SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let me uh let me let me say something that's on me before I I I preach.
SPEAKER_01: I just have a short sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh and what?
SPEAKER_01: Who snickered?
SPEAKER_01: You see me after the service.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh a video, I just met him this morning, and and uh he's very gracious, he and his wife, Adina, he's very gracious, and I said, Hey, do you have any your you have any need, your church have any need?
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Oh, you know, converts, and I was like, got that check.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we'll pray for you, check.
SPEAKER_01: And when I first meet people, I like to persist upon them.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is always patting me under the table, like, you you you you sh and I just take her hand off my leg and throw it off.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh because I'm in public, you can't get me now.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I wait till I get home, take my whooping.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and and so uh and I just said a video, what do you what do you need?
SPEAKER_01: And so I had to pride out of him, but but here's why I'm telling you this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because he said, Well, uh, you know, we need the we have a pastor and we got half his salary paid for.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, he said, we're praying for the other half of his salary for the year.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, How much is that?
SPEAKER_01: And he said,$2,400 for half of his salary, which means he makes$4,800.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, That sounds like my job, right?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I can relate to that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I just said, put us down.
SPEAKER_01: And he kind of looked at me startled.
SPEAKER_01: And what was in my head was if we can build a 15,000 square foot children's building, but we can't find$2,400 to pay a man's salary for the year, some of y'all are gonna go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna start a list.
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, because the Bible, what I mean by that is if you're visiting, you kind of go, oh boy, what no, it's just the Bible says Jesus tells a story about a rich man, Lazarus, the rich man is dressed in purple and fine linen every day, Luke chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: It says that his gate was laid a beggar, long and eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table.
SPEAKER_01: You'll hear about that more in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: And and it says the time came and they died, and the rich man went to hell, and the poor man went to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he was poor, the rich man went to hell because the rich man went to hell because he was indifferent to the need right at his gate.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, A video, what else do you need?
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, And so I just verbally beat it out of him.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, our van that we use to take teams wrecked, and and we got to get it fixed is about$3,500.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like,$2,400, that's about$6,000 right there.
SPEAKER_01: Then after the last server, he didn't tell me someone, somebody that's been over there said, Hey, they don't have a dryer for the house of joy.
SPEAKER_01: They have one set of sheets.
SPEAKER_01: So if a group comes, they wash the sheets and put them outside and pray it doesn't rain.
unknown: What?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to raise about$6,500 to just send to them.
SPEAKER_01: So and listen carefully.
SPEAKER_01: We don't do this.
SPEAKER_01: Do I do this every Sunday church?
SPEAKER_01: I don't do this hardly at all.
SPEAKER_01: But we have people that have need.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a little bit extra this month and you say, you know what, I'd like to help for that, some guy walked up to me and was like, hey, I keep a hundred dollar bill folded up my bill for just such occasions.
SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so somebody else said, Hey, here's a check.
SPEAKER_01: Give this all to them.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to give to that, if you can just write Romania on your check, stick in the box, you can hand it to myself or wait or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see that it all comes in and we'll give you an update on what we were able to do to help them kind of leverage the kingdom come in there.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and here's why, if you're wondering why, you here's why.
SPEAKER_01: This is James chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
SPEAKER_01: Can that faith save him?
SPEAKER_01: If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
SPEAKER_01: So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a visitor today, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: This church is a church, these people are people of faith.
SPEAKER_01: We're not rich people, but when we all chip in and do our part, we can leverage the kingdom coming, not just here in Sugarland, but in other places all around the world, like Romania, like we do in India, like we do in Costa Rica, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's a very missional church.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just take mission trips, we have missional relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And so we go to the same place over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: So if you say, you know what, I think I can help with that, this is not, I'm gonna take my tithe and put it towards that.
SPEAKER_01: No, your tithe belongs to your local church.
SPEAKER_01: This is above and beyond that.
SPEAKER_01: If you got it and you want to be a part of that, great.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't, don't feel any kind of guilt whatsoever because guilt is overrated.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me pray and then I'm gonna preach to you, all right?
SPEAKER_01: You wanna be preached to today?
SPEAKER_01: I'm a little charged up.
SPEAKER_01: I shot a shotgun this weekend and an AR-15.
