Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from chapel services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today's message will be preached by Reverend John Dalton, who is Director of Student Life at Bob Jones University. Take your Bibles, go to 2 Corinthians Chapter 12 this morning. 2 Corinthians Chapter 12.
I'm going to read some familiar verses to you and challenge you on how to answer a question that is very common in our human experience. 2 Corinthians Chapter 12. Paul's testimony picking up in verse 7 about this thing called a thorn in the flesh. Paul says, There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a stake.
Thorn probably doesn't make it painful enough. Something that pinned him to the ground, as it were. The messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing, I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, no. Say, John, it doesn't say no.
Well, you're right. It doesn't say no, but if you read the rest of the verse, it's clear that God wasn't giving him what he was asking for. And the question I want us to grapple with this morning is, what do you do? And what do I do when God says no to us?
Maybe it's an experience that you can easily pin to this question. Maybe a loved one that you've prayed for to be delivered from some type of terminal illness and God said no. Maybe you've pleaded with God to intervene in some kind of a difficult home situation that you've experienced and yet it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Maybe at this point you'd like to be married.
And that doesn't seem to have worked out yet. Maybe you want a better paying job that would enable you to pay your bills for school. Or maybe you want a car that's actually dependable and yet God has seemingly said no. We get these kinds of no's on various levels of human experience. Maybe there's been something in your church that's been very difficult for you to go through. And you've pleaded with the Lord that God would somehow rectify that and it doesn't seem to have gotten any better. How do you handle and how do I handle God saying no to me?
I think there's two fairly obvious options. When God says no, you can choose to accept it. Or when God says no, you can choose not to accept it. And you and I will have greater success in accepting God's no to us when we keep this important principle in mind. God's no is divinely designed for my good.
God's no, God's no is actually uniquely designed for my good. Now scripture is full of people who wanted certain things and God did not permit them to have them. Many of them actually refused to take God's answer as no and they resisted and they struggled and they rejected that.
As a result, they experienced significant consequence. Some, on the other hand, chose to accept God's answer of no to the thing they were asking and experienced God's grace and strength. This time we have together, I want to try to look through some scriptural examples with us and look at those who rejected God's answer of no to see what we can learn from them and then go back to Paul because Paul was one example of someone who actually accepted God's no. Let's look at four different examples this morning of people in the scriptures who refused to take God's no as the answer. Genesis 4.
You can flip there, scroll there. Genesis 4 is where we meet Cain and Abel, right? And the first option we have when it comes to refusing to take God's no is we can get angry when God says no. We don't understand everything that was going on in those days and with Cain and Abel understanding the nature of the kind of sacrifice that God wanted them to have but apparently they should have known. On Cain and Abel and to his offering but on Cain and his offering he had not respect or God said no.
And the Bible says in Cain was wroth. He was angry and his countenance fell. How do you respond when the person you think is less qualified actually gets the promotion and you don't? How do you respond when somebody else gets player of the week and you don't? How do you respond when something that happens it's beyond your understanding? These kinds of situations provide us with a unique temptation to become angry. Angry with God. And this is how Cain chose to respond. Here you have the eternal God who created his parents in the garden and gave him life through them. God, that God, that eternal God, that creator God said no to Cain's offering. And even after Cain responded in anger, God treats him gently.
God doesn't condemn him. In fact, God draws him out by asking him questions. I love that, especially in the opening pages of Scripture. When you see God interrelating with man, it's a great counseling template for us to use as we counsel. Use biblical counseling as helping other people.
Use questions to draw people out. That's what God does here. The Lord said unto Cain, why are you angry?
Why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, don't you know you'll be accepted? And if you don't do well, well then sin is lying at the door, crouched, ready to destroy you. Even in his confrontation after Cain's anger, God is not being ruthless with him.
He's trying to help him. But Cain chose to respond in anger and, as you well know, became the world's first murderer. God's no Cain didn't believe was uniquely designed for his good. But not only can we respond to no in anger, there's a second way we can respond. And that's that we can respond with pragmatism.
