The King of Reality

Good morning. Our scripture reading for today

comes from Matthew chapter 8, starting in verse 28.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

If you're using one of the Bibles under your seat, you can

find that on page 763. This is Matthew chapter 8,

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

starting in verse 28. And when he came to the other

side, to the country of the Guardianese, two demon possessed

men met him, coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one

could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, What

have you to do with us, O Son of God, have you come here to

torment us before the time? Now a herd of many pigs was

feeding at some distance from them.

And the demons begged him, saying, If you cast us out, send

us away into the herd of pigs. And he said to them, Go.

So they came out and went into the pigs.

And behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into

the sea, and drowned in the waters.

The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told

everything, especially what had happened to the demon possessed

men. And behold all the city came out

to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave

their region. This is the word of the Lord.

What's going on? Port City family and friends,

how are we doing? Good.

My name is Tanner. I'm one of the pastor's here.

I love that new song, Jesus. Thank you.

Could somebody just say thank you this morning?

Somebody challenged me this week.

They said, Tanner, if you don't learn how to be grateful,

everything is either a prospect or a problem.

And maybe you can relate to that.

Everything in your life either feels like a problem that's got

to get out of the way or a prospect to materialize into

something new. And y'all, thank you.

Just helps you receive the moment and ultimately we are

thankful for Christ. Y'all in the person of Jesus, we

have all we need y'all. That's that's that's the truth

of the Bible. And if we can't get there, we're

always just going to be plagued by discontent.

So what I want to do is just go to the Lord in a quick word of

prayer and we're going to dive into our amazing texture today.

Will you pray with me our Father God, what we know not this

morning. Would you teach us God, what we

have not would you give us and what we are not, would you make

us? Lord, let let the words of my

mouth, the meditation of my heart during this time and God,

all of our hearts just to be meditating on what you have for

us. Be with us our Lord, our rock,

our Redeemer and everybody who agree with that said Amen.

Well, y'all, I love the five senses.

What a gift they are to taste food is amazing.

The one that kind of blows my mind sometimes is sound.

OK, sound, you can't see it, but the way that sound works is it's

it's like frequencies of like vibration, OK, and it it hits

our ears and we hear it. It's amazing.

All right now some frequencies are either so high or so low you

can't hear them. But just because we can't hear

them doesn't mean somebody or something can't hear them, OK?

Perfect example is the dog whistle.

If you go into the middle of downtown Norfolk right now and

you blow a dog whistle, none of y'all jokers would hear it, but

every Unchained dog in our great city would come running, OK?

Now why would that happen? Because they are attuned to the

frequency, right? Just because your senses can't

experience it doesn't mean it's not real.

And we all agree with that. OK, I bring up that illustration

because as we get into a text about demons, it is helpful for

us to just have in mind that life is more than our senses and

their experience. OK?

There's something we can't explain that a frequency

illustration is helpful for us to keep in mind.

And here's what I would encourage us to think about.

God is reality, God is the frequency, God is what we're

after, what we were made for. Anything other than him and life

with him is a distortion of reality.

Somebody say distortion. OK, so as we get into a

conversation about demons and all that stuff, that's all just

the distortion of what is truth, what is reality, which is God

himself. So my hope for us is that we

walk out of here wanting to walk with God in reality.

Are you with me? That we don't beg him to leave,

but we beg him to stay and we beg that we would get in life

with him. OK, so to get there, we're going

to look at our story from three perspectives.

First, the demons, second from Jesus, and 3rd, from the

Gadarenes, the people themselves.

OK, if you are ready, let me hear you say I'm ready.

All right, let's start with the demons, verse 28.

And when he came to the other side, to the country of the

Gadarenes, 2 demon possessed men met him coming out of the tomb

so fierce that no one could pass that way.

And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us?

O son of God? Have you come here to torment us

before the time? Now a herd of many pigs was

feeding at some distance from them.

And the demons begged him, saying, if you cast us out, send

us away into the herd of pigs. Two quick notes and we're going

to get in. OK, some of y'all know that this

text is in multiple gospels. OK?

This is the gospel where two men are mentioned and the others one

is mentioned. And sometimes you're like, what?

