In this sermon, the preacher reflects on a news interview with a police officer who witnessed the tragic massacre of children in Newtown, Connecticut. The officer describes the profound impact of the horrific scene on his mental and emotional well-being, leading him to feel a sense of panic and fear in everyday situations. The preacher emphasizes that this officer's experience highlights the existence of God, as his transformation from a state of distress to being "sitting and clothed and in his right mind" instilled fear in those who witnessed it. The sermon also emphasizes the power of Jesus to bring healing and deliverance, urging listeners to turn to Him for freedom and restoration.

Praise God. Thank you. You may be seated. Give me 20 minutes. That's all I ask. Some that are here tonight, you're going to have to—you're fighting hell already just to stay sitting here. The devil is trying to tell you that all is hopeless, it's lost. Why are you wasting your time coming to church? Nothing's ever going to change. That's a lie. That is an absolute lie. Jesus Christ can transform your life, can give you a song, a hope, a new journey, freedom, no matter what you've been involved in or how deep or dark your life has become. There is no pit too deep, there is no bondage too great, there is no sin too dark, that Christ cannot reach in and bring you out. And not just make you a marginal player in society. No, I'm talking about bringing you out to the point where people look at you and say, wow, how did that happen? In Mark chapter 5, I want to read you a story of a hopeless man. It says, they came over to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship or the boat, immediately there met him a man out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs. In other words, this man lived in a graveyard. And no man could bind him, not with chains. People had tried to counsel him, they tried to help him, they tried to pacify him, they tried to drug him, and nothing helped. Because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked and sundered by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, and no one could tame him. Doesn't matter what anybody said, it wasn't making any difference anymore. Maybe in the beginning, there was a shred of hope with all the advice he'd been given, but the hope now was gone. And he was angry now, he was deeply angry, and he resented people even trying to tell him about how things could change, or would change, or ought to change. He was just sick of it all. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. You know, we think that this tendency to cutting in our present generation is something new. It's not. There was a man way back in the days of Jesus who was cutting himself. This is a person who identified more with death than with life. You see, in a graveyard, there are names, and each name on every tombstone represents a moment and a memory. Last week, I had the occasion to see an interview on a news station of a police officer who was one of the first on scene at the massacre of children in Newtown, Connecticut. After leaving the school scene, and the next day, he found himself in a store, and a panic hit him, and suddenly, he felt like everybody in that store wanted to kill him. He said, that's when I realized I was in trouble. Something had happened to me. I had seen something too horrible to describe, piles of bodies of children, some maybe gasping for their last breaths as he had gotten there. Something that nobody should ever have to see, they should never have to experience in life anything like that. But he had, as a police officer, not a novice, not somebody in their youthfulness, but a grown man coming out, and to this day, not able to work anymore. He said in his interview, suddenly, I found myself one day sitting in a certain place with a razor blade in my hand, preparing to cut my arms. Just because I wanted to be able to feel something again. I was so dead inside, I couldn't feel anything. It's as if I died inside, and I just wanted to feel something, even if it was pain. And it talks about this man in Mark chapter five, day and night in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. Every one of those tombstones would represent a moment lost. Something that could never be regained. Maybe an innocence for somebody here that was lost, whether it was your fault or somebody else's. A hope that died. Every tombstone would represent a trust that was betrayed. Whether you betrayed that trust, or the trust that you placed in somebody else was betrayed over you. But it would represent a trust that was betrayed, and an inner sense in the heart, I'll never be able to trust anybody again. I'll never be able to put my confidence, my hope, the youthfulness that I once had, the looking up to people, to only have this deep betrayal come into my life. And something in me died. At least if I cut myself, maybe I'd be in control of something. I wasn't in control of what happened there, but at least I can control this. And maybe, maybe just even I can feel some pain, better than feeling nothing. Every gravestone represents a memory that just won't go away. Have you ever had one of those? It just won't go away. It's their day and it's there at night. Sometimes even reappears in your dreams. It gets up and torments you in the morning. It just won't go away. You wish it wouldn't have happened. You cry out, even to God, say, oh God, why did this have to happen in my life? Why did this situation have to occur? If I could only go back and make it better or do it again, you know, God, I wouldn't do it that way or I wouldn't allow it to be done that way. Every gravestone represents a future. Every name on every stone represents a future that never will be. It's that man. It's that woman who had dreams, had aspirations, who had a hope, felt you had a future, but somewhere along the line, it just