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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good morning. We're in Mark, chapter number five. Mark, chapter five, the Bible reads, And they came over unto the other side of the sea, unto the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spear, who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because 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 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 if he had sought him much, they would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto 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 coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him, albeit 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 in Decapolis 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 were 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. 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 grew nothing bettered, but rather it grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but 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 me, 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 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 it yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, certain which said, Thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou the master any further? 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 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 come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entered in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand, and saith unto her, Telletha cumi, which is, being interpreted, damsel I say unto thee, Arise. And straightway the damsel arose and walked, for she was at 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 commanded that something should be given her to eat. Let's pray to the Lord God. Thank you for this church and for our pastor. Be with him now, please strengthen him, fill him with your Holy Spirit, and bless the preaching. Give us ears to hear it, and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Mark chapter 5 this morning, and the title of my sermon this morning is, Demon Possession and Demon Oppression. Demonic possession and demonic oppression. Demonic possession is when a person is controlled by a demonic entity. It's essentially when a demonic entity sees as a person's body and mind, and will often subject it to harmful behavior, delusions, and even various supernatural conduct. Whereas demonic oppression is when a person is under a satanic influence. It's not a satanic possession, but satanic influence. It's not the seizing of the body, nor the controlling of the body, but rather aiding the person in destructive behavior, influencing their conduct, and even setting up strongholds in the mind. And both saved and unsaved can be under demonic oppression, but only unsaved people can be under demonic possession. So, saved and unsaved can be under demonic oppression, however, only unsaved people can be under demonic possession. Now, why is this important? Well, because of the fact that, you know, demonic possession isn't something that's only unique to the Gospels, only unique to the Book of Acts. This is something that I believe is very much prevalent today, even in 2024. You know, these things did not cease once churches started, and the Gospel went out throughout the New Testament. Demons didn't just go away after that, and just stopped possessing people. These are things that still occur even today. And unfortunately, you know, sometimes even Christians will look at someone who is, you know, exerting certain behavior that is becoming too demonic possession, and they'll say, well, it's only a drug-induced psychosis, or it's just schizophrenia, or other delusions that are caused by hormonal imbalances in the body, and things of that nature. And yes, that's true to a certain degree, but it doesn't mean that there isn't a spiritual satanic element to that as well. And often, one can open the door to the other. And so sometimes a person who gets involved in drugs, and they do hallucinogens, and, you know, these types of drug-induced types of, you know, drugs or whatever, they can often open the door to demonic possessions and demonic oppression as well. You're like, well, that's just causing them to hallucinate and see these things, but the reality is this, is it really just opens up the world to the spiritual world for them to see those demonic entities and experience those types of things. And here's the thing, is that the Bible specifically tells us that all of us are all spirit, soul, and body. And what that means is that you can't really separate one from the other, okay? In other words, one will influence the other. You know, what you do with your body, believe it or not, actually affects your spirit. What you do with your body affects your mind. What you do with your mind affects your spirit. What you do with your mind affects your body. That's just the way it works. And the proof of that is the fact that the Apostle Paul said this, I keep under my body and bring it under subjection, lest by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. So he's specifically saying, like, I discipline my body, I keep it in subjection so that I don't become a spiritual casualty. Why is that? Well, it's because of the fact that God uses this physical body to carry out His will. He uses this physical body to commune with, He uses this physical body to preach the gospel, to carry out spiritual disciplines, but when you subject your body to sinful habits and drugs and hallucinogens, obviously that's going to have an effect on your spiritual life as well. You know, when you fill your mind with filth and garbage and allow your mind to be influenced by the philosophies and the ideologies of this world, guess what, that affects your spiritual life as well. They're all intertwined. And in fact, the most practical way to explain this would be, you know, it doesn't matter how much you love the Lord, it doesn't matter how much you love the Bible, it doesn't matter how much, you know, how godly of a person you are, but if your health is just down the drain and you don't take care of yourself physically, you know, you're going to go through instances in your life where you just don't feel like reading the Bible. You know, you're just not going to be motivated to go out there and preach the gospel. You're not going to be motivated to go to church, you're not going to be motivated to carry out spiritual disciplines because God uses His body as a conduit in order to perform those things. And so all of those are woven, all of those are intertwined. So we can't think that, you know, one aspect of our being can be affected or influenced without affecting the other, okay. You will be affected spiritually if you get involved in, you know, hallucinogens and psychedelics and things of that nature. There is a satanic element to that. And that's not to say that if a woman, for example, experiences hormonal imbalances such as, you know, postpartum depression, that that's not only a physical problem, obviously that is, but it does affect their spiritual life as well. There is a satanic element to that. Satan can definitely use that to carry a person down a dark path, a dark road spiritually. And so another reason why this is important is because sometimes people think, well, because it's only a drug problem or it's only a health problem, therefore if we just fix the health problem, we just get rid of the drugs, we get rid of the alcohol, everything will just level itself out and they'll be just fine. But that's not the way it works. You know, because everything is interwoven, everything needs to be addressed. Not just your physical health, but yeah, how about your Bible reading too? How about your prayer life? Why? Because they're all interconnected, interwoven. And here's the best way to explain this, is there's this myth in the fitness industry and it's called spot reduction, okay? How many of you have ever heard of spot reduction? Where people, you know, they have this thing where it's just like, well, I'm trying to lose my belly fat and so what I'm going to do is like a thousand crunches a day and I'm just going to target my belly by doing a thousand crunches. You guys know what I'm talking about? And I think by doing that, it's just going