We're having our services today here at Vancouver Pastor's Church.
Let's get to see everyone here this morning.
And would you please finally move up to the side.
And please turn to number 215.
Number 215, Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Number 215.
Let's sing all three verses.
Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day.
Oh, what a wonderful day.
And my wonder in heart is so great.
Jesus, my Savior, I beg.
Oh, what a tender compassion plan.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
My sins were washed away.
And my night was turned to day.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Lord of the Spirit with life from above.
Into God's heavenly divine.
Justified fully through Calvary's love.
Oh, what a standing is mine.
My sessions so quick to obey.
When as a sinner I came.
Took of the offer of grace.
It offered me safety of praise with their name.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
When at the cross my Savior gave me hope.
My sins were washed away.
And my night was turned to day.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Now I'm a hope that will surely endure.
After the passing of time.
I have a future in heaven for sure.
There in those mansions so fine.
And it's because of that wonderful day.
When at the cross I believe.
Precious, eternal, and blessed.
He's a miracle from his precious hand I receive.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
When at the cross my Savior gave me hope.
My sins were washed away.
And my night was turned to day.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Lord, thank you for this opportunity to be here this morning.
And I pray that you would fill our pastor with your Holy Spirit.
And please help us all to be edified by this sermon.
It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.
Turn over to number 175.
In number 175 it's just like his great love.
Let's sing it out. 175.
A friend I have called Jesus. Number 175.
A friend I have called Jesus.
Whose love is strong and true.
And never fails how air is dry.
No matter what I do.
I've sinned against this love of his.
But when I'm down to pray.
Confessing all my guilt to him.
The sin clouds roll away.
It's just like Jesus.
You hold the thoughts away.
It's just like Jesus.
You lead me in my day.
It's just like Jesus.
All along the way.
It's just like his great love.
Sometimes the clouds of trouble.
Keep in the sky above.
I cannot see my Savior's grace.
I doubt his wondrous love.
But I leave on Heaven's mercy.
See, if only by despair.
In pity bursts the clouds meet me.
And it shows me he is there.
It's just like Jesus.
You hold the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus.
You lead me in my day.
It's just like Jesus.
All along the way.
It's just like his great love.
When sorrows out door take me.
And break upon my head.
When lies do worse than useless.
And I for better dead.
I take my break to Jesus then.
For you I go in vain.
For heaven he only gives that cheer.
Bright sunshine after rain.
It's just like Jesus.
You hold the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus.
You lead me in my day.
It's just like Jesus.
All along the way.
It's just like his great love.
Oh, I could sing forever.
Of Jesus, the Divine.
Of all his care and tenderness.
For his more life of mine.
His love is in and over all.
And wind and waves obey.
When Jesus whispers, he speaks still.
And rolls the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus.
You roll the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus.
You give me day by day.
It's just like Jesus.
All along the way.
It's just like his great love.
All right, this time we'll go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time, Sunday mornings at 1030.
Sunday nights at 6, our preaching service.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in Psalm 72.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page is the note wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving this Thursday.
And then the Bible memory passage is due today.
This is the deadline for John 3, 5 through 8.
So make sure that you quote it to somebody before the day is over
and get your name on the clipboard.
Also, there's a ladies Christmas cookie decorating party on Friday, December 4, 7 to 9 p.m.
It's open to all ladies ages 13 and up.
Please RSVP to Mrs. Suzanne Forte.
On the back we've got the note about the Christmas caroling.
So Christmas caroling is going to be on Friday, December 11.
And we're going to meet here at the church building at 5 o'clock.
We'll break up into teams of about 20 people each.
And we're going to be singing Joy to the World and O Come All Ye Faithful.
And then carolers are welcome to return to the building at 7 o'clock for cookies and hot cocoa provided by Panera.
There's also going to be a cookie bake-off on Wednesday, December 25.
Is that right? Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year?
I didn't remember it being that way when I looked at a calendar.
This is not right.
So that should say December 23.
I knew that was a little too good to be true.
So it's December 23 at 5 p.m.
That's going to basically be kind of our big Christmas service.
Because that's the service that falls closest to Christmas, not really as much the Sunday.
So that's the sermon that will be the Christmassy sermon on Wednesday.
December 23.
So church is at 7, but at 5 o'clock, we'll get together for the cookie bake-off and have the hot cocoa and cookies and stuff like that.
So every adult will get to vote.
We're going to vote like the ancient Greeks where we put the stone in the jar.
And anyway, this is probably going to be a little bit of a surprise.
Anyway, this is probably a good service to invite visitors to.
You know, certain people kind of proverbially go to church on Christmas and Easter, those kind of people.
This would be a good service to invite them to so they could visit our church.
So think about maybe visitors you could bring to this.
It's going to be a fun time of fellowship starting at 5, church at 7.
And then keep praying for our ladies that are expecting that they would have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
Also, I heard just now that I guess Laura Fritz has coronavirus, so be praying for her.
And let's keep in mind that all the numbers for coronavirus are kind of exploding right now as we get into the sixth season.
Because, you know, the sixth season is really December through February.
That's really the heart of it.
And so we haven't really even experienced that yet.
We're not even to that yet because we're just in November.
And this thing didn't even start up until March or April.
So be aware of that.
Let's do the fist bumps instead of handshakes at a minimum.
And just try to use common sense.
Wash your hands.
Be careful.
But at least do the fist bumps instead of handshakes.
And that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
Alright, if you're in the middle you should find that insert of Psalm 139.
If you don't have one, you can raise your hand.
Psalm 139.
Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. Sing it out.
Surely thou wilt slay the wicked.
Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.
Depart from ye, therefore ye bloody men.
Do not I hate them, O Lord that hate thee?
And am I greed with those that rise up against thee?
Do not I hate them, O Lord that hate thee?
For they speak again, see wickedly, For they speak again, see wickedly,
And thine enemies take thy name in vain, And thine enemies take thy name in vain,
Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee,
Do them not, I grieve with those that rise up against thee,
Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, I hate them with perfect hatred,
I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them my enemies,
I count them my enemies, Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee,
Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, Do them not, I grieve with those that rise up
against thee, Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee.
Amen. Great singing. Number 440 in your hymnals. Number 440, thanks to God.
Let's sing it out in this first verse. Number 440, thanks to God for my redeemer. Sing it out.
Thanks to God for my redeemer, Thanks for all God doth provide.
