We left off with Jesus stilling a storm on the Sea of Galilee. He was in the boat with His disciples, and the storm kicked up but while the storm was raging we saw Jesus…resting. Why? Psalm 4 says, “I will both lie down in peace and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

Here’s the point. He was resting because He had confidence in His Father, even while the storm was raging! Now the disciples should have been at peace also because if Jesus was at rest, they have no business being restless. But they weren’t and so they woke Him saying, “Master, don’t You care?” And being awakened He did two things…He calmed the storm and also, He corrected their hearts.

He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? Where is your faith?” He didn’t correct them for asking Him to calm the storm…notice, He rebuked them for being fearful! For lacking confidence in His word; His promise. What does this mean? It wasn’t so much the outward storm that Jesus was concerned with was it? It was the inward restlessness and faithfulness that He was primarily dealing with in the disciples.

I want to remind you. It is not the outward circumstance that we have to really fear, it is the inward waves of fear of faithfulness that well up within us…that is the real enemy! That is the flesh. Doesn’t come from God. The Lord has promised…He won’t leave us nor forsake us but what He is doing while working in us and in our lives is showing us these waves of fear, these feelings of disrest and dissatisfaction within us! ”Will I make it through, will they ever change, will I get to the other side…?” He gave us His Word, that should be enough…

No matter how strong, no matter how brutal the waves might beat on your boat, the promise is…it’s all working together for good if you love God and if you are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)…that verse gets misused and put down…I won’t shy away from it…it is the Word of God…and so Jesus reveals the true enemy…it’s not the circumstance you’re in, the way that person is acting, the manner in which you are being treated…the true enemy is a lack of confidence in the Word of God and subsequently a lack of confidence in the Father…manifested in fear…anger, frustration, outbursts, a lack of self control, hardness and just plain cruelty…

So what do we do? Grab a friend and tell them your fears…that’s what the world would say…Dr. Phil and such but check this out…I never see where the Lord encourages a person to express their fear. But rather Jesus says, “Where is your faith…?” So learn the Word, apply it…learn that God has said that all things work together for your own good…and learn it’s not the test that proves that out…it’s the response. Where is your faith?

Mark Chapter 5 Verse 1

• It was last week that we saw Jesus give a command and a promise, “Let us cross over to the other side,” and it is this week that we see His Word come to pass. Why? Because that’s what it do man! Always!. The promises of God stand. The wisdom of God stands. Throw at it any problem, any difficulty, any situation, any circumstance…apply the Word of God…not only the solution will arrive but also the explanation.
• We’re about to see why Jesus commanded them to go with Him from Capernaum on the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee to the country of the Gadarenes located on the eastern shore. What are we about to see? One of His kids tangled up with some demons.
• I wonder if that may be you today. Maybe you’re being held in some sort of captive state by a demonic influence. A captive state of arrogance. A captive state of condemnation or prideful egotism, pretension over maybe even the person next to you. Oh we think of demonic influence as the Exorcist where your skin turns all green and your voice changes to an 80 year old smoker…but not always. Not always so…
• According to 1 John Chapter 2, the spirit of Anti-Christ is simply rejecting the Word of God. Placing your confidence in your senses…in man, rather than God…Simply hearing the truth, understanding the truth yet choosing or acting in a way contrary to it…So maybe you’re the one that Jesus has come across the sea for this morning…to set you free from Legion which we will see in just a moment…
• Took a lot for Jesus and the disciples to get here…by the way. Five miles, a very long night of storms and trials of their own faith to even arrive here this morning with the Word of God…Maybe it’s taken your friend asking you 25 times a week to come to church with them…maybe it’s taken courage and trials of faith to even plant this church and open these doors so that you might have a place to bring your friend to…it will take courage to be made free…

Mark Chapter 5 Verse 2

• There’s that word “immediately” again. It’s like the guy saw Him coming from a far and has been waiting for Him. Mark doesn’t say the unclean spirit met Him immediately, I’m sure the unclean spirit wanted to run…Mark says here it was the man…the man, in courage, came immediately to Jesus…

