Churches in Santa Cruz

“``You want to know what stirs my heart the most about this story? It's not what's written in the text, it's what's missing. How did the man with this army of demons get this way? Was he to blame in some way? And how on earth did it reach the point where thousands of demons entered him? Well, scripture gives us no answer. Apparently, how he reached this point of desperation plays no part in Jesus' decision to rescue him. I love that about this story. No blame, no condemnation, mercy. Just mercy. Do you realize what this means for you and mean? It for me, it means that whatever leads us to reach our own points of desperation, whatever got us there, plays no part in God's decision to rescue us. We come to him, our past is ripe, wiped away. There's no blame, there's no condemnation, mercy.”

“"Love should always be your motive. It must be the foundation for everything that you do. If you go wrong with anything, but you love, you'll be all right. You'll be all right. Love. Love is the greatest manifestation of God's power. Now I don't want this to be an excuse, so I don't want you to say, oh, yeah, healing doesn't work, but, but I love people. Okay. But that's not what I mean. But love is the greatest manifestation of God's power."”

“God cares for all of his creatures, but human beings are created in the image of God. Created for an intimate, eternal relationship with God. And if our hearts are momentarily grieved that God would allow, not cause, but allow 2,000 innocent pigs to to die in order to free this one man from a living hell. How much more should our hearts break that God would allow his son, the holy one, to die in order to save us from eternal hell. The fact that we are of such worth to our creator should cause us to just fall to our knees in worship.”

“If this man were your loved one, your father, your brother, your son, you'd be begging Jesus to rescue him no matter the cost. And when he did, you would be so overcome with joy and gratitude. You would not give those pigs a second thought. For God to allow 2,000 innocent creatures to plunge to their deaths in order to save the life of one human being gives us just a glimpse into the value God places on even one human soul.”

“be still is not a gentle encouragement to to be quiet and calm. It is actually a command to stop and let go even in the midst of war and chaos. And the second part of the verse, to acknowledge that God is sovereign overall, no matter what turmoil is swirling all around us. Anyone here ever feel like life's swirling out of control? Maybe you're in a tough season and you feel like right now you wish you could just stop and let go. It's easier said than done, isn't it?”

“It's true for me, it's true for you, and it's true for this man with the demons because let's face it, on the surface, his case looks beyond hope. A man so violent, chains can't hold him, so tormented of soul, he cuts himself, runs screaming into the night. It all seems so hopeless except for Jesus. With Jesus, there's always hope. And so, Jesus comes for him, that's why he set sail that night. He is on a rescue mission to reach this one man, to set him free from his never ending nightmare because Jesus sees what no one else can see. God is going to redeem this life in the ways that no one could have imagined because God has a plan for his life just as he does for each one of us. And nothing, no raging storm, no army of demons, nothing is going to get in his way.”

“And the truth is, the reality is you and I are a lot like the man with the legion. Apart from Christ and covered in sin, we are helpless, we are hopeless, we are foul and defiled, a danger to ourselves and to others. But Jesus, he sees past all that. He sees the soul created in the image of God and so Jesus goes on a rescue mission and not even violent storms or armies of demons are going to get in his way. And he feels that same passion towards me and towards you. There is not a soul on earth too far gone that Jesus cannot deliver him. No matter how high the pile of sin, no matter the no matter how far we fall, no matter the stench of our failures, none of it is any match for the mercy of God. None of it.”

“Where in your life right now are you struggling to recognize that God, God is sovereign over all? Because wherever you believe God to be powerless, even just a tiny bit, you give the enemy a foothold. Let me say that again. Wherever you believe God to be powerless, you give the enemy a foothold. And if the enemy can succeed in slowly lowering our view of God, suddenly our view of Satan's power begins to rise because if God's not that powerful, well, Satan's all the more to be feared.”

“``They left the crowds and headed out they left the crowds behind and they headed out onto down to the sea because Jesus knows what's waiting on the other side. He hears the heart of this one man crying out for a deliverance. And from a human standpoint, it makes no sense to leave the crowd, to leave the 99, to battle the storm and go after the one. It all seems so senseless, even foolish to go after the one until that one is you.”

“He's come back to life. It's it's a very great parallel to what it means to be saved. Right? To to give ourselves to Jesus, to hear his voice and come alive. And yet he comes out in these death bandages, you know, these wrappings of death that that are still around him, and he's got these oils wrapped on his body. And he should smell and and I guess there was a smell when they originally opened. Don't know if it went away, which would be unfortunate. And and what they have to do is they have to pull off, you know, pull off these wrappings that have kept him bound in death. So even though he has life, he's still enwrapped in death. This makes sense? And what I the picture I had today is I think that as we understand what God beckons us into in the kingdom of God, we need to know that it includes salvation. Yes. The coming forth and the come forth Lazarus and the life, but it also beckons us into more than that or maybe salvation is more than that. It has to strip off the wrappings of death. It has to be a whole new way of living. You have to come through death into life, come into freedom, and now walk with Jesus.”