In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the presence of Jesus and the wonders that happen wherever he goes. He highlights the belief that even as a child, Jesus brought joy and wonder to people's lives. The speaker then focuses on the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, emphasizing that there is no lack in the presence of Jesus. He emphasizes that God has an abundance of love and provision, and all that is needed is an abandoned soul to flow with him. The sermon concludes with a reminder that asking for a sign from God is unnecessary, as Jesus himself is the ultimate sign for the adulterous generation.

It's very nice to be with you all and see you all. Sorry to just rush in like this. It was just a few virgin trains as I'm sorry to say. I've been reciting it reluctantly for two hours. But anyway, it was a nice place I suppose. Well, we're here not for a man, at least not this man. We're here for the man, Christ Jesus. And I'd like to turn you just for a moment into Matthew's Gospel and into chapter 14. And you know this, wherever Jesus went, something wonderful happened. Wherever he went. And I believe that even when he was a child, he brought such wonder and joy into everybody's life. I believe that there was something about him, even as a child, that made people feel better. It also no doubt convicted people of sin, even as a child, by his attitudes, his meekness and his love. But wherever he moves, wherever he touches lives, people find it easy to believe. Faith is given to you in the presence of Jesus. You don't always have to have faith to get close to him, but you must let faith come to your heart as he comes near to you. In reality, most of what God wants to do in you, you have to let it happen. And if you fight God and stop it happening, that's the only way you can stop yourself coming to faith. Faith will actually appear in your life by Jesus coming to you. And in chapter 14 of Matthew's Gospel, we read that Jesus, verse 15, when it was evening, his disciples came to him saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past. Send the multitude away, that they may go to the villages and buy themselves food. But Jesus said to them, they don't need to depart. You give them to eat. And there is no such thing as a desert place when you're in the presence of Jesus. Nothing can run out. And so, you know, he fed the 5,000. And it's a famous event, perhaps one of the most famous events of all. He fed 5,000 people. How he did it is, it doesn't tell us every detail. Whether he took the loaf and he broke it and then it became two loaves, or whether it was just expanding, like expanding foam or something, I don't know. But everybody would have seen it. It wasn't somewhere hidden. Everybody saw the bread growing. And that was wonderful. Jesus has laws in his being, in his power, that are above the laws of nature. They are not against the laws of nature. After all, he made the laws of nature. But they are above the laws of nature. There are laws that we know, and there are laws we only begin to get at. But in the presence of Jesus, there is a higher law taking place. The law of the Lord of all. And the creator. The one who has power beyond anything we can ever get at. And that's Jesus. And then, you know that Jesus fed the 5,000, various things happened. And then we come to chapter 15, verse 1. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees who were of Jerusalem. These were really of the children of Israel. People who should have been children of faith, children of Abraham. And somehow, they found objections to Jesus. Even in his presence, they found themselves able to argue with the Son of God. Now, a certain amount of argument can be normal. Many of us have said, well, if this is true, how is that true? We may have objections, we may have questions in our minds. But these people began to object even when there was no doubt about things. For example, you can find in chapter 16, verse 1. The Pharisees also, with the thirty-two claimants, tempting, in desire that he would show them a sign from heaven. Why is that a temptation? Because if you look into chapter 15, verse 30, great multitudes came to him. Having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed. That means people having lost a limb. And many others, and they threw them down at Jesus' feet. And he healed them in so much that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk, the blind to see. And they glorified the God of Israel. So imagine if somebody comes in there with one leg, or one eye, and it's restored to him, or he's never spoken in his life, and he's given the power to speak. How would they react? Well, I think the place would be brimming over with noise. You know, if you'd not had the power to speak all your life, and now you can speak, you would say something. And you'd be turning to a chapter book, turning overnight, or in a minute, in a second. But people who couldn't walk were now jumping and dancing. And so there you've got Jesus, and there's this great, raucous crowd of people all around him, shouting, jumping, laughing. And the Pharisees come and say, Give us a sign. You see, there's legitimate argument, and there's a place where argument is actually seen. There's