Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 11:14-26
We've owned some of those shoes before, in my house, it's a good way to keep tabs on your kid, put a squeaker on them. There's an outline in your bulletin, if you like to follow along on the outline, we're going to be in Luke, Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, excuse me. By now most of you, if you've been around for the last few weeks or the last few months, you know that Luke 19, 10 says the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. You may or you may not know that there's a sister verse, a cousin verse, a related verse to Luke 19, 10, in 1 John 3, 8 and 1 John 3, 8 says this, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil, and I'm just kind of combining those this morning. I know that 1 John 3, 8 is not in Luke, chapter 11, I'm aware of that, and I'm not trying to rewrite God's Word. But I think 1 John 3, 8 gives us a pretty good take or a pretty good description of what Luke is telling us, everything in Luke under this umbrella, Luke 19, 10, Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. This particular passage emphasizes this big idea. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost by destroying the works of the devil. Now right out of the gate this morning, I'm throwing the word devil at you. And when I start talking about the devil and demons, there's a lot of different things that are running through your brain. Some of those things may be biblical and some of those things may not be biblical. Talking about the devil and demons, the Son of Man, the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Some of you may be have in your mind the incorrect caricature of the devil is a guy in red tights with a long tail with a point on it and a pitchfork. Probably not many of you, but some of you may think of that first when you think about the devil. You may think of sort of a comical, buffoonish type character. That's not him. Some of you may have in your mind when you think about the devil. You may have in your mind the first thing that you think about is, oh yeah, that's the guy that's in charge of hell. He's the taskmaster. He's the slave driver of hell. I've had people who have given me a book to read about a man who says he went to hell and I read not much of the book because early on he described Satan in this way. Satan is the taskmaster of hell. That's not him. It's not what the Bible says about Satan. If you have in your mind that Satan is in charge of hell, erase that and reprogram it. That is not him. Satan is not in hell now for the first thing. And secondly, when he eventually is there, it will not be to torture people. It will be to be punished. So you erase that from your mind, not the red bodysuit, not the guy who's in charge of hell. Some of you may be having your mind when you think about Satan, the guy that's behind every inconvenience in your life. Okay, so I was a summer missionary, one summer in college and one of the ladies that I was blessed to work with was named Namaste. And Namaste, she blames Satan for everything, like we got in her car to go somewhere. Namaste. Ah, car won't start. Satan. She just starts talking to Satan. Satan? Stop it. She'd be driving down the road once we got the car started, red light. Oh, Satan, you got me again, red light. I think there's a disconnect here. I don't think he's just preoccupied, spending all of his time and all of his energy. He changed the light just in time for you to have to stop. I don't think that's him. I give you a personal example this week, celebrated a birthday, and for my birthday, I got to buy a new hot water heater for my house. That was exciting. So I didn't look at that. I did not look at that and say, "Satan, you ruined my birthday." I had to buy a new hot water heater. Then I woke up to come to church this morning and went out my garage. I had water in my garage. I didn't look at the water and say, "Oh, the devil got me twice in one week." I said, "I got a bad install guy. Get these guys on the phone. You got to come out here and fix this." But listen, we laugh about it. There's people who talk that way. As if Satan was the guy behind every inconvenience in your life. That's not him. Some of you may get that. You don't think it's sort of like he's behind the red lights and the hot water and the busted line on the brand new hot water heater. You don't say he's behind all that, but you say he's the guy behind every temptation I've ever faced. This is the old line, "The devil made me do it." Satan is just working me over. He's just giving me, he's just, man, he is all up in my life. He's tempting me and all of this is straight from the devil himself, which is a strange thing if you think about it. Strange thing. There's one being in the universe who can be at every place at all times, who is omnipresent and is not Satan. So if you think that Satan is behind every temptation that you've ever faced, then you got to either come down in one or two ways. You got to either say maybe he does wear the red suit and it's not like the guy with the pitchfork, but he's the flash and he's just running everywhere all over the planet. Seven billion people on the earth, that's a lot of tempting to do and he's just moving. One to one to one next, one, two, three, four, five. So maybe that's him or maybe you just say he's not concerned about anyone else on planet earth but me. He's Satan who can be in one place at one time, he's just following me around because he has nothing better to do. There's no more oppressing matters, no wars to instigate, no unrest to cause to firming over. He's just worried about me and he's tempting me. You know the reality is that you maybe have never once in your life been tempted by Satan himself. Seven billion people on the