Bayside Baptist Church

Jason King: Heard about a family several years ago that was visiting Yellowstone National Park and they learned a valuable lesson that bears are smart. While they were driving in the park, they they spotted this bear and through closed windows inside the car. A mom and dad and their kids were taking pictures of the bear as they were riding on the loop and but the bear continued to grow closer and they realized as the bear got right there that there was something that they hadn't thought about.

They didn't think to make sure that they had locked their doors. And the bear crept up to the car, walked up to the car, and pulled on the handle of the back door where the kids were sitting in the car, and as the kids were screaming and they're going nuts, the dad is able to reach around with a great struggle. I mean, he's fighting with the bear, is able to shut the door and they finally were able to get away. Now, nobody was hurt.

But sometimes, something like this is a reminder that even when we feel safe, that dangers are surrounding us and they're more real than we can understand.

You know, today, evil is very real and it's present in our world. Now, we see manifestations of evil on the news it seems like every week, unfortunately, whether it's murder or crime or deception on a public scale. But personally, you've experienced evil as well, maybe through the circumstances that you've walked through as a child or even as an adult, at work or in different spheres that you've found yourself or in relationships or other arenas of life.

The Bible teaches that there is a dark spiritual ruler who is over the wickedness and the evil who rules the world that we live in, and he is at work, the Bible says, to blind the minds and the eyes of those who are not a part of the faith and to destroy all of us who are.

Much like that bear in Yellowstone with that family, all he's looking for is an unlocked door, an opportunity, a crack in the window to accomplish his purpose in your life and in mine, which is to devour and to destroy.

But we live in a world today that that operates in this irony of minimizing the reality of evil and refusing to acknowledge the unseen spiritual world while at the same time being fascinated by it. Researchers are finding that even in the church, the typical Christian's understanding of evil and the demonic is shaped more by culture than by scripture, more by popular thought than what God has revealed in His word.

For some of you today, the way that you think about evil and the demonic, especially, is shaped more by The Exorcist or by The Omen, or some other popular movie or series on Netflix or about stories and accounts that you've heard or read online. If we're honest, it's more folk theology than it is scriptural truth.

But in Mark 5, which is where I want you to open up your Bible if you have it. Mark chapter 5, should be one in the seat back in front of you. It'll be here on the screen as well if you don't have access to a Bible there in front of you. But in Mark 5, there's this account where Jesus comes face to face with evil.

And I want us today to understand and to know from his example in this moment in his life, this account in his life and ministry, how you and I are to respond when we face evil. You see, in this moment, Jesus recognizes what's going on, he heals a demon-possessed man, he sets him free from the power of evil over his life.

And we're going to see, we're going to learn something that the scriptures teach us very clearly that Jesus has all authority over all things in heaven and on earth, and that includes evil. And he alone is the one who can set people free. So I want you to know that you can face evil, even the evil in this world, the evil that's leveraged at you, even the evil inside of you, with faith because of who Jesus is.

So how can you face evil with faith? That's what I believe this passage tells us. There's a few ways that you can do that today. The first way is this: You need to recognize the reality of evil. Recognize the reality of evil. Look at Mark chapter 5 beginning in verse 1. It says, "So they," that's Jesus and his disciples, "arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the Gerasenes.

"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 he smashed the shackles, so no one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones."

Now, I want you to recognize here what's going on. As Jesus comes out of the boat, there's a man who comes running up to him who is demon-possessed. He comes out of the tombs. Now, Mark is telling us why he's living in the tombs. Basically, no one could restrain him. No one could contain him. They tried to shackle him. They tried to chain him down. He had broken everything. He says he's running around howling and screaming, cutting himself, harming himself. He's he's acting like an animal. He's he's naked and he's in the tombs. He's he's been pushed away from everybody.

Now, Mark doesn't say how long he's been like this, but you get the picture that this is a pretty significant case that Jesus encounters. Now, none of the Gospel accounts that tell this story let us know how this man's demon possession happened, but here he was. And things were so bad that he had been isolated and chained and all the attempts of all the powers that be, they could not do anything to hold him down. The demons had given him strength to break chains and shackles. Nothing could hold him back.

