“Do You Pout?” – FBC Morning Light (6/17/2024)

Responding When You Don’t Get Your Way

Well, a good Monday morning to you, hope you had a wonderful weekend and gathered together with God's people yesterday, enjoyed worship services and learning of the Lord, and ready to start off a new week in the right foot.

Well, today in our Bible reading we're in 1 Kings chapters 21 and 22, and let me preface our little conversation this morning with this question. How do you respond when you can't get what you want or when you don't get your way?

So say for example you're a guy and you love fishing and you want to get a new fishing pole and you've had your eye on this thing, you've gone to Cabela's and you've looked at it and you've looked at it and you've looked at it and you and your wife have gone together and you're looking at this fishing rod and the reel that goes with it and looking at the price tag, $249, and you say, man, I really want that, I really want that.

And finally you turn to your wife and you say, you know, I'm going to get that fishing rod. And she says, no, I don't think so. I've been looking at the checkbook and I don't think that would be a good idea.

I don't think, I don't want you to get that. Okay, how do you respond when you get that no? Or how about at work? There is a project that you want to take on and it would mean a promotion, it would mean great things for your career.

And so this project comes up and you go to the boss and you say, you know, I really want that project. I want to take that on. And the boss says to you, no, I'm going to give that to someone else. I remember something like that several years ago when I was serving as an assistant pastor in a church of about 600, 700, actually I was the youth pastor.

And I was much younger, I was just about to turn 30 I think, and the pastor was in a position of wanting to bring on, kind of like an associate pastor, someone who would fill the pulpit for him when he was gone, when he retired, he was about that age.

And I at the same time had been thinking about going into the pastorate and so forth. So I went and had a conversation with the pastor and I said, you know, I know the church needs this and I know this is what you're looking to do.

I said, I would be more than happy to just stay here for the next five, six, seven years as your associate pastor and work toward that goal. And he smiled and he said, well, that's not going to happen.

Not going to happen. How do you respond in things like that? We have an example of how not to respond in 1 Kings 21. Remember Ahab wanted the vineyard that belonged to Naboth and he was willing to pay good money for it.

And so he goes to Naboth, he says, I'll give you whatever you want, let me have your vineyard. I want your vineyard, it's right close by, it's perfect for me. And Naboth says, no, I can't do that, I'm not going to give up my family inheritance.

To you.

So no, you can't have it. Now how did he respond? How do you respond? Do you just try to force your way forward and make it happen? Do you try to undermine the other person at work so that he doesn't get the project that you want?

Do you manipulate your wife and try to guilt her until she finally says, okay, get the cotton pick and fish in her pole? How do you deal with it? Well here's how Ahab dealt with it in verse 4 of chapter 21.

It says, Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And Ahab lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.

He just, he just let himself go into a depressed funk, sullen, morose, unmotivated to do anything whatsoever. Just lay on his bed, wouldn't even eat, wouldn't even eat, having given himself a good pity party.

A lot of people respond that way when they can't get what they want. How, how do you respond when the door closes, when the boss says no, when your spouse says, I don't think that would be a good idea, I think, I think that would, I don't, I'm not comfortable with that.

What do you do? Do you take that from the Lord and from, as his providential way of redirecting you so that your interests are directed in another way? I mentioned this incident several years ago and I remember when that pastor told me, no, you know, that's not going to happen, it's not going to happen.

And as it turned out, what he had in mind was to bring his own son on the staff and fill that position that I wanted. And I, I was a little disappointed at first, but I, what I allowed that to do was redirect me toward, you know, putting more effort into the pursuit of a pastorate somewhere else.

And the Lord opened doors and so on and so forth. How do we respond? See, that's the question. And I think the right response is to bow our heads, say, okay, Lord, I must have been off on that one, where do you want me to go?

What would you have me to do? Whatever you do, don't go up on your bed and pout. Our Father and our God, deliver us from this pouting Ahab syndrome, we pray. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, listen, have a good rest of your Monday, hope your week gets off to a great start.

May the Lord bless.