Sermon Series: Getting to Know Jesus 

What Gets God Excited? 

Mark 7:24-30 

PSBC-4/28/02

In a nutshell: The Canaanite woman who lived near the city of Tyre, can teach us a great deal about how to approach God. She shows that we must approach Him in faith-faith that comes from real need, faith that is acted upon, faith that is humble, and faith that has hope. If we have faith like that, then we will begin to experience the mighty work of God's grace in our lives.

I. Introduction

A. This lady wasn't excited

There was an article that appeared in the Arkansas Democrat newspaper a few years ago, that a friend of mine sent me. It's a first hand account of how a man tried to add a little excitement to his girl friend's life on her birthday:

"Woman are very touchy about certain gifts, as I discovered a few years ago after buying my girlfriend a catcher's mitt for her birthday. It seemed to me to be a particularly thoughtful gift, especially since she claimed not to be getting enough physical exercise. But apparently she didn't see it that way. The minute she unwrapped it, she ran sobbing from the room.

"At first, I thought those were tears of joy streaming down her face. I figured she was overwhelmed at being the first in her crowd to have a catcher's mitt, or anything like it. Or I figured she was so excited she couldn't wait to get outside and work on her throws to second base. But when she didn't return after a few hours I got the hint.

"Here I'd spent all that time running around from one sporting goods store to the next trying to find the perfect gift. I mean, we're talking the Johnny Bench model here; top of the line. And she calls me insensitive. I mean, you'd think I gave her a year's subscription to Field and Stream or a box of shot gun shells, which everybody knows should be saved for Christmas stocking stuffers. Personally, I think she just had a lot of anger in her and took it out on me. Not that I'm trying to play amateur psychologist or anything."

There's a guy who doesn't have a clue about what excites a woman!

B. Transition

Well, it's a fact that certain things get our juices flowing. Certain things get us excited. And because we're all wired differently-different things excite different people. For me it's motorcycles, for Chuck Esch it's tennis, for Shirley Farrell it's sewing, for my wife Diane it's computers, for Jori it's anything having to do with Sleeping Beauty, for Pastor Greg it's boating and riding the sand dunes at Glamis. For some of you it's grandkids, or traveling, or your family, or your antique car, or the toys of technology. We all have something that gets us excited.

But have you ever stopped to think…, what gets God excited? We're going to find out this morning. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Mark 7. And today we'll be looking at verses 24-30.

II. The Faith of the Canaanite Woman

While you're finding that passage in your Bibles, I'll tell you right up front, what it is that excites God. It's faith! God gets really excited by the faith we demonstrate as we face the daily trials, circumstances and "stuff" of life.

And in today's portion of Scripture, we're going to be introduced to a woman, whose name we don't know, whose life history we know nothing about, who is not a person of Jewish decent, and about whom we will never read again. Yet her faith excited the Lord, Jesus and got His divine juices flowing.

So, this morning, I want to look closely at her faith, and see what it is about her faith that is so exciting to God.

Mark 7:24-26 24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

A. Real Faith Comes from Real Need

Jesus had just come to the area near the coastal city of Tyre. Tyre was in the province of Phoenicia, several miles northwest of the Sea of Galilee, right on the Mediterranean Sea. This was a Gentile area of Palestine, and the people there were descendants of the Canaanites, who had occupied Palestine after Abraham left and went to Egypt, and whom Joshua drove out, when Israel returned.

The people of this area were looked at with disdain by the religious Jews. Last week we saw Jesus confront the hypocrisy of these Jewish religious leaders, and the vanity of their traditions. If you'll remember, these Jews were very concerned about ceremonial uncleanness. But they were hypocrites, because at the same time, they blew off the portions of God's Law that they didn't like and made new laws to circumvent the old ones. To these religious Jews, the people of this Gentile region of Tyre and Phoenicia were considered unclean and were referred to as dogs.

Yet, despite the prevailing opinion of Gentiles, by the Jews, this Gentile woman came to Jesus with a problem. Her daughter was sick-in fact, demon possessed. And she wanted Jesus to heal her daughter. She had faith that He could cast the demon out.

The first thing I want you to see about this woman's faith was that it was a faith that came from a real need.

Because her daughter was so sick and in such need, this mom risked rejection, humiliation and disdain in order to come to this Jewish rabbi, whom she believed to be her only hope.

Folks, that's a good place to be-to be in circumstances where your only hope is Jesus. God uses those times of real need to draw us close to Himself.

It's normally true that when things are going well in our lives, when there is no apparent need, we tend to become rather self-sufficient. It's as if we have all things under control and don't need any help from anyone. But that's not true. The fact is, this self sufficient spirit can actually hinder our relationship with God. Sometimes it takes a real need to come on the scene in order to turn our attention back to the Lord. And I think that's one of the reasons the Lord sends some difficulties our way…, to draw us back to Him.

So, real faith comes from real need. In fact, if you don't have a need, you don't need faith.

B. Faith results in Action

The second thing I want you to see about this woman's faith is that it resulted in action.

