Sunday Message: God Is Bigger Than Your Problem

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie podcast and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast. I'm Greg Laurie, and I'm here today to talk to you about my message to you today.

Just remember that. You are loved by God. And God wants to reveal His custom-made plan that He has just for you. He wants to flood your life with love and peace and joy and purpose.

And then, if that's not enough, and that's a lot, He wants you to spend all eternity with Him in this amazing place called heaven. One of my favorite verses from the Bible is Jeremiah 29, 11, So yes, it's true. God loves you, and God has a plan for your life, and God has a future for you.

Now listen to this. Just as surely as there is a God in heaven who loves you, there is a devil from hell who hates you. He's a hateful, spiteful, wicked creature who opposes God.

And opposes anybody who follows God. The Bible describes him like a roaring lion skulking about, seeking whom he may devour. Jesus summed it up this way.

He said in John 10, 10, Wow. Hell is the highest reward? With that in mind, why would anybody ever give in to the temptations of the devil? Answer. Sin makes us stupid.

I mean, think about it. God has a plan for your life. He wants you to spend all eternity with Him in this amazing place. God loves you, and God has a future for you. Reminds us that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. So God is more powerful than Satan, and God is bigger than your problem. I want to tell you a story from the Bible. Mark chapter 5.

I'd encourage you to turn over there with me right now. 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, and what a man is.

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. Judas Iscariot is a classic example of this. One of the hand-picked disciples of our Lord. But of course, we know that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. I guess that money looked pretty appealing to Judas, but then after the devil got what he wanted from Judas Iscariot, he kicked him to the curb like yesterday's garbage. So Judas found out the end result of doing the wrong thing. The story before us illustrates these points and more.

We see three forces at work in the text that we're gonna be looking at. We see Satan, society, and the Savior. Or another way to look at it, we see chaos, culture, and then Christ. But many demons, as it turns out. And so as Jesus is on his way, a storm comes on the Sea of Galilee, effectively sent by the devil to stop Jesus from reaching this man.

But Christ would not be stopped. And it reminds us how God seeks us out, how God loves us. Jesus told the story of a shepherd who had 100 sheep, and one sheep went astray. And sought that one stray lamb and found it, wrapped it around his neck, and brought it back rejoicing. That's how Jesus is. He's gonna reach that person like that tragic woman at the well from Samaria who had ruined her life. And Jesus had an appointment with her. Like little Zacchaeus, the tax collector who lived in Jericho. Jesus sought him out.

And Jesus will not take no for an answer. And so he had always run ahead to get in the elevator. And so I said, wait for dad, Jonathan.

And he ran ahead around a corner, and I come around the corner, and just as I got to the elevator, the doors were closing with little Jonathan in there all by himself. Well, I almost had a heart attack. I'm pushing the button. By the way, when you push the button on that button, you're gonna get a heart attack. And then elevator over and over. It doesn't make you come faster, but it makes us feel better. I'm pushing the button, pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. It seemed like an eternity. Finally, the doors open.

No Jonathan. Oh my gosh. So I get in the elevator. I go down to the lobby.

I go to the front desk. Excuse me, though, ladies on the phone. Excuse me. Excuse me, sir. No, no, excuse me. I need to tell you.

Yes, yes, what is it? My son got in the elevator, and I don't know where he is. I need you to call security. I need you to call the police. I need SWAT in here.

I need Delta Force. Help me find my boy. Well, hold on one second, sir, and she got in the car. So I run back to the elevator, and I push every button on every floor. And as the elevator would go to the floor, the doors would open, and I'd yell out his name. And after about five floors, the doors open, and there he is. Oh man, I got him in there. I was so thankful to find him.

That was a very scary situation. But look, I was gonna find my son. Nothing was gonna stop me from locating him.

I would have knocked at every door in that hotel until I found him. God is gonna seek you out. He loves you.

He cares about you. But the devil tries to stop Jesus from reaching this man. That brings us to our text. Mark chapter four, starting in verse 35. By the way, I'm reading from the New Living Translation.

That phrase, I'll come back to it. Let's cross to the other side of the lake. So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind, and the other boats followed. Soon a fierce storm came up, and high waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Look at verse 38.

I love this. Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. It's raging. The disciples woke him up, shouting, Teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown? Jesus woke up. He rebuked the wind and said to the waves, Silence, be still.

Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. And then he asked him, Why are you afraid? Do you still not have any faith?

And I love this last verse. The disciples were absolutely terrified, saying, Who is this man when the wind and the waves obey him? Why don't we stop for a word of prayer? Father, speak to us now through your word. I know there are people watching right now who are facing great troubles and obstacles and challenges, and I pray that this message will comfort them.

