Flipside Christian Church

It was great for shell and I to be gone.

Last week visiting our one of our sons.

Jeff did a great job
wrapping up chapter 14.

Thank you Jeff. Appreciate you.

But it's great for show and I to be back.

I'm excited to get to teach again
this morning and open up the Bible.

We're in the book of Matthew Steele.

We're just over halfway done
through this, through this book.

We're in chapter starting, chapter 15.

So if you have a Bible and brought that
with you, if you go to Matthew

chapter 15,
go to the Bible center of the Bible.

Take a right about halfway through
what's left.

You come to the first gospel,
first of four,

book of Matthew chapter 15,
and my Bible is right after chapter 14.

So I hope that helps you.

But before we get into Matthew 15,
I want to share with you

some things that that are going on
in our church that I want to happen

in our church and invite you
to be a part of it in a very specific way.

We're in the process
of hiring a few people, which will

really, really, really aid our ministries,
and I'm really excited about that.

Most of them are going to won't start
until July 1st ish.

So we have some
we got some build up time to get ready.

Part of what's going on.

We're taking another one of the suites
over in that building over there

and and recreating some more office space
for some of our staff, some more meeting

space for some of our church
that's going on right now.

I'm really excited
about what's happening there,

but I also want to take the existing site
here.

We we don't have the ability in this,

in this building to just blow out walls
and, and, you know, make bigger stuff.

So we have to work
with the shell that we have.

We all understand that. Right?
Because of how this is done.

So the one of the
the ways we can work with

the shell that we have
is just renovate the existing structure.

And so part of that renovation
has to do with the entryway.

Right now

it's just an entryway wide open to,
you know, elements and people coming in.

And you've seen the concrete,
how nasty that is out there.

It's just wear and tear.

And so we have this idea
that we want to make the entryway

into a furnished lobby.

And to do that, I want to put one of those
sectional glass roll up doors.

You know what I'm saying? Like,
look, beautiful.

I've seen some churches
do this before and kind of

wall that in

not with a solid wall, but with, you know,
this kind of semi-permeable,

visually visual sectional garage door
that's that's part of it.

And then take the inside
and make that into a lobby area.

So this would be this is all AI.

So you know, thank you chat.

But this is the idea of looking
from the outside

in to the entryway
of the lobby of our church.

And this would be looking
from the inside out and make it.

It's obviously a pretty beautiful,

but this would make it a usable space.

It would make it and it would make it.

So we have a place to fellowship
and kind of community and stuff.

And, and it would enable us,
instead of rolling stuff in and out

all the time, it wouldn't able to use
that as a true lobby,

secure some check in things
for our children's ministry and whatnot.

And so this is all super,
super, super doable for $25,000.

We can do it easily.

And so I want to invite you into that.

I know shell and I just transferred
some funds over to the church Friday

that are going to be used
for part of this.

And so I want to invite you into this
with us

to give over and above your regular
tithes and offerings.

And as soon as we get that
in, we can start this project.

But it's one of the needed things
that we've got to do for the growth

that we're experiencing, and to be able
to use this site in a way that I think

that really, really, really blesses,
blesses you and blesses our community.

So I'll leave that with you.

I trust that, as God
puts it on your heart, you will respond.

Matthew 15.

We're going to look at two
two sections of Matthew 15,

and we won't get through
the whole chapter. This morning.

We're going to take the chapter
in two weeks this week and next week.

And Matthew 15 deals with with two
accounts of how Jesus deals with people,

one one of them, the first one,
the first 20 verses.

In Matthew 15,
Jesus confronts the religious

religion that cleans the outside
but leaves the heart untouched.

So there's a confrontation
that Jesus has with people

who who are focused
on cleaning the outside.

But but nothing changed on the inside.

And the second thing, we'll look at verses
21 through 28, I think.

Yeah, 21 through 28.

And Jesus is going to welcome

the desperate faith that comes

from a woman with empty hands
and just pleads for his mercy.

So we have these two, these
these two people, these two groups

represented one, the religious people
that look good on the outside,

but their hearts are unchanged.

And this other person who represents
these people

who are just absolutely desperate
for God's mercy, who have nothing to offer

God, who just come to God
and plead for his mercy.

These two and Jesus.

Jesus is going to deal with both of them
very differently.

Here's what I know about me,
and I suspect about you,

that we know how to clean the outside
really well.

We know what it is to look spiritual.

We know what it is to sound spiritual.

