Two Keys For Unlocking Great Faith | Pastor Harrison Conley | Cottonwood Church

matthew chapter 15 matthew chapter 15. i want to read a story to you from the scripture that perhaps you'll be familiar with and then i want us to dive a little deeper into this story matthew chapter 15. it's also recorded for us in mark's gospel chapter 7 and just keep that in mind i'm going to reference mark 7 in a little while here matthew chapter 15 beginning in verse number 21 it says this then jesus went out from there and he departed to the region of tyre and sidon and behold a woman of canaan came from that region and cried out to him saying have mercy on me o lord son of david my daughter is severely demon-possessed but he answered her not a word and his disciples came and urged him saying send her away for she cries out after us but he answered and said i was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of israel then she came and worshiped him and she came and worshipped him saying lord help me but he answered and said it's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs she said yes lord yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters table then jesus answered and said to her oh woman great is your faith let it be to you as you desire and her daughter was healed from that very power like i said a story that many of us would be familiar with i know it's one that i've actually preached from before but it's a story that perhaps most of us can relate with on one level or another i think we've all had those moments in life where we've come to jesus in some sort of desperate need and as we look at this text today there are a few different angles that we could explore a few different pathways we could take but far and away what jumps out to me from this text is the statement that jesus makes to her he says a woman great is your faith great is your faith in this week as i've sat with this passage reading it over and over my prayer has been oh holy spirit would you unlock in me a great faith not just a greater measure of faith but a great faith faith being the unshakeable belief the unshakable trust that god is able to do exactly what he says he can do it's that unshakeable belief that god is exactly who he says that he is regardless of what my emotions are telling me regardless of what my physical five senses are telling me regardless of what my outward circumstance and or situation may look like faith is the trust that in the unseen realm god is actually at work fulfilling his word we've got the biblical definition of faith in romans chapter 11 right faith is the substance of things hoped for it's the evidence of things not yet seen and my prayer is that when jesus looks at me when he examines my life he would say harrison great is your faith i pray he would say it about me and i pray he would say it about you i pray he would say it about our church but great faith it's not a descriptor that comes very easily did you know that in all of the scripture jesus only labeled someone's faith as being great twice only twice the first time is in luke chapter seven it was a roman centurion his servant is sick and he sends the jewish elders to jesus to go on his behalf to to beg jesus to come and heal the servants so they go and bible says jesus goes with them and as they're in route the the centurion sends another friend out and the friend stops jesus and says hey i've got a message for you from the centurion he says look you don't have to come he's not worthy that you would come and be under his roof he said this that the centurion is a man of authority so he knows how authority works if he tells one of his soldiers to do something they go and do and he says jesus you're a man of authority and if you'll just say the word i know that that will be enough and my servant will be healed and jesus stops and he turns around and he looks at an all-jewish crowd that's following him and he says never have i seen such great faith not even in israel that's the first time somebody was labeled by jesus as having great faith you know the second time is right here this is the only other time in all of scripture this canaanite woman and what i want to do is sort of jump back into the text look at this story in greater detail and highlight for us a couple of things that grab jesus attention that i believe led to him describing her faith as being great and as we look at these keys i pray that the holy spirit would quicken our heart and teach us how to make them a reality in our everyday lives and if you're taking notes this morning and you need a title i've just entitled this message two keys for unlocking great faith two keys for unlocking great faith i actually had six but because i love you i turned it into two two keys oh that's the preacher's dilemma there's always too much to say two keys for unlocking great faith let's just jump back into this text for a moment i'm going to give you some context jesus and his disciples they've entered this region called tire and sidons a region of two cities that are in modern day lebanon about 100 miles from jerusalem about 40 miles from the sea of galilee and the reason that they've entered this region is because jesus and his disciples are on vacation it's been an incredibly busy season of ministry for them if you read the chapters leading up to this story you'll see it comes right on the heels of jesus feeding the five thousand you see jesus and his disciples making their way through all the different towns and cities in galilee the bible says that in every city in every town he went to everyone that was sick