I wanna invite you to join your hearts with mine as we go to the Lord together in prayer. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and Father, we come here together and bow our heads before you to worship you, to acknowledge and to recognize, Father, your greatness, how great thou art. You're greater than we can even imagine, let alone think and put together by ourselves, and so we're so thankful that you do reveal yourself to us, that we can know you in an intimate and in a personal way. And Lord, as this missionary just talked, and we think about South America, and we think about different places maybe around the world, and I think first of all, just the missionaries who serve you in this capacity far away from home, And their concerns, it's just, you know, he's talked about the fact that he's looking forward to being able to come back to the States and see his kids and visit his parents. And I know that for missionaries, this is a huge burden that while they're on the field serving you, their kids oftentimes are someplace else. And I know that as their parents age, many missionaries start to feel guilty like I should be home and taking care of you know mom and dad and some of the needs that they might have and so on and so forth and yet they're you know miles and miles away and so I just pray father that you would give missionaries wisdom about just how to navigate the various stages in our lives and the different responsibilities that we have as missionaries and parents and kids of older adults and all that goes into just this life that you've entrusted to us. And then I think, you know, South America, the need for churches. And all around the world we have missionaries, Father, who have gone to places where your name is, you know, not known or not very well known and seek to establish in various ways churches. that can be beacons of proclamation of the truth of the gospel and that there is a God in heaven who actually loves us and who actually has a plan for us that goes beyond this life and a God who loves us so much that he was willing to sacrifice his son to get rid of everything that stands between us and you. And we're so thankful that we have the gospel and that you have entrusted us to be proclaimers. You have entrusted us the mysteries of God as you tell us in your word. and made us ambassadors of heaven to bring the good news to the people around us. And so, Father, we just pause here this morning to thank you for this church. Thank you, Father, for the people who gather together here and how we're related as brothers and sisters in the blood of Christ. Thank you for the encouragement that we're able to give each other. Thank you for the presence that we're able to have here in Richfield. And Father, we pray that you would continue to guide us, Continue to have your way with us as a church, as each of us as individuals submits to you that the church together in unity would also submit to your will for this church. And oftentimes, Father, we just wish we knew, like, you know, what is your plan for this church for the next 10 years? And I pray, Father, that you would be pleased to reveal the direction you would be pleased to reveal the vision, Father, for what you intend this church to be. Only you know the future, and we put everything together and take our best shot and aim in that direction, but you, Father, are the one who is sovereign, and you're the one who directs us by the people that you bring here, by the things that happen, the experiences that we have together, and so, again, we're so thankful for our church But we need you, Father, to continue to be its leader. You're the Lord of the church, and the church belongs to you. You paid for it with your son's blood. And so help us always, Father, to be surrendered to you. For Jesus' sake we pray, amen. I think everyone here, I think everyone, if they think about it, realizes that faith is a very important part of life, no matter who you are, right? We always act on what we really believe. So if you believe the right thing, you act the right way. If you believe the wrong thing, I have a daughter, and when she was real young, she really believed with all of her heart that two and two equaled five. And I said to her, you know, honey, you can believe whatever you want. However, if you believe what's wrong for the rest of your life, you're just gonna be off a little bit, right? Because two and two is four, it's not five. And she was able to get that straightened out and so forth. But just think, you can believe whatever you want. But faith is extremely important, especially to us as Christians. The Bible actually says in Romans chapter one and verse 17, the Apostle Paul says that the righteous live by faith. We're not only saved by faith, but we actually live our lives by faith. And so faith is extremely important. And so, you know, if I were to ask you a couple of questions this morning, if I were to say, do you wanna please God with your life? I would tell you that the Bible says in Hebrews 11, verse six, without faith, it's impossible to please God. It's just a great passage there. Hebrews 11, verse six, look, he goes on and says, 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. Two things, you have to believe that God actually exists, you know, and that he rewards those who diligently want to get to know him and who seek him. If I were to ask you the question, do you want to be controlled by the world or do you want to have influence on the world around you? Well, 1 John 5 and verse 4 says this, for everybody who has been born of God overcomes the world. Everybody who's been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, faith. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. If you are a believer and you're like, well, you know, the world presses in on me from all angles and I just had to give in and the world is kind of controlling me. Nobody really wants that. If I were to ask you the question, do you want to live under God's judgment knowing that you've let him down? You know, God created us to be like him. None of us are. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. Would you want to live under the judgment of God or would you rather live under his grace? You know, I know that's an easy answer, but in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, you know, this is a very familiar passage of scripture, for by grace, you've been saved through faith. Grace, God's grace, God's undeserved favor saves us, but it becomes ours through faith. By grace, you've been saved through faith. Do we wanna be saved from hell when it's all over? Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 9, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. The outcome of our faith is the salvation of our souls in heaven, someday to be with the Lord forever. So, you know, faith is extremely important. And so what I thought is it might be good for us just to think a little bit today about a faith upgrade, a faith upgrade. Faith, I like to say, is like a transmission in a car. Now, forgive me, ladies, I talk about cars once in a while, but the transmission in a car, you know, in a car, you have the engine, and the engine is the power, and the engine, you know, is the gospel, Paul says in Romans chapter one and verse 16, he says, you know, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it's the power of God for salvation. That's the power, the gospel, right? So it's like the engine in a car is the power, and then you have the rest of the car with whatever it has, you know, but the transmission is what connects the power to the rest of the car, and the rest of the car is kind of like our lives. We've got a lot of different facets to our lives. But the transmission, if you don't put the transmission in gear, you don't go anyplace. The car can't do what it's meant to do. And our faith is kind of like a transmission in a car whereby God has provided the power, but in order to connect it to our life, we have to choose to trust him, to believe him, to put faith in what he's done and in what he says. And so it's very important to kind of think about faith from time to time, and to kind of evaluate where are we at? Because when Jesus was here, you might remember as you read through the Gospels, Jesus was amazed at two different kinds of faith. Jesus was amazed at two different kinds of faith when he was here. He was amazed by little faith, and he was amazed by great faith. So in the Gospels, there's little faith, some folks with little faith, and then there's some people with great faith. In Matthew chapter eight, for example, in Matthew chapter eight, you're familiar with the story, I won't read the whole thing, but you remember Jesus was out in a boat, and his disciples were with him, and Jesus was tired, so he went to sleep in the back, a storm comes up, the waves are coming over the boat, the disciples are you know, in the boat with Jesus and they're freaking out and they wake Jesus up and, you know, and, save us, Lord, we're perishing. And Jesus says to them, why are you afraid, O you of little faith? And then he talks to the wind and the waves and the disciples are like, you know, blown away. O ye of little faith. It's ironic to me that the people with little faith are usually Jewish and disciples And we'll see about great faith when we get there. Another incident out on the water in Matthew chapter 14, you might remember our friend Peter, right? They were out, the disciples were out in the boat and it's nighttime and there's a storm again and they see Jesus come walking on the water. You remember that? In Matthew chapter 14. Peter, they're like, ah, this is a ghost, and they're all freaking out. And they're like, no, it's me, the Lord, Jesus says. And Peter says, if it's really you, then have me come out and walk on the water like you. So Jesus is like, all right, come on, let's go. And Peter gets out there, and he starts walking on the water, but he gets close enough to the Lord, and all of a sudden, he sees the wind, and the waves are coming, and he freaks out. The 14th chapter here, Jesus immediately reaches out and grabs Peter's hand, takes hold of him and says, oh, you of little faith. Now, you know, at least Peter got out of the boat. Most of us, you know, we're gonna stay in the boat. But Peter gets out of the boat, but Jesus saves him, you know, picks him up. Oh, you of little faith. Why do you doubt little faith? Little faith. Now, again, it's ironic to me that these people are Jewish people. They