a place where you say, Well, I don't understand this, and that's fair, that's okay. God has patience, he has time for you. But there's another time when you say, Give me a sign, and God says, Jesus said that shall no sign be given to this adulterous generation. And there's something wicked in seeking a sign when God has done so much, and has made himself so visible and clear to so many. You know, we could talk and answer every objection. I believe that for the seeking soul, there will be an answer to every question. I believe that if there is a seeking soul, I can answer every intellectual question, every possible objection. There are reasons. It is not against reason to believe. It is certainly something more than reason to believe, but it is not against reason to believe. There are thousands of reasons we can bring to every seeking heart why they should believe entirely in the Scriptures and in the Lordship and Godhead of Jesus Christ. They're there. We could mention some of them. I mean, you know that when you look at things like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, that's a reason. You know that scientists, I read a scientific book the other day, I was reading a scientific book, and this scientist said, no one, anywhere, understands the processes by which a caterpillar turns into mush in a chrysalis and then becomes out of the butterfly. No one understands it. And there can never be a model of evolution for it. How could it try? Try alone. How would it try and evolve from a creeping caterpillar on a leaf into a beautiful winged insect? And of course, one of the most staggering things about these beautiful moths and butterflies is that they imitate other creatures. You know that I've seen, I've got a photograph at home, in Africa, I took a photograph of this huge moth. And this moth which, again, the processes by which it produced those wings are fantastic. When you look at that moth, it's actually imitating the snout and face of a fox. It's got two eyes on it, a mouth, it looks like a vicious animal hiding in the bushes. It's imitating nature. Now all these things would prove to people that they're the creators. And there are more clues. It is not unreasonable to believe. But, in the end, we have to let faith steal over our hearts and win at it. Right, well, here we've got this, and I said there in verse 1 of chapter 15, we have the children have recovered. The children have been saved. Word of God, they should have been filled with faith, the chosen race, but they were questioning. They were questioning the Messiah who was in front of them. And then in verse 21, we read this, in chapter 15, Jesus went away and departed out of Israel into the regions of Tyre and Siloam, which is Lebanon. But Jesus leaves Israel, goes beyond the northern border, and goes now into Lebanon. He didn't do that very often, but he sometimes left the borders of Israel. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is grievously mixed with a devil. But the answer said not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she's crying after us. But he answered and said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It isn't right to take the children's bread and give it to little puppy dogs. And she said, That's true, Lord. But even so, little puppy dogs can eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. And Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith. Be unto you even as you want. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Jesus left that area and came near to the city of Galilee. He went up into a mountain and sat down there. And then we come to that point where the multitudes came to him. And he healed them. And then he healed the 4,000. And so between these two miracles we have the healing of the 5,000, the healing of the 4,000. In between these two miracles we have Jesus doing a miracle for a Gentile. It's very wonderful that in the New Testament the greatest examples of faith were by people from outside. And by that I'm not particularly referring to the fact that they were non-Jews. I'm referring to the fact that they weren't familiar with the things of God. You just think familiarity can actually cause you to live in traditions and habits rather than in faith. The children of the covenant weren't children of faith. They were children of tradition. Later on Jesus said to them, well you are Abraham's seed but you aren't Abraham's children. What's the difference? The difference is that they, yes they had that link with Abraham, the physical link, the genetic link, all that was there. And they had the beliefs of Abraham. They had all the systems that had come down from Abraham through Moses and so on. They had it all but they hadn't got the faith of Abraham. And sometimes you find that in the churches you find people who have the beliefs of the apostles but not the faith of the apostles. And the strange thing is that the first people who need saving are, I'm going to give it a very small C, the Christians need saving. Very true. We need to know that we have experienced the glory and the power of Jesus Christ ourselves. We are not to be Christians because we are in its line of tradition. But we are to be by something given to us by a living encounter and