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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
Encounter - The Ministry Of Freedom
Join Pastor Tyler Lynde in our “Encounter” series as he delves into “The Ministry of Freedom.” Tyler explores how the Holy Spirit and the mission of Jesus Christ transform lives, bringing healing and freedom from demonic oppression. Drawing from Luke 10:17-20, he highlights the authority granted to believers in Jesus’s name:
“Behold, I have given you authority… over all the power of the enemy.”
Tyler shares riveting personal testimonies and biblical insights, shedding light on the realities of spiritual warfare and the essential faith needed to face such challenges. He recounts a compelling story from the New Life Drama Company, illustrating the necessity of prayerful preparation and reliance on Christ’s power to set captives free. This narrative encourages us to seek personal freedom and help others struggling under spiritual bondage.
Exploring the fascinating realms of angels and demons, Tyler unravels their nature and roles from a biblical perspective. He explains that angels are eternal beings created by God, serving as worshippers, messengers, warriors against Satan, and protectors of God’s people. In contrast, demons are fallen angels led by Lucifer, who rebelled against God. Tyler emphasizes their mission to disrupt and destroy, highlighting the importance of understanding demonic possession and oppression to recognize the impact of spiritual strongholds.
Tyler clarifies that while unbelievers can be possessed by demons, believers may experience oppression. He introduces the concept of strongholds—spiritual fortresses made up of wrong thoughts that can take root in our minds. By addressing these root causes through spiritual intervention and truth, we can break free from these strongholds and experience true liberation.
Delving into Jesus’s profound ministry of deliverance, Tyler highlights biblical stories where Jesus cast out demons and healed those oppressed by evil spirits. He emphasizes that Jesus has given His followers the authority to overcome spiritual adversaries, as seen in Mark 16:15-18:
“And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons…”
Providing practical steps for achieving spiritual deliverance and freedom, Tyler draws from James 4:7-10. He emphasizes the importance of humility, confession, and resistance against evil. By submitting to God, resisting the devil, and drawing near through prayer and worship, we can maintain liberation and embody Jesus’s transformative power in our lives.
Tyler encourages each of us to be a beacon of Christ’s love, fostering personal and communal freedom. As we celebrate today as a day of salvation, we seek God’s miraculous work within us. Join us in this powerful message as we embrace spiritual freedom and the authority we have in Jesus’s name.
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All right. So for the next couple of weeks we're going to be finishing up our current sermon series called Encounter. Have you learned something from Encounter? Have you been touched by God in some way? I hope so. It's all about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Derek did an amazing job last week talking about healing, and have some of you received some healing even this week as you've been praying and asking the Lord? Awesome, I see some hands. That's great. Praise God, praise God. One of the things we want to do tonight also is give room for testimonies and so things that God has been doing. We want to share those with the rest of the body.
Tyler Lynde:Today, I'll be speaking with you about the fact that Jesus came to set people free from demonic oppression. Now, before you shut off immediately and say I'm tuning out of that, I don't want any part of that, trust me, all of us need to hear this. We need to hear this not only for ourselves and walking in freedom ourselves, but how many of you know, we are surrounded by people in this world who are oppressed by the devil, and Jesus came to set the captives free. He came to set the captives free. That's one of his main. If you had to give Jesus a job description, that is, one of his main defining things is that he came to set those who are oppressed free. And not only do we want to walk in freedom for ourselves, but, how many of you know, we want to know how to help other people who are not yet walking in freedom, and so the title of today's message is the ministry of freedom. Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke, chapter 10,. Luke 10, verses 17 through 20. And that's where we'll start this morning. Luke Luke 10, verses 17 through 20, and that's where we'll start this morning. Luke, chapter 10, verses 17 through 20,.
Tyler Lynde:I'm reading from the English Standard Version, the ESV the 72 returned with joy saying Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Let's pray together this morning. Father God, in the mighty name of Jesus, we thank you for our time together today and, lord, I pray, and I know that you have given me a word for this morning, and so I ask that you would open our ears, open our eyes, open our hearts to receive the truth from your word today. And, jesus, we thank you that you did come to set the captives free and so any area in our lives that we are still held captive by the enemy. We pray that you would bring about a complete and total freedom in each of our lives. And, father, would you take it beyond that? Would you give us the ability and the courage to step into other people's lives who have not yet understood or walked in the freedom that you provide? Would you give us the ability to help them on their journey out of bondage and into freedom? We thank you that your spirit is here and he is the one who's in charge, and we take authority over anything that would try to to cause disturbance or bring about the purpose of Satan in this place, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen.
