Sunday Message: Amazing Faith!

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org.

So thanks for joining me for this podcast. Again, the title of my message is Amazing Faith and we're in Mark chapter seven. As you know, we're going through the gospel of Mark together and it's a series we're calling The Gospel for Busy People. Let's pray together. Now Father, we ask for your blessing on this time of Bible study because we're about to open your word and you have promised that your word will not return void but it will prosper in the place where you send it.

And Lord, I don't know exactly where your word is going at this moment, but you do. And I pray that this message will bring hope. I pray that it will bring clarity. I pray that it will bring encouragement. I pray when necessary it will bring correction. And most of all, I pray this message will bring Jesus to people because that's who we need right now. We need Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Let me start by saying something you might find surprising. Everybody has and lives by a form of faith. Now some might say, no, I don't have faith. I'm not a man of faith. I'm not a woman of faith.

No. Everyone has faith. Everyone applies faith.

Listen to this. Even the atheist has faith. Now I didn't say they had faith in God. They have faith in something.

I'm not sure what. Maybe they have faith in themselves. Wow, that'll be disappointing. Or maybe they have faith in a political system.

That'll be even more disappointing. Or faith in whatever. But they have faith. And by the way, I think it takes more faith to be an atheist than it takes to be a Christian.

To not believe that there's a creator and someone who's in control of all the things around us. But everybody has a measure of faith. And when we bring the word faith up, I think the problem is we make it too mystical.

When in fact we act in faith every day. For instance, when you go to a restaurant and you order, you're hoping that that food is going to be fresh. You're hoping that it will be prepared properly. When you board a 747 that weighs over 300,000 pounds, that it's going to somehow get up in the air and take you to the place you want to go to. You're applying faith when you do that. Hey, when you step into an elevator, you're applying faith in hopes that all the cables are working and they've done their due diligence and all the checks on it and so forth.

When you go down to the drug store and you fill your medications, you're trusting that pharmacists know what they're doing and they're going to put the right pills in the right bottle. But then someone comes along and says, so have faith in God. And we say, whoa, whoa, faith in God?

That's insane. Listen to this. There is no safer place to put your faith than in God himself. So question, what is faith and how does it work? What is faith and how does it work? Number one, faith is belief plus action. Faith is belief plus action. Hebrews 11 one gives an excellent definition of faith where the author says, faith is a substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not seen. So faith isn't just believing something, it's acting on that thing one believes in. See, you can have mere intellectual assent towards something.

In other words, say, I believe this is true. As the Bible says, the demons believe in trouble. And as I pointed out in an earlier message, the devil believes God is real. The devil believes the Bible is true.

The devil believes Satan is coming back again, but he has not submitted himself to that. He is not following the Lord, but it's an acknowledgement of the truth of it. No, real faith in God is faith plus action, belief plus action. Number two, faith does things. If you have real faith, you will do something with it. Going back to Hebrews 11 that talks a lot about faith, and by the way, I've written a book about this called World Changers, based on Hebrews chapter 11, where we look at the various people mentioned in that account and what they did with their faith. But in Hebrews 11 we read, Abel offered a sacrifice, Noah prepared an ark, Abraham obeyed, et cetera. They all did things because a faith with no works is a faith that does not work.

Let me repeat that. A faith with no works is a faith that does not work. Everything in our life revolves around faith. We're saved by faith. We're told over in Ephesians, for by grace you've been saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. Not only as Christians are we saved by faith, but then we live by faith. The Bible says the just shall live by faith. So not feeling, because if you build your Christian life on your emotions, you're going to be riding a roller coaster. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down emotionally, but faith, as steady as she goes, as we believe the word of God regardless of our emotions.

Now, I know it's very easy to talk about faith and tell people to have faith. I heard a story about a woman who went to her pastor and said, Pastor, my husband is scaring me. He said to me, if I keep coming to this church, he's going to kill me. The pastor said, now, don't be afraid. The Lord is with you and the Lord will protect you. And then she came back a week later and said, Pastor, again, my husband said, if I keep coming here, he's going to kill me. Again, just trust the Lord.