Thanks for times that fell on memory, Thanks for Jesus by my side,
Thanks for blessing on the springtime, Thanks for bark and dreary fall,
Thanks for tears like how forgotten, Thanks for peace within my soul,
Thanks for prayers that thou hast answered, Thanks for what thou dost deny,
Thanks for storms that I have weathered, Thanks for all thou dost supply,
Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure, Thanks for comfort in despair,
Thanks for grace that not been measured, Thanks for love beyond repair,
Thanks for roses by the wayside, Thanks for storms that sense to me,
Thanks for hope and thanks for fireside, Thanks for hope that seek refrain,
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow, Thanks for heavenly peace they'll be,
Thanks for hope that God tomorrow may do for all eternity.
Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Mark chapter 5.
Gospel of Mark chapter 5, as we always do. We'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
You can follow along silently with Brother Nick as he reads. Matthew, Mark, Mark chapter number 5, starting in verse number 1.
Mark chapter 5.
And they came over under the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes, and when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him.
And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones, but when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the Most High God? I adjul thee by God, let thou torment me not.
For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many.
And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh under the mountains a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about two thousand, and were choked in the sea.
And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city and in the country, and they went out to see what it was that was done, and they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine, and they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him, howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.
And he departed, and began to publish it into capitalist how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel.
And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea.
And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death, I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed, and she shall live.
And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him, and thronged him, and a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
For she said, If I may touch his clothes, I shall be whole, and straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing, but the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
While he yet spake, they came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, certain which said, Thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou the master any further?
As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.
And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John, the brother of James.
And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.
And when he was coming, he saith unto them, Why maketh this ado, and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn, for when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Teladah, kumai, which is being interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, Arise.
And straightway the damsel arose, and walked, for she was of the age of twelve years, and they were astonished with a great astonishment.
And he charged them straightly, that no man should know it, and commended that something should be given her to eat.
Dear Lord, we just thank you for bringing us together today, Lord, in your house, and we thank you for the protection of your Holy Spirit, Lord.
And we would just ask that you fill Pastor Anderson with your spirit as he preaches your word. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.
And the title of my sermon this morning is, The Devil's Effect on a Life. The Devil's Effect on a Life.
Now in this story, we have a very extreme example where we have this man, he's often referred to as the maniac of Gadara, but this wild man who's possessed with devils.
And this is such an extreme situation because he's literally possessed with thousands of devils.
And I think the reason why God allows us to see this really extreme example is to kind of give us a caricature, if you will, so that we could kind of see what it is that the devil does to a life.
Now obviously, in our lives, or in the lives of people that we know, the devil's influence is going to be a lot more subtle than this.
It's not going to be this obvious or extreme, but by looking at it in an extreme, we can kind of see what his agenda is for a person, because here's a guy where the devil has total control of this guy.
And so therefore, this is where that is headed, you know, with the devil.
Now obviously, a Christian cannot become demon-possessed. You know, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
But obviously, the devil still has an influence on us. The Bible says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
And obviously, the devil is constantly bombarding us with his agenda through the media, and we're surrounded by people that are under his influence.
And so he still has an influence over Christians, even though he can't possess them, and he still has an agenda for your life.
And this passage shows you what that agenda is. So let's start out in verse number one here.
It says, They came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes, and when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not, with chains.
So number one, the first thing I want to show you, as far as the devil's effect on a life, is rebellion against authority. Rebellion against authority.
The Bible says here, No man could bind him, no, not, with chains. And this pictures the fact that this guy can't be controlled or reined in by anyone. He can't be moderated by anyone.
You know, rebellion, the Bible says in 1 Samuel 15, 23, Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Did you hear that? Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Now why stubbornness? Because when people are rebellious, typically stubbornness goes hand in hand with that.
You know, you think of a rebellious teenager, rebelling against their parents. Well, they're also being stubborn.
You know, when you ask them to do something simple or fix something or apologize or whatever, you know, if they're rebellious, then they're going to stubbornly resist that authority.
And so this is the devil's agenda for your life, that you be rebellious. There's no glory in being rebellious.
You know, we today in America sometimes in our culture have this idea that it's somehow cool or noble to rebel against our parents or for wives to rebel against their husbands or to rebel at work or to rebel at school or whatever.
But the bottom line is that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. This is not a good attribute.
Now look, are there times when we as Christians sometimes have to stand up against evil? Absolutely.
And you have situations in the Bible where guys like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had to stand up and refuse to obey authority because we ought to obey God rather than men.
But you know what? Rebellion for the sake of rebellion is wicked.
And in those situations, it's not so much that rebellion is a good thing as that obeying God is a good thing.
And if that means rebelling against wickedness, well then so be it.
But rebellion in and of itself is not a good attribute. It's not cool or noble or something that we should want for our lives.
It's what the devil wants for your life though. The devil's agenda for your life is that no man can bind you.
Nobody's going to tell me what to do. You know, that's the devil talking right there that would get you to feel that no one can tell me what to do.
I'm not going to listen to anybody. I'm not going to obey anybody.
And this leads me to my next point, Mark chapter 5 verse 4. It says,
Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces.
And I want you to focus on this last part. Neither could any man tame him. No one could tame him.
Number two, the devil's effect on a life, wildness and lack of self-control.
No temperance. Right? Because temperance is when you have yourself under control. You can control your urges.
You control your baser nature. And the devil's effect on life is wildness and just being out of control.
No self-control. No temperance. And this is the devil's plan for your life.
That you just do whatever, that you just act however, that you're uncivilized, that you're out of control, and that you don't have temperance.
What does it mean to have temperance? What does it mean to have self-control?
You know what character is? Character is self-parenting. Right?
It's when you don't have to have somebody always telling you what to do and reigning you in and stopping you from doing things.
It's when you can actually control yourself. You know, nobody has to force you to get up in the morning because you get yourself up in the morning.
Nobody has to force you to eat your vegetables because you eat the vegetables yourself.
Whether you like them or not because you know they're good for you.
You know, character is when you actually get up, you go to work, you do the right thing, and someone doesn't have to stand over you, breathing down your neck, always making you do it. Right?
What is it to be temperate and to have self-control? It's to be tame. You know, here the Bible says no man can tame this guy, so he's acting like an animal.
He's acting wild. You know, think about how dogs are, for example.
And obviously I understand that dogs can be trained and so forth, but think about a dog that's totally untrained.