Tyler Lynde:My wife, amy and I met on a Christian drama company called New Life Drama Company and we traveled all over the country. I went to 42 states in my time that I traveled and one of the places that we went was a little place called Humboldt, tennessee. Anybody know where Humboldt Tennessee is? It's north of Memphis, way, way out west. And Humboldt has a special place in our hearts because it's the first place that we both told each other that we loved each other. Yeah, so it has a special place anyway.
Tyler Lynde:But there's another reason why Humboldt comes to mind and that is because we were ministering at a church there and the pastor of the church asked us to go out on visitation with him. So it was a Wednesday, we were going to have a Wednesday night special service where we were going to do drama, but he asked us to go visit some people during the day and the pastor seemed extraordinarily stressed. Right, and we're all young teenagers and pretty ambitious and not young, I would say. We were 19, 20, 21. So I guess that's young, is that young, is that young? So anyway, we were fairly young and we were excited and, you know, ambitious and ready to go, and so the pastor took us and he didn't really say anything to us until we got to the house where we were going and as we got out and got on the steps, he turned around and told us, the woman on the inside of this house is demon possessed.
Tyler Lynde:She believes that she's a jaguar and she actually kind of transforms, manifests demonically in the form of a jaguar. She will claw at her children and her husband and at herself. She growls like a jaguar. She also will call out to somebody named Antonio and talk to them in Spanish language. She's never learned the Spanish language, but this is something that she does. She's very tormented, the family's very tormented, the children aren't even here because they don't feel like the husband doesn't feel like it's a safe place for them to be.
Tyler Lynde:And then he opens the door. So we were like, okay, here we go, are we prayed up? Are we ready for this? So we go into the room and the pastor begins to pray for the young lady. But he hasn't had a lot of experience in this area and that's fine, there's no judgment at all. But his way of praying for this lady was, to you know, to place the Bible on her forehead and, to you know, to do kind of what he'd seen in movies that you're supposed to do to try to bring about freedom for this woman. And she was responding even louder. The demons inside of her were making manifestations that were loud. She was I don't have to get sensational with it, you understand what I'm talking about and I just asked the pastor if we could just take a minute and just pray and if he would let us kind of step in and help a little bit more. And as we began to do that, I just took authority over the demon powers that were operating in this woman's life and all of us together, in the name of Jesus, broke that power off of her and commanded it to leave her and never return again. And I say that like it was just so easy.
Tyler Lynde:There was a lot of tumultuous and intercessory prayer and time that was dedicated to this time of healing and freedom. This woman at the end of our time praying for her, her complete countenance changed. Everything about her was like we had never known, and her husband even was shocked. He was like speechless, he didn't know what to say. And so we asked her to sit down and we asked the husband to get her something to say. And so we asked her to sit down and we asked the husband to get her something to drink. And so she began to drink and we began to talk to her about Jesus. And within just a short few minutes of time she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord and we prayed for her and she was filled with the Holy Spirit, completely transformed, and that'd be amazing if we walked out and that was the end of the story.
Tyler Lynde:But that's not the end, because that evening we got to the church and there were only a few people there. But this lady came with her husband and her children and there was a whole row of people in front of them that we didn't know, and we began to do the ministry that night. We were all tired and worn out. There weren't a lot of people there. They weren't like that into the skits that we were doing, so it felt a little bit like a failure, if I'm being honest, like in the flesh. It's like we were really trying really hard and nobody's really responding. You know and so.
Tyler Lynde:But I'm still in the middle of giving my talk and all of a sudden, one of the men in the room stands up and he cries out I need Jesus. The man in the room stands up and he cries out I need Jesus. And, to be honest, my first thought was I haven't gotten to that part yet, sir. Could you wait just a few more minutes. I'll let you know when we're ready for that, you know. But thankfully that was only a momentary glitch. Right, he ran down front. There was no stopping him. He ran down front, he fell on his face, began to cry out to God and then, all of a sudden, all of the people that were in that row of chairs got up and they found their way as well, and all of them gave their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ.
