Sermon for Sunday December 7th, 2008

AND NOW - THE GOOD NEWS by Bruce Ball

Luke 8:26-8:35


For the last year, the only news we hear has been bad, hasn’t it? During the presidential campaign, all we heard was negative campaigning, and how our economy is failing. Everywhere you turn, there seems to be nothing but bad news. Have you ever noticed that the only thing this old world can offer you is BAD news? That’s it!

Well, I am sick of hearing bad news, so today I want to give you some good news. I think we would all want to hear something like we just became the sole heir to someone’s multi-million dollar estate. What other kinds of really good news would you like to hear?

Would you like to hear that Uncle Sam has made a mistake and is paying you back for the many years he has overcharged you on your income tax? How about hearing that the doctors just found a cure for anything that is wrong with you?

Well, today we are going to hear some really good news. It will be rather new to some, and a refresher course to others. Today, we are going to be talking about the best news ever - God loves you!

I want to read a passage about a man who met Jesus in the worst of ways, but left in the very best of ways.

LUKE 8:26-35

‘They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, He was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tomb. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don’t torture me!"

’For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot, and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

"Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

’A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and He gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

’When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.’

To me, this is one of the most exciting stories in the New Testament. It shows clearly what Satan will do with a life when he has the chance; it also shows what Jesus can do with that same life when He is given the chance.

That story paints a vivid picture of what a life without Jesus is like, and what a life with Jesus is like. The man was crazy and destructive before he came to Jesus. Afterwards, he was humbled enough to sit at Jesus’ feet, and focused enough to want to travel with Jesus as Jesus continued on his journey.

There was a man named John Newton. He was the captain of a merchant ship. He didn’t deal in spices or fabrics, though. Mr. Newton dealt in slave trading. He was among the most despicable of men and must have had among the ugliest of hearts. But Mr. Newton met Jesus, and he began to change from the inside out. He eventually wrote one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

The words to that song make up a very appropriate backdrop for this message today. Those words are:

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me –
I once was lost, but now I’m found
T’was blind, but now I see."

First of all, let me say that without Jesus, we are all the worst of the worst. But there is a power to be found in Jesus; that is the power of the Spirit of God. Let me ask you a question. Do you realize just how great and powerful God is?

God is so powerful that He spoke the world into existence. He didn’t take a bunch of pre-existing material and then start forming it together and shaping it the way He wanted. He spoke the word, and the world appeared. Now, that’s powerful!

And if God is powerful enough to do that, He is powerful enough to forgive all of our sins.


1. SIN WILL BRING YOU DOWN

This passage says that the man had not lived in a house for some time. Whenever we see where he lived, the tombs in a cemetery, we see how far Satan had degraded this man’s life. He didn’t enjoy any of the comforts of home, including a change of clothes from time to time. This man had nothing. He had dropped as far down the ladder as a human can go and still be alive.

I guess you could say that the man went from the front yard to the graveyard. That is where the devil wanted him. And that is exactly where the devil wants you, too; as low as he can make you go, and he will try his best to never let you up, either.

Sin will take the innocent heart and make it a guilty heart. It will take a pure mind and make it impure. It will take the clean spirit and make it dirty. Sin will take you, and it will try to kill you.

Have you been paying attention to what’s surrounding you every day? Sin, by its very nature is abhorrent behavior, against the will of God. And as we said last week, the devil will tempt you with sin and make it look very good.

Let me reminded you that you can walk either one of two paths in life; the path that leads up to God, or the worldly path that leads down to the devil. It is your choice, but you cannot walk on both at the same time - not even a little.

The world will tempt you with sin of every description and make those sins looks like there is nothing wrong with them. Look at the gay rights controversy in America. God’s word says that the act of homosexuality is a sin. But all around us, we see that those who are against homosexuality are being attacked and society claims we are hate-mongers;

People who are against God’s word openly hate us and call us every dreadful name in the book, all the while claiming we are the ones who are full of hatred; when in truth, we are nothing but people who are trying our best to follow God’s laws.

More and more TV shows that are shown in prime time advocate adultery, cheating, putting others down, and everything else that we used to consider bad. Yet, how do they advertise these shows? These shows are shown as being funny and relevant. And anyone claiming otherwise is depicted as being wrong.

I think that truth in advertisement would make the world say something like, "Hide from the truth and have a lot of temporary fun on your way to burn in hell!"

Contrary to the picture the world paints, sin always lowers a person to their lowest possible level and then will try to keep them there.

But God can take anybody, no matter how they are now, and make their lives holy and righteous through Jesus. God can take the junk of the world and make it into the most beautiful treasures, if we will just let Him.

