WE THE CHURCH SERIES - CHURCH OF GREAT FAITH

[Music] praise the lord saying you're too again to the eastern star church where jesus is exalted and the word is explained my name is pastor jay and i'm so excited that you decided to tune in with us today here at our bible study noon day bible study in the middle of the day in the middle of the week just taking some time out to say thank you jesus to to worship his name to get to get a word from the lord to help us deal with the issues and uh the challenges that we continue to face in this life and i'm so glad that you are tuned in wherever you are just know that god has a word for you and know that god can touch you and speak to you right where you are so before we get started uh with our time today let us go to god in the word of prayer dear heavenly father we're so grateful for who you are thank you for your grace and your mercy and your love for us thank you for covering us and keeping us and directing us thank you for blessing us and providing for us and healing us and god we ask that you will continue to forgive us for all of our sins our shortcomings our mistakes god i pray that you will fill us up with your holy spirit so that we can be more like your son jesus christ as we continue to navigate and maneuver through this thing called life god we know that every now and again we will face troubling times but we share in your suffering in hopes that we can share in your glory so god thank you so much for the church thank you so much for the gathering today thank you so much for the digital disciples that have logged in to get a word from you and god i pray that you will touch their hearts their minds i pray that you will help us to hide your word into our hearts today so that we can log out of here better than when we came we love you it's in jesus name that we pray amen listen wherever you are go ahead and type in the comment section right quick just one word one word describing how you feel right now just one word describing how you feel right now i know things aren't as easy and things are hard life is hard but we still serve a god who loves us we still serve a god who cares for us we still serve a god who will intervene on our behalf because jesus loves us and we can love him back and so we want to take some time right now to worship god in spirit and the truth before we dive into today's scripture let us go and praise god together [Music] millions of words can describe the feeling i have done inside it's hard to contain so i'll simply say [Music] i am [Music] millions of words can't describe [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] this is [Music] cause there is i searched all over [Music] so i'm returning [Music] is [Music] there's [Music] jesus jesus said i love you [Music] lord i love you [Music] not because of what you do because of who you are [Music] more than anything [Music] and with all of my i love you jesus [Music] i love [Music] i love you [Music] i love [Music] i love you lord [Music] i love you jesus [Music] nothing [Music] hallelujah praise the lord praise god listen before we dive into today's scripture today i just want to continue there you know i love you jesus if i can sing i'll sing it but i can't so i got my a man corner my sister with me uh minister dede gray can you just can we just sing a little bit of that i love you jesus i love you jesus yeah i worship and adore you just want to tell you lord i love you more than anything [Music] i love you jesus that's it i worship and adore you just want to tell you lord i love you more than anything yeah that's good right there it's just a just a reminder the fact that jesus loves us but at the same time we love him and so it's always good just to tap into worship um so today we will conclude um our journey through this series that we've entitled we the church and so throughout the month of september we've celebrated how the church locally eastern star church was birthed in somebody's home and now here in 2021 101 years later we are continuing to explore other ways in which the church the body of christ can make an impact outside of building outside of the church building those four walls of the church and so um throughout the month of september we've we've seen young people fall out of the church and walk back into church we've had church in the cemetery we've had bedside baptist church we've had church without walls and actually um a couple weeks ago we preached a sermon church without walls at a mark and today i want to look at that same narrative but this time i want to look at it from the book of matthew okay so the book of matthew chapter 15 beginning at verse number 21. um and we will begin reading there from the new revive standard version and uh like i said a couple weeks ago we looked at this same story from the book of mark the sarah phoenician woman that canaanite woman who went to jesus and asked jesus about her daughter and so today we will look at matthew's version of that out of matthew 15 verse 21 and it says jesus left that place jerusalem and went away to the district of tyra and saddam just then a canaanite woman from the region came out and started shouting have mercy on me lord son of david my daughter is tormented by a demon but he did not answer her at all and his disciples came and urged him saying send her away for she keeps shouting after us he answered i was sent only to the lost sheet of the house of israel but she came in up before him again saying lord help me jesus answered her it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs she said yes lord yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table then jesus answered her woman great is your faith let it be done for you as you wish and her daughter was healed instantly verse number 27 this is the woman responding to jesus and said yes lord yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table that jesus answered her this is where we'll kind of spend some time woman great is your faith let it be done for you as you wish and her daughter was healed instantly jesus says great is your faith and today we want to talk about a church with