God Is Bigger Than Your Problem: Spiritual Healing for Our Earthly Pain

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. The real ills that plague us are spiritual in nature. Pastor Greg Laurie says we shouldn't try to fix spiritual issues with earthly, secular band-aids. Medical science has come a long way in the last century. Little more than a hundred years ago, doctors treated many maladies by bloodletting. Now there are so many targeted medications, they have to get creative with the names, like cisplatin, moxifloxacin, and pancuronium. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says we should treat our spiritual ills with a kind of targeted, effective treatment.

Treatment recommended by our maker. This is the day, the day when life begins. What we see in this man is the devil's package deal, if you will, that he has in store for any person who is in his grip. You see the devil will start with just a foothold and then he'll take over.

Give him an inch and he'll take a mile. And once he has you where he wants you, he'll chew you up and he'll spit you out. The story before us illustrates these points and more. We see three forces at work in the text that we're going to be looking at. We see Satan, society, and the Savior. Or another way to look at it, we see chaos, culture, and then Christ. Now as our story begins, we see that Jesus is on his way to reach this tragic man who had actually been taken over by the power of demons. Not one demon, not ten demons, but many demons as it turns out.

Turn now to Mark chapter five. I'm going to read verses one through nine which says, 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. 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 in shudder. The verb 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. So why do the demons tremble? Answer, because they know that Christ has supremacy over him. In fact, the demons ask, Jesus, have you come to torment us before our time? The devil knows that a time of judgment is coming. He knows he's ultimately going to end up in the lake of fire.

Revelation 12, 12 says, he knows he has but a short time. And that is why in these last days, and I believe we are in the last days, I believe Jesus is coming back again. That is why in these last days, the devil is pulling out all the stops.

Listen to this. Even if some liberal theologians don't believe it, Satan believes that Jesus Christ is coming back again. And his goal is to wreak 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.

He brought complete chaos. It was Peter Marshall, former chaplain to the U.S. 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 at service and 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 smart phone. 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 5. But the demons actually offer up a request and say if you're going to 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't. What treatment programs cannot provide the Lord can't. 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. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. You know sometimes we can't always make it to church but here's the good news. Church is coming to you.

It's coming to you on your TV screen or on your tablet or your computer or even your phone. We do it every weekend and it's called Harvest at Home. We have worship. We have a message from the word of God.

If you want to find out more just go to harvest.org and join us this weekend for Harvest at Home. Well we're considering the story of the demon possessed man today in Mark chapter 5. As Pastor Greg presents his message God is bigger than your problem. So this man is radically transformed. All these demons have left him and they've gone into the pigs. And the people come and see this man in his right mind and they can't remember this is the guy that they've known all this time. Look at Mark chapter 5 verse 15. When they came to Jesus they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there dressed in his right mind. So what's their reaction? They were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon possessed man and they were told about the pigs as well. And the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

Wow. Now this man is so changed you couldn't even tell he was the same guy. You know you meet some Christians and it's hard to believe that they used to be who they were. I think of some people I've gotten to know quite well like 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 hold 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. 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. 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. Ok 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 two thousand hogs, that's how many went over the cliff, is a lot of bacon. And now they are 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 have made if you can't ask the Lord to bless it maybe you need a new career. I would take that a step further. If you can't say to the Lord, hallowed be your name over what you are 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 is exactly what happened. So you can see in a sense he answered their prayer. Then there is 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 is the interesting twist. The formerly demon possessed man also prays. But Jesus did not answer his prayer in the affirmative. Look at Mark chapter 5 verse 18. When Jesus got back into the boat the man who had been demon possessed begged to go too. But Jesus said, no. Go home to your friends and tell them what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.

Isn't that interesting? Jesus answered the prayers of the demons and the hardened people but not his own follower. But let me say this. Thank God for unanswered prayers. Thank God when the Lord overrules your request because he knows what is 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 is a crazy dude that hung out at the graveyard running around naked breaking chains and shrieking and howling. And now he is the same man who has 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 is 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 am talking to somebody right now that finds himself under the power of the devil. Maybe it is an addiction you can't break free from. Maybe it is a guilt that you can't get rid of.

Maybe it is a hopelessness you cannot shake. If so, call out to him. Call out to him and he will hear your prayer. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever you are, wherever you are, Christ is the answer. So you have a choice. Like the people in this city. You can say, Lord stay with us or you can say, Lord go away.

