Witnessing for Jesus

dear heavenly father I thank you that wehave the freedom here in America togather here today I thank you for thefreedom of speech and freedom ofconscience and freedom ofAssociation and father I thank you thatum as of today we still have thosefreedoms and father we have brothers andsisters around the world today meetingunderground meeting for fear of a knockat the door meeting with a spouse inprison or meeting for um in the fear ofbeing beaten up by thepolice and so father we counted anincredible privilege and gift to besitting here in Linda thismorning and father as We Gather heretoday we're not gathered just to hear asermon but father I believe we'regathered here to meet Jesusaresh and so I ask dear father that as Ispeak my words will be from your throneofgrace I ask that each one of us willmeet Jesus aresh uh as we spend thesenext moments togetherI ask father that our feet will bewilling to go where you direct that ourhearts will be willing to be changedthat our minds will be open to yourtransformation that our lips will bewilling to sing your praises and ourhands ready to do your deeds and sofather um speak through me this morningthis is my humble prayer in Jesus name Iask amenamen so I I bring greetings from uh mywife and and uh two children um part ofthe good news for today days I'm thehusband of but one wife and um that'sgood news uh the penalty for bigamy ismore than one mother-in-law it's it's ait's it's a self-correctingmechanism um have you ever wondered towhy Solomon wrot that futility futilityeverything is futile well with athousand wives That's a thousandmothers-in-law that's 2,000 women that'ssix anniversaries or birthdays a dayit's no wonder he said everything isfutile but um I want you to uh turn yourBibles today to the gospel of Markchapter4 and we're going to be um picking upthe story the end of where Jesus hasbeen preaching all day he's given theparable of the SE and at the end of theday he's very tired and he gets into aboat with his disciples to cross the Seaof Galilee and he's going to cross fromthe east side of Galilee to the westside of Galilee and we're going to pickthe story up in Mark chter 4 we're goingto begin at verse 35 so I'll be readingfrom the new revised standard invite youto to uh follow in your Bibles Markchapter 4 um verse 35 and this is whatwe read it says on that day when eveninghad come he said to them let us goacross to the other side and leaving thecrowd behind they took him with them inthe boats just as he was other Boatswere with him verse 37 a great Windstormarose and the waves beat into the boatso that the boat was already beingswamped I want you to imagine thegeography here um Jesus is Crossing fromthe western side of the Sea of Galileehe's Crossing across to the Eastern sideof the Sea of Galilee he's Crossing fromwhat was considered the Jewish side ofGalilee where cities like capernium andBethesda were he's Crossing from thewestern side across to the area what wasknown as the decapolis uh the decapoliswas 10 cities when Pompei the Romangeneral a colleague of Julius Caesarwhen he was conquering in the MiddleEast um he he conquered this Reg inabout ad BC 60 63 and he establishedthese 10 cities as a as a showcase tothe superiority of the Greek and theRoman gods this was Pagan territory andJesus is Crossing from Jewish territoryuh the erat Israel the Holy Land ofIsrael he's Crossing East into Gentileterritory and his disciples are goingwith them and uh no self-respecting Jewof their time would want to cross fromJewish Galilee across to Gentile Galileethank youand it says there that a great Windstormarose and in the geography of the MiddleEast um there's not many places whereyou can go skiing in the Middle Eastthere's a mall in Dubai where you can goskiing um you can go ice skating inDubai strange though it may sound um butin the Middle East um if you if here'sthe Sea of Galilee just to the northeastof Galilee yes I'm looking from yourside from Northeast of Galilee you havethe goolan heights at the top of thegoolan heights you have Mount Herman andMount Herman is covered with snow yearroundand the waters from Mount Herman flowdown into the river Jordan and they flowdown to the east down into Damascus andso Damascus is has historically been abeautiful city due to the fresh watersfrom the the snow of Mount Herman and uhon Mount Herman the air is cold and theSea of Galilee is a very low um very lowheight above sea level and so whathappens is cold air slides from MountHerman off the Golan Heights down intothe Galilee Valley and what happens whena mass of cold air comes comes intocontact with a mass of warm air you havea storm and if you're a sailor you knowthat when you're sailing for instance ona small sailboat um if you look at thewater um saors call them cats paes umyou know that there is wind comingthere's a storm or a Squall coming yourway because you look at the surface ofthe water and even if you can't see thewind um the water looks like little catsare kind of dancing across the waterit's called cats paes on the water thattells you that a storm is coming on theSea of Galilee you get no such warningon the sea of Galilee these cold airmasses slide off Herman down into theSea of Galilee and and they collide withthe warm air on Galilee and theseferocious storms arise almost out ofnothing and the disciples are crossingthe Sea of Galilee they're going fromJewish territory to Pagan territory andall of a sudden they're caught in themidst of a storm now these areexperienced fishermen they know whatthey're doing but they believe that theboat is about to be swamped and they'rein fear for their lives and so in verse38 it says therebut Jesus was in the stern asleep on thecushion and they woke him up and said tohim teacher do you not care that we areperishing and there are times in ourlives where it seems that the storms oflife hit us and we wonder