SET APART
A podcast that combines Eastern and Western teaching/story from the scriptures to regain our WHY in God. The purpose of this show is to break down the severe disconnect in today's Church vs how God has called for this life to be lived.. We do this through the scriptures and our guest's stories with each episode.
The American Church teaches an extremely one sided evident driven view of the scriptures. In that danger you lose the poetry and art of story telling to where there is only half truths left. No wonder people are walking away from Christianity by the masses.
These eastern authors intended much more for our hearts with their writings that God inspired. Watch as these ancient truths give you a new/refreshing perspective that will change the way you live. Getting back to the Garden.
SET APART
Ep.9: The Economic Demon
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Tyler and Will take on Mark 5:1-20 discussing Jesus needing a break from actors, the ungratefuleness of healing, and the empire's hate for anything that disrupts cash flow.
And we're back. Tyler and Will. Will and Tyler set apart podcast. Fun fact of the day. Sea cucumbers eject their internal organs as a defense mechanism when threatened against predators. And then they tie up those predators with their organs. And then they regenerate a new set of organs. How are we? Why do you look at me waiting for me to say sub, dude?
SPEAKER_02Sub, dude. Because it is my comfort. Uh yeah. Good to be talking again, monologuing again on microphones because Yes, we have developed habits now. Everybody wants to hear from us. Everybody has told us. I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_00Nobody has all three of them. All three. And I told my mom to stop calling me about it. Yeah. What's funny is I don't even gotta worry about my parents listening. No, no. Uh it is what it is. I'm just kidding. I don't even know if my mom has listened to this stuff yet. Um, well, that makes me sad, actually. But I think she has. I think she texted me about it one day, and I think I forgot to say thank you.
SPEAKER_02Um, sometimes we are gonna take a break from doing episodes. Sometimes we'll get like two out a week, sometimes we'll get one. Sometimes sometimes it'll be two weeks. It'll be two weeks or a few weeks because that is just how things go. That's life, at least for uh Will and I.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we've been busy the past three weeks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's been a lot of um Thank God. Yeah, good stuff, medium stuff, bad stuff. At least it's an adventure and it's not boring.
SPEAKER_00Bad stuff.
SPEAKER_02I know, yeah, I know. How dare there ever be anything bad? Uh, but the sea cucumber that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00It's so weird. It motivates me. I've got to look up a sea cucumber after this. Yeah, because I can't picture it. I literally just see a cucumber in the sea, and that can't be what it is.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it might be pretty close, but being able to eject your intestines to tangle up your enemy, your op, your opposition, um, and then escape and then regenerate new ones.
SPEAKER_00Didn't you do that last week?
SPEAKER_02The spiritual forms of it.
SPEAKER_00Um at basketball practice.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. But yeah, we are here, and I'm I'm very always thankful uh that we do this. Uh Will actually talked about it kind of being this medicine, a little bit this medicine for the world, and that is our hope. Uh, we believe we've kind of taken a bold position of believing that the world is getting better. And uh Jesus speaks about in times in in the book of Matthew twice. Uh, one when John sends his disciples, and then two, and Matthew 24, when all the disciples are kind of in awe of everything around them, and he's like, Hey, none of this is sustainable. And that's still true to today. Uh, everything that's being um ran, and I I think more and more people, everyone, I think uh a common phrasing is the veil is lifting, the veil is lifting, the veil is lifting, the veil is lifting, the veil is lifting, the veil is lifting. I'm sorry, I've never heard that before. Right. Well, the problem is both sides are saying the veil is lifting. Yeah, but everyone is saying it. And somebody, look, here's the truth, has to be wrong.