Can I just say to us before we get too deep in this, never underestimate the power of Satan. Don't underestimate the power of evil and darkness. He is the enemy, and even though you can't see him, the scripture says very clearly he is working not to just harm you but to steal from you, to kill you, and to ultimately destroy you. That's for you, and that's for me.

Do you remember what Peter said in 1st Peter chapter 5 verses 8 and 9? He says, "Stay alert." "Be sober. Be sober-minded. Open your eyes. Watch out for your great enemy, the devil." What does he do? He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Peter says, "Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith."

You see, the man in this story in Mark 5 is the endgame of what Satan wants to do to you. It's what he wants to do to me. And while you and I may think, man, this dude is way out there, I've never seen anything like that, there's no way that could really happen. This man's reality does beg the question, how does somebody get to this place?

How does this happen? You know, there are a lot of avenues, I believe, in which the darkness can invade your life. Evil can find its way into your life through your own choices. The power of the demonic can be at work in your life through the through the sins of other people, especially if you've suffered abuse or some other traumatic circumstances at the hand of somebody else. Sometimes it can come from your family and and what you experienced growing up.

But most often, for many of us in this room right now, the power of the demonic is invited into your life through cultivating sin, harboring, hiding, holding on to sin in your life. You may have heard it said before that if you give Satan an inch, he doesn't take a mile, he takes over.

And that's what happens with the power of sin in our life. And your choices even in this moment or a moment to align with evil, please hear me, they can affect generations to come. John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief, his purpose, the enemy, Satan, the accuser, the adversary, his purpose is to steal and kill and destroy."

Jesus said, on the other hand, "My purpose is to give them, those who would believe by faith, a rich and satisfying life." So you need to be aware. Listen, church, you need to be aware of Satan's strategies. Like C. S. Lewis once said, one of his most successful strategies that he's at work to do is to convince us that he doesn't exist, or on the other end of the extreme, to to to foster an unhealthy preoccupation with him.

Look, the reality of it is is evil is real, and you have a real enemy whether you can see him or understand him or not. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12? He says, "For we are fighting against the person across the street that won't take their trash can in." We're fighting against our spouses, against our kids, against that co-worker, against that coach, against that person, against that whatever.

No, no, no. He says, "We are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, other people." But look who we're fighting against. Evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against the evil spirits in the heavenly places. Now, sometimes the manifestation of evil is dramatic.

Like this man right here, but more often, evil is more subtle and simple. Often, all that Satan and his demons need to do in your circumstances or mine is to simply start the ball rolling and then we take care of the rest. Listen to these words. Satan knows how powerful the temptations within us are.

1st John chapter 2 verse 16, "For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in our achievements and possessions. Man, we we don't need a lot of help to start looking around and think about what we want, what we want to crave for physical pleasure, what we want to crave, what we see, what we lust after or covet after. And we we don't need much help in becoming prideful about what we've accomplished or what we've done or what we've achieved or what we have.

"But look at what John says. These things are not from the Father, but they're from this world." You see, the reality of it is is whether it's dramatic or it's simple, the approach, the strategy of the enemy, and why you need to recognize the reality of evil is the strategy of the enemy, whether it's dramatic or simple, the results are the same. He wants to completely and totally destroy you.

And you need to be aware of the presence of evil around you and recognize that there is an enemy who hates you, hates your kids, hates your family, hates everything that you stand for if you're in Christ and wants to destroy you. So I say all that to say that there's this picture you and I need to recognize and we need to know.

Now, one of the places you can find yourself is start thinking, well, I don't want to mess with that, man, I'm gonna run away from that. It's to but that's where this story reminds us that there is no need to fear. Look at the second way he says you face evil in this passage. You do not fear evil. Do not fear evil.

I want you to look back in the text in verse 6 in Mark chapter 5. It says, "When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek he screamed, '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.' For Jesus had already said to the spirit, 'Come out of the man, you evil spirit.' Then Jesus demanded, 'What is your name?' And the man replied, 'My name is Legion because there are many of us inside this man.'

"Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place. There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on a hillside nearby. 'Send us into those pigs,' the spirits begged. 'Let us enter them.' So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water."

Now, this man who had been possessed by an evil spirit ran to Jesus while he was a little ways off, and he bowed before him, and the evil spirits in him shrieked at Jesus, screamed, "Why are you interfering with me, Son of the Most High God?" Now, remember, the people, the the the powers that be, the society, the culture, the government, whoever it was, had tried everything that they could do with this man. They tried to bind him, they tried to restrain him, but nothing worked.

