Well, I just want to ask you to turn to Mark chapter 5. Really got a blessing from the preaching today, all week long. Thank you so much. Good? And it's just, The hospitality and everything about the camp has just been really, really, really wonderful. Appreciate it so much, all the kindness and attention. The older I get, the more I appreciate kindness and attention. All right, Mark chapter five. Let's stand together as we read Mark chapter five. And I want to preach on this subject, solve our problems, but save our pigs. That in itself is a problem. That's the problem. People want their problem solved. They want their children to be better children. They want their marriages that are maybe in a mess or headed that way to straighten up. They want a better church. They want more spirituality in their life. And the list goes on and on. The problem is people want their problems solved. They want God to enter in and fix things, but there are certain things they want to hold on to. So as I read this passage of Scripture, and I want you to bear in mind as I begin reading in verse 1, the background of this really is in verses 35 through 41, Jesus has just come off The sea, a turbulent sea, a stormy sea, a very dangerous, dangerous, traumatic time when the disciples were galvanized with fear and Jesus stood up and just calmed the sea with his word. It became like glass. And then the Bible says that boat of theirs rocked ashore in a place called the Gadarenes. And the Bible says in verse 1, Before we read, let's pray. Our heavenly Father, thank you for the good word that we have heard today. We thank you for your word that has been preached every single message this week, for the good exposition of your word and the good spirit, the humble spirit that has been obvious and a blessing and something that you could empower and have empowered for the benefit of all of us hearers. And we thank you for each one that's here today, for every family, and I pray that you'll help people not to be distracted, not to be thinking about other things as As they prepare to leave the camp, we pray to your God that we can all be, we need your help to be focused now. And we pray that you will help. We pray that you will help the ones with the greatest tendency to be distracted, help them. We pray in Jesus name, amen. And they came over. unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him. And the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus far off, he ran and worshipped him and cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. See what's going on here? There are flickers of sanity, of saneness in this man. And then something else takes over. You've got to be careful about that something else that will take over. When Jesus is trying to get your attention, when the Lord is speaking to you, be careful that something else doesn't take over your thoughts. We don't want something else to take over and distract in these last moments of the camp meeting. And he said, for he said unto him, this is what Jesus said, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, what is thy name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he brought beside him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him saying, send us into the swine that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine. And the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about 2,000, 2,000 head of swine. and they were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city and in the country, and they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil, that was, past tense, possessed with the devil, and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coast. And when he was come in to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Albeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. Please be seated. I want to preach this morning, and I want us to look at three things in this passage of Scripture. The first thing is this, the problem. The problem. The world is full of problems. Everybody in here of every age has a problem of one sort or another. Now I find it a little bit dreary to go and so much of the time and listen to preachers and immediately they start rattling off all of the problems. that they are, but they never offer much of a solution. They just keep talking about the problems of the nation, the problems of the home, the problems in the church, the problems and on and on and on and on and on and on. And it gets very dreary to listen to that. Listen, people want solutions to their problem. And we're looking here at the problem, and then there's a second thing, and it's like it's highlighted in neon ink that we're presented with the problem, and then we see the protest. Now, all that deals with the problem, that is so fascinating. And then you get to this one verse where you see that after all of this had happened, there's a protest. People are offended. They're taken aback. They're disturbed. They're in a state of consternation. And then you see a missing presence. a missing presence. Now I want you to just look at the problem in the first place in verses 1 through 13. A problem is manifested when that little boat with Jesus and his disciples came ashore there in the Gadarenes. The Bible says that a wild man came rushing out toward the boat. And he came and worshipped him, the Bible says. Now I don't understand all about that, but I think that was one of those sane moments. But it didn't last long. Because the demon, the chief demon, the main demon of all these multiple demons, this unclean spirit begins to take over. Or he thinks he's going