So if you got a Bible, we're going to be in Luke chapter 11.
And this is a pretty wild part here of the scripture.
And we'll be in verses 14 through 26.
And last time we ended up talking about the Holy Spirit and asking for the Holy Spirit.
And that's okay.
And Matthew, it says when you ask, will not the Lord give good gifts?
But here in Luke, it says the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.
And so you have not because you ask not.
And like I mentioned, you know, the Holy Spirit's kind of scary to some people.
But I ended with the fact is I'm not afraid of anything the Holy Spirit wants to do in my life.
Amen?
I'm not afraid of any of that. I've seen it abused. I've seen it, you know, be, you know, people
get spiritually prideful in the gifts that God gives them, and God doesn't take back the gifts, right?
He doesn't take them back. They still have it. But you just can't operate in pride. It's just so
destructive. And I think we saw that years ago when they had the Toronto blessing and the Brownsville
movement and all this crazy stuff that was happening.
And one gal said, well, it just comes upon me.
The anointing just comes upon me.
And somebody asked her, says, well, do you have a job?
Well, yeah, I have a job.
Does the anointing come on you at your job?
Oh, no.
Who in the world would want the anointing of the Holy Spirit on them at their job to be a witness for Jesus, right?
Isn't that primarily what the Holy Spirit does?
He says, you go and wait, right?
Axe.
Go and wait.
And you will receive power from on high to be what?
To be my witnesses.
That word literally means martyr.
That you're willing to die, right?
As a witness to Jesus.
And the only way you can do that is by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And so we see the flip side of that coin.
Well, it's not really the flip side.
It's just the dark side of the spiritual world here in this passage that we're going to look at.
And so read with me.
We're going to just go, I'm just going to read all 12 verses.
And it says, and he was casting out a demon.
And it was mute.
So it was when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke and the multitudes marveled.
But some of them said he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.
others testing him sought from him a sign from heaven but he knowing their thoughts said to them
every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and a house divided against a house falls
if satan also is divided against himself how would his kingdom stand because you say i cast out demons by beelzebub
and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.
But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in place. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he tries.
trusted and divides his spoils. He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me
scatters. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest. And finding
none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept
and put in order. When he goes and then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than
himself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
Shall we pray?
Lord, thank you.
Thank you for a powerful word here.
Lord, that this demonic thing is just, it seems to be on the rise.
It seems to be more manifest, Lord, in nations and in societies.
And even in cultures, Lord, that seems.
to love death. And so, Lord, I just pray that as we look at this, that we can discern that you
would give us wisdom as your people. Lord, that just as Paul was convinced that you had called
him to bring people from the power of Satan to the power of God, Lord. And so, Lord, I just pray that
as your people, we would be that salt and light, that we would have that anointing of your
Holy Spirit being able to be witnesses in this world of darkness, Lord. And we know that it's around us,
Lord, so I pray that we would, Lord, just be aware and keep our head on a swivel, spiritually speaking,
and be ready for whatever comes our way. And Lord, that you would teach us, Lord, teach us to trust you
and realize that you're the power and to you be the glory forever and ever. Amen. All right.
So he starts off, he's casting out a demon.
And this particular incident seems to be a major shift in Jesus' ministry.
From here on, he only talks to the public in the big masses in parables.
And he's casting out a demon, and the people marveled.
They marveled.
And well, we'd seen him.
He'd cast him out.
Remember the first demon he cast out?
It was in church.
Yeah, demons aren't afraid to come to church.
Just saying.
In fact, the only time that I know I actually saw a manifestation of a demon-possessed person was in church.
It's the only time.
And the dude, I mean, he had this wild countenance on his face, but when he jumped up and he started quoting scripture,
and he was doing it to the guy that was teaching the Sunday school class,
and they had they ushered him out and it was just it made the hair on the back of your neck just stand on in
because that's just it so many of the demons they know the Bible better than Christians you know
or so-called Christians so and the people were they marveled and there's a reason for that and I'll get to that in a second
now in the book of Luke the term demons or demon occurs
16 times, and evil spirits occur eight times.
