SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Skyline Church.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Adam.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_00: And again, just to clarify, at the end of service, if you're here today, you're a biological mom, you're a spiritual mom, you have a mom, you aspire to be a mom.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, if you have an XY chromosome, we have flowers for you at the end of service.
SPEAKER_00: So would love for you to have that.
SPEAKER_00: So we live in a time of changing spirituality here in North America.
SPEAKER_00: Changes that call to us and tempt us as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're here today, you're exploring faith, you're not sure what you believe, changes that tempt you as well.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity, as many of you probably know, is on the decline.
SPEAKER_00: Only like 60% of people now in the United States would say that they're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same thing with belief in God, it's also on the decline.
SPEAKER_00: But weirdly, spirituality remains strong.
SPEAKER_00: Weird, Pew Research started adding this question recently, where they basically ask: is there something spiritual beyond the natural world?
SPEAKER_00: With only 60% of the people in the country saying that they're Christian, 81% say that they do believe that there is a spiritual reality beyond the physical one.
SPEAKER_00: Very strange.
SPEAKER_00: It's a paradoxical.
SPEAKER_00: Also interesting is the occult has exploded in popularity.
SPEAKER_00: When I say the occult, I mean like psychics, tarot cards, this type of thing.
SPEAKER_00: I think I still have a little bit going on here, Alex.
SPEAKER_00: Could you take it a little bit down?
SPEAKER_00: Tarot cards, this type of thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's grown.
SPEAKER_00: Recent estimates I saw was like 10%.
SPEAKER_00: So if the occult market is growing 10%, that's like a seven-year doubling rate.
SPEAKER_00: And Joni and I saw this in a huge way.
SPEAKER_00: When we used to live down here in Denver, we went up to train, like I trained to become a church planter, came back down to Denver, even just in those three, four years, we saw a lot more of this.
SPEAKER_00: In the spiritual vacuum that's been created with Christianity on the decline, but spirituality still staying high.
SPEAKER_00: In this vacuum that's created, all this other stuff is rushing to fill the gaps.
SPEAKER_00: Weirdly, belief in the devil is down, but again, horror has shifted.
SPEAKER_00: By horror, I mean like the horror genre in cinema.
SPEAKER_00: Belief in the devil himself is down, but the horror genre has shifted dramatically towards the demonic.
SPEAKER_00: Um, 90% of Gen Z, it says, watches horror.
SPEAKER_00: It used to be just 5% of movie ticket market share, now it's 10%.
SPEAKER_00: It's changed a lot.
SPEAKER_00: I remember uh when I was in college beginning to watch this change.
SPEAKER_00: Like when I was younger, the main type of horror genre was what's called slasher movies, where it's like the Saw movies, and I don't recommend these, by the way, just in case that wasn't clear.
SPEAKER_00: The Saw movies, uh Texas Chainsaw, that was the type of horror movie that was that was popular.
SPEAKER_00: And then it began to shift.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when the movie Paranormal Activity came out.
SPEAKER_00: Paranormal Activity, by the way, the message of this movie series is if a demon wants you, it's over.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that you can do.
SPEAKER_00: That's the message of this series.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I was 19, maybe 20, I remember being in the theater and going out briefly to go to the bathroom, and I saw two people like by the door that had also just walked out, seemingly unrelated to each other, just sobbing because of fear and stress that the movie had put on.
SPEAKER_00: I'd never seen that in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I've never walked out of a movie before and seen people weeping because of the anxiety that it caused them.
SPEAKER_00: But that movie it did.
SPEAKER_00: So, like, how do we make sense of these messages from culture?
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we of course believe in the spiritual realm.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that Satan and demons are real.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just here to kick us in the shin that they want to destroy us.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that they exist and also have some degree of power.
SPEAKER_00: So the question then comes before us: how can we have peace in the face of the spiritual enemy?
SPEAKER_00: How can we have peace in the midst of this changing culture, this pervasive message about spirituality?
