Dream Big
Debbie Currie · Tidal Church Moncton · September 15, 2024 · The Circle Maker series
Debbie Currie centres on the Gentile woman in Matthew 15 and her bold request for her daughter. Drawing on her own story of loss and healing, she shows that big, risky prayers draw us closer to Jesus, who is faithful even when life doesn't add up.
More from Debbie Currie · The The Circle Maker series
Transcript
[0:00] Are you a dreamer? Yeah. Brian and I both like to think that we're dreamers. You know, Brian was brought up in a farm on PEI and money was always tight, but there was always something he was dreaming about. When he was a preteen, he dreamt about having a brand new bike, unheard of in their family. Then he dreamed about having a horse and then a sleigh for the horse, and he got what he wanted as a teenager. He dreamed of having his own pig, I guess on the farm. That might make sense. I think it was a money thing, you know, but, and then after that he wanted me. And 46 years later, here we are. Last week, Pastor Jeremy told us about Honi's story and we learned that God is not offended by our big dreams or our bold prayers.
[0:55] As a matter of fact, He's offended by anything less. If our prayers aren't impossible to us, if we can do them on our own, then they're insulting to God. But bold prayers are risky, even scary. Before the first raindrop fell, Honi had to feel a little foolish standing in a circle and demanding rain. Now that is a risky proposition, but then vowing that he's not gonna leave the circle until it rains. Well, that's downright dangerous. Honi didn't draw a semicircle or a half circle with a way out. He drew a full circle with no escape clause.
[1:47] Honi backed himself into a circle and the only way out was a miracle. Drawing prayer circles often looks like an exercise in foolishness, but the risk of looking foolish is actually an ingredient of faith. Noah looked foolish, building a boat in the middle of the desert. Shepherd boy David looked foolish chasing after a giant with a slingshot. Peter looked foolish stepping out of a boat in the middle of a sea, and Jesus was laughed at and mocked as they put a crown of thorns on His head.
[2:36] But the results speak for themselves. Noah was saved from the flood. David did defeat Goliath. Peter did walk on the water and Jesus was crowned King of Kings. Drawing prayer circles often looks foolish, but if you want a miracle, you have to take a risk. Well, what does risk look like? Well, for Honi, he risked his reputation. He had a reputation as a rainmaker already. But this was different. This wasn't just a farmer who needed a few drops of rain for his crops. This was an entire nation in need.
[3:24] If he failed this time, his career was over, he would go down in the history books as a failure or worse, he wouldn't even make it in the history books. Honi knew that you cannot build God's reputation if you aren't willing to risk your own. But besides the risk, when you dream big, when you pray big prayers, there's also a faith struggle. Can God really do this? How is He going to do it? And most often the problem is that we insert ourselves into the equation and we say something like, well, I've never seen God do that.
[4:12] Sometimes the thing we want to ask God for is too big. There's no reason to think that He will do it. The pieces don't add up, and it seems ridiculous to even ask, but it's important to you. It's a dream. So what do you do with that? Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew 15, and I think you'll agree that that's how this Gentile woman felt. So let's read her story. Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile woman who lived there came to Him pleading, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, for my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely."
[5:02] But Jesus gave her no reply, not a word. Then the disciples urged Him to send her away, "Tell her to go away. She is bothering us with all her begging." Then Jesus said to the woman, "I was sent only to God's lost sheep, the people of Israel." But she came and worshiped Him, pleading again, "Lord, help me." And Jesus responded, "It isn't right to take the food from the children and throw it to the dogs." She replied, "That's true, Lord. But even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master's table."
[5:50] "Dear woman," Jesus said to her, "your faith is great, and your request is granted." And her daughter was instantly healed. This woman had a big dream, but it made no sense that Jesus would help her. But she accepted the risk of foolishness and the risk of rejection. She's desperate. Her daughter is possessed and tormented by a demon. We know by other biblical accounts that demons cause seizures and uncontrollable tics and movements that can throw them into fires.