SPEAKER_00Yes, somebody has to be and it's so it's losing it's losing its meaning.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. And I I said this recently, you know, a lot of the phrases that should not should have meaning, but it they're so watered down, I do believe they're becoming dried off again to where they are taking power. And that's what's supposed to happen. Uh one of the biggest things that Jesus says to us is let your yes be yes and your no be no. Uh, he doesn't say, hey, here, sign, sign on this dotted line. Everybody has to have a contract with everybody. One, because no one trusts each other. Two, our word is nothing anymore. And that is a really huge deal. The biggest reason why, because how did God create all of this? Did he touch it all? Did he, you know, Harry Potter it all? No, he didn't. He spoke it. He spoke everything. And then what happens also? We are created out of his image. Okay. Uh, and then so what happens with that type of transferring of power? Anything that we do, we're supposed to, when we speak, that is our bond, that is our word, that is powerful, and you can take that, you can accept it, and you can rest within it. The problem, though, is everybody needs now a signature because one, we're complacent, we're lazy, no one's word means anything anymore. And it's an unfortunate deal to what's happened. And now we need contracts and we need people to sign stuff. Why? Because you can see the signature, you can somehow bring it up if something goes wrong and show, well, that's not faith. That's a there's a problem with that. God, God says, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit with all of this is saying, sorry, our kind of mic things going in and out here as Will's playing with it. And I'm trying to, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00Um, I'm making sure that the mutes are okay. Yeah, the mutes were off, the mutes were on on a couple of them. Okay, is everything screwed up? No, we're good now. Okay, I had to fix it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. Now we're back with everything. So, any anyways, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think so. I think I pushed some buttons when I was moving it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I got blotted out, and so I could hear myself over and over getting blotted out. No, you're right. Uh, okay, anyways, I don't even know what we're talking about, but just be well. I don't know. What were we talking about? Signatures, signatures like signatures and stuff. Um, this is the the the beauty of doing this in a living room and just hitting record. Got a dog between us. Yeah, not in the dog's not either one of ours. So um, long story short, stop signing things. Uh just tell everyone that you said yes or no, and I'm sure that will go really well for you. Yeah. Uh no, I'm kidding. But again, just think about that. Think about that as as why how much we have to sign and where did that come from? Um, was that the original purpose? Or or maybe was the original intent for us to believe each other? I think that'd be pretty neat. Um okay. We've been journeying through the book of Mark. Uh the Jew writing to Gentiles, uh Empire. It's way more of the uh the believers who who say they claim Christ, but they're living within the empire world. And the the book of Mark is the shortest gospel, which is one of the most popular reasons uh why people flock to the book of Mark is because it is written uh in a short manner, to it is written in a uh to an empire, so it's kind of written in this empire sense, it's Rome and aka America. Uh, so it's a little easier at times to understand. But again, how we approach the Bible is we let the text be the context. And so when we read a line, we know that Mark being an Eastern human, a mosaic human, is there has to be something more than what I'm visually just seeing. But we don't do that, we don't we don't think Bible. We'll just go linear and go line by line and hope something sticks out to us that we can apply to our weekly whatever-ness.
SPEAKER_00And don't forget that each new line is a new teaching.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And you know, an example of that is the book of Genesis. Moses being the writer of that, every story that comes after the story right before it, the story right before is inverted in the story that's next. So then each new story is retelling the story that was right behind it. And and these writers all do the same thing because there's a point to this saying, are do you get it yet? Are you understanding with what's happening? And so anywhere from a story being structured chiastically, meaning book ended, and the point of it is in the middle, to uh a line by line, there's more to it than just the literalness and not letting the text be the context and letting the text be the context. This is all to also for you to see your spiritual life like this. Like, was there something that happened at the beginning of the day that also happened at the end of the day? Or are you in a situation that seems pretty chiastic or that seems pretty not very linear, not very you know, just straightforward. It's actually quite the journey, and you're having to dig a little bit. There's a reason why this the texts are structured the way that they they are, is because life is the same way. Life is the exact same way. Nothing is everything is rarely linear, but we beg for it to be because we are addicted subconsciously. No one would ever say this audibly, but we're addicted to saying how this should be. And we think that we're not doing that. We think that we have our conscience figured out like that, we think we have our even our subconscious, and we think we have this urgency of self-awareness, and we do not. And we know we don't. That's the other darker truth. And the darkest truth is we want to stay in it, and we're hoping that the yearly Bible plans and the waking up for the earlier things and the church conferences in the Sunday mornings and these circus parades of baptisms, we we we're hoping that's gonna be it. We're hoping that's it. We're hoping that uh some prayer is just gonna do it. And I hope I'm wrong because I'm saying none of that's it. None of that's the point, and none of that's it. So that's the whole point of the book of Mark, too, is how how how do you not live as an actor, one who is walking the walk and talking the talk, but you're still missing it. You're just an actor of this whole thing, and you it the the again, the darkest truth is you want to be the actor. You and only you know that you're being that, and it is way more addictive than fentanyl, heroin, all the drugs combined, pour them all together, have them, and and and measure the addictiveness, and then times it by infinity. And that is that is still how addictive this I wanna I want to be complacent as long as I'm saved, as long as I'm in, I don't want to be in the main part of the game. Okay, book of mark. I just want to sit on the bench. I just want to send out of the bench. Okay, we are in chapter five. Chapter five.
SPEAKER_00Chapter five.
SPEAKER_02Uh Will is gonna read uh one through five, and then we're gonna talk a little bit about it and to remind how we go throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00Excuse me. Uh NIV Genesis uh Mark five, one through five. They went across the lake to the region of the Garasines. 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, for he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him, night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. Okay, one through five, the man. The man, right?
