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Dr. Myron Golden
Into me through the years and just praise the Lord it's good to see all their kids growing up kind of making me feel old. Mark chapter 4, I'm going to read a long passage of scripture this morning. Long passage of scripture, short message, short passage, long message.
So we got a long passage and a short message this morning. Mark chapter 4 and we're going to begin with verse 35 and then we're going to read down to chapter 5 and verse number 20. Now understand that in the Bible when it was written it didn't have chapter and verse separation.
So as I was reading this and studying this passage of scripture I noticed that the chapter ended but the story didn't end. And so I want you to get the whole picture of the whole story. Mark chapter 5, 4 verse 35 through 20.
Y 'all don't stand, do you brother Dave? Or do you? It doesn't, if you don't, do you usually? Okay well then we're not going to do it today. We're not going to come here doing it like that. All right so just follow along with me silently as I read out loud Mark chapter 4 verse 35 through chapter 5 verse 20.
It says in the same day when the even was come he said unto them let us pass over to the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude they took him even as he was in the ship and there were also with him other little ships and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.
And he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow and they awake him and say unto him master carest thou not that we perish. And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
And when he and he said unto them why are you so fearful how is it that you have no faith and they feared exceedingly and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him.
And they came over unto the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes and when he was come out of the ship immediately there met him a man out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him no not with chains because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and his fetters broken in pieces neither could any man tame him.
And always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw but when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshiped him and cried with a loud voice and said what have I to do with thee Jesus thou son of the most high I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not.
And he said unto him come out of that come out of the man thou unclean spirit and he asked him what is thy name and he answered saying my name is legion for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country now there was there nigh to the mountain a great herd of swine feeding and the devils besought him saying send us into the swine that we may enter into them and forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirit went out of went out and entered into the swine and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea they were about 2 ,000 and were choked in the sea.
They fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what was what it was that was done and they came to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and he that had legion sitting clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid and they saw and I'm sorry they that saw it told them how it befell him to put that was possessed of the devil and also concerning the swine and they began to pray him to depart out of their coast.
And when they came to the ship he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him how be it. Jesus suffered him not but saith unto him go home to thy friends tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee with compassion on thee and he departed and began to how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel.
Let's pray father thank you so much for your word thank you for the truth of it. We pray father that you would open up our dull understanding that you would sharpen our minds that we might perceive what your spirit has to say to this church today.
And we thank you for it in advance for what you will do and for what you have done in Jesus name. Did you notice what happened here. The bible says the same day when the evening was even was calm. Jesus said unto them let us pass over to the other side.
Now that part of the story is a whole story is several sermons within itself. This was a day of miracles. This was a day of great teaching. This was a day that Jesus had done many great things. And the bible says that same day when the evening came which by the way the evening always come Jesus said unto them let us pass over unto the other side.
And we see that Jesus took the disciples these Christian men these these preacher men these quote good men. He took them into a ship and he took them to the other side through great danger toils and snares.
He took them to a through a storm that was so great that they were afraid they were going to lose their lives. To the other side where there was a man that they otherwise would not have wanted to be bothered with.
Jesus took these apostles these disciples across dangerous water to get to minister to a dirty man to a demon-possessed man. To a quote worthless man. Jesus said to the disciples let us go over to the other side of ministry.
Jesus said I don't want you to be mistaken. I don't want you to think ministry is only feeding the multitudes with loaves and fishes. I don't want you to think that ministry is only is only healing the sick and raising the dead.
I don't want you to think that ministry is only all of this stuff that is that is exciting. I want to take you to the other side of ministry. I want to take you to the place where where where they've already realized that that government programs don't work.
I want to take you to the side of ministry where they've already discovered that that the chains and fetters don't work. I want you to. I want to take you to the side of ministry where man has already discovered that his ways can do nothing.
I want to take you to the other side of ministry. But before they even got to the other side of ministry before they got to this demon-possessed man before they got to this man who desperately needed Christ before they got to this man whose family had not seen him for a very long time because he was possessed with this legion of demons before they ever got to the other side of ministry.
Jesus said I've got some lessons for you to learn. And here are some of those lessons he said in order to get to the other side of ministry you've got to go through something great in order to do something great.
You've got to go through something great in order to do something great. Jesus took them to the other side of ministry. They had to go through great danger. You've got to go into a land that no longer reminds you of your comfort zone to do something great.
