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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.

[0:14] If you would turn to Mark chapter 5 tonight. Mark chapter 5. We'll read verses 1 through 20 in a little bit. These three stories really in Mark chapter 5.

[0:27] One is what we like to call the maniac of Gadara. That's one of them. And then there's this lady that has the issue of blood for 12 years. She's there and the Lord heals her.

[0:38] She touches the hem of his garment and the Lord heals her. Then there's a young girl that's been sick, Jairus' daughter. And while Jesus is going to Jairus' house, this girl, lady touches his garment.

[0:52] She gets healed. While he's there, the little girl dies. They come and tell the Lord, why trouble the master anymore? She's already dead. Don't bother him. Girl's dead.

[1:02] God can't do nothing. But you know, death doesn't bother God. Not my God. It might bother yours. It doesn't bother mine at all. God can heal dead demoniacs.

[1:13] God can heal dead children. God can heal anybody that's dead. Doesn't much matter to God. God. Chapter 5, verse 1. It says, He was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones.

[1:59] It says, When he saw Jesus far off, he ran and worshiped him. It says, And cried with a loud voice and says, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God?

[2:09] I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. And he said unto him, 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.

[2:23] And then he sawed him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was nigh on the mountain a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him to say, Send us into the swine that we may enter into them.

[2:37] Forth which Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirit went out and entered into the swine. The swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea. There were about 2,000.

[2:48] And their cloak choked in the sea. And they had fed the swine and told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. They come to see Jesus and see him.

[3:02] I was obsessed with the devil. Had to leave him sitting in the cloak of his right mind. And they were afraid. Did y'all get that? They were scared. They saw that fellow had been cutting himself, screaming and hollering.

[3:16] Been in the tombs for a long time. Come out, saw him sitting out, his mouth shut. And all his clothes on scared the devil out of him. They thought, what's wrong with him?

[3:27] Verse 15, verse 16. They saw him, told them how it befell to him that's possessed with the devil and also turning the swine. And they began to pray and they departed out of their coast.

[3:40] When he was coming to the ship, he had been possessed with the devil. Prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not. But send him, go on to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.

[3:52] Hath had compassion on thee. He departed and began to publish in the compass how great things Jesus had done for him. And all men did marvel.

[4:04] Father, we love you tonight. God, we thank you for every blessing. Thank you, God, for every mercy. Thank you, God, for saving us. Thank you, God, for allowing us to be here tonight just like we are.

[4:16] Now, God, I pray you take these verses of Scripture. Take the few thoughts, God, that you've laid on our heart for tonight. God, I pray you bless those that are here.

[4:27] I pray God would help somebody tonight. For it's in your precious name we pray. Amen. Sometimes I tie it on what I preach. Sometimes I don't.

[4:38] But tonight, for a little while, I want to look at what are you doing here? What are you doing here? Now, God works things out just like this demoniac to touch your heart and to touch my heart.

[4:55] I can't figure God out. God knows what God's going to do. And I just stand back and watch God do whatever it is God desires to do.

[5:06] Because I've got nothing much to do about it. I pray and stay in God's will. But God will do what God is going to do.

[5:17] I've learned that in 40 years of being saved. Now, Jesus was there as the Savior. He was there as the Savior.

[5:28] Look at chapter 4, verse 35. God had planned to be there. If you're saved, God planned to save you.

[5:39] He was there because it was a plan. Now, in verse 37, it says a storm came up. Now, everybody else, that was a problem.

[5:51] But to God, storms are no problem. To the disciples, it's a problem. Because it was a storm. The ship was full of water.

[6:02] And before God, Jesus was asleep. Asleep. Dead out snoring asleep. And they come down there and say, Hey!

[6:17] We're going under. Don't you care? So they wake Him up. They woke God up. He comes upstairs in the boat.

[6:30] Looks at the winds and the waves. And says, Y'all be still. You know what they did? They obeyed because He made them. He created the water.

[6:42] Created the wind. And He said, Be still. Calm yourself. It was a peaceful crossing. But besides that, there was a purpose in the crossing.

