Dealing With Personal Demons | Ep28

Transcript

We do not have physical demon possession today in anyone, but we have several people who, figuratively speaking, have demons among them.

They came to the other side of the sea into the country of the gatherings. When he got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him, and he had his dwelling among 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, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones for a sad condition.

That was the reading of Mark 5:1-5. It speaks of the man here as having an unclean spirit. In the Bible, you find the phrase unclean spirit, and you also find demon possession.

He had an unclean spirit, an evil spirit, a demon-possessed man. Notice how he acted in all of these things. It is almost as if he had lost his mind.

He dwelled among the tombs. He lived among them. No one was able to bind him.

He had superhuman strength. He broke the chains and the shackles. He lived in the tomb area, the graveyard.

He was very strong. He constantly, day and night, he was screaming and hollering, and he even cut himself. That is a sad condition for that man.

Think about what he did. Think about the life he lived. Think about what he did to society.

Think about how other people looked to him, probably afraid of him. This man is what we would call demon-possessed. I want us to think of it today in terms of demon-possessed people today.

I don’t mean by that, that they literally have an evil spirit and that demons possess them today. The Bible doesn’t teach that that happens today. But to summarize this man’s condition, he was destroying himself physically.

He felt trapped in his condition with no way to escape. Third, he destroyed his home life. Those three conditions can be found today by people who, figuratively speaking, have demons among them.

We do not have physical demon possession today in anyone, but we have several demons who, figuratively speaking, are possessed by addictions that are doing to people today what those spiritual beings, people in the New Testament, did to those people. We’ll sum it up by simply saying people who have those demon-possessed addictions, they destroy themselves physically. Many of them feel trapped and can’t get out of that addiction.

And they destroy their home life and social life. The first that I want to speak about is the demon possession of alcoholism. Compared to what we’ve looked at, one who’s addicted to alcohol has the same problems that that man had.

The one who’s addicted to alcohol will destroy himself, will often feel trapped and can’t get away from it, and will destroy his family. In the U.S., over 28 million Americans, or about 10% of the population, between the ages of 12 and older, have what is called today alcohol use disorder. We would simply say they’re addicted to alcohol.

In 2023, that was the number. Think about that, 28 million Americans. Excessive alcohol consumption is the leading cause of deaths where they could be preventable.

What we mean by that is the alcoholism maybe affects their liver, or their heart, or cancer, or causes injuries. And so excessive alcohol consumption is the leading cause of preventable deaths. Nearly 30% of people will meet the criteria of what today is termed AUD, alcohol disorder.

Think about that, 30% of people would be that way. Think about this illustration. What we’re looking at is about almost one third of the people who begin to drink, become alcoholics.

Think about this illustration. Would you get on an airplane, that seats 100 people, and they tell you before you get on the airplane, now somewhere along the flight, 30 seats are going to open up and people will fall to their death. Would you get on that plane? No, you wouldn’t, because of the danger.

You might not be one that falls, but you might be. You would not take the chance of riding in that airplane, knowing that one third of those people are going to fall to their death during that flight. The same question could be asked then, why do you begin drinking, if you know that one third of the people are going to become addicted to such things.

AUD can affect people of all ages, from the highest rate, or among the highest rates, are among those in their 20s, 20 year olds. The highest rate of alcoholism begins right there. It seems that they drink because that’s the way life is.

Though it is advertised as that’s the way to have a good time, and yet down the road, the consequences are paid. In 2023, over 16 million men and over 10 million women, ages 18 and older, had alcohol problems. From 2021, excessive alcohol use caused about 178,000 deaths.

That’s a sad thought. That’s a real demon in our society. God warns us about the dangers of alcohol.

The Bible is not just about going to heaven, it’s also about life in general. Jesus said that he came to give us life, and that abundantly. The Bible is also very instructive about some things that are destructive in our life.

One of them is alcohol. In Proverbs 20 and verse 1, it says, wine is a marker and strong drink is a brawler. Whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

Let me read a passage, Proverbs 23. I’m going to begin in verse 29 and just listen to the words that’s described here as to what alcohol will do, and see if we have not seen it in our own lives or in the lives of people we know. Solomon writes by saying, who has woe? Who has sorrows? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine.

