Stories of Healing Pt 2

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and it is the most important thing in the world. Between the thoughts and the intents of the heart, and it says, Him who sent me has eternal life, or everlasting life in the King James, I think, and will never come into judgment. And that, come into judgment. So we have something that is so important. It is the power of God into salvation to those who believe and hear the Word of God.

I'm just not going to take a lot of time because we have a little video here, but I do want to kind of mention what I did last time about the medical testaments that we passed out to all the people, even the chiropractors, and the nurses, the people that wash the, the dishes, and mop the floors, and then all the policemen, and the firemen, and all this sort of thing. And it was a really big year for the local area to receive Bibles. About one in ten people in Cali County got a scripture. Well, then, boom, the bottom falls out with the, quote, quote, pandemic.

And so many churches are closing, even here in our Kansas City. A couple just closed, this last few months, and the Crossroads Church up here, and the, and the Faith, what is it, the Quaker Church, Friends Church out here, and there's been some in, and we, but we do have, we've picked up, I think 13 or 14 Guatemalan and Mexican churches in town, and that gives an opportunity to open some doors for people who are not worshiping in the same way as, we might be accustomed. Now, I also wanted to remind you of the Gideon app that we have, that you can get on your smartphone, which has 1280 different languages, and it's in audio. And that's really important, because when we hear back from China, or Guatemala, or Subuano, or Udall, or Hackney,

there's some there for you to be able to converse with somebody, and, and tell them if you want to hear God's word, and doesn't it say something like, whoever hears God's word, that's pretty important. And so there's a great opportunity. It's available, and many pastors in foreign lands are picking up that app, and using it with their people, and then they can transcribe it over there in their own writing. Well, with that being said, I always like to read letters from people who've been converted by getting a Bible, and yet I've always failed to maybe do it with an emotional appeal, because I'm the old school where we don't hug people, and you know, we shake hands occasionally, and that was about it.

So, but this video was sent to me, and it meant a lot to me, and I hope it does to you, because it's a great story, but it emphasizes the power of God's word in transformation, and I'm going to leave it at that. What do I do with this brother? Click it off. You must ask the question. Why would a ten-year-old child want to die? Ten is a time to dream of being an astronaut,

of being a soccer star, a football player, a preacher, a past trial, and pain. I wanted to die. I'm the product of interracial immigrants. My grandmother was tall, white, and thin from Germany, and we called her French fry. My grandfather was a big, burly, black man from Cuba, and we called him Hamburger. Hamburger met French fry, and it created a happy meal.

These two immigrants produced seven McNuggets with special sauce. We would joke that we would have Wiener schnitzel with salsa for Thanksgiving. Grandfather had to hide the fact in the 1940s in America that he was married to a Caucasian woman. But one wedding anniversary, he had a flaw. He liked to drink overproof Cuban rum. And one evening, he was inebriated.

And a man saw them together and said to my grandmother, why would you be a nigger lover? My grandfather, with huge arms, lost his temper and hit the man in the jaw and broke his neck. The man didn't die, but he was injured severely. He went to the worst prison, convicted of the crime. Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio. Locked down 23 hours a day. It hit the newspapers that my grandmother was married

to this convicted felon, and she lost her job. But being a German woman, she didn't complain or whine or woe is me. She began to work odd jobs, cleaning other people's houses and toilets, taking care of their children. But as she was working, she would have faintings, fainting spells, passing out, doing her job. She went to the doctor and discovered that she had a tumor

growing behind her left eye that was metastasizing to her brain. And the doctor said, we have to take out a third of your face, your eye, you will be malformed and disformed and disfigured for the rest of your life. What do you do when the American dream becomes an American nightmare? She could not work. She was sick and mutilated. My grandfather's in jail.

And day by day, they lost everything that they had acquired. They lost their house. They lost their car. They lost their furniture. They lost their dignity. They lost their self-esteem. And they were living in the streets. Like animals. My three uncles got hooked on heroin. They belong to a gang called the Devil's Disciple. And my entire family. Became atheistic.

No God. No prayer. No Bible. No hope. And my mother at age 14 was called by a pimp named Larry who said to her, what is school doing for you? You are sitting on a gold mine. She said, where? He said, you're sitting on it. And we call this being turned out. And little by little, she began to sell her 14-year-old body to grown men for money to survive. It's called turning tricks.

And at age 16, she got pregnant. We call it having a trick baby. Two strangers meet for a business transaction and there's a mistake. The pimp said, you can't make any money having a baby in the oven. We have got to kill this baby. They kicked her in the stomach. They fed her alcohol. They gave her drugs. They took a hanger and stabbed the baby over and over again.