SPEAKER_00: Today, the text that we're gonna be in continues in Jesus' Ministry in Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see two stories actually that address this question.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're taking notes here, you got the sermon sheet in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: The main idea that I think you're gonna see built on in both of these stories is that the complete authority of God brings complete calm.
SPEAKER_00: The complete authority of God brings complete calm.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see this develop.
SPEAKER_00: The first story is not really about the spiritual realm per se, but then it sets the table for the second story, which is.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna read them in two parts.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be in Luke, I think it's chapter eight.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter eight, verses twenty two through twenty five.
SPEAKER_00: So the first story here, authority over nature.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what it says.
SPEAKER_00: One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, Let us go across to the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_00: So they set out.
SPEAKER_00: And as they sailed, he fell asleep.
SPEAKER_00: And a windstorm came down in the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.
SPEAKER_00: And they went and woke him, saying, Master, master, we're perishing.
SPEAKER_00: And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was calm.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, Where is your faith?
SPEAKER_00: And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this?
SPEAKER_00: That he even commands the winds and water, and they obey him.
SPEAKER_00: Who then is this?
SPEAKER_00: So, how does this text begin?
SPEAKER_00: It begins with Jesus prompting a trip.
SPEAKER_00: As we'll find, it's kind of a mission, missions trip.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus prompting a missions trip.
SPEAKER_00: And I I love the scene here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gets on the boat, they all get on the boat, they're sailing across the lake of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23, he falls asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's tired.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, fully God, but also fully man, subjecting himself to our limits and constraints while here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Then a storm comes, a big one.
SPEAKER_00: It starts to fill the boat with water.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, the disciples, a lot of them were fishermen.
SPEAKER_00: So like they're on boat, like on a boat like every day.
SPEAKER_00: They're out in the water like all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And it says here that they think they're going to die.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24, we are perishing.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, the first century people, they do better at handling suffering than we do in our modern day and age.
SPEAKER_00: And for those for these disciples to be there and to think that they're going to die, paired with the fact that the text actually says they were in danger.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, they're not just clowning around.
SPEAKER_00: They think they're going to die.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just a show of hands really quick.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you've ever had a near-death experience where you thought it was over.
SPEAKER_00: Nice about 30%.
SPEAKER_00: So I've had a couple brushes with death, but there was really only one time where I was convinced.
SPEAKER_00: Only one time where I was like, wow, I guess this is it.
SPEAKER_00: I was 16, I was living in Australia, and my friends were surfers.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be able to hang with them.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't talented, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It was a huge storm day on the beach, what's called double overhead.
SPEAKER_00: Double overhead means you stand up on your board, it's over your head.
SPEAKER_00: So double overhead is twice over your head.
SPEAKER_00: That's how big the waves were, it's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: My friends are out there paddling on to 12 foot waves, and I'm like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I get up, I'm like swimming around, trying to hang with them.
SPEAKER_00: But again, I didn't grow up on Australia, I didn't grow up on the beach, I didn't really know how to handle myself.
SPEAKER_00: And in a storm, in storm swells, it accentuates the rip current, which pulls you out.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm swimming around, I get pulled out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know to swim parallel to the shore and then in.
SPEAKER_00: I get pulled out and I just start getting washing machined by 12-foot waves, as you might imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm 16, 17, so I got some gas, but when you're when you're working as hard as you can, you get dumped over and over again, you can't breathe for like 30, 40 seconds at a time.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, 15 minutes goes by, and I'm just like, I it's over.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I remember very vividly being out there, a hundred yards out from the beach.
SPEAKER_00: It sucked me out so far.
SPEAKER_00: And fighting, fighting, fighting, dumped, dumped, fighting, fighting, fighting, breath starting to leave.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember starting to get dizzy and being like, very, very vividly being like, wow.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I had a pretty good life.
SPEAKER_00: I sit I'm only 16, that's young, but you know, my parents loved me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in Australia.
SPEAKER_00: Not I'm I'm surprised that this is the end, but you know, it could have been worse.