Are they different? Relax, OK?

Differences in gospels are differences in emphasis, not in

reality. It's not in what occurred, but

in what they want you to see and what occurred.

OK, so the other gospels emphasize one man who is the

most changed and was the focus of conversation with Jesus.

Our text is focusing on two men and they really, they aren't the

center of the story as much as the demons are.

And the people, the Gadarenes, are you with me?

OK, second thing, as we get into a conversation that involves

demons, what CS Lewis said in the mid 20th century is as true

as ever. He said anytime we talk demons,

one of two things happens. We ignore them or we have a

propensity to obsess over them. OK, that's just what humans do.

We ignore them completely. Mistake.

We obsess over them entirely. Mistake.

OK, so by our time ending today, we will we will kind of land

somewhere. And I just want you to hear this

is not a sermon on demons. This is a sermon on reality with

Jesus. OK, so we're not getting all of

our demonology from this text, but we got to do a little work

to get our minds around it a little bit.

OK, so here's the first thing I want you to see about demons.

Demons are an assumed biblical reality that fit within a

spiritual and material view of the world.

OK? They're an assumed reality as a

part of spiritual material view of the world.

All right. The Bible assumes a material

spiritual world where both are are together at all times.

They're not separate, they're just together.

The the way I've heard it explains that human beings, we

are the ones made in God's image where we are material beings in

a spiritual world and we're spiritual beings in a material

world. We are the ones who can do both.

Kind of like a an amphibian is made to do land and water, if

you will. We are made to do spirit and

material. We are the amphibians of God's

creation. And the Bible just assumes this,

friends. It does not explain it as much

as it just describes our existence in this material

spiritual world. Here's just one example of how

the Bible be like, say what? Explain that?

It's not going to explain it. Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

My man Peter gets out of jail miraculously.

Thanks. He's dreaming.

Hey, he gets up out of jail, realizes he ain't dreaming.

He goes over to where he knows the church is praying for him,

knocks on the door. A girl named Rhoda comes and

checks out the door. She's like, it's Peter.

They're in the backroom praying for Peter.

She goes to the room and tells the homies, hey, Peter's at the

door. You know what they say back?

It's his Angel. And they were dead serious.

They weren't trying to play with Rhoda.

So here's the point. Is there like a doppelganger

Angie to a version? Of you.

I don't even know what that means.

The Bible just assumes it. Are you with me?

Like they were just like, oh, it's his Angel.

She's like, no, no, no, it's really Peter.

OK, So that was a real conversation.

It's just an assumed part of their worldview, OK.

And most of world history, and most of parts of the world,

they're still. There.

OK. It's kind of like when you see

the water when you're at the ocean, just 'cause you can't see

what's going on under it. You wouldn't be so arrogant as

to say nothing's going on under that water, just go stand in it.

OK. Second thing, demons are an

assumed biblical reality that fit within the Bible's story

view of the world. OK, so we've got the material

spiritual realm are together in the Bible's eyes and also the

Bible's story makes sense of their existence.

OK. Here at Port City, we try to say

often the Bible is the most compelling story in world

existence about where evil comes from.

There is no story that compares to it.

This is not some chaos creation of the gods and there's just

some war going on. That's not what the Bible

teaches, OK? The Bible teaches that God made

all things good, all of it. He created humanity in his

image. And during the creation process,

unbeknownst to us, there was the creation of, in the spiritual

realm, angels, OK, God's messengers to carry out his

will, All right. And in this creation, at some

point, the lead Angel, the lead person of the rebellion named

Satan, OK, Lucifer LED a rebellion against God and was

kicked out of heaven. That happened.

OK, Now. Because he hates.

God in his glory, He wants no part of alignment with God and

on God's frequency, what he decided to do was deceive

humanity because we were the ones made in God's image.

So I'm coming for them, OK. And so he deceives humanity into

sinning. This is Adam and Eve taking the

fruit and eating it. OK.

It was our own volition to choose to sin.

We were deceived, but we sinned. So now yo, we are falling.

Somebody say falling. Here's what I want y'all to get

for the for the rest of the sermon, what it means to be

fallen. If you think about God's

frequency, God, God just is. He is reality itself.