But the baby wouldn't die. The baby was born two months premature with no pancreas, a learning disability, a bladder too small, unable to function, a severe stutterer. We call it a trick baby. Nobody wants the baby. No hope. No future. Kill it was the word. That baby was me. I'm the lowest of the low. I come from the gutter most. I come from a hellish condition.

And so when I would go to school, I couldn't talk. I stuttered so severely from the trauma. My mother had a madam who hated men. Her name was Dolores and she was a sadist and when she would watch me, she would take a broomstick and stick it in a place where no boy should have any object in his body. And when you are tortured like that, you learn four things.

Don't talk, don't trust, don't feel and pretend nothing is happening. By age 10, I had had enough. I wanted to die in my school. They put me in a boiler room with other kids who were dysfunctional like me, where we have finger paint all day long. And yet there was a teacher. Thank God for her who had a Gideon Bible and she came to my school and she saw kids like me as her mission field.

And she would give me this Gideon Bible and read to me stories of dysfunctional, and she would say to me, Ronaldo, God uses greatly those who have been wounded very deeply. He will turn your pain into power, your wounds into wisdom. She had me read the story of Moses who was also a stutterer. I began to understand that God did love a trick baby. Even as low as I was, there was hope for me and possibility.

And when a child begins to understand the love of God and the power of his word, and the possibilities, it changes everything. How can a young man keep his way clean? By taking heed according to your word. Your word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against thee. I began to memorize the Bible, that Gideon Bible, reading 2,000 scriptures. And when you put that kind of word in a life, something begins to happen.

My stuttering went away. I stopped wetting the bed. I stood tall. I became valedictorian. Became a pastor and priest until everybody in my family got saved. Why? Because somebody placed the Gideon Bible in a woman's hand that changed a life forever. Yes, I was born a trick baby, but the trick was on the devil because of you and the power of the word of God.

Wow. Okay. Should have watched that a couple of more times before today. I watched it once. He said, hey, watch this, make sure it's going to be okay. And I said, I don't care what kind of business that guy shares. Like he, everybody needs to hear that story. But when you're an emotional guy like me, whew, that'll get you, right? Just so you know, and I'll try to remember to say something at the end too.

Jim's going to be standing at the back of the Word of God out there. Okay. It's going to be all right. Okay. A priest, a rabbi, and a minister all walk into a bar, right? I'm just kidding. That's a bad joke. All right. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. Speaking of stories of Jesus working with dysfunctional people, we've been looking in Matthew chapter 8 at stories of healing.

That's what Matthew chapters 8 and 9 are all about. And so we looked at three stories last week and we'll get to two, maybe three stories today. It all depends on what kind of time I have left. And so we pick up in chapter 8. Verse 18, and this is what it says. Now, when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. Then a scribe came and said to him,

Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Permit me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, Follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. Now, this is kind of an interesting little section. That's tucked into these stories of healing. We're going to see a couple of these little parts in these two chapters, but this first one is kind of interesting.

The first three stories in chapter 8 are amazing stories of healing, of Jesus's power and compassion being used in the lives of people. And there's a lot that's happened in the last few chapters of the book of Matthew. We saw Jesus's powerful teaching to the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. We saw Jesus come down from the mountain and begin Jesus performed outside of Peter's mother-in-law's house, or outside of Peter's mother-in-law's house.

Or outside of Peter's house after the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. If you will, things were getting very exciting in the ministry of Jesus. His teaching was very powerful. He had a magnetic sort of personality as well as all of the things that he did. And so he was attracting more and more disciples. And so as he was attracting more and more disciples,

were these people just looking for the miracles? Were these people just looking to be a part of the next happening thing? And so I love what Jesus does because Jesus is not willing to accept followers. He's concerned about how strong his followers actually were, and that their hearts were truly for following him. Well, so as we start off this section, we see that Jesus sees that there's a crowd around him.

After everything that had taken place with Peter's mother-in-law, a crowd was joining him. And so he said, hey, we've got something that we need to do. We need to get into a boat and go to the other side of the sea. Now, we'll talk about that story at the end of this chapter, what Jesus started to do. But before we do, there's a couple of conversations that Jesus had.

The first one it says was a scribe, and the scribe comes to him and says, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Now, this is a bold statement, and one would think that immediately Jesus would jump on this and say, that's wonderful. Why don't you join us and see what else there is to come? Because lots of exciting things are going to be happening. Lots of people are going to be saved.

