Erwin McManus | Move to the Edges

so last week we began together a new series called the beautiful one and a part of our hope as we journey through these different encounters that Jesus has with specific individuals is that you might see God in a fresh and new way sometimes our view of God has been tainted by our experiences with other people sometimes it's simply ruined by the things we've heard about God so many people see God only as a god of Wrath and judgments and condemnation we want you to see him as the beautiful one the source of all creativity of all wonder of all Beauty at the same time one of the unique things we'll discover as we step into the life of Jesus is that only that people began to see God differently through him but people began to see themselves differently because of him and so in the most wonderful of ways we're absolutely convinced that if you'll journey with us not only will you see Jesus as the beautiful one but you'll granite you're going to begin to see through the eyes of God how he looks at you and sees you as one who is beautiful but what I want to dive into tonight is a paradox of the one who is the most beautiful speaking the ugliest words that were ever uttered by his lips the words that a person chooses reflects who they are it's inseparable your words they reveal you they disclose you sometimes they define you but most of times your words are an extension of your soul of your essence and so we shouldn't be surprised that Jesus is known for beautiful words that he would speak to the multitudes and call them the light of the world and the salt of the earth the Jesus would lay out a series of beautiful images of the human relationship with God they would be known as the Beatitudes the Jesus could turn meekness and humility into terms of Honor and admiration and yet there was one moment in jesus's life where his words were so harsh so unkind that they would almost set you back and make you wonder if this is really who Jesus is what in the world would cause Jesus to say these words and in fact throughout history people have tried to softened Jesus's words because they came so harshly when I was studying psychology back in college we were given certain images that we were to look at and give our instantaneous response of what we saw I imagine many of you are familiar with the image I'm about to show you it's an image that gives you multiple options of what you can see and it looks like this now in this image there are two people two women one that's described as the hag and one that's described as the beautiful girl now I wonder how many of you here instantly see the woman who looks like a witch raise your hand a handful of you how many of you instantly saw the young woman who looks beautiful how many of you've seen this before and so you chose not to see in the hag how many saw them both at the same time see what's astonishing to me is when you're unprepared for this image most people see the woman that we would describe as unattractive the one who looks like a witch a hag as it has been coined and it's harder to see the young woman looking in the opposite direction who looks like she's a part of the aristocracy and she defines what we normally would perceive as beauty but it all depends on which lies you focus on see if you're going to see your life from the vantage point of God if you're going to discover the beauty that God has waiting for you you're going to have to move to the edges because if you stay where you are you'll be spending your entire life looking for beauty rather than realizing that beauty comes more from the observer than it does from the object that's being observed there's beauty all around you the question is simply do you have the eyes to see it in Matthew chapter 15 Jesus moves his followers to the edges so they can begin to see themselves differently they can begin to see God differently they can begin to see people differently beginning in verse 21 we are told leaving that place Jesus withdrew to the region of tyre and sidon a Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out Lord son of David have mercy on me my daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly Jesus did not answer a word so his disciples came to him and urged him send her away for she keeps crying out after us he answered I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel the woman came in now before him who Lord help me she sat he replied it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs yes it is Lord she said even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table then jesus said to her woman you have great faith your request is granted and her daughter was healed in that moment in this moment everything about Jesus can can almost feel as if it's in disarray how could the most compassionate man who has ever lived speak words like this how can he speak word so harsh so uncaring so inhumane well what we find in this moment is that Jesus is carrying his followers into a new world and to change their ability to see what God sees he has to move them into an uncomfortable space I love how Matthew begins he says leaving that place Jesus withdrew to the region of tyre and sidon see this encounter with this Canaanite woman came from their mind when Jesus withdrew from he should have been to go where he should not have been so they were on a journey between Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee and the only way you can get the seitan is to go 50 miles out of your way and so clearly either Jesus had lost his way or with was or was withdrawing so that he could escape the pressure of human interaction and human need and have some time alone see in Matthews mind there could be no way Jesus would choose to go to Sidon for