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 3 – 5

• Y’all might be impressed with his strength but do you see the pattern of what the spirit of Anti-Christ does to a person? To a life? Rejection of truth, hardness of heart, indulgence of pride? Here it is! He dwells among the tombs!   He has been robbed of his family. I talk to folks that have been married for years and now sleep in other rooms. Conduct their lives separately from one another…keep their money separate, their activities separate yet they remain married. Why? For the money! The tax breaks and such or so as to not upset the kids…both of them have been robbed of “family!” Why? Stupid arrogance man. Pride and unforgiveness. A rejection of service!
• And the snowball rolls. They consider themselves Christ followers and yet with the one flake of vanity that ball began to roll downhill…picking up smugness along the way, hardness, ungenltleness, unforgiveness and now has just become their life…one large cold mass of demonic influence…This is why we must stop sin early…submit to God early…lest you be so far gone that total bankruptcy is required, which few find…
• This man has lost his friends, dwelling among the tombs, infatuated and infiltrated with death and darkness, he was as good as dead and man many just go ahead and sign that check today in hopelessness and off themselves! Why? The Spirit of Anti-Christ. That’s what the enemy wants to do to you…take you out!
• This man was robbed of his sanity and self-control…He’s hell-bent on his own destruction…this is what the rejection of truth will deliver to you…a lie. Oh how simple. But man we believe that we can just visit the Bible buffet and take just this or just that…but even a half truth is a lie…We must commit to the entire counsel of God’s Word or risk the loss of everything!
• And notice what society did with this man. They tried to bind him with shackles and chains but they couldn’t and so they isolated him…precisely what we do today. The majority of folks that go to any type of rehab…go back. The majority of folks that spend any time in a state rehabilitation center, or a prison…go back!  
• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…but if it is…come on man! Men don’t need rehabilitation, reformation…they need rebirth. Reform this guy! Rehabilitate this guy! Ain’t happening man…
• It is neither society’s isolation nor its attempts at rehabilitation that will make a genuine, lasting difference in the lives of any man or any woman…the cure is the One who crossed through the storm of the cross to reach this man…and even you and I!
• The cure is man out of you, God in you. Period. The cure for crime? The cure for sin? The cure for drugs? The cure for alcoholism, depression, suicidal thoughts and poor me mentality? Si (a little Spanish there), Yes! But also the cure for the disease that continues to cost you husbands, continues to cost you friends, continues to cost you jobs, continues to cost you churches…run out to meet Jesus!
• I got tired of losing. I got tired of weakness in the dark and a fake front in the light. I’m done with it. I’m bringing my A-game and my A-game is Jesus. Period. I want to know what this life is really about. I want to know what it means to receive the peace of God and the power to put hell on the defense. I wanna know what love is!? I know YOU can show me! 80’s song HA but so true!
• I wanna run out to Jesus especially as times get harder. It just makes sense that they will! The dang devil will turn up the heat as I grow…what good was it 4 years ago? No Calvary Cherry Creek. No Pastor Chin, no Pastor Scott…no Ben, Lezli, Yvonne, Trifon, Jerrod or David…why turn up the heat then…do it now what happens? They all get burned…so makes sense! But I got the cure…confidence in the Father through the blood promise of the Son!

Mark Chapter 5 Verse 6

• One of my favorite verses this week…the demon can’t stop the worship…it’s gotta come. When you are really in the presence of Jesus, the only option…worship…because He is indeed God. He is the One. He is the Hero. He is the Cure. And if I really believe that…then I’ma get behind Him and follow…that’s just real talk…
• This is a testimony to the surpassing power of Jesus…the demons bind him, they isolate him, they rob him, but enter Jesus…the man commands them! You think the demons wanted to run out after seeing Jesus from afar? Not so much! They wanted to run away!
• And notice, demon, he, he, he…we’ll find out in a minute that there are many…so why does Mark and even the demon itself refer to itself as “I?” Because I believe there is order here. And there is one boss demon over the others…let’s keep reading…

Mark Chapter 5 Verse 7

• Anyone else find this odd? This demon is begging Jesus for mercy and calling up God in order to deliver it’s request…ridiculous > ain’t gonna work…and man I see this all too often, where folks stand firmly upon sin and claim the promises of the Word of God…eeeeeeee (like the buzzer from Family Fued!). Doesn’t work…get out of fellowship with demons man…and then claim “no weapon formed against me shall prosper!” Get out of sin man and then claim “be still and know that I am God.” Common sense here…
• And notice the Biblical response. Jesus does not grant this request or receive this worship…He immediately casts it out!

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 8 – 13

• Now when you go back to the Mosaic Law you find that the Jews weren’t to keep swine, they were an unclean animal. So this flock of pigs was actually a forbidden flock. Interesting how Jesus permits the evil spirits to enter into them in order to eliminate them…and the sin of even having them…
• Now a legion in terms of the Roman army would be 6,000 men so this could be thousands of dirty demons…but now, they’re gone…Wonder if they knew that would happen? Most likely not…wonder if Jesus chuckled? J
• Crazy thing we see again here is Jesus’ surpassing power. Not equal to Lucifer as his brother, not equal to the demons in stature as simply another angel, not less than the angels as a man commanding them…but we see the demonic spirits, the fallen angels worshipping Jesus and then obeying Him…therefore…Jesus can only be One Person…God Himself, the second Person of the Holy Trinity…

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 14 – 17

• This guy is cured and all they care about are their lost profits….their society is so far gone that seeing someone in their right mind…clothed…causes them to flip out! Sounds a lot like ours doesn’t it?

Mark Chapter 5 Verses 18 – 20

• One thing that Mark hints at but Luke nails…turn over to Luke Chapter 8 and read with me verses 38 – 39. Do you see it? “Return to your own house, and tell what great things…”  Who? Yes, “God….has done for you.”
• “And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things….” God? What does your Bible say? “Jesus!...had done for him!” Do you see it? Who is Jesus? It is so very clear! Who did Jesus say that He is? It’s so very clear.
• So go on and dismiss Christian Science and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Go on dismiss Islam and Scientology.   Go on and dismiss Mormonism and Seventh Day Adventism…let them go…it doesn’t work…Jesus was clear, the Bible is clear…He is God and the Word was with God and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh…
• You know what, in light of the truth…go on and dismiss it all man…the deceitfulness of sin, the short sidedness of living for self and living for today and for this world…it doesn’t work…back to rehab you go…back to prison you go…time to sit with Jesus, get into your right mind get clothed > in His righteousness and wisdom > and be set alive…become free…
• At the end of a meal you’re brought a check, same for this morning. The cost of receiving this meal, this truth, this Word of God, this freedom…the cost…everything. Perfection. Fulfillmenmt of the law…utter goodness and guess what, we can’t afford it…but then at the bottom of the check you notice something…
• A hand written note, red ink, Paid in Full…just receive it…and the manifestation of the truth received…you give your all…to Him! Why? Because it’s reasonable. He’s given His all…Its right. It’s the truth…Its reality…but also…hey, look at this man set free today in our study…why give your ALL to Jesus? Hey, it works…