OK to be fallen in your sin nature now you default into not

wanting to be a part of His reality.

Are you with me in your fallenness?

You don't want God, you don't. That's what it means to be

fallen. You want no part.

You want no piece of that pie. You want to do you now.

Reality is what you say it is. That's what it means to be a

Sinner. It's me, myself, and I.

So demons are distorted from reality.

They know what it is and want no part of it.

Humans have been deceived into kind of like we live life as if

we are God. But here's what I want you to

hear. That is hard to hear, but it's

the truth. In some kind of way, neither of

us want alignment with God. Are you tracking with me?

In our fallenness, we also want no part of God being God and

living with him, His way, and submission to Him.

So in some kind of way, we're on the same page as demons.

That's tough. OK, Second Corinthians 4 says

that the God of this world, referring to Satan, has blinded

the minds of unbelievers from understanding the gospel.

We can't see straights. That's what the Bible teaches,

which explains why most demonic activity, when you think about,

well, if demons are real, why don't I see crazy stuff all the

time? You've bought into a Hollywood

version that what that means is paranormal.

But if the goal is being out of alignment with God, anything is

fair game. The most minuscule things are

fair game. It's distraction.

Anything that keeps humanity from living with God is the win.

Are you with me? So you could almost make the

argument to go too paranormal as the movies do.

It would stir us up and get us realizing we ain't in alignment

with God. So let's avoid.

That let's just settle for distraction.

Let's settle for some moralism, Be good people, Whatever it

takes for you to not take Jesus in his way seriously, and the

fact that you need him to die in your place, for you to be made

right with God and to live in alignment with God is fair game.

So in today's text, we see the word possession.

The idea of possession is that the individuals under the the

possessed state, their agency has been removed, right?

Like these people are not acting, it's like they're being

acted upon. But most demonic activity is

influence, not possession. It's just, it's through ordinary

looking stuff, distraction, you name it, to just keep us from

alignment with God. Anytime God is not aligned with

the demons are winning, you know?

So anything is fair game. And I would say as you think

about what we all want to know, well, what exactly is demonic?

I would encourage you not to just think that something is

demonic, but is it being leveraged demonically?

Sure, anything can be. Are you with me?

The more something is directly defining who God is or what it

means to be human, the more I think that activity is

inherently demonic, but the more that it is just being leveraged

to keep us from alignment with God.

It's being influenced by the demonic.

Let me give you an example. Recently I was asked to pray at

something and the person said just don't pray in Jesus name

and I was like you know. And I was like.

I'm not feeling that, you know, and I said back, hey, no, they

told me back that was an opportunity.

Listen to language for you to share unconditional love without

mentioning his name. So just to be clear, God, who is

love and a man who died on a. Cross.

To sacrifice himself for those who created who are sinful.

I am unloving to bring up his name.

I could have been loving by not mentioning his name.

Yo, that's demonic. Yo to take love and it not

include Jesus and kick him out the table that he built and say

you're unloving if you let him even at the table, that's

demonic. OK, That's like big D demonic.

OK, now. And listen, that doesn't mean my

friend is possessed by a demon. OK?

Y'all ain't listening to the sermon.

I'm just saying how we've ideologically cosigned that way

of thinking progressively over hundreds of years has been

demonically influenced to where they think they are loving all

of their guests by. Keeping me from saying his name.

Do you see that In the name of loving them, guarded them from

big bad me? Think about that.

Being protected by demons. OK but there's other examples

y'all. Anything that keeps us from

alignment with God. Y'all there's so many things

just distraction. Just the use of things that

keeps you from focusing on who God is.

I'll just tell you one just real basic way if you want to cut

some demon influence out of your life is to put your phone in its

place and treat it like a tool and not a pet.

I'm just telling you this, we have allowed them to become pets

that are attached to us and not tools we use for a project.

Y'all, your phone is a tool, not a pet.

If you want to just decrease how much demons are influencing you,

just use your phone less, OK? That is just big facts.

OK, I can, I can keep going, but I'm gonna stop.

The point is that that if you think through distortion, a lot

more things come into play. If the goal is alignment with

God, anything that keeps us from that is the enemy.