SPEAKER_00: My life was okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember very like concertedly thinking to myself, and and reviewing my life as I was sitting there.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't, you know, I lost all my energy.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't even fight it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And I was just sitting there, kind of honestly just floating, because it had the ocean had humbled me and so sapped everything inside of me.
SPEAKER_00: And this, of course, the disciples are facing a similar moment.
SPEAKER_00: They think they're going to die.
SPEAKER_00: It says it in one verse.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let that part skip past you.
SPEAKER_00: So what do they do?
SPEAKER_00: They get Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They go and get Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He awakes, and in verse 24 it says, He rebuked the wind and the waves.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting word choice.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen this word a couple times in Luke.
SPEAKER_00: He rebukes the demons and they come out.
SPEAKER_00: We saw him rebuke a fever, a Peter's mother-in-law, and it leaves her.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's rebuking, correcting, speaking to something else.
SPEAKER_00: Nature itself.
SPEAKER_00: The same word is being used here.
SPEAKER_00: He reprimands nature.
SPEAKER_00: And what's the result?
SPEAKER_00: The wind and the waves cease, and there is a calm.
SPEAKER_00: Luke is showing us a new area of Jesus' authority.
SPEAKER_00: Nature itself.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it be the demonic, we've seen it be diseases, we've seen it be forgiveness, we've seen it be over death itself.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen Jesus' authority so far in the Gospel of Luke over all those things.
SPEAKER_00: And here is a new one.
SPEAKER_00: Make no mistake.
SPEAKER_00: It claims that Jesus has authority over nature.
SPEAKER_00: It calms at his command.
SPEAKER_00: And some, you know, especially with the next text we're going to read, some look at this and say, well, this is a storm, but it's actually a spiritual thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like Satan, it says is the prince of the power of the air, and he actually sends this, which is possible.
SPEAKER_00: It is possible, but but make no mistake, the point that Luke is trying to make in this text is that Jesus has authority over nature.
SPEAKER_00: It recognizes his voice and calms at his command.
SPEAKER_00: And it's his authority over nature that rescues them.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's what happened to me too.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, wait, what?
SPEAKER_00: I got sucked out and I basically stopped fighting, and I'm just kind of floating there, ready basically to die, because I was losing oxygen.
SPEAKER_00: And this surfer paddles out and he sees me.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't even wave at him.
SPEAKER_00: That's how, like, I wanted to live, but I didn't even have the strength to wave.
SPEAKER_00: So I just kind of like waved my elbow.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees me and he paddles over and drags me onto his board and paddles in and then literally drags me up the beach.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's how I was trying to live.
SPEAKER_00: I put every ounce of my energy into it.
SPEAKER_00: And he looks at me and he's like, You swimming out in this?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, mate?
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, though.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes right back out and starts surfing where I was just about to die.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember sitting on the beach and looking out at it and just taking eight steps towards humility in like 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the way that nature can just humble a person and helps you find your place in reality.
SPEAKER_00: It was a very, very significant moment for me.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what happens with the disciples too.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus rescues them, he calms the storm, and it causes the disciples to say, in verse 25, one of the main themes in the Gospel of Luke, who then is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?
SPEAKER_00: Who could this be?
SPEAKER_00: Coincidentally, with this passage, there's actually a ton of Psalms that refer to this exact kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read you one of them, which Luke is obviously pointing to for us.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 107.
SPEAKER_00: Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from all their distress.
SPEAKER_00: He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
SPEAKER_00: Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
SPEAKER_00: There's like five other psalms just like this that talk about God calming the wind and the seas, the waves.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously pointing to Jesus being this person that the psalmist talks about, let alone Genesis 1.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Genesis 1?
SPEAKER_00: Where there's nothing until God speaks, there's no water until God says, let it be so, and all of a sudden that there's water.
SPEAKER_00: Luke is saying, the creator of the creation is here among us.
SPEAKER_00: The one who spoke the waters into existence is speaking to him again.