Think about a dog that has not gone to obedience school and it's just a disobedient, misbehaved dog.
You know, if you ever get around a dog that's had no training, it's unpleasant to be around a dog.
Now, you know, a well-trained dog can be a pleasure, but a dog with no training, okay, is a disaster.
All it does is jump all over you, it gets you dirty, makes a mess.
You know, and by the way, you know, not to be crass, but it just humps everything in the world under the sun.
It'll be violent. It could attack. The Bible talks about a dog returning to its own vomit.
You know, you think about just wildness, and what we see in this scripture is basically a human being that's living as an animal.
You know, he's living outside, he's living in the tombs, nobody can tame him.
The Bible says that he was exceedingly fierce, so he's just like a wild beast, just living like an animal today.
And you know what? We as human beings are not animals, and we ought not to live like animals in any way, shape, or form.
We are humans made in the image of God, and I know that the godless public fool system is going to tell you that you're just some kind of an evolved animal called homo sapiens, but it's a lie, my friend.
We are not animals. We are human beings made in the image of God, and the animal kingdom is not in his image.
God's image is not that of a cow or a dog or a cat or anything else. God's image is resting upon man. We are made in his image.
And so we ought not be wild or animal-like or feral or like a beast. We need to be civilized and act like human beings and not have the attributes of an animal.
But number three, look at verse five. Not only do we see rebellion against authority, nobody's going to bind him, nobody's going to tell him what to do.
Number two, wildness, animal-like behavior, lack of self-control, no temperance.
But number three, self-destruction. Look if you would at verse five.
And always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones.
Now this seems awfully strange, doesn't it? Why would anyone cut themselves with stones?
It doesn't make any sense, does it? Because most of us have a normal reflex that does not allow ourselves to harm ourselves, right?
You know, if I were to just stand here and just try to just fall flat on my face, my reflexes would not even allow me to do that.
My hands are going to pop out and catch me because we have a reflex to not hurt ourselves. It's not normal to hurt yourself.
But the devil wants you to destroy yourself and he will put you on a self-destructive path.
And him actually cutting himself with stones pictures being self-destructive in general.
Remember what I told you. This demon-possessed guy is an extreme example, right?
We're going to find out later this guy has thousands of demons living in him.
And so this is a caricature so that we can see it clearly, but we need to look for this more subtly in our lives.
You know, you're not out there necessarily living outside and being wet with the dew of heaven and acting like a literal animal.
But you know what? When you go out and you live a life of fornication and you're undisciplined, then you are behaving like an animal in that sense.
In a more subtle way. And when you go out and smoke cigarettes and take drugs and drink, that's a self-destructive behavior.
Those behaviors are self-destructive and you see people where you look at them and you say, this person seems like they just don't care about their life.
You know, you see people get on the road and they get on a motorcycle and they're just going 100 and some miles an hour down the freeway or something because they just kind of don't care.
And you know what? That's the devil's influence to get you to just not care about your life, engage in all these super risky behaviors, self-destructive to your body, self-destructive to your mind and your soul.
And so the devil wants you on that path. Now obviously we know that there are people today who literally cut themselves.
This is not just a biblical phenomenon, but this is something that you'll see all over the place.
And I remember when I was in school there was the Gothic crowd. And the Gothic crowd would cut themselves.
Now some of these people are just cutting themselves because they're trying to just get attention or just maybe following the role model of these other demoniacs that they're following.
But make no mistake about it, what does the Bible teach? You know, cutting yourself is demonic.
If somebody's cutting themselves, they're either demonic, it's either demon possession or they're emulating someone who's demonic.
They're following the example of someone who's demonic that has shown them that or taught them that.
But that is not normal to do that, to hurt yourself, to cut yourself.
I remember one time I went to a Baptist church and I listened to an entire sermon for an hour where the preacher talked about anxiety disorders and panic attacks and he talked all about people cutting themselves and self-harming and he never one time referred to this passage.
And he never one time referred to 1 Kings when the prophets of Baal cut themselves open until the blood comes out as part of literally worshipping Satan.
But he was too busy giving a psychology lesson of the world's mentality.
But let me tell you something, the Word of God has answers for us today and we ought not disregard what the Bible says.
Sure, there are some psychological things going on out there, but folks, don't leave the Bible out of the picture here.
The Bible's got something to say about this, specifically people cutting themselves and you know what, it's of the devil. It's demonic.
And you know, the musicians and role models that are promoting this stuff, Nine Inch Nails or whoever, are a bunch of demon-possessed weirdos.
And you know, correct me if I'm wrong, those of you that are into that, or were into that hopefully, not now.
Let me tell you something, didn't Trent Reznor grow up in some kind of a Christian home or he grew up in a pastor's home or something like that?
Okay, well, whatever.
Anyway, what's that? Was Marilyn Manson like that?
Okay, well there you go. There's a guy in Tool, a guy in Marilyn Manson, you know, we're not sure about Nine Inch Nails.
But the point is that the people involved in these bands, if you study them, a lot of them grew up in a Christian home or a pastor's home or something.
What's that disgusting female artist?
Katy Perry. Didn't she grow up like that as well?
You know what's interesting about that is it shows you how these people, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God.
And God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient, and they don't want to retain God in their knowledge.
They hate the Lord, they grew up hearing about the Word of God, hearing about Jesus, and now they've rejected it.
The scripture says, we have an Old Testament example in 1 Kings, and we have a New Testament example in the Gospel of Mark.
But again, even if we're not talking about something as extreme as literally cutting yourself, you know what?
It's the same thing when you go out and harm yourself in other ways and are self-destructive and you do things that you know are bad for your health,
you know are bad financially, you know are bad for your reputation, but you just have this nihilistic attitude of just, doesn't matter, who cares, whatever.
And you know what? That's a teenage culture for a lot of people, but it's the devil that is getting teenagers to think that way.
You know, live fast and die young. Hey, that's a bunch of demonic garbage is what that is.
Don't listen to that junk. How about live long? How about your days shall be lengthened?
How about honor thy father and mother that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth?
That's what we ought to be doing, right? Obeying our parents, living for a long time.
Not like, yeah, rebel and drive fast and live fast and die young. It's a bunch of junk.
Don't fall for the devil's lies. The devil's a big deceiver that wants you to think that's cool. There's nothing cool about that.
He wants you self-destructive. That's why there are other stories in the Bible where somebody's demon-possessed and what do they do?
