June 14, 2026 "The Marks of Mega Faith" (Mark 7:24-30)

Part of the Series, "Mark: Living With Gospel Urgency"

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

So, my title this morning is The Marks of Mega Faith. The marks of mega faith. Now, for those of you who know me well, you know that I had a mom who was a woman of faith. My mom took me, my brother, and my sister to church every time the doors were opened. If there was a special service, revival meeting, uh, whatever, we were always there. God only knows, oh, and by the way, for 35 years, my mom would take us kids to church while my dad, who was unsaved at the time, would stay home. And only God knows how many prayers mom prayed for the salvation of my dad's soul. My dad would come to faith my junior, my senior year in Bible college. I had the incredible privilege to baptize my dad. My mom lived the life. And I'm convinced she was a 1 Peter 3 kind of woman. She demonstrated what Christianity is all alike, all about. God saw Christ in her and she prayed for him. God only knows how many prayers mom prayed for us kids, for us to be favored by God. But I do not think that God ever felt the necessity to pray for us kids the way that the woman we're about to read about prayed for her daughter. You see, this woman we're about to read about, her daughter, she's not just having problems at school. She's not just having problems with some boyfriend. She's not just struggling to deal with peer pressure. She is possessed of a demon. We do not know how old this young girl is. And in my mind, I thought this week and trying to prepare for today, what brought that about? How in the world is this girl of whatever age, I'm assuming she's 12 or under, how did it happen that she would be possessed of a demon? The woman we'll find out is a Canaanite woman, and maybe some of her pagan practices before the events leading up to what we're going to read, maybe there was a door that opened up and Satan went in and possessed her. So we're about to read of a woman who was incredibly desperate for God to do something. Now, since you're here, I'm assuming, and those of you who might be watching online, I think I've made a safe assumption that we've got some degree of faith in God. The question then is on a scale of one to ten, how might your faith be graded? In all sincerity, do you think your faith might be graded by the Lord who knows the quality of your faith, the depth of your faith, the size of your faith? Would he grade you maybe a three? Maybe a seven? An eight? I think we're going to see a woman who displays, at least for this episode in her life, a ten. She demonstrates mega faith. Now, if you were here the past couple of weeks, in verses 1 to 23, Jesus confronts the Pharisees who were elevating human traditions above God's word. And Jesus confronts them with the reality that guess what? What really makes you unclean is not anything on the outside, it's your heart that's eaten up with any number of sinful desires. And Jordan preached about that last week. The religious leaders were concerned with ceremonial cleanliness, when all the while they were eaten up with spiritual poverty in their own hearts. Having shown that all people are spiritually unclean and in need of saving grace, Mark now records a surprising encounter with a Gentile woman. And the passage that follows demonstrates that God's mercy and God's grace is not limited by ethnicity, background, or social status. It's available to any and all who come to Jesus in humble, persistent faith. Verse 24, Mark 7. And from there, apparently Capernaum, he, Jesus, 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. When your popularity reaches astronomical levels like Jesus had, it's kind of impossible to get some downtime, some free time, and Jesus experiences that once again. Now, Tyre and Sidon, the two places that are mentioned there, they are port cities. So as far as Jesus' earthly ministry is concerned, this is the furthest north he has been. And so you can see there, you see Israel itself, and now he is up in what is modern day Lebanon. So, from the Pharisees' perspective, there is no way in the world any rabbi, any respectable rabbi, would be going into pagan territory, let alone dealing with the Gentile, let alone a woman. Folks, you've got to understand, in the ancient Near Eastern world, women were almost viewed like pieces of furniture. Jesus did more to elevate women to a status of equality with men than anybody ever has. Men and women alike were made in the image of God, but in their perspective, how dare this religious man who claims to be the Messiah? No way in the world he'd be up there dealing with this woman the way he's about to be dealing with her. Verse 25. 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 Syrophoenician by birth. Matthew also tells us in Matthew 15, 22, she was a Canaanite woman from that region. Now, those of you who can remember something about your Old Testament scriptures, Canaanite was a general term for the enemies of God. The Canaanites were the people groups that were occupying the promised land that God told Joshua to lead into battle and get rid of all of them. So she's got a heritage as being a part of the enemies of Almighty God. I don't know how she heard about Jesus. Maybe there was a merchant who had been in Capernaum or in one of the other places and he had heard, he had seen, and maybe he's gone back up, he's gone home, and he shared the news. But somehow this woman has heard about Jesus. And she's convinced that he is her only hope. Now think about this. She'd been raised in a pagan culture, renowned for its wickedness, its vileness. She was a descendant of people who were the enemies of God, and Israel was to conquer. She had far less spiritual light than the Pharisees did. She had far less spiritual light than the disciples did, and yet, unlike the religious leaders, she just falls at Jesus' feet. She humbles herself right before the Lord. Something these Pharisees have not yet done. She humbles herself. For faith to make sense. Oh no, verse 25, verse 26, not a part of verse 26. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. Now, Matthew also tells us in his gospel account of the same story that she said, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. I don't know how she knew this, but she acknowledges Jesus as the son of David, the ultimate son of David, the ultimate descendant of David, and she bows before him. I'm convinced she's bowing before him, recognizing him as Lord, recognizing him as other than just a prophet. She bows before him and she begs him. Oh Lord, son of David. You have no idea. Now I'm elaborating. You have no idea. You have no idea what this demon has done to my daughter. And we know from some other cases that demons would take the recipient that they're in and maybe throw them in a fire, try to drown them. I don't know. I don't know what kind of scars this little girl might have from having a demon in her. But she says, My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, and she bows before Jesus, believing that he can do something about it. Now, folks, mark this. For faith to make sense and to have power, it must be placed in a trustworthy object. You can have all the faith in the world and place it in the wrong kind of object, and it's not going to do you any good. Even, even a little faith placed in Almighty God can produce great results. So for faith to have power to be effective, it's got to be placed in the right, in a trustworthy object. So she reverently addresses Jesus as a sovereign, omnipotent Lord. Now, as we work through our text, I will be making several references to Matthew's version of the same story. And Matthew tells us something incredibly important that Mark leaves out. And that's recorded in Matthew chapter 15, verse 28. At the end of the story, Jesus says to her, Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you desire. Now, the word great there, uh, the Greek word is where we get our English word mega from. It's actually a transliteration of the Greek word megos. And so that's why my sermon title is The Marks of Mega Faith, Great Faith. And so my purpose and now preaching for the rest of my sermon is to share with you three ways to develop mega faith. Three ways to develop mega faith. First, go to Jesus humbly, humbly. So we're told that she came and fell down at his feet. What a contrast between this Canaanite woman and the Jewish religious leaders. They consider themselves holy and clean and in no need of repentance. And this woman, man, she just prostrates herself right at Jesus' feet, humbly acknowledging his superiority. This woman's posture is one of humility and even worship. She came to Jesus empty-handed and she makes no claim on him. Her manner is the opposite of the snippy, you owe me attitude that is so prominent in our culture. She does not argue that her case is an exception. She doesn't lobby for special treatment. But listen, at the same time, she does not cut herself off from the miraculous power of Jesus by thinking that she's too unworthy to receive anything from him. We are unworthy, but we're not too unworthy if we come humbly before the Lord, and that's what this dear woman does. Folks, pride. Pride. Pride changed angels into demons. Satan uses pride to keep us from bowing our pride will keep your knees stiff. But humility will allow you to bend them as it were. To go before the Lord and acknowledge, I need you, Lord. Oh, how I need you. Pride muzzles your voice so that you don't call out in humble supplication. Now, folks, don't miss this. God sent Jesus not to reward the deserving, but to redeem the destitute. Nobody is deserving. So anybody who doesn't think they need saving, good luck with that. But if you come to the Lord as destitute, as poverty-stricken as you can imagine, oh, then the Lord can do great things for you. In Luke 18, verses 10 to 14, Jesus told this parable. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes up to heaven. But he beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus says, I tell you this, that man went down to his house, justified, made right with God, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humble, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Truth be told, some of you need to get off your high horse. You need to get off your high horse and humble yourself before the Lord. I don't care how much money you've got. I don't care how good looking you are. I don't care what you've accomplished, or how strong, or how popular, or how athletic. He gives grace to the humble. And this woman humbling herself before the Lord is about to get a miraculous pouring out of God's grace and God's mercy. So the only way to have God honoring faith, the only way to start trying to have mega faith is to go to the Lord humbly. A second way to develop mega faith, go to Jesus confidently. Go to Jesus confidently. In verse 26, the mom begged Jesus to cast the demon