Matthew chapter 17, beginning with verse 14. Matthew 17, 14. If you have it, say amen. Amen. Right. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son. for he is lunatic and sore vexed. For oft times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. I preach tonight just for the next few moments on this subject, I refuse to let the devil have my kids. This is my graduation sermon. I refuse to let the devil have my kids. I'll say it one more time, I refuse to let the devil have my kids. And I'll go even further, as assistant pastor and leader of this church, I refuse to let the devil have our kids. This is, this occurrence, this miracle, if you will, happened directly after one of the greatest displays of the glory of God on earth. We call it the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John, Jesus went up to the mountain. As they were there, the glory of God came. In fact, it was so powerful that Peter wanted to You know, basically there's a, hey, this is a great place to be. And wouldn't it be a great place to be when Jesus shows up and God shows up, the God of heaven speaks to them out of the voice, out of the glory. And Peter says, I wanna build three temples here. Let's just stay in this atmosphere. And the reason why he wanted to build three temples is Moses and Elijah were there representing the prophets and the law and Jesus was there. But God said, no, we're not, you know, pump the brakes a little bit there, Simon Peter. We're not gonna build three tabernacles because you can't compare anyone to my son. Because if you put these three up here, then everybody will know it represents Jesus, the law, and you know, and Elijah and the prophets. But there isn't no one like my son. He says, you hear him. This is my son, my beloved son, hear him. There's nobody like Jesus. And I just want to go on record and say that one more time. There's no one like him. He's God enough to come down and save us, but yet he's human enough to know and understand what we're going through. And I'm thankful, as Marty's already alluded to that tonight, I'm glad that he loved me enough. I can't get over that, that fact. You know, beyond the blessings that he gives us, just the mere fact that he loved me enough to save me, it should be, there's no reason why we should be on our seat tonight. We should be on our feet praising God. Just the fact that he saved us. And we don't have to go to hell. Amen. And I'm not going to hell. It's not a matter of if, I'm not. I got that assurance. By the way, I'm getting off my message. Let me get back to it. There's no one like Jesus. No one like Jesus. And so he's coming down off this mountain. The glory of God is there. And when they were come off the mountain here, this multitude came and thronged him. And there was a, the Bible says a certain man. And we're gonna deal with that here in a little bit. But in a world where the devil is actively seeking to destroy our families, and to destroy and to devour, if you will, the next generation, we find hope and instruction in the desperate actions of a determined father. He gives us a great, I guess a great blueprint, if you will, on how we should react as parents when it comes to our kids. And I hope I'm not speaking to the choir tonight. I am speaking to the choir in the sense that we all understand that our next generation is under attack. Don't think it's any coincidence the Lord would allow us to preach this message tonight after the week we've had in our local town and how people stood up for children. And thank you for the many of you that were there at the council meeting to display your, you know, your backing for our children. Not only for the Word of God, but our kids and our next generation. His son was suffering, he was spiritually tormented, and in physical danger. The disciples couldn't do nothing about it, but this father refused to let the enemy win. He brought his broken boy to the only one that he knew could truly help him, and his name was Jesus. And today, we gotta have that same determination. We gotta have that same kind of faith. And in the world in which we live, in the community in which we live, we don't need any more rehabs, we don't need any more educational programs. What we need is a man and a woman with a Bible in their hand, a promise in their heart, and the belief of God in their mind that he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above. What we can ask, we just need good old-fashioned prayer warriors that'll get back on their knees, calling out to God on behalf of their kids. Amen. Amen. We need some people that are determined and said, I refuse to let the devil have my children. I want you to look at three things really quickly about this father tonight. I want you to notice the desperate recognition. Look at what he said. He says, for Lord have mercy on my son for he is lunatic and sore vexed. The father, listen to me, the father recognized the severity of his son's condition. He didn't sugarcoat it. You hear me? He understood how serious of a situation it was. And he admitted that his kids, that his kid rather, and his son had a serious problem. He faced the reality that his child was in trouble. And there's a reason why I believe, I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself, but there's a reason why I believe this man is not named specifically. We find that all throughout the