[6:54] Our Lord came over there. He was aware of this man that nobody else could help but God. And so He came over there to defeat the devil and save that man.

[7:08] Jesus was there as a Savior. This demoniac was there as a sinner. Now if you read the story of this fellow, he almost was pretty rough.

[7:25] Cutting himself, screaming, living in the tombs and in the mountains. I believe he was a nasty fellow. I think he was probably covered with scars, covered with dried blood and sweat, things like that.

[7:39] He was a nasty fellow. If there was somebody we met on the street, we'd probably shot that guy and not have much do with him. But as I was studying for this, I thought of, when I was growing up, we called my grandpapa, my granddaddy, we called him papa, and called my grandma Mammy.

[8:00] Mammy had a brother. He was a Jinkin', so they called him Jink. Now Jink was a bouncer in a mountain bar back in the 30s and the 40s.

[8:13] When I was a little kid, he had a scar from right there all the way around his neck that got him in a bar fight and almost cut Jink's throat. Well, Jink had stayed drunk weeks at a time.

[8:26] He'd come to Mammy and Papa's. They'd take him in, get him a place to stay, feed him, get him ready, and he'd leave, come back, rotate like that all the time. As I grew up, Jink moved down to work between Greenville and Easley and lived in a one-room house with a bunch of dogs.

[8:46] Probably seven, eight, nine, ten beagles in that house. And it stunk. Man alive, it was nasty. And old Jink was nasty. I can see him now.

[8:57] I mean, until he got saved, I don't think I ever saw him really clean. But I told you all that to say this. There was a preacher in Greenville.

[9:08] I can't remember his name. Somehow heard about Jink. Started going to see him. Finally talked Jink into coming to church. So Jink showed up.

[9:20] The old preacher come, got him, carried him to church. Well, months went by. One Sunday, old Jink got saved. Got cleaned up.

[9:32] Got in church. When I was 17, a tire blew up in my face. They had put a tracheotomy and that's what gave me this wonderful voice I've got.

[9:44] And I stayed in the hospital about six weeks. And I was in there one day and of course, when I was 17 years old, you could smoke anywhere, hospital, anything.

[9:55] So I'm in the hospital, in the bathroom, hiding, smoking cigarette. Guess who shows up? Jink. He don't knock on the door.

[10:08] He just walks in. He comes in to me, Trent, and he looks at me and for 10 minutes, he chews me out. I ain't lying.

[10:19] And he said, you're going down the wrong road, boy. He said, this is a start. You're doing more and you're going to end up just like I was. But I think of that man right there.

[10:32] There's a lot of nasty people in Colombia, Peru, Atlanta, India, Argentina, all over this world. If we don't get a heart and a burden fund, just cause they're nice.

[10:45] Who cares? If they got tattoos, who cares? If they got fish hooks in their ears and their eyebrows, their nose, who cares? Get a burden, get them to God. God will get them safe.

[10:57] And they might get caught a preach and go to the mission field. This guy was nasty. He was naked. And he's a nobody. Nobody knew this guy at all but God.

[11:11] Hallelujah. God knew exactly all. This guy was human. This guy was hurt. I mean, they had chained him up.

[11:23] This here thing drives me crazy. They had chained him up. He had broken. He had cut himself.

[11:33] He cried night and day. Depression was killing him. He dwelt in the tombs and the mountains. This man was hurt.

[11:45] This man was held by the devil. Bible says in Luke 8, 29, for often times it had caught him. Tell you what, liquors caught a lot of people.

[11:57] Dopes caught a lot of people. Pornography. I caught a bunch. Our people, all of us caught him. And that same verse in Luke 8, verse 39, says he was driven by the devil into the wilderness.

[12:15] And the devil, if you give the devil the steering wheel, he'll drive you, bless God, to the wilderness, not to somewhere that you ought to be.

[12:26] I know, and a lot of folks know, the devil will drive you where you don't want to go. And he'll keep you longer than you want to stay. And it'll cost you more than you want to pay.

[12:40] That's where this man was at. He was lost. He was homeless. And he was hopeless. Psalm 142, 4.

