[0:00] Good morning. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. If any kids want to come up and sing, come on down. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[0:25] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[0:38] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[0:51] Good morning. Welcome to our church. We have a gift for our visitors at the connection site. Please fill out your friendship card for any prayers or concerns or just so we can get to know you.
[1:04] It's fun to be part of the welcoming committee here at Hamilton Center. The clipboard ministry opportunities that we're handing around are both for dinners.
[1:14] One is to help with our Niagara Falls dinner we do every week. And the other is for, believe it or not, fish fries. We've got three fish fries this October coming up. So if you want to help with those, we'd love to have you do that.
[1:24] Today we've got a brand new group starting for our youth. Agape is starting at 1245. It's for youth grades 7 through 12. So it's a different thing than what we do on Wednesday.
[1:35] So welcome. Come on out if you're in those grades. Great. We also have orientation tours after each service. If you want to know more about our church, meet out by the fireplace. And they're going to take you for a tour around the building and tell you a little bit about our ministry.
[1:49] This Tuesday there is an informational meeting about this project they're talking about doing with national fuel with these compressors. So if you have some concerns or interest in that, you can come Tuesday at 7 o'clock.
[2:01] And we do have our prayer vigil this weekend. So keep that in prayer and keep that in your thoughts and maybe even sign up. Shall we pray? Dear God, we do thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit when we come to worship you.
[2:15] Help it to pour into our hearts, Lord, in such a way that we might feel and experience you. that it might push out all the thoughts and all the concerns of everything else we have in life.
[2:27] And help us just focus on you for this time we have together. Bless us in Jesus' name. Amen. If you're able, I'm going to invite you to stand as we sing together. A mighty fortress is our God.
[2:42] A mighty fortress is our God. A mighty fortress is our God.
[3:16] On earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing.
[3:32] Were not the right man by our sight, The man of God's own choosing. What's as true that may be?
[3:44] Christ Jesus is his king. Lord, seven, earth is safe. From age to age the same.
[3:56] And he must win the battle. And though this world with devils built, Should threaten to undo us, We will not give, For God has built his truth to triumph through us.
[4:20] The prince of darkness, The prince of darkness grieve, We tremble, not forgive, His great tree can endure, For though his doom is sure, One little word shall tell him, And word of all earthly power.
[4:45] And thanks to them, The lion, The spirit, And the gifts are ours, Through him who with us sighed, Where goods and ignorant grow, His mortal life also, The body they may kill, God's truth abide is still, His kingdom is forever.
[5:19] The Lord be with you. Take a moment, if you will, And greet your neighbor with the peace of the spirit. Take a moment, if you will, Which do you think would hurt more?
[6:01] A rock hitting you in the head, Or this thing? A rock, yeah. So let's just assume these rocks are like bad things, That could happen to us. If this was our life, And these things kept getting in our lives, They would start to hurt us, right?
[6:16] Okay? But what, If this was like God's Holy Spirit, And it was in our life? Then you see what happens? The bad things can't get in. See how that works?
[6:28] So what we need to do is fill our life up with good stuff, With God himself. And then we don't have to worry about evil things, Or bad things, Or dangerous, Spirits like that, Because they can't get in, Because God's in there, And fills us up too much.
[6:43] Okay? What do you guys think before? You want to share something? Raise your hand. Mom and Dad. That my auntie could come to New York. My family.
[6:59] My mom and dad and Tim. Friends and family. My friends and family. My mom and dad.
[7:10] My toys. My sister. My mom and dad. All right. Let's pray, shall we?
[7:22] Lord, we do thank you for all the blessings in our lives, All the good things you give us, Our parents and our family, And the things we have. And we especially thank you for you. Fill us up, Lord. Keep us safe.
[7:33] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, you guys can all go out to church school now. All the children are welcome to go out to church school, If they'd like to. Good morning.
[7:58] We're thankful for these wonderful children. We're thankful for this church. And we're just thankful for those simple things that God gives us that really matter.
[8:10] So with that in mind, we will now take up our tithes and offerings. Hello, everybody.
[8:20] Good morning. Today, I'd like to take a few minutes to express my gratitude for a wonderful weekend retreat at Camp Asbury.
[8:31] Only God could provide the perfect fall weather and the great company from PCUMC and First Church members.
[8:42] 23 people gathered together to learn about their spiritual gifts. Before we started, we needed to know a little bit about each other.
[8:53] One of our first tasks was to get to know each other's names. That was pretty easy for some of us since we had volunteered or worked together previously.
[9:07] Easier yet when it seemed as if all the men were named Bill. Really. Presentations were made explaining the spiritual gifts, as some are called prophets, some evangelists, some administrators, some teachers, etc.
[9:30] Interspersed amid the presentations came the challenge when we were to guess, who am I? With given just a brief description.