Bible. And there's a theology, if you will, that the reason why names aren't mentioned sometimes is for the fact that we can insert ourself into this situation. So like many of us, we can insert ourselves, because the name is left blank, and there's some anonymity there, we can insert ourself into this story. Meaning that we can say, you know what, I have sons, I have daughters, I have grandkids, that I understand they're in a serious situation, they have a serious problem. And the sooner we realize, and not sugarcoat, that they need the Lord in their life, the sooner they can be delivered. Amen. This word here, lunatic, it's often referred to in the context here, spiritual or demonic oppression. And this word, actually, when you say lunatic, it actually means moonstruck. It means he had some serious issues going on. And here was what was going on. Look at what the devil did to him. For oft times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water. Now sometimes we think about that and we just read over it. Oh, that's terrible. He threw himself in the fire and threw himself in the water. But there's a spiritual application here. Because the Jews had some positivity when it comes to fire and water. And in the Bible, fire always represents a purifying, It represents the power of the Holy Ghost. Water represents a cleansing, if you will. But look at what the devil tries to do, and tries to paint the picture in the mind of this young child. I don't know if he's young or not, but he's his son. So in the mind of this child, what was meant for good, the devil switched it for evil. Because for everything that God has, Satan always has another thing as well. Because fire, when it comes to evil, always represents the fires of hell. And water, when it comes to the evil, you notice throughout the scripture, especially in the New Testament, how God always, Jesus rather, always faced things that had problems with water. His first miracle was turning water into wine, saying, I've got dominion over this. Remember whenever the seas were, you know, the Sea of Galilee, when the storms come and the waves rage, it was a sign of fear, it was a sign of evil, it was a sign of unsettledness, but yet Jesus stepped out on the front of the boat, didn't he? And said, peace be still. on top of the water. Listen, what God has for good, the devil always has for evil, and he gets in the minds of our young people that there are good things that God wants to give them. There's joys in serving Jesus, but what the devil does, he'll paint them in a different light, saying that we're cults, saying that we're evil, saying that we don't know what we're doing, and the devil will tell them that the church is, just stay away from it. It'll do you nothing but good. Sow your own wild oats. You can always come back later, just do what you want to do, and our children are in trouble. Because they're listening to the enemy. Ignoring the issue will not heal it. If this father ignored his son's problem, he would have never found the victory. This father teaches us that awareness is the first step toward deliverance. And I want you to notice this as well, as a sidebar. I believe this father loved his son so much that he was trying to protect him from his own personal past failures. If you look up this word lunatic in the Greek, it gives a connotation that this is basically the father had dealt with his own problems in the past, and now it was continuing and passed down to his son. You notice the father never, he didn't, he had the diagnosis. How did he have a diagnosis of his son? Was he a doctor? I don't know. But my guess is he experienced that for himself. And he was trying to protect his son. Said, I've been delivered, I've been set free. I don't want my son to go through this. Some of you all know what it means to have a past. And the reason why you do what you do for your kids is so they don't have to go down that same path. And I'm speaking to the kids right now. Kids, young people, those that are still in the home, there's a reason why we do things and there's a reason why we have rules and there's a reason why we do this to protect you from going down the path that many of us went down. You don't understand it. And you think we're mean and ugly. We think we're trying to deprive you of joy and fun in your life. That we're trying to save you from a life of hell and a life of torment. Well, I thought I'd get a little bit more amen than that. But some of us have been through some things. Some of you have been through some things. His father had a desperate recognition, but he also had a determined request. Look at verses 15 and 16. He said, he fell into the fire and off into the water, and I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Now I gotta be a little critical of these disciples, but also I have to commend them as well. I'm critical of them because they've been with Jesus. I mean, this is after the feeding of the 5,000. I mean, they pass around baskets of leftovers. God fed 5,000 men, over 15,000 people more than likely, with five loaves and two fishes. They've seen him do the impossible, and yet they don't have enough power to believe to help one child? I'm critical. I'm critical. But we get the inference in the text, and here's my commendation. At least they tried something. They said we brought them to your disciples, but they couldn't