planet, I'd say it's probably likely. Seated by demons, perhaps, I don't want to rule that out, but by Satan himself, be careful. Don't give Satan too much credit. There's a guy named C.S. Lewis who wrote a lot of interesting books and he wrote an interesting book about demons and in that book he said this, "There's two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils and by our race you understand he means humans." One is to disbelieve their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves, the demons, they're equally pleased by both errors and they hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. They want one or two things. They don't want you to be the western skeptic who doesn't even believe that they're real or if you do believe that they're real, you live your daily life as if they weren't real. They're fine with that. They've got you right where they want you or they want you over here so obsessed and so worried and so concerned about what they are doing, Satan and his demons, that you're not at all focusing on Jesus Christ, you're just concerned about demons. And Lewis says you can't go off the deep end this way, you can't go off the deep end that way because then they've got you exactly where they want you. Here's where you find balance. You understand that they're real. You don't pretend that there's some sort of comical, buffoonish creatures, you understand that they are real, personal, evil, spiritual beings, that they do have a terrible plan for your life and they are involved in spiritual matters that you face on a daily basis but your focus is on Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God who came to seek and to save you and to do that by destroying the works of the devil. Our focus is on Jesus, not on his enemies who he's already defeated and so this morning we're going to look at Luke 11 and we're going to try to strike that balance. Look at Luke 11, beginning in verse 14, it says, "Now he was casting out a demon that was mute." When the demon had gone out the mute man spoke and the people marveled. Some of them said he cast out demons by Beelzebel, the prince of demons, while others to test him kept seeking from him a sign from heaven but he, that's Jesus, knowing their thoughts said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and a divided household falls and if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebel and if I cast out demons by Beelzebel by whom do your sons cast them out therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you." When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace his goods are safe but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him he takes away his armor in which he trusts it and divides a spoil, whoever is not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit had gone out of a person it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none it says I will return to my house from which I came and when it comes finds the house swept and put in order and it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that person is worse than the first, let's pray. Father give us wisdom, open our hearts to your word, Father help us to find the balance in what we are to believe and what we are to focus on. We pray and we ask in the name of Jesus our King, Amen. Glory begins with Jesus casting out a demon. Luke tells us that this demon was mute and what he means is when he possessed this man when he took control of this particular individual he made that man mute. In Jesus showed up to battle this demon like he did on many, many occasions and he spoke to the demon and the demon did what Jesus told it to do like the demons always did and always do, always will do and the man spoke, the man who was mute spoke and Luke tells us that the crowd was amazed literally he says they marveled at what Jesus had done. This is not the first demon story we've read in the Gospel of Luke but I think it's a good time to just sort of take a time out, we're going to talk about the rest of this passage. Let's just take a time out and ask one question that maybe you've never thought of, maybe you have thought of. What's the question? In the Gospels why are there so many stories about Jesus casting out demons? It's almost on every page it seems like. You read through here and it's just demon after demon after demon. Why when you read through the Gospels are there so many stories about Jesus casting out these demons? You read in the Old Testament you don't see this, the Old Testament's a lot longer than the New Testament and you read through it and you just don't see people being possessed by demons and exorcisms taking place. Maybe you know some missionaries, I know some who will tell you some stories about people being demon possessed, they think that's what happened, somebody's life they've seen a demon possession, I don't doubt that that's real at all but you and I know in our experience every day, sort of day in and day out we don't see that a lot. You may sit there and say like me I don't know that I've ever seen it in real life. Cory and I went the other night, I had to make a hospital visit and it was about midnight one o'clock and we went into the medical center ER and there was a man if you've ever been in the ER that had him sitting right behind the check-in desk and why they left him there I have no idea but he's sitting right behind the check-in desk and he's in one of those restraint chairs, you know the ones I'm talking about and they've got him strapped down in the chair and they've got the bag on his face which means he's been trying to spit on people and I'm telling you the man is sitting in that chair right behind the desk so he's practically in the lobby and he is mad and he is thrashing about and he's screaming and he's shaking