[9:43] Pretty tame, right? Hmm. Who moved around the country and found meeting new people overwhelming? Who had an identical twin?
[9:55] Who was baptized in the Jordan River? Who ate asparagus thinking it was green beans? Whose grandmother was a bootlegger?
[10:10] Then the fun started. Who rode a horse bareback? Or did she ride a back bear? Who won that winter t-shirt contest?
[10:23] Oh my gosh, this is crazy. Our Christian brothers and sisters gave us a glimpse of their many other gifts with wonderful fellowship, much laughter, and relationship building.
[10:36] We broke for lunch and some free time to think about what our spiritual gifts are. Later in the afternoon, we regrouped and took a spiritual gifts inventory.
[10:47] After the results were calculated, those with like gifts gathered in small groups to discuss what they do, what they could be doing more of to serve the body of Christ.
[11:03] We were asked to make a commitment to serve based on our gift, putting it in writing for Pastor Gene to mail to us in the future to remind us.
[11:13] We enjoyed more food, of course. A warm campfire, s'mores, singing, storytelling, bad storytelling, and bad jokes.
[11:28] We ended the weekend with a short jaunt to the local Methodist church for Sunday worship. So again, I just want to thank all of you who planned and prepared the retreat.
[11:41] Thank you to all who answered God's call and attended. It was a rewarding learning and bodybuilding experience. While it might seem just a bit tad early, I want to invite you to next year's retreat.
[11:59] It'll be held the last weekend in September. Please come. Share your gifts with us. Well, if I guess I read the bulletin, I'd know that Julaine was going to bless us with her blessings.
[12:21] So we will now take up our tithes and offerings. Thank you. Amazing praise, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
[12:59] Thank you.
[13:29] Unending love, amazing grace. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.
[13:51] How precious did that grace appear. The hour I first believed. Like chains are gone, I've been set free.
[14:08] My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy brings.
[14:19] Unending love, amazing grace. The Lord has promised good to me.
[14:35] His word, His word, my hope secures. He will my shield and portion me.
[14:47] As long as life endures. My chains are gone, my chains are gone, I've been set free.
[14:58] My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy brings.
[15:10] Unending love, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace.
[15:21] And like a flood, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace. Unending love, amazing grace.
[15:44] Unending all, amazing grace. Wonderful.
[16:44] And holy grace. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we present to you these humble gifts.
[17:02] Our gifts that are kind of a repayment for all you do for us. You give us voices to sing.
[17:12] You give us hands to help others. You give us breath to go on each day. And for all these many things, we thank you in your name.
[17:24] Amen. Please be seated. We have some concerns as usual.
[17:37] We have some joys. The joy of the choir, that was beautiful this morning. Chris King's mother passed away.
[17:49] That's Debbie's mother-in-law. Willie Lopez, his father Bill, died last week. We need to pray for Al Patterson and his family.
[18:02] Norma Wittig is at Millard Suburban. John Maracall has complications following his hip surgery.
[18:13] And Jim Schlemmer is in Millard Fillmore Suburban with pneumonia. So let's remember all these people. Let's remember ourselves and approach the throne of grace.
[18:29] Dear Heavenly Father, we gather in your house this autumn morning. We come here expecting to be uplifted.
[18:42] We come here expecting to have our cares removed from our heart. But we also come here to praise you.
[18:54] To praise you for the many wonderful things you do for us. Actually, when we list them, they seem so unimportant. But without them, we would not make it through our lives.
[19:10] Lord, we pray for those victims in the Carolinas where there is extreme flooding. We're grateful for this wonderful western New York where we live.
[19:23] We're grateful for the pumpkins, squashes, all the beautiful things that are on the earth in this part of our country. Lord, we ask you to bless our school children.
[19:36] We ask you to especially look after those names we have mentioned here this morning. And during this week, may we put self second. You first.
[19:49] And may self reach out to others. In your holy name we pray. Amen. We will now have scripture reading. Good morning.
[20:26] Scripture this morning is from Mark chapter 5, verses 1 through 20. They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him.
[20:41] This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet.
[20:52] No one was strong enough even to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.
[21:06] He shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you evil spirit.
[21:20] Then Jesus asked him, What is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
[21:31] A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, Send us among the pigs. Allow us to go into them. He gave them permission and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs.
[21:45] The herd, about 2,000 in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside.
[21:57] And the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, They saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, Sitting there dressed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
[22:09] Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man. And told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
[22:21] As Jesus was getting into the boat, The man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with them. Jesus did not let him, but said, Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, And how he has had mercy on you.
[22:36] So the man went away and began to tell the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Timothy.
[22:49] We've been talking these last few weeks about accessing the miracle power of God. And this morning I want to talk to you about a disturbing reality of life That sometimes we just don't want to face.
