3.1.2026 Great Faith

Jesus' silence is naturally gracious because he's not getting rid of her. He's drawing her in. Her faith is persistent. It's not deterred by silence. Disciples just want to get rid of her. She's a nuisance. And the easiest way to get rid of someone is to give them what they want. But here's the thing about Jesus. Jesus wants her. And the only way he gets her in this particular moment is silence. [00:24:18] (38 seconds)  #FaithThroughSilence

At the cross, Jesus became worse than a dog. He became sin, so that we, who are dogs, can become children. At the cross, the ultimate child of God was cast out without any scraps. Why have you forsaken me? It's because of the cross, it is God showing us. He will not walk away from us. He will not give up on us. He's not ashamed to be your God. It's at the cross, he refused to let you go. Great faith is looking to God and seeing that and refusing to let go. [00:36:53] (43 seconds)  #NeverForsaken

Suffering in desperate situations can be the very instruments which God uses to wake you up to the faith that you have, to the great faith he sees in you. It wakes you up because we all of a sudden become aware of the lie of self -sufficiency. We wake up to the reality that we are all in desperate need of Jesus because faith is often revealed in desperate times. That's one of the truths we see in the story. [00:12:22] (27 seconds)  #DesperateFaith

If you genuinely sought after the Lord, you've probably had that experience where you ask him and you don't receive an answer at all. And that's what it looks like here. And I think this is one of the great graces of this story. It gives us an answer to Jesus' silence. And it happens to all of us. It's in those moments of silence that Satan, again, comes along and whispers to us, Jesus doesn't really care. [00:22:47] (22 seconds)  #GraceInSilence

If you want great faith, he sits on the throne of your life. He directs your life. He's not just someone who saves you, he's the one who directs everything in your life. He tells you what to do in your life. He tells you what to think in your life. He tells you what, he has every right because he is Lord, not just a dispenser of religious blessing. She sees him as Lord. That's one aspect of great faith. [00:20:28] (26 seconds)  #LordOfLife

What is great faith? It's knowing who Jesus is. He's the Lord. Persisting and grabbing hold of him. Even in silence, even in seeming rejection, you know he's good, so you don't give up. And you hang on, hang on, and hang on, because you know even the scraps of his mercy can heal everything. And this is all possible. First, because Jesus went to her. [00:35:56] (33 seconds)  #ClingToJesus

And she recognizes she doesn't deserve anything. But even though she doesn't, Jesus' mercy is so abundant, so big that some fall over. And that is more than enough for her. That is the humility. That is the key to faith here. She recognizes she's a sinner, but that God's mercy is so big that despite her sin, despite her weakness, despite the worst circumstance of her life, that even the scraps of God's mercy can heal. That's why Jesus calls her a woman of great faith. [00:35:16] (39 seconds)  #HumilityAndMercy

Whether you're coming out of it, you're in it, or you will soon be in it yourself, I pray that you begin to see and have the Holy Spirit soften your heart because the way that we grow in our faith is actually through those moments. I pray the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind this story. You will come back to this and have the Holy Spirit guide you towards great faith because it is through, not around, not despite, it is through it that your faith is deepened, strengthened, and revealed. [00:11:48] (35 seconds)  #SpiritSoftensHeart

How many of you, in your pursuit of the Lord, with your requests, if Jesus answered what you wanted, you would stop going to him? How many of us? That's actually the experience. And if you think, oh, you know, I would, of course I would still pursue Jesus. Most of us wouldn't. Because look at the crowds. Look at the disciples. They get what they want. And what do they do? They leave Jesus. [00:24:57] (25 seconds)  #SeekNotSettle

This Canaanite woman is desperate and in pain, and a pain that parents, especially mothers, deeply understand. This is not a girl who's just in trouble with teachers or the law. This is not a child who's struggling at school. She's not just being bullied by her peers. It's not a physical illness. It's not cancer as deeply desperate those situations can feel. She's severely oppressed by a demon. And in this desperation, a humanly hopeless situation, this is where her faith is revealed because she begins to see and understand that Jesus is her only hope. [00:08:27] (41 seconds)  #JesusOurOnlyHope

She sees him not just as a healer. Not just as someone who can give her what she needs. But she is identifying him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. A Canaanite, not of the people of Israel, sees Jesus as Lord. She has searched the scriptures. And in her desperation, I don't know how many of you have ever been in desperate times and you tried anything. You tried everything. [00:16:01] (30 seconds)  #KingOfKings

This particular story of the Canaanite woman is one of those people we should consider when we think of people with great faith. Because Jesus announces, and only announces a couple times, that this person has great faith. So that means we should pay close attention to this individual and the circumstances and the truths we can learn from this individual and the story that we see here. What does it mean to have great faith? What are some lessons that we can learn about great faith? [00:02:57] (32 seconds)  #ModelOfGreatFaith

God regularly uses desperate circumstances to draw us into faith. Let's look at the story. Begins in verse 21 again. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. This reference of these two cities next to each other, 25 miles away from Capernaum, Jesus' main headquarters. It's a known Gentile area, a pagan area, non -Jewish. Jesus earlier referenced these two cities in Matthew chapter 11 as the very epitome of wickedness. [00:04:06] (33 seconds)  #GospelBeyondBoundaries

Pharisees would regularly avoid this area entirely. They would go around, go longer, just to not go through it and risk being ritually defiled and unclean. And so what Jesus is doing here is geographically and theologically important. Remember, the way that gospel writers arrange their stories also teaches us a lesson. So we don't just read them in what they teach us themselves. You read the stories in connection to the other ones because the gospel writers arrange them for a purpose. [00:04:38] (31 seconds)  #GospelNarrativeMatters