Tyler Lynde:At the end of the service I saw an older lady there when I say older now, looking at it, maybe she wasn't that old, she was older than us and she was weeping. She wasn't weeping sorrowful tears, she was weeping tears of joy. And I just went up to her and I said ma'am, do you mind explaining to me what's going on on the inside of you? And she said in her broken way I've been praying for my family for 35 years and none of them have become Christians to this point, and tonight all of them got saved. Jesus came to set the captives free, and freedom that is produced in people's lives causes the gospel to spread and to increase, and we need to be prepared to be involved with Jesus in the ministry of freedom. So that's what we're going to talk about this morning.
Tyler Lynde:The supernatural realm is completely natural to God. I know when we think about it, when we talk about these kinds of things, we think about it like science fiction or something that's hard to imagine or hard to believe or hard to understand, and I get that because we are in the natural, here, in this natural earth, in this natural life. It's hard for us to understand the supernatural, but for God it's completely normal. It's his way of doing life. But here's the key God wants us to enter into his supernatural way of doing things. He wants to use us in this earth to cause his supernatural life to invade this earth, this natural earth, so that he can touch people and make them whole.
Tyler Lynde:In our passage today that we read from Luke 10, there's a group of Christ followers and I want you to pay attention to this. Do you notice that there were 72 of them? Guess who was not a part of this group? Jesus was not with them, although he was right in spirit, but also the apostles. The apostles had already been sent out by Jesus to do something else, and now Jesus expands his reach and he sends out 72 more. So if you've ever been told that the gifts of the spirit and that the moving of God was only restricted or reserved for the 12 apostles, jesus must not have gotten that memo, because even during his ministry he's sending 72 other people out to do the work and to prepare the way.
Tyler Lynde:Jesus is getting ready to travel to these different towns. So he sends the 72 out kind of as a precursor to get ready for him to come to those places, and then when they return, they're jumping up and down, they are pumped about what God is doing and what they're experiencing, because these are things that they had only seen Jesus do up until this point in time. But now they're being used by God to perform the very same acts that they saw Jesus do. The sick were being healed, miracles were occurring and people were being set free from Satan's control in their lives and they came back dancing and rejoicing and laughing and having a good time and having a good time. Can you imagine being a part of something like that? Can you imagine being sent out by Jesus to minister to people at the point of their need? Can you imagine being filled with the Holy Spirit so that you have the ability to pray for people to be healed and they're healed, to see miracles happen, blind eyes open, to see people who have been tormented by Satan be completely and totally set free by the power of God. Guess what? That's exactly what God has called us to do and to be until he returns to this earth. Amen, it's good news, but before we get too deep, I wanted to take a little time to lay some groundwork so that we understand what we're talking about when it comes to the spiritual realm and why there's even a need for people to be set free. So let's start by talking about angels and demons's even a need for people to be set free.
Tyler Lynde:So let's start by talking about angels and demons. Okay, we're going to start at ground zero. First of all, we know that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are supernatural beings. They're eternal beings. They've always been, they are now and they always will be right. But we also know that they've created many different things and some of the things that they created many different things and some of the things that they created, some of the beings that they created are called angels. Angels are real beings who, because their spirits, are normally invisible to the human eye, although there are some people who have seen angels. Some in this room have probably actually seen the Lord's open their spiritual eyes so that they've been actually able to see an angel. What an amazing thing. According to the Bible, the total number of angels is innumerable. You can't count them. There's millions upon millions. You can't even quantify it. Often they are referred to by such terms as the host of heaven, the joyful assembly and the mighty ones of God Just different examples throughout scripture of what they're called.
Tyler Lynde:What does scripture teach about angels? First of all, angels worship God in heaven. Remember in the book of Revelations where it says that around the throne were angels who were swirling around the throne and every time they would come around they would cry out holy, holy, holy is the Lamb of God, worthy is the Lamb of God, holy is the Lord, god Almighty. They worship. They're creatures who live and thrive and every part of them lives to worship and honor and glorify God. Number two they serve as messengers for God. They are God's messengers. Can you imagine again? We're getting ready to hit the Christmas season. Can you think of any examples of messenger angels that came to this earth to deliver a message about Gabriel. A few messages there that you'll find earlier in this book, in the book of Luke, right? So they are messengers for God that will bring or deliver a message. Number three they make war against Satan and his demons.
