Lord, Help Me! | Ps. Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you for joining us.

To learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting, follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.

How's your summer going so far?

Any good?

Got any good things going on?

Cool.

Well, if you've been around these parts, these here parts for the summer, we've got the opportunity to hear from a few different voices in the preaching and teaching of God's word.

And so uh today you get to hear from mine.

Um so hopefully that's okay.

If not, you're still here, right?

If you don't know who I am, my name is Nate.

I'm one of the pastors, so thankful that you're here this morning, especially if it's your first time.

Perhaps uh you're listening later on on the podcast or on our YouTube channel.

Uh thanks for joining us.

And if you are in the Orlando area and you're willing and able, love to have you here at the Orlando Museum of Art.

9 or 10:30 a.m.

On behalf of our pastors, Keith and Megan Pittman, who are uh getting a little RR this month, uh so glad to see all of those who call celebration your home.

Welcome home.

Good to be here with you this morning.

Just want to reiterate the significance of next week, Baptism Sunday, something that we like to celebrate together as a family.

And for those of you who have made that decision to follow Jesus, you recognize that Jesus did not just turn your moral behavior around, he brought you back to life, right?

He's given you a new life in Christ, as the scriptures would say.

And so baptism is a significant milestone that signifies that by being placed under the water and rising into new life in Jesus Christ.

And so if you're ready to go ahead and make that public declaration of faith, uh please do so next week.

There's no time like the present.

And if you're not ready to do that, that's okay too.

We'd still love to have you and invite you, and perhaps for all of those who already have uh been dumped under the water, as they would say, come and celebrate with us because these are one of the two sacraments that we believe was instituted personally by our Lord, the other being communion, which we're gonna be taking part of next week as well.

So it's gonna be a great Sunday here in the house of the Lord.

Amen?

Amen.

Matthew chapter 15 is where we're gonna be today.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

We're gonna be looking at verses 21 to 28 in your Bibles.

If you don't have a Bible this morning, that's okay.

We got you covered.

Uh we also have a Bible to give you if you want to take one home with you, one, a paper Bible to read during the week.

We also have a book attached on top of that just to help you in your relationship with Jesus.

So stop by the tent on your way out to grab one of those.

Matthew 15.

Hear the word of the Lord beginning in verse number 21.

Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.

For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.

But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word.

Then his disciples urged him to send her away, tell her to go away, they said.

She's bothering us with all her begging.

Then Jesus said to the woman, I was sent only to help God's lost sheep, the people of Israel.

But she came and worshipped him, pleading again, Lord, help me.

Jesus responded, It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.

She replied, That's true, Lord.

But even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master's table.

Dear woman, no doubt smiling.

Dear woman.

Jesus said to her, Your faith is great, your request is granted, and her daughter was instantly healed.

This is God's word for us today.

If you are the note-take and type or title today, says, Lord, help me.

Lord, help me.

Let's pray.

Lord, Almighty God, we come before you humbly, thanking you for your mercy.

We thank you, God, for your grace, and we come today and we celebrate that.

We celebrate that you have sent your son to reconcile us to you, and now we have unhindered access to you, Lord, and it wipes us clean of our sin and it gives us brand new life.

And so we we worship you for that, Jesus.

Lord, our prayer is that you would help us, that you would teach us, that you would guide us, that by the power of your Holy Spirit we would come to understand what it is your word has to say to us and how we can live it out.

And so, God, uh, I ask you that you would be with us over these next few moments and teach us.

It's in Jesus' name.

And the church said, Amen.

You know, when it comes to reading the Bible, we can develop some contemporary tendencies that can inhibit us from seeing the full picture of Scripture.

And this is usually induced by our verse chapter arrangement that we've become so accustomed to when reading.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are advantages, obviously, to this layout, uh, like being able to quickly reference a place or be able to identify and find a passage of scripture that you're looking for given its reference, or as one a good friend would call it, its address.