they waited for jesus in the marketplace the bible says so that they could just reach out and touch the hem of his garment and be healed so it's been a really busy time of preaching and teaching and healing people ministry is exploding throughout the region and on top of this jesus is emotionally exhausted as well he's just found out that his cousin perhaps even his best friend john the baptist has been executed in prison and jesus and his disciples they make their way into tyre and sidon to get some r and r but this is an odd place for them to go because this is a gentile and a pagan region no one here follows the god of the old testament no one here follows yahweh no they serve false gods they serve a god called ball and due to racial prejudices due to religious differences jews they avoided the region of tyre inside and like the plague and i think that's sort of the point jesus is trying to go somewhere where the crowds aren't going to follow him he's trying to go somewhere where every time he goes to the store he's not going to be stopped on aisle number three to give marriage counseling and i can imagine the disciples being sort of conflicted about this they're excited to be on vacation they're going to put their feet up read their favorite book maybe even go for a fish but they're like really we had to go here of everywhere in the known world jesus you decided to go to tyre and sidon and both matthew and mark record for us that immediately upon their arrival they're met by a pagan canaanite woman in this woman she comes to jesus in a moment of great desperation in a moment of great need her daughter is tormented by demonic possession now we're not told in great detail how the daughter came to this state of being we're not told how long she had been suffering at the hands of these demons we're not even told what the symptoms of it are but we know that it's severe she said lord help me for my daughter is severely demon-possessed and it doesn't take a scholar to realize that this woman is at the end of her rope that she is desperate for jesus to intervene desperate for the power of jesus to make a difference on behalf of her daughter so we read that she lays out the situation before him and she says have mercy on me o lord son of david which is interesting because she invokes his messianic title which is incredible considering that she's a pagan woman living outside of the faith have mercy on me oh lord son of david and at this point the story we we as the reader we're accustomed to seeing jesus be moved with compassion stretch out his hand in and heal but look at his response his response to this woman in need we see in verse 23 it says this and he answered her not a word to be honest the first time i read this passage i wasn't expecting to read that and knowing the context that jesus was tired and on vacation it still seems out of character for jesus to give her the silent treatment let me ask you um have you ever gotten the silent treatment from jesus before you're in need of a touch from heaven you're in need of divine intervention for something that is going on in your world the situation the circumstances out of your control and you pray and you lay the whole situation before god and then nothing just the dial tone on the other end of the line can i just say that not only is silence it's not the response that we want or expect but but frankly and by definition silence is not a response at to put it mildly silence is frustrating even in the small areas of life right not that long ago i was driving home from from work and my phone text message pops up on my phone is my wife and she texts me says hey can you stop at target she didn't say what i needed to get or anything can you stop at target and on our way home there are two targets there's a small target and there's a big target and small target doesn't carry everything that big target carries but small target's so much more convenient to stop at so she sends me this text hey can you stop at target on your way home i immediately call her because i don't text and drive i call her and it rings and it rings and it rings and it rings and then it goes to voicemail has this ever happened to you i'm like you just texted me the phone is in your hand so i'm pulling up i'm getting close to small target and i don't want to have to go to big target but if i if i go past small talk then i'm gonna have to go to big time so i i pull off the road and i'm in a parking lot and i call her again and it goes to voicemail and i call her again and it goes to voicemail then i text her 15 minutes later i get a text that says oh yeah you can go to small target silence is frustrating even in the mundane things that don't matter in the scope of eternity but in the big moments in the life and death moments in those moments where you are in desperation mode and you need not just want but you need an answer you need intervention from god and his responses is silence that's when most of us give up that's when most of us start to believe the lie that the enemy says hey god and his silence means that you've done something wrong that god's mad at you that god's not interested in helping you that god doesn't care about your situation you know silence has this really strange way of bringing us face to face with our insecurities do you know what i mean do you remember going on your first date for us guys you know we want to make a good impression so we pick out our favorite shirt maybe we go get a haircut we certainly get a bottle of axe body spray and we're like and we sit down to dinner first date with this girl