When We Say Yes - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, March 12th. If you are a believer in Jesus, it's important that you obey God carefully. Let's evaluate our behavior and motivations as the series on obeying God continues. God's simple requests of us are oftentimes stepping stones to the most fantastic blessings in our life. But one of the mistakes we make is we don't take that first step.

Somehow we think the simple little things in life are not really all that important. But to God oftentimes that first little step is the big step really to his very best blessing. And the title of this message, Obeying God When We Say Yes.

That is what happens when you and I say yes to him. Well, one of the most interesting examples of this is by the Apostle Peter. In one of those simple and yet profound experiences in his life that was the beginning of something absolutely fantastic. What was true of him is oftentimes true of us. What was true of him should be true of all of us in every aspect of life. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Luke, chapter five. And I want us to read these first eleven verses together.

Obeying God when we say yes. Peter is doing one of those things that is most familiar to him. He was a fisherman, you'll recall, when the Lord Jesus Christ called him. And so on this particular given day, while he was cleaning his nets, the Lord Jesus was teaching.

And so this is the way the scripture begins. Now, it came about that while the multitude were pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret or the Sea of Galilee. And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's. This is Peter now and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And he sat down and began teaching the multitude from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water, let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing.

But at your bidding, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break. And they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord. For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not fear, from now on you'll be catching men.

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Now, I want you to get out a pencil and piece of paper because I want you to jot down these simple truths. And as simple as they may be, they are profound. And as simple as this incident is, it is full of rich, rich truth in areas that affect our life every single day, because all of us are challenged continually to obey God. And Satan is always there to challenge us to disobey him or to offer us some alternative. Remember that obedience is doing what God says when he says and how he says do it. And that partial obedience is what? Disobedience. Partial obedience is disobedience. And so in this incident, Jesus gives us some great truths here as a result of one man's response to his request.

Now, let's think about it for a moment. Here's Peter having spent a whole night fishing and he's tired and a little weary and he's cleaning his nets. And Jesus is standing close by there and he is teaching the multitudes. And the Bible says because they began to press in upon him that he made a request. Now, what was happening was as he began to speak and the multitudes began to crowd around, naturally what happens is what always happens. And that is they began to get a little bit closer and a little bit closer because the folks the further back, they want to get a little bit closer.

They push a little bit and one in front of them pushes a little bit until finally, instead of speaking out there to them, they're standing up in Jesus face. Now, where would you like to have been if you'd have been in that crowd? On the back line or right up front?

You and I want to be right up front, close enough to touch him. Well, that's what was happening. And so finally, Jesus realized that the people in the back weren't going to be able to hear. So he wanted them to be back far enough. And so realizing that getting in the boat and going out 30 or 40 feet somewhere there about, then his voice would carry across the water over the heads of those in the front.

And all of those in the rear would be able to hear equally as well. So he sees Simon Peter here cleaning his net. So he said to him, he said, I'd like to use your boat for a moment. That doesn't say that there, but I don't think Jesus just stepped in his boat.

But he probably requested that he use his boat. He said, if you'd push out 30 or 40 feet here, whatever it might be, then all of these people will be able to hear. Now, that was a very, very simple request. Now, I'm going to say this several times because I can't tell you how very important it is that God's simple, very simple, seemingly unimportant, nothing dramatic about this request, how absolutely essential it is that you and I obey him in the very small matters. Because all he asked of the apostle, of Simon Peter the fisherman was, I'd like to get in your boat and if you just take me out just a little bit so all these people could hear.

Now, that's a very simple request. Well, the end result of that is what I want us to see in this passage because that was a very, very critical moment in the life of the apostle Peter, Simon Peter the fisherman. What was critical about it was what happened as a result of his obedience to this simple request. Because the ultimate result of that was that they went further than that when Jesus finished his preaching.

He dropped his nets and they had two boatloads, I mean, boat sinking loads of fish when he'd just been out there the other night before and came home empty handed. A miraculous thing took place that absolutely transformed his life. Now, what I want you to realize here is when we think about how important obedience is, I want you to jot this down.

I'm going to give you about seven things. First of all, obeying God in small matters is an essential step to God's greatest blessings. Obeying God in a simple matter is an essential step to God's greatest blessing. If Simon Peter had said anything but what he had said, look what he would have missed. Simon Peter was a fisherman at heart. He loved to fish. He knew the lake. He enjoyed it. But here he experienced the greatest fishing experience of his life. And God did something in his life that he never got over. But suppose he had said, I'm cleaning my nets. Suppose he'd said, I don't want to do it. What I want us to see is this, that oftentimes God's greatest experiences spiritually, his greatest blessings come as a result of our being willing to do something that appeared to be very insignificant and unimportant.

