Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
Do You Have The Right Stuff To Serve God?
Luke 8: 27-40 July 20, 2003
Do you remember the call of Moses? He was tending his flock when God’s voice called to him
out of a burning bush. Immediately God told him that he was chosen to lead the Israelites out of
their bondage in Egypt.
I have often thought about the way God calls people. It happens in various ways throughout the
Bible. Moses’ call came in this miraculous fashion. John the Baptist, on the other hand, sort of
grew into his calling. He was set apart from birth by his parents to be a prophet. God told them
that their son would be special even before he was born and then they raised him accordingly.
David’s call came when the prophet Samuel came to him and anointed him as the new king of
Israel. Samuel had been sent by God even before the present king had died or moved on.
Now the call often came in various ways but one thing we note about many of these Biblical
heroes is that they are all good men, right? Well not exactly. We look at them as heros of the
faith, as giants among men, but that may be because we know “the rest of the story.” God has
called many people to serve him who have less than perfect stories.
Moses, for example, had murdered a man. David, had an eye for women which led him into
adultery. John had a vicious temper and he wasn’t exactly very tactful. As a matter of fact, if
you went right through a list of Biblical witnesses you would undoubtedly find that every man or
woman God ever called was less than perfect. And some of those he called, were actually bad to
the core.
Our text today is one that can be examined from many different angles. Countless sermons have
been preached on demon possession and Jesus’ rejection by the locals from this text. But as I
was looking at this text recently, it occurred to me that this man’s story is one that is akin to our
stories in many ways.
Now don’t get scared. I am not suggesting that you or I have been possessed by demons. But
what I am suggesting is that Jesus often comes into our lives and makes radical changes and
then he extends a call to each and every one of us. And we can accept or reject that call when it
comes.
The story we are looking at today is about a man who is bad to the core. He is an unlikely
disciple. As a matter of fact we are told that he is possessed by many demons. He is a raving
lunatic. Imagine it for a moment. He lives out on the street, and he doesn’t have much for
clothes. He talks to himself and blurts out strange pronouncements. He is disheveled and so
crazy that chains can’t even hold him.
While we were in New York on vacation, I can’t tell you the number of “street people” I saw.
This man in our text could have been any one of them. When we see them, we cross the street
to the other side. We don’t look at them. We ignore them. There is something about them that
scares us. We look down on them and make judgments about their character, their life choices,
and even their worthiness. How many people here automatically think of the homeless and make
the judgment that most of them are alcoholics and drug abusers? The truth is that we want to
write them off. We want to distance ourselves from them.
The funny thing is, that in our text today, Jesus goes right up to the man and confronts him.
Actually the text says that the man comes up to Jesus, but Jesus, unlike us, doesn’t try to avoid
him, he meets him head on and addresses the situation in his life. Jesus knows the devils that are
controlling him. He knows the abuse that the man has suffered. He knows that underneath the
rough and dirty exterior of this man’s existence there is a child of God waiting to come out. And
so Jesus commands the demons to flee this man and to take up residence in a herd of pigs.
Now there are at least two things that are important to note right here. The first is that this man’s
behavior, this man’s lifestyle, this man’s actions were defiling him and making him unclean and
unacceptable to God.
It’s important to recognize this and Jesus points this out to his audience in a rather dramatic
fashion it by conveniently sending the demons into a herd of pigs. You see, Pigs were
considered unclean animals by the Jews going back to the time of Moses and the law. Pigs
symbolized everything that the good Jew should stay away from. And what Jesus was
graphically telling them was that the sinful lifestyle of this man was better suited for the pigs than
for a man.
It made me think about some of my struggles in life.
I am going to talk about the obvious one for a minute. Sometimes I eat like a pig. I am a glutton.
In light of the fact that I recently went to the hospital and was told that this kind of gluttony was
destroying my body, you would think that I would know better. But put a dish of ice cream in
front of me…
If you have ever struggled with drug or alcohol addiction, you will know what it is to be like an
animal. All you want is your next fix or your next drink and you will do anything to get it.
