Words of Jesus Podcast - Put Christ Back Into Christian

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Conviction comes from God. Deal with the issues of your heart in private. Come as you are, then change; make corrections. Our mouth reveals our hearts - listen to hear your own words. Endure honest communication. Jesus came to save HIS PEOPLE not Gentiles; to bring grace (not unmerited favor) but, the power for men to become Sons of God. The Syrophoenician woman, 'called a dog', reached out in humility with an importunic prayer. Salvation is not an inherited right. Faith is required.    ***Ch. 40: Jesus Heals the Daughter of a Canaanitish WomanMatthew 5:21-28; Mark 7:24-30 AFTER JESUS had defended his disciples because they ate bread with unwashed hands, he went into the coastal regions of Tyre and Sidon, hoping to escape from the crowds.            However, his presence could not be hidden for long. A Greek woman, native of Syro-Phoenicia, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him. She came to him and fell at his feet, saying:            “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.”            But Jesus did not answer her.             His disciples came to Jesus and said:            “Send her away, for she crieth after us.”            But Jesus replied:            “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”            The woman continued to worship him and said:            “Lord help me.”            Jesus replied, saying:            “It is not proper to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.”            The woman said:            “Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”            Seeing such great faith, Jesus said:            “O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”            When the woman returned home, she found that her daughter had been healed from that very hour.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello my friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris, your host, and we're talking about more red ink. We've got a lot to go. This guy, he just talks about everything, and I think that we all ought to know exactly what Jesus says. How are we going to bolster the church? How are we going to fix these problems if we don't put Christ back into Christianity? You know, I keep telling people,

you know, I hear them talk about, you know, Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart and that kind of stuff. I understand what they're saying. I get all that. However, you know, if you just take a look at that scripture, you know what's really sad about that scripture? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He's not knocking on your heart's door. He's knocking on the door of the church. He's asking the church, hey, can I come in there? Do you realize that? He's knocking on the door of the church he's asking the church hey can i come in there do you realize that he's knocking on the door of the church he wants he'd really like to be a part of what we're doing so that's that's what

we're trying to do at think red ink trying to get people taught think red ink now last time we talked about we were in chapter 39 of the book, and we ended with Jesus saying, let me tell you what's in your heart. Let me tell you what you're going to find coming out of your mouth. And when these things come out of your mouth, they become a part of your life. These are kind of things that we really should not let out of our mouth. Just keep them within ourselves. Know that they're there and deal with them in a knowing manner. And you don't get fascinated with it. You don't get fascinated with your sin.

Don't make it a hobby to tell everybody what a sinner you are and I'm so unworthy and all the rest of these things that some people just seem to take pleasure in you know paul says i'm i'm shocked that you're not ashamed of the deeds you've done in darkness and we all not talk about these things but you need to know that first of all we need to know that he knows that they're in there and as they come out of your mouth they're going to defile you they're going to make you worse and let's let's go through that list again because kind of had to push on time last time he says for from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts evil thoughts now what does that mean i know the word evil has kind of taken on

a spiritual connotation in in the day in which we live there's things that are righteous and good and holy and just and then there's evil but do you realize that evil simply just means bad as a matter of fact there's a there's a scripture i use as an example of this all the time where the lord is telling the prophet you see these fruit these figs he says uh take them and eat them and he says no i can't do that why well they're evil figs evil yeah so evil that they can't be eaten evil Evil? Evil figs? How does a fig get evil? Does it think ugly thoughts? Is it sinful? Is it wicked? Is it possessed with a spirit? No. Evil just means they're bad. They're not what they're supposed to be. Friend, if you're thinking that because you don't you know conjure a a curse upon

somebody like some witch would that you don't have evil thoughts look we run into evil thoughts all the time seeing the bad side of everything just being a a a persistent pessimist is something that defiles us from time to time. Look, I know I'm a cynic. I know. I'm not proud of that. I wish I could see the lovely side of everything. I think I'm called to something different in my life. And I think that perhaps my cynicism is one of the things that makes me look a little deeper

into the scriptures and not necessarily believe everything i hear but uh and i guess there's nothing wrong with good healthy cynicism but we ought not be so so blasted negative about everything and so when you have a thought that is in the negative vein, it's a bad thought. It's just a bad thought. Don't let that come out of your mouth. Wickedness. Do you know what wickedness is? Many people don't.