They throw themselves in the fire. They throw themselves in the water.
That's what the devil wants. He wants to destroy you because he doesn't love you. He hates you.
He doesn't even love his own minions. His own servants in this world. He doesn't even love them.
Because he hates all of humans. He hates humanity. He wants to destroy mankind.
That's what Revelation chapter 12 teaches that the devil has it in for humans in general.
He's always been the enemy of mankind since he came in the garden and destroyed Adam and Eve.
And there's an enmity between the serpent seed and the seed of the woman.
So the devil is not just my enemy. He's not just the enemy of Christ. He's not just the enemy of Christians.
He is the enemy of all humanity. He's even the enemy of those who follow him.
They're just too stupid to realize that. That the person that they're following has no care for them.
He wants them destroyed. He has no love for them. He is just wickedness.
So number one, rebellion against authority. This is the devil's agenda for a life.
Number two, wildness and lack of self-control. No temperance.
Number three, self-destruction. And for number four, we're going to flip over to Luke chapter 8.
Go to Luke chapter 8. So Mark chapter 5 and Luke chapter 8 are what's called parallel passages.
And what that means is that basically it's the same exact story being told, just from a different perspective.
Remember that the Bible repeats stories and it's really great the way it repeats stories because it helps us get a different perspective.
You know, we can get Mark's perspective, Luke's perspective, Matthew's perspective.
What you have to understand about the Bible, and this is what's so amazing about the Bible,
is that the Bible is a human book, but it's also divine.
It's human, but yet it's perfect and without error. Just like Jesus.
Jesus Christ, remember we just talked about this on Wednesday night, Jesus Christ is the son of God, but he's also the son of man.
Right? So Jesus Christ has both humanity and divinity. That's the miracle of who Jesus is.
He's not just God come to this earth and just taking on some kind of an avatar and just God living.
He's God as man. He's the God-man. He's the son of man. That's what Jesus called himself frequently.
But of course we know he's also the son of God. And so Jesus Christ is 100% God and 100% man.
Well guess what? That's the way the Bible is.
See, Jesus is the Word made flesh, so there are a lot of parallels between the written Word and the person, the Word, Jesus.
And so when we look at the Word of God, we understand the Word of God is divine.
It's not, oh, the man wrote the Bible. No, no, no. The Word of God is divine.
Okay, and what that means is that the Word of God is without error.
Just like Jesus was without sin, the Bible is without mistake. The Bible is without error.
But that'd be pretty cool anyway, right? Just to have a divine book.
If God just gave us a divine book that just fell out of the sky, that was just written by the finger of God up in heaven and fell out of the sky, hey, that'd be pretty cool anyway.
But you know what? The Bible is so much more marvelous than that. The Bible is greater than that.
The Bible is deeper than that because it's not just written with the finger of God and falling out of the sky.
But God actually used human beings to write the Bible and their personality comes through in their writing.
But yet it's perfect and without error. And even though it's written by different people at different times from different cultures,
yet it all just coalesces together as one whole where it just, it feels like one book.
From Genesis to Revelation, you know, it feels like this is one book, the Bible.
But yet it's written by approximately like 39 or 40 authors or something like that.
It's written over the course of 1600 years. It's written in various geographies and there is a human component to the Bible.
So don't get the idea that the Bible is only divine and not human. You're wrong.
That's what Muslims believe about the Quran. That it's basically just dictated to Mohammed by God and it's just straight from God.
Of course it's a piece of junk and so any God that could create the universe would be able to write a better book than that.
He'd write a book something like this. Amen? This is the most amazing book ever because it's written by the supreme being.
But here's the thing. God did not just dictate the word just, okay, here's what, because here's the thing,
explain the difference between Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. It's because God used men to write the Bible.
He used human beings so that the Bible would be a human book. But yet it's also divine.
You say, well how can the Bible be both human and divine? How could Jesus be both human and divine?
This is the miracle of Jesus Christ and it's the miracle of God's word.
This is the most amazing book. Well, men wrote the Bible. Yeah, men wrote the Bible but they wrote, they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
It's divinely inspired and somehow it is 100% human and 100% divine.
That's where you get the different angles of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And you know, frankly, I'm so glad that there's not just one gospel. I'm glad there's four. It's such a great story.
I want to hear it four different times from four different people instead of just hearing it once.
So look at Luke chapter 8 for another perspective here. And we're going to get the fourth point.
But it says in Luke chapter 8 verse 26,
And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time,
and watch this next phrase, and wear no clothes. He wear no clothes.
Now, of course, this goes along with him rebelling against authority, being self-destructive,
and being totally without temperance, acting like an animal, wild and out of control.
We'll add that the fourth point, nakedness. This is the devil's effect on a life, nakedness.
What do I mean by that? Is that a normal person is ashamed to show off their naked body in public.
That's normal, right? Normal people, they don't just waltz around naked, just showing off their naked body,
because there's a natural shame with that. And the Bible says that we should put on clothing,
quote, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.
Okay. Now, obviously, we know Adam and Eve, the man and his wife, are in the garden,
and they were naked and they were not ashamed, according to Genesis chapter 2 at the end there.
But, of course, that's in a marriage. Between a man and his wife, that's totally normal.
Obviously, little children that are innocent, you know, they run around naked and don't care,
and we have to teach them, hey, put some clothes on, get dressed.
But to a normal, mature individual, you know, there's a shame associated with being naked,
and we don't want to be seen naked. It's not normal to display your naked body in public.
Okay. But today, we see our society becoming more and more okay with nakedness.
Because, let me just explain something to you. Nakedness does not just simply mean you have zero clothes on.
If you're just wearing some kind of a loincloth or something, you're naked.
You know, the Bible talks about your buttocks being uncovered as your nakedness.
The Bible talks about your thighs being exposed as your nakedness.
You know, the Bible talks about your loins being exposed as your nakedness, and we need to cover up.
Now, again, this is an extreme example, right? This guy's just filled with so many demons,
so he just doesn't wear clothes at all.
But what about the devil's influence on our life, where he just wants us to show off our bodies.
He just wants us to have no shame. What does God say?
God says for women to clothe themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety.
Right? He tells women to wear modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety.
The devil's agenda is the opposite. The devil wants you to have no shame about being naked.
He wants you in the short shorts and the short skirt, and he wants you just revealing as much of your naked body as possible.
