my sin. If you're here this morning and Satan has deceived you in that way, god's heart is not to get you to punish you, to torment you, to judge you. God's heart is to save you. God's heart is to draw you closer to him. God's heart is to love you. God's heart is to provide for you. God's heart is to care for you. God's heart is for you to be with him. So I think this is the demons talking, because the demons know that their days are numbered. The demons know that a day is coming, that they will be cast in hell forever, that Satan will be cast in hell forever, and so they're saying Jesus, have you come to torment us before it's time? Notice they called him rightly, jesus, son of the most high God. Remember James, chapter 2, 19? It says that even the demons believe and they shudder. Satan knows who Jesus is Satan. Everything he wants to do in your life is just simply to take your eyes off of Jesus Christ. Every temptation and every deception is designed by demons in you and in me, just to get our eyes off Jesus so that we do not follow him.
Speaker 1:A story I received this week said my aunt's life was slipping away. Years of drinking had left her with alcoholic cirrhosis and, as her liver failed, her doctor told the family she won't make it through. The night they gathered by her bedside expecting to say goodbye, but morning came and she was still there, awake and talking. When they told her that they had stayed with her all night, she stunned them by saying it wasn't just you, I wasn't alone. She said Jesus was standing right there with me. She said I talked to him all night. She said I asked Jesus to let me live to help me to finish raising my girls. She said I asked Jesus to let me live to help me to finish raising my girls. She said I promised Jesus that I would never drink again, and he did. She said her jaundice disappeared, her liver function returned to normal and she lived another 20 years sober, strong and fully healed.
Speaker 1:What we see that Jesus loves to do is he loves to free people from their sin. We see that Jesus has all the power. He says I adjure you, do not torment me. For he was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him what is your name? And he replied my name is Legion, for we are many. Now, here's the point of what he's saying, as Jesus is calling this demon out of the man and he, I believe that Jesus is asking the man his name Because when everybody else is steering clear of this man, when everyone else has banned this man to the tombs, when everyone else is avoiding this man, when no one wants to come around this man, notice how Jesus, knowing the man's struggle, knowing his battle, knowing his sin, he walks up to the man and he's not afraid. Notice Jesus' compassion for the man and even though he knows his name, jesus asks the man his name. In other words, jesus knows your name, Jesus knows your struggle, jesus knows your battle. Jesus knows the worst thing that has ever happened in your life and Jesus loves you anyways. Jesus loves to come to us and he loves to free us from sin. Jesus loves, we love to see.
Speaker 1:I want to show you this. I think this is so important. Is that maybe you're here and you just feel like that you don't have any hope from your sin? But I want you to know that we may be no match for Satan, but Satan is no match for Jesus. We may be no match for Satan, but Satan is no match for Jesus. That's what we're seeing here in this passage that Jesus has all power over these demons in this man's life, just like Jesus has all power over the sin in your life. He said what is your name? And he says my name is.
Speaker 1:The man starts to speak, my name is, and then it looks like the demons take over. And isn't that what it's like in my sin? And isn't that what it's like in your sin? We think we have power, we think we have the control, we think that we can live with sin in our life, but yet just when even we try to speak, or just when we try to live, or just when we try to talk is when the sin comes up again. My name is, and then the demons take over Legion, for we are many.
Speaker 1:What does Legion mean? Legion is the largest troop in the entire Roman army. It's some 6,000 soldiers. The demons called themselves Legion and they are saying we are here and we are here to destroy. That's exactly what Satan's end game is. Satan doesn't want you to just play with sin, he wants sin to destroy you.
Speaker 1:I was thinking this week how do we say this? And sin is not just a way to please you, sin is a weapon to destroy you. That's exactly what Satan wants to do to me and that's exactly what Satan wants to do to you. That's why that we see how they answer Jesus' question in this man. And he says then, in verse 10, he says that he begged him earnestly. Again, I think this is the demons talking he begged him earnestly not to send them, the demons, out of the country. Now, there was a great herd of pigs that was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him saying send us to the pigs, let us enter them. Now. That's just so weird right. Never truly understood that and, to be honest with you, I read a lot on this topic. Why did that happen? And nobody really knows, because the Bible never really truly tells us, except for the fact that it looks like that demons desire a host. As weird as that sounds. But just let me explain for a second, because it looks like that sin doesn't want to just run rampant flippantly, sin loves to work personally. Sin wants to target me and sin wants to target you.
