Faith & Compassion

Good morning, y'all. Morning. We're in southern Kansas, you know. Good morning, y'all. Would y'all stand?

I want to welcome all of you here this morning to Calvary Chapel and those online with us. Would you just join us as we come to worship and study God's Word? We thank you for coming this morning. Would you bow your heads and join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to worship you in song this morning, to study your Word. We thank you for your faithfulness, Lord.

We come just as we are, as we've heard some say, warts and all. And we ask that you would strengthen us with your might.

And, Father, there may be some among us that don't know you, Lord, and they may think, what is going on now? Well, we're just preparing to worship the Lord because we love him. He loves you, too.

Father, would you just order our time now? May we just trust you, Lord, and sing this unto you. I search the world in praise And treasures the faith Put me back together Seem today in every area of your life. And so, Lord, we look to you. We look to you. The world that seems to be going mad, Lord. We look to you. You are faithful, Lord Jesus. You may be seated.

And we thank you, Lord. See, I didn't forget this time.

Thank you, Jesus. Father, just continue to move now as we look to you. Science come calling, my God is so much bigger. Then troubles are so much better.

Scatter, cause they know the battle is. There's no problem too big. There's no weapon too strong. There is nothing for God that's impossible. Too high, no valley too low. There's no fear.

There's no problem. There is nothing.

And, oh, Father, as we think about that, we know that we're faced with various things. We don't have to be shaken. As you break every chain. Lord, we can trust you.

Yeah. Break every chain. Break every chain. Let's do that again now. There is power.

Break every chain.

And, Father, you know what chains hold us. Those things that, and we know that you're faithful, Lord. And just like the previous song, there's no mountain too high, no valley too low, Lord. There's no fear that we have that you don't already know. There's no problem. There's no weapon too big, Lord. You can't take care of it. No weapon too strong. Because we can trust in you, Lord.

And we thank you, Jesus. Oh, just move in our hearts, Lord. Help us just rest. Just rest in you. Not be afraid to let it out. Just to love you. And this is just another avenue as we sing to worship you. There's many ways we can worship you. But this is what we're doing now. And it's that opportunity you give us, Lord. Fetchless King. Fetchless King. Fetchless King.

The saints adore, the angels sing, and fall beats the highest praise. Yes. These sufferings, this passing time, under you we shall flee. Father, praise the Son. Praise the Spirit. My soul has made me whole. Word. My heart has welcomed home. Now peace like water.

God is good. All the time, God is good. Yes. Oh, Lord, we thank you so much, Lord, for this time to worship you in song.

Amen. Praise the Lord. Lord, we thank you. We praise you this morning. Hallelujah. Now, as Ryan comes up, Lord, after we have our time of fellowship and teaches your word, anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit. Give us listening ears, too, Lord, and we give you thanks. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's have some fellowship, y'all.

Good morning. If you could go and start locating your seats and grab a bulletin, we'll go over some announcements.

Glad you can be with us here this morning. Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin, as far as things going on during the week, the only change is that Monday night men's study is canceled for this week. So, fellas, take note of that. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, some things to pay attention to. Just a reminder that the Prophecy Conference up in Emporia, June 9th through the 11th.

We have the upcoming Servant Conference on June the 4th at Calvary Chapel Fellowship in Wellington, which I don't know if you realize this or not, but that's next Saturday. That's right. It's not March. That's June's coming up. So, put that in your calendars right now. It's a great time. If you can make it for any of it, I think you're really going to enjoy it.

So, come join us for that. And then we'll cover VBS stuff in just a minute because my wife has to get up and make an announcement about that. But we have a baptism coming up on June the 26th, a little baptism picnic and family fun night. We'll have a covered dish at the Paris Pool Picnic Shelter, which, by the way, that is absolutely fun to say. I love alliterations, and that just pleases my heart.

Anyway, so we'll do the cover. Cover dish portion at about 6 o'clock. And then at 7 o'clock, the pool will close to the public, and then we can go over to the pool and do the baptism, and then we'll have the pool until about 8.30. So, take note of joining us for that because it's going to be a great time to get the whole body together. But also, if you've never been baptized, then please come talk to me afterwards.

I would love to talk with you about that. If you want to get baptized and you're not going to be in town on June the 26th, don't worry. We're going to do another one in August. Because here's what keeps happening to me. Last year, we did one in August, and it was great. We had a ton of people get baptized, and then people came up to me afterwards, and they were like,

can I get baptized? And afterwards meaning like two weeks later. And I was like, oh, gosh, it's a little bit harder for us to plan those things. We'll do it next summer. So, this year, we're going to do two. And if the worst that happens is nobody gets baptized at the second one, we'll have a family fun day out at Camp Horizon on that one. So, that's what's going on.

Excited to get the body together for that. So, now, we have an announcement. What about VBS? You thought I was going to forget you, didn't you? I saw that look on your face. Girl, I forget 10 times. And you think the 11th. I'm going to keep forgetting.

Bulletin this week has a QR code. If you've signed your kid into KidCheck and they've gone to Sunday school, you can scan that QR code and get your kiddo registered for VBS. So, it's good to go. You can scan that or you can get with me, and I can help you figure things out. On the calendar, next Sunday. Sunday is a workday for us for VBS. We're going to start getting things ready.

So, if that's something that you want to be involved in, we need maybe a little bit of heavy lifting. If you're good with a screwdriver or a hammer, we could use a few guys. Also, we'll be painting some scenery. We have puffs to be puffed, clouds to be made, kangaroos to be painted. So, if that's your alley, it will be next Sunday from 2 to 5. So, you can run home and get lunch first.

And then there'll be more things in the future, but that's where we're at right now. So, get your kiddo signed up for VBS. And if you want to join us next week, come at 2. I think that's it.