SPEAKER_00: We're finding out the identity of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then it's probably, when it relates to application of this text, though, it's probably not best centered on the correction, the rebuke of nature, the wind and the waves, but ironically on the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, Jesus says, maybe unexpectedly, where is your faith?
SPEAKER_00: Faith in what?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, they went down and they got him.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Where is your faith?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it says they were actually in danger.
SPEAKER_00: So what is Jesus saying?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think what he's saying is, where's your faith in who I am?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we're chapter 8 now.
SPEAKER_00: They've seen some things.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they don't fully know that he's the Messiah, the promised one of the Old Testament that they all had kind of been waiting for, but they've seen enough to kind of be like, maybe though.
SPEAKER_00: They've seen him raise people from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is challenging what they believe about him.
SPEAKER_00: They believe a little bit, but they're still terrified in the moment rather than trusting in who he is and what he can do.
SPEAKER_00: See, storms, suffering, moments of mortality, you might call it, they have this superpower.
SPEAKER_00: And the superpower is they reveal to you what's inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: They expose who you really are.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens exactly here with the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And these moments are worth their weight in gold because they give us clarity, they let us grow.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I think we can pull from these, just these first couple verses, is we have to learn not to hate them.
SPEAKER_00: We have to learn not to hate them because God uses them.
SPEAKER_00: God uses them to transform us.
SPEAKER_00: They learn that there's no reason to fear with Jesus because even the wind and the waves obey him.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe right now, what this text is prompting us to do is to ask the question: where might be hardship, where might hardship, a storm, be revealing something about you?
SPEAKER_00: It can be all kinds of categories.
SPEAKER_00: Financially, your health.
SPEAKER_00: I even think about our opportunity for alpha coming up with this class, this opportunity to invite people that we know and that we love to come and hear about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that like uncomfortability is exposing a little bit how far you're willing to go.
SPEAKER_00: Just how much you're willing to put your relationships, your social life at risk for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's it's to do with romance, maybe it's to do with your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Where is hardship exposing a lack of faith like Jesus helps the disciples to see?
SPEAKER_00: Because the complete authority of Jesus over nature is meant to bring us calm in the way that it brings nature calm.
SPEAKER_00: Authority over nature.
SPEAKER_00: The next scene is probably the most pronounced demonic encounter in the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's recorded in three of the four Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: What we're going to see is Jesus' authority not just over demons, but over all demons.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this encounter.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 8, 26 through 39.
SPEAKER_00: Then they sailed to the country of the Garosenes, which is opposite Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons.
SPEAKER_00: For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?
SPEAKER_00: I beg you, do not torment me.
SPEAKER_00: For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
SPEAKER_00: For many a time it had seized him.
SPEAKER_00: He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus then asked him, What is your name?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him.
SPEAKER_00: And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
SPEAKER_00: Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these.
SPEAKER_00: So he gave them permission.
SPEAKER_00: Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
SPEAKER_00: When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.
SPEAKER_00: Then the people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.
SPEAKER_00: Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Garasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.
SPEAKER_00: So he got into the boat and returned.
SPEAKER_00: The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
SPEAKER_00: So, this trip across the lake, as it turns out, is a missions trip.
SPEAKER_00: Where?
SPEAKER_00: To the Garosenes.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about the Garrishenes is it's part of a Roman province called the Decapolis.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Decapolis, it's mostly Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And by that I mean people who aren't Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, Jesus says multiple times, I came for the lost sheep of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the Jews first.
SPEAKER_00: Later, when he tells his disciples to go share about him, he says, first go to Jerusalem, then Judea, and then the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And yet here is Jesus going to a non-Jewish part of the area.
SPEAKER_00: It's foreshadowing that the good news of Jesus will go not just to the Jews, but to all peoples of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the themes in the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as he lands, he's confronted by really the most demonized person in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The whole Bible.
SPEAKER_00: When I say demonized, what I mean is a person who is inhabited by wicked spirits.
