Sermon -“Just the Crumbs Will Do”

When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!” 17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. 18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?” 20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. 25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” 28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

Let us begin this morning with a word of prayer. Most Gracious seventy father we just. Thank you for your presence in this place. Father we know that you’re here your word tells us that we’re two or more are gathered there you shall be. We know that your spirit is here. Father I pray that. Each of our hearts. Today would be fertile ground. That the word that you have forced today would. Root down deep in our hearts and it would spring forth and yield to a harvest father I just pray that we be open to what you have forced today to smell your truth may your words be clear. And Father may be for your glory in your honor. We thank you father. Thank you for your faithfulness to us in Jesus’ name amen. This morning a message the titled. Just the crumbs will do. But before I was only going to use. Of course some prayed for Mark as we’re reading through Mark I was going to use Mark seven twenty four through thirty. But as I got to prepare and I added some more to it so it’s kind of like a. Two parts I’m going to read some of that was. That was previous to that. You know whenever we were kids. I know that all of us. Heard our parents our mom or dad say. Our kids. Go wash up for dinner. Go get cleaned up for dinner right. I mean. In the little boys would say. Oil You mean look I’m good. Hands are filthy. Go wash up for dinner I mean so the we’ve told our kids the same thing right. Go wash up for dinner you got to have clean hands to sit down and eat. Well my first. Scripture I’m going to share is fourteen through twenty three but before this passage you have to understand. Is where the. The fair C.S.. You know they they watched Jesus they were they watched him like a hawk. They wanted to find something with which to accuse him. So his disciples. Would go in and sit down and eat without washing their. Hands. And they’re like. All. I don’t believe that. I mean look at them filthy hands. Would you believe they went in there and set down without eating. So he. They they questioned him why do your disciples. Eat with dirty hands without washing. So I have to share that so you’ll know where we’re coming from in this passage. So kids wash your hands before dinner. While I want to share this to you know there have been many times as an adult that. I’ve been on the job or somewhere where I’ve eaten with dirty hands. And guess what US. Survived it didn’t affect me not too much. So I beat him with dirty hands. Now. If they’re dirty I don’t usually look I’m too much you know. I just try to be as clean as can. Can. As I can. OK. All right here the word of the Lord began to Mark. Seven verse fourteen. He says when he had called all the multitude to him self. He said to them. Hear me. Let that sink in for a minute because as I read this hear me because these are Jesus’ words. Hear me everyone and understand. There is nothing that enters a man from outside. Which can be file him. But the things which come out of him. Those are the things that they follow a man. If anyone has ears to hear. Let him hear. When he had entered a house away from the crowd his disciples asked him concerning the parable. So he said to them. Are you thus. Still without understanding also. Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from the outside cannot defile him. It is not the washing of hands. Because it does not enter his heart but his stomach and is eliminated thus purifying. All foods. And he said. What comes out of a man. That the files a man. For from within. Out of the heart of men. Proceed. Evil thoughts adulterous fornications murders. Thefts covetousness wickedness. The seat. Lewdness. An evil eye. Blasphemy pride foolishness. All these things come from within and defile a man. As I said in sadness cool we was reading from Jane. Written in Jane’s. And I said. It all it’s just usually always happens. We were speaking out of the same mouth cannot come. Cursings and blessings. It is from within. That is what they follow them and what comes out of the heart. You know the decider the fair sees. They were so steeped in their traditions. That they they were. They didn’t care about the man. They didn’t have a bit of an ounce of compassion in them for the man. All they was worried about was their traditions. If they would go into the market place. When they come back they went through this rigorous tradition of washing is scrubbing their hands and. You know. I visualize a surgeon getting all scrubbed up getting ready to go in for surgery well. That I could liken the washing to that. If they go to the market place they come back when they get the scrub and what if we touch somebody unclean while we were there. What if they happened to touch something that was the file would have some gentile come along and touch this counter and I touched it