SPEAKER_00: This week there is a difference in the audio.
SPEAKER_00: We apologize for the inconvenience.
SPEAKER_03: And we wonder, how can we love someone like us?
SPEAKER_03: With all of our frailties, with all of our flaws, with all of our defects.
SPEAKER_03: In those times when we are disobedient, in those times when we're selfish.
SPEAKER_03: But yet you still love us.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, we say thank you because we recognize that your love for us is not dependent upon what we do.
SPEAKER_03: Your love is eternal.
SPEAKER_03: Your word even declares that you love the world so much that even before we were born, the Bible says that you gave your only Son that we might experience everlasting life.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
SPEAKER_03: There's nothing that we can do to increase your love for us, but oh, the good news is there's nothing that we can do to decrease your love for us.
SPEAKER_03: Love us.
SPEAKER_03: And Lord, we know even if we had 10,000 tongues, it wouldn't be enough to say thank you.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, but the one that we have, we just say right now, thank you.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for being there all the time.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for being there even when we thought that you weren't there.
SPEAKER_03: Now we ask today that you would just encourage us from your work so that when we leave this place, we'll leave just a little bit different than how we do.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
SPEAKER_03: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: And I care.
SPEAKER_03: I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: And I want to say to you that I'm extremely amazed.
SPEAKER_03: I am excited.
SPEAKER_03: I am super charged up for this opportunity.
SPEAKER_03: I thank Pastor Neal for opening this door.
SPEAKER_03: Giving me a chance to stand behind this sacred desk, sacred podium.
SPEAKER_03: Charge of the people that God has given to his church, to his care.
SPEAKER_03: I want to tell you a little something about Lee.
SPEAKER_03: In 1973, September the 10th, at 9.20 p.m.
SPEAKER_03: while on the phone with a prudential insurance salesman who tricked me because he was supposed to talk to me about life insurance, but he had a plan of talking to me about eternal life insurance.
SPEAKER_03: And he asked me a question to which I responded.
SPEAKER_03: He said, Young man, are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_03: I said, Yes, sir, there's no doubt I am a Christian.
SPEAKER_03: He says, Well, how do you know?
SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, when I was seven years old, I came forward, I took the pastor's hand in Progressive Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, and I got baptized.
SPEAKER_03: I am a Christian.
SPEAKER_03: This man who really didn't know me, he hurt my feelings.
SPEAKER_03: Because he said to me, young man, I'm sorry to let you know that the only thing that happened to you, you went in the water, a dry sinner, and you came out a wet sinner.
SPEAKER_03: He says, Because water is not what saves you.
SPEAKER_03: It's a heart that's been changed.
SPEAKER_03: That's what salvation is.
SPEAKER_03: And so I said that night, I said, Well, sir, uh, if that's the case, well, what do I need to do to be saved?
SPEAKER_03: And he says, Well, what you need to do is that you need to pray this prayer.
SPEAKER_03: At that time, it was called the sinner's prayer.
SPEAKER_03: So I prayed the prayer and I ended it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_03: And so I said to the man, I said, Well, sir, do I need to pray again?
SPEAKER_03: So he asked me, well, why would you need to pray again?
SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, I didn't feel any tingle when I prayed.
SPEAKER_03: Because I grew up in one of those very uh excited churches where, you know, when you got saved, you ran around the church a couple times, you jumped a couple queues or something like that.
SPEAKER_03: And so I just felt, well, it didn't take.
SPEAKER_03: And he said something to me that I haven't forgotten in almost 40-something years.
SPEAKER_03: He said, young man, salvation is not based upon feelings, because feelings can fluctuate.
SPEAKER_03: Salvation is based upon the fact that if you've trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ on your behalf, the Bible refers to that as salvation, or you have been justified, which means to be declared by God righteous.
SPEAKER_03: So from that point on, I've sought to serve him as best I can.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord's given me an opportunity to speak all over this country, and for that I say thank you.
SPEAKER_03: He's given me an opportunity to teach at one of the most prestigious schools in the country, Dallas Biological Seminary, here in Houston.
SPEAKER_03: And for that I'm grateful.
SPEAKER_03: I'm grateful for all that he's done for me.
SPEAKER_03: He's given me a lovely wife that is by my side, and then she's my better half for sure.
SPEAKER_03: And the way I often describe my wife is this.
SPEAKER_03: I remember, you may not, I remember in my hometown, especially in my home, we didn't have a lot of money.