And every time when we look in scripture we see this principle over and over and over again. You've got to go through great danger to get to the other side of ministry David before I can make you a king.
I've got to let make sure you understand what it's like to fight a giant Joseph before I can make you the prime minister. You've got to go down in a pit. You've got to go down in the prison. You've got to go down down down before you can go up up up.
You've got to go through the great danger before you can do to go through great danger and get to the other side of ministry. You got to go through great darkness. You know it's interesting to me how we are tempted to fear.
Now the one thing that we ought to know about fear is that when we are afraid of something other than God then God is not the one who we are focused on at that time. Do you understand what I'm talking about whenever we get in a situation and that situation makes us hands and that situation makes us chew our fingernails.
And that situation makes us pace back and forth and stay up all night worrying. We are not focused on God because the Bible tells us clearly that God is not giving us the spirit of fear but a power of love and of a sound mind.
God's not giving me the spirit of fear when trouble comes but he's giving me the spirit of power over trouble. God is not giving me the spirit of fear in difficult times but he's giving me power over difficult times.
God is not giving me the spirit of fear but he's giving me power love and a sound mind. I don't have to worry when I'm focused on God. The Bible tells us that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.
But sometimes the waves beat on the ship so hard. Sometimes the winds blow against the ship so hard that it's hard for us to focus on the promise of God. And we focus on the visible circumstance that seems to threaten us against the promise of God.
I believe that one of the great challenges of the Christian life is to focus on the invisible through faith while taking our attention off of the visible. The Bible says when it says that we walk by faith and not by sight.
I believe what it's really saying as we are to walk by faith and not by sight. He's not saying that's what we automatically do. Can I get a witness. But he's telling us that is what we can do. And there are so many things that we can see when we learn to look through the visible to the invisible reality in life is invisible.
It's the realm God operates in. That's the real reality of life. We think all the stuff we can see we can smell we can hear we can touch we think that's the real reality of life. But God wants to get us to the place where we can get past being deceived by our sight so we can get to the other side of ministry trusting in what God has said in the face of all opposition.
You know I was thinking about brother Otis this morning. He was talking about what he said about um uh next week we're going to talk about the children of Israel marching around the walls of Jericho. Now understand the walls of Jericho were so thick that people lived inside buses that had walls so thick that squirrels lived in them.
But never people living in houses. So having walls so thick that people lived in. I'm talking about some big walls and and these walls were so thick that history tells they had chariot races around the top of them.
That's a big wall. And God said here's how we're going to knock the wall down. Here's how we're going to knock the wall. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to walk around these walls. How are we.
How are we going to take over Jericho for real. Seriously you know how do you really want us to do this. Isn't that what you were taught. You were supposed to walk around the wall and say this is what I'm saying.
I said yeah that's not the whole story on the second day. I want you to walk around that I say. That's not what the Bible says they did. But when God tells you to walk around what's the other hand look darkness before we get to the place in our lives where we trust him more than we trust those constantly easily deceived by our sight.
You see folks God wants us to understand that you can't believe your eyes because your eyes tell lies in order to get over to the other side of ministry. The side where you're really effective. The side where you're not just going through the motions.
The side where you're not just talking about Christianity. Not just talking about the Bible. Not just talking about God but walking about God. You've got to go through something great in order to do something great.
God wants to bring us through great darkness difficulty and danger to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we can begin to trust him to do the things in our lives that only he can do. The apostle Paul.
Now as I read the Bible if anybody to me seemed to have it going on as a Christian Paul was the one. I mean Paul. He had it going on. Paul came to the Lord. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 through 9 he said lest I should be exalted.
He came to the Lord and asked the Lord to remove this thorn. And here's what he said at the end of that experience. Unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice or three times. I begged God that it might depart from me. And he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in your weakness most gladly.
Therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. See we don't want the power of Christ. We want the power of. I want the power of my y 'all know what I'm talking about.
You want the power of whatever your name is. I want the power of intel intelligence. I want I want the power. I want the power of looking good. I want the power of sounding good. But God said no no no no no he said you got to come to the end of yourself because that's where I start to work in.
When he took them through the dark and dangerous sea where they were afraid they were going to lose their lives. They learned that you had to go through something great in order to do something great.
