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MATTHEW 15: 21.28

"MOTHER'S DAY SERMON"

Intro: "Mother do you really love your child?" "How much time do you spend in prayer for 
       him?" "Have you become discouraged?"

I. JESUS CONTACT WITH THE WOMAN.
        A. Place: Country around Tyre and Sidon.
        B. The cry, "Have mercy on me. Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously 
           vexed with a devil."
        C. The silence of Christ.
                1. She had no claim to Him as the Son of David.
        D. The disciples plea.
        E. The words of Christ, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
        F. The worship and second prayer, "Lord help me."
        G Christ answer, "It is no right to take the children's bread and cast it to the
          dogs."
                1. "Little dogs."
        H. The answer of faith.
        I. The result of the prayer of faith, "Be it done unto thee as thou wilt."
        J. Three times He refused her.
                1. Silence hard to bear.
                2. Words hard to hear.

II. THE INFLUENCE OF PRAYING MOTHERS.
        A. The struggles of prayer.
                1. The influence they have wielded.
                2. The mountains they have moved.
                3. Lithvanian word for mother means martyr.
                        a. The sacrifices they make for their children.
                        b. Spend themselves night and day.
                        c. They give their lives for their own.
                                1. Mothers broken in body and spirit. Maybe you know some
                                   personally. Every day they pray, "Lord help me, my son or
                                   daughter is grievously vexed."
                4. There is under God no greater power over human life that of a mother who
                   prays for her children with unyielding faith.
        B. How many mothers do we have today who pray like that? 
                1. World growing in crime, juvenile delinquency, spiritual illiteracy, 
                   indifference to Bible in our schools, ignorance of God's Word in colleges,
                   lack of discipline in homes.
                        a. What about these mothers, let their children roam at night, always
                           on the go themselves.
                        b. What about mothers who never pray for their children, or teach them
                           to pray, or take them to church.
                        c. What does it mean when mothers think they can break up their home
                           without hurting their children, or without caring if it does.

Ill. TAKE A FEW LESSONS FROM THIS MOTHER OF CANAAN.
        A. Harder today, growing paganism in materialistic culture.
                1. This woman in purely pagan culture.
                        a. Greek, heathen, probably worshipped astarte.
                        b. If she could pray, no excuse for mothers today.
        B. Children harder to handle.
                1. So many influences, school, radio, TV, magazines.
                2. But she said her child, "grievously vexed with the devil."
                        a. She only prayed harder because she knew Christ only one who could
                           help her.
        C. The persistence of her prayer.
                1. Painful silence painful words.
                2. Purpose, He was leading her to greater and higher expressions of her faith.
                3. Perhaps you have quit before Jesus said, "O woman great is thy faith."
                        a. Why did you stop?
        D. Effect of woman's faith on those around.
                1. Philip Brooks on mother's grave: "O Woman Great is thy Faith" ("Do your
                   children think of you like that?")