SPEAKER_03: And so when it came time for beverages, we would go and get a package of Kool-Aid out of the cupboard.
SPEAKER_03: Is anyone old enough to remember Kool-Aid?
SPEAKER_03: And so I'd always ask my mom, Mom, would you allow me, please, to make the Kool-Aid today?
SPEAKER_03: Because I want to make sure it was extra sweet.
SPEAKER_03: And so I always introduce my wife this way.
SPEAKER_03: My wife is the sugar in my Kool-Aid.
SPEAKER_03: And for that I say thank you, sweetheart, for being here today.
SPEAKER_03: I told you that I trusted him in 1973.
SPEAKER_03: And what I didn't tell you is that after that, the Lord just began to just shower me with blessing after blessing after blessing.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, just I wouldn't have time to tell you all the great things that the Lord did for me.
SPEAKER_03: One of the greatest things that the Lord did for me is that the night that I trusted the Lord as my Savior.
SPEAKER_03: What I was embarrassed to tell the people at the Bible study, what I was embarrassed to tell the man on the phone is that, sir, I really have a difficult time reading.
SPEAKER_03: As a matter of fact, I can't even read Gitkin Change.
SPEAKER_03: I was that high school guy that could shoot a good jump shot, and so I was the guy that got past from class to clas to make sure I was eligible.
SPEAKER_03: So I graduated from high school and I was just that bad.
SPEAKER_03: And so when they told me, well, you're gonna have to grow, you're gonna have to study, you're gonna have to read the Bible, and I said, the withers and the hiters and the thithers of the King James Version, there's no way I'm gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_03: And my brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to tell you, I want to declare as mild as I can, the very first supernatural miracle that God performed in my life is that he took me from being below Dick and James to being able to read almost 500 words a minute supernaturally, never going to a reading course, he just did.
SPEAKER_03: And with that, he opened a door for me that only he could open.
SPEAKER_03: I was going to be the first one in my family to be able to go to college.
SPEAKER_03: I went to college, graduated with a degree in Christian education.
SPEAKER_03: Then I said, Well, since you've been so lucky, don't try anything else.
SPEAKER_03: But then someone told me, no, Christians don't have luck.
SPEAKER_03: Christians walk by faith.
SPEAKER_03: And so someone said, you know, there's this thing called a master's degree.
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Is that for smart people?
SPEAKER_03: And they says, No, it's not for it's not for smart people.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe you can do it.
SPEAKER_03: So we did that.
SPEAKER_03: And so I found myself walking across the stage with my master's degree.
SPEAKER_03: And then someone said, you know, about this thing called a doctor's degree.
SPEAKER_03: And I said, is that for smart people?
SPEAKER_03: And say, No, you can do it.
SPEAKER_03: And so I'll never forget 2006, walking across the stage at Southwestern Theological Seminary, stooping down and having that doctoral hood placed around my neck.
SPEAKER_03: And I just knew if my father had been alive to be able to see me, he would have been so proud of his little boy.
SPEAKER_03: Because I had accomplished something that was always his dream, but it was never realized in his life.
SPEAKER_03: God just began to shower me with blessings.
SPEAKER_03: First lovely daughter, then a son, then another son, and on and on and on, all these opportunities, all these open doors, and I was just so excited.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking, well, this is what the Christian life is about.
SPEAKER_03: All of these great blessings, all this great joy, jubilation, until my first painful situation again.
SPEAKER_03: I wish I had time to give you all the details, all the bull, blah, blah, blah things happened, but I can't.
SPEAKER_03: But I will tell you this, I experienced one of the most painful periods of my life.
SPEAKER_03: Someone who was extremely close to me was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
SPEAKER_03: The difficulty was at that particular time that they were saying that people could get lung cancer through something called second-hand smoke.
SPEAKER_03: And guess who was the smoker in the country?
SPEAKER_03: So I felt extremely guilty.
SPEAKER_03: And I watched and I watched and I watched and I watched and I watched.
SPEAKER_03: And even to the point I'll never forget the day when I wanted to just, in and all, I just I just I just can't deal with this.
SPEAKER_03: I it's it's too much.
SPEAKER_03: I want to check out here.
SPEAKER_03: And the Lord said, there's a reason why I'm allowing you to go through this difficult time.
SPEAKER_03: Let me tell you something that I hope it encourages you.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord allows us to have these great times of blessings so that we can learn how to be thankful.
