In our world there are “yes” folks and “no” folks. Some say, “Yes” to every favor asked of them and some say, “No!” The truth is neither of them is healthy.
If we always say, “yes” we will tend to over commit, then we become over stressed, burnout and begin failing in our commitments!
If we always say, “no” we are stressing to people that we can not be counted on to do anything.
Are we going to be “yes” people or “no” people? Well, today, at first, I am asking that we avoid both extremes and balance our responses to our human requests. There needs to be a balance between what we want to commit to and what we want to pass.
Henry Cloud and John Townsend in their book, Boundaries (2008)….talk about how we need to set as well as obey the boundaries in our lives when determining what we say yes or no to.
There are, to name a few…. mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual boundaries that will govern what we can accept or reject. Cloud and Townsend, both stress that fact that we often violate the boundaries that are present in our lives and as result we say, “yes” when we needed to say “no” and visa versa. In other words, we decide to say yes and commit to buying/leasing a car when our financial boundaries are clearly telling us, “There is no room for a car in your budget.” We end up violating our boundaries and we find ourselves in more debt. Again, we need to analyze our boundaries and allow them be our guide.
Ok, so we become balanced people; our “yes’s” will be “yes’s” and our “no’s” will be “no’s” BUT……what should our response be when the request is not human, but divine. In other words what do we do when we feel God is saying, “I want you to say, “yes” to Me!”
As a culture, my concern is that we have been saying, “Yes” to everything else and the everything else is taking away our time and energy and we are not even able to hear from the Lord.
Let me ask you something….What are your goals? What are your dreams?
I am obviously a dreamer…you don’t take what looks like risks to the world but in reality, are simply faith steps being obedient to the Lord without being somewhat of a dreamer.
Getting back to the questions I believe some of you would say
To be financially secure
To see my family happy
To have my dream job
For my kids to be successful
To be healthy
All of these are healthy goals but as a Christ-follower, if Christ is not first, frustration and failure are destined
Jesus said Matthew 6:31-34
…do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
This too is a faith walk….there are things we know, logic that we maintain, practical wisdom that we possess….however we miss out on so much greatness, so many blessings by choosing to put our goals first rather than Jesus.
Jesus is asking us to say “Yes” to him first, yes to trusting he will keep us healthy, yes to trusting that he has our finances in his hands, yes that he cares more for our career and families than we do and if we will just trust him great things can happen if we say yes to Him!
Most importantly have we first said “yes” to Him making him our savior, believing that apart from Christ we are a sinner and in need of forgiveness which is something only he can bring!
Then today what we are talking about is making Him Lord of everything so we can have the blessings of “all these things added” to us!
Saying, “Yes” to the Lord is a faith walk and at the same time it isn’t.
It is a faith walk because if the Lord is asking us to do something chances are we have never done it before….that is scary, it is out of our comfort and control, to us it seems the possibility of failure and embarrassment are high. It isn’t a faith walk because it is what God designed us to do!
The “first” Jesus says here does not mean first, as in not second, but the top priority….He is saying very clearly, I know what you need and I’ll take care of it all but I’ve got to be your priority…going back to God has designed us for a specific purpose, a plan and part of that plan is as we say…”Yes” to him we fulfill that purpose and we are naturally supernaturally blessed but it takes faith to believe in Yes….faith to believe you need a savior….faith to believe you will be blessed by saying yes taking the leap of faith….David put it this way in a very familiar passage
Psalm 37:4
“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.”
How can he make such a claim? Once again it is the way he made us and everything up to this point has been preparing us to fulfill his plan…
We talked about Joseph, Zachariah and Elizabeth…great examples of God’s calling and the blessing for them saying, “Yes”
Let’s take a look at some other “yes-ers”
Gideon the out-numbered “yes-er”
Gideon Back story….
Judges 6:11-16
Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”16 The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
Couple of things we need to notice
- Gideon is threshing wheat….he is out doing what must be done to feed his family. He may have been afraid but was overcoming that fear for the sake of his family
- He knew the scripture….even though it was disappointing to him, he knew God’s word
- God saw he had little and challenged him to take a leap of faith to use the little he had and God would be with him if he was willing
It doesn’t take the bravest, strongest, wisest but it takes the willing….God came to Gideon because he knew he possessed the power to be willing…from being willing he could take that and make it great and deliver the nation Gideon and 300 killed 135,000
Your “yes” is never just about you….but Gideon was blessed too with prominence, position, and wealth because he said yes..Let’s take a quick look at one more prominent “yes-er”
Moses the “I’ve got an excuse for everything” yes-er
Moses Back story
Exodus 3:9-12, 4:1,2, 10,12
Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”11 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”……. But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you’?”2 Then the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied…… But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”11 Then the LORD asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
What do we notice
- Moses was now a shepherd is being trained to lead, even the most stubborn
- Moses had relationship with Pharoah so he could get audience with him and understood the ritual of the court
- Moses didn’t have anything but what he did have, a staff, he gave to God and God used what Moses gave him
- Despite every fear, every inadequacy Moses said yes
God is training you even now for the call and blessing in your life. He has already made some of the connections or taught you how to deal with the types of people with which you will need to work. He has already given you everything you need to start the call you just need to give it back to him. To be a true “yes-er” for God you just need to say yes!
What do these “yes-ers” have in common?
- They all said, “yes” by faith (even reluctantly)
- They all have had felt inadequate for the task
- They all had no way of making it happen except by God
- They all were insecure about the call but secure about God
Being a “yes-er” doesn’t mean you are brave, strong the wisest, smartest it just means you really choose to love the Lord first, above all…you truly desire to seek Him and His righteousness first….God adds all, fulfills dreams, blesses, and changes the world….we seek the security, the stuff of life, the health, power, prestige and these are all things God easily gives to bless us and everyone around us.
Where are you today?….have you said, “yes” to God first, about your own life? Have you accepted Jesus as Savior for the forgiveness of your sins and have a real relationship with him rather than religion?
Is God asking you to become a “yes-er” about something he has called you to do through your job, your community, through this church, one of our outreaches? Why waste time being mediocre….take the leap of faith this morning to say yes!