Focus: No! (Pt.1)

Text: Mk.15:23

"And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not."

The word NO is an important word in our lives. It's just a two letter word, but it's about the most important word in human existence.

A man who can't say 'no' to what he shouldn't say 'yes' to is really doomed. You fail or succeed in life depending on things you say 'no' to. Saying 'no' is a way of establishing priorities and setting boundaries for yourself. It takes a lot of courage to say 'no'. To say 'no' is hard, but it's the wisest thing to say if you must stand for something. A person of conviction protects his convictions by his no-responses, and I'm talking about saying 'no' where it really matters.

When last did you say 'no' and maintained it? I am talking about saying 'no' to evil, nonsense or foolishness. When last did you say 'no' to worldliness, to the flesh, to Satan, to fear, to moral compromise, or to whatever goes contrary to God's will or God's word to your life? When last did you say 'no' to hate, to the spirit of unforgiveness, or to your appetite for trivia or vanity? When last did you say 'no' to the bad because of the good, or to the good because of the best?

Daniel said NO to the king's meat. Mordecai refused to bow to Haman. The Rechanites said NO to Jeremiah's "pots full of wine." They didn't care that he was the prophet of the Lord as far as his demand of them was contrary to their moral convictions. Moses rejected the throne of Egypt and the pleasures of sin, which were only for a season. The Scripture says, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing ratherto suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb.11:24,25). Listen, real faith must say 'no' to certain things in order to say 'yes' to other things. Faith has the divine ability to say 'no' and stand on it. 

Faith is opposed to what God is opposed to, and passionate about what God is passionate about, whatever the price.

Here in our text, our Lord Jesus Christ refused the mixed wine given to Him by the Roman soldiers. He wanted to go through the whole redemptive agony with His mind intact. He didn't want the drugged wine to dull or deaden His pain. He wanted no experience of numbness. He consciously felt all the excruciating pain of Calvary. He said 'no' to narcotics, drugs, alcohol, or human help.

Jesus Christ endured the whole pain of the cross; He didn't try to dodge or avoid it. He didn't want anything to hinder our full salvation. Hence the need for Him to say 'no' and endure the suffering.

Learn to say 'no' to whatever is not right or good. Don't allow your sacred space to be desecrated by saying 'yes' to anything and everything. Say 'no' where it's required, and 'yes' where you should. Save yourself. Better offend people than displease God. Just say NO to nonsense.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter