It was great for shell and I to be gone.
Last week visiting our one of our sons.
Jeff did a great job wrapping up chapter 14.
Thank you Jeff. Appreciate you.
But it's great for show and I to be back.
I'm excited to get to teach again this morning and open up the Bible.
We're in the book of Matthew Steele.
We're just over halfway done through this, through this book.
We're in chapter starting, chapter 15.
So if you have a Bible and brought that with you, if you go to Matthew
chapter 15, go to the Bible center of the Bible.
Take a right about halfway through what's left.
You come to the first gospel, first of four,
book of Matthew chapter 15, and my Bible is right after chapter 14.
So I hope that helps you.
But before we get into Matthew 15, I want to share with you
some things that that are going on in our church that I want to happen
in our church and invite you to be a part of it in a very specific way.
We're in the process of hiring a few people, which will
really, really, really aid our ministries, and I'm really excited about that.
Most of them are going to won't start until July 1st ish.
So we have some we got some build up time to get ready.
Part of what's going on.
We're taking another one of the suites over in that building over there
and and recreating some more office space for some of our staff, some more meeting
space for some of our church that's going on right now.
I'm really excited about what's happening there,
but I also want to take the existing site here.
We we don't have the ability in this,
in this building to just blow out walls and, and, you know, make bigger stuff.
So we have to work with the shell that we have.
We all understand that. Right? Because of how this is done.
So the one of the the ways we can work with
the shell that we have is just renovate the existing structure.
And so part of that renovation has to do with the entryway.
Right now
it's just an entryway wide open to, you know, elements and people coming in.
And you've seen the concrete, how nasty that is out there.
It's just wear and tear.
And so we have this idea that we want to make the entryway
into a furnished lobby.
And to do that, I want to put one of those sectional glass roll up doors.
You know what I'm saying? Like, look, beautiful.
I've seen some churches do this before and kind of
wall that in
not with a solid wall, but with, you know, this kind of semi-permeable,
visually visual sectional garage door that's that's part of it.
And then take the inside and make that into a lobby area.
So this would be this is all AI.
So you know, thank you chat.
But this is the idea of looking from the outside
in to the entryway of the lobby of our church.
And this would be looking from the inside out and make it.
It's obviously a pretty beautiful,
but this would make it a usable space.
It would make it and it would make it.
So we have a place to fellowship and kind of community and stuff.
And, and it would enable us, instead of rolling stuff in and out
all the time, it wouldn't able to use that as a true lobby,
secure some check in things for our children's ministry and whatnot.
And so this is all super, super, super doable for $25,000.
We can do it easily.
And so I want to invite you into that.
I know shell and I just transferred some funds over to the church Friday
that are going to be used for part of this.
And so I want to invite you into this with us
to give over and above your regular tithes and offerings.
And as soon as we get that in, we can start this project.
But it's one of the needed things that we've got to do for the growth
that we're experiencing, and to be able to use this site in a way that I think
that really, really, really blesses, blesses you and blesses our community.
So I'll leave that with you.
I trust that, as God puts it on your heart, you will respond.
Matthew 15.
We're going to look at two two sections of Matthew 15,
and we won't get through the whole chapter. This morning.
We're going to take the chapter in two weeks this week and next week.
And Matthew 15 deals with with two accounts of how Jesus deals with people,
one one of them, the first one, the first 20 verses.
In Matthew 15, Jesus confronts the religious
religion that cleans the outside but leaves the heart untouched.
So there's a confrontation that Jesus has with people
who who are focused on cleaning the outside.
But but nothing changed on the inside.
And the second thing, we'll look at verses 21 through 28, I think.
Yeah, 21 through 28.
And Jesus is going to welcome
the desperate faith that comes
from a woman with empty hands and just pleads for his mercy.
So we have these two, these these two people, these two groups
represented one, the religious people that look good on the outside,
but their hearts are unchanged.
And this other person who represents these people
who are just absolutely desperate for God's mercy, who have nothing to offer
God, who just come to God and plead for his mercy.
These two and Jesus.
Jesus is going to deal with both of them very differently.
Here's what I know about me, and I suspect about you,
that we know how to clean the outside really well.
We know what it is to look spiritual.