out of her. She knew it would take divine power, and she believes that Jesus possesses it. Now, folks, faith is not needed for what's feasible. If you've got a situation that's, well, it's a little challenging, but there are three or four different ways you might work it out. Well, you don't really need faith for that. You might need wisdom, but you don't need faith for that which is feasible. This woman, however, is requesting something that is totally beyond the scope of ability. I think it's probably safe to assume that she had checked with anybody and everybody back home, and nobody could help her. Nobody could cast out the demon. But she's got confidence that this man, Jesus, can. And God specializes in such situations. For the Bible tells us in Psalm 72, verse 18, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. George Mueller said, Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends. And so this woman in her desperation, she exercised incredible faith in Christ. She was fully convinced that Jesus had the ability to cast this demon out of her daughter. And folks, can I remind you that Ephesians 3.20 teaches that when we go to Jesus, we're going to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. He's the great God of heaven. James tells us in chapter 1, verses 6 to 8, it teaches us that when you ask God to move, when you ask God to intervene on your behalf or somebody else's behalf, you must ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who dows is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. There's no double-mindedness in this woman. She is before the Lord. God, I'm begging you. This demon, he's been doing bad stuff to my daughter, severely oppressing her. I'm asking you to cast him out. So this woman, she's fully confident that Jesus can heal her daughter. And folks, I'm urging you, I'm reminding myself that we need to pray with the same kind of confidence. Confident that God can still do the miraculous. Confident that God will do what's best. Confident in his love and power. Confident that greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Confident that since, come on, people, be reminded, since he made the heavens and the earth by his great power, nothing is too hard for him. Confident that the Lord is abundant in power and that his understanding is beyond measure. Confident that while with man many things are impossible, with God all things are possible. A third way to develop mega faith. Go to Jesus relentlessly. Go to him humbly. Go to him confidently and go to him relentlessly. Now, we need to develop this because there are any number of things that might prevent you from going to the Lord relentlessly. So first, go to the Lord relentlessly, despite God's silence. Despite God's silence. So Matthew tells us something that again, Mark doesn't. Matthew tells us that after she, and by the way, the verb about the woman asking Jesus to heal her daughter, it's imperfect. It's a sense where she repeatedly did so, over and over. And then Matthew tells us that after she repeatedly begged God to cast a demon out of her daughter, he did not answer her a word. He did not answer her a word. Not one solitary word of acknowledgement was uttered. I don't know for how long. But there's not even a not now. There's not even, ma'am, I'll speak with you in just a moment. There's not even a let me think on it. Nothing. Silence. Do you ever feel like the door of heaven is barred shut with 117 high security locks, and you can't get in, you can't get through. Now, if you do feel that way, you're not alone. The psalmists sometimes felt that way. Psalm 28, verse 1. To you, Lord, I call. You are my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. If you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit. God, please don't be silent to me. Psalm 83, verse 1, O God, do not keep silence. Do not hold your peace or be still, O God. My dear brothers and sisters, please don't miss this. God's silence never signifies his absence or indifference. It provides an opportunity for faith's perseverance. So when Jesus said not a word to her, it's not because he did not care for her. It's not because he was indifferent, didn't have time for her. No, he is demonstrating not just for her benefit, but for all the disciples' benefit and whomever else might have been in the house, this woman has got mega faith because she persists even when I do not provide an immediate answer. And folks, there are going to be times, as you know, there will be times when it feels like the Lord is absent. But you've got to remember that he's not. That's not true. He's never not aware of what's going on in your life. He's never not aware. He promised, I will what? Never leave you or forsake you, and he can't break his promises. So Jesus never did anything unloving or without a divine purpose. His initial silence gave this woman an opportunity to be relentless in her pleading and to demonstrate the enduring quality of her faith. So go to Jesus relentlessly, despite Jesus' seeming silence. Number two, go to Jesus relentlessly, despite others' resistance. Despite others' resistance. Again, Matthew tells us in Matthew 15, verse 23, the latter part of the verse, and his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us. Come on, Lord. Are you not as tired of this woman as we are? Send her out. We're not even sure why she's in here. Send her out. I think it's safe to assume she heard them. But guess what? Didn't change a thing. Didn't change