experience of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And as I said, some of the greatest, in fact the greatest examples of faith in the Bible were in the lives of people who were totally unfamiliar with the things of God. And God must make you understand that every one of us must know that God isn't looking for orthodoxy. Of course, we have to be orthodox in some things. We have to be orthodox in our beliefs. That's true. But he isn't looking for that in faith only. He's looking for living, real, hard response from every one of us. He wants you and me to believe in the Son of God. You know that if a man or woman will believe in the Son of God there will be something happening in their lives that cannot be explained by the simple laws of nature which we know around. In other words, if you'll believe in the Son of God tonight, something will invade your life that cannot be explained by a mere lecture. You've not come to a lecture tonight. You've come to hear the Word of God. And there's a difference. Because God will speak to your mind. Of course he will. He created your mind. He's got a greater mind than you and I. He'll speak to your mind but he'll speak to your heart. He'll tug at you. This is the wonder of Jesus. Jesus tugs at hearts. He doesn't just speak to minds. He tugs at hearts. And I hope you'll feel him tugging at your heart. Say, come on! Let me! Let this faith be given to you! Let it appear in you! Let me be your Lord! Let me be your Saviour! Let me be the one who works in you! Really, all we have to do is let Jesus be himself to each one of us. And as we let him, something wonderful happens. Because you see, the Bible says this. Jesus said this. He said, whoever believes in me, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Now he said that about believers. He said, if we believe, we believe, that's you and I, we believe, then wherever we go, rivers will be flowing around us. So that when we're in the presence of the people of God, we feel we're in the presence of the people of God because there's something happening we can't explain. And that's wonderful. You know that it is tremendous that people can't understand. I remember one man coming to our meeting. He was a rebellious man. He'd lived a sinful life and he was, his reaction, he went this pale. He almost fainted in our meeting down there. He couldn't understand. They escorted him to the side. God was touching him. He felt something. His reactions were so strong. Some people have to be escorted to a seat. Some people have to be helped because of the presence of someone greater than all the people. Something's happening we can't explain. But then you find some people being touched, some hope coming to them, some brightness, some lifting of their hearts to believe that there's someone who cares. Jesus. And the rivers you feel are real. And they're not the people Jesus said, who believes in me are the rivers of living water. What is that? What are those rivers? They're the effects, the powerful effects of the presence of Jesus. Now that's Jewish people. So how much more is it true of Jesus himself? When he stood there, the people didn't just think oh well we're in the presence of an Einstein. Wow. He's clever. They said the prophet is risen. They didn't know how to explain it. But they felt the rivers flowing. And the wonderful thing about Jesus is those rivers flow and the more they flow you must always understand one thing about God is that he's inexplicably flowing and he's tirelessly flowing. In other words you know that you've got a light shining here and downstairs is a meter turning. And soon you're going to get this horrible bill. And if you're on economy electricity you'll find that after 10.30 it will flow slower because that horrible hour 10.30 of course that's too late for anybody to have their light on I suppose. But anyway they're always giving you when you're not going to use it. But the thing is they have little meter turning because there's power coming from somewhere and if you go right over there you'll find a power station. It might be hydro electric. And there's water flowing down. And you go back and you'll always find some cause whereby this light is shining or whereby something is happening. But when you come to God you come to him and there's everything is flowing from God and there is no explanation for it. He has got endless flowing from him. It's coming from him. And yet you know I believe that some people of little faith when they get to the throne of God and they see the river flowing from the throne I believe some people go and look behind the throne and say where's it coming from? Because people think of cause and effect. You know my daughter one of my children asked me what is eternity? How about God? How could he live? And how could he have a beginning? What is eternity? And I said the problem is you're thinking in terms of cause and effect like a mere human being. We think in the beginning of time and the end of time and we think of we think of something starting and ending and we think of processes and all this but when you think of God you must realise that there are things about God we know about a million so far about God. That's what we know. And that million we interpret as