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00:37 Amen. Glory to God. Thank you for joining me.
00:40 Good to be here today. I hope you’re having a wonderful day. Welcome to the cafe.
00:44 Today we are talking about finding rest in Jesus. Have you ever thought about the idea that in this life and in modern day times it’s so hard to find rest? Has that ever crossed your mind? I bet it has. I bet you’re laughing saying, yeah of course.
01:01 Every day it’s hard to find rest. It’s hard to find peace. Schedules are at breakneck pace and everywhere you know you got your phone it’s buzzing and dinging and this and that and man we see this phone the text messaging all the time and you know that you got a connected TVs and the internet and on and on and on.
01:23 It’s never ending with things going on and different businesses or people or organizations wanting a piece of your time and you end up exhausted and you say where can I find rest and what is this world doing to me? And in the book of Mark there’s a great example of how we as people can find rest in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
01:46 Mark 5 and I’m just gonna read for a little while here Mark 5: 1. Mark 5: 1 and they came over unto the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes and when he was come out of the ship immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him no not with chains because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in pieces neither could any man tame him and always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones but when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshipped him and cried with a loud voice and said what have I to do with thee Jesus the Son of the Most High God I adjure thee by God that thou torments me not that thou torment me not
02:45 verse 8 for he said unto him come out of the man thou unclean spirit and he asked him what is thy name and he answered saying my name is Legion for we are many and he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding and all the devils besought him saying send us into the swine that we may enter into them and forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea there were about 2,000 and were choked in the sea and they that fed the swine fled told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was that was done and they said they come to Jesus and and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the Legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid and that they saw it told them how it befell to him that it was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine and they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts and when he was coming to the ship he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him how but Jesus suffered him not but saith unto him go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee and he departed and began to publish it in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel and when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side much people gathered unto him and he was nigh unto the sea all right
04:24 Mark5: 1-21 we see the miraculous healing of the maniac of Gadara and we see you know you probably don’t compare yourself to a maniac too often or to cutting yourself and running and crying and screaming but we see a very interesting principle that this man who was very sick who was who was ill from all these devils in the world that he was healed by Jesus Christ Himself and that he became who he was meant to be became normal again he became normal maybe for the first time in a lot of senses and he desired to be with Jesus and we see all of this stuff we see this happening very quickly
05:07 we see the devils being cast out into swine 2,000 swine that’s a lot of swine and them going off into the sea and we you know a lot of people will start looking at the demonic possession on many other facets of the story
05:23 but let’s think about how the world gets us so wound up and where our rest comes from you know because the world is relentless even for the unbeliever it’s still relentless and the unbeliever oftentimes what do they do they say well they’re gonna go blow off some steam at the bar or fill in the blank their pet sin the casino or the fill in the blank
05:46 okay you probably know better than I do maybe some places that the lost folks may want to go I don’t know think thankfully I don’t know too much about that these days but that’s what they do and now what does the believer do
06:00 you know the believer is kind of stuck because you can’t go where the sinners are going you’re not supposed to right and yet you’re still bearing so many burdens in the world
06:09 and then what do you do I mean a lot of people they don’t have church on Friday night now some churches have a lot of activities they might have some stuff going on on Friday night
06:17 but a lot of people don’t so what do you do well if you’re like me I think you need to go to the Lord in prayer that’s what I’ve learned over the years to read the word and go to the Lord in prayer for that healing for that peace
06:34 and I think you know a lot of times this scripture might be taken literal as in people are possessed with demons and so forth but we when we’re saved we have we’re possessed by the Holy Spirit amen we’re saved with the Holy Spirit that sealed us into the day of redemption so I’m not talking about did not
06:52 demonic possession as much as I am talking about demonic affliction the idea that the devil will tempt you the devil will afflict you and cause harm to you and try to you know cause a ruckus and confuse you and
07:07 and try to rob you like a thief this is all biblical amen Jesus himself was tempted of the devil in the wilderness and when was that time that was when he was hungry so the devil’s gonna come when you’re weak the Bible says he’s like a roaring lion looking about who he may devour who are the roaring lions gonna devour the weakest prey
07:24 so when you are down and out maybe you’re sick or maybe you’re tired or maybe you’re depressed or maybe you’re broke or maybe all the above that’s when the devil’s gonna come and try to get you and so when you go through these these awful afflictions in life are we seeking God in the most purest sense by going to Jesus
