“WHEN THE ANSWER IS NO”
II CORINTHIANS 12:2-10
2 I know a man in Christ who
fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out
of the body I do not know, God knows.
3 And I know that this man
was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not
know, God knows—
4 and he heard things that
cannot be told, which man may not utter.
5 On behalf of this man I
will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses.
6 Though if I should wish to
boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain
from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from
me.
7 So to keep me from becoming
conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was
given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from
becoming conceited.
8 Three times I pleaded with
the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9 But he said to me, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power
of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ,
then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
This morning I’ve got some
good news for you and I’ve got some bad news for you. The good news is that God
always answers prayer. The
bad news is that sometimes the answer is “No!” That’s why it’s important to be thankful when
the answer is
“yes.”
Jennifer Vasilakos
experienced one of those “yes” moments a little over a month ago. Did you hear
what happened to her? Jennifer was
standing on a street corner in Santa Barbara, California. She was out there trying
to raise
$20,000 for a stem cell procedure that she needed to save her life. When a stranger
stopped and asked her
for directions she pointed him in the right direction and then handed him one
of her fund raising flyers. The
stranger thanked her and gave her $50.
That wasn’t the end of the story though. About an hour later the stranger came back and told Jennifer
that he was going to help her. It
was then that she learned that the stranger was a billionaire by the name of Ty
Warner. He’s the guy who invited
those beanie babies. Well, Ty
Warner was a man of his word. A
few weeks later Jennifer received a $20,000 check from him. In the envelope she
also found this
note: “Someone up there loves you because I
was guided to meet you Saturday. I never lose my way, but fate had me lost and (it
had me ) ask you for directions. The rest of the story I hope is a wonderful
new life for you.”
Prayer
is an amazing thing. Sometimes the answer is “yes” but sometimes the answer
is “no.” A minister found
that out when her little girl asked her a question. The little girl noticed that her mother always bowed her
head for a moment before starting her sermon. So, one day the little girl asked her mother why she did
that. “Well,” the mother said, “when I do that I’m asking God to help me preach
a good sermon.” “Oh,” the little
girl said. “Then how come He doesn’t do it?”
By
the way I want to remind you that an resemblance between
persons mentioned in this sermon and preachers past or present is purely
coincidental. So, there is no
evidence that this conversation actually took place in the Fisher home.
Sometimes
when you pray the answer is “yes” and sometimes
the answer is “no.” Just look at the
Apostle Paul and his “thorn in the flesh.” We don’t know exactly what his “thorn in the flesh” was but
we do know that it was something that deeply troubled him. In his Letter to the
Corinthians Paul
describes his “thorn in the flesh” as “a messenger of Satan (sent) to harass me…” He then writes these words, “Three
times I pleaded with the Lord…”
Notice Paul doesn’t say he asked the Lord. He says he pleaded with the Lord. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it
should leave me. But he said to
me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness.’”
In
other words, “no.” “Sorry Paul….but when it comes to
getting rid of that thorn in the flesh the answer is no can do. You’re just
going to have to live with it.”
Sometimes
no matter how hard you pray the answer is
“no.” You may feel that your
request is good and just and right but the answer is still “no.”
Now
people today don’t like that word. They don’t like it when a sign
says
“no.” They don’t like it when a
person says “no” and they don’t like it when God says “no.”
That’s because we live in an age of
entitlement. We live in an age
where the only thing people want to hear is the word “yes.” Yes,
you can park in that handicap
spot. Yes, you can wear that
sexually suggestive tee shirt. Yes
you can talk as loud as you want on your cell phone while you’re sitting in
that restaurant.
We
live in an age of entitlement. So what do you do when God says “no”? Some people
get angry and some people
just won’t take “no” for an answer.
They keep going back to God with the same prayer over and over and over
again. A little over a week ago someone sent me an email with a bunch of church
cartoons in it. The one that I
remember showed a minister standing in the pulpit and leading his congregation
in prayer. The caption below
the cartoon was priceless. “Lord,”
the minister said, “I bring to You the prayer concerns that have been shared
this morning even though most of them seem like whining to me.”
Sometimes
people get angry when God says “no” and sometimes
they just won’t take “no” for an answer and sometimes they just throw in the
towel and walk away. It’s an
attitude that basically says, “Okay Lord.
If you’re not going to give me what I want then I’m not going to waste
my time on You!”
Now
there is something else you can do when God says
“no.” It’s the same thing that Paul
did when God said “no” to him.
When God said “no” to him Paul responded with humility and patience.
It’s clear that he didn’t like living
with that thorn in the flesh but he put his trust in the Lord. You can see that
in the words he wrote
to the Corinthians. “Therefore,” Paul says, “I will boast all the more gladly
of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. “
When
the answer is “no” the best thing you can do is be
humble and patient. The best thing
you can do put your trust in the Lord.
You bow your head and say, “Okay Lord. You know what’s best here. So, I’m going to trust you to take this thorn in the flesh,
this problem that I have, and use it to somehow make me a better person. I’m
going to trust that somehow You’re
going to bring a blessing out of this painful situation.”
Many years ago Mark Twain
wrote a short story that shows you that God really knows what’s best. The
story is called “The War Prayer”
and it’s about a nation that’s preparing to go to war. The setting
is a church and the
minister is leading the congregation in prayer. In his prayer the minister asks God to protect their
patriotic sons and to lead them to a complete and glorious victory. Suddenly,
in the middle of the prayer a
mysterious man in a white robe walks up to the pulpit and announces that he has
come from the throne of God bearing a message from the Almighty. He goes on to
say that the minister has
uttered not just one prayer but two; one spoken and the other unspoken. It’s
his job to put the unspoken prayer
into words. So, he commands the
minister and congregation to listen and begins to pray.
“O
Lord our Father, our young
patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them!
O Lord our God
help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells;
…help us to
cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead;
…help
us to drown the thunder
of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain;
…help
us to lay waste their
humble homes with a hurricane of fire;
…help
us to wring the hearts
of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;
…help
us to turn them out
roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their
desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst; sports of the sun flames of
summer and the icy winds of winter,
…broken
in spirit, worn with
travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our
sakes who adore Thee, Lord,
…blast
their hopes, blight
their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water
their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their
wounded feet!
We ask it, in
the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the
ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid
with humble and contrite hearts.
Amen.”
After a few
moments of silence the messenger announces, “Ye have prayed it; if ye still
desire it, speak! The
messenger of the Most High waits.”
Twain then ends the story by writing, “It was believed afterward that
the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.”
Yes, God really does know
what’s best which is why you can be thankful that sometimes the answer to your
prayer is going to be “no.” Amen.
Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
September 2, 2012
