One Word Prayers - Week 4: Yes! | 2 Corinthians 1:20-22

Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan, and thanks for downloading the FBC El Doredo Sermon Podcast.

We're currently in a series of messages called one-word prayers.

You know, too often in life, our prayer life is filled with meaningless words.

Words that actually prevent us from connecting and growing closer to God.

In this series, we're focusing on four simple one-word prayers that will help anyone grow in their relationship with Jesus.

I hope today's message is an encouragement to you.

35,000.

Did you know that 35,000 is the number of conscious decisions the average adult makes on a daily basis?

Now, of those 35,000 decisions, some of them are simple and straightforward.

Other decisions are a little bit more involved.

But regardless of a decision's difficulty or its magnitude, you typically can phrase that decision-making process in a way so that a vast majority of those 35,000 decisions come down to the same two answers: either yes or no.

The great American philosopher George Strait knew that was true.

He tells that day when he sang the song to sweet Emmy Lou.

Do you love me?

Do you want to be my friend?

And if you do, check what?

Yes or no?

Yeah, you listen to that song too.

It's a really great country song, by the way.

Yes and no are simple short words, but they find their way into some of life's most important decisions.

Do you want to make an offer?

Yes or no?

Do you accept the job?

Yes or no?

Will you go out with me?

Yes or no?

Will you marry me?

Yes or no?

Since so many of life's biggest decisions can be answered by simply checking yes or no, I think it's true that these two in two words have a certain enduring power that far exceeds their length.

One author puts it this way he writes, I believe that the words yes and no are the most powerful words in the dictionary.

They define what we love, what we will be known for, and what we do with our lives.

These words can both open doors to new places and close doors to old spaces.

Yes and no begin new stories and end old plot lines.

They are definitive words, words that significantly change the trajectory of my life.

So when I first read that paragraph earlier this week or last week, I wasn't sure if I agreed with the author's assessment.

I thought maybe he was exaggerating a little bit to make a point.

He was exaggerating to sell a few more books.

But then I stopped and I began to think about it.

And I realized I think he's actually on to something.

Maybe it's true that yes and no are the most powerful words in the dictionary.

And one reason they're so powerful is that yes and no have the power to bring people together and to push people apart.

And one of the places in our life that we see the power of yes and no on full display is within our families.

But we especially see that power at work in the family of God.

Listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

He says, for all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding yes.

And through Christ, our amen, which means yes, ascends to God for his glory, and God has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised to us.

I think the Apostle Paul would agree that yes is the most powerful, if not just one of the most powerful words that a person can speak, especially when that person is God, and his message in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 is this: God has said yes to us.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Or you could personalize it this way: God has said yes to me.

And the yes that God has spoken is the most powerful yes ever spoken in human history.

God spoke his yes when the eternal word Jesus Christ put on flesh and stepped into this world.

With that yes, that moment that the word becomes flesh and dwells among us, all of God's promises to us are fulfilled.

The promise that God spoke to Eve in the garden, that promise that one from your womb, Eve, will come and he will crush the serpent's head.

That promise is fulfilled, and God says, Yes.

The promise that God spoke to Abraham.

Abraham, if you will leave your country, you will be a blessing to all people.

That promise is fulfilled, God says, Yes.

The promise God spoke to David that one of your descendants will reign on this throne for all eternity.

He will rule a kingdom that will never end.

That promise is fulfilled, God says, Yes.

With the coming of Christ, God speaks a yes that fulfills each and every one of his promises.

And what did I say?

I said that one of the reasons yes is so powerful is because it has the power to what?

Bring people together.

And think about what God does when he speaks the yes in Jesus Christ.

He draws closer to his creation.

When the Father sends Jesus the Son, he says yes to his creation, and he says, You have value and you have worth.

I want to be in a relationship with you.

The yes that God speaks in Jesus Christ is powerful enough for God to start a new family, a family rooted on faith.

A family that is made possible by the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

And we are here today because in Jesus, God has said yes to us.

He has said, I want a people for myself.

I want a people to live with, to dwell among, and to know.

God has said yes.

To all those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, they receive that yes.

They live in a relationship with him.

And there is nothing you can do to alter or change the yes of God.

The work of Jesus Christ is finished.

It is fulfilled.

And one day Jesus will wrap a bow on it and come and wrap it all up, and he will return.

He will make all things new.

God has said yes to his church.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, God has said yes to you.