SPEAKER_01: Bam, bam, bam, bow! I think in my next life I'm gonna be a sniper.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! That's all I gotta say about that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, thanks for the word.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for the truth that sets us free.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, you said you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
SPEAKER_01: So wash everything off of us, Lord, that's not true so we can live in the freedom that comes from the truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_01: We pray it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, take it, open up, if you would, to Matthew chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 821.
SPEAKER_01: Page 821.
SPEAKER_01: And we're in a series, if you're our guest today, we're in a series entitled Encounter.
SPEAKER_01: Usually we preach what's called expository.
SPEAKER_01: Like that means you go through a book of the Bible, and we usually do that.
SPEAKER_01: We've taken it, we just finished a book a while back.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do some something, we'll do a couple series, and then people are asking me, what's the next book you're gonna preach through?
SPEAKER_01: It's Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna preach through the book of Exodus starting in January.
SPEAKER_01: So that'll be about a nine-year journey, so pace yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Uh anyway, uh, but today we're at Encounter is a series where we're looking at different encounters people had in the Bible with God.
SPEAKER_01: And today I want to talk to you from Matthew chapter 15, starting in verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you about God's passion for authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: God's passion for authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Not just God's desire, because God's authentic, he's real, but God's passionate about you and I kind of getting outside of what we think we got to do to get God's attention and just being authentic and being honest, because you're gonna see an encounter with between Jesus and this woman.
SPEAKER_01: She's a Gentile.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was a Jew, this woman was a Gentile, they were like at odds with each other, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so they didn't hang out, they didn't talk, and so it it's not a normal interaction.
SPEAKER_01: And also the context is this if you've ever had children, remember when your kids are little and they got sick and you couldn't do anything about it to make them better?
SPEAKER_01: That's the context within which this story happens, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So let's just read the I'll I'll read, you follow along.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 15, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, the 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.
SPEAKER_01: But he did not answer her a word.
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us.
SPEAKER_01: And he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.
SPEAKER_01: And he answered, It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Be it done for you as you desire.
SPEAKER_01: And her daughter was healed instantly.
SPEAKER_01: Four things that we take away from this encounter, I just kind of want to point to this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is simply this.
SPEAKER_01: And now they tell you if you go to seminary, they tell you in preaching class that you should be have no more than three points because people can't listen past three points, and that all your points should be balanced.
SPEAKER_01: They should, like if you spend three minutes on the first point, you should spend three minutes on the second point and the third point.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna start with a confession.
SPEAKER_01: My points are not gonna be balanced.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Kugler, you done?
SPEAKER_01: You want to rearrange the whole room?
SPEAKER_01: I gotta practice church discipline here on one of my members.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and he's there moving chairs and everything.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, by the way, in the future, can we fill up from the front back so that latecomers can just slip in the very back?
SPEAKER_01: Can you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that guy clapping somebody that comes late.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, y'all march me down all the way down here.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're a visitor to a church, you get there and they go, Oh, it's full, but you can sit in the front row.
SPEAKER_01: Never mind, I'll go home.
SPEAKER_01: The Texans play the Cowboys at noon.
SPEAKER_01: I'll see y'all next Sunday, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: But just let's just start right here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just vote right here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you are in favor next week?
SPEAKER_01: We'll fill up from the front back.
SPEAKER_01: All right, there you go.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have business meetings, but there you go.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to confess my points are not gonna be balanced.
SPEAKER_01: I have a long first point and then three short points after that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Point number one in this encounter we take away.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is this there's a spiritual dimension to life.
SPEAKER_01: There's a spiritual dimension to life.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: It says, and Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Tyre and Sidon were port cities.
SPEAKER_01: It was pretty, pretty pagan, pretty debauched, pretty wild.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and Jesus kind of not goes to those cities, but to that region.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22 says, And behold, that's the Bible's way of saying, check it out.
SPEAKER_01: Notice this.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.
SPEAKER_01: My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
SPEAKER_01: Now, see, that's why we say we take away from this encounter.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us, hey, there's a spiritual dimension to life.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what do you mean my daughter is oppressed by a demon?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me just give you a couple things.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, I want to distinguish between being oppressed and being possessed, okay?
SPEAKER_01: As a Christian, you can be oppressed, you can be tormented, you can be hounded, you can be tempted by spiritual entities that are not of God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible calls them demons.
