Increase Our Faith

Good afternoon to everybody. This is wonderfully nostalgic being back here. I find great pleasure, great memories going around. We're commenting on some of them when we were setting everything up today. And I know many of you were probably concerned and deeply praying. My three-minute drive was fine. I suffered through it, and it was good. Chris Helen Hayes. She decided for the first time to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for her family. And before she decided to serve her, she made an announcement to her husband and son, and she said, Now I know that this is the first turkey I've ever cooked, but it isn't any good. I don't want anybody to say a word. Get up from the table without comment and go to a restaurant to eat. And she went in the kitchen. When she came back carrying her turkey, she found that her husband and son were wearing their coat and top hat. Obviously, they didn't have much faith in her ability to cook a turkey. But you know, with God, we don't have much faith in Him. We have problems. We pray to God for help, and then we sit back and expect the worst to happen. Human nature. Faith is one of those words that's used in a lot of different ways. If we talk about, then there's probably a decent amount of faith in this world. People believe in teachings, and people, and political ideas, and technology. But as you know, all of those are fickle faiths, right? They're not reliable. On the other side, there's a great loss in things like marriage, and government, and journalism, and education. People even question whether truth exists, whether it's knowable. Interesting topic, faith. Most of us have been disappointed by the faithlessness that we've experienced, right? We've all been through that, where someone promises to be somewhere and then they don't show up, or someone promises, I will never do that again, and they do. And we know exactly what that means when a person says, well, I don't have much faith in them anymore, right? We know that means they can't be counted on. They can't be trusted. They're unreliable. And honestly, sometimes we even accuse God of being faithless. Because we have this prayer, we desperately pray to not let some terrible thing happen to us or a loved one. Where are you, God? Please turn to Luke 17, verses 1-5. Luke 17, verses 1-5. I think most of us have struggled with the notion at one time or another, if I just had more faith, and then, you know, the dot, dot, dot. If I just had more faith, I wouldn't have so many questions. I wouldn't have so much doubts. God would answer my prayers. I would be a better person. Life would be different, right? Luke 17, verse 1.

Interesting response.

That's tough to do. Increase our faith. That's been a request of Christians for two thousand-plus years now, right? If McDonald's can supersize our fries and drink, then surely God can supersize our faith? But how? How do we increase our faith? That's the topic for today. Turn to Hebrews 11-1, and I'll tell you, I'm going to bounce back and forth here at the beginning between these two sections. So if you're people who like to mark your Bible, just know we'll be coming back and forth. But Hebrews 11-1, most of the time I would say that we are satisfied to live with the status quo when it comes to our spiritual lives. Until, right? Until that crisis occurs and suddenly we have this urgent need for more faith. You know, God, please heal my sick child. God, please save me from the shame and embarrassment of this sin. Give me the right answer to this difficult problem. Hebrews 11-1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. This word faith is pistis, which means this conviction about the truth of something. We're told God's promises are absolutely sure. If you look at verse 6, it says, "...but without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." It is impossible to please God without faith. So, that pretty much sums up the urgency of us asking God for more faith, doesn't it? Asking God to increase our faith. Go ahead and flip back now to Luke 17 and verse 6, where we were reading before. Luke 17 and verse 6, and we'll see how Jesus describes the power of faith, but also how he responds about how little we have. Luke 17 and verse 6. So, in response to the request for more faith, Jesus says, "...so the Lord said, if you have faith as little as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots, and be planted in the seed, and it would obey." So, Jesus declares that even this very small amount of faith can do this amazing thing. Can you visualize that miracle? That's a large tree. So, faith can uproot this big strong tree, can move it to the sea, and grow it without fresh water or soil. Faith can do miracles.

And we'll circle to it later, but Mark 11 verse 23 is where Jesus used the example of a mountain being cast into the sea. So, what do we have here? If we can't even move trees or mountains, then our faith must be a lot smaller than a mustard seed. Right? It appears Jesus is setting up this impossible goal for us.

None of us have even mustard seed type faith. No Christian, since Christ lived, has had faith from any accounts I've heard. I don't see any records of trees and mountains being moved.

So, what's the lesson? What do we learn from this? I think humanly, at times, I wonder if we have more faith in our car starting than we do in Jesus answering our prayers. I wonder if we have more faith in ourselves or our best friends helping us than we do in Jesus helping us.

