back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Worship Service 3.21.2021
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You're the sweetest, the sweetest name of all. 00:12:19.000 |
You're the sweetest, the sweetest name of all. 00:12:35.000 |
Jesus, you're still the first, the last, the same. 00:12:49.000 |
Jesus, you're the sweetest, the sweetest name of all. 00:13:19.000 |
You're the sweetest, the sweetest name of all. 00:13:37.000 |
I want to extend a warm welcome to all of you. 00:13:39.000 |
If you're visiting us for the very first time, please do stop 00:13:43.000 |
by our welcome booth that is located just right at the 00:13:47.000 |
We'd love to connect with you and just provide any information 00:13:52.000 |
When you entered into the sanctuary today, there's this 00:13:59.000 |
Please do use this as first opportunity to share with 00:14:05.000 |
You know, perhaps you have a co-worker you're going to go out 00:14:08.000 |
Just keep it in your car or something and give that to him 00:14:10.000 |
or her as a means to just remind us of the things that are 00:14:14.000 |
It's an occasion where we're specifically remembering the 00:14:22.000 |
Also, our outreach team is continuing to want to join you 00:14:28.000 |
So if you have specific people you're lifting up on our 00:14:31.000 |
Facebook site and our app, there's a link for submissions 00:14:35.000 |
so that you can submit someone's name and then that way we can 00:14:41.000 |
Also, at the very least, this will be like a reminder card 00:14:44.000 |
for you for the things that are happening this week because 00:14:47.000 |
Again, please note that from Monday through Thursday, there 00:14:51.000 |
are devotions that will be live streamed and we're going to 00:14:56.000 |
And then Friday, that's going to be Good Friday service with 00:14:59.000 |
communion and all the things happening Monday through Friday 00:15:05.000 |
The early rise service is going to be outside in the courtyard. 00:15:12.000 |
That service will not be live streamed, but we will have our 00:15:15.000 |
9 o'clock and 11 o'clock regular services for Easter service that 00:15:20.000 |
More details will continue to be kind of sent out and posted as 00:15:26.000 |
Another announcement I'd like to highlight is we have our 00:15:32.000 |
And again, that class runs for eight weeks from 9 a.m. 00:15:38.000 |
And that class is designed specifically for people desiring 00:15:41.000 |
to enter into membership, going through the important doctrines 00:15:44.000 |
of the church and how that translates into and that's why 00:15:51.000 |
The link is there again on the Facebook and the app as well. 00:15:54.000 |
Lastly, I just want to mention that so after our worship set, 00:15:58.000 |
our brother Mark will come up after the worship set to give 00:16:03.000 |
At this time, let's bow our head in a word of prayer as we take 00:16:09.000 |
Our Father, we thank you for this day and God, 00:16:14.000 |
Lord, you have granted to us all things in life. 00:16:16.000 |
God, every single practical thing, tangible thing that you 00:16:20.000 |
have granted to us, we know we receive from your grace. 00:16:24.000 |
But what's more, we're so grateful that we have from you 00:16:29.000 |
Lord, God, we have an eternity with you to receive your grace, 00:16:33.000 |
to know you, to worship you and to serve you. 00:16:36.000 |
We recognize that that is valuable beyond anything we can 00:16:42.000 |
And so we thank you and lift this time up to you. 00:16:44.000 |
We want to lift up our worship, our praise, the attention, 00:16:49.000 |
our affection, all of it, Lord, to you during this time. 00:16:52.000 |
And right now as we give to you our offering, we pray, 00:16:55.000 |
Father God, that you will continue to bless the ministry here. 00:16:59.000 |
Lord, would you continue to use everything that we give in terms 00:17:02.000 |
of service and time and our finances to further your cause 00:17:06.000 |
of spreading your gospel and doing the work of ministry. 00:17:09.000 |
We thank you, Lord, it's in Christ's name we pray. 00:18:16.000 |
♪ Come praise and glorify our God, the Father of our Lord. ♪ 00:18:22.000 |
♪ In Christ He has in heavenly realms His blessings on us poured. ♪ 00:18:30.000 |
♪ For pure and blameless in His sight, He destined us to be. ♪ 00:18:38.000 |
♪ And now we've been adopted through His Son eternal. ♪ 00:18:49.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace. ♪ 00:18:56.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. ♪ 00:19:06.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. ♪ 00:19:12.000 |
♪ Come praise and glorify our God, who gives His grace in Christ. ♪ 00:19:20.000 |
♪ In Him our sins are washed away, redeemed through sacrifice. ♪ 00:19:28.000 |
♪ In Him God has beckoned to us the mystery of His will. ♪ 00:19:36.000 |
♪ That Christ should be the end of all, His purpose to fulfill. ♪ 00:19:45.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace. ♪ 00:19:53.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. ♪ 00:20:08.000 |
♪ Come praise and glorify our God, for we believe the Word. ♪ 00:20:15.000 |
♪ And through our faith we have a seal, the Spirit of the Lord. ♪ 00:20:23.000 |
♪ The Spirit guarantees our hope until redemption's done. ♪ 00:20:31.000 |
♪ Until we join in endless praise to God the three-given One. ♪ 00:20:41.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace. ♪ 00:20:49.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. ♪ 00:20:57.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, to the praise of Your mercy and grace. ♪ 00:21:05.000 |
♪ To the praise of Your glory, You are the God who saves. ♪ 00:21:43.000 |
♪ Who would have thought that a lamb could rescue the souls of men? ♪ 00:22:13.000 |
♪ You offer hope when our hearts have hopelessly lost the way. ♪ 00:23:00.000 |
♪ Almighty Infinite Father, faithfully loving Your own. ♪ 00:23:11.000 |
