Where Faith Becomes Great | Selvin Cortez |

Your sermon explores where great faith is formed by examining the only two people in Matthew’s Gospel whom Jesus commends with the words, 

“Great is your faith.” The Roman centurion demonstrates unwavering confidence in the authority of Jesus’ word, believing His command alone is sufficient. 

The Canaanite woman reveals persistent trust in the character and grace of Jesus, refusing to give up despite apparent silence and obstacles. 

Between these two accounts, the sermon highlights the place where every believer lives: between God’s promise and its fulfillment. Great faith grows in that space by trusting Christ before circumstances change. 

The message concludes with Jesus’ invitation to “Come to Me,” showing that true rest is found by those who continue trusting Him while waiting for His promises to be fulfilled.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Uh, how's everyone doing? Yeah, yeah, we're doing good. We're doing good. It's a great, it's a great day, Sunday. Uh, there are a hundred other places you could be at, but you're in the house of the Lord, and I believe that you're here specifically because God has a word for you. Um, and the reason I know God has a word for you is because before it gets to you, it's a word for me. And I received it this week, and I've been praying about it for a couple of weeks now, and even next week's message is already prayed for, and I got the, I got, I got it all going. I don't want to give it away. Uh, but we are talking about the Psalms. We're getting into a summer of Psalms, and it's going to be awesome. And so the Psalms is one of the one of the most read books in the Bible. We're gonna go through every single one. No, we're not gonna go through every single we're gonna go through a bunch of them, and I want you to see how God is going to be faithful uh through this series, this brand new series called Summer in the Psalms. So I want you to join us for that, and then and then for this message, uh, we're doing this mini-series. If you remember last week, we were speaking about faith and what faith looks like. And so faith looks like forgiveness. And so we talked about how faith, your your level of faith, um, can be measured by your level of forgiveness. And we looked at the ten lepers and how how the ten lepers had to present themselves back to the priest, the one man that stood between them and freedom, they had to present themselves back to the priest. And in fact, the Bible says in another in another portion, when Jesus heals another leper, that they they they not only had to present themselves to the priest and say, Jesus healed me and I'm cleansed and I am made whole, but they also had to do something else. And that something else was to bring an offering. Talk about level of forgiveness. They not only had to present themselves to the person that that cast them out into the valley of the lepers, but they also have to give him something now. And the Bible says that they all presented themselves, but only one of them came back and praised Jesus. And so that one person received healing, cleansing, and salvation. And that was that was a message from last week. I want to invite you, just like Mick was saying earlier, that if you missed last message, that that you would you would sign up, that you would subscribe to our podcast and pick it up there because it joins into today's message. And today's message uh is uh is is really it's just something else. I've been I've been diving into for the last couple of months, I've been diving into the gospels, and you gotta start at Matthew. And so I'm I'm doing this deep dive into Matthew, and as I'm reading the book of Matthew, uh something something caught my eye, and and it was in chapter eight. I was reading chapter eight, and this interesting phrase just popped out. It's almost like it it jumps out at the out of the page, and I felt like grabbing like a red marker and just highlighting it. And so I didn't have my actual Bible, I was reading it off of my computer. So what I did was I highlighted the phrase, and then and then I just said, I'm gonna come back to this phrase. I'm gonna come back to it. It's really interesting, but I was really into the story, so I just kept reading and I kept reading and I kept reading, and seven chapters after Matthew chapter eight is Matthew chapter 15, and then I thought, whoa, hold on a second, that phrase just came back. Both of these chapters, chapter eight and chapter 15, contain the exact same wording from Jesus. Ready for this? Great is your faith. And so we're in this miniseries, and and I want to tell you, great is your faith. So I began trying to try to connect these two phrases, these two events, these two stories, and I was connecting them and trying to find the thread that joins these two together. And then all of a sudden, in that moment, I want to say this, I want to say this, that that the room just started to light up, and there was so much light coming in to my bedroom, and it was like the presence of God was there. And I want to tell you that that the angels