Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 2: it gives your perspective to see God.
Speaker 1: Is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: Look at the person next to give them my title.
Speaker 2: Say you must be important, be seated.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 2: Have you noticed that, like who we think is important,
Speaker 2: sometimes maybe God doesn't think is as important in culture.
Speaker 2: I mean, just like, have you noticed that it seems
Speaker 2: like lately I'm praying more and more, God, show me
Speaker 2: what's important from your perspective. I'm afraid that I'll live
Speaker 2: my life wasting my energy on things that seem important
Speaker 2: to me, only to find out that they weren't as
Speaker 2: important as I thought they were. So I'm just praying
Speaker 2: more and more in the moment, just a very short prayer. God,
Speaker 2: show me what's important, and I'm praying it at the
Speaker 2: start of my week.
Speaker 1: More that God.
Speaker 2: There's a lot I could do this week, but I
Speaker 2: need you to show me the difference between what's urgent
Speaker 2: and what's important, because some things that will be an
Speaker 2: emergency for other people cannot become my priority just because
Speaker 2: they didn't make a plan. And so this week, I
Speaker 2: need you to show me the difference between what's urgent.
Speaker 1: And what's important.
Speaker 2: And sometimes it's urgent and important, but I need God
Speaker 2: more and more.
Speaker 1: To show me what's more important.
Speaker 2: Lately, I find that it's not choosing between you know,
Speaker 2: Netflix and Bible study. It's like which show on Netflix
Speaker 2: or Bible. I'm just kidding. I just want to take
Speaker 2: it there now. It's two things that are equally to me,
Speaker 2: equal priorities, because I know that I need to seek
Speaker 2: first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. I don't
Speaker 2: always know what that looks like in this because my
Speaker 2: role in the Kingdom consists of multiple roles. So on
Speaker 2: one level, I am a pastor who needs to prepare
Speaker 2: a sermon. On another level, I am a dad with
Speaker 2: a kid who wants to throw the football. And I
Speaker 2: know you think that you're more important than my son's
Speaker 2: desire to throw a football. But the fact of the
Speaker 2: matter is, you know, if I drop dead, there'd be
Speaker 2: another preacher standing here this weekend, but he's only got
Speaker 2: one dad.
Speaker 1: It's true, is so true?
Speaker 2: Some of the things that I thought were more important
Speaker 2: in my twenties. Now that I'm like a wise sage
Speaker 2: at the age of thirty eight, I'm realizing that I
Speaker 2: need God more and more to show me what's important now,
Speaker 2: what's important now? What was important to me in one
Speaker 2: season may not need the same priority in this season.
Speaker 1: And that even applies to people.
Speaker 2: I know that everybody is equally important to somebody say,
Speaker 2: I know you're important to God. But God is an
Speaker 2: unlimited resource and he can love everybody equally.
Speaker 1: I'm not that much like God. I only have so
Speaker 1: much to give.
Speaker 2: Come on, There's only so many bags of chips in
Speaker 2: the vending machine of my heart, and I can't just
Speaker 2: have everybody grab and everything out of me all the time.
Speaker 1: Eventually I will run out.
Speaker 2: So I need to be led by the spirit to
Speaker 2: know what's most important in this moment, in this season
Speaker 2: of my life.
Speaker 1: What is the priority of God for me?
Speaker 2: In Mark's Gospel, we are going to study today briefly
Speaker 2: a story that he thought was important to include to
Speaker 2: give us a full picture of Jesus. It's been shocking
Speaker 2: to us some of the priorities that Jesus had and
Speaker 2: how much different those priorities are than maybe what we
Speaker 2: would have exc When we see him stopping to heal
Speaker 2: a woman in Mark five point twenty one, and following
Speaker 2: on his way to heal a little girl, we are shocked, confounded,
Speaker 2: and in some ways challenged because the one he was
Speaker 2: going to heal was the daughter of someone who was important.
Speaker 1: His name was Gyrus, he was a synagogue leader.
Speaker 2: The woman who came up behind Jesus isn't even given
Speaker 2: a name. Nobody really cared about women like that in
Speaker 2: this culture. He stops en route to the miracle that
Speaker 2: is more important and more urgent, because the little girl
Speaker 2: has hours to live. In fact, while he stops to
Speaker 2: heal this unimportant woman, the important girl dies. Jesus isn't
Speaker 2: concerned about this because he is healer. Yes, also he
Speaker 2: is resurrection. His priority in this moment is to show
Speaker 2: the people a deeper revelation of who he is. The
Speaker 2: only way for him to give them this revelation of
Speaker 2: the power of his presence is to upset their priorities
Speaker 2: and stop for something that they see as less important,
Speaker 2: so that when he gets to the scene, which was
Speaker 2: more important, the little girl is already dead. This provides
Speaker 2: an opportunity for him to do something that he couldn't
Speaker 2: have done if he had gone according to their priorities.