And so it happened often, and my wife was talking to the other.
She goes, man, there was just, Jesus dealt with a lot of demons.
And yeah.
And that's something I don't like.
When I was on staff over at Water Springs, I would get these calls.
And these people said, hey, they need somebody come and pray.
pray for their family. Doors are opening and closing by themselves, and they're seeing figures in
their house. And I'm going, uh, send somebody else. I don't want to go. So I'd usually try to call a
brother and go. And we never had any face-to-face things, but it's just like, no, that's just not a
ministry I'm, you know, totally giddy about, but I know that that's part of it, right? That's part of the
Christian life is you're going to, is to be aware of that and to combat that and to pray against
that. You know, Paul tells us, listen, your wrestlings are not against flesh and blood. Right,
it's against powers. It's against principalities. It's in, in heavenly places. And so it's, it's, we see it
quite a bit in scripture here.
Jesus always has authority over Satan and the demonic.
They're not equally, they're not equal to Jesus.
And that was it the last part of my notes,
and I don't know why I'm going there now, but I'm going there now.
Right.
They're not equal to Jesus.
They're not as equally evil as Jesus is righteous.
Right?
The spiritual darkness for Satan in his hordes, they're finite.
right? They're finite.
Jesus is infinite. He's the self-existent one that created all things.
We looked at that last week, right?
Or was that? No, that was Wednesday night. Sorry.
That was last week.
But he created all things.
By him, all things were made. There was nothing made that wasn't made by him.
And including the demonic.
And people that don't know God's word think,
why would God make Satan in demons?
Well, they weren't that way to start with, right?
Pride entered in.
You can read about Satan, read Isaiah 11 and Ezekiel 28,
and it'll give you a great picture, or maybe it's 14.
But he said, I will.
I will, I will rise above God.
That was Satan's ploy.
Isn't that what he tried getting Jesus to do?
Hey dude, fall down and worship me, and I'll give you all these kingdoms.
So, Jesus has always had authority, right?
He's not, you know, he's not intimidated by, it's not like Satan's his arch rival,
though he would think he would be.
But Jesus could destroy Satan with a word.
Do you understand that?
With a word.
And so, and you remember the one demon-possessed guy that at Gaderra, he identified him.
They identified Jesus.
They said, Jesus, the son of the most high God, they know who he is.
Do you?
The demons know who Jesus is.
A lot of people don't that say they do.
So, anyway, this guy was mute.
And in Matthew's version of what many believe is the, you know, parallels this, the guy was blind as well.
He was mute and blind.
And so the multitudes marveled.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, verse 15 there,
says, but some of them said he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.
So the Pharisees, see, because this doesn't say Pharisees, but the Matthew account says
it's the Pharisees that get all fuzzed up.
And that's who got mad when he delivered the guy in church, right?
And said the same thing, Beelzebub.
It was actually another name for Baal or Baal.
And then it meant Lord of the Flies.
That's what Beelzebub meant.
And some say that it also meant the prince of the demons.
But that's what Satan means as well as Prince of Demons.
And so they were jealous.
I'm convinced they were jealous.
of Jesus and what he was doing.
And because he was making a scene this Jesus.
And we've been seeing that through the book of Luke.
I like what the scripture says about jealousy.
A few verses here I wanted to share with you.
A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh,
but envy, jealousy, makes the bones rot.
you got a jealousy problem
it's it's terrible
it's consuming when you
when you get
jealous
for James 316 says
for where jealousy and selfish ambition
exist
there will be
disorder in every vile
practice
I just saw a little blurb
last night, it reminded me of this. It was one of those cold case files, and they were trying to
find the murder of this 86-year-old woman. She was stabbed over 90 times. The guy that did
it was a church going. The community loved him. He was just a, just had this persona of just
faithful husband, faithful father, you know, involved in his church. And he'd borrowed some money from
lady had a gambling problem and it was like $65,000 and she kept track of every penny so her records were
were perfect anyway they found him I just thought every vile practice that's vile and to cover it up
he who covers his sin will not prosper the scripture tells us right if you got one of those
Just get it out there, man.
