Good morning. Would you open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. As we cry out to our Lord to speak to us today. Matthew chapter 15.

And I'd like to take for a text, verses 21 through 28. I'd like to speak to you from the subject, the blessings of perseverance. The blessings of perseverance. Matthew chapter 15, reading verses 21 through 28, and the word of the Lord says then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyr and Sidon and behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him saying have mercy on me O Lord thou son of David my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil but he answered her not a word and his disciples came and besought him saying send her away for she cries after us but he answered and said I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came, she and worship him saying, Lord, Help me.

But he answered and said, Is it not neat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs? And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Hallelujah. The blessings of perseverance. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, in so many ways, we're just like this sister who came to you, begging and pleading, desperate need of you. Lord, as we consider all that we've learned over the last couple of days, all that you have seen fit to teach us.

It has encouraged us, but it is also helped us to be aware of our frame that we are needy and desperate and that your word for us is high and lofty and beyond us and without thy spirit without thy help lord we are lost and hopeless but with you all things are possible and so I pray lord that you would help those of us in this room today to persevere in the things of God, to not quit. I pray, Father, for those hands that are hanging loose, those feeble knees, those heads that are hanging down, those who are overwhelmed by it all. I pray for those who are leaving this conference or returning to situations that might not be so pleasant. I pray for all of those who put their conference faces on and now have to return to reality that you encourage them today, that they would persevere in thy word knowing that as your servant Scott said All of your ways all of your ways are pleasant and all of your paths are peace Thank you lord Speak now to your people will be so grateful and will be so careful to give you and you alone all of the honor, all of the glory, and all of the praise.

In Jesus' name we pray. And all of God's people say it. Amen. Now in our text this morning, we will explore the faith and the perseverance of a woman from Canaan, or as the scriptures say, a Canaanite woman, another place it calls her a Syrophoenician woman. This particular woman sought help from the Lord for her daughter, who, as we read, was having some real difficulties, some real issues, in fact, was possessed by a devil.

Despite her background coming from where she came from, despite her gender. In this day, women were most certainly second class citizens in many ways, and despite even the angst of the disciples, we read that she was determined to see her daughter healed. We will look at our Lord's response and prayerfully learn from that response as we walk through the text and hopefully there'll be a few takeaways from this time that you can apply to your own life as we depart today back into our spheres of influence, hopefully with a renewed determination. Now I would like to make a distinguishment between what I'm referring to today, perseverance and the Christian doctrine of the perseverance of the saints wherein God saves his people and keeps them by his own power. John 10 verses 27 through 30 declare, "'My sheep hear my voice and I know them "'and they follow me and I will give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Aren't you glad that you're not saved by your own effort, but you're saved by the efforts of Christ. You know, I'm just, I'm really happy that I didn't save myself, and I'm certainly happy that I'm not keeping myself, but as believers, we are not kept by our own power, but we are kept by the power of God. Hallelujah, I love that doctrine.

It greatly encourages me, particularly in those days where I'm not running on all cylinders. And so I'm grateful to the Lord for being a covenant, as we've heard this week, a covenant-keeping God. But today, we're looking at something different. Today, we're looking at practical perseverance. If we pulled out our thesaurus this morning, other words might be appropriate.

Determination, endurance, persistence, steadfastness, tenacity might be a word that we could use. We're looking at that aspect of our faith this morning with hopefully the goal of encouraging you in that very faith. Persistence, according to the Webster 1828 dictionary, in anything undertaken is a continued pursuit or a prosecution of any business or enterprise that has begun. In other words, perseverance is this ability or this character trait or this grit to simply not quit, to simply refuse by the power of God to not give up. Now we're not preaching some sort of, well you just kind of gutted out and so forth.

I mean that's not really what I'm saying. What we're actually saying is we need God's power, but in this text, we see a remarkable example of someone who refused to take no for an answer. We also read of her humility and of, and she is commended by our Lord for having great faith. I believe beloved that now more than ever God's people must persist in holiness. We must persist in godliness and not so quickly be so inclined to throw in the towel when things get difficult.

I don't know if you know this or not, but we're living in 2021 and 2021 is a strange place. We live in times where people don't know what gender they are. We live in days where good is called evil and evil is called good. We live in times where celebrations are thrown for the most outright perversity that you can imagine, but you might get picket or locked down or canceled for anything that looks righteous. We live in days where precious things must continue to be persevered for, but they'll be oppressing in order to do that.

We live in days where you and I have been taught and we're the recipient of such sweet things from our God, but those sweet things to hold on to them will require strength. We live in times where we have been given worthy things by our Lord, but those worthy things will set us at war with the devil. We live in the time of a great falling away. I don't know if it's the great falling away, but it certainly is hard to imagine it being worse than it actually is. And so you and I are going to need to persist.