Speaker 2: Sometimes God will upset your priorities to show you his
Speaker 2: power in a new way. And I know it's hard
Speaker 2: to clap for that. But if God has been doing
Speaker 2: some unusual things.
Speaker 1: In your life lately and it seems.
Speaker 2: Difficult to get Jesus to follow your agenda, maybe he.
Speaker 1: Is re ordering your priorities.
Speaker 2: Maybe what was important to you then shouldn't be important
Speaker 2: to you now, and he's trying to show you an
Speaker 2: order of importance. That's how you can know when the
Speaker 2: presence of God is really increasing in your day to
Speaker 2: day life.
Speaker 1: It will shift your priorities.
Speaker 2: Goosebumps don't prove the presence of God.
Speaker 1: I get goosebumps off of Bruno Mars every time.
Speaker 2: Goose Bumpson sometimes I kiss Holly. Feelings don't prove the
Speaker 2: presence of God.
Speaker 1: What proves the presence.
Speaker 2: Of God in my life is when my priorities begin
Speaker 2: to align with his. And this is going to require
Speaker 2: a collision because cultural priorities are much different. Now we're
Speaker 2: ready for Mark Chapter five, a story that Mark thought
Speaker 2: was important enough to include for us. Imagine you have
Speaker 2: to write a gospel account and you have to decide
Speaker 2: what's the most important teaching Jesus gave that you want
Speaker 2: to put in Mark four or what stories are.
Speaker 1: You going to leave out?
Speaker 2: Because it's not like you could say, well, that wasn't
Speaker 2: any good when he healed that line. Man, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Like it'd be hard to let something
Speaker 2: hit the cutting room floor, right, Yeah, Well, I mean
Speaker 2: he he opened so many death fears. You got to
Speaker 2: pick and choose which ones you're gonna include. Like stuff
Speaker 2: that Jesus did on his way to his appointments would
Speaker 2: have been our greatest accomplishment in our whole lifetime. And
Speaker 2: now Mark has to decide, all right, what are the
Speaker 2: most important stories?
Speaker 1: And so in order to do that, he has to
Speaker 1: choose one theme.
Speaker 2: And he has to get this theme across because Matthew,
Speaker 2: who wrote a gospel account, he's gonna have a theme.
Speaker 2: Luke is John is Mark's theme, he decides is going
Speaker 2: to be to show.
Speaker 1: The authority of Jesus. The authority of Jesus, and authority
Speaker 1: is illustrated, not explained. Can I talk about that?
Speaker 2: People who always need to tell you they're in charge,
Speaker 2: aren't really in control. When you really have power, you
Speaker 2: don't have to shout. Just walk through my house and
Speaker 2: watch Holly look at one of our kids a certain way,
Speaker 2: and you will see that power doesn't have to shout.
Speaker 2: I mean, there is a look she can give. And
Speaker 2: I don't know where the kids go after that. They
Speaker 2: crawl under parts of the house I've never seen off
Speaker 2: of one look. And this is a demonstration of Jesus
Speaker 2: authority that I don't think you'll soon forget.
Speaker 1: Married it to you. Just relax and listen, Okay.
Speaker 2: They went Mark five, verse one, across the lake to
Speaker 2: the region of the Garriscenes.
Speaker 1: When Jesus got out.
Speaker 2: Of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came
Speaker 2: from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in
Speaker 2: the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not
Speaker 2: even with a chain, for it had often been chained
Speaker 2: hand and foot. But he tore the chains apart and
Speaker 2: broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong
Speaker 2: enough to subdue him, and that's called foreshadowing class. No
Speaker 2: one was strong enough to subdue him. Somebody shot I
Speaker 2: got a great big God night and day Verse five
Speaker 2: among the tombs, and in the hills he would cry
Speaker 2: out and cut himself with stones. And verse six is
Speaker 2: interesting when he saw Jesus from a distance. Now, this
Speaker 2: is the first time he's seen Jesus, but this is
Speaker 2: not jesus first vision of him. He saw Jesus from
Speaker 2: a distance. Jesus did his ministry in Capernaum. This account
Speaker 2: is from a Gentile region, the region.
