Great Faith in a Merciful God
It is good to be here, and I thank God for this opportunity of sharing with you the word of God. I want to share with you a message that I have entitled: "Great Faith in a Merciful God"
Our Scripture reading is taken from Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30
21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”
23 But He answered her not a word.
And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.”
24 But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”
26 But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
27 And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Mark 7:
24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.
25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.
26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
Prayer
Father, in the name of Jesus, once again we come before you. We pray Oh God, that your word will come to us with revelation, with the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit that you will enable us not only to be hearers but doers of the word, bringing glory to your holy name, in Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
Last month, we received a phone call from a friend and on the other side of the line, she was weeping. She said, "Pastor Daniel, what I thought could not happen to me, is happening to me!" She continued on to say that "My son has just broken the news to us that he is not sure whether he is a man or a woman!”
And her son is not a young man. He is a doctor. He has been practising as a doctor for the last 6 years.
Like her, we too were equally perplexed. We did not know what to answer. Initially, before picking her phone, we had thought that this was a good call. We thought she was calling us with good news. But here she was, weeping! She continually wept on and we didn't know what to say to her.
"My culture cannot accept this!” she said. "I didn't know that this could ever happen to me. I am a Christian. I raised up my children in the best Christian values that I know of. I took them to church. I did for them everything I could. Besides this, my son has sisters. His youngest sister is married. How could he say that he is not sure whether he is a man or a woman?"
I listened to the cries of this friend and mother crying out for her son. I couldn't help but join her. I didn't know what to tell her, but I told her that "God, can help you. I can’t help you, but I know for sure that God can help you. God can restore you." And we prayed on the phone, and that was the end of the phone call.
The passages we just read are from two different writers of the New Testament: Matthew and Mark. These passages record an event that happened between Jesus and a Gentile Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus not because she had a personal need, but she came to Jesus with a family problem. She came to Jesus weeping and burdened by an urgent need for her daughter.
In this message that I have entitled “Great faith in a merciful God”, I want us to learn that Great Faith believes in God, pursues God, intercedes for others, Worships God, waits on God and receives from God.
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