Tyler Lynde:You remember the story of Daniel, when he had prayed for an answer from God and the answer was withheld. And when the angel appeared to give him the answer, guess what he said? We've been withheld in the heavens and there's been a great war that's been going on. And Michael the archangel which must be a big, bad dude Think about Rambo on steroids. Wait a minute, think about, think about just. You can't even imagine what this, what Michael must be like, right? So he showed up and made way for the answer to come from heaven to Daniel.
Tyler Lynde:Number four they offer special protection to God's people. Psalms, chapter 34, verse seven, for example, says the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. You believe that this morning, that God sends his angels to watch over you, to keep you safe in all of your ways? Yes, he does. There are many cases of miraculous angelic deliverance in the Bible. Back to Daniel again. Remember when he was thrown into the lion's den and the king came back and called out the next day Daniel, are you there? Daniel messed with him and didn't say anything for a minute. No, he said I'm here, king. And the king asked him how is it that you're still alive? Remember what Daniel said the Lord sent an angel and he shut the mouth of the lions. God protected Daniel through angelic beings.
Tyler Lynde:Right, we also know an example in the New Testament when Peter was thrown in jail in Acts, chapter 12. And what happened? An angel came and set him free and led him out of the jail that he was at. I always love that story, because they go to the house and he knocks on the door where everybody's praying for his release, and the maid comes to the door and opens the door and there's Peter standing there at the door and she slams the door in his face and goes back in and says, hey, I just saw a guy that looks like Peter. And they start praying more, you know, for discernment and all of this, and Peter's still like hey, guys. So finally they let him in, but the angel had come to deliver him.
Tyler Lynde:So but one thing that's important to understand about angels. Please hear me Angels are not to be worshipped and they are not to be prayed to. We do not pray to angels. We do not worship angels. They are created beings just like we are. Okay, but they are God's servants. And because they're God's servants, we can ask him Father, would you release angels on my behalf, would you send them to protect me and my family, would you? You understand what I'm saying. We can ask him, but it's his sovereign will and his plan that comes to pass in that right. Do not pray to angels.
Tyler Lynde:Next, what does scripture teach about demons? So who are demons? The answer is very simple Ready. Demons are fallen angels. Demons are fallen angels.
Tyler Lynde:One of the most glorious angels of all time that God created was a being named Lucifer, whose name meant what? The morning star, the morning star. He had jewels that were embedded in his being. He also had musical instruments built in. He was the worship leader of heaven, and Isaiah 14 describes in poetic terms how he led a rebellion in heaven in an attempt to overthrow God. Remember what he said. He said that I will make myself like the most high God. And what did God say? Nope, get out. And immediately Jesus said I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. The rebellion failed and he and his followers. He had one third of the angels that followed him and they, along with Satan, lucifer, were kicked out of heaven and they found their place of residence here in this earth. They are called things in the Bible like unclean spirits, evil spirits, spirits of darkness, and there's lots of other descriptive terms, but those are just a few that you can maybe write down and pay attention to when you're reading the scripture.
Tyler Lynde:The Bible tells us that Satan set his headquarters up here in this earth. And where did he first do his first attack? You remember In the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, when he approached Adam and Eve and he used the same judgment that got him kicked out of heaven. He used the same temptation on them. Isn't it true that God's holding something back from you? He knows that if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you'll be just like him, like the most high. And Adam and Eve, we know, partook of the fruit, and then God came and had brought a curse based on the sin that they committed.
Tyler Lynde:But how many of you know that in Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15, there's a beautiful promise embedded in the middle of the curse. What is that promise? There's a woman who will give birth to a seed and you will attempt, as he's talking to Satan, you will attempt to strike his heel and he will crush your head. Crush your head. Who's the seed? The seed is Jesus, and we know that he defeated Satan at the cross of Calvary and by raising from the dead, and we know that there will be a day very soon, when he returns, that there will be the final banishment of Satan, forever and ever thrown into darkness.
Tyler Lynde:I heard a whoo. That's good, listen. We need more of that. I don't want any more. I don't want him around any more than he has to be. So sin entered the earth. We talked about that.
Tyler Lynde:So demons have only one purpose To further Satan's evil work in the world. They work under his command and they do whatever he wants them to do in order to try to further his work of evil within the earth. They are evil through and through. Please hear me when I say this. They hate God, they hate Jesus Christ and guess what? They hate you.
