Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Heather…
Good morning. Welcome to Morning Prayer. My name is Heather Sibinky. I’m one of the pastors here at Living Word.
Jesus ministered healing and deliverance to the Mad Man of Gerasenes…
I was praying this morning and just preparing. I was originally reading in Luke 8; then I went over to read it again in Mark, because I like the way it says it better. But I was reading about the mad man of Gerasenes. I was reading about that and just thinking about how powerful that moment was. But seeing it in a different way today as I was reading it about how if you read through what happens before and you read through what happens after… we should always put everything in context, right? So we’re going to go through that a little bit. And there’s something that I want to point out before we go into prayer that I think will be encouraging. It encouraged my heart. And I pray it will encourage all of you as well.
Starting at Mark 4:35 in the Amplified…
So I’m going to pick up in Mark 4:35 in the Amplified classic. Jesus and the disciples had just got done feeding the multitudes of people.
“On that same day [when] evening had come, He said to them, Let us go over to the other side [of the lake]. 36 And leaving the throng, they took Him with them, [just] as He was, in the boat [in which He was sitting]. And other boats were with Him. 37 And a furious storm of wind [of hurricane proportions] arose, and the waves kept beating into the boat, so that it was already becoming filled. 38 But He [Himself] was in the stern [of the boat], asleep on the [leather] cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, Master, do You not care that we are perishing?”
“Do you not care that we are perishing?“
I want you to hold onto that phrase: “Do you not care that we are perishing?” I think there’s a lot of times we ask God, “Do you not care that I’m going through this? Do you not care that the doctor said this? Do you not care that my bills are due? Do you not care that we are in this city that’s passing these laws that we don’t agree with? Do you not care?” We might not say it out loud, but there might be a feeling of that… “Do you not care?” Like, don’t you understand what’s happening? And obviously we know He well cares and He well understands which we’ll prove here in a moment, right?
So they accuse Him of not caring, and it says…
39 “And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still (muzzled)! And the wind ceased (sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating) and there was [immediately] a great calm (a perfect peacefulness). 40 He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no firmly relying trust)? 41 And they were filled with great awe and feared exceedingly and said one to another, Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey Him? He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hushed now be still muzzled. And the wind ceased, sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating. And there was immediately a great calm, a perfect peacefulness. He said to them, why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith? No firmly relying trust, and they were filled with great awe and feared exceedingly and said one to another. Who is this? Then that even the wind and sea obey him.”
“Who is this man that can speak to the sea?“
It’s like they watched Him feed all these people. They’ve been watching Him do miracles. They’re following Him. They believe He’s the Messiah, right? “But who is this that He can talk to the sea?” And I feel like sometimes as Christians we are like that. We’re a little wishy-washy. We say what we believe and that we have all this head knowledge about God. We have all this head knowledge about Jesus, right? But there’s something that drops into our hearts that when we actually believe it, that when He does something, we’re not like, “Oh, I can’t believe He did that” or “I can’t believe He doesn’t care.” Or “Why doesn’t He hear me?” It’s like a heart revealer, right?
We might say that we believe Him.
We might say that we’re in faith.
We might say that we know He can do all things but are we really believing what we say we believe?
So He calms the storm, right? And then what comes next?
2 “And as soon as He got out of the boat, there met Him out of the tombs a man [under the power] of an unclean spirit. 3 This man continually lived among the tombs, and no one could subdue him any more, even with a chain; 4 For he had been bound often with shackles for the feet and handcuffs, but the handcuffs of [light] chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he rubbed and ground together and broke in pieces; and no one had strength enough to restrain or tame him.”
Sounds like a pretty bad situation. Sounds pretty hopeless.
5 “Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always shrieking and screaming and beating and bruising and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when from a distance he saw Jesus, he ran and fell on his knees before Him in homage, 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”
Which was the man and which was the demon?
So I always ask God as I’m reading this too, “Which pieces were him and which pieces were the demon?” I feel like the running before Jesus and falling on his knees, that was the man. Because he knew the state he was in, that he knew he needed deliverance, that he came to Jesus. Because a demon is not going to come to Jesus, right? So this man comes and falls before Jesus.
Then, of course, now we have the demons crying out.
7 “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? [What is there in common between us?] I solemnly implore you by God, do not begin to torment me! 8 For Jesus was commanding…”
He started commanding before he even talked…
8 “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit! 9 And He asked him, What is your name? He replied, My name is Legion, for we are many.”
That wasn’t the man talking, right? But I believe in this instance, Jesus wanted to know that man’s name because there was still a man there. There was still a person that was worth redeeming, worth delivering, right?
9 “My name is Legion, for we are many. 10 And he kept begging Him urgently not to send them [himself and the other demons] away out of that region. 11 Now a great herd of hogs was grazing there on the hillside. 12 And the demons begged Him, saying, Send us to the hogs, that we may go into them! 13 So He gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out [of the man] and entered into the hogs; and the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed headlong down the steep slope into the sea and were drowned in the sea.”