We know what it is
to look polished on the outside.

But Jesus is never fooled by

polished religion
that masks a polluted heart.

You just can't fool him.

And so in Matthew 15,
we see these two types of people

the religious people who look
on the outside but have dirty hands,

and a desperate woman
who comes to Jesus with empty hands.

And Jesus is going to expose

one and is going to bless the other.

And my idea this morning
is that there's been times

where you could probably see ourselves
in, in both of those camps,

and this morning,
perhaps some may get exposed,

and Lord willing, most will come

to God in desperation.

Asking for his mercy and his grace.

And so two different sections,
two different big ideas.

The first big idea for the first 20 verses
is this God honors

a transformed heart and exposes
religious hypocrisy.

And so what I want to do,
I want to read the first nine verses

and then we'll unpack some stuff.

But Matthew 15, verses
one through nine says this.

The Pharisees and scribes
came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

why do your disciples break
the tradition of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands
when they eat.

He answered them,
why do you break the commandment

of God for the sake of your tradition?

For God commanded honor
your father and mother, and

whoever reviled father
or mother must surely die.

But you say,
if anyone tells his father or his mother,

what you would have gained from me
is given to God.

He need not honor his father.

So for the sake of your tradition,
you've made

void the Word of God, you hypocrites!

Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you
when he said, this

people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching us
doctrines, the commandments of men.

And so what we have here
is these Pharisees and scribes

now in the Bible, in the New Testament,
Pharisees

get a really, really, really bad rep.

You don't read about Pharisees
and Testament.

They didn't exist as Pharisees
in the Old Testament.

There's a New Testament thing
and the Pharisees came to be

they were the religious elite
of their day.

They weren't the elite.

The the Sadducees were the elite
religious group.

They were the wealthy ones.

They were the liberal side,
the rich liberals.

That's who they were.

The Pharisees were the kind of more blue
collar conservative.

And so these Pharisees get a super bad
rap, and rightly so in the New Testament,

because they just
focus on their tradition.

And now when they started, the Pharisees

started in the Babylonian captivity,
way back in those little Bible history.

Okay, okay.

So way back in the Old Testament,

Israel
was taken into captivity up into Babylon.

And there in this foreign country,
this pagan country.

And some of the people are like, hey,

we got to keep
we got to keep our faith alive.

You know,

so they started
these things called synagogues

that made their way back
into the New Testament.

They started

this group called the Pharisees,
the Pure Ones, because they wanted

to keep their faith pure,
and they really came from a good heart.

Let's get back to the Bible, back
to what God said,

back to his law, and let's do it right.

So that morphed by the time
we get to the New Testament

into this hyper legalistic group of.

Religiously conservative
like ultra or right

that were more concerned about
their tradition than they were Scripture.

So much so.

And honestly,
the original ones that would have,

we would have claimed
like the beginnings of the Pharisees,

people like Ezra in the Old Testament,
like just beautiful men who understood

God's law. It just got sideways.

And so what they did
is they forgot God's law,

and they just started living
by all these traditions.

And one of their traditions was hand
washing.

Now, this was not the biblical command
of washing ceremonial.

It should be ceremonially clean
in the temple or anything.

This was their
own tradition. It got so bad.

How bad was it?

Thank you Rich.

It got so bad that they believed

that anything that touched a Gentile
or non-Jew was corrupted and dirty.

So much
so that if a Gentile walked in the dirt

and kicked up dirt, dust
and that dust got on them,

then they were defiled
because it was Gentile dust.

And so they created this tradition
that before they ate,

they had to wash their hands
of the Gentile dirt

that was in the world,
because in their minds,

if they got Gentile dust on their hands
and then touched food, now

the Gentile dust made their hands dirty,
and their dirty hands made the food dirty.

If they ate dirty food,
it made them dirty.

And so their solution to this was, well,
let's wash our hands two different ways.

First, they wash kind of like this.

And someone would
pour water over their hands,

and they had to do it in such a way
that the water would drip off their hand,

because if they did this
and it rolled down their arms,

now their arms were dirty.

And so they had to do this.

And then because the water ended up here,

then they had to wash
one more time like this

so that the water would run
from their hand down off their fingertips,

and they couldn't shake it,
because then the dirty water

would get on them,
and then their whole body would be dirty.

So it was really this, this weird.

Now, listen, I'm going to talk about a way
that we do the same thing

because it's easy to laugh at them,
but we do the same thing.