sang, and I could hear the angels sing, and then all of a sudden, a great voice from heaven came into my room and said, Selvan, my anointed preacher, here is Sunday's message. Uh, but that didn't happen. That didn't happen. Um that's what I thought happened, but it wasn't like that at all. In fact, I'm reading Matthew chapter 8 and Matthew chapter 15 together with two Bibles, and I got hungry. I got hungry, and so I went upstairs and I I grabbed uh I went to go make myself a sandwich. And so I got my two pieces of bread, and um, I'm sitting down and I'm I'm I'm I'm making my sandwich, and it's a pretty simple sandwich. Uh my wife is a little bit busy uh these last couple of weeks, and so she's not home. That's all I got is sandwiches, and so um pray for me, please. Pray for me. Um, and so so we've got we've got uh our two set pieces of uh slices of of of bread, and and as I'm looking at the slices of bread, uh I don't know which one goes on top. Um, and so I'm just looking at them, and all of a sudden, guys, it hit me. All of a sudden, Matthew chapter 8 and Matthew chapter 15 hit me like running into a wall. And I immediately got up out of the table and I went back and I started reading what Matthew chapter 8 and what Matthew chapter 15 is really all about. And let me tell you, I cannot read these two instances the same way again. I discovered something that would change the way I would read these forever. And so let's start with the first slice. Are you with me? I I know you wanna you wanna know the the middle. What does Selvin put in his sandwiches? Uh I wanna, we're gonna start with the first slice. We're gonna start with the first slice, and the first slice starts with a Roman centurion. We're gonna read this in chapter eight of Matthew. It says this, chapter eight of Matthew, let me find it here. When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion, a centurion, a Roman soldier, came to him asking for help, saying this. He said, Lord, my servant lies at home, paralyzed, suffering terribly. And Jesus said to him, Shall I come to heal him? The centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed, for I am a man, uh for I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, go and he goes. And then that one, come and he comes. I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such. Say with me, great faith. Then Jesus said to the centurion, Go, let it be done just as you have believed it would, and his servant was healed at that moment. Um wow. This this is this is impressive because if you've ever been to um to a restaurant, right? I had uh I had the the privilege of going to a uh a really, really expensive restaurant, one that I would not pay for ever in my life. Uh, but I was invited um in a city uh in the States, and it was it was really, really something else. Um the person uh whenever somebody invites me, that's why if you want to invite me, it's steak. It's steak, it's it's gotta be steak. But the person that invited me, I didn't know that you could do this, but the person that invited me ordered a steak wrapped in gold, wrapped in gold flakes, and I didn't know you could eat gold, but apparently it's digestible. And so he orders this, and I'm thinking, what kind of a restaurant is this? Can I have one? Um and and so so then I went to the reviews and I saw the reviews, and the reviews were through the roof on this place, and and not many places have these reviews of this one restaurant. I can't tell you the name, but you can imagine he was on TV, Gordon Ramsey. Uh, it's falling apart, it's falling apart. Um, but I went there and it was just so, so good. Um now now watch this. That same that that same review, Jesus gives that same review, but he only does it to two people in the entire Bible. And and when we talk about great faith, we could probably mention Abraham, we could mention Isaac, we could mention David, we can mention the prophets, Elijah, Elisha, we can mention all of these great, great prophets, we can mention Ruth, we can mention Esther, Queen Esther, who who made a three-day fast in order to present herself before the king. We can mention all these great people, yet none of them, none of them have the review of great faith. Only two people. And and and what's interesting is I'm trying to find out what is this man, like who is this man? And number one, he's a Roman soldier, he is outside of the covenant with Israel. So he doesn't he doesn't deserve the blessings that come on Israel because he's a gentile. In fact, he is an occupying force in the region of of Capernaum, and he is outside the covenant, but he comes on behalf of his servant. He's not even asking for himself, he's asking for somebody else. And he says this, he says this, he says, Lord. Wow. This Roman soldier sees this Jewish rabbi, this Jewish teacher, this this Jewish itinerant, and he's saying to him, Lord, he's the one that is occupying the land. He is probably the highest authority in that land. And yet when he sees Jesus, he calls him Lord right away. He says, My servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. And Jesus said, Do