1785. What Do You Do When God Says “No”?

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Before we begin today's sermon, I'd like to introduce Trenton Goldsmith, a recent graduate of Bob Jones University from Detroit, Michigan.

Trenton actually goes by the nickname T, so T, welcome to the program. Thank you, glad to be here. Tell us a little about yourself. Well, I graduated in December of 2023, and I'm back for my master's degree in sport administration.

I graduated with a journalism degree and want to be a sports broadcaster. So, in chapel, Paul Witt preached a sermon, and you were very touched by it, and that's what we're going to hear today on The Daily Platform. Tell us a little more about how that influenced you. Yeah, very much so. It was probably one of the best chapel messages I've ever heard.

It was in my senior year. He preached on Psalm 61 and titled it, What If God Says No? And I believe this message is so important to us as college students because right now in life, we feel like God has to say yes to like every request. We pray with requests such as, God, give me this job, or God, help me find someone to love, or God, help me get this scholarship. But what if God says no?

What do we do? Because we're taught when we're kids that God says yes, no, or maybe to all prayer requests. So, when it feels like God says no, we think it's a maybe. So, we think that God's going to say yes in the future, but what if it's just a straight up no?

What are we supposed to do? Instead of turning away from God, Pastor Paul Witt says that we need to run to God as if like a child is running to his parents. In Psalm 61 and verse 2, it says, From the ends of the earth I called you, and my heart is faint.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. We can't just forget about God if he says no. We must call to him even more so. We must realize that God's grace has no time limit. There is no time limit of, oh, his grace works then, but not now, or his grace works now, but not then.

It's forever, and it lasts forever. And one thing, he closed off this message so beautifully. He reminded us that we must remind ourselves where we belong here on earth, and also who we belong to. God is going to give us a path.

We just have to trust him, and that includes him saying no very often. It is hard for us as humans to accept when God has told us no, but let's now listen to the sermon from Pastor Paul Witt of Bethany Baptist Church in Brevard, North Carolina. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Psalm 61, the 61st Psalm, the Psalm of David. I want to read the first four verses here as we start, and I'm going to share a few thoughts by way of testimony and understanding, I believe, what David is sharing with us here. Psalm 61, look at verse one.

Hear my cry, oh God. Attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee.

When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou has been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever.

I will trust in the cover of thy wings. Father, bless our few minutes together here with these friends. I pray that you will use your word to encourage us, to direct us, that your Spirit would be our teacher even this hour. And I pray that you would help me to be a good communicator of your glory and your goodness and your faithfulness.

May you bless our time in Jesus' name. Amen. There are few things unsettling, more unsettling than going to someone with a legitimate request, a good idea, something that you really have thought and prayed about and you really believe could be a changing, a life-changing and perhaps a circumstance-changing decision for them to make and to be told no. Perhaps you've experienced that with an authority. You've experienced that with maybe a parent. You've experienced that with some sort of an employer, maybe a friend.

There's a little more unsettling when you have your heart wrapped up in something. You have your mind convinced that this is what is best, but someone looks at you and tells you no. The exponential factor doesn't even compare when you consider what it means when you go to God with a petition of your own heart and He looks at you and tells you no.

For the next few minutes, I want to explore the idea and the question of what do you do when God tells you no. Two years ago this fall, I received a horrifying phone call. My only sibling, my younger sister, had just been hospitalized with COVID.

It was precautionary in measure, but it still, at that time, it was a horrifying thought process. We began to pray that she would get better. We began to pray that she would be healed, she could be released and get back to normal life.

It became apparent over the next 10 days that God was saying no. And on October 31, 2020, I got to experience the death of my little sister. The following month, a dear uncle of mine who had comforted me as I'd done the funeral of my sister, I received word that he passed away from a health condition very unexpectedly. Two weeks later, my mom called and we began praying for my dad as he was going in for a test, and it appeared it could be cancerous. So we began to pray that this would not be cancerous. In the middle of a basketball practice where I coach at the high school, the Brevard High School, in the middle of practice, my mom called me one day, highly unusual. I slipped out to the lobby and she said, your dad has a very aggressive form of bladder cancer, stage four.

He's not going to have very long. Next month, my mom's mom passed away of COVID. And then from February until August, I made 20 trips, 600 miles round trip from North Carolina to Alabama to be by my dad to help my mom to do whatever I could in those final weeks and months. All along, praying with people from all over the globe that God would heal my dad. And when it became apparent in the final week of his life, in August of last year, I began to ask the question, why?

