A persistent faith (Matthew 15)

Lord Jesus we have reached the moment in the morning where we share your word, Lord I am excited whenever I share this word because it brings life to ours. Praise and prayer is important, it connects us to you. We can worship you through our offerings too, but now is the time where we open our hearts and minds to receive your word. Help us to have a teachable heart that even if it is a word we have heard before we can receive something new from it. Your word is alive and effective and I ask that this life come to ours today. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I would like you to go with me to the Book of Matthew Chapter 15. I am going to try to do this very quickly since I want to make the most of my time. Matthew Chapter 15, verse 21. I understand that this is one of the passages that is very difficult to elaborate on since it has certain confrontations that are very difficult to understand, particularly when it involves a woman. If we read the story then they will realize what I am talking about. I am only going to read verses from 21 to 28, you can continue reading. Matthew 15 from 21 to 28. The word of the Lord says this: "... Jesus left there and went to the region of Tire and Sidon and, behold, a Canaanite woman who had come out of that region cried out to him, "Lord, my son. of David, have mercy on me, my daughter is seriously tormented by a demon”, but Jesus did not answer him a word, then approaching his disciples begged him saying: “send her away because she cries out after us”. He answering them said: "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel", then she came and prostrated herself before Him saying "Lord, help me, help me" answering He said: "It is not good to take bread of the children and throw them to the dogs" and she said "Yes, Lord, but the dogs still eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then responding Jesus said "oh, woman, great is your faith, let it be done with you as you want". And her daughter was healed since then."

You know brothers, for me it has always seemed like a very interesting passage. I have always liked being able to understand the context in which all this is happening. If you look at the beginning of Chapter 15, Jesus was arguing with the Pharisees about eating food with dirty hands. It was a ritual about purity and how eating food without washing my hands could contaminate that food and then contaminate my person. But nevertheless Jesus made them understand that what truly pollutes is not what enters a man but what comes out of his heart. After we have had this conversation about what is clean and unclean we see Jesus moving into a region of unclean people.

Now, for me it is a very interesting contrast because after having said something like that, he goes to a region where he would certainly meet people who did not follow those same rituals and not only that, but he meets a woman who which was also not very acceptable at that time, for a Jew to have a conversation with a woman and more so when she was a gentile woman. But this story has a very interesting story. This gentile woman approached Jesus with a Jewish messianic title, the title Jesus son of David, it is a messianic title and I imagine that at this moment Jesus was already capturing something in this woman's attention because behold, he was sent to the The children of Israel and the children of Israel do not recognize him as the son of God, the son of David and so here we see a woman who was not from the house of Israel, recognizing Jesus as the son of David, as the son of God.

The silence of Jesus can be interpreted in several ways, perhaps one can think that he was completely ignoring her or only his silence was causing this woman to search for more. It is as if while he was walking he was silent but paying attention to what the woman was saying, but the disciples also played a very important role. One can say that perhaps the disciples were bothered by this woman and said: Jesus please get rid of her quickly. Or perhaps one can understand that she is saying to Jesus: Give her what she wants so she can go quickly.

And this is where the controversy of the phrases that Jesus expounds in front of this woman comes in. "I have not been sent except to the children of the house of Israel", and although I recognize as I read this passage that Jesus answered the disciples in this way, the woman could hear it anyway, and this is where the woman prostrates herself before He does not use a messianic title to address Jesus again, but rather she recognizes that she is a sinner and as such is kneeling before Him. It is as if saying “Lord, I have no agendas before you. I know I am a sinner, but I have a need. Help me." And here Jesus then brings this second phrase that shocks one. “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs”

How would you feel if they called you a dog or a dog? For many I know that this can be an insult, one thinks of a little dog and I think of the stray dogs that are all dirty, stinky, eating garbage, but seeing that prompted me to study a little more what Jesus was referring to having said a little dog. And this word dog in its original Greek means as if it were a pet dog, not a street dog. And it is this then that Jesus addresses her calling her as if she were a pet, as if she were a house dog.

I ask how many of you have or have had puppies in your house? Right now I have a chiguagua, it has just turned one year old and it is still very naughty, but we have learned to love it very much. I know that there are people who might say to me, Omar, how are you going to love a dog? But you who have had a dog most likely understand me, one develops a certain type of connection with those puppies sometimes to the point that the puppies mess with one in bed and sleep with one in bed. I know that some of you may not do it but.....

I want you to imagine something, every time my wife and I eat at the table Mailo, that's what my dog is called, Mailo, He comes and always sits next to us on the floor and tries to climb on our laps so that we give him some food, I look at him and tell him no, he has his food there on his plate and there is Sometimes I don't know, he gives me these tender eyes, like he starts to cry a little and I can't hold it, I have to take even a little bit of meat and give it to him. And when I give it to him, the thing is that he asks for more but there are other times than when he receives what little he received and he stops bothering and steps aside. This image that I had with my dog helped me understand this passage, brothers.