But that begs the question: will I pray yes to God?

God has said yes to me.

That's the question we have to answer this morning.

Will I pray yes to God?

Today we're wrapping up our current series.

It's called One Word Prayers.

As the title of the series suggests, we are focusing on one-word prayers.

Prayers that boil down in their essence to just a single word that comes out of our mouth.

These one-word prayers, they give us a foundation on which all other prayers can rest.

They are prayers that are accessible to those who are young in the faith.

They're new to a relationship with Jesus.

But they are deep enough for a person who has followed Jesus for many, many years.

So far, we've prayed Father, thanks, help, and today we will conclude by learning to pray yes.

If you count the letters, yes is the shortest of all of our one-word prayers.

But I think even though it's the shortest, it's actually the most difficult for us to pray.

It's the most difficult for us to pray because yes is the prayer of surrender.

Surrender requires me to admit that my life and my abilities and my resources are not my own.

My life and my ability and my resources are all gifts given to me by God.

So when I pray, yes, I offer to God all that I am and all that I have and all that I hope for, all that I dream of, and I offer it to God without qualification.

A pastor in North Carolina named J.D.

Greer, he describes surrender this way.

I love it.

It's a great illustration of surrender.

He says this if you have eggs and bacon for breakfast, both chicken and pig contributed.

The chicken may have made a sacrifice, but the pig, the pig was fully surrendered.

You get the picture right.

It makes sense.

Now, maybe you're beginning to understand why yes is the most difficult one-word prayer that we can offer.

But listen, it's also the most powerful.

Yes, that's the prayer of Abraham, who at the direction of God left behind all that he knew and went to a land that God would one day show him.

And then Abraham prays it again when God finally gives him a son of the promise, Isaac, and God tells him to lay Isaac on an altar, and Abraham says, Yes.

Yes is the prayer of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, after she speaks to the angel, says, I am the Lord's servant.

May your word to me be fulfilled.

Yes is the prayer of that Ethiopian official that you meet in the book of Acts, who, when he's traveling home, he meets Philip, and Philip shares the gospel to him, the gospel of our Lord Jesus, and the Ethiopian eunuch says, Yes to Jesus.

He surrenders to Jesus in that moment.

This final, listen, one-word prayer, yes, is the most powerful because everything about having a personal relationship with Jesus, about growing in that relationship, about discovering God's intended purpose and plan for your life begins and ends with surrender.

It begins and ends when you say yes to God.

Praying yes is the most difficult and it is the most powerful prayer because it is bold and risky.

But if you desire to know God in an increasingly intimate way, if you desire to find his greatest purpose for your life, it's a one-word prayer you must offer every single day.

And you must pray it without qualification and without reservation.

Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray this one-word prayer in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And in this verse, what Jesus does is he kind of offers us the key that unlocks this prayer.

He points the way.

He's like, if you'll do this, you will be surrendered to God.

And you can sum up Jesus' teaching this way.

Say no to pray yes.

Say no to pray yes.

Listen to what Jesus has to say to his disciples.

Matthew chapter 16, verse 24, he says, then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.

Matthew 16:24

I mentioned just moments ago that with this verse, Jesus offers us the key to unlock the door that leads to surrender.

And the reason that Jesus can offer us the key that unlocks the door that leads to surrender is because Jesus already possesses the key.

The key is in Jesus' hand.

In other words, Jesus can call us to surrender because he's already surrendered.

Jesus can challenge his disciples to say yes because he consistently says yes.

In fact, in Matthew chapter 16, in the verses immediately preceding the one I just read, Jesus prepares his disciples for the events that will soon unfold.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Soon he will be betrayed, soon he will be arrested, soon he will be beaten, and soon he will be crucified.

That's how we know Jesus is surrendered to his father.

That's how we know Jesus consistently says yes to his father.

And do you know what the fruit and the result of that surrender, that consistently praying yes is within the life of Jesus?

John chapter 15, verse 10 tells us, it describes Jesus this way: that he is one who abides in the Father's love.

John 15:10

He lives under the shadow of the Father's love every single moment.

That's an ever-deepening relationship.

Or in the book of Acts, it speaks of how God the Father, all because how Jesus the Son was surrendered to him, fulfills his plan through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is crucified, sent to a cross for the sins of the world.

Jesus offers us the key that opened the door that leads to surrender because he possesses the key.

So when we think about how can I learn how to pray yes?

