Yes To Jesus

Don't be afraid to yield fully to Jesus. Minister to others in your everyday life as He would. If others are uncomfortable it may be a reminder of the wrongs in their life, but always display God's love as a witness to them.


Scripture: Mark 5:1-19, Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing alright today? I’m glad to be back with you. This is your friend Dr. Cook and we’re looking at the word of God in Mark chapter 5. The story of what they’ve called the demoniac of Gadara. He was afraid that the Lord Jesus would change his life, not for the better, but for worse. An unfounded fear, but many people share it. Yes I know that I’m unhappy, I know my life is restless, I know my marriage is breaking up, I know that my children are slipping away into sinful habits and sinful companionships, I know that I’m miserable and I’m sick of the way it’s going, but I’m afraid to say yes to Christ. Oh, I’ve met that so often, haven’t you, and maybe I’m speaking to someone who feels just that way this moment. Oh, yield yourself to Jesus, He’ll always do good to you, He’ll always do good. He’ll always better the situation. He’ll always give you peace instead of restlessness.Give you, give you love instead of violence. He’ll heal your marriage. Yes, He will. He’ll make you what you want to become under God.

Well anyway, the Lord Jesus had cast out these demons and then gave, the demons, permission to, “Enter into the herd of swine which immediately ran down a steep place”, it says, into the sea of Galilee and were drowned”. Well, the keepers of that herd of pigs fled and told in the city and the country and they all came out to see what it was that was done. They came to Jesus to see him that was possessed with the demon and had the legion of them and he was seated and clothed and in his right mind. They were afraid and they asked him to leave. They began to ask him to depart out of their coasts. Fear of the changes Christ can make.

I’ve often thought of the dollar value the loss at those who owned the pigs sustained. It was considerable. The only thing that makes it seem like poetic justice is that these people were under the law of Moses, and they had no business keeping pigs. Pork was forbidden under the Mosaic law, you know that, and so what it represents quite a loss in terms of money, it also represents a divine object lesson, that even the devil knows enough to destroy something that’s been forbidden by God. Well, I don’t know about that, I’ll ask about that when I get to heaven. In any case, the two changes that have been made, changes in their property and changes in the person of that man who had been touched by the Lord Jesus. Those two changes frightened them and they said, “Please get out”. Now of course, you face the same thing today. If I become a Christian, will it cost me money? That’s the unspoken question in many a heart, will it cost me a promotion if I become a Christian? If I let the Lord Jesus Christ to become Lord of my life and Savior of my soul, will it cost me a promotion? Will I lose out in my favorite career? Will I be slowed down in my climb on the ladder of success toward the top? This is a fear that many have. You get too religious, people won’t employ you, they won’t promote you, you can’t sell to people if you’re too religious. Nonsense. My friend listen, all over this world you can find people who’ve been successful in business and in education and in society, who are at the same time, completely committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe me, you can find them. People know how to make money and have done so successfully, while serving the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus. People who are folk of great intellect and teachers or administrators at a university level, or in the public schools and high schools and so on, great success, regular promotions, recognizes authorities in their field, exactly so, and at the same time, deeply devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, you’ll find them everywhere. It is the Devil’s lie that if you trust Jesus, you will thereby be denigrated to a lesser position, either in society or in business or in your particular career. That is a lie. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt have have good success”. That’s what God said to Joshua in Joshua 1 verse 8. In Psalm 1, you find that the man God’s blessed man, who is living in the word of God, it says, “He shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth furth his fruit of his season, his leaf also shall not wither and what so ever he doeth shall prosper”. It is not true that you’re going to, you’re going to miss success if you trust Jesus Christ as Lord. That’s the devil’s lie.