And so eventually he had just run off into the tombs and been pushed out of society. It was so bad that he was harming himself, cutting himself in an attempt to stop the torment that these evil spirits were causing him. And so when he encounters Jesus, they don't just walk by each other and carry on, the demons immediately shriek and raise their voices to defend themselves against Jesus.

Now, the demon is fully aware of who Jesus is. Did you notice that in the text? That's why it addresses him in this way. He says, "Son of the Most High." This this demon has aligned with Satan, but he knows who God is, the Most High. And he sure knows who Jesus is, the Son of the Most High God. Kind of reminds me of James chapter 2 verse 19. James says this, "Hey, you you say you have faith? You believe some information? You believe that there's one God? Good for you."

Even the demons believe this. And he says, "They tremble in terror." The demons know what's up. And that's what's happening in this passage right here. The they forced the man to kneel before Jesus, and it shows us the spiritual reality at work here. When they come face to face with Jesus, with His power, the demons have to bow.

It was a shriek, a scream of defense and of rebellion at God. It's kind of like a lot of people today are screaming at God, telling him not to interfere with they their life, to let them live how they want to. But I would say to you, if you find yourself in that place, there's no way to rationalize it beyond the reality that if you reject the words of Jesus and you push aside the authority of Jesus in your life, then you are aligning with these evil spirits.

You are aligning on that side of the equation. You're saying, no, no, this is what I want as opposed to what the scriptures teach us about God. And the reality of it is, if that's where you find yourself, you're headed in the opposite direction of Jesus Christ. And by the way, that's not a spirit of sophistication or of enlightenment or tolerance, it's the influence of evil.

Warren Wiersbe says this. He said, "The demons did not know what Jesus planned to do. This suggests that Satan can only know God's plan only if God reveals his plans." In fact, he says, "There's no evidence in scripture that Satan can read the mind of a believer, let alone let alone the mind of God." So Jesus spoke to the demons and it's interesting in this that they speak back to him.

He said, "Come out." And Jesus asked him a question, "Hey, what's your name? Who am I dealing with here?" And they said, "Legion." Now, you may know this, but in the Roman army, a legion was somewhere between 3,000 and 6,000 soldiers. So the evil spirit is not just one evil spirit, it's a legion of evil spirits.

And just like Satan, their intent was to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus came to bring life and truth and so there's a collision in this moment. Jesus came to set people free from Satan's influence and control. And the demon in this moment knows that he has no power over Jesus and so he begs Jesus not to send him to final judgment in hell but to send him into the pigs.

Now, I've often wondered why, why did Jesus do that? Why did he not send him to hell? I did a little bit of research on that this week. First of all, I think the reason is because the time of punishment, ultimate punishment, ultimate judgment had not yet come. He could have sent them to hell in this moment, but he didn't because Jesus because the Father had not decreed that it was his final time of judgment.

There will be a day when Christ returns, eternity is ushered in, when final judgment will take place and they will be consigned to hell. But you know the other reason? Is because I believe he wanted to reveal the true purpose and plan of these evil spirits that it was to do to this man what they did to the pigs. To destroy them.

And so by sending them into the pigs, he ended their destructive work in people. Simply by the power of his word. Jesus cast these evil spirits out of this man and set him free. Please hear this and understand this. This is not some cosmic back and forth, like they're going into overtime to see who's going to win.

Jesus says it, the evil spirits are cast out and it's over. They did what Jesus said. He has the authority, Jesus does, over the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. You need to know that, church. Because in our fascination with evil, in our fascination with all these things surrounding us all the time, or our inability to perceive that there is a world that is unseen around us, we minimize this reality.

We forget that even in the face of evil, Jesus has final authority. No matter how strong, how destructive, or intimidating they may be. That's why the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10 said this to the church. Look, let me tell you something. He says, "A final word." And you may know that this begins a portion of this chapter that speaks on what it looks like to walk in spiritual warfare, the power of this Holy Spirit as a Christ follower.

He says this, "A final word. You be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Notice it says nothing about you or me. You be strong in the Lord and in his power. How do you do that? You put on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. In other words, by the Holy Spirit if you're in Christ, God wants to give you exactly what you need.