Why are you saying no? I was holding my dad's hand by the bed, August the 18th of 2021, when he took his final earthly breath. And the next breath he took, it was in heaven. And God had said, no. What do you do when God says no? I'm not an expert in grieving. I'm not an expert in suffering.

I'm not an expert in trials or sorrow. But after the God-ordained events of the last two years, I certainly can say I am experienced. Have you been there? Have you been in a place where you just can't understand? Have you been in a place where it felt like you couldn't breathe? I wandered through a fog of a year, even as a pastor, I wandered through a fog of a year that there was a haze everywhere I looked. I looked through a haze of sorrow, a haze of hurt.

You hear military people talk about the fog of war. I was in the fog of sorrow. God had told me no over and over and over again to some desires of my heart, reasonable desires. What do you do when God says no? The sorrow and the grief were overwhelming.

The weight was real. I didn't feel like I could see up. And I think that's when I fell in love with this psalm. It's an unusual psalm. It's not a popular psalm of lament that we often think about. It's unusual, not that it's a psalm of David, but it's unusual in that it appears that he is king. He is in the midst of a blessed time of his life when something unforeseen happens, some unforeseen tragedy, some life-altering trial occurs, and David finds himself in a place of duress, and you find him crying out to God for deliverance.

It's a song of a fainting heart, and I could identify my heart was fainting. What do you do when God says no? He's crushed. David's crushed, and he says, and we see here that he turns to God in lament. Lament is more than just crying. Lament is actually uniquely Christian. The Bible is filled with songs of sorrow. Over a third of the psalms are psalms of lament. The Book of Lamentation weeps over the destruction of Jerusalem. Our Savior Himself lamented in the final hours of His earthly life. Lament is different than just crying out, because lament is an expression of dependence on God. Lament takes you to the Creator. It's more than just a volcanic eruption when your patience and your endurance comes to its end. It's more than just venting.

It's more than just an explosion of emotion. Lament goes to God with our pain, and it has a unique purpose. It shows the object of our trust. You see, God invites us, friend, to pour out our hearts to Him, to pour out our fears to Him, to come to Him with our frustration, to come to Him with our questions for the purpose of helping us renew our confidence in Him.

Lament is a good thing. One writer put it this way, biblical lament turns us towards God while earthly sorrow causes us to run from Him. And here we have David turning to God. In David's despair and in his desire to hide from everything that he knew, he calls upon his hiding place. He calls upon his rock, his shelter, his tower, his tabernacle. He desires to be under the wings of his God, but he knows his God is the only one that can calm a hurting heart. His God is the only one who holds all things together and can make sense of it all. And so here in Psalm 61, we find David in a posture of lament as he seeks to make sense of it all. Verse 1, hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. In his desperation, he goes to God.

In his affliction and in his pain, when he doesn't understand, he goes to God. He's not running from God. He runs to God. Do you know that's what children do when they're scared?

That's what children do when they're in danger. They run to the safe place. They run to a parent. They run to an authority. They run to where they know that they can get answers.

They run to where they can be safe, and David does that. He says, from the end of the earth I will cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. The word translated overwhelmed is translated in other versions of the Bible as faint. It's a root word that literally means to shroud or to cover from darkness.

It means to hide. He was so overwhelmed with his trial. He was so overwhelmed with the circumstances of his life. He was so burdened. He just wanted to crawl into a corner and hide from everything.

Have you been there? He wanted so badly to escape the sufferings. His heart was fainting.

That's quite a picture for anyone, especially a king. Life has overwhelmed him and he wants to escape the hardship. Thankfully we don't live there all the time, but most all of us will experience that at some point.

You're overwhelmed and your heart wants to quit. And David says, no matter where I'm at, from the end of the earth I will cry unto you. Deities and religions were, in that day, were very geographical. False gods were thought to dwell in specific regions, specific areas, so when someone was traveling and they were in a different region or a different area and some hardship came, they would typically pray to the god or the deity of that specific region.

David said, not me. No matter where I'm at, and from the ends of the earth, I will cry out to the one true God. He makes this request in verse 2, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for thou has been a shelter for me and a strong power from my enemy. The idea of God being a rock for his people is nothing new, especially in the Psalms. Over 20 times in the Psalms you have the idea of God being a rock. The image of a rock suggests stability in a time of turmoil. And from David's perspective, the stormy seas were swirling around him and all he could do, all he could be sure of, he was going to be swept away, so he cries out that God would lead him, that God would direct him, that God would place him on the rock, place him on the rock that he cannot reach by himself. If the Lord places me there, I know I will be safe.