human beings so we think of God as a very big man and we think of him having to spend to get and having to use the resources to do something God doesn't use any resources when he does something. It's endless. Remember that everything is sustained by him. The Bible says it's all held up by the word of his power. It's this wonderful thing and the thing about God is that all we've got to really deeply understand is that there are so many things about God that I cannot understand but I can only worship. But this is all to do with his endless power and he's above time, he's above all the resources that we see around cause and effect God is the great cause of everything through him everything has been and life and breath and nothing has any power to exist apart from God. All flows from him. He sustains it. We're coming to God so when we come to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ when they came into his presence they were in the presence of the creator of heaven and earth and the human race and millions of angels and all that God has made he could have made a million times over. When the Bible says he rested on the seventh day one time he was just very satisfied. He was just very glad. It was the rest of joy I've done it! Like someone standing back from the work of art saying look at that it's done! Oh God never needs to rest. And when they came into the presence of Jesus they could feel this tremendous I'm not trying to put him in terms of some kind of strange feeling, no but in the presence of Jesus one is aware of someone greater deeper and all the time when we believe we're only just stepping further into the understanding of the greatness of the being and the majesty of God. Remember if only we believed him there would be such a release of peace upon your soul to realize he's the great God of the universe. He is the one infinite in power. Why should we worry about anything when we are placed in God. And so this is Jesus and then in verse 21 as I said Jesus went out of Israel and we don't fully know why but he went out of Israel. Whether everything had a clear logical reason in his mind or whether he was just obeying the will of his father at this time we can leave that aside but the thing is he went out of Israel. Mark's gospel tells us that when he got to this place he saw a house I don't know what kind of house it was whether it was a kind of an inn or what or a lodging house or whatever still maybe it was a private house and somebody invited him in with his twelve disciples or whatever but in they went into this house and Jesus said let's go in there and don't tell anybody I'm here. Now remember he's miles away from Galilee where his main ministry was. He's gone into a house no one knows he's there he's quietly sitting there and the bible says that he couldn't be hid that's in Mark's gospel chapter 7 same event it says he couldn't be hid. He can't hide it. One of the most wonderful things about Jesus is that you can't hide it. When he's there you can't hide it. And at some point they heard this shouting whether it was outside or inside they heard this shouting and then this woman came out of the same area and shouted to him have mercy on me Lord son of David and you have these words coming through. Why is she crying out this son of David I don't know. Maybe she'd asked somebody something and they said he's a prophet from Judah the tribe of Judah the tribe of David I don't know. But here she is crying and she knows by some means she knows that this one has power to help her. Now I want to tell you this but I'm putting a key in your hands now. This key is given to the whole human race. It was given to me. I've used it. I've used it often. I used it yesterday with a man. I told this man not to see somebody he was in terrible fear of death and he was oppressed and all kinds of things. I said here's a key for you. I said I'm going to give you a key. If you use this key you will find help. And the key was the name of Jesus. I said if you call on the name of Jesus you have help. And he did. And with him together I called on the name of Jesus and he said the depression's gone. Something's happened he said. Never heard the man before. Never seen him before. But the key can turn the door and open every blockage, every oppression can bring forgiveness of any sin. The great key we have is that name. Jesus. And everyone in this room should use that name every day. You should use it. Don't use it in doubt and fear and question. Use it in faith. And here she said Oh have mercy on your Lord our son of David. My daughter is grievously mixed with the devil. And then we have this strange thing here. She's crying out. Didn't answer a word. Tired. Didn't speak. And sometimes when we cry out to the Lord one of the first things we sometimes do is, has he heard? He says, what? Why? And you know sometimes I tell you something that I've noticed with children sometimes if one of my children says, Dad I want to change my bed. I want to get rid of this. I want to do this. I don't do this. I think, alright. I'll wait a week. And a week later it's changed again. He says, I'll find out. He's not really serious about what he asked. It was just a passing wind. Just a thought. And you know that when Jesus doesn't