is God asleepat the wheel in my life as well thereare times in our lives where everythingseems to be going just fine and out ofnowhere a storm hits us and thesedisciples um they turned to Jesus andthey they wake him up and they teacherthey say do you not care that we areperishing we know that we're perishingbut don't you care about it andsometimes in the midst of of the stormof storms of life um we sometimes go abit overboard like those disciples aswell and we start to question well isGod asleep at the wheel is God busysomewhere else does God really knowwhat's happening to me does God reallycare that my life is being swamped bythese storms rightnow and Jesusawakes and and uh he has that beautifulphrase doesn't he in verse 39 says hewoke up and he rebuked the wind and saidto the Sea peace be still then the windceased and there was a deadcalm when I was a small boy my motherused to read me from Maxwell's bedtimeuh Maxwell's Bible stories I rememberthere was a picture of Jesus standing inthe boat there and the sea is as calm asas um maybe I don't know as a mirror andyou see the reflection of the Moon downin the in the in the water and thedisciples are all sitting in the boatand Jesus is standing there completelycalm and I wonder is that really how itwas because Jesus calmed the storm inthat wind but was this just a regularstorm well there's a number of cluesthat tell us this was not a regularstorm the first clue is um the use ofthe verb rebuked and if you spend thetime this afternoon and look through thegospel of Mark you will see that theword rebuked only occurs when Jesus isspeaking to ademon that's the first clue the secondclue is that Jesus doesn't stand and sayLet There Be Peace what um the thegrammar professors would say maybe useof subjunctive no he doesn't say LetThere Be Peace he says you be still it'sa second person singular imperative it'sthe same that if you're walking throughWalmart and you have a small child andthe child is kind of whining because thechild wants chocolate and you're notgoing to buy that child any chocolateyou look down and you hiss bequiet you be quiet I'm not getting anychocolate be quiet has anybody ever donethat yeah Ihave the simplest solution is just nevertake your childrenshopping and so Jesus doesn't just sayLet There Be Peace he uses a secondperson singular and it's an imperativewhich means you be quiet this isn't ageneral command for the storm to ceaseJesus is speaking to a demonic beingthat does not want him to cross the Seaof Galileenow I don't know how you feel aboutdemons but if I were to say um put yourhands up if you believe in the realityof guardian angels anybody here believein Guardian Angels okay you just votedfor the reality of demons aswell and um as missionaries we comeacross demonic possession an awfullot uh even here in the United States wecome across the reality of demonpossession not so much demon possessionbut harassment um among many Adventistsmany Adventists walk with a shadow intheir life from something that happenedin the past and they're not sure how todeal with it and they think that peoplewill think them crazy if they askanything about it and so Adventists livemany times with a shadow in the pastthat they have no idea of how to get ridof and the good news of the Gospel isthat Jesus never lost a battle withSatan and uh Jesus commanded the 12 andthe 70 to do three things to proclaimthe good news which we do to heal thesick hence l Linda and third to cast outdemons which we don't say anything aboutanymore but those were the threecommands Jesus gave his disciples and henever ascended those commands and soJesus he stands in the boat and he saysyou be still and there is there issilence and the disciples are amazed anduh Jesus say to them in verse 40 why areyou afraid have you still no faith andthey were filled with awe and said toone another and the King James is betterit says what manner of man is this thateven the wind and the waves obey him youyou we've all heard that expression whatmanner of man is this in the boat withus who's just calmed the waves well ifyou keep your fingers in Mark 4 uh weturn back to the Psalms you'll see whythe disciples ask this question if youturn back to the Psalms and to Psalm 100and let's see where it isnow uh Psalm 107 turn back to Psalm 107Psalm 107 talks about people who arecaught up in the different circumstancesor tragedies of Life Psalm 107 talksabout those who go into the desert andwhen they're in the desert they'rethey're they're very thirsty they'reperishing and they call on the Lord forhelp and the Lord delivers them Psalm107 talks in verse 10 through 16 aboutum prisoners who are in distress they'reimprison possibly unjustly imprisonedand how they cried out to the Lord intheir distress and how God saved themverse 17 onwards talks about those whoare sick and they're sick unto death andthey cry out to the Lord and the Lordhealsthem and then in verse 23 the passagewe're going to look at just briefly hereit talks about those who go in down intothe seas in their boats and uh they'veencountered the storms on the Seas verse29 verse 26 it says of Psalm 107 theymounted up to the heavens they went downto the depths their courage melted awayin their Calamity they reeled andstaggered like drunkards and were attheir Wits End verse 28 then they criedto the Lord in their trouble and hebrought them out from their distress hemade the storm be still and the waves ofthe sea were hushed now in your Bible isthe word Lord written in all capitalletters and what does thatsignify it's the tetragramaton it's thefour-letter name for god um YahwehJehovah nobody knows how it was actuallypronounced um the word Jehovah doesn'tappear in the Hebrew um when wheneverthe Jews came to the the four-lettername for God uh yod VAV Yahweh that's ifthat's how it was pronounced they wouldnever actually say it because it was tooholy they would say Adonai