to remove all the fat there or something. Or it's like, I got a lot of back fat. And so I'm going to just do a bunch of back exercises to target that. But that's actually not the way it works. If you want to get rid of fat, period, you have to what? Diet properly, you also have to exercise, you have to move around and fidget more. I mean, it's like a holistic approach that you have to take when you want to lose fat. It's not just like, okay, I'm going to do this to get rid of the unconditional love handles or something. This is going to help with my unconditional love. It's not, just you got to fix your diet, you got to exercise, you got to take a holistic approach. Well, when it comes to spiritual matters, physical matters, we got to take a holistic approach to it. And here's what people air sometimes. It's just like, I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm like, I don't know if it's my health or if this is just a spiritual matter. I don't know if I'm just like struggling or whatever. I just don't know the answer. And here's the answer. It's probably both. You know, it's probably your health, but it's also probably the fact that you don't read the Bible, that you don't pray. Just address both. Right? Read the Bible, pray, be spiritually disciplined as you are also fixing your health, as you're also fixing your mind and filling your mind with godly things and getting rid of the filth, okay? And the ideologies that can cause you to think unbiblically in a lot of areas. And so this morning, I want to talk about both of these things as far as possession and oppression. Now, in Mark chapter 5, we have the famous story of the demoniac of Gadara. And it says there in Mark chapter 5, verse number 1, it says, And they came over into the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. Now, Gadarenes, Gadara, Gersones, these are all used interchangeably to describe just the same area. You'll find that word used indiscriminately throughout the gospels to describe this particular area of the demoniac. And one thing that I want to explain regarding this story is that when you read Mark chapter 5, you know, Mark chapter 5 actually talks about the fact that there met him of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, whereas in Matthew chapter 8, you actually have two that are possessed with the devil. And sometimes people will point to this as a contradiction and say, Hey, there's a contradiction in the gospels. Mark chapter 5 says that there's only one possessed. However, Matthew chapter 8 says that there's two that are possessed. What's going on here? Well, when you read Matthew chapter 8, you see that it's a far more condensed synopsis of the story. The chapter only spends like a couple of verses explaining that particular event, whereas Mark 5 obviously spends more time talking about giving you more of the details of the demoniac. And the reason I believe Mark is actually talking about only one, whereas Matthew is talking about both, is because Mark is kind of highlighting the predominant one. He's highlighting the one who not only was exercised of the demons, but also the one who actually chose to what? Follow the Lord Jesus Christ, because he actually wanted to go with the Lord, and the Lord said, Go home and tell thy friends what great things God hath done for thee. He went and published in Decapolis all the wonderful works of God. And so I believe Mark is more so focused on the man who actually did something after he was exercised of his demons. Another reason why I think Mark is more so focused on this particular guy is because of the fact that, in my opinion, the one in Mark chapter 5 is actually the one who is possessed with the legion of demons, whereas the other one is probably just possessed with one. But when you look at the parallel passages in Luke, for example, it says that he had the legion. So it's possible that he's the one who had these thousands of demons within him and was exercised of that. So this is not a contradiction. It's just simply two accounts of one that's highlighting or emphasizing one person, and the other one just kind of giving you the general story of both. And so we have this man who, in verse number 2, it says, And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. So let's talk about demonic possession for the first part of the sermon here. What is demonic possession or what is a demon? You know, obviously, the word demon is not found in your Bible, but it is in the original languages. It's a common word that's used in the original languages. And it simply means devil or unclean spirit. And in fact, it tells us here that it's an unclean spirit that he's possessed with. And the reason the Bible refers to these fallen angels as unclean spirits is because it's kind of giving us this connotation here that it's a spirit that contaminates, right? It's involved in the aiding of sin, the destruction of human life. They are those who pervert individuals and perverts the world, things of that nature. And obviously, we know that when we study the word of God, there is definitely a hierarchy of demons in this world, right? Just as there's a hierarchy of angels in this world and God has a specific order, Satan also has a specific structure or order that he uses in this world to carry out, you know, his satanic activities. And the Bible specifically tells us in Ephesians chapter 6, it talks about the principalities, powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world addressing these satanic entities. And in fact, when you read the Old Testament, for example, you'll often find stories of specific demonic entities that are ruling over kings, right? You know, Lucifer, you have the king of Tyrus, and they have this demonic entity that's kind of influencing them to carry out his will in that particular part of the world. And what does that teach us? It teaches us that probably nothing's changed in that regard, okay? You know, I'm sure even today in 2024, you know, we're going to find out what satanic entity is going to take over, amen? You know, in the next week or so or two weeks. But the reality is this, is that, you know, the leaders of this world, according to the Bible, are being influenced by some sort of satanic entity, and so it's important for us to understand that. Now, when you're dealing with demons, for example, there are possessing people, it might be that these are like literally the bottom of the barrel type demons who are just sent to kind of vex, you know, the population and cause people to have strongholds in their mind. And it's not just so, you know, to kind of destroy them physically, but it's literally to leave them in deception, because Satan's greatest method to hinder people from hearing the gospel is deception. And so he's trying to set up strongholds in the mind of the population so they can essentially never hear the gospel or don't understand the gospel, okay? That is Satan's goal for this world, and so obviously his minions go about doing so. Look at verse 3, let's look at some of the characteristics of the demonically possessed. First and foremost, the demonically possessed can often have supernatural strength. It says in verse 3, referring to the demoniac, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Why? Verse 4, 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. So this guy obviously has supernatural strength, not something that he has naturally as a man, but because he has this legion of demons possessing him, he's able to just take handcuffs, for example, and just burst them asunder. No one can tame him, they can't calm him down, they cannot control him, you know, and so they kind of just leave him in the graveyard, dwelling among the tombs. Now this is something that you've probably seen today, okay, and most often it's with people who are involved in drugs, you know, they take meth or whatever, or crack or whatever it is, and you have like five police officers trying to tame them and control them and arrest them, and they're able to just kind of like, you know, throw them off of them and just push people away, and you know, they're tasing them, and they're just like, and they're just kind of like, you know, they have this supernatural strength, well that's from the drugs, yeah, but it's possible that there's a satanic entity involved as well, and I'm not just saying that