But they also had learned that in order to get to the other side of ministry you've got to go from being comfortable to being comforting. See God's not interested in our comfort. God's not interested in us being comfortable in this Christian world.
Well you know I just want to go amazing. When people say I just want to go to church right to be comfortable. I just want to comfortable. Like comfort is our number one goal. That's okay when you're shopping for an easy chair or a pair of shoes.
But in the Christian life that's not how it works. God is more interested in us being comforting than he is being comfortable. He wants he's going to make us uncomfortable on the journey. How many of you have ever been uncomfortable on the journey of your Christian life.
He wants to make us uncomfortable with the risk. The risk of losing our friends the risk of offending our family the risk of looking like a nut sounding like a nut. He wants us to get from get to the place where we're okay with being uncomfortable with the journey.
Uncomfortable on the journey uncomfortable with the risk and uncomfortable with the sacrifice so that we can be comforting to other people. The Bible tells us in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 through 4.
Blessed be the God. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforted us with. Who comforted us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Here's what I found out. If you never go through anything you can't ever help anybody else. Do it. You know what you know what I found out. It's a whole lot easier to be patient with other folk when you've been through something.
I'm not talking about the whole thing to be patient with other folk when you've been through. Now when you ain't been through nothing. Boy you and you. And you know everything you know you ain't patient with anybody except yourself.
But when you have when you've been the Bible teaches us that you can comfort somebody else. And God's more interested in your being able to comfort somebody than he is in you being comfortable. I believe that's why God gives us all challenges all he gives all of us challenges all of us because I believe that God wants us to come to into agreement with him that the worst things that ever happened to us in our lives are the best things that ever happened.
You understand that Christian life is a paradox. Don't you. The way up is down. The way to be first to be last. The way to be great is to be a servant. The way to get is to give you understand that the Christian life is all about a paradox.
And the worst things that ever happened to us in our lives are the best things that ever happened to us in our lives. You know and I I had polio as an infant. I do these seminars all over the country and and I you know I have to tell the story about how when I had polio you know growing up I had.
I've always walked with a brace on my leg. And uh but when I was a kid my left leg was two inches shorter than my right pain. The doctors came to my parents said Mr. and Mrs. Golden we got an operation that's going to help your son.
We can stretch his leg two inches. But they had to break my leg in three places. Put these screws through it like screws under the hood of your car you know put those little holes in front of their face.
At the end of the month I was only stretched two inches when you put a floor on the side. I was so excited I could get my leg put in the microwave. Plus I didn't have to go to school for a whole month.
I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for me. I'm gonna tell you something having gone through that entire experience is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me in my life. It is it is part of who I have become by the grace of God.
Or I should say part of who I am becoming by the grace of God. That was the one by far. That's probably the worst thing that ever happened to me. But it's also one of the best things that ever happened to me.
I'm not saying that sounds spiritual. I'm just saying it because it's a revelation. It's a revelation that God gives us. There's no advancement without adversity. There's no champion without challenge.
You're walking around. Where's your role. That's Super Bowl ring. Well really you played in the Super Bowl. Yep I played in the Super Bowl. Who'd y 'all play against. Nobody doesn't really have much meaning when you don't play against anybody.
Do you understand what I'm saying. It's the challenge that makes you a champion. And God wants to bring us to the other side of ministry. He wants to bring us through some discomfort so we can comfort somebody who's uncomfortable.
You've been through something in your life and maybe you've been wondering why. Lord why is this happening to me. Or why did this happen to me. It happened to you so that you could comfort somebody else with the same comfort where with you yourself are comforted of now.
No doubt that before they got on the ship there were people who were impressed with the disciples. Wow. They get to go with him everywhere he goes. Wow. I wish I could go. Oh Mr. Peter can I get your autograph.
John. Will you sign my bible. Right. But I believe God wants to bring us to the place where we go from impressing people to impacting people. That's the other side of ministry where we're not interested in impressing people with how much we know or how much christianese we can speak.
Praise the lord. That's the language we christians speak. God wants to bring us to the place in our lives where we go from impressing people with our words impressing people with our walk and impressing people with our wisdom to impacting people.
How do we do that. We do that when God's kingdom comes into our lives. That's when people begin to be impacted. You know what the bible tells. The bible tells in Romans chapter 15. I think it is the bible says the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but it is righteousness and joy in the holy ghost.