which meansLord instead and in the 9th century theMatic scribes who who putting the vowelpointings on the Hebrew scripts and theydidn't know how Yahweh was pronounced soall they did was they added the vowelsof Adonai to the consonants of Yahwehand when you merge those two words youget Jehovah that's where it comes fromif a Jehovah's Witness ever comes toyour door um point out to them that theword Jehovah does not appear anywhere inthe Hebrew it's it's a it's a helpfulstarting point for the conversation butif you turn back to Mark chapter4 you understand why why the disciplessay what manner of man is this that eventhe wind and the waves obey him becausethe psalmist says that it is Jehovah Godwho has the authority to calm the wavesand to steal the storm it is thatJehovah God the creator of the universewho alone can calm the waves and so whenthe disciples see Jesus stand in theboat and say you be still and the andthe and the stormdisappears as as observant Jews theywould know the Psalms they would knowthat his only Jehovah God has theintrinsic authority to have control overnature and so as the disciples get offthe boat there's a question on theirminds which is who exactly is this manJesus of Nazareth who is he what mannerof man is this Jesus of Nazareth thateven the wind and the waves obey himbecause the psalmist has alreadyrevealed that it is the Creator GodAlone who has the authority over thewind and the waves so that's thequestion on the disciples Minds it's thequestion on many people's minds aroundthe world today in much of the Muslimworld the question is who exactly isJesusChrist and that is the essentialdividing line uh between Islam andChristianity who exactly is JesusChrist and everything El stems from theanswer to that one simple question solet's uh come to continue with the storyhere they get out of the boats Markchapter 5 and verse one we'll read thefirst five verses and it says there mark5 verse1 they came to the other side ofthe sea to the country of the gines andwhen he had stepped out of the boatimmediately a man out of the tombs withan unclean Spirit met him he lived amongthe tombs and no one could restrain himanymore even with a chain for he hadoften been restrained with shackles andchains but the chains he wrenched apartand the shackles he broke in pieces andno one had the strength to subdue himnight and day among the tombs on themountains he was always howling andbruising himself with stones now thepsychiatrist might say he was engagingin self harm Behavior I want you toimagine for a moment what this man'sbody lookedlike he's beating himself with rocks hehas broken chains on his hands his bodyis battered and bruised and and bloodiedand and beaten uh he's probably gotscabs with some pus oozing out here andthere his body is a complete mess heshould be in ER should he not with abody likethat his body is completely destroyedbut not only is his body destroyed hismind is not his own um he's a man whothough he is alive he's condemned tolive among the dead among the tombs thelocal community will have nothing to dowith this man it says they tried torestrain him with chains the only otherplace that verse word restrained is usedin the New Testament is James chapter 3where where mankind has tamed every wildanimal but we've yet to tame the tongueso this man is treated like a wildanimal by his local community they theyassign him to live among the tombs withthe dead even though he is alive this isa man with no friends with no friendshipwith no home with no family with no hopefor the future and brothers and sistersthis is where Satan would take any oneof us given half a chanceand uh young people don't be under anyIllusions as to where Satan'sTemptations will ultimately take youthey will take you into a sea ofBrokenness you have no comprehension oftoday this is a man who is living buthe's actually alive he's he's he'sphysically alive but he's he's almostdead he's a man without hope withoutfriendship without family and yet it wasJesus intent to cross the Sea of Galileeto meet withhim when if if you were to look at thisperspective from the story of thedisciples this is a story full of ritualuncleanliness no self-respecting Jewishdisciple would ever make this journey tomeet this man why is that well first ofall they're Crossing from the Jewishside of Galilee to the Gentile side ofGalilee they're going from the holy landof Israel to polluted Pagan soil so whenthey came back into into Jewish umCountryside they would wipe the dust offtheir shoes this is a guy who is filledwith an unclean Spirit which means youknow he's he has an unclean Spirit he'sunclean this is a guy who lives amongthe tombs in the book of and the Mosaiclaw um if you had contact with the tombsyou were ceremony unclean this is a guywhose body is physically unclean he'sliving in Gentile unclean territory andjust down the road are 2,000 pigs whichare an unclean animal looked after byswin herds an unclean profession thereare multiple barriers of uncleanlinessum that that would say to thosedisciples you need never ever go to meetthisman and yet Jesus cross comes he passeshe doesn't just cross a lake he passesthrough multiple barriers ofuncleanliness in order to meet the manbehind those barriers ofuncleanliness and that part thatpartially is thegospel and we may not be sitting in thatposition here today but I know thatthere's some of us here today and Idon't know anybody here reallybut I know just because we're all humanthat some of us today have waves andcould have and should ofes in ourlives that some of us here today havethings that we are glad nobody knowsabout that some of us here today havethings in our lives even today that weare glad that nobody will will ever hearabout or know about or have any ideaabout there are people in thiscongregation today who have things inour lives we don't want to ask spouse toknow about is that true somebody say