He's in control. She came back a week later and said, Pastor, my husband just said to me, if I keep coming to this church, he's going to kill you. The pastor paused for a moment and he said, you know, there's a great church on the other side of town you might like to start attending. See, the point is it's easy to tell someone else they have faith, but then when you have to apply faith, it can be a different situation, right? My third point is faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening. Again, faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening. Look, God can do what he wants, where he wants, through whomever he chooses to do it through. But it's interesting how the Lord chooses to do his work through people. God could have sovereignly parted the Red Sea without Moses playing any role, but instead the Lord said to Moses, hold up your staff and watch what I will do. God could have brought fire down from heaven without Elijah praying, but he directed the prophet Elijah to pray and fire came down.

Listen to this. Jesus could have healed everyone everywhere during his earthly ministry. He didn't have to lay hands on that person and have this other person touch him and speak to a word to even another person. He could have just said, on the count of three, everyone's healed, and boom, they would have all been healed. But no, we see him working in the lives of people that called out to him and applied their faith, because again, faith can make the difference between something happening or not happening. We think of blind Bartimaeus, who heard that Jesus was coming his direction. So he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And someone said, shh, don't bother Jesus. And he yelled even louder, Jesus, son of David, he cries out, have mercy on me. And Jesus touches and heals Bartimaeus. Reminding you of that old adage that says the squeaky wheel gets the oil, right? That's not in the Bible, but it's kind of true.

Bartimaeus was the squeaky wheel, wasn't he? But then there are those that were more quiet in their faith, like the woman we looked at recently, who had the physical ailment of constantly bleeding, and she reasoned if she could touch the hem of the garment of Jesus, she would be healed, and she was, and Jesus commended her for her faith. Well, speaking of women with faith, we're gonna look at another woman now who had what I would describe as amazing faith. Important note, she was not one of the disciples of Jesus. She did not have the privilege of walking and talking with him day and night and hearing his great teachings and seeing his powerful miracles.

She knew nothing of that. In fact, she lived in a different country, but she had heard of Jesus. She was a sinful woman with a great, great need, and she rallies with amazing faith for her daughter to be delivered from the power of demons, causing Jesus to say in Matthew's account of the story we're gonna read here from Mark, Oh woman, great is your faith. I mean, that's a pretty big deal when Jesus calls you out in a positive way and says great is your faith.

I mean, think about it. Jesus Christ was an expert on the subject of faith, was he not? Jesus, of course, was God incarnate. He created all things. He's known every person he's ever called from Abraham to Moses, from Sarah to Ruth, from Elijah to Elisha, from Peter to John, yet he specifically comments on the faith of this woman.

It's something we need to look at. It's something we need to admire, and it's something we need to emulate because it was amazing faith. This woman had a problem. As I said, her daughter was possessed by demons, and she needed to get to Jesus, and hell or high water would not stop her.

She was the mother who would not give up. I'm reading from Mark chapter 7 from verses 24 to 29, and by the way, I'm reading from the New Living translation. Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre.

You might underline region of Tyre. I'll come back to that for a reason. He didn't want anyone to know what house he was staying in, but he couldn't keep it a secret. Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit, and she begged him to cast out the demons from her daughter. Since she was a Gentile born in Syrian Phoenicia, Jesus told her, First I should feed the children, my own family, the Jews.

It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. She said, Well, that's true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps that fall from the children's plates. I love the response of Jesus.

Good answer, he said. Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter. And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.

If you're taking notes, here's a major point. This woman had an unexpected and an amazing faith. Again, she had an unexpected and an amazing faith.

Why is it unexpected? Because she was a non-Jewish woman from a pagan background. Verse 26 says she was a Gentile born in Syrian Phoenicia. More to the point, she was a Canaanite.