Now when you understand what a kingdom is a kingdom is dominion. A kingdom is a place of rule. A kingdom is jurisdiction. When you come into when God's kingdom comes into your life that means God is king of your life.
When God's kingdom comes into your life the bible says it's righteousness peace and joy in the holy ghost which means that God's kingdom comes into your life. It's right. That means God is king of your example.
God rules in your example. Peace. We don't have to play wake at night worrying about anything. Peace where you don't have to be afraid of any challenge. Peace where you know God is in control. Peace when you know even when you're in the battle and you're fighting against the giant that the giant's bigger than you but God's bigger than the giant.
Peace. Peace is when God rules in your experience. See God wants to be in control of our example. God wants to be in control of our experience. And then it says enjoy the holy ghost. God wants to be in control control of our expression.
How you doing this is a christian now not too bad under the circumstance. Well what is that. Who put you under a circumstance. The bible tells us that God made us to have dominion over everything that his hands created.
He made us to have dominion over the works of his hands not to be under circumstance circumstance supposed to be under us. God wants to rule in our expression. I believe that when somebody asks a christian how they're doing that they ought to give an answer that shows that God is in control.
The bible says the joy of the lord is our strength. How are you doing. I'm blessed by the how are you doing. How are you doing if I stay better. I'd have to be 10 to 12 people just so I could stand it.
God wants to be in control. He wants to take us from impressing people to impacting people. John the baptist had a good idea about how to do this. John the baptist said in john 330 he must increase and I must decrease.
And I think most of us go through life spending too much time trying to figure out how to make him decrease and us increase. But john said that's not the way it's done. But I want you to see also that when you get over to the other side of ministry you go from being threatened by the enemy to being a threat to the enemy.
Did you notice what happened now. I don't know what you did. I don't. I like this. I like to read bible stories in technicolor. I don't know if you do that or not. But I like to see it actually shit comes into the doctor's eye though this wild maniac little children.
And I've overcome them. Why. Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. See. We're not a threat to the enemy because of us in spite of us. Because when we get to the other side of ministry we become a threat to the enemy's intent.
We know what the enemy's intent is right to kill to steal to kill and to destroy. We become a threat to the enemy's industry. Become a threat to the enemy's impact on the other side of ministry. And I believe the bible tells us how to do that in james chapter 4 verse 7.
Here's what it says. Submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil. Unfortunately that's not how most christians live their lives. Most christians do it the exact opposite. They resist god. You say my brother myron what do you mean.
I mean that person that you're angry with. God says you're supposed to forgive them. I know they did you wrong. But you did christ more wrong. God says forgive him. You say well lord I would forgive them.
But you know how wrong they are. And we resist devil. We resist god and submit to the devil. God says I don't want you to be afraid. I've not given you the spirit of fear. Have not. I commanded you to be strong and of a good courage.
Be not afraid neither be dismayed for the lord thy god is with you with us. So ever that good. And what happens. Soon as the challenge comes you become a submit yourselves to the devil. The devil is the one who wants to make you afraid.
God's not trying to make you afraid. Submit yourselves. Therefore to god resist the devil. He will flee from you. And you can go over to the other side of ministry. Make an impact on people's lives by the grace of god.
Or better yet where god makes an impact on people's lives through you as an instrument. The other side of ministry. The side of ministry where lives are impacted. Side of ministry when we're comforting to those who are hurting.
Instead of seeking comfort from someone else. Let's go over to the other side of ministry. Let's pray father. I thank you for your word. I pray father that you make our lives lights that shine in this dark world.
I pray that you help us to trust you more than we trust our intellect. More than we trust what we think. We know. More than we trust our experiences. More than we trust in circumstances.
Help us to trust you we'll give you the glory for it. I don't think I've ever heard brother Myron preach and kept a dry eye the whole time in his life and works in our lives as well. Lord thank you for this day.
We ask you to continue to work in our hearts with this message from you. From your word we thank you that you gave it to brother Myron and he was a good steward of it brought it to us today. Thank you for his family and lord we ask you to work in our hearts as you choose fit through this message.
And lord we as we go to a time of fellowship together we ask you to bless that as well. Fellowship truly be around the lord jesus. And we ask you to bless the meal we're about to have in jesus name.