"Trouble and Evangelism" By Brother Parrish Lee October 4th,
2015 Greetings, everyone. Isn’t it wonderful? Praise and worship unto God, for the father
seeketh true worshippers to worship Him.
Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. I don’t know if everybody knows,
but the man who sang that song, “I am blessed, I am blessed, every day that I
live, I am blessed,” just came back from burying his grandmother. Brother Malcolm. And our hearts g to you and your family. And then, to turn around, and come into a
pulpit of service, to say, “You know, I might be going through something, but I
can turn my eyes to the hill, from whence cometh my help (Psalms 121:1-2), and
say, ‘Lord, I know the way it looks, but, when I look to You, all I can say is,
I am blessed, I am bleed, I am blessed.
Every day that I live, I am blessed.
From the moment I wake up until I lay my head to rest, I am
blessed. I am blessed; I am blessed.’
Amen.” Amen. I appreciate that, brother, and we are
keeping you and your family in prayer. You know, sometimes it seems like the death
angel has been dispatched over an area, and you see calamity after calamity,
and situation, and problem, and conflict, one right after another. Sometimes it seems that way, but isn’t it
wonderful to know that God is aware, and, actually, in control of everything on
the earth? Don’t nothing happen behind
His back, or beyond His control. The
Lord and Savior has a plan. The Lord and
Savior has a plan. We are in the know
that all things work together to the good, to them that love God, to them who
are the called, according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Amen?
Amen, amen, and amen. A wonderful month, last month, and
the lessons of learning to, and the process of asking God for blessings for our
lives, for more, for education, for wisdom, for understanding, for power, for
anointing, for compassion, for forgiveness.
Asking God for more. Wonderful
time last month. This month, our theme, actually,
is, “Working the Field of Souls: The
Lessons of Evangelism.” Our Scripture
verse for the month is going to be from the Book of Mark: Mark 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of
men. Giving honor to that same God;
giving honor to that same savior, our wonderful Counsellor, our Heavenly
Father, the Almighty God, the omniscient One, the omnipotent One, the One who
is all-knowing, and all-powerful, and all-compassionate. Giving honor to Him who is the giver of all
good and perfect gifts. Giving honor to
all those who have gone before us in the ministry, and this is good. This is good that you give reverence to those
who have paved the way, for none of us have gotten here by ourselves. Giving honor to those who paved the way, from
our founding pastor, he and his family, to our pastor, he and his family, and
all of those who have come, and stood in the gap to make up the hedge. We are going to start today with
our scripture theme for today, and that’s going to be Matthew 15:21-28 Then Jesus
went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a
woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, 0 Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a
devil. But he answered her not a
word. And his disciples came and
besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Then came she
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it
to dogs. And she said, Truth,
Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, 0 woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.
And her daughter was made whole from
that very hour. If we could bow our heads for just
a moment. Lord, we do come before You,
and when is it that we have come in Your presence that You have not
amazed? We joy over Your wonderful
Spirit, God. We joy over Your precious
Word. We thank You for a time of
assembly, of coming together, and being able to worship the only One true and
wise God. Lord, at a time like this, we
are not ignorant, and the news had it there was a gunman out to shoot people if
they were to confess that they were Christians and they knew and loved
You. What a world we live in today,
God. And we ask that You give us our
portion to do Your will. Lead us, guide
us, and direct us. Bless this time of
worship, as we go through the reading and the learning from Your Word, God. May
it do exactly as You have sent it to do.
As You have said in Your word, that it would not return unto You void,
but accomplish that to which You sent it.
And, Lord, then we do present ourselves, as servants of the most
High. Nurture us, feed us, guide us, and
direct us, we pray and claim in Jesus’ name.
And everyone said, amen. Amen. Amen, saints. We’re living in the kind of world it is
today, and your heart has to go out when you hear the statement that a gunman
went onto a campus, and, before he would shoot someone, he would ask, “What is
your faith? What is your religion?” And, if they were to say, “I’m a Christian,”
he would say, “Well, good for you, because you’re about to meet Him,” and he
would shoot those people in the head, but, if they were to say some other, “I’m
atheist,” or anything else, he would shoot them in the leg. That’s the type of world that we’re living in
today, and, God knows, God knows. He
even said it, “The time will come when they will kill you and think to do God a
service.” (John 16:2) But, I will say
this, no matter what we go through, no matter where we are, no weapon that is
formed against us shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17).