Speaker 1: Of the Garriscenes. No one knows exactly where that is.
Speaker 2: By the way, there's a lot of debate about it.
Speaker 2: I went over to a spot where they think this
Speaker 2: story might have happened last year, and he showed me
Speaker 2: how Jesus would go up in the mountains and pray
Speaker 2: early in the morning and late at night, and across
Speaker 2: the sea of Galilee, where Jesus has just traveled, the
Speaker 2: sound would have traveled. So if this man is crying
Speaker 2: out day and night, there's a good chance Jesus would
Speaker 2: have been up early while the man was up late,
Speaker 2: and while the man was up late crying, Jesus was
Speaker 2: up late praying. And maybe one morning, after hearing the
Speaker 2: man cry one more time, Jesus decided, today is the
Speaker 2: day for me to make my way toward this man
Speaker 2: and set him free. Could it be that God has
Speaker 2: heard your cry, and he has heard.
Speaker 1: The secret petitions and disappointments.
Speaker 2: Of your heart, and he had you log on or
Speaker 2: show up today because today is today?
Speaker 1: That he came to see about you.
Speaker 2: When you thought no one else was listening, and you
Speaker 2: thought you were all alone.
Speaker 1: Could it be that he heard you?
Speaker 2: And now the man sees Jesus, possibly before Jesus even
Speaker 2: lays eyes on the man, and he ran and fell
Speaker 2: on his knees in front of him verse seven. He shouted,
Speaker 2: at the top of his voice, what do you want
Speaker 2: with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God. Oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, your first response to God will often
Speaker 2: be feared.
Speaker 1: When he shows up in your life in real power.
Speaker 2: There will be something in you that will resist that
Speaker 2: authority because it goes against everything that is ingrained in
Speaker 2: our humanity to be in the presence of one who
Speaker 2: is greater than us, and it often causes us to
Speaker 2: reevaluate our priorities. Now, in this man's case, there is
Speaker 2: a specific reason that he falls on his knees and shouts,
Speaker 2: what do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the
Speaker 2: Most High God? In God's name, don't torture me, for
Speaker 2: Jesus had said to him, here it is, come out
Speaker 2: of this man, you impure spirit. And Jesus challenged the
Speaker 2: spirit that was within the man, and the spirit within
Speaker 2: the man resisted the challenge of Jesus because anytime the
Speaker 2: enemy has occupied a territory for a while, he won't
Speaker 2: let it go without a fight. Jesus asked him a question,
Speaker 2: not for information, but for revelation. He doesn't need to
Speaker 2: know this, he knows all things. But he asked the
Speaker 2: man because the man might know who Jesus is, but
Speaker 2: this man doesn't know who he is. And Jesus asked
Speaker 2: the man, what is your name? And the man responded,
Speaker 2: my name is region, for we are many. And he
Speaker 2: begged Jesus again and again not to send them out
Speaker 2: of the area. The demons beg Jesus, don't make us leave.
Speaker 2: And this is where the story gets interesting verse eleven.
Speaker 2: And I promise you the Bible is way more bizarre
Speaker 2: than you give it credit for him exhibit.
Speaker 1: A verse eleven, a large herd of pigs.
Speaker 2: We know we're not in Jewish territory anymore, right, because
Speaker 2: there would not be a.
Speaker 1: Large herd of pigs. Jesus has let his home.
Speaker 2: Turf, and he's crossed over, and now he's in Gentile territory,
Speaker 2: the region of the gar Seats. And there's a large
Speaker 2: herd of pigs standing nearby on the hillside feeding. And
Speaker 2: the demons begged Jesus send us among the pigs, allow
Speaker 2: us to go into them. He gave them permission. Okay,
Speaker 2: you got to leave the man, but you can jump
Speaker 2: on the pigs. And the impure spirits came out and
Speaker 2: went into the pigs, and the herd, about two thousand
Speaker 2: in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake,
Speaker 2: and we're drowting. I know you're worried right now that
Speaker 2: I'm going to find a way to preach about this
Speaker 2: in a way that applies to your life. But trust me,
Speaker 2: I've been doing this a long time. I got a
Speaker 2: good track record, and I promise you there is a
Speaker 2: connection between you and these pigs. And if you give
Speaker 2: me a few minutes and pay close attention, I'll show
Speaker 2: you what it is. Verse fourteen. Those tending the pigs
Speaker 2: ran off and reported this in the town in countryside,
Speaker 2: and the people went to see what had happened. And
Speaker 2: when they came to Jesus, they saw the man who
Speaker 2: had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there,
Speaker 2: dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
Speaker 2: Those who had seen it told the people what had
Speaker 2: happened to the demon possessed man, and told about the
Speaker 2: pigs as well. And then then then the people began
Speaker 2: to plead with Jesus to leave their region. Touch them
Speaker 2: again and say, can I get your autograph? Touch them
Speaker 2: say you must be imported. You must be important that
Speaker 2: Jesus would go through all this trouble to keep an
Speaker 2: appointment with you.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so sorry. I messed up. I started reading
Speaker 1: in the wrong place in the Bible.
