Unshackled

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's book, Man of God. But first, here's the message unshackled. It's true that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. It is also true that the devil hates you and has a terrible plan for your life. The devil is real. We do know that evil exists, of course. Evil exists.

We have seen the face of evil throughout history. The terrible works of men demonized by the powers of Satan. Sixty-eight percent of Americans say they believe in the devil. I don't know how much they actually believe in the devil and know what the devil is really like, but the Bible tells us that the devil is sinister, the devil is supernatural, the devil is spiritual.

Not everything that is, quote, spiritual is of God. Many spiritual things come from the devil. The Bible speaks of spiritual wickedness in high places, but beyond evil itself there is a mastermind. Behind evil and his name is Lucifer, the devil, Satan himself. And Satan can have power and control over the lives of people. And that's what we're going to see in this passage.

We're going to see, first of all, what I'm going to call satanic chaos. Look at verse 1 of Mark chapter 5. They came to him from the other side of the sea to the country of the Gerasites. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there was, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had the strength to subdue it. And night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. Satanic chaos. Remember behind the scenes you have a collision between light and darkness, God and Satan, heaven and hell, life and death.

And here we see one of these spiritual battles taking place between the power of God in Christ and the powers of Satan. So here we meet a man who is tortured and broken and exiled. He's cutting himself, trying to destroy himself. He's shrieking, howling. We're told in Luke's account he is running without clothes.

He is naked. He is vile in every way until Jesus Christ stepped into his life. Satan is the bondage maker, Jesus is the bondage breaker.

He breaks every chain. Take a look at this demonized man. Really a pathetic shell of a man.

It's really a scene out of a horror movie, it appears. This guy living in misery and pain, in wretchedness and in brokenness. A man who had lost his mind. He is crazy. We would call him insane.

He is a wild man. Now you might look at that and say, well that's the description of mental illness. And we know mental illness exists today apart from demon possession. We're not suggesting that mental illness and demon possession are the same thing, but there is a vital connection so often between demonized powers infiltrating and influencing the lives of people and mental illness.

A little bit more about that later. He has been, this man, as can happen today, and I've seen demonic oppression as well as possession. He is totally taken over by Satan. A horrible horde from hell has infected and infiltrated his very body and soul. When Jesus confronts this man and the demons within him, Jesus asked in verse 9, what is your name? And the demon who was speaking, who may have been the head general of the demons within, said, legion.

For there are many of us. A Roman legion could be up to 6,000 men plus horsemen. So we could surmise that legion, an army of demons, is now controlling this man's life. They are powerful. He breaks the chains.

They try to lock him up and shut him down, but he keeps breaking the chains. Matthew tells us in Matthew 28 that this man was fierce, that he was dangerous. Nobody hung out at the cemetery where this man was living. Families were telling their children, don't go near that crazy man. It was frightening.

It was, it was terrifying. He was walking and living among the dead at this cemetery. He was the walking dead. He is living in hell. While it is an extreme example, he is a picture of life without Christ and what a life without God can become. Because we are all dead in our trespasses and sin before we met Jesus. The Scripture speaks of a woman who lived for pleasure and because she lived for pleasure, she was dead as she was living.

There are many dead men walking, dead women walking. And this extreme example identifies what can happen when we open our lives up to the powers of Satan and sin in our lives. He can take over and control our minds and begin controlling our morals and destroy us, take us down. Satan will chew you up and spit you out if you allow it to happen.

And many people allow it to happen. This is our condition outside of Christ. This man ran to Jesus and the disciples as they were getting off the boat, shrieking, howling, cursing, I'm sure. And those disciples, they're headed the other direction.

Can't you see these guys? Now they just come off the Sea of Galilee, traveling by boat, they'd encountered a storm and Jesus in the midst of that storm at sea calmed the storm. And so they arrived safely on the other side and now they encounter a storm of a different kind, a human storm. And this man comes running to Jesus and he's full of these demons. Now I should say that demons are fallen angels empowered by Satan himself. Just as there are holy angels who serve God, there are unholy angels, unholy spirits that serve Satan. As I said, I have seen the reality of demonism and the effects of demons in people's lives. Do not mistake the fact that demon possession and demon obsession and demon oppression exist today.

It does. And you deny it at your own peril. The Bible tells us that these evil spirits can actually possess human beings. Christians cannot be possessed by demons.

We are possessed by the Spirit of Christ. But let me say that Christians, if you allow Him a stronghold in your life, can be oppressed by demon spirits and influenced by the powers of Satan. Satan and his minions exploit our weaknesses and gain control to warp our personalities, to devour our lives and emotions. Again, this is an extreme example of that, but it happens on many levels. We're told that this man was self-destructive.