They might seem to get a victory, but God holds the ultimate victory
over all. Back to our lesson. Part 1: Evangelism:
Trouble Comes Matthew 15:21 Then Jesus went
thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre had more of an illustrious
history, shall we say, than Sidon. Now
this is important: It had more of an
illustrious history; for all you history buffs, Tyre was an island; it was
about a third of a mile away from the actual coast, where Syria was. And that mean that it could have certain type
of fortresses. And, over the
centuries—yes, that’s right, over the centuries—because of its location, people
had tried to take that over. In fact, it
withstood six sieges, even Sennacherib, who went through, and he was saying,
“No one has been able to stand against me,” even Sennacherib, he laid siege to
it, and it lasted months, and he couldn’t prevail, because it was an island, so
they the water as a backdrop, but then they also had these gigantic walls. So, if you could get to the island, then you
still couldn’t get to the city, because of its fortresses, and then you would
just be fodder for whatever the people of the city would throw at you, or spear
you, or shoot arrows or whatever. So, it
was known to be highly protected, and this would have been the mindset, and,
so, for all the people who are loving history, it really got a little cocky
over the centuries, where they could handle things, because they had quite a
navy, and they had quite an army, and they knew how to use what they had. Up until Alexander the Great came along, and
he asked the same thing, “Hey, you know, I want to be able to come in and take
what I need for my army, and blah, blah, blah,” and they said, “Who do you
think you are?” He sent messengers out;
they killed his messengers as if to say, “We don’t care who you are; we are
Tyre.” They didn’t realize that
Alexander the Great was great for a reason.
He simply leveled a city, took its ruins, and built a bridge out there,
a third of a mile out to sea. He didn’t
have a navy to get to them, but people that defected from their navy, he took
them. Then, other people, he conquered
them; took their navy, and now he has a navy, and he surrounds the city. It took him several months, but he did, he
built a bridge out to the city; he took the city, and voila! Tyre is now a lace of Alexander the Great’s
conquest. That’s just a thing I wanted
to throw in to show a certain mindset. So,
Tyre and Sidon were merchant cities, and they had much goods for trade and
everything. So these two cities represent a
prosperity, a prosperity, if you will, of the area, and of the times. This
would put a little more light on when the Lord said, “Woe unto you, Tyre and
Sidon,” later on in the Scriptures, because of their goods. And we know this. We know this.
When you have a lot of goods, it can cause you some trouble. Well, Tyre and Sidon had the same problems as
the Laodiceans. Because they thought
that because they were rich and increased with goods, they thought to
themselves that they wouldn’t have need of anything. And this is the attitude of this place here
the Lord goes. But, people in the faith
know that, once you have goods and riches, you can have a tendency to trust in
those goods and riches and less of a tendency, or less of a need, you would
think, for what the Lord might provide, and this I where they were. So, here, when the woman comes, and says,
“Have mercy on me,” in verse 22, she came out of the coasts, and cried unto
Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, 0 Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is
grievously vexed with a devil.” She
would come out, and she would seek for the Lord who was there. And, an important point to realize here is,
He answered her not a word. This is
something that has to be addressed, in all of our faith, and all of our
Christianity, He answered her not a word.
Because, sometimes, it seems, no matter what you do, you might not get
an answer for something that you are asking God for. He answered her not a word. And, right after that, the Scriptures say, “And
his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth
after us.” (Matthew 15:23) And He
answered the disciples, clearly in earshot of her, “I
am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew
15:24) And the Bible goes on, and it
says, “Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.” (Matthew
15:25) Now, this transpires over a
period of time; it doesn’t say exactly how long, but this distance that they
were travelling, the whole time that was going on; our Lord didn’t have a car,
He didn’t have a camel, He didn’t have a horse, so, everywhere He went, He
walked. And he walked specifically to be
available to the people. Also, he was
available to Israel, but that meant also that He was available to everybody
else. They would come and they would do
all manner of things, and we hear in the Scriptures where there was both
Samaritans, and there was woman, and this one was from Canaan, of course. But, He was available to these people, so
this would transpire over several days.