Jesus is encouraging them to quit making excuses and put their faith into action, whatever size faith that they have. And when they do, they're going to be amazed at what God will enable them to do. Now, all of us would love to get up in the morning, right, and say, Well, today I'm going to have 100% more faith than I did yesterday.

But that's not how it works. We don't work up faith. Otherwise, there would be no need for the apostles to have said to Jesus, Increase our faith, please. They recognize that walking and talking with God every day, watching His miracles, watching the healings, listening to what He said, They needed the faith that only God could give them. Things were being mentioned and shown that they knew they could not do. All right, flip back now to Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 2. Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 2. It is only through God's power that we can actually be faithful.

And one of the great comforts we get in Scripture is it warns what challenges we're going to face, but it also tells how to overcome them. The yin and yang of life, but at least shows both sides. Hebrews 12, verse 1. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us and up out. This is not something that says, Oh, Jesus, well, just give me the faith I need. The spiritual disciplines apply to grow faith, whether it's prayer or study, Bible study, obedience, all of those fit together. The next point to realize is that faith is found in action. Since you're in Hebrews, just turn back again to Hebrews 11.6. We read it earlier, but it says, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of those, and we'd love to put a period there, who, do what? Who diligently seek him. Diligently seek him. Faith begins with thought. Faith begins with acceptance that there is a living God and belief in the truth that he shared with humanity. But real living faith, it's active. It is doing. We are to diligently be...we are to study the Bible, but then we're supposed to let it change our lives. If you were just studying the Bible, you're missing the connections. And I'll try to point a number of those things out as we go today. It is not just this intellectual acceptance, this emotional feeling, but it has to change how we live, we do, when we feel things. Sure, there's feelings that go with it, but what do we do then? God has made us these free, moral agents. It's one of the beauties of how we've been made and what's made possible for us. But that was done because he knows we have to then choose. Real living faith is active. It's lived out. So do we choose his ways? Do we choose our ways? Mr. Armstrong, I'm going to say give or get, you know, true love or selfishness. And if you think of Hebrews 11 in that way, what you see is the example of all these people who showed their faith by how they lived their lives. All right, turn to James 2, verses 14 through 20. James 2, verses 14 through 20.

I think the key issue for a lot of Christians when they face Christ is whether he finds little or a lot of faith being lived in how they followed God. Did they actively trust God to look after them and how they lived? James 2, verse 14. What does it profit, my brother, and if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked in destitute of daily food and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? I have good thoughts for you. My heart is glowing with love for you. Are you helped by that? What did that do for you? It's not going to fill your needs. We have to have actions to support the realities of our faith. Verse 17. Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know a foolish man that faith without works is dead? Over and over, and James, that connection is made. Faith without works is dead. Even the demons believe God exists and they shudder at that knowledge. Look at humanity. Very few humans shudder at the knowledge of God. So Satan believes Jesus is who he says he is. He knows that very well. He and the demons know what Jesus came to earth for. They accept the fact of Jesus' death. Satan gets the logic of how that can pay the penalty of sins for all mankind. That can't be the sum total of faith. The difference is Satan and the demons refuse to live according to what God says to do. See, that would require living in faith. That would require living in obedience. They likely believe there's some other way. Don't know. And God responds and says, there isn't, and I'm the ultimate expectation setter, judge and rewarder.

A lot of people believe in God, but they don't believe God's directions for living, and that he knows the way to peace, that he knows the way to prosperity and to happiness. Faith comes from God and can only increase by using it. It's an important foundational thing. We can't just keep it in our heads, in our hearts. We have to have it go to our hands and our feet. We have to live it out in what we do. And mighty things can be done, like we see, with just small amounts of faith. So the challenge is we must trust God and not question his wisdom. We must not question his motives. Because his wisdom surpasses ours. His motives are always based on love. He always has our best interest at heart. But as humans, often what we do is we dictate our will to God rather than letting him do things in our life his way. Abraham is that classic example, right? He didn't argue with God's wisdom, though he could have, having to involve killing his son. As humans, we want what God has to offer. All humans do. Everywhere on this planet. People want peace and prosperity and a vibrant life, but we don't always trust him to show us how to get it. All too often, God asks things of us, and we don't have the faith to comply with his requests. We can claim all sorts of faith. I have faith, but when it's tested, we fail because we fear this negative outcome. We want it our way. And the faith we need is this active, living faith. Okay, so how do we increase faith?