Speaker 1:When I was a middle schooler probably the greatest satanic attack I've ever been through Some of you have heard this story, but we probably had five or six TVs in the house at that time. My TV was the only TV in the entire house that got a specific channel, a channel that was very sinful, a channel that was filthy, a channel that was it was awful. It was in my bedroom Only TV in the entire house that got this one channel. You can't make it up. Satan was targeting me and I remember as a middle schooler, for two years, me falling into that addiction and I remember trying to get out of this sin and I remember trying to use all of my power and not trying to tell anybody and keep it hidden, but trying to overcome it, and I couldn't.
Speaker 1:I remember one day we're sitting at the dinner table that evening and my mom looking at me and my mom saying, overcome it. And I couldn't. I remember one day we're sitting at the dinner table that evening and my mom looking at me and my mom saying, chip, you're so quiet, you're so distant, we just feel like we don't even know you anymore. Is anything going on? And I couldn't even tell them. I remember, about a year later, my student pastor, my youth pastor, preaching a message to our youth group and God gripped my heart. The Holy Spirit came upon me and I knew what I had to do and I went into my parents' room that evening and I told them everything that I had been doing in secret and in private. And I'll never forget that feeling of I don't know how they're going to respond, but I didn't have a choice. I had to get it off of my chest, I had to get it out of my life. I'll never forget my dad looking at me and my dad saying, son, we are so sorry that happened to you, we forgive you, we love you and we're here to help you. That had a tremendous impact on my life spiritually, not just because that's how my earthly dad responded because I learned a very important lesson that day.
Speaker 1:That's how every one of our heavenly father responds in our crisis of sin that our heavenly father doesn't respond in hate. Our heavenly father doesn't respond in disgust. Our heavenly father doesn't respond with how could you? Our heavenly father doesn't respond in disgust. Our heavenly father doesn't respond with how could you? Our heavenly father doesn't respond with you did that to me. But our heavenly father always responds with I love you and I'm going to help you and I forgive you.
Speaker 1:See, we see, as he's talking here, and they said send us to the pigs. And he said and he gave them, jesus gave them permission. We're seeing this power of Jesus, even over the demons and the unclean spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs and the herd numbering about 2,000 pigs, and they all rushed down to the steep bank into the sea, drowned in the sea. What is this teaching us? It's teaching us that this is the ultimate destiny of all sin. This is the ultimate destiny of all evil. This is what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Is that Jesus is going to judge all sin? Aren't you thankful that when we get to heaven, revelation, chapter 21, verse 4, says he's going to wipe away every tear from your eye and death and pain shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning or crying anymore, for the former things have passed away. There will come a day in your life, in your eternal life, that you will not have any more struggle with sin, because all sin will be judged in hell. But also, aren't you thankful that you don't have to wait till that day to experience the freedom of Jesus, that every single sin that I struggle with, that you struggle with, was bore on the body of Jesus, that the Bible literally says that he became our sin? The Bible says that when we believe in him and his death for our sin, his resurrection to eternal life, then the Bible says this is that there is not one sin that you cannot say no to. While you'll never say no to every sin, you'll never be perfect in this life, but Jesus is saying that he has power over all sin and he has grace over all sin and forgiveness over all sin. So if you've come here today and you are in sin and you struggle with sin, like I struggle with sin, and you're just honest with yourself and you're honest with God, then just know that we don't judge you because we're on this journey with you.
Speaker 1:This is a room full of sinners, as we are all about the Savior, and I know there's so many churches out there that are struggling with hypocrisy, and there's churches out there that just talk about everybody else's sin. We need to talk about our sin. I need to talk about my sin. I need to talk about my sin. We need to deal with our own sin, and so I was thinking through and just praying through.