Tyler Lynde:Demons are not something to be played with. They are not something to be petted, they are not something to entertain, they are not something, they're not a game to be played. They are wicked and they're evil. They're unholy, they're disobedient. They're arrogant. They are liars. They are prideful. They are filthy. They are unclean. They are nasty. They are arrogant. They are liars. They are prideful. They are filthy. They are unclean. They are nasty. They are brutal Any other description that you could think of and, like Satan, they do his job, which is to steal, kill and destroy. That's what they come to do. And, like him, they work through the world and the flesh to tempt people to do what God says is wrong. That's what demons do. That's who they are.
Tyler Lynde:Demons like to have expressions through people, animals or objects. They like to express themselves. They like to pump energy through people or through animals or through objects, like those who are involved in idol worship and things that are used for idol worship. A lot of times, satan will be around, not Satan himself, but demons will be around those things to try to cause influence. I have many times in my life been sitting in people's houses and witnessing to them and had them very close to making a decision to follow after Jesus Christ and all of a sudden and I'm not joking some dog will go nuts, some cat in the house will go crazy to the point to where it tries to interrupt the moment that we're having with God. Satan and his demons love expression. They want to manifest themselves in ways to create fear and to try to control scenarios and situations. Their number one tactic is to cause fear. To cause fear.
Tyler Lynde:Number three an unbeliever can be possessed by demons, possessed by demons, controlled by demons, to the point to where they don't have a choice to do something or not to do something. How many times have you heard in prison ministry you'll hear this a lot somebody involved in some kind of crime and they'll say something came over me and I didn't even know what I was doing. A lot of people joke and they say the devil made me do it. But in some cases, when there is this kind of demonic control, there feels like there's no way that a person can not do what's being required of them by the demon that is possessing them. This is when people are, like I said, controlled by demons. They can't say no to the impulses that they have. A lot of times people will hear voices, they'll see things in the spiritual realm, they will be motivated by things that are evil and wicked and just have no desire for anything that's good.
Tyler Lynde:And then number four, believers can be demonically oppressed or depressed. So we believe that the scripture teaches that when our spirit is made alive unto God, that we are born again, that it is filled with the Holy Spirit. And how many of you know that the spirit and Satan cannot coexist in the same space? So your spirit is born again. It's been made brand new and Satan has no ability to enter it, to mess with it, to try to maneuver in any way within your spirit realm. It's completely made new and protected.
Tyler Lynde:But how many of you know we still walk around in a body and our body can deal with things that are a result of our own doing, in other words, sins that we've committed, or it can be a result of demonic influence in our lives. If you have, for example, if you've been having a long bout with depression and you just can't seem to shake it off of you, it's possible that there's demonic influence that's attempting to keep you in that depressed state. There are times when people deal with, like, for example, rage, and it's like they have control over it, but at times it feels like it just wants to take over and they can't seem to find a way out of that. That could be demonic influence, even in a believer's life, somebody who's dealing with addiction. Sometimes addictions can be tied back to demonic influence or oppression or depression, pushing pressure from the outside, or pressure in the soul, right, pressure in our mind, our will and our emotions, or pressure on our physical bodies. So those are things that we as Christians can deal with from the demonic realm, and the Bible talks about this in the way of our thinking and our mind, and it calls it something specific. It calls it a stronghold.
Tyler Lynde:What is a stronghold? A stronghold in the mind is a spiritual fortress made up of wrong thoughts. And when does Satan attempt to start working this work, the work of strongholds in people's lives? Does he wait until they're 87? When does he try to start, soon as they can? When they're little, when they're vulnerable, when they can be naive, when they don't know the truth. Sometimes, when they're not yet followers of Jesus Christ, he will attempt to set up patterns in their lives that tell them something to be true that is not true in Jesus Right. True in Jesus Right. It is a fortified. A stronghold is a fortified dwelling place where demonic forces can hide and operate A stronghold of the mind, like I said, is a lie that Satan established in our thinking. It is a statement that we count as true, but it's actually false.
Tyler Lynde:I lived my whole early life with this mindset that I wasn't good enough. And I actually and I've told you this before I went through a season in my life where I had a nervous breakdown. And, coming out of that nervous breakdown, I went to a pastor and his wife and they prayed for me and they asked the Lord to reveal the root causes. It's interesting because our medical system, if you're not aware of this, doesn't deal with root causes Primarily. Sometimes it does, but primarily it deals with what Symptoms? So let's dumb down the symptoms, let's dull the pain, let's do whatever we can, but let's not deal with the actual root cause. God's not into that. God's not just interested in taking care of your symptoms. God wants to get the root cause of it right. So in my life, as these people were praying for me, we were asking the Lord to reveal to me what kind of caused this train of thought in my life, and the Lord reminded me of something that happened when I was very young.
