Summary: The world of salvation begins with our own yes to the Gospel. Yes we say to God, I will receive your gift of eternal life in Christ. From then on every stage of growth is a stage we advance to by saying yes to God.

Yes is only a three letter word, but its utterance can change your life. It

happened to the poet Robert Robinson one Sunday morning in London.

People everywhere were hurrying to church, but he was not. He had left the

church, and he had lost the once passionate faith that made him a zealous

witness for Christ. He was now dark and cold inside, and he was a very

lonely man as he walked the streets. He heard the clip clop, clip clop of a

horse drawn cab behind him. He turned and lifted his hand to hail the driver.

But then he saw that the cab was occupied by a young woman dressed for

church. He waved the driver on, but the woman ordered the carriage to be

stopped.

The woman in the carriage said to him, "Sir, I'd be happy to share this

carriage with you. Are you going to church?" He was about to decline when

suddenly he was overcome by an urge to say yes. He did it. He said yes, and

he got into the carriage. As it rolled forward he told her his name, and she

said, "What a coincidence. I was just reading a verse by a poet with that

name of Robert Robinson. She reached into her purse and pulled out the

small book of inspirational verse. She handed it to him and he nodded and

said, "Yes, I wrote these words years ago." She exclaimed, "Oh, how

wonderful! Imagine! I'm sharing a carriage with the author of these very

lines."

She was thrilled with God's providence in her life, but she had no idea of

the profound work God was doing in his life. He opened his own book to his

poem that became a famous hymn. He read these words:

Come thou fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.

Streams of mercy never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

His eyes filled with tears as he read the bottom of the page.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love,

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

He was convicted and then revived by his own poem, and restored to

fellowship with God. It was all because he said yes to an invitation to do

something he knew was the will of God, and that was to go to church. The

more we say yes to those things God wants in our lives, the more we will

receive the yes of God's promises. e. e. cummings wrote,

Yes is a world

And in this world of

Yes live (skillfully curled)

All worlds.

The world of salvation begins with our own yes to the Gospel. Yes we say

to God, I will receive your gift of eternal life in Christ. From then on every

stage of growth is a stage we advance to by saying yes to God. Yes I will pray

and read your word for guidance and wisdom. Yes I will give of my time,

talent, and treasure to bless the body of Christ, and yes I will give and I will

go to fulfill the Great Commission. Yes I will witness to my world, and yes I

will love my neighbor as myself. Yes I will love and praise and serve my Savior,

and I will follow the path He reveals for me to follow. The whole

Christian life is a life of saying yes to God who has said yes to us in Jesus.

Paul in our text tells us that Jesus is never no, but always yes. He is God's

yes, and all God's promises are yes in Christ. This is the greatest text in the

Bible for the support of Christian optimism and biblical positive thinking.

1. Is there life after death? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

2. Is there hope for people who have messed their life up beyond human

repair? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

3. Is there a way out of the predicament men get into by their mere

humanistic schemes? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

4. Can sin be forgiven? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

5. Can the future still be a success? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

6. Can broken relationships be restored? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

7. Can impossible dreams still come true? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

8. Can I overcome the past? The answer of God in Christ is yes!

You can go on and on asking such hard questions, and the answer of God

in Christ is always yes, yes, yes. God's answer in Christ is always yes, for

Jesus is the yes of God. That is why the Christian can always celebrate even

in fallen world filled with sin, sickness, and sorrow, for the final word will

always be yes. James Angell could write,

In the midst of flashing neon darkness,

We dare this day to celebrate the light.

In the midst of blaring, shouting silence,

We dare this day to celebrate the word.

In the midst of bloated, gorged starvation,

We dare this day to celebrate the bread.

In the midst of bottled, bubbling thirst,

We dare this day to celebrate the water.

In the midst of smothered, gnawing doubt,

We dare to celebrate the affirmation.

In the midst of frantic, laughing death,

We dare this day to celebrate life.

How can we have the audacity to be positive and hopeful in such a

negative world? It is because our Jesus is yes. The Christian who is negative,

and who says no more often than yes to life is a captive of the world mentality.

We all fall into the no mode from time to time, but it is to be a fall and not the

ditch we choose to walk in. We are to get back to the highway of yes, for that

is where a Christian should always be walking.

Neil Eskelin wrote a fascinating book called Yes, Yes Living In A No, No

World. He found Christians in large measure tend to be a drag on the body

the of Christ because of their no, no spirit. They tend to be critical and

resistant to a positive way of doing all things for the glory of God. He learned

the power of being a yes, yes father in relating to a no, no son. His five year

boy had the living room full of toys, and it was time to go to bed. When he

asked him to pick them up he said he was too tired. His immediate response

was to force him to clean up the room, but then he got a better idea. He

decided to try a more positive approach. He took his son into the bedroom

and laid down with his knees up, put his son up on them, and played Humpty

Dumpty had a great fall. The boy loved the sudden fall to the bed and was

having a great time. Over an over he asked to do it again. But after the third

fall dad said you first have to go and pick up the toys. The son ran and

finished the task and was quickly back to play some more.

