Services | Feeding on Crumbs

Bulletin

Hymn # 352 “I Am Thine, O Lord”

SCRIPTURE READING – James 4:7 & 8
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“Raise a Hallelujah”
“Your Promises”
“Behold the Lamb”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Feeding on Crumbs”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Who You Say I Am”


Sermon Notes
Mark 7:24 Jesus wanted to be alone
Mark 7:25 & 26 A gentile woman keeps asking Jesus to cast out a demon from her daughter
Mark 7:27 Jesus tells her “the children” (the Jews) must be satisfied first and not throw it to the dogs
Mark 7:28 The woman responds that the “dogs eat the crumbs from the table
Mark 7:29 & 30 Jesus tells her “because of her response her daughter’s demon possession is gone, and she sees it so

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

The last time you prayed and God said no, or perhaps didn't even answer at all, what was your response? Did it affect your faith? You became a little more cynical, or perhaps even angry at God.

We're going to see a mother who's going to make a request of Jesus, and his response to her and her no is quite abrupt, and even, you could say, rude.

We're going to see the mother's response to Jesus' negative answer, and perhaps
(Music)
sermon not be a long one.

I may not meet my intentions, but that's the point. A lot of times, something that is important doesn't need to be spent a lot of time explaining. So for instance, I could simply say God loves you, and we can spend the rest of our lives contemplating that fact.

Today, I think there's something very important for us to see in this teaching.

And so if you have your Bibles and you should,

it's the wrong scripture.

It's Matthew and it's not supposed to be Mark.

If you have your Bibles and you should, turn to the Gospel of Mark and it should be Chapter 7, verse 24.

Now, before I read it, we'll talk about the setting. Basically, Jesus has been ministering, healing the sick,

casting out demons, teaching, doing many, many things. And then He sent us His disciples and they did the same ministry, preaching, healing, casting out demons. And their reputation spread throughout and people from all over were coming to see them and they had very little time

to spend together so that Jesus could teach them, because His time with them is going to be limited. And so it's necessary for Him to teach them. And so Jesus is going to do kind of what churches, and I think some churches still do, go on retreats and they go away somewhere, usually up in the mountains or someplace, to get away. And people usually enjoy that because there's this spiritual high because all you're doing is worshipping God and learning and whatever, and you're away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd. The problem with retreats is you come back down the mountains and pretty soon it kind of wears off. And so Jesus is looking for a way to get His disciples alone so that He can teach them. And so He's going to go to where the fame is less important. So He's going to go to the Gentile territory. So it says in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 7, verse 24, it says this, "And Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tear. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it, yet He could not escape notice." So His intention was to go privately to this house, not make a spectacle, not declare it, so that He can spend time with the disciples. But that's not what happens.

Now, I can somewhat understand this, not in the same spiritual way, but there was one time that I was planning on me and my little family to do what we call now a staycation.

I did this before I ever heard the term staycation. And staycation, for those of you who may not know, is you take off from work and whatever, but you don't go anywhere. You just kind of stay at home. And so that first Sunday of my "staycation," I got a call from the pastor asking me to come over to his house right away. And when I got there, there were police.

And they arrested him.

So they took him off to the jail, and then I went and made some calls to the officer in charge and got him OR, that means release on his own recognizance. Then at 11 o'clock at night, I and the associate pastor, minister of music and youth, went and picked him up from jail. And as we were coming back to take him home, he goes, "Would you please go to the chairman of Deacons because if he is willing to support me, then I won't lose my position as the pastor."

So that's OK. And we were going to try to keep it quiet. And so after dropping him off, I drive to the chairman of Deacon's home. And as I pull up to park on the news, it says, "A pistol packing preacher." So I go, "Well, so much for keeping it quiet." And after talking to the chairman of Deacon's, he said he would continue supporting the pastor and whatever.

Then that Monday, my next door daver got in a fight with his next door daver.

And he was asking me all kinds of legal questions and whatever. So finally I said, I had it. So I went to my wife and I go, "We're not sick. We got to do something." So I had heard of this place called Lake Dolores.

And I had at that time a little son and my wife was pregnant. And so we went off, drove out to Lake Dolores so that he could have some fun and we could get away. And this was before cell phones because nobody could then reach me and have a pager. And so when we get out there, we drive all the way to Lake Dolores, drive in, and the water is green with algae.

So I go, "Oh, we ain't staying here." So for those who are aware, so we go back to Barstow where there is a McDonald's that has a train where you eat in the cars. And so we stop at McDonald's and eat lunch. And I look at my wife and I go, "We're not going home."

So we went to Kmart, bought toothpaste, toothbrushes, and a few other things. We checked into a Holiday Inn in Barstow.