great faith a church of great faith a couple weeks ago we looked at this same passage of scripture but we looked at it from the book of mark and when you go back and look at how mark describes the story it's much different than how matthew describes it um just a couple fun facts uh the synoptic gospels are not biographies of jesus they're just narratives from different perspectives that the authors had when describing the stories of jesus and each gospel that is written is written from a different author at a different time at a different place to a different set of people so let's just compare really quick matthew's gospel and mark's gospel although matthew comes first in the new testament when you go and look at the table of contents and you see the new testament matthew's there first matthew mark luke john although matthew is first in the new testament mark was written first mark was written depending on the scholars you look at uh some suggest that mark was written 66 to 70 years after the death of christ 66 to 70 a.d is mark's gospel uh mark was writing to a gentile audience that's why you see jesus engaging with um that that demon-possessed man in the gerasenes you see jesus uh healing that woman with the issue of blood you see jesus engaging with this syrophoenician woman uh mark's gospel was written specifically not for the jewish audience but for the gentile audience and jesus in the book of mark mark is trying to describe jesus as a servant as he is serving god's people that's why um mark is different from that of matthew and luke because mark doesn't mention the birth narrative he's not interested in the birth narrative he goes right into jesus serving god's people and that's why as we talked about throughout the month of september this word immediately comes up over 40 times because it's a sense of urgency that mark is he is writing to the gentiles he is writing uh and he is letting us know that jesus is a servant matthew on the other hand his objective is to help the jewish people okay he is writing to the jews matthew is he is his concern is to to to let the jewish people know that jesus is the messiah that jesus is the king of the jews that jesus is the manifestation of the prophecies that were written and spoke about thousands of years prior and so matthew comes on the scene and says jesus is the messiah that we have been waiting on okay so matthew writes his gospel some scholars say 85 to 90 years after the death of jesus so mark writes his first matthew writes his a few decades later and they're writing to two different audience and they're painting a picture of jesus in two different ways mark is painting his picture as a jesus servant matthew is painting his picture as jesus is the messiah he is the king of the jews and when mark and luke are writing their gospels some scholars suggest that they are using the gospel of mark as a source to their gospel that's why in the synoptic gospels matthew mark and luke you see um a variety of the same stories but they're written in two they're written in a multiplicity of ways three different ways matthew mark luke when you go back and read all those gospels you'll see that matthew and luke written around the same time they both include stories that mark includes in his gospel because scholar suggests one of the reasons why was because of the oral tradition that the jewish faith comes out of that stories that were passed down orally were now being written down others suggest that matthew and luke uses mark as a source to write their own gospel to write their own narrative from their own perspective and begin to fill in um their narrative to meet their goal and for matthew again he's writing to the jewish people to let the jewish people know that jesus is the messiah now i wanted to give you all those fun facts to let you know the difference between mark and luke in their telling of this narrative of jesus engaging with this sire for nationwoman now when you look at the um when you look at matthew it says that a canaanite woman that comes out of the region begins to shout mark describes this woman as a sire as a greek syrophoenician woman matthew leaves out the fact that she was syrophenician believes in the fact that she was a canaanite mark includes the fact that this woman was a gentile and syrophoenician a couple weeks ago we talked about it here is a woman that is a a black woman in a white man's world she is a black woman in the greek society but before we get into that here's here's what i want to bring up as we kind of walk through this text when you look at the story of mark mark leaves out the fact that jesus describes this woman's faith as having great faith in mark's gospel jesus says to the woman because you said this because of the fact that you spoke up for saying this you may go for the for the demon has left your daughter matthew says that jesus spoke to the woman and says you have great faith and so today i want to explore this idea of great faith and the fact that great faith is a necessity we need to have great faith jesus says that all you need is a faith size as a mustard seed faith and and here in matt in matthew jesus points out the fact that this woman has great faith so what was so great about this woman's faith well let's explore this really quickly shout out to the amen corner we see y'all we appreciate y'all engaging in the comments thank you all so much uh make sure you share this as we explore this idea of great faith so why why was this woman's faith so great first of all this woman's faith was so great man that's like a bar like i feel like i'm rapping right there this woman's faith was so great because she made her request known to god we talked about it this woman is a gentile okay she's not jewish she is from the canaanite region she is a syrophoenician woman okay so the same roman empire that were that was oppressing jesus's people the hebrew people the jewish people is the same empire that was oppressing the people in uh the phoenician people the syrophoenician people over there in tara and sadon it's the same old person they were experiencing however the gentiles and the