The Servant King's Consideration

Mark 7:24-30 + Matthew 15:21-28

Transcript

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Good morning, church family. How's everybody doing? It's good to see you this morning. Good to have an opportunity to worship. Thankful for warm weather. It's got my spirit lifted. I love it. I love it. But yeah, it's just an honor to be with you guys and just have the opportunity to speak to you from God's Word this morning. So if you'll turn with me to Mark chapter 7, we'll be continuing our verse by verse series on Mark. And today we'll be looking at verses 24 through 30, where we'll see an unlikely exchange during a brief respite of Jesus and the disciples in a Gentile territory. Now, as Josh has led us through the past few weeks, Jesus has been pushing back on the legalist human tradition of the scribes and Pharisees while flipping upside down their understanding of cleanliness and uncleanliness, stating that true cleanliness comes from within, not from the food you do or do not eat, not from not from how often you wash your hands, not obedience to the ceremonial law. Jesus had rebuked the terrible state of their heart, that they had fulfilled the saying of Isaiah that said, They honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And if there was one point to take away from all that is that God looks at the heart, not the external, not the circumstance. In our passage this morning, we'll see Jesus showing this truth in action by doing something even more radical, by considering the case and the faith of someone that the Jews would consider just wholly unclean. Giving this radical consideration of Jesus. So if you'll stand with me out of reverence for God's word, I'll read the passage before us today. This is again Mark chapter 7, verses 24 through 30. And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. And he said to her, For this statement, you may go your way. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Let's pray. Lord, what a wonderful day and a wonderful opportunity it is to worship you and all that we do here this morning and all of our conversations and all of our singing. And Lord, my my my preaching. Lord, I just pray that you are using me as a vessel. And Lord, that you are opening all of our hearts to the work of the Spirit. Lord, that you bring conviction where it is due, that you bring renewal, that you are changing us and transforming us through your word this morning. And through this unlikely exchange of with Jesus and the Gentile woman. Lord, help us to see ourselves in this and help us to see our areas of growth. And help us to see how you're speaking to us most of all, God. We just thank you for your word and for this time to be together, Lord. Help us to not take it for granted, but to cherish it always and to glorify you always, Lord. At your name we pray. Amen. Now, I would be remiss to not acknowledge that the surface reading of this passage can be a bit uncomfortable. To see how Jesus speaks to this woman at the very least causes us to kind of scratch our head. And if you're if you're not with me quite yet this morning, or you missed it in the passage, the dog in Jesus' response is unmistakably referring to the Gentile woman. And without context, that seems a bit uncharacteristic for Jesus, right? Now, as we'll see, there's a bit of wordplay here, and certainly more meaning beneath the surface that surface that will prove to clarify what Jesus is talking about here. But the passage, but this passage challenges us to push back against reading this passage through the lens of our 21st century culture and language and as best as possible place ourselves in the culture and language and priority of Jesus' ministry in the first century. So that's where we I invite you to try your best to let's let's enter into the context here because on the surface it can be a little uncomfortable. But I'll also note that we have a parallel account of this exchange in Matthew, and that's going to be in Matthew 15, verses 21 through 28. And we'll be flipping back and forth between some of the complementary details between these passages. So maybe keep a finger or a bookmark on Matthew chapter 15. Now both accounts begin with Jesus moving into this Gentile region, which brings us to our first point this morning, which is an unexpected place. An unexpected place. And just to give a little bit more background here, Mark is writing his gospel account in Rome, and Gentiles were largely the first audience to receive his gospel account. Therefore, it was of utmost importance for them to see Jesus' consideration for and the inclusion of the Gentiles in the gospel. Now, as we've seen, Jews have had a very low regard for Gentiles, considering them outsiders to God's plan, outsiders to God's kingdom. It was certainly unexpected to the Jewish leaders and even the disciples that Jesus would consider entering into this region, let alone staying in a house there, cohabitating with a Gentile. Gentiles were seen as the most unclean and little more than just imminent recipients of God's divine wrath, right? Even after Jesus' ascension, when the early church was springing forth from the apostles' teaching, even when the purpose and the work of