Thompsonville Worship Hour

Self Actualized By Faith

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: TWH

Program Code: TWH180825A


00:31 Matthew 15:21,
00:36 shall we pray?
00:38 Father God,
00:40 into Your hands now we commend ourselves
00:43 and asked you
00:46 to feed us with Your Word,
00:50 teach us those things that would have us to know
00:52 and then enable us Lord to do them
00:56 that in so doing
00:59 we may be children of the Most High God.
01:03 In Jesus' name, amen.
01:06 Matthew 15, begin with me if you will at verse 21.
01:09 The Bible says, "Then Jesus went out from there
01:12 and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon."
01:16 I'm reading from the New King James.
01:18 'And behold, a woman of Canaan
01:22 came from that region and cried out to Him, saying,
01:25 "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!
01:30 My daughter is severely demon-possessed.'
01:35 But he answered her not a word.
01:37 And His disciples came and urged Him, saying,
01:40 'Send her away,
01:44 for she cries out after us.'
01:48 But he answered and said,
01:50 'I was not sent except to the lost sheep
01:54 of the house of Israel.'
01:57 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying,
02:02 'Lord, help me!'
02:06 But he answered and said,
02:08 'It is not good to take the children's bread
02:12 and throw it to the little dogs.'
02:17 And she said, 'Yes, Lord,
02:21 yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs
02:24 which fall on the master's table.'
02:29 Then Jesus answered and said to her
02:31 'O woman,
02:33 great is your faith!
02:37 Let it be to you as you desire.'
02:41 And her daughter was healed
02:43 from that very hour.'"
02:47 This self same story is written
02:52 in the Gospel of Mark 7.
02:58 And we will go back and forth between the two
03:01 in order to get as clear and understanding
03:03 of what is happening as is possible.
03:08 But I want to deal today
03:10 with an aspect of spiritual growth
03:14 that is not doctrinal per se,
03:18 nor the doctrinaire,
03:20 nor is it even part of
03:22 what we might call systematic theology.
03:26 It is rather
03:29 an issue of spiritual quality of life.
03:34 Or we might say quality of spiritual life.
03:39 And since this sayonara sermons
03:44 are supposed to leave some sort of legacy.
03:48 I should like us to ruminate
03:50 on this demonstration of faith
03:56 that was so exemplary
03:59 that Christ said something about it
04:03 only two times interestingly enough in the New Testament.
04:07 And both times they were said
04:11 to or about non Jews.
04:17 And I must question myself
04:20 if I am there yet.
04:22 And perhaps you will have occasion to do the same.
04:26 So I'm calling it actualized faith.
04:31 In short it is
04:32 Christ praised faith.
04:37 While I was in school,
04:39 I stayed around long enough to get
04:42 an additional bachelor's in Behavioral Sciences,
04:46 and there's nothing to be impressed about,
04:48 I don't think there is more useless degree
04:53 than a B.S. in Behavioral Science.
04:56 Can't do anything with it.
04:58 It's not enough of anything to follow in that path.
05:03 It's a little sociology, a little psychology,
05:05 a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.
05:08 But to my mind it's not a degree
05:12 you can do much with B.S.
05:14 or B.A in Behavioral Sciences and...
05:22 So for our discussions what I want to leave with you
05:25 comes out of what little I remember
05:29 of my behavioral scientist studies.
05:37 Let me toss a name at you, Dr Abraham Maslow.
05:42 Now that name may not be familiar to you,
05:45 but what he brought to psychology probably is.
05:48 He was one of the more eminent psychologists
05:52 of the 19th and early 20th century.
05:56 So Abraham Maslow and Sigmund Freud
06:01 who are both humanistic psychologists
06:04 really left their mark on psychology.
06:08 Now I need to say this, psychology
06:10 is a rather new science.
06:14 It's because we want to blend this all together
06:16 just a little bit.
06:17 It is only about a 150 years old.
06:20 Now that ought to tell you something about psychology
06:23 if that does not
06:26 the first psychologist Wilhelm Wundt,
06:31 sounds like William Wharf, was a German guy
06:35 who opened up a laboratory in 1882
06:41 that I'll tell you something else.
06:44 From 1844 be close of the 2300 days
06:49 to about World War I
06:54 there was a reaction in this country
06:56 and across the world
06:58 against what we call the second great awakening.
07:03 Second great awakening was a religious consciousness
07:07 that took over the world in the wake of the 2300 days
07:12 that made men and women sensitive to the need for God.
07:18 And the pendulum Satan saw would swing back the other way
07:21 because in those years between 1844-1917
07:27 a number of things happened.
07:29 Darwinism, Fascism, Marxism,
07:34 Communism, Utopianism, Dystopianism,
07:37 which we'll come back to in just a little bit.
07:39 All of them in reaction against God
07:43 and man's leaning towards God,
07:48 that's a religious movement
07:50 that I get tossed in there also,
07:51 got to hold on that
07:52 'cause we don't want to poison anybody's mind.
07:55 Psychology popped up
07:58 about the late 1880's as a science.
08:03 But in the legacy
08:06 of this reaction against God.