cure them. I'm critical of them because they didn't have enough power, but at least they tried. And I just want to go on record and tell the many of you parents and grandparents, especially you grandparents, you're having to raise your grandkids. Circumstances may be out of your control, but you brought them into your home, and you're raising them. You're trying. God sees that. God honors that. You know what you're saying? You refuse to let the devil have those children. Thank you. As your assistant pastor, thank you. Thank you. this man just didn't see the problem, he sought a solution. When he went first to the disciples, when that failed, then he went straight to Jesus. And there's a reason, this teaches us a lesson. I think there's a reason why the disciples, when it failed with the disciples, because it shows us that sometimes we run out of options, but that's the best place for us to get. Because when we run out of options, then we go to Jesus. And listen, we have to understand, He is the only one we need to go to anyway, and don't you, aren't you glad that He's the God of the impossible situation? When we run out of all options, when we think we've run out of hope, hallelujah, we still have Jesus, and that's all we need. He persisted in prayer and pursuit, not letting the disappointment in the disciples stop his desire. He could have stopped right there. He could have been disappointed and ridiculed the disciples and said, what do you mean you can't help me? You've seen what this man can do. I know what Jesus can do. Why can't you help me? But no, he didn't do that. He said, okay, if you can't help me, I know who can. Hallelujah. and he went to the one where he knew he could get the help from. Aren't you thankful for that? We need more parents who are determined in intercession for their kids, not just casual about their children's soul, but thank God, going to heaven, bombarding heaven, requesting God and calling out to God. God, I need you on behalf of my kids. His request was more than words. It was faith and action, wasn't it? That brings us to the last point. Look at the delivering response. Verse 18, and Jesus rebuked the devil after he got done skinning his disciples like the pastor did with us today. We need that. These disciples needed it and we needed it this morning. Oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Then he said these words, this is what I like. Bring him hither to me. Bring him to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour. Jesus did, this is elementary, but Jesus did what no one else can do. And here's what he did. He rebuked the devil and restored this child. Now before you throw me out, hear me out. After some study, and I've said it, and I pray that the Holy Spirit maketh intercession from the time it leaves my mouth to heaven, but I've looked it up, I cannot find anywhere in scripture where anyone other than Jesus rebuked the devil. Now hear me out. Jesus rebuked the devil, but no human being ever rebuked the devil. And here's why. The word rebuke, the word rebuke means over or authority over or outranked. Do you not agree with me that Jesus is the King of kings? He has authority because he outranks the devil. We are not enthroned as children of God, we are empowered. So we can't rebuke the devil, we resist him. James 4, 7 tells us that. Resist the devil and he will what? Flee! Flee! Flee! We don't outrank the devil, but we can resist him. But thank God, aren't you thankful that when we think we don't have any power over him, because listen, you try to take care of the devil yourself, you are not gonna win. But that's why we go to Jesus. That's why we take our problems to him, because he outranks the devil. He can rebuke the devil in his own name. Amen. Some of you don't agree with that, but go home and study it out, I promise. We still have power over the enemy when we resist him. The word resist means to stand, to withstand, to stand against him. And that's a promise we have, we resist, he will flee. He will flee, that's a great promise. Jesus did what no one else could do, he rebuked the devil, and notice this, Jesus responded to the father's faith. One man, one dad, had a bold belief that led to his child's breakthrough. The devil had to release the child. He could not hold on to him because Jesus got in the way and stepped in. This reminds us that the greatest hope for our kids is found in the presence and the power of Jesus Christ. No better place to bring your kids than bringing to Jesus. When humanity failed him, he went straight to divinity. And divinity will never fail. Jesus will never fail. When we refuse to let the devil win and we run to Jesus, guess what we do? We open the door to a supernatural transformation. I wanna say this in closing. This daddy didn't have all the answers. but at least he knew where to go. With his actions, with his actions, he said, I refuse to let the devil have my kid. It's time. It's time for parents, grandparents, mentors, leaders to rise up with that same spirit. Recognize your battle. Make your request to the Lord and trust in his power to respond. Here's the final thing I'll say as we're standing. When Jesus steps in, the devil has to back away. How many of you believe tonight for your kids? How many of you will say and come to this altar and pray for your children and say, I refuse to let the devil have my children?