Live with Lon - God Deals with the Desperate

Well, hello, everybody. So good to have you with us and live with Lon this week. And we've got a wonderful passage of Scripture to talk about. We've got a wonderful biblical lesson to apply to our life.

So I'm very excited about our passage this week. But just before we get into that, I don't want to take much time, but I know many of us out there listening. Probably have no idea who Jackie Gleason even is. And probably very few of us have ever actually heard him say how sweet it is.

So here's the deal. In less than 60 seconds, Jackie Gleason was the star of a sitcom called The Honeymooners with Art Carney and some other actors and actresses that was a massive hit. Back in the 50s and 60s. And then he was dropped from the network in New York. They canceled his show. And he tried to get back on network TV and couldn't do it.

Anyway, he moved to Miami and there he was able to get the network to put him back on with a variety show called The Jackie Gleason Show. And when he came out the very first time in front of the live audience in Miami, they gave him such a rousing welcome that it overwhelmed him. And it had been so long since he'd been in front of the lights and the camera and the audience that spontaneously he kind of grabbed his tie and said, how sweet it is. And then that became a mantra for him. Every week he would do it.

Here's a little clip that I put together to show you a couple examples of him doing it so that you can relate to what I'm talking about when I do it. Watch. Oh, sweet it is. Oh, sweet it is. Oh, sweet it is. And away we go.

So now you know what how sweet it is is all about. Okay, we're going to get into our passage now. Let's pray. Dear Father, I thank you so much for the privilege of studying the Word of God today. I thank you so much for the richness and the beauty of the Word of God and for how it instructs us in our relationship with God.

Teaching us about you, teaching us about how to approach you as we're going to talk about today. So Lord, use your word in our life today in a massive way. And I also pray against this coronavirus. Lord, I just had a very good friend that I've known since Bible college days die. He was a pastor in Georgia die this past week of coronavirus.

And I was just so sad. God, I just pray for his family that you would give them comfort. And I pray against this dreaded disease that you would quickly give us a vaccine or several of them and treatments that will work.

In the meantime, protect us, dear God, from this very dangerous disease. And now as we open the Word of God, we look to you to guide us to be our teacher, to open our heart and illuminate our spirit that we might understand the Word of God. And I pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen.

Okay. Well, as you know, we are tracking our way through the Gospels right now here on Live with Lon. And we're in Matthew chapter 15. And we're going to skip the beginning of Matthew 15 because we've already talked about it earlier in Matthew, where Jesus talks about it's not what goes in a man that defiles him or into a woman that defiles her, but what comes out of their heart. There's a beautiful line in here where Jesus says, Leave them alone.

They're blind guides of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, they'll both fall into a pit. Very famous saying of Jesus. But we're going to move on past that to a passage that I'm afraid is seldomly preached on, seldomly referred to, and that many, many people, I'm afraid, don't even know who the Syrophoenician woman is in the Gospels. This story, this passage is only in Matthew and Mark. It's not in Luke and John, but it's a wonderful, wonderful passage.

So, well, without any further delay, why don't we get into it? And I'm, of course, using the New King James version of the Bible. And we're going to be in Chapter 15, beginning at verse 21.

All right, here we go. Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. He's referred to Tyre and Sidon once before, if you remember. He said, Woe, woe to you, Chorazin and Bethsaida, for if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented.

Do you remember that? Yeah. OK, well, Tyre and Sidon were two Phoenician cities. They were displaced Canaanites from the time of Joshua, who migrated north into what is today Lebanon. And they're two cities that exist even to this day in Lebanon. So Jesus goes north from the Sea of Galilee to these Gentile cities.

All right. And behold, a woman of Canaan. You say, why? She's not from. She's from Lebanon.

Yeah, but remember, I told you these were Canaanites who had migrated north at the time of Joshua. A woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon possessed. Now, if you read in Mark's gospel, Mark says that she came forward and fell at Jesus's feet and cried out, Have mercy on me. And she calls him Lord. And she calls him the son of David, which was, of course, a title for the Messiah. So here we have this Gentile woman who is obviously a believer. She's heard about Jesus. She's obviously a believer in the Lord Jesus, calling him Lord and Messiah and coming to him. An amazing thing that someone living in this Gentile land would have embraced him as their Lord and Messiah. So you would think that he would immediately say, Oh, this is great. So good to see you, a Gentile who believes.

And what can I do for you? But that is not what happens. Look, verse 23. But Jesus answered her, not a word. And his disciples said they came to him and urged him, saying, Send her away, for she cries out after us. This woman who came to Jesus, Jesus completely ignores her. He doesn't even say, No, I won't do it.