to take over. Amen. This man here is a picture of the world. The world is in a mess. The world, like Isaiah said more than ever before, is staggering to and fro like a drunken man. The world is completely upside down and our society has descended into an abject state of absolute utter chaos today. We got big problems. And there are big problems in individuals' life. Now, the sad thing is a lot of individuals will not recognize they got a problem. Many of them are in a state of denial. They won't admit their problem. They really know they have a problem, but they won't admit it. The world has problems. Families have problems. Marriages have problems. On and on and on. And so here this man is so representative of that. He represents so much that is concerned with all of these problems in general. And I want you to notice how serious this problem was. When you look at this man that comes rushing out of the tombs, it's heartbreaking. It's frightening and it's heartbreaking to see what the devil has done. He wasn't always like this. There was a time when parents looked down into a crib at this fresh-skinned little infant boy, and people came and they oohed and aahed, and the daddy's heart and the mother's heart was all full of anticipation for his future. And as he toddled around, as he grew up, it was so sweet and so cute, and as he got a little older, you know, and grew into a little boy and then into, grew a little bit more, but somewhere along the line, things changed. He came to a crossroads. Somebody mentioned, I think, crossroads. Everybody comes to a crossroads. You come to a crossroad in life. Young people do. I remember big time coming to a crossroad where I would have the opportunity big time to disobey my parents and do something that was really bad. And I had the opportunity to do that and maybe get by with it, not be found out, but I didn't do it. You know what kept me from doing it? And I was lost. But what kept me from doing it was the memories of my good old grandmother that I would never have wanted her to ever know that I'd done something like that. See the power of an influencer? Amen. And so this man that comes rushing out like this, he's naked, he's scarred up, his face is distorted, and he's just a mess. He's a picture of so many people today that look just like that, that act just that way all over our society today, but he had not always been that way. What motivates a man like this? Well, the answer's right here in verse 2. He was a man with an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit. There are lying spirits, the Bible says. There are all kinds of different spirits. But the most prominent in the Bible is an unclean spirit. It's an unclean spirit that has taken over America. Unclean spirit is behind this sex trafficking a human trafficking an unclean spirit is behind pornography an unclean spirit is behind all this cross-dressing whether it's in the LGBTQ crowd or happening in churches You know, it's an unclean spirit is behind cross-dressing Amen an unclean spirit is It was motivating this man. But then look at his might. All these things come to bear on the description of this man and explain so much about people today. This man has a supernatural ability. I mean, beyond anything anybody could really imagine. The Bible says in verse 3, the latter part of verse 3, that people had tried to bind him, even bind him with chains. They tried different fetters and everything else. But he was possessed of a supernatural might that made him able to resist the best efforts to help him. The best efforts to help him. And we think back through the years of how many times we've heard people use illustrations about people who stand white-knuckled during an invitation, tears sometimes running down their face, and somehow they're able to resist again the Holy Spirit of God and make it out to the parking lot. And you think, how could anybody withstand a message like that, an obvious working of the... How in the world could they do that? Because of this kind of a supernatural power that is here. But you know, the Bible gives us the answer here. It says, no man could tame Him. Hey brethren, let's keep this in mind. Let's have our pure minds stirred up by a way of remembrance. No man could tame Him. No preacher is going to do what needs to be done in our churches Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. No man can do it. No man. John the Baptist said, when they asked him, art thou the Christ? He said, you know the good thing about John? He knew something that a lot of preachers need to know and remember. He knew who he wasn't. Amen. And he also knew who he was. He said, I'm not the Christ. I'm not the son of God. All I am is a voice crying in the wilderness. I am a passionate voice speaking for God in this wilderness world that we live in. No man could tame him. Preachers need to remember that church members need to remember that when you go to church, you've got your family there You've got your children there. You've got problems You better not be putting your hope that that the preacher or some other high-powered speaker is going to do something It's going to have any impact or any effect or you're good and your family's good Just remember that no man can do anything Jesus said the flesh profiteth nothing It is the spirit It's the spirit that you gotta count on. Amen. Now Jesus has confronted this demonic power. He was confronting it all of the time. You know where he confronted it the first time in his personal ministry? Get a load of this. In the synagogue. He first encountered a demonic presence in the