And he said, Well, so what? Well, remember the Canaanites were the enemies of Israel. Remember when God directed Moses to lead the Israelites through the wilderness and they came to the Promised Land. And what was the Promised Land? It was the land of Canaan. What was the first city to fall? It was the city of Jericho, a Canaanite city.

We think, Well, that's so sad that they went and took that territory from these people. No, the Canaanites were wicked people. The Canaanites were known historically to sell their children into prostitution. The Canaanites would take their little babies and offer them as sacrifices to their false gods.

And God gave them warning after warning after warning. So this woman is connected to the Canaanites. So the Israelites and the Canaanites, let's just say they didn't get along very well, right?

And here's another interesting thing. She lives in Tyre where Jesus went to see her. Now Tyre is not in Israel. Effectively Jesus is leaving the country to go visit this woman.

By the way, this is the only time Jesus ever left the nation of Israel. Tyre is 25 miles north of Galilee. Sidon is 25 miles beyond that. It's a long way on foot. No Uber. No skateboards. No bicycles. No motorcycles. No anything.

You did everything on foot. That's a long way to go to reach a person. Especially someone who's not even Jewish and has been raised in a pagan culture.

It made no sense. The disciples are thinking, Wait, what are you doing? You're leaving Israel? Lord, you're really popular right now. You're trending on Twitter. Your Instagram account is blowing up. You have so many followers. Jesus is like, That's interesting. I have an appointment with someone I'm going to Tyre.

Why? Well, they didn't understand why, but they were about to see why he was doing this. He wanted to reach this woman.

Listen, she needed a miracle and Jesus was going to bring it to her. This is a good reminder that as Christians we need to go where people are. Again, let me say we want to go where people are. This is why here at Harvest Ministries we're always trying to find creative new ways to reach new people. For instance, our film A Rush of Hope reached a lot of people all around the world.

We have some exciting plans in the future for where that might land on a streaming service that we'll tell you more about. But we're always looking for ways to reach unexpected people in unexpected places. And so here is the Lord reaching this woman.

By the way, Jesus did not say the whole world should go to church, but he did say the church should go to the whole world. So he went out of his way to reach her. Now, I mentioned she was pagan, which means she worshipped false gods. She probably worshipped the goddess Ashtar, which was the goddess of fertility. Clearly she was disillusioned with these gods.

They had not helped her because they're not real. And if that wasn't bad enough, now her daughter has become severely demon possessed. I'm sure there's some cause and effect between all those little idols in the home, those false gods, and this demonic activity in the life of the daughter. And it's a reminder for us that as parents, we have a direct influence on our children. Listen to me, moms and dads. Your children are watching you. Little eyes are watching and little ears are listening. They listen to what you say, but more importantly, they watch what you do.

Be a good example. For instance, let's say you drink in front of your kids. And then one day your kids have a problem with alcohol and you wonder why. Or you fight with your spouse right in front of the kids, sometimes even asking the kids to dig sides in the argument, which is always a horrible idea.

And then you're shocked when they have those same issues in their life or whatever it is. You know, the Bible talks about the sins of the parents being visited on the children. By the way, that's not describing some mystical curse that's passed on from generation to generation. That is simply talking about a repeated behavior of sin that can be passed on. As an example, if the parents are divorced, chances are far higher that the children will end up divorced. If the parents have issues with alcohol use, chances are far higher that the kids will have them. Those are negatives.

Listen to this. If both mom and dad attend church regularly, chances are far higher that the children will attend regularly. So not only can we pass sins on to our children, but we can pass blessings on to them as well. I heard the story of a father and his young son who were climbing a mountain. And they came to a very difficult place on the trail. And the dad was thinking about which way he should go. And as he was deciding, his little boy standing behind him said, choose the right path, dad.

I'm coming right behind you. Listen to this. The primary spiritual responsibility for raising your children is not on the church. It's not in Sunday school. It's not in a Christian school.