But the disadvantage to this approach is our tendency to isolate passages a little bit and to view scripture in a vacuum.

Today's text is a prime example of that, if you're already catching on.

It can seem random and it kind of throw us as the reader for a loop.

You know, what's this obscure story about Jesus calling a woman a dog really all about?

We'll get to more of the dog part here in a second.

But when comparing the gospel writings, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to other writings of their time period, they most closely resemble ancient biographies.

Now, when you and I hear the word biography, we tend to think of a chronological retelling of a person's events in their lifetime, right?

So-and-so was born in 1920.

They did such and such from 1940 to 1960, and went on and passed in 1980.

So, you know, you you start to envision this biography that you may pick up at Barnes and Noble, but this is not so much the concern of the ancient biographer.

The ancient biographer has a bigger burden for themes rather than timelines.

Now, yes, there are some things that are important to note on the timeline, but their burden, their primary focus, is to almost get you in the head of the individual that they're writing about.

They want you to shake hands with this person, to meet them on the page, as it were.

So there is a calculated configuration of these writings.

The biography of Jesus that we read today was written by Matthew, who was a tax collector turned apostle.

He was an Israelite from the tribe of Levi, and we believe that he was writing to a predominantly Jewish audience.

Matthew's intent in writing to this audience is to persuade the Jews that Jesus is the chosen one that they've been waiting for.

He is their savior and their king and what they would refer to as Messiah.

Now, needless to say, Matthew has a very important task at hand, doesn't he?

So his biographical layout is no exception to the ancient biography.

Other than the beginning section, which is the birth narrative, uh the one that we're all familiar with, you know, Jesus and Bethlehem in a major, or the end section, which talks a little bit more about Jesus' death and resurrection and his last days, which is still similar to the writings of old.

So we have teachings, demonstrations slash interactions, teachings, demonstrations slash interactions, so on and so forth.

Today's narrative is found in one of those demonstration interaction portions of the gospel.

And our story kicks off with a collection of miracle accounts that is nestled in between two interactions with religious leaders, and it's finally capped off by Peter's famous declaration about Jesus that he is the Son of the living God.

Very important piece of literature right there.

The Bible tells us that Jesus has withdrawn to Tyre and Sidon, which is Gentile country.

And maybe he's done this because he's exhausted with dealing with religious people all day, and he's like, Can y'all just get me around some normal folks for a little bit?

Or perhaps he knows that Gentiles aren't necessarily interested in hearing what a Jewish rabbi has to say, and so this is his chance for a little bit of rest, perhaps even some prayer with his father.

Not so fast, Jesus.

Not so fast.

He encounters what our version today describes as a Gentile woman, and what other versions have described as a Syrophoenician woman, and yet others would call her a Canaanite woman.

Now, the Greek rendering of Canaanite woman is the most compelling to me because if we know anything about the Canaanites and the Israelites, there is a long history there.

If we remember way back, the land of Canaan was what God had in mind when he came to Abraham and said, Leave your homeland and go to a place that I will show you, and from there I will make you a great nation.

And as we learned last week from Victor, Canaan would ultimately be overthrown by the Israelites with Joshua at the helm.

So there are centuries of history here, but those centuries are mostly marked by scars and wounds.

Instead of obeying God's command to totally eradicate Canaan, the Hebrew people allowed the cultic and the wicked ways of worship to linger around.

This caused them to turn to idolatry and what the Bible would refer to as detestable practices, which years, which leads to years of turbulence, which leads to, marked by punishment, which leads to oppression, which leads to expulsion, and the list goes on and on, and this cycle repeats itself.

So, it doesn't take a sociologist to figure out that there's probably a little bit of tension between these two people groups, right?

With all that in mind, we find this woman showing up in front of Jesus and greeting him in surprising fashion.

Listen what she says.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.

For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.

The Canaanite woman just referred to Jesus as her Lord.

And even utilizes a messianic term by calling him the son of David.

That's interesting.

Jesus' response on the surface seems even more strange.