When she heard Jesus was in town, she came to Him. In other words, she acted on her faith in Jesus. She came and fell down at His feet and asked Him to intervene on behalf of her daughter and cast the demon out.

Now, the Greek word "begged" in verse 26 is in the grammatical tense that means continuous action. In other words, she didn't ask just once. No, she kept on asking. In fact, she made a pest of herself as she pleaded with the Lord to heal her daughter. She was passionate about her request. She didn't let up. She was continually making her request to Jesus.

In Matthew's account of this same situation, he records that this woman's persistence was starting to grate on the disciples…

Matthew 15:23b 23b So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

Friends, this woman was involved in doing something about her faith. And frankly, the only kind of faith that is real is faith that results in action. James tells us…

James 2:26 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Illustration: Last year about this time it became evident that unless God intervened, we were going to be $35,000 in the hole with our church budget. I have to admit, I had grown complacent in my faith in God regarding our church finances. Our mortgage was paid off; during my time here we always seemed to have enough to pay our bills; we had a line of credit to be able to borrow on during lean times and pay it back when the season came. But last year, we had used up all the human resources and it was looking hopeless. It drove me and many of us to action like we'd never acted before. It drove us to our knees, asking God to intervene. Help wasn't coming from our own resources. We needed God. And God intervened.

But friends, that experience drove home the point to me that I can never grow complacent again when it comes to God's work. I now pray everyday, regardless of how much or how little our offerings are, "Lord, please supply everything you think we need to be a FORCE for you in this Valley and around the world." My faith now is much simpler. If God doesn't provide, we will fail. That's my faith, now. And I know many of you have left the comfort of self-sufficiency and are praying for our church like you've never prayed before. That's good. Our need led to action. But it has to be an ongoing action. Never stopping and never letting up.

You see, real faith is always coupled with action.

C. Humility

Another characteristic of this woman's faith was that it was humble. This woman didn't come to Jesus in arrogance. She knew exactly who she was and what the Jews thought of her. And even though she was loud and obnoxious, she was still humble.

Humility isn't in the volume of your voice or the persistence of your request. It's in the attitude of your heart. Let me show you a couple of things that show this woman's humility…

1. First, she took the position of a worshipper. In effect, she prayed for her daughter when she continually begged Jesus. Verse 25 tells us that she fell at His feet. She laid down before Jesus in an act of humility.

Let me ask you, when was the last time you laid face down in your prayer time, before God. That is a true position of humility. Have you ever done that? I'd encourage you to try (some of you may want to have someone near you to help you back up!) I first did it when I attended a Pastor's Prayer Summit. It's humbling to get down on the discomfort of a hard floor and talk to God. But that physical act puts things in a very true perspective-God is God and we are creation. We come into the presence of a King, when we pray.

2. The second thing she did that showed her humility is in the way she answered Jesus when he talked to her…

Mark 7:27-28 27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." 28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

In responding to her this way, Jesus was saying that He had come for the sake of Israel-God's chosen people. They were the "children" He was referring to. He was reminding her that they needed to be fed with His attention first. To do anything else would be like throwing all the good food from a dinner to the dogs, before the family ate.

Now, Jesus isn't putting this woman down by calling her a dog. In the Greek language, there are two terms for dogs. One term means the mangy, scavenger dogs that roamed the streets and deserts of Palestine. Nobody liked these dogs. They were a nuisance and a danger. When Jews spoke of Gentiles, this would be the word for "dog" that they would use. And Gentiles understood this meant a term of disdain.

But there was another word that was used for dog that meant "the family pet". These were the dogs that children played with and that would be part of a family. And that's the word Jesus uses here in verses 27 and 28.

When Jesus gave His explanation, the woman wasn't offended. And in her reply to Jesus we see a second instance of humility. Her response was, "Yes". In other words, she accepted Jesus' characterization of her without bitterness or consternation.

You see, Jesus' message was clear-Israel had to come first, and the Gentiles after that. And she wasn't put off by this. That's humility! Whatever place Jesus would assign to her-under the table or at the table-that would be her place and she would accept it. She didn't try to push Him to do her will, she accepted His.

Let me ask you, do you show the same kind of humility in your prayers? When you ask for something and God says, "No", or "Wait", or "I have something better." Do you get all bent out of shape and say things like, "God isn't answering my prayers." Or "God isn't listening to me", or "Why God, is this happening to me?" …as if you have a right to arrogantly question the King and Creator of the Universe. Humility says, "Yes, God, I accept your estimation of my situation and I accept your answer." It's that attitude of faith that pleases God.

D. Faith has hope

The fourth thing I want you to see about this woman's faith is that her faith had hope. You see, in her humility, the woman accepted Jesus estimation of her-she was a puppy under the table, not one of the children sitting at the table. But she took the reality of her situation and saw hope in it. She said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

In other words, she recognized that the food had to go to the children first. But she also recognized that even the children tossed a few crumbs to their favorite pet under the table.