SPEAKER_00: They have a connection, they have reason to be there.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know why with this man, but that's what I mean by demonized.
SPEAKER_00: And with this guy, you know, you can think about it on a scale, one to ten level of demonization.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's like a 10 out of 10.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when Jesus asks it its name, he says legion, and the reason he says legion is because there's a lot of demons inside of him.
SPEAKER_00: And legion is a Roman military unit of soldiers, usually made up of at least 3,000 soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: Could be more though.
SPEAKER_00: So like the implication of this text is that this guy has like a thousand plus demons in him.
SPEAKER_00: Really, really gnarly.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can imagine being the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus, we get on the boat, we almost die in a storm, and here we are in a new territory staring at a naked dude.
SPEAKER_00: Like, imagine following Jesus, and like this is your 24-hour period.
SPEAKER_00: Luke is actually really intentional here to spell out what this guy's life is like as a demonized person.
SPEAKER_00: The symptoms that you see.
SPEAKER_00: So here's just a couple of them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's all the ones that I could find with another one from another from the other uh gospel that adds one.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he's naked.
SPEAKER_00: This guy is literally walking around with no clothes on.
SPEAKER_00: The level of like lack of self-awareness, like the mental instability that that immediately indicates is really, really high.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, he's driven to live away from his home in a cemetery.
SPEAKER_00: Extreme isolation.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, he's he's dwelling around death, is what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the demons are making him do.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, they would seize him often, take control over him for a brief period of time.
SPEAKER_00: And we see other places in the Bible where a demonized person gets thrown under the ground and foaming at the mouth, this type of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, he's basically incarcerated.
SPEAKER_00: So different times they have him under bondage, under guard.
SPEAKER_00: But then number five, demonically he has like super strength and causes him to break the bonds and just roam around.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine that basically everyone in this whole region avoided this guy.
SPEAKER_00: Number six, he would often be driven into the desert.
SPEAKER_00: Note this repeated theme of isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to, the demonic is trying to separate him from anyone and anything that loves him.
SPEAKER_00: Number seven, they seem to be able to have spoken through his voice.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of the weird back and forth, maybe you notice in this text where it's like he, they, it's like who's talking when?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of hard to tell.
SPEAKER_00: And then another one of one of the other gospels, number eight, adds that sometimes he would cut himself with stones.
SPEAKER_00: Another symptom of severe demonization.
SPEAKER_00: This is a brutal and despairing existence.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it reveals the intentions of the demonic.
SPEAKER_00: When they really have their way and they have a very large amount of power and influence over someone, this is what happens.
SPEAKER_00: And you can see very clearly what their intentions are.
SPEAKER_00: Again, named Legion, perhaps thousands of demons in this person.
SPEAKER_00: An extreme level of infestation, an extreme level of brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, today, almost assuredly, if we saw somebody like this, and today, if you're just walking down Denver, 16th Street Mall, or wherever, and somebody is like this, the immediate conclusion is this is a mental health crisis.
SPEAKER_00: The immediate conclusion is this is a physiological issue, not a spiritual issue.
SPEAKER_00: That is what basically society today would put this person, this is the category that they would put this person in.
SPEAKER_00: But we, of course, as Christians, we believe in the physiological, but we also believe in the spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: We believe in both.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing that I just have to say.
SPEAKER_00: If God's people refused to put anyone and even think about this other category, the spiritual, then what hope is there for people who suffer from this?
SPEAKER_00: If we in our day and age will not even consider this as a possibility, first of all, it shows how little we think about this.
SPEAKER_00: It shows how unseriously we take it.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible is making a statement about reality here.
SPEAKER_00: Make no mistake.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying Jesus sometimes heals people for a physical issue, other times it's demonic.
SPEAKER_00: He always knows the difference.
SPEAKER_00: And he's willing to step into either one.
SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time that this happened to me three years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Not that I was demonized, but encountered a person with it.
SPEAKER_00: Although, who would put it past me?
