Great Faith in the Midst of Great Trouble
Study Text: Matthew 15:21 - 28
Introduction:
- The story of this woman reminds us of what faith and prayer looks like when we are faced with real, personal trouble and adversity. It is a story that brings us back to the basics, of what it means to trust in Jesus.
- The Canaanite woman was described by Jesus as having a great faith. So what is it about her faith that makes it great? And how can we have faith that is great like hers?
- When this woman was caught in a very difficult storm, she stayed focused on Jesus, and fell to her knees before him.
- Some people are passing through devastating family problems. Some are going through financial difficulty. Some are looking at a problem with a child. Some are looking at their own souls and realizing that they are lost. Some looking at disease and wondering what lies ahead. Some are looking at their parents and realizing they won’t be here forever.
- In the midst of your problems, you need someone to help you. You need someone you can turn to for your solution. You need God to work in your life.
- That is the situation we are looking at in this passage today. Jesus is approached by a mother who is in a desperate situation. She needs something in her life. She comes to the Lord and as she does, she is not asking for the whole loaf, she is just asking for a crumb. She knows that a little crumb is better than nothing.
- There is hope for your situation today. No matter what it is you think you need today, God holds the key to it.
- We shall be discussing the topic under three subheadings:
1. The Situation that is Requiring Great Faith
2. The Submission that is Revealing Great Faith
3. The Solution that is Resulting from Great Faith
1. The Situation that is Requiring Great Faith:
- This woman came to Jesus because she was concerned about her daughter. The child was demon possessed and was probably acting out in violence and anger. She needed help in a desperate way.
- The woman was following after Jesus and His disciples, and was shouting to Him for the help she needed. She was heartbroken over the condition of her child and she was determined to get her child the help she needed.
- Perhaps she had heard about how Jesus had healed all manner of diseases; about how He had opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf; about how He had driven the demons from other people.
- This woman came to Jesus because faith and hope had been sparked in her heart. She needed something that society had not been able to provide. She was looking for something that her dead religion had been powerless to give her. She needed a solution that she had not been able to provide by her own self-efforts. She was desperate and she saw Jesus as her only hope.
- Perhaps you are at a dead end over some situation in your life and you need help. Perhaps you have exhausted every means at your disposal and do not know where to turn for help.
- Whatever the need in your life may be today; you should take a lesson from this woman: Get that need to Jesus. Regardless of what you face in your life today, the answer will be found in Him. He can move your mountain; meet your need; save your soul; forgive your sins; touch your loved ones; you name it, He can do it.
- But, you have to get it to Him with an unwavering faith that He will visit you. Don’t be afraid to call on Him; He invites you to come, Matthew 11:28; Isaiah 55:1-3.
- Whenever there is a difficult situation that seems hopeless and impossible, then great faith in God and His Word is required.
- Throughout the New Testament, the people who show the greatest faith in Jesus are the ones who need him the most.
- The ones who are helpless and hopeless and who came to seek Jesus as the only solution to their difficult situations.
- Great faith requires us recognizing that we need Jesus. Realizing that we are helpless and hopeless without Him, we can’t get it right on our own unless He shows up for us.
- We can’t fix ourselves, our families, or our world, on our own. We need Jesus to do all that in us and for us.
- The woman was prepared to humble herself and embarrass herself. She was ready to do whatever it takes, because her need is that great and no one else apart from Jesus could help her out.
- Whatever great need we have today, difficult situations we find ourselves, Jesus knows the way out, and has the power to do it.
- What we need is the great faith to trust Him and turn to Him, not as an alternative means, but the only means by which we can be helped.
- Every difficult situations concerning our Health, the Economy, our Family, our Businesses and Careers and our New Life in Him, that seems hopeless, can be turned to Him with an unwavering faith that He will give us a solution better than we could ever imagined. James 1:5-8
- Our world has a great need. But that need won’t be filled by anything but Jesus. The Canaanite woman has great faith, not just because she is desperate for help, but because she comes to realize that her help can only come from Jesus. Great faith means recognizing our greet need, and turning to our great Saviour. Knowing what we need is something, and knowing who alone can fill that need is the real thing.
2. The Submission that is Revealing Great Faith:
- This woman comes to Jesus for help and when she doesn’t get the response she imagines, she stays after Jesus until she gets what she wants.
- To see that her need was met and her daughter was healed, this woman had to overcome many obstacles. It seemed that she met resistance to her request at every turn. Yet, she persisted until she achieved her goal.
- Let’s examine the obstacles she faced and overcame by faith.
1. She had to overcome Race:
- She was a Canaanite. She was from a region known for vile religious practices.
2. She had to overcome Religion:
- Here she was a Gentile mother crying out to the Jewish Messiah. She had no right to come to Jesus.