Lots of people are going to be healed. I think this is going to be a great journey for you. But that's not what Jesus says. Instead, Jesus says something, very interesting to him. He says, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Now, this is an interesting response that Jesus makes to this guy.

This is an interesting response that Jesus makes to someone who would be seeking him. Now, with that, the problem is the heart behind it. Number one, the issue is that he was very excited by the work. He was not necessarily excited about Jesus. He was excited about what he saw. Taking place. But the second problem, and I think is truly the heart of the issue,

is he was impetuous in his statement. He hadn't really thought things out. He was exciting without being overly hard on him, makes him count the cost for what's coming because he said, I need you to understand something. You can look at the animals around you and you can see that they've supported in the ministry. It's not the focus on the ministry that God had given him.

And that meant there wasn't time for him to amass any sort of gathering. Or any sort of home here on earth because he was here for a very short amount of time. And the amount of time that he was spent here was very focused on scribe, who, by the way, was of the learned class of the nation of Israel. Those that perhaps had some money within the nation of Israel is he tells them.

You need to count the cost. You need to unday mean that as far as this he told him, this is the cost and it will cost you everything in order to come to me. You must surrender all now as a young Bible college student. I remember thinking, oh man, I don't know if I want to just never have any money. I don't know if I ever want to just never have a place to live.

I wonder if I can live according to this sort of lifestyle that Jesus is talking about. Listen, do you notice that Jesus never told him he can't ever have a home to live in? Did you notice that Jesus never told him he needed to go sell everything that he had? What did Jesus tell him? He said surrender all. You know what that means? It means that in my heart, there should be the willingness to leave behind anything

that will keep me from pursuing God in the way that he wants for me to. That in my heart, there should be the willingness for me to leave behind anything that will keep me from serving God in the way that he has called for me to. If it's the choice between having a job where I can make a lot of money or following Jesus and serving him, I must choose following Jesus. If it means compromising my beliefs in organizing the things of this earth, so that I can serve, he wants me to go and be homeless now.

No, he just wants you to be willing to be. It means I need to sell everything I own now. No, it just means you need to be surrendered wholeheartedly to following him with everything. You see, I think the difficult thing that we face as Christians in the 21st century Western culture is that we have everything that we can imagine laid in front of us on an almost daily basis.

And all Jesus is saying, is put all of your focus on me and everything else will take care of itself. But if you're going to follow me, it's going to cost you to surrender it all. Now, the interesting thing about this is that we're never told how this guy responds. I wonder the look on his face at this point in time, because I don't know about you, but I would think if I came to Jesus and told him, I want to follow you wherever you go, that Jesus would look at me with a really approving look on his face and say, that sounds really good.

Even though that doesn't sound really good. He would say, that's a great idea. But instead, Jesus kind of gives you this, hey, it's going to cost you everything sort of a feel. And so what do you do? Well, what does that mean for me? Do I need to switch over to something different? Okay. And so, and so he had to have been a little bit disconcerted. And so here's what I wonder. He did one of two things.

Either one, he said, okay, I'm willing to leave behind everything and follow you. Or two, he said, I can't do that. I'll follow you from afar. I'll pay attention to the things that you have going on. I'll see what you have happening, but I won't ever really follow you. We don't know what happens. We just know the statement that's made. Well, there's a second person that comes to Jesus.

It says, another of his disciples, verse 21, said to him, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. Now, this second one is kind of interesting because the second one refers to him, is referred to as one of Jesus's disciples. Now, we know that a disciple is somebody who has said, I will leave everything and follow you.

This isn't an average follower. This isn't just some average guy who's kind of interested in. The miracles that he's seen. This is somebody who up to this point in time has been following Jesus and trying to learn of Jesus. But he says something very interesting. He says, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bury my father. No, I don't know about you, but when I initially read this from a Western cult,

they're going to do it in my mind. And I think that what he would be saying is, let me finish making the funeral plans. It ought to take two, maybe five days. I'll get all of that taken care of. And then I'll follow you. That's actually not what he's saying here. You see, his father could have been 100 percent healthy and have years left of his life because there was a philosophy in the Eastern culture that you took care of your parents until they died.

And so basically what he's saying is, allow me to live my life now, take care of all of my earthly responsibilities now. And when all of my commentator was, but he said the two key words in what this guy says are me first. I think that those are the two key. So when he read that, I thought, boy, isn't that true? Isn't that true of our society? And isn't that true of church culture right now?

That in church culture, really what we say is. Me first, you see, I'll get really serious about Jesus when the time is right, when I've had my fun, when I've done all of the things on Earth that I want to do, then I'll get really serious about following Jesus. Well, they're like, can I just have my fun first? And it's one thing when it comes out of the mouth of someone who has never come to know Jesus, as their Lord and Savior.