Confess it.
Get rid of it.
It'll eat you.
Promise you.
Proverbs 27-4,
anger is cruel and wrath is like a flood,
but jealousy is even more dangerous.
This is the ESV, I think.
It's terrible.
And we see that it took these guys, right?
These Pharisees,
they immediately had murder in their heart.
We've got to destroy this guy, right?
We've got to get rid of him.
And so that's why they had to shift it.
They said, no, the power is coming from Satan.
This guy don't have no power.
And it's absolutely ridiculous.
Verse 16, it says,
others testing him sought from him a sign from heaven.
Didn't he just give you a sign?
He just gave you a sign.
And you won't listen.
You know, they tell us, in John, they asked Jesus, say,
hey, tell us if you're the son or God or not.
And Jesus says, I told you.
You won't listen.
You're stupid on purpose.
Well, give us a sign from heaven.
And he did.
He had already given that to him.
And they would not.
They refused.
Now, the reason everyone was marveling is that the person is mute.
And there was a belief among the priest that,
if a person with a demon was mute, they couldn't cast it out because in their procedure
process, you see this Catholic exorcist as well. They have a procedure that they go through
to cast things out. And for the priest, if a person with the demon was mute, they couldn't
cast it out because part of the priestly procedure was to ask the demon its name. And you remember
Jesus asked the one guy the one demon its name there are legion we are many and um and so that really made
the the religious people look bad because Jesus right gets him gets him out the guy starts to talk
another sign right powerful sign and so and so if the demon didn't speak these poor
priests and Pharisees were to standstill, they couldn't cast it out. So they're intimidated by
this power, not intimidated, but caused driven to jealousy because of this power that Jesus has.
And it was the casting out of a certain kind of demon here, one that they was over their head.
And you remember Jesus said, well, the disciples, when they couldn't cast it out of the boy, what's up with that?
They'd have the authority to do it.
He said, this type only comes out with fasting and prayer.
And so I don't think there's a set thing, right?
If we're faced with the demonic, I think you need to, you know, you better have done your homework and be ready for the Lord to, you know,
give you wisdom when it comes to this.
And don't lay hands on anyone suddenly.
You know, I think some people, they honestly think of that,
oh, I'm a demon hunter.
I'm going to go hunt demons.
Rots a ruck.
But Jesus, he,
by doing this, he, he, his,
proved to them his messiahship right he's the messiah he's the one they've been looking for
the one no doubt that they read about when they were in during the the the reading of the of the
prophets and the law and the psalms that jesus is all over it and they're reading about him and here
he is and they miss it and so verse 17 it says
But he, knowing their thoughts, that one always gets me.
He had any evil thoughts this week.
Seriously.
You have any evil thoughts this week?
God knows them all.
I mean, that's shocking.
Oh, he knows that about me?
Yeah, he knows.
Reminds me of my grandson when he was 16 and he found out that he had nursed.
So the girls were talking about it, his mom and my other daughter and my wife, and they were talking about it.
And he walks and he goes, I didn't do that, did I?
Yes, you did.
I did?
Just grandpa no?
Oh my gosh.
He knows our thoughts.
He knows everything.
He knows whether we nursed or not.
I mean.
And so he says to them, he knows their thoughts.
He knows what they're conniving, and they're, you know, they're trying to divert from the God of heaven.
Could you imagine being guilty of that?
Diverting somebody away from the Lord.
And I know I've been guilty of that.
And I shudder to think of what the consequences might be, but praise God for his mercy.
But He knowing their thoughts said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.
And a house divided against a house falls.
If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?
Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.
And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub,
by whom do your sons cast them out?
Therefore, they will be your judges.
And so Jesus is really pointing out to them how absurd,
how illogical this is.
And if he was an agent for sin,
Satan and work against Satan, that would be civil war in Satan's kingdom.