jewish people did not they didn't get along the jewish people did not like the gentiles and vice versa however jesus shows up to this gentile region and the woman shows up to jesus she breaks all the rules she goes outside the norm she breaks the tradition she goes and talks to a man in public because she's in a desperate situation and she makes a request known to god here is why you and i need great faith because there are certain situations and problems where it doesn't matter where you fall in society it doesn't matter your gender it doesn't matter your sexuality it doesn't matter how big your church is it doesn't matter the position you hold or the money you make or the scholarships of the schools that you go to some of some of the problems that we experience is consistent regardless of the area and the status of life that you're in here is a woman who's a gentile and she's experiencing a daughter who's dealing with a demon and she makes her request known to god what is her request her request is my daughter is dealing with a demon this demon is tormenting my daughter and she is going through now we don't give she doesn't give insight as to what was going on with her daughter all we know is that she was possessed with an evil spirit now i don't know the family dynamic i don't know where the the husband or the father was in this situation you know i don't know how this demon came about to torment and i don't know if it was a traumatic experience that this young girl went through i don't know if it was some video that she was watching that she probably shouldn't have been watching i don't know if it was some song that she heard on the radio that ignited some evil spirit to torment her but i do know this that regardless of where you find yourself in life all of us all of our children if we're not careful if we're not careful we'll be open to the influence of the demonic because there is a demonic attack after our children dede we heard it from pastor watson this past sunday we will repeat it again today because it needs to be said that there is a demonic attack after our children with the violence that we see in our city with the videos that we see on our social media with the music that we listen to there is a demonic attack after our children and i don't know how the mnemonic how the the demon showed up to this girl's life but i do know this regardless regardless of your gender regardless of your status in life regardless of the job you hold if we're not careful our children can be susceptible to a demonic attack let's let's hop in the comments real quick that was a lot that was a lot of fun facts and so are they are they good over there yeah they're good they you got a lot of amens on that one pastor uh people saying these are the times when we really need to step out into great faith and i feel like i'm sitting in seminary class going through new testament class man you you teaching today you're preaching that's what's up so so here's the thing about this demonic piece and that is this like you know as as as a preacher you know we are taught to engage the culture and i i'm like leery on like um demonizing music or like demonizing hollywood or demonizing it but i but but there needs to be a space of critique so even though we may enjoy hip-hop music it doesn't mean that we are supporting the fact because here it is there's a difference between telling your life story through music yeah and and kind of like praising or uplifting gang culture or violence or uh misogyny right and so when i think about the demonic attack that are on our children and the violence that we see in our city just this past monday watching the news 198 homicides in our city so far this year and we're just about to enter into the 10th month 198 homicides in our city right now as we enter into month 10. my god and we could talk about the social impact we could talk about education we could talk about the home we could talk about all this stuff but at the end of the day it is a spiritual attack that is happening this is why whenever i hear that migo song and that line comes up and says the draco undefeated it just hits it just hits differently like i remember when that album first came out a few months ago and i'm rocking to it in that line see if y'all don't know what draco is just as your grandchild it's like it's a gun they said the draco undefeated the gun undefeated now they hit differently when you in a city where 198 homicides have taken place and we're only are we still in month number nine my god why is that because there is a demonic attack on our children and this is why great faith is a necessity we need great faith we need a church with great faith we need parents who have great faith we need uncles and aunties a village teachers and mentors and coaches and pastors and preachers and leaders who have this great faith who can make a request known to god god you see i'm trying to raise these children in the admonition of the lord god you see that the school is failing our children god you see that we can't get back into the building so they're missing out on the spiritual nourishment that they can get and so we need people of great faith who can make the request known to god and this is why i love this woman so much i really love i really loves mark's version because it's quicker but matthew's version is very detailed in the fact that this woman shows up and makes a request known to god and what mark misses out on that matthew picks up on is the fact that this woman shows up to jesus and says lord son of david son of david see that is a title that is that that that uh that messianic title it it speaks to the fact that jesus is the messiah i told you now matthew is writing the gospel to the jewish people to let them know that jesus is the messiah so here you have this gentile woman who and a part of the jewish tradition shows up and says lord son of david this is a political title because of course david was the king of israel but now israel is under oppression it is now caesar it is now harry it is now the roman empire that has all the power and so when she comes up to jesus and lets