Turn back to Luke 17 and start again reading through, and let's reflect on what Jesus was teaching just before his disciples asked him to increase their faith. See, the first way we increase our faith is through forgiving others. We increase our faith through forgiving others. Luke 17 and verse 1.

So the disciples or the apostles asked to increase their faith after Jesus explained this need to forgive up to seven times in a day. It's hard when somebody wrongs you and then asks for forgiveness. Seven times in just a single day, they recognize the difficulty of this. What are you doing when you forgive someone? What are we doing when we forgive someone over and over when they admit they were wrong? You are doing what God does when he forgives you, us, of our sins through Jesus Christ. That's what you're doing. God loves us when he forgives us. We love others when we forgive those who admit their wrongdoings. So in context of increasing faith, faith is love in action.

If you're not showing love based on God's examples, then you have little faith. So there's this link between forgiving and forgiveness. They're connected. It's really hard to forgive others for their trespasses. And you know, when God said seven times, he was using the perfect number, which means forgive as many times as the trespasser repents. It's not you can zing him on the eighth on that day. God has graciously forgiven us unconditionally.

We should make it our goal to share that same type of forgiveness as we interact with others, and that takes faith. Okay, so turn to Mark 11, verses 20 through 25. Mark 11, 20 through 25. Maybe there's a skeptic out here. Can you see Dan? You are connecting two things that are just whatever things you ask when you pray. Believe. Believe is actually the same root word as faith when you see it. Believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven passes. Does increasing faith have anything to do with forgiveness? So far we've seen two situations where Christ linked them. Without forgiveness, we clearly can't expect to have faith or have it increased. Go ahead and turn now to Matthew 6, verse 12. We'll read through verse 15. Faith is very often linked by Jesus with our willingness to forgive. Matthew 6, verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, you recognize that's the Lord's Prayer. Think about the entire Lord's Prayer. It is filled. Next verse is an example.

Now look at what Jesus says immediately after he finishes the prayer. He again stresses the importance of forgiveness. For if your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but... That's one of those scary words. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

If we don't forgive others, neither will the Father forgive us. If we want to be saved by faith, but don't forgive others, we can't, since God will not forgive us.

They connect. Forgiving our neighbors is part of increasing our faith. We can't... I mean, we can understand with this why his disciples say, Lord, increase our faith! It's probably something we don't pray enough. I don't. Turn back now to Luke 17, and let's read verses 7-9. So we'll continue in this key chapter. Let's see the next lesson on how to increase our faith. I think we're too often captivated with the idea of miracles being performed, like healings. We see these as proof of faith. But that misses the point that Jesus was pointing out. Instead of emphasizing the spectacular, he brings out that faith grows from ordinary roles, such as the servant plowing a field, feeding cattle, serving meals to a master.

These routine services can seem dull, right? They tire some of their necessary tasks in life. So increasing faith is demonstrated in our attitude toward the mundane parts of life. Luke 17, verse 7, And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him, when he has come in from the field, Come at once, sit down to eat. But will he not rather say to him, Prepare something for my supper? And gird yourself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunk. And afterwards you will eat and drink. Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.

The way I picture this is Jesus and the disciples were outdoors. They were walking along. Jesus had already pointed to a mustard plant. He probably pointed to a mulberry tree. Now he points to a servant plowing in a field and another looking after sheep. All of those are very common things to see in that environment. And he just was using those to teach the lessons that he had in mind. Jesus issued his caution against getting caught up in these great things of faith and what faith can do, and forgetting about the one to whom our work and services are to be directed. Now again, go back to the time period. At that time, a servant coming in from the field, there wasn't any master who would say, You look really tired. You know what? Just take a seat. Just relax. I'll bring you something. That's not how it worked. Before the servant could eat, he had to prepare the meal for his master. And only after he finished all of his chores could he then eat. And at the end of the day, he didn't get special praise. He just done his role. That's exactly the lesson for you and for me. Have you seen some folks that demand a thank you for serving in church? That tells you the attitude behind what they do. We're to do things for our master with this humble spirit. So the lesson is faith grows through humility and service under God. Faith grows through humility and service under God. Remember, we previously learned that faith increased by recognizing that we've been completely forgiven by God from the death penalty that we have earned. And we're to repeatedly forgive others. Now Jesus is telling us that we are to set a table and attend to Him first. Doing so increases our faith. This is within seconds of them making that request. Jesus is the head of the church. He's the Lord. He directs the operations of His household. And if we think we know better than God, if we think we can tell Him what to do, then we have little faith.