He was cutting himself. And we see self-destruction and self-mutilation in our world today. Again, we know where this is coming from. It's coming from Satan and this cosmic battle and there are many casualties. And often, we open the door to the power and the presence of Satan. It can be through addiction. My observation, clearly, that drugs and alcohol often play a large part in demon power and possession. Many are addicted to pornography. That's opening the window of hell.

You click and open that on your computer, you're taking a look into hell and exposing yourself to demon spirits. Gambling. Gambling can take over your life and ruin everything. Suicide. Suicide is a very real problem and let me say, it's never the solution to whatever you're going through. There's no good reason to take your own life. That's a lie that comes from the pit that somehow you're worthless or don't deserve to live or you'd be better off dead or people around you would be better off without you. There is no good reason. It not only hurts you, of course, but it hurts deeply the people around you.

It is not a solution. You don't have to live in despair or hopelessness or deep depression so that you would take your own life. There is the power of Jesus Christ and the love of God's people that will get you through this. So don't do it. I may be speaking to someone right now. You're ready to pull that trigger or to take your own life in some way.

Don't do it. Call us right now. Let us help you and let us pray with you and let us help you to find the power of Jesus Christ to overcome. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message Unshackled. Your world desperately needs men of God, strong men who model gentleness, lead with humility and speak the truth in love. We want to help you identify the traits of a real man of God by sending you Dr. Jack Graham's insightful book, Man of God. Our thanks for your gift today.

In it, Dr. Graham gives you biblical insights to what a true man of God looks like to his spouse, his family and the world. This is the last week of this offer. So call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627.

You can also text PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is Jack Graham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, Unshackled. This man was on his way down to hell, but Jesus came to deliver him and that is the next chapter which is the supernatural Christ. Surely this man was hopeless. Society couldn't help him. The only thing they could do was put chains on him, try to keep him contained but he was so strong and so powerful because of these demon spirits they couldn't contain him. They kept him somewhat controlled out at the cemetery, wouldn't let him come into town, chase him away. Can you imagine this man's family? He could have had children, grandchildren, a wife, an ex-wife, I mean what?

What a terrible situation. This man, some woman's child, is now a maniac, insane, infested with demons. They couldn't do anything for him. For the most part, the world can't do much for a person empowered by Satan. We can send people to rehab, to psychologists and psychiatrists and this can, of course, be helpful. There's medication, but beyond medication and education, you know, you send your kids off to college these days to university and they come back indoctrinated with doctrines of demons. Your children are being systematically not educated but indoctrinated at many of these schools.

It's true. Education couldn't change this man. He was headed for the abyss. He was headed for hell with these demons.

He was uncontrollable, uncontainable. Christ steps out of the boat and the man goes running to Jesus and the demons begin to speak out of this man and beg Jesus not to send them into the abyss. Luke's gospel tells us the abyss being the bottomless pit, hell itself. Again, the demons aren't running around in hell, you know, they're not Satan's servants down in hell shoveling coal or, you know, beating the bad people. Demons are loose on the earth and so these demons, they beg not to be sent into the abyss. They're going to the abyss. They're going to judgment and they say to the Lord Jesus, they say, what do we have to do with you, O Son of the Most High God?

Wow! The devil and his demons know who Jesus is. James tells us that the devil himself believes in God and trembles. And these demon spirits are trembling in the presence of Jesus.

They believed in God, they believed in Jesus, they believed in the Bible. The devil quotes the Bible. They believe in hell. I know a lot of people say they don't believe in hell but the devil believes in hell. They said please don't send us into hell.

Don't send us into the abyss. And they said send us into those pigs. So now they're not praying on this man alone, now they're praying to Jesus. In effect, they're praying and asking Jesus to send them into these hogs. Now there was a hog business going on on the side of this mountain and in this Gentile area. We believe it was a Gentile area. Else, there were some bad Jews over there raising pigs. But probably Gentile pig farmers. And so all these pigs are there about, well it tells us 2,000 of them.

Big herd of pigs. And in a word, Jesus said, go. And the demons left the man, infused those pigs, they ran down the hill and drowned in the Sea of Galilee. Just like that when Jesus spoke. Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. In the power of His name, at the mention of His name, in Jesus' name, He breaks the power of sin and of Satan. He is, according to 1 Corinthians 15, 25, putting all His enemies under His feet.

This is not a fair fight. This is not God equal Satan, Satan equal Jesus, demons equal angels. Satan is always subject to the power of God in Jesus Christ. Even these demonized pigs now are glorifying God because they are at His command. And the man, when we meet him, look at it in verse 8. For he was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. Verse 10, and he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Tells the story of the pigs feeding on the hillside, them running down. In verse 14, the herdsman fled and tolled in the city and in the country and people came to see what had happened and they came to see Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, formerly demon-possessed man, the man who had been possessed with demons, who had the legion of demons in him sitting there clothed and in his right mind.

