Matt Hagee - You're Free to Go Home
He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And what he does, he does that he will destroy the works of the devil. Look at how far he went out of his way to send his only begotten son to us: that he might destroy the works of the devil. Romans 5 says, "If by one man disobedience entered all", that would be Adam in the Garden of Eden, "Then by one man obedience and righteousness shall come to all". That's Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. When Jesus was on the earth, he said, "Most assuredly, the son does nothing of himself unless he sees the father do it, and what he does, he does in like manner".
Jesus was telling his disciples, I don't say it unless the father tells me to say it. I don't do it unless he sends me to do it. I don't touch it unless he permits me to lay hands on it. But where he sends me, when he permits me, what he tells me, we do it so that we can what he tells me, we do it so that we can destroy the works of the devil. You just needed to know all that, because today in Mark 5, Jesus is some place that we thought Jesus should never be. And there's 12 disciples going, how did we end up here? Because verse 1 says, "Then they came to the other side of the lake".
I've asked for our production team to give me some geographic reference to what we're talking about here today, because we read the Bible with American eyes. And when we see the word "Sea," we think that Jesus has taken a trip across the Atlantic ocean. There's only one word for water in the Hebrew language. And you know what it is? Water. So when they describe a big body of water or a small body of water, they just use the same word. And we try to place it based on what we think they're talking about. And so when we read about the Sea of Galilee, we think that it's just the Sea of Galilee, we think that it's just this huge expanse of endless horizon. It's not. It's like a lake.
And so when it says that Jesus came to the other side, he's over here in Capernaum where he has been healing and touching and cleansing. And all of this side of the Sea of Galilee is Jewish. All of this side is gentile. And so when it says we're going to the other side, Jesus is taking these Jewish fishermen where they don't think a rabbi belongs. And it's in the midst of that sea that they're in a midst of a storm. And Peter wonders, does Jesus even care? I mean, we're drowning and he's sleeping. And we know the story in Mark 4 where Jesus stands up and he says, "Peace, be still". But think of the question. "Teacher, do you care..."? But think of the question. "Teacher, do you care..."? How many times have we been in circumstances we can't really understand, and the first thing we want to know, does Jesus even care? I mean, all that I'm going through and all that I'm struggling with and all that I'm enduring, does he even care?
You need to know something. He cares. He not only cares about the people in Capernaum and all the individuals who are living this side of the lake, but he cares about the people you don't even like on this side of the lake. He cares about you and your circumstance. And he cares about the guy who lives across the street that you won't even take the time to know. He cares about everyone in this sanctuary and watching television. He cares about those who are in the street and he cares about those who are in the church. He cares about the people who are in blue states and he cares about those who are in red states. He cares about the 331 million people that live in the United States and he cares about the 7.8 billion people and he cares about the 7.8 billion people who live all over the world. Because when you read the Bible, you find out that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
That's how much my God cares! So why did Jesus come over here? What's he doing on the wrong side of the street? The truth is it's complicated. I love that word "Complicated". I like it because most of the time when you use it, people will leave you alone. What's going on? It's complicated. Oh. Don't let me barge in. Not only is it complicated, but it's contaminated. And not only is it contaminated but it's complex. In life, there are things that are complicated, because there's more than one issue that's got to be because there's more than one issue that's got to be resolved. All of the problems that you face are not always easy in the context of there's just one thing that we've got to address.
Oftentimes, there's so many things happening that if you start to fix this, you start to mess up that. And when you start to mess up that, you can't stay with one thing all the time. Anybody know what I'm talking about? It's complicated how this man is living in tombs, cutting himself, and crying through the night. It's complicated why he's got chains that no one can use to bind him and why everyone's afraid of him. It's complicated whenever you look at it from our perspective. But the second that he sees Jesus, he runs to him. And every one of his complications is simply solved. Why? Because that's the kind of God that we serve. Not only is it complicated, but it's contaminated. The reason it's contaminated is because of where it was.
