Faith When the Answer Is No Part 1
Introduction
This message comes out of a personal experience that I have had recently. I am sharing this with you in hope that when things do not go as you hoped that your faith is not shaken. I may not be able to complete the message today, but hopefully what you hear this morning will last you until I can complete it the 2nd Sunday in July since we are not having services next week.
I had the opportunity this month to apply for a new position with my company. This position was one that I really wanted because I knew it would represent a change for me. But I just knew that the position was tailor made for me because of my previous experience working the account and everything that I had accomplished. Also I knew that I had a connection – a higher authority – that when a decision was made, no one could go against Him. And I knew, by faith, that He wanted me to have this position. How did I know that? I knew it because God had promised to bless me and this would be a great blessing in my life and that of my family. Remember the blessings that we all claim as heirs in Christ? Remember the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 and the power of confession found in Mark 11:23-24? Let me refresh your memory:
Deut. 28:1-6 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be your offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.”
Mark 11:23 “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted you.”
Now it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that there is a whole lot of blessing going on here and when I add in my confessions - I knew that job was mine. I mean, I have accepted Christ as my Savior and I am in the ministry. That gives me a special connection – that one on one thing that preachers are supposed to have with God that you average people may not be able to attain. So I knew that I was okay in that area. I am obeying God so I knew I had earned my blessings. Then as I think about these blessings, blessed in the city and the country. Well that new job had both some city territory and country territory so that would be perfect – I would be blessed. My offspring (children), my yard and my dog’s puppies (although I do not have a dog) would also be blessed because I would be blessed. WOW! This was looking better and better. Then my basket and kneading bowl would be blessed – in other words, there would be food - food is always a blessing – especially when you’re not the one cooking it. Finally I would be blessed when I came in and when I went out. That position would bring me to different cities and then bring me home. Both ways I would be blessed. I was pumped. Walking around the house humming “God is great, gave me the job today!”
Then when I read Mark 11:23, I knew that I had to claim that job and confess that it was mine. Well that was not hard seeing that I had already accepted it as mine. What a wonderful life I have as a Christian – God takes care of me and gives me what I want. Why? Because I am His child.
But I still recognized that I had to go through the process, even though I knew God had anointed me with the job. So I prepared my resume, talked with my director and gained her approval and posted for the job. The interviewing director called me and told me she was really looking forward to talking with me. (God is great gave me the job today.) I went in for the interview – looking good I might add – knowing that I would blow the interview away. I answered every question with multiple examples demonstrating my experience and expertise in the position. I was good. When I walked out of that office, that job was mine. I praised God for giving the experience (and the job) because that was the right thing to do – being spiritual and all. But in my mind I was hearing “God is great, gave me the job today.” In preparing to take the job, I mean based on the scriptures and my confessions, the job was mine, I began to plan around the new position. I put off thinking about some things for my current position because I knew I would not be around to pull them through. I was sooooo looking forward to God moving me onwards.
As much as I wanted that job, I knew I had to stay within His will. So when I prayed (being humble because I knew the job was mine) I did ask God that His will be done. I told Him that I was stupid (and I was serious) and if He did not want me to have that position for whatever reason to close the door. Take the decision out of my hand because if given the opportunity, I would walk through that door singing “God is great, gave me the job today!” I felt pretty comfortable saying that because the job was mine. Well when the final decision was made, I received the phone call that I had been waiting on. I had prepared my acceptance speech, how I would be honored to work on her team and would do a great job for her. I had also prepared what I would say to my representatives when I told them I was leaving – you know it’s been great working with you, so and so forth. Needless to say I did not need either of those speeches. How do you think I responded? Yes I told her thank you for considering me, but inside I was not a happy camper. That job was mine – I had big plans for that position. Thank God I had not started spending the money from the pay raise. I was dumbfounded – God actually said no. How do I know He said no – well that is the only way I could not have gotten it. Because there is no way if He wanted me to have that job that it would not be mine – if I had prepared the way I was supposed to. I was very disappointed. Then the questions started – and I know where the questions were coming from. Satan was having a field day with this one. You see, there are those that believe that God does not say no to His children when a blessing is at stake – that if you do not get something it is because of your own lack of faith. This is the point of my message today – when God says no, is it because of your faith? When something you desire does not come, is it because you do not have enough faith or is it because God said no and we did not listen. The other thing to be considered is that there are times when God may say “yes” but we may not be within His timing or prepared to receive what we are requesting. What you believe according to your doctrine will often dictate your responses to these questions. There are actually four beliefs that I want to address that I feel captures a majority of our beliefs. These beliefs are:
• If I do not get what I want, it was not meant to be just a fact of life – no control.