Jesus gives each of His servants tasks to perform, roles, skills along the way. And we are to obey what He has commanded. We're to humbly depend on the Lord, to obey Him because our hearts are full of love and gratitude. And then as far as our needs are concerned, God will take care of those, but He must come first.

Jesus expects this humble obedience to His will within the church. And as we put our faith into action, as we begin to see the great things God accomplishes through us, then we need to be on guard against thinking we deserve now some sort of reward from God. Because in living this Christian life, we're only doing what the Master has asked us to do. Like the next verse says, we're unworthy servants. Verse 10. So likewise you, you know, you sort of see Him pointing at the disciples, pointing at us. When you have done all these things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. Lord, increase our faith. Oh, all right. I'll teach you how. Jesus is driving this point home. If our works are to flow from a heart of faith, they must be motivated by thankfulness, not a greedy and misguided desire to obtain the rewards from God. That's not what should be our motivation. Humble obedience means we've done our duty and nothing else. Jesus willingly paid the ultimate price for us, right? He set the example, and that is worth everything else. Faith doesn't get us this pat on the back, a reward. It doesn't get us a promotion in God's eyes. It's simply the way in which we live so that at the end of the day, the faith ones can say without pride, without shame, we've done only what we ought to have done. So even if you're doing a great job of serving God, of not leading others to sin, of forgiving others, you've only done what you were supposed to do. We have allowed God to guide our decisions, to guide our words, and to guide our actions. Now, that doesn't mean that God will not ultimately commend his faithful servants. Jesus describes a future point where he tells his disciples, Well done, good and faithful servants, enter you into the joy of the Lord. But please note the response of his faithful servants. What have we done? When have we ever seen you sick and ministered to you? Were you ever hungry and we fed you? When were you naked and we clothed you? The servants had just done their duty in their eyes. Those were the actions of Christians living with increased faith. That's what was being displayed in that. And in contrast, you can look at self-compassion when we see others feeling pain. We're supposed to help the hungry. We're supposed to encourage. We're supposed to speak for justice. We're supposed to show mercy and forgiveness. I was like, if we're going to go to this one, we probably had to go to the obvious, but let's just state the obvious. The Bible does it painfully. Faith doesn't necessarily change the circumstances. Instead, it changes us. Not the circumstances, it changes us. Living in faith doesn't shield us from the pain and the difficulties of life. It doesn't undo the past. It doesn't guarantee a particular future. Rather, faith is the means by which we face and deal with life. Difficulties, losses, joys, successes. All of them.

And when you read these passages, I don't know about you, but it can leave me with a little sense of terror along the way, right? Feeling unworthy. How can we have this perfect humility? Who could possibly be faithful enough other than Jesus who is perfect? That's supposed to motivate us to say, Lord, increase our faith. That's what the Bible is meant to do. Okay. Let's pivot to more areas that can increase our faith. Now, for the next few words, and I am going to admit I'm going to go through these quickly, because you probably have heard sermons on them, and you can find them online. But it's important to put together. We're now going to do a quick review of the four enemies of faith. And where does that phrase come from? There are four times Jesus said, Oh, you of little faith. We heard one of them in the sermonette. So I'm going to reference one of them. I'm going to tell you where to find them for your notes. We're not going to read through all of them. But let's review what the four enemies of faith are. Turn to Matthew 6 and verse 30. Matthew 6 and verse 30. The first enemy of faith is worry. And we read that in the sermonette along the way.

If you want in your notes, the whole story goes through Matthew 6.25 to 34. We're just going to read the key part. Matthew 6.30. Now if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more close you, oh, you of little faith?

When we have little faith, what do we do? We worry a lot. We trust God a little. That's what we tend to do. Worry and anxious care are enemies of faith. And they mean our priorities are not where they need to be. Because God promises to take care of us if we have faith and humbly serve Him.