jesus know that he is the son of david it speaks to the fact that jesus is the messiah and this is interesting because when you read this in context when you go back um in the beginning of the chapter in mark and matthew both of them have jesus engaging with the pharisees engaging with the elders these these the the religious sect the religious leaders of that day who didn't see jesus as the messiah they were blind to the fact that jesus was a messiah they didn't believe him and so jesus leaves israel goes over uh to this gentile nation and the first thing he sees is a woman who says you are the messiah you are the son of david because this woman has some great faith she was willing to make her request known to god she was willing to speak out for her child who's back at home dealing with a demon and she was willing to see jesus as he was he is the son of david this is a political title this is a title that represents the fact that jesus is the messiah she believed that jesus was the messiah and made her request known to god what you got dee that's good pastor uh again wendy reed walker i want to shout her out for her comment she said at those times is when we need to step out on faith and then sister eileen watson she says we have to keep the faith and we also need to share our faith with our sisters and brothers don't keep it to ourselves and and here's i mean because i mean they really laid out the foundation for my next move here when we talk about keeping the faith amen because although this woman comes with great faith to make a request known to god she she experienced a response that she probably didn't expect to experience coming from jesus see when mark writes his story mark immediately gets to jesus calling his woman a dog which we'll get to again in a second but matthew takes his time to get there you know it's almost like he didn't want to put it in there so he says that look at the response that jesus has in verse number 23 of matthew after g after this woman makes a request known to god verse number 23 says but he did not answer her at all that's all it ain't too deep this is right there verse 23 but jesus did not answer her at all here's a woman with great faith comes to jesus and says jesus i know i'm a gentile i know i'm a woman i know i ain't supposed to be doing this but i i'm dealing with a desperate situation i got a daughter who's dealing with a demon and i'm breaking the norms right now to making this request but can you see about my daughter and notice the response of jesus wait there isn't a response he is silent he is quiet and i wonder have you ever experienced a moment in your life where you prayed to god you fasted you was in your scripture you was in your word and you were trying to be open to the voice and the move of god but there was nothing help us there was silence there wasn't a there wasn't a response and this is what this woman had to deal with this is what her this is what this woman's faith is now up against this woman's faith is now up against a quiet god my god a silent god a god who ain't got nothing to say a god who heard your prayer but he ain't moving as quickly as you thought he was because i mean in mark chapter five when when jairus said yo ma i got a daughter at this at the crib she's sick jesus said let's go and immediately as mark would say they started walking to jairus house immediately this woman with the issue of blood found her immediately but here is the woman the sire phoenician the gentile the canaanite woman who in tyra and sedona in a non-jewish region shows up to jesus makes her request known to god and now her faith has to deal with the silence of god why and i wonder i wonder how many of us can be honest and real even in the amen corner that we at times experience the silence of god god i've been praying about my child for 18 years and you know i i've been asking about a new job and nothing i've been looking for direction and clarity in this area and nothing it's the silence of god how do you deal when god is silent when you when you uh after you read the last book of the old testament and and you go into the new testament some scholars call that um the silent years there were hundreds of years where there was no supposedly there were no writings or no people kind of engaging in the faith with god there were no there were no prophecies at that time there was a moment of sight there was a moment of silence that the jewish people had to endure but one thing that i've come to learn in this in this faith journey in my spiritual journey is this that just because god is silent don't mean that god ain't moving can we put that in the comments section yeah just because god is silent don't mean that god ain't moving remember ain't too the god ain't moving just because that god is silent doesn't mean that god is not moving thank you and every now and again god will allow a moment of silence to take place in our life to test our faith yes he will but here's another interesting piece about this is because you know mark and matthew both mention the fact that jesus had just came out of a heated debate with the pharisees and now he's going into this this this city this non-jewish region and and he's looking to find some rest so so maybe so maybe um matthew and mark really are are describing the humanity of jesus and that he just needed a moment to silence himself like he just needed a place to stay he just needed a place to relax and to and to restore from all the mess that he's encountered with the pharisees every time he was trying to do some help the pharisees will pop up with some beef and now he's looking to get away oh my my yo you remember that song um take me to a place where everybody knows my name some of us probably don't get this point but sometimes many of us just want to go to a place where nobody knows our name some of us may not get that point but there are moments where we just want to decompress yeah there are moments where we just need to sit down there are moments where we just need to calm down and this what is this what jesus does he's looking for a place to relax but this woman as jesus is looking