It's in your home. You be the Godly example. You be the Godly leader. You read the Bible to them before they go to bed at night.

You pray with them and you model what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Because it's a lot easier to build a child than it is to repair an adult. Let me say that again. It's a lot easier to build a child than it is to repair an adult. Listen, the cure for crime is not in the electric chair. It's in the high chair.

Start early. The Bible says, bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And in that verse it's implying not only should you put parameters in the child's life and use strong standards to raise them in, but it also implies create a thirst in them. So live a life with the Lord that will make your child desire that same relationship with Christ.

And that's the mom here. She's like, I've got to get my daughter to Jesus. I don't really know that much about Jesus, but I know he has the power to deliver her and so she's bringing her daughter to the Lord.

By the way, she doesn't come with demands. She comes begging for mercy. In Matthew's account of the same story, we find her saying, have mercy on me. And here in Mark's account, verse 26, she begged him to cast out the demons from her daughter. Now look at the response of Christ.

And this, by the way, is from Matthew 15, 23. But he answered her not a word. He answered her not a word. She's pouring out her heart. She's begging.

She's pleading. He's literally gone out of his way to leave the country to be with her and she comes with a request and he doesn't even respond. Have you ever talked to someone and they don't really respond at all? They're just not interested in what you have to say. They don't make eye contact or you start pouring your heart out and they pull out their phone and start scrolling through social media. Or they're ghosting you on social media, not responding to you. Well, that is not actually what's happening.

It looks like that's what's happening, but it isn't. Jesus knows this woman has amazing faith. Jesus wants to draw this faith out and he wants to put it on display so we can all learn from it. So he sort of puts up a hurdle, if you will, but he knows this woman can easily clear this hurdle.

He knew she's going to be able to pass this test with flying colors. But sometimes it seems like God isn't listening to us. He always is. And he's not paying attention, but he is paying attention. I know the hardest response to accept is no response at all, but there may be something going on behind the scenes. In other words, when you pray and you pray for something over and over again and you wonder why your prayer is not answered in the affirmative, you ask, why is that?

Well, here's one option. Maybe there's a spiritual battle raging that you know nothing about. Let me say that again. Your prayer may not be answered because there's a spiritual battle raging that you know nothing about. There's a fascinating story in Daniel chapter 10 where a mighty angel appears before the prophet Daniel. The angel says to Daniel, hey, your prayer has been heard by God.

In fact, it was heard 21 days ago. And I was dispatched from heaven with the answer to your prayer, but I was tripped up by a more powerful angel, fallen angel, in this case, described as the prince of Persia. So the Lord had to send reinforcements and Michael, the archangel, came to my rescue and here's the answer to your prayer.

Everything about that, you prayed a prayer, it was heard in heaven, an answer was sent and there's a spiritual battle among angels raging behind the scenes. Remember this, God's delays are not necessarily his denials. Keep praying. Another reason your prayer may not be answered in the affirmative is because there is unconfessed sin in your life. Psalm 66, 18 says, if I had not confessed this sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

In Isaiah 59, we read these words, listen, the Lord is not too weak, he can't save you, nor is he becoming dead so he can't hear you. Here's the problem, your sins have cut you off from God because of your sin, he's turned away and will not listen anymore. It may be a sin in your past that has remained unconfessed and undealt with. Listen to this, God cannot forgive the sin, you will not confess. Maybe it's a sin in your life right now you don't think is a sin, you've somehow rationalized it. I think it's a good idea for all believers to pray what the psalmist prayed in Psalm 139 when he said, search me oh God and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Have you just paused before the Lord in prayer recently and said, Lord, if there's anything in my life that is displeasing to you, if there's any relationship I'm engaged in that dishonors you, if there's any pursuit I'm engaged in that is outside of your will, would you show that to me? I don't want any sin separating me from you, I think the Lord will hear that prayer. Another thing that may keep your prayers from being answered in the affirmative is you have an idol in your heart, an idol in your heart. Idols in our hearts cause God to refuse to listen to our prayers. Ezekiel 14 three says, son of man, these leaders have set up idols in their hearts. They have embraced things that lead them into sin.