• If I do not get what I ask for, then I did not have enough faith.
• If I do not get what I ask for, God said no and I trust Him because He takes care of me.
• God says yes, but this may not be the time – I need to wait and prepare.
As you can see, these are very different beliefs, yet all can be based on scripture. I will start with the first belief because both religious and non-religious people accept it. I use the term, religious because there are others who believe in God and that He acts on their behalf although they do not believe in Christ.
I. It Was Not Meant To Be
For those who are not Christians, or religious, it is easy to accept that if you receive anything in this life you have to make it happen yourself. So whatever you get in life, it is due to your own efforts. So whenever something does not work out it was just not supposed to be. Although they come to this conclusion eventually, some will take a victor’s view while others will take the victim’s view. The victor says that although this one was not supposed to be, there will be other opportunities that they will prepare for themselves. Key words, prepare for themselves. The victim is somewhat of the opposite. They initially tend to blame others when something does not work out. They will seek out other opportunities, but when things do not work out, they do not tend to think it is due to them. Now here is the point in this, for non-religious people, they do not believe that there is a God who is looking out for them, to help them and to guide them. They believe that they control their world and whatever happens is supposed to happen based on their input.
A Christian can also carry this belief. There are those that believe, based on Ephesians 1:5,11, that there is nothing that will change in their life. That their lives as Christians was already predestinated and all they have to do is walk through it. Look at Ephesians 1:5, 11.
Eph. 1:5,11 “He predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will…also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”
There are two words you need to understand clearly, predestination and preordained. Predestination is defined as the belief that God has preordained those who would end up in heaven and those who would end up in hell. This causes a great concern for me. Preordained means that decree something beforehand. If this is true in every situation, then the Scripture is contradicting itself. Consider this, if I am predestined to go to heaven or hell, nothing I do can change that. Likewise, if it has been preordained by God for me to sin, then God being a just God should not punish me for doing so. If I am preordained to cheat on my wife, rob a bank or do anything considered wrong, then should I be punished? By being preordained to do something, I did not have a choice because the decision was made beforehand. If everything is preordained, why do I need to pray – it is already destined what is going to happen. If something is preordained, every decision that needs to be made is already made and will not change. Not only do I not have a choice about what I do, but also all the decisions that I make were already made for me. If this is true, again it opens up possibilities that cannot be balanced by the word of God – actually it contradicts the word of God. Are you starting to see why the fullness of this thought cannot be balanced with Scripture?
If you read what Paul writes in this chapter, you begin to understand that he is talking about something very specific. When Adam sinned, the decision was made at that time that Jesus would leave heaven, come to earth and sacrifice Himself to restore man’s relationship with God. In relation to us, we were preordained to have the choice of benefiting or not benefiting from that decision. That was the first step. What this meant is that for all those individuals who had yet to be born, God had placed a means for them to be restored to Him. The second step was the adoption process. God had chosen a people, yet He consistently made allowances in the Old Testament for any group of people who would accept Him although they may not have been part of the original “chosen” people. His final act of reaching out to everyone came through Christ – which fulfilled what was said to Adam and Eve when they sinned. The final step was the completion of the adoption process. The invitation has been offered; the provisions made, the benefits available – but we have to accept them. In the adoption process, God has chosen us, but He has given us the right to accept His offer. If we accept, everything He has is already available for us. But we have to accept the offer. So what this means is that God has made grace available to everyone – we were preordained to receive it. Everyone has received grace at some point in his or her life – even the non-Christians. It was preordained long before anyone of us was born. Once we accept His grace by accepting Christ, then all of the benefits of being His child are available to us. Those benefits were preordained for us – once we accept Christ, the benefits are locked in. The reason I keep using the word preordained is because predestination by definition is primarily focused on who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. For those Christians who believe that everything that happens to them was preordained by God, it is easy to accept that what will happen will happen.