We're going to need to hold on regardless of what it looks like. We're gonna need to be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. We're gonna need some of this woman type of faith where we get to Jesus and hold on to Jesus and not let go of Jesus. Say amen if you can. But my question as I was working through this and just kinda considering my own life and my own wishy-washy nature, I'm sure I'm not the only one in the room whose faith is not always at level 10.

Wave at me if level five is out there at times. Okay, only about five of you willing to be honest on the Lord's day, bless the Lord. But I was asking myself why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to be this person that just persists? And quite frankly, why is quitting so easy for us?

Well, I jotted down a few answers, and I wonder if you'll find yourself here. Number One, quitting is so easy sometimes because the difficulty of what we're pursuing is greater than our desire to pursue it. I said the difficulty of what we are pursuing is greater than our desire to actually pursue it. In other words, it sounded great at the conference. But that getting up early in the morning thing as Pastor Walden taught us, I don't know about that.

You guys find Jesus for yourself. I'm going back to bed. It sounded really great at the seminar. It looked really great in the book. Oh, wow, this worshiping God and loving the Lord and centering our life around the church and studying the scriptures and gathering my children and singing songs.

I mean, that sounds great, but then it's Tuesday and the house is a wreck and the children are screaming and you and your husband or wife are at odds and you're going, you know, I don't know. We'll just live vicariously through Scott and Deborah. Just, you know, we'll put a picture of them in the foyer and just kind of go yay. It's tough, number two, I wrote this down because it often makes provision for the flesh. You and I are our own worst enemies at times because we have this sin nature that we carry around and we're always at war with it and we always need to crucify it and it tends to pop up at the most inopportune times.

And those things that are really important, those things that are really precious, you have to battle to do. And I was just telling one of my children just this week as we were listening to preaching after hour after hour and just wonderful preaching at that, But I was explaining to her, I said, sweetheart, this is a battle, I know you're tired, but the last thing the devil wants is for you to hear this word, and to understand this word. He, as the word is coming, a fight is in full swing, and he'll work as hard as he can to snatch the word right out of your mind and right out of your heart no sooner than it comes. And so there's this, this quitting makes provision for the flesh, and that's easy for us. I wrote this one down too, because it doesn't take any effort to quit.

And it takes a lot of effort to persevere. Prayer for effort, certainly. Effort to get on our faces before the Lord, to cry out for his strength, most certainly. But it doesn't take a lot of effort to quit, but it takes a tremendous amount of effort to continue on. In other words, quitting is most often the pathway of least resistance.

And then finally, here's one that I wrote down, and I'm just trying to be honest with myself. It's easy to lack perseverance, or to not really kind of grab ahold of perseverance because this is the way everybody lives. I mean, who walks in this kind of discipline? Who walks in this kind of dogged determination to get to Jesus and to not leave until he blesses us, until he helps us, until we understand what he's saying, until we're enabled to do what he's called us to do. And so maybe you find yourself in that position today where, Again, this grand vision for family that has been unfolded before us over the last couple of days, you're impressed by it and inspired by it, but it's an awful lot of work.

Well, beloved, the Bible speaks an awful lot about perseverance. And just for a moment, I'd just like to read a few texts, and then we'll jump back into Matthew 15, but I wanna read a few texts just to have us breathe these verses in, and maybe they will be as much of a blessing to your soul as they were to mine when I was putting this together. For example, in Psalms 27, verses 13 through 14, the scriptures declare, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord. Or Isaiah 40, verses 30 through 31. Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. In other words, they'll be able to keep going. Beautifully written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51 says, Behold, I'll show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God who's given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so after he sets up the grand vision of what shall be, he says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast. Don't you quit. Be unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in The Lord. Galatians 6, 9 says, and let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Ephesians chapter six in verse 10, finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God. No, no, no, we're not backing up. We're strapping on the armor and we're going forward. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation in the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. Wave at me if you know we're in a spiritual war. And that spiritual war is gonna require us in the power of Jesus Christ to stand and stand firm. Colossians one says it this way, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which he have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof I Paul and made minister persevere church at Colossae.

1 Timothy 4 verses 13 through 16. Till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, watch this, and continue in them, persevere in them. For in doing so, in doing this, thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.

Hebrews 10 says this way in verse 35, cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, And he that shall come will come and will not tarry. The just will live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

But we are not of them that draw back untopredition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. We are the ones who persevere. James says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. He says, blessed is the man that endureth temptation, who remains steadfast under trial from the ESV. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him and we can go on and on To Philadelphia.