to why I’m unclean. That’s why they had this tradition this ritual they go through to wash their hands while I want to tell you they could scrub them Hansell they scrub the skin off. And it isn’t going to make a many more holy. Because their heart was hard. The problem was the heart not the hands. It’s what’s on the inside. It’s out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks Amen. It’s what comes out of here that defiles a man. Not what goes into it. It’s a condition of the heart. Now will continue that was all extra. Now will get to the heart of the message. To what the titles after. Just the crumbs will do. Mark seven vs twenty four through thirty. From there he arose and went to the region of Tire and Sidon. And he entered a house. And wanted no one to know it. But he could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. And she came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek. Ciro Phoenician by birth. And she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her little children. Jesus said to her Let the children be filled first. For it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs. And she answered and said to him. Yes Lord. Yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs. Then he said to her. For this saying. Go your way the demon has gone out of your daughter. And when she had come to her house. She found the demon gone out and her daughter line on the bed. Praise the Lord. Howley it. The first verse of that passage Conover. Is a vital key. To understand is passage. He knows you. If you would just casually read issue might think wow. You know Jesus was kind of rude to this woman. You know I wasn’t very friendly to or. But with you on. If you can fully understand it. His response makes a little more sense. Twenty four verse twenty four clearly states that Jesus had entered this house. He. I don’t want anybody to know about it because Jesus and His disciples had just simply been overwhelmed by the multitude swarms of people coming in seeking to be healed or seeking to hear the teaching that Jesus was teaching. They just couldn’t get away. So they went dared he’s trying to hide if you will. To get away from the crowd. Listen to disapproval verses from. Mark Chapter six verses thirty three thirty four. Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told him all the things. Both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them. Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat. So they were extremely busy they had didn’t have time to eat lunch. So they departed to a deserted place. In a boat by themselves. But the multitude saw them departing and many knew him and ran their own foot from all the cities. Their ride before them. I can. I had a comical vision of this you know there. Jesus gets a disciples in a boat we’re going to get away and the people of like oh I see worries go on. They run through the towns and they grab people and they run in their life. Yes we beat them there we got there before Jesus they get out the boat. There’s a crowd. More people than they just left. Waitin for them. He just couldn’t get away. And geez when he came out he saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them. Many things. They’re already tired and weary. Here’s another. Crowd to deal with. So Jesus taught them until late in the day. It was evening. Evening when darkness was approaching his disciples said Lord the hours getting light send them away. Sent him away so they can go eat. He says now. Will feed them. This is where he fed the five thousand. So they’re already exhausted. He taught. More. And then fed five thousand people that’s just the men so finally. All this is happening before this account or with the Greek woman. Finally he disperses the crowd. And he cited to go to the region of Tire and Sidon. It is a gentile region. He thought perhaps. I’m not quite as popular there I might be able to find a little piece. Get away from that crowd a little bit. You know maybe they haven’t heard of all the amazing miracles he’s done. Maybe a little rest. So I want to use your magic. Grip your imagination switch on here for a minute. Imagine if you will. Jesus’ disciples found they get to that house. They enter in there. The host has probably provided a little water for them they might of. Washer faces. They might even took their sandals off and wash their feet get the dust off their feet. I’m sure they needed rift needed freshen up. You know how good a nice shower feel sometime they probably needed freshen up a little bit. They might have just got a cool glass of water glass of juice or a glass of tea. Whatever they drink. They might have just got over there and decide. Ha ha. Get to sit. Sit down a little bit. My feet are weary. My back’s tired. Just ready to rest a little bit. Just needed to unwind their day has been a flurry of activity. And I know that some of you have been there. Because I know the summer you are and have been school teachers a man. Have you ever had that day you get home you’re like. I just need to sit down I need just a few minutes to myself. I’ve had little kids holler at me all day. Mrs