Your Faith Is Showing

Hi, ladies. Oh, it is so good to be here with you. Oh my goodness. I'm just looking out, seeing just the beauty, beauty in our church. Just love you so much. Thank you for being here. You could be anywhere right now. And you chose to gather in God's house with the ladies of the house. And it's just going to be such a sweet night. It's already been so special. I know we've already gotten to worship. I know you've already gabbed. But now we're going to get into God's word. And I'm just so excited for what God has for us tonight as we open his word. And so if you brought your Bible, we're going to be in Matthew chapter 15. And if you didn't, that's OK, because we have it on the screen. I also want to welcome all our F.L.Y. girls. F.L.Y. stands for Fresh Life Youth. And we're so glad that you're here with us as well. It's always fun when women of all ages gather. I mean, even just listening to you all, well, first of all, listening to you all talk, it's just so sweet. But then listening to us worship together is one of the sweetest sounds. Before we open up God's word, I just

want to encourage you to connect with someone, whether it's one person that you introduce yourself to, or maybe it's someone that you invite to your Fresh Life group, or you invite to Sunday on the weekend. Let's lean into each other tonight. Let's lean into community, because we need each other. I know we all need each other. Because we need each other. I know we all are carrying things. And as women, we carry a lot of things. We wear a lot of hats. We have a lot of roles. And so that's one thing that I just love about us gathering together, is just kind of breathing. Kind of like, OK, kids are taken care of. Hopefully. Meal probably is fine, if it's not that big of a deal. It's just one night. But just a time for us to lean in, laugh, love, and to remember that it's going to be OK. Whatever it is, it's going to be OK. You're not alone. And the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is living in us and giving us everything we need to live the life that we were born to live. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of that simple truth. But tonight, I want to encourage you ladies and build up your faith. And in gatherings like this, on the weekends,

when we meet with our small groups, when we're connecting one-on-one with someone and talking about what God's doing in our hearts and in our lives, God strengthens us from the inside out. He builds up our faith. I want to talk about our faith. Whether or not our faith is in God, we put our faith in something. We have faith, and we put it in something, and we choose whether or not it is God or something else. We're actually choosing faith right now. You are practicing faith right now. You are sitting in a seat, and you're not worried that it's going to crash down. Your faith is in that chair, and your full weight is in that chair. You're also practicing faith because you're practicing faith in that mirror that you checked yourself in before you came, and you're trusting that that mirror told you the truth about your face, about if there's anything in your teeth, your fit, if you look like a snow cone or a Hawaiian grandma. That's kind of what I know. On that note of fits, I don't know about you, but whenever I'm on Instagram or whatever social media that you're on, and those videos that the girl is dressed like something, but then she's like. And at first, you're like, oh, that's cute. And then you realize, oh, I don't

think I'm supposed to think that's cute. And then she goes and makes her shirt contort and button up in a different way. And then you're like, first of all, I have no idea what she did. And if I were to try, I would have to very slowly go through and take notes. I'll just wear it the way I do. I love that. I love that there's inspiration, but I feel like in those moments, I'm feeling inspired and judged all at the same time. But I think it comes to a point where we just have to do you, because if we were to try to keep up with all of the trends and all of the new ways of doing things, it would make us crazy, because there's literally hundreds and hundreds of those kind of videos that tell us that's not the right way to do it anymore. This is the right way. And if you're stuck in 2016, this is how you're supposed to do it. But everyone's going to judge you if you dress like this, but they won't if you dress like this. So all that to say, I kind of went on a tangent there. It's so important to put our faith in the right things. I wanted to take a little quiz. It's literally little. It's two questions. On the screen, it should say, number one, I would describe my faith in God as A, non-existent, B, tiny, C, big enough, D, great. First question. Second, I want my faith in God to be A, enough to get me by, B, great, C, flourishing, D, B and C. So that's just a little exercise, but I just kind of want to get our hearts, our minds going, stirring around this idea of our faith.

Where are you at today with your faith in God? By the end of our time together in this time of studying God's word, my hope is that you would be able to hear God say to you, sweetheart, great is your faith. And we're going to get a front row seat to a woman's great faith in action and what Jesus thinks about it. Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 15, I already had you turn there, in a message that I'm calling Your Faith is Showing. Your faith is showing. Chapter 15, starting in verse 21, then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him saying, have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon possessed. But he answered her, not a word. And his disciples came and urged him saying, send her away for she cries out after us. She's so annoying. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshiped him. Another translation says she kneeled down before him saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. And she said, yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said to her, oh, woman, great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. And God, we thank you for your word. We tremble before it. It's powerful. It's living.