synagogue. Don't think that demonic presence isn't at work every time you come to church. Amen. Well, something else about this man. Not only his might, but then you go on to the menace he was. You know, as long as you're unsaved, you're a menace. Fathers, the best of fathers are a menace. as a husband and a father. The best of women are a menace, a potential really bad menace, because when you're lost, there's no telling what you might do. This man was a real menace. He was so far gone. that the Bible says, Matthew says this, all four gospels tell about this. Well, all three of the synoptic gospels, John doesn't, but the Bible says in Matthew says he was exceeding fierce so that no man might pass by that way. When people in the vicinity, when people there in Gadara, in the vicinity of that graveyard, When men got up to go to work, no doubt about it, they spoke to their wives and they spoke to their children and said, don't you get within a country mile of those tombs. That wild man is there. That mad man is out there. You stay away from there. Don't you even get near there because he was a menace. Our country, our communities are filled with menaces just like this who are full of the devil slash devils. And they are a menace. This man was a great, great menace. So you see the menace he was and then you have to come back and you have to have compassion because you see his misery. Hey man, when you think about all the dopeheads and the killers and the crazed people today, and you think about what menaces they are, but at the same time, I mean, a Christian can't help but feel compassion for people like that. Look at this man's misery. Verse 5 says, And the second word is a key word, and always. That's what life had become for him. The state was an always state for him. This is the way it was when he woke up in the morning, when he went to bed at night, when he woke up howling at different times in the night. He would weep, the Bible says, sob and weep and cry, and cut himself with stones. That's what you have today with people. I used to not understand this. But they call them cutters. People who are so in such despair and distress and hopelessness, and usually it's young people, and they begin cutting themselves. They don't even understand it themselves. Somehow they get some kind of relief. They're punishing themselves. They're cutting themselves. They don't even understand. And they'll cut themselves where nobody will notice. And they'll cut themselves behind their legs and all of this. And they're just covered with these slash marks. The most beautiful girls. And they find out they're just raised in affluent homes. Cutting themselves. People are self-destructive today. What's behind it? The same motivation we talked about here. These unclean spirits are behind all of that. All of this kind of thing that gives them such might to just continue being stubborn and stubborn and deposing themselves all the time. And a menace to everyone around them, to their brothers, to their sisters, to their families. And so miserable. Always, night and day, he was in the mountains. And in the tombs, crying. and cutting himself with stones. I noticed here he had a fascination with death. We live in a death culture. We live in what they call a gothic culture. It's all about vampires and zombies and ghosts and death, death, death. It's a whole culture that revolves around The killing of babies as quickly as you can kill them by the millions. We're in a death culture. Expressing itself in every other way, euthanasia, all kinds of things. This is a death culture. We live in times just like this today. Yagodera's problem was our problem. That's what Paul said in Ephesians 6. He said, this is our problem. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Well, we've got to understand that. We can't depend upon flesh and blood. The enemy is not flesh and blood. The hope is not flesh and blood. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places. This is talking about these legions of legions upon legions of legions of demonic spirits. Kids, if you've got a problem, and the problem is you feel like nobody cares about you, Nobody respects you. You're mad at mom. You're mad at dad. You're mad at your brother, little brothers and sisters. They get in the way, whatever, whatever it is, whatever bothers you. Well, I'm not saying that's not real. It's very real. But I want you to know what's behind that demonic spirits, this unseen world that is working, working, working, working alive. Demonic. Why do you need to understand that? Because your problem, as we said in the beginning here, is just like the demoniac of Gadara. It's a serious problem. Men, if you struggle, struggle, struggle, and you don't seem to be getting any victory over it, you do think you oppose yourself and having a happy marriage. Women do the same thing. You're opposing yourself. You've got a serious problem. And it's something that needs to be understood. Yeah, Gadara's problem is our problem. Individually, in the family, globally, on and on and on. Yeah, it was a serious problem. The verse is 18, 8 through verse 13. leaves the seriousness of the problem and starts talking about the solution to the problem. Amen. And I'm saying the solution to the problem with a capital S. When Jesus stepped out of that boat, the kingdom of darkness got shook up. Amen. The closer Jesus starts getting involved and invited, The more shaken up the kingdom of darkness gets, these demons begin to tremble. Everybody in Gadara wanted this problem solved. They didn't want to have to worry about their children going out to play. They