He doesn't say, Yes, I'll do it. Doesn't say anything to her. Just acts like she's not even there. Which is the greatest insult of all is to just ignore someone. And it's obvious that she didn't give up after the first try because the disciples say, Lord, she's screaming after us.

You know, this is embarrassing. She's just following us, maybe even crawling on her knees as Jesus walks and screaming out and crying out. And Jesus doesn't even answer her. And look, the disciples say, Lord, please do something.

This is this is embarrassing, as I said. But he answered and said to her, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, was she of the house of Israel?

No. Was she a lost sheep from the house of Israel? No, she was a lost sheep, but she didn't belong to the house of Israel. She was a Gentile, a former Canaanite by genealogy, the Bible tells us. And so not only first does Jesus ignore her, but now he's going to insult her.

Watch this. She came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread. Now, who are the children? Well, the Israelites, the children of God by birth from descendants of Abraham.

Right. It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. Kelev is the word in in Hebrew, and it means a little dog. Now, even today, in Arab society, in Middle Eastern society, the lowest thing that you can call someone is a dog. You call an Arab man a dog and you better watch out because that is like the ultimate insult to a Middle Eastern person. And it was even in the days of Jesus and routinely the rabbis referred to Gentiles as dogs.

And this was meant as an insult. And so Jesus insults this woman. First he ignores her and then he insults her and says, it's not appropriate for me to take what belongs to Israelites and throw it to a Kelev, to a little dog like you, a Gentile.

Wow. You see, this doesn't sound like Jesus. I mean, this is not the Jesus I know. The Jesus I know is kind. The Jesus I know is respectful.

The Jesus I know is compassionate. He doesn't call people dogs. Well, he did hear and say, I don't understand. Why would he do that? Ah, ah, good question.

I'll tell you why. Watch. Verse 26. And he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs like you. Now watch. And she said, true, Lord.

You're absolutely right. But even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. She's been humiliated now. And she says, yes, Lord, you're right. I am a dog. But even the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the table. I don't present myself as an Israelite who's entitled to this, who's worthy of you doing this for my child. But Lord, if you can just give me some crumbs.

Just some crumbs that fall off the table accidentally. I'll take those, Lord. Wow.

Now watch. And Jesus answered and said to her, Oh, woman, great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. What a wonderful passage of scripture.

What a wonderful woman. You know, what a wonderful event, this interaction between her and Jesus. And you say, yeah, but, Lon, I still have a problem with Jesus being so mean to her and so unkind to her.

Oh, wait a minute. Jesus did it for a reason. You know why he did it?

It's very simple, folks. Jesus did it to pull out of her what he knew was in her and put it on display for the disciples to see and for you and me to see. And what was this that he wanted to pull out of her that would not have been so obvious if he just immediately said, sure, I'll heal your daughter.

No, no. By insulting her and by ignoring her and by calling her a dog and humiliating her, he caused to come out of her a quality that was in her that is so important and precious to God that he did those things to make sure it came out of her and went on public display before us and the disciples. And what was it that he was trying to pull out of her that he knew was in her? Very simply, humility. Humility. And he wanted that humility to go on broad public display for us all to see so that we would understand something, so that we would understand that God deals with people who have humility, that the way to unlock the mercy of God is humility. The way to unlock the grace of God is humility.

The way to unlock the compassion of God is humility. And that's what he wanted to pull out of this woman. I entitled this message God deals with the desperate. This woman was desperate. She was so desperate that when Jesus didn't immediately answer her, she kept crying out and following him, maybe on her knees.

I don't know. She was so desperate that she wouldn't take no for an answer. She was so desperate that she allowed the Lord to ignore her and insult her and humiliate her in front of everybody to call her a dog. But she was so desperate, she didn't care.

And God dealt with her. Now, that's as far as we want to go in the passage today. But we want to ask our most important question. And what is that question? Well, you know it. So are you ready? Come on now.

One, two, three. So what? Oh, yes.

I hope that you scream that in your head, even if you didn't out loud. And now that we've seen Jackie do it, we need to do it. Ready? I've only been back a couple weeks since my surgery, and I want to tell you to be back teaching the Word of God.

Ready? What do we say? How sweet it is. How sweet it is.

You bet. Okay, so here's our passage. God deals with the desperate. Now, why won't God deal with the people who are not desperate?