That's his agenda, and as our country becomes more and more influenced by the devil, the clothes come off more and more.
And people are just more open with just showing off their naked body.
And you say, what's wrong with that? You know what? You've been influenced by the devil if you don't think there's anything wrong with that.
You're the one that I'm talking to right now, because the devil deceives the whole world, and you've been listening to him.
Maybe you've been listening to him through television or radio or magazines or whatever,
but if you think that it's fine to be naked, why should we be ashamed of our bodies?
Because we're not animals.
I mean, what are you, body shaming?
Hey, yes, body shaming since about 4300 B.C. in the Garden of Eden.
Right?
Folks, it is shameful to show off your naked body in public.
And if you don't think so, you've been influenced by the devil, because to those of us who actually have a normal Christian belief,
we think you're nuts for not seeing anything wrong with nudity.
Because we understand that covering your body is something that's just as normal as not cutting yourself.
You know, it's just there's certain things that you do to preserve your body physically, like I can't fall directly on my own face without stopping myself.
Well, you know what, there's also a natural desire to preserve your dignity as well, to preserve your dignity.
And you know what, like I said, the devil wants you to be self-destructive.
He also wants you to lack respect for yourself and basically just degrade yourself and debase yourself.
And when you are showing off your naked body, you are debasing yourself and degrading yourself.
And if you're a woman that is showing off her body to get attention from men, you know what, you are just debasing and degrading yourself is what you're doing.
You need to have more respect for yourself and wear more clothing and cover up.
You say, well, I'm just so liberated.
Well, you know what, why don't you go eat grass like an ox too, and then you could be liberated like Nebuchadnezzar was liberated.
Maybe you could be liberated like the maniac of Gadara and nobody's going to bind you with chains and you could get naked and you can go roll around in the graveyard and you can go do all these things.
But let me tell you something, that's the devil talking that's influencing you to do that.
Folks, today, we even here in Arizona will have women that will walk around practically naked sometimes in our state.
You know, especially when you get close to downtown Tempe, Mill Avenue, the ASU area, all the partying that goes on down there.
You know, I remember I was at BurgerFi, this message has been brought to you in part by BurgerFi, but I was at BurgerFi and I kid you not, this college-aged woman walks in and she's just wearing like a bikini bottom or something and a shirt.
So I mean, it just looks like she's just walking in like half naked.
And she just walks in and just orders her food, just natural as rain.
And here's the thing, most people in the restaurant were horrified.
Because I was kind of looking around at people's reactions like, do people think this is normal?
That this woman just walks in with just her underwear?
You know, but it wasn't her underwear.
It was a bikini bottom.
It was a bikini bottom, you know, because it's a different material and a different color, you know.
But I mean, this woman walks in, she's pretty much naked and I mean, people were horrified.
This one woman had a couple of kids and she was super angry and she was like gasping and fuming and upset and people were saying stuff.
It was just like, but here's the thing, that's not the only time I've seen that.
You know, there's been other times around Tempe and around this area where I've just seen a woman just walking down the street like that.
At night when it was cold outside because she must have been drunk or whatever.
But I've seen a woman at night just walking down the street like that.
Folks, that's debasing and degrading yourself.
First of all, it's wicked. But second of all, I feel bad for you.
If you have such a low opinion of yourself that you think that's all you have to offer is, hey, look at my naked backside.
Like, don't you have a little more to offer than that? Don't you have a little more to bring to the table than just your flesh?
And you know, women who just, they just constantly want to flaunt themselves.
And you know what, obviously I'm focusing on women here because certain sins typically apply more to one gender than another.
You know, there are a lot of sins that men are more guilty of and a lot of sins that women are more guilty of.
So when we talk about this, we tend to focus on women because obviously women are the ones who tend to be scantily clad.
And then men are the ones who typically have the lust issues, so it's kind of the other side of that coin.
Well, here's the thing about that though, okay? Men also in today's society are getting more and more okay with just being naked.
And men need to obviously be modest as well and not get naked either.
You know, and let me just tell you something. As men, you know, when we go swimming or whatever, hey, you need to wear shorts that go down your knee.
You know, the Bible talked about the priests in the Old Testament, that they would wear britches that would go from their loins to their thighs to cover their nakedness.
So don't get into this short shorts thing.
And look, thank God, you know, when I was growing up, they went out of style.
You know, back in the 70s, it was the couple little stripes or whatever, you know, the short shorts.
Thankfully, when I was growing up, it was all about big baggy clothes.
And everybody was wearing swim trunks down to the knee.
And I'm pretty sure that swim trunks that go down to the knee are still readily available at most stores. Am I right?
If I walked into a typical store, that's still kind of the style.
Thank God. You know, pray that it stays that way.
But nowadays, I'm starting to see some dudes busting out the short shorts.
It's queer looking. It's obscene.
Okay, I kid you not, my wife and I, we went to the Apple Store, you know, to get some kind of a device repaired or whatever.
And the guy who came, here's the thing about the Apple Store, is that they all wear the same work shirt, but whatever they wear on the bottom is up to them.
So like, they're wearing pants, skirts, shorts, they're wearing whatever on the bottom. It's all like, they might be wearing jeans, they could be wearing anything, right?
It's like, that's where they express themselves, but they have like a company shirt on.
I kid you not, am I exaggerating? The dude who served us at the Apple Store, he walked up and he was literally wearing boxer shorts and his work shirt.
Is that what he was wearing? They were boxer shorts.
And you know, and look, then like a couple weeks later, I was driving down 48th Street here, couple guys walking down the street just wearing boxer shorts.
Like that was what they were wearing on the bottom, was just boxers.
And they were like, really like brightly colored boxer shorts. You know, have you seen this style?
Hopefully it doesn't get any traction. You know, hopefully this one kind of fizzles out.
But let me tell you something, we as Christians, we don't care what the world does with their styles.
We don't have to be on the cutting edge of fashion because you know what?
Hey, I'm all for dressing normally for our society, but you know what? I'm going to draw the line and I'm going to draw the line right here and wear shorts that go down to my knee. Amen?
But not only do we need to wear shorts that go down to our knee as men, we also need to make sure that our shorts are pulled up properly.
Because there's this other thing that you see where guys' shorts are hanging down.
They go swimming and their shorts are hanging down. Let me tell you something, that's obscene.
Have some dignity. Cover your nakedness. Make sure that you pull those up and tighten that drawstring.