I'm going to show you in just a minute.

But that that was the tradition
that they're saying, hey,

Jesus, your disciples don't even don't
even follow the tradition of the elders.

And just like, shut up, you you disobey
the command of God for your tradition.

So why are you worried
about your tradition?

And what Jesus was referring to
was the command in Scripture,

not tradition, but the command to honor
your father and mother?

And what that meant was,
if your mom and dad have need

and you have the resources to meet
that need, you honor them by helping.

Does that make sense?

That's the command of God.

But Jesus says
you've created this loophole

so that you can claim
that your resources are devoted to God.

So you can tell your mom and dad, look,

I know you're hurting, but honestly,
all my resources are committed to God,

so I can't give it to you
because that would be an abomination.

Meanwhile,
you could keep using it all for yourself.

It was just this loophole.

And just like you, you're missing
the whole thing.

You're living by this tradition
and you're disobeying the command of God.

You're so worried
about what you look like on the outside.

You haven't addressed
your nasty, defiled heart on the inside.

And he says you're a bunch of hypocrites.

So their their idea of claiming
their resources are God's

so they can't give it to the parents was
the idea called the Corban?

They said, hey, listen, it's carbon,
I can't give it to you.

And Jesus says,
you're a bunch of hypocrites.

That word hypocrite means actor.

And what he's referring to was back in the
like in the Greek culture,

especially, actors would would

instead of having different characters,
they just put on a different mask.

And so the mess that people see
was something different

than the reality behind the mask.

That's what he's saying.

He said, listen,
this is what religion does.

It makes us
put on a mask for everybody to see,

but it masks the reality behind it.

And so for us translating that for us,

when we put on the mask of religion.

We know the words

to say, we know the words not to say.

We know the behaviors, we know

how we're supposed to look.

When we do those religious behaviors.

It suggests that Christ and His kingdom

are the highest priority of my life.

But if we do those behaviors, and Christ

and His kingdom
is not the highest priority of my life,

the mask I wear doesn't
reflect the reality behind the mask.

Do you follow?

So when we do our faith, do our religion

and it looks super good on the outside,

but the reality is Christ

and His kingdom
are not the highest priority of my heart.

We, like them, are hypocrites.

DeFalco.

It's the people who know the words,

but whose heart is not aligned
with Christ in His kingdom.

It's the people who practice religion

but are not yet surrendered.

It's the people who look clean morally

but have not been transformed
in the image of Christ.

As a hypocrite.

And we get so wrapped up he's saying,
you get so wrapped up in your tradition

has nothing to do with Scripture,

and it's easy to see in them, right?

We do the same thing.

Here's a for instance,

we celebrated

that was a
that was ninja like reaction right there.

I'm like a cat. That was awesome.

We still do.

We do communion every week. Right.

So you go back over four years
and we didn't do it every week.

We did it
very sporadically, pretty much like

every time I would finish a series
and like this one

super long series rolling do communion
a couple of times a year.

And I just I just felt convicted about it.

I was in it as a pastor.

And so almost four years ago,

I went through this through chapter
by chapter through the gospel of John.

And I said, we're going to take communion

every Sunday morning
when we go through the Gospel of John.

And you know what I heard from the church?

You can't do that. That's not what we do.

You can't do that.

You can't do it every week.

Why? Because our tradition said
we couldn't.

There's nothing.

The Bible says
how often you have to do communion.

But I got such pushback.

If you do it every week,

it'll become so normal and common,
it won't be special anymore.

You're going to rob us of the specialness
of doing community.

You do it every week.

That's what I heard.
So you know what I did?

I did it every week.

And so now you know what?

You think

you cannot do it.

It's what we do.

You know how we know that?

Because I skipped it one week.

Guess what I heard.

I'm like, what?

And so we had nothing
to do with the Bible.

So here's

religious activity cannot cover and life.

This is a problem with religion,
but just religion

that doesn't deal with with here.

See the question never be
did I do the right thing?

The question should always be
does my heart bow before God?

That's the question.

Joel 213

A says, rend your hearts,
not your garments.

What he's saying is,
make sure that this in here

is torn before God.

Don't worry about what this.

Because when this changes,
all of this will change.

But it doesn't happen in reverse.

Matthew 2327 Jesus is just brutal.

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees,
you religious people, but you hypocrites,

for you are like whitewashed tombs
which outwardly appear

beautiful, but within your full of dead
people's bones and all uncleanness.

You look good on the outside.