Perfect. Okay. For our unison reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 29. Psalm 29. We'll be looking at the New American Standards so we sound the same. If you need a copy of that, there should be one in your row. And as you're turning to Psalm 29, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

Psalm 29. And if you would read along with me. Psalm 29. The Psalm of David. Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name. Worship the Lord in holy array. The voice of the Lord. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf. And Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hues out flamethrowers. The voice of the Lord shakes the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.

The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calf. And strips the forest bare. And in His temple, everything says glory. The Lord sat as king at the flood. Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to His people. The Lord will bless His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace. And Father, we do praise You for who You are.

Lord, we ascribe to You the greatness that is due to You. I thank You for how powerful Your voice is. And I pray that that voice would speak to us this morning. Lord, that You would move in our lives. Speak to us words of conviction. Lord, speak to us words of comfort. And speak to us words of instruction. Holy Spirit, move as You see fit. In Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 15, verse 1. Excuse me, 21. So as you can see, we've made a few little changes in the sanctuary over the weekend. And I say we, but I wasn't involved at all. Other people did this. There's six to ten guys. I won't give all the names because I'll screw that up and I'll leave somebody out.

But just know, there was a large group of very faithful men that came and installed the new TVs and these lights. Because we're trying to continue to set things up here. And a couple of other changes that are going to be coming. Actually, one big one is that by the end of July, the sanctuary will look a little different. The back wall of the sanctuary will move that way, about ten foot.

And all of the sound and video stuff will be on this side over here in an effort to add a few more chairs. I think we determined it will get us about 40, 50 more chairs in here. So some expansion is coming for the sanctuary. We're very excited about that. And because we keep outgrowing things. Which is a wonderful problem to have. And I still have the dream for there being a gym out there that we can put youth group rooms and stuff like that in.

So that we can continue doing ministry along those lines too. But we're taking it one step at a time so we don't go into any debt. So we're doing the things that we can for now. So continue to pray that we'll have wisdom as we do these kinds of things. All right. Now as we move into verse 21 of chapter 15, let's first remember where we came from. Jesus had had a discussion with the religious leaders and they were upset with his disciples mainly because they weren't washing their hands before they eat.

Which sounds really bad except we have to understand this had nothing to do with cleanliness and it had everything to do with ceremony. Not even ceremonies that the Old Testament law prescribed, but ceremonies that were a tradition that men had come up with. And of course Jesus addressed it and he said, You have to understand where real defilement comes from. Real defilement comes from within.

Because the things that you take in, they don't really do anything to you. Real defilement comes from the sins that are deep down in man's heart. Because, and I'll just read the verse to you. Verse 19 it says, For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, and slanders. And may I say, that was portrayed for us clearly this last week, was it not?

We saw exactly where all of that evil comes from. And it comes from the heart. And it comes from the heart. It comes from the depth of the heart of man. And the only thing, the only cure for that evil is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only cure for that kind of evil that commits things like that is the gospel message. Because Jesus is the one that comes in and can deal with the evil in a heart.

We can't legislate that kind of righteousness. We can't legislate away that kind of evil. We can't policy away that kind of evil. We can't law out that kind of evil. If that were possible, then the Old Testament law would have done away with all evil. The only thing that will rid the heart of man of evil is the work of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's what Jesus tells these religious leaders. Well, after this confrontation with the religious leaders, Jesus begins to move into other areas of ministry. But remember, we said this particular set of chapters was the retirement of Jesus. He kept kind of pulling away from the public spotlight. And what we'll see today is he's going to move into more Gentile type regions and do ministry there.

So there's really two things that we're going to look at. We're going to look at faith and compassion, which is exactly what I have entitled the message for this morning. And so we pick up in verse 21 with this aspect of faith. Jesus went away from there, and he withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying,

Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed. But he did not answer her a word, and his disciples came and implored him, saying, Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us. But he answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and began to bow down before him, saying, Lord, help me.

And he answered and said, It's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she said, Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table. And Jesus said to her, O woman, your faith is great. It shall be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at once. Now, this first point that we'll look at, this first heading that we'll look at,

is the heading of faith. And the first thing that I take note of is that Jesus has now moved into a Gentile region. And there's a couple of things I'd like to point out to you about that. We're told that after this conversation with the religious leaders, that Jesus moved into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Now, that's kind of interesting for a couple of reasons.

It's first of all interesting because Tyre and Sidon were kind of ancient enemies of Israel in a lot of ways. And had caused a lot of issues for the nations in general. And so it's kind of interesting that Jesus moves into, and Matthew notes the fact that he moves into, this region of Tyre and Sidon where at one time they were enemies of the nation of Israel. But the second thing that's interesting about him moving into the region of Tyre and Sidon is that these were Gentile cities.

These were Gentile regions. Now, if you're not very familiar with Scripture, that might not mean very much to you. But let me give you a little bit of an understanding of why that's important to pay attention to. Jews and Gentiles did not, get along very well. The Jewish people knew that they were God's chosen people. And as God's chosen people, they could have taken this message of the law,

the holiness of God, and taken it to the nations around them, and been a light to the nations around them. Which is probably what God had intended by giving them the law. But instead what they did, is they took this most favored nation status by God, and they elevated themselves with pride. And they looked down on all of the nations that were around them. As a matter of fact,

they began to refer to Gentiles, not only as things that God would use to stoke the fires of hell, but they began to refer to them as dogs. Not even the kind of dogs that you and I think of, that might sit under our feet, or sit on our lap, or we play fetch with, but the kind of dogs that roam the street, that attack small children. That's what they referred to the Gentiles as. And so for Jesus to move into this region of the Gentiles was pretty big, because Jesus was now taking this light, into these, other areas of the world.