that that we're into then there's those moments of awkward silence right where the conversation sort of breaks down and in the silence we come face to face with some of our insecurities and we're like man i i knew she wouldn't like this shirt oh man i i knew i held down the axe body spray for two seconds too long like [Music] silence it brings out the insecurities think about preaching or public speaking for a moment i'm going to let you in on a little secret usually when i say something i have an idea of how it's going to to land with you i have an idea of what your response will be but when i don't get the response that i was going for whether that be laughs or applause or an amen and instead your response is silence immediately i met with insecurities and i start internally questioning did i articulate that right did i did i mispronounce the word like why didn't they laugh at that that was funny like it's really quiet in here like maybe i picked the wrong text to preach from maybe they don't like me anymore i knew i shouldn't have worn skinny jeans today and i know it's ridiculous but silence can be unsettling and it has this way of bringing you face to face with your insecurities and when you are desperate to hear from god and he's not responding all of those same insecurities can come flooding back we're like man maybe i didn't pray right maybe i screwed up the words in the prayer i just said amen maybe i was supposed to say in jesus name amen maybe i didn't articulate my need correctly maybe god didn't understand it man i knew i should have got pastor tom i knew i should have got pastor kenneth to pray for me they're way better at this than i am and when we desperately need a touch from god and we're met with silence oftentimes that's the point where we decide to walk away not from our faith entirely but we walk away from the situation we sort of look at it like a lost cause we we sort of chalk it up to the mystery of god and we walk away thinking god's personality is a bit sus as the kids are saying these days a bit sus are your kids saying weird stuff too my son told me something and i went for real and he goes yeah no cap [Music] and i went what in the world is a cap anyway we walk away thinking god's personality is a bit suspect a bit capricious thinking maybe i'm just not important enough maybe he's too busy for my needs but you know what moves the heart of god you know what gets god's attention great faith gets god's attention but great faith takes great persistence even in the silence so i love this woman in our story she is extraordinary in her persistence because even though she doesn't get the response she's looking for from jesus you can almost see her dig her heels in she doesn't go anywhere she's not put off by the master's silence it's almost like you can read the text read through the lines and you can hear her saying look jesus i'm not going anywhere and you can stay silent as you want to stay silent but i'm not leaving because i got a sick child at home and that sick child is not going to recover unless you get involved so you be quiet but i'ma stand here and when you decide to speak i'm still gonna be here right like i love her persistence the fact that she doesn't walk away in her pursuit of jesus even amidst the silence is the first key to unlocking great faith listen if you want to have great faith you've got to have great persistence and this first key great persistence it's layered there's three parts to it the first part is you got to stay persistent in the silence we talked about that here's the second part to staying persistent you got to stay persistent in the midst of offense let me ask you can you stay persistent in your pursuit of jesus even when you get offended go back to the text look at verse 23 with me if you would it says in jesus answered her not a word and his disciples came and they urged him saying send her away for she cries out after us consider for a moment that the disciples the ones that are closest to jesus the very ones who should have advocated for this woman to get to jesus are the very ones who get in the way and in front of this woman loud enough so that she can hear they tell jesus send her away she's bothering us jesus we're on vacation we're supposed to have a holiday there's not time for this her persistence is annoying send her away i don't know why it is but as disciples of jesus sometimes we have the incredible ability to block people from getting to jesus not always but but sometimes it's been my experience that christians are actually the cruelest of creatures [Music] sometimes we're just not the best at reflecting the character of christ like we should be listen any disciple of jesus when we are in the flesh we can have a tendency to just be like the disciples in this story where we come across as judgy and we get really loose and unwise with our words and our opinions and if we're not careful we can lose the grace that our tone is supposed to carry we forget about the journey that god has brought us on we forget about the discipleship pathway and that road of maturity that he's took us on and we look at other people and we compare them to where we are and we're like no no no no no you got to do this you've got to do that and we make comments toward and we lose patience with people that perhaps aren't as far down the journey and the pathway of discipleship as we are and we get really short when people have questions forgetting that there was a point in time where we had all kind of questions too and we lose patience with those that stumble forgetting that if not for