because, you know, they're able to do that, but because of the fact that we have examples of that in the Bible, of people who have this supernatural power. Now go to, stay there in Mark chapter 5, go to Acts chapter 19, Acts chapter 19 if you would, so the demonically possessed can often have supernatural strength, albeit sometimes it's, you know, due to drugs and taking these hallucinogens that can increase their strength so to speak, but again, there's also a satanic element involved as well. Now let's look at an example of this in Acts chapter 19 in verse 11, it says in verse 11, and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, the apostle Paul, so that from his body were brought into the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. So he's obviously performing what we would call today exorcisms, he's able to just kind of call demons out and they are released from the people that they are possessing. Verse 13 says, Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. So what's going on here? Well you have these Jews, and they're seeing Paul do this, they're like, okay, you know, seems pretty simple, you know, I think anybody can do this job, and they're exorcists, so they essentially go to the demon possessed, and they say, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. So they have this superstitious view of Jesus, the name of Jesus, so to speak, where they think they can just use the name of Jesus, even though they're not saved, they're not apostles, they're not given that unction and that authority to do so, and they're like, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, look at verse 14, And there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jew and a chief of the priest which did so, and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are ye? Now that's pretty embarrassing if you think about it. They're like, Well I've heard of, I know Jesus, because he's going to come and torment us one day, we know Paul, because that's an apostle, but I'm sorry, what's your name? I'm sorry, we've never met before. And they're about to get a rude awakening. And keep in mind, this is one man saying this, but these are seven sons that are trying to perform this miracle. Verse 16 says, And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them. In modern terms we would say that he whooped them. And it says, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. So one guy takes on seven, you know they're trying to jump him spiritually, and he just takes all of them. Not only does he take them, he injures them, and he strips them of their clothing, and obviously shames them because you know there's seven of them, and they were not able to cast them out. Now how was he able to do this? Well I'll tell you how, it's because he's possessed, and he has obviously the supernatural strength in order to be able to accomplish this incredible physical feat. And so this is something that is very common, we see this in the Bible, but we even see it today. And unfortunately sometimes we'll look at someone out in the streets who is acting erratically, or they're taking off the tasers, or they're not affected by human strength, trying to oppose them, and we just think, oh that person is just on drugs. And yeah, you might be right, but only 50% right. Because the other 50% could be that they're just possessed with the devil. Okay, go back to Mark chapter five if you would, Mark chapter number five, they have supernatural strength. Not only that, but the demonically possessed can often be self-destructive. Okay, now we know that when a person is harming themselves, that has to be demonically motivated. Why is that? I'll tell you why. Because the Bible says that no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourished it and cherished it, the Bible says. So obviously, you know, naturally we're just really selfish. And we like to take care of ourselves, we like to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, pamper ourselves, you know, we like to take care of ourselves. So it's obviously the complete opposite, it's another foreign entity that is obviously encouraging that person to hurt themselves. And actually we saw this yesterday in Mexico. Brother Alex, who apparently is fluent in Spanish now, he's like talking to people in Spanish, and where's that gringo at? He's around here, he's over there somewhere. But he was preaching the gospel to this group of teenagers, and you know, one of them was really receptive, but one of them just looked super liberal, like just emo-liberal type, you know? And here's the thing, I'll witness to anybody, okay? I don't care how you look, but this person was just like not having it. She did not want to listen, and she was making faces at Alex the entire time, and Alex was oblivious to it, he didn't even know that she was doing that. But when you look at her arms though, her arms are just filled with cuts on both sides, just all types of wounds and cuts all over. Obviously this person is harming themselves, they're cutting themselves, that's like a thing, right? And I don't know if this person is involved in drugs, but here's the thing, drugs aren't needed to do that, although people who are drug-induced do things like that because they imagine insects burying into their skin and they're picking that stuff out. But sometimes people who do that are satanically possessed or even influenced. Why? Because the demonically possessed can often be self-destructive, they have self-harm. Look at verse 5 of Mark 5, And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, and listen to this, cutting himself with stones. So what is that? That's self-harm, he's cutting himself, and we have examples of this in the Old Testament, where the prophets of Baal, Baal's another word for the devil or satan, in order to invoke Baal to perform a supernatural miracle on the sacrifice, they're taking stones, they're cutting themselves, they're slicing their arms, bleeding out in order to invoke Baal. So obviously that is a satanic action, satanic behavior that we see there. Now go to Mark chapter 9, you're in Mark 5, hold your place there and go to Mark chapter 9, let's look at another example of this, Mark chapter 9 and verse 17, Mark chapter 9 and verse 17 says, And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he fometh and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away, and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answered him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you, bring him unto me? And they brought him unto him, and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming, and he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And oftentimes it cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him, but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe all things are possible to him, that believeth. So we have an example here of a person who's been demonically possessed for years, since they were a child, and it says here that the demon throws him into the fire, it throws him into the waters trying to kill the person, right? But not only that, we see that there's also a form of seizures that these demonic entities are performing on this particular person because they fall down and wallow in foaming, it says. Now what this reminds me of is not necessarily the demonically possessed that you find in the streets out there, but rather the demonically possessed that you find in churches. Namely the Pentecostal Charismatic type churches. Because when you see, you could just quickly YouTube it, there's plenty of evidence out there that the Benny Hinn types, slapping people on the forehead or claiming to exorcise people, and isn't it interesting is that when they are healed of a particular demon, why is it that they fall over and start wallowing and shaking and doing all these things that, according to the Bible, are indications that they're possessed, not exorcised from that demonic possession? You know, it's just like they touch them, they fall over, and they just start, you know, having a seizure, and it's like, all right, he's good to go. Well actually, they probably just transferred a demon to that poor person. Why? How do you know? Because when we compare it to the Bible, the Bible says that those are physical indications that that person is possessed, because they're falling down on the