Dependence. He needs the Lord to do something for him that he cannot do for himself. He needs the Lord to place him where no one but God can reach him. David begins to transition now to the feeling of fainting and the feeling of needing a safe place to the facts of what he knows, where he says, for thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. David recalls that God has always had the solution, that God has always been a faithful refuge, that he has never failed him, that he has never forsaken him. David remembers the safety of being with God, that he had learned that God can always be trusted, even in the depths of despair.

And this really addresses a fundamental need that we all have. It's a need to feel safe. And that's never more true than when you find yourself vulnerable in the depths of sorrow, in the depths of suffering, and when your God tells you no to a request. You have to go back to what you know. Because in those lowest moments, even the kind words and good words of dear friends, they kind of ring hollow when you're in a valley.

It's nothing personal. It's just a matter that everything that you know has been shaken. Everything that you know that you depended on is unsure. You don't know what you can trust.

What can I lean on? And for David, he knew he could lean on his God because he leaned on him in the past, and lean on him now because he was his strong tower. And it brings us to the request in verse 4.

He says, I will abide, or let me abide in your tabernacle forever. God, I don't know what's going on. I don't know how I'm going to get out of this.

I don't know why you've allowed me to be in this. Can I just be close to you? What a humbling request. Can I just be near you?

I don't have anything even to say. I just want to be close. I just want to rest near you.

I want to lean on you. This is a prayer of an overwhelmed man. This is a request of a faint-hearted person. Life has defeated me. Sorrows are drowning me. I just need to hide.

I'm totally overwhelmed. Lord, can I please rest in you? Will you lead me back to you? Will you be the refuge for me again? Christian, I don't have to tell you of the necessity of this in our lives.

This is the solution. When God tells you no, when you're overwhelmed, when you're suffering, when you're in the midst of a trial, there's one simple answer, and it's to run to Christ. Run to Christ. Open His Word. Sing His Word.

Let it dwell within you. Gaze into His face. Cry out to Him.

Cast your burdens on Him. That is where David is. He knows this. David is desperate, and he longs to rest in the care of his God. His desperation comes shining through in verse 5. For thou, O God, has heard my vows. Thou has given me the heritage of those who fear Thy name. David is so certain that running to God is the right answer when he is overwhelmed that nothing else is an option. David recalls. He remembers his vows to God. But more importantly than his own vow to God, you know what he remembers? He remembers that God's faithfulness and God's grace, He received an unspeakable inheritance. He remembers God's grace. That God would be willing to accept the pitiful vow of a sinful man and grant him a glorious inheritance.

Only grace does that. And because God did that for David in the past, David is confident God will do it again. Child of God, when you're crumbling, when you're overwhelmed, when you're fainting, when you're in the midst of grief and despair, when God has told you no to one of the deepest and most personal desires and requests of your heart, remember the abundant grace of a merciful God who gave His own Son to redeem your sin-cursed soul. He will not forsake you. He was gracious. He is gracious. He will be gracious. He did not save you to lose you. He never loses His own.

Remember what He's done for you in the past. David acknowledges the grace, but he also acknowledges the hope in verses 6 and 7. Thou will prolong the king's life and his years may be many generations. He shall abide before the God forever. O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. David is forecasting here. He has great hope. You've done this in the past. I believe you're going to do this now, and because of that, I have great hope.

You're going to hold me and keep me in the future. David knows that when he draws near to God, he gains everything that he needs. That's hope.

Friend, you have hope. Hope isn't necessarily having what you need, but knowing that there is a path to what you need because God is our hope. Our sinful flesh wants to handle things on our own at times and in the midst of sorrow and the midst of suffering and our sinful flesh may hesitate to run to Christ, but know this, no one ever ran to Christ and was disappointed.

No one ever ran to His Word and was disappointed. The love of God is never disappointed, and his hope is never disappointed. David is so confident that even in the midst of his fainting time, his overwhelmed spirit, he's drowning in his sorrow, he's drowning in his fear because God has said no. He has great hope that God was going to one day restore his joy. You see verse 8, so will I sing praise until thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows. David was at a place where a song did not come easy.

Have you been there? Have you been there when you just couldn't sing? In the midst of my own suffering, in the midst of my own trials of losing four family members in ten months, it was actually hard to pick up the Word. It was hard to sing.

But I knew one day the song would come back because God was faithful. David is confident when he draws near to God, his heart was no longer going to be overwhelmed, but going to be filled with a song of joy and praise. Today he is overwhelmed. Today he wants to hide. Today he doesn't know where he's going to find strength to go on.

Today was hard. But David knows when he draws near to his refuge, his strength will return. God will hold him. God will restore him.