We don’t realize the capacity we have inside us…
Okay, we’re going to pause there again because there’s just so much in all of these things. But first of all, Legion. A legion then was like an army, which was about 6,000 people. I don’t think we realized the capacity that we have inside of us. This man had the capacity for about 6,000 demons to live inside of him. So now let’s reverse that. If we have that spiritual capacity for that many demons to be inside of us, what’s our spiritual capacity for the Holy Spirit inside of us? Right?
So He casts him out, the pigs run down, the people get upset and they say, “Go away from here. We don’t want you here.” It freaked them out, right? And so they beg Jesus to leave. And it says when they stepped… But first of all,
15 “And they came to Jesus and looked intently and searchingly at the man who had been a demoniac, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, [the same man] who had had the legion [of demons]; and they were seized with alarm and struck with fear.”
They weren’t happy. They weren’t like, “Wow, look, this is the guy that was crazy, that was naked in the cemeteries running around. We couldn’t even contain him. Now he’s sitting here and he’s sitting at Jesus’ feet and he’s listening to Him teach and he’s in his right mind.”
No! They’re scared like, “We want you to leave.” So they begged Jesus to leave.
So…
18 “And when He had stepped into the boat, the man who had been controlled by the unclean spirits kept begging Him that he might be with Him.”
How precious is that? This man… And if you think it’s like he was shrieking and bruising himself and hitting himself, and now he’s free. He’s completely free! And he’s begging Jesus, “Please…” The townspeople are begging Him to leave and he’s begging Him to go with Him. Because of what He did for him.
19 “But Jesus refused to permit him, but said to him, Go home to your own [family and relatives and friends] and bring back word to them of how much the Lord has done for you, and [how He has] had sympathy for you and mercy on you.
What a beautiful moment.
So now He wants him to stay in that area and be a witness to Him, be a testimony to God and show people the goodness of God.
20 And he departed and began to publicly proclaim in Decapolis [the region of the ten cities]…”
So he didn’t just go to his own little city, right? He went to the whole region and told people about how much Jesus had done for him. “And all the people were astonished and marveled.”
So he became an evangelist, basically. He became a teacher, a testimony of God’s goodness.
And it says…
21 “And when Jesus had recrossed in the boat to the other side, a great throng gathered about Him, and He was at the lakeshore.”
So let’s just summarize real quick…
He went from this huge group of people of 5,000 that wouldn’t even leave Him because they were so hungry for what He had, that He had to feed them because they wouldn’t go home. They just kept staying with Him and staying with Him because they wanted so much what He had. So He leaves them, goes to the other side. And what does He do?
He sets one man free.
And then He goes back over to where all these people are waiting for Him. And we always read how He leaves the 99 for the one.
He left thousands for the one!
He fought a storm to get to that one man. And here in the boat before I remember we were talking about how the disciples said, “Don’t you care that we’re perishing?” He cares so much that He’s leaving multitudes of people. He’s going through the storm. The Devil so much did not want Him to set that man free, that there’s this huge storm that He’s trying to get them, capsize their boat. And He goes over to the side for one man to set him free. That’s how much He loves. That’s how He loves.
So then…
Now He comes back to the other side and we’re just going to do two more things that happen here. So He goes back to the other side and there’s a great throng of people.
And then picking up in Mark 5:22…
22 “Then one of the rulers of the synagogue came up, Jairus by name; and seeing Him, he prostrated himself at His feet
23 And begged Him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be healed and live.”
And what does He do? Does He say, “Uhh, Jairus, I’m sorry. I’m really busy. All these people are here. They really need to hear the Word that I have for them. I’m sorry I can’t stop everything for one little girl.”
No.
What does He do? We know what He does. He starts heading to the house, right? But then what happens?
It says…
24 “And Jesus went with him; and a great crowd kept following Him and pressed Him from all sides [so as almost to suffocate Him].”
Can you imagine? Has anybody here ever been to Disney World? And you’re walking like this, right? And you’re trying to get through and it’s like, even then you’re not to the point of feeling like you’re being suffocated, but there is a point where you’re like, “I want to go where there are no people for a little while.” Right? And you think of Jesus, they were pressing Him so much that He couldn’t even breathe. It was just this constant pull, pull, pull.
But what does He do?
He’s always intentional. He’s always thinking about every single person. So now He’s heading to Jairus’s house. And, as He’s doing that, now what happens?
25 “And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 And who had endured much suffering under [the hands of] many physicians and had spent all that she had, and was no better but instead grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports concerning Jesus, and she came up behind Him in the throng and touched His garment, 28 For she kept saying, If I only touch His garments, I shall be restored to health.”