We know what it is to sound spiritual.
We know what it is to look polished on the outside.
But Jesus is never fooled by
polished religion that masks a polluted heart.
You just can't fool him.
And so in Matthew 15, we see these two types of people
the religious people who look on the outside but have dirty hands,
and a desperate woman who comes to Jesus with empty hands.
And Jesus is going to expose
one and is going to bless the other.
And my idea this morning is that there's been times
where you could probably see ourselves in, in both of those camps,
and this morning, perhaps some may get exposed,
and Lord willing, most will come
to God in desperation.
Asking for his mercy and his grace.
And so two different sections, two different big ideas.
The first big idea for the first 20 verses is this God honors
a transformed heart and exposes religious hypocrisy.
And so what I want to do, I want to read the first nine verses
and then we'll unpack some stuff.
But Matthew 15, verses one through nine says this.
The Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?
For they do not wash their hands when they eat.
He answered them, why do you break the commandment
of God for the sake of your tradition?
For God commanded honor your father and mother, and
whoever reviled father or mother must surely die.
But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother,
what you would have gained from me is given to God.
He need not honor his father.
So for the sake of your tradition, you've made
void the Word of God, you hypocrites!
Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this
people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
In vain do they worship me, teaching us doctrines, the commandments of men.
And so what we have here is these Pharisees and scribes
now in the Bible, in the New Testament, Pharisees
get a really, really, really bad rep.
You don't read about Pharisees and Testament.
They didn't exist as Pharisees in the Old Testament.
There's a New Testament thing and the Pharisees came to be
they were the religious elite of their day.
They weren't the elite.
The the Sadducees were the elite religious group.
They were the wealthy ones.
They were the liberal side, the rich liberals.
That's who they were.
The Pharisees were the kind of more blue collar conservative.
And so these Pharisees get a super bad rap, and rightly so in the New Testament,
because they just focus on their tradition.
And now when they started, the Pharisees
started in the Babylonian captivity, way back in those little Bible history.
Okay, okay.
So way back in the Old Testament,
Israel was taken into captivity up into Babylon.
And there in this foreign country, this pagan country.
And some of the people are like, hey,
we got to keep we got to keep our faith alive.
You know,
so they started these things called synagogues
that made their way back into the New Testament.
They started
this group called the Pharisees, the Pure Ones, because they wanted
to keep their faith pure, and they really came from a good heart.
Let's get back to the Bible, back to what God said,
back to his law, and let's do it right.
So that morphed by the time we get to the New Testament
into this hyper legalistic group of.
Religiously conservative like ultra or right
that were more concerned about their tradition than they were Scripture.
So much so.
And honestly, the original ones that would have,
we would have claimed like the beginnings of the Pharisees,
people like Ezra in the Old Testament, like just beautiful men who understood
God's law. It just got sideways.
And so what they did is they forgot God's law,
and they just started living by all these traditions.
And one of their traditions was hand washing.
Now, this was not the biblical command of washing ceremonial.
It should be ceremonially clean in the temple or anything.
This was their own tradition. It got so bad.
How bad was it?
Thank you Rich.
It got so bad that they believed
that anything that touched a Gentile or non-Jew was corrupted and dirty.
So much so that if a Gentile walked in the dirt
and kicked up dirt, dust and that dust got on them,
then they were defiled because it was Gentile dust.
And so they created this tradition that before they ate,
they had to wash their hands of the Gentile dirt
that was in the world, because in their minds,
if they got Gentile dust on their hands and then touched food, now
the Gentile dust made their hands dirty, and their dirty hands made the food dirty.
If they ate dirty food, it made them dirty.
And so their solution to this was, well, let's wash our hands two different ways.
First, they wash kind of like this.
And someone would pour water over their hands,
and they had to do it in such a way that the water would drip off their hand,
because if they did this and it rolled down their arms,
now their arms were dirty.
And so they had to do this.
And then because the water ended up here,
then they had to wash one more time like this
so that the water would run from their hand down off their fingertips,
and they couldn't shake it, because then the dirty water
would get on them, and then their whole body would be dirty.
So it was really this, this weird.
Now, listen, I'm going to talk about a way that we do the same thing
because it's easy to laugh at them, but we do the same thing.