the grace of god we are susceptible to the very same thing hear me christian if we're not careful we can easily start acting like the older brother in the prodigal son story where we judge others really harshly based on their actions but then we use a completely different scale to judge ourselves we judge ourselves based off of our intentions you know right now across the world there's this movement of people who are actively deconstructing their faith i don't know if you've heard that term it's being thrown around quite a bit at the moment and these are people that used to be in church people who used to follow jesus people who used to identify as being a christian but now they've thrown off that label and they've become you know these questioners of why did i ever ascribe to that in the first place and when these people are asked about why they're destructing or deconstructing their faith far and away the number one answer is because they have church hurt they've been hurt by the church they've been hurt by disciples hurt by someone in the church someone that professed to be a follower of jesus they they did something or said something or were involved in something that broke their trust that hurt them and offended them it could be another congregation member could be their pastor could be a global ministry leader that that preached one thing from the platform but did another thing in private and when the private thing was exposed the hypocrisy it broke their trust [Music] and it's become really hard to reconcile listen often it's the actions of somebody else the actions of a disciple and not jesus that people have a problem with think about our texts for a moment in context the disciples they're bringing offense based off of their ingrained prejudices because not only is this woman a gentile which is a racial prejudice that they had but she's also female which in that day and age women were not esteemed so we got gender prejudice going on as well and honestly when you boil these prejudices down you know what they boil down to they boil down to a thing called pride this idea that i'm better than you are in just a bit of a side note if you follow jesus long enough he's going to eventually put you into a position where you come face to face with your pride so that it can be dealt with and you can grow and mature away from that pride and that prejudice but that's another message for another day but the heart of what i'm trying to get at is this it's usually not jesus who people get offended with it's other people often times it's the way we communicate in the way we live out the message of jesus that sends mixed signals to the rest of the world this church this family called cottonwood that we are all a part of it's not a perfect church none of us are perfect speaking for myself i know that deep within me i have the capacity to get in the way of you seeing and experiencing jesus now just for the record i i i plan on continuing to grow i plan on continuing to mature i plan to continue to live with integrity i plan to continue to to set an example but i also know and i acknowledge that deep within me i have the capability of letting you down and if that were ever the case you've heard me say this before i pray that your faith would not come crashing down around you because your eyes don't belong on me your eyes don't belong on any other pastor or any other global church leader our eyes need to be anchored upon and set our gaze upon the son of god over the years i've spoken to quite a few people that at one point in time left the church and by the grace of god made their way back in the church and as i talked to them about their their journey and i asked them hey why did you leave you know what i've never heard one person say i've never heard anybody go well pastor you know the more i got to know jesus and the closer i i grew with him and the more i experienced his presence and the more he just disappointed me right like i've never heard that because people aren't disappointed in jesus jesus is forever wonderful and the closer you grow to jesus the more wonderful he becomes people aren't disappointed in jesus more often not they're disappointed with themselves or they're disappointed with other disciples of jesus and the truth is that well-meaning christians well-meaning disciples will probably say and probably do some dumb stuff and if we're not careful if we're not persistent in keeping our focus on jesus it's really easy to get offended and then to live in that offense it's easy to stay offended instead of staying plugged in and seeking reconciliation for the offense and what happens is if we live in a fence so many people then leave a community they they leave a church and they do the church hop and they go from church to church until they find the perfect church the only problem with that is they continue to hop from church because there is no perfect church because there's people in every church and unfortunately there's no perfect people just a perfect savior [Music] so instead of walking away can i just encourage us to be like the woman in our story and even amid silence even amidst offense let's endeavor to look past people let's endeavor to look past flawed disciples and get our eyes on the savior let's set our focus on jesus because he's the author the finisher and the perfecter of our faith listen in order to have great faith in order to have it unlocked in our lives we need great persistence amidst the silence amidst defense but we also need great persistence in seasons of confusion and seasons of confusion and this is the