All right, Mark 5, and today, let's begin reading at verse 1. We'll go down to verse 20. Mark 5, beginning at verse 1, then they came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain. Because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he was screaming and gnashing himself with stones, and seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You, by God, do not torment me. For He had been saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. He was asking him, What is your name? And he said to him, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he began pleading with him earnestly not to send them out of the region. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain, and the demons pleaded with him, saying, Send us into the swine so that we may enter them. And Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and about 2,000 of them, they were drowned in the sea. And their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the countryside, and the people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and observed the demon-possessed man sitting down, clothed in his right mind, the very man who had the legion, and they became frightened. Those who had seen it recounted to them all how this had happened to the demon-possessed man and all about the swine. They began to plead with him to leave their region, and as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was pleading with him that he might accompany him. He did not let him, but he said to him, go home to your people, report to them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you. And he went away and began to preach in the Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him. And everyone was marveling. I'm gonna preach to you on the subject of away from Jesus or with Him. Away from Jesus or with Him. It is, according to my calendar and yours, the Christmas season. And as such, Jesus is on the minds and hearts of a lot of people, or at least, He should be if this holiday means what everybody says it means. Now, I'm not going to get into any kind of debate today about whether or not the Lord's birth was on December 25th or not, or whether you should or shouldn't celebrate. But what I will tell you this morning is that the incarnation of Jesus Christ the coming of our Lord on this earth, the Savior being born in Bethlehem, the fact that we have a Savior who was born, that he came and that he was, they lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross, he was buried, he rose again, he ascended back up into heaven, that one day coming back, that these things are things worth celebrating. and they ought to be on our hearts and our minds. Indeed, a lot of people are celebrating this, even though we are, regardless of the exact date, we may not know exactly when it was, but we are some 2,000 years removed from this time when Jesus was on the earth, but a lot of people are celebrating in this season. The question is, once this season is over, will you be away with Jesus or with him? That is the question that we glean from this text. And the question for you, whether you're here or whether you're watching the live broadcast, I don't even know if it's working or not, but I'm trying to get it out there. I don't know the hearts of the people who are watching, and I don't know the hearts of the people who are here, for that matter. Were it not for the fact that we're having service in my home today, you might not even know whether we celebrate Christmas in our home or not. You might wonder, well, does David do this or does David do that? And you come here and you find out, oh, no, there's no tree here. There's no lights and so on and so forth. But it's a matter of conscience. And the reality is I know good Christians who go all out for Christmas, and I also know good Christians who are against it. Romans. Chapter 14 gives us a principle, and we've talked about those things. Whether you celebrate or whether you don't, do it for the glory of God. As Paul navigated the issues of his day, we see how he took it. In 1 Corinthians 9, one of my favorite passages in dealing with issues of conscience, This is what he said in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 19-23. He says, though I am free from all. 1 Corinthians 9, verses 19-23. If you don't have this memorized, at least know where it's at. Meditate upon it and live it. He says, though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law is under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law is without law, though not being without the law of God. under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. So I do all things, He says, for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it." Even the biggest critic of Christmas will accept a Christmas bonus at work. And Paul's saying here, I know I'm free. I made myself a slave to all. Why? So that I may win more for the sake of the gospel. And I think we all need to consider this even in this time period so that we may win souls for Christ. And as I think about this time, I go back to the text and I say, all right, Why would I choose such a text for the Sunday before Christmas? We'll focus in on verses 17 and 18 in Mark 5, verses 17 and 18. and they began to plead with him to leave the region. And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was pleading with him that he might accompany him." And so again, as we think about this, away from Jesus or with Him, why a message like this? Why a text like this? Jesus visited this region of the Gerasenes on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. It was a Gentile territory. That's why you find this herd of pigs there, something you would have never seen in Jewish territory. A great miracle takes place when Jesus arrives. You see this man who had a demon, no, He didn't have a demon, did he? He had a legion. He had many demons. And this man was messed up. In our modern day, we would say he was mentally ill. He had a problem. He was out, not with the people of his community, he was living homeless in the tombs. And no man could bind him. They tried to restrain him. with what they had and he broke the restraints. No one could tame this fellow. But now Jesus comes and he's free. He's free from demonic possession. He was clothed in his right mind. This was the talk of the town. People came from all over to see this. Well, as the Scripture records here in Mark's Gospel, there was a mixture of responses. Many wanted Jesus out. You need to leave town, Jesus. Get out of here. They wanted Him to leave the region. Can you believe it? The only one who could get rid of... who could help this man out, do what no man could do for this man, this wild man who was hanging out in the cemetery. They wanted to get rid of him. The talk wasn't that it's now safe to go back into the cemetery. The talk wasn't, look at what great thing has happened to this poor man. No, the