Title: Who likes to be told NO?
By: Shannon McCarty
Who likes to be told NO?
I didn’t see any hands go up. Let me ask you this. What if you pray and the answer is No? Still don’t like it? It is hard to figure out. Anybody else? Does anybody like to hear no, when praying for something? Sometimes we keep praying for it even though the answer is no. Why don’t we like to be told no? We want what we want when we want it. We are spoiled, selfish. Okay. What makes us that way? (Congregation: Because we are human.) Have you ever wanted something and the answer was, no? Let me ask you this. Have you ever needed something; actually, really needed something and the answer was, no?
Why do you think that is? Why do you think some things we can ask for and the answer is no, but then there are things that we need and the answer is never no? How rich is God? He is rich! Everything we need, He has. Amen!
I want to ask you this too. Whether it is a prayer that is answered no; or if we ask somebody something, or we want something and the answer is no, how do we react? We pout. Really? Christians pout? Adults pout. Any other reactions we get from people, or that you have when you are told no? Throw a tantrum. I can see Richard doing that. God has a plan even when He tells us no.
2 Corinthians 12:7 & 8
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
So, Paul has a problem. I don’t know what Paul’s problem was. He said he had been given this thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what it was. What did he do about the problem that he had? He prayed about it. It says, he prayed about it how many times? Three times. Paul continually prayed that the Lord would take his problem away. If you look at these first few verses, Paul says a few things here.
2 Corinthians 12:7
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
Can we take in our abilities? Do you think even Paul could? Do you think when Paul preached and he saw people coming to Christ, that he could have taken pride in that? He could have. (Congregation members speaking unintelligible.) So, we do have a tendency to take pride in our ability. Do you think sometimes, the Lord brings things in our lives to bring us down a notch or two? Do we need that from time to time? What does it do when we realize that we can’t do it on our own? What does it do to our…? It humbles us. It humbles us when we realize that I can’t do it on my own. It is only though the power of God that I can be successful. Then what do we do? We give God the glory for that. We don’t take the credit for being successful. We pass that on to Him because only through Him are we going to have success in this life.
Do you think Paul understood at the time that he had this problem, why he had this problem? Probably not. You look at this and he says, now, he is saying; I could have been exalted. I was given this thorn in the flesh. I was given this problem. Why? Because I may have been exalted, and I may have taken pride in this. So, he said, I prayed about it. I got an answer. If you look here in verses 9 and 10, we will see what his answer was.
1 Corinthians 12:9 & 10
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
You look at what Paul says here, or how the Lord speaks to Paul and how he reacts; we see that God did not remove the problem, but He gives him a promise. That is thing we need to keep in mind while we go through whatever, trial may be in this life, and whatever may be questionable in our life. When the Lord tells us no, He leaves the problem there for us to work with a little bit, and maybe it will strengthen us a little bit as we go through these trials throughout our life. He says, my grace is enough. What do you need? You need my grace and it is enough.
I got this from Chuck Swindoll. He says, grace to endure, grace to handle the pain, grace to face the future, grace to accept God’s no. Whenever, the Lord says, my grace is enough; what is His grace enough for? Anything we face in this life. It does not matter what we are going through in this life. His grace is enough and He is going to carry us through.
Not only that, but he says, my strength is made perfect in weakness. If you are receiving His strength, that must mean that He must be with you. So, even in the problems, even in the trials, even in the unknowns or even in the know; whenever He says no, He is says, I am still with you. I am telling you no for a reason. I am going to be with you through that too.
Just as Amy said a while ago, we may get that no, and we may not like it; but we can still know that He is with us. He has a plan, and he has a purpose.
Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13:5; He gives us a promise here that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
We go through life sometimes, and we may have some struggles. We have seen some things happen in this past week. We look at it and say, why is this happening. We may go through some struggles. We talked about some of this stuff in Sunday School this morning. There may be questions about the direction for our life. Where is the next job coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay the bills? What are you going to do with my family? What about this sickness that we are facing. Whatever, it may be; we can have a lot of questions, but the Lord says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Have you ever gone through something and known that you had someone by your side to go through it with you? Isn’t it much easier to go through the trial with someone by your side than it is to fight through that on your own. We have a promise that we will never go through anything in this life alone.
I thought about Mary Lou back there talking about her trip that she is planning. You won’t be alone, Mary Lou. The Lord is going to be right there with you through that trip. You can trust Him.
This is a personal thing here. I would rather have a problem and know that the Lord is with me, than to go through life without problems and the Lord not be with me. I put, “Think about that.” That took some thought for me. The thought can run through my mind, but then I thought, I have to think about that a little bit. When you start thinking about that—just think—everything you have is paid for; house, cars. Electric company calls you up and says you don’t owe a bill for the rest of your life. We are going to take care of it. Here is a free cell phone. No more bills. Water bill? Don’t worry about it. It is all taken care of. You are not going to be sick for the rest of your life. Everything is going to run smooth. However, one of these days, the rest of your life is going to be the end. When that time comes, to think I went through my entire life with everything good but not to have the Lord with me is not going to mean anything on that final breath that I take. When I take my final breath, I am going to breath it out here and I am going to breathe my first breath in in heaven. That is a promise He has made to me.