Why should I let them ask me anything? We think, wait, an idol, what do you mean an idol? We think of an idol as a little carved image and it of course is that, but it can be something else. An idol can be something you drive, an idol can be something you hold, an idol can be some passion you have in life that's more important to you than God. Listen to this, an idol or a God with a small g is anyone or anything that takes the place of the true and living God in your life.

That's why we read in first John, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Years ago I was leading a tour to Israel and we went in the footsteps of Paul. So we went to modern day Turkey where the biblical Ephesus is and we saw that amazing city. And so the people of Ephesus worshiped the goddess Diana, a little carved image.

It was a big deal to the people there. So as I was getting ready to give my message I saw a little souvenir stand and they were actually selling these little Diana statues that the people used to worship. So I bought one because I was going to use it as an illustration. So as I'm giving my message I'm saying this is what the people worshiped and how ridiculous this is.

And I threw it to the ground and afterwards I threw it in my backpack and thought nothing of it. And then we got on a cruise ship because this cruise ship would take us from port to port for the footsteps of Paul. And I had two of my granddaughters with me, Lucy and Stella. And I'm sitting in my cabin with them and I see they're playing with the little idol, the little goddess Diana. And she's like a doll and they have her talking and I'm like that's like an idol. Why do I have an idol in my room and why are my granddaughters playing with an idol?

So I said girls give that to me and I left the room and went to the side of the boat and I threw it over into the ocean. Because I don't even want a technical idol in my life. But if we allow these other things to crowd out God it can bring our prayer life to a halt. Here's another reason our prayers are not answered quite yet. Because God wants us to keep praying. He wants us to keep praying. And clearly that's the situation with this woman. Again, she did not erect these barriers to keep her away but to draw her closer. Let's come back to what Jesus said. Look at verse 27. Hey, she says, touch my demon possessed daughter. He goes, first I need to feed the children.

It is my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. What kind of thing is that to say? Let's understand it contextually. There's two words that could be used for dogs. One describes dirty roaming packs of dogs that live off garbage and dead animals.

And by the way, there were a lot of those back in these days in Israel. I remember a number of years ago I was in a third world country and I went for a run on the beach. That's when I used to run. I don't really run much anymore. I walk briskly but I went for a run on the beach and all of a sudden a couple of wild dogs started chasing me. I'll say this, I ran a lot faster.

Maybe if I was chased by a wild dog again I would run but I ran and crazy wild dogs. That's not the word that Jesus uses. He uses a word that would refer to little puppies or family pets. It's sort of an affectionate way to describe it. I mean we love our dogs, especially the doodles, right? There's a lot of oodles and doodles in dogs today.

There's an elaborate doodle and then this doodle and then that oodle but these cute little dogs. And dogs are so much a part of our culture. There's a new book out now called Pet Nation that talks about how the attitude of Americans has changed toward their pets. In the old days dogs slept outside. Remember doghouses? Remember Snoopy and his doghouse? Sometimes he'd sleep on top of it.

And when you were in trouble what was the expression? Oh he's in the doghouse. Well dogs don't have houses anymore. Dogs live in our house. And sometimes they even live in our bed and sometimes they even eat at our table. And now dogs have Instagram accounts and cats have hotels and gourmet food and there's luxury fashion for pets. My goodness dogs are even mares. I just read an article that said a dog was elected mayor. I'm not making this up. In the town of Rabbit Hash in Kentucky.

Rabbit Hash. I'm surprised they didn't elect a rabbit to be their mayor. But the article says this dog whose name is Wilbur was elected. And by the way he won 13,000 votes. Mayor Wilbur. Their mayor is a dog. I'm sure when they told him the good news he just rolled over with excitement right?