But then when you talk to people who do know Jesus and they say, well, I need to get this established first. I need to do this first and then I'll follow Jesus. Here's the problem with that kind of thinking. Once you have done that, there's always something else. You see, because the problem goes back to those same two words, me first. You see, if I think as soon as I get this established,

then I'll start serving the Lord with my whole heart. Well, then once I do this, then I'll begin to serve the Lord with my whole heart. What you find is there's never a right time. I remember before we had kids, we were thinking about what's going to be the right time to have kids. And I'll never forget somebody telling me, you know what the problem with trying to find the right time to have kids is?

You'll never find the right time. You'll never have enough money in your savings account. You'll never have a good enough job. Your house will never be good enough. It'll never be big enough. You'll never have the right car. You'll never have the right things. There's never the right time. But you know what? That's true about following Jesus too, because it's one thing to say it about producing other small tiny people,

but it's a whole other thing when we do that, when it comes to pursuing Jesus with all of our heart, because there's never going to be the right time. There's always going to be one more fleshly distraction. There's always going to be one more worldly distraction. There's always going to be one more thing that you need to take care of before you really get serious about following Jesus, which is why Jesus was so harsh when he said, listen, let the dead bury their own dead.

You follow me. Listen, let the educated people worry about their education. You follow me. Let your job worry about whether or not you're going to get paid. You follow me. All the struggles that you have in your life, the fleshly things that you think, oh, if I don't deal with this first, I can't follow Jesus. Listen, you'll never be perfect. You follow me.

Follow him. And he will do the work in your heart that needs to be done. I think sometimes we as believers just need a little bit of a swift kick in the pants to say, it's time to follow Jesus. It's not enough just to come to church. It's not enough just to read your Bible. It's not enough just to know him. God will not be content until he has every single fiber of who you are.

And quite frankly, if he can't have all of you, he doesn't want any of you, because he's a 100% sort of a God. He wants wholehearted devotion. I was just reading in the book of Genesis this last week, and it's the part right after Abraham does the whole Ishmael situation. And right after he does the whole Ishmael situation, God so graciously and mercifully shows up in the very next chapter.

And the very first thing he does is he presents himself to Abraham and he says, Abraham, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. Do you know what that word blameless means? That word blameless means wholehearted. What does God tell Abraham after his greatest mistake? He says, Abraham, I'm God Almighty. You don't need to worry about how this plan is going to work out.

I'm going to work this plan out. All you need to do is walk before me in a wholeheartedly devoted fashion. And what God wants us to know right now, what Jesus is saying to each and every one of us right now is, don't worry about all the things of the world. You follow me in a wholeheartedly devoted sort of fashion. And so Jesus deals with these two disciples and talks to them about discipleship,

meaning you have to count the cost, but Jesus must also take 100% the first place in your life. Well, now we get back to what he intended to do. Only there's going to be one more hiccup. In the road in verse 23, it says this when he got into the to the boat, his disciples followed him. And when there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves,

but Jesus himself was asleep and they came to him and woke him saying, save us Lord. We are perishing and he said to them. Why are you afraid you men of little faith? He got up and he rebuked the winds in the sea. And it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed and said, what kind of a man is this that even the winds in the sea obey him? Now I titled this little portion of the section.

The disciples are healed from fear. This doesn't look like a healing story, does it? It's a miraculous story, but it doesn't really look like a healing. And yet I would tell you as I was studying this this week, I actually think it was because you know what ailment these disciples were battling with. They were battling with the ailment. The ailment of fear.

It's amazing what fear does to us, is it not? If you don't believe me, you should just read the news over the last year and a half, two years and we'll know what fear has done to us. As a matter of fact, I bet at this point in time at some point in time this past week, you too dealt with fear and that fear perhaps kept you from doing something or took your eyes off of Jesus just like it did these disciples. And Jesus wants to heal us from that fear.

Now, before we get too condemned about fear, let's just get into the story and we'll talk about what happened. So they got into the boat. Remember he had said, hey, the crowds are gathering. Let's get into the boat and go to the other side because there was something he had to do, which we will get to by the end of the chapter, but we're still not there yet.

The whole point of what's taking place, we still haven't gotten to yet. And so they get into the boat. Now, if I'm a disciple of Jesus, I never get in boats, right? Just like if I ever become a rock star, never going to happen. If I ever become a rock star, I never get in a plane. That's all the theories to it, right? Where do all the famous rock stars die?

