When Good and Evil Collide Lake Merced Church of Christ

Jay Mijares spoke to us about “When Good and Evil Collide”, taken from Luke 8:26-39, a dramatic story about demonic possession.

Jesus met a man from Gerasa who had not been a believer before. Now, demons possessed him and he lived in the tombs and wore no clothes. The demons in him, however, recognized Jesus, and knew that God would be their judge, so they begged Jesus not to torment them. They were terrified because they were irredeemable, knowing they couldn’t accept salvation. Jesus allowed them to leave the man and enter a herd of pigs, and the pigs threw themselves into the lake and drowned.

This miracle brought the man peace and salvation, but the act terrified the townspeople and they asked Jesus to leave. The man begged to go with Jesus, but Jesus told him to stay and tell people how much Jesus did for him.

There are 4 lessons from the tombs of Gerasa:
• Despite our best efforts, spiritual warfare is an unavoidable reality. The demons are out there and they can find us in our weak moments.
• Despite their best efforts, evil spirits are still under the sovereignty and judgment of the One True God.
• In the presence of a great miracle, the Gerasenes were still spiritually blind.They couldn’t face the facts that they saw.
• The natural response to Jesus saving us is to forsake all we have and follow Him.

Jay gave us 3 Questions to Ask at the Sea of Galilee:
Does the knowledge that Jesus is God:
(1) Remind you of who you are in Christ? Do we glorify God with our compassion and mercy? Do we let him reshape us into who we’re meant to be?
(2) Make you think about what you value the most? Jesus valued the shunned man. Who and what we value is how God will see us.
(3) Inspire you to share the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ? We are all commanded to minister to all who need it.

God knows how to use us if we’ll allow Him to lead us. What has God done for you? Go out and share that story with others.