Now, Jesus made that same statement twice when His disciples were scared to death thinking they were going to die in a shipwreck. Which always humbles me because these are seasoned fishermen. And if they're terrified for their life, that tells you what kind of storm they were in. The second enemy of faith is fear, and it is found in Matthew 8.23-26. The key verse is verse 25, where He responded, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? And then in that situation He arose from the sleep, rebuked the wind in the sea, and there was this great calm. Fear will always kill our faith. You can think of the example of Elisha, right? With the servant fearing the army surrounding the city he's in all around, fearing the army he could see, and not thinking about the all-powerful God and the protection that he couldn't immediately see.

And that's why we lack fear. We don't usually see God's armies, so we fear and we worry. Are you facing a fear or a worry today? Think about this concept along the way. Those are the reasons to ask God to increase your faith. We all need to have our eyes open, and when we do, God says He will step in and help us out. Don't neglect the promises that He has. And when God steps in, we've all had miracles that happen in our life, when God steps in, don't neglect to explain the miracles in your life to others. Give God credit. Tell others, because it inspires and it uplifts. The third enemy of faith is human reason, and it is found in Matthew 16, verses 1-2. So in this story along the way, again, we're not going to turn to this one. The story is where the disciples forgot to take bread, and Christ warned them to take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And so they started wondering, were they getting condemned because they didn't pack enough food? And then Jesus clarified His comment was about the false reasoning and justification of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So we're to look at life from a spiritual realm first and not our human reasoning, not justifications, because it's always going to be faulty. Go ahead and turn to Matthew 14, and we'll look a little bit into the fourth enemy of faith, which is doubt. Doubt. So you have worry, fear, human reason, doubt. Not a person in his room who hasn't suffered with some of those, probably this week.

Matthew 14. Now the full story runs from verses 22-32. We're only going to read verses 28-31. Disciples, again on a boat, thought they would die in a storm, and suddenly they look over, and this time Jesus is walking on water toward them. Matthew 14, verse 28. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water. So He said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Peter started with faith. He was given an order, come, and he obeyed. He successfully walked on water until doubts took over. Now, get the concept here, because this is where this all comes from. Satan will always show us these waves of trials and fears and worries and ping your human reasoning to say, You can't trust God. You can't do this. You are not going to be enough. Satan was the first attempt humans with all four of these in the Garden of Eden, and he hasn't stopped. We invent reasons to doubt why something should happen. Some people are just negative Nellies. Doubt, doubt, doubt, doubt, doubt. We reason with our human emotions. We doubt. We don't expect God to do His share because then we try to reason for why He shouldn't. Doubt definitely holds in the opposite direction of faith. Verse 30. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out His hands and caught Him and said to Him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?

Peter took his eyes off God in his life. Do you and I take our eyes off God in our lives? He was charged at times. That's where we fail to. We can't ask God to increase our faith while not looking at God. Otherwise, Jesus is going to tell us, turn your head around, face me. Not your worries, not your doubts, not your fears. Right? That's why it's an enemy of faith. Most of our thinking is negative. It's based on doubt. So much of our life we face thinking of doubts. We think we believe and have hope, but we can let this negativity impact our actions. Do you believe God will fulfill what He tells and promises to do for you? Here we all can say increase our faith, right? Contrast that with Abraham, who was fully convinced that what God had promised He was able to perform, even if it meant murdering His Son. So all four of the enemies of faith build on themselves. And you know from your own life, they escalate. They escalate. They escalate. They build, build, build. Those are all key reasons why we don't have enough faith. God... well, let me use an example here. We often will rely on a medicine that has 30 side effects that are known, and that's okay. It can help you. God wants His disciples of the inevitability of a defense, but we must not let ourselves be a stumbling block to others and not let that be a stumbling block to us sinning. Then Jesus talked about being generous to forgive others, irrespective of how many times. Next He taught about being humble, unassuming servants. All of those increase faith, right? Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. So I love this one. This parable, before he even starts it, he gives them the lesson. In case you aren't going to get it out of this one, let me tell you the lesson of this whole thing. Now listen to my story. Verse 8 is probably the best known verse in the parable, and we'll come to that. But what it does is it connects praying without losing heart as a key way to have the faith we need. Verse 2, saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard men. Now, there was a widow in that city, and she came to Him saying, get justice for me for my adversary. But afterwards He said within Himself, though I do not fear God nor regard men, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her lest, by her continually coming, she weary me. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night, and long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?