Airplanes, right? It's true. Google it. I Googled one time, rock stars killed in airplanes and like the list was forever long. And I was like, see, I've ever become a rock star, no airplanes. So if I'm a disciple, I failed to get into a boat, I go, I've read these stories. I know what's happening, but they get into the boat and they go to the other. They're on their way to the other side.

And as they're on the way to the other side, on the Sea of Galilee, a huge storm comes up. I've never been to this place, but I read a lot about it this week. And from what I understand, the Sea of Galilee actually sits, I think it said 680 feet below sea level. Well, above the Sea of Galilee sits Mount Hermon, which I think if I read correctly was about 9,200 feet above sea level.

Apparently, it gets cold enough there that they have snow that people actually ski on Mount Hermon. And so, at the very bottom of Mount Hermon sits this little rocky pass where the Sea of Galilee sits. So when winds come down from the top of that mountain, which is very cold, to the Sea of Galilee, which is very warm, we from Kansas know exactly what happens when warm air hits cold air, storms brew. And so apparently these storms can come up within minutes out of nowhere.

Sounds just like Kansas. So anyway, as I was reading this, I thought, hey, I've been there before. I've seen this happen. So this huge storm comes up and in this particular translation, it refers to it as a great storm on the sea. I do like the New King James on this because it uses a fun word. It says a great tempest arose. Like that's just a fun word to say, right?

I think the next time there's a storm in Kansas, I'll be like, oh look, it's a great tempest that has arosen here in Kansas, because that's exactly what happened. It was a terrifying storm and take note of how it describes, what's happening with the boat in this storm. Do you see what it said? It said the boat was being covered over with the waves. Now this storm was a pretty interesting storm because apparently this word that is translated

Tempest in the New King James is the Greek word where we get our word seismic from. In other words, it was almost like an earthquake had come up. That's how strong this storm was. That's how violent this storm was as it felt like there was a great earthquake in. The sea and the boat is being covered over. Perhaps you can picture what's taking place. The boat would not have been very big.

It would have been a pretty small boat. It wasn't some some yacht that they were cruising on. It was a small fishing boat that a handful of guys could fit into. And there's Jesus at the front of the boat completely asleep. Meanwhile, what's happening? Waves are crashing over top of the boat. According to the Greek, the idea is that waves were crashing over in the boat was filling with water.

And where was Jesus? He was? Asleep. I appreciate Jesus for this. I think it points out his humanity. Jesus lived what we would call a very busy lifestyle. I think Jesus woke up early in the morning. And after he had his time with his father, he hit the ground running. And when he hit the ground running, he didn't stop until he sat down. And when he sat down, he fell asleep because even though he is completely God,

while he walked on this earth, he was also completely man. And so there he was. In the front of the boat, completely asleep. And I love it because not only does it show his humanity, but it shows his lack of worry. You know why I appreciate that about Jesus? Because Jesus isn't worried. Whatever you're worried about right now, Jesus isn't worried about it. Matter of fact, where is Jesus right now?

He is seated at the right hand of the father. He may not be asleep in the front of the boat, but he's definitely sitting down next to the father. I love that. It paints him as that way. Because it doesn't paint him as someone who's pacing around, right? Like when I worry or I really think about something, I pace around a lot. I remember when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago,

and they were losing the game up until the last two minutes of the game, right? I paced around my entire living room. My dad and I just kept passing each other because we were just pacing back and forth. Because we're like, what's going to happen in this game? Oh, threw another interception. What are we going to do? And I'm pacing around like that. And it's funny when it's a football game.

It's not funny when it's real life. But that's what I'm good at doing. But that's not what Jesus does. Because Jesus isn't worried about what you're worried about. And Jesus wasn't worried about what these disciples were worried about. You know why? Because he was asleep. That dude's out. But take note of what the disciples are doing. They are not sleeping.

It says in verse 25, And they came to him and woke him, saying, Lord, we are perishing. Lord, we are perishing. That's what they were doing, right? Peter's at the front of the boat. No doubt telling everybody what they should be doing right now in order to make things work. John was thinking about what was going to take place. James and John were probably in an argument because the Sons of Thunder.

Andrew was probably bailing out the water because he's the only one that ever seemed to really do anything. Like he was always bringing people to Jesus, remember? He didn't talk a lot. He was just always doing something. He's probably trying to bail out the water. And so this entire time they're like, we're going to die. I don't think it was a, hey, Lord, just so you know, lunch will be later.