– When the disciples see and hear this Gentile calling out to their Messiah, they react by telling Jesus to send her away. They wanted nothing to do with her.
3. She had to overcome Rejection:
- He tells her that His whole purpose in coming to this world was to reach the lost sheep of Israel. When she persists, Jesus tells her that she is a dog and does not deserve the children’s bread.
4. She had to overcome Reality:
- The realities of this situation are harsh! Her daughter was possessed by a devil. She was a member of a doomed race. These religious men did not seem to care about her or her situation at all. It must have appeared to her that her situation was hopeless.
- What obstacles are you facing today? Persist in seeking the Lord and in His time, you will see every barrier fall. Your faith will not be defined by what you receive from God; but by what it takes to stop you from getting to God. What is stopping you?
- Great faith requires persistent trust in Jesus and His Word until we receive from Him.
- When this woman first turns to Jesus, He ignores her. He didn't answer her at all, at first.
- We often feel that way when we have prayed, and it appears nothing changed. But God was never truly absent, He hears all of our prayers. But sometimes the only answer we seem to hear is silence. And that makes it seem as though God is absent. And that can test and challenge our faith.
- This Canaanite woman has great faith, according to Jesus, and we see it in her response to Jesus’ silence. When Jesus responds to her request with silence, she responds to His silence with faith. In the face of silence, she does not give up. She does not turn from Jesus. Instead, she kneels before Jesus, and says again, “Lord, help me.”
- Great faith does not give up, but persists, even when there seems to be little reason to do so. Great faith, as this woman shows us, requires a great need, and trusting that Jesus alone can meet that need, and it requires persistent trust in God even when God does not seem to be responding to our prayers.
- Sometimes, when we don’t get the answer we want in prayer, we usually blame ourselves and feel we haven’t lived a good enough life. We haven’t had enough faith in God. We have disappointed God in some way. Like the Canaanite woman, we can wonder if we are really worthy to have our prayers answered.
- But here is the good news that this Canaanite woman teaches us: Our worthiness has nothing to do with it. She is not worthy. And neither are we. But it doesn’t matter.
- Great faith doesn’t require us to be worthy. Because great faith turns us to the only one who can make us worthy. Great faith turns us to the one who died for us, to make us worthy to stand before him.
- By telling the Canaanite woman that she is not worthy, and then answering her prayer, Jesus is telling us that it is not about our worthiness. It never was. It is about grace. The simple gift of God’s love given to all of us by God’s Son.
- Great faith does not rely on our worthiness, but it is also not stopped by our unworthiness. Because great faith relies on God. Nothing more. And nothing less.
3. The Solution that is Resulting from Great Faith:
- To this Cannanite woman, Jesus says: “Woman, great is your faith.” Not because she was worthy of it. But because she needed Jesus, and she knew it, and she persisted when everything, and everyone, was telling her to give up.
- Jesus granted her heart desires because of her great faith and nothing was withheld from her.
- The more we can persist in our faith in Jesus, not minding what we see, hear, feel or know, the more we will witness His interventions in our difficult situations.
- Jesus had tested her faith with hard words and her faith had risen to the challenge.
- Here was a Gentile dog that had more faith than the Jewish Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and Priests.
- This kind of faith excites the Lord, and He rewarded her faith by giving her exactly what she asked for; He healed her daughter.
- Her faith was so strong that she didn’t ask for proof, but she took Jesus at His word and turned around and went home to her family. What a blessing! What a challenge!
- There are people who have sought God about their situations and things remain the same. The Devil and the flesh are whispering in your ear right now. They are saying, “It’s no use! God doesn’t care! Go away and don’t bother Him with this anymore. It’s never going to change.”
- Some people are discouraged and defeated and they wonder if there is any use or any help for them.
- You are encouraged to take heart today. There is hope! Today might be the day when the Master responds to your cries. Today might be the day when you see that mountain moved in your life. Today might be the day when you come to Him and call on Him to be saved. Today might be the day when God speaks in your soul and says, “It’s going to be all right! I’ve taken care of it.” Today might be the day when His peace replaces your pain and you get the help you need.
- Bring that need to Him again today. Bring it with faith in your heart, that He will hear you; that He will help you and He will fix it. Bring it to Him and place it in His hands. Watch Him take it and make it as it ought to be.
Conclusion:
- A little crumb from the Lord’s table might be all you need today.
- Whatever is your need or wherever you are today; God can meet you where you are and help you get what you need today.
· Do you need to be saved?
· Do you need a mountain moved in your life?
· Do you need to be restored to faith and fellowship?
· Do you need to see God moving in someone else’s life?
- Regardless of what you need today, you can come to Jesus and you can get it. Even if you have sought Him for it in the past and received no answer, today might be the day when He says, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