Again, wickedness gets thrown into that spiritual category of somebody being wicked. Do you realize that wickedness means lawlessness? Do you know what the law of God is? These are people who don't teach and don't live by and don't have anything to do with the commandments of God. These are wicked people. How about deceit? Now, deceit is often set aside as something separate from lying. Many people feel like that lying is something that

when you say something that's not semantically true, like there's some false word in there or something. And you've had this conversation. Anybody who's had kids've had this conversation anybody who's had kids has had this conversation they want to know who broke this lamp and the kid is thinking in his head well you know really i didn't break the lamp the football broke the lamp i didn't and so he could say he can look at his parents and say i didn didn't do it. And he thinks that he's not lying. Well, that's because we've not really taught our children that lying is deceit.

If you're trying to make me believe something that is not true and doing so in a deceitful manner, it's a lie. Do you know you can say things that are absolutely semantically, word for word true and still deceive somebody? It's still a lie. So deceit, don't let that come out of your mouth. Lasciviousness, what is that? That's this idea of being, just having a license to sin. Just a license to do wrong. And that is that, you know, I can't help it. I have to sin every day. Or I do sin every day. Or none of us are without sin. You know, why are you doing this awful thing in your life? Well, nobody's perfect. That's licentiousness. Friend, don't participate in this. This is what will defile you. This will

defile you a lot more than drinking a beer or smoking a cigarette or doing anything that we've always taught was, oh, you pour that through your lips, why, you're defiled. Yeah, that's wrong. Jesus says it's not what goes over the lips this way that defiles a man. It's what comes out this way that defiles a man. And he's telling us the things that come out of a person's mouth how about an evil eye this is somebody that just can't see the good in anything

this is somebody that actually looks for sin in every situation um this has to do with lusts and with problems that uh secret sins those kind of things blasphemy um i don't i don't know that we understand blasphemy as as well as we should i know that probably there's not a christian in the world that i mean worth his salt anyway that would uh blaspheme God, that would say things purposefully wicked about God or say things that are sacrilegious or anything in the area of blasphemy. However, when you define blasphemy the way Jesus did, he said that when you, remember when he cast out a devil and they said he cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils? And Jesus looked at those men that day and said,

you know what, I'll forgive anybody of anything except that. You will not see within yourself, visit in your purview of your life a miracle an act of god a mercy of god done on this earth and attribute it to satan and get away with it i want you to think about that the next time somebody tells you that they feel like they weren't saved last week or last month or when they were seven years old. Before you tell them that that is the devil speaking to them,

I want you to think about this. Because it is the Spirit of God that convinces us of sin. It is the Spirit of God that convinces us that we need a Savior. The devil is not in that business. And if you arbitrarily, not knowing a cotton-picking thing about a situation, attribute an urging in some person to make themselves right with God

and to protect your stupid denomination and your stupid ideas about salvation that all you have to do is ask and jesus saves you and it's instantaneous and if you ask him he saves you and if you doubt it you're calling god a liar now you know what you're doing you're blaspheming god what's the chances that that person was not sincere when they asked the lord to save them what's the chances that that person didn't repent when they asked the lord to save them? What's the chances that that person didn't repent when they asked the Lord to save them? All these things are possibilities that you don't know.

You need to be very careful of blasphemy. It's very easy to do for good reasons. How about this one? Pride. Foolishness. Man, oh man. There's more foolishness that comes out of people's mouths nowadays under the guise of humor under the guise of you know uh trying to uh introduce a little levity

to a situation or whatever it has no purpose whatsoever and our lord jesus says that that you are going to be judged by every idle word that comes out of your mouth i don't know how you can know that and continue to be such a clown and continue to be so light-hearted about very serious things or say yeah it doesn't matter. You know, you're majoring on minors or whatever else and just downplaying what is important in life. Jesus says, all these things, all these evil things come from within and defile a man. So before we consider a person defiled because they don't