There are really no other alternatives. We either ask Jesus to come into our lives or we turn him away. We all know that statement where Jesus says, behold I stand at the door and I knock. And if you will hear my voice and open the door, I will 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 will 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 are either for me or against me.

These people said, go away. Is that what you will 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 have made in your life. God is bigger than your problems. God can transform you. But you must call out to him.

Listen to this. Two thousand 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 will turn from our sin and put our faith in him we can be forgiven and we can know with assurance that we will 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 am going to pray. I am going to pray a simple prayer that you can pray with me where you will be asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. So if you need Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin pray this prayer with me right now. Pray this prayer with me right now. This is a prayer where you are 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 am a sinner but I know that you are 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. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie with those making a decision for the Lord today. And if you've just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and have meant those words sincerely we want to welcome you into the family of God. And we'd like to help you get started in living the life of faith. Let us send you something called our New Believers Growth Packet. It will answer many of the questions you might have and help you build a strong foundation for your faith. So ask for the New Believers Growth Packet as you write a new beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime around the clock.

Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. And then it's a real joy to make available a new book called The Women of the Bible Speak written by Shannon Bream. Shannon, as you may know, is the anchor of Fox News at Night on the Fox News Channel.

She's also the network's senior legal correspondent. And in this new book, she surveys the lives of 16 prominent women in the Bible and highlights the lessons to be learned from their lives. She's speaking with Pastor Greg's wife, Kathy. If I'm not mistaken, I think you begin your book with the story who was unnamed in one of the Gospels, the woman who had an issue of blood that she was ostracized and she was weak and she was poor and she was powerless. But she did one thing that distinguished her, that Jesus was amazed by, and we all are amazed by, and that was what little strength she had. She knew where to go for help. And would you speak to that? Almost as an introduction to this entire book, you set her up as sort of a woman that we need to study and learn from.

I love this story so much. I really identify with it because of the years I went through physical trials and chronic pain and doctor to doctor looking for help. And I think about that because this woman, we're told in the Gospels, had spent everything she had. She'd been from doctor to doctor to doctor for 12 years. No one could help her. But she heard about this man, Jesus, and she said, If I can just touch the hem of his garment, I believe I'll be healed. Now, because of this issue of bleeding that she had, we believe that she would have been considered unclean in many societies. She would have been considered an outcast. So she probably felt very isolated not being able to be in the temple or in crowds in other places, probably very much confined to her home, as many of us have felt this past year or so. But she decided to venture out, and she found Jesus, and she got close enough that she just touched his garment. The scripture tells us immediately she was healed. And instead of shaming her in front of that crowd and saying, You shouldn't even be out here. You didn't ask my permission.

None of that. Jesus turned to her, and every account in the Gospels, the first thing he says to her is, Daughter. And I love that. I think it is so beautiful that he immediately shows, in front of this crowd that's watching, he accepts her, and what she's done is right.

It's not wrong. There were so many people in those days who were accusing Jesus of always not following the letter of the law, of the rules. And he recognized that she had reached out in desperation, and he said, Your faith has made you whole. He credited her. It was certainly his divine power, but he credited her with that faith that she had. It was enough to heal her, just the touch of him.

And he showed the people there that he accepted her, that she was not somebody to be thrown out of society, that he viewed her as precious, as a daughter. And I just think her story is so beautiful and so encouraging on so many different levels. Well, I want to thank you, Shannon, for writing this book, The Women of the Bible Speak, subtitled The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today. And you can order this from us here at Harvest that we'll send to you for your gift of any size.

Yeah, that's right. And as you can tell, it's full of substantial encouragement for Christian women, but really for all of us. It's deep and thought-provoking, but also easy to follow and find the practical principles for our lives. So let us send you The Women of the Bible Speak. We'll send it to say thank you for your investment in the work we do each day. And we'll only be mentioning this book a short time longer, so get in touch right away. Just write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We're here to take your call anytime 24-7. That's at 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Next time, we'll see some examples of the simple truth that everybody needs Jesus. More from Pastor Greg's series in Mark called The Gospel for Busy People here on A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding podcast was made possible by Harvest Partners. Helping people everywhere know God. Learn how to become a Harvest Partner, sign up for daily devotions, and find resources to help you grow in your faith at Harvest.org.