2024 Conference Ep. 007 Kevin Foley

Hello and welcome back to the PHSA Podcast.

My name is David Bigford.

I'm the pastor here at SalmonArm.

This is a very special podcast series where I'm going to be sharing with you messages

from our most recent conference in Prescott, Arizona, the Beyond Limits Conference with

a theme of to preach the gospel in the regions beyond from 2 Corinthians 10-16.

I'm going to share all of the sermons from this conference series to include Greg Mitchell,

our head pastor, Joe Campbell, Richard Ruby, Tom Payne, and many, many others during this

series.

So I'll be sharing these with you over the next couple weeks, and I hope you really enjoy

these messages.

If you'd like to see these messages in a video format, you can go to prescottpottershouse.com,

where all of these will be available for you to view in a video format.

So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the messages, and I hope you

enjoy them.

God bless.

Praise God. Mark chapter 5, I so appreciate Pastor Brown's preaching.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

I know we believe by faith that whatever we're saying, you know, God's doing something in

people.

But when I hear Pastor Brown preach, it's palpable. I can feel something happening in

me just even beyond what he's saying. And that was powerful today. I'm very, very grateful.

I'm very grateful to my pastor for the invitation to preach and minister. This conference is

a very, very humbling thing. And so I'm grateful.

The Boston Globe ran an article back in May. Ten years ago, there was a small piece of

a human brain that came into a lab at Harvard University and came directly from an operating

room where it had been taken from an epilepsy patient to try and reduce her seizures. But

in the years following, Dr. Lichtman was the man in charge, methodically reconstructed

the patterns of that brain by feeding that one cubic millimeter of brain tissue, one

cubic millimeter, into a $6 million device that sliced it into impossibly thin slivers

and was able to take pictures or representative images. I want to just show you three of these

if we could. That's in your brain. Can I have another one? That is your brain. And

one more there. Now, that's just in the smallest slice of one cubic millimeter. That's a beautiful

thing. And it's a very complex thing. In our day, it is a suffering thing. And we read

regularly of the kinds of mental suffering and torment that generations, and we're particularly

focusing on the younger generations, but of course it's not limited to that. But I want

you to know that Jesus made that. He made that brain. That's His creation. And one of

the researchers said, if we could truly know what another person's connectome, that is

the singular wiring diagram of all of their memories, thoughts, fears, and dreams, how

would we treat each other? And could we heal the brain of its countless torments? Well,

none of us is ever going to figure all that's going on inside of each other's brains. But

I know someone who does. He not only knows exactly what he made, but you know the Bible

says he actually holds it together. He sustains all things by the word of his power. And not

only does he know how it is made, he knows how it's been damaged. He knows. Jesus knows

how it is to be made whole. He understands. And he has the power to do something. He has

the authority and wisdom to do something. But what I want you and I to try and if I

can communicate to you, he has the compassion. He has the compassion that motivates him to

do something. We're going to look at some familiar verses. This is the Gadarene demoniac.

We're not going to read all the preceding verses about him being in the tombs and cutting

himself and crying out and unable to be bound. We're just going to focus here in verse 15.

Then they came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon possessed and had the legion

sitting and clothed in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who saw it told

them how it happened to him who had been demon possessed and about the swine. Then they began

to plead with him to depart from their region. And when he got into the boat, he who had

been demon possessed begged him that he might be with him. However, Jesus did not permit

him but said to him, go home to your friends. Tell them what great things the Lord has done

for you and how he has had compassion on you. And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis

all that Jesus had done for him and all marveled. Amen. Jesus' minds, abused minds, our minds

obviously are very beautiful and complex things. The Bible says, I will praise you for I am

fearfully and wonderfully made. To think that that's simply a product of evolution. That

somehow we came from a toad to paint the Sistine Chapel. It's just beyond comprehension. That

even the researchers that discovered these things that can be so helpful to help in human

brains. The music, the art, the architecture, the genius that has discovered cures for polio

and has largely gotten rid of many diseases. Like this is an amazing thing that Jesus has

created. It is the most, in some ways, the most glorious thing in all of creation. This

brain of ours, I don't know mine doesn't feel like that. I don't know about you. I'm just