his head and he's saying all sorts of obscene things neither Cory or I went back there to cast the demon out of him. And it wasn't like I looked at Cory and he looked at me and we were both too scared. We looked at each other and said man that guy is on something he does not need to be on. That was our first instinct right? Neither of us looked at that and said he was acting like a demon possessed guy but neither of us looked at him and said maybe we should go exercise the demon out of that guy. We just naturally look at that and we say you know we don't experience that day in and day out we know that people get on substances they don't need to be on and that's our default answer. So you don't see it a lot in the Old Testament we don't see it a lot in everyday life. Why when you read the Gospels are there so many stories about demon possession? Let me give you two answers and these are just things not from the passage that I'm pulling out but things from the biblical context from the canonical story that I want you to think about. Number one Jesus invaded enemy territory and the forces of evil were launching a massive counter attack. Jesus had invaded enemy territory and the forces of evil when Jesus came are launching a massive counter attack. That's one reason I think you see so many stories about demon possession. You can jot some of these down they may be on your outline I know they're not on the screen. You can read in the Gospel of John three times. John says that Satan is the ruler of this world. That's a strange title right? We're John who loves Jesus to give to Satan the ruler of this world. You can look in 2 Corinthians four four Paul says that Satan has actually blinded the eyes of unbelievers so that they do not see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's blinded their eyes the God of this world. You can look at Acts 26 18 not flattering for those of those of us who can remember when we were not followers of Jesus but Acts 26 18 says that before we turn in faith to Jesus Christ we're under the power of Satan. And Ephesians confirms it Ephesians two one to three says that before God poured grace into our life this is a direct quote we were all following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. So when you read through the New Testament what it's telling us is this world is like a battleground and it's enemy territory. There is a ruler here. You say does that mean he's more powerful than God? No but it means he has real power and real authority here and Jesus invaded enemy territory. Do you understand the magnitude of that? We say Luke 19 10 every week the son of man came to seek and save the lost. Listen when he came when God took on human flesh he was entering a war zone entering a battlefield going behind enemy lines to fight for us and to rescue us. He has crossed the boundary he's entered enemy territory and the forces of evil to put it bluntly are trying to protect their turf. And so it seems like everywhere you turn demon possession demon possession why don't we see that today. Well this was a monumental unique moment when the son of God took on human flesh and invaded enemy territory and there's this counter-attack taking place. Here's the second thing to think about. God allowed it. You understand he didn't have to allow it. But God did allow it so that people would have visual proof that the king and his kingdom had finally come. Do you understand what the word God could have banished every one of these demons straight to the pit? With the word it would have been easy. He said well why did he let it go on? He's allowing it to happen so that the people who are walking around with Jesus have visual proof that this is the king. He has authority over the demons. Amazing to read the Gospels. Not once does anyone question whether or not Jesus can cast a demon out of someone. No one questions that. They all just take it for granted. They know he has the power. They know he has the authority. They know he has the ability. And in doing this it's a visual. It's right in front of them. This is the king. If you want an Old Testament parallel for this you can look up Exodus 916. This is what God says to Pharaoh in Exodus 9. For this purpose I've raised you up. Pharaoh, I have raised you up to show my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. Pharaoh you're a wicked king. You're a bad king. You're persecuting my people. And I'm the one who's raised you up. Doesn't even say that I've allowed you to raise yourself up. I have raised you up, why? So that I can get glory over you and that everybody knows the truth about me. I think you see the exact same thing in the Gospels. God is allowing this counter-attack to take place, why? So that Jesus can get victory over the demons and that everyone has proof. This is the king and his kingdom has come. So nobody denies that Jesus can cast demons out of people. What they do do is try to explain it away. They come up with theories. They try to rationalize it or make sense of it and they come up with some bad theories. Okay? Here's two bad responses to Jesus. The first one, Jesus is in league with Satan. That's one thing that people said. Luke talks about the crowd claiming that Jesus is using the power of beelzable to cast out demons. Beelzable was a pagan God. The Jews took the name of that pagan God and they applied it to Satan almost as sort of mockery towards Satan. And what this group of people are saying is Jesus is using the power of the devil himself to cast out demons. You read in the Gospel of Matthew and Matthew tells us that the people who said this were Pharisees. You read in the Gospel of Mark, Mark says they had come from Jerusalem to challenge Jesus and their response is, as Luke describes it. He is doing this through the power of Satan himself. Here's another response that people had to Jesus. It's not a good one. Second response is Jesus needs to give them more proof. This one is just sad. The other one is just stupid. This one is just sad. Luke 11, 16 says that they're trying to get Jesus to give them a sign to prove who He is. What did they just see? A man possessed by a demon, unable to talk, Jesus cast the demon out and Luke says what? He talked. There you go. You want a sign? You got one. And what do they say? Will you give us a sign? Will you prove it to us? It reminds me of John D. Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men who has ever lived on the planet of this earth. And someone asked him, you got a lot of money. How much is enough money and what did he say? Little bit more. He had more money than you know. You can even wrap your brain around. You can't even understand the numbers. And his response is, I just need a little bit more. You look at these people and you say, okay, you want proof. How much proof would be enough proof? Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more than you've given me so far. And what would happen if Jesus turned around and performed another sign? They'd say, well could you do it again? Well could you do it in that town? Well could you do it in this situation? More proof. More proof. Just a little bit more. So Jesus responds to the people saying that he's using the power of Satan and that he needs to do more to prove himself. Here's how he responded. Number one, the suggestion about Satan is absurd. He talks about a divided kingdom. 1858, there's a thousand delegates gathered in the Illinois State House and they gathered there to coordinate or to recognize Abraham Lincoln as the Republican candidate for Senate. And old Abe gave a speech and this is what he said in that speech. Talking about the United States and you know the civil war is going on, he said, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Where do you get that? I believe this government cannot endure permanently and half slave half free. I don't expect the union to be dissolved but I expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. That's what Abe thought and it makes sense to me. House divided against itself is not going to stand. Abe didn't make that up. Jesus did. And he says, you think I'm doing this by the power of Satan himself, do you understand? Just to put it bluntly, how stupid that is. Satan is destroying his own kingdom, makes absolutely no sense. So first Jesus says that's absurd. Second Jesus responds with a question and the question is how are you going to explain your exorcists? You understand that with this outbreak of demon possession, the Jews, the Pharisees, they had exorcists and they tried their darned us to cast out demons. He said, well, did they do it like Jesus did? Jesus just walked up and looked at somebody and said, go away and they went away. That's not how they did it. They used potions and formulas and spells and ceremonies and all sorts of witchcraft to control these demons. And Jesus is asking them a question, he says, okay, I come in and tell the demons what to do and they run away and you think I'm doing it with the power of Satan. What about your kids who are casting out demons or trying to cast out demons with potions and spells? What kind of power are they using? If I'm using the power of Satan, what in the world are they tapping into? And so he turns the tables and he says, explain yourselves, how do you explain your exorcists? And then lastly, he just, look, you love Jesus. Sometimes he just puts the cookies on the bottom shelf, right? He just makes it really easy. And the last thing he says is, this is proof that the kingdom has come. This is proof right in front of your eyes. Don't you see it? He says, I'm doing this with what? The finger of God, you can jot down in your margin, the finger of God. This 819 says, Exodus 819, that all the disasters that God brought upon Egypt were brought by the finger of God. And Jesus, talking to guys who know that story, says, I'm doing this by God's finger, just like God raised up Pharaoh and then crashed him down to get glory over him. He's allowing this to happen and I'm crashing it down so that you'll know the truth about me. This is proof and it's right in front of your faces. The same power that devastated Egypt is now devastating the demons. That's what Jesus is saying. And then the passage ends with the story. And the story, a couple of stories here, are really warnings. Okay, you understand that Jesus cast the demon out. The man is fine. He's speaking. He's better. And you've got two groups of people who, they don't want to follow Jesus. One group says, you're empowered by Satan himself. The other group says, we just need you to do it one more time. None of them following Jesus. And so in the rest of these verses, Jesus is warning these two groups of people. Here's the first warning. Someone stronger than the strong man has come to take what is rightfully his. Someone stronger than the strong man has come to take what is rightfully his. There was a big boxing match last night, lots of trash talk leading up to that fight. Who's going to win? Who's stronger? Who's faster? Who's quicker? This is Jesus talking trash. I'm stronger than him. This is your kid out on the playground. My dad can beat up your dad. And this is Jesus saying, listen, I know he has a power. I know he has authority. I know he's strong. I'm stronger. And I've come to whooping. I've come to time up and take all this stuff. That's what I'm here to do. You understand that we are rightfully his on two levels. Number one, he made us. Number two, he was here to seek us and save us and to die for us. We're doubly his. And he's saying very bluntly to these people, I am here to