Opening Song:499- What a friend we have in Jesus
Closing: All the way my savior leads me
Scripture 1 Sam 8:6 -7
Intro
Have you ever thought that you really needed something?
Now I'm not talking about a strong want! I'm talking about a gut wrenching, every thought-controlling, dire need. You need It because it is something essential. You simply must have it.
Maybe it is the financially situation of yourself or your family.
Maybe it is that immigration situation that you need taken care of so that you can finally make a better future for yourself or your family.
Maybe it is a child or a spouse that has gone wayward, and if they would only come back then your life would get back some sort of normalcy.
Maybe it is the diagnosis you got from the doctor.
Whatever your situatioin may be, you decide you have to offload on the Lord, and you are not praying to hear a "No" answer from the Lord. After all, this is an emergency. The situation is dire.
In your prayer you even add the condition in your prayer, "Lord because you are good and gracious, you must answer in the affirmative!".
However, the truth is the Lord sometimes does not answer our prayers the way we want Him to.
Often times we are so presumptuous (yes, I said presumptuous) to tell the Lord "how" ,"when" even "why" He needs to bless us in a specifc way and in a specific way.
As if the Lord somehow does not know....and He needs Our contribution to run the universe.
Look! The Lord has declared that His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. Isa 55:8-9
So why do we think a little, puny, sinful human being, (which we are), can advise a big, bigger than big, Great, Holy, All-Knowing, all-wise God.
Now that I got you thinking about it, you see how ludicrous it is, right?
Do you see how crazy is it to tell God how to order our lives!!?
As if we were the ones who created ourselves and are the ones that have ordered our steps since birth.
The truth is the Lord is the only one who has seen our tomorrow and consequently is the only qualified to determine what we truly need today.
I ask that you will indulge me a little as I speak under the caption, "When God says No!" Will I say yes.
Let us Pray
Amen
It wasn't too long ago when I was deep in the clutches of poverty and my wife and I used to make jokes about our inability to meet the bills.
We often joked about a made up conversation between ourselves and God. It went a little something like this.
Us: Lord you see the situation, this is not a want but a need.
Lord: Yes my children. I know!!! Don't worry I got you.
(there is Silence...as we wait for the Lord to speak more...after getting impatient we speak again. )
US: but Lord if you don't fulfill this need now, we're going to die.
Lord: I know!!! but don't worry. I can resurrect you.
Us: (We exclaim) Lord!!!! (because that's not what we want to hear)
Lord: Don't worry I got you.
After struggling with the thought of dying and resurrection, we sum up theh courage to speak one more time to God.
Us: o.k. God have your own way, but can you tell us How you plan to work it out?!!
(This request is often met again with silence)
Thank God, that he is so merciful and long suffering, and He is not like man to get easily frustrated with our suggestions and requests that are nothing short of annoying.
Commentary on scripture
As it relates to the answers we can get from God, we often hear that the answer can be Yes, No or wait. However, I'm here today to tell you that God only says Yes or No.
I think you will agree with me that if God says wait, this is a yes, it's just that it is not the time to get it yet.
Another thing we have often heard is that, if and when God says no, it's because we didn't pray with hard enough. This is also something that is not quite the truth.
If you are asking for something good, (faith or not) the scripture teaches that God will not withhold good things from His people who walk uprightly.
Ps84:11 no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly
We are further admonished in Matth 7:11 If you being sinful know how to give good gifts, then how much more does Your Heavenly Father know how to give good gifts.
Will you trust God to do what is right by you?
The song writer said it best .
.tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just from sin and self to cease,
Just from Jesus simply taking, Life and rest and joy and peace, ...O for grace to trust him more.
Now brethren I'm not saying I have reached this place of trusting God completely.
Cause I still fret when I'm faced with problems that I do not see an immediate soltuion to. I got myself into many a scrape becasue I simply did not trust the Lord to work out my life for me.
This is especially challeging for me when I don't know how God plans to wrok it out.
Yes I'm guilty of this very thing that I am here speaking to you about.
But let us continue to grow in grace together as we consider the examplie in our scripture reading.
Scripture 1 Sam 8:6 -7
6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Samuel is faced with a dilemma., the people are begging him to make them a king. Samuel believes that if he makes this request of the Lord it is going to be granted, but he sees the folly of the people's request and does not want to make the request.
Back in those days, if Samuel prayed for you, you were well prayed for; or if Samuel asks God for something on your behalf, you could rest assured that you were going to get the thing prayed for.
This had been the experience of Israel with Samuel. As a result, they had the confidence to make all their requests of Samuel.
But the man of God prays to the contrary. With the expectation that his prayer will be answered in the affirmative.
But the answer surprises Samuel.
God said NO! Do what the people say.
The Problem with always hearing yes
The people, but more so, Samuel had become accustomed to hearing "Yes" from the Lord.
Now to hear a "yes" is not a bad thing. As a matter of fact this is a good thing, however, there is a certain complacency that comes along with a consistent " yes!".