Cigarette smoking… I heard one man tell me that when he was low on cash and struggling he
would often go through ash trays at home and at work, looking for used buts so he could get his
next smoke. What about gamblers? I’ve heard stories about people who steal from their kids so
they can run to the casino.
I could go on and on. When you hear stories about stars like Kobe Bryant who says, “I can’t
help myself, I am a man and I was tempted,” I think of my dog who would probably tell me the
same thing when he has an indiscretion if he could talk.
You see Jesus doesn’t want to hear excuses. He knows that we have demons tormenting us and
temptation dogging us. He wants us to know that they are bringing us down and if we want him
to, he can come in and change all that. We just need to go to him. That’s what the crazy man
did. He went right up to Jesus and Jesus changed his life. He set the man free from his
affliction.
You see what it says there in the text. It says that shortly afterwards the man was in his right
mind, fully dressed and sitting at Jesus’ feet. It was such a radical change that when the village
people saw him, they immediately got scared. They couldn’t believe it.
Well I want to tell you that Jesus wants to make that kind of change in all of our lives. He wants
to root out the sin and the ugly stuff and make us whole again. He wants to cast out the
demons, the ghosts of the past and help us find our right mind again. And he will if you ask him
to.
Why? First because he wants us to know what it is to be in relationship to God. He wants us to
know the joy of walking with God. He wants us to know the Father’s love and his generosity.
He wants us to know what he knows.
And secondly, he wants us to take up the call to share the good news. Now some of us have
this idea that we don’t have the right stuff to serve God or to be a witness to our faith. Well if
you look at this guy in our story today, you can’t ever say that again.
You see, Jesus called him to go out and tell his story. At first the man wanted to go with Jesus.
He wanted to travel alongside Jesus as one of the twelve. But Jesus told him no. Instead, he
wanted him to tell his friends and neighbors what had happened to him. And he sent him off to
do that.
And do you know an amazing thing happened? In our story Jesus was virtually sent away with
good riddance. The people asked him to leave and not come back. The Bible says it nicely, but
they rode him out of town.
Luke 8: 27-40 July 20, 2003
Do you remember the call of Moses? He was tending his flock when God’s voice called to him
out of a burning bush. Immediately God told him that he was chosen to lead the Israelites out of
their bondage in Egypt.
I have often thought about the way God calls people. It happens in various ways throughout the
Bible. Moses’ call came in this miraculous fashion. John the Baptist, on the other hand, sort of
grew into his calling. He was set apart from birth by his parents to be a prophet. God told them
that their son would be special even before he was born and then they raised him accordingly.
David’s call came when the prophet Samuel came to him and anointed him as the new king of
Israel. Samuel had been sent by God even before the present king had died or moved on.
Now the call often came in various ways but one thing we note about many of these Biblical
heroes is that they are all good men, right? Well not exactly. We look at them as heros of the
faith, as giants among men, but that may be because we know “the rest of the story.” God has
called many people to serve him who have less than perfect stories.
Moses, for example, had murdered a man. David, had an eye for women which led him into
adultery. John had a vicious temper and he wasn’t exactly very tactful. As a matter of fact, if
you went right through a list of Biblical witnesses you would undoubtedly find that every man or
woman God ever called was less than perfect. And some of those he called, were actually bad to
the core.
Our text today is one that can be examined from many different angles. Countless sermons have
been preached on demon possession and Jesus’ rejection by the locals from this text. But as I
was looking at this text recently, it occurred to me that this man’s story is one that is akin to our
stories in many ways.
Now don’t get scared. I am not suggesting that you or I have been possessed by demons. But
what I am suggesting is that Jesus often comes into our lives and makes radical changes and
then he extends a call to each and every one of us. And we can accept or reject that call when it
comes.
The story we are looking at today is about a man who is bad to the core. He is an unlikely
disciple. As a matter of fact we are told that he is possessed by many demons. He is a raving
lunatic. Imagine it for a moment. He lives out on the street, and he doesn’t have much for
clothes. He talks to himself and blurts out strange pronouncements. He is disheveled and so
crazy that chains can’t even hold him.