He said hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown to Smyrna He says be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. We are called, commanded, exhorted, encouraged to persevere, to not quit, to not give up, but in the Lord, to continue to go forward. Well, as we look at the text in Matthew 15, we see a woman who did just that. Matthew 15, 21 says, then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast again of Tyre and Sidon. After, in context, and we don't have time to kind of back up much, but after silencing the Pharisees and the scribes, our Lord departed to this land called Geneseret to the region of Phoenicia, Tyre-Sidon, was nearby, about which he pronounced woes back in Matthew chapter 11, and these places were nearby.

And verse 22 says, and behold, a woman of Canaan came out from the same coast and cried unto him, saying, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. Now when we read that, we can read through it really, really quickly, you know, to kind of get to what Jesus said, but I try to put myself in positions and kind of Imagine what's going on here. I'm trying to imagine the grief of this woman. I'm trying to imagine her trip.

I'm trying to imagine what she went through as she wrestled, she knew who she was. She knew she was a Canaanite. But nevertheless, there was this man who offered hope. She had this terrible home situation, but she loved her daughter so much that she wanted to help her. She wanted to get her the help that she needed.

And there was Jesus, and he was close enough for her to get to him, and would he hear her? But he has to hear me, Lord, because I don't know what I'll do if the Lord doesn't hear me. I need to go and find this Jesus, because my daughter has a devil, and perhaps, I don't know, but perhaps, she tried other techniques. Maybe she tried time out, but the devil didn't leave. Maybe she tried corporal punishment, but that didn't work either.

How many of you have come to recognize as you raise your children, there are some things that only God can do on your children? Have you figured that out yet? I hope you've figured that out yet. And as much as I like lists of stuff and as much as I like practical principles, even as we attempt to persevere in those things, there are some things that only Jesus Christ can do. And so I love this narrative and I love the lessons that it teaches.

To truly mind the riches of this passage, it is important to understand the extraordinary nature of this exchange. I love this from the commentator William McDonald. He says, it is important to realize that the woman was not a Jewish, but a Gentile, a Jewess, but a Gentile. She was descended from the Canaanites, an immoral race which God had marked for extinction. Through Israel's disobedience, some had survived the invasion of Canaan under Joshua, and this woman was a descendant of the survivors.

As a Gentile, she did not enjoy the privileges of God's chosen earthly people. She was an alien. She had no hope. Positionally, he writes, she had no claim on God, or no claim on God's Messiah. In other words, this lady was from the enemy's camp.

I mean, what is she even doing getting anywhere near Jesus? I hope somewhere in some of you in this room right now are saying amen because you are an enemy of God too. My Bible tells us before we came to God, we were children of the devil. Aren't you glad that he's a saving God, a merciful and kind God? Well, she was an enemy, yet she persisted despite her ethnicity, despite her gender, despite her background.

Her love for her daughter was such that she pressed her way. I read that and go, my goodness, how much do I truly love my children? What am I willing to do? What in my schedule am I willing to disrupt? Am I willing to lower myself where I need to lower myself in order to make sure that my children get to Jesus?

I don't know what the Lord will do once we get there, but what am I willing to do to teach them and to exhort them? What am I willing to do? Well, obviously she was willing to risk and do a lot. She was also a pretty interesting woman, even being a Canaanite, she had enough spiritual sense, number one, to know that her family was under spiritual attack. I don't know her background.

I don't know where she came from before this, but she knew something was obviously wrong, and apparently, she called it right. She has a devil. So she had enough sense, Number one, to know what was going on with her daughter. And number two, she had enough spiritual sense to go to Jesus. Hallelujah.

And I simply love her prayer in verse 22. Perhaps some of you beleaguered parents have prayed this prayer a time or two. Have mercy on me, oh Lord, thou son of David. Here's a friend of mine, a preacher who preaches around the world, and he has a joke that he always uses. He says, the longer the prayers, the less danger you're actually in.

The shorter the prayers, the more help you really need, because when you're really in trouble, you don't have time to pray a long prayer. And obviously it's a joke, but you know, those help Lord prayers are the ones when the car is about to drive off the road. But if I have time to think about, oh, thou God, Son of David, Lord, King of the Universe, I'm doing all right at that moment. Well, She prays one of these kinds of prayers. She's like, help, Lord, help me, oh Lord, thou son of David.

My daughter has a demon, my daughter has a devil. God, I'm getting right to the point. Lord, please help me. She went right there with him. Lord, please help me.

I love this prayer. Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. Here's why I love it. Number one, because it was a humble prayer. To ask for mercy is to know that one doesn't deserve it.