First and foremost, we are in the wrong first and foremost, we are in the wrong neighborhood, gentiles. Not only are we in the wrong neighborhood, but we're in the wrong area of the neighborhood, because we're not even in a city. Notice that the text says, "They came to the country". It's a region. And the fact that we are in a graveyard tells us we're not in an inhabited place, because in the 1st century, you wouldn't bury the dead in town. It was unsanitary even for the unclean gentiles. I mean even filthy folk have some standards. Not only are we in a graveyard, but they're herding pigs in the countryside. And not just the three little pigs or the ten on your toes: there's 2,000 of them. Baby, that's makin' bacon right there. Pastor had a hog farm when I was a child. How many did we have? Like 1200? 500?
Pastor John Hagee: 500 producers.
Pastor Matt Hagee: 500 producers, yeah. I mean, trust me: 500 pigs smell bad enough. Could you imagine 2,000? The disciples are in the boat. They're like, come on Jesus: let's go. It's gentile land and it's in a graveyard. Numbers 19:16 says that if anyone touches a dead body or they touch a grave, they shall be unclean for seven days. When Jesus gets back to Capernaum, if he's going to uphold what the law of Moses says, he's going to have to go through cleansing for seven days just because he got out of the boat. And notice when you read the text, it says, "And when they came to the other side," he (Jesus) got out of the boat.
I think that's funny, because just a few verses ago, all 12 of the disciples probably prayed to God, if you get me out of this boat, I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere. Just get me out of the boat. I don't want to die in this boat. You ever been in such a bad situation that you made God promises you fully do not situation that you made God promises you fully do not intend to keep? Lord, I will go where you send me, as long as it's with people I like, in a place that I enjoy. They get to the other side and Jesus, it says, he got out of the boat. And the other 12 went, uh-uh, no. I'm staying in the boat. Question: are there places that Jesus wants you to follow him you're not willing to go? Are there things that he's going to ask you to do at some point that you're not going to be comfortable doing?
Trust me. If you're ever going to know the fullness of his power and might in your life, you don't get to pick and choose when it's convenient for you to follow him. Jesus gets out of the boat. He's in a graveyard. And if that ain't bad enough, rabbi Jesus is in a pigpen, because it says that there rabbi Jesus is in a pigpen, because it says that there were swine nearby. Deuteronomy 14:8, it says that the swine is unclean for you. Anyone who touches his flesh shall be considered unclean. Anyone who eats its flesh shall be unclean. Do not touch and do not eat the swine. Mark 5 lets us know that this circumstance is unclean. It's contaminated. And all of that is nothing more than a picture of the individual that Jesus has come to see, because the Bible says that when he got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit showed up.
And as much as we would like to argue that we're not like that guy, trust me: there are men and there are women in this sanctuary, and there are people who are watching over television that could be described the same exact way. You've got an unclean spirit. In some way, to some measure of some extent, it's contaminated. There's something in there that is unclean and it's displeasing to God. That is unclean and it's displeasing to God. If we were to break out the letter of the law, you would be unworthy! But the good news is, is you don't have to be righteous in your own strength: you just have to put your faith in the one who makes you righteous. And his name is Jesus Christ.
Things that are complex, they're always changing. And this circumstance is an ever-changing circumstance, because it's happening in a world where people are breathing. And any place people are breathing, things are changing. I'll prove it to you. Have you ever known what you were going to do to solve a problem, and when you went to bed, you were like, "First thing in the morning, that's exactly what I'm going to do"? And then somehow, while you were sleeping, when you wake up, everything changed. And now you can't do what you thought you were going to do, because it's different. It's complex. And when we find ourselves in situations that are complicated and contaminated and complex, most of the time, we just give up. Most of the time, we just give up. And we do what this poor, wretched soul does in Gadarenes.
We say, I just don't know where I'm going to exist, so I'm going to walk out here amongst the tombs. And I'm going to abandon that dream. I don't know how my marriage got messed up. I don't know how we got divorced. It's complicated. It got contaminated. It's complex, so I'm just going to sit out here amongst the graves. And instead of move past that moment of pain, I'm going to sit here and inflict wounds upon myself for the rest of my life. And the more we read about this individual in this complicated, contaminated and complex situation, is that nobody could tame him. First, they tried to tie him up, but they couldn't tie him up. And then they went and got chains and he broke the chains. And they got stronger chains and he broke those chains. Now why is he able to do this? And he broke those chains.