SPEAKER_01: But as a Christian, you cannot be possessed, controlled by a spiritual entity that is not of God, that the Bible calls a demon.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: You're just taking notes, just write down Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not just preaching my opinion up here, my privilege is to preach the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, it says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom?
SPEAKER_01: Underline that in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: By whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God is a very personal reality.
SPEAKER_01: By whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why we believe and understand that what the Bible teaches is that as a Christian, you cannot be possessed, but you can be oppressed, severely, tormented, whatever, but you can't be possessed.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You do not grieve the Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, who has the spiritual authority to break the seal that the Holy Spirit puts on your life?
SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, I don't even know if I even believe this.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, there's people that don't believe that Satan's real.
SPEAKER_01: It's all kind of a figment of your imagination.
SPEAKER_01: Religious people invented that to kind of make people dependent upon the church.
SPEAKER_01: So you got to understand where Satan comes from.
SPEAKER_01: Before he was Satan, he was an angel, and his name was Lucifer.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that he rebelled against God in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And not only did he rebel, but he convinced a third of the angelic host to rebel with him.
SPEAKER_01: He convinced them that, hey, this follow me because I'm going to take over.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible talks about this in Isaiah chapter 14, verses 12 to 15.
SPEAKER_01: This is what it says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, He's talking to Lucifer.
SPEAKER_01: He says, How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, Son of Dawn, how you are cut down to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: You who laid the nations low.
SPEAKER_01: You said in my heart, in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God.
SPEAKER_01: I will set my throne on high.
SPEAKER_01: I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the far reaches of the north.
SPEAKER_01: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
SPEAKER_01: I will make myself like the most high.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, that phrase ought to sound familiar.
SPEAKER_01: I will make myself like the most high.
SPEAKER_01: Remember back in the Garden of Eden when the serpent tempted Adam and Eve and he said, God's afraid you'll be like him?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: At the root of all spiritual rebellion is the lie that you can somehow be like God.
SPEAKER_01: You can be on the same level with God.
SPEAKER_01: You can't.
SPEAKER_01: God stands alone.
SPEAKER_01: He's a solitary being in himself.
SPEAKER_01: But Lucifer believed a lie and said, Hey, I will make myself like the Most High.
SPEAKER_01: But you were brought down to Sheol to the far reaches of the pit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you follow with me because there's a reason I'm kind of building this case and kind of giving you just a brief introduction to what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Are you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: No, we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: We learned early on, a woman comes to Jesus and says, Lord, help me.
SPEAKER_01: My daughter's severely oppressed by a demon.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's she talking about?
SPEAKER_01: We've got to walk this backwards.
SPEAKER_01: And what is this whole demon thing?
SPEAKER_01: Where does that come from?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Lucifer rebelled.
SPEAKER_01: He convinced one third of the angels to rebel, and God said, Hey, you can't have rebellion in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says in 1 Samuel 15, about verse 23, that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
SPEAKER_01: God does not smile upon rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: So he kicked him out of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You like to rebel?
SPEAKER_01: I'll send you to a place where rebellion takes place day and night, 24-7.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place called earth.
SPEAKER_01: Not hell.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in hell right now.
SPEAKER_01: He's here on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought these fallen angels.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Bible calls demons with him.
SPEAKER_01: You say, How do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Job chapter 1, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: It says, The angels came before the Lord, and Satan came with him.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, Where have you come from?
SPEAKER_01: And Satan said, I've come from walking to and fro about the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: So this is why this woman says, Hey, I my daughter's severely oppressed by a demon.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you another verse to write down.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 25, verse 41.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is talking about the judgment.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
SPEAKER_01: So we've seen so far the origin of Satan, how he got to become, he went from being Lucifer to being Satan.
SPEAKER_01: But also we see that he's roaming about this earth.
SPEAKER_01: But we also need to understand that Jesus tells us in verse 25 that God's prepared a place for the devil and his angels.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have more authority than God does.
SPEAKER_01: It's a reference to hell.
SPEAKER_01: We says the devil and his angels, that's a reference to demons.
SPEAKER_01: But said all that to say this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: First, do not, do not live in fear, but be mindful.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: There's a balance here.
SPEAKER_01: Don't live in fear.
