“Can't Take ’No!’” – FBC Morning Light (6/7/2023)

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Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Here we are in the middle of the week. I hope your week is going well, this first full week of the month of June, and we thank the

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Lord for his faithfulness to us through the year thus far, getting to the halfway point of 2023.

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Well, today we're reading in 1 Kings 21 and 2, Acts 24 and Psalm 113.

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I want to focus on the first few verses of 1 Kings 21, and this little incident with Ahab related to Naboth's vineyard.

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I can imagine that when Ahab was, oh, maybe three years of age, he was at the grocery store with his mom, and sitting in the grocery cart, and she's wheeling him down the cereal aisle, and he sees all the pretty colorful boxes, and sees a box of Captain Crunch, or maybe a box of Cocoa Puffs, or a box of Trix, and he starts saying, me,

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I want that, I want that, I want that, and he won't stop fussing. His mom says, no, you can't have that, we're not going to eat that junk, that's not good for you, and he starts crying, no,

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I want it, I want it, I want it, and finally she pulls the box of Froot Loops off the shelf and puts it in the basket, and she goes on about her shopping, and then she finally gets to the checkout line, and she's actually going through to see a cashier and not doing the self -check, and she gets to the checkout line, she's waiting in line, and there's all these colorful candy bars, of course, and little

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Ahab wants a candy bar, I want a Snickers, I want a Snickers, and mom says, no, you're not going to have a candy bar, you've got enough sugar today, you don't need any more, and then he starts howling some more,

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I want that candy bar, I want that candy bar, and he's creating a fuss, and he's causing a scene, and she says,

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Ahab, I said, no, you can't have that candy bar, now be quiet, and then he starts howling, and he starts pouting, and he starts whining and carrying on, and finally, mom grabs the candy bar off the shelf, puts it in his hand, and says, here, checks out, pays for the stuff, and they go on their merry way, and that scene between Ahab and his mom is repeated every week when they go to the grocery store, now that's obviously fictitious, but why do

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I begin this with that kind of silly fictitious story?

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Because when a child like that, who's been parented like that, grows up, he becomes an

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Ahab when he can't get Naboth's vineyard, you remember the story, if you haven't read it, let me remind you, the first part of the chapter 21,

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Ahab looks out over his estate, and he sees this vineyard, that is a very, very productive vineyard, beautifully situated, and it's owned by a man by the name of Naboth, and he says to Naboth, give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, and he wanted it because it was near to his palace, and he says, to pay for it,

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I'll give you an even nicer vineyard, a better vineyard somewhere, and if it seems good to you,

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I'll give you what it's worth in money, I'll buy it from you. And Naboth said to Ahab, no, the

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Lord forbid that I should do this, I'm not going to give you the inheritance of my father's,

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I'm not going to sell my inheritance to you. Naboth apparently had some appreciation for the

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Word of God and what God had established, this was to be land that would be in his family perpetually, it's to be passed down as an inheritance from one generation to another, and you're not supposed to get rid of that, you're not supposed to disdain that inheritance.

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So Naboth said, no, I'm not going to sell, it's not for sale. Well, it's like the petulant little child in the grocery store who can't get the candy bar he wants,

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Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which

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Naboth had spoken to him, for he said, I will not give you the inheritance of my father's. And Ahab laid down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.

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He's throwing a little grown -up temper tantrum, pouting, whining, because he can't get what he wants, he can't get his way.

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I don't know how Ahab was reared, but you see little Ahabs in the grocery store and other places all the time, don't you?

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Maybe in a Walmart, in a toy aisle, or whatever, little children that won't accept no, and parents that won't make them accept no, and learn how to accept no in a gracious way.

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What happens when they grow up? They become like Ahab.

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They are men who can't get their way in the family with their wives or whatever, and so they don't speak, they just pout, sit at the table, eat their food, pout.

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Don't speak to their wives, don't talk to anybody in the family, they just mope around the house and they pout, because they couldn't get their way.

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They couldn't get the boat that they wanted, or they couldn't buy the new fishing rod, or they couldn't get this, or they couldn't have that, they couldn't get their way.

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Is that how God's people should live? Is that the attitudes

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God's people should display? What about when God doesn't give you what you want?

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Is that how you treat him? No, this is not how God's people are to behave.

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We need to learn how to accept no graciously, and whether that no is coming from those in our family, our employer, our co -workers, or whatever, or from God himself.

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We need to learn how to graciously accept a no, and to move on, finding out, well, what is the yes?

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What is the yes that God wants me to have? And do so cheerfully. All right, well,

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Heavenly Father, I pray, deliver us from this moping Ahab syndrome, we pray. Help us to walk with you, reflect

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Christ in all we say and do. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, you have a good rest of your day, and I trust the