the people so he had to be withdrawing which would make perfect sense is so much pressure on Jesus so many people wanting his attention so many people with so many needs of course he would need to withdraw but I love the fact that what Mathieu thought was Jesus withdrawing was actually Jesus advancing it wasn't Jesus getting away from the people he needed to be with it was Jesus pulling his disciples to the people they needed to be with see if we're going to see the beauty that God wants to unwrap in our lives we need to move to the edges and move outside of our place because we only have a place we all have that place where we're comfortable that place that we know that place where we feel secure that place it has all the right kinds of people and food and environments and have you ever wondered why God has moved you to where you are you're felt like God you've misplaced me we we have so much conversation about destiny you know like going for your destiny discovering your destiny and and in so oftentimes when we think about our relationship with God we go it's all about God getting me on course it's about me being in the center of his will just moving in the epicenter of God's activity in my life but I don't know about you but sometimes I don't feel like my my life is a sailboat just moving on glassy waters sometimes I feel like my little sailboat is being blow around by typhoons and hurricanes and I'm landing on shores I don't want to be at in places I never expected to go sometimes I'm asking God what are you thinking don't you understand what my Gaston is don't you understand God what we're supposed to be doing with my life and what Jesus is doing in this moment is he's disrupting his disciples lives he's disrupting their traffic patterns he's disrupting everything and moving them to a place they did not want to be or a place they never intended to go so Matthew writes Jesus withdrew to the region of Sidon and tyre I have a suspicion that those moments where you think you're lost it may just be that God has placed you in the very place he wanted you but you did not want to go there I remember years ago we went to see El Salvador I'd been there of course many many times as I grew up there but I want my wife and my kids to experience it and and so Kim and I went with Erin Mariah when they were much younger and and some of you know San Salvador is still considered the most violent city in the world the highest murder rate of any city on the planet and there were different occasions where we experienced some of those volatile environments and we went up to the volcano to do a little sightseeing and to see some beautiful lakes and and El Salvador in the beautiful places on the planet but my uncle who was with us he remembered this this little crater that was off on some obscure path that it was now a lake and and he want us to go there as well and so we took our rent-a-car this 4x4 that none of us knew how to drive and and and we burned the stick shift while we were working our way through these really incredibly difficult paths and after we were stuck in that Lake area and finally worked our way out we started smelling something and we came off the mountain and came down this road and the engine began to smoke and it began to sputter and make these unusual sounds until it may no sound at all and we pulled over on the side of the road that was known as the most dangerous road in the whole country leading into the city it was pitch black we were out too late it was late into the night we knew we should not have been there in that moment have you ever had a moment where you're like really god this is how you're gonna do this they say this is how you're gonna play this out cuz they're a moment you know I'm Here I am trying to love you right you know the only one of us is really cooperating then I get all this I get all this shade in my life about not taking vacations but this is why I don't take them because the things like this God so I have my family there and and not everyone's happy and and and we knew that we're in a really volatile situation with two kids and all sudden this truck zooms by us just slams on his brakes pulls up right in front of us and instead of a whole gang of armed militia it was a woman and she jumped out she started saying from the broad Obama to vamanos hey Carol not me though and she was scared to death but she's telling us to get out of our cars and to jump into her truck and so my uncle jumps into her truck and Kim jumps into her truck and Mariah jumps into her truck my uncle's panicking he he says go go go and they leave me an Arri behind we're just standing there on side road watching the truck just drive off and Aaron just little-boy he looked at me and he said daddy are they leaving us like that's what it looks like Aaron yeah I'm sure they'll be back soon and and they were not back soon and half an hour went by it an hour an hour and a half and and I had to develop a strategy because we're in the car and these guys would walk by with these giant machetes and Aaron had never seen men just walking with machetes and they made him a little nervous and he said dad why are these guys carrying those like giant swords like all they take them at work it'sit's nothing hits they say no and he goes oh what kind of work did they do no machete work it's a you know had they and I said hey buddy I just I just want to like lay out a scenario for you and he goes what's that I said if I tell you to run I need you to go run in that field over there I just need to lay in the field and not come out and no matter what you hear no matter what happens I don't want you to move until you hear your mom's voice when she comes back for us I'm not gonna go out there to field by myself I said