[6:38] Some cut themselves and have screaming tantrums. How many wounds do you think this mother bound up in this little girl? How many wounds do you think this little girl gave her mother as the mother tried to protect and restrain her when all hope was gone? This mother hears about Jesus. She hears about the people He has healed. She hears about the demons He has cast out. She has never heard of such a man or such a God. None of the gods she serves can do these kinds of things and faith stirs in her.
[7:25] When she finds Jesus, she cries out, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David." This Gentile woman understood who Jesus was and she was drawing a circle around herself and Jesus that no one could penetrate. The disciples tried. Oh, they tried, but she was focused. She knew Jesus was her last hope and she fixed her eyes on Him. When Jesus finally speaks to her, He basically rejects her and then He calls her a dog. Now, I hope most of you are saying to yourselves, gee, that doesn't sound anything like the Jesus I know, and you'd be right.
[8:13] So let's unpack this together. First of all, we see in verse 24 that Jesus told her His ministry was for the people of Israel, and that was true. Well, of course it was true. Jesus wasn't gonna lie to her. He even told the disciples when He sent them out two by two not to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, and the Samaritans had Jewish blood, but only go to Israel. His ministry was for His people. Why? Because Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father to Israel. There hadn't been a prophet or a recorded act of God in over 400 years.
[9:04] It was during that time that the Pharisees showed up on the scene and they created over 1500 new laws to add to the 613 that were in the Old Testament, that people had little understanding of God's heart for them. God was the lawgiver, that He had delivered His people from tyranny once but centuries ago, where is He now? So Jesus came to show the depth of the Father's love to His people first. So it's really important to note that in this case, Jesus broke all protocol and intentionally traveled to a Gentile region.
[9:55] He actually came to the woman as Jesus announced to her that He was sent only to the people of Israel. I can almost hear her thoughts as she gazes into His eyes and thinks, but You are here and You are Him, and her faith stirs. Then in verse 26, Jesus says, it isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. Okay, wait a minute. Is Jesus really calling this woman a dog? Now, in all fairness, this was a common term for a Jew to call a Gentile.
[10:40] Jesus was playing into the culture a little bit, but what He was really doing was building and drawing out her faith. Here, Jesus actually softens the effect of this slur. You see, stray dogs back in those days, they ran rampant in the large cities. They were unwanted pests. They were dirty and diseased, and they stole food. So the slang expression was meant to land hard and be degrading. But here Jesus refers to the children of the house, implying that this dog was a family pet belonging to the family and deserving of her portion.
[11:28] In verse 27, we see that she takes no offense. Instead, her faith is stirred again. She acknowledges her position and she strengthens her petition. This woman took a big risk. She had a big dream and she needed a big miracle, but it didn't add up. It didn't make any sense. She had no reason to expect anything from Jesus. She wasn't even in a position to ask, but she had great faith, and we see in verse 28 that her daughter was healed.
[12:17] I also have a story that didn't add up, didn't make any sense, especially not to me, but it has stirred my faith for many years. Brian and I are from PEI, and we met on Thanksgiving weekend in my grade 11 year. I know, prehistoric times. By the time the spring of my graduating year rolled around, we were pretty serious. We had a few friends who had gone out west to a Bible school in Calgary, and I really wanted to go. So I talked Brian into applying together. Brian got his acceptance almost immediately. I spent the next few weeks at the mailbox like, what's happening?
[13:04] Where's this coming? Where's my letter? How come I don't have my acceptance yet? To confuse the matter, I also received a full tuition scholarship to UPEI for four years. Well, what am I gonna do? Do I wait for my Bible school acceptance or do I accept the scholarship? I prayed and I prayed, and I called out to God. I think I even yelled a little. God, what is happening here? I don't understand. I'm Your daughter. Wouldn't You be excited that Your daughter wants to go to a Bible school to learn more about You? Wouldn't that equip me better to serve You for the rest of my life?
[13:50] It didn't make any sense to me with the deadline up. I still had no acceptance letter. So I accepted the scholarship. Of course, it was just a couple of days later, my Bible school acceptance also arrived. Took me a long time to forgive God for that one. Now don't judge me. I know some of you blame God for some of your disappointments, but the thing is, while Brian was out west, I came to visit him at the school for two weeks in the spring. And the truth is, it wasn't fun. It was a very small unaccredited school housed in one building, the girls' dorm on one floor, boys' dorm on another, cafeteria and common room on another floor, resource rooms and CLA and classroom on another floor.