Notice, Satan has a kingdom, right?
Satan has a kingdom, and he would love to have you in his kingdom.
I would suspect in a group this big, some of you are in his kingdom.
I would encourage you to come out of that kingdom into the kingdom of light, the Lord
Jesus. And the point was that Satan would not work against himself and his accusers had to answer
how Satan benefited from the work Jesus had done. Satan didn't benefit from that. That guy was
set free. He went from death to life. That's just the way the gospel works, right? It's to bring you from
death to life. The whole prodigal son story, right? My son, my son.
son who was dead, now he's alive.
But verse 18 there says,
and if Satan also is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand?
Because you say, I cast out demons by Beelzebo.
This would be like a quarterback,
handing the ball off to the running back,
and then tackling him before he got to the line of scrimmage.
For you football fan.
I don't know, man, did you see the shalacking that the 49ers took last night?
Oh my gosh, they got destroyed.
But how ridiculous is that?
It's so ridiculous.
Oh, yeah, he's casting out demons by Beelzebub.
Or a contractor pouring a foundation, right?
and the next morning after it sets up, put 10 sticks of dynamite under it and pops it off.
It's just self-defeating. You wouldn't do that.
And Jesus is pointing out there's stupidity here.
He continues with the ridiculousness in verse 8, and he says,
and they're going to judge you. He says, if I cast him out by Beelzebub, who do your sons cast him out?
if the Pharisees condemn Jesus for using Beelzebub, then their own people who do the same
stand as witness or judges against the Pharisees flawed reasoning.
And it's just so true.
Wouldn't it be easier to just say, wow, that was cool?
Right?
And not try to attribute it to evil?
Because we're going to see.
Listen, attributing that which is evil to the Holy Spirit, or here he says the finger of God,
that's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
Wild stuff.
But, verse 20, but if I cast out demons with the finger of God,
surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Rett row.
Yeah, what are you going to do with that?
The kingdom of God has come upon you.
You got some answering to do.
Right? Jesus said, hey, if you don't believe me, believe the works that I do.
See what I do. See what I did.
See what he did. He brought life. Everywhere he went, he brought life.
And the religious rulers would try to destroy it with a blanket of death.
The kingdom is upon you.
Therefore, you don't got no excuse.
You know, the Bible tells us that we're all without excuse.
We're all without excuse, not because we've seen magnificent things, you know, in the spiritual realm,
but just walk outside.
That's why the Bible says you're without excuse,
but the things that are made.
It's fascinating every morning.
I walk out.
My wife's got some cool-looking chickens.
And I told you they can poop a lot.
That's the reality of it all.
But it's fascinating how they're created
and all their little design.
and how it all works and that hard egg can come out of their hind in.
I mean, it's miraculous.
Right, it is. It is miraculous.
The sheep and the goats and the horses and everything is just creation speaks.
Right, God's creation speaks to us.
And we need to pay attention.
Unless we stand before him and...
no excuses.
So, surely the kingdom of God is covered on you.
And then he goes into kind of explaining this whole situation here.
In verse 21, he says, when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.
Most Bible commentators say the strong man here is speaking.
of Satan. And we know back in verses 17 and 18, it does suggest that Satan has this kingdom.
And Satan likes his kingdom. And he wants to get as many into his kingdom as possible, because if they're in
his kingdom, then they're not in God's kingdom. And he hates you, and he hates me. He hates the
image bearers of God.
He hates.
With a purple passion he hates.
And notice, his goods are in peace.
In other words, Satan's got you by the throat.
Or he's got a ring in your nose, dragging you around.
Maybe it's an addiction or he's just got you.
He's cool with that.
I think he's got a lot of people that would like to be bold for Jesus,
but he just keeps him quiet.
If he can keep him quiet,
he's not going to even mess with him.
They're at peace.
He'll just leave him there.
And it started, clear back in Genesis, right?
God, God did not say.
Hath God said, right?
He calls a God a liar right off the bat.
And people aren't privy to that.
They just believe what they hear.
They did put it to the test?