answer you, when there's silence it's because he wants something to take place in you. He wants you to go that step further. And call him on his name. He knows. He's very careful. I thank God he's the master of the waves. I thank God that when he went to Peter walking on the waves, the Bible says he watched them, watched them growing to the third watch of the night. That's the third, the last watch of the night. He watched and then he went to the third watch. He watched them toil all night. And then he said, right, they're ready now. They're ready. Now I can do it. And there was silence. You see, one of the things about faith that we will see as we look at this is one of the things about faith is that you have to be ready to fight. It's no use saying I want faith to be like this or I want faith to be like that. The Bible is teaching you what faith is. One thing you can use as a synonym for faith is courage. You look through Hebrews chapter 11. The great people of faith, and I'll tell you one thing common to them all was courage. And you need courage to believe God. You must not give up. Walk back. That's what the Bible says. If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure. You see, it's a luxury to draw back. Some people think it's a virtue. Oh, I'm not going on. It's bathtub. I'm not going on. God says, are you serious? Is that what you really mean? Lie down and moan at the first hurdle, and you'll be surprised some of the strongest looking, most courageous men when it comes to faith they just lie down and give up. And some of the most unexpected little souls, you wouldn't think they'd move to a goose. They probably wouldn't. But when they get hold of this woman here crying out I ask myself, where was the I'm not drawing the distinction between whether it was a man or a woman. It doesn't make any difference. But what I notice here is that only one was fighting. And sometimes in the questions of faith only one is fighting. It can be a whole congregation. There's only one fighting alone. It's a very tough thing when you're on your own. Many people get moving when there's a big crowd. Faith isn't mass hysteria. It isn't a mass feeling. Faith is a personal response to Jesus Christ and it's a gift from him to the heart that many have gone through all kinds of traumas and difficulties and given up so many times. But if you let faith come to your heart, you'll find you've got courage. If faith and courage are different words for the same thing, then the Bible says faith is not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Courage is not of yourself. It's a gift from God. God will give you courage. And believe me, you need tremendous courage. Because you have to fight. The Bible says it's needful that the saints contend, fight for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. There is a faith given to the church. It's ours. It belongs to us. It's a given. It's a deposit. It belongs to us. And yet, who lets it be theirs? You know that Joshua says, having lain so much land to be possessed. Belongs to us. We have to go and get it. And there it was, there's the silence. He answered them not a word. And then you've got another obstacle but he's silent and then you've got the second obstacle. His disciples. Interpreting the silence. Oh well, we know why God isn't speaking to you, don't we? Everyone knows this. To interpret the silence for other disciples. But when it comes to you, ah, one great lesson of life is not to try and work out what God's doing in another life. You can't understand what God's doing in another life except it be revealed to you. So don't condemn and don't give up on people. All right? Anyway, so the disciples said, well, send her away. They thought they'd got the Lord's understanding. Now yes, we're tired of it too. And what an interpretation of the heart of God. We're tired of it too. You know that consistently God has much more love than his disciples. Praise God for the church that shows the love of God. But I tell you this, God has much more. He's much more. I guess that the much more of God is revealed in an abandoned soul. Never revealed in a careful, prudent soul that ekes out its supply. God is not eking out his supply and making sure it lasts till the end of time. God is abandoned in his giving. And all he needs is an abandoned soul to flow with him. And these disciples, they were abandoned. Get rid of that. And then Jesus steps in and speaks to them. I notice Jesus speaks to them very clearly when he sees their reaction. Some of you are late, but they're not. They're going to discourage him. He wasn't going to discourage him. In fact, I believe that when he was silent, I don't believe there was any look on his face of rejection. And this is what he said. He said, I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's a terrible thing to say. Just think, if I said to you, well, thank you for coming tonight, but it's not for you tonight. It's not for you. You're not one of the ones of God on his mountain tonight. Sorry. You'd say, what? Of course, the great thing here is how Jesus said it. And when Jesus said this, one of the things that he came through when he said this, he said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I can't explain it, but