♪ Here in our weakness You find us, falling before Your throne. ♪ 00:24:58.000 |
Hi there. My name is Mark, and many of you may not know me, 00:25:02.000 |
but that's okay because I've only been coming to Berean for a few months now. 00:25:07.000 |
And so today I have the privilege of sharing my testimony. 00:25:10.000 |
So I was actually raised up in the church by my parents, 00:25:14.000 |
and growing up I never really liked it or felt passionate about it. 00:25:19.000 |
It was something that felt like more of my parents' faith and not mine. 00:25:24.000 |
And so as I grew up, I actually slowly started to despise it. 00:25:28.000 |
But as I got older, I started having thoughts like, 00:25:35.000 |
"Why do I have to follow all these rules that don't apply to most people?" 00:25:40.000 |
And as I got--sometimes I even felt like I was an outsider at school, 00:25:45.000 |
but I just chose to ignore this feeling because I just tried to fit in. 00:25:50.000 |
So actually, because I was raised up in the church, it's always made me recognize 00:25:55.000 |
how there is a God, yet I chose to just ignore Him 00:25:59.000 |
because I didn't want to feel guilty about any of my sins. 00:26:03.000 |
It seemed like a burden having to repent when I know that I'm just going to be 00:26:07.000 |
making the same mistakes or sinning again in the future. 00:26:11.000 |
And so I chose to just ignore Him. I forgot about Him. 00:26:15.000 |
And sometimes I even twisted what God meant to me 00:26:18.000 |
so that I can use Him to serve myself instead of serving Him. 00:26:25.000 |
And for a majority of my life, I've continued to think this way. 00:26:29.000 |
But recently this summer, God actually made me realize just how sinful this world is 00:26:39.000 |
All I cared about was myself and what made me happy. 00:26:43.000 |
So last semester when I was dorming at Cal State Long Beach, 00:26:48.000 |
I wasn't attending any churches because quite honestly, I didn't feel like it. 00:26:53.000 |
I wondered what it was like having an entire day of the weekend all to myself. 00:27:02.000 |
But thinking about it now, I realized that God was working in my life to bring me to Berean. 00:27:07.000 |
Berean caught my eye with the realization of just how much there was to learn about God 00:27:13.000 |
and honestly also just how welcoming everyone was. 00:27:17.000 |
At first, this welcoming of the large ministry that I'm not used to 00:27:22.000 |
was what kept me attracted to Berean and I kept coming because of it. 00:27:27.000 |
But as I kept coming, I learned more about God and His Word. 00:27:32.000 |
And ultimately, I also just realized how short my understanding was in Christianity. 00:27:39.000 |
Before all of this, I actually thought that I was already saved 00:27:43.000 |
because I knew that God died for me on the cross as a mere fact. 00:27:48.000 |
But what I didn't know was like I didn't live my life as if He was actually my Lord. 00:27:55.000 |
And so God made me realize just how great my sins were against Him 00:27:59.000 |
and how Jesus is actually the only one who's able to save me. 00:28:07.000 |
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. 00:28:13.000 |
He's shown me grace by giving me a new heart and making me alive 00:28:18.000 |
so that I can now follow and love Him by faith. 00:28:21.000 |
He's made me recognize what He's done for me and just how grateful I should be because of it. 00:28:26.000 |
Now it's all about living a life that's glorifying to the Lord 00:28:34.000 |
Without Him, I'd still be just as dead in my sin and an enemy of God. 00:28:40.000 |
But because He opened my heart--or opened my eyes and gave me a new heart, 00:28:46.000 |
I now no longer desire to follow the world, but I follow Jesus as my Lord and Savior." 00:29:23.000 |
>> Mark, thanks for sharing your testimony with us. 00:29:26.000 |
Mark, do you understand that by entering into the water, 00:29:29.000 |
you're expressing your union with Christ and His death, 00:29:32.000 |
and that by coming out of the water, you're expressing your union with Christ and His resurrected life? 00:29:38.000 |
>> And I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:30:15.000 |
>> It's always so blessed to hear the testimony of a young man 00:30:19.000 |
recognizing his state before the Lord and coming to faith. 00:30:23.000 |
Today we're going to be continuing to learn about how powerful that faith is. 00:30:31.000 |
Over the last--in the course of the many weeks, 00:30:34.000 |
we've been walking through the book of Hebrews 00:30:38.000 |
and specifically going methodically through chapter 11 on what is faith. 00:30:44.000 |
And it has been so good to meditate on how powerful, truly powerful that faith is. 00:30:50.000 |
Now, the faith that we exercise is so incredibly powerful, 00:30:55.000 |
not because it's a powerful key, as some would say, 00:30:59.000 |
as though this is a special key you use to turn certain things on or off. 00:31:03.000 |
It's not powerful because through it you end up making giant leaps and bounds. 00:31:09.000 |
But Scripture tells us faith is powerful because what God gives to us in the faith 00:31:15.000 |
is to be able to see what is reality, what is truth. 00:31:19.000 |
And the greatest truth that ever existed is the truth of God, that this is who God is. 00:31:25.000 |
And by knowing him and seeing him as he is, then you now have light to everything else. 00:31:31.000 |
You have the light of truth to show you yourself in relationship to this God. 00:31:35.000 |
You have faith to see what the world really is. 00:31:39.000 |
You have faith to see how things fit into the grand scheme as God has made things, and so on. 00:31:45.000 |
So as opposed to, let's say, what is perhaps a popular way of thinking about faith 00:31:49.000 |
is just like this leap into the darkness or leap across a bridge. 00:31:53.000 |
No, no, faith is actually you being able to see God for who he is. 00:32:01.000 |