you want me to come to your house? And he said, No, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word. Just say the word. Only say the word, and my servant will be healed. Now, think about this for a second. This soldier is saying to Jesus, just say the word to the word. He's saying, just say the word to the word. He's saying, just speak, and it shall be, because when I speak, it happens, and I understand that my authority on earth does not equivalent, it's not, it's not equivalent to your authority over the heavens and the earth. Just speak, speak, and it shall be. This is this is a man that's saying that the the the say the word, the word that became flesh, the word that dwelt among us, the word in whom all things were created, and by all by whom all things have their sustenance. It's almost like this Roman centurion is reading John chapter one. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And he is the sustainer and the author of all things. Do you know how much faith that requires? To see Jesus as if he is the one that that that stands above all other things. He he even says, You don't even have to come to my house. He's believing and standing on the authority of Jesus. That's the secret to great faith. And I thought, yeah, great, that's awesome, God. This is this man sees something that that many in Israel had not seen yet. They had a lens uh for for the way that they saw Jesus. The disciples saw Jesus uh as a as a political uh freedom fighter. Israel and the and the the priests and the and the Pharisees and the scribes, they saw him as a troublemaker, a lawbreaker. This centurion sees him as the author, the end all be all of creation. That's who he sees. And and and oftentimes um we we we we have this lens of who Jesus is. And if you've been in the church for a while, you've heard this story a hundred times, and we have this lens of who we think Jesus is, but sometimes we've just got to break that lens and just see him in in his majesty and see him in all authority, the king of heaven and earth. And I know that that that that sounds like a religious thing to say, that sounds like a Bible thing to say, and in fact, we've got a term for that, Christian ease. But it's not. And we've got to we've got to separate these this thought from our our hearts that I've already heard it, I already know who he is, um, I know what he's he can do, but now it has to convert from the knowledge, the head knowledge of who we think he is, into the pragmatic and the practical knowledge of this is who he is, and this is what he can do in my life. Without affirmations or without needing validations, without feelings or or or expecting some other experience, just standing on his word, standing on the word, and the word has a name, and his name is Jesus. And Matthew continues writing, and seven chapters later, Jesus says those exact same words again. He says to the Canaanite woman, now this one here is one that you've probably heard, and it may feel a little obscure, and we're gonna get into it. But before we get into it, I just want you to know that Jesus is all-loving, all-caring, merciful, kind, gentle, full of grace. That's the Jesus we believe in. And if there is an obscure passage that you don't understand, go back to what you do understand. And if you don't understand it, ask. Search, seek, find. And you will find the truth. And so this verse has been around forever. And and I'm gonna, I'm just gonna read the story. Matthew 15, 21 to 28 says this leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of tear and Sidon. This is there is no, there's no name or detail in the Bible that is overlooked. It's not just there, just to tell us it's there. The the region, watch this, and and when I read this, when I read this part, my heart just just leaped out of out of me, out of my chest, because Tyr and Sidon is in the land of Asher. I know that doesn't mean anything to anybody, but when Jacob is praying over his children, and he says of his son Asher, he says, Asher, your bread will be like the riches of the land. I'm having a sandwich as I'm reading this, and I see that Jesus is in tear and sidon. This is the furthest journey that Jesus ever made on earth. This is the furthest north he ever went, tear and sidon, in the land of Asher, the land of bread. I know, I know, hold on. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out, watch this. Canaanite woman came to him, crying out, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly. Jesus did not answer a word. What? So his disciples came to him and urged him, send her away, for she keeps crying out after us. He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. The woman came and knelt before him. Lord, help me, she said. He replied, Ready for this? It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. Yes, it is, Lord, she said. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Then Jesus said to her, Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted, and her daughter was healed at that moment. Wow. Those were a lot of masculine amens. Um can we can we do can we do a feminine amen?