Those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. At the last it bites like a serpent, and it stings like a viper.

Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perverse things, and you will be like the one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or like the one who lies down on the top of a mass. They struck me, but I did not become ill. They beat me, but I did not know it.

When shall I wake? I will seek another drink. Do we know people like that? Isn’t that a sad condition? That people would take into their bodies this alcohol that they think momentarily gives them pleasure, enjoyment. But ultimately that’s the cause.

That’s what happens. People don’t intend to become alcoholics, but they do. I’d like to mention another demon that’s among us.

Again, we’re not talking about a spiritual being. But something that is similar treats our bodies the same way, and that is the demon of drug abuse. Misuse of prescription drugs can lead to addiction.

These include opioids, sedatives, tranquilizers, stimulants. Drug addiction is a chronic brain disease. It causes a person to take drugs repeatedly despite the harm they cause.

We’re not talking about people who intentionally like to take drugs which are not prescribed. We’re just talking about people who abuse prescription drugs. And unfortunately, several doctors and nurses become addicted.

Maybe they take the drug because they need a little stimulant, or they’ve been working long hours and they need to stay awake and alert. But it’s not long until those people who deal with drugs become addicted to those drugs. Often these are doctors and nurses themselves that get hooked and quite often are dismissed from their position and or even die because of it.

Remember the comparison with the poor man in Mark 5. He was destructive of himself. He felt trapped and couldn’t get out of that position and he was destroying his family life. Recent reports from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates a decline in U.S. opioids overdose deaths in 2024.

That’s the second annual decrease. That’s great. Despite this trend, the number of opioid-involved overdoses death still remains very high.

After peaking at over 110,000 deaths in 2023 because of opioid use, the total number of drug addicts and overdose deaths in the U.S. continually or is estimated to be about 80,000 a year. Think about that, how sad that is. Opioid deaths are declining but still frequent.

The number of overdose deaths involving opioids was an estimated 54,743 in 2024. Now that’s down from 83,140 in 2023. Approximately 76% of all overdose deaths in 2023 involved opioids.

By that, of course, we simply mean that these are prescription drugs that are abused that people take maybe to begin with to help them. But before long, they are addicted to them. And that’s the reason many of these doctors and nurses begin stealing the patient’s drugs because they now themselves are addicted.

This is the reason that people go from drugstore to drugstore buying these various medicines or drugs that can have a useful purpose but can also be abused as it is in our society today. But what I want us to close with is this. That man in Mark 5 was possessed by a demon.

A big percentage of our society today are also possessed by various demons of the addiction. I’ve just mentioned two, alcoholism and drug abuse. There are other addictions that are controlling people.

The answer is this. First, one must recognize that you have a problem. That’s one of the hardest things for a person to admit.

You know, people drink and they say, but I’m not addicted. I can leave it alone any time. They don’t recognize, even though others do, that they really do.

So the first step in getting away from that addiction, to freeing yourself from that demon that has possessed you, is to admit that you have a problem. The second step has to be you must decide that you’re going to get rid of that demon no matter what the cost is and no matter what you have to do. You have to decide, I am through with that.

And in many cases, maybe most cases, you may have to have professional help. You may have to go into a detox place so that they can help you overcome that through time. And then the third help, you should come to Jesus as this man did.

When this man possessed by that demon saw Jesus, he ran up to him. I don’t know if he knew that Jesus could help him, but Jesus did help him. Jesus can help you.

You have to do your part and then look to Jesus to help you with the other part. May we determine that we as individuals will not get addicted to alcohol and the best way to do that is never begin the first drink. May we never give in to the idea of taking drugs, even prescription drugs, beyond their use.

They have their place. But when they’re abused, then they become the demon that controls us. May we recognize that we have that problem.

May we seek to get rid of it. Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God’s Word. Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and LightWay Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible.

If you’re ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we’d love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at 4 at the Senior Center. You’re always welcome. For more information about this podcast, visit lightwaymedia.com/meditating-on-the-word and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study.

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Until next week, keep meditating on the Word.

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