And it causes us then to say, "God, I need you. I want you." 00:32:04.000 |
We've been learning about how Jacob, in seeing God's promise, then sees it for what it is 00:32:09.000 |
and so therefore values it above everything else and pursues it with everything he has, right, 00:32:17.000 |
And so today we're going to be talking about that in the book of Matthew chapter 15. 00:32:24.000 |
We're looking at kind of an interesting story and learning from an unexpected individual character 00:32:30.000 |
about what it means to have humble faith, a faith that is strong, a faith that is powerful, 00:32:38.000 |
because it helps us to see reality for what it is. 00:32:46.000 |
And the word says, "Jesus went from there and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. 00:32:53.000 |
And a Canaanite woman from the region came out and began to cry out, saying, 00:32:57.000 |
'Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.' 00:33:05.000 |
And his disciples came and implored him, saying, 'Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.' 00:33:11.000 |
But he answered and said, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' 00:33:17.000 |
But she came and began to bow down before him, saying, 'Lord, help me.' 00:33:22.000 |
And he answered and said, 'It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' 00:33:28.000 |
But she said, 'Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table.' 00:33:36.000 |
Then Jesus said to her, 'O woman, your faith is great. It shall be done for you as you wish.' 00:33:48.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your truth. 00:33:52.000 |
And God, we eagerly desire to keep growing in our faith. 00:33:57.000 |
In the way that we see you, Lord, that God, it would become more and more accurate and detailed. 00:34:03.000 |
And by doing so, God, I pray we're not just simply learning intellectual facts, 00:34:08.000 |
but God, our hearts and eyes are being changed. 00:34:12.000 |
And Lord, it is to our blessedness, it is to our grace, 00:34:17.000 |
that God, we're able to see you and know you in greater intimacy. 00:34:21.000 |
So we thank you, Lord. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. 00:34:30.000 |
because we have to kind of jump down into the scene, you know. 00:34:35.000 |
It's Matthew 15, and Jesus has already been doing the work of ministry, 00:34:45.000 |
Discipling the group that he has, the 12 disciples, 00:34:52.000 |
And what ends up happening is as Jesus is withdrawing, 00:34:55.000 |
so from the crowds he's trying to actually get away, okay? 00:34:58.000 |
He's withdrawing into an arena, and the story already should, 00:35:01.000 |
if you were like a Jew listening to the story, already be like, "Oh no." 00:35:05.000 |
Because he's entering into a region where it is all Gentile, right? 00:35:10.000 |
And according to the customs, so to speak, of the day, you just don't mix. 00:35:15.000 |
And what's more, those specific cities, Tyre and Sinai, 00:35:20.000 |
they are Canaanite cities of which you could see them as like arch nemesis, 00:35:26.000 |
The Canaanite people, they were destroyed by the Israelites. 00:35:29.000 |
So Canaanite people were like, "Oh, welcome, friends." 00:35:32.000 |
Like they wouldn't be receiving them in that fashion anyway. 00:35:35.000 |
Already there was cultural divide. Already there was animosity. 00:35:41.000 |
So if you're reading Jesus and the disciples are entering into this region, 00:35:45.000 |
already you should be thinking, "Oh, that's a no-no." 00:35:48.000 |
But what's happened here is the story describes then this Canaanite woman, 00:35:53.000 |
so her lineage is Canaanite, but she is Syrophoenician, 00:35:57.000 |
meaning she's from this area, she's Greek by culture. 00:36:00.000 |
Then most likely her upbringing, her language, her religion, all that stuff, 00:36:04.000 |
is Greek, pantheons, and et cetera, et cetera, right? 00:36:09.000 |
But what's interesting is as we jump down into this scenario then 00:36:12.000 |
is you have an unlikely individual who is unlikely going to approach 00:36:17.000 |
a possible entourage of a high, I guess, profile celebrity, if you will, 00:36:23.000 |
because news about him is spreading everywhere. 00:36:26.000 |
And you have basically 13 Jewish men trying to go in a secluded region 00:36:31.000 |
so that they can have time to prepare and et cetera, 00:36:34.000 |
maybe even have a respite from the ministry that they're doing. 00:36:41.000 |
This woman comes with cries, with screams and shouts. 00:36:46.000 |
And we quickly learn she says that her daughter is cruelly demon-possessed. 00:36:52.000 |
Originally for some reason I thought every time I think about a demon-possessed person, 00:36:56.000 |
it's some adult who is out of control, angry, right? 00:37:00.000 |
Destructive and violent, because that's a lot of times the way the Scriptures has these accounts. 00:37:05.000 |
But the Gospel of Mark adds the detail that this was a child, it was a little daughter. 00:37:20.000 |
But at the same time we jump into her desperation and we quickly recognize 00:37:25.000 |
sometimes there's a kind of suffering that goes beyond your own pains. 00:37:29.000 |
This is a kind of desperation where it's for her little baby girl, right? 00:37:33.000 |
And I quickly, as I thought about this, I remembered our first son, Josiah, 00:37:38.000 |
when he was two, he's now turning 10, but when he was two 00:37:41.000 |
we had this incredibly desperate moment where I genuinely felt desperate. 00:37:48.000 |
And it was he had this high fever that spiked rapidly. 00:37:51.000 |
It went up to about 105, and then he walked into a seizure. 00:37:55.000 |
His knuckles curled up, his eyes rolled back, his face turned blue, his lips turned blue. 00:38:00.000 |
And Bia held and looked at me and said, "He's not breathing!" 00:38:04.000 |
I panicked. I started running like back and forth. 00:38:09.000 |
I opened it, I ran back, I looked at her, grabbed the bag. 00:38:15.000 |