We can respond by kind of taking matters into our own hands, working things out the way we want to. And I think we see this very uniquely in the story of Rachel and Leah in Genesis chapter 29. Laban has two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Rachel's the more attractive of the two and wins Jacob's affection, as you remember.
And in a sly move, Laban tricks Jacob into serving an additional seven years for Rachel. But because God, again, God's the main character in all these stories, because God always shows tender care for the disadvantaged, like Leah. He opens Leah's womb to have children, while he does not do that with Rachel.
And in a desperately irrational frame of mind, Rachel resorts to taking matters into her own hands. The Bible says in chapter 29 verse 31, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. God said no to Rachel having children. When Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, said unto Jacob, give me children or else I die. Probably a slight exaggeration there, although we understand in those days, childbearing was a unique connection to a woman's identity.
But still, probably an exaggeration. Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in unto her, she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her, and God remembered Rachel and God hearkened to her and opened her womb. Eventually, God did do that for Rachel, but in the meantime, Rachel wasn't willing to wait. She wanted to have children.
She wanted to have prestige, recognition, value from her husband. And again, sadly, that was how that was recognized back in that time. How do you respond when God says no to you about that new item that you want to purchase? Something you've really had your eye on. Maybe it's a piece of technology. Maybe it's a vehicle.
Maybe it's buying into a business of some kind. Anyway, you've got your eye on it. It's out of your price range. You know you can't afford it.
You pray about it. The price stays the same, but then somehow you work out a really good deal. A really good deal, right? Well, like most good deals, it just looks better up front, but the long-term demands are about the same. So you eventually buy it anyway, since after all, I do need to have a computer, piece of technology, car, business venture. And yet what happens? That becomes a financial black hole for you. What went wrong?
What happened? Well, perhaps God was saying no, but because you took matters into your own hands and worked it out yourself and got what you wanted, you ended up in a bad state. Beware of pragmatism. That which seeks to get what I want regardless of what it takes me to get it. The ends justify the means, right? And let's be honest with ourselves. We can use that phrase, I've prayed about it, kind of carelessly.
I've done that, right? And actually what we're really interested in doing is helping God give us what we want. Too easily we lean to our own understanding and we find God ways to help us answer our prayers. So when God says no, we can get pragmatic and just try to work it out ourselves. Not a good plan if we understand that God's no is actually designed for my good.
But there's a third way we can respond. God says no to that thing I've wanted. Well, we can just outright rebel. You remember the story of 1 Samuel chapter 8 where the children of Israel, as a result of the failures in leadership they saw in Samuel's sons, insist on having a king just like the other nations around them. But God's will, that's not been God's will. God's wanted them to follow him, not have a human king. And even though God relents and gives them what they want, it is clear, he makes it clear to Samuel that they, Israel, have not rejected you, Samuel.
They've rejected me. So God tells Samuel to warn the people of all that this is going to mean. He says, Samuel, tell the people that this king will take your sons to be his military forces, take your daughters to be cooks and bakers, he'll take your fields, he'll take your vineyards, he'll take one tenth of your seed and your flocks, and you will cry out in that day. But verse 19 of chapter 8 says, nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, no, we will have a king over us.
When God says no, you can choose to rebel. Some of you today are in a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. And your parents are strongly discouraging you from pursuing that relationship. But you're not listening.
You've got it figured out. In fact, sometimes I talk with students and they've actually gone and lined up other people who don't know them as well and said, well, there's safety in a multitude of counselors, so these people must be weighted much more significantly than my own parents. You know there's only two people in the Bible that God says to honor? That's your mom and dad. Give weight.
Give weight to them. Now that doesn't mean in every situation, every single time, that mom and dad are going to be absolutely right in every circumstance. But beware of allowing your heart to ratify rebellion. God gave you, the parent, my kids, we would, and as in every family, we didn't have a perfect home. Our kids sinned and I sinned. My wife never sinned. But the rest of us, we all sinned. And I vividly remember a time or two, this wasn't something we repainted every night at family devotions, but a time or two, sitting down with one of those kids who was struggling with something that was personal with the two of us, and I said, you know what? I didn't choose you, and you didn't choose me.