OK, OK. Third thing about demons, they

don't deny Jesus's authority over reality.

They just hate it. Did you notice in our text, they

initiate the conversation with Jesus?

They come up to him, they see him coming.

They previously had this whole area locked down through this

man's agency, these two men's agency being overridden.

Nobody even went that way. So they haven't seen a human

probably in a while. And the first one they see is

Jesus. OK, they see him and they cry

out. What are you doing here, Son of

God? Have you come to mess?

With us before the time you know that's alluding to one day Jesus

going to throw them in the lake of fire and it's game over OK

but they're they're like this ain't your moment it's like he

caught them off guard oh snap. And they're coming up with a

plan for how he can handle them. OK, They know who Jesus is.

They. Refer to him, Son of God.

G the the the Bible is clear. James 2 tells us demons are

extremely aware of who Jesus is. They just hate it.

They they aren't denying who he is they are just in opposition

to who he is. Which leads us y'all think about

that statement. They're aware of the truth but

don't want alignment with it, which means anytime that we know

the truth of who God is, of what He wants for us, of what it

means to live with Him and we know it but don't want it,

there's some being in the universe that agrees with you

and it is a demon, OK? I'm just saying again, that

doesn't mean you're possessed at that moment.

I'm just saying in our fallenness we share a lot more

in common than them. Then we realize we don't want

alignment with God. Knowledge is not our issue many

times it's our desire. Let's talk about Jesus.

Let's talk about Jesus. Man says one word, verse 32.

And he said to them, go. So they came out and went to the

pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into

the sea and drowned in the waters.

Two things about Jesus. First, Jesus has the power to

restore reality. Y'all, if you weren't with us

last week, What does he say to tell the storm to be quiet,

peace be still, right? And our text didn't.

He just stood up and rebuked it. But in other gospel accounts, he

just says peace in the water. Still this week he says go and

demons leave. What Matthew is painting for us

is a God, the God man who restores reality.

Storms aren't supposed to almost kill people on a boat.

Demons aren't supposed to take over someone's agency with just

a word, just one word. And I don't know what tone you

hear Jesus saying go in. I just hear go.

I just hear. I just hear go.

You know, sometimes we're we're so funny.

We think, we think he had to scream that, you know, I want to

do an aside right now. I'm going.

To do it, I remember my my football.

Coaches we were struggling in high school with man, we just

weren't hyped before games. Then we would lose.

We're like it's 'cause we're not hype.

And I remember him just going on a rant that hype don't do you no

good. He's like bro, y'all are either

executing or you're not. He was like, we used to do

silent huddles right before the game where we say team on three

123 team. Then we go whoop em.

He's like, it doesn't matter. It's and what he's communicating

now that I'm thinking about it is either you got it or you

don't. You know, it's not about how big

you bark. Jesus just said go and they went

to the pigs because he's reality.

Are you with me? God's word, y'all is effectual.

You know what that means? It means His word does what it

is like his word go made them go.

You get what I'm saying? It's weird for us because our

words never effectual. I can't even get my kids to do

what I want them to do, you know?

But it's like his word is the means by which it happens.

God spoke in the word world came into existence, right?

Hebrews tells us that God upholds the universe by the word

of his power. We crave a God who is so

powerful and good that his word can make reality happen.

And that is what Jesus does here.

He just says a word and they go. His power and authority is so

smooth in contrast to these demons who were fierce.

Look at verse 28. It's said that they were so

fierce these two men that no one could pass that way.

So you get this image of their fierceness of, of creating fear

in those who come by and their their authority and power was

shown through the, the, the ways that they took control and and

screaming strong what this imagery of fierceness and Jesus

just with a word go and all things go back to the way they

were supposed to be. You ever been in a situation

where the pecking order gets reordered real quick?

You ever notice that like somebody had the power till

somebody else showed up? You ever been there?

I love watching this with little kids.

You go to a playground, you got a couple of like 4 year olds

hanging out with like a second grader, that second grader's

older brother in them so hard making up rules.

I mean, just no, no, no, no, you can't do that because of this

and this rule over here just making up stuff.

But the second, like a fifth grader, walks up.

That second grader turns like oh, what game do you want?