If your child's not breathing, what are you supposed to do? 00:38:18.000 |
A lot of you guys who know me, you know I have horrendous memory. 00:38:24.000 |
But those moments of desperation, it's seared into your brain. 00:38:29.000 |
I can tell you how I felt, where I ran to, what I grabbed, how I drove, all of that. 00:38:36.000 |
Because sometimes in the moments of desperation, especially here, 00:38:41.000 |
it's kind of inexplicable what you're going to end up doing. 00:38:45.000 |
And so maybe we can kind of more humanistically relate to her and say, "We get you." 00:38:54.000 |
And this is the kind of suffering that's not like you hurt yourself, 00:38:57.000 |
but a kind of suffering where it truly makes you feel desperate 00:39:00.000 |
because you know the limitations that you have even as a parent. 00:39:04.000 |
You're going to protect your children, but you know your shield is only so big. 00:39:08.000 |
And clearly you're out of your own element here. 00:39:18.000 |
I think falsely we believe that suffering somehow refines and humbles us and grows us. 00:39:30.000 |
I think my own experience in life teaches me that when you're hurt or you go through suffering, 00:39:35.000 |
you end up becoming more scabby, somehow hardened. 00:39:41.000 |
The natural human being, when faced with difficulty, hardship, and suffering, 00:39:49.000 |
What I've seen just trying to help people overcome their suffering and hardships, sadly to say, 00:39:59.000 |
What we're actually required to walk through suffering is faith. 00:40:05.000 |
And that's why it was such a--when I said earlier that faith is powerful, 00:40:10.000 |
it not only overcomes the scenario and the suffering, 00:40:14.000 |
it overcomes the crustiness of your heart in that suffering. 00:40:20.000 |
The natural inclination for man is not to come out of suffering greater in benevolence, 00:40:32.000 |
Walk with anybody who's felt like their back was up against the wall. 00:40:35.000 |
They've already tried everything that was in their power. 00:40:43.000 |
Humility comes by faith, amen, the work that God is doing in our hearts. 00:40:49.000 |
And so the first thing I want to highlight as we see this narrative 00:40:54.000 |
is that humble faith in the midst of desperation requests mercy. 00:41:01.000 |
What I mean by that is this woman's faith as we exhibit it in the midst of her desperation 00:41:06.000 |
is leading her to a humble posture of asking. 00:41:11.000 |
Because what I said just a moment ago is that actually if you, 00:41:15.000 |
through experience of counseling or even just experiencing your own life, 00:41:19.000 |
your temptation in the moment of suffering is rage. 00:41:30.000 |
And then sometimes not only do you feel justified, you compete with people. 00:41:35.000 |
Do you have any idea the suffering I went through? 00:41:39.000 |
Here any of the stereotypical grouchy older people kind of mentality, 00:41:43.000 |
I feel like, again, I feel blessed to have lived this life that I've lived, 00:41:48.000 |
but having been, yes, an immigrant, having been, you know, through hardships, 00:41:53.000 |
seeing my parents and having hardships of divorce or my parents going through divorce, 00:41:57.000 |
et cetera, et cetera, and all of that, I feel the temptation to be like, 00:42:07.000 |
Don't you dare even tell me about your suffering." 00:42:11.000 |
Because that's what the natural heart does in the midst of hardship. 00:42:16.000 |
But what I'm trying to tell you is this woman is already being expressed. 00:42:21.000 |
You might say like, "What an obvious point to make. 00:42:26.000 |
But that's a point because what I'm trying to say is every one of us are tempted 00:42:37.000 |
But in the desperation, if it's met with a heart of faith, 00:42:46.000 |
So if you look at the narrative here, it comes where she's crying out to the Lord Jesus, 00:42:53.000 |
Even her words are already humble, is it not? 00:42:58.000 |
"This Canaanite woman from the region came out and began to cry out, saying, 00:43:06.000 |
She implores him and desires that he would give her that grace and mercy. 00:43:12.000 |
And that level of desperation, it didn't produce what is natural to the human heart, 00:43:22.000 |
And I got to say, honestly speaking, if you meditate on that a little bit, 00:43:27.000 |
being in a posture or if you're ever required, like by necessity, 00:43:31.000 |
you're put into a position where you have to ask, it's humbling in and of itself. 00:43:38.000 |
I mean, I'll confess, and I'm pretty sure if I take a vote right now, 00:43:41.000 |
how many of you guys have a hard time asking for help? 00:43:46.000 |
But the thing about it is, think about our faith. 00:43:50.000 |
We are in a position where by necessity we are taught, 00:44:00.000 |
I need to pray to my Father in heaven because I am his child for daily sustenance. 00:44:07.000 |
But sometimes, and let me ask you, in your times of difficulty, 00:44:11.000 |
in your moments of hardship, do you harden up? 00:44:14.000 |
Do you resort to, "I've got to power through this"? 00:44:19.000 |
You might not verbalize it, but do you express that kind of attitude? 00:44:28.000 |
It's like I need to ask you for my daily bread, for everything that I need in this moment. 00:44:34.000 |
I also need in my greatest needs, in my greatest moments, 00:44:37.000 |
and here and now in my greatest aspiration to ask you. 00:44:41.000 |
And that's why I think the story is powerful because she comes to the Lord, 00:44:47.000 |
again, against certain barriers and obstacles. 00:44:53.000 |
I don't know if there was a massive crowd around her. 00:45:00.000 |
Clearly, by this time that she's asking, they're already annoyed. 00:45:03.000 |
She's making a scene of it, not intentionally, 00:45:08.000 |
but because she knows, "I am in this position where I need to ask you." 00:45:14.000 |
And it's in those moments, for me, I'm thinking about it. 00:45:17.000 |