yeshope your wife isn't sitting next to youbut each one of us if we're humancarries somewhere in our life a skeletonin the closet that we wish was notthere and each one of us though we'renicely dressed up on Sabbathmorning each one of us knows that ourrighteous Deeds really are are filthybeforeGod and the good news of the Gospel isthat there is no barrier of shame orguilt in our lives today that the son ofman is not willing to reach the throughso that we might find eternal lifeamen and so my invitation for you todayis not to focus on the wvs and the kivesand the shvs but it's to focus on theson of man who comes looking for us oneof the titles of Jesus is the son ofDavid and in in 1st Samuel chapter17 David says to Saul that when I was aShepherd boy and a lion would come andtake one of the Lambs I would go afterthat lion and I would fight the lion andI would get the lamb back do youremember that story now ask yourself ifyou were a Shepherd boy with 100 sheepand a lion came and took a lamb whatwould you do would you hustle a 99 tosafety and say uh the one lamb is calleda bad debt provision for the year we'llwrite him off the balance sheet by nextspring we'll have 20 more Lambs anywaywhy would I risk my life for one damagedlamb uh that's what I'd probably do if Iwere if I were a shepherd with a 100sheep why go and fight a lion for a lambthat's already in its mouth and imaginewhat a lamb looks like in a lion's mouthis he com like thatno that lamb is bloodied he's probablyin shock his body is already ripped toshreds in someparts that lamb is at death's door thatlamb could pass away at any moment andyet David went and he fought that lionfor thatlamb for David no lamb was a lost causeand Jesus is the son of David and noneof his Lambs today that is any of ushere this morning none of us is a lostcause either he's coming fighting foryou and there is no barrier of shame orguilt in your life today that you maythink that I'm beyond the reach of God'sgrace that God can save everybody elsebut my sins are just too gross the goodnews of the Gospel is that the gracethat was given us in Christ Jesus beforethe foundation of the world that Gracewas given knowing in advance what oursins wouldbe we think about that passage here in 2Timothy1:9 God gave us grace before thefoundation of the world it means thatbefore this world was created God knewevery sin you'd evercommit and he'd already made fullprovision for yourforgiveness and there is nothing you'regoing to do today that God is going tosay well I forgiven her for everythingelse but that one got me by surprise I'msorry he has already made full provisionfor ourforgiveness so if you hear nothing elsetoday I want you to hear this the son ofDavid is the Good Shepherd and he'scoming for you that you might receiveeternal life and there is nothing inyour life that will come between you andhim no matter what the self-respectingJews those disciples may say about itverse six it says when he saw Jesus froma distance he ran and he bowed downbefore him and he shouted at the top ofhis voice what have you to do with meJesus Son of the most high God I adureYou by God do not torment me for Jesushad said to him verse 8 come out of theman you unclean spirit and so thisdemoniac he senses in Jesus someone whocan help him and he rushes down from thetombs down to the beach and he falls atthe feet of Jesus and he opens his mouthand it's the demons thatspeak and as we've said before Jesusnever lost an encounter withSatan likewise Jesus only healed thosewho asked forhealing uh Judas was possessed by ademon John chapter 6 Jesus says into oneof you is a diabos we will get the worddiabolical from that that means Judaswhile he was a conference Treasurer wasunder anic control and don't don't applythat beyond what I'm saying right hereokay I'm serious I'm not I'm not makingany suggestions I'm just saying theconference treasure was demon-possessedfor three years and none of the otherdisciples realized it Jesus never healedJudas why because Judas never asked forhelp but everybody else who came intocontact with Jesus even the father whobrought his boy in Mark 9 and there inthe equivalent passage in Luke even thefather who brought his boy says Lord Ibelieve help thou my unbelief just theact of bringing the boy to Jesus wasenough to give Jesus the permission heneeded to heal thatboy and we can intercede on behalf ofour lovedones and we can intercede with Godknowing that he hears our prayers and heanswers our prayers so I want toencourage you today not to give up inyour prayers for your loved ones amenand uh in this story here of of the thedemoniac he falls at the feet of Jesusand it's the demons who speak and you domeet people today um I find them in mylife and Ministry who are reallypossessed by demons and when it happensyou know it it's like the air goes coldand they speak with a different voiceoften and there's a sense of evil in theair when you come face to face with witha demon where um Jessica was serving inLa um as a student missionary um overthere there are occasionally umexorcisms that are performed and we hada young student missionary from from theside of the states who went to Thailandlast year and she was studying with ayoung Thai girl and it was coming to thepoint where she was going to ask theThai girl if she wants to be baptizedand give her life to Jesus Christ andbefore she could ask the question thisyoung Thai girl looked looked at herwith a contorted face and this voicecame out and said this girl is mine Iwill never give her up and our studentmissionary was kind of freaked out bythis because this was clearly not thegirl speaking and she realized this girlwas actually demon-possessedthis is very real it happens in ourworld today and the good news of theGospel as I said before is Jesus hasnever lost a battle with Satan but herewhen it said uh Jesus asked him verse 9what is your name he replied