All right? God did this. God put us in the same family together, and we didn't have any necessarily ability to say that's who I want. But if I'm purposed and convinced in my heart that God intends something good from this, we can be confident that He's going to use both of us to sanctify each other. Children, you are a means of God sanctifying work in your parents' life, absolutely. As your parents are God's means of sanctifying in your own life. But when God says no, you can rebel. The problem is, it will only lead to frustration and disappointment. Fourth response, we'll just breeze quickly through this, when God says no, you can just pout, right?
That seems a little bit more acceptable. Remember King Ahab? He wanted that vineyard of that guy Naboth, who lived right next door. He wanted a garden of herbs to have, so he said, hey, hey, I want that vineyard. And Naboth says, no, this is the gift of my inheritance. I'm not going to give up my land.
You can't have it. And so Ahab did what any powerful king would do. He went inside, laid down in his bed, turned to the wall, and pouted. You can read it. 1 Kings 21, it tells a story. The sobering thing is he had a wife who was wicked.
And you might recall, she arranged Rahab's neighbor to be stoned to death so that Ahab could get this vineyard. So, how are you thinking? Cain, Rachel, Israel, Ahab, all of them graphically illustrate what each one of us often illustrate. That we tend to, given the opportunity, turn to our own way.
We make ourselves the center of everything. And we want to instinctively reject God's providential plan and pursue our own. You won't accept my offering? Well, I'm going to get angry and kill my brother. You won't give me children? Well, I'll threaten my husband and exaggerate the circumstances and take matters into my own hands. You won't let me be like the other nations and have a king?
Well, we're going to get one ourselves. You won't let me have that nice little vineyard? Well, I'll openly show my displeasure. How do you respond when God says no? And certainly, those four responses are only four.
There's probably many more. But when God says no, I've got to be aware of the instinctive tendency to trust in myself and lean to my own understanding. Instead, my response should be, oh Lord, just like our Lord Jesus.
Let this cup pass from me? Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. God's know is divinely designed for my good. So, in the last five minutes we have, let's look at the response of one who accepted God's know as the answer. 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
2 Corinthians is Paul's letter to the church at Corinth defending his apostolic ministry. Various false teachers, some called super apostles, accused him of many things in order to undermine his character and his leadership. We read of this thorn. What's the thorn?
There's all kinds of discussion and we just don't know what it is. And the fact is, the very fact that we don't know what it is has been a wonderful blessing to many of us who have some type of affliction, some type of weakness, something that really stakes us to the ground and keeps us from being what we think would be the epitome of success. And so we draw near to chapter 12 and read of this thorn and we draw great encouragement because I've got a thorn too.
So do you. Let's look at three ways that we can understand and we can respond when God says no. When God says no, number one, I can be certain that He ministers to me as an individual.
Verse 9, He said unto me, Paul says, take the thorn away. I'm amazed that He only asked three times. If you're like me, you asked a whole lot more than three. Get rid of this, Lord, take this away. Three times He asked and God says no.
Instead, I'm going to say some other things. But the first point here is God speaks to us. Young people, do you know what it's like to have a relationship, relationship, something that's living, vibrant, real, that's going on between you and the Lord? God speaks to us through His word.
His word is given for our instruction, for our correction, for our rebuke, for our instruction in righteousness. And I would just say, yeah, God doesn't speak to us in an audible voice. But do you remember a time that God spoke to your heart when you were reading His word after you had just received a no? What happens when you receive a no?
It kind of sets you back. You're a little bit taken back, you're a little bit raw, you're a little bit frustrated, you're a little bit angry. God says, yes, what do we do?
Hey, let's go do it, we're all excited. But no's, they kind of call us up short. And God knows that and so He's eager to speak to us in those times when our attention is more given to Him. Instead of being angry or exaggerating or rebelling or pouting, we need to be broken and contrite and eager to hear.
