How many know the Master always has more? It doesn’t matter how far you have gone. It doesn’t matter where you have come from or what you have gained. It doesn’t matter how much you have been blessed. It doesn’t matter what you have been healed from. The Master always has something more. It doesn’t matter how great it is. God always has something more. You will never receive ALL that God has. He always has something more weighing in the balance. AMEN?

I’m going to read from Matthew 15:21-28. “Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” Verse 22: “And behold a woman from Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.’” Verse 23: “But He answered her not a word, and His disciples came and urged Him saying, ‘Send her away, for she cries out after us.’”

Verse 24: “But He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” Verse 25: “Then she came and worshipped Him saying, ‘Lord, help me!’” Verse 26: “But He answered and said, ‘It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.’”

Verse 27: “And she said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.’” Verse 28: “Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”

How many of you have the persistence of this woman? God was silent. God didn’t respond, and when He did, it wasn’t what she wanted to hear; but she didn’t give up, quit, and go home. She hung in there. She remained faithful.

In this passage of scripture, we understand that this woman has a problem. There are many people throughout the Word of God that could produce a good sermon text of which to preach a miracle from. Whether it was Moses and the Israelites, or King David, or Saul who was touched on the Damascus road and had his name changed to Paul. It could have been Job or blind Bartimaeus, but in this text it was a woman whose name we don’t even know.

Who is this woman? This woman is you and me. A lot of us need God to show up in our lives and perform a miracle. The world treats us like we’re a nobody, and we get caught up in what the world thinks. When you come into a church house and certain people don’t treat you a certain way, you’re offended. Listen, it’s not all about us. We get so caught up in reading people that we are missing God!

You can’t rely on how people treat you or what they do to you. There is One in Heaven who sees it all, and His name is Almighty God, and that is what we need to get comfortable with. Stop looking at everybody else as your source and your fix and start looking to God!

It amazes me that the only guy that recognized Jesus when He walked by was blind Bartimaeus. That should be a clue to us, that we can be in His presence and still miss God!

No one knew this woman’s name, and some of you are struggling because your own family treats you like you’re an outsider. They label you as fruits, flakes, and nuts; and that’s ok, because God loves us anyway. God knows my name! The Word tells me that when I come to Him and receive Him as my Savior, my name is written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life. AMEN?

This woman reveals her problem. She has a daughter that is severely demon-possessed. You may not be dealing with a child that is demon-possessed, but we all have issues and problems. We all have faults and flaws. Maybe you’re experiencing financial problems, maybe your marriage is on the rocks, maybe your relationship with your children isn’t what it used to be, maybe your relationship with the Lord isn’t what it used to be, maybe we’re walking through difficult times as a nation, but I want you to understand something. God has not forgotten about you! The Master always has something more for His children!

It doesn’t matter whether you have been beaten and are downtrodden. It doesn’t matter that you’re feeling depressed. God is waiting to bless you if you will just remain persistent. AMEN?

This women had issues, but her greatest issue was the fact that her daughter was demon-possessed; and in this woman’s plea, she cries out. She says, “God, have mercy on me!” In this woman’s plea, we see something. We see the desperation of a parent, and in that desperation of a parent is the authority to take control of that situation.

When we really get desperate and when our back is to the wall, that is when we really get serious with God and find out just what He can do. I have been around enough parents to know that when someone does something to one of their children, a whole different attitude arises.

My wife always walks around with a smile on her face. I don’t understand it, but she smiles all the time; but I have seen my wife turn into a completely different individual when somebody does something to one of her kids. It’s called the momma bear syndrome. AMEN? When you get desperate, you have the authority to take control of the situation, and what taught me this lesson was this little bird that was living on our church property.

This past summer, I was getting ready to mow the 10 acres on our church property. I was riding our Kubota. We men love to mow grass because we don’t have to think. We just ride around in circles, and each lap gets smaller. As I was going around in circles trying to mow this grass, I see this little bird down on the ground. It was a little Sandpiper, and this little bird starts running toward the Kubota.