Get in my boat, go out 30, 40 feet. That's not very important. It was very important to Jesus, but it was more important in the life of the Apostle Peter. So I want to ask you this question. What is it that God has been challenging you to do that seemingly is not really all that significant?

And someone else would think, well, that's not all that important, but you are yet to do it. For some reason, you've rationalized it. You've excused yourself. You said, I can't. I don't want to. It's too hard, too difficult.

I'm not sure. Got to pray about it. Listen, when God says do something, responding by saying I'll pray about it is not the answer.

Responding by saying, well, I need to get some counsel is not the answer. When God says specifically, here's what I want you to do. The only right answer is to say yes, Lord. Yes, yes, yes to whatever he requires of us. I'm not saying you should never pray about God's request, but oftentimes we know exactly what he's saying.

It is very clear to us. And so the right response is to do exactly what he says. Obeying God in small matters is oftentimes the stepping stone, the beginning step to God's greatest blessings in our life. Second thing I want you to jot down is this, and that is obeying God is always beneficial to others.

When you and I obey God, when we say yes to him, it is always beneficial to others. For example, Jesus said to the apostle Peter, to Simon the fisherman, he said, just push a little way so that I'll be able to speak so that everyone will be able to hear. Well, the fact that Simon Peter answered that request, here's what happened. All of a sudden, this fisherman who is over here with his dirty hands, cleaning his nets, became a part of Jesus' ministry.

All of a sudden, things changed while he was fishing and totally consumed with his nets and his boat. All of a sudden, he became a part of Christ's ministry. And then other people began to be a blessed as a result of his obedience to that simple request. Because the reason Jesus said, I want you to push back, because he knew they couldn't hear. They were probably standing up, trying to look over somebody else's head and trying to hear and couldn't hear. Didn't want to miss anything he said, because the Bible says he was teaching them the Word of God. And they wanted to hear it. The fact that Peter said, yes, I'm willing to let you have the boat and I'm willing to take you out of the waves.

I'm willing to anchor there and I'll sit while you sit and teach them. And that's what Jesus did. He sat down. And so he helped the Lord Jesus Christ.

He probably got a little tired standing there. And not only that, everybody else began to be able to hear clearer as a result of this fisherman, simply responding to a very, very simple request to move out about 30 or 40 feet so they could hear. What is it that God is saying to you that if you obey him, God will make you a blessing to other people? It may be something so simple that you never thought about.

Well, how's that going to affect anybody else? And I'm sure that wasn't a big issue with Peter, but it was a very important thing in the life of Christ. The important thing is that the Apostle Peter did what Jesus asked him to do as simple and as insignificant as it may have appeared at the moment. There is no way for you and me to be obedient to God and keep that blessing to ourselves. God always rewards other people as a result of our obedience. As a result of you being obedient to God in some simple small thing or some big thing, God's not only going to bless you, he's going to not only bless those in the work of the Lord, but he's also going to bless those closest to you. For example, no father can be obedient to God without it pouring out in the life of his wife and his children.

No son or daughter can be obedient to the Father without the blessing coming to the parents. And when you and I are obedient to God in whatever he calls us to do in your business life or whatever it might be, the people around you, the people who are involved with you, they're going to see something. They're going to sense something. Somehow that blessing is going to roll off onto them. They're going to be able to see God working in your life.

When they see you being tested and tried, they benefit as a result of it. And when I think about how many people in the world who need the Lord Jesus Christ and how God blesses so many of us, as you and I obey him, other people are blessed. When we give, they're blessed. When we share our faith, they're blessed. When we're obedient to him, they're blessed. Well, the same thing is true whether you're in the ministry or in business. When you obey God, those around you get blessed because sometimes it is a financial blessing.

Sometimes the blessing comes in relationships in many ways, in strength and comfort and assurance and encouragement and a very positive attitude that once was very negative. There is no way to be obedient to God without winning. There is no way to disobey him without losing.

I'm going to say it again. There's no way to obey him without winning or disobey him without losing. And so Peter, by simply offering his boat, doing what the Lord Jesus Christ told him to do, not only ministered through Christ to the multitude who was listening. And you see, Peter wouldn't have known what to say. He didn't even have a message. He just knew about Jesus. He didn't know him all that well at that particular time.

And so people today say, well, you know, I don't know what to do and I don't know what to say. Listen, if you just do what you know to do and just do what God tells you to do and don't try to figure out how to be a big shot, just be a little shot till God does what he wants to do in your life. All he had to offer was the old stinking fishing boat. But look what God did with the apostle Peter because he was obedient in something simple. Third thing I want you to jot down as I look at this passage, and that is obeying God may require us to do some things that are unreasonable. That is, appear to be unreasonable. To obey him may cause us to do things that appear to be unreasonable. For example, sometimes God requires of us to do things that are not really reasonable to us. They don't fit into the way we think. They certainly don't fit into the world's mode. So, you and I should never be obedient to God based on is it reasonable or rational. That does not mean that God absolutely bypasses human reason or bypasses common sense, but oftentimes what he requires of us will not be reasonable, it'll not be common sense to us. It won't fit into our plan.