While we were in New York on vacation, I can’t tell you the number of “street people” I saw.
This man in our text could have been any one of them. When we see them, we cross the street
to the other side. We don’t look at them. We ignore them. There is something about them that
scares us. We look down on them and make judgments about their character, their life choices,
and even their worthiness. How many people here automatically think of the homeless and make
the judgment that most of them are alcoholics and drug abusers? The truth is that we want to
write them off. We want to distance ourselves from them.
The funny thing is, that in our text today, Jesus goes right up to the man and confronts him.
Actually the text says that the man comes up to Jesus, but Jesus, unlike us, doesn’t try to avoid
him, he meets him head on and addresses the situation in his life. Jesus knows the devils that are
controlling him. He knows the abuse that the man has suffered. He knows that underneath the
rough and dirty exterior of this man’s existence there is a child of God waiting to come out. And
so Jesus commands the demons to flee this man and to take up residence in a herd of pigs.
Now there are at least two things that are important to note right here. The first is that this man’s
behavior, this man’s lifestyle, this man’s actions were defiling him and making him unclean and
unacceptable to God.
It’s important to recognize this and Jesus points this out to his audience in a rather dramatic
fashion it by conveniently sending the demons into a herd of pigs. You see, Pigs were
considered unclean animals by the Jews going back to the time of Moses and the law. Pigs
symbolized everything that the good Jew should stay away from. And what Jesus was
graphically telling them was that the sinful lifestyle of this man was better suited for the pigs than
for a man.
It made me think about some of my struggles in life.
I am going to talk about the obvious one for a minute. Sometimes I eat like a pig. I am a glutton.
In light of the fact that I recently went to the hospital and was told that this kind of gluttony was
destroying my body, you would think that I would know better. But put a dish of ice cream in
front of me…
If you have ever struggled with drug or alcohol addiction, you will know what it is to be like an
animal. All you want is your next fix or your next drink and you will do anything to get it.
Cigarette smoking… I heard one man tell me that when he was low on cash and struggling he
would often go through ash trays at home and at work, looking for used buts so he could get his
next smoke. What about gamblers? I’ve heard stories about people who steal from their kids so
they can run to the casino.
I could go on and on. When you hear stories about stars like Kobe Bryant who says, “I can’t
help myself, I am a man and I was tempted,” I think of my dog who would probably tell me the
same thing when he has an indiscretion if he could talk.
You see Jesus doesn’t want to hear excuses. He knows that we have demons tormenting us and
temptation dogging us. He wants us to know that they are bringing us down and if we want him
to, he can come in and change all that. We just need to go to him. That’s what the crazy man
did. He went right up to Jesus and Jesus changed his life. He set the man free from his
affliction.
You see what it says there in the text. It says that shortly afterwards the man was in his right
mind, fully dressed and sitting at Jesus’ feet. It was such a radical change that when the village
people saw him, they immediately got scared. They couldn’t believe it.
Well I want to tell you that Jesus wants to make that kind of change in all of our lives. He wants
to root out the sin and the ugly stuff and make us whole again. He wants to cast out the
demons, the ghosts of the past and help us find our right mind again. And he will if you ask him
to.
Why? First because he wants us to know what it is to be in relationship to God. He wants us to
know the joy of walking with God. He wants us to know the Father’s love and his generosity.
He wants us to know what he knows.
And secondly, he wants us to take up the call to share the good news. Now some of us have
this idea that we don’t have the right stuff to serve God or to be a witness to our faith. Well if
you look at this guy in our story today, you can’t ever say that again.
You see, Jesus called him to go out and tell his story. At first the man wanted to go with Jesus.
He wanted to travel alongside Jesus as one of the twelve. But Jesus told him no. Instead, he
wanted him to tell his friends and neighbors what had happened to him. And he sent him off to
do that.
And do you know an amazing thing happened? In our story Jesus was virtually sent away with
good riddance. The people asked him to leave and not come back. The Bible says it nicely, but
they rode him out of town.
| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
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