It's you. It's you speaking to us. So would you open our eyes? Would you open the eyes of our hearts? Would you help us now to breathe, catch our breath from the day, catch our breath from the week and receive from you? We're in desperate need of you, God. And we can do nothing apart from you. Would you build our faith? Would you strengthen our faith today? In Jesus' name, amen. This is so powerful and confusing. And you're like, Jesus, that's not the Jesus I know. Calling this woman a little. Oh, dog? That's not right. But starting at the first verse that we read, Jesus went out from there. From there is the verses that we see before this verse that we started in. And it's basically Jesus is with the scribes and the Pharisees, and they're having this discussion about tradition, about they're complaining, why don't your disciples do what you're supposed to do? And they have this whole conversation. And basically, it ends how all of the conversations go between Jesus and the Pharisees. It ends with them, like, speechless, but angry and wanting to kill him. And Jesus walking away on to the next thing that God has for him.

And so it says he went out from there, talking to these religious people who are Jews, who are Israelites. And he went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Now, this is interesting, because it says, a woman of Canaan came. Now, when you go back into the Old Testament, you find that the Canaanites were basically the adversaries of Israel. So there's the Jews, God's people, and then the Canaanites, along with there's a lot of other, like, Amalekites and all those kind of people. But they're basically the adversaries of Israel, of God's people. And so it says that he departed and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And you can almost hear the menacing, dark music of, like, dun, dun, dun. Jesus is going from, like, the holy place to this place where he isn't supposed to be, because Jews would not interact with these people, because it wasn't what they did. To the Jews, Gentiles, which a Gentile is basically a non-Jew, but Gentiles were impure simply because they were not Jews. And so Jews would look down on Gentiles, anyone who was not a Jew. And it's significant that Jesus leaves the conversation with religious elite, with religious leaders, and talking about how stuck they were in tradition, and then how it says that he departed to this region.

He's literally going from the people who he was called to reach and love, God's people, and now he's going to a place that he wasn't supposed to go. And it's significant that this pagan non-Jew approaches Jesus. It's clear that she has heard about this man who claims he's the Messiah, the one that the Old Testament pointed to that would be the savior of the world. It's significant because women didn't approach men, especially in public. In that day, men wouldn't even speak to, or they basically ignored women who were of their family. It just was very culturally unacceptable for men and women to be talking. So that's why when you see through the Gospels Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman, Jesus speaking with the woman with the issue of blood, this is countercultural. This was not what the culture was back then. And here is Jesus just storming this culture. And for Jesus to ignore her was actually not uncommon. It was a normal thing. So for him just to keep walking was actually appropriate. But she shows that she somehow knows who this man Jesus is. And she says, have mercy on me, O Lord. And I guess have mercy on me was a normal thing that people who were by the side of the road, beggars, would say to people walking by. Have mercy on me. Have mercy on me.

Help me. Give me something. Give me something. I need help. But for her to say, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, she's declaring with her mouth that Jesus is the son of David. And she says, my daughter is severely. demon-possessed. And he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away. Send her away, for she cries out after us. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, this is interesting because when I was first reading it, I was like, oh, he's saying that to everyone. But he's specifically speaking to his disciples because they're the ones saying, shut her up. Send her away. She's so annoying. So he's talking to his disciples. And he's saying, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So he's saying, yeah, clearly, I'm not going to talk to her because I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But when he answers his disciples, I just imagine a twinkle in his eye because you know that Jesus knows what is going to happen in this interaction. You know that he's looking at this woman

and he's not ignoring her. But he knows her. He knows what she's dealing with. He sees her desperation. And it's almost like you can just tell, like, OK, we're going to go through this little shenanigan, this little pretending. But there's going to be an outcome that is going to wow you guys. And in one sense, he's testing this woman's faith. And in the other sense, he's teaching his disciples. So for him to say, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he's speaking to them. And he's telling them one thing. But then he's showing them something. He's showing them something different. So it's almost like he's, like, twinkle in his eye. He's just giving this woman a test. I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Wait for it. Wait for it. And then, so I don't even know if she heard this comment that he says to his disciples. I don't know if they were, like, whispering into him, get rid of her, get rid of her. And he's, like, I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I don't know if she could hear what they were saying. But she comes to Jesus. So I imagine her from farther away yelling, have mercy on me.