you may have to go out to that field by yourself and and I just did nothing may happen I just need you to be ready and so that's added to the drama of the evening and we waited and waited and waited in pitch darkness and then finally about an hour and a half two hours later that truck came back and down to us and the woman told us to get into her truck and we jumped into the back of the truck and they drove us about a half an hour to their house it was a beautiful ride is pitch black and we're watching fireflies light up the sky and when we finally got to their house they were the kindest people in the world people we would have never met a house we would have never found the place we would have never gone and they cooked us a great meal we had this amazing time we shared stories we shared our lives they talked about their faith we talked about our faith we were able to have a conversation about who Jesus was so how strange at the moment I thought I was in the wrong place I was actually exactly in the right place I think so many times in our lives we feel like Jesus is misguiding us he's misleading us he's taking us we're not supposed to be but he's trying to take us outside of our place so that we can be in the very place where God can do his most beautiful work in our life there's something you hate your job maybe a lot of you like God why this job you ever had that thought God why here why this employer why these people some of you don't like anything about where you're at you hate your job you hate where it's located you hate your boss you hate the people you work with has it ever occurred to you that the place you're at is on about you but the people whose lives you touch and it may be that God is reor castrating your life to get you to the very place to pull you out of what would be your sea of galilee and move you into Sidon last year Kim and I were actually in Sidon a coastal city right off the Mediterranean and I can tell you that Sidon is nowhere near Jerusalem you have to make an intention to get there can you imagine being Jesus disciples walking and then walking and then walking going you know Jesus Sidon is that way and the Sea of Galilee is that way and we seem to be going the wrong way but it's hard to tell God that he's lost so you just follow him wherever he's going and here they are in this situation and Matthew wants us to know how bad it is leaving that place Jesus withdrew to the region of tyre and sidon and a Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out Lord son of David have mercy on me my daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly see the problem with being in the wrong place is you meet the wrong people unless of course it's the right place and so you meet the right people see Matthew says there's this Canaanite woman he doesn't just say there's a woman he needs you to know she's okay tonight it's really really worse than you think it was a Canaanite woman you see the Canaanites and the Israelites hated each other Dada disdain between them and the hostility that was carried in the hearts of those disciples what makes them have no concern or empathy for this woman a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and then she says Jesus son of David so she gets that right she's the sees the son of David he came for Israel he's the Messiah he came for the Jews he didn't come for the Canaanites who does she think she is crashing Jesus's party invading his space and then asking him to help her that's Jesus son of David I know who you are but I see you Jesus and I know you're more than they think you are they think you came just for them but I think you came for me and so Matthew says there was a Canaanite woman and she says Jesus son of David have mercy on me my daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly now I do want to know two sides of this there are people who were demon-possessed but also in that time everything was attributed to demon possession when a person had epilepsy he was seen as a demonic intervention and so later it tells us that this woman's daughter is healed so I think it's interesting it doesn't say that the demon was expelled from her because there are other places where demons or expelled from people she was healed which is very different but I think it's interesting that says she's demon-possessed and suffering terribly I was wondering are there demons that only make you suffer mildly it's just a demon that irritates me but doesn't really cause me great pain and then verse 23 I think is the most ominous verse in the scriptures Jesus did not answer a word have you ever desperately needed God and you made a fool of yourself and cried out to God have you ever just finally just came to the end of yourself and you through your reason aside and all your doubt you said God I need you in my life and God doesn't show up have you ever felt like you cried out to God the God was indifferent Jesus does not answer a word I know exactly what that feels like I I know that silence of God in my life wondering God do you even exist are you out there do you hear me or do you just not care I remember when I was 10 years old going through my own internal journey and then as a Roman Catholic going through catechism at my first communion and learning about Jesus in that period of time in my life but also so desperate to escape my life that I set a plan I saved money I scouted out Miami and I was ready to run away and I was packing up my bags and my little sister came and saw me and she panicked what are you doing so I'm leaving she was you can't leave I said no I am I am I'm leaving but I need you to be quiet and she goes well take me with you and she was too young she wasn't mature and ready for life like I was a 10 but I knew