Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

god knows what you like he knows our

propensity

and he has compassion when we come home

come back home as quickly as possible

though your sins being startled

they shall be white as snow though they

be red like crimson

they shall be his wolf so whatever

inheritance whatever god

still wants to do for you to you through

you in you

don’t lose anymore jesus christ broke

the curse

so don’t ever talk about you being

cursed again if

you know jesus christ the curse the

consequence of the law

is broken the greatest miracle of all

is when you dip yourself in the blood of

jesus christ for the forgiveness of sins

and the gift of eternal life now

throughout jesus’s life in ministry

he had to deal with demons when you read

the four gospels matthew mark luke and

john

he is constantly confronting

physical realities with spiritual

causation

demonic influence oppression or

possession where demons had

infiltrated a situation

bringing destruction to a life

or to a community because they were

undetected or unaddressed

one of the more famous encounters of

jesus with demons

is in mark chapter 5. and that i want to

use

to bring this to your attention

so that in case you are dealing with a

demon in your life

and did not know it you can become both

aware and acquainted and

seek to address that

undiagnosed cause of everything else

that may be wrong

jesus has crossed the sea in verse 1 of

chapter 5 of mark

he gets into the boat and immediately a

man from the tombs with an

unclean spirit met him he had been

dwelling among the tombs

no one was able to bind him any more

even with a chain because he had often

been bound with shackles and chains and

the chains had been torn apart

by him and the shackles broken in pieces

and no one was strong enough to subdue

him

constantly day and night he was

screaming among the tombs and in the

mountains

and gashing himself

with stones and the reality is

something is graphically wrong with him

but the root of his problem it says

was an unclean spirit

that behind the craziness that we were

looking at

that people observed was something that

you could not see

it was a spirit that was unclean

now it’s not that folk didn’t try to

help this guy we’re told

they tried to shackle him they tried to

chain him they tried to

control him they tried to manage him

and every time they tried to do

something to

to control the anger the outburst the

craziness

he shook it off in other words

society couldn’t help him

people couldn’t help him programs

couldn’t help him

because the demons were so much in

control

when you see yourself or others

living an out of control life this is

not an

out of control moment this says day

after day

night after night in other words crazy

was his lifestyle

it was the way he operated

then you must at least investigate

whether you are dealing with demonic

involvement

now the demon is described

with his nickname an

unclean spirit

he’s going to be called a demon later

but right now he’s just called an

unclean spirit and with that one phrase

we are introduced to the root of this

man’s problem

you see

demons go where dirt exists

so they look for uncleanness

to make themselves at home and when they

come and infuse themselves

through either influence oppression

or domination and possession

they amplify what is already

unclean so it is unfortunate today

that even though we’re in church we

regularly have meals with the devil

and we don’t even know he’s been invited

to dinner

paul goes on to say in first timothy

chapter 4

verses 1 to 5 that the the demonic

world feeds on lies

see the scripture says satan is the

father of lies

he is a liar from the beginning and he’s

the father of lies

and any father has chileans

the demons the ones who followed satan

is rebelling against god

or the unclean spirits gravitate

toward life that’s why it is in their

interest to keep you from the truth

because they feed on lies so this demon

thing is real the problem is

it’s unseen it’s invisible

because it’s spiritual and this man’s

life

has been taken over by

the demonic and he is now

out of control

he’s gotten worse and worse and worse

and i would like to submit to you things

in our lives

that are dirt that go unaddressed

ongoingly unrepented of

invites demons the demons come

make themselves at home and begin to

reorganize the furniture in our lives

so that we are carrying out their

bidding

not even knowing that it’s them and the

way we know it is is getting worse

and worse and worse even while we’re

taking over-the-counter solutions

but because it’s unseen and

unfelt in terms of the spiritual nature

of it

it goes unrecognized unaddressed

while we come to church

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because there’s something else going on