Humbert’s. Mrs Raines Mr Raines. Head. You get home it’s like you want to change your name no I’m not Mom I’m not dead leave me be. And I don’t want to talk to anybody else on here and thing give me an hour. I think that’s where Jesus’ disciples were just reading. To enjoy that rest. Than all the sudden. This woman starts hollerin at them. I want to read a couple verses of Matthew’s account of the same passage in Matthew fifteen twenty two twenty three of those it’s taken notes. And behold a woman of Canaan. Came from that region and cried out. To him saying Have mercy on me oh Lord son of David. My daughter severely demon possessed. Have mercy on me if we look back at Mark Mark Bagley said passing said. Package. Mark’s passage said she kept calling to him. So she kept hollering out. Have mercy on me oh Lord son of David. Have mercy on me oh Lord son of David. But he answered her not a word and his cycles came in a urged him saying send her away for sea cries out after us. Come on how many would respond the same way. Ha Lord. Want to go tell her just to go away. I mean we’re tired or tell her to go terribly gone. We need the rest. I probably said the same thing. But she’s persistent INSEE. She’s not going away. She is persistent. Are we persistent in our Faith I found found some examples of persistence. People that just will not give up. They will not be stopped. And they have accomplished much through adversity. They refuse to listen to their fears. Nothing anyone says or does will hold them back. Ted ENGSTROM wrote in his book The Pursuit of Excellence. Cripple him. And you have a sore Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell. And you have a John Bunyan. Burry him in a snow of Valley Forge and you have a George Washington. Rise him. In abject poverty. And you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile and and Fatah paralysis. And he becomes Franklin Roosevelt. Deafen him. And you have a Ludwig Von Beethoven. Have him or her born and. Born black in a society filled with racial discrimination. And you have a Booker T. Washington. Omarion Anderson or a George Washington Carver. Call him a slow learner retarded or write him off as an educator and you have an Albert Einstein. That and be born. Or burned. So severely that the doctors say that he will never walk again. And you have a glen Cunningham. I want to share a little bit about Glen Cunningham. Glen Cunningham was born in August one thousand and nine. Live to March one thousand nine hundred eight. He was an American distant runner. An athlete considered by many the greatest American miler. Of all times. He received the James E. Sullivan award as a top amateur athlete. In the United States in one nine hundred thirty three. He grew up in Elkhart Kansas. Cunningham was nicknamed the Kansas flyer of the Elkhart Express and the R. and horse of Kansas Cunningham’s legs were very badly burned in an explosion caused when someone accidentally put gasoline instead of care sitting in the can at their school house. He was only eight years old his brother Floyd was thirteen his bro for Wade was killed in that fire. When the doctors recommended amputating Glenn’s legs. He was so distressed that his parents would not allow it. The doctors predicted he would never walk normally. If he ever walked again. He had lost all of the flesh when his knees and his shins. And all the toes when he’s left foot. Also has transverse arch was practically destroyed. However his great determination coupled with hours upon hours of a new therapy. It enabled him to gradually regret regained the ability to walk again. It was in the early summer of one nine hundred ninety nine one thousand nine hundred nineteen. When he first tried to walk again. Roughly two years after the accident. He had a positive attitude as well as a strong religious faith. His favorite bible verse was Isaiah forty thirty one. But those who wait upon the Lord. Shall we knew their strength. They saw mount up with lit wings like eagles. They shall run and not be worth. They shall walk. Not faint. He competed in both the one nine hundred thirty two Summer Olympics and in one nine hundred thirty six Summer Olympics. While on the ship traveling from the U.S. to Germany he was voted the most popular athlete by his fellow Olympians. Cunningham won the Sullivan to Sullivan medal in one nine hundred thirty three for his various running achievements. In one nine hundred thirty two. In the one nine hundred thirty two Olympics he took fourth place in the fifteen hundred meter. In the thirty six Berlin lead because he took the silver in the fifteen hundred meter in one nine hundred thirty four he set the world record for the mile run in running it in four minutes. Six point eight seconds and it stood for three years. In one nine hundred thirty six he set the world record. In the eight hundred meter run. In thirty eight he set the world record for the indoor mile before minutes. Four point four seconds. He retired from competition in one thousand nine hundred eighty and yes somebody did go on to break the four minute mile. But here’s a man that had no toes on his left foot. Thought