What is true, is that when you make the Lord Jesus Christ Lord of your life, and follow the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and obey the Word of God as it speaks to your heart day by day, you become more of a candidate for success in whatever field you are. I believe that with all my heart. Fear of the changes that Christ brings, one was the fear of losing money and success, the other was the fear of a life that was so different, they saw this person and it said, “They were afraid”. Now, the person that had been changed, struck fear into their hearts. Why is that? Because a person who has been transformed by the grace of God is a sermon in shoe leather. The born-again person, you must understand this, people are against you not because you not a nice person and not because they are even anti-Christian in any conscious way, but that when your life has been changed and transformed by the power of God, you become an immediate source of condemnation in their own conscious conscience, and so you are an affront to them. Paul talked about the reproach of the cross, you’re in an affront to the unbelieving heart that doesn’t want God to take control and that does want to go on doing his own way. You my friend, full of the Spirit of God, living for the Lord Jesus, are a constant reminder to that person that he’s on the wrong road, and so you become an affront to him and fear comes into the heart of people who see a person who has been transformed by the Lord Jesus.

How often I’ve had people say to me, “When I became a Christian, and I went home and told my family they immediately said I had to see a psychiatrist because they knew I was crazy”. That’s happened so often as people have talked with me. It happens all the time. The unsaved heart and mind simply will not receive the fact of a transformed life, as being the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Says, “These people were afraid”. Fear of financial loss, other types of loss, and fear of a transformed life. There it is. What are you going to do about this? The man said, “Please let me go with you”, and the Lord Jesus said, “Go home to thy friends, tell them how great things God has done for you and has had compassion on you”. Sometimes it’s far better to live the Christian life right before your friends and family, than to try to go and be a missionary to a land 12,000 miles away. You, many of you listing to me right now, can be more effective in your office, in your home, in your shop, in your particular profession or calling, you can be more effective for Christ the if you would drop everything and become a foreign missionary. Now, I am for foreign missions. I’m constantly taking up offerings to finance overseas missions. I believe in them with all my heart. I think that anyone has more right to hear the gospel once than anybody else has to here twice, and I believe in challenging young people, I’ve done this all through my ministry, challenging young people to yield their lives for overseas foreign missionary service if God will send them. This all is true, however this man wanted to become a foreign missionary, so to speak, didn’t he? Jesus said, you go home. Your parish, your mission field is your home.

Lady said to one time, she says, “I think the Lord is calling me to the mission field”. I said, “How old are you”? She said, “35”. I said, “You have a family?”, yes, she had two girls, “What about your husband?”, “He left us”. “So it’s you and your two girls growing up”. “Yes”. “You want to be a foreign missionary”? “Yes”. “Has it ever occurred to you that your mission field right now is to bring up those precious girls, so they know it will of the Lord Jesus? That’s the most important thing you can do”? She hadn’t thought about that. She went ahead and took care of those dear girls who’ve now grown up and had each of them has Christian families of her own. This dear lady later on, then became employed as a representative of an outstanding missionary society and traveled all over, challenging people to pray and to give, and to go. See your mission field may very well be your home, dear lady. Your mission field may very well be your office mister. Your mission field may very well be your classroom, teacher. This man said, “Let me go with you. I want to be a missionary”. Jesus said, “Go home to your friends”. Home is your family, friends is the people you know. What you supposed to tell? Tell what great things the Lord has done for you, what He done, He delivered him from demons, He gave him peace instead of restlessness, gave him modesty instead of nudity, and He gave him sanity instead of insanity. Great things, that’s great enough, isn’t it, but he said, “The crowning message is that the Lord has had compassion on you”. Someone asked a great theologian, “What’s the greatest thought that ever entered your mind”? He thought a moment then he said, “Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so”. Had compassion on him. God loves you, God cares about you, this is the message that we bring to people, a changed life and the love of God. Have you thought about the simplicity and yet the profound impact of a testimony like that? Jesus can make a difference. He can change your life, He changed mine. This is the evidence said the man, then the crowning message is, Jesus loves me, He’s had compassion on me, He loves me. Oh, this touches hearts all over the world. I remember people coming with tears in Japan as I preached that simple message, God loves you. The God who set the stars in place, He loves you. They would come with tears and they’d say, “Do you mean that He even loves me”? Yes, He does. Let that comfort your own heart today and if I’m talking with someone that is never made Christ your Lord and Savior be assured that He loves you. The Bible says, “I love thee with an everlasting love, therefore with kindness, loving kindness have I drawn thee”. God’s waiting for you to say yes to Him,and today I hope you will.

Dear Father today, I pray that we may be sermons in shoes, demonstrating the changes Christ can bring and proving the love of God to poor, needy humans. In the name of the Lord Jesus I pray this, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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