We don't want to see your crack, number one. Crack kills, amen?
Number one, we don't want to see your crack and number two, we don't want to see your loins.
You know, we don't want to see that. You need to have some dignity and get clothes that fit.
Get clothes that fit you.
And let me just get something off my chest that has nothing to do with the word of God or anything like that.
I'm so sick of going to buy swim trunks and they don't have an elastic band.
Who invented this stupid idea where it's just like a solid fabric, the drawstring only draws in like an inch.
I want the one where the drawstring goes all the way around. Who knows what I'm talking about?
Not some worthless little drawstring that, oh, I can just tighten this little inch.
Well, you know what, sometimes I eat more and I eat less and my weight fluctuates a little bit.
I have a pair of trunks that only works when I'm 178.3 pounds.
And I gain a little weight, it doesn't fit, I lose a little weight and it becomes obscene.
Hey, that's why I want trunks where there's an elastic band and there's a drawstring that goes all the way around.
Now look, I'm not saying that you have to have the drawstring all the way around the elastic band,
but I'm saying you better figure something out so that you don't show your loins or your crack or your thigh that you cover up.
Figure it out!
Now practically speaking, that usually involves the drawstring and the elastic band.
But folks, I don't care how you get there, just get to the destination and cover your nakedness.
That the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.
And you know what, you're the one who ought to be ashamed of yourself when you're going around,
showing off parts of your body that are supposed to be covered by clothing.
Whether male or female, okay, you need to have dignity and modesty.
And you know what, men and women both will treat you with more respect, ladies, if you're dressed modestly.
You know, if you walk into a business and you're dressed modestly, you'll get better service.
Because they think of you as someone who's important, someone who's classy, and someone to be reckoned with, frankly.
You know, not just some sleaze. You want to get treated well? Dress a little better and you'll get treated well.
And I'm not saying to wear expensive clothes because you know what, that's not modest either.
The Bible doesn't want us to wear expensive, fashy clothes. I'm just talking about wearing clothes that fit
and wearing clothes that cover your body and that are modest and that are not drawing attention to you.
Hey, look at me, I need attention.
Nakedness, my friend, is the devil's agenda for mankind. God wants us clothed, the devil wants us naked.
It's what the Bible teaches. So this guy, we're in verse 27 there in Luke chapter 8, he wear no clothes.
Point number 5, neither abode in any house. So point number 5, the devil's agenda for your life,
the devil's influence on your life, he wants you to be a bum. He wants you to be a bum.
Now let me say this, I realize that there are people out there that are homeless
and you know, they're down on their luck and especially in other parts of the world, you know,
in places like India or South Africa or China, you know, especially poor countries, places where people are struggling.
But let me just tell you something, and I know some people aren't going to like this,
but just put it in your pipe and smoke it. The majority of so-called homeless people in Arizona,
that is a lifestyle choice that they choose.
The majority.
Now look, I'm sure there are exceptions to that. The exception proves the rule.
I'm not saying that every single homeless person is a derelict bum,
but I'm telling you that the vast majority of people that are homeless in this state are perpetually homeless.
It's a lifestyle choice. They choose to be homeless.
And look, we've seen all the interviews where people go around and talk to them and they say,
I love this lifestyle. This is how I want to live. I just want to be left alone so I can just live this lifestyle that I want to live.
But then it's like, oh, give me money. Give me resources. Take care of me.
What we have to understand is that yes, good people could become homeless for a time.
There have been good godly people in our church who had to live out of their car at times
and they struggled financially and they were homeless for a time.
Hey, I understand that good people could go through a season like that. I get it.
I'm not trying to just paint with that broad brush, but I am telling you that there is a huge group of people out there
and I mean folks just drive around. They're young, they're able-bodied.
Young, able-bodied people in their 20s and 30s and what are they doing?
Begging by the side of the road because they don't want to be bound.
They want to take drugs, be lazy, have no authority in their life.
And folks, that is the devil's agenda for their life.
The devil wants you to be a bum. This guy didn't abide in any house.
The devil wants you to live a life of vagrancy and dereliction.
You see people in the Bible just wandering. It's a punishment from God.
When Cain wandered, it's a punishment from God.
When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, it's a punishment from God.
God wants us to be established, rooted.
He doesn't want us to be just wandering to and fro, dwelling in no house.
That is not God's plan for your life.
Now look, obviously Jesus said, hey, the Son of Man has not where to lay his head.
You know, Jesus Christ and his disciples are camping and traveling and staying at people's houses and relying on hospitality.
But you know what? They weren't wandering like a bunch of vagrants and derelicts. They were working hard.
They were working in the ministry, they were preaching, they were soul winning and they were effective and the laborer is worthy of his hire.
They deserved the meals and the lodgings that they got because they were working hard for it.
Preaching is hard work. Soul winning is hard work. Evangelizing, missionary work. Man, being a missionary is hard work.
And that's what they were doing. The laborer is worthy of his hire.
That's a little different than somebody who just doesn't want to take that drug test.
Who just doesn't want to get up in the morning. Who just doesn't want to get a job.
And so they've chosen that life. Folks, that's the devil's agenda for your life. He wants you to be a bum.
And then lastly in verse number 27, it says,
And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils a long time,
Wear no clothes, neither a bow in any house, but in the tombs.
Number six, a love of death and a fascination with death. This is the devil's influence on your life.
So what does the devil's effect on a life look like?
Well, number one, rebellion against authority is a great place to start. That's what the devil wants you to do.
He wants you to be wild and lack self-control. He wants you to destroy yourself.
He wants you naked. He wants you to be a bum and a derelict.
And he wants you to love death and be fascinated with death.
Right? This is what we see in our world.
Now, let's get to the happy part of the story.
It says in verse six,
Oh, I'm sorry. We've got to get back in Mark 5. Sorry.
Go back to Mark 5. We'll finish up in Mark 5.
And we'll just finish out with the happy part of the story here.
Mark chapter 5 and verse number six says,
But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
and cried in a loud voice and said,
What am I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God?
I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not.
For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What is thy name?
And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many.
And by the way, a legion is technically 6,000.
And these devils get thrown into a herd of swine that has 2,000 members.
So it's very likely there are thousands of demons in this guy.
We don't know the exact number.
And of course, the devils besought him in verse number 12,
saying, Send us into the swine that we manner into them.
They're saying, you know, Don't send us straight to hell.
