[Video]

“The Gospel of Mark portrays Jesus doing ministry at an intense pace with powerful results:  Healing the sick, empowering the lame to walk, and raising the dead to life.  Wherever he goes, Jesus encounters the least, the last, and the lost and inevitably changes their lives, forever, fully aware of the unseen spiritual forces that surround him.  Jesus’ very words convey an authority not previously encountered among humans.  Today’s story unfolds as Jesus steps out of a boat and onto a deserted shoreline for perhaps his most profound and powerful encounter yet, pushing back the forces of evil once again.” 

“It is said that people didn’t venture down to the cliffs on the eastern side of Lake Galilee after dark.  That’s where the wild man lived!  The insane, naked wild man ate what he could scavenge from the pigs that grazed nearby and slept in the cave tombs among the bones of the dead.  His blood-curdling shrieks could be heard day and night.  It’s no mistake that Jesus disembarks from his boat at the desolate stretch of shoreline under the sea cliffs near the town.  No sooner do his feet touch the soil, the wild man rushes him.  This might have scared off many an unwary traveler, but Jesus, somewhat of a wild man himself, is unmoved.  “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  Swear to God that you will not torture me!”  Such a knowing request betrays his condition.  He is a demoniac, his personality, under the mastery of an evil power.  Feared and rejected by most, the man’s run-in with Jesus is no chance encounter.  “I am called Legion!” he cries.  Overwhelmed by evil forces that have the audacity to beg Jesus to cast them not to hell, but into the nearby herd of swine.  And, remarkably, Jesus agrees to their request and sends them into the pigs, who wind up plunging over the cliff into the lake and drowning.  What kind of prophet is this?  This is the kind of prophet who finds clothes for wild men, dresses him, feeds him and treats him with dignity and respect.  When they come running to see what has happened, the locals find dead pigs, angry farmers, and the untamed, naked, wild man now clothed and in his right mind.  Strong magic has come to their shores, and they beg the strange magician to leave their area quickly.  As Jesus climbs into his boat, the wild man grabs his arm and says, “Let me come with you; I will serve you for the rest of my days.”  Yet, while the demons’ request was granted, the wild man’s is denied.  Sent back home, he goes on forever known as the wild man who was forever changed by the even wilder prophet from Nazareth.”

Dave Hood:  Aren’t you glad that Jesus is still casting out demons?  Isn’t that great to know?  We’re going to be in Mark, Chapter 5 today, so if you have your Bibles, can everyone turn with me to Mark, Chapter 5, starting at Verse 1.  My name is Dave Hood.  I’m the campus pastor at Fort McKinley, if you don’t know me, and we have Rusty from Fort McKinley also, leading music. Didn’t he do a great job today? So, for all of you who have said “I just can’t get down to the Fort,” we thought we would bring the Fort to you; how does that feel?  Is that all right?  Will you pray with me as we begin:  “God, thank you for being a God who casts out our demons, who changes us, and who sends us out in Jesus’ name.  Amen.” 

You know, when I was 10 years old I had a best friend named Billy.  Billy and I were good buds, and he was one of the most popular kids in school, but not for all the regular reasons. You know, he wasn’t athletic, he wasn’t super smart, he wasn’t funny; he wasn’t any of those things.  But Billy was the most popular kid in school because Billy lived in a trailer park right behind the town’s drive-in theater. Are you following me?  And so right behind their trailer there was this kind of corrugated, metal wall that separated the trailer park and the drive-in, and there was a panel missing; I don’t know how that happened!  But there was a panel missing right behind Billy’s trailer.  So, from his room in the back of the trailer, you could sit on his bed and watch whatever movie was at the drive-in.  So we would take his little transistor radio and we would tune into the radio station and every kid in school wanted to spend the night at Billy’s house, because you could watch movies your parents would never let you watch at home!  We saw all kinds of great movies over at Billy’s house.  One day we were over there and we were getting excited for the movie; we didn’t know what it was going to be.  I got popcorn ready and the whole nine yards and on comes the movie, and it’s “The Exorcist.”  And my little 10-year-old brain was flipping out.  I’m watching this movie from behind my pillow, you know?  I had been in church just long enough to know that demons are real and they possess people, but this whole floating above the bed thing and heads spinning around, all that, I mean it was blowing my mind, and it terrified me!  I didn’t sleep for a week, and I got home and I prayed every night:  “God, just please don’t let me get possessed; please don’t let me get possessed.”  It just really kind of shook me.