Tyler Lynde:You know my story. You know that my brother drowned when I was one and a half years old and then, about a year later, my mom got pregnant again and my parents told me because I was very sad losing my brother my parents told me you're going to have another brother, you're going to get to play with him, everything's going to be great. And so they had Travis, my brother, and they brought him home and they put him in his room, in his crib. And guess where I went? I went into the crib, I went into his room and I crawled up into the crib to play with my brother Travis. My parents came into the room. What are you doing? You're going to hurt the baby. What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you?
Tyler Lynde:And so from that moment in my life, there was this lie that started to tell me you're never going to measure up. Your parents love your brother more than they love you. And there were a lot of things that happened in my life that seemed to point to that being true, almost kind of getting there but not quite making it. You know like, even when other people would say good things about me, I would still feel like it's just not quite there, because I felt like I could do better or there's more. And you know what, as we asked the Lord to reveal the truth of that moment, you know what he spoke to me. He said your parents had lost a child and so they were super protective over your brother. Because of that. It wasn't because of you, you didn't do anything wrong, and just those words. And that doesn't sound like much, but for me as a 20-something-year-old who didn't even realize that I had this issue in my life, to hear these words it was like just I felt lighter, I felt like I could breathe, and since that point in time, thankfully, the Lord has continued to move me away from that whole wrong mindset, that stronghold right. So let's move on. Let's talk about our next thing.
Tyler Lynde:Jesus is a minister of freedom. In our passage it says the 72 returned with joy, saying Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Most of what the Bible says about demons comes from the gospel accounts of Jesus's ministry, the life and ministry of Jesus. Time and again Jesus encountered people, men and women, who were under demonic spirits, the influence of demonic spirits, some of the afflictions that are associated with that in scripture, things like blindness, deafness, loss of speech, paralysis. Now, this isn't always. Sometimes it's just a random occurrence or it's something that's happening within the physical body. It doesn't mean that it has to be a demon, but there are things. There are times when Jesus's ministry, the ministry of freedom, was connected to these things Insanity, seizures, suicidal tendencies, all of these things that Jesus was approaching and attacking, that Satan was attempting to do to mess with people. Acts 10.38 says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. With the Holy Spirit and with power, he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. What did he do? He did good. He healed all of those who were oppressed by the devil.
Tyler Lynde:Let me just read this story to you again a couple of chapters earlier. Luke, chapter eight. Time is flying. I'm just going to tell you the story real quick because I don't have the time. There was a man who was tormented. He was tormented so much that he actually lived amongst the tombs. He lived in the cemetery. The guards would come and try to chain him up and to keep him from coming into the town, because the town was so frightened by this man. This is in the Bible, in Luke, chapter 8.
Tyler Lynde:And Jesus showed up on the shore. And when he showed up, this man came running out and screaming. And Jesus spoke and said to the demons that were inside of this man come out of him. And the demons cried out. What did they say? What have you to do with me? Jesus, son of the most high God, I beg you, do not torment me, for he had commanded the unclean spirits to come out. Jesus then asked him what is your name? And they answered legion, for many demons had entered him and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. So they were up on this big cliffside Don't send us off out of here.
Tyler Lynde:And a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. They begged him to let them enter these, so he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. And my one and only joke for today the first case of deviled ham right there. All right, sorry, this wakes some of you up. All right, when the herdsmen saw what had happened, they listened to this. They fled and told it in the city and in the country.
Tyler Lynde:Listen to the result of this, though. People went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. No longer were they afraid of demon power Now. They were afraid of this man who spoke some words, and this man, who had been completely possessed, was now made free. 72 from our passage. The people that were sent out acknowledged that the only way that people were being set free was by the authority that was given to them by the name of Jesus.
Tyler Lynde:Now, moving on, jesus gives his followers the ministry of freedom. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Is that a good promise to hold on to Absolutely? Serpents and scorpions in scripture are symbols of spiritual enemies and demonic powers over which Jesus had given his followers power. Look at Mark 16, verse 15 through 18. And he said to them go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned, and these signs will accompany those who believe In my name. They will. What, what? Yeah, who will do this? The people up on the stage. Believers will cast out demons. They will speak in new tongues. They will pick up serpents with their hands.
