And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. And he said to her, for this statement, you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Oh, God, we come and ask for help and grace and mercy from your spirit to grant us understanding as well as application of your word this morning. We pray it all in Jesus name. Amen. Please have a seat. I may have told you this before, it's probably pretty obvious to you as you get to know me, I'm not much of a handyman, I'm not much of a fix-it kind of guy, I'm more of a pay somebody else to do it kind of guy. When I was in college I was eager to make some extra money, in particular for Christmas presents. December break and one of my friends Amelia her father hired me to do some odd work odd job type thing in his at his home and what he asked me to do was to dig a small trench that he could run electricity to a little tool shed he had behind his house and this little trench I was called to dig and I could handle that much but it necessitated that I open up a gap a place in his driveway so he handed me a sledgehammer and said here forge out a path for this electrical wire I want to run from my home to the tool shed and so I began to work with a sledgehammer and I began to pound away with all my strength and all my might busting up that driveway there in Center Point, Alabama and I just was making very, very little progress. It was a slow go. It was a disappointing effort and after a couple hours I had very little to show for my efforts except dust and weariness. And I use that as an illustration to you of how perhaps you have felt in your prayer life. A lot of effort, a lot of sweat, a lot of agony, and yet very little to show for it, as you have cried out to God for who knows what. It seems to you that your prayers, to borrow from the saying, feel like they're bouncing off the ceiling. Is God there? Does he care? Is he going to do anything? Because you've prayed long and hard for many, many months or many days, maybe even many years, and nothing seems to happen. Well, I think there's some encouragement to be gained for us this morning from this passage we've read from Mark 7. It certainly qualifies, as I would assume you would agree, as one of the hard sayings of Jesus. And what's particularly hard about this saying is the way Jesus responds to this woman who asks that He show mercy upon her, and particularly upon her daughter. And the words of Jesus in verse 27, just seem excessively cold and harsh upon a first reading. He said to her, let the children be fed first for it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. That's a hard saying. Why would Jesus talk this way to this woman? What are we supposed to learn from this incident in the life of Jesus. Well, I think a big lesson we can learn this morning from this, one of the hard sayings of Jesus, is that Jesus responds to persistent and persuasive prayer. Jesus responds to persistent and persuasive prayer. We're going to see that this morning. Let's be reminded before we go much further, however, where we are in the Gospel of Mark. Verse 24 tells us where Jesus is, the region of Tyre and Sidon. He's no longer in Galilee. He's traveled northwest from Galilee to Gentile country. And that's where he is. Now, why has he gone there? Well, some speculate it could be to get away and for rest. that the rest that he and his disciples, I'm sure, needed, but apparently his fame had preceded him, as we might say. who have heard of him and want his help. And this woman is one such person who wants his help. And we see in this incident, one of the first things that we can see is that Jesus does respond to persistent prayer, persistent prayer. Now, what brings about this encounter? Look in verse 25. But immediately, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, or as the passage later calls it, a demon, heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. woman's daughter is possessed by a demon, and this occurs in the Gospels more than once. The evil one, Satan, as he is named in Scripture, is a real being. The Bible affirms that evil is real and that evil is personal. And we see this instance of demon possession again occurs in the Gospels and it's hard for us at times in this culture to really understand this. This seems kind of weird and strange. I think one understanding of what's going on here in the Gospels is that literally all hell is broken loose. Literally. Because the evil one knows that the Messiah has come and his forces have risen in fierce opposition to the work of Jesus. We know, again, that Satan is real from Scripture, that evil is personal. Nowhere in Scripture are we ever taught that Satan is on equal footing with God. There is no dualism, as we would call it in the Bible. We do know that when people were possessed by demons in Scripture, it often led to self-destructive behavior. Remember one encounter Jesus had where a man said his son would often throw himself in a fire? Perhaps this was happening in this daughter's life. Regardless, this woman wants help and she wants help from Jesus. And I want you to notice in her persistence, the posture of persistence, the posture of persistence is given in verse 25. She falls down at Jesus feet. She's there in desperation. She's in a begging mode. It's the posture of persistence which follows her pleas, her pleas of persistence. She's begging. She's pleading with Jesus. I mean, it says in verse 26, she begged him to cast out the demon. And you'd think with this woman at Jesus' feet begging for her child, You'd think we'd get this immediate, compassionate response, but we don't. We look in verse 27. Jesus has