Just, if you're going to cast us out of this man,
throw us into the pigs.
Throw us into the swine.
So Jesus actually does that.
He casts them out and he allows them to enter the swine.
And what do they do to the swine?
They cause the entire herd of swine to run off a cliff and choke in the sea.
So again, what is that?
Self-destructive, right?
He caused the swine to commit suicide.
And they that fed the swine fled and told him the city,
verse 14, and in the country.
And they went out to see what it was that was done.
And here's the result of getting away from the devil's influence.
Verse 15, they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil
and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind.
And they were afraid.
So what does the sitting represent?
The sitting represents that this guy is no longer just a wandering,
vagrant, he's settled.
He's seated.
He's not moving around all, you know, he's sitting down.
And he's wearing clothes.
And he's in his right mind.
And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil
and also concerning the swine.
And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.
So they said, Jesus, get out of here.
We don't like the fact that you sent 2,000 pigs off the cliff.
Those are our pigs.
They're expensive.
And were freaked out by this.
Which, you think they would have been freaked out by this guy
and been glad that the guy's normal now.
You think they'd be saying, here, let us introduce you to some other people
that you can fix.
But they tell him, no, you know, we want you to leave.
And when he was coming to the ship, so Jesus gets in the boat, Jesus is leaving,
you know, he's ready to move on.
And it says that when he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil
prayed him that he might be with him.
So the demoniac, who's now a normal, clean cut guy,
he comes over to Jesus and he says, hey, I want to come with you.
I want to be one of your disciples.
I'm ready to come with you.
I want to be one of your disciples.
I'm ready to get in the boat.
Let's go.
But Jesus doesn't allow him to do that.
It says, Jesus suffered him not, in verse 19, but saith unto him,
go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee
and hath had compassion on thee.
And he departed and began to publish into capitalist how great things Jesus had done for him
and all men did marvel.
I like that verse, too.
It's kind of a little bit of a subtle teaching there about Christ being the Lord, Christ being God.
Because he says, go tell what the Lord did for you.
And he says, okay, I'm going to go tell everybody what Jesus did for me.
He knows who the Lord is.
And by the way, in Luke, chapter 8, verse 39, it says,
return to thine own house and show how great things God hath done unto thee.
And he went his way and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.
So this guy knows who God is, right?
He knows who Jesus is.
He understood the deity of Christ.
Now, there's another, we spent our time in Mark and Luke,
there's another parallel passage for this in Matthew, chapter 8.
And what's interesting about the parallel passage in Matthew, chapter 8,
is that in Matthew, chapter 8, it's two men instead of one.
It's a much shorter version of the story.
It gives a lot less details.
But in Matthew, chapter 8, you don't have to turn there, but I'll read it for you.
It says, when he was coming to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes,
there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce,
so that no man might pass by that way.
And behold, they cried out, saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, the Son of God, etc.
And again, it's a much shorter, more abbreviated version of the story.
But some people have looked at this and said, well, this is a contradiction.
Other people have looked at it and said, well, this is just a totally different event.
Well, it's certainly not a different event, because if you actually look at the stories
and the sequence of events, it follows the exact sequence as Mark and Luke.
It's clearly the same story.
And we know that the Bible is not contradicting itself,
because the Bible is perfect in every way the Bible is divine.
But let me illustrate it to you this way.
Let's say that you and I went out soul winning today, right?
And we went out soul winning today, and we had a great day of soul winning,
and we ended up getting two people saved, right?
But let's say one of those salvations was a little bit more memorable than the other.
And then let's say ten years later, or twenty years later, or thirty years later,
we get together and we're reminiscing, and we say, hey, you remember that time back in 2020,
and we went out soul winning, and we got that guy saved?
And you know, all the details about the guy and everything.
And then what if you said, well, Pastor Anderson, what about the other guy we got saved?
I'm like, huh? There was another guy? What are you talking about?
Because it just wasn't as memorable, it wasn't as big of a deal in my mind,
but maybe in your mind it was, maybe you really thought about both,
and I was more thinking about one.
And this is not just a hypothetical, because I had this exact conversation with someone.
I said to someone, hey, remember that guy we won in the Lord,
because it was some weird incident, and then they brought up another guy from the same day,
and I was like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
So the point is, different people remember different things,
different people emphasize different things.
Now look, would I be lying if I said, hey, we went out, we got this guy saved, and it's true.
And if you said, hey, we got two people saved, it's true, they're both true.
Okay, so what we have to understand is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all true.
It's just that Matthew saw the two guys, and he lumped it all together as like, this is one story to him.
Whereas Mark and Luke thought of it as separate stories.
Now, here's the thing about that.
God used human beings to write the Bible and to get the Bible the way he wants it.
See, different things are emphasized in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
because it helps the story to flow differently and to emphasize different things.
I mean, if Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all identical, then we only need one.
So he gives us different perspectives.
So you never want to let something like that throw you for a loop.
Just understand, in Matthew's perspective, he's thinking of it as a two-fer.
Whereas Mark and Luke, they're just really focused on the really weird guy.
The super weirdo.
You know, whereas that other guy that was kind of weird, that also got saved the same day,
wasn't really as relevant to that particular telling of the story.
So the bottom line is this. Here's the conclusion this morning.
Do not let the devil influence your life.
You need to draw near to Christ and his influence.
If you get near unto Christ and his influence, if you're dwelling in the house of God,
if you're reading your Bible, if you're meditating on God's Word day and night,
and get near his influence, you know what, you're going to find yourself wearing clothes,
being in your right mind, submitting to authority, being civilized and human and prosperous,
and you know what, you need to get away from the devil's influence on your life.
And you might think that you're immune from the devil's influence.
It's true you're immune from being possessed, but you are not immune from the devil's influence.
Folks, the devil is constantly trying to influence God's people all day long.
All the time.
You really think that you're just immune, you can just watch anything, read anything,
listen to anything, and you know what, nothing will influence me.
And you don't read your Bible at all, and you're barely even going to church,
and when you're in church, you're zoned out thinking about what you're going to have for lunch or whatever.
The point is that the devil's influence in your life is going to wreck your life.
And if you don't believe me, look around.
Look around at all the people devaluing their bodies, walking around half naked.
Look around at all the people that are self-destructive,
and people that are snorting and shooting up and drinking and taking pills and smoking this and whatever.
I mean look, people with all these habits of just chewing tobacco and smoking and drugs and drunkenness.
