What Did You Say “Yes” To?
Written by Ps Zheng Haoren
You’re right, the title to this short article is truncated. Here is the full question: What did you say “Yes” to when you received the Gospel?
Could you take a moment to answer this question personally? What do you remember saying “Yes” to? Did you say yes to attending Youth Discipleship classes or Youth Fellowship or Action Group meetings or Sunday Services? Or did you say yes to turning away from worldly habits; or yes to doing good works; or yes to teaching Children Discipleship classes; etc.? What did you say “Yes” to?
Jesus proclaimed the Good News in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” He announced the Gospel with certainty – that the Kingdom of God is here! – and invites us to repent and believe.
God’s Kingdom is now accessible and available to all people. To receive the Gospel is saying “Yes” to receive the salvation that comes from submitting to God’s authority. It is saying “Yes” to begin the journey of discipleship – to believe in Jesus; to confess Jesus as Lord and Saviour; and to follow Jesus. This is the Big “Yes” to a lifelong journey of yielding our hearts more and more to God’s Kingship as we listen to Him, trust Him, and obey Him.
The Little “Yes-es”. These are the “yes-es” that add up to form the Big “Yes”. These are commitments to corporate church life, to personal spirituality, and to the Great Commission. Apart from yes-es to classes, meetings, Sunday Services, fellowship, good works, evangelism, making disciples, and turning away from worldly influences, there are the weekly exhortations that we ought to say “yes” to. These are the calls from the pulpit ministry.
We listen to sermons each Sunday. Are we attentive and obedient to the precepts, statutes, law, commandments, rules, and testimonies of God preached on each Lord’s Day? Do we hear and say “yes” and faithfully live these out in the weeks ahead till these become habitual? We ought to, for all these add up to the Big “Yes” we had pledged when we received the Gospel. Obedience to Jesus must be the outcome of our discipleship. There must not be a turning back.
