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Mark 7:24-37

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.

31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."

35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

^.24 We all need to come apart for peace and quiet sometimes – and he went to the place where mainly Gentiles lived to get away from the business of life – there are various times when Jesus wanted to be alone and wanted his disciples to come apart for a time (Mark 6.31) – it is good to come aside from our busy schedules and retreat, as it were, so that we can get our bearings, to seek God, to rest and then to go back to the work with vigour.

He was already too famous – such is the life of the celebrity – fame and fortune does not necessarily bring good things – in fact Scripture makes clear that these things leads to more temptation:

1 Tim 6. ^6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. ^7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. ^8 And having food and clothing (covering), with these we shall be content. ^9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. ^10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

At the end of this chapter as many times before Jesus did not want to be famous as time and again he did not want the attention – he did not want people seeing him as some circus freak show but he wanted true followers. With fame comes attention and often those with fame are plied with many things – those who are famous are given many gifts as a way of ingratiating themselves with the one who is famous and getting a little of the fame rubbed off on them. These are serious considerations – if we try to court fame then the temptations are many and varied – if our aim is to be famous or popular it is likely that it will lead to compromise –

I wrote up this sermon over a week ago when I thought that this is what I was going to preach but because of my voice you got something different – and so there I was last night and I caught the end of Britain’s Got Talent Final Results and this guy beat the 12yr old Ronan – I think it is a good result not because I had heard either of the two, as I hadn’t, but for the sake of the young boy’s life – of course, he is already famous but what will the cost be to his life? Entering a competition like this may lead to unwanted attention that can literally be soul-destroying – to gain the world and lose one’s soul.

The advice to Timothy is to be content with what you have if, at least, you have food, clothing and shelter– what more do we have need of, in the material sense?

History teaches us these lessons but these are not easy lessons to learn because we always want the next best thing whether it be an house extension, an ipad2, a TV, a computer, new furniture, car, clothes or even in relationships whether it be a new girlfriend, or to have more exciting friends, or to become better looking, to reverse the signs of ageing or to be on the latest diet or the latest spot cream – I do not even touch the tip of the iceberg when I talk of these things – BUT godliness with contentment is great gain: godliness is practical holiness, or living as set apart doing the will of God – these other things just add more concern, more worries, each thing needs bigger budgets, and can eventually lead to more debt and more time.

Jesus did not go out of his way to gain riches or fame – because both are fickle, they are here today and gone tomorrow – and Jesus is our example that we should follow. Remember that Jesus said that he had nowhere to lay his head meaning that we are unlikely to be in such a bad predicament but it may be the cost of following Jesus.

I want us to get this, this morning – if we want money, if we want possessions, if we want to become well known , these lusts are really going to hurt us – these are the lusts of the world – a world that is at war with God – let us get our priorities right – we can fall into the sin of the devil which is: Pride. Some people are so interested in gaining things that they are swamped – but I heard a rich guy say a few years ago – you can only drive one car, you can only sleep in one bed, you can only wear one set of clothes – so why are you trying to gain more than 2 of anything for we only have 1 life?

It is important that we know the reasons why we are going to college or university or to work – is it so that we can gain more of this world? Or is it so that we can work for the Kingdom of God?

How do we measure success? By what possession we have? By whether we have been in front of 1000 people or been in the news? I tell you now that if that is how we measure success then we have got it wrong. Life is not in our possessions or ambitions. Success is doing the will of God.

^25-30So now, returning back to the woman in this story, she had heard about Jesus and she was there to get his attention but this was no simple clamouring for attention – this was urgent for she was her wit’s end. Jesus had taken time aside to be with his disciples alone. Jesus’ was only in Tyre for no one else but his disciples and ministering and discipling them - yet what is interesting is that she is not deterred – she was not going to accept no for an answer – this is faith at work.

Here the woman acknowledges that he was not there for her but he can minister to the people and she at the same – no offense was taken here by the woman concerning the dogs – it was not a derogatory term Jesus was using of her and it is plain from her response that it was not taken as such.

^The woman received the word she was after – she took the word and believed and left off asking Jesus for her daughter and went home confident that she had got what she had come and asked for. ^Jesus word was confirmed – she found it exactly as Jesus had said – he can be taken at his Word.

Why is this whole scenario played out for us? Is it not to indicate that we can pray for others and get an answer? Especially if we have the kind of persistent faith that holds onto God for the answer as did this woman.

Jesus heals today and we have heard such stories recently about a Muslim who came into contact with one of the members of Woodville Rd Baptist Church and was healed – we know that such things can lead people to acknowledge Jesus as Lord.

We will find that those who are not insiders such as this woman and the blind and mute man we find a few verses later but are outsiders like the Muslim man will get healing for themselves and others and the result is that God is glorified as we find in this passage. Sometimes those on the outside have greater faith in Jesus than those who are in the Churches and we have to be careful to not discriminate. Jesus was willing to inspire faith in those who came to him and now as his witness here we are to point to Jesus as one who hears, answers prayers and heals today when someone speaks of problems that they have and to be willing to pray for them in the precious name of Jesus.

From this there are at least three things here that the Lord would have us to do:

1. To make sure we get the rest and spiritual refreshment that we need though to be willing to minister is the need arises.

2. To give up chasing this world and riches and fame and be content with what God has given us – I think that this is a specific word to us to be careful for the riches of the world are deceitful but it is a trap we can all fall into – remember that we can be choked by the world and become unfruitful for the Kingdom of God in our chasing for fame and riches.

3. We will encounter incredible people like this woman who had great faith and would not take no for an answer – she must have become part of the fellowship otherwise we would never have known that her daughter had definitely been delivered. So, it is true, sometimes people do become believers as a result of genuine signs and wonders and therefore we should be all the more willing to pray for them and point them to the one who loves them.

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