my name isLegion for we are many and you know alegion was about five or 6,000 heavilyarmed infantry they were the heart ofRoman military power the Roman Empirewas ultimately built on the might of thelegions and wherever the legions wentwhole communities were destroyed thecommunities were killed raped orenslaved and a new Roman city would bebuilt um when juliia Caesar um when hecame to Britain in 44 BC um he invadedacross from Gaul modern day France andthe Senate who always giving himproblems behind his back they wanted areport from him so he simply wrote backa very famous report venny VI vichi Icame I saw I conquered that was hisreport to the Roman senate but I came Isaw I conquered for the Britain livingin Britain at the time meant that forcenturies afterwards Britains were soldinto slavery across the Roman Empire andwhole cities were destroyed and the thethe way of life of the Kelts was waspretty muchdestroyed wherever the legions wentthere was oppression and when this demonsays my name is Legion for we are manyhe's giving an indication of the depthof the oppression that this man isexperiencing this man has no earthlyhope of ever escaping from this demonicoppressionhe has no way of fighting these demonsandso we read on verse 10 it says he beggedhim earnestly notot to send them out ofthe country now there on the hillsidewas a great herd of swine feeding andthe unclean spirits begged Jesus sendsend us into the swine let us enter themso he gave them permission and theunclean spirits came out and entered theswine and the herd numbering about 2,000rushed down the Steep Bank into the seaand they were drowned in the seaand uh I've never studied medicine but Ihear that when you study medicine youare taught that whatever else you do dono harm is thatright and when Jesus healed this man didhe follow thatprinciple did Jesus Do no harm when hehealed this man of his demonicoppression well um there are many partsof the world today where people's wealthis held in theiranimals and it was no different backthen and there are parts of the worldtoday where um a community will hire oneor two or three professional Shepherdsand the shepherd will walk through thecommunity in the early hours of themorning and all the sheep and the goatswill walk out of their individual pensin their owner homes and they'll followthis ever growing herd out to themountains and there are parts of theworld today where if your child is sickyou sell a sheep for $50 and then youtake your child to The Physician or ifit's time to pay your school fees yousell two sheep for $100 that's the goingrate in many parts of the world and thenyou can pay your school fees for yourchildren or if your daughter is about toget married you sell you know quite alot of sheep and then you have to payfor the wedding thatway so these 2,000 pigs represent a lotof money for the local community theyare the ancient equivalent of a mutualfund where everybody pulls their animalsthey're under the care of a few swineherds and um those pigs all go off thecliff down into the Sea of Galilee andyou can still see the place today thewestern side of the Sea of G Galilee hasa has kind of a flat shore line and theEastern side of the Sea of Galilee has asteep escarment about 200 ft drop andyou can still see where those pigs wentoff that thatCliff did Jesus Do noharm well he brought an economichurricane to that localcommunity um I first came to America inJuly2007 and uh I was pastoring inMinnesota and then the stock marketcrashed some time in mid2 2008 doesanybody remember thosedays and the dominant emotion on NPR WasFear rawfear and you drive to visit somebody inthe evening and it would say on NPRMarket Watch program it say today thestock market dropped 500points now that didn't mean much to mebut I'd ask my members well how's lifegoing and say well Pastor the stockmarkets dropped from 13,000 to 8,000I've lost half myretirement my monthly check has hared Ican't survive this month There Was Fearamong Adventists particularly retiredAdventists in 2008 when they saw thestock marketcollapse and when Jesus came to town helikewise created a stock market collapsefor the local people of thosecommunities and why did he doit what lesson was he trying to teach uswell I believe lesson is very clear andit is this in the eyes of God eachperson here today is worth more than allthe wealth this world has to offer amenwe are worth more in the eyes of Godthan all the wealth of Wall Street andthe gold of Fort Knox and there isnothing in this world as important or asvaluable to our Heavenly Father as yousitting in the Pew heretoday now we don't hear that very oftenmany of us live lives where all we hearas negative comments where people impuneour motives and question our value andum you know say oh you know you've puton weight you've lost too weight toomuch weight I've learned when my wifesaid you like this dress to Simply sayyes it's the safest thing tosay um I have no idea whether it's Newor Old don't ask me that question I'm anhonest guy you're smiling does this ringa bell maybeyes um in the eyes of God you are worthmore than all the wealth this world hasto offerand we need to hear that we need to knowthat we are valuable in the eyes of thecreator of this vast universe and thereis nothing as important in this universeas each one of us and our Eternalsalvation so no matter what words you'veheard in this last week words ofcriticism words of complaint words ofhate at times words of bitterness wordsof of Shame words of argument words ofanger today I want you to hear thesewords that you are more important to Godthan all the wealth this world has tooffer and that is why Jesus comes foryou because you are worth more thananything else in this world and so thepigs go off the side of thecliff and the swin herds in verse 14 itsays they ran off and told it in thecity and in the country then people cameto see what it is that