And the disciples, I’m sure, the disciples were saying, “You know
what? I’m about through with that. Why don’t You tell her, ‘Enough is
enough. Get out of here?’ He just told you, He’s only going to the
House of Israel.” And, verse 25, it’s
important to know that even after, even after she was told, “I’m not coming for
you. Your need is not My major thing
that I’m coming here for.” The Bible said,
here in verse 25, that she came and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, help.” Now, it’s amazing that she could know that
she could continue to press, after already getting a certain answer from
God. Verse 26, “But he answered and
said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.” That, for many people, would have been the
final straw. That, for many people,
would have been, “I ain’t got to take this off of nobody.” That, foe many people, would have been,
“Wow! The Son of God insults me.” That, for many people, would have been cause
to turn and go away. But not for this
Canaanite woman. Not for this woman, who
was a Syro-phonecian. Not for this
woman. This woman says, in verse number
27, “And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from
their masters' table.” So often, when we get into the
presence of God, so often, when we get into His presence, because He is
righteous, and because we are none righteous, no, not one, because of that,
there is a Spirit of conviction. And,
truth be told, if there is anything between us and God when we present
ourselves to God, those things come up.
Those things come up: our shortcomings, and our sins, our prides, and
our lusts, our faults, our failures, they come up. And some would think, “Well, I can’t really
go to God now, because I’m not going to get nothing but rebuking, I’m not in a
place where I feel good enough to go.
Obviously, this woman felt like that.
Obviously, she had to deal with that.
After all, she was told, “You’re a dog!”
But this is where faith comes in.
This is where it comes in. To
know, “God, I don’t measure up to what You got; I don’t measure up to who You
are. I don’t even measure up to what
You’re calling me to be. But I know I
want the many blessings that You pour out.
If You could just give me a morsel, it will shock my system. It will revive me! It will do for me, God, what nothing else in
my life will do. If you will just give
me a little, just a touch, God, whisper to me, speak to me, give me one word,
God. I know, God, because I’ve seen it
before.” This is what this woman
knew. And so, the Lord would say, “Great
is your faith.” Now, it tells us in the
Book of Mark that this woman was Syro-phonecian. It also calls her a Greek. When it says Syro-phonecian, it’s meant to
say, you aren’t of God’s lineage, you aren’t of the people of Israel, you
aren’t of the people who were called, who were chosen, you aren’t of the elite
brand. But, she knew, with a
compassionate God, “I can come to Him, anyway.
I can come to that God.” Now, no
doubt, there were other people in the land that had sick people in their
house. No doubt there were other women
who had children who were possessed of devils.
It doesn’t matter what kind of devil it was. It doesn’t matter if the devil was drugs. It doesn’t matter if the devil was
prostitution. It doesn’t matter if the
devil was just whoring around. It
doesn’t matter if the devil was a lying devil or a stealing devil, a contrary
devil. It doesn’t matter what devil
she was all wrapped up into. She had a
devil. And the mother—and, no doubt,
there were other mothers, and other fathers in the land, the people that needed
a touch from God in their house. And,
you never know. The Scriptures don’t
bear it out, but I’m sure some mothers have gone to the Lord, and maybe they
got this answer, and they said, “You know what?
I’m out of here. I didn’t expect
to hear that, but, what else would I have expected to hear from a Jew?” And they turned around and walked away, but
not this woman, who is our example for today.
This woman pressed through to see if, “Because I know, God, I know I can
find mercy in You. If You are the Son of
God, I can find mercy, I can find grace, I can find it.” And the Lord said, “Great
is thy faith.” Now, in verse 28,
“Then Jesus answered and said unto her, 0 woman, great is thy faith: be it unto
thee even as thou wilt…” And this is: Part 2 Evangelism: Put on
Display And, this is the point: When it looks like God isn’t answering, when
we’ve prayed, and when we’ve sought—all over the world, this has to be the
case—when we’ve thrown ourselves in to the lap of the Lord, put ourselves at
His feet, and it looks like He hasn’t spoken to us, that’s not the time to
stop. When it looks like I’m not getting
the answer I’m seeking for, seek Him anyway.
