Hello and welcome back to the PHSA Podcast.
My name is David Bigford.
I'm the pastor here at SalmonArm.
This is a very special podcast series where I'm going to be sharing with you messages
from our most recent conference in Prescott, Arizona, the Beyond Limits Conference with
a theme of to preach the gospel in the regions beyond from 2 Corinthians 10-16.
I'm going to share all of the sermons from this conference series to include Greg Mitchell,
our head pastor, Joe Campbell, Richard Ruby, Tom Payne, and many, many others during this
series.
So I'll be sharing these with you over the next couple weeks, and I hope you really enjoy
these messages.
If you'd like to see these messages in a video format, you can go to prescottpottershouse.com,
where all of these will be available for you to view in a video format.
So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the messages, and I hope you
enjoy them.
God bless.
Praise God. Mark chapter 5, I so appreciate Pastor Brown's preaching.
I know we believe by faith that whatever we're saying, you know, God's doing something in
people.
But when I hear Pastor Brown preach, it's palpable. I can feel something happening in
me just even beyond what he's saying. And that was powerful today. I'm very, very grateful.
I'm very grateful to my pastor for the invitation to preach and minister. This conference is
a very, very humbling thing. And so I'm grateful.
The Boston Globe ran an article back in May. Ten years ago, there was a small piece of
a human brain that came into a lab at Harvard University and came directly from an operating
room where it had been taken from an epilepsy patient to try and reduce her seizures. But
in the years following, Dr. Lichtman was the man in charge, methodically reconstructed
the patterns of that brain by feeding that one cubic millimeter of brain tissue, one
cubic millimeter, into a $6 million device that sliced it into impossibly thin slivers
and was able to take pictures or representative images. I want to just show you three of these
if we could. That's in your brain. Can I have another one? That is your brain. And
one more there. Now, that's just in the smallest slice of one cubic millimeter. That's a beautiful
thing. And it's a very complex thing. In our day, it is a suffering thing. And we read
regularly of the kinds of mental suffering and torment that generations, and we're particularly
focusing on the younger generations, but of course it's not limited to that. But I want
you to know that Jesus made that. He made that brain. That's His creation. And one of
the researchers said, if we could truly know what another person's connectome, that is
the singular wiring diagram of all of their memories, thoughts, fears, and dreams, how
would we treat each other? And could we heal the brain of its countless torments? Well,
none of us is ever going to figure all that's going on inside of each other's brains. But
I know someone who does. He not only knows exactly what he made, but you know the Bible
says he actually holds it together. He sustains all things by the word of his power. And not
only does he know how it is made, he knows how it's been damaged. He knows. Jesus knows
how it is to be made whole. He understands. And he has the power to do something. He has
the authority and wisdom to do something. But what I want you and I to try and if I
can communicate to you, he has the compassion. He has the compassion that motivates him to
do something. We're going to look at some familiar verses. This is the Gadarene demoniac.
We're not going to read all the preceding verses about him being in the tombs and cutting
himself and crying out and unable to be bound. We're just going to focus here in verse 15.