I know there are people watching right now that don't know you yet. I pray that this message will reach them and that they will come to believe in Jesus Christ. We commit this time of Bible study to you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Storms happened all the time on the Sea of Galilee. Apparently this was a pretty bad storm because the seasoned sailors themselves were freaking out. And then we find the Lord coming up on deck and stopping the storm. I wonder if I'm talking to somebody right now who's going through a storm.

It's a tragedy. It's a big, powerful storm, and you feel like the disciples. You're saying to the Lord, Lord, don't you care that I'm suffering? Don't you care that I'm in trouble right now?

Are you even paying attention? Storms come into our lives as Christians. Sometimes God himself will send the storm, as in the case of Jonah, who was disobedient to God. The Lord called him to go and preach to the city of Nineveh. And he said no. God said go. Jonah said no. God said oh. And God always has the last word. So you might say that Jonah was the original chicken of the sea, going the wrong direction, running from God.

What happened? The Lord sent a mighty storm. And of course it was through that storm that God got the attention of Jonah. Sometimes we bring these storms on ourselves because of our disobedience. Right now we are effectively reaping the consequences of your actions. Chickens have come home to roost, if you will, and you're saying why is this happening to me? You actually brought it on yourself. So sometimes God will send a storm.

Listen to this. Sometimes the devil will send a storm, as in the story before us. But God allows it. Sometimes we call on the Lord and he stops a storm, like the story before us.

Other times the Lord sustains us. Through the storm. But know this. Wherever you're at, your storm has a beginning, middle, and an end.

One more thing I would add. You're either pulling into a storm, or you're coming out of a storm. There'll be another one coming. Just know that. And please don't let that sound depressing.

I hope it doesn't. Because Jesus is with you in your storms, as well as when he is with you on your sunny days. And the fact of the matter is, you learn things in the midst of storms, hardships, or trials that you will not learn anywhere else. And besides, there's no reason to panic.

Why? Jesus said to the disciples in Mark 4.35, let's cross to the other side of the lake. Now if Jesus had said, let's get on the boat and go into the middle of the lake and die, I probably would not have boarded that boat. But that's not what he said.

He said, let's go to the other side of the lake. He did not promise smooth sailing, but he did promise a safe arrival. He promises the same to you right now. He never said life is gonna be easy. He said, in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world. But he'll get you to the other side. And ultimately for us as Christians, the other side is when we get to heaven. Let's go to the other side. He was on board.

Listen to this. Jesus says, if you're a Christian, Christ is with you. And if you're not sure if you're a Christian, I'll tell you how to become one in just a few moments. You know, I find it interesting that the storm did not awaken Jesus from his sleep. I guess he was a deep sleeper. But the cry of the disciples did.

They say in verse 38, don't you care that we're going to drown. Has that ever seemed to you as though God is sort of asleep? Well, in this sense, Jesus really was asleep. Remember, he was asleep. fully God, but he was fully man, and he was really exhausted and drained from the activities of the day. He really was asleep, but in a broader sense, God never sleeps. The Bible says, he that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. So God's always aware of what you're going through.

But listen to this. In this story, Satan was trying to stop Jesus, but he failed. By the way, when Jesus went out to the storm and said, peace be still, it could better be translated, peace be muzzle, as though he was talking to a crazy, aggressive wild animal, or a dog. My wife and I were out walking the other day, and we went into this one street, and there's this big dog, no leash, and he's barking, kind of coming at us. And I kind of pushed her back, okay, let's not go down that street. I don't know what the owner was up to, but that dog was clearly saying, this is my street. You know, but it's not usually the big dogs that bite you, it's those little yappy dogs. We recently, or a while ago, I should say, we were walking through another area of our neighborhood where there's this tiny little park, and we were walking on a little sidewalk, and a lady was approaching with one of those small, yappy little dogs. And when I see a person with a dog, I always go around the dog.

I don't trust them, they might bite. And sure enough, that dog bit Kathy in the ankle, and it broke the skin, it was not a good thing. And it's always those yappy dogs. You know, why do they bite so much? Maybe they're just upset. I'm little, I'm yappy, I'm not an attractive dog, even a cat is better than me, and they know it. Like the little chihuahuas, they're always shaking.

Why are they shaking? Because they're thinking, I'm not a rat, don't feed me to a snake, I don't know. But she got bit by the park, and the funny thing is, now whenever we walk near that park, I say, let's go through Dog Bite Park.

So we've sort of memorialized it. But look, Jesus was speaking to the power behind the storm, which was the devil, like a wild animal, or an aggressive dog, peace be still, or peace be muzzle. Listen, when the devil has a person under his control, he's not gonna give them up easily.

