(Ps 89:50-51 / Mark 5)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon # 11321
11:00 AM on 8/27/2017

 
P. Schaller

We have decided in our Bible college we are going to start a couple classes in the daytime for students that maybe work at night. Or you are a mom dropping off the kids. You have some time in the morning and could take a class in the morning. Classes start tomorrow night but that program will start one week later [after Labor Day].

Jn 14:16 The world is humanity without God. The wisdom of the world, the spirit of the world, the ways of the world but can’t receive the spirit of truth.

vs. 17. The H.S. is an important part of your life and has a personality. The Father, Son, and H.S. is a person. He is your teacher and Comforter and he guides and helps you and gives you spiritual understanding. It’s a joy to learn to walk in the Spirit and learn to be taught by the Spirit. The Spirit wrote this book. One of the evidences of the Spirit-filled life is your love for the book and your understanding of the Book.

In the first century, most people did not read. What does the Bible say? Faith comes how? By hearing. So they could hear and as they heard a message from the Bible, they heard and the H.S. taught them. They got rooted and grounded in their faith. We have a very good advantage that we can read and meditate on it, memorize it and think about it.

Wed. night was an amazing service about wisdom and how we get it and what it means. Before Wednesday, and through these days and weeks, the H.S. has been moving and speaking to us and building us up in the faith and opening our Bible and learning and growing in the faith. The Holy Spirit is a person. He dwells in you, is your teacher and you need him.

No one enjoys a visit to the dentist. My mother is here which is amazing. I remember as a teenager – at 12, 13, 14, – finding out about cavities. My mom was so good at this. We had to have our teeth fixed. She said because we have to keep them. We try to save them. Don’t lose them. No one enjoys a visit to the dentist although all enjoy the long range benefits. No one enjoys the difficulty of a trial but all who endure them enjoy the side effects of perseverance, a proven character and hope. The H.S. gives you the comfort and the guidance to go through hard times. We don’t want to go to the dentist. Then you will lose your teeth. At least I would have. I had a lot of cavities. Not lately, praise God! Trials are for building us. They make us.

A story about a lumberjack with all these logs coming down the river and he could select one and take it to the side. They asked what are you doing. These logs are from the valley but some are from the mountain top and the wood is different. When up on the mountain top, it was more severe weather, so the wood was denser, stronger than the trees that grew up in the valley. In the valley, they had more water and not fierce winds. The trees up above it was tougher and so there is a difference.

The Holy Spirit will take you through your trials and teach you. He is a person and will strengthen you in the inner man. You can handle the temptations that come in life. This is why. I was thinking of young people not being prepared for life. I met a man in New York City in the NBA, 24 years old and had a contract for 84 million dollars. How can anyone handle 84 million dollars? It’s a disaster waiting to happen. Does he have the character? Can he endure the temptation? Does he know how to make the decisions, and can he be tough about things? I don’t know.

If you have God in your life, you have a very important relationship with the person of the H.S. He has been sent into this world, so we could know Christ. Christ is the master of this world. He has a different spirit or mind. Christ did not sin. He was able to suffer. He knew how to make decisions and what footsteps to take in life. A lot of times in the world, they say we need a leader. We say we need the anointing. They say we need to solve our problems. We say we need to know God. Sometimes our problems are solved and sometimes not.

I have this piece about bees. “Undergo an interesting process to ensure the healthy development of their young. The queen lays each egg in a six sided cell which is filled with pollen and honey to feed on until the egg reaches a certain stage of maturity. The top is sealed with a capsule of wax. When the occupant has exhausted its supply of nourishment, the time has come for the tiny creature to be released. What a wrestling and tussling and straining it endures to get through the wax seal. That in the agony of its exit, the bee rubs off the membrane that encases its wings, so that when it does emerge, it’s able to fly. If an insect were to get into the hive, devour the wax capsules, the young bees would crawl out without any effort or trouble but would be unable to fly. Soon their mature relatives would proceed to sting them to death. Christians also need the times of wresting and straining with trials, so that they will be prepared to do God’s will for their life.”

Many examples of this. I think we all know I would like my life to be easy. God has everything in balance. I need to give you a little bit of trouble and it will be good for you. You will look to me. You will seek me and find me. I will fill you with the H.S. I have to go to school we could say. “I don’t want to go to school.” You have to. “I don’t want to go to work.” You got to go to work and the H.S. can lead you in that. My marriage, relationships, church life, old age, youth. I don’t want it this way but it may be good for me and I find the H.S. guiding me and leading me. We have the Spirit which is of God. He guides and leads us in the highway of holiness, of effectiveness, of wisdom, of love, and of forgiveness. Maybe we don’t want to forgive and the person of the Holy Spirit says forgive him. Now we are living in another way. The way Jesus lived.