Then they came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon possessed and had the legion
sitting and clothed in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who saw it told
them how it happened to him who had been demon possessed and about the swine. Then they began
to plead with him to depart from their region. And when he got into the boat, he who had
been demon possessed begged him that he might be with him. However, Jesus did not permit
him but said to him, go home to your friends. Tell them what great things the Lord has done
for you and how he has had compassion on you. And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis
all that Jesus had done for him and all marveled. Amen. Jesus' minds, abused minds, our minds
obviously are very beautiful and complex things. The Bible says, I will praise you for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. To think that that's simply a product of evolution. That
somehow we came from a toad to paint the Sistine Chapel. It's just beyond comprehension. That
even the researchers that discovered these things that can be so helpful to help in human
brains. The music, the art, the architecture, the genius that has discovered cures for polio
and has largely gotten rid of many diseases. Like this is an amazing thing that Jesus has
created. It is the most, in some ways, the most glorious thing in all of creation. This
brain of ours, I don't know mine doesn't feel like that. I don't know about you. I'm just
going. But just like anything in his creation, it can be abused. And Jesus really minds what
we do with our minds. We can abuse our own minds. Some of us are recovering from some
chemical abuse that we did a long time ago. Some of you, it wasn't that long ago. We can
expose our minds to stuff. What we read and what we watch, what we listen to. Media, sometimes
the people that we listen to, the images that we expose ourselves to. Social media, they're
saying that this is a crucial influence in the mental health of young people today. That
the surgeon general is wanting to put a caution on those just like smoking cigarettes. Smoking
cigarettes can kill you. And social media can kill you. Worst of all, social media means
you might kill you. Exposing themselves to porn, horror, violence. You know sometimes
flying on a plane and seeing somebody watching on their screen next door, people being shot
and blown up. I'm sorry, there's enough explosions in my life without adding a few more. Does
that help you? I don't know. And then of course what we ruminate about. That's what we go
over and over in our minds. The bitternesses, the hate, the pride. How we process the issues
of life. You tend to think, well I think like this because I've been wronged. And certainly
you have been wronged, but is it helping you to ruminate about it? And make one of those
connectomes stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger because you think about the grievance.
You think about your bitterness over and over and over and over again. How about thinking
about Jesus over and over and over and over again and make a really healthy connectome.
Of course others have abused our minds. Words that have been spoken, hateful, demeaning,
cruel. Words of rejection. You've heard words of error and rebellion, manipulation and control.
And physical and emotional and even sexual abuse. And so in many ways our minds are not
in the place that Jesus intended. You can disagree with me, but I think of that was
the Son of God that was in the garden forming man out of the dust of the ground. And that
it was the Son of God that breathed life. That He created the one who would become Jesus
Christ. He created your mind. And He created it not for us to damage it or for others to
damage it, but of course that's what's happened. But the same one who made it is the same one
who cares about the condition of your mind this morning. He minds. He cares. This man
has said that he was in his right mind. After Jesus touched him now he is in his right mind.
That tells us that's the center of the trouble. That's why he's cutting himself. That's why
he's howling. That's why he's spending time among the tombs. It's something, there's
this, that is how the demon powers have exploited this life. How did he get like that? The Bible
doesn't tell us. It doesn't say what happened. Was it something that happened to him? Was
it something that he did to himself? Or a combination of both? Was it a family thing?
Generational curse? False religion? A cult? Violations? You know, not every mental issue
is a demon. If you wake up in the morning and think life stinks until you have your
four quads latte, then that's not necessarily a demon. It's just like... But we know the
Bible talks about different conditions of the mind. The anxious mind. The blinded mind.
The corrupted mind. The carnal mind. The poisoned mind. The darkened mind. It may involve a
spirit. It may involve something in our own hearts as well. Your brain is planning to
remind you of the stupid things you did 15 years ago in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
It reckons waking you up with a jolt after only three hours of sleep, then it will spend
much of the rest of the night replaying the list of your greatest mistakes. That spongy
gray lump which sits between your ears is planning a real greatest hits retrospective,
which will include every dumb thing you've ever said. That time you got completely wrong
with a person you really fancied and doomed yourself to a life of regret and loneliness.
Every stupid choice you've ever made and how people are only your friends because they
pity you. It expects this will be completed about 6.30 p.m. and by which time you'll have
to get up and go to work and pretend you're just fine. And when asked, your brain says
it intends to do this randomly at intervals for the rest of your life. Thank God we have
one who is more merciful to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know when I came into the
Prescott Church back in 1977, I had been a Christian for six years and actually had a
clue what that meant for about five. But you know I was a Bible reader. You know I read
my Bible every day. It's not like I was ignorant about Bible stuff. But Pastor Mitchell, he
would say these things sometimes and just a light would just go off in my mind. Like
just stuff that you've read or even heard preached and it would just bring such clarity
so that you could actually process. And I remember him and of course you have been around
forever you know this is like common knowledge to you but I remember him saying the battle
ground is the mind. And my like wow that's true. But just something about the way that
he said it and just to realize over the years that's where the battle is. It was one of
those wow moments that I had in being under Pastor Mitchell's ministry. How are you doing
in that battle? Do we take it seriously? Are we engaging in the fight? Are we thinking
well this is just how it is? This is just life. But Jesus, he cares. He has compassion
on the condition of your mind in this building today or those of you who might be watching.