this hard saying, Why is she being stiff-armed in this way? What do these words mean? Well, first of all, let's be reminded that Jesus is not saying he is not saying I'm only here for Jews. I'm only here for Israel. That is he's not saying that. Yes, indeed, the gospel was first proclaimed through the Jews and to the Jews because Jesus himself was Jewish. The Israelites, Israel was the incubator, if you will, of the gospel. But from the very first pages of our Bible, we know that the good news of Jesus, of the Messiah, was always intended not merely for the physical descendants of Abraham, but for the world. We read this in Genesis 12, where God says as He makes a promise to Abraham, and I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Through you, Abraham, will come a blessing for everyone. The word families in the original language can mean nations or people groups or clans. The blessing to Abraham is intended for everyone, every tongue, tribe, and nation. That was the intent from Genesis. And so Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that blessing that was to come to Abraham. Through Abraham would come Jesus. born of the house and line of David. And the prophets of Israel would point to his coming. And even in their prophecies, they would speak of the fact that the one to come, the greater son of David, he's meant to be a blessing for everyone. Listen to the prophet Isaiah, how that Israel was to be a light for the nations, plural. That's always God's plan. And then we see it in the book of Acts where Jesus says to his disciples after his resurrection, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, that's to Jews, and into all Judea, that's still Israel, the Jews, and Samaria, those of mixed heritage, and to the end of the earth, to all peoples. So what Jesus is not saying is, don't bother me, you're not Jewish. Don't bother me, I'm not here for you. He's not saying that. You see, Jesus has always had a people and we can say that he's always had a church. The church of the Old Testament was Israel and that church in the new is expanded, not replaced, expanded. And we believe that we, as we sit here thousands of miles away from where these events took place, in a room basically full of Gentiles, that this promise is for us, too. This promise fulfilled through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when Jesus says, let the children be fed first, He's not saying, I'm not here for the Gentiles. He says, but I did come first to share this message with Israel. Because Israel, again, was the incubator for the Messiah. It was through Israel the Messiah would and did come. But what about the last half of that response? Let the children be fed first. Okay, we get that. But what about this? It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. That sounds harsh. Now you need to know that the word for dogs here used in the original language is not the word for a dog of the era that would just roam the streets, a scavenger. No, this is the word for a dog meant to describe a household pet like many of us have already. But that still doesn't take all the edge off of it, does it? I mean, it helps, but it didn't completely help. What Jesus is doing, I believe, is purposely making this difficult for this woman. He is eliciting from her persistence. He often does that. His response is what encourages her persistence. It's what encourages her desperation, if you will. It encourages her dependence. And often that's where God puts us. He puts us in places. that move us to persistence. I mean, Jesus told a parable like this in Luke 18, and he told them a parable to the effect they ought to always pray and not lose heart. He said, And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says, and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Do you hear Jesus arguing from the lesser to the greater? If an unrighteous judge who could care less about people responds that way, how much more will God respond to those who are his? This parable and this passage, I believe, from Mark's gospel, encourages persistent prayer. One of my favorite books on prayer that came out in the early 90s that I still turn to often, I've mentioned from this pulpit many times, is written by Dr. Douglas Kelly, If God Already Knows, Why Pray? If God Already Knows, Why Pray? And what Dr. Kelly does in that book is that he likens prayer to the raindrops that would fall into a pond Now on the edge of this pond is an old-fashioned water mill used to grind grain. And so the drops of rain fall into the pond, the pond fills up, the water of the pond then flows over the water wheel and begins to make that water wheel turn and then the grain is then ground for meal. And what Dr. Kelly says, our prayers are like those drops of rain, and over time they fill up the pond, and then the waters of the pond turn the wheel, and the wheel will be analogous to the will of God being accomplished. And sometimes it just feels like we're praying and praying and praying, but those drops are filling that pond. Listen to Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century pastor. He says, some mercies are not given to us except in answer to importunate prayer. There are blessings which, like ripe fruit, drop into your hand the moment you touch the branch. But there are others which require you to shake the tree again and again until you make it rock with the vehemence of your exercise. For then only will the fruit fall down. Did you hear Spurgeon use the word importunate? Importunate, that's a word that means shameless. Some mercies are not given to us except an answer to shameless prayer. That's what