going. But just like anything in his creation, it can be abused. And Jesus really minds what

we do with our minds. We can abuse our own minds. Some of us are recovering from some

chemical abuse that we did a long time ago. Some of you, it wasn't that long ago. We can

expose our minds to stuff. What we read and what we watch, what we listen to. Media, sometimes

the people that we listen to, the images that we expose ourselves to. Social media, they're

saying that this is a crucial influence in the mental health of young people today. That

the surgeon general is wanting to put a caution on those just like smoking cigarettes. Smoking

cigarettes can kill you. And social media can kill you. Worst of all, social media means

you might kill you. Exposing themselves to porn, horror, violence. You know sometimes

flying on a plane and seeing somebody watching on their screen next door, people being shot

and blown up. I'm sorry, there's enough explosions in my life without adding a few more. Does

that help you? I don't know. And then of course what we ruminate about. That's what we go

over and over in our minds. The bitternesses, the hate, the pride. How we process the issues

of life. You tend to think, well I think like this because I've been wronged. And certainly

you have been wronged, but is it helping you to ruminate about it? And make one of those

connectomes stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger because you think about the grievance.

You think about your bitterness over and over and over and over again. How about thinking

about Jesus over and over and over and over again and make a really healthy connectome.

Of course others have abused our minds. Words that have been spoken, hateful, demeaning,

cruel. Words of rejection. You've heard words of error and rebellion, manipulation and control.

And physical and emotional and even sexual abuse. And so in many ways our minds are not

in the place that Jesus intended. You can disagree with me, but I think of that was

the Son of God that was in the garden forming man out of the dust of the ground. And that

it was the Son of God that breathed life. That He created the one who would become Jesus

Christ. He created your mind. And He created it not for us to damage it or for others to

damage it, but of course that's what's happened. But the same one who made it is the same one

who cares about the condition of your mind this morning. He minds. He cares. This man

has said that he was in his right mind. After Jesus touched him now he is in his right mind.

That tells us that's the center of the trouble. That's why he's cutting himself. That's why

he's howling. That's why he's spending time among the tombs. It's something, there's

this, that is how the demon powers have exploited this life. How did he get like that? The Bible

doesn't tell us. It doesn't say what happened. Was it something that happened to him? Was

it something that he did to himself? Or a combination of both? Was it a family thing?

Generational curse? False religion? A cult? Violations? You know, not every mental issue

is a demon. If you wake up in the morning and think life stinks until you have your

four quads latte, then that's not necessarily a demon. It's just like... But we know the

Bible talks about different conditions of the mind. The anxious mind. The blinded mind.

The corrupted mind. The carnal mind. The poisoned mind. The darkened mind. It may involve a

spirit. It may involve something in our own hearts as well. Your brain is planning to

remind you of the stupid things you did 15 years ago in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

It reckons waking you up with a jolt after only three hours of sleep, then it will spend

much of the rest of the night replaying the list of your greatest mistakes. That spongy

gray lump which sits between your ears is planning a real greatest hits retrospective,

which will include every dumb thing you've ever said. That time you got completely wrong

with a person you really fancied and doomed yourself to a life of regret and loneliness.

Every stupid choice you've ever made and how people are only your friends because they

pity you. It expects this will be completed about 6.30 p.m. and by which time you'll have

to get up and go to work and pretend you're just fine. And when asked, your brain says

it intends to do this randomly at intervals for the rest of your life. Thank God we have

one who is more merciful to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know when I came into the

Prescott Church back in 1977, I had been a Christian for six years and actually had a

clue what that meant for about five. But you know I was a Bible reader. You know I read

my Bible every day. It's not like I was ignorant about Bible stuff. But Pastor Mitchell, he

would say these things sometimes and just a light would just go off in my mind. Like

just stuff that you've read or even heard preached and it would just bring such clarity

so that you could actually process. And I remember him and of course you have been around

forever you know this is like common knowledge to you but I remember him saying the battle

ground is the mind. And my like wow that's true. But just something about the way that

he said it and just to realize over the years that's where the battle is. It was one of

those wow moments that I had in being under Pastor Mitchell's ministry. How are you doing

in that battle? Do we take it seriously? Are we engaging in the fight? Are we thinking

well this is just how it is? This is just life. But Jesus, he cares. He has compassion

on the condition of your mind in this building today or those of you who might be watching.