I can give you a little picture of something that will help you understand it. Some years ago, I was invited to a place to preach. And they, I said, I'm sorry. I can't come. Now, when I wrote it in, I said, no, never. I'm not coming to you, Lord. I said, oh, I'm really sorry. I just don't have the time. So they invited me again. And every year, several times, they communicated, please, have you got time now? Have you got time now? Have you got time now? Until at last I said, well, I will find time. But when I said, no, I can't come, it's because I'm a very limited human being, very weak. I've only got 365 days in a year. And Jesus was the same. When Jesus went out of the coasts of Israel, he looked at the lions around him. He must have passed through a village and he would have looked at blind people, demon-possessed people, people burned with guilt and shame. He passed through, and you know that Jesus wasn't walking through with some kind of hard indifference. His heart would have been melted. And if there's one thing burning in Jesus, you can see it through all the prophets. He longs to gather the Gentiles. Isaiah said it. Many times, different prophets said it. The Gentiles, the nations were so ignorant. He sent Jonah to Nineveh. He sent Isaiah to various nations. And Jeremiah proclaimed his word because he longed for them. So when he said, and I've not said this, but a lot of people have asked for this, he said it's not yet. The time isn't yet. Because he said it would say, I heal you by tomorrow, this will have brought a thousand more here. And then they'll say no to a thousand. They'll come from Greece, and they'll come from Turkey, and they'll come from everywhere. They'll start flowing here. I can't do it. But I'm going to. One day I'm going to. I'm going to make it possible. I'm not going to go to the last chief of the house of Israel. And there's the word, no, it's not the time. You know, when people are praying, people say, oh, it's not the time. You get all the prophets of doom coming out there. You know, it's not the time. It's not the season. It's not happening like this anymore. Oh, we're going to pray for a revival in the future. Something's going to happen special one day. There's a great no. It's not the time for God to move in your heart tonight. Help me. You see, there's something in this woman responding to something she can sense and know about the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was it? The burning desire to meet her. In her need. She knew that this wasn't from hardness. It wasn't from rejection. It was because there was something she couldn't understand, but she knew there was something in him that wanted to say, Lord, help me. He said, it's not right to take the children's bread and to cast it to the little puppy dog. And in that word, he called her the puppy dog. I know we could say, if I called you a dog, if that's how they thought of the Gentiles, it was the name given to them. If I said, well, you're a dog, you'd say, what? How dare you call me a dog? When Cornelius saw the sheeps let down with all the animals, and then he saw pigs and lizards and snakes, but he actually saw the nations. Dogs and cats. But you see, we are not the nations. We are the donkey animals. We are. I. All of us. And of course, the problem with the familiar ones, I don't want to call them Jews because then we think of the Jews. I'm not talking about the Jews. I'm talking about those who are familiar. One of the dangerous things for any Christian is to believe that they are so special that they are now raised with kind of a familiarity with God. And God seems now to owe them everything. And we can walk around with a bit of a swagger. God must ever keep us in great dependence. Humility. If I were to give another little word that helps you understand faith, it's humility. Once you lose humility, faith is leaking out of your soul. Not believing God. You see, this woman, when she heard this word, she didn't this is a wonderful thing about this woman, she didn't fight him and say, how dare you call me a dog. She said, it's true, Lord. First thing she said, true. True, Lord. And I love that. She recognized that the word of Jesus was truth. And faith is in times horrendous to the word of Jesus. Truth, Lord. You know that when we come to faith, God will have to show us all kinds of reasons why we don't believe. There are many. Arrogance. Pride. You know, if we were to see the reasons we live like we do, we would find many reasons that we could that we don't, Lord. But in the end, it has to be something that we say, Lord, true. It's true, Lord. And one of the great workings of the Spirit of God to bring faith is a heart that embraces truth. And then given to them. If I said, well, you're a dog, you'd say, what? How dare you call me a dog? When Cornelius saw the sheep let down from heaven with all the animals, and then he saw pigs and lizards and snakes, but he actually saw the nations. Dogs and cats. But you see, we are the nations. We are the undying animals. We are. I. All of us. And of course, the problem with the familiar ones, I don't want to call them Jews because then we think of the Jews. I'm not talking about the Jews. I'm talking about those who are familiar. I tell