The Original Ghost-Buster II
November 12, 2006
Last week I spoke to you about a ruthless, cruel underworld system that wars against everything we value… our families, our health, our joy, and especially our eternal destinies. It’s an invisible system, but it’s no less real. And just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. I can’t see the atoms that make up my bed… but every morning when I stub my toe on the leg… I know it’s real! This invisible system of evil is headed up by a mastermind called, Satan or ‘the Devil”. Jesus called him, “the prince of this world” in John 14:30. The apostle Paul called him, “the god of this world” in II Cor.4:4… because contrary to most peoples understanding, Satan isn’t in hell right now surrounded by fire and brimstone, dressed in a red suit and holding a pitchfork. No, he’s here. He’s living in this world! He’s alive and well right here on the planet earth! And he’s coming against you to obsess, depress and defeat!
Why? Well, the bible tells us in Isa.14 and other places that one time, Satan served in heaven as a mighty angel, but because he rebelled against God, He was He was thrown out of heaven. When he fell, 1/3 of the angels fell with him and became demons. The devil is now lord of these fallen angels and together they form an organized, mobilized force of evil, bent on overthrowing God, and robbing you of your inheritance in heaven. Out of spite, he wants to see you suffer…in hell…with him… forever!
He uses a number of ways to carry out that goal, but his most basic weapons are 3-fold. They are… the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. READ I John 2:15-17. Now, the ‘world’ John is talking about isn’t the world of people, and it isn’t the world of nature… the grk. word he uses here for ‘world’ is ‘kosmos’, which means, “orderly arrangement or system”. In otherwords, Satan uses the system of thoughts, ideas, and actions that make up this world to squeeze you, mold you and conform you into an ungodly and destructive lifestyle. A life that pleases him, not God. According to John this system, warped by sin has 3 major components, and I want you to write them down…
“The lust of the flesh” are
1. Sensual PLEASURES.
There’s an internal enemy in our lives that the bible calls, “the flesh”. It’s not talking about your flesh and bones, hide and hair, it’s talking about that part in everyone of us that wants to do evil. It’s our sin nature. We got it from our parents but it’s roots go all the way back to Adam. If you’re into computers, the hardware is our brain and body, and the ‘flesh’ is like the software that’s been corrupted by a virus called sin. The ‘lust of the flesh’, is when our flesh goes wild after things that make us feel good. It’s an attempt on our part to find purpose and escape pain by stimulating our physical senses to the point of addiction. It would include an exaggerated desire for food, drugs, sex, alcohol, laziness, violence amusement… and the list goes on and on. Giving into our ‘lusts’ is like drinking ocean water. Ocean water contains 7x more salt than the human body can digest… so your kidneys demand extra water to flush out the overload of salt. So, the more salt water you drink, the thirstier you get. Drinking salt water actually dehydrates you to the point that you die of thirst. Satan uses the ‘lust of the flesh’ to destroy us because he knows that the more we drink, the more we die! When we lust, we thirst desperately for something that looks like what we want, but is exactly the opposite of what we need. In fact, it can kill us!
The 2nd component that Satan uses to ruin our lives is called… “the lust of the eyes”… this is…
2. Selfish POSSESSIONS.
This speaks of our desire to have more and more of everything that entices the eyes. It’s when gather ‘things’ that really don’t matter and never really satisfy. I wise man once said, “To whom little is not enough, nothing is enough”. Satan will use our lust after possessions to detour us away from God, trying to find meaning and importance in the things we own.
And then 3rdly, Satan will use “the pride of life” to lead us towards hell…
3. Stubborn PRIDE
This is the desire for importance. A desire to lord yourself over others – to be self-sufficient, better than others. It’s an unwillingness to admit that without God we’re sunk! Pride is what keeps us from humbling ourselves in our relationships when we’ve messed up. It’s what keeps us from humbling ourselves before an Almighty God. Admitting that we’ve messed up and need His forgiveness. Pride is the most devilish attribute a person can possess, because it was pride that turned an angel into the Devil… and it does the same thing to us.