But God's not fooled by that.

Verses ten through 20.

Look at this.

And he called.

Is that all I want to say about that? No.

He called the people to him and said, here
and understand

it's not

what goes into the mouth
that defiles a person,

but what comes out of the mouth
that defiles a person.

And the disciples came and said to him.

Do you know that the Pharisees
were offended when they heard this?

That cracks me up

like for a couple of

Jesus.

Are you aware you think Jesus is unaware?

But in essence,

you know what they're saying, right?

What you said triggered them.

That's what he said.

That's
what they're saying. They're triggered.

They're a little sensitive.

Jesus is like, yeah, whatever.

He answered, every plant that my Heavenly
Father is not planned will be rooted up.

Let them alone. They're blind guides.

And if the blind, the blind both
will fall into a pit.

Peter said to him,
explain to us the parable.

And he said,
are you still without understanding?

Do you

not see that whatever goes into the mouth
passes into the stomach and is expelled?

You know what he's saying, right?

We're going to stand biology.

That's what he's saying.

But what comes out of the mouth
proceeds from the heart.

And this defiles a person.

For out of the heart
come evil thoughts and murder and adultery

and sexual immorality
and theft and false witness and slander.

These are what defile a person.

But to eat with unwashed
hands, that doesn't do anything.

See, the greatest
issue that and Jesus is dressing here.

The the greatest issue is
what rules your heart.

That's what he's saying.

See, religion says

the outside makes you dirty inside.

And Jesus says, no, it doesn't.

The inside is what defiles the outside.

See, religion focuses
focuses on behavioral modification.

And this
this is honestly part of the downfall

of of of churches

and many children and youth ministries

because it focuses on behavioral
modification.

Do this, don't do this,

do this, don't do this
without ever addressing the primary issue,

which is a transformed heart,
hating their own sin

and following falling in love
with the mercy and grace of God.

And that's
why kids can grow up in the church

and look really, really, really good
and get off into college.

And all of a sudden
their heart takes over their behavior,

right?

That's been our story.

Some of us

and this is
this is what Jesus is addressing.

And and I was like, Jesus, those
that's really you are really mean.

Do you know that you offended them.

Listen.

Please realize

you don't have to inform God of anything

like he knows.

And I don't want to pick on people's
prayers,

but sometimes our prayers

are more about informative
God of what's going on.

Rather than imploring him like, like,

Lord, this person, they really
they're having a really hard, hard time.

And they just had this thing

and they're really struggling
and they've been here for like, God,

yeah, I know, I know, I know,
what do you want?

Like the Bible says, I'm in heaven.

You're on earth.

Let your words be few.

I know you don't have to
inform me of what's going on.

You just.

You follow, like, never

feel like
you have to explain the situation to God.

He knows.

And then they say
you really offended them.

He's like, yeah,
well too bad that's on the.

So here, listen,

I may be offensive sometimes.

I don't always try to be.

Sometimes I don't always try to be.

But please get this.

Just because
just because I'm offensive doesn't mean

you have to be offended.

Do you follow?

Just because someone is offensive
doesn't mean you have to be offended.

That's your choice.

So Jesus is like,
look, that's on them with their offended.

But I
but I also want you to understand this.

Oh, this way you have to understand that

the reason Jesus was so offensive

is because their theology was offensive.

And Jesus was a abrasive

because their theology was offensive.

Now I may be offensive

sometimes, not always on purpose,

but I will be offensive

if offensive theology is being taught.

It's too important.

And so Jesus

confronts them brutally in in public

because they came at Jesus in public.

And if there's ever theology or doctrine

that is offensive to Scripture
that's being

exposed, I will,

if I'm around, come after it.

We must.

And that's

Jesus says, listen,

the instruction
he gives his disciples listen.

You, however, leave him alone.

They came after me.

They approached me, so I dealt with it.

You leave him alone, he said.

Had nothing to do with them. So?
So here's in part what he's saying.

Don't feel like we ought not ever feel
like we have to correct every

error that's out there.

We don't have to

comment on every stupid thing
that we read that people post.

Do you understand?

Just because they're wrong
doesn't mean we got to correct them now.

Jesus did because they came after Jesus.

But he said,
the rest of you just just don't worry.

Their fallacy will crumble under its own
the weight of its fallacy.

So just to have nothing to do with them.

But the role of Scripture

is to be offensive.

Second Timothy 316

All Scripture is breathed out
by God and profitable.