[23:04] We're going to talk about demons. In chapter 12 of the book of Revelations it says, So it says in another part of that chapter, One third of the angels actually were part of this rebellion in heaven.
[23:39] And where did they end up? On earth. Fallen, broken angels. Demons. Forces of evil.
[23:52] See, if we really believe that there are forces of good and God's spirit in this world, If there were no evil forces, Don't you think we would have a perfect and good world already?
[24:02] But there's brokenness. And there's evil. And there's destruction. And it's not all human. Some of it comes in forces that affect our world.
[24:15] Ephesians says to us in chapter 6, Put on the full armor of God, So that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, But against the rulers, against the authorities, Against the powers of this dark world, And against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.
[24:32] Demons. Demons are actually mentioned in the gospel 67 times. Not just a casual, occasional thought. And God gave us the power, The miraculous power, To overcome these forces in the world.
[24:50] But the first thing we have to recognize is that they exist. And that there is a problem we have in our world With a battle between good and evil.
[25:04] Read in the paper about a fellow in Los Angeles. He was painting a peace mural. And some kind of came by and just shot him. We're painting a peace mural.
[25:16] We read about the shooting, most of us, In Oregon, right? People just in classrooms. They weren't doing anything that would suggest That somehow they were targets.
[25:28] They were just sitting in classrooms. And they were shot. That isn't a little dysfunction. That's not a little problem with people's attitudes.
[25:42] That's evil. Brokenness. Sometimes people think we can say that What they call demons in the Bible Were just another name for what we would call Mental illness or addictions.
[26:01] And while evil sometimes uses addictions, That's just a symptom. The disturbing reality is that demons exist.
[26:14] And our pretending they don't just leaves us At their destructive devices. And they are destructive. You read in this story, you'll see what the demons were like.
[26:27] He was yelling and screaming and breaking chains And cutting himself. And when they went into the pigs, They actually were drowned.
[26:39] You see, demons know that they are going to be Doomed. Their destiny, according to the scripture, Is they're going to end up in the lake of fire.
[26:50] And they know it. And their goal is to take as many of us along As possible. Last week we talked about how Jesus got into a boat.
[27:02] And he went across the Sea of Galilee. And there was a big storm. Now I told you, on one side of the Sea of Galilee Is a place where the people of faith live. And on the other side were people who didn't believe in God.
[27:15] Well, this story actually takes place on the other side. The boat lands. And they get off the shore. And they find themselves in a graveyard amongst the tombs Where there's been a guy who is demon-possessed, According to the scripture.
[27:28] He yells and shrieks and screams. They chained him up. But he kept breaking the chains. He was something we call socially unacceptable.
[27:44] Crying out. In a loud voice. Wanting attention. Needing healing.
[27:58] Confused. Self-destructive. Recusing. And we tend to look at these people and say, Let's push them away somewhere. Hide them in the tombs.
[28:09] That's a good place for them. When we should have pity and concern. And offer grace and power. But when they come to us, Do we even hear their cries?
[28:23] I don't know if they would call this a demon possession or not. But in the TV show, Desperate Housewives, There was a time when the women decided to intervene with one of their friends.
[28:39] Looked like this. Wow. Booze, loose morals, and now swearing? Too late. There's no Brie left. Why are you in my house? This is an intervention, Brie.
[28:51] This isn't for TV, is it? Because I'm married. I was going to tell you. An intervention? You've got to be kidding me. We're your friends. We want to help. Get out! All of you!
[29:03] Not you! Talk to us, sweetie. Why are you behaving like this? I don't know what you're talking about. It's not like we can't see what's going on. We know you're drinking again.
[29:14] What about all these men? We know about that too. Wow. Can't hide anything from you girls, huh? And did you also know I tried to kill myself?
[29:27] What? Oh my God. How'd that little nugget of information slip past my nearest and dearest friends? If this is a joke, it's not funny.
[29:37] It's not a joke. I checked into a motel room with nothing but a bottle and a gun. And you're wrong, Susan. It is funny, funny, that the women standing here before me, professing to be my supportive friends, and one of the reasons I was in that motel room.
[30:01] We stopped. No. Don't give me this friends nonsense. All I ever was to you was the organizer, the problem solver, a leader. When you needed one. Which is exactly what I was, that horrible night when we buried your stepfather.
[30:18] And I was so grateful for that. Liar. All of you liars. Because as soon as it got rough, as soon as there was any trouble, it all became my fault.
[30:31] And off you went. You had no idea. I wish you had told us. Oh, I tried. But even when I came to you to apologize, you slammed your doors in my face.
[30:42] Because we don't want to be around people like that. They're dysfunctional. They're socially unacceptable. They're frightening. We don't want to talk about disturbing things like demons.
[31:00] They chained them up because they didn't understand them. They didn't offer healing. They pushed them away. I don't know if you know this, but when Jesus asked him his name, he said, my name is Legion.