SPEAKER_02And sounds like he's going through it. I mean, it's unfortunate. It it is a uh here's this demoniac man, very popular story. And a lot of the times uh when a a uh Jewish person is writing and with their agenda and why they're writing, they're going to include things that the audience is going to be able to pick up on right away that is not visually being able to see, be seen. So, right away, letting the text be the context, and we always say, Hey, what stands out? Usually what stands out, the author's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep going with that. So, what what stands out with me and in this whole thing, along with what uh Mark is trying to do with his agenda, um, right away you have Jesus going across the lake. In other um translations, it says Jesus and disciples went uh across uh went over there or to to the other side. That was the phrase I was looking for, to the other side. And in other versions, also it says the disciples are like, why can't we just walk around? Because Jewish people uh equate mass amount of water to chaos. They do not, and where do they get that from? Uh Genesis one, uh they also the flood and other massive parts of massive bodies of water and always equate with chaos throughout the Bible. And there's a pattern to that. That's a whole nother thing. Uh, but with this, that's a whole nother story on why Jesus made them go onto the boat through the water. Okay, so if you want to go into that story, go find the other gospels. But with this one, uh, the other biggest fun point is that Jesus also had to go to the other side. It says in the other gospels to get away from the people, from the Jewish people. And and and today it would be like Jesus need to get away from the nominal Christians, the Sunday Christians, who are chosenly not getting and annoying him in a way with their voluntarily of stupidity. And he's like, I gotta get away. And where does he go? He goes to the Decopolis uh uh uh type of place where Jewish people refuse to go because they view uh these type of people as subhuman. Where Jesus is going, they view this kind of area along with the disciples a little bit. It's like, hey, we'll go over here and over there, but no one ever goes over there. And he's like, That's the problem with the humanity right now. You guys have missed it so much. You've quenched the fire of human, the value of the human so much that you're geographically no longer going any places, and it has gotten so bad it's actually bled into the Gentile towns. So here comes Jesus having to get away from fake Christians or fake Jews, whatever you want to call them today and back then, uh uh uh people who claim God, and he goes to a place so uh because they'll never go to this place because they think that they're subhuman. It's actually blood so bad that these people, the Gentiles, have treated this man, this outcast, so bad that they have in the other gospels says forced him to be in this area. So he he's poor in spirit, he's not doing well, he's possessed by demons, he's this, this, this, and this, and this, and he's going through it, going through it, going through it, going through it. He's too much for the city. He looks too crazy. And how often uh is that the case? How often do we see the panhandlers, the homeless, the whoever, even maybe people in our own family members, do we talk about people in this type of manner? That they got something wrong with them. They're mentally ill. Just they gotta be over there. Well, they're over there because they haven't gone to church, or they're over there because they had they won't go get a job, or they're over there because they're too much like this, they're too this. And so the isolation, the demon of isolation and the demon of loneliness is uh probably some of the most powerful demonic entities there are. And so what Jesus is absolutely knowing where he's going, he knows who's over there, and he and he and he sees that, you know, because the other in the other gospels, he's actually saying that the Gentiles get it more than the people who claim God. And so he's like, okay, I gotta stop the bleeding, what these chosen people of God have done to the rest of humanity and thinking that it's okay to outcast people. And so here he is getting approached by this demonic man who uh his own city has made him you're you're too much for us. You're too much for us. When you become less of how you are, then maybe we'll kind of let you sleep in in the stable next to the animals. Okay, let's go on with verse six.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna do six through ten. Yeah. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? In God's name, don't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you impure spirit. Then Jesus asked him, What is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that this small little part everyone loves getting hung up on just focusing on the demon side, the demon side. Well, let me give you the the the pulse and the status on what demons where they're at today of 2026. They are not in America, telling you that right now. They are not in the West. They might be in, they might be doing a couple pockets of things where God's actually, you know, trying to stir up stuff. But but Satan looks at America and looks at the West and looks at how all of our families, all of our families, all of the privilege. I don't care where you come from. If you it there's a 2.7% chance, 3.2% chance of being born in America. And let me tell you where Satan is not dwelling. Is not. It's America. Why? We're too comfortable, too convenient. He's he looks at our country, he looks at the churches, he's like, just let them. What's that Renee Brown crap? Oh, just let them. Yeah, that's what Satan's doing. He's looking at all his demons and like, oh, he could get them way quicker. He's like, Oh, we will let them right now. So, what does that mean? That we are the demonic power, actually, to ourselves. We don't Satan's not doing anything. No one, no one's getting possessed by demons right now, no one's getting oppressed by demons. Yes, all my Christian people right now. More than likely, the enemy is not at you. And here's the other thing: why do you want to give him credit like that? Oh, the enemy's doing this to me. The enemy's no, he's not. The enemy doesn't even know our names. That's how unimportant we are. He has way more bigger things. So why don't you start living a holy Kodesh to be different, to be set apart life that is highly manageable and try to get the intention of them? How about you how about you uh uh uh live a little bit of a disciplined life, a self-sacrificial life? How about you get uncomfortable for a second and not think that the cloudy day is the uncomfortableness? I mean, this is crazy. So everyone's like, oh, the name. Demons all have a name. This name here is Rome. Legion means Rome. So, so today, will what do you think the demon name of of Legion is today?