SPEAKER_00: Um, I had honestly I'd been praying because the funny thing is, you read through the Gospels and Acts, this happens like all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And for whatever reason, the Holy Spirit had been prompting me, and I was like mad.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Lord, there are so many stories about this in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This one gets repeated in three different gospels.
SPEAKER_00: The volume of passages about people being demonized is like a lot.
SPEAKER_00: And I was mad, and I was like, God, what is this?
SPEAKER_00: Is this not true anymore?
SPEAKER_00: Is this like not a thing?
SPEAKER_00: Lo and behold, the next week that I prayed that prayer, someone starts coming into the church, middle of the day, middle of the week, uh, that was preparing us to send and plant in Denver.
SPEAKER_00: And uh she's about my age, incredible, professional, high-paying job, and uh had been fired from that job because she had gone insane, uh, had been relegated to her apartment for months at a time, such that her family would send people and try and find her.
SPEAKER_00: She's coming into the church, she would start speaking in another voice and start to curse everyone there who was trying to help her.
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't there for that at some of those initial encounters, but some people are telling me about it, and I'm like, Because I again I had just come off this prayer asking God, God, what gives?
SPEAKER_00: This is not like a small thing in the Bible, it's a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: Is this fake?
SPEAKER_00: And so they're telling me about this, and I'm like, okay, uh, did anyone try, because again, I'd never done this.
SPEAKER_00: Did anyone try to pray prayers of authority in Jesus' name and see if it's, I don't know, maybe demonic?
SPEAKER_00: Because at that point we'd seen basically everything except her head do a 360, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And people were like, I don't really want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, well, are you willing to try it with me?
SPEAKER_00: And they were like, ah, okay, fine.
SPEAKER_00: So we set it up, text her, she's gonna come in for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna pray and see and pray that prayer over her and see if anything happens.
SPEAKER_00: Because again, like the Lord really gave me an on-ramp on this because every part inside of me is like, mm, it's probably drugs, it's probably mental health, mmm, there's a huge volume of this in the Bible, but I don't think it's true anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Every part of me was pulling at that, but because of my frustration, honestly, we move forward.
SPEAKER_00: So she comes into the parking lot, we're about to go for prayer, four cop cars drive into the parking lot, including a van, and they say her parents have called a 72-hour hold on her.
SPEAKER_00: You will not get to pray with her, we're taking her to the psych ward.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there in the parking lot like, oh heck no.
SPEAKER_00: No way.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you going?
SPEAKER_00: We're going all the way down to Denver in the psych ward.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, great.
SPEAKER_00: See you in a few.
SPEAKER_00: So a day passes, we get um authorization to go and visit her, and then we went down and visited her.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just, before I finish this story, what what these things tried to get her to do was to kill herself, to isolate her.
SPEAKER_00: She had left all people that she knew.
SPEAKER_00: There's like overlap with like half the symptoms here.
SPEAKER_00: And let me let me just ask you why why do you think that these 14 verses are here in the case?
SPEAKER_00: It's not one, it's 14.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think it gets repeated in all three Gospels?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think there's 20 other stories like this?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think Luke wants us to see?
SPEAKER_00: Well, look at how the demons respond to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: They fall down before him.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's the man and seemingly the demons together.
SPEAKER_00: They fall down before him.
SPEAKER_00: Different story compared to the wind and the waves.
SPEAKER_00: Same result.
SPEAKER_00: They fall down before him.
SPEAKER_00: Wind and waves, legions of demons, doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: What Luke wants you to see is that all aspects of reality bow to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Every dimension, nature, disease, demons, death, sin, everything.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing that does not respond to his voice with obedience.
SPEAKER_00: The great I am has come.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, I love.
SPEAKER_00: They fall down and beg.
SPEAKER_00: I beg you, don't send me into the abyss.
SPEAKER_00: Abyss, weird word.
SPEAKER_00: Happens like eight times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Different than hell.
SPEAKER_00: Happens like eight times, most of them in Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: What the abyss seems to be, the word actually means bottomless pit, foundationless hole.