Now my wife was pregnant and it was hot. So she stayed in the room that was air conditioned and did what she likes to do, read. And I took the son out to the pool and we had a good time. And so my staycation ended up being a vacation in Barstow.

Sometimes it's not where you are, it's just you're not there. And so Jesus is kind of looking to say, "I need to get my disciples away

so that we can teach and we can do what's necessary to do and not have to be surrounded by crowds and interrupted and doing all these things." And so the problem is...

Let's go back.

Somehow I'm...

We're not doing good.

It's going back to Matthew.

I don't want Matthew. There we go, Mark.

Okay.

So this is, "But after hearing of him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at his feet." So even though it's supposed to be quiet, this lady knows where Jesus is, what house he's in, and she comes and she interrupts him and she falls down at his feet, basically making a request.

Now the woman was a seraphidnesian race, a Gentile, and she kept asking him to cast out the demon out of her daughter. So this woman had a request, and quite frankly, she didn't care what Jesus' plans were.

She had an immediate need. Her daughter was demon-possessed and she wanted it cast out.

Now in the next verse, we're going to kind of give you... We're never told quite the setting, but it appears by what Jesus says that the disciples and Jesus were probably sitting around a table eating and him trying to teach, and she's coming in and it doesn't say, "Hey, I got a request," and ask at one time. She keeps repeating the request.

"Lord, help me, Lord, help me." Now, the bigger your need is felt, the more you keep asking, "All you got to do?" And it doesn't have to be important in the sense of a child. What does a child do? Goes to his parents or her parents and say, "I want the latest whatever," and then they try to use the magic word, "please." They don't say, "It's please, please, please, please, please." They think the more times they say, "Please," the more likely you're to give it to them. And so she's repeating this request over and over and over because it's important to her. And sometimes we can kind of judge how something is important to us. So for instance, if you come to a prayer meeting and we list somebody's name and we pray at one time and then we go home and then the next week it's on the prayer list, we pray for it again, it really is not that important to us.

Now, if we're the one who, let's say, is sick, diagnosed with the potential of cancer, we're probably hourly asking God to take the disease from us because it's devastating to us. And so she has this name and so she's repeatedly asking God to intervene.

And he was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first,

for it's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

Now, that's kind of a rude statement.

He's saying there's a priority. And that's why I'm saying it appears to me that the setting is, they're sitting on a table, they're teaching and they're eating and Jesus is saying, "This is my priority, these disciples, the children of God, the children of Abraham. And it's not permitting for me to take the food from them and give it to somebody else." And not only does it say it kind of harshly, but it says to throw it to the dogs.

Now, some of the commentators try to lessen this thing. Well, they kind of talk like puppies.

If you call me a puppy, I'm still not thrilled about it.

Okay. It's a demeaning statement. She's, if you will, the way this statement is, is almost subhuman. She's not a child of God. She's a dog. Now you would think most of us will, "Oh, I'm highly insulted. How dare he call me that and storm off? How dare he say that to me? Don't he know who I am?"

Because we all kind of sometimes had this sense of entitlement.

God is supposed to answer our request. Why? Because he loves me.

And because he loves me, he's supposed to do everything for me. In essence, because he loves me, I'm now God and he's my servant because I tell him what to do and he does it. And Jesus doesn't say, "I'm not buying that game." It's not right. It's to the Jew first and then the Greek. That's always been the priority initially. And then when the Jews rejected him and Paul's teaching and whatever, then it was turned over to the Gentiles, but it was always been to the Jew first and then to the... And Jesus is basically saying this, but he's not saying it in a nice way. He's saying, "This is not the right thing to do." But instead of storming off,

instead of being insulted, her love for her daughter was more than her personal pride.

But she answered and said to him, "Yes, Lord." So she's agreeing with him. "Yes, Lord, I'm a dog.

Yes, Lord, I acknowledge what you're saying, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs." She's saying, "There are times that kids are sloppy eaters. And if you've had a child,

when they are toddlers and you put them in a high chair, most people put stuff under the high chair because food is going to fall off their little table and go on the floor.

And so instead of having to clean up the whole floor, we put this thing so we can pick the thing up and dust it outside or put it in the wash. But we're aware that children are messy eaters. And if they're not messy eaters, sometimes it's for instance, we never had a... When I was growing up, we never had a dog inside. But if I didn't like something, that'd be great to have a dog inside. I just nicked the dog for food. I cleaned my plate. I didn't have to eat the broccoli. The dog did.

However, I suspect the dog wouldn't eat broccoli, but who knows. But so sometimes kids are just messy eaters and sometimes they just intentionally get the stuff off their plate because they don't want to eat it. But she goes, "Yes, Lord, even the dogs, even if they're puppies under the table, get the scraps that fall off the table unintentionally or intentionally."

