When Jesus Gets In The Way | Ryan Kramer

If you've got your Bibles, turn with us today to Matthew chapter 8. And while you're making your way there, we've been in the series called, That's Crazy. Turn to your neighbor, punch them on the side of the arm or shoulder and say, that's crazy. I'll tap. All right. Tap. If you're married and your husband is just annoying you, you can do a punch. You're in church, so it's approved. You can come forward and ask for forgiveness. And so, well, this week, Andrew and I had the opportunity to be able to do kind of an intensive together. And one of the guys that was leading that intensive, he shared a quote that I want to share with you today, because it was one of those that as soon as it came out of his mouth, both of us reacted with a, whoa. And here's what the quote is. It's from G.K. Chesterton, and he earned the nickname, The Prophet of Common Sense. So he should probably know what he's talking about. But here's what he said. The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried. That's a powerful statement. It's a powerful statement. And I think, I don't think he's really suggesting that Christianity doesn't work. He's saying that following Jesus is harder than we expected. Can I get an amen in here? Like it's a little harder than maybe we expected. And I think the reason why that happens in our life is because following Jesus always requires something of us. It costs something. You know, salvation is a free gift through the cross in our life, but just because it's

a free gift doesn't mean it doesn't cost us something. It often costs us our comfort, right? It costs us our priorities. It costs us, this is the one I don't like, control in our life. Which raises an interesting question that I want to throw out to you today. What if the greatest competition for Jesus in our life, what if it's not bad things? What if it's the love of good things? What if the competition isn't that we love bad things in our life? What if the competition is that we just tend to love good things more in our life? Because if you think about it, most of our struggles in life, it's not with good and evil because we're pretty good at being able to identify, oh, that's something really bad. I should not do that. The struggle is choosing between what we want and what Jesus wants, right? I mean, sometimes the hardest part of following Jesus isn't giving up what's sinful in our life, it's surrendering what we deem as valuable in our life. And today as we kind of lean into this That's Crazy series, you know, we've been on this journey looking at Matthew chapter 8 and 9 and the miracles of Jesus in those two chapters. And what we've learned is that those miracles weren't just to show off, just to get a few hand claps or for people to get excited, but those miracles, there was a deeper meaning behind them. And that was to really help us see who Jesus is and what living in the kingdom really looks like. And so today as we hop into this miracle that we're going to talk about today, it's a doozy. It's probably the most shocking of all the ones that we've looked at so far. And so we're going to be looking in Matthew chapter 8 verse 28, the moment Jesus casts out some demons and pigs go flying off the side of the ledge, right? So let's pray. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to come together today to open your word and to just see what it is that you have to speak to us today.

So Lord, we just open our hearts, open our minds, open our ears to be receivers of all that you have for us. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Well, last week we saw the miracle that Jesus performed on the sea. He spoke to the storm and he said, peace be. still. Now the disciples were in the boat with him. They had seen him on the other side, on the shore. They had seen him perform miracles. But in this moment, when Jesus took authority over the sea, they looked at each other and said, who is this man? They were left, they were shocked. They were confused. They were in awe of a man that could speak to nature and have authority and control over it. Matthew is showing us so much in this story because Matthew is showing that they started on the shore, had to go through the storm. Jesus brought them through the storm to get to the other side. And it wasn't just to cross a lake, but it was a destination that Jesus was planning to go. He wasn't just crossing the sea. He was going to a new territory, a place where Gentiles lived, a place where there was, and we'll see this as we go through this story, a place that was filled with things that the Jewish customs did not receive, would not accept as clean, wouldn't take part of. And so we can't miss this. We can't miss that Jesus intentionally went through the storm. And this is very important for us to understand because I think sometimes like when that quote came to us this week, it's the thought of, man, I thought when I accepted Christ, everything would just be perfect. Or I've been doing this for 40 years now, nothing's going to take me out. Have you ever had that thought? And we see here that Jesus purposefully took his disciples through the storm to reach people that the Jewish custom and the Jewish traditions would avoid. And we see that continuously through these miracles, that Jesus went to places where people would avoid. Yeah. And we're going to read verse 28, but I want you to ponder on that, the weight of that for a second, that sometimes the Lord allows us to go through storms. Remember the storm they were following? They were following the will of God by going into the storm. Jesus led them there. And sometimes God allows us to go through storms so that he can use us to impact other people's lives. And that's something we're seeing in this miracle today. And verse 28,