Now why is he able to do this? He's able to do this, not because he's so strong. He's able to do this because he's got an unclean spirit. You see, there's an inside problem that has an outside manifestation. And what you need understand is the more you try to treat the outside problem that you see and don't deal with the inside problem that you have, the worse it's going to get. You can't fix spiritual problems with natural fixes. They couldn't tie him and they couldn't bind him. And sometimes people have an outside problem. Oh, it's in my back. Oh, it's in my head. Oh, it's in my shoulder. Oh, it's in the way that I respond to people. They've got all these outside symptoms, and they don't ever get to the cause, and they don't ever come up with the cure.
So what's Jesus do? The disciples don't want to mess with this guy. They see the symptoms. The town folk have given up on this guy. They know the symptoms. Jesus knows him better than anybody. And into this complicated, anybody. And into this complicated, contaminated and complex problem, Jesus gets out of the boat. And he looks at this man and he says something that this man has wanted to hear for so long. He says, "Come out. Come out, you unclean spirit"! Whatever you've done to this man, you can't do it no more. You've had authority long enough. You've hurt him bad enough. You've done way too much. I'm here to evict you today. The bitterness is gone. The sorrow is gone. The problem is gone. The situation is over. I'm taking it out of his heart. I'm taking it out of his mind. I'm taking it out of his soul.
It's not going to show up on the outside, because I'm going to fix what's wrong on the inside. And when I get done delivering him, whom the son sets free is free indeed! Oh, there's so much to this. Oh, there's so much to this. But what I want you to understand is that you can be free today. Don't let the devil convince you that it's irreparable. That's what Jesus came to do! destroy the works of the devil. Don't let anybody convince you that you're not worthy. Because when the Bible introduces us to this man, as messed up as he is, the Bible still calls him a man. It says, as soon as Jesus got out of the boat, there met him a man. It doesn't say he's a lunatic. It doesn't say he's crazy. It doesn't say that he's a leech on life that all he does is take and never give back. It calls him a man. Tormented as he may be, he's a man. Troubled as he is, he's a man. Complicated, contaminated and complex as the situation might be, he's still a man! As the situation might be, he's still a man! And Jesus wants to use him.
So I don't care how broken you are. I don't care how bad off you feel. God knows and God sees, and God still wants to use you. Stop cutting yourself, treating the symptoms, and let the power and the presence of God fix what's wrong on the inside. Stop taking what they told you to take because they said it would make you forget. Stop drinking what they told you to drink because they said it would help you get through. Stop saying what they told you to say because you thought that it was going to make everything better.
Understand that the presence of Jesus Christ that was on that side of the lake today, it's come from heaven down here to San Antonio, Texas. And what he wants to say to you is "Come out. Come out of that tomb that you're living in. Come out of that relationship that's cursing you. Come out of that problem that you've got and let me set you free"! When Jesus said, "Come out," suddenly, we hear another voice. The voice of the man worshiped Jesus. But whenever Jesus said, "Come out," suddenly, there's another voice and it's supernatural. It's not natural.
Now please understand this: there are only two areas and realms of existence. There's natural and there's supernatural. There is no spooky natural. And the reason that you need to understand that is because whenever people begin to feel the presence of the Lord or they sense that there's something that's not able to be seen in existence, they suddenly, make it mysterious and spooky. No, it's not. It's just bigger than you. And the problem with making it spooky is that you make Jesus something you can't approach. But the Bible says, do not be afraid. "Go boldly before the throne". So don't get caught up in the spookiness. In the spookiness. It's not spooky. This spiritual voice, even though it's a demon that does not obey Jesus, it can't deny him. Because the first thing it says is, "What do you want with me, Son of God"?