[12:53] It says, I looked on my right hand and my held, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge fail me, and no man cared for my soul. The prodigal, it says that no man gave to him.

[13:06] He had no hope at all. The devil then whispered in his ear and said, Sir, this is all there ever is going to be. It's never going to get any better, and you ain't ever going to get where you are right now.

[13:21] You're never going to get out. Anybody else in here ever heard that? Hey, God, Moses. But you know, God knew better. He didn't know what God knew.

[13:33] This demoniac has no idea what God knew. See, God had already got in a boat on the other side of the lake, and God was coming to his side to help him.

[13:47] Already, he didn't even know it. Praise God. God knew that he needed help, so God said, Nobody can help him but me and I'm a-going.

[14:02] Boy, it blesses my heart. Might not help y'all at all, but it sure does help me. Jesus landed on the shore. They met.

[14:13] The master spoke and he was healed just like that. That little woman touched the hem of his garment, she was healed just like that.

[14:25] She knew it. God knew it. And the disciples didn't know nothing. But she knew it. He knew it. And that's all that mattered. God saved me 40 years ago.

[14:36] I knew it and God knew it. Took a lot of folks a long time to figure out I got it, but I got it. I knew it and God knew it and that's all that mattered. Jesus was there as the Savior.

[14:49] This man was there as a sinner, but there were some hog farmers there that day that were scared. Hog farmers. Hog farmers have got a different priority than children of God.

[15:04] You know the priority of a hog farmer? His pigs. All he cares about is hogs. He don't care about God. He don't care about this guy that's sick, dead, dying, out in the tombs.

[15:17] They don't care. All they care about is their hogs and pigs. I like hogs too. Back high legs of hogs. If you cut them things off, salt them down, hang them up, leave them a while, then thick them down, cut it open, fry it, put it in a biscuit, and I love it.

[15:37] They like their hogs too. They like pigs and profit. They loved it. They were perplexed in verse 15.

[15:49] I love this. They go into town. They tell the owners of the hogs, hey, this guy named Jesus has done healed somebody. He's put devils in our pigs and they've all rolled off a cliff and they're in the water and they're dead.

[16:07] So here they come running out. You know what they see? They see that guy cut himself, bruised up, wild, naked, sitting there.

[16:26] He's got to be smiling because he's saved. God's healed him. He's saved. Devils are gone. He's saved. He's saved. He's saved. You know what happens? They scared to death.

[16:39] Scared them to death. And he saw the, my Lord. And then they look and say, Jesus, you've got to get out of here.

[16:49] They pray, get out of here. This might happen. Does. We might end up looking like he does. Get him out of here. He got their pigs and they got mad at Jesus and told him to leave.

[17:05] But if you'll look at verse 15 and 18, there's a had been that was there to serve God. A had been. Look at verse 15. You'll know what I mean.

[17:17] And they came to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil. Now, I don't know much English at all. Y'all probably figured that out already.

[17:28] But I do know that that means one time he was and now he ain't. That makes sense to anybody. He was for the devil. Now he ain't. He was a had. Look at the rest of it. Verse 15.

[17:39] It says, and had allegiance. Had. That means he was for the devil. Thank God, now he's not. Verse 18 says, and when he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed.

[17:50] He was not possessed no more. So he's a has-been. He's sitting there wanting to serve God. Hey, I believe anybody gets right with God, gets a good dose of salvation, ought to want to serve God.

[18:06] God didn't save us to sit on our behind and do nothing. If God had spent, God had meant to do that, I ought to get right with God and go straight to glory.

[18:17] God saved us, served God. This guy was delivered to serve. Delivered to serve. Remember when he got saved? Praise God, I do.

[18:30] This guy was delivered from death. He was delivered from destruction. He was delivered from the devil. He was delivered from living in the tombs and the mountains.

[18:43] Praise God. Somebody said, I've been Trent aggravating me about, kidding me about jail. He's going to pick me up while we're staying in the morning. He said, I'll pick you up in jail.