Oh, Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely demon-possessed. He talks to his disciples. And then she comes to him. And it says she worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. And for any of us mothers who have children who have dealt with anything, whether it's health, whether it's mentally, whether it's hard things going on at school, whatever it is, we are also carrying that burden. Even if our kids are grown, we're still carrying that burden. And you can just feel it in her voice. Lord, help me. Lord, have mercy on me. She's desperate for her daughter. But she's coming clean and just saying, I'm at the end of my rope. I need help, God. I don't know what to do. I've tried everything. And I need you. But he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. It's like a little riddle that he says. And it's like he's teasing out her persistence. He's teasing out this faith that she clearly has. But nothing is stopping her. Because she says, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.

She is accepting that statement. Yes, Lord. I know. You're right. I'm a little dog. The Israelites, the Jews, they're the children around the table. Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. And this idea of dog is not like a wild dog that would be running around. It was like a lap dog, a house dog, a pet. unwilling to be put off by Jesus's response. You can just kind of see her sass, and her persistence, and her strength, and her just desperation. And she is with it. She receives that little riddle situation that Jesus says, but she responds. And her response reveals that she comprehends more about the bread that Jesus offers than even his disciples do. They had witnessed the feeding of the 5,000, but they still didn't understand the kind of bread that Jesus gives. And she gladly accepts her lesser rank. She's like, fine, yeah, I'm going to be a dog. I'll be a little dog. It's fine. As long as I get fed, as long as I get something from you, Lord, I will take whatever role that is handed to me.

And instead of being bitter, which at that, she could have just walked away. Jesus told me I was a dog. But instead of being bitter, she engages Jesus. And a commentary I read said that she engages Jesus in a constructive exchange about his mission. He just told his disciples, I was sent for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And here is this woman saying, yeah, but I can have faith too. I can have faith too. She asks for a crumb of Jesus's healing power. Then Jesus answered her. And I just imagine that this is exactly what he wanted to say right away. But because he is God, because he is good, because he sees all of the pieces, he sees his disciples watching Jesus, his every move. He sees the crowd of people watching. He sees this woman desperate for a healing touch for her daughter. Jesus answered and said to her, oh, woman, oh, woman, and that's an endearing term, oh, woman, great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. She had a believing heart. I don't know if she knew much at all. She just knew that this Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, could do something. He could have mercy on her.

He could help her. He could heal her daughter. In her last attempt, you feel that desperation. It's like she's crying out with everything, with her abs. What is the cry of your heart today? What is a burden that you're carrying, the person you're caring for, your son or daughter, maybe, who has turned away from their faith or they're struggling, a friend, wanting to be a light in this world but feeling so stuck? What is the burden of your heart right now? Give it to him. He sees. What do we see about this woman? Because we want to be women of great faith, don't we? We see that this woman, she came to Jesus first of all. She approached him. She had no business approaching a Jew, a man, the son of God, the Messiah. She had no business, but she came to Jesus. She cried out to him. She brought her need to him. Help me. Have mercy for my daughter. She's suffering. She's hurting. She endured Jesus's silence. She sat there, stood there, while Jesus answered her not a word. She endured his disciples' disregard and disdain

and rejection and disinterest. She saw the whole thing happening, them whispering maybe, Jesus talking to them, but she didn't let that stop her. And then even after he didn't say anything, she came again. She was persistent. She leaned in and came closer, even when his response wasn't what she wanted. How many times have we been there where we're pleading, God, do something. Help me. Heal me. Heal this person. Do something. And we feel a silence. We feel like there's a wall. We feel like he's not looking in our direction. We feel like his gaze is elsewhere. And he's not engaged in our struggle, or our suffering, or our problem. But she persisted. She worshiped. She cried out, Lord, help me. She listened to his answer. And she didn't just listen to his answer. She retorted. She responded. She reacted. She engaged in conversation with Jesus. She responded to his statement, continuing

to insist, interact, engage. Her response almost seemed sassy, cheeky, but full of desperation. And again, I can just imagine Jesus trying to hide his smile, because it's been said that Jesus was the happiest person who ever lived. And you could just almost see his eyes smiling, but him trying to be like, I don't even know what my face was doing just then. But you could just imagine him saying, woman, you have great faith. All along, he was loving. This woman is showing great faith. And then Jesus healed her daughter, who she was pleading for. And it's interesting, because this is so contrasting to some other parts. And these are only a few, but in Matthew 14, Jesus tells Peter, oh, you of little faith. We don't want to be told that. Poor Peter. But he did. He had little faith in that moment. Matthew 16, he said to his disciples, you of little faith, not great faith. You of little faith. Matthew 17, again, he said to his disciples, you couldn't do that, because you have so little faith. And yet here he is, a man, a Jewish man, speaking, a Jewish rabbi, speaking to this woman.