Read the rest of the chapter. He's given it to you in his word and through faith and and the protection, the the hand that he gives to you and he pours on your life. And he wants you to put on his armor. In other words, be someone who has received the gift of salvation and life in Jesus Christ and now walk by the power of the Spirit. You be strong in his power, in his might, not yours.

Man, you can stand against all the strategies. Not just some of them. Not just the little ones, all his strategies. Literally, he says, you hold up. You bear up under pressure. You stand firm. You have no need to fear even though a spiritual battle rages because Jesus Christ has all authority.

Do you remember what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew chapter 28 when he sent them out? He said, "Man, I'm sending you out and you need to tell people about the hope that's in Jesus. You need to teach them, baptize them, help them learn to become disciples." And he said, "Look, all authority has been given to me in all of heaven and earth."

There's no one stronger, no one more powerful. And the reality is that even these forces of wickedness have to bow a knee before Jesus. I want you to hear me, church. I know that sometimes this stuff freaks us out, but the reality of it is is that Jesus Christ has all authority. All authority.

And because of that, you have no need to fear. The final way this passage teaches us to face evil with faith is this. It's you need to choose to use spiritual discernment. Choose to use spiritual discernment. I want you to look in verse 14 to see what I mean by that. As the story continues, it says, "So as the evil spirits came out and they went and and drowned the pigs into the water," it says in verse 14, "The herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran.

"People rushed out to see what what had happened and what was going on. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons." He says, "He was sitting there, fully clothed, perfectly sane, and they were afraid. Then those who had seen what had happened told the others about the demon-possessed man and the pigs, and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone."

"As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. But Jesus said to him, 'No, you go home to your family, tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.' So the man started off to visit the ten towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed at what he told them."

Did you notice the two ways that people responded to this miracle? Did you notice that? First, you got the the herdsmen and the towns people, the people who had seen this man living as he was and and probably shielded their kids from him when they had run by. They they weren't going to be anywhere near that. Maybe they were the ones that actually sent him into this area where all the tombs were. But did you see how they responded? They'd been terrified of him, isolating him, avoiding him for years now.

And then as they run off after seeing this happen, they're telling people what had taken place. And when the other people came to see, they saw this guy sitting there, in his right mind, he actually has clothes on now. He's sane, everything looks right, and they were scared to death. And so with deep spiritual perception, they said, "Jesus, get out of here."

They said, "Get out of here." Now, why did the people want him to leave? Well, it's obvious they really didn't care that much about the needs of the man who had been healed. They were more worried about the impact of destroying those pigs and what it had done to their livelihood. They'd rather give up Jesus than lose their source of income and security.

Now, I can't help but think that that may be where some of us are living in here today, that we're more concerned about feelings of security or income than spiritual realities. But contrast that response with the way that this man who has been healed responds. After he was healed and in his right mind, he wanted to follow Jesus. The word that's used in the text speaks of discipleship. It's not just, hey, let me kind of tag along and just be here because this is cool.

He's like, no, Jesus, I want to know more. I want to walk with you. I want to follow you. I want to I want to figure this thing out, man, you have done incredible things for me. But Jesus said, "Nope. I want you to go back to your family. I want you to go back to where you came from, and I want you to show them that the power of God is real, and I want you to tell them what you've experienced." This man received Jesus' power, and he wanted to follow Jesus to grow in his faith.

What a difference in the two responses. The man who had experienced this was like, yeah, Lord, there's something to this, man, you you've done something supernatural in my life. And the people who had lost the pigs, the town, for fear couldn't see beyond what they could see.

Can I say to us that when you face evil, and you do, you will, you probably are right now. You need spiritual discernment. And I don't want you to throw golf balls at me or rush the stage, but if I can just say to us what my sense is for, not just our church, but the church in general, is that spiritual discernment is one thing that we lack as a people.

You need to develop and use spiritual discernment in every moment of your life. Just when you let your guard down, you think, oh man, I got this. I've been through this before. Man, that bear is pulling on the one unlocked handle in your life. It's pulling on the place that you've been slipping. And and the the roaring lion that's waiting, that's crouching, that's looking for you, he's found an opportunity.