And they were afraid. They know that somehow they're in the presence of a power they could not understand. These townspeople, these herdsmen and the people of the city who came out, here's this man now unshackled, unchained, unbroken, sitting in his right mind. What a picture of salvation. Set free from the power of sin and death and hell. Our mind transformed by the power of Jesus.

The very way we think is changed. That's repentance. It is spiritual insanity to live without Christ. J.C. Ryle had noted, author said, no man is in his right mind until he's converted.

It's true. No man, no person in your right mind until you're converted. You're out of your mind. It's spiritual insanity. You're out of your mind. You're out of your mind to live without Jesus in your life. And many would stand to share their story to say, I was out of my mind.

This is extreme. We understand that. The details of your story are different. But the power of God to save is the same. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Here is this man. He is now redeemed, no longer running naked, but He's clothed, picturing that the fact that we have no longer are living in indignity and immorality but we're living clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We're sitting at His feet and we're listening to Him and we're learning of Him and we're growing in Him and we're following Him. We're no longer the devil's little plaything. We belong to Jesus, we no longer belong to Satan. What a story.

And it's a story that is repeated again and again and again. This man wanted to get in the boat and go with Jesus on his way, but Jesus said in verse 19, no, go and tell your friends what great things the Lord has done for you. Salvation begins at home. Before it crosses the nations, it starts with your own neighbors. If your faith doesn't work at home, don't try to export it.

It starts at your house. He had family and friends who needed to know about Jesus. Jesus said, you don't need to go with me, go home!

Go home! And He did, He became, the maniac became a missionary, starting with his own household. And he became a testimony to the Decapolis.

There were 10 communities or 10 cities around and this man became known in his witness. He was going in the power of Jesus saying, look what great things the Lord has done for me. And every one of us have a story to tell, don't we?

It's a simple truth. Look what great things the Lord has done for me. This is what Jesus has done in my life. If you have a story, and I pray you do, tell it!

Tell it everywhere you go. In this same chapter 5 of Mark, verse 17, speaking of the people who came out from the town, the herdsmen and all the rest, they begin to beg Jesus to depart from their region. And here's the sad tragedy. He left. And as far as we know, He never came back. You'd better be careful how you invite Jesus out of your life. You'd better not expect to have another chance, another opportunity, another day to come to Jesus.

You may not have it. The Bible says my spirit will not always strive for the man. He who hardens his neck, the Proverb says, being often reproved shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy. There is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit when you will say, no Jesus, one last time and then gone forever. Jesus said, I stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. But Jesus won't tear the door down. He'll not burst through into your life.

He waits for your invitation. So here's the choice. You have a decision to either receive Jesus or reject Jesus. It's your decision if you will give your life and faith in Christ.

And you'll be sitting clothed and in your right mind at the feet of Jesus. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Unshackled. Today's culture has so distorted the concept of masculinity that some even reject it as toxic. But our world doesn't need less manly men. We need more men of God, men who love Jesus, make loving husbands and fathers and lead as servants. We'd like to help you uncover what God says about true masculinity by sending you Dr. Graham's book, Man of God.

You'll gain biblical insight into how you or the men in your life can live with purpose and passion, putting Christ first and living radically for him. Man of God is our thanks for your gift to help proclaim God's word through PowerPoint. This is the last week of this offer. So call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is Jack Graham.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Life today runs a hundred miles a minute.

It's Mach 5. And from the moment we wake up and the moment we finally put our heads on the pillow, there are so many things, thousands of things maybe that are vying for your attention. But it's in the midst of all the stress and all the hustle and the hurry of life that we need to seek God's peace and God's grace and the promise of God's word and wisdom. And that's why I want you to spend time with the Lord every day growing in your faith, developing as a disciple and follower of Jesus. And the word of God in your life will help you develop spiritual muscle and strengthen you as you live the Christian life. This is the reason I want to really encourage you to get my daily email devotion PowerPoint today. We take God's word, a specific point of it and a promise in God's word, and we deliver it with an application every single day. So many write to me or let me know how much the daily devotional means to them.

And so I believe it will be something that would add blessing and strength to your life, help you manage the problems and the stresses and the stresses of life. PowerPoint today will help you get the most and the best out of your life as you walk with Christ every day. So here's all you need to do to get the Daily Devotion PowerPoint today. Visit JackGraham.org, JackGraham.org and sign up for PowerPoint today.

That's JackGraham.org. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Man of God, as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how special you are to Jesus and what He'll do to find you. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.