When I feel like I haven’t gotten it in my time, pray to Him, and follow
Him anyway. She sought Him anyway. She humbled herself anyway. No doubt the spirit around her was saying,
“Stop it! Knock it off! Go back home!
He’s not going to give you what you want!” No doubt that spirit was permeating the
entire environment where she was, but she wouldn’t listen to it because she
knew that, “If this is the Son of God, I can find mercy. I can find grace. I can find some great things if this is the
Son of God.” I want to bring up a quick case of
a Christian man who was a construction worker, and he had scratched his arm. You would think, we get scratches all the
time, if we work in the mechanical field, or anything with utensils, you can
get scratches and scrapes and whatever. And,
he scratched his arm. He was like, “Oh,
darn,” and he washed it and put some ointment on it and went about his
business, and went back to work, and went home.
A day or two later, it got worse; that scratch. He put some more ointment on it, and he went
to the doctor, and he said, “Hey, I just want to make sure everything’s going
to be okay.” And the doctor said, “Yeah,
it looks like it could be something, but, if it gets any worse, come
back.” So, he went over—he was a
Christian, so he went over to his church, and they had prayer, they prayed for
him, and it got worse! He went back to
the doctor, and the doctor said, “Oh, you’re infected. You’ve got to go in the hospital.” After prayer.
After the ointment. After washing
it. After going to a doctor. Now he’s got to go in the hospital. They put him in the hospital, and, you would
think, “Why would a scratch turn like this? Why, why is this happening to this man?” Well, they admit him to the hospital, stuck
him up to an IV, and it just so happens it was one of those hospitals where you
have to share a room, you know, unless you’ve got plenty of money, you usually
have to share with somebody in a hospital room.
Well, the person that he had to share with, actually, was an older
person. Actually, it was a person who
was very senior, and, actually, it was a person who was on his deathbed. And this person who was in this hospital
room, they had a conversation that went back and forth, but, if you’re a
Christian, sooner or later, the conversation is going to turn around to
Christ. And it did. And, as it turned around, to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the person who was dying said, “You know, that’s what I have been
asking for. I have been in here day
after day asking for this.” And he said,
“I receive your word, by what you’ve been sharing with me and by what you’re
saying, and by what I see in the Bible.”
He said, “I believe, and I want to get baptized.” And the Christian was like, “Great! This is a great thing!” And the older person told the hospital staff,
“I have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to get baptized.” The hospital staff said, “Who do you think
you’re talking to? You’re in the
hospital! We don’t do that type of thing
here! And, plus, you’re sick. You know
you’re bad off. It could kill you! Nah, we ain’t letting that happen in
here.” And this went on for a few days! And, so, because he was a Christian, and this
person believed in the Lord, they had a prayer.
“Lord, please allow me to get baptized in your name!” Well, guess what happened? That person got well. On his deathbed, and he got well! He got out of the hospital, went over to that
Christian’s church, got baptized in Jesus’ name, and then, do you know what
that older person did? He went back to
the hospital, and he told the nursing staff and the doctors, and all the people
who told him no, "See, not even you could stop God from saving me.” True story.
A few weeks later, that man got sick again, and he was on his deathbed
again—but this time he was looking forward to meeting his Lord and Savior. So, sometimes, we might not understand why
this is happening to us, but God will put it on display, specifically, that
everybody can see who we’re dealing with.
I remember, from that, I know everybody who told me about the story,
“Man, it was amazing. None of us could
see, at the beginning, that a scratch—a scratch!—was going to cause somebody to
get saved.” Part 3 Evangelism: The Word
gets out Matthew 15:29-31 And Jesus
departed from thence, and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee; and went up into a
mountain, and sat down there. And great
multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb,
maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and He healed them:
Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the
maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified
the God of Israel. Mark 7:24 And from thence he arose, and went into the
borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know
it: but he could not be hid. Mark 7:25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter
had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: And, I’d like to go a little
further in Mark chapter seven: Mark 7:28 And she answered and said unto Him, Yes,
Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. Mark 7:29 And He said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy
daughter. Mark 7:30 And when she was come to her house, she
found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. And, our next-to-the-last
Scripture: Revelation 22:1-9 And he
shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of
the throne of God and of the Lamb. In
the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the
tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every
month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the
throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
And they shall see his face; and his
name shall be in their foreheads. And there
shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for
the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. And he said unto me, These sayings are
faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew
unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that
keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I John saw these things, and heard them.