We walk in his steps in 1 Jn 2:6. We learn to live by faith the way Christ did.

I read a piece about the founder of the Holiday Inn motels. His name was Wilson Johnson. “When I was 40 years old I worked in a saw mill. One morning the boss told me I was fired. Depressed and discouraged, I felt like the world had caved in. When I told my wife what had happened, she said what are you going to do now? I said I’m going to mortgage our little home and go into the building business. My first venture was the construction of two small buildings. Within five years I was a multi-millionaire. At the time it happened, I didn’t understand why I was fired. Later I saw it was God’s unerring wondrous plan to get me into the way of his choosing.”

Trouble may be good for us. We wrestle our way so we can fly. I also read this story about a little boy who had a cocoon and inside the caterpillar was changing into a butterfly. He cut it open a little bit and tried to help it. As he did, the butterfly came out but it could not fly. When he helped it he prematurely brought the butterfly into the world but it was unable to do what supposed to do. Let’s not worry about things when they don’t go our way. Let’s find God and the H.S. Let’s find the Word of God and God’s peace. The H.S. is saying I am with you in this thing. I will help you and show you. You are not of the world. The world does things quick and fast. They throw money at problems. They lie and cheat and steal. We have found another way. The Holy Spirit will lead and guide us. The Holy Spirit is the one that anoints our meetings and our way and decisions. Many times through the month you have labored in prayer for your problems. You have found God and learned to thank him. You learn how to walk like that and live like that. You can find another way of thinking. That’s the Spirit of God in your thinking.

I remember Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator, he got robbed, and they took his money. He said I have to be thankful for that? Then he came up with four reasons why he could be thankful: 1) Thank you I was robbed and he didn’t kill me. 2) Thank you I was robbed and had little money. 3) Thank you I was the one robbed and I was not the robber! I forgot the fourth one.

How come he would think like that? The H.S. is teaching us, even that struggle I don’t like. That heartbreaker with a child or relative or a thing going on.

Ps. 89:50-51. Reproach means contempt or blame or mocking. It’s an attitude by other people against you or God. An attitude of being against. How could God make the world with so much pain in it? I don’t accept it so they have reproach against God or contempt towards God and his ways.

vs. 51. I don’t like the footsteps of Christ, the anointed. What does it mean? They don’t like where Jesus is walking. They mock him. Where he is going. What he is saying. What his attitude is. The world mocks the ways of God. The world mocks the footsteps of God. The world mocks the Spirit of God, the ministry of the Spirit of God. The world doesn’t like the footsteps of where Jesus is going. We can go to the gospels and see his footsteps. Jesus is walking on water, so they mock him. The devil is saying your footsteps are meaningless. You are not effective. This is foolishness. What are you doing walking on the earth? Go away. You are a fool. You have no place here. You understand the Spirit of the world. This is ridiculous, leave us, and go away. Christ is the anointed.

We have a story that’s the same. (Mk 5:1-4) We read this man had demons inside. He’s on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. We had been there in our visits in Israel. I recommend you go to Israel once in your lifetime or twice. You have the topography in mind…in 2018 we are planning a trip to go to Israel for a week or so. This area is evil. This man has these demons. We could say it is agricultural, low population. It is first century. It did happen. The footsteps of the Messiah went there. Christ got on the boat, sailed over and there was this evil, frozen. We don’t know how many years he was living in this condition. Maybe 10 or 20 or 100 years demons go to another man and another man. The demons are parked here and don’t want to leave. As the Messiah goes and his footsteps take him, there is mocking in the spirit world. Where are you going? Why did you come? To mess things up? To interfere with our country or families? Stay away. You can hear the world has another spirit and a different way of thinking. Sometimes when there is evil we stay away from it. We are afraid of it. Not the Messiah. He came to change things. The Messiah has the Holy Spirit’s anointing. The way he thinks is different from the world. God has sent me to set the captives free, to set at liberty those in bondage and release them from demonic power. The mocking, the attitude is seen in this story.

vs. 5-7. This is what the demons in him said. Another portion is similar. Leave me. Did you come to destroy me, Mk 1? The world pipes in and has the same attitude. Leave them alone. Go way. We have the same Spirit as Jesus, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us says no. You are to make a difference. You are to be in that situation. You are to go in that situation with love, a message, an attitude of love and faith. God wants things to change. Sometimes the world says leave it alone. It’s been that way all the time. As in missions work. Let those people alone. Let them die the way their ancestors died. They mock our footsteps like they mock the footsteps of Jesus. This is our meditation and our prayer and our thoughts today. Should we go? Should things change in Baltimore city? Are we going to surrender to evil? Are we going to say let it be. Nothing can change. We say no. There is love, faith, a ministry, God. God uses us.