I'm going to show you in just a minute.
But that that was the tradition that they're saying, hey,
Jesus, your disciples don't even don't even follow the tradition of the elders.
And just like, shut up, you you disobey the command of God for your tradition.
So why are you worried about your tradition?
And what Jesus was referring to was the command in Scripture,
not tradition, but the command to honor your father and mother?
And what that meant was, if your mom and dad have need
and you have the resources to meet that need, you honor them by helping.
Does that make sense?
That's the command of God.
But Jesus says you've created this loophole
so that you can claim that your resources are devoted to God.
So you can tell your mom and dad, look,
I know you're hurting, but honestly, all my resources are committed to God,
so I can't give it to you because that would be an abomination.
Meanwhile, you could keep using it all for yourself.
It was just this loophole.
And just like you, you're missing the whole thing.
You're living by this tradition and you're disobeying the command of God.
You're so worried about what you look like on the outside.
You haven't addressed your nasty, defiled heart on the inside.
And he says you're a bunch of hypocrites.
So their their idea of claiming their resources are God's
so they can't give it to the parents was the idea called the Corban?
They said, hey, listen, it's carbon, I can't give it to you.
And Jesus says, you're a bunch of hypocrites.
That word hypocrite means actor.
And what he's referring to was back in the like in the Greek culture,
especially, actors would would
instead of having different characters, they just put on a different mask.
And so the mess that people see was something different
than the reality behind the mask.
That's what he's saying.
He said, listen, this is what religion does.
It makes us put on a mask for everybody to see,
but it masks the reality behind it.
And so for us translating that for us,
when we put on the mask of religion.
We know the words
to say, we know the words not to say.
We know the behaviors, we know
how we're supposed to look.
When we do those religious behaviors.
It suggests that Christ and His kingdom
are the highest priority of my life.
But if we do those behaviors, and Christ
and His kingdom is not the highest priority of my life,
the mask I wear doesn't reflect the reality behind the mask.
Do you follow?
So when we do our faith, do our religion
and it looks super good on the outside,
but the reality is Christ
and His kingdom are not the highest priority of my heart.
We, like them, are hypocrites.
DeFalco.
It's the people who know the words,
but whose heart is not aligned with Christ in His kingdom.
It's the people who practice religion
but are not yet surrendered.
It's the people who look clean morally
but have not been transformed in the image of Christ.
As a hypocrite.
And we get so wrapped up he's saying, you get so wrapped up in your tradition
has nothing to do with Scripture,
and it's easy to see in them, right?
We do the same thing.
Here's a for instance,
we celebrated
that was a that was ninja like reaction right there.
I'm like a cat. That was awesome.
We still do.
We do communion every week. Right.
So you go back over four years and we didn't do it every week.
We did it very sporadically, pretty much like
every time I would finish a series and like this one
super long series rolling do communion a couple of times a year.
And I just I just felt convicted about it.
I was in it as a pastor.
And so almost four years ago,
I went through this through chapter by chapter through the gospel of John.
And I said, we're going to take communion
every Sunday morning when we go through the Gospel of John.
And you know what I heard from the church?
You can't do that. That's not what we do.
You can't do that.
You can't do it every week.
Why? Because our tradition said we couldn't.
There's nothing.
The Bible says how often you have to do communion.
But I got such pushback.
If you do it every week,
it'll become so normal and common, it won't be special anymore.
You're going to rob us of the specialness of doing community.
You do it every week.
That's what I heard. So you know what I did?
I did it every week.
And so now you know what?
You think
you cannot do it.
It's what we do.
You know how we know that?
Because I skipped it one week.
Guess what I heard.
I'm like, what?
And so we had nothing to do with the Bible.
So here's
religious activity cannot cover and life.
This is a problem with religion, but just religion
that doesn't deal with with here.
See the question never be did I do the right thing?
The question should always be does my heart bow before God?
That's the question.
Joel 213
A says, rend your hearts, not your garments.
What he's saying is, make sure that this in here
is torn before God.
Don't worry about what this.
Because when this changes, all of this will change.
But it doesn't happen in reverse.
Matthew 2327 Jesus is just brutal.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you religious people, but you hypocrites,
for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear
beautiful, but within your full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
You look good on the outside.