And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the
angel which shewed me these things. Then
saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy
brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship
God. Well, the message from this angel
was particularly marvelous, as he told John there's a river that proceeds from
the very throne of God, a river of life that proceeds from the throne of God. The rivers of delight shall ever roll. And, when he says it’s clear as crystal; why
in the world would it say it like that? As
clear as a crystal? Well, the ancients,
in the old days, they would look at crystal, and they would say crystal only is
made by pure water. They didn’t have a
whole lot of chemistry, not like we do today.
They had a period table of sorts, but not like we do today. They didn’t have that understanding. They said a crystal, it’s only formed, it’s
congealed, which means it’s a liquid that’s made hard over great pressure and
great time, and its brilliance is because it’s made from pure water. So, it’s hard, and it’s brilliant, and it’s
precious. That river that Apostle John
described, he said that river is as clear as a crystal; it’s beautiful. And, when they would talk about
this, Apostle John said there is a tree of life on either side of it which had
different fruits, but there’s healing in its leaves, for all the nations. All curses would be gone and God's servants
will see His blessed face. Could you put up the last verse
for that song, “Lily of the Valley?” He will never, never leave me, nor yet forsake me here, While I live by faith and do His blessed will; A wall of fire about me, I’ve nothing now to fear, With His manna He my hungry soul shall fill. Then sweeping up to glory, to see His blessed face, Where rivers of delight shall ever roll: This is what Apostle John was
talking about. Amen. He’s the Lily of the valley. Amen?
Amen? And that’s what Apostle
John was describing. “I’ll see His blessed
face, and man, is it going to be awesome!” That river of life. But, another point here, imagine
an angel saying, “I am of your brethren the prophets. See thou do it not, for I am a fellow servant.” The angel, that was telling him this, put
himself, and Apostle John, and the prophets, all in the same boat. We are fellow servants. So, an angel says, “Hey, we got something in
common. And, of thy brethren the
prophets.” Years ago, we had here, when they
first came up with evangelize, educate, and equip. That would be the mission part of the mission
statement for our ministry here. I
remember the two brothers who were assigned the evangelism part of the ministry,
and I was thinking, “Evangelizing? I
wonder what that’s all going to be about.”
But, I was part of the education team, which was wonderful, but, the two
brothers that were assigned evangelism, they were all excited about it, and I
was wondering how anybody can get excited about that? Going out in the street, and talking with
people, and who knows what you’re going to go through. You’re going to get your feelings hurt, and
people are going to shout you down, because, when I was lost, I used to shout
people down. I know what you’re going to
say, because I used to do it myself. But
they had such a joy in a calling, and a position, and such an obligation to do
for the Lord. They would say, “Hey! This evangelism is so awesome! Do you know who the first evangelist was?” I’m like, “Well, that would have been a long
time ago, uh, Noah, maybe?” “No, the
first evangelists were the angels!” “The
angels? Tell me more!” “We’re going to get the Bible study together,
and it’s going to be great, wonderful, and…” I never made it to that Bible study, I had to
look it up on my own, and, sure enough, you can see it right in the word: Evangelize. Evangelist. And this angel here, puts himself to say, “I
am thy fellow servant. I also am a
messenger of God, like the prophets were messengers of God; like you are a messenger of God.” “See thou do it not: for I am thy
fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the
sayings of this book...” We’re all in
the same boat. We’re all fellow servants.
If it’s an angel that’s a messenger, or
if it’s a prophet that’s a messenger, or if it’s those that keep the sayings of
the Book, we’re all in that same boat; we’re all fellowservants. And then he said, “Worship God.” Isn’t that marvelous? Isn’t that marvelous? In league with the angels. Coming side-by-side. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So, us, personally, since we’re
not all prophets, what exactly is our mission?
What is our assignment? What’s our
purpose? From the Book of Matthew, and
this is it, I’m closing. What is our
purpose? Matthew 5:16 Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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