James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.  9 times in the Bible

Until we place the same value on ourselves that God places on us, we will never have the correct standard to love ourselves and then to love others. Maybe we love others as we love ourselves. Not at all!

Ø  But I am so selfish! Yes and Selfish love is self destructive.

Self love and selfish love are not the same

Self Love is not self destructive. This loving the individual, loving the person that I am, being at peace with what God has made me to be, Spirit, soul and Body! To be content!

1 Tim 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. (KJV)

Ø  Who are you?

Mark 5:1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

Ø  immediately there met him: Demons can’t keep a man away from Jesus. Jesus came for one reason, to meet this man!

Ø  Crying: God listens to our crying! It hurts not to know who we are!

o   Why was he crying? He didn’t know who he was anymore, he was suffering the bondages and chains of expectations of people, he was alone, restless,...

Ø  Cutting himself: a lot of our self hate externally comes from a self hate internally. We are trying to improve our image on the inside by changing the outside. It will never be enough.

o   Why was he cutting himself? Plastic surgery? Was he trying to change who he was?

o   Plastic surgeons have seen the problem that when someone begins to do this they will always find something else to change.

o   It seems more than ever we are trying to find out who we are by the shape of our bodies. Who are you? I AM...? Everywhere we look people are trying to find their identity by how they look on the outside. The ideal? Why? They want to be loved, but they do love themselves

Ø  Often bound with fetters and chains: What people do not understand they will try to control. The will try to conform and to tame any differences. The man would not be stopped in his search for WHO he was.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. (Identity crisis)

Ø  Who ran and worshiped Jesus? The Man? Then were these the words of the Man or the demons? Either way there was insecurity and the fear of punishment. When we don’t know who we are we are afraid we are not what we are supposed to be.

Ø  What is your name? Who are you? Today people are trying to be many! We are trying to be so many people for so many that we do not know who we are anymore.

Ø  What were these demons doing? They were confusing this man about who he was! Multiple personalities.

10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. 15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

Ø  Sitting: He wasn’t constantly running, searching, he was at peace. A position of Rest.

Ø  Clothed: He was naked before. It seems often that the worse the self image is the less clothes people will wear! It may seem they are confident, but they are afraid not to be noticed anymore. Hollywood?

o   Our problem is we are still naked! No I don’t mean we have no clothes on, but there are heavenly clothes that we can put on and we will not be self conscious. Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Not ashamed of their bodies or who they were. But when they sinned they lost their covering from God and became ashamed. God clothed them with skins, but they still were naked. Sin brought with it a destructive self consciousness. God asked them “Where are you?” He had not lost them. Where, who,...

o   We must be clothed by faith until Jesus comes. 2Cor 5:1-4

Ø  In his right mind: To have your mind saved and returned to you. Sober, not under the influence of something or someone else.

Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Ø  according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Rom 12:3 As God's messenger I give each of you God's warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you. (TLB)

1 Cor 15:9-10

9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (KJV)

Who created you?                  God!               Who saved you?                    God!

Who is keeping you?              God!               Who do you live for?             God!

Who will judge you?              God!

Col 3:10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.(NIV)

God’s covering, His presence, his Glory is our covering and our protection. He protects us from devaluing ourselves, from, searching for who we are,  from seeking for a covering, seeking for our value. Faith in WHO God says that we are. WHO we are by GRACE!

Let God give us our Value back! The devil must be afraid that if we discover WHO we are we will also discover WHY we are.

16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. 18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. 19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. 20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel. (KJV)

Ø   What he has done for you!  Not that he cast out demons, or the pig story or.. Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. True evangelism! The world is looking for themselves too, help them find themselves in Jesus!

3 Jn 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Altar Call:

Jesus will has come across your sea, the universe, all time and space to get to you. He has come to free you from your Tomb of religious activity, from self destruction, from your search for freedom and all the bondages that man will put on you. He has come to free you to be you.

Will you run to worship Him?

He has come to free you from multiple personalities, from Demons of deception, From Nakedness, self consciousness, Fear, Lonliness... Self destructive Selfish Love.