Live Free with Josh Howerton - Living Among the Tombs | Ep. 422 | Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Your battles are not against flesh and blood. If you find yourself in need of a chain-breaker, feeling isolated as if the world is against you, and pain seems to be your only companion, remember there's a true adversary: Jesus. He stands ready to fight on your behalf and liberate you from whatever holds you captive. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. What is up, everybody? Wherever you're listening from and whenever you listen to this, thanks for joining us today on the Daily Drive. Grateful for you.

My name is Bro, and yesterday we started a story found over in Mark chapter 5. We've been looking at the way that Jesus met people right where they were. And this encounter that Jesus has, honestly, creeps me out a little bit. We saw yesterday that the scene is this. It's late and it's dark. And Jesus and his guys arrive on the other side of the tracks, so to speak, to a place. where you know the others live. Well, they step out of the boat, and this happens.

Verse two. When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. So here are Jesus guys, once again in unfamiliar territory. They're a little skittish anyways. In the middle of the night, they put up on the shores of a graveyard, and this demon-possessed dude comes running toward them. You know they had to be freaking out.

It's like a scene out of the walking dead. and the guys are probably in flight mode trying to get back to the boat, but not Jesus. Verse 3 says, this man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as he often was, he snapped the chains from his wrist and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. Now, did you notice that he lived in the tombs, among the caves that were used for burying dead bodies? His life had become marked by death.

What kind of life is that? It's no kind of life at all. And think about this. How dangerous does a person have to get, that his friends and neighbors would not only isolate him from their community, but chain him up in a graveyard? This guy was unwanted, unloved, shame-ridden, confused, insane, dangerous and relegated to suffer alone among the tombs. And on top of that, did you see how he would cut himself with stones?

Years ago, Trent Rezner of the group Nine Inch Nails, wrote a song simply called Hurt, where he reflected on his lonely battle with depression and heroin addiction. I recently listened to the Johnny Cash cover of that song. It is so poignant. You ought to YouTube it. He's like an old man reflecting on his. his life and the opening line of the song that he sings is, I hurt myself today, to see if I still

feel. I'll focus on the pain, the only thing that's real. Every person I've ever known who struggle with self-harm has echoed the words of that song. And that's where this guy is. This man has one thing left to remind him he's still alive. Pain. That's the only thing that's real. But then he meets Jesus, who is the very definition of real. Verse 6. When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him. With a shriek, he screamed, Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?

In the name of God, I beg you, don't torture me. For Jesus had already said to the Spirit, come out of that man, you evil spirit. I love how Jesus saw the tortured man, but he recognized the real issue. In fact, he had already addressed the real enemy. You know, Jesus told us all that there is an enemy. He called him the father of lies, called him a thief, that he only comes to kill and steal and destroy. Right now in our world,

do you think the enemy is that person that disagrees with you politically? Or do you perceive some organization or some party or some philosophy or conspiracy that someone's cooked up as the enemy. I want to remind you, Ephesians 612 says, we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers of this dark world, against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

We have a very real enemy, who is working overtime to divide us, to sway us, to capture our minds, to make us hate-filled or apathetic, to blind our eyes to the pain and the needs of other people, to set our sights squarely on our needs and our wants, and our rights, and our comfort, we wrestle not with flesh and blood.

There's a bigger battle going on. Jesus looks at this flesh and blood man, this human being with compassion, and he goes directly after the real enemy. Now, please hear me say that I don't believe that all addictions and strongholds are all about demon possession. But they are fueled by the Prince of Darkness,

the author of Confusion, who hates all things God. He sets himself up against love and joy and peace and patience and good, and gentleness and kindness and faithfulness and self-control, he comes only to kill, steal, and destroy sanity and careers and ministries and families and communities and nations. And because the real enemy is not a flesh and blood enemy,

can you see why you and I need a stronger power than we have on our own? I need the one who rose from the dead and canceled Satan's victory bash. I need a chain breaker. I need Jesus. And so do you. and so did this guy. Come on back tomorrow and we'll see what happens. Hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today.

For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.com slash daily drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast. podcast to help get the word out.