happen to match your denominational guidelines or this person doesn't actually pass muster with your grandmother and her ideas of the way church ought to be or whatever else whatever criteria you're judging people by, I really think we need to give these things some thought. In the meantime, shut up. I mean, gosh, I just think that we're just causing so much trouble just by idle words, just by, you know, making snap judgments and arbitrary judgments on situations and on people my goodness people are the only eternal thing you're going to encounter today look around you everything

you see is is is consumable by fire i mean i know you hate to think about your your pussy cat or your puppy dog or whatever else you got but look that's not an eternal soul i know that's the most important person in your life it ought not be but i know it can't be but look it's the people in our life that are the most important and the holiest thing that you are ever going to get that you're going to encounter today is going to be the person in your life that little cashier that checks you out at the grocery store you know the the guy you meet the mailman the whatever it's people people people and when you get around these people be careful about what you say don't defile yourself in front of them with all these horrible evil things that come pouring out of our mouths constantly.

All right, let's move to chapter 40. And here's where Jesus heals the daughter of a Canaanitish woman. We talked about in shows previous, and you've heard me say before that Jesus didn't come to save Gentiles. Jesus came to save his people from their sin. He came to save the Jew. He came to redeem Israel. That's what he came to do. It was because of the

rejection that he suffered from the hands and mouths and actions of his people that opened a way for us to find our way into the kingdom of God. I think it was premature that we should be let in, but it was his decision and not ours. I think that his intention was to save the Gentiles, but in the way that he forecast in the Old Testament when he said that he's going to bring in not only the dedicated Jew, but also the Jews' companions and the people who fear God. And that's us.

It was going to be us, but there had to be a little change of plan because nobody showed up at the feast that the Lord set out for us. And now this is going to talk about this very idea, so that if you have a little background in this, perhaps this story will be a little easier for you to to to grasp people have trouble with this story jesus calling a woman a dog all right after jesus had defended his disciples because they ate bread with unwashed hands he went into the coastal regions of Tyre and Sidon,

hoping to escape from the crowds. However, his presence could not be hidden for long. A Greek woman, native of Syrophoenicia, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him. She came to him and fell at his feet saying have mercy on me oh lord thou son of david my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil but jesus didn't answer her his disciples came and said send her away for she crieth after us. And Jesus replied,

and I believe to her, I'm not called, except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Boy, this must have been a huge slap in the face, a huge awakening on the part of this syrophoenician woman you know i came i came to get help from you i can't get help i wasn't sent to you sweetheart i'm sorry but i'm here ministering to the house of israel this is difficult for some people to think about because we've been inundated with the bumper

sticker theology that jesus loves everybody and he came to save the whole world and he's just sitting around waiting for you to open your mouth and ask him to save you man if if you realized the convoluted way that the gentiles actually gained a voice with our Lord God, it would humble you. Because friend, we as Gentiles, we don't have any of these hopes. This was a gift given to us because of the resistance

that he was met with by his own people he came unto his own and his own received him not but to as many as received him to them he gave the power to become a son of god now that's that's wonderful it's the actual definition of the word grace. And because of that situation, we've been let in. Friend, this is a privilege. This isn't some right that you have because you were born. This is not a right. This is a privilege. If you feel the call of God on your life, friend, you are absolutely privileged to have that. If you don't answer it you're an idiot yeah i mean there's people out there that that are just simply not called how can you say that because jesus said many are called i don't have to be an english major

to understand that if all were called, he would have said, all are called, few are chosen. No, not all are called. Many are called, but not all. And if you feel a calling of God on your life, friend, you have something that's really wonderful. And you ought to consider that.

You ought to consider that when you're considering how you're going to worship god you better worship him as a servant that's what you ought to do a thankful grateful humble servant all right he says i'm not sent except unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The woman continued to worship him and said, Lord, help me. Jesus replied saying,

It's not proper to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. This is very difficult for people to read. That's why these things are left alone but you see it's our foolish doctrines that makes him the savior of the whole world that everybody can come in and you know the door is wide open and whosoever will that that those ideas fly in the face of this jesus was not under that impression at all now I want you to see the prophecy in the mouth of a Syrophoenician woman who needs help. She was watching him minister.

