A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: Multiple studies have found that there's a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Society has no answers. The real ills that plague us are spiritual in nature.

We shouldn't try to fix spiritual issues with earthly, secular band-aids. What culture cannot do, Jesus can. But you must call out to him.

Guest (Male): Medical science has come a long way in the last century. Little more than 100 years ago, doctors treated many maladies by bloodletting. Now, there are so many targeted medications they have to get creative with the names, like Cisplatin, Moxifloxacin, and Pancuronium.

Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says we should treat our spiritual ills with a kind of targeted, effective treatment, treatment recommended by our Maker.

Greg Laurie: I want to tell you a story from the Bible. It's a story of a man who had been completely taken over by the power of the devil. A tortured, miserable, suicidal shell of a man in what appeared to be an absolutely hopeless situation. That is, until Jesus came along.

What we see in this man is the devil's package deal, if you will, that he has in store for any person who is in his grip. You see, the devil will start with just a foothold and then he'll take over. Give him an inch and he'll take a mile. And once he has you where he wants you, he'll chew you up and he'll spit you out.

The story before us illustrates these points and more. We see three forces at work in the text that we're going to be looking at. We see Satan, society, and the Savior. Or another way to look at it, we see chaos, culture, and then Christ.

Now, as our story begins, we see that Jesus is on his way to reach this tragic man who had actually been taken over by the power of demons—not one demon, not 10 demons, but many demons, as it turns out. Turn now to Mark chapter 5. I'm going to read verses 1 through 9, which says:

"So they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the Gaderenes. And when Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as he often was, he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him.

And day and night he wandered among the burial caves and the hills, howling and cutting himself with stones. When Jesus saw him some distance away, the man saw him and ran to meet him and bowed before him. And with a shrieky scream, 'Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don't torture me.'"

We see some interesting and surprising things here about the devil and demons. Number one, this point may surprise you, but it's true: demons, though wicked, are actually quite orthodox in their beliefs. Now, I'm not suggesting they believe in Jesus. It's the opposite; they're in rebellion against Jesus. But there are certain things they actually believe.

It should not surprise you to know that the devil is neither atheist nor agnostic. For instance, the devil believes in the existence of God because the Bible says the demons believe and tremble. The devil believes in the deity of Christ, which means he believes Jesus is God, because when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan says to him, "If you're the Son of God, turn this rock into a piece of bread." And a better translation would be, "Since you're the Son of God." Satan was acknowledging that Christ is the very Son of God.

Listen, the devil believes the Bible is the word of God. He hates every word of it, but he knows it's true. And the devil believes that Christ is coming back again. He's a wicked creature. I remember when I was a brand new Christian—I mean, like maybe a few weeks old in the Lord—I was at a little meeting where we were singing some songs and praying.

Someone came up with a bright idea: "Hey, why don't we pray for Satan's conversion? Think how great things will be if the devil comes to Jesus." I'm thinking, "This is nuts." Even as a new Christian, I thought that is not possible. And no, it is not possible. Scripture is clear about the origin, agenda, and the ultimate destruction of Satan.

I already mentioned this verse, James 2:19. It says the demons believe and tremble. Another translation would be the demons believe and shudder. The verb occurs only here in the New Testament. It means to bristle, and it conveys the picture of a horror causing the hair to stand on end. In my case, that would be singular, one hair standing on end.

But why do the demons tremble? Answer: because they know that Christ has supremacy over him. In fact, the demons ask Jesus, "Have you come to torment us before our time?" The devil knows that a time of judgment is coming. He knows he's ultimately going to end up in the lake of fire. Revelation 12:12 says, "He knows he has but a short time."

And that is why in these last days—and I believe we are in the last days; I believe Jesus is coming back again—that is why in these last days, the devil is pulling out all the stops. Listen to this: even as some liberal theologians don't believe it, Satan believes that Jesus Christ is coming back again. And his goal is to wreck as much havoc as he can until that day.

Man, as Christians, could we be at least as motivated as the demons are? I mean, they're out there doing all their dirty work trying to destroy lives. What are we doing for the Lord? When's the last time you shared the gospel with someone?

So we see three forces at work in this story as I said: Satan, society, and the Savior. Or another way to put it: chaos, culture, and Christ. So we've already seen what the devil did in this man's life. Just he brought complete chaos. It was Peter Marshall, former chaplain to the US Senate, who made this statement years ago, and I quote: "The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration." End quote. That's so true. Christ or chaos.

What did the devil do for this man? He brought chaos. He brought destruction. He brought bondage. Well, what did society do for him? They chained him up. What can society do? Lock them up, chain them up. There's not really anything else we can bring to the table. In America right now, we have riots in our streets. In some cities, we have outright anarchy. And the potential is there for it to get far worse.

Those that serve us in law enforcement have never had it harder than they have it right now. The family continues to disintegrate and break apart. And by the way, that's at the root of most of our social ills today. Society and culture cannot cope with the problems caused by Satan and sin.