I realize when I give advice now, like, there was this weird time when I think when people, 00:45:22.000 |
you know, excited about, let's say, parenting, excited about wanting to help people in, 00:45:28.000 |
let's say, tangible advice and practical things that we can do to help parenting. 00:45:33.000 |
I would always give, like, "Well, did you try this? Did you try that?" 00:45:36.000 |
But now I realize, like, "Hmm, I need to stay off the, like, giving, like, typical advice. 00:45:41.000 |
Did you try giving him some water?" You know? 00:45:47.000 |
Because my guess is this woman probably has already tried everything. 00:45:51.000 |
If we're jumping down into this story, sympathizing with her, 00:45:55.000 |
she's in a desperate situation where her daughter is cruelly, 00:46:00.000 |
Scripture says it's cruelly, like, malintent, bad, horrendously demonized. 00:46:09.000 |
And so, again, as a quick, quick admonition for you and me, 00:46:18.000 |
We ask the Lord in beseeching, with humility, outstretched hands. 00:46:26.000 |
It says, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, 00:46:32.000 |
Blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." 00:46:40.000 |
She calls out to the Son of David, asking for mercy. 00:46:44.000 |
Now, I'm going to just highlight this for a second here. 00:46:48.000 |
The reason why I'm essentially commending her faith, so to speak, 00:46:52.000 |
is because in the way that she's approaching the Lord, 00:46:54.000 |
I don't think it is just simply a humanistic, "We get it, you're desperate, 00:46:58.000 |
so therefore you're coming running over here for Him." 00:47:04.000 |
Clearly, she is recognizing Him for the stature of who He says He is. 00:47:12.000 |
Whereas the Pharisees would never, ever dare acknowledge, "Oh, you're the Son of David." 00:47:16.000 |
No, they call Him, "Rabbi, good teacher," right? 00:47:19.000 |
Maybe, "Miracle worker," but they will never confess that He is the Son of David 00:47:24.000 |
because to do so would be to say, "You are the coming one. 00:47:32.000 |
But here and now, she says, "Have mercy on me, Son of David." 00:47:36.000 |
And so we're going to highlight that as we go. 00:47:39.000 |
So what we recognize here is first that she, in her humility, 00:47:43.000 |
overcomes the desperation, so to speak, not by wallowing, not by fleeing, 00:47:49.000 |
Point two, this woman's humble faith in the midst of silence is patient. 00:47:56.000 |
It's because if this woman is coming with such humility and asking the Lord, 00:48:00.000 |
you would think the Lord Jesus would be like, "This is what I was looking for." 00:48:04.000 |
Those Pharisees who just got finished accusing Him for X, Y, and Z 00:48:16.000 |
They asked me for, "Prove this and prove that." 00:48:20.000 |
But the Lord said, "I have come for sinners." Amen? 00:48:24.000 |
So you would think that the Lord Jesus would say, "Right here, guys. 00:48:33.000 |
Go over to verse 23, and it says, "But He did not answer her a word. 00:48:40.000 |
And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, 'Send her away 00:48:53.000 |
It's completely contrary to what you would expect, 00:48:55.000 |
especially in a day and culture for us when it's like you never, ever turn away anybody. 00:49:00.000 |
As a matter of fact, you just make sure that anybody and everybody can come. 00:49:07.000 |
Well, one thing, we could just kind of hypothesize some stuff. 00:49:10.000 |
Maybe one of the things was that Jesus, it says that He was withdrawing from the people, 00:49:18.000 |
A passage I want to highlight to you, Mark 7, verse 24 through 23, 00:49:23.000 |
it says that Jesus got up and went away from there to this region of Tyre, 00:49:28.000 |
and when He entered into a house, He wanted no one to know of it, 00:49:35.000 |
And that's when this woman hearing of it came and said, "My daughter has an unclean spirit." 00:49:40.000 |
So the whole scenario is Jesus was trying to take His disciples and go and isolate, 00:49:48.000 |
All day long, He would preach, He would heal, He would exhaust Himself. 00:49:55.000 |
Many times in Scripture, Jesus said He was tired, but He would always go to pray. 00:49:59.000 |
So maybe this was one of those moments where it's like, 00:50:02.000 |
this is actually at a point in time when He had so many people already try to manipulate Him, 00:50:10.000 |
He had so many people try to essentially violently force Him to do things that they wanted, make Him king. 00:50:19.000 |
He had enough of the, like, "You know, you just come to me because of bread. 00:50:23.000 |
You come to me because you're the wicked generation. 00:50:25.000 |
All you guys want is miracles and signs, and in the end, you want me to feed you and lead you into nirvana." 00:50:33.000 |
I don't know. I can't speak on His behalf because He doesn't say. 00:50:40.000 |
But that also tells me that potentially Jesus was testing Him. 00:50:46.000 |
But another thing Jesus says, if you look down to the next verse, take a look at this, verse 24. 00:50:51.000 |
"But He answered and said, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'" 00:51:04.000 |
He has His own progression of how He is going to exhibit His grace in His ministry. 00:51:18.000 |
Can you imagine you going to any store, walking up to the counter, people looking up at you, and then looking away? 00:51:33.000 |
The inner rage monster might potentially come out, 00:51:37.000 |
especially if you saw the one you were trying to get the attention of, the manager, right? 00:51:43.000 |
Talking about you to the other individual, saying, "I didn't come for them," right? 00:51:51.000 |
I want to ask you, like, we can all relate to this. 00:51:55.000 |
Potentially, many of you in here, maybe you are going through some really difficult times. 00:52:01.000 |
Do you feel like the Lord is silent with you? 00:52:04.000 |
Do you feel like you've been asking, you know, "Okay, I heard the admonition. 00:52:10.000 |