had happened theycame to Jesus and saw the demoniacsitting there clothed in his right mindand the Very man who had had the legionand they were afraid those who had seenwhat had happened to the demoniac and tothe swine reported it then they began tobeg Jesus to leave their neighborhoodand the word beg is an imperfect whichmeans they didn't just say to Jesus oncewould you pleaseleave imperfect it's an iterativeimperfect it means they kept on sayingJesus thank you for healing this man butwould you please leave Jesus uh it'sgetting late you better head back acrossthe lake before the next storm arrivesJesus we've heard a lot about you it'snice meeting you once but would youplease go back to the Jewish side ofGalilee please please please would youleave they were begging Jesus leaverepeatedly this wasn't just a casualthing that maybe it got lost intranslation no they made it very clearto Jesus thank you but no thank you nowget out oftown the demoniac is sitting there sayshe's clothed in his right mind isn'tthat a beautifulexpression that those eyes that oncegleamed with with with a satanic hatrednow gleam with the glove of God thatthose hands that were beating himselfand picking up rocks and and andsmashing at his body in Despair and rageand futility those hands are now sittingpeacefully in his hand in in his lapthat now instead of being naked andshameful to all who see him he's nowclothed in fresh clothes this man trulyis a new creation this is what Jesuswould do in any of our Lives if we wouldsimply ask him to and give him thatpermission and he wants to have that tosee that new creation in each one of usstarts with myself all of us thatpossibility of being a new creationwhere the old is passed away and the newhas come and we praise the Lord for thatthat is what God wants in our lives thisside of of Heaven not just once we getto heaven he wants us to as we saw inour Sabbath school lesson he wants ourcharacters to get rid of the works ofthe Flesh and he wants us to onlyexhibit the fruit of hisspirit so when we come to Jesus Christand we ask him into our lives we'regiving him permission to change us everysingle day we're getting up everymorning expecting that by the time we goto bed I will be a different man or adifferent woman and I'm praising God forthat change I'm looking for that changeI'm not stubbornly saying this is who Iam and I'm not going to change we'relooking to change we're looking to growwe're looking tomature but those people they they seethe demoniac and they see the pigs andit says and they began to beg Jesus toleave and we say how could they possiblydo that well we're not that different tothem because those people they chosepigs over people did theynot they valued those pigs more thanthey did the life of thatdemoniac to them their material wealthwas more important than the salvation ofone's humanbeing my father was a pastor for 42years and he said Conrad he said howsomebody uses their budget their moneyis a good indicator of their walk withGod so let me give you an examplehypothetically you earn $1,000 a monthum it's probably not true but it's ahypothetical example and if you earn$1,000 a month and and you would showyour budget to somebody and it said rent400 food 300 um cell phone 100 um eatingout 100 and gasoline 100 that gives youan indication of their values and thenyou see somebody else earning $1,000 amonth and they have tithe 100 food 400rent 350 um offerings 50 gasoline uh 100that gives you an indication of theirvalues does it not see how you use yourmoney is an indicator it's a barometerof where we are withGod you cannot say I'm a Christian andthen allow your finances to be usedpurely for the kingdom of self ratherthan the kingdom ofGod and and we may say you know in 2007everybody like 2008 everybody liked toum bash the bankers of Wall Street thatit was their fault the crash happenedand we like to externalize these thingsbecause we don't like people to talkabout our own money and our own creditcards on our own bankaccounts but how we use our our moneytruly is an indicator of our walk withGod keep your fingers in Mark 5 and turnwith me to Luke16 there's a passage there Luke 16:10that when I was growing up my parentswould often quote at me and they wouldsay Conrad they would say if you arefaithful in a small thing then God willsee that and he will give you somethinggreater did any of you hear that whenyou're growing up if you are faithful ina small thing you will be faithful inmuch if you're faithful with that dimeGod can entrust to you a dollar ifyou're faithful with that dollar God canentrust you $10 if you're faithful with$10 God will entrust you with $100 andso forth did anybody hear that or willyou talk by your parents based on thispassage that if you're faithful umorganizing the drinks for a youth eventand God sees that you're faithful thenGod will expand the tense of yourresponsibility so now you're asked tolead the Youth Event and after a whileyou may be asked to serve as one of theelders in a congregation and so forthand so forth that as you as we arefaithful in small things so God enlargesthe tent of our responsibility didanybody else hear that from your parentsyeah I heard it many times but look whatJesus says in the next verse this issomething we don't often talk about 1611Jesus says if then you are not faithfulwith dishonest wealth Mammon or I theBucks in your pocket who will entrust toyou the truewealth you think about the implicationsof what Jesus is saying if we are notfaithful and honest with god with ourdollars we can never expect to growspiritually God will never give usspiritual growth if we are not faithfulwith our financialmeans so we're halfway through the monthand I don't know whether you return afaithful tithe or not but I want toencourage you today and challenge you ifyou've never started it if You' neverdone it before Covenant with God thatthis month you'll be