Crazy. But that's sort of our relationship with animals today and so Jesus is really saying let me paraphrase. You know it's not right to take the children's food and give it to the little puppies. She could have been offended by that but I think she knew exactly what was going on. She could see the love in his eyes. She could see the little bit of a smile on his face.

So she comes back with this classic response. Look at verse 28. That's true Lord but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children's plate. Hey Lord even some of your leftover power is more than enough for me.

Guess what? That woman just passed the test with flying colors. And it reminds us that the Lord will be found by us if we will seek Him according to Jeremiah 29. Look at what Jesus says in verse 29.

He says good answer. Now go home for the demon has left your daughter. I think the disciples' jaws must have dropped to the ground. They're thinking yeah get this woman out of here. You don't want to help her. And he makes a statement to her and she responds to God.

What is going on here? And then he says good answer. Your prayers answered. Good answer.

Isn't that great? Why this sudden transformation? He goes from ignoring her to answering her prayer. Answer because of her persistence, tenacity, and commitment. The door is shut in her face and she just keeps knocking.

She won't give up. She had an amazing faith and she would not go home without an answer. What an example for us to remember to keep praying for our children. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now who has a son or a daughter who's taken a prodigal turn. By the way, both of my sons, and as you know one of my sons is in heaven, and the other one is here in ministry today, Jonathan. But both of them were prodigals for a time. Maybe I'm talking to a parent with a prodigal. Maybe I'm talking to a prodigal. And I just want you to know that you're breaking your parents' hearts. And you need to come back to the Lord again. Because whatever you're chasing after, you know it's not going to satisfy you. You're going to come to the end of it. And I hope you don't come to the end of it at the end of your life and throw your life away. Come back to Jesus.

And I'll tell you how to do that in a few moments. But you know, Billy and Ruth Graham had a prodigal. His name was Franklin. Oh yeah, we know Franklin Graham is a man who's used powerfully by God today and travels around the world and helps people and preaches the gospel. And he is that, but he used to be a prodigal.

And he drank and he smoked and he drove too fast in town and lived a rebellious life. And his parents never gave up. And imagine, who could have better parents than Billy and Ruth Graham? I mean, they're such godly people. But they just kept praying.

And Franklin came back to the Lord. Don't give up on your children. Or the devil will whisper in your ear and he'll say, Oh, it's too late for your kids.

They'll never change. Don't listen to him. He's a liar and he's the father of lies. Shortly after our son Christopher went to be with the Lord, a lady actually came up to me and said, You know, Pastor Greg, I wish I was in your shoes because you know your son is in heaven, but my child, my adult child is rebelling against the Lord and I wish they were in heaven rather than me having to have this anguish. And let's just say I sharply corrected her.

And I said, Don't ever say that. And by the way, your child is not beyond the reach of God. Don't give up on them. Keep praying for them. And by the way, you know you're praying according to the will of God when you're praying for someone to come to or come back to the Lord.

You say, How do you know that, Greg? Because the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. It's the heart of God to see people come to him or come back to him. God loves these people and he wants to reach them and he wants to reach them for you. So our message is almost done here.

Let's conclude. What do we learn from this story? Number one, faith is often found in the most unexpected places, isn't it? Again, faith is found in the most unexpected and unusual places. Listen, it is grace, not the place that makes a person a believer.

Let me say that again. It's grace, not the place. You know, one would not have expected a person with faith like this woman who was in another country, a country that was filled with the enemies of Israel, a woman who was steeped in pagan idolatry to be someone of great faith. I mean, in contrast, Simon Peter, who was Jewish, was told by Jesus he had little faith. Jesus said to him, Oh Peter, why do you have such little faith? And yet here is this woman, a Gentile woman outside of God's covenant and he commends her faith.

There's two times Jesus publicly commended faith and do you know both of them were people who weren't actually Jewish? The other person was a Roman centurion. Now to be a centurion, that was a big deal. You're an officer in the Roman army. You had around 100 people under your command.