Jesus heals a tormented mind. But he doesn't just heal a tormented mind, he gives him a
right mind. Then they came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon possessed and had
the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind. Jesus has power over any power
that torments your mind. There's no power in heaven or earth greater than the Lord Jesus
Christ and his authority and power to free you and me from the things that torment our
minds. Thank God. This is a legion of demons, what 600, 1000, whatever. It's a crew. And
they're thinking they're pretty hot stuff. Look at what this guy will do. Hey, I don't
know what they call, demons call each other, but why don't you make yourself hit him in
the head with a rock. They're just ruling man. They're just ruling tormenting this life
and Jesus shows up and now they're, I don't know if demons wet their pants, but now they're,
he's here. Jesus, the son of the most high God. Yeah, you got it. You got it. That's
exactly who he is. He is the son of the most high God and you are some squirrely little
creatures of hell and you have, you are no match for the, for Jesus, the son of the most
high God. They are no match for Jesus Christ. Whatever those tormenting spirit, whether
they're in you or whether they're trying to gain access and torment you and, and they,
they want to resist, you know, like your, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. It doesn't
feel like anything's happening, but if you could see in the spiritual realm, they're
just holding on by their fingernails. I'm not going, I'm not going, but they got to
go because Jesus has a power and authority. That means if you want to be free, you can
be free. If you want to be delivered, you can be delivered. I just want to show you
a picture of the, the Matthew account. If that could go up in the Matthew account, like
there's, there's actually two guys, right? So he's there. And so this is the whole story
and all the drama that's going on, right? And there's pigs and there's this and you
know, and you know, these two guys that are acting pretty crazy. And, and can you notice
in verse 32, one word, best. Campbell talked about one word last night, one word, go. That's
the only thing he says in the whole thing. And they're gone. All those demon powers,
just one word in English, two letters, boom, and they're gone. See, Jesus has compassion.
Pastor Lamb preached so movingly about the word compassion. This isn't the exact same
word in the Greek, but of course it's, it's connected. It's linked. That his heart has
moved for you. Pastor Brown preaching so powerfully about the Father's heart for you and me and
what life has done to us and Father's and lack thereof. And here, Jesus said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father, right? You can see the Father's heart and compassion.
Was it this man's fault that he was in that condition? Obviously there's got to be some
cooperation, but Jesus still has compassion. Was it stuff that was done to him? We don't
know, but he still has compassion. Sometimes in our unright mind, I don't deserve freedom.
I don't deserve help. I did this to myself for the devil is lying to you and telling
you it's all your fault. I'm just getting what I deserve. I can't be free. But it's
not about your deserving. It's about Jesus' compassion. Just put out of your mind what
you deserve. We don't deserve anything by ourselves. I think Pastor Brown also said
that, but we serve a God who loves us and has compassion for us and is moved by our
suffering. We read of a man who was beaten on the Jericho Road and left for dead. That
was something that happened to him. And the Bible says, but a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion. Compassion for what
happens to people in life. Then we read about the prodigal son, right? This guy's a train
wreck. He's done it to himself, right? He's completely responsible for the condition of
his life. But he returns to the Father and the Father's, and he arose and came to his
Father, but when he was still a great way off, his Father saw him and had compassion
and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Whether it's happened to you, whether it's
as a result of things, decisions, and actions, Jesus has compassion for you. His heart is
moved to you from his very inner being. And he offers not only deliverance, right, the
ceasing of the torment of mind, but he offers a renewed mind, a right mind, where there
has been a darkened or a depraved mind from Romans chapter 1, right? There is now the
renewed mind that you and I can have, Romans chapter 12, where there's the mind of the
flesh, right, that is only about the satisfaction of the appetites and the motivations of the
flesh. Now we can have, because of what Jesus did on the cross, his resurrection and the
work of the Spirit of God, we can now have the mind of the Spirit. Where there's been
an anxious mind, now there can be the peace that passes all understanding. Where there's
been a fearful mind, the Spirit can give us a sound mind, and that's the exact same word
in our text. Our text could have been interpreted, and he was there sitting and in his sound
mind. The self-involved mind, or the narcissist mind, always thinking about yourself. We can
have the mind of Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Do you think? Really? Like I could have the same, I could have a mind that can be moved
in the same way of Jesus, Jesus was. Although he was in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and humbled himself. Taken
the form of a servant, humbled himself unto death, even the death on the cross. He didn't
do that because he was self-involved and self-absorbed. He did that because he cares about you, because
he wanted you saved, he wanted you free, he wanted you whole, and he wanted your mind
transformed to think like his. Let the word of Christ dwell within you richly. You know,
people complain sometimes, you know, free services a week? Nobody else does that. How
is everybody else doing? I don't know. I mean, maybe you can keep a sound mind with
just one shot a week, but I don't know. To have the word of God ministered, to allow
to give Jesus access to my mind, allow his word to dwell within me richly and transform
this thing. The Proverbs talks about giving heed unto the words of God and for their life
and to those who find them in health or some would say and medicine to all their flesh.
Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. That spongy
gray lump in here between these two things, that can be transformed, made healthy, made
whole. You know, none of us is going to be made completely whole until the rapture we
pass into eternity. We know that right now we still see through a glass darkly. Now we
behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord. We're, we're, but still if we can behold
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be changed from one dimension of glory to
another even by the spirit of the Lord. But it means that I need to get my mind on Jesus.
I know we have jobs, we have children to raise, we have responsibilities. It's not like we
can be focusing on Jesus 24-7. But you know, in the times that are free that we can be
thinking about, what do we think about? Is it healthy? Is it helping? Would it help to
remember Jesus and His power, His authority, His love for us, His compassion? You know,
this man couldn't be bound by any chain. Any, they put a chain on him and with supernatural
strength, bam, he just broke the chains. But you know what he could do? He could bow down
and prostrate himself before the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not, he's not free yet. He's
not even free yet, but he did that. You and I can do that. You and I can bow before Him,
surrender to Him. That's not just a physical posture, that is a heart submitted to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ. Say, I want this mind to be made whole. I want to have the
mind of Christ like not this troubled thing. And I believe that you care for me. And I
believe that you are at work in me. That when I hate myself the most, you still love me.
When I am beating myself up for some this or that, that that's not you doing it. You
know, Elijah had some mental issues, you know, and, you know, bread cooked by angels didn't
quite get it done. And he went to a mountain, you know, and there was a thunder and a fire
and an earthquake. But the Lord wasn't in that. The Lord wasn't in any of those things,
but then a still small voice. Right? That violence going on in your brain, that's not
God. I know He can convict us and thank God that He does. But conviction always comes
with a hope. We surrender to Him. We ask. We believe. There's deliverance, but there's
also the changing of our pattern of thinking. Right? Those connect tones, like we have something
to do about that. We have something to do with how, what we think about and how those
connections are made. Second Timothy 1, 7 says, for the spirit of God gave us, the spirit
God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. Or sound
mine, that's the same word as in our text. In New York Times editorial, David French
was talking about the numbers of conversations he had, he has with people about troubled
teenage minds. And as he's thinking about this and, and what maybe teenagers are being
exposed to in the media and social media and all of these things, he began to be convicted
in his own heart. That maybe my anxiety, the anxieties of my teenagers don't come from
them, they come from me. They come from the things that I watch, the things that I talk
about, the things that upset me about the condition of the world. And he had to step
back and say, it's, you know, it's one thing for me to blame this social media, that, you
know, and I hate the stuff, get rid of it. Just, just get rid of it. But mom and dad,
like what are the conversations about at the dinner table? It's about all the horrible
stuff going on in the world, and this one, that way, you know, you know, whatever your
politics is, or is it about Jesus? I'm not trying to make you super spiritual, we only
talk about the Lord at this meal. You know, just, but I mean, can you receive something
about that? Like, can you receive something about that? Like, how much do we make our
homes a place of stress? But here's where I wanted to go. What Jesus wanted this man
to do was to be a testimony of his compassion. That's what God wants for every single person
here. When we talk about going beyond the limits, we're talking about going beyond,
however you have been limited by what you're going through, by what you're troubled with,
however limited by people that you see and look down upon. And I'm not talking about
going out and seeing how many gatherings you can get in your building. Like, that's, just
understand. But it says, when Jesus got in the boat, he who had been demon possessed
begged him that he might be with him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him,
go home, dear friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and
how he has had compassion on you. Tell them how he has had compassion on you. And he departed
and began to proclaim at Decapolis all that Jesus had done for them and all did marvel.