third part and the final part to this first key and we're going to get through it quickly but if you would look at verse 24 after this woman is into her silence and offense jesus finally speaks up look what he has to say to her but he answered and he said i was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of israel now imagine being this woman right you you're broken you you're in desperation you're asking for help you've already endured silence and defense and now this is the response he chooses to give you now you want to talk about confusion i can only imagine the inner dialogue as she begins to process what jesus has said right if i'm that woman i know for sure i'm going wait let me let me get this straight so you have the power to heal you have the power to help but because i'm not the right type of person you're not going to help are you saying jesus that if i was jewish then you would help me i'm confused i thought that was part of your your mantle that helping all people was a part of who you're supposed to be can i just say that perhaps one of the greatest hurdles that will hinder our pursuit of jesus is when we start comparing our story and looking at other people's lives and their stories right this is what the woman is thinking she's going you're willing to help them you're willing to help the lost sheep of israel but you're not willing to help me like i don't know about you but i've actually been there before i've been in that place where it seems like god's willing to help everybody else but not me and you hear a story about sister so-and-so and she had cancer and god healed her and i'm over here with like a cold and god's not touching me and then you hear stories about brother so and so and he needed help paying rent and got supernaturally provided financially for him and i'm over here going like hey could i get a prayer in and it seems like god is interested in helping everybody else but me and it's confusing when god doesn't do what we think he should do or what we want him to do like they're this is embarrassing there's literally been moments in my life where i'm sitting there and i go god i wish you were more predictable but here's the truth about god that we're going to have to accept god will never be who we think he should be [Applause] at times that's a hard pill to swallow because we like to think that we're at the center of the universe and that thing should be done on our timetable and done in the manner of our choosing we love the idea of god being predictable because that makes us feel like we're in control but the truth is god will never be who we think he is god will never be who we want him to be you know why because god is who he says that he is he's not who we think he is he is who he says that he is and our job is to get our thinking and our speaking in alignment with his word and his word says that his thoughts his ways they're higher than our own in the moment we think we've got god pegged the moment we think we've got god figured out is the moment we actually invite confusion to be a part of the equation and not faith because god will not be pigeonholed god will not be figured out god will not be placed neatly into a box of our own creating no it takes faith to believe that god is who he says that he is and if he is in fact who he says that he is and not who we think he is he will not always act and or respond the way that we want him to or the way that we think that he should and when that's the case we have to dig in and learn to be persistent in our pursuit of jesus it takes faith to persist upon god in prayer when things are confusing and it seems like god is helping everybody else but me that's when we need to take a lesson from this woman and when it seems like god is silent and when it seems like disciples are offending and even when it seems like jesus's word doesn't make any sense in the situation this woman she's not moved this woman she stays persistent and that's the first key for unlocking great faith we need great persistence when god seems silent we need to learn to wrestle with him in prayer it's an old testament story about a man named jacob the bible says one night the angel of the lord comes and wrestles with jacob physically wrestles grapples with jacob it's an odd passage but it's an incredible passage the bible says that they grapple they wrestle all night long so much so that the angel lord finally goes hey you've got to let me go and jacob says i will not let you go until you bless me there's something about having tenacity and in those moments of silence sometimes the best thing we can do is learn to wrestle and get on our knees and say god i'm here in my prayer closet god i'm not moving i'm not getting up until you speak until you give guidance until you give direction until you intervene god i'm learning to wrestle in the silence when it comes to offense we need to choose to forgive we need to endeavor to get our eyes off of other people look past them look around them and set our gaze on jesus and when it comes to confusion we need to stop trying to figure god out we need to go to his word we need to get a promise which by the way his promises are forever settled they never change and we need to take that promise we need to put it in our mouth and we need to rehearse it over and over we need to rehearse it out loud and remind our soul that in every season regardless of what is going on around us god is good and god is faithful so that's the first key we need to be persistent but quickly let me give you the second key in my time gosh has disappeared so quickly here's