He's sort of like a lion with a kill. Nothing's gonna happen without a fight. That's why it's so hard to get someone to go to church with you.

That's why it's so hard to get someone to even watch this service Harvest at Home with you. Well, I don't know, I have other things to do. And the devil holds on to his prey. But again, remember, God is more powerful than the devil, and God is bigger than your problem. So they come across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has stopped the storm, and what is waiting for them on the other side but a man who is possessed by demons.

Turn now to Mark chapter five. I'm gonna read verses one through nine, which says, so they arrived on the other side of the lake in the region of the Gadarenes. 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 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.

And Jesus had already said to the spirit, come out of this man, you evil spirit. Wow, what a story. This is downright spooky. Now, this is Halloween weekend, and we see all of the little tombstones on people's lawns and skeletons and chains and all that. I think this would be a good moment for some scary sound effects to kind of reinforce the point.

There you go. So this is a pretty scary situation. A frightening, evil man with superhuman strength hanging around in a graveyard, screaming and howling. Another one of the gospel accounts tells us if that wasn't enough, the guy was naked. So he's running around. Nobody wanted to go near that graveyard.

No one would wanna go pay their respect to their loved ones who had passed. They might run into the crazy naked guy who broke chains. And so everyone wrote this guy off. Man, he's out of his mind.

He's under the power of the devil. And notice it says he cut himself. Isn't that interesting? You know, cutting, or self-injury as it's sometimes called, is becoming far more widespread among young people today. Kids cutting themselves with sharp objects like razor blades.

And by the way, girls do it more often than boys. Most of the teenagers that cut are young adolescent girls from the age of 11 to 12. And these kids are in deep pain. At the end of my message, I'm gonna tell you a story of one of these young people, a young girl named Nikki, who cut herself and was very despondent in what God did for her. How this guy ended up in this state, where he's cutting himself and so tormented, we can only imagine. This man was dead spiritually. The Bible says that we're dead in our trespass and our sin. The Bible also says that she that lives for pleasure is dead while she is living. You know, when guards will lead a condemned man down the prison hallway, they would call out the words dead man walking. Dead man walking here. That's exactly who this guy was.

He was a dead man walking. So Jesus stops the storm and he comes to the other side and these demons speaking through this guy say in verse seven 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 on the Lord, I was at a little meeting where we were singing some songs and praying and 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's 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 verbiage occurs only here in the New Testament. It means to bristle and it conveys the picture of a whore causing the hair to stand on end.

And 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 gonna 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 if 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 just chained him up. What can society do? Lock him up, chain him up.

There's not really anything else we can bring to the table. You know, 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 service in law enforcement have never had it harder, and 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 a 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 this 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 five, but the demons actually offer up a request and say, if you're gonna cast this out of this guy, cast this 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 him 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. 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.

Now let's look at the amazing transformation of this man. Mark chapter five, 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 Darryl 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 ahold of him and transformed him, and I'll tell you, when I hang out with Darryl, it's hard to believe he was ever that guy, but the Lord has transformed him. I mean, everybody's really got a chance to see me live a very successful life, because I played Major League Baseball and put a uniform on, and they thought, well, you make a lot of money, you should be happy. Money don't make you happy. If you're broken on the inside, broken is real.

It doesn't matter how much money you make, how much fame you have. If you're broken on the inside, and I was broken before I ever put the uniform on. See, my pain led me to my greatness, but my greatness would eventually lead me to my destructive behavior, because if you're never well on the inside, it's gonna lead you to all those habits.

Can I just stop you there? That's such a great statement. Say that statement again. My pain led me to my greatness, but my greatness led me to my destructive behavior. It's pain that usually lead us to being who we wanna become and everything because of hurting, of rejection and what's happened. And my father was an alcoholic, and he just beat me and laid me across the bed, made me take off my shirt and beat me with extension cord. Most people never knew that I was already broken before I put a uniform on.

We wanna look at people from the outside. Yeah, I've been privileged my whole life. I lived behind community gates. I had millions of dollars.

I had homes, cars, but I had nothing. I was just a baseball player when I put that uniform on, hitting home runs, because I was in pain. I didn't become a man until I met Jesus.

When I met Jesus, I became a man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. 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 hit man 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. My faith in the last 20 years, I realize that we go through this process, and I was so, I idolized my dad, and I was so much a product of that life that this incident happened really before I came to Christ, but I know God had to use that incident to break that tie that I had with my father, because I realized if my own father can betray me, what kind of life really is this? Yeah.

And, but God used that incident years later to, like I said, to break that tie and made me realize that really the only, the only person in life we can really rely on 100%, who'll never let us down, is God. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. So you're in a prison cell, God gives you a Bible. You don't wanna read that Bible.