take what is rightfully mine and Satan will not stop me from doing it. I will win. I will not lose this fight. He's been the same story all throughout the Gospel of Luke. You can jot these chapters down. Luke 4, Satan comes to tempt Jesus. Who wins? Jesus. Luke 4, there's a demoniac in church with Jesus. Who wins? Jesus. Luke 8, there's a legion of demons inside a man who lives among the tombs. Who wins? Jesus. Luke 9, there's a boy with epilepsy who has a demon and the disciples are unable to do anything about it. Jesus shows up and who wins? Jesus. I'm here to beat Satan. I'm here to win. I'm here to time up and take everything that's mine. Lead you right to the cross. Jot down Colossians 2.15, read it this afternoon, says Jesus disarmed the spiritual powers and authorities at the cross. He put them to public shame. He came to get what was rightfully his and he got it. So someone stronger than the strong man has come. Here's the second part of his warning. You cannot be neutral. That's a warning. From Jesus to these people in this crowd and from Jesus to you today, you cannot be neutral. Look at Luke 11, 23. Jesus says, whoever is not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me, scatters. This is the sister verse of Luke 9.50, Luke 9.50. We saw a few weeks ago where Jesus says basically the exact opposite. He says, anyone who is not against us is for us. And now he flips it. You're not against us, you're for us. You're not with me, you're against me. You put those together and he's saying, you got to pick a side. You cannot ride the fence here. You must pick a side. You cannot be neutral. What Jesus is really saying is, there's only two kinds of people in the world, those who are with me and those who are not with me. That's it. That's way different than what our culture hopes. You understand that? Our society, I think, you can disagree, but I think our society really, really hopes that there's three kinds of people in the world. Our society is looking for this. There's disciples, the people who follow Jesus. They're here at church Sunday morning, a lot of you would fall into this category. Then there's the undecided. And some of you may think that you're in this category, like, I'm not against Jesus. I don't hate Jesus, but I don't know that I would call myself a disciple. I'm not an antagonist, that's for sure. I don't want Satan to rule the world. I didn't go to the church of Satan this morning, I came to a manual Baptist. So I'm not rooting for the devil, but I'm just undecided in the middle. And then you got the antagonist. And you might even be able to look at this story in Luke 11 and say, "Yeah, it looks like they're all there. The disciples are there with Jesus. The undecided are the people who say they want a little bit more proof. And the antagonist, the bad guys, are the ones who just say Satan is doing it all by the power of Satan. Jesus is doing it all by the power of Satan himself." So yeah, it looks like they're all there in the passage. And Jesus is bringing it around at the end here and saying, "Listen, listen, listen." You guys are hoping that we draw a line right here. And you're hoping that the antagonist, they go to hell with Satan. The disciples, they're in. And the undecided, you know what, the undecided, they weren't bad people. They were pretty good. They did the best they could with what they knew. And you know, they were nice parents and good employees. So in the end, we're going to put them above the line and they get into heaven at the end. We hope this is the dividing line, right? Bad guys, they go to hell. Disciples and decent people who are just trying to figure things out, God's going to let them in. And Jesus just obliterates all of that. And he says, "A race your goofy line, a race the middle category of people. This is reality. You're either with me or you're not with me. You're either a disciple or whether you realize it or not, you're an antagonist. You can try to play this game of Jesus, I just need a little bit more proof. Jesus says, "You're not riding any fence. You're on the other side of the fence. You can't be neutral. You're with me or you're against me." You understand eternity is at stake in this, eternity, and where you stand with Jesus Christ. Are you with him or are you not with him? You say, "I just, I don't know enough. I'm just figuring this stuff out. This is all new." Listen, you don't waste time. You're with him or you're not with him. There's a lot of time in your future to figure out a lot of the details. All you need to figure out right now is I'm with him or I'm not with him. There is no fence riding. You understand when you look at this and you read it in the context of Luke 19, 10 and 1 John 3, 8, you don't get to the top part of that graph or picture or the top side of that line because of anything that you do. You understand that, right? You can't climb up. Jesus brings you up. The Son of Man came to seek you and save you. He came to destroy the works of the devil. It's grace. It's Jesus giving you the opposite of what you really deserve. That's how you get to the top part. You don't just show up here every week. You don't try to be a better person. You don't try to say your prayers every time you eat a meal and every time you go to bed and hope that in the end you've done enough to bump you up above the line. It won't happen. Every is at stake and grace is the way that you get to the top. The Son of Man came to seek you and save you, but understand you cannot be neutral. Here's the last warning from Jesus. Jesus says, "You can't live in a spiritual vacuum." I want to explain to you what I mean here because it's a difficult passage. Look at Luke 11, 24, 25 and 26. It talks about a demon leaving a person. Demon just leaves this person and the person sweeps