this woman is offering to Jesus. It's shameless. We were flipping channels one night years ago and came upon one of these stations that shows some of the television, it wasn't TV land, but one of those type of stations that shows these programs from days gone by. And it was an episode of Adam 12. And that show, by the time I was old enough to watch TV, that show was already in reruns. But anyway, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed. One out of twelve, if you watch that show. These two policemen in Los Angeles, and on this particular episode, they're working their beat, and they see this woman running across the street. I mean, she's just oblivious to traffic. She's almost causing accidents. Cars are coming to a screeching halt, and they're honking their horns. But she's running, and she's frantic. The two police officers stop her and they say, hey, what's going on? And she says, let me go. Let me go. Write me a ticket later. Let me go. And they find out what's happened is her daughter has been kidnapped and she's running to the bank to get ransom money. She didn't care. She didn't care who was slowing her down. Just let me go. Let me go. I promise I'll pay whatever fine you have. Let me go. She was unfortunate. She was shameless. And of course, the rest of the episode was her daughter being rescued. But it's a picture of being shameless in offering our prayers. And so some of you have been praying for a situation with your children or with a husband or wife or about a marriage or about a parent. Again, about a child or a personal need, maybe it's a sin struggle. A job situation, a health issue. And what I believe we're seeing here in this instance is there is a place for unfortunate, shameless, persistent pleading with God. There's a place for that. To be like that widow who wears out the judge, there's a place for that kind of prayer for our church, for our community, for our nation, for ourselves. because Jesus responds to persistent prayer. But it's not only that it's persistent prayer to which he responds here, it's also persuasive. It's persistent, persuasive prayer. Notice Jesus says in verse 27, it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs, but she answered him in verse 28. Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. This is not a plea for fairness, is it? It's a plea for mercy. It's a plea for mercy. It's not a plea for fairness. Look, I've got dogs that love to eat what I'm eating, and they don't deserve it. They have an entitlement mentality, but they don't deserve it. Whatever I give to them is grace, it's mercy, it just is. This woman's asking for grace. She's asking for mercy. There is no demanding here. There's no I deserve this. But she presents her case. Even the dogs on the table eat the children's crumbs. There is a place for true biblical persuasion. And she presents a case to God. I'm helped greatly by this in another book on prayer by Richard Pratt, Pray With Your Eyes Open, which is really good to do if you're driving. Pray with your eyes open. And Dr. Pratt gives examples from the Bible how people pray with God, and they presented a case to him to persuade him to respond to their prayers, like Moses praying in Exodus 32. God's people, when Moses had gone up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, had formed that idol, the golden calf. And Moses intercedes on behalf of Israel that God wouldn't pronounce judgment on them. And we read there, But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Lord, don't respond with anger. You're the one that rescued these people, he says. Then he goes on to pray this way, You see what Moses is doing in his prayer? He says, Lord, vindicate your own name. Prove the critics and skeptics wrong. Here's an opportunity for you to do that. That's the way he's seeking to persuade God. He's reminding God of his covenant promises to his covenant people. He prays this way, Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever. He said, Lord, be true to your own word. Be true to your own promises. How does God respond to such persuasive prayer? We read, And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing upon his people. Now this does not flow or go against an idea of God being sovereign, that He's in control of all things, that He's planned all things. It's the way God's called us to pray. Let me quote Richard Pratt, we must be careful not to turn this legitimate dimension of prayer into an occasion for arrogance before God. When we build a case in prayer, we're not informing God of anything he does not know. Nor are we twisting his arm to do something he does not care to do. On the contrary, when we turn to God in prayer, it must be as creatures speaking to the almighty creator of the universe. Giving reasons for our requests does not call into question his wisdom or sovereignty. It simply demonstrates a high regard for him. We always rest in God's sovereign wisdom as he answers all of our prayers. And it occurs to me as I think about my own prayers, often when I pray to God, what I want, what you want, what we all want, we're looking for an event. And a lot of times what God gives us instead of an event, he gives us a process. He doesn't give us the event. He gives us the process. In other words, he starts to do things in us and he does things in those around us. He's answering prayer, but it's in a way that's more infinitely wise as he seeks to bring changes in us. And we trust him more deeply and we let go of those props and crutches on which we rest for comfort and support. But nonetheless, I think what we're seeing here and in other places in Scripture, there's a place