SPEAKER_03: But he also allows times of crisis, he also allows times of chaos, and he does that to teach us how to trust it.
SPEAKER_03: So remember that.
SPEAKER_03: And so right now, I don't know where you are, but I can promise you this.
SPEAKER_03: Either you're in a storm, you're in a chaos, you're in a crisis situation right now, and you're really struggling because you can't see to see the end.
SPEAKER_03: You're struggling in your finances, you're struggling in your marriage, you're struggling with your children, you're struggling at your job, you're struggling with a diagnosis.
SPEAKER_03: You're struggling, see, you're in the storm.
SPEAKER_03: And the storm seems to never stop.
SPEAKER_03: Or you're on your way out of the storm and you're saying thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: You're saying thank you.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you that you brought me through.
SPEAKER_03: But I'm old enough now to recognize that if you've never happened, that that's never happened to you, just keep on living.
SPEAKER_03: Sooner or later, you're going to find yourself in the middle of a storm.
SPEAKER_03: And there are going to be moments when you think that God has forgotten you.
SPEAKER_03: But can I tell you from the depths of my heart he has not forgotten you?
SPEAKER_03: Even in those moments when you think he's not there, guess what?
SPEAKER_03: He is right there.
SPEAKER_03: He's promised us he'll never leave us, he'll never forsake us, right?
SPEAKER_03: There's nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: So, what I want to do this morning, I want to talk to you from this theme.
SPEAKER_03: How to have confidence in God in the midst of chaos.
SPEAKER_03: If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Mark.
SPEAKER_03: More specifically, Mark chapter 5.
SPEAKER_03: Mark chapter 5.
SPEAKER_03: Now, I don't know if you realize it or not, but let me just kind of give you a little background for a moment.
SPEAKER_03: All four of these gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, have a different purpose, a different intent.
SPEAKER_03: Matthew writes his book primarily to a Jewish audience.
SPEAKER_03: As a result of that, Mark takes an awful lot of time to trace the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham, who is considered the father of the Jewish nation.
SPEAKER_03: He takes time.
SPEAKER_03: He takes man verses after verses to talk about that.
SPEAKER_03: Luke wants to present Jesus as the perfect man.
SPEAKER_03: Matter of fact, one of the words, the phrase that's used oftentimes is the son of man, the son of man, the son of man.
SPEAKER_03: And so what Luke does, he traces the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam, the first man.
SPEAKER_03: So Matthew, Jewish audience, Abraham.
SPEAKER_03: Luke, son of man, traces back to Adam.
SPEAKER_03: John, on the other hand, John is writing to everyone.
SPEAKER_03: And so John doesn't spend any time with his genealogy.
SPEAKER_03: John wants to prove to the world that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, and he is equal with God.
SPEAKER_03: So he begins with that famous verse, John chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_03: In the beginning was the word of God.
SPEAKER_03: Well, was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_03: So John wants to prove that Jesus is equal with God.
SPEAKER_03: Now, Mark, on the other hand, it's quite interesting.
SPEAKER_03: Mark only has 16 chapters, guys.
SPEAKER_03: 16 chapters.
SPEAKER_03: Matthew has 28.
SPEAKER_03: Luke has 24.
SPEAKER_03: John, John has 21.
SPEAKER_03: 20.
SPEAKER_03: Mark only 16.
SPEAKER_03: And Mark, Jesus does more miracles in 16 chapters than all the rest of them combined.
SPEAKER_03: Mark wants to prove that Jesus is the suffering servant of God.
SPEAKER_03: But not only that, he wants to prove that Jesus is the one who has authority from God to do whatever is needed to be done.
SPEAKER_03: And so Mark doesn't spend any time on genealogy.
SPEAKER_03: When you look at Mark chapter 1, verse 1, man, he just jumps out there.
SPEAKER_03: He says, in the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_03: He quotes a passage in Malachi.
SPEAKER_03: He quotes a passage in the book of Isaiah about who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_03: And right away, Jesus is baptized, his ministry begins, and the first thing we see is just Jesus casting out demons.
SPEAKER_03: The next thing we see is Jesus touching someone who was a leopard.
SPEAKER_03: We see Jesus again healing.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we haven't even gotten into chapter 3, and Jesus has healed, he's cast out demons, he's done all these great things.
SPEAKER_03: Now, you see, it's easy when I want you to think of that think that you're disciples for a moment.