But God's not fooled by that.
Verses ten through 20.
Look at this.
And he called.
Is that all I want to say about that? No.
He called the people to him and said, here and understand
it's not
what goes into the mouth that defiles a person,
but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.
And the disciples came and said to him.
Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?
That cracks me up
like for a couple of
Jesus.
Are you aware you think Jesus is unaware?
But in essence,
you know what they're saying, right?
What you said triggered them.
That's what he said.
That's what they're saying. They're triggered.
They're a little sensitive.
Jesus is like, yeah, whatever.
He answered, every plant that my Heavenly Father is not planned will be rooted up.
Let them alone. They're blind guides.
And if the blind, the blind both will fall into a pit.
Peter said to him, explain to us the parable.
And he said, are you still without understanding?
Do you
not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?
You know what he's saying, right?
We're going to stand biology.
That's what he's saying.
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.
And this defiles a person.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts and murder and adultery
and sexual immorality and theft and false witness and slander.
These are what defile a person.
But to eat with unwashed hands, that doesn't do anything.
See, the greatest issue that and Jesus is dressing here.
The the greatest issue is what rules your heart.
That's what he's saying.
See, religion says
the outside makes you dirty inside.
And Jesus says, no, it doesn't.
The inside is what defiles the outside.
See, religion focuses focuses on behavioral modification.
And this this is honestly part of the downfall
of of of churches
and many children and youth ministries
because it focuses on behavioral modification.
Do this, don't do this,
do this, don't do this without ever addressing the primary issue,
which is a transformed heart, hating their own sin
and following falling in love with the mercy and grace of God.
And that's why kids can grow up in the church
and look really, really, really good and get off into college.
And all of a sudden their heart takes over their behavior,
right?
That's been our story.
Some of us
and this is this is what Jesus is addressing.
And and I was like, Jesus, those that's really you are really mean.
Do you know that you offended them.
Listen.
Please realize
you don't have to inform God of anything
like he knows.
And I don't want to pick on people's prayers,
but sometimes our prayers
are more about informative God of what's going on.
Rather than imploring him like, like,
Lord, this person, they really they're having a really hard, hard time.
And they just had this thing
and they're really struggling and they've been here for like, God,
yeah, I know, I know, I know, what do you want?
Like the Bible says, I'm in heaven.
You're on earth.
Let your words be few.
I know you don't have to inform me of what's going on.
You just.
You follow, like, never
feel like you have to explain the situation to God.
He knows.
And then they say you really offended them.
He's like, yeah, well too bad that's on the.
So here, listen,
I may be offensive sometimes.
I don't always try to be.
Sometimes I don't always try to be.
But please get this.
Just because just because I'm offensive doesn't mean
you have to be offended.
Do you follow?
Just because someone is offensive doesn't mean you have to be offended.
That's your choice.
So Jesus is like, look, that's on them with their offended.
But I but I also want you to understand this.
Oh, this way you have to understand that
the reason Jesus was so offensive
is because their theology was offensive.
And Jesus was a abrasive
because their theology was offensive.
Now I may be offensive
sometimes, not always on purpose,
but I will be offensive
if offensive theology is being taught.
It's too important.
And so Jesus
confronts them brutally in in public
because they came at Jesus in public.
And if there's ever theology or doctrine
that is offensive to Scripture that's being
exposed, I will,
if I'm around, come after it.
We must.
And that's
Jesus says, listen,
the instruction he gives his disciples listen.
You, however, leave him alone.
They came after me.
They approached me, so I dealt with it.
You leave him alone, he said.
Had nothing to do with them. So? So here's in part what he's saying.
Don't feel like we ought not ever feel like we have to correct every
error that's out there.
We don't have to
comment on every stupid thing that we read that people post.
Do you understand?
Just because they're wrong doesn't mean we got to correct them now.
Jesus did because they came after Jesus.
But he said, the rest of you just just don't worry.
Their fallacy will crumble under its own the weight of its fallacy.
So just to have nothing to do with them.
But the role of Scripture
is to be offensive.
Second Timothy 316
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable.
For what? The first thing.
What's the first thing Scripture does according to Scripture rebukes?
That's offensive.
And then it corrects so that it can train in righteousness.
