Help For Families in Crisis By Pastor Sunday Adebamiro

SUNDAY SERVICE

May 22, 2022

 (1st Service)

Mark 5: 1-10

Identifying families and individuals that need divine help

1. Families and individuals who find themselves where they are not meant to be: In the text we read, here was a living, breathing man. But the Bible was clear about the fact that he resided in the tomb. Mark 5:2-3 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. He was alive but he literally resides with the dead. This is not where a living man is supposed to be. This is the definition of abnormality. Whenever a living resides with the dead or verse versa, that situation cannot be normal.

Now, it is easy to discard this narrative in relation to our daily living, but you have to understand that it is a bit deeper than that kind of surface thinking. What it means is that whenever an individual or a family member is not where they are meant to be, they are in the tomb/cemetery. Like an unmarried person living in a house secured by their married lover, it just means such a person is living in the cemetery and is a neighbour to the dead. The question we need to ask ourselves is what is a living, breathing man doing in a cemetery? This may even extend to a job and relationship that appear to be taking life out of you. Luke 24:5b Why seek ye the living among the dead?

2. Families and individuals that have no control or regulation: In this text, the Bible revealed a critical information about the Gadarene man, that not only does he resides in stones, no one could bind him. Mark 5:3b and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. This means he was out of control, and no one could caution him. Whenever you get to points or achievements that no one can counsel you or correct you, you are very close to destruction. Proverbs 24:6 For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety. Some of you, when you are in love, no one can counsel you anymore. For some of you, it is money that makes you become all-knowing. As couples, it is important that you have mentors/accountability partners. This is someone with unreserved authority to caution or checkmate you. It is dangerous to not have people or systems like that in your life. It makes you like a brand-new vehicle with all the right specifications but without a brake. That is an an accident/disaster waiting to happen someday.

3. Families and individuals that have been abandoned: The Gadarene in this text experienced all his crises alone. I cannot but wonder, where his wife, mother, siblings, uncle and friends are. The Bible recorded that after he was delivered, Jesus instructed him to go home to his own people and tell them what the Lord has done for him. Yet, to show how bad things used to be, those same people abandoned him completely at his most trying times. He truly needed divine help.