For what? The first thing.

What's the first thing Scripture does
according to Scripture rebukes?

That's offensive.

And then it corrects
so that it can train in righteousness.

The first role of Scripture is to rebuke
that which is wrong.

And when people get rebuked for error,

they're offended.

You follow.

But this is what Scripture does. So.

Says, listen,

if you're in the position

and you realize that it is bad offensive

theology and doctrine, yeah,
then you confront it.

Here's the problem.

There's a difference
between ignorance and error.

Some people are just ignorant
because they haven't been taught well,

just don't know friends.

That's why it's so important
what we do on Sunday morning

and what I teach on Wednesday night,

because it's the doctrine of Scripture,

and I teach it and teach it and teach it
because I don't want us to be ignorant.

There are some people in
just because they have been taught well.

But there's ignorance is different
than error.

Error is ignorance

masquerading as authority.

And when error is being expound,
it will be confronted.

That's what Jesus is saying.

And so.

So in this first account
he says, listen, address your heart,

address your heart.

Make sure that you understand that

what's coming out of you
is because what's in you

and everything that comes out of us
is a reflection

of what's in here.

How we respond to conflict

is a reflection of what's in here.

How we prioritize our finances.

It's a reflection of what's in here.

The lust we deal
with is a reflection of what's in here,

how we deal with criticism.

Guess what?

A reflection of what's in here.

If we're married,
the state of our marriage is.

Guess what?

Ultimately, it's a sin of what's in here.

So Jesus says, look, the first thing
is we got to deal with this.

See, a transformed heart involves
two things.

One, and primarily
it involves the work of God.

Ezekiel 3626.

And I will give you a what?

Read it with your mouth open.

Oh, what a new heart and a new spirit
I'll put within you.

And I'll remove the heart of stone
from your flesh

and give your heart a flesh.

And so the first act of a new heart
for us, having a new heart

that changes everything else, is for God
to do a work in us

that we cannot do in ourselves.

Our heart does not change
by behavioral modification.

It changes by the work of God Himself,
who changes a stone

heart and gives us a heart of flesh.

And so one of the greatest prayers we can

pray is the greatest commandment
that Jesus said ever existed.

Love the Lord
your God with all your heart.

And so one of the greatest prayers
for His father.

Give me a heart that fully loves you.

Psalm 51 created me a clean heart,

O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

It's the greatest prayer you can pray,
and that's the first move of a new heart.

It's not by changing behavior,

but the second part of a new heart
comes from the work we do.

God does his work.

I do my work for 23.

Keep your heart with all vigilance.

First, out of it
flows the springs of life.

And so, father, change my heart.

And as you do,
I'm going to protect my heart.

I'm going to be careful

of my response,
of my habits, of my behaviors.

My heart won't change because of that,
but because my heart is being changed.

Now I'm do you follow?

And Jesus says, you got to get this right,
because if you don't,

you're going to be one of those religious
people, a hypocrite.

So these Pharisees come to Jesus

with religious confidence
and they get exposed.

And then this woman comes to Jesus

in desperation and she gets mercy.

It's a beautiful story.

The big idea for this,
like verses 21 through 28,

this, this, this, this woman,
the big idea is this God blesses

according to his grace,
not according to my worthiness.

And see, this with the fair.

This is where the Pharisees got it wrong.

They thought God would would bless them
because they were so outwardly religious.

And God says, you don't understand.

I bless because of my grace, not because
you are doing something worthwhile.

And so let me just read verses
21 through 28.

And Jesus went away from there
and withdrew to the district of Tire

and Sidon.
This was way away from Jerusalem.

And behold, a kid and I woman
from that region came out and was crying,

have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my
daughter, severely oppressed by a demon.

But he did not answer her a word.

Have any of you ever prayed to God
and got nothing in response?

Just silence.

You're not the first.

His disciples came and begged him, saying,
send her away.

She's crying out after.

They don't care about her.

They just don't want to be bugged by her
anymore.

Get rid of her.

And the answer?

I was sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel.

But she came in now before him, saying,
Lord, help me.

And he answered, it's
not right to take the children's bread

and throw it to the dogs.

What do you just call her?

Does that sound kind of harsh from Jesus?

She said, yes, Lord.

Yet even the dogs get the crumbs
that fall from the master's table.

Then Jesus answered her, old woman,
great is your faith.

Be it done to use a desire.

And her daughter was healed right then.

This woman is everything
that religion dismisses.