08:10 Maslow, Freud some of these other
08:15 humanistic psychologists
08:18 never included God in any of their studies,
08:22 in any of their practices,
08:23 and were for the most part agnostic
08:26 or outright atheist.
08:28 Hold on to me, more to come.
08:33 Freud said,
08:36 "Love, work, work
08:39 and love that's all there is."
08:44 He also said,
08:47 "Your parents ruin the first part of your life
08:52 and your children will ruin the rest."
09:01 That's why the world is in such a shambles.
09:07 Maslow is known for what he calls
09:12 the hierarchy of needs.
09:15 You may have studied this in school.
09:17 Maslow says, men and women all have basic needs,
09:23 they are ranked in a certain order
09:25 and that order chooses
09:27 how those needs must be met.
09:33 If we are to achieve any level of what he calls status,
09:39 or equilibrium,
09:40 or what he calls self actualization
09:45 there is an order of needs that have to be met.
09:50 First, he says our physiological need.
09:55 You put a man on the island,
09:57 what are the most important things
09:59 that he has to have.
10:02 One, food, the physiological necessity.
10:06 Two, water, the physiological necessity.
10:11 Three, sleep, a physiological necessity.
10:15 These needs he says are fundamental to survival.
10:21 If you don't get these needs met,
10:24 you will die, including sleep.
10:29 If you are severely sleep deprived, you can die.
10:34 No oxygen, you die quickly.
10:37 No water, you die slowly.
10:40 No food, you die slowly.
10:42 No sleep, a slow death.
10:46 Maslow said,
10:49 "If a person has been starved
10:52 of these essential needs,
10:55 all of their energy is devoted to getting his needs met
10:59 and getting them met first."
11:02 You're alone and by yourself,
11:04 the first thing you want to do is get fed.
11:07 Amen.
11:09 Yeah, got to get fed.
11:11 You don't get fed, you die.
11:14 Then you got to get water.
11:16 You don't drink, you will die.
11:20 The next level of needs
11:21 which are still basically biological
11:24 or physiological, he says, is for safety or shelter.
11:30 You studied this stuff in school.
11:32 Yeah, the Maslow's hierarchy of needs
11:35 and has dominated all psychological thoughts
11:37 since he put this out.
11:40 He says, "Human beings desire a relatively stable
11:44 and secure environment to protect them
11:47 from the elements, inclement weather,
11:50 predators, other human beings,
11:54 things that could do us harm,
11:56 that's why American spend some $20.6 billion
12:00 every year on home and office security.
12:04 Doorbells, and lights, and whistles
12:06 and all kinds of things because we desire to be safe.
12:11 You cannot really relax
12:14 unless you are safe
12:19 which is why most people when they buy a new house,
12:22 the first thing they do is change the locks.
12:29 Dr. Elden Chalmers, an Adventist psychologist says,
12:34 "When a woman is considering marrying a man,
12:38 one factor is,
12:41 will this guy look out for me
12:44 and keep me safe."
12:48 Amen.
12:50 Yeah, that's want they want to know.
12:51 Can you handle the job of keeping me safe?
12:57 Now men look out for other stuff.
13:02 But women want to know, can he keep me safe?
13:05 Can he take care of me?
13:07 Can he support me?
13:09 Now it is true that a small number of women
13:13 like dating wild men,
13:18 but dating and being married
13:21 is not the same thing.
13:24 Amen.
13:26 Nobody wants to spend all of their life,
13:28 their entire life on the wild side.
13:32 And though it may be fun at 18 or 19
13:35 to date an atavistic barbarian,
13:39 you don't want to be married to one.
13:43 You don't want to bring Tarzan home.
13:52 When you get married,
13:54 you need consistency, amen,
13:59 sanity
14:03 and security.
14:06 How about that, Pastor.
14:08 Yeah, you want consistency,
14:12 sanity, and security.
14:18 You may want to date the Tasmanian devil,
14:22 but not spend your life with it.
14:29 Next come social needs.
14:32 They include the need to belong.
14:37 This is one of the reasons why kids join gangs,
14:40 even bad gangs because there is in us
14:44 and in a intrinsic need to belong to something.
14:49 And also why people who join the church
14:51 and get baptized in the church
14:53 tend to live longer than those who do not.
14:59 Amen.
15:01 And you want to add a couple of years
15:02 and make them good years, join a church.
15:11 One of the reasons why people stay
15:13 even in abusive relationships
15:17 because there is in us
15:18 a need to belong to something,
15:23 to belong to someone, to be part of something.
15:28 That's why people retire after a long working career
15:31 and come to 3ABN in their retirement years
15:36 because there is a need to belong to something,
15:39 particularly something that is bigger than us.
15:45 Let me add
15:49 that when we belong,
15:55 we actually grow.
15:58 Once you leave the physiological stuff,
16:02 we move into what Maslow calls
16:07 cognitive realities.
16:11 Now really this is
16:14 the image of God stuff.
16:16 But he was too much of a humanist to admit that
16:18 so he called it cognitive.
16:22 That is why this need to belong
16:25 that is why being married on face
16:28 is better than being alone.
16:32 And the church said...
16:36 Somebody ought to say amen.