How many people you know that?
especially it was on the internet it's got to be true no here's true here's true right here's
true right sift everything through the truth everything through the truth right conversations places
you go things you see things you hear sift it all through the truth that's the only way you're
going to get out of this thing alive. Because if it was possible in the last days, which I believe
we're in, by the way, for possible even the very elect would be deceived. Watching this world right
now, you guys, it's crazy, right? The whole Gaza thing, Trump put together a council
on how to govern Gaza.
And he invited Turkey, and I believe Syria, I'm not sure.
And Israel didn't know that.
But he told Israel, this is our deal, not your deal.
That's a scary thing.
No, they should have a big say, and who's involved in that thing.
Not only that, but Iran, we're watching that deal,
because we know that it's in the last days, right?
And some of the estimates are between 20 and 30,000 people they've killed in Iran the last week.
Most of them under 30 years old.
Where's the protest for them?
Right?
People aren't afraid to smack an ice dude in the face, you know, officer in the face,
but they just ignore that.
I digress. I'm sorry.
But it's getting wild.
Satan's kingdom seems to be on the rampage.
So he started his, you know, he started clear back in Genesis,
got them tripped up.
Now here we are.
So,
then in Job, the first few chapters of Job, he's going to and fro.
God asks him, hey, Louis, where are you been?
You know, God's not intimidated by Satan.
Where are you been?
Oh, I'm just going to and fro in the earth.
What does that mean?
That means he's going to and fro in the earth to see what kind of stealing, killing,
and destroying he can do.
To and fro.
Oh, hey, have you considered?
My servant Job.
You know, I bet Job's up and the going.
Oh, Lord, please.
I'm struggling enough with the world and the flesh, let alone the devil.
I mean, that's just a slam dunk.
Because he asks for us.
he asked for us
you remember what he said to the lord about joe right
you won't let me
you know won't let me at that guy
you put a hedge around him
the Lord goes okay
take that hedge down you can't kill him though
he asked for Simon
you remember Jesus said
the Lord said to him
Luke 2231, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat.
He asked for you.
And if the Lord pulls down that head, what are we going to do?
So he's got a kingdom and it's powerful, but the truth keeps you free from it.
That's why it's important to know the truth, right?
First John 519, we know that we.
are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
The whole world. You talk to people, right? And you, you mention, you mentioned Jesus or you
mention the Holy Spirit or you mention scripture and they look at you like, what are you
talking about? I don't know what you're talking about. There's a blindness. People should be
able to see what's going on and they don't.
2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4 he says,
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
whose minds the God of this age has blinded,
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine on them.
And that's where we come in.
Right?
Just like the Apostle Paul, his conversion,
his conversion was to bring the people
from the power of Satan to the power of God.
To expose that and reveal that
and reveal the need of mankind,
that they need salvation.
Because most of us know that.
I mean, if you're going to just be honest, if you're going to be really honest in your own heart, you think, yeah, I need something.
Yeah, I know.
I know. It was like that Philippian jailer, right?
He was going to kill himself.
He didn't know.
And then he says, what do I got to do to be saved?
Believe on Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved.
Pretty simple.
As long as the enemy can keep you doing what is.
is sinful. His goods are at peace. His goods are at peace. He's got you. Turn. Right? And that what John
the Baptist came saying? That's what Jesus came saying. That's what the apostles came saying.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Make sure you stay right with God.
I don't know about you, but I can get off course really easy, really fast. And it's scary how fast it can
happen.
Until, verse 22, until
a stronger one comes.
But when a stronger than he comes upon him
and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor.
That's Jesus.
He comes.
Like I say, he's.
he's not equal to Satan.
He's superior, right?
He speaks a word that Satan and his minions must obey.
1 John 3.8.
It says, the one who does what is sinful is of the devil.
Because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
The reason the Son of God appear was to destroy the devil's work.