And it occurred to her, these people don't even care what you're saying. They're here to get something to eat and you're feeding them some of them aren't even eating what you're offering there are crumbs all over the ground out here because they don't care i care i care and i need you and i need help they don't care. I care. I care and I need you and I need help. And these people don't care. You've got to admit that.

Well, Jesus saw what she saw. And he changed his mind. The said truth lord truth to what he says i can't take the food that's meant for the children of israel and throw it to the dogs she says yeah that might be true but dogs at least eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table these people aren't eating it I'd be glad for just a crumb of what these people are rejecting seeing such great faith

Jesus said, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. When the woman returned to her house, she found her daughter had been healed from that very hour i know you think that perhaps god doesn't know what's going on sometimes it feels like he doesn't and sometimes it looks like even in jesus's ministry he didn't really see what was going on friend i think it's a mixture of love, care, concern, grace. And just like, well, they'll get it if I just keep on.

They'll understand if I just keep on. But this woman was saying, you know what? We don't have time for them to get it. I get it now. I understand who you are. I understand exactly who you are who revealed this to her if it's not the father jesus said no man knows who the son is except the father reveal him no man knows who the father is except i reveal him these kind of things these were revelations of god to this woman and she knew that he had the power to heal her daughter she came there with the revelation she walked here's here's that voice

here's the action and here's her faith and he saw those those three things mixed properly. And he said, woman, great is your faith. You're not going to walk away? Hey, I just called you a bow-wow, sister. You're not going to walk away. No, I'm not walking away. You're essentially wasting what I just need a crumb of. And I am here, and I am listening.

All I want is a crumb. That's all. Jesus was absolutely impressed with this. And turned to her and said, you can have what you want. Well, why didn't she just reach over and grab his garment like that other woman and get what she needed, get what she wanted?

Why didn't she do it like everybody else? Because she wasn't everybody else. She wasn't of the house of the Lord. She wasn't a Jew. wasn't he didn't come to to minister to her but she would not let go and he was impressed with her reasoning ability he had to admit you know what you're right you're absolutely right why don't we just minister in the area that it's going to do the most good so what am i saying wow you know what we're talking about here we're talking about an

importunate prayer there's such a thing and you know i'm not big on that i don't believe we're supposed to argue with god and wear him down but this woman wouldn't let go and she was honored for that does this encourage you or discourage you it's going to depend on where you are in your relationship to god as to how you deal with this i have no problem at all knowing that jesus was going by the rule book going by the plan he was going by the the purpose that he was here it would turn out that the gentiles were the best friend that jesus ever had when that man who's laid that feast out and none of his friends came and they all started making excuses what did he say go get me some syrophoenicians

over here go get go get me some of those people yeah but they're not jews don't care my house will be furnished with guests do you hear that in the lord's voice i heard it in jesus's voice where he gave her a double take when she says yeah i i realize you're not here to feed dogs with bread meant for people but i've seen dogs eat bread that falls off the table and that's all I'm looking for. You can just see the Lord saying, you know what, I've come to minister. I've come to heal.

I've come to deliver. And here's a person that's coming to me that wants deliverance and not even willing to wait for it. And I got people out there that think that it's their right that they be saved. It's their right to be healed. it's their right to be healed it's their right to be prosperous i've even heard heard hear boneheaded preachers say this all the time it's your right what what are we weren't we just talking about blasphemy? Yeah, I think we were. Foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient, right?

That's foolish talking. Nevertheless, I think it doesn't take much to see the love of our God, the love of our Father. And especially, you know, nothing taken away from God himself. We see the love of our Savior who essentially loves people. These are one of the reasons why I believe that he came to save the Gentile

in a certain time, in a certain way. I believe that it was in his plan. It wasn't in his plan that day, but by golly, she took his little Rolodex and wrote her name in it. Took his little daily planner and wrote her daughter's name in it. Here's something that needs to be done today.

There's nothing more tenacious than a mama with a sick child. But Jesus appreciated it, without a doubt. All right, our time is gone. Till next time, think red ink, my friend. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you