Mark tells us that she immediately fell at his feet in Mark 7 and 25. She asked for mercy, to say have mercy means you know you don't deserve it. So have mercy, I mean she didn't come with entitlement, She didn't come with a spirit of elitism. She didn't, she came humbly before Jesus. She falls at his feet.

She looks up at him. I don't know how close they were, but the Bible says at his feet, so she was apparently reasonably close. And she says, have mercy, oh Lord. And beloved, I tell you, it's one of the most powerful prayers that you can pray. If it's truly coming from your heart, it describes a heart, in the very act of praying it, it describes a heart that knows that it doesn't deserve the mercy of God, It doesn't deserve the grace of God.

I'm in deep need Lord. Only you can fix it. Oh Lord, have mercy upon me. You know the old joke. Grace is when God gives us the things that we don't deserve and mercy is when God doesn't give us the things that we do.

She comes and she's essentially asking for both, but she comes and she says, well have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. I love this prayer because she acknowledges Jesus' authority by calling him Lord. The title Lord is the honorific most often associated with Jesus. It is from a Greek word kyrios, which means supremacy, supreme in authority, a controller. It is the phrase that Lord Jesus is a phrase that's used of Jesus some 120 times in the New Testament.

It's one that you and I often use too. Before Jesus, we often put Lord Jesus or the Lord Jesus Christ. What are we saying in that? We're saying, Lord, it's you and not us. Lord, you are supreme and we are not.

You are the one who saves. You are God's Messiah. You are in ultimate authority. And so I love that this enemy of God, this Canaanite, shows such reverence to our King. And then I love this prayer because She uses his messianic title as well, Son of David.

So it was a way for her to acknowledge God's redemptive plan through Israel and her need for such a savior, all wrapped up in just a few words. Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. In other words, I don't deserve you, and I don't deserve your blessing but I need it you are the Lord you are also the Messiah my daughter needs your help how many of our families could and how many of us as parents could really use to pray to the Lord just like that? And we've heard this in years past, coming to this conference, I've been so grateful for it because you can leave with lots of points of stuff to do. And that's a great thing, I have a few.

But running parallel with those points, perhaps even over top and underneath those points, We need God. We need the Lord. Only the Lord can transform the heart of a father. Only the Lord can transform the heart of a mother. Only the Lord can save our children and draw them into his embrace.

Only the Lord can cause his spirit to fall upon our households afresh. You can fake it for a while, but not too long. And so we need the Lord. This woman's child had a devil, and she cries out to Jesus. In Matthew 15 and 23, the next verse, but he answered her not a word.

If you're following along with me in your Bibles, just read that again. And he answered her not a word. This particular narrative is interesting when you first read it. Our Lord's responses are kind of astonishing. In the first place, this lack of response is kind of astonishing.

But he answered her not a word, and his disciples came in but sought him, saying, send her away, for she crieth after us. Now again, just the way my mind works, but I'm thinking, I don't know where they are, I'm trying to imagine a shoreline or a hillside or outside of a township or wherever they might be. I'm trying to put myself right in there. And here's this woman who's coming up to Jesus and she falls down at his feet and she cries out to him, oh Lord, please have mercy on me, please Lord. It doesn't sound as if she, again, didn't do anything wrong here.

Again, she wasn't entitled, or she didn't feel like the Lord owed her anything. She was absolutely destitute, totally desperate, and Jesus just kinda, I mean, I'm trying to imagine, does he look? Does he turn away? Does he cross his arms? What's the expression on his face?

Does he look concerned? Does he look nonchalant? The text doesn't tell us. The text tells us he answered her not a word. He didn't say initially.

He didn't say anything. Now I don't know about you, but we live, how many of you agree with me that we live in a pretty entitled culture? You wave at me? Okay, most of you, all right. And we live in a culture where, you know, one little slight and we're done.

I'm talking to somebody. We live in a culture where, you know, You have one chance to tick me off, and that's a wrap. You have one bad service at a restaurant, and we're already typing stuff online. I know who you are, you know who you are. I can't believe it took 20 minutes to get some bread.

Right? You know, that's the culture that we live in. You don't get many chances with people these days. And it can even, sadly, it's like that in the church sometimes, you know? Some of you, have you ever, some of you pastors, or some of you church leaders, have you ever had the white-gloved visitor?

Where they kinda walk in with a list of stuff, and They don't know you from Adam just yet. Don't know your heart, don't know how much you love them. They may do things a little bit differently, but never really give you a chance because you didn't pass inspection. Oh, you singing the right songs, but that is not a godly key. It's too hot in here, it's too cold in here.

God isn't sending us here, we have to continue our search. Some of us have been searching for five years. That's a long search. It's fine to church people, okay? It's not that hard.