SPEAKER_00: And it's again, hell is described differently.
SPEAKER_00: And when you read Revelation, the abyss seems to be this place.
SPEAKER_00: You see that certain angels from Genesis chapter 6 seem to have been locked away, wicked angels, in this abyss.
SPEAKER_00: We see Satan himself locked away in this abyss at some point, other parts of the demonic.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this place of torment for the demonic that exists now.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know a whole lot about it, but all we know is they're terrified that Jesus is going to send them there.
SPEAKER_00: Terrified.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Very weird.
SPEAKER_00: He says, go into the pigs.
SPEAKER_00: Now at this point, you probably are like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, what?
SPEAKER_00: Go into the pig?
SPEAKER_00: Why do the pigs then run down and kill themselves?
SPEAKER_00: Number two, I have 50 questions.
SPEAKER_00: Can animals be demonized?
SPEAKER_00: The answer to that is depends on whether you have dogs or cats.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: You have like 50 questions.
SPEAKER_00: Why this, why that, why that?
SPEAKER_00: But but again, again, what I want you to see is is Luke particularly concerned with that?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what Luke wants you to be focused on when he tells the story?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to be concerned with this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sets this man free, the people leave, they tell everyone, they come back, they find the demons gone.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 35, they see the man sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
SPEAKER_00: Complete transformation.
SPEAKER_00: From chaos to calm.
SPEAKER_00: The complete authority of God brings complete calm.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he wants you to see.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just extend over nature, it extends over all the demonic, allegiance of them, acts the same as one.
SPEAKER_00: Fear and trembling before the one who can command them.
SPEAKER_00: And make no mistake, the Bible says that their day of judgment is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And they seem to fear it.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 28, the complete authority of God, the demons, as it turns out, were right.
SPEAKER_00: He is in fact the Son of the Most High God.
SPEAKER_00: His identity revealed, repeated again in Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this is what happened.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the man gets free in this text.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happened in the story three years ago with me as well.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the psych ward.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, in this psych ward, they start speaking through her.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it scared the crap out of me the first time that it happened.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm there with Micah, our Serbian missionary, and another gal from uh Mountain View that sent us.
SPEAKER_00: And we start to share the gospel with her.
SPEAKER_00: And in the middle of the gospel share, they would interrupt her.
SPEAKER_00: We'd ask her, Hey, what about what do you think about this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think and all of a sudden she'd turn and start speaking through another voice.
SPEAKER_00: And then we, again, never done this before.
SPEAKER_00: And then we would say, We command you to be silent in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And just locks up.
SPEAKER_00: Bows at the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And again, through trial and error, a couple different meetings, as it turned out, she had welcomed in the occult into her life.
SPEAKER_00: She had stepped into witchcraft, inviting spirits into her life, and it caused her to go insane and get fired from her job and be incredibly isolated.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget, she's looking at me across the table.
SPEAKER_00: And we're in a psych ward, and they're trying to push on her antipsychotic medication.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we believe as Christians in the physiological.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that there's a time and a place for different medications of different.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God we live in the 21st century where these things are available.
SPEAKER_00: But she looks at me across the table and she says, Adam, look, I'm a medical professional.
SPEAKER_00: I know what they're going to do.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need that.
SPEAKER_00: What I need is whatever you guys have.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, talk about an on-ramp from God, like ball on the T, Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Here's your this is if you can't handle this, bro.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't see how you're ever gonna believe me if I repeat it a thousand times in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Some people face this.
SPEAKER_00: Walk in the authority of my name.
SPEAKER_00: So we're up at bat, trying to figure out, horrified.
SPEAKER_00: And she basically she comes to faith, and then we command them out, and they come out.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget, she had been pushing off the antipsychotic meds.
SPEAKER_00: And we watched her become sane.
SPEAKER_00: It was like all of a sudden I'm talking with someone who like I went to high school with.
SPEAKER_00: She's making jokes.