Her response is exceptionally humble. This is what I want us to catch before I finish Jesus' response. The scripture says, "The Lord hates the proud, but gives greater grace to the humble."

And sometimes in our prayer lives, maybe instead of saying, "God, why didn't you answer? Didn't you know it was important? What is it? Maybe Lord, I understand that I'm not worthy, but can you answer anyway? Can you deal in my life anyway? Yeah, I'm not like the great spiritual giants in our times, but can you answer anyway? I'm not worthy to even hear my request,

but I'm offering it anyway because I am a humble servant, lowly and me."

We are so assuming of our importance as a child of God that sometimes we forget to be humble, that we're not God, He is, and that when we make a request of Him,

it is His determination of answering that. Maybe His priority is something else. Maybe His priority is that we learn something from that activity, and maybe the reason is no, is because it's better for us, or maybe it's no because it's not yet. But instead of being offended by it, or critical of it, or angry at God, "Well, I asked God for it, so there's no God." What hubris, that this woman,

a Gentile, told that she was a dog. Because I agree, Lord, that even dogs get scraps.

"The Lord, I may not understand what you're teaching your twelve disciples,

but can you give me a crown?" And He said to her, "Because of this answer,

go." He didn't say because of your thing. He didn't say because you kept bugging me, and I need to get rid of you. He said because you came and your response was humble. Because of your answer, go. The demon has gone out of your daughter. He didn't go to her house. He didn't ask where she lived. He said, "Your request has been met not because of your faith, but because of your attitude of humility." And maybe, just maybe, God is waiting for to answer our requests, not to change our lives, but that we might go to Him humbly,

to be humble rather than demanding. And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon having left.

He granted her... Now, her response was, in essence, belief and faith, because she could have kept saying, "Well, no, no, you need to come to my house. You need to lay hands. You need to do what I've seen you do or heard about you doing." She goes, "No, because of your answer, she left and found Jesus having answered her request, not doing anything special, doing it from a distance."

Again, he went out from the region of Tear and came through Sidon and to the Sea of Galilee within the region of the capitalist. Basically, Jesus is now going out and about in the Gentile areas because He's trying to escape the pressures of the... Not the pressure on Him, but the pressures of the crowds pressing Him and intervening with His being able to meet and teach the disciples because there's only a limited amount of time that He'll have with them and they will have an immense responsibility. If I were to tell you, after a certain period of time,

you're going to be responsible for some big, gigantic

event, ministry, corporation, whatever it might be.

You go, "Well, wait a minute. I have no experience of being a CEO of a massive organization. I haven't even gone to college for that."

Jesus picked a bunch of fishermen and tax collectors and various people and said, "You are going to be responsible for continuing my ministry to the world."

If that was you and me, I'm pretty sure we would say, "We need to spend as much time with Jesus getting as much information as we can to be able to do this next thing, this next ministry."

Jesus is trying to give them that time.

Getting alone with God can have greater impact on your abilities than some of the greatest Ivy League schools that we have. You can gain more wisdom and insight by spending time with God and having the attitude of this woman, not of, "Well, I know it all," or "I'm super spiritual," or at least, "I'm more spiritual than the person sitting next to me." No. God, I'm an unworthy servant. I've only done what you've told me to do.

I'm nothing special. Matter of fact, not only am I not something special, I'm something unspecial, and yet you called me anyway, and yet you answered my request. And yet, as we talked earlier and saw in the Scriptures, that God wants us to draw near to Him

so that He might draw near to us.

This woman, this Gentile,

had greater awareness than the religious leaders of Pharisees and the scribes who thought they knew it all, and their word was gospel, as opposed to this woman who said, "Yeah, I'm exactly what you said." And we see this somewhat in our world today, because the Scripture says that we are sinners. But in most of our Christian songs, you won't hear the word "sinner." We'll talk about how we make mistakes. Multiplying three times three and getting 15 is a mistake.

Lying, cheating, stealing, gossiping, not responding in faith is a sin.

We are sinners saved by grace.

God called me not because I'm special, but because He is. And maybe we should draw near to Him in an attitude of humbleness, knowing not only does He hate pride, He gives greater grace to the humble. I don't want fairness. I want grace. I want mercy. I want forgiveness. So I would rather be humble and get that and think that I'm the best thing that ever happened, that the reality is I'm not, nor are you, but He loves you anyway. So the next time we pray, maybe we should come with a heart of humility and a response in gladness and thankfulness, because we are exactly who He said we are. Thankfully, He has changed us from sinners, dogs, to the children of God. Not because that's how we started out, because that is how He's making us and