One night a man was brought into New York’s busy Bellevue Hospital. He appeared to be just another bum with a slashed throat. He had been brought in from the Bowery, which in many cases was the last stop before the morgue. The Bowery was an area of filth, loneliness, cheap booze, drugs, disease, and the dead end of many a life.

This man looked like all the rest. It was obvious that he had lived to drink. His health was gone. He was cold and starving. On that icy January morning, this man who looked twice his age, was found lying in a heap, nearly naked and bleeding from a deep gash in this throat. His forehead was badly bruised and he was semi-conscious.

A doctor was called, but time had already run out. The man died and was sent to the morgue. There he lay with a tag on his toe, and the workers were trying to identify him. In the pocket of his old, ragged coat was 38 cents and a note with these words on it:

"My dear friends and gentle hearts."

Before this 38-year-old man died, he had written many songs that you and I have sang all our lives. They include,

"Oh! Suzanna"
"My Old Kentucky Home"
and more than 200 songs that America grew up with.

This ‘bum’ who was found drunken, half naked, and looking twice his age was the great songwriter, Stephen Foster. Nobody knows what lead Mr. Foster down that road to his lowly death, but we can tell you that the enticement of sin from the world played a major role in it. It took him right to the bottom, and it kept him there until it killed him. And that is exactly what the sin in your life will do to you if you allow it to remain in your life.

But you must remember - if sin and Satan can bring you down ...


2. JESUS CAN LIFT YOU UP

‘When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don’t torture me!"

’For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot, and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.’

Something happened to that man when Jesus came by. Jesus set him free from the sin that held him down. This man no longer had to live like an animal in the cemetery; he could now live as a child of the Most High God. And if Jesus set that man free of his turmoil, He certainly has the power to set you free from your turmoil. All you have to do is believe. Satan is powerful, but Jesus is more powerful.

Satan hates God and everything God has created; including us. He doesn’t want us to live with him forever, but he would rather us be with him in hell than to be with God in Heaven. The biggest difference is that Satan hates us while Jesus Christ loves us.

A preacher was out walking in the country one day and stopped by a water pump alongside the road. While he was there, the old farmer who lived there came out to talk to him. While they chatted, the preacher noticed the farmer had a weather vane on the barn, and on it were the words, "God is love."

The preacher asked the farmer if that meant that God was as unreliable as the wind, and the farmer said it meant that no matter which way the wind blows, God is still love. Love is not just something we feel - it is something we choose to do. And God has chosen to love you and me.

God cannot love you any more than He does right now. And no matter how far away we choose to live from God, He cannot love you any less than He does right now, either. God is love, and God loves you. So the question becomes not; ‘How much does God love you’ but, ‘how much how much do you love God?’

Someone asked Billy Graham once what the difference was between the gods of other religions and the God of Christianity. Rev. Graham said that our God is the only God who seeks a personal relationship with each one of us. Our God is the only God who will listen to everything we tell Him. The difference is that our God loves us. He doesn’t require you to kill for Him, but willing to let His Son be killed for us.

And our Savior is the only leader of any religion who has come out of the grave to live eternally. All the rest are just a bunch of dusty bones in some hole in the ground, and that’s all they will ever be.

There is a story of a little 2-year old girl named Erika who wandered away from the house in the middle of the night. The biggest problem was that this was in northern Canada and it was in the middle of winter.

When they found little Erika, her legs were frozen stiff along with her body, and all signs of life were gone. She was rushed to the emergency room of the local hospital, and the doctors were amazed to find that she was not dead after all. To everyone’s astonishment, there was no brain damage and no signs of frostbite.

Some of us have wandered away from our Father’s house and have been brought near to the point of death. Our hearts have hardened; our spiritual bodies look lifeless; and we have started hating our brothers and sisters. We are almost at the point of spiritual death and yet we don’t even recognize it.

But our Heavenly Father has noticed that we are missing and He has been looking for us. He can take our lifeless spirits and restore them back to health. He can take our hardened hearts and make them once again loving and caring.

Before He can do that, however, we must be responsible enough to see the situation we are in and go to Him with a heart that seeks His wonderful forgiveness.

We need to tell God how much we love Him and how wrong we are for always looking in the world for happiness before we finally look to Him for it. We need to humble our hearts before Him, bowing before Him in prayer, begging the forgiveness found in His grace.

That is what a humble heart does, and that is how the Christian submits to God for forgiveness, not because we have to, but because we want to.

And once we choose to follow Jesus, we find that ...