Meanwhile, we're perishing. Just want to make sure you kind of know the situation of what's happening right now. I think that they were shaking him and going, how on earth can you be sleeping right now? We're all going to die. Now I don't know how y'all picture Jesus waking up right now. But I picture Jesus kind of going, why are we so stressed? What's, dude, I was, it was good.

I was, it was a good dream. Explains why I was sleeping so well. I'm rocking like a baby. What, what's, what's the problem? And he looks around him and he sees what's going on. Now, I want you to take note of how Jesus responds. He said to them, why are you afraid, you men of little faith? Now, if we read this just for face value, we can get a little bit nervous about something.

We can think that Jesus is angry with them simply because they're afraid. I don't think that's the case. Because he goes on to put a little caveat on it. He says, you men of little faith. You see, I don't think what Jesus is about. I don't think what Jesus is upset right now about oftentimes drives us to prayer. I think fear is a very healthy thing in the life of an individual.

Sometimes fear keeps us from doing something that could cause us great harm. I don't think Jesus is rebuking them simply because they're afraid. I also don't think Jesus is rebuking them because they woke him up to make a request. Listen, Jesus will never be upset when you come to him, even if it's in the middle of the night. I don't think that's why he was upset.

I think the reason why Jesus rebuked them is because their fear had become their God. You see, fear had now taken over their lives. Fear was the thing that was driving them. It was not a healthy fear that caused them to come to Jesus and in a very faith-filled way say, Lord, we're in a dangerous storm. We need you to act in the way that we know you're able to act.

No, they were saying, what are you going to do because we're perishing. There seems to be no hope left. You should be doing something right now. But not only was their fear something that had taken over them completely, but their fear had caused them to forget everything that they knew about Jesus. What had they just been watching Jesus do over the past few days?

Well, they saw Jesus heal someone that had leprosy, a disease that there was no cure for. He just did something that had never been done before, proving himself to be God. They saw Jesus heal someone from long distance with the centurion's servant. Peter just saw Jesus heal his mother-in-law simply with the touch of a hand. And then they had just spent the entire evening watching Jesus heal over and over and over again

everybody that had come to them. Not only that, but what had Jesus said before the disciple guys showed up and he told them what discipleship truly looked like? What had Jesus said before the storm had ever started? Did you take note of it? Look back up at verse 18. Now, when Jesus saw a crowd, he gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. They had forgotten that Jesus had told them what their destination was.

Jesus said, let's depart and go to the other side of the sea. Now, if Jesus had said, let's depart and die in the middle of the sea, then you can get nervous. But Jesus didn't say that. He said, let's go to the other side of the sea. And as a matter of fact, when you look at both Mark and Luke's account of this, that's what Jesus says even right before this happens.

Let's go to the other side. See, I think sometimes we can forget that we already know what the end looks like. We already know who wins in the end. Not just the end of time, but the end of our lives. And we can trust that Jesus will get us to the other side. There's a beautiful verse in the book of Philippians. I didn't put this in the notes. Write down Philippians 1, verse 6.

And it says this. Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will also be faithful to complete it. You see, what Jesus has started in each and every one of us, he intends on completing. And so in the middle, there may be times where it feels fearful. It may feel a little fearful because we see the issues that people are dealing with with their health right now.

And there can be a little bit of fear that goes along with that. But we must remember that in the end, Jesus completes what he has started. We can be a little bit fearful as we see issues come up in our lives. And we think, I'm never going to overcome this. And there's fear. But we need to remember that Jesus finishes what he started. And if he says we're going to the other side, then nothing's going to happen to you until you make it to the other side.

And so what does he do? He first of all rebukes their unbelief. He rebukes the fact that they were dominated by fear and they stopped believing in him. And then it says in verse 26, he said, Why are you afraid, you men of little faith? Then he got up and he rebuked the winds and the sea. And it became perfectly calm. How did he heal their fear? First of all, he pointed out to them where they were wrong.

And then he took care of the situation that was right in front of them. In other words, he acted in the way that only he can act. You know why I appreciate that? Because Jesus could have at that point in time allowed the storm to just keep going until they made it to the other side, proving to them that he is God and he'll get them to the other side. But that's not what he did.

He calmed the storm for them. He was with them in the storm. And then he brought calm in the midst of the storm. That's how he heals our fear. What are you fearful about today? What is causing you to lose some faith today? Because Jesus wants to heal that fear on the inside of you. He'll first of all point out to you that that fear has become your God. But then second of all, he will become for you the calm in the midst of the storm.

I've seen it happen over and over again. I'll tell you a little story from my own life from about a year ago. I remember last year. A year after my cousin had passed away. And we were all sitting around. Me and my aunt and uncle and my wife were sitting around the table. And we were talking. And I think we were starting to see the storm around us. The winds and the waves were getting pretty great.