prided themselves in their faith. We go a little further and talk about some of the Pharisees and so on, but again, remember the definition that the Bible has of faith and what it is. Hebrews 11, verse one, faith is the assurance of things to come, of things we hope for. It's about the future. Faith is the assurance of the things we hope for based on the promises that God has made, right? And it's also the conviction of things not seen. There are things that we see and then there are things that we don't see. And faith is the conviction of things not seen. I love this, in verse three it says this. By faith, here's an example, right? By faith we understand that the universe that we live in was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. What a challenge to evolution. If I read that verse right, it's telling us that the word of God is more solid and more sure than the creation that we live in, that we can count on it more than we can count on creation itself, what God made. And so faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Now, Jesus was also amazed at great faith. Great faith, so you might say there's a kind of a gradiation from little faith to great faith, right? And so in Matthew chapter 15, I'd like to just take you through a story here about somebody who ends up with great faith. Jesus goes north in Matthew 15. Matthew chapter 15, Jesus goes north into the area of Sidon and Tyre, two cities that are right on the Mediterranean coast in what we would call today Lebanon. So north of Israel, Jesus, after the disciples and the boat and the whole thing, Jesus goes north, goes up to what we would call Lebanon. It was Phoenicia in the time of Jesus. But he goes in verse 21 of chapter 15, Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon, okay? So Jesus goes north, he goes up there and he's in that neck of the woods and listen to what happens, verse 22, okay? It says this, and behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying. Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. So Jesus is up there, disciples are with him, and somebody from the local area comes out and is crying out to Jesus. Now, the Bible tells us several things about this lady. First of all, she's a Canaanite, which means she's not a Jewish person, okay? The Canaanites were descendants of the Phoenicians, and so that's kind of where they lived up there in what now is Lebanon. And as a Canaanite, she would have grown up in a false religion, probably the religion of Ashtar, who was the goddess of love, fertility, and war. It's quite a combination, love, fertility, and war. And Ashtar was associated with Baal worship, And Baal worship, of course, is condemned in the Old Testament by a number of prophets, Elijah and Jeremiah, both condemned this and so forth. And so the second thing about this woman is she's crying, Lord, have mercy on me. Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is oppressed by a demon. Now that's a horrible thing. If you've ever dealt with somebody who's, you know, been somewhat oppressed by the other side, if you will, it can be a really horrible thing. And we could talk about, you know, false religion and how it opens people up to this kind of thing. But my point is simply that, you know, there are a lot of ways that trouble can find its way into your life. True? But there's hardly a more troubling way than when something's wrong with your kids. Would you agree with me? I mean, a lot of things can happen to us, financially, physically, we can get sick, you know, our friends can bail on us, we can get fired from our jobs, a lot of ways that trouble can make its way into our life. But one of the worst ways, one of the hardest things to deal with, is when our kids are suffering. And this woman has this daughter who is somewhat oppressed or possessed by a demonic entity. And I can imagine that this woman went everywhere and did everything she could to help her daughter. I bet she spent all her money on whoever said they could help. I bet she went on the internet and just found every possible you know, thing about mental illness and about demonic oppression and so on and so forth. But somehow she heard that Jesus was in town, came to her country, came north out of Israel. But you'll notice she calls him the son of David. Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David. And that's kind of interesting because she knew that he was sort of associated with the Jewish people. Now, sad to say, but faith, great faith, usually starts with trouble. Great faith usually is found in people and what people don't have trouble, but is usually found as the result of somewheres along the line, people recognizing I'm in trouble. And trying to find every resource that we can to solve our problem and not being able to find it all of a sudden we find out, hey, there is really a God in heaven who cares about us, and who knows us by name, and who has a plan for our life, and who is willing to sacrifice for us, and so on and so forth. And little by little, we're drawn to this God in response to the trouble that comes into our lives. Trouble is usually unwelcome, right? We do everything we can to avoid it. And I think, you know, When we have enough money, a lot of times we think that we