talk was, oh, that poor farmer has lost all of his pigs. Look at what this Jesus has done to our community. Think of the economics now that Jesus has come. So much so that the mob mentality of the people demanded that he leave their region. But one man was different. One man was pleading with Jesus that he might go with him. Oh, this man. The man who had been demon-possessed was pleading with him that he might accompany him. Please, Lord, wherever you go, I want to go with you. Take me with you. The man who had seen the tombs, who had seen what a terrible place that he had been without Jesus, He'd been touched by the Savior, and now, he'd felt the hand of God, and now he wants to be with Jesus. And for some, for some, though we're 2,000 years removed, for some, Christmas time will be over soon, and the sooner, the better, because Jesus will not be thought of or considered again until sometime next year. For those people are no different than the crowd who cried away with Him that day, who pled with Him to leave their region. But for others, for others, they're like this man who was demon possessed, knowing that Jesus is not only a one-time-a-year date on the calendar. As we make application with this, we know I hope we know that this is not intended to puff anybody up. It's not to ask whether your neighbor or the person next to you on the chair takes December 25th like you do or not, or even if he looks like you or talks like you, because the reality is we're all different. We're all different. We have different backgrounds. We have different situations and so on and so forth. I learned that the hard way growing up. I suppose deep down in my heart, there was a Pharisee living there. That's who I was. And I told the story not too long ago here with the church, but I'll tell it again. I remember being at a Bible conference and we had people staying at our house, preachers even, and I was tearing into tattoos. Terrible. A true Christian would never have a tattoo. No one who would know Christ would have a tattoo. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think that tattoos are a good idea at all. But I learned something that day because the preacher who was staying with us, he said, he said, David, I got some back pain. I need you to help me out. I need you to rub, rub some medicine, some cream on my back. I was young. I don't even think I was out of high school yet. I said, sure, I'll help you out. So we went in the room and he took off his shirt. He'd been in the military and guess what? He had tattoos. And he was a preacher I respected a lot. So I learned something about people. I learned that you don't know the story of everybody and not everybody's gonna be as what you think in your mind. Not everybody's gonna look like you. And I praise God that he doesn't look on the outward. He looks at the heart. Even if you sit here and listen into this message and you think to yourself, how good you are. Because December 25th doesn't mean anything to you. And so these Christmas celebrators who take one day above another, and how much better you are, let me just remind you. that we all ought to consider this message because God doesn't just want your Sunday mornings either. We could take and apply this to December 25th and say, all right, well, you know, how many people are ready, just wanting this time to be over with so they can go into the department store and not hear Christmas songs anymore? But how many people show up at church on Sunday morning just to get it off their list so that they can go on through their week and be what they want to be and never think about Jesus anymore until the next time they show up to church? Away from Jesus or with Him, you see. Away from Jesus or with Him. I have a sign in my study that reminds me, worship is not just on Sunday. And so the question is for all of us, what will you do with Jesus? Will you pack Him up with the decorations, put Him in the attic until next year? Or, if you don't have decorations to put up, will you close your Bible this morning and never think of Him again until the next time you show up for church? It is a privilege that these individuals in this region had, being a Gentile region, that Jesus showed up that day. They didn't realize what a privilege it was that Jesus showed. One man knew what a privilege it was, didn't he? He was overjoyed. He said, man, I've been in the tombs, and no one could help me out, and here's Jesus, and now here I am. I'm in my right mind and clothes. No more of the demons bother me. Everyone else should have seen that. They should have said, look at this man. Praise God. Look at this man. Where's Jesus? We want him here. But they didn't see that. They missed it. And so it is. So it is so many who go through life. Having a great privilege, having Bibles, in their homes, having churches, and losing that privilege. Pleading, pleading for him to leave their region. You say, I would never say that. I would never say that like these Gentiles did, like these people in this region did in Mark chapter five and verse 17, and that may be true. That may be true, but actions speak louder than words. How often do we crowd Jesus out of our lives? with the noise, the work, the friends, the busyness of life even. The Gadarenes pleaded with Jesus to move on out of their lives. We don't plead with Jesus to move Him on out of our lives. We crowd Him out. No time for the Bible. No time for prayer. Too exhausted for church. But take into account what we do get done in the day. We've got time for Facebook. We've got time to be on our phones all day long. We've got time for doom scrolling. We got time to talk about the weather, the sports, the fluff and gossip, nonsense, to watch TV and so on and so forth, but no time for God, no time for Jesus. We've crowded him out. Show me a man, though, who has time to read his Bible, time to pray, time to listen to sermons, time to witness to others, time to meditate on Scriptures, time for church, and I'll show you a man who is intentional about Christ. It's not that he's a great man. He's got the same battles that we do. He's just fighting in a different way. This is the contrast that we see in this one man. In our text, verse 18, as Jesus was getting in the boat, the man who had been demon possessed was pleading with him that he might accompany him. You see, that man had not always been that way. There was a time that the demon-possessed wanted nothing to do with Jesus. In fact, we saw it before. He ran up, bowed down before Him, and cried with a loud voice. Verse 7 says, What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High? I employ you by God. Do not torment me. He didn't want nothing to do with Him. He wanted to be left alone. But now, now he didn't want Jesus to leave him alone in the sense of he wanted to go with him. He had a gratitude. He had a gratitude for what Jesus had done that no one else knew. They were mad