People need a message. We do evangelism on the streets and knocking on doors. I was talking to four young men at a McDonalds. How are you doing? I’ll tell you about me. Do you have a minute? Sometimes I say I ask you one question, and you ask me one. You go first. No, you go first. What is the most important thing in your life? They moved up from Florida. Two said they want to find a church. Sometimes the world will be critical.

Why did she waste the box of ointment on Jesus? The disciples said why did they? Jesus knew their thoughts. Leave her alone. She has done what she could. These footsteps are different. Waste it on the Lord. Pour it out on the Lord. The world will say it can be used this way or that. Are you sure it’s not the best thing to lose our life and find Christ?

I am different. I have the Spirit of God in me. I enjoy the prayer, the faith, the church, my brother, my sister. I learn to forgive like the Holy Spirit is the one who forgives. I will go across the Sea of Galilee to this place others are free to go but we can go. I remember two workers were doing Sunday school in Baltimore city and a man pulled out a gun to rob them. They said we don’t have much. We are doing Sunday school, telling people about Jesus. The guy said oh, ok. God bless you guys! You’re different. You have the person of the H.S. We walk in a different way. We have a mission.

vs. 7-9. Legion is approximately 6,000 men. So demons were perhaps 6,000 living in the man. That’s why he could pluck the chains away. He could not socialize with anyone and lived by himself in the tombs and had supernatural strength.

vs. 10. I would have preferred Jesus sent them to hell. That’s 6,000 less demons for us. But he didn’t because it’s not that time. That happens in the millennium. Now is the time for the demons to be here because of the bee. The bee struggles with the wax seal to get out of the thing. Trouble is part of life. The H.S. gives us comfort in our trouble.

Jn 16: 33. Demons are a part of our training. They cause a lot of trouble in life. They are not cast into hell yet.

vs. 10. Demons want a body. Human bodies are the best, – high positions of authority. If demons can live in them and they can operate as evil men, they can affect millions and billions of people. The world is under the control of another spirit. We have the Spirit of Christ, the Anointed One. We have another spirit. Do you know the difference? The Spirit is comforting, peace, love, desire for God, capable of enduring and suffering and going through trouble in this life. The demons said send us into the swine. They don’t have a lot they can do with the swine. They can’t talk, carry a gun, run for election, and preach a message. They can destroy the swine. So they run downhill. A pig farmer told me pigs don’t go downhill. You turn around back yards and go down.

vs. 13-17. About 2,000 pigs choked in the sea. I wonder if that affected their economy. I wonder who was in charge. Someone is feeding them. It’s bad news. They can’t believe what happened. Who caused it, Jesus? Jesus. Leave us. Did you come into this life to mess up my family, country, and village? Isn’t there another side? The good side is the man is delivered. The people don’t like it.

vs. 17. Leave us. We don’t like your footsteps. Depart from us. Things God does not everyone likes them. Not everyone is in agreement. Not everyone says amen; that is awesome. Not everyone understands it. We need to understand God’s mind and what he is doing. Without being too complicated about it, it’s a good story to say the world is different from the H.S. The world says why did you come? Leave us. We don’t see what you are doing. H.S. says I am leading you. This is the Father’s will. I will use you. Evil has no right to this man’s life. This man is delivered. Who cares about pigs and economy? We care about the soul and God’s glory and work. In the story he went back to his family and told them in the area and village. Go back to your family and tell them everything I have done for you. Jesus leaves because he’s not going to deal with these people that way. When he comes back, they were waiting for him.

I am saying many things this morning. We are people that are much honored to have anointed footsteps and purposes. We are honored to be led and cared for. Don’t underestimate the value of your trouble. You’re growing and developing in it. The world will never understand the ways of God and agree. We need to be careful to be led in love and faith. The Holy Spirit will led us in it. Thank you, Lord.

I read a story about a horse jumping over the fence in a race and it got into a barbed wire fence and got into trouble. If the horse would have done what it was trained to do, it would be fine but panicked.

We panic. We find ourselves in more trouble. The H.S. will lead us in our trouble, through our trouble. The Lord says I did it. I guided you. You were afraid but who cares about the pigs. Maryland crabs can get them. Who cares about the loss? Think about the gain. We’ll say that’s a loss, but it’s well worth it. This is a great gain.

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