16:39 Yeah, being married
16:41 on face is better
16:44 than being alone.
16:47 To it, a mate that is a spouse
16:52 who is long and strong on support
16:55 and encouragement,
16:58 and light on criticism
17:02 worth their weight in gold.
17:05 Let me add obiter dictum,
17:11 if a person doesn't love you,
17:15 they forfeit the right to criticize you.
17:21 Did you hear what I said?
17:25 If a person does not love you,
17:28 they forfeit the right to criticize you.
17:33 Amen.
17:36 Jesus or rather John
17:39 notes in Revelation 3:19,
17:44 quoting the words of Jesus,
17:45 "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten,
17:50 but I get the right to rebuke and chasten you
17:53 because I love you."
17:56 So even Christ puts it in perspective,
17:58 as many as I love, I correct.
18:01 And Ellen White says, Christ uttered the most,
18:02 His most scathing rebukes with tears in His eyes,
18:05 those tears were love.
18:07 Sometimes, you forgive my pejorative of English,
18:09 stuff has to be said.
18:13 Sometimes you got to straighten stuff out.
18:16 Amen.
18:19 But do it in love.
18:21 Why?
18:23 Oh, why would anybody take counsel,
18:26 much less criticism from somebody that hates them?
18:34 Amen.
18:41 The fourth
18:44 is the need for esteem.
18:47 Now Maslow calls these cognitive.
18:51 But really these are God given desires that are in all of us.
18:55 Everybody needs to belong,
18:58 everybody needs to love and being loved,
19:00 and forget this iron man stuff, I am a rock, I am an island,
19:04 I don't need anybody, I can do it by myself.
19:08 Oh, you can't.
19:13 So the next level that God put in us
19:16 is the need for esteem.
19:21 Everybody needs affirmation, Shelley.
19:25 We all need affirmation.
19:27 JD call them attaboys.
19:32 We don't say attaboy in New York,
19:33 but I understand what he meant.
19:36 Everybody needs to be encouraged, don't you?
19:41 Everybody needs to feel
19:44 that at least one person
19:47 feels that they are worth something.
19:51 Amen.
19:52 We all have that need.
19:54 Somebody's got that feel that you're worth something
19:58 or you begin to question
20:01 your own worth.
20:04 Guess what marriage is for?
20:06 Go outside and get your head whipped,
20:08 you got to come home, have somebody to stroke it.
20:13 Amen.
20:15 Somebody is getting little rough,
20:17 when you're fighting World War I in the street
20:20 and then you come home and it's World War II.
20:27 Yeah, you've got a God given need inside of you
20:30 for somebody to value you.
20:35 It's part of life.
20:38 It is a basic psychological need.
20:43 And we all have it.
20:45 We all have a desire to be good at something.
20:50 Amen.
20:51 Everybody wants to know that they're good at something.
20:57 The problem is,
21:00 when you are good and you compare your good
21:06 with my not so good, now we got a problem.
21:13 Nothing wrong with being good and knowing you're good.
21:17 Because if you don't know you have a gift,
21:19 then you have no push to improve that gift.
21:24 That's all right to know that you're good.
21:27 Just don't compare your good with my good.
21:31 'Cause my good ain't good as your good.
21:33 But that doesn't matter
21:35 because God asked me to do the best
21:37 with what I got just like you do the best
21:39 with what you got.
21:41 Amen.
21:43 Nothing wrong with knowing you've got a skill
21:45 as long as you don't compare yourself
21:47 to those who don't have that skill
21:50 and don't think that your skill makes you more favorable to God
21:55 because of your skill.
21:57 That make sense?
22:01 Almost another sermon, getting really close.
22:06 Now Maslow added one other element,
22:11 but he was too much of a humanist to realize
22:15 that it was really God consciousness.
22:20 And like most 19th and 20th century psychologists,
22:23 he had no real use for God.
22:25 You look at the list of the top 10
22:27 19th and 20th century psychologists as I said before,
22:30 they're either agnostic or outright atheists.
22:36 Nietzsche said in 1882,
22:40 "God is dead.
22:43 He will remain dead and we have killed Him".
22:48 In the latter half of the 1800s,
22:50 the world suffered through as I said before
22:52 a reaction against the second great awakening.
22:56 And in that time Darwinism,
22:58 Marxism, Communism, Fascism, Utopianism, Dystopianism,
23:03 a humanistic ideologies
23:06 which left to themselves squeezed God out.
23:15 Now here's where things get a bit tricky.
23:19 As I said you before,
23:20 psychology is a fairly recent science.
23:24 Wilhelm Wundt, I kept thinking William Wharf,
23:28 but it's Wilhelm Wundt.
23:30 In 1889 opened the first laboratory
23:34 for studying psychology.
23:38 It is by nature humanistic.
23:43 If you don't believe me, ask Dr. Magna Parks.
23:46 She's no longer Magna Parks,
23:47 she's been remarried since her husband died.
23:49 But she is a PhD in psychology.
23:55 Psychology has developed
23:57 a parallel universe to religion.
24:04 Many say that
24:06 psychology is a religion.
24:12 And God has no place in it.
24:15 Psychology basically is a study of the human mind
24:19 how it functions, its effect on behavior.