She's a woman.

She's a Canaanite from Tire and Sidon,
which was just in a.

Terrible place.

She was outside God's covenant people,

and she has the audacity to come before

Jesus and say, have mercy on me.

Help!

I want you to know some.

She'd never said, God, I deserve this.

She never said, I've tried to be good.

She never said I got my life clean.

She'd say any of that.

She just cried out.

Have mercy. See?

She understood who she was.

And she understood who
Jesus is, who Jesus was.

And she can't do him on
the basis of mercy.

Mercy is this.

I have nothing to claim
except your compassion.

I bring nothing to the table.

I need this from you.

I in desperate need of you and your hand.

But I bring nothing to the table.

The only thing I can I can rely on is
the compassion that comes from your table.

She doesn't say.

I prayed and prayed and prayed.

So God you.

She doesn't say I served
and I served, so won't you?

She doesn't say I gave and I was generous.

So will you.

Those are all religious stuff.

And she doesn't come to
Jesus based on religion.

She comes to
Jesus based on Jesus mercy and grace.

And this is where the Pharisees
got it wrong.

And this is where we get it wrong.

See, mercy is the prayer of people

who know they have no leverage.

It's the prayer

of people who come and say, God, I.

I got nothing to offer as reasons

why you should do anything for me.

I got no leverage.

I need your mercy.

So many times we get

turned around.

God, I've prayed
and I've prayed and I prayed.

Why don't you?

I serve all the time.

I'm so trying to be so faithful.
I'm trying to be so good.

We're trying to leverage God's hand.

And that takes us right out of mercy.

See, grace doesn't answer entitlement.

Grace meets desperation.

And this woman comes to Jesus completely

reliant upon his mercy and his grace

and her prayer.

Have mercy on me. Help!

That's a great prayer.

It works in every situation,
and it's a real short.

Have mercy!

Help!

That's all she says.

And one of the things I love about

this woman is that she understands
what faith is.

Faith keeps trusting and pursuing God.

When Jesus seems silent,

he's silent.

He's dismissive
and she doesn't get offended.

She just keeps pressing.

First, he doesn't answer her at all.

And then he says, this crack about
I know I'm not given what I have for my

kids to dogs.

Feels completely dismissive.

The disciples don't want around anymore.

Like, just give it to a social bug in us.

We don't care about her.

We just don't want her
to bother us anymore.

And she keeps after Jesus

so much so he calls her a dog.

Does that seem harsh?

The Jews call Gentile dogs,

but they meant these feral street mutts.

That's not the word Jesus uses.

The word Jesus uses as a little lap puppy.

Just a puppy.

Like this little critter

that's helpless, can't fend

for itself, but is loved by its family.

Not really part of the family,
but is kind of

because we know how we feel
about our puppies.

That's the term he uses for her.

And he's not being mean.

I want you to send some.
Jesus isn't being cruel.

He's drawing out her faith.

Had she got

offended and left she to receive
nothing from God?

And so he's putting her in a position
where she has to lean into her faith,

and he's drawing that faith out of her.

See, Jesus's silence does not imply
his absence.

Don't make that mistake.

His testing is not rejection.

His delay doesn't mean a denial.

We have to understand this.

See, silence from heaven
is not the same as rejection from heaven.

And this woman understood it.

There are some of you here right now

who are in this silence stage.

You've prayed and prayed and prayed

and you've heard nothing back from God.

You've cried and cried and cried,

and the situation remains unchanged.

You've begged God for that child.

You've pleaded with God for the spouse.

You've implored God

for healing, for

restoration of that relationship
and that marriage.

And all you've gotten back is silence,

almost as if God has said,

I owe you nothing.

This woman teaches us something.

And one of the things she teaches us
isn't to interpret silence

from God biblically, not emotionally.

And the biblical record behind

God's silence is to keep coming

back, knock and continue knocking.

Seek and continue seeking.

Ask and continue asking.

See, we have to learn to trust.

The character of Christ is better
than our interpretation

of the moment or the silence.

Do you understand?

We have to trust
that his character is better

than how we're interpreting

the moment we're in, in the silence

that we experience.

She says, listen,

I'll take the crumbs.

I love the fact

that her great faith
doesn't argue her worthiness.

It just clings to mercy and grace.

She doesn't try to argue with Jesus.

You're right. I'm nothing but a dog.

I'm not going to act like you.

I deserve something.

I'm just going to rely on your mercy
and your grace.