a thing. She didn't let their resistance keep her from relentlessly going to Jesus. And so some of you, I wish it weren't true, but some of you have some very negative people in your life. Some of you may live with a very negative person or more than one. Some of you are pursuing great faith in Jesus through though your spouse thinks you're wasting your time. Some of you teenagers may have more resistance than assistance in your faith from your parents. Some of you have coworkers or teammates that make it really hard to exercise mega faith. Don't let anybody else stop you, slow you down, have a negative impact on your life. And then thirdly, go to Jesus relentlessly, despite your status. Despite your status. Hear me out. Again, the woman in our story is a Gentile. She's an outcast, an enemy of God's people. Folks, she is from the wrong side of the tracks. She comes empty-handed, she makes no claim. She has no merit, no priority status, nothing to commend her. And guess what? The same is true of every one of us. Every one of us. There's none righteous, no, not one. All of us are sinners, desperately in need of God's grace and salvation. And even those of us who've been saved for however long, it didn't matter. Your status of dependency upon the Lord never ever changes. So today, today is my 36th anniversary as a pastor here at Unity. Do you know how much that improves my standing before the Lord? Not a bit. Not a bit. I preached approximately 4,000 sermons here at Unity. 4,000. Do you know how much that improves my status before the Lord? Not a bit. Folks, I'm a sinner needing God's grace just like you. Nothing we do helps improve our status. So I don't care whether you're a man or woman, young or old, been saved for a half a century or been saved for a couple of days, man, go to the Lord relentlessly, despite whatever your individual status might be. Now, get a hold of this. And he said to her, So when he first there's silence, and then when he speaks, listen to what he says. 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. Now, if that's the first time you've ever read that, you might be having the response that all of us had the first time we read it. That sounds like that sounds like Jesus is being mean. It sounds like he's being disrespectful, and yet we know that Jesus was always a perfect gentleman. Jesus was confrontational and bold when he spoke to the Pharisees, but he was always full of grace and mercy and kindness when he spoke to people. So what's he saying here? Or first, it'll help us to understand the word translated dogs. The New Testament has two different words that can be translated as dogs. One would be like scavenger dogs. Man, I saw a video clip yesterday of this guy whose families, pit bulls, had attacked him. Oh my word. This his left eye was completely gone, this ear was gone, all that kind of stuff. And man, he was he was joyful. That's not the kind of dog here. The word translated dog here is a little puppy. It's a domesticated pet that, yes, some, not not near as many. How many of y'all have dogs at home? Not that many hands would have been raised if Jesus had asked that question, but some did. They did have household pets that were dogs. And so when Jesus said, Let the children be fed first, he was talking about the children of Israel. He was saying, My ministry is first to the children of Israel. Outreach to the Gentiles will come later. And we know that that's exactly what happened. Paul would be the pioneer who would take the gospel to the Gentiles. Now, listen to this woman's response to what Jesus said. Verse 28. But she answered him, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. Evidently she's not offended. She offers no feminist complaint. She doesn't say anything close to, How dare you speak to me like that? How dare you call, compare me and my daughter, the dog. She didn't, she didn't do that. As one writer says, with wit, courage, and faith, this woman responds. She doesn't question the accuracy of Jesus' words. She simply and humbly carries his analogy one step further. Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. Man, what insight, what humility, what faith. So now that Jennifer and I have grandkids, we've been reintroduced to what incredible havoc they can wreak at mealtimes. I don't care how many times you say, eat over your plate, scoot your chair up, when it's all done, you look under the table, and there's about as much on the floor as there is in their belly. And Jennifer, I think, has reminded herself, she's learned it again, that when rice is down there, you might as well just leave it and let it dry. It'll be a whole lot easier to get it up later. Well, if, and some of you know exactly what this is like, if you have a small dog in your home, you ain't gotta worry about that. Because they're eating those crumbs as they go. This woman is saying, you know what? I don't have a problem with um your priority to the Jews. You are one. All I'm asking for is a crumb. I'll be fully content with a crumb because I'm convinced that a crumb is all I need from you. Wow. She was willing to settle for the crumbs that fell from the master's table because that would be enough to meet her needs. A tiny leftover of Jesus' great power could heal her daughter, and that's all she asked. Oh, folks, her comeback expresses sincere humility. She accepts Jewish priority. The bread, yeah, rightly belongs to the children, the children of Israel first. But again, all I need is a crumb.