07:43 you know our Bible teaches us that we are we are allowed or that we are encouraged to approach the throne boldly that we can do that that when Christ died for our sins on the cross that veil and the Holy of Holies was rent into was torn in two and to give you a little picture of that there was the temple you had the outer court and the inner court the Old Testament temple there and you had the Holy of Holies which was like the most inner room there that the high priest or the special priest could go in I think once a year and it cleansed themselves and wear certain garments and it was a very very very particular order to doing to being able to access God
08:25 because God was residing in this Holy of Holies and oh my goodness if they did anything wrong they’d be struck dead and you know old tales have it or rumor has it that they would have to wear bells on their garments so if those bells stopped ringing they realized they did something incorrect and they’d have a rope tied to their foot and someone would have to pull them out because they couldn’t go into the Holy of Holies
08:46 the Holy of Holies was a place that man really was not allowed in because man was dirty unclean and when Christ died for our sins and that veil was rent in two and we are now allowed to access the throne boldly we’re encouraged to access the throne boldly
09:02 in the book of Thessalonians it says to pray without ceasing that we can now access God directly and that’s thanks be to Jesus Christ for dying for our sins and as we accept Him as Savior we have now we have entry into the throne room Amen
09:15 we have access to God amen God Almighty our holy precious God because he looks upon us and no longer sees our sin but he sees the blood of His precious son the sinless Spotless Lamb that died for all the world Amen for all that would accept Him Amen
09:31 as Savior accept that free gift and so we have access to God through Jesus Christ and therefore do we use it do we go to God because when we go to God I can promise you through the through the through the principles in the word and through God’s what God has spoken through his prophets in the word in the Bible that you will have peace
09:52 that you have peace that man can’t describe that you will have peace when you go to God and as the maniac came running up to God Amen and I know the demons were speaking for a while there but the demons got cast out and then what happened hey he came up to the Lord Jesus and he wanted to go with Him and Jesus said no I want you to tell your friends so number one do we turn to God in times of trials for peace and if we do through prayer through Bible reading through fellowship with the Lord through spending time with God Amen
10:24 spending time with God if we do that we’ll have peace and then number two Jesus instructed him after he was healed after he had peace Jesus said what he said go home to your friends tell them how great things the Lord hath done for you and had compassion on you are we going home to our friends and telling them what God has done for us and how he’s had compassion for us are we ashamed of Christ I hope not
10:46 we need to we need to brag on God amen the little things the big things everything in between we need to brag on God I’ll testify in front of our little church all the time about how I get peace in the midst of anxiety and suffering all the anxiety the afflictions I faced last couple years as the Lord called me to plant a church and do these different ministries and it’s been difficult it’s been hard and it’s been like swimming upstream so often and I go to God
11:13 and I just be all torn up inside and just my heart beating and palms sweating and just oh man just really stressed out about things and I’ll give it to the Lord and this peace will just wash over me it’ll just wash over me I’ll just praise God I’ll praise Him then but I’ll go to the congregation because God has given me the honor of being a preacher in a little church and I’ll just tell the congregation you know it works guys it works I went I’ve had trials I had anxiety they can see it in my eyes they can see it in my face Amen
11:39 they see my physical ailments and so forth I said I went to God and I prayed to him and he gave me peace he gave me peace this is a truth it’s a beautiful truth when you love God when you when you study His word when you love Him as He commands us with all our heart soul mind and spirit with everything we’ve got when we love God when you love God
11:58 He’ll give you peace and when he gives you peace he doesn’t want you to quench the spirit and go hide that he says set that candle right up there on the hill set that city right there on the hill go ahead and tell everyone about it tell him testify not for you to get glory but for him to get glory give him the glory your testimony is incredibly powerful there could be someone that’s silently suffering from some of the same things you are and you give them that holy prescription
12:24 that that holy prescription for health for peace which is to seek him with all your heart mind soul to go to Him in times of trial and to pray and to stay close to him and that you have peace they’re gonna see that and say I know that person I trust them I love them I see what they’re doing I’m gonna do that
12:41 and now all of a sudden you are being a witness for the Lord and you’re bringing him glory we’re created to bring him glory let’s do it Amen that’s what we see in this chapter here in Mark 5 is this man was you know Jesus said you don’t have to follow me just go and give me glory give God glory
12:56 go tell your friends what I did Amen which is interesting because sometimes the Lord would ask not you know say okay don’t say anything at this time or that time and for whatever God’s reason was but in this case he said go ahead and tell him tell him that I took those afflictions those devils that were in you and I cast him out
13:15 because our God is all-powerful we should not limit God we should have that faith that He’ll do as He chooses and His ways are much higher than our ways as high as the heavens is from the earth we can’t know all that He’s going to do or why he’s going to do it but we can trust it’s for our best
13:30 that’s what Romans 8:28 tells us and we can trust the Lord knows us better than anyone and that he loves us so what do you take from this God loves you he’s here for you he wants to bring you peace
13:44 and He wants you to give Him the glory so do that today seek him and as the Lord moves publish abroad tell everyone you know how God has blessed you you can give Him glory today by simply explaining what He’s done for you
14:00 and continue to God in this world until he calls us home and then it’ll be a beautiful day where we no longer will face the afflictions we do now
14:09 thank you so much for joining me take care God bless and Amen