All right, but you know what I mean. I mean, if I walk up to you and I need you for something. I say, hey sir, you know, I really blah, blah, blah, and you just kind of look at me, you know, in my flesh, in my manness, in my 2021-ness. I'm tempted at that point to just walk away. I'm like, Oh, it's like that.

You see, I'm struggling over here, dude. I walk up to you. I'm humble. I ask you a question. I've heard good things about you.

Facebook said you healed this this dude the other day, and I saw you on your Instagram post the other day and man, somebody rose from the dead. So here I am, Jesus. And he answered her not a word. Many of us in this room, and he takes out a third of us right there. Okay, I'm done.

I went to the pastor, I looked him right in the face and asked him a question. Yes, he was dealing with some other things, but he didn't answer me. Well, this is obviously a cold church. Never mind that God may have been up to something else. Have you ever felt like God was silent when you asked him a question?

That's another way to look at it. What did you do? Did you persevere? Oh goodness, I loved the counsel last night from the Q&A. When you don't know that you know, keep looking at Jesus from Kevin Swanson.

Keep trusting the Lord from the panelists. Keep serving God, I love that. But what would you do if you got the cold shoulder, after all of that, have mercy on me? Well, the disciples weren't silent either. They obviously knew that she was a Canaanite or something was going on with her.

Mark tells us that she was also, had some Greek in her, a Greek heritage, and the disciples, they just said, you know, enough of this. They wanted to get rid of her anyway. They wanted to shoo her away. And So here we are, just set the scene here, talking about perseverance and the blessings thereof. Here we are with a woman in desperate need, and she goes to Jesus, and she falls on her feet before Jesus, and she cries out, Lord, please help me, my daughter is, I mean, she really needs you, She is a demon.

And right at this point in the narrative, the Lord hasn't said a word, hasn't even acknowledged her. What would you do? What have you done? Does the Lord owe us anything? Verse 24, but he answered and said, I am not sent but into the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And there's some debate amongst commentators and theologians as to whether he was talking to the woman here or talking to the disciples here, but let's just assume that he was talking to the woman here and maybe perhaps the disciples were in Irshad, so it was both. And so his words here are again astonishing. When he finally does answer, and we don't know quite how long it took for the Lord to answer, we don't know if the woman was, Oh Lord, have mercy on me, the Lord goes. We don't know exactly, but when he finally speaks, it isn't daughter or I'm sorry, I had to check my, no, no, no, I'm checking my email, no, no, no. He goes, I'm not for you.

What are you doing here? My ministry is to Israel. You know who you are. You're a Canaanite. You're Greek.

You're a Syrophoenician. You're a Gentile. What are you doing here? I'm not sent to you. I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

This must to her have sounded like the end of the world. Not at this moment, because how much She obviously loved her daughter, yet she persisted as we'll see. But our Lord is obviously going somewhere with us too, but this must have sounded like a refusal, like a pushback, like a rebuke. Perhaps, Perhaps if she had the wrong mind, even insulting, and we'll get to some further possible insults here in a moment, Jesus is just warming up. First, she's ignored.

She doesn't leave, she doesn't pack up, She doesn't go away and send a nasty note to his ministry headquarters website. She stays. Oh friends, sometimes there's a blessing in staying. There's a blessing in staying. Sometimes Our sanctified ego gets the best of us, and we miss out on what God wants to do in our lives.

She stays. But then she doesn't, I mean, I'm imagining she doesn't hear quite what she wants to just yet. I'm not even for you. Remember, The mystery of the gospel had yet to be fully revealed that Christ would die for Jew and Gentile alike, that he would bring the two and make them one by his blood and under his cross and by his power. Well, that is yet to come.

People don't fully understand that yet. Certainly, perhaps the disciples didn't understand that yet. So he says to her, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Strike two, ignored, now pushed back. I love verse 25.

Put yourself in this text with me. Verse 25 of Matthew 15. Then came she and gave him a piece of her mind. No? Then came she and dressed him down and how disappointed she is because he's not matching the testimony that she heard about him.

Then came she and worshiped him. What? Are you kidding me? Now, if the Lord didn't lose us on the ignore part, I've made maybe another third at this point would be gone with the I'm not even for you. My ministry is not even for you.

What are you doing here? I mean, seriously? You're Canaanite. I'm a Jew. My ministry is for them.

Thanks. She came and worshiped him. She persevered. Are you following this with me? She persevered.

She, as we would say back home, she pressed in further. She came and worshiped him saying, again, short prayer, Lord, help me. Ignored, I'm not for you. Doesn't deter her at all. What great faith.