That's why he came.
right we we looked at it in hebrews on wednesday where it says in verse 14 of chapter two of the book of
hebrews it says in as much as the children have partaken of the flesh and blood he himself jesus
likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death
that is the devil and part of that is the fear of death what it goes on to say in the next verse
If he can keep you afraid, what are you afraid of?
Ask yourself that question and be honest with yourself.
What are you afraid of?
I'm afraid of falling.
I'm afraid of bringing or giving the enemies of the Lord opportunity to blaspheme because of my sinfulness.
That's what scares me, which is a pretty good fear.
because I've prayed and I've got to deal with the Lord that if I ever start to cross that line,
he's going to kill me.
Right?
He's going to cut my head off, push me out in front of a car, get kicked by a mule.
Because I don't want that.
I'm afraid of that.
But when it comes to this stuff out here, there's nothing to fear.
If you've received Christ, right, he's abundant life.
In him there is no death.
And all things are under his feet.
So the two strong men here, right, the one is so much superior to the other one.
Jesus is self-existent, eternal.
Satan is finite.
He has an end.
Jesus is by far the strongest.
And I love that word.
The word stronger there in the Greek, it's, it's, I'm going to try to pronounce it, okay.
It's kurs, it's kuros, is kuros.
And what it's, it's God's power standing by, ready to unlearned.
itself to bring about his perfect will through faith.
I love that.
Right?
Let me say that again.
It's God's power standing by, ready to unleash itself to bring about his preferred will through faith.
Jesus is stronger.
You got faith in him?
Right?
Now, I don't about you, but every day, I need more faith today than I did yesterday.
I don't know why that is.
But I just, Lord, I need more, please.
And the Bible says that faith is a gift.
So get to asking, right?
Lord, just come on, add a little bit more.
You know, because faith in Jesus, you can't be full of fear and faith at the same time, right?
They can't coexist.
It goes on with the definition of this word.
it says, this engaging strength is always and immediately available from the Lord,
which accomplishes his assignments.
God's got an assignment for you, right?
Everybody's got assignments.
Satan's got assignments.
Demons have assignments.
Angels have assignments.
We get one assigned to us, right?
Guardian angels, you've heard of it.
The Bible teaches that, right?
What's your assignment?
What's he called you to do?
Right, you can be a witness right, where you're working.
whether you're digging ditch or you're a lawyer.
Well, maybe.
Just kidding.
Your assignment is to glorify him.
Wherever you're at.
Unlike the woman that said the anointing never comes on her at work.
No, I want the anointing on me at work.
I need it on me all the time.
Because otherwise I don't watch what I say.
Now, then he goes on and he says, in verse 23, he says,
He who, he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.
Jesus is saying here, there is no such thing as neutrality.
You can't be neutral.
So many people think they can.
Oh, yeah, I've heard about Jesus.
Yeah, he sounds kind of cool, but, yeah, I don't.
I've been looking into the Buddhist thing or, you know,
Baha'ism or Islam or, I'm just kind of check.
Okay, you're against him.
You're against him.
To not be for him is to be against him.
One commentator said,
in the conflict against the powers of darkness,
there is no room for neutrality.
And this sense to be undecided is to be decided.
There is no neutral ground.
We are either with Jesus or against him.
There is no luxury of guarded neutrality.
And people try to claim that.
And they're against the Lord.
Notice what he says here, though.
I like what he says because it kind of has a cowboy connotation to it
where he says.
that
who
he who is not with me
is against me and he who
does not gather
gather
that's what we're
we're supposed to be spiritual cowboys
gathering them up
and not what he's told his disciples go out
you you compel them to come in
compel them come on
come on in gather them
and one thing about cowboys
when they're working for the boss
You listen to the boss, and you go and you take everything to where the boss is leading you.
And man, is there a lot of strays out there that's just waiting to hear the truth of the gospel.
And here we are, on a Sunday, in our holy huddle, right, we're huddled up.
Ready, break.
Right?
Go out into the world, gather them up.
Well, I have a hard time talking about Jesus.
invite him to church then, and I'll talk to him about Jesus.
He who gathers with me, if he's not gathering with Jesus, your life, your sinful life is
scattering people all over.