died. Maybe you just got older. Maybe you just, you got into a scene. You started doing something. You started living a certain way and suddenly you just watched your hope for the future slide through your hands. Now it's, the thought of it is just pain. It's a pain. Sometimes it just doesn't go away. Every tombstone represents a place where all life seems to be swallowed up by death. Every hope I had, every dream, every aspiration, every good thing in my life, every every dream of a healthy home, relationship, an education, soundness even of mind, a career, everything gone, dead, eaten up. Every tombstone represents a place where death seems to be more attractive than life. And I can see this man in the graveyard. He has no reason left to live. And he's looking at all of those around in the ground as it is and thinking, at least they're at rest. At least there's peace. And maybe, just maybe, maybe, just maybe life is not worth living anymore. One day Jesus comes into this man's presence. Like tonight, some of you are here in church and you're looking and you're wondering, oh God, is it possible that this could be true? Is it possible that I can be forgiven? Is it possible that the bondage in my mind and my life can be broken? Can I truly become another person than the person that I am? The scripture tells us when he saw Jesus afar off, as many tonight who are here see Jesus, but he's far away. He's not present to you. He's not intimate with you. He's just a far off God, but he saw him afar off. And it says he ran and he worshiped him. And the worship is not the worship that came out of a relationship of fully knowing him as Savior and Lord, but it's a relationship of just saying, at least I acknowledge that you are God, the son of God. I don't have any quarrel with that. But then with a loud voice, he cried out and he said, what have I to do with you, Jesus, the son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that you torment me not. In other words, oh Lord God, I've found myself in your presence, but please God, I ask this one thing. Don't torment me by adding the feeling of your displeasure to my sorrow. I couldn't handle it, God, if I feel that you too were displeased with me. If you too were among those who just stood there as a name with a stony silence, looking at me, shaking your head saying, oh, what a mess you've made of your life and what a hopeless situation you find yourself in and what a bleak and barren future. He said, Jesus, I couldn't handle it. Some people don't go to church because they're afraid. They hold out this faint hope that there is a God, but if he too, if he too folded his arms and looked at me in disgust, it would be the end of everything for me. They're almost afraid to go to church, lest God himself should condemn them. And all hope then would be lost. Oh, Jesus, I beg you. I beg you, Jesus. I can't handle one more rejection. I can't take one more sorrow. I've come to the end of my rope. And if you fold your arms and you become like these tombstones to me, then I have no reason to live. I can't take it, God, if you too would reject me. But little did he know that Jesus had not come to condemn him. Jesus had come to set him free. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus said, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Jesus didn't come to this earth to condemn you. He came to this world to get you. He came to this world to save you. He came to this world to set you free. As a matter of fact, in the gospel of Luke, here's what he says about himself. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. In other words, he's saying, this is why I came. This is the reason why I've come to you tonight. This is the reason why you're in the presence of God. And to have a face-to-face encounter with God, this is why the son of God is coming to you tonight. The spirit of the Lord, the strength of God, the power of God, the wisdom of God, the purpose of God, the compassion of God, the glory of God, the ability of God to go to a cross and endure what I'm going to have to endure is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to speak good news to those who have no ability to get out. They have no resource, no power, no key, no nothing. They can't get out on their own. They're poor, and they know they're poor. They can't afford the ticket to get out. If there was a trip they could take to happiness, they don't have the money to buy the ticket. He has sent me to preach this good news of God to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, heal the broken-hearted, to bring a healing that only God can bring, to preach deliverance to the captives, to give back sight to the blind, and to set free those who have been wounded, bruised, it says, abused. Like this young lady shared tonight in this pulpit, the grace to forgive the father who abused her when she was a child, to set free those whose innocence was lost, whose hope was crushed, whose trust was broken, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Basically, whoever wants to can be free. Whoever wants to can have all of this. Whoever wants to can have the treasure of God revealed to their heart, can have their heart healed, can be set free, and can be healed of wounds that are too deep for drugs and counseling. All the devices and contraptions of man can't set you free. Scripture says, he closed the book and gave it to the minister and sat down, and everyone's eyes were fixed on him. And then he said these remarkable words, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. Today, in other words, this can all be yours. Today, you can be free. Jesus asked him, what is your name? And if he were to come and say the same to you tonight, what is your name? And he said, my name is legion for we are many. What is my name? My name is sorrow. My name is oppression. My name is darkness. My name is cutting. My name is hate, self-loathing. My name is captivity. My name is darkness. My name is futility. My name is nothing. I've got so many names. Which one do you want? Where do we start? How do we unravel this mess that's come into my life? And Jesus said, it's amazing. He just looked at him, and he just said to everything of hell that was in him, leave. It's the only word he said, leave. And every devil, every demon, every power of darkness, every captivity, every darkness of his mind, every oppression of his body, every wound in his heart, left. Went into a herd of pigs and drowned in the sea. That's what the scripture says. He takes our sins and drowns them in the sea. Gone, buried, their power broken. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he destroyed the power of sin over your life. He destroyed every inroad, every, if you could see it, there's all these trails of darkness that found their way into your life and found their way into your mind and found their way into your spirit and all these oppressive voices and all these powers of evil. And you know, when you go for human counseling, I'm not against it, but you got to follow every rabbit trail. You got to find somebody to blame and you got to give a pill for this and a pill for that and a prescription for this and a prescription for that. But when you come to Jesus, he just says, leave. It's no deeper than that folks. Leave. Get out. That's what he said. Get out. This man is mine. This man has come to me. This man has turned to me. This man has bent his knee to me. This man knows what he is. This man has no hope without God. This man has no reason, no rhyme, no excuse. Leave. Leave. It is no deeper than that. And yet it's profoundly deep. It is the power of the voice of God. It is the power of a God who just simply spoke and the universe came into existence. The power of God has sent to the sea this far and no farther. The power of God that created birds and clouds and rain and animals and forests and trees and everything that we know, he created by the word of his mouth. It's the power of God who breathed into a little bit of dust on the earth and man, that piece of dust became a living soul called Adam, your father and mine. The power of God that came to this earth 2,000 years ago and for 33 years walked among us for the sole purpose of being touched with the feelings of our weaknesses and then took all of our struggles and all of our weaknesses and took them to a cross and took the full wrath of God for every wrong thing that we've ever done. And the scripture says when he died on the cross, he made an open display of every power that had any access to your life. In other words, he triumphed over it. And he blotted out with his blood, every thing, every list of everything the devil had against you to torment your mind, he covered it, blanked it out. And he said, leave, leave. Hallelujah. This is not some pie in the sky thing, folks. This is for real. Listen to what the Psalmist David said. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and he heard my cry and he brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of a place where I was sinking and he set my feet upon a rock and gave me a path to walk in, a new life. If anyone is in Christ, the Bible says he becomes a new creation. The old things in his life are passed away and behold, all things become new. The Bible calls it born again by the spirit of God, made alive from the grave, quickened by the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. Paul says, will raise us and quicken our mortal body. And David said, he put a new song in my mouth, even praise to God and many will see it and fear and trust in the Lord. And it says about this particular man that we began reading about in the beginning. It says, when the people came, they saw him sitting and clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid. They were afraid. It's funny, isn't it? People get afraid of freedom. They were afraid. They were afraid. They were afraid because they knew that what God had done in this man proved that there was a God. That's why they were afraid. Because if there is a God, then every knee must bow and every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I have had a special touch of the Holy Spirit on me all evening. I've been aware of it because of what God wants to do for you. It says, when he saw Jesus, he ran and worshiped. Even though he was far away, he worshiped and found that the son of God loved him and was willing to set him free. I have had personally enough of the devil trampling on this generation. I've had enough of it. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of our children running on the streets of the city, cutting themselves, mourning because of life that's lost, family betrayal has come into their heart, academics who have the gall to tell them there is no God, raising them in all kinds of profanity and confusion, and then blaming them when they can't be tamed. I'm tired of it. I've had my fill. I'm fed up with it. I'm not going to endure it anymore, and neither should you. Jesus Christ will set you free. That's not an idle promise tonight. That's not just a religious thing we do here at Times Square Church. I'm telling you the truth. Jesus Christ will set you free. You will become a new creation. The old things in your life will pass away. The mourning will stop. The day of mourning will stop, and a day of joy will begin. He will put a new song in your heart. What do I do is your question. You get up and you move towards God. He has to do it all on your part. It's Jesus Christ. If what I'm hearing tonight is true, if you're as tired of me living this way as I am of living like this, if you heard my cry when nobody else has at night when I go home, oh yeah, I play the fool all day, but when I go home, God, you know and I know what's in my heart. You know what I feel like when I go to bed. You