Jesus heals a tormented mind. But he doesn't just heal a tormented mind, he gives him a

right mind. 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. Jesus has power over any power

that torments your mind. There's no power in heaven or earth greater than the Lord Jesus

Christ and his authority and power to free you and me from the things that torment our

minds. Thank God. This is a legion of demons, what 600, 1000, whatever. It's a crew. And

they're thinking they're pretty hot stuff. Look at what this guy will do. Hey, I don't

know what they call, demons call each other, but why don't you make yourself hit him in

the head with a rock. They're just ruling man. They're just ruling tormenting this life

and Jesus shows up and now they're, I don't know if demons wet their pants, but now they're,

he's here. Jesus, the son of the most high God. Yeah, you got it. You got it. That's

exactly who he is. He is the son of the most high God and you are some squirrely little

creatures of hell and you have, you are no match for the, for Jesus, the son of the most

high God. They are no match for Jesus Christ. Whatever those tormenting spirit, whether

they're in you or whether they're trying to gain access and torment you and, and they,

they want to resist, you know, like your, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. It doesn't

feel like anything's happening, but if you could see in the spiritual realm, they're

just holding on by their fingernails. I'm not going, I'm not going, but they got to

go because Jesus has a power and authority. That means if you want to be free, you can

be free. If you want to be delivered, you can be delivered. I just want to show you

a picture of the, the Matthew account. If that could go up in the Matthew account, like

there's, there's actually two guys, right? So he's there. And so this is the whole story

and all the drama that's going on, right? And there's pigs and there's this and you

know, and you know, these two guys that are acting pretty crazy. And, and can you notice

in verse 32, one word, best. Campbell talked about one word last night, one word, go. That's

the only thing he says in the whole thing. And they're gone. All those demon powers,

just one word in English, two letters, boom, and they're gone. See, Jesus has compassion.

Pastor Lamb preached so movingly about the word compassion. This isn't the exact same

word in the Greek, but of course it's, it's connected. It's linked. That his heart has

moved for you. Pastor Brown preaching so powerfully about the Father's heart for you and me and

what life has done to us and Father's and lack thereof. And here, Jesus said, if you've

seen me, you've seen the Father, right? You can see the Father's heart and compassion.

Was it this man's fault that he was in that condition? Obviously there's got to be some

cooperation, but Jesus still has compassion. Was it stuff that was done to him? We don't

know, but he still has compassion. Sometimes in our unright mind, I don't deserve freedom.

I don't deserve help. I did this to myself for the devil is lying to you and telling

you it's all your fault. I'm just getting what I deserve. I can't be free. But it's

not about your deserving. It's about Jesus' compassion. Just put out of your mind what

you deserve. We don't deserve anything by ourselves. I think Pastor Brown also said

that, but we serve a God who loves us and has compassion for us and is moved by our

suffering. We read of a man who was beaten on the Jericho Road and left for dead. That

was something that happened to him. And the Bible says, but a certain Samaritan, as he

journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion. Compassion for what

happens to people in life. Then we read about the prodigal son, right? This guy's a train

wreck. He's done it to himself, right? He's completely responsible for the condition of

his life. But he returns to the Father and the Father's, and he arose and came to his

Father, but when he was still a great way off, his Father saw him and had compassion

and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Whether it's happened to you, whether it's

as a result of things, decisions, and actions, Jesus has compassion for you. His heart is

moved to you from his very inner being. And he offers not only deliverance, right, the

ceasing of the torment of mind, but he offers a renewed mind, a right mind, where there

has been a darkened or a depraved mind from Romans chapter 1, right? There is now the

Romans 1 · chapter mention

renewed mind that you and I can have, Romans chapter 12, where there's the mind of the