the house, gets it clean, and then the demon comes back and realizes that no one else has taken up residence so they come in and in the end it's worse for that person than it was in the beginning. You can look at that passage and you can assume, and I don't think you'll be just totally crazy. I assume that Jesus is talking about real demons, a person, and you lose one and seven are going to come back. I don't think that's what he's talking about. I think he's using the subject matter that they've been dealing with, demons, and he's using a parable to teach a point. What Jesus is saying is, right on the heels of you can't be neutral, listen, you cannot build your religious system on negatives. Just like cleaning the house out and making it ready for some sort of evil power to come in. How many people in the United States build their Christianity on negatives? You sit them down, you pin them in a corner, you say, "Tell me what it means to be a Christian," and they start telling you all the things they don't do. Well, I'm not going to cheat on my wife and I'm not going to sleep in on Sunday mornings. I'm going to go to church and I'm not going to keep all my money for myself. I'm going to give some to the church and I'm not going to lie and I'm not going to steal from my boss and I'm not going to look at junk on my computer and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. And they're building their religion on negatives and Jesus is saying, "I think you can't do that." Look, he's talking to the Pharisees who had a whole list of, "Don't do this." And he's talking to these undecided people who are saying, "Look, we're not against you, we just need a little more proof." And Jesus is saying, "You can't build your spirituality or your religion on negatives. All you're doing is emptying the house and preparing it for something else to take the place." Listen, I don't think the real point of this last three verses is, "Beware, if you don't love Jesus, you might get possessed by seven demons." I don't think that's the warning. Here's the warning, if you don't have Jesus at the center of your life, something will be at the center of your life. You cannot escape that. You will worship and serve and make something more important than anything else in your life. Maybe it will be work, maybe it will be family, maybe it will be money, maybe it will be some sort of lust or desire that you have, that you're never even obtained, that you just chase and chase and that desire is just eating you up from the inside out. I don't know what it's going to be, but something will be the most important thing in your life. You cannot live in a spiritual vacuum. You were made to worship, you will worship someone or something. It's unavoidable. And what Jesus is saying is a warning to those who are skeptical and to those who are against Him is this. You cannot build your religion on negatives. You can't live in a spiritual vacuum. Something will be your God. It will be me or something else. You understand that's what Jesus is calling you to. Because we talk like Jesus just wants you to pray a prayer, Jesus just wants you to join a church, Jesus just wants you to come and sing the songs and on and on and on. What Jesus wants from you, here it is. He wants to be the most important thing in your life. He wants to be the center. He wants you to love Him more than anything else, anything, anyone. He wants to be the center. And if you will do that, you don't have to worry quite so much about the long list of do's and don'ts. A lot of that stuff is going to take care of itself. What Jesus is saying is don't think that you can live in a spiritual vacuum. Don't think that just because you don't make me the center that you won't have a center, you will. It will be someone. It will be something. It will be some worldview, some political ideology. Something will take my place. You cannot live in a spiritual vacuum. What he's saying is make me the center. More important than anything else. Love me more than anything in this world. I want to pray for you. Father forgive us when we live as if spiritual conflict and spiritual realities don't exist. Father, most of us in the United States are the materialists that C.S. Lewis talked about. We're the ones who are skeptical and we doubt. Father, we don't want to turn our backs on things that are real. Father, forgive those of us who struggle with being preoccupied with the wrong thing. Well, we're called to acknowledge the reality of demons. We're never called to focus on them at all. And Father, when we look at these verses and we see Jesus giving these warnings and talking to these people who are unsure about how to respond and responding poorly, Father, we want to respond by making Jesus the center. More important than anything else in this world. Father, we need your grace to do that. We need you to change our hearts and our minds because left to ourselves, there are too many things that we follow after and chase after. And too many things that we think will make us happy in this world. And Father, we pray that you would bring us to the end of that search and that we would understand that nothing can truly take the place of Jesus Christ at the center of our lives. Father, as we sing, as we celebrate the blood of Jesus Christ that has washed us, washed us clean and destroyed the works of the devil and sought us and saved us, Father, we pray that our worship would rise to you that you would accept it and be pleased when we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing. We're going to ask you to stand up. If you have a public decision you want to share with us, you can come forward. I'll be at the front. Chris is up here at the front on this side. We would love to visit with you or pray with you, but we're going to take