Throw it against the wall. But then you picked it up later, and you opened it up, and a verse jumped out at you. I opened it up, and I opened it up Proverbs, and I started reading it, and I said, wow, this book is brilliant.

And I'm a pretty analytical guy. You're on the street, you don't buy into things too easy. I always say, they're not selling me to Brooklyn Bridge when I'm paying attention, and I start to read Proverbs, and I said, man, this book is brilliant. And so it really attracted my attention, and then I came to a verse that it just knocked me out, and I realized that that's the first time God spoke to my heart that I listened, because I was desperate.

And it said, Proverbs 16, seven, which says, when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, even his enemies are at peace with him. Now, I was a one foot in, one foot out Christian. I accepted Christ, because I wanted my sins forgiven, but I wasn't willing to surrender Jesus, because I didn't understand the concept of surrendering my life.

I'm a mob guy, I'm in control of my life. So I had one foot in, one foot out. I was self-serving when I became a Christian. And I got convicted that night, because it was almost as if God was with me in that six by eight cell, and he said, you know, were your ways really pleasing to me, or is this all a facade for you? And you know, you don't really lie to yourself when you're in that situation. And then, I mean, I had nothing but enemies that night.

The government was against me, my father betrayed me, the boss of my family, a contract, I'm sitting in that cell, and I'm alone. And it's almost as if the Lord has said, I know you got enemies, but you come with me, and I can take care of that. And you know, I always say this, and people, you realize this, you can read a verse in the Bible 20 times, and it'll have 20 different meanings to you, because God speaks through that verse according to your needs at that moment.

And I really needed to hear that, and it really encouraged me, and it started to put me on the pathway to Jesus, who is my hero and my idol in life now. That's who it really is. And finally, Alice Cooper. When you think of Alice, you think of him as maybe the godfather of shock rock, you know?

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. You know, after about two weeks, Cheryl had gone, she'd gone to Chicago, and said, I can't watch this, right? But the cocaine was speaking a lot louder than her. And finally, I looked in the mirror, and it looked like my makeup, but it was blood coming down.

I think I might have been hallucinating, I don't know. Flushed the rock down the toilet, and went to bed for three days. And I woke up and I called her and I said, it's done. And she goes, right.

You know, she said, you have to prove it. And that was, you know, that was the beginning of our relationship coming back. Of course, one of the deals was we start going to church. Because I was a prodigal son. Remember, I grew up in the church, my dad was a pastor, my granddad was an evangelist.

And when the band happened, it took me as far away as you could possibly, I was a poster boy for everything wrong. And then when I got sober and everything, came back to the church, realizing that's where I belonged, there. So we started going to, and you know, a lot of people say, you know, I came to Christ because my love of Jesus. I came to Christ because of my fear of God. I totally understood that hell was not getting high with Jim Morrison.

Hell was going to be the worst place ever in fear. I came back to the Lord. But I went to another church and that pastor preached the love of Christ, which now you put the two together and it was exactly right. And I knew, in other words, I knew who Christ was, Jesus Christ was.

And I was denying him because I was living my own life and I was living my life without him. I knew that there had to either come a point where I either accepted Christ and started living that life, or if I died in this, I was in a lot of trouble. 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 demon's 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 demon's 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 can 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 men also prays, but Jesus did not answer his prayer in the affirmative. Look at Mark chapter five, 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 a crazy dude that hung out at the graveyard, running around naked, breaking chains, and shrieking, and howling. And now he's the same man who's been transformed by Christ, and he can say, hey, remember me? Well, God has changed me.

Jesus says, transform 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 himself 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. I mentioned earlier about how young people are cutting themselves. And I received a letter a while ago from a young lady named Nikki who came to one of our Harvest Crusade events.

And this is what she wrote and I'll just read it. She says, my life lately has been in the slumps. I was freaked out about school. I was having boyfriend trouble. I was stressed to the max. And to top it off, my family life hasn't been the greatest. So Nikki says, I started to cut myself to cope with all of this. It was just hurting me more.

I tried to stop but I was addicted. How do you reach a young lady like this? She's at the Harvest Crusade hearing the gospel. She said, I heard that Christ saves lives so I decided to give it a chance. And after attending your service, I felt like my life has made a complete turnaround. I committed my life to Jesus and I decided to stop hurting myself. At the time, I thought God would never forgive me for what I'd done to myself and all the sins I committed. But after hearing what Greg had to say, God opened my eyes and Nikki concludes, I'm now living my new life as a Christian.

Isn't that a great story? Am I talking to a young person like Nikki right now that's been cutting themself? A young person that has a family that's falling apart?

Am I talking to an older person that's lost hope in life? 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 problems. 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 gonna 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. 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.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you wanna find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D.org.