How can I allow my heart to be gripped by the Holy Spirit so that I'm desiring to pray this prayer of surrender?

Look no further than Jesus Christ.

Look to the example set by Jesus.

Listen carefully to the words of Jesus.

Jesus understands all of this, so He looks at his disciples in that moment.

He looks to these group of guys who say, I'm with you, Jesus.

I'm your follower, I'm your disciple.

And he says this if you want to follow me, you must be surrendered like me.

If you want to follow me, you have to pray yes like me.

But before you can pray yes, you first must learn to say no.

Say no to self.

Our culture uses phrases like on demand.

Um you pick a fast food restaurant because it says you can have it your way.

Um people read self-help books and they want to have a self-actualization.

They want to become their true self, which means they go on these endless journeys trying to optimize who they think that they are, and they just say yes, yes, yes, yes to anything and everything that crosses their mind.

That's our culture, but it's not kingdom culture.

Kingdom culture, the culture of the kingdom of God, says, Say no to self.

Later on in Matthew's gospel, in chapter 19, we meet this unnamed man.

We're told a couple of details about his life, that he's young and that he's rich, so we call him the rich young man, right?

You know, him, just not his name.

One day he comes to Jesus and he says, Hey, Jesus, what must I do to uh have eternal life?

He's hopeful that he can earn it eternal life, he can acquire it somehow.

Jesus and the man have this quick discussion, and then Jesus looks at him and he says, Hey, you need to go and sell everything that you have, liquidate your assets, your 401k in your retirement, give it all away, and then you'll be ready.

In effect, Jesus says to that rich young ruler, say no to self.

Give away what you've earned, give up your power, give up your privilege, your potential, walk away from all that stuff and all that security.

Then and only then can you say yes to me.

So when we hear that story, or when we read it, um, the first question anybody asks is, do I need to sell everything that I have?

How much is too much?

Is there like a baseline, a threshold that I can have in my bank account, and Jesus is gonna say, that's okay for you.

You're good.

I think we're asking all sorts of the wrong questions, right?

We're missing Jesus' bigger point.

I think Jesus' point is that every would-be disciple will one day find yourself at a crossroads in life.

A moment in your life when you won't be able to pray yes until you first said no to yourself.

And so your crossroads may very well involve liquidating some, or heck, all of your assets.

That's what he asked the rich young man to do.

I I think Jesus could ask someone to do it again.

Or your crossroads may be um leaving the career that you've built and starting something.

New.

Or never pursuing the career of your dreams.

Your crossroads may just be simply changing your spending habits, giving up your political freedom in this country and moving overseas.

Or it could just be disregarding what other people think of you, all so that you can follow Jesus.

Ultimately, there's no recipe for what it means to say no to self, no specific um act I can point you to.

I wish it were that easy.

Instead, each of us, when we reach that crossroads, we have to identify what keeps us from seeing Jesus and following him.

What takes even an ounce of our focus off of him?

What misdirects our attention off of his footsteps.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it this way: he says, self-denial means knowing only Christ and no longer oneself.

It means seeing only Christ who goes ahead of us and no longer the path that is too difficult for us.

Again, self-denial is saying only he goes ahead of us.

Pay attention to that last phrase.

Hold fast to him.

Saying no to self.

Maybe it just boils down to holding fast to Jesus.

Holding on to Jesus as if your life truly did depend upon it.

So we say no to self, and that prepares us to then pray yes to God.

The next phrase in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24, is to take up the cross daily.

Matthew 16:24

Take up the cross daily.

So in the ancient world, the cross was a symbol of humiliation.

The Romans had any number of ways where they could carry out the execution of a person.

But the cross sent a message.

It made a statement.

It said that the person hanging there has no one, is nothing, should not be paid attention to.

They have no power.

The cross was also a symbol of suffering.

Before they finally would display someone for the city to see, they would beat the criminal, beat the one who had received that sentence within an inch of their life, and then they would make them carry that crossbar down the road.

Cross was a symbol for death.

For anyone consigned to that fate, death was a certainty.

We hear the word cross and we often think pretty.

Right?

We connect it with jewelry, stained glass, architecture.

A cross is an ornament that we wear.

But in the first century, a cross wasn't pretty, it was gory.

It was life-altering.

It was life-taking.

It was humiliating.

And that's what Jesus calls us to carry.

When we say yes to God, we are agreeing to whatever may come our way for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ.