Some of you know what it's like to lose a job. I remember a time my older brother was bivocational. He was pastoring a small church while working on the side and he was released from the side job. And suddenly, because of financial commitments, he was needed to look heavenward. There's a new sense of urgency and I remember him sharing with me just a couple of days after that crisis took place in his life. He was in the Bible and he came to Isaiah 49 verses 15 and 16 and came across those words that God spoke to his people. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yea, they may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands. God spoke to him. God encouraged him. That wouldn't be wrong to file a workman's comp claim. Nothing sinful about that.
Nothing wrong with doing that. But I'm telling you, the greatest encouragement, the greatest direction comes when you go to say, What does God have to say to me? Does He have something to say to me through this no?
Yes, He does. And wonderfully, my attention is typically drawn closer to Him because I am, my world has been rocked a little bit. Number two, God says no. He offers me His grace. My grace is sufficient for you.
My strength is made perfect in weakness. Grace is that element that God introduces into the equation when a man comes to the end of himself. When you and I are full of ourselves and confident in our own understanding, then we don't need God's help. But God is saying no, perhaps because He knows what's best and understands that we have limitations.
My mentor would often say, We are dependent by design. If it took God to create you, then it takes God to sustain you. Anything that creates greater understanding of my limitations and greater dependence on God is actually a very, very good thing. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet He became poor that you through His poverty might be made rich. The wonderful blessing of God saying no to you is that you can experience the wonderful grace that comes in Christ. And finally, when God says no, I can actually boast in my weakness.
If you read back through chapter 11 into chapter 12, you'll find that Paul's making much of boasting and weakness. He says, I'll glory of the things which concern my infirmities. Of myself, I will not glory, but in my infirmities.
Most gladly, therefore, I will rather glory in my infirmities. How is it that you can get to the point that the things that limit you actually become the things that you boast in? It's through my weakness, my human limitations that I experience God's grace.
That's why I can boast. Paul's critics are boasting of their achievements while accusing Paul of being worldly and weak. Paul disagrees with the first, but he agrees with the second. I'm not worldly, but yes, I am weak.
And you want to read about it? Read chapter 11 and read verses 24 to 28. He catalogs everything that demonstrates his human weakness. He was no super apostle, but through his sufferings, God made him strong.
It was Paul's weakness that made him a prime candidate for God's grace and power. So, young people, what is it? How are you handling the no's? You say, I don't know where God's saying no to me. Probably look for the place in your life where you're experiencing the most tension.
Where's the tension right now in your life? It could be that that's an area that God's saying no. And be convinced of this. God's no is uniquely designed for me to experience His greatest good in my life. Shall we pray? Lord, use these truths to direct us away from self-dependence and self-reliance and toward you in full trust, knowing that you have only good plans, that you want only what's good for us.
You're not interested in messing up a life you created. We are your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good works, which you planned ahead of time that we should walk in those. And we believe that today.
And run to you in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Reverend John Dalton, who is Director of Student Life at Bob Jones University.
My name is Wyatt Smith. I'm a senior here at Bob Jones University studying multimedia journalism. And I want to tell you a little about my experience here at BJU. I've been here a little over three years, and I truly cannot say enough about the community here at BJU. Whether it has been in the halls of the dorms, in my incredible society, or even in the classroom, I have always felt a very strong sense of community around me that has aided in my growth as a person and as a Christian. BJU's commitment to academic excellence has also pushed me to discover and refine the skills and talents needed to succeed in life after school, such as communication, critical thinking, and problem solving.
My time in the classroom has allowed me to gain hands-on experience in my field of study, all while giving me the freedom to think creatively and build my skills. One aspect of BJU that I have really appreciated is that I have been continuously challenged to develop and grow my faith in Christ through the preaching of God's word and chapel and the daily discipleship of those in community around me. I have truly loved my time here at BJU, and I hope others will be able to share the experience I have had. If you or someone you know is interested in an experience such as mine, I would encourage you to check us out online at our website, bju.edu, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at bju.edu. For any further information, please feel free to give us a call at 800-252-6363. Thanks for listening, and join us next time for another sermon preached from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.