Christ was becoming more and more clear to the church, the Jews still had a hard time with the salvation and inclusion of the Gentiles, thinking they needed to convert to Judaism to receive Christ or accept circumcision to receive the Messiah, to be saved. This was really a first century problem. And not just first century, but especially in the first century, it was a problem. Inclusion of the Jews into the kingdom and the plan and the gospel was a it was hard for the Jews. But from the beginning, God intended the message of his salvation to be for the whole world. Israel being the first appointed people and messengers. However, as we saw in the example of Jonah, Israel's heart had become hardened towards surrounding nations. They were no longer fulfilling this role of messenger. But where the nation of Israel fell, Jesus would now triumph. And bringing back to fruition the Lord's words in Isaiah 49, 6, where he says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. That was what God had in mind for the messengers that are Israel. Now, so all that to say, it's important for Mark's initial audience of the gospel to see this, as well as the entire world as it globally spread, and including us as Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, to see Jesus' consideration and inclusion of the Gentiles. Now, in many ways, this exchange in our passage this morning is a glimpse of how the ministry of the gospel will reach the Gentiles and how they will respond, in contrast to how the Jewish leaders are now responding to Jesus. So looking back at our text this morning, Jesus is moving into a Gentile territory after about a year of ministry in the larger Galilean region, and the specific region he and his disciples are entering into in this passage is the region of Phoenicia. Specifically the cities of Tyre and Sidon. These are both cities located in Phoenicia. Now, Tyre was located on the Phoenician coast, about 35 miles northwest of the Lake of Galilee. But neither Mark nor Matthew give us really many details on the specifics of this of Jesus coming here, how deep he went into the region or surrounding regions. It was likely a short trip given the details that we have because starting in verse 31, the next verse in our passage we'll look at next week, Jesus is already returning back to Galilee. So this was a shorter trip. But given the details of Mark's account, that he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, it's likely that Jesus was looking for an opportunity to get away and rest rather than coming here with the purpose of doing fully fledged public ministry. Now, as we saw back in chapter 6, the last recorded time, Jesus tried to get away to rest, he ended up feeding 20,000 people. Right? So it's possible Jesus is looking for an opportunity to maybe just truly rest with his disciples, or maybe give them personal attention and training, which would be nearly impossible at this point in Galilee or Judea because of the just the uncontrollable and inescapable crowds and the pressure. You know, they they would meet them on foot wherever they were selling to. But despite Jesus' efforts, and similar to his other attempts to find rest, the needs and the ministry of people have a way of finding him. Someone gets word of Jesus' arrival and shows up on the scene. And this leads us to our second point this morning, which is a desperate request. Now we know that this interruption is not exactly a surprise to Jesus. Jesus was aware of this impending interruption and the purpose that it had in showing the disciples a radical example of what he had been teaching them. Jesus knew the manifold value of this visitation of this woman for the woman, for the disciples, for the Jews, for the Gentiles, for us, even today. Jesus knew the importance. So Mark introduces this unexpected, desperate visitor, a Gentile woman. Now, depending on your Bible translation, yours may say a Greek woman, and that would be Greek by culture and language. And Matthew's account additionally says that she was a Canaanite, a woman from Canaan. So this just wasn't any Gentile, this was a Canaanite, an ancient enemy of Israel, right? Who God rightfully had just a great displeasure in, especially during Israel coming out of their wilderness generation, if you remember. When Israel was coming out of the wilderness, Canaanites were the ones who were inhabiting the promised land. And their culture was particularly known for pagan idol worship, partaking in the most vile rituals, lifestyle, human sacrifice. Honestly, details and of their practice that are just too grotesque for public words this morning. This is who the Canaanites were. Through Israel, God drove out the Canaanites in divine judgment, and rightfully so. So this woman this morning, in our passage, especially through the eyes of Israel, carried with her a cultural baggage that would seem to just really only worsen her chances of this being a successful interruption. She had very little going for her. The reason that Mark and Matthew provide for this woman coming to see Jesus is that her child had an unclean spirit. That is, she was demon-possessed. Matthew 15, 22 through 23 provides some additional details in this account with about the woman's