He ignores her.

He ignores this woman.

This isn't the Jesus that you and I know, right?

This isn't the Jesus that you and I have come to love.

This isn't the Jesus that we like to come in here and sing about on a Sunday morning.

This isn't the Jesus that we sit in our cozy room with our blanket and our candle and our Bethel music on and have our quiet time with.

He ignores her.

What's he doing here?

Well, it could be a couple of things.

He could be following a social protocol.

You know, it's possible that because of all the turmoil, because of all the wounds and the scars, the Jewish people have sort of overcorrected to do their best to avoid Gentile interactions at all costs.

This is a self-preservation tactic so that they don't fall into the same traps that they have before.

They don't want to be influenced by them and so as to avoid more tragedy.

That's one possibility.

Another possibility is it's a test.

Jesus responds in silence to see what kind of reaction he would get from this Canaanite woman.

I'd like to propose option C, if you may.

He is using this protocol for administering a test.

Or as Pastor Keith would like to say, it's both and, right?

It would appear, although it doesn't say so in the scriptures in this next section, it would appear that she responds with persistence because the disciples ask Jesus to send her away because she's bothering them.

This is typical disciple behavior, isn't it?

Hey, Jesus, these crowds are getting a little bit too big.

Not really much we can do for them here.

Kind of annoying that they're all here at the same time.

Can't feed them, so could you send them away and help them find some food?

Hey, kids, not right now.

This isn't, Jesus doesn't have time for this.

You guys are making a lot of noise.

Just go ahead and get out of here.

Stop bothering Jesus.

Jesus' silence revealed the heart of more than just the Gentile woman.

It revealed the hearts of his disciples as well.

They were annoyed.

They just didn't want to be inconvenienced.

Quite the juxtaposition that the author shows us here, right?

And I wonder, where would I fit within this story?

Finally, Jesus responds, okay, we're getting somewhere.

I was sent only to help God's lost sheep, the people of Israel.

In other words, I'm not here for you.

Not what we're looking for, Jesus.

Again, kind of harsh, right?

This isn't Joel Osteen Jesus, okay?

Although he's not wrong, right?

He's not wrong.

He's he's following protocol again.

He's he's sent to rescue Israel.

So technically, he's speaking the truth.

He's correct in what he's saying, and he's on the Messiah's mission to save the people of God.

But there is nothing more powerful than a mother's relentless pursuit of her baby's health and well-being.

Is there?

Her love for her daughter, and more importantly, her recognition of the person she is standing in front of causes her to kneel in worship.

And she cries out, Lord, help me.

Lord, you gotta help me.

Surely, guys, Jesus is gonna relent and respond at this point with compassion, but this thing drags out a little bit more.

It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.

I don't know about you, but I kind of had enough at this point.

All right, all right, enough, Jesus.

First, she ignores he ignores her.

Then he says that he hasn't come for her, and then he calls her a dog.

You can feel the angst, can't you?

Even in the room right now, right?

You can feel the stress, the discomfort.

But I like to think that's one of the points of the passage.

Because that's exactly where Jesus can be found.

Jesus can be found in the angst.

He's found in the stressors of life.

He's not intimidated by the discomfort.

Okay, briefly, a little background on the whole dog thing because I know most of us are cringing at that.

Um it was a term that was belittling, it was an unappealing term, obviously.

Um, these aren't the days of puppy insurance, okay?

So there's no dog spas in Jerusalem, right?

So Jesus is most likely, again, kind of following the protocol and using a term that Jews would use for Gentiles.

Um you can kind of picture like a pack of dogs outside the city gates, so referring to Gentiles as outsiders, kind of causing a little bit of noise in a ruckus, okay?

Um if that's offensive to you, welcome to the Bible.

The Bible's offensive sometimes.

I'm sure your Spotify playlist has worse.

Anyways, move them on.

The woman recognizes the analogy and she's quick on her feet.

