Jesus To The Rescue

Children today have so many toys, electronics, and video games that the days of making up your own games for fun and entertainment are almost lost forever. I’m not saying I’m old or anything, but I do believe that I’m a part of one of the last generations that has scars on our knees from playing outside. Playing outside allowed you to have an imagination that went beyond the sky which provided countless days of fun throughout the entire summer. And I wanted bring your minds back to those childhood days to see if you remember playing a game of rescue. The game of rescue didn’t have any rules at all; however you played was the right way to play.

The game of rescue didn’t always have to be played outside, but one of your friends hanging from the bed post always made a good rescue situation. Some of you looking at me like you’ve never played this game as a child, and maybe I was the only one crazy enough to come up with such a game. Now, for those men who had toy soldiers and G.I. Joes I know for a fact that you played rescue. But the game was simple, one person would pretend like they were in a dangerous situation while the other person would play the cop or firefighter who was sent to rescue that individual. The days of pretend are gone, and the reality is that we live in a world where people need to be rescued all the time.

This coming Tuesday, we as a country will remember the 6th year anniversary of the World Trade Center bombings in New York city. A day in which America’s heart was saddened by the unnecessary tragedy and loss of thousands of innocent lives. On September 11, 2001, and many days following there had been hundreds of rescue missions, and in some cases the rescuer’s life was lost trying to save someone else’s.

There are many types of rescue situations that exist. There are confined space rescues, rope rescues, cave rescues, fast water rescues, ice rescues, mines rescue, search and rescue, wilderness rescues, and vehicle rescues. Rescue operations require a high degree of training and are performed by those who specialize in rescuing people. The rescue situations that I just mention all happen in the physical world, and it seems like everyone in here this morning isn’t in need of a physical rescue. But there just might be somebody in here that is in a dangerous spiritual situation or condition, and needs to be spiritually rescued!

If you would peruse with me through Mark chapter 5, you will discover a man who is in need of such a rescue. A man who is demon-possessed and who has made his dwelling, or should I say his crib is a tomb.

• If this isn’t enough to make you say that this man is in bad shape, what about the fact that he was so violent that the locals had to place him in shackles and chains. Obviously, the shackles and chains weren’t approved by the American Iron and Steel Institute because he tore them apart and broke them into pieces.

Constantly, night and day, this madman was screaming in the graveyard and in the mountains causing people to take the long way home because they didn’t want to be bothered with him when they passed by. To make matters worse, he was known as a cutter, for he would gash himself with stones. This man was crazy and deranged, he was strange and in need of a change.

• He was like the town drunk, nobody wanted to be around him, and society had cast him out. He was such a lunatic that the Salvation Army turned him away, and the Dallas Life Foundation lied to him and told him that there was no more rooms for the night.

• This man got the picture and made himself at home among the tombs. He was the talk of the town and a horror story for all the kids who would dare one another to visit the graveyard at night. Nobody went to visit grandma’s grave because they didn’t want to be confronted by this madman.

Now, in your responsive reading I had you read from Matthew 8:28-34 because it is one of the three gospels in which we read about this demon-possessed man, except in Matthew it mentions that there were two demon-possessed men, while Mark and Luke talks about only one man.

• I want to assure you that there isn’t an error in the Word of God and that what you read in the Bible you can place your total faith and trust in. The Bible is the Holy Word of God and God inspired these authors’ hearts to write what He wanted us to know.