To play with like, oh, OK, so now we asking questions of being

kind and saying thank you. You went from controlling the

show to just the pecking order changed.

OK. And that's what happens here is

literally demons are plotting their own demise and giving

Jesus the idea of what to do. Well, if you are going to cast

this out, just send us some those pigs over there.

Yo. They weren't like, let's fight

them. Let's take them on seriously.

They weren't like, oh, quick little showdown, let's impress

Lucifer real quick. Let's get a couple of licks in

on the son of God. They literally like, let's get

out of here. Second thing about Jesus, Jesus

is the author of reality. Y'all.

This is such a picture of what's coming one day.

There's no more. There's no more misalignment, no

more storms, no more demons, no more agency being removed.

Y'all, flourishing is his way. Things get changed when he

speaks. He's the author of reality.

He made us to flourish with him. Somebody say flourish, thrive,

Y'all In this series we've been begging the question, what do

you think thriving is? I think we think we know what it

is. I think we think we do.

I think part of our problem is we don't think we need help to

know what flourishing is, right Y'all let me just tell you that

Jesus is right about flourishing.

He knows what it is, He knows what it looks like, He knows how

to get there. OK and let let me give you one

example. Matthew 544 says love your

enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Want to know what our idea of what to do with enemies is?

Gang violence? Gossip about your friends behind

they back hate the other political party.

We just stir up so much division so quickly.

It's so natural to us, so we can't confuse what's natural to

you. And you're good at it and you

could do it as thriving. Are you with me?

Just 'cause you can, and just 'cause you have the power

doesn't mean it's actually flourishing.

We do damage with what feels natural to us.

Jesus, what He says is flourishing is flourishing.

He is the author, He is the authority.

And just cause it's normal to you doesn't mean that's what you

were made to do. So I just got to ask the

question, do you think you're living well?

Do you think you're thriving according to who God is,

According to this God who can just speak and the bad goes and

the good is restored. These people's lives were

changed. These two men, now they could

think they had their agency back because of what Jesus did.

Apart from him, they had no agency.

His intervention saved their lives.

His intervention changed that area.

Now we can walk there again because Jesus came through.

When he comes frequency flourishing is restored, y'all.

Apart from him we cannot flourish.

You know what the Bible teaches? For you to be made well and

flourish with God, you need a new nature, y'all.

What we think is, if I try harder, I'll flourish.

Even God. You give me the flourishing

plan. Give.

Oh, the book must be the way to flourish you to.

I'll get there. Just give me the book and I can

get there y'all. The issue with flourishing isn't

your effort first, it's your nature.

You need a new nature. The Bible says you need to be

born again of the Spirit of God. Until you want God, until you

want His way, until you want his authority, until you want

Christ. It does not matter that you know

even what flourishing is if you don't want Him in it.

We would always construct a reality where we're in control.

We run the show. No submission, y'all.

You need a new nature. And for some of you, that's what

you're being asked to consider in this sermon is just to think

about have you received the nature of God?

Have you been born of the Spirit of God?

Does God indwell you? Do you want to live under His

rule, under His authority, under His way?

Do you agree with Him that you're not well apart from Him?

That's what you need. That's the Bible's assessment of

you to live on God's frequency with Him and to like it, you

need a new nature. That's what the Bible teaches.

Let's talk about the gatherings. Let's talk about the gatherings.

It's a fun word to say. Somebody say gathering.

Aha, y'all did better than I thought you would.

Verse 33 the herds been fled and going into the city they told

everything, especially what had happened to the demon possessed

men. And behold, all this city came

out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to

leave their region. Now what A.

Shocking end to our text. 2 things I want us to consider.

First, submit to reality with King Jesus.

Submit to reality with King Jesus.

Y'all. Have you ever had the thought

that if you had undeniable proof of Jesus, reality and authority,

you would submit to it? If you had mental proof, you

would submit to it. Y'all, this story is the

definitive proof that we are wrong about that.

OK? The Bible is clear that our

issue is not mental. They saw, they could not deny

what had happened to these men. Y'all used to be crazy.

Y'all used to be possessed by some demons.

We couldn't even walk on the South side.

Now we can. And we appreciate you, Jesus.