SPEAKER_01: Don't walk out today and kind of go, I don't want to ever go back to that church.
SPEAKER_01: They talk about the devil and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: No, we talk about the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And we say what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Be mindful, but don't be fearful.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this in 1 John chapter 4, verses 1 to 4.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
SPEAKER_01: For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
SPEAKER_01: And by this you know the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
SPEAKER_01: Little children, you're from God and have overcome them.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this part.
SPEAKER_01: For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: See, I want to end where we began.
SPEAKER_01: We begin by saying, Don't grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed to the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: And we end with the Bible telling us in 1 John 4, 4, that greater is he that's in you, the Holy Spirit, than he that is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why we can be aware of the fact that there's a spiritual dimension to life and not get spooked or freaked out or like, oh no, what, whoa, whoa, what I would rather have four tips on parenting and then let me go, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why I tell you all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Keep in mind this is a woman coming to Jesus because her daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
SPEAKER_01: When dealing with your kids, you should ask this question more often than you probably do.
SPEAKER_01: Is this situation spiritual or physical?
SPEAKER_01: Because what we do is we don't think about our kids in terms of the spiritual reality, the spiritual dimension to life.
SPEAKER_01: Or we wait until our kids are 14, 16, or 18, or 20 off at college and go off the deep end, and we think, man, my kids just whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You ever ask yourself this question?
SPEAKER_01: What if your kids' behavior right now is a result of years of spiritual oppression?
SPEAKER_01: People come to see me and they bring their kid problems, and I I ask them this question in your mind, is this a spiritual or a physical problem?
SPEAKER_01: And almost every time they go, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because they've forgotten there's a spiritual dimension to life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm just from this encounter, the first thing we take away is a real tangible reminder.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, by the way, this is this is a real thing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to live in fear of this, but I need to be mindful of this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, ask yourself this question today, men.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be the spiritual leaders in our family.
SPEAKER_01: And if or if you're a single mom or single parent mom and you're raising the kids, you're you need to be the spiritual leader in your home.
SPEAKER_01: And you need to ask yourself, what am I doing to create space for my kids spiritually?
SPEAKER_01: What am I doing to protect my children spiritually?
SPEAKER_01: Every once in a while, since my kids were three and four years old, I would just look at them and say, How's your soul?
SPEAKER_01: Or we put our kids in bed at night and say, What do you hear the Lord saying these days?
SPEAKER_01: Like one night my my uh wife was putting Sophie, our youngest, in bed.
SPEAKER_01: Sophie was about five at the time, and she said, Sophie, let's just get real still and just listen to God and see what God may be saying.
SPEAKER_01: And so they were still for about 30 seconds, and Marcy said, You hear anything?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yep.
SPEAKER_01: She was what'd you hear God say?
SPEAKER_01: I heard God say, I ate too much dessert.
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard God say that, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: If anything, I hear God say, You deserve extra.
SPEAKER_01: And so, see there, yeah, somebody else is listening.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my point.
SPEAKER_01: Don't make it so ominous where you get your kids and go, kids, we're gonna make a circle in the family living room.
SPEAKER_01: Let's all be quiet now, grit our teeth, and listen for God.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We just lay on the bed of their kids and say, What's God saying to you?
SPEAKER_01: I say to my 16-year-old this day, who's like five foot ten almost.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hey, what's what's your soul feel like these days?
SPEAKER_01: Good, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: You paying attention to your soul?
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm inviting my children to be reminded there's a spiritual dimension to life.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing we take away from this encounter is that the silence of God is purposeful.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now look at what happens.
SPEAKER_01: This woman says, Have mercy on me, O Lord Son of David.
SPEAKER_01: My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23, but he did not answer her a word.
SPEAKER_01: What if you went to work tomorrow and someone walked up to you and said, Hey Bill, how's it how was your weekend?
SPEAKER_01: It was horrible.
SPEAKER_01: My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
SPEAKER_01: You would say something, wouldn't you?
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't be like, catch you at lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to Chewy's.
SPEAKER_01: You know it's open now.
SPEAKER_01: No, something would come out of you because if you didn't say anything, I mean that person who had the the problem would be like, what?
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible says very clearly right there in verse 23, he did not answer her a word.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't utter a syllable.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the silence of God is purposeful.