Speaker 1:How do I simplify this this week for a seven steps to overcoming your sin, whatever's going on in your life and what's going on in my life? Number one it just starts with the conviction of the Holy Spirit, allowing the Spirit of God to convict you, and then we confess our sin to God and then we believe in his forgiveness. We receive his forgiveness, that he forgives you 100% of what you confess, and then we live in repentance. That's a 180 degree directional turn. Instead of living in that sin anymore, now live that area in your life in Jesus. And then it's scripture If you're still dealing with it and struggling with it and battling with it in your life in Jesus. And then it's scripture If you're still dealing with it and struggling with it and battling with it in your life.
Speaker 1:Then what do we do? We get into the word of God. What does the word of God, which is the sword of the spirit, which is designed to fight the sin in your life, what does the word of God say about my sin? And I want to get into the word and I want to study that and I want to memorize. Memorize that and I wanna hold on to that is my promise and I wanna speak that on a daily basis, declare it in my life. And then accountability that if you are continuing to struggle, you need an accountability partner in your life, someone that loves Jesus, someone that follows Jesus, someone that you look up to spiritually. They're a mentor like to you that you can be completely honest with and they won't judge you, they'll listen to you and they'll pray for you. And then last is counseling If it continues to dominate you, then go and talk to a professional. Go and talk to someone who's very educated, that has all of the tools that can help you overcoming that sin that is continuing on in your life because it is so common. Verse 14 says so.
Speaker 1:What happens when Jesus? He cast out the demons and they go into the pigs and 2,000 pigs go into the sea, says that the herdsmen fled and told it in the city, in other words, the pig herdsmen. They saw everything happening and what did they do? They ran, and so would you and so would I right. They just saw this crazy miracle happen before their eyes. The herdsmen fled and they went and told everybody in the city and in the country. So everybody came out from the city and the country and the people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus.
Speaker 1:And there's Jesus. And there's the man that had been possessed, the one who had the legion, and he was not roaming around, he wasn't crying, he wasn't screaming, he wasn't cutting, he was just sitting there. And he was just sitting there and he was clothed and he was in his right mind. And what was their response? Notice, it wasn't worship, it was fear. Why? Because everyone is used to sin, but not everyone is used to the power of God. It's a reminder that you can go through spiritual transformation in your life and not everybody's gonna like it, not everybody's gonna be on board, not everybody's gonna celebrate.
Speaker 1:I think about the person that messaged us just this week in another story. They just simply said their words. Jesus has set me free from weed and vaping and suicidal thoughts, they said. I just want to say I'm so blessed to be here and to praise him. He has pulled me through and I am so thankful. Put your hands together for that person and praise the Lord for what Jesus has done in your life. I can only imagine that that person probably has friends around them trying to pull them back into their sin. Because here's the deal People that have never experienced the freedom of Jesus will not celebrate your freedom in Jesus, but those that have will. That's why you surround yourself with believers. That's why you get into the community of the faith. Get around people who understand what it looks like to live for Jesus but still to struggle with sin, and that we can't live fake, phony lives in front of each other. We just got be real, not religious. We've gotta be real with one another, sharing our struggles, because we need to remember that he says in verse 16, and those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs, and they began to beg Jesus to depart from the region. So what do we do? Don't let the fear of others stop you from following Jesus. Don't let the fear of others stop you from following Jesus. Don't let the fear of others stop you from following Jesus.
Speaker 1:Verse 18, the end of the story. It says as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with the demons began to beg Jesus, jesus, that he might be with him. Can you hear this demon-possessed, this formerly demon-possessed man now sitting there, clothed in his right mind? Can you hear it? Jesus, before you leave, can I come with you? You're all I've got, jesus, you're all I need. You just healed me, you just soothed my pain, my biggest problem in life, and you did a miracle. And, jesus, I wanna go with you, jesus, I wanna be with you. He's literally saying Jesus, I want to be your disciple.
Speaker 1:He stops Jesus getting in the boat, saying that he might be with him. And here's what's fascinating to me and Jesus actually told him no. He actually told him no. He said I've got something even better for you. He did not permit the man, but instead he said to him go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. It would be like saying man, I just got saved, I just got baptized, I just overcame sin in my life and now I just wanna live 24-7 in church. I just never wanna leave church again. Or I wanna line up my life to where I go to 1,000 different Bible studies all week long and that's all I do is Bible study, hop, just Bible study, hopping all the time right. Or I just wanna watch Christian YouTube videos 24-7. And Jesus is saying you can follow me, you can believe in me, you can live for me, but you've gotta go. Just like he told his disciples, go and make disciples of all nations, of all ethnicities, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and I will be with him, teaching them to observe everything that I've commanded and I will be with you always. He told him to.
