Church Sermon - August 18, 2002

THE PERSISTENCE OF FAITH

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Old Testament Lesson; Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Sermon Text; Matthew 15:21-28

On a Sunday morning, these glasses help me see how things appear. When I have these glasses on, I can look at your faces. Sometimes it appears as though I have all of your rapt attention, as all eyes are drawn up here. When I see that, I have certain feelings. Along with what I see, go feelings. I feel like God’s Word certainly must be effective today, because it appears as though everyone is giving me his or her rapt attention!

And, that lines up so well with what God’s Word says. God, in His Word, promises, "My Word will not return unto me void. It will accomplish the purpose whereonto I send it." And, so it appears as if God’s Word is effective. I feel as if God’s Word is effective, and God’s Word promises it really is effective. They all tie together. And so, I go home feeling good.

But then there are other days, when appearances are a little different. As I look out over the crowd, with these glasses, I may see closed eyes. I may see yawns and I may see people checking their watches. Those appearances cause me to have different feelings. I may begin to feel that maybe God’s Word isn’t so effective today.

Appearances and feelings make it look as though God’s Word isn’t effective, but yet God’s Word stands. God’s Word says, "My Word will not return to me void. But it will accomplish the purpose whereonto I send it." When it appears as though God’s Word is ineffective, and when I feel like God’s Word is ineffective, I know that is contrary to what God’s Word says, because God says, "My word will not return to me void. It will accomplish the purpose whereonto I send it."

And so, appearances and feelings can be contrary to what God’s Word says. And that, my friends, is what we call a test of faith. Our faith is tested by God, when the things we see with our eyes and the feelings we have as a result of what we see, are contrary to what God tells us in His Word and the promises He gives to us in His Word.

And then the question for all of us becomes, "When my faith is tested, what am I going to depend upon? Am I going to put my confidence in the way things look and appear to be? Am I going to put my confidence into the feelings that I have? Or, am I going to put my confidence in what God’s Word says? Which of those two are true, dependable, reliable and certain?" That is a test of faith.

When our faith is tested, and it appears as though things are not going the way God says they should go, and we feel as though things are not going the way God says they will go, God, in His Word, gives us a promise. That test from God is intended to strengthen us in our faith. It draws us away from appearances. It draws us away from our feelings.

If some of you out there are looking at your watches and yawning, it makes me go home depending upon God’s promises, clinging more tightly to God’s promises and saying to God, "God, you promised that your Word won’t return void. I trust your promise."

A test of faith

makes us throw our arms around

God’s promises.

Let’s look at an example from scripture, at the Syrophonecian woman, or as our scripture reading today calls her, the Canaanite woman. Look closely at what happened to this woman. And, all through this I want you to compare the way things appear to her and the way her feelings may have been, with God’s promises to her in God’s Word.

First of all, we know that this woman said to Jesus that her daughter was suffering terribly from demon possession. Now our heart has to go out to a woman like that, and her daughter. Can you imagine what it would be like if your child, your dear child, was suffering from demon possession? That is what was happening to this woman’s daughter, her dear little daughter. We don’t exactly know what the manifestations of that demon possession were. Maybe she cried out in shrieks. Maybe she went into convulsions. Maybe she had unnatural strength. Maybe she threw herself into the fires, as we know some demons did cause people to do. Maybe she was hurt many times. Certainly that demon possession must have brought great grief into the life of that woman and her daughter.

Do you think the other children played with that girl? Do you think the other children felt comfortable being around that girl? Don’t you think they forsook her and left her forlorn? Don’t you think that maybe they even made fun of her? And, don’t you think that the mother was concerned deeply for the physical and spiritual well being of her child?

If that mother went by appearances, did it look like God loved her? Did it look like God cared about her? Did it look like God cared about her daughter?

And, if she went by her feelings, certainly her feelings may have been, "How can God love me? How can God care about me?"

But, did that woman go by appearances and by her feelings? Scripture tells us in the book of Mark, that she heard about Jesus. She knew about Jesus! In her heart, she believed that Jesus is the Son of David. She believed that He is the Messiah. She believed that He is the Coming One!

She believed what she heard in The Word. She believed that Jesus wants to help us. She believed that He is kind, merciful and loving!

Did that woman go by appearances and feelings? NO! She went by the Word of God. She went out to search for Jesus and find Him.

Now, what happened next? The woman, the Bible tells us, was crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." And, we find out from scripture that she cried that out repeatedly.

Now imagine yourself, going down to a doctor’s office because your child is suffering terribly from some illness or ailment. You know that the doctor in that office can cure your child. So, you walk into that office, walk up to that front desk and say, "Please help me. My child is suffering terribly."

Now imagine that instead of helping you, they ignore you at that front desk.

Now imagine that the doctor walks by and you say, "Please help me! My child is suffering terribly." Instead of helping you, he looks at you and walks by without saying a word.

Now imagine that this happens repeatedly.

How do things appear? How would you feel?

How did it appear to that Canaanite woman? Scripture tells us, "Jesus did not answer a word". Not a word! Did it appear to her as if God was listening to her prayers? Did it appear to her as if Jesus wanted to help her?

How do you think she felt? Do you think maybe her feelings were, "He doesn’t want to listen to me. He doesn’t want me here. He doesn’t want me to talk to Him. He doesn’t want to help me."

Did that woman go by her feelings? Did she go by the appearances? NO! That woman knew that there was something more certain than appearances and feelings, and she clung to what she heard in God’s Word. She had heard that Jesus is loving, kind and merciful. So, she threw her arms around that Word of God and she trusted it.