Doesn't deter her at all. She just received essentially a no from Jesus. She could not change her ethnicity. It was nothing she could do, and yet she did not quit. This was a major bump in the road, but she stayed right where she was.

If anything, she lowered herself even more. She was already at his feet, according to Mark. The Bible says, I don't know exactly what she did, but the scriptures say she worshiped him. What? We can only worship when things are going our way.

We only lift our hands when things are happening that really is setting us on the right trajectory. That's the American church. We know how to praise God when things are great. This was not going well. Lord, help me.

Help me. She didn't move away. She moved closer. She didn't get angry. She worshiped.

She didn't argue. She petitioned harder. The next verse, verse 26. But he answered and said, now listen, now we're, oh my goodness here, lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy. Verse 26.

But he answered and said, it is not meat, it is not fit to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. Ignore it, at least initially. I'm not for you. She worships him even more. Okay, hold on.

The children get my ministry, i.e. The children of Israel get my ministry. I can't take the precious things that I'm meant to give them and give it to you. A dog? Does Jesus call her a dog?

Our Lord's reply here, it sounds brutal at first glance. It sounds brutal considering the situation, considering why she's there in the first place. Now, I personally believe and I'm like many of you that I wasn't being harsh, harsh at all. I believe he was testing her in some ways and encouraging us through her and others to to quote one particular commentator to further probe the reality of her faith. Jesus told her that it was not good for him to turn aside from feeding the Jewish children in order to give bread to Gentile dogs.

If this sounds harsh to us, we should remember like the surgeon's scalpel. It was not intended to hurt but to heal. She was a Gentile. The Jews looked upon Gentiles as scavenging dogs, prowling the streets for scraps of food. However, Jesus here uses the word not for those kinds of dogs, but for little dogs.

But nevertheless, the question was, would she acknowledge her unworthiness to receive the least of his mercies. Okay, you've already come and lowered yourself to come to a Jewish savior in her worldview. Okay, you've already kind of been ignored and the disciples aren't too happy you're here either. Those boys weren't too bright sometimes. Neither are we, right?

He finally does speak and he tells you point blank, I'm not for you. She keeps going. I'm in the car now texting Donna going, I can't believe how this dude treated me. That's where I am at this point. We'll find, I will take our daughter to the specialist.

At this point, that's where a lot of us are, right? We are right there. There's no way we're putting up with this. There's no way, I don't deserve to be treated like this. Who do you think you are?

Well, the question is, he knows who he is. Who Do you know who you are? Truth of the matter is, brothers and sisters, I love you, I'm gonna say it anyway, we're dogs. Roof, roof. We're dogs.

But I would've been gone at this point. I may have been able to deal with ignore, and the other one, but oh my goodness, he just verbally insulted me. And a lot of us like that. We are, in our Christian culture, I tell you what, we can just fly off the handle over the smallest thing. Well, this would have pushed most of us definitely over the edge.

But listen to her reply, verse 27. Read it with me, or at least look at it with me. Verse 27. And she said, truth, Lord. And she said, truth, Lord.

And she said, Lord, that's true. She said, Lord, truth, that's the truth. What is the truth? Yeah, I'm a dog. It's not fit for you to give me the children's bread.

You're right, Jesus. What? See, this is the attitude that will cause you to persevere. This is the humility. This is the mindset.

This is the acknowledging of the right relation between creature and creator that will cause us to persevere. I'll tell you, one of the things that helps you persevere is to know that he is and we are not. It is to walk by a desperate humility and not believe your own press. The more me I am afflicted with, the easier I quit. The more I am relying on the power of God, the more I can press forward.

Truth, Lord, her response teaches us much about her meekness and her faith, her belief in Jesus and her desire to see her daughter healed. Number one, she didn't get angry. Number two, she admitted to being a dog. Number three, she said, I'll be content with the scraps. Would you be content with the scraps?

I'll be content with whatever falls off your table. All that mattered to her at this point was that the Lord would hear her petition and heal her baby. Beloved, how might personal offense and pride be limiting you in your prayer and in your worship. Can you admit to being a dog that is being totally unworthy of the Lord's time, his attention and his blessing? Well, if we look at verse 28 and I'm almost done, then Jesus answered and said unto her, Oh woman, great is thy faith.

Now after all of these tests and all of these all of these instances, now we see we begin to see what was going on in the heart of our Lord. Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. What great faith according to Jesus, because she persevered. In other words, she demonstrated her faith because she didn't let anything stop her here.