The first role of Scripture is to rebuke that which is wrong.
And when people get rebuked for error,
they're offended.
You follow.
But this is what Scripture does. So.
Says, listen,
if you're in the position
and you realize that it is bad offensive
theology and doctrine, yeah, then you confront it.
Here's the problem.
There's a difference between ignorance and error.
Some people are just ignorant because they haven't been taught well,
just don't know friends.
That's why it's so important what we do on Sunday morning
and what I teach on Wednesday night,
because it's the doctrine of Scripture,
and I teach it and teach it and teach it because I don't want us to be ignorant.
There are some people in just because they have been taught well.
But there's ignorance is different than error.
Error is ignorance
masquerading as authority.
And when error is being expound, it will be confronted.
That's what Jesus is saying.
And so.
So in this first account he says, listen, address your heart,
address your heart.
Make sure that you understand that
what's coming out of you is because what's in you
and everything that comes out of us is a reflection
of what's in here.
How we respond to conflict
is a reflection of what's in here.
How we prioritize our finances.
It's a reflection of what's in here.
The lust we deal with is a reflection of what's in here,
how we deal with criticism.
Guess what?
A reflection of what's in here.
If we're married, the state of our marriage is.
Guess what?
Ultimately, it's a sin of what's in here.
So Jesus says, look, the first thing is we got to deal with this.
See, a transformed heart involves two things.
One, and primarily it involves the work of God.
Ezekiel 3626.
And I will give you a what?
Read it with your mouth open.
Oh, what a new heart and a new spirit I'll put within you.
And I'll remove the heart of stone from your flesh
and give your heart a flesh.
And so the first act of a new heart for us, having a new heart
that changes everything else, is for God to do a work in us
that we cannot do in ourselves.
Our heart does not change by behavioral modification.
It changes by the work of God Himself, who changes a stone
heart and gives us a heart of flesh.
And so one of the greatest prayers we can
pray is the greatest commandment that Jesus said ever existed.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
And so one of the greatest prayers for His father.
Give me a heart that fully loves you.
Psalm 51 created me a clean heart,
O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
It's the greatest prayer you can pray, and that's the first move of a new heart.
It's not by changing behavior,
but the second part of a new heart comes from the work we do.
God does his work.
I do my work for 23.
Keep your heart with all vigilance.
First, out of it flows the springs of life.
And so, father, change my heart.
And as you do, I'm going to protect my heart.
I'm going to be careful
of my response, of my habits, of my behaviors.
My heart won't change because of that, but because my heart is being changed.
Now I'm do you follow?
And Jesus says, you got to get this right, because if you don't,
you're going to be one of those religious people, a hypocrite.
So these Pharisees come to Jesus
with religious confidence and they get exposed.
And then this woman comes to Jesus
in desperation and she gets mercy.
It's a beautiful story.
The big idea for this, like verses 21 through 28,
this, this, this, this woman, the big idea is this God blesses
according to his grace, not according to my worthiness.
And see, this with the fair.
This is where the Pharisees got it wrong.
They thought God would would bless them because they were so outwardly religious.
And God says, you don't understand.
I bless because of my grace, not because you are doing something worthwhile.
And so let me just read verses 21 through 28.
And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tire
and Sidon. This was way away from Jerusalem.
And behold, a kid and I woman from that region came out and was crying,
have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter, severely oppressed by a demon.
But he did not answer her a word.
Have any of you ever prayed to God and got nothing in response?
Just silence.
You're not the first.
His disciples came and begged him, saying, send her away.
She's crying out after.
They don't care about her.
They just don't want to be bugged by her anymore.
Get rid of her.
And the answer?
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But she came in now before him, saying, Lord, help me.
And he answered, it's not right to take the children's bread
and throw it to the dogs.
What do you just call her?
Does that sound kind of harsh from Jesus?
She said, yes, Lord.
Yet even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
Then Jesus answered her, old woman, great is your faith.
Be it done to use a desire.
And her daughter was healed right then.
This woman is everything that religion dismisses.
She's a woman.
She's a Canaanite from Tire and Sidon, which was just in a.
Terrible place.
She was outside God's covenant people,
and she has the audacity to come before
Jesus and say, have mercy on me.