[18:55] Can I have been in jail? I ain't proud of it but I have. But God delivered me from that. I ain't got to go. I've been tickled to death ever since that God Almighty saved my soul and now I ain't got to go back to that.

[19:08] He was the same way. He was delivered from all of that so the natural thing for him to do was serve God. He was delivered and then his disposition was to serve God.

[19:22] Did you notice what it says in verse 15? He was sitting there relaxed still grinning. I've been saved 40 years this May.

[19:34] I'm still tickled. Still grinning. But before he leaves he never says a word. You see hope will make you smile.

[19:46] when I die I'm going to heaven. It makes me smile. It makes me glad. He was relaxed. He was resting. He had clothes on.

[19:57] You know where he got him don't you? God give him to him. Really. If God can save a demoniac God can give him clothes.

[20:08] Really. Y'all don't believe that. Y'all looking at me like y'all don't believe that. There wasn't no Joseph A. Banks out there in the desert. There wasn't no seers. There wasn't no belt. There wasn't none of that. God clothed that demoniac.

[20:22] I believe that. God put his clothes on him. He was delivered to serve. He was resting. He was rational and in his right mind.

[20:33] But look at verse 15. Notice his relationship. Boy, like this man. man. And they come to see Jesus.

[20:45] Look at it. And they come to see Jesus and see him. Do your Bible read that? They come to see Jesus and see him.

[20:57] Luke 8, 35 says, then they went out to see what was done, came to Jesus and found the man. man. They come out to see Jesus.

[21:11] The one that took them devils and put them in their hogs and run their hogs and their prophet off a cliff into the water. They come to see Jesus and instead of seeing Jesus, they see this guy clothed in his right mind, resting with a big grin on his face.

[21:31] You know that's the way we ought to be? Folks want to see Jesus, they'll see us. Marat, they couldn't see Jesus but to see this guy. I think he decided that if that man got them devils out of me, saved my soul, I'm going to follow that man.

[21:52] I'm going where that man goes. That's pretty good logic. He was in his right mind, so I'm thinking that's what he was thinking. I'm going with him.

[22:04] Nobody else has ever done anything for me like he did. He wanted to be close. He was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to him, learning from him, and just sitting there loving him.

[22:20] My Lord. Anybody ever done anything for you like Jesus did? I love him for just what he done for me.

[22:31] If he don't ever do nothing else, I love him for what he's done so far. I can live on that until the day I die just because of what he's done so far. So they get ready to leave.

[22:43] Jesus is leaving. He's got other stuff to do. So they get ready to leave. Verse 18, Jesus gets in the boat to leave. Guess who's sitting in the boat?

[22:56] If you read that, he's sitting in there waiting on Jesus to get the boat. Because you know why, don't you? You know why? He's going to go where he's going. I want to.

[23:07] It's just natural. Ain't it? Just natural. That man delivered him from the devil. It's just natural. He's in the boat saying, where are you?

[23:19] I'm going with you. So he looks at the Lord and he said, Lord, I want to be with you. But he had you got to remember, he don't know where Jesus is going.

[23:35] Jesus got no itinerary. He didn't have no Twitter. He didn't have no Twitters back in and all that job back in. He got no itinerary. So that demoniac that had been saved and just got delivered, he didn't know where Jesus was going, but he's going with him.

[23:52] I love that. If I was in my church, I'd take off running. He didn't know where he was going, but in his mind and in his heart, he thought, Chris, if that man done that much for me, wherever he goes, I go.

[24:07] He didn't care where the object of the trip did not matter. The operation was I'm going with God. You know what Jesus told him?

[24:18] Of all things, Jesus said, no, no, I know you won't go with me, and I'd really like to have you come to me. But he tells him in here, he said, I want you to go to your friends.

[24:31] Luke chapter 8, he says, I want you to go home to your family. Now, I know this guy was right with God. Surrender to God because God told him no.

[24:44] And he didn't get mad at him, didn't get upset, didn't fire off, and get mad. He just went on with God. He said, you tell everybody two things.

[24:55] He said, you tell them how great I am. He said, you tell them that it's really great not having a devil inside of you. He said, you tell them it's really great being saved.