Will God really find faith on the earth when He returns?

That's a big question. Will we continue to faithfully pray and not lose heart? That's the point of the parable that got to that verse. Will our faith, trust in God, endure whatever happens knowing God has it in His hands? The Bible in a lot of places says verses like, great is God's faithfulness. His compassion never fails. We know God is faithful.

Are we? Are we? Will we be? Don't give up on God and give into the pressures around you. We're told the effective fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. That is the result of our faith and God's greatness if we put it to use, if we trust God, if we believe. You know, like Jesus was saying, if an unjust judge with selfish motives might ultimately do right for this persistent widow, how much more will God do right for us? We should have total trust and faith in God. And we should keep an intimate prayer life and never give it up, no matter how it might be tested. By us not losing heart in our prayers, God will find the faith He desires when He returns to earth.

All right, turn to Matthew 15, verses 21 through 28. Matthew 15, 21 through 28. What I want us to do now is we're going to look at two examples of people Jesus said had great faith.

Great faith. The first is a Canaanite woman whose daughter was possessed by a demon. And you're going to see in each of these all the lessons we talked about being exemplified. Matthew 15, verse 21. Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from the region and cried out to him, saying, You have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely demon possessed. So the first thing to recognize is this situation required great faith, and she knew it.

This woman came to Jesus because she was desperately determined to try to get her child help.

Anybody whose parents here know that helpless feeling of trying to help out your child. We heard a prayer request by a parent. She was also grieving in that way. And these realities were harsh. Her child was demon possessed, probably acting out in violence and anger. And this was their first meeting. But the woman was absolutely sure that Jesus could help, and all he needed to do was say the word and the healing would happen.

You've seen people who have that type of faith in their family doctor, right? I have all the faith in the world, all the confidence in the world in my doctor. But here's a woman who's only heard about Jesus and didn't hesitate to beg and to plead and to pursue him. Just want to hear him say, Be healed. She was desperate and she saw Jesus as her only hope. Verse 23. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and amplified them, urged them, saying, Send her away! For she cries out after us. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. So we immediately see the submission that reveals great faith in what she did. Remember, increased faith comes from giving and receiving forgiveness. Being a humble servant, praying to God persistently, having complete trust in Christ. That's all exemplified here. It's all exemplified. This woman comes to Jesus for help, and when she doesn't get the response she imagines, she stays after Jesus until she gets what she wants. Obstacles and resistance didn't stop her from persisting until she received her goal to help her daughter.

There are obstacles present in this story that I think we don't even recognize. Because again, we've read it and Loba turns into want want want times. She had to overcome race, she had to overcome religion, she had to overcome gender. She was a female Canaanite who was considered a Gentile heathen. Right?

That's why the disciples wanted nothing to do with her.

She had to overcome rejection. Jesus admitted his whole purpose and coming was initially focused on the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She had to overcome reality. Her daughter was demon-possessed, condemned by everybody around. What obstacles are you facing today?

Put yourself in there. What obstacles are you facing? Your faith will not be defined by what you receive from God, but by what it takes for you to push past the things stopping you from getting to Him. That's what assurance in the unseen looks like. Persist in seeking God, and in time He will remove those barriers. Verse 26. But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dog. Dogs. Ouch! And she said, Yes! Not no. Yes, Lord! Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. The story of this woman reminds us of what faith and prayer looks like when we're faced with real personal troubles and trials and adversities. And it's a story that brings us back to the basics of what it means to trust in Jesus Christ. Whatever the need in your life may be today, really the lesson is get it to God.

That's what you see her doing with every ounce of her being. Get it to God. Regardless of what you face, the answer would be found in Him, because He can move mountains. He can meet your needs. He can forgive your sins. He can touch your loved ones. He can provide eternal salvation. But you have to get it to Him with unwavering faith that He will.

If we think throughout the New Testament, the examples of what we see, the people who show the greatest faith in Jesus are the ones who need Him the most. Think of the lepers. Think of the sick. Think of the people just in desperate need.