didn't want to have to worry about their wives being assaulted, about men being beaten half to death, if not to death. by the demoniac of Gadara. A lot of them just wanted the problem solved because they felt so sorry for the demoniac of Gadara. Some of them thought, poor man, he'd be better off if he was just dead. And they said that out of compassion for him. I'm sure many of them thought that way. Well, there was a solution. In verses six, through 12, you read about Jesus' confrontation. I'm not going to say anything more about that. Enough said. Jesus stepped out of the boat, the demons showed up, and Jesus confronted them. He recognized the problem right away. In verse 13, He not only confronted them, But once this confrontation took place, something happened that always happens when Jesus confronts like that. There was a conquest. I said there was a conquest, not a contest. Because there is no contest. Listen, beloved, there's no contest. You don't have to worry about it. If you take your problem to Jesus, trusting in Jesus, go to Him for refuge. Hey, there's no contest. He is going to help you and banish the demonic influence out of your life. And so we see what happened. He discerned the problem. Listen. A lot of parents don't understand that the problem with your child may be more than just eating too much sugar. Amen. It may be something a lot deeper than the kids they're playing with. The problem with why you act like you do as a woman or a wife and a mother, that's unbecoming. that militates against everything that you really want as a wife and a mother. The problem may be something more than just a hormone problem. The problem that men have who almost hate themselves because they say and do things that militate against what they really want. for their marriage and their children. The problem may be a lot more than that bad actor of a dad that you had growing up. Amen. That sad, sad past experience, it may be a whole lot more than that. Now in verses 14-17, this demoniac, these demons, they all begin to cry out. Here's 2,000 swine over here. Now they had to double up, triple up quadruple up. Even though there were 2,000 swine, there were a whole lot more demons. They just filled those swine up. Now think about that. They said, we would rather be somebody sith this week. Demons want to embody a body. They got to have a body to work. Amen. But they said, if we can't be in a man's body, a hog will be just fine. The difference between the man and the hog is the man put up with this for who knows how many years, knowing what was going on. But the hogs couldn't take it five minutes. That's not very flattering, is it? And they all rushed as one heard and threw themselves over a precipice. They could not stand the demonic presence. A hog had more respect for themselves than men can have. And these people, they wanted their problem solved and word got out right away. Boy, the word will get out. And the people carried it back to town and they began telling people in verses 14 and 15, says, they that fed the swine. Now think about that. Just keep this in your mind. They that fed the swine. They're used to feeding the swine. They got some self-interest in feeding these swine. They that fed the swine. And then they all went out to see what was done Everybody heard about it did what you and I would do We'd had a guy like this in the community We've all some of us have seen experiences like this. There's a what we call a dramatic conversion the town drunkard gets saved and I mean, I've heard and seen and witnessed story after story, and people just want to find out, is this true? And boy, they flocked out there to where the tombs were to see, could this possibly be true? After all these years, I thought he was too far gone. I thought he'd been turned over to a reprobate mind, a man that lived like that. He must have been reprobate. This can't be true, they said, by the way. And guess what? They went out there and found out that it was true. It's true, it's true. Look what Jesus did. Hallelujah, it's true. And a bunch of them must have thought, man, if he can do that for the demoniac of Gadara, maybe he could do something like that for my brother, for my dad, for my wayward kid. Now I know that it's true, what Jesus can do. Let me tell you something about that demoniac in Gadara. I'll just rewind as Brother Bell says so often. Rewind. He's sitting up there on the rocks one day in an elevated place, and his tears are running down his face. He's naked, his hair's all matted and sticking out, he's filthy as he can be. And he's on a crying jag. And he's got sharp stones and he's been cutting himself again. More blood running down his arms, legs. And he sees black clouds rolling up out there on the sea. And he looks a little closer and he sees a ship with a handful of men in it. And the waves begin to pile up, pile up, pile up. And the wind is blowing. And that ship is spinning and lurching and rocking. And it looks like it's going to go down any minute. And while he's watching, he sees somebody stand up in the ship. And he can't hear anything. But just in a moment, the sea becomes as calm as glass. The lion has laid down and become a little kitten. And as the ship comes closer and closer, he's still thinking about that. And he must have been thinking, if that man can do that with that storm, maybe he can handle this storm to see. Amen. And so he went running. When Jesus stepped on shore, that same spell for a moment, and he just went running out to meet Jesus. Think about what Jesus has done. Hope. All of a sudden, boom, hope. Hope for him. Oh