We'll keep walking through here, but can you please leave?

OK, so their issue was not what they didn't know.

They still didn't want it. Y'all the herdsmen they saw this

jump go to y'all just imagine being the herdsmen.

Jesus rolls up. They're just standing back

watching couple guys that I'm scared of run over to Jesus.

Next thing I know, maybe they don't even hear it.

Next thing they know, go, pigs drown.

Let's go tell everybody. Let's get him out of here.

He's got to get out. I mean guys, this is crazy.

We think if we knew we would want y'all.

Listen to me, Be very careful not to blame on your mind what

your heart hates. Listen to me, be very careful

not to blame on your mind what your heart hates.

There's some people in this room who have genuine mind based

questions about the faith, about life in Christ, about reality.

We need to talk about those and praise the Lord for your

humility to keep asking those and keep asking those.

But many times what I've found is we can leverage our brain to

guard our heart. We can poke holes with the

Google. We can poke holes with the

chatty GPAT. Give me the five arguments that

Christians can. You know it's not hard to find

things, y'all, to leverage your doubt longer when your doubt is

being driven by hatred. OK, so there is a doubt that is

looking for the Lord and then there is a cynic angry.

Wouldn't do it even if I saw the pigs.

Ha, don't care, please leave. OK.

And in my experience more people are there where the gatherings

are then where we tell ourselves.

If he really did then I would. No you wouldn't.

What the gatherings represent y'all is ignorance is bliss.

Don't want to know? Can you leave?

Glad for what you did? Please just leave.

One of two things is happening. Either they are filled with tons

of idolatry or they just want ignorance to be bliss.

Idolatry is the is the idea that they so are frustrated at the

money they lost through those pigs and they're afraid of

Jesus's presence being a threat to their pocket that they said

you got to leave. Y'all, when a whole herd drowns

like this, that's a lot of money.

You messing with my bacon, no pun intended.

Money bacon, somebody OK, you messing with the bacon either on

my plate or in my pocket. And because you messing with

that, you got to go. So it's all good.

I'm glad you helped those guys, but you're crazy.

Get out of here man. So it's either their love of

money that led them to get him to leave or, and y'all, can I

just tell you there's so many people that want nothing to do

with Jesus over love of money. Y'all, it is our love for things

more than Jesus that gets us to beg him to leave.

Your heart is what's getting you to get your brain go find

whatever argument you need. But you're being driven when you

go look that up by your love of money.

So we just got to get a little more real about what's going on

underneath the surface. Or they're just kind of

ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is bliss is like, ah,

I don't know how to explain what I just saw.

And that's cool for those guys. But no, have you ever shared

your testimony, Christian, with some people and they go.

That's so great for you. I'm so happy for you.

I. Remember one time I shared my

testimony with somebody about Jesus Christ down in my place

and I'm like weeping. It's.

Like that is amazing. I'm so happy for you.

Something similar happened for me when I found tea like the

drink and I was like let me. Maybe I missed something.

How does T help you when you Daniel sin like what what was

the what's the what's the bridge there?

What's the but like that that what's behind that is ignorance

is bliss like that is so good. I'm so glad you're not demon

possessed anymore but please leave like.

And the second you imply that I need what you just said, bye

bye. Make it go.

Bye, bye. OK, So I just want you to hear

that we all do that. We all think ignorance is bliss.

Even the Christians in the room, there's certain things when the

Lord starts tapping. We want to play stupid, don't

we? We like the play that.

Can you just leave Jesus? Come back on Tuesday, Jesus.

Let me make a little more money, Jesus.

Can I overwork a little longer, Jesus?

Can I keep being annoyed with my spouse on this longer?

Can I harbor the resentment longer?

Can you come back in a couple of weeks?

Jesus? OK, so we all do this.

We think ignorance is bliss, whether it's money or the status

quo. They said Jesus got to go.

So I just want you to hear if you're there, yo, ignorance is

not bliss. What a missed opportunity by the

Gadarenes. Y'all that Jesus just think

about why should, why should they beg him to stay?

Why y'all? I couldn't help but feeling the

difference between the Gadarenes and the Samaritans.