SPEAKER_01: It's not punishment, it's invitation.
SPEAKER_01: See, we would rather God say no than for God to say nothing.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes God says nothing on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Are you aware of that?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what we do: when God doesn't say anything, we just start filling in the dialogue.
SPEAKER_01: We say our part, then we jump over here and we kind of ad lib God's part.
SPEAKER_01: Well, God probably thinks this and probably, and then we come back over here and we do our part, then we come back over here and we do God's part.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, just because God's not talking doesn't mean he's not watching.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes God just watches you get your bipolar on and go back and forth, back and forth.
SPEAKER_01: And God looks down and says, Why do you need me?
SPEAKER_01: You got this all figured out.
SPEAKER_01: You play the part of you and me.
SPEAKER_01: And here, it's not punishment, it's invitation.
SPEAKER_01: It's God saying, Come on, let's relate to each other in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the best moments in life do not involve words.
SPEAKER_01: They just don't.
SPEAKER_01: And if it's quiet right now in your life, you're not alone.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is replete with examples of people who are trying to hear God and God wasn't saying anything.
SPEAKER_01: Like in the 13th Psalm, he says, How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?
SPEAKER_01: How long will you hide your face from me?
SPEAKER_01: How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
SPEAKER_01: How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
SPEAKER_01: Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.
SPEAKER_01: Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, I have prevailed over him, lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
SPEAKER_01: But I've trusted past tense in your steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: My heart shall rejoice in your salvation, and I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt past tense bountifully with me.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes when God gets quiet, you need to get quiet too.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the silence of God is so purposeful.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing we take away from this encounter is pay attention to the posture of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention to the posture of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the latter part of verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, And his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us.
SPEAKER_01: And he, Jesus, answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.
SPEAKER_01: You see, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention to the posture of your life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she heard it.
SPEAKER_01: She heard Jesus say, They're like, Lord, can you do something?
SPEAKER_01: This woman's about to wear us out, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Now I have friends who will take that verse and build a whole theology on that, and they're dead wrong.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is saying is exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: He was sent to the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: He died with a sign above him on the cross that said, King of the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: When he says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, what he is saying is what the Bible says, He, Jesus, came unto his own, and his own received him not.
SPEAKER_01: And so the gospel goes from the Jews and becomes for the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: For the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible refers to.
SPEAKER_01: Non-Jews were called Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first reference, if you want a little Bible fun fact, this is the first indication in Matthew's gospel that the gospel of Jesus is coming to the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I was sent for the I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And the woman, the persistent woman with a daughter who has a spiritual issue going on in her life, came, but she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a real practical question.
SPEAKER_01: Does the posture of your life match the words coming out of your mouth?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine driving home today, ladies?
SPEAKER_01: And by the time you get to the highway out here, your kids, what's for lunch?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, What's for lunch?
SPEAKER_01: Ask your dad.
SPEAKER_01: I've been answering that question for the past 12 years, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Your dad ain't been done nothing but saying, Neil when eight minutes over.
SPEAKER_01: The Texans are kicking off.
SPEAKER_01: Lunch is not on my agenda today, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Your sorry, rascal dad needs to do something.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't doing nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask me for lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask me for supper.
SPEAKER_01: Because before I was your mom, I was a person.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a person today.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you women are like, you were in our car last week, huh?
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not saying be rude and disrespectful.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just asking the question: does the posture of your life, because some of you think, I'm gonna be nice, and then Jesus is gonna come through for me.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's not.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes he doesn't come through you because he doesn't buy your nice act.
SPEAKER_01: Bam! No, he doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not being funny.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is like, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: You think by being this, hey, it's me, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Got my suit on.
SPEAKER_01: What's up, big guy?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is like, I'll tell you about big guy in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Keep talking.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Does the posture of your life match the words coming out of your mouth?
SPEAKER_01: Because you can come in here and be all like, oh Lord, yes, oh, I need thee.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I need thee.
SPEAKER_01: And run home and get in a fight about money this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: Sure we can.
SPEAKER_01: Sure you can.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, man.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Man, God's a big priority in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you live in sin?
SPEAKER_01: See, the Bible asks real practical, down-to-earth, 2014 questions.