for wrestling with God in prayer. In fact, Derek Thomas says of this woman in this passage that she's a New Testament Jacob. Remember in Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestled with the angel and wouldn't let go until his prayer had been responded to, until he'd received that blessing? that aspect of prayer here. And let's also not miss Jesus' response. Look at verse 29 and 30. And he said to her, for this statement, you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter. So the woman got her crumbs. She didn't get crumbs. She got the whole loaf of bread. She got much more than crumbs. Her daughter was immediately healed and restored. Jesus graciously responded to persistent persuasive prayer. Let me mention one other thing from Richard Pratt's book. He talked about an experience he had in this very regard about how he was in a community and a friend in their church had a daughter who contracted meningitis. And so people from the church gathered in homes to pray for this daughter who was very, very sick. And as they gathered in this one particular home, everybody was very upset. They all wrestled with how to pray, because they felt like the only way they knew how to pray was just to, over and over, please, please, please, God, do something. Then, as Pratt writes, someone suggested that we offer to God all the reasons we could muster for Him to show mercy to the child. The idea was well received, and the whole group began mounting one reason upon another. And by the end of the hour, we all felt some sense of relief and knowing that we had communicated with God as effectively as we could. Dr. Pratt goes on to say that in this particular instance, this young daughter was young woman was healed. And one thing I don't want us to miss when we look at the parallel passage to this event in the Gospel of Matthew, we see this woman whose daughter was healed was commended particularly for her faith, her confidence and trust in Christ. Jesus responds to faith. He responds because of the confidence that was placed in himself. Jesus responds to persistent, persuasive prayer. Now, getting back to my story from earlier, the job I had to prepare this trench for electrical wiring, and I had to bust up, to use good Alabama English, bust up this driveway with a sledgehammer. Well, Mr. Baldwin came out and showed me how to use the sledgehammer properly, showed me how to turn it on and everything. But he showed me, he said, look, this work will go easier if you let the sledgehammer do a lot of the work. And so basically what he showed me how to do, particularly as I was working and trying to break up the concrete, was to bring the sledgehammer down and to hold it with a loose grip and not put all my muscle into it, but almost just let the weight of the sledgehammer do the work. And so when the sledgehammer hit the concrete, it broke it and then it just kind of bounced a little bit. And so it really made the work a lot easier. The less I put effort into it and more I trusted the sledgehammer, the easier the work became. Well, here's my point. Faith is like grabbing hold of that sledgehammer. It's not a work itself. It's just laying hold to the promises of God and trusting Him to work. Him to bring a breakthrough, so to speak. You see, faith is not a work that Jesus rewards. Faith is itself, we know from Scripture, a gift. Faith is just laying hold of Jesus and who He is and what He's accomplished for His people so that when we pray and we pray in the name of Jesus, we're praying in His merits and what He's done. We're claiming blessings that He has won, not that we have won, that He has won. that he won those blessings through his life of perfect obedience. He won those blessings through dying in the place of sinners, being physically resurrected from the dead and being ascended into heaven at the Father's right hand, a place of advocacy and intercession as our great high priest. It's that those who have put their trust in Christ are resting in Him alone. We have that access that we even declared in our opening call to worship this morning. That's why we have confidence to approach the throne of grace because of the Lord Jesus, our great high priest. The Lord's table is a vivid reminder for us of this great confidence we have because of Jesus, because of what he's done. This table is a way that has a great application for us this morning to encourage persistent prayer. We know the victory is won. We know that we are welcome in the Father's presence. We're not tolerated. We're welcomed. We're loved as sons and daughters because of the work of our elder brother, the Lord Jesus. So as we come to the Lord's table, let's be encouraged to be people of persistent, even persuasive prayer. I believe that's what we can learn from this the Syro-Phoenician woman, as we would call her. because Jesus responds to that kind of prayer. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy and kindness to us that you respond to prayer. We thank you for how you responded to this woman in scripture and how that encourages us and helps us. Help us to be a people of persistent prayer. Lord, you taught a parable to teach us to pray and never give up. Help us to be that kind of people. Lord, I know that in this room there are a wide, wide range of prayers that are offered that often produce discouragement. Lord, may we not grow weary in prayer. May we offer to You, by Your grace and mercy, these kinds of prayers. And thank You that we know we're heard through the work of Your Son, the Lord Jesus, whose work we celebrate even now at the Lord's table. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.