[25:09] Tell them it's really great having a future. Tell them it's really great not cutting yourself. Tell them it's really great not screaming and crying in the mountains and dwelling in the graveyard.

[25:23] Tell them it's just real great obeying God and going with God. Just tell them that. And then the second thing, he says, you just tell them how great compassion God's had on you.

[25:38] Just tell them. Just two things. That's great. That's not bad at all. 520, you know what he does? Jesus gets on the boat. he leaves and this old demoniac begins to do in his duty.

[25:55] Verse 19 he goes, starts publishing. He said, preacher, what did he say? Well, I wasn't there. I'm not that old.

[26:06] I know I look that old. He started back home. Started in the capitalist that said, first door he come to. He said, hey, good being saved.

[26:23] It's good not having the devil in you. God loves me and God loves you. He went to the next door. God sent me by to tell you it's great being saved.

[26:35] God loves you and God loves me. I was for the devil, but I'm not no more. God just wanted me to stop by and tell you all that. All the way home, that's exactly what he done.

[26:48] He's like that blind man. He kept asking, what in the world's happened to you? He says, I have no idea. All I know is I once was blind and now I see. Hallelujah.

[27:00] God saved me. We started witnessing, knocking on doors at my church before I went to Bible school. I had absolutely no clue all I knew was what God had done for me.

[27:11] I think sometimes we get so theological and folks have no idea what in the world we're talking about. If we just told them how good God is, God loved us and God loved them.

[27:23] So he did all that. You get to verse 20. You get to verse 20. He's working his way back home. And it says, all men did marvel.

[27:37] They marveled at him. And I'm wondering, when I read that, because I've read this a lot, why did they marvel? And I got a quote from a guy named Jim Bird, he's Bob Jones, in Greenville, that's really helped me.

[27:56] And it says, you have to be different to make a difference. You cannot change anything by adding more of the same.

[28:08] I like that. The way they marveled at him is some of them remembered him before he left. And they saw him come back and thought, my Lord, you're different.

[28:25] We tell people now, it's really funny. Folks that Jim went to high school with, they'll, me and my mama will see them, they'll say, how's Jim?

[28:37] I say, great. They'll say, what's he doing? I said, oh, he's got saved and called a priest, he's going to the mission field. Once you get their chin back up here, they'll drop and look like that.

[28:53] It's great. That's with this guy. That was this guy. It was marveled. And he looks so different. His language, what's different? Everything about him was different.

[29:05] Let me ask you, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? Jesus was our savior. This guy was our as a sinner.

[29:18] He was our as a has been serving God. The thing I like about him is he never said a word until he left. David, he just stood there.

[29:30] Grinning. Praise God. I remember going to church the first time I got saved on a Wednesday night. Before I got saved, I hated church. I hated it.

[29:41] I hated it. I went to church. I was thinking, man, this is good. This is nice. Me and mama got married about four months, five months. After I got saved, we got in church and we'd get down on the second row and sit there and boy, this guy preached.

[30:00] I thought, man, this is good. This is good. That's where that guy was. He just glad he got to serve God. Two young men that are missionaries.

[30:11] when y'all come through my church, boy, you excited me because you was young and you had a desire and on fire just to get to serve God.

[30:26] Josh, it's been a long time since Josh come the first time to our church a long time ago. He come in just a young man, still a young man, come in with a desire, not bad mouthing, just, man, I get to serve God.

[30:42] That's the way that guy was. God had done something for him and he thought, I owe God everything I've got. And so do we.

[30:54] God has done as much for us as he did for him. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. Thank you, God, for your grace and your mercy. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to be here tonight.

[31:05] I pray you touch this crowd, this church, these individuals, God, I pray you'd set us on fire, our heart on fire, God, that we can serve God.

[31:19] We can do what God would have us to do. It is possible for us to serve God. And we'll thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

[31:29] amen. You have been listening to Austin Gardner, pastor of Vision Baptist Church. For contact information, location, service times, or more audio and video recordings, log on to www.visionbaptist.com.

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