Why Would God Say No? (from our 11-3-24 worship)

Watch The Video Version Here: https://youtu.be/reTKTQpBFcATranscript:   Second Kings chapter 20, beginning of verse one.  In those days, hezekiah became sick  and was at the point of death.  And Isaiah, the prophet, the son of a man has come to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die.  You shall not recover. Then hezekiah turned his face to the wall.And prayed to the Lord saying, now, oh Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your side. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.  And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him. Turn back  and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears.  Behold, I will heal you.  And on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord and I will add 15 years to your life.  I would deliver you in this city out of the hand of King of Assyria. And I will defend this city for my own sake and for the servant and for my servant David's sake.And Isaiah said, Bring the cake of figs and let them eat it. take and lay it on the boil that he may recover.  Do you look at this? Hezekiah  Hezekiah was given  the most terrible news that you could maybe imagine.  You get the call from the doctor. The test that was supposed to be routine all of a sudden isn't routine.And Hezekiah prayed this prayer.  And even though he didn't say specifically, God, would you heal me? God, would you take this sickness away from me? You kind of get the idea in the process somewhere of that weeping bitterly.  Whether audibly with words or in his heart, he asked God,  could you change this? Could you save my life? And his kind of got maybe one of the most awesome answers to a prayer you could imagine.  I mean, the answer was almost immediate,  and it was one of our favorite words. You know what that word is? Yes. I mean, who doesn't love a good yes? God, can I, can we do this? Yes. God, can I have this? Yes. God, can you keep everybody in my family safe and healthy?Yes. I mean, who doesn't love yes?  Yes is a wonderful answer.  But if you lived in the length of time  As I have you understand that not every answer is yes You  see if I got your hopes up there for a minute thinking the sermon was gonna be about yes this morning I'm sorry, but  as my loving son called him would say what won't  Today I want to talk about no  Now no isn't as exciting as yes  Often when we think about no, it just even just gives us this kind of  Yucky feely, doesn't it?I don't know, I mean, there's a very famous best selling book out right now entitled, How to Get to Yes. We love yes, we want yes, but often times  when we ask God for something, the answer is no.  And this morning we're going to look at some people who ask God for something specifically.  And God did not give them what they asked for. And the question I want to ask this morning with this sermon is why?  Why might God say no?  Why might God say no to us?  And I hope that through maybe looking at the answers,  it may not make the no any easier, but at least maybe it can help us to grow and to understand  more about not only the God that we have, but  what we need to do to serve Him. So that being said,  I'm going to look at five reasons this morning. I don't know that this is an exhaustive list. You could probably come up with more or better reasons than on this list, but I think every one of these that I picked out this morning is something that each one of us has dealt with or will deal with or something in our lives. And I hope that these things can, can bless us.  Now, the first reason why, God might tell us no.  If you had a child with you  and the child looks at you and says, Mama  or daddy,  you know, there's this piece of candy over here in the store that I want and and I don't have any money to pay for it. So I got a bright idea.I'm just gonna pick it up and I'm gonna walk out the door and I'm not gonna pay for it.  What would you say to that child?  Some of us grew up in a generation where there wouldn't be any saying. I might be some smacking going on, but  you would generally tell that child what? No,  you shouldn't do that. Why?Because the thing they want to do  is wrong.  The thing they want to do is wrong. Now, maybe they don't understand that yet. Maybe they do understand it, but their desires is getting the best of them.  You think there's ever been a time  Where somebody has asked God for something that was wrong.  Yeah.  I think Balaam is a good example of this. Of course, we're not gonna get to the really interesting part where his donkey starts talking to him. Right. And how angry that he was that he didn't even didn't phase him that his donkey was talking to him. But look at how this all began. Numbers 22 beginning of verse one.  Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan and Jericho.And Balak, the son of Zippor, saw that all of Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was in great dread of the people, because they were many. And Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel.  And Moab said to the elders of Midian, this horde will now lick us all, lick up all that is around us as ox licks up the grass of the field.So Balak, this is the bad king, Balak, the son of Zippor, who was the king of Moab at the time, sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor, at  Pythorea,  these names, which is near the river in the land of the people of Ammon. to call him saying, behold, the people have come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth and they are dwelling opposite of me.Come now curse this people for me.  Since they are too mighty for me, perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land. For I know that he who whom you bless is blessed and he whom you cursed is cursed.  So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand and they came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message and he said to them, lodge here tonight and I will bring back to you, bring back word to you as the Lord speaks to me.So the princes of Balaam stayed, uh, the princes of Balak stayed with Balaam and God came to Balaam and said, who are these men with you?  And Balaam said to God, Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth. Now come and curse them for me.Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out. And God said to Balaam, You shall not go with him.  You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princess of Balak, Go to your own land, for the Lord commands. There's refused to let me go with you now.We could keep reading the story this morning. It's rather lengthy, but they send another delegation back  and another. And eventually he winds up going to King Bailack and he keeps telling them now. Listen, God told me that I can't do it. But let me look at that money you want to give me.  And even though God has told him no,  you shall not go.You shall not do this. He keeps getting closer and closer and closer. and closer and eventually this leads him to a situation that cost him his life.  He, this man Balaam, interacted wi...