SPEAKER_01: See, the third thing we take away in this encounter is pay attention to the posture of your life because this girl, she wasn't a Jew.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, I don't get that Jew Gentile.
SPEAKER_01: Let's put it this way.
SPEAKER_01: When she was in the seventh grade, she spent a lot of time at the skating rink.
SPEAKER_01: You hear me now?
SPEAKER_01: I grew up with a skating rink.
SPEAKER_01: I used to get dropped off at 7 o'clock and I get picked up till midnight.
SPEAKER_01: That's called bad parenting.
SPEAKER_01: But I can skate backwards and you can't.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, I don't know you.
SPEAKER_01: This woman, she has no pedigree, no religious background, but she understands the fourth and final thing we take away from this encounter.
SPEAKER_01: And it's simply this: she knows what moves God.
SPEAKER_01: She knows what moves God.
SPEAKER_01: She comes and kneels down before him and she says, very simply, Lord, help me.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 26, and he answered, It is not right to take their children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, an Orthodox Jew would get up every day and thank God for three things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, that he's not a dog.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, that he's not a woman, and number three, that he's not a Gentile.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I didn't say that, ladies, so you could get your fight on today.
SPEAKER_01: I said that to remind you that no one has done more to bestow dignity upon women than Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He just has.
SPEAKER_01: And not only bestowed dignity upon women, but to say to men, hey, the way you treat your wife ought to change if you're a Christ follower.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
SPEAKER_01: And this is, she understands what moves God.
SPEAKER_01: So she responds in verse 27, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
SPEAKER_01: Now the English language doesn't convey it, but in the Greek, she's not being snarky or disrespectful, but she is being feisty.
SPEAKER_01: And God likes it when people are feisty.
SPEAKER_01: Write that down.
SPEAKER_01: You never heard a sermon on that, have you?
SPEAKER_01: Because see, we think, here's what we think.
SPEAKER_01: We think that God is moved by sentiment.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, I really, really, really, really need this.
SPEAKER_01: And if you'll just do this, I promise I'll stop doing all that bad stuff.
SPEAKER_01: That's sentiment.
SPEAKER_01: God's not moved by that.
SPEAKER_01: It's like when my kids come to me and go, dad.
SPEAKER_01: I just go, eh, you've been rejected.
SPEAKER_01: So my 60, my 11-year-old still does that.
SPEAKER_01: Gets all mopey.
SPEAKER_01: Dad.
SPEAKER_01: You think we could go to the Sonic tonight after supper?
SPEAKER_01: Now don't take sad people to the Sonic.
SPEAKER_01: They depress me.
SPEAKER_01: Now my oldest, she'll roll up and go, hey dad, can we go to a late movie?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, it's 10:45.
SPEAKER_01: What's your idea late?
SPEAKER_01: Midnight?
SPEAKER_01: And if we hurry, we can go to Starbucks before it closes and sit and talk before the movie starts.
SPEAKER_01: She has no shame.
SPEAKER_01: Just comes out and asks for crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: You say, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because I taught her that I'm your dad.
SPEAKER_01: I'm always for you.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't relate to me out of sentiment.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me see if I can appeal to my dad's goodwill.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, that's my dad.
SPEAKER_01: She relates to me out of principle.
SPEAKER_01: God is not moved by sentiment.
SPEAKER_01: He's moved by principle.
SPEAKER_01: I parent my daughters the way I do, not because I'm harsh, because I want them to understand the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says a very true statement.
SPEAKER_01: Why should I take the children's bread and give it to the dogs of Israel?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Yeah, I'm tracking with you.
SPEAKER_01: But how about this?
SPEAKER_01: Even the dogs get to eat the bread that fell from the, I mean, that falls from the table, from the master's table.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus lights up and says, This, don't miss this and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28, then Jesus answered her, Oh woman, great is your faith.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of punctuation is after that sentence in your Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_01: Read the Bible like it's written.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't go, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to put a gold star by your name today.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't grow up in church.
SPEAKER_01: But I remember a few times I went.
SPEAKER_01: I went one time and they had an attendance chart.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, can we put you on the attendance chart?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, knock yourself out.
SPEAKER_01: And they put them on there, and I got a star for that day.
SPEAKER_01: My dad was just a drunken redneck, like the cowboys in Schlitz.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, remember Schlitzbier?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, what's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_01: We came like three months later.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's stars were all over here.