And he's got you. And I would say to some of you today, look, that's why you feel stuck. That's why it feels like it's a spiritual doldrums or you feel like you're trapped because you let your guard down. You see, the other reality is that evil is deep within every single one of us, in you and in me. The way to not be dominated by the evil that's within us is to first recognize that it's there.

You and I need to face the reality that Jesus alone is the answer for the evil that's in your heart and in mine. The only way to overcome the evil that you have in your life and in your heart is not to try to be a good person or do good stuff or be nice or help other people. It's to allow God to change your identity, who you are, by placing your faith in Jesus Christ.

You know what I've noticed is that the longer that I walk with God, I recognize more and more what I'm actually capable of. You know, we often want to believe if you've been in the church for a while, you want to believe and maybe try to convince other people that the longer in your faith that the less and less temptation bothers you or that it disappears or it's minimized in your life somehow, some way, but that's far from true. Come on somebody.

It's far from true for me. Over time, I see more and more what could be in my life if I allow sin to have a foothold. And it scares me to death. Because of my sinful nature, there's nothing I'm not capable of. And by the way, same is true for you too. That's why Paul says to the Corinthians, he says, "Hey, take heed, lest you fall as well."

Because it's in all of us. So don't underestimate just the power of sin in your life and don't overestimate your ability to rise above it. Because what did Proverbs say? Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. You see, the Bible teaches that when you place your faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you. It's the gift that Jesus promised that when he left his disciples, he would give to us, the Comforter, but also the one who convicts of sin and who leads in righteousness.

So the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and he wants to lead you and guide you. He helps you overcome the evil that's inside of you. And you need, I need the Spirit to be able to spiritually discern what's really going on around you. Can I can I say to us today that if you're a believer, you can no longer put your head in the sand and hope that evil goes away.

You need to learn to listen to the Spirit of God to not only be able to identify that which is good and evil, but to be able to follow the Spirit of God through it. You know, this moment in Mark 5 is dramatic. I mean, wouldn't you say? I mean, not many of us have experienced something like that, that dramatic and that clear and that overt that this is evil.

This man's demon possession mimics psychiatric psychiatric disorder, social isolation, self-harm. He's naked, he's got incredible strength. Yet Jesus didn't walk in and say, oh, that's just a mental illness. He didn't simply tell him to go follow a protocol and he'd get better. But other times, if you read through the gospels, he did just that. It'd be similar symptoms, similar circumstances. Sometimes Jesus cast out a demon, sometimes he just prayed for healing.

Why would he do that? It's because of Jesus' spiritual discernment. I believe you need, and I do too, spiritual discernment to recognize the evil around you. Now, there are a couple of extremes that you can fall into. One one extreme is that you can believe that every sickness, every mental illness, every addiction, everything difficult in life is the direct result of the demonic.

But on the other extreme, you can believe that there's just a natural and plausible explanation for everything. It's only ever sickness or only ever mental illness or only ever addiction. Everything is just natural cause and natural effect and nothing else. For example, this past week I read an article from Psychology Today that that explained from one psychologist's perspective the delusion of demon possession.

He said, "Every purported," his words, "demon possession can easily be explained away by simply mental illness." But you know, there is no cut and dried way or rules to evaluate what's really taking place outside of the development of spiritual discernment. Like Paul says, there are some things that are spiritually appraised.

Which means for us, church, it's time to wake up. It's time to wake up. I'm afraid that at times we have our spiritual eyes clouded and our spiritual heads in the sand while the enemy's running wild. Lee Strobel in his book, Seeing the Supernatural, which I would highly recommend that book to you, he interviews a guy named Douglas Potter.

And he asked him this question. He said, "Are are there activities that people engage in which makes them more vulnerable to demonic attack?" And here's what he said. He said, "A pattern of unconfessed sin can make a person susceptible." He said, "Dabbling in the occult can open that door as well." He said, "It's like inviting a grown tiger into your house, thinking that it'll be a docile pet when he ends up tearing tearing the place apart and terrorizing you."

He said, "You want to get the tiger out, but guess what? He wants to stay." He said, "You need a stronger power to remove him just as the power of the Gospel is needed to chase out the demonic." So Lee Strobel asked him, he said, "So what's your advice?" He said, "Don't get mired in sin, steer clear of the occult. Don't dabble in Ouija boards, don't consult psychics or tinker with the dark arts. Don't open your door to the tiger."