faithful with yourtithe and for every month for the restof your life if you want to growspiritually you must be honest with godwith your financesyou cannot steal from God and ask him togive you a blessing in return and why isbeing honest with god with your tithingso important for your life of Faith it'svery simple let us say that your budgetis $1,000 a month and the tithe on$1,000 is how much $100 and your youryour income is $1,000 and apart fromtithe your expenditure happens to be$1,000 you know humanly speaking thatyou should not be returning that tithebecause otherwise you're going to besinking into debt every month but youchoose to be faithful to God and takehim at his word and you say God I cannotI have $1,000 worth of expenses $1,000worth of income but I'm going to honoryou first and the first check I writethis month is mytithe in that month you now have $900income and $1,000 expenses you arewaiting for the rest of that month tosee how God covers the Gap and he alwaysdoes when you create that space in yourlife every month if you're paid on amonthly basis or every two weeks whenyou return your tithe you are creatingspace in your life for God to comethrough in a very direct way for you andthat's why returning your tithe is sucha faith buildingexercise that's my experience withGod my wife and I decided when we gotmarried we would run one car and befaithful our tithes that was it that wasone of my agreements and God has blessedus incredibly I've just done my taxesand um I had no Health bills for 2016 Imean nothing do you know what a blessingthat is having not having $55,000 indoctors's bills medications isremarkably similar to getting a $5,000pay increase for the year it's verysimilar so if we want to growspiritually as acongregation I want to challenge youtoday to be faithful in your tithing andGod will grow you spiritually he willgive you true wealth that's the promiseof Jes Jesus if you're not faithful withyour dollars why will God entrust youspiritual wealth the converse is true ifwe are faithful with our tithing Godwill grow us spiritually we will grow innumbers and we will grow in our walkwith him so let's come back turn back toMark chapter 5 and so we we continue thestory there our time is coming to an endhere it says as Jesus was getting intothe boat verse 18 the man who had beenpossessed by demons begged him that hemight be with him but Jesus refused andsaid to him go home to your friendand tell him how much the Lord has donefor you and what Mercy he has shown youand he went away and began to proclaimthe decapolis how much Jesus had donefor him and everyone wasamazed so this was the first missionarythat Jesus ever sent out this was beforethe 12 and before the 70 this was thefirst ever missionary he never sat inAdvent hope he never went to Seminary hehad no degree to his name he' never satin a Sabbath School class he'd neversung a hym of Praise he never even readthe Torahthis guy is a gentile who's who's had acontact with God had an experience withGod and he's the First Missionary thatJesus sends out well if he can send himout I think he can send anybody elsehere don't you agree amen so Jesus sendsout this this this this can this uhhealed demoniac and he says to thedemoniac he says uh go and tell peoplewhat God has done foryou and who does he send the demoniacto to the people that have just rejectedJesus to hisface and the next time Jesus crosses theSea of Galilee in Mark chapter 8 thereare 4,000 people waiting to hear himamen people who have repeatedly askedJesus to leave to hisface I mentioned earlier today aboutbringing people before God inintercessory prayer you may have a childor a loved one who's wandered away fromthefaith they may have turned their back onGod they may have said we don't want youin our lives God we don't want anythingto do with you but the lesson from thisstory is is that Jesus sent a missionaryback into those people's lives becausein the eyes of God a first second orthird refusal is never a final refusalwhile there is life there is hope foryou or for your children or for yourloved ones who wandered away from theLord we should never give up hope forthose who wandered from God so if youhave a child who's wandered away fromthe faith this is speaking bluntly butit's the truth you have a child who'swandered away from God never assume thatGod has given up on them and we shouldnever give up either they may tell us toour faces we want nothing to do with Godbut God has placed us in their lives asa witness to his power and his grace andhis truth and to his love we are tonever give up on those whove wanderedaway from the Lord and so Jesus sendsthis demoniac back to his people uhwho've just rejected Jesus and 4,000come to hear Jesus the next time hecrosses the Sea of Galilee an incrediblyeffective missionary wouldn't yousay and in in this final bit here yousee the answer to the disciplesquestions in mark chap 4 it says whatmanner of man is this that even the windand the waves obey him and in Markchapter 5 in verse 19 Jesus says go hometo your friends and tell them what theLord has done for you and what Mercy hehas shown you and verse 20 says and hewent away and began to Proclaim how muchJesus had done for him these two versesare parallel Jesus says go and tell thepeople what God has done for you and theman went and told people what Jesus haddone for him so the answer to thedisciples question what manner of manneris this that even the the wind and thewaves obey him is given at the end ofthe story Jesus Is God Among Us he isEmanuel he is God incarnate and he isthe authority to heal and to cast offthe chains of Satan and to turn us intoa new creation that is his G hisauthority and that is what he intends todo in each of Our Lives he is that goodshepherd who intends to pass throughevery barrier of shame or guilt or orsin in our lives in order that we mightbecome that newcreation and