Romans 12 · chapter mention

flesh, right, that is only about the satisfaction of the appetites and the motivations of the

flesh. Now we can have, because of what Jesus did on the cross, his resurrection and the

work of the Spirit of God, we can now have the mind of the Spirit. Where there's been

an anxious mind, now there can be the peace that passes all understanding. Where there's

been a fearful mind, the Spirit can give us a sound mind, and that's the exact same word

in our text. Our text could have been interpreted, and he was there sitting and in his sound

mind. The self-involved mind, or the narcissist mind, always thinking about yourself. We can

have the mind of Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Do you think? Really? Like I could have the same, I could have a mind that can be moved

in the same way of Jesus, Jesus was. Although he was in the form of God, thought it not

robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and humbled himself. Taken

the form of a servant, humbled himself unto death, even the death on the cross. He didn't

do that because he was self-involved and self-absorbed. He did that because he cares about you, because

he wanted you saved, he wanted you free, he wanted you whole, and he wanted your mind

transformed to think like his. Let the word of Christ dwell within you richly. You know,

people complain sometimes, you know, free services a week? Nobody else does that. How

is everybody else doing? I don't know. I mean, maybe you can keep a sound mind with

just one shot a week, but I don't know. To have the word of God ministered, to allow

to give Jesus access to my mind, allow his word to dwell within me richly and transform

this thing. The Proverbs talks about giving heed unto the words of God and for their life

and to those who find them in health or some would say and medicine to all their flesh.

Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. That spongy

gray lump in here between these two things, that can be transformed, made healthy, made

whole. You know, none of us is going to be made completely whole until the rapture we

pass into eternity. We know that right now we still see through a glass darkly. Now we

behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord. We're, we're, but still if we can behold

the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be changed from one dimension of glory to

another even by the spirit of the Lord. But it means that I need to get my mind on Jesus.

I know we have jobs, we have children to raise, we have responsibilities. It's not like we

can be focusing on Jesus 24-7. But you know, in the times that are free that we can be

thinking about, what do we think about? Is it healthy? Is it helping? Would it help to

remember Jesus and His power, His authority, His love for us, His compassion? You know,

this man couldn't be bound by any chain. Any, they put a chain on him and with supernatural

strength, bam, he just broke the chains. But you know what he could do? He could bow down

and prostrate himself before the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not, he's not free yet. He's

not even free yet, but he did that. You and I can do that. You and I can bow before Him,

surrender to Him. That's not just a physical posture, that is a heart submitted to the

Lordship of Jesus Christ. Say, I want this mind to be made whole. I want to have the

mind of Christ like not this troubled thing. And I believe that you care for me. And I

believe that you are at work in me. That when I hate myself the most, you still love me.

When I am beating myself up for some this or that, that that's not you doing it. You

know, Elijah had some mental issues, you know, and, you know, bread cooked by angels didn't

quite get it done. And he went to a mountain, you know, and there was a thunder and a fire

and an earthquake. But the Lord wasn't in that. The Lord wasn't in any of those things,

but then a still small voice. Right? That violence going on in your brain, that's not

God. I know He can convict us and thank God that He does. But conviction always comes

with a hope. We surrender to Him. We ask. We believe. There's deliverance, but there's

also the changing of our pattern of thinking. Right? Those connect tones, like we have something

to do about that. We have something to do with how, what we think about and how those

connections are made. Second Timothy 1, 7 says, for the spirit of God gave us, the spirit

God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. Or sound

mine, that's the same word as in our text. In New York Times editorial, David French

was talking about the numbers of conversations he had, he has with people about troubled

teenage minds. And as he's thinking about this and, and what maybe teenagers are being

exposed to in the media and social media and all of these things, he began to be convicted

in his own heart. That maybe my anxiety, the anxieties of my teenagers don't come from

them, they come from me. They come from the things that I watch, the things that I talk

about, the things that upset me about the condition of the world. And he had to step

back and say, it's, you know, it's one thing for me to blame this social media, that, you

know, and I hate the stuff, get rid of it. Just, just get rid of it. But mom and dad,

like what are the conversations about at the dinner table? It's about all the horrible

stuff going on in the world, and this one, that way, you know, you know, whatever your

politics is, or is it about Jesus? I'm not trying to make you super spiritual, we only

talk about the Lord at this meal. You know, just, but I mean, can you receive something

about that? Like, can you receive something about that? Like, how much do we make our