24:23 It has many subfields.
24:25 You've got developmental psychology,
24:27 you've got clinical psychology, you've got abnormal psychology,
24:30 you've got functional psychology,
24:32 you've got analytical psychology,
24:33 you've got applied psychology,
24:35 you've got many, many subfields
24:38 to psychological study.
24:41 Here is where the danger lies.
24:45 The goal in life according to Maslow
24:50 and accepted by the vast majority
24:52 of psychologists
24:54 is self actualization.
25:00 Self actualization.
25:04 That put Maslow on a collision course with heaven.
25:08 Because the aim of psychology
25:11 is not sinlessness or salvation,
25:16 it's self actualization.
25:20 Or peace with whatever you are
25:25 and whatever you,
25:27 wherever you find yourself.
25:29 Now if you're connecting dots,
25:31 you can see how that can be problematic.
25:35 Self actualization replaces sin.
25:38 Isn't it interesting how you take almost any word
25:42 in the English language,
25:43 add the word self to it and it becomes a problem.
25:46 Yeah, that's going to be the door
25:48 that Satan uses to get in.
25:50 Pick a word, add self to it, it's going to be a problem.
25:57 Psychologists say and one of the great ones,
26:02 Baruch Spinoza said, "If you're going to have faith
26:07 in anything, have faith in yourself.
26:13 And that sound like a problem to anybody?
26:17 Which by the way is the message of the new age church,
26:20 the emergence church, and contemplative prayer.
26:23 Don't go out, don't go up, go in.
26:29 So the philosopher psychologist said,
26:32 "Faith in God is an illusion.
26:35 A useless dependence on a nonexistent deity.
26:39 You're wasting your time."
26:42 So for many new age psychologists,
26:45 for many humanist psychologists,
26:48 God simply has no place.
26:54 So in their minds,
26:55 faith is fake.
27:00 And if you look at the top ten psychologists
27:02 of the past two centuries, Skinner, Piaget,
27:05 Freud, Bandura,
27:09 Festinger, James, Pavlov.
27:11 Remember, Pavlov and the dogs with the saliva look,
27:14 Rogers, Erikson, Vygotsky, and Maslow,
27:18 none included Christ in anything they had to say,
27:21 in any of their writings or in any of their teachings
27:24 and their minds
27:26 that has dominated psychology.
27:31 So Maslow says here's what we need,
27:35 the ultimate in life is self actualization,
27:40 the total realization of all your potential.
27:45 Ladies and gentlemen, that is fake news.
27:50 It is the ultimate illusion,
27:52 if not the ultimate delusion for a number of reasons.
27:57 Psychology as preached and practiced today
28:00 is devoid of God,
28:02 and I believe a direct and demonic shot at true faith.
28:08 Strong statement.
28:12 Here is why.
28:13 Number one, who can determine
28:16 what your ultimate potential is?
28:19 You?
28:22 How many sitting here today
28:24 think you have reached your ultimate potential?
28:26 You've gone as far as you can go,
28:28 you know as much as you can know.
28:29 You've done everything you can, you cannot get any better,
28:32 you've reached your ultimate potential,
28:34 you have self actualized.
28:36 Anybody willing to stand and make that statement?
28:38 Not me.
28:43 Two,
28:45 who can decide when you've reached it?
28:52 You see, your potential
28:54 is a combination of your education,
28:57 your opportunities, and your drive.
29:00 Some people have education and opportunity,
29:02 they're just lazy.
29:04 They don't get anywhere.
29:06 Some people have drive,
29:08 but never get the education or the opportunity.
29:12 You know, there are some people who can really do some stuff,
29:15 but they don't get encouragement,
29:16 they don't get the education,
29:18 they don't get the opportunities,
29:19 so they never reach potential
29:20 because they just haven't had the opportunity.
29:28 So how can the idea
29:30 of a totally self actuated person
29:33 even make sense outside of God,
29:36 particularly in light of Matthew 16:26?
29:40 What does it profit a man
29:43 to get everything he wants and lose his soul?
29:51 So you're as rich as Mark Zuckerberg.
29:53 Now two weeks ago, Mark Zuckerberg
29:55 lost $90 million.
30:01 He lost $90 million.
30:04 How much money do you have
30:07 so that you can lose 90 million
30:10 and not jump off a building at some place?
30:13 Lost 90 million.
30:15 Most of us will never see 90 million.
30:21 So in Maslow's mindset, Mark Zuckerberg
30:24 because he is famous and rich has self actualized.
30:30 But my question is, is his name written in the book of life.
30:35 So what does it profit a man to be Mark Zuckerberg
30:38 and lose his own self?
30:40 You forgive my pejorative of English,
30:41 that ain't no self actualization in hell.
30:51 So the greatest gift of God to man
30:55 is the way of salvation through Jesus Christ
30:59 and the key to that gift is faith in God.
31:04 Amen.
31:08 In all of your getting,
31:10 you got to get faith or you ain't got nothing.
31:18 Amen.
31:23 So Maslow made the mistake of mentioning some people
31:28 who he thought had reached self actualization,
31:32 they've done it all.