There were rules for the unclean…
So, back in those days if a woman was unclean, like bleeding like this, she wasn’t allowed to go in public. She wasn’t allowed to be with people. And she purposely faced possibly death, possibly being stoned for breaking the law because she knew if she touched Jesus, she would be healed.
That is faith.
That is very powerful faith.
She would face anything just to get in there and just to touch the hem of His garment.
29 “And immediately her flow of blood was dried up at the source, and [suddenly] she felt in her body that she was healed of her [distressing] ailment. 30 And Jesus, recognizing in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around immediately in the crowd and said, Who touched My clothes?”
Why did He do that? Why didn’t He just keep going? He knew she was healed.
Because she was important to Him.
And again, here He stops everything to stop and to recognize her and to talk about her faith and the power of her faith and to look her in the eye and to validate her.
31 “And the disciples kept saying to Him, You see the crowd pressing hard around You from all sides, and You ask, Who touched Me?”
Like, everybody’s touching you, Jesus!
32 “Still He kept looking around to see her who had done it. He kept looking around to see her who had done it. but the woman knowing what had been done for her.”
So immediately she knew she was healed. She felt that power.
“…though alarmed and frightened and trembling, fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.”
Because now again, she was unclean and she was touching a rabbi. I was, like, you don’t do that. You would have to scream out “I’m unclean” so everybody would stay away from you. So now here, not only was she breaking the law, coming out in the crowd, she was breaking the law, approaching and then touching a rabbi. In the Jewish law that would’ve made the rabbi unclean, and that could have been punishable by death. But she admitted it, right? So what does Jesus say? “Don’t you know the law? You’re not supposed to touch Me.”
No, of course not.
34 “And He said to her, Daughter, your faith (your [m]trust and confidence in Me, springing from faith in God) has restored you to health. Go in (into) peace and be continually healed and freed from your [distressing bodily] disease. 35 While He was still speaking…”
I can’t imagine, first of all, Jesus… everything that He did, but He did it being led by the Holy Spirit. So He knew exactly what He was doing. But you think of the disciples like, okay, first we feed the people, then we get into a storm, then there’s this crazy man that’s running around naked, and then He casts demons out of him and we watch these pigs go over the hill, then we’re in a crowd again, and then this woman comes and then this, you know? And then now we’re going to go heal this little girl. And now somebody’s interrupting Him while He’s talking. You think there’s just so much going on around Him.
“While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house, one who said to Jairus, your daughter has died. Why bother and distress the teacher any further?”
And I love this part…
“Overhearing, but ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear. Only keep believing.”
Again, what’s Jesus doing? He’s tuning into that man’s heart. What’s happening inside of him. Immediately, He knows if you hear your daughter has died, what does that do? That strikes immediate fear into you. Right? And He immediately says, “No, Don’t be afraid. Just believe.” Because again, everything is going on around Him. But He’s leaving the 99 for the one in that moment, right? He cares so much. He cared so much about the heart of that woman. He cared so much about the heart of this father and his little girl.
“And He permitted no one to accompany Him, except Peter, James and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the ruler of the synagogue, he looked carefully and with understanding at the tumult and the people weeping and wailing loudly, He looked at them with understanding.”
He knew what loss felt like, right?
“And when He had gone in, He said to them, Why do you make an uproar and weep? This little girl’s not dead. She’s sleeping.’ And they laughed and jeered at him, but He put them all out. And taking the child’s father and mother and those who are with Him, He went in there where the little girl was lying, gripping her firmly by the hand, He said to her, Talitha Kumi Kumi, which translated as “little girl, I say to you, arise from the sleep of death.’ And instantly the girl got up and started walking around for she was 12 years old, and they were utterly astonished and overcome with amazement. And He strictly commanded and warned them that no one should know this. And He expressly told them to give her something to eat.”
So how much does He care for us?
So much that you see in this huge circumstances of between helping large groups of people and then leaving those large groups of people to set one man free. And then coming back to large groups of people and then stopping this procession to recognize this woman that needed healing. And then stopping to go heal this young girl, right?
When you wonder if He cares, yes, He cares so much for you…
But sometimes when storms come in life, we can feel like, “God, don’t you care what’s going on?” And I’m just here to tell you today, He cares so, so much. And sometimes we just forget how much He cares, that He would stop everything to come and to take care of your need. And the amazing thing about God is while He’s taking care of your need, He can also take care of somebody else’s need, right? Because He is such a personal God, but He is also omnipotent. He’s also all powerful. He’s also omnipresent. He can be everywhere at once.
He will leave the multitudes to care for the one…
And sometimes I think we can get caught up in the busyness of the world or feeling overwhelmed by everything that’s happening and feeling weary, feeling so many things. But He cares so much that He will stop. He will go through a storm. He will leave multitudes to come and to help to take care of you and to set you free and to do whatever that thing is that you need. Because He’s such a loving Father. He’s so caring. And it just warmed my heart today. It blessed me and it was just a reminder of how good He is.