Now you need to know that God has a plan for your life… and so does Satan. No where in the bible is this more clear than in Mark 5:1-20, where we meet a man who was totally and completely possessed by Satan’s will for his life, and it stands as an illustration of what the devil wants to do in everyone of our lives if we allow him to. Here we read about a man who Jesus delivered from a swarm of demons living inside him. And it’s a classic example of Satan’s ultimate design to completely inhabit, torment destroy and damn our souls to an eternal hell. In this man we see the power of Satan crystallized in human form, and so it’s a microcosm of what the Devil wants to do in everyone of our lives.
READ Mark 5:1-9 Did you see what the Satan did to this poor, pitful man? He was crazed out of his mind, covered in filth and dirt. From his example, I want you to see 7 signs that Satan is at work in a persons life, and then I want to show you 3 signs that God is working to free us from that kind of destiny. These 7 signs spell out the word… S.A.T.A.N.I.C.
S… SELF-DESTRUCTIVE Actions
According to vs.5, this man, in his torment, took sharp stones to cut himself. Where did he learn to do this… from the demons! They had him under their control! People under Satan’s influence do things that in the end are self-destructive, not only to their bodies, but to their souls! It’s sad what people will do to themselves today as a way of trying to drown out the pain and hurt they feel. They over eat, over drink, overdose! They commit suicide, abuse drugs, torture themselves, etc. It grieves my heart when I hear of a young teens using razor blades to cut themselves… trying to escape the pain of their existence. Self-mutilation is becoming an epidemic in our society today, and you can bet that Satan is behind it.
Then we see,
A… AUTHORITY Problems
Legion could not be tamed. Vs. 3 &4 tells us that no one could bind him. READ vs. 4…”for he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his fee. No one was strong enough to subdue him.” Today, if this man was running around in our neighborhoods, we’d put him in a mental institute and fill him full of drugs. But that wouldn’t have worked either. He had a spirit that was totally defiant and rebellious. Our jails and schools overflow today with rebels and I don’t have to tell you who’s behind it all. When you have the desire to rebel against authority, whether it be at work, at home (with your parents), or even in the church… I can guarantee you that Satan is behind you pushing all the right buttons.
It’s no coincidence that virtually everyone of the 10 Commandments is being challenged by our society today.
· We entertain and serve other gods
· We misuse and profane His name
· We ignore the Sabbath and mistreat our parents
· We murder innocent people (both born and unborn)
· Adultery is as close as a few clicks of the computer keys
· Stealing, Lying about others, wanting what they have for ourselves…
We pretty much break everyone of them. Why? Because ultimately all authority comes from God, and each one of these laws represent God’s authority in our lives…which we rebel against! We want to throw off our archaic morals and values and make up our own rules! And what do we get for all our supposed freedom? Broken homes, broken lives, and broken justice systems. That’s where rebellion against God’s authority gets us folks, and it’s satanic to the core!
T… Total Hatred of Christ
Did you see the reaction that this man had when he saw Jesus coming at a distance? He ran towards him and began screaming at the top of his voice…vs.7… “What do you want with me Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Don’t torture me! Don’t torture me!” What kind of a God-view do you think this guy had? He thought Jesus was there to torture him… but nothing could be further from the truth… Jesus was there to deliver him! Peoples view of God is so twisted today! They see God as some kind of Inquisitor and Jesus as his Enforcer! They act like if they were to go to church it would kill them! And in some churches that might be true! “No Mom, don’t torture me by making me go to church!”… Please Pastor, don’t torture us with another long, boring sermon!” But seriously, Satan wants to convince people that if they come to God, He’s going to ruin their lives, when the exact opposite is true! But because Satan hates Jesus, he wants you to hate him too!
A… ANGUISH and Restlessness
Vs. 5 tells us that… “night and day, among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out… “ This guy is in mental anguish! How many of you know that our choices (either willingly or passively) can cause us huge heartache and pain? There’s not a person here today, who listened and obeyed Satan’s voice instead of God’s voice at some point in there lives... and as a result is suffering the painful results of those decisions. That’s because the Devil has nothing but pain and anguish in store for our lives. Hell is described as a place of great remorse, of great regret… so bad that people are grinding their teeth together in emotional distress. That’s because that’s all Satan has to offer! Jesus on the otherhand offers healing and relief from the painful consequences of our sinful decisions. He’s able to take the worst situations you could ever imagine and turn them around for good.