I had to shake her so I said I go pack your things and you can go with me but I did that just to send her off so I could disappear and instead of going to pack her things she runs to my mom and says mommy will never leave you I'll never leave you and I was like what are you talking about she's no one's leaving that was gonna go with him but I'm not gonna go my mom was livid she came and found me she's also you gonna run away huh like that's the plan though so it's so bad here that you're just gonna leave yes so you're not gonna get to go you're gonna stay in your room wait till your father gets home I remember at 10:00 looking at my mom saying you don't know how to do this you don't know how you're supposed to do this you're supposed to let me run away that's that's what you're supposed to do so you're supposed to let me run away so I can go out there and be terrified of being alone and be afraid of the dark and realize I can't survive by myself so I have to humble myself and come back home don't you know how to do this just let me go she goes no you're so stubborn you would rather die out there then come back home it was true I would have never come back so she locks me and I waited all day for my dad to come home and I had my first conversation with God this is my first prayer I just looked up to war I thought maybe heaven was I said Jesus you are so stupid is all the profanity I had in me in that moment and uh maybe I can get gotten back that's right thought he doesn't seem to be moved by my pain he seems to be indifferent to my brokenness he doesn't seem to care about my life so maybe I can just take God off it can make a man enough to do something because there's nothing that is more destructive to the human heart than indifference it was as if Jesus just wouldn't say a word to me there's nothing but silence see I think sometimes we think God is silent because he's uncaring I think their moments were God pauses where he is silent to allow us to say what we really think and his disciples step into this moment his disciples came to him and urged him send her away for she keeps crying out after us say I think his disciples heard Jesus the silence as confirming their own hearts we get to Jesus we know why you having a hard time responding because after all you're Jesus but just send her away and I love that reasoning send her away cuz she keeps coming after us it's not even about you Jesus she's bothering us this is Canaanite woman with her daughter suffering greatly she's ruining our day he's totally messing up our mojo we were doing so good and here we are withdrawing and he/she has to come and mess up our retreat can you imagine getting a private retreat with Jesus and then some woman crashes your party and makes it all about her because her daughter is demon-possessed not even thinking about like me and my life and my needs so Jesus would you send her away she's not one of us see they couldn't see the beauty that God was preparing because they couldn't get outside of their place or outside of their people and Jesus needed them to see things from a new place to see the beauty and people in a new way and when Jesus didn't say a word he gave them just enough time to express what was really inside of him but Jesus made it worse he answers I was sent only to the lost sheep of his yes that's right saya Kenny I can hear it in Thomas's mind in Matthews mind go that's exactly what we were thinking Jesus you only came for us you didn't come for her I don't know what she's thinking because I that's what that's what the sighs all about the Messiah is all about us the Messiah's just about Israel the Messiah's just about your people Jesus just send her away and of course she interrupts and the woman came and now before him and says here's her argument to this theological position I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel just lord help me I love that here it's only people who have become palace and hardened by their beliefs that sit around and talk about who God loves who God accepts who got elects when you're outside of God and you're desperate you have one theological position lord help me but Jesus makes it worse after she cried out to him he replies it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the talks yet friends who just they're just little too honest yeah I mean you have friends that have like sort of like minor like Asperger's like oh dude don't say that yeah yeah friends that don't know how to filter there are thoughts there I'm just being authentic dude that's not a fantasy that's rudeness some people like I just keeping it real but they don't like the people keep it real with them they just feel like a way too real kind of moment when Jesus it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs who talks like that who talks to people like that well people who run for president I suppose but uh what but you wouldn't expect it from Jesus right oh Jesus mm it's almost like we want you to send her away but we don't want you to kick her to the curb I mean that's that's cold Jesus even like even for us that's just cold that's heartless mmm oh man back back you ever have friends like look at you and go oh man you're fat alright I said a lot of when I see people I haven't seen the long vowel look old thank you what you supposed to say just being real bro like you know some things you don't say I keep telling people telling the truth does it mean saying everything you think Jesus uses the harshest language these are the ugliest words Jesus ever spoke how can the beautiful woman say such ugly things he what Jesus was saying was the common statement of the people of Israel about the Canaanites the Phoenicians the Gentiles the outsider even women they talked about them like