Dad learned a valuable lesson. If you can find a way to get a child to say

yes I want to, then life is so much easier than when you are trying to push

them with a no spirit. No is an uphill job, but yes is a downhill slide. No

creates friction, but yes creates freedom. That is why he wrote his book on

yes, yes living. He gives a number of examples of how yes people are the ones

who do what no people say can't be done.

Cyrus Field was convinced a cable could be laid on the bottom of the

Atlantic Ocean to allow communication between the U. S. and Europe. He

had a special cable laid and tried it, but it kept failing to work. The headlines

read, "Field fails again." His friends and supporters were disheartened, and

investors begin to pull out not wanting to risk anymore money. The no people

were in control of the masses, but they could not stop Field from saying yes.

He knew it could be done and he organized a new company and made it work.

The first message sent on this cable under the ocean was, "Thank God the

cable is laid and is in perfect order."

The history of progress is the story of people who can yes, yes when

everyone else is saying no, no. Henry Ward Beecher, the great orator,

recalled the day in school when he was demonstrating a problem in geometry.

The teacher stopped him with a "No, No!" In a tone of total conviction.

Beecher sat down in total confusion because he thought he was doing it right.

The next boy went to the board and was stopped with the same loud "No!"

But he went right ahead and completed the problem. Beecher raised his hand

and said he was doing the exact same problem. The teacher replied, "Why

didn't you say yes and stick to it? It's not good enough to know your lesson.

You must know you know it."

This can be a powerful lesson that every parent should teach their

children. They will confront a no, no world all of their lives, and if they do

not have a yes, yes spirit they will be in bondage to the no. Humorous Sam

Levenson knows what it means to look for the best. He is a short man, but he

doesn't let it bother him. At a dinner he was surrounded by a group of rather

tall businessmen. "Don't you feel quite small among these big men?"

someone asked him. "Yes I do," was Levenson's reply. "I feel like a dime

among a lot of pennies." That is a yes, yes way to look at it.

If we as Christians do not have a yes, yes spirit, we are part of the

problem rather than part of the answer. Jesus is the yes of God, and if Jesus

is in us, then we are to be yes people. This does not mean we are yes men and

yes women in the negative sense that this terminology is used. When so used

it means we go along with authority whether we really agree or not. The New

Orleans man eased himself into the chair and called for a shave. The little

barber was of a swarthy complexion that indicated that he might be of

Latin-American blood. As he stropped his razor he opened the conversation

with: "What's your opinion of this Mexican situation?" "Same as yours."

"But how do you know what mine is?" "Don't matter. You've got the

razor."

This is not the kind of yes people we are to be-saying yes out of fear. The

Christian is to be a positive yes person out of the conviction that Paul had-I

can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Jesus is God's yes-he is

the resource to give the energy and motivation to do whatever God wills you

to do. The Christian can do whatever God wills, and so they are to be

perpetually striving to do it with a yes mentality.

Paul says that by the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our hearts we

can say amen to the glory of God. That is, we can say so be it, or yes to all

God wills for us. Jesus never said no to God. He was tempted to say no, but

He never did. He was always saying yes. Through Him Paul says we are to

continue to say amen to the glory of God. Jesus is the everlasting yea and

amen. 31 times in Matthew Jesus said amen; 14 times in Mark, 7 in Luke, 25

in John, for a total of 77 times in the Gospels. Jesus was single minded and so

it was not sometimes yes and sometimes no. He was always yes. He said yes

to God even when that yes took Him to the cross.

You can say no to Jesus and reject His love and sacrifice for you, but you

can never change His yes to no. He will not change. He is the same yesterday,

today, and forever, for He is the everlasting yes. People came to Jesus in

great crowds because He never said no. He had life to give and light, and He

had healing and salvation. He gave freely and did not turn anyone away. His

was a yes, yes life in a no, no world.

President Thomas Jefferson was riding horseback with some companions,

and they came to a swollen stream. A foot traveler was there by the stream,

waiting to ask someone on horseback to give him a ride across the rushing

water. Jefferson responded and pulled the man up on his horse and took him

to the other side. "Tell me," asked one of the men, "why did you ask the

President to help you across?" The man answered, "I didn't know he was the

President. All I know is that on some faces is written the answer "no," and on

some is written the answer "yes." He had a yes face."

Jesus had just such a face, and Paul says this yes from the face of Christ is

to shine yet in this world through us. In II Cor. 4:6 we read, "For God who

said let light shine out of darkness made His light shine in our hearts to give

us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." God

sent His Son into the world to give light, hope, and salvation. The Gospel is

good news, for it says that no matter what a mess life is, there is an answer,

and it is a good one, and a positive answer in Christ.