You know, the Bible tells us that one of the chief jobs of the demons is possession…to take possession of that which rightfully belongs to God.  And do you know that means for you and me?  The Bible tells us that we were bought with a price, that we are not our own, that we belong to God.  So, the demons’ goal is to take possession of those things, and here is how I define possession, lest you think it’s just for people floating above their beds.  Anywhere evil has control on our life, we are possessed.  So it may not be our whole life.  It may just be this one small piece that we haven’t been able or willing to give over to Christ’s Lordship yet or just something we’re struggling with…we have these possessions in our lives.  So, the bad habits we struggle with, or the addictions that have claimed us, the negative attitudes or unhealthy thinking that we have in our minds, these are all demons that possess us. They take possession of that which rightfully belongs to God.  Now, the Bible also tells us that if we name these demons, if we can call them out, we know who they are and how they work; they begin to lose some of their power over us.  So let’s do that today.  Will you help me name some demons that people are struggling with?  What are some of those demons?  Just yell them out.  Fear, yes.  Addiction, yes. Gambling, yes.  Greed, yes.  Anger, definitely.  Envy, Alcohol, Mistrust.  Folks, there are a thousand demons, and we’ve got to be able to name them. 

So, okay in our story today from Mark, Chapter Five, there are three insights that we can learn.  So that we can be on the winning side of this battle for our hearts and our minds.  And the first insight we see is that we’ve got to know what the demons can do.  We’ve got to know their strategy and their game plan, how it works, so that we can recognize it when we see it.  The demons are always looking for a doorway, aren’t they?  Do you know what I mean when I say a “doorway”?  You know, unresolved anger, for instance, can become a doorway through which the demons take possession.  It’s that thing that is displeasing to God.  Maybe it’s some fear or some pride, whatever…we leave that doorway open, and usually for most of us it’s not wide open, is it?  It’s just that little crack.  Just that little bit.  We leave it open, and it becomes a doorway for demons to take possession of our lives.  One of those doorways I think we leave open a lot is the doorway of stress.  Has anybody ever left that door open?  Stress will turn you into a maniac, won’t it?  It will just flat drive you crazy. Maybe you’re not a maniac all the time, but we have all had those stress-induced maniac moments, right?  You know what I’m talking about, where you just “lose your mind.” 

My wife gave me permission to tell this story, lest you think I’m getting myself in trouble. Our oldest daughter, Emily was about to start her first day of school, the first day of Kindergarten.  It’s the first time she’s going off to school by herself. It’s this big family moment for us, you know?  It’s our first daughter going to her first day of school.  So, you know, we do what families do.  We had the big breakfast with smiley face pancakes and we packed her Big Bird backpack and it was just an exciting moment!  And we leave in plenty of time to get to school, and we walk down to our car.  We were living on a college campus at the time, plenty of time to get to school, and we get to our van only to notice that somebody has parked right behind us. We can’t get out; we’re boxed in.  Now, I was kind of irritated, but you mess with Mama Bear, right, you know what I mean!?   I mean my wife is over there with smoke coming out of her ears, just fuming about this thing…you make my baby late for the first day of school… you know, just kind of talking to herself.  I am like, Honey, calm down.    And so I said, well, we will call campus security, we’ll get them over here and we’ll find out whose car it is and we’ll get it moved, no problem; we’ve got time.  It only takes about 15 minutes for them to get here and find out who owns that car, just 15 minutes.  But, I’m telling you, every second, you know, tick… tick…tick…and she is just getting more (Moms, are you with me?) and more and more angry and she’s saying things like, “I just can’t believe this is happening.”  STRESS, right? 

Now, we find this college student, and she comes out (poor kid).  She comes out, just walking out of class like she’s got all day.  And she made the fatal mistake of saying something to my wife. -  something like, “you shouldn’t have parked there to begin with” and that WAS IT!  That was all it took; are you with me on this?  She just lost her mind.  The sweet, kind, loving mother of my children and my wife turned into this sailor who was like, #!@#*>**&*!, you know, just this flow of…… I’m thinking I’m going to have to hold this woman down.  She is like, “I am going to take my car and drive right over your piece of junk!”  I could not believe it!  The stress possessed her and turned this wonderful woman of mine into a maniac. 

Now, I know my wife is not the only maniac in the house.  We’ve all had those “maniac moments.”  You know, where first thing in the morning you burn the toast and it just ruins your whole day or somebody cuts you off in traffic? Or, you get up in the morning and your car won’t start, and it just infuriates you.  Don’t be at my house tonight at about 6 p.m. if the power goes out, and I’m trying to watch the Super Bowl! It’s just those little things.  They creep in through those small cracks and they take possession of who we are.  Do I have any other maniacs in the house?  I’m making sure I’m not the only one.

See, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t underestimate the power of possession, because there is power in it.  In Mark 5:3-4, the bible describes this possessed man with superhuman strength, the strength of ten men, because they tried to chain him up. They tried to tie him up, and he kept breaking out.  He had this incredible power that came with his possession.  Now, any of us who have ever struggled with addiction, we know the “power” of possession.  How it overwhelms us; it grabs onto hearts and minds and won’t let go. You can’t shake it, and it only starts out small, right?  It is just one drink.  It’s just one lottery ticket, just one more click on the computer, or just that one date.  For me, it’s just that one cheeseburger.  You know, just that one.  One more hour of sleep is all I need.  And we’ve all used the one “just this one last time.”  Just this one last time, and before we know it, those issues we have become issues that have us, don’t they?  Other ways that demons maintain their power over us is by cutting us off from community.  They cut us off from each other.  Did you notice where this demon-possessed man lived?  It wasn’t in town, was it?  It was in a graveyard outside of town.  It was in that unclean place.  See, this guy had long since been kicked out of town. He had been socially inappropriate and kind of awkward to be around.  Maybe he was a little dangerous, and parents were worried about their children.  Of course, running around naked all the time didn’t help his cause any, right?  So, these demons had taken possession of him and systematically isolated him from support systems, from people who could help him, from people who cared for him. 

As a pastor, I talk all the time to folks who are wrestling with their own demons, and I hear over, and over, and over again, “I just feel so alone.”  And I have to remind folks we have got to know that is the demon’s strategy – to get us alone.  We’re so much easier to pick off when we are by ourselves.  Have you ever watched Animal Planet or National Geographic and see how lions hunt?  You know, they hunt in these prides and they will search for a herd of water buffalo. And they will pick out the weak and vulnerable one.  And then this pride of lions will surround this herd and systematically separate the weak and vulnerable from the rest of the tribe, to create space and to get others who might be able protect it away until pretty soon; it’s just this one lone water buffalo against a pride of lions.  Have you ever been there…cut off from your community?  Folks, that’s why it is so critical, and I’m so proud of you all, for driving through the snow to get here tonight, because you know the power of community.  You know that this is our “herd,” right?  This is our support system.  These are the people who will protect me, who will love me.  You know, for those of you who come on Wednesday nights to Bible with Brian, you know that those table groups become your support systems.  Your cell groups… these systems of support, because God knows we cannot do it by ourselves.  We are vulnerable.  Demons cut us off from one another, and in the end if we allow possession to go unchecked, if we don’t do something about these doors that we are leaving open all the time, possession will kill us.  It will end out lives. 

This guy who was possessed, the Bible describes him as standing on the cliff wailing and screaming day and night and cutting himself with stones.  He was systematically self-destructing….piece by piece by piece.  John 10:10 tells us that the thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy.  That is the strategy – to steal and to kill and to destroy.  But Jesus goes on to say, BUT.  Oh, it’s really important that we don’t miss that word, isn’t it?  But, I have come that they might have life and have it to the fullest. A full life.  So that second insight we gain from this story is not just about what the demons can do but about what Jesus can do.  See, there is the rest of the story…We’ve got to step into this knowing that Jesus can transform me from a maniac to a miracle.  Right?  Take me from maniac to miracle.  I love it that in the story Jesus has barely stepped foot out of the boat, right, and he’s got one foot on shore and the demons had seen him coming.  They come running to Jesus.  And what is the first thing they do?  They fall down on their knees and beg Jesus, please, Son of God, don’t torture us.  Sometimes we think that the battle between good and evil is kind of like this epic struggle between two equal forces.  We look at it like Star Wars, you know, you’ve got the good side of the force and the bad side of the force. But that’s not the way it is at all.  Jesus barely steps out of the boat, hasn’t said a word yet, and the battle is over, isn’t it?  They know they’re beat!  They don’t have a leg to stand on; they know they cannot stand in the presence of Jesus because Jesus has power over evil.  He says go, and what do they do?  Go.  Just one word.  John 16 tells us that “I’ve told you these things so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.” Oh, Church, can I get an Amen on that one?

 In this world you WILL have trouble.  There will be snowstorms, right?  Your spouse will not always agree with you.  Your parents will drive you nuts.  Your kids will be crazy.  Your boss will be annoying.  Your neighbors will park in your driveway.  I mean, in this world you will have trouble…BUT.  Oh, there’s that word again.  “Take heart,” Jesus says.  “For I have overcome the world.”  See, this was not a fair fight to begin with.  Jesus had this battle won before he even stepped foot on shore, and the demons knew it. 

See, we’ve got to step into this battle for our hearts and minds, knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that if God is for me (say it with me), who can be against me?  Now, some of you are sitting here thinking, you know, Pastor, that’s nice for you but my issues are way too big.  You don’t know the things I have seen, you don’t know the things I have done, you don’t know where I have been.  I love it that in this story it tells us that nothing is too big for God.  Jesus asked this demon-infested man, “What is your name?”  And he says, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”  Now, in Roman culture, a legion would have been as many as 6,000 soldiers.  There could’ve been as many as 6,000 demons in this one guy.  But Jesus says go, and they went.  Right into the pigs in this very visual display, into the pigs, over the cliff…destroyed.  Jesus says nothing is too big for me. 

Here’s the hope, folks, whether you are wrestling with one demon, 6, 600, 6,000 or 6,000,000, it doesn’t matter!  There is nothing too big for God.  There is no distance that you can run that is so far away from God that God cannot bring you back.  There is no hole that you can dig so deep that God’s Hand of Grace cannot pull you back out of.  There is no such thing as evil too bad for God.  There is no such thing as darkness that the Light of the world cannot bring in and shine it clear as day.  There is nothing too big for God, even you.  So, Jesus can take all of our maniac moments and turn us into miracles.  Now, the demons are gone from this guy, right?  They are in the pigs, off the cliff, and gone.  But the interesting thing is…do you know he is still possessed?  He is still possessed, only now he is possessed by Jesus.  He’s got a new driver in the seat.  He’s got a new purpose on life.  He’s got a new direction to go in.  He’s been given his humanity back, his dignity back, and Jesus has said, “You are important and valuable, and I love you.”  He is possessed by Jesus.  Folks, that is what I want to be. I want to be possessed by Jesus. 

In Romans 6, it tells us now that you have been set free from sin, now that your demons have been cast out, we’ve become possessed by God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  We can be possessed by God.  Now, this story is not just about what demons can do and finding insights about what Jesus can do, but it is also that insight about what WE can do – you and I.  We’ve got a role to play in this.  Jesus goes one step further, right.  He takes this maniac, turns him into a miracle, and then he sends him out on a mission.  This guy comes to Jesus, and he says, “Jesus I want to go with you wherever you go.  I will follow you all of the days of my life because here is the reality, Jesus; there is nothing left here for me.  I have burned all my bridge.  There is not a single person here who has any patience for me anymore; they have seen me mess up; they have seen me at my worst.”  But what does Jesus say?  He says “no; don’t come with me, that’s the easy way.  Here’s what I want you to do.  I want you to go home.”  Now, how many of us know that our homes are the most difficult mission fields there are?  Our families are the people who know us. They were there when we gave into our demons, and they have seen us mess up.  You know, Jesus says I’ve got a bigger mission for you…go home.  And he says, “Tell what the Lord has done for you.  Tell what the Lord has done for you.  Tell your story!”  Church, I want you to know that there is no more powerful tool that we have in our lives than our story – our maniac/mission story. 

We need to share; I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind and now I see. Our story is powerful; people can argue with your philosophies, your theology and your politics.  But they cannot argue with a changed life.  I was a miracle because God transformed me out of being a maniac.  And now God is sending me on a mission. 

I want to invite you to pray with me:  Father, we just thank you.  We thank You for Your promise that there is nothing too big for You.  I thank You for as many times as I have messed it up, God, that You keep coming back, You keep forgiving me.  And, God, I know, I know that in this room we are filled with miracles ready to happen.  So, God, send us out.  Do something amazing in each one of us as You bring us to this table; change us, heal us, cast out our demons, and send us on a mission.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.