SPEAKER_00I've got a couple in my mind. So just saying.
SPEAKER_02Think America? Yeah. Empire. It's whatever the empire is. It's whatever the empire is. And and so, you know, when Jesus asks him, what is your name? The the name Legion in the Greek, it's Rome. So you might as well say, My name is America, my name is uh, you know, I I think of China, Russia, uh BRICS, all these type of things that are trying to NATO, all these whatever, trying to make these bigger conglomerates to be these massive governing powers to be what God. So what also came with Rome was paganism. What also came with Rome was sexual sexual uh immorality at its highest forms, gender fluidity, my truths. I think the Bible's like this. I think the Bible's saying this. Well, I think the Bible's saying that. Paganism. Just let it in. Keep letting in. Well, well, we kind of had to we had to drop those bombs. There's a couple of them on the girls' school. We're a Christian nation. No, we're not. None of this. That's why the demons are not here. Because we are already do executing on the demonic legion powers. Okay. Let's go on with uh let's let's see what Jesus does with these things.
SPEAKER_00Um verse eleven, after after uh after the demon begged uh to send them to not send that out out of the area. Verse 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, send us among the pigs, allow us to go. Into them. He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion by the legion of demons sitting there, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man, and told about the pigs as well. And the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. Okay. So this is This is this is one of the more interesting parts to me, since this is the part where What stands out to you, Will? Well, this is the part. I I I I kind of guess I get the being afraid part, but also the fact that I I always wondered why they wanted Jesus to leave the region after this, because it always seemed like a good idea or like a great thing that he healed this man and nobody cared.
SPEAKER_02Wouldn't everyone be happy? Aren't you happy that someone got healed? Aren't you happy that uh that Jesus is here? Aren't you happy that you're seeing you're seeing kingdom being brought to empire? Oh, wait. You're really upset. You're seeing healing and deliverance, but what happened?
SPEAKER_00And you want the person who brought the healing and deliverance out. Out. Why?
SPEAKER_02Oh, well, if you let the text be the context, what type of city was this? What else? The nickname of the city was the city of Boer, B-O-A-R, the pig, right? So this was their economic status. Well, what just happened to their economic status? Well, just it was driven, Kingdom brought in, healing, and showing, I don't know, maybe a symbolic thing of how is this going, right? But what happens? They see kingdom right in front of their eyes, but it it turned their economic status upside down, and they were furious. They weren't asking, oh, maybe there's a way to do this and not have to suffocate people or count the bricks or try to stack the cash or try to do whatever. Maybe there's a way to do this as a family of God together. We just saw it. This guy, he was healed, he's back. But the opposite happens. The opposite happens. And this is still going on today. People, whenever anybody sees healing over somebody, one, they're afraid to go enjoy that because they're afraid of all the attention that person's gonna get, and the other person's like gonna get the attention. People don't know what to do when the person next to them is being favored and they're not being favored. They don't know how to praise that person, they don't know how to praise God that that person is, oh, they're back. They're here, they're unbelievable. And also, we don't know what to do when kingdom asks for a hundred percent of us, and and we just been so satisfied with giving the 98%. And we don't know what to do because it's we we give God a damn and a hell of a time with giving him that last two percent. It's so easy for us to do the 98%. We'll pray for the demon guy, we'll even drop him off some food, we'll do this, all the other stuff. But don't you dare heal him. Don't you dare bring full kingdom into our economy because that might, I don't know what I don't know what tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00I can't I can't control that.
