This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I'm glad you're back for day three of our look through of Matthew chapter 15.
You're very brave to be back for day three because we're really looking at some
difficult issues of the heart as we walk through this. The way our traditions
can keep people from hearing, the way our self-righteousness can keep people
from hearing, Jesus is just laying out some things honestly and is an example
for us throughout this chapter.

There's a third barrier that we see in this chapter and it's the barrier of our
narrow vision of not being aware of the needs of the people who are right around
us, right in front of us, who we have an opportunity to meet. We get so focused
on ourselves sometimes. We get so focused on people that are like us sometimes
that we miss seeing the need that's right there.

We get sometimes caught up in a certain way of looking at people from the past.
They're never going to become a follower of Christ. That group of people, they
don't follow Christ.

That we stop thinking that they're going to be a person who's going to respond
to the good news. We don't mean to stop thinking that way even sometimes, but we
do. Now this is sometimes called people blindness, where our culture or our past
or our prejudices or our experiences cause us to not share the good news with a
certain group of people because we just don't see them.

Jesus really challenges that beginning in verse 21. This for many people is one
of the passages in Matthew that brings the most questions because of what you
hear Jesus saying to this woman. Listen to what happens beginning in verse 21.

"Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite
woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, 'Lord, son of David, have
mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.

' Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, 'Send
her away, for she keeps crying out after us. ' He answered, 'I was sent only to
the lost sheep of Israel.

' The woman came and knelt before him, 'Lord, help me,' she said. He replied,
'It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. ' 'Yes,
Lord,' she said, 'but even the dogs eat the crumbs that come from their master's
table.

' And then Jesus answered, 'Woman, you have great faith. Your request is
granted. ' And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

" Now as you read through this passage, there are some instant questions that
you see. Why would Jesus, he's in the region of Canaan now. He's gone to the
region of those who are Gentiles, who are not Jews.

And yet he's saying in that region, talking to a Canaanite woman, that he was
sent only for Israel. And then why would he say in his talk with this woman that
it's not right to toss the bread that's meant for the children, that's the
children of God, the Jewish people, to the dogs, which is a phrase that was used
for Gentile people in that day. Why is Jesus saying these things?

Well, you need to understand that Jesus is bringing a challenge here. He's
challenging people on both sides of this issue of a narrowed focus, of a
narrowed vision. He's making sure that the disciples are challenged.

He's also making sure that this woman is challenged. He challenges his disciples
through his silence. This woman comes.

She says, "I have a need," and he doesn't say anything. I believe he's watching
how his disciples are going to react. And they react.

They come immediately and they say, "Get rid of her. " They are not able to see
this woman's need because she's not a Jewish woman. She's not in their family.

She's not of the people of God. They just say, "Just send her away. " Healing
isn't for her.

She's just bothering us. They didn't see her need because their past taught them
not to see her need. Now, you and I, as followers of Jesus, we have to admit
that this same thing can happen to us.

We can miss the needs that are right around us. In fact, the truth is the longer
you're a believer, a follower in Jesus, the more your vision can start to narrow
because we're around Christians all the time. And so we start seeing the
Christians, the people that we're close to, that we love and enjoy
fellowshipping with, that we're going to spend eternity with.

And because of that, we start missing the needs around us. Now, this blindness,
this narrowed vision, it can happen in a lot of different ways. The community
around you can change, but your church doesn't change.

And so you have a community of Vietnamese people and a church of Hispanic people
or a church of all Anglo people, and you're not able to see the needs of those
that are around you. Or there's a certain group that hasn't been reached. And so
you begin to believe, "Well, that group never could be reached.

" It might be a whole country that you're thinking about, or it might be a
group, a socioeconomic group even. For years, people said, "You can't really
reach upper middle class people, rich people with the gospel, not very many of
them, because they think their needs are already met by their wealth. " Well, I
know at Saddleback Church, Rick came into an area where there were a lot of
upper class people and reached them, reached them for Jesus Christ, disproving
that blindness, that narrowed focus that so many had had for so long.

Sometimes the focus gets narrowed because you get caught up, honestly, in your
own life. You get caught up in what you're going through right now. This happens
to all of us sometimes, and you start missing the needs of the people who are
right there every day.

I want to encourage you, today, just ask God for the grace to notice someone
you've not really noticed. Maybe that's in your usual traffic pattern. Might be
somebody you buy a newspaper from, it might be somebody that waits on you at a
restaurant, it might be somebody that you see every day or every week as you're
going to get gas.

I don't know where you see this person, but see them today. And pray for them,
even as you see them. Just in your mind pray, "God, let them know the good news
of Jesus, and if somehow you could use me in doing that, I would be more than
pleased to be used of you.

" Jesus is challenging the narrowed focus of his disciples. They're on one side
of this issue of a narrowed focus, but he's also challenging the woman here
because she's on the other side. She's the one who's been rejected or excluded.

She's the one who is hearing these words, "Don't help her, send her away. " So
Jesus sits down and says, "Why should I give anything to you? " And he's testing
her.

He's trying to find out why is she seeking Jesus? Why is she saying these
things? Is she seeking just some cultural affirmation?

Is she seeking just some statement of fairness? Or is she personally seeking
Christ? You see, if you've gone through this, maybe you've been in a church that
was prejudiced against a group of people or against you.

Maybe prejudiced against you because of your race, or prejudiced against you
because of your past, or prejudiced because of some family situation. Sometimes
the prejudice of Christians can cause you to get stuck on your reaction to the
Christians. Why did they do that?

Why did they think that way? Well, Christians are human beings like you're a
human being. They reacted that way because they're selfish.

They reacted that way because they didn't see. They reacted that way because
they're ignorant. But the truth of the matter is, when you get stuck on the
reaction of the Christian, guess what?

Your focus, your focus is not on Jesus. And the only one who can heal you, the
only one who can meet your need is Jesus. I've heard so many people down through
the years say this statement, "I'm not going to go to church.

It's filled with a bunch of hypocrites. " Well, of course it is. Church is
filled with imperfect human beings.

Every one of us, if we take a good hard look at our lives, is a hypocrite in
some area of our lives. Whether you admit it or not, you have struggles with
hypocrisy. When somebody says, "I'm not going to church," gets filled with a
bunch of hypocrites, I think, "Well, can't you see your own hypocrisy?

" And the truth of the matter is, you've narrowed your focus to those hypocrites
at church and you're missing the only one who was not a hypocrite, Jesus. The
only one who can heal your hypocrisy, Jesus. Jesus isn't a hypocrite, so what
are you going to do about His love for you?

How are you going to let that love change your life? So as we pray today, I want
to encourage us to pray on both sides of this that we've just talked about.
First, if you've not been seeing the needs of people, blind to the needs of some
people that are right there, just say, "Jesus, would you open my eyes?

Help me to see the people that are all around me. " Now, that's a very
courageous prayer. It's a very courageous prayer as you pray, because you know
that you're going to need to do something about those needs.

So I ask you to pray this courageous prayer, "Jesus, help me to see the needs of
the people that are around me. " Or maybe the prayer you need to pray in
addition is, "Jesus, help me to get my eyes off of hypocritical Christians and
put my eyes on your perfect love. Put my eyes on the life that you're inviting
me into.

Forgive me for blaming imperfect human beings when the issue really isn't them,
it's you and me. " So I put my eyes on you, and I want to live a life of faith
in you. I don't want to be stuck the rest of my life thinking about them.

I want the rest of my life to be caught up in thinking about you. I pray this,
both of these things, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look together at a fourth barrier. It's the barrier of
compassion fatigue.