[31:15] Which meant he had a whole lot of problems and demons inside of him. A Legion is a hundred soldiers. I don't know if he had a hundred demons or what. He had a lot of problems. You see people who end up broken and in the dark side find themselves more and more and more and more.
[31:31] So Jesus came along and he cast the demons out of this man and he's sitting there in his right mind, completely normal.
[31:44] And the people come out from the town to see him. And you would think that they'd say, this is so wonderful. Did you notice what they said? This is scary.
[31:56] Now what are we going to do? We didn't want this guy healed. You say, wait a minute. Wouldn't we want people healed of demons? You see, you need to understand is that if we have demons around, they can whisper the things that we want to say but don't say, that we want to hear but we don't want to say it came from us.
[32:23] Priorities that really aren't Christian. But they fit our selfish desires. He killed their pigs.
[32:38] 2,000 pigs. You might not think that means much to you. Do you know how much pigs cost? This is like over a million dollars of pork. Let me tell you. Like 1.2, 1.3 million dollars.
[32:50] If somebody threw that of yours in the lake, you'd be in there swimming after it. Got the pigs floating around in the lake. They're like, oh my gosh, this guy doesn't even care about money. What's the matter with him?
[33:04] Can you imagine if we had people who were throwing your money away? Hello? Scary. Jesus doesn't fit their worldview. The demons do.
[33:18] They whisper in our ears all the things that we want. Not the things that God wants for us.
[33:29] Besides which, here's another disturbing reality. So long as we've got this really totally whacked out dysfunctional guy in our midst, we can all pretend we're okay, right?
[33:42] They call it the scapegoat in the Bible. So long as there's somebody who's totally dysfunctional, you don't have to deal with your own stuff. You can just point out, I'm not as bad as that one over there, right?
[33:54] I'm okay, right? But imagine now, he's okay. He's completely healthy. There's nothing wrong with him. You throw him back into his group of friends and people, and they're going, oh my gosh, you know what happens when the totally dysfunctional, messed up person in your circle of friends and your family gets healthy?
[34:12] You know what happens? They start looking around for somebody else to say is the problem. That's scary. Who are they going to come up with?
[34:23] We've got no one to blame for our problems. You know, in counseling, they call it codependency. There are people that actually help dysfunctional people stay dysfunctional so that they can feel needed and feel better about themselves.
[34:36] So long as I have this person over here to take care of, I'm okay. Right? Jesus says no.
[34:47] Christ broke into their worldview, broke into their darkness, broke into their pain, broke into their dysfunction with grace and changed everything.
[35:02] Not only did he mess with this guy and make him healthy, he messed with the other people that were unhealthy too. In a world where nobody had God, Jesus brought grace.
[35:20] I had people ask me, well, what about demons with Christians? Because I mean, after all, a lot of you would consider yourself Christians. What about Christians? What's the concern there?
[35:33] What does it mean to us? In John chapter 4, Jesus said to them, God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. If we turn our lives into a quest for the spirit and the truth, we inoculate ourselves against any kind of demons.
[35:56] Back in John 8, Jesus went on to say, if you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. When Jesus was confronted by Satan in the desert and tempted, he quoted the scripture at him.
[36:12] He knew exactly what to say, exactly where to turn. Would we? Really? Do we spend enough time trying to understand God that we feel confident that we would know exactly what to say, when, where, and how?
[36:25] Now, I've got to tell you, I'm a pastor. I don't spend more time in the Bible than everything else that I do in the course of a day. Confession. But I do spend time in the Bible.
[36:38] Enough so that I have some idea what's in here, what it's got to say, and I can pull out some things when I'm confronted. Do you know that? Do you spend as much time in the Bible as you spend on the internet?
[36:53] How about as much time in the Bible as you spend with TV or video games? How about even one hour a week?
[37:04] Do you know what would transform your life? Ten minutes a day. Ten minutes a day. You could read this book in a year. Transform your life.
[37:17] Amazing. How much you could know. But if we don't know the truth, then we're still stuck in the chains because even if we call ourselves Christians, the truth is we don't know anything.
[37:28] We're defenseless. We don't have the ability to confront evil because we don't even know what we're talking about. And the spirit.
[37:43] In the book of Luke in chapter 11, Jesus, or Paul, or rather Jesus said, when a strong man fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
[37:58] Now he was actually talking about demons at this particular time. And what he's simply saying is, if you're stronger than anybody else and they come to attack you, you just kind of protect your house, right?
[38:11] But what if somebody a lot stronger and tougher comes along? What are you going to do? You know what demons are? What did I tell you they are? Fallen angels.
[38:23] You really think you have the power, the ability, the strength to take on an angel? You know, it says in the Bible, two of them torched a whole city. Really? You think you're that strong, you can take on an angel.