for a rest this woman is looking for a redeemer but but the problem was jesus didn't respond and to make the problem even more worse worser is the fact that the disciples begin to shun this woman off the back end of jesus not saying anything now look at what the disciples say in verse number 23 same verse but he did not answer her at all immediately after that it says and his disciples came and urged him saying send her away for she keeps shouting after us it's like yo we trying to get some rest we trying to relax we just got done dealing with the the pharisees now this woman talking about a demon like send her away this is against the rules we ain't supposed to be talking to this woman we're supposed to be talking with this gentile send her away and every now and again when you talk about great faith you're trying to mature your faith into a great faith you will encounter a test where not only you will deal with the silence of the savior but you will deal with the shunning of the disciples where where uh church folk uh who don't who don't want to help you in your faith journey you will experience something even in the e even in the fellowship even amongst the disciples even amongst the followers of jesus and i can imagine this woman thinking to herself i i didn't come for this i i thought that you all were going to help me i didn't come for for this type of response she got silent treatment from jesus she got a rejection from the disciples and then on top of all that when jesus finally spoke up notice what he says in verse number 24 he answered i was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of israel man that's that's tough wow that's tough for this woman to have to deal with but this is how you and i grow in our faith because every now and again we may get tested in our faith and the testing of our faith may not come with temptation and sin you know it may not come with bringing the tithe into the storehouse it may not come worshipping god over your worries sometimes the testing of our faith is manifested in the hurt that we experience from disciples is the hurt that we experience from the body of christ it's the rejection that we experience in the house of god which causes me to ask you the amen corner how do you deal with church hurt how do you deal with an experience that took place in the house of god that you weren't expecting that you probably shouldn't experience but it went down anyway how does your faith help you to overcome church hurt dede what you got for us walk heavy sir you're walking heavy this is good this is good can we stay right here like for yeah i want to stay right here what are they saying what are they saying are they feeling are they understanding what you're talking about so sister sherry sharif please forgive me uh conley edwards i'm with her she said geesh and uh i love her play on words she says silence of the lamb we talked about god being silent jesus being silent um you get a lot of amens i love hear what um sister charlotte uh williams says she said because of this message my prayer is that more mothers and fathers will be persistent in seeking and speaking to god on behalf of their children all children yeah now that's that's um that's good because again we're dealing with great faith yeah and every now and again our great faith must be expressed and not just making our requests known to god but how do we deal with the obstacles that come yeah and sometimes the obstacles reside in the house of god sometimes sometimes the obstacles reside when dealing with disciples yeah sometimes the the obstacles come when you're trying to get to the church and trying to get to the altar but you're being shunned because of your difference because of your gender because of your sexuality because of where you live and this is what this woman is going through she is dealing with the obstacles of her faith but and notice what it says jesus says i was only sent to the lost sheep of israel let's let's stay here for a second this woman in the beginning goes to jesus and says you are the son of david okay that speaks to his his jewish lineage it speaks to his his the hebrew and the hebrew blood that's pumping in his veins all right it's speaking to that it speaks to the fact that jesus comes from uh the bloodline of david in that he belongs to the house of israel yeah and jew and jesus's earthly ministry his his target demographic was the jewish people that's who he was here for it was for the house of israel it was for the house of israel that's why when jesus goes and begins to um begin his ministry and he's dealing with the pharisees and the sadducees and he's dealing with tax collectors and he's and he's uh recruiting fishermen like all of these were jewish people yeah so jesus is true in that in this statement he says i was sent only for the house of israel in the same breath however jesus still has a love for outsiders but but when jesus makes this statement of i come for the house of israel yeah notice the response of the woman but she came and knelt before him saying lord help me and sometimes that's all your faith got in the instance like that like lord just help me i love the fact that she kneels down like this is a sign of worship yeah she she has a daughter at the creep who's dealing with a demon but she's still in the presence of jesus and finds an opportunity to worship jesus even when she's dealing with a demon i wonder how many of us in the in the midst of dealing with our demons still find time to worship jesus i know dealing with a demon you probably don't want to be honest with that but all of us got some issues in our life all of us got some spiritual issues that we go through in our family with our children on our jobs but do you have enough faith do you have that great faith that you can tap into that says regardless of the obstacles that i'm facing jesus is still worthy of my praise and when i'm in the presence of god even when the disciples are hating i can still find time to worship jesus yeah and the text says that she falls down and says help lord lord help me that's a three word prayer right there right there lord