And we started doing the what if. Well, only if we had done this. Only if we had done that. And my wife with her godly wisdom looked at all of us. And I believe God used her to bring calm to the storm. Because she looked at all of us. And she said, But you guys are forgetting something. God was in control. And his life was in God's hands. And his days were in God's hands.

And as she rebuked us two pastors for playing the what if game. We looked at each other and we said, You're right. God is in control. And the conversation stopped at that. You see, that's Jesus. That's Jesus showing himself faithful and calm in the midst of the storm. That's him healing from fear. Well, now we make it to the other side. So it says in verse 27,

They were amazed and they said, What kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Well, now what he started off to do at the beginning of this section he now gets to do. When he came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon possessed met him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.

And they cried out saying, What business do we have with each other, son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. And the demons began to entreat them saying, If you are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine. And he said to them, Go and came out and went into the swine.

And the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters. The herdsmen ran away and went to the city and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they implored him to leave their region. Now, as they show up to the other side of the sea,

he showed up for two men and two men only. I think he would have done more work there and not kicked him out. But he showed up because there were two men. And these two men were bound by demon possession. If you look at some of the other gospel accounts in both Mark and Luke, you'll find that it only mentions one man. And it refers to him as legion because he says,

There are so many demons inside of me. I believe that the reason why Mark and Luke only point out the one man is because he was worse than his friend. He was in a worse situation. So that's what those guys remembered. They remembered the worst part of the situation. Matthew points out that there's two. But take note of how these men are described. They're described as being demon-possessed.

They're described as living amongst the tombs. And they're described as being extremely violent. Now, I think that the description is kind of interesting for us to pay attention to. Demon-possessed. Now, I believe that this is a real thing. It's a real thing that took place in Jesus' time. And I believe that it's a real thing that takes place today. I believe that many times the psychological issues that we see unbelievers have,

particularly the multiple personalities and some of that, I believe that a lot of that is demon-possession. I believe that some of these serial killers that we see do things today, I believe that that's demon-possession. But I also believe that some of these young kids that are harming themselves in such evil ways, I think that there's demon-possession involved in that. There's a lot of things that can usher in that sort of thing.

Drug use. I believe even some of the video games and things that are played can help usher some of those kinds of things in. But we know that the biggest thing is simply not knowing Jesus. Because the two can't dwell together. And so Jesus shows up and it says that these men are coming out of the tombs. Why the tombs? Because what does Satan love? Death. Death is his M.O.

Death is the thing that he celebrates. And so they're out amongst the tombs. And then how does it describe them? It describes them as incredibly violent. If I remember correctly from the Mark and Luke description, they kept trying to bind them with chains and they kept breaking them. That's really strong. And so these men are violent. No one wanted to go out there amongst them.

And what we find is that the entire community was content with the fact that these guys lived amongst the dead as long as they don't bother us in the city. We're going to see that that's important here in just a minute. And so as Jesus shows up, he gets out of the boat and they come from out amongst the tombs. And what's the first thing that they say to him?

Verse 29. And they cried out saying, What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Now there's two things that are important to pay attention to here. Number one, these demoniacs recognized Jesus more easily than his own chosen people did, than the ones who studied the Scriptures did. Isn't that kind of interesting to pay attention to?

That they knew exactly who he was? The second thing that I'll point out to you is that they distinctly understood what their end was. That there was coming a time of judgment where they would be cast eternally into a place of torment. I believe it was Chuck Smith that pointed out the fact that these demoniacs seemed to have better theology than most people today.

They understood that judgment was coming for them. And so they're going, What are you going to do to us? What do we have to do with you? It's not time for you to torment us yet, is it? And then they make a request of Jesus. Did you take note of it? It says, There was a herd of swine feeding at a distance from them. And that's an interesting statement in and of itself, isn't it?

Now we're getting to dietary laws this week in the book of Leviticus. And one of the things that we're going to find is what was one of the main dietary laws? What were they not supposed to eat? Pork. As a matter of fact, if you came in contact with a pig, you were considered unclean. And now here in this land of the Gadarenes, over on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee,

where it was mainly Jewish people, although a little bit of Gentile influence, there was a herd of swine. Why? Because they could probably make money. And they didn't care about being clean. What did they care about? Money. Sound familiar? And so as this herd of swine is feeding there, notice what it says. It says, The demons began to entreat him, saying, If you're going to cast us out,

send us into this herd of swine. Now why on earth do they want to get cast into these animals? Well, I think that, again, there's two reasons. First of all, demons don't want to be unembodied spirits. As a matter of fact, it says that they search to and fro looking for someone that they can possess. And when they find someone, they like to bring their friends.