know what my dreams are like, and you know how I feel when I get up in the morning before I put on my mask and play the fool all day, pretending that I'm on top of the world and everything's okay, but God, you know what's going on in my life, and I'm tired of it. And you're tired of it, oh God, and if you're offering me an exchange life, if you're willing to take my failure and give me your victory, then Jesus, I would be a fool to turn you down tonight. It's amazing how suddenly we're confronted with these truths. If you can hear him tonight, if you can hear him, don't harden your heart. You don't have to have it all together to come to God. You come as you are. Come with your failures and your struggles. In a moment, I'm going to give an opportunity for people who want to be free, and we're going to ask you to come and stand at the front of this auditorium, and after you do, we're all going to pray for you, and we're going to believe God tonight that these things that have tormented your life and your mind are going to leave, leave. The word of God is still as powerful today as his word has always been. You're not a loser. You will not commit suicide, and you can stop cutting yourself. You can stop crying day and night, living with all of these memories that torment you. You're going to be free. You're going to have a future. I won't have to prove it to you. God will prove it to you. You will know. I promise you one thing. This will be the best Christmas you've ever had in your entire life. If this is the cry of your heart tonight, hear me on this. If this is the cry of your heart, and you want to be free, and you want Jesus Christ to be your Savior and your God, would you raise your hand wherever you are? Just do that. God bless you. All over. Go ahead. Raise your hand. Praise God. I have rarely in my life, although I have before, felt the presence of God so strongly. I know that Jesus Christ is going to set people free from all of the things we've talked about tonight. Freedom. Freedom is the portion of God's children. And we're going to stand in a moment, and if you raised your hand, I'm going to ask you to come and join those that will come into the front of this auditorium. If you should have raised your hand, you come as well. If you came with a friend, turn to your friend when everybody does stand and say, if you want to go, I'll go with you. But tonight is a night of freedom. You're going to be set free. I stake my life on it tonight. You're going to be set free by the power of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit is here. God is here, and he's going to set you free. The Lord will not disappoint you. He'll touch you and give you life. And as we stand, I'm going to ask you just to start coming. Just slip out of your seat in the balcony. You go to either exit. Let's all stand, please, and just make your way here. Get out of your seat, please, and come. Join those that are coming. Make your way in. Join those that are on the way down here. Thank God. In the balcony, go to either exit. In the back, just make your way down. Thank you, ma'am. God bless you. The Lord is not going to disappoint you. He's not. He's not going to disappoint you. I'm sure of it tonight. Just come. Just come as you are. Thank you, Jesus. Keep coming. Balcony. Turn. Talk to your friends right now. Just talk to your friends. Say, look, if you want to go, I'll go with you. Do that. Just do that right now. If you've come with somebody, what, are you scared of the person beside you or something? Talk to them. The Lord's telling me tonight there's a Vietnam veteran here in this auditorium. You hate yourself for some of the things that you saw, were part of. Lord wants you to know tonight that he doesn't hate you. He loves you. If you let him, he'll set you free from the memories, the pain, the guilt. You just let him touch your life tonight. Young lad in the red sweater, the Lord pointed you out to me earlier in the service. He's got a special touch on your life and something for you. Don't do yourself any harm. He loves you. God's going to help you. We're going to pray now. First thing you must do is open your heart and give your life to Jesus Christ. Give him your life. Give him the rights to your life. Give him the rest of your life and determine that you're going to follow him. God says he'll put a new song in you and give you strength. Give you strength not to go back to the old ways of doing things and living. He'll give you a new song, a new path, and a new life. That's what he promises for those who turn to him. It's true. It's so true. So amazing what God will do for you. I'm going to lead you in a prayer and I'm going to ask you to pray with me and then we're going to pray for you as a church congregation. Please repeat this prayer after me. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me. Thank you for coming to me and showing me that I am precious to you and that you will set me free. You'll give me a new life. I open my heart to you tonight. Thank you for not condemning me for all the wrong that I've done, but dying for me so that I could be forgiven. I open my heart to you tonight. I ask you to come into my life and be my Lord and my Savior and my God. Thank you for your willingness to receive me and give me a future, a sovereign future, a supernatural future that could only come from God. Teach me to walk with you. Show me your promises for me and help me to let you be God in my life. From this day forward, I will follow you, Jesus. I will give my heart to you. I won't turn back. I won't let the devil have me. I believe that I belong to God. And I will walk with God and I will live for God. Now, let me pray for you. Folks, pray with me in this church. Stretch your hands to these that have come. Father, we stand here in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And Lord God, we have declared who you are, what you have