Instead of being offended, instead of being outraged, instead of demanding an apology, the mother responds in humility and she plays right along.

That's true, Lord.

That's true.

But even the dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath the master's table.

It's at this moment that Jesus ignores all protocols.

He acknowledges her as a daughter of God and responds, dear woman, dear, dear woman, your faith is great.

Your request is granted.

And her Bible tells us that without even having to follow this woman to her home, her daughter is instantly healed.

Praise be to God.

As I mentioned before, these gospels are designed with purpose.

The placement of this brief narrative is intentional because flanking these passages are two encounters Jesus has with religious leaders of his day.

You see, in the paragraphs before meeting the Gentile woman, the Pharisees approach Jesus and they're complaining that he and his disciples aren't following their traditional ceremonial hand washing before a meal.

Which is basically to say that Jesus and his disciples are unclean.

They're not worthy to partake in the Jewish practices.

In quintessential Jesus fashion, he responds to them by giving an example of their hypocrisy, and he goes on to tell them look, guys, it's not what goes into the mouth and into the body through food that defiles you.

It's what comes from your heart that is defiling.

The other encounter that's the book end of this, the one I'm referring to, is told after Jesus has fed 4,000 people with just a few loaves and a few small fish.

The writers tell us that the religious leaders approach Jesus and they want to put him to a test to demand that he show them a sign in order to prove his authority.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting over here thinking, I thought the whole 4,000 people feeding thing with fish and loaves would have done it, but maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

The contrast in these interactions with the Gentile woman and with the religious leaders, who, by the way, are Jesus' own people, is drastic.

Isn't it?

It's a drastic contrast.

The Canaanite woman, who shouldn't know Jesus from Adam, recognizes him as her Lord.

Not once, not twice, three times.

And four, if you count the moment that she referred to him as master in the table analogy.

While the religious leaders who are supposed to be on constant watch for the Messiah have him standing right in front of them and scold him for not washing his hands.

They demand that he show them a sign in order for them to believe.

Their primary concern is that Jesus fit neatly into their template instead of letting him save them from it.

Whereas salvation is the only thing that this mother is after.

So what's the difference?

The difference is faith.

The difference is faith.

While the Pharisees look to access God by adhering to a moral code and a man-made tradition, the Gentile woman seeks access using faith.

Faith enables the Canaanite woman to boldly approach Jesus.

Faith enables her to look past social norms and structures.

Faith empowers her relentless pursuit of freedom for her daughter, but most importantly, faith gives her the eyes to see Jesus for who he really is.

The holy son of God, the promised descendant of David.

Faith informs this woman that Jesus is her Lord and Savior.

So what is faith?

Come on, y'all know where I'm going.

Hebrews 11, right?

Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Christ, shows us the reality of what we hope for, and good apologetics is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Oh, sorry.

Being able to disprove evolution shows us the reality of what we hope for, and finding the Ark of the Covenant is the evidence of things we cannot see.

The shroud of Turin is the reality of what we hope for, and miracle, no.

Faith shows us the reality of what we hope for.

It is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Through their faith, the people in the days of old earned a good reputation.

The fact that any of us in this room believe that there is a transcendent being who has no beginning or end, created the heavens and the earth, put into motion a plan to redeem those heavens and earth once humanity messed it all up, that plan being to send his one and only Son, who somehow is also this transcendent being, yet totally unique, to die a shameful death on a cross built for criminals and pay the debt for sin that corrupted creation in the first place.

Then he came back to life three days later, defeating the power of sin and death.

He ascended back into heaven to be with his father who sent him, inhabits us through his Holy Spirit, which, oh, by the way, is also this transcendent being, yet totally unique, and is one day physically returning to earth for us.

The fact that any of us believe that is a direct result of faith.

Outside of faith, my friends, this is the most elaborate and unconscionable myth you have ever heard in your entire life.

Which is exactly what people who don't have faith think about it, right?

Unlike the Pharisees, the Gentile woman was willing to profess Jesus' Lord before she witnessed him doing a single miraculous act.