They knew Jesus was the only solution to their difficult situations. And great faith requires us recognizing that we need God and are hopeless and hopeless without Him. Do you think you can fix yourself? Or the world can fix things for you. You're missing the connections along the way. We need the great faith that's displayed here to go forward. And when the woman first turned to Jesus, He ignored her. He didn't answer at all. Do you ever feel that? We often feel that way when we pray and it appears nothing changes. Right? Let me just be candid. It's what happens. Sometimes the only answer we seem to hear is silence, and that makes it seem as though God is absent. That tests and challenges our faith. Sometimes when we don't get the answers we want in prayer, we blame ourselves. We think we haven't lived a good enough life. We think we're disappointed. We've already disappointed God in some unforgivable way. God can't forgive me for that. Like the Canaanite woman, we can wonder if we're really worried. And the good news this Canaanite woman teaches is our worthiness has nothing to do with it. She wasn't worthy. You and I aren't worthy. That doesn't matter.

Great faith doesn't require... Great faith turns us to the only one who can make us worthy. If you fight with worthiness, keep that in mind. You see people just struggle with that concept. Great faith turns us to the one who died for us, to make us worthy to stand before him. But he isn't worthy. Sentence doesn't stop there. And then answering her prayer, Jesus is telling us that it's not about our worthiness and it never was.

There's a lot... just give... call the confidence from that. It's about grace. It's about that loving gift given to us. No matter what great needs or difficult situations that you face, Jesus knows the way out. He has the power to do it. What we need is the great faith to trust and turn to him. That's why we start praying more and more. God increase our faith.

And we must have peace knowing that the solution he gives won't likely be the solution we want. At our timing and according to our terms, I said, I mean, it's not the best thing. But I think... I honestly don't know if God has ever answered anything I've asked according to all three of those. It doesn't mean he hasn't given me things I've asked for.

But the exact solution, the way I wanted, the timing I wanted, and the way I wanted... God keeps me humbled and says, no, I'll show you how this really works. You're not as smart as you think. Jesus said, woman, great is your faith. She needed Jesus, she knew it, and she persisted when everything was telling her to give up. And the more we persist, persist, not focusing again what we see, what we hear, our human senses along the way, what we feel, the more we will witness God's interventions in our difficult times. And that... her faith, she went immediately without just turning to went, knowing that it was going to be done, her daughter was healed.

Just a beautiful story. And that faith excited God. Alright, let's look at a second story. Turn to Matthew 8, verses 5 through 13. Matthew 8, 5 through 13. What we're going to see is here the example of the centurion who approached Jesus to heal his servant. Now, one fascinating thing to me here is both of these were examples of great faith shown by Gentiles. Those shunned by the Jews is outside the culture and the circle of faith. Just fascinating. Those are who he commended for great faith. In the Romans...

again, let's put in place what we have here. In a Roman legion, a Roman legion in their military was made up of 6,000 men, which was divided into 60 centuries, each of 100 people. The leader of each of those 100 people was a centurion. So centurions were considered some of the finest men in the Roman army.

Now, you can contrast, and you could say they were not highly regarded by the Jews because they reminded them about being this conquered and this oppressed people. So look at them. The Jews would have no dealing with a Roman soldier, and the centurion knew it. You'll see that in some of his responses. Yet he still turned to Christ for help.

Matthew 8, verse 5. Now, when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. The centurion requested help for his servant to be healed from paralysis. And maybe whatever other pains came with getting that. And so he was fighting for the health of this person he deeply loved and cared for. And that really should remind you of your relationship with God, right? The Lord is our master.

We are his bondservants, doulos, right? God demonstrated his love and compassion toward us when Christ died for us on the cross. So it's again, the centurion's need that took him to Christ. He realized he doesn't have the ability to heal the servant, but Jesus does, and so he asked for help. Did we do that enough? We are all very, very needy people. But human nature is that we won't admit it and we'll go around like everything is okay. That's just kind of the way we tend to live our lives.

Even though it must have been very humbling for this mighty soldier to seek help from this wandering street preacher, he came to Christ in this penitent way. Verse 7, And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, Go!

And he goes, Adjourn other, come! And he comes. And to my servant, Do this! And he does it. In verse 8, the centurion recognized that under Jewish regulations it wasn't appropriate for Jesus to enter under his roof.