Well, it's very simple. God will deal with them. God will deal with anybody who comes to Him on His terms. It's just that undesperate, nondesperate people will not usually come to God on His terms. But the nature of man, our sinful human nature is such that we will not come to God on the terms He requires until we get desperate.

And what are the terms He requires? Very simple. Just what this woman did. We have to humble ourselves. We have to come with humility in our heart. You remember what Jesus said? He said it in Luke Chapter 18 at the end of the story of the tax collector and the publican who beat on his breast. The publican did and, you know, said, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner at the very end of that passage. Luke Chapter 18, verse 14. Jesus said, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

I mean, how can you say it any simpler than that? This is the this is the magic formula, if you will, the supernatural formula for unlocking the mercy of God, the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, the compassion of God. We come humble. Remember what James and Peter both said? God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the what?

To the humble. And and look at Isaiah. I'm reading to you Isaiah 66 now from the NIV. This is what the Lord says. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me?

Where will be my resting place? Has not my hand made all these things? And so by my hand they came into being, declares the Lord. But this is the one I esteem. Look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word.

I could go on and on and on. I could fill hours of going through the Bible and giving you example after example of people who humbled themselves before God. And God showed them grace and mercy, even though they were wicked people in some cases. Ahab, King Ahab did it. You know, the husband of Jezebel and God at the end of his life showed him mercy as wicked as he was, the Bible says.

King Manasseh, the wickedest king that Judah ever had, did it at the end of his life in Second Chronicles. And God showed him mercy. So humility.

But we normally won't show it till we're desperate. That's just the way the human sinful spirit is. Now, remember what I always say to you.

A preacher is no good if he doesn't tell you so what and how. So we've talked about so what. One to unlock the mercy, the grace, the compassion, the answered prayers from God, we come how? Humble.

Yeah. Now let's talk about how. How are we humble? What are the mechanics of humility? What does humility look like biblically? Well, very simply, there are two components. One is a spiritual component on the inside and the other is more of a physical component on the outside.

You ready? The first component on the inside is a person who is humble, is a person who before a holy God is broken and repentant and mournful of their sin and of their lukewarmness before God and of their iniquity before God and of the uncleanness of their heart and mind before God. This is a person who is grieved before God about their sin on the inside. And this is what we just read. Let's go back.

Let's put it on the screen. Let's go back to Isaiah 66 and verse two. This is the one I esteem, God says, he who is humble, watch and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. To be contrite means to be broken hearted, a means to be mournful in our spirit about our sin. David said in Psalm 51, this is the person that God will not despise, he who has a broken and a contrite heart over their sin.

This is the element number one. We have to have that, not that boastful and arrogant attitude that is so easy for our flesh, our sinful flesh to have that acts like we are the king of the world. No, no, no, no. We have to come like the tax collector did in Luke 18 and we'll talk about that pastor when we get there. But he beat on his breast. And in contrast to the rabbi, he didn't say, Lord, look at me, I've done this, I've tied this. No, he just said, oh, God, the Bible said he wouldn't even look up at heaven. He just said, oh, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. This is a broken and a contrite heart. And this is why Jesus said that the tax collector went down to his house justified before God. Folks, usually we have to get desperate to come to God like that. But we don't have to be desperate.

We can decide that we're going to come to God like that each and every day and ask him to give us a broken heart over our sin. Number two, the outward part, the more outward part of being humble is, well, what's pride? Let's define the outward part of pride and then just reverse it. Pride is depending on ourself. Pride is depending on our own self-effort. Pride is depending on our own works and our own ability to fix and solve our problems. Pride is self-congratulatory. Look at me, what I did. Pride takes the credit.

Look at me. You know, I take the credit. This is pride. So what is humility? Humility is the opposite. You know, humility is a person who doesn't seek to rely on himself. He relies on God. Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will trust in the Lord our God.

There you go. Pride is depends on self-effort and self-help. Therefore, humility does not depend on self-effort and self-help. It depends on God. Even if we have to do something like make a phone call to an agent at the airlines or whatever we have to do, we pray first and say, Lord Jesus, please prepare their heart to hear my case. I'm not depending on my debating skills with this agent.

I'm depending on your grace in her heart. This is humility. Humility is not self-congratulatory and it is not something that takes the credit for self.

Humility honestly means we give the credit to God. And so many times, you know, you'll meet people and they'll you'll say, oh, you did a great job. That was wonderful.

And they'll go, no, no, no, no, no. It was a team effort. No, no, no.

The Lord helped me. But the truth is in our heart. We're going like this. We got our chest out and we're like, yes, it really was something. But we're no, no, no.