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we need to get back to the basics do i

pastor a church

or just a collection of individuals

if i’m going to make a disciple i have

to keep becoming

a disciple i’m not going to let you make

me what i cannot be which is a man who

doesn’t struggle against sin

and a man who doesn’t need community and

prayer

well the good news for you and i today

is king jesus knows where we are

he knows where you are spiritually he

knows where you are psychologically

jesus knows where you are

emotionally and i can testify he will

pull you out of

obscurity and bring you to the king’s

table

i don’t care what you’re going through i

don’t care what the situation is

all that’s real but not relevant

because this applies to everybody

he says let me explain your life here it

is

it’s a work of god and it’s just the

beginning

many christians today are containers

they want to receive from god they’re

not vehicles

through whom god can bless let the words

of my mouth and the meditations of my

heart be acceptable

help your people uh to be edified and

god we pray that you’re glorified

and that your enemies will be horrified

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this man however sees jesus in verse

six from a distance

he ran up and bowed down before him

so this man who’s demon-possessed sees

jesus and he comes down and he

falls down on his knees in a posture of

worship and submission

he he bows down before jesus

in worship and submission

which creates a problem notice verse

7 and shouting with a loud voice he said

what business do we have with each other

jesus son of the most high god i

implore you by god do not torment me

okay this now is getting very confusing

this is very confusing the man runs and

drops down

in a posture of worship

but then the man says

what do we have to do

with you women i don’t know if you

follow that

the man that’s a singular

that’s a he dropped down

in worship but then the man

says what do we

have to do with you oh son of god

so what the man does is he drags his

demons to jesus

because the demons are inside of him

they’re controlling him but he brings

his demons to jesus

and so the question now is a group

question

what do we have to do with you oh son of

god

do not torment me

we didn’t go back to singula so we

didn’t go from singular to plural back

to singular again

because the man is battling with himself

when demons take over

but jesus is brought into the equation

there is going to be an internal

conflict

between what you want jesus to do and

what the demons want to do

he says do not torment me

and it is in this tormenting phrase

that this man drags his demons to jesus

and he is now wrestling because the

demons want to know

why you bring us here

we don’t want this don’t you

torment us what is the torment here it

is the spiritual is meeting the

spirituals

for he had been saying to him come out

of the man you

unclean spirit jesus

asked him in verse nine

what is your name what is your name tell

me your name

he’s asking the man him what is your

name

my name is legion

for we are many and we don’t want to be

tormented by you

jesus is saying come out of him and he

began to employ him

the man began to employ jesus earnestly

not to send them out of the country

nor now there was a large herd of swine

feeding nearby on the mountain

the demons employed him saying

send us into the swine so that we may

eat them

jesus gave them permission and coming

out of the unclean spirits

entered the swine

the herd rushed down the steep bank into

the sea

about 2 000 of them and they were

drowned in the sea

oh there’s so much here number one

the demons ask for permission

that’s because even the devil can’t do

anything without god allowing it

they asked for permission and what they

asked for

is if you’re going to make us leave this

man

give us another place to go because as

you see in the movies

demons need hosts

they need something alive in order for

them to express

themselves because they are spirit they

are invisible

although they are persons they have

intellect emotion and will so they

are persons but they are invisible

persons

and so they need a visible thing in

order to

express themselves on earth so luke

chapter 11 verses 24 to 26

says that when they’re in waterless

places that is places without life where

there’s no water there’s no life

when they’re in waterless places no life

they’re looking for a place

they’ve got to express themselves and so

when they see dirt in our lives

unaddressed then they cut they come upon

us

so that they can express their

uncleanness

in our uncleanness making our

uncleanness worse than the uncleanness

it was before they arrived

and so they expressed themselves in us

jesus

says come out they say well will you

allow us

to go to the pigs why

why did jesus say you can go to the pigs

simple they’re unclean animals

so he lets them leave an unclean man for

an unclean

animal because they can only flow

where there’s uncleanness that goes

unaddressed

when they enter the swine

they go hog wild and pigslop crazy

it says they run downhill and drown

themselves

because the goal of demons one is to

always take you downhill

it is to devolve your life defeat

your life ravel up and tie up your life

destroy your life demons have one goal

that is you go down

and their ultimate goal is suicide

it says that the pigs went out

down the hill and drowned

themselves

the difference between the pig and the

man is that the pig doesn’t have a soul

and the man does

so there was some resistance in the man

that does not exist in the pig

so when they went to the unclean pig the

unclean pig

committed suicide

jesus comes along

and he addresses it because he addresses

the spiritual cause not merely

the physical symptoms

the enemy looks for spaces

and we’ve all given him some at some

time or another

he doesn’t need a lot of space he just

needs it to be open and dirty

and if it is he will seek to enter that

space

bring his family behind him