it says, when Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake in the region of the Gadarenes, which is again a Gentile area, so this is an area for a Jew, they would totally avoid, that two men who were possessed by demons met him. They came out of the tombs and were so violent that no one could go through the area. I want you to think about for just a moment, the layers from the Jewish perspective, which is what Matt, who Matthew is writing to from that perspective, the layers of uncleanness that we see just in this one verse. The fact that it's the region of the Gadarenes, which is Gentile, which in their mind is unclean. The thought of demons, which is unclean. The thought of their coming out of the tombs, which is equivalent to dead people, which is unclean for Jewish people. And the violence that is being portrayed here. And so, this just isn't Jesus kind of going into a bad area. This is Jesus taking the disciples through a storm into a region that Jewish people would consider like the worst of the worst. Like their perspective would be nobody goes this way and they don't go this way because those people aren't worth it. And that just kind of, it kind of lands a little different for us today because I can't help but to think how many times in our life do we head somewhere, right? And we pass by people that we like totally over. overlook and dismiss because they would in our world fall under the category of the Gentiles from this region. And it's just, it's something that is weighty that we just have to, we have to think about and ponder about in our own life. And so I want us to, I want us to first like take a moment and look at the people in which Jesus went to these, these two men that were demon possessed. I mean, these guys are not living in homes. They're living in a cemetery, right? And they are, they are so violent that the people in the community have told everybody, just don't go that way. So think about that for a moment that years and years and years have, have gone by and what they have done is instead of leaning in, instead of doing something about it, they have just managed the situation and tried to circumvent. So imagine that as a parent, like as a parent, like kids want to go out and play and they're like, Hey, just don't go over there.

Right? Just don't go that way. And everybody avoids these two men that are demon possessed except for Jesus. Like Jesus goes to the most contaminated place in order to bring freedom to these men's lives. And I think it just, the significance of that, of recognizing that Jesus moves towards the people that everyone else tends to move away from, I think it doesn't matter how spiritual and how long we've been following Jesus in this room, including ourselves, that there's a level of that that is a little convicting this morning. Here's what it says in verse 29. They began to scream at him, these two men, why are you interfering with us? Why are you interfering with us, son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God's appointed time? Listen to this. They recognize the disciples asked just before, who is this man? But immediately those demons knew who this man was. He was God. And so they came out and began to say, why are you torturing us before God's appointed time? Even the demons know their time is up. Even the demons of hell know that one day their time is up. And I point out too, just if you're taking notes, that they had the correct theology, right, of who Jesus is, the Son of God. They knew who Jesus was, yet they didn't have saving faith. That in our lives we can know all the stories, we can have the theology of Jesus, and we can quote Scriptures and all that stuff, and that doesn't mean that we are necessarily saved. They knew who Jesus was, even in a way before a lot of the other people in that area did. And I think that, and they're freaked out over the appointed time. They know. I think it's talked about in Revelation 20.

They know there is judgment coming, and they're like, hold on, Jesus, it's a little early. It's a little early, isn't it? Verse 30 says, there happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance. So the demons begged, if you cast us out, cast us into that herd of pigs. All right, go, Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water. Let's look at the second thing we notice here that Jesus doesn't do. He doesn't argue. He doesn't negotiate. He simply speaks, and the spirits obey him. Then go. And they were gone. So think about it. Last week, and we talked about this, that Jesus demonstrated his authority over nature, over the winds, over the seas, over the storm. Thank you, Lord, that that is figuratively the storms of our life, but in the natural he spoke to the storm and said, be still. But this week we see that he demonstrates his authority over the spirit world. Before he had gone to the cross, before he had gotten the keys of death, hell, and the grave, he already had the authority over those demonic spirits. And in a very real way, Jesus, in that moment, answered the disciples' question in the boat. When they said, who is this man? Jesus said, I'm the one that even the spirits have to obey. What power. Now watch what happens next, because I think it's easy to overlook

what ends up happening next because of how crazy this miracle is. Look at this in verse 33. So the herdsmen, the ones that own the pigs, they fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what had happened to the demon-possessed men. We would think, right, if that's where we stop, hey, that's a good thing, right? But in verse 34, it says, then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, and they begged him to go away and to leave them alone. That's crazy. That Jesus just stepped into a moment that they have been managing for who knows how long. And avoiding. And avoiding and walking around, and he steps into this moment and he changes the whole dynamic, and they come back and tell Jesus to leave them alone. Like, why would they do that? Why would they possibly see that? Why would they not be so excited about now their kids can run and play, and they don't have to avoid this route anymore in their lives? Why would that not be a bigger deal? And here's what I think. That at first glance, when you look at this story, it looks like the answer is money.