Our Lord granted her petition. Again, what made the faith of this woman so remarkable? Well, to recap, according to the biblical illustrator, she had much against her in her original circumstances. In the eye of a Jew, she belonged to the most hated of all Gentile races. There was a frontier line of dislike to cross, far wider than any distance between Tyre and Palestine, yet it did not keep her from finding her way to the great teacher of the Jewish nation.

She got little countenance from Christ's disciples, annoyed at her importunity and desiring to be freed from the trouble of her presence. They desired Christ to send her away, but She could not, she could not but feel that they would gladly be rid of her in the way some cast alms to a persistent beggar. Weaker faith would have felt the chill and would have desisted, but it is not of them that she seeks an answer, she would take her dismissal from none but Christ himself. The woman's faith reaches its greatest trial in the conduct of our Lord. The disciples, cold as they are, seem merciful compared to their master.

As she cries and pours her heart into prayer, he moves away with silent neglect. That dreadful silence is harder to bear than the sorest word that can be spoken. Still she cried after him, and at last he spoke, but his words were not, were harder than his silence, for he did not speak to her, but only of her, and that in such a sliding manner as to almost quench all hope. Still she persists, And at length, as Christ all along intended, she should gain her heart's desire. Whatever our Lord's motives for his initial denials, he was impressed by her tenacity.

I personally believe that there were at least three things going on in the heart of our Lord. Number one, to strengthen the woman's faith and demonstrate his great mercy. Number two, to teach the disciples something about the nature of the kingdom. It would soon be open to Jew and Gentile alike by faith in Him. It would also view women as joint heirs with men.

And then number three, to teach us all through this instance a lesson about faith, about trust, and about not letting go, not giving up ever on our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't give up, dear friends. Don't you dare, don't you dare give up. You'll have moments where you'll feel pushback, where you'll hear silence, where you might even feel insulted. These things are going awry.

Don't you don't you give up remember the faith of this woman? Again from the same commentator we must not let Jesus go If he goes away follow him if he seems to be stern become more urgent if he hides his face cry the louder If it If it seems he will not listen, assail his heart. Some knows of Jesus will become an I. It is true we deserve none of the things that we pray for, but he has enough and to spare for all so that the children will be filled. Even if we are last in his kingdom, it is sufficient so that we only have to share some of his grace.

If it is only one look of his eye, only one glance from him, if we are not allowed to rest on his breast with John or be satisfied, we'll be satisfied like Thomas if we're permitted to simply behold the prints of the nails. And when we have become quite exhausted in wrestling with him and all of our strength is broken, when, so to speak, the hollow of our thigh is out of joint, when we can only cling to him and declare we will not let him go until he bless us. Even then, we will overcome. And so, as we close these thoughts up, I wanna give you very quickly seven quick blessings of encouragement. I'll just simply name them.

Blessings of perseverance to encourage you. And then I wanna give you just a few things that we'll all need to persevere in in the days ahead, and then we'll pray together. I believe that perseverance is a great blessing. When we persevere, we learn more about the mercy and the providence of God. There are some things that we'll only learn about God when we have to struggle, when we have to press, when we have to, we don't hear, we don't know.

And some of you may find yourself right there right now. All these wonderful things sound great, but right now I'm in a very dark place with the Lord. Persevere. I don't hear any answers forthcoming. I pray, and it seems like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.

Please keep praying. Please persevere. I believe when we persevere, our faith ultimately will be strengthened regardless of the Lord's answer. We'll learn more about Him and our trust in Him will grow. Number three, I believe when we persevere, our humility must grow as we wait upon God, particularly if he decides to give us a Canaanite woman kind of test.

Number four, when we persevere, I believe we set a godly example for others. Yes, worship is vertical, it's also horizontal, and some are watching you and learning from you. They're going through and they haven't told you. And they're hanging on because you're hanging on. And that may not be as it should be, but that's reality.

Sometimes we're struggling with the Lord, we're struggling with the Word, We're struggling to figure it out, and we see our brother and sister going, well, we're just gonna stay in there in Jesus. And we go, okay, I can make it one more day then. Thank God for you, brother, because I was just about to give up. When we persevere, we set that example for others. When we persevere, the devil ultimately is defeated.

Hallelujah. When we persevere, often our Lord will in fact reward us. That's up to him. When we persevere, we give glory and honor to Christ because he is honored by such faith. Well, as we go forward in the days of head, we don't know exactly what's going to become of these United States and what's gonna happen around the world, but here are a few things that I plan to try my best in the strength that God provides to persevere in.

Number one, simple faith, hope, and charity. Keep believing, keep hoping, and keep loving people. Just keep loving, folks. Number two, I plan to try to persevere in my personal worship and study of scripture. I want to grow in that.