Then it starts to spread it wings, and she is still coming toward the Kubota. I’m thinking, I’m going to mow you down! Then she starts dancing and prancing around, and I know I’ve got to find out what is going on with this bird. So I shut the Kubota down, and I climb down off it. I look down at this bird, and on the ground behind her are three eggs.

Don’t tell me that, when we get desperate, we don’t have the authority to take on whatever is in front of us! When we really get desperate, we have the authority to take control of the situation.

In Luke 10:19 Jesus said, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Stop walking around like you’re some pansy! You are high priests in your home. You are kings in the Kingdom, and it is time you start walking around like you have a little bit of authority, because Jesus said that He has given you power over ALL the enemy!

I don’t know what it is, but sometimes I think we start listening too much to the world. The world tells us what we can and can’t do and where we can and can’t go. The world didn’t take prayer out of our schools. The church gave it up, because when it all came down, the church just folded its arms and said, “Well, I guess that is just the way it’s going to be.”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand it when somebody calls me a pansy. If you want to stir me up, call me a chicken. My wife knows that when she wants to stir me up to do something, she says, “Are you afraid?”

Why do you think God has gathered so many people to the Maranatha Fellowship? Do you not understand that He has created an army here in St. Albans, West Virginia, and this army is to combat the kingdom of darkness? It isn’t just a large crowd. Thank God for this large crowd, but it’s an army to combat the kingdom of darkness! It’s time you recognize that you are high priests in the home, you are created in His image, and you are the righteousness of Christ!

It’s time you looked at the world and said, “What? I’m not going to take that! I am going to pray about that, however!” The world looks at that as you just tucking your tail and running. No, no, no. I’m going to pray about that, and God is going to move. When was the last time we earnestly cried out to God? God has given us authority over all the power of the enemy, ALL the power!

In Verse 22 this woman cried out to Jesus, and in Verse 23 it says, “But He answered her not a word.” Jesus didn’t even respond to her. I want you to understand something. Silence is not absence. Get hold of that. Just because you didn’t hear anything doesn’t mean God isn’t present.

Remember Joseph in Genesis 37? God gave him a dream, his brothers thought he was crazy, cocky, and haughty, and they developed a plan to get rid of him. They decided not to kill him but throw him in a pit, and what does the Word of God say? “And the Lord was with him.”

They decided to sell him into slavery, and the Word says, “And the Lord God was with him.” He made it into Potiphar’s house, and it says, “And the Lord God was with him.” Potiphar’s wife accuses him falsely, he was imprisoned, and where was God? Do you think he felt that God was with him all those times?

We cry and whine when we go through a little bit of difficulty, but when was the last time somebody tore off your clothes, threw you into a pit, sold you into slavery, was falsely accused, and ended up in prison? I’m sure Joseph was just basking in the joy of the Lord. Right! Silence is not absence.

I want you to understand something. Jesus didn’t speak in this matter, but just because He didn’t speak didn’t mean He wasn’t present. I sense in my spirit that the Maranatha Fellowship Church thinks God has forgotten about them. How is it that you get into His presence? We enter into His courts with praise and thanksgiving. That’s why praise is so important in a church service.

Sometimes you may not feel like raising your hands when the praise and worship leader says to do it, but go ahead and do it anyway. Maranatha is known for radical praise, and if you want to get into His presence, that is how you get in there. When you start praising the Lord, it gets you into His presence, but worship keeps you there; and it isn’t over unless you leave His presence. God doesn’t leave YOU. You leave HIM. So you have to stay in His presence and continue to worship.

That is what this woman did. She continued to worship even though Jesus didn’t say anything. We would have already left. When you’re speaking to someone and they don’t even respond, you will get ticked off and walk out. Don’t miss what God wants to do in your life. Just because you haven’t heard from God when you want to or the way you want to, you have to stay in His presence even when you don’t feel like it and even when you don’t sense Him working.

There is a difference between being a good host and being a bad host. When you have people over to your house to eat, if you’re a bad host, they eat and leave. If you’re a good host, they have the main course, then stay for dessert and coffee. Then sometimes you have to make them leave. So the difference in staying in God’s presence and in leaving God’s presence is whether you are a good host to the Holy Ghost, and what keeps you in His presence is His worship.

