A Chance to Relive our Deliverance
Luke 8:36-39

† I.H.S. †

May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you to go all through your community and tell them everything God has done for you!

A Map of our Journey

Today’s message is a little different than most of those I deliver.  I am going to take you on your life’s journey, seen through the eyes of the man who had been possessed not by just a demon, but whose life had been a plaything for thousands of them.

For most of us, such a journey is difficult, because, well I could joke and say it is because we are at Concordia, but because, as one philosopher once said, “life is suffering”  Or so it can seem!  Especially when Jesus seems like he’s moved on from us.

So let the journey begin.

The journey begins… alone and in darkness

Before we knew Christ, and even some days now, our lives seem like that of the man who found Jesus on the side of the lake.  We may not live among the gravestones, or actually be the property of a horde of demons, but our lives may have been as dark.

Sin can dominate and rule us as certainly as demons, and they aren’t afraid to haunt us with temptations that seek to ensnare us 

Like the man, in those dark days, we barely know anything except the emptiness.  We may feel quite distant from people, and though we love them, there is a grave disconnect, as if we aren’t sure they understand us, or “get” us. 

We might even hear their words of love and care as them trying to control us, to force us to change from who we are, for the brokenness we experience seems to be who we are.

When we are in bondage to sin, like when the man was haunted and owned by  demons, there is this sense of walking around in the fog, disconnected from the world.

Even God seems a bit hard to communicate with.

Did you ever notice Jesus doesn’t talk directly to him at first?  He addresses that which haunts him?

Joined on the Journey

On this broken journey, that is what happens next, we all of a sudden find ourselves standing in brilliant daylight, freed from what has hounded us, what has caused us to be disconnected, 

We are no longer alone, as the light sines from our partner in our journey, the one that makes it come alive. The brokenness seems, for the moment to be mending, and people notice as well, something is different in your life. 

Some may even be overwhelmed by the change, like the community where the man who the demons were forced to free were overwhelmed.  They didn’t know what to make of it, and were so afraid, they couldn’t adjust to the glory of God that was transforming this broken man’s life and making him whole and healthy.

No wonder all the man wanted to do was to sit at Jesus feet, to hear Him speak of the Father’s love, to dwell in the sweetness of the moment, to just enjoy the peace and freedom that is here.

I think that is why little kids love to come to this rail and just sit here… I know that is why here, at the altar, or even over on the side, hiding behind the pulpit is the place where I feel the most at home in the entire world.

It is so radically different from dwelling in darkness, hounded by sin and despair.

To just sit here and know, the Lord is with you, and that because Jesus has risen, so we are risen indeed!  ALLELUIA

He wants us to go where?  WHY?

It is then we hear the words of Jesus, as He leaves where He found us, and began our healing, and showed His love, and the life that His gives us, freed, forgiven, and healed/

We want to stay here, we never want to go without Him, and He says to us, as he did to the man, “No, go back to your family and tell them everything God has done for you!”

Uhm, Lord, if I walk away, what happens if the demons return?  What If I can’t handle it, and I fall into temptation and sin reaches out and gets me? 

I can imagine these things went through his mind.  Why?  Because they can go through my mind, when I forget the most important truth in my life, that the Lord Is with me.

Then there is the fear, if I was this man, I would phrase It this way.  “Lord, send me to anywhere, but please not back to the people that know me and my weakness so well. Not back to the people that rejected me, and who I have hurt.  I could come up with 1000 reasons, but the bottom line is that I would rather be here, in them moments to come.

I even wonder if Jesus wasn’t accepted by his family, why I would ever expect my family and my community to listen to me.

Even so, having delivered us from what oppressed us, and as He is healing us, He sends us out, to those who will recognize the change God has made in our lives, to those whom we know need what God has given us. And as we share what God has done in us, we realize the depth of His love even more, and we realize what it means that because He died on the cross, and rose from the dead, we have risen indeed, and were are given new life and the companionship of the Holy Spirit who resides in us.

The more we experience this love, the more we seek to share what God has done, and that is something we can share…. Reliving again and again what He has done, as we share these blessings… and are in awe of His love.

Let’s pray,

Heavenly Father, help us to realize the incredible done in our lives, help us to live our lives, among those whom You have sent us, sharing all the mind-blowing things You have done for us.  Help us to praise Your name while sharing it with those around us who need to escape their darkness.  We pray this in Jesus name.  AMEN!