Help!
I want you to know some.
She'd never said, God, I deserve this.
She never said, I've tried to be good.
She never said I got my life clean.
She'd say any of that.
She just cried out.
Have mercy. See?
She understood who she was.
And she understood who Jesus is, who Jesus was.
And she can't do him on the basis of mercy.
Mercy is this.
I have nothing to claim except your compassion.
I bring nothing to the table.
I need this from you.
I in desperate need of you and your hand.
But I bring nothing to the table.
The only thing I can I can rely on is the compassion that comes from your table.
She doesn't say.
I prayed and prayed and prayed.
So God you.
She doesn't say I served and I served, so won't you?
She doesn't say I gave and I was generous.
So will you.
Those are all religious stuff.
And she doesn't come to Jesus based on religion.
She comes to Jesus based on Jesus mercy and grace.
And this is where the Pharisees got it wrong.
And this is where we get it wrong.
See, mercy is the prayer of people
who know they have no leverage.
It's the prayer
of people who come and say, God, I.
I got nothing to offer as reasons
why you should do anything for me.
I got no leverage.
I need your mercy.
So many times we get
turned around.
God, I've prayed and I've prayed and I prayed.
Why don't you?
I serve all the time.
I'm so trying to be so faithful. I'm trying to be so good.
We're trying to leverage God's hand.
And that takes us right out of mercy.
See, grace doesn't answer entitlement.
Grace meets desperation.
And this woman comes to Jesus completely
reliant upon his mercy and his grace
and her prayer.
Have mercy on me. Help!
That's a great prayer.
It works in every situation, and it's a real short.
Have mercy!
Help!
That's all she says.
And one of the things I love about
this woman is that she understands what faith is.
Faith keeps trusting and pursuing God.
When Jesus seems silent,
he's silent.
He's dismissive and she doesn't get offended.
She just keeps pressing.
First, he doesn't answer her at all.
And then he says, this crack about I know I'm not given what I have for my
kids to dogs.
Feels completely dismissive.
The disciples don't want around anymore.
Like, just give it to a social bug in us.
We don't care about her.
We just don't want her to bother us anymore.
And she keeps after Jesus
so much so he calls her a dog.
Does that seem harsh?
The Jews call Gentile dogs,
but they meant these feral street mutts.
That's not the word Jesus uses.
The word Jesus uses as a little lap puppy.
Just a puppy.
Like this little critter
that's helpless, can't fend
for itself, but is loved by its family.
Not really part of the family, but is kind of
because we know how we feel about our puppies.
That's the term he uses for her.
And he's not being mean.
I want you to send some. Jesus isn't being cruel.
He's drawing out her faith.
Had she got
offended and left she to receive nothing from God?
And so he's putting her in a position where she has to lean into her faith,
and he's drawing that faith out of her.
See, Jesus's silence does not imply his absence.
Don't make that mistake.
His testing is not rejection.
His delay doesn't mean a denial.
We have to understand this.
See, silence from heaven is not the same as rejection from heaven.
And this woman understood it.
There are some of you here right now
who are in this silence stage.
You've prayed and prayed and prayed
and you've heard nothing back from God.
You've cried and cried and cried,
and the situation remains unchanged.
You've begged God for that child.
You've pleaded with God for the spouse.
You've implored God
for healing, for
restoration of that relationship and that marriage.
And all you've gotten back is silence,
almost as if God has said,
I owe you nothing.
This woman teaches us something.
And one of the things she teaches us isn't to interpret silence
from God biblically, not emotionally.
And the biblical record behind
God's silence is to keep coming
back, knock and continue knocking.
Seek and continue seeking.
Ask and continue asking.
See, we have to learn to trust.
The character of Christ is better than our interpretation
of the moment or the silence.
Do you understand?
We have to trust that his character is better
than how we're interpreting
the moment we're in, in the silence
that we experience.
She says, listen,
I'll take the crumbs.
I love the fact
that her great faith doesn't argue her worthiness.
It just clings to mercy and grace.
She doesn't try to argue with Jesus.
You're right. I'm nothing but a dog.
I'm not going to act like you.
I deserve something.
I'm just going to rely on your mercy and your grace.
That's all I got.
I can't force you.