And if you have, he said, "Renounce it. Stand upon the power of Jesus Christ in faith. Use discernment for sure with those things. Please. Avoid the darkness. Make sure the doors of your life are locked down on what is true. Don't slip. Those are the dramatic ways that evil can take hold in your life. But you need to use discernment in every area of life."

So, can I ask you this question today? Are you exercising discernment into what you're allowing in your life? What's what's going on around you? I want you to evaluate your entertainment, movies, books, videos, music, social media accounts that you're following. Think about what are you allowing your kids to watch while you keep them quiet so you can have a minute to yourself.

What are they listening to or watching on their own? What are they learning at school? Now, let's put on the spiritual lenses and evaluate these things for just a minute. Is it really just entertainment? Is it really just music or education? Or is it possible that the enemy is at work? And he has you where you want believing it's just fun, it's just a concert, it's just a movie, it's just a book, it's just music on Spotify.

But what he's doing is he's planting seeds of darkness in your life. Parents, are you guarding your kids from the roaring lion that's sitting outside their door? Or are you shuffling them off to go figure it out on their own? You see, exercising spiritual discernment means that we're constantly, you and I are constantly evaluating.

Not from what the news says or some post says or what some expert says, but from the standard of is it righteous? Is it evil? Which one is it? And how do we know to follow Christ in the midst of it? Does it draw us closer to Jesus or is it planting seeds of darkness? What's this planting in my heart right now?

What is this planting in my kids' hearts? Don't be naive. You see, we need to understand that evil is real and there is an adversary who is working to destroy you and your family. And he's working around the clock. Spiritual discernment, the Bible teaches us, is not some warm and fuzzy feeling. Look what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 5:14.

He says, "solid food." In other words, man, the the reality, the the deep stuff of the scriptures, the reality of obeying Christ, it's for those who are mature. If you want to be able to walk have discernment and walk out a life of faith, it's for those who are mature. Now, how are you mature? You've been to a couple Bible studies and you've been to church once or twice.

No. "Through training, through practice, through doing what's in the word, through training, have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong." In other words, as you obey God's word, as you practice what God says in his word, your level of discernment grows and you're more clearly able to discern is this good or is this evil. You see, Jesus spiritually appraised every situation.

I'm convinced that's why he cast out a demon in one moment, in a very similar circumstance, he healed a disease. Life is spiritually appraised. Do you remember one time Jesus told his disciples when they couldn't cast out a demon? Do you remember that? That there was this son father who had brought his son and he said, man, the disciples tried to pray, they couldn't do anything about it.

They couldn't handle this. So they brought to Jesus this boy and Jesus healed the boy, he cast out the demon and the disciples asked him later on, "Jesus, what what the heck, man, we couldn't do anything with that." And Jesus said to him, "This kind can only come out with prayer." What does that mean? Does it mean they didn't say the right words or they didn't pray the right prayer?

No, no, no. It means this moment was spiritually appraised and you weren't prepared. So can I challenge us today? Are you prepared? Are you prepared for your own heart to discern good and evil, for your family, for your kids? Are you prepared? Maybe spiritually you've been lulled to sleep or you're doing your thing or you're not taking the spiritual part of your life seriously or you're thinking, man, just what I can see is what it is.

But if you've neglected to to use and to walk in the incredible power of God that he offers you today, he's inviting you to step towards him in this moment. Because church, we need to wake up. We need to wake up. And we need to recognize that this enemy, Satan, is looking to destroy and to kill and to tear apart whatever God is doing in your life.

But yet, there is one who is greater. He has all authority and all power and when you place your life in his hands, you may experience evil, but evil will not overcome you. You see, even when I'm talking to you about today is spiritually appraised and it may be tempted to dismiss it because it requires opening your heart and your life and asking God to meet you right wherever you are. If you've missed it, if you've been lulled to sleep, if you've been ignoring this, God is inviting you today to say yes to him.

You see, the wide path, Jesus said it leads to destruction. But the narrow path, it leads to life. And that begins by calling on the name of Jesus in faith and allowing the Spirit to lead you to now live a life of faith. Let's pray together.