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Jack Graham: Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. We know that faith pleases God, and it is by faith that we approach God. The Bible talks about various kinds of faith. Well, I want to talk to you from this passage about relentless faith.

Guest (Female): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can cultivate a faith that never gives up. Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, Relentless Faith.

Jack Graham: It is true, at the feet of Jesus, joy and sorrow meet. And we have a vivid example of that in Matthew chapter 15. In these days, where we are talking about experiencing a life in Christ, what it means to truly follow Christ, you, the Christian, must understand that at the feet of Jesus, we find hope in desperate times.

And we're going to meet a woman who desperately needed that hope in the 15th chapter of Matthew. She is singled out out of all the people who engaged our Lord or our Lord encountered while he walked upon the earth. Jesus singled out this woman from Syrophoenicia, a Syrophoenician woman, a Canaanite woman, an outsider, an outcast.

He singled her out because of her great faith. I believe any commendation of Christ deserves our careful examination. We know that faith pleases God, and without faith, it is impossible to please God. We know that faith is a powerful fact and force that receives from Christ. It is the tool, the testimony that receives from Christ all that he desires to give.

It is by faith that we approach God. The Bible talks about various kinds of faith. It talks about great faith, little faith, mountain-moving faith, working faith. It speaks of sufficient faith and bold faith. Well, I want to talk to you from this passage about relentless faith.

Beginning in verse 21, Matthew chapter 15, "And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying out," it literally means she was saying and crying hysterically over and over again, "Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon."

"But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him saying, 'Send her away, for she's crying out after us.' And he answered, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' But she came and knelt before him saying, 'Lord, help me.' And he answered, 'It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.'

And she said, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.' Then Jesus answered her, 'O woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.' And her daughter was healed instantly." We don't know her name, but what we know about her is that she stands as a testimony of the power of Jesus Christ and of relentless faith.

The great British pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon said that even Jesus was charmed by the fair jewel of the woman's faith. We want to take that fair jewel of faith today and look at several facets of the beauty and the blessedness of this relentless faith. I believe this story should be studied by every parent who desires the well-being of their children, especially those parents and families that are struggling at this time against the forces of evil.

We know that this generation is facing tests and temptations perhaps like few generations before them, Generation Y. Those kids that were born in the 1980s and early 1990s. Many are in the university in these days. Many are in junior high and high school. And we are observing that the challenges as parents are greater than ever before.

Even those who are raised in Christian families are facing unprecedented challenges and difficulties. And so every parent that feels the heat of satanic forces and feels the power of evil coming against your family should pay close attention to this story and practice relentless faith. What is relentless faith? Well, let me say first of all that it is a daring faith.

I say a daring faith because this woman is identified as a Canaanite woman. In Mark's account of this same story, a Syrophoenician woman. But as a Canaanite, she is a descendant of a race that Israel had attempted to exterminate, a very vile and depraved race of people, the Canaanites. She was also a Greek, that is, she spoke the Greek language. She was hellenized as a Greek, meaning that she was a part of the Greek culture of that day.

So there's no question that while we don't know her name, we know this about her: she was a Greek-speaking pagan who most likely worshipped the false gods, the immoral gods of the Canaanites. As a result, she would have been despised by the religious establishment of her day. She would have been considered a Gentile dog, and a female one at that. And no respectable Jew would speak to her, take time out of their life for a woman like this woman.

There was a sect of the Pharisees who were called the blind, the bruised, the bleeding Pharisees. Do you know why they were called the blind, the bruised, the bleeding Pharisees? Because they were so caught up in their fear of women that they would somehow look at a woman in the wrong way, that they decided the best way to deal with a woman was, when a woman passed by, to simply cover your eyes and not look.

And so they were called the blind, the bruised, the bleeding Pharisees because when they would walk, they would bump into walls and posts and everything else. And they considered their bruises and their marks of blood as signs of their piety. Greek women were socially savaged by their own pagan culture. Not only were they despised among the Jewish people, but in this day, the Greek women were socially savaged by their own culture.

They were viewed as sexual property. And so it was a daring thing for her to approach Jesus. She cried out to him, "You are, O Lord, Son of David," because the Messianic hope was rising in the person of Christ. She had heard of Jesus. And so she must have thought, "If I could just get to Jesus, the one who is driving out demons and healing blind eyes and restoring broken and useless limbs, if I could just get to Jesus, maybe, maybe he could help my daughter."

And thus we see a desperate faith. You see, she had a great, great need. The scripture says in verse 22 that her daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. She was tortured by this demon. And it's quite possible because of the lifestyle of this woman herself that somehow she may have invited immoral, demonic, wicked influences into her own home.