Speaker 2: It happens. I'm sorry. This is my third time preaching it.
Speaker 2: You will have to forgive me. I was supposed to
Speaker 2: start at mark four thirty five, and I started in
Speaker 2: mark five. And you can't understand mark five without mark
Speaker 2: four thirty five through forty one. So if you will
Speaker 2: forgive me for my slight oversight, I'm gonna do what
Speaker 2: I should have done before. I want to tell you
Speaker 2: about the storm that came.
Speaker 1: Before the miracle.
Speaker 2: This passage of scripture will preach all by itself, because
Speaker 2: watch this. How many of you are going through a
Speaker 2: storm in your life today? Just raise your hand, or
Speaker 2: somebody close to you is going through a storm.
Speaker 1: Raise your hand.
Speaker 2: Now see how easy it is to preach about storms.
Speaker 2: Did you see the high percentage of hands that went up?
Speaker 2: Except at Blakeney they never raised their hands when I
Speaker 2: ask them to. But let me try this one more time.
Speaker 2: How many of you are going through a storm. Just
Speaker 2: came out of a storm, or you know there's probably
Speaker 2: a storm around the corner. Come on, be a meteorologist
Speaker 2: and touch your neighbor and say, there's.
Speaker 1: A storm out on the ocean.
Speaker 2: So let me read this to you because it's important.
Speaker 2: Somebody say it's important. That day when evening came, this
Speaker 2: is the same day, remember the same day. Mark didn't
Speaker 2: divide this into chapters.
Speaker 1: We did that later. Mark's writing it all as one story.
Speaker 2: That day, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples,
Speaker 2: let's go over to the other side.
Speaker 1: Note he doesn't tell him why.
Speaker 2: He doesn't say, because I've got an appointment on the
Speaker 2: other side. He doesn't tell them why. He just tells them,
Speaker 2: what can you obey? What God says, when you don't know,
Speaker 2: why can you just get in and go even though
Speaker 2: you don't know where this is going. If you believe
Speaker 2: he has all authority, you don't need full details to
Speaker 2: be obedient. This is just for the obedien and Christians
Speaker 2: who are willing to cross over. Now make a note
Speaker 2: of this. You can't cross over without conflict. Jesus is
Speaker 2: moving the mission forward. He's leaving the comfort zone of
Speaker 2: what do we call it? Copernaum? Ooh nahoum comfort Copernaum, Copernaum,
Speaker 2: it's the place of the comforter. He's leaving the comfort zone,
Speaker 2: and he's moving into enemy territory, like some of you
Speaker 2: are doing right now in your life. You are beginning
Speaker 2: to move forward in the things of God. You're changing
Speaker 2: your circle, You're changing your values. You have begun to
Speaker 2: prioritize the presence of God.
Speaker 1: But let me warn you. When you make God your priority,
Speaker 1: the enemy will send a storm.
Speaker 2: You never cross over without conflict. Did you expect the
Speaker 2: devil would let you go without a fight. Did you
Speaker 2: expect that he would let you leave Egypt without sending
Speaker 2: his chariots to chase you down.
Speaker 1: You've been serving the devil forty.
Speaker 2: Two years and now you decide to stand up and
Speaker 2: be a godly man, and you think it's just gonna
Speaker 2: change overnight. As a matter of fact, I want to
Speaker 2: announce to you the reason the storm is raging might
Speaker 2: not be because your.
Speaker 1: Jonah headed away from the will of God.
Speaker 2: It might be because you're crossing over into the calling.
Speaker 1: That is on your life. That's what the conflict is
Speaker 1: all about.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 1: I know I should just calm down and talk to you, but.