Ilion T. Jones says that Paul is saying here, "That Christ is God's

clear-cut, positive answer to all our human questions, to all our human needs,

to all our human hopes and dreams." He is God's yes, yes, yes, and this

makes Christianity a positive faith. The Old Testament was so much on a no,

no, no level. Thou shall not was the theme. But the New Testament rises to a

higher level and says we are to grow up and stop living on the child's level of

no, no. Sink your teeth into the meat of maturity. Get off the bottle and start

saying yes to life. Say yes to God, not because He will hurt you if you don't,

but because you love Him as He loves you, and you desire to please Him and

not the world, the flesh, and the devil. You don't spend all your energy saying

no to sin and folly because you are to busy saying yes to love, service, and

ministry.

Many have suggested that if David had said yes to his duties as king of

Israel, and not been idle with nothing to do but lust after Bathsheba, he may

never have fallen. All we know for sure is that he had opened the door for

Satan to entice him to say no to God, and that no lead to all the negatives of

his life that blotted one of the greatest careers in history. Every sin in history

from the first one in Eden until now has been very simply a saying no to God.

Every virtue, victory, and act of righteousness in history has been simply a

saying yes to God. Jesus was the only perfect man because He is the only

person to never say no, but always say yes to God. Jesus lived the only

completely yes, yes life in a no, no world.

To be Christ like is to be one who is always saying yes to God. All of the

battles of life can be seen in this ultimate simplicity of what the poet has God

say at creation. "I will leave man to make the fateful guess: Will leave him

torn between the no and yes." These are the only two choices we have in our

relationship to God. To make it easier to say yes, God gave us Jesus who is

the yes to all His provisions. This becomes the foundation on which we build

the yes life. William Green put it, "Christ is God's ultimate yes to man, and

when we find that God has said yes to us we are able to affirm ourselves and

our world in spite of everything which drives us toward negation."

When we are negative about life it is because we have taken our eyes off

Jesus. The Corinthians were negative toward Paul, and he is saying they

ought not to criticize him for being inconsistent, for he always says yes to

Christ and never no, and so he is being consistently positive in his decisions.

If his plans sound like an no to them, it is not so, and they need to see his

plans as a yes to Christ. He urges them to stop their negative thinking which

in inconsistent with a Christ like spirit.

If you believe that God always says yes in Christ, you will not be so critical

and complaining about my change of plans, is what Paul is saying. God who

gave His Son for you has proven His love beyond any doubt. You can count

on it that He will do everything else necessary to keep His promises to you. So

he urges them to stop saying no and start responding to God's yes with a yes,

yes spirit. Dag Hammerskjold, the Secretary General of the U. N. from 1953

to 1961, and a dedicated Christian, said, "When everything has a meaning,

how can you live anything but a yes."

Billy Graham has been deeply influenced by yes people. They have been

people who had to deal with the no's of life, but they did not accept the no.

They rejected it, and chose the yes. One he writes about in his book Storm

Warning is former President Dwight Eisenhower. Graham says that he had

a strong impact on his thinking, for though he was a general and fought great

battles, he was not in favor of war. War is a no, and he fought for peace

which was a yes approach to life. Graham quotes him saying in 1953, "Every

gun that is made, every war ship launched, every rocket fired signifies-in a

final sense-a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold

and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is

spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its

children....this is not a way of life at all in true sense. Under the threatening

cloud of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."

These words motivated Graham to take an interest in the third world

countries, and take a tour of them to see first hand the poverty and hunger.

He learned that it was a moral obligation for every Christian to get involved

in the world suffering and be a part of the answer. Saying yes to God and yes

to life means being Christ like in relation to a hurting world. In that same

book he tells of his meeting with one of the great yes people.

"One of the people most identified with Christian compassion in our

day is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. There are thousands of unknown servants

of Christ who quietly and without fanfare invest their lives in feeding,

clothing, and caring for the poor. But Mother Teresa has become a kind

of representative of them all. I remember the first time I met this tiny,

wrinkled, radiant lady. An American consul in Calcutta offered to drive

me to Mother Teresa's compound in the heart of that sprawling city,

when I was introduced to her, she was ministering to a dying person,

holding him in her arms. I waited while she helped him face death.

When he died, she prayed quietly, gently lowered him to his bed, and

turned to greet me. We talked till dusk that day.

I was surprised to learn how much she knew about me and about our crusades.

In her lilting, broken English she asked if I would like to hear some of her

experiences with the hungry and dying."

He listened and was touched, for in the midst of a terrible no, no world

here was a child of God letting the world hear the yes of God in Christ. E.

Stanley Jones, the great missionary and author of numerous books, called his

last book, which was written when he was 89, was titled The Divine Yes.