I can't just sit there, and I can't just peruse about my sufferings." 00:52:17.000 |
But then in the end, you don't hear anything. 00:52:22.000 |
Do we have the humility then to just continue to persist? 00:52:27.000 |
Do we have the humility then to have and exhibit patience? 00:52:31.000 |
And every single one of us, we've experienced the strange feeling of disrespect. 00:52:53.000 |
Thank goodness you're a godly individual, because if you weren't, 00:52:55.000 |
then you would just take that dish and frisbee it over, right? 00:52:59.000 |
Or even in some of the most romantic, like, intimate settings, 00:53:03.000 |
you feel like you say something, the other person is completely oblivious, right? 00:53:07.000 |
You're asking a question, you're saying something, and the person, "Oh, yeah." 00:53:20.000 |
This woman is exhibiting an incredible perseverance, 00:53:27.000 |
To feel like you have someone's back on you is very degrading. 00:53:32.000 |
But yet, she persists, and it continues to go forward. 00:53:38.000 |
Point number three, the woman's humble faith in the midst of harsh realities is yielding. 00:53:46.000 |
I hope you guys are seeing that there's a reason why, as I was meditating on this passage, 00:53:50.000 |
part of me wanted to say, "Look at this woman's persevering, powerful faith!" Right? 00:53:57.000 |
But actually, what I see is, this woman is being tested. 00:54:03.000 |
And part of the testing is the natural human reaction to this could be so prideful. 00:54:12.000 |
But the faith that she exhibits is powerfully humble, and this is what I mean. 00:54:17.000 |
I want you to think about this scenario again, 00:54:20.000 |
and I want you to think about the scenario of Jesus saying, 00:54:23.000 |
"I have only come for the house of Israel," and he's not even talking to her. 00:54:29.000 |
He is answering the disciples, complaining like, "Jesus, did you do something? 00:54:37.000 |
Like, they're just so frustrated, they want her to just be gone. 00:54:41.000 |
And to that, Jesus is teaching or reacting to the disciples, saying, 00:54:59.000 |
My application is just as good as the Jews!" Right? 00:55:04.000 |
"That's not fair! What kind of compassionate leader are you? 00:55:08.000 |
I thought you were an equal opportunity lender. 00:55:17.000 |
"How dare you say that I've only come for the Jews?" 00:55:24.000 |
And if you think that was bad, look at the next passage, because it gets worse. 00:55:39.000 |
I know I skipped a verse there. I did that purposely. 00:55:45.000 |
'It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.'" 00:55:53.000 |
And then if you were to picture yourself reacting in the flesh within this scenario, 00:56:02.000 |
"How dare you! Is that the way you see me right now?" 00:56:08.000 |
Do you remember how I talked about how asking is a humbling thing? 00:56:17.000 |
where they're just like, "I'm not even going to ask anymore! I'm not a dog!" 00:56:28.000 |
To be in that posture where you're forced to ask is really, really humbling. 00:56:33.000 |
But here and now, Jesus says something different than just that. 00:56:38.000 |
He didn't say, "You better beg." He didn't say, "You better ask." 00:56:48.000 |
There was a book I was reading, "Last Name Reichen." 00:56:55.000 |
"To us, we may think that this is cruel, this is harsh, 00:57:01.000 |
but you can think of it another way. This is reality." 00:57:08.000 |
And what he said was, "The reality is that God has made," 00:57:13.000 |
and I love this kind of example and explanation. 00:57:16.000 |
He said, "The reality is that God has made a covenant, 00:57:21.000 |
unique, exclusive relationship with the nation of Israel." 00:57:25.000 |
Which means he has a relationship with the nation as a man would have with his wife. 00:57:31.000 |
Weird that other people will come and expect God to treat them like his own wife. 00:57:40.000 |
He describes in the book of Ezekiel that the nation was like a naked and abandoned child in its own blood. 00:57:50.000 |
And God had mercy, came down, washed the baby, clothed the baby, raised the baby, 00:58:01.000 |
That's the beautiful picture that God describes his relationship with Israel. 00:58:08.000 |
Weird that people come to God and say, "But where's my bed? 00:58:14.000 |
I thought you would have a savings account for my college. 00:58:17.000 |
Where's my wife? Where's my husband? Where's my job?" 00:58:23.000 |
And this is where I say this woman's faith and her humility is shining. 00:58:30.000 |
Her answer in verse 25 is that she came and began to bow herself down. 00:58:41.000 |
It means to prostrate oneself all the way low, face to the ground. 00:58:51.000 |
She worshiped him even in the midst of this is not your time. 00:58:55.000 |
But also even in the midst of it's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. 00:59:11.000 |
But even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from the master's table. 00:59:30.000 |
She fought against, I'm assuming because we're human, perhaps that natural inclination. 00:59:38.000 |
By faith, Jesus said that our natural state is always going to be this, this struggle. 00:59:45.000 |
He who desires to save his life will lose it. 00:59:51.000 |
And in that way, we have this weird presumptuousness that God highlights many times through Scripture 00:59:57.000 |
where we demand, "God, you protect me because I need to survive. 01:00:02.000 |
God, you heal me. You do this for me. You provide for me. 01:00:09.000 |
Because that's in our own heart and our ambition. 01:00:19.000 |
She did not have as her priority to combat him. 01:00:30.000 |
She did not make it her priority to demand that God acknowledge her as also a valuable human being 01:00:43.000 |
By faith, she besieged the Lord, crying out and desiring that he minister to her with help. 01:00:53.000 |
Brothers and sisters, one of the things I want to highlight to you is, yes, we have, whether, you know, 01:00:59.000 |