the second key that we see in our text the second key for great faith is great humility great humility look at verse 25 i love what this woman does next verse 25 then she came and worshiped him and i want to just pause it if you got a pen maybe just circle that word worship and she came and worshiped him the word worship literally speaks to her posture both inwardly and outwardly that word worship it literally means to fall prostrate it means to make one lower it means to draw near as though to kiss and before we move from this word i just want to say there's something supernatural about worship there's just something supernatural about worship especially when worship is engaged in before the answer and before the breakthrough comes when you're in the midst of the storm and things are raging around you and you take the time to submit yourself before god and take the posture of your heart in this place of oh god regardless of what's going on around me i'm going to declare the truth of who you are you're good and you're faithful and jesus whether you do anything for me or not you're still worthy of my worship there's something supernatural about worship matter of fact if you study the gospels every time you see the phrase written and they came and worshipped him or she came in worship where he came and worshiped him pay special attention because within a few verses you're going to see the supernatural take place there's something supernatural about worship then she came and worshiped him saying lord help me those are three of the most important words you can ever learn to say lord help me and what makes these words so incredibly special is that the woman says them without an agenda i'm gonna get to that in just a moment look at what she says though she says lord meaning boss one that is in authority essentially she's saying look lord you're in control and i'm not it takes great humility to submit ourselves under the will and under the authority of another person now this goes back to something i said earlier but god will not be coerced god will not be manipulated into doing our bidding god is not who we want him to be god is not who we think he is god is who he says he is god does not exist for us we exist for him we were created to worship him he's the potter we're the clay he's the vine we're the branches he's god he's lord he's boss we are not she acknowledges his authority she says lord help me in other words i can't do this on my i can't fix the situation i've done everything i know to do but i'm at the end of my rope help me this is the epitome of humility and i love it again she's not coming with some hidden agenda she's not like hey lord help me get a ferrari hey lord help me get more followers on social media no there's nothing selfish in her ass she's broken she's desperate and she's there on behalf of her daughter who is in need and she goes jesus you've got to help me because unless you get involved i'm sunk i need you this woman as i have read about her and studied her this week you notice that it's actually changed the way i've gone about my prayer time i've looked at her humility and it's changed the way i pray i'm saying stuff like god would you remind me of my need for you god would you forgive me for approaching you with wrong motives god would you forgive me for at times making this life about me god would you remind me that i'm small but that you're big and if you'll fight in me and if you'll fight for me no plan no scheme no ploy the enemy can succeed my prayer has been lord help me and jumping back into the text this woman from a posture of humility she asked jesus for help and again at this point we're so accustomed to seeing jesus immediately stretch out his hand and heal and intervene but instead he makes a comment that on the surface seems way out of character for jesus look at verse 26 see what he said but he answered and he said to her it's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs now this is a fascinating statement it's made by jesus especially when you consider the cultural moment and the cultural context you see jews don't like gentiles and again tyre and simon this is a gentile region and what makes this really interesting is that jews had a name for gentiles they literally called them dogs obviously a derogatory term and on the surface you read this you're like dang jesus that's kind of harsh i didn't expect that to come from you but i want you to notice that jesus adds one really important word to his statement he says the little dogs this is actually a a bit of a cheeky play on words jesus uses a different greek word a different word in the original language than the word dog that most jews would have used you see by adding the word little to the front of it he's actually pun intended taking the bark out of the bite he says little dog literally translated puppy dog i don't know anybody that has a bad opinion of a puppy this isn't a slight it's actually a term of endearment now to be clear it's a term that clearly delineates the the difference between jesus primary target of ministry which was the jewish people and and not the gentiles but essentially jesus is saying to this one like i don't view you with the animus that others might view you but right now you're not the target of my ministry again not a slight i actually think it's more of a test i think jesus is trying to figure out is this woman going to stay persistent is she going to maintain this posture of humility or is she going to get angry is she going to walk away and can i just say this sometimes jesus will test the tenacity