He was unworthy of that happening, according to the Jewish regulations. We need to approach God with that same humble unworthiness when we come before Him, when we ask for grace to be shown to us. Jesus isn't some genie in a bottle whom we can command at will. Often we try to barter with God. We say, to get that promotion, God, I'll start coming to church and I'll read the Bible daily. I'll pray more.

We must humbly come before God and acknowledge Him as Lord. And let me fill in an interesting nuance that I hadn't never recognized in this scenario. The Greek word Jesus used for heal is theropuso, which is where the English word therapeutic comes from.

That word means first to serve, to give medical attention, and then to nurse and restore back to health. But the Centurion asked Jesus for more than just his first aid and palliative care. In verse 8, the word the Centurion used for healing is yathu-seh-ta, something along those lines. If you look at the letters and the pronunciation, they're wildly different. But that means to cure, to heal, to make completely whole. And it also means to make free from sin and to bring about one's salvation. The Centurion was willing to live by faith and not by sight. He was willing to believe Jesus only needed to merely say the words. Do we really believe in the power of God to work and what we ask Him to do? When we pray for somebody's healing, do we believe Jesus can completely restore that person's health? Or do we only ask for aid in their ultimate recovery? Help the doctors. They'll figure it out, but just help them a little bit. When we get to verse 30, we'll discover the healing that Jesus provided was indeed this yathu-seh-ta, complete and total restoration. Interesting word anomaly that gets blended in there. Like the Centurion, we need to ask in faith for people's total and complete restoration for both physical and spiritual healing along the way. And of course, we have the example of a Centurion who said he was a man under authority. When he gave an order, he knew he carried the authority of Rome, which he said a lot at that time. And so he saw Jesus as having the authority of God. We too must realize that we're servants to a higher authority, and we should strive to carry out our marching orders in faith. And of course, Jesus wasn't only under authority, He was also the authority. If you want to get contrast in here, remember He's talking to a Centurion. A legion had 60 centuries inside it. Remember what Jesus said? I can easily, anytime, call 12 legions of angels to come. Different levels of authority. Verse 10. When Jesus heard it, He marveled and He said to those who followed, Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from the east, which literally means the rising of the sun, and west, His servant was healed that same hour. I know we can go into all sorts of lessons in this, but I hope you see each of the examples of how we increase faith were exemplified in this story. As well as the earlier one. How do we recognize when our faith is increasing? How do you recognize it? One sign of anger, less questioning, less doubting of God during times of hardship in your life.

It's easy to have faith when everything is going right. It's when things don't go right, or go very wrong, that our faith is shaken. Before we know it, we're starting to realize, why me, God? Why now? Why this way? Why? Why? Why? And that can lead us to being unfaithful instead of being more faithful to God. Instead of demanding from God, those with increased faith are more likely to say, God, would You want me to learn from this? Teach me or show me. You will know that your faith is increasing when you draw closer to God instead of drifting away from Him in difficult times. Turn to 1 Timothy 6 and verse 12. There's a lot of parts of Scripture that tell us that we have to live faithfully in many places a week ago. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 12 says, Seriously.

You don't need to turn to James 1. You know it says, Because the testing of your faith will produce a string of good things. God wants us to have all that is good for us. Testing our faith is really God's way of seeing whether we trust, whether we love, whether we obey expecting nothing in return. But we must first be willing to put it all on the line and do what's pleasing in God's eyes for Him to give us all that He promises. How is our faith in Jesus changing our lives? Don't be satisfied with your initial faith when you accepted Christ as your Savior.

Do we really desire increased faith? Because you should be. In conclusion, turn to Hebrews 10, 35-38. Hebrews 10, 35-38. God's faithfulness is something we can completely trust in. We can completely rely on, including His promises. In response, we are to hold fast to our confession of hope without wavering. Hebrews 10, 35-38. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall do what? The just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in Him. Will Christ find true faith when He returns to the earth? Yes, He will. He will find it in the faithful who live by faith. He will find it in those who would not draw back or give up. So I encourage you, continue to pray that God finds it in us, in you, and pray for more faith. Fight that good fight of faith. Agonize the good agony. Endure to the end and be saved. Endure to the end and be saved.