There may things in life that He is going to tell me no. it may be hard, but He is still going to be with me. Those no’s may bring blessings that are better than if He would have said yes. Have you ever gone through something in life and looked back and say, I’m glad the Lord did not say yes to that one. The no kept me out of trouble. The no helped me to make the right choices. The no put me in a place that I needed to be rather in a place I wanted to be; whatever it may be.
Charlie Kirk
You all don’t have this. I have this on my paper. This is something that really struck me this week. I have not been able to get it off of my mind. You think since Wednesday—Wednesday was when this tragic shooting occurred. We saw the life of a man of God taken. I told them this in Sunday School this morning. I said, since Wednesday, Charlie Kirk has spoken to more people about Jesus, than he spoke to in 31 years. It is amazing how God can take the tragedy in this life and use it for His glory. I have not seen an interview with anyone who knew him personally, that it hasn’t been mentioned about his faith in Jesus Christ. Not only that but also, in each one of these interviews, it leads to someone, on these news shows, telling this to the world the plan of salvation that I have heard so many times this week, just turning on the news. When was the last time that you turned on the news and you heard, Jesus died for your sins. He was buried, and on the third day, He rose again. We have seen such a tragedy, but God can turn that around, and God can save people through the tragedies in this life. This has hit me so hard this week, after this has happened. I thought back. During 9-11, you saw a lot of people going to church. You turn on the news and they would say, we need to pray. We need to pray. We need to pray. However, you didn’t hear the plan of salvation in all of that. We need to pray for these people. We need to pray for these families. However, through this tragedy, we have heard the plan of salvation; over and over and over again. Amy was there this afternoon. She said, everything I look at I hear people saying, I am going to church Sunday. I have never heard that before to this magnitude. Why is that? God was not surprised Wednesday when this happened. God knew it was going to happen. God allowed it to happen. God didn’t do it. Wickedness, evil did this. God allowed it. However, God can take the evil of this world and use it for His glory. Only God can do that. People can look at this and say, it is just something passing, or whatever it may be. God can do what we can’t. We never need to forget that. I can go back. You go back into Genesis and you read about Joseph when he met his brothers. What did he tell his brothers, whenever they were afraid that he was going to do something to them? You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. We can see that the evil that is meant for this world, God can bring great things out of it.
So, a few things I put here at the end. When we don’t have an answer or the answer is no, some things we can look to.
Philippians 4:11
11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
How hard do you think it was for Paul to come to that point in his life? How many ship wrecks, prison stays, snake bites, beatings, hunger, cold, wet, shipwrecked at sea, out in the ocean? You look at all of these things that he went through, but somehow through all of that; he saw God keep him through everything he went through. I have learned through whatever I go through, I am going to be content with it. The Lord is in control. We need to keep that in mind.
Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
If you think about that verse, the Lord is saying; the thoughts I have for you; you’re my people. The thoughts I have for you are thoughts of peace. All I want in your life is peace. Come to me and I will give you peace. Come to me and I will give you rest. We talked about that this morning also. My thoughts toward you are not evil. The Lord does not have any bad thoughts towards us. Dan says this all the time. God is not mad at you. He does not have evil thoughts towards us. He wants peace in our life. He gives us an expected end. What is my expected end? My expected end is going to be just the beginning whenever I reach heaven. The end of this life; I’m not afraid of that. I don’t fear that. I don’t have a promise of tomorrow. I know where I am going to be if my life on this earth ends. He has given me an expected end. That expected end is heaven.
Isaiah 55:8 & 9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We may not understand the no, but God has a purpose. We may not understand the wait, because sometimes God just says, wait. He may say yes, but we may have to endure some things before we see the yes; but God has a purpose. We may not understand why someone’s life is tragically taken. God has a purpose in it all. God has a plan in the things going on in the middle east right now. God has a plan for the things going on in Ukraine and Russia. God has a plan in the lives of every person sitting in this room tonight. God has a plan for each and every one of us. We don’t know what that plan is fully. However, He has a purpose. He knows how He is going to get us through that.
Romans 8:28
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
The key is just to accept the call, to be the called. He calls us. Do we answer the call. We answer the call. We are the called. All things will work together in some way or another for good in our lives if we answer His call. Then once we answer that call, we can accept the answer that God has for us. If that answer is no, we will be able to accept it. It may be tough but we can accept it because He knows what is best for us and He knows that whatever answer He has for our life, if we put our faith and trust in Him; He will be glorified. I’m so thankful for that tonight. I don’t have to question what happens in this world. I just need to trust.