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Synopsis of July 9, 2023Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, IIIMark 5:1-15 NKJV Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” 8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. 11 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. 12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” 13 And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea. 14 So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. 15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.I.            INTRODUCTIONA.      One of the things that a believer needs to be clear about is knowing that you have an incredible future in front of you. No matter what people have said or what has happened, it has not robbed you of what God has in store for you. Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV says 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.B.      Gods plans for your life is so powerful, you shouldn’t lose sight of what God has promised you.C.       Even when you feel helpless or hopeless, you can’t believe your life is over. There is so much untapped potential inside of you. D.      The attacks you experience is not about your right now. Instead, it is about your not yet. E.      The enemy tries to beat you down enough where you don’t feel valued any more. Today we learn how to get your fight back. There are people in the stands eating popcorn waiting for you to fall. There are people that actually rejoice in your demise. Today you’re going to learn how to fight and win the war of the Assault of the Enemy. F.       When we look at Mark 5, we see demonic exposure. o   We see in Jesus Casts Out an Unclean Spirit . Mark 1:21-27 says 21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, [a]“Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, [b]“What is this? What new [c]doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”-released possess man from demon , o   We see Jesus perform an exorcism. – In Mark 1:32-34 NKJV says 32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.o   Today we see Jesus engaged with a man that was possessed by a demon. One chapter earlier, Jesus is sleep on the boat when the storm comes. The assignment was not on the boat, it was on the other side. When Jesus says go to other side, stop tripping on what happens in between. §  When they get to the other side, a man meets them, possessed with a demon. He meets Jesus and begins to worship him. The demons asked Jesus to cast them out into swine. The boy that was going through this system of attack is finally free of attack at last. On the way out, Jesus asks a question. He asks the demon what his name was. The demon says we are Legion. Legion is a military term meaning 5200 – 6000. This means the boy had 5200 to 6000 things wrong with him. The Lord shows us how to fight for our future. Your future is under attack!  II.            THE PRESENCE OF DEMONIC MANIFESTATION·       Some people think demons show up like they do in the movies. The movies show them with red suits and a pitchforks.They show them possessing people and making their heads turn around, having deep voices, and maybe even having people gravitate. This is not always the case. You must know that demons show up in many different kinds of ways. They can show up at lunch, in the choir, and even in the pulpit. Sometimes they go to lunch with you.·       You have to be aware of demonic presence at all times. Your natural man will say that a person is crazy. You have to realize that often there is demonic activity behind crazy behavior.·       Attacks would be easy if it was just the person. Attacks often are not just the actions of a person.  Ephesians 6:12 says For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. – So, we have to stop removing spider webs. The problem is not the spider web. The problem is finding the spider.·       Each one of us, have been used by the demonic activity, if we would be honest. It started with offense. When you got offended, your flesh rose up and then the enemy got into your ear gate and start controlling what you hear. Now you only are not able to hear what you need to hear, for your situation. Then he gets into your head. This is when you start contemplating stuff. Then it got into your heart. It made your heart hard. After that, it got into your hands. At this point, they had one more thing to do to you, before you would be ready to lay hands on that person. ·       The devil will give you a problem, but he needs a place. The problem for the boy in the tombs was the unclean spirit. The place was the cemetery. ·       Why did the people put the man in the cemetery? A.      It Normalizes Residing Among the Dead1.       Everything around you, doesn’t have a future, because they are dead. They are not able to respond to you or anything.2.       As a result of living among the dead, everything then becomes skewed. As a result of things being skewed, it affects your:a.       Socialization – You become comfortable hanging out with dead people. You are comfortable hanging out with people that don’t have your values. b.       Communication– Now you have conversations with people that can’t communicate with you. They are not able to talk on your level. Now you try to rationalize what’s not normal. You try rationalizing it by acting like you are assigned to save them.3.       There is a reason, the boy is out in the cemetery.

1. The Community Does Not Want Him to Co-Exist – It easier to put him away, than deal with him When They Can’t Comprehend, They Categorize –  It’s easy to punish people as opposed to restoring them.