of our faith in order that it may grow think about james chapter one verse number two count it all joy my brothers when you fall into trials of various kinds knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience and let patience have its perfect work in you so that you might become perfect and complete lacking nothing so i believe jesus is just sort of pushing a little bit to see if this woman's going to stick around and i love her response it's full of humility it's full of faith verse 27 look what she says and she said yes lord yes lord yet even the little dogs they eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table yes lord in other words i acknowledge and i put myself underneath your wisdom i put myself underneath your authority and whether i understand your statement or not whether i like your statement or not i trust you and i'm in agreement with you so let your will be done she says yes lord yet even the little dogs they eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table now that's interesting because jesus didn't say anything about the master's table he just said it's not good to take the children's bread but this woman she understood something she understood the source of the bread she understood that even the children they sit at the master's table in other words she's saying jesus look you're the master and all of the bread all of the blessing all of the mercy all of the provision it belongs to you and it comes from you and she goes look jesus i don't need much i just need a crumb and that'll be enough because i know that there's enough power there's enough kindness there's enough mercy there's enough grace and just one word from you that will heal my daughter and meet every need because nothing is too difficult for you i just need a crumb now remember i told you this story is also recorded for us in mark chapter 7. now mark is an interesting gospel to read because of its literary style and when reading the book of mark scholars will tell you to be on the lookout for what's called marconian sandwiches it's a story that's sandwiched by two other stories and it brings a great point of emphasis to that middle story so again this the story we've read today it's captured for us in mark chapter seven but do you know it's written in mark chapter six it's the story of jesus feeding the five thousand and then you jump ahead to mark chapter eight the other side of that sandwich [Music] we have jesus feeding the four thousand and in both of these stories jesus multiplies bread and he feeds the children of israel and in both of these stories at the end the disciples are instructed to pick up every crumb to pick up every scrap to pick up every leftover and i can't help but notice but sandwich right in between these two stories we've got our woman going hey look jesus i don't even need a whole loaf of bread i don't even need a slice look give the bread to the children i'm good with that but i know that you're the god of abundance i know that you're the god of more than enough you're the god of leftovers and if i can just get a crumb if i can just get a touch if i can just get one word from you it's going to be more than enough and when jesus hears these words of faith when he recognizes her posture of humility i love the phrase he says he goes oh woman great is your faith let it be done to you as you desire and the scripture says that her daughter was healed from that very hour man i love jesus i love that jesus loves people i love that jesus brings deliverance for those that are oppressed by the devil and in matthew and in mark this is where our story ends but today i want to wrap up by maybe giving you one observation one little curve ball if you've got your bible acts chapter 21 acts chapter 21 [Music] this is how i think the story really ends and if you're new to the scriptures the book of acts is written by a guy named luke luke is a physician he writes in great detail he also wrote the gospel of luke he's one of our more prolific authors in the new testament in the book of acts it records for us the acts of the apostles the work of the holy spirit as the message of jesus is now being preached all over the known world and luke went on many different missionary journeys and he wrote all that he saw and all that he heard while he was on those journeys and just an interesting thing to note is that luke had a travel companion a guy named john mark and john mark went on a bunch of these missionary journeys with him now john mark is not an original disciple but john mark is the one that penned the gospel of mark the gospel mark is written from peter's eyewitness account so john mark would have sat with peter and peter would have told him what to write john mark recorded every word then when it comes to the story that we've read today obviously peter was there because it's recorded for us in mark chapter 7. but now we're in acts 21 and luke and john mark are together on a missionary journey and look what verse number 3 says acts 21 verse 3 when we had sighted cyprus we passed it on the left and sailed to syria and landed at tyre for there the ship had to unload her cargo verse 4. in finding disciples in finding disciples in finding disciples we stayed there seven days they told paul through the spirit not to go up to jerusalem and when we had come to the end of those days we departed and went our way and they all accompanied us with wives and children till we were out of the city and we knelt down on the shore and we prayed and when we had taken our leave of one another we boarded the ship and they returned home