Speaker 1:I just have to wonder who this man's friends were, who his family was. Did he have a wife? Did he have kids? Did he have a job? Did he have parents, siblings, grandkids and all the people who had already banished him? And he goes back into his town and he goes back into his city and he goes back into his home and they see a changed man right before their eyes and he gets to tell them everything. Tell them all that the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy upon you. Everything that the Lord has done for me is out of his mercy. I haven't deserved or earned a thing. I don't deserve my salvation. I don't deserve to be Michelle's husband. I don't deserve to be my kid's dad. I don't deserve to be your pastor. Everything the Lord has done for me has been out of his mercy. And what an honor it is that we get to tell. What an honor it is that we get to go.
Speaker 1:It says when the man went away, he began to proclaim and all of the Decapolis Decapolis means 10 cities. Historians tell us there could have been a million people who live in that area he goes and proclaims in all of the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled, the same people that had driven Jesus out, saying Jesus, you got to go. This man went to the same people and now, instead of fear, it was the mission that made them marvel. I just wanna remind you, as he was talking here. I want us to see that he's calling us to go home to tell our friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has mercy upon you. I wanna remind you that Jesus isn't just saving you from your sin, he is saving you to the mission.
Speaker 1:So my question for you what are you going through in your life? What are the spiritual battles that you fight that only Jesus can overcome, and all of those things that he has overcome? See, there's always gonna be new battles that we fight, always gonna be new fights that we face, and even when we're in the fight, we still go to people and we tell them everything the Lord has done for us and all the mercy that he has bestowed upon us. So, where is your Decapolis and who are the people and who are the friends and who are the family that Jesus is sending you to this week to tell them all that the Lord has done for you and the mercy that he has had upon you? I'm gonna ask us to bow our heads and close our eyes.
Speaker 1:With every head bowed and every eye closed, I just wanna encourage you right here, right now, just to think about what is in your life that maybe Satan is using in your life Temptation, deception, sin, addiction, brokenness, something in your past, something that has hurt you, something that's holding you back, something that is affecting all of your life or parts of your life, that only God can give you freedom. Only God can give you forgiveness in this moment. That you would bring it to him right now and just say, jesus, I just confess this to you, jesus, I give this to you. Jesus, I need you to free me, forgive me, be with me, jesus, I need you, and maybe you're here this morning and you need to fully, finally and fully give your life over to him. Maybe you haven't been saved, you haven't begun a relationship with him, you have not been fully forgiven yet. So, right here, right now, I want to give you that opportunity. I believe that today can be the day of your salvation. I can't save you and I can't pray this prayer for you, but right here, right now, I can lead you through this and you can finally and fully give your life to Jesus.
Speaker 1:Right here, from your own heart and your own words, you can say Jesus, jesus, I need you and I believe in you. And you can say Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sin, so I ask you to forgive me of all of my sin, past, present and future. You can tell him Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead, you're alive. So I turn from my sin and I turn and I follow you and I call on you to be the Lord of my life. And the Bible says that if you confess Jesus as your Lord and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead, you will be saved. So you just say Jesus, save me, jesus, forgive me, be my Lord, be my Savior.
Speaker 1:And Jesus, thank you for that promise and that truth. We believe it. We thank you for it in Jesus' name. And all God's people said would you put your hands together for anybody that gave their life to Jesus? This morning, we're so thankful for all that God does in our life and I just wanna encourage you just to stand right now, all that God does in our life, and I just wanna encourage you just to stand right now and I wanna say, as we stand together, we're gonna worship Jesus one more time and with this last song that you're gonna love, and I pray that your heart connects with this song, with these lyrics, because we designed these services for you to be able to worship him with all of you out of what you just heard, and so I pray that, as he continues to free you, that you continue to live in freedom and in his forgiveness, that you'll continue to worship him together. Let's do that right now.