ground, they're wallowing, foaming, they're being torn, they're having what we would call a seizure today, and that is an indicator that that person is being demonically possessed. That's why that stuff is not of God, my friends. The Pentecostal Charismatic movement is not of the Lord, it's not biblical, it's a sensual type of a wisdom that ascends not from above, it's earthly, sensual, devilish, and look, you don't even have to be a Christian to know that stuff is way off, okay? It'll freak anybody out. You go there as a visitor, and you see someone being exorcised, and they're like sizzling bacon on the floor, and they're foaming, and they're screaming and all these things. Obviously, some of that stuff is probably fake, but I'm sure a lot of it is demonically possessed. They're demonically possessed, they are being influenced by a demon. And you say, well, who's the one who's doing it? The pastor is! He's got enough to go around, he's probably got a legion himself. He's probably generous with his demon exorcisms. And so go back to chapter 5, if you would. And this is extreme, but you see people who are drug-induced, and you'll find sores on their body, they're digging into their flesh, they're destroying themselves, they're harming themselves, they have these delusions. That is satanic. And obviously, it's not just unsaved people that it can happen to. Obviously, I believe even saved people can be influenced to have that type of attitude and have that stronghold and participate in things like that. That is satanic. But more often than not, I believe that they are demonically possessed when that happens. Now let's look at another verse here, look at verse number 6. We also see that the demonically possessed can often recognize divine authority. This is in verse 6. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he, referring to the man who's possessed, 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 adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. What do we see here? What we see is what James chapter 2 talks about, that the devils also believe and tremble. So satanic entities obviously know the Son of God, and in fact, they know their end because they're like, Oh, wait, hold on a second. You know, you're coming to torment me before the time? It's not time yet. They have this fear, they have this absolute, absolutely afraid and this terror, they have this terror of God. They know that what their destination is. They know they're going to be going to hell. And, you know, they can, they can spot men of God, they can spot Christians, they can spot individuals who are serving God, and they recognize them. I've had this happen even before I was a pastor, where you have people who are just demonically possessed, and in a crowd of people, they'll just spot you. And they're just like, they're just kind of like pointing, it's just like, whoa, you know? And I've had it happen as a pastor. He said, what do you do? I just, you know, I just observe, because I don't believe in exorcisms today. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later. But we see that they do recognize men of God, they do recognize Christians, okay? And in fact, I remember there's a story that my wife's uncle, he's a missionary, and he said when he got saved, he got saved when he was young, probably like when he was about 20 or something. And he got saved, and he was serving God, but then he backslid really hard. And he ended up going to like a rock concert of some sort, and some classic rock type, you know, concert. And he went to this concert, and he knew it was hard that he shouldn't be there. He's just like, man, this is not right for me to do. I'm a Christian now, like I know what the Bible says. But he was so backslidden that he just ended up going. And you know, he gets out of the car, he's with his friends, and it's just not necessarily a Christian atmosphere, okay? There's a lot of bad stuff happening there, drugs and all types of things. And you know, there's like hundreds of people there in the parking lot, and there's like a crowd of people that are kind of like circling this woman. And this woman's like in the middle, and he goes, he's like, what's all the commotion about? So they go there, and she's kind of acting erratically, and she's saying that she's a witch, and just saying all this weird stuff. And everyone's just kind of like laughing, and they're just like kind of egging her on. Hundreds of people. And so my wife's uncle kind of goes through the crowd, and then she's just like, Christian, you know? She points him out. And he said it scared the fire out of him. His heart dropped, and he's like, I'm out of here. I'm not coming, you know? So he's like, this woman just like revealed who I am, you know what I mean? So it's probably embarrassing to him, because he knows that, first and foremost, he shouldn't be there. He shouldn't be involved in that. And yet, you know, the Lord allowed that to happen. The point that I'm making here is obviously devils understand and they know if you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, they can, I don't know, sense that, but they know it. We see that in the Bible. Not only that, but we also see that people can often be possessed with multiple devils, right? It says in verse 9 of Mark chapter 5, and he asked them, what is thy name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion, for we are many, showing us that there's thousands of demons that can be possessed, that can possess an individual. That's what happened to this person. Look at verse 10, and he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was nigh unto 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 forwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out, entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. There were about 2,000, and were choked in the sea. So we see also that according to the Bible, demons can also possess animals. Now, I don't know if I've ever seen that personally, like a demon-possessed dog or demon-possessed animal, but I will say this, though. If you ever see a coyote that has rabies, it looks like they're demonically possessed. They're very rabid, and you would almost think that this thing does have some sort of demon aside from its physical ailment that it's experiencing. And we see here that the Lord obviously doesn't really care if 2,000 pigs die. Right? And so this is a great proof here that although the Lord esteems animals and they play a role in this world, it's kind of nothing to Him to actually save a person and allow 2,000 swine to just perish in the water. You know why? Because people are more important than animals. Okay? Yes, people are more important than your dog, than your cat, or cats, you know? And any animal that you have, people are more important. Okay? And the proof of that is found here in Mark chapter 5 that God allowed 2,000 of them to completely perish, and He didn't bat an eye, it didn't bother Him at all. He was just like, they went, they drowned in the water, and He was able to save this person from destructive behavior, and of course this person we know got saved. Now, another thing that we see, go to Acts chapter 16, hold your place here in Mark chapter 5. Go to Acts chapter 16. When it comes to the demonically possessed, it can actually exhibit repetitive behavior. I don't know if you've ever seen this before, but I remember going to, years ago when we started a church in the city of Maywood, I would go to this, it's kind of like a rehab center, but it was kind of like a half-rehab, half-insane asylum, and I would go there, sometimes I would even take, Brother Marcus would come with me, and we'd go there and just witness to the patients. And it was just an incredible experience. It was very scary many of the times. You just find all types of people, you just find all types of different people there, violent people, people who have lost their minds, and just not normal people. But we went there, and we got a lot of people saved there, and it was a blessing to be there, but it was quite an experience. It was actually in a lot of ways terrible to see people in that type of condition. But I remember one specific instance, I think Brother Marcus was with me at that time, but we went and we ran into this guy, he was in a wheelchair, and we were talking to him, he was very quiet, he seemed