SPEAKER_03: You've been called by Jesus and you're watching your master.
SPEAKER_03: You're watching your master do all these things, but it's outside of you.
SPEAKER_03: The leper, uh, the demon-possessed man, the paralytic, all these things.
SPEAKER_03: They're outside of you.
SPEAKER_03: And then we get to chapter 4 of Mark.
SPEAKER_03: So before you look at chapter 5, turn there real quick.
SPEAKER_03: Mark chapter 4, beginning in verse 35.
SPEAKER_03: Mark chapter 4, beginning at verse 35, says this.
SPEAKER_03: On the day when evening had come, he said to them, Let us go across to the other side.
SPEAKER_03: And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was, and other boats with him.
SPEAKER_03: And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
SPEAKER_03: But he was in the stern asleep on the cushion.
SPEAKER_03: And they walked to him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
SPEAKER_03: And he walked and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still.
SPEAKER_03: That makes sense.
SPEAKER_03: The creator of the wind would have no problem telling the wind to behave.
SPEAKER_03: Then he says, Peace be still, and the wind cease.
SPEAKER_03: And here's, he underscore this in the Bible, there was great calm because this is going to be important in our next chapter.
SPEAKER_03: And he said to them, Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_03: Have you still no faith?
SPEAKER_03: This whole thing of having faith in him is going to be critical as the disciples go further.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 41, watch their response.
SPEAKER_03: And they were filled with great fear.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, the writer makes the point.
SPEAKER_03: Great fear, not just fear, great fear, and said to one another, watch this, who then is this?
SPEAKER_03: But even the wind and the sea obeyed.
SPEAKER_03: So they watched Jesus do all these things, and yet they still are asking questions.
SPEAKER_03: Who is this guy?
SPEAKER_03: We watched him, but who is this?
SPEAKER_03: And if you go back sometime this week and you look back to chapter 1 and chapter 2, the demons know who he was.
SPEAKER_03: Even the demons said, Are you here to torment us before a time?
SPEAKER_03: We know who you are.
SPEAKER_03: You're the Christ, you're the Son of God.
SPEAKER_03: The demons knew, but the guys who are going to be his leaders in the future, they didn't know who he was.
SPEAKER_03: And here's what I've recognized.
SPEAKER_03: There's a big difference.
SPEAKER_03: There's a big difference between being close to him and being connected to him.
SPEAKER_03: You see, the problem may be, even for you this morning, you might be just like Judas Asterius.
SPEAKER_03: Judas Asterius was involved in Jesus' public ministry for three and a half years.
SPEAKER_03: He was close to the power, but never connected to the power.
SPEAKER_03: So ask yourself the question this morning: are you just close?
SPEAKER_03: Because if so, that's only good in horseshoes.
SPEAKER_03: Or have you been connected?
SPEAKER_03: When I say connected, that means an intimate, personal relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: That's what that man asked me that night.
SPEAKER_03: Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: And I didn't.
SPEAKER_03: I had been baptized, but I didn't have a personal and intimate relationship with him.
SPEAKER_03: And so Jesus takes them to the situation on purpose.
SPEAKER_03: Watch this.
SPEAKER_03: On purpose.
SPEAKER_03: He is the master of the seed.
SPEAKER_03: He created the seed.
SPEAKER_03: He created the winds, and yet he purposely allowed them to be in the situation where they thought that they were going to perish.
SPEAKER_03: He produced this problem so that he could solve the problem.
SPEAKER_03: So they could learn to trust him in the midst of their problems.
SPEAKER_03: Now watch what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_03: Now he's going to make it even a little bit more severe.
SPEAKER_03: Now, chapter 5, verse 1.
SPEAKER_03: They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerizenes.
SPEAKER_03: And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately Mark loves that word.
SPEAKER_03: There met him out of the boat.
SPEAKER_03: Or there met him out of the tombs of man with an unclean spirit.
SPEAKER_03: This isn't the first time.
SPEAKER_03: He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore.
SPEAKER_03: Not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and he rinched the chains apart and broke the shackles in pieces.
SPEAKER_03: No one had the script to subdue him.
SPEAKER_03: Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains.
SPEAKER_03: He was always crying, cutting himself with stones.
SPEAKER_03: You get the picture?
SPEAKER_03: I can imagine how this guy looked.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, howling at night.
SPEAKER_03: Things were so bad.
SPEAKER_03: He couldn't even live in the town anymore.