N… NAKEDNESS and Uncleanness
It’s interesting to me that another name for demons is… ‘unclean spirits’… that’s because they bring filth wherever they go. They’d stripped this man not only physically, but spiritually of any sense of dignity or decency. He was running around naked and dirty. They didn’t care about his modesty, they kept him naked – completely exposed to the elements. It was funny to them! And that’s how Satan works… as a part of his plan to destroy you, he wants to take away all sense of decency and morals. He wants your mind to be filthy, your mouth to be filthy, and your heart to be filthy. And if you follow him, you’ll eventually find yourself doing things, going places and saying things that would have disgusted you before. It was when the Prodigal Son was competing with pigs for his food that the bible says he came to his senses.
Mark it down…Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay! That’s because the power of Satan is an unclean power. And it may seem like it’s exhilarating and exciting for a while, but it’s like licking on a cherry flavored cyanide Popcicle… eventually it’ll kill you! Following Satan’s path always ends in destroying and perverting the beauty and worth that God created us to enjoy.
I… INCLINATION towards death
“Legion” (as the demons wanted to be called) had a pre-occupation with death. All you have to do is look at where he lived! His home is a place people are still dying to get into… a cemetery! This wasn’t mental illness, (like we’re told to believe today)… it was demon possession. He wasn’t in a hospital with sick people, he was in a cemetery with dead people! In John 10:9-10, Jesus contrasted himself with Satan… he said… (READ). Do you think we have a society fixated on death today? I do! We have CSI from Miami, New York, Chicago? Where next? We’ve got people suing in Oregon for the right to die. Take a look at the names of different bands…Anthrax, Megadeath, Massacre, Cannibal Corpse. As I was looking up the names of bands on the internet, I came across one site that documented the premature deaths of 321 rock stars from drug overdoses, to auto accidents to suicide. Their avg. age at death was 37! At the end of the list it quoted Prov.11:19…READ
Where do you think Satan wants you? In the grave! Dead! Without hope and without God! All this talk about murder and death can’t be explained except for the fact that he’s influencing our world!
The 7th sign of Satan’s influence is found in the letter C…
C… Cut Off Relationships
Running around in the cemetery, crazed and naked… doesn’t exactly win friends and influence people! After Jesus delivered this man, he was told in vs. 19… to go back to his family. Nothing brings greater joy and happiness into our lives (apart from our relationship to God) than our friends and family. And that’s the very thing Satan wants to steal from us. It’s Satan, not God that brings domestic violence, separation, arguments and strife in our relationships. If He has his way, he’ll make sure that every loving relationship in your life is destroyed.
Enter Jesus. When Jesus got out of that boat, it was like the Allied forces landing on Normandy Beach! The demons who’d been tormenting and torturing this man knew their time was up!
And that’s what Jesus does in our lives too! When He walks in…Satan is kicked out! Remember, our enemy seeks to steal kill and destroy, but what does Jesus come to do? He comes that “We might have life! Abundant life! Full life!” And if you don’t have that kind of life this morning… you don’t have enough Jesus! God wants greater control! He wants to destroy the works of the devil in your life! And the only way that can happen is for you to do 3 things this morning…I call them “3 Ways to Reverse Satan’s Curse”…
1. RECOGNIZE Christ’s name…
Nobody had to tell these demons who Jesus was. He needed no introduction. They’d met him in heaven and probably still had the imprint of his foot on their twisted little buns! The power to deal with Satan isn’t found in a prescription, or from a psychiatrists couch… it’s found only in the name of Christ. In Luke 10:17-19 when Jesus sent out 70 of his disciples, they returned with the glow of victory on their faces saying… READ Jesus was there when Satan was kicked out of heaven and now he’s come to enforce His claim on this world.
READ Heb.2:14 (NLT) According to that vs. Jesus has broken the power of the devil in your life. But you have to recognize who He is, and give Him control of your life. Let’s imagine, just for the fun of it that your teenager comes to you and says, “Mom, Dad, I’ve been thinking and I’ve decided from now on that I’m going to be totally obedient to you. You’re wiser than I am, and so I’m going to trust that you know what you’re doing better than I do”. Now after you wake up from fainting, would you chuckle gleefully and start planning how to make your son’s life miserable? If you’re Satan you would, but if you’re a loving parent like God, you’d look for ways to bring your son more joy and fulfillment. So many people give Satan control of their lives, but what they need to do is to give Christ control!