Social media—most of us carry one of these things around with us in our pocket, a smartphone—social media, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok. All these things are supposed to bring us closer together, but I think social media in many ways has divided us and driven us apart. I can think of times I'm sitting in a restaurant and there's a family all sitting at a table. I think they went to go have a meal together, but everyone is just looking at their phone. They're not even paying attention to one another. They don't talk anymore.

I read an article in Forbes Magazine about this with the headline, "The More We Use Social Media, the Less Happy We Seem to Be." Another article said multiple studies have found that there's a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Society has no answers for this man. Society or culture has no answers for us either.

But what the chains could not do, Jesus did in one word. And that brings us to the third force, if you will, in the story: the Savior. What did Jesus do for this man? First of all, he sought him out in his spooky little graveyard and he offered him hope.

Now, here's a bizarre twist in the story. You can read it there in Mark chapter 5, but the demons actually offer up a request and say, "If you're going to cast us out of this guy, cast us into something." And there was a herd of pigs feeding nearby and Jesus cast the demons into the pigs, and then the pigs all ran off the edge of a cliff and died. It was mass suicide.

No, I'm kidding. But it was the first case of deviled ham in human history. But the pigs possessed by the demons go over the side. Wow, pretty scary. So what culture could not do, Jesus could. What religion cannot do, Jesus can. What treatment programs cannot provide, the Lord can. Listen, you don't need a 12-step program. You need a one-step program: come to God through Jesus Christ and ask him to help you.

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hi everyone, I want to tell you about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as our Harvest version of Netflix. We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash: Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more.

Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more. So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well, we're considering the story of the demon-possessed man today in Mark chapter 5, as Pastor Greg presents his message, "God is Bigger Than Your Problem."

Greg Laurie: So this man is radically transformed. All these demons have left him and they've gone into the pigs. And the people come and see this man in his right mind, and they can't remember this is the guy that they've known all this time. Look at Mark chapter 5, verse 15.

"When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there, dressed in his right mind." So what's their reaction? They were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man, and they were told about the pigs as well. And the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. Wow.

Now, this man is so changed you couldn't even tell he was the same guy. You know, you meet some Christians and it's hard to believe that they used to be who they were. I think of some people I've gotten to know quite well, like Daryl Strawberry. Great baseball player for the New York Yankees and other teams, but he became the bad boy of baseball and he was known in many ways more for what happened outside of the game. Arrested for drugs, all kinds of problems in his life. But God ultimately got hold of him and transformed him. And I'll tell you, when I hang out with Daryl, it's hard to believe he was ever that guy, but the Lord has transformed him.

Then I think of my friend Michael Franzese, a mobster. His father, Sonny Franzese, who died recently and up into that moment was the oldest living mobster in America—he actually made it past 100—Sonny was an enforcer or a hitman for the Colombo crime family and his son Michael was being groomed to become the next Godfather of that family. Michael was arrested, he was sent to prison, and he came to Christ while he was in prison.

And finally, Alice Cooper. When you think of Alice, you think of him as maybe the Godfather of shock rock, the scary guy who puts a snake around his neck. But Alice Cooper was living a crazy life. Believe it or not, he was the son of a pastor, but he rebelled against God and almost died with a rock of cocaine the size of a softball. And God got hold of Alice and turned him around. And he's a different man now.

Okay, so how do the people react to this amazing demonstration of the power of God? We should have read "And the people all gave glory to God." But no, one of the gospels tells us, commenting on the same story, the people were afraid. You see, this demonstration of the power of God frightened them. They should have been rejoicing, but instead they were afraid.

And they should have been pleading with Jesus to stay with them, but they did the very opposite. Apparently, the guys who owned the herd of swine were pretty ticked off because they made a lot of money off those pigs. Hogs were big business on this side of the lake and 2,000 hogs—that's how many went over the cliff—is a lot of bacon. And now they're on the bottom of the lake. Pickled ham, anyone?

So Jesus was bad for their business. Is Jesus bad for your business? I hope not. Whatever career choice you've made, if you can't ask the Lord to bless it, maybe you need a new career. I'd take that a step further. If you can't say to the Lord, "Hallowed be your name" over what you're about to do, then don't do it.

And so Jesus was bad for their business, and they wanted him to go away. They didn't want him around. Now here, as we come to the end of the story, is an interesting twist. We have three prayers offered. We have the demons' prayer, we have the people's prayer, and then we have a prayer offered by the man who had been formerly possessed by demons. Jesus answered two of the prayers with a "yes" and the final prayer with a "no."

First, there was the demons' prayer. What was it? They said to Jesus, "Cast us into the herd of pigs." And Jesus granted their request and that's exactly what happened. So you could say in a sense he answered their prayer. Then there's the people's prayer. They pleaded with Jesus to leave their city. He answered their prayer, if you will, and left their city. Hey, listen, careful what you pray for; you might get it.

Now, here's the interesting twist: the formerly demon-possessed man also prays. But Jesus did not answer his prayer in the affirmative. Look at Mark chapter 5, verse 18. "When Jesus got back into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go too." But Jesus said, "No. Go home to your friends and tell them what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been."