can avoid trouble better than other people because we can buy our way out of trouble and so forth. But this lady has trouble that she can't buy her way out of. Trouble usually pushes us to find God and reach out to him and give up on our self-sufficiency. I can handle life without God. That's a big mistake, you know? And so she reaches out to Jesus, Look at what happens here. She reaches out to Jesus, verse 23. She says, you know, oh Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, but Jesus did not answer her a word. Now I know you can relate to this. You've prayed and you've reached out and you've tried to grab a hold of Jesus and you don't hear a word. And so you stay at it and you keep praying and so forth. And Jesus is just quiet. I know you can relate to this. My mom died when she was 47. She had esophageal cancer. She just whittled away to, I think she weighed like 82 pounds when she died. And we prayed. And we had everybody and their brother that we knew praying. We had supported missionaries and they were in different parts of the world and they had their churches praying and so forth. But it felt like, I was in college at the time, that all the prayers were just like getting as far as the ceiling and as my mom just got worse as time went on, you know? And so I think we can all relate to this. You might remember a guy by the name of Lazarus that was Jesus' friend. And he had a couple of sisters, Martha and Mary, and Lazarus got sick and word came to Jesus. And I love the passage in John chapter 11 says, the one whom you love, they told Jesus, the one whom you love is sick. And Jesus like just chilled out. He just hung out for a couple of days. By the time Jesus gets there, Martha had sent word for Jesus, you know, to come and so forth. By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has been dead four days, right? And Martha, she's on his case. She's like, if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. She was mad at Jesus and so on. But Jesus had a different plan. He raised Lazarus from the dead, right? He let him die. And then he created this miracle so that people could believe and trust in the God that he represented. God came to Abraham long time ago, Genesis chapter 12, right? It says, listen, you're gonna have a kid and we're gonna make a nation out of him. His name's gonna, well, he didn't give him the name, but it was Isaac, right? And out of that nation, all the nations of the earth are gonna be blessed. Of course, Jesus comes out of that nation and is a blessing to all who will embrace him, right? and makes this promise. And so Abraham believes God and God says, I'm gonna count it as righteousness because he believes me. 25 years, silence. 25 years until that kid is born. You know, think about that. And so there are all these kind of examples in scripture that, this woman kind of encounters this silence, and look what happens next. Now she's got a need, she's hurting, she's crying, she's reaching out to Jesus, but he didn't answer her a word, nada, zilch, nothing, right? Not a word. And, next phrase here, 23b, his disciples came and begged him, saying, send her away. She is annoying us. She is an inconvenience. She is a distraction from my golf game. Send her away. Right? Now, I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but I bet you have. Maybe you've tried to step out in faith. Maybe you felt that God has spoken to you about something, and you step out in faith, and you're gonna take some initiative, and you're gonna start something or something, and somebody comes and shoots you down. And they're like, oh, that's ridiculous. Oh, we're not gonna do that. Or maybe it's even church people. Maybe it's even followers of Jesus. This is the disciples, and they've been with Jesus. And they're like, send her away. She's annoying us. She's calling out after us. She's a distraction for us and so on. Send her away. And I think, you know, we experience this. And Jesus followers sometimes just can't be bothered to get involved with needs of people around us. And I could cite several examples of this kind of thing happening. And, you know, when this happens to you, if you've, you know, dared to step out in faith on some issue or something and somebody shoots you down, you know, a lot of people then just drop out. They just get quiet. They become part of the 80% of the church instead of the 20% of the church that say, You know, God's got a mission for us. God's got a dream for this church and let's go after it and let's sacrifice and make it happen and do our part and trust God to do his part and so on and so forth. And they just kind of, you know, just kind of drop out because they've gotten hurt and they don't want to be exposed to that again. And uncomfortable, right? Not this lady. not people with faith, growing faith, if you will. This lady is like, look, I might be an inconvenience, and you know what? I might make you uncomfortable, and you might be annoyed with me, but I believe Jesus is my only hope. I'm going for it. I don't care what you say. I don't care who tries to stand in my way. I'm gonna get to my God because this is my daughter, and I have a need, and he's the only one who can really touch that need. So you notice here, as you keep reading this