SPEAKER_03: He had to actually make his home in the graveyard.
SPEAKER_03: Think about this.
SPEAKER_03: He lives in the cemetery among the dead, cutting himself, howling, crying out.
SPEAKER_03: No one doesn't do him.
SPEAKER_03: But verse 6 says, when he saw Jesus, please do not forget that.
SPEAKER_03: When he saw Jesus, I'm open up now to recognize that the only way to really see Jesus as he is, you must see him from the power that he allows you to see.
SPEAKER_03: See, it's possible, it's possible that Jesus has shown up in your life and you did not recognize him.
SPEAKER_03: It's possible that Jesus used someone, that he manifests himself in some way in a situation where he showed up and you did not recognize him because you had spiritual blinders on your Or what really happened is this.
SPEAKER_03: Let me try to illustrate this one.
SPEAKER_03: I'll never forget, just oh, maybe a couple months ago, I was down the street at the Palladium, getting ready to watch the picture.
SPEAKER_03: And I didn't know that there were two levels of darkness in the movie theater.
SPEAKER_03: Did you guys know that?
SPEAKER_03: I never recognized it.
SPEAKER_03: When the previews were on, it got dark.
SPEAKER_03: But when the feature film came on, it got even darker.
SPEAKER_03: You ever noticed that?
SPEAKER_03: And I finally happened to be after about an hour and a half of being in the darkness.
SPEAKER_03: Initially, when the lights went off, it was even a little nervous because, hey, most of us don't like the dark, and you can have difficulty seeing.
SPEAKER_03: But after a while, man, my eyes, my senses got used to the darkness.
SPEAKER_03: The darkness became comfortable until the movie was over, and I hit that door and the sun hit me.
SPEAKER_03: Anybody had that feeling?
SPEAKER_03: You hit the door, the sun hit you, and you kind of scrint your eyes and cover it because you've been in the dark.
SPEAKER_03: Here's what happened to this man.
SPEAKER_03: This man had been in a hopeless situation.
SPEAKER_03: This man was helpless.
SPEAKER_03: No one could help him.
SPEAKER_03: He couldn't help himself.
SPEAKER_03: But the problem was he had been in this condition so long.
SPEAKER_03: He had been in the darkness so long, he had gotten comfortable in his circumstance.
SPEAKER_03: My question for you this morning is this have you gotten comfortable the way you are in your life?
SPEAKER_03: Are you at the point to where you're like, well, this is just how it's going to be?
SPEAKER_03: Why submit to you?
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be.
SPEAKER_03: Because God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you ask to think.
SPEAKER_03: All you've got to do is come to him by faith and say, Lord, help me, and guess what?
SPEAKER_03: He will give you what you need.
SPEAKER_03: Amen?
SPEAKER_03: So the first thing I want you to notice is that the position of this demoniac is not much different than ours.
SPEAKER_03: Because apart from Christ, according to John chapter 15, verse 5, he says, For without me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_03: We're no different than him.
SPEAKER_03: He was demon possessed.
SPEAKER_03: But we're in the same role.
SPEAKER_03: Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.
SPEAKER_03: We are helpless on our own.
SPEAKER_03: No matter how intelligent you are, no matter how much money you have, no matter what your pedigree is, no matter what family background that you have, no matter where you live, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_03: Apart from Christ, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_03: Just as he needed him in the midst of his crisis, we need him in the midst of our crisis.
SPEAKER_03: Second of all, notice this.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible says, He fell down before Jesus, verse 6.
SPEAKER_03: And ran crying out with a loud voice and saying, What have you to do with me, Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: Here it is, Son of the Most High.
SPEAKER_03: Someone else is recognizing him.
SPEAKER_03: I adjure you by God, do not torment me.
SPEAKER_03: For he was saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.
SPEAKER_03: And Jesus asked him, What's your name?
SPEAKER_03: And he replied, My name is Legion, for we are many.
SPEAKER_03: And I never noticed this guy in four years.
SPEAKER_03: I never saw this.
SPEAKER_03: And he begged him earnestly, do not send them out of the country.
SPEAKER_03: Now a great herd of pigs feeding there was on the hillside, and he begged him.
SPEAKER_03: This is a prayer from a demon.
SPEAKER_03: He begged him, saying, Send us to the pigs, let us enter them.
SPEAKER_03: So he gave them permission.
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
SPEAKER_03: He answered the request of the demons.
