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