I want to grow in my time with the Lord and whatever I need to do. I want to persevere in that. Number three, in dying to self and being humble and recognizing that, you know, I'm small, my gifts are small. He's big and we need him. Number four, in our daily battle against sin, we must persevere, don't quit, don't give up.

You failed, get on your knees before the Lord, repent, cry out to him, and then get up and keep fighting. Number five, your most important relationships. Oh, persevere in your marriage. Persevere in those friendships that are rocky right now. Number six, in discipling your children.

Persevere, you've heard that so often over the last few days so I don't have to stay there number seven in your requests in prayer according to the will of God Persevere Lord you said in your word this and you said in your word that and I believe what you said And so I'm gonna keep trusting you no matter what happens Number eight persevere in the truth despite circumstances and persecutions Despite what might come at Bible believing Christians over the next decade if the Lord tarries, persevere. Persevere in serving the Lord's church, number nine. Persevere in serving the Lord's church. Make sure you show up every Lord's Day that you possibly can and bring your children with you. Number 10, in whatever God has asked you to do in your calling and your vocation, if you're a homemaker, if you're a business owner, or if you're a churchman, or whatever you are, persevere in those things and give your very best because as you persevere in them, you worship our Lord.

Number 11, your stewardship and your generosity. Keep giving, Keep saving, keep blessing others. And with a view towards what the next decade might hold as well, but persevere in those things. Don't you give up in those things. And finally, and this one's a personal one, it may seem a little odd, but in our day, A lot of folks are sick, and so persevere in taking care of your body.

You don't hear that much from pulpits. But persevere in taking care of your body. My wife and I just came through COVID-19 with 19 pounds. Extra, no kidding. But there were many people who came through COVID and gained weight, and I looked in the mirror and went, oh, oh, okay, we gotta tighten this up.

So next year, if I'm back here, I'm gonna look different. But we wanna persevere and just did eating well and enjoying the bounty that the Lord has given us. And so just a few final words as I close. As the Canaanite woman persevered and taught us so many things, despite the initial rebuff from Jesus, she pressed on in to him in humility and faith. Somehow she knew that if the Lord consented, her daughter would be made well, and her daughter was in fact made well.

Review these things with your children. Ask them, maybe encourage them in this. Hey, Have you ever just wanted to give up? Have you felt like Jesus wasn't listening, like our Lord wasn't listening? Have you ever felt insulted by somebody?

Take some of these things and review them and encourage them to keep on going. My prayer for you today is that your family would persevere in the things of God. Sometimes, oftentimes, beloved tests will come, but honor God by trusting him, by pursuing him, regardless of what it looks like, regardless of how it feels. Jesus loved the Canaanite woman, and I believe he loves you too. Yesterday, as Scott was closing out the conference, he stood up here and he said, is it worth it?

He asked a series of questions. Is it worth it? What was he saying? He detailed it a bit. Is it worth the frustrations?

Is it worth all the effort? Is it worth the sin that you encounter? Is it worth the hard effort? What was he saying? What was he teaching us by way of questioning?

Are you willing to persevere? Are you willing to keep going? No matter the bumps, no matter the obstacles, are you willing to keep trusting God in these beautiful things that he has given us? Well, I hope the answer in this room today is a resounding yes, That we are willing to continue in these things that God has given us. There indeed is a blessing in perseverance.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much just for your word. Thank you, Lord, that we can trust you with our very lives. Thank you, Savior, for dying for us, for going to the grave, for rising again on the third day, for sending to the right hand of the Father. Thank you for your promise to come again.

Thank you, Lord, that all of our sins have been washed in your blood. Thank you, Lord, that there's nothing that we've done that cannot be forgiven. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy and your grace and your kindness toward us. Father, I just pray for my brothers and sisters that as we all go back to our homes, that we would persevere, that we would carry the lessons of this weekend, carry the lessons of this worship time with you, Father, that you would be our all in all, and that when we don't feel our best, or we haven't heard the best, or when we have issues in our family, that we would simply trust you, that we, like this woman, we would fall down at your feet and worship you and cry out, oh Lord, help me. We know you're here.

He may not feel like it initially, but we walk by faith, not feelings. And so we bless your holy name. Lord, I just pray for Scott and his wife and family. I pray for Hope Baptist Church and all the churches represented here. We lift up our brother Kevin who will be traveling and preaching extensively.

We pray his strength and endurance, God, that you would touch him in a mighty way to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth over the next of the coming week. We pray for all the fathers, all the mothers, all the children, all the grandparents, all the great-grandparents. We pray for those who are in the womb, they will be born safely and healthy. We pray for an unction and an outpouring of your Spirit upon all churches and households represented so that we will all persevere in Jesus. In your name we pray, amen.