You may remember last week, we said that when Jesus said that, what you take in doesn't defile you, and that according to Mark, that meant that he declared all things clean. Well, that meant something for us too, because not only did that mean that you and I can eat bacon now, but it also means that you and I as Gentiles, you and I as Gentiles are allowed into this gospel message, because that's what the book of Acts is about, is taking that message of Jesus, that all things have been made clean. And now you and I as Gentiles, can also, be a part of the family of God. Well, Jesus is demonstrating this by doing this work among the Gentiles.

And so it says that the first thing that happens when he comes into this region of Tyre and Sidon is it says that a Canaanite woman from the region approached him. Now, if you read other gospel accounts, it will tell you that this is a Syrophoenician woman, because specifically that's who she was as a Canaanite. As a matter of fact, the heading on your Bible probably even says the Syrophoenician woman and Jesus or something along those lines. But Matthew gets more specific with her nationality and her ethnicity.

Matthew refers to her as a Canaanite woman, right? And why do I care about that? You care about that because once again, we see that this woman was a descendant of the people that were ancient enemies of the nation of Israel, people that were at one time at war with the nation of Israel. The Canaanites were the ones who were indigenous to that land of Canaan, to that promised land.

And when God sent the children of Israel, they're in the old Testament into the promised land. He said, you got to get rid of all of them because they are so evil that they all need dealt with. Well, some stuck around because the nation of Israel didn't do what they were supposed to. And now we see this Canaanite woman here, this Canaanite woman who would have been looked down on because she's a Gentile.

She's a woman. I made this point during first service, but Jesus is now going to hold a conversation with this woman, a civil conversation with this woman. And that's a pretty important thing because at this point in time, meaning, the time in which Jesus was living, women were not treated very well. They were actually treated much like property. And I believe it was J Vernon McGee that said,

Jesus did more for the rights of women than anyone out marching today because he elevated women to the status where they rightfully belong. The status of being equal with men, the status of being those who were to be treated and cared for by men. And so this woman approaches Jesus, this woman who really kind of, had a lot of things going against her and she has a request. And that's what we come to.

She begins to make a request of Jesus. Notice what it says in verse 22, she began crying out, saying, have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon possessed. Now there's going to be three times that she makes requests of Jesus. This is the first time, the first time she comes to him. And do you notice how she addresses Jesus? She addresses him first as Lord and then as the son of David.

Now, that's pretty cool because this Gentile woman has done her homework. She knows a little bit about who this Jesus is supposed to be. She knows a little bit about his calling and what the Messiah was supposed to be as the son of David. She almost showed him more respect than many of his Jewish counterparts at that point in time. And as she approaches Jesus in this very respectful way,

she makes a request of him and the request is in the form of letting him know exactly what's going on. She says, I have a daughter and she's demon possessed. But did you notice? The little adverb that was used right before demon possessed. It's the word cruelly, at least in the new American standard. It is that indicates to us that this demon possession that was taking place in this young lady was actually destroying her life.

So perhaps this paints a little bit better picture about the desperate nature with which this woman is approaching Jesus. She'd probably heard the stories about him and she'd heard things about this savior, about this Jesus who had done all of this. This work of healing. And so she approaches them and she says, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter's life is being destroyed by the demonic.

Now, usually when we see things like this happen with Jesus, he immediately responds and immediately acts, right? But this time we're going to find that something different happens. I want you to notice what Jesus does. Verse 23, but he did not answer her a word. I'm just going to be honest. This has bothered me all week. Because I've tried to figure out why,

and this won't be the last time that Jesus rebuffs her, if you will. The first time he just plain ignores her. He just doesn't answer her. And I have found myself all week long going, why, why this time? Why this way? Why does Jesus sort of not answer her? And I've read lots of different commentaries this week and they all give different reasons why Jesus did this.

But you know what I've come to? And I'm not saying I disagree with any of those reasons. Those are wonderful men that are much smarter than me and done a whole lot more studying than I have. And they gave some wonderful reasons why. But I got to thinking, you know what? The Bible doesn't tell us why Jesus did that. The Bible never says this is why Jesus didn't answer her a word.

It just said that's what he did. And so it's not for me to figure out why Jesus did that. It's for me to understand that he did that and he had a plan in the process because what we'll find is that he does end up, meeting this request, but he does it in his own way and in his own time. So why does Jesus put her off that long? I have no idea. Scripture doesn't tell us why,

but it reminded me of something as I was studying this. It's a verse out of the book of Deuteronomy. Moses tells the people, the secret things, the hidden things belong to God. The revealed things belong to you. I would venture to say that in this room right now, somebody, at some point in time, has felt like Jesus was not listening to them. That Jesus was ignoring the things that were going on in their life.

You might not have ever said it out loud because that's not what spiritual people say, but you've probably felt that way. You felt like your prayers were hitting the ceiling and Jesus wasn't hearing anything that you had to say. And I bet some of you have thought, why is he ignoring me? I don't understand. And listen, I can't tell you why. Because the hidden things belong to God.

The revealed things belong to me. So what's been revealed to me? What's been revealed to me? Is that God's always in control. He always hears our prayers and he's always at work. So I just faithfully keep giving my request to the Lord. I don't understand his timing. I don't understand his ways. He never asked me to. The hidden things belong to God. The revealed things belong to me.

And so if that's you this morning, if you feel like Jesus isn't hearing you right now, if you feel like Jesus is silent on the thing that you keep bringing to him, if you feel like you're in a place where you feel ignored, by God, understand he's at work in ways that you don't see right now. You keep doing what you know to do. Because that's what this woman does. So Jesus ignores her.