help me because sometimes that's all your faith god lord help me in and out are you in a pandemic for 18 months lord help me when you've got friends and family that have been passing away lord help me when you got to wear masks everywhere you go lord help me when i'm dealing with financial problems lord help me i'm tapping into this great faith and my faith has been tested from a from us i like what that i like what the amen corner says the silence of the lamb my faith has been tested from church folk who don't want me in the presence of the lord and then it got even worser i know it's not a word y'all but i'm just i just i don't know why i'm saying that it got worser notice what he said in verse number 26 after she worshipped him verse 26 says it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs now out of the body of christ we have a statement that is controversial we talked about it a couple weeks ago jesus referring to this woman as a dog but i love it because it really helps us to understand the fact again go back and listen to the sermon a couple weeks ago we kind of put it in context as jesus is using this as an illustration to show how the pharisees operate and that they would whether upkeep and uphold tradition that to meet a need of the people they would rather hold up pilots they put policy over people you're walking heavy and so here is jesus saying all right the disciples are here all right disciples this is what the church looks like when we put tradition over the needs of the people i can't take what is meant for the children and toss it to the dogs but but but notice how this woman deals with church hurt because all of us are going to deal with it if you i mean you spend a little time in church you're going to hear something that you probably sh that shouldn't have been said you're going to experience something that you probably shouldn't experience you wouldn't think that you would see people act like this in the house of god you wouldn't think that you hear folk talk like this in the house of god but again the church we are people it's not just the building it's the body and we're people we're human beings born and raised in sin shaping and iniquity and every now and again you may hear some sinful things you may see some sinful things but here's what i love about this woman she didn't allow the church hurt that she was experiencing in that moment that part to keep her from tapping into her faith because all of us are going to experience church hurt at some point yeah all of us will experience it and that's why i'll diddy can you can you bring up this scripture for us because i want to i want to show us this um we run out of time we got a little bit time left i want to show this really quickly to help people how do they respond to church hurt luke chapter 4 verse 28 through 30. can somebody write that in the comments luke chapter 4 verse chapter 4 verse 28 through 30. since the deity gonna read it for us i got it said uh when they heard this all in the synagogue were filled with rage they got up drove him out of the town and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they might hurl him off the cliff but he passed through the midst of them and went on his way my mind now i didn't it's so much in luke chapter four we ain't got time to read the whole thing but didi read for us the end of a pericope where jesus goes into the synagogue in nazareth his hometown his home his home church if you will and preaches his first sermon and instead of the people giving a love offering instead of the people writing cards that in letters that say oh your word touched me and instead of the people coming alongside this young millennial who's doing his thing in the kingdom after preaching his first sermon you know he says the spirit of the lord is upon me this to preach good news to the poor to set the captives free to proclaim uh the year the lord's favor to give sight to the blind he goes through all of that and at the end of his sermon ms d just read it for us it said that the people of god try to push jesus off a cliff my god but i love how jesus and luke in luke chapter 4 dealt with the church hurt it says that he went on his way yes can can you read that part for me for us again come on i don't want to get it wrong i don't want to misquote the bible right here it's that part right there sir but he passed through the midst of them and went on his way i love it because that's how we go that's sometimes that's how we just got to operate when it comes to church hurt listen here's a woman that heard jesus refer to her as a dog she's experienced disciples who are trying to shun her she's dealt with us with the silence of the lamb but in the midst of all that that's good she had to push through and continue to be resilient in her prayer life continue to be persistent in her prayer life just like jesus did in luke 4. he he went he pushed through the crowd and went on his way i don't want to stay here too long because i think i'm going to deal with this text in october but i i just love the fact that jesus went on his way because y'all might hear me say this again in october but i'm gonna say it here anyway the fact i'm so glad that jesus went on his way i'm so glad that he didn't succumb himself to church hurt i'm so glad that he didn't say man you see how they treated me i'm done with this i ain't gonna do ministry no jesus pushed through the crowd and went on his way and when he went on his way he went in his way to give sight to the blind he went on his way to heal the sick he went on his way to raise the dead he went on his way to down the cross he went on his way to raise up again on the third day because he didn't allow people in the religious institution to keep him from what god has for him and this is what this woman of great faith does matthew really paints the picture the really the back and forth between of this woman and jesus first this woman says heal my daughter then jesus says i'm only here for the sheep of israel then he then she says help lord then he says i'm not giving food to the dogs then she says in verse 27 yes lord yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table ooh the persistency of this woman the resilience of this woman the clap back from this woman the sassiness of this woman the attitude of this woman to take the metaphor that jesus used to describe her as a dog and then flipped it on jesus said oh no bro you ain't gonna have me like that the dogs eat the crumbs from the masters table in other words i can be satisfied by the leftovers because i know because here it is there are some pharisees that didn't even want the food there were some sadducees they didn't want there were some jewish people that didn't want the food and here is this woman this gentile this woman this woman from a whole nother area shows up and says i would rather have the leftovers i'll take the crumbs i love the subversiveness of this woman where she was willing to be subtle and subversive in her response to jesus she was willing to talk back even in the face of church hurt she was willing to speak up on behalf of herself and her family and she was willing to be persistent in her prayer life my god and and that's the point right there as you go as you go to uh to pick up this other scripture uh dede in luke chapter 18 verse one through eight there's a parable that jesus tells about us being persistent in our prayer life and i want to encourage us in this because some people think that you know i'm supposed to just pray at one time and leave it at the altar and god is going to work it out but no no no no no no we talk about great faith yeah we talk about great faith and every now and again great faith has to be persistent through the obstacles that we face even in the church even in the house of god even with the body of christ even though you may hear something that said to you or about you or about a loved one that you probably shouldn't have heard geesh but you you got to have some persistency let's read that uh let's read that parable real quick dee yes sir uh luke 18 first one then jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart he said in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared god nor had respect for people in that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying grant me justice against my opponent for a while he refused but later he said to himself though i have no fear of god and no respect for anyone yet because this widow keeps bothering me i will grant her justice so that she may not wear me out by continually coming and the lord said listen to what the unjust judge says and will not god grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night will he delay long in the in helping them i tell you he will quickly grant justice to them and yet when the son of man comes will he find faith on earth my my mind i i love the parable that jesus tells here about this woman this widow was going to somebody of power and she just kept going kept knocking at the door kept asking the same question over and over and i just wonder if there's anybody in the amen corner who can just be like you know what i'm tapping into this great faith that i have and i'm just gonna harass god until i get my healing i'm gonna just harass god i'm gonna stalk god until i get my my blessing i'm gonna be persistent in my prayer life because this is what this is what great faith is all about yes we will face obstacles yes we will face resistance yes we will even face rejection from the house of god and the people of god but that does not mean that we should let go of our faith we preached it just a few weeks ago when when jesus and uh james and john they leave out of the synagogue after they had encountered a demon at church after they've encountered a demon in church and james and john they've just been recruited recruited to be the disciples of jesus and they've encountered some craziness in the house of god but the text says in mark chapter 2 that james and john left with jesus i love it right there that every now and again we will experience something negative in the house of god but don't allow your negative experience to keep you from jesus stay persistent in your prayer life say persistent in tapping into your gifts and your talents stay persistent in the calling that god has for you regardless of what the disciples do regardless of the church hurt that you experience push through the crowd and go on your way to destiny stay persistent in your prayer life and that's what this woman did she stayed persisted in her prayer life she worshipped in her worries she worshipped in the face of people trying to shun her from the presence of god and in the midst of all that matthew says that jesus told her your daughter is healed because you are a woman of great faith i love it she said this this is the only one scholar says that this is the only person that jesus said this to that that you are a woman of great faith woman great is your faith and let it be done for you as you wish and her daughter was healed instantly great is your faith and and i love it because sometimes y'all great faith is not acknowledged by man or by woman it's not acknowledged by people my god because you know when i read that when i read that in one of the commentaries that this is the only person that jesus said this to a woman of great faith the woman your your faith is great yeah and then when you go to hebrews and look at the the hall of faith teach sir i mean this woman wasn't in the hall of faith this this woman wasn't acknowledged good luck by by some man or some woman because of her great faith i mean she was shunned by the disciples she was shunned by the followers of god she wasn't acknowledged by other folk by how great her faith was when you go and read the the hall of faith there in hebrews it it lists all of these people and matter of fact we don't even know this woman's name we're not even giving a name we're giving her situation we're giving her pain we're giving her race we're giving her gender but we're not giving her name but in the midst of all of that this woman showed some great faith and was only acknowledged by jesus and let that be known i love how paul says do your work is unto the lord i'm i'm tapping