When Jesus presented this illustration to this woman, the woman did not back down, the woman became part of that illustration. She said, look, yes, maybe I can look like one of those puppies, but even the puppies with the few crumbs on the table can get something. This woman was not looking to steal all the blessing from the house of Israel, she is looking for even crumbs, small things from such a great blessing and from such a small declaration an enormous faith was born and we know this in how Jesus responded to her. “Great woman is your faith. Because of that your daughter is healthy now.” In the book of Mark, that same story says that at that very hour the girl was healed. Because of that statement a woman of great faith was seen.

Now, brothers, I cannot avoid making a comparison here between this woman and the disciples. First, a woman who had everything against her, traditions, she was a Gentile, a Canaanite or a Syro-Phoenician, Jesus, a Jew with a group of 12 disciples, she had everything against her, she had nothing in her favor. only her faith and yet Jesus categorizes her as a woman of great faith. In the book of Matthew, brothers, there are different occasions in which Jesus tells people who were not Jewish that their faith was great. An example of this was the Roman centurion, he was not a Jew therefore he considered himself a Gentile, his son was sick and he told Jesus: "Jesus, I am not worthy of you going to my house, just say the word and I I know he will be healed” and Jesus also recognized him as a man of great faith and his son was healed from a distance. It is the same case with this woman, a gentile woman who comes to Jesus and tells him: “maybe I am not worthy of you but my daughter needs your help and I need you to do something”. Because of that declaration in the distance, her daughter was healed and she was considered a woman of great faith.

Look how interesting brothers, a Chapter before the one we are reading, we see the story of Peter walking on the water with Jesus. It is important to recognize that if Peter, a disciple, walked on the water with the Master but in the midst of his trial he failed. When he got to the boat once again, Jesus told him: “how small is your faith”. Hey, but how interesting is this! To those that He comes He tells them that they have little or no faith and to those that He did not go directly that they are Gentile people, Jesus finds himself telling them they have great faith or you have a lot of faith.

You know what, brothers, a persistent faith often comes from the places you least expect. Many times the people that one considers to have nothing, are the people who have the most faith. Persistent faith, my brothers, always has its rewards. This is what I can see in the story, the story of this woman. This woman had a persistent faith, she did not let a rejection, a supposed rejection take away her faith, she did not let the disciples' comments extinguish her faith, she was sure who she was addressing and what He could do. She did not let anything take away her focus, she knew that Jesus could do something for her daughter, compared to Peter when he was walking on the water with Jesus in front of him but he turned his eyes to the circumstances around him and he sank. This woman had Jesus in front of her, she had the disciples on one side distracting, rejection comments distracting on the other, traditions also distracting her, but she kept her focus on Jesus. There was nothing and no one to take away that persistence. Tell me this morning if we have something great to learn from this woman, from this story.

One persists until he expects to receive something and many of us have received what we expected and perhaps many of us are still waiting and when what we expect does not happen many times one's faith in the Lord can decline. I can tell you this, this is a very solid statement, by saying that your faith by being persistent will receive a reward, I am putting myself at risk by telling you that. You know why? Because there may be times when what you expect does not happen. The worst that can happen is that death arrives and you don't see what you were expecting.

Many people may think that if death comes, then all hope is gone and there is nothing else to look for. But you know what? The faith that is being talked about here has a deeper point, it is a faith that is well-grounded in the heart of a person, it is a faith that does not have a time limit but is a faith that is going to leave a legacy. complete. If you see the greatness of faith like Abraham, Moses, you know that many of them saw the promised land, in the case of Moses, he saw the promised land from afar but never reached it. Does that mean he didn't have faith? That he wasn't persistent? No, he was persistent, he had faith but his faith did not end in death but left an inheritance for those who came after. Those who came after him were the ones who received all that reward. Moses was not just thinking in some vain way of: oh, faith only for me or a reward for me, Moses knew that his faith was going to leave an inheritance for all who would come after him. So even if he didn't receive what he was expecting, he knew that those who came after him were going to receive it.

This woman we were talking about, she left a legacy of faith. That girl must have been shocked by that miracle of Jesus. The girl is not mentioned in the rest of the passage, but imagine when this mother returned home and saw her daughter healthy. I imagine her daughter asking her: Mom, what happened to me? And her mom telling her everything that happened. The mother may have told her, look, they may have rejected me, but this person that I went to called Jesus, I knew that He could do something for you. I have heard so much about Him around the neighborhood that I had to go to Him and Jesus just by declaring a word there went my beloved daughter, where you were healed. You were healed by Jesus. I imagine that that girl, that daughter, at some point, another wanted to have known Jesus. Perhaps you will be able to say that I am making this story up but there are times when it is good to be creative. Imagine one of the times that Jesus was walking through the different neighborhoods where he was and that this girl suddenly sees him go by and her mother tells her: look, daughter, that is Jesus who healed you. That mother left an inheritance in the life of that daughter. Your persistent faith will not only benefit your personal lives but it must, brothers, leave a legacy for those who come after you. Faith is not something selfish, faith is something that is shared, if you have faith, if you have to have it in your personal life, but you have to ensure that this faith leaves a legacy for those who come after you. Because? Because there will be requests that you are going to receive but you have to think that those same blessings you will not receive some of them but those who come after you will receive them.