It won't fit into the way we've been trained to think and the way we've geared our life. And I'll give you an example of that. When I came to Atlanta, I'd only been in Bartow for about eleven months. And when the Lord really began to speak to me about leaving and coming to Atlanta, and that was extremely unreasonable to me. And I gave God lots of reasons for about four months that I couldn't do it. He never listened to one of them. He wasn't persuaded. He wasn't convinced.

He wasn't impressed at all. He just kept pressing my heart to do what he said do. It didn't have to be reasonable. It didn't have to fit. And I was concerned I'm sure times one of my preacher friends think, oh Stanley just went and stayed eleven months.

Wonder why he only stayed eleven months. Must not have been able to cut it there. Had to go somewhere else.

So a thousand things went through my mind. The only difference was this. It was what God said do. But if I had said, no God, it's not reasonable, not the right thing to do, I'm just not going to do that. I can stay here and do it. I goes, but not that.

Look what I would have missed. There is no way to disobey God without being a loser and there's no way to obey him without being a winner. That's just the way God operates.

And my dear friend as a dad, you need to drill that into the mind and heart and spirit and life of your children. That is there is no way to lose obeying him, no way to win disobeying him. That obedience is doing what God says when he says how he says it. And that partial obedience is disobedience to God. If you want to win, you obey. If you want to lose, you disobey. Whether it's reasonable or not.

It doesn't have to be reasonable or rational. It has to be obedience. And that's why we say obeying God when we say yes. When we say yes, what happens? When Peter said yes, the Lord blessed him in the most fantastic, unusual way.

When you and I say yes, he will bless us. It may not be as dramatic as this for now, but at some point in your life, if you will obey God, it will be a dramatic blessing and there will be a rich reward. There's no way to fail obeying him, no way to win disobeying him.

Well, let's move on to the fourth point. And that is when you and I obey God, it never proves to be a disappointment. It never proves to be a disappointment. Now watch this one.

It never proves to be a disappointment. I'm sure that Peter must have thought, well, that's what he said to, that's what I'm going to do, and we're going to go out there and we're going to sit around and wait for nothing to happen. Well, that could be a natural, normal response to Simon Peter, who was indeed a very experienced fisherman, and yet at the Lord's command, he was willing to do exactly what he said do. But notice, what Jesus did was this. When you and I began to realize that to obey him is the wise thing to do, what Jesus does, he turns our nothing into some fantastic something. He turned an empty boat into a full boat. God will work miracles.

He will transform any and every area of our life that needs to be transformed. All he's waiting for us to do, listen, is not the big thing, but some simple thing, because you see, all obedience to big tasks begins with obedience to some small item that God says, here's what I want you to do. To Simon Peter the fisherman, it was, I want to get in your boat, take me out 30 or 40 feet so everybody can hear. Very simple request. You see, his request to the apostle Peter was not, Peter, what about following me and let me make a great preacher out of you?

That's not what he said. His first order of obedience was, Peter, I need to borrow your boat. You see, when you and I begin to examine our lives and look at the little things that God requests of us, and you and I know when He's impressing our heart to do something, we know that.

And here in this particular passage, what he was doing is simply saying, Simon, I want to use your boat and I want to be able to do better what I'm doing here. I wonder what is God saying to you that seems to be so simple but yet it keeps coming up in your life? Is there something that keeps coming up that either you rationalize and won't deal with and you think, well, what difference does it really make? Or you may say, well, if I do that, then what happens? You see, one of the reasons we disobey God and refuse to be obedient to simple things is we worry about the consequences.

We think, well, but suppose things don't, let me ask you a question. Suppose things don't turn out, do you mean to tell me that you believe that God doesn't have the power to turn your obedience out right? Sure He does. He's sovereign. If you're one of those persons who's being challenged to be obedient to God and you won't be obedient because you're afraid of the consequences, I want to say again, the same God who created this earth, the same God who gives you every single breath you breathe, the same God who keeps your heart beating, your blood flowing, the same one who gave you a mind to think, the same God who created and controls every single solitary thing is more than capable of handling the circumstances of your obedience. He can do it. He's sovereign. He wants, He wants us to reach the maximum of our potential. You know where that begins? In little acts of obedience of things that seemingly appear to be insignificant. Thank you for listening to When We Say Yes. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia. ...