As a parent, if you always give the things your children ask of you. They lose respect for you and the things you give them.
As a teacher, if you always say yes, the students take you for granted and no longer see you as an authority figure.
In a somewhat abstract way, this is exactly what was happening in Israel. The Israelites were taking the blessings of God for granted and had lost respect for Him and the blessing that they received at his hand.
Point 1
This is why we sometimes need to hear NO. It is not that God cannot give it to us. It is not that He doesn't see our suffering.
But ultimately He is God. He is not a pushover, or a rub the lamp Genie here to grant your every wish.
He is the Alpha and the Omega, The All-knowing, All powerful God, All-wise God
Story in mark
There is another well known story in the Gospels, captured in Mark Chapter 4. The seasoned fishermen/disciples are in the midst of a storm, bailing water and in full panic mode.
They let Jesus sleep as long as they could, when in a moment of insanity. This is the only way I can describe their question; they blurt out "Don't you care that we are about to Perish?"
I'm going to repeat it for emphasis.
"Don't you care that we are about to Perish?"
Does this sound familiar?
Ok. we know the story. Jesus rebukes the waves,
and the storm stops,
but wait... he does not comfort the disciples. He rebukes them too.
Now this troubled me for a while.
What did they do wrong?
They tried not to wake him. They are seasoned fishermen, so this is not their first storm, and they did everything that they could.
Now they were out of options and the master of everything was seemingly unconcerned with what was happening.
This enraged them. Here they were doing everything that they could and when they needed God, he was silent.
I understand their frustration and their anger cause I've been there.
..But the one thing that I couldn't understand, was how could the God who reads hearts, who understands everything, rebuke them?
The truth is His rebuke came on the tail of their accusation.
In that one statement-question they implied God did not know what was going on.
In that one statement-question they were saying that God was losing it,
That He was not in control,
That he was not the caring, giving, gracious God that He had professed to be.
They were saying that He was not being just and fair to them.
You see In that one statement-question was every accusation that the devil had ever raised about God.
No wonder he rebuked them.
To you who are called after the name of God I do not rebuke you, but I do say you should know better… yes you should know better
..and like my wife always jokingly say. If it is your time to endure the storm, endure it with the understanding that He cares for you and is working it out in the best way for you and your family.
Life right now may not be what you expected it to be. But trust him. He is working it out.
Sometimes
Sometimes we need to be removed from a certain place and relocated to where the blessing is... and..
Although it's no fun to endure a crucible, sometimes it is only a crucible that can carry us to that place of blessing.
We are told by the pen of inspiration that Joseph had become spoiled in his father's house...and he needed to endure some crucibles in order for God to bring him to the place where He needed him to be.
It was only after enduring the crucibles, after being removed from his father house, that God could made him the Ruler of Egypt.
So friends next time your are going through something, and you find the need to pray about it. If the Answer seems to be a NO. Thank and praise God anyway, because He always has something prepared for you, most times way better than what your little puny mind can imagine.
Point 2 - God is not to be trifled with
Listen this is God we are talking about.
The God that means what He says; and because He is God, He doesn't have to explain Himself.
Sometimes the answer is just No because it is No.
We should have reverence enough, be mindful enough, to respect that.
The grace and mercy He gives us now does not mean he is soft. The Lord is to be feared and respected. consider
Heb 10:31
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
You don't want the Great big God to be against you, but on your side.
Because there is going to come a day,
when He will declare
No more mercy... and this will not be declared from a place of hate, but of anger.
The Wrath of God will be poured out without mixture into this Earth Rev 14: 10.
Truth be told, God has waited long and has suffered much for Him to get this point of anger.
But He knows when to say, enough is enough.
Then there will be
No more grace
No more mercy
No more forgiveness of sin
Then it won’t matter if you believe or trust His word.
Won't you trust Him now while it matters.
Summary
Whatever it is that your need may be today
Won't you believe that God got you
He will not always say "Yes"
but He got you in the palm of his hand
He is a big God to be respected and feared but most of all
Most of all
He is trust worthy,
Rest assured that His words will come to pass and he is working it all out for the best
Appeal
I know we know this, but sometimes our actions contradict our beliefs.
This life is not all there is.
There is more after this.
So if someone is on the brink of eternity, go in peace my friend. See you on the other side.
If someone cannot pay the bills remember Christ paid your greatest bill of all
The one with the immigration situation, remember
Your father owns this whole world and them in it
You see in order to be justified, you must learn to live by faith and not sight or feeling or word of mouth but by faith in God's word and His promises.
The just must learn now how to live by faith.
If we are to go to that heavenly land, we need to see it now by faith.
Because God has declared that in that land there will be:
NO more worries
No more death
No more crying
No more pain
No more suffering
There will be No more wanting for anything,
When God says NO, He means it and it is in your best interest to believe it.
When God says NO, will you humble yourself and accept his decision?
Lets pray