about the pigs. But he was thankful. He had felt what it was like to be with Jesus. And could he ever have too much? Could he ever have too much? Was he perfect? No, he wasn't perfect. In fact, we're gonna look here in a minute at a mistake he made here, but let me tell you, We see the driving force in His life. When you think about our little church here, we're certainly not perfect. I know of no church who is, but what is the driving force behind text-driven preaching, theologically rich singing, praying, gathering together week after week. What is the driving force of that? What is it that drives us to the Word again and again? This is what the people of God want. The world says, well, there's no entertainment here. What do you got for that? We've got the Word. We've got Christ. Just as it was in that day, so it is in our day. Not everyone wants this. Not everybody wants the same thing. And sometimes people of God find themselves in the minority. Maybe even like this man, maybe even feel alone. In fact, in fact, uh, we're, this is, this is how it is in John chapter three for many is a very familiar passage of scripture. John chapter three verse 16 is, uh, is often quoted, but let's, let's, let's begin at 16, but going down to verse 19, John chapter three, verse 16, Let's go on down to verse 21. It says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment that the light has come into the world. The men loved the darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds be exposed, but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God. And so we see there's this vast separation in the world and we see that illustrated in our text there in Mark, but we see it also in the world in which we live as well. Jesus indeed has come. He did die. He was buried and rose again. What great love, but also what great trouble it is that light has come. But men love darkness rather than light. And so indeed, there are many who will say, away with Jesus. Oh, I don't want to hear that music that celebrates Christ. Get that off of the radio. Turn that off of the loudspeaker at the Walmart or Kohl's or whatever. Oh, I don't want to hear that preacher preaching the Word of God. Give us stories. Make it be over so I can go on with my life. But let me remind you, Let me remind you that judgment is coming. And you won't be able to crowd him out. You won't be able to run him off. Judgment day is coming. And so will you be like the world? Will you be like the crowd? Once is enough, maybe even too much in your mind, but will you be like the madman, the one who was once Possessed by the demons and want to be with Jesus Now we'll say that this This man who was Formerly demon-possessed this one who was formerly mad He is now healed but he was not perfect, and he made a mistake. He had a very big zeal, and we understand that zeal, but it was a mistake, and that is he wanted the physical presence of Jesus to always be with him. And so he says there in the text, there in Mark chapter five, you can go back there with me if you want to see it there on the printed page, and he says, He says in verse 18, the man who had been demon possessed was pleading with him that he might accompany him. And so here you picture him. He's pleading with him. I know you've got to go. Please take me with you. We understand. we can feel perhaps in our mind and in our hearts why he would feel that way. What if the demons came back and bothered him? Maybe that was on his mind. Maybe he was afraid of being enslaved again in that world. He didn't want to go back to the town or to the region because he knew he was alone there. The reality is that a man is not a Christian until he knows how weak he really is and how strong Christ is. We do not rely on our own strength, our own power, our own knowledge, our own wisdom. And this man, we see, he really wanted Jesus. He wanted Him continually, That's not what we're here for, is it? Knowing our weakness is what drives us back to Christ continually. But the physical presence of Jesus is not where it's at. It's what drives us. Knowing our weakness is what drives us back to Christ. He's not here physically, so where do we go? We go on our knees in prayer. We go to our Bibles. Indeed, as I said, it's not our strength that drives us to our Bibles. It's our weakness. It's our weakness. I know of nowhere else to go. That's what drives me to my Bible. That's what drives me to prayer. And even then, my prayer life and my Bible, it's not what it should be, but it's what drives me there. We're in a battle. You must know this, and the man in our text knew this as well. But look at the answer that Jesus gave him. Verse 19, And he did not let him, but he said to him, Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you. Jesus, who does all things well, sent this man back into the world and into the community alone. Now, you and I would look at this and say, a new convert sent back out so soon without being under the tutelage of the church, without being under the watch care of the apostles? That's risky. That's not orderly. That's not the way it should be. but that's the way he did it. And who are we to argue with Jesus? He did it this way and he does all things well. Sometimes we read things in scripture and we try to, sometimes preachers will try to fill in the white spaces, but we cannot do that here. We have what we have. Jesus did this. We cannot criticize the Redeemer of men and the head of the church. He did this. He does all things well. And the reminder here is this. It was Jesus who pulled him out of that graveyard. It was Jesus who sent him back with a message to tell the people. And when Jesus calls, he accomplishes. You and I, we may not understand everything about all these things, but all we can say is praise God. Praise God for what happened there in that Gentile region. And look what happened. Look what happened. It said, and he went away and began to preach in the Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone was marveled. He was obedient. Now Jesus did establish his church and send his spirit. He promised never to leave you nor forsake you. We rejoice in those things and we operate according to those things. But what I want us to glean from this is that Jesus is more than just one day of the year. He's more than just one day of the week. He's more than just a couple of hours out of the day. What will you do with Jesus? Is it away from Him or with Him? Do you want to be with Him always? Do you, through the wink, keep going back to the Word, back to Him in prayer? Do you long to be with Him in heaven, in glory, for all eternity? Oh, beloved, these are questions we must ask ourselves as we consider this text. And I'll just say this as we close this message out, believe on him today and give yourself to his keeping for his namesake. May God and blessing to the preaching of his word. Brother Barry, would you dismiss this in prayer?