I see it in myself, this strange expectation. 01:01:04.000 |
All throughout, like, the biblical history, sinful man has invoked the name of God 01:01:10.000 |
and just demanded, "You be on my side, okay?" 01:01:14.000 |
And so many times, God would say through the prophets, "Why do you act so presumptuously? 01:01:18.000 |
When I say judgment, you say peace. What in the world is going on? 01:01:22.000 |
You go into battle, keep constantly invoking my name. 01:01:26.000 |
When I told you, I'm not going with you. Why do you do that?" 01:01:29.000 |
And even Moses said, "We are a presumptuous people." 01:01:34.000 |
Even here in the New Testament, we're so presumptuous. 01:01:38.000 |
I want to highlight this interesting passage to you. 01:01:41.000 |
If you've heard me preach before, I've hit this passage many times because it is one of my all-time favorites. 01:01:46.000 |
And it comes from the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 14 through 18. 01:01:51.000 |
So please take a look there. Hebrews 2, 14 through 18. 01:01:56.000 |
And the Word of God says this, "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, 01:02:02.000 |
he himself likewise also partook of the same, 01:02:05.000 |
that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 01:02:09.000 |
and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." 01:02:17.000 |
He's answering this question, "Did Christ have to come down, be incarnate, and be flesh and blood like you and me? 01:02:32.000 |
For God to just be like, "I forgive you all and pardon you," then he's just simply pardoning criminals. 01:02:41.000 |
But because we are flesh and blood, he had to come, take our place, pay our penalty, 01:02:48.000 |
and by his righteous atonement, we are truly, truly free. Amen? 01:02:54.000 |
So the answer to the question, "Did Jesus have to come?" is yes, amen. 01:03:02.000 |
Verse 16 says, "But for surely he does not give help to the angels, 01:03:08.000 |
but he gives help to the descendants of Abraham. 01:03:11.000 |
Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things, 01:03:14.000 |
so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, 01:03:19.000 |
to make propitiation for the sins of the people." 01:03:28.000 |
The demons are looking at this like, "What in the world is going on? 01:03:33.000 |
Why are you helping creatures lower than us?" 01:03:37.000 |
To the question of, "Did Jesus really have to come down?" 01:03:40.000 |
In one sense, it was a resounding, "Of course, yes!" 01:03:46.000 |
Without it, there is no freedom and there is no grace for you. 01:03:52.000 |
Is God in any way obligated to help fallen angels? 01:04:17.000 |
It's some weird presumption on our end that says, 01:04:20.000 |
"You have to be like the store where not only do you provide goods and services 01:04:27.000 |
to the best of your ability being fair and equitable, 01:04:31.000 |
but if I'm disappointed, you better hear me." 01:04:50.000 |
As one of my friends here says, "I want you to remember that we are Gentiles 01:04:56.000 |
and we dare not be uppity about our salvation." 01:05:05.000 |
Do you recognize that in Ephesians Chapter 2, because of the length and take of time, 01:05:08.000 |
I can't read the whole chapter, but it begins with, 01:05:12.000 |
"You are not only dogs, but you're a dead corpse. 01:05:28.000 |
And then later on, it describes, "You have no promise," like the Israelites do. 01:05:33.000 |
"You're outside of the commonwealth of Israel. 01:05:35.000 |
You have no hope. You have no inheritance because you have no God." 01:05:44.000 |
And by faith, this woman is getting the glimpse of that. 01:05:48.000 |
And beyond and above what the other Pharisees were thinking, she got it. 01:05:54.000 |
"Right, Lord, and that's why I am willing to take whatever you give me. 01:06:08.000 |
Sometimes when I have a hard time, I'm all stressed out, 01:06:11.000 |
and then I say these words, "I've been praying about." 01:06:17.000 |
"I've been mulling, daydreaming, and complaining about." 01:06:22.000 |
I'm a man of, like, I have deep thoughts that I don't like to share with people, 01:06:26.000 |
So what I typically do is if I have a problem, 01:06:28.000 |
I trace every scenario down to its nth degree 01:06:32.000 |
and think about all the pros and cons down the line. 01:06:35.000 |
That's why it takes me a long time to decide something. 01:06:38.000 |
I'm just ruminating, "If this, then B. If this, then C." 01:06:44.000 |
And then at the end of that, I tell people, "I prayed about it." 01:06:47.000 |
Brothers and sisters, your ruminating about your hardships 01:06:57.000 |
But this woman, even in the midst of that, I guess you could say, rude and harsh reality, 01:07:03.000 |
she comes, says, "Yes, Lord, but would you help me?" 01:07:10.000 |
She overcame that innate which every single one of us-- 01:07:13.000 |
because I pray that I would have my pride overcome like that. 01:07:19.000 |
I place myself in her scenarios, and I say silly things like, "How dare you?" 01:07:29.000 |
And that's why I say I think she's doing much more than just desperately coming 01:07:40.000 |
And that's why when Jesus is looking at this, he commends her and says, 01:07:49.000 |
Because starting from men of old, the great Christians, the great faithful, 01:07:57.000 |
I want to highlight for you a passage in Isaiah 6, verse 5. 01:08:01.000 |
You know that when Isaiah came before the Lord, he came actually with a complaint. 01:08:06.000 |
Because at that time, kings were being assassinated. 01:08:14.000 |
And what he sees is the amazing picture of God on the throne. 01:08:28.000 |
Because when you have faith and you see God, you see yourself in reference to God. 01:08:31.000 |
And next thing you know, he says, "I am a man of unclean lips, 01:08:39.000 |
Peter, when he saw the power of Jesus in Luke 5, verse 8, 01:08:43.000 |
Peter sees Jesus, he sees power that he has command over everything. 01:08:50.000 |