unknown 21:01

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, yeah. Now, now watch this. I know that was hard, maybe, maybe because it feels like did did we just read that right? Did Jesus call this woman a dog? And then and then I kept looking into it, and I thought, hold on a second, hold on one second. Let me go, let me go and figure out what he's actually trying to say here. See, uh, this woman comes to Jesus, and Matthew says that she's a Sunamite, uh, I'm sorry, she's a Canaanite woman. Mark speaks of her and calls her a Syrophenician woman. In other words, they're trying to tell us there's a clue in there. And the clue is this go back to the history of Israel. And the Canaanites, the Canaanites, remember, that's the land that Joseph took over. That's the land that flows with milk and honey that was occupied by giants, and God destroyed that land. And so this woman, a Canaanite, she is not Jewish. She is outside the religious standing, she has no entitlement to the promises of Israel. She is, by all accounts, also a Gentile. Yet she preserves. Presents herself to Jesus and she uses a title exclusive for the Jews. She says, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. So she came pretending to be. She came with the pretense of I can get his attention if I use the same terminology that everybody else uses to address him. The same thoughts, the same words that everybody is saying, I will repeat to him and I'll get his attention that way. And it didn't work. And oftentimes that's what happens with us. Our prayers just become repetitions of what we've heard. And they they cease to have faith underneath, an undercurrent of faith that would raise up the name of Jesus. And watch this. When does Jesus answer her? Jesus answers her right after she says, Lord, help me. And in that moment, the facade is broken. And Jesus goes in and she tells her this. Jesus is sitting at a table, and he's giving her a picture of a family. And he's saying, I was sent to the house of Israel first. See, he hadn't died yet. So he was sent to the house of Israel. Israel rejected Jesus and that opened the path for us as Gentiles to come into salvation. But in that moment, he's sitting at a table and he says to her, It is not right, it is not lawful for me to give the bread of the children to the dogs. He's not calling her a dog, he's painting a picture of what this table looks like, what a family looks like. And in a family, there are parents, children, and pets? Raise your hand. How many of you have a dog at home? Great. Can I ask you something? What would you do if your dog at home left? You'd cry, you'd go after it, right? Okay, okay, let me ask this. How many here have ever traveled with your dog? Yeah, okay. Can you just grab the dog, put him on the plane and go? You need the dog needs its own passport. The dog needs its own passport to travel, meaning that the dog is part of your family. And so when we look at the word, uh, take me to the Greek, look at this. He replied, it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. The word, the word dog that you're thinking of is kirion. Kirion is a stray dog, a dog that is outside, a dog that is a scavenger. Those are kirions in Greek. Watch what it says here. It is not great to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. Kienarion. Kinarion means puppy. Domesticated household pet. Jesus is painting a picture of a family, and she says, Yes, it is, Lord. She said, even the Kyrians, even the puppies that are stay that are under the table receive the crumbs from the table. You see, she's not offended by the imagery. She understands the imagery. And I think we all do. I mean, I'm following this guy on social media. Um, I don't know if you've seen him, but but he shows a massive plate of food that he feeds, like raw food that he gives to his dogs. Like there's like mincemeat and then like duck head and kidneys. Have you have you has anybody seen this? Yeah, you've seen it? And and he just feeds these massive animals, this huge platter of meat. And I'm like, yeah, that can I have some of that? Uh because it looks like it'd be really good. Um not raw in the raw state, but but but that's what that's what that's what Jesus is painting. He's painting a picture of a family, and that family has a pet that has been adopted into the family. The pet was has to be adopted. It's not a stray pet, it's not a wandering animal outside the doors, it is a member of the family that has been adopted into the family. And that's what Jesus is doing here. He's painting this family meal, and he's drawing out her faith into the open, and he's saying to her, Great is your faith. And it almost reminds me, she she says to him, she says to him, Um, even the crumbs that fall from the table, even the crumbs that fall from the table, the puppies eat. It reminds me of a woman. The woman with the issue of blood. If I could just touch the hem of his