yeah, and these people went out there And they saw with their own eyes, it was apparent, the change that had been made. This man is sitting there and they wouldn't have known who it was if somebody hadn't told them. Because he's sitting there and he's got clothes on. Somebody says, I don't think it makes any difference what kind of clothes a person wears or if they wear any at all. You might want to rethink that position. And here he is sitting there clothed and in his right mind. You know why he was clothed? He wanted to be clothed now. And his mind is straightened up. That's why he's clothed, because his mind is in his right mind. And man, he's got his hair combed. It probably didn't take him long to plunge into that sea and start scrubbing himself down. Man, he was clean. clean, clean, clean from the inside out. I wasn't there, I didn't see it, but I'm sure this was the case. When they looked on that man, they not only saw a man clothing in his right mind, his hair was combed, but he had a big smile on his face. And his countenance was just glowing. Amen. You ever notice people when they get saved and they just, their countenance is different. Well, there he sits. And the people, they're all glad. They liked the change. They wanted this change. This is what they wanted. And they liked it when they saw it. But here's what they didn't like. They didn't like the cost that they saw went along with that change. If they'd had a vote on it, Brother Pollard, Whether or not Jesus would have cast those demons out at the cost of their 2,000 hogs, they might have voted against it. I strongly suspect it. But you know what? These people are a whole lot like individuals today. Lost people. I could make plenty of applications to unsave people here. But I want us to make the application to save people. If you're lost, There's only one thing that can help you, and that is Jesus. That's Jesus. And He'll change you. You say, I'm too far gone. Oh, no. No, you're not this far gone, are you? He can change you. He'll change your heart. He'll change your mind. He'll change your wanter. Amen. He'll change you so much you won't even understand the change that's going on in yourself. You won't get it. But there are Christian people like this. Christian people save men, save women, save boys and girls who want change. They want change in themselves. But sometimes the cost is too great. Listen to me carefully. Sometimes people say, I know I need to change and I know the Lord could change me if I would just do what I need to do. repent, trust and put faith in God. I just know, I know, I know that that change could take place for me, for my marriage, for me individually. I need to change for my marriage, for my home's sake. But I know this too. If I listened to what that preacher said, Hey, my pride, that pig of mine named Pride won't let me do it. If I listen to him, why, my family will think that I'm submitting to the preacher. I'm becoming a yes man. I'm the man of my family. And this is the way we've been doing it. And I want change where my kids are concerned, where we're headed, but my pride won't let me do it. I could name a whole bunch of pigs. If I had a legal pad, I could just start filling in the names. 2,000 probably, if I had the time. 2,000 pigs, name them by name. Here's one. And you know, there are people, their pig, that they say, I want my problem solved. But you know what the pig is for them? Their insecurity. Their insecurity. They they have they have embraced and hold this pig, a filthy pig of their own insecurity. If I begin treating my wife like I ought to. It'll be weakness. Mm hmm. Well, here's something else, but I'm just telling you this. Preachers have insecurities. Not all of them. Thank God, not all of them. One of the biggest problems preachers and pastors have today of all ages is insecurity. They think they're always got to be the smartest guy in the room. They're not like Barnabas, who says, hey, anybody can help with this far. I've gone as far as I think I can go right now. And he sent for Paul. But you know what we got today, brother? We've got a lot of pastors that have got the diatrophies complex. They're not going to have some preacher in that might preach better than they preach. They're not going to have some preacher around their people that their people might come to love. Hey, it's not a contest, brothers. It's not a contest. It's drawing on anybody we can that can help us in edifying the body of Christ. I'll tell you another pig. Laziness. That is one of the biggest, most bloated, swollen up, vicious pigs of all. If I want my problem solved where my home is concerned, the dissatisfaction of my spouse and so on and so forth, and I know the Lord can change this, but if I would give up my pig of laziness, if I'd start reading my Bible, I'd have to start reading my Bible if I gave up my pig of laziness. I'd have to start cleaning the house. You know some people's houses you want to wipe your feet off before you go back outside. I'm telling you laziness is a killer. It's a pig. It's one of these pigs. Solve my problem. I don't get the respect I know that I should have. But I'd have to give up my pig of laziness. that have that change from being a disrespectful person to a respected person as a husband, a father, a mother, a housekeeper, a breadwinner, whatever. You kids think about it, you've probably got some little pigs in your life, like disobeying your parents, like sneaking around doing things you shouldn't do. These pigs, pride, Insecurity, laziness, you name it. You fill in the blank. Hey, just flip over your fly page, fly page your