I know who you are. You're the king above kings and the Lord above Lords. I have to do whatever you tell me to do even if it's not what I want to do. Trust me. If supernatural beings know that about Jesus, why don't you treat him that way? And Jesus says, "What's your name"? And the demonic spokesman says, well, that's a good question, because there's so many of us down here: we don't have one name. We just call ourselves legion. Now the number of a legion in Rome was 6,000 soldiers. The number of swine that committed suicide was 2,000. The number of swine that committed suicide was 2,000.
Doesn't really matter how many there were. We could just honestly agree this guy was twisted. And what you need to understand is while he had something to do with it, it wasn't all his fault. This is something that I asked the Lord while I was studying this text. I was like, how does one guy get 2,000 demons? What search engine did he use? Oh, don't think that they ain't on the net. And I felt the Lord tell me this wasn't all his fault. And I felt compelled to begin to study generational iniquity. And I looked in Exodus 20, and God says to the children of Israel: he says, "I am the Lord... You shall not have any other Gods before me".
This is part of the Ten Commandments. And he says, and if you should ever bow to an idol, if you should ever exalt something to the level that you worship me, if you ever give glory to something that doesn't deserve it, I'm a jealous God. It, I'm a jealous God. And I'm going to visit this, not only on you, but I'm going to put it on you and your children and your grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation. We're in a circumstance in our nation right now where rational people can't make sense of anything, because we wonder how did we get this messed up. We are reaping the whirlwind of generational iniquity. That's how another human being can stand behind a podium and say that it's a natural right for a mother to be able to kill their child in the birthing room. You don't get there based on politics. You only get there through generational iniquity where you do not value life and the one who created life.
So how did this guy get 2,000 demons? Well, he grew up in gentile land. He's over here with the heAthens. They've been worshiping idols for generations. They've been worshiping idols for generations. So what he had when he showed up in this world was he had all of great grand daddy's mess, and then he had all of grand daddy's mess, and then he had all of daddy's mess, and then he got into his own mess. And somewhere along the way in this generational hodgepodge of sin, you find an individual who's so desperate that he can't bear the weight of it anymore. And now all he does is cry and cut himself. There are some of you in this room that you need to know it's not all your fault. It's not something you did. It's something that you got. But that chain can be broken. That string can be cut. That history can be erased if you'll give Jesus Christ the chance to put it under the blood.
Jesus says, "Come out"! All 2,000 of them, Jesus says, "Come out"! All 2,000 of them, swoosh, gone in a minute. It wasn't a process. There wasn't no exit interview. Did you like your stay? Please fill out a survey. When the king above kings and the Lord above Lords declares that you're free, you're free indeed. And in his new-found freedom, the one that they called the demoniac, I can't wait to meet him in heaven. I'm going to ask, "What's your name"? I mean, you've spent all of eternity liberated and we still label you with "A demon".
This man comes to Jesus and he says, please let me go with you. Let me get in that boat. You're the only one that can make a difference in me. They tried and they tied me up. They tried and they chained me up. They tried and they chained me up. They tried and look what a mess they made of me. But you showed up and now I'm free. Let me go with you. And Jesus says, no. He didn't say, come on: we need a 13th. He said, you're free to go home. You're free to go back to the people who gave up on you. You're free to go to the people that said nothing good would ever come of you. You're free to go tell those individuals, who spoke curses over your life, how good God has been and what wonderful things he's done. You're free. You're free.
But in your new-found freedom, you have a responsibility. You've got somebody you need to go tell. You've got somebody that you need to share it with. You've got somebody that needs to hear what God has done for you. You've got somebody that needs to know that he can take dysfunctional and make it functional: dysfunctional and make it functional: that he can take crazy and make it sane: that he can take broken and call it mended, how he's changed your life, how he healed your heart, how he restored your soul. You're free! But you've got to go home and you've got to tell somebody. Husband, go home and tell your wife, "I'm free, and I'm going to be the man you need me to be". Wife, go home and tell your family, "I'm free and I'm going to love you like you deserve to be loved". Son, go home and tell your dad, "I'm free. And what was contaminated is now clean, because Jesus Christ has touched me". If you felt the presence of God here today and enjoyed his word, would you give him a handclap?