[38:36] I don't think I am. These creatures are very powerful. But, but, as Christians, we don't have to do that fight alone, do we?
[38:52] We have the Holy Spirit of God. We have the Holy Spirit of God. And if God is full in our lives, if we spend some time in prayer, if we spend time nurturing our relationship with God, asking God to fill up our lives with the Holy Spirit, there is no way some puny little angel can do anything to us.
[39:13] You know who kicked Satan? Satan, the archangel Satan. You know who kicked him out of heaven? Not God. Michael. Just another angel. So do you think that any angel has the ability to take on God himself?
[39:28] If you have the Spirit of God in your life, the demons cannot overcome you. They can't possess you. They can't take your life. That's good news.
[39:39] So our strength is in the Spirit and the truth. But the problem is, even though demons can't possess a person who's a Christian, they can deceive us.
[39:53] Paul was worried about this in Corinthians, where he said, I'm afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
[40:03] Oh, they deceive us. They whisper all sorts of things in our minds, so we confuse what's good and what's bad, what's right and what's wrong. We confuse patriotism with faithfulness to God, selfishness with righteousness, knowledge with wisdom, victory with conversion, religion with faith, illusions of wonder and prosperity, a miracle power.
[40:37] And we start listening to what the demons whisper in our ear is the most important thing in our lives. And so God confronts it. You think it was coincidence that the pigs ended up in the sea?
[40:52] You see, here's something you may or may not like. God says that he wants you to give anything to him that you might be at risk of thinking is more important than he is in your life.
[41:03] How do you think God asks for your money? Do you really think God needs money? I mean, if the U.S. can print money, don't you think God could take care of this pretty easy?
[41:14] He's God. Do you think God has a need for your money, really? Church does. I don't want you to misunderstand. Of course, we do. We try to run an organization. We try to help you.
[41:24] We do all these different things. We've got buildings. We've got ministries to help the world. Yeah, we do. I'm not talking about that. We already took up the offering. This isn't a web pitch. Don't worry about it, okay?
[41:36] What I'm talking about is, why does God ask for our money? God asks for our money because he knows that the demons are whispering in our ears trying to get us to think that our money is more important than God.
[41:52] God asks for our kind because it's one of the most precious commodities we have. God doesn't want us to put anything ahead of him.
[42:05] Not our families, even. Look at Abraham. He asked for his son. What do we put ahead of God?
[42:16] What's more important than God? You don't understand, pastor. I need time to sleep in. Well, the Buffalo Bills are playing down in Orchard Park. I know that's not you because you're here, right?
[42:26] Okay? By the way, I need to tell you this because I know this. I've done it. I have left church on the day the Buffalo Bills are playing in Orchard Park and I have, after the last service, and I have sat down for the kickoff.
[42:41] So you know they're not going to the stadium for the game and missing church for that. You know what they're going to the stadium for. I do too. I do. And it doesn't matter if you miss church for a football game or if you have to do something else or there's something this way.
[42:58] But is God more important than everything in your life? And if not, God will ask for it. And do you know why? Because he wants you to have the power of God.
[43:10] He's not going to give that to you if you're going to make him second fiddle or third or fourth or fifth or eighth or fifth king. And so we're deceived by the demons into thinking that there's so many other things that matter more than God.
[43:28] We can have power. We can have power over demons. He gives it to us. In 1 John chapter 4, 18, Jesus says, There's no fear in love.
[43:41] But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. The grace of God. The grace of God.
[43:52] That God accepts us broken as we are. God accepts us even sinful as we are. Rakes through the darkness and the brokenness that we drag around with us and gives us power.
[44:03] Power. Over all darkness and all brokenness. Because the lie that the demons want to tell you is that somehow, if you're good enough, that'll please God.
[44:19] Let me tell you something. Nobody's good enough. Nobody. Nobody's good enough. Not you, not me, not anybody. But the grace of God gives us access to God himself.
[44:31] He loves us in spite of who we are. And that casts out fear. We don't have to be afraid of demons. They don't have any power over us. They bow before Christ. They know they're defeated.
[44:41] They know they have to obey God. Jesus says, What's your name? Why do we confess our sins? I'll tell you why we do that. Because we have to admit to our problems, our brokenness.
[44:53] If we don't, we don't get power over them. When you go into the hospital and you sit down with that little nurse, you know, at the station there, and she says, So why are you here? You say, I'm not telling you. Yeah, but what's your problem?
[45:05] It's really socially unacceptable for me to be sharing this with you. I might be embarrassed. I don't care how embarrassing it is. I tell her. Because when I tell her, she can help me fix it, right?
[45:21] God wants to do the same thing. Say what we have to deal with. What are our problems so we can have victory over them? The demons are afraid to go to a different place.
[45:33] Did you see that? Don't send us away from here. We want to stay here. You know why they want to stay there? Because this is the place where there is no God.