Very powerful. You told people what to do and they did it. So a Roman soldier at his sixth servant and he comes to Jesus and says, Will you heal my servant? Jesus says, Sure, I'll come home and heal him.

And he says, Well Lord, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. Look, I'm a guy in command. I tell this guy to go do this and he does it. I tell this other guy to do something else and he does it. Just speak the word and it'll be done.

I don't need you to come and lay your hand on him. Just speak the word. And Jesus says in Matthew 8, 10, Assuredly I say, I have not found such great faith, no, not even in Israel. He's like, Whoa, this guy's amazing faith.

Just like the woman in the story before us. Number two, no matter what, bring your problems to Jesus. Nothing will shock him. Nothing will surprise him. You might say, Well, Greg, I'm just unworthy to approach God.

I hate to break this to you. You were never worthy to approach God. Yeah, but what about that day that I went to church twice and I read 10 chapters of the Bible and I shared the gospel with someone and I was fasting too. Hey, you know what, you were not worthy to approach God on that day.

And so this is not about worthiness. This is about the grace of God. Remember the woman said, Have mercy on me. Thirdly, when you pray, seek to find the will of God. Align yourself with it and pray with persistence. Again, as I said, you know you're praying according to the will of God when you're praying for someone to come to or come back to Jesus Christ. So keep praying, don't give up. Jesus said, Men are always to pray and not give up.

Let me say this in closing. Jesus went way out of His way to reach this woman. She had an appointment with Jesus. I don't know if it showed up on her calendar that day but it was there. Do you have an appointment with Jesus right now?

Maybe you tuned into this by accident or maybe someone told you to tune in or however you are watching this. You don't have a relationship with God and you don't know how to have a relationship with God. Let me tell you how now. Understand this, God loves you. God wants to forgive you of all of your sin but there's nothing you can do to make this right.

Living a good life, being a nice person, nothing. You're always gonna fall short of God and His glory but here's the good news. 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ came to this earth on a rescue mission to die on the cross. Oh, with Christmas approaching, we love to think of Jesus as a little baby there and the manger and that's all true.

But listen to this. The nativity or the birth of Christ or the incarnation happened so there would be the crucifixion. We don't wanna think of the baby growing up to be a man and dying on a cross. We almost think of that as an aberration and the beautiful story.

No, it was the whole purpose of the story. This child was born to die that we may live. Christ died on the cross four years in. He took the judgment that should have come upon you and upon me, upon Himself and He rose again from the dead three days later. And listen, He stands at the door of your life right now and He knocks and says if you'll hear His voice and open the door, He will come in.

Jesus went out of His way to reach this woman. He wants to reach you right now. He wants to forgive you right now. You can come into a relationship with Him and have all of your sin forgiven.

I mentioned prodigals earlier. Maybe I'm talking to a prodigal and if you don't know what I mean by that, I mean someone that walked with the Lord at one time but now you've walked away from Him and I bet you're pretty empty inside. Now maybe you haven't said it out loud but you are because you know how it can be. You know what it's like to walk with the Lord and what it can be? You know what it's like to wake up in the morning without guilt racking you or having a hangover? You know what it's like to gather together with God's people and worship the Lord and hear the Word of God but you push that all out of your life and you chase after other things and you've already seen the emptiness of it.

You can come back to Jesus right now. You might ask, well, how do I do this? You call out to Him.

What did this woman do? She called out to Jesus and the Bible says, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You say, but how do I call out to Him? Do you have His number?

Can I text Him? No, no, you call out in prayer and in a moment, I would like to lead you in a prayer where you would ask Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sin. So listen, if you want Jesus to forgive you of your sin, if you wanna know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you wanna start this new relationship with Him or if you're a prodigal son or daughter and you wanna come back to the Lord, pray this prayer with me.

In fact, you could even pray it out loud. Just pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the Savior. I believe you died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Now Jesus, come into my life. I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and friend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast and to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you wanna find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you wanna find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D.org.