31:35 Baruch Spinoza, philosopher,
31:39 and then what caught my attention,
31:41 he put in there, Aldous Huxley.
31:45 Checking my time.
31:47 You remember who Aldous Huxley is?
31:50 From a rich British Huxley family.
31:54 He wrote the book Brave New World.
31:59 Brave New World was the first
32:01 of what they call the dystopian novels.
32:04 You know what utopia is, that's perfection,
32:07 dystopia is perfection turned upside down.
32:10 It's a world where right is wrong, and wrong is right,
32:13 nothing makes any sense,
32:15 and the government is out to destroy you
32:16 rather than help you.
32:17 Brave New World was the first,
32:20 1984 is the dystopian novel.
32:23 Animal Farm is a dystopian novel.
32:26 Handmaid's Tale, a really grouse novel
32:29 is a dystopian novel.
32:31 Lord of the Flies is a dystopian novel.
32:34 Hunger Games
32:38 is a dystopian novel.
32:42 But Maslow says,
32:45 this guy has reached self actualization.
32:51 Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, a deist,
32:55 Eleanor Roosevelt, and Einstein.
33:00 Einstein did some great stuff.
33:03 My question is, is his name written in the book?
33:09 So can it be that if you're not famous,
33:11 you cannot be so self actualized.
33:14 I am so glad that you can be nothing
33:17 in the eyes of man
33:19 and great in the kingdom of heaven.
33:23 Now there's some of us who have some notoriety.
33:26 People see us on 3ABN,
33:28 but there's nobody here who is famous.
33:32 And if you think you are, look again.
33:36 You're not famous.
33:39 God has given you a position.
33:41 And there comes some disability with that position.
33:45 Forget that famous stuff.
33:50 Fame is an illusion.
33:52 Amen.
33:54 Anybody know who Clara Bow is?
33:57 Nobody.
33:59 One of the most famous actresses of all time.
34:02 Nobody even knows her name.
34:05 It's an illusion.
34:07 It's not real.
34:09 Look what Christ Himself said to Daniel
34:12 when he was homeschooling him in Daniel 10:19,
34:17 "Don't be afraid," the Lord said,
34:20 "for you are very precious to God," that's fame.
34:25 Amen.
34:26 That's what I'd like to hear.
34:28 Don't worry about anything.
34:31 You're very precious to God.
34:33 Very, very precious to God.
34:35 That's from I think the Jerusalem translation.
34:41 Matthew 5:19, "Anyone who obeys God's laws
34:44 and teaches them will be called great
34:47 in the kingdom of heaven."
34:49 It doesn't really matter what you call down here
34:53 as long as your name is written there.
34:57 So Maslow didn't connect the dots on self actualization
35:03 doing what you're supposed to do,
35:05 being where you're supposed to be,
35:07 fulfilling your highest goals can only be found in Jesus.
35:13 Hebrews 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible."
35:20 Paul writes and admonishes the Corinthians
35:22 in 2 Corinthians 8:7,
35:25 trying to get through this quickly.
35:27 But abound in everything and the first thing
35:29 he begins that list with is faith.
35:32 Faith is the PIN number
35:35 to your heavenly bank account.
35:39 That makes sense.
35:41 Yeah, faith is the PIN.
35:43 So you can get in there and get the goodies.
35:46 Ellen White says, "Prayer is the key
35:48 in the hands of faith to unlock heaven's storehouse
35:53 where are treasured
35:54 the boundless riches of omnipotence."
35:58 There's stuff waiting for you, but you need a PIN number
36:01 and faith is your PIN.
36:04 Without the PIN, you can't get in.
36:10 Fifth Volume Testimonies, page 630,
36:13 "God's blessed promises are set
36:17 in a framework of faith."
36:22 Ellen White talks in Early Writings, page 81,
36:24 she is walking along in vision with an angel,
36:26 and the angel handed her a green cord.
36:30 It was wound up very tightly.
36:33 The angel said, "Take this green cord
36:35 and keep it close to your heart."
36:38 The angel said, "But don't let it stay coiled up too long
36:43 because it's going to be difficult
36:44 to straighten out."
36:45 And whenever you want to see Jesus,
36:47 just straighten out that cord to its longest length.
36:51 But don't let it stay coiled up too long
36:53 because the longer it's coiled up,
36:54 the more kinky it gets
36:55 and the harder it is to straighten out.
36:57 She says, "The Lord impressed me
36:59 that that cord was fake."
37:04 Use it often when you want to see Jesus,
37:09 and when you want Jesus to be near to you.
37:16 4 Testimony, 377,
37:18 "Faith is ever interested in others,"
37:21 which was kind of shocking to me.
37:22 I thought really faith was a one-on-one relationship
37:24 between me and God.
37:26 But Ellen White says that true faith
37:27 always has an interest in other people.
37:33 Now in every thesis there must be a case study.
37:38 Now is a sermon, seven minutes.
37:43 Matthew 15:21, put your finger there
37:46 and if you have double marker, you want to go to Mark 7:24
37:51 because they recite the same incident.
37:54 Mark adds some nuances that Matthew does not add.
38:00 And then Matthew adds some explanations
38:03 that Mark does not have.
