Outsiders Get In: Faith That Breaks Barriers

What if it's a doorway to God doing something amazing in your life? What if it's the doorway for the grace of God to flood in? So when you come to Jesus like this woman humbly, honestly, persistently, will you trust him to do for you what you can't do for yourself? Because here's the truth of the passage. Outsiders don't stay out when they come to Jesus. [01:28:26] (23 seconds)  #DoorwayToGrace

Real faith looks like this. It doesn't demand and it doesn't quit. It it it doesn't get offended easily. It says, I don't deserve it, but I believe you can do it anyway. Can I just remind us? Some of us quit too early. Some of us give up pleading with the lord too early. One unanswered prayer, one hard season, one confusing woman, but this woman shows us that pray faith presses through silence and it presses through tension and it presses through what we don't understand to take hold of the grace of god. [01:16:54] (48 seconds)  #FaithThatPresses

Many of us feel like we are outside looking in. We feel not good enough. We feel too messy and too far gone. And this passage says, and and so many passages say, you are exactly who Jesus moves towards. You are exactly who time and time again he is coming after. There's a second type of person, those who think they're insiders. And what this passage whispers is, be careful. Be careful. Be careful. The kingdom of God is bigger than you think. [01:25:18] (47 seconds)  #JesusWelcomesOutsiders

Because when he talks about children, he's referring to Israel, the people who receive the promises, receive the covenant, receive the very blessings of God. But the truth is, Israel didn't earn that position. They didn't achieve it. They didn't do anything to gain it. God chose them by grace, not because of greatness, but in spite of their weakness. And over time, what was meant to produce humility in their lives started to produce entitlement, which is what can happen in our lives as well. [01:14:51] (33 seconds)  #ChosenNotEarned

Well, in Jesus' day, those lines were not subtle the way they can be in our culture today. They were crystal clear. And you think about it in Jesus' day, before Jesus started preaching his message, it was very clear. Who's in and who's out? Jews are in. Everybody else, out. Clean equals accepted. Unclean equals rejected. And if you were a Gentile, unclean, and desperate, you didn't just feel like an outsider. You were an outsider. [00:54:40] (34 seconds)  #JesusBreaksBarriers

Number three, Jesus does not just include us. He transforms us from broken to whole, from silent to speaking, from outsider to family. And don't miss this. The disciples are still trying to figure out who belongs, who is in, and Jesus is already welcoming in the nation, showing them what he is gonna send them to do. What does this mean for us? Well, I think there are two different types of people here today. [01:24:47] (27 seconds)  #TransformedIntoFamily

So Jesus' statement here, right, it's not a it's not a reflection on her value. Right? This is really important. Jesus is not making a statement about her value as a person. What he is talking about is the priority of God's redemptive plan. K? Israel first, then the nations. And what's important here for us to recognize is Israel was not called because there's anything good about Israel. In fact, it's the exact opposite. [01:05:20] (30 seconds)  #RedemptivePriority

And the Bible paints a picture not of a corporation with competing brands, but of a family. So what if we've been asking the wrong question? What if the issue isn't primarily about which group you belong to. But what if the better question is, do you actually belong to Jesus? The book of Revelation chapter seven verse nine, we see a picture of every nation of a people from every nation, every tribe, and language. And so before in the church, we draw lines too quickly. [00:53:49] (45 seconds)  #BelongToJesus