"We are All Spectacles"

Luke 8:26-39

“We are All Spectacles”

Why are we here this evening?

Why are we not doing what most of the people in America are doing right this moment?…

Watching the Super bowl?

Kick-off was at 6:30 pm!!!

Could it be that something has happened in our
lives…

…something so great…
…that we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else?

Or could it be that we are searching for something…

…something we have seen in others, something we know exists, but have not yet experienced for ourselves?


What is your answer or reason for being here?

Perhaps you just don’t care for football.

In our Gospel Lesson for this evening Jesus meets a demon-possessed man who wants nothing to do with Jesus.

He is afraid of God.

The presence of the Holy for him is a tormenting thing.

But in the later part of our Lesson we see a new man.

Legion is healed.

He is sitting at the feet of Jesus, not because he has to—but because he would not want to be anywhere else.

He’s hanging out with Jesus and he’s relaxed…perhaps for the first time in his life.

He is no longer fearful of God.

And he even begs Jesus to allow Him to come with Jesus onto the next town and the next and the next.

How many of us were like Legion before we were healed by Christ?

In our communities this evening, many people are like Legion before salvation.

They aren’t comfortable with God.

God is a fearful thought to them.

And yet, in our society there are many folks who are searching for something.

Notice how many “religious” people there are!

People are into gurus, transcendental meditation, Scientology, voodoo, witchcraft, and drugs.

The very fact that people are searching is proof that there is a void in their lives, for no one seeks for what he or she already has.

The word “religion” is a Latin word.

It comes from the root “to bind back.”

Thus, when a person is religious, he or she is trying to “bind” him or herself back to God—to patch things up.

But, of course, we cannot do this on our own.

If we are to be “put right” with God, we must allow God to do the work!

A man driving along the highway heard a strange clang, but he ignored it and kept on driving.

When he got home he realized that one of his hubcaps was missing.

Two weeks later, while driving home along that same stretch of highway he noticed his hubcap propped up on the side of the road.

Stopping to get it, he found a note attached.

It read, “I’ve been looking for you!”

The human race is like that lost hubcap!

We have no way to bind ourselves back to God…

…unless God comes looking for us.

But many don’t understand that God is looking for them…

…that God loves them that much!!!

So they are scared.

Perhaps they think they are too sinful, too lost, too useless for God to be interested.

There’s a story about a peculiar lost dog sign.

There was a big cash reward for whoever found the lost dog, and on the sign was a description