And of course, notice what the disciples do. They answer in the most spiritual way they possibly could. His disciples came and implored him saying, send her away because she keeps shouting at us. In other words, can you just give her what she wants? She's obnoxious, right? If any of you have more than one kid, you know what this is like. Because the one kid is crying about something and the other one is like,

dad, just give her what she wants. She's annoying me, right? The best story that I can tell you about is when we brought my oldest daughter home from the hospital for the very first time. So we used to have a dog. His name was Beck. He did have two turntables and a microphone. Anybody? No. Okay. So I know a couple of you got it. Anyway, so Beck was like the most chill dog ever.

He was my dog, right? I've told you about him before. And so we, we brought Violet home. And as we brought Violet home, Violet felt like the only thing she should do for the first three months of her life was cry. As a matter of fact, I thought to myself a few times, it's broken, God. We got a defective one. I don't know what to do with this one. All it does is cry.

And so Beck, the super laid back dog, he's just laying there on his pillow, like comatose half the time. And she's, it's like two in the morning and she's crying. And it's like Beck would go, like give her what she wants so she'll be quiet. I've slept this whole time. I figured it out within the first week of being here. Why can't she figure it out? Just give her what she wants.

Well, that's what the disciples are doing right now too. They're like, we're tired of listening to this woman. Give her what she wants. And notice how Jesus responds. He said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's an interesting way for Jesus to respond. Why? I don't know. I mean, that is true. That was, that was his mission to first for the gospel first to go to the Jew.

Why does he continue to rebuff her? I don't know, but you know what? She's not giving up. Notice what happens next. But she came and began to bow down before him saying, Lord, help me. And he answered and said, it's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Now it's kind of interesting how she reacts next. The first time she came with all of the right language,

right? Lord son of David, have mercy on me, right? We would say she prayed in King James right there, right? She threw all the these and the thousand and she, she made sure that all of her language was eloquent the first time. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's what's in your heart. And she thought that's probably the right thing I should do. Now she's just down to the nitty gritty.

Now she's just broken because she knows the situation going on at home. And she's seen what's happened to her daughter until finally she's done with all of the flowery language. And it's just time to get down to business. So she bows herself, down to the ground. The idea is all the way down to the ground. And she just starts crying out, Lord, help me. You know,

sometimes I think one of the best things that God does for us is to get us to a point where we get past trying to say the right thing and we start saying the real thing. You know, I think sometimes we as Christians do got a real disservice by trying to make sure that we use all of the right language when we pray, that we use all of the right words. When God's just like, I don't want to hear the right answer. I want to hear the real answer.

I don't want to hear the right prayer. I want to hear the real prayer because all I really, really care about is what's going on in your heart. I don't care how it comes out. I love listening to brand new believers pray. You know why? Because they haven't learned a language yet. And, and, and sometimes they let mildly inappropriate words out, but it's okay because that's what's really on their heart.

And, and they're just really pouring it out to Jesus. That's what she does right here. She just finally gets down to the nitty gritty. It's like, Lord, just help me. I just need help. But Jesus still rebuffs her a little bit longer. Notice what he says. He says, it's not right for me to take the children's bread. And throw it to the dogs. Now, remember what I said that the gen that the Jewish people called Gentiles,

they called them dogs. And that was almost like a racial slur. So why does Jesus use that same word here? I think there's two things for us to pay attention to. Number one, he's reminding her exactly how, according to the Jewish people, she would be viewed. Why? I'm not real sure, but that's what he's doing. But number two, we must understand the type of word that he uses here.

See, there's two types of words for dog in the Greek language. One is the kind of dog that runs the street in a pack. That's kind of a scary animal. The other is a house dog that would be a pet. The matter of fact, some of your translations that you're reading may say, uh, throw it to the little dogs. Some of your translations say that if you're reading the King James or the new King James,

that's the idea there. And so Jesus uses a much softer word here, but he still kind of pushes her back a little bit, but notice what she says. Verse 27, the third time, yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs, which fall from their master's table. Isn't that great? She has not given up. And I love how Jesus responds to her. Notice what it says. Jesus said to her,

a woman, your faith is great. It shall be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at once. It's almost like Jesus couldn't do it any longer. Like it's just natural for him to want to answer those prayers. And he's like, for some reason, held back, for a little bit. And it's almost like that third go round. He's like, man, you have really great faith.

Okay. Yeah, I done. I got it. She's taken care of. She's healed. Because he was so amazed at the deep faith that this woman had in him. He was so amazed because he had just come from a land. The people who had the word of God, the people who had the law, the people who were God's chosen people, they don't have that kind of faith. And he's standing here in front of this Gentile woman who all she knows is she needs help.

And he's the only one that can give it. And she's not leaving until he gives her the help that she needs. Because that's great faith. You know, this is one of the only times that Jesus actually addresses someone and tells them how great their faith is. A lot of the other ones, he waits till they're gone, compliments them about their faith when they're gone.

But this time, Jesus says it directly to her. And he says it to her. Why? Because that's what Jesus did for the ladies of that time. He says, your faith is so great. Yeah, go. Your request is taken care of. And immediately, she was healed. I want to point something out. What issue was this young girl dealing with? She was dealing with demon possession. And yet Jesus wasn't there.

He didn't throw holy water on her. He didn't lay his hands on her. He didn't name the demon by name. He went long distance and goes taken care of. Why? Because he who is in us is greater than he who's in the world. And we need to understand that. We need to understand that there is no evil that we face in this world right now that's greater than Jesus. I think sometimes we as the church are starting to think,

I don't know, the evil feels pretty strong. No, Jesus is still greater. He can long distance cast out demons. Don't you think he can handle the situations in your life? Don't you think he can handle the evil that's going on in our world and nothing tastes him by surprise? So he casts out this demon. The woman undoubtedly had to have, can you imagine her walking home?