very kind, and we were just like, hey, do you go to church? Do you know about God? And trying to give him the gospel. And then he's like, yeah. And then he starts rolling his chair and he takes us to his room. And after about 30 minutes or so, in between all the questions that we're asking him, he would only give five specific answers for everything. And we weren't catching on at first, but then we realized he's saying the same thing over and over again. And after a while, no matter what question we gave him, he would just answer, use one of the five phrases in his Rolodex or whatever. And then after a while, we're just like, something's wrong here, this person's not all there, he can't seem to answer any other question, he just says these same five phrases, no matter what we're talking about. And he had a bunch of other issues, he showed us a lot of weird, disgusting stuff, and we're like, all right, it's time to go, this person's not gonna be able to receive the gospel. But here's the thing is that when you think about this, you know, I do believe it's demonic possession, but today, you know, schizophrenia, for example, can cause what's referred to as preservation, okay? And which is the repetition of speech, thoughts, and behaviors. And it can also cause echolalia, which is an automatic and involuntary repetition of words or phrases that someone else has said. So sometimes this is actually very common amongst those who have that condition of schizophrenia, that they will often repeat a series of words over and over again. Or if you've ever been in the presence of someone who has schizophrenia, you'll say something, you'll say a particular sentence, and they'll kind of just repeat the last three words of that sentence. They'll just kind of echo you. That's called echolalia. They can only repeat those things. And obviously, we know, maybe it's because of drugs, they fry their brain or whatever. But again, I do believe it's demonic possession as well, since we have an example of that in the Bible, okay? Look at Acts chapter 16 and verse 16. Acts 16, verse 16 says, And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed what the Spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. You're like, oh, great. It sounds great, it sounds good, right? But look at verse 18. And this did she many days. Meaning, she only repeated this phrase over and over and over and over again for many days. And it says, But Paul being grieved, turned aside and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and he came out of her the same hour. And of course, that caused a bunch of problems. They ended up going to prison because of that. And you have the Philippian jail you're getting saved thereafter. But the point that I'm making here is that Paul was able to discern, even though this person is saying the right things, obviously it's not coming from a heart that actually believes the truth. This person is being demonically influenced, possessed by a devil, who's simply repeating something that maybe these men have talked about while they were there on their trip in Philippi, okay? And so they're just repeating this, repeating this, repeating this. And that is because the demonically possessed can often exhibit that repetitive behavior. And obviously, there's other things that the demonically possessed have. They're paranoid. They can often have these strong delusions and imagine that people are following them. They can imagine that they're seeing individuals, having conversations with people. This is all satanically influenced. Now, what is the solution for these people? Because sometimes people look at individuals like that in the world and say, well, they're hopeless, you know? You can't help someone like that. How do you help someone like that? Well, here's the thing. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And so the solution to the demonically possessed is salvation. Now, let me say this is that it's not exorcisms. Exorcisms don't exist. Don't buy into the Roman Catholic lie that the priests are going there with holy water. I adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preaches, you know? You're watching too many exorcism movies, okay? Exorcisms do not exist. Satan cannot cast out Satan, okay? You say, well, then explain to me then. You know, if we have exorcisms in the gospels that are in the Bible, why are you saying that that's no longer a legitimate practice of today? Well, if you've actually studied the New Testament, you'll see the exorcisms actually stopped during the book of Acts, okay? So between the gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles, there's a very obvious shift on how people deal with demons. Now, how do we know that? Well, because, you know, obviously, you have the gospels. They're casting out devils. And in the book of Acts, they're casting out devils. But then when these same apostles are writing epistles giving instructions on spiritual warfare in those epistles, they don't say cast them out in the name of Jesus, right? You see, Jesus instructed the apostles to do that. But then when the apostles instruct believers, they say we war not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, take on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. It tells us to cast down imaginations. So there's an obvious shift that has taken place where after the book of Acts, after the gospels and the book of Acts, the way we deal with demons is not the same way they did, okay? We don't have to exercise them anymore. There's no instruction in the epistles to cast out demons in the name of Jesus. It doesn't exist. Now, there's a major movement out there, you know, namely, again, the charismatics. And in fact, there's a documentary out there called In the Name of Jesus where they literally promote exorcisms, okay? And they're talking about the spirit of the crow and the spirit of birds, the turkey spirit is possessing this person and all these nonsensical things. But at the end of the day, you know what it is? It's just a smorgasbord of demons just possessing all those people there, okay? And so, you know, exorcism is not a thing anymore. And people think, like, well, the apostles, well, the apostles did it, yeah, but you're not an apostle, though. Apostles no longer exist. You know, the apostles were also able to be bitten by a viper and have nothing happen to them. You want to try that? No, because it's not a safer, you know, you could actually fake the other one, but you can't fake this one, right? Let's go ahead and throw a black mamba at you and see how you do. Since you're able to just exorcise demons, let's just go ahead and have you drink venomous, you know, venom from a cobra or something and see if you just survive that. It's not going to happen. Why? Because you're not an apostle. God specifically gave that to the apostles in order to confirm the message that they were preaching. In order to essentially accelerate the churches of the New Testament, the apostles were used as the foundation of the New Testament, and what was their credentials? Well, how about this? Boom, you know, cast out a devil. How about this? Heal this person. I'm of God. And they're just like, say less, all right? This message is brought to you in part by Jesus Christ, right? So they're performing all these miracles because that's what Mark 16 says, that they're confirming the word with miracles following. So they're doing this in order to create the foundation of the local New Testament church. But now, after the Book of Acts, because the churches have significant momentum in the gospel, you know, these miracles are no longer necessary. That was a New Testament phenomenon used in order to accelerate the New Testament churches, okay? And so, you know, don't believe these pastors smacking people on the forehead. And, you know, can I share these stories? Let me share two more stories about my experience with this, okay? I always tell these stories, but they're the funniest stories ever, and I love them. You know, one time at my old church, you know, this guy had gotten saved, and he really liked the church. He's like, wow, Baptists are so much different. He's like, I used to go to a Pentecostal. I went to a Pentecostal church. My friend took me to a Pentecostal church, and they're doing, like, exorcisms. They're doing, like, speaking in tongues and stuff. And