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Oh.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

And the good news is that in the overflow of mercy and grace that comes to us from the hands of God, though we should be satisfied with crumbs, he is not satisfied with giving us crumbs. He lavishes us with his grace and his mercy. And all God's people said, Amen. In terms of redemptive history, those of us who are non-Jewish, I don't know whether we have anybody who's a Jew in here. If not, then all of us of non-Jewish descent are also the dogs, the puppies in redemptive history. Would any of you trade in your the crumb of your salvation for anything in this world? No! That crumb is the pearl of great price. It's our salvation. And so verse 29. And he said to her, for this statement, in other words, the statement of faith that she had expressed, you may go your way, the demon has left your daughter. And she went home and found the young, I mean, the child found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Again, Matthew says, Jesus answered her, Matthew 15, 28, O woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. Now, just for clarity, I want to make it vividly clear that the woman's relentlessness in asking Jesus to heal her daughter did not earn Christ's attention. It did not earn her his healing power. Nothing could be further from the truth. Her persistence demonstrated that she had faith. Yea, mega faith. And that's what I would love for you and me to have. But can I remind you that without faith it's impossible to please God? Hebrews 11, verse 6, without faith it's impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So here in Mark 7, we've seen a desperate mom come to Jesus on behalf of her daughter. She pleads, she persists, she refuses to give up. What a powerful picture for parents and grandparents in particular. Man. Some of you may have children that have wandered. They've wandered quite a ways away from the faith. Some of you may have children or grandchildren, and man, they've got some serious issues going on. It's not just struggling with grades. There's some, I don't know, you're not even sure what all's going on. It's not how you, it's not how you raise them, it's not what you taught them. Jennifer and I, we almost every night when we pray together, we pray, oh God, please, when we're praying specifically for our grandkids, oh Lord, protect them from evil, the evil one, and from evil people. I think about when they start maybe having little sleepovers and spending time with friends in another neighborhood or whatever. You just don't ever know. And some of you, you've experienced the pain that can come with evil people. Let's conclude our service, exercising mega faith. Mega faith. For God to work in your kids, your grandkids. For some of you, maybe it's to work in your spouse's life, your neighbor's life. Would we allow this woman to set an example for us? Yeah, let's just let's just bow our heads together. Because of all that needs to go on between the services, and Jeremy and I need to get with our baptismal people in four minutes. Um, we're just going to just spend the time praying right where you are. There are probably needs represented by your kids and grandkids and families that I don't know a thing about, and that's okay. But just cry out to the Lord. Now look, come to him humbly. Come to him confidently. And keep coming to him relentlessly. Would you pray? Father, it's in Jesus' name that I come into your presence. Thank you, Lord, for the free access we have. You've told us to come boldly. And Lord, in conjunction with and on behalf of my dear brothers and sisters in Christ who've been praying for their sons, their daughters, their grandkids, and other family members or friends or co-workers. Oh Lord, may we like the father of a son who needed healing, we believe, Lord, help our unbelief. Give us mega faith. Help us to exercise great faith in you. When we pray, may we pray, believing, Lord, that while it might not be instant that we see results, we pray believing that we will, that you will intervene. And so, Lord, would you in some cases turn people around? Help them, Lord, to make life-changing decisions, to chart a new course in life, to maybe come back to the faith of their childhood, whatever the case may be. And Lord, we are praying this in the lovely, mighty name of Jesus. And again, God's people said, Amen. Amen.