request, where he records, and behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. Now from both accounts, we we immediately see the woman in a place of just complete desperation and grief and emptiness, total humility before Jesus, being totally emptied of herself, bowing down in prostration, just physically lowering herself and her hand on her hands, her knees, bowing her head. Now, this was an indication of significant grief and reverence, and was the common posture of those who came to Jesus in reverence and humility. For this woman's daughter was demon-possessed, her home and her family just under satanic oppression. Mark and Matthew's account both portray this woman as begging, unrelenting, unwilling to take no for an answer. There are few cries of the needy more desperate, more persistent than the cries of a mother or father for the need of their child. Now Matthew's account shows the woman calling Jesus by his true messianic title. Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. This is quite unexpected for a Canaanite Gentile living in an outside region. How could she have that knowledge? Well, if we recall Mark chapter 3, verses 7 and 8, Mark introduces a great crowd that's beginning to follow Jesus, where the crowd and where the crowd was from, saying, Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea, and from beyond the Jordan, and from where? Tyre and Sidon. There are some from the region of Tyre and Sidon, which Jesus is in now, that have seen Jesus' miraculous works and heard his mighty words firsthand. Words of Jesus undoubtedly expanded among this region through those that had traveled to see the ministry of Jesus firsthand. So it's likely that the woman that is introduced here had heard of Jesus and thought about him with wonder and awe and just a what if? You know? Or perhaps she was the one, she was one that traveled to see Jesus firsthand and heard him and saw him. But nonetheless, she says, You are Lord, you are David. And that's quite important here. And I'm sure it caught the disciples off off guard. But Matthew also provides details of the initial response of Jesus and the disciples. Details we don't see in Mark. After she's unrelenting in Matthew 15, 23, it says, but he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she's crying out to us. He says, Jesus did not answer her a word. There's a lot of head scratching in this passage. Like, what is I don't what is Jesus doing here? Now, this would partially explain her relentless begging and persistence if Jesus isn't answering her. And the disciples were just begging to send her away, right? I mean, this has kind of become the typical response of the disciples, hasn't it? They kind of still have this attitude of, this isn't why we're here, Jesus. Especially to entertain the request of a Canaanite woman. Jesus, however, wanted to use this woman's faith as a lesson for the disciples, something he has been trying to convey to them. Jesus' initial silence was not out of disregard for her, he was not ignoring her, but that her faith be tested and shown as persistent and authentic. Not only for Jesus to see, but maybe more importantly for the disciples to see. Jesus wanted to show them what true faith looked like. Open your eyes, disciples. This is it. All the disciples could think about is Lord, can you get her out of here? She's just shouting at us. She keeps shouting, the whole town's going to be here. Because, from the perspective of the Jews, even the disciples, there was absolutely no reason for Jesus to acknowledge, let alone consider this woman's request. Even Jewish women weren't able to sit at the feet of a rabbi, let alone a Gentile Canaanite. All factors of the situation were against this woman, but the disciples needed to learn what real faith looked like. Real faith is broken, it is humble, it is desperate, it is dependent on Christ. With the love of a parent and faith in Jesus, she was willing to make a fool of herself and overstep the social barriers, the cultural boundaries. But Jesus uses this as an opportunity to further display what he has been trying to teach the disciples, that whoever comes to in faith and surrender and humility can be clean, can be saved, can be considered, will be considered, regardless of external identifiers or circumstances. Now, after the disciples had voiced their dispute and the woman showed persistence, Matthew 15, 24 gives us Jesus' initial response, again absent from Mark. He says, he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, we'll touch more on Jesus' full response in our next point, but the main point is this that through Israel came the means to the end, that is the salvation of all people. They were the means to the end, not the end itself. It began with Israel, but it did not end with Israel. Again, we'll unpack that more in a minute. But I want you to notice what the woman does after hearing these words of Jesus. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Step into the life of this woman for a moment. We've talked about her background, a Gentile, a woman, a Canaanite, belonging to a people who are known for worshiping false gods, an ancient enemy of Israel. It's expectable that she had already been to the Canaanite temple. She had already been to their god of healing named Eshman. Perhaps she had made the required sacrifices to Baal, which was prominent in this region for her daughter. It's expectable that she had performed the ceremonies of the Canaanite culture, but came up empty every time. What drives her to this outward and internal posture of humility and grief was that she came to the disappointing reality of what the world had to offer. The disappointing reality of the false idols. She exhausted what the world could give. She exhausted what she could do. She came to the end of herself. She asked for mercy, not justice. She's not asking for anything she felt like she deserved. She fell at the feet who she now believed as her only hope and cried out, Lord, help me. You are Lord. You are Messiah, Son of David. You are the one who can dispense mercy. You are the answer, and I will relent, for there is nothing else I can turn to. Now, we may read this and think, man, she's really desperate. She's on her hands and knees crying out the whole thing. She seems really desperate to be doing these things. But let me ask you, can you relate to this woman's heart posture? What has to happen in your life to be desperately dependent on God like this? When should we as Christians be lowered to such desperate dependence? Now, if you reflect on your life and your thought begins with, well, only when I, or only if that that tells you something, that should tell you something this morning, right? Or maybe you can't think about when your prayer life or your walk with the Lord ever comes to a place of desperate dependence like this. Because how grieving is the thought to considering throwing all of yourself at the feet of Jesus in desperation, hands, knees, bowed head, just completely desperate before Jesus. To consider that and say, well, my situation isn't that bad. You know, I'm not that desperate, right? And maybe that's not the word you say, but oftentimes, you know, this is the life we live. And the reality is this desperate need for the Lord should be our posture every day, Christian, every moment. Jesus, I've come to the end of myself. I've come to the end of the means available to me, exhausting what I can do without you. I need you, God. Will you help me? I can't do it alone. I can't be the spouse I need to be without you, God. I can't do the ministry without you, God. I can't overcome this sin without you, God. I'm desperate. I need you. Now, I think unfortunately, our default so easily becomes self-sufficiency rather than desperate dependency. We grip our life tighter with our own hands. You know, we put it on our back, we neglect prayer, we we infrequently come before God with a broken and desperate heart. And then we wonder, why do I have so much anxiety all the time? Why do I feel so crushed by life, by ministry? Why do I just crave a screen all hours of the day? Why is my marriage on a downward trend? Why can't I just get a hold of this sin in my life? Jesus says this in John 15, 5. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. This woman came to this realization. I can do nothing apart from you, Jesus. You see, the easy yoke and the light burden that Christ offers is realized for those who live in the realization, God, I can't do this on my own. Will you help me? I mean, if only the posture of our hearts were as this Canaanite woman. So just reflect this morning. Do you relate more with this woman and her heart posture in your life and in your moments and in your week? Or do you read this and relate more with the disciples looking on to this woman as some kind of unordinary spectacle that you can't relate to? Mark then moves to Jesus' full response to the woman in verse 27, which leads us to our next point. A purposeful response. And he said to her, let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. The initial statement from Jesus in Matthew gives us some more context to what he's referring to. The children here refer to the Jews, and the dogs refer to Gentiles. And as we mentioned earlier, this statement is quite a shock. You know, if this woman is sincere in her faith, she is broken before Christ, just desperately dependent on him, how could Jesus say this? Well, there are a few clarifying details that help us answer that question. And first, it's important to note that Jesus is using a parable to speak of a larger reality and timeline rather than just using this as a direct statement to the woman. There's a lot of context to derive from Jesus' use of the word first. Let the children be fed first. The meal represents the current chronology or timeline of messianic fulfillment and the message of salvation. Now, this isn't to say that the meal, uh, the gospel, the work, and the person of Jesus, this isn't to say that the meal will never be for the Gentiles or that the Gentiles will always be this proverbial dog in the eyes of Jesus, but that Jesus fulfilling messianic prophecy depended on him coming through Israel and to Israel because that is what was prophesied. That was God's plan. The full delivery and expansion of the gospel to the other nations and people chronologically comes later in the plan of God, primarily after the ascension of Jesus and the delivery