38:05 When you read the Book of Mark,
38:06 you will know that Mark jumps into miracles right away.
38:09 Not like Matthew, not like Luke,
38:10 certainly not like John,
38:12 Matthew is big on genealogy
38:14 and Jewishness and all that stuff.
38:15 Mark didn't care about any of that,
38:17 he jumps into miracles very first chapter.
38:23 So each gives us some details that only is...
38:26 Now Matthew does not mention that she was Syrophoenician,
38:30 Mark does.
38:31 Mark also affirms
38:33 as does Ellen White that she was Canaanite,
38:35 living in Syrian territory under Phoenician control.
38:38 Here's another big word.
38:40 She was living
38:41 in the Phoenician thalassocracy.
38:45 Isn't that a pretty word?
38:51 A thalassocracy is an empire that is ruled from the sea.
38:55 The Phoenicians were sea people.
38:56 The city of Sidon was on the coast
38:58 and the city of Tyre
39:00 actually was an island off of the coast.
39:01 So she was living
39:03 in the Phoenician thalassocracy,
39:06 the Phoenician empire, north, slightly west of Israel.
39:11 The Phoenicians were sea people.
39:14 Christ came to this area
39:18 and Christ commended this woman
39:20 for her great faith, "Oh, woman, great is thy faith."
39:24 Let's quickly unpack this story and then we're done.
39:27 She doesn't know Jesus, but she has heard.
39:30 Now what's interesting is the Greek tenses here.
39:33 Her is in the aorist tense,
39:35 aorist simply means she may not have heard a lot,
39:39 she may not have heard a long time,
39:41 she may not have heard many times,
39:43 simply that this occurred, she heard about Jesus.
39:49 And hearing about Jesus evidently was enough.
39:53 Somehow she had gotten word
39:56 that Jesus was in her vicinity.
40:00 She had heard that Jesus heals all.
40:04 And when she discovered that, she found Jesus.
40:08 The Bible says, she worshipped Him,
40:10 meaning she fell at His feet which Mark makes plain.
40:14 And she asked Him, "Heal my daughter."
40:17 Now already she is showing great faith
40:20 because she's going to a man that she's never seen,
40:22 never spoken to, a religion that she is not familiar with,
40:27 people who hate her for being who she is,
40:30 and she's going to this place
40:33 because of her love for her daughter.
40:37 Ellen White says, 4 Testimony, 377,
40:41 "Great faith is ever interested in others."
40:44 Well, this lady, it was her daughter,
40:46 for the Roman centurion,
40:47 the other person that Christ commended
40:49 for having great faith, it was his sleigh.
40:52 This woman is serious
40:57 about finding some help.
41:05 And Christ is going to test her seriousness.
41:09 Do you not know that Christ tests you?
41:11 Yeah.
41:13 If you have not been tested, keep on living,
41:15 you will be tested.
41:17 Amen.
41:18 It's coming.
41:22 So Christ is testing her.
41:24 The first thing He does when she asked for help
41:28 is Christ gives her the silent treatment.
41:34 Bible says, He answered not a word.
41:38 Mark doesn't say it, Matthew does.
41:41 Not a word.
41:43 Here is a thing.
41:44 Most people are not intellectually wired
41:48 for silent treatment.
41:50 Yeah.
41:52 Most people don't do well in the absence of information.
41:56 Amen.
41:57 That's why when you counsel for marriage
41:59 you tell them communicate, communicate, communicate.
42:03 Technically it is better to scream than to say nothing.
42:08 Yeah, if you're screaming,
42:09 at least I know what's on your mind,
42:11 if you're saying nothing,
42:12 then I tend to guess and I usually guess wrong.
42:15 Now screaming is not good.
42:17 But of the two, yelling or total silence,
42:22 yelling is better, because in silence
42:26 all kinds of things come up in your mind.
42:32 So Christ gives this woman the silent treatment.
42:40 Didn't say anything.
42:43 Not a word.
42:45 But she was neither dissuaded nor distracted.
42:51 That's another aspect of great faith.
42:53 It's perseverance.
42:56 Amen.
42:58 When you really believe it,
43:00 you hang in there till you get it.
43:05 Here's the amplified version of Hebrews 10:23.
43:10 I love this.
43:11 "Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope,
43:15 without wavering for he who promised is reliable,
43:19 and trustworthy, and faithful to his word."
43:24 So you hang in there, because you know that the God
43:28 that you are praying to is faithful.
43:31 She didn't have that scripture, all she had was need.
43:35 And sometimes, when all you got is need,
43:39 Christ gives you the answer to that need
43:43 because it is your need that commends you to Jesus.
43:47 You've got no place else to go.
43:49 You can't get anything from anyone else.
43:51 It's your lack of other options
43:54 that tugs them the heartstrings of Jesus.
44:00 Hebrews 10:35 and 36,
44:02 "So do not throw away
44:03 this confident trust in the Lord,"
44:06 this is from the New Living,
44:07 "remember the great reward it brings you."
44:10 So don't fatigue, hold on to your faith.
44:14 Verse 36, "Patient endurance is what you need now,
44:16 so that you will continue to do God's will,
44:19 then you receive all that He has promised."