little story, Jesus doesn't listen to his disciples. He doesn't send her away. He doesn't listen to others when they're wrong. And I wanna say, you know, just because it's a Christian who tells you something doesn't mean that it's coming from Jesus. True? And we gotta be like the Bereans. You remember in Acts chapter 17, the Apostle Paul is in Thessalonica, and he's dealing with those people, and he gets kicked out, and he goes to a place called Berea. And when he gets to Berea, he starts sharing the gospel, and the Bereans go get their Bibles and examine, like, is this really true? And the Bible says there that Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians. because they examine the scriptures to see if what other people were saying was true. Just because Dave DeVries comes and preaches a sermon, you don't just say, well, it must be true because he said it. You gotta get back into the word of God yourself and figure out, you know, was that true or not? And if you think not, please tell me and we can have a discussion. But I think, you know, we have to be a little bit more like the Bereans and, Again, problems are opportunities to grow our faith, and sometimes the problem is other people. Needy people, as if there's any other kind, always create opportunities to serve God, and to glorify God, and to show God off as good, and as capable, and as one who cares about our needs. And our response, I think, should never be, send them away. Send them away, they're inconvenient. And so Jesus, I take it, is watching this exchange between his disciples and this lady, and finally Jesus speaks. And the disciples are like, send her away, she's crying out after us, and Jesus now speaks, and he says this in verse 24. He says to the lady, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Sweetheart, you are not my priority. I've been sent here on a mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, if Jesus had said that to me, I'd be like, okay, I am out of here. You know, but not this lady. Faith, this Jesus is gonna help me. And that's not what I would expect Jesus to say to this woman when he finally does speak to her. But you know what he's doing? He's giving her a theology lesson. Theology matters. You know, our faith is only as good as the truth that we put our faith in. And if we have mixed ideas from wherever in our faith, it's not unlike the Lord to say, I gotta straighten out what you believe so that we can go forward. and so that your faith can develop on the basis of truth. And he gives her this theology lesson. It's important that she knows who Jesus is. And he tells her, you know, she is not the focus of his mission. She's not his priority. I don't think she cared, you know? If it was me again, I think I would have just shrunk and walked away, you know? I'm like, okay. You know, but not this lady. So Jesus, if he wants to teach me something new, maybe he's silent, and then he speaks, but it's something maybe we don't wanna hear. But we need to listen. And this woman listened, you know? So look at what happens next in verse 25. She came and knelt before Jesus after he said this to her, which I think is kind of a harsh saying, but she came and knelt before him saying, Lord, help me. A theology lesson. And this is kind of subtle, I guess, but you'll notice that when she comes back the second time and addresses the Lord, she calls him Lord, which is his universal name. He is the Lord of the universe, right? He created everything and is the, you know, Lord of the universe, but she drops the name Son of David. She understands who she is and she understands who he is and she understands that God has a mission and so forth and where she's at in it and so forth. It's kind of subtle, but it's significant because as a non-Jewish person, it's not the same, doesn't have the same claim on Jesus as Jesus' own people, right? He came to his own, but his own received him not, And then you can read in Romans 9, 10, and 11 how God folded us Gentiles, us non-Jewish people, into the family of God and where we are. So it's kind of important to understand that. So this time she's kneeling, she's worshiping him, she's acknowledging who he is as a Jewish person and so on, and she goes right on praying, Lord, help me. And I just want to say, you know, theology matters. Theology matters, getting things right about who God is and what he's revealed about himself is important. Can Jesus maybe be silent sometime to our prayers because he's trying to refine or upgrade our theology? Sometimes we start out, you know, and we don't have it all together. I came across this Christian school teacher and she decided the kids were gonna graduate and she decided to give the kids a little test, Her teaching stuck to the kids, and so she asked a few questions, and she said, first of all, you know, well, what is the first commandment? This kid writes down, the first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple. Second question, who was Solomon? Oh, Solomon was one of David's sons. He had 300 wives and 700 porcupines. Was Jesus ever baptized and who did it? St. John the blacksmith dumped water on his head. Kid writes. The people who followed Jesus around, the men who followed Jesus around were called the 12 decibels. Sometimes