I know.
Mine did.
I remember in high school, some of the guys that I led astray, you know, the whole marijuana
down the marijuana road.
And I'm, I know one guy, he's a judge in Seattle, and he's still smoking dope.
come on dude you're 63 years old what are you doing and you're going to make good judgments
no he's scattering he's scattering because of his life people say well i'm not hurting anybody
yeah you are everybody that knows and loves you and sees your sin you're hurting them everyone
we don't sin unto ourselves just like we don't live unto ourselves our life has an impact
you're either gathering or you're scattering.
And I'm going to tell you,
I don't know why the Lord called me to do what I'm doing,
but the greatest joy of my life is to see people come to know Jesus.
Nothing in my life has ever compared to it.
And I played ball and I did okay in sports and experienced success.
and certain areas of life.
And I'm just like, it all pales in comparison.
To see somebody come to Jesus,
gathering them into the fold.
Well, we're going to wrap it up here
with these last verses,
which are pretty powerful and scary.
This is scary stuff.
It says, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man,
he goes through dry places seeking rest
and finding none he says
I will return to my house from which I came
and when he comes he finds it swept and put in order
that he goes and takes with him
seven other spirits more wicked of than himself
and they enter and dwell there
and the last state of that man is worse than the first
mere Mary Magdalene had seven demons in her
and people that have been reformed they try to self-reform right you go to
a or or you know in a or whatever is it n a you go to those things it's good i think it gets people
on the right path and they can kind of clean their life up a little bit where they're not
you know inebriated and and living in a fog but i'll tell you what if it if it is if their life is
not filled with the spirit of God, it's going to come back seven times greater.
I got a friend.
In fact, I'm going to go see him this week.
And he told me that he was a meth addict.
He cried out to the Lord.
He knew the Lord when we were young.
And he cried out to the Lord.
He said, it was like the Lord delivered me immediately.
He says, but I didn't do nothing with that.
I didn't go to church.
I didn't start reading my Bible.
I wasn't listening to worship music.
I wasn't doing anything.
I wasn't praying.
And he said, in about two years, I said, it was really good for about a year or two.
And he said, I fell right back into it.
And he said, I was almost dead.
But he said, I thought I was going to die.
He said, it had such a hold on me.
Got to fill it with good things, man.
We got to fill our life with good things.
That'd be God's word.
Fellowship.
Right?
Brothers and sisters, it'll keep us accountable.
and sharpness.
You got to pursue Jesus on purpose.
Doesn't just happen.
Don't just go to a Bible study or a church service.
You've got to self-feed.
Because the days are dark.
The time is evil.
And we're called to redeem that time.
Maybe you need to clean your house this morning.
Jesus can do that for you.
He can clean you up.
And then he can fill you with better things.
She's got to ask, right?
Got to ask, got to surrender.
Got to come to the end of yourself.
And the last state of that man is worse than the first.
May that not be us.
Amen?
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
Lord, it's so full of life as we read it and as we examine it.
Lord, as we write it up on the pages of our heart.
I just pray for anyone who's struggling, Lord, just seems to just be spinning their wheels, Lord.
Spiritually speaking, Lord, would you just bring him to that place of a sheer foundation, Lord,
that they would truly put them, their feet upon the rock, Lord, that they would walk with you
and yield to you. I pray that you would just give us a zeal and, Lord, just a fervor in our hearts
in these days in which we live and the opportunity to be that witness. And so, Lord, fill us up.
We know that, Lord, you're our hope. You're the resurrection and the life, and that we can
simply choose and humble ourselves. And you'll meet us right there.
So I just pray for any today that would need to do that, Lord, that they would just come up and be prayed for by the prayer team.
And Lord, just be encouraged in their walk with you.
Lord, there's nothing we've done that you won't forgive us for.
Your mercy and your grace extends far beyond anything we could ever think or imagine, Lord.
So we worship you because of that.
And pray that you would go with us this week, that we would be your salt and light.
Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand, shall we?