This woman remained persistent. She didn’t quit. This woman was a Gentile, a Greek woman who worshipped false gods. She was a pagan, but what was the Lord doing by not responding to her? God never does anything without a purpose. Just because you haven’t heard doesn’t mean He isn’t working. If you are His child, He has a purpose for you. I don’t care who you are, where you came from, or what reputation precedes you. If you are His child, He has great purpose for your life, because God never does anything without purpose.

So, what was the Lord trying to do in this woman’s life? He was trying to find out what she really believed. He was trying to establish her faith. He was trying to reveal to her who He really was.

What about YOUR present circumstance and situation? What is God trying to do in YOUR present situation? He is trying to find out what you really believe! He is trying to establish your faith. How can you sing and praise God and claim He is your healer when He has never healed you of anything? How can we sing that He is our Savior and our Deliverer when we haven’t been saved or delivered from anything? How can we actually sing that? How can we expect God to move if we don’t ever want to go through anything?

I’ve heard many times that God only drops those He can trust in the middle of a storm. Struggling is not a sign that you have missed God. I believe your breakthrough is just around the corner. Your present situation is what you make of it.

God works miracles through attitudes of positive expectation, not in whining and complaining. God works miracles through positive expectation, not in atmospheres of negativity. It may be raining and all around things look bad, but I’ve got a smile on my face, and I’m trusting Jesus! One of the greatest things you can do to change your atmosphere is smile. Smile! It won’t kill you. It takes more energy to frown than it does to smile, and you’re much better looking when you smile!

You might say, but you don’t know what I’m going through. Well, you don’t know what I’m going through either, but let’s just smile and get happy about it! Listen, God never said it would be easy. He just promises victory! AMEN? So, let’s just go into victory smiling!

Look again at Verse 26. When Jesus finally answered this woman, this is what He said. “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” In Verse 27, she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Verse 28: “Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”

All it took was a crumb that fell from the Master’s table, but we are waiting for God to give us a smorgasbord. While He is giving us crumbs, we’re not even thankful. We’re waiting to pull up to the buffet, but God says, “I can give you the big deal if you will just be happy with the crumbs that fall from My table.”

God is moving and working all around us, but we’re waiting to see something so that we can point to it and say, “That’s God!” God wants to perform a miracle in Haiti, but He wants to do it through His people.

Does anybody have a little dog in the house? We have a little white dog in our house. Her name is Macie, and that dog has taught me so many Kingdom principles. She has taught me how I need to look at my Master. At dinner time, she will lay under our table, generally right at my feet.

I want to share something with you, not because I think I’m anything, because I’m not; but that dog lays under the table at my feet, because she knows that I am the master of that house. That dog knows that if she can get MY attention, she has the whole house’s attention. That dog sits there and waits for a crumb. How many of you know that when a crumb falls from the table, a dog will run over and eat it, and after it eats it, it goes right back and lays down in that same spot? Oh no!

I don’t know what kind of dog you have, but once our dog gets a taste of the crumb that falls from the masters’ table, that tail starts wagging, it starts dancing, it starts jumping and barking saying, “Give me more! Give me more!” That little dog knows something that many of us have forgotten. The little dog knows that the master always has something more, and that is what we need to get hold of this morning! We need something fresh this morning.

Remember when the Israelites were walking through the wilderness, and God let manna fall from Heaven? They tried to store it up, but it would rot and decay because they were not supposed to keep it. That is the way God wants to be in our lives. We can’t store Him up, and we can’t put Him on a shelf. He wants us to seek Him fresh daily, so that He can give us a fresh outpouring daily.

Stop accepting and start expecting. Stop accepting every little thing that comes your way, and start expecting a great revelation and outpouring in your life from God.

In closing, Verse 25 says, “Then she came and worshipped Him saying, ‘Lord, help me!’” When was the last time you truly worshipped God? I’m not questioning anybody’s worship, but when was the last time we didn’t get a response from the Lord, but we pressed in even harder and worshipped Him anyway?

We’re into fullness, but I believe God is into emptiness. We love full bellies and full wallets, but I believe God is looking for someone that is empty that He can pour Himself into.