our theology has to get straightened out because we've picked stuff up along the way from who knows where And the enemy, Satan, is always trying to get false ideas jammed into our head. And the Bible says what? We are transformed or changed by the renewing of our minds, by allowing God to straighten out our theology. The Bible actually says in Hebrews chapter 12 that Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. So now I think, those times when I pray, you know, and there's just silence, what is God trying to teach me? What do I not know about him? And, you know, John chapter 15, Jesus said, you know, ask what you will and it'll be done for you. But the first part of that verse is often left out. If you abide in me and my word abides in you, ask what you want and it'll be done for you. So I ask us sometimes, as a church, is God trying to upgrade and refine our faith and mature us? Could it be that he has a great plan for our church down the road? But in order to be that church, we have to kind of refine our faith and upgrade our faith. Hebrews 7 says it's time to leave the elementary doctrines and go on to maturity. Be transformed, you know, and so on. So Jesus says again in verse 26, he goes further and he answers her again, and look what he says. I mean, you don't expect Jesus to say this. It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Talk about humility and being humiliated. Here's Jesus saying to this woman, Canaanite woman, You know, it's not right to take the truth and the blessings that are designed for this group of people and give it to the dogs. Now, we have a dog at home named Tucker. He sits next to the table every meal that we have and just looks at us, you know, it's intimidating. And the word for dog here is the word for pet. You know, it's a pet dog, not a wild dog kind of thing. But still, again, if Jesus said this to me, I'd be like, okay, see ya. but not this lady. Look what she comes back with. She says, yes, Lord, I agree with you. It's not right for you to take what's designed for this group of people and give it to this group of people. I agree with you, yes, Lord. And by the way, you can never say no, Lord. They don't go together, right? You can never say no and call him Lord. So this woman says, yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs. that fall from the master's table. She's not gonna quit. I just need a crumb. I just need you to look in my direction. I just need you to touch my daughter's life. And finally, the last verse in this section, Jesus answers her and said, oh woman, great is your faith. Great is your faith, great faith. Great faith. Could it be? that when these trials come into our life, God's just enabling us to have an opportunity to grow a greater faith because he's got something in mind for us down the road. I'll close with this, just one last passage of scripture. I say this lady's faith grew because number one, she had trouble, number two, unanswered prayer forced her to go deeper, rejection from people made her get tougher and stronger and determined Some bad theology had to get straightened out, and she was humble, recognizing that he's right in spite of the fact that it feels like he's putting me down, you know? So, this is one of my least favorite passages of Scripture. I'm sorry, but it just fits here. I'm in James 1, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials. I'm like, James, who counts it joy when trouble comes into their life? Who counts it joy when trouble comes into their church? Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. If that woman had anything, that Canaanite woman, she had steadfastness, right? You know, it produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. I'm like, does it have to come that way? You know? And he goes on. So, when the Bible says, for you know that the testing of your faith, I never think testing is for God's sake. God already knows us, and knows our witnesses and everything, The testing's for our sake. The testing is so that we can know where our faith is at. And when these trials come, count it all joy. James says, you got a chance to grow here. You got a chance to move forward. Don't lose out on the chance to get great faith. Because if you have great faith, it'll produce a steadfastness that no matter what comes your way, you'll be able to endure it and see your way through it and grow a great faith. Let's pray together. Father God, you're an awesome God. You know us better than we know ourselves. We do everything we can to avoid trouble in our lives, but it finds its way into our lives anyway. And this woman, Father, that's such a great example of great faith. Look at all that she had to endure, but through it all, you were... testing her, you were helping her to see where her faith needed to be corrected and where her humility had to maybe get tweaked and where her faith had to get an upgrade. And so Father, may we as well just be receptive to your dealings with us. May we actually look forward to determining and you helping us by your spirit and by each other and through your word that we too might be refined in what we believe. because we always act on what we believe. And so help us, Father, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.