God will be near to the hurting and will give him a new song. Friend, there will come a time when the sorrows of this day will be in the shadow of the glory and the security of our great God and our loving Father. Draw near to God.

Remember, rehearse, sell out loud his faithfulness from the past. And all those specific and immediate answers seldom emerge in those seasons of lament. When the created will bow his head and heart to the will of the Creator, you will gain access to enter into an unusually deep and maturing season in your walk. Even our own Savior, when his soul was deeply sorrowful even unto death, he concluded his lament to his Heavenly Father, not as I will, but your will be done.

God the Father told God the Son, no, and God the Son trusted. Two months after my dad passed away, I had a routine physical where a doctor discovers something concerning. He did a biopsy and told me he would call me the next Monday. I began to pray. I'm two months after my dad died of cancer. On Friday, he called me on his off day.

That's never a good thing. He told me I had stage 3B melanoma. One year ago last week, they removed a softball-sized tumor from my back. Last week, I had cancer treatment number 23 out of 26. Tomorrow morning, I'll have doctor appointment number 73 in the last 12 months. I went over the million dollar mark last week in my medical bills.

And yet I'm debt-free. I certainly would appreciate you praying for me and my family that God will heal me. I have surgery coming up again, remove cancer on December the 9th. I'd love to grow old with my wife. I'd love to watch my children and my grandchildren grow up. But what if God says no?

That's a fair question. You know what I'll do? By God's grace and for His glory, I will rehearse what I know about my God, and I'll run to my God, and I'll remember His faithfulness to me. Because you know what I know? I know that cancer is not in control. I know that cancer is submitting to the perfect will of my holy and sovereign God. And by grace, I'll trust Him again. I'll pray. I'll pray, God, remind me of Your goodness. Remind me that I'm Your own.

Remind me of where I belong. Because again, friend, as a child of God, we belong to God, and God never loses His own. That's a prayer that you can pray as well. No matter how much your heart is hurting right now, no matter how much the uncertainties of life are swirling, no matter how much some things that are out of your control seem so logical, if God would answer this in this way, what if God says no? You might be frustrated or fearful, you might be confused, but none of that changes the fact that as believers in Jesus Christ, we belong to the God of all creation.

Nothing will ever change that. As believers, we know exactly who we are, we know exactly who we belong to, and you should rehearse that often. We are blood-bought children of the God of this universe, heirs of an inheritance that will never spoil, it will never fade, future inhabitants of a kingdom that will never end, and subjects of a perfect King. When we know who we belong to, where our identity lies, our hardships and our trials, they may not go away, but He will give grace to endure them.

And I tell you, friend, as weary pilgrims in a foreign, sin-cursed land, pray like David, God, remind me of where I belong and who I belong to. You say, Pastor Paul, the weight of the grief and the suffering and feeling of being overwhelmed has crushed me. I've lost relationships, I've lost loved ones, spiritual burdens, financial burdens, health crisis, unspeakable. My faith is weak.

I understand, I really do. I've been there. As a grown man, I laid on the office floor at my church, my door shut, and I just cried and cried. But I want to remind you, the object of your faith matters much more than the size of your faith. My faith has been really weak at times, almost nonexistent. But I rest in the reality that the God of my faith is huge. The God of my faith is great, and He is doing in me and through me what He desires to make me more like Jesus, and He's going to get me safely home. And He will for you, too. Can I tell you something?

He's faithful even when you're not. You say, I'm so distraught, I don't know if I can even look for God. It's okay, He's there and He's looking for you. Go to God. Your willingness to take your lament to God when He says no is actually a wonderful act of faith.

Don't bury these questions in your heart. God delights in you coming to Him with your questions. God gives us permission to come to Him with our questions, longings of a hurting heart.

God is not threatened by your questions. Our lament is not an end, but it's a pathway to trust and it's a pathway to worship. And as we go to the Lord in our heart, in our hurt, in our confusion, rehearse to ourselves truth of what we know about our God.

He is good, He is sovereign, He is in control, and He is our only hope. May we rest in God even when He tells us no. Father, we love You. We thank You for what You've done for us. We thank You for our Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank You for the transforming work that's going on in us. Give us the grace we need to trust You, even in the trials and the suffering, even in the things we can't understand and especially even when You say no to us. I pray for these students and faculty and staff. I pray that You would help them all to walk by faith, even in weak faith, with their eyes fixed on You as the author and the finisher of our faith. We love You. We pray these things in the name of our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You've been listening to a message preached by Reverend Paul Witt, Associate Pastor at Bethany Baptist Church in Brevard, North Carolina. Join us next time as we hear another message preached from the Bob Jones University Chapel Platform.