so here acts 21 luke and john mark are in the city of tyre this is the first time there's ever been a missionary missionary endeavor in that city remember i told you tyre is a pagan spot they worship false gods no jew would go to tyre or sidon this is the first time the gospel is being actively preached in the city of tyre and they show up in this unreached part of the world and the bible says they're met with many disciples how did they get there and then it's really interesting because luke says that those disciples they came out to greet us with their wives and children like that's an interesting detail why would you include that i think it's because luke and john mark are standing there on the beach and they're meeting these disciples john mark goes hey hey that's that woman lucas which woman that's the one that came to jesus her daughter was severely demon-possessed and she stayed persistent and she took this posture of humility she's one of the only two people jesus said great is your faith so jesus heals this woman's daughter i think she goes home to tire and she tells everybody that'll listen about this amazing man that changed her life listen great faith is not just for yourself great faith is so that it can be shared with those around us one encounter with jesus changed this woman's life changed the life of her family it changed the life of her city i've had an encounter with jesus he changed my life and he rescued me from sin death and destruction he took me out of the miry clay he set my feet on a rock he brought salvation he took my garments of shame and he gave me his righteousness and today i'm telling you about this amazing jesus that if he can do a work in my life he can do a work in your life i'm here to tell you about this amazing jesus that loves you that's here to set the gap free this amazing jesus that will not turn you away this amazing jesus that knows you intimately and deeply and loves you despite your baggage this jesus that says hey you don't have to get your life in perfect working order before you come to me he says no come as you are and it's my grace and it's my mercy and it's my kindness that changes your life and if you don't know jesus can i plead with you and can i implore you don't get in your car don't drive away today until you've made the most important decision of your life and that's surrendering it to jesus he loves you he loves you i'm about to say something that's really blunt some of you might be offended with it but i'm okay with that if you don't have jesus you will end up in a place that the bible calls hell the gospel is so clear it is so black and white it's either jesus in the gospel or his hell and separation from god and life is short life is like a vapor it's here and then it's gone and i'm telling you eternity is real and eternity is forever and if you don't know jesus if you've not experienced his love if you've not allowed him to save you and to rescue you what are you doing what are you doing he will not turn you away and if you're here today and you say harrison that's me i want to make jesus the lord and savior of my life i want to submit under his authority i want to submit myself under his word i want to put my trust in his finished work on the cross in the fact that he died was buried and was raised back to life i want to put my faith in the son of god if that's you i want to pray for you maybe if it helps you for a moment just to bow your heads and to close your eyes god you see every life every story you know every name you know every face and i thank you for your love i thank you for your love that transcends borders your love that transcends all different types of lions your love that came and rescued us when we were still a long way off and father for those in this place today that are in need of salvation those that are wanting to put their trust in you as they do right now i pray that by the power of your holy spirit you would pour out your love in their heart that you would give them your righteousness if that's you today and you want salvation i need you to do something i need you to start articulating some words if you'll put words and heart together and cry out to god from that place of sincerity that that place of humility god will meet you i'm not going to give you words today because the truth is you don't need me to get to jesus if you will just pray and say oh jesus will you save me jesus i believe you love me i believe you died for me jesus will you take me with all of my baggage and make me new he'll do it so right now even from the privacy of your own seat would you begin to lift up your prayer before god and cry out for salvation i pray that the the conviction of the holy spirit would sit and rest on this house oh god would you rescue people today when you look at us may you say as you said to that woman great is your faith jesus name amen [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Cottonwood Church

Views: 1,599

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Cottonwood, Cottonwood Church, Cottonwood live, cottonwood livestream, harrison conley, bayless conley, bayless conley sermon, message, jesus, christ, pastor, cottonwood creek, orange county, hillsong, elevation church, 2 keys for unlocking great faith, two keys for unlocking great faith, persistence, humility, persistence in silence, persistence in offense, persistence in confusion, matthew 15, masters table, bread crumbs, great persistence, great humility, sundays at cottonwood

Id: ECJfsHeqIpQ

Length: 50min 3sec (3003 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021