This all shows her great faith. What a beautiful example that we have of this woman and her great faith. How can we have such great faith as this woman? Number one, run to Jesus in your desperation. Run to Jesus. Let him be your first resort, not your last resort. Number two, don't let his seeming silence stop you, because he might seem silent, but he's there. Jesus was silent, but he was there. He was very much engaged. And he was testing. He was teasing out this faith from this woman. Number three, don't let others' judgments stop you. Isn't that something that we find when maybe we run into someone who we knew at one point, and they said, oh, yeah, I used to go here, or I used to be a part of church, or I used to love God? But it's just God's people, the church. Yeah. Why? Because we're imperfect people trying to love a perfect God, trying to engage a world to show them that God loves them and has a plan and a purpose for them. We're going to get it wrong. But the judgment, the disregard, the disdain of the disciples didn't stop her from coming to Jesus. Don't let that stop you. Number four, persist in prayer. We went through a series in our church of, which you guys know,

but all kinds of prayer it was called. And we were learning all the different kinds of prayer that there is, but persist in prayer. Lean in in prayer. Number five, engage with Jesus. Let his word lead you. Let him be your good shepherd. Let his word set the pace for your life. Trust him. Keep trusting him. When nothing is making sense, especially when nothing is making sense, keep your faith in God. Keep trusting him, just like you're sitting in that seat. Put your full weight on Jesus. Trust him. Engage with Jesus. Number six, kneel and worship him. Come to his feet. Worship him. Come to him. Keep coming to him. Keep showing up. Number seven, bring your personality. Bring your sass. Bring your doubts. Bring your questions. Bring who you are to him, because he knows you. He knows you. He designed you. He knows you better than you know yourself.

And he's waiting for you to run to him. And number eight, watch God heal. Watch God heal those broken, sore places in your heart. Watch him heal you. Watch him heal people in your life. Watch him heal and bring salvation to your community and say to you, great is your faith, woman. This is such an endearing way that he's speaking to this woman. And maybe some of you today don't feel worthy to be spoken to in such a precious, endearing, honoring way. But God sees you. And he loves you. And he knows you. He wants you to bring your problems to him. He wants to be able to say to you, great is your faith. I'm so proud. You get A plus, plus, plus, plus. You passed that test. Jesus is saying, sweetheart, your faith is showing. Your faith is showing. And it's glowing. And it's growing. And it's proving to be the truth. Let it be as you desire. He's saying to this woman, you can't hide that faith. Your faith is showing. Your faith is glowing. Your faith is growing.

Your faith is flowing. Let it be to you as you desire. Whatever you want, I will do that. In the Gospels, Jesus marvels twice. The first time was at the unbelief of the people in his hometown. And it says that he couldn't do a mighty work there because of their unbelief. The second time was at the belief of a Roman centurion for the healing of his servant. And Jesus says to him, I have not found such great faith, even in Israel. And he marveled. It says Jesus marveled. And then he healed the centurion's servant that very hour. And there are two reasons that Jesus marvels today. Still, he marvels at our unbelief. Oh, you have little faith. Come on, you got this. Even if it's tiny, like a little mustard seed, come on. Come on, come on, come on. But then he marvels at belief. He marvels at great faith. He marvels when you don't know what is going on, but you trust him still. He marvels when you're on your face in desperation, pleading for your daughter, pleading for your son, pleading for your mom, for your dad. Unbelief kept him from doing mighty works.

Belief wowed him and allowed him to work and move and heal. Belief and unbelief, belief and unbelief. Don't we struggle with this? I do. Belief and unbelief. I believe, but I also don't believe. Help me, God. This was the cry of a man who wanted Jesus to heal his son in Mark 9, but Jesus' disciples couldn't heal them. So this man brought his son, who was sick, to Jesus' disciples, but they couldn't heal him. So Jesus said to him, to the man, after he said, oh, you have little faith, he said to the man, if you can. can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. And I don't think Jesus is mad when there's unbelief. I think there is a sadness, but there's also, he knows that something is there, can be there. And any test that you might be feeling is a pull. He's trying to pull out your faith. He's trying to pull out your trust because he knows that in that testing, that there's going to be a strengthening, that there's going to be a deepening, that there's going to be offenses.

