When the answer to prayer is no

Lessons from the life of Moses.
The example of our Lord Jesus Christ.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER

• Keep on asking and He will give you what you ask for. Mathew: 7 v 7
• Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm: 37 v 4:
• When you cry for help as soon as He hears He will answer you. Isaiah 30 v 19:
• Personal experience Last Sunday night

SOMETIMES GOD’S ANSWER IS NO

Today we will look at two outstanding instances when God’s answer to prayer was No.
One from the Old Testament, the other from the New Testament. Moses prayed and asked God to enter the Promised Land. God’s answer was no.
Our Lord Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane “let this cup past from Me”. God’s answer was no.

MOSES: THE CONTEXT

At Kadesh in the Desert of Zin, the Israelites quarreled with Moses and Aaron because there was no water. Numbers 20: 1 12
Moses and Aaron prayed. God instructed Moses to take Aaron’s staff, gather the community, and speak to the rock so that water would come forth.
Instead Moses struck the rock twice with the Staff. God declared that Moses and Aaron would not enter the Promised Land.

Aaron the Priest accepted God’s judgment. He did not ask God to change the judgment.
Moses the Prophet pleaded with God to allow him to cross the Jordon and enter the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 3: 24 28
Moses had never asked God for anything. Entering the Promised Land was one of the deep desires of Moses’s heart. Moses blamed the people for God’s judgment.
God’s answer to Moses’s Pleading Prayer was No.

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR GOD’S REFUSAL TO CHANGE

Punishment administered with mercy: Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land from the top of Mount Pisgah. Deuteronomy: 3, 27 Personality: Moses had anger issues which did not fit him to lead in the Promised Land. Moses accepted God’s Answer and wrote the book of Deuteronomy which Jesus quoted in resisting the three temptations of Satan. Deuteronomy: 8 v 3; 6 v 16; 6 v 13;

JESUS IN GETHSEMANE:
Mathew 26: 36 46

• Overwhelmed with sorrow
• Fervent in prayer: There times Jesus leaves Peter, James, and John and prays earnestly.
• Persistent in His request: “If it is possible to let this cup be taken from me”
• God’s Answer to His beloved and righteous Son was No.
• John 3: 16 This is how much God loves the world that he gave/denied his only begotten Son.

JESUS: NOT MY WILL BUT THY WILL BE
DONE: Verse 39

• Resignation to the will of the Father
• Denial of His will to be spared separation from the Father and of becoming sin/disobedience
• Acknowledgement of the Father’s will a paramount, primary, and supreme.
• God’s Will is above all.

JESUS: SUBMISSION TO GOD’S PURPOSE FOR HIS LIFE

Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer. Mathew 26: 46.
• The Father’s answer is No. The matter is settled. Let us get on with it.
• No grumbling, no self-pity, no resistance, no resentment.
• Jesus goes forward to an unjust trial, great humiliation, and cruel crucifixion.
• His last words were: It is finished. John 19:30