SPEAKER_03: I never saw that before.
SPEAKER_03: Is that what you want?
SPEAKER_03: I couldn't destroy you right now.
SPEAKER_03: But if that's what you want, I'll allow you to do that.
SPEAKER_03: But there's a reason for it.
SPEAKER_03: Because now, with the death of all these pigs, now the townspeople who are making money by this lifestyle, now there's going to be some great problems.
SPEAKER_03: And as the text said, as a result of that, watch what happened.
SPEAKER_03: Watch what happened.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 14 says the herdsmen fled and took into the city and to the country, and the people came to see what had happened.
SPEAKER_03: And they came to Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And when they came to Jesus, remember they're coming angry because of now losing all these pigs.
SPEAKER_03: We've heard at your other cause, Jesus, you did.
SPEAKER_03: But watch what happened, he says, and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had the legion.
SPEAKER_03: Look what he was doing.
SPEAKER_03: Sitting there.
SPEAKER_03: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_03: I thought he was cutting himself.
SPEAKER_03: I thought he was howling and crying.
SPEAKER_03: Sitting there, clothed and in his right mind.
SPEAKER_03: Remember back in chapter 4 when it says, and he said, peace be still, and there was calm.
SPEAKER_03: What do you see now with the demonia?
SPEAKER_03: Calm.
SPEAKER_03: Mark purposely knows what he's doing as he's writing this text.
SPEAKER_03: And that's when you're with Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: When you're in the midst of Jesus, even though your situation may be chaotic, even though your situation, you might be in crisis mode, but when you're in the presence of Jesus, when you submit yourself to the presence and power of Jesus, what does he produce?
SPEAKER_03: He produces calm in your life.
SPEAKER_03: Is there anybody right now that needs calm in your life?
SPEAKER_03: Are you in crisis mode?
SPEAKER_03: Are you so frustrated you said to yourself, I'm going to go to church one more time and shine?
SPEAKER_03: If it doesn't work today, that's it.
SPEAKER_03: I've counted so many couples that have saved me, okay, we decided we're going to come to church, Pastor, one more time, and we're going to try.
SPEAKER_03: And if you don't say something to fix us, we're going down Monday morning to the court and we're going to file for divorce and that's over.
SPEAKER_03: We're going to try one more time.
SPEAKER_03: And so maybe you're someone who says, I'm here one more Sunday.
SPEAKER_03: And something isn't said to help me, that's it.
SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you right now, I declare to you, I decree that help is not on the way.
SPEAKER_03: Health is here right now.
SPEAKER_03: If you choose to reach out for the help that you need, if you can have confidence in him in the midst of your chaos.
SPEAKER_03: Let me illustrate it this way.
SPEAKER_03: Billy Graham tells a story about this great tightrope artist who's trying to cross the Grand Canyon, a place where it wasn't too long.
SPEAKER_03: And the tightrope artist got this long pole and you know walked off the tightrope, turned around, and walked back the other way.
SPEAKER_03: And man, the people just cheered.
SPEAKER_03: It was just unbelievable.
SPEAKER_03: But he says, you know what, I'm going to up the angle a little bit.
SPEAKER_03: So there was a wheelbarrow there.
SPEAKER_03: And so what he did, he took the wheelbarrow.
SPEAKER_03: You know how a wheelbarrow has got the little wheel and the little handle thing.
SPEAKER_03: So what he did, he took the wheelbarrow and this little small, the wheel that's there, and he got on the tide rope with the wheelbarrow.
SPEAKER_03: He pushed it on one side and turned and he came back with the wheelbarrow.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm telling you, the people just fell out.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, there was an applause, there was a roar like you've never heard before.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, the people just met.
SPEAKER_03: We've never seen anything like this.
SPEAKER_03: And the man says to the crowd, How many of you guys think I can do it again?
SPEAKER_03: And they corrupted, yes.
SPEAKER_03: How many of you?
SPEAKER_03: I think I can't, yes.
SPEAKER_03: You think I can't?
SPEAKER_03: Yes, we know you can't.
SPEAKER_03: And so the man turned to the crowd and says, Well, then which one of you guys will be the first to send in the woodbarrow?
SPEAKER_03: Billy Graham says, There was a hush over the crowd.
SPEAKER_03: You know why?
SPEAKER_03: It was great to applaud the faith of the type of boss.
SPEAKER_03: They didn't trust him that much.