Tyler Lynde:Now, before you get crazy not talking about passing around the sanctuary, we're talking about Paul. An example was out on mission and a snake reached up and bit him and he just what? Shook it into the fire and went on. And what did the people in the village do? They wanted to worship him and he said it's not me, it's Jesus. Right, so don't get crazy. If they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.
Tyler Lynde:How does God use us in the ministry of freedom? A lot of times it's through the gifts of the Spirit. We're talking about in power here. Three gifts that I can think of that God uses in this ministry. One the discerning of spirits. That makes sense, right, it's important to know whether this spirit is of God or if it's a human spirit or if it's from darkness. The gift of faith, which is a supernatural knowing that God's going to do something in this moment. He's going to do something powerful in this moment, and the faith to be able to walk that out. And then, third, the working of miracles when God does something miraculous, he sets somebody free.
Tyler Lynde:Our final focus here, ministers of freedom, should keep our eyes focused on Jesus, not on demons. Come on, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. The greatest source of freedom is, and always will be, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't get it wrong. All of this other stuff that we're talking about is important and it's vital and it's in the scripture and we need to be walking in this. But please don't forget, a person can be set free from demon power, but unless they are made alive to God through the power of the Holy Spirit and are born again, they will not go to heaven. They will not spend eternity with Jesus. Right, the gospel has to be the first source and the primary source that we look to. By his spirit, he saves us, transforms us and keeps us. So let me just finish by looking at James 4, verses 7 through 10.
Tyler Lynde:And I'm going to spend just a few minutes here on a kind of how to minister to those under demonic influence. We're going to tonight break this down a lot more, this part, and we're going to actually do an exercise where we walk through this together. So I'm going to tell you this as I would tell somebody who was needing help in the area of freedom, and then, with the hope that you would take this and use it as you minister to others, james 4, 7 through 10 says Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and what he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You double-minded, be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughing be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. I'm going to take this scripture and flip it. All right, the principles are still the same, but I want to just flip the order of things and here's how we want to do this.
Tyler Lynde:So, number one, if you're ministering, if you need freedom this morning, first step is humble yourself before the Lord. What does it mean to humble yourself before the Lord? It means to acknowledge what your need. Even the world understands this. In 12-step programs, seven-step programs. What do they say? The first step is Acknowledge that you have a need, that you have a problem, so you can. Freedom comes through acknowledgement of your need for freedom. Humble yourself before the Lord.
Tyler Lynde:Number two confess your sins, purify your heart, weep over your sin. Do you see how serious this is? This isn't a flippant little thing. This is a heartfelt sorrow for the things that you've been involved with in your life, and I'm talking about unconfessed sin, okay. Things like pornography, things like witchcraft, occult tarot cards, palm reading, watching horror movies. Yes, horror movies can open the door. Satan is a legalist, he's a lawyer, and the things that I'm talking about are things that open doors for him to try to enter into our lives, to wreak havoc.
Tyler Lynde:Horror movies and shows, ghost shows. How many of you know there's no such thing as a ghost? How many of you know there's no such thing as a ghost? It is a demon. Let's be honest about it. It's not a friendly little ghost. It's not Casper, it's not your buddy. This is a demon who is out to steal, kill and destroy. Okay, maybe you've been involved in something that is nothing of your doing. Something traumatic has happened in your life and it's caused fear, it's caused anxiety, it's caused worry. Whatever the case is, maybe it's caused anger in your life.
Tyler Lynde:How many of you know that when Jesus gave his disciples the great prayer, what did he say? Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us. So there's two levels of forgiveness here that we need to seek. One is forgiveness for ourselves and two, would you grant us the ability to forgive those who have trespassed against us, who have sinned against us? Satan doesn't care. Satan doesn't care. He doesn't care. He will attempt to mess your life up in whatever way he can. The more traumatic the better for him. So, confess your sins, purify your heart, weep over your sin, denounce it, turn away from it and then, third, draw near to God in prayer and worship. So, after you've taken the time to really unload and open your heart up to the Lord and be honest with him about the deepest, darkest parts of your imagination, then it's time to draw near to him. What is our temptation? The enemy's lies tell us. Well, this is the time to run, this is the time to hide. The God of the universe is going to crush you. Of the universe is going to crush you. How many of you know his crushing, his desire to crush, comes down to a person named Satan, a spiritual being named Satan, right Drawn near to God in prayer and worship, creating the right atmosphere to be able to receive from him. Fourth, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Tyler Lynde:If you had a dog with rabies that ran into your room and you're watching your grandchildren, how would you dispatch of that dog? I forgot, I'm talking to a room full of East Tennesseans. If you weren't using a weapon. Let me ask you this would you do this? Hey, pretty dog, could you just listen to me for a minute? Could you just please be quiet? Could you leave? Would you leave? Please leave, why not? What's a rabid dog going to do in that setting? He's going to tear you up.