Right? Like faith filled, but also mildly apprehensive. We'll call it cautiously optimistic as she's walking home. And then she walks in the door and there's her daughter. And her right mind ready to be healed of all the things that she has going on. And what an amazing moment. Well, from this lady's life, I think that there's three lessons of faith that we learn.

Number one, her faith was humble. Her faith was humble. How'd she start off in her address to Jesus? Well, first of all, she called him Lord. That is putting herself in a subservient position to him. There was great humility in it. When he rebuffed her, what happened? When he, when he just, completely ignored her and said, now I came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

What does she do? She begins to make requests again, but in what position? She is bowed down before him. You see, her faith was very humble and that humility caused her to continue to cry out to Jesus. I always think that one of the greatest signs of pride in our lives is when we no longer take things to the Lord in prayer. How's that pride? Because you think you can handle it yourself.

Because I think I can handle it myself. Like, no, no, God, I've got this one. Don't worry about it. I don't need to, I don't need to come to you for this one. I've got this one under control. No. See, that's pride. The greatest sign of humility in my life is an ever present ongoing prayer life because it has the distinct understanding that I cannot, but he can.

Her faith was humble. Number two, her faith was persistent. That girl was not giving up, right? Like she is a woman that wants to move furniture, right? I mean that it was person. Come on, haven't you guys, your wives ever wanted to move furniture? They're not waiting on you. So finally they just move it themselves. She was not given up until it was done. Her faith was persistent.

She, when, when met with difficulty, when met with something that wasn't quite right, when met with her prayer, not being answered, she didn't just say, oh, well, I'm going to give up now. No, she kept pushing. She kept going. She kept, kept pursuing. Her faith was persistent. She wasn't giving up until she knew exactly what was taking place. But then number three,

her faith was in Christ. Her faith was in Christ. I hear it all the time. When bad things happen, people say, you just have to have faith. You just have to have faith that things are going to work out. You just have to have faith that things are going to be okay. You just have to have faith that, that everything, everything is going to happen the way that it's supposed to.

And I'm like, that's the saddest amount of faith I've ever heard in my life. I have no faith that things are just going to work out unless my faith is in the fact that Jesus is going to work things out. I have no faith in the fact that things are going to be okay unless I believe that Jesus is going to make them okay. You see, my faith is only as good as the object in which I've placed my faith.

I love to use the example of, well, myself and how much, how little faith you should put in me, right? You might think to yourself, I believe Ryan could dunk a basketball. I believe he, see, y'all are laughing. No faith. I believe, I believe Ryan could dunk a basketball if he just tries hard enough. I had a friend like that at one point in time. So, I had this basketball goal in my driveway and I was playing a rousing game of horse with one of my friends.

And as I'm playing this rousing game of horse, of course, the goal was at eight foot because my girls were young at that point in time. And can I just be honest and say, I prefer an eight foot goal over a 10 foot goal. It's a lot easier for me to do a layup on. So, so this goal is at eight foot and we're playing horse and he dunks the ball. And I'm like, bro,

I can't do that. You know, that's not going to happen. It's like, Ryan, the goal is at eight foot. You can dunk on this goal. I believe in you. I'm like, that is misplaced faith. That is not a good. Okay. All right. So I, I get the ball. I don't dribble it because me and dribbling, bad idea. And so I go running to the goal and I do the best Michael Jordan. I didn't stick my tongue out because it felt like a bad idea,

but I did the best Michael Jordan. I knew how to boom. I hit the front of the rim. And ball went bouncing off into the yard. And he goes, I guess you can't dunk the ball. Can you see that was misplaced faith because I not only lack the physical capabilities. Cause I don't know if y'all know this or not. I'm short. Y'all haven't noticed it, right? So I'm on this stage,

but I'm a short guy and I have the vertical leap of a five-year-old. It just doesn't happen. It is misplaced faith. I have never given anyone any good indication as to the fact that I'm able to dunk that basketball. However, if I'm looking at Michael Jordan from the mid nineties, I have absolute faith in his, his ability to dunk the basketball. As a matter of fact,

there's entire highlight reels of all of his amazing dunks that he's able to do. I know, and I have faith in his ability to perform that. Why? First of all, because he has all of the physical capabilities to do it. Second of all, because he has the proven record of his ability. He has proven himself over time to be able to do those things. Brothers and sisters,

Jesus not only has all of the ability, but he has the proven, the proven record over time of always being there for us. And so even when you're in the place of going, I feel like he doesn't hear me. We just continue to persistently pursue him in a humble way because our faith is in someone who not only has the ability, but has proven himself over and over and over again. This woman had such amazing faith and she was answered in such an amazing way.

Okay. Well, we continue on with Jesus in his journeys and we come now to the aspect of compassion. Notice what it says in verse 29. It says, departing from there, Jesus went along by the sea of Galilee and having gone up on the mountain, he was sitting there and large crowds came to him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others.

And he healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the cripple restored, the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel. And Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I feel compassion for the people because they've remained with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. And I don't want to send them away hungry for they might faint on the way.

The disciples said to him, where do we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd? And Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have? And they said, seven. And a few small fish. And he directed the people to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and the fish and giving thanks. He broke them, started giving them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the

people and they all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. And those who were there were 4,000 men besides women and children. Sending away the crowds, Jesus got into the boat, came to the region of Magadan. Now as Jesus continues on, it says that he traveled down the sea of Galilee and went up on a mountain.

Now, according to other gospel accounts, the region that he moved into was known as the region of the Decapolis. That's a region of 10 cities that were dominated by the Romans and were predominantly Gentile. At least that's what most scholars believe. So Jesus is still in a region that is very Gentile dominated. So in a similar sort of a situation that we were in before.