bihorn and see and start making a list of any of your pigs. Here's the news. Here's a newsflash. You're not going to get your problem solved and hang on to your pigs at the same time. Those pigs have got to go. Amen. They've got to go. You can't ease them out. They've got to go over the cliff. And you can't be sitting there whining and crying. My feet are going over the cliff. I can't be lazy anymore. I've got to turn to and start taking care of business. Yeah, they all came out there and they saw that. The change that had been made in this man, they were all glad, and then they saw the collateral damage and they were sad about that. Well, you say that's too bad. That's too bad. It is too bad, and what's especially bad about it is what it led to. They were so fond and so attached and had such a self-interest in those, so identified with those pigs. You know, some people are identified with their laziness, their independability. Some people, the only thing you can depend on them is to be undependable. That's all you can depend on. Really, for sure, what's going to happen is you can't depend on them. Amen. Here's how bad it can get. You stay attached to those pigs. I know I need my problems solved, but Don't don't even suggest. I don't even like to suggest the suggestion that my pigs are going to be in jeopardy. I want to stay just the way I am. And have my problem solved. Not going to happen. Not going to happen, and the more you want that to happen, you want your problem solved. But you want your pig safe. Might lead to this. Look where it led with these people. The Bible says in verse 17. They're saying, think of 2,000 of our swine. They began to, this is almost unbelievable. This is one of the most incredible things. These people began to pray Him, beg Him, plead with Him, demand. They began to pray Him to depart out of their coast. Just get out of my life. You may not say that verbally, But when God lays it upon your heart, and it's you, God helps you see that your problems are all related to these pigs that you're hanging on to. You won't let them loose. But instead of doing the right thing, your attitude is, I just want God out of my life. Just get out of my life with this thing about, don't threaten my pigs. They'll stop coming to church. Or they'll come to church and be tuned out during church. Amen. And they don't care. They get to the point where they don't care and they begin to pray. Just get out of our coast. Everybody's heard about Benedict Arnold and Benedict Arnold, but Aaron Burr, right? Aaron Burr was vice president to John Quincy, John Adams. He was a student at, I think it was Yale. They had a revival there under Timothy Dwight. No, it was Harvard. Timothy Dwight was a preacher and he instigated a revival meeting. And they, I mean, it was powerful, powerful. Some of the great figures in our nation's history were saved in that at Harvard University. And we know this is true because it was written about by people who heard him say it. And he even recorded it in his own memoirs. Aaron Berger walked out of one of those services one night and he looked up to heaven while a couple of his friends were standing there and said, God, I want you to leave me alone. Something like that. And you know what happened? God left him alone. God left him alone. People can come to that. I think Christians can come to the place where they cop the attitude. I want my pigs. I'd rather have my pigs than have my problems solved. No matter who's impacted. No matter what the collateral damage is where people are concerned. They began to pray him to part out of their coast. Now I'm closing probably in about four minutes. Listen to this. You say, how in the world can people get to the place where they act like that? Now where's this happening? New York City? No, it's happening in the Gadarenes, right? Does that name ring a bell with anybody? The tribe of Gad. If you go back to Numbers chapter 26, this was a tribe. God had said, go in to the promised land. The tribe of Gad said, we don't want to cross the river. We don't want to do what you said. We've got lots of cattle. Somebody mentioned this to me just recently. Back then they wouldn't have had hogs. Now they've degenerated to they're in the pig business. So they said, we don't want to go. This is good graze here. Good for our animals. We don't care about everybody else. But God said, we're interested in our livestock. So they just disobeyed God and stayed there. I mean, that's where they wound up settling. Here's my whole point These people that are saying praying him get out of our coast apart from our coast Jesus Son of God leave They had it in their DNA You think you're not passing your attitude and your spirit on your children We're talking about centuries Centuries later The Son of God is now incarnate He comes ashore in the land of Gad, and the descendants of those Gadarenes now say to God himself, we don't want you in our space. Talk about influence. And so they prayed him to depart out of their coast. Talk about swine flu. Man, they had it. You know what Jesus did? He consented with their petition. Hey, you don't have to tell me many times to get out of your house until I'll get out of your house. You don't have to give me the impression very often that you don't really care anything about me being around. I'll stay away. Most people are like that. Well, the Bible says Jesus concurred. In verse 18, how sad. How sad. They prayed to him, get out of their coast. And he concurred, got back in that boat. And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him. See how much he's changed. Man, he