44:21 Amen.
44:23 Christ silence was strategic.
44:24 It was a strategic test which she passed.
44:28 Messages to Young People, page 121, Ellen White says,
44:31 "Conflicts and obstacles actually increase our faith."
44:36 So don't ask for it to be easy,
44:39 ask for enough faith to climb those mountains.
44:45 So He is not talking, but He didn't say get lost,
44:48 He didn't say scram, He didn't say take a hike,
44:50 He didn't say anything.
44:52 The disciples were busy saying that.
44:54 In Matthew 15:23, His disciples thought that Jesus silence
44:59 was meaning that He was thinking
45:01 like they were thinking.
45:02 They didn't like her, they didn't want her there,
45:04 and they thought Jesus felt the same.
45:06 That His silence meant He too distained her.
45:10 So they piped up.
45:11 Jesus, send this woman away.
45:16 Her cries and cry is in the imperfect tense
45:19 was mean she kept on crying, she just stayed on it,
45:22 stayed on it, stayed on it.
45:24 And the disciples said, "You know, frankly Jesus,
45:26 this woman is getting on our nerve.
45:32 She is hounding us, send her away."
45:37 But see, if your burden is great,
45:40 you stick with it.
45:44 The Bible says, she worshiped Him,
45:45 meaning she fell at His feet.
45:49 She went down to her knees or prostrate
45:52 because her burden for her daughter was great.
45:56 Now that falling on her knees
45:57 wasn't something Christ demanded.
45:59 Christ doesn't demand you
46:00 to flagellate yourself, do that kind of thing.
46:03 No, that was her burden,
46:05 Christ wants obedience, not obeisance.
46:08 The truth is, she had Him at have mercy.
46:14 When you ask Christ for mercy and your prayer is sincere,
46:18 that is a prayer that Jesus will never ever turn down.
46:24 Amen.
46:25 Never, never turn down.
46:28 Any time you ask Jesus for mercy,
46:30 guess what you get.
46:32 Mercy.
46:36 James 5:11, "We call them blessed who endure,
46:39 who have heard the perseverance of Job
46:43 and seen the end intended by the Lord.
46:47 And the Lord is very compassionate and merciful."
46:52 Now take note.
46:53 Jesus only performed one miracle in Phoenicia,
46:58 in this town,
47:00 only one just like He did only one miracle in Samaria,
47:05 which means that Christ went up there
47:07 to that alien country
47:09 specifically to meet this woman.
47:11 Only did one miracle, He turned around and came back.
47:15 That shows you how important she was to Him
47:17 and how important you are to Him.
47:20 Amen.
47:22 That says, He will move heaven and earth just to save you
47:27 and just as He spoke with this woman in Phoenicia,
47:32 He spoke with this woman in Samaria at Jacob's Well
47:35 who had five husbands and one living boyfriend
47:39 because He was anxious to save their souls.
47:44 So again she asked, Lord, lift me, Lord, help me.
47:48 Christ knew her sincerity, He's reading her heart,
47:51 He tests her just one more time.
47:54 "I'm here for the lost sheep of Israel."
47:58 Mark says, "Let the children be filled first."
48:01 Now it doesn't say they won't be filled,
48:03 they need to be filled first.
48:05 It's not good to give bread to the little dogs."
48:10 Almost done, to little dogs.
48:14 He was sending her a dog with her.
48:19 Yeah, that was code.
48:23 He didn't say, it's not good for me to give food
48:27 to the dogs in a street.
48:30 The term here little dogs means household pets.
48:35 Little dogs, little pets around the house.
48:39 So though He is challenging her,
48:42 He is at the same time softening her, soothing her,
48:47 because He's got a blessing in store for her.
48:50 So He's saying, "It's not good for me to give the food
48:56 to the household pets."
48:58 Now she's thinking in her mind
48:59 since He's sending her clues at least I'm in the house.
49:04 Amen.
49:05 Yeah, I'm a household pet not a street dog,
49:09 I'm in the house.
49:11 So now she's pushing forward.
49:12 She's pushing forward because she knows
49:15 she's got a chance
49:16 and she sees a little window opening and she says,
49:20 "Yes, Lord, You're right, that is true,
49:23 but even the house pets
49:28 get food from the master's table."
49:33 And Christ had no intention of drowning
49:36 or draining her fledgling faith.
49:39 In fact, He is so impressed.
49:41 The Greek word is stomatos, his mouth was open.
49:46 He is amazed that this alien woman
49:50 from an alien country has this kind of faith.
49:56 I got a question before we close.
49:58 Here it is.
50:00 What got that woman her faith,
50:04 her miracle?
50:06 What got her a miracle?
50:08 Was it her persistence or her faith?
50:16 Now there are three answers,
50:18 two of them are right, one is wrong.
50:24 How many of you think was her faith?
50:29 Anybody think it was her persistent?
50:34 Not a persistence.
50:38 It's her persistence and her faith.
50:41 Got to be both.
50:42 Because persistence without faith
50:44 is not going to get you anything
50:46 and faith without persistence
50:48 is not going to get you anywhere.
50:50 The reason I know is not persistence is this.