This text was the basis for the book, and he wrote, "Jesus took the worse

thing that could happen to Him, namely, the Cross, and turned it into the

healing of sin. The Cross was hate, and Jesus turned it into a revelation of

love. Jesus took everything that spoke against the love of God and, though it,

showed the love of God. It is a Yes, a Yes over the very worst. Yes, about the

nature of God. Yes, yes, yes!"

Jones gives many illustrations, but let me share one that shows just how

close Christians can get to saying yes to every no of life. "There is a Lee

Memorial Home in Calcutta, India. The Lees had 6 children in school in

Darjeeling, a hill station in India. One night during the monsoon rains the

whole mountain side, upon which their home was built, slipped and buried all

6 children at once! Instead of the Lee's saying, "Why did that happen to us

when we were serving God in Calcutta?" They said, "Well, since our home

has been broken up we will just set up a larger home for the waif children

from the streets of Calcutta." For over 70 years that home has been filled

with an average of about 500 homeless children a year. The family of 6 now

became a family of thousands. On the monument set up to commemorate the

memory of these children there are these words: "Thanks be unto God who

giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The whole point of Paul is to get the Corinthian Christians to stop being

no people and become yes people. This is the point of all we do as a church.

Worship, Bible study, fellowship, and service are all designed to help us be

like Jesus, and to be ever saying yes to God. This has practical implications

for all human relationships. We express our love for one another and our

neighbor, and even our foes, by being yes minded rather than no minded.

Judieth Viorst, a popular writer, has this advice to married couples:

"The answer to-do you love me isn't, I married you didn't I? Or, can't we

discuss this after the ballgame is through? It isn't, well that all depends on

what you mean by "love." Or even, come to bed and I'll prove that I do. The

answer isn't, how can I talk about love when the bacon is burned and the

house is an absolute mess and the children are screaming their heads off and

I'm going to miss the bus? The answer is yes. The answer is yes. The answer

is yes."

If we really believe that Jesus is the yes of God, we should be able to

respond to every negative in life with a positive. We should be able to

counteract each no with a yes, and so be yes, yes people in a no, no world. In

the light of this passage I wrote the following lyrics-

IT'S A WORLD OF CAN'T

AND A WORLD OF DON'T.

PEOPLE RAVE AND RANT

AND THEY THRIVE ON WON'T.

BUT JESUS IS YES;

HE NEVER IS NO.

HIS GOAL IS TO BLESS;

GOD'S LOVE TO US SHOW.

CHORUS

YES, YES, YES MY JESUS IS YES,

EVERY PROMISE OF GOD IN HIM WE POSSESS.

YES, YES, YES MY JESUS IS YES;

THAT IS WHY ALL OUR PRAISE, TO HIM WE ADDRESS.

II

IT'S A WORLD OF NO

AND A WORLD OF NOT.

IT'S READY TO BLOW;

IT'S GOING TO POT.

BUT JESUS IS YES;

A POSITIVE NOTE.

IF HIM WE CONFESS,

HE'LL KEEP US AFLOAT.

CHORUS

III

IT'S A WORLD OF WAR

AND A WORLD OF NIGHT.

WHAT'S GOOD, MEN ABHOR;

THEY RESIST WHAT'S RIGHT.

BUT JESUS IS YES;

HE OFFERS US LIGHT.

IN THE MIDST OF STRESS,

HIS BURDEN IS LITE.

CHORUS

IV

IT'S A WORLD OF HATE

AND A WORLD OF CRIME.

THERE IS NO DEBATE,

IT'S NEAR END OF TIME.

BUT JESUS IS YES;

IN TIMES OF GREAT STRIFE.

HIS GIFT IS NO LESS

THAN ETERNAL LIFE.

CHORUS

V.

IT'S A NO NO WORLD,

AND IT'S FILLED WITH DOUBT.

MEN ARE TOSSED AND HURLED,

AND JUST THROWN ABOUT.

BUT JESUS IS YES;

HE'S THE ONLY WAY.

IF FAITH YOU'LL PROFESS

HE'LL SAVE YOU TODAY.

CHORUS

VI.

IT'S A WORLD OF DARK

WHERE NEGATIVES THRIVE.

SOME OFTEN REMARK

IT'S HARD TO SURVIVE.

BUT JESUS IS YES;

A RAY OF SUNSHINE;

THE WAY TO SUCCESS

AND A LIFE WITH DESIGN.

CHORUS

YES, YES, YES, MY JESUS IS YES;

EVERY PROMISE OF GOD IN HIM WE POSSESS.

YES, YES, YES, MY JESUS IS YES;

THAT'S WHY THIS SONG OF PRAISE

TO OUR SAVIOUR WE RAISE

NOW AND TO ENDLESS DAYS,

FOR HE'S GOD'S YES! YES! YES!