And as he's there, the first thing that we see is Jesus healing the crowds. Notice what it says. It says departing from there as he went up, having gone up on the mountain, he was sitting there, verse 30 and large crowds came to him, those who were, and it fills in several issues that people had had at that point in time. And as people were having these physical issues, Jesus began to heal them.

Now this is a process that's going to take three days, three days of Jesus, doing this. And it's over 4,000 people. Now I want you to think about what things must have gone like, because I've tried to picture what this would have looked like in my mind. You can imagine it, right? Jesus is sitting by himself, undoubtedly surrounded by his disciples. People find out he's there.

What do people start doing? Once they find out he's there, they start bringing him the sick people. It says that they brought to him the lame. You can just picture how this would have gone, right? Perhaps they carry someone up to Jesus and they say, is there anything that you can do? And as they carry them up to Jesus, Jesus, maybe lays his hands on them and says,

your legs have been restored. However he did it, and all of a sudden that individual who could not walk up to him, their legs are now fully restored and they walked away. And then perhaps as Jesus is sitting there visiting with some more people, they bring him someone who is blind. And maybe Jesus reaches up and touches their eyes or touches their head or simply speaks and says, receive your sight and they can see.

And now they're looking around. They can see all this stuff for the very first time. There's somebody that comes up that's mute. They can't speak. And, and perhaps Jesus touches their mouth or tells them just to simply begin to speak. And they begin to speak. And all of this is happening for a period of three days. What an amazing scene this is that Jesus is amongst all of these Gentiles,

these people that the Jew, that the Jewish people look down on. And he's spending all of this time healing them. It says that each one that came, he's able to heal. Now, Jesus heals all of these people in a very physical sort of way. And while I believe absolutely that Jesus, can still heal this way today, because I've seen it happen in some instances. And I believe,

especially when you move into some of these third world countries where they don't have the medicines as well as the word of God is accessible to them as we do. Jesus sometimes still chooses to move in this way. But you know, my thought is that the greatest miracle that's ever performed in anyone's life is the miracle of salvation. Because sure, you could restore your legs for today, but what will happen in eternity?

You can restore your sight for today, but what will happen in eternity? You can begin to speak today. I think you know where I'm going with this. Because as Jesus heals these individuals and people are amazed by it, I look at someone who was dead and now they're alive. And I'm completely blown away by it. So as Jesus is doing all of this work, it says that the crowds marveled.

But I want you to take note of what it says at the end of verse 31. They glorified the God, of Israel. I think it's important that Matthew points that out because if you remember in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples, he said, let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and they glorify your father who is in heaven. And since Jesus was a man who practiced what he preached, he did the exact same thing in this miraculous three days of healing all of these Gentiles as people began to glorify God.

People began to glorify the father. And so he was doing this work amongst these crowds. And while he's amongst the crowds, Jesus begins to feel compassion for the people. Notice what it says in verse 33. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I feel compassion for the people because they've remained with me now for three days and they have nothing to eat.

And I do not want to send them away hungry for they might faint on the way. Now, as we come to this next part of the story, there are some liberal theologians who believe that this is simply a retelling of the, the feeding of the 5,000. The only problem is all the details are off in the feeding of the 5,000. It was only one day. And the disciples were the ones that came to Jesus and they were like,

Jesus, we're hungry, but they didn't really say that. They were like, Jesus, send the people away because they need to go get food. This time, Jesus says we need to feed them because I feel bad for them. I have compassion for them. A couple of the other details that are different is that there was only 4,000 that were fed instead of 5,000. They collected seven baskets of fragments instead of 12 baskets of fragments.

There's a bunch of things that are different to show that these are two different instances. All that to say, what we see is the heart of compassion that Jesus has. Jesus says, I feel compassion for them. That word compassion is kind of a fun word. In the Greek, it's spag something or other. I can't pronounce it because I can't speak Greek. But what the word means is this.

It means to be moved to one's, to one's bowels. Isn't that a great word? Right? In other words, you are so moved with emotion that you feel it in your bowels. Do you know at one point in time when they said that something that they really felt something, they didn't say, I feel it in my heart. No, because when you really feel deep emotion, it gets you a little deeper than that,

doesn't it? Get you, get you a little more than just a little heart palpitations, get them bowels rolling, right? It's only I feel it in my bowels. I think we should start saying that now. Wouldn't that be fun? If something really moved us, we're like, I am moved to my bowels with this. We would be like, well, let me pray for you, brother, right? Because we know something serious is going on.

And so that's the compassion that Jesus has for the people, right? He says, I am moved with compassion for them because they've been with me for three days. And I'm afraid if I send them off to get something to eat, they're going to faint along the way. Now, I think there was a twofold reason Jesus did this. Number one, because he really did feel compassion for the people.

We'll talk about that in just a minute. In fact, he continually moved with compassion for people. But I think he wants to see if the disciples remember exactly what his ability is like. And so his disciples ask a very interesting question. They said, where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd? You ever had your teacher,

when you were still in school, your teacher gave everybody instructions. And as soon as the teacher was done giving instructions, someone raises their hands and they say, what are we supposed to do? Right? That's how I feel about the disciples right now. Right? Like, like a handful of days, maybe a few weeks before, Jesus had totally just fed 5,000 people. Plus,

women and children. Tons of people are being fed by Jesus. And Jesus says, I feel bad for them. We should feed them something. And they're like, right. Like we've got enough food here to feed all of them. How are we going to do that? Now, if I'm Jesus, I'm irritated at this point in time because we've seen this tree before. We should know what we're doing by now.

We should have figured this situation out. You're going to give me the bread. I'm going to break the bread. I'm going to feed all the people. That's what we do. That's not what Jesus says to them. Jesus looked at them and said, how many loaves do you have? Now, we don't have voice inflection. I really wish we had voice inflection, right? I wish I knew how Jesus said this because I know how in my mind he said it.