We're told that in places in Scripture. And so they don't want to be unembodied. But you know what the second reason is? They love to destroy life. And they don't care if it's human life or animal life. They simply want to destroy life. And so they make this petition of Jesus. They say, Send us into the swine. And then in verse 32 it says, And he said to them,

Go. Now my Bible has red letters. And so right there it says go, and it's written in red. Therefore I know Jesus said it, at least according to what it shows in my Bible. But you may take note of the fact that from verses 28 to 34, there's only one word written in red. And it's the word go. Isn't it kind of interesting? That's the only conversation that Jesus had with these demons.

He didn't need to entertain a conversation. He just simply needed to give a conversation. And that's exactly what he does. He says, Go. And they came out. And they went into the swine. And the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished into the waters. I can't help it. That's one of the funniest things I can ever imagine. Can you imagine what that would have been like?

Here's this whole herd of swine, this whole herd of pigs, minding their own business, being gross and disgusting, probably rolling in mud, loving their life, living in the mud. And all of a sudden, these demons, this legion of demons, comes in and enters these swine. Now again, I can't help it. My imagination causes me to picture things. I picture these swine going.

And all of a sudden, the loudest cry is suey from these swine. They're just going crazy. And they all start stampeding in one direction.

That's the first time they'd ever had a bath, I bet. Those swine just come running down that hill and they all dive into the water. I wonder how many of them went, wee, the whole way down the hill. I can't help it. That's in my mind. Where they're like, ee, right? Right? And then all of a sudden, they're like, we're pigs. We can't swim. And they go down and they drown.

Roast pork. Right? They all die there. It's a fascinating scene. Can you imagine being the herdsman standing around? Because we take note of how they react. You can see them just going, well, that's not good. We better go tell somebody about that. Now, in this particular account, we don't see that these two men then stood there whole. These two men had been made whole.

And they wanted to go with Jesus. And he said, no, you need to stay here. You need to stay here and tell them what I've done for you. Can you imagine the scene it would have been for those two guys that for the first time, and you don't even remember how long, you were whole? You could think clear. You were alive again. Well, verse 33, the herdsman ran away and went to the city

and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they implored him to leave their region. Isn't that fascinating? Probably everybody in the entire region knew about these two guys because they all need to stay away from these two guys because, well, bad things happen

when you hang out with those two guys. And yet, knowing that those two guys had been delivered, all they knew was, we just lost the pigs. We just lost a payday. And as a matter of fact, we don't like anything that you stand for right now because there's just something a little too much about you. Get out. Isn't it funny how people can care a lot more about their money

than they can about the souls of people? Isn't it interesting how people will be content to see someone held down in bondage as long as it means they keep getting paid? That's the world we live in. But when it all stands at the end, these two demon-possessed men have been healed. Yes, discipleship costs us everything. Yes, it means that I need to put Jesus first.

But discipleship also means that I get set free from all of my fears. And discipleship means that I get to see other people set free and made whole again. Amen? Let's all stand. As we head into another week, I pray that as things of life keep happening and as fears just seem to keep building around us, that we will continue to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

Father, we come before you and I just thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you for how faithful you are to us. Lord, I thank you for how compassionate you are towards us. And Lord, that even in your rebuking, rebukes, you still remain merciful. And so, Lord, I pray that as we depart this place today, that you would keep us in you, that you would keep us close to you,

and that you would continue to use your word in our lives as you see fit. And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Just a reminder that Jim's going to be at the back with his Bible open, taking up a collection for those that would want to share in the work of the ministry of the Gideons. Be blessed.

We'll see you again next time. Be young. Colossians five. We'll see why by Jesus saves. That Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Mercy triumphs at the cross. Let us זה the sake. What a joyful praise and shout. He made borns alive this night. We'll sing. Raise and shout with all of us. Jesus saves, raise a shout that Jesus saves, that Jesus saves. Amen, amen. God is good, isn't he?

Heavenly Father, God, I thank you, Lord, for your son, Jesus. Lord, I just thank you for the wonderful work that he's done on the cross and for paying the price for our sin, Lord, and for being risen again to give us new life, God. I thank you, Lord, that you save. I thank you, Lord, that you saved me, God. I just pray that there are any here this morning, God, that don't know you,

that are not saved, I pray that they would come to know you in that way, God. Lord, we love you. God, we thank you and we praise you, and we ask these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful and blessed week.