Tyler Lynde:That dog's only going to understand one thing, and that is what Authority, the exercise of authority. Remember what we said before Believers have been given authority by Jesus to deal with demonic power, and so, when we come to this point of ministry of freedom, take authority over the rabid dogs that are trying to infiltrate and mess with these people's lives and command them to get out. In the name of Jesus. You don't have to raise your voice. I'm just using that as an example Get out, get out. You have no authority here in the name of Jesus. And then finally and there's so much more on that but first of all, resist the devil and what he will flee he doesn't have an option. That's right and finally submit to God in every area of your life.
Tyler Lynde:Submission is different than asking for forgiveness. What does submission look like? Submission looks like, holy Spirit, would you lead me and guide me? Would you protect me from opening doors in my life by walking according to the flesh and walking after my own desires to open up avenues where Satan could come in and try to mess with me? Would you help me to hear your voice more clearly so that I can listen to you and follow after you, so that I can listen to you and follow after you? And it's also making a determination, by God's grace, that you're not going back to where you've been. That's who I once was, but I'm not that way anymore. Have you ever seen somebody after years of not seeing them, and all of a sudden you look at them and it's like you can't even recognize them. So different, hopefully, hopefully, for the better. But that's the way our life should be. We should be a reflection of the change that Jesus brings in our life. Amen, in our life, amen.
Tyler Lynde:It is never God's will for any believer to live in bondage to demons, not even for a second. Do not pretend like it's God's will. It is not God's will. If you want to, if you desire it, you can be free from Satan's power in your life, but you must stand and fight the good fight of faith. What we just went through in three minutes time may take a long time for you to get through, and it may be a daily thing that you do until you find yourself walking in the freedom that God's promised you. You must take up the armor of God every day and, above all else, you must start taking personal responsibility for your own life. It's one thing for me to chase the dogs out and then for you to leave the door open for them to come right back in. It's our responsibility to keep the doors closed, and we do that by the grace of God and by the work of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Tyler Lynde:Would you stand with me, like I said tonight, if you? And, by the way, I need freedom in my own life. So I'm asking for help tonight. So, if you are available and you can come, or you want to bring somebody with you, we're going to be here at six and we'll have a time of worship and we're going to just walk through these steps that we just talked about together and we're going to ask the Lord to bring us to a point of freedom, more freedom in our lives, so that we can truly be a minister of freedom to other people.
Tyler Lynde:Amen, father, we thank you for our time together today. We're so grateful for Eric's baptism. Lord. What a miracle, what a miracle of a changed life, a man who's free today because of the work of Jesus Christ in his life. Thank you for John's testimony of a person who walked with him just like we're talking about this morning, walking with somebody as a minister of freedom. Thank you that you continue to work in their lives for your purpose to be accomplished, and I know that that same testimony could be spread many times throughout this whole church, as many people in their workplaces and other scenarios continue to be examples of Jesus Christ and a light to the world.
Tyler Lynde:Father, we do pray that you would cause us to be children who walk in freedom. Thank you that he whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And so, lord, we ask that, even this day, that you would be working in our hearts and in our souls, in our bodies, to prepare us for this evening for freedom. And, lord, we do ask you that you would show up with signs and wonders and that you would perform your word. And, lord, we also pray for those who will come now for prayer as the prayer team comes. Would you prepare their hearts to receive what they need from you even now? We don't have to wait, lord. We don't have to wait for another hour or for another minute Today is the day of salvation hour or for another minute. Today is the day of salvation. We thank you for that. Father and Lord, I just pray that you would bless your people, that you would keep them, that you would cause your face to shine upon them and be gracious to them. No-transcript.