Her faith allowed her to believe the best of Jesus even after he ignored her.

Even after he informed her that he didn't come to help her.

Even after he likened her to a dog.

This woman shows us that faith has nothing to do with how much Jesus answers our prayers and everything to do with the fact that Jesus is the only one worth praying to.

She demonstrates us that you don't have to have it all figured out.

You don't have to come from the right background or follow some religious protocol in order to have faith.

So we know what faith is.

Well, how do we attain this?

Come on, saints, Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

So faith comes from hearing, that is hearing the good news about Christ.

Word travels fast, right?

We all know that phrase.

Word travels fast, so we can only speculate that the news about Jesus must have reached the people of Tyre and Sidon.

And that's all it took for faith to be born in this woman's heart.

As the Jews desperately search for a king to help them overthrow Rome, this Gentile looks for sovereign who rules a kingdom, not of this world.

The Pharisees waste their time focusing on the objects of faith, while the Canaanite woman places all her attention on the subject of faith.

Her cries to the Son of David for mercy reach the ears of the Son of God.

Somehow you and I have been led to believe that we need to pray more eloquently, study more diligently, serve more fervently in order to conjure up the faith needed for God to work on our behalf.

We've been taught that the reason we're not receiving what we are requesting is because our faith is inadequate.

My proposal for you today is Jesus did not categorize this woman's faith as great because of all her hard work she did to manifest it.

He categorized her faith as great because God was the one who placed it in her heart in the first place.

God is not only the subject of our faith, he is the author of it as well.

And a faith that comes from God is able to withstand the moments when he doesn't respond like we think that he should.

And the moments when his responses seem downright offensive.

Friends, you and I can only attain the faith that we so desperately need by crying out, Lord, help me.

Lord, help me.

Just as this woman did thousands of years ago.

Okay, we've seen what faith is.

We've seen how to attain it.

Now, how do we maintain it?

And I'll invite Vinny to come on back up here.

Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, and you gotta read Hebrews 11 to kind of see what's going on here.

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.

How do we do this?

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

The champion who initiates and perfects our faith because of the joy set before him.

He endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and now he's seated at a place of honor beside God's throne.

God will never ask you to do anything he has not already commanded his son to do.

Jesus walked by faith, and now it's our turn.

The Pharisees were unwilling to strip off their traditions and misplace ideologies in order to make room for faith to blossom in their hearts.

Unlike the Canaanite woman, they were unable to humble themselves and recognize Jesus as their master.

They were running a race with the grand prize of status, recognition, and entitlement.

While the mother ran to Jesus for deliverance, healing, salvation.

The vanities of this life and the trivial matters we so easily give our attention will distort our view of Jesus and it will cost us our faith.

My prayer is that we can be a church full of people that will continually strip off the unnecessary weights of bickering, complaining, comparison, self-righteousness, and pride.

May we be a body of believers ready to put to death the sins of lust, envy, greed, gluttony, gossip, knowing that our champion, which is the good news, has already secured the prize.

And we will be victorious by keeping our eyes on him.

Isn't that good news?

Friends, if you have some to little or no faith at all, join the club.

Join the club.

Just like the story of the Gentile woman, you are not a random occurrence on the pages of life.

Your place in the story is right where the author of faith wants you to be.

And he will continue to perfect and develop you so as long as you remain humble and run this race with endurance.

May we all be like the Canaanite woman, down on our knees before Jesus, pleading, Lord, help me.

Lord, help me.

Will you pray with me?

God, we thank you.

We thank you that it's not up to us, because if it was up to us, uh this would be a royal mess.

We thank you that you empower us.

By the gift of your Holy Spirit, you're the one who infuses faith in us to believe in you.

Everything comes from you, everything is a derivative of you, including our faith.

And so we ask you to strengthen it, we ask you to build it, we ask you to help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author, the finisher, the perfecter, the initiator of our faith.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at Celebration ORL or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.