into faith not so that other people can acknowledge me but so that jesus can acknowledge my faith to bring healing and deliverance and joy in my life i wonder if there's anybody in the amen corner who's willing to just munch on the leftovers of jesus and say you know what i'm willing to take the leftovers so that my daughter can find her healing so that my son can be healed so that my family can be reunited again and god is looking for those of us who can tap into some great faith that's what this world needs we need a church with great faith my god who's willing to make their requests known to god who are willing to break the norms who are willing to go against tradition to make the request known or willing to stay persistent even in the midst of rejection because sometimes you have to raise your faith in the midst of rejection and even when you get a response that you may not necessarily expect from the church how do you deal with church hurt this woman dealt with it by continuing to worship jesus while she's in the presence of jesus and being persistent in her prayer life and as a result of her great faith her daughter was able to be whole again yeah yeah let's hop into the amen corner real quick pastor jay the a-man corner is on fire this one right here really really touches my heart um it again sister conley edwards um and i think this is what you're driving home today in this text and i'm reminded too as a parent because we had national daughters day the other day and then yesterday was national sun's day and so when she says unshakable faith brought all three of my children home from their bondage i was standing and having done all i still stood in my faith love this midday manna on my break at work blessings upon blessings to all this is one of my favorite texts as a parent yeah and what great faith like you don't have to call my name i don't have to be on the road listen my child got delivered that's all i wanted out of the deal you hear me great faith great faith shout out to sister conley edwards for that that testimony no doubt cause sometimes your faith is all you have listen and you ain't gonna put my name on on flyer you ain't gotta oh you ain't gotta tag me and no post as long as my as long as god acknowledges the greatness of my faith and bring healing and deliverance that's all we need let's pray real quick dear heavenly father thank you so much for the gathering today the digital disciples have made their way um and to hear a word from you and so we're grateful for the power of your word through these old ancient writings we can still find encouragement even as we walk through our day-to-day life so thank you so much for jesus christ thank you so much for the example that he said and thank you so much for this canaanite woman we don't know her name but we want to acknowledge her great faith even today that shows the example of what it means of what it truly means to have great faith so god help us to make our request known to you yeah help us to not try to seek other means of help but when all this fails god we can come to you and make our request known and even though you may not respond the way we think you should respond we're grateful that you hear our requests we're grateful that you hear our cries that you see our tears and that nothing can separate us from your love for us and god i pray that even as we experience church hurt as we can continue to engage with other human beings and other people's experiences and other people's perspectives god i pray that you will help us to hold on to you yeah even as we walk away from negative experiences we can still walk with jesus yeah and still hold on to his love thank you and god i pray that you will help us to stay resilient and persistent with our prayer life help us god to continue to call on your name for our children and for our situation and for our communities god continue god we we we ask for for strength um even in our prayer life god that we won't continue to to be weak in our prayer life but tap into that great faith so that we can see the results that you know that we know that you have for us yeah and god i pray all these things will happen in jesus name amen lord help amen if there's somebody that's tuned in today and um you need jesus christ i mean you need a church home you need a place where you can grow and develop as a child of god go ahead and email us right now at a membership eastern start church.org we've got some people that are awaiting your email to walk you through what it really looks like to have great faith so that you can be tapped into the body of christ in the community of faith go ahead and email us right there membership asianstartchurch.org also before we log out of here we want to make sure that we give you an opportunity to give all right we want to make sure we give you an opportunity to be obedient to the word of god as you seek to bring the time into the storehouse okay and so there's three ways you can bring your time into the storehouse you can text to give all right four five seven seven seven enter esc in the message field you can mail us our address is right there 5750 east 30th street 46218 indianapolis or you can give to us online easternstartchurch.org click the gift tab there and again we're so grateful for your generosity we're grateful for your support your prayers your patience with us in the midst of this pandemic and we ask that you will continue to pray for our pastor as he is on sabbatical as we continue to do our work as unto the lord the only way we can do that is by your generosity and by your support again thank you so much for tuning in to bible study today thank you so much for you for the amen corner thank you uh to uh to sister dede gray for helping us enter into the presence of the lord and we're grateful for your presence again meet us back here this sunday yeah and we'll see you then god bless you

Channel: Eastern Star Church

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Keywords: ESC, Bible Study, Noonday, Indianapolis Church

Id: iHQ8LqOVYH8

Length: 61min 28sec (3688 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021