Our Jesus Is Yes Series

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