Recently I have had a number of people ask me, why is there so much teen suicide, teen drug/alcohol addiction, teen on teen crime?  It's not about just teens, but people in general.  The root causes of why teens do what they do often occur prior to the teen years.  If it is not corrected during the teen years the behaviors follow people into adulthood. 

PEOPLE AREN'T BORN INSANE; THEY GO INSANE. 

When people are under the influence of their own desires (self-will, cravings, yearnings, compulsions), the desires take hold and seem to become supernatural in nature (strong forces and strongholds).

People start to give-up on living and throw themselves into a lifestyle full of self-destructive behaviors (drugs, alcohol, suicide, crazy relationships).

Other people give-up on them and start to distance themselves.  They treat the ones who are caught-up in self-destruction as if they don't exist.

Know that whether your "insanity" is self-induced or has a more evil origin, there is a power available to restore or bring you back to sanity and wholeness.

WE MUST BELIEVE TONIGHT THAT GOD IS ALL POWERFUL, AND THAT ONLY HE CAN RESTORE US BACK TO OUR SANITY (GOOD SENSE, RIGHT MIND).

THE WAY IS THROUGH CHRIST JESUS!

MARK CHAPTER 5:1-20

¹Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.

²And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

³who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains,

1. Tombs is translated as memory or mental grasp
2. Man out of control.

⁴because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.

⁵And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

1. Ongoing behavior
2. Self-destructive behavior (suicide, drugs, alcoholism, sexual perversion)
3. Self-induced pain
4. Hurting people not only hurt others, but they also hurt themselves

⁶When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.

⁷And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me".

⁸For He said to him, "Come out of the man, unclean spirit!"

⁹Then He asked him, "What is your name?"

And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion; for we are many".

1. When left unchallenged, self-destructive behaviors increase in magnitude.
2. Like spirits attract

¹⁰Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.

¹¹Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains.

¹²So all the demons begged Him, saying, "Send us to the swine, that we may enter them."

¹³And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.

¹⁴So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened.

¹⁵Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.

1. Once delivered from the bondage of insanity, he sat in the presence of Jesus
2. He received what Jesus had to offer peace
3. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 

¹⁶And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine.

¹⁷Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.

¹⁸And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him.

¹⁹However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you."

1. He went to testify to friends and family about what Jesus had done for him.
2. To maintain his healing, he shared and told others about Christ
3. He was not selfish, his focus remained on Jesus and his mercy and compassion.

²⁰And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.  In other words, He discipled him.

Jesus sent him home to his friends to tell them what God had done for him.  In doing so He directed him to a different environment and took him out of isolation.