Illustration: I've done this with Bentley our Old English Sheepdog. Over the years, whenever I've had cereal for breakfast, I give Bentley the last portions of milk cereal at the bottom of the bowl. Over the 10 years we've had him, he's become conditioned that when he hears my spoon hitting the bottom of the bowl-no matter where he is in the house, or what he's doing-he comes running and sits at my side. Because he knows I'm going to set the bowl down so he can have the leftover cereal and milk.

This woman wasn't asking for much-just a small touch from Jesus to heal her daughter. So she came and made her case…, humbly, but effectively. She turned her reality into an opportunity. She refused to be defeated by what appeared to be a closed door. Because it really wasn't a closed door at all. It was a door of opportunity that had to be opened, and that she could walk through. It was a door of hope.

Jesus is the One who gave her this hope when He said that the children must be fed first. What He was implying was that after them, others would be fed. Afterall, where there's a first, there is a second. And by faith, she saw an opening of hope, and by faith she grabbed ahold of that hope. And this is what caught Jesus' attention. This is what got Him excited. It's not clear in this account, but in Matthew's account of this story, we see Jesus' excitement when this woman showed this exemplary faith…

Matthew 15:28a 28a Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith!

Do you see that little punctuation mark at the end of that sentence? That's an exclamation point. The translators are trying to convey to us the excitement that's in the original Greek rendering of this sentence. It's like Jesus is saying, "Wow!!! What great faith!!! How exciting! The God business doesn't get any better than this! Someone's finally getting it!"

III. Faith is so Grace Can Be Shown

A. Faith brings grace

Friends, when that woman showed her great faith in Jesus, it freed Jesus up to give something to her. He was able to give her His grace. Grace means undeserved favor. Even though we don't deserve it, God can answer our needs through His grace. And make our situations better than before. Look at the last two verses…

Mark 7:29-30 29 Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter." 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Can you imagine the excitement in that home?! Can you imagine the new, fulfilling and exciting relationship that mother and her daughter had from this point on? From this day forward, for the rest of their days, their lives together would take on a new dimension. Their appreciation for life and the depth of their relationship would be much different than it ever was before! It would be fuller, more special, more abundant.

That's a by-product of God's grace-He makes things better than they were before.

B. God Has a Purpose in His Grace

But another by-product of God's grace has to do with His redemptive plan.

He came to offer His grace to His chosen people, Israel, first. But as I've stated already, after a first there comes a second. He wasn't going to forget the Gentiles.

We're reading a lot about Israel in the news today. As believers we should be informed, interested and praying about that situation. Not praying that Israel wins, but praying that the circumstances they are going through will move them toward God and His Messiah.

God's first desire is to reach; and heal; and forgive; and redeem Israel. He wants them to repent and turn from their sins, so He can redeem them from Hell. He wants the relationship between He and His chosen people to be mended. He wants them to live abundantly and victoriously-both on this earth and with Him in heaven.

But, at the same time, His second desire is to reach; and heal; and forgive; and redeem us Gentiles.

When you live by faith, God's grace starts to work in the circumstances of your life. That means that no matter what you experience, God's grace will be there to draw you closer to Him, and let you experience His love for you more. If you submit to His purpose and cooperate with His leading, that relationship will be extraordinary! Because God's grace isn't just to get you into heaven at the end of your life, but to give you abundance in living while you remain on the earth.

IV. Conclusion

The Canaanite woman in our story this morning, teaches us a great deal about handling our circumstances. And it can be summed up in one word-faith… …faith that comes from a real need, …faith that is acted upon, …faith that is humble, …and faith that has hope.

Friends, if we have faith like that, then we will begin to experience the mighty work of God's grace in our lives. Because God gets excited about our faith. And out of His excitement He demonstrates grace. And God's grace is sufficient for all your and my needs.

So, let me ask you, "How's your faith?" Is it something that you get excited about? …I mean as excited as you get about the things you collect, or your activities, or your hobby, or your possessions, or your family? You see, your answer to that question is of vital importance.

On the front of your WIG this morning I put a quote from an author by the name of John F. Kavanaugh. He tells us how important our faith is for the future…

If our faith is something that really does not make a very big difference, if it is actually not crucial that we or others believe, no wonder it seems boring to some of our young. Anything we don't care much about can't be very interesting.

The things we do care about, however, we inevitably talk about. ...

If faith is real, it seeks expression. It will communicate and profess. It will have the energy of passion. (John F. Kavanaugh in The Word Encountered. Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 12.)

Faith excites God. And in His excitement, He shows us grace. Are you excited about that? If you are, let your face know it, and let your life live it!

There is no greater faith than the faith you place in God for your eternal destiny. Since you are a sinner, and the wages of sin is death, then how do you save yourself from that eternal death-Hell? God provided a way-He gave a sacrifice…His Son, Jesus, who took the punishment for our sins on Himself, when He died on the cross. Three days later, He rose from the dead and showed that death had no hold on Him. He proved He was God. Therefore he is able to cause a transaction to take place. He will exchange His righteousness for your sinfulness. And you accept that transaction by asking Him to be the forgiver of your sins, and commit to follow Him as the leader of your life. 

Amen.