It looks like they're losing this large herd of pigs, which is gonna represent a significant financial loss for these Gentile people. But if you dig a little deeper into it, I think it's bigger than that. I think what we see in this story is that Jesus is quick to say all right to the demons to jump into pigs so that they could go over the cliff because Jesus wanted to expose something in the hearts of the Gentiles. You see, I think the reason why they have an issue is because all of a sudden now, Jesus has disrupted their entire way of life, their lifestyle, the predictability, right? They just, they knew the demons were there, so it was predictable. They just don't go that way anymore. Their normal way of living. And so if you think about that for a second, the entire town has somehow, for some reason, learned to live with two demon-possessed men roaming around the countryside. Now, why would they do that? Well, I can't help but to think of just the human tendency that we all kind of experience in our life, that people often choose familiar brokenness over unfamiliar freedom. We often- You have to say that again. That people choose familiar brokenness

over unfamiliar freedom. We would rather manage what is disrupting our life. We would be more comfortable being able to know that it's there than to step what God requires of us in order to experience freedom is unfamiliar. We don't know what that looks like. We don't know what that journey is gonna be like. So we'd rather hold on to something that we're having to manage that might be disrupting our life rather than stepping into the unfamiliar so that one day we can walk in freedom. You know, this week I was thinking about this and I thought about being apathetic. that you're, you're, you just have no feeling about it. You've just become numb to it. And when we were going through this this week, I just thought to myself, man, the comfortable is more dangerous than apathy because in comfortable, you have a feeling. It's safe, it's familiar. Apathy, you have no feeling. So which one's worse? It's that comfortable because you don't want to leave the thing that actually feels good. And the reason why it feels good, maybe not, it may not be good, but it's your routine. You're used to it. You know, listen, I'd rather deal with the things that I know than the things that I don't know.

I'd rather have to deal with, I'm going to stay in this relationship, right? With this, with this boyfriend, because it's familiar. I know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen on the other side of this. I'm going to stay in this, in this job or at this school because I know what I'm about to face instead of stepping out in what God has called you to, to find that freedom, because the unknown is difficult. It's, it's scary. It's that loss of control. And to think that if it was ripped away from us, it was, it was solved for them. This situation was solved for them. How many situations in your life, you're like, God, just, just take care of it. And then he does. And then you're like, hold on. This does not feel comfortable. And, and, and we do that, you know, it's so easy to sit and look at people in the scripture and be like, why, why did they do that? Why didn't the Israelites go into the promised land? Why did it take them 40 years? And how many times have we as believers seen the hand and miracles of God, he has written it on the wall. This is the path that you take. And you're like, no, I'm just going to keep going around this mountain.

Cause that's too scary. Yeah, it's crazy. Cause freedom requires us to let go of what we've learned to depend on. And, and I, I wonder if when we talk about addiction in life, it's, it's easy and I fall into this category. It's easy to look at addiction as a drug or an alcohol or sexual sin or something like that. And we stop there. But sometimes I wonder if the greater addiction in our life isn't a narcotic, but it's the addiction to compromise or our comfort zone. And you think about, I mean, think about, think about your life for a moment and think about, think about how often you make decisions based upon what is comfortable. And the challenge is, is, is that's, that's where we begin to control. If we can control the outcome or manage the outcome, then it, it internally, there's this sense of comfort with that. And so what we're seeing in the story is that that's where they were managing the situation with demons and all that kind of stuff around, they were managing it because they could keep the areas that they had control over in their life. There was a level of predictability and comfort there. And, and I think what Jesus is wanting us to see in this story today is that the freedom that,

that he desires to bring into our life, that freedom requires us to let go of some things in our life, things that we've been depending on, things that make us feel more, more comfortable in life. You see, here's what's fascinating about the story is their response to the, to the miracle wasn't because they were rejecting Jesus. That was, they didn't tell Jesus to leave because they were rejecting Jesus. It was because they were afraid of what following Jesus might cost them next. Because every one of us wants Jesus to change our life. Like how many of us want Jesus to change our life? Yeah, 15 of us. We want Jesus to change our life until, all of the other group, like you're the smart ones because you knew there was something that was coming after it. You just knew it. But all of us want Jesus to change our life until it requires us to change our priorities. And that's the tension of the story. We want the miracles, but we don't want our priorities to have to change. So here's the uncomfortable question, and you're probably thinking, this has been uncomfortable this whole time. But it's important for us as believers, and honestly, one of our heart's desires as pastors is to help us walk through,

like we're walking through this same walk. We're walking on the same road. It's not that when you become a pastor, the road is different. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all walking the same Christian walk. And one of the things that we have seen is the disappointments that come when God does not work the way we wanted him to work, or we thought he would work, or even as quick as we thought that he should, or in the way that we thought that he should, or why are we going through this storm? And understanding that there is an uncomfortableness, there is a surrender when it comes to following Jesus, but with that surrender comes freedom. Who the son sets free is free indeed. And so when we look at this and we see, and we're saying, Lord, how can you speak to our lives? The uncomfortable question is this. How would we know if it's happening in our life? How do we know if we are settling for the familiar brokenness, the familiar chaos? How do we know if we are settling for the familiar comfort? How do we know that? It's because nobody wakes up in the morning and decides, I'm going to choose my priorities over Jesus. You do not wake up in the morning and make a conscious decision as a Christ follower

that you are going to choose your way and not his way. You just get up in the morning. It happens gradually. It happens quietly. It happens one step at a time. You just wake up in the morning. Maybe you think, oh, good morning, Lord. Thank you for waking me up. But you got your routine. Heading into work, going into school. And so Jesus gives us a simple way to examine our own hearts and ask ourselves this important question of how do we know if we've become comfortable? How do we know if we've chosen our priorities over the Lord? And it's in Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12 verse 29 says, Jesus replied, the most important commandment is this. Listen, oh Israel, the Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. So let's do a quick internal priority check. First with our heart, right where you're sitting and allow the Holy Spirit to sweetly convict you. I want him to convict me. That I can ask myself, what do I love the most? What do I love the most? What excites me?