SPEAKER_03: To get in the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: See, Jesus wants you not to trust the faith of the pastor.
SPEAKER_03: Not to trust the faith of your mother, or the husband, or your wife.
SPEAKER_03: Trust in.
SPEAKER_03: The demoniac trusted in him.
SPEAKER_03: And his life was changed forever.
SPEAKER_03: Alas but certainly not least.
SPEAKER_03: I want to show you one more thing about confidence in God.
SPEAKER_03: We've already seen that the position of the demoniac is very similar to us.
SPEAKER_03: Hopeless, helpless, apart from the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: We've seen that the power that was exercised, the power that was demonstrated that day for the demoniac can be demonstrated in our lives, but I love what finally happened.
SPEAKER_03: Look at the text.
SPEAKER_03: The text says in verse 10.
SPEAKER_03: And those who had seen him described him what had happened, didn't possess a man and the pigs.
SPEAKER_03: And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.
SPEAKER_03: And as he was getting into the boat, a man who was possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
SPEAKER_03: And he did not permit it.
SPEAKER_03: But said to him, Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord's done for you.
SPEAKER_03: And how he has had mercy over you.
SPEAKER_03: And he went away and began to proclaim in the Tacopolis how much Jesus had done for him and every one of all.
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to say something that I know will resonate with you.
SPEAKER_03: The most difficult people to talk to about Jesus Christ are your family members.
SPEAKER_03: You know why?
SPEAKER_03: Because they have a before and after picture in their wallet or their purse.
SPEAKER_03: They remember what you used to do.
SPEAKER_03: They remember how you used to live.
SPEAKER_03: They remember how you used to talk.
SPEAKER_03: They remember.
SPEAKER_03: Now they remember that picture and they know you now.
SPEAKER_03: But guess what they have a tendency to always bring up?
SPEAKER_03: The before picture.
SPEAKER_03: It's very difficult to talk to your family members.
SPEAKER_03: But instead of letting the man be with Jesus on the road, the man says no.
SPEAKER_03: Here's the best thing.
SPEAKER_03: Go back home.
SPEAKER_03: The family that now deserted you, the family that left you, the family that had nothing to do with you, the family that kicked you out of the house caused with the demons.
SPEAKER_03: Go back home.
SPEAKER_03: My brother.
SPEAKER_03: My sisters.
SPEAKER_03: And I tell you the first thing I did, I went back to my hometown.
SPEAKER_03: And I saw to tell my sister.
SPEAKER_03: Mom and dad, uncles and aunts, nieces, cousins, friends, people that I went to school with.
SPEAKER_03: I sought to tell as many people as possible.
SPEAKER_03: And here is something that I didn't know would happen.
SPEAKER_03: There were some that embraced my change and said they wanted it to.
SPEAKER_03: But there were many that rejected the change.
SPEAKER_03: I remember them saying, oh, that's just temporary.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, we're all that Christian thing.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you just kind of decided like.
SPEAKER_03: But in the end, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_03: Because I've been given a commission.
SPEAKER_03: And guess what?
SPEAKER_03: Even though you may never be called to stand behind one of these, your commission is really no different than mine.
SPEAKER_03: Can I tell you what it is?
SPEAKER_03: Just before Jesus was taken up in a cloud, he said to his disciples, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_03: Guess what?
SPEAKER_03: You have been called, just like I've been called, you've been commissioned like I've been commissioned, you've been commanded like I've been commanded to take what has happened to you.
SPEAKER_03: And what?
SPEAKER_03: Go and tell everyone that would be willing to listen to you.
SPEAKER_03: That I was the demoniac.
SPEAKER_03: Hopeless and helpless.
SPEAKER_03: But because of Christ.
SPEAKER_03: Now clothed in my right mind.
SPEAKER_03: Ready for the rest of my life to serve.
SPEAKER_03: Father, thank you.
SPEAKER_03: For my brothers and sisters that are in this room.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for those that are in this room that may be looking at Christianity.
SPEAKER_03: That may be looking at Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe for the first time, a little up close and personal, and asking the question, is he a has been God?
SPEAKER_03: Is he a will-be God?
SPEAKER_03: Or is he a right now God?
SPEAKER_03: And I declare that he is a very present help in the time of evil.
SPEAKER_03: When I thought I couldn't take another step, when I thought the best thing for me was to end it all and to ease my pain, he was right there in the car with me.
SPEAKER_03: And he spoke to me in a very, very strong voice.