there were dogs you don't take the children's bread and give it to the dogs that that was their explanation of why God would only come for the people of Israel because she don't take the children's bread and give it to the dogs I think it's so interesting cause I've read historians on this for many many years and if they try to water down Jesus's word you I try softened it up it's kind of hard to soften that up they go oh you know the Greek word for dog is actually like the word that the can be translated little dog honestly this is what they right now like big bad mangy dog budget indoor dog like we don't get the children's bread to the indoor dog the little dog you're a chihuahua the Jesus wasn't so cruel to say you're like a pit bull just like you like a chihuahua you're a picking knees we all hate them BAM they say well well you can translate the word puppy really it is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the puppy see we try to soften Jesus's words and what that happen what happens when we do that is we actually lose Jesus and tension we need to hear the words as harshly and cruelly as they were said because what Jesus was echoing were the words of his disciples and what they actually believed about this woman he was saying to her face what everyone was saying behind her back why would God ever want sometimes the best way to deal with falsehood is to bring it right into the light and let what you really believe be exposed and her response I mean really if that were me and Jesus said in my response to Jesus help me it's not right to give the children's bread to the dogs I go who you calling a dog that would be about you really you'd call me dog what a mad dog you that's what i'ma do but she doesn't you know what she does she says yes it is it's right because even the dogs speaking of herself even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off the master's table who is this woman even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table I'm not even asking you for the loaf I'm just asking you for the crumbs do you realize this woman saw Jesus in a way that not even his disciples saw him they didn't think God had enough for everyone they were holding on to their place at the table Lord who can sit at your right and your left who gets out of a position of Honor at your table we're gonna hold on to the table cuz you came for us Sheila I'm not even ask you for the table I'm gonna ask you for the loaf I just know the crumbs of God are more than all I could ever hope for or ever need who thinks like that who sees God in such a way that you're not even demanding a seat at the table you're saying I just want the crumbs it's what the crumbs Jesus this Canaanite woman with a daughter who was suffering could see the beauty in Jesus she could see what was available to her and somehow she knew somehow she knew what they could not yet understand that he did not come just for them but he came for everyone see this is Matthew 15 and when Matthew writes his gospel he's shifting their view of reality he's moving them to the edge not just to the edge of their places and edge outside of their people but he's changing their perspective on reality see this is how Matthew starts his book chapter 1 verse 1 this is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David the same phrase the Canaanite woman uses the son of Abraham Abraham was the father of Isaac Isaac the father of Jacob Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers and he ends this genealogy in verse 16 and Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah so he begins the Gospel of Matthew saying the Messiah has come the Christ has come the Savior has come and he is the son of David he has come for us and he begins the story from where they understood it but he doesn't end the story where they thought it would go they were more than fifty miles out of the way see you I'm Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20 it says then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations and it word Nations that the word ethnos which means all ethnicities all people on the planet he begins by saying yes the Son of David the Messiah has come but no he did not only come for us if you understand who he is then you must go to every people on the earth he has come for all of us therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age and so right in the middle between chapter 1 and chapter 18 or 28 he writes in Matthew 15 he came only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel it's not right to give the children's bread to the talks so you need to change how you see reality because they are not the docs they are the lost sheep and he didn't come just for us he came for them and I love how the story comes to a conclusion then jesus said to her woman you have great faith your request is granted and her daughter was healed in that moment see when her daughter was healed it validated everything she knew about Jesus and that they were afraid of that Jesus did not come just for that but then he came for everyone did he came for us Jesus only commends two people for having great faith and neither of those two were his disciples he commends a Centurion soldier a Roman for having great faith can you imagine how that must have agitated those disciples following Jesus around helping him out you know while he's performing his miracles taking care of all the organizational work when thousands upon thousands of people are being fed with just a couple of fish and bread he never talks about their faith but he looks at this Roman soldier this Roman officer says you have great faith like knowledge Jesus you shouldn't be commanding the Romans of the enemy they're over us and then he looks at this