of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the apostles. That's when the gospel is fully will be delivered to the Gentiles. Now this timeline is echoed by Paul in Romans 1 16, which says, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Now, there's a lot more to be said about this, but for the sake of time, the important thing is that Jesus' current priority to the Jews was to confirm and anchor his identity as the long-prophesied Jewish Messiah chronologically coming through Israel to Israel and then to the world. This is just the plan of God. Secondly, let's talk about the Greek word that Jesus uses for dog here. Now, it was common for Jews to refer to Gentiles as dogs in the worst sense. So the parable Jesus is using is kind of explaining his ministry in the way that the disciples will be able to understand this understanding, this imminent delivery of the gospel to the Gentiles. But there are two Greek words for dog, two Greek words for dog, both with different connotations. The first is kuon, which means wild and kind of has this connotation of impure or not belonging, symbolically immoral. Just a few, we see this in many places. Revelation 22, 15, sorry, I actually didn't give these these next three verses to them, so it's it won't be up there. I forgot about them. But Revelation 22, 15 says, outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and the murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. These who are outside, these are outside the gates of the new heavens and the new earth in the in Revelation. Philippians 3.2 says, look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. This is talking about the false teachers. And Matthew 7.6 says, Do not give to dogs what is holy. Do not cast your pearls before swine. You know that one. But this is not the word that Jesus uses here. The word, the Greek word that Jesus uses here is uh kunerion, which means little dog, kind of like a pet. That's the best way to think of it. It's not a child, but it's something that you care for. It's more endearing than the previous use of the word. There's a deeper meaning and there's there's less parallel with with how the Jews use dog to describe Gentiles. This endearing use of the word dog is only found in this exchange with this woman in Matthew and Mark. That's the only place you find this endearing term of dog. Um, but it's still a dog, right? That's the unavoidable part. But what Jesus' language seems to be communicating is that Jews are being fed right now, but that does not mean that I have no, you have no value or that I have no care for you, for the gospel is for you also, and in time the Gentiles will have all of it. But again, it's still the word dog. But here's the thing the designation of dog is only as insulting as how much one disagrees with it. The woman could have responded, How dare you call me a dog? How dare you? I don't deserve that. Look, you owe me this, Jesus. I came in here, I begged, I this is out of my control, I can't fix my daughter, this is out of my hands. I demand you do something. How dare you call me a dog? But how does the woman respond? Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. This is the only place in Mark where someone refers to Jesus specifically as Lord. And it comes from an outcast, Canaanite, Gentile woman. The woman did not deny the point Jesus was making, but recognized the precedent the Jews had, and that she wasn't a Jew. She says, Yes, Lord, what you say about me is true. She didn't get defensive. She didn't start making her case why she's not a dog. And I would be willing to say that she's not a, she knows he's the son of Messiah, but, or the son of David, the Messiah. Um, but I'd be willing to say that she doesn't know about all the messianic chronology and why this, what this exhaustively means. There's a bit more of just she's taking more ownership than maybe we would expect her to. But now, ironically, Jesus has been trying to teach the disciples through parables, and every time, how do they respond? What are you talking about, Jesus? Can you dumb it down for us? Or they meet Jesus with self-righteousness, right? We've got to figure it out, Jesus, and you need to conform to this tradition and these practices. Um why aren't you doing that? But there's a magnif-the magnificence of this is that this woman is the first person mentioned in the narrative of Mark to hear a parable and to receive it. And to not only receive it, she enters into it with Jesus. Yes, Jesus, I am the dog you speak of. I understand what you're saying. I get it. It's not yet our time. I'm not a Jew. Yes, I am unworthy. But even the crumbs of your grace will be sufficient for me. Isn't that great? What faith, what, what wittiness, right? She recognizes her position before God, but contends with him in reverence and respect. She doesn't contend with God as if arguing for what is owed to her, which is easy for us, easy for the world. God, if you want me to come to you, I'm gonna need the whole table. God, if you want me to do X, Y, and Z for your kingdom, I'm gonna need the table. I'm gonna need it all. You're gonna have to answer all the prayers. It's not about what is owed to her, it's about his capability and power and sufficiency. Even