Do you remember in John chapter 4 when the woman at the well

John 4 · chapter mention

goes and has the interaction with Jesus and she falls in love

with him, we think, and she goes back to town and tells everybody

and they all come out and meet Jesus and then they beg him to

stay for a few days? Y'all remember that?

And they say we no longer believe because of your

testimony, but because we have seen for ourselves that this is

the Son of God. Y'all, they begged them to stay.

I want our city. I want us to be Samaritans, not

gatherings, OK? And what will get you there,

what will make you the person who begs them to stay, is when

you look at the cross, y'all when you see what Christ has

done. We're talking about the God of

all flourishing, who made all things.

Y'all who leveraged all of his power to give it all away.

He's a servant. He's the son of suffering.

He is the one who didn't leverage his power to make a

spectacle of his power over demons for other people to take

note of. He just did it.

To demonstrate his authority and so that we could take comfort.

But he didn't leverage his power for show.

He leveraged his power for the good of others.

He leveraged his power to give it away for sinners, to make

them right with the Father. That's what the cross is about,

is the God of all power and authority being nailed to a

piece of wood. He built wood, He made wood and

he was nailed to it. That's the Son of God.

Why would you beg him to leave when he's trying to save you?

Why would you beg him to leave when he's trying to bring you

into flourishing? So for some of y'all, I'll just

pray for the first time you would get real with yourself and

y'all we've all played dumb. I played dumb for about four

months. The dude was like what you going

to do with this Jesus stuff T and I kept being like, I don't

know, I was just playing dumb for like 3-4 months.

Ignorance is bliss. And eventually the Lord was

like, hey man, you got to make a decision.

If some of y'all really got to decide where you're at with

Christ and stop playing the ignorance is bliss.

At least I go to church card. Does that make sense?

OK, now let me finish talking to believers here for a minute.

I want us to flourish with Jesus by loving neighbor and fighting

our enemies. OK, Remember with demons, we do

one of two things. Obsess over them or ignore them.

We're not going to do that. We're not going to obsess over.

We're not going to ignore them. OK, so here's here's what I want

to do. A lot of times the demon

conversations just aren't integrated into other things.

Like it's almost like this off off on the side kind of thing.

So I want us to integrate like the Christian life and how

speaking into the spiritual realm, thinking about demons

like how that fits. Does that make sense?

You are saved by God to live with God.

Somebody say live with God. That's the goal of your life is

through Christ by the Spirit. Live with God and love your

neighbor as yourself. OK.

And as you do that full of the Spirit eyes on the Son of God,

setting your mind on things that are above, not on things that

are in this earth, as you are loving your neighbor, yes, you

have an enemy. So fight your sin and fight your

enemy. That is the Satan.

And by the way, your neighbor is not your enemy.

You know that, right? Can we get real clear that your

neighbor is not your enemy? OK.

Y'all what our? Culture is trying to make us

think is that people are the problem.

You know, Ephesians 6 is very clear that we fight not against

flesh and blood. So when somebody is driving you

crazy, that is not necessarily a an instance of demonic activity

where you need to pray that God just changes them.

He's trying to change you to love them.

OK, so we need to love our neighbor, not hate our neighbor.

And we have an enemy who hates our neighbor.

Are you with me? What this text should do is like

think about the men being possessed.

Like we should have compassion for people when they're tripping

and we should want them delivered.

I'm not saying everybody who annoys you is demon possessed.

Amen, somebody. I'm just saying your goal is to

love your enemies. Your goal is to love people and

you have an enemy of your soul as you do that.

OK, now James Ford tells us resist the devil and he will

flee first. Peter 5.

Be sober minded and watchful. Your adversary is prowling

around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Not talking about non Christians.

Talking about you. Believer.

So here is what I've noticed. There are four types of

Christians. When you can't find a parking

spot, there are four types of Christians.

You ready First Christian can't find We're all in the car

together. We're driving around and can't

find the parking spot. Lord, I can't find the.

Spot what is wrong with me? Why can't I trust you in Jesus

name? I never beat and they start

beating themselves up. Let's call him Jerry.

Jerry just beats himself up. That's Christian one.

Christian 2. God, I thought you were

sovereign. Give me the spot in Jesus name.