SPEAKER_02I need to know what tomorrow looks like. Yeah, I don't tell me that control's an illusion, that the bottom could fall out at any moment, that I'm not immune to that. Don't tell me that. I need to know where my food is gonna come from tomorrow. And that's where we're at today. And we would rather have half-assed kingdom so that we can still know where the meat and potatoes are gonna come from with the empire. We would we would rather our Sunday mornings look like funeral services and still look at the panhandler on the side of the road and say when he gets into church, or when I get married, or when this circumstance happens, then I will be favored and fully and fluidity with God. And man, how backwards the identity of acceptance is that by that you are doing, you're doing it, not the devil. So no wonder you don't know what to uh how uh what to ask for in your prayer life. No wonder people think we can change God's mind with prayer. We don't even know the purpose and point of it. No wonder that when we see this guy healed and kingdom is brought, but it touches our money, it touch it's asking for the last two percent of us. Ah, not gonna do it. Not gonna do it. Don't ask me that kind of exposing accountable question. That's too intimate.
SPEAKER_00The last part of here. 18 through 20. Do it. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell in the decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and all the people were amazed.
SPEAKER_02Okay, hilarious thing here, right? What stands out? What a beautiful Jesus kind of first starting the testimony. He got all the disciples. What's the problem here, Will?
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, it sounds like this would be a great man to go with him.
SPEAKER_02What of all the people to be an amazing testimony? He's a Gentile, he could get more people, he could get his people. He just got healed from a demon. What a testimony. Uh how many churches here in Nashville would love to have that testimony stand up this Sunday? All of them. All of them. And if you can't make it to my church, can we do you got a waiting list that we can put our church on there? You can bring your testimony around.
SPEAKER_00It's also interesting how uh in since in 17 they wanted people, they wanted Jesus to leave, but in verse 20, when he went into the place, that's when all the people were amazed. It makes me wonder who came out to to meet Jesus and who came and then who met the demon-possessed man in the city.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah. It goes right to the reflection of to the people who are actually good, um, who who want other people to do well and who don't. And so the biggest thing is uh uh if you notice, Jesus always invites a Jewish person to come with them after he either heals them or does something for them. He never in in in or he invites them to join them or he never or or he tells them don't go tell anybody what you saw. But with the Gentile, he does, he he tells, he says, go tell everybody what you saw. Why? Because the people of God, the Christians of that day who were claiming the throne, claiming that we're that they were getting it, were not getting it. They were actually the ones who are furthest away from God. And the ones, the Gentiles, the ones who were claimed to be subhuman by the chosen people of God, were actually getting it more than the people who are claiming salvation. It's going on today, everybody. It's going on today. The ones who think that they're in are not in. And the ones who do not think that they're in, who are kind of questioning and wondering, they're actually the ones that are in. So Jesus is, and also a big point is if all the Jewish people also believe that he was the Messiah right on the spot, the cross doesn't happen. Really an unbelievable still in the everyday moment that Jesus is keeping that self-sacrificing posture, how hard that would be to have Carrie as a human. But notice, right? Notice who's believing him and who's not believing him. Who's okay with forgiveness between the common man, who's not okay with it? Who's okay with kingdom being a part of the economy? Who's not okay with it? It's happening today. Churches are changing the font to look like beer fonts or selling merch, having their own worship albums to make sure they get a ton of streams. Uh, community groups are turning into tribalism. That it's an addictive thing, turning away people who are needing the gospel, who are needing an encouraging word. Well, just wait till we start the next book. We'll wait till the next series.
SPEAKER_01You idiots, you brood of vipers. Good luck on judgment day. Good luck.
SPEAKER_02Good luck with how you're determining the value of the human and you don't even know it. You don't even know what you're doing. So there's the story of the the man who was possessed by a demon. He's possessed by empire, paganism that overran his life, but couldn't turn to his community.
SPEAKER_01They don't that's conditional. They only go so far.
SPEAKER_02So I the demon of isolation and loneliness. And Jesus goes goes to him, but he goes to a place where he knows the people of God aren't gonna go because those people are too subhuman for him. I mean, this whole thing is still today. Still today. Okay. Done blabbing, monologuing. This is way easier than than what what what we make it to be. Uh in God's just looking at it like that. I don't know. What do I know? Okay.
SPEAKER_00Glad to be back. It's a tough lesson. Clunk clunked our way through that one. It needs to be learned. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Chapter six. Y'all be ready. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Pray for us. Father God, see that the most high place in heaven, we thank you, we love you for who you are, for what you've done. Thank you for sending your son to die, to both live in this world to show us how to do it and to die on the cross for our sins, so that we might talk to you easily and with reverence and awe. Thank you for your Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us believers step by step on what to be doing and teaching us your your word and your gospel. Thank you so much for it. Thank you for Tyler. Um, thank you for this dog between us. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. And I pray for every person listening to this that they that your hand will be taught, your hand will touch them and give them peace. Thank you so much again, Father. We love you. Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.