50:52 Remember the story of the unjust judge.
50:55 Remember that story, widow came to avenge me.
50:59 And the judge respected neither God nor man.
51:04 But he said,
51:06 I'm going to take care of this woman's case
51:08 because she's getting on my nerves.
51:13 She's wearying me.
51:15 And before I lose my mind,
51:17 let me just take care of her case.
51:19 Now she got what she wanted,
51:21 but that was a matter of persistence.
51:25 Amen.
51:26 She just nagged a blessing out of Him.
51:31 So it can't be persistent
51:34 because you can't nag a blessing out of Jesus.
51:39 You can't.
51:40 You know people back in Christ day
51:42 used to walk around fasting,
51:44 you know, and prayer, just fasting rather,
51:49 trying to get a blessing out of Lord.
51:51 Christ went to the cross.
51:52 You think you skipping a couple of meals don't impress Him.
51:56 When we were in school,
51:58 and a guy wanted to impress a girl,
52:02 he would go fasting and prayer for her.
52:05 Particular theology majors
52:06 who were going to be in ministry,
52:08 they wanted somebody with a lot of hair,
52:09 played the piano, you know, about the guys back then.
52:11 I remember Raymond Baker was fasting
52:14 for Corliss Claiborne.
52:15 Corliss Claiborne couldn't care a hoot about Raymond Baker,
52:17 and he's skipping meals,
52:19 come into the cafeteria dragging himself
52:21 and drinking one glass of juice per day.
52:23 I'm fasting for you, baby.
52:25 I'm fasting.
52:26 And she is like please.
52:30 She wasn't impressed and neither was God.
52:34 You fasting and flagellating yourself and beating yourself,
52:36 which doesn't impressed God.
52:38 He didn't ask for that.
52:39 He didn't want you to die for Him.
52:41 He wants you to live for Him.
52:44 So perseverance doesn't get it done.
52:48 Faith alone doesn't get it done.
52:51 It's perseverance and faith.
52:54 Amen.
52:56 Believe that is coming and stay with it
52:59 until you get it
53:02 and don't fatigue.
53:06 Because Jesus is more willing to give you a good gift
53:10 than you are to ask so you don't have to nag Him.
53:13 Amen.
53:15 Because He's coming.
53:19 Let me close with this.
53:26 Christ spoke to Peter
53:30 and He said to Peter,
53:34 "Satan has desired to sift you as wheat."
53:39 I'm at Luke 22.
53:42 "But I have prayed for you."
53:46 The Amplified Classics says,
53:48 "I have pleaded for you in prayer
53:51 that your faith fail not."
53:56 In listening to Pastor John's unclean spirits,
54:01 it occurs to me
54:03 that every aspect of life
54:08 has been touched on
54:10 by the Lord.
54:14 And every aspect of life
54:18 has been poisoned by Satan.
54:22 Every aspect.
54:24 And that's what got me looking into the psychology thing.
54:27 The time it came up, how it came up,
54:31 the godless people who started it.
54:34 And then think about some young people
54:35 'cause I've got a grandson
54:38 who is talking about psychology.
54:41 So what's going to happen
54:42 when you take that course of study?
54:44 You're going to get a heaping, helping of humanism.
54:49 And you have to really keep your eyes focused on God.
54:53 It's not that it can't be done.
54:56 It's that you've got to take extra care
54:59 to stay on Jesus.
55:02 And to keep Jesus inside
55:04 because there are ideologies in this world
55:07 that will turn your mind around
55:11 that are being used by the enemy
55:13 to raise up a generation of skeptical,
55:18 irritable, parent disrespecting,
55:23 lawless young people
55:27 who are self righteous,
55:30 self indulgent, self satisfied,
55:35 and who rebel against authority.
55:38 It is out of the church, it is in the church.
55:42 And the only answer,
55:44 the only bulwark we have is faith in God.
55:49 Yeah, God's done His part.
55:51 Bank account is there.
55:53 We now have to respond to Him.
55:56 And so Christ said to Peter,
55:59 "Satan wants to scramble you
56:01 like an egg,
56:05 but I've prayed for you.
56:07 I am interceding for you
56:10 that your faith fail not."
56:15 And I'd like to have one sentence,
56:18 then I would leave with any congregation.
56:21 It would be, I'm praying
56:26 that your faith fails not.
56:30 And if you hang on and hold on,
56:34 soon and very soon
56:37 you'll hear the well done
56:41 from the Lord.
56:43 Then your life will truly be actualized.
56:49 Because Christ will say, "Come now,
56:53 enter into the joy of heaven."
56:57 Shall we pray?
56:58 Father God,
57:01 we ask You now to accept who we are,
57:06 and what we are,
57:08 and make us what You would have us to be.
57:13 Forgive us, Lord, for those times
57:15 when we've fallen short
57:18 and our faith has failed us and failed you.
57:24 But we recommit ourselves to You
57:29 to stand by You,
57:32 to stand with You, to stand for You,
57:37 and to stand strong
57:40 until Jesus comes again.
57:44 Dedicate us now, Lord, to that end
57:47 and we thank You in Jesus' name, amen.


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Revised 2018-09-24