JUST ONE LITTLE CRUMB
By Pastor Jim May
I hear a lot of talk in these days about faith. Some say that you need to have great faith, and if you have great faith, you will have prosperity, health and the abundant life. That’s true to a point, but we don’t want to get into hyper-faith that believes you can force God into being a vending machine to give us whatever we want when we want. Others say that you need just a little faith, like the mustard seed, and that will be enough to move mountains. Well it’s kind of hard to argue that point much since they seem to be quoting the Bible. But if they are trying to tell me that my “mustard seed faith” means that I can just dabble in the Word of God and play around with serving the Lord, then I will have to disagree with them too.
The fact is that faith is necessary, and it is only by faith we can believe and serve the Lord. Let us never forget that God has given to every man a measure of faith. In effect I am convinced that all of us have all of the faith that we will ever need to fulfill the call of God upon our lives.
It’s not that we need more faith – we need to use the faith we have through trusting God and serving God. By doing that our faith is made stronger, much like a weightlifter is made stronger, not by creating muscle, but my developing muscle through resistance. So the question is never whether we have enough faith. Our prayer should not be that God should give us more faith, but that we will simply grow in the faith that He has already given.
In the passage of scripture that I want to read to you now we will see how that faith, even when it seems small in our eyes, is a powerful force that can move Heaven and earth. Great faith is not always shown through great works in the eyes of men.
Faith is that belief that things we cannot see or understand, will come to pass. Having faith is to be convinced that the will of God shall be done, no matter what others may say. It’s simply placing yourself in the hands of Jesus and being convinced in your heart that somehow everything; all things, will work out for your good according to His plan.
Mark 7:25-30, "For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed."
Here we see a picture of a mother who is concerned for her daughter. She was not a citizen of Israel but she had heard the news of a great teacher and prophet in Israel that had power to cast out demons and that’s all she needed to know. It’s amazing to think that a heathen woman, in a foreign land, had more faith in Jesus than the nation of Israel; God’s Chosen People.
Her daughter had an unclean spirit that no doubt would often manifest itself in the way her daughter talked and acted.
Today we can give the devil the easy way out by refusing to see that it is demonic activity in the lives of so many people. We try to remove any guilt of sin by calling it sickness. I believe that many of the problems faced by people today aren’t just physical ailments – they are spiritual ailments, brought on the possession and oppression of their spirit by the power of demonic activity. I don’t believe that demons are in everyone who isn’t saved, but I do believe that their lives are controlled to some degree by demonic activity.
Have you ever heard of a “disease” called Tourette Syndrome? I’m no medical doctor or psychologist, but I am a minister of the gospel and I am convinced that anyone, young or old, who falls out with muscle contortions and screaming obscenities is definitely demon controlled. I believe that what medicines and the counsel of men cannot do, the power of the Holy Spirit and the Blood of Jesus can do! If that person gets saved the Tourette Syndrome will be gone.
Those who are struggling with addictions are not just bound by the physical, emotional and mental bonds of the drugs or alcohol – they are bound by a power far greater than any of these things. I am convinced that most of them are possessed by devils and that’s what really holds them. What medical doctors and counselors cannot do, the delivering power of Jesus Christ can do, because it’s a spiritual problem more than anything else.
What kind of manifestations this little girl had we do not know, but what we do know is that her mother recognized that it was more than just a physical thing. Her daughter needed a power greater than any man could give and there was only one real source for that kind of power. It wasn’t in the gods of the Syrophenicians, who were a part of the Greek Empire.
We all know about the mythical Greek gods like the Titans and the Olympians. We still hear mentioned the names of those Titan gods of the Greeks, who were the older gods of Greece. These Titans were supposed to have ruled the earth until they were overthrown by the younger gods. Have you ever heard of Cronus? He was the main Titan, the big cheese of the ancient Greek gods, but he wasn’t all that because he was dethroned by his own son named Zeus. The whole history of these Titans sounds more like a soap opera than anything else. They are still around in the minds of some people though because some of there names are commonly used today. Most of you have probably heard of Uranus, Oceanus, Phoebe, Prometheus or Atlas?
What about the bunch of younger Greek gods called the Olympians? Were they any better than their ancestor gods? No, they were not any better but their names are still with us today. I know you have heard of Zeus, the king who resided on Mt. Olympus. And what about Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Hades, the god of the underworld, and Apollo, Athena and Aphrodite? If you ever watched the parades of the Mardi Gras you will recognize every one of those names because they are all paid homage in the revelry that goes on.
What a great bunch of gods all of these were. They were all a bunch of inbred, self-centered little gods who cared very little for the puny humans below and eventually wound up fighting among themselves, killing one another. Wow! That’s the kind of gods that I want to serve, don’t you? I read one place that showed the family tree of all these gods and at the top of the list was the first god of them all whose name was Chaos. I think he had the right name, don’t you?
The height of ignorance that men will believe to keep from believing the truth never ceases to amaze me!
Is there any doubt that all of this is the product of demonic activity in the hearts and minds of men? Why else is there such debauchery involved in their worship? Why else would people who seem normal and with sound minds suddenly cast their inhibitions to the wind and run naked through the streets at a festival in honor of these gods? It’s all because people will surrender themselves to the devil. And you don’t turn demonic possession on or off like a switch. Those demons are still in them because they have found a home. They may not always manifest their presence in the same way, but they are there, just waiting for the right time to use their power to control unwitting souls of men.
When you look at all of this and realize that this little Greek woman had tried to pray to her gods, its not hard to realize that she never got an answer. They weren’t real – only figments of the Greek minds down through the centuries. The “existence” of all of these Greek gods was nothing less than a lie conceived in the mind of the devil and then planted into the minds of men who refused to believe the truth and would rather believe a lie because it suited their purposes. The false prophets of these false gods then used their power to control the people through fear!
If you will remember, it was in Greece that Paul preached one of his greatest revival messages. Acts 17:22-31, "Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."
When the Syrophenician woman heard of a true prophet in Israel whose power was beyond that of mortal men, and far above that of all of her Greek gods, she went to seek His help. I don’t know whether she really knew who Jesus was. In fact, she probably didn’t realize that Jesus was God in the flesh. All she knew was that this man could help her.
Can you see the simple faith that she had? She simply believed what she heard and acted upon that belief!
From the way that the scripture is worded it is very doubtful that Jesus even answered her the first time she called out to Him. Maybe He didn’t answer even after the 2nd or 3rd try, but she kept on calling, crying out for help for her daughter. This was a desperate mother and she wouldn’t give up.
In Matthew 7:7-8 Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
Now this Greek woman had probably never heard this teaching of Jesus, but she somehow knew that this was what she had to do to get her answer. She wouldn’t quit. She kept on pressing in and crying out, following them for as long as it took.
But God’s Word will never fail and because she fulfilled and obeyed the words that Jesus had spoken, He stopped and allowed her to come to him with her request.
How long are we willing to bombard Heaven to get our answer? Do we give up after a few prayers, a week, a month or a few years? How long are you willing to cry out to God on behalf of your lost loved ones? How much crying are you willing to do for their soul? How long will you stay on your face before Almighty God, knocking, asking and seeking His intervention? Will you pray for 5 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour? The point is that if we want to receive anything from God, we need to ask, seek and knock until the answer comes, ever how long that may take. Let me tell you that when the only hope you have is in what Jesus can do, it won’t be near as hard to keep on knocking at His door and crying out to Him.
Even though Jesus stopped and heard her pleas for mercy and deliverance for her daughter, her prayer wasn’t immediately answered. In fact, Jesus said, “NO, I won’t do it right now.”
Jesus said “NO”! Didn’t He hear her cry? Didn’t He care about her daughter? Didn’t He know that she had come from such a long way seeking His help? Sure Jesus knew. But he still said “NO”.
Now if that had been some of us we would have said, “OK then, I’ll go talk to the Pastor. I bet he will pray for me and help me.” Let me tell you that can come to me all you want but if Jesus won’t answer your prayer and tell you “Yes”, what makes you think that He will hear my prayer and give you a different answer? I don’t have any special powers; and I can’t pull any magic strings to get God to change His mind. Just keep on praying and let God answer your prayers. That’s how your faith grows stronger. You can call me and I will help you pray, but God wants to see your faith in action sometimes.
The thing that strikes me is that Jesus not only told her NO, but he also called her a worthless dog! How about that? This wasn’t some demon calling her a heathen, a child of the devil and refusing her petition. This was the very Son of God saying, “ No, I’m not going to answer your prayer because I came to feed the Children of Israel and the time of the Gentiles has not yet come.”
She had the measure of faith to come to Jesus in the first place. She had the faith to keep crying out for help. She had the faith to finally face him one-on-one, but would her faith continue to strengthen, or would she give up?
I like her answer to the Lord. She said, “Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs”. Jesus I know I’m a dog. I know I don’t deserve anything from you. I know that your ministry is to Israel, but surely there’s a little bit left over for me. I’ll take anything, whatever you want for me is what I want to. Just throw me a crumb. Throw me a little of the collateral blessings from what you are giving to the Jews. All I need is just a crumb, that’s all.
Talk about faith: there is one of the greatest examples of faith in the entire Bible. This was faith that didn’t need a sign to believe. She didn’t need Jesus to lay hands on her. She didn’t need him to come to her house, anoint her daughter with oil, or even to send a preacher over to pray. Just one little crumb of God’s power is all it would take.
That simple expression of absolute faith in the power of God through Jesus; that faith that believed that anything was possible and that even a crumb of God’s power was enough, was all it took. Her faith was in Jesus. Her faith moved the very heart of God and her answer came.
Jesus told her, “For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.” She went home and the demons were gone. I can just imagine the joy that filled that house! What all of the gods of the Greeks could not do in their impotence, just one crumb from the Master’s table was able to do!
How great is our God! How great is His name! He’s the greatest God, the only True God, forever the same! He rolled back the waters of the mighty Red Sea! And He said I’m going to lead you. Put your trust in ME!
Exercise your faith in Christ! Trust Him for big things in your life! Give it all to Jesus! He will see you through!
All you need is one crumb of blessing from the Master’s table and your miracle will come true!