He looks down low and he falls at his feet and says, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." 01:08:58.000 |
The person of faith sees the reality and says, "Not like the Pharisee. 01:09:18.000 |
And so I asked, like, you think about this whole scenario, and it's pretty profound. 01:09:22.000 |
Jesus is withdrawing to teach his disciples, preparing. 01:09:26.000 |
He's constantly preparing them for the cross that he's going to endure. 01:09:34.000 |
The Pharisee is asked, "You folks are unclean. 01:09:37.000 |
Why in the world do you not keep the traditions?" 01:09:40.000 |
And then you basically are defiling yourself. 01:09:46.000 |
And Jesus says to them, "It's not what goes into your mouth that's making you unclean. 01:09:50.000 |
It's the stuff that's coming out of your mouth that makes you unclean." 01:09:53.000 |
And the disciples are like, "Can you explain that for us? 01:10:07.000 |
And that's why I think our Lord, he's a merciful one. 01:10:12.000 |
I believe he was drawing the faith out of her. 01:10:28.000 |
It's not mega like the way we use mega, but it does mean massive. 01:10:40.000 |
Not only, I'm assuming, if Jesus made the analogy even worse than a dog. 01:10:47.000 |
If he said something like, "Not only do you not give the food to the dogs, 01:10:59.000 |
It's not like she doesn't know, as she's a Canaanite woman, 01:11:09.000 |
It was not her ambition to be Jesus' highest priority at the moment. 01:11:18.000 |
And in that way, guys, brothers and sisters, would be our humble faith. 01:11:24.000 |
I want to ask you, how are you--first, I ask, 01:11:27.000 |
how are you struggling with your sufferings, your hardships? 01:11:30.000 |
But I want to ask, how are you genuinely coming to God? 01:11:38.000 |
God, you don't say enough in your Bible about this." 01:11:41.000 |
And you think of faith as like some kind of switch where, like, 01:11:44.000 |
if it switched, then everything would be grand. 01:11:47.000 |
By faith, yeah, I would know what I would do about my business. 01:11:50.000 |
By faith, I would know if I should do this or not. 01:11:54.000 |
And then you just switch it on, and it's like, "Ooh, I get it." 01:11:59.000 |
Use God's given discernment that he's given you. 01:12:03.000 |
By faith, we recognize, "Lord, everything I have, 01:12:14.000 |
Everything I have is from your gracious, merciful hand. 01:12:17.000 |
And so every suffering I'm experiencing now, I request of you grace and mercy." 01:12:23.000 |
And you know what an incredible privilege we have. 01:12:27.000 |
Are we in a situation where we're just going to extend our hands, 01:12:34.000 |
We have the privilege of knowing that our God, his heart is so kind, 01:12:41.000 |
And we know that as a good father, he is going to answer us 01:12:48.000 |
And so that's why for us, this humility is going to produce 01:12:51.000 |
every fruit of thankfulness, praise, confidence, joy. 01:12:57.000 |
This humility, then, is tied to every other spiritual fruit 01:13:04.000 |
And so I pray that we would recognize my way of conclusion. 01:13:08.000 |
Again, I don't want to just simply, you know, 01:13:12.000 |
see this as like my attempt to stick her into the hall of faith, you know? 01:13:17.000 |
I don't want to just simply like commend her, 01:13:20.000 |
but what a challenge to have that kind of humility. 01:13:23.000 |
But let's turn it now to our God, our loving Heavenly Father, 01:13:32.000 |
He's not thinking, "Go, right? Convert Africa for me." 01:13:38.000 |
And Pastor Peter has been preaching this heavily like, 01:13:48.000 |
She didn't bring anything to the table because what God desired of us, 01:14:10.000 |
Thank you for lavishing upon me every grace and every love." 01:14:21.000 |
Lord God, what incredible thanks and appreciation and gratitude we owe to you. 01:14:35.000 |
we do not even have the privilege or right to lift up a word of request to you. 01:14:42.000 |
But thank you, God, that you hear our prayers. 01:14:45.000 |
Thank you, God, that you extend your grace upon us. 01:14:49.000 |
I pray, Lord, that we would be a people marked with this faith 01:15:03.000 |
And I pray, Father God, that I will produce in us incredible, incredible love and affection for you. 01:15:14.000 |
Let's take a moment of time of prayer as we reflect on the sermon. 01:17:03.000 |
Let us all rise as we sing our closing praise. 01:21:32.000 |
Amen. Let's all bow our heads for a word of prayer. 01:21:39.000 |
Lord, we thank you for the healing that you bring for the many who have suffered. 01:21:44.000 |
We thank you, God, for the grace that you impart on us, 01:21:51.000 |
Thank you, God, for the strengthening that you give. 01:21:54.000 |
And Lord, we can just continue to go on and on and on, 01:21:58.000 |
for we know, Father God, that we have everything in you. 01:22:05.000 |
I pray, Father God, that we would be challenged, 01:22:09.000 |
Lord, that we would continue to exercise great trust in you, 01:22:13.000 |
and what's more, we would keep learning what it means, then, 01:22:26.000 |
And so I pray in that way, Lord, may it continue to give glory to you, 01:22:30.000 |
and may we, Father God, continue to grow in our relationship with you and honor you. 01:22:35.000 |
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, 01:22:38.000 |
and keep you in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, 01:22:44.000 |
to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, 01:24:23.000 |
If you would just take a seat for one moment. 01:24:26.000 |
The people that are on this side, actually you are excused to go ahead and exit out that side door. 01:24:33.000 |
For the people in the courtyard, please take this time to go ahead and exit towards the back. 01:24:38.000 |
We're asking this group just to give it a minute or two for the courtyard to exit out, 01:24:44.000 |
So just after a minute or two, please go ahead and just start proceeding to exit out the main entrance.