 I would like to make something abundantly clear to any believer out there, to any non-believer out there who is searching for truth. If you are suffering from anything, understand this, demons are not your problem. We have an overabundance of people speaking about demons, demonic oppression, who are even in many cases peddling that demon possession is the problem that many people have and they want to have what's called this deliverance ministry. Instead they don't focus on the true deliverance ministry. What I want to show is a couple things that cannot be refuted and that is this. Did you ever notice that there is no demonic activity whereby someone is being called to have a demon cast out of them in the Old Testament? Have you noticed that there is not one example of a person having a demon cast out of them? Now, does God send evil spirits upon people and then remove the spirits? That's not what we're talking about. We're speaking of when someone has an evil spirit, a demonic possession and then another person goes to them and casts a demon out. Either a prophet, either a king, some other man of God. We don't see that in the Old Testament. Now, I want you to think about why that is and let's move forward. We do see that when Jesus through his incarnation, we see that show up and they speak about people having a demon. But now, the question is what is the solution? Notice how often Jesus or any of the apostles speak of demons versus how often they speak of sin. How often they speak of what the solution is and the solution is in comparison to a demon being cast out is vastly different. We'll notice that there are a few times in the Bible where the Bible speaks of a demon being cast out. We see that. That part is not to be minimized. However, the greater issue is what is the solution and what also is the problem. The problem with people is not a demon. The problem is their natural nature. The fact they are in the flesh even before sin into the world. Think about this. Was it a demonic possession that caused Adam and Eve to sin? Well, there was a demonic present that being Satan, but it was not as though that the demon or that Satan entered them. All he really did was point out to Eve what she had thought in the first place. She says she thought that the fruit was desirous to her eyes. And then, of course, Adam, the Bible doesn't indicate why he did so, but Adam succumbs to his wife saying take and eat and he ate. And then we see other people who have also sinned in the Old Testament who did not have a demon or under some sort of demonic influence. They just sinned. It's just what naturally happens to human beings. The Bible says that the heart is desperately wicked. Or another version might say that the heart is sick. Well, what does that mean? We are like sheep. We go away. We're from the moment that we leave the womb. We want to do all sorts of things and end up committing different types of sin. And so the issue is our flesh, our nature, and all any demonic influence is going to do is to try to exacerbate that to push us towards that. And so our issue isn't so much a demon or any demonic influence. Our issue is our sin and our sin nature. And even more to the point is the debt that we owe to God that needs to be erased in order to have a relationship with Him. In Mark chapter one, let's see what Jesus says in verse 14. He says now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God saying, this is Jesus. The time is fulfilled. The time is at hand and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. He did not say he did not come preaching to everyone to have a demon cast out. If there was a demon by someone or in some, if there was any sort of demonic presence when Jesus came around, now notice demons did not come to him. They brought people who had some sort of demonic oppression to him. The closest that we get to is when Jesus comes to the man in the caves, and they just happen to dock where he is and he sees him and he runs up to them, but they didn't go looking for him. He didn't go looking for them. Every time there's some sort of an encounter, it's in this case or when someone brings them to him and Jesus, and now Jesus will cast them out, but Jesus' whole ministry and what Jesus was preaching to the people was repent and place their faith in him. That was the ministry that was given to the apostles. It's the ministry that's given to us. We have been given, according to 2nd Corinthians 5, the ministry of reconciliation. We've been reconciled to God through Christ, and now we as believers have been given that same ministry. We have not been given the ministry to cast out demons. As a matter of fact, after the founding of the church and Acts 19, we don't see any more mention of a demon being cast out or needing to be cast out. However, what we do see is in James 4, we see a solution to a problem. Verse 7 says, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee. Verse 8, Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, use sins and purify your hearts. You double-minded. He doesn't speak anything about having a demon cast out. Just resist him. Draw near to God. The issue is the closer you get to him, whatever the ills that bother us, that affect us, the closer we get to him, they're over there. The further we'll get away from them. But if we try to confront them and deal with them, then we're over on this side dealing with him, them, whereas God is over here. We are to draw near to him, to God, and then sin by nature of our proximity to Christ will be further away. And whenever someone asks, what is the solution to the problems, what we're going through? Just like we see in Acts chapter 16, when they are speaking in Paul and Silas agility says in verse 30, sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. You and your household. And so the whole point, the whole issue is having Christ in your heart. The issue that you may be struggling with, the issue, I don't care what it is. I don't care what the affliction is. I don't care if it's physical. I don't care if it's mental or emotional, financial, whatever it is. The issue is not a demon. The issue is your heart, your nature, and your relationship with God. Draw close to him, and he will draw closer to you in doing so you will be resisting the evil and resist the devil. The Bible says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from. And so the whole point is get closer to him. And then because of that, you will not have an issue with a demon. Do not let people tell you that your issue is is demonic, but then refuse to tell you that the solution is not Jesus. The solution for deliverance who is the deliverer is Jesus. That is a solution because your problem, though a demon may try to exacerbate it, may try to influence, may try to play a part in it. Your problem is your sin nature, your sin. The problem ultimately is you, which is why he says, repent, change your mind towards these things and then place your faith in Christ. Amen.