There's going to be being bummed out. Jesus is ignoring me. But he wants to pull out your faith. He wants your faith to be great. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I find myself praying that a lot. Lord, I believe. But I also have some unbelief in there. Can you help me with that? I believe. Help me. It may be small, but your faith is showing. It might be tiny, but your faith is showing. Let it show. Let it grow. Let it glow. Let it flow. I couldn't help myself, guys. Hebrews 11, verses 1 through 3 in the message translation says, the fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see. And this is the life of faith.

We're believing that there's a God who we can't see, doing works deep down that we also can't see, moving and shaking and wanting to use us in a natural yet supernatural way. This is our faith. Let's let our faith rise up in our hearts. Let's let God move, move us, move in us. Let Him move in your life. Let it show in your works. He will do it. The pressure is off of you because it's on Him. And He can handle whatever you're going through. You being here now, your faith is showing. Let it. You showing up in your Fresh Life group, your faith is growing. Let it. You signing up and showing up for an impact team, your faith is glowing. Let it. You sharing your story of what God has done in your life, your faith is flowing. Let it flow. I just want to take a moment. If you feel comfortable, you can close your eyes. This is just a moment. I want to create space for you and the Lord. I believe God is speaking. The Holy Spirit is moving in our midst,

comforting, giving peace, giving strength, giving power, reminding us of His presence. And if you feel comfortable just to reach your hands out in front of you and just breathe in, breathe out. Tell Him what your burden is. Tell Him what you're struggling with. Tell Him the cry of your heart. Maybe there's a friendship that you're dealing with that is just so strained, and it's been such a source of heartache and such a source of struggle. Give it to Him. He is able. He is more than able. Maybe in your marriage, maybe things are going the way you didn't think they would or could, but you believe that God is moving in you, in your midst, in your heart, in your mind. Cling to Him. Trust Him. Lord, would you meet us here? We are your daughters. And if you look at us and see us the way I see my daughters and love them and look at them, it's so much more than that. We just receive your love. We receive your peace. We receive your grace. Just tell Him that you're thankful. Tell Him that you love Him. Tell Him that you need Him. We're going to spend some time. We have one song, and we're going to spend some time in worship. And I think sometimes when God's moving in our hearts and speaking to us and moving in our midst, sometimes it's helpful just to kind of switch positions.

I feel like God's stirring up our faith. God's strengthening our faith. God's getting our faith to stand up and stand tall. And so I just want to ask if there is anyone who you're just feeling that. You're just saying, I want my faith to be great. I want my faith to grow and to glow and to flow and to show. Then I just want to ask you to stand right where you're at. You're just standing and saying, God, I want my faith to be great. And not because I want to be great, but because you are great and greatly to be praised. And you are worth everything, every part of my life lighting up for your glory. I pray for every woman who's standing and just saying, Lord, I want more of you. Lord, let your presence be known to each and every woman. And they look and see you smiling at them, gazing at them adoringly, saying, sweetheart, great is your faith. And I know you struggle and I know you believe and I know there's unbelief. Just keep running to me. Lord, we thank you. We're going to spend some time in worship. And I just want to encourage you, maybe you need to just come forward and kneel or just come forward and stand or move, go into the back of the room where you're at. We do have an incredible impact team of ladies who are ready and willing to pray for you if you need prayer. And I just want to encourage you ladies to lean into that. If someone brought you, a friend brought you. You who is a prayer warrior, lean over and say, would you please pray for me in this? And during this song, it's just going to be a time of just you and God, maybe asking for prayer. The ladies who are our prayer girls, they'll make their hands up, they'll lift them up

and make themselves known. And so you can find them wherever you're at. Also, quickly, before we go into this time of worship and surrender and prayer, I just want to make sure, if there's anyone who maybe has not put their faith in Jesus, I just want to give that opportunity to you tonight. Maybe you came with a friend, they forced you to come, and they said, I promise there's crafts and snacks. But you're feeling like, oh, I think God's calling me. And if that's you, it's the prayer of faith that saves. Literally, the Bible says, you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved. Saved from what? Saved from a lifetime apart from God. Saved from a lifetime without purpose. And knowing that you're known by the God who created you. And so if that's you, would you raise your hand? I just want to pray for you. You're just raising your hand saying, I want to put my faith in Jesus. God bless you. And you can just pray a prayer like this. And it probably feels very awkward, but with your eyes open, you're just saying, girls, all church, pray with me. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and that I'm far from you. But thank you for Jesus bringing me close.

I run to you. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for freedom in Christ. I give you my life in Jesus' name.