you, one of the dangerous things for any Christian is to believe that they are so special that they are now raised with kind of a familiarity with God, and God seems now to own everything, and we can walk around with a bit of a swagger. God must ever keep us in great dependence. That's humility. If I were to give another little word that helps you understand faith, it's humility. Once you lose humility, faith is leaking out of your soul. Do not believe in God. You see, this woman, when she heard this word, she didn't not, and this is the wonderful thing about this woman, she didn't fight him and say, how dare you call me a dog! She said, it's true, Lord! Truth! Truth, Lord! And I love her. She recognized that the word of Jesus was truth! And faith is an entire surrender to the word of Jesus. Truth, Lord! You know that when we come to faith, God will have to show us all kinds of reasons why we don't believe. There are many. Arrogance. Pride. You know, if we were to see the reasons we live like we do, we would find many reasons that we could use it with, oh Lord! But in the end, it has to be something that we say, Lord, truth. It's true, Lord. And one of the great workings of the Spirit of God to bring faith is a heart that embraces truth. Real truth. Solid truth. That's why there is a great battle in so many people's lives about the Bible. Why is this Bible attacked? Because Satan is attacking truth that is no truth. As I said, if they are not speaking according to this word, it is because there is no light in them! Do you realize the psychologists and the philosophers have no light in them unless they speak according to this word? Truth, Lord. But even little puppy dogs and I love this humor. You know, in her desperate state, she was oppressed. She lived with this terrible situation for years and then she laughs with herself. And I see this and kind of throw away. In my life, it's just nothing. Take it, Lord. Even a puppy dog can have a crumb. And now, Jesus breaks her into a great smile. I think his face was like the sun shining. He said, Oh woman, I can hear this chuckling in his soul, this laugh, this joy. Oh woman, he says. I love the word Oh, because when you say Oh, it means you're beyond words. Oh woman! Good to bring God beyond words. You think he who is the word would always have a word. He said, Oh woman! He didn't use that word occasionally. Oh! Oh woman, great is your faith! Be it unto you even as you will and you couldn't realize when Jesus was speaking this, he wasn't speaking an opinion or a word. He was speaking of almighty God. Oh woman, it's done. And I think all the disciples were just shifting. In the presence of Jesus, they were shifting from shame and conviction to joy and wonder. The wonder about these disciples is they were abandoned. Occasionally, they were defensive. But often, they were just, well, Lord! To whom shall we go? We know we've failed. We've said some daft things and we realize, but Lord! You're right! He's right! It may be hard for you, but he's right! And if you'll let him be right, something's going to happen in you. Something wonderful! And uh, when Jesus said that, the woman would have thought about it. Be unto you exactly as you want. Exactly as I want. And then she would have had some revelation of the glory of Jesus. She just ran off! I think they just watched her go. Gone! Where's she gone? And there's Jesus laughing as he watches her run. A believing soul, no tiredness, no heaviness! She's running, running, running! She gets home! And there is her daughter. Mommy! What's happened? Oh, Mommy's gone! The horses have stopped! The heaviness is finished, Mommy! And you can hear them around the door. Dancing! Because don't miss the thing. He works. Jesus works. In power. And I love this word, her daughter was made whole! In that very moment. I wonder if you were a whole person. Are you whole? You know that word whole was used by Jesus in different points, but one occasion he said it to a leper who was healed. He'd healed ten lepers! Nine when they got, when they were healed, they must have gone and held a party somewhere with their friends. But one Samaritan turned back, again notice the Samaritan, the stranger to the covenant. The Samaritan turned back, fell on his face, his knees, and glorified the God. And Jesus said to him, Your face is made whole. Just think what the other nine missed. They missed that word! They'd experienced something from him, but they missed that word. And here Jesus said, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Do you know that all this wonderful thing, what is happening in the presence of Jesus? Faith is being born. Things are happening in your heart that are wonderful in the presence of Jesus. What's the key? Is that name? Is that name? Or even more than the mere name, it's the person. You see when I spoke to that man yesterday, I didn't say to him, oh yes, I know the answer. Come to our church. You've got the answer. I didn't say, oh, this is the religion. This is the course. I said, here it is. It's God. It's son Jesus. I'm bringing you to him. Reach out to him. I didn't say reach out to our church. I didn't say reach out to me. It's Jesus. He healed me. He delivered me. He's made me whole. Amen. Well, shall we pray?