[14:43] Just everything in one building. And every week or two, a visiting professor would come and teach one course in his distinction. So the whole school was together all the time for every course, every meal, every activity. They were like a big family. And I discovered in my two-week visit that Brian had too many sisters who wanted to be a little more than sisters. Yeah. And I was jealous and obnoxious and afraid. Well, obviously Brian came home, promised me he would never leave me again, proposed. And we were married the next year between my second and third year of university.
[15:32] But the point is, when I was able to look back and gain some understanding, I recognized that I was way too immature to live in those close quarters for 10 months with that guy, so close, there's no way our relationship would've survived that experience. I needed to get some perspective every time for the past 46 years. Every time I asked God, did I marry the right man? Yeah, I asked that a few times, but you know what? I think probably you did too. Every time times were tough and I asked God, did I make a mistake?
[16:20] The Holy Spirit would remind me of the work he did and the abuse he took from me to protect our relationship all those years ago. So when life doesn't make sense, trust that God is good at being God and you are not. When you don't get the answer you want to your prayer, put some time in so you can look back with a better perspective. If you don't let disappointment turn to bitterness, that's key. Then over time you will see how God provided, how He guided, how He protected, and how He met your need.
[17:16] Prayer is always a good idea, even when it doesn't make sense. Because when you pray, you can't pray and nothing happen. You cannot pray and nothing happen. You may not get the immediate answer to your prayer, but when it comes, God loves to move. Suddenly I had rheumatoid arthritis when we were first married. I was bedridden for months at a time and I prayed for healing for almost 10 years, but my actual healing came in seconds. Every prayer we direct to God has impact. Something changes.
[18:02] It's like dropping a pebble in a pond. A circle is drawn on impact and it ripples out across the pond. This changes the surface tension of the water, the clarity of the water, the underlying current, the school of fish that are thrown into chaos and the cycle of evaporation and condensation. These things you can't see. You may not even recognize any impact that it would have on you, but changes have been made. Nonetheless, every prayer is an invitation to God to keep working. God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. So if it isn't good, He's still working.
[18:52] Your prayer circles cause a ripple effect that impacts your whole life journey. And if your journey's been anything like mine, and I know you've had seasons that are really, really good and you've had seasons that are really, really hard, the first eight years of married life were really good for us. We were happy. It was a good season. I finished university. We started a family. We started a company. We built a beautiful home. I felt like a queen. After all, Debra does mean queen bee. But in the span of 18 months, this queen bee turned into Orphan Annie, and Ann just happens to be my middle name.
[19:42] My third pregnancy was difficult. Well, actually, they were all difficult. But for this one, I was actually hospitalized twice through the pregnancy. Matthew was our first son and we were over the moon. Delighted to dedicate him to the Lord on Father's Day when he was just six days old. But suddenly his life journey took an about-face, and a week later, he died in my arms at the IWK. A year later, I'm pregnant again, only to miscarry at 16 weeks and be rushed into emergency surgery. They say all sunshine and no rain makes a desert. Well, just ask Connie. If your life journey isn't peppered by rainy seasons, you become a desert, a dry, shallow, empty shell of a person.
[20:42] But God's heart for you is that you flourish, that you are an oasis, a place of peace and rest that overflows with His fullness and displays His glory. Isaiah writes that when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon us, we are known as mighty oaks of righteousness planted by the Lord as a living display of His glory. God's heart for you does not change when you are in a hard time, but we tend to turn away from Him. I was certainly tempted to. I would.
[21:29] It would've been so easy to become a neurotic mess after Matthew died. I was getting up in the night to check on the girls to make sure they were still breathing. It was hard to go to sleep. It was hard to get outta bed. It was hard to go to church. It was hard to feel loved, even by Brian. The world told me I should be broken. The world told me to go on antidepressants. The world told me you gave me permission to fall apart. But the word says that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus, and the Spirit has anointed Jesus to heal the brokenhearted and to bring freedom to the oppressed.