God, yes.

Because we believe.

At the end of what 2 Corinthians chapter 1, what I read for you, the response of the people is what amen, which means yes.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

So the people, they realize what?

What the yes of God meant in their life, who Jesus is, how the promises of God have been fulfilled in Jesus.

And so they put their amen, their yes on the table in response.

I'm ready to go after and to follow Jesus because of who he is.

I will say yes to you.

And get this.

Saying yes to God.

It's not a one-time decision, it's a daily decision.

Take up their cross daily.

Saying yes to God is one of those 35,000 conscious decisions we make on a daily basis.

So back in the 1950s, Parker's brothers uh created a short-lived board game called uh Going to Jerusalem.

Um, each character in the board game uh was a disciple.

And so you're kind of moving around the board as a disciple.

Um it started off in Bethlehem, that's where Jesus was born, right?

And you would make stops at the Mount of Olives, at Capernaum, other places where Jesus ministered.

And then the final destination of the game was Jerusalem for the triumphal entry of Jesus.

And then the game was over.

You could put the game back into the box or play another round, but the game ended at the triumphal entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem.

Do you see what happened?

The game never went to the cross.

Isn't that how we prefer our relationship with Jesus?

We prefer a stroll with Jesus through the sidewalks of the arboretum, and then taking up our cross and following Jesus down a dusty road.

Listen, your cross is not some minor discomfort in life.

Your cross to bear is not even a physical affliction in life.

The cross that a disciple of Jesus bears is the name of Jesus, and carrying that with us wherever we go, and whatever happens to us for the sake of the name of Jesus, we are willing to experience.

Only when you say yes to Jesus, pick up that cross, will your life truly be surrendered to him?

So most of us in this room, especially the adults, have a smartphone, and that smartphone is like chocked full of power and potential.

Maybe you're the person who buys the newest version of your favorite smartphone every single year.

You want the newest camera, uh, you want more memory, you want the faster processor, you want your apps to work uh seamlessly.

But to unlock the power of that smartphone, what do you need?

The passcode, right?

Right when you set up your smartphone, you put a passcode on it, and your passcode is what allows you to tap into its potential.

Without the passcode, you can like take pictures and use the flashlight and set the timer.

Pretty limited, not all that exciting.

But with the passcode, the potential is endless.

You need the passcode, don't you?

You want the passcode, don't you?

In fact, when your child asks to use your smartphone, what do they make sure and ask for if they don't already know it?

Enter your passcode for me, please.

Just like your phone has a passcode, your life has a passcode.

The passcode unlocks your life so that you can know God and um have this increasingly deeper relationship.

And when you unlock that passcode, um, you find your greatest purpose fulfilled in God.

And the passcode for that sort of life, well, it's the key that Jesus shared with us in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24.

Matthew 16:24

Say no to pray yes.

Are you ready to make that statement and to offer that prayer?

Let's pray together.

As we pray, let the words of Jesus guide us this morning when he first says, Whoever wants to be my disciple.

Can you hear Jesus asking that question this morning?

Whoever wants to be, do you want to be my disciple?

Would you respond to that invitation today and say, Jesus, I want to be, I want to learn from you.

Teach me everything, show me how to live.

Teach me to be surrendered, to consistently say yes.

That next phrase must deny themselves.

Is there a dream, a relationship, a commitment, a hobby that keeps you from seeing Christ and holding fast to him?

Take up their cross daily.

We hear your word to us this morning, and it confronts us and it challenges us and it convicts us.

We are so grateful that God has said yes to us through you.

Yet we confess that we struggle to pray yes to God.

We struggle to be surrendered to you.

Holy Spirit, give us that strength to eliminate, to put in the right place anything that is taking our attention away from King Jesus and following him every single day.

Lord, give us a spirit of courage and boldness that doesn't shy away, that doesn't tremble in the face of the adversaries of this world and the powers and the principalities that try to humiliate us, and maybe that want us to suffer, that want us to cringe, that want us to cower.

May we be bold and courageous and follow Jesus, carrying our cross because we know that Jesus.

We know that Jesus is worth it all.

As Isaiah saw in the throne room the glory of God filling the earth, we look forward to the day when Jesus will return and his name will fill the earth.

Until that day comes, we will run after him, we will say yes to him.

King Jesus, lead us and guide us.

Speak so clearly in this moment.

In your name we pray.

Amen.