"Delivered for a Purpose!" (Part 1 of 2)

"Delivered for a Purpose!" (part 1 of 2)

Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #29)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

August 14, 2011

Mark 5:1-13 (NAU), ¹ They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. ² When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, ³ and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; ⁴ because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. ⁶ Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; ⁷ and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!" ⁸ For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" ⁹ And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion; for we are many." ¹⁰ And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. ¹² The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them." ¹³ Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

We are dealing with a sobering subject today, but it is critical that we understand the enemy of our souls. As Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 2:11 "So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes." Why is it important to understand Satan and his schemes? Let's revisit the big story of Christianity to answer that question.

[Introduce the Evangecube] THE 3 B's OF THE BIG STORY OF CHRISTIANITY:

I. God built you (a member of humanity) to have intimacy with Him and with one another!

Genesis 1:27 records how the God who is holy and perfect created humanity in His own image so that we could exist eternally in perfect relationship with Him: "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

II. This relationship was broken by sin!

Genesis 3 narrates the results of Satan's work and how in tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God's Word they sinned against God. Thus enters sin and the first humans who at once went from perfect relationship with God to attempting to isolate themselves from His presence. Genesis 3:8 states, "They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden."

And this reality was not restricted to the first humans, but the effects are to all humanity, including you and me today thousands of years later. Romans 5:12 explains, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned."

Not resting in His pursuit to return humanity to their rightful birthright, God made a way for every person to return to the paradise of perfect relationship. The way to this relationship with God was given to us by Jesus Christ. III. Jesus Christ is the bridge back to God. He forgives us of sin delivering us from all evil domination so that those who have been redeemed have eternal life.

The Bible declares in Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God's word further explains in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

God made the way for us and we are delivered from the evil grip of sin in order to show people the way into freedom! We are delivered on purpose! This is the Big Story of God and our story becomes His story when we receive eternal life. We become coworkers with Christ calling people to leave the darkness and walk into the Light of God's enduring love. And we must know that we have an enemy whose mission is to spoil all of humanity from their intended purpose! And this devil has demons (unclean or evil spirits) who do his bidding.

In your sermon notes, you will find this statement: THE MISSION OF DEMONS IS THE SPOILING OF HUMANITY FROM THEIR INTENDED PURPOSE!

Humanity's slavery to sin finds its starting point with the devil who tempted Adam and Eve to question God and then disobey God's Word. And friends, the devil is still in the business of doing just that—he and his demons are leading humanity away from a trusting and abiding relationship with the loving and sovereign God who created them and personally knows them by name. The devil and his demons are very successfully causing humanity to question God and the authority of His Word. Evil has nothing good to offer any human being; evil seduces you in order to use you!

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, states this reality in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." This is the Word of God contrasting Satan's mission (the thief) against His own. Let's take it at face value and learn from it. Satan (the thief) and his demons have three desires for you:

1. To steal your birthright as a child of God.

2. To kill all that is good.

3. To destroy your witness until you no longer resemble an image-bearer of God.

The great apostle Peter declared this of the devil in 1 Peter 5:8, "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

You don't need to take a class in demonology to understand that evil (unclean) spirits have one motivating force and that is to carry on the Devil's work—they seek to steal, kill, and destroy! Our Scripture story today shows that DEMONS ARE UNCLEAN SPIRITS SEEKING TOOLS TO CARRY ON THE DEVIL'S WORK...

The Bible declares in Ephesians 6:12, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Friends, when will we realize that there is no reason to get upset with the people who do stupid ungodly things? Stop wasting your time…all that you are doing is losing your joy, increasing your anxiety, worrying over things you can't control, and most likely sinning in your anger as you commit murder in your heart. Our fight is not against the person, but against the rulers, powers, world forces of darkness, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness that are using that person as a tool to steal, kill, and destroy.

That brings us to the question that is begging to be asked: Can a Christian be demon possessed? The only way I can answer this question with integrity is to first define what a Christian is. A Christian is a disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple follows Jesus Christ with their head (they make a confession of faith) and heart (they live a repentant life) and has committed their hands and feet to the mission of Jesus Christ—seeking and saving the lost.

A Christian is a person who through faith in Jesus Christ is born again by the living and true light of God awakening them to eternal life through the forgiveness of sins. Can this person be demon possessed? Impossible, no way! I cannot overstate the importance of making a faith decision for Jesus Christ—His authority and power in your life is the only guarantee you can have for eternal life as well as protection from being controlled by an evil spirit.