homes a place of stress? But here's where I wanted to go. What Jesus wanted this man

to do was to be a testimony of his compassion. That's what God wants for every single person

here. When we talk about going beyond the limits, we're talking about going beyond,

however you have been limited by what you're going through, by what you're troubled with,

however limited by people that you see and look down upon. And I'm not talking about

going out and seeing how many gatherings you can get in your building. Like, that's, just

understand. But it says, when Jesus got in the boat, he who had been demon possessed

begged him that he might be with him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him,

go home, dear friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and

how he has had compassion on you. Tell them how he has had compassion on you. And he departed

and began to proclaim at Decapolis all that Jesus had done for them and all did marvel.

Here's a mouth that had, first of all, begged to be separated from Jesus, now begged to

be close to Jesus. A desire to be with Jesus is good and right. But knowing his heart must

move us to make his compassion known. Not only because we read it here, because it's

impressed on our hearts. You know, we know what to do. We know the words to say, perhaps.

But does our witness come out of a heart where Jesus has been revealed to us in a fresh and

powerful way? You know, I know we allude to the Jesus movement a lot, and some of you,

you know, that are younger than boomers, oh, here we go again. But let me just think about

the middle word of that, right, Jesus. You know, when we got saved, when I got saved

on a dance floor, right, drunk at the time, I didn't know anything. Any prayers that I

prayed I used to pray with beads, you know. But when I got up from that dance floor I

realized Jesus is real. That was what the testimony was about. What is about all the

issues of sin, all the things that, what's your stand on this? It was about, I'm talking

to someone who needs Jesus, and Jesus has done this thing in my life. He hears who he

is. I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus

compassion for us wants to be translated into compassion for others. You know, the man who

ripped off all his master's goods, right, to pay back the, it would have had to work

every day for 3,000 years, probably not going to happen. Then the master of that servant

was moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt. He received compassion

from the one that he had violated so incredibly. And I know we talk about it in terms of forgiving

those who have wronged us. But the king says, should you not also have had compassion on

your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? Do you hear that? It's like, okay, go

from your encounter with Jesus and have compassion for people. Share the compassion that I have

placed, that I put in you. Declare that to people. Not everybody is going to be aware

of what we go through, what we've gone through, what we've suffered with. Most of us stayed

out of cemeteries. I am shocked. I don't know, maybe it's just a generational thing. I wonder

like how many skulls there are around. People with skulls on their shirts, skulls on their

car, skulls with beady eyes, you know, instead of Mary on the dashboard. You know, it's

like, whoa, are you, people are hanging around the dead. I don't think that's healthy.

Don Richie has lived beside a cliff. He was for suicidal jumps for 50 years. Every time

someone approaches the cliff, he goes out to make sure they don't take their life. Over

the years, he has stopped at least 160 people from killing themselves. That's just the official

estimate. The real number is said to be 400, according to his family. Don happened to live

near the gap, an ocean cliff at Sydney. It's a popular visitor destination, which has gained

infamy as a suicide spot over the years. It's estimated about 50 people and their lives

there each year. But as an individual walks up to the cliff, looking at the crashing waves

below and wondering whether to jump, Don would approach them with a smile and say, why don't

you come and have a cup of tea? Accepting his offer, these people would be invited.

It was home where they would have a chat over tea. No counseling, no advising, no prying.

Just one human being lending an ear to another. Some of these people had mental problems,

and had medical illnesses. Some are just people going through a rough patch in life for many,

a listening ear was apparently what they needed as they changed their minds about jumping

after the chat and turned back home. But how much more do you and I have to share than

just to chat over tea? But tell them about Jesus over tea. Yes, hear their pain, hear

their anguish. Don't just jump down their throats the moment they hear and out of compassion,

the compassion that Jesus has shown you. You represent that. If I can use the word, you

incarnate that like you be Jesus, compassion to those people. It's tangible. They can feel

it. And Jesus set this man free, but he didn't leave it. He said, no, I just don't want you

to just come and be a part of this thing right now in this boat. I want you, I want you to

go and tell people about the compassion that I have shown you. And that's why you're free.

Amen. Let's thank you.

Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast. Be sure to follow

us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on what we're

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