in order to bring demonic

downturn into our lives

the herdsmen verse 14 ran away

and reported it to the city and in the

country

and the people came to see what had

happened and when they came to jesus

they observed the man

who had been demon-possessed sitting

down

clothed and in his right mind the very

man who

had been who had had legion and became

frightened

do you see what happened it looks like a

u-turn to me

looks like a reversal to me he now has

clothes on he was naked he was not in

the tomb he’s back he’s

out of the tomb he was cutting himself

he’s now in his right

mind all because

jesus overruled the demonic

the spiritual and when he overruled the

spiritual

sanity came to the insane

now this man is way off because he’s had

2 000 demons

how many demons do you have or do i have

maybe you only have two maybe you have

200 or maybe 2

000 but the more the demon

the more the oppression influence and

possession

let’s look at the herdsmen

verse 17 and they began to employ him

to leave the region

they told jesus get out of here we don’t

want you here

you would have thought they would have

been grateful

you would have been thought boy this man

has the power to get rid of demons

to make insane people let’s send him the

tarot so he can work with everybody

you would have thought he would have

said they would have been glad they said

get him out of here

why get him out of here because he

costing us

money see the pigs went and committed

suicide they were pigs

herdsmen so when their pigs drowned

their money got funny

they said no more pork chop no more pig

feet no more chitlins

no more ham hock

sweet georgia brown got to shut down

because

there is no more pig

this man is costing us money

get rid of jesus let’s keep the business

coming

even if we’ve got to keep the folk

hooked

the man wanted to get in the boat with

jesus in verse 18.

who was demon-possessed employing him

jesus that he might accompany him

and jesus said to him uh-uh you go home

to your people

and report to them what great things the

lord has done for you

and how he has had mercy on you that

tells me right there

the man needed mercy because of how

unclean he was

and he went away and began to proclaim

in the capitalists

what great things jesus had done for him

and everyone

was amazed i want to make two

observations

when they told jesus get out of here he

left

because jesus doesn’t want to be what

he’s not wanted

behold i stand at the door knock

if any man opens the door i will come in

and sup with him

but if you do not open the door

for him he will not stay where he’s not

welcome

he has to be welcomed

in order for him to stay

but the second thing is he told a man no

don’t come with me

i want you to go to decopolis that’s

made of two words polis meaning city

the cop meaning ten go to the 10 city

region you go home first

then you go to the 10 cities in your

community

and i want you to talk about what i did

for you

so here’s the deal

i challenge you to approach

the downward hill of your life

spiritually first

do that first let’s get to the right

question

first the whole first and see if there’s

a demonic thing

by throwing yourself at the feet of

jesus

in worship and submission and yes it may

be tough at first

because if it’s demonically influenced

they don’t want to come out

they want to hold on to you as long as

they can

but you keep throwing yourself at the

face of jesus

and like jacob say i will wrestle with

you

till my change come but i am going to

throw

my face and submission to you jesus

that’s what i am going to do and then

when he delivers you

from your demonic infestation

you bet not keep that to yourself you go

to all the communities

around and you let it be known from

family and friends

and everybody you know in the

surrounding neighborhoods you go to

frisco

and plano and you let it be known jesus

christ

has delivered me and i’m not keeping

this to myself

anybody who can deliver me from what i

could not deliver myself from

i’m going to tell it i’m going to tell

it and then i’m going to tell it

again because i am not ashamed of

anybody

who can deliver me at no charge

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demons are real these are

rebellious angels who have been removed

from god and whose job it is to serve

satan by bringing spiritual death

and consequences into our lives

demons want to possess us they want to

influence us

i remember the adage that ain’t nothing

but the devil well that’s not too far

off

it may not be the devil directly but it

could be one of his posses

the demons and they wreak havoc in our

lives and in our circumstances

and it’s easy to snuff them off as just

bad people bad problems

bad timing bad days when there’s really

bad demons

but because we don’t take demons

seriously we don’t identify things as

demonic

even though we wrestle not against flesh

and blood but principalities and powers

that are in heavenly places demonic

forces but as long as you can discard

them and not recognize them then you

won’t treat them for who they really

are and so you’ll be dealing with

symptoms

and not causal powers behind the

symptoms that you and i are facing

you know what you do with demons you

don’t pet them like a pet

you must excise them

remove them and only jesus christ can do

that

the closer you are to christ the more

power you have over demonic influence

the further you are from christ the more

controlled you will be by demonic

influences

so if you tired of demons influencing

your thinking influencing your

walking you’re talking you’re acting oh

then let’s get jesus

he is the he’s the

ultimate ghostbuster he’s the ultimate

demon discarder

recognize where there is spiritual

influence

and let the spirit of god because

greater is he that’s in you than he

that’s in the world

begin the process of releasing you from

demonic influence

and if necessary demonic possession

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[Applause]

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you