He was like, how many loaves do you have? Right? Like, come on, people pick it up. I don't think that's probably what he really said though. I think he was like, well, how many loaves do you have? Let's see what kind of a miracle it's going to be today. And so they look at him and they're like seven and a few small fish. Well, we're way ahead of where we were at the feeding of the 5,000,

right? What can he do with seven loaves and a few small fish? So Jesus looks at him and he says, directed the people, verse 35, to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fish and giving thanks, he broke them and started giving them to the disciples and they gave them to the people. I wonder at what point in time the disciples were like,

oh yeah, right? Like when Jesus was like, give me the bread. And he was like, father, thank you for this. And they were like, oh, that's right. It was like three weeks ago. I bet he's going to do the thing with the thing, right? Hand out the stuff and everybody's going to get some. Or, or was it like he just kept handing them bread and they were like, have you noticed he still has more?

At some point in time, they had to have realized what was going on. They had to have realized this is the exact same thing. So Jesus gives everybody bread. And of course, same thing happens. Verse 37, they all ate and were satisfied. That Greek word for satisfied is the same word that would be used for the fattening. Calf, right? In other words, they were plump and ready for life.

Nobody wanted anything else to eat. They picked up what was left over and seven large baskets full were left over. And of course he gives us the number again. And it's an interesting story that's given to us and things to be learned from this story. Both some things to be learned about our relationship with Jesus Christ and some things to be learned about compassion.

And so as we look at this story, I think there's four things that we take away from it. Number one, our memories are short, but his patience is not. Our memories are so short, but his patience is not. Isn't that, to me, that's a very comforting thought. Because as much as I can tend to be a little bit hard on the disciples, one thing I've learned the longer I've walked with Jesus is,

quit being so hard on the disciples. Because I'm just like they are. One minute, everything is great and I'm going, I'm basking in this wonderful work that God has done. A few weeks later, something really similar comes up and I'm still stressed about it. Oh Lord, what are you going to do this time? Probably the same thing I do every time, Pinky. Right? I'm going to go ahead and take care of the situation.

I'm going to go ahead and work things out because that's what I do. I take care of things. But the good thing is, is that God is continually so patient with us. And when I go, Lord, I don't know what you're going to do this time. I just know, just like these disciples, he goes, how many loaves do you have? Well, what do you have that you can bring? How can I help you with this situation?

He's always so patient with me. Our memories are short. His patience is not. These last three things have to do with compassion because I think compassion is something that needs to really begin to take its work in our hearts. Number two, compassion moves us to action. Compassion moves us to action. I think one of the things, I'm deciding which point I want to say this on.

I may say it on all three. I think one of the things that's happened to us over the past, I don't know, I'd say two years, but I think it's been longer than that, is that we've become so used to tragic things happening that we have found ourselves just turning off the news. We found ourselves saying, I just want to, I just want to shut off all the evil that's going on in the world. I don't want to hear about all of this.

I don't want to hear about all of the pain. Listen, there's only one news story I don't want to hear anything else about and that's Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Testify. But it's so easy for us right now to turn off all of the things going on in the world, including all of the things going on nearby, and just pretend like none of it's happening. I just, I don't want to deal with it.

It hurts too bad. I don't want to feel those things anymore. I don't want to feel all those unpleasant feelings. That come when I watch all of those things. Friends, if we're believers in Jesus Christ, we can't do that. If we're followers of Jesus Christ, we have to allow the hurt in the world to take effect in our heart. Because if the hurt in the world will take effect in our heart,

then we will begin to feel compassion. And as we feel compassion, it will urge us to action. See, that's the idea behind the word, to be deeply moved by something. And while it's super fun to say what's deeply moved, the idea is there that it moves us to action. Because that's the work that compassion needs to do in our hearts. You see, it's interesting to take note of all the times

that the word compassion is used in the gospel accounts, because all of the times that compassion is used in the gospel accounts, there's two things we take note of. Number one, it always involves Jesus. Number two, he always does something afterwards. Every time that word is mentioned, it's followed by action. And so, brothers and sisters, as you feel those feelings,

as you feel that compassion, let it move you to action. I didn't know what to do this week. All I knew to do was just to start praying, because that's the next right thing I know how to do. And I'm really weary of all of the things saying, you need to do something more than pray. Really? Because until I've prayed, there's nothing else I can do but pray. Once I've prayed,

I can begin doing things. But until that point in time, I'd better take these things to the Lord in prayer, because prayer is not just a patented answer. It is our lifeline. It is our strength. It moves the heart of God. Right? So all I knew was just to start praying for those people, because I feel so much compassion for these folks that have been affected down in Texas

and the other things that have taken place. But this one hits really hard. And in particular, my heart is moved for the parents, my heart is moved for the pastors, and my heart is moved for the funeral home workers. Because all three of those groups of people, their lives are devastated right now. And when you feel that pain, it should move you to do something about it.

Compassion moves us to action. Number two, or number three, compassion must extend beyond our borders. Compassion must extend beyond our borders. Jesus went outside of the borders of the nation of Israel and went outside of the borders of Judaism when he began to minister to the Gentile people. You see, the Gentile people looked a little bit different. The Gentile people talked a little bit different.

The Gentile people thought a little bit different. And the Gentile people acted a little bit different. And you know what we're really good at doing as people of the church? We're really good at not talking to the people that look a little bit different, that think a little bit different, that act a little bit different, and that talk a little bit different.