3. JESUS HAS A JOB FOR US

If we read ahead in our text to verses 38 and 39, we see where the man who was healed by Jesus begged to go with Him when He left, but Jesus told him to go back to his home and tell others what God had done for him.

I look at the sum of humanity and feel such sorrow. People are so unaware of what is available to them. They just float through life, kind of like those dandelion seeds that float through the air – being taken wherever the wind blows, just to land wherever it puts them down. They have no control at all over their lives, and they aren’t aware of it.

Let me ask you a question. If you were at a park and saw a little child wandering toward the lake, what would you do? Would you think, “I am afraid that little child might get mad at me, so I will not try to help him.” Or would you think, "I HAVE TO GET TO THAT CHILD NO MATTER WHAT THE COST!"

All of us would like to say the latter, wouldn’t we? The truth is, most of us would quickly think of the first thought. You don’t agree with me? Let me prove it to you.

When you see somebody who doesn’t know Jesus, you know they are going to die. Knowing that, why don’t you talk to them about Him? See, people are so afraid of others saying something critical to them, they are more willing to just turn their backs on God.

Jesus has a job for each of us, and that job is to reach other people. Whatever reason you have for not doing so is not good enough. Whatever reason you have for not doing so is actually nothing but an excuse to keep you comfortable. But when Jesus said, "Go!" He was talking about our going out of our comfort zones to do those things He has commanded us to do for Him.

This man was saved by Jesus and then sent by Jesus. There was something Jesus needed for him to do. Once our lives have been transformed; once we have professed Jesus as Savior; we receive a mission. That mission is to “return home and tell others how much God has done for us.”

We stand and sing, "I Love to Tell The Story", and then leave church and try our best to not say anything at all ABOUT the story. You hired me to preach sermons. What would you do if I refused to preach? Would you still consider me your pastor? I think not. Likewise, how do you think God feels when we don’t do what He has told us to do?

In 1985, the city of New Orleans was throwing a party at one of the city swimming pools. They were celebrating that there had never been a drowning at any city pool in New Orleans. At this party were over 200 guests, and 100 lifeguards. Everybody was celebrating this great achievement. But as the party was breaking up and the last bunch of guests were leaving, someone saw the body of thirty-one year old Jerome Moody floating face down in the pool.

How many people are around us every day who are also drowning in loneliness, or hurt, or have doubt about why they are here or where they are going. I wander why we don’t reach out to help them. I think we are too much like the guests at the pool, in as much as we enjoy celebrating the Lord in church activities, but we aren’t very good at rescuing the perishing around us.

A Christian’s job is to reach out to others in the name of Jesus. We are to care about others so much that we literally panic at the very thought of their not going to Heaven. We go to church and sings songs of reaching people, and we lift others in prayer, asking Jesus to touch them.

But how many of us go talk to other people? How many of us make the attempt to tell them what Jesus can do for them? The answer, of course, if very few of us. We want the very best for them, but not if we have to be the ones who have to take it to them.

We are entering into the season where we celebrate Christmas. But what does that mean to us today? Which do we celebrate; the birth of our Lord and Savior, or the fact that there are many discounts at the stores this year? Do we tell others about the plan of salvation that is available through Jesus, or do we tell others which stores have the cheapest prices?

Most people today only acknowledge Jesus at Christmastime as that cute little baby in the manger, and as soon as Christmas is over, they put that little manger scene away in a closet; forgetting about it until the next year.

Do you see what I am getting at? Even in churches today, we gather people in to see the nice plays and productions we offer about the Christmas season, but do we bother to tell them that the baby in the manger actually grew up and became a man who changed the world for God?

Do we prepare our sermons around the subject of sin and salvation as Jesus did, or do we make being happy and feeling good the theme of our messages?

I believe that the theme of everything we do and say should be wrapped around everyone hearing the good news. And that good news is how Jesus can take our sin and release us from it. But nobody will ever know that unless someone is willing to tell them.

Let us enter this season with the intent to celebrate Christmas! But let us begin by seeing Jesus, not as just the little manger baby, but as the man with the message from God! Let us not forget the real meaning of Christmas - for it is a story of love. It is a story of how sin can be turned into salvation.

And as much as we like to carry our sins around with us like a bunch of rocks in a gunnysack, once God forgives, He casts them away from us. He puts our sin as far away from us as east is from west. In other words, God makes our sins non-existent.

Where are you today in your relationship with God? Do you feel the guilt of sin in your life?

Is this your day of decision? Is this the day you finally decide to just walk away from the burden Satan has kept you under, and walk towards Jesus Christ and freedom?

Remember, God loves you just the way you are. And all He wants is for you to love His Son.