You don't even love me. What did I do wrong?

Now I'm mad at the Lord. Let's call him Larry.

So Jerry's mad at himself. Beating himself up, Larry is

confused over the sovereignty of God as he can't find a parking

space. The third person, it's like both

of y'all are tripping. We'll call him Terry.

We got Jerry Larry. Now Terry.

Terry's like let me out of the car.

I'm taking over. I'm taking authority over this

parking lot in Jesus name right now.

I'm taking authority over all these spots.

Enemy is not going to stop us in Jesus name.

We going to get a spot. Right.

Now I love those people man. The 4th person is a cynic

towards all of them. OK, they're like, Larry, you

crazy. Why are you always so hard on

yourself, man? Or Jerry?

Sorry, Jerry, stop. God loves you.

God die for you. And why you all?

Larry, you always make this about the sovereignty of God.

Larry, like God, life just happens.

There's no parking spot sometimes.

And why you always bringing Satan into it, man, It's just

life. And they're the cynic and mad at

all of them. OK, here's what I'm trying to

say. The type of church I want to be.

I think we need a little bit of Larry, Terry and Jerry.

OK, I think we need a little bit of all of it.

What I want us to be, what I want to be trying to serve by

parking the car and yes, grab. The moment, OK.

Prayer, how you talk to yourself, how you talk to God,

and how we talk to the enemy is part of how you grab the moment.

Does that make sense? Jesus, when I walk in this room

late, OK, this happens a lot of times.

We have kids. Help me remember that I'm not

defined by what anybody thinks when I walk in.

And that's true because of what Christ did.

I'm a Son of God, full of the Spirit you.

Are with me. Help me to continue to learn.

How to not be? Lazy 45 minutes before this and

get my kids and not just scream at them.

Forgive me for the way I yelled at them back there.

But now help me to be sealed in the blood of Christ as I walk up

in here and Lord help me to be focused on my neighbor.

This dude is lost and he needs you.

And right now I'm distracted by my guilt and yes by the fact

that all these children are fighting and I feel like a bad

parent. So I do take authority over

Jesus name in this moment. We are covered in the blood and

hey kiddos, right now I know y'all.

Are annoying each other, but I think the enemy might be trying

to get us to distract ourselves from what matters most, which is

Jerry. And that brother needs us to

love him. OK, can we focus on Jerry?

Not how much. We annoy each other.

We'll talk about that later. Can somebody just say Jesus?

The Lord Jesus. Lord.

That's right. Let's roll up in here.

So what I want us to do is be a neighbor focused, spirit filled,

and yes, there is an enemy trying to ruin that moment

because they hate your neighbor and you and the glory of God.

That's kind of the point. We don't fight him to fight him

for fighting him sake. We fight him for the good of

neighbor, the glory of God and the good of our city and our own

joy. Are you tracking with me?

So yeah, we got some fighting to do, but it's in the context of

neighbor, love and God, glory and our joy.

Are you with me? OK, Jesus brought you into

reality. Now go extend it.

Demons know it and hate it, so they stay pretending.

Don't let them distract you from God and neighbor.

In Jesus we have victory. Nowhere else could be safer.

So come Lord Jesus, bring our city into life with you demons.

Go Norfolk. Listen, let's see what God can

do. Let's pray.

Our Father, we love you. God, thank you so much for your

glory. Thank you for sending your Son

to bring us into reality with him.

That flourishing is where you are God, you are reality.

We want to live with you. By your spirit, God, give us an

undistorted, purified reality. God, we long for the day where

all distortion is gone. We're all demon activity is

gone. God, we pray for our great city.

God, we want them to hear the gospel.

Not beg you to leave, but beg you to stay.

We pray you will go before us. And God, help us to walk in the

victory of Christ, what your blood has purchased for us.

Help us to grab the moment for the good of our neighbor.

Help us to talk to the enemy God appropriately and align

ourselves with your reality God, and give our church the diverse

gifts and expressions of worship that we need to do this well.

And when somebody else is in the car different than us, help us

to be thankful God and not try to all be like Jerry or Larry or

Terry God. Help us all with our unique

gifts. Be full of the Spirit for the

good of neighbor. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.