[22:22] I had a choice. I could listen and believe what the world was telling me, or I could believe what the word was telling me. I chose the word. I chose Jesus. I drew a circle around the promise that He would never leave me, that He was always with me. He doesn't even get tired or need a nap. And I began to feel His love draw me out of the pit. I had fallen in. When I'd wake up in the night filled with fear, needing to go and check on the girls, I could feel Jesus beckoning me to Him. And so I would stay and I would pray and I would feel His peace wash over me.
[23:11] And soon I would go back to sleep and didn't take long, and I was sleeping through the night again. My waking thought each morning was, "Oh God, oh God, I made it through the night. How am I gonna make it through the day?" But the Holy Spirit started renewing my mind, and soon my waking thought was Jesus, just the name Jesus. But it was just enough to turn my thoughts toward Him so that I could say thank you. But He didn't stop there. Soon I woke up with the words, "I love You, Jesus." Right on the tip of my tongue.
[23:56] And it wasn't long after that that I woke up ready. My heart was ready to give praise to God. For years now I wake up singing in the Spirit. I'll never forget the first morning I woke up and I had this awful sound going in my head. I literally held my head and said, "What is that noise? What is that noise?" I was trying to understand what I was hearing. Then I realized I was singing worship songs from somewhere in here, but it wasn't up here. Now I wake up in the middle of a worship song almost every day, and I know there are others in this room who have the very same experience.
[24:45] I've heard their testimonies. I cried out to Jesus in desperation and He planted a seed in me that transformed the ashes of loss into a beautiful testimony. He transformed my grief into blessing and my despair into praise. And He can do the same for you. There isn't one of you in this room or online who hasn't gone through or isn't going through a hard season, a season of weeping and pain and sorrow. Are you choosing to listen to the world or the word?
[25:34] Choose Jesus. Choose Jesus. He is the Word. I'm not suggesting this choice is easy, but I am saying that it's the right choice. Opening your heart to the truth of God is not always easy, but it is always your best outcome. So I wanna take a minute to remind you of who our God is, in the hope that it will fuel your faith to help you make that choice for Jesus in your hard times. God, through Jesus, is the creator of all things.
[26:20] God owns everything in heaven and on earth. Nothing, no thing, is too hard for Him, not your biggest problem or your biggest dream. God, through Jesus, frees us from all guilt, punishment, and the power of sin. God's love for you is unconditional, and God is faithful to all His promises. So did it? Did your faith get fueled as I was speaking this? These words, could you feel passion stirring inside you?
[27:06] Are you fired up to go home and pray big prayers for God to draw circles around scripture verses that are the answers to your problems? Well, there might be one or two of you in here who go, "Yeah, I'm fired up," but the rest of you, not so much. Why is that? Well, we read in 1 Corinthians that the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk. Another translation says it's not a matter of empty words but of power. So I'm gonna take a risk right here, right now. I'm gonna draw a circle around this scripture verse and we're gonna ask the Holy Spirit to add power to these words.
[27:58] So let's right now. Let's talk to Holy Spirit. Can you just fix your eyes on Jesus, just right where you're sitting, and open your hands in front of you to posture yourself to hear from God and to receive, just like Pastor Jeremy asked us last week. Holy Spirit, reveal truth to us. Touch our hearts and minds as each word comes alive to us. Increase our faith, Lord, as You ignite Your power in us. May Your truth be my truth. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
[28:45] Okay, we're gonna do this again. We're gonna pray these same or say these same statements again. They were all scripture. So I'm asking you to open your heart as the Holy Spirit adds power to every word. God, through Jesus, is the creator of all things. God owns everything in heaven and on the earth. Nothing, no thing, is too hard for God, not your biggest problem or your biggest dream. God, through Jesus, frees us from all guilt, punishment, and the power of sin.
[29:41] God's love for you is unconditional. God is faithful to all His promises. So I'm gonna ask again, do you feel the Holy Spirit stirring in here? Do you feel your faith rising up, wanting to pray big prayers for God? Do you wanna draw circles around scripture verses that are actually the answers to your problems? God wants to hear your prayer. A prayer makes a huge difference.