And can you imagine her grief, her desperation when she considers the fact that now her own daughter, her own precious daughter is in the grip of Satan, demonized, controlled by forces beyond herself? Well, we know this, that influence is so powerful. It's certainly powerful in a positive way. Thank God for these parents who come today bringing their children to say, "We will provide an atmosphere of love, an atmosphere of Christ in our home.

We will engage the Spirit of God to make sure that our home is full of the Lord Jesus Christ." That is our prayer for them and our prayer for all. But it's also true that you can invite not the Spirit of Christ but the spirit of Antichrist into your life and into your home. We know the scripture says that the sins of the father are visited upon succeeding generations.

Now, I don't believe the Bible teaches any kind of generational curse, but it is a fact that influence from parent to child, from parent to child and so on is profound. It is a fact that if a person is an alcoholic, that person is most likely statistically to pass that same kind of addiction along to his family or children. It is true, it is statistically true that if your family experiences a divorce, that your children are at high risk for divorce in their own marriages later on.

It is a fact that what we bring into our homes has profound influence on our children. And in this case, somehow, some way, this woman had allowed the presence and power of Satan in her home, and as a result, her daughter was tortured and severely afflicted with this demon. And this demon spirit was wreaking havoc in the girl's life. She was progressively scarred and destroyed. Imagine if it were your child, the desperation you would feel.

So she dared desperately to approach the Lord, the one she called, "O Lord, Son of David," a Jewish teacher heralded as the Messiah. And she cries out, "Lord, Son of David." She falls at his feet. By now she's crying hysterically and she just kept on saying, "Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy," and finally, "Lord, help me." She would not be denied. Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Relentless Faith. How would you like to receive a digital daily devotional from Dr. Graham? It's a simple way to build a new habit, rekindle your passion for God, and remind yourself of his promises. When you sign up, you'll receive a devotional each day that will help you on your journey of renewal and spiritual growth in 2026.

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So consider partnering with us as we look to impact the world for Christ in 2026. Text JAN to 59789. That's JAN, J-A-N to 59789. And thank you for making an eternal impact so more people can experience the hope of Jesus. Now, let's get back to today's message, Relentless Faith.

Jack Graham: Now there were several obstacles to her faith. One we've already mentioned, the fact that she was an outsider, one viewed as a Gentile dog, one who had been crushed by her own culture and her own experiences. But there was another problem, and that was an obstacle that the disciples provided.

Notice again in verse 23 that as she was crying, the disciples came and begged him saying, "Send her away, for she's crying out after us." Don't you just love the compassion and love of these disciples? To Peter and the rest of the gang, she was a nuisance to be avoided. She was a bother. Not the kind of woman they wanted to be seen with. She was a disturbance, an irritation. So they wanted to get rid of her.

Get her away from here. These disciples seem to have a habit of doing something like this. They said earlier to the little children and to the mothers of those little children, "Shoo them away, get these children away." And Jesus said, "No, let the little children come to me." So these guys don't get it just yet as to Christ's love for people no matter their circumstance or situation.

But you know, I'm concerned that today many times in the church our attitude is the same attitude of these disciples. When people are struggling and crying and broken, desperately in need of mercy, we often say by our attitude and our actions, "Go away. You're a bother. You've got too much baggage. You don't meet our standards."

May we, the people of the Lord Jesus Christ, always welcome into our midst, welcome into our lives, and go aggressively into the world of those who desperately need Jesus Christ and the power of his love to change them. May God help us to do it. Yet this woman was determined. And so we see a determined faith. But the ultimate obstacle was the fact that our Lord met her with stone-cold silence.

Can you imagine this? Verse 23 says he did not, speaking of Jesus, answer her a word. Someone said that indifference may be the cruelest form of hatred. Indifference says you mean nothing to me. So is our Lord being indifferent to this woman? The fact that he did not even acknowledge her? Imagine if this happened to you. You cry out to God and you get nothing but stone-cold silence.

Maybe it has happened to you. You've cried out to God for help, for mercy, and you don't feel like you're getting anything back, just silence. And you wonder, "God, what are you doing in my life? You've done this for others. You've helped others. Can you help me?" Well, of course, we know because of the character of Christ himself that Jesus was not showing her indifference.

In fact, Jesus was waiting for this woman to demonstrate her faith. And he would set this woman up as an example of great faith for us to see forever. This woman didn't know it yet, but Jesus was taken, he was moved by her relentless faith. And I believe—certainly we weren't there physically to see this—but when we read this, when we see the tone, the tenure, I believe it takes a change in tone in verse 26 because Jesus answered, "It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

A smile may have creased our Lord's face at this moment. You say why? Well, because Jesus used a unique word for dog here. He doesn't use the word for dog as Gentile dogs, describing those wild, ravenous, scavenger dogs that roam the streets of the ancient world. But he used the diminutive form of the word dog here, which actually means little puppy or household pet.