Next, if you want to break Satan’s grip on your life…
2. RESPOND to Christ’s Authority
In ancient magic, if you wanted to get rid of a demon… you would use a higher spirit to drive out a lower spirit. That’s what these demons were trying to do to Jesus. They were upset that He was interfering with their work, so they said, “In the name of God, don’t torture us!” They thought that God would reel Jesus in, but it was too late! Jesus had already commanded them, “Come out of this man!”
Jesus trumps Satan everytime! And if you want to beat him, you have to respond to His authority in your life. Listen… before you can HAVE authority, you have to be UNDER authority! Let me repeat that… In Luke 7, we read about the Roman Centurion. He sent some messengers to Jesus to ask that a servant he loved be healed. But he didn’t want him to come to his house… He didn’t think he was worthy. Instead he rationalized, “Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed, I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go’ and they go, or ‘Come’, and they come’. Jesus was amazed because he found someone who understood his authority. He knew that the reason Jesus had authority to heal his servant, was because He was under God’s authority. In the same way, you can’t have Christ’s authority in your life over sin, and temptation, and lust… until you surrender to His authority.
When you make Him the “LORD” of your life, that means that Satan’s not in control anymore… God is! Once you’ve put yourself under God’s authority, Satan HAS to respond to God’s authority in your life! Some of these Pro-football players can be intimidating. A 275 lb. defensive tackle coming at me would scare me silly! But you know what? A little man with a striped shirt half his size can blow a whistle and order him off the field. How is that? Because that striped shirt announces that little referee has been given authority from a higher power. The National Football League! And the football player has no choice but to recognize and obey it, or he’ll be looking for a new job. Jesus has given you a striped shirt and a whistle! You have His authority over the power of the devil and his demons. And I for one, think it’s high time you used it to blow him off the field! (blow whistle!) You’re out of the game Satan!
3rdly… if you want to reverse the curse…
RENEW your mind…
When Jesus demanded in vs. 9, what the evil spirit’s name was, He told him… “Legion” because there were so many of them. A legion of soldiers was about 6,000. So this guy was full of them!
They knew their goose was cooked, so they begged Jesus to cast them into some nearby pigs. So Jesus gave them permission, they entered the pigs and the pigs promptly ran off a cliff. By doing that Jesus left no doubt in anybodies minds that Satan is a destroyer. And if you surrender your life to him, you’ll end up living and dying like an animal. God has sooooo much more in store for you than that!
In vs. 15, we get a picture of the kind impact that God has on a person. (READ) Once a pawn in Satan’s game…now he’s sitting there clothed and in his right mind!
· Once a wild man, now he’s a model citizen!
· Once a naked and without decency… now respectable and honorable.
· Once crying out in torment, now his thoughts are clear and he’s at peace.
· Once self-destructive and rebellious… now he’s wanting to know how he can help others.
That’s the amazing transformation that Jesus wants to bring about you your and my life! He wants us to be in our right mind! He doesn’t want us hurting by our past, tormented by the emotional turmoil that living outside of God brings into your life. Jesus wants to reverse the curse of Satan in your life…
· He wants your life to be constructive and productive instead of self-destructive.
· He wants you to experience the freedom and power of being under His authority.
· He wants you to know the ‘lover of your soul’. The person who loved you so much that He’s already died for you.
· He wants to relieve you of the anguish of shame and sin.
· He wants to give you a strong, sound mind and point you in the direction of life
· He wants to restore your broken relationships.
I’ve seen Him do it so many times. He’s done it in my life! He’s done it in my wifes life! I can’t imagine what a mess I’d be if it wasn’t for Christ’s influence in my life. And He wants that for you! He wants to give you a mind full of peace, and joy, love, kindness, goodness, ect. It’s called the ‘fruit of the Spirit’, and it comes as a result of HIS Holy, clean, refreshing Spirit living in you. See, Jesus wants to possess you, but not as a way of controlling you, but to free you from your own sinful nature…to be the person He created you to be in the first place!
Will you take His invitation this morning? CALL FORWARD