We're not good at doing that. Matter of fact, we really like to stay in our friendly confines. The friendly confines of my church, the friendly confines of my Bible, confines of my Bible study group, the friendly confines of my local group, my family, whatever it is, we all have borders in our lives. And compassion will push us to extend beyond our borders because there's a lot of people that don't look like you that need Jesus. There's a lot of

people that don't look like you that need to know that there is hope in the world. I was talking to, I went to go sell some metal the other day. I've got old junk in the backyard and threw it all in my truck, drove up to the metal place up in Winfield. I got ready to sell it and I said, how much is scrap metal selling for now? And he goes, man, it almost dropped in half. It's down

by like $70 a ton. It was up to $180 and it's down to $110 now. He goes, almost dropped in half. He goes, they're still selling brand new steel for the same amount, but you know, they're not giving any money for the scrap stuff anymore. And I said, man, doesn't it just feel like everything in the world is in upheaval right now? And he goes, yeah, it almost is starting to feel hopeless. This is just a random guy that I'm

talking to. And so I, of course, took that opportunity to say, it always reminds me that the only thing I know to say is you've got to put your hope in Jesus. And he was like, that's right, because that's all we've got. Friends, if the guy running the scrap metal yard is feeling hopeless in life, I'm going to say it's pretty much across the board in our world.

Whether it's within our local borders or outside of our local borders, everybody feels hopeless. And we've got to get outside of these comfort zones that we live in and start ministering to some people that maybe we'll never hear any other way. Number four, a heart of compassion comes from time with our Savior. I will always take you back to this exact same thought. A heart of compassion

only comes from time with our Savior. So as I was looking up the meaning of this, this word, there's another thing I can do on my computer program. I can search for the word. And so it'll give me the same Greek word in every book of the Bible. And there's three books that this word compassion comes up in. It comes up in Matthew, it comes up in Mark, and it comes up in

Luke. In Luke, it comes up twice. In Mark, it comes up four times. In Matthew, it comes up five times. In those five times, four of them are Matthew taking note of the compassion of Jesus. This is the only time where Jesus says, I have compassion on you. The rest of them are Matthew taking note of the compassion of Jesus. Why do I care? What job did Matthew have before he got

saved? Do you remember? Matthew was a tax collector, right? And tax collectors at that point in time were not what I would consider to be compassionate individuals. You can imagine going to the tax booth, right? Because what they were allowed to do is anything above what the Roman government required, they could do it. And so they were allowed to do it. And so they were allowed to do it. And so they

kept for themselves. And so you can imagine, right? Maybe some young mom whose husband has died and her kids come up and she's got no money. And Matthew, the tax collector, looks at her and says, listen, Israel's building back better. I need more money on my taxes this time. And so it requires a little bit more than it did before. I just, I don't have that kind of money. And he says, I don't care.

You have to pay it. Otherwise you're going to be arrested. So no compassion from the heart of Matthew. yet what is the thing that Matthew takes note of the most about Jesus? What Matthew takes note of the most about Jesus is the compassion that Jesus showed in others. Why? Because Matthew had spent time with his Savior. Matthew, someone who probably was not very compassionate at one point in time,

now cannot stop talking about the compassion of Jesus because it was rubbing off on him. Because he was seeing it in his own life. He was seeing it in the lives of those around him as Jesus showed it to all of those people around him. And listen, you can want all of the compassion in the world. You can want a loving heart all you want to, but you will never gain it in and of yourselves because

we are selfish by nature. So how do I begin to gain the kind of heart that Jesus wants me to have? Spend time with my Savior. And I find that as I spend time with him, not only in his word, but in prayer, that he will begin to guide my heart into more and more compassionate things. And he won't let me get away with pretending like the things in the world aren't happening.

He won't let me get away with pretending there's not hurt in the world and just let me have my barbecue and live in my own land where everything is fine and happy because I have what I need. He won't let you live there because he'll want you to know that this place isn't your home. You have an eternal home and he wants you to take as many people with you as you can. Heart of compassion only comes from time with your Savior. Amen. Let's all stand.

Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you and thank you for the time that we spend in your word. And Lord, as we have dealt with these two subjects this morning, I'm well aware of who may be sitting here today, who may be watching online. And Lord, I'm well aware of the fact that there are some who probably feel like you've stopped listening. Who just like this Canaanite woman feel like you just keep pushing them away instead of

hearing their prayers. And so Lord, for that heart that's battling with that right now, that heart that feels like all the prayers are hitting the ceiling and just falling back down, that heart that feels like you are not there. Help them to do what you have called for them to do. Allow the secret things, the hidden things to belong to you and allow the revealed things to be what they do with their lives. Lord, allow them the persistence that they need to continue

to humbly seek you. Father, I want to lift up the heart today that has such a hard time remembering. Remembering that you are faithful. Remembering, Lord, that you've never failed them yet. And Lord, I pray that you would restore that memory. Lord, that you would restore to them that joy of their salvation and help them to rest in your ability. And Lord, I lift up the heart

today that has begun closing itself off from the things of the world because they just can't take it anymore. There's just too much pain. There's just too much hurt and they just want to ignore it all. Lord, I pray for that heart that you would help them to, Lord, tear down the walls, get outside the border, and allow you to give them that heart of compassion that you want for them to have. Father, I thank you that you are so faithful in all of these things.

And Lord, be with us as we go out from this place. And may your spirit continue the work that you've begun in us this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. If your Lord there is none like you, all of my days, I want to praise the wonders of your mighty praise. Let every breath, all that I never cease to worship, out to the earth let us sing. Majesty, praise.

Praise to the king. Mountains bow down and the sea never cease to worship. Mountains bow down and the sea never cease to worship. Praise you, Lord Jesus. We thank you. Father, just bless our week, Lord. We thank you for those veterans who gave their life, who served and are still living for our freedom, Lord. We thank you for that, Lord. Bless this holiday time. And I pray you'd give us a blessing.

We pray as we look to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week, guys.