So Jesus is saying something like this: he said, "You know, it's not right to take the bread of the children, the children being the house of Israel, of course, and to give it to the puppies, to give it to the pets." And then this woman responds by saying, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs, the puppies, eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table."

And it is in that good humor and that humility that Jesus sees her relentless determined faith and says, "O woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire." What an example she is to all of us. The scripture says at that very moment her daughter was healed, instantaneously. Instantaneously transformed. This lady came asking for mercy, and she got more than mercy because of her relentless faith.

She got mercy, but she also got a miracle. And her daughter was healed. You know, when we approach God, we're reminded that when we pray, if we come with daring faith, with desperate faith, with determined faith, we will experience delivering faith. What did Jesus say about coming to him when we pray? Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened unto you.

Literally keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking until the answer comes. Pray and do not give up. Pray and never lose heart. Some of you have children that are away from Christ, away from the Lord, away from your own family. The fact is it's not because of some evil influence that you brought into the home.

The fact is you may have led your children to know and love and follow Christ. You may have given them God's word, the church, and all the best. And yet they have wandered away. Somehow the culture has changed them. Somehow their friends have changed them. Somehow Satan's influence has changed them. And you're crying out to God for your kids.

You're praying every day, "O God, have mercy on our children." And I want to challenge you: never give up on your kids. They may run from your presence, but they can never run from your prayers. You keep praying. Keep believing for the blessing of God. Be like Jacob, who took hold of God and said, "Lord, I will not let you go until you bless me."

Keep holding on to hope and believing and trusting. And even when God may seem to be silent, just remember this: our Lord is waiting for you to wait on him. And if you will trust him and wait on him and give him your circumstances and even your children, that he in his own time and in his own way will raise them up to his glory.

Maybe you're a child, a student, a teenager. We hear this all the time from our teenagers. Kids that are praying for their parents because their parents don't know Christ, because their parents have no spiritual interest in their lives. And I want to challenge you junior high students and our high school students to keep praying for your parents. Don't give up on your parents.

Your parents need Christ and they will see Jesus in you if you will live that life in the power of his spirit. You see, God is waiting for us to allow our will to align our will with his will. 1 John 2 tells us that if we ask anything in his will, we can have the confidence that he hears our prayer and will answer our prayer.

Do you believe it is the will of God that your children know Christ? Do you believe that it is the will of God that none should perish, that all should come to repentance? Certainly it is true when you pray for your children to know and follow Christ, when you care about their spiritual life more than anything else regarding their lives.

Not their social standing, not their financial standing, but their spiritual lives when you care about that more than anything and you pray desperately crying out to God, daring to believe God, watch God work and deliver your child in the way that only he can. You see, when you pray according to the will of God, God will answer in his own way and in his own time.

And may it be said of us that our faith is relentless, that our faith is real. That we will never ever give up in crying out to our Lord, the only one in whom joy and sorrow meet. And desperate hope is turned to the reality of the lasting and living hope in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Jack Graham: Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? In Matthew chapter 15, we see how a Canaanite woman relentlessly pursued Jesus, how her faith was daring, desperate, and determined, which leads me to the question: what does your faith look like today? How relentless are you in your pursuit of the Lord Jesus?

Think about that Canaanite woman for just a moment. That woman who kept crying out for Christ. Think about all the obstacles she had to overcome to get to Jesus. She was a social outcast. The religious people of her day turned their backs on her. More than likely she was responsible for her daughter being possessed by a demon.

And not only that, Jesus didn't respond to her the first time she called out to him. Yet she still came to Jesus. She still pursued him. She still sought his blessing in her life. And as a result, Jesus said, "O woman, great is your faith." And forever she's an example in God's word of a person of relentless faith.

Maybe today your kids have turned their backs on you or on your God. Maybe your parents are far from God with no desire to know him personally or walk with him. Maybe your friend doesn't know the Lord and is making all the wrong decisions in life. And maybe Satan is saying to you, "It's a lost cause. Give up. I've got them now."

Don't you believe a word in it. You just keep running relentlessly to Jesus. Keep crying out to the one who said, "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened unto you." Ask, seek, knock. Literally keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Trust in this promise today as you relentlessly pursue the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guest (Female): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's 365-day devotional, I Am. Just text JAN to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can press through any problem you face. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.