SPEAKER_00: And then the the psychword was like, You're not crazy, after a couple weeks, and they let her out.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm so thankful to God to this day that He made it so easy for me of so little faith.
SPEAKER_00: Such that me and others and people here can be used by God to serve in this as needed.
SPEAKER_00: A complete transformation from chaos to calm.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said he came to set the captives free, and it's happening daily around the world.
SPEAKER_00: Does our city not need this?
SPEAKER_00: And look, you may be hesitant and say, Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what if I what if I say that there's something here and there's not?
SPEAKER_00: Like, are you a medical doctor?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know 100% what they're facing from a medical standpoint?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But you do have God and you have the Holy Spirit, and the highest ethic of the Christian life is love.
SPEAKER_00: So move forward with love, belief in his word, and with wisdom, and you will find that he wants to set the captives free.
SPEAKER_00: You will find that what he said in Luke chapter, I believe it was for, is still happening.
SPEAKER_00: It happened then as it happened here, and it's happening today.
SPEAKER_00: Interestingly, Jesus' authority over all demons does not draw all people.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you saw this.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, some of them ask him to leave.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it says because they were seized with fear.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what Jesus does?
SPEAKER_00: He leaves.
SPEAKER_00: He says, okay.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is rejected by us, he's not gonna force himself upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Welcoming his authority can be shocking, it can be messy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, again, think about this 24-hour period for these four disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Twelve hours ago, they thought they were gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: They land on a Gentile shore and are greeted by a naked dude.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now what Jesus, and then Jesus shows them.
SPEAKER_00: Life with Jesus can be messy, it can be shocky, shocking, and it's filled with storms.
SPEAKER_00: But the point of the passage is that he brings peace where there's storm, is that he can help us transcend any circumstance and take away our fear.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the gospel is that Jesus' death and resurrection defeated the spiritual enemy.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the gospel is that he put them to open shame such that we do not ever have to fear them, even with the messages coming in from cinema and whore, coming in from all kinds of other places, coming in from their own voices, they whisper it to you.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing you can do.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime you think that, go back to the demonized man from the Garrisons and just read that passage.
SPEAKER_00: He fell down and begged him.
SPEAKER_00: Please, don't send us into the abyss.
SPEAKER_00: And remind yourself that this is the name above all names.
SPEAKER_00: They do bow to him, just like the wind and the waves do.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of the gospel is that he came to set the captives free of the demonic, he has authority over them, judges them completely, and throws them into the lake of fire at the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: And he's still doing it today.
SPEAKER_00: We need to lay down our fear.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, the way the man did at the end.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see that?
SPEAKER_00: Returning home and telling everyone that he knew.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of a break from Jesus' normal pattern.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell anyone, anytime he heals a Jew, don't tell anyone that I healed you.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: It's called the messianic secret.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like what he's trying to do is manage the amount of time he has left.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the Pharisees are trying to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: But here is a Gentile guy that he sets free, and he's like, go tell everyone you know.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knows it's probably not going to affect him managing his time to be able to do what he came to do here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And what does the man do?
SPEAKER_00: He goes and tells everyone that he knows.
SPEAKER_00: Where perhaps is Jesus inviting you to do the same?
SPEAKER_00: To lay down your fear and follow him into anything and everything that he calls you into.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God, we we just believe that everything in your word is perfect and authoritative for the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: God, we submit to you.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to see and understand.
SPEAKER_00: God, let us see that you set the captives free.
SPEAKER_00: God, give us the wisdom to know the difference.
SPEAKER_00: To love people in the greatest possible way, depending on what they need.
SPEAKER_00: God, help us to lay down our fear.
SPEAKER_00: This passage talks about fear so much.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone just seems to be afraid all the time in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, comfort us.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us that even in the storms we're in your hands.
SPEAKER_00: We come home when you say it's time.
SPEAKER_00: No sooner, no later.
SPEAKER_00: God, we ask that you would help us to lay down our fear as we join you in the harvest, as we join you in setting the captives free.
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' name, amen.