Here's a mouth that had, first of all, begged to be separated from Jesus, now begged to
be close to Jesus. A desire to be with Jesus is good and right. But knowing his heart must
move us to make his compassion known. Not only because we read it here, because it's
impressed on our hearts. You know, we know what to do. We know the words to say, perhaps.
But does our witness come out of a heart where Jesus has been revealed to us in a fresh and
powerful way? You know, I know we allude to the Jesus movement a lot, and some of you,
you know, that are younger than boomers, oh, here we go again. But let me just think about
the middle word of that, right, Jesus. You know, when we got saved, when I got saved
on a dance floor, right, drunk at the time, I didn't know anything. Any prayers that I
prayed I used to pray with beads, you know. But when I got up from that dance floor I
realized Jesus is real. That was what the testimony was about. What is about all the
issues of sin, all the things that, what's your stand on this? It was about, I'm talking
to someone who needs Jesus, and Jesus has done this thing in my life. He hears who he
is. I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus
compassion for us wants to be translated into compassion for others. You know, the man who
ripped off all his master's goods, right, to pay back the, it would have had to work
every day for 3,000 years, probably not going to happen. Then the master of that servant
was moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt. He received compassion
from the one that he had violated so incredibly. And I know we talk about it in terms of forgiving
those who have wronged us. But the king says, should you not also have had compassion on
your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? Do you hear that? It's like, okay, go
from your encounter with Jesus and have compassion for people. Share the compassion that I have
placed, that I put in you. Declare that to people. Not everybody is going to be aware
of what we go through, what we've gone through, what we've suffered with. Most of us stayed
out of cemeteries. I am shocked. I don't know, maybe it's just a generational thing. I wonder
like how many skulls there are around. People with skulls on their shirts, skulls on their
car, skulls with beady eyes, you know, instead of Mary on the dashboard. You know, it's
like, whoa, are you, people are hanging around the dead. I don't think that's healthy.
Don Richie has lived beside a cliff. He was for suicidal jumps for 50 years. Every time
someone approaches the cliff, he goes out to make sure they don't take their life. Over
the years, he has stopped at least 160 people from killing themselves. That's just the official
estimate. The real number is said to be 400, according to his family. Don happened to live
near the gap, an ocean cliff at Sydney. It's a popular visitor destination, which has gained
infamy as a suicide spot over the years. It's estimated about 50 people and their lives
there each year. But as an individual walks up to the cliff, looking at the crashing waves
below and wondering whether to jump, Don would approach them with a smile and say, why don't
you come and have a cup of tea? Accepting his offer, these people would be invited.
It was home where they would have a chat over tea. No counseling, no advising, no prying.
Just one human being lending an ear to another. Some of these people had mental problems,
and had medical illnesses. Some are just people going through a rough patch in life for many,
a listening ear was apparently what they needed as they changed their minds about jumping
after the chat and turned back home. But how much more do you and I have to share than
just to chat over tea? But tell them about Jesus over tea. Yes, hear their pain, hear
their anguish. Don't just jump down their throats the moment they hear and out of compassion,
the compassion that Jesus has shown you. You represent that. If I can use the word, you
incarnate that like you be Jesus, compassion to those people. It's tangible. They can feel
it. And Jesus set this man free, but he didn't leave it. He said, no, I just don't want you
to just come and be a part of this thing right now in this boat. I want you, I want you to
go and tell people about the compassion that I have shown you. And that's why you're free.
Amen. Let's thank you.
Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast. Be sure to follow
us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on what we're
doing. Join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.