                                                                           i.      One problem with this, the chains is no match for the demon. This is why the man would break the chains. This symbolizes us continuing to go back to our disfunction. Whatever we try to do, it does not hold us. B.      An Out-of-Control Life of Self-Affliction1.       The devil has this boy in a situation. He goes to the mountain and back to the tombs, all day long and he is cutting himself. This is like us, going up to the mountain posting how well things are in our life, and then going back to the tombs, wallowing in our addictions and dysfunctions. a.       We look good in front of everyone, but they don’t know our private struggles. 2.       The devil won’t kill you instantly. He is trying to kill you one drink or one smoke at a time. Like the guy with the unclean spirit, cutting himself. We are hurting yourself. 3.       Jesus shows up, because He knows when enough is enough. How many of us want God to deal with our issue once and for all? Your future is worth fighting for!  III.            THE PROVIDENTIAL DOMINION OF THE MASTER·       Providential – This how God moves and when. ·       Dominion – This is power and authority of a thing.·       Master – This means teacher or one who is over. ·       When Jesus shows up, he shows up at the right time, with the right power.·       When Jesus shows up: A.      Demons Are Subject to The Anointing1.       Notice in the scripture, the demon submits himself immediately, because he knows who he is in the presence of (Jesus).  This should explain to you why people don’t like it when you show up. You have this same anointing on you, that Jesus has.  Like Jesus, your presence, agitates demons. This is why the demon said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”2.       Demons exist, but they have no authority over a true Child of God.3.       Demons historically insulate themselves behind spiritual language or statements. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you are dealing with a devil or a Saint. Demons use the same language as Christians do, because they know the Word as well as we do.  If you will remember, Satan quoted scripture to Jesus when he was trying to tempt Him. a.       Here’s an example: Acts 16: 16-19 says 16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly [d]annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. – Here we see the demon saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation”! By this, one would think that the girl was saved, but the scripture says that this annoyed Paul, because he could see through it. It was the demon inside of her was trying to call Paul and Silas out. Satan tries to use church people to fulfill his plans. B.      Whatever He Cast Out He Reveals the Cost  1.       Jesus tells the spirit to come out of man. The demon knows he has to go but asks if he could go into the herd of swine. The context here is economy. a.       Jesus spoke to two categories of people. They were, Jews and Gentiles. Even though Religious Law wouldn’t let Jews eat swine, the Gentiles on the other hand, could. What makes this an economic situation is, there were over 2000 pigs in the herd. The demons knew if they possessed the pigs, they would be messing with somebody’s money. The demon wanted to show how much it would cost the people, to try and live without the demons being in the boy.2.       The question is, how bad do you want to be free? IV.            THE PROBLEM MUST BE DISCERNED METICULOUSLY A.      Be Courageous Enough to Ask Questions Nobody Is Asking1.       The text says Jesus told the Demons to come out of the boy. While he was doing this, Jesus asks what is your name? You can’t fight the battle if you don’t know what you are fighting.2.       The man is in the tombs because people don’t understand totally what they were dealing with. Back in the bible days, they named you by your issue. For example, “The lame man…” or “The deaf man…” or “The woman with the issue of blood…”.3.       Jesus asks who they were, so that the people might know what they were dealing with. The response was, “We are Legion (5200 – 6000 issues)”. All this time the community thought you were dealing with one thing, but there were many things. a.       We have the same issue. We often think a problem is dealing only with the issue that you see, when, they have multiple underlying issues. You have to peel back the layers and get to the root of the issue. B.      Don’t Diagnose the Reaction Without Investigating the Root1.       Legion means layers of stuff. You deal with one thing, and other stuff comes up. This is why we become repeat offenders. The problem is much deeper than you think. a.       You think she is mean or guarded or maybe has a bad attitude. It may just be a defense mechanism. b.       Anger – You think he has an anger problem, but he really got that way, because he saw his father put his hands on his mother. c.       Do you think a person wants to be an addict? It may have started with them bringing their Dad beers when they were young.  V.            THE POWER OF BEING DELIVERED IN YOUR RIGHT MIND                                                                                      ·       We have to stop over spiritualizing our mental health. This is the intersection between theology and psychology. ·       Don’t think because someone puts oil on you and lay hands on you, that you won’t have work to do, to get rid of your delima. You have a multitude of things that need to be addressed.·       2000 swine were calm, but when the unclean spirits were cast into them, they ran over a cliff! It was like they were saying, we would rather die than deal with this. This was the same spirits that the man had been dealing with all this time. ·       You can run the race, but you can run better without the weight. We have to deal with our issues.·       The boy was at the mountain and in the tombs and he was cutting himself. When Jesus delivered him, the bible says he was siting, clothed in his right mind. ·       We thank God for: A.      Through All the Trauma, He Kept My Mind1.       Thank God, because he kept your mind! Like the swine, we could have ran off the cliff, but thank God, he kept us!B.      I’ve Been Through Too Much to Leave His Side1.       Say what you want, when people gave up on us, Jesus stayed by our side. We’ve been through too much, to leave his side!