What happened next? She continued to repeatedly cry out for Jesus’ help. Finally the disciples picked up her prayer. On her behalf, they go to Jesus and say, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." Fellow Christians, other believers, started to pray on her behalf, asking Jesus, "She wants you to help her. Please heal her daughter and send her away. Give her help." Their hearts went out to her and they prayed for her.

What then, did Jesus say? He said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

You see she wasn’t an Israelite. She was a Canaanite woman. So, what did it look like, if that woman went by appearances? It looked like Jesus was saying, "NO! I don’t want to help you. I didn’t come to help you. I came to help other people, not you."

And, if she went by her feelings, certainly at that point she would have given up and gone home. We all would have.

But that woman didn’t go by her feelings and the way things appeared. She clung to what she had heard about Jesus in The Word. She trusted in that Word and was certain and sure. And, she didn’t give up. In fact the Bible tells us that she went after Him! And even after experiencing all of those things, she says to Him, "Lord, help me." Help me!

Now what happens? Jesus turned to her and said (imagine Jesus saying this to you), "It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs."

Hearing those words, does it appear as if Jesus intends to help that woman? It certainly appears as though He is saying "no" to her. She was a Gentile and Jesus was saying it wouldn’t be right, to take what was meant for the Jews and give it to the Gentiles, would it?

Now Martin Luther says, "Look at what this woman did! Did she go by feelings? Did she go by appearances? She didn’t!" Martin Luther says, "This woman caught Jesus in His words. She went by His words. She clung to every word He said. She knew His Word was certain. She listened to His Word!"

What did He compare her to? He compared her to a pet dog, which belongs to a child. She clung to that comparison, because of what she knew in her heart. She had seen (just like you and I have seen), what happens when a pet dog sits at the dinner table by little children. What do the little children want to do, when they see that pet dog? They want to take their food and toss it to the dog, because they care about that dog and they want that dog to be taken care of!

She caught Jesus in His words, so she said, "Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table."

In other words, if you call me a dog, then treat me as the pet dog of a loving, kind, gentle master, because that is what you are – a loving, kind, gentle master! She clung to The Word and not feelings or to appearances.

Hearing her words, what did Jesus say to her? He said,

And, her daughter was healed from that very hour!

Now, look at what God is teaching us in this beautiful example from scripture. How many times do we have troubles, difficulties and all kinds of things happening in our lives, making it look like our world is turned upside-down? (Maybe a loved one is in the hospital, with tubes running in and out of their body. Or, perhaps some other sadness, difficulty or trouble has come into our lives.) If we go by the way things appear with our eyes and the way we feel, we may look at that situation and say to ourselves, "It doesn’t look like God is answering my prayers. I have prayed over and over again for my loved one to get better." We may feel as though God isn’t answering our prayers, as if God doesn’t care. But, God is testing our faith.

Are you going to go by the way things appear and the way you feel? Or, is there something more certain and more sure than the way things appear and the way you feel? God’s eternal Word never fails. God in His Word says,

"Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you."

At times like that, when it appears as though God isn’t answering our prayers, then we are driven to throw our arms even more tightly around God’s promises and trust.

Trust that God’s Word is true.

Trust that He is answering our prayers.

It may appear as if things are not working out for our good at all. We may feel "How can this ever work out for my good?" Will you trust in appearances or will you trust the promises of the sure, eternal, pure and true Word of God where He says,

During trials and tests of faith, aren’t we caused to throw our arms even more tightly around God’s Word and trust those promises? "This will work out for my good, because God promises it will work out for my good!"

It certainly may not look like God is blessing us in a situation like that, not blessing us at all. And, if we go by appearances and our feelings, we have no certainty that God is blessing us. But what does He say in His Word? In His Word He says,

"Blessed are those

who hear the Word of God and

keep it."

There, God promises to bless His people, when we keep His Word in our hearts. And, that promise stands sure.

In times of trials, we are caused to throw our arms even more tightly around those promises of God and trust them! That happens so that when the real tests and the real trials come, we have been trained. We have been trained not to go by appearances and not to go by feelings, but to go by the sure and certain Word of God, which is undeniably reliable and true, no matter how things may look or how we may feel!

The greatest trial of all is this: In your life there will be times when you have committed sins that (to you) seem so large, so huge and so insurmountable that you begin to feel, "How can God forgive this sin?" There may be things that happen in your life, as a result of that sin. There may be terrible trouble in your family, because of what happened as a result of that sin. Maybe there is legal trouble, because of the results from what happened from that sin. You may begin to look at the appearances, and say to yourself, "Certainly there is nothing but punishment coming into my life because of this sin. God must be angry with me. God must not be forgiving me. I don’t feel as though God forgave me. I am still burdened by this guilt day, after day, after day, after day. I don’t feel forgiven."

At a time like that, Brothers and Sisters, are you going to go by appearances and feelings? Can I tell you something? It doesn’t matter how you feel. What matters is how God feels.

This is where, like that Canaanite woman; you catch God in His Word. When you feel like a sinner, when you feel undeserving of God’s forgiveness, then you must turn to God’s Word. In His Word, He verifies, He tells you that you are a sinner and that you are undeserving of His forgiveness. Then like that Canaanite woman, you catch Jesus in His Word. She said, "If I am a dog, then treat me like the master’s pet dog."

So what do we say in our guilt? If I am a sinner, as you tell me in your Word, then treat me, treat me with the rights of a sinner!

What does God say in His Word?

There we cling to His Word, and His promises, where He tells us that He came to save sinners.

Then we turn to those promises, where He tells us that He came and He died for all of our sins. Our sins are paid for. They are washed away. They are forgiven! We are free! He will not hold those sins against us. We must cling to those promises in His Word.

In times of trouble, our faith must turn away from appearances and away from our feelings. We must throw our arms tightly around the Word of God, and trust in His promises.

Lord, give us all such a faith as this.

Amen.

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