But on the inside, we're like, yes, yes, no, no, no. True humility is not that like that on the outside and it's not self-congratulatory on the inside. It's like only by God's grace, only by God's grace. This is what Paul said. You know, he said in First Corinthians 15, but by the grace of God, I am what I am.

And he meant that wasn't him. And he didn't want to take the credit for it. But he gave the credit to God both outside with people and in his heart. So, folks, this is humility. It means being broken over our sin before a holy God, grieving over our sin before a holy God, eating our breast like this woman got on her knees and worshiped the Lord.

And it means not deploying, not relying on ourselves, not relying on our effort, not relying on our own smarts and not taking the credit for anything that God might do for us, but giving it to him. And this woman came to Jesus not relying on herself. You say, well, maybe she knew better. She knew she couldn't.

She's not able to heal her daughter. That's right. That's right.

You're right. But she came to him and depended on the Lord because she was desperate. And that's what made her desperate is she knew she couldn't do anything. Now, let me just say in closing, God deals with the desperate because the desperate are the humble. You don't have to be desperate to be humble. And that's what I want to appeal to you and me. We can humble ourselves before God without being desperate. We can make a conscious decision that we're going to come to God to the best of our ability with humility, brokenness over our sin, total dependence on God, not laying hands on on the ark, meaning not taking the credit for anything God does. We can make up our mind and ask God to help us be those kind of people if we want. And that's my challenge to you and me. Let's we don't let's not wait till we get desperate. We can be those kind of people.

But most people who haven't heard this message and haven't thought the issues through most of the time, it's when they're desperate. Let me just close by saying, you know, as you know, I have a daughter named Jill who severely has severe disabilities and intellectual disabilities, mostly seizures, physical disabilities. And I remember in 2000, she lost the ability to walk, which she's gotten back. Praise the Lord. She lost the ability to feed herself, which she's gotten back. Praise the Lord. She lost the ability to even sit up in a chair or sit up straight on the floor, which she's gotten back.

Praise the Lord. But when we took her to see our doctor in December, he said, you know, Lon, I just think the seizures have caught up with Jill because she had had probably 5000 grand mal seizures by then. She would have 6, 8, 10 every day, every day and at night. And he said, I just think they've caught up with her, Lon. And then after Brenda left the room and took Jill out, he said, you know, my doctor said this to me.

He said, you know, if you have any final arrangements that you need to make for Jill, he said, I think I would go ahead and make them. A doctor said that to me. So this was not, this was not just a passing thing. This was dire. And I remember I came home and I was desperate for the life of my daughter.

Desperate. And I came up here to my study and I fell on my chair, on my knees, with my head on my chair. And when my arms stretched out and I cried out to God, oh, God, please spare the life of my child. Oh, God, please heal my child.

God, please give me back the life of this child. And I wept. I was desperate.

I was desperate. I was like, I know I'm a sinner, God. I know I do so many things wrong. And Lord, I'm so sorry. But please don't punish my daughter because of me. And I said, Lord, if you do this, I'll always give you the credit. Never the medicine, nothing. And I'm here today to tell you God answered that prayer. And my daughter is almost twenty nine years old.

She was eight at the time. And I give the credit to God today and every day. I give the credit to God and friends. I know God didn't do it because I'm a righteous man. I'm not a righteous man. I'm only a righteous man because Jesus's blood covers me. But in the flesh, I'm a sinner. Like I feel like Peter. Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinner. I feel like Paul. First Timothy one. I am the cheapest of sinners.

Yeah. And I confess that openly to you and to the Lord. But I was desperate. And God answered.

Not because I was desperate, but because I was on my knees humbling myself before him. And I've tried since then to always remember if I can come to God that same way in everything of life. God will give me mercy because this is who he esteems.

The one who is humble and contrite of heart and who trembles at my word. Folks, you, me, let's be those kind of people in our everyday relationship with God. Without God having to make us desperate to teach us that lesson.

Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your word today. And Lord, remind us that you deal with the desperate because the desperate are humble. And they come to you with humility. And it's humility that you honor, not desperation, but humility. It's just that most of us won't get there till we get desperate. But, Lord, we can get there without being desperate. And I pray that's what you would help us to do.

Help us learn from this woman. Lord, you pulled this humility out of her to teach us how to come to you and, Lord, how to access and activate your mercy and your grace. So change the very way we come to you. And we relate to you because of our time in the word of God today. And we pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen. OK, well, thank you so much for being with us. And, Lord willing, when the creek don't rise, we will see you next week on Live With Life. Thank you.