what can be said the leftovers of Jesus' grace and power is sufficient for her. Lord, that's all I need. Instead of showing pride in herself and her culture or what is owed to her, she showed meekness and faith, being poor in spirit, which in Matthew 5 3, Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And that is the response that we see from Jesus here as well, as we move to our final point, which is a humble faith received. Jesus says to her in Mark, and he said to her, for this statement, you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter. Matthew provides a bit more detail where Jesus says in Matthew 15, 28, O woman, great is your faith. Great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. And she went home and found the child lying in the bed and the demon gone. You see, Jesus saw her heart and celebrated her faith. It wasn't merely her words or her wittiness. She didn't catch Jesus in a gotcha moment with the crumbs. It was the faith behind her words that made a difference. And in response, Jesus' divine and omnipresent power and love was poured out onto her daughter. And the demon was expelled without him even being there. Now here is a woman who had likely spent her life looking for a fraction of this power in pagan idols, her whole life. How wonderful and awe-inspiring this would have been for her to taste and to see true power, true salvation. The true Son of God. She threw all of herself at the feet of Jesus. Broken, desperate, humble. Jesus requires the same from each of us. This faith and posture of heart is what saves us. You can't come to Christ thinking he owes you something. You have to realize, Lord, I am broken. I have nothing without you. I can do nothing for myself and the state of my soul without you. That's the heart Jesus demands of each of us. But that kind of desperate dependence is not only what saves us, it is what sustains you, Christian. Being desperately dependent for God in all that you do. Doing nothing apart from Him. Doing nothing without prayer with Him. It is what saves us, and it is what sustains us. And it is what is required of us by God. I'll invite the band back up as we as we close this morning. And as we close, I just I want to bring this passage to bear directly on us. Where we are in our relationship with Christ, where we are in being sustained by Christ. Because this isn't just a story about a Canaanite woman. It's a picture of how anyone comes to Jesus and how anyone is sustained in Jesus. So whether you're an unbeliever this morning or believer, the question is, how am I coming to Jesus? Am I desperately dependent on him for all that I am, for all that I do? Or am I living life more self-sufficiently? Maybe praying out the door, praying at night that you fall asleep in the middle of, you know, I've been there. But I ask you to reflect, to ask yourself, do I relate with this woman? Her heart posture. She had nothing. She could do nothing. And she came to that realization and she threw herself at the feet of Jesus. So I ask that you bow your head and close your eyes this morning as we step into a time of invitation. And I just ask that you reflect on your life. Are you walking in desperate dependence? Saying, oh Lord, help me. I can't do this day alone. I don't want to walk through this day alone. I don't want to walk through this season of life without you, God. Lord, will you help me? I can't do it on my own. Do you come like the disciples at times? Familiar but not desperate. Close but not dependent. Knowing about Him, but not throwing yourself at His feet. Or do you come like this woman? Broken, desperate, humble? Lord, I am what you say that I am. Believing even the smallest measure of His grace is sufficient for you. Is God's grace sufficient for you this morning? Or do you need the whole table? Maybe you were once there as a believer, but if you're honest, you're not living like this anymore. You're carrying things on your own. You've drifted out of daily dependence, and you're not coming to him with the same desperation. You've slipped idly into this self-sufficient lifestyle. And maybe that's why you feel exhausted. Maybe that's why you feel anxious. That's why you feel spiritually dry. Because somewhere along the way, you stopped coming as this woman came. This is not only how we're saved, this is how we live, Christian, in desperate dependence for God. For apart from him, we can do nothing. So here's the invitation this morning. You take as much time as you need to talk with the Lord, to confess to the Lord, to reinvigorate a desperate dependence on him. You come to Jesus, not with pride, not with a list of what you think you deserve, not trying to prove yourself, but like this woman, humble, dependent, believing that he is enough, and trusting that even the crumbs of his grace can sustain you and carry you through anything. And is more powerful than anything this world could offer and anything that we can do on our own. I invite you to come to the end of yourself this morning. And fall at the feet of Jesus in faith, trusting him that he is who he said he is. He did what he said he did, and what he says about you is true. So you take time this morning to pray. And then we'll close with one last song.