everybody it sayswasamazed it's a beautiful story ofJesus who's alive and risentoday and is asking you today to doexactly what he said to that FirstMissionary see Jesus said to that man hesaid go back and tell them what God hasdone for you Jesus did not say go backand give a systematic exposition of the28fundamentals now I leared when I wasministering In Minnesota where they'remostly lutherans that in a Lutheranservice um when they're preaching in inin the church they preach them intoheaven and when you take the the thebody out to beside the grave at thecommitt um the person who's no longer inheaven but they read um Paul's writingsthat we're waiting for the resurrectionof the dead and you kind of Wonder arethey in heaven or are they by the gravenow where exactly are thesepeople I also leared that if you engagein a conversation with for instanceLuther and past you say well whereexactly is this person are they in thegrave waiting to be caught up to meetthe Lord in the air or are they floatingaround in heaven right now theconversation doesn't go veryfar because people tend to argue aboutSystematic Theology and Jesus nowherecommanded us to teach SystematicTheology what he did command us was togive ourtestimony what God has done in your lifewhy is your testimony so powerfulbecause nobody can disagree with it ifGod has given you healing in yourmarriage that is your testimonyif God has given you a sense of peace inyour life then that is your testimony ifif you heard the teachings um of Jesusand you determined to forgive those thathurt you when you were growing up and inso doing you found peace in your heartfor the first time ever that is yourtestimony of God at work in yourlife and a testimony can has threesimple three parts my life before I metGod how I met God my life after I metGod three simple parts and Jesus said tothat demoniac go home to your friendsand tell them what God has done for youand what Mercy he has shown you I wantto challenge you as a congregation heretoday to go home from this place ofworship and if you've never done itbefore write out your personaltestimony think back over your lives atwhat life was like before you wereconscious of God in your life and howGod entered into your life thosesignificant moments and what God hasdone in your life ever since you mayhave to write it down um I travel a lotuh I keep this is my testimony it's kindof few basic points jotted down on anenvelope I've shared that a lot of timesparticularly on planes I was uh flyingjust recently and I've never flown firstclass before and I was praying God putme beside somebody who needs to hearabout you today and I was upgraded toFirst Class I was so happy and and I satdown in first class and the guy next tome just couldn't stop talking I mean itjust like he just latched onto me Ithought oh good grief just just let mesleep I'm tired it's 400 in themorning and the conversation meanderedand meandered and meandered and itturned out that um some years before hiswife had visited um an astrologer anddrawn up her the horoscope and told thatshe would never have children they neverhad children and he was heartbrokenabout this and he wanted to know is isthere a God who could deliver him fromthe horoscope andsaid and so I was able to share mytestimony we had a prayer at 35,000 ftwith his businessman in In First Classit was an impromptu Bible study butJesus said go and tell your friends andfamily what God has done for you andemphasize the mercy he has shown you hismercy so please today if you neverprepared your personal testimony go homewrite it out and then pray over it andask God today that in this coming weekgive me one person who will ask me aquestion about God and he will give youthe that one person it will come aboutit's his perfect will that people hearthegospel and you're going to go throughthis next week in expectancy waiting forthat moment to arrive you're going to besaying when is that moment going to comewhen somebody's going to ask me aquestion about you it could be at thegas station could be in a plane it couldbe on the coach it could be it could beanywhere and when that moment comes youwill know it and then you have to decidewhether to steer the conversations theNFL and how great the Patriots are anyPatriots fans here today I hope soor you take the conversation down aspiritual path and you start sharingwhat God has done foryou you will spend this entire week inexpectancy of God answering that prayerfor you and he will do it and becauseyou've already prepared your testimonyyou know the basics of what you're goingtosay and that man he went home and 4,000people were ready to meet Jesus when hecame back what a beautiful thing if whenJesus comes back back here in lalindathere are 4,000 people for each one ofus saying this is our God whom we havewaited for and they will be standingthere and expecting the coming of Jesusbecause we shared what God has done forus because we were willing to shareGod's mercy in ourlives um is it time to stopyes so um yes yeah all right so we'lldraw it to a close there I want to to uhI want to thank you for being a witnessthat cannot be hid here in LMelinda I want to thank you for comingtogether like this every Sabbathday I want to encourageyou to spend this week in anticipationof your witness for Jesus Christ preparefor it pray for it expect it it willhappen and when that moment comes claimthe promise of Jesus that words will begiven you from on high and the HolySpirit will speak through you and and uhwe will see a harvest here in Lolindamay God bless us as we serve him as welive for him and with him as we shinefor him here in Southern California amenthis media was brought to you by Audiverse a website dedicated to spreadingGod's word through free sermon audio andmuch more if you would like to know moreabout Audi verse or if you would like tolisten to more sermons please visitwww. audioverse.org[Music]