[45:45] Nobody's worshiping God. Nobody's following God. Nobody's believing in God. Nobody has God in their life. There's no grace. There's no joy. There's no hope. There's no love. There's no forgiveness. There's no Holy Spirit.
[45:55] Imagine a world like that. The problem is, is we seem to think that there's some neutral thing we call secular. There's no neutral. You're either with God or you're not.
[46:07] He says you're either with me or you're against me. It's as simple as that. You're either in sacred space or you're in profane space. The demons like the profane space. The other side of the lake was the profane space.
[46:20] This is holy ground. Demons have no power here. But I'll tell you what, the demons are sneaking into our world, aren't they? Little by little by little, we're finding more and more pockets in our world where God just isn't.
[46:34] Where God is not welcome. Where God is told to check it at the door and the demons drive. drive. God doesn't call us to remove ourselves from this space.
[46:55] He calls us to push our way in. You know what was really, I don't know if you've heard that verse. The guy gets healed, right?
[47:06] And they're all getting in the boat to leave. I don't know about any of the rest of you. And the guy says, I'm coming too, right? And what did Jesus say? No.
[47:16] I was like, seriously? Rude, Jesus? I mean, really? Jesus, could you be any more heartless? You're going to leave him in this place? See, that's our problem.
[47:28] It's not the miracle power that we can be in a safe place of God and not have to worry about the demons. It's that God wants us to take it out where it isn't.
[47:43] God wants us to bring the grace to the world. 1 John chapter 4, he says, greater... That's James. I probably have that somewhere.
[47:58] That's a different sermon. You dear children are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
[48:12] We have the power not to be on the defense, not to protect ourselves from the demons, but to drive them out. To push into the darkness, to break through the brokenness and claim the world for Christ.
[48:28] God doesn't want us to live in fear. He wants us to live in miracle power, victory. We have command over the demons and the darkness through the power of God.
[48:44] You don't want to be left with these broken people. And Jesus says, that's right where I need you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you.
[48:54] And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. Did you actually hear about this war gun shooting? What the shooter asked people in the classrooms? He went up to people and he said to them, if you're a Christian, stand up.
[49:11] If you're a Christian, stand up. And if they stood up, he shot them in the head. And he said, you're going to meet your maker in about a minute. About a second.
[49:23] I think that's what he actually said. You're going to see God in a second. By the way, if they stayed seated, he shot them too. He just shot them other places.
[49:40] What would you have done? Some guy comes in with guns, four guns in your room, and he says, if you're a Christian, stand up. What would you do? We know how this usually goes down, don't we?
[49:53] Would you stay sitting? Would you want to be shot and die and face God saying, well, I just kind of stayed in my seat.
[50:05] Are you more afraid of a guy with a gun or with a God that can determine your eternal destiny? Yeah, it's scary stuff.
[50:17] Facing people that are fully and completely given over to evil, that's scary stuff. These people stood up. They stood up.
[50:32] They faced down evil. And they went to victory. This last Wednesday when we were reading in our Bible study in 2 Corinthians, we came across the passage I'm not going to do justice to because I'm only going to give you a couple verses of it, but I'll do the best I can.
[50:54] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
[51:09] Let me try to explain this to you. You see, in the old days they'd put a veil on whenever they read the Old Testament law, you know, the Ten Commandments and such. They put on a veil to remind them of when they didn't look on the face of Moses who had seen the face of God because he kind of shined with God about it.
[51:29] But what Paul is saying is we take off the veil because the Holy Spirit is so powerful it not only shines in us, it shines through us and out of us. And I said Wednesday night what our goal is is to glow.
[51:48] Glow little grow worms glimmer, glimmer. To glow. You know, really truthfully, I see people when we're worshiping who glow.
[52:00] there's people that come to church and they glow. There's other people who are like, really, seriously, how long is he going to be? They don't glow. They don't glow.
[52:13] They've got something else they're giving up, right? But there are people that glow with God. And when I see these people, it's like, I want to be near them. I want to be around them.
[52:24] They got something. They got something I want. They glow with God. Unveiled faces.
[52:35] Do we glow? Do we glow into the world of darkness with the Holy Spirit of God that gives us the power to break through the brokenness and claim this world back from the demons?
[52:49] He went out to the people and it says that the people were amazed.
[52:59] These people didn't believe in God were amazed because he glowed and we can't do it. I need to tell you, if you know God, if you follow God in spirit and in truth, you already have that miracle power.
[53:17] this is what Jesus said. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions to overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.
[53:29] Let's not make the disturbing reality that we don't use our power to drive out the darkness but that we overcome the demons. We live in the power and the strength of God himself.