What disappoints me the most? What would be the hardest for me to lose? What do I love the most? Because whatever captures your heart will eventually shape your priorities. If your job is the thing that you love the most, that will be your priority. Jobs are good things to have. But are we using it as a tool and a purpose? Lord, I thank you for this job to reach others for your kingdom. And when you are through with me at this job, I trust you, you'll move me to the next. What do you love the most? The second thing is the mind. This one. Anybody have difficulty with intrusive thoughts flying through your mind? So what do you love the most and what do you think about the most? Do you think about vacation all the time? What do you worry about constantly? What dominates your conversations? What do you talk about the most? The times you got hurt, the times you got left, the prices of gas. You may talk about that one. For those of us that sometimes have to take out a loan just to fill up a tank. What are you talking about the most

because that is what your mind is on. And if scripture says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, what fills our mind? And the third one is strength. What gets my best? And this one, what gets your best? Think about that. You put your best effort to. You want to do well. That gets your strength. That's where your strength is going. Your talents, your gifts, your influence, your experience, your opportunities. What gets your very best? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. The fourth one is this. Yeah, the fourth one is the soul. And here's the question, is who's really king? And we brought this one out of order because it feels like it's more of a global over the other three. Like who's really the king of our life? And this is where that difference between Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord comes in. Because many of us are all about Jesus as Savior. We can spend eternity with him, but we really struggle to make Jesus the Lord of our life. We want the trip to heaven,

but we don't want all the other stuff to change. We want life to remain as normal or under our control. And when you see this story, I mean, the town literally steps in and asks Jesus to leave. And most of us today are not gonna do that to Jesus. Most of us are not gonna just tell Jesus to leave, but oftentimes we do communicate the same message just in a different way. And here's how we say it. Like, Jesus, don't touch that area of my life. Like, Jesus, you can have the Sunday morning box, but don't touch my finances. Don't touch my relationships. Don't touch my hobbies, right? Don't touch my schedule, my future. And so that sole question for you and I is, is there any area in our life that we've been telling Jesus that he can't touch? And if we have been, then it puts us in this category of these townspeople that earlier we read and we were like, what were they thinking? Yeah. You know, I wanna kind of wrap up with this. It's about lunchtime. And I. I could tear up a Burger King Whopper, like, and I know everybody's got their favorite place and there's a lot that I like,

but I could just, I could tear up a Burger King Whopper and with cheese, of course. Their fries are mm, but those Whoppers. But even though it's almost lunchtime, I don't wanna talk about the burger, but what I wanna talk about is the message. The message that Burger King has been selling, right? That over the years that that message has evolved. It's gone from have it your way to you rule, right? And their new one is there's a new king and it's you. And I don't throw any shade to Burger King because honestly what they're doing is they're preaching a message to what culture is craving. What humanity is craving. Humanity. And what is that message that culture is preaching? It's you do you, right? You do you, I do me or follow your heart or you live your truth and I'm gonna live my truth, but Jesus steps into our life and he's preaching a completely different kingdom. It's not a kingdom where we are king. It's a kingdom where he is king. And so I think the challenge that I want us to leave with this week is this week as you begin to make decisions, as you make decisions with your calendar, as you make decisions with relationships, as you make decisions with your finances, where you spend time, as you make your decisions about the business

that you run, the question that I wanna leave you with today as really a challenge is to try to slow down and ask this question, who's making this decision? Is it King Jesus? Is it King Jesus or is it King me? Is it King Jesus or is it King me? And there's some young adults in this room that won't understand this, but there was a phrase back in the day, if you're in this house, that you're anywhere close to our age, that you will remember WWJD. What would Jesus do? And that becomes the question to identify who's King of my life, Jesus or me? It's a scary question. But what could it look like? What could it look like if every day that you got up and every day you said, God, you are King of my life today, speak to me today and your son or your daughter will follow. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, make sure you subscribe. Also, if something spoke to you in a special way, share it with a friend because you never know how it could transform someone's life. If you're interested in checking out our service times, make sure you go to our website at transformtlh.com. And we hope to see you at TC on a Sunday.

Thanks so much and have a great day.