Canaanite woman and he looks at her and says you have great faith and I'll open oh no no you don't understand we have great faith we have the great faith of our fathers of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob we have the great faith and she's like no no no she has the great faith no she can't he's under us she's less than us as well over you under you you need to pay attention because this is who you need to become because you have a belief and they have a faith this woman great is your faith your daughter is healed there's something powerful that happens when you see Jesus for who he is when you see him in his beauty and majesty when you see him and his compassion and in his kindness when you realize that he has always been for you his love has always moved towards you I love this about Jesus those disciples they were so entitled they believed they earned the right to be his followers this woman she felt she had no rights at all she just had a need and had nowhere else to turn and that was the kind of heart that Jesus was looking for that's the kind of faith that moves God in that moment those disciples had a paradigm shift they had to begin to see the world in a new way when they realized that jesus healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman and that she had the kind of faith that God was looking for it began to change everything for them they realized that Jesus had a different standard than they did I wonder tonight if Jesus would look at you and say you have such great faith see your faith isn't great because you have so much confidence in yourself your faith is great because you have so much confidence in God see when you understand that you cannot earn God's love you don't deserve it I love this woman just going I'm a dog I've heard it all my life that's all I've ever heard that's all I've ever known and for everyone else that disqualifies me but I have the sense Jesus that you're the one who picks up the strays and you bring them home with you and you make them your own when years ago I started a spanish-speaking church called as Publius I preached in Spanish every single week it was just absolutely horrific III didn't know half the words I needed and half the words I knew in sort of a Shakespearean Spanish and while I was speaking everyone would correct my Spanish literally in the middle of my census and so I would just be speaking away preaching away they go another nice that's a beloved lion esta and their Jersey I've no noise of India Domo and I've just let them I just adjust as I went that's how I learned Spanish better but I figured it was better to give it a broken language than for them to never hear it in any language at all and one of the crazy things was our Terra Gatien was comprised of people who came here creatively they were entrepreneurs who did not see boundaries and borders as others saw them they had great faith and took great risks and went into an unknown world to create a different future than the one they knew they'd have if they stayed where they were they were known as undocumented aliens or illegal aliens and it was kind of challenging because we're in a period of time where they were really hunting for people who were here illegally and they became my great friends we played soccer together we shared life together their family were friends with our family they grew up while we grew up together and it was hard sometimes six months later sometimes a year later sometimes two years later they'd be gone they get picked up by the government and sent back to their country so we had to have a very specific strategy that okay we're never gonna really be able to to grow this thing because everyone is so temporary so we invested our lives in them and treated them as if they were all missionaries and pastors and leaders and church planters you just said one day you may not be here one day you may have to go back to your town or your city or your nation and so we want to prepare you so that when you go back you don't think you're lost you don't think that you're in the wrong place with the wrong people and seeing light from the wrong perspective say what we want you to realize is that we're going to pour our lives into you and then the government is going to pay for you to go on your missionary journey and so we had so we saw this as a government-funded missionary strategy because if you have the wrong perspective you think your life is a tragedy but if you see things through the eyes of God you realize that everything can be beautiful that nothing can stop God from creating in you a beautiful life nothing can stop you from creating a more beautiful world because what else could you create once you've seen the beautiful one and you've seen yourself through his eyes we have a lot of people in the city who are in love with themselves but we have very few people who actually love themselves and what happens when you connect to Jesus is you finally discover that he loves you just the way you are you don't have to work for it or earn it you don't have to hide who you are you don't have to pretend that you're not broken you can just come to him and say look I'm a mass everything they say about me it's worse than that but what I know about you Jesus is when everyone else wants to throw me away like a dog I know that you see in me the beauty that only you can create have you allowed Jesus to create that beauty in you

Channel: Mosaic

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Keywords: MOSAIC, MOSAIC Los Angeles, Erwin McManus, Erwin Raphael McManus, Los Angeles Church, YouTube Church, Church, Jesus, Worship, Mosaic MSC, Mosaic, MSC

Id: 9Ut1DWp7CHs

Length: 44min 21sec (2661 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 01 2016