[30:27] We call out to Holy Spirit, and He answers us. The Heath verses we just read illustrate that God's power is limitless. But what does that mean for you and for me? It's one thing to know that God can do all these things, but it's another thing to believe that He will do it for you and for me. Do you know God's heart is full of love for you? I challenge you to pursue a deeper understanding of the Father's love. Your faith to believe that God is for you, that He wants to answer your prayers, that He wants to do great and mighty things in you and through you to others is directly related to how you think He loves you.
[31:27] In 1 John, we read, this is real love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us. Real love is that God loves us. But the world says, did God really say that? Or did He say, I will love you as soon as you clean up your mess? Well, if God waited for me to clean up my mess before He invaded me with His love, I'd be divorced today and likely would never have experienced His love. Soon after Matthew's death and the miscarriage, we went through a bankruptcy and lost our house.
[32:16] Statistics or the world said that Brian and I had a 160% chance of divorce. A couple who loses a child is 80% likely to divorce. A couple that goes through bankruptcy is 80% likely to divorce. And we were a mess left on our own. We never could have loved each other enough to survive these tragedies and these storms. Brian could never have been enough to fill my needy heart, and I could never have been the support and encouragement he needed to push through these devastations.
[33:03] But we were not left alone. Jesus fought for us. He prodded people and family to pray for us and they kept pointing us to Jesus. We prayed. We prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill us to overflowing, and one day the Holy Spirit literally downloaded into Brian. He was transformed from the inside out with the love of the Father. For me, it was more of a process, but Jesus also filled my heart to overflowing. We both went from empty, needy, broken pots to vessels of honor filled with the presence of God.
[33:51] It was like all of a sudden Brian could do no wrong. I know, right? Miracle of epic proportion. But the truth is, I didn't need him to be any one thing or everything anymore. I was full. There was no void left in me that Brian needed to fill. Jesus healed my heart. His love was and is real. That's the power of relationship bathed in prayer. But until you experience the love of God with its grace and its limitless power, the prayer circles you draw will be big enough to fit your big toe.
[34:46] If you wanna draw bigger prayer circles, if you wanna grow your faith, if you want more power of God in your life, start by drawing a prayer circle around you and Jesus, just like the Gentile woman did, just like Brian and I did. Your prayer circle is a secret place where you meet alone with Jesus, just the two of you without distraction. You. That's where you abide in Him, where you experience Him, where you become one with Him. Beth Moore says, get lost in Jesus so you can be found in Him. You and me. We need to lose ourselves.
[35:34] Jesus said, take up your cross and follow Me. What does that even mean? Well, what did Jesus do with His cross? He died on it. You have to die, not physically, but in every other way. Jesus wants to be the Lord of your life. But for that to happen, the current Lord, probably you, has to die. Once you surrender everything to Jesus and lay it at your feet, then He will fill your empty self with all of Himself. When Jesus rules your life, your heart becomes one with His heart.
[36:23] This is where prayers are answered. This is where healing happens. This is where needs are met. This is where families are restored. This is where nonsensical, incredible, impossible things happen that don't add up in the natural. So here we are, right here, right now on this journey to oneness with Him. But it's a journey and we haven't arrived yet. But we wanna pray big dreams. We wanna have big dreams and pray big prayers right now. Okay? That's actually great.
[37:12] We need to pray prayers. Every prayer takes you farther along your journey to oneness. Every prayer. So pray your prayers and expect an answer. Take the risk. Step out of the boat. Jesus won't let you drown. Go ahead and pray your prayer right now. Wherever you're sitting. Maybe it's, Father, I need a job and You are my provider. Jesus, I need a healer. You are the only one who will do it. Holy Spirit, I wanna serve my church family, reveal my gifts to me and give me opportunity to use them. Maybe your deepest prayers for your marriage or your children or your grandchildren.
[38:05] Whatever your biggest dream or your biggest need, there is a promise of God you can circle in prayer. So pray it. Pray your prayer. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Keep seeking Him. Keep asking Him. Keep knocking on the door of His presence. Keep trusting Him. God wants to answer your prayer. Keep asking Him until you believe it. But there's another kind of prayer circle we can draw. As a church family, we need to come together in unity and commit to one big circle prayer.