he’d never walk again. But he was determined. And he would not give up. He was persistent. Because a man of faith. Never give up. Never give up. This woman in our passage. Would not give up. She was desperate. She needed help. She was persistent. By Matthew’s account it just seems that Jesus Condit ignored or didn’t. He didn’t answer he ignored or maybe if I ignore us will just go away. Now. You fifteen twenty three says but he answered her not a word. Perhaps he did not respond to show that he was not sent two sets as she. Meaning. The Gentiles. He had explicitly told the disciples when He sent them out to go not into the way the Gentiles. In Matthew ten and five. And be now among them himself. He had to have that consistency I told them not to go the money Gentiles. I didn’t want don’t want them to think that I came here to minister to the Gentiles but the Gentiles sought me out. So he had to be consistent. In verse twenty four. But he answered and said. I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In Mark seven twenty. Mark seven twenty seven. He said to her Let the children be filled first. For it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw the little dogs. Jesus’ statement in this context. Certainly has not escaped the notice of the skeptical community. The prolific infidel Steve Wells documented hundreds of cases of alleged intolerance is found in Biblical texts. Jesus. Encounter with a C. or Phoenician woman is number four hundred twenty one in his list. Of the episode. Wells writes Jesus. Initial refuses to cast out a devil from a Syrian nation woman’s daughter. Calling the woman a dog. After much pleading he found he agrees to do it. What he did have a for understanding of the text. Here she must recognize a primary purpose of Jesus comment. Jesus was passing through the land. And she approached him. Jesus knew that his message would eventually reach the Gentile world. But it is evident from the scripture that the Jewish nation would be the initial recipient of his word. He came into his own many received him but many did not. The Gentiles would eventually receive it. The term that Jesus uses for little dogs he didn’t call her. Just say call you are dogs these little dogs like puppies. It could be easily use an illustrated way without any kind of. Unkind insinuation are C.-H. Linsky translated the Greek term used by Jesus. Canara. As little pet dogs. He said yes in a Orient dogs have. They have no runners they just run wow. But it’s entirely different. The term the Jesus used in its little house pets ones that are cared for ones that are thrown scraps from the table. And they are fed. They are loved. He reveals. Jesus planned. His mission. That yes I’m going to go among the Jews first. But any share that the Gentiles right. Might receive. It is a blessing. But it might be incidental. The persistent woman. She was not offended. As a matter of fact. She found encouragement. She found encouragement. Because she heard that one word it was so important. Let the little children be fed. First. So you see there’s my glimmer of hope she thought. Yes there are good and first and I know they’ve been receiving at the but that means that I too can receive it. I may not be first. But I can receive it. She said unto him. Yes Lord. Reza same word is rendered in Matthew twenty seven. Truth Lord. Yet the dogs the dogs eat of the children’s crumbs. Which falls from their master’s table. The dogs under the table reading allowed to eat the crumbs eat the droppings. She say and give me that one little crumb. And that’s enough. That’s all I need is one little crumb. I don’t need the whole meal. Just one crumb of the power of Jesus Christ. You give nack that’s all we need because I’m telling you today that one crumb of the power Jesus Christ. Is enough to defeat all of the enemy. You see that. It only takes one speck. One little spark of flame. Cannot be put out by all the darkness. One little crumb of the power of our Lord and Savior is enough to dispense all the darkness. All the power of the enemy. One little crumb of Jesus all takes. Do you have that much faith. Because he said to her. Go your way. By this saying your daughter is healed by what say not saying as she believed she stepped out in faith. There’s only two things that amaze Jesus. On belief in faith. Remember Jesus in the boat with his disciples. And they had seen. Miracle after miracle after miracle in their in a boat in a storm comes up what are they do they’re scared to death. And he’s marveled bother unbelief. All you have seen. And yet you’re afraid. But how many other times a day. Someone comes to him and say Lord just speak the word and I know that my son will be healed. He marvels at their faith. She says. I’ll just receive that crumb. At this word your daughter is healed by faith. Do we have that much faith. I pray that our faith. Will be strong. I pray that we will realize the power of Almighty God. That will receive. The Crum we might have from him today. That our faith be strong. Let us. Marvel him with our faith. Will now be awesome. That we marvel him with our faith. And not our unbelief Amen.