was already sitting in the boat. He's sitting in the boat, ready to go. I just want to be with Jesus. How happy he was. He's sitting there at that boat boy and smiling from ear to ear and say I want to stay with him as close as I can be forever But Jesus disappointed him He said no He said go tell what great things The Lord has done for you You know what as much as he wanted to stay in that boat and go with Jesus when Jesus said no Get out of this boat And get on back to your family and relatives and everybody. Tell them what great things the Lord's done for you. Here's the great part of the change, Joe. He said, okay. And smilingly stepped back out of the boat. And went and published to the broad. Amen, that's the change that Jesus makes. And you know then what Jesus did after he conferred, Concurred with them after he consented to them Got in that boat and left Look at verse 21 Verse 21 tells us he continued in another place Another place. Hey listen beloved Jesus crossed over that body of water Now people had seen him leave they knew they knew that eventually he was going to be back. I on the other side. When Jesus left this place, because they said, we don't want you in our place. So he concurred, got in that ship, started back over, and as close as we got to the other shore, you could make this out. The bank was thronged with people. Hey, you may not want him in your space, but I'm telling you right now, there are millions of people today who want him in their space. They just don't know how badly he wants to be in your space. Yeah, on the other side, men and women and dads, moms and their kids are lined up, religious people and heathen, they're all over the place. And when you read in the gospels, you see, we got on the other side, Immediately, he started healing a bunch of blind people, healing lepers, healed that woman with an issue of blood, fed, fight that, wow, wow, wow! When he went over on the other side. Amen. They didn't want him there. And so he went, he went to another place. Jarius's daughter, how happy, how happy Jarius was. Boy, they wanted him. Listen, there are a lot of people that want him. They want him. But if you prefer your pigs, whatever your pigs are, pig is, to Jesus and what he can do for you. You don't want him in your presence because it threatens your pigs. You don't even want to think about losing your pig, giving it up, giving it up. Your pride, your laziness, your self-will, your insecurities, all of this. You don't want it? You'll move on. And somebody else will get the blessing. A man told the story about going to visit a prisoner, a guy in just a little town jail. And he went week after week, week after week, week after week, because this boy's parents had asked him to and just pleaded with him to be saved. stood on the other side of the bars in that primitive jail and talked to him about the Lord and time after time he got rejected. One day he came back and on the way he prayed and God gave him release and he said, if there's no positive response this time, I'm releasing you from going back and talking to this boy. So this time he went and boy, he really poured it on. He pleaded, he brought up his mother's concern and all of this to this boy in jail. and try his best to get him saved. And the boy said at the end, I'm a preacher, I appreciate you coming, I'm just not interested. The preacher said, you mean you don't want Jesus? He said no. And the preacher backed up and was ready to leave and he heard a voice from the next cell, who'd been next door all the time. He heard somebody say I do Amen There's somebody this morning Who's saying I don't really want him right now because my pigs are too important to me. I Just don't want what all be involved if I gave up these pigs I You don't want to give up those pigs for the sake of having your problem solved. You say, no, I really don't right now. Not now. But at the same time you're saying that, now believe me, there's somebody in here, maybe more than one, who's saying, I do. I'm going to give up. I'm not waiting until I get home. I'm not waiting until Sunday. I am going to go to God right now and say, Lord, this pig, I don't want it in my life. You've got to get the pigs out before you can have your problems solved. Let's all stand. Do you recognize any pigs in your life? If somebody asks you to come and say, I've got this pig, this is what it is in my life. I'm selfish. In my family, I am selfish. I'm mean-spirited. To my mom, to my dad, to my brothers, my sisters, I've got this pig. Maybe there's a dad, a man in here to say, I've got this pig, brother. Listen, it wouldn't take me long to write him down and identify him. I'm selfish. I'm prideful. I'm stubborn. Maybe somebody else say, you know what? My pig is just laziness and sloth. Too lazy to read my Bible. Too lazy to pray. Too lazy to clean house. Too lazy to work like I need to work and support my family. I'm too lazy to be a good dad and a good mother. I'm too lazy to be a good Christian Influencer with my life if there's anyone here's you got a pig. Hey, look I have to deal with these pigs in my own life You say I don't You got a pig right there You're a liar Amen that's one of those pigs deceit deceiving and being deceived worst kind of deceit is self-deceit and Denial that's a pig. That's a bad pig He'll turn on you and rend ya. Amen. If you got any pigs, take them to God and say, Lord, send them over the cliff today. They're yours. I don't have any rights. Remember Brother Jamie's message the first night? I don't have any right to any of these pigs, none. However, the Lord leads you, Brother Jamie.