II. If It Does Not Happen, It Is Because I Did Not Have Enough Faith
This belief, in my mind, is more dangerous than the previous one. Again, I refer you to the foundational Scripture for this belief Mark 11:23-24.
Mark 11:23 “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted you.”
A large faith movement has been built off this and other Scriptures. People have taken Scripture and have placed more emphasis on faith and positive confession than on being in the will of God. We have discussed previously the name it and claim it belief that is growing in the “faith movement”. I believe that we must operate in faith. The word of God is crystal clear about the importance of faith in everything that we do. But lets look back at my situation. When I did not get that job, it could easily be said that I did not get it because I did not have enough faith. God would have given me the job if my faith were stronger. Let me share with you why I believe this is a very dangerous belief to get caught up in and I will do that through this question. If God knows something is not for my good and He is protecting me, will my faith and positive confession change that? I cannot find an example of God’s will being changed because of someone’s faith or positive confession.
A friend of my shared with me something their pastor told them. Their pastor said, basing it supposedly on the word of God, that if you believe and have enough faith, you do not have to die. When I was told this, I could not believe that he said it. For me this means that everyone who died did so because they did not possess enough faith to keep living. The apostles who walked with Christ, who stood with Him, all died. Paul looked forward to death because he wanted to be with the Lord. Do you understand what I am saying? God stressed our need for faith because we have not seen Him or Christ, yet we must believe. Faith is defines as unquestioning belief. The faith that we have is targeted towards our belief in Jesus Christ. The faith that we have for operating in this world is to benefit us in doing the work of the ministry, not increasing our worldly gains. Our total being should be focused on serving God, knowing that we must exist in a natural world in order to do it.
Think about the impact of this belief. Whatever you ask God for and you do not receive, it is your fault. If you had enough faith you would have gotten it – so obviously something is wrong with you. If you accept this belief as the word of God, it does not take long for you to begin to wonder why your faith is so weak compared to someone else. There was a time in my life when I believed that if I prayed and asked God for something and confessed it, I would receive it. I have told you the story about believing God to heal my eyes so that I would not have to wear glasses. I took my glasses off for the day believing God. It lasted about 8 hours before the headaches got so bad that I had to put them back on. At that time, with my limited understanding of God’s word, I truly believed that I did not have enough faith.
There are things that will not happen because of our lack of faith. When Jesus was in His hometown, many people could not be healed because of their lack of faith in Him. God expects us to grow in our faith and knowledge of Him. As we continue to learn more and more of Him, our faith is expected to grow. However, no amount of faith on our part will make God give us something that is not good for us. Remember how we tell our kids “no means no” and no amount of crying, begging will change our minds? I believe there are things with God that once He has made up His mind what is best for us, He does not change because He has our best interest at heart. I like to think of myself in some things like a little child. If Justin walked up to me and asked for my car keys so he could take my truck for a little spin in the parking lot, no amount of begging would make me give it to him. Why? Because of his age, experience and ability to handle the truck. If I cared about his safety, I would not ever give that a second thought. If I am that way with those that I love, God is even more so.
As I close this morning, wherever you are in your faith walk, you must recognize that not everything that happens is preordained of God. Also for your continued growth and faith in God, you must accept the fact that there are times when God says no and it is not about your faith, it is about God’s love for His children. I will complete part two the next time we are together. May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