Speaker 2: Sometimes when you're in a storm, sometimes you need somebody
Speaker 2: to holler at you and say, hey, you're gonna make
Speaker 2: it through this.
Speaker 1: How do you know? Because Jesus said, We're going to
Speaker 1: the other side, so you can't die in this.
Speaker 2: You gotta make it to that.
Speaker 1: That's what I came to say.
Speaker 2: I've preached so many sermons about this storm, and I've
Speaker 2: told so many people that they can survive what they're
Speaker 2: going through. But there's a more important question than will
Speaker 2: you survive. The better question to ask is why did
Speaker 2: you survive the storm?
Speaker 1: Have you thought about Have you ever thought.
Speaker 2: About how many things the enemy did, even early in
Speaker 2: your life to try to stop you from having a
Speaker 2: relationship with God. Remember this is Mark chapter four, not
Speaker 2: Mark chapter five. This man has not even seen Jesus
Speaker 2: yet yet. There is a storm that is sent to
Speaker 2: the Sea of Galilee to keep Jesus from getting to him.
Speaker 1: I know you're like, well, how do you know the
Speaker 1: devil started the storm.
Speaker 2: Maybe it was just climate change because it said Jesus
Speaker 2: rebuke the window the waves. Jesus doesn't rebuke natural elements.
Speaker 2: He rebukes demons. The same demonic oppression that was oppressing
Speaker 2: that man was in that sea trying to stop Jesus
Speaker 2: from getting to the man. You were on the devil's
Speaker 2: hit list before you were ever born. There were things
Speaker 2: in your family line that were happening before you were
Speaker 2: born that were designed to keep you from being in
Speaker 2: church at this moment today, touch somebody say you must
Speaker 2: be imported because in spite of all the storms that
Speaker 2: had your name on them, in spite of all the
Speaker 2: winds and the waves and the hurricane forces, in spite
Speaker 2: of every attack, look at you in church. Look at
Speaker 2: you clapping, Look at you taking notes, look at you
Speaker 2: praising God, look at you believing for a brighter day.
Speaker 1: Look how you made it. You must be important. You'll survive.
Speaker 1: You know how I know you're important.
Speaker 2: It takes boldness to call your sermon you must be important.
Speaker 2: It takes boldness to call your sermon that.
Speaker 1: But I know it.
Speaker 2: Not because of the car you drive, not because of
Speaker 2: the house you live in, not because I looked up
Speaker 2: how many.
Speaker 1: Instagram followers you have.
Speaker 2: I know you're important because of your storm.
Speaker 1: See the size of.
Speaker 2: Your storm tells me something about your importance. The size
Speaker 2: of your storm lets me know the importance of your assignment.
Speaker 2: The devil doesn't start a storm for somebody who is
Speaker 2: not threatened by.
Speaker 1: If you're going through a storm, there's.
Speaker 2: Something so big on the other side, And if you
Speaker 2: know high five to three people say you must be
Speaker 2: important because that big, bad devil's been huffing and puffing,
Speaker 2: and he thought he would.
Speaker 1: Blow your house down. But the trial to serve, to
Speaker 1: prove your foundation. Come on, my house is on the rock.
Speaker 1: I can't. I was so confused for so long.
Speaker 2: I thought the storm meant that God had left me,
Speaker 2: you know, But in this passage, the storm means He's
Speaker 2: on the way.
Speaker 1: Did you hear what I said?
Speaker 2: If you're going through a storm right now, or if
Speaker 2: one happens to hit on Thursday morning. I want you
Speaker 2: to know that the storm is a sign that grace
Speaker 2: is on the way. The Bible says the storm came
Speaker 2: up suddenly the moment Jesus started in the direction of
Speaker 2: the man, here came a storm, not because God wasn't
Speaker 2: with him, but precisely.
Speaker 1: Because he was headed in his direction.
Speaker 3: All right, So if that's true, if what I just
Speaker 3: said is true, that there is a storm that proves
Speaker 3: nobody attacks what isn't valuable, I promise you if I
Speaker 3: went to play Game seven today, Lebron wouldn't guard me.
Speaker 1: I promise you.
Speaker 2: They would let me run all around that court and
Speaker 2: do whatever I wanted to do. They would hand me
Speaker 2: the ball gladly. You only guard. Why would you guard
Speaker 2: someone who wasn't in a position to score.
Speaker 1: I know you're important.