Mark 7.24-37
Jesus responds to the desperate, audacious, persistent, and expectant prayers of beggars.
Do you believe that about yourself? Do you believe you are a beggar who is poor and needy before God desperate for His grace?
1. Spiritual Beggars are Desperate
Application: What do you feel desperate about right now?
Outside—What circumstances are you facing right now that make you feel desperate? There are undoubtedly things going on outside of you that are making you feel desperate because you don’t feel like there is anything you can do about it.
Inside—What heart issues are you wrestling with that make you feel desperate? There are undoubtedly things going on inside of you that are making you feel desperate because you don’t feel like there is anything you can do to change yourself.
What are you gonna do with your desperate needs?
We run away in despair. (Go after things that numb)
We run to God for help. (Go after the Savior who relieves)
2. Spiritual Beggars are Audacious
Application: Are you hesitant in any way to come to Jesus as you are and beg for His help? Do you feel unworthy to come with your needs before God? Are you fearful that you’re not good enough to come to Him? Do you wonder if he will receive you and hear you?
3. Spiritual Beggars are Persistent
Application: We must keep on begging God. Prayer is not “one and done” deal. Jesus tells us elsewhere on the topic of prayer that we should keep on asking. Keep on knocking. Keep on coming before God with our needs. God not only meets our needs through prayer in general, God has chosen to meet our needs through persistent prayer.
What have you stopped praying for? Where have you given up in prayer? Is it possible that you have given up in prayer for a particular need because you have forgotten that God calls us to persevere in persistent prayer? I want to encourage you to pick that need back up and start casting it before the Lord once again—and again—and again.
Are you persistently begging God to meet desperate needs with anybody?
Are you persistently begging God to meet desperate needs with your community group? This should be a dimension of your community group.
Are you persistently begging God to meet desperate needs with your spouse?
4. Spiritual Beggars are Expectant
Application: Do you? Do you expect Jesus to come through? What are you praying for right now? Do you expect Jesus to come through? Why should you expect Jesus to come through like this woman? She has a good reason—do you?
We have good reasons to expect God to come through. First, We can run to the character of God. What kind of Father gives his kids a stone when they ask for bread? It is God’s gracious character as a Father to meet our needs. But there is somewhere else you can run that this woman didn’t have the privilege of running to yet. You can run to the cross. And as you look at the cross let your faith be built and your expectations informed by this unbelievable reality—If God was so kind to meet your greatest need by sending his Son to die in your place as a substitute for your sins, how much more can you expect Him to meet every lesser need as well? If He did that, how much more can you trust Him and expect Him to do “fill in the blank”!
The cross is what informs our faith concerning what we should expect God to do in our lives right now. Look at the cross: He is not hesitant to help me, he is eager to help me. Look at the cross: He spares no expense to meet me in my need. Look at the cross and find fresh faith that if “He did not spare his own Son by freely gave him up for us how will he not also with Him graciously give all things.” There’s a good reason to be expectant.
5. Spiritual Beggars Receive Grace from Jesus
Application: And that’s what Jesus has done for us, hasn’t he? Think about your conversion story. He met you where you were, he spoke to you in a way you could understand, and He met your desperate need. And guess what that’s not just the way the Christian life begins, that’s the way the Christian life continues to be lived. Jesus meets you where you are, he speaks to you in ways you understand, and he meets your desperate needs—day after day after day. Martin Luther was right, “We are beggars—This is true.” We are no different than this woman. We are just as needy as this man. And Jesus is just as merciful and gracious to respond to our desperate, audacious, persistent, and expectant requests for help.
6. How Should We Respond?
Like the crowd… 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak." This is an unmistakable reference to Isaiah 35 where it is prophesied that God would appear on the earth and accomplish things for broken sinners that no mere man could accomplish and he would turn their sorrow into joy. And so here is Jesus in fulfillment of this prophecy, He’s no mere man, He’s God in human skin doing for broken sinners what they could not do for themselves and Mark writes that “they were astonished beyond measure”…and they praised Him and celebrated Him because He did all things well!