Folks, those are self-destructive habits.
You know who wants you to chew tobacco? The devil does.
You know what the devil does?
Because the devil just wants you to do anything harmful to yourself because he hates you.
See, I love you, I want you to prosper, I want you to succeed, I want you to be healthy.
If you got sick, I would feel bad about that.
If you lost your job, I'll feel bad about that.
If you lose your mind, I'm going to feel really bad about that.
If I see you having a seizure or having a stroke or something, you know, I'm going to feel bad for you because I love you, right?
I want good things to happen to you, right?
But here's the thing, the devil, when he sees bad things happen to you, he rejoices.
He enjoys that. He feeds on other people's suffering.
We know this because the Bible says that he hates humanity.
That's what's taught in Revelation chapter 12.
We know that he has an agenda to damn people, to deceive people, to destroy people,
and he delights in their fall.
Just like in Proverbs, it talks about how the devil's minions, they delight to see people fall.
They delight to see people get hurt.
You know, if anything bad happened to you, I love you, I feel bad for you.
The devil rejoices in that.
So he, of course he wants to see you chew tobacco.
He wants to see you smoke.
He wants to see you taking drugs.
He wants to see you getting drunk.
He wants to see you walking down the street half naked, making an ass of yourself.
No pun intended.
You know, he wants you to completely debase yourself, ruin your own life, ruin the lives of the people around you,
make an idiot of yourself.
And I hope you teenagers are listening to me this morning.
Because you know what, you teenagers, you think you're invincible.
And I know because when I was a teenager, I thought I was invincible.
That's how teenagers think.
And you know what, when you're going around just thinking, I'm invincible, you know what, you're just a target.
The devil's seeking whom he may devour.
And you know what, you might as well just wear a sign on you that says, may devour.
You're perfect for him.
If you think, like, I'm immune, I'm invincible, nothing can harm me.
You know what, you are just like, he sees you like Sylvester would see Tweety Bird as like this little chicken dinner, like swinging.
You remember like he'd look over and he'll see the little animal and all of a sudden it's just like a chicken dinner walking.
It's just like a rotisserie with legs.
That's basically what the devil sees some of you teenagers.
You grow up in a Christian home, you're overconfident, you don't realize how bad things are out there.
You don't realize exactly that sin when it's finished bringing forth death.
And you're young and you're stupid and you're naive and you think you're invincible.
And the devil sees you as just that chicken dinner.
Just walking over.
Or also on those same cartoons where like somebody walks into the car dealership and it's just like a literal sucker with legs walking.
It's like a lollipop with legs walking in.
That's what you are.
That's you, you're a sucker.
Alright, you're just walking in just saying, devour me devil.
But you know what, if we're smart we'd say, you know what, even though I can't be possessed by Satan or by his devils, you know what though, I better watch out for his influence.
Lest I end up buying the wrong shorts and getting all naked and getting drunk and eating a bunch of junk and smoking.
And by the way, get off the vaping.
That's not good, that's not doing anything for your health.
Now look, if it's the lesser evil, if it keeps you from shooting up heroin or something, great.
But folks, do we really need that crutch in our lives as Christians?
Chew Wrigley's for crying out loud.
What in the world?
Folks, we don't need to be doing that.
I don't think that stuff is good for you.
Especially when you get it with drugs in it.
When you get it with all the nicotine and all the other stuff in it.
Folks, we don't need all these chemical crutches, we need to just eat food, drink water, and just rejoice in the Lord.
Okay, so don't let the devil influence your life to be self-destructive where you pick up all these bad habits and where you just debase yourself.
We need to get back to teaching people to have dignity.
Have dignity.
That's why I don't like this preaching that says we're all worthless, we're all scum, we're all dirt.
Folks, I'm a child of the king.
I don't know about you, but I'm an ambassador for Christ.
I tend to, I actually think that I'm kind of a big deal, and so are you.
You know what I mean?
That's why I don't like this preaching that says you're scum, you're nobody, you're expendable.
You know what, I don't think I'm expendable, and I don't think you're expendable either.
I think we all matter.
I think we're all children of God, that God loves us and cares about us and has a plan for us, and I think we're important in this world.
I think what we do is important.
And you know what, to me, having a value for myself, not because I'm anything in my flesh, but because I know I belong to Christ.
I matter now.
You know, I'm important.
You know, the apostle Paul said, in my flesh dwells no good thing, but you know what, as children of God, we are important.
We have value.
So you know what, to me, that makes me want to have some dignity about myself because of the fact that I realize, hey, I'm a child of the king, I'm an ambassador,
I'm God's son, then it makes me actually want to wear clothes and take care of myself and act civilized and have some dignity.
But you know, this world today, I'm telling you, they're raising a generation that is nihilistic and just self-destructive and just nothing matters.
We're all a bunch of animals.
We're just a clump of cells.
We're a cosmic accident.
Eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die.
We die because of the devil's influence.
Do not let the devil's influence infect your life, but rather draw an eye onto Christ.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for this Bible story, showing us such a weird, extreme example where somebody is just so far off the deep end of being possessed, Lord, with so many devils.
And Lord, help us to just look at this and realize, you know, that the devil's influence in our life or in the lives of the people around us could be more subtle.
But Lord, help us to use this extreme example in the Bible in order to identify the subtle ways that the devil has influenced us to get, maybe not totally naked, but to get a little more naked and to get a little bit wild and a little bit uncivilized and a little bit derelict and a little bit self-destructive.
Lord, help us to take care of ourselves because we belong to you and take care of the temple of the Holy Ghost.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Amen. Please grab your song books and we'll be dismissed as singing number 402.
Number 402, our best. Number 402.
Sing it on that verse.
Here ye the Master's call, give me thy best.
Number 402.
Here ye the Master's call, give me thy best.
For be it great or small, that is his desk.
Do them the best you can, not for be warned.
Not for the praise of men, but for the Lord.
Every work for Jesus will be blessed.
But he asks from everyone his best.
Our talents may be few, he's made me strong.
But unto him is to our best our own.
Wait not for men too long, heed not their sigh.
Winning the smile of God brings his delight.
Hating the good and true, there goes unblest.
All that we think or do, be it the best.
Every work for Jesus will be blessed.
But he asks from everyone his best.
Our talents may be few, he's made me strong.
But unto him is to our best our own.
Have a great singing this morning.
Thank you for watching.