SPEAKER_01: I was in last place, had one little gold star.
SPEAKER_01: I don't like a God that kind of gives you a little star and says, I'm gonna put your star right here.
SPEAKER_01: Do good and come back.
SPEAKER_01: You get another one.
SPEAKER_01: I like an exuberant God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is exuberant.
SPEAKER_01: The woman gets feisty, and Jesus right there in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He looks at him and says, Oh, woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.
SPEAKER_01: And her daughter was healed instantly.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last question I have for you today.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have enough faith to see your desires realized?
SPEAKER_01: See, this exuberant Jesus doesn't go, oh Neil, where oh man, surprise the building didn't fall down.
SPEAKER_01: It's been three months since you came to Sunday school.
SPEAKER_01: No, and I walked in, poor white trash kid that I was, exuberant Jesus like, oh man, I was thinking about you because these religious nerds are boring me to death.
SPEAKER_01: So glad you're here, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Look at this woman.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Oh, man, oh, great is your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, this is the only time in all of Matthew's gospel that Jesus describes great faith.
SPEAKER_01: And it's coming out of the life of a woman who spent her seventh and eighth grade years at the skating rink.
SPEAKER_01: She wasn't religious, but she understood there's a spiritual dimension to life.
SPEAKER_01: She understood what moves God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, do you have enough faith to see your desires realized?
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: She knew that God likes it when we are thinking in our responses to him, that our mind is fully engaged and our hearts are kind of bowed down before him.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's my concern.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us are going to spend our entire lives trying to be more reverent, and you'll never find the courage to be real.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: Who's for being done?
SPEAKER_01: We ready to be done?
SPEAKER_01: We've been here long enough, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, well, detections do kick off at noon.
SPEAKER_01: I see you.
SPEAKER_01: I see Tom Zakiro back there kind of going pinch the baby.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta go.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing wrong with it.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't gotta apologize.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody comes to you, hey, you going to Bible study?
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm going home and watch football.
SPEAKER_01: Love you.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's being real.
SPEAKER_01: Don't sneak out and feel dirty, like, hey, I'm not going to Bible study.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go home and watch football.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I could go home and watch football.
SPEAKER_01: But I got to preach again.
SPEAKER_01: Because these people are about to kill me up in here.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't y'all build a bigger building?
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all like, what's wrong with this one?
SPEAKER_01: Just messing with you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, don't go through life trying to figure out how to be reverent.
SPEAKER_01: Try to figure out how to be real.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: She's sitting in this service, and she's mad at me.
SPEAKER_01: She'll tell me.
SPEAKER_01: My friend Elaine Brewer, her and Carl will celebrate their 35th anniversary a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't that right?
SPEAKER_01: Elaine was talking to my wife, and she said, I tell you what, since I started coming to Grand Parkway, I just got freed up.
SPEAKER_01: And I found myself fighting hard not to cry.
SPEAKER_01: You said, What's the big deal about that?
SPEAKER_01: I'm fixing to break a big rule right here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: All you women get ready.
SPEAKER_01: Elaine, how old are you?
unknown: 78.
SPEAKER_01: 78 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why I wanted to cry.
SPEAKER_01: Because a 78-year-old woman has spent a lot of her life being reverent, not dancing.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Hey, I just got out there and danced.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I'll tell you what, I just got freed up.
SPEAKER_01: I started coming to your church.
SPEAKER_01: I almost wrote my resignation letter on the tablecloth right there.
SPEAKER_01: Neil is finished.
SPEAKER_01: His work here is done.
SPEAKER_01: 78-year-old women are getting free.
SPEAKER_01: See ya.
SPEAKER_01: XOX.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, baby.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't.
SPEAKER_01: See, because a woman has realized late in life, I don't have to try to be reverent.
SPEAKER_01: I can just be real.
SPEAKER_01: Have you made that discovery yet?
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, that's the difference in religion and Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to close our services with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So if you hold your hands out, your God possesses the capacity to be moved.
SPEAKER_01: He is not stoic.
SPEAKER_01: He's exuberant.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ever forget that.
SPEAKER_01: And you have the capacity to move him as his children.
SPEAKER_01: Also, don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and enjoy those two realities in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.