That's all I got.

I can't force you.

I can't leverage my behavior
to make you do something.

Shouldn't argue.

She doesn't accuse. She's not offended.

She relies on mercy and grace.

And grace says this.

I will not ask what I what I deserve.

I will ask for what
overflows from your table.

That's what grace is.

I will not ask for what I deserve.

I'll simply ask for what overflows from
your table, whatever your grace allows.

She says,

listen,
if your people don't want to receive

all that you have to give,
I'll take the leftovers.

The leftovers from the table of God

is greater
than the abundance from my hand.

Give me the leftovers, God.

I can't leverage anything in my life
to make you move,

so I'll just take the leftovers
that fall off the table.

That's good enough for me.

Just your mercy and your grace.

And Jesus responds.

Great is your faith.

Jesus never said

that to anyone in Scripture.

Now he complimented this insurance faith,
not to the centurion,

to the people around.

But this is the only person who or that
to the person from Jesus's lips,

the only person who says it to directly.

These are the words
I want to hear when I face God.

When I face God.

I want
God to look over the course of my life,

and I want to hear him say,
well done, great

was your faith.

How great was your faith?

He's going to say, Carl,

you had nothing to offer me. You.

But great was your faith.

Let me ask you this question.

If you face God right now,
what words would you hear from his lips?

Would they be?

I'm so proud of you.

Great.

Was your faith.

If those wouldn't be his words.

Repent.

Bring your life in line with his word.

Give the complete allegiance

of your life to Christ and His kingdom,

and live by faith.

There's no other record

we have in Scripture of Jesus doing
anything in the region of Tire and Sidon.

This is the only account we have
of Jesus doing anything in that region.

He traveled a great distance to get there,
and it would seem to me

the only reason he was
there was for this woman.

He had a divine appointment scheduled
with this woman, and had she walked out

and not implored him in prayer,
by his mercy,

his grace, she would have missed
what God had appointed.

And I would say this

that God may have

a divine appointment for you today.

That he's traveled

from heaven to the ranchos

for an appointment with you.

And if you walk out of this place

without approaching his throne of grace

in prayer.

Asking for only his mercy and his grace,

you're going to walk out of here
having missed your appointment

with him.

And friends?

I'm going to be real honest,
real transparent with you.

My heart breaks every week

because I know that God

has divine appointments
for some of us in this place.

And every week, every week.

I give us the opportunity.

To approach God's throne of grace.

Well, we will receive mercy and grace
to help us in our time of need

with somebody who will pray with us
before God's throne.

And the vast majority of you
who would have an appointment

with Jesus, walk out of those doors
without ever taking advantage of it.

This woman did not

sit in her home alone praying.

Every week there are people
who said they got a prayer thing.

I would love to pray with you.

Let's approach God together.

Let me help you carry this.

Let's go to God and ask for his mercy
and his grace together.

He just may have an appointment with you

to do something miraculous.

And God is eager to keep that appointment

for those whose hearts most desire him.

And wrap this up
Jesus rejects the mass of religion

and rewards the desperate who cry to him.

That's where his reward comes from.

My question

is, would you cry out to him today?

Let the one who is thirsty come.

How thirsty are you?

The reason why

people are here who want to pray
because they understand what is at stake.

The reason why we do First Tuesday
to meet together and pray.

Because we know what's at stake
and we know what's available.

How thirsty are you?

There will be people again today.

Up front here, somewhere up here,
who are willing and eager

to pray with you.

How thirsty.

Father.

Thank you.

Thank you that you've loved us
with an everlasting love.

That nothing we do or don't do
could separate us from your love.

It's so grand and so profound.

Forgive us for
how we've oftentimes made it about us

and our performance.

Save us from dry religion.

Save us from powerless activity.

And father, I pray in this place,

if you have a divine appointment
with anybody in this place.

Oh God, that
they would not walk out of these doors

without approaching your gracious
throne of mercy

with somebody else who will pray with them

and together,
as they approach your throne.

God, I pray that you would respond
according to the fullness of your grace

in regardless of what they've done,
what they're going to do

in the courts with the fullness
of your mercy and your grace.

Oh, God.

Have mercy and help.

Turn our hearts to you.

Soften what's grown heart.

Enliven what's dying.

And do in us what only you can do.

In your name I pray. Amen.

Church, I love you

and I so desire us

to experience the fullness of Christ.

Don't walk out of here

until he's met with you.

Let's sing.