Isn't that interesting? Jesus answered the prayers of the demons and the hardened people but not his own follower. But let me say this: thank God for unanswered prayers. Thank God when the Lord overrules your request because he knows what's best for you.

Looping back to what I said in the beginning of the message, God has a plan for you. And know this: his plan for you is better than your plan for yourself. So never be afraid to commit an unknown future to a known God.

Instead, Jesus sends this man home. He says, "Go home. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell people what the Lord has done." And this guy had an amazing testimony because everybody knew him. He's the crazy dude that hung out at the graveyard, running around naked, breaking chains, and shrieking and howling. And now he's a sane man who's been transformed by Christ. And he can say, "Hey, remember me? Well, God has changed me. Jesus has transformed my life."

This story shows that no one is beyond the reach of God. So keep praying for them. Do you know a person that seems to be completely under the power of the devil and you say to yourself, "There's no way I could ever see that person believing in Jesus"? What are you talking about? The Bible says with God all things are possible. Keep praying for that person. Look at this man that he transformed.

And I wonder if I'm talking to somebody right now that finds themselves under the power of the devil. Maybe it's an addiction you can't break free from. Maybe it's a guilt that you can't get rid of. Maybe it's a hopelessness you cannot shake. If so, call out to him. Call out to him and he'll hear your prayer. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, Christ is the answer. So you have a choice like the people in this city. You can say, "Lord, stay with us," or you can say, "Lord, go away." There are really no other alternatives. We either ask Jesus to come into our lives or we turn him away.

We all know that statement where Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and I knock and if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in." Now, think of Jesus standing on your porch at your door knocking right now. But add another thought to it. Let's say you have a glass door, which means you can see him and he can see you. So you can't say, "Just ignore him; he'll go away."

He knows you see him there on your porch knocking. So, to not open the door and invite him in is a clear rejection. And Jesus said you're either for me or against me. These people said, "Go away." Is that what you'll say to Jesus? Or will you say, "Come into my life right now"? I wonder wherever you are if you would just reach out to Jesus now and say, "Lord, forgive me of my sin."

I don't care how powerful your addiction is. I don't care how big your problems are. I don't care about how big of a mess you've made in your life. God is bigger than your problem. God can transform you, but you must call out to him.

Listen to this: 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ came to this earth on a rescue mission and died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. If we'll turn from our sin and put our faith in him, we can be forgiven and we can know with assurance that we'll go to heaven when we die. Wouldn't you like to know that? Jesus can come into your life right here, right now.

And in a moment, I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray a simple prayer that you can pray with me where you will be asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. So if you need Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, pray this prayer with me right now. Pray this prayer with me right now. And this is a prayer where you're asking Christ to come into your life. Let's all pray.

Father, I pray for everyone that is watching, wherever they are. Help them to see their need for you and help them to come to you, we pray. Now, if you want Jesus to come into your life, pray these words after me:

Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Lord, come into my life. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Guest (Male): An important prayer today from Pastor Greg Laurie with those making a decision for the Lord. And if you've just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and have meant those words sincerely, then we want to welcome you into the family of God. And we'd like to help you get started in living the life of faith.

Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It has hundreds of special helps for those who are new to the faith and we'll send it free of charge. Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or go online to harvest.org.

You know, Pastor Greg, today's study was made possible by someone we may never meet. It was their partnership that covered the costs of broadcasting. And we're looking for other partners to help with tomorrow's needs and the next day after that, aren't we?

Greg Laurie: Yeah, you know, when you go out and get a lot of media today, you pay a price. You have to pay to download it or you have to pay to stream it, or you have to pay a fee to subscribe to the site that lets you watch certain videos, right? And we don't do any of that. We just offer it free of charge. You know, the Bible says freely you have received, freely give. And that's what we do every single day.

But there are expenses and there are considerable expenses to do what we do. And so I'm going to ask people out there to help us do what we do and continue to offer it free of charge to whoever would want to hear it. You know, the Bible says whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely.

We don't want to put a barrier in front of any person to hear the gospel and to hear the teaching of the word of God. So when you give to us, you help us to do that over and over again, day after day, month after month, year after year. And we have so many stories of lives that have been changed for time and eternity as a result of your faithful giving. So help us to continue to offer the gospel freely to people by investing in A New Beginning.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. And we so much appreciate your investment. The most effective way to help is to become a Harvest Partner. They're a vital part of this ministry. They pray for us and they support us each month. They have a passion for evangelism and discipleship just like we do and we so much appreciate that partnership.

If you'd like to be a part of this inner circle, get in touch today at 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 number, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org.

Hey everybody, you can watch our Sunday services on a special broadcast that we call Harvest at Home. It's streaming on the Harvest Plus platform. So download that app right away, Harvest Plus, and you can enjoy being a part of our extended church family every Sunday.

Well, next time, we'll see some examples of the simple truth that everybody needs Jesus. More from Pastor Greg's series in Mark called "The Gospel for Busy People." Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.