[53:43] He's a giver of light. The giver of power. The protector of our souls. O protector of my soul You will stand against the core In the dark you'll be alive for me O protector of my soul O gracious God above I could never earn your love I'm amazed to see how you've given me O gracious God above You created me and took me
[54:47] O guide me up to your throne Offer your healing and to me Versibly make me your own O Holy Spirit come Show the world where life comes from May they always see you alive in me O Holy Spirit come May they always see you alive in me O Holy Spirit come I want to be close close to your side
[55:49] Heaven is real Death is alive I want to hear voices Of angels above Singing as one Hallelujah Holy Holy God Almighty Great I Am Who is worthy None beside Thee God Almighty God Almighty Great I Am I want to be near Near to your heart Loving the world Hating the dark I want to see tribal Living again Saving as one Hallelujah Hallelujah
[56:49] Holy Holy God Almighty Great I Am Who is worthy God beside Thee God Almighty Great I Am Great I Am The mountain Shed before you The demons run and flee At the mansion of your name King of majesty There is no power in hell For any who can stand Before the power Farred in the presence Of the poder The presence The great I Am Umm Great I Am The Great I Am The Great I Am Alright while you're here at the where The world But with your Word Kind just Great I Am The Great I Am Great I Am Just loveALK Lord A euch
[57:49] The great I Am Yeah The great I Am queremos Alleluia Holy Holy World God Almighty God Almighty, the greater I am.
[58:06] Who is worthy, not beside me. God Almighty, the greater I am.
[58:31] God Almighty, the greater I am.
[59:01] God Almighty, the greater I am.
[59:31] Oh, I'm running to your arms. I'm running to your arms. The riches of your love will always be enough.
[59:43] Nothing compares to your own embrace. The light of the world will forever reign.
[59:55] You are more, you are more than my words will ever stay. You are Lord, you are Lord. All creation will proclaim. You are here, you are here.
[60:07] In your presence I made hope. You are God, you are God. Of all else I might know. Oh, I'm running to your arms.
[60:23] I'm running to your arms. The riches of your love will always be enough. Nothing compares to your embrace.
[60:34] The light of the world forever reign. Jesus, Jesus. My heart will sing.
[61:02] Jesus, my heart will say no other name. Jesus, Jesus, my heart will say no other name.
[61:19] Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, my heart will say no other name.
[61:52] I'm running to your arms. I'm running to your arms. The riches of your love will always be enough. Nothing compares to your embrace.
[62:08] Light of the world forever reign. Please be seated. Amen. The demons have been whispering in our ears.
[62:23] They don't have power over you unless you let them. They can't tell you what to do unless you listen. Somewhere along the line, we have to admit our brokenness, our need for healing.
[62:41] But we need to turn back towards God. Maybe today you need to make that decision for God for the first time. Darkness has been running your life.
[62:51] You need to turn that back. Maybe today you just need to turn back to God. To the source of power and strength in your life. And stop listening to what they have to say to you.
[63:05] Because they're liars. They're wrong. They're evil. They don't want your help. So let's confess, shall we? Dear God in heaven.
[63:16] Dear God in heaven. I have sinned. I have sinned. Not just the things I do. Not just the things I do. But the voices I listen to. But the voices I listen to.
[63:27] The things I put above you. The things I put above you. By not accessing your miracle power. By not accessing your miracle power. By making you my God.
[63:39] Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Teach me your truth. Drive the demons away. And give me the power.
[63:54] To go into this world. Breaking into the brokenness. With the grace of God. Amen.
[64:06] Today. We have that power. No force of evil. No demon. Created in hell.
[64:17] No angel. Fallen out of heaven. Has any power over you. Live for God. In his grace. In the name of Jesus Christ.
[64:28] Your sins are forgiven. In the name of Jesus Christ. Your sins are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen. You hear me when I call.
[64:52] You are my morning song. Though darkness fills the night. It cannot hide the light. Who shall I fear?
[65:06] You crush the enemy Underneath my feet You are my sword and shield Though troubles linger still Who shall I fear?
[65:23] I know who comes before me I know who stands behind The God of angels on these Is always by my side The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine The God of angels on these Is always by my side My strength is in your name For you alone can save You will deliver me Yours is the victory Who shall I fear?