SPEAKER_03: He said, trust me, even in the midst of your pain, even in the midst of your chaos, and I promise you I can save your situation.
SPEAKER_03: Peace.
SPEAKER_03: Peace here.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Father.
SPEAKER_03: I'm still alive.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm still hitting that.
SPEAKER_03: Share that truth.
SPEAKER_03: Bless.
SPEAKER_03: As only you can.
SPEAKER_03: In Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: One of the things we like to do here when the word spreads.
SPEAKER_02: And you heard the word today.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to just take some time and just think about it.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're a guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to ask you to ask yourself one simple question.
SPEAKER_02: What did God say to you?
SPEAKER_02: What had your name on today?
SPEAKER_02: But some of you men, what God said to you was, hey, just because your wife loves Jesus and you love your wife, that doesn't mean you love Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You can't get in on, hey, my wife, she's all into this.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you have been confronted with the reality that you don't have a personal, intimate relationship.
SPEAKER_02: I love what Willie said.
SPEAKER_02: Personal, intimate relationship with Calvary.
SPEAKER_02: We'd love to help you understand what that means and how to do that.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you, your eyes have just gotten too accustomed to the darkness.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the people you work with, maybe it's maybe it's just you.
SPEAKER_02: But let's just take a moment and just kind of think about what we've heard before we dismiss this one.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about being educated or really smart, it's about being willing.
SPEAKER_02: It's about slowing down and calibrating our lives to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_02: And we've heard you today.
SPEAKER_02: Now the question before us, God, is what do we do with what we've heard today?
SPEAKER_02: And so, Lord, we understand that we are just like this scattering pneumonia, left unto ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: We're untangled.
SPEAKER_02: But just like when you speak to creation, we're part of your creation.
SPEAKER_02: We're the highest expression of your glory in creation.
SPEAKER_02: And so you say to us, like you said, to the wind and to the waves, peace be still.
SPEAKER_02: And so when we speak peace over our chaos today in Jesus' name, we confess that we're not at the mercy of what's happening all around us.
SPEAKER_02: That's not our identity.
SPEAKER_02: It's our circumstance, but it's not our identity.
SPEAKER_02: And so we stand above it, outside of it, and we're not at the mercy of it.
SPEAKER_02: Not because of willpower, but because of King Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So we subject everything in our life to the lordship of Jesus, even now, Father.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you that all authority is yours.
SPEAKER_02: You bequeath it to us as your people.
SPEAKER_02: So we want to live and love authority.
SPEAKER_02: That's our privilege.
SPEAKER_02: And for that we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone said amen.
SPEAKER_02: I need to apologize to you.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody stopped me at my in the hall when I was checking on a strike point last year and said, hey, you need to introduce me in this service.
SPEAKER_02: This is my friend, really bold.
SPEAKER_02: Did you enjoy me today?
SPEAKER_02: It's been a pastor for over 40 years.
SPEAKER_02: It currently works at last week extension.
SPEAKER_02: It's a church community revolution director.
SPEAKER_02: We just have a headline pastor, which is just a rich must have been halfway because it didn't have the hills.
SPEAKER_02: I want to expose uh people to this manual.
SPEAKER_02: So um I think I'll enjoy the video.
SPEAKER_02: I think we should have it back in the future, all the favorites that have been how we enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02: If you have any questions about anything you've heard, maybe what is a personal internal?
SPEAKER_02: Like, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_02: We'd love to explain that to you, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Uh if you're a guest, if you have opportunity to find that called tear off portion and your worship elder, tear it off and drop it in this little wooden box with closed doors on your way out.
SPEAKER_02: That's all we ask of you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh here's what we ask of everybody.
SPEAKER_02: Do everything you're supposed to do, say everything you're supposed to say, and give everything you're supposed to give before you get out of here today, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Speaker, we speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_02: Hold your hands down.
SPEAKER_02: Chaos is not your native environment.
SPEAKER_02: Peace is.
SPEAKER_02: Your God is the Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_02: The virgin is conserved, has conceived and given birth, and the Bible says that one of his names is the Prince of Peace, and also says that of the increase of his government there will be no end.
SPEAKER_02: So let the Prince of Peace, King Jesus, extend his rule and reign, his government.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't get inaugurated, he's always been king.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't get elected, he's always been judged.
SPEAKER_02: So let the extension of his authority and government just have dominance and preeminence over everything having anything to do with you.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go first.