I can't leverage my behavior to make you do something.
Shouldn't argue.
She doesn't accuse. She's not offended.
She relies on mercy and grace.
And grace says this.
I will not ask what I what I deserve.
I will ask for what overflows from your table.
That's what grace is.
I will not ask for what I deserve.
I'll simply ask for what overflows from your table, whatever your grace allows.
She says,
listen, if your people don't want to receive
all that you have to give, I'll take the leftovers.
The leftovers from the table of God
is greater than the abundance from my hand.
Give me the leftovers, God.
I can't leverage anything in my life to make you move,
so I'll just take the leftovers that fall off the table.
That's good enough for me.
Just your mercy and your grace.
And Jesus responds.
Great is your faith.
Jesus never said
that to anyone in Scripture.
Now he complimented this insurance faith, not to the centurion,
to the people around.
But this is the only person who or that to the person from Jesus's lips,
the only person who says it to directly.
These are the words I want to hear when I face God.
When I face God.
I want God to look over the course of my life,
and I want to hear him say, well done, great
was your faith.
How great was your faith?
He's going to say, Carl,
you had nothing to offer me. You.
But great was your faith.
Let me ask you this question.
If you face God right now, what words would you hear from his lips?
Would they be?
I'm so proud of you.
Great.
Was your faith.
If those wouldn't be his words.
Repent.
Bring your life in line with his word.
Give the complete allegiance
of your life to Christ and His kingdom,
and live by faith.
There's no other record
we have in Scripture of Jesus doing anything in the region of Tire and Sidon.
This is the only account we have of Jesus doing anything in that region.
He traveled a great distance to get there, and it would seem to me
the only reason he was there was for this woman.
He had a divine appointment scheduled with this woman, and had she walked out
and not implored him in prayer, by his mercy,
his grace, she would have missed what God had appointed.
And I would say this
that God may have
a divine appointment for you today.
That he's traveled
from heaven to the ranchos
for an appointment with you.
And if you walk out of this place
without approaching his throne of grace
in prayer.
Asking for only his mercy and his grace,
you're going to walk out of here having missed your appointment
with him.
And friends?
I'm going to be real honest, real transparent with you.
My heart breaks every week
because I know that God
has divine appointments for some of us in this place.
And every week, every week.
I give us the opportunity.
To approach God's throne of grace.
Well, we will receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need
with somebody who will pray with us before God's throne.
And the vast majority of you who would have an appointment
with Jesus, walk out of those doors without ever taking advantage of it.
This woman did not
sit in her home alone praying.
Every week there are people who said they got a prayer thing.
I would love to pray with you.
Let's approach God together.
Let me help you carry this.
Let's go to God and ask for his mercy and his grace together.
He just may have an appointment with you
to do something miraculous.
And God is eager to keep that appointment
for those whose hearts most desire him.
And wrap this up Jesus rejects the mass of religion
and rewards the desperate who cry to him.
That's where his reward comes from.
My question
is, would you cry out to him today?
Let the one who is thirsty come.
How thirsty are you?
The reason why
people are here who want to pray because they understand what is at stake.
The reason why we do First Tuesday to meet together and pray.
Because we know what's at stake and we know what's available.
How thirsty are you?
There will be people again today.
Up front here, somewhere up here, who are willing and eager
to pray with you.
How thirsty.
Father.
Thank you.
Thank you that you've loved us with an everlasting love.
That nothing we do or don't do could separate us from your love.
It's so grand and so profound.
Forgive us for how we've oftentimes made it about us
and our performance.
Save us from dry religion.
Save us from powerless activity.
And father, I pray in this place,
if you have a divine appointment with anybody in this place.
Oh God, that they would not walk out of these doors
without approaching your gracious throne of mercy
with somebody else who will pray with them
and together, as they approach your throne.
God, I pray that you would respond according to the fullness of your grace
in regardless of what they've done, what they're going to do
in the courts with the fullness of your mercy and your grace.
Oh, God.
Have mercy and help.
Turn our hearts to you.
Soften what's grown heart.
Enliven what's dying.
And do in us what only you can do.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Church, I love you
and I so desire us
to experience the fullness of Christ.
Don't walk out of here
until he's met with you.
Let's sing.