garments, I will be healed. And reaching out and going beyond her her abilities and her strength, she reaches out and and and and gingerly touches the hem of Jesus' garments. And in that moment, she is healed right away. She didn't need a touch from Jesus, she just needed to be close enough to Jesus to touch his garments. And instantly Jesus said, Who touched me? Because power has left my body. All we need is a little crumb, all we need is a little hem, and with that hem, with that little crumb, Jesus says, Great is your faith. Mustard seed-sized faith. Great is your faith. She understood that grace is greater than the distance, that release is greater than pretending to be. She said, Lord, help me. And he did. And in that moment, something became impossible to ignore. Her faith became impossible to ignore. And so we've got these two stories of great faith. Two stories of great faith. And when I see uh what Matthew placed in between them, I understand how and where faith lives. And so we've got we've got this idea that that faith is between the promise and the manifestation. And so I've got this slide uh up here. Faith is is living between the promise and the manifestation. See, see, God, God has given you a promise. God has called you for something special. He's called you by name, and he's given you a plan and a purpose that you might not understand right now, but it's there. And when I read through the scriptures, I find God's plan for my life. And his plan, his ultimate plan for me is to worship him. And when I worship him, when I worship him, all fear dissipates. All fear must flee. Anxiety, pain, whatever is happening around me, in me, goes away. Why? Because I'm standing on his presence, on his promise, and his promise could be for a business idea, it could be for ministry, it could be for schooling, it could be for a partner, it could be for so many things. God has made a promise over your life, and then all we're doing is we're waiting for the manifestation of it. We're waiting for it to happen. And in the waiting, it will happen. It's a promise that God has made. And when God speaks and when God makes a promise, he is not a man or a son of man to reject his promise over your life. If he has said it, it will happen. Now we live, we live in between the promise and the manifestation of the promise. We live here in the middle between the two slices of bread. We live right here in the middle. Great faith. Great faith. Great faith to believe the promise. Great faith to see the promise. We are standing right here in the middle. This is where faith lives. Right in the middle, right in the middle, right in the middle. Two loaves. Two slices of bread. Right in the middle. And that's when it hit me. When we go into When we go into John. Chapter twenty-four to twenty-nine. We're not it we're not at the middle part yet. We're getting there. John chapter twenty-four. Verse twenty-nine. It says this. And I just lost it. Here it is. Somewhere. John twenty-four says, Now Thomas, also known as Didymus. One of the twelve disciples was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where his nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Eight days later, a week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here in my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God. Then Jesus told him, Watch this, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. And so we we see this other verse in Hebrews that says, We who have believed, enter. We who have believed, enter. The Christian life is about living in that center. The center where faith lives, that's where your prayers are. That's where your child is. If you've got a prodigal child that is not in the house of the Lord, that's where your faith should stand. That's where your marriage should stand. That's where your healing should stand, your calling, a breakthrough. That's where faith lives. That's where faith lives. In the middle of these two slices. And so I went to the middle. Between Matthew chapter eight and Matthew chapter fifteen, in the smack middle of the two declarations of great faith, is this word right here. And when I saw this, my heart leapt, and this is what Jesus says. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light. Did you catch it? The secret to great faith, the secret to having Jesus call you, that that that give you a review of great faith lies in two things. The first two people and the only two people that were called that had great faith were two Gentiles. That is us. And then Jesus says to us, He says, Come to me, come to me, for for I know who you are. I know that you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. The meat in between the two slices is rest. Rest. Rest, not not going to sleep, kind of rest. It's rest from from striving, rest from working, rest from thinking, I have to do more in order for God to hear me. God Jesus, Lord, Son of David. And we start repeating and repeating and repeating prayers that we don't know. But rest is Lord, I need you. Lord, I can't do this by myself. Lord, my strength isn't enough. I need you. I need you now. No matter what's going on in my life, I need you. I need to stop looking for for that for that next promotion. I need to stop looking for for for stepping over people in order to get that next that next opportunity. I need to stop and say, Lord, I need you. Give me your rest. Let me be still and know that you are God, and there is no other like you. Great faith comes with great rest. Rest from religion. It's not a religion that we live, it's a relationship. Jesus spoke to the woman when she said, Lord, help me. Jesus spoke to the Roman centurion, the Roman soldier when he acknowledged and he said, Lord, help me. And when I say that these two were Gentiles, what I'm really saying is that they didn't have religion behind them. They weren't brought up with religious beliefs. They saw a man standing there that said, I can heal you. And they said, I believe you, I believe you can heal. And what's interesting is they received the word of God and they were standing on his promise. Nothing had yet happened, but they believed it would. They didn't see the evidence of the word of God released from his mouth and the healing in the moment, they didn't see it, they didn't see it, but they believed it. But actually, if we go back to his story, Jesus says the greatest words, I don't think that they were meant for Thomas, they were meant for us. Blessed is he who believes without seeing. Blessed with what? Great faith equals rest. You will be blessed with rest. Lord, where is my next plate of food coming from? Believe. Lord, I've got no job. Rest and believe. Lord, here's the diagnosis. Rest and believe. Lord, I've been praying for my for my children for so many years. When? Between the promise and the manifestation, rest and believe. I stand on your word. I believe in you. I believe you can do it. I believe you can do it. And Hebrews says, We who have believed, enter his rest. We who have believed, enter his rest. Jesus is saying, Come to me. Come to me, and you will find rest for your soul. And so if you're weary and tired, if you've been believing for something and it hasn't happened, let me tell you, I know exactly how you feel. I was believing in something that I thought would never come. In fact, I it took so long that I almost gave it up. And I almost said, God, that was for another time. Not not not not anymore for me. And between the promise and the manifestation were 20 years for me. And there is a promise that God has for my life. I'm not gonna share it right now, but He's got a promise for my life that I've been waiting exactly 21 years for. And I still haven't seen the manifestation of it. I will, and I'm now resting in him, knowing it will happen. I don't know when or how, but I'm standing on his faithfulness. I'm standing and I'm believing that he can do it. And if that's you today, I want you to stand up. In fact, let us all stand up. Great is your faith. Great is your faith. One slice. Great is your faith. Another slice. A man who recognized authority and is under authority and recognized the kingship and the lordship of Jesus. A woman desperate to have her daughter healed erroneously presents herself. But Jesus says, You don't have to do that. Rest. Come just as you are. Come just as you are. You don't have to pretend with me, you don't have to come up with elaborate prayers, just tell me you need me, and I will answer, and I will answer immediately with rest. Rest for our weary soul. Rest as we proclaim that we are standing on his faithfulness, that we are standing on his word. You see, the Roman centurion said the greatest phrase that I find in the book of Matthew: just say the word. Just say the word. And miracles happen. Just say the word. Just speak the word. And the word became flesh, and the word has a name, and the word's name is Jesus. Speak the name of Jesus over your life. Speak the name of Jesus over your promise. Speak the name of Jesus over the manifestation of the promise. Speak the name of Jesus in the in-between of your life. Speak the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus. The name of Jesus. The centurion said, just say the word. And maybe you don't know what to pray about, but you are going through a season. Maybe you don't know exactly what to say. Do I call him Son of David? Do I call him King Almighty? Do I call him Jesus? Do I call him Lord? Do I call him Savior? The answer to that question is yes and amen. Call him all those things. But the greatest name that you can give to him is just call his name. The Bible says that those who call on the name of Jesus will receive healing, will receive salvation, will receive promise, will receive miracles. Call on the name of Jesus. Call on his name, and he is quick to answer. Speak the name of Jesus.