so he's like, you know, his friend came up to him, and he's like, come on, you're gonna come up and speak in tongues. He's like, oh, no, no, no, I don't know how to do that. He's like, no, no, no, the Spirit's gonna come upon you. You're gonna do it. He's like, no, no, no, no, you know. And so he was like, I was so nervous, because I legitimately did not know how to speak in tongues. And by the way, no one does, okay? Tongues is not a divine language which only God can understand. You know, tongues, according to the Bible, is a known language, okay? Tongues, according to the charismatic movement, is just this gibberish, this incoherent speech, okay, that is essentially them, you know, just trying to show how godly they are by being able to speak this language. So, you know, this guy, he goes up to the front, and he's just like, oh, man, I'm so done. Like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. But he said, fortunately, I remembered, you know, this street fighter. And he said that, like, he went up there, and he goes, all I did was go, arectectectuken, arectectectuken. And they bought it. They're like, that passes, you know. And so all he did was that, and they believed it, and he just sat down, and he's just like, phew, you know. But there's probably more doctrine in arectectectuken than there is in whatever these other people are doing, okay? There's another story of a pastor who is fluent in Greek, and he was very much, you know, an adversary of the charismatic movement. And one time he passed by a church, and they're speaking in tongues. He's like, I'm gonna mess with these people, okay? So he goes in there, and he's like, they're like, who's got a tongue? And he's like, oh, me. He's like, but I need an interpreter, because according to the Bible, you need an interpreter, right, to interpret the tongues. So he's like, the guy, one guy's like, I'll be the interpreter. He goes out there, and he quotes John 3.16 in Greek. And then the interpreter starts saying whatever, you know, his own interpretation or whatever. And then the guy says, you're a liar, you're wrong. I just quoted John 3.16 in Greek. See you guys. And everyone's just like, that was embarrassing. The point that I'm making here is the fact that, I don't even know what I, oh, exorcisms, okay? I don't know how that ties into exorcisms, but, you know, I've been to, I remember being a teenager going to a Pentecostal church. It was my aunt's Pentecostal church, okay, as it is with all of us. We always have this amp. But, you know, they're performing exorcisms there, and I do remember seeing people fall on the ground and wallow and foam, and it was terrifying, to say the least, for a kid. But that stuff does not exist anymore, you know. And here's the thing, you know, the gospel is the most powerful tool to help relieve someone from that possession of the demonic entity. And obviously it's not just the gospel that will help them, because if they have, you know, sinful habits that are embedded into their body, into their brain, the gospel provides the Holy Spirit that will enable them to live a godly life, right? But, you know, they need to get into church, they need to read the Bible, they need to pray, they need to live a righteous life. And here's the thing, the Bible says, greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. And so if you have the Spirit of God within you, you can overcome these things and no longer be possessed, okay? And so salvation is the only solution to the demon possessed. Go to Matthew chapter 12 if you would, Matthew chapter number 12. Now the reason I say that is because of the fact that, you know, a lot of times people will look at individuals who have experienced some sort of psychosis, they are experiencing some sort of mental illness, an effect of hallucinogens and psychedelics and things of that nature, and think, well, we just got to get them off the drugs, got to get them off the alcohol, we got to get them off of whatever, stop watching horror movies, you know, stop watching whatever, and this stuff will just permanently go away, you don't need Christianity, you can rehab yourself in a different way. And here's the thing, they're only halfway right, okay? Because if this person is demonically possessed and they turn over a new leaf, they're actually going to become worse later on. And in fact, look at Matthew 12 verse 43, it says, When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and fineth none. Then he saith, I will return it to my house from whence I came out, and when he is come, he fineth it empty, swept, and garnished. So this person, you know, cleaned up their life, they turned over a new leaf to the point where they're empty, swept, and garnished. But I want you to notice that it says what? Empty. Meaning there's no Holy Spirit indwelling that person. All they did was clean up their life. They repented of their sin, okay? Verse 45 says, Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man is worse than the first, even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. What he's saying, you know, if all you do is fix the leaf problem, but you're not fixing the root, well, you know what, those leaves are going to come back even greater, okay? Because at the end of the day, if you're not getting saved, if you're not saved, you're not reading the Bible, you know, you're not going to have any type of permanence in that victory and overcoming those particular habits. A lot of times people will turn over a new leaf and they just become a worse person thereafter because of the fact that they think the solution is only one-sided. Oh, it's only a mental thing. Oh, it's only a physical problem. Oh, it's only a drug problem. Oh, it's only an alcohol problem. Oh, it's only a pornography problem. No, how about the fact that you just deal with it all? And number one, why don't you just get saved first so that the Holy Spirit of God can dwell within you, you know, and you can be filled with the Spirit, you can walk in the Spirit, not fulfill the lust of the flesh, you can war against the body, you can actually give yourself a fighting chance with salvation, okay? And so changing habits and turning over a new leaf doesn't work if you're not saved. Obviously you might have some sort of temporal victory over that, but, you know, the Holy Spirit is able to enable you to live a godly life, okay? And I'm not saying that you're never going to struggle with sin, thereafter, or be tempted to sin if you've already opened that door, but, folks, let's not rule out the power of the Holy Spirit in someone's life. You'd be surprised, some people are just like, you know, yeah, I used to be involved in this particular sin, after I got saved, I got into church, read the Bible, lived a godly life, I just, I'm so detached from that, I'm not saying I will ever go back to it, but the reality is this, the distance between us is so far because of God, because of the Bible, and things of that nature. And so the Bible has all the answers, amen? I'm going to read to you from Luke chapter 8, and turn with me, if you would, to, go to Acts chapter 5. Luke chapter 8 verse 1 says, And it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him. And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna the wife of Elohim, and many others which ministered unto him of their substance. And by the way, you know the Bible says, in whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And so, it makes it very clear that once you get saved, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit, nothing else can happen. So what is the answer for the demonically possessed? They've got to get saved. And obviously that, you know, it's kind of hard to witness to a demonically possessed person, for sure. And if you've ever tried it, you know that it's hard, especially if they're just kind of erratic. But, you know, they still deserve to hear it, though. And we need to strive to help them to understand these things. And it can happen. You know, people can get saved, and as soon as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within them, that demon has to vacate, and they're no longer going to be possessed. However, after the possession, you know, oppression still can happen. And demonic oppression can happen. And demonic oppression, I would say, is far more prevalent than demonic possession, because