[66:07] Who shall I fear? I know who comes before me I know who stands behind The God of angels on these Is always by my side The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine The God of angels on these Is always by my side And nothing born against me Shall stand You hold the world in your hand I'm holding on to your promises You are faithful You are faithful And nothing born against me Shall stand You hold the world in your hand You hold the world in your hand
[67:08] I'm holding on to your promises You are faithful You are faithful You are faithful I know who comes before me I know who stands behind The God of angel armies Is always by my side The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine The God of angel armies Is always by my side The God of angel armies Is always by my side I know who reigns forever He is a friend of mine The God of angel armies
[68:09] Is always by my side The God of angel armies Is always by my side Amen, and the God of angel armies invites us to supper invites us to come to the table You know, the most devious, horrible thing that those demons can do to us is human beings is separate us from God That's what they do But God made a way God made a way on the cross God made a way by the blood of Jesus and in the resurrection and that's what we celebrate here today They don't just interfere with our relationship with God but they interfere with our relationships with each other They try to keep us apart and break us up But God has made a way the power of God to draw us together and when we come together to this table we can have that healing we can have that restoration
[69:19] As Pastor Tom said you need to rededicate your life this morning come expecting to receive God if you need to accept Jesus for the first time in your life even if you've been coming here for years you need to come to Jesus today for even the very first time come expecting and Jesus will meet you and Jesus will fill you you will receive that power the Lord be with you and also with you Lift up your hearts and lift up your hearts let us give thanks to the Lord our God It is right and a good and a joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you creator of heaven and earth you have made from one every nation and people to live on all the face of the earth and so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn
[70:22] Holy Holy Holy Lord God of power and might heaven and earth are full of your glory Hosanna in the highest blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest holy are you and blessed is your son Jesus Christ by the baptism of his suffering death and resurrection you gave birth to your church delivered us from slavery to sin and death and made with us a new covenant by water in the spirit he commissioned us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of all nations and today his family and all the world is joining at his holy table on the night in which he gave himself up for us he took bread and he gave thanks to you and he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples saying take, eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me and when the supper was over he took the cup and he gave you thanks and praise and gave it to his disciples and he said drink from this all of you this is the cup of my blood the blood of the new covenant poured out for you poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me and so in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith
[72:11] Christ has died Christ is risen Christ will come again pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine make them be for us the body and blood of Christ that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood renew our communion with your church throughout the world and strengthen it in every nation and among every people to witness faithfully in your name by your spirit make us one with Christ one with each other and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet through your son Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit in your holy church all honor and glory is yours almighty Father now and forever Amen shall we pray together with the confidence of children of God the prayer Jesus taught us our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever
[73:49] Amen Will those who are serving please come forward please come forward all the actions of the Lord we pray and have to stay in heaven thank you very much always my love and my heart is ahead to believe by your God the Lord the Son and Lord as God Ċliqbalan of the Lord
[74:49] Amen. Jesus Christ invites us to the table of grace.
[75:24] Sometimes I think the children's message are the whole message, aren't they? Fill yourself up with God. Fill yourself up with God. Come to him. Receive his blessing. And watch him change your life.
[75:36] Come to the table for prayers for anointing. To light a candle. Come and join us. There is a higher throne That all this world has known With faithful ones from every tongue Will one day come Before God will stand May thoughtless through the Lamb Believing hearts find promised grace Salvation comes Hear heaven's voices sing
[76:39] Their thunderous anthems ring Through avril courts and sapphire skies Their praises rise All glory, wisdom, power Strength, thanks, and honor are To God our King Who reigns on high Forevermore And there we'll find our home Our life before the throne We'll honor him in perfect song
[77:40] Where we belong Hill-white beach, tears-stained-eye As thirst and hunger dies The Lamb becomes our shepherd king Will reign with him Hear heaven's voices sing Their thunderous anthems ring With herald chords and sapphire skies Their praises rise All glory, wisdom, power Strength, thanks, and honor are
[78:42] To God our King Who reigns on high Forevermore Forevermore I just want to remind you teenagers that at 1245 Agape starts and if you want to go on our orientation tour see Pastor Lisa by the fireplace I invite you to stand as we sing together Stand up, stand up for Jesus Stand up, stand up for Jesus Ye soldiers of the cross Lift high in the royal banner It must not suffer loss From victory until victory
[79:42] His army shall he lead Till every bone is vanquished And Christ is Lord in thee Stand up, stand up for Jesus Stand in his strength alone The arm of flesh will fail you We dare not trust your own Put down the gospel alone Put down the gospel alone Each piece put on with prayer Where duty comes for danger The never wanting then Stand up, stand up for Jesus The strength will not be low This day the noise of battle The next blood-victor's song
[80:43] To those who languish in the A crown of life shall be They with the King of glory Shall reign eternally What would you do?
[81:04] They heard the shots fired in the room next door There was an adjoining room to their classroom So they were all running out the door Except for one man Who went back and stood at the door To stop the gunman from coming in He shot him four or five times Pushed open the door And as he walks by this guy Laying and bleeding on the floor The guy says Today's my son's birthday So he shot him again Don't tell me there's no evil in this world Don't tell me there's no demons That we face down If we don't stand up If we don't stand for God If we don't live for God Then the darkness creeps over the world You have the power There are no demons That have power over you today You have the power To not only keep them out of your life But to drive them out of our world Go and live in power
[82:05] Go and live in grace Go and be gods Make the miracles happen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Do Oh