I want to finish by telling you something. Many of you know that we have been visiting the Shriners Hospital here in Boston, Sister Marta Garzón and I visit the hospital regularly to visit these children and their families and this week one of the children that I was visiting, a boy from 3 years old, a little boy from Honduras came here with his mother only in an accident that had his body totally burned and because of all his burns in his blood he developed a bacterium that is affecting his internal organs. Already on Wednesday morning they did not assure him because he had a first cardiac arrest, on Thursday night he had a second and this morning they called me to let me know that the child had already died.

I start to think, Lord, there were so many times that both sister Marta and I sat down to pray with the mother of this child, she is a woman who has beliefs in the Lord Jesus, back in Honduras she was going to a church but was away for some time and having connected with us in this situation, she decided to renew her relationship with the Lord. I remember that yesterday they called me for an emergency because the child was not insured yesterday, and I went to the hospital, they gave us permission to enter with the mother and that the mother could hold the child's hand because the child is in an incubator that is not you can touch. As she grabbed her son's hand she began to cry. The most I could do was offer a little prayer at that moment, certainly asking the Lord to do his will in the midst of all of this.

When I heard that the child died this morning, I think one always gets that feeling of: Lord, why couldn't you perform a miracle and heal this child? We had a persistent faith when I prayed, I knew, I thought that you could do a miracle in that child, why didn't you? who am I to question God? While I was coming here in the car I understood in my spirit that the Lord told me: you asked me to do my will and I did it. I took a life but another life was reconciled with me. And that reconciliation will bless the rest of the family. Brothers in our persistent faith, there may be things that we will not see, but there will be others that will happen, there will be other things that we will be able to see. You will be asking for a miracle of life and maybe the life where you expect it does not happen, but in another place life will come out. Only if your faith remains persistent in the Lord, that is where God will give you all the reward that you expect not only for yourself but also for those you love the most.

Brothers, I understand that this morning this passage challenges us to be persistent in our faith, that if there is something that you are looking for, fight, fight and fight until you reach it, do not let anything take away your focus until you reach it. what you are looking for, neither rejection, nor perhaps comments or perhaps traditions, focus on the one who can do everything in your life, focus on the fact that if it happens in your time or in the time of those who come after you, the reward it will arrive Where are we going to be? What will our perspective be? I hope we persist brothers, no matter what. that we persist And the reward will come to you or yours. The reward will come. We will stand, we will pray.

Brothers, I don't know the situation with which you arrived here this morning, but I am sure of something and that is that the Lord does know. Jesus knew what the situation of this woman was, the questions and comments that Jesus made had a purpose and it was for this woman's faith to grow to its maximum potential. In your life, my brothers, it may seem that Jesus is often silent, it may seem that he is not even paying attention to you but He knows what He is doing, He wants your faith to grow. Today we have a challenge for our faith to grow, brothers. I want to take some time to pray. For those who need their faith to grow or even for faith to begin for the first time, accepting the Lord Jesus into your heart. I want to open an opportunity to do that today. If there is someone who wants to say to the Lord Jesus this morning: Lord, I want you to come into my life, I have experienced rejection, I need you, I come to you, help me.

If you want to be one of those people who wants to make that decision today I invite you to raise your hand for us to pray for you. God bless you sister. If you want to accept the Lord Jesus today, this morning for the first time as your Lord and your savior, as the one who is the author of your faith, feel free to raise your hand for us to pray and if you don't mind, my Brothers, I would like you to come forward to pray. Thank you Jesus, thank God. If someone can accompany her here too, thank God.

Lord Jesus we come before your presence, God as one church, as one body, presented to this woman who comes before you today. You know their hearts better than anyone else, you know the deepest chord in their heart, you know the things they wrestle with, and you have the answer to every one of those things. The answer is you. Jesus covers the hearts of each one of these people today, forgive their sins, wash them away with your blood, purify them with your holy spirit and give them a new start today. Like this woman who had an encounter with you and her life changed, her daughter's life changed, so I ask that the lives of my brothers and sisters change today by having an encounter with you. Take them in your hand Lord, declare a word of blessing on them and may their faith, my God, receive the reward they expect. We thank you God. Their lives are in your hands. Amen.