done, and what you will do. And as you did to that man who struggled and suffered for so many years, we speak in your name, Jesus, and say the same words that you said to every demonic power, every oppressive force, every violence of hell that's come against these lives. We simply say to the power of the devil, leave in Jesus' name. Satan, you must loose your hold. And no matter how many inroads you found into the minds and spirits of these people, we cancel your work. We cancel your lies. We cancel your oppression. And we tell you, by the way you came in is the way you go out. You leave in the name of Jesus Christ. We take authority over every one of these tormenting spirits, every power of hell, every power of evil. And God, I'm asking you in Jesus' name to set these people in their right mind. God, do something so powerful in each one of their lives that people will see it and begin to fear. They'll begin to fear God. They will say, surely there is a God, for only God could have touched this person like that. Only God could have given them this kind of a song when all they've been doing is singing despair in the blues for years. Only God could do this. And Lord God, this is your army. This is your testimony. This is your glory. This is what you do. You wait till we hit rock bottom and then you come. God, we thank you, Lord. These are the first fruits in this church tonight of thousands and thousands and thousands that you're going to redeem from the streets of this city. Thousands and thousands that you're going to pull out of despair, out of hopelessness, out of violence, out of anger, and you're going to bring them into the life of Jesus Christ. You're going to give us a new song, a song of praise unto our God. And many will see it and fear and turn to the Lord. Father, I thank you for this, God. I thank you with all my heart. I pray now in Jesus' name, fill these men and women with your Holy Spirit. God, from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet, fill them with your Holy Spirit. Drive out every devil of hell, every power of evil, every darkness, every captivity, every bondage, every chain of hell, every demonic force, every power of evil. Drive it out in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. My God, you said, we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free. I believe that with all my heart. We stand on it. We stand on it. We say enough, enough to the powers of darkness, enough to the tormenting power of sin. We stand with our God and we claim victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory, victory. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. you You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Jesus said the devil comes to steal kill and destroy But I've come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly There is a life in God. There is a life in God. Don't you let the devil lie to you when you get home tonight? Don't you let him get you singing that same old song again. You open the door and just tell him leave leave Get out of my house. Get out of my house. Get out of my mind. Get out of my family You take authority God gives you authority No more No more No more bondage. No more oppression. No more dragging my mind through the mud No more tormenting me with memories of the past. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. I have life I have hope I have a future Glory to God give God a shout of praise in this house Hallelujah, hallelujah glory glory glory Glory to God glory to God glory to God Glory to God glory to God glory to God glory to God Hallelujah, I have a future Say it I have a future say it Say it say it. I have a future Hallelujah, I have a future glory to God glory to God glory to God. I Have a future I have a future Praise God, you're not going down. You're going up my friend Glory glory glory, you can lift your head in the sight of God. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you You have a future in Christ. You have a future You have a future you have a future You have a future Go ahead and shout if you want to shout go ahead clap your hands Hallelujah you have a future You have a future Glory to God Glory to God You have a new song you have a new heart God says I give you a new mind You have a future You're not going to be dragged around by your past anymore you have a future Glory to God. All you're required to do now is believe it now. Just believe it. God will make it happen God will do it for you. You have a future. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus Praise God praise God praise God praise God praise God For Those who have come to Christ tonight we have counselors downstairs Will help you get plugged in with the church. You need to you need to find fellowship You can get plugged into this or we have other churches in the city that we would recommend to you But please please please go downstairs and tell somebody what you did tonight Let us help you get started in your walk with God You're more than welcome to attend here with us at any time But if you're not from the area We know at least 15 good churches in the city We can recommend to you that you can start going to and grow in the grace As the Bible says the goodness and the knowledge of God you have a future I Say it a thousand times tonight if I could you have a future You have a future don't buy the lies any longer It's over tonight You tell the devil to leave if you got to do it when you go home open your window and tell him to get out of your apartment Get out Just leave that's all Jesus said leave Leave and a thousand powers of hell had to obey him leave in the name of Jesus use his name in the name of Jesus leave get out of my home get out of my mind get out of my life get out of my future Leave in Jesus name Hallelujah, hallelujah, I think we need a shot we need to celebrate Glory to God glory to God glory to God Thank you