it takes place to both saved and unsaved people, okay? Now, how do we know a Christian cannot be possessed with a demon? Because a lot of people say, well, you know, yeah, you say you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And I had you turn to Acts 5, but go to 1 Corinthians 6 as well, please. We're going to read that first, 1 Corinthians 6. You know, how do we know for a fact that, you know, because I've known some Christians that seem to exhibit some demonic behavior sometimes. And you know what, me too. I've seen it. I'm just like, man, you're acting satanic, you know? And I do believe that it's just because that person is just heavily influenced by Satan. I mean, think about this. What did Jesus say to Peter? Get thee behind me, Satan. I mean, talk about an insult. Like, ouch. It's crazy to say, like, you're demonically influenced. I don't believe that Satan was indwelling him, but obviously Satan was influencing him to question the Savior and question the Word of God, question the authority of God, okay? Now, how do we know that a Christian, though, you know, if they're exhibiting these qualities that we would associate with being demonically possessed, how do we know that they're, you know, they're not possessed or something? It's like, well, they're a Christian, they say that they're saved, but they seem to exhibit this bad behavior, this demonic behavior. Well, look at 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 19. It says, Now, what are we talking about? We're talking about demonic possession. It's when a demon seizes the body, seizes the mind, seizes the person, right? Controls them. But it says in verse 20, So when you get saved, you are now essentially possessed by God. Now, here's the difference between demonic possession and God's possession of your body. God's possession of your body does not rule out the fact that you can still use your own will. Because He allows us to exercise our will because God doesn't want robots as children. We love you, we love, you know, just, we just always do right, we always love God. He wants us to will ourselves to love Him. He wants us to choose to love Him. So our bodies are possessed by God because He owns them. He bought them with the price. However, He does not overrule our will. He wants us to choose to do these things, choose to live godly, choose to live righteously. But this does not mean that you cannot be influenced by satanic entities. It's still legitimately a thing. Go to Acts chapter 5 to look at an example of this. Because even though Satan or devils can't possess you, they can still fill your heart with stuff though. They can fill your heart, they can fill your mind, and don't ask me how they do it because I don't know. You know, these things are just kind of like beyond us. We just know they exist. They're able to send you thoughts, they're able to discourage you, they're able to cause you to buy into a lie, into deception. It's very much possible for Christians to be this way. Like, whoa, I don't really know about that. We'll look at Acts chapter 5 verse 1. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold the possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. So what's taking place here? Well, all the disciples are essentially bringing, they're selling things, their possessions, and essentially kind of making a collection of gifts and bringing it to the apostles' feet, right? Barnabas in the previous chapter had just given a great amount. And so what's going on with Ananias and Sapphira? They're just kind of like, well, we want some acclamations, we want some praise, we want to be esteemed. So what they did is that they sold their possessions. They basically said that they were going to give a certain amount. But when they sold the possessions, they kept back part of it, okay? So they were very much dishonest in what they claimed that they were going to give. They kept back part of the price. And we're going to see why they did that. Look what it says in verse 5. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the Lamb? So obviously there's covetousness involved here, right? There is a sense of acclamations that they want to have, but there is also the fact that they are being filled by Satan to lie to the Holy Ghost. Now this is not demonic possession, this is obviously demonic oppression, where he is causing them to become covetous, he's filling their hearts with deception, they're behaving in an ungodly manner. Look what it says in verse 4. While they remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God. So notice that it says that they conceived it in their heart, but it also says that Satan filled their heart. Now what does this teach us? It teaches us that Satan aids us in our temptation. Because every man is tempted when he is drawn away of what? His own lust and enticed. Well guess who kind of streamlines that and accelerates that and promotes that? Satan. Satan sees that these people are covetous, he sees that they're greedy, he sees that they want to be deceptive, and Satan comes and he fills their heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost. And what's the result? Verse 5, Ananias hearing these words, fell down, gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. Now what does it mean to give up the ghost? They died. They just dropped dead. Just imagine you commit to doing something. Let's say you committed to give to the project that we had a couple of months ago, and you just chose not to do it, and then Sunday morning people are just falling over. Probably encourage more people to either not commit or keep their commitments, right? Now obviously the Lord is allowing this in the New Testament in order for the fear of God to fall upon the churches and so that they know like God means business. So I don't think this happens very often. It's a very unique miracle. It's a special miracle. But the point that I'm making here is the fact that Satan was able to influence Ananias and Sapphira to lie. And if Satan could do that to save Christians in the New Testament, and if Satan could do that to save Christians in the New Testament, you don't think he could do that to you? Okay. Now, go with me if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 19, 1 Samuel chapter 19. I mentioned this already, but demons can also aid in the temptation of man. So you know one way that Satan, he can't possess you, but he can oppress you, he can cause you and structure your world, so to speak, to give in to sin. Okay. Give in to your temptations. Aid you in your temptations. The Bible tells us, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God tempteth no man, neither tempteth he any man with evil. And so we have to understand that when we fall into temptation or we allow ourselves to be tempted, God has nothing to do with that. Our wicked heart, our sinful flesh plays a role in that, but guess who's right there also aiding us in that particular action? It's the devil himself. His minions. He plays a role in that. And the Bible calls him the tempter. Now, another thing that demons can do when it comes to demonic oppression is he can vex the righteous. And this is explained in the Bible in various ways. As far as vexing is concerned, a person in Luke chapter 6 was vexed with unclean spirits, and it kind of manifested itself in diseases and health issues. But, you know, sometimes demonic entities can influence or vex your mind against the righteous. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 19, verse 9. And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul. Now, let me make it very clear, Saul was a saved person. The Bible makes it very clear he is a saved individual. When he was right with God, he was turned into another man when the spirit of God would come upon him. He was definitely a saved person. And here is the quintessential proof that Saul was saved, is that when he goes to the witch at Endor, which essentially sealed his fate, by the way, you know, and then Samuel from heaven talks to him, what is the last prophecy of Samuel? Tomorrow, thou and thy son shall be with me. Basically saying, you're going to die tomorrow, so are your sons, but hey, you're going to be with me. And Samuel is not in hell. Samuel is in heaven. Okay? And so Saul is up there right now and, you know, and with Samuel and, you know, he's like, you're right, you know. But it says that the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, and as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand, and David played with his hand. And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall, and David fled and escaped that night. What do we see? We see that Saul is being influenced by a satanic entity to hate David. Okay? And this is why, you know, I know that people who are saved can often be influenced by Satan to attack Christians, to hate on you, or to vex you, or to gossip about you, or to try to harm you, you know. I don't think it's our place to figure out who's saved and who's not. We just know that Satan's involved, because if you think about it, you know, who remembers Joab in the Old Testament? You know, remember what David said of Joab? Isn't the hand of Joab in and all this? Like, he knows, like, Joab's behind all of the scheming and all that. Well, that's like Satan. You know, you got to be able to assess the situation and think to yourself, oh, Satan's involved in this somehow. Like, he's causing people to have strife, division. He's making people's minds evil-affected. Why? Because he's able to oppress people. He's able to vex the righteous with this type of attitude. And if he was able to do it to Saul against David, you know, he could do it to you against me. He could do it to you against your husband. He could do it to you against your wife. He could do it to you against your parents. He could do it to you against just anybody. So that's why it's important that we gird up the loins of our mind and we protect our mind, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. This is why the Bible tells us, cast down imagination. Folks, I don't just quote that verse because it's easy to quote, but it's because it's a true statement. Cast down imaginations. Every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The Bible talks about the strongholds that can be in the mind of a person, even a Christian. Because look, obviously saints, they can't take you to hell. He's not going to make you lose your salvation. He can't do it. So what's his next best step? He has to try to figure out how to deceive you, how to fill your heart with deception, how to make your mind evil-affected against your husband, against your wife, against your boss, against family members, against church members. That is a legitimate thing. That's called vexing the righteous. And if the evil spirit can come upon Saul, my friends, the evil spirit can come upon you as well. Now, you know, I don't believe that there's like a demon of alcohol, a demon of marijuana, a demon of pornography, a demon of, you know, people often talk about things like that. I just think that sometimes, you know, the Bible tells us, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Listen to this, neither give place unto the devil. In other words, you know, you got to be careful that you protect this, you protect this. And you got to keep your mind sober, vigilant for your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He can't possess you, but he can most definitely oppress you. Okay. And you know what he can do? He can cause you to not read your Bible as much. He can cause you not to pray as much. He can cause you not to have faith in God as much. He can cause, he can fill your heart with lies and deception to kind of slow you down. He can cause you to become critical towards your husband. He can cause you to be critical towards your wife, bitter towards your wife. He can cause you to have just a slew of thoughts. That's why it's important that we become experts in thinking right. You know that? As Christians, we need to be the experts at thinking, not just like have other people think for us. We need to think scripturally. We need to think biblically. We need to memorize scripture. We need to memorize the word of God. We need to fill our minds with that which is lovely and of good report and that which is honest, that which is pure, that which is godly. Why? Because this is where the war takes place sometimes. So it's important for us to understand that. Hey, and here's a good way to do it. No media November, amen. I just want to plug that in again. Just kind of plant that seed, okay. You know, as the messenger of God, I'm here to plant this seed. Hey, take advantage of no media November so you're not filling your mind with deception all the time, with anxiety and stress and worry. You're like, I'll hop on after the fifth. And those of you who are laughing know why I said that, you know, because the fifth is the elections. Now you get it. You know, no media November, memorize scripture, memorize the Bible. I mean, is it a bad investment to get rid of social media in November to invest more time in spiritual disciplines? Absolutely not. That's a great investment. Is it a bad investment to get rid of social media for a month so you can exercise yourself rather unto godliness? Absolutely not because it's more profitable, right. And so don't allow yourself to be oppressed by the devil. Take this serious, take this admonition to heart. Now, the last thing I want to leave off with is this, is that, you know, the demoniac, man, this guy was possessed. This guy was naked and he was cutting himself. He just lived his horrible life. But then he came in contact with the savior. He got saved. He got exercise of his demons. And the Bible says that he was sitting in clothes and in his right mind. Right. Like God fixed him. And you know what he did? Nothing at all. No, actually he went home. First he wanted to follow the Lord. But then the Lord said, you know, I actually need you to be a missionary to Damascus. Go talk about the great things that God has done for your life. Go to your house. Go talk to your family. Talk to the people. And you know that's exactly what he did. He went to Decapolis and he published it. And you know what? The Lord has changed your life. You should bring people to church, amen. And here's a great way to do it. Friend Day. Friend Day is a great opportunity for you to publish to those you know what great things that God has done for your life. Okay. And you know, your friends and family, they know how much you go to church now. They know that you're a fanatic. They know you've been radicalized. You know, you don't hang out the way you used to. You're so much different. And you know, you got to be like, yeah, I'm kind of like sitting in clothes and in my right mind now. And so join me on Friend Day so that you can be the same, you know. The point that I'm making here is that, you know, obviously, thank God that we cannot be demonically possessed. But that doesn't mean that we cannot be demonically oppressed. And we need to make sure that we protect ourselves from these satanic attacks because they're always around. Okay. And we don't want to be a paranoid church, by the way, where there's like a demon around every corner or something. We just got to walk with God. Right. Read the Bible. Pray. Win souls to Christ. Think upon the Lord. Think upon others. Think upon the salvation of others. Think about biblical concepts and that which is pleasing in the eyes of God and strive to do your best as a Christian. You'll be fine. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We're so thankful for the extensive teachings of the Bible in this regard. And we pray for those who are demonically possessed. Lord, we know there's a lot of people out there who are not just under the influence of Satan, but they're essentially in bondage to him. And whether it's because of drugs, alcohol, maybe it was trauma of the past, Lord, and bitterness can often turn that turn a person into that. And I pray that you would allow them to still be receptive to the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, because it can cause them to become a person who's sitting in church, clothed in the righteousness of God and in their right mind. And I pray, Lord, that you'd help us as your people as well to protect our minds and our hearts. Lord, help us to be aware of the demonic oppression that exists and to realize, Lord, that it is a real danger. But as long as we're walking with you, Lord, ten thousand can fall on our right side, but it shall not come nine to us. And I pray that you bless us as we go on our way. We love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.