Jesus is the only way to guarantee your spirit (the real and eternal part of who you are!) is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God which disallows you from being controlled by any other spirit! The key word being "controlled". But, just because a Christian can't be controlled like the demon possessed man in our story today, does not mean you cannot be influenced by the work of an unclean spirit in your life! We must not be ignorant of the schemes of the devil and one of the greatest schemes in the modern and secularized western world is to convince Christians that they are safe from "ancient superstitions" like demons. This scheme of the devil has allowed demons to wield an unholy influence on generations of Christians leading to weak and anorexic churches; liberal and heretical theologians promoting false gospels with false Christs; and disobedient biblically-illiterate followers who claim the name of Christ for personal gain, but do not live under His authority for God's glory. Frankly, it has led many of us to be unable to grasp Jesus' simple call of discipleship because we are unwilling to give up control of OUR lives, which are littered with satanic influences that camouflage themselves amidst our corrupted culture.

And these influences become footholds of demonic influence in our lives. And footholds become strongholds when overtime they are reinforced and entrenched by justifications and a continual unwillingness to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to deal with the sin.

Don't be misled brothers and sisters, you can and many of us are under demonic influence and to not deal with this evil head on will facilitate and allow the spirit of the Antichrist in our world today to use you as a tool for his purposes. And I guarantee you (a 100% money-back guarantee) that I am really upsetting the spiritual realm right now with this message and that will lead to some major attacks in my life, against this church, and possibly lead to some of you to be proponents in those attacks because you are unwilling to soberly assess your heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit can close the doors to any footholds and uproot any strongholds in your life. I pray that we will no longer justify evil in our lives—it ONLY wants to steal, kill, and destroy you and me! It's time to submit to God and resist the devil and the Bible promises that he will flee (James 4:7).

With Mark 5:1-13 as our reference let's answer this question: what does it look like when a person is under the influence or being influenced by the work of an unclean spirit?

1. Isolation (Mark 5:2-3a)

2. Lawlessness (Mark 5:3b-4)

3. Restlessness (Mark 5:5a)

4. Violence and self-inflicted wounds (Mark 5:5b)

5. Loss of true identity (Mark 5:9)

To say that this isn't possible for a Christian is to say that a Christian can't be an alcoholic, or a drug addict, or suffer from depression, or struggle with a habitual sin such as eating, sexuality, pornography, gossip, anger, conceit, jealousy…. Of course, we can be influenced by demonic activity! These five areas—isolation, lawlessness, restlessness, violence and self-inflicted wounds, and the loss of true identity—cannot be ignored in your life or if you see them in a brother or sisters life. The days are dark, we are in the end days, the time is short and we cannot afford to be ignorant of, or turn a blind ear or eye to, the devil's schemes to use us (or our churches!) as tools for his evil purposes.

It is time to invite the Holy Spirit to have full reign of your mind and body. Because until you surrender every last part of you: your mind, heart, hands, and feet, then you have not fully submitted yourself to God as a living sacrifice. That is the purpose for which Jesus endured the Cross and then sent the Holy Spirit upon His people—the church—so that we can become the witnesses of God's deliverance from the inside out, in word and deed! We are delivered from the slavery of sin (evil's domination) for a purpose! The Victory has been won for you; now receive Him and walk in His Spirit!

JESUS DELIVERS US TO BE TEMPLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO CARRY ON THE MISSION OF GOD!

The Bible declares this truth in 1 Corinthians 6:19 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"

Mike's testimony!

As we will see next week, just like Mike was when he was using drugs, this demon possessed man who was a tool under the control of a multitude of demons (and so many in our community still are today). Both the man from Mark 5 (to Decapolis) and Mike (in NC, on campus, in South Africa), became witnesses of Jesus Christ carrying on the mission of God as ministers of reconciliation to their spheres of influence and beyond. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 states that this is the purpose for every single person who is delivered through faith in Jesus Christ—